Year-end reflections

We have come to that time of year where those of us that aren't beating ourselves senseless preparing for the annual Winter Greed and Hypocrisy Festival (AKA Xmas) start reflecting on the year that just passed. This has been a year of real highs and lows:

LOW: Gas passing $4.25/gallon this summer.
HIGH: Gas dropping to $1.60/gallon this fall.

LOW: Getting laid off after over 17 years with ADT.
HIGH: Getting hired with Comcast in December.

LOW: Being broke all summer.
HIGH: Winning tickets from a local radio station to be able to take my darling Cathy to her first ever honest-to-goodness rock concert!
BONUS HIGH: It was Carlos Santana, the seats were GREAT, and Carlos was on his A+ game!

There were other highs and lows throughout 2008, most of which I have chronicled here. On balance, there was more good than bad this year, the bad was all endurable, and 2009 looks promising. I have friends, a family that loves me, two nifty doggies and most of all the love and support of the lovely and talented Cathy! Life is pretty good.

What a month!

Well, it's official... My long unemployment is finally over. One week ago today I began working for Comcast here in Sacramento. I am in training to become an Advanced Services Representative, providing technical support for Internet and digital phone customers. I think I'm going to enjoy this. The training is challenging. I haven't had to study this hard since my short college career, and I have a head full of bees by the end of the day, but I think I'm doing well. I had forgotten how bloody short weekends are...

The Music Industry

The music industry really needs to get with the times. A case in point, from my own recent experience: I have recently gotten interested again in the music of AC/DC for the first time since college. Since I am fully in the digital music age, I roll on over to iTunes to buy some tunes. Lo and behold, AC/DC has exactly ZERO songs on iTunes...

Undaunted, I went to the AC/DC website. There you can buy every CD and a lot of LP releases that the band has ever had, but NO digital music. In desperation, I roll over to Dimple Records, my favorite local used CD shop, to see if I can score a "greatest hits" CD. It appears that AC/DC, whether out of some artistic premise or to simply keep selling the ol' catalogue, has NEVER released a greatest hits collection!

This is a story of a person that wants to get his favorite songs by a particular group in his selected format in a legal fashion. The only way for me to get my favorite AC/DC songs legally is to buy most of their albums in their entirety, rather than getting just the good stuff. Not that I would ever do so, but I think I now understand why black market music is so popular. Because I can't afford to buy a dozen or so CD's, there is no way for me to legally have AC/DC on my digital player of choice. Instead of $20 or so, the band will get nothing from me. How does that make sense?

Missing in action...

Sorry to be missing lately. Between the job hunt and getting ready to host a Thanksgiving dinner this year, life has been a touch on the hectic side. Perhaps after the holiday I'll have more to say and more time to say it...

Life is pretty sweet...

I have a wonderful wife (the wise, wonderful, intelligent and INCREDIBLY sexy Cathy), we have a couple of nifty doggies (Roobee and Shasta, more on them later), a pretty cool house-mate and my extended state of unemployment may be ending. I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not going to say more. Money may be tight, but other than that, life is good!

Chomping at the bit...

Tomorrow marks the release of the new World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. I know that MMORPGs are tools of the devil, but I enjoy them. They also keep me from getting jealous of the time that my beloved darling, Cathy spends working on her Doctorate. Besides, WoW is a fantasy game where a character can go around using a big, honkin' GUN! That and the expansion will let players build magical motorcycles! My character, Yinthalas happens to be one of the folks that can (eventually) build the bikes, so yeah, drool factor is high.

Computer games with guns, bikes and hot night-elf babes... What's not to like?

Thank you for your service...

Today is Veteran's Day here in America. It used to be a MUCH bigger deal than it is today, and I don't think that is fair. Yes, our wars are less altruistic since the Korean conflict, but that is not the fault of the veterans that served so gallantly. While our Commanders-in-Chief have showed questionable morals and judgement in choosing our battles in recent years, our troops have showed their honor and bravery in the finest tradition of our armed services. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Armed Forces, past and present, I offer my heartfelt thanks for your service to our country. I am honored to live in the country you defend.

Dedicated to my late Grandfather, William Kenneth Pettigrew, USN in WWII. I miss you, Pop.

COMPLETELY Blown Away!

I have spoken at great length of the injustice visited on California by the passage of Proposition 8. Folks, I have no words to describe something I heard tonight. Countdown on MSNBC is one of my all-time favorite news programs. Yes, Keith Olbermann is unashamedly liberal, but that isn't the main reason why I watch. Mr. Olbermann is perhaps the most eloquent, erudite and most intelligent commentator on television today. I have been a fan of his since I first discovered him on ESPN, where he was one of the few on that network that didn't assume that all sports fans had a room-temperature IQ.

Mr. Olbermann commonly uses the editorial, in the form of a "Special Comment" when something happens that he (and most of his viewers) simply cannot let stand unchallenged. Tonight was such a night and his target was Proposition 8. Those of you that know me are well aware of my talent for the use of the English language. I, in my wildest dreams, can only aspire to one-tenth the talent of this man.

No matter your stance on Proposition 8, please go listen to tonight's' Special Comment. If you can listen to his opinion, answer the questions he poses honestly and NOT support the utter destruction of this abomination of marital apartheid, you can quit worrying about your soul. It is already lost.

One step forward, one step back...

It is the morning after the most historic election in American history. I rejoice with my nation for its' selection of the first non-white President-elect but I am ashamed of my state for its' narrow approval of bigotry and hatred. Barack Obama will be our next President, but California gays and lesbians have been relegated to second-class citizenship by the forces of ignorance.

Barack Obama won the Presidential election by over 7 million popular votes and smashed John McCain in the Electoral College 349-173 (North Carolina is STILL too close to call), exceeding the expectations of everyone except the folks at FiveThirtyEight.com whose last prediction was 348.6-189.4! Senator McCain showed all the class that his campaign never did in his concession and President-elect Obama (Doesn't that sound COOL?) gave an acceptance speech that gave me chills. I think the best picture of the night was Rev. Jesse Jackson, without shame or embarrassment, openly crying for joy when the election was called. Calling yesterday historic is the understatement of the century.

My joy was tempered with sorrow when the results for Proposition 8 were released in California. With nearly 10 million ballots counted, the forces of bigotry, hatred and intolerance outnumbered the side of equality for all by just over 420,000 votes. The news here is reporting plans that the "Yes on 8" people are going to go to the courts to have the thousands of perfectly legal same-sex marriages performed in the fleeting moment of equality in California ANNULLED! Not satisfied with successfully gaining legal cachet for marital apartheid, the scared and ignorant want to re-write the past that doesn't fit into their world view. This issue has moved me back to disgusted.

The message that I draw from all this is that while we have, for the most part, moved beyond race as a nation there is still bigotry to be fought in America. We will only be a nation of equals when no one group's fears and hatreds are manifest in our laws. We took a step yesterday, but we aren't there yet.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Did I mention you should go out and vote? I have voiced some pretty strong opinions in this blog since I started it, and while I hope you will support Barack Obama and defeat Proposition 8, let your voice be heard, no matter your point of view. Democracy only works when citizens exercise their franchise. So go vote already!!!

Bringing the funny!!!

I thought I'd take a break from the news and share one of my favorite pastimes on the Web - Webcomics! Everywhere you look on the Internet you can find comic strips that will brighten your day, give you a smile and are downright nifty! This is by no means a complete list, but here are a few of my favorites:

PvP - Created by Scott Kurtz, this strip tells the story of day-to-day life at a computer gaming magazine, if your magazine has a large blue troll on staff and a cat that plans to dominate the world. Good stories, great characters and sharp artwork make this strip fun to read.

Sheldon - Dave Kellett's story of of a ten-year-old kid software billionaire, his grandpa, his talking pet duck (you gotta read the strip) Arthur, and Arthur's lizard son (you REALLY gotta read the strip) Flaco. Squee!

Sinfest - From the fertile mind of Tatsuya Ishida, nothing is off limits here. Sex, religion, drugs and politics all get lampooned with rapier wit. Definitely not safe for work but required reading in the funny department!

And finally, my vote for King of the Funny:

Schlock Mercenary - "The Online Comic Space Opera by Howard Tayler" This is the story of "Tagon's Toughs" a 31st Century mercenary company. Sergeant Schlock (the title character) is a cheerfully sociopathic carbosilicate amorph with a penchant for three things: His Strohl Munitions plasma cannon, solving problems with superior firepower and 55-gallon drums of "Genuine Imitation Ovalkwik". Mr. Tayler has managed to bring the funny on a consistent basis, without missing a day, for over EIGHT years! His artwork has progressed from the primitive to the supremely polished, but the stories started strong and got better from there. If you only take one of my recommendations, check this strip out!

There are a zillion webcomics out there and my little list barely scratches the surface of my browser list. Sniff around and check some out. Let me know if you find more goodies!

Fear and loathing in America...

(With apologies to the late Hunter S. Thompson)

With the election drawing near, I am beginning to dread turning on the TV. All I hear and see is the fear and hatred of the backward-looking elements of our society. I hear how the folks that show up at Republican rallies are the "real" Americans. I hear how Proposition 8 will "force our children to learn about gay marriage" as if two people loving each other was the moral equivalent of disemboweling a puppy. I am so VERY tired of hearing about people that think if you don't do things as they do, you have no right to exist. I have said before that there is too little love in the world. There is also too little tolerance, civility, polite and considerate behavior, personal responsibility and the basic human virtue of kindness.

We live in a society that invented and refined "road rage". A place where a naked sword is perfectly acceptable television fare but a naked person is pornographic. A place where armored gladiators can hurl their bodies at each other with intent to destroy, but a woman flashes her chest at halftime and it spawns repercussions that we feel to this day. A nation where the followers of a mythical man that preached universal love for your fellow man can support turning a significant portion of the population into second-class citizens.

I just finished watching Obama's half-hour ad. Why is Obama the only one espousing kindness and tolerance? Why are the Democrats the only ones trying to get the majority of Americans a break? My fondest current hope is that America will see through the bullshit that the McCain campaign and the "Yes on 8" campaign are spouting and show up at the polls to make sure that both McCain and "Proposition Hate" go down in flames. We will see in one week.

Politics Redux

As I said a few days ago, the upcoming presidential election is the most important in decades. After eight years that began with a stolen election and got worse from there, we are being asked to make a choice between a war-hero, long-time alleged "maverick" Republican and a new to the scene, charismatic Democrat.

John McCain claims to be a "maverick", but voted with his president 90% of the time. He claims to be a reformer, but wants to continue the Bush administration's war and tax policies. He claims to know how to run America, but then picked as his running mate Sarah Palin, AKA "Caribou Barbie", a relatively unknown, scandal-plagued Governor of the only state in the Union that gives oil money to its' residents. The "Oil Dividend" came to just over $3,200 to every man, woman and child in Alaska in 2008.

Barack Obama is the most charismatic figure in American politics since JFK. Like Kennedy, he backs up his image with one of the sharpest minds in the arena today. He wants us out of Iraq as quickly as is safe and to focus on the REAL target of Afghanistan and Pakistan to dig bin-Laden out of his hiding place. The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would be allowed to expire and tax relief would be focused on the lower tax brackets in an Obama administration. To fill in the gap in his foreign-policy experience, Obama selected Joe Biden (Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) to be his VP candidate.

As the campaign has progressed, the "maverick" has proposed plans that sound more and more like the Republican party line and has tried to use that party's "slime and sleaze" tactics of attack ads, character assassination and distraction with petty sniping over discussion of the real issues. The "celebrity" has been hammering home the problems facing our country, his plans to fix them and pointing out the other party's lack of ideas that will help anyone other than corporate America and the very wealthy.

Folks, if the last eight years have taught us nothing else, it has taught us that the office of President of the United States is far too important to fill with a "fishin' buddy". It should go to the brightest bulb on the string, the sharpest knife in the drawer and the one with ALL the sandwiches for the picnic. Please cast your vote for the candidate BEST able to lead this country out of the mess it has gotten itself into. Vote for Barack Obama.

I fear for this nation's survival if we don't.

Season's end...

It is with great regret that I mark the end of the season for my beloved Red Sox. As a baseball fan, it has been a good year. My hometown AAA team, the Sacramento Rivercats won everything there was to win in their division for the second straight year. My National League team, the Giants, actually showed some signs of developing a pitching staff. Combine that with the deep playoff run of the Sox (not to mention that the Yankees got pwned!), and "baseball ben berry, berry good to me".

Baseball has been losing ground to football for several years as the "national pastime" and a lot of people don't know why. The late, great George Carlin summed it up VERY well in his routine "Baseball vs. Football". If you want a great sports-related laugh, check it out.

You were the Grand Master, George. We miss you.

Into the political maelstrom

It is election season, as you all know unless you've been off-planet or under a rock. In addition to the most important presidential election in several generations (more on that later), there is Congress to decide. Most states have various measures on the ballot, and we here in California have an major issue of basic human rights to decide.

A while back, Gavin Newsome (San Francisco's mayor) and the S.F. City Council decided that there was nothing in the California State Constitution that stated that applicants for a marriage license had to be of opposing genders, and ordered the Clerk to act accordingly. The swarm of gay and lesbian couples that obtained marriage certificates, finally equal in the eyes of the law, was nothing sort of astounding. Needless to say, the social conservatives filed suit, the process was stopped and the couples that took advantage of an all too short window immediately filed a countersuit. The California Supreme Court, in one of its' wiser decisions, overturned a previous initiative that tried to limit marriage to heterosexuals only as unconstitutional and Proposition 8 was born. Proposition 8 will alter the California constitution to state that marriage is only legal between one man and one woman.

Since then we have heard how "the will of the voters was overturned" and "churches will be sued over their beliefs" and "gay marriage will be taught in schools" and a metric buttload of other crap about how "marriage has to be defended". The enemy of marriage is not MORE marriage, it is DIVORCE! If you want to "defend" marriage, outlaw divorces. The murder rate will jump, but what can I say.

Why on earth should a loving, committed couple be prevented from all the advantages of a civil marriage, regardless of gender bias? The religious folk say that "God wouldn't approve". Got some news that you won't want to hear, bible-thumpers. Freedom of religion also includes freedom FROM religion. Just because the god-fearing sheep think that non-believers will burn in an imaginary hell does NOT allow them to mold our society to their beliefs. A marriage is not legal until the paperwork is filed with the government, no matter how many god salesmen say otherwise.

I've been married to Cathy for over eight wonderful years. She is not my first wife. My previous marriages ended for different reasons, but not one of them ended because of successful gay and lesbian couples. If two people want to unite their lives they should get all the advantages that the traffic will bear, regardless of whether they are male, female or one of each.

Civil unions aren't the answer either. "Separate, but equal" has never worked and is unconstitutional. There is not now and has never been enough love in the world. Who are we to judge where two consenting adults find it? Folks, I urge you to support equality for everyone. There is NO rational reason why a gay or lesbian couple shouldn't enjoy the same legal benefits AND responsibilities that Cathy and I enjoy. There is also no reason why those couples shouldn't enjoy the same protections that are afforded to those allowed to marry legally.

We say that we are a tolerant society of equals. Prove it. Vote no on Proposition 8 if you are in California and back similar measures if you aren't. Predjudice is illegal. Don't legalize it.

Diving Right In...

Well, here I am. With the encouragement of my lovely wife Cathy, I am jumping in to the blogosphere to share my views and opinions with the world. The title of this missive is a fairly accurate representation of my view of most of the human species. Humans in general and Americans in particular (but by NO means solely) seem to have cornered the market on industrial-grade stupid.

We live in an age where hot coffee has to carry a warning that it is hot so some moron doesn't sue when they drop it in their lap! We live in a place where people are so lazy that you can go out and buy pre-fabricated, frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts removed! I used to think that this was the height of lazy until I stumbled across a product in the supermarket the other day. The Mexican baking company, Bimbo, has a product called "Pan Tostado". Genties and Ladlemen of the audio radiance, this product is nothing more than TOAST!!!! We have finally become such a decadent species that we can't even pull out a fracking toaster?

Yet another sign of the apocalypse...