Weird Goings On

I'm having a slightly weird electronics day. Given my and my family's history with electrical 'incidents' this is slightly ominous.

So far, it's just little things today. For example, I found my computer on when I came into my office today. I shut it off every day when I leave work, and I wait for it finish shutting down before I walk out the door, so there's no chance I simply left it on over night. This isn't the first time I've had this particular thing happen, so I didn't really think much of it.

But then I went to flip off the power strip where the coffee pot is a little later this morning (I bought my coffee from the shop today). Nothing happened - the clock on the coffee pot showed it was still getting power. I flipped the switch again, and still nothing. I tried a couple times with no luck. Then, a few minutes later, I saw one of my coworkers walk by and flip the switch - and the damn thing turned right off.

And most recently, I had left my office for about 45 minutes, so my monitor had gone into sleep mode, as it's supposed to. I came back into my office, saw it was sleeping, set down my sunglasses on the other table, and when I looked back up, the screen was on and it was waiting for me to enter my password - as in it was acting like I had already hit Ctrl-Alt-Del. I hadn't even touched the keyboard or mouse yet!

I always get a little nervous when things involving electricity start acting strange. We have kind of odd history with electricity in my family. I've lost count of the number of times I've electrocuted myself over the years, some of them my fault, some not so much. My dad was holding on the tailgate of a car when it was struck my ball-lighting (think massive static discharge from the sky). He was fine, but it fried the rear-defroster pretty good. And my brother just being killed when an undergrad at his school lab pulled the safety tag and flipped a breaker back on while my brother was working on installing a junction box about 30 feet off the ground. So, when I say we have a healthy respect for electricity, you know I mean it. And when things which use electricity start acting strange around me, I take notice. For example, I am currently keeping myself well grounded through the metal frame of my desk while I'm working on the computer. It took me long enough to get this new machine, I'm NOT going to fry it if I can avoid it!

Sign of the Times, Pt. II

About 10 days ago, I posted about a Des Moines bus company who pulled ads for an atheist group because they had received complaints about the signs.

Well, a few days later, the company reversed their decision and offered to replace the signs at the company's expense. While I'm still annoyed that they caved-in in the first place, I am glad to see that they came to their senses and replaced the ads.

In the latest development, however, a driver for the company has been suspended because she refused to drive a bus with the signs on it. Here's the story. She said the message was against her Christian faith. As I pointed in my previous post on this, the ads was NOT against Christianity - it was an ad for an atheist group.

What I really want to know is if she would have refused to drive a bus with ads for a Jewish group or an Islamic group. Not that I'm implying that either of those groups are anti-Christian - in fact, as much as some people try to claim otherwise, those three groups share a very close history and all grow out of a shared past. No, I'm interested if she is offended by the idea that there are people who don't believe in "God" or if she is actually offended that those people don't have the decency to hide the fact that they don't believe in "God." Or maybe she's just one of those people who think if you don't share their beliefs then you're actively out to destroy those beliefs; a "you're with us or you're against us" mentality. Yeah, that's what I call "compassion."

Deep Thoughts While Watching Football

Yes, I'm watching pre-season on a Thursday night, no I'm not drinking (got work tomorrow).

And while watching this game, I have come to an important realization. If your beer has to be ice cold to be drunk, you're drinking shit beer. Real, good beer is often best at just below room temperature. If you can take it out of a cool, dark cupboard and it's ready to drink, it's good beer.

This is because being just a little warm means that the beer is going to release more of its flavor and aroma. There's a reason they serve Guinness warm in the UK.

If, on the other hand, you have chill the beer until it's cold enough the label is changing colors, it's because you have deaden the flavor and smell in order to get it down.

Okay, so it's not really a deep thought. Give me a break; it's almost the end of the week, I'm tired, and I'm watching football. You're probably lucky I'm thinking at all!

Kick Off!

In just a few minutes here, another pro football season will start (or at least, the pre-season will)!

And one of the things I'm looking forward to the most this season? Madden is gone! Curious as to my reasons for thoroughly enjoying this? Check out this post from a few month's ago or this one from 2006. It should clear that my dislike of Madden is nothing new. I am pleased with his replacement, however. Chris Collinsworth is a great commentator and actually has a brain (unlike his predecessor).

There is one thing I'm not looking forward to, however. Since we're now in Up-State NY, we're in Bills country. Now, I have absolutely nothing against the Bills. Unfortunately, they acquired one of my least favorite and most dis-liked players: T.O. And now I'm going to be exposed to his shit on a regular basis.

Sign of the Times*

Another news story found on CNN.com. An atheist group adverised themselves on bus signs. These signs got pulled by the bus company got some complaints.

Why is it perfectly acceptable for church's or church-based groups to advertise in public spaces, but it's not accepatble for an atheist group to do the same?

I could understanding if the signs had said something like "God is a lie" or "Church's are just out get your money." Sure, that kind of thing would be ofensive. But all the sign said was "Don't Belive in God? You're Not Alone." How the is that offensive?

And I will freely admit that I'm a pagan, and I will also freely admit that I'm a little unusual even amongst pagans in that I do not subsribe to any one particular pantheon or set of rituals. I am a spiritual person - it's not very often that I display that spirituality, but it's there. I think that having a belief in something/someone bigger than yourself can be a very good thing. But I'm also a very firm beleiver in freedom of speach and freedom of religion - which includes the freedom to not have a religion.

The bus company says they pulled the signs because they were never approved. But the atheist group claims that they were told that the signs had been approved. So either someone lied, or the bus company is trying to get out of an embarassing situation. Naturally, the cyncial side of me says it's that second one.

* And yes, I do appologize for the bad pun.

Oh, Grow Up

I know times are tough - but suing your college because you haven't gotten a job? You have to be kidding me!

And, no, I'm not joking. Here's the CNN.com story.

Here are the highlights - a woman is suing her college because she hasn't found a job since graduating with a BA in Business Admin with an IT focus. She graduated in April. She's claiming the "Office of Career Advancement" didn't do enough to find her a job. She accuses them of putting more effort into helping those with higher GPAs than her. And what was her GPA? 2.7.

I'm sorry, but this whole thing is ridiculous. You're mad because you haven't found a job in 3 months, in a field that's really hurting right now (just ask my wife, one of our real good friends who got three day's notice that he was going to be laid off, or any number of other IT folks who are having trouble finding work), with only a BA and a rather mediocure GPA. Have you ever considered that those with 4.0 GPAs have had more sucess getting a job because they've shown they hard working and intelligent people, rather than because the College is giving them more help?

Another question for you, young lady (and I call you "young" despite the fact that you're only about 2 years younger than me because you've clearly shown you have some real growing up to do) - do you really think you're going to win this? I'm thinking it's going to be pretty hard to showing that it's the College's fault you haven't been able to find a job in 3 months. And regardless of the case's outcome, have you considered that taking this action might, in fact, make it harder for you to find a job? You're going to come off looking really bad. What company is going to want to hire someone with a track record of suing when things don't go their way? You've openly stated that people should sue their college if they don't get a job in their field. You said, and I quote from the CNN story, "It doesn't make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald's and Payless. That's not what they planned." You have admitted that other college gradautes are having trouble finding work, which means you're situation is nothing special, which means you now have to prove that the College careers office systamatically fails to help people find employment. But you have already admitted that they have helped others do just that.

Congratulations, you've just successfully defeted your own case!

Classics

I've spent a good portion of this afternoon, evening, and now night watching classic movies. It all started when we were in Squall-mart today and I saw Cool Hand Luke in the $3.00 rack. Cool Hand Luke is one of my favorite films and I've been wanting to buy it for a while. So, when I saw it for $3.00, it promptly went in the cart. It's one of the cinematic forefathers for films like The Shawshank Redemption (yes, I know Shawshank is based on a Stephen King short story, but the film itself draws quite a bit on Cool Hand Luke).

Well, once that finished, I was casting around for something else to watch and I spotted The Sting on our shelf. "It's been a while since I've watched that," I thought. So I did. To this day, The Sting is one of the all time great films.

And now, I've just put in The Magnificent Seven, one of the classic westerns, based on a classic early Japanese film.

And well see how late I'm up tonight, but I'm kind of suspecting the next film on the list might just be The Great Escape.

I Had Forgotten . . .

. . . just what a fucking great film Ghostbusters is.

Here are a couple of my favorite bits.






Amazingly, I was not able to find a clip of this: "I think this building should be condemned. There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members, the wiring is substandard, it's completely inadequate for our power needs, and the neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone."

A Little Tired and More Than A Little Pissed Off

I am running real short on sleep today. I think all told, I got maybe four or four and a half hours of sleep last night - and not all of that at one time.

First there were the bubbly, chipper girls next door who came outside several times (I'm assuming for a smoke) and proceeded to talk and laugh quite loudly as they were deciding to go ahead and head out to the bars for one of their birthdays at about 12:30 AM (why anyone would wait until 12:30 to head for the bar when they close at 2:00 is beyond me, but then again I do tend to take my drinking more seriously than some people). And since the first time they did this was just as I was starting to fall asleep, it woke me up - as it did the second time I was starting to go under. Only this second time, there were a couple of guys who noticed the girls and decided to try and "communicate" with them. Unfortunately for me, this included the guys shouting things to girls and then trying to impress them with left over fireworks. Despite sounding like empty-headed soccer-momlettes, these girls appear to have at least some sense because the they did shoot the guys down and went off to drink without them.

At last, I could sleep.

Or, at least, I could until about 2:00 or 2:30 when a fight started up outside the house next door. I'm pretty sure it was different guys from early, not I'm not certain. And really, I couldn't care less. Whomever it was this time, they were drunk and getting into it with another couple of drunk guys. I have no idea what the problem was except for it somehow involved someone trying to find their glasses. Whatever the cause, there was a lot of "Don't fuck with me, man!" and "I'll fuck you up!" going back and forth. There was even one shout of "I'm fuckin' Northside, bitch, I'll fuckin' kill you!"

Even in my tired, sleep deprived state at that point, I thought "Did he really just say that?" The only time people say that kind of shit is in bad movies or TV shows, or when they're drunk posers who are trying to look tough. Real gangs don't say that shit. I've known guys in gangs, and they called phrases like that "Hollywood crap" and would mock anyone who used such things.

Eventually, this fight broke up and the groups started to go their separate ways, allowing me to once again seek the comforts of unconsciousness. I should have known better. Apparently as a parting shot, one of the groups decided set off a couple of fireworks in the hopes that they would sound like gunshots to encourage the others on their way. Apparently it worked in at least getting their attention before they left.

How do I know this? I could hear the assholes laughing and bragging about it as they came back near our house. It sure as shit worked for getting my attention, I can tell you that. This last salvo (fuck, I must be tired to make a pun like that - I apologize) finished waking me up. It's now about 3:30 in the morning and I've had maybe an hour or an hour and half of real sleep and I've got to be up a little before 6:30. Fuck.

Needless to say, I was little tired this morning and more than a little pissed off. Unfortunately, we don't have any coffee in the office this morning. Even if we did, since it's a communal pot, I can't really get away with making my preferred plastic-melting, metal-etching type of coffee which is what I really needed today - but at least having a normal person's pot on hand would have been nice. So I had to stop at the coffee shop to get some on my way in. But that means only one cup, which proved to not be enough.

And I fully blame this on the drunk assholes. Yeah, the girls and their "suitors" were not real conducive to sleeping, but at least they were fairly early in the night and it was just mundane, if annoying, crap. The "fighters" however, are another matter. I will admit that a part of me would like to have a go at them with my cricket bat, but given that there were at least four of them, I have a feeling that might have resulting in me doing some serious damage to the bat before I was done.

Nearly Impossible . . .

. . . trying to move a 12-15 pound cat out of your lap when she has decided to go boneless.

Starting To Get Annoyed

For whatever reason, there are a couple of commercial campaigns right now which really play up the Scottish stereotype. First there's that motor oil one with a guy with a bad Scottish accent running around smacking people with a dip-stick and calling them all "Jimmy." I've never known any Scotsman to go around calling everyone "Jimmy."

And now there's one for a candy implying that it's a contradiction for the characters to be Scottish-Korean. Is that really any stranger than being Hawai'ian/Norwegian on one side and Scot on the other?

Is there some reason that the Scots are currently the fashionable ones to make fun of?

The Only Way You're 'Special' Is 'Special Ed'

Yesterday as I was leaving work I encountered a most impressive pair of idiots.

At City Hall, there are two sets of doors. One is the general entrance, the other is the emergency/staff entrance. These entrances are on opposite sides of the building. Now, it's quite understandable that people occasionally go to the emergency/staff side when they're trying to enter the building. Since they can't actually get in there, they realize pretty quick that they have to go to the other door.

Coming out, however, there are big red and white signs which say "Emergency Exit Only - Alarm Will Sound". There is another door there with a black and white sign reading "Employee Exit Only". You have to use your ID badge with the little microchip in it to get the door to actually open, so it's pretty rare that other people even try to use that door.

Well, yesterday, I encountered a couple who clearly could not understand the afore mentioned simple signs. I walked out the employee door and carefully shut it behind me. Not five steps later, I hear - over the volume of my MP3 player - a klaxon type alarm going off. I turn back and there are two people walking out of one of the emergency doors. They look at me, with these kind of confused expressions, and promptly ask "Can we come out these doors?"

I carefully explain to them that, no, those are emergency and staff exits and that the public exit is on the other side of the building. As a I finish explaining this, she says "Oh, you mean the door we came in through, right?" And all the while, I'm thinking "How the fuck did you miss the big signs about 'Emergency Exit Only' and 'Alarm Will Sound'? Even if you missed the eye-level signs, you had to have seen the red and white striped stickers on the panic bar which also reads 'Emergency Exit Only - Alarm Will Sound.'"

Seriously, these are not exactly small signs on the doors - and there's a sign on each of the doors and each of the panic bars. If you can't understand these signs, how the fuck did you make to adulthood? And please tell me you haven't procreated - there are enough stupid people as it is; we don't need you actively adding to that number - it clear you're already doing more than your share on that count.

It's All A Conspiracy

They all plotted against me - I know it.

Somehow, I ended being the only planner in the department most of this afternoon. One took the whole day off, another was only in from 10 to 12, and last left about 12:30, leaving just me there to handle all the planning related calls. Considering I'm a historian and preservationist, this is not the best situation. Nevertheless, I managed fine.

Then we had a fire drill.

And that's when I knew it was a conspiracy. They knew we were going to have a fire drill and they didn't tell me!

No, I'm not paranoid, why do you ask? You're only paranoid if they're not out to get you!

The Voice In My Head

So, it has been decided that my author wife is rubbing off on me. Since I made that comment a few days back about smelling the stale beer coming up from the sidewalk, I've had the voice of a hard-boiled detective going around in my head. And, as if often the case with Journey when characters are talking in her head, this will keeping going on until I put it down on paper - or in this case, on screen. So here we go (and please remember, most of my writing is non-fiction or personal rants, so this kind of thing is not exactly my forte).

---

It was one of those mornings that just makes you wish you had never bothered getting out of bed. Or, it would have been if you had ever actually made to your bed instead of passing out on top of the desk in your office with a mostly empty glass and an even emptier bottle of whiskey right beside you. I probably wouldn't have bothered waking up at all if it weren't for that damned phone and the voice on the other end.

"The Commissioner wants you down at 1st and Jefferson. Now." Detective Michael Bennett - the asshole.

"Mrph - why? What doya need me fer? I quit the force and went freelance. 'member?"

"Look, if it were up to me, the only contact you'd have with the Department would be when we haul your sorry drunk ass out of the gutter and throw it in a cell for the night. But it's not up to me, and it's not up to you either. Just get here." Like I said, an asshole. Must be bad though; usually he takes the time to enjoy telling me just how worthless he thinks I am. If he was distracted to the point that he kept it to a single "sorry drunk" reference and only threatened me with a night in the Tank, it meant that something serious had gone down last night - real serious.

Needless to say, I wasn't in the best of moods when I walked out the door. And the weather sure as shit wasn't helping. Not even eight o'clock in the morning it was already getting hot. And on top of that, it was humid, making you're clothes cling to you as soon as you walk out the door and you're sweating before you've gone half a block. It was the kind of humid that seems to make the city itself sweat and ooze. Walking past the basement dive a couple blocks from my office, you could smell years' worth of stale beer oozing out of the concrete.

--------------

The young, rich, and trendy have always taken a certain amount of pleasure slumming - they come to those places where the hard, broke, and broken seek to hide from the rest of the world and congratulate themselves on being "real" and "average". Of course, they congratulate themselves while drinking all of whatever passes for "top shelf" in the place, all the while taking great pains to remind everyone else in the place that they're only visiting. Everyone knows that when these kids have had their fill, they'll head back to the clubs or their pricey condos in the heart of town, leaving behind the dark smoke filled corners and sullen expressions. Is really any wonder than every so often one of these yuppie spawn says or does something to get shown the door - conscious or not.

---

So maybe a cliched, I know, but I had to write it down just to shut up the voice in my head. And while it's quite at the moment, I'm fairly sure it'll come back at some point and I'll have go through all this again.

No Class

I'm watching the NHL awards ceremony - and a bunch of the fuckin' Red Wings' fan are fucking booing! I'm sorry your team lost (only in a very generic sense, I'm always happy when the Red Wings lose), but this was game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Get over it, and give the Pens the respect they deserve.

Congratulations Boys

And thank you, oh so much, for doing it over the Red Wings. Enjoy Lord Stanley's Cup, Pens, you've earned it!

Hehe

"It is wiser, before offering you mind to anyone, to make sure you have enough to spare."

From a particularly demented web comic I read.

No, This Is What I Hate

I walk to work everyday. We live less than a mile from my job, and walking is good exercise (I've dropped 40-50 pounds since moving here) so walking to work makes far more sense than driving. Normally, I don't mind the walk as it gives me a bit of time to listen to music and just let my mind wander.

Every so often, when I get into the office and am waiting for the crappy elevators, someone will make some comment to me about the weather and walking in. It's usually something along the lines of "Boy, it's a bit chilly out there, isn't it?" They say this when it's in the low- to mid-50s. No, see, low- to mid-50s is perfect for walking to work. I walk fast enough that the cooler temperatures are really very nice.

It's days like today that I hate walking in. It was already in the high-60s, approaching 70, and was 98% humidity when I left the house. That sucks!

Yeah, I'll admit that walking in when it's below zero and windy isn't exactly a joy either, but in some ways I prefer that to days like this. At least one the really cold days, you're bundled up and you warm up as you move. Today, the only way to make it more bearable to be outside would have been to strip down completely - unfortunately, there are those annoying "public decency" laws. Thankfully, I followed through with my promise from a couple weeks back and actually did get a hair cut, so I don't have to worry about looking like someone from a 1970s disco. Unfortunately, that's not the only problem with humidity - there's also the whole showing up to work sweaty thing.

The Joys of Humidity

This is the first time in a very long time that I've lived someplace which actually has humidity on any kind of regular basis. Previously, I was living in Arizona, which if you've ever been there you know is barely even aware that there is such a thing as "humidity." And prior to that, I lived in Colorado, which is aware of humidity, but usually keeps it at arm's length the majority of the time. And, yeah, before being in Colorado I was in Hawai'i and Seattle, which are admittedly very familiar with it, but I was a real little kid then and didn't really pay attention to that kind of thing, so that doesn't really count.

Now, however, I'm getting used to living someplace with humidity. This is important and noticeable in a few different ways. First, the sticking of wooden doors. Doors which normally open and close without a problem currently require a sledgehammer-sized rubber mallet to operate. There's also the fact that breathing is somewhat akin to trying to breath through a wet rag. Breathing through a wet rag might be useful in a fire, but not so good when your walking the mile home at a pretty good pace. And let's not forget my favorite sign of humidity - my head looking like I'm from the 1970s and have just gotten a perm. Normally, my hair is very straight; when there's humidity, however, that changes. It's especially bad when I haven't gotten my hair cut in a while and it's a little long - like it is right now. You ever seen "That '70s Show"? Yeah, I kind of look like I could be an extra on it right now.

I am getting a hair cut tomorrow . . . even if I have to do it myself with my jack-knife.

That Explains A Lot

I knew there had be an explanation.