I've been thinking about choices today. That is, why we make the choices we do, even when they aren't the choices we really want and there's nothing stopping us from choosing those things that we do want.
Growing up, there were four things I wanted to do in/with my life: Neurosurgeon (ok, this was more a means to the end, which was an early retirement), professional motorcycle racer, musician, and fighter or test pilot.
Breaking things down:
Neurosurgeon: Why did I choose to excel in reading instead of math (I was excellent at both), knowing that having college level reading in the sixth grade was impressive, but would get me nowhere, I still chose it, instead of math, which would have got me a scholarship to college, or at the very least, out of high school a few years early so I could pursue my other dreams. Why did I choose partying instead of studying? Why did I spend two years in vocational school for auto mechanics? None of it makes sense.
Motorcycle racer: Why did I choose to spend all my money on BMX bikes instead of motorcycles. Why did I not put more effort into getting my dad to take me to the track when I finally get one (at 13 or 14 years old) instead of giving up on the old man and trading a damn nice XL-250 for a "yamahopper" (yamaha qt50) moped? Why, when I could finally get a loan and "afford" to get back into motorcycles did I buy a small cruiser (Suzuki GS-450) instead of a dirt bike or a sport bike?.. and then trade it on a car less than a year later and not have another motorcycle for many years (other than a few brief 3 month stints)?
Musician: I played tenor sax, and was *damn* good at it: I often got invitations to play with MSU at their shows when I was still in middle school. Why did I drop out of band in the second semester of 12th grade? That was a sure scholarship to Interlochen and probably a full scholarship to a major university; and now that I have enough equipment for an entire band downstairs, and had a lifelong dream of playing drums, do I not ever play?
Fighter/Test (or at least airline Pilot: God was against me on this one. At the time I was young enough to begin this career, you had to have 20/20 vision to fly the airlines. Something I was nowhere near (20/500 was closer to the truth - no faking/lying when you are that blind). What I really wanted was to fly fighter jets, F14s in particular. Not only did you have to have 20/20 vision, but you had to be an officer. To be an officer, you had to had a college degree. If you've read the above, you've probably figured out that I was too busy partying and generally fucking around to be bothered with college, so that was out.
Now don't get me wrong, this post isn't about regrets. As the title says, it's about choices. I, as have most people, made some really bad choices, but don't regret my life for a minute. I've been very fortunate (and some would argue deserving) with how far I've come in my career, my personal growth, marriage, etc.. and yet I feel (as I'm sure many do) that I'm meant to do something more.. something bigger.
A part of me feels as though I was meant for semi-greatness, and took a wrong turn somewhere. I've spent the last 5 years not trying to figure out what the wrong turn was (as there have been many) but where the right turn would have led me. Real Estate tycoon? Motorcycle dealerships? Peace Corps? I just don't know... and THAT is what drives me crazy.
I've always had short and long term goals in my life. This year marks the first time I've ever missed one. See, I turned 35 this year, and that means I should have my commercial pilots license and my own four seat airplane. I haven't even maintained proficiency with my private license, and commercial is 2-3 ratings and a 1000 or more hours away.
I can't even imagine trying to finance an airplane right now after buying the house and all the other stuff we've financed over the last year; and I am SO mad at myself for not sticking to my plan as last year interest rates were the lowest they will probably ever be in my lifetime.
.. and yet when given choices, I drool over $60,000 cars instead of $100,000 planes (the payments are about the same), I think about $1500 flatscreen monitors instead of earning that next rating, I spend $250 on a belt sander instead of training aids/ground school, and I plan on spending $60 for golf lessons instead of flying lessons.
Why DO we make the choices we do? Do we all do this (and if so, why?), or am I on some self-destruct course to assure myself of future unhappiness?
.. and how many licks does it take? :)
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Geek-Out
Since I've done nothing (and I do mean nothing) other than work on computers for the last 36 hours, this entry is mainly going to be geek stuff.
I'm oncall and sick, Buddy is sick. This has got to be the most boring-ass week since we've moved into this place.. at least for me.
It was 72 degrees today and I was in the house all day. Man, that just about killed me. I've got to start getting some jobs done around here. The deck, the garage, the yard. Everything that got put on hold in November needs to start again, soon. I don't mind spending spring working, but I want to enjoy summer and fall this year.
Managed to get about 3 solid hours of sleep today after being up all night and not getting to bed until 12:30 this afternoon. Oncall is *hell*. Pages every 20-40 minutes. Just as you start to fall asleep - that semi-conscious dream-like state between awake and asleep BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, all night long, from 10pm until 8am. There needs to be some serious process re-design here. Granted this is over 1800 jobs on 150 machines running upwards of 400 enterprise level Oracle databases, but damn... let a guy sleep!
Begin long geek ramblings:
I've been watching the desktop search competition very closely as of late, and reading every review I can get my paws on. Tonight I finally broke down and installed two of them. Google's and X1. X1 is the commercial version that Yahoo's desktop search is based on, but it allows for network drive indexing (which none of the free search tools do), among other things.
It is sorely lacking in one area: It will only handle Outlook contact/address book data. Mozilla address book is not an option. Surprisingly, neither is palm desktop; even though it has a free API, conduit, and other tools to make communicating with it nearly effortless. Were it not for this one fatal flaw, I would gladly pay the $75 for this tool. Oh, having a Trillian chat plugin similar to the one Google has would be cool as well.
It is amazing how much time you save having *everything*, even network server files, right at your fingertips. I just type what I'm looking for.. content, file name, whatever.. and it is *instantly* there. I click on the music icon, and all my music files from my entire network are all there in one list. I single-click and that song begins to play. I click the pictures icon, sort by path, navigate to the newsgroups, and it's instant porn slideshow.
Why the hell didn't somebody come out with this stuff years ago? Oh wait, they did. It was part of OS/2. Another 10-15 years and I think Windows will have almost all of the functionality of that (most beautifully crafted, useful, dynamic, customizable, *kiss* *kiss* *kiss*, now-defunct) operating system. Damn I miss it.
Anyway, if you are a PC user, try the Yahoo desktop search, chances are, you will love it. If you need network drive indexing, you'll want the X1 version. The Google one is pretty decent as well, I just don't like having rogue web servers running on my system.
I've found so many cool multi-function tools lately that I could almost get by with an appliance if it had the following: Limewire Pro, FeedDemon, Mozilla (the entire suite known as seamonkey, which btw, is no longer being updated), Trillian Pro, X1, MusicMatch Pro, and gvim (a "vi" clone text editor). Yup, that would do it.
Of course I would still need my normal heavy-duty suite of tools (which I'm not going to get into) for real work, but for day-to-day computer living, that's all I need.
The Mozilla news makes me really sad. For all the great press firefox has got, and the fact that it is more IE compatible than the Mozilla browser, it doesn't have nearly the features. Bookmarking groups of tabs and having them all open with one click is a feature I don't know that I can live without. It was one of those little things that I used in the past with Opera, but the ease of use with Mozilla made it life-altering (in a strictly web-surfing sense of the phrase).
The long awaited Dell 24" flatscreen monitor that I've been drooling over has finally arrived. Now the only questions left for me are "do I buy one or two", and "where the hell is my tax refund?".
For those of you that are already on the news aggregator bandwagon with me: if you haven't checked into podcasting yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. A podcast is really nothing more than an audio attachment to an RSS feed... simple enough, but the power comes in that when using a tool such as FeedDemon's FeedStation, you can schedule these downloads for off-hours and have them transferred to your portable audio device automagically. Even though podcasting is just starting to gain a foothold, the power of this distribution method is staggering.
News junkies such as myself stay away from mainstream media, spend most of our days reading on 100's of different sites. Then along comes a news aggregator that turns a day's worth of reading into something that can be done in less than an hour. Now much of this news is being distributed via audio and is sitting on our little MP3 players when we wake up in the morning so we no longer even have to take the hour to read, but can simply listen to the broadcasts while performing other tasks.
The analogy of the above in real life is going from 'researching in a library and compiling your own notebook of relevant information' to 'having an assembled book of news items waiting for you at your doorstep' and now to 'programming your own version of NPR.. in your sleep'. Awesome!
I'm oncall and sick, Buddy is sick. This has got to be the most boring-ass week since we've moved into this place.. at least for me.
It was 72 degrees today and I was in the house all day. Man, that just about killed me. I've got to start getting some jobs done around here. The deck, the garage, the yard. Everything that got put on hold in November needs to start again, soon. I don't mind spending spring working, but I want to enjoy summer and fall this year.
Managed to get about 3 solid hours of sleep today after being up all night and not getting to bed until 12:30 this afternoon. Oncall is *hell*. Pages every 20-40 minutes. Just as you start to fall asleep - that semi-conscious dream-like state between awake and asleep BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, all night long, from 10pm until 8am. There needs to be some serious process re-design here. Granted this is over 1800 jobs on 150 machines running upwards of 400 enterprise level Oracle databases, but damn... let a guy sleep!
Begin long geek ramblings:
I've been watching the desktop search competition very closely as of late, and reading every review I can get my paws on. Tonight I finally broke down and installed two of them. Google's and X1. X1 is the commercial version that Yahoo's desktop search is based on, but it allows for network drive indexing (which none of the free search tools do), among other things.
It is sorely lacking in one area: It will only handle Outlook contact/address book data. Mozilla address book is not an option. Surprisingly, neither is palm desktop; even though it has a free API, conduit, and other tools to make communicating with it nearly effortless. Were it not for this one fatal flaw, I would gladly pay the $75 for this tool. Oh, having a Trillian chat plugin similar to the one Google has would be cool as well.
It is amazing how much time you save having *everything*, even network server files, right at your fingertips. I just type what I'm looking for.. content, file name, whatever.. and it is *instantly* there. I click on the music icon, and all my music files from my entire network are all there in one list. I single-click and that song begins to play. I click the pictures icon, sort by path, navigate to the newsgroups, and it's instant porn slideshow.
Why the hell didn't somebody come out with this stuff years ago? Oh wait, they did. It was part of OS/2. Another 10-15 years and I think Windows will have almost all of the functionality of that (most beautifully crafted, useful, dynamic, customizable, *kiss* *kiss* *kiss*, now-defunct) operating system. Damn I miss it.
Anyway, if you are a PC user, try the Yahoo desktop search, chances are, you will love it. If you need network drive indexing, you'll want the X1 version. The Google one is pretty decent as well, I just don't like having rogue web servers running on my system.
I've found so many cool multi-function tools lately that I could almost get by with an appliance if it had the following: Limewire Pro, FeedDemon, Mozilla (the entire suite known as seamonkey, which btw, is no longer being updated), Trillian Pro, X1, MusicMatch Pro, and gvim (a "vi" clone text editor). Yup, that would do it.
Of course I would still need my normal heavy-duty suite of tools (which I'm not going to get into) for real work, but for day-to-day computer living, that's all I need.
The Mozilla news makes me really sad. For all the great press firefox has got, and the fact that it is more IE compatible than the Mozilla browser, it doesn't have nearly the features. Bookmarking groups of tabs and having them all open with one click is a feature I don't know that I can live without. It was one of those little things that I used in the past with Opera, but the ease of use with Mozilla made it life-altering (in a strictly web-surfing sense of the phrase).
The long awaited Dell 24" flatscreen monitor that I've been drooling over has finally arrived. Now the only questions left for me are "do I buy one or two", and "where the hell is my tax refund?".
For those of you that are already on the news aggregator bandwagon with me: if you haven't checked into podcasting yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. A podcast is really nothing more than an audio attachment to an RSS feed... simple enough, but the power comes in that when using a tool such as FeedDemon's FeedStation, you can schedule these downloads for off-hours and have them transferred to your portable audio device automagically. Even though podcasting is just starting to gain a foothold, the power of this distribution method is staggering.
News junkies such as myself stay away from mainstream media, spend most of our days reading on 100's of different sites. Then along comes a news aggregator that turns a day's worth of reading into something that can be done in less than an hour. Now much of this news is being distributed via audio and is sitting on our little MP3 players when we wake up in the morning so we no longer even have to take the hour to read, but can simply listen to the broadcasts while performing other tasks.
The analogy of the above in real life is going from 'researching in a library and compiling your own notebook of relevant information' to 'having an assembled book of news items waiting for you at your doorstep' and now to 'programming your own version of NPR.. in your sleep'. Awesome!
Friday, March 11, 2005
Another Bizarre Mishap
Another busy, crazy, hectic day at work. Oncall started today and we've got a lot of big systems (as in "each system acts like 30 systems" big) going down for patching.. it's going to be a LONG weekend and upcoming week.
The girl I see occasionally stopped by. Not much time to play with all the work stuff going on.
The power goes out for half the day.. yup, that helped me get a lot of work done. *sneer*
Watched spiderman 2 tonight, got paged... slave to the machine, I am.
My apologies for this blog being so damn boring lately. I'm full-blown sick again (different antibiotic started today), work is nuts, I'm oncall, and just generally uninspired at the moment.
Ok, one perhaps slightly amusing thing. That is, if you find amusement in other's suffering. Those who know me know that I have the freakiest little accidents occur. Like the one a few months ago where I was reaching into a 12 pack box for a beer and the cardboard got shoved under my thumbnail so far that it tore one side of the nail loose from my finger.
This month's entry into the klutz hall of fame: I start to blow my nose. All of a sudden my eye starts hurting like hell, feels completely dried out, and all I can see is blue. I run to the bathroom to try to flush it out and see what the heck is going on. It turns out that when I held the tissue up to my nose, the corner of it touched my eye, I blinked, and the (blue) tissue stuck *under my eyelid*. Of course all the blinking and rubbing only served to scratch/irritate my eye something awful, as it's been 6 hours and it's still bothering me a LOT.
Amused? I hope so, 'cause it's all I've got.
Back to work now.
The girl I see occasionally stopped by. Not much time to play with all the work stuff going on.
The power goes out for half the day.. yup, that helped me get a lot of work done. *sneer*
Watched spiderman 2 tonight, got paged... slave to the machine, I am.
My apologies for this blog being so damn boring lately. I'm full-blown sick again (different antibiotic started today), work is nuts, I'm oncall, and just generally uninspired at the moment.
Ok, one perhaps slightly amusing thing. That is, if you find amusement in other's suffering. Those who know me know that I have the freakiest little accidents occur. Like the one a few months ago where I was reaching into a 12 pack box for a beer and the cardboard got shoved under my thumbnail so far that it tore one side of the nail loose from my finger.
This month's entry into the klutz hall of fame: I start to blow my nose. All of a sudden my eye starts hurting like hell, feels completely dried out, and all I can see is blue. I run to the bathroom to try to flush it out and see what the heck is going on. It turns out that when I held the tissue up to my nose, the corner of it touched my eye, I blinked, and the (blue) tissue stuck *under my eyelid*. Of course all the blinking and rubbing only served to scratch/irritate my eye something awful, as it's been 6 hours and it's still bothering me a LOT.
Amused? I hope so, 'cause it's all I've got.
Back to work now.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Checking in
Tired and feeling a bit under the weather (again). Had lunch with Skip today. Rode the zx-10, had some fun in the curves.
10pm, got paged to work on a problem. Starting oncall at 8am tomorrow, so I'm basically grounded for a week and will be getting no sleep.
Gotta get back to this work issue.
10pm, got paged to work on a problem. Starting oncall at 8am tomorrow, so I'm basically grounded for a week and will be getting no sleep.
Gotta get back to this work issue.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
This is Not a Catchy Title
Why is it doing the exact same thing one day is so energizing, and the next is the most boring fucking thing imaginable? A lot of work has come my way in recent days and yesterday I was so happy to have something exciting to do. Today I continue where I left off and it's all I can do to stay awake. I'm in one of those caffeine-crash-like hazes and can't seem to shake myself out of it.
Called the county today, hopefully they can do something about all the crap happening in this neighborhood. The HOA certainly doesn't seem to mind that there's been a dumpster parked in someone's front yard for a few months, a house blowing apart, porta-johns all over the place and now someone living in a camping trailer on a cleared lot. We didn't have this many issues in our last house; and that was in a low-income neighborhood full of rednecks.
Talked to the vet today. They are going to be weaning yellow dog off of the diazapam. We are going to be taking her downtown to a specialist that will be doing MRIs and such and trying to come up with a more permanent pain management therapy that won't turn her into an addict. I have wondered though... if it's something that she's going to be on the rest of her life anyway, what difference does it make if she's addicted? I'm sure there's some reason, some adverse side effect, but I don't know what it is. Guess I should ask next time.
I don't know what's up with me this week, maybe it's the lower dosage nicotine patches, but I have got the munchies constantly (and that's why I started the diet at the same time!).
Is it just me, or has the web lost most of it's appeal? Maybe after 12 years of surfing (I was actually at some user group meetings when the WWW was still a concept trying to gain acceptance from the user community) I've finally gotten used to having a world of information at my fingertips and have exhausted most everything of any entertaining value.
.. or maybe it's just spring/cabin fever.
This Grand Canyon trip planning is starting to get tedious. I really expected a better turn-out for this trip than what there has been. I'm going on this trip no matter what, but the idea of traveling on bike without another biker along in case of trouble (mechanical or otherwise) leaves something to be desired. I'm sure there will be someone (at least my friend Chris) tagging along.
Having the burden of planning the entire trip including all mandatory (rest/fuel/food/motel/campground) stops as well as optional (tourist) stops, only to have someone come along later that needs to change them (doesn't have the fuel range, has a back problem and needs more frequent stops, wants to spend a day with aunt Gertrude, etc) is almost as depressing as going alone.
It seems the solution to all of this is to find a hot, non-skanky, non-bitchy biker chic (as in, she has her own bike).. and those, my friends, make the ever-elusive single bisexual college co-ed living next door in search of a couple *exactly like you* look as common as tassels at a titty bar.
Called the county today, hopefully they can do something about all the crap happening in this neighborhood. The HOA certainly doesn't seem to mind that there's been a dumpster parked in someone's front yard for a few months, a house blowing apart, porta-johns all over the place and now someone living in a camping trailer on a cleared lot. We didn't have this many issues in our last house; and that was in a low-income neighborhood full of rednecks.
Talked to the vet today. They are going to be weaning yellow dog off of the diazapam. We are going to be taking her downtown to a specialist that will be doing MRIs and such and trying to come up with a more permanent pain management therapy that won't turn her into an addict. I have wondered though... if it's something that she's going to be on the rest of her life anyway, what difference does it make if she's addicted? I'm sure there's some reason, some adverse side effect, but I don't know what it is. Guess I should ask next time.
I don't know what's up with me this week, maybe it's the lower dosage nicotine patches, but I have got the munchies constantly (and that's why I started the diet at the same time!).
Is it just me, or has the web lost most of it's appeal? Maybe after 12 years of surfing (I was actually at some user group meetings when the WWW was still a concept trying to gain acceptance from the user community) I've finally gotten used to having a world of information at my fingertips and have exhausted most everything of any entertaining value.
.. or maybe it's just spring/cabin fever.
This Grand Canyon trip planning is starting to get tedious. I really expected a better turn-out for this trip than what there has been. I'm going on this trip no matter what, but the idea of traveling on bike without another biker along in case of trouble (mechanical or otherwise) leaves something to be desired. I'm sure there will be someone (at least my friend Chris) tagging along.
Having the burden of planning the entire trip including all mandatory (rest/fuel/food/motel/campground) stops as well as optional (tourist) stops, only to have someone come along later that needs to change them (doesn't have the fuel range, has a back problem and needs more frequent stops, wants to spend a day with aunt Gertrude, etc) is almost as depressing as going alone.
It seems the solution to all of this is to find a hot, non-skanky, non-bitchy biker chic (as in, she has her own bike).. and those, my friends, make the ever-elusive single bisexual college co-ed living next door in search of a couple *exactly like you* look as common as tassels at a titty bar.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Warm and Bright
73 degrees, the sun is shining, I've ridden the zx-12, I'm eating meat for the 3rd day straight, and 2 new porn DVDs are sitting here in front of me. Today is a very good day.
Watched "Seven". Saw it once before when it first came out. I have a very strong stomach but have been putting off watching this movie again for about a week now because I remember the "sloth" victim as being possibly the most grotesque, pitiful thing I've ever seen.. and yet this time seeing the movie, it didn't bother me at all. It's strange how memory distorts things over time into something very different than what it was. Perhaps it's just TV numbing us to everything though. Watching CSI and seeing 500lb water-bloated men turned inside out makes a lot of things lose their impact.
24 is an awesome show. When the heck are The Sopranos coming back?
I'm getting sleepy.
Watched "Seven". Saw it once before when it first came out. I have a very strong stomach but have been putting off watching this movie again for about a week now because I remember the "sloth" victim as being possibly the most grotesque, pitiful thing I've ever seen.. and yet this time seeing the movie, it didn't bother me at all. It's strange how memory distorts things over time into something very different than what it was. Perhaps it's just TV numbing us to everything though. Watching CSI and seeing 500lb water-bloated men turned inside out makes a lot of things lose their impact.
24 is an awesome show. When the heck are The Sopranos coming back?
I'm getting sleepy.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Comfortably Numb
Turns out they didn't pull the broken molar, they decided to build up a fake base and then put a crown on it... I've got a temporary crown for the moment. I've never had novacaine before, it's strange. Half my face is numb and my tongue feels 6" thick. I've also got some vicodin. I think I'll be catching up on my sleep this week.
Speaking of "numb", I *really* want to get some heated gear. As I get older, I'm finding that just riding for the sake of riding isn't fun when it's 20 degrees out; that my tolerance for cold weather is a little less each year. I can ride when it's 35 with rain gear on (to keep the cold wind out) but it's not much fun. 45 degrees with a t-shirt, sweat-shirt, winter jacket and gloves, and jeans is ok. My legs get kind of cold, but I'd have to ride for 1.5hrs or more to be really concerned about hypothermia. The heated gear (along with my bacalava) should extend the riding season to the entire year since I would be comfortable (not just tolerating) down to 20-25 degrees.
The only question is, buy it now, or next year? Being that it's March, I'm tempted to wait until next year. Since I do have the grand canyon trip this fall (when riding through the 100 degree desert all day, those 60 evenings can just about freeze you to death) and the clothing is available locally, I may just do it this weekend.
Gotta pick up the scooter and get it to a dealer as well. Man, that was unbelieveable, oil blowing everywhere. I couldn't tell where from. It stopped leaking (I think it was caused by the crankcase vent clogging during an extended high-speed jaunt on the freeway, but that's just a wild guess), get halfway back home check the oil, all is well. I think I'm off the hook, then my friend/co-worker points out that there is a nail in the rear tire. Argh! Now I have to trailer it.
Ironically, a blown engine would cost me less because of the warranty. Oh well, that's life with an italian machine I guess. :/
Not much more to say at the moment. My work area is a mess and the vicodin is kicking in. I hope we can make it to the club this weekend. I need a break.
Speaking of "numb", I *really* want to get some heated gear. As I get older, I'm finding that just riding for the sake of riding isn't fun when it's 20 degrees out; that my tolerance for cold weather is a little less each year. I can ride when it's 35 with rain gear on (to keep the cold wind out) but it's not much fun. 45 degrees with a t-shirt, sweat-shirt, winter jacket and gloves, and jeans is ok. My legs get kind of cold, but I'd have to ride for 1.5hrs or more to be really concerned about hypothermia. The heated gear (along with my bacalava) should extend the riding season to the entire year since I would be comfortable (not just tolerating) down to 20-25 degrees.
The only question is, buy it now, or next year? Being that it's March, I'm tempted to wait until next year. Since I do have the grand canyon trip this fall (when riding through the 100 degree desert all day, those 60 evenings can just about freeze you to death) and the clothing is available locally, I may just do it this weekend.
Gotta pick up the scooter and get it to a dealer as well. Man, that was unbelieveable, oil blowing everywhere. I couldn't tell where from. It stopped leaking (I think it was caused by the crankcase vent clogging during an extended high-speed jaunt on the freeway, but that's just a wild guess), get halfway back home check the oil, all is well. I think I'm off the hook, then my friend/co-worker points out that there is a nail in the rear tire. Argh! Now I have to trailer it.
Ironically, a blown engine would cost me less because of the warranty. Oh well, that's life with an italian machine I guess. :/
Not much more to say at the moment. My work area is a mess and the vicodin is kicking in. I hope we can make it to the club this weekend. I need a break.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Goin' Downtown
I don't care how many times people say "uptown", it is downtown, just like every place else. :P
I had to go downtown today for some meetings. In the past 3 days, I've experienced identity theft, the inside half of a molar breaking away, and two mechanical failures on the scooter leaving me stranded 45 miles from home; and that's just the highlights.
If there is such a thing as dogma, I must have really fucked up in my past life.
I'm wiped out. We are going to chill in front of the tv and watch one of the movies we've had sitting on the table for 2 weeks now.
I had to go downtown today for some meetings. In the past 3 days, I've experienced identity theft, the inside half of a molar breaking away, and two mechanical failures on the scooter leaving me stranded 45 miles from home; and that's just the highlights.
If there is such a thing as dogma, I must have really fucked up in my past life.
I'm wiped out. We are going to chill in front of the tv and watch one of the movies we've had sitting on the table for 2 weeks now.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
More Whorer Stories From the Far Side
They really need to hang this stalker bitch soon. She's got ahold of my SSN# after previously having my mail forwarded to her house (including tax forms, hence SSN) and I've learned today that I have applied for loans through at least 7 different companies for $30,000 each. Yup, identity theft.. but done as harassment to destroy my credit. All the info she has used is my old contact info (the latest she has for me). In other words, she stands to gain nothing from it. Unfortunately, most ID theft laws state something similar to "using another individual's personally identifiable information for one's own gain"... It's going to be interesting to see where this goes now.
Sounds like I'd better start putting some cash back and consider getting a new SSN, 'cause I don't think I'm going to be buying anything on credit for a while.
I can't believe this shit is happening. Not meaning to sound sexist here, but if the roles were reversed.. if I was the woman, s/he would have been in jail a long time ago. Because the roles aren't reversed, I all but get laughed at (by police, postal fraud investigators, HR, etc.) over all the shit that has been done.
On a lighter note.. Thanks for the comment, excessofdinkydog. I wanted to comment on yours the other day, but it looks like comments are turned off. My comment was: I don't care HOW bad your toe is cut, I'd still shag you silly!
Sounds like I'd better start putting some cash back and consider getting a new SSN, 'cause I don't think I'm going to be buying anything on credit for a while.
I can't believe this shit is happening. Not meaning to sound sexist here, but if the roles were reversed.. if I was the woman, s/he would have been in jail a long time ago. Because the roles aren't reversed, I all but get laughed at (by police, postal fraud investigators, HR, etc.) over all the shit that has been done.
On a lighter note.. Thanks for the comment, excessofdinkydog. I wanted to comment on yours the other day, but it looks like comments are turned off. My comment was: I don't care HOW bad your toe is cut, I'd still shag you silly!
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Still Here
For the first time since starting this blog, I've really got nothing to say. I'm in this strange funk.. Guess it's the end-of-winter depression creeping up on me.
Got the taxes done, went out to dinner on Friday, cancelled our date for last night. blah blah blah.
Got the taxes done, went out to dinner on Friday, cancelled our date for last night. blah blah blah.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Blah!!! ("The thoughts in my head go round and round")
Still sick, feeling better though. Practically human again.
Work has went from tedious boredom to complete insanity in a matter of hours. It's always "feast or famine" here. Still working at 9:35pm, I'll be working at 5am. As usual, when the heat gets turned up, my ADD kicks-in full blast. I have so much I want to blog. 100 things swirling around my head and I can't even catch them long enough to write down the subjects, let alone the subject matter. The best I can tell, there are about 15 active thoughts at any given time. All I can say is "BLAH!!!"; that is, scream out of anger and frustration over all these things that want to be thought through, but won't let me hang on to them long enough to process. I'd scream something more appropriate, but there doesn't even seem to be room to think up something to yell at them. I don't even know how I'm typing this. I'm reading work email and talking on the phone and my fingers are just moving by themselves. I don't know how the hell people deal with something like this on a daily basis. Thank God that I only go through this when things aren't right in the workplace. Although, if it could be mastered, it could be SO useful (imagine solving 15 problems at once. All day, every day!).
I'm going to play with the dogs for a few, take them for a short walk, and crash. 5AM is the middle of the night for me. Maybe I'll have a few more interesting thoughts tomorrow.
Work has went from tedious boredom to complete insanity in a matter of hours. It's always "feast or famine" here. Still working at 9:35pm, I'll be working at 5am. As usual, when the heat gets turned up, my ADD kicks-in full blast. I have so much I want to blog. 100 things swirling around my head and I can't even catch them long enough to write down the subjects, let alone the subject matter. The best I can tell, there are about 15 active thoughts at any given time. All I can say is "BLAH!!!"; that is, scream out of anger and frustration over all these things that want to be thought through, but won't let me hang on to them long enough to process. I'd scream something more appropriate, but there doesn't even seem to be room to think up something to yell at them. I don't even know how I'm typing this. I'm reading work email and talking on the phone and my fingers are just moving by themselves. I don't know how the hell people deal with something like this on a daily basis. Thank God that I only go through this when things aren't right in the workplace. Although, if it could be mastered, it could be SO useful (imagine solving 15 problems at once. All day, every day!).
I'm going to play with the dogs for a few, take them for a short walk, and crash. 5AM is the middle of the night for me. Maybe I'll have a few more interesting thoughts tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
My Precious
It didn't matter how sick I was, my precious wouldn't let me have any rest until she was looking as hot as she could. I don't blame her really as it's been 3 months since she's had a bath, let alone a manicure, style, and make-over.
I mean, 3 months without a shower could even put a halt to a Salma, Alicia, Aishwarya, Kelly, Adriana, me(can't forget me in that orgy!) 6-way.
(and if you say I have a thing for dark-skinned women with big, brown cat-eyes, full lips, broad shoulders, nice tits, and unstoppable curves, I'd say "Yeah, so what!?!?")
That's about all I've got for y'all today.. hotties o'plenty. I'm feeling better, but still sick and got a total of about 40 minutes sleep last night due to all of the coughing (which the cough medicine seems to make worse).
I must feel better before the weekend. Time to get some rest.
Peace out.
I mean, 3 months without a shower could even put a halt to a Salma, Alicia, Aishwarya, Kelly, Adriana, me(can't forget me in that orgy!) 6-way.
(and if you say I have a thing for dark-skinned women with big, brown cat-eyes, full lips, broad shoulders, nice tits, and unstoppable curves, I'd say "Yeah, so what!?!?")
That's about all I've got for y'all today.. hotties o'plenty. I'm feeling better, but still sick and got a total of about 40 minutes sleep last night due to all of the coughing (which the cough medicine seems to make worse).
I must feel better before the weekend. Time to get some rest.
Peace out.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Diagnosis
Went to the Dr today. I've got bronchitis, two ear infections, maybe an upper respiratory infection; no strep throat though!. Since it was *so* nice out today, I decided to celebrate this news by going riding for a few extra miles.
I tried to get a sample of Levitra from the Dr., but she was out of them. Thankfully she didn't see where it was necessary to do any sort of investigation into ERD since I was in the middle of having a sick fantasy about the medical assistant when she walked in.
She gave me a prescription, and as expected, my prescription insurance company doesn't cover it (there has GOT to be some way to score this shit for free! Once I figure it out, I'm going to try glaucoma).
It's interesting that they cover blood pressure medicines as well as beta blockers and SSRIs. If we could all just fuck more, we'd get the exercise we need, lowering blood pressure and have fewer heart problems. If we fuck more, we probably feel more at peace with the world and wouldn't need the anti-depressants. I can justify anything if I want it. LOL
That's it, slow day today. Sore throat, bad cravings for a smoke, and even having half of hollywood's phone #'s online (ala Paris Hilton's address book) doesn't get me chatting with Salma.
I tried to get a sample of Levitra from the Dr., but she was out of them. Thankfully she didn't see where it was necessary to do any sort of investigation into ERD since I was in the middle of having a sick fantasy about the medical assistant when she walked in.
She gave me a prescription, and as expected, my prescription insurance company doesn't cover it (there has GOT to be some way to score this shit for free! Once I figure it out, I'm going to try glaucoma).
It's interesting that they cover blood pressure medicines as well as beta blockers and SSRIs. If we could all just fuck more, we'd get the exercise we need, lowering blood pressure and have fewer heart problems. If we fuck more, we probably feel more at peace with the world and wouldn't need the anti-depressants. I can justify anything if I want it. LOL
That's it, slow day today. Sore throat, bad cravings for a smoke, and even having half of hollywood's phone #'s online (ala Paris Hilton's address book) doesn't get me chatting with Salma.
Monday, February 21, 2005
The Mad Professor
Managed to crawl out of bed at 7:30 pm. Apparently even when I give them permission to go in the pantry and fridge, the dogs will not feed themselves.
I've been listening almost non-stop to my iRiver and I'm just loving the twisted shit. I've always had a special place in my heart for Beck, and some of the more abstract stuff out there.
Today, for the first time, I'm finding Insane Clown Posse not just entertaining, but downright amusing. "Mad Professor" is funny as hell! I could never get past their costumes (remember their "murdered" costumes for the music awards a few years ago?).
Just in case anyone is wondering. It's true, vandalist isn't a word (and I knew that,.. it just came out), but it's going to be: There are over 2200 matches on Google. I was sick, under the influence, etc. Cut a brother some slack. Sheesh!
I am dying to make up a batch of homebrew. It's been several years since I've done this. I'm not sure if I even remember how. I do know that if I'm going to do it again, I'm going to use a keg. Bottling 5 gallons of beer kinda sucks. I guess if I use champagne bottles, it wouldn't be too bad though.
While others are having dreams about Gwen & Britney, I had a dream about sitting around a table with two of my mechanic cousins, replacing all the main and rod bearings on some monster race motor while chatting up some waifish hottie (my favorite kind!). Not just any waifish hottie, but someone with whom there was MAJOR knee-knocking, butterfly, perma-boner chemistry (in the dream, nobody I know in real life).
Just as I tighten up the last connecting rod bolt and go to put my hand on her back to guide her back to my room, some hideous looking hunchback midget reminiscent of Golumn informs that the refresh failed, backups didn't happen, and I'm going to be spending the next 12 hours rebuilding development and test databases. I look up, and one of my cousins is already whisking away the hottie.
I'm not big into dream analysis, but do believe that your brain is trying to resolve stuff while you sleep. Considering I don't know who the girl is, haven't built a race motor in 10 years, haven't seen my cousin (for more than 20 minutes) in just as long, and work has actually been kind of slow these past few weeks; I have no friggin' clue what this means.
I'm sick, tired, and beginning to ramble. Time to go back to bed.
vueaskew: Don't be vandalating my blog!
I've been listening almost non-stop to my iRiver and I'm just loving the twisted shit. I've always had a special place in my heart for Beck, and some of the more abstract stuff out there.
Today, for the first time, I'm finding Insane Clown Posse not just entertaining, but downright amusing. "Mad Professor" is funny as hell! I could never get past their costumes (remember their "murdered" costumes for the music awards a few years ago?).
Just in case anyone is wondering. It's true, vandalist isn't a word (and I knew that,.. it just came out), but it's going to be: There are over 2200 matches on Google. I was sick, under the influence, etc. Cut a brother some slack. Sheesh!
I am dying to make up a batch of homebrew. It's been several years since I've done this. I'm not sure if I even remember how. I do know that if I'm going to do it again, I'm going to use a keg. Bottling 5 gallons of beer kinda sucks. I guess if I use champagne bottles, it wouldn't be too bad though.
While others are having dreams about Gwen & Britney, I had a dream about sitting around a table with two of my mechanic cousins, replacing all the main and rod bearings on some monster race motor while chatting up some waifish hottie (my favorite kind!). Not just any waifish hottie, but someone with whom there was MAJOR knee-knocking, butterfly, perma-boner chemistry (in the dream, nobody I know in real life).
Just as I tighten up the last connecting rod bolt and go to put my hand on her back to guide her back to my room, some hideous looking hunchback midget reminiscent of Golumn informs that the refresh failed, backups didn't happen, and I'm going to be spending the next 12 hours rebuilding development and test databases. I look up, and one of my cousins is already whisking away the hottie.
I'm not big into dream analysis, but do believe that your brain is trying to resolve stuff while you sleep. Considering I don't know who the girl is, haven't built a race motor in 10 years, haven't seen my cousin (for more than 20 minutes) in just as long, and work has actually been kind of slow these past few weeks; I have no friggin' clue what this means.
I'm sick, tired, and beginning to ramble. Time to go back to bed.
vueaskew: Don't be vandalating my blog!
Nuke the Corpse
I'm feeling like death warmed over. Don't expect to read much here today. I'm huddled under the covers with 3 giant furballs and have no plans on moving for many hours.
By request, I have made the comments here anonymous.
By request, I have made the comments here anonymous.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Why is the Sun So Dim?
Slept until about 9 (after dog duties of course) and then have lounged/napped on and off for most of the day. It's 9 pm and feels like 4 pm, except that it's extremely dark outside for 4 pm. The dogs just don't know WHAT to do.
If you haven't seen Anchorman yet, and you don't like cheesy/campy comedy, skip the movie. Some people liked it a lot, I was very disappointed in it.
I just found the most kick-ass feature in MusicMatch. Many of you have seen the Artist On Demand feature at the last party when a certain Hispanic/Mexican (yes, there is a difference - ask the folks running the Census) hottie requested some Latin pop music that we'd never heard of. I typed in the name and had over 40 songs at my fingertips by that artist in a matter of seconds.
In an effort to find better mood music for later in the evening, I started surfing the web looking for suggestions. I found some, typed them into the Artist On Demand search. By default, it lists the songs for an artist by popularity. Now here comes the cool part: Right click over the artist's name and you can have it add the most popular tracks (10-15) to your library automagically.
It doesn't actually download the songs, and it doesn't charge for them, but it does add a link in your music library and (as long as you have an Internet connection) acts just like the song/file is local. This means a virtual library of 50,000 songs or more (and they can even be saved in playlists).
This little $50/yr(?) service has now given me a way to not only keep from buying any more CDs, but I don't have to *ahem* download music, and I don't have to use up all my disk space.
In summary: This f'in rocks!
Watching the ways in which technology has developed (and consumer reactions to it) over the past few years has been fascinating. Apple has taken a large chunk of the desktop market share with ridiculously priced hardware and a so-so interface.
Sorry Apple fans, but Mac OS is Unix.. Something I've dealt with for more than a decade, and OS X - the GUI, may be a pretty face but it is certainly nothing impressive (or pitiful, for that matter) compared to other X Windows Window Managers that I've used on various Unix platforms.
While all of this is happening, Windows deservedly loses market share. Windows sucks. All it has going for it is applications. The lack of tightly integrated, easily installed applications is exactly what is holding up Linux as a viable desktop for the masses. Imagine Apple/Unix reliability, Windows-like application availability, and a price of a few hundred dollars (Linux is free). It's only a few years away.
Well gosh. What got me started on that rant? Oh yes. I'll certainly give Apple credit where it is due: The iPod is cool as hell. Not the look (call me old-fashioned, but electronics, especially ones that have constant environmental and pocket-crud exposure; should not be white), not the sound (the specs are actually kind of bad compared to most other high-end MP3 players), but the interface. It's just so damn usable. It is one of those rare products that makes you want to love it.. that you dream about owning. That makes people like me want to sell their higher-priced, better-featured, higher-quality (sound), better built, more stable gadget just to jump on the bandwagon.
.. Yet even though Apple seems to not only have cornered a large part of the portable music device market, but the digital music market. The desktop application software surrounding all of this (digital music acquisition, management, and transfer) is years ahead of what Apple is offering through their iTunes program/service.
Damn, I really ramble on about random drivel at times, don't I? lol!
Time to go lay down again.
G'night.
If you haven't seen Anchorman yet, and you don't like cheesy/campy comedy, skip the movie. Some people liked it a lot, I was very disappointed in it.
I just found the most kick-ass feature in MusicMatch. Many of you have seen the Artist On Demand feature at the last party when a certain Hispanic/Mexican (yes, there is a difference - ask the folks running the Census) hottie requested some Latin pop music that we'd never heard of. I typed in the name and had over 40 songs at my fingertips by that artist in a matter of seconds.
In an effort to find better mood music for later in the evening, I started surfing the web looking for suggestions. I found some, typed them into the Artist On Demand search. By default, it lists the songs for an artist by popularity. Now here comes the cool part: Right click over the artist's name and you can have it add the most popular tracks (10-15) to your library automagically.
It doesn't actually download the songs, and it doesn't charge for them, but it does add a link in your music library and (as long as you have an Internet connection) acts just like the song/file is local. This means a virtual library of 50,000 songs or more (and they can even be saved in playlists).
This little $50/yr(?) service has now given me a way to not only keep from buying any more CDs, but I don't have to *ahem* download music, and I don't have to use up all my disk space.
In summary: This f'in rocks!
Watching the ways in which technology has developed (and consumer reactions to it) over the past few years has been fascinating. Apple has taken a large chunk of the desktop market share with ridiculously priced hardware and a so-so interface.
Sorry Apple fans, but Mac OS is Unix.. Something I've dealt with for more than a decade, and OS X - the GUI, may be a pretty face but it is certainly nothing impressive (or pitiful, for that matter) compared to other X Windows Window Managers that I've used on various Unix platforms.
While all of this is happening, Windows deservedly loses market share. Windows sucks. All it has going for it is applications. The lack of tightly integrated, easily installed applications is exactly what is holding up Linux as a viable desktop for the masses. Imagine Apple/Unix reliability, Windows-like application availability, and a price of a few hundred dollars (Linux is free). It's only a few years away.
Well gosh. What got me started on that rant? Oh yes. I'll certainly give Apple credit where it is due: The iPod is cool as hell. Not the look (call me old-fashioned, but electronics, especially ones that have constant environmental and pocket-crud exposure; should not be white), not the sound (the specs are actually kind of bad compared to most other high-end MP3 players), but the interface. It's just so damn usable. It is one of those rare products that makes you want to love it.. that you dream about owning. That makes people like me want to sell their higher-priced, better-featured, higher-quality (sound), better built, more stable gadget just to jump on the bandwagon.
.. Yet even though Apple seems to not only have cornered a large part of the portable music device market, but the digital music market. The desktop application software surrounding all of this (digital music acquisition, management, and transfer) is years ahead of what Apple is offering through their iTunes program/service.
Damn, I really ramble on about random drivel at times, don't I? lol!
Time to go lay down again.
G'night.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!
So I lied. I am writing a second blog entry today. Somehow continuing the entry I started earlier today doesn't feel right.
I went to the Webster's site, typed in 'fuck', and then entered my guess at that ever elusive password for the economic theory question. I could have *sworn* I had it with 'MATHEMATIZATION', but I was wrong. Damn!!!
*Finally* got all of the Christmas decorations down except for one set of icicle lights on the inside that are being keept for mood lighting. Understand that the extent of christmas decorations this year was some garland on the bannister, the aforementioned icicle lights over the kitchen and hallway, and a couple strings of icicle lights over the deck. It's not like there's still a tree in the window (which one of our neighbors did have until last week) or a Santa on the roof.
I'm either getting really old or going through some weird musical phase. I've really liked big-band/swing music ever since I started listening to it a couple of years ago. These past few weeks though, I've actually preferred it to everything else.
The funny thing is, if you really listen to the words, it's some of the most imaginitive, expressive, full-of-sexual-innuendo music out there. Louis Jordon is good for that. There's a song about milking a mule. Yes, you read that right. Then of course there is "Caldonia".. perhaps the most re-made song in big band history. It's all about this crazy chick that his mom warns him to stay away from, but she's just rockin' his world.
Maybe I'm just getting tired of the same old music. I'm a music fiend, but lately, nothing inspires me, nothing makes me feel it right *here* the way it used to. I wonder if maybe it's (additional) hearing loss. Let's hope not. I spent a small fortune on this stereo! Maybe that's it. I just cranked up the stereo loud while listening to Malaguena (Stan Kenton). I think the speakers are changing my taste in music. Not that rock/pop sounds bad on these speakers, but when I turn it loud.. damn if it doesn't sound like there's a real band in here (or at least outside the window).
practicinghedonists and vueaskew have been giving me some pointers lately about the one thing we have most in common (or at least what brought us together in the first place). Wow, lots to think about. Thanks guys! Now I just have to figure out which part to focus on first (ADD does that to a person).
I don't know how much anybody else here is following what's happening in the blogging world, but it is quickly becoming an accepted means of journalism. There are quite a few people out there scraping together a living by doing this... and their entries are typically a couple of paragraphs and links to the interesting stuff they've found that day. I'm beginning to think that's the easiest job in the world. I sit here without a thing to write, look back a few minutes later and I've typed out several pages (Much to the chagrin of my readers, I'm sure; since I had nothing to say.. I'm possibly just making this into "much ado about nothing").
9:04pm. Just received a page. Gotta work. buh-bye.
I went to the Webster's site, typed in 'fuck', and then entered my guess at that ever elusive password for the economic theory question. I could have *sworn* I had it with 'MATHEMATIZATION', but I was wrong. Damn!!!
*Finally* got all of the Christmas decorations down except for one set of icicle lights on the inside that are being keept for mood lighting. Understand that the extent of christmas decorations this year was some garland on the bannister, the aforementioned icicle lights over the kitchen and hallway, and a couple strings of icicle lights over the deck. It's not like there's still a tree in the window (which one of our neighbors did have until last week) or a Santa on the roof.
I'm either getting really old or going through some weird musical phase. I've really liked big-band/swing music ever since I started listening to it a couple of years ago. These past few weeks though, I've actually preferred it to everything else.
The funny thing is, if you really listen to the words, it's some of the most imaginitive, expressive, full-of-sexual-innuendo music out there. Louis Jordon is good for that. There's a song about milking a mule. Yes, you read that right. Then of course there is "Caldonia".. perhaps the most re-made song in big band history. It's all about this crazy chick that his mom warns him to stay away from, but she's just rockin' his world.
Maybe I'm just getting tired of the same old music. I'm a music fiend, but lately, nothing inspires me, nothing makes me feel it right *here* the way it used to. I wonder if maybe it's (additional) hearing loss. Let's hope not. I spent a small fortune on this stereo! Maybe that's it. I just cranked up the stereo loud while listening to Malaguena (Stan Kenton). I think the speakers are changing my taste in music. Not that rock/pop sounds bad on these speakers, but when I turn it loud.. damn if it doesn't sound like there's a real band in here (or at least outside the window).
practicinghedonists and vueaskew have been giving me some pointers lately about the one thing we have most in common (or at least what brought us together in the first place). Wow, lots to think about. Thanks guys! Now I just have to figure out which part to focus on first (ADD does that to a person).
I don't know how much anybody else here is following what's happening in the blogging world, but it is quickly becoming an accepted means of journalism. There are quite a few people out there scraping together a living by doing this... and their entries are typically a couple of paragraphs and links to the interesting stuff they've found that day. I'm beginning to think that's the easiest job in the world. I sit here without a thing to write, look back a few minutes later and I've typed out several pages (Much to the chagrin of my readers, I'm sure; since I had nothing to say.. I'm possibly just making this into "much ado about nothing").
9:04pm. Just received a page. Gotta work. buh-bye.
Monday, February 14, 2005
I'm Going to Tell Mommy!!!
(political/privacy rant follows)
That's what my little brother used to tell me when I did something I wasn't allowed to do. The difference now is that there is no mommy to tell when there's a problem serious enough to warrant it. Big Brother is also your mom, dad, and the police, little bro. Sorry 'bout that. I did what I could; or at least more than most.
I've been screaming about privacy issues for 2 decades now, and not surprisingly, the response has always been one of shock over me reacting so negatively to having my guns taken away (The Brady Bill and other attempts by HCI), to having the cable guy telling the police I have 4 dogs in my house (patriot act) - in several places I have lived, this # of dogs was illegal, and oh-so-many other things. I mean,.. if I have nothing to hide, I should have no problems with it, right?
Does anybody have nothing to hide? Readership is up to about 20 on this blog. I know most of you and I *know* we all have skeletons.
Now my employer, assuming they are still my employer by then, is requiring fingerprinting and retinal scanning, along with their ongoing practice of scanning of *my* network for their safety(something I must agree to if I am to connect to their network.. which I must do to work and be paid).
The Federal Government is now mandating a uniform drivers license that among other things will have your SSN (and therefore credit and background check) information on it, and will be stored electronically with a digital photograph for easier transmission to various government agencies.
Additionally, this is the first in a series of steps in making the driver's license a federally owned and regulated process thereby allowing them to do things I can't even begin to imagine. If you've ever read any of the reasons why a universal ID is a bad idea, you can fill in the blanks.
Students in many schools are now being required (without parent permission) to wear RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags
to track their every move. They can tell where you are on campus every second of every day. Oddly, even though schools find this suitable for living, breathing human beings, lawyers are cautioning against it's use for dead folks.
I wonder how much longer it will be until we are no longer allowed to access the Internet, you know.. for our own safety. Maybe they should close all Internet Cafes like another country has done.
People are we really that afraid of our own neighbors? Do you really think that the police and the government are here to help you?
Do you really think that you have any *right* to privacy? Try again. Here is an excellent presentation about what rights you really have.
Do you think that even though you are told by the government that you have the right to refuse your SSN that if you do, you are in some way protected? *bzzt* Wrong answer! You should refuse, but here's something you probably didn't know. If you refuse to supply your social security number to *anyone*, THEY have the legal right to refuse you service.
This doesn't include just minor things like library cards and admission to your buddy's bowling league, but to services that can make or break your entire life/career. Universities, drug testing facilities, the FAA (pilot's licenses), the central nursing/nursing assistant database, and so many more things.
Now that this is all off my chest (at least for the next 5 minutes) and has been posted for less than an hour I get an email telling me not only how wrong I am saying these things about Big Brother and how paranoid I am; but also how much trouble I'm going to get into one of these days for saying such things. Do you not see the irony, the stupidity in what you are saying? "Fear not, for they will protect us. Be afraid, for they are watching?".
Sheesh. They probably own the blogging sites, and you will be in as much trouble for reading this as I will be for writing it.
At least we can all sleep at night knowing that if we get cancer, all we need is a shot of the HIV virus to set us straight again.
That's what my little brother used to tell me when I did something I wasn't allowed to do. The difference now is that there is no mommy to tell when there's a problem serious enough to warrant it. Big Brother is also your mom, dad, and the police, little bro. Sorry 'bout that. I did what I could; or at least more than most.
I've been screaming about privacy issues for 2 decades now, and not surprisingly, the response has always been one of shock over me reacting so negatively to having my guns taken away (The Brady Bill and other attempts by HCI), to having the cable guy telling the police I have 4 dogs in my house (patriot act) - in several places I have lived, this # of dogs was illegal, and oh-so-many other things. I mean,.. if I have nothing to hide, I should have no problems with it, right?
Does anybody have nothing to hide? Readership is up to about 20 on this blog. I know most of you and I *know* we all have skeletons.
Now my employer, assuming they are still my employer by then, is requiring fingerprinting and retinal scanning, along with their ongoing practice of scanning of *my* network for their safety(something I must agree to if I am to connect to their network.. which I must do to work and be paid).
The Federal Government is now mandating a uniform drivers license that among other things will have your SSN (and therefore credit and background check) information on it, and will be stored electronically with a digital photograph for easier transmission to various government agencies.
Additionally, this is the first in a series of steps in making the driver's license a federally owned and regulated process thereby allowing them to do things I can't even begin to imagine. If you've ever read any of the reasons why a universal ID is a bad idea, you can fill in the blanks.
Students in many schools are now being required (without parent permission) to wear RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags
to track their every move. They can tell where you are on campus every second of every day. Oddly, even though schools find this suitable for living, breathing human beings, lawyers are cautioning against it's use for dead folks.
I wonder how much longer it will be until we are no longer allowed to access the Internet, you know.. for our own safety. Maybe they should close all Internet Cafes like another country has done.
People are we really that afraid of our own neighbors? Do you really think that the police and the government are here to help you?
Do you really think that you have any *right* to privacy? Try again. Here is an excellent presentation about what rights you really have.
Do you think that even though you are told by the government that you have the right to refuse your SSN that if you do, you are in some way protected? *bzzt* Wrong answer! You should refuse, but here's something you probably didn't know. If you refuse to supply your social security number to *anyone*, THEY have the legal right to refuse you service.
This doesn't include just minor things like library cards and admission to your buddy's bowling league, but to services that can make or break your entire life/career. Universities, drug testing facilities, the FAA (pilot's licenses), the central nursing/nursing assistant database, and so many more things.
Now that this is all off my chest (at least for the next 5 minutes) and has been posted for less than an hour I get an email telling me not only how wrong I am saying these things about Big Brother and how paranoid I am; but also how much trouble I'm going to get into one of these days for saying such things. Do you not see the irony, the stupidity in what you are saying? "Fear not, for they will protect us. Be afraid, for they are watching?".
Sheesh. They probably own the blogging sites, and you will be in as much trouble for reading this as I will be for writing it.
At least we can all sleep at night knowing that if we get cancer, all we need is a shot of the HIV virus to set us straight again.
Friday, February 11, 2005
It's So Hard, Baby!
Sometimes, the hardest part of writing a blog entry is trying to come up with an interesting title.
Ok, perhaps not. Maybe it's coming up with interesting material.. yes, that's definitely the hardest thing (and I know 'difficult' is a more suitable word to use, but 'hard' makes for a more interesting title, thus solving problem #1. So there! :P ).
For the sanity of the dedicated readership that expects to see something here every day, I offer you the following:
- News Aggregators rock, and I'm going to try to be quiet about them now.
- There is some kick ass new technologies coming out, such as ultrasound for stereos; complete pinpoint audio: Sit in bed and blow your eardrums out while your mate sleeps in complete silence. I wish I could find the link to the article. :/
SlutPuppy, out.
*poof*
Ok, perhaps not. Maybe it's coming up with interesting material.. yes, that's definitely the hardest thing (and I know 'difficult' is a more suitable word to use, but 'hard' makes for a more interesting title, thus solving problem #1. So there! :P ).
For the sanity of the dedicated readership that expects to see something here every day, I offer you the following:
- News Aggregators rock, and I'm going to try to be quiet about them now.
- There is some kick ass new technologies coming out, such as ultrasound for stereos; complete pinpoint audio: Sit in bed and blow your eardrums out while your mate sleeps in complete silence. I wish I could find the link to the article. :/
SlutPuppy, out.
*poof*
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