Barack Wrong on Afghanistan

No Barack, you’re wrong on Afghanistan

I was floored when I read this excerpt from an article on the Guardian website:

“I am convinced,” Obama said, “that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaida. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak. This is no idle danger; no hypothetical threat.”

Sorry Mr. President – you’re sadly mistaken. The “epicenter” from which said violent extremism springs isn’t central Asia – it’s Saudi Arabia. For that is the country that the vast majority of the 9/11 terrorists came from, that is the home of not only their religion (Islam) but also of the homicidal sect of it which they practice (Wahhabism). It’s Saudi Arabia that represses the rights of women (they can’t drive a car legally there, let alone vote). It’s Saudi Arabia that funneled Billions of dollars to the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s Saudi Arabia, and specifically the family of Saud itself which frantically exports religious extremism abroad in order to avoid those particular chickens coming home to roost.

Not that Pakistan itself is free from blame. It was far far easier to fob off education to Saudi funded schools in it’s remoter provinces than it was for the state to provide a reasonable (and preferably secular) education. It was safe when the fanatics of their own making targeted Hindu’s and Buddhists in Kashmir or India proper – but now, it’s their turn and they are rightfully scared. Like Dr. Frankenstein they have to contend with a monster of their own making (or colluded in making). Something which will possibly cost them more lives, more treasure and quite possibly – control of their own country and it’s nuclear arsenal.

And does anyone seriously think that a collection of people who think that atmospheric condensation is a myth (for the Koran says Allah makes the rain fall, therefore science is lying about how it happens) will hesitate for a millisecond to kill millions of non-believers? It was a fairly rational collection of American politicians during World War 2 who choose to drop the bomb on Japan…what happens when religious loonies who love to blow THEMSELVES up get a hold of one? Bye-Bye New Delhi, Bye-Bye Mumbai, Bye-Bye Tel Aviv, Bye-Bye New York? Washington D.C.? L.A.? (capitals of India, Bollywood culture, Israel, U.S. finance, the United States and American popular culture respectively). All classified as sources of “evil” by people who kill the victims of rape for disgracing their families by being forced to have sex against their will. Cities defined as “evil” by men who deny girls the right to even go to school. Men who consider music and dancing, theatre and the arts, hell – even ancient archeological remains are considered evil by these lunatics!

Do some research Mr. President, our “ally” Saudi Arabia is our own worst enemy. If not in the state itself then in the things that come forth from it. And that’s not just the religious extremists and the money to buy them things that go boom. That’s also the black gold flowing from it’s wells. And we, we ourselves are also to blame for our slavish devotion to cheap oil – we could have designed cities and suburbs with walk able neighborhoods, decent mass transit and thriving urban centers…but NO, the America dream became the exurban nightmare of driving 35 miles to work and 20 miles to the grocery store so you could have the illusion that you lived in a your own castle on the hill, with immigrant peasants toiling in the fields and the modern version of the Russian serf. What a joke.

So we send our troops halfway around the world to prop up a corrupt kleptocrat, to shoot at religious loonies that are funded every time we stop at the Quickymart to fill up our monstrous gas powered carriages that take us to our faux-castles in our faux-empire. Well, as the Soviets discovered and the American government will learn…Afghanistan isn’t called “the graveyard of empires” for nothing.

MPS

So I read in the newspaper that some young lady might be on her way to being the first Rhodes Scholar to emerge from the Milwaukee public school system.

This is quite a surprise for never in all my life have I been made aware of a more stupendously incompetent collection of halfwits and total failures as the teachers that comprise the Milwaukee Public School system. She should be congratulated for reaching such academic heights having labored to get there under the most onerous of burdens. I’m surprised they didn’t manage to prevent her from reaching her goal. They are exceptionally good at destroying the scholastic performance of even the most intelligent and determined of students.

In my personal experience they do more to harm than good. They are failures and they are toxic to the education of ANY student of ANY race, gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic class. It wasn’t until I was pulled out of that system and placed at a private school that I encountered teachers with real ability. And even then, they weren’t all that and a biscuit but they were heads and shoulders above the miasmatic sewage overflow which stalks the classrooms of MPS in the garb of educators.

So, “BRAVA!” to you young lady – you are truly exceptional.

Happiness is warm weather and theatre

at last the weather has broke here in the frozen tundra of wisconsin, there is warmth again – heat even, something which is but a rumor for 3/4th’s of the year turns out to not be a myth after all! wisconsin CAN get warm

life is pretty fantastic right now, (the mrs. shaved her head – meow! it’s sexy…happy am i at this fact). work is slow which means that it’s relatively under control – and the rose bushes are blooming and…and…um…let’s see – ah yes. went to see the latest berserk at the alchemist theatre…hmmmm…the concept of which was the creation of a new act 5 for “King Lear”…i.e. 1-4 was synopsized and then the writers/companies/actors came up with act 5….

first – the bad: i don’t usually like productions of these sorts – the “let’s jam it all in -creation /set design / lines in 24/48/72 hours and see what happens!” / “won’t that be fun!?” – not really, what it usually is 9 times out of 10 is bad improv. actors laughing at the humor of their own warn out and exhausted selves dropping lines and stumbling through the act…oh…tee hee…how funny…tee hee…

and the first redo of act 5 was like that….the second redo was astronomically better – it was the characters’ psychoanalyzed – it was creative, funny, insightful and enjoyable to watch. there were moments where i wanted to pee myself it was that funny. the third redo was also good – a sort-of pissed-off political/poetic riff on the relevance of shakespeare then (400 years ago) and now…and it was pretty cool. the force of the acting during the third retelling was outstanding.

but yeah, i’m starting to see the words which indicate that it was all rushed and thrown together as a big warning sign that i should seek entertainment elsewhere. i’m just saying.

hifi still has great coffee and the alchemist theatre still rocks the casba.

And how did owning guns protect them?

hey NRA peeps – read this story:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/24/escaped.convicts/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

So these three brothers…whom I presume from their geographic locale and gun ownership are all card carrying NRA types…got held hostage, tied up and robbed…a robbery that included the theft OF THEIR GUNS…I’ll say that again – “THEIR GUNS WERE STOLEN” – so, tell me again – we’re all supposed to have guns to protect ourselves? Really? Bang up job that time I see. Real safe and secure. Protected all right – protected right into the hands of three hard core criminals – bravo!

And they live in a state where conceal-carry is legal – no help there either. Guess if three guys jump you your gun is about as useful as a freaking pop tart. Keep in mind, the perps had NO guns before robbing NRA Larry, Moe and Curly….now, they do.

Tell me again…guns protect my home how?

peak oil

to further expound upon the cali post i thought it would be nice to add a footnote (a large footnote) as to what it relates to. specifically it was a smaller part of a larger phenomenon called “peak oil” or, more aptly, “the death of the 1000 mile salad”. in other words, the entire economic system we currently run is based on a finite resource – oil and the petrochemicals it produces (which include fertilizer). our economic system is predicated on unlimited growth. see the problem with that? the resource is finite, the economic system is supposed to grow ceaselessly. nice.

and we’ve hit the first wall made from the bricks of reality. which is – maximum extraction has been reached by the oil producing nations – demand can now only go up so far before prices shoot through the roof as supply can’t match it anymore…so, prices spiral up – followed by economic collapse, prices spiral down due to demand destruction – systems ramp up again, rinse and repeat.

obviously there are rays of sunshine from the alt.energy folks but really, right now, there’s nothing that’s going to replace the festival of oil consumption we’ve enjoyed up until now.

not that the oil companies aren’t going to squeeze every last drop of the black gold from shale, sand and whatever other tar-ooze they find first before they focus on trying to figure out what to do afterwards…which right now pretty much amounts to a massive internal dislocation of people and resources.

california and the desert south west will be (and are) our cannery in the coal mine. too many people live there – too many for the land around it to support. but, naturally, up to now that’s not a problem because we can fly, ship, truck or train in enough water/food for them…but that won’t be the case for much longer.

which will result in the same thing that happened to native american populations there (and points south) that built beyond nature’s carrying capacity…it wasn’t pretty then and i don’t think it will be pretty now soon either.

and the point is – if something looks too good to be true it probably is or, put another way – did all those folks think that paradise didn’t have a price tag?

here endeth the lesson.

california

california is about to meet the fate that all agricultural societies that expand beyond nature’s (and man’s) ability to support meet. they are about to experience a mayan style full fledged collapse of their food producing capacity.

their central valley will become the new dustbowl and their farmers will be out of business…all that’s left for them to do is slaughter their cattle, cut down their orchards for firewood and call it a day.

frankly, i have little sympathy – california is a pipe dream and a distorted magnification of the american dream to ludicrous and unsustainable proportions – a fantasy land built on a ponzie scheme of credit and selling your house to the next group of suckers that move into your neighborhood. california has grown beyond it’s carrying capacity and it has, subsequently, broken it’s ability to feed itself and export food to others. tough luck.

it’s always been billed as paradise and guess what: to a fly – so is a pitcher plant. but in this case the pitcher plant lured in an enormous amount of flies before it snapped shut. if a little cold weather is the only price i have to pay for knowing that the food on my table can be made 2 miles from my backdoor – i’ll take it. california might be finding out how expensive food is when it has to be trucked in from 100’s or 1000’s of miles away…think alaska and a dozen eggs at 10 bucks a throw and you get the idea.

long time no blog

well, haven’t blogged in a while…probably ’cause i post notes on facebook and so that’s more current…that and there’s been no biggy reason to come on here and vent…’cept that the grrl we were kinda pursuing went sorta uninterested… she was our friend before and she’s still our friend now but there’s no spark there – no drawing desire towards relationship stuff….um…yeah….so that was moderately disappointing…but only moderately – we’re free to seek out other girls now – not sure how hard we’ll look though…not really worth all the effort. would rather just fall into it naturally anyway.

polyamory can be such a drag at times.

anyway…work has calmed down for the moment…my vm datacenter is doing something weird with the occasional virtual server saying it’s offline via ipcheck but it’s not (i can even ping it and junk)….so that’s weird…may be a nic or cable problem with the fiber considering how badly the fiber was run.

violin is still progressing slowly…coming along…not playing any tunes yet…and that’s it…for now :^)

trainwreck

trainwreck is a nice term for a disaster of any kind but very appropriate for networking screw ups…ones which involve all the elements of disaster that come together so elegantly that it’s practically poetic.

the factors that make up a network or server deployment disaster are as follows: piss poor planning – no project plan, little or no documentation to follow, no fallback or rollback option; multiple interdependant systems run by (or sometimes NOT run by) different business units or companies or departments or whatever – all of whom will play the “not my baby” game when things go wrong; tie that to a lack of support for systems, my favorite being a system/application that HAD support, but that support lapsed and now all the parties involved with that system/application blame each other for not renewing support; the gung-ho overpaid contractor…he (or she) flies out, changes their system, changes your systems and then – working or not – flies out again. (in the defence of the contractor on this pooch-screwing exercise she went above and beyond to help but still ran out of dodge while the chips were still falling); coworkers who may benefit if you fail – backstabbing, sabotaging, or just plain passive-agressive not-helpful…gotta say there was little of that, most of my coworkers pitched in – but some seemed to wait until the whiff of blame began to waft in their direction before they volunteered to pitch in; complete the picture with outdated database software with no onsite dba to support it – and finally no trainwreck would be complete without a nagging adminstrator at another site wondering when HIS stuff is going to be taken care of…stuff that a) isn’t broken and b) is all set to go the minute the disaster is rectified.

add to that a frazzled network administrator on no sleep and puking due to stress and you have all the components for grade-a clusterfuck.

thankfully there was a patient customer, peers that bent over backwards to help, an offsite support dood who knew he was in over his head too but who gave whatever assistance he could and a contractor who did far more than she had to…all of which, along with clever little-old me, worked together to pull things out in the end.

but part of me will never forget the roaring silence from some quarters…specifically those who must have had documentation and/or known some of the missing configuration information that was only teased out through insane digging and some serious research on the part of myself and my team…grrrr…welcome to politics in a large company. the worm will turn and i’ll get my own back.

wow…so…tired…

i haven’t had to work this many hours in a long time…i mean, not since the vmware migration and that even called it quits at 10:00 PM…wow…running on empty like you wouldn’t believe – had three hours of sleep in the last 48 hours – have begun to hear and see things during the wee hours….

having to forgo all sunday plans…shit…wow…still aware and functional…just don’t ask me to translate a physics paper from german to english or direct a light opera…man…up to four more hours to go…and that’s the BEST case scenario….then i’m back in at 6:00 AM to turn the soap server back on this coming monday – then i’m off the rest of the day with just the dentist and violin to look forward to.

Alberto “the torturer” Gonzales

he should have been a mexican wrestler with that nickname no? i can see him now with tights and a mask – he could waterboard anyone he defeated in a match!

just wanted to mention that if you allow me to torture someone they (the victim) will tell me whatever i want to hear – if i want them to tell me that saddam has weapons of mass destruction and really loves osama – they’ll tell me that – if i want them to tell me that iran is building a nuke and will lob it at the nearest bar mitzvah then that’s what they’ll tell me – this is like a no brainer…and yet – there are semi-humans (“sumans” also know commonly as republicans) who seem to think torture magically produces the truth allowing brave jack baueresque american-loving white-knight hero dudes to save us from evildoers.

please. proper interrogation involves building a relationship of trust and dependance…without that you’re just getting an parrot – not an informant.

on being a blogging monkey

just thought i’d start a blog – why? it’s nice to just ramble about not much of anything to virtually no one :^)

i’m sure i’ll have more to say later – but first, some stuff of substance – i won’t use this blog to argue, if i had wanted that, i’d have joined a debate club.

i’ll respond to people who post stuff to me, that’s just being polite, but it might take a while – so don’t get pissy if it takes me a while to get back.

i’m snarky, smart and sometimes crass – it’s not personal.

i may mention work from time to time, if you know where i work – don’t mention it by name.

hmmm…that’s all for now, i’ll post more about the madison AD migration when i have some time next week.

unlucky at cards…

hopefully lucky in love this weekend :^)

got killed during sheepshead at lunch…ouch…lost the first game of 3 handed…then lost the next 5 games of 4 handed before being on the winning side just once…a feat which only occured twice more before the end of 4 handed…back to 3 and lost just about every game except 2 of the last freakin 3…eeek…the gods of sheepshead spat on me today…yeah verily…they spat.

work is boring and slow today…which is the calm before the migration storm next weekend…i’m going to try and kill as much time as possible today doing next to nuffing…or, i may just finish scheduling out the backups for the month of november and boxing up some servers that got virtualized a couple of weeks ago…wow…the month of october just whipped by me….bu bye…bu bye…

blog facts about my blogging habits – i don’t spell check…i don’t use caps except for emphasis – i think pointing out bad grammer and spelling is a waste of time and energy…english spelling used to be quite fluid and it should be fluid…but that’s just my opinion…and don’t even get me started on grammar…grammarians are idiots - they apply freaking LATIN grammar to english…got that? a language that’s been dead for 1500 years applied to a germanic language…screw that….that would be like making all of our plumbing out of lead pipes…dumb dumb dumb…

escanaba in da moonlight

went to see escanaba in da moonlight…as funny shows go – this one was sublime…i laughed to the point of snot and tears running down my face…it’s great when a show not only entertains but makes you feel super better after walking out of it ’cause you’re so filled with laughter and happiness. Jim and Matthew (well, the entire cast really) were brilliant…absolutely brilliant…comic genius…the timing was outstanding, the pacing – suburb, the jokes – funny, the chemistry between cast members – perfect.

masterfully deflecting mastergraphic’s probing questions…

so the mastergraphic’s guy came in to load autocad software…nice guy…but he’s one of those types that doesn’t realize that work is like a family reunion…i.e. don’t bring up sex, politics or religion and you’ll be FINE…and if you do you risk uncle ralph or cousin aaron whipping potato salad at your freaking head ya know?

as always it comes down to – i don’t want to know your opinion, i didn’t ask for it and it’s probably wrong anyway so just shut your cake trap.

working like a dog all day today and tonight…will not have a life but decided to take 10 seconds out to blog a little to prove i’m still kicking.

the best things in life…

…are mostly free.

it’s a truism, a cliche, i know, but it’s very much true. for example, last night – went to see the student recital at the wisconsin conservatory…i’m like the only non-parent there right, listening to the tikes go through their paces (the last girl was actually quite good in her own right, very polished) – anyway, to make a long story short (too late) – got to see my instructor and his oldest student do a violin duet – freaking amazing, professional, concert level stuff – absolutely free. just the cost of me driving there and the wait through the kiddies.

actually this points out another truism – it’s not who you are, it’s who you know. i get a private concert because i know my instructor who know’s what’s going on…story of my life really, great things through friendly people who just want to share the wealth as it were.

Blissful Ignorance

I like to read the crime blotter, not so much for the kinds of crime (though some are quite funny) so much as for the occasional incidents which have personal relevance. Specifically in terms of geography if nothing else – i.e. like the report of a shooting that happened 10 minutes after I drove by some location. Now, I wouldn’t normally have known about it except for that crime blotter – which just goes to show how blissfully ignorant people are as they tool around…sometimes only minutes and yards away from fatal gunfire (for example).

Of course it’s also entertaining to read about old pedophiles with underwater cameras at the local pools or exposing themselves in the Laundromat (hehehe) tons of them about apparently. Very amusing.

At any rate – I may post major personal news here soon…which is a good place to post it as it’s only read by one person apart from me <grin> So, one person, stay tuned! :^)

slow week blues

got the slow week blues…the day is just dragging by…bye..bi..buy…hmmmm…probably can kill some time going up to the lab building and farting around there…and by farting around i mean working but work that’s kinda monkey work…beats sitting here waiting for contractors to get back to me with info – um…hello – sent you the file you needed…hello…where’s the response i need to fix your application? <sigh>

other than that – things are pretty nifty…but still at a stage where the fireworks-like-display of happiness would be premature. i anticipate said fireworks but have never been one to count metaphorical chickens before they metaphorically hatch. post hatch celebration however, i’m all about that.

one bit of good news is that the hobbit roommate will be moving out mid-december…we’ll even help her truck out her stuff that day – i mean, FINALLY – the path will be clear for all good things…granted, i also wanted the house to sell but that’s not happened yet <shrug> we can move, we can stay, either way is fine - i just want to rectify my location in this town from south west to south east….shouldn’t have moved to this neighborhood…<sigh> not super bad, just white trashy and sad…and i want to be closer to…well, stuff :^)

ah…the secret…

so i finally got around to reading “the secret” – it’s basically 200 plus pages detailing the concept of like-attracts-like. while many have simple dismissed their premise as wishful thinking or just new agey nuttiness there’s a number of components to it that are actually quite effective.

firstly, as r.a. wilson and others have pointed out to no mockery: you have a far greater hand in creating your own reality than you suspect. through interpretation of incoming information and expectation and conditioning we create a lot of the reality that we experience. it stands to reason that if you modify your perceptual filters you will modify your reality. additionally you can change your core beliefs and attitudes – stearing yourself on a fundamental level towards your objectives.

lay out what you want, believe that you will get it, map out how you will get it step by step, then pursue that objective. when your entire reality is bent around getting what you want and knowing that you will get it – emphasis on knowing – you will get it.

my first experiment along these lines using just their “secret” methodology was a success – the roommate moved out – i pictured her moving out, believed that she would move out and also assisted the process when opportunities arose to do so. my second experiment along these lines is currently in play and  going well. actually have several irons in the fire with the hope that one of them will mature into a most pleasent result.

it’s so to think that the truism “attitude is everything” IS very much one of the fundamental underlying struts that supports the reality that we experience. attitude, desire, expectation, will – they all come together and when harmonized produce environment.

inauguration party

kicking around the idea of having an inauguration party this coming jan 9th to celebrate the democratic victory over the forces of evil…well, mostly victorious, not happy about prop 8 but <shrug> what can you do from milwaukee?

well, one thing one can do from milwaukee is party on a tuesday, so that’s the plan – party on a tuesday.

back to work…

a nice thanksgiving weekend, minus the illness of jenna and kate….the vegitarian thanksgiving was actually quite groovy and tasty. i was, naturally, in the pink of health – staying well seems to be a habit of mine.

now gotta face a whole week of work again <sigh> which is o.k., need to get my lazy ass out of bed in the morning and up and doing something productive…and at least i’ve got the extended dance remix xmas vacation to look forward to in december which will be 5 days without having to slave for da man :^)

jenna’s play starts this coming friday, granted, she’s just in a bit part but it’s always nice to see her on the stage as she’s amazing regardless. it will suck her being gone for that but i’m sure that i can use the time to practice violin and/or engage in other productive pursuits.

work

ah work, found a script error today and corrected it. was wondering for the last day and a half why users at our facility down the road weren’t mapping their home directory. silly me, the script that was used by the domain admin was a copy of one used at yet another facility which is pretty similar but not identical…the path varriable was wrong – i corrected it and now am waiting for approval and testing to be done so we can get that puppy in place and working.

i love mixing my coffee with hot chocolate from the hot chocolate machine…it’s like a gimpy mocha but it works for me. there is no other news or interesting events in my life at present. things are actually quite low key….just waiting for various people to respond to emails i sent (no, not you iceprincess, you respond when you can, i’m talking about other peeps who are less than stellar at getting back in touch with me)

not having a pity-me party – i’m pretty freaking happy these days – so all complaining on this blog must be chalked up to low-level whining by a moody individual who is currently moping with intent to gawk.

strange dreams

silly wordpress wiped my attempt to make this post….grrrr…anyway – what i wrote was simple this – had messed up dreams last night that make no sense, the last one was me trying to save the staff of the guardian newspaper from an evil bartender who was holding them hostage…(i got a rum and coke from him instead)…i was armed only with a sharpened ruler, metallic and gray, so how was i supposed to defeat the evil bartender? i ask you. better to just have a drink and chill out.

copying all this into word as i go in case this dumps again…sigh…the guardian employees were being held hostage in a run down sort of factory/office building (with a bar, obviously).

before that was a boring work dream, granted, a work dream that took place in a basement but still just a work dream about specs for zebra label printers.

and before that another work dream about doing support for a bunch of kids in a school in…wait for it, yakutsk siberia – yes, it’s cold in wisconsin today. they only had dialup too, it was depressing.

Don Gonyea

Damn you Don Gonyea, the word “across” does not end in the letter “T” it is NOT pronounced “acrosst” – the word “across” is pronounced the same as the word “cross” or “La Crosse” or “toss” or “moss” – would he say “La Crosst”? “tosst”? Can you just hear an NPR reporter saying: “And on this tree there grows a lot of mosst” ?????

Yes, I was listening to NPR last night and Don Gonyea was talking about driving ACROSS (or acrosst) Pennsylvania…. I’m not a big english usage freak per se but COME ON…this is a national news broadcast, you would think that they would try and do things correctly. I mean, I’m fine when they interview some yokel and he mangles the language…his IQ is probably about 72 and that’s to be expected – but a professional!?!?!?

My only other language beef is “may” versus “can” – “Can I help you?” / “I don’t know, can you?” has gotten me more than one sour look – well, use the fucking language correctly and you won’t get…well…corrected.

Rage, Rage against stupidity :^)

happy

very happy of late, things are going well – just moved the hobbit roommate out and into her new place….this is good, we have our place to ourselves for the first time in something retarded like 2 years…as roommates go she was o.k. but even the  best roommate wears on you after long enough. in her case the problem was her presense – i.e. she never went anywhere apart from work, had no car and little life outside of work….as a result she was here all the time in the evenings and on weekends – which kinda sucked, she was in our house more often than WE were.

can i just say that in a polyamorous lifestyle the ever-present-non-sex-partner roommate kinda…well…cramps your style…via – no privacy.

on the downside, she paid rent, i’ll miss that – but the upside to no rent is freaking privacy in my own abode and the luxury of having an office upstairs rather than in the basement.

which, i don’t care how much you crank the freaking space heater – the basement, in fall – winter and spring is COLD.  ice cold floors, cold within about 2 feet of the ground, just plain cold…and musty.

so, all that being said – hobbit gone, le gouche happy, life moving forward and looking up.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

waves and waves of snow predicted for milwaukee…yeah, typical, got dumped on last year as well, it was part of a 7 year cycle, we got dumped on bad once every 7 years…now it’s a bonus round – an extra year of snow for people who like snow…and cold, yes, cold. not insanity cold but frigid cold. and keep in mind – it’s STILL NOT WINTER YET.

cold comes in several flavors in wisconsin – first there’s “it’s not that cold” – that’s from about 40 down to about 25…this is the usual temperature range for a large part of the late fall, winter and early spring…then there’s “it’s a little cold” – that’s from about 25 down to about 10, wind -  of course, affects this scale, having no wind makes 15 feel like a stiff breeze at 25 and no wind at 25 makes it feel like 35 or so…and  visa versa.

“it’s COLD” is from 10 down to -10, normally this is barked when outside and one goes inside as quickly as possible, but it doesn’t stop normal day to day activities…if it’s windy in this range you just stay in the house if possible but you still do your stuff.

“FUCK ME it’s COLD” is from about -10 down to -20, only people compelled to go out for work or school or food go out in this weather.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK is anything below -20, if you go outside it’s to get to a hospital for that emergency appendectomy and nothing else…or, if you park outside,  it’s to run the car around in a 10-mile circle to heat it up so that the engine block doesn’t freeze solid in the middle of the artic night.

and yet, we continue to live here, year in, year out – decade in, decade out – 75% of wisconsin residents were born in this state….25% move here for some twisted psychological reason that no one has yet figured out but which i’m sure will be classified as a mental illness soon.

sunshine and happiness

and rainbows and everything! flowers and daisies and cotton candy and christmas and cute babies! – i had a dream last night and you were there and you and you!

hehehe…um, yeah, just stupid happy these days, stupid happy with a capital stu.

kiss my ass 12″ of snow

kiss my ass there’s only 12″ of snow out there, my walkway was clean yesterday and i just lifted 2 feet of white shit off of it….24″ easy on the flipping ground.

-20 and facebook

freaking facebook is pulling a tribe (i.e. being like tribe.net and being down for extended dance remix periods of time)…i’ve tried to logon to it a number of times since their latest “upgrade” and it’s failed consistantly – sucky and very inept.

it’s currently 6F above zero with a wind chill of FUCK OFF!!!!!!!

yes, that cold, was in hi-fi cafe and could see my breath, yes – like sitting outside at a  football game or in a dearstand hunting in winter see my breath INSIDE a cafe.

and the snow, of which there is two feet, is now being blown around…meaning that everything that was shoveled before needs it again. <sigh>

oh well, that’s life (0r what passes for it) in wisconsin.

wisconsin

wisconsin, land of the weather retarded, land of people too stupid to move to warmer climbs, land of hot summers and winters so cold they kill you: http://www.jsonline.com/newswatch/36611429.html

that’s if you’re unlucky or stupid…plan your next trip out or it may be your last.

wisconsin, land of cheese, fireworks and porn. sadly, the porn isn’t made here it’s just imported porn. i think the same goes for the fireworks but the cheese, ah yes – the cheese is made here and it goes on everything, including apply pie, yes – cheese on apple pie.

wisconsin, home to badgers, nastiest critter on the planet, like a racoon on steroids who just stubbed his toe. mean and vicious. land of ice fishing, yes – men so desperate to catch slimey fish they drill holes through ice in order to do so. land of snowmobiling at high rates of speed into trees. ah wisconsin.

why oh why do i stay here?

back in town

it’s good to be back in town after facing the cold wilds of northern wisconsin. what a desolate place, so white and sad (and that’s just the people)….such places are meant to be visited during summer months and eschewed at all other times of year. to think of living one’s entire existance up there is enough to make one shudder.

who makes that choice? is it just force of habit that so many people stay put? i bemoan the intertia which kept me here but at least milwaukee has a symphony and lots of stuff going on – theatre, stores, the lake, business. up there it’s wood lice, mosquitos, freezing cold and what?

blah, winter, blah.

psychotic break

what do you do when a friend, who once was definately close and important to oneself has what can only be called a psychotic break?

it’s over a girl, naturally enough, which happens from time to time i’m lead to understand…frankly, i’m of the “just walk away” school when it comes to relationship disasters…this practice, of walking away quietly, minimizes (usually) the hissing and spitting and throwing of objects…nor is it any better when all the objects being thrown are online…online is still very public and public demonstrations of obsession/dementia are embarrassing to read in spite of the amusement they can provide.

when rebuffed, move on. when snubbed it’s certainly o.k. to be offended (and let down) but there is “offended” and then there’s driving off into wacky land with your shattered glass ego in the passenger seat while honking your horn and leaning out the window screaming your discontent. that’s just not cool. that’s pathetic and sad.

and there’s the rub i think. it’s ego. specifically where ego is invested. some people prefer their ego portfollio to be diversified – a bit put into work, a bit put into relationships, a bit into hobbies and pursuits….the various ratios set to give importance to each but not so much to one area that it completely overwhelms the other aspects of one’s life.

other folks put ALL of their ego into one or two areas…so if they take a hit in that area or areas it can utterly send them off the deep end – spawn an identity crisis or an ego meltdown complete with temper tantrums and other behavior that would embarrass a 4 year old.

what’s ironic is that people who often have the most success in a given thing/area (such as sexual relationships or economic pursuits) actually invest very LITTLE ego in those areas…instead, they treat said activity as a lighthearted game and are, consequently, more relaxed and capable of rolling with the punches and are often quite happy and successfull…at least that’s how i see it and have come to experience stuff.

this is not to say that sex or a job or a hobby or whatever isn’t pursued intensly – it is, but it’s done from a place of serene confidence where one is doing rather than being vis-a-vis the process of the thing pursued.

this confidence of relaxed doing attracts and impresses – while ego driven undertakings smell of desperation and repell accordingly.

off my soap box now.

asshats

found out today that metavante wasn’t renewing the contract of a friend of mine…how did she find out – she didn’t, they just didn’t say they were extending it past the new year – how shitty is that? so they don’t let their contractors know that they’ll be out of a job in a week or two weeks or in a day!?!?!?

scratch them off of the list of people i’d ever cosider working for – that’s right up there with the kind of behavior that johnson controls engages in (or did years ago).

speaking of asshats, how dumb is this – have a “friend” on facebook who came to wisconsin – i said “hey, you should swing by and hang out” – get a reply back along the lines of “sorry man, up in green bay” – meanwhile i see he posts a reply on a mutual friend’s wall that he was dropping someone off in milwaukee and thought of swinging by. wtf?!?!? so you’re not going to be in milwaukee but you went to milwaukee? fuck you.

dropping him off my friends list. what an asshat.

helpdesk

long time no sit on the helpdesk…filling in while the desktop peeps have their meeting…it’s really quiet right before lunch ‘cept if something ’splods…otherwise – no worries….hmmmm….not much going on in my life these days – just trying to keep up my fiddle practice while not going crazy about work being tardtackular

social life is humming along nicely, got some plans for this weekend and a trip to Portland is in the wind for this spring.

ahhh…spring…that season meant to make us forget that we in wisconsin live in a wintery hell-hole 1/2 the year. grrr….

um…what else? not much – can’t wait for the weekend – sci-fi saturday at Luke’s followed by a night of stalking our favorite waitstaff person at the P….then coffee at HiFi on Sunday.

-40

it’s finally going to get to that point, that magical point on the degree scale where F and C meet to produce “ohmyfuckinggoditscold”…artic, artic cold – the kind of cold that makes you think that we all should have stayed in africa…or at least not ventured far beyond the tropics….we could have just set up factory farms to the north and farmed them during the spring summer and fall and then all returned to our homes in the warm warm parts of da earth.

in other funny news – they must have “featured” my silly blog – it went from getting a few odd hits to over 350 the other day read my boring tripe monkeys! READ it! pablum…

Sheepshead chronicle

every lunch we play sheepshead, couldn’t win for love or money today – never saw anything close to a picking hand – it’s as if the goddesses of sheepshead were mocking me…i was on the losing side in almost every game and only was on the winning side twice – and those times i was pretty much just riding alongside the winner who was going to truck to victory without much help from the partner……

brutal, it was just brutal, every hand a disaster, not a ray of sunshine….o fortuna, velut luna!

oh well, hopefully luckier at love tonight than i was at cards today :^)

how cold is it?

Here’s how cold it is here:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/37663959.html

Go outside, without protection (i.e. in just your night clothes), and…die.

The cold here kills, indeed, it kills. And pretty freaking quick.

gearing up for studying…

well…the time of just flopping around is drawing to a close…i’ve decided to get off my lazy ass and get the 70-649 test done (this will upgrade my mcse on 2003 to an mcts on 2008…”microsoft certified technical specialist) on the downside – it’s a brutally long three-tests-in-one sort of extravaganza – on the upside – i’m thinking it gets me out of any more studying for the next 5 freaking years… and the point of having sacrificed an entire year of my life to getting an mcse in the first place was in order to make sure that subsequent to that i wouldn’t have to EVER sacrifice another year…too much time away from jenna…and jenna is…well – everything to me – i’ve been in love with her for years before we were married and i’m still in love with her now…crazy mad in love with her.

anyway, in terms of book – i have a bunch of stuff written already – which means i can gather my material together that i have for my 2nd book and get on to the business of writing it…if all goes well (and roughly according to plan) i’ll give the draft to my editor in jan of 2010 – normally it takes me about a year to write a book (since i work full time and have a life) but this one won’t take as long…working title “The Antinomian Adventurer”

so, that being said – test schedule for the end of march, writing april-december, manuscript sent to taylor before 12/31/09 deadline…then edit edit edit – then published through immanion press i recon.

virus

had to deal with some worm today…shrug…what a waste of time – virus writers bore me, they’re so predictable and easily thwartable…they are as about as interesting as waiting in line at the dmv – BOR-ING…is that what their “elite” hacksor skills amount to? a moment of inconvienence? how sad.

at least some people hack into systems to poke around and see what’s what…not that there’s anything of interest on my corporate websites/servers…just a bunch of greedy fucks trying to get more money to buy bigger houses and cars and flashy junk – unto them i give this clue: a herse has no luggage rack.

not to say that having nice things is bad – it’s not, it’s groovy to have a big-deal house and a snazy car and nice food – etc. nothing wrong with that…but after you’ve bought the third home and the 14th car and the 32 plasma t.v. i gotta ask (as many have before me) is that what it’s about?

now, some people actually go places and do stuff – see the world, THAT’s how to spend your money – to say “i’ve been THERE” and talked to peple “THERE” rather than just being in one place constantly…THAT i get, i grok that….the big garbage pile – stuff that other people will get when you’re dead – i don’t get that.