Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v.3.02

Springfest

Just some stuff I tookover the past several afternoons between work and more work.

CSS Funk

Yeah, this site is experiencing some CSS funk. Other sites are too...

(Used with permission)

Bookstores use books to support their out houses. Werd!

*sigh*

More Kids

This started as a comment back to Lacey.

Kids are at the same time robust and delicate. While they can take quite a bit of stupidity on our part (as an adult raising them), this could somewhat set back their growth and development. There are some things we could do to completely screw them up for life. There are more things we could do to place stumbling blocks. However, I see our purpose and raison d'etre as a person to guide and coach them to becoming the best person they can be.

My grandmother tells this story about getting really worried that her second child was never going to learn to walk. He just did not seem interested at all in walking. Someone figured out that he had no motivation to walk as he could just point at something and his older sister would go get it for him.

Kids seem to enjoy learning about the world around them. The world is full of mysteries and interesting things to discover.

As teachers for future generations, we should discover our own enthusiasms for life. We will then make excellent role models for those in our care.

As a college student, I did not mind the thought of being a parent. After all, my brother is much younger so I practically was already acting the part. My only real concern was the absolute lack of material resources. Over the years, I've realized how little prepared I would have been and still am for such a responsibility.

The problems I have now are different than the problems then. At least I have an idea of where I should be?

Eh. That will probably change in just a few days.

The Old Days

Sometimes I miss the old days. Back then I wassted hours on the computer chatting up any female resembling handle from anywhere. I could just take off on a weekend to go to the beach, visit friends hours away, or whatever. My friends and I would spend hours playing pool at this local hole-in-the-wall. Work is something we did for a few hours just to give us enough cash to get by. We longed for the days people would take us seriously.

Now, things are so busy. Just the projects that are noteworthy take up 3 pages. All of the little ones or not imminent would take up another 4 or 5 pages. Throw in the constant phone calls, meetings, and people walking into my office. I really don't see how it all gets done.

All this overload has made me distant from my friends. I don't call or write as I used to do or should. Promises of calling, hanging out, or writing get lost in the mush of my mind.

For the last 6 months, I've thought, "If I can just get this done or someone to do this, then it will be all better." The reality is more things are being added to my list of things to do than I can get completed. Only 3 months ago, I thought things were pretty bad. Things are worse now.

Looking ahead, I really do not see them improving.

License To Have Kids

Went to the really kewl local Mexican restaurant for lunch. The food is great; the waiters attentive.

Across the room was a party of 10 (5 adults & 5 kids). At best guess it consisted of a mom, her hubby, and 4 kids; the mom's sister and sister's kid; the mom's mother and aunt.

The mom first got my attention when she whined about how this was not what she ordered and how she wanted a menu. The waiters figured out that was actually her husband's meal and she had something else. Even then she did not thank them she whined as they were leaving that she could not have eaten that other thing.

Every few minutes I and everyone else in the room would look at her when she snapped at one of the kids or her husband for doing something wrong. Is it really that big a deal he would like to take the truck on his trip out of town? Obviously a daughter is really being a pain when they are not eating because she is not hungry.

The real shocker for me is when the mom smiled down at the bably in the carseat, then when a daughter asked her a question, the mom's face became scarier than the Ring-possessed Gollum. WTF?

The constant caustic remarks hopefully will not scar the kids for life. Hopefully, this if just a bad day for her and not a normal thing. A few friends grew up with a mother like that. They had and still probably have real issues dealing with their mother.

If there is any person one should be able to trust, then it should be one's parent. Mothers and fathers are supposed to be the first person one can look to for advise and be a role model. Kids are often viewed as being less than truly sentient when really young. This is a major mistake. Kids are quite perceptive, understand much of what goes on around them, and do not need parents to indoctrinate them into how much life can suck.

Occasionally, I have thought that perhaps would be parents should be required to get a license. While tough, it would give institutions the opportunities to provide to parents best practices for raising kids.

My only real problem is that I would be highly offended should someone tell me I had to get a license to raise a child. Of course, I thought it was inconvenient to get a license to drive just like gun owners find licenses inconvenient in order to carry a gun.

Of course, all the usual arguments would come out. “It is one’s God given right to procreate.” Very similar to the arguments that anyone should be able to drive or carry a gun, yes? Maybe the world would be a better place should the people who have very poor driving skills be given the opportunity to improve them before being allowed to drive.

No easy answers.

On a related note, last night I asked my mom if she knew what the letters STFU stood for on my brother's wallpaper. The look of fear on his face had me laughing so hard!

Small World

Went to visit Sarah to help her fix her computer. She lives right across the street from where my dad lived once. I mentioned to her that it is pretty weird to look across the street and see the house where I spent almost every Sunday for a couple years.

This gets a little complicated. My parents bought this house back in the 80s. The were separated for a while in the late 80s and again in the 90s before getting divorced. Back in the 80s, my dad rented a house. The rented house was actually owned by a family friend who happened to also own the house next door to the one my parents had bought.

Sarah mentioned that she had found a collar in her yard that belonged to the girl in the house (the one my dad rented). So we went over to return it. Turns out the occupant is the daughter of the woman that owns it. I knew her sister fairly well. We played together quite a bit back when we were little (her mom owned the house and her aunt lived there).

Sarah started talking about all the people she knew and sees in the neighborhood. Sarah asked if the girl was in college and later if she had taken a certain professor for Biology. Both yes. Well, that professor's daughter lives just down the road and has been friends with Sarah and I for years. The girl's uncle hangs out quite a bit with the professor.

The interconnections of small city life can get too complicated...

Recounting My Day

I may live near Florida, but I am smart enough not to count votes by hand. Record that information into a database and let the computer to do the checking for you. I have no trust in my ability to hundreds of ballots correctly. (4,311… 4,312… That is a great car! What was I on again? Dammit! 1… 2… 3…). I do trust computers to count them correctly and much faster than I might.

The only thing computer cannot handle are qualitative measures like the write-in votes. Then you get into interpreting the intentions of the voter. Is William the same as Billy? Smith the same as Smit? Reminds me of the eternal question… “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop? 1… 2… 3.. CRUNCH! The world may never know.” Glad I just supply the raw data and let the election officials handle the hard part. Making people happy.

Sesshu? Bless you!

I figure my names work against me. I am name for both an author and a painter. Sadly, I suck at producing either stories and paintings. However, I love to read and spend time looking at art. For no other reason than access to quality bookstores, art museums, and science museums do I want to move close to a large city. I'd get a membership and visit at least 3-4 times a year.

Apparently, I missed the Sesshu exhibit over in Kyoto. Maybe next time? He has a great stuff like Temple Beyond Cliff and Egrets in Snow. In every big art museum I've gone visited, I look for the Japanese Art section just to look for this guy's work.

Got the discipline folder back from my collegiate years. Very glad now that I didn't try to lie and cover up my idiocies. Also, very glad that I was not expelled over the stupid things I had done. It may have turned out to be a good thing in the long run. People realized I used computers and may know a thing or 2 which compelled them to ask. In attempting to help them, I grew my knowledge and became more heavily involved in a myriad of Internet-related activities such as chatting and web design. Ultimately, designing web pages for myself led to a Cooperative Education job my last semester in school for the IT department (the same people that had to deal with my idiocies over 3 years earlier). After graduation, I got a real job doing the same web design stuff which also grew into more Unix and Windows server administration work. Basically, I did my boss' job as well as my own which freed him up to do other things. Finally, when he was promoted I got promoted into the job he vacated.

So was being stupid a good thing? Doubt it. There are so many ways I could have gotten attention that would have been productive without risking expulsion from college.

I've noticed that I insert words into sentences. For example, I see "Could you clarify I should be looking for?" and hear in my head "Could you clarify what I should be looking for?" It only confuses me when I reread the sentence to break it apart and notice that meaningful words are missing.

Just Work? Please?

Mmmmmmmmmm... ./configure; make; make test; make install

Have a good little wait for PHP to finish the compiling. Ugh. Wish stuff would just work. This is the 2nd version of PHP for the 5th version of Apache (7 installs over the past 4 days). One actually worked all the way to using the PHP scripts. Ugh.

Can't think very well right now. Have less than 6 hours to make it all work. Ugh.

Happy Easter

Ran into a ex-friends' ex today. She has always been nothing but nice to me. The guy she was dating was also a very good friend of mine. One of the confrontations we had ironically was about a conversation between this girl and me late one night when she gave me a ride home. Apparently she mentioned that she and I had talked but refused to divulge details. He demanded I tell everything.

I would have except I had told her that I wouldn't. Telling him would mean I broke my word. Guess I was not into breaking my word because I refused to tell him. She eventually did talk to him about it.

I guess I had my reasons. Still, it opened my eyes. Futher behaviors just gave further evidence to why I felt uncomfortable in the situation of being his friend. I sometimes will make the effort to hang out with him and his friends. The reasons why I gave that up come flodding back.

No Privacy

Do we really have any privacy now? Think it is just an illusion. Anything important about you, true or false, is traceable these days. Who knows what "patterns" that are or will be deemed important? Some of the silliest things are deemed predictors of deviant or criminal behavior.

The FBI can look into the books you have checked out and purchased because maybe, just maybe you have researched something that points to criminal activity. They can have your ISP collect the email and web sites you visit. They can look at all of your bank transactions, credit card transactions, phone calls, and even dig in your garbage. If only it was the FBI that could only do all this, then I might be a little comforted. The FBI has had the capabality using consumer and professional tools. Tools that are available to you and me and everyone else on this planet that chooses to use them.

Your neighbors are nice people, right? They'd never dig through your trash to locate receipts. They'd never glance at the credit card statement on the dining room table and memorize the numbers. Keep your enemies close, but your friends closer.

Even total strangers are not safe. Someone would never, ever take the receipt for the dinner off the table after you left, right? The cashier would never install a little device to remember the number. Swipe first to take the number home; swipe second to run the transaction.

All of your credit information is as safe with the credit agencies as it is kept in your mail box. Anyone with the right credentials has access to your information. Several people at every company that could potentially give you a loan has access to your credit information.

It is scary how a single lapse of judgement on his/hers or someone else's end could ruin someone.

Some of the scarier things are soon to come. Chips implanted in our bodies with medical histories. Cards which know all of our financial transactions. Braoder government powers to know everything there is to know about us. Faster computers which can link events and identify patterns.

What if 90% of all serial killers gave a particular answer on the SAT? Should we track down everyone who gave that answer? Maybe if 90% of the people who gave that answer were also serial killers, then it is a possibility. If the serial killers make up only 1% of the people who gave that answere, then I'd say one needs to keep looking for a better pattern.

Next New Toy

The whole battery dying thing is annoying for my digital camera. I find myself having to replace the batteries about every 20 pictures I take. Probably could offset some of that by never using the LCD, but what then is the point in having an LCD? MAHA claims their PowerEX batteries (NiMH) will take 200 pictures compared to the alkaline's 30.

Also need a charger. I am thinking that I should get the charger set and 2 sets of 4 spares.

Email Sux

Maybe it is just me, but why is it that no one can invent a great email program? I mean, they really all suck. Nothing is built for my needs... huge volumes of email, lots of important requests from dozens of sources, tons of email lists, and tons of spam.

It takes hours to sort through what the filters leave behind.

Lots of companies promise they can help with this or that plug-in. So far most of them are a royal pain just to install for little or no help. Ugh!

Thinking Geek

I like this action shot... girl in front of Microsoft sign with teeshirt "Chick Dig Unix". Something just so sinister, ya know?

Apparently I have a higher than average Empathy (64) and Systematizing (71) Quotients (link). Eh. These are really similar to the Myers-Briggs iNtuitive and Feeler scales.

No Plans

No plans for this weekend. Well, I do have an election system to get operational, test, and have ready to go Monday at midnight. When I found out I was supposed to do it less than 6.5 days before it would be done, I thought maybe it would not be so bad. The old system is there, all I have to do is install a couple components and configure. Actually, I have had to re-install every component and still not even to the point I can configure it. With only a few days before the deadline.

Should find a time and place to play pool. I hate to play it by myself, though. Hmmmmmm.

Rant into yet another classmate from high school. Weird stuff. I've seen 6 in the last month.

1. What's your favorite method of travel? Why?
Driving, especially cruising at 90 MPH. Something cathartic.

2. What's the longest road trip you've ever taken? Where?
The 1993 driving trip Arizona. Texas is one huge state.

3. How many plane trips have you taken in your life?
NYC, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, London... so, 5.

4. What method of travel do you fear so much or intensely dislike that you avoid it? Why?
I am not really scared too much of anything anymore. I don't care for heights and I probably have crashed too many planes in flight simulators for doing something stupid to completely trust planes.

5. Describe the worst travel experience you've ever had.
I've never really had a travelling experience that was horrible. They are usually pretty good. The Philly trip was back before 9/11 so planes going and returning were delayed. Thankfully, I had a new handheld game system, a portable CD player, and tons of batteries.

New Goal

We have a wireless network in the building. Of course, it is built on 802.11b so the speed is only 11 Mbps. The wired LAN is Ethernet 100 Mbps. Just outside our 1st floor offices is a patio.

I am thinking it would be the bomb to put some patio furniture (chairs, table, and umbrella) out there so we can set up the laptops and do work. Already have a cordless phone. Could open up one of the windows and run an extension cord with a strip out to the table. :)

Of course, we'd make 1/2 the place extremely jealous and pissed at us. :(

Feel wrong to waste these gorgeous days inside working.

Singularity

Some say we are headed towards singularity, some say they've been been single for a while and hate it. Can't these are mutually exclusive. After all, being single does not have much to do with artificial intelligence... or does it?

I'd have to say the excuses for not actively seeking someone with which to share life are pretty artificial. Maintaining that life style is much easier and much less risky than actively attempting integration. Systems tend towards decay. Energy must be put into systems to sustain them. Energy is finite and thus precious. Yet it must to devoted to the cause in order to make the system work.

Dragging

Was out till well after 1 AM last night playing pool with Sarah, her beau, and her friend. In to work before 8 AM. Back in college this was pretty routine. Tuesday afternoon was $2 pool for 2 hours. Some friends and I would go up there and play almost every Tuesday. Used to be okay. Now, I am so badly in need of practice.

Sarah's roommate has a real Persian rug. Not those cheap, 1/16 " thick rugs the questionables sell on the side of the road. This is the real deal. Wool. Vegetable dye. It even have the dual tone. From different directions it has different densities of color. From one angle it looks faded. From another it looks rich in color. He wants to sell it. Pains me that I can't buy it. Has to be worth at least 2 Grand. How often to you get to see something like that down here? I've only seen one before back in the 90s so this is only my second.

Tick Tick Tick

Humming Jeopardy muzak as I do my taxes. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Going to go play some pool tonight, I hope.

Maybe go in late? No meetings scheduled? Oh. Wait. I've got to catch some people at theirs. o, that is Thursday. Whew. Gotta plan now! Going in late tomorrow.

Long day. Nothing went right. Wait. I wore the same color blue shirt as Ashley (names are changed to protect the innocent). Got donuts (better late than never). Ate with mom and g-mom. Had San Jose Burrito at El Rodeo.

Maybe it was not so bad after all?

Retrospect

BlogRolling is pretty kewl....

Tomorrow is hopefully a donuts day. Someone at work has a birthday. The secretary will be out sick so hopefully our other mom will remember? Maybe I can snag one while they are still warm? Mmmmmmmmmm....

Oh, yeah... only 25 hours left to do my taxes. Starting to become more and more like my father. What? I've got so many hours left. Why do them now?

Through Ways

This is South Georgia. It gets really, really hot down here in the summer. It also tends to rain quite a bit as moisture from the Guld of Mexico hits us in waves for an afternoon shower. You really should have an umbrella everyday as the predictability of the rain is rather low.

Where I work has a ton of small buildings scattered all over the place. So many people try to cut through various buildings that it is almost considered standard practice. My building is one exception. In the entire time I have been here, the doors to the old Personnel (then Human Resources and now vacant) area have always been locked.

People still try to cut through there. I have moved to an office just outside the locked doors. The last time it rained 5 sets of people attempted to go through those doors. Even after we put a sign "Doors Are Kept Locked", people still tried to go through them. Guess the gamble that they might be unlocked it too tempting?

Templatong

Working on improving the template for this thing.

My brother's prom was last night. Have not talked to him, but I hope it was great.

He went to the same school I attended many, many years ago. I wonder why they seem so much more restrictive about what the students can and can't do? It does make me feel better that I got out when I did.

Back to work?

First Hit

Got this up without a problem here (30 minutes) after dorking around with Berkley DB and DB_file for 2 or 3 hours on the web server I run! WTF?

Sux 2 B ARF...