Rules for Radicals

Community organizer Saul Alinsky’s 1971 list of 13 Rules for Radicals:

1 ) Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2 ) Never go outside the experience of your people. It may result in confusion, fear and retreat.

3 ) Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear and retreat.

4 ) Make the enemy live up to his/her own book of rules.

5 ) Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

6 ) A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

7 ) A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

8 ) Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

9 ) The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10 ) The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

11 ) If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

12 ) The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

13 ) Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.

I was going to go through these, but I'm just going to let them speak for their own.

I will say this, however. Obama is doing quite a few of them.

Demo Destruction

How do you guarantee that a demo to a customer is going to go to shit? By introducing massive changes to the underlying framework the day before the demo. This place has that down to a science.

What others ways can you do it? By introducing major changes to the style sheets and then allowing your designed to take off at 5 pm.

And if that wasn't enough, another way you can screw your employees is to ask already stressed out people to provide a list of what you have done over the past month on the day before a demo. Good timing, that.

Oh, and now the mofo left. He fricken left. What the fuck is that? The guy running the show, the manager, the man with the plan, he who must approve everything, took off while we are waiting for database changes to verify that stuff works on the demo site where they are going to, you know, demo from.

I am so torn right now between wanting to say fuck it and leave to and my ethics, of which I have few but those I have get in the way sometime. I mean, here we are being pushed for weeks about how important this demo is and then the day before it half the people act like it is no big deal? Are you kidding me? I cleared my calendar to make sure this stuff was going to work the least I could get in return was a similiar effort.

I'm telling you, it's like they don't want to succeed. Maybe we are being tested and there is nice prize if we pass? Not that we can. The deck is stacked against us.

Man. Just, man.

Is There Anything Better

Than when a crushing headache finally starts to subside? It is like a new lease on life.

Finally

Obama isn't wasting any time knocking things into shape now that he is the nominee.

He has instructed the DNC to take no money from lobbiests and PACs (here).

And he slapped jackass Joe Lieberman around a bit. Oh to be a fly on the during that conversation.

Good start.

Not a Good Title

Lots of stuff in this article about what Obama has done and the ramifications it has moving forward in the general. The two major breakthroughs he talks about are:

1) the Obama campaign is the first mass multi-racial collaboration in the United States since the Southern Civil Rights movement.

2) a critical mass of progressive Americans are learning political discipline again

If you want to understand why this is no ordinary electoral movement and why I'm so worked up about it, that's a pretty good article. It is changing things, finally.

Holy Clean Cat Litter Batman

Why don't I have one of these yet?

Class Warfare and Moving Forward

From here:

I wrote, the other day, about my friend's father passing away. My friend is a 42 yr. old gay man who'd never told his father he was gay. His partner of nine years had never met my friend's father. Can you imagine what he's feeling right now? I can't. And I want nothing more than to live in a society were my friend and his partner are given the respect they deserve, and angry bigots are mocked and jeered as the Unclean; cast out with the people who look down on us because we don't make enough money, don't pray loudly enough, don't have genetics or genealogy on our side.

This struggle for a better America is what lies before us. This horrifically wrong headed, aggressively inhumane decade of kicking the "not cool kids" in the balls must end. And we, who call ourselves "progressive", need to focus on making that change. Today.

I did the highlighting. I think it is an important point and goes back to the identity politics that have made the past decade or two such a cluster fuck. Class warfare is very alive in this country and it needs to stop.

I was reading something somewhere and I came across something that really puts this McCain vs Obama thing into perspective. Actually, it puts the whole Repubs vs Democrats into perspective for the past few decades (particularly the last 8 years). The writer said something along the lines of 'McCain's handlers are whispering in McCain's ears to bring Obama does into the mud rather than rise up to Obama's level and run against him on the policies'. I think this is right on and shows the basic theory behind the 50+1% strategy that has been followed for so long. Smear your opponent and beat him because people think they "don't make enough money, don't pray loudly enough, don't have genetics or genealogy on our side". Identity politics at its worst. Political assassination. What Rove is awesome at. That shit is on it's way out and I can't wait for it to be gone.

What I would give for McCain to toss off his handlers and raise to Obama's level and run against him on the issues rather than trying to bring him down into the gutter.

Obama and the Hillary Faithful: A Question

I have a question for the ladies in particular and I need a perspective check here.

On the way in to work today I was listening to some pundits babel as they so often do. One of things they were talking about were the letters they have received since last night regarding the Hillary faithful and the question of voting for Obama or not. What came out of it was that a perspective that many of the women that are threatening to sit out the election was that they relate to Obama as someone in their own lives who was a younger flashy male that swept in and just pushed them aside.

So my question is this, as I know quite a few of you preferred Hillary over Obama: how personal was that decision and is it something you think people can move past by November?

Serial Sincerity

Their are serial exaggerators, serial liars, serial killers and what I like to refer to as serial sinceritors (how the heck do you spell that?). You all probably know what I mean, they work in most offices. They are the people that tell you they are going to do something or promise to do lunch or whatever and they absolutely 100% mean it when they say it, but it never (or rarely anyway) happens. Thus, serial sincerity.

That is all.

Correlation Does Not Equal Causation

This is one of my favorite things to keep in mind. It reminds that things can happen for reasons that seem apparent but are actually different in reality. I always have trouble coming up with a good example but yesterday I came across one.

I left work early yesterday and hit Tarara Vineyard with a friend. We did the super secret tasting and, really, they actually have very good wine. Not sure where the dislike comes from. But anyway, the point is we were talking to the pourer (who turned out to be the wife of the winemaker) about buttery Chardonnay which I absolutely hate. I call them popcorn butter. Somehow the conversation of oak vs stainless steel came up. Here is the correlation part. When tasting Chardonnays and one is buttery as hell, it always seems to be aged in oak. When tasting a Chardonnay I can stomach it is in stainless steel. So it seemed that the buttery flavor was in part due to the oak. Turns out, it's actually caused when they ferment the wine with the leaves and they normally only do that in oak. Stainless steel is used for a lighter wine so they don't ferment with the leaves. Ta da.

So there you go. The correlation was that the Chardonnay was fermented in oak therefore it had the buttery taste. Turns out the oak wasn't the cause thus the saying: Correlation does not equal causation.

My office hours are 3 pm to 3:05 pm every other Tuesday if there are any questions. ;)

Where I've Been

So I fell off the earth for a couple of weeks. Just to catch you all up, I was under the gun in a big way since about May 15th at work. I put in 117 hours over the last two weeks but that little phase is over. Now I have something like 50 personal emails to catch up on and such so if you emailed me and are still waiting, a response will be coming before long.

Thanks for the concern. :)

The Secret

Really, when it comes down to it, isn't the ultimate lesson really not only learning but truely embracing that you are ultimately responsible for everything that happens to you?

Untitled: The Reckoning

The boss boss came by and I have to give him credit for handling the situation well. He started by telling me he has been in my shoes before and have written similiar emails that I wrote to him over the weekend. We then got into the heart of the matter and talked about what was driving me nuts. I expressed that while he does a good job of describing the big picture he sucks at defining the short-term and intermediate goals. We talked about ways we could both communicate better and how to set and meet expectations better. In the end, it was very productive and really went a long way to difuse the situation.

Do I think it'll change all that much? Nah. But I have a better idea for what questions to ask and how to approach the situation and he has a better idea of what I need from him in order to do my job effectively.

Last Hope for Hillary

While I await my boss boss to show up and talk to me, I read this. Favorite two reasons:

-By the time a the Democratic National Convention only one delegate still supports Hillary Clinton. His name? Jesus.

-Hillary Clinton challenges Barack Obama to one last debate, where she tricks him into saying his name backwards, making him disappear into the fifth dimension in a puff of pixie dust.

Untitled

Blah, can't think of a witty title right now. Maybe one comes by the end of the post. Stream of conciousness in 3...2...1...

I'm at work. It's 7:49 and there is supposedly an 8 am meeting that I believe has now been pushed back to 9 and it seems that everyone but I know about it. There is no email about it, so I wonder how everyone found out. Just another example of the shitty communication in this place that is making me question staying. The benefits are good, the pay isn't bad, I have an office, most of the people are easy to work with and pretty cool on top of it...but the key management just SUCKS. I mean really sucks. In the past I've fought those battles at other companies but at this point with where I'm at I'm just not willing to do it again. There is a tipping point where on one side there are the benefits and the flexibility and on the other side there is the fricken crazy stress brought about by people in management positions that shouldn't be there that sooner or later is going to cause me to bail. I'm already at the point where I'm ok with it. It would cause some hardships and stress in the short term, which would suck since I'm finally close on having stuff put back together financially. In any case, this morning will be interesting.

Last week I tossed a lot of time and effort at stuff here to try to get something together for a demo that was supposed to happen Friday evening but was then pushed back to "8am" this morning, which is now magically, apparently, 9 am. To make a long story short because I'm tired of dealing with it I received some emails over the weekend from the boss boss that were very critical of what we have done and very disappointing. The reasons for the state of the projects are mainly do to shit management and I refuse to be left holding the bag on that guys fuck ups. We basically had two months to do the project, 6 weeks of which were wasted with him pulling the rug out from under us because he's too proud or clueless to actually tell us what he wants. We didn't get that information until May 15th. So in essence, we had 10 business days to make it happen. Well, no shit its missing half the features. What did you think would happen. I sent an email where my frustration bled through very clearly Sunday night. I just received a response requesting to sit down and talk about it. Stay tuned.

A New Song

by Swank Underwear: Can't Stop the Purring

Love it.

Two Masters

I worked at a company called Postal Innovations for several years. At that company I learned a lot about how NOT to manage a company. One of the things that used to drive me through the wall was different managers/owners would come to me and task me with something as a 'high priority' and then when I switched over to work on that another one would wonder why their 'high priority' wasn't being completed. I made the mistake that management actually communicated and had some grand plan instead of making shit up as they went along.

Where I work now we are starting to fall into a somewhat similar situation, although different. I have a boss on whose team I work and we get a long well. We both have a boss that is responsible for laying out the requirements for the projects my boss's team works on. So at least in this case rather than having multiple people coming to tell me what to do with equal priority we have one guy that calls the shots. Great, right?

Well, it should be. Except this guy doesn't talk to the engineers/architects that actually setup the systems that we need to work on. He has this abstract notion on the way this stuff should work but doesn't really have a good handle on it. As a result, we end up in these situations where we get direction from the main boss guy but then in talking to the architect/engineer people we get 'No, you can't do it that way, you have to do this'.

So, I'm at a position now where I don't talk to the engineer people if I can help it. I decided the only person that can make my life miserable is the main boss guy, not the engineers despite how correct they probably are. What needs to happen is that main boss guy needs to have it out with the engineer people and everyone to get on the same page. I'm not going to be a proxy for their war.

Wussified Nation

I had this long conversation today and something very interesting came up. Somehow we ended up on the topic of his marriage and how a large percentages of marriages fail. He started to talk about how his marriage works because his wife has taken on the traditional role of the wife and his to some degree subservient to him. Subservient in that if he puts his foot down she'll abide by it. That isn't to say she just stays home and cranks out kids. She is basically an executive at a Fortune 500 company and brings in a good chunk of change. I joked and said 'But you still expect her to have dinner ready when you get home?' and he said 'Basically.'.

From there he started to talk about how one of the reasons our nation is going in the shitter is because we don't have these traditional roles anymore and men are being wussified. He points to African tribes that still have this sort of structure but his favorite example is the lion. The lion sits underneath the tree all day licking his balls and sends his women out to go find some food. All he does is provides security and knocks them up. So, the argument goes, because we as a society stress behaviors that are counter to this basic instinct we end up with some really messed up results.

Ok. My counter-argument is that while we may have evolved with these sorts of instincts from a survival perspective they really aren't necessary anymore in a modern society. I don't need to sit at home with a gun in my hand and protect my kingdom while my women go out and provide for me. I don't need to climb the trees to get the fruit or hunt down a boar to feed my family. Those hunting/protection instincts just aren't as necessary. I'm not saying they aren't there, I'm just saying that they aren't key for survival anymore.

However, back to the main point about a man and a woman. His basic point here is that when society goes counter to these basic instincts you end up with broken marriages. I argue that it is society that creates these bullshit roles and pushes people into them. Would men really feel like they need to be your never crying, no emotion 'John Wayne' types if it they weren't brought up that way? You keep repressing that crap and it is going to come out sideways, regardless of what your basic human instinct is and how in tune that image is with it.

No, successful relationships are the product of good communication and a willingness to compromise. Because his relationship works does not mean that same pattern will work for everyone. They found a balance that works for them and more power to them. But to argue that their balance works because it is based on this basic human instinct is rationalizing I think.

What say you?

UPDATE: So really, the question that I'm always curious about is this: how much is the result of human instinct and how much is the result of cultural influences?

Lousy Downers

I stayed home sick today. I believe its the nasty nasty allergy thing I get every year. Starts with a bad soar throat, moves down into my chest, then up into my head. I think its on my way south now.

Anyway, so I decided to catch up on TV. I watched Eli Stone and the new House.

Is it too much to ask to not put these huge downer episodes w/o some sort of disclaimer on them. I'm totally bummed now.

Now I'm watching the last Eli Stone and the main plot looks like a guy wants Eli to help him die. Arg.

Ah well, some sleep will fix that.

Plan for Ending the War

So this group of pols and military peeps, etc got together and came up with a realistic plan to pull out and ensure that this crap doesn't happen again. Candidates that are challenging seated congress members have signed onto this as well as some seated peeps.

In a perfect world, I think this is the way to go to resolve this issue and I hope it gains momentum in the general election.

If you are wondering what I think needs to be done to end the Iraq war, there you go.

Colbert Smacks Down O'Reilly

Seriously, could you possibly be any bigger of an ass than O'Reilly?

Wow.

In Our Own Backyard

Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people.
...
According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students
...
Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.

Now tell me again that home schooling is primarily because you are concerned about the quality of the education your child receives in school and not as a cover for Christian indoctrination?

Punks.

Build The Party, Biatches!

I can smell that 60 vote supermajority in the Senate just around the corner. Mmmmm..progress.

Check out what Obama has been up to that is going to help the party down ticket.

Good lovin. This guys knows his shit.

Sailing!

Mel and I went sailing over the weekend, the first step in the plan to charter in BVI. It was amazing, to say the least. Our instructor was awesome. Nice dry sense of humor and paitent. The winds were pretty strong (as in small craft advisory) so we were able to learn the skills in some pretty intense conditions.

Because of the wind being so strong I was soar as crap the next few days. I still am a bit in my legs. My hands were pretty raw Saturday night but as luck would have it we happened upon a West Marine and picked up some sailing gloves for Sunday. Holy crap do those make a difference! I also managed to break the handle that raises the main (they are designed to break) because the cables were all jammed up. When it broke I kinda slammed into the mast so I have this big bruise on the top of my shoulder. It was fun though. :)

All in all both of us our excited to get back out on the water and practice. I requested information on the Cruising course, which is the next step.

Fun!

Obama Elitest?

So the HRC campaign has been trying to paint Obama as an elitest every since his 'bitter' comment a few weeks ago.

I'm thinking that after this remark it's going to be a little hard to do that.

Seriously. Wtf?

Me!

Read!

(h/t Erica)

Bees!

One of my favorite blogs that disappeared a while back but has recently appeared. Totally random entries. Check out this particular entry.

A Goal

I have decided to sit a goal for myself this summer. It is a lofty goal, and may not be reachable because towards the end it depends on the willingness of others. However, I want to do as much as I can personally to achieve it.

The goal is this: charter a boat and sail in the British Virigin Islands.

This weekend I take the first step towards this along with Mel when we take a two day course to learn basic sailing skills. After this course we will then have our Basic Sailing Cert that will allow us to charter sail boats for in-shore sailing. The next step is to take a cruising which is offered by the same marina. This is where it starts to become dependent on others. The course is two days on a 38+ foot cruiser learning about various weekend-type skills. However, it has to be privately scheduled which means I need to round up some people that are interested in doing this. Volunteers or am I going to have to talk you all into it?

Finally, this same marina, at the completion of the cruising course will help you setup a sailing vacation in the B.V.I. for you and some of your closest friends. Seriously, how fricken awesome would that be? Of course, I need people to do that as well.

So! Who wants to help me accomplish my goal?

Dream!

This came to me in a dream.

Imagine a Christan/Fold/Regaee band named 'Swank Underwear'.

That is all.

Downer

Torchwood is a british spin-off from the new Dr. Who series on BBC America. Some of the episodes aren't that great but then they will put together a few that are just amazing. The last two of the season were some of the best writing I've ever seen in sci-fi.

Anyway, I just finished watching the Season Finale and holy crap, what a downer. They killed two of the main characters off and had these crazy farewells to them. The thing is, the episode before filled in all this backstory about all the main characters and then they killed two of them off.

Nuts. Very good though.

Careful What You Order

I went to dinner Sunday night with Mel and some friends. During the course of the evening I had a flight of beer and shared a bottle of wine. We decided between us that we wanted an after-dinner drink so I picked up the wine list (of bottles, mind you, not glasses) and saw a cheap port. Everyone agreed so we said to Waiter Bitch (the nickname we gave him because he said to the table next to us, and I kid you not: "My name is [whatever] and I'll be your desert bitch tonight" ):

"We would like a bottle of port, please"
"A bottle? Not four glasses?"
"Yes, a bottle."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."

So he brings out a bottle of port. Now, usually desert wines come in these very narrow bottles that you can just managed to squeeze four glasses so that's what we (I) expected. I was abit surprised when out came a rather larger bottle. The other thing to keep in mind is that port has a higher alcohol content then wine or even desert wine at around 20%.

Ok, so you picture this? We were all pretty toasted at this point so we didn't think much of it. We started pouring the glasses and I'm thinking 'Wow, this is really good considering how cheap it was'. Then it dawned on me and I just started laughing. That's right. It wasn't per bottle...it was per glass. Opps.

Yea, so. Needless to say, the dinner bill was considerably higher than we planned and we had to share a cab home.

Oh! I also learned, on the cab ride home, that it is possible to throw up and just go right back to laughing like nothing happened. That was pretty amusing.

The Lost Chord

So I was watching this movie this morning called 'Melinda and Melinda' and within it there is a reference to something called 'the lost chord'. The context was interesting so I looked it up.

Turns out, it was a song written in 1877 that basically boils down to a musical chord that the composer hit while screwing around with his organ (the musical one, you sick people) that just brought complete clarity to everything. After it faded he was never able to find it again. The first thing I thought of was the song 'Tribute' by Tenacious D.

I like these sort of mystical kinda things. Don't know why but I find them really interesting, particularly when they move into popular culture.

Anyway, here are the lyrics to the song 'The Lost Chord' by Arthur Sullivan:

Seated one day at the organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys.

I know not what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight,
Like the close of an angel's psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit
With a touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexéd meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence
As if it were loth to cease.

I have sought, but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the organ,
And entered into mine.

It may be that death's bright angel
Will speak in that chord again,
It may be that only in Heav'n
I shall hear that grand Amen.

Crazy Group Dynamics

The dynamics in the group tonight were crazy. There was a lot of very interesting verbal fencing and such that touched on some old vulnerabilities in me. It turns out that those old vulnerabilities don't hold much power anymore. Learning that was great.

One thing that I learned in therapy, probably the single most important thing I learned for myself, was the idea of being selfish in a healthy way. As time goes on and I see that dynamic at work in other people and in myself I understand it and appreciate it more. Basically it is knowing when your shit ends and someone elses begins. To understand that you can only be responsible for your own actions and reactions and not for someone elses to you. Everyone processes things through the filters of their own experiences and you just can't hold yourself responsible for how they react to you when you are acting on your own behalf for your own good. That is being selfish in a healthy way.

That isn't to say you shouldn't care for others or show sympathy or try to help them, etc. The idea is to not let their stuff become your stuff. To not become vested and to be able to walk away. It's hard to do but it is very freeing.

Anyway, that current played out in a lot of different ways with a lot of different people, myself included. The other really interesting bit of the night was some verbal fencing I had with someone that took me a bit to realize he was being serious and not just trying to get a reaction from me. Basically the point that because I am very open with my views and opinions that I tend to alienate some people, rather than trying to moderate myself to get along with more people. The argument put forth was that when I get older I'll realize this. Ok, fair enough. Who am I to say I know what lessons I will learn in the future. Will I change? Hell yes I will. Will I change and learn the same lessons someone else did? Maybe, but who is in any position to know that? Everyone takes a different path and learns different lessons. They can be similar, sure, but it's going to mean something different to everyone. All I know is that right now I have never been more in tune with who I am at this moment and I am having a great time. When I'm out with people I know I feel safe enough to totally be myself and if there are some people that our offended, walk away. It's not like I'm making anyone listen to me or interact with me and I'm not interested in pleasing people just to please them. I am at Meetup for my satisfaction and fulfillment just like everyone else is in the end. Otherwise, why would you be there?

So, in the end it turned out to be a pretty interesting night and I'm glad I left my cave to enjoy it.

Oh, and Harold and Kumar 2 was pretty good. :)

Speaking of Dreams

This series of posts are going to be funny. This is the third I've written back-to-back but you all will probably read them backwards so the train of thought is going to be weird.

Anyway, I had this dream last night (either after the Misfit one or the second part of that one) that it cost me over $200 to fill up my gas tank. I started to think how much of a pain that would be and that'd I'd have to work from home sometimes, etc.

But really, maybe gas climbing in price isn't a bad thing in the long term. Sure, it'll be a huge bitch in the short term for everyone but maybe these are the kind of things that need to happen to get people motivated to make changes.

Whatever. Just a thought.

Cat Dream

So much for going back to bed.

Anyway, I have this reoccuring dream involving my dead cat Misfit. Each time I'm in this dream and I'm just chilling at the house and he just shows up and hangs out for awhile. I am aware that I hadn't seen him for a while and that he tends to come and go as he pleases. Like he goes into hiding or something and just pops out to hang from time to time. Well, this time around I decided I was going to take pictures of him to prove to people that he exists, right? So I took a few pictures and then in the dream I woke up...into another dream! And in that other dream I knew he wasn't alive but I met three people that all had different aspects of his personality, right? And they were like calling to me or something and then it just went totally weird after that and I don't really recall it.

Then I really woke up and I remember looking at my phone and wondering if I had really taken pictures...

Alas, I did not.


Until next time in my dreams, Misfit.

What The Heck?

Why am I still awake? I tried to sleep but it wasn't happening. Now its about 4 am and I'm watching 'Hellraiser: Hellworld' with good ol' pinhead hacking people up and such. Eww...there goes someone's head with a butchers knife. Oy.

I should try to sleep again. I certainly am tired now but strangely I feel compelled to finish watching this. I'm not sure how they are going to manage to fill another hour when 2 of the 4 main characters have already been killed. Maybe that's why I feel compelled?

Screw it. I'm going to bed.

Maybe.

Meetup!

There are a few things I sing the praises of: Tivo, Chiropractors, ducks and Meetup!. With regards to Meetup, it's really the way to go to meet people and increase your social circle. There are two groups I am very active in and two I am somewhat active in, despite being a co-organizer of one. I shall link to all four in a moment.

I right this because if you aren't in Meetup you should give it a shot. Most of the groups are free and the ones that aren't are very very cheap (like $20/year) to offset organizational costs. There are groups all around the country for practically anything you can imagine. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

As a way to show you what kind of crazy goes on, here is a blog that Shana updates with pictures from the adventures of the two groups I'm most active in (EDM and the Wine group).

And here are the links to the ones I am most involved in. Join people, join.

The Virginia Wine Club
http://wine.meetup.com/16/

Eat, Drink and Meet-NoVA Group (aka EDM aka Julie's Group)
http://socialnetwork.meetup.com/579/

The Fairfax Camping Meetup Group (The one I am co-organizer in name only)
http://camping.meetup.com/99/

DC/MD/VA Adventure Meetup (First group I joined)
http://adventurers.meetup.com/42/

How Should I Take This?

And now for another edition of 'How Should I Take This?'

This one was emailed to me by a friend. The email subject said 'Made me think of you ;)' and this was the link in the email.

I leave this without further comment.

Don't Be A Turkey

I went away for the weekend with a bunch of people for a wine weekend. It was a good time and I learned some things. I'm not going to bore you with details of the entire weekend but I am going to hit some highlights:

1) On the way down 5 of us hit two vineyards and ended up purchasing 3 cases (36 bottles) of wine. That's a lot of wine.

2) Sometimes a $44 bottle of wine is actually worth $44.

3) People that have been drinking a lot all day like to sing. Good times.

4) Getting pulled over for the license plate registration being expired after leaving a wine festival can be somewhat nerve racking.

5) Wine festivals are still fun even in the rain.

6) The attitude with the Bourborsville people is unbelievably shitty. "We are big enough that we don't have to care", "I've been drinking wine since I was 3" and "We aren't going to open anymore bottles to taste because it is raining". WTF? It's a wine festival you morons. Let us taste your damn wine and loose the attitude. "Too big to care". Jackass.

7) Smaller wineries are more awesome than bigger well-known ones.

8) Meritage is pronounced like heritage and is an American word.

9) Attack ducks.

10) "The frog jumps at midnight" and "the bunnies hop at midnight" are both very funny.

11) The turkey was almost the national bird.

13) You can make a wine taste like liquor (whiskey)

14) This is a story: Saturday night some of us were hanging outside before bed beneath a porch-like thing. One person was leaning back in his chair so the rain could hit his face. Someone else looked at him and said "Don't be a turkey" to which everyone else looked at her with blank stares and said "...and?". "Do you really need me to finish it?" "Yes". "Don't be a turkey...and die!". After we could breath from laughing so hard we requested an explanation as to what she was talking about. Turns out, the comment makes total sense once you know that turkey's, not being the smartest animals on the planet, will sometimes look up in the sky when it is raining and actually drown. Wow.

All in all, a good time.

Wow

I'm not sure what I'm more surprised about. That the New York Times actually did some real reporting or that they uncovered such a program.

Either way, that's not cool.

Seriously?

I guess we aren't done with the fear mongering afterall.

I love Obama's response.

How Many Lines Of Code...

...would it take to code my personality? Think hard about it (for you coders out there) and then read this. (Even non-coder peeps will like that article)

Ya'll better not be dead to me.

Horrible Debate

Seriously, it took almost an hour before an actual policy question was asked? WTF? If you ever wondered how Bush was elected twice last nights debate is a prime example. My favorite 'question':

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, two questions. Number one, do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?

'Loves America as much as you do'. Can we PLEASE get some adults in charge and not this god damn infintile high school cool kids bullshit? I don't give a flying fuck who 'loves America' more. Loves America compared to what? How subjective can you get?

Seriously, this is bullshit. If the media can't get over the nit-picking gaffes that anyone will make and actually get to policy differences and the way in which these people may actually govern the country, they all need to be shot. The aren't serving the public and they are just allowing people like Bush and his cronies to pull one over on everyone else. How do you get people to vote against their own interests? By making it all about who is the most like them, the everyman/woman, the John/Jane Doe of America. Really, would you want to try to run the country? I sure as hell wouldn't. John Stewart was awesome the other day when he was going on about how he absolutely wants a President that is superior to him. Embarassingly superior and elite. I totally agree. I want superman/woman as the President, not some beer drinking jackass frat boy POS.

Grow up.

UPDATE: Just came across this. A less 'colorful' analysis than mine. Very good, though.

Cool Picture of Me

I really like this picture for some reason.

Best Case Yet For Barrack

This is easily the most convincing argument to date.

Sound Like Anyone You Know

You are courageous; and you seek challenges. You are a tough-minded, independent and daring thinker who likes to explore ideas or problems thoroughly. You focus easily. And you are persistent, systematic and competent in pursuing your interests and goals.

You are also assertive; and you enjoy the opportunities your hard work wins.

You have a lot of energy. You think quickly, make decisions more easily than most, dislike unnecessary rules, and take a rational approach to people, issues and ideas.

You don't often enjoy "small talk." You are generally not interested in pleasing boring people and you gravitate to men and women who are intellectually exciting and get to their point quickly during conversations.

You are not conventional in most of your attitudes and values. You tend to be irreverent and pragmatic and you like spontaneous people. You can be an exciting, yet hard driving and exacting, friend and companion.

Pedantic Asshole

I went to a friends house tonight in a gated community. To get in you have to go through a gate. Those that live there get a pass and can wave it in front of this thingy that'll open the gate. Those that are visiting drive up to the right of the residence entrance and entry in a code which rings the person you are visiting to let you through.

Before I get to the asshole I want to say two things. First, I didn't handle the situation as well as I should have and I know that. Second, I understand that there are problems with people 'cheating' to get through the gate and some residents get irritated about this. I would be as well.

Ok, so I'm at the guest entrance thing and I type in the code. While it dials and rings some guy in a white Jetta drives up to the resident entrance and waves his little badge thingy. I here the beeps indicating that I have been given access and I drive up to the gate kinda fast. The gate is really slow so I sit there. About two seconds later Jetta-boy guns it and flies up on me and slams on his breaks...obviously something pissed him off. The gate finally opens and I go through and haul ass over the speed bumps because I figure this guy is made at me and is now following me. He bounces over them and follows me all the way down to where I park and parks near me. The top of my Jeep is down so while I put the top back up he eventually drives up and starts talking to me.

This is where I could have handled it differently. He babbles about how I cut him off and I babble about how I was beeped in and just went to the gate and he tried to hit me. We repeat each other a couple of times, obviously making no progress, and he talks about how my friend could be written up for my actions, etc. About the third time we repeat I just say 'Bullshit' and walk away to finish putting my top up. He babbles something about not having to curse at him and then drives down to the end of the parking lot, turns around, and comes back up behind my car. I decide to approach it different and ask him 'What do you expect to get out of this' and he says 'You shouldn't have cused at me' at which point I decide the entire thing is stupid and just walk away to my friends. He writes down my license plate number so who knows what he expects to do with that.

So I relay this to my friend who laughs quite a bit and that is that. The entire episode irritates me though. I mean really, what did he expect to get out of it? We obviously have two very different, and probably valid, points of view on this. I suppose if I kept my cool we could have just talked it out but I was pretty irritated that he (a) charged me and (b) followed me all the way down to be a prick about something that amounts to nothing.

I'm also ticked because we thought of the following things I could have done that would have been much better:

1) Just driven around in circles until he got bored
2) Drive out the back gate and back on to the road
3) When he got all pissy about me cussing at him (really, that's weak) lay into him with some choice phrases about being a pendantic asshole
4) Some other really good ones I can't think of right now

Anyway, that place has issues with people being pricks and I guess people that are that high strung are going to have issues. Pity.

Candidate Hand Gestures

Christopher Walken analysis the candidates hand gestures here.

Choice quote:

Because, as we all know, both the coinflip and the vending machine guarantee change, but only the vending machine also holds the promise of delicious Ho Hos.

Meetings

Is it too hard for the person that called for a meeting to take place at a particular time actually show up and not, I don't know, go on a walk instead?

Freedom Fries and Hot Dogs

What do Freedom Fries and Hot Dogs have related?

This! (Check out the Historical Parallels)

Addiction: Follow-up

Only a couple of comments on the first addiction post but they were good ones and brought up some stuff I missed in the first post. I wanted to respond in a new post to flesh out some of that stuff.

I think Shana's comment really illustrates the stigma addictions can create for the addicted. In addition, it brings up something I totally forgot to talk about but is so critical in addiction treatment, and that is shame. Shame comes internally from hating the power the addiction has over you and not wanting to let people know about it. It is re-enforced by people who don't know how to deal with addictions and do look upon it as a weakness. It's a huge obstacle to recovery.

It is interesting to me that Mel brought up the following:

i had a friend who spoke of the social strata of rehab: heroin and cocaine addicts, top of the totem pole. Then alcoholics, gamblers, sex addicts, others. Last, eating disorders and cutters.

I thought about touching on this although from a different perspective. Namely from which are more 'social acceptable' or have less stigma around them in society from my POV. I would stick drug and alcohol addiction, particularly alcohol with AA and such, at the most 'accepted' forms of addiction. Eating and gambling probably in the middle with sex addiction towards the bottom. I think cutters are more an example of personality disorder than addiction, although I suppose it could be all stuffed together. Not real sure there.

I am totally in agreement with the need for understanding the commonalities between addictions. I believe they have more in common than they do differences. The 'acting out' behavior is simply the sympton, not the cause.

Very good stuff. Keep it coming.

Stupid Rollouts

We started this rollout last night around 2pm. Didn't leave the office until 11 pm because the stupid server crashed and we couldn't get a hold of anyone at the Pentagon to reset it. Naturally, they reset it about 15 minutes after we left. I was up at 7:30 this morning and we are still pounding it.

Wee.

Addiction

Addictions are nasty nasty things, but I believe they are much more prevalent than people are generally aware. Let me explain by first taking a step backward and laying down some knowledge from my perspective about addictions and their causes. This will probably ramble a bit because I don't have my thoughts really concise on this yet.

Everyone I would imagine is familiar with substance-based addictions such as alcohol or drugs. You are probably familiar with process-based addictions as well such as gambling. What is interesting about substance- and process-based addictions is that at the core they are all very tightly related, even if the method of 'acting out' is very different. So, for example, in a drug addiction the acting out behavior is getting high due to the effects of the drug itself. In a process addiction like gambling, stealing, eating, sex, etc the high is the result of the whatever the activity is being undertaken. I've always thought of process addictions as just getting high off of the body's internal chemical reactions based on acting out, as opposed to an external high from drugs or alcohol.

Anyway, at their root addictions develop as a coping strategy in order to cope or run away from something you can't or perceive yourself unable to handle. Addictions probably have a genetic component as well that make some people more susceptible to forming full-blown addictive behavior while others may be in a more escapism sorta thing. I guess what I am saying is that you don't have to be a full-blown addict whose behavior controls you to have some feel of what an addiction is like. Escapism has some on the tenants of addiction, particularly when that escapism is obsessive.

I believe that society has a pretty good grasp of drug and alcohol addiction, and that is a good thing for sure. What society does not have a grasp on is process addictions that are somehow viewed as a lack of will rather than something that is just as debilitating as a substance addiction. The stigma around these addictions is in my opinion the way the stigma around substance addictions used to be several decades ago. Let me give you an example, if a trusted friend of yours was to come to you one day and say 'I am an alcoholic.' how would you react? Now if that same person were to come to you and say 'I have a sex addiction' would that change the way you react to them? What if they said they have a problem with eating, would you view it as simply a will-power issue or something else?

The definition of addiction at Dictionary.com is:

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

The first part of that definition is right on in that anything can become habit-forming to the point of enslavement. This definition is probably somewhat out-of-date as a lot of the thinking on addiction has expanded to allow for process addictions that do not have the same sort of physical trauma associate with cessation. This goes back to the stigma around process addictions I was babbling about earlier. Anyway, the key point I want to make here is that process addictions can become every bit as enslaving as substance addictions and, additionally, a lot of substance addicts have process addictions and vice-versa.

Ok, so back to my original point now that I have some of the background out-of-the-way about process addictions. I believe that addiction, in particular process addiction, is pretty rampant in society. An addiction really becomes a problem when you obsess about it. When it start to interfere with social engagements and work or it starts to take over your thoughts. When you run into a stressful situation and the first thing you think of is that acting out behavior. When you start to isolate from people. Those are all signs that a behavior that has been escapist to you is or has crossed the line to an addiction. I'm willing to bet that a fair amount of people can associate with some of those things, particularly the bit about stressful situations. Does that mean you have an addiction? No. It doesn't even mean you may develop one. However, it does mean that something is going on there that needs to be looked at because rather than dealing with the situation you are looking for ways to run from it. For some, and I would argue a great many, that can eventually turn into addiction.

Anyway, look at TV, texting, video games and/or the Internet. Internet addiction is probably easily the number 1 process addiction that people just aren't aware of actually having. It has become pretty prevalent in our society. How many of you work at a company that have policies against using the Internet for anything that isn't work related? Those policies probably came into being because a few abusers were totally sucked in and either couldn't or wouldn't stop. There is a good reason why the porn industry is highly profitable and it isn't because of the story lines.

So why this post? This is a topic that I have found fascinating for many years because of the raw power that addiction has over people. It is absolutely amazing to me. The movie 'Fight Club' does a pretty good job a showing different addictions, the book does an even better job. People become addicted to power, to sex, to entertainment without ever really understanding that it is just as much an addiction as drugs or alcohol and just as hard to unravel.

I also want to see what kind of reaction it stirs up in people. There are a lot of opinions of addictions out there and a lot of experience with them directly or indirectly. If you feel safe, share some of those experiences here or with me in-person.

Medication

I was driving into work this morningish listening to NPR and this woman talk about a book she has written called 'Madness: A Bi-Polar Story' or something like that. She was talking about the medication she was on and it made me decide to write this post.

While I don't have bi-polar I do have an anxiety condition and ADHD with a splash of depression (although depression is a pretty nebulous term). My severity of these conditions isn't too bad untreated but it is enough to warrent medication.

I've talked to some people about this and many share my same reservations I had with taking medication at first. I went through various techniques (psychotherapy and acupuncture, etc) for years before I finally decided to try the medication route. While the acupuncture was very effective on my anxiety and depression, it didn't help so much on the ADHD side of things.

I don't know that I talked much about my anxiety before and I don't know that I will in this post. I will say that at one point in my life it got to the point where even standing in line at the G-Store was too much for me. That didn't turn me on to medication and, in fact, I had the anxiety somewhat under control by the time I started taking it. Not all together sure why I decided to throw that in this.

Eventually, after talking this over at length with my therapist I asked for a reference to a shrink. The guy I went to originally was exactly what you probably expect a shrink to be. Quick, 15 minute in and out with a prescription. Granted, he had my case file from my therapist but still, I hate being treated that way.

He started me on prozac and Wellbutrin. The prozac was for the ADHD and the Wellbutrin was for the anxiety/depression. He started me on the lowest doses. Both of these were effective for treating those issues but I would crash HARD around 4 pm everyday.

During this time I started to work with a life coach to try to get my life in order (read: organization). The shrink I had been seeing moved on so I need a new one. I mentioned this to my coach who referred me to a different shrink that treated the person and not the condition. My appointments with this one are close to an hour and we go over everything that is going on before adjusting medication, etc. Much more to my liking. Over time I moved from prozac to Lexapro and from the ordinary Wellbutrin to a new XL version that is slow release and lasts 24 hours. The result was no more crashing at 4 pm, yay!

Eventually Cymbalta came out that treats both serotonin and norepinephrine which previously required two medication to treat. Additionally, its a pretty small dose (25 mg or something). I just take one of those a day now and it works quite well. There is a post on my blog about the brain shocks you get if you stop taking it cold turkey, wicked stuff those.

I tell you all of that to tell you this: Sometimes I wonder if the medication makes me not me but some weird pseudo-me. I think that is a fear for a lot of people considering this and it is a valid fear. The radio progam I was listening to this morning brought this up as well and the woman put the conclusion I guess I came to a while ago for succiently. What she realized was that when you are not taking the medication the person you are is sick, the medication allows the real you to come out and I agree with that. The only reason someone might even be going through doubts about taking meds is because they know something is keeping them from being who they really are. Medication is a way to realize that person.

Let me describe something else that might help. When I was off my medication I would have some pretty large swings in mood. Not bi-polar levels because I wouldn't be manic but I would experience large levels of anxiety and dread, lots of catastrophising and what-if'ing everything. What the medication has done is it takes that edge off. My personality hasn't changed but has instead leveled out. My reactions to situations are more paced and in proportion to the situation where before they would sometimes be very out of proportion (both over and under reacting). The way I picture it is if I were to draw a picture of a line that waves up and down, kinda like a sine curve, those highs and lows would represent those peeks where I over/under react to situations. The medication sorta caps those highs and lows so my reactions happen within a smaller range.

Addtionally, the ADHD side of me still functions but in a more good way now. I still can juggle multiple topics and think out-of-the-box, etc but I am able to focus better when it matters. It isn't so much of a grey fog like it used to be. That isn't to say that doesn't happen, but it is more manageable now.

Wow, this was a lot longer than I had intended. In any case, if anyone is dealing with whether or not to try medication then by all means ask questions!

RANT: Perl

So I have this contract, right? They have a system that has two parts, a wall as it were. On one side of the wall is the company I do the work for and my stuff sits. On the other side of the wall is another company they have been working with forever who handles a different part of their business. Normally these two sides don't have to communicate much but there are some places where they do. Typically it is my side throwing information over to their side.

Ok, so what does this have to do with Perl? Because the other side of the wall insists on using Perl and only Perl. WTF! Seriously, come out of the 90's. Perl is great for patching shit together but it totally is not suitable for enterprise level applications. This is experience talking here. Years ago I worked for a company whose entire system was written in Perl. I even rewrote the entire thing in Perl. Eventually we moved to .Net because it actually works on an Enterprise level without having to fricken jury-rig everything under the sun.

Anyway, why is this bothering the heck out of me right now? Because certain people on the other side of that wall seem to be working to undermine my efforts on my side of the wall. They are contractors, as am I, so I understand the sentiment. However, it's fricken Perl! WTFBBQPWNED! Dorks. Wait, I was going to give you some specific examples.

Example 1: We have two separate databases even though a lot of data is duplicated (seriously...why do people insist on doing things the hard way...that's a different rant). They wanted to synch their database to ours on a nightly basis but since they are using MySQL (which I have no problems with and like) and we are using SQL Server we couldn't easily schedule a replication process. So I suggested that I could setup a web service to allow them to pull data from us nightly or weekly or whatever and they could do whatever they wanted with it. A web service is a STANDARD method of B2B communications that has been around for quite a while now. It is a mature method for languages that are capable of being fricken standard. Wow, the anger. So I setup this web service and, surprise of surprises, they can't consume it because Perl is shit. Eventually they figure it out and all is well. This leads directly to...

Example 2: My side of the wall is in competition with some other companies to land a contract with a well-known company to provide them with data. During the intial conversations I, once again because it fricken works, sugggest that we use a web service to transfer the data. They agree. I also suggest, because of Example 1, that before we sign any contracts or whatever that we have a communications test to make sure they can actually consume a web-service since they are using some propritary language that I am not familiar with. Again, they agree. After that meeting but before the communication test we have another meeting, this time the guy that runs the company on the other side of the wall is involved because we will need to pass information over to him. We kinda go over the plan to use a web serivce and he goes 'Well, are you sure you can make that work? I know you had trouble with that when we tried to implement it.' Can you believe that shit! Fucking Perl guru punkass. I didn't have any problems, the issues were on their side because they insist on using FUCKING PERL. To quote Team America: Jesus Christ Titty Fucking.

So we move forward, have the communications test, have some minor issues on their end that were quickly resolved...WHAM, communication works. Funny how mature standard business practices work, aren't they? Everyones happy and then I hear from the person running the show on my side of the fence that there are doubts that what we want to do isn't possible. I'm like 'What?' and she's like 'Yea, are we sure it is possible?' and I'm like 'This is rocket sceince. It is pretty straight-forward and the hard part is over (the communications test)' and she's like 'Yea, that is what I thought'. Well, guess where the doubt is coming from...you guessed it, Perl world! No shit they would think it isn't possible, it's fucking PERL!

Wow. Just wow. And let's not forget that this other group seem to have a habit of overstressing how difficult things are going to be to change. Actually, now that I think about it, I bet they aren't overstressing. It probably is just that hard because its FUCKING PERL.

Ok, Rant over.

Remember

"You can't hold yourself responsible for what gorillas did."

I love me some Team America.

Not Myself

I was at a part Friday night that, overall, was a goodtime. However, there was a period in the middle that wasn't so fun and a learned a couple of things about myself. Maybe not so much learned as clarified or even re-learned.

Anyway, I let someone else's drama affect me in a way I haven't in quite some time. As a result, the evil passive-aggressive twin came out for a time until I was able to regain some balance. I didn't like it and it still bothers me to the point where I felt I had to write about it at yet another get together so I can put it to rest.

The two things I learned were:

1) I don't like playing board games
2) No matter how much better I am staying balanced in myself and just going with what happens, sometimes I still let something in too close that knocks me off balance.

It's like aspects of my personality that were much more relavent in my past come back (the evil twin, as I call it) and then whatever the original thing that knocked me out of kilter gets magnified by my reaction to all of that old shit.

There is something else floating around in there I can't put my finger on...oh right. So I became all cynical, not the funny cynical but the asshole cynical, and I just tried to keep my mouth shut and not say anything because I knew it would be cutting and ugly. Eventually, someone pulled my into a more politcal conversation one-on-one and that more comfortable ground helped me center again so all was good.

I'd like to toss out an apology to anyone that was there that may have been offended. It was my own shit that I was mostly reacting to and you saw a side of me that doesn't show up too often.

Live and learn.

WTF!?

How is it even possible that we don't where all of our nukes are?

The Surge

I don't remember if I wrote much about the surge in Iraq but I'm going to now for reasons that will become clear in a moment.

When we were talking about going to Iraq originally, one of the General's that were responsible for coming up with a plan said it would required 350,000 troops and several years before the country would become stable after the invasion. He was immediately canned by the administration.

We go in with a force about 1/3 of that and all hell breaks loose. So then we get the bright idea that maybe we need more troops. Wow! If only someone thought of that before! Anyway, so we send in more troops which becomes known as The Surge.

About the same time, a fellow by the name of al-Sadr decided to give us a gift. al-Sadr is the dude behind the major Shi'te militias and had been beating on the Sunni forces for sometime (the civil war) and taking shots at American troops. It was his forces that, in no small part, were cranking up the US causalities before the war.

So what is the gift he gave us? A cease-fire. A 7-month cease-fire that looks like it ended yesterday.

I maintain, and have for a while, that while putting extra troops on the ground certainly helped, it was the cease-fire that more or less corresponded with the 'success' of the surge that was ultimately responsible. If I'm right, and if the cease-fire has truly ended (which I believe it has), American causalities will start to rise again and the 'success' of the surge will unfortunately be shown for what it really was.

Here is an article about the end of the cease-fire.

Sooner or later the powers that be need to understand that we either aren't capable or, more likely, aren't willing to do what is necessary to stabilize the country and just need to pull out. The war in Afghanistan, which actually has ramifications on our security, is failing and needs to be readdressed.

"It’s just hitchhiking under the Big Tent"

Bwhahahahahahahahaha.

Would it help if I told you it is a quote from George Carlin?

McCain

For those of you who haven't done much looking at McCain yet, here is a site worth reading to get a feel for the other side.

I'll have lots more of McCain when we hit the general, of course.

Lobbyists

I have a simple question: Are their any lobbyists that are NOT assholes?

5 Ways Clinton Leads Obama

Thought this was funny.

9ASCAP

I was driving to work this morning when this popped up where it usually displays my mileage. I was like 'huh?'.

I checked the one thing I thought it might be referring to but didn't see anything wrong. So I turned around and went home to look it up on the internets to see if my car was going to blow up or something.

It turns out my first thought was right. 9ASCAP means "GASCAP".

I guess a sensor died on it or something. Oh well, live and learn.

Economic Stimulus Package Analogy

I heard this analogy about why the Economic Stimulus Package won't do much to help the economy a few weeks ago and have been meaning to write it.

Basically, if you look at the Iraq War spending as a leak in a pool and the tax cuts and preventing any new water from being put in the pool, then the stimulus package is the equivalent of trying to keep the pool full of water by taking water out of the deep end and putting it in the shallow end.

Until you a) fix the leak (end war funding or cut it back to something manageable) and b) add more water (let the tax cuts expire) the water level in the pool is going to keep dropping.

Easter Song

Here are the lyrics for this song.

I bet you can't not laugh.

The Media and Trust

I was talking to my boss the other day and we got into a discussion about the media, one of my favorite topics. He has a bit of a libertarian bent which is fun to debate but this conversation we were more or less in agreement eventually.

Basically I was talking about how I think once the major tv and print media became parts of corporations they lost a lot of independence that is necessary to make this a functioning democracy. I also maintained that the Internerd and the blogs that populate it are starting to fill in that gap. I pointed to Talking Points Memo's recent Polk Award win as proof of this.

Originally he argued that he believes blogs are mostly opinion and don't have the same...and he struggled here but in essence I think he was looking for the word 'official'...feel to them. That's a good point on the surface, but I think what it really comes down to is trust.

The media, back when it was actually independent and was more interested in investigative journalism into abuses instead of sex, engendered a lot of trust. The corporatization of the media and the obsessive focus on the stupid stuff instead of the important stuff has violated a lot of the trust for a lot of Americans.

Meanwhile, the blogs have started to gain people's trust. It has been slow but it is increasing and pretty rapidly. As the media gets further and further out-of-touch the trend will continue and I believe that can only be good for our democracy in general.

Anyway, it was a cool conversation and I think the trust argument makes a lot of sense. I'm glad he pushed me into developing it.

Army of Darkness

Before this guy, this guy and this guy did this, this, this or this. They did this and, more to the point, this.

Friends that I grew up with in High School know my love for the Evil Dead series and those three fellows. It came up last night and I decided to subject some people to 'Army of Darkness' last night...the Director's Cut.

Unfortunately, the Director's Cut is the original version of the film before the studio came in and made them make some modifications. As a result, one of the best lines in the movie was missing ('Good, Bad, I'm the guy with the gun') and it was the original downer ending. The ending involving Ask firing a shotgun 57 times without reloading inside of a Walmart clone was missing. Suckage.

Mel and I were talking about it on the walk home to my house and I explained why I found it so entertaining. As a whole, it's an OK movie at best. However, what you can see in it is the transitional period Sam Raimi was going through that led to the big movies he has done recently. To me that is fascinating. Plus, the sense of humor is right on my level as well.

The friends I watched it with decided that it was an interesting look into part of my head. I think they feel like they won't have to see the studio ending...silly people. ;)

Meetings

I was in a 10 hour meeting yesterday and a 5 hour meetings today. All in all these haven't been too bad as they have been pretty focused and not wondering around all over the place.

However, towards the end-of-the-day yesterday the filter I have between my brain and my mouth that usually works pretty well during the day faded away. I became somewhat snarky during the last part of the day leading to a comment from my boss along the lines of 'You sure do get grumpy in a long meeting'. I found that funny.

Today, for a brief moment, I thought I crossed a line. The client, who has a very good sense of humor, was asking where a copy machine was. He then asked if it was one of those that you could lift the lid on to copy stuff. I found that my filter still hadn't returned because out came 'Do you want to photo copy your butt?'. There was a brief pause, a look from my boss, and then laughter.

So...yea.

Out Of The Wood Work

I used to work at a place called Postal Innovations. It was quite the learning experience for me. In any case, I developed a friendship with most of the people I worked with there over time. I've lost contact with them over time, unfortunately.

So it was very surprising when, in the span of a week, two of them contacted me out-of-the-blue. And, even better, one of them has been following me via this blog for a while...although not commenting. Punk.

And get this, one of these friends passed the blog on to a friend of his who also enjoys reading it. That's awesome and I would just like to say to his friend that I forgot to take my medicine today, so no need to guess. ;)

Welcome all.

This Seems Alarming

I'm not an economist, but this seems like a bad thing. Bad thing like crossing the streams bad.

That is the state of liquid reserves available in the Federal Reserve System. I believe this is the system that is in place to prevent a depression by being able to bailout industries that are tanking. I could be wrong, but I think that is the purpose.

Anyway, does that chart give anyone else a chill?

Experience

One of the major arguements against Obamarama is that he doesn't have the experience necessary for the job. There are different types of experience, of course, and the one that seems to come up the most is that of foreign relations.

I'd like to ask a question. What foreign relations experience do McCain (and HRC, for that matter) have that so overwhelms Obama's, exactly? Being a senator is not foreign relations expereince as far as I know. It seems to me that if you aren't a diplomat or in the State Department you don't have a lot of foreign relations experience just because you have been a senator longer than god.

And how the heck is being a POW foreign relations exeperience? That's experience being a prisoner.

Somebody lay some knowledge on me because this whole arguement sounds pretty weak when you get down to the specifics.

Analogies, Self Help and Football

So I was taking a shower this morning, where I do my best thinking, and the following occurred to me in this order:

1) You could probably use football and/or a car as an analogy for anything.

2) How awesome would it be to have a Self Help book that uses football as the vehicle? Self Help for Football Fans! It could be an entire series. Self Help for Linux Administrators, etc.

3) Wow, this water is hot.

How Should I Take This?

So I was standing outside while my co-worker/boss person was smoking a cig. Three of the others fellows I work with came out and were going to take a walk. They invited us to go along and we said no. I happened to say that I couldn't because 'I had too much work to do'. One of the guys gave me a weird wtf the sorta look that I sort of expect from him when I make a joke and off they went.

I mentioned to my co-worker/boss person that 'I don't think Sachin knows what to make of me.'. He laughed and said 'I don't think any of them do. They don't have Ryan's in India'.

I thought about this for a moment and then said 'I'm not sure how to take that.'

I think I shall take it as a complement. :)

Who Won Last Week Again?

Obama Clinton
OH 66 75
RI 8 13
VT 9 6
TX 99 94
WY 7 5

Total 189 193

This is from Obama's website. HRC doesn't have a similar breakdown, unfortunately.

4 delegates. And if you count the three super's that Obama picked up the lead from last week is down to 1. And if you include the vacant super seat in WY that is picked by the caucuses, it's a wash.

So in what way was this the 'Week from Hell' for Obama?

Evil Time Change

So I've been working with a customer on a new contract that they want to setup for a rather large client of theirs. This has been going back and forth for a couple of weeks now with teleconferences and emails. This morning at 10:30 we were to have what would probably be the final meeting before we kicked it off. The meeting was to consist of myself, the person handling the contract on our side, her counterpart and their developer. We were going to finalize requirements and a timeframe.

Well, I missed it. And didn't just miss it a little bit, either. I missed the three phone calls of people trying to reach me wondering where I was. I missed the emails and the voicemails. It was a total and utter whif.

What happened? The damn time change happened. Well, that and I totally forgot about the call and slept through my alarm. It was the perfect storm. Just check out how many different ways if I did something just a little bit different crisis could have been overted:

1) I could have read my email even once this weekend. Normally I do, for whatever reason I decided not to this weekend. I even thought I _should_ last night but ignored it. Will I ever learn?

2) I could have gotten up at 10 am when I woke up. At that point I would have only been 30 minutes late and the time change thing could have addressed that. But no, I wanted to sleep more!

Ok, so really only two things but it felt like a lot more.

Anyway, I talked to the person who manages my contract with our client first and then talked to the person that runs the contract for the client on our side of the fence. Not a happy camper. And it was that 'quite psuedo-calm voice' deal too. I decided to go with the truth instead of an excuse. That went over like a lead balloon. It went back and forth a while with me humbly taking it up the ass in a very calm manner, then she hung up on me. Hung up! Wow, that was just...wow.

In any case, the call has been rescheduled to 2 pm today at which point I get to try to smooth it over with the customer as well.

Fricken annoying time change.

Florida and Michigan

So back when the various states were jocking around and trying to become relevant in the primaries, Florida and Michigan tried to leap frog NH and Iowa. Before they did this, the DNC - which runs the primaries and scheduling - told them that if they did this their primaries would not count and their delegates would not be seated. They went ahead and did it anyway.

Now, even before the primaries started all the candidates knew that FL and MI broke the rules and thus, were not in-play. In fact, all of them pulled their names off the ballots in both states and didn't campaign there at all except for HRC. So when FL and MI held their pointless primary, HRC won. Big surprise.

So now we are in this situation where you have the HRC people demanding that those delegates be counted. How very fricken convenient that she was totally unopposed in those elections. Actually, I think the MI one had the Undecideds make up something like 30% of the voting electorate.

Anyway, this is what it boils down to. That whole demand is bullshit and playing unfairly. If FL and MI wanted to count they shouldn't have broken the rules. It isn't like they didn't know what the consequences were going to be. A straight reseating of delegates that were elected in an unopposed primary amounts to gaming the system and cheating.

Therefore, if the states want to pay for the primary let them have one in June and make it a real primary. Both campaigns should actually, you know, campaign in those states and give the voters the option to actually vote for the candidate they want, not just choose between HRC and Undecided in a primary that didn't count.

This whole ploy by the HRC campaign is just another example of what bothers the crap out of my about the way they are running. It's underhanded and cheap.

Play fair, win fair, or go home.

Can I Work Here Please

Love these ideas. Would be awesome if they caught on. I don't know that it would work for everyone but I think for the right type of people, it's spot on.

kthxbai

More on Obama's Grassroots

Rolling Stone released this very nice article that goes into the Obama ground game and why it is so revolutionary. If you are interested in why, win or loose, the way his campaign is hopefully changing the way the Dems run campaigns and the fullfillment of Dean's 50 State strategy, this'll give you a lot of good information.

Race Results

Just a couple of notes.

The delegates are still being counted and the numbers will probably change a bit since the Texas caucuses are still being counted, but right now the total counts for the four states are:

Clinton 191
Obama 178

HRC managed to turn around the ship a bit but not nearly enough yet. Unless Obama self-destructs he is still the leader by 148 delegates with 560 left to be handed out. HRC will need to win by bigger margins if she wants to close the lead. Plus, there is no reason to believe the super delegates are going to buck the popular delegate count, not if they don't want to screw the party for years.

PA is up next and I think it may be the only one that day. That'll be crazy.

One other point, the turn out. I haven't looked at the numbers today but last night both HRC and Obama, individually, had twice as many votes as McCain. That's nuts.

Transformation Politics - Different Standards

This article by one of my favorite political bloggers basically talks about why, with the possibility of the left getting back into the White House, there are suddenly calls for bi-partisanship and the like. Where were these calls during the last 7 years, etc.

It's a good topic and an important point, and it should be kept in mind going forward. Partisanship is good and healthy when practiced in good faith. Bi-partisanship for the sake of being bi-partisan is much more damaging. The entire point of having different parties and partisans is because people just DO NOT AGREE on certain key issues. Deal with it.

McCain Pandering

I said I would start talking about McCain some and this is the first in what will probably be a fair amount of posts on McCain, particularly once the general election gets underway. McCain has a reputation of being a straight-talker and maverick that stands up to the crazies. While this may have been true a decade ago, it certainly is no longer. This article is a good start to understand how, like any other politician who has been in Washington for a long time, his opinion shifts with the wind.

The reason this is an issue with McCain, or should be, is because he frames himself as someone that doesn't do exactly what it is he is doing. He is doing exactly what he accused Romney of doing...changing his song to match what people want to hear.

A story the Times published a week or two ago about a possible improper relationship with a lobbyist wasn't important because it implied he may have been screwing around on his 2nd wife - which he admitted to doing quite a bit with his 1st, btw - no, it was important because it showed just how connected he is to lobbyists despite the image he tries to portray.

And now the guy is trying to bypass the rules setup in one of the key pieces of legislation he passed on finance reform.

This is not a straight talker by any stretch of the imagination and maverick only in the eyes of the press.

More to come.

Curious

Ladies, please take a look at this up until the last few paragraphs where she moves on to talk about HRC.

Not having been a woman, I'm curious how often this sort of thing happens. I have no doubt it does.

'The Cake is a Lie'

Portal is easily one of the most engaging games I've ever played. The voice that taunts you throughout the game is a riot and the boss at the end is great. And really, you can't beat this for game credits. (That's the voice that taunts you all game, btw, taunting you again even after you whooped it.)

I shall always miss my companion cube.

Boo, Exxon

So Exxon feels like it shouldn't have to pay punitive damage for the spill in Alaska way-back when. Why shouldn't they? It's not like Alaska ran into them.

Punks.

Here is Roberts showing his hand. The lawyer's response is right on.

Obama Never Lost

With the exception of the superdelegates (which are starting to switch sides), Obama has never lost a primary voting day yet from the delegate count perspective. This was surprising. Check it out:

Each day delegates were won Obama first, followed by Clinton

1/3 (IA) 16 - 15
1/8 (NH) 9 - 9
1/15 (MI) 0 - 0
1/19 (NV) 13 - 12
1/26 (SC) 25 - 12
1/29 (FL) 0 - 0
2/5 (SuperTuesday) 842 - 828 (11 still to be decided)
2/9 (LA, NE, WA, VI) 105 - 56
2/10 (ME) 15 - 9
2/12 (DA, DC, MD, VA) 111 - 57.5 (6.5 to be decided)
2/19 (HI,WI) 56 - 38

In other words, you take the superdelegates out of the equation (since they aren't elected), if you add up the delegate count totals from each day of voting Obama has come out ahead every day.

Nuts.

Obama and the Grassroots

I talked yesterday about needing to get the heck away from the 50+1 strategy that has dominated politics over the past few decades, particularly since 2000 and the Rove-model. This model targets specific states and leaves others to rot, thereby screwing the local parties and hurting the party as a whole. Campaigns have traditionally been run from the top-down from within the establishment. HRC's is like that, for example. If you look at the endorsements in the states she gets most of the part machine (the governers, etc). The unfortunate bit about this is it really takes the power out of the little people and puts it in the hands of the power players. Those that 'know best', etc. The morons.

Enter Obama. The revolutionary thing about what he has been doing is that it has been TOTALLY grassroots built. He was a community activist long before a politication and has been a precient captaion. He knows what happens on the grass roots level and surrounded himself with people that know how to make it happen. And it shows. It is how he keeps closing a 20+ point cap between him and HRC over and over again. And it is how he is ahead in the polls in Texas and closing fast in Ohio.

This post has excerpts from volunteers involved in the ground game in Texas and how the Obama camp handles the situation. If this is indicative of his judgement regarding the people he surrounds himself with and his execution of goals, he will be a very compentent president.

Anyway, the big plus to all this that I kinda touched on yesterday is how it rebuilds the Democratic party in places where it has been decimated (namely heavy red states). I believe STRONGLY in the 50 state strategy where the party is competitive in all 50 states. Howard Dean started to implement this after 2004 and we reaped its benefits in 2006 by winning some seats that we wouldn't have otherwise because the party was competitive and able to leap on opportunities that prevented themselves through corruption, etc. With Obama pouring this money and talent into all 50 states and reinjuvinating the local parties he just strengthens the party as a whole across the country, regardless of who wins the presidency.

A choice quote to illustrate this:

The Obama campaign has singlehandedly done more to rebuild the Democratic Party of Texas in 2 weeks than the TDP [Texas Democractic Party] has been able to in probably 10 years.

And a quote that better illustrates the difference between the grass roots model Obama is using and the tradional model that HRC is using:

Obama's campaign shows the fruits of the very things kos and dkos in general has promoted. People powered politics, 21st century grassroots/netroots, internet fundraising, raising the level of involvement among the electorate, run a 50-state campaign.

Hillary's campaign represents the old way of running a political race. Lock up the establishment. Get endorsements, and do the usual GOTV operation, focus on the democratic strongholds, do traditional fundraisers with big spenders, etc.

That is just awesome and a great sign for the future.

UPDATE: Here is a brief post about early voter turn on in Texas.

In the top 15 counties with registered Democratic voters, there have been 419,904 early votes cast. Four years ago, the number was 72,688.

Nuts. Article talks a little more about the 50 state strategy long term briefly as well.

Why Obama Is Best Right Now

The choice for me between Obama and HRC was tough. I think HRC, on her own, would make a great president. She has a lot going for her. One thing she doesn't, though, are the idiots she surrounds herself with. That wasn't a good sign to me the way these people keep mishandling things and the message they are putting out. Some states don't matter because x,y and z? My ass they don't. That kind of talking hurts down ticket races and hurts our chances for picking up more seats in the senate and house. 50 state strategy is where it's at! That is what made the difference in 2006. Why would you abandon that kind of ground work now?

The last 8 years has been dominated by the 50+1 strategy on the right. That is to say, you don't need overwhelming majorities to claim a mandate...all you need is 50+1. It has been the polictics of division and leverage. 2004 was a great example of that with the constitutional ban against gay marriage lie to get the evangalicals out to the polls. I'm tired of that kind of polical calculation and from the way HRC campaign has been executed it is clear she is playing that same game. Enough.

Obama, on the other hand, really could lead to a mandate. He is playing working the 50 state strategy that Howard Dean setup when he took over the DNC in 2004. That does a couple of different things. 1) It helps down ticket races for house and senate because you energize the base in red states. 2) You get more people engaged and voting in the general which will help crush the other side and give the Dems the first over 50% popular win in decades.

He has the money. He is killing everyone in the money race. Both HRC and McCain are running into money problems and it isn't even the general yet. So Obama will be able to throw money around like no-bodies business and fight back against the smear machine during the general.

Believe it or not, he does have experience and a record to judge him on. Here are some resources: Project Vote Smart. Washington Post. And a very comprehensive review of his record here.

Sure he is an incredibale orator and draws HUGE crowds to the point of having to book sports arenas for appearances. He is helping to power the young vote like possibly never before (something like 80% plan to vote this year). I mean just the amount of people he brings out to the polls is insane. Every single primary has had record amounts of people voting. It isn't just him, of course, but I would argue he plays the majority of the role in it and he would be able to continue it into the general.

However, the biggest seller for me is that we finally have someone that is slapping down the stupid personal attacks from the right with the scorn they deserve. Instead of becoming all defensive he has been able to turn it around and make the attackers smell like the shit they are. This is a great post about exactly what I am talking about.

So I have more or less shifted my allegence to Obama. I would still vote for HRC in the general and get behind her if she pulls this out of her ass, but I think Obama would be a better choice overall at this point. Plus, he is KILLING McCain in general election polling while HRC and McCain are about even.

I'll post about McCain and why he isn't the straight-talking producer of change he claims to be later.

What Obama Has Done For You

Click me.

More serious one later.

VOTE!

Go Vote! Do it! I know where you live...

Pretty Much Sums it Up

So I came across this description as to why when you put people who don't believe in government in charge of government things go to shit. I think it pretty well sums it up:

If the Government is a car setting out to give every one a ride to work, then for 40 years the Republicans have been puncturing the tires, pouring sand in the gas tank, stealing the distributor cap, and, whenever they can get their hands on the wheel, driving it straight into the nearest ditch and then, pointing to the wreckage as the tow truck backs up to it, saying, See, this proves that people were meant to walk. And they do this so that they don't have to chip in on gas.

OVER RATED!!!

So before I tell you all why the Patriots piss me off so much, let me tell you a story. Ever since the talking heads started talking about uber the Patriots were and that they were the best team ever and Brady was God and could bring World Peace I've wanted to send one single text message to a friend. I thought I was going to be able to do it when the Colts first played them and were tearing them up, then the 2nd half happened. I thought I'd be able to do it when the crappy Ravens almost beat them, then that BS call in the in-zone at the end of the game gave it to the Patriots. I thought I'd be able to do it when the Chargers played them, then they fell apart. So it came down to the Uber Bowl, then with 4 minutes left the Giants decided to stop playing D and I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. But, as you all know, Eli drove them down and scored and the 'best team evah' lost. So I was finally able to send the text message I had been wanting to send all year. That text message was simply: OVER RATED!!!

It was promptly answered with a 'Fuck u'. ;)

Anyway, the Pats are a good team. Brady is a good QB. The thing that pisses me off the most though is the way the media pumps it up like Brady IS the reason they are so dominate. Bullshit. You give any good QB that offensive line and those receivers and they are going to tear up the opposition. The key is Belichick. After years coaching other teams he finally figured it out and knows how to just make it work. He game plans better than anyone in the league and he knows how to use his players to their greatest effect. The man should get a lot more credit for what he does and not this damn Brady lovefest.

Destiny my left nut.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Maria Shriver endorses Obama. Take that, you Republican shill. I bet the house is warm and fuzy between Arnold and her now. Whose the girly man now, punk?

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

Origin of Super Bowl Sunday

From the Germans, of course.

Obama Closing

Check out how fast Obama has been closing on HRC in this chart. It is pretty remarkable.

The more I look and listen then more I think Obama is the best choice for the country. I think he'll set the right tone world-wide and within the country. Too my surprise I've read and heard some pretty die-hard republicans say they will vote for Obama over McCain and I think that is a pretty good sign. With Edwards out I think Obama will attact more of his peeps than Hillary and with the Kennedy blessing he should start making in-roads on the Hispanic vote as well.

From a policy perspective I think they are both pretty similiar. I still think HRC would be a great president too but I think Obama will have a easier time getting things done overall. I really hope he can pull it off on Tuesday, it'll be a landslide in the general if he can.

I also think the last debate between the two of them was fantastic in how civil it was. I, for one, think civility is over-rated but it was nice to see them really focus on the issues and differences between Dems and Repubs instead of beating each other over the head. It would AWESOME if you have whomever looses the primary be the VP for the eventually winner. You get Bubba back in the WH either way that way.

Finally, the money Obama is pulling in is just nuts. $32 million in Jan is more than McCain brought in the ENTIRE year of 2007. Plus, he really motivates people. Look at the voter turn outs in the states for all of the primaries so far...in most states it is almost double what was in the past. That's a FANTASTIC thing.

Very interesting and cool primary.