Me Occasionally

11 long days...

2009-10-18T23:35:00.000-07:00

... without a cigarette. Anyone who knows me very well at all would have considered me least likely of all the smokers they know to quit, and yet here I sit at my computer, smoke free for the longest span of time since the mid 1990's. It's causing me to feel happy, anxious, nervous, sneaky, shitty, shaky, proud, antsy, and several other less-describable feeling in random succession. But so far in spite of some pretty serious cravings I have yet to give in. Will try to post more about this in the fututre, but just too tired to continue the thought right now.

Bitter? Vengeful? Just?

2009-07-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

So I recently got a ticket in Dakota County. I made a right turn on red at an intersection where a "no right turn on red" sign is pretty clearly posted. I don't deny in any way that I broke a traffic law here. Honestly, I don't blame the officer for pulling me over... he was doing his job.

Something the officer said bothered me, however. I can't remember it exactly, but he said something to the effect that he had no choice but to write me that ticket, that it was required as a result of his act of pulling me over for the violation. Really? So the choice has been taken away from the officer to decide whether the driver posed an imminent threat in the situation for which he/she was pulled over? Given the facts that there was no traffic coming from my left and the officer made a right turn on the same red light immediately behind me, I would think that more often than not an officer, given the discretion to decide whether or not this offense was worthy of a ticket, would choose to issue a verbal warning. Especially when the driver in question has no prior offenses in the last 8 years. But then, I may be a bit biased.

So now I have this ticket. I'm looking through the fines thinking I'll be out $40-50 bucks and find that the smallest moving violation on the fine portion of the sheet is $130!!! All for being in the intersection 10 seconds before I should have. To me this fine is far more onerous than the infraction for which it was levied.

So I'm seriously thinking about making it a personal goal to change my spending habits in such a way that I am able to deprive Dakota county of that $130. I may still have to pay the fine, but they will be no richer as a result of it if I can help it. I won't go into the argument of whether this county sees its traffic policing as a source of revenue more than a ensurance of public safety - I don't know enough about the system there to know which way that card falls. But I find the fine to be seriously out of proportion to the severity of the infraction, and as such I feel like I need to even the score.

Okay...

So, that being said, am I taking this too seriously? Yes, I understand that people get tickets every day, and for many it's a pretty run-of-the-mill occurrence. But as I mentioned, I have had no infractions in the last 8 years, and I drive 30-40k miles per year for work. Is this not a well enough established track record of good driving to justify my being angry at the indifference with which I was given this citation?

Wonder what it is...

2009-03-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

... that got me writing again? I don't remember anything different having happened over the last week or so. But suddenly I've got that urge to write again. It's not that I have anything particularly compelling to write about. On the contrary, I find myself in a constant struggle to believe that I have anything interesting to say at all, via live dialogue or the written word. But I just spent over an hour sitting at my computer working on a short story for a Writer's Journal competition. I didn't have to force myself to do it, either. I just sat down and wrote. I can't say exactly what it is that compelled me to do this, but I hope it keeps up.

90%? Seriously?

2009-03-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

So I've been hearing all day about the plan by congress to tax some AIG bonus recipients as much as 90% of the total bonus. Oh, and the same news sources have said something to the effect that such a tax would serve as a warning to other businesses.

Honestly I think if anyone should take a warning from this it should be individual taxpayers. This action by congress should make it clear to each and every individual that there is no limit to the level of greed in our current government. If they can get away with taxing this small group of people 90% on these bonuses, what is to stop them from picking another small group, and another, and another... until they find a reason to tax each and every one of us this much for one of a million reasons.

And has it occurred to anyone to consider that AIG might have thought this through before cutting the checks? According to a couple of news sources AIG looked into the legal consequences of not giving these bonuses out and found that they would take on an unacceptable risk if they chose to break the contracts they had with these employees. No matter how much we as individuals may dislike what was done within this company and the effect it has had on our economy, no amount of government bail out money does or should nullify pre-existing contracts the company had with its employees. Perhaps when our congress was jamming this bailout through they should have considered that handing AIG a crisp new dollar gains them no right to dictate how they spend that dollar.

2009-03-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

......................

Sometimes I feel like I need to scream, laugh, cry, run, sleep, talk, and just generally live out loud where everyone can see me, where one who is in the general vicinity has no choice but to see me! Unfortunately it's 2am on a Saturday night and, while not as bad as a work day, I'd rather not piss off my neighbors by running naked and screaming down Nicollet Ave. So in answer to all of life's questions, small and large, and in answer to the indecipherable results my mind spews out after pondering these questions for the nth time, I give a simultaneous middle finger and hug... Sometimes it hurts so bad and feels so good at the same time.

2009-02-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

Trying to pay a bit more attention to the blog again... we'll see how long it lasts.

Congratulations to my good friend Keith on finishing his college degree. Hopefully you find work right away and start making the big bucks... you're gonna need it with the little one on the way. I'm so unbelievably happy for both you and Jess.

It seems like every time one of my friends hits a milestone in his or her life I feel like I'm falling yet another step behind. I'd be lying if I said that that doesn't bother me a bit, but in all honesty if it really bothered me that much I'd be doing something about it. Oh well, if nothing else it will give me a kick in the pants to get working on my taxes so I have the paperwork necessary to apply for financial aid. Seriously, it shouldn't take this long to get a two year degree...

And also congratulations to my good friend Josh on his wedding thing. Here's hoping you don't suffer an aneurysm from the stress of running your new business and the stress of the wedding. I'm sure you'll be fine after it's all over with and you have a couple weeks to decompress... and Wisconsin Dells should be a blast... it's hard to feel stressed while spending time at one of the numerous indoor waterparks, sliding down big fiberglass tubes into pools of chlorine and toddler pee...

2009-02-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

Somewhat hazy analogy between liberal government and computers...

Microsoft and liberal government have some of the same pitfalls. Looking at the history of Microsoft's major commercial operating system releases one notices that each has become progressively (no subtle jab intended at progressives) larger in both size (as measured in space taken up on disk) and scope (as measured by features and applications included). As any halfway-interested computer geek knows, however, this increase in size has consistently produced an increase in errors, blue-screens-of-death, and seemingly countless other annoyances.

I doubt anyone who has purchased a computer in the last three years has not heard at least a handful of negative comments surrounding Vista, and those who have been in the PC loop for longer will remember that even XP was met upon release with groans regarding its seemingly bloated size compared to previous versions of the OS. Microsoft has yet to realize that all the added good-intentioned functionality in the world isn't worth a dime if the core programming upon which it is founded is not sound. As a result, Microsoft spends loads of money trying to fix the broken product they sold to people, and in the end the fix quite often ends up not going far enough, leaving the user of the product to their own devices when something goes wrong.

I see a fairly convincing parallel when this general outline of Microsoft's history is compared against some of ideals of liberalism in the US. And before anyone sends me hate mail let me clarify that I realize that I'm painting with a broad brush here, thus the disclaimer at the top of the post about this being a hazy analogy.

The idea that government should play a larger role in the lives of American citizens is very similar to Microsoft's view that more features make for a better product. In both cases the entity providing the service keeps trying to provide more to those who use the service, but in both cases as the service becomes larger and more complicated, things start breaking down. Then as each entity realizes the errors and attempts to correct them, more costs are incurred.

Here is where the two entities cease to be analagous. Once Microsoft can no longer afford to patch the holes in their product, they must rely on the sales of their next operating system to make users forget about the mistakes of the past. Government, however, has the power to force its customers to pay more for a product they already purchased. This is roughly equivalent of Microsoft beginning to charge for necessary updates. If Microsoft were to take such a measure, their sales would disappear like Houdini. So why do we let government charge us twice?

P.S. This post was written at 1 AM and may not be entirely coherent. I welcome replies and will try to clarify anything I was hazy on.

2009-01-24T00:48:00.000-08:00

Hmmm.... almost two weeks between posts, guess I'll try to get back into the swing of it again.

Went ice fishing with my dad yesterday. Will post a couple pics when I'm feeling a bit more ambitious. Not that it'd really be all that difficult, but I don't have any hosting set up right now, and I don't feel like doing it before bed. We caught a couple dozen fish, and ended up keeping 17 of them. Nothing real big, all pretty moderate-sized sunnies, but was still a blast to catch them. Moreover, I look forward to trying my hand at cooking the fillets... I haven't had pan-fried fish in 15 or more years. I'm just glad my dad volunteered to clean the fish... I'm not squeamish about it, just don't have the talent with a fillet knife to do a very good job. Next time we go I think we're gonna try to drag my brother-in-law along... the more the merrier.

2009-01-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

Internet outages suck ass. We rearranged our livingroom recently and about a week after doing so we began to see our cable internet signal degrade. Gradually, over the course of the last month or so, it's been getting worse, and now it actually goes completely out for spurts. This is particularly irritating for me seeing as how I just began playing Everquest II again, which is an online game. So I guess I'll be calling Comcast tomorrow to schedule a service call. I've already tried all the simple crap that they tell you to do when you first call tech support. I've tried changing every coaxial cable in the line between the wall and the modem. When we moved our furniture (computer desks included) we didn't change the way we had our system wired. We have had one four-way splitter feeding the modem, the tv, and my computer's tv card since we moved to this apartment three years ago and we never had a problem anywhere near this severe until now. /vent off.

2009-01-09T12:09:00.001-08:00

I started playing Everquest II again last night after having taken a 4 month break. It was kinda fun to be back, but weird at the same time because all of my characters are currently guildless. Alot of the reason I decided to take an extended break from the game was because of the fallout my last guild underwent. Small groups of players broke off and went to other guilds while another group hung around to rebuild and merge with another guild. After having been through a couple of rebuilds with that guild, I decided I didn't have the energy or ambition for it again. Was good to see that a few of my old friends are still around though. I'm sure I'll eventually find a guild to torment with my bad jokes and radio voice. :)

2009-01-09T01:37:00.000-08:00

I did that whole walking thing I mentioned in the last post. I used to go to the track three times/week and actually kept that schedule up for a few months... not sure why I ever got out of the habit. Was fun, got to use my new bluetooth headphones, and let me tell ya, headphones that have no wires are a stroke of genius. Now I'm just waiting for someone to call me while I'm at the walking track so I can answer via the embedded mic... it irritates me slightly when other people around me are talking on a bluetooth headset and I think they're talking to me... but for some reason I don't care nearly as much when I'm the one with the headset. Anyway, my hip joints are a bit sore from the walking, probably a side effect of my choice not to stretch a bit before walking. And it's a sad statement on my flexibility and physical fitness when walking a mile makes me sore.

2009-01-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

I can't help but be a little inspired to do more for my physical fitness when my wife starts doing the same. I think her ambition for doing more for her physical fitness rubs off on me a little bit. Don't get me wrong, she's not an aerobics freak who wakes up and drinks a protein shake and spends the first two hours of every day sweating, but she seems to go through phases where her physical fitness is important to her alot more often than I ever do. The problem I have is knowing where to start and then making it a habit. I tend to want to change too many things about my bad habits at once and as a result I get overwhelmed and the whole idea collapses. But now that she has started paying closer attention to her fitness again I feel like I might be able to bring myself to do a few small things to further my well-being as well. Not sure exactly what those things will be yet... will probably try to start walking at the public track in Shakopee again at the very least.

2009-01-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

Ate at a restaurant in Burnsville tonight called Roasted Pear (www.roastedpear.com) and the food was awesome! We decided to get appetizers and by the time the entrees came I think all four of us (me, Bri, Joe and Ross) were close to stuffed already. We had some excellent bruschetta and baked brie glazed in a pear sauce, served with toast. For dinner I had a nice 14 oz. ribeye that was cooked perfectly and definitely ranked in the top five steaks I've ever had. Overall the price was pretty surprising - in a good way - for the amount of good food we got. And the atmosphere was actually more friendly than I'm used to experiencing in a place that serves this quality of food.

First Post

2009-01-01T02:08:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve was mostly a blast. Would have been perfectly good if not for an unusually bad night for tips at work. Fifteen cents isn't a tip, it's an insult. I darn near told one lady to keep her change... I wanted to tell her that if she couldn't tip more than fifteen cents she probably needed the money more than I did. My better sense prevailed and I walked away grumbling. Aside from a bad night at work things went well today. Saw the movie Yes Man... good flick, better than I expected. After work I went to my sister's place and played Songstar on PS2. No drinking tonight, but I'll have just as bad a hangover from the '80's music in that game. Jefferson Starship is firmly stuck in my head. "We Built This City..." will be the theme for my next few days I think...