It would appear that being too thin can be a problem in ways having nothing to do with your physical health.  (Though I suspect the stress related to an $1,800 hit to my wallet might impact my physical well-being too.)

I’ve been meaning to write this post for about a week-and-a-half, but between Farpoint and the subsequent return to everyday life…well, that’s how it goes sometimes.
Before he committed to building a spaceship, Luke wrote an interesting piece about scapegoats (including examples) and why problems are rarely as simple as the various pundits want you to believe. It’s an interesting read any time, but seems particularly relevant during an election year.
And based on Luke’s description of his dog’s activities, I can only assume that once warmer weather arrives, Lancaster is going to smell a bit like New York city.

I’m not entirely certain why I started participating in Relay for Life. I think it was at least in part because a bunch of my friends were taking part and it was a chance to hang out with them. At the time of my first Relay, I was thinking to myself that it was silly to be there, it’s not like I’d ever known anyone with cancer.
Yeah, a little forgetful there. I didn’t know Larry particularly well, but about four years before my first participation in Relay for Life, an acquaintance out in Nevada, Larry Borino, lost his battle with cancer. And although it was about 10 years before I was born, my own grandfather fell victim to cancer. So although I didn’t think about it ten years ago cancer had in fact affected me.
These days, I continue to participate in Relay for Life, and these days I know my reason: I know people with cancer. (Statistically, just about everyone does.)
AJ just had her six month check-up on the 14th. I’m delighted to say that she passed with flying colors and is still cancer-free.
Hodo’s brother Chris is fighting the good fight with colon cancer. I just checked in with her a few days ago and although the news isn’t as good as I was hoping, it was still good news with measurable improvements.
Marauder is coming up on two years since the removal of his cancerous thyroid gland. Despite the passage of time, he’s still finding ways to put the occasional odd twist on his experience.
Most recently, I learned that Bob Greenberger‘s son Robbie has been diagnosed with Leukemia. I’ve met Robbie, but don’t know him well enough to point him out to people. I learned Robbie was ill two weeks ago, but wasn’t sure how much the family was “going public” with the information, so I’ve kept quiet about it.
Catching up on Bob’s blog this morning, it turns out that they’re being very public about it. More than half of Bob’s posts from the past two weeks have been about Robbie’s treatment. If you’re into knitting, Robbie’s sister Kate (a minor celebrity in her own right) is doing a fund-raiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with lots of shiny prizes in the form of very colorful yarn. In just 10 days she’s raised nearly $2,000! (I’m not sure what that particular hue would be, but color me impressed!)
And this all serves as a reminder that it’s time for me to start my fundraising for Relay for Life (coming up the night of May 31 – June 1). If you donated last year, you can be certain that I’ll be asking you again this year. If you’d like to get a head start, you can head on over to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/ThatBlairGuy and donate online.

Back in November, I realized The Secret of Life is that there are no rules.
During 2007, I served as the Maryland Jaycees District Director West, acting as a representative on the Executive Committee of the state organization’s Board of Directors. In late December, I was asked to provide some basic orientation for the incoming district director for another district. After emailing my response, I decided to post it to the district blog under the title of “Advice for a new District Director.” The advice I gave in that article is actually quite similar to Rule 1 of the aforementioned Secret of Life.
There’s a new person filling the role of District Director. Jeff’s a good guy, but the district blog is no longer mine to control. Since Jeff, or any other successor, may decide to discontinue the blog, I’ve reposted the article here. Take from it whatever wisdom you may find.

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Probably the most important piece of advice anyone gave me when I was elected was simply, “Don’t let anyone tell you how to do the job.” After thinking about it for a bit, I realized this was sound advice. The world is full of people who want to second-guess you. Or putting it another way:
Rule 1: There are no rules about how to be a Jaycee Leader
Everything else in this post should doubtless be filtered through Rule 1. 🙂
That being said… the District Director is in a unique position relative to the rest of the Executive Board. Everyone else has to deal with every chapter in the state, the district director works with a smaller number of them.
Pragmatically, what this means is that the district director will most likely be the person “gently reminding” chapters to send in their close out information. Going the other direction, you’ll be bringing concerns from your chapters to the rest of the team and making sure the chapters know what’s going on around the state.
Some experiences and/or things that worked for me (This in particular is where Rule 1 applies):
Phone communications are great, I highly recommend them. But they’re also time consuming. Talk to chapter contacts once a month (or more) if you can, but don’t plan to make more than two (or three) calls in a single night. There will always be a few folks who just won’t get off the phone.
Conversely, there are probably going to be a few people who you just can’t get hold of to save your life. That being the case, you may want to consider making up a list of email addresses for all your chapter contacts so you can keep them informed about what’s going on. Start off with the President and State Director. As you find out who more of your chapters’ board members are, add them to your list. This increases the likelihood that somebody in each chapter will pay attention.
Some chapters will never get around to asking you to come to their events. Don’t be afraid to invite yourself. Send an email to one of your contacts (starting with the President and/or State Director) saying something like, “Hey, I’d really like to come to such-and-such project. What time does it start and how do I get there?” (Projects are probably a better thing to show up at than meetings.) Of course, the same rule for attending your own chapter’s project also applies here – don’t even think about trying to attend everything or you’ll burn yourself out.
There’s nothing wrong with holding district meetings during the quarterly conventions. That may give your chapters one more reason to make sure they have someone there. On the other hand, you may want to schedule them as separate events, some chapters may not have representatives at conventions). The two approaches seem to have similar results.
One important note though: Schedule your district meetings as far in advance as possible. (Folks will complain anyhow, but that’s just how it goes.) If you can get chapters to find a meeting location, etc. that’s great, but you do have the option of making your own arrangements. Probably the smartest thing I did in 2007 was when I decided to have a meeting in a central location. When the local chapter didn’t respond, I organized the meeting myself. The chapter was a lot more responsive afterward.
Plan to have your 4th quarter meeting as early as possible in the quarter for two reasons: (A) This way you can also use it as a candidates forum for elections and (B) after the November convention, the Jaycees pretty much shut down until January. (This is one of the reasons I tend to agree with the folks who believe we played a huge prank on ourselves by matching the Jaycee year to the calendar year.)
The job can be a lot of work, but it’s worthwhile.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.
I’ve known this day was coming for a while, but I suppose I’ve been hoping for a reprieve of some sort. That’s not how it works of course, but you can’t blame a fellow for having hopes.
You can lay down or put a paper bag over your head if you like, but that won’t help either. The plans have been on file at the local planning office for several years and there was plenty of opportunity to file a protest at the appropriate time so there’s no sense acting all surprised now. If you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own look out. By my estimate the Vogons will be here sometime this afternoon.
I am certain that John understands exactly what this is all about. No doubt he’s already standing on a street corner somewhere with corks in his ears, clutching a towel from Marks and Spencer, trying desperately to hitch a lift.
If you have no idea what I’m going on about, might I suggest some worthwhile reading? (If you prefer, there’s always the movie, but I suggest the older version instead of the new one.) You’d best hurry though; if Ford and Arthur have already nipped off to the pub, then you have less than 10 minutes left. (Last orders, please!)
I’m just astonished this didn’t happen on a Thursday.

There was an episode (maybe a few) of Deep Space Nine a while back which featured a holographic communications system. The people participating in the communication would each sit in a chair within the bounds of the device (re-inventing the open-air phone booth I suppose) and would be able to see and talk to each other as if they were sitting across a coffee table.
That doesn’t exist quite yet. Ditto for the transporter room, faster-than-light travel and the sexy aliens. (That’s not quite true. The sexy aliens may very well exist, but we haven’t met them yet. Not officially anyhow.)
I’ve been intrigued by the iRobot Roomba for a while now. Roomba is essentially a robotic vacuum cleaner. It’s not as talented as Rosie from the Jetsons, but the idea of having the vacuuming “just happen” without any effort on my part is very appealing. (I’m a guy. Having a robot do the vacuuming would greatly increase the odds of it happening.)
Checking out the iRobot website this evening, I discovered they have a new robot. Along with the vacuum cleaner, the pool cleaner, and the gutter cleaner, they now have a “Virtual Visiting Robot” which apparently uses a combination of robotics, VOIP, and streaming video to allow to you interact with your family when you’re away from home. (It occurs that you could also send this along when the family went out of town and you had to work over the weekend, but that would be a clear-cut case of mis-applied technology and a pretty good reason to find a new job if your boss ever suggests such a thing.)
It’s not quite the holographic communication system, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
Also intriguing – and in the words of Dave Barry, I swear I’m not making this up – is the robot they created in a partnership with John Deere: the “R-Gator.” This is essentially a John Deere Gator (you’ve perhaps seen them used at parks and zoos, sort of a heavy-utility all-terrain version of a golf cart), but outfitted with robotic systems so it can drive itself.
The R-Gator is also described as an “Unmanned Ground Vehicle” and appears to only be available for Government/Military use. The aforementioned Roomba starts its vacuum-cleaning cycle by moving in an expanding circular path as it seeks out dirt. I can’t help thinking that the ‘R’ in “R-Gator” perhaps stands for “Roomba.” Maybe the Roomba-gator starts out all of its missions by also moving in a circular pattern. (On the scarier end of the spectrum, according to one report, during an early phase of their development, the machine gun-toting “SWORDS” military robots had “a tendency to spin out of control from time to time.” So perhaps the idea of military robots based on Roomba isn’t so far-fetched after all!)
So iRobot is doing a pretty good job of fulfilling some predictions of the future:

• …a precursor to Rosie. check
• …telepresence like Deep Space Nine (all that’s missing is the holograph). check
• …military robots like the ones in the Terminator movies. check (shudder)

Hey, wait a second! Where are the sexy aliens?
Nuts. What kind of a future is this anyhow?