I’m sitting in the Cincinnati airport waiting on a flight to Virginia and wouldn’t you know that my Cingular wireless card is giving me plenty of signal for a bit of web surfing while I wait. I spent the last few days at the Toastmasters International District 40 Fall Conference, so it’s interesting that this was one of the first feeds to pop into my reader. It’s a good summation, so I’ll just pipe in with a hearty “what he said.”

Zig Ziglar, the Dean of Motivational Speakers, is preparing to celebrate the 59th anniversary of his 21st birthday (that’s his 80th birthday for those of you who aren’t good with numbers) on November 4th and you’re invited to the party! As an added bonus the event is also a fundraiser, with 100% of the net proceeds going to The Zig Ziglar Center For Ethical Leadership at Southern Nazarene University. Commitments at my day job will keep me away from the festivities, but I’d darn sure be there if I could.

I expect a complete report if you do go, of course.

So, like, what’d I miss?

Here’s a friendly tip - if you ever find yourself at the LongHorn Steakhouse in Madison, Tennesse and your waiter introduces himself as “T”, do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. Trust me on this; the food there is excellent for a chain steakhouse, but “T”? OMG I hope that he improves with experience….

Aside from our less than stellar dinner experience our first day of vacation has been pretty OK. The hounds traveled well (as they always do) and we arrived in Nashville no worse for the wear. I shot plenty of raw video on the drive down so who knows - I might even put together a travel video when it’s all said and done.

It’s that time, sports fans. In just a few short minutes Bobblehead and I will be hitting the road on the first leg of our European vacation. Believe it or not this is our first extended trip to “the continent” and I’m certainly looking forward to the adventure. It’ll be doubly fun as we’ll be living in apartments on the economy rather than doing the whole tourist-in-a-tourist-hotel thing. I’ve got plenty of media (and battery power) for both the video camera and the still camera so it’s reasonable to look forward to a bit of travelblogging over the next few weeks. Assuming I can get an internet fix, of course.
The itinerary for today involves a quick run down to Nashville to drop off the hounds with friends who’ve agreed to watch them for the duration. We don’t actually take to the air until tomorrow, so it’s likely that I’ll post an update or two over the next 24 hours.

Then again, maybe not….

Thanks to a serendipitous bit of timing today’s Wall Street Journal looks at bloggists and vacations -

In the height of summer-holiday season, bloggers face the inevitable question: to blog on break or put the blog on a break? Fearing a decline in readership, some writers opt not to take vacations. Others keep posting while on location, to the chagrin of their families. Those brave enough to detach themselves from their keyboards for a few days must choose between leaving the site dormant or having someone blog-sit.

I point out the timing of this article only because Bobblehead and I will be spending a few weeks in Europe this fall. And, just in case you’re wondering, no I didn’t spend much time worrying about whether or not to keep posting while we’re there. Since Bobblehead likes to sleep in and I’m an early riser there’ll be plenty of time for me to write should the mood strike. Since our accomodations will likely be internet-free zones I’ll use Windows Live Writer to do the heavy lifting and upload my posts when I come across a stray wifi signal.

What’s that you ask? Am I worried that my traffic will go down due to sporadic posting? Seriously - take a look at my sitemeter numbers and then slap yourself for asking such a silly question.

In which I continue to dance on the dangerous edge of talking politics with a few random thoughts brought on by the latest terror arrests and their aftermath…

Am I alone in considering it not an altogether bad thing if the vast majority of carry-on luggage were permanently banned?

Are you the overly nervous type who is apprehensive about flying due to the remote possibility of a terrorist act occuring on your flight? Now’s the time to fly, then; with all the additional security in place the odds of your flight being hit are effectively zero.

Finally, for those of you who are adamantly opposed to the U.S. Government monitoring phone calls in the U.S. (even if they originate or terminate overseas), consider this. According to Time Magazine, U.S. intelligence helped in disrupting the latest terror planning by provided the British with intercepts of the group’s communications. Not an unusual move for such close allies and probably just the tip of the intelligence-sharing iceberg. With that in mind, what makes you think that the British aren’t monitoring communications in the U.S. and sharing that information with our intelligence agencies? Or, put another way, do you really think that prohibiting our agencies from doing the monitoring is stopping them from getting the signals intelligence they need?  And do you really prefer that the British be the ones listening in on your phone conversations with Aunt Ida?