Useless To Me

But I'll tell you about it. It's a website I found tonight called DarkGuest. It's a simple site used for coordinating parties. It's an RSVP management tool for the entertainer. I'd use it, but I don't have enough friends in any one region of the United States. Check it out.

Parenting Sucks

At least that's how other parents make you feel when you're expecting your first child. Anika had peas and carrots, mashed potatoes, and maybe some chicken tonight for dinner. It was a joy to clean up, or rather, watch Beth crawl around and wipe up peas and carrots from behind the chair.

"You better get your sleep while you can," those child-burdened, seasoned parents would say. When their kid slammed into the corner of the table and let out a shriek, they'd mumble "Get used to this!" And I was supposed to listen. Turns out we either are the greatest parents, or we just got unimaginably lucky.

Anika is eleven months old. From the time she was two months, we could probably count our sleepless nights on one hand. I don't have any of those cool one-liner warnings for new parents. I haven't lived their nightmare. But I do have some advice after having cleaned the royal highchair tonight:

"Don't let mashed potatoes dry on anything."

Misogyny

I expanded my vocabulary this morning. Yahoo! is offering two free CBS sitcoms this week, I guess as some sort of pilot for a likely-premium service they'll offer later.

In the episode of Two-And-A-Half Men, Charlie's brother called him a misogynist. Charlie had to look it up. So did I. It took me five full minutes to find the second letter. I had to use a thesarus to find the actual word. Where the hell did the writers find it?

I used wikipedia, by the way.

Oh, and I, for one, am not a misogynist. I'm a philogynist.

Culture Stock

Just where the hell am I again?





This has got to be a joke.

No it doesn't.

Yes it does.

Funny thing is, I know a guy who would likely pick up the phone after having read that. Then we'd probably find his severed arm in a ditch across town.

I swear I'm moving.

Flea markets? The quality of a man judged by his eye for a bargain in someone else's old shit? I do not understand.

Help me out of here, please.

Ready for 2006

Let’s recount 2005 first. It’s easier this way to know what I still need to resolve, since it didn’t get done in the past twelve months. Recalled from (flaky) memory are the resolutions for 2005:

• Quit Smoking
• Save Money
• Buy a House
• Finish a bachelor's degree
• A+, Net+, MCP, MCSE, MOUS, etc.

I did quit smoking, as I resolved to for the past twelve years, so I can say I succeeded for the whole year in that alone.

We did save some money, and then I lost my job two days before my daughter was born. So there went that part. We still haven't bought a house. I started college online, and discovered it was a scam; at least I made the attempt. I bought all the books I need to study up for all the exams I can fathom, but never finished one of them.

So the resolutions for 2006 are as follows:

• Save money
• Buy a house
• Get at least one certification
• Write more here and in more places
• Read all books left unread in my library

Okay, that last one is a stretch, but it's something that needs to be done. I resolve to carry a book everywhere I go, and spend my 2006 reading and enlightening myself. Here we go.

That Would Be Nice

There's an article in today's Washington Post about how Raytheon needs 300 more people to work on highly-technnical classified stuff, and they're having a terrible time at it.

I remember when I was in college looking at plenty of job postings from ITT, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, and Lockheed that all required a security clearance and a bachelor's degree in Information Technology or Computer Science/Engineering. I never got a security clearance when I was in the military. That was probably the worst thing I could have skipped.

I once thought about joining the reserves and getting a job that required a top secret clearance (so the government would pay for it) but I didn't necessarily want to go to Iraq to get one.

It might happen someday. I kinda want to do network engineering for the CIA or NSA, just to make me feel cool.

Happy Hanukkah

That'll get the white trash angry.

Merry Christmas for 2005

I didn't get the whole Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas debacle. I guess that the fascist Christians don't realize that some people don't celebrate Christmas, but everyone should get along and be nice no matter what time of year it is.

Enjoy your joy.

Thinkering without Tinkering

I am very sad today.

I just read about a new retrieval system for portable computers. It includes a piece of software that is very hard to delete. This software broadcasts the computer’s IP address to the company if the machine is stolen. It can then be traced and found. Future plans for this system, LoJack for Laptops, include integration into the hardware, which is impossible to change without ruining the entire computer.

I’m sad because I thought of this system two years ago. I just didn’t know how to go about making it real.

I now resolve to make my inventions come to life from now on. Not just in 2006, but for the rest of my time spent thinking. I’m actually working another design out now for something totally unrelated. Wish me luck.

Needs Improvement

This is a rant.

I am not an avid traveler, and often don't know what to expect at any given hotel. I do, however, expect flawless Internet access in my room. This week I'm at a fairly expensive Holiday Inn in South Atlanta. The place supposedly has wireless Internet access, but I have been unable to connect as of yet. There are at least two reasons this should not happen: The place should be hard-wired previously, and there should be clear instructions as to how to connect to the wireless access point.

Hotels have given guests Internet access for years now. I'm sure they provided it in every room long before the IEEE 802.11 standard became popularized. With that, I assume now that they ripped the wire out of the wall for no reason when they installed this wireless system.
Even if they never had an ethernet jack in the room, there's no reason they shouldn't put one there. Security is always an issue; I never go to the bank over a public wireless system.

I guess the answer is only to not stay at the Holiday Inn - Atlanta Airport North. It's $115 per night (if you're lucky) and the place kinda smells funny, too.

The Perfect Household Item

I just found the perfect set of coasters for my house here:

Personal

Tonight I’d like to share with you a piece of my diary I wrote shortly after I got married, then was abruptly bussed away to the desert for training, leaving my brand-new wife alone in a new city, state, and culture.  It was a blast.  I was doing my daily bitching and moaning about the Army, as soldiers in the field do (I did it on paper), and got to talking about how I wanted to be a pilot, and was encouraged by many of my superiors to pursue that goal:

The hardest thing for me to do is to keep the same positive thoughts when I go back to garrison.  When I go to the field, I see these helicopters floating with absolute freedom, briskly across the sky, and I want to be in that cockpit, in complete control.  I want to be the one people look up to, because I’m a pilot, and everyone thinks pilots are very intelligent.  Nearly all pilots, especially the ones in the military, are respected more because of the responsibility they have, and their attitude toward perfection.  I think – I know – I have these qualities.  I can fly.
But when I get back to the “same ol’, same ol’” at Fort Carson, my mind wanders and I am distracted and corrupted by “the daily routine.”  I no longer respect the army, and want nothing to do with it, and I develop a list of reasons not to stay in the army, or fly for it.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about my time in the military and what I enjoyed overall.  I met some lifetime friends, went places I actually want to visit again but can’t afford to (the Mojave Desert can be fun, I’m sure, in a pair of shorts), and gained some direction in my life from those who cared to listen and give me advice.

I think that mainly right now I miss my friends.  They’re all scattered about the United States, and I only communicate with them over the Internet.  That’s cool, but it’s hard to share a beer and a smile via TCP/IP.

Never mind.  I’m just tired and clouded.

Busy Week Ahead

Starting Sunday evening, I'll be on the road for a week. I plan to take pictures and blog along the way, provided Inernet access is readily available. I have finally finished making all reservations and planning my trip with MS Streets & Trips 2005. I realize this is a horrible plug, but I love this program. I got the version with a GPS receiver that uses a USB port in my tablet computer. With it, I can see exactly where I'm going and where I need to be if I get off course. It even has every dirt road in South Georgia plotted in its maps. The 2006 version is already out, but I may wait another year for an upgrade. Streets & Trips 2006 includes voice-guided directions and a night-viewing mode, neither of which I need.

Positions

The following is a mid-term exam I had to do in a humanities course at Colorado Technical University. The class was actually called Lifelong Learning, but incorporated Art and Music Appreciation into it as well. I am posting this to provide perspective on my life. I guess that's what this blog is about.

When you consider lifelong learning skills, when and where do you find the “right” or the “best” environment and the “right” or “best” time for you to concentrate and study? Consider these kinds of questions as you answer this one: is it morning or night, at home or in the library, alone or with a classmate?
My place and time to study used to be the kitchen table, starting at about 9pm and ending between midnight and 2am. Since I talked to [my instructor], I stopped studying at home; I now come to school with everything and sit in the library so I can be productive until one of my classes starts. The library provides privacy and eliminates distraction (dependent upon available seating; the front of the library is busy at times), creating an environment much like midnight at home. As I sit here today I am in the front part of the library and distracted by people walking by, the talkers up front, and the noise very near the “quiet” study rooms.
I am also drawn to wonder what could possibly be unique about all these management books. I know what environment I need, and if those requirements are met, the time of day has no relevance. In other words, if I had my spot in the library right now, I would have this test done already.

What are your three greatest motivators that help to propel you to success in achieving your college education? When answering this one, consider both internal and external motivators and identify your three greatest motivators as either internal or external.
I’ve never thought of this before, but it’s not a hard guess. Two external motivators, and one internal one. The first external motivator I have is my father. He spent twenty years getting through with his college education, and when he was done he didn’t have a single student loan to pay, and everyone called him “Doctor Rehberg.” I admire my father’s persistence.
The second external motivator is my friend, Scott. I have looked up to him since the day we met in the Army. He was determined to finish college when he got out of the service and be a chemical engineer. He read books on history because he wanted to; he must have had a hunger for knowledge in every field. He knew everything. Scott finally graduated college last month^*, but not as a chemical engineer. He once told me that he was going to run for president one year, so changing his major to political science wasn’t too bad of a choice.
The internal motivator is my recent conviction that I am an engineer. I tend to see this all of the time as I go through life. I love to find solutions to problems; solutions that no one thought of before. The problem is that I have no physics or mathematics background to begin a professional career as an engineer. I need these skills in order to put my mind to work.

Define art and its usefulness to society. In your answer, explain how art is used to judge, gauge, or evaluate a society. Present your case or argument for whether or not art and the arts should be funded by a government just as education is currently funded.
Art, by my own definition, is the expression of feeling to modify the emotion of its audience. This is not the only definition of art – art is also used to tell stories and to preserve history. History is what this country is so proud of – its 200-plus years of it. To preserve our art and fund the creation of it is to encourage the making and recording of history as it happens. There’s a picture someone took of Jack Ruby as he pulled the trigger on Lee Harvey Oswald (that photographer lives in Colorado somewhere; he was on the news last year about the photo.) That photograph is an excellent example of a form of art preserving events in American history.
Art should be funded by the government. There never was much money in painting or sculpting, and only the college-trained can get a job taking pictures, so the monetary benefit of being an artist is not appealing. But if one holds a desire to paint, sculpt, or photograph strange things (like Piss Christ by Andres Serrano, a picture of a crucifix inside a four-gallon tank filled with the artist’s urine), they should be able to do so. There are so many non-productive people living on government funding; why shouldn’t the government support those who produce artifacts of the nation’s history?

How do you believe our society will be measured based on our current art, including pop art? Identify 2 or 3 specific pieces or examples of art (from the past 3 or 4 decades to today) and use them to justify your reasoning. You should give some consideration to the art that we see in art galleries, in museums, paintings in stores and even the art that you may see or wear on tee shirts.
In 200 years, if we haven’t destroyed all that is living, we should see a bit of art from the 20th century. Art today varies widely from scenic paintings to odd photographs to abstract building and sculpture design. We even incorporated mechanics into our art – using moving parts and such.
We will probably be taken as people who couldn’t make up our minds about anything. We are a nation of varying nationalities and cultures, changing constantly. Some artists despise things that other artists admire. There will be many stories to conjure up about the “Americans” and various opinions will certainly be composed.
There are several comical examples of our art from decades past, one idea of which there are many paintings: dogs playing poker. This is probably funny to women whose husbands go play cards every week while drinking and smoking. Since men are commonly referred to as “dogs,” those husbands may as well be dogs sitting around the card table drinking and smoking, barking their opinions on this and that and complaining about what they do all week. It tells us of the “working man” who gets a chance to get away from work and home to relax with the guys, which is common today. We just don’t play cards anymore.
Other examples of art that may be used to judge us will probably have more to do with advertising. The most publicized art today is, of course, in advertisements. One popular logo of this age is Intel Inc.’s logo for their line of computer CPUs. This is found on literally millions of computers, including my own two systems, and more than half of the systems I’ve repaired. This will never be forgotten as a globally recognized logo from a very successful company. It might still be around in two hundred years, albeit changed for the evolving market, but nevertheless known around the world for being the leader in CPU sales and semiconductor engineering.

Identify 4-5 criteria that you personally use to gauge a “good” piece of art. Explain why your criteria are important to you.
Okay, criteria of “good” art: creativity and meaning, accuracy, lighting, and obvious talent. Norman Rockwell is a perfect example of all these criteria. He was creative in the stories his paintings told about American life, especially the experiences of children, who go through the same type of things today. Every day, in some part of the country, a parent gets called to a school for their child fighting. It doesn’t make headlines, but it’s usually a big deal to the family. Rockwell captures these locally catastrophic events in his paintings of children, some examples being the taking of medicine, getting shots at the doctor’s office, and a girl picturing herself in a prom dress. Rockwell’s creativity is exemplified in his self-portrait. Most artists who make a career out of painting eventually paint a self-portrait, but Rockwell did something fantastically different. He captured a picture of himself in the act of painting a self-portrait. Who would have thought of that?
Lighting is well-used in Rockwell’s paintings to bring reality to the picture, often bringing oil-on-canvas to photograph quality. Rockwell’s lighting goes right along with his accuracy in the picture.
Just looking through a book of his art, one can see Norman Rockwell’s obvious talent. On the cover of the Saturday Evening Post dated November 4, 1944, a picture of Rockwell’s was printed, as were many of his works. In this picture, however, one can see that the artist was perhaps very meticulous. It’s of a man in a voting booth making his last-minute decision on whom to vote for. The man in the picture is holding the current newspaper, and the faces of the presidential candidates, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas E. Dewey, were on the front page. How Rockwell did this with a brush escapes me. He stands alone as my favorite artist; I plan to have several prints of his works on my library walls.


^*This document was originally published in May of 2004.

A Bit of Babble

Once again I’m up until 4:00 am, having drunk too much coffee.  I can’t sleep, and I have a sore eye.  I think it may be from taking those pictures to get the new banner.  Remind me not to do that again.  Isaac Newton stared at the sun for as long as he could, and he had to stay in a dark room for days because of it.  I also have a bad cough – it’s probably from smoking my pipe the other day.  Remind me not to do that, too.

I don’t have anything interesting to report, just that I like the new design here.  I’ll try to get more links up.

Oh, I have an announcement.  I now own anikajade.com, and have one page up.  We’re working on getting enough computing power to process the videos we have so we can post them there.  Pictures are coming soon enough.

On that note, we need software, too.  I could use a good web publishing suite (not FrontPage) that’s easy to use and very powerful.  I’d have to upgrade my hosting plan in order to write my own CGI scripts, and that’s not something we’re prepared to do.  I’ll have to build each photo page separately, and it would be easier with a good web publishing program.  Besides, I need something to review for my other blog.

I don’t know why I thought I should start another blog, but I noted the reasons for doing so in the first post.  I enjoy talking about technology, and I imagine that some people value my opinion when it comes to new things.  I like to do bits of research too, just to learn about something I’m interested in.  That’s why I have so many books.  It’s also why I sit at my desk at home instead of in front of the television.  If it weren’t for DVD, I wouldn’t need a TV.  In fact, when I get two of these, I may lobby to rid our home of the dreaded thing.

Nothing further.  I’m off for a nap.

Buddhism

Scott spoke of Buddhism the other day.  It made me think of a document I printed years ago in college and never read.  It was a brief overview of Buddhism, and I drug it out to figure out where I got it.  Here's the link.

Somewhere I heard or read that no religion supports science as well as Buddhism.  That's what interested me in the philosophy of the practice.

Update:  Albert Einstein said it:  “If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.”

Pikes Peak or Bust (maybe later)

I’ve been wanting something more lately.  It’s got everything to do with me and my selfishness.  I’ve been wanting to move back to Colorado and back to the life I had that was more comfortable.

I say it was more comfortable because I didn’t have to work so hard to know where I was and who I could trust.  I finally had a circle of friends and then I just moved away, for what now feels like no good reason.

Reading this article this morning changed my perspective on where I should be and what I should be doing.  The last line, spoken by the girl’s mother, changed my priorities today.

I now admit that Colorado isn’t the same as when we left it (it is still very beautiful, however).  Our friends there have changed and we have also.  Every place I go, including those places I’ve lived before, would be new to me if I moved there.  They’re all the same.  New faces, new environment, new accent.  Whether it be Minneapolis, Atlanta, or Sacramento, it’ll be just like moving back to Colorado.  There would be just as much change in our lives as it was moving back to Georgia, thinking it would somehow be just as I left it.

Don’t go thinking I love Tifton.  I don’t mean to sound negative about the town, but the place is just damn uncomfortable.  That’s another rant.  Back to my priorities:

My daughter, Anika, is paramount.  I will have the best for her, especially now when she is so young.  I’m third.  Second is Beth, my lovely wife, who right now needs all the support she can get while she’s in school.

My problem, however, is that I’m selfish and I’ll likely forget what’s important.  I’ll want more for me and justify it by saying “I need this so we can all succeed.”  I just need to remember that I have more time to get back to school later.  Now it’s time for Anika and Beth to grow.

Help me remember that.

Death and Economics

Britain, I have learned, has an interesting public health care system in which those who be calculate a cost effectiveness of costly drugs and procedures.  If the cost of the surgery or prescription outweighs the benefit, the government says no.  This doesn’t seem to happen in the United States.  I’m beginning to wonder why.  Seriously.

Now don’t call Jeb just yet, hear me out.  I read this book one time (imagine that – me finishing a book!) where some time in the future this happened all over the world.  If the patient was too old, it wasn’t worth the government’s money to provide health care for that individual because the person didn’t contribute enough to society.  In other words, you should pay your own way.

I’m not expressing an ultimatum or starting an argument – I’m only bringing something up I read in today’s Wall Street Journal about a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Britain’s asking its physicians not to prescribe it anymore because it costs so much and doesn’t do enough.  Is it worth it?  Should the public pay to treat someone who doesn’t earn anything or make any type of contribution to society, especially when the treatment works only for a little while?

IMHO, no.  It’s as simple as Terry Schiavo.  Don’t prolong suffering.

Within the other shoe, I totally support the funding of Alzheimer’s research and other ventures related to the prevention and cure of any disease.  I just don’t support some drug that’s been released and doesn’t provide at least something more permanent.

Priorities

I decided to post this here because it kind of goes along with Ben's post lifeinfalls. Not so much because the blog I will mention is leaving, but because many good voices are missed in the desire to be with the popular crowd.

Scott from Poetic Leanings is calling quits to his everyday posting and his issue posts. He will still be posting occasional poetry, which I highly recommend reading, but his voice will be missed in so many ways. I can totally understand why he is doing it too.

It takes a lot of time to put together ideas and then try to make then intelligible to your visitors. When your visitors are only a few a day, it hardly seems worth it. I believe Scott got more daily hits than I did, but I write more for my own sanity. If I based my blogging on hits, I would have quit a long time ago. It gets discouraging to spend time putting something together that you are proud of and then have noone read it or comment on it. Even disagreement would be fine.

I think the problem stems from wanting to be one of the "big boys" or at least accepted by them. The problem with those big blogs is that they don't really have anything important to say. They go for quantity to keep the people checking back to run up the hit counters. The smaller blogs believe that their words can be used to make a difference and not just a profit. Would I like to make money sitting at my computer bitching? You're damn right I would. But, I would like to think my words are serving a higher purpose than just doing it.

I imagine that more of the smaller blogs will start calling it quits or post less. I would like to be wrong, but don't know if I will be. Poetic Leanings provided insight into New Jersey politics and many of the big issues of today without being pretentious or acting superior to it's readers. I just hope that we can do our part to keep other good bloggers from folding it in.

Cold Tonight

I’m back in this mode again that puts me in a bad mood.  It’s the mode that makes me wish I was somewhere else.  The feeling never lets me go.

Tonight, like many nights, I want to go back to Colorado.  It’s not that I’ve failed here (it was that sense that I could succeed in Georgia that brought me here), but that I would feel better somewhere more familiar.  Somehow I could be happier where more people are open and friendly (and not so damn religious).

I thought of a million reasons to move back to Georgia and why I disliked Colorado.  I remember having dry skin and bloody noses every once in awhile because of the climate.  I also remember wanting to be closer to the rest of my family.  Aside from that, I don’t recall just what it was that made me hate that place.  I do, however, now remember what I loved.

I loved the convenience of an independently-owned coffee shop, and a friend to meet me there often, only to sit on cold bricks and bitch about our occupations.  I miss the crisp cold during the winter, which lasts six months.  I recall enjoying my time at college while my wife worked.  I miss the variety of shops and the variety of people in them.  I miss the bums on the corner, along with their hacky-sack.  It’s those little things that I don’t have here that I miss the most.  I feel more uncomfortable here every day.

But I must continue along this wet, sticky path until I reach a crossroad which my situation allows me to travel along.  For now I have a daughter and a wife-student, and I cannot fail.

The Ridiculous Vow

This is only the 124th post to this blog since its creation in about April 2004. I hereby vow to blog at a minimum of once per day in 2006, and draw the attention of more readers. Scott started late last year and has over 10,000 hits recorded. He speaks a bit more than I do about what he's thinking (especially in the shower). If I had that much to say, I wouldn't have a problem blogging every day.

One must have a routine, you know. It creates order in the goings-on of the everyday.

Oh, the rumor started: Dell might just start selling computers with AMD processors and win my heart back. Oh, the thought. The $399 desktops today could become the $199 desktops tomorrow if this happens! Computers for every child in America!

I imply "only in America" because other countries can't afford Dell computers. Mr. Negroponte is furiously working on a solution for that. His idea, however, doesn't include anything we can buy ourselves, so for cheap computers, we should all look to Dell to bring AMD home.    

Leadership::Communication

This is the first installment into my rework of the first column on leadership.  I won’t even link to the first one because I am ashamed of it.  This one is a bit long, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and it’s time I got to it.

All leaders must communicate well.  I suppose I could leave it at that, but I feel I must explain why.  Here goes:

I am a subordinate and have been in every position in life with the exception of my latest post: I am a new father.  I have often been subjected to poor directions and failed communication.  I failed many times as a result.  I had an office in Florida once where my supervisor/manager/whatever failed in my understanding of just exactly what my job was.  She even had me write the description.

She also ignored most of my requests and only effectively communicated when she was pointing out my shortcomings as a data analyst (let it be known that I am not a statistician; I am an IT Professional.)

Before I get off on a rant, let me try to explain why it is necessary as a leader to convey your thoughts clearly to those whom you lead.

In effective communication, more than your instructions get across to the worker.  The leader’s attitude toward the organization, task, and the worker himself can be told from a single sentence from the superior.  We all know that attitudes can spread; someone with a recent death in the family can quiet the entire office for a whole day at times.  If the boss is quite down and projects negativity about the company or his superiors, his subordinates can get to feeling the same way and lose sight of the organization’s goals.  Negativity spreads regardless of position; the UPS delivery person can ruin an entire section of cubes given the perfect circumstances.

The effective communication discussed here includes several things:

• Building a trust-based relationship


• Paying attention to the subordinate


• Inviting creativeness


• Inviting camaraderie


• Welcoming promotion

A leader must build a trust-based relationship with everyone around him.  This ensures that people will tell the truth and express their concerns without hesitation.  In turn, problems are resolved before they begin to affect productivity.  If the worker cannot feel comfortable asking for a new stapler when one is clearly needed, she won’t be inclined to speak up about things like missing deadlines either.

A leader must not ignore anyone.  This involves a great deal of listening as well as multi-tasking, skills the leader should have mastered while in a lower position.  If a worker is ignored or shrugged-off in any case, even the “Do you like my new tie?”-type questions, the worker will simply fall into a pattern of silence.  He feels no one is listening, so he might as well save his breath.

Effective communication, having built a good say-anything relationship, should invite creativeness in that anything goes when it comes to ideas for change in the work environment.  If there is a procedure that could be changed and a worker has a good idea to make it better, the leader will know because she listens.  Inviting and encouraging creativity is one of the best things an organization can do to improve itself.  The more efficient anyone or anything can become, the better off everyone is, even if it shaves twenty seconds off making a funnel cake.

Camaraderie is very important in a working relationship among any number of people.  The simple act of meeting after work for a chat over coffee can make the greatest positive difference in someone’s life, and possibly in their career.  People aren’t so reluctant to get to work if they enjoy the company they work with.

Something a leader can always use for motivating people: the possibility of promotion.  This doesn’t mean that one should string people along and not come through.  This motivation involves merely keeping the concerned informed about the goings-on in the organization and opportunities for advancement, especially during periods of growth.  The workers should make their own decisions with what they hear and confirm, but the leader should always be in support of anyone attempting to get ahead even if it means parting company.

Above all, a leader should listen.  Listening is half of the whole communication bit.  Nothing is accomplished without communication.  I’m sure it took more than one caveman to tackle a wildebeest for dinner, and I am willing to bet they used some form of communication.  Without that, they may have starved, and it could have been the end of our species.  

Yeah, it’s that important.

lifeinfalls

Beth and I have spent the last hour talking about a blog she found and was very impressed and amused by it.  I just wanted to tell my reader(s) about this blog because it’s much more interesting than mine.

In my opinion, lifeinfalls should be more popular than it appears to be.  I think she has fewer comments than me4president2008, yet she posts very funny articles and astonishingly fantastic photographs and ideas.  Beth has added it to her favorites.  Lifeinfalls is what blogging was meant to be.

Anyway, it’s time I started on my main project.  I am working on…well, I can’t tell you or I’ll never finish it.  I just can’t decide whether to post it in parts or in its entirety.  I think I just figured it out – I’ll post it in parts and then I’ll post it as a complete document.  Maybe I’ll get done with the first part tonight.  Hell, I’m not programming, so I might as well write.  I already drank the coffee.

Interesting

"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative." - Kurt Vonnegut

I think Kurt here is right. On television, no one is in between political stances or out of the range of fire. Hannity and all his friends and fans tend to put labels on people. I think I talked about labels earlier.

Good Parenting

New Contributor

I would like to welcome Justin to the list of contributors. Justin and I were friends in the Army, but didn't know it until after we both were out. We have shared many a 12-pack in his garage while tearing apart any number of mobile electronics projects and constructing household necessities such as the double-barrel potato gun.

I'm envious of his being frozen in Colorado while I sweat my balls off in Georgia this winter.

Welcome, Justin.

Beer

I love beer, it is great, it often helps me meditate.
My car is trashed and so am I, but if the cops must ask...i must lie.
surely officer, you can see...this aint my fault, it was the tree.
The fucker jumped into the road, and made me lose my precious toad.
He hopped away mad with one thing to say, that stopped an infection that surely would slay.

All of a Sudden, FranklinCovey Sucks

I need a new binder for my Franklin planner this year along with next year’s refill.  The binder I would have liked is $139.00.  Now, I’ve got some resentment toward this:

The initial kit was about $100, and the first binder (current one) hasn’t lasted one year.  How the hell am I going to justify paying $140 for the fucking binder and then $40 for the paper that goes in it?  That’s averaging $140 per year just to “organize” my time and tasks.  Doesn’t seem efficient.  I think I’ll quit carrying this stupid thing, and patent my own life-prioritizing algorithms for simplicity and organization.  Then I’ll be like Stephen Covey.

Maybe I’ll just go paperless.  Hell, I’ve got planzo for my calendar and tasks, a mobile phone for my contacts’ phone numbers, a tablet computer for all other communication, and a wonderful spouse for tracking the money.  Screw this Weekly Compass crap.  Using the silly thing takes more time than I have allotted for it.

New Format

I'm getting ready to leave for the morning, and Ashton is sulking. He always does this. I feel terrible sometimes.

I learned yesterday, however, of an Internet radio station for pets. It is supposed to help with the separation anxiety if you leave it playing throughout the day.

The station is at www.dogcatradio.com and they play upbeat 80's from what I've heard so far. Try it out. It will be playing from my office today so that it may be heard throughout the house.

The station actually is broadcast from a motor home in a parking lot in LA (according to NPR) and the station blew up yesterday since the press release. Props to these folks.

Have a good day and be nice to your dog and/or cat.

Planzo

So I found this new thing from Rising Concepts, LLC (I swear Google has something to do with this) and I figured I'd try it. Who knows? Maybe it will replace my other organizational tool, and maybe my employer will see use in it, too.

This site is a calendar building tool and has other organizational features, too. One of the cool things about it is that my calendar of events is publicly viewable at http://brehberg.planzo.com. They also provided the code that displays today's events in the sidebar to the right. I'll be playing with this, so look here for a report soon. While you're waiting, give it a try if you think you might have the need.

Car Crash

Some guy pulled out in front of me last week. Totally hosed up my routine, since the rental car doesn't like my iPod, and I don't want to install my XM radio in it.

Quote off?

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad that they have to get better.

Malcolm Forbes

October 22

"When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home."

- Sir Winston Churchill

Busy Body

Has it really been that long since I wrote? Wow.

I haven't even read all that Andy wrote so far. Sorry, Andy.

This new job is crazy. I get to drive to nearly everywhere in Georgia. There isn't much time for writing or schoolwork, but I think I'll manage. Days like today are blessings. Today happens to be Columbus day, and state offices are closed. I don't know why, I just know that I'm not going to work today.

I've only been employed for ten days, so it must sound odd that I feel very relieved to have a day off. Let me explain:

• Anika started at a new daycare a week ago.
• I started this job the same day.
• The day before (Sunday, October 2) I began online classes for my BS degree.
• Monday I traveled to orientation.
• Tuesday I went to Atlanta.
• Thursday night I got back.
• Friday I went to Valdosta for the afternoon.
• The first assignments were due that day.

So I'm a little tired from traveling and new things. Sure, you can call me a wussy, but I'm still tired. I'll just have to adjust to this level of activity. It's back to Atlanta tomorrow night, and then again for three days next week. Maybe when this rush of initial training is over I can get a grip on my actual duties and get some work done.

Interesting quote today (you may have to read it twice. I did.):

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
- Albert Einstein

I would elaborate, but I haven't the desire. Just think 'G.W. Bush.'

Later.

Andy's Back

AndrewOlmsted.com is back, and I hope he's there to stay. That's about all for today, with the exception of it being my last day at the current job. I also got a tablet computer from the state for this new job, and it's pretty cool. Just not sure about what to do with all the paperwork it came with.

Google has an interesting quote of the day on my home page:
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction." -Blaise Pascal

I think that is partially true, and only partially because I am not very religious and have known people to do evil things quite easily without religious conviction. I'm not getting into that. I'm working on something else.

Where is your church?

I ask this because I think a lot about religion and politics. That fact is usually disguised in my writing, but believe it or not, it is true. Scott over at Poetic Leanings wrote this yesterday and got me thinking.

I do not consider myself a religious person. Much like I believe that communism is a good idea ruined by people, I feel that religion is going along the same lines. Too many people are trying to be middlemen between God and us. It is occurring in all the major religions. People who are far less than honest are telling others what God would want.

I am a spiritual person who is a Christian and still consider myself a Catholic even though I don't attend church. I was unable to continue going to a building for worship when most people seemed to just go so that others could see them there. I think God knows if you are there for the right reasons and probably even knows if I choose to pray or reflect at home.

While I was in the shower last night, I was thinking about church and what would be my church. More precisely, where is my church. I decided that the golf course could probably be considered a place where I worship. It is like my Zen place. When I am golfing, I usually am relaxed and just able to think.

I also think that I find my bed a place of worship. Before you think about the wrong things, I often just lay in bed and listen to jazz or Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen and ponder life. I occasionally read the Bible or Qu'ran there and just think. Isn't that really what spirituality is? Reflecting on God, your relationship with God, and your relationship with the rest of the world?

I have also been trying Yoga and meditation. I am not very good at blocking everything out of my head yet though. I can relax and block out the outside well enough, but occasionally a thought pops in like "I wonder if M*A*S*H is on?"

Off to Atlanta

I got a slew of e-mails last night detailing next week's training. I haven't started the job yet, but I do know that on day two I'll be in Atlanta overnight. I'm a bit excited about all of this, except for the fact that we will be using SouthernLinc telephones. Cheap ones.

Anyway, things are heating up. My online classes open in two days, and I have only the weekend to get everything in order. Plus, Scott wants me to write a column for his blog, I think.

Twenty-Seven

What happened on this day in history no one cares about. I haven’t read anything astonishing yet, so I’ve made up a few facts of my own to commemorate my twenty-seventh birthday:

• I’m half my father’s age now.


• September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday, too. (for my Republican readers, of which there are none)


• John Mayer and I are the same age for about the next 20 days.


• I don’t feel any different from yesterday, when I was twenty-six.

Enough of my birthday. I had better get back to caring for my daughter who will be going to another daycare facility next week. The day I start school online will also be the first day of my new job, also next week. Forget how old I am; I haven’t the time to think about it.

Update: I will also point out that I share a birthday with Google, Inc. Today is Google's seventh birthday.

Lemme Get a Count

How many readers do I have? Please comment one time on this post. I'd hate to think that 1200 of the current 1246 hits to this site are from me checking to see if anyone is reading.

Getting Close

First, the quote of the day:

"Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know."
- Cullen Hightower

Calls came in pretty steady today, but no immediately solvable problems were left without resolution. This VoIP thing is certainly becoming a pain in the ass since it's provided by a third party. I personally think we should have put more thought and money into providing our own VoIP service locally. It would have taken a couple more years, but I think we'd be better off with local control. I realize that comes from a technical support perspective rather than a logistical one, but I really hate depending on people I've never met.

I've got one more day on call before I leave my current position, and I am admittedly anxious. I'm also a bit nervous about starting a new job, but I am sure I'll do well. I have a pretty easy time explaining computers to people over the phone (though I do not enjoy the telephone), so doing it face-to-face should prove to be easier.

A friend found a background image that should show up in Windows Vista next year, and I put it on my Linux machine for kicks:




Maybe the folks at Microsoft will be happy to know that all computers are welcome on the Internet, and can do almost as much. Linux is getting better every day, and it will soon catch up to popular technology. Market share won't change much, but I will do what I can to bring the public's attention to this alternative.

Good night.

You Should See Us Now

As long as Google doesn't go anywhere, this blog will be here forever, and I plan on writing to the world for a long time. If you look often, you'll see my daughter grow! If you wait too long, she'll be off to college before you see her again.

From the Desk of Anika Jade

She loves this computer for some reason. She even helped me type the blog tonight.
I should teach her some more of those hot typing skills. Maybe one day pass on my legacy.

I'm on call this week. Being on call makes me wonder if I'll miss the place. I really feel like I'm speaking too soon, but I'm looking forward to another job. This one only lasted about five months, and I wasn't exactly active in looking for the one I got, but the change is surely welcome, as is the salary. Beth and I are pushing for a house, and this will certainly prove to be a catalyst in that venture.

I will enjoy the challenge of something new. Teaching will be a new experience for me, but if I am passionate enough about what I teach, there should be no problem. I love technology and what it can do. I don't necessarily appreciate what humans have become due to its automation of nearly everything, but I like it. We have become more efficient, some richer, some poorer, and most everyone else lazy. That's for another discussion.

While I'm rambling, the Blogger for Word toolbar disappeared from Word this evening. I think Anika uninstalled it while she was working her magic.

Never mind. I closed and restarted Word and it appeared. There's your tech tip for the night.

Interesting Quote of the Day

“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.”  - Lord Acton

And it begins...

The grudge.  I’m already getting the cold shoulder from the upper echelon.  Just for the record.

Blogger for Word

I always wanted something that I could use to write in and push-button publish to this (or any, for that matter) blog.  I was looking into Moveable Type, but I think that costs money, and this is primarily a hobby.  Like golf, except for free.

So I got this new plug-in for Microsoft™ Word™ and this is the first article I published, to test the software.  This will give me a good chance to write longer, thought-out stuff like why Bush hates midgets and drools at Fran Drescher*.

But for now I’ll play with one of the latest cool toys from the Google closet and enjoy my time punching keys.

*Name chosen at random, but really – have you seen her teeth?

John Mayer Trio

iTunes has a couple of singles out from the John Mayer Trio debut release (I think it's due in December, but don't quote me. I'm too lazy to look it up.) The first song, the one I favor, is a 50's-60's blues style song called "Come When I Call." I love it. It sounds like a blues hall recording in a way, and it sets the mood for the lyric. Great job.

The other one, "Who Did You Think I Was," is a Lenny Kravitz-style workout about how John is actually different than everyone thinks he is, proving he's a bit confused about it himself. It is a great beat with a lot of energy, and I must like it, too.

I especially like the "Stitched Up" John did on the new Herbie Hancock CD. You should get it (the song, not the album. I can only speak for one track on it.)

Enjoy yourself, and drink some coffee while listening to some good tunes.

Update:
The John Mayer Trio will release a live recording November 13 along with a DVD.

Got the Job

I got a call late this morning from the guy who interviewed me two weeks ago. I returned his call to discover a job offer. I happily accepted and will be on my way to a new occupation in sixteen days.

I [think I] will be teaching proper computer usage to people in a rather large portion of Georgia, for the purpose of keeping a low call volume in the Technical Support department. My job will be not to fix problems, but to prevent them. I hope to create knowledgeable workers who can work efficiently and therefore help those in need in better time.

That is my aim.

I will also be responsible for managing the roll-out of large software applications, and training the users in those applications. I plan to do my best to keep the questions at a minimum when I am done.

After a conversation tonight with me4president2008, I should teach people in such a fashion that they learn how to think for themselves, so they can complete more of their jobs without consulting others for help.

Maybe I'll be asking for too much, but if someone as simple as I am can think for himself, anyone can do it. At my current job, I go to customers' houses and fix their problems. After that, if there's anything I can show them that may enable them to correct or avoid the same problem, I am sure to teach them how to do so. I enjoy that part of my job, and usually the recipient is quite grateful. And they rarely call back with the same problem.

Enough for tonight. I'm sure I'll be expressing my anxiety here in the coming days.

Everything I need to know about politics,

I learned from a very famous philosopher and poet, Marky Mark. It was a stroke of political genius when Marky Mark and his Funky Bunch pronounced that "I'm a get mine so get yours." Ahh, the insight and inspiration this has provided many a politician.

I had been trying my hand at political vacations when the vision of Marky Mark came to me and uttered that moving phrase. I even cut my vacation short when I heard that my fantasy team was getting it's ass kicked and flew in to check the carnage for myself.

I partly joke, but it sounds like a political statement to me. All the President's men started White House damage control before they focused on hurricane damage control. The president remained quiet for a couple days and made it sound like a huge sacrifice to cut his vacation short. Democrats jumped on attacking the President and offered little true support for the victims for several days. They were all getting theirs.

In Supreme Court nominations, weak liberals and Democrats are getting theirs handed back to them. They didn't think of the ramifications of losing the election for the country. They were only thinking about getting theirs. They wanted to win or some Dems voted for Bush because they wanted to be safe. Neither got what they wanted and we are all getting shit on because of it.

Supporters of the Right to Choose deserve to have Roe v. Wade overturned.

Liberals and Progressives also deserve to see wealth redistributed to the top and away from those in need. Make no mistake that is what Bush's and conservative tax plans are. They say they are opposed to redistribution of wealth, but that is exactly what they do. They think that if the wealthy can get theirs, then the poor can also. Why not help out those who have gotten theirs so that those who haven't become inspired to do so. It is not a logical argument, but many Americans buy the every man for himself philosophy.

Politicians also talk about the ownership society. They just get it wrong. They think that people who have managed to become owners of property and wealth should have a larger say in what goes on.

I also believe in an ownership society but I see it as owning some of the responsibility for the society. I figure that if we all take responsibility for the society as a whole, we will all benefit. Goes along with my "blow up" economics theory of giving tax breaks to the poor and it working it's way through the markets to the wealthy or "owners".

I think that is enough thinking and philosophizing for the day. I have to slowly work my brain out of vacation mode and don't want to go too fast and get a cramp.

Two New Words

I have heard two words lately that I have never associated with the United States. Since the landing of hurricane Katrina, many things have happened. many people are dead who, if it weren't for those responsible, would quite possibly still be alive.

I never would have called all the people who fled New Orleans refugees. The thought never occurred to me to think of a hurricane escapee in the same manner of someone escaping a harsh government or war in an underdeveloped country. This is America, isn't it?

Taken directly from Houghton Mifflin Company via Answers.com

ref·u·gee (rĕf'yʊ-jē') pronunciation
n.

One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.

ref·uge (rĕf'yūj) pronunciation
n.

1. Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship.
2. A place providing protection or shelter.
3. A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble.

Hmmm... Were the radical Islamists right in saying that this was punishment for being Americans? Something to think about. I guess that by definition, these people were refugees, and many still are since they've nowhere to go. They're homeless, tired, sick, and dying. And it's not their fault.

The other word I heard today on NPR as they were telling me that the President was to address the nation tonight, and he may name a czar of the recovery effort for the area affected by hurricane Katrina. Czar.

Czar? Lemme look that up.

Taken directly from Houghton Mifflin Company via Answers.com

czar (zär, tsär)
n.

1. also tsar or tzar (zär, tsär) A male monarch or emperor, especially one of the emperors who ruled Russia until the revolution of 1917.
2. A person having great power; an autocrat: “the square-jawed, ruddy complacency of Jack Farrell, the czar of the Fifteenth Street police station” (Ernest Hemingway).
3. Informal. An appointed official having special powers to regulate or supervise an activity: a racetrack czar; an energy czar.

I guess the people at NPR were being informal, but it was odd hearing that word used in reference to an official in this country. I'm not saying it's bad, but one doesn't on a normal day hear "czar" used very often outside of history class or international news.

These are my thoughts, and yes, they are random.

1069

Congratulations to me!

I guess I wasn't there when I broke 1000 hits the other day, but I happened to notice this morning that I had gone over the top. I shall now revel in my glory and wait for Scott to bow.

Or maybe I'll just go to lunch.

No Job Yet

Found this new time waster, surprisingly enough, through my boss.

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

20% Dixie

10% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

What's Up Random Thoughts

I have been trying to think of a special post for my first one on a blog I was invited to post on, but it is not going so well. So, I decided to just tell you a little about my writing style so that you are not shocked and awed into a catatonic state.

That said, here is a little of what you may read, censored in case Anika is with Daddy at the computer.

@!#$ Bush
Rumsfeld is a &*^%
Cheney is an @$$!&#@
I hate @#!$%&% Fred Phelps
Ann Coulter is a $#%@^

There is probably more, but I will let everyone adjust before I write more.

Update
I forgot to show that I can work in a bipartisan manner. Democrats are %$##@!$.

Not Bush's Fault

In the local paper (which, by the way, is still fucked up) there is a section every day entitled Rant & Rave. I would like to quote one rave and burn them here:

I was reading in [Tuesday's] Rant & Rave where it is a shame and why not help and I would like to know why people are blaming the government when it is not the government's fault. It is the governor of New Orleans, the mayor of New Orleans, the senators and representatives from New Orleans. It is not Bush and the government's fault. They can't get things in there overnight. I know. I just came from out there. I left home Sunday night before the hurricane hit. ...It's not Bush's fault, and it's not the government's fault. It's their own fault. I know. I have family there. I know.

I shall say first that someone this ridiculously stupid probably doesn't know what Bush's position is, since he/she thinks someone has the distinction of being the Governor of the State of New Orleans. Also, this person was fortunate enough to have somewhere to go. A lot of the people who died did so because they had no family, no place, and no way to get outside New Orleans. The person who ranted here obviously practices conservative thought. "I got out and you didn't, so that makes you stoopid. I know."

Then I will say that it is Bush's fault. He's the boss. The President of the United States. The one who brought "liberalization" to an entire country with a great quickness, and ousted its leader. He can put over half the Army on the other side of the earth in a matter of weeks and wreck an entire country, but he can't manage to get help down to New Orleans over the weekend.

It's Bush's fault that nine days later people are still starving to death and women are being raped because the safety of each person left homeless by Katrina is in the hands of the government.

If I were the president (and this is entirely hypothetical), everything except the care for human beings would be out the window. We found enough money for this fucking war, so we should wait until later to figure out how we're going to pay for the cleanup. "Just get it done," I would say.

"Hello, sir! Do you not have anywhere for your family to stay? Go stay at the White House. I'm never there anyway; I'll be at the ranch. And we'll build you a nice new home right where Trent's house was. We have this new thing called imminent domain. He'll understand."

Bring our soldiers home and give those people a home, you comfortable fuck.

No More Newton

I am giving up on trying to read Michael White's account of Isaac Newton's life. On to what is hoped to be a better book for my attention span: Know It All by A.J. Jacobs.

For the Sake of Simplification

tech_pickle is gone now. The articles I wrote there can now be found in the archives here at Random Thoughts.

tech_pickle

I'm considering getting rid of my other blog, tech_pickle. I'm not really interested enough. My website will still be www.techpickle.org, but the blog is not really getting anywhere. I don't have any readers, and all my sources are on the same sites accessible to those potential readers. Why duplicate? If I did decide to keep it and post daily, how would I gain readership? Hell, I post more tech articles here than I do at tech_pickle, so WTF am I doing with a separate blog?

I've been trying to simplify my life for some time now. Beth and I have thrown many things away in the past year for the sake of organization and simplification. We're both getting new laptops to cut down on computer clutter (and there is a lot of it at our house), so I think keeping up with one blog is enough. Effective today, I'm re-posting here what is currently on tech_pickle and deleting the blog. If I have any technology news or opinions, I'll post them here, since technology is a big part of my life, and this blog should reflect my Random Thoughts about it.

One topic that came up yesterday in the blogosphere is the legality of refilling ink jet printer cartridges. SlashDot links to a blog at Corante discussing the issue. Read all about it - I'm not here to join in any fight. Just know that from my experience, Lexmark makes an inferior product anyway, and I'm not sure how many people actually use Lexmark printers. If you ask me, HP is the way to go, and recycled/refilled cartridges are crap anyway. If I printed more, I would have a laser printer. Since I don't print that much, I buy one black cartridge about every 8 months, and I buy the HP brand. This is due to the fact that I am somewhat stubborn, and I have seen poor quality printing from cheap replacement printer ink. You decide.

Google Desktop

There's a new toy out from Google. It's got a sidebar now, and it's really smooth. Take a look at it here. If that's not convincing enough, see it on my desktop.

Most of Google's products are integrated into this sidebar. I can see my Gmail account, photos from Picasa, and talk on Google Talk all in this sidebar. There are also no advertisements. This is another great product from Google, and all companies should follow Google's lead for quality software. If only I could blog from it...

With all the advertisement software and spyware that sneaks in to your computer these days, the Google Deskbar is a breath of fresh air. When installing this one, there is a warning that some of your personal information (such as your surfing history, not your name or credit card numbers) may be sent to Google and you can opt out of that part of it.

I realize that some people may not use the desktop program, and some similar programs are cool for a couple of days until one realizes that he or she doesn't use it and it's a waste of space on the desktop, but I will try to leave this one up for at least a week and see if it's worth my time.

I Lied.

I don't think I'll tell all the details, because the interview was not that interesting. I totally hosed the presentation, but the rest of it went well in my opinion.

I'm really tired. Goodnight.

Excited and Scared at the Same Time

For those of you who don't know, I have a job interview tomorrow. This is potentially exciting because getting the job would increase my salary by about 75%. I am scared shitless, though, because it is a panel interview which includes me giving a short presentation.

I'll spare no detail tomorrow.

1968 Mustang For Sale

I have decided to get rid of my Mustang. It is a great, solid car, but still needs work. It is very dependable and has many new parts, including:

• New Edelbrock 600 CFM carburetor (Edelbrock #1406)


• Edelbrock performer intake manifold


• Custom all-aluminum dual-exhaust w/chrome tips


• New windshield


• New carpet


• All new wiring in front


• All-new ignition system (MSD Digital 6 plus)

It needs some work on the front suspension and steering, and a lot of body work. Otherwise, it's a great car and will provide years of great service.

I am in the process of taking pictures and building a small website for the sale of this fine automobile. Check here later to see the car.

What is a Liberal?

I was commenting at Me4President2008 about religion and somehow ventured on the topic of labels. I mentioned that I wasn't a Christian because of the association with other "Christians" and how I don't like what they're associated with, and discovered in this thought about labels that I might not be a liberal. So I wanted to find the truth.

I went to Answers.com and typed in "liberal." I wanted to find a description of the term and found one.

There were phrases from WordNet like "tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition" and "showing or characterized by broad-mindedness."

I can agree with this.

From Houghton-Mifflin's Thesarus was "Not narrow or conservative in thought, expression, or conduct."

Also from WordNet is "a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties."

That's me, too. The "broad-mindedness" part is really true. It explains why my ultra-conservative friend had such a hard time with C++ programming. He could only see it one way. I think if he opened his mind a bit he would do fine.

I think liberals are great engineers due to the open-mindedness. People who are able and open to (and not ashamed of) taking a different approach to something are the ones who will take the world to the next era.

From this description, I gather that liberals are open to change and not stuck in the past or to certain traditions or objects. That's me, too.

So I guess I'm a liberal. I accept the label.

That doesn't mean that I'm on one side of the fence gathering mud to throw to the other side; I'm saying that I believe certain things. I'm not partisan, I'm listening. I'm not taking sides, I'm listening. I'm not here to fight, I'm here to hear. To make a difference. To not push anything on anyone. To help people. Not to hate. I'm listening. I may not agree, but still I listen.

The Untrained Mind, Part I

This is only an introduction of a possible series of my varying opinions about liberal-bashing numb-tongued, dirty idiots and why they're stupid unlike me. I'm just trying to get started tonight before I forget. I'll be talking about the utterly clueless also.

I spend a good bit of time talking with people around town. I go in at least three houses a day and speak with people while I correct technology issues or install VoIP service. Quite a few people every day ask me where I'm from because I don't have much of a Southern drawl. When I tell them I'm from Colorado, they usually ask what I did out there. When in awe about my being a soldier, they tend to inquire about my time in Iraq. They're always happy to discover that I never went, and that I'm not over there now.

Point is, I haven't found a fucking soul who is happy about that war (the day I do find someone of that opinion, it will be posted here with some lengthy comments.) Not one person has said "...and you should have stayed in so you'd be helping those guys out and becoming a hero." Not one. All have said they're glad I'm not over there and cough up something related to "bad situation over there."

I'm in the middle of South Georgia. It's not exactly chock full of liberals. There's an agricultural school here for Christ's sake. Good ol' boys and old money here. Lots of Bush support. But so far, nobody is for the war. Or no one's verbally for it anyway.

I haven't even heard support for Bush, like "It's a mess over there, but Bush has a plan... ." I think people are scared to talk politics with their Internet provider. Oh, well, I can only write about my experience. And from my experience, no one likes this war.

Printers and More!

I've been playing with this Linux machine today and figured out how to print with to the printer that's attached to my Windows Server. Very convenient. Now I don't have to have a separate printer for the Linux box.

Linux supports many brands of printers, so if that's stopping you from switching, there is no excuse now.

I'm not instructing people to switch to Linux, I'm only trying to tell people that there is an alternative to Windows that's much less expensive than Apple.

I can also access shared folders on the Windows machine, so any files I need that are on the Windows PC I can access with the Linux PC, without floppy disks or burning CDs. Also very convenient.

Did I mention this stuff is free?

My home router is a converted Compaq Presario 5155 with the AMD 350K6-2 and 128MB RAM. It runs Fedora Core 4 and at press time it was up for 25 days. I'll try to remember to let you know when I have to bring it down. This thing is very dependable. Updates very rarely require a restart.

Think about it.

Google Print Halted for Now

I just read this and began wondering what the problem is. Is Newton still profiting from the Principia and living it up in Long Beach? I don't get it. Kowledge is knowledge. Information should be free. If I can go to the library and read it for free, then I should be able to go to Google and get it, too. I just wouldn't have to leave the house.

And I realize that the library is not totally free. It is funded with tax dollars, grants, and donations. But Google is giving quite a bit for its service, too. How would you like to scan entire university libraries? A team of software engineers has worked on the software to get this project going for years now. I think it is a grand idea.

Anybody remember how hard it was to check out a book at Harvard University Library when you're at a private school in Colorado? Or search technical articles at CalTech when you're in the middle of the woods in Georgia and can't find the answer? I know I'd like to.

Another benefit to Google's digitization of printed materials is that it won't be limited to print editions and be succeptible to weathering. The way Google stores data, they'll never lose it. Did you know they're approaching 10,000 Linux servers company-wide?

Screw the publishers. Let Google do something that needs to be done.

Now That I Have a Workstation

I can't afford a new computer, but I made this one work with the help of the Internet and my laptop (my only CD burner at the time). I feel better now that I have a regular computer to use, and I don't have to keep the laptop on the desk all the time.

I sit here now and want to write.

Did I mention that this cool new Linux thing has a chat client that works with all the popular services, including MSN, Yahoo, and AIM? And that Gmail works just like it does with Microsoft Internet Explorer?

Open Source Software (from tech_pickle)

And my opinion about it.

I love Open Source. In fact, I'm typing this post on an OS that I downloaded last week, and I will never be arrested for it. I got to reuse old hardware that my mother would have otherwise thrown out, and make it new again, just by installing this operating system.

While I was installing, I was reading all the benefits of open source software. Let me tell you about it:

Security: Open source software is not owned by anyone. It is developed by everyone. Windows is attacked because it costs so much and makes so few people very stinking rich (it is also buggy.) Therefore, Linux and other open source software packages are not a succeptible to attacks and vulnerabilities as the corporate-owned packages are.

Compatibility: Linux is developed by a team of volunteers (even you can join the effort if you have something to offer) and updates are released almost daily to allow Linux to use the latest hardware and take advantage of new features. This method is a bit better than a corporation releasing updates and changing compatibility whenever it feels like it.

Support: There are tons of forums and groups on the web to help you with any question you may have about using any open source software. Just Google it. You can even pay for support from some of these organizations.

Cost: The most attractive part of open source software (especially Linux) is that it's free. Sure, you can pay around $50-$80 for a distribution of Mandrake or Suse Linux and get free support, but you can just as easily download the images and seamlessly install it on your old machine. Most distributions have support and power management to accomodate portable computers, to include wireless networking.

Many organizations are looking toward open source software solutions for their corporate networks and workstations. The company I work for employs several Linux machines, and they are very efficient. One machine at $6,000 does the work of a $55,000 Cisco router. Tell me that's not cost effective.

A few countries in Africa are switching, as well. Seems appropriate that they save some money, Africa being in the state that it is.

Drag that old computer out and dust it off. You just might be surprised.

Mandrakelinux (from tech_pickle)

Today (tonight, actually) marks my first experience with Mandrake Linux. I recently acquired an old Pentium II machine with 512MB RAM and a 3D Rage video card and installed Mandrake Linux 10.2 tonight.

I am thoroughly enjoying it. The interface is catchy and new, and it feels like I bought a new computer today. The installation was very smooth, and there were only three discs required. It took about an hour from start to finish, and I was all ready to go. There is OpenOffice.org, a beautiful productivity suite, and a secure web browser. Evolution is a time management, e-mail, and organization tool, included with the distribution.

Mandrake Linux, like Red Hat and Fedora, includes a personal firewall also. If all you do is surf the web and check e-mail, this is the system for you. It is secure and efficient, and very easy to use. There is a long list of compatible printers, and the system works with any type of Internet connection.

I highly recommend Linux to any average Internet user. For the gamer, however, there is no choice. Windows XP is the operating system for gamers. But, if you are like so many of my customers who check their e-mail once a day and then turn the computer off, I encourage you to look toward open source operating systems.

The best part of Linux is that it's free. That's what open source means.

Hmmm... That may be my next topic.

Look into it. E-mail me if you want to know more.

Mandrake Linux

I just installed Mandrake Linux 10.2 on my mom's old machine (Pentium II @ 400MHz, 512MB RAM, generic video, IBM chipset of some sort) and I love it. I have decided to use a Linux workstation for every task that it will do.

I can't do all of my work, though, because a lot of it must use a PPTP connection to work, and I haven't found that yet on this distro. Besides, we use MS Office at work, and OpenOffice.org doesn't exactly match.

I inherited this machine last week when my mom got a new computer from Dell. I decided that it's time I start practicing what I preach. I tell a lot of my customers that they really only need a simple distribution of Linux to get their e-mail and surf the web. Linux isn't vulnerable to a lot of what's dangerous out there, especially with all the new spyware and adware being released into the wild.

The interface feels just between Windows and Mac OS X. It's really nice, and it's pretty fast. The games are pretty challenging, too, and interesting. Plus, there are more games to choose from (if you can find them).

I also like to program. I'm currently working on a program that effectively tests a cable modem, and I can do that easily with PERL on any popular Linux distribution.

Oh, yeah, and it's free. All you have to do is get an older computer (probably no more than four years old) in working condition, download the images, burn them to disk, and install Linux. It is very easy, and installation today took me about an hour on this old clunker. E-mail me if you want to know where to get the images.

Firing My Publisher

It was pointed out today that there are at least two misspellings in the text of recent posts here at Random Thoughts, and I am going to fire my publisher for allowing this. A professional blog should not be painted with such disregard for the language.

Who am I kidding? I have corrected the mistakes. If you missed them, I have done nothing wrong. So there.

Another Fad Gone Bad

So they're probably broke forever.

Nothing replaces a balanced diet and exercise. More columns say that a balanced diet and exercise will help you lose weight than any other column spouting the Adkins diet or South Beach or whatever lame claim it might say. Just read Men's Health, Shape Magazine, or any other credible publication, and you will see that the low-carb thing was only another craze. It was just a very large craze.

Correct diet and exercise is a practice, just like any fad diet, that no ordinary American can stick to. If one were to only eat what the body is designed to process, and exercise daily, they'd look better than I do. I only wish I had the motivation to run every day, or just the time.

That's another problem with Americans. We don't provide ourselves the time to enhance our physical states. We go to work and worry about that so much that it's already 5:00, and then we go home to our families who need us and blame our "not working out" on everything else. What we need to do is go to bed at a decent hour (this is hypocritical, but it's my blog) and get up in time to work out. Need help? Form a pact with your neighbor. He's probably fat, too.

My studies show that one will be more productive and focused during the day after a grueling workout and a shower every morning. "Get the blood flowing" is pretty accurate. It got me through school, and a good bike ride made the next day very easy. I felt so much better; the "I feel old" went out of me. I encourage you to do the same.

Don't stay fat.

OJ is Still a Damn Criminal

First, he had to move to Florida because he can't afford to live in California (and he killed some people, too), and now he's pirating sattelite TV. Poor guy. Didn't he play football once?

In other news, I'm surprised my friend Andy quit blogging. He loves the space program; I would have loved to read what he thinks about Discovery's return to flight.

No time for opinion today.

Burn R. Kelly

R.Kelly TP3 - Jive Records - r-kelly.com

I bought this album from iTunes this weekend for the sole reason that I couldn't get that stupid 5-chapter saga out of my head.

Listening to the rest of the album, I have drummed up these comments:

If I happen to hear an interview of R. Kelly talking about any song on this album, I wouldn't be surprised to hear "...yeah, I wrote that when I was twelve. Pretty good, huh?"

His next album may include a song with the line "My anus was raw" just because it would rhyme.

TP.3 Reloaded isn't remixes, but it isn't original, either. Also, there's no theme and several grammatical errors. I think R. Kelly writes about 30% of the material, which probably results in his not needing to attend any live events.

That's good, because it will give him more time to videotape his encounters with 14-year-old girls.

This album has a cover on it that makes one think that it's rock-hard, perhaps like one of Tupac's. Take a look at the site, before his next album comes out (probably next month). It does not, however, contain any type of fast, hard rap or any cool beats. There is one song on this album that is SeanPaulIstic, but for that one Mr. Kelly sought the help of four others. And it sucked. It was a desperate attempt at originality - it was about bootie-shaking.

I've never heard such a dramatic attempt at placing a mobile phone in silent mode. What a ridiculous attempt at a memorable production. Maybe I'm just too old.

What's the return policy at iTunes?

techpickle.org

For those of you who visit techpickle.org (translation: no one), the website may be unresponsive today, as I am cleaning e-mail off my server. Apparently this is part of the learning process. When an e-mail is sent to someone who doesn't exist, the message is stored on the server anyway. This resulted in 1.5GB of e-mail that no one read sitting on my machine. The directory became unmanageable and e-mail services shut down. Today I am correcting that problem, and e-mail services have been restored.

I realize that this blog is accessible by billions of people, and that this issue only affects about three of them. Just trying to be efficient. Visit http://www.techpickle.org/ and send comments.

I Decided

That I'm not very opinionated about much. That's why I don't blog all the time. Plus, I don't make the time to blog, though I should. When I have an opinion worth blabbing about, I'll blog.

Stating the Obvious is Not a Sign of Intelligence

Bush reaches his limits -- as a cyclist - Yahoo! News

I say no more.

Excellent Battle on Dangerfield's

After a night of good sleep, in that period just before one actually wakes but is still dreaming, I see books. I don't just see books, I read them. I see sentences and words and somehow they make sense. These stories have not been written; they exist only in my mind at those given moments and usually dissipate before I can write them down. But I caught this one.

The title of this imaginary work was "Excellent Battle on Dangerfield." It was an old book (1950's) written by a man and his soon-to-be wife. They would come to write many books together. But only his name was on the cover.

The book seemed not to be a comedy, but was about comedy. I've lost that now. Maybe it was some kind of fight to the top of stardom. Perhaps it was at Dangerfield's, a comedy club founded by Rodney himself.

I think I know how this got put together. Beth's been studying American history (Battles), we've been watching a bit of Comedy Central lately (Dangerfield, comedy), and I live in South Georgia (heat and humidity cause delusions).

Anyway, I thought you'd find it interesting that I read books in my dreams. I also hear intellectual speakers, but they're all long gone when I wake. It's interesting how the brain works.

Now that I've installed the Google Toolbar again, I can use the Blog This! feature to blog more often.

But don't count on it. And for what it's worth, Happy Independence Day. Don't blow yourself up.

Hit the Switches

I finally ordered a new switch for my home network. I was going to order the same type from Dell, but I found this one for $0.74 less, including shipping. So I made out like a bandit.

I need the switch because I continually add devices to my network, and I'm tired of unplugging my printer or web server to connect a laptop for the night. I am running CAT5 to my Xbox this weekend, and I have nowhere to plug it in. This 24-port switch solves my problem.

I'm trying to raise money for a new firewall, but my campaign is going very slowly. My only method for raising the money is getting up and going to work every day. Maybe by Christmas I'll have what I need.

Oh, and if anyone knows why my Fedora Core 3 router won't forward UDP packets for me, I'd like some help. Thanks.

Discouraged

Today I feel a bit discouraged. I'm tired and I think my monitor is getting ready to die.

I don't have much to talk about because I don't do very much during any given day. I go to work and come home, sit at my computer when I'm not holding my daughter, and go to bed. Weekends aren't much different.

John Mayer is great. I just downloaded a song (I could find no other way to get it) by John. It was "Why Georgia," my favorite song. The track I downloaded was a live recording of John playing along with Brad Paisley.

John wrote that song when he was 20 or 21, I think. He had just left college without finishing and went to Atlanta to pursue his career in music. He played at Eddie's Attic, which, from what I understand is a small bar of sorts in downtown Atlanta. He also played other venues, but that one I've heard him talk about.

Now he's playing on stage with a well-known country singer (at least for that song) a song he wrote when he was still dreaming about doing just what he does now.

Maybe someday I'll get where I want to be. I don't know exactly where that is, but I'm sure I'll know when I get there.

Intel Apple Core

What's Really Behind the Apple-Intel Alliance - New York Times

I don't like Intel, but it's nice to know that Apple Computer will begin using Intel processors in 2006. That, to me, brings Apple down a notch in status, with some hope that the machines will become more affordable.

I've always secretly wanted a Mac, but couldn't ever afford one. Hell, the dual-G5 still starts at $1999, and comes to $2474 before shipping, tailored to my liking. That includes no monitor. Just the box and a keyboard/mouse. I can build a very hot 64-bit gaming system with twice the hard drive space and two 19" LCD monitors for that.

So the news of Apple using Intel processors puts hope in my future for affording a Mac and learning its secrets. And hopefully I'll find out what makes it better than any other computer.

Carnage

I got my new desk today, but not without a fight. The weather has been bad lately, with the tropical storm and all. Wouldn't be so bad if Florida would keep their hurricanes under control. They just let the damn storm go everywhere, instead of keeping it to themselves. It's like they're farting in front of a fan in a room of 500 people. Assholes.

I love my new desk. It's 2592 in² of prime real estate for my work. I no longer will be found in a toddler's chair in confusion over which keyboard I have. It's all laid out in front of me. Doesn't mean I'll blog any more than I have previously.

Beth is studying sociology today. It's pretty rough stuff. One time it put her in a deep sleep, just from having the book set in front of her. I can't imagine what she's going through; I know I couldn't get into sociology or public speaking. I'm a technologist, not an arts student. If I had to read that much theological and philosophical text, I'd never get a job. Bring on the machines, though, and I'm ready for anything.

Back to Florida. As my readers might imagine, I have some beef with that state. I think they should leave the country, or just sell the state to Disney. They'd just have to rent Kennedy to NASA. If they had kept this storm under control, I wouldn't have to pick up limbs in the yard (I just mowed two days ago, and Florida's fucking up my hard work.) And in the words of George W. Bush, "It's hard work!"
But at least I'm not reading sociology.

Would He Win Now?

One of the articles I read in this morning's news talked about Bush's job approval ratings. Sure, the sample size was very low, but that doesn't stop the poll from making a point.

"I don't think he's read his history enough about different countries and foreign affairs," said Harvie, a political independent who lives near San Diego, a region with several military bases. "Anything they try to do in Iraq has spelled trouble. I think he bit off more than he can chew."

When, in fact, I don't think the President reads much at all. Haven't you heard him read aloud to the public? It's like listening to the slow kid read in class. Of course, I'd probably sound the same, but I'm not the president. Back to the topic:

Would he win now? What would John Kerry's approval ratings look like? It'd be nice to discuss this with someone, but I don't think I can find anyone around here who doesn't support that assclown.

I Don't Know

What to write about. I quit reading the news because I don't have the time, and the local newspaper delivery fuck can't get his/her shit straight. Five days after I e-mailed a cancellation request due to sporadic delivery, I got another paper. WTF?

That's all. I'm pretty boring lately.

The FCC is Overrated.

I don't make much money, being right out of school and such. My wife doesn't work (she's a student) and there isn't much more I can hack at, so we're in a financial straight jacket at the time.

There is much to be said about being broke. We just turned on the air conditioning today because our daughter couldn't take it anymore. She decided she wouldn't sleep through the night until we started living like modern humans. And just the other day I was given a choice between Q-tips and paper towels; we couldn't afford both. Apparently I was the decision maker, and I decided that there were more alternatives to paper towels than there were Q-tips.

There are other ways we save money, like reading books instead of going shopping (or anywhere, for that matter. Gas is friggin' expensive!) I drive from home to work and back daily, with no detours except for the occasional "pick up some cheese" request from my wife. We don't have cable TV, we don't go out to eat, and I use existing computer hardware for my projects at home to keep me busy.

This situation, as you may imagine, nearly brought me to tears as I read about the FCC's "Broadcast Flag" mandate effective July 1 this year. Apparently after that date, it will no longer be possible to purchase an HDTV tuner that allows digital recording in HD format. This means one cannot record HD shows and burn them to DVD for high-quality playback. But if one can get an HDTV tuner before the mandate, he's in luck.

It will obviously be a while before I can afford something like that (the card is about $175), and the mandate will certainly be in place before the device is in my hands. But by that time, it would be useless anyway. Why have an HD recorder if you can't record in HD? It's not like there's anything memorable on HD - the nature scenes?

Although I did see part of one game in the NCAA Final Four this year in HD. But that's me and basketball. Not worth recording.

So if anyone wants to send the dinero so I can have the HD decoder, feel free. If you want one yourself, try any popular electronics store before July 1.