Independence Day...

It is July 4th--time for my annual protest/reminder. Below follows the entire original text of the Declaration of Independence. Please read, observe, and share as you consume copious amounts of grilled meat and beer and set off explosives. (For "King" you may substitute "current form of government"--note I did *not* say "current administration". Text in bold is my emphasis.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Yesterday's 'moment in history'...

So, I logged on to Google yesterday--they often have some sort of artistic treatment of their logo as a nod to something significant that day. Here is the splash page from Saturday, June 6th, 2009:



It was apparently the 25th anniversary of Tetris yesterday. Now, I am a big fan of that game (if you don't believe me, you must not have read the blog entry I wrote about my addiction to the little blocks). But June 6th also happened to be the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy to save the Europeans from the Nazis. (Still waiting on that 'thank you' note, France.)

Of the two, I would have thought that the latter would have gotten the nod. But I guess it says something about our society that a video game was considered more significant than the liberation of Europe. Or maybe that the number 25 is more important than 65, in terms of anniversaries ("Silver" versus "ten more years until diamond"). Or maybe a Tetris version of the Google logo is just more visually interesting than a Normandy version. Whatever the reasoning, I thought it a little weird. Ah, America.

Clip of the week...

Twenty years ago? It seems like only yesterday:



A not-too-badly-done video here was made in 2007 as a memorial. It includes this text:

Though all records differ in their statistics, an estimated 5,000 people died. Thousands more were injured. The topic is still a political taboo in mainland China. Any public discussion of it is regarded as inappropriate. As a result of the strong Chinese government censorship, the news media is forbidden to report anything related to the subject unless it takes the Communist Party of China's view. This part of history has disappeared in most Chinese media.

There is a special on PBS called "The Tank Man" that is all about the continuing fallout of this event. If you click here (and I highly recommend you do), you can watch the entire thing online. It is essentially a program about how information is controlled in China, even to this day. It includes some footage of college students being shown photos of Tiananmen who, when asked what they think the photos represent, answered, 'I dunno...a parade?'

Hard to believe that, even now, a Google image search on the US page yields this:



While the Chinese Google image search produces this:



I wish I had a solution for Times Like These.

With heart on sleeve (part 2 of 2)...

(today's post is a continuation of this one...)

Part of me is interested--and always has been, on a deep level--in spiritual growth. I had been feeling parched in that area, and May Day was coming up. Last year, I had heard that the Apple Tree Morris dance team in Sebastopol danced up the dawn on May Day, but I was unable to go. I was resolved to get myself there this year to experience it. So I posted this status on Facebook:

David Yen is getting up before dawn tomorrow to go to the Morris Dance in Sebastopol. Welcome, dawn!

As intimated in yesterday's post, things with "Bob" (his temporary Living Loud alias) were going down hill like a snowball. Here is the next step:

Bob at 6:38pm April 30
In this crazy town ( your old home town ) they're always dancing and shaking their tootsies over something...usually to celebrate the changing cycle of the inner child. All aboard Sufi dancers !! Need a wake-up call ?

When I got back from the dance, I posted:

David Yen danced the Abrams today.

Among other replies, I received these:

Bob at 10:50am May 1
Ah, Jewish dancing !

Bob at 6:41pm May 1
Do you have to have "personal body lubricant' available when doing this dance ? Most activities in Sebastopol call for it...Some venues even check for it at the door !

This was finally too much for me. This was something I was doing for spiritual development, remember, and Bob had taken it from joking about it, to mocking it, to just being downright offensive. I wrote Bob separately--here is the exchange:

[Me] at 12:18am May 2
hey! thanks for thinking of me, and for all the posts on my status, but can you let me be serious from time to time? i know you are just teasing, but still.... {:o\

Bob at 6:28am May 2
Take care little grasshopper. I will leave you alone. You are where I was 15-20 years ago in life. You too will be amused when you get alittle older and look back at what you now take so seriously. I, too, have my serious side but I keep it off the streets.
Much love. Seriously.
[Bob]

Did you see that? A simple request to tone it down a notch, and I was met with condescension. As if I am going to be exactly where he is now in '15-20' years. As if 'what I take seriously' is merely a distraction, some minor little activity that I will look back at when I am older and smile, thinking how silly it all was. Argh. I decided, 'all right--this is no longer worth my time. I will try to salvage what I can of the relationship and let it go.' Here is what transpired next:

[Me] at 9:59am May 2
thank you, sir. i am quite amused quite frequently, actually--it is just hard to tell sometimes on this little phenomenon when one is being silly, and when one wants to share things that matter. it's hard to type wry sarcasm. ;o)

Bob at 6:43pm May 2
My dear David,
Here's a thought to ponder as the evening sky draws over us all : You have 351 friends listed on FB however you're the only one that wrote to me suggesting my teasing you was.shall we say,insensitive ? Moral...You ARE your best friend !
The interesting thing about FB is it's like a dance floor and most people are wallflowers content to read others correspondence. The dark side of FB, I've found,is it can serve as a dairy where you enter thoughts you really do NOT mean to share with anyone.

I try and write funny things, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes silly but ALWAYS with no intent to injure....

Your 'Friends' all adore you...I'm simply the one that says "The emperor has no clothes!"

In re-reading all this, I started to get a little steamed again. But then I realized that Bob, in his tactless, insensitive way, proved my point perfectly. In his almost-apology, he basically says, 'well, it's your fault for posting something real about yourself, not mine for responding with sarcasm, disrespect and condescension.' I agree with the first half. The social networking site has become a place to stay in touch, but not to be real. It is an electronic version of that exchange where a person says to you, 'how are you?' instead of 'hello', and is shocked when you respond with the truth.

I am not that person.

If you don't have the presence of mind to say hello or render a greeting instead of asking me how I am doing, you will receive my attention, my eye contact, and my truthful response. If I post a status of "what's on my mind" (the Facebook lead-in for the status update box), it will be honest and real. I do not allow myself to wear my heart anywhere but on my own sleeve. This has gotten me into heaps of trouble in my life, and I believe it is chief among the reasons why deep friendships often elude me. But it also allows me to sleep with myself at night with the knowledge that I have been honest and open in a world that refutes those qualities, directly and indirectly, on a daily basis. I mean to share everything about myself, and will continue to do so. There are few who can really handle life on an edgy, loud, full-throttle level. I understand this, and don't think less of anyone for it.

I asked one of my best friends, a person who has been there for me for many years and knows more about me than most, for his honest feedback about me. He told me, among other things, that I have a tendency to dwell on the negative--citing, among other things, the divorce, not getting to spend the time with my kids that I would like, and my financial woes. I was a little put off by this, but realized that he is right, I can get stuck on those topics some times. But the bottom line is that, while I don't want to sound like a broken record, I will not change the way I live to make other people comfortable. It is not healthy for me, and it is not healthy for our society. That, perhaps, is the Quixotic truth of my life.

And that is what makes the blog an important place for me. Here, you can read and judge to whatever extent you like, and neither of us is hurt or made uncomfortable by your reaction. Here, I can be honest, and if you don't like it--if you meant to say 'hi' instead of 'how are you?', you can click your way to freedom instantly, without the awkwardness of finding a conversation breaker so you can go back to *your* life.

Thank you for reading.

With Heart on Sleeve (part 1 of 2)...

In my recent self-examination over To Blog Or Not To Blog, I was also undergoing a similar internal debate about Facebook. The Social Networking Site is a strange environment. On the surface, it is a place to stay connected, and reconnect, with friends who are near and not-so-near. But because it is a quick and informal means of doing so, it can be a trap to remain just that: on the surface. With the advent and growing popularity of Twitter, a quick-update service where you can let people know what you are doing at any minute of the day, casual and meaningless social interaction is becoming as pervasive as the flood of casual and meaningless infotainment.

Some people take this stream of social static way too personally. In my experience on MySpace, I found the social current to be incredibly adolescent. A feature on the site encourages users to select their "top friends" for all to see. On more than one occasion I watched in horror as friends of mine had their feelings hurt--by people who were good friends in real life--over a change in their status on that friend's "top 8" list. There was even an incident in which a girl committed suicide after she was treated badly by others on her MySpace account. I could go on and on about the conduct of the people involved in that situation, but instead I will try to remain on my current train of thought.

I have always tried to remain objective on these sites. Nearly everyone I know has had some sort of emotional fallout to deal with as the result of a misinterpreted e-mail or post or comment that someone else made. The fact is, communicating as we do in a fast-paced, spell-checked environment, it is easy to make mistakes in communication. If I can attempt to type "I'd like you for a manager" and it can come out "I've lived yon, from a manger", I can easily hit send and convey a completely wrong message. And that is just talking grammar, spelling and punctuation, without even getting into the entire mess that is inference and implication. Communicating emotions or emotionally via electrons has vast inherent potential for going awry.

There have been times when I have felt hurt, or frustrated, or even downright angry as a result of something someone has posted. And, to be honest, I have done the same--conveyed things in a way that have hurt people who I never intended to hurt. But then I take a step back and think: who is this person? Are they someone who is adept at communicating in this environment? What might they have been going through when they typed this? You have to consider the source, don't you? I have actually written back in some cases, asking for clarification, and in many cases discovered that my interpretation of the message was way off from the intent, and that has been good for the relationship, rather than the bad that would have resulted from assumption.

In a recent 'status update' on Facebook, I posted the following:

David Yen wants to hear from his inked friends in Sonoma County: how was your experience, who was your artist? bonus points if you send a pic. (i don't know what the points are good for, actually--just looking for some feedback.) going to get some work done soon, and the market is *flooded* with artists....

This, to me, seemed rather clear: I was asking for people who had tattoos to tell of their experience, who their artist was, and asking for an image of the work they had done, if they could get one to me. Here are the responses (names have been changed to protect the guilty):

FF1 at 9:20am April 28
I need to know too... I have been pondering the inky art for some time....

FF2 at 9:31am April 28
I got 'inked' in NYC, watch out it is addicting...I am working on my second!

FF3 at 9:42am April 28 via Facebook Mobile
I did mine at [shop] in Petaluma, but it's so small and simple anyone could do it. One of the supervisers in my office got a neat one that winds up her leg. Her artist was [name] in SR [phone number]

Denise at 9:58am April 28
(Heh, I got so excited I initially posted this as my status.) Here's a start: [link] Click photo for [name]. Then click tattoo images. Scroll next. You'll know it when you see it...

Denise at 10:15am April 28
There's more...just sent you an inbox message. Wee!

FF4 at 10:19am April 28
[same name as in FF3's comment] is actually a very talented artist! [FF4's boyfriend] and I get all of our work done by a good friend at [shop], [name]. You can see some of my tattoos in my pictures.

MF1 at 10:19am April 28
[name] at [shop] does the best work I have ever seen!
[full name, address, phone number]

Sadie at 11:23am April 28
Well, if you were in Michigan, I'd tell you to head ot [shop] or [shop]...but you're not. :) I want to see pics when you're done.

FF5 at 11:44am April 28
I had my first one done on the Bowery in NY -- so you should be fine:)

Blenderat 12:22pm April 28
forget the tats and get tires and registration for you bike!

Bob at 12:22pm April 28
David,David,David....What ARE you thinking ?

Sadie at 12:33pm April 28
[Blender]'s right...more cost effective to forget the tats and get your bike up to code than get nailed with a ticket later.

Bob at 1:59pm April 28
[Blender],[Sadie] & [Bob] are ALL on the same page....except I don't think you need a motorcycle either. Middle age crisis ?

FF6 at 2:58pm April 28
Just don't choose any of these:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/5230467/No-Regrets-The-Best-Worst-and-Most-Ridiculous-Tattoos-Ever.html

the Ex at 3:08pm April 28
I'm thinking his middle age crisis is going to last two decades, [Bob]. He might as well enjoy it how he sees fit. : )

Bob at 4:30pm April 28
Uh oh ! A can of worms ! Time for this fellow to zip his lip and "exit stage right!"

the Ex at 6:11pm April 28
No worms, silly. An ages old joke.

Bob at 7:16pm April 28
I am silly, true ! No fool like an old fool, eh ?

Denise at 10:29am April 29
Well, David, I'm glad we could all stay on topic for ya. ;) Happy inking.

[Me] at 10:24am May 4
[FF3], denise, [FF4], [MF1]--thanks for the help. [FF6]--thanks for the laughs! i think i need a copy of that book...

So. That's a total of twenty comments, if you count my response at the end. Of those, almost one fourth actually answered the question, at least partially. Of the rest, there was criticism regarding my life choices, and some even started an entire conversation *about* me without *including* me, on my own page.

I was seriously put off by Sadie's comments (especially in light of others she had posted recently), so I sent a message to her, trying to clear things up. She responded that she had no idea what I was talking about, in a way that suggested to me that she was one of those who type without thinking, and after typing forget all about what they said. A "fire from the hip" sort of person--you all know at least one. I was able to let it all go after that exchange.

Bob, on the other hand, only got worse. Part II tomorrow.

Too darn hot / It's too darn hot...

This was a lovely weekend. Really, really hot, but a good weekend. Saturday the boys and Denise and I shot some mini-golf at Scandia. When Denise left to go to her show, Thing 1 and Thing 2 and I took the dog to the beach because it was so hot outside. We played and had a very fun time--it is always a crack up watching Maggie run in the waves. I found some bits of sea glass, and we came home and had dinner.

Sunday was the end-of-year party for Thing 1's hockey team. They made it to the state championships this year, so this was a special time. We went to one of the family's house, and they had a pool, a trampoline, and a huge inflatable water slide thing. We had build-your-own nachos, I made margaritas...it was a blast. The end of it was a bit of sharing by the team manager, the coaches, and handing out of the coach gifts and final patches for the kids' season achievements (hat tricks, shutouts, etc.). The swimming and sliding were very much appreciated, though, as it was really, really hot on Sunday, as well.

How hot was it? Well, I put some pillar candles on the patio table a week or so ago when I was eating dinner out there at night. Here is what they looked like at the end of the day:



Guess that is why people put those pillar candles on plates.

On my way to work today...

...I was cut off on the freeway. This is a frustrating thing for me, because it only happens on the commute when I follow a "Safe Distance" behind the car in front of me. If I tailgate, I *never* get cut off. But if I back off to the three-second distance, some idiot always pulls in front of me. To add insult to injury, that same idiot inevitably widens the gap between his car and the car I was following to--you guessed it--Safe Following Distance. Argh.

Today's cutter-offer was different, however, in that I was cut off by the Crown Prince of Irony. The bumper sticker on the car that cut me off:

Mean People Suck
Yep. Then he merged to the right lane to gain more footage in the commuter traffic. Two miles later, he cut me off again. I wanted to pull him over and ask him (a) if he was a vampire, or (b) if I could get some sort of favor from him, but I decided against it.

Bad time to die...

It's getting so you can't even be buried in peace in this country, let alone rest in peace.

A few months ago, I first heard of the Westboro Baptist Church--you may have, also. They are a radical religious group that was picketing at a soldier's funeral, carrying signs that the people who shot the soldier were 'sent from God' and that God was punishing the United States for all our transgressions. (Their website is www.godhatesfags.com, if that gives you any indication of how insane these people are.) They actively picket memorial services for children slain by gang violence, soldiers killed in Iraq, and campuses with gay organizations, mis-quoting Scripture and handing out leaflets laden with typos. I could go on and on (indeed, I had made an entire post devoted to the anger I felt at these people), but I would rather not feed into the violence.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a woman in the Carolinas who was on her way to Florida when she decided to stop in at a funeral home. She walked right into the funeral hall, started waving a wand and dancing around the deceased (some police reports called it a car antenna) and opened the casket. She laid her hands on the dead man, tapped him on the head with her 'wand', and then threw flowers from on top of the casket at the family before leaving. She was apprehended a few miles away and, when asked why she did it, responded that she "felt that it was the right thing to do at the time." If that isn't crazy enough, there's more--she didn't even know the family. She just stopped in to raise the dead, or send it on its way, or whatever she was doing, and then left. (Original story here and here.)

Just a couple of days ago, there was a similarly odd situation in Arkansas. Some woman from Texas wandered into a funeral carrying a can of beer. When the family asked her to leave the can, she refused. When they asked her to leave the premises, she scratched a man's face and then got into a fight with the man's mother, who allegedly kicked her in the chest. When the police showed up, the beerophile replied that "no backward country cop" was going to take her to jail. Apparently she was wrong about that, because she is now enjoying some time in a state-funded facility. (Original story can be found here.)

So, to all of you--my dear readers and friends: Please don't die right now. It's a mad, mad, world out there.

Inauguration Day...

Okay, I really, really tried hard not to post about this, but I just can't help myself. This is a really long, really opinionated blog, and I'm sure you don't want to read it. But since I can't afford a therapist, I had to put it somewhere. Come back tomorrow for the entertainment. Still here? Okay, then.

If you know me at all, you know I don't care for our current set of world governments. Not just ours, not just "theirs"--all of 'em. Remember when you were little, and you and your three best friends could play all day and have a blast...until the fifth kid came along and everything was suddenly wacky and weird? You had to play round-robin instead of teams. You had to find another piece for the game. You suddenly had to take turns at four-square. There is a reason the phrase 'fifth wheel' works so well to illustrate the concept 'awkward'. I believe that every organizational structure has a lower and upper population limit--an optimal quantity of warm bodies that it will work well for, and anything larger or smaller makes it unwieldy.

This theory has proven itself in my personal and world-observed life time and again: witness the layoffs at O'Reilly I blogged about just the other day. Witness the collapse of Starbucks when it reached critical mass (another wonderful phrase for 'you just got too damn big'). Our government is in the same predicament. We supposedly live in a representative democracy--but in a group of several billion people, how will *my* desires ever be suitably represented? I am not the first to notice that our representatives and congressfolk are for the most part older, richer, and whiter than most of the population. But I digress.

I didn't vote for Obama. I didn't vote for that other guy, either. I voted my belief, not my fear, not my "hope", out of the understanding that, no matter how broken I believe the system to be, the system is still the system. I am not unhappy that Obama won, but he wasn't my first choice. This is important for you to understand, because I don't want a lot of flak about who I support and all that. It is not what this is about.

What this blog is about is the trend I am experiencing among those I hear around me. There is a large group of very vocal people who *did* vote for Obama. And they are driving me to the brink of something violent.

First, there is the sentiment that the voters are super-important because they voted for Obama. I never really cared for sports fans who speak in the third person plural: "We sold Schottenheimer? Oh, MAN!" "We totally got ripped off on that call!" "We've won the series more times than anyone!!!" Um...'we'? Where were you when those athletes had to get pain shots just to keep playing? When they worked seven days a week on the offseason just to stay in good enough shape to compete? When their coaches/trainers/whoever screamed at them for several hours in a row to work harder, when they firmly believed they were doing their best? I am not a fan of taking credit where it is not due. Obama has worked very hard to get where he is. He was elected, sure, but those who elected him are not owed anything by me or anyone else, in my humble opinion. (Are you listening, Oprah?)

Second, there is an inordinate amount of hype surrounding this man, and I think it is (a) ridiculous in its entertainment base, and (b) unfair to Obama. As an example of the first, I cannot tell you since I have already lost count, how many Facebook status updates I saw this morning about Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Perlman performing at the inauguration. It's like the halftime entertainment and commercials at the Super Bowl--hey, if you don't want to watch the game, don't watch it for cryin' out loud. Rent a movie, or go outside, or something.

As for the second...well. Sure, he preached hope and revival and all sorts of repair and healing. But is he the end-all be-all we have all been waiting for? I doubt it. The executive branch is only one part of a triumverate in our country, and the other two are (in the case of the judicial branch) small and confused and (in the case of the legislative branch) owned by lobbyists and not representative of their constituents. Can Obama single handedly save our country? I didn't agree with everything the previous president did, but I don't believe Bush was the Anti-Christ. And I don't believe Obama is the Messiah.

Finally--for now, at least--I am about sick and tired of the anticipation factor in the hype. I have touched on this already, but just to clarify: I have many friends and associates who said, at the turn of the year three weeks ago, 'boy am I glad 2008 is over. 2008 sucked. I am so excited for 2009. It is going to be a GREAT year.' and so on. Guess what? One week later, many of those same people were already sick of 2009. Is it fair to assume that Obama is going to fix everything to everyone's satisfaction? The press has compared him to the famous "chicken in every pot" sentiments voiced by another president we had not too long ago. But can one man really turn around the crap we have gotten ourselves into? It took years and years to get us where we are. Can he do it in four? What if he can't? What will it do to the hyped-up people who think he can? It won't be pretty, I can assure you. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Obama is in a very bad place. Whatever good the man will do--and I believe he will do much good--it cannot possibly measure up to the vision many people have for his time in office.

Mr. President, you have my hopes, condolences, support and best wishes. May you achieve what you wish for.

Yet another reason why I hate corporate america...

The folks at O'Reilly Media just laid off a bunch of people. One of them was my girlfriend, Denise. But just to set the record straight, this blog isn't about that company specifically. It is about this process in our country of cutbacks, 'downsizing', 'rightsizing', whatever. A bunch of doublespeak that means "we don't know what the eff we're doing so we have to do something before the shareholders stop giving us money."

If you haven't seen Office Space yet, do so immediately. If you have ever worked in Corporate America, you will split your sides and wet yourself laughing at the perfect representation of office life. If you have not had the delight of that experience, you will still find it funny. And I might add, you can view it as a documentary. It is that accurate.

(This *might* be considered a spoiler, but it won't ruin the movie for you, and it is important to this rant. So, tough it out.) During the movie, there are layoffs. In the course of the layoffs, it becomes evident that the laying-off process is really more about reverse Robin Hooding the company: the people who do the bulk of the work are being let go, and their multitudinous tasks are absorbed by others who don't have the training to handle them and are not compensated further, while the people who 'supervise' and 'manage' others are given more money. Middle management gets richer, upper management gets richer, the workers get effed.

I have personally been through this process twice. Once was at the hands of our government, who discovered that the senior officers of the company I worked for were running a Ponzi scam and decided to shut the company down. Over 40% of the company was laid off a week later, then about another 50% of the remaining people were let go a couple weeks after that. I survived both, but realized I was just marking time until the axe fell and decided to get the hell out.

The second time was textbook Corporate America. I used to work in the video game industry. The company I worked for, Mattel Interactive, sold their entertainment division (us) to Ubisoft, and Ubisoft laid off anyone who wasn't working on the four titles they were interested in publishing. They didn't concern themselves with who the best workers were--they didn't have time or energy for that. So they kept people who should have been let go, and let a lot of people (good friends of mine) go who really knew what they were doing and could have made the company successful. (By the way, after those four titles were published, they let most of the rest of the people go, and moved the remaining handful to the city, forty miles away.)

It is as if (this is a little illustration I came up with myself and am very proud of) some folks are sitting in some boardroom somewhere. Lord High Muckety-Muck says, "Well, our racehorse seems to be about ten pounds too heavy. What can we do?" Chancellor Meek says, "Well, the left hind leg from the knee down weighs exactly ten pounds. Why don't we just cut that part off and be done with it?" Lord Muck says, "Brilliant! Simple, clean, easy--brilliant! Go forth, Chancellor Meek!" The Chancellor summons Headsman Mook, who then proceeds to severance package the ten pounds of leg, and voila! Success. Sort of.

Then Mook, Meek and Muck celebrate by giving themselves raises, and the shareholders all rejoice at the wonderful streamlining and reorganizing the company has completed. Profits stabilize (notice I did not say 'increase') and all is well in the kingdom.

I could go on, but I'm just making myself madder and madder. Feh.

Election Day...

Pick your favorite, you Americans you:



And that's about all I have to say about that. For today, at least.

"and I didn't even get a kiss"...

My grandfather on my mother's side was a hysterical man. He was one of those people who may not have had a world-class book-learnin' edumacation, but had common sense to the moon and back. And not only that, but he was incredibly funny. His wit was not rapier sharp, it was laser sharp. Whenever someone said, "I got screwed!" he would always follow it up with "Did you at least get a kiss?"

Have you read the news? I used to work for AIG in the 90's, when I lived in New York. It was the first time in my life I earned stock in a company I worked for. Here's a capture of the stock ticker from this morning:



For those of you who don't read these things, I would like to point out that one year ago, the stock was valued at approximately US$70--today it opened at about two bucks. I apparently would not be well-suited for a career in speculative finance.

If you haven't read the article from the Times, I'll like to call your attention to some things I find interesting (as in the Chinese curse, 'may you live in interesting times'). The Federal Reserve Bank bailed out the financial giant in exchange for nearly an 80% share of the company. Now, then--the Fed gets its money from--who? Oh yeah, me. From the taxes I pay for the activities of a government I don't support. (God, I wish I had the balls for a little Civil Disobedience.)

So, if the crash of AIG stock is the rock, here is the hard place: I am paying the Fed to bail out a company that took my money and lost it. If/when the company gets back in the black, it will be due to an involuntary infusion of my money into the company. And who will make the profit? The Fed. Oh, sure, I am going to see a slight increase (again, that's IF the company pulls out of the dive), but multiply that increase by thousands and thousands of shares, and you will see what the Fed will gain out of it.

Don't get what I'm trying to say? (I am not always clear when I'm ranting.) Go read this article--he's a financial writer, and has put it much more eloqently in his review of the situation. Bottom line is, the Fed stands to make a ton of money off of my tax dollars, and they are under no obligation to return the interest like the banks they "support". Will they thank me? Unlikely. Will I get a kiss? I would bet my AIG stock that I won't.

That sign on the freeway (Part 1 of 4)...

This isn't the exact sign I pass on my morning commute to work--mine has a different image--but the layout and text are the same:



Spark a reaction for you? It certainly did for my eleven year old son. He saw the sign on our way to the theater (sorry for the shameless plug, but only two weeks left!). As we passed it, he grew very concerned and said with a grieving tone in his voice, "That's really sad." Then there was a long pause before he asked, "What is autism?"

We live in a culture of fear. Don't believe me? Turn on the news, or open a periodical. All we see and hear is geared to frighten us--the latest war, the latest criminal activity in our back yard, the latest increase in something scary or decrease in something good. And all stuff we have no control over. What could be more terrifying than an endless litany of life-ending events which pound into our ears and hearts the many tragic, unavoidable, senseless ways we or (preferentially, if you listen to the media) someone we love could suddenly die?

It's even in our e-mail inbox. How many times over the last year alone have you been regaled by some well-meaning associate, friend or family member with a message telling you about the cancer caused by reusing a plastic water bottle? Or the dangers of walking to your car at the mall by yourself? Or the famous I-woke-up-and-those-bastards-stole-my-kidney story? (Watch this if you haven't seen it yet.)

There is so much of this around, it has a name: Scarelore. A subdivision of the definition of "Urban Legend", it looks like this:

"Urban legends are narratives which put our fears and concerns into the form of stories or are tales which we use to confirm the rightness of our world view. As cautionary tales they warn us against engaging in risky behaviors by pointing out what has supposedly happened to others who did what we might be tempted to try. Other legends confirm our belief that it's a big, bad world out there, one awash with crazed killers, lurking terrorists, unscrupulous companies out to make a buck at any cost, and a government that doesn't give a damn." (from Snopes.com, one of the best debunkers on the net.)

Sure, there is a small tagline on the bottom of the billboard that references somewhere you might "learn the signs". But the sign inspires fear and shock to get a reaction out of us: "How sad, Dad. Whatever can we do?!?" Is there no other way to communicate any more? Do we have to perpetuate this in our world, even for (especially for) a cause as good as this one? It makes me sad and frustrated all at the same time.

to be continued...

Yet another reason to watch the NHL...

Okay, I am not the world's biggest pro sports fan. If you've been paying any attention, you've probably already picked up that I am a hockey guy--but that's the extent of my pro sports devotions. I like football (American football, Cara, sorry) and pro volleyball or pro lacrosse--which most people don't even consider pro sports. I find baseball tolerable, but can barely endure basketball--and don't even get me started on tennis or golf. Beyond the whole I'm-bored-to-tears-can-we-get-another-ten-dollar-hotdog thing, though, the world of pro sports has become so commercial, so pathetically Hollywood its money-grubbing, scandal-ridden, media-attention-grabbing stunts, that I just don't have a taste for it.

All that aside, though, if I'm watching football (and, I must admit, I do like to watch pro football occassionally), I like to root for the Green Bay Packers. An uncle of mine played for them way back in the days of leather helmets, when the guys playing for the team really were working at the packing plant during the day, so I have a bit of loyalty there. They are a community-owned team, not spinning at the whim of some star chamber of corporate magnates. They come out at practice and sign autographs for the fans. They have the same horrible, wonderfully charactered and storied stadium they have had for years, not some sleek mall with an astroturf field in the middle. There is character in the fan base, character in the locker room, and it all shows in how they play, win or lose.

Their quarterback for the last several years has been a man named Brett Favre (that rhymes with carve, if you don't know.) This guy was a perfect fit for the team--he had some problems, sure, but he overcame them. (He struggled with a painkiller addiction, but outed himself and got off it on his own, not at the expense of his team, league, or reputation.) He was a blue-collar sort of guy, good natured and at ease in the spotlight. He worked to solidify the organism of the Packers, recruiting heavily and making suggestions to the front office that led to the team taking the Vince Lombardi trophy back to Green Bay. He played selflessly, even on the weekend after his father passed on, dedicating the game to him and winning soundly. He was a sort of Cal Ripken of football, setting records in many, many categories and winning the Super Bowl. He played with heart, intensity, and love of the game.

The fans, we loved him so, we didn't want him to ever leave. But we all understand how time can do its evil thing to the human body--especially a body that is used to experiencing the same force as a car wreck dozens of times a day for years on end. At the end of last season, he held a tearful press conference in which he expressed his intention to finally hang up the cleats for good. We all cried with him, but we moved on, the team moved on, everyone in the world moved on.

Then the unthinkable thing happened: he started listening to his agent.

Suddenly, a few weeks ago, he was back in the spotlight, pressuring his former team to take him back. See, there were a couple of years left in his contract, and he just didn't want to stop playing after all. The Pack had already moved forward, though--they drafted players according to a new strategy utilizing their next (hopefully great) quarterback, and couldn't just change in midstream again. He and his agent pressured the team, to the point of getting the NFL commissioner involved. Having forced everyone's hand, the commish said the Pack had to take him back. It was weird.

Then, just as suddenly, he was on the New York Jets roster. What the aitch?!? Not only has he abandoned reason, he has now abandoned loyalty as well. It is as if he was replaced by a pod some summer night in his home, and this is all part of a crazy alien plot to do away with Truth, Justice and the American Way. Now, I have to root against the Jets just for having such an abomination, and that doesn't make me feel good. Just conflicted.

I wonder if I can get a NHL-only sports pack on my cable this season?

They're coming in from the air ducts! Stay frosty...

My house is starting to resemble a science fiction movie. If you've seen Aliens or Starship Troopers, you will understand the analogy.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a trail of ants running the length of the garage. They started in a little hole near the garage door (in that seam of concrete slab between the driveway and the garage) and marched all the way back to underneath the washer. I couldn't figure out where they were going, but I didn't care. I try to be pretty zen about stuff, but I do NOT like ants. I poured not one, but two small bottles of water and about four ounces of 409 down the hole, and it never even bubbled up. I figured there must be an entire colony of the damn things down there. I bought traps, and those little ant hotel poison things to bait them and encourage them to take poison down to share with their buddies after a hard day's work. They slowed down to a trickle.

About two weeks ago, I went to feed my dog, and they had found their way into the house and into the coat closet. The bag of food was teeming with them. I took it outside and threw it out, tried to get rid of the little buggers (they had levelled up in my mind, and were now "BuggerAnts", not just "Ants"). I cleaned and cleaned and tried to rid myself of them. I bought an airtight container for Maggie's food, and thought they were gone. About a week ago I came home, and they had made their way from the coat closet in that same mighty trail I had seen in the garage--a fifteen foot long line of them to Maggie's bowl. Argh. I started only putting food out for her when she might actually eat it (she doesn't have a huge appetite, and only eats when I'm around anyway).

Then, they started popping up in the bathrooms. Both of them. I cleaned both furiously. They popped up on Thing 2's bedroom, because he left a piece of art they made in school on his desk--it was one of those paste-pasta-to-some-cardstock things. We ditched the art, and cleaned his room. They popped up in the coat closet again, wandering out to Maggie's dish which one of the boys had overfilled with food. I cleaned that again. (I can picture Hudson shouting "Game over, man! Game over!" as I battle the ants.)

This weekend, I came home from Discovery Kingdom (see my last post). They had come in through the walls in the kitchen and were marching out through a tiny opening between the window trim and the wall and were enjoying themselves in the kitchen sink. I cleaned the kitchen. They came up in the same place, also came out through a switchplate/outlet interface in the wall, and also came out another tiny opening between the counter and the cabinet. They have levelled up again to Boss level and are now "FugginAnts". (The battle scene is more desperate--now I am quoting Hudson's line: "You want some? Oh, YOU want some? YOU WANT SOME?!? as I spray.)

I keep cleaning, they keep coming. I think I should go down there with some major abatement tools and kill the little beetches, but I am scared now. There must be a Metropolis of them under the house somewhere, and they have probably started a militia. I can see them dragging me underground--the same fate Hudson met with. If you have any ideas, I am open to suggestions.

Don't waste your time and/or money...

[Dear readers: this is a long blog, and there are a lot of italicized words (see, one just went by). This is a sure sign that I am not pleased. So brace yourself. You have been warned.]

Unless you really love the animal/sea creature experience, don't bother going to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

Now, you know and I know (and I told the kids) that amusement parks are all about the waiting. You spend an hour in line, take a 1-2 minute thrill ride, and you love it because it's worth it. Not so at this park. For some reason I cannot fathom, the majority of the rides we chose had only one car running on them. In the middle of their most peak time--summer weekend day, beautiful weather--they had one car running on ROAR (the 'tallest, fastest wooden coaster in NorCal'). They had a whopping two cars (well, boats really) on their get-drenched-by-water ride (which was only a 45 second ride but still took over an hour to get on).

To that wait, you can add a dizzying and death-defying surprise wait time extension: Discovery Kingdom has tried to add a "Fast Pass" feature to their park. Disney has one, and if you are not familiar with it, it is implemented perfectly. You scan your admission ticket to get a pass which allows you to take a shorter line on the most popular rides. You have to come back during a one hour window, and you cannot get another fast pass until that window arrives. It is brilliant, and with a little forethought and planning enables you to see much more of the park.

Discovery Kingdom's works like this: you pay *extra* money to get a handful of ride coupons that allow you to--get this--cut to the front of the line through the exit ramp. There is no rhyme or reason to it, you just walk up, someone in a DK costume (yes, I get the Donkey Kong reference--it was intentional) takes your ticket, and you walk right on to wherever you choose to sit. Imagine my children's chagrin when, after waiting an hour and a half for their first ride in the park, we were delayed again when we were only two spots from getting on the ride. Someone walked right up and stole one of our seat rows, forcing us to wait not one more run, but two more. And that could have gone on indefinitely.

To make matters worse, the place was staffed horribly. Having managed a retail food operation before, I can appreciate the challenges faced by employers in that arena, but here are a few highlights: the food booth we chose to eat at was staffed by three--yes, three--employees. One at the fryer, cooking up batches of chicken strips and fries (how would you like that job?), and one in each of two windows. So each order took about 3-5 minutes to get to the customer, which with a line of twenty people would equal...oh, look, mommy! We get to wait an hour for our FOOD, too! (I will save the irony of waiting nearly an hour for "Fast" food for another time, and a different blog.)

And not only were they understaffed, they were wrongstaffed. On one of the rides, the operator at the board stood talking casually with another employee and DOING HER MAKEUP WITH AN OPEN COMPACT. How is that for making you feel safe? Not to mention that I witnessed this delightful little spectacle on the water ride, which was moving intolerably slow in the first place. It's a one-minute long ride, for chrissake! And the control panel was literally right next to the line--she had the guts to do her makeup and have her little gossipy chat with her friend right within earshot of all of us in line. When I got up next to them, I simply leaned it and made eye contact, letting them know how fascinating I thought their conversation was. They actually focused on their work after that, for all of ten minutes.

In addition to this loveliness, DK has also instituted a little hidden fee move that is corporate america genius. I had asked the kids to bring along a hoodie for later in the evening when it got chilly, and thought I would just drop them in a locker on the way in. Guess how much a smallish locker cost at the front entrance? NINE BUCKS. I looked at my little group and declared, 'Gentlemen, for nine bucks you can tie your hoodie around your waist and carry it.' I was flummoxed, but not too much so. You see, in the past, they used to have little cubby holes (ala those spaces you had in Kindergarten for your backpack) that you could store your belongings in while you were on the ride. You just crossed the car, put your bag in a cubby, rode the ride, and picked up your stuff on the way to the exit ramp. I figured we would just carry all our stuff and drop it in the cubbies when we got on rides. It would be a pain, but we could work it.

Nuh-uh. See, they now have a park RULE that says you cannot carry ANY items on rides. And--here is the corporate america genius part--they have lockers at the entrance to those rides that you can put your junk in for a dollar. Lest you think you might be clever and use one of those lockers instead, they are time stamped for 120 minutes. Nothing like a hidden charge on every single ride to make you feel like you really are going to enjoy your stay at the park.

And the good stuff doesn't stop there--there are 48" flat screen monitors on nearly every line blaring out advertisements so loud that you have to yell to be heard by the rest of the people in your party. And several of the rides are "sponsored" by companies--Cornnuts, for example--with logos everywhere ala the professional sports venues (which is a kvetch for another time--boy does that little practice shout "we're money grubbing bastages and we don't care if you know it or not"). Speaking of advertising, every single ride we went on had a GEICO ad just before the end of the line: "You are 15 minutes away from the ride. In that amount of time, you could have saved 15% on your car insurance." I shit you not.

Going back to the people we encountered--the DK uniform consists of a neon yellow shirt and khakis. The neon yellow shirt says on the back: "Please keep the park clean, my family comes here too". I wonder if the employees ever read it. Their attitude doesn't indicate that they are even aware it is there. (Google that phrase and you'll find some acerbic reviews by other guests that will confirm my experience was not isolated.)

Oh, and lest you think the visit there was all about the folks who worked there, let me assure you it was not. On walking into the park, we were not handed a map or a schedule or anything. After the main locker incident, I realized they had forgotten (I try to assume the best) to give us a map. I sent Thing 1 to get one, and he returned upset and sullen. I asked why, and he said, 'I picked up a map, and someone snatched it right out of my hand'. I tried to comfort him (again, trying to assume the best), but found I was the confused one. The people at that park were messy, rude and selfish. We saw line hopping like we never had in our lives--I counted no less than forty-five people passing us during our time waiting in line for a ride. That is no exaggeration. People walked by us in both directions like it was a high school dance or something. And right in front of employees who are supposed to enforce the line hop rule (guess they were too busy forcing people to store their stuff in lockers to notice).

Now, look--there are some saving graces at this park. I absolutely LOVE the stingray petting tank, and the shark exhibit. There is a wonderful butterfly conservatory there--a big giant greenhouse with beautiful butterflies in it (we missed it because it is not open the whole day, and we wasted all our time in line, but I went the last time I was there). There are some good shows (the Shouka killer whale show is their piece de resistance). But the rest of the animals look drugged and penned in too small spaces, and the reptile exhibit is no better than our local fish store's.

We got to ride a new attraction (only open 10 days ago) called Tony Hawk's Big Spin, and that ride was AWESOME. They managed to effectively steal a page from the Disney playbook and actually involve you all along the line. There is semi-cool set dressing, and big screens showing the evolution of not just skateboarding, but other extreme sports as well (BMX and FMX, chiefly). Non-Disney parks don't typically do this, and I cannot figure out why. And the ride itself was very cool--imagine combining a tight, smooth, fast rollercoaster with a Tilt-A-Whirl and you'll get a brief idea. And, instead of one of those snap-a-photo-of-you-during-the-ride booths at the end, you can actually get a video of yourself during the ride. Pretty fun, but not enough to save the rest of the experience, which was mostly dreadful.

I was going to argue that it's close to you if you live in Northern California, but after I thought about it a bit, it takes 45 min even if there is no event at the old Sears Point Raceway. You're better off driving an extra hour to Great America, where the rides are 'hecka fun' as Thing 1 says, the place is clean, and the service is better. Or, if you want to stay local, hit the Sonoma County Fair in the next week or so.

Time to fire the copy editor...

Okay, I saw this and had to share:



I'd like to be a REALLY BIG loser, Alex. Wait, if I'm a really big loser, won't I stop being really big? And is being thin being a loser? If so, why lose weight at all? ummmm...there are multiple ways to read into this copy, and none of them support the product the ad is trying to sell.

Perhaps the copy writer was unintentionally saying what most of us know to be true already: image is not in any way connected to your weight. Health, maybe, but this ad is clearly not targeting those with health issues. We are going for the brunette coed look. (Perhaps they could use the same stock photo for their anti-aging cream?)

I'm going to have one of these just out of spite.

Five from the past...

My computer is still sick, but I did manage to time travel a bit from some drafts on my work computer. (Scandalous, I know, working on personal stuff at my place of business.) There are five posts for you to catch up on, if you are one of "those" people (I know I am):

Two about the truck: here and here
My visit to Zeum
More about the truck, and Rabbit Hole
And the clip of the week from a week and a half ago

In other news....

The company I work for is actually two offices and my desk. It is in a building that houses a manufacturing facility that builds and sells infrared detectors. The kitchen/break room is right near my desk, so I often have the pleasure of listening to everyone talk during breaks and lunch, and get to hear their monthly meeting. This month's topic: 4th of July safety. I get irritated in general that they don't just close the door, despite my many passive-aggressive attempts to shut it when they are in the middle of their meeting. But this one for some reason really bugged me. What business is it of theirs to tell people (for fifteen minutes, nonetheless) about the dangers of illegal fireworks? The tenor of the whole thing was "see how much we care about you, our employees?" Not that they actually did--it just felt like they were trying to show that they did. Ick.

She canna run, Cap'n...

So, I dropped off my truck late last night, and left a long, detailed message on the shop's answering machine. I told them I had this exact same problem fixed by them not long ago, and left specific symptoms of the problem, including the fact that it would run fine while it was cold out, but not during the heat of the day. I asked them to call when they got in if they had any questions. The previous day the woman at the desk mentioned that the head mechanic was taking off for the weekend, so they only had until about noon to get it fixed. I mentioned in that message that I thought it would be a quick fix, that I needed the truck, and could they please call me and let me know if it was still do-able.

They opened at 8:30, and I did not hear from them, so I called at 9 to see what was up. They hadn't gotten the message (apparently Woman At Desk didn't check them yet), but she said the mechanic remembered the truck and the problem from before, and they would work on it and let me know. She said they could probably still have it for me that day. I spent some time working remotely, and spent some time with my kids. The kids were very understanding about the whole thing, and even though they were disappointed, we had a great morning sharing a meal, working (they picked up their rooms while I worked) and playing Quorridor and Gobblet.

I still hadn't heard from them by 11, and started to worry, so I called again. I spoke again with WAD, who said they had been running the engine for two hours and were not seeing what I described. I nearly screamed, I was so mad. I tried to reign in the anger, and spoke very succinctly that I had described a problem which only occurred in the heat of day, not in the morning when it was cooler, and therefore they would *not* see it by running it. She said they could not fix what they didn't see, and I asked (trying not to lose my temper, and I think I mostly succeeded) if they didn't have a simple diagnostic they could run to test the ignition module. She said they could only fix it if they saw it fail. Which in my mind means, 'drive it until you are stranded somewhere, and then pay $100 to have it towed here, and we will test it in the morning and call you again to tell you we can't figure out what's wrong with it.' Argh. I asked them if they could give me a ride from my house to the shop so I could pick it up and at least have it for the weekend to grocery shop (early in the morning) and so forth, but they couldn't spare anyone.

They called again--after 12 noon--to say that they were seeing what I was describing. I asked if they were going to have time to run some tests and actually get it fixed, and they of course responded with what I already knew--the mechanic was leaving for the day, and they weren't going to be able to fix it. My plans for camping now ruined, I was trying just to get the vehicle back to my house. The ex was kind enough to loan me the van for a few days so I could at least get around. Late tonight Helene is going to give me a ride to go get the truck and bring it home. Argh again.

A little weird...

Preface/rant: I have always had this huge pet peeve about "graduation" ceremonies for K-7th grade. It seems like such a way to "level" the playing ground--in the wrong way. By making every year "special", they have managed to make no year special. There is no sense of accomplishment in moving from grade 5 to 6 if that "accomplishment" has been ballyhooed every year since preschool. It would be like having your birthday every month--you would just get tired of it. Except that moving from one grade to another is actually an accomplishment. Having a birthday is managing to survive for another year. (Which, I guess I would have to concede *is* an accomplishment for some of us.)

I have a similar (same?) beef about every single kid in a league getting a "participant" trophy. What is the point? I mean, I understand we are trying to encourage participation, but aren't we devaluing the hard work and victory of accomplishing something (i.e., the championship)? What sort of society are we setting ourselves up for? I can tell you my prediction, because it's already showing: a society of people who can accomplish much, but don't see the point. Sad. And very, very scary. [end preface/rant]

Anyhoo, today was Thing 1's last day in grammar school. EEEEEK! It was a "promotion" ceremony, which I guess was a small victory. It was also weird because I can't believe he is that old. I was uneasy, but at the same time very, very proud: among other things, he received the presidential award for academic achievment (there were only ten kids in the school who did well enough to get it). He was nervous and very excited, and I was really happy to see him up there. Next year he starts middle school.

EEEEEK again.