Military Spouses Do Not Deserve Their Partner's Rank And Privileges
12 May 2026 • by Bob • Military, Humor
A now-retired Master Sergeant from the US Army, Mark Baker, has spent years drawing a cartoon called Private Murphy's Law, which follows the career of the cartoon's namesake, Murphy, from his initial enlistment through basic training, a series of promotions, and eventually as he becomes an NCO serving tours in multiple theaters of conflict. For soldiers and veterans like me, Private Murphy's Law does an excellent job of satirizing the never-ending ridiculousness that soldiers are forced to endure, and as such it is a constant source of amusement, especially when it hits close to home.
With that in mind, I loved the following cartoon from Baker that addresses an issue that reared its ugly head far too often when I was serving in uniform: military spouses who believe their partners' ranks are somehow magically applied to them, and as such they believe they are entitled to the same privileges that their spouses have earned. I could go on and on about the military's particular brand of outdated classicism and how its archaic practices produce boorish and disrespectful behavior from the spouses of high-ranking military members, but I'll let this Private Murphy comic illustrate what I'm talking about.
On a related note, and I swear this is a true story: way back in the late 1980s, I was stationed with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) in Fulda, Germany, which had a single commissary on Downs Barracks. As anyone who's been in the military for more than a few months knows, the commissary is a hellish nightmare on payday, and this is primarily for two reasons:
- Everyone in the military is paid on the same day
- Everything is sold out on the day after payday
In short, if you really need something, you have to endure the crowds at the commissary.
Of course, nearly all soldiers have to work on payday, and since the 11th ACR in Fulda was an all-male combat unit, that meant the crowds in the commissary were 99.9% military wives (often with several children in tow). All these factors contributed to a chaotic quagmire in the checkout lines that was sheer misery to participate in.
On one fateful day, the wife of a friend of mine was waiting in the protracted & serpentine checkout line at the commissary in Fulda, when another woman walked up and inserted herself into the line in front of her. My friend's wife spoke up and politely said, "Excuse me - but the end of the line is back there," and she pointed to the far end of the commissary. The line-jumper somewhat nastily retorted, "My husband is Colonel so-and-so. Who's your husband? What's his rank?"
My friend's wife thankfully had a solid backbone, and she exclaimed, "It's none of your damn business who my husband is! His rank isn't MY rank, and your husband's rank isn't YOUR rank, so get your ass to the back of the line or I'll call the MPs!" And with that, the summarily wounded & justifiably embarrassed idiot ducked her head and walked to the back of the line, where she belonged.
As I said earlier, this is a true story. I've always found it troubling that those types of simpleminded spouses exist in the military, which is why I absolutely love this cartoon from Private Murphy, even though the reality of its content is eternally aggravating.
Sweden and Socialism
02 May 2026 • by Bob • Politics
Is Sweden a socialist state? I see this subject come up in discussions from time to time, so I thought that I'd take a few minutes to address it. To put it bluntly, the myth that Sweden is a socialist state is a never-ending fabrication that faux "democratic" socialist wanna-bes in American politics continue to perpetuate, but it's a lie that has been debunked many, many times.
Sweden does have several socialized programs that we do not, but that's not the same thing as "socialism," and some of the so-called socialized programs aren't what advocates for socialism in the USA would think of as "socialist."
The only people who still repeat the "Sweden is socialist" deception are:
- Liars who want to wrangle more taxes away from you
- Politicians promising "free stuff" to the gullible
- The grossly uneducated
What Sweden has is a Free Market economy with a large welfare state, and the success of that economy is actually up for debate depending on whom you speak to inside Sweden, but the illusion of "free stuff" that's used by American tax-and-spend politicians to buy votes in our presidential elections is a fairy tale; it doesn't exist - not in America, and not in Sweden, where a large system of income taxation and value-added taxes pays for their welfare state. Sweden experimented with socialism 40 years ago, and it crashed their economy, which is why they returned to free markets.
For those who still have an open mind, here are just a few videos for reference:
The "Big Three" of the Dove Awards
30 April 2026 • by Bob • Music, Random Thoughts
I belong to a Facebook group named Fans Of Real 80's CCM, which is for fans of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) from the 1980s. That's the music era that I group up in, and I like the discussions that take place in that group. It's fun to reminisce about some of the CCM artists from days gone by.
Many of those artists were nominated for Gospel Music Association's (GMA) Dove Awards at one time or other, and by way of explanation, the GMA Dove Awards are like the Grammy Awards of CCM. Earlier today, someone from that group posted the following chart that shows the years that each of the "Big Three" of CCM were nominated or won Dove Awards, with the "Big Three" consisting of Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Steven Curtis Chapman. Note that the following chart only lists the years where each artist was nominated or won, and does not take into account the numerous times each artist won multiple awards on the same night (e.g. Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Female/Male Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year, etc.) For example, as of this writing, Steven Curtis Chapman was nominated or won Dove Awards across 26 different years, but he has won 59 Dove Awards from over 100 nominations.
There are some artists who've won large numbers of Grammy Awards (e.g. Beyoncé, Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, etc.), but their numbers fall short of the staggering number of Dove Award wins by the "Big Three" of CCM. Oh, sure - the pool of talent for the Grammys exceeds that of the Dove Awards, but still... the number of wins and nominations by the "Big Three" can be summed up in one word: bloated. I realize that every form of art is subjective - but 59 wins from over 100 nominations? Nope. I'm sorry for all the Steven Curtis Chapman fans out there, but he's simply not that good. Nobody is.
Don't get me wrong - I like the "Big Three," and over the past few decades I've seen each of them in concert. Sometimes more than once. However, this chart illustrates something of a problem with the Dove Awards, because CCM is far more than just these three artists. While I realize that the "Big Three" have always been nominated along with a slew of other artists, many of those artists often lost to the "Big Three" simply because the GMA committee that selects the Dove Award winners has a clear bias for the "Big Three," and that is unfortunate for every other artist in CCM who deserves to be recognized.
POSTSCRIPT:
FWIW - Chris Tomlin is another artist for which the GMA committee that selects the Dove Award winners has a clear bias. Since 2005 he's had 61 Dove Award nominations with 23 wins, despite the fact that he's a bad songwriter. (Yes he is. Yes he is. Yes he is.) Chris Tomlin isn't what I'd call "good," but he's popular within the right circles to win awards, which is enough to score him a continual series of Dove Award wins, even though his songs are boring and trite and make me want to hurl. (Yes they do. Yes they do. Yes they do.)
Troubleshooting Tales: OneDrive Image Corruption
30 April 2026 • by Bob • Windows, Troubleshooting, OneDrive
A coworker recently posted a problem that they were seeing: several images that were backed up to OneDrive were getting corrupted, and they were wondering what to do about it. However, I started seeing image corruption exactly like this several years ago, and my situation turned out to be a hard drive that was slowly going bad and corrupting files. The following image illustrates what the corrupted images looked like:
Sadly, however, OneDrive might detect file corruption as file changes, so as files become damaged, OneDrive will dutifully upload the corrupt files to the cloud, thereby overwriting what used to be perfectly good files with damaged files.
With that in mind, my suggestion was to do the following to prevent further corruption:
- Immediately turn off the computer
- Remove the old hard drive from the computer
- Install a new hard drive in the computer
- Reinstall Windows on the new drive
After you've reinstalled Windows, use the following steps to restore your images:
- Plug the old hard drive into the computer using an external USB drive dock (or something like that)
- Run an exhaustive drive check and repair on the old hard drive
- Wait for the check and repair of the old hard drive to complete
- Copy all the files from the old drive to the new drive
That may seem like a lot of steps, but in the end, that's the only thing that halted the continued file corruption.
Adventures in Auto Shop
21 March 2026 • by Bob • Humor, Education
I took "Power Mechanics" and "Auto Shop" in high school, and it was a lot of fun tearing engines apart and getting them purring like a kitten after reassembly. Everything from lawnmower engines to big block V8s and 4-barrel carburetors.
So. Much. Fun.
True story - the first motors we worked with were, obviously, lawn mower engines. Everything was done in two-man teams, and my partner and I were assigned our motor to play with. Our assignment was to disassemble the motor, measure ever part, look up specs in a manual, write down the wear on each component, then reassemble and get it to turn over.
Believe it or not, this entire process took several days, which was mostly due to hauling all our parts from the wall lockers where they were kept at the beginning of each class, checking out the requisite tools (and fighting with classmates when there was a shortage of a particular tool), looking up parts and their specs in assorted manuals, and hauling all our parts back the wall lockers at the end of each class. The actual disassembly and reassembly was the easy part, especially since I have a GREAT memory when it comes to remembering where everything went.
When my partner and I were done, we reassembled our motor, and we were disturbed to discover that we had a few parts left over. I kid you not, we disassembled and reassembled our motor several times, and we couldn't find any place for those parts to go. We decided to turn the motor over anyway, and after our instructor signed off on our project, I mentioned that we had some parts left over when we were done. He asked to see them, and then he said, "Oh, THOSE parts. Yeah, they've been floating around the shop for years. They don't go to anything. Whenever a team winds up with them, they toss them into another team's wall locker just to mess with them," which is EXACTLY what my partner and I did after hearing this news.
Faith, Fettle, and Fingerstyle Guitar
20 March 2026 • by Bob • Music, Health, Guitar
Someone shared the following video in a Progressive Rock forum, which was a great throwback for me. Here is Steve Howe playing "Beginnings:"
In the early 1980s, I used to play that piece (without the harpsichord accompaniment) as part my classical guitar repertoire.That piece, along with the following piece (Steve Howe's "Surface Tension"), were to have been audition pieces when I wanted to apply to college to study as a classical guitar major:
Those who know me realize that I eventually changed my plans, got married, became a dad, joined the military, and then became a professional geek in the computer industry. But I never gave up my love for the guitar.
However, Steve Howe's "Beginnings" in particular was a sad reminder for me of what once was. Not because I am foolishly pining for days gone by, nor am I regretting the decisions that framed my life and set me on the path that has led to where I am today. On the contrary, that video was a reminder of the fact that due to the slow progression of incurable hand tremors, there are many things that I cannot play now - nor will I ever play again - on the guitar.
Another piece that entered my repertoire prior to tremors taking over and occasionally rendering my hands useless was David Qualey's beautiful arrangement and variations on J.S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring:"
Another piece that I recently tried to play - and failed miserably at - was Leo Kottke's "Rings." I will ashamedly confess that I used to sing this song when I played it, because it made the piece that much harder to play - and I wanted the challenge:
Shortly after tremors had noticeably affected my dexterity and before my official medical diagnosis of Essential Tremor, I attended a music festival in Evart, Michigan, with my good friends Mark Alan Wade and Randy Clepper, which - unbeknownst to them at the time - was my final hurrah as a "performing" guitarist. I had a blast joining them onstage for the last time, but I will admit, it was a bittersweet moment for me, because even without the diagnosis, I knew what was in my future.
It's been a decade since my symptoms first became unmistakably prominent, and I've adjusted to the fact that some days the simple things I used to take for granted - like eating in public - can be a challenge.
Occasionally I'll sift through the scores of classical and fingerstyle arrangements that I personally wrote, and I am often taken aback when I remember that not only did I write those arrangements - I could play them, too. When that happens, I am reminded, much like the piece by Steve Howe that began this dissertation, that part of my life has passed, and I am left with the decision of how best to adjust to my new reality.
A few days ago, I reposted someone else's thoughts on progressive christian theology, and in the ensuing conversations that happened on that thread, I spoke a lot about faith - and what happens when someone loses their faith. To be frank, when a neurologist looked me in the eye and said that I have a degenerative condition that may one day make it impossible to hold a pencil or a fork - that was a moment when I was forced to examine my faith.
I have often said that there are three ways that I can react to my condition: I can scream about it, I can cry about it, or I can laugh about it.
Screaming is where many people lose their faith. They scream at God. They scream at others. They scream at life. As is often the case with my condition, people scream at their hands for failing to do what the brain has instructed them to do. And while I will admit to occasionally screaming at my hands in a moment of frustration, this is not the path I commonly choose.
Crying can be therapeutic, but only for so long. Eventually you have to pick up the pieces of your life and move on, lest you fall into self-pity and depression. And here again I must admit that I initially mourned my condition by going through all five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. And this is where faith really comes to fruition: yes, my situation sucks, but I choose to believe that God has a plan that is reinforced through His Word (e.g. scripture).
This is why I choose the last of the three reactions that I mentioned: I choose to laugh, even when it seems illogical. My wife of 40+ years, Kathleen, has seen me laugh when I've failed to do the most basic of tasks that I have been able to do without error since I was one or two years old. And in all of this, I do not waste my time whining about whether this is "fair," because any notions of "fairness" are wholly subjective and utterly useless. It might seem unfair that I'm slowly watching my once-skilled hands as they continue to degenerate, but I am blessed in so many other ways. In short, as I said earlier, I trust that God has a plan, even though I cannot see it.
Bringing this conversation full circle, while it was sad to see and hear a guitar piece that I once enjoyed playing (but can no longer play due to unforeseen circumstances), I know my situation isn't the end of the world. I choose to believe that God has other plans.
Giving Away Starbucks Gift Cards to Military Service Members
13 February 2026 • by Bob • Military
For more than decade now, I've been carrying a stack of Starbucks gift cards with me whenever I travel, and I hand them out to members of the military I see in uniform as I thank them for their service. I usually have a few gift cards in my pocket ready to go when the need arises, and I generally have a dozen more in my laptop bag that I keep in reserve.
Most service members are surprised at the offer, but nearly all of them have been genuinely appreciative and humbled. I've had a few misadventures along the way, like when I've had to chase service members down when they were walking fast in an opposite direction. Occasionally I'll hand out gift cards to veterans wearing a cap that identifies them as having served in the Vietnam War or the Gulf War, but for the most part I stick to service members in uniform to avoid "stolen valor."
I recently ran into a funny situation in Chicago, where dozens of sailors who looked like they had just got out of Basic Training were waiting for a flight. Their numbers easily exceeded my stockpile of gift cards, so I had to run to the nearest Starbucks to refill my supply. When I returned to their group, one sailor refused the gift card she was offered. When I asked why, she replied, "Because I don't like coffee," to which I responded, "They also sell water. And orange juice. And they make sandwiches, so you can buy lunch. But if you simply don't want to go to Starbucks, you can always give the gift card to someone you were stationed with." She begrudgingly accepted the gift card, but I must admit - after having given away over a hundred gift cards over the years, that's the first time that someone has refused.
When Microsoft NetMeeting Saved the Day
09 February 2026 • by Bob • Microsoft, Technology
In the late 1990s, I was delivering training for a large group of external business leaders in downtown Dallas that was organized by Microsoft's marketing team, and my presentation was supposed to be broadcast to remote Microsoft learning centers across the country using Cisco's video teleconferencing hardware.
As the time for the training to begin drew near, it was clear that the Cisco hardware was failing completely, and techs were scrambling to fix the problem, lest the expensive training session be canceled.
While the Cisco techs worked feverishly, I placed a Polycom conference phone on the speaker podium and used it to call the other learning centers. I told the people running the show at each location that I was firing up Microsoft's NetMeeting, then I gave them all my IP address and asked them to connect to me. I shared my desktop through NetMeeting, then I suspended a microphone over the Polycom phone so that everyone in the Dallas location could hear anything that was said at the remote locations. After a quick sound and video check with all the remote locations, we were in business.
As soon as I had everything ready-to-go through my unorthodox workaround, I turned to the Dallas audience and said, "You've just witnessed the successful deployment of a Microsoft software solution for a third-party hardware failure in real time." The audience erupted with applause, and the marketing folks at the back of the room who had organized the event were beaming with pride.
The rest of my presentation went off without a hitch, although the Cisco techs never got their hardware to work.
Of course, Microsoft NetMeeting is long gone, but in it's day - it was a handy, little piece of software that did amazing things.
I Can See Why Some People Like Sports
04 February 2026 • by Bob • Humor, Music
I posted a silly cartoon yesterday about my general dislike for sports, but I thought that I should clarify one thing: I totally get why other people like sports. I have a trivia-oriented brain, and I can totally see the appeal for memorizing all sorts of sports-related statistics. (e.g. RBI, REB, HR, TD, BA, YDS, ERA, AST, INT, etc.) But that being said, I'm still not a sports guy, though I have my own obsessions.
True story: I used to carpool to work with Kenny King, who was a great friend and colleague. Kenny was undoubtedly one of the biggest sports fans I've known, and as we would drive to work, Kenny would frequently talk about every recent sporting event that had taken place. Thankfully for him, I know just enough about sports to engage completely on the subject. (Even though I don't watch sports, I pay attention to who's winning/losing, just in case I meet up with someone like Kenny.)
Kenny and I occasionally listened to a Classic Rock station as we drove, and I would often talk about which band was playing, who was in each band, who quit the band and joined a different band, other bands that sounded like the band we were listening to, who was a better member in each band's incarnation (e.g. David Lee Roth versus Sammy Hagar in Van Halen, Steve Morse versus Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple, etc.). I'm not sure that Kenny paid much attention to the voluminous amount of rock trivia to which he was subjected, but one day as we were driving to work, Kenny suddenly reacted as though a light bulb had gone off, and he exclaimed, "WAIT - I GET IT NOW!!! MUSIC IS YOUR SPORTS!" I must admit, I had never considered my interest in rock trivia using those terms, but I had to admit - Kenny was right. After that revelation had taken place, Kenny was far more engaged in our discussions.
Thankfully for him, Kenny only had to endure my rock trivia passion for 30 minutes each way to and from work... but can you imagine how much rock music trivia my long-suffering spouse has had to put up with during our 41 years of marriage? (She'd never admit to it, but even though she hates Rush she can name everyone in the band and at least 10 of their songs... and believe me, I've checked.)
Groundhog Day is weird, but not as weird as it could be
03 February 2026 • by Bob • Humor
I love the web-based comic xkcd, and quite often its author, Randall Munroe, hits a home run. In honor of this year's traditional observation of Groundhog Day, Munroe penned the following gem:
While I love the overall theme of this comic, I'm inclined to disagree with its basic premise, because many of our other holidays far outweigh Groundhog Day when it comes to "weirdness."
For example, let's consider Christmas, which happens once a year around the Winter Solstice when the world collectively agrees to participate in a cheerful, global home‑invasion ritual conducted by a jolly, red‑clad sky captain who commands a herd of antlered flight-beasts. This tortured soul is Santa, a man who is essentially a benevolent reverse‑burglar that breaks into your house, but instead of stealing your stuff, he leaves objects behind. He does this by sliding down a soot-filled chimney like a festive raccoon with a gift‑distribution quota. Santa keeps meticulous behavioral dossiers on every human child, categorizing them into "pleasant" and "needs improvement." The pleasant ones receive toys, and the others get… well, theoretically coal, but honestly Santa's pretty soft about it. Meanwhile, lurking in the background is Krampus - Santa's chaotic coworker. Think of him as the unpaid intern of mischief. He's a goat‑demon with the energy of someone who shows up to the office holiday party uninvited and starts reorganizing the furniture. His job is to scare kids into good behavior, but he mostly just vibes menacingly with a sack and some chains. Together, Santa and Krampus form a kind of cosmic good‑cop/bad‑cop duo who supervise the annual ritual of decorating trees indoors, wearing socks on fireplaces, and consuming alarming quantities of sugar. At the end of the night, everyone wakes up delighted, confused, and slightly sticky from candy canes.
Yup, Groundhog Day pales in comparison to Christmas on the weirdness scale.