Pondering Christian Ponder

On Sat Jan 5th 2013 the Minnesota Vikings will face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in an NFL playoff game.  Regardless of what happens in this game, I think the Minnesota's quarterback Christian Ponder is terrible and his only redeeming quality is that his abundance of mediocrity is what keeps his team from being good.

I had an idea when I was walking to work this morning and so I when I sat down, I wrote this:

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It's Sat night, January, cold, and it's loud.  This is the playoffs.  This is what he's worked hard for years to get to.  Millions dream of this moment.  Thousands aspire to reach this level.  A few hundred have actually made it this far.  Significantly fewer can say they've made it to a playoff game.  This is it.  Division rival.  All or nothing.  Play big or don't play at all.  Friday night football nights are a long ways away from tonight.  No previous experiences in college or even high school could prepare him for this moment.

It's fourth and goal.  Fingers are numb.  All eyes are on him.  The aches of that last big hit are starting to set in.  Gotta push that aside.  The team needs him to play as though he's worthy of being in this position.  Ignore the naysayers.  He has to forget the past.  The present is all that matters.  Forget the last time he was literally in this same spot months ago.  All of that doesn't matter.  This is it.  The moment has arrived.  He clears his mind and takes a deep breath.  One lingering thought creeps into his mind as he experiences this moment in history:

Trump offers $5 Million

... For Obama's college records!

Don't say this isn't for publicity because it is.  It's shit like this that kept Trump from running for president.  It's easier to sit on the sideline and lob a hand full of mud whenever it suits you knowing that your target can't fight every single person that is opposing them.  This isn't about finding out "answers that Americans want to know".  This is about pressing your own agenda.  Why else wait until after all debating is over and elections are 2 weeks out?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is exactly what happens when the rich opt to be political.  With this one outburst, issues which were long laid to rest and forgotten are back at the forefront.  Apparently it's more important to nit pick over a piece of paper saying I WAS BORN IN THE U-S-OF-A after years of no one questioning, than it is to focus on real issues.

Even if the college records come back clean and prove that Obama enrolled as a citizen (which people will continue to doubt), all it takes is one course in his transcripts to be a public relations disaster.  Guess what.  I took a class about Nazi Germany.  A lot of people took that class.  I can safely say that hundreds of people took that class with the same teacher while it was offered at my university.  One of my TA's was a self described "Sovietologist".  STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES BECAUSE I MUST BE A SOCIALIST!  One class.  That's all i took.  I got a "B" in the class.  Does that make me a "pinko" or a "skinhead"?

This blood lust for a witch hunt must stop in American politics.  We're tearing ourselves apart and no one sees it.  The polarization between both sides will tear the country apart.  I/we live in a world where politically it's now either or but never both.  Either you're for the war in Iraq or you hate all troops.  You can't be for the troops but against their current mission.

Record amounts of money is being spent on campaigns by anonymous donors.  Donors who we have no idea what their ultimate agenda is.  How much of this money is foreign?  How much money are hostile countries dumping into both sides of the campaign to escalate the tensions and throw more gas on what will be a glorious bonfire?

What happened to the buzz phrase "create jobs"?  Think about how much that $5 million that trump is offering would help a couple of businesses RETAIN JOBS.  How much would that help the Mexican government in their fight against the cartels that have turned the Southern border into a quasi war zone?  How much would that help rebels in Syria because lord knows the US needs another ally in the region after Israel gets vaporized?

What makes me the most sick is that I read the articles surrounding this stunt and i actually wasted my time thinking and writing about it which in turn feeds the fire.  If we all ignore people like Trump and the Kardashians, much like a bad fart, they'll eventually go away into the realm of mediocrity.

IM conversations

Oh the joys of getting sucked into domestic disputes!  This is a conversation between a friend of mine (JC) and her friend (AB).  Keep in mind that this conversation is on their corporate IM client.  AB got dumped in 06/2011 and this is from 09/14/2011.

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JC(09:23:27): Good Morning, My AB!
JC(09:23:36): We have out Rock N Roll Kick off today
AB(09:23:38): he says he never wants to see or speak to me again
JC(09:23:47): I dressed up as 80's Madonna
JC(09:24:08): Did he say that to you? Or that was the email to the therapist?
AB(09:27:01): he emailed that to me
AB(09:27:25): i don't know if he replied to the therapist or not. i won't know until tomorrow at my appointment
AB(09:28:25): i tried to discuss the awful name he called me and he said he wouldnt EVER apologize to me
JC(09:29:34): I think you need to let him go, honey.
AB(09:30:10): he has no reason to be treating me like this. i deserve to know why
JC(09:30:47): Break ups don't always have a 'why'
JC(09:30:59): You may be asking a question that doesn't have an answer
JC(09:31:17): Something go left unanswered.
AB(09:31:58): there has to be a reason, it just doesn't happen
JC(09:32:10): Things 'just happen' all the time
JC(09:32:18): Why did I miscarry?
JC(09:32:23): Why is SC [someone who suddenly passed away recently] gone?
AB(09:32:34): those things are different
JC(09:32:40): Why did your relalatioship fail?
AB(09:33:10): there definitely should be an answer for that - you don't spend 7 years with someone and BOOM they don't love you anymore
AB(09:35:21): he told me God put him in my life but i pushed him out - he should be able to explain that
JC(09:35:56): If you were given a 'why' - - - what would you then do?
JC(09:36:03): Would you say thank you and leave it there?
JC(09:36:58): Or would you continue the conversation and try to 'fix' things?
JC(09:37:33): I just think the answer he may have for you still won't help=
 you?
AB(09:38:16): i would say thank you and then continue to fix myself
AB(09:45:48): do you know something that i don't?
JC(09:46:48): Huh???
AB(09:47:13): i get the feeling you know why
JC(09:47:33): ab. . .
JC(09:47:36): seriously
JC(09:47:39): you just don't trust me.
JC(09:47:51): I know nothing more than I already told you
JC(09:48:37): Haven't talked to him since he texted me that you were in need of help.
JC(09:48:53): I don't want to talk to him
JC(09:49:11): Everytime I do, you get pissed at me and think I'm hiding something
JC(09:51:30): You're pushing me away, and I'm trying to be a shoulder for you as best I can. i don't have any vaca left, or I would be at your side.  I call you about once a week. I try to keep the communication channel open for you , but you seriously don't trust me. It's sort of bothering me, to tell you the truth. I would NEVER do anything to hurt you. I would NEVER try to be 'sneaky' or go behind your back. . . but for some reason you think I would do that.
AB(09:53:46): of course i trust you. but i also know you are a woman of your word and if you tell someone you won't say something you will do that because you are a good person
JC(09:54:20): Of course I would. But not at the expense of you.
AB(09:58:58): im sorry you feel that i don't trust you. i'm a jacked up mess JC. I don't know which way is up somedays. thank you for being my friend and i know you would be here if you could.

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I love people.  Those that know me know i have little patience for stuff like that.  When I encounter situations like this I don't sugar coat it and spell it out in black and white.  JC actually asked me if she was too harsh on AB.  I almost laughed.  Some people wonder why i have 'so few friends'.  It's not that i have 'so few friends'.  It's that if i even smell a situation like this coming my way I avoid it like the plague.

This is me.  This is me going in the opposite direction.  Any questions?

Beavis and Butthead - They're Back

http://popdust.com/2011/07/22/beavis-butthead-jersey-shore-new-season-preview/

I'm not a fan of Family Guy.  American Dad is ok at times.  The Simpsons need to be put to rest.  South Park should have ended years ago.

I'm normally not a fan of the retarded humor and Family Guy is the one that I think is the one that best represents the genre.  That being said, I'm actually happy Beavis and Butthead are coming back.  Maybe it's the nostalgia of them that made me grin when i heard this.  Maybe it's my juvenile side that still laughs when I've got gas.  I just think the world could use a dose of simple stupid humor again because of how polarized we're getting and how vogue it is to throw political commentary into every form of media.

After finding this out, I'm grinning and I don't know why.  :)

People Amuse Me

I love people watching. When i do this, some days i can almost hear a British/BBC voice doing a commentary as events are unfolding.

Yesterday the city closed off a major street near me because of a sink hole. Cops blocked both ends of the street and bridge for obvious safety concerns. I wandered over there to check it out for myself as a pedestrian because i honestly had nothing better to do and it was a nice day out.

It was approximately 5pm when i was on the scene. I wish i had a web cam to set up and stream this because it was just too funny for me. Here's a squad car parked blocking traffic with caution tape up and the road is clearly closed. As i walked by i saw no less than 3 cars try to turn onto the street and go under the caution tape. These people were promptly discouraged by a quite angry police officer who was not afraid to yell at them.

Here's an example of what i heard:
"Hey! The road is closed."
"Where do you think you're going?"
(my favorite...)
"Why do you think i'm parked blocking traffic? I don't care if you need to go through. You need to go around. I'm hear to keep you safe and i don't care where you think you need to go."

I've seen similar things happen with people and police officers when they're blocking traffic and it never ceases to amaze me. I normally do my polite head nod or wave acknowledging that i see them and go on about my business while keeping out of their way.

Once upon a time i thought i wanted to be a police officer. For various reasons, i decided that it wasn't for me. I can't help but think what i would have said in those situations. In hindsight i don't think i would have been nearly as diplomatic with these people. Perhaps it's for the better that i never went into that career field after all... :)

*******

Last summer while riding my bike i saw a car cut around an ambulance into oncoming traffic because they clearly were in a hurry. The ambulance hit their lights and waved the person to pull over and proceeded to ream them out. Technically this would be an illegal stop and the ambulance drivers could have gotten in hot water. Yeah. Right. Good luck finding me someone who will prosecute THAT one.

*******

These incidents are funny at face value for me but they're also saddening when i stop to think about it. Is it a lack of respect for authority figures that i see? Is it people being too selfish and into their own personal lives/interests to consider others? Is this summed up as "me first" mentality? Is this just blatant stupidity? Have we as a society lost all sense of etiquette?

I try to not read too much into peoples actions but it's hard. Their actions are funny to me but after a while i can't help but wonder what inspired them. I've always believed that "actions speak louder than words" and so these people are saying a LOT about themselves.

Pardon me for ending abruptly. There's a bridge that's out and i need to go have another laugh at other peoples expense.

Do Something About It

"If you don't like your situation, then do something about it."

These are words I live by. A long time ago I became empowered the first time I left a job that I didn't like. In hindsight, the feeling was quite liberating. No longer was I stuck going somewhere and doing something i grew to hate. Taking control of my destiny for the first time like that had a lasting impact on me and my approach to life in general today.

How should someone like myself then deal with a person who is in denial over how much they hate their job and has no ambition to advance or even leave? They say they don't hate their job but then all they ever do is bitch about people there. They refuse to even explore other options because they "don't want to compete with those that need it worse".

We all have complaints about work. We all complain to others about some aspect of work. There's nothing wrong with this and it's perfectly healthy.

I understand that insurance is a strong motivating factor for staying somewhere. There's also the fear of the unknown. It's clearly difficult to leave a job for another and expect a similar salary. Is not a pay cut worth the mental health? Does it make sense to stay somewhere that you have no hope for advancement and you voice how much you hate it? I'm not saying you have to have lofty goals and your entire career mapped out. How hard is it to want something just a little better in life?

In my eyes, i equate this as a personality that is destined for abusive relationships. Too and timid to take a stand. Denying their own words and justifying actions as "not all that bad" or "just venting". It's funny. When i hear the complaints about work and the subsequent denials of them, i keep thinking to myself "honestly officer, i just fell!"

He's an "intelligent" guy...

Intelligent.

in·tel·li·gent
–adjective
1. having good understanding or a high mental capacity; quick to comprehend, as persons or animals: an intelligent student.
2. displaying or characterized by quickness of understanding, sound thought, or good judgment: an intelligent reply.
3. having the faculty of reasoning and understanding; possessing intelligence: intelligent beings in outer space.
4. Computers. pertaining to the ability to do data processing locally; smart: An intelligent terminal can edit input before transmission to a host computer. Compare dumb (def. 8).
5. Archaic. having understanding or knowledge (usually fol. by of).

I hear that word thrown around as an adjective a lot these days. Not really sure if this is a new trend or if it's more coincidental.

What is it then that makes a person earn this description? Is it formal education? Reading habits? Job experience? Comprehension of vague abstract concepts? Or is it others perceptions of you that earn you this branding?

"He's an intelligent guy..."

A formal education doesn't necessarily equate intelligence. I think we all know someone that has an advanced education (degree, certifications, etc) that can be classified as "an educated idiot". Having witnessed this first hand, going to college doesn't necessarily mean that an individual is capable of retaining what they were exposed to. How many times have you taken a class (even in high school) and forgotten the bulk of the information after the final exam? With how common this is for people, is it that far of a stretch of the imagination to assume that this happens on all levels of education? We need only look at pop cultures TV show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" to see first hand how much we feel that we knew at one time but then promptly forgot because it was never reinforced. All you need to do is have a flash back to grammar structure in grade school and you'll know exactly what i'm referring to!

Does the fact that you've read the works Plato and Shakespeare equate as intelligence? Do you earn the brand of "intelligent" based on the fact that you've read a number of books about etymology? If not, then why is it that people continue to refer to a person like that as "intelligent"?

A person who can read a document and comprehend it immediately is considered intelligent. A person who can listen listen to something explained, interact with the presenter, and comprehend the topic is not considered as intelligent because they had to have outside help. Never mind that these are different styles of learning.

I guess i'm not "intelligent" and it's time for me to swallow that bitter pill. I don't read all that much these days and never cared for the deep thinking philosophy or literature genres (history was my passion). I need someone to explain to me abstract concepts rather than reading documentation. I graduated from college but then didn't retain much in most of my subjects (much like my peers). I'm comfortable with this so don't patronize me by calling me something that i'm clearly not.

No one has ever called me "intelligent" and, based on the above criteria, i'm comfortable knowing that they never will.

Lesson Learned - Ubuntu

I've clearly been using windows too much. Despite warnings from my friend/mentor, my issues this weekend were my own fault. I accepted full responsibility for my ignorance surrounding the actions taken.

Saturday, my Ubuntu 8.04 machine notified me that i had "critical security updates." No new kernel. Some of the updates were for VIM which made me "wtf" and look closely at what was being offered. It was mostly libs and so i grabbed them blindly. After system restart, sound was no longer working and Pidgin would freeze as it loaded. Much like winXP and SP2, unexpected things broke.

I tried looking through forums about updates, sound, and Pidgin breaking for others but no luck. This being a new build, i opted for the fix that was the most drastic but would get me up and running quickest. Upgrade to 8.10 time!

No luck. My machine felt laggy and hesitated a lot more AND sound was still broken. So much for that idea. All that's left was to reinstall. After consulting with a friend, i had a better game plan as to how i would configure my setup.

Previously i had left the install as vanilla as possible and so everything was on one partition which means everything would be lost. I was advised to create a separate partition for /home which would mean i wouldn't lose my files again. What a novel idea! As i was in the partition manager during install, it dawned on me that i can have /home be a separate drive and so i plugged in a spare 40g sata drive. When all was said and done, the mount point for / would become the 40g drive and 1.5tb would be allocated to /home. Let the install begin!

Install was no problem. Everything was working fine. Success. Wait a minute. I can't leave a sleeping beast alone, can i?

Yesterday I reinstalled again blowing away all system files while keeping /home on the seperate drive. During install it found /home no problem and asked if i wanted to import the data and settings from there. Sure. Why not?

After install was completed and i logged in, my background and files were intact. Woohoo! It makes sense that all of these files and settings exist in /home and since that was untouched then everything should look the same again (excluding lack of programs). Just because it makes sense doesn't mean that I'll truly grasp it until the first time i do it though.

If not for me blindly trusting the "updates", i feel i wouldn't have learned this tidbit for a long time. It's refreshing to have a sense of safety now knowing that whatever i wind up having in /home will remain intact after cleaning up yet another mess. I was genuinely pissed when that sound issue arose. Rather than whine and complain and get bitter about it, i used it as an excuse to try something new and different. Today i sit here knowing that i have absorbed another piece of the puzzle that i'm trying to conquer in my spare time.

Now... I need a beer BADLY!!! :)

The Joys of House Calls (Part I)

(I'm confident there will be follow-ups on this topic even though this is the first posting.)

WinXP on a p2-366mhz w/ 256mb is painful. There's no other way to put it. Every time the user clicked on IE it would open up and then blue screen. Turns out she had the full M$N messenger suite installed and it was the M$N toolbar that was ironically causing the BSOD's. How did i figure that out? Simple. Remove any and all toolbars. No mercy. Never met a toolbar that i liked (excluding Google because Google is our lord and savior). Removed it and machine runs... er... walks just fine now.

Did i mention that i'm EVENTUALLY going to get $20 for this mess?

Later in the same day i went on a call to another house. Nice guy and very easy to work with. Not afraid to ask questions or call for help if he thinks he's even getting close to breaking something. Basically all i had to do was swap a networking cable with a known good one. Fired up FireFox afterwards to make sure the global interwebs worked and weren't clogged.

"Firefox did not close properly in a previous session. Would you like to restore the session?"

"Sure!" i foolishly said and clicked accordingly.

There's a naked dude on this dude's browser window. Well. At least it was artistic. As he's looking over my shoulder i just grab the mouse and click on HOME right away and don't say anything about it. Mutter a couple comments about various widgets popping up with the weather and how i would find them annoying and didn't say jack shit about the naked dude i just saw.

Sigh.

No charge for the networking cable swap because it didn't wind up solving the problem. Modem is probably dieing and so it's someone else's problem. I don't fix the problem means i don't get paid.

Sigh.

These two calls in addition to everything else that happened that day made for a very very odd day. Why the hell am i doing this kind of work again???

I Laugh In The Face of Danger

After reading an article in yesterdays paper about the ICE issues which have been accumulating on houses here, I realized just how bad things were on my own house. Icicles hanging over my front door and stairs can be very dangerous. What was i to do?

As a result of fighting a nasty cold and having cabin fever, i decided this afternoon that it would be a good idea to go for a walk. As soon as i stepped outside and an icicle fell from the door opening I knew there would be no walk for me today. I was going to make my house SAFE. Yep. All of the cold remedy drugs had finally rotted away any common sense i had left. I was now a man on a mission.

Being rather tall (6'4") I knew i could smash most icicles with the reach of my snow shovel. As i take my first couple swipes at them my roommate comes outside. Here i am swinging a shovel at ice that is directly over me without a care in the world because i'm making things safer. What could possibly be wrong with this picture???

The front of the house was a cake walk since it was in the sun most of the day and so a lot of it has been consistently melting. I walked around to the back of the house as my roommate continued to observe. In theory he ws going to run to the store but this was too good of a show to miss out on! Finally he points out that this isn't one of my smarter ideas. Apparently ice is both sharp and heavy and there's an excellent chance that it'll hurt like hell if it hits me somewhere vulnerable (like my head). Bah! Humbug! I can't let something as silly as ice falling stop me from making my property safe. Besides, i was wearing eye protection (sunglasses). How much safer would i need to be?

Seeing the ice along the entire back side of the house and near our precious cable wire made me realize i must continue this nobel deed. I must smash all of the icicles from the gutters! Seeing that the snow was a good 18" deep, i used my trusty shovel to carve out a path through my grass. Every couple feet i stopped (roommate watching) and took another swing at those pesky icicles! I was more concerned with the icicles falling and breaking a window than actually hitting me. Some of these icicles were appx 3 feet long and quite thick. It was when i was half way done that i blurted out "If that fell and hit me in the head, i bet it would hurt like hell! Good thing i'm wearing eye protection!!!" The entire time i'm doing this, my roommate is standing there watching and waiting for the inevitable. Apparently he didn't want to come back to see me impaled on a giant icicle. Kept saying something about how they're sharp and could kill me easily if i wasn't careful. Bah! Humbug! I was a man on a mission!

Step by step, icicles fell. Most of them hit the vinyl siding on the house. Some hit the window. Some hit my hand or my foot. In the end, i was victorious. Every dangling chunk had been knocked down. My property was now safe (excluding all of the ice chunks that i left on the ground because i was too lazy to pick them up).

When i was a kid i got hit by an icicle that my friend threw at me. It hurt. A lot. This was clearly not one of my smartest ideas but i had a damn good time doing it. I'm sure my roommate is impressed with what level of stupidity i will sink to when i'm on a mission.

Time to go practice my Safety Dance moves....