I was talking to a friend today, also an immigrant and I asked her if she consider going back to her country. She said that yes, but every time she goes visiting she feels like she is getting Hell in demo version.

 

That is an old geek joke, and I was quite surprise to learn how universal it is. The history goes that this one guy died and headed to the Pearly Gates. Getting there St. Peter told him that he was very good inlife so he was free to choose whether he'd like to go to Heaven or Hell. The guy asked if he could try first before picking one, and St. Peter agreed.

 

Heaven as nice and tidy, but quite boring. Angels dancing and singing, lions playing withe children, some type of suburbia on acid. Hell on other hand was non-stop partying, with beautiful women, booze and loud rock and roll. The guy had no doubt - he wanted Hell.

 

Next day, after communicating his decision to St. Peter, he was assigned to Hell for all eternity. Getting there the place didn't look at all like the party he saw the day before. Dirt and decay, pain and suffering everywhere.

 

He asked the devil what changed, and it said "yesterday you saw the demo version - this is the final product".

 

I'm perfectly aware that I ruined the joke with the post title, but if you're a geek you probably heard this before anyway.

I feel really sad about what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday. Too many deaths, 32 total, executed by a single maniac. Some died saving others, like the holocaust survivor that blocked a door with his body, and the brilliant student that jumped in front of the shooter just to end dying with the person he was trying to save (see this).

 

I feel sad for the families that were left trying to find a reason. I feel sad for the killer's parents that saw their child making the news as a monster.

 

It also made me sad because it reminded me of one of the reasons I left my country. In a single day 21 people died in Rio de Janeiro, murdered by drug dealers. And they die day in, day out - not on isolated events - making the population numb and without reaction.

 

President Bush said it right when he said that while seemingly impossible now, a normal day will come to Virginia. Very likely sooner than a normal day in Rio.

 

Sad, sad, sad.

Booking a flight is a miserable experience. So miserable that sometimes it is funny.

I’m trying to book a trip to Hawaii. Since my friends said Hawaiian Airlines was the best company I tried to book a flight through their website, willing to pay more if necessary. I entered SEA-OGG to find flights to Maui from Seattle. Their website only offered flights connecting in HNL (Honolulu).

I hate airport security so I changed my query to SEA-HNL to get the direct flight and avoid the connection. Their website only offered flights connecting in OGG (Maui).

With my desire to pay extra for good service evaporated, I navigated to Expedia.com. I entered SEA-OGG, direct flights only. Expedia came up with a cheaper, direct flight option, offered by Northwest Airlines (NWA). Looked good so I decided to read the fine print. Guess who operates the flights? Hawaiian airlines.

Aaahhhhh!

When the Second World War was over the American army told General Patton to manage the German Bavaria, much to his dislike, as he wanted to continue fighting in the Pacific war theater. Patton was an eccentric to say the least, but also a brilliant strategist and leader. Wikipedia has a great bio and if you’re curious I suggest watching the Hollywood portrait of Patton’s life.

The American media had a field day with his decision to keep former members of the Nazi party working on the Bavarian administration. His priority was to keep schools working, telegraphs operating, roads open and fuel available. He was heavily criticized and to an extent a liability to the government. Various levels of government swallowed their opinions and allowed him to continue, despite strong disagreements.

Now compare that to what happened before and after the Iraq invasion. Generals that disagreed with troop levels were retired; critics were compared to traitors, and immediately after the invasion all former members of the Baath party were removed from government and armed forces positions. Under a dictator like Saddam that means everyone. No deviations from the party line were tolerated, a micromanagement disaster that demonstrated incredibly poor leadership and management. I don’t think governments should be run as private companies, but even if I did this was a very poor showing.

I could bring up the quintessential example of making enemies your allies such as the Lincoln government, but I’ll leave that alone. Being fiercely partisan, to a point fractions of your own party are treated as enemies, is a cancer consuming American politics. The current “geniuses” of American politics are experts in finding wedge issues, policy points that divide the population, and side with the smaller, polarized majority. Apparently “divided we fall” is acceptable if the other side falls first and they’re left with the spoils.

America is lucky that its current enemies are not nearly as formidable as Nazi Germany. Someone with great leadership like Patton would never be tolerated. What would the Second World War outcome be without Patton? What would happen if Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld were leading the allies? My guess is that I’d be writing this in German.