Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2016

Eight Days A Week

I've been ripping all my cds again at a higher bit rate than back when I had a tiny mp3 player with no space.
Today I got through:
 

The Beatles: Live at the BBC Volumes One and Two
 

Jimmy Page & The Black Crows: Live at the Greek
 

Moxy Fruvous: Live Noise
 

B.B. King & Eric Clapton: Riding With The King

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Turn The Page

So the last couple of years I have been listening to audiobooks more frequently while I drive to and from work.


About a week and a half ago I started on the Harry Potter books.  I read the first one years and years ago, but I remember so little of it.


This comes of reading rather quickly and not being particular interested. But I figure now that I have a child who will, at some point in his young life, want to read them, I probably should.


So they are being read to me in audiobook format.  If I have time, I will pull out the actual book and pick up where the iPod has left off.  I must say.  They are more interesting to me this time through.  Although I have discovered that there is something about experiencing media through a medium that bypasses the optic nerve that I just find so much more engaging.


I have always been a fan of audio dramas.  Big Finish has done some wonderful stuff with Doctor Who over the years.  The BBC has done an amazing job adapting all five books in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy and both Dirk Gently books.


But that is just me.


I'm weird.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

They Asked Us To Stay For Tea And Have Some Fun

With regard to my last post. I did not vote for the man. Nor did I vote for Hillary or Gary. I voted for the person who I felt was best for the job that was actually running. I was fully aware that my candidate of choice was not going to win. I was tired of the "a vote for a 3rd party is a vote for Hillary" rhetoric from the one side and "a vote for a 3rd party is a vote for Trump" rhetoric on the other. I feel that a vote for one of the two main candidtates just to keep the other out of office is a wasted vote. I also feel that a vote for a candidate that you do not feel is ideal for the job is a wasted vote. Is he my ideal president? No. But you are not going to see me chanting and protesting about it. You're not going to see me moving to Canada or Mexico or anywhere. I am not disparaging anyone for who they voted for. I am glad if your guy won, I am sorry if your gal/guy lost. That is what should make our system work. Diversity. We are a diverse nation, and we deserve a diverse government, but we'll see what happens. I, for one, will wait patiently for the next election and hope that America has woken up enough to be truly outraged and present the 2020 election with several outstanding, well qualified candidates. You will see me holding out hope for that day, but you probably won't see me holding my breath.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

We're Just Two Lost Souls Swimming In A Fishbowl

Today was a very hard day.

We buried our youngest child this day.

He/She was miscarried sometime around ten weeks as best as we can tell. 

As I said the other day, it is very hard to know that there is a person that you created that you will never get to meet.

Anyway, it was a very small thing. Myself, my wife and her two youngest sisters.  We made a tiny coffin out of some white fabric and a little wooden keepsake box from Hobby Lobby, dug a hole under our youngest sister's tree, said a few words and buried our unborn baby.


It is not much, but I feel that we did right by our child.  Given that one of the other "acceptable options" was flushing it down the toilet.

I decided that the baby deserved something better than that, so there we have it.

Dear Child,

I want to let you know that despite the fact that you never got a shot in this big, bad world, you were, and always will be loved.

It hurts to know that we will never get to meet you, never get to teach you, never get to learn from you, never get to play with you, never get to see you grow up, never get to meet your older brother.

There is a very long list of things that begin with "never get to...", but "be loved by your family" will never be on that list.

After we buried you today, I got into the car and the song "Wish You Were Here" had just started. I am not ashamed to say that I cried.  I'm not ashamed to say that I came home and wept for a few minutes because I wish that you were here.

I cannot come up with a good way to end this letter, so...

I have loved you since the day you were conceived. 
-Your Father.



Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Night Divides The Day

It is amazing to think that my wife and I created a life that we will never get to have any part of.

No birthday parties, no laughing, no crying, no teaching, no having any sort of conversation with, no nothing. 

I understand this happens to people all the time, but that doesn't make it any less hard to cope with.  Doesn't make it hurt any less.

Doesn't help that the day before we found out for certain we watched a documentary about abortion.  That really hits me hard knowing that there are people (a surprisingly large number of them) that will willingly do this sort of thing to a baby.

"Oh, well it's not a baby until week so and so" is crappy logic.  You hear about the people who watch the baby try to get away from the doctor...Guess what...It is capable of knowing fear, of what is right and wrong, what is good and bad.  At the very least it has a sense of self preservation.

Think on that, America.

Think on that.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Time. Flowing Like A River

It's amazing how much you can take life for granted.

I never expected my grandparents to sell their home of 46 years in favor of a place that did not make them happy, but here we are.



















Friday, October 28, 2016

You Can't Stop Us

"Can't stop the signal, Mal!" and all of that.


A few months ago the corporate headquarters for my place of employment locked our computers down so that we could only access about a dozen websites.


I decided to spend some time exploring what we were left with after the POS upgrade was complete.  Just, you know, so I can see what is available still, and to test the limits of the security.


So, this is me.  Sitting Standing here at one of the "locked down" computers typing this out.


Very nice of them to leave some glaring "back-door" (and by that I mean overlooked in plain sight) ways around their internet security.  Well, Corporate America, you have failed. 


Impressively.


Cannot wait to see if these holes are patched up or not. in the next few months.


Assuming I still work here in the next few months.


Sheesh, but I feel like I'm in high school again.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Look Man, Come Down Here

How does a vote for a 3rd party equal a vote for Hillary if voting for a 3rd party equals a vote for Trump at the same time? I feel like a vote for a candidate I cannot fathom trusting is a wasted vote. Because by that logic voting for a 3rd party means my vote is doubled and I voted twice? I don't get it.But I guess that is none of my business?

Monday, September 26, 2016

Sunday, September 25, 2016

She Don't Care!

Looks like I was going to be writing something about Ticket to Ride in this space...Problem is I started this months ago.

Probably going to talk about either the UK/Pennsylvania maps or the Netherlands map pack I had recently purchased.

They are all three very fun, in their own right.

The UK has a pretty nifty tech tree you have to roll with.  Pennsylvania is pretty much standard except for the stock thingy, and the Netherlands can be played either with standard rules or the intended way which is straight up cutthroat.

Again, not really sure though.

When Life Seems Jolly Rotten, There's Something You've Forgotten

Ever have one of those days?

Just so dang old tired that you really cannot remember the day by the end of it?

Yup.  That was today.

On a more positive note, however, I am off all week so I expect to get a shop mostly built in my garage this week...Hooray!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

There's Too Many Places I Got To See

I was thinking about people I used to know in real life a while ago.

There was this one person.  Great girl, glad to see she is doing well for herself these days.  I like to think I would have been able to drop everything and move out west a lot of (eleven) years ago, but I really don't think I was there.

I still don't.

I also do not know what brought this on.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Need Me A Triple Shot Of That Juice

Dear The Coffee Maker, Thank you for finishing in a timely and efficient manner. We were not to the "begging and pleading for coffee" stage, but we were certainly getting uncomfortably close to the "groveling" stage. Thanks again! -Me

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Thursday, August 4, 2016

How Long Can You Stand The Heat?


Outside the Window

Outside.  The weather outside is (allegedly) frightful.  Rumour has it the heat is insane.

The sky is dark in the East.  There are hot air balloons.

There was a storm today, but not nearly long enough for my tastes.  I like the rain, thunder and lightning. There are times where I just want it to storm all afternoon.

But this is Indiana in the summer.  Hot and muggy.

Which I really do not mind, honestly.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Haters Gonna Hate

Seriously now America, how did we get so far off course that our "mainstream" presidental candidates are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? I heard Kanye is looking for a presidential bid in 2020, just on the off chance that we don't figure it out before then. No. Wait. Don't answer that.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Time, Flowing Like A River

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Ford Prefect In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books there are many memorable quotes from all of the major characters. Ford Prefect seems to have the majority of them throughout the series though. The above quote was one of his very first memorable lines. The whole thing seems like a silly throwaway line at first, but if you actually sit and think about it for a few minutes that first part makes a lot of sense. I am sitting here thinking about the past. It started out because I was thinking about how I really need to get back into the kind of shape I used to be in. When I could run my just under six minute mile and not even feel winded after five or six miles during my brief career in the Army. That was even after not really running at all for two and a half years. Before that all I really did was however long the teacher in gym class decreed we must all run, but I was always running circles around the rest of the class. For a while it was always me and a girl in class who were basically always at the front and lapping everyone else, but she moved away in high school. Shame really, I always enjoyed her company during the three years I actually knew her. But I digress. That led me to thinking about the people I met and interacted with while I was in the Army. I have not seen or heard from a single one of them after that ended. More my fault than any of theirs, I will be the first to admit. I was the one with all the addresses after all. Anyway, over the years I have occasionally tried to look up someone from those days here or there on Facebook or Twitter with little to no success. For people that made as much an impact on my life as some of them did, I feel that it was positively criminal for me to have not kept up, but here we are. That led me to thinking about my Arby's days. Again, there were a lot of fun people I met while I was there, and a lot of them have impacted my life. But as I sat here actually thinking about it this evening it occurred to me that the only real, lasting relationship/friendship I got out of the nine years I spent there was my Jeep. Lame, right? There are others that I have met along the way. My friend in San Francisco. My former Starbucks lady-friend from years and years ago who moved out of state. One I occasionally talk to and the other I actually managed to find on Facebook last winter. The latter I actually wanted to find. Something terrible happened and she was there for me in a way that I did not feel like anyone else was at the time. She spent her entire lunch break just sitting at a table in the cafe with me while I stared into the distance and tried to process the tragedy that had befallen my family the week before. I felt that I never properly thanked her, and that was one of the few regrets I have been carrying around with me, so I found her and rectified said situation. But Arby's co-workers? I tried to track down one of the older employees from those days last year. Found out she retired. I kept up with a few from my sister. Saw former Big-Boss at Five Guys one day about six months before I got married, but we didn't really talk. I see some people here and there in Kroger. I never say anything to them because we worked together so briefly that I would just be that random, vaguely familiar looking weirdo at Kroger. It really is amazing how much we can change over time. How much the people we associate with can impact us (if we let them). I know we all have friendships we have let fall by the side of the road. Some of them we regret, some of them we do not regret. I really need to find some other "old friends" and do some serious catching up. It should be easy in this modern day and age, and yet we do not bother ourselves for whatever reason. If there is regret about losing touch with someone, find them. Time is not as infinite as we may wish. Like Ford said...Time is an illusion.

Time. Flowing For Forever.

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Ford Prefect

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books there are many memorable quotes from all of the major characters.  Ford Prefect seems to have the majority of them throughout the series though.

The above quote was one of his very first memorable lines.

The whole thing seems like a silly throwaway line at first, but if you actually sit and think about it for a few minutes that first part makes a lot of sense.

I am sitting here thinking about the past.  It started out because I was thinking about how I really need to get back into the kind of shape I used to be in.  When I could run my just under six minute mile and not even feel winded after five or six miles during my brief career in the Army.

That was even after not really running at all for two and a half years.  Before that all I really did was however long the teacher in gym class decreed we must all run, but I was always running circles around the rest of the class.  For a while it was always me and a girl in class who were basically always at the front and lapping everyone else, but she moved away in high school. Shame really, I always enjoyed her company during the three years I actually knew her.

But I digress.

That led me to thinking about the people I met and interacted with while I was in the Army.  I have not seen or heard from a single one of them after that ended.  More my fault than any of theirs, I will be the first to admit.  I was the one with all the addresses after all.

Anyway, over the years I have occasionally tried to look up someone from those days here or there on Facebook or Twitter with little to no success.

For people that made as much an impact on my life as some of them did, I feel that it was positively criminal for me to have not kept up, but here we are.

That led me to thinking about my Arby's days.  Again, there were a lot of fun people I met while I was there, and a lot of them have impacted my life.  But as I sat here actually thinking about it this evening it occurred to me that the only real, lasting relationship/friendship I got out of the nine years I spent there was my Jeep. 

Lame, right?

There are others that I have met along the way. My friend in San Francisco.  My former Starbucks lady-friend from years and years ago who moved out of state.

One I occasionally talk to and the other I actually managed to find on Facebook last winter. 

The latter I actually wanted to find.  Something terrible happened and she was there for me in a way that I did not feel like anyone else was at the time.  She spent her entire lunch break just sitting at a table in the cafe with me while I stared into the distance and tried to process the tragedy that had befallen my family the week before.  I felt that I never properly thanked her, and that was one of the few regrets I have been carrying around with me, so I found her and rectified said situation.

But Arby's co-workers?  I tried to track down one of the older employees from those days last year. Found out she retired.  I kept up with a few from my sister.  Saw former Big-Boss at Five Guys one day about six months before I got married, but we didn't really talk.

I see some people here and there in Kroger.  I never say anything to them because we worked together so briefly that I would just be that random, vaguely familiar looking weirdo at Kroger.

It really is amazing how much we can change over time.  How much the people we associate with can impact us (if we let them).  I know we all have friendships we have let fall by the side of the road.  Some of them we regret, some of them we do not regret.

I really need to find some other "old friends" and do some serious catching up. It should be easy in this modern day and age, and yet we do not bother ourselves for whatever reason.

If there is regret about losing touch with someone, find them.  Time is not as infinite as we may wish.
Like Ford said...Time is an illusion.