Roger Ebert is dying and showing us how to live. Found at Pharyngula on February 19: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

My favorite excerpt:

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

“To make others less happy is a crime.” Review an earlier post, here, “Christians are the bad guy? How did that happen?” How many fundamentalists (enter any religion) have made gays, women, slaves, etc, unhappy? And the only reason for such was ego or greed.

“We must try to contribute joy to the world.” I, too, am happy I have lived long enough to find this out.

Peace.

Yep, it’s a I-haven’t-posted-anything-new-cause-I’m-busy post. Work has been busier than usual and my Cicso class has required quite a bit of my attention. Hence my time for writing witty nonsense has been more limited than usual.

I’ll try to get something more interesting to read up shortly, but for now just know that I am still alive and working my ass off.

I like to consider myself to be a wired individual, but even though I grew up alongside the technology that is now commonplace these days I am nowhere near as wired as some of the kids who have never known anything other than the highly digital world we have today.

I’m not even that good at multitasking. If I’m doing something I’m usually doing that one thing to the exclusion of anything else. Be it writing a blog post, chatting in IM, playing a game, or talking on the phone. I think I’ve sent a total of a dozen texts on my phone in my entire life. I don’t own a smartphone. Occasionally I’ll talk on the phone while driving or do a little IM chat while working on a blog post, but I usually end those conversations quickly so I can get back to concentrating on the primary task at hand. I’ve never had a lengthy, pointless conversation on my cell while driving. It’s too distracting. About the best I can do is listen to the radio while driving or talking to a passenger.

Compared to some of the kids I know today that makes me a total Luddite. Every time a break come around at work the kiosk computers are filled instantly with people checking their Facebook pages while chatting on IM and eating a snack. They’d have their cellphones out if it were for the fact that they’re banned from the building and some of them go out to their cars to get around that restriction.

This is why I found the following episode of Frontline so interesting. In it they take a look at how all these highly wired and constantly multitasking people are affected by the technology they’ve so immersed themselves in. How is it affecting them socially and physically? What’s it doing to their brains? How’s it affect their relationships? How will it all change the way the world works?

As per usual with Frontline, this is a very balanced bit of journalism that points out the pros and cons. In the end they don’t draw any conclusions one way or the other, but simply look at where things are headed and what it might mean. We’re going to lose some things along the way, but we will gain others.

The episode airs tonight on your local PBS station, or you can watch it here as I’ve embedded all nine chapters in this entry. The first is below and the rest are after the jump. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on it if you take the time to watch it.

Continue reading »

So here’s a quick update on what I’m doing.

New semester starts today and I’ll finally be taking my Cisco classes, which was the whole point of going back to school. Two seven and a half week courses back to back so it’s going to move at a breakneck pace. Plus I get out of class five minutes before I start my shift at work. Which means I’ll be a little late to work, but I usually end up staying past the end of my shift anyway so it all works out in the wash. Boss is OK with it and that’s what matters.

Been sending out resumes like complementary breath mints. My contract at Big Dot.Com company comes to an end at the end of April so I don’t have much time left to find someplace else to work. There’s been a fair amount of postings for IT people, but they’re asking for people with a lot more job skills than I currently have. May have to, once again, consider looking out of state for work. Can’t really afford to be out of work for any length of time.

All of that is what has been keeping my attention which is part of why I’ve not been blogging as much lately. I’ll try to devote some more attention to the blog in the coming weeks, but it’s hard to think of stuff to write about when you’re busy preparing for a looming deadline like the one I’m dealing with.

What have you guys been up to?

I don’t have much to talk about at the moment, but thought I should post something. The last couple of days have been pretty busy what with Thanksgiving and visiting with Courtney and family friends. We’ve seen two movies so far this weekend: Planet 51 and Ninja Assassin. Talk about going from one end of the entertainment spectrum to the other.

Planet 51 was mildly amusing even if the story was full of moments when you thought to yourself “Why the fuck doesn’t he SAY something?!?” because all it would take is a little communication to smooth out the plot complications. The reason, of course, is it would make for a short movie. Still, it was aggravating when they’d pop up.

Ninja Assassin was full of over-the-top CGI violence which made it fun. One of the first deaths had a guy losing the top half of his head, which is probably the worst of the effects (in terms of “ack” factor) in the entire movie. If you can make it past that then the rest of the movie is a wild ride. The blood is CGI enhanced so that every time some gets so much as a nick from a razor they gush fountains of blood as though they weren’t really human, but just big walking bags of blood. It’s full of Ninja goodness and all the mystic powers they supposedly have.

Other than the movies it’s been a lot of hanging out, eating food, chatting up a storm, and watching TV. I’ve barely been on my computer in two days, which has led to some withdrawal issues. Hopefully the rest of you are enjoying your weekend as much as I am.

Beanie back when she first arrived.

You may recall that back in March of this year we took on another cat in hopes that she would keep Melvin company when we weren’t home. You may also recall that Melvin didn’t think that was such a great idea. He disliked that idea a great deal. Once he figured out that Beanie was a total pacifist who had no front claws of her own and would rather hide under my bed than fight back, Melvin pretty much laid down the law as to how things were going to be between him and Beanie.

In the seven and a half months since then, Beanie’s life has consisted of long stretches in one of two places: 1) the spare bedroom we had set up for her as a safe room when trying to get her accommodated to her new home or 2) my bedroom, usually under my bed. The only time she’s come downstairs — outside of a couple of times before Melvin stopped being afraid of her in the first two weeks we had her — has been when I’ve physically picked her up and carried her downstairs. We’ve had to close her up in the spare bedroom whenever we head out of the house for any amount of time (e.g. to go to work) or when we go to bed. No amount of dissuasion prevents Melvin from occasionally beating the shit out of Beanie when she’s out of her room so when she does venture out she spends a lot of time listening for any indication that he’s coming up the stairs.

Personally, I’ve felt terrible about this for a long time. Beanie is for the most part an absolute sweetheart who can be quite content to lounge with you for hours at a time. She just doesn’t handle dealing with other pets very well. I hate the idea of giving her up, but I think it’s the best for her in the long run. Even knowing that, however, I still feel sad at seeing her go.

And tonight is when she’ll be gone. Courtney is coming down from Grand Rapids to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. She’s being dropped off by her mother, Kim, who provides foster homes for cats until they can find a permanent home. Turns out she knows someone who is looking for a cat that doesn’t already have any pets that she thinks will make a good home for Beanie. So when she drops Courtney off this evening she’ll be taking Beanie back to Grand Rapids with her.

I feel bad that I’m at work and won’t be there to see Beanie off when she leaves, but I couldn’t see the point in waiting until Sunday to take her up there when I drive Courtney back. That’s just four more days of being shut in a bedroom by herself. I wish I could’ve gotten Melvin and her to get along, but failing at that I’m hopeful she will find her next home to be much more accommodating.

Because I’ve been busier than usual the past few days and haven’t been able to post much so here’s a roundup. Thursday night Anne and I went to see Jonathan Coulton live in concert at The Ark here in Ann Arbor. It’s a very small venue which meant even sitting in the very back row you got a great view. We had reserved seats that put us fairly close, but not so close that our hearing was damaged by the sound system. That evening was the first time I had seen the duo Paul and Storm, who often perform with JoCo, do their own act as the opening band. They have some pretty funny stuff and are a great warm up for Jonathan. Afterward we bought a P&S CD and a JoCo USB 2GB Flashdrive that has every song he’s ever done with all the album artwork and other stuff preloaded on it. Then we got in line for the meet and greet thinking we were at the end only to end up at the beginning where we got to be the first to express our enjoyment to the man himself as well as snap this pic:

Click to embiggen!

Which was very cool indeed. It’s a great show and if you get the chance to catch him live in your town I would highly recommend it.

Friday work was hectic as hell and I only got time to put up the last entry which was mainly a YouTube video. Yesterday was spent over at family friend’s Darlene and Michael’s place where I returned the desktop PC I fixed for them. They treated us to a wonderful homemade Chicken Alfredo dinner and then I played some WoW with Mike while the girls played cards. Today will be busy running a couple of errands before heading over to the in-law’s place to celebrate a birthday for Anne’s sister Alica.

So, yea, fairly non-stop for the past few days, but a good kind of busy. I did find time to get my emo jack o’  lantern into the window, but that’s been the extent of our Halloween decorations so far. I’m hoping to get a few more things up before the day arrives. We’ll actually be attending a Halloween party this year so we’re also looking into costume ideas.

How about you guys? Anyone dressing up? If you are, what are you dressing up as? Any suggestions for costume ideas for me?

Another year has passed and I’m supposedly a bit wiser than I was. I’m definitely a bit older, by exactly one year. The one cool thing about working afternoons now is that when I go home I’ll share a late-night birthday supper with my wife. So I get to start the celebration a little early. Not that we’ll be doing much else as I have to work again tomorrow afternoon, but it’ll make for a pleasant bit of time together this evening. My daughter won’t be around for the first time in 10 years and that’s a bit of a bummer, but I’ll probably get at least a phone call from her later on in the day.

So Happy Birthday to me. Hopefully the next year will be better than the past one. Maybe I’ll finally reach my goal of becoming rich and famous through some wondrous bit of amazing inspiration. At the very least I hope that by this time next year I’ll be in a much better job with decent pay and benefits. Something with a bit more variety to it. I suppose time will tell.

Normally I enjoy getting birthday cards because it’s a sign that someone thought of me and took the time an effort to find a card and put it in an envelope and deliver it to me. This card didn’t inspire those feelings for a number of reasons.

First and foremost it was given to me a full 8 days ahead of my actual birthday. Today is August 17th and my birthday is August 25. If the reps didn’t come around but once every couple of weeks I could understand it being so early, but there are company reps on site all day every day so there’s really no reason to deliver it so early other than they aren’t really paying attention to when my birthday is, which shows that it was less a thought on their part and more of a this-popped-up-on-my-monthly-to-do-list.

Secondly the card is pretty much an advertisement for the company itself. The front is decent enough with a picture of a cupcake with a birthday candle in it. All in shades of blue, which is the officially company color, and the words “happy birthday” printed on it. The inside is blank other than the company name/logo in the lower right hand corner. If not for the attempt at personalizing it by the staff it would just say “company name” inside it as though I needed reminding of what company I worked for.

The personalization itself is the sort of generic thing you write—we hope you have a great day—for someone you know nothing about, which is the case here as the reps don’t interact with us techs often enough to know more than our names. Which makes it feel more like a perfunctory exercise more than anything else. The sort of thing you do because you think you’re expected to do it and not because you actually give a shit.

The back of the card again carries the company name/logo along with a listing of the various services they provide (staffing, professionals, etc.). It’s there so that if I should happen to stand the card upright on my desk the little ad pushing the company’s services will be visible to any who approach my work space. Though you’d have to bend down and squint to read the tiny listing of services.

It’s probably yet another sign of my cynicism that the card has the opposite effect on me than what they were probably hoping for. It was supposed to be a nice little acknowledgement that I managed to keep breathing through another calendar year and a small sign that the company cares. From where I’m standing it’s a perfect example of how the company doesn’t know a thing about me and doesn’t really care yet still feels the need to waste paper in an attempt to give me a warm fuzzy. I would’ve felt better if they hadn’t bothered trying in the first place.

A couple of weeks back on Twitter I mentioned the company’s attempts at attaboys that I thought were ridiculous. It was a sheet of paper with a simple block design on it in the company’s colors with the company name/logo prominently displayed on it that said “Good to Know You!” Um… OK. Not “Good Job” or “Excellent Work” or “That’s Some Right Fine Laboring You’ve Been Doing!” No, it said “Good to Know You!” It was like they had the ghost of Mr. Rogers design their attaboy.

That sort of thing just irritates me. All it takes to let me know I’m appreciated is popping your head in the door and saying “You’re doing a good job, keep it up.” If you really feel the need to do more than that then take me out to lunch or give me a few bucks on a gift certificate. Or, best of all, a raise. Popping out a preprinted attaboy with an inanely generic message and the company logo all over like it’s more advertisement than recognition will just kick up my cynical side and make me write bitchy blog posts.

We rotate shifts at work every so often and I’ve managed to go over a year without working the afternoon (4PM – 12:30AM) shift. The boss thought it was about time I took a turn on it and so I arranged to take day classes next semester and spent this past weekend shifting my sleep schedule. Seeing as a far part of my blogging happens during downtime at work this means my posting will probably happen later in the day. I’ll try to get some up in the hours before leaving for work, like this one, but expect a shift in when they show up.

The other bit of news is that apparently Ann Arbor does inspections of apartments every couple of years to ensure that they’re being properly maintained by the leasing company. Ours is due to be inspected this week so we’re cleaning up a bit in preparation. What fun!