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.