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.