Back that ash up

So it's been two weeks I've had without Internet at home. It's been rough :). When that's the roughest thing in life I guess life isn't that bad. Two weeks ago, the 9th of October as a matter of fact, a roommate and I moved in to a condo. This was to accommodate the sleeping arrangement for my sister's wedding. Ever since then I have been living in the condo. Besides the freeway immediately outside my window being a little noisy the condo is quite nice. Or was until I finished moving all my crap from the various houses I have lived in the past few years. Now I seem to have more stuff that space in my room.

Oh yes, the wedding. My little sister got married. That's either really special or when I'm being selfish a little sad. For me. Because after all a little sister's wedding is all about me (insert laughter here).

Her wedding was really very, very nice. One of the nicest if not THE nicest wedding I've ever been to or taken part in. And I did have a small part in it: walk my mom down the isle to her seat. People would ask me if I was nervous and I'd say "me? I'm not getting married!". So no, I wasn't nervous.

As a present for my sister and my new brother-in-law I purchased a computer from a former boss of mine for $300. My boss was nice enough to let me pay that off $100 a month while I'm saving money. I have since formatted the drive, installed Windows 2000 and put in some software like Norton utilities and office. I have also ghosted the drive so it could theoretically be restored to this original state at a later date. My sister and her husband are pretty good at messing up computer systems in short order.

At work I think I may be getting better at my job. Perhaps a small bit. And I've reached that sort training hump, as I like to call it. Been on the phone I think six or seven weeks and I feel like I've more-or-less figured out how to talk to people and help them out. So I'm just about over the hump. Maybe everybody else has passed the hump and the hump is comfortably in the review mirror and getting smaller. But I'm still on the hump. I'm sure saying hump a lot will help with the hit stats (insert laughter here).

In other news I have been playing my two latest games: Star Wars Battlefront and Command and Conquer: Generals and having a lot of fun with it. I finished the official single player for star wars and have made it fairly far with C&C. C&C seems to do everything it's trying to do extremely well. You have to build structure and create units from those structures but that never gets annoying or feels in the way. The goals always seem straightforward and nothing yet has seemed impossible to me. In short I can't think of any flaw in this game. Just a matter of having a fond opinion of real time strategy really.

I think I've given up on this election. Kerry is still speaking in focus group approved riddles and Bush doesn't seem willing to say what is necessary to win this election. Besides that the DNC is apparently planning to fake lots of votes swarm trial lawyers all over everybody's asses so who knows what's going to happen. My prediction would be if Kerry wins it’d be because he cheated, or at least his supporters and party faithful cheated for him.

Well that's it for now. See what two weeks of no Internet does to a guy?

  ¶ 10:34 AM 0 Comments

 

"Dennis Miller and Chuck Norris"

Note: I originally wrote this while listening to the second presidential debate between Bush and Kerry with the intention of coming back to add to it later. However I didn't have the time and currently have no internet access so I am posting this as is.

I realized I should explain the title of the last entry: I am constantly looking at a clock and/or timer at various points in my day. Takes an hour and 10 minutes to get to work every day, 50 minutes to get home and I take two 15 minute breaks that absolutely must be 15 minutes long. You might say my life has become a rather predictable routine.

You might say the predictability of my day currently allows me to form a plan. Yes, I have a very formulaic plan. My plan is the most import part of my day. And it is because of this plan I successfully arrive on time and take my breaks and lunches on time. Because of the plan.

Ahah! Perfect transition. I am currently listening to the presidential debate. Mr. Kerry is using the term plan an awful lot. It's a little annoying.

Today's title, on the other hand, is also referring to the debate. The long-lasting pet-peave of NEVER using the term "socialism". What's wrong with the term? Why is it so taboo?!? Bush actually came quite close. He pointed out Kery's plan for "cheaper" health care is in fact a plan for SOCIALIZED medicine. JUST SAY IT: SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Jesus tap-dancing Christ! Why can't anyone say this?

What's more comedic is Kerry's denial of such a concept. Bush says "this is a plan for the federal government to completely take over and run the medical system" (a.k.a. "socialized medicine") to which Kerry says "no, you can keep your current system if you want it". Hah! What a sack of shit! You want socialized medicine, you've been proposing socialized medicine for the ENTIRE campaign without having the GUTS to refer to it as "socialism". So just quit the bullshit. You want socialized medicine and that's all there is to it. DO NOT insult my intelligence by saying there's going to be a choice: there will NOT be choice.

And for the love of GOD stop saying the word "lables". What the fuck does that mean?

See? Kerry wants to pass some tax hikes "on the top 1%" but not on the "working class" and yet at the same time "roll back the Bush tax cuts". Yeah, lemme 'splain: "rolling back" a tax cut is another way of saying "raising taxes" and since Kerry already said he would leave the tax cuts for the "working class making less than $200,000 a year" I can only assume he is indirectly admitting the Bush tax cuts were not in fact "only" for the absolute wealthy. And from that I can only assume that Kerry *IS* in fact proposing a tax hike on EVERYBODY who pays taxes. See, this is Kerry's plan in fact and Kerry is, in fact, a sack of shit.

I think I've figured out why Kerry seems to have such incomprehensible views on issues like Iraq: he's trying to speak in sound bites. He's trying to speak in past, present and future tense at the same time while appealing to any number of demographics at once. Demographics who will only get their news from the radio as they drive to and home from work every day. And also the focus groups: diode suction cups are hooked up to the heads of the focus groups while a number of words and phrases are read to them. When the right combination for a particular response is reached those words are written down and integrated into speeches and debate question responses. Since Kerry is trying to speak in sound bites often times the sentences end coming off not making any sense. But for selective radio and TV stations for the audience in question they make the right sense to the right demographic. Why can't a radio or TV personality say something like that?



  ¶ 6:41 PM 0 Comments

 

Life: 5 to 60 minutes at a time

This week started out okay then got a bit worse. I was trying to apply something new I had learned recently in practice, and failing. That was yesterday. Today I did a bit better but still less than satisfactory. Not doing as good of job as I'd like is starting to take a toll on me both mentally and physically. I always feel sick, my muscles are always tense and I just don't feel that good. I do sleep well and fall asleep rather quickly.

This weekend I finally installed the new computer game I ordered a mere week prior: Star Wars: Battlefront. It remind me an awful lot of the seemingly endless number of WWII shooters out there. All these different kinds of classes of fighters, different "command posts" one or the other team must hold for a period of time. That's not to say the game isn't fun, actually it is, just way too much like all those WWII shooters. In fact I have a feeling it's a lot like Battlefield: 1942, though I have played very little of that particular game. Perhaps one day my life won't be filled with so much chaos and I'll be able to play that game.

In other news I still haven't moved out, but I am slowly getting there. Tomorrow my room mate and I along with my mom and another friend are going to paint my bedroom and by this weekend family will be staying over at the new place while staying here for my sister's wedding. Ah yes, my little sister is getting married this weekend.

In unrelated news I didn't get to see the first presidential debate, only heard the last 15 minutes or so on the radio, which is my preferred medium for that sort of thing anyway. Sounded like the moderator, if you can call him that, started to lose control towards the end and the President started a gradual decline at the end also. Perhaps because he always goes to bed at 9:30 and you know those old people and their bed times. The main democrat candidly admitted that debate was a draw however since then the media seems to be convinced of a solid victory for Kerry. I'm still maintaining my assertion that Bush has won and there's no point in arguing.

Tonight on the other hand I came into the Vice Presidential debate 40 minutes into it and from what I heard the "moderator" was grossly incompetent and apparently enjoys asking loaded questions of the evil guys with the (R) next to their names. Aren't there any competent moderators left in the world?! Anyway you'd hardly guess it by the post-debate commentary from the pundits but Cheney really did win on every possible level. Hopefully the President will pull a stronger performance at this Friday's debate and continue to win despite himself.

That's all for tonight. I'm sure there's something else I wanted to mention but I will have to add it to the next entry.   ¶ 9:10 PM 0 Comments