Cluestick
A roller-coaster of a day...
I woke up this morning feeling great and accomplished for rowing on our Concept2 rower for a full half hour last night. I'm trying to get into shape for the first time since the sixth grade and have been rowing for the past couple of weeks. I rowed my first 2000 meter competitive run last week and was happy to see it wasn't the bottom of the pack for my age group or even younger groups in the Concept2 rankings. Still, I didn't think I would be able to keep up a good pace for a full half hour without a lot more preparation. I went to bed with a great sense of accomplishment and after the first good night's sleep in several weeks, woke up with the same. That was the end of the good feelings for a while...
We had a teleconference this morning to start of the day. I should have known that this was going to alter the mood of the day. You see, I work two jobs full time. One is for a Fortune 100 company, while the second is for a much smaller private firm. Today was being worked for the smaller firm, that is based 1300 miles away which makes for some interesting communication lines. My manager, hereafter known as TheInvisibleMan(ager), leads the teleconference with a meandering communication style that I can only describe as...uh...you know...hmmm...vague...and uhmm...verbose...without...actually..........efficiency. Also present on our conference calls is the department Supervisor that I am fortunately not reporting to. For visual accuracy purposes, we'll refer to her as Shamu.
Pop-quiz: Teleconferences are typically annoying as hell because:
A. TheInvisibleMan(ager) rambles endlessly and unproductively while not answering a single question directly.
B. Shamu splits time between obnoxious up-talking (why do these people think this shit is cute?) and demaning people work harder.
C. My wonderful co-workers don't speak up so that one can hear them over the speakerphone.
D. All of the f-ing above.
{I think all of you probably got this right by answering D.}
This teleconference was no different with an answer from TheInvisibleMan(ager) to my question about priorities that was
completely devoid of content and yet another request for overtime. This has been going on nearly non-stop since the Thanksgiving timeframe. WTF? During the conference call, I was online and read about our country's fearl(clue?)less leader's support of an anti-gay-marriage ammendment and something about the underlying issue began to nag at the back of my mind.
After we completed the tedious and drawn-out teleconference, the real fun began. I won't go into details here. We recently purchased a car part that wasn't quite what we expected. The discrepancy was in a detail that was not specifically called out in the advertisement for the product, but made it essentially useless for our intended purpose. We ran around all day looking for someone that could make it right. Let's just say, we might have had more luck if we lived in a REAL city and not one that just wishes it was. After two disappointing visits to local service vendors, a severe misadventure in finding one of them and a rather mediocre lunch, we arrived back home looking for a Plan B regarding the car part issue. This was, fortunately, the low of the day. During this whole adventure, the issue nagging at the back of my mind began to gel and clarify.
Upon returning, we worked (as we do alot) and then had a nice little dinner with a great bottle of wine (Chateau Ste. Michelle, 2002 Eroica Riesling, absolutely charming). Right now, after consuming more than my fair share of the bottle, I've had a pretty productive day and am back to feeling pretty good. When I least expected it, I realized that the thought that started nagging me early in the day is now complete.
Our president and the religious institutions in this country suggest an ammendment to our nation's Constitution is necessary to "protect the sanctity of marriage" as alledgedly based on thousands of years of human existence. If the past is any guide for how to treat people, we would not believe in equal rights in the first place. This seems like a profoundly week reason to alter the Constitution of the United States of America. This is, of course, based on a fundamentally flawed argument that there have not been past precendents in civilized human history of same-sex marriage recognized by the state. Further, it's completely not the point of our Constitution.
If you look at the matter objectively, our Constitution really consists of the definition of how our nation is different from the rest of the world. It lays the guidelines for the rest of the laws in our country - NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! We amend it to provide MORE freedom - not less. We obliterated slavery not because it was unprecedented in human history, but because descriminating on skin color was wrong and because all of our citizens deserved equal rights. It is equally wrong to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Not only that, but through the nature of the contents of our Constitution, putting this restriction in The Constitution of the United States of America defines us as different from the rest of the world by restricting this type of union.
Times change and values need to adapt. Religion is supposed to be about helping to identify right and wrong, but instead spends way too much vilifying what is right based on writings that are thousands of years old and have been through WAY too many filters to be taken literally. No other interpretations of the past are viewed with the perceived accuracy of intent as those that form the foundation of religion. That indicates a problem that more people should open their eyes to.
At least I've got that off my mind...maybe I'll be able to sleep again tonight.
Cycle of life
Tonight I let down and pissed off the most important person in my life...
The four or so of you who have read me (okay, the two of you that read from two different locations each) are probably thinking, "That can't be anything new," but that isn't entirely true. I do consider this person my soulmate (as corny as that may seem), and we normally do an effective job of turning our rage outward toward anything and everything else in the world. United we stand against everyone. But it can't be that wall all the time.
Sometimes, the events we go through and the timing in which we encounter them conspire to present those situations that feel unavoidable. Tonight there were two separate instances in which she was being driven crazy with frustration and all I needed to do was provide the support and comfort of letting her know I trust, believe and support her. That is not what I did. Instead, I provided the skepticism and critical analysis that is my trademark and that ended up making her feel like I don't have respect for her. Yes, I can be a dumbass.
What I didn't say was that while I question EVERYTHING and am a perpetual bastard, the only place I ever put my trust is in her hands. What I didn't say is that it's not about how little I respect her, but how little I respect the antagonist currently in her life. I thought I was managing not to say those little "...but..." phrases that often make things even worse, but after this empty evening of not having her conversation for company, it did exactly jack squat in reducing the misery of the evening. Sometimes we just learn exactly how little we've learned about relationships.
So two days before Valentine's Day, I've made the most important person - the ONLY important person - in my life miserable. I set the bar rather high for myself, but I'm good at exceeding expectations. Honey, if you're reading, I am truly and deeply sorry that I made you feel like any less than everything I live for.
Beware geeks with toys...
Technology has produced some amazing things in this world of ours. Many of them have been highly beneficial. Others are humorous while a few are quite tragic. One of the very detrimental effects technology has had on modern day society is the compression of time. This becomes fully experienced in the tech industry itself where everything is mission and time critical and needs to be completed immediately...but that's not the point of this post.
Instead, this is inspired by the plethora of geeks that the technology boon has spawned. While geeks have arguably been critical to the creation of the benefits of technology, we long ago passed the point of diminishing returns on the volume of geeks relative to the benefit they provide. Now we have an abundance of gratuitous geekdom which results in wonders like the following:
- People that delay functional replacement of a failed computer system because a real geek BUILDS his/her own system.
- People that set up dedicated servers because that's the way an Enterprise would do it.
- People that proudly wear their phone and PDA in plain sight like badges of honor while walking around the supermarket with a headset on gabbing at someone while they shop.
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How to stop a tantrum...then and now.
Dr. Phil is exposing us all to the 2004 version of how to end a tantrum. The key element is repeating the child's message back to them while matching their energy in order to let them know they've been heard. Only then, we are told, can we move on to the parent's message.
PEACHY
I can't wait until a million disciples adopt this one so that when the public tantrum begins, the parents go off on the kick themselves with stupid toddler talk at the child's energy level raising two to three times the turmoil of the tantrum itself. Great advice...just fantastic.
For those of you that weren't aware, the 1970 version of how to prevent the tantrum was to leave the child at home or give them one nice solid smack to let them know there was a reason not to throw it in public.
It's amazing how the effective can go out of style.
Janet's Outrageous Boob
Only in our socially repressed Puritan-based society could this be such a big deal. I can't help but laugh at the absurdity of those outraged because they had the family gathered around for a fine display of testosteron-laden head-bashing and potential injury that was just DESTROYED by the split-second exposure of a breast that was mostly covered by a "nipple shield."
Violence is acceptable, but don't show our children anything that could be perceived as sex. We certainly wouldn't want anything that might open their minds to something other than the values of the past.
