Updates

It's been a while since I have had time to post here. Business tends to pick up around the holidays and not let up until after tax time where I work.

Let's see, where to start...
Attendance matters at work...you don't believe me? Just look at the 46" TV that I won from our attendance contest! (Come to think of it, that is probably the reason that I haven't posted from home! :D )

I did not pass my tests back in December, that was a rather large disappointment. I'm going to do the only logical thing...train hard and pass the next one in June!

Angela's laptop died, so I replaced it with an ASUS EEE PC 904HA. Folks, this is a really nice little computer! The intel Atom processor gives it about 6-8 hours of battery life, and enough power to do three things at once without lagging or skipping on the song that is playing.

Angela had a birthday.

Gave her a pajamagram for Valentines Day.

I guess that about covers it.

Congratulations, President Obama!

I'm kinda the black sheep in my family. You see, I'm a Democrat and I voted for Barack Obama for President. My family, (every last one of them,) are Republicans who usually vote based on one or two key issues. I tend to be more analytical and make my decisions based on the available information, (or at least I like to thinks so...who knows.)

Earlier today my own brother accused me of "voting for a terrorist". Can you believe that?! I can't say that it surprised me, after all he dropped out of my wedding in a (failed) attempt to make me call it off. You see, he drank the "Obama is a Muslim" Kool-Aid. He's not a racist, that I can attest to, however he does act like a bigot quite often. I don't know where he gets it, because none of the other family members talked about President Obama like that, (that I know of.)

I'm looking forward to finally doing what the previous president stubbornly refused to do. Our troops will finally begin to pull out of Iraq and go after Al-Quida in Afganistan and Pakistan...if President Obama keeps his campaign promises, that is.

It's almost Midnight and I am tired, so I will leave it with this.

Congratulations, President Obama!
We gave you our vote of confidence, don't let us down!

Ohio LinuxFest!

This year's Ohio LinuxFest was awesome!

I got to see some old friends, as well as make some new ones.

I took an EEE PC 1000 with me to show off. What surprised me the most is that no one else had that model. There were a lot of the 701 and 900 models, but the 1000 kinda made me unique.

I got to be on The Linux Link Tech Show again. Got to hang out with Dave Yates, Chad Wallenberg, and even got to meet Klatu.

Got to see Dualcore again, and actually had the money to buy their albums. It's true when they say that seeing them live is better than listening to the album. The crowd was all hyped up, (and liquored up), and it was really intense hearing a room full of geeks shout "HOSTAGE DOWN!" in unison. If you have no idea what that means, we should hang out and get you aquainted with counterstrike!

Jon "Maddog" Hall gave an excellent talk about sustainable computing, Mackenzie Morgan A.K.A. "Mako" had an awesome talk about how not to get hacked on a hostile wireless network, and Jono Bacon made the closing keynote hilarious.

The TLLTS crew is talking about not comming back next year because they, (the convention center,) sprang a $90 fee on them so that they could use ONE PLUG OUTLET. Hopefully they will have a change of heart before next year, because I don't know how my car will fare having to cross the Appalachians, and I don't know if the wife will let me go to 2 Linux conferences in a year. (Don't laugh guys, you know your wives own you too!)

Hopefully next year I wil be able to do some volinteer work for the conference. I'll definately have to look into it.

Economic problems

OK, here's the Cliff's Notes version of the problem:

This whole mess started when banks got greedy and started selling people bogus loans. They then packaged these loans and sold them to large banks. These large banks then held on to the loans and collected interest off of them, until the interest rates on these loans started adjusting to an insanely high rate. People could no longer afford the loans so they just let them default. The massive amounts of defaulted loans then make the banks that bought them lose lots of money.

Here's the solution that the Federal Government takes:

Give the banks cheap loans so that they can pay off their bad debt.

Here's what happens next:

Banks still fail to pay off the debt, and therefore begin to fail.

Government's response:

Take over the banks and run them as a government entity.

Now here's the correct approach:

I think the government should have taken the "Forest fire" approach to dealing with this problem. That is let the economy burn so that all of the dead and rotten companies die out and only leave the legitimate companies, who did not take part in these crooked loan deals, to flourish and begin the market anew.

Compare and contrast:

Government's way:
Reward the companies that did bad, therefore reinforcing negative behavior.

My way (the correct way):
Let the companies pay for their misdeeds and the market will correct it's self.

Conclusion:

The Federal Government is brain dead. They are being manipulated by the president, who is also brain dead. We need to get a president into office who has sense enough to dig us out of this mess that we are now stuck in.

Pray to God that Obama becomes the president, because McCain would be a third term for Bush, and therefore 4 more years of bad leadership.

Thank you Ike...

Yesterday afternoon we had hurricane force winds blow through, knocking out power to most of the city. They say that it was the remnants of Hurricane Ike, I say that if a few hours of hurricane force winds could do that to a major city I'm glad that we live well inland. I don't think Kentucky would be able to take the rain and storm surge on top of the beating that those gusts gave us.

We went a little more than 24 hours without power, we lost $60 worth of food that I had just purchased THE DAY BEFORE, and the only think that kept me from going completely stir crazy was my iPod, (which I had fortunately just finished charging when we lost power,) and long walks up the devastated roads to get what supplies that I could before they were all sold out.

I have to admit that I was most worried about Dusty. You see chinchillas have 50 hairs per follicle, so their coat is EXTREMELY thick, (and very soft,). If his body temperature gets above 75 degrees (Farenheit) he will likely have a heatstroke and die. The temperature in the apartment got up to 77 at it's peak, (so says the lovely, BATTERY POWERED, digital thermometer that I picked up from woot.com.) He had his granite slab, (A.K.A. the "Chin-chiller",) to keep him cool.

Our power came back on, but there were (many) others who weren't as lucky. My father lives about 2 miles up the road and they are still sitting in the dark. (Well they're sleeping by now, but that's beside the point."

We had no food...they had food, but no way to cook it...the wife and I went and got charcoal and cooked their food on a grill in the backyard. And of course I went door to door to see if any of the neighbors needed food cooked before it spoiled. While the grill was heating up I cleared the yard of debris, and raked the leaves that litterered it. We had a lovely candlelight dinner...steak, pork chops, macaroni, green beans, and Pepsi.

The outdoor temperature is a chilly 65 degrees right now, (which is about 3 degrees warmer than they usually keep the house,) so I think my folks will be alright.

To everyone who has been touched in some way by Hurricane Ike, (or any of the other hurricanes that have slammed in to us this year,) you are in our prayers.

Please if you have, remember to share with those who have not...otherwise someday YOU will be the one who is the "have not" and you will wish that some of the "haves" would share with you.

This kind of thing brings out the best and the worst in people. Luckily I've only seen the best of people in my little piece of the city.

I hope you all decide to become that light that guides other victims down the road to recovery, not the darkness that trips them up.

Wedding Fever

We are fast approaching our 1st wedding anniversary, and it seems like quite a few people are tying the knot this fall. This past weekend I went to a bachelor party for one of my friends, and there is another happening in about a week.

I suppose that the fall is a good time to get married in this area, because the weather.

I remember attending another wedding around this time about 2 years ago. My wife, (fiancée at the time), was one of the brides maids.

Maybe Valentines day should have been in the fall instead of February...
Come to think of it, if you believe that a winged naked baby flies around shooting people with arrows, the fall would make more sense. It's easier to find your mark if the victim is not all bundled up.

Ain't love grand?

Taliban kill unarmed women.

I heard on the radio this morning that the Taliban in Afganistan gunned down a vehicle full of unarmed women who where there with an aid agency.

The Taliban think that they are going to get a thousand virgins when they die, but they are wrong. The only thing that awaits them is an eternity of torment in a lake of fire.

I know some Muslims, and they are some of the kindest, most generous people that I know. They would never think of doing anything to hurt another person.

The Taliban are not Muslims. They have taken the good name of true Muslims and twisted it. They have perverted the beliefs and values of Islam and they are nothing but a bunch of cowardly dogs and cold blooded killers.

Food for thought.

Someone told me the other day that I was selfish, and that I wouldn't do anything for others unless there was something in it for me. I named off a few things that I did that, at the moment, didn't have anything for me in them.

During some down time at work the conversation popped back into my head, which is not necessarily a good thing. I have a tendency to over analyze things...
So here's the thought that I came up with:

Does altruism really exist?

According to dictionary.com, the definition of altruism is as follows.

altruism - the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others

Think about the last time that you did something good for someone, and seemingly didn't get anything in return.

Now think again...you did get something in return!

You know that warm, fuzzy feeling that we like to call "happiness"? So if you did something nice for someone and get the warm fuzzies in return, then you didn't just do an altruistic act!

Therefore the only way to commit a truly altruistic act, is to do it with a total lack of feeling!
That's right folks, you would have to be totally apathetic.

That was the path that my thoughts took on this subject, but then again my thinking could be totally off kilter. (It wouldn't be the first time.)

Feel free to comment on this subject, I would like to know other people's thoughts on it.

C'est la vie...

Have you ever applied for a job only to get a letter that starts out something like? "Thank you for your interest in [insert position here]..."
Well I got something like that from the police department.

Ah well, what can you do?

The way I look at it there is something to be gained from every bad event.

The good thing about this situation? I got into a habit of running 2 miles twice a week. I plan to keep this schedule as part of my exercise routine.

As far as not getting the job, well I'm sure that something better will come along.

What a weekend!

Seems like everything happened over the weekend!
Friday was the 4th of July. (Yay!)
Saturday Angela passed out and hit her head.
Tuesday I had my Chief's Panel interview.

Hopefully stuff will normalize now. I'm tired of drama.