AstroNerdBoy's Ramblings

My Skyrim Adventures: Chapter 05

2011-12-01T11:59:00.082-07:00

If needed, go to chapter 1 or chapter 4.

I didn't want to run into the very married temptress Sigrid, so I bailed out of town before daylight to begin my trip to Whiterun. Just before I reached the city, I happen to see some commotion in the distance on the other side of the river I walked parallel to. A couple of novice necromancers were battling a pack of wolves and won. I continued to walk, but then I heard them yelling and realized they were hurling insults at me and were standing at the ready to attack. However, they didn't enter the river to come after me, nor did they launch any long-range spells, but it was clear they wanted me dead so they could practice their necromantic arts.

I had no interest in helping them with their studies, but since they couldn't touch me, I figured I'd taunt them back, using a quote from Monty Python -- "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." That really made them angry and I was going to make general, vulgar motions with my arse and privates, but then I saw a Whiterun guard come up with his bow drawn. The necromancers railed like mad and told the guard to get stuffed, so he put an arrow through the throat of the first mage. The other one tried to run away, but the guard shot her in the butt before putting a second arrow in her skull. Seeing her fall into the river dead, the guard nodded at a job well done and told me to help myself to their gear if I wanted. I complied and now had two sets of necromancer robes and some other goodies. Sweet.

As I made my way up the road to the main Whiterun gates, I noticed a large number of troops manning the towers and keeping tabs on things. A lieutenant told me that they weren't letting anyone in other than residents, but he changed his mind when I told him I had word for Jarl Balgruff regarding the dragons. I was escorted to the Dragonreach Palace to see the Jarl, who was very interested in my dragon tale and immediately had his female, dark elf housecarl Irileth give the orders to have troops dispatched to Riverwood to defend the town.

The Jarl sent me to see his court wizard, Farengar Secret-Fire, who was researching dragons. I went to the room where Farengar was deep in work, but his dismissive attitude to me irked me as he wouldn't even bother to turn around to address me. I got the feeling that being a wizard in Skyrim wasn't seen as a good career choice, no matter how good a wizard you become. He told me that if I wanted to be helpful, I could bring him the Dragonstone, which he determined had been buried at Bleak Falls Barrow. After he described it, I realized he was talking about the stone tablet that I'd taken off the body of the Draugr Overloard I fought earlier.

"Is this what you want?" I asked. That got him to turn around and his attitude improved greatly.

"You already have it!" he said excitedly and took the stone from me. "I hadn't realized you are also a mage. Excellent." I wanted to say something snarky, but decided to let sleeping dogs lie. He eagerly discussed his research on dragons and why they would suddenly appear again after so many years.

Our chat was interupted by Irileth, who said that the Jarl wanted to speak to both of us. So, we walked back to his throne, where several military leaders had gathered.

"We have reports that a dragon has attacked the Western Watchtower," he said gravely. This tower guarded one of the approaches to Whiterun. "Since you have experience with these monsters, I want you to go with Irileth and a squadron of reinforcement troops to stop this dragon before it can reach Whiterun and cause damage to our civilians."

Considering my previous experience with a dragon had been running like mad and filling my pants with fresh dung, I wasn't sure what use I could be in helping well trained troops fight this thing. Besides, the last dragon didn't seem much phased by the Imperial troops that fought it, so why would the dragon be phased by some wannabe wizard and a group of Whiterun troops?

Farengar wanted to come with us as well in order to see a dragon first hand, but Jarl Balgruuf would hear none of it since if we failed, he'd need his only wizard to help defend the city.

With my heart in my throat, I followed Irileth to the gate of the city, where a detachment of troops waited for her. She briefed them on the situation and we were off, hopefully not to meet out doom.

My Skyrim Adventures: Chapter 04

2011-11-30T11:59:00.007-07:00

Chapter 1 is here.

It didn't take me long to reach a door with three arcs containing symbols. Since the Golden Claw had three symbols on it, it seemed reasonable to assume that I would rotate the symbols on the arcs over the door to match the pattern of the symbols on the claw. Then inserting the claw into the door, it turned like a key. Pretty nifty, eh? It did make me wonder how such elaborate door devices managed to survive hundreds and hundreds of years and still work, much like the elaborate traps I had encountered, such as the perpetual motion swinging axes. Magic, I guess.

Needless to say, eventually I arrived at the end of my journey through the various passages, Draugr, and the giant spider and found myself in a large chamber with an opening to the outside high above in the rock face. At the back of this large chamber was a wall that was seemingly calling to me. Now, I'm not stupid enough to just run to a wall just because I feel a compulsion to go check it out. After all, there was a large sarcophagus on a small platform in front of the wall, surrounded by postmortem instruments of death as well as a rather treasure chest. No doubt, something nasty inside was ready to pop out and scream at me the moment my back was turned so I could face the wall.

With my flame spells on the ready, I carefully circled the place, ignoring the choral call of the wall that grew louder within me anytime I got closer to it. I set the sarcophagus on fire and the flames burned for a moment before dying out and no response. I tinkered around with things, kicked the treasure chest and nothing. Still, I was sure there was something nasty inside. OK, I'll open the treasure chest.

Inside were some tasty goodies, including a Staff of Frostbite, which as far as I was concerned as a big score. I figured these nifty items belonged to whomever was inside the sarcophagus but still, no reaction. That meant that after looting the chest, my only course of action was to check out this bloody, annoying wall that desperately wanted my attention. However, I wasn't about to turn my back on this stupid sarcophagus and so I backed into the area of the three-sided wall that formed a kind of curve.

Nothing.

*sigh*

Since the choral music in my head demanded that I turn around and actually look at the etchings on the wall, I decided I had no choice and did just that. To my amazement, a piece of the etching glowed and burned in the back of my brain and oddly enough, I knew this was a dragon word, the first of three that formed a "shout" called Unrelenting Force -- Fus. Though I new the word, I found I couldn't say the word and that didn't make any sense to me.

The experience over, I used my newly found staff for support and turned to face the sarcophagus. Nothing had happened, so I decided that maybe I had been worried for nothing. I knew I could exit this place through the opening above as there was a means for doing so that went up the rock face behind the Dragon Wall.

No sooner than I left the area of the Dragon wall than my worst fears were confirm -- the lid of the sarcophagus pooped off and a tall Draugr crawled out. I didn't give him time to do anything as I blasted him with a combination of fire from one hand and frost from the other. The Draugr uttered some guttural speak that I could not understand, but it was clear he was taking exception to my having his staff and goods. I made use of the area to try to keep some distance, so he used a Frost spell on me. What a bastard!

Clearly, keeping my distance wasn't going to help, so despite the bitter cold of his Frost spell effects on me, I managed to club him with the staff, putting a freeze on his head and then kicked him in the midsection. He looked at me and laughed, at which point I realized his dangly bits no longer existed, so I set fire to that area of his anatomy and backed off.

I decided that a double-punch flame attack was my only option and tossed the staff aside, taking a moment to quaff a magika potion to recharge before opening up on him. He did the same to me, but the difference was that I was cooking him faster than he was freezing me. The Draugr finally collapsed and I looked for a bottle of brandy to revive myself a bit. Once I'd recovered some, I found the Staff of Frostbite again and then looted the Draugr's body. In addition to the normal gold and such, he also carried a stone tablet. I figured it must be important since this guardian was carrying it, so I put it in my pack and left.

The trip back to Riverwood was thankfully uneventful. I returned the Golden Claw to Lucan, who paid me a bunch of gold. I decided not to tell them about my adventures after retrieving the claw from Arvel. His sister Camilla kissed me in thanks, and I was reminded of my earlier thoughts about trying to marry her for greater profit for myself. I noticed that Lucan had a spell tome for Firebolt, which he gladly gave me when I asked to buy it. I left the happy siblings and returned to the inn to get some much needed sleep, but only after I'd learned this new spell. After all, I had a feeling I'd need it.

Proceed to chapter 5.

My Skyrim Adventures: Chapter 03

2011-11-29T11:59:00.006-07:00

If you haven't done so already, here is chapter 1.

The following morning, I took the house clearing junk I'd gathered from Alvor's house and dragged it to the Riverwood Trader's store. No sooner than I'd walked to the door than this stupid Bosmer named Faendal wanted to help him with his love life, as if I had time for that. Still, I might get some coin out of the bastard, so I agreed to help him. He wanted me to set up this other dude named Sven with a fake letter. Ugh. I decided I'd accept his request, but I planned on screwing him over big time.

Inside the store, his intended Camilla, the sister of the store's owner Lucan, swept up. I let her know about Faendal's scheme and she thanked me, telling me I should tell Sven. Fine, I'd do that after I sold all of this crap I was lugging around.

Lucan bought all my junk and said that if I did him a favor, he'd reward me for it. Apparently, some thief named Arvel robbed the place the night before, but had only taken one item, a family heirloom called the Golden Claw. I had wanted to get to Whiterun as soon as possible to get these people some troops to help them should a dragon attack, but then I thought, "Troops didn't help the people of Helgen and probably won't help the folks here either." In that light, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make a quick run to Bleak Falls Barrow, where Arvel was rumored to have holed up with his band of bandits.

Camilla walked me to the bridge going out of town to make sure I went on the right path. She wistfully stated how much she wished she could go adventuring. I looked at her and thought, "she's not a bad looking bird." It then occurred to me that since I hadn't talked to Sven yet, if I injected myself into this contest for Camilla's heart, her brother would probably give me better prices for my goods and sell things to me at a family discount. Something to think about.

I left Camilla and walked to the Bleak Falls Temple. The place was gorgeous, though the wind was terrible, blowing the snow on the ground up and over the path, cutting to the bone with its chill. Some bandits made the mistake of firing arrows at me and I flamed them to death before looting the bodies and moving on. I couldn't shake the feeling that a dragon might suddenly pop up at any time, but thankfully, I made it inside before anything happened.

Inside, more bandits had made camp in what was a plundered temple. I overheard them talk about their Dark Elf leader having gone to the barrow for something and how they were glad not to have to deal with the undead that guarded the place. Too bad they had to deal with me because soon, they were eating flames and dying. I could tell my skills with setting things on fire was getting better and I was excited by this. After all, I might need to burn some places down before all was said and done.

The Barrows themselves were what you'd expect -- dead bodies filling cavities in the walls where they'd been laid to rest. Unfortunately for me, not all of these dead bodies were resting and these "Draugr," as they were called, would groan, get up, and come after me. They were mummified corpses still wearing their battle gear and carrying their weapons. Oddly enough, they were also carrying gold from their former life. I decided to help these poor souls and end their lives for good, relieving them of the burden of carrying around anything any longer, much less gold coins. Granted, some were harder than others to put to rest, but the undead don't seem to do well with fire and the more I used fire, the stronger I got.

It didn't take long for me to see evidence of giant spiders at work. Great. Did I mention I hate spiders? I heard a voice yelling names, saying that they needed to come get him but to also make sure and kill the spider. He then yelled that it was on the move and I got ready. Sure enough, the biggest spider I'd ever seen came running to me. Fine, eat flames you stupid spider! The fire did make the spider pause a moment, allowing me to back away a bit. I poured the flame on, but it wasn't enough. Thankfully, I still had magic potions and fumbled for one to guzzle it to recharge my batteries.

The spider closed the distance and I managed to flame the sucker in the eyes. It still managed to get a hit on me, but fortunately it was a minor one as the last of the flames left my hand into the now dead spider. I carefully looked for more spiders, but saw none, only some egg sacks which I set alight as soon as I got some energy back.

Meanwhile, the Dark Elf thief Arvel yelled at me to quit wasting time and get him down. I told him I wasn't doing it until he gave me the claw. He said the claw was actually a key to a treasure and he'd share it with me if I freed him. While I believed his story of the treasure, I didn't believe him, but I saw no other recourse but to free him from the webbing. I set it on fire and he dropped to the ground and took off running, calling me a sucker. He darted around the corner of a now revealed cavern and was gone. Bastard. Fortunately, I'm a good runner so I took off after him.

Turns out, I needn't have worried. A scream from Arvel followed by the sounds of clashing metal and then the unmistakeable sound of something getting sliced echoed down the passage. I cautiously moved forward and saw Arvel dead on the ground, a rather large Draugr looking down on his victim. He then turned to me and it was all I could do to kill the mummified warrior with my streams of flame before he took me out. I removed the gold from the Draugr, then did the same for Arvel as well as retrieving the Golden Claw. Well, if it was a treasure key, no reason I couldn't help myself to said treasure and then return the claw to its owner for more gold, eh? With that in mind, I pressed forward to find this treasure.

Goto Chapter 4.

My Skyrim Adventures: Chapter 02

2011-11-28T11:59:00.002-07:00

For those who missed it, here's chapter 1.

Hadvar and my journey to Riverwood was mostly uneventful. He grew up in these parts and showed me some different things, such as the stones that provide blessings to those in need. I chose the stone for a mage, deciding that I wanted to be the most destructive thing this world had ever seen and make dragons look like chump change. Hey, if you are going to fantasize, may as well go for the really big ones.

Arriving in Riverwood, we stopped at his Uncle Alvor's place, who happened to be the local blacksmith. Hadvar said I was the person who helped him get out of Helgen alive. I tried to protest, but Hadvar and Alvor would have none of it. Heck, Alvor even told me that I could have a run of his house for whatever goods I might need, within reason of course. Realizing I wouldn't win this and that I needed the coin, I decided to loot the house.

My looting plans were put on hold since Alvor and Hadvar wanted to talk of the dragon attack. There was much concern about the Stormcloaks having access to a dragon and what it would mean to this small town. Since I'd made mention earlier of heading to Whiterun later on, Alvor asked me to speak to the Jarl Balgruuf to tell him what had happened and to send for troops. I said I'd do it.

While the two of them talked, Alvor's wife Sigrid put down all kinds of food and front of us and I ate like there was no tomorrow. She seem pleased by how I wolfed down the food and after I ate, I decided to loot the place, leaving only the most expensive items for the family and whatever essentials they may need. Hey, I needed the cash.

It wasn't until Sigrid passed me and smiled at me again that I looked at the junk I was collecting and realized that Alvor was simply using me to clean out the rubbish from his home rather than have to deal with it himself. Well, if I hadn't been so broke, I would have dumped all that trash into their wardrobe with a note that said, "take out your own stupid trash, why don't you?" That would have shown them. Instead, I took all their crap, but I did leave a small surprise in one of Alvor's spare boots. Heh. Take that, Alvor!

Making sure I had everything and then some, I saw Sigrid again reading a book downstairs. She was alone and smiled at me, telling me coyly that she was already spoken for. Well, I wasn't asking for anything but when I saw her cross her legs again, I realized this was her way of saying, "Even though my husband is upstairs drinking and chatting, I need a man, NOW." I may have been doing a house clearing for Alvor, but I figured his wife fell into that "within reason" aspect and I decided to make a hasty retreat before we had a Joseph situation here.

It was late and since I didn't want to impose on the family any further, I decided to head to the local inn for the night. Sigrid told Alvor that I really should stay, which was all I needed to insist on getting the heck out of Dodge. Fortunately, they let me go without too much more fuss and before I left, Hadvar again thanked me and told me I should join the Imperial Legion. I told him I'd think about it and went to the inn for the night. As I lay in bed, I couldn't stop thinking about Sigrid. Darn her temptress ways!

Goto chapter 3.

My Skyrim Adventures: Chapter 01

2011-11-27T11:59:00.002-07:00

Note: Although I am still angry with Bethesda for ramming Steam into the game, thus forcing me to open a hole in my security to play the game so that Steam can spy on my usage and put ads up from time to time, even though I paid good money for this game, I decided I'd write some stuff just the same. Be aware that not all events as described are things that can actually happen in the game. Call it "artistic license." ^_~

There's nothing quite like waking up in the back of a rickety wagon and discover you are a prisoner on your way to your own execution along with a bunch of other prisoners. Well, these things are to be expected when you are an interdimensional traveler like myself and I knew that returning to a world I'd last visited some two-hundred years earlier in another form could result in such an event happening.

Apparently, I was captured along with some rebels against the Empire. So, I carefully considered my options and decided to go with the flow. After all, if I died in this world, the real me wouldn't die at all. So, when the wagon stopped and all of us prisoners were lined up, I just waited. It didn't take them long to get to me, even though I wasn't on any wanted list, but the decision was made to kill me just the same. A roar rang out in the bright day and though it was noticed by all, the Imperial captain wanted to get the executions over with. Too bad for her, a second roar was heard, much closer this time, and as I looked, a massive dragon landed on a small tower looking down on us and then breathed fire with a roar.

Chaos ensued as the dragon fried several people before taking off again. The rebel leader ran free and I followed some Imperial troop who'd been kind enough to yell at me to follow him. Going to a guard tower was a mistake because the dragon burst its head through the wall and incinerated all inside. My Imperial "friend" yelled at me to get to the barracks, which I did. The screams of the dying and the smell of burning flesh seared in my mind as my heart pounded in my chest. I didn't stop to look or anything, I just ran.

It didn't take long for my Imperial buddy to arrive. "Its ugly out there," he said grimly and cut my bonds. "The town of Helgen is lost and we have to survive to alert General Tullius that the rebel leader Ulfric has somehow managed to get a dragon ally. This is bad, really bad. Dragons have not been in Skyrim for ages, so for Ulfric to have summoned one to his aid could spell doom for the Empire, especially since the dragon outside seems impervious to our weapons."

After introducing himself as Hadvar, the Imperial soldier instructed me to get some gear. I put on a set of new, Imperial soldier's light armor even though I planned to be a mage-type. It was then that I discovered I'd soiled myself during the dragon attack. Fortunately, there were clean underthings and a bucket of fresh water to wash my now itching rear end. Ugh. Nasty.

As soon as I was ready, we left, down through the dungeon and out a cave system were several Stormcloak rebels were skulking. Hadvar dispatched them before I could raise a hand and proceeding on, I was horrified to see we'd entered a Frostbite Spider den, full of giant spiders. Hadvar went into them with relish and it was all I could do to kill a couple of the smaller ones. I hate spiders!

Before we exited the cavern, Hadvar noticed a large bear sleeping up ahead. Great. Just what I needed -- another thing that could viciously slaughter me. Apparently, Hadvar didn't want to kill the bear so we tried sneaking passed it. Unfortunately, a loud fart echoed through the cavern and I looked back to see Hadvar giving me a look of surprise. It was then that I realized that I was the one who'd passed gas as the bear woke up and decided to take exception to intruders into its domicile. I put on the flames and started burning it, allowing Hadvar to finish the critter off. Out of respect, we left the bear's pelt on his body and left the cave.

Darkness had fallen by this time and I looked up to see the giant dragon flying off in the distance. Even in the dim light of nightfall, I could still see the evidence of fires burning from the town we'd just left. Hadvar thanked me for helping him get out to do his mission. He said he was going to see his uncle in Riverwood before informing the general. I decided I'd accompany him. After all, if that dragon came back, it would be good to have an experienced warrior at my side.

Onto chapter 2.

Heavy D -- A Part of My High School Years Has Died

2011-11-08T16:24:00.001-07:00

Man, word is hitting all over the place that old school rapper, Heavy D, has passed away at the age of 44. I guess we'll get a word on the cause of death later.

I was introduced to Heavy D in my later teen years with his song, "Mr. Big Stuff," which he made in 1986. Here's the official video for said song (there may be a commercial at the front since it is an officially uploaded video).

Back then, I found that my musical tastes were toward this "fad" called "rap" and so when an electro-funk/rap station came on air, I recorded as much as I could from the radio (depending on the weather since I lived just on the edge of the radio station's transmission range at the time). "Mr. Big Stuff" was one of the early rap songs that I recorded, and it also introduced me to the concept of "sampling" since Heavy D & the Boys used Jean Knight's song title and music from the early 1970's for their rap version.

For most folks though, Heavy D was seen as more of a 1990's element since he had several hit tunes that came out in the early 90's. For me, he will be a part of my high school years and a reminder of things like Max Headroom, Ronald Reagan, Coca-cola clothing, and other things that were great about the 80's. So, I'll close with another of Heavy D's 80's tunes.

My thoughts and prayers go to Heavy D's family and friends at this time of loss.

How Come Greedy Politicians Aren't Called Out?

2011-10-18T11:59:00.143-06:00

You know, in all this talk about "greed," in the normal list of evil, greedy people (including corporations, who qualify as "people" on the greed scale but aren't "people" when it comes to giving their money away), have you noticed that greedy politicians are never included?

As I sit here, making my low wage (which still pays the bills thanks to not being in debt and God being very gracious to me), I have been fuming again over politicians who seem to think that every dollar in existence belongs to them. Indeed, the thinking seems to be that whatever I'm left with after they bend me over and fleece me (because I don't qualify for any poor-folk gimmicks to get out of paying income taxes) is due to THEIR good graces.

Most politicians seem to live for one thing -- power. They pass laws and regulations because it allows them to control the people and force them to do "this" or "that." The tax code is the biggest tool in their arsenal,whereby they can punish those whom they determine aren't behaving correctly or for whom the politicians have determined have too much. Then, these same politicians can use the tax code to buy votes. That's why only 53% of Americans pay income tax. The other 47% get off scot-free on income taxes and even get paid by the government after all is said and done.

So, the 47% (or those who think they are in that bracket, thus the "99%" number) complain about evil corporations and CEOs and love the oh-so-wonderful Big Government, because in the hands of the CORRECT politicians, the Government cares about you...like a mother, or a father, or even a Big Brother. Oddly enough though, as the 47% are looking elsewhere and thinking Big Brother cares for them, Big Brother is still raping them, only the 47% are too dumb (thanks to our wonderful education system) to realize it.

You see, most politicians of BOTH PARTIES are just as evil and greedy as the CEO's the 47% loathe. In addition to their lust for power, their greed for all monies knows no end. If you think I'm wrong, have you ever stopped and taken a look at all of the taxes you pay?

Back when I was unemployed in 2008, I needed to make a budget to spend as LITTLE money as possible and still survive until I found a job. I got rid of things like the satellite dish and scaled back other items like the phone. So, while my phone bill went to a basic tier of $10/month, the taxes were $15/month! That's right, I pay MORE in taxes on my phone than I do for the blasted service. I cut my cell phone bill to ~$22/month, but there too, taxes boost the bill back up to ~$37/month! My electric bill? All sorts of taxes and fees. Gas bill? Ditto. My house? Taxed heavily despite the falling property values. I need something at the store? I'm taxed. I get a tiny bit of revenue online? I'm taxed. I have to call a repairman to fix a critical, electrical problem at my house? I'm taxed. Buy gas? I'm taxed. Time to re-register the car? Nothing but a tax. Oh, and I have to have an emissions test for my car registration? More taxes and payment for "services rendered" made to state employees, thus another tax. On and on and on it goes.

That's why whenever I hear these bastard politicians crying about people paying their fair share or blasting the greed of others, my wrath gets kindled, not at the targets the politicians point to, but at the politicians themselves.

To make matters worse, the state I live in decided that they so desperately wanted tax revenues, even if from out of state purchases, that they passed a tax law targeting Amazon EVEN THOUGH THE COURTS HAD RULED AGAINST THE STATES. Basically, my state and others who've passed these so-called "Amazon tax" laws decided to say "FU!" to the Supreme Court and do an end-round and get their greedy paws into Amazon's coffers (because politicians have votes to buy and all money should be theirs anyway to redistribute as they see fit). It is looking like the Federal courts will be shooting down these laws, but we'll wait and see.

So, in the name of "helping the little people" and "making sure an evil corporation pays their fair share," the state passes their Amazon tax and Amazon basically fires all of us associates in the state. Of course, I'm not supposed to look at the results of these greedy politicians actions, only their good intentions. I'm supposed to be mad at the evil corporation who wouldn't pay their fair share. While I am a bit annoyed at Amazon, my wrath is still pointed at you, elected bozos!

You see, after my unemployment period of a decade ago, I became a contractor for a giant corporation I liked to call "The Company." A month after they hired me as a contractor (less pay, less benefits than the regular employees), "The Company" decided that contractors were paid to much and told contracting companies that they'd be paid 5% less on all contracts. Naturally, these contracting companies need to maintain a certain profit level and so passed the 5% cut onto the contractors. When irritated contractors confronted management people of "The Company" to complain, the official response was, "We didn't cut your pay. We simply reduced the rates we paid your contracting company. If you have a problem with your rate of pay, we suggest you talk it over with your contracting company. Have a nice day!"

No contractor I knew blamed their contract company for the 5% pay cut. That's because we all knew from whence it originated -- "The Company."

So today, the idiots that run our state legislature say, "We didn't have your affiliate income taken away. We simply wanted Amazon's money and they wouldn't pay us because they are EVIL. If you have a problem with not getting paid, we suggest you tell Amazon to pay their fair share and stop harming people like yourself. Have a nice day and remember, we care about you so make sure to vote to keep us in office in the next election!" Well, I'm not blaming amazon because I know whom to blame -- the GREEDY POLITICIANS IN THE GOVERNMENT!

You know, I still sell stuff for Amazon, only now, I do it for free. I do it for spite. My state not only isn't getting their precious Amazon tax, but now they get no income tax from me either on the sales I made ther. So even though I'm not supposed to judge the results, only the good intentions, I say, "was it really worth it to pass a greedy Amazon tax?" Bozos!

To Occupy Wall Street: You ARE the 1%!

2011-10-11T04:52:00.000-06:00

When these spoiled brats decided to "occupy Wall Street" in protest of evil corporations and evil banks who are keeping down the poor "99%" of the United State's population while making sure that the greedy "1%" have all of the wealth, I had to laugh. Why? Because these kids just don't get it. For them, the system MUST be changed to one where there is "fairness" and where those who have achieved MUST give it to those who have done nothing to earn it, all in the name of fairness.

Guess what people? Life is NOT fair! Not everyone gets to be President. Not everyone gets to be a high-paid athlete. Not everyone gets to be a sex symbol. Not everyone wins the Lottery. All will NOT be saved! A heavy smoker, sedentary person might live to be 100 while a health nut who does all the right things might die at 25. Not everyone will get their dream job. Everyone won't get to marry their first love or even have their first love return that love. Life, by its very nature, is unfair. I think Herbert Spencer called it, "survival of the fittest."

You know what makes America special? Thanks to our Founding Fathers, who understood that Government will always attempt to take freedom from the people, our country is one where you have the OPPORTUNITY to be what you want to be, at least for the moment. There are countless people who've seized that opportunity and made something of themselves. I know several people, who thanks to their own hard work and spending their free time learning new things, were able to leave crappy jobs and move onto higher paying and more fulfilling jobs at other companies/corporations. I know of a man, who came from a poor, black family, who worked his tail off and is now a very successful businessman and more. He'd be in the so-called "1%" that the Occupy Wall Street crowd hates even though he earned his place there.

So, we have these spoiled brats, exercising their First Amendment rights to protest about how there are no jobs. Well, jobs ARE very tough to come by for sure, but how are you able to afford protesting for weeks on end without a job? Are you willing to do crappy jobs until you can get something better, or do you expect someone to just give it all to you now just because you borrowed $25,000 on some worthless degree and can't find work that pays you $250,000 to start?

I hear cries of how banks are screwing them thanks to those massive student loans. You know, when one buys a house or a car and takes a loan for them, is it the bank's fault that you spent more money than you should on that house or car? And since the cost of an education continues to rise, how come there's no anger at the school's about how they are gouging their customers (you students)? I guess because those who run most colleges and universities have "good intentions" and "care" about people, they are exempt from the criticism that corporations would get for doing the exact same thing.

One of the things apparently not taught in school (besides accurate US and world history) is irony. I have this vision of one of these Occupy Wall Street protestors being asked what "irony" is, and getting a response like, "It's like goldy or bronzy, only it's made of iron." While that was a humorous line when Baldrick said it in Blackadder II, it isn't funny in reality.

The irony that these Occupy Whatever fools fail to grasp is that while they protest against Capitalism, they enjoy the fruits of Capitalism. While they decry evil corporations, they use the products of those evil corporations. While they decry banks, they are quick to use them to get these overpriced educations. They rail against the system, although our system is the dream of people world-wide and the reason so many people want to come to the United States. After all, being poor in the U.S. is being RICH in many other countries in the world.

For example, if you go to a poor slum in some other country, how many of their poor people have TV's? A/C? Microwaves? DVD players? Reliable electricity? Running water? On average (and not to discount the truly needy people in the US), most people classified as "poor" in the US have these things, yours truly included when I was officially in the "poor" category a few times in my life. Indeed, I shudder thinking about those days of desperately trying to make ends meet, yet I always had electricity, I ran the A/C during the summer (I just didn't run much of anything else) and kept the house COLD during that winter. I always had food to eat and even sodas to drink. I had a fridge to store food products in and a 4-eyed stove, with oven, to cook them with. I even had a small TV, a large boom box, a nice collection of audio tapes (this is the 80's we are talking about), and somehow, still found money to waste on comic books. *_*

So, though I was officially poor by American standards, compared to poor people in other parts of the world, I was part of the rich, 1% who have so much and clearly stole it somehow from those other poor people in the world.

To the protestors, have you considered that despite your whining, you ARE the 1% as the world sees you?

Do you know why jobs continue to be outsourced overseas even though there have been many, powerful, people who talk a good game decrying these activities? You see, there are those who truly believe that America needs to be brought down to size and that America is too rich, even America's poor. They see America as the world's 1% and want to see social justice for the rest of the world. What better way to redistribute the wealth of the United States than through outsourcing jobs? Those who want this redistribution can then say, "These EVIL corporations are outsourcing jobs and it isn't right!" while at the same time, they privately applaud it. After all, it isn't fair that American IT workers were making so much money and that these oh so smart people in India have nothing (as an example).

As such, many companies send a great deal of IT work to India. The corporation cuts their costs, then makes political "thank you" contributions to BOTH parties. India gets a wealth injection, because even though they are paid pennies on the dollar of what an American worker would make, to those in India, it is a massive quality of life improvement. Thus, as some might say, we have started to "given them the wealth" that was somehow stolen from them by all of us evil Americans, Occupy Wall Street crowd included.

Meanwhile, back in the US, the blame is placed squarely on the corporation's shoulders and that evil political party who doesn't care about poor people. Union leaders strive to get the "workers of the world" to unite and thus put more money into their coffers, some of which is to be transferred to politicians who claim to care for the working man. It is a nice, tidy package here, and why nothing changes. The government and corporations work together in what has become known as "crony capitalism" -- the corporations and companies get what they need and the politicians in charge of the government get to attack the corporations while getting political contributions form them, all in the name of staying in power. Should one of these corporations fail, well, the politicians are there to make sure the government bails them out (but only for the sake of the ~~plebs~~ workers, you understand).

Our Founders had it right when they put the Bill of Rights into the Constitution of the United States to block the Federal Government from doing things to the citizens. That is how our nation went from a being a colony to the most powerful and richest nation in the world in such a short period of time. Sadly, the desire to rule and to have the power to control people's lives is so strong that both Republicans and Democrats have done much to overcome these limitations. I fear this will result in us becoming slaves to the State as well as our nation dropping from its lofty heights.

However, if you think our dropping will help the rest of the world, you are in for a big surprise. It will just mean that everyone is equally miserable except for the ruling elite, who will live in comfort and luxury while finding new ways of shifting the blame for the economic misery of the people onto anything but the ruling elite themselves. I for one, do not want such "fairness" imposed upon me.

Remembering 9/11/2001

2011-09-11T00:00:00.240-06:00

In my life, there have been a number of tragic, momentous occasions such as the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster or the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which are burned in my mind. However, the events of 9/11 trump all of this simply because this was the modern day equivalent of the attack on Pearl Harbor, only instead of a foreign nation using military assets to attack the United States, Muslim terrorists used our own commercial planes as weapons attack us and attempt to bring us down as a nation. As such, I thought I'd reflect on how that day was for me now that ten years have passed.

For me, the day was a normal work day when I awoke that Tuesday morning. I had a great job that paid me a ton of money on top of the perks. Heck, I was even planning a trip back to Japan to see my old stomping grounds the following year. Life was pretty good.

As was my normal routine, I woke up at 06:300MT as I normally did back then and turned on the TV to the news so that I'd have a rundown of what was happening in the world as I got dressed. I got into the shower and took my time. When I got out and had dried off, I could hear the announcer stating that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I paused to look at the TV and the smoke rising before heading into my spacious, walk-in closet. I wondered what possibly could have happened to have caused a plane to crash into a skyscraper like that.

While I was in the closet, I heard the announcer say that they had just witnessed another plane crash into the other tower. I ran out of the closet to look at the TV, seeing the new plume of smoke rising. My first thought was, "This was no accident" and I found myself annoyed at the news guy who was reminding folks that there was not any evidence as yet that there was terrorism involved. OK, technically, that may have been true but in my mind, there was no doubt that this was terrorism and the work of Muslims who want to advance their ideal world where Islam is the only religion and the world is one big Caliphate.

It was a struggle to finish getting ready for work and I had to drag myself away from the TV and get out the door so I could drive the ~30-minutes(give or take, depending on traffic) to the light rail station for a 10-minute ride to downtown Denver. I immediately turned on the local news radio station and they were reporting that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon.

I was horrified as I drove in, listening to the non-stop coverage of three planes that had crashed, not only killing the folks in the planes, but killing unknown numbers of folks in the buildings they crashed into. That horror grew as the news broke that the first Trade Tower had collapsed. Whereas previous attempts to bring down the World Trade Center towers had resulted in criminal trials, I knew that this attempt would mean war, plain and simple.

The train ride to downtown Denver seemed longer than normal to me, mainly because everyone was talking about the plane crashed and the destruction of one of the Twin Towers. Rumors were everywhere with one rumor saying that all major cities with skyscrapers would be targeted. That didn't bode well for me since I was heading for a 42-story building, where I worked on the 41st floor.

Finally arriving at my destination, I decided that it might be a good idea to go ahead and pick up breakfast on the way in since my colleagues and I would likely be glued to the Internet looking for news. When I made it up to the 41st floor, no one was working and everyone was talking about what was going on. It was then that I learned that the second tower had gone down. Rumors were that the Air Force had shot down another plane but that there were more heading to different destinations. No one knew if Denver was on the target list.

Naturally, getting anything from the Internet proved to be mostly hopeless as all of the major news websites had crashed. Our local news radio station's website was also down if I recall correctly, and I think they were doing audio streaming in 2001. I remember CNN's website was changed to something pretty low-key to better handle the traffic but provided only very basic information and was slower than molasses to access. I remember saying a prayer for those who'd lost loved ones as a new rumor mill hit our tower -- a jumbo jet was in route to downtown Denver but no one was sure which building was the target.

We all started putting our stuff together when our second line manager sent out an e-mail telling everyone to stay put and to get to work. If there was a problem, we would be told of it and then at that point, we could leave. This e-mail provokes a lot of anger, myself included, as our department and the departments that supported us (developers, DBA's, system admins, etc.) all had the ability to work from home. As such, we all decided that we were going home and the 2nd line could fire us if he didn't like it. After all, our lives were worth more than this job, no matter how well paying it was.

Waiting for the train to take me back to the Park-and-Ride put me into a further foul mood and I regretted not going ahead and driving in all the way and spending the $15 to park (my train pass was a benefit from my company). It was a relief when I finally got to my car and could turn on the news, but I was eager to get home and actually watch what was transpiring. One thing the radio did was clear up some of the rumors we'd been hearing and made me think that maybe the worst was over.

When I got back to my apartment, I immediately flicked on the TV to see the live broadcast before sitting down at my desk to connect my PC to my job's network and sign onto everything like normal. I checked my e-mail and couldn't help but laugh as we had a new e-mail from our second line which informed us that we could work from home.

The rest of the day is kind of a blur to me. While I was logged into the network to be able to do work, I only did those absolutely essential items required of me and spent the rest of the time glued to the TV. As a former military member, I thought about those whom I was sure would be sent into combat and hoped that we would unleash the "wrath of God" upon those who'd dared do such a thing to us, thus hopefully getting things over quickly with the least amount of casualties for us.

Now that ten years have passed, it saddens me to remember that for a few days following the attacks back then, it didn't matter if you were liberal or conservative, we were going to make these Islamic bastards pay for what they'd done. It sickens me to know that it didn't take long for the politics of things to rear their ugly head to where now, we have elected officials who'd rather play politically correct games for fear of the media or for fear of being branded an Islamophobe.

It frustrates me to know that as a nation, we've had problems with Middle Eastern militant Muslims since shortly after our country was founded. The Islamic Barbary Pirates forced the United States to pay MASSIVE amounts of tribute, resulting in our nation creating a new navy in 1794 to protect ourselves. The demands for tribute continued, so in 1801, President Jefferson refused to pay any more tribute and the First Barbary War started, lasting until 1805. We won but the War of 1812 against Great Britain saw the return of Muslim pirates attacking and plundering U.S. ships. In 1815, the Islamic Regency of Algiers declared war on the U.S. for not paying required tribute. The U.S. responded by sending a large naval force to the area and after a brief conflict, we forced Algiers to back down.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, for a time, Islamic nations didn't seem much of a threat to us. The British took control over what is now known as Israel and Jordan, both being part of the Mandate of Palestine. As I understand it, the British then used the Jordan river as a border to create the Mandate of Transjordan, which was designated for Arabs and Muslims while the now MUCH smaller Mandate of Palestine section would be for Jewish immigrants. Transjordan became an independent country (Jordan) in 1946 and Israel was made a country in 1948, leading to numerous wars and conflicts between Islamic nations and the Jewish state. However, from the standpoint of the U.S., these were simply middle eastern conflicts and nothing much to do with us directly.

In the 1970's, all that began to change with the Islamic revival, where the Arab Oil Embargo was the first flexing of Islamic power. That escalated with the Iranian Revolution where the Shah of Iran was deposed and for a very short time, a government that was non-theocratical was created. That ended with the take over of the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1979 and the resignation of said interim Iranian government. From then on, Islamic revolutionaries all over looked for ways to attack the U.S., whether it be by hijacking planes, planting bombs on warships, planting bombs in buildings, or doing "whatever" to fight us. Throughout all this, our country never really took the threat seriously (in my opinion) and sadly, despite the events of 9/11, it seems that we still don't really take the threats that seriously, other than to put ourselves out lest we be seen as Islamophobic. *_* We fight two wars but in both, we still held back out of political fear rather than getting the job done and getting the heck out of Dodge. I fear that the result of this will be bad juju when we finally do pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

*sigh*

So, this 9/11, I will remember those who have died in the long-running war between militant Islam, who would see the entire world converted to Islam or die, and the United States. I hope that one day, our nation will take the threat seriously, beyond extra screening of old folks and the like at airports, and that an ultimate victory, such as we had against Japan and Germany in World War II, would result in peaceful relations between Islamic states and the United States. Such is the dream. Somehow, given how weak and self-involved our political ruling elite in Washington are, we'll be in conflict with militant Islam for the rest of our lives. Too bad the leadership of 1801 and 1815 doesn't exist today.

Twitter Topic: She's Too Young For You, Bro

2011-08-13T11:59:00.015-06:00

Sometimes, trending Twitter topics can be a wealth of humor ('cause there are a lot of funny people out there). This time, the trending topic #ShesTooYoungForYouBro came up and I figured there'd be some funny stuff there. I was right. Here are some of the favorites the crew and I picked out.

*lol* Wrong but funny. ^_^

Felonious Munk Presents: Stop It B! OBAMA PAY YOUR &*%$#% BILLS

2011-08-12T11:59:00.003-06:00

Sometimes, there are funny but true videos on the Internet. Be warned, there's lots of profanity.

*lol* I like it. ^_^

The Most Awesome Missing Poster Ever!

2011-05-27T11:59:00.003-06:00

I should make one of these myself. *lol*

Jesus, Government, the Rich and the Poor

2011-04-24T11:55:00.006-06:00

Sometimes on Twitter, one sees interesting things, such as this tweet from RexHuppke.

My favorite part of the Bible is where Jesus gives money to the rich, tells the poor to suck it up and asks for Caesar's birth certificate.

I had to reply to this by saying,

My favorite part of the Bible is where Jesus said pay more taxes to Rome and let them redistribute it. ^_~

Now, just to be clear, Rex appears to be posting tongue-in-cheek here as he tweets comedy stuff but there are people who do have a similar belief about Christ, the poor, and government.

Christ spoke about people being charitable and giving to the poor but he NEVER spoke of having Rome (the government) come in, tax or otherwise take massive amounts of money from the rich, then redistribute it to the poor. Such an act has no meaning. Indeed, when it comes to the poor, Christ indicated that the poor will always be around, as seen in these passages from Matthew and Mark.

6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? 9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." 10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. 12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. 13 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." Matthew 26:6-13

3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. 4 But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted? 5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they criticized her sharply. 6 But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. 7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. 9 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." Mark 14:3-9

In the Gospel of John, he doesn't beat about the bush on who decried the expenditure of a luxury item on Christ as a waste of money that could have been given to the poor, nor does John hesitate to say WHY there was this "concern" for the poor.

1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. 2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 4 Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said, 5 "Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. 7 But Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. 8 For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." John 12:1-8

This passage is how I see politicians and political activist who supposedly care about the poor. I include union bosses who supposedly care about the working man in this as well. They don't really care about the poor, they just want the money and power that goes with it. Big Government types want to tax the heck out of people for programs for the poor but naturally the poor only get a pittance as Big Government takes its cut all along the way with bureaucracies, red tape, and whatever else that eats of massive amounts of taken money. These politicians also make sure to reward those who donate to their re-election campaigns, to the general election campaigns of their political party, and who otherwise support them and the "correct" causes.

That's how General Electric can get away with not paying a dime in taxes -- crony capitalism. G.E. and its head make massive political donations to the President and his party and in return, Government policies are geared to help G.E. get rich on so called "green" technologies while at the same time, G.E.'s head is an adviser to the President. Nice, isn't it? Imagine the outcry if this had been George Bush doing this kind of crap.

I feel the same way about unions. While there's no doubt that many CEO's and corporate executives "rape" their employees, union bosses do the same thing as far as I'm concerned. The difference is that there's no doubt when the corporate boss is raping you. The union boss thinks that just because he gives you the common courtesy of a reach-around, you'll be fooled into thinking that he cares about you and thus this isn't rape. Sorry, rape is rape whether you give a reach-around, use Vaseline, or even throw some dollars my way. (Sorry to be so frank there, but sometimes its best not to beat around the bush.)

You know, I don't give a crap about how much a rich person makes and I'm not rich or anywhere close to it. I only care about getting paid what I'm worth, which in today's horrible economy isn't easy to do. As such, in 2009, I earned 60% less money than I did in 2008 as I got laid off and had to settle for whatever I could get to pay the bills. Last year, my income rose by about 10%, mainly due to me working a ton of overtime. I'm still looking for a new, better job that will pay me what I'm worth and I have an interview this week in that regard.

My point is that the government taking more money from the rich doesn't help me at all, even though my income isn't all that great. I already know the richest Americans pay the bulk of the income tax burden in the country while half the country pays zero income tax (I don't qualify because I don't have a house full of kids or the like to get money redistributed my way). I know there are tons of small business people who file their taxes on their personal income tax who are vilified as "rich" because they may take in $250,000+ in revenue even though their personal take is only a fraction of that (meaning they aren't rich).

The government spending itself into bankruptcy is not good for the country nor for the people in it such as myself. I don't want Big Brother standing over me. telling me how much money is too much; I don't want Big Brother standing over me, telling me what foods I should eat, what clothes I should where, what things I should read, what programs I should watch, or anything else with my personal life.

Christ, in His ministry on Earth, never once spoke of how the rich need to pay more taxes. He never once spoke of how Rome needed to take care of the people better nor how the specific rulers of Israel needed to do the same with more social programs. Instead, Christ preached that man could not save themselves and that the only way to be saved was through Christ and his death and resurrection. Christ did viciously attack the religious leaders of the day, who did get rich off of the people and loved the power, riches, and praises over God. They redefined the laws God had established to suit their own ends, much as many politicians in American continuously attempt to redefine the Constitution to meet their own ends.

Finally, when it comes to the rich and the poor and taking care of that which is important to us, I think of these passages from the Bible.

41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood." Mark 12:41-44

1 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had." Luke 21:1-4

This is an amazing account because this widow wasn't forced to give her money. She loved God so much, she gave it all to Him willingly and thus Christ notes it. She wasn't protesting lack programs for the poor and certainly there would have been nothing wrong with her taking her tiny amount of money and using it for her personal needs. Instead, she gave it away. If only I loved the Lord that much.

I've rambled a bunch and probably said nothing. Nevertheless, I hope everyone has a good Easter and remembers that for those of us who believe, Christ is risen and our sins (which are too many to count) are forgiven by Him and Him alone. ^_^

Why Soaking the Rich Won't Help Pay Government's Largess

2011-04-01T17:20:00.000-06:00

Being a libertarian, the insane amount of money our government is spending, making what George Bush did look like chump change, just pisses me off something fierce. I've heard that ultra-rich Michael Moore trying to say the country isn't broke because apparently folks like himself have been stealing it from the poor in make themselves rich. I've long believed that there's not enough money that could be taken from the rich to pay for the current government largess but this video lays it out quite well on what it would take to pay for the current Federal expenditures for only one year.

This really helped put things into perspective on just how much our government is spending and why we can't afford it, even if we made the evil rich "pay their fair share" and then some.

Oh, and by the way Michael Moore, when you start contributing everything you make over $250,000 to the government without getting ANYTHING in return, then I'll take your blathering on the evil rich seriously.

I'm Angry! (So clearly this is Bush's, Palin's, and the Tea Party's fault!)

2011-01-10T00:20:00.001-07:00

I just heard about that nutcase Jared Loughner's killing spree in Arizona through Twitter. My first thought before knowing ANY other facts was, "I bet this is some left-wing or Muslim nut job but the press and the left will initially attempt to blame the right-wing as hard as they can until the facts come out, at which point the left and the press will have already planted the lie as the truth and then shift the narrative to 'this was just a mentally unstable person but we still need more control over talk radio, TV, the Internet, and guns.'" Sadly, it appears that I'm completely right.

For starters, let me say that Jared Loughner is clearly insane. Anyone that goes out and slaughters people like this has a screw loose to begin with, but Jared's YouTube videos, writings, and the e-mails from people who attended class with him tell me that the man had lost it. Regardless of his mental state, he ALONE is responsible for his crimes, no matter what he watched, listened to, or whatever.

That out of the way, lets get down to what has me pissed off.

When I saw Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's early remarks on the case, he said they had no motive yet BUT he clearly had no problem citing talk radio, TV, and the like for inflaming unstable people to hate, commit acts of bigotry, etc. The remarks came off to me as someone blaming Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, the Tea Party, etc. for encouraging a radical, right-wing bastard to attempt to murder a Democrat congresswoman. Oh, and there was some Bush appointed judge, a 9-year old kid, and some others who were killed too but that's not important because clearly this was a right-wing ideologue going after a Democrat.

It went downhill from there as the mainstream press, left-wing politicians, and left-wing blogs all ID's Jared as some sort of right-winger influenced by the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, etc. The more of the screeching I read, the more I was convinced that Jared was no right-winger but was more likely a left-wing nut or worse, a radical Muslim. After all, when Major Nidal Malik Hasan went on his "Allah Akbar" shooting spree at Fort Hood, the initial reports were to try to blame this on talk radio and the right. Once it was revealed that Hasan was an Islamic extremist, talk of his motives vanished because Islamic extremist aren't influenced by Rush or Beck.

A similar thing happened when the failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad attempted to set off a car bomb. Mayor Bloomberg rushed to a camera and blamed the Tea Party, speculating that the person who attempted to set off this car bomb was, "Home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something." Sorry Mr. Mayor, but Faisal is a radical Muslim, not a Tea Party person.

So, while Jared is not a Muslim, he's also not a right-winger. Indeed, everything he's said indicate that in addition to being a nutcase, he's a radical left-winger. His favorite books were apparently Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Yeah, I hear Glenn Beck all the time spewing about how we need to become either Communist or National Socialist. (Oh wait, he says the opposite, blasting any form of totalitarian, big government philosophy.)

Jared posted a video of himself as a terrorist burning the American flag and we all know how much Tea Party people love to burn flags. (Oh wait, they actually love waving the flag and not burning it.)

One of his high school friend confirmed that Jared was a leftist in high school and that they were anti-Bush in high school when Senator Kerry ran against Bush. She sounds like a leftist from what I can read of some of her tweets but she doesn't sound like some radical, "Silence Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News" type.

Jared's hatred for Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords apparently pre-dates the Tea Party movement, going back to 2007. Apparently, he wasn't the only one angry with her as this Daily Kos poster shows (which naturally, the ultra left-wing Daily Kos pulls from their site). That angry poster is apparently now angry that his hate-filled rant is being used against the left since as we all know, only the right-wing losers who listen to Beck and Rush and watch Fox News are filled with hate and would want to murder a Democrat representative.

Wait! Rep. Giffords supported Obama-care (+250) but also supported Arizona's law on immigration (-500) and voted against Nancy Pelosi in the recent House of Representatives leadership votes (-250). So she's a traitor Democrat who must be killed for her betrayal, is that it? Or was it because she supported Obama-care that she must be killed?

The way I see it, Jared's an insane guy who also happens to like Communist and National Socialist ideals (which are almost identical except in terms of scope) and had NOTHING to do with the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or Fox News. So what?

The truth of the matter is, I don't care what books, blogs, etc. that he read; I don't care what TV shows he watched; I don't care what video games he might have played, to include the most violent games imaginable; I don't care what kind of music he listened to. The fact of the matter is that Jared Loughner pulled the trigger and that he alone is responsible. I have always rejected this notion that some 3rd party is to blame for the actions of a killer! Yet all of the time, some game, musician, TV show, etc. is blamed for the actions of some bastard who commits heinous crimes.

No matter though. Crooked FBI Director Robert Mueller is on the case and since he's blaming the Internet for giving people so much ready access to hateful information, it will give the FCC and its new Internet regulatory powers a chance to exercise more control over free speech (the First Amendment of the Constitution). Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D) is ready to have the government exercise more control over the Second Amendment and right to own a gun. And finally, the radical left will scream that it is hate speech of Rush, Beck, or Fox News that drove this man to insanity and to kill folks, hoping to make the lie the "truth" when the actual facts prove no such thing, only that this was an insane man who ALONE is responsible for his crimes.

Thus endeth the rant as my thoughts and prayers go out to all of the families of the victims of this terrible crime.

The FBI Has Nigerian Money For Me!

2010-08-21T11:59:00.002-06:00

Heh. These scamming so-and-so's really like to step up in their attempts to scam people out of their money. Losers.

Subject: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
From: FBI ( {name removed}@viclinks.com )
Reply-to: {name removed}@yahoo.cn

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
Agent Chrisn Newson
Building Washington Dc
Customers Service Hours / Monday To Saturday
Office Hours Monday To Saturday:

Dear Beneficiary,

Series of meetings have been held over the past seven months with the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. This ended three days ago. It is obvious that you have not received your fund which is to the tune of seven million Dollars due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reason and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of your fund.

The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have successfully passed a mandate to the current president of Nigeria his Excellency President Goodluck Jonathan to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owed to you and other individuals and organizations who have been found not to have receive their Contract Sum, Lottery/Gambling, Inheritance and the likes.

Now how would you like to receive your payment? because we have two method of payment which is by Check or by ATM card?

ATM Card: We will be issuing you a custom pin based ATM card which you will use to withdraw up to THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS per day from any ATM machine that has the Master Card Logo on it and the card have to be renewed in four years time which is two thousand and fourteen. Also with the ATM card you will be able to transfer your funds to your local bank account. The ATM card comes with a handbook or manual to enlighten you about how to use it. Even if you do not have a bank account.

Check: To be deposited in your bank for it to be cleared within three working days.

Your payment would be sent to you via any of your preferred option and would be mailed to you via SWIFT DELIVERY DEPARTMENT. Because we have signed a contract with SWIFT DELIVERY DEPARTMENT .you will only need to pay ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS instead of FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS saving you FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS ,Take note that anyone asking you for some kind of money above the usual fee is definitely a fraudsters and you will have to stop communication with every other person if you have been in contact with any.

Also remember that all you will ever have to spend is ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS nothing more! Nothing less! And we guarantee the receipt of your fund to be successfully delivered to you within the next twenty-four hours after the receipt of payment has been confirmed.

Below are few list of tracking numbers you can track from UPS website to confirm people like you who have received their payment successfully.

Name : {name removed}: UPS Tracking Number: 1Z757F991598420403 (www.ups.com)
Name : {name removed}: UPS Tracking Number: 1Z757F991596606592 (www.ups.com)

Note: Everything has been taken care of by the Federal Government of Nigeria, The United Nation and also the FBI and including taxes, custom paper and clearance duty so all you will ever need to pay is ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS.

DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE UNTIL YOU READ THIS: The actual fees for shipping your ATM card is FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS but because UPS have temporarily discontinued the C.O.D which gives you the chance to pay when package is delivered for international shipping We had to sign contract with them for bulk shipping which makes the fees reduce from the actual fee of FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS to ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS nothing more and no hidden fees of any sort!

To effect the release of your fund valued at SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS you are advised to contact our correspondent in Africa the delivery officer MR.JEGA IBRAHIM with the information below,

Email: ( {name removed}@yahoo.cn )
TelePhone +{numbers removed}
Contact Name : Mr.Jega Ibrahim
You are adviced to contact him with the informations as stated below:

Your full Name..
Your Address:..............
Home/Cell Phone:..............
Preferred Payment Method ( ATM / Cashier Check )

Upon receipt of payment the delivery officer will ensure that your package is sent within twenty-four working hours. Because we are so sure of everything we are giving you a 100% money back guarantee if you do not receive payment/package within the next 24hrs after you have made the payment for shipping.

Yours sincerely,

Miss Donna Story
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possession of your ATM CARD, you are hereby advice only to be in contact with Mr. Jay Williams of the ATM CARD CENTRE who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

'Tis a Rainbow

2010-07-17T00:42:00.004-06:00

Nothing too special, but the other day, there was a great rainbow in the sky. So, I took the tiny camera in my cell phone and grabbed this photo before it disappeared.

Even after all these years, I still love the sight of a rainbow.

Tea Party Racism -- Yeah, Right

2010-04-20T11:59:00.001-06:00

I know someone from my high school days who is African American and who just assumes that anyone attending a Tea Party is an automatic racist. When my brother tried to get him to watch this video, he refused as he'd rather live in the comfort of his false belief. Sad, really.

I suppose that one day, I should make time to go to one of these events. Lord knows my taxes are outrageously high and I'm not rich, yet I'm in that 50% of Americans who pay income tax to the Feds.

Oh, and Mr. President -- a "tax credit" is not a "tax cut."

Glenn Beck's Humorous Take on Health Care Reform

2010-03-23T05:30:00.003-06:00

This cracks me up. *lol*

On a side note, I get to become a criminal thanks to our elected elite mandating health insurance. Get insurance or pay a fine (and possible jail time). Nice of the government to make the fine MUCH less than getting insurance 'cause everybody knows the bill was ALL about getting the uninsured insured.

Glenn Beck Cracks Me Up

2010-02-11T22:50:00.002-07:00

Glenn Beck recently "smoked" Joe Klein over stupidity. I couldn't help but want to share this.

*lol* I rather enjoy Glenn Beck and have learned some things about history that I didn't know before from his show.

I Won The Euro Millions Lottery -- Again

2010-01-20T20:56:00.004-07:00

We've all received those scam e-mails telling us we've won some foreign lottery or the like and even explain why we didn't have to buy a lottery ticket as it was done based off our e-mail address, which of course was chosen at random. ^_~

I suppose that the old method of sending out a traditional text e-mail with misspelled words and the like wasn't doing the business for the scammers that once did. I say this because tonight for some reason, I decided to look through some spam for the fun of it (normally, all such things are flushed unnoticed by me) and I saw this e-mail from Administración Informacion. Inside was a lone image, seen below (click to enlarge). ^_^

*lol*

Yeah, an image of some nifty "official" letter complete with logo header is going to make me say, "WOW! This has GOT to be real!" Maybe the scammers are thinking that with the Obama economy, people will be more desperate and using the above image will get the scammers more of what they want -- your money.

Memories of Grandma and Grandpa

2010-01-14T13:13:00.003-07:00

I was running errands today, one of which took me by a supermarket. As I drove to find a parking place, I saw the car my grandparent's used to drive when they were able years ago. The appearance of the vehicle was so similar as to take my breath away. Heck, for all I know, it could have been Grandma and Grandpa's old car.

Whether it was or wasn't, I find myself missing Grandma and Grandpa a great deal at the moment. I hadn't realized how much I missed them until I saw the car.

I think of my Grandpa's life as a brick layer and seeing his various works on chimneys and certain monuments. I smile when I remember him in his volunteer police work and his love of the classic cowboy way of life. I fondly remember his stories of fighting the Japanese in World War II and though I didn't smile at the time, I can now smile remembering his negative reaction any time he saw a Mitsubishi car on the road. Mitsubishi made the various bombers that had to be fought off in the Pacific.

I think of Grandma's love of taking pictures of us no matter where we went during vacation. As a teen, that was always so embarrassing to have our pictures taken at restaurants and the like, but the pictures end up capturing something unique in the mundane. I smile as I recall Grandma's love of singing, playing the piano, the organ, and the accordion. That's why she was the organ player at their church for so many years.

It has been a few years since they both passed away and Lord willing, they are in heaven singing the praises of Christ.

Procrastination

2010-01-01T23:09:00.003-07:00

Man, I have to be the world's biggest procrastinator. Here I am on my third night off and I've done precious little to be productive even though I've had the time. ^_^; I had planned to get caught up on all my anime blog stuff and maybe even the manga, but instead, I find myself playing the game Torchlight or even some silly mob game online with friends and family members.

Then when I'm not doing that, I've been craving various "Star Trek" stuff, which started after I received my Blu-ray for the most recent movie. So, I scored S2 and S4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation (having owned S1 and S3) for ~$35/DVD set (and a shame I didn't score the rest since the prices went up to $50/set) and watched those. Since I had no more TNG to watch once I finished the final DVD, I went to my favorite Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine.

*sigh*

Oh well. Maybe I'll be motivated more in 2010...maybe. ^_^;

V 2009 -- Through Four Episodes

2009-11-25T13:47:00.008-07:00

As I have mentioned before, I never saw the original V mini-series or TV series beyond a few episodes. As such, I have no ties to the original series and am approaching these first four episodes basically as a newbie to the franchise.

While V is clearly a science fiction series, the sci-fi elements aren't as prominent as a series like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Babylon 5, or even the recent reimaged classic Battlestar Galactica. Obviously, this is partially due to the fact that the series is based on modern day Earth, but the production team has made it so that even when we are shown the Visitor's ships from the inside, they don't feel ultra sci-fi. There's enough of an advanced technology aspect with the holographic displays to remind the audience of the sci-fi element, but it isn't so in the face of the audience as to put off those who might not really be into science fiction.

Well, I say that but what explains the massive drop in ratings for the series? That's something I can't explain. I can only say what I like.

I've heard some complaints about the series being too dull. I haven't experienced that. I have not found the series to be boring either as the hour seems to just fly by despite the commercial breaks.

For me, I like the idea of how the Visitors are keen on invading Earth through non-military means. Part of that is by using the press to their advantage. This is something we've seen for years when it comes to our own governments in the U.S. For example, President Bush and his policies were not liked much by the press nor Big Entertainment. As such, any good news is played down and anything to suggest something negative or a scandal is played up. Comedians and political pundits often spoke of how dumb President Bush was, even though his grades at Harvard were higher than Senator Kerry's, the latter who is seen as an intellectual giant.

Transversely, President Obama and his policies are liked by the main stream press, the comedians, Big Entertainment, and many of the political pundits. As such, despite the fact that President Obama has great difficulty speaking without a teleprompter and that he has said things that would have had President Bush ridiculed to scorn, President Obama is given a pass. Anyone raising questions about his policies are discredited. After all, when comparing the two presidents, the template for President Bush was that he's an evil neo-con who hates poor people and wants to rob from them to give to the rich. The template for President Obama is that he cares for the downtrodden and wants to set to atone for the sins of the past by taking from the haves and giving to the have-nots (and ignoring that the disadvantaged only get pennies on every dollar taken from those who have).

Thus we have the Visitor strategy. After infiltrating the planet years ago to help pave the way for the first Visitor ships to arrive (the Visitors are a very patient race and apparently use incrementalism to slowly pave the way for their ultimate goal so that by the time that goal is revealed, it is too late to do anything about it), the Visitors now get the media on their side. Now, the Visitor message can get out without being questioned. After all, the public message is that the Visitors only want the best for humans. However, we the audience know that in reality, the Visitors have much more sinister goals.

With only four episodes, what those goals are remains a mystery to me. Clearly, the Visitors are invading Earth and attempting to do so without open warfare (which will cost them lots of lives and may damage whatever it is about Earth that they are keen to obtain). The best way to take over is to do so through political means under the guise of wanting to help the people. As I said, this method keeps the people's eyes closed until it is too late. Considering the huge armada waiting to come to Earth, the Visitors will need the keep the people passive until the very end.

As to characters, I like the cast pretty much. I do find the single mom (Erica Evans) raising a rebellious son to be "meh." When I think about it, I suppose this may be what folks are keying in on as being formulaic because I think this type of character is cliched a bit. Erica is a tough FBI babe but she can't get her own son to obey and she's too keen on being his friend rather than his mother (as I see it at least). Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the Erica character but as I think of it, the character is not really anything special.

The Catholic priest Father Jack Landry is a character I don't dislike either, but he too is a bit "meh." I say this because he doesn't seem like a man nor a leader of a congregation. Instead, he seems like a metrosexual type character who happens to be a priest and can't do anything. It makes the idea that he was in the army seem weak and his clocking a Visitor in episode four really hasn't changed my opinion of the character being wishy-washy. I do hope that in future episodes, the religious aspects of aliens on Earth can be further explored, though considering how that element has already been dropped, I'm not hopeful.

On the other hand, the Visitor rebel Ryan Nichols is probably my favorite character of the heroes. He's tough but kind, smart but willing to take the risks, and I hope we learn more about him and why he rebelled in the first place. Strangely though, I can't find much to say about him though I do wonder how he impregnated a human. Also, since the Visitors were the ones to reveal to his girlfriend that she is pregnant, it seems to me that they have to know she is carrying a hybrid child.

Chad Decker as the ambitious journalist doesn't do much for me. The writers have attempted to show him as someone who might sell his soul for a scoop and big ratings, but also have tried to show him as having a conscience. To me, the two don't mix much. I believe most journalist have their core beliefs and that while they may claim to be objective, the fact that they won't challenge a public figure they agree with but will dog one they disagree with shows their bias. Chad Decker doesn't come off like a main stream journalist and I think he should. He could have a change of mind over time or despite being shown more and more of the Visitor agenda, decides that "this is fine with me as long as I continue to get what I want."

The supporting character Georgie is another character the writers haven't done justice too. In the fourth episode, Georgie basically decides that he needs to skin a Visitor to reveal them to the public. Considering how Georgie had lost his entire family to the Visitors and had seen his efforts at rebellion crushed before, why hadn't he attempted to skin a Visitor before? That's what I kept thinking when Georgie made it clear what he wanted to do and it came again to my mind when Georgie shot the Visitor professor that they wanted to interrogate. I guess it seemed to me that if Georgie was going to in essence lose it, he would have done so earlier.

Still, I'd like to learn more about this character.

I do like the character of Anna. The face of evil wearing a pleasing appearance as an angel of light works perfectly for me.

Despite some issues with some of the characters, I really have enjoyed the first four episodes of V. I'm not sure why the ratings have dropped so sharply (I'm curious to see the ratings for the fourth episode) and I'd love to hear some analysis on the subject.

I'm also wondering about ABC's strategy regarding the series. To only play four episodes followed by a lengthy hiatus where the series won't air again until March (assuming ABC doesn't cancel it) makes no real sense to me. I suppose ABC decided to hedge their bets and see how the ratings were for four episodes before deciding to commit to more to be played next spring. However, having that much time off from a series leads to one thing -- out of sight, out of mind. Thus, you have a major cooling off and as people move on to other things, there's a very good chance that many people won't bother to return as they don't have that much invested in the series.

Here's hoping that ABC picks up the series.

V (2009) - 01 "Pilot"

2009-11-05T04:18:00.003-07:00

*SPOILERS!*

Since my teen years were mostly spent without a TV in our home, I only watched a very few episodes of the original V TV series in 1984 (and none of the 1983 mini-series). As such, I have no attachment to that series. I watched the 8-minute preview of this new series online and found myself intrigued, though I found things to be only eye-grabbing and not much more. However, when I begin to read about how these alien visitors were preaching a message of peace, hope, and change while still being the series' villain, I had to watch. I'm glad I did.

The arrival of the V spaceships was so much like the arrival of the aliens from the movie Independence Day that I thought, "the writers better have thrown in a joke reference about that." Fortunately, they did just that and more with the mention that Independence Day took the idea from other places (like the original V). Still, their arrival seen in HD looked fantastic, as did the crash of the fighter jet after it lost all power due to the alien ship. FX-wise, things just really look awesome when it comes to the alien mother ships, shuttles, and the like.

Fortunately, this isn't a show about FX. Like the Battlestar Galactica remake, this new V reimage is about characters and ideals. The Visitors are here to invade Earth plain and simple. However, rather than do like the aliens did in Independence Day (where the aliens began a systematic destruction of Earth's major cities and military installations) or in the original anime Space Battleship Yamato (where the aliens began bombarding Earth with irradiated asteroids in order to terraform it to their needs), the Visitors have decided to take over without firing a single shot by winning over the hearts and minds of the people.

I understand the parallels people have made between the Visitors and the Obama administration. President Obama was seen by many as someone who wants to destroy the U.S. as we know it and rebuild it into something else, being surrounded his whole life by communist fascist who've stated this as their goal. A year after his election, more and more people are starting to see his plans as not good for the country and more like an attempt to take over control over all aspects of life, including speech (such as this blog).

However, President Obama looked young, fresh, and his message was hope and change, which got him elected. Who does not want peace? Who does not want hope? When things are going negatively, who does not want change (assuming of course it is change for the better and not change for the worse)? Who does not want attractive, smart-looking and sounding people taking charge, especially when they offer nothing but compassion for their fellow man? Many people looked to President Obama as a kind of savior in a religious sense. The mainstream press has often given the President passes for all sorts of things that they wouldn't give President Bush a pass on.

Thus the parallels with the Visitors. They come to Earth offering hope, change, and peace for mankind. They offer universal free health care by establishing medical clinics in cities all over the world, curing many diseases. The press fawns over these benevolent and wonderful aliens, who want nothing but good for humanity. For the most part, the people love the Visitors, though a few are protesting.

Thus comes the genius of the Visitor plan. First, infiltrate the population including government, military, and other important positions of power. Next, reveal yourselves to humanity and start offering them free goodies, such as health care and cures for many different diseases. Get the press on your side to control the story and by the time you are ready for the final solution, the population you are about to obliterate won't even see it coming.

I admit this concept is not a new one, but considering Earth's history, it has worked so well in the past for so many. So many of these despots and thug dictators didn't stage a bloody coup and take over. Most were democratically elected, got their people into position, then simply transformed the country into the image they wanted. Look at Nazi Germany. Hitler rose to power not through the gun (as he initially tried and failed), but by election. Once in power, he established all sorts of things for the good of the people including health care (and believe it or not, I've read that Nazi Germany had a very strong anti-smoking sentiment based on stuff Nazi doctors learned well before the rest of the world hooked into the anti-smoking bandwagon). After he and his people had effectively took over, he worked hard and fast to remake Germany into his image but in moving too fast, he ended up destroying Germany.

In all honesty, I see a closer parallel between the Visitors and the Nazis, whom let's not forget were socialists in addition to being nationalist. We'll see how that aspect bears out, especially if this resistance movement gets any traction and forces the Visitors to take military action.

That leads me to my one concern -- the longevity of this series. Initially, I can see the series working quite well for a time with humanity fooled by the soft words and kind actions of the Visitors. However, if there is a resistance, at what point do people wake up and smell the coffee? If they do, then what does the series become? I'll be patient and see where things go. ^_^

As to the characters, we have some interesting ones. Scott Wolf (Party of Five) plays the TV reporter Chad Decker, who catches the Visitor's attention with his fawning attitude toward them. Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost; ER) plays single mother and FBI agent Erica Evans, who struggles to raise her teenaged son, who has very much bought into the Visitor's propaganda message of hope and change. Joel Gretsch (The 4400) plays the skeptical Father Jack Landry. Morris Chestnut (C-16: FBI; Out All Night) plays the traitor alien in disguise named Ryan Nichols. Finally, Morena Baccarin (Firefly; Serenity) was almost unrecognizable to me as the Visitor leader named Anna (I knew the voice but couldn't place it with her new, short hair style).

I can see a lot of character stories being done here on top of advancing the main plot. I just hope the writers can pull it all off. I like how things have been set up and how the main cast has been carefully placed on the board.

I've written a lot here, but in the end, I found the time flew by and I was inspired enough by what I saw on TV to write a lot here. *lol* That's a good sign that I rather enjoyed the pilot episode. We have an interesting story premise, interesting characters, and good SFX which if done right could be the start of a really good series. I sure hope so.

Worst Virus Scam Evah?

2009-06-18T07:45:00.005-06:00

I laughed out loud when I read this message. While I am expecting a package, mine is safely en route.

Subject:	UPS Delivery problem
From:	"Deon Stanford"
Date:	Thu, June 18, 2009 4:22 am
To:	AstroNerdBoy
Priority:	Normal
Options:

Dear customer!

Unfortunately we failed to deliver postal package you have sent on the 13th of March
in time because the addressee's address is not correct. Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our department.

Your United Parcel Service of America

Attachments:


UPS_FILEMN87123912.zip	38 k	[ application/zip ]		Download

Seriously, this has to be one of the worst attempts to get me to open up a virus attachment.

ZoNation -- Never Heard of Him Before, but I like him.

2009-04-16T23:47:00.002-06:00

I just heard about this guy. Man, is he funny.

Thanks to Trenaway El'Daryl for the head's up.

Another "Great" Job For Me

2009-04-07T16:30:00.008-06:00

When people are looking for work and receive e-mails about a job, do they not look at the "From" e-mail address? I suppose there must be enough who don't because I'm amazed at all these so-called job opportunities where the sender claims to represent some big company, but are e-mailing from gmail. Granted, I some some large companies are VERY cheap but they aren't going to use gmail to recruit people. *lol*

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Subject:	Open Vacancy For You at American Express
From:	"Amanda Bostler" recruiter.bostle@gmail.com
Date:	Mon, April 6, 2009 12:18 pm
To:	AstroNerdBoy
Priority:	Normal
Options:

Good afternoon
We found your resume on Jobs4You web site and after reviewing your resume concluded that you could be a positive match to a few of positions available at American Express Card and Merchant Services North American Division. There are couple couple positions listed below you might be qualifying for:

- Payment processing coordinator
- Data entry specialist
- Mail distribution coordinator
- Client database builder
- Payment collection coordinator

Guaranteed base salary package for all positions starts from $3900 monthly, incluide Weekends with holidays, Medical and Dental coverage and other benefits. There is full-time and part-time positions available.

These positions are office or home based due to our new policy on remote employee
program. We are accepting entry level positions, qualified applicants must be at least 18
years old, must have fluent reading and writing skills, bilingual is a plus.

If you are interested, email back to me and i will send you detailed information about open position.

With Best Regards,
Amanda Bostler
Company Direct Employer, American Express Corporation

Teleprompter and Our President

2009-04-02T16:29:00.004-06:00

*lol* This is too funny to me.
The Brits have apparently been much harsher on President Obama's addiction to a teleprompter than our own press has been. They've also pointed out more of the gaffs and stuff than our press has. Of course, if the president had an "(R)" after his name, we'd see all of this on the news frequently and the late night comedians would be going nuts over it (such as when the president tried to walk through a glass window or hit his head on Marine 1, reminding my of President Ford's similar accidents).

Snow -- Better Late Than Never

2009-03-27T14:46:00.003-06:00

It has been a pretty dry winter this time around, so we've been in real need of moisture. So, God provided some and we seemed to score an entire winter's worth of snow in one spring snow storm. *lol* I believe we had close to a foot where I live and a whole lot more a few miles to the south (16.5" from what I'm told). So, I snapped a shot with my cell phone camera to mark the occasion. ^_^

First Week on the Job

2009-03-22T18:11:00.002-06:00

Its strange being back at "The Company" after 3.5 months away. Its almost like I never left. Being the popular guy I am, people all over come by to say "welcome back" and to chat about things. Now that I'm again a contractor, I go back to being a "bastard step child" in terms of how "The Company" views us. Right after I and the others were let go, "The Company" forced all contractors to take massive pay cuts or quit, some upwards of 30% of what they were making. Well, the job market is in "The Company's" favor right now, so they can do that and get away with it.

Of course, "The Company" can deny that they cut wages because their cuts were to what they paid the contract companies. Therefor, the contract companies are the ones who cut the wages. Clever, eh? Not that any contractor buys that crap. They know what the deal is and they don't blame their contract companies. Still, I think "The Company" is playing a dangerous game. Sure, the economy sucks right now (and thank you President Obama for making it worse but that's another issue) and "The Company" can do anything and get away with it. However, eventually the economy will change and people won't put up with this kind of treatment. Further, all it takes is someone channeling their anger in such a way that "The Company" is harmed greatly. That hasn't happened yet, but man, I can see someone snapping and doing something ugly.

Me, I am trying to follow the advice a former boss and mentor gave me -- when you are dealt lemons, make lemonade. So yeah, it does suck making 50% less than I did before (and that's because as an employee of "The Company," I made WAY more than contractors back then though now my pay is pretty much in line with every other contractor's), but I'm learning something new (VMS) and I have an opportunity to score some certs. I can pay my bills, put some aside, and even splurge on a few things if I like (but not too many things). So I am thankful to the Lord for giving me a job at all. There are lots of folks still unemployed after months and months and months of searching.

As to the job itself, I'll be quite proficient within a month. I'm sure my current manager will have me learning his A/S 400 accounts because he knows I'm good like that. ^_^ So begins a new yet old adventure in employment.

Magic Squirrel and Jedi Squirrel

2009-03-22T18:09:00.001-06:00

A friend sent me a couple of pictures which just had me laughing. Ah, the secret life of squirrels. Too bad I couldn't find larger versions of these pictures.

The Return

2009-03-16T15:17:00.003-06:00

Well, I have a badge again, thus making me a mostly real person at "The Company." Sheeze. It has been rather troublesome to get though, mainly because my contract company contact is an Indian. While "Sudip" speaking English, he doesn't communicate that well in English and so it took quite some time just to square things away. *_*

So, with a badge, I start work immediately. ^_^

Despite not being the ideal situation, I am glad to have a job in this economy. Word is that of the five of us who were let go from my old team, I'm the only one with a job. I hope they can land something soon.

Slick Dogg -- Arab Gangsta Beat

2009-03-10T13:43:00.003-06:00

Having enjoyed the first song I hear from Slick Dogg song so much, I thought I'd share the love on a 2nd song from him.

As before, you can find his music on his website if you wish to buy his CD's.

So I Have a Job

2009-03-10T13:28:00.002-06:00

As expected, I got hired by Company 3 on Monday. It also means that I'm back at "The Company." *lol* Yeah, 50% less pay stinks and no benefits stink too but it is a job and I'll be bringing in more money than I did on unemployment. That also means budgeting in order to maximize savings and pay for school. Since the job I wanted at "Company 1" did not come through and I won't accept an offer from "Company 2" (unless they match what I'm being paid as a contractor for "The Company"), I now see a career path heading before me and I know what classes to take and what certificates to get when I get back to class.

Amazingly, I'll be seeing Taco's Rule, Savage Piper, and the others again since I'll be working the same shift I worked previously. The only difference is that I'll likely be on a different row from them.

So, goal 1 is to get all the paperwork cleared to actually get started working. Goal 2 is to learn VMS (a new skill for the resume) and become my usual guru self at my new job. Then goal 3 is to start classes and get those certs. From there, I can then branch out into another, better job.

I do want to thank God for taking such great care of me throughout my life and setting things up so that during this time of unemployment, I have been provided for. Seriously, it was God who put it in my mind to get my medical bills paid off sooner rather than later. It was God who put it into my mind that I should go ahead and buy a condo (thus also scoring tax benefits). It was God who put it into my mind to start saving money, though I could have saved more had I been on a budget. God now has me on a budget and now I will keep to it in order to make the best of the situation.

I also want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers and words of encouragement to me during this time. I really do appreciate it. ^_^

I'm the Perfect Financial Manager!

2009-03-07T10:00:00.001-07:00

Oh! Stop the job search now! I have to have this job no matter what!

Subject:	Job Proposal (Specially for AstroNerdBoy)
From:	"Diana Green"
Date:	Fri, March 6, 2009 5:00 pm
To:	AstroNerdBoy
Priority:	Normal

Dear AstroNerdBoy,

My name is Diana Green and I am a Chief Manager of HR Department of DC Group Inc.

This letter confirms that your resume (found at careerbuilder.com) has been duly processed and your skills completely meet our requirements for Financial Manager vacancy.

I’m representative of a world-famous company founded and based in the USA, which deals with financial services like escrow services for buyers and sellers of online auctions around the world. We offer our services both on closed commercial auctions where the number of buyers is not large and on ebay.com, amazon.com, yahoo.com - popular online auctions.

Financial Agent position is:
- part-time (you can work only 2-3 hours a day (Monday through Friday).
- work at home (all communication is online).

What do you need? Internet access and e-mail.

This position is offered on a trial period (first month) basis. You will receive training and online support while working and being paid. Trial period is paid $2300/month. Also you will be keeping 8% commission from
every payment received from customer and successfully processed. Total income, with the current volume of clients, will be up to $4.5k per month. After first 30 days base salary will be increased up to $3k per month, plus 8% commission!

You may ask for additional hours after trial period, or proceed full-time.

If you are interested in our offer and would like to learn more about Financial Agent position, please send the filled form to Dc.diana.job@gmail.com

Our representative will contact you within 24 hours.

++++++++FORM++++++++FORM+++++++++++
First name:_____________________
Last name:___________________________
Country of residence:__________________
Contact phone:______________________
Preferred call time:_______________________
++++++++FORM++++++++FORM+++++++++++

We found your resume at www.careerbuilder.com. This letter confirms that your resume has been duly processed and your skills completely meet our requirements for the Financial Manager vacancy.

Best regards.
Diana Green

The Job Hunt Continues -- Prospects

2009-03-06T17:29:00.004-07:00

My search for employment continues as it has been over 3.5 months since I was let go due to headcount being shifted to Brazil and India. It amazes me that it has been that long. In some ways, it feels like a long time but in other ways, it feels like the time went by in a flash. In all, I want to thanks friends and family for their support in all this nuttiness. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers for sure. ^_^

Last week, I had a third interview for an IT job at "Company 1." They are a non-profit insurance company dealing exclusively with the under-insured. There's a possibility of a fourth interview and while I greatly impressed them according to the contract company, they don't want to make a move until they've talked to at least two more people, ostensibly to make sure I'm the right choice.

Pay: Good. Better once converted from contractor to regular employee. No worries about paying the bills, having money to save, and still being able to go out and catch some summer blockbusters.
Job: Good. The work being done is interesting and would keep me busy. There'd be some oncall work, but that's fine. Also, since this company is in the health insurance business, the jobs won't go overseas legally, even if somehow the company decided to outsource. The job is days, Monday through Friday which is cool for going back to school. The commute would be awful because of rush hour Denver traffic but oh well. I could deal with that and after a time could always move closer to the job should the commute really start bothering me.
Career: Above average. The job starts as contract position but in 3-6 months is a conversion to regular employee status. Once a regular employee, the opportunities for growth are there, especially as this company is growing due to the type of client base it serves. Opportunities to go back to school exist so getting some IT certs would be a high priority for me.
Overall: Ideally, this is the job I'd like to get. I just don't think they are going to move that quickly because the position is a newly created one, not a back-fill.
Chance of Being Hired: 75%

Today, I interviewed with "Company 2." They are a market research company who've developed some impressive software to find out what people are saying on the Internet about a product or service. The interview was nearly three hours in length and there were four of them today. ^_^;;;

Pay: Poor. Seriously, even though the job is listed as "entry level," the experience they are looking for combined with the amount of work being done (and by everyone's account, a six-month learning curve just to become proficient in the job) would suggest a much higher starting pay grade. Indeed, Company 2 is actually a sub-subset of a major corporation and retains the same pay-grade structure they had in the late 80's (adjusted upward dollar-wise for current times). Back then, one could get an entry-level operations/production support job at level-9 or 10. However, this operations/production job has been banded at level 7 and the pay is so low, I'd actually be making less than I made 11-years ago in actual dollars (and its worse when you adjust for inflation the 1998 dollar amount). Sadly, I think they've gotten away with it because the kid they hired a year ago had zero experience in IT and so they took advantage of that.
Job: Good. The work being done here is very interesting and somewhat challenging. Even after becoming proficient, things are constantly changing to improve the research being done so I'd be changing right along side. I'd be working closely with developers and SA's so there's a chance to improve skills. Also, the job is Monday through Friday days and that's nice, especially for school. In fact, it wouldn't be that far to drive to a major university to take classes after work and the overall commute isn't too bad.
Career: Above Average. Being part of a large corporation, all job opportunities world-wide would be available to me. Education would be paid for so I could move in a direction I choose (programmer, system admin, whatever). The downside is that since this division is small, career opportunities within the division are pretty slim. That also means that I'd remain at pitifully low pay for an undetermined amount of time and would have to have the good graces of my manager to move someplace within the company where I could get paid.
Overall: The pay is what kills this job. With my current unemployment pay budget, I would be about $50 in the red each month (under unemployment, I'm about $50 in the black each month). Keep in mind that my only debt is my mortgage, so my other costs are just living costs. Now, it is possible that because I'd be making so little money, the interest deduction (assuming our glorious government haven't completely destroyed that in their desperate greed to steal my money) would likely be enough so that I would be among those who pay little to no Federal income tax. That might be enough to cover the wage gap but frankly, that's not how I want to live.
Chance of Being Hired: 55%. I interviewed quite well for all four interviews, but no doubt my expression of concern over the pay has lowered me percentage-wise, but the hiring manager could bring me in as high as level 10 if he wanted, and that would likely pay the bills.

On Monday, I have an interview with "Company 3." They are a large corporation dealing in IT/IS solutions. I have several connections inside this company, including the hiring manager. ^_^

Pay: Average (somewhat lower when taking into account that I'll have no insurance, vacation, or anything else). I would be able to pay my bills under my current budget and have some left over for saving (which I'd have to do in order to buy things like an HDTV or new windows for the condo). There would be O/T opportunities though, so the chance of increasing the take-home pay is high.
Job: Average. Although the systems I'd be working on would be new to me, in the end, I'd be in operations again. Every time I think I've left mainframe for good, I seem to get sucked back in. ^_^; Don't get me wrong, a job is a job and if I have to do mainframe again, sobeit. I'd be working 12-hour night shift, which has pluses and minuses. I would have to see how online classes would work in this scenario because going to regular classes just isn't likely to happen unless I sleep during class or sleep at work, neither of which I want to do. The commute is the biggest plus though since it is the closest to where I live.
Career: Almost zero. I'd be a contractor with zero chance of being hired as a regular employee and almost no chance of moving to a better job in another department. Education would have to come out of my pocket and as I said, traditional education would be impractical. Basically, this would be a job to pay the bills and work on some education so that I can find something better.
Overall: It would be a job easy to learn and working nights would mean I'd have some time to do homework. My bills would be paid and supposedly, the job will be around for 2-3-years (seeing is believing though). So while not my first choice, I'd take the job to stop being unemployed. ^_^;
Chance of Being Hired: 90%. I do know the manager and team lead for this job and that helps a great deal. Monday will be the formal interview so I'll know more there. This job being on a platform alien to me is a negative and it is possible that the hiring manager will find a guru who knows everything and can come right on in and do the work. Baring that, since I have a good reputation with the hiring manager and team lead, I feel confident that after Monday's interview, I'd be getting an offer sometime shortly thereafter.

We'll see what happens. Lord willing, I'll have a job soon. In the meantime, I keep on hunting.

Slick Dogg - Time For Us To Pop (Get Down, Y'all)

2009-03-03T13:16:00.003-07:00

I realize that this kind of music won't be for many, but MAN -- I love this kind of tune.

I can feel a mix of different styles with Slick Dogg's music -- there's funk and certainly a bit of Zapp there too. Since Slick Dogg is an independent music maker, you won't find his music in most places, but you can find it on his website.

She Loves Me! I Know She Loves Me!

2009-03-02T07:45:00.007-07:00

Heh. I haven't seen one of these in ages. I know "she" must love me truly because "she" sent me several of these (from different mail addresses and names of course). ^_^ Ah, be still my beating heart. ^_~

Subject:	I shall wait from you the letter with the big impatience!
From:	"Myles Jacobs"
Date:	Sun, March 1, 2009 2:36 pm
To:	AstroNerdBoy
Priority:	Normal

Hello. My name is Oksana. I understand that you don't know me, and I don't know you, but in the future all can change probably. I ask that you have given me some minutes on perusals of my letter. I hope that
it will not make difficulty to you. Agency Acquaintances in Cheboksary gave me your e-mail address. To me explained that you very good person and you very much approach to me. I have come to Agency to find the
future husband from other country. Why from another country? Because I have been very much disappointed with Men from my country and now I search my life in abroad. I has tired to be lonely and to carry spend
all days equally. I want to love and to be happy! I asked myself a question why I can not it. And I come in this agency with such the request that they have helped me to find the person for that I will
happy. Yes certainly I have paid some money that has found the person for me. But what is it the money in comparison with love? Nothing. It is simply emptiness. Love is the most important feeling in a life,
without which our lives grey and empty. I shall not speak how many I have paid. I hope that you will understand me. I very much hope that you will be interested in me and we can continue our dialogue after that letters. And I very much hope that I shall leave in yours opinion good Impression about me. I want to tell some words about me. As I already spoke my name is Oksana. I'm 28 years. I live in Cheboksary. You can look my external qualities in my photo which I have attached in the letter. I live with my mum together and I work as doctor. I
have gone studies on this profession, in order to help people. I look like on my father because he gave your life to rescue the little girl, and he has rescued her only he lost. I shall tell you about it later. I love my professional though In Russia it is not as well appreciated as in other foreign countries. I love an active way of life but time
not suffices. In my life I dream to find the person with which I can to lead all life and I shall be happy. I dream about big and cheerful, friendly family. I don't search ideal man. The main thing that in him there were high qualities as skill to love, to respect, to appreciate relations, to love children and is skilful to love and make the happy partner. For me the age does not matter because the love has not limit. I very much hope that you will write to me and will tell about yourself. I am already lonely very long time. I had earlier shot relations but it was failed. I very much hope that you become my unique person in my life. So let's not lose time. I ask you that you
have answered my letter and then we can learn each other better. I hope that I have liked to you. If serious relations aren't interesting to you or I am not pleasant to you, say me it please. Is it well?

I very much ask that you have answered to me ONLY to my personal e-mail:
oksanalive28@googlemail.com.

I shall wait from you the letter with the big impatience!
Bye bye!
Tired from loneliness Oksana.

Attachments:


Oksana.jpg	38 k	[ image/jpeg ]		Download \| View

Another Job Scam

2009-02-11T04:26:00.003-07:00

Another great job scam spam e-mail has come to my attention. Apparently, everyone gets "accepted" and then for a low, low price of $5000 (or more), they'll "market" you so that you can get that job you want. However, you have to act NOW lest the price go up to $6500 or more (sounds kinda like our president, trying to ram through the spending bill before people realize just how little stimulus is in it, cause we gotta do it NOW)!

People desperate for a job aren't going to have that kind of cash laying around to burn and somehow I can't see unemployed executives blowing that kind of cash either, no matter how much they have stashed away. So I have to wonder who pays these scammers.

* * * * * * * * * *

Subject:	Mr. AstroNerdBoy, we may have immediate openings at DBP
From:	cwilliams@dbpexecusearch.com
Date:	Wed, February 11, 2009 2:45 am
To:	AstroNerdBoy
Priority:	Normal

Delany, Byczinski & Potamkin
West Loop Center, 10 Riverside Plaza, Suite 1800
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312-474-6018 FAX: 877-222-8019




Are you still in the market?

We felt your resume indicated that we may have immediate openings at DBP that could
be right for you. However, if you are interested, we need some added information.

Delaney enjoys a growing reputation as a fast growing recruiting service. Our
clients include small and large employers, growth companies, and Fortune 1,000
corporations. We deal only in professional and executive openings and there are no
fees.

To register with us, as well as to review current situations at your income level
and in your geographic area, please do the following.

Click on http://www.dbpexecusearch.com

The "Post Resume" button will take you to the profile information that we need.

Regards,


Charles Williams
Senior Vice President
Delany, Byczinski & Potamkin

President Obama and Democrats to Old People -- DIE!

2009-02-10T01:04:00.003-07:00

Bloomberg has this interesting piece about yet another element of the so-called stimulus bill wherein Big Brother creates a Health Czar to allegedly control the costs of health care. In fact, this system is worse than the crappiest health insurance company out there as ALL doctors must submit to Big Brother. Big Brother will then determine is a course of treatment, tests, drugs, whatever should be done. If Big Brother feels it isn't required, screw you. If you are an old person and the cost of a treatment outweighs whatever life expectancy you have, just get over yourself and die already!

So, let the glorious new Big Brother Obama world form as we start down the road of Eugenics. *_*

Man, I'm afraid this is going to be a rough four years or longer. The outrageous spending on Democrat paybacks is bad enough. This little tidbit about Big Brother trying to run our lives more in matters of health just takes the cake.

Change I Can Believe In

2009-01-31T00:45:00.003-07:00

Congrats to Michael Steele on becoming the RNC chairman. I hoped he'd win because I've liked a lot of what he's said. Now, go kick some bottom in the war you are going to face against the press. Also, get out there and be what you are, not "Democrat Light." Ugh. I hated that about President Bush and many Republicans -- they seemed to think that being Democrat Light was a way to stay in power. I guess they now know better. If people want Democrat ideas and policies, they'll elect the real thing, not faux crap.

A New Job Hunting Phenomenon

2009-01-26T17:12:00.002-07:00

Today, I learned something that is rather depressing -- the job I was a sure hire for has been pulled from the market. That makes five jobs by my count where this has happened -- a job placed on the market, interviews are conducted, things feel great, then all of the sudden, "the company has decided not to fill this job at this time" (or something like that).

I've checked with a couple of other guys who are also unemployed and they've encountered some of the same things. It seems that some companies have a job opening, but the they hear President Obama and his administration imply that the economy will stink for his whole term and he'll need to be re-elected in 2012 to have enough time to get things right. OK, the president hasn't said those words, but that's what's being heard from what I can see. Thus companies are saying, "if this guy is now saying that all his campaign promises were typical politician lies to say whatever to get elected, then we better prepare for the worst." So some companies reduce work force and others decide not to fill job openings they have.

I know that everything is in God's hands and as such, I have to trust the Lord. That means I may be forced to do things I don't want to do such as move or take on what I would consider crummy jobs and work all the time to make ends meet.

The New Nigerian Scam -- Contact Us If You've Been Scammed!

2009-01-22T04:34:00.003-07:00

I had to laugh out lout when I received this e-mail from one of my many accounts. So now the scam is to hopefully hit someone who has been scammed, get them to call up with questions about claim, then scam then again. Nice.

* * * * * * * * * *

Subject:	The fraudsters that scammed you has been caught and some of your money recovered.
From:	"Honorable Justice Umaru Abdullahi"
Date:	Thu, January 22, 2009 4:25 am
Cc:	recipient list not shown:;
Priority:	Normal

Dear fraud victim,

This is to inform you that four of the fraud syndicate that defrauded you has been caught although two escaped . These men used fake identities and documents to scam innocent victims. They confessed that they use tricks of Contract, Inheritance, Lottery and all other manner of payment tricks to lure and defraud their victims. They were caught in attempt to defraud one British. They pleaded for a lower jail term and the court agreed to grant them lower jail terms if only they would confess their victims so that the court could pay their victims reparations from the loot recovered from them because the court recovered expensive cars, houses and huge amounts in their accounts. The court has sold the properties confiscated from these syndicate to realize more money for reparation payment to their victims. The four are currently serving eight years jail term each. I am contacting you based on the confessional statement of the fraudsters that you were among their victims so if you have lost money to fraudsters in the past, do let me know how much you lost so that we can work out how much reparation you will receive.

Please do not be deceived by the bogus claims of money in Nigeria or any other place in Africa because Africa is a very poor continent with greater percentage of its population very poor. Most spam emails you receive from around the world has been established to emanate from Africans living in foreign countries. Please spread this news to your friends and relative that there is no such bogus money in Africa as claimed be scammers so that they won‘t fall victim especially in this time of economic recession.

Finally, it is a criminal offence to claim more than what you lost. If you have forgotten exactly how much you lost, to these fraudsters, you have to approximate your lost such that it won’t be in excess of USD 2,000. If you are not the person they defrauded please disregard this mail as it was sent to you based on confessional statement and information provided by these fraudsters. I am aware that the two escaped fraudsters will still be communicating you. Please if you receive any mail from them, don’t reply from henceforth. If you need further clarifications, call me directly on +2348074037620 or email (user080375@gmail.com) for clarifications.

Yours faithfully,
Honorable Justice Umaru Abdullahi
(President, Court of Appeal Nigeria & Chairman, Crusader for a better Africa)

A Doctor's Visit

2009-01-10T00:26:00.004-07:00

My recent medical adventure had several friends get in touch with me on their own experiences with the old stomach or nearby regions. It is a sign of getting older I suppose -- things don't quite work as well as they did in one's 20's. ^_^;

For me, the loss of 15-pounds is good, but losing that much in a week is not what one would want to see. So, after a complete physical and the doctor looking over the ER charts (ah, the joys of modern computer technology when medical records can be sent digitally to those who need them), it is the generic version of Prilosec OTC® (got to save some money someway) for now and a follow-up visit with the doctor in two months. The blood lab work will be sent to me and should there be something negative there, the doctor and I will hook up sooner.

So that's out of the way for the moment with the doctor giving the usual good advice before I left.

Fun Times w/ Gastritis

2009-01-05T04:11:00.003-07:00

Last night, I ended up going to the ER as a precaution. My stomach has been acting up for months and sometimes it causes chest discomfort and pain that goes down the left arm, almost as if one were having a heart attack. However, last night, the pains were shooting up the left side of my neck and into my jaw and that caused some concern. Afterward, I puked and thought, "you know, I better have this checked out even though it is going to cost me a fortune."

So, a trip to the ER and five hours later, no heart problems or major organ problems that could be detected (and they did a lot of tests). The doctor determined that I have Gastritis and combined with the strained muscle in my left shoulder blade, this gave me all the symptoms of the problem I had. With as primitive as our medical technology still is, her diagnosis is still a best guess, but baring some other things happening, we'll just take it that this is in fact what I have -- Gastritis.

A couple of things were revealed to me while in the ER. First, I miss my TV. I haven't had satellite for some time now and getting to watch some documentaries on Discovery Channel made me really long to get my service restored. But I can't do that, more so since this ER bill is likely to be outrageously expensive.

Second, I guess I'm really missing human contact. When I had my job, I talked a lot with my co-workers. We were a tight team and though we didn't agree on things like politics or religion, it didn't matter. Savage Piper, Taco's Rule, Red Baron, Lepidus, and the others were people I enjoyed talking to. I miss the laughs we shared as well as the shared frustrations when annoying people like "Busy" would cause us more problems than the initial problem being reported.

So, I've decided that even though it is an extra cost, I will start going to church on Sunday's. Traveling to Greeley may seem a bit much, but the church I'd attend there is one that I believe preaches the Gospel so it is worth the travel in that regard. Either way, I don't think that wanting to be with other children of God is a bad thing at all.

Hopefully, I can hook up with my former comrades this month, assuming everyone's schedule can be cleared.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

It Has Been Four Weeks

2008-12-19T17:00:00.003-07:00

It is hard to believe that four weeks ago tonight, it will be exactly four weeks since I received official word that I no longer had a job. The first couple of weeks went by slowly, but for some reason, the last week has flown by. Weird.

Last night, I got to hook up with a bunch of former comrades as we had a big get-together at Buffalo Wild Wings to at least see each other one more time. I know the King is planning on leaving the state and Billie may likely score other work within the company as may I (more on that later). It was fun seeing everyone and with the adult beverages flowing for the others, it was interesting seeing people let their hair down. Amazing what stuff you can learn from people feeling good. ^_^;

My former boss also came by the gathering, which was cool. She told me things that are changing within the company. For starters, they are rolling out LEAN 2.0. (I guess the first rollout is considered a failure for departments such as the one I used to belong to since it didn't change anything beyond reducing the number of people who did the job. Apparently, lessons have been learned and they hope to make the manufacturing process work in an IT/IS environment come hell or high water.)

Also, the Company is requiring System Admins to be on site rather than work remotely. So no more working from home and while the details haven't been worked out, I guess those people who are working from home from other states are either out of a job or will have to move to somewhere close enough where they can commute in. Of course, as I learned today, the Company wants most of the SA jobs done in India. Trivial matters such as Internet lines to India being cut don't matter because Queen B has $1-million bonus on the line.

As for today, I had an interview. The pay is great, there are zero benefits, and the length of employment is 3 to 12-months. If offered, I'll take this job just to continue saving money again. Then, I'll likely splurge and buy a laptop so that I can get my P-Series server up and running as an AIX sandbox. Hopefully, I'll know something next week.

I do miss my former co-workers but we keep in touch so it is not all lost. Besides, Savage Piper owes me some Tokyo Joes!

-12°F -- That's COLD Y'all!

2008-12-15T08:32:00.003-07:00

I just read a panic-inducing AP opinion piece, pseudo-disguised as a news article, talking about how were are all going to die from global warming if President Obama doesn't raise his staff that budded and cool the planet (while taking more of our money from us), even though the planet has cooled in more recent times. Meanwhile, record freaking cold temps are blasting much of the U.S. and for my neck of the woods, we are going to have single-digit temps at night for the rest of the week and it doesn't look like we'll ever get to freezing (32°F) all week.

So maybe the soon-to-be new president has already worked his magic to cool the planet. All I know is that it is dang cold out there right now. ^_^;

Update: It is afternoon now and I'm laughing because today's high was supposed to be 18°F. Instead, thanks to global warming, it only got up to 2°F. Tonight's low is supposed to be 3°F, which is also a laugh because we are already at -1°F. Now, the weather forcasters are also saying that we may not get above 32°F for the next two weeks. ^_^;

Tales of Tribal Wars

2008-12-02T12:00:00.002-07:00

Allow me to bore you guys with a tale from another world and another time (like 2007 even). ^_^

There's this online game called Tribal Wars where the object of the game is to build up a village, gain troops, join or form a tribe, and battle and take over other villages (whether those villages are owned by someone or abandoned). It is a bit of harmless fun but it can get a bit time consuming, especially when you gain control over a large number of villages. Since the game never stops, you can go to bed with 20 villages and wake up with 15 after people attack you and take over your former villages. That's the nature of the game.

A group of us had been on Tribal Wars when the game first started and then quit for various reasons by the time the game had grown to three game servers. Then a year or so later, a group of us noticed one of our comrades ("D") still playing. The rest of us thought, "You know, maybe it would be fun to play again. We'll just start our own tribe in one of the new worlds with archers and play for fun." And so, eight of us formed a tribe for some fun.

So there we are, with a few strangers who decided to join us, minding our own business when a large tribe decides to start wiping us out. Well, that sucks, but that's part of the game. After all, its easier to take out people in little tribes when you've got a big tribe to back you up. No big deal.

I was prepared to lose my two villages under an onslaught of a dozen different attacks, some with nobles (those are required to conquer a village). They decided to just send everything at me. With all these attacks coming, I decided I wasn't going to go down without a fight. After all, why not have some fun as I'm wiped out? I had a ton of swords and spears defending my main village, and a smaller, but still nice number of troops in my 2nd village. I decided to dump everything into my main village.

Well, attack one came and the attacker lost a ton of light cavalry. Attack two came and the attacker lost an even greater number of light cavalry, about 3000 axemen, rams and catapults. The next attack had a noble in it, but they lost it too (BWAH!HA!HA!). I'd taken some heavy losses to be sure and even with all the support I'd put in the main village, eventually the math of defeat would hit me at which point I'd just quit (though I'd have the option to start over in a new village in an undeveloped area of the map).

I had sent some in-game e-mails to some of the attackers for the heck of it. One guy told me he'd organized this attack. OK, no big deal. Another one sent me an e-mail about how I was dead. What?! How is this game going to kill me? Loser.

After The attackers lost a another noble in their 3rd attack, the "Organizer" e-mailed me and told me something along the lines of, "Stop resisting us! We are going to take your village whether you like it or not. However, if you stop resisting us, we will allow you to keep your other village. Comply or we will wipe you off of this world."

Oh no! What ever will I do? In the course of playing a GAME, how dare I make them pay for the village they are about to noble? Whah!

I absolutely hate it when people seem to think I have some of my life-force tied into this game. It is a bloody game for crying out loud. Yet these guys (and one girl) are acting like this is some life-or-death struggle with consequences to me personally.

So I e-mailed Organizer back and told him to get a life as this was only a game and frankly, I didn't care how many troops he and his tribe mates lost.

"You've just forfeited your 2nd village! Prepare to die."

Yeah, whatever loser. If you think that's going to make me lose sleep, you've got another thing coming.

Savage Piper, who'd been looking for an excuse to lessen his TW time, decided to launch some attacks at the one chick who'd lost the most troops thus far attacking me. I too launched my offensive troops (which I made sure weren't in my village during any of the attacks, thus were still at full strength) at her because we realized she was the weak link. She'd lost nearly everything attacking me.

Our counter-attacks brought a flurry of e-mails. Some said "we are going to kill you" and "we aren't going to noble your 2nd village, we will make it an example to all who defy us" in addition to other stuff.

Sheeze. I guess when the Tribal Wars servers go down, you must have a stroke. Losers.

The girl, whom we counter-attacked, wrote us crying, "Why are attacking me? That's so unfair. I lost all of my arm-mees so why are you attacking me? Stop attacking me!"

What?! You send attacks at me and then cry when we counter-attack you? What a loser. We sent her more attacks.

One of the actual nice members of the tribe, who had a village just below me, sent me an e-mail saying, "Sorry about this dude. You know how it is." Yeah, I do know and I told him that I hoped he'd be the one to get the village, just because he wasn't being a TW-loser.

Well, he did take it, but the funny thing is, his tribe punished him for doing it since they decided to give it to Crybaby because she'd lost so much. So he ended up being wiped off the map.

When Savage Piper and I saw this, we continued our harassment until they wiped me out of my 2nd village. Savage Piper continued to harass them, but they told him he wasn't worth their time and they did nothing about him.

Really? Heh!heh!heh! Doom on you, suckers.

Savage Piper took a month to build up an offensive army to destroy one village. Sometimes, bastards and losers need to be reminded that a game is a game, not real life. In the grand scheme of things, our attack won't matter much, but it will take our chosen victim's village several days to recover. The fact that they have to waste time doing that instead of doing other stuff they'd rather do made us giggle.

During that time, they took over more villages and began to bloviate on how god-like they are. That made our plotting even more fun. Clearly, who would dare attack them as they are members of a humongous tribe? "Bow down!" they'd say. "We are gods. We rule our continent. No one may defy us. Death to all who are not us!"

Eventually, Savage Piper reminded them that this is just a game with an attack that included multiple fake attacks to prevent them from knowing which village was going to go down. The attack, which took time to reach its target, immediately drew all kinds of hate mail. There were threats about killing Savage Piper in painful ways, calling him various slurs that would get folks charged with hate crimes in the real world, and other threatening things that had us laughing.

After the attack hit and Savage Piper and I laughed about the massive pain he'd just inflected upon one of those losers. That brought another flurry of rage-filled rantings that had Savage Piper and I shaking our heads. Yep, its a game and some folks take it way to seriously.

Savage Piper and I went on to play on other servers until we got bored and quite forever. In that time, I don't think we ever encountered people who took the game even half as serious as the losers we battled with in this story. Frankly, I just can't understand how someone can take a game so seriously when games are supposed to be fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T00:00:00.004-07:00

I want to wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving (well, for those of you who celebrate it). For those members of the armed services serving overseas, my thoughts and prayers are with you. For anyone else who has to work on Thanksgiving, my sympathies. *lol* I can laugh because I would have been among you, had I not been downsized. ^_^;

Me Eye!

2008-11-26T14:54:00.004-07:00

Well, just got back from the ophthalmologist office. Looks like I had a minor abrasion of the cornea, likely due to my eye being open while I slept OR opening my eye when I woke up this morning and the pillow case touching my eyeball. Fortunately, this is a minor thing and should be completely healed in 48-hours.

Whew! While I wasn't too worried, there was always a chance that there was something serious going on with my eye. Thankfully, that was not the case (and yes, I was thanking God profoundly for being so kind to me in this regard). ^_^

Interesting thing about my visit to the ophthalmologist is that the facility is pretty large. I gather they do just about everything that can be done with an eyeball there and considering the size of the place, I believe it. Pretty impressive all the way around.

Now that I'm getting older, I guess I should get my eyes checked once a year (or so) just to make sure they are still functioning within normal parameters. ^_^;

Yikes! My Eye!

2008-11-26T05:06:00.005-07:00

Man, I woke up with a little surprise this morning -- my left eye is now has blurry, double-vision and it is pretty troublesome. I hope it is something temporary but it would figure that as soon as I have no medical insurance, a medical issue comes up. *chuckle*

We'll see what happens but if it doesn't clear up soon, I'll have to see an eye doctor about this. I've done some looking on the Internet and it is possible I may need a hard contact for my left eye in the end. I'm going to wish for this to self-correct, especially since it makes being on the computer a nuisance.

Drug Experiments with Spiders

2008-11-24T15:40:00.003-07:00

I think this video speaks for itself. ^_^

Thanks Paul for sharing it. ^_^

And So Another Chapter Ends

2008-11-22T00:11:00.002-07:00

As expected, I am now officially unemployed. It happened about an hour ago when my boss came in to do the official stuff. Even earlier tonight when I told Savage Piper that I wouldn't be in come Wednesday night (I expected to be called on my day off to come in and be let go), he didn't think it would come down to that. As such, we made a little bet. He lost (and I wants my TokyoJoe's ^_~ ). So now comes an end to this chapter in my life.

I look back over the six years and while The Company has to be one of the poorest run corporations in the world (which is saying something, considering I worked for WorldCom once upon a time), I will say that once I became an ETE, I was paid what I was worth. While that won't stop me from needing to vent from time to time, it does mean that I always go above and beyond the call of duty when needed. No matter what I do, I always do the job I'm paid for, but one can always go an extra mile when one is paid well for what one does. For the last ~3.4 years, I have to say I've been paid well.

I'll miss all my co-workers, especially my final crew -- Taco's Rule, Savage Piper, and Red Baron. There's always a good chance of seeing them here or there and a better one of "seeing" them online. It would be nice to catch the next Starfest with Lepidus too (who went to the sunny side), but we'll see how things go. ^_^;

To my fellow comrades who got cut (The King, Billie, Race Car, KC, and anyone else let go tomorrow or the following days), I wish you guys the best in your job searches. The word "change" was overused during the political campain which makes our current "change" in situation reveal that the word has as many negative posibilities as positive ones. However, all we can do (as my old boss Jimmy used to tell me) is take our bag of lemons and make lemonade.

To everyone else still at The Company who might read this, good luck to you as well. Feel free to write at any time.

Three Months...Maybe Not

2008-11-15T22:28:00.004-07:00

Today marks the 3-month point to when my ETE term expires. Hopefully, I can have three more months to save money so that if I don't get one of these other two jobs in the Company come January (when hiring should begin again), I have plenty of money to survive for a while without a job. However, I don't expect to go another three months. I expect to be laid off the week of Thanksgiving.

It is sad to see how many accounts are just leaving the Company. Those that aren't leaving, the Company is desperate to send to India or Brazil, even when it is illegal to do so (for which they got nailed, though it is a "simple mistake" officially). The accounts that were supposed come to replace our losses now won't be here until January at the earliest. Thus, my manager has to get rid of a lot of people. With only three months left on my ETE, I figure I'm one of the perfect choices to be let go.

But I'm not alone here. More and more people are going to be let go before Christmas in other departments. Eventually, the "showcase" and "mission critial" command center will have almost no one in here. In 2002, this room would have been full as would the other two major command centers in our building and two small command centers. A/o December 1, only one major command center will remain, and it will be all but empty. Management claims that "something" will be in here. We figure they'll put manikins in here, or hire day laborers to pretend to be working on something. ^_~

If I'm let go after next week, I'll start looking seriously at where I want to go from here. If I'm let go in three months, I will hopefully have some clue as to what I want to do. If I'm picked in the meantime, sobeit. No matter what, I have to remember to look to the Lord and not to myself. ^_^

Cats Being Cats

2008-11-15T08:24:00.003-07:00

With my recently keeping my parents' cat, I couldn't help but smile when I saw this picture from an anonymous Japanese uploader.

There's No Money in the Training Budget

2008-11-06T17:00:00.001-07:00

We have this fairly large account called "Big Road Bank" (BRB). The account has been with The Company for a number of years, but the new executives in charge of things there have decided that they do not wish to outsource their work. Thus, they have begun to transition servers and support slowly back in-house to be completed by 2010. No problems thus far.

The Company is clearly not happy about losing such a big account, so as BRB begins transitioning the account in-house, The Company is desperately trying to get the account to India so that they can maximize their profits for the last year it is around. Thus, a big chunk of our work is leaving us to go to India for now. The Company wants us to train the Indians to do our job. However, there is a caviot -- there is no money to train them.

What?

For other accounts that The Company rushes to get to India or Brazil, two things happen. Initially, members from the offshore team come to the U.S. for two weeks to start learning to do the jobs. Then a couple of people from the U.S. head to India or Brazil for a week or two to insure things are up and running smoothly. This helps minimize the impact to the customer for the transition.

So, how do we train Indians with no training budget?

"Oh, you use our Instant Messaging tool. They log into your ticketing system and work all BRB tickets. You will be in a chat with them and they will pester you with tons of questions about the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. That's the best way."

Because Indians do not operate without a tight script or flowchart, we have increased our ticket count. Why? Because whereas we in the U.S. know that a CPU running high, paging rates, or other "who cares" alerts can be sat on until we see the problem go away, India does not do that. These servers are supported by other teams so the tickets have to be sent there. The System Admins or other support people see these worthless SEV 3 tickets (which BRB won't get rid of) and immediately close them as "server working as normal" even if the conditions that caused the alert have not stopped. That means that we get another alert and another ticket whereas before, we would sit on the ticket and monitor until things returned to normal.

Further, because the Indians are so "by the book" oriented, they give us constant updates.

"We see ticket in the queue."
"We open ticket in the queue."
"We see this is SEV 3 ticket for Oracle to look at."
"We transfer ticket to Oracle Support."
"Ticket is transfered."
"We are waiting for another ticket."

It is interesting that as The Company continues to rapidly send stuff to India and Brazil, conditions continue to degrade that make it a cost savings for The Company. The Brazilian folks have proven to be pretty dumb when it comes to IT/IS work (not all, but most) so The Company is sending more and more work to India instead. However, the Indians are expecting more and more money (how dare they?), so much so that the projections we are told is that by 2013, it will cost the same to work stuff out of India as it does out of the U.S. If thats true, this is a huge waste of time and energy for what will ammount to a very small cost savings in the end.

Well, who am I other than a worker bee who tries to do the best job he can, only to have the executive bees make a right mess of things for their own 6-figure cost-cutting bonuses?

Five Myths About the Great Depression

2008-11-05T03:32:00.004-07:00

The Wall Street Journal Online has an interesting article about some myths regarding the Great Depression. Some of this I already knew (such as President Hoover being a liberal Republican and that government policies to "help" people actually caused more problems) but some was new to me. In many ways, I can see the U.S. heading down the same road today because our view of history sadly starts from the time of our first memories. Anything before that is just stuff that happened to other people (assuming it is accurately taught).

Sheeze, I'm Glad It's Over

2008-11-04T23:06:00.002-07:00

I am glad the election is finally over. Sadly, in a very short time, the politicians will begin campaigns for the 2010 election because frankly, it has just about become a case where all they do is work to stay in power and that disgusts me.

Still, for a little while, no more phone calls telling me how firefighters, police, and teachers will be silenced if certain amendments pass (amendments, which frankly actually help people who don't wish to have anything to do with a union but are forced to by union thug rules and laws), no more calls telling me to vote for this or vote against that, period. Sweet, sweet, relief.

I am amazed by my state though. People who've lived in Colorado for years (this includes a lot of liberals and Democrats) complain bitterly about how Californians are wrecking our state. Immigrant Californians come to Colorado to flee the absolute mess of higher taxes and everything else that goes on over there. These two groups then come together and begin electing the same kinds of leaders and passing the same kinds of ballot initiatives that caused the mess in California that they both complain about in the first place. What the smeg is up with that kind of thinking?

Anyway, I figure that our country is in for another Jimmy Carter time, and that's not good. We'll see what happens though.

"Thriller" Video 25 Years Old

2008-11-01T22:05:00.003-06:00

It was yesterday apparently, but in honor of the Michael Jackson video, I give the Indian version with Buffalax subtitles. ^_^

Fun in the Middle of the Night

2008-10-07T03:00:00.003-06:00

Since I keep a weird schedule, I was up at 01:00 this morning. Around 01:30, I was on the computer when the fire alarm went off. Our condo building not only has smoke detectors, but a fire suppression system complete with fire alarm. My first thought was, "did my sprinkler system go off somewhere?" I performed a check of all three floors of my condo and no sprinklers were active.

*sigh*

Well, time to get dressed and head out into the chilly night to see if my place is the only one impacted or if it is the whole unit. Fortunately, it was the whole unit and all of us congregated in groups that mixed and mingled at times, almost like a neighborhood social. I'm sure the other building residents near us were happy by the alarm noise and our chatter. ^_^;

Two different fire companies arrived and after getting access to the fire closet, they made a discovery -- the panel in our building had no useful information, nor could the alarm be shut off from that location. Nice. So a truck was dispatched to the club house where the master fire control sits. Those fire fighters reported there is a water flow problem. Thirty minutes later, there was still a water flow problem being registered by the system. So to get the alarm to be silenced, the fire department placed our building into "trouble mode" which means that until they find out what's tripping the water flow sensor, our building is not going to alarm for fires (though the smoke detectors will still work).

Unlike the others, I'm fortunate in that I didn't have to work today. I felt bad for the others who had to work today, one woman saying she was going to have to get up at 03:45. ^_^;;; Just another fun part of being a home owner though (specifically, a condo-home owner).

Computers and Cigarettes

2008-09-24T22:38:00.005-06:00

My friend Tacos Rule sent me this image.

I saw this and laughed. I had a flashback to my first roommate in Japan. He chain-smoked at times, ash falling all over his Commodore 128 as he's play a version of Ultima IV, which he'd hacked (a simple slingshot could kill a dragon). Most of his caloric intake was from generic sodas and sadly, his bathing habits were pretty infrequent. Needless to say, it was a bad combination all the way around and I was one happy so-and-so when I changed rooms and moved in with my best friend.

Ironically enough, someone told me that my former roommate met a pretty Japanese girl, got his act together (stopped smoking, started showering regularly), and got married. I hope that is true.

PS: Taco's Rule tells me that the image on the monitor is photo shopped.

UPDATE: Because not everyone goes to the individual pages or checks out the comments, Zimon66 posted the thread where Tacos Rule's doctored image came from. This is one of the most shocking things I've ever seen. I can't wait to see the reaction of Tacos Rule, Savage Piper, and Red Baron when they see this. *_*

http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=486938

Thanks a ton, Zimon66!

Another Insect Visitor

2008-09-22T01:35:00.003-06:00

I got home Sunday morning and found a praying mantis on the window screen. The critter wasn't very large, but I just had to get a picture. I'm sure it appreciated my spoiling its breakfast plans (just look at the way it is looking at me ^_^; ).

Sorry about that, Little One. There are plenty of other insects and spiders all over that you can eat. ^_^

My Favorite "Old School" Jam

2008-09-16T02:08:00.003-06:00

Back as a teenager trying to determine which musical genre would be the one that best fit me, this song by Pretty Tony (Fix It in the Mix) is what I think ultimately made me an electro-funk, hip-hop (and dance music) fan. ^_^

Ah, memories. I still love this song no matter how many times I hear it. ^_^

When It Is Your Time, It Is Your Time

2008-09-14T01:29:00.002-06:00

Everyone dies, but it is still a shock to me when someone I know very well passes away. It is more shocking for some reason when said person happened to be one of your doctors.

Some of you may recall my little adventure with a bloody nose that happened in January 2005. That was followed with seeing my Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) doctor for the first time, Doctor Dennington. I finally had surgery on my nose in April 2006 which was performed by Dr. Dennington. I received word today that he passed away in a rafting accident over the summer. He was 57.

When my nose finaly stopped bleeding after my 3rd trip to the ER, I went to my normal physicial (as instructed by the hospital) to have the packing removed from my nose. However, my doctor informed me that I needed to see an ENT doctor and immediately refered me to Dr. Dennington. Fortunately, Dr. Dennington had an opening. Dr. Dennington was a nice, professional doctor who was pretty effecient in what he did. Unfortunately, the act of walking into his office was $120 followed by $580 to have the packing removed from my nose (I found out all this later when I had to pay most of my medical expenses out of pocket...gotta love the medical insurance nightmare scheme Senator Ted Kennedy helped bestowed upon us many, many years ago).

I digress.

While Dr. Dennington's bills were a great shock to someone who actually had to pay them (as opposed to having some insurance company pay everything save for a small co-pay or detuctable, which is what I was used to), he quickly saw some problems with my nose and recommended surgery. If it could help, I was all for it and eventually after I had some better insurance (meaning the majority of the nasty costs were paid by someone else, though I still had to pay a ton), I went in for my surgery.

I never wrote about this after my surgery, but despite the warning that Dr. Dennington gave me about my nose possibly being in great pain, there was no pain. In fact, once the packing was removed from my nose and all of the clots cleansed from my nostriles (thanks to a nifty nasal attachment to a waterpic that the good doctor gave me), I breathed well through my nose for the first time since I was a child.

I had to see Dr. Dennington a lot after my surgery...too often for my tastes since I don't like having to go to see a doctor. However, he attempted to make the visits as quick and easy as possible for my sake. We would talk about different things while he did his exam or while . I felt comfortable enough to joke with him about how much a trip to see him ended up costing me and he had no problem with that, even joking about it himself.

After a while, I stopped seeing Dr. Dennington because there was nothing else he could do for me regarding the ongoing nasal crusting issue I have. That said, I will miss Dr. Dennington now that he has passed on. He was a good ENT doctor and he was well-rewarded financially for that, enough so that he could do what he loved on a regular basis -- head to the great outdoors with his family.

My thoughts and prayers go with his family as well as to his office staff, whom I got to know quite well.

Sleep!

2008-09-12T03:42:00.002-06:00

Man, I get a few days off to get some things done and to my amazement, I have had the darnedest time trying to convert from a night shift mode to a day mode. Every stinking night, I wake up at 02:30 and then I'm awake for a few hours before crashing again. Thursday, I got up at 09:00 and thought, "No naps today. I'll keep myself awake and that way on Thursday night, I won't have a problem." It was difficult, but I managed to do it and yet at 02:30 on the dot, I'm wide awake again. *sigh* So much for the cooler temperatures and the rain helping me sleep.

Oh well. I feel some heavy caffeine coming my way today. ^_^;

AstroNerdBoy: Home Owner 10

2008-08-16T16:44:00.002-06:00

"Rain drops keep falling on my head..."

In Colorado, it doesn't rain much, and when it does, it is usually a thundershower that's here for a short while and then gone again. The last couple of days have seen us get real rain -- 2-inches in the last couple of days as the rain goes on for hours on end. With the rain has come a "the planet is on fire" temperature of about 50º (plus or minus a couple). In the mountains, the temperature is much, MUCH, colder as they are getting hammered with snow. Yep, it is mid-August and the mountain passes have chain law requirements due to all the snow.

So, how does this impact me as a home owner?

Well, thanks to some quality ground packing when the building was constructed, my front step w/ walk and most of my patio are literally falling away from the building as the ground beneath it is sinking. This has also caused the added effect of changing the drainage around the place so that there's now standing water in places where there shouldn't be. Further, one of the ground drains appears to be clogged (looks like it is full of grass clippings).

So far, this doesn't really impact me, but after talking to Alaska-K (who was out getting his mail), I decided to have a peek in my basement just to make sure no water came up from beneath the structure. No problems there, but there was a small amount of water coming in from the basement window. This was because the escape well had a good 2-inches of water in it, which put the water level right at the bottom of the window.

Nice.

Fortunately, there was a lull in the rain and so I had to come up with a solution to keep the next rain shower (which radar shows is on the way) from filling the well up again. I just happened to have some plastic, which I used to cover the well grate and hopefully, that'll keep most of the water out.

Come Monday, the HOA and I will have to have a little chat about the drainage problem. Granted, these kind of rain events are rare for Colorado, but they do happen and next time, I want to make sure the water is drained away properly. At the same time, I want to see what they are going to do about the patio and step falling away. They've already mud-jacked it a couple of times according to my information (obviously before I lived there) and another mud-jacking would simply be another band-aid, but better than nothing.

Yikes!

2008-08-09T12:55:00.003-06:00

Coming home from Japanese class this morning, I came upon this scary scene.

I don't know if anyone was hurt or not. The truck had some sort of tank and hoses which were leaking. Hazmat was on the scene and since they were letting us by, whatever was released couldn't have been super bad.

Still, I'm wondering how he could have tipped over like that since there is nothing that would immediately seem to cause it (such as a steep turn or the like).

Oh. Sorry about the dirty window. I didn't realize how much my car needed washing until I looked at this cell phone camera shot. ^_^;

So, I'm 39

2008-08-04T00:00:00.001-06:00

'Tis my final year to be a 30-something year old person. *lol* My 39th year should prove to be interesting considering my unstable job situation and an executive determined to send all jobs below the executive level overseas (even if it means the destruction of The Company, but that's not her concern). Still, a manager of mine from many moons ago used to tell me that when life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. So I may complain, but with God's help, I've always made lemonade (may not be the best-tasting stuff mind you, but it isn't lemons).

Looking back over the last year, I accomplished something I had begun to wonder if I'd ever achieve; I became a home owner. It is still amazing to me to think that I own this place, but I'm am glad to be in this position and Lord willing, I'll be able to hang around here for a while.

So, any plans for the next year?

Well, I plan to continue my Japanese studies. I just picked up a server for cheap, so I may try to score some certifications. I also have an itch in the back of my mind to write again. Maybe I'll do just that.

So, happy birthday to me, y'all. I think I'll play me some Pirates! Argh!

Space: Above and Beyond

2008-07-31T00:00:00.003-06:00

***
Space: Above and Beyond - The Complete Series

I remember when Space: Above and Beyond was announced to be a new Fox show for the fall of 1995. It was an exciting but frustrating time to be a sci-fi fan. On TV, Earth 2 had been canceled as had Brisco County Jr. The series seaQuest failed to impress me (the second season killed it for me), but Babylon 5 was somehow making it in syndication and Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was going into its third season.

Space: Above and Beyond centered around a group of multi-purpose marines belonging to the 58th "Wildcards" Squadron. They have different reasons for joining the marines but when war breaks out with an alien race known as the "Chigs," they are assigned to the space carrier USS Saratoga. While they are primarily pilots flying SA-43 Endo/Exo-Atmospheric Attack Jet fighters (known as Hammerheads), they also do special ops missions (even on the ground), regular ground force missions, and cargo transport missions.

I recently re-watched the series for the first time since it was canceled after a single season. Looking back, I can see some things that I think caused the show to fail.

For starters, the pilot is a laughable episode. These "marines" look like what they are -- civilian actors pretending to be marines and not doing a very good job. Seriously, give these people real military hair cuts! Half-way through the series, the cast all received hair cuts that would be seen a lot in the Air Force, but not for Marines. The actors never made me think they were marines and that is its first and biggest problem.

Next is the mission of the marines in this series. It costs a lot of money to train folks to be pilots. While marine pilots would have many jobs that aren't in the cockpit (and potentially in combat), the military isn't going to take a fighter squadron and send them on a Seal mission. While marine aviators are trained to fight on the ground (and in history, pilots with no plane have indeed fought to defend a position), the military wouldn't just send them to do some military ground operation when there are plenty of other marine ground troops that can handle the situation.

Unfortunately, the writers of Space: Above and Beyond apparently couldn't find enough stories for pilots (even when throwing them into a cargo transport) and so had our group of aviators do jobs that they would not do. So, another strike on the old believability scale.

Because the first half of the series has shaky stories and less than stellar performances (no offense to the actors), I think that doomed the series. The 2nd half of the series made improvements to the stories and the actors became better with their roles. An attempt to make the cast feel more like a military unit helped and the writers inserted a throw-away scene with the 58th's commander addressing the believability issue I mention earlier established that the 58th Squadron weren't just pilots, but were marines and that meant that they could be sent to do ANY marine-related job. Yeah, whatever.

There were items of interest though. There were several plots that intertwined, including the overall arc of the Chig War, the thread of whether the corporation knew about the Chigs when they sent out to colony settlements, the previous A.I. War, and the "tanks" where humans that were artificially created and born in labs to fight are discriminated against.

Unfortunately, as things had begun to improve story-wise, the series was canceled and the audience is left with quite a few unanswered questions and a war that is still being waged.

It is a shame the series didn't get another season to help prove itself. The first season or two of any long-running series is going to be a bit rough.

Today, the show's CGI work for space shots look very dated. Even back in 1995, the effects looked a bit rough at times (mostly for the carriers), especially when compared to Babylon 5's CGI work.

Rewatching the series, I'm not sure if I'll ever want to rewatch it again. So I can see why the show was canceled, but I still would have preferred it to be given more time to prove itself.

Sneaky Nigerians

2008-07-25T12:01:00.003-06:00

I received an interesting e-mail from Mr. Ra, my Realtor, on Wednesday.

***

Hello,
I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Africa for a program called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism,HIV/AIDS,and Lack of Education,the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which areGhana,Togoland and Nigeria,I am presently in Lagos Nigeria.

I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where i lodged my wallet which contains my money,and other valuable things were kept.I will like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently with the sum of $3,400 US Dollars to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home.

I will appreciate whatever you can afford, i 'll pay you back as soon as i return.
Kindly look for any western union and use this informations below to send me whatever you can afford.

Name : Mr. Ra
Address :171 jones High St
Zip code:23401
State :Lagos
Country :Nigeria
Test Question :To who?
Answer : Mr. Ra
Amount send $:?

Once you have it sent, please send me the money transfer control number,with details used in sending it.
I await to read from you.

Best Regards,
Mr. Ra

***

I was still half-asleep when I read it, but an alarm went off in my head. I took a 2nd look and thought, "you sneaky Nigerian bastards."

I gave Mr. Ra a call to let him know he'd been hacked, just in case he didn't know. He knew and was trying to fix the issue, apologizing for the inconvenience. It is no big thing for me and hopefully, no one abused him for this. That said, it is amazing what the scammers will do in order to separate people from their money. ^_^;

Techno Chicken

2008-07-16T01:04:00.004-06:00

I've never seen the Domino's commercial, but I did see a clip of this on Red Eye a few minutes ago and well...

The only thing that would make this "perfect" would be if the chicken wore a kilt. ^_~

AstroNerdBoy: Home Owner 09

2008-07-11T21:57:00.002-06:00

AstroNerdBoy vs. the Swallows

I like birds for the most part. Yeah, the bird crap on the side walks or on cars can be annoying, but there's just something cool about birds. Maybe it is because they can fly.

Every spring and summer, the swallows come and build their mud nests all over the place. I never paid them much attention in the past when I lived in various apartment complexes. I'd see their nests and the piles of bird poop, but it wasn't any big deal. Now that I own my place, I have to pay attention to where the birds build a nest.

While it may not be common, swallows who build one of their mud nests over an exterior sprinkler head will sometimes causes those sprinklers to go off. Not only would that destroy their nest and kill the baby birds, it would also cause major problems for myself and potentially the other residence in my condo building.

My neighbor Alaska-K and I were talking about this very thing when I moved in and the need to make sure the swallows don't build a nest on the fire sprinkler (I think there's a code issue as well). So I make sure to check my patio where the sprinkler head is on a regular basis since I know these little birds can build a nest in no time.

One pair of swallows built a nest up under a ledge of my condo, but because they weren't harming anything, I left them alone. However, they decided to tell some of their swallow friends, "Yo! This dude has a cool place. Someone should come over and build a nest on his exterior fire suppression sprinkler." So, a couple of swallows decided to do just that. Every day for a week, the swallows would build the base of their nest. Every morning, I'd knock it down and then hose down the area to clean up the last of the mud from the sprinkler and the wall.

Needless to say, the swallows weren't to happy with me. By day three, they brought all their friends over and chirped angrily. Well, I can understand them being upset, but it is time for them to move on for both our good. By day four, I wondered how long this little war between myself and the swallows would keep up. Since they were angrily chirping again and flying all around, I decided that maybe they'd get the message if I played a little "Duck Hunt," using my water hose nozzle instead of a game controller gun. That proved pretty entertaining, especially when they'd fly right into the line of fire. However, I needed to get some sleep so I didn't play with the birds for very long.

Day six came and sure enough, the swallows had started another nest. I performed my usual nest removal procedure and made plans to erect something that would prevent the swallows from reaching the sprinkler, but would not interfere with the sprinkler in case of fire. Day seven came and I was amazed at what I found -- no new nest attempt. A week later, still no new nest attempts. I won.

I'm still going to have to look into getting something to be a barrier to swallows trying to access the sprinkler head. I remember seeing something using chicken wire (or the like) when I was house hunting but I'll see what options are available.

This little episode is another one of those little things that a home owner has to deal with. *chuckle* However, I'm more than happy to deal with it if it means I own my own place. ^_^

I Can't Drive 55

2008-07-05T00:00:00.003-06:00

Senator John Warner from Virginia feels you are driving too fast. Since he wants to be perceived as "caring" and doing something about your pain at the gas pump, he's proposed that the national speed limit be returned to 55. That's just nuts and so I sent the Senator this letter.

***

Senator Warner,

I know you are not my senator, however, you ARE trying to make my life more difficult and therefore I am writing to you regarding your desire to return us to a national speed limit of 55. I'm sorry sir, but that's unacceptable. What, should we bow to Mother and Father Government? "The government is mother. The government is father. The government knows what is best for you because you are too stupid to know what to do yourself."

Sheeze, sir. You know, if I want to reduce my own costs for fuel, guess what? I drive less. I can carpool. I can drive slower ON MY OWN WITHOUT YOU MANDATING IT! It is called freedom.

Do high gas prices suck? You bet. But I don't need the stupid government being a freaking nanny telling me, "Drive 55 to save money!" Why don't you watch what I eat, monitor my weight, force me to exercise, etc. while you are at it. I'm sure that will save money as well.

Thank you for your "concern" but frankly, the solution to the gas problem is not for you to make me drive 55.

Happy Independence Day

2008-07-04T00:00:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone in the United States a happy 4th of July! Granted, most of us just see it as a day for fireworks, grilling, and a day off, but when the 13 colonies declared independence from British rule, it meant war and almost certain death for people who signed the declaration. Yet that terrible war led us to where we are today and I for one can't imagine a better country on Earth in which to live. ^_^

So I hope you all have a great time today. I know I am, even though I'll be working (but I'll be earning double time, y'all).

AstroNerdBoy: Home Owner 08

2008-07-02T00:34:00.002-06:00

Part of the fun of owning a condo is having a Home Owners Association to take care of certain aspects of things, such as mowing the grass, painting the buildings, or dealing with the sewage.

When our condominium complex was built, for whatever reason, grinder pits (also known as "grinder pumps") were installed at ever building. For those that don't know, these are big tanks that store your sewage. Once the tank gets to a certain level, the grinders turn everything in the tank into slurry and it is then pumped to the main sewer line in the street. That can be quite a ways away, depending on how far a building is from the street (the roads through the complex do not currently have sewage lines).

Regardless of the reason a proper sewage system wasn't put into place, the grinder pits cost us home owners a lot, somewhere on the order of $80,000 a year. That's a lot of money that our association fees cover. Plus, these things can malfunction, which is why we are told that if the big, red "fire engine" light goes off, we are to call the number on the sign at the grinder pit immediately. Some units have had sewage back up into their basement when the grinder pits fail.

As such, the HOA decided to install a proper, gravity sewage system on the complex. They took bids and as these things go, the low bid won. An HOA meeting was held Monday evening with the contractor making a presentation on the work to be done over the next few months to convert us off the grinder pits to the gravity sewers. I think the thing that surprised me most was how few home owners even bothered to show. Discounting the members of the HOA and their spouses, there were only about 10 of us there. One would think that major construction on the property would have brought out a lot more people.

Regardless, things won't be quite as bad as we feared. The city is requiring the contractor to fill in the trenches down the roads through the complex that they dig up to install sewage lines at the end of each work day. So for the section currently under construction, those garages will not be accessible from 08:00 until about 17:00. After that, people can use their garages again until the following morning. Also, there will be no work done on weekends and each section should be done in 2-3 days, meaning those garages won't be blocked again until it is time to repave all the drives that weave through the complex.

So, the next few months will be interesting for the complex. I imagine a lot of angry people showing up once construction starts considering how few people came to the meeting.

I Found Mothra

2008-07-01T20:11:00.003-06:00

I came back from my meeting Tuesday evening to discover Mothra resting on the screen to my sliding glass door.

Man, I've never seen a moth that big before. ^_^;

Those Jobs are Reserved

2008-06-22T19:05:00.004-06:00

Since I know The Company has no interest in my welfare and no interest in doing the right thing and converting me from Extended Tenure Extra (ETE) employee status to regular status, I have begun looking (with my manager's blessing) for other opportunities within the company to become a regular. As I mentioned previously, I interviewed for an on-site System Admin slot on the new team that's being created. While I had a some hope that this would happen, the reality of the situation is that the ONLY way I would be hired was if the hiring manager couldn't get enough regular The Company employees to apply and transfer departments. If that happened, then the hiring manager could go to his boss and say, "We can't get enough applicants to apply and we have this ETE who'd be perfect for the job. Let's convert him and bring him on board."

Well, the manager just barely received enough applicants so that bringing me on was not an option. It figures but that's life.

Anyway, my even getting an interview was an exception to the rules The Company has laid out. You see, if a manager gets permission to either back-fill a regular Company slot on his team OR he gets an FTE (budget to hire a Full Time Employee, which in this case, we'll assume is a regular Company employee position) for a newly created slot on his team, then that manager will post the job on the internal Company job posting site. ETE employees may not apply for those jobs, making their chances of getting on as a regular much harder. Further, if a manager has posted a job and it is slotted as "regular," then he can't hire an ETE anyway. He can only hire those employees at The Company who are already designated as regular employees. Thus, the system is further rigged against ETE's.

However, let us say that a manager wants to hire from without The Company. Then said manager would post the job on the external website and people outside could apply.

This is where things get interesting. Did you know that on most company job pages, a great many of those jobs are already "taken?" It is true.

In the case of The Company, a manager may already know whom he wishes to hire. However, said manager has to post the job on the external site to give the pretense of making it available to everyone.

So, lets say my manager wanted to play with the system this way and that he has permission to create a new regular slot on his team and that he has permission to hire outside The Company. However, his true goal is to hire me, thus making me a regular employee. So, he'd submit the paperwork to HR, have the budget approved, and then HR would post the job on the external site. My manager would then tell me, "OK AstroNerdBoy. I want you to go to the external site and apply for job #ABC123." I'd then go and apply for said job.

My manager would then be sent not only my resume, but the resume's of someone like you who may have applied. Your resume wouldn't even get looked at because the job was already reserved for me. My manager then might go through the formality of an interview and then I'd get a packet in the mail with a job offer from The Company.

Ain't that sweet?

It is not just The Company that does this. I know for a fact that many large companies do this. I won't mention any names, but that's the way it is and that's what I'm up against as I attempt to find a regular slot via the external Company site. Those managers already have contractors or ETE folks they've already decided to bring on board and the job posting is a fake, designed to fulfill Company requirements.

Frankly, The Company should allow an ETE to apply for internal jobs and be converted that way without this underhanded, sneaky crap they (and other companies) pull.

Still, I may get lucky and score a real job. Maybe.

Cool Medieval Music

2008-06-15T00:01:00.003-06:00

While giving the Savage Piper some much deserved grief over his piping ways, Taco's Rule decided it would be cool to find some techno piping videos. Somehow, that lead to our finding this German, medieval band with this cool-sounding song (at least we thought so).

If only these guys were at the Renaissance Festival. ^_^

Corvus Corax -- Saltarello Ductia

Note: Updated with new file. *_*

AstroNerdBoy: Home Owner 07

2008-06-12T12:00:00.001-06:00

This past weekend, my parents came up to check out my new place. More importantly, my dad agreed to help me with a few projects that needed doing. The catch was that (1) I had to take them to lunch and (2) I'd be doing most of the work as Dad would supervise and assist when needed. No problem on either account.

The biggest project took place in the basement with the installation of a new light socket. Prior to Saturday, there were only two (the basement being unfinished) -- one in the center of the room from the base of the stairs and one to the right to illuminate the water heater, furnace, and A/C. On the left side was darkness and that's where the movers stashed a good many of my boxes. So, installing a light there would make it easier to find things.

We had to run wiring from the right light across the basement to the left since the center light was feeding power to the right light. Putting up the box for the socket was no problem, but running the wire across the room ended up being more trouble than initially thought. This was partially due to the fact that we were running the wire alongside water and gas pipes. While that in and of itself wouldn't be too bad, some of the knock-out plugs in the beams (designed just for running wires through) hadn't been properly cut and thus we had to drill through. Working the drill in such tight quarters with the fire sprinkler system and the outdoor gas feed was a bit tricky.

However, I made it through and and began wiring the socket in the new box. This meant using wire strippers for the first time, to say nothing of carefully cutting open the casing bundling the hot, cold, and ground wires. Once secured and installed, it was time to connect the wiring to the right light. I've never worked with electrical stuff before, so even though Dad killed the lights and I verified no juice came into the socket, I remained a bit nervous about handling the wiring. I soon overcame that and eventually got the new wires connected in with the old. Dad flicked on the switch, and there was light everywhere. I made happy, pig-squealing noises. ^_^

Leaving the cleanup for later, Dad and I worked on other projects including correcting a problem with the deadbolt, fixing a problem with the master bath's tub drain, installing some new blinds in my bedroom (which was more annoying than difficult), repairing damaged molding on my entertainment center, and repairing a damaged rocker (part of a set that my parents rescued from a barn years ago and restored). A productive Saturday to say the least.

Growing up as a kid, I had no interest in learning to do any of this stuff because I didn't care about it. As an adult, I have an interest because I have my own place. I'm thankful to Dad for being willing to teach me all these years later. I learned a lot from doing these little projects and I think Dad was pretty happy to see his oldest son not only own a house (which I know my mom is happy about) but willing to learn to do things for himself. ^_^

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-06-10T08:22:00.001-06:00

Indiana Jones 4

I went to see the latest Indiana Jones with my brother last night. So I thought I'd mention the good and bad of the movie.

The Good

Marion's return. Seriously, I liked her character in Indiana Jones and was disappointed that the next movie didn't have her (but to be fair, it is a prequel so she wouldn't be in it).
The humor moments. OK, there weren't a lot for me, but my brother and I did laugh out loud a few times such as Mutt's remarks about Indy being 80 or Indy's moving from motorcycle to villain car and back. Despite being very unrealistic, I found it funny.
The references to Marcus Brody and Indy's father, complete with pictures (and in Marcus' case, a statue). I loved the moment.
Ark of the Covenant. Yeah, that was a nice moment to see the case busted open.
Nostalgia. It was Indiana Jones. 'Nuff said.

The Bad

The monkeys. The only thing that would make this scene worse would have been Mutt doing a Tarzan yell. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
The ants. I know that they needed another insect moment, but even for Indiana Jones, that was a bit much.
The fridge. Indy getting into a lead-lined fridge to survive a nuclear bomb test just SCREAMED off the screen as too much even for an Indy title. I think this may have made me cringe at least as much, if not more, than the mountain crash scene in Temple of Doom.
The special effects. Maybe it was the screen I was on, but many times, I thought the special effects were no better than those from Last Crusade and not from modern times.
No gun for Indy? We had a whip scene but I don't remember a gun at all. What's up with that?
Non-careful Indy. In the first movie, Indy was a careful guy who researched things before acting and thus avoiding traps. Indy researched the Ark of the Covenant as well. He used his father's research for the Holy Grail. For this movie, he has knowledge, but I kept thinking, "What if there's another ancient trap? Indy would be dead."
The snake rescue. I know it was supposed to be funny using a large snake as a rope, but I didn't laugh (my brother did though).
No Sallah. I was hoping that he'd show up at the wedding but oh well.

I was afraid the whole alien stuff would bother me, but in the end, I thought it was handled pretty well.

Overall, I enjoyed this as a popcorn movie. It is better than Temple of Doom but not as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade.

"I Can't Read!"

2008-06-02T13:41:00.003-06:00

Blogspot, which is owned by Google, experienced some problems today with the service, namely that most blogs were throwing up a 502 error. If folks were able to get to their Blogspot blog, it was very slow and accessing the dashboard would fail. So for a while there this morning, this was a right mess, losing Google money (how many blogs have their ads?).

Google has a place for us Blogspot folks to come when to report problems or ask advice. So I went to the problem group and saw someone had already started a thread on the problems I happened to be experiencing. So I added my problem to that discussion thread. By the time I had submitted my post, others had popped in and done the same. The only difference is that a few decided that they needed a new topic to discuss this. Some weren't satisfied with starting only one topic on this issue, but decided to post more than one.

While that was going on, most of us were discussing things in the problem thread. It was amazing that people continued to ignore the obvious "Blogspot is down" thread and continue to create new threads. Why?

I often wonder if some people even bother to read anything at times. I could understand creating a new topic when the last discussion on the problem a person is experiencing is old. However, when there's an obvious thread to discuss the outage, what makes said think that starting a new topic (or multiple new topics) is the way to go? Then they ask in their new thread, "Is anyone else having a problem?"

No. We thought we'd discuss a Blogspot outage without actually experiencing a Blogspot outage.

The most outrageous of the new posts regarding the outage was a demand from some Catholic blogger to restore his blog immediately.

Hey dope! We're all down and when our blogs are restored, your's will be restored. *_*

Oh well. I had to get that off my chest.

NWA Day "Help Da Police"

2008-05-30T21:33:00.002-06:00

Having grown up and witnessed the birth of gansta rap, I am well aware of groups like NWA and have heard their music and know how profane it is. That said, this is a version of an NWA song which I found to be outrageously funny and very, very clean. ^_^

Where's the Cost Savings?

2008-05-29T12:00:00.003-06:00

I interviewed for an on-site System Admin job within The Company the other day. It is kind of humorous because before Project Skinny, we had such a team. However, company executives desperate for their bonuses at cost cutting wiped out said team in favor of sending more work to Brazil or India. The fact that all of the servers would be remaining on-site (either here or in one of our other locations) was no consideration. The executives decided that the number of times an SA would be needed for hands-on stuff would be few and far between. So they contracted the work out to some 3rd-party vendor with a 4-hour SLA to report on-site.

So when The Company began looking for their cost savings, they weren't there. For starters, teams in Brazil, India, or wherever were taking two, three, or more people to do the same job that one American did. In some cases, this was due to the foreign managers converting the American dollars in the contract to their own currency and then hiring as many people as that would support. Thus you saw no cost savings because the same amount of money was being spent. In other cases, the problem was that there were no skilled people. As such, the "solution" was to hire more people. After all, everyone knows that four stupid people equal one smart person. What's that saying about a room full of monkeys and Shakespeare?

If that weren't bad enough of a slap in the executives face, they received another one from the massive Service Level Agreement penalties The Company paid out for every time they couldn't get a customer's servers up within the required time. Because there were no on-site SA's and the contract company had 4-hours to show up on-site, the result became a lot of angry customers threatening to pull their business and The Company losing money hand over fist. Got to love executive thinking that can't see past the end of their nose (and bonus) who thought, "Wow! We'll save so much money!" when in fact, we lost money.

This brings me back around and the executives deciding that it would be cheaper to have an on-site team to handle taking care of the physical side of the SA work (which would require us to be on the raised floors). So we'll see what happens, but if I get hired, I'm hoping that it will improve my chances of getting converted from Extended Tenure Extra employee to regular employee. The manager for this new team seemed keen to try to make that happen.

As for the overseas teams, The Company has been forced to implement rules governing how they do things when it comes to hiring (ie: if five Amercians did the work, you have to make do with five from your country and not hire 20). Having done that, The Company has been working overtime to convince every customer that can legally do so to "request" to have their stuff sent overseas. Two giant customers caved and the Indians are here working with the teams losing said accounts to learn those accounts.

I wonder how much money The Company would save by outsourcing the executive jobs to Brazil or other such place?

Rough Weather: Aftermath

2008-05-26T00:00:00.006-06:00

I went to church in Greeley today. As such, I drove through one of the areas hit by the tornadoes of the other day. At first, I didn't know what I was seeing as I initially came upon some trees which were strangely naked. Then I as I kept driving, I realized I was witnessing the tornado damage. I immediately recognized the place as one I'd seen on TV from a helicopter shot. There was the field irrigation system twisted and crumpled in places. There were the electricity poles that were blown over and some shattered like toothpicks. There was a spot where the ground look as if God had reached down with a finger as if to write on the ground. There were more trees sucked out of the ground, and more that had been stripped bare. It was truly an amazing site to behold.

I've been through hurricanes and typhoons before and I've seen the damage those cause. Those are awe inspiring because of the wide-ranged destruction they cause. This being the first time I've seen tornado damage, it inspired a different kind of awe in how some trees and structures had no damage and yet right next to the undamaged tree or structure is devastation, as if a precision bomb had been dropped (or the like). It was just an amazing thing to see.

As you might expect, Excel Energy had a lot of vehicles out and about. I'm sure there are a lot of people still without power and I'm sure that the folks tasked with restoring said power are getting massive amounts of overtime. I wish them the best.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have gone through the slew of recent tornadoes.

Rough Weather

2008-05-22T13:00:00.002-06:00

There's nothing like getting woken up to massive hail slamming into the building. Since I was awake, I checked WeatherBug just as a tornado warning came in for my immediate area. Yikes! Tornadoes had been spotted in areas nearby. We faired pretty well in the immediate area tornado-wise, but other towns and rural areas nearby got hit with other tornadoes.

I'm watching local TV (wishing I could go back to bed) but another storm is rapidly approaching fro the southeast. We may get clipped by it but there are more storms forming southeast of Denver and moving northwest. It may be a long afternoon.

AstroNerdBoy: Home Owner 06

2008-05-20T17:57:00.004-06:00

With warmer weather coming, it is only natural that I'd start using the A/C more, especially since (1) I sleep during the day and (2) the bedroom, which is upstairs, is as much as 10° warmer as the 1st floor. So that meant making some adjustments, including purchasing a couple of additional large, portable swamp coolers (both for the white noise, the extra humidity, and cooling factor as the air blows over me while I sleep) and that helped. When the A/C came on, the air was also sent through the swamp cooler and the bedroom cooled down nicely resulting in the bedroom being cooler than the 1st floor (where the thermostat is). When the A/C is off, the bedroom is only a few degrees warmer than the first floor when the A/C comes back on.

Still, there was an issue with the A/C itself in that the unit began freezing up. That meant that I either had a coolant shortage or the coils were dirty. So I called the company who initially installed the unit and scheduled an appointment for this afternoon. When I got up this afternoon, I checked the vents and the air flow happened to be weak. So I switched the unit to fan-mode with no A/C to start the thawing process.

When the tech arrived, we went down to the basement to check the unit and both the primary and backup drain pipes were dribbling water. He discovered that they'd been installed improperly and since his company was at fault, he fixed that for no charge. The tech's first thought was that the coils would be dirty. He was wrong. So it was time to check the refrigerant level. The valve covers were barely on and when there was a definite coolant shortage,
he figured that was the cause. So a pound of refrigerant later, we turned the unit back on and wa-la! It is working.

So after signing up for the bi-yearly plan to have the unit checked, cleaned, etc. as well as provide a discount on parts and labor, the tech wanted to make sure everything was OK. However, the unit had shut off and so I hit the override to turn the temp down more. The fan kicked on but the A/C never actually back came on. Nice. After a complete check of the electrical, it turned out the connector switch was the cause. He was manually able to kick the unit on, but I didn't want to take a chance. I wanted a new switch installed and of course, the tech was more than happy to oblige (more billing time).

When all was said and done, my bank account finds itself lower, but my condo now cools much, much better. Just part of the joys of home ownership, but hey, I wouldn't change a thing. ^_^

Superman vs. Mr. T

2008-05-17T00:48:00.002-06:00

Ah, YouTube. Seriously, hours and hours of entertainment from people who have a lot of free time. ^_^

Anyway, this video is a combination of old Superfriends clips and the old Mr. T cartoon, with audio from a certain, famous boxing movie. ^_^ The video depicts Superman wanting to retire and Mr. T not being happy about it. We rather enjoyed this and I think most of you will too.

Yellow Submarine

2008-05-08T22:07:00.004-06:00

Back when I was a kid, any cartoon was a good thing so when a cartoon featuring Beatles' songs was scheduled to be on prime time in the mid-70's, there was a good chance I'd get to watch it since my parents liked Beatles music. I remember only a few of things from the time I watched it in the 70's. The first is that the art was weird and there were troops who dropped big green apples on folks. The second was the song, "Yellow Submarine." The third was a scene under the sea where some boxing fish is smoking a cigar, it explodes, and the boxing bag laughs at the fish, causing the fish to beat the crap out of the boxing bag. I laughed so hard as a kid, I literally fell out of my little rocker and I couldn't stop laughing during the commercial break. My parents were amused that I had found this so funny.

Fast forward to the present day. Savage Piper, for whatever whack-job reason, sent me a link to the Yellow Submarine movie. I immediately recalled the punching bag scene and that's all I was interested in seeing. Fortunately, I did find said scene on YouTube where I discovered it wasn't a boxing fish, but some sort of underwater monster that was boxing. Well, the years will do that to one's memory. ^_^;

Thanks to gainsbourg66 for posting said clip. ^_^

"Oh yes, there is DSL in your area."

2008-05-01T22:08:00.002-06:00

I've had the worst luck with setting up thing for my condo, as I've mentioned before. A month ago, I set up the order to move my phone and Internet service from my apartment to the condo. I asked the person at Qwest to verify that DSL service was available at my condo and was assured that DSL service was available. So while the move of telephone service went off without a hitch, the DSL order was mysteriously dropped. Qwest apologized and had it set up again, assuring me that there is DSL in my area. Then the order is dropped again and re-established for today. The Qwest guy assured me that DLS is in the area and that the others had just made mistakes.

I mentioned this to my neighbors, who were surprised to learn about DSL being in the area. They'd checked into the possibility a year before and it wasn't out here. I got a bad feeling in my stomach.

When I got up this afternoon, there still was no DSL service and the promised software package still had not arrived. Using my secondary computer (which has a pretty good wireless antenna, thus I was able to get a crappy connection on a distant, unsecured wireless connection), I was able to see an e-mail from Qwest saying my most recent order is canceled. So I call Qwest and after five minutes, the girl gets back with me to tell me that there is no DSL service in my area. Nice.

*sigh*

So, I call up Comcast, who give me a bunch of nonsense but after being transfered to a fourth person (who was in customer service), I think I'll have high-speed Internet by Sunday. We'll see though. Meanwhile, my kind neighbors have given me access to their wireless router, so I can at least check e-mail, make this blog entry, and surf a bit. ^_^; Thanks K and L!

Moved but...

2008-04-29T16:35:00.003-06:00

The move is over and went well, BUT I'm still having the worst time getting things done that I've scheduled with 3rd parties. DirecTV was supposed to remove the dish from my old place today, but amazingly, the order is MIA. Well, at least they did come by the condo this morning with the new dish. Then the cleaning crew was supposed to come by to do a move-out clean, but that wasn't on the books. Finally, DSL was supposed to be on by the time I moved in yesterday, but the order was dropped. They were saying that it would be done by today but now, Thursday. Nuts.

So, I'm borrowing Safeway's free WiFi to check mail real quick and write this. *_* I'll write more when the Internet is hooked up at my condo.

One More Day

2008-04-26T21:59:00.002-06:00

Well, there's only one more day until M-Day. I am REALLY glad I took the time I did to do everything. Seriously, I needed all seven days to properly pack and get ready. All that's left for tomorrow is the breakdown of my main computer, the breakdown of my main stereo and video equipment, the final load of clothes to be washed, the packing of the last wardrobe box, and the packing of all the personal hygiene stuff as well as the few audio tapes and CD's I left out to have background noise. Oh, I guess there are a few drinks in the fridge, so obviously they'll get packed.

Despite having gotten rid of a lot of stuff when I moved into my apartment, I'm still amazed at how many boxes of stuff I have. I'm thankful I have a basement in my new place, because most of the boxed stuff stuff is going down there short-term. The only things not going to the basement will be the multiple boxes for kitchen objects, my box of Japanese study materials, the wardrobes, and the computers.

Whew. I guess I'll write on the flip side when I once again have Internet access.

Decisions Made

2008-04-24T15:58:00.001-06:00

I'm sure that most of us have had major crossroad moments in our lives that we know without a shadow of a doubt is a crossroad moment.

"Do I ask this girl to marry me or no?"

"Do I take this risky job that's paying a ton of money or stay with the safer job for much less?"

"Do I write the novel within me despite my doubts about my abilities or do I press forward and let the chips fall where they may?"

I just pulled three random examples out of the air, but you get the point.

About ten years ago, I had a choice in my own life -- work for a company on a Y2K project as a contractor where I would likely be hired at the end of the contract, or stay put. I chose the former because (1) the money was so huge and (2) working for a major telecommunication company seemingly on top of the world seemed like a safe choice whereas my own company, having been purchased for the second time, seemed less safe.

A lot of things have happened to me over those ten years. I didn't get hired by the telecom company because they outsourced the work to another company. I went to work for another company that I loved (though I didn't love my lack of benefits contract) but they were sold to a company who said, "We aren't in the IS/IT business" and so outsourced our jobs. I went back to work for the major telecom company at a new location, but then the illegal activities of the company heads sent the company into bankruptcy and me out of a job. Now, I've worked for "The Company" both as a contractor and as an Extended Tenure Extra employee for well over five years.

With time against me as to whether I continue to have a job or not, I admit that I have at times wondered on whether the decision that has led me to where I'm currently at was the right one. God works in mysterious ways, because my old friend and co-worker Jibster contacted me the other day, letting me know that his job is being outsourced but he didn't say where (I have a good idea -- somewhere in the world where you can get some "foreign bastards" to work for pennies on the dollar).

So, what's the lesson from God? I am right where I'm supposed to be, even if I lose my own job. This is the U.S. with lots of opportunities and should I lose my job, I'll have to do some serious consideration and prayer on what to do next.

Moving Stinks

2008-04-24T14:47:00.002-06:00

My move isn't until Monday (thank God for that!) but moving sure stinks. I'm ALMOST done packing and should be finished tonight. That will leave the breakdown of my computers, TV's, stereos, phones, and related stuff. So I'm doing much better this move than I did nearly three years ago when I moved, but it still sucks.

Moving is already a violent experience in a sense. You are taking the order of what was and turning it into the chaos of boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff. Then toward the end of the packing phase, nothing fits together any more. You have a few books here, a few CD's there, some odds and ends all over, which means at least a couple of boxes (or more) of assorted stuff, which always sucks to go through on the flip side as well.

As I emptied my office closet of what was supposedly just empty boxes for various electronic equipment (stereos, computer stuff), I discover a few hidden boxes of stuff from three years ago. Sheeze. What's sad is that I never even missed this stuff seeing as how its been sitting in the closet all this time. *sigh* I won't open the boxes to distract myself (I have an idea of what's in all of them -- books mostly) but I have to be better when I move to my new place though. I'm having most of the boxes put into the basement. The idea is to be able to have plenty of room to store things and then get EVERYTHING unpacked this time before storing the empty boxes.

I'll be glad when this is over. Time to get back to it. ^_^;

Starfest 2008 -- Final Thoughts

2008-04-23T00:01:00.002-06:00

I have to say that of the three Starfest conventions I've been to, this one has been the best for me. This is due in part to the number of guest that I wanted to see and in part to Lepidus and I deciding to spend the weekend at the hotel, thereby giving us a place to relax, use the bathroom, blog, read, or whatever in addition to not having to worry about driving back home.

I was glad that the 501st Legion Moutain Garrison had a MUCH bigger presence this year. One of my complaints last year was that there were only a few storm troopers. This year, there were many storm troopers as well as the normal token rebel pilot, a couple of Imperial officers, a couple of Darth Vadar's (both the right size rather than being too short), and others. In fact, on Sunday, I felt that I had to let the people staffing their large booth this, and they were appreciative of my thanks. I also think that Starfest's decision to put them where they did this year (which is where they were in 2006) is the right one. Last year, they were stuffed off in a corner and easily lost in the crowd.

I still wish anime had a slightly bigger presence at this convention instead of a tiny booth in the dealer room, a few cosplayers, and a panel room where all they do is show titles (mostly fansubs, but some modified stuff too, like Voltron). Depending on how much packing I've managed to do will determine when I post my lone anime Starfest report on my anime blog (this blog entry is being written well in advance of the actual publication date, so I've no clue how I'm doing packing-wise as I write).

What will determine my return to Starfest in 2009 is mainly my employment situation. If I have a job that pays enough and I can get some free time, I'll try to go since there's likely to be at least one guest I'm interested in.

Note: I'll work on pictures AFTER my move, so look for those in May.

Battlestar Galactica S04 E03

2008-04-22T12:29:00.002-06:00

SPOILER Summary: The Cylons are split after the centurions have just wiped out those who oppose what the Sixes and Eights have laid out. However, the Ones have their own plan to right the scales and upon being resurrected, they end up leading the troublemaker ships into an ambush where there is no resurrection ship, meaning the deaths will be permanent. Meanwhile on the ship Demetrius, Starbuck's crew are demoralized as it seems that she just has them going in circles.

Back with the human fleet, the president has to cover to the press for Admiral Adama's decision to let Starbuck take the Demetrius out to find Earth. At a Quorum session, Lee Adama tries to help the president with this issue as well, but finds that the president is not happy with Lee and doesn't want his assistance. This forces Lee to protect himself by revealing Roslin's secret directive to consolidate more power to herself to the other members of the Quorum. Calley suspects Tyrol is having an affair after spotting him with Foster in the bar, but is shocked when she discovers the secret meeting of Tigh, Foster, and Tyrol where she learns they are all Cylons. She's going to commit suicide (after knocking Tyrol out back in their quarters) by ejecting herself and her baby out a Viper shoot, but is prevented by Foster. However, as soon as Foster has the baby, she attacks Calley and ejects her into space, apparently making it look like suicide.

Thoughts: So, the Cylons are heading to a civil war. Hmmm. While last week's events were shocking, the fact that Number One would lead several ships of problem Six Cylons (and the like) into a trap to actually kill them was not a surprise to me. For some reason, it wasn't a surprise to me that the president would suddenly be at odds with Lee, nor was it a surprise that the president seems to be being written in such a way so as to make her seem like the current U.S. president.

It also wasn't a surprise to me that Starbuck's crew are having some problems with her.

I was surprised that Calley was killed off AND that Foster did it. I don't get the feeling that Foster is suddenly taken over by some programming, but rather has decided, "You know, I don't care. I'm not human any more so I'll do what I like." I'm sorry that Calley is gone though, but like Tigh's wife, I'm sure the writers needed Calley out of the way.

Speaking of Tigh's wife, looks like she gets a cameo next week.

Doctor Who S04 E03

2008-04-21T13:25:00.003-06:00

Planet of the Ood

SPOILER Summary: The Doctor and Donna travel to a random time and place in the galaxy and end up in the 42nd Century during the 2nd Great and Bountiful Human Empire. They come upon a dying Ood who briefly has the same red eyes of possession the Doctor had previously seen. Bluffing their way into a presentation for potential buyers of Ood, the Doctor and Donna discover that things aren't going that well for this slave-race, or their human owners. With the Doctor being able to now hear their song of captivity, he decides to try to free the Ood as more and more of them go insane. The Doctor soon learns that the Ood have three brains -- one in their skull, one they hold in their hands, and a giant, collective brain. The removal of the held brain is how the humans enslave them and the giant brain is kept in a field to interrupt its telepathic ability. However, in the end, the field around the giant brain is lowered and the Ood are freed, thanks to the Doctor's efforts.

Thoughts: I had some problems with this episode, namely in the ultimate design of the Ood. Think about it for a moment. They have a brain in their skull, then they carry a mini-brain around in their hands, and finally there's a giant brain. So, assuming the giant brain has some method of protecting itself (which didn't appear to be the case but for the reasons of discussion, we'll assume so) and the Ood have to protect their mini-brains by carefully holding them, how do the Ood do ANYTHING without causing their mini-brain serious damage? Seriously, this is one huge design flaw and frankly, the Ood should have gone extinct.

OK, so they can easily survive without the mini-brain, where (how convenient), humans figured out that they could cut off that brain and just install a translator on a tube. Isn't that lovely?

Of course, we have to get preached to on the evils of slavery. The episode tried to push over the fact that the Doctor wasn't that concerned over the Ood slavery issue on the previous encounter because he was too occupied dealing with "Satan," but I suppose they felt that the Doctor needed to free millions of beings after having to allow 20,000 humans dies in the previous episode. Everything just felt forced, preachy, and I just didn't care.

The one bit of interest was the Ood telling the Doctor that one day, his song must end. I'm not sure what that implies, but it does seem to throw out a possible regeneration (which I've not heard about, but I've not been reading up either) or something. I don't think it means the end of the series even though I've read that next year, there will be no series but rather a few TV movies, which is rather a bummer.

The episode reminded me that I'm getting older. I kept thinking I recognized the actor playing Klineman Halpen but was surprised when I learned it the character was played by Tim McInnerny, whom I've seen countless times in the various Blackadder British comedy series. Also, Roger Griffiths (Everton in the British comedy Chef!) was also in this episode, looking much older as the security head Commander Kess.

Next week: the return of Martha and a classic Doctor Who villain -- the Sontarans.

Starfest 2008 - 09

2008-04-20T23:59:00.000-06:00

While I've seen a fair number of Stargate SG1 episodes, over time, I just grew out of the show. Don't get me wrong, if I saw an episode, I enjoyed it, but if I never see another episode in my life, I won't even miss it. Still, when given the chance to see Cliff Simon, who plays the villain System Lord Ba'al, I took it.

Cliff is from South Africa and told us a bit about his dance background. He told us of his love for scuba diving and other outdoor activities. He recently became an American citizen and one of his current projects is a series of affirmations about America which will be sent to the troops. As someone coming from outside the U.S., he feels that all this anti-American sentiment in the world shows that people have forgotten all the things that the U.S. has done for the world and continues to do for the world. So, he wants the troops to not just be told the negatives about how we are hated, but all the good we do (which in this writer's opinion, is rarely mentioned in the press).

Naturally, he talked of his time on SG1 and how his knowing the producer of the series is what ultimately led him to the series. He really had no idea that he would get to play Ba'al for five years and he thanked the fans for that, as it is fan response to guest characters on the show that helps determine if they are brought back. He further discussed how he enjoyed playing the role of Ba'al as it allowed him to do those evil things which we humans normally suppress (no matter what it is). He stated that he brings a part of himself into the character, which he feels makes the character "more human." As such, the writers picked up on things (such as Ba'al's humor) and away they went.

Cliff's time was shortened due to Nichelle Nichols arriving so late and staying over somewhat in her alloted time. However, since not a lot of people asked questions, I suppose it was for the best. He was an entertaining guest and I am glad to have met him.

Starfest 2008 - 08

2008-04-20T22:17:00.000-06:00

When we saw Nichelle Nichols signing autographs on Saturday, Lepidus commented to me on what a classy lady she is. That is certainly true as we were to further learn on Sunday, though schedules don't mean much to her apparently. ^_^;

She was roughly 30-minutes late for her presentation, and when she arrived, she warned us that she can be quite verbose. That certainly was true, but she managed to hold the audience spellbound with her tales, even for something as mundane as her stylish but uncomfortable shoes. Unfortunately, that lead some female fan to offer Nichelle her crocks to make her feet comfortable. I really, really couldn't believe someone would honestly expect Nichelle to go, "Ooo! Yes! I do believe I'll take you up on that offer. After all, what does foot fungus mean to me?" However, Nichelle is all class as stated before and she turned down this offer and even made the whole thing pretty interesting.

Since the "underground" movie called Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is the latest Star Trek project of Nichelle's (tied in with the fans doing those "TV" web episodes of the classic Star Trek that I blogged about here) she was asked about that as the crowd had just seen the first two parts. She's not seen it yet as she's apparently waiting for the finished product. However, when she stepped onto the fan-created bridge-set of the original Enterprise, she was really taken aback at how identical the re-creation was. She stated that it reminded her of the way she felt like the first time that she ever stepped onto the Star Trek bridge set so many years ago. She's very proud of the work. I only saw a few minutes of this new movie, but I hope its good.

She also recounted the tale of when the first season of the show was over and she'd turned in her resignation that Friday to Gene Roddenberry. Her reason for this was her desire to return to theater, as she considered her stint on TV as just a resume enhancement. Gene asked her if she knew what he was trying to accomplish and told her he wouldn't accept her resignation until Monday, when he'd accept her decision one way or the other. She had to attend some banquet (she believes it was an NAACP one) and was informed that her biggest fan wanted to say hello. So she turned to see this biggest fan and saw Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She continued looking for the fan, but in fact he was said fan. When he learned of her plans to quit the show, he talked her out of it as the show displayed a future where blacks, whites, men, and women all worked together as equals. She told Gene this and he was thankful someone got what he was trying to do.

The story made her tear up as well as a few others in the audience. Sadly, that was all the time we had for her since she arrived so late and allowing her to do a full hour would have placed the next presenter with almost no time at all. Next time she comes, I hope she makes it on time as she's worth an hour or more.