The Aerie
Just spent the evening setting up my birthmother's blog at http://capekaren.albatross.org She's been bugging me about it, although I don't know if my blogging services are the best thing for her - I maybe should have pointed her at Blogspot or something. This tool is a bit complicated.
Still busy these days. Met with an interesting firm today. They take young bucks like me, groom them, train them in interviewing and negotiation skills, and turn them loose to become corporate executives. It costs more than my car, but it gets one into the solidly pointy-haired management realm. I'm considering it but won't decide right away. I'm not sure that this is what I want to do.
Still looking for work in the meantime.
Helped the Professor buy a new Sony 40" Tv and a new Mac desktop computer. Much of his recreation is in TV and computers these days, so I used all my influence to convince him to drop some real coin for some real quality.
The TV is a rear-projection LCD, but it's only a foot deep. When helping him shop for TVs I was amazed at the quality. not necessarily the good qualityof the rear-projection LCD, but the poor quality of the LCD and plasma TVs. Frankly I don't believe they're ready for prime time yet - too shadowy, to terracy, too non-sharp in the pixel density. But I was pleasantly surprised by the sharpness and clarity of the rear-projection LCDs. The quality is very good.
It's so good that upon hooking it up to the cable, it was clear that the cable was full of noise. I urged him to have the cable company come out "and replace the cable all the way back to the pole." That latter part was a joke, but that's exactly what they did: was over there today and the TV looks crystal clear. Apparently 25-year-old cable-TV coax can be pretty crappy!
Tonight we went to Izzy's Ice Cream which is world-renowned for its quality.. and the "izzy" on top. I had Soy Chocolate Banana with Banana Nut Fudge for the izzy.
And tomorrow is High School Open House for the twins. Very exciting!
And then, looming over everything, there's New Orleans. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not looking forward to next year - I just get the sense that the economy and the nation are going to be spiralling into the crapper Real Soon Now.
And on that note, I spiral off to bed! I still have to blog my high school reunion and my trip to the Ren Fest, but honestly the days are just too busy!
So we pulled up in front of the "Books A Million" in Pigeon Forge just after sunset. [Yeah, we're back to the trip blog] I was punchy from the driving and grateful to be out of the car. We waited a little while, watching anxiously as every car pulled into the parking lot. The kids got tired of waiting and wandered into the bookstore while the wife and I waited outside.
Okay, so more about the trip next time - if I blog the whole thing at the pace of the last entry, I'll still be talking about this trip after my next trip.
Okay, so last January I lost my wallet - left it in a locker at the gym. Went back, not there, cancelled cards, replaced everything, etc. No big deal, no evidence of card fraud or anything, thought nothing of it afterwards.
Last week I get a letter in the mail.
The manila yellow letter was addressed to me, no return address, and contained 1) my driver's license, 2) my clipped, expired driver's license, and 3) my gym membership card.
Huh?
What gives here? I mean, eight months later, wouldn't I have replaced all these cards? What is somebody doing?
Interestingly enough, while the letter bore no return address it did have one notable characteristic. It was sent with metered postage.
So I went to the post office today and asked if the code on the postage meter could lead me back to the organization which sent the letter. Oh indeed it could! After a short wait the very helpful fellow at the post office dropped a printout in front of me with the name and address of the sending organization.
Then he got called over by his supervisor. Apparently he could tell me the name, but not the address. I assured him that I had not had the time to memorize "155 W. Franklin Ave." and that I had even now forgotten it. I felt bad that he had gotten in trouble for helping me, but hey, I didn't make him drop the printout in front of me.
I then set out for the organization from which this letter had been sent: the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches.
On my way over I mulled the possibilities. It seemed to me that the most likely culprit would be the very receptionist to whom I would speak when I entered. After all, who has access to the postage meter? In many organizations, that is limited to receptionist who handles the mail.
I arrived began stating that someone at the council had sent me an important letter but not signed it, and could the receptionist recognize the handwriting. No. Of course, if the receptionist was the anonymous mailer, seeing the envelope again would have undoubtedly put her into defensive mode. So I explained the situation with my wallet to the receptionist, who said that everyone had access to the postage meter. She offered to make a copy of the letter and post it on the company bulletin board with a request for an explanation.
Now, this was about as far as I figured I'd get anyway, but I liked the idea of the bulletin board. If the receptionist was the mailer (and her handwriting on various notes on her desk was not dissimilar), I had already gotten as much out of this as I could expect. If she was NOT the mailer, then posting the photocopy of the envelope in the break room was likely to put a good startle into the day of someone at the organization.
I agreed and left her my card along with a copy of the letter. I don't expect to hear anything, but who knows.
Maybe I'll get an envelope in the mail in a couple of days.
Well here I am again at some ungodly hour, because I can't sleep. Of course, as an atheist, I guess all my hours are ungodly hours... Every night when I lay down to sleep, as I start to drift off, I get this tickle in the back of my throat that makes me cough. Happens every night, and once I wake up from coughing I'm not sleepy anymore... and I'm still coughing.
Just as well, I guess. I get a chance to comment on our trip to Tennessee.
It was, in a word, pleasant. Very pleasant, if I man invest in a second word. We had a really nice time.
My wife wanted to 'take our time' and 'see the sights' along the way, and while that sounds relaxing, seeing the sights entails getting there while the sights are open. Which means leaving really early. Which means packing the day before.
In our case we packed until 1:30 a.m., then I got up at 5:30 in order to start loading the car. We managed to get out of the city by about 7:00 a.m., which brought us into Springfield Illinois by about 2:00 p.m... just enough time check into the motel and to see the sights.
First we went to see the home of Abraham Lincoln. Now, if you're a famous person they might preserve your home... but if you're Abraham Lincoln, they preserve four blocks of your neighborhood. We watched a film in the interpretive center, and visited two of his neighbor's homes as well as his own. It was kind of interesting to be in the parlor where Lincoln was persuaded to run for office.
Afterwards there was just enough time to zoom over to his tomb before it closed. One moment we're in the home where he raised his family, the next we're in his tomb.
It was interesting to learn that despite having several children, none of Lincoln's offspring had children, and most of them died young. When I learned that Lincoln never had any grandchildren I felt a pitiful sense of "What was the point of his life?" How absurd! He freed the slaves and kept the nation united... and I pitied him the point of his life because his progeny died off.
By this time we were all starving. My wife had looked up a place to try for dinner, so we headed south across Springfield to the other end of town from Lincoln's tomb. Having now driven through Springfield, Illinois from end-to-end three times, I have to say that while it's a nice place to visit, I have no interest in living there.
At the south end of Springfield I spotted a place I wanted to try - it was a little shed that sold barbeque. Unfortunately the operator had decided to step out for a 90 minute break just about when we pulled up.
However right next door was the place we'd been aiming for - a place that claimed to be the birthplace of the corn dog.
We went back to the hotel where the kids used the pool and watched cable. Cable's a big deal for these guys, since we only have the ten broadcast channels at home, including the spanish channel 13.
We left the next morning for Pigeon Forge but accidentally stopped at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis when we missed an exit. We meant to take bypass to connect to a different highway, and we were looking for a place to stop and stretch our legs. But when we missed the exit and the Gateway Arch eased into view, we decided to stop there. Turned out to be a good idea: the Arch had a very nice, free, interpretive center, and it was a better place than any rest stop.
After a quick break we headed off for Pigeon Forge, listening to 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.' About two or so we got into Nashville, and although we didn't stop we did get off the freeway to drive through downown. It was a Sunday afternoon and very quiet, so we had a nice turn through the center of downtown, past the rather astonishing capital building, and then through the tourist part of town. We even caught a wiff of barbeque through the window, which although I didn't know it was about as close to barbeque as I was going to get on this trip.
Leaving Memphis we were in the final stretch and the next few hours passed quickly. Getting past Knoxville was a pain and we stopped to refuel at the only bathroom-less gas station on the whole trip. Legs crossed I pulled back onto the freeway and we got past the traffic and made the run to Pigeon Forge.
Exiting the freeway we came as close as we were going to get to a real squabble on this trip - the directions printed off the Internet had us go a mile past our destination, and then specified a U-turn to bring us back to the proper location. The confusion pushed our two-day hafta-pee starving tempers to the edge, but we managed to avoid a full-out fight, even when I almost ran into a pickup truck trying to figure out where I was going. Thanks Yahoo Maps!
We phone up Fairy and arranged to meet her at a "Books a Million" bookstore, so that she could lead us back on the twisting mountain roads to our cabin...
Oh, everything's up in the air now.
This isn't really a change from before.
The only thing that has changed is that I've moved from "extended vacation" mode to "looking for work" mode. But of course that means that the field is open. Anything can happen. I could get work anywhere under almost any circumstances.
Fortunately I've been getting a lot of calls, in August no less, so I am (hopefully not unreasonably) confident that work will arrive before the cash runs out. And I've talked to a couple of places seriously about work, so I'm not at a dead stop.
Still this is the Limbo place - when I've floated downriver into the delta, and the question now is which route will I take to the sea. Through a swamp? Down a canal? Over a waterfall? Or clear sailing? And how far can I extend this metaphor before my boat sinks?
I'm also considering how to use the time I have remaining. I mean on my vacation, although it's probably good practice to consider that larger question regularly. We're cleaning the attic where our master bedroom is located, and as I suspected it is taking a whole week. After that I go back to the very first room I cleaned, the basement storage room, and re-clean that. And when that is accomplished, the entire house will have been cleaned top to bottom.
I haven't worked on my fiction book at all, which distresses me. But at the same time I recognize that part of the reason I haven't been able to do it is that I'm simply not ready. So I'm getting other things done, and then when I get to the book it will be the right time.
Among the other little projects I've assigned to myself is the task of learning to rebuild this website, using linux-based development software. So if changes take place do not be surprised! And if nothing takes place, do not be surprised! These things take time.
Well I'd better get back upstairs and continue sorting books and shelving them.
Well we're back from Tennessee. While we took two days getting down there we accomplished the 1000 mile journey home in 16 long hours. And we listened to the latest Harry Potter audio book on our trip, finishing up as the van passed Snelling Avenue about five miles from home.
While I'd like to write more about the journey the hour is late, and I have to be up early in the morning. So I'll simply include a link to the brief photo slideshow. These are the "Best Of" pics, the full slideshow will be reserved as a form of torture for relatives and friends.
Well preparations are underway for an early morning departure for Tennessee, there to visit my birthmother. When I found her she was living on Cape Cod, but freed from the subconscious need to remain where I could locate her, she immediately bolted from the Cape for Points Distant. Eventually she found her way to Tennessee and Dollywood, and she must have fallen in love with something down there, because she has since remained.
We were supposed to be all packed and ready to go before bedtime tonight. And I suppose we are - except bedtime is pushed back to midnight. Ah well, at least we're pretty-much ready.
The plan is to rise at 4:00 a.m., load the kids in the car and let them go back to sleep, and drive. Arrive Springfield about noon. We'll see how that goes.
Hopefully the idiot drivers won't be on the road. Been getting a lot of those lately. Yesterday I was driving by the U of MN and crossed paths with one. Of course, idiot drivers by a college are nothing unusual.
This one was in front of me in the left lane. As we approached a corner he slowed down. So I assumed he was slowing to turn left... since he was in the left lane. I pulled into the right lane in order to pass him.
Suddenly he cuts in front of me, inches from my bumper, and turns right.
Before I can even consider honking the horn or doing anything, he sticks his arm out the window and flips me off.
Que?
Moron.
Anyway we're packed. It's a lighter load than other times. For one thing I put all our audio tapes on MP3 and bought a CD-MP3 player, which I hooked up to the car's tape player with one of those funky cartridges. Instead of a huge case of 60+ poorly-recorded tapes, we have a small wallet of CD-MP3s. Sweet.
Likewise for our 2000 trip to New York - the last trip of comparable size - we camped. So along with everything else, we had tents, sleeping bags, etc.
So despite the fact that the kids are bigger (well, so are the parents too, unfortunately), we have more room in the van.
Anyway, enough - we're off for Tennessee. I'll try to blog from the road...
My first mistake was viewing the video at this site. It's yet another video of Iraqi fighters killing a US soldier and then defiling the body. You don't want to watch it.
I watch these things occasionally because I get angry at our media for refusing to air anything like them. Okay, these are pretty darned intense, but the only footage I ever see on our 'free' and 'liberal' media is of two types. The first is determined soldiers receiving a day-brightening care package sent to them from some US based nonprofit. The other is an enlistment portrait of a local soldier with a brief squib listing his name, age, and the circumstances of his death.
The media is ignoring the other 99.9% of the Iraq experience, because it doesn't sell soap and might piss off our government.
Anyone seeking additional information is liable to be victim to the propaganda of the other side. You'd think that the U.S. media would want to avoid compelling its citizens to seek out enemy propaganda, but apparently selling soap is more important than "winning" the war. Or maybe the government doesn't believe that any 'decent' citizen would WANT to know anything more about Iraq than they're being officially told already.
Whatever, there I was, watching yet another of those horrid films. The subject matter is bad enough. The film quality is execrable. Over it all they lay these inevitable droning Arabic chants. If the U.S. filmed and mutilated Iraqi fighters, would we turn it into a music video? Okay we might, but would we select "Onward Christian Soldiers" for the soundtrack?
Okay, we might. If it were a cover done in metal or rap.
But the worst of it is that over the bad video and droning chants is the sound of everyone present - usually the cameraman but occasionally others can be heard - repeating "Allahu Ahkbar. Allahu Ahkbar. Allahu Ahkbar." Over and over.
Is Allah really happy about this? Really? I think Allah is spinning in his grave, frankly. I think it would be annoying to be God and have soldiers from either side pointing at the corpses and saying "Hey, I did this for you, God!" Somehow I don't think death, slaughter, and mutilation were what God had in mind for Her Creation.
On the other hand, She doesn't seem to be doing much to stop it. Yes, I know, 'Free Will."
So a short time later I'm watching the news when I see this article. Note the ending:
Before the service, nine picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed across the street. The group, including children as young as 10, wore T-shirts and displayed signs with anti-American and anti-gay messages.
Westboro member Fred Phelps said the church believes the war and the deaths of U.S. troops are God's punishment for a nation too accepting of gays.
"This is God's punishment of this nation, mocking what the Bible says about this vile issue," Phelps said.
I've been trying to think of a polite way of saying this, but... that's just fucked up.
I don't know who is crazier - this guy, or his crazy followers, including his granddaughter Jael Phelps. She's studying to be a nurse - it will be interesting to see how long she holds her job, particularly if she has any gay patients. Wouldn't that be a lovely little visit - you're gay, you're feeling sick, and you get Jael Phelps as a nurse.
So on the one hand, you have these Iraqi fighters - or more likely, these foreigners fighting US Soldiers in Iraq - chanting "God is great." "God is great." "God is great." over and over again as they pick like vultures through a dead soldier's belongings. On the other hand you have this absolute Waco-style nutjob Phelps, picketing like vultures through a dead soldier's funeral, all the while claiming "God Loves IEDS" and "God Hates America."
Well my twins are 14 today. Unbelievable. In a month they start High School.
If you have kids who are 14 or older you get it, if you don't, you don't: Life passes to astoundingly quickly to describe.
My son is funny and insightful and is gaining on me height-wise - I'd be thrilled if he passed me. My daughter is brilliant and talented and is gaining on me in the computer field - she already can build web pages better than I, as my website illustrates.
Fourteen years ago I could hold each of them in the palm of my hand.
They were born two months early. Think about it - they were supposed to be born OCTOBER 3rd. How far away does October Third sound to you? Cold, damp leaves, shrinking days... October is forever away. Now my son's FOOT is bigger than he was when born.
It's weird to contrast my life to theirs. By the time I was their age I had moved twice and been beaten up more times than I care to count. We'd gone from Queens to New Jersey to outstate Minnesota. As far as I know, my kids have never been in a fight, and they've grown up in the same house.
So I've achieved a couple of my goals in life.
I hope it's been as good for them as moving was bad for me. I hope that they have a better foundation than I did by the time I arrived in high school.
For me, high school was where my life began. It was where I met the friends I have til this day. It's where my personality finally gelled. It's where I found my vocation and my self-respect, despite being beaten up several more times along the way.
I hope my kids' 14th year is tons better than mine was...
Boy it's been one of those days. Not accustomed to this.
Started off the day with a very happy trip to the post office, where payment on a long-awaited invoice was received. No, not the Big One from last year - that one is STILL outstanding - but this payment will be sufficient to make ends meet for a while. Very timely.
Off to the banks where I deposted the invoice at the corporate bank, and then I deposted my takings from this weekend's birthday party in my personal account. No, the birthday isn't here yet - but we had the party for the twins so my family and in-laws also gave me cards and some not-much-deserved money.
Also deposited was the cash from the sale of my Geo Metro. Yes indeedy, the Metro is now gone. I don't really miss it except when I go to the gas station. I ran the new sedan with as little A/C as I could manage - and still got only 22 mpg. I've decided that the recent 90+ weather is worth 1 mpg difference.
Then I zoomed over to a client site, where I introduced a business partner to one of my clients. This has been a difficult decision for me - I may be handing my business to a competitor, but on the other hand I may be forging a profitable new partnership. I guess it's a calculated risk.
The other quandry I'm in is that I have a bittersweet relationship with this client. On the one hand, they're the nicest people you'd ever want to work with, and as a business they're really going places. On the other hand, when I started working with them they were making medical devices. Then they stumbled, literally, into a defense contract making medical devices to help soldiers in the field. Helping save soldiers - yes, that's good.
Then one day an engineer walked up to me and held up a bit of metal. "You know what this is?" he asked me? I shrugged. "It's a connector for inside a land mine. We're making them now."
Sigh. From medical devices to land mines.
So I haven't actually done any work with this client for a long time. Someday I'll ask them if they still are making those parts, and if they're not then maybe I'll work with them again. But... I can't build land mines.
Now, I'm no big paragon of virtue. The time in between was when I was at Hell's Cargo, so I was pretty busy anyway. And I haven't outright discussed this with them. Frankly I'm taking the easy way out, letting events move forward without confronting them. Ah well.
So I introduced this possible-partner-possible-competitor, and maybe if they end up taking over this client that will be for the better. I dunno. Sigh.
So from that meeting I zoomed home to finish a proposal. The business partner had a proposal for a State agency that needed to be finished by 2:00 p.m. He had given up on it, but I have proposal templates and of course years of experience, so I sat down and belted it out. Hand delivered it a couple minutes after 2:00... chance of success only slightly better than if I hadn't delivered it at all... but better.
Then it was straight over to my friend's house to fix his computer. Wiped out spyware, straightened up his networking, downloaded OS updates, and figured out that his e-mail hade blown up and he'd lost all his mail since March. I was prepared to do the work gratis, for a friend. And I was prepared to accept a modest payment if forced upon me. But I wasn't prepared for him to suggest the he'd do up a will for my wife and I in exchange for my assistance. That was a little weird... But I suppose it would be prudent.
Zoomed home, helped with dinner. Spent the evening tending the boys and cleaning the office, which had gotten messy while I searched frantically for the title for the Metro (we found it in the fireproof box upstairs) and finished the proposal.
Now I'm wrapping up the blog and planning what I'll do tomorrow - a big day, in preparation for the twins' birthday on Wednesday.
Oh yeah, the other thing I did... I wrote up page outlining what I think will happen in the last 'Harry Potter' book. Some of these people on these fansites, you'd think they never read a book before with some of their guesses...