I have always loved parks and being outside. The germination of this project started the day before my Dad died. Since that day the project has evolved quite a bit and turned into some MUCH bigger than I had originally envisioned. The week prior to my Dad’s passing I was on vacation from work. I had reached a point at work that I really needed a break. I turned my phone off and never once even checked my work email. I explained to Bride that I needed a week to myself, to douche my brain as a good friend of mine called it. Bride was perfectly understanding, as she always is and let me just have the week without any pressure to do anything together. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE hanging out with Bride and do all the time, this was different though. I planned out the week – day one would be spent laying on my back watching the clouds. I did so for almost 6 hours in three different locations. That was a great day and I took lots of pictures of the clouds. Day 2 was spent visiting nurseries and driving neighborhoods looking at flowers and beautiful landscaping, that consumed about 9 hours and I got a lot more pictures. 5 hours of day 3 was spent in tool stores and almost 7 hours of day 4 were spent in toy stores. Day 5 had me visiting city parks, spending some time in each and writing and pondering and just thoroughly enjoying myself. It was a great week and I started every day at the beach watching the sunrise.
Day 6 started at the beach and ended with those fateful calls from my Sister leading up to my Dad's death that morning. Wow, what a shitty way to end such a fabulous week is all I kept thinking. I think I was still in shock when I got home, I do not remember much from that day. The one thing I do remember was getting on the internet to learn more about one of the parks I was in the previous day, Memorial park in Riverside. That is when I learned that Jacksonville Florida has more city parks than ANY other city in the country. On the web it indicated that there were 337 parks covering over 80,000 acres. WOW, I remember thinking that is so cool. That is when I had the idle thought, wouldn’t it be cool to visit all of them. I also found out the information about Memorial Park, quite a history in that park. Visiting all the parks was a fleeting thought at the time. I had other things on my mind, getting to Ohio for a funeral and all. I did not really think about it again until I was in Ohio. My Sister and I spent some time at Kiser Lake, a State park close to where we grew up. We went there all the time as kids, Mom drug us over there all the time. Our family was NOT moneyed and the park was free so we spent A LOT of time there. My Sister and I laughed about all the time we spent here, all the trails we knew and how much a part of our youth this park actually was.
I seem to remember mentioning to my Sister that Jacksonville had more parks than any city in the country. We did not really talk about it but it was back in my mind – should I try to visit all those parks in my adopted home town? Well by the time I got home from Ohio, I was convinced that I would visit all those parks. I remember Bride and me talking and wondering if anyone had ever been to all of them. Maybe some long in the tooth employee within parks department and then again maybe not. This is when I started looking on the City of Jacksonville web site for information about our park system. I got frustrated with the site, I could not find any information about a list of the parks. I emailed some names listed in the site with NOT ONE response. I decided to speak to my City Councilman, one email to him had me the Director of the Parks departments name, email address and telephone number. I decided that vote for my council member was well placed and that if he ran again I would vote for him a second time. Well after a few emails from her I had a link to a list of all the parks. That site sucked, I tried to reverse engineer the link she gave me and I still could not find that page by simply looking on the site for it.
That was when this crazy idea to visit all the parks took a drastic turn. I thought, why not create my own web site that is easier to navigate than this cumbersome monster the city put together. While this was the first big turn my idea had taken, sadly it would not be the last. At this point, I still remember thinking I could get this licked in a year. I was being foolish. After getting the list of parks, I realized that the list was sorted alphabetically, not geographically. How stupid was that I remember thinking, I have to know the name of the park to find information about it. I thought I should be able to search by area of town or at least zip code, nothing doing on this site. I realized my first order of business was to create a geographical map, one that showed the city and showed a pushpin where every park is located. This way I could look at an area of town and map out a course to visit the parks in that area. I than realized that task alone would be daunting, gathering the names and addressed of almost 400 parks. Once that information was gathered I still had to create a map with pushpins indicating the location of each. I was back in touch with the Director of the Parks department trying to get the list of park addressed in a spread sheet or database so I could automate some of this process. Nothing doing, she stopped responding to my requests all together.
It took me nearly 18 hours to create an interactive map that had a pushpin in the location of each park. Each pushpin, when clicked, would expand to a little cloud showing the parks name and address. During the process I was still attempting to define what it was, exactly, I was trying to do. It was also during this process that I realized there was going to be NO way I could do this in one year. My idea was to go and sit in each park, sit and ponder and then take some pictures. When done I would write what my feelings were in the park and my opinions about it. I would also list out the amenities, how many picnic tables, is there a boat ramp, and are there trails? I was thinking at least 2 hours per park would be required to properly “get the feel” of the park to be able to write about it. Well at almost 400 parks, that is more than one a day if I wanted to finish in 1 year. One a day in a county, that covers almost 900 square miles – that ain’t happening at one per day. I am now hopeful that I will be able to cover the parks in 3 years, that is about two and half parks a week and I think if I plot my course correctly, I can make it in three years. With a more realistic time line I then got back to why I am doing this, what am I trying to accomplish.
With that question still unanswered I continued to plan my approach to completing this project. One good friend of mine told me this would be a great project for an eagle scout. I believe now that it is going to be a much bigger project than an eagle scout dare take on . This same friend asked me how many hours I was estimating I would have into this project when I was done. That thought had never once occurred to me, we laughed and he said keeping track of that would probably be the easiest part of the project. I had decided to scale back my idea of a dedicated web site for this project and decided I could use a blog to accomplish the same thing. I was familiar with the format and since my blog is searchable, it would cover my needs. I could tag each post with zip code, area of town, amenities and such and that would allow the contents to be easily searched. It took me a better than a week to get the format I wanted to display the information in my blog, but I am now happy with the set up. It has a search feature that searches every word in the blog and I also designed a quick search feature that allows users to click on the tags and it would bring up all parks that were tagged with that information.
I have now decided that this project is a tribute to my parents. It may seem weird to you but here is the dysfunctional logic I used to decide that. The reason Mom took us to the park all the time is because we had no money. One of the reasons we had no money is because my Dad rarely paid child support to my Mom. So because of that action, or lack of action, on my Dad’s part I developed a love of the outdoors from Mom on those trip to Kiser Lake. I am dedicating this challenge to Mom and the Blog about it to Dad. I love and miss them both.
Here is a link to the parks site.
http://mroatmealvisitstheparks.blogspot.com/
Any Feedback on this new blog will be appreciated
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Bucky Covington sings his song – A different world.
So the other day I was listening to the radio and hear a song by a guy who was on American Idol. I was not holding that against him and I liked the song. His name is Bucky Covington and the song was “A Different World”. I also know that he could not have written it, he is not old enough. After a bit of time on Google and I found that Mark Nesler, Jennifer Hanson & Tony Martin were the ones who wrote it. I suppose the real credit belongs with them but without the front man singing it I may never have heard it. This song describes the way anyone older than probably 35-40 was most likely raised. Before our social conscience was raised. Social conscience raised huh? I am not even sure what that means but I hear the words from time to time.
I love the way the song starts out, it has Bucky crooning about being born to mothers who smoked and drank. He continues the story with rhyming that our cribs were covered in lead-based paint and we had no childproof lids or seatbelts. He explains that we rode bikes with no helmets and ends the verse with the kicker, still here we are, still here we are. Of course we are still here. Are there as many of us that are still here now that we have all those safety features surrounding ourselves, probably not but. This seems to me another example that has me wondering how in the world have we, the human race, made it this far in our evolutionary arc. Is smoking and drinking bad for ya, yes of course. Will smoking and drinking cause problems for the babies of the mothers who partake, probably. But so what? We seem to have allowed our worries about our well being and safety to trump our own common sense – everything in moderation.
I know, you are asking was Mr. Oatmeal the victim of some accident that could have been prevented with the proper safety equipment. No, I have not. I am attempting to point out how far we have taken our obsession with safety. We can not even spank our kids anymore, in Bucky’s song he tells of getting Daddy’s belt when we misbehaved. I was spanked by my Mom and Dad at home, in the store, in the restaurant and even in Church. Yep, my Mom spanked me in Church, she did not bother to take me to some anteroom, she spanked me right there, in front of God and everyone. I had my butt spanked by baby sitters, bus drivers, teachers, vice-principals and principals and countless others. Ya know what, each time I bet I deserved it. Now-a-days we are indignant at the very thought that someone may discipline their children in a way that will actually prevent the behavior. Are there cases of abusiveness, I am sure there are but was that the norm when our parents were spanking us, probably not. And we wonder why we see stories of children committing horrific crimes, they may not be related but - maybe they are.
Bucky continues his song singing about the fact they had three channels on TV that we had to get up to change. I remember being the remote control for my parents, switching between those three channels. There were shows like Andy Griffith and Perry Mason. I am sure there was crap on TV then as well but I never saw it. I never saw it because my parents would not allow it and we did what they told us to do, because we were afraid of them. Kids should have a healthy fear of parents and other adults. I was 12 years old before I realized there were more than three channels, when my Mom remarried and we moved to Mansfield and had cable for the first time. 13 channels of programming to watch, we were in hog heaven. That is also when we found that there was crap on TV. The song then talks about no video games and no satellite, I suppose it was the mid 70’s when we got our first video game, pong. I am not even sure I knew what a satellite was during that time, let alone understanding that TV programming could be coming from them. That verse in the song ends with him crooning on about all we had were friends and they were outside, playing outside. When we were kids we got home from school and changed out clothes and Mom sent us outside, with our friends, to play. At least until it got dark. Now-a-day kids sit at their computer playing games and surfing the web. We thought that there was crap on TV, the web can be a cesspool of crap. There is the greatest wealth of information every assembled as well but there is still crap there. How did we ever survive without the conveniences available today.
Like the song says, school always started the same everyday, the pledge of allegiance then someone would pray. Like we could expose our children to that now. We seem to forget that we have a freedom of religion not from it. If you are not a Christian, you simply do not have to pray along with the prayer. It seems to me anyway. He continues with not every kid made the team when they tried, we got disappointed but that was all right, we turned out all right. Not everyone is the same, fuzzy grading systems and filling our kids heads with crap about it is just as important to try as it is to succeed. How in the hell does that prepare children for the real world. I struggle with that with young employees where I work, some are good, some are not, and the ones who are not good are let go. Most times completely shocked that just doing their best is just not good enough and does not meet my expectations. We are hurting our kids by doing that crap, here in the real world there are winners and there are losers. Does it suck, sure but so does much of life – it is a bitch and then you die. Not preparing them for the reality of our world is incompetence on the part of parents. I wax philosophical with righteous indignation and I do not even have children, BUT I will be one of the people hiring them and if they are unable to get it done, I will be the one firing them as well.
In the next verse Bucky sings about not having bottled water and that we’d drink from a garden hose and that every Sunday all the stores were closed. Not just a different time, it was a different world, it was a different life. Bottled water – that is one that I have NEVER understood. I know at first it was touted as being spring water or artesian well water or some other such nonsense, we now know most of it comes from the tap and it might be filtered and put in bottles and in some cases just put into bottles. Stupid! Plus when the bottles have a half life of about a billion years it seems ridiculous to me that we support that industry. Bottled water, that may very well be the reason for civilized societies fall back into being hunter gatherers, literally the cause of our worlds failure. I remember stores being closed on Sundays and Thursday afternoons as well. Now the Super Gigantic Walmart is open 24-7-365, just so you can get a tee shirt, dog food and pool toys at ANY time you may think you need them. Hell our Home Depot was, at one time, a twenty four hour store. Like if my water heater goes out at 3am I am going to jump up and go get a new one and install it - right. These stores are contributing to our own idiocy, they are catering to us, the general public and I for one am increasingly embarrassed to be a part of it.
We will never go back to the days of old, our economy would collapse. Oh wait a minute that is what happened with going like we have been lately, sorry for the confusion. When I win the lotto I will not have a cell phone, computer or television. At least that is my plan, if you have that much money why do you need any of that – we could go outside and play, with our friends, and what a fun time that would be!
I love the way the song starts out, it has Bucky crooning about being born to mothers who smoked and drank. He continues the story with rhyming that our cribs were covered in lead-based paint and we had no childproof lids or seatbelts. He explains that we rode bikes with no helmets and ends the verse with the kicker, still here we are, still here we are. Of course we are still here. Are there as many of us that are still here now that we have all those safety features surrounding ourselves, probably not but. This seems to me another example that has me wondering how in the world have we, the human race, made it this far in our evolutionary arc. Is smoking and drinking bad for ya, yes of course. Will smoking and drinking cause problems for the babies of the mothers who partake, probably. But so what? We seem to have allowed our worries about our well being and safety to trump our own common sense – everything in moderation.
I know, you are asking was Mr. Oatmeal the victim of some accident that could have been prevented with the proper safety equipment. No, I have not. I am attempting to point out how far we have taken our obsession with safety. We can not even spank our kids anymore, in Bucky’s song he tells of getting Daddy’s belt when we misbehaved. I was spanked by my Mom and Dad at home, in the store, in the restaurant and even in Church. Yep, my Mom spanked me in Church, she did not bother to take me to some anteroom, she spanked me right there, in front of God and everyone. I had my butt spanked by baby sitters, bus drivers, teachers, vice-principals and principals and countless others. Ya know what, each time I bet I deserved it. Now-a-days we are indignant at the very thought that someone may discipline their children in a way that will actually prevent the behavior. Are there cases of abusiveness, I am sure there are but was that the norm when our parents were spanking us, probably not. And we wonder why we see stories of children committing horrific crimes, they may not be related but - maybe they are.
Bucky continues his song singing about the fact they had three channels on TV that we had to get up to change. I remember being the remote control for my parents, switching between those three channels. There were shows like Andy Griffith and Perry Mason. I am sure there was crap on TV then as well but I never saw it. I never saw it because my parents would not allow it and we did what they told us to do, because we were afraid of them. Kids should have a healthy fear of parents and other adults. I was 12 years old before I realized there were more than three channels, when my Mom remarried and we moved to Mansfield and had cable for the first time. 13 channels of programming to watch, we were in hog heaven. That is also when we found that there was crap on TV. The song then talks about no video games and no satellite, I suppose it was the mid 70’s when we got our first video game, pong. I am not even sure I knew what a satellite was during that time, let alone understanding that TV programming could be coming from them. That verse in the song ends with him crooning on about all we had were friends and they were outside, playing outside. When we were kids we got home from school and changed out clothes and Mom sent us outside, with our friends, to play. At least until it got dark. Now-a-day kids sit at their computer playing games and surfing the web. We thought that there was crap on TV, the web can be a cesspool of crap. There is the greatest wealth of information every assembled as well but there is still crap there. How did we ever survive without the conveniences available today.
Like the song says, school always started the same everyday, the pledge of allegiance then someone would pray. Like we could expose our children to that now. We seem to forget that we have a freedom of religion not from it. If you are not a Christian, you simply do not have to pray along with the prayer. It seems to me anyway. He continues with not every kid made the team when they tried, we got disappointed but that was all right, we turned out all right. Not everyone is the same, fuzzy grading systems and filling our kids heads with crap about it is just as important to try as it is to succeed. How in the hell does that prepare children for the real world. I struggle with that with young employees where I work, some are good, some are not, and the ones who are not good are let go. Most times completely shocked that just doing their best is just not good enough and does not meet my expectations. We are hurting our kids by doing that crap, here in the real world there are winners and there are losers. Does it suck, sure but so does much of life – it is a bitch and then you die. Not preparing them for the reality of our world is incompetence on the part of parents. I wax philosophical with righteous indignation and I do not even have children, BUT I will be one of the people hiring them and if they are unable to get it done, I will be the one firing them as well.
In the next verse Bucky sings about not having bottled water and that we’d drink from a garden hose and that every Sunday all the stores were closed. Not just a different time, it was a different world, it was a different life. Bottled water – that is one that I have NEVER understood. I know at first it was touted as being spring water or artesian well water or some other such nonsense, we now know most of it comes from the tap and it might be filtered and put in bottles and in some cases just put into bottles. Stupid! Plus when the bottles have a half life of about a billion years it seems ridiculous to me that we support that industry. Bottled water, that may very well be the reason for civilized societies fall back into being hunter gatherers, literally the cause of our worlds failure. I remember stores being closed on Sundays and Thursday afternoons as well. Now the Super Gigantic Walmart is open 24-7-365, just so you can get a tee shirt, dog food and pool toys at ANY time you may think you need them. Hell our Home Depot was, at one time, a twenty four hour store. Like if my water heater goes out at 3am I am going to jump up and go get a new one and install it - right. These stores are contributing to our own idiocy, they are catering to us, the general public and I for one am increasingly embarrassed to be a part of it.
We will never go back to the days of old, our economy would collapse. Oh wait a minute that is what happened with going like we have been lately, sorry for the confusion. When I win the lotto I will not have a cell phone, computer or television. At least that is my plan, if you have that much money why do you need any of that – we could go outside and play, with our friends, and what a fun time that would be!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Neo-Nazi in murder trial gets makeover for court – WHAT?
I found myself in the a doctors waiting room yesterday afternoon and I forgot to bring the book I am currently reading. It is a book about Catherine the Great I got from my Dad. Anyway, I searched the waiting room, the big on in the lobby, for something to read while passing the time. It would seem that as long as they make you wait they could at least get comfortable chairs and keep a few recent periodicals laying around for folks to pass the time. BUT NO, the chairs are enough to give you back problems, for which you will have to come back and see the damn doctor again. There are nothing but little brochures here, the ones the drug companies pass out along with the free sample packages of medications. Oh, da joy! So anyway, I spy this fellow reading a newspaper and keeping all the other sections very close to him. He caught me glancing his way no less than three times, I believe he could tell what I wanted. I was hopeful to have him offer a section he was not currently reading, nope. he actually pulled the pile a little closer to him when he changed sections from the Metro he was reading to the sports section. I was thinking, OK mister I will show you some sport – kicking his ass out of that chair for a glimpse of the Metro section is what I was getting ready to do. He was easily 65 years old and I was sure I could take him. Nothing – this guy was a machine so I changed seats and sat there, in silence. My new seat had me looking right at him, straight in front of me, and that was on purpose. He glanced at me more often since I was pretty much staring right at him.
After he was called back, I thought he is going to gather up the parts of the paper and carry them with him. I was not sure if he had brought it with him or whether he found it, there when he came in. Whatever the case he did leave it when he was called back to the smaller waiting room, the one in back. He did flash me a look as he walked by, I almost said thanks for the paper but decided not to. Just as I got up I noticed another person sitting there staring at the paper I was going to get. With a polite nod I asked what section he wanted, he said Metro – damn I thought. I gave him that and took the sports section. After we both had time to peruse our respective sections we traded.
Well, on the back page of the Metro section is a story titled “Neo-Nazi in murder trial gets makeover for court”. I normally could care less about such things but that title coupled with the picture of the guy was too much, it sucked me in. The subtitle read “The judge will allow a cosmetologist to cover up suspects tattoos”. What in the hell is going on in the world that while in court a guy with a 6 inch swastika tattooed on his neck gets to have a cosmetologist cover it up. Why is this story newspaper worthy I started to wonder. John Allen Ditullio is a walking bill board for the neo-nazi movement, so says Tamara Lush the writer of this article. I could tell that, just from the picture of the guy. Aside from the swastika he also has barbed wired tattooed on his face. A classy look for sure.
As I start the second paragraph I realize why this losers story has made the news, the state is being forced to pay 150 bucks a day for the cosmetologist. WHAT!!!! Judge Michael Andrews acted on a request from classy man’s lawyer. Evidently, they feel the tattoos are potentially offensive and could influence the jury’s opinion in the states death penalty case. A case, by the way, in which he is accused of breaking into his neighbors home and stabbing two people, killing one of them. It seems this joker did not have enough hate inspired tats when he committed the crime. Since he has been in custody, he has continued to get inked, in jail with even bigger and more hateful tattoos, that are more prominently displayed as well. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! That does not seem like such a smart thing to do, especially considering you are being accused of a hate crime. Well it seems that while he does have the resources to get the tattoos applied to his worthless hide he does not have the resources to cover them up for court appearances. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! So damn what, is all that comes to mind for me. So damn what!
His lawyer is concerned that he will not get a fair hearing and that the folks in the jury may be offended by the hate filled bullshit he has inked onto his neck and face. Although the picture does not display it evidently there is a very personal vulgarity tattooed on the other side of his neck. The writer did not allude to what that vulgarity said so one can only imagine. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! What a dirtbag this guy appears to be. I am all for freedom of expression and his right to do whatever he wants to with his own body. BUT, BUT, BUT when I as a taxpayer am asked to pay 150 bucks a day so some cosmetologist can smear some makeup over his freedom of expression I have a problem. “Now he is asking for protection from his own decisions” Tamara writes – bullshit I write! We seem afraid to call a shitheel a shitheel anymore and anyone with those types of tattoos and is accused of a hate crime is a shitheel and I have NO problem calling it as I see it. As big an issue I have with this dirtball I really have an issue with the damn judge. Who in the hell is this guy to give away my tax money so shitheel can have makeup professionally applied? This shitheel got those tattoos of his own freewill. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! I sure it shocked his lawyer but all the same, no one held this guy down in prison and forced these tattoos onto him. This is EXACTLY why I vote out every incumbent judge on the ballot at voting time. In my humble opinion this judge is as big a shitheel as the one he is sitting in judgment of.
This makes me sick and really pisses me off! And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS!
After he was called back, I thought he is going to gather up the parts of the paper and carry them with him. I was not sure if he had brought it with him or whether he found it, there when he came in. Whatever the case he did leave it when he was called back to the smaller waiting room, the one in back. He did flash me a look as he walked by, I almost said thanks for the paper but decided not to. Just as I got up I noticed another person sitting there staring at the paper I was going to get. With a polite nod I asked what section he wanted, he said Metro – damn I thought. I gave him that and took the sports section. After we both had time to peruse our respective sections we traded.
Well, on the back page of the Metro section is a story titled “Neo-Nazi in murder trial gets makeover for court”. I normally could care less about such things but that title coupled with the picture of the guy was too much, it sucked me in. The subtitle read “The judge will allow a cosmetologist to cover up suspects tattoos”. What in the hell is going on in the world that while in court a guy with a 6 inch swastika tattooed on his neck gets to have a cosmetologist cover it up. Why is this story newspaper worthy I started to wonder. John Allen Ditullio is a walking bill board for the neo-nazi movement, so says Tamara Lush the writer of this article. I could tell that, just from the picture of the guy. Aside from the swastika he also has barbed wired tattooed on his face. A classy look for sure.
As I start the second paragraph I realize why this losers story has made the news, the state is being forced to pay 150 bucks a day for the cosmetologist. WHAT!!!! Judge Michael Andrews acted on a request from classy man’s lawyer. Evidently, they feel the tattoos are potentially offensive and could influence the jury’s opinion in the states death penalty case. A case, by the way, in which he is accused of breaking into his neighbors home and stabbing two people, killing one of them. It seems this joker did not have enough hate inspired tats when he committed the crime. Since he has been in custody, he has continued to get inked, in jail with even bigger and more hateful tattoos, that are more prominently displayed as well. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! That does not seem like such a smart thing to do, especially considering you are being accused of a hate crime. Well it seems that while he does have the resources to get the tattoos applied to his worthless hide he does not have the resources to cover them up for court appearances. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! So damn what, is all that comes to mind for me. So damn what!
His lawyer is concerned that he will not get a fair hearing and that the folks in the jury may be offended by the hate filled bullshit he has inked onto his neck and face. Although the picture does not display it evidently there is a very personal vulgarity tattooed on the other side of his neck. The writer did not allude to what that vulgarity said so one can only imagine. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! What a dirtbag this guy appears to be. I am all for freedom of expression and his right to do whatever he wants to with his own body. BUT, BUT, BUT when I as a taxpayer am asked to pay 150 bucks a day so some cosmetologist can smear some makeup over his freedom of expression I have a problem. “Now he is asking for protection from his own decisions” Tamara writes – bullshit I write! We seem afraid to call a shitheel a shitheel anymore and anyone with those types of tattoos and is accused of a hate crime is a shitheel and I have NO problem calling it as I see it. As big an issue I have with this dirtball I really have an issue with the damn judge. Who in the hell is this guy to give away my tax money so shitheel can have makeup professionally applied? This shitheel got those tattoos of his own freewill. And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS! I sure it shocked his lawyer but all the same, no one held this guy down in prison and forced these tattoos onto him. This is EXACTLY why I vote out every incumbent judge on the ballot at voting time. In my humble opinion this judge is as big a shitheel as the one he is sitting in judgment of.
This makes me sick and really pisses me off! And our tax dollars are being used to cover up his bullshit – YES OUR TAX DOLLARS!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Have you heard of World Champion Punkin Chunkin? It is proof men will compete – over anything
For those who have never heard of this sport, you are missing out. I watched this year’s event on the Science channel, in full and stunning High Definition. I had seen it once before, I believe it was on the Discovery Channel back then but I am not sure. After investigating a bit I found that it is common knowledge that John Ellsworth, Trey Melson, Bill Thompson and Donald "Doc" Pepper were the 4 men who got the who things started back in 1986. That first year was testosterone filled, just like this year’s event. The record that year was 126 foot while the winning “chunk” this year was over 3000 feet – into the wind no less. Last year’s winner also set a new world record at 4,483.51 feet and yes folks, that is about 800 feet less than a mile. That record came out of an air cannon name of Young Glory III with the runner up being Emancipator at 4084.62 feet and Chunk-n-ology brought in third at 4042.24 feet. Yes they are chunkin punkins with homemade contraptions and they are measuring the distance in 100th of a foot – is that not funny?
What started out amongst 4 friends, with beer no doubt, building little catapults throwing a punkin this year drew over 20,000 people and that brought in over $100,000 in ticket sales alone. According to the officials over $70,000 of that purse is being distributed as scholarships to a variety of local community organizations. The best I could tell the event takes place between Georgetown and Bridgeville Delaware, kind of on the eastern shore of Maryland. I know Bride and I drove close to that place in 1990 when we were on our way to Ocean City for our Honeymoon. Something I was impressed to find out was this year's event was organized by an all-volunteer committee. It was quite a spectacle to watch on television but what I found even more interesting was the companion show that followed a few of the contestants while they built or tuned up their machines. They followed builders/competitors from a couple of different categories. There are of course 15 different categories ranging from the big dog Air Cannons to the youth, under 10 trebuchet class 8 group. There really is something for every builder, anyone can put together something and “chunk a punkin”.
There are 19 general rules to punkin chunkin. Rules like “the punkin must remain intact until they impact the ground” and “no explosives are allowed”. There are obviously disclaimers that relieve the promoters from responsibility, of course some of these machines weigh over 15 tons and can shoot a 8-10 pound punkin damn near a mile. They are DANERGOUS! And of course there is a rule that tells us there are no pets aloud in the pits, like I would take my kitty to such an event. In addition to the 19 general rules there are also an additional 28 rules, not including the 8 from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Or the DNREC and those 8 are non negotiable. They talk about the air tanks meeting the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (A.S.M.E.) construction codes and that they must have the manufactures nameplate with proper (A.S.M.E.) stamping that indicates the vessel’s allowable working pressure. It is a comprehensive set of rules that must be followed and just reading them one immediately understands the dangerous nature of this sport. The champion in the centrifugal class has his machine built on the back of a very old ford farm truck and when it gets up to speed, the entire truck is vibrating so badly that the contestants can be seen bouncing around like rag dolls inside. If by chance that arm were to come , spinning that fast, I am sure people would be killed. It is dangerous!
Strictly from the engineering perspective some of these machines were truly impressive. While the air cannons were extraordinary in their size and distance capabilities I was more impressed with the other categories, mostly for their sheer ingenuousness. The six categories are the trebuchet, centrifugal, theatrical, catapult, torsion and the Air cannon. One fellow they followed was building a centrifugal and he had obviously had some engineering background because he had built the thing to chunk a punkin much farther than the reigning champion in the category. It appeared to be well built and was impressively designed, I thought so anyway. They did not perform well and ended up breaking the machine. There were others in the other categories that I found equally impressive. In the torsion category there was one that was wound up with rubber bands (BIG damn rubber bands) and it performed well. Some of the entrants used very large springs that were stretched or in some cases compressed in order to get the punkins going. As much fun as it was to watch I kept coming back to how dangerous some of these homemade machines actually were. Some I would not want to be anywhere near when they were charging up.
This is especially true of the bigger machines. Some of the air cannons have over 1000 gallons of compressed air that is being contained, at over 100 PSI, in modified propane gas tanks. Modified propane tanks? Some of these things look as if they belong in the old Mad Max movie. Huge, with long barrels, 60 foot plus on the barrel length. It is crazy! It is dangerous! It is one of those guilty pleasures for me, I enjoy watching. I am not sure I would tell just anyone that I watch but I find the mechanicalness of the machines to be truly impressive. AND they shoot a punkin thousands of feet. It is Crazy! They even grow special punkins for this competition, they are white and have a side wall that is nearly 2 times thicker than the normal orange ones we carve faces on. They showed us a new breed of punkin this year that appeared nearly solid, that will be the prominent punkin at future events of that I am sure. I have no doubt that the big air cannons will be shooting them further than a mile. They might consider involving some additional folks - the golf ball designers with the horticulturists and the aerospace engineers from NASA and DARPA coupled with the folks at Budweiser. They would sponsor the research and plaster their logo all over the place and we will have the perfect genetically engineered punkin chunkin punkin. At that point the sky is the limit and a mile will soon seem like Childs play.
Well, like I said I doubt I will ever make the trip to see it in person but I will continue to watch it. Who knows I may go just to examine the ingenuity of the machine builders. If you have never watched and see a preview, go ahead – enjoy the guilty pleasure.
What started out amongst 4 friends, with beer no doubt, building little catapults throwing a punkin this year drew over 20,000 people and that brought in over $100,000 in ticket sales alone. According to the officials over $70,000 of that purse is being distributed as scholarships to a variety of local community organizations. The best I could tell the event takes place between Georgetown and Bridgeville Delaware, kind of on the eastern shore of Maryland. I know Bride and I drove close to that place in 1990 when we were on our way to Ocean City for our Honeymoon. Something I was impressed to find out was this year's event was organized by an all-volunteer committee. It was quite a spectacle to watch on television but what I found even more interesting was the companion show that followed a few of the contestants while they built or tuned up their machines. They followed builders/competitors from a couple of different categories. There are of course 15 different categories ranging from the big dog Air Cannons to the youth, under 10 trebuchet class 8 group. There really is something for every builder, anyone can put together something and “chunk a punkin”.
There are 19 general rules to punkin chunkin. Rules like “the punkin must remain intact until they impact the ground” and “no explosives are allowed”. There are obviously disclaimers that relieve the promoters from responsibility, of course some of these machines weigh over 15 tons and can shoot a 8-10 pound punkin damn near a mile. They are DANERGOUS! And of course there is a rule that tells us there are no pets aloud in the pits, like I would take my kitty to such an event. In addition to the 19 general rules there are also an additional 28 rules, not including the 8 from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Or the DNREC and those 8 are non negotiable. They talk about the air tanks meeting the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (A.S.M.E.) construction codes and that they must have the manufactures nameplate with proper (A.S.M.E.) stamping that indicates the vessel’s allowable working pressure. It is a comprehensive set of rules that must be followed and just reading them one immediately understands the dangerous nature of this sport. The champion in the centrifugal class has his machine built on the back of a very old ford farm truck and when it gets up to speed, the entire truck is vibrating so badly that the contestants can be seen bouncing around like rag dolls inside. If by chance that arm were to come , spinning that fast, I am sure people would be killed. It is dangerous!
Strictly from the engineering perspective some of these machines were truly impressive. While the air cannons were extraordinary in their size and distance capabilities I was more impressed with the other categories, mostly for their sheer ingenuousness. The six categories are the trebuchet, centrifugal, theatrical, catapult, torsion and the Air cannon. One fellow they followed was building a centrifugal and he had obviously had some engineering background because he had built the thing to chunk a punkin much farther than the reigning champion in the category. It appeared to be well built and was impressively designed, I thought so anyway. They did not perform well and ended up breaking the machine. There were others in the other categories that I found equally impressive. In the torsion category there was one that was wound up with rubber bands (BIG damn rubber bands) and it performed well. Some of the entrants used very large springs that were stretched or in some cases compressed in order to get the punkins going. As much fun as it was to watch I kept coming back to how dangerous some of these homemade machines actually were. Some I would not want to be anywhere near when they were charging up.
This is especially true of the bigger machines. Some of the air cannons have over 1000 gallons of compressed air that is being contained, at over 100 PSI, in modified propane gas tanks. Modified propane tanks? Some of these things look as if they belong in the old Mad Max movie. Huge, with long barrels, 60 foot plus on the barrel length. It is crazy! It is dangerous! It is one of those guilty pleasures for me, I enjoy watching. I am not sure I would tell just anyone that I watch but I find the mechanicalness of the machines to be truly impressive. AND they shoot a punkin thousands of feet. It is Crazy! They even grow special punkins for this competition, they are white and have a side wall that is nearly 2 times thicker than the normal orange ones we carve faces on. They showed us a new breed of punkin this year that appeared nearly solid, that will be the prominent punkin at future events of that I am sure. I have no doubt that the big air cannons will be shooting them further than a mile. They might consider involving some additional folks - the golf ball designers with the horticulturists and the aerospace engineers from NASA and DARPA coupled with the folks at Budweiser. They would sponsor the research and plaster their logo all over the place and we will have the perfect genetically engineered punkin chunkin punkin. At that point the sky is the limit and a mile will soon seem like Childs play.
Well, like I said I doubt I will ever make the trip to see it in person but I will continue to watch it. Who knows I may go just to examine the ingenuity of the machine builders. If you have never watched and see a preview, go ahead – enjoy the guilty pleasure.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The relationship between my Dad and me, it was odd by most standards but it worked for us.
The relationship I had with my Dad was dysfunctional, I knew it, he knew it, but we made it work the best we could. When I was a child my Dad was pretty much nonexistent in my life. Sounds like a harsh thing to say and maybe it is, but it is the truth. I was 10 when Mom and Dad finally got divorced but he was gone a long time prior to their divorce. Dad was not what one could categorize as a traditional father, not the normal Dad for sure. I have no memories of playing catch with Dad. I have no memories of going fishing with Dad, although I know he liked to because I remember him and his friends going and bringing back lots of fish. I remember Mom not liking that at all, not sure if it was because he was gone or because she did not like cleaning fish but, she was never happy about the fishing trips. There were no sports to play in elementary school, so he did not come out to any games to watch me play. We never went hunting together, and I was a teenager before he took me mushroom hunting. What I remember from my young childhood was learning how to duck his work boots. He took naps and when he was sleeping, us kids were to be quiet. If we made too much noise and woke him up, he would throw his steel-toed work boots with the accuracy and proficiency that a ninja might wield deadly throwing stars. I do remember him taking me with him to work sometimes, but that usually involved me working, moving bricks or cleaning up construction debris or some other menial task. It never seemed like I was learning anything, just cleaning up. The one time I remember having his full and undivided attention is when my sister and I, along with the neighbor kids, were experimenting with fire in our gigantic barn. For some reason Dad came home early and when he saw the smoke coming from the barn, he was acting like a father on that day for sure. Seems like a weird childhood from the paternal side huh?
As much as I loved him later in life, he was a nonexistent Dad in my childhood. As such, we never got to form the father son bond that is created between boys and their Dad’s during childhood. Little did I know, at that time, that that lack of father son bonding would form the basis for our dysfunctional relationship that would endure the rest of his life. After the divorce, Mom moved us away, to Mansfield, about two hours drive. All of the sudden, I had a father figure, one who was completely different from my Dad. My Step-Dad could be a harsh disciplinarian and we did not get along well at all. We did get to visit with Dad from time to time. We met in Delaware to swap parents, that really sucked. Two families, two sets of rules-two of everything. After a couple of years, Dad bought me a 22 rifle and that was the catalyst for the biggest life changing event of my childhood. That rifle had me moving back to St. Paris to live with Dad and his girlfriend. I was tickled to have a rifle, Mom was not nearly as tickled and made me choose where I wanted to live, with her and the rifle is gone or keep it and live with your father. A shitty decision to force on a 12 year old kid and hence my choice – I am going to move in with Dad. I am not sure if that was a choice I thought out or made out of spite, for being forced to make the choice. Either way, that was hand that I was dealt, so that is one I played.
When I moved back, Dad was living with his girlfriend out on Kite road in a trailer, a step down from the environment I moved from, my Step Dad had owned an electronics store and did pretty well for himself. Dad was working steady and life seemed somewhat normal, as normal as it could be anyway. By this time our window of opportunity for that bonding I spoke of earlier was past, no going back to that time. As such our relationship was always………. difficult, for the lack of a better word. He took care of me, but the relationship was more of landlord – tenant, or at least that is how I felt. I missed school from time to time, skipping really but he once wrote me a note to the principle that said I could write my own notes. Well that did not go as planned and that little God send created more problems for me than I thought it would. I was starting to learn a coping mechanism though and I was learning the hard way many of life’s lessons. Lesson’s that most Dad’s taught their son’s though direct example or through a disciplinary approach. In my young adulthood, I found that it was actually an advantage to have learned so many lessons the hard way. Most of my peers had never had the opportunity to try and fail and understand the consequences of not only the attempt, but the failures and successes as well. As a young man, I felt luckier than most of my friends. I had been there, done that and worn out that damn tee shirt and was on to more important lessons in life. It let me get a lot of the learning we do as 20 something’s in my teen years. My Bride always calls me an old man in my thinking and actions and this may have something to do with that.
Later, after I was married, our relationship remained similar. I ALWAYS got a call on my birthday from Dad, no matter how long it had been since we talked last, that call was a constant. It was the one thing about our relationship that was right, he called me and wished me a happy birthday. Over the years, Bride pressured me to change my relationship with Dad. She had a VERY different relationship with her Dad and wanted to model our relationship on that model – that did NOT work. We remained distant for a long time, until he had a stroke. While that stroke changed him, it did not, and sadly could not, change our relationship. It was not long after that when something weird happened, weird for us. Keep in mind, my family was never good at expressing our emotions, between Dad and I it was even worse. But it was not long after that stroke that I realized that he was not going to be around forever. I started telling him I loved him, that was not something I ever remember doing. It took probably about a year before he finally started telling me that he loved me too. Yep, I was nearly 40 before my Dad told me he loved me. He may have done it when I was a toddler, but that instance was the first time ever that I remember. I suppose that says more about our relationship than anything else. We both knew it was not right but we were both, for maybe the first time, really trying to make it work.
Since that time, our relationship remained odd, not quite as weird as before but we were able to hug and tell each other we loved the other. Hugs were new as well and I was much more comfortable with that then he was. He was not an overly affectionate man, not sure I understand why but it must be tied to the missing childhood bond. After the stroke and many other hospitalizations, he started to change, the ailments that he ignored his whole life were being addressed with medication and things were changing. He stopped smoking, he stopped drinking and was able to assume a somewhat normal daily schedule. The smoking thing was funny, he quit because “I ain’t paying for NO one else’s medical bills”. That was right after the first of the big lawsuits against big tobacco. He had smoked 3 packs a day since he was a teenager and he was toking a smoke in most of the pictures from him and Mom’s wedding. And he smoked them right down to the filter – nasty. In what could only be described as a herculean display of his iron will power, he put them down – cold turkey. I as happy he had quit, but I was more impressed with how he did it. I miss Dad and I loved him. I loved him the best I could and while that may not fit into a what some would call normal, it worked for the two of us.
As much as I loved him later in life, he was a nonexistent Dad in my childhood. As such, we never got to form the father son bond that is created between boys and their Dad’s during childhood. Little did I know, at that time, that that lack of father son bonding would form the basis for our dysfunctional relationship that would endure the rest of his life. After the divorce, Mom moved us away, to Mansfield, about two hours drive. All of the sudden, I had a father figure, one who was completely different from my Dad. My Step-Dad could be a harsh disciplinarian and we did not get along well at all. We did get to visit with Dad from time to time. We met in Delaware to swap parents, that really sucked. Two families, two sets of rules-two of everything. After a couple of years, Dad bought me a 22 rifle and that was the catalyst for the biggest life changing event of my childhood. That rifle had me moving back to St. Paris to live with Dad and his girlfriend. I was tickled to have a rifle, Mom was not nearly as tickled and made me choose where I wanted to live, with her and the rifle is gone or keep it and live with your father. A shitty decision to force on a 12 year old kid and hence my choice – I am going to move in with Dad. I am not sure if that was a choice I thought out or made out of spite, for being forced to make the choice. Either way, that was hand that I was dealt, so that is one I played.
When I moved back, Dad was living with his girlfriend out on Kite road in a trailer, a step down from the environment I moved from, my Step Dad had owned an electronics store and did pretty well for himself. Dad was working steady and life seemed somewhat normal, as normal as it could be anyway. By this time our window of opportunity for that bonding I spoke of earlier was past, no going back to that time. As such our relationship was always………. difficult, for the lack of a better word. He took care of me, but the relationship was more of landlord – tenant, or at least that is how I felt. I missed school from time to time, skipping really but he once wrote me a note to the principle that said I could write my own notes. Well that did not go as planned and that little God send created more problems for me than I thought it would. I was starting to learn a coping mechanism though and I was learning the hard way many of life’s lessons. Lesson’s that most Dad’s taught their son’s though direct example or through a disciplinary approach. In my young adulthood, I found that it was actually an advantage to have learned so many lessons the hard way. Most of my peers had never had the opportunity to try and fail and understand the consequences of not only the attempt, but the failures and successes as well. As a young man, I felt luckier than most of my friends. I had been there, done that and worn out that damn tee shirt and was on to more important lessons in life. It let me get a lot of the learning we do as 20 something’s in my teen years. My Bride always calls me an old man in my thinking and actions and this may have something to do with that.
Later, after I was married, our relationship remained similar. I ALWAYS got a call on my birthday from Dad, no matter how long it had been since we talked last, that call was a constant. It was the one thing about our relationship that was right, he called me and wished me a happy birthday. Over the years, Bride pressured me to change my relationship with Dad. She had a VERY different relationship with her Dad and wanted to model our relationship on that model – that did NOT work. We remained distant for a long time, until he had a stroke. While that stroke changed him, it did not, and sadly could not, change our relationship. It was not long after that when something weird happened, weird for us. Keep in mind, my family was never good at expressing our emotions, between Dad and I it was even worse. But it was not long after that stroke that I realized that he was not going to be around forever. I started telling him I loved him, that was not something I ever remember doing. It took probably about a year before he finally started telling me that he loved me too. Yep, I was nearly 40 before my Dad told me he loved me. He may have done it when I was a toddler, but that instance was the first time ever that I remember. I suppose that says more about our relationship than anything else. We both knew it was not right but we were both, for maybe the first time, really trying to make it work.
Since that time, our relationship remained odd, not quite as weird as before but we were able to hug and tell each other we loved the other. Hugs were new as well and I was much more comfortable with that then he was. He was not an overly affectionate man, not sure I understand why but it must be tied to the missing childhood bond. After the stroke and many other hospitalizations, he started to change, the ailments that he ignored his whole life were being addressed with medication and things were changing. He stopped smoking, he stopped drinking and was able to assume a somewhat normal daily schedule. The smoking thing was funny, he quit because “I ain’t paying for NO one else’s medical bills”. That was right after the first of the big lawsuits against big tobacco. He had smoked 3 packs a day since he was a teenager and he was toking a smoke in most of the pictures from him and Mom’s wedding. And he smoked them right down to the filter – nasty. In what could only be described as a herculean display of his iron will power, he put them down – cold turkey. I as happy he had quit, but I was more impressed with how he did it. I miss Dad and I loved him. I loved him the best I could and while that may not fit into a what some would call normal, it worked for the two of us.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
There’s an App for that – MY ASS there’s an App for that!
As everyone not living in a cave knows, the I-phone and others are hocking these apps for their electronic gadgets, we have all heard “there’s an App for that”. I am not sure why it has been on my mind lately. I guess because I am investigating a new phone plan for the place I work and you can hardly just get a simple cell phone anymore. I have been indoctrinated, indoctrinated into the world of App’s by the various vendors as they court me for our business. Oh, you need to have the touch screen of your Storm turn into piano keys so you start taking piano lessons again. The Blackberry, of course, has an app for that. Oh you need an app to go on a breathtaking exploration of the solar system with an app where all you have to do is tap to travel through time and see astronomical events from the past or future. The I-phone, of course, has an app for that. Making a decision based on the business needs for our folks is proving challenging for me. I personally HATE the things, nothing but an electronic lease as far as I am concerned. Don’t get me wrong, I like having a cell phone and I like it that my Bride carries one but……….. There are times I do not want to be reachable. I also personally think the I-phone is the coolest piece of technology to come along since the I-pod. Apple was first in both those markets but others are fast catching up, although I feel Apple is all over the consumer electronic gadget business and can hardly wait for whatever they put out next.
So back to searching for phones at work. All these gadgets have their pro’s and con’s but the functionality of some is just incredible. Truly amazing pieces of technology. BUT, do we really need them, and I ask that both personally and professionally. How connected do we really need to be? Do we need to check email every 10 minutes all day and night? Do we need to be doing work with these little gadgets while at dinner? One phone that we will never have is one with that stupid walkie talkie feature. It was bad enough when we heard one side of a conversation, with those stupid things we get to hear both. Since there are no etiquette classes on gadget usage, some idiots will be walkie talkieing while eating dinner out, what joy it is to hear both sides of some Neanderthals argument with his boss, while you are trying to enjoy a dinner with your spouse – priceless. Cell phones have made us, as a whole, very rude and here is an example. You are standing in front of someone talking about whatever you may be talking about and their phone rings, 99 times out of 100 they will stop and look to see who is calling. Even if they do not stop, they will look to see who it is. There might be the chance that the someone interrupting the actual face to face conversation may have a higher importance, and then what? We will, more times than not, be relegated to the “not quite as important” realm. It is similar to the 9th level hell, the dreaded Cocytus – where it is purported that Satan himself resides. Usually they will just put up a finger and walk a few steps away. They might as well be throwing up their middle finger at you for all the disrespect they just showed you. Any teachers out there, PLEASE advocate a cell phone etiquette class for the youths of America.
So back to the Apps. One App I found alarming was an app, I think called, I-phone tracker. This little application would use the built in Global Positioning System to follow your whereabouts, and then produce and post on the internet a map showing what you have been doing. There is even a feature that will allow you do that in real time. The first time I saw it a friend of mine was using it, he would plot out his bicycle route. It would show his course and the distance traveled and if memory serves me it would also tell how long it took. Cool I remember thinking, that could be a useful tool for training or keeping track of your workout progress. My friend is a radio personality in the local market and one day he posted a comment about almost being hit by a car. I was glad he was OK and unharmed but the first thing that came to my mind was, maybe someone was tracking him with his seemingly harmless app. I doubt very seriously if that were the case but depending on who you are and what you do it is possible that some nefarious end could come from the use of that app. I asked my friend about that and the thought had crossed his mind as well and to my knowledge he has not posted one of those since. That feature was explained to me by the phone vendors as well, I could keep track of where people were. He looked confused when I simple asked – why? It had not dawned on him that I would not have ANY interest in knowing where someone was at any given time. Who cares is all I could think. He was undeterred and continued on his sales pitch – nice recovery I thought.
Not long ago, I read a portion of a commencement speech given by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia earlier this year. He urged the students to find out what is most important to them — by living analog for a while. Living analog for a while huh? He said "Turn off your computer. You're actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us” and that "Nothing beats holding the hand of your grandchild as he walks his first steps." I agree with him whole heartedly! Many of us get all hung up on the gadgetry of it all, adopting technology just for the sake of having the latest and greatest thingamajig. We rarely ever look at the real benefits, the pro’s and con’s, of a new technology. Do we weigh the cost of that 52 inch LED flat panel television with the reality of how much TV we watch. Is the picture really that much better or do we just think we have to have it because it has 120 hertz. 120 hertz of what? I have even asked a sales guy at a consumer electronics store that question, and only one could tell me what the 120 hertz was related to and even he could not explain why 120 hertz was better than the other options available to me. That number, by the way, is referring to the refresh rate of the screen. Ask them next time if that is adjustable and to see the difference when it is switched from 60 to 120. Most folks, short of someone with a bionic eye, will never be able to see the difference. Try changing the refresh rate on your computer monitor if you do not believe me. We tend to adopt because the Jones’ are adopting, not because of an exploration and understanding of the applications of that technology and how that would be useful in our lives. That is not good or bad it just is.
So back to new phones at work, I have narrowed it down between I-phones and Blackberry’s. Both have a good list of pros and cons and I assume the decision between them will come down to a financial one, whatever is the least expensive. They will be a bit more than just a simple phone plan, the smart phones have higher charges because of the need for a data plan. That is to be expected, but that additional cost in my case can be easily justified. We have an on call engineer, and if he can use a smart phone to get into the work systems and correct an issue without having to drive in, the smart phone will quickly pay for themselves. I even project enough savings in overtime to actually come out ahead. There will be no GPS tracking in them, who cares about that. I do have a wish list of apps. I would like an app that helps me explain the benefits of a new plan to senior management. I would like an app that makes up for all the time that will be wasted while folks get used to their new gadget and suspect that will be high initially. I would like an app that somehow makes my job easier, it will take more than the app that lets me exchange contact info by bumping the gadgets together. That is cool but…….. I would like an app that shut the thing down and not let it turn on until you visited a park or went for a walk or just plain old talked to a friend or loved one without the interruptions. That is an app I would pay more than 99 cents for!
So back to searching for phones at work. All these gadgets have their pro’s and con’s but the functionality of some is just incredible. Truly amazing pieces of technology. BUT, do we really need them, and I ask that both personally and professionally. How connected do we really need to be? Do we need to check email every 10 minutes all day and night? Do we need to be doing work with these little gadgets while at dinner? One phone that we will never have is one with that stupid walkie talkie feature. It was bad enough when we heard one side of a conversation, with those stupid things we get to hear both. Since there are no etiquette classes on gadget usage, some idiots will be walkie talkieing while eating dinner out, what joy it is to hear both sides of some Neanderthals argument with his boss, while you are trying to enjoy a dinner with your spouse – priceless. Cell phones have made us, as a whole, very rude and here is an example. You are standing in front of someone talking about whatever you may be talking about and their phone rings, 99 times out of 100 they will stop and look to see who is calling. Even if they do not stop, they will look to see who it is. There might be the chance that the someone interrupting the actual face to face conversation may have a higher importance, and then what? We will, more times than not, be relegated to the “not quite as important” realm. It is similar to the 9th level hell, the dreaded Cocytus – where it is purported that Satan himself resides. Usually they will just put up a finger and walk a few steps away. They might as well be throwing up their middle finger at you for all the disrespect they just showed you. Any teachers out there, PLEASE advocate a cell phone etiquette class for the youths of America.
So back to the Apps. One App I found alarming was an app, I think called, I-phone tracker. This little application would use the built in Global Positioning System to follow your whereabouts, and then produce and post on the internet a map showing what you have been doing. There is even a feature that will allow you do that in real time. The first time I saw it a friend of mine was using it, he would plot out his bicycle route. It would show his course and the distance traveled and if memory serves me it would also tell how long it took. Cool I remember thinking, that could be a useful tool for training or keeping track of your workout progress. My friend is a radio personality in the local market and one day he posted a comment about almost being hit by a car. I was glad he was OK and unharmed but the first thing that came to my mind was, maybe someone was tracking him with his seemingly harmless app. I doubt very seriously if that were the case but depending on who you are and what you do it is possible that some nefarious end could come from the use of that app. I asked my friend about that and the thought had crossed his mind as well and to my knowledge he has not posted one of those since. That feature was explained to me by the phone vendors as well, I could keep track of where people were. He looked confused when I simple asked – why? It had not dawned on him that I would not have ANY interest in knowing where someone was at any given time. Who cares is all I could think. He was undeterred and continued on his sales pitch – nice recovery I thought.
Not long ago, I read a portion of a commencement speech given by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia earlier this year. He urged the students to find out what is most important to them — by living analog for a while. Living analog for a while huh? He said "Turn off your computer. You're actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us” and that "Nothing beats holding the hand of your grandchild as he walks his first steps." I agree with him whole heartedly! Many of us get all hung up on the gadgetry of it all, adopting technology just for the sake of having the latest and greatest thingamajig. We rarely ever look at the real benefits, the pro’s and con’s, of a new technology. Do we weigh the cost of that 52 inch LED flat panel television with the reality of how much TV we watch. Is the picture really that much better or do we just think we have to have it because it has 120 hertz. 120 hertz of what? I have even asked a sales guy at a consumer electronics store that question, and only one could tell me what the 120 hertz was related to and even he could not explain why 120 hertz was better than the other options available to me. That number, by the way, is referring to the refresh rate of the screen. Ask them next time if that is adjustable and to see the difference when it is switched from 60 to 120. Most folks, short of someone with a bionic eye, will never be able to see the difference. Try changing the refresh rate on your computer monitor if you do not believe me. We tend to adopt because the Jones’ are adopting, not because of an exploration and understanding of the applications of that technology and how that would be useful in our lives. That is not good or bad it just is.
So back to new phones at work, I have narrowed it down between I-phones and Blackberry’s. Both have a good list of pros and cons and I assume the decision between them will come down to a financial one, whatever is the least expensive. They will be a bit more than just a simple phone plan, the smart phones have higher charges because of the need for a data plan. That is to be expected, but that additional cost in my case can be easily justified. We have an on call engineer, and if he can use a smart phone to get into the work systems and correct an issue without having to drive in, the smart phone will quickly pay for themselves. I even project enough savings in overtime to actually come out ahead. There will be no GPS tracking in them, who cares about that. I do have a wish list of apps. I would like an app that helps me explain the benefits of a new plan to senior management. I would like an app that makes up for all the time that will be wasted while folks get used to their new gadget and suspect that will be high initially. I would like an app that somehow makes my job easier, it will take more than the app that lets me exchange contact info by bumping the gadgets together. That is cool but…….. I would like an app that shut the thing down and not let it turn on until you visited a park or went for a walk or just plain old talked to a friend or loved one without the interruptions. That is an app I would pay more than 99 cents for!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Bank of America is paying back the money. WOW – BUT……………………….
So Bank of America has unveiled a plan to repay the money that the Government gave them, opps sorry, provided to them as a loan via the TARP. As I listened to the story on NPR two key questions came to mind immediately. First is what is the government going to do with that money, pay back the debt or spend it stupidly. The second one is why are they paying it back now. I was, and am still, opposed to the TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. What that actually means is bailing our dumb asses out because we got involved in so many bad investments and we are too big to fail, or WTAMIBODAOBWGIISMBIAWATBTF as I like to call it. I realize that does not roll off the tongue so I understand why they picked TARP instead. I was not in agreement when the red party gave away the 700 billion of our money (called TARP) in relief to the corporations who contributed mightily to this crappy economic situation we all find ourselves in. I was equally disappointed and outraged when the blue party gave away another 780 billion in the stimulus package. All that money, the bits we know about, and my shitty economic outlook has not improved one freakin bit. I on the other hand have been levied with more taxes, more of what they call fees and even the higher level of law enforcement passing out tickets like a drunk might throw beads in New Orleans. Bullshit I say!
Anyway, sorry for shooting off on a tangent, let me get back to Bank of America. Just the name irritates me, Bank of America, right. Might need to be Bank of overwhelming greed but then again that name could be applied to most of the gigantic, to large to fail financial organizations. They announced that they would repay 45 billion in tax payer money. Why, and why now? I see that their shares shot up 4.4% at 16.33 premarket on the repayment news. They had gained 11% over the year but this news had a fabulous outcome, fabulous for Bank of America. Fabulous for me and you, hardly and not so much. So how had the banking giant scrounged for the dough to pay the government back. Not through loans to normal folk, like was intended by the loaner, or us – but by using the same financial tools that they used to create the bubble in the first place. Trading stocks and bonds in the market. Seems to me a breech of contract but since they jammed TARP through the hallowed halls of our government in such a short time there was little time for detailed contracts, that may have slowed the process and what we ended up with is little more than a hand shake and wink, wink and a nod, nod. For 700 billion dollars – unbelievable.
So I thought, good, they are paying us back but then I got to wondering why. A company does not come to a 45 billion dollar decision easily, no matter the size. There must be an incentive, an incentive for Bank of America, not for us. It is nice to see the banking industry getting back on its feet, it is an important milestone in the government’s yearlong effort to stabilize the nation’s financial industry. BUT many, many ordinary Americans are still struggling with our day to day lives. Not only the worry of making ends meet at home but the worry about our means of support, our jobs. And at our jobs we are under increasing pressure to produce, we hear more and more the axiom, doing more with less. Doing more with less? What a BS thing to say, just like multitasking which is actually doing a bunch of tasks poorly instead of one task well. I am glad that the top tier of the finacial industry has been helped out but I am still confused because it has not helped me or my bottom line. Anyway, sorry I digressed there. So I also learned that with the loan still outstanding to the government there were still the restrictions on salaries Bank of America is able to pay the management.
So there it is! With Bank of America’s beleaguered leader, Kenneth D. Lewis, reaching the end of his tenure, it is only weeks away as a matter of fact. He, of course, sees the turnabout as particularly sweet. Mr. Lewis was run out of his role as chairman and then from his post as chief executive after the bank’s controversial takeover of Merrill Lynch last year. Yet under his tutelage he has managed to extricate Bank of America, not long ago regarded as one of the nation’s most troubled big banks, from Washington’s grip. Once out from under the Federal oversight of executives pay it frees them to go and hire some other overpaid suit to run the business. The bad thing, in my humble opinion, about the bailout, is the oversight of these monstrous institutions will be disappearing. Don’t get me wrong I do not think the government is qualified to provide oversight on the water cycle of my yard let along something this important but in this case I think it helped. I am glad they are paying the money they got in two bailouts back, that leaves only Citigroup and GMAC standing, alone as the only giant banks that have received such extraordinary aid, although other banks big and small have yet to repay single bailouts. I suspect some shading dealings in where they got the money but at least we are getting it back, or are we?
That leads me to the other question, what is the government going to do with the money? Will it go into the general fund or will it be squandered on ridiculousness without our knowledge? I do not and have not heard any conversations about how that money will be used when it comes back in, have you? Through simple observation I have noticed that politicians can not leave any money in the check book. What would be even better is to shift it out of the checkbook, by paying the people who loaned us the money – mostly the Chinese. Not that that is a bad thing, they bailed us out with the billions in investment in our government and I say thank you for hedging a long shot gamble on that investment. BUT we must remember, as long as we are indebted to them we are also beholden to them. Just like the institutions that hold notes for our consumer loans and credit cards, we are stuck with them and in most cases at their mercy. Who hasn’t seen their credit card interest rates jump up arbitrarily over the last year or two. We need to be vigilant in demanding that our elected officials pay this debt off with the money that is coming in from the various TARP recipients. I would bet the that money will likely be spent on other “crisis’s” that will pop up along the way.
I am not sure about ya’ll but I am skeptical as hell about my Governments ability to be honest, upright and do the right thing – about ANYTHING. I suspect that money will fall through the cracks, hell 45 billion is nothing. That is another issue that I have, they have successfully ruined our sense of scale when it comes to the size of these issues. Just for fun I did a bit of math to help he get the HUGE numbers of money we are talking about. A United States 100 dollar bill is .0043” thick. Well simple math will quickly tell you that just how crazy it is. A ONE billion dollar stack on $100 bills would stretch up 67 miles – YEP SIXTY SEVEN miles. So using that math we can extrapolate to 45 Billion. That stack would be a bit over 3000 miles, three thousand miles of 100 dollar bills stacked flat sides together. That is all the way across this great country. Now you want to see something stunning. Using the numbers that they gave away, the 700 in TARP and 780 in stimulus money it comes to 99,160 miles or, OR a stack of 100 dollars bills that reaches damn near half way to the moon. To get that far last time we only spent about 25 billion for the entire space program. I fear that this loss of understanding of the scale of money we are talking about it how they are getting away with it. That amount of money is incomprehensible to me, I do not even understand it. Another example of it would be this, if you could maintain counting, continuously and each number took two seconds it would take you over 62 years to count to one billion or, OR 91,760 years to count up the 700 and 780 billion added together. That is right damn near 10 Millennia and you know what, the Pleistocene era ended 12 thousand years ago – that was the end of the last ice age. That is how crazy those numbers are!
Anyway you get the point on the scale that is being used here. I have other concerns as well, concerns about the lenders calling in the markers. That I suppose is a oratory for another day though.
Anyway, sorry for shooting off on a tangent, let me get back to Bank of America. Just the name irritates me, Bank of America, right. Might need to be Bank of overwhelming greed but then again that name could be applied to most of the gigantic, to large to fail financial organizations. They announced that they would repay 45 billion in tax payer money. Why, and why now? I see that their shares shot up 4.4% at 16.33 premarket on the repayment news. They had gained 11% over the year but this news had a fabulous outcome, fabulous for Bank of America. Fabulous for me and you, hardly and not so much. So how had the banking giant scrounged for the dough to pay the government back. Not through loans to normal folk, like was intended by the loaner, or us – but by using the same financial tools that they used to create the bubble in the first place. Trading stocks and bonds in the market. Seems to me a breech of contract but since they jammed TARP through the hallowed halls of our government in such a short time there was little time for detailed contracts, that may have slowed the process and what we ended up with is little more than a hand shake and wink, wink and a nod, nod. For 700 billion dollars – unbelievable.
So I thought, good, they are paying us back but then I got to wondering why. A company does not come to a 45 billion dollar decision easily, no matter the size. There must be an incentive, an incentive for Bank of America, not for us. It is nice to see the banking industry getting back on its feet, it is an important milestone in the government’s yearlong effort to stabilize the nation’s financial industry. BUT many, many ordinary Americans are still struggling with our day to day lives. Not only the worry of making ends meet at home but the worry about our means of support, our jobs. And at our jobs we are under increasing pressure to produce, we hear more and more the axiom, doing more with less. Doing more with less? What a BS thing to say, just like multitasking which is actually doing a bunch of tasks poorly instead of one task well. I am glad that the top tier of the finacial industry has been helped out but I am still confused because it has not helped me or my bottom line. Anyway, sorry I digressed there. So I also learned that with the loan still outstanding to the government there were still the restrictions on salaries Bank of America is able to pay the management.
So there it is! With Bank of America’s beleaguered leader, Kenneth D. Lewis, reaching the end of his tenure, it is only weeks away as a matter of fact. He, of course, sees the turnabout as particularly sweet. Mr. Lewis was run out of his role as chairman and then from his post as chief executive after the bank’s controversial takeover of Merrill Lynch last year. Yet under his tutelage he has managed to extricate Bank of America, not long ago regarded as one of the nation’s most troubled big banks, from Washington’s grip. Once out from under the Federal oversight of executives pay it frees them to go and hire some other overpaid suit to run the business. The bad thing, in my humble opinion, about the bailout, is the oversight of these monstrous institutions will be disappearing. Don’t get me wrong I do not think the government is qualified to provide oversight on the water cycle of my yard let along something this important but in this case I think it helped. I am glad they are paying the money they got in two bailouts back, that leaves only Citigroup and GMAC standing, alone as the only giant banks that have received such extraordinary aid, although other banks big and small have yet to repay single bailouts. I suspect some shading dealings in where they got the money but at least we are getting it back, or are we?
That leads me to the other question, what is the government going to do with the money? Will it go into the general fund or will it be squandered on ridiculousness without our knowledge? I do not and have not heard any conversations about how that money will be used when it comes back in, have you? Through simple observation I have noticed that politicians can not leave any money in the check book. What would be even better is to shift it out of the checkbook, by paying the people who loaned us the money – mostly the Chinese. Not that that is a bad thing, they bailed us out with the billions in investment in our government and I say thank you for hedging a long shot gamble on that investment. BUT we must remember, as long as we are indebted to them we are also beholden to them. Just like the institutions that hold notes for our consumer loans and credit cards, we are stuck with them and in most cases at their mercy. Who hasn’t seen their credit card interest rates jump up arbitrarily over the last year or two. We need to be vigilant in demanding that our elected officials pay this debt off with the money that is coming in from the various TARP recipients. I would bet the that money will likely be spent on other “crisis’s” that will pop up along the way.
I am not sure about ya’ll but I am skeptical as hell about my Governments ability to be honest, upright and do the right thing – about ANYTHING. I suspect that money will fall through the cracks, hell 45 billion is nothing. That is another issue that I have, they have successfully ruined our sense of scale when it comes to the size of these issues. Just for fun I did a bit of math to help he get the HUGE numbers of money we are talking about. A United States 100 dollar bill is .0043” thick. Well simple math will quickly tell you that just how crazy it is. A ONE billion dollar stack on $100 bills would stretch up 67 miles – YEP SIXTY SEVEN miles. So using that math we can extrapolate to 45 Billion. That stack would be a bit over 3000 miles, three thousand miles of 100 dollar bills stacked flat sides together. That is all the way across this great country. Now you want to see something stunning. Using the numbers that they gave away, the 700 in TARP and 780 in stimulus money it comes to 99,160 miles or, OR a stack of 100 dollars bills that reaches damn near half way to the moon. To get that far last time we only spent about 25 billion for the entire space program. I fear that this loss of understanding of the scale of money we are talking about it how they are getting away with it. That amount of money is incomprehensible to me, I do not even understand it. Another example of it would be this, if you could maintain counting, continuously and each number took two seconds it would take you over 62 years to count to one billion or, OR 91,760 years to count up the 700 and 780 billion added together. That is right damn near 10 Millennia and you know what, the Pleistocene era ended 12 thousand years ago – that was the end of the last ice age. That is how crazy those numbers are!
Anyway you get the point on the scale that is being used here. I have other concerns as well, concerns about the lenders calling in the markers. That I suppose is a oratory for another day though.
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