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Third-world Crime and Punishment

From the monthly newsletter written by my brother and his wife:

"During Medieval times when there was a theft in a village, the people set up a “Hue and Cry”.  This meant yelling, “Thief!” at the top of one’s lungs so that the other villagers would be alerted and the thief would be caught.  The system worked so well that often the hue and cry would be heard several miles away from the scene of the actual theft.

Here in Indonesia, a third-world country, there is also a system of “Hue and Cry”.  Only, the word thief is changed to the Indonesian word for thief, “Maling”.  As we and I sat down to lunch today, we heard the local “hue and cry” of “Maling!  Maling!” and we ran outside to see who the thief was.  He was a cowardly one; that was evident by the way he yanked the necklace off my next door neighbor’s neck and continued on his way ON HIS MOTORCYCLE!

This is a frequent occurrence in this country and if/when the thief is caught, he is usually beaten by the crowd while waiting for the police to show up.  He then may or may not receive a fair trial, depending on how much money the family can put up for his bail."

Singing Valentine from India

I got a call from India this afternoon. It was a singing telegram from Barb. A charming lady (with some backup by Mr. Baboo) sang the tune below. You can learn more about Taj Tunes on their website. The story behind the website it equally entertaining. That they can do this for just $5 is pretty amazing.

"I'm So Happy"

I love it when you call me... (ring-a-ling-a-ling)
I love it when you sing... (lah lah lah lah LAH)
I love it when you hold my hand... (Awwwwww...)
And even when you cry... (wah wah wah)

I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I'm so happy when I'm with you.
I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I hope I make you happy too.

I love it when we spend time... (tick tock, tick tock)
I love it when we laugh... (hah hah hah)
I love it when we hug and kiss... (smooch)
And even when we fight.... (you jerk!)

I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I'm so happy when I'm with you.
I'm so happy. I'm so happy.
I hope I make you happy too.

Oh yeah... I hope I make you happy too...
Oh yeah... I hope I make you happy too!

Holiday Greetings from Ripley and Lucy

Far and away the most asked question about the annual holiday card, "How did you get the dogs to sit still for the photo?" [Larger version]

The answer has always been a combination of patience and treats. This year, neither was enough to get Lucy to pose. When the camera came out, she freaked and ran. Barb never lost her cool but I really thought this would be the year she'd have to punt.

The image above perfectly captures the exhaustion of everyone involved. Not an award winner, but an honest and true image of the season. We're all a little exhausted.

Lucy and Ripley

It's been too long since I posted some pup pix. Lucy and Ripley are Golden Retrievers who live at our house. If there's a sweeter creature on the planet, I haven't found it. But then, I haven't been looking.

Lucy (left) sleeps under the bed. When the world is too much with me, I can reach down put my hand on her and drop right off. Ripley has her own spot on Barb's side of the bed. When I come home each evening, the pups are waiting at the top of the stairs, tails wagging.

Dunklin County Library Hall of Honor

Barb's pop --Dr. Paul C. Miltenberger-- is one of eleven residents (and former residents) that will be inducted into the Hall of Honor at the county library.

To have been considered for induction, individuals "must have distinguished themselves within their occupation, trade, or field of endeavor, through intellectual, creative, humanitarian and professional accomplishments."

Great opportunity to visit with some old friends and spend quality time with family. Took a drive around the old home town but didn't take any pix. Just too much plywood.

The War

I've been watching The War, the Ken Burns documentary on PBS. The guy knows how to tell a story. Last night's episode included the internment of Japanese-Americans, and I could picture Dick and W looking at map, trying to decide where to put the camps for Muslim-Americans.

I was also reminded of my parents telling me that for a good part of WWII, they weren't sure they'd win. My father was a radio operator in the Navy and saw action in the Pacific, but he never talked about it. At least not to me.

I only have a hand full of pix from that era.

Barbless

Barb is in Destin this week (with her sister & co). She left before I got back from Seattle, so it will have been a good week-and-a-half by the time we get back in the same space. The dogs know I'm a light sleeper so they can get me up for a 3 a.m. pee if they take a notion. Life is easier when it's time-shared.

Big undersea quake hits Indonesia

Reuters: A powerful undersea earthquake has hit Indonesia's West Java island. No tsunami warning (yet) and no immediate reports of damage or casualties. There has been some panic (no shit). The Indonesian quake watchers measured 7.0, while the U.S. geological survey said 7.4.

The quake struck 46 miles northwest of Indramayu and could be felt by residents in the capital Jakarta, as well as in the nearby city of Bandung (X marks the spot), which is where brother Blane & Family live. Still waiting to hear.

Update: Better map.

Update: 10:23 p.m. Just got email from Blane. "What earthquake?" That's my baby brother.

Long Distance

Had a nice, leisurely chat with my brother tonight. We talked about 45 minutes. Regular readers know my brother lives on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia so we've always tried to keep our phone calls brief. Thanks to the miracle of Skype, we were able to really get caught up this evening (morning for him).

He recently got some kind of point-to-point, microwave Internet access. Not sure if it qualifies as "high speed," but it's a big improvement on the dial-up they've lived with since moving to Indonesia.

Audio quality was pretty good. Waaay better than regular long distance connection. If he can boost his speed a little bit, we're gonna try video. Stay tuned. And thank you, Skype.

Sweet Potato Queens

Just me and the pups this weekend. Barb, her sister Jan, niece Megan and pal Nancy are in Jackson, Mississippi, promoting sisterhood, self esteem and positive thinking with other Sweet Potato Queens.

The Sweet Potato Queens concept has been explained and made popular by a series of books by Jill Conner Browne of Jackson, who came up with the idea in 1982. (Browne is the author of a number of books which form the backbone of the Sweet Potato Queen "movement.")

It involves a belief in a sisterhood, appealing to mostly middle-aged middle-class women. In 2005, almost ten thousand women dressed up in costumes and came to Jackson for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, proceeds from which benefited a local children’s hospital.

Kennett expats in environmental face-off

Rock star Sheryl Crow and movie producer Laurie David, who helped work on Al Gore's Oscar nominated documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," are teaming up for a two-week bus tour across North Texas and the Gulf states. The tour is designed to fight global warming and save the environment.

The tour hopes to stop TXU's controversial plan to build 11 coal-fired power plants across the state of Texas. Governor Rick Perry's plan to fast-track the coal plants has been attacked by environmentalists and a coalition of cities.

C. John Wilder, 48, is chairman of the board and CEO of TXU Corp., one of the nation's largest electric energy companies.

Brother-in-law Lew connects the Kennett dots in this story. Not only are Ms. Crow and Mr. Wilder from Kennett, they lived in the same house (on Emerson Street), although not at the same time.

Sounds like the beginning of a pretty good screenplay, doesn't it?

Anniversary #28. Halfway point.

Barb and I dated for six years before we got married so we've been together for 34 years. Looks like a lotta years as I type it but seems like no time at all in my head.

I can't distill my affection down to single blog post but if you dig around here at smays.com, you'll discover how much better life is with a friend and partner like Barb.

Miltenberger Family Reunion: 2006

I didn't take a lot of pix on recent trip to Destin because Barb's brother Chris is a damned fine photographer and snapped about 500 images. I added 20 or 30 to my flickr set.

Someone hired a professional beach photographer to get some family shots. For some reason, all beach photogs have a thing for khaki pants and white shirts. There's a proof page here (very lo rez) but not for long. I like Chris's images better.

How I spent my summer

Received this email from my brother: "I have been in Yogyakarta, Central Java (Indonesia), doing earthquake relief. Just got to an internet cafe tonight. Over 100,000 homeless after the quake here. Not as many deaths as Aceh (7,500), but lots of homes destroyed. Crazy what is happening here. Volcano active as well (Mount Merapi)."

And I'm in charge of all things trivial and meaningless.

The Miltenbergers (circa 1965)

Barb, Jan, Lew, Chris and Beth. The Miltenbergers. Fashion ran a close second to ultraviolet protection on Miltenberger family vacations.

Counting the hours

Five days. 120 hours. And then I'm on vacation. Sort of. On Wednesday Roger Gardner and I head for Seattle and three days (for me...RG will probably get geek toxic after a day or so) of Gnomedex. I'll get back just in time for the long 4th of July weekend. I'll rest up a few days after that and then it's off to Destin with the lovely Barb where we gather with her clan for a week. While I won't be completely off the grid, I will be away from the office and I'm really looking forward to it.

Hope to see my pal Jim Mathies, who lives in Destin. Search for some open wi-fi. And try to get better acquainted with the Mac Book. I feel like the guy that's due to be released from prison in three or four days and is afraid to leave his cell for fear of getting shanked so close to freedom.

Road Trip

Light (no?) posting for a couple of days. Off to Tulsa for a last visit with my brother and his family before they return to Indonesia. Gonna miss 'em. Probably won't see them again for 2 or 3 years. Next trip will be to enroll Ryan in college. We've had some good visits and they're ready to go "home."

Family

Back from a couple of days with my brother Blane and his family in Tulsa. Might be our last visit until sometime in 2008 when they return from Indonesia to get Ryan set up in college. That's a long time between visits but Indonesia is home for them and they're ready to get back. And we had a great visit.

Ryan and I made a very short video (that I told him I wouldn't post). And here's a glimpse of the connected home-schooling family of the 21st century.

And we saw an amazing movie. End of the Spear is the story of Christian missionaries killed trying to meet an isolated band of Ecuadoran native people embroiled in a cycle of violence. If you want to understand why people give up so much --often at great personal risk-- to be with and help strangers a world away...here's your movie. Regular readers know I'm picky about my movies but this is a moving (and well-told) story. It's everything you were supposed to learn in Sunday School. Take a hanky.

Being with my brother and his family has a calming and healing effect on me. I suspect that's true for everybody around him.

Christmas morning

Cozy fire. Holiday mix on the CD (Did you know James Brown did some Christmas songs?). Dogs playing with their new toys. Good smells from the kitchen. Santa brought me some nice warm socks, a cowboy shirt and some Tired Old Ass Soak. Barb received a Netflix subscription and some motion-sensor light bulbs. We might break down and buy a new TV after the Super Bowl when prices go down.

Best Christmas post is over at the Dilbert blog: "If you're reading The Dilbert Blog on Christmas day, your family probably hates you. But that's okay because I still love you. Have a great holiday. Or failing in that, just hold on until January. You can make it."

Branches on the Perry family tree

The dozen or so boxes pulled from the attic of the old family home (and sitting in my basement for a number of years) yielded some genealogical treasures. Along with hundreds of photos (which I'll link here), we found the obituary read at the funeral of my maternal grandfather, Claude C. Perry; and the clipping announcing the funeral of my maternal grandmother, Inus Perry. I post them here for future generations.

Update: The reason more people don't put old family photos online is because it is a hell of a lot of work. Scan the images; run them through Photoshop to clean 'em up a bit; upload with captions...repeat. After a few hours of this you stat asking yourself, who's gonna look at these after I'm gone? Well, we just don't know the answer to that one, do we?

This most recent batch includes: Me feeding the chickens; mom and friends looking for all the world like movie stars; my dad getting shit-faced with some Navy buddies; another photo of my dad celebrating with Navy buddies; and my great-grandfather at 96. If I make it that long, my ears will be that large, too.

33 years in radio

Frequent visitors to smays.com know that my pop was a radio guy. He was an announcer, news guy, sales rep and station manager during his 33 years. That always seemed like a very long time. A few days ago it occurred to me that I have been in or around the radio business for that long. Not quite, if you count the year I spent in Albuquerque trying to get a radio job (I do count that year). It's really harder to count the last 5 or 6 years doing web stuff (for a company that provides programming to radio stations). If dad were still with us, I belive I could take him into a radio station and he'd still recognize what was going on there as radio. I wonder how much longer that would be true.

How Barb Spent Her Summer

For those wondering what Barb does when she's not cooking and scrubbing, we refer you to the American Health Lawyers Association's Guide to Legal Issues in Life-Limiting Conditions. Barb is a co-leader of the task force which produced the guide and a teleconference that explained it (“The Role of Family and Health Lawyers in End-of-Life Decisions”). It's all abaout "the important legal and practical issues that arise in the care of individuals who face a life-limiting condition." I think "life-limiting condition" means "you're dying." [News release]

Unblogged

Three days without a single post (if you don't count the ones in my head). Been a while since that happened and I'm pleasantly surprised I could go that long. Combination of heavy work load and visit from brother Blane. Barb was out of town so we just goofed around and talked for most of two days. Took the dogs for a walk in the park where an art exhibit was underway. My favorites were Tree Hugger and All is Well that Ends Well. ... We shot some hoops (video :18) on Saturday afternoon and I am pleased to report I lost but kept it close (13-11).

John Mays - WWII

John Mays joined the navy on May 28, 1943. He was discharged on March 9, 1946. He served as a radio operator on several ships that saw action in the Pacific (USS Mount McKinley; USS Appalachian; USS New Jersey; USS Iowa; USS War Hawk). He seldom spoke of his war experiences, but took part in several invasions and was aboard ships that came under attack.

And John looked great in uniform. [Photo 1-Photo 2-Photo 3-Photo 4]

The Japanese surrended on August 15, 1945. My mom was in St. Louis for New Year's Eve, and the new year must have looked a lot brighter.

John Mays died last week.

It was about eight o'clock in the evening on Tuesday, March 5, 2002. He was 76 years old. He'd been ill and in a nursing home for the last few years. Lots of John's friends came to the funeral and it was comforting to see my father through the eyes of people he had known and cared about for fifty years. John was a radio announcer for about half of his 76 years and that's the way I prefer to remember him.