I realized once again that I haven’t posted in a while…DUHHHH. So who is surprised? When I loaded up Live Journal, it seems I had a draft started that never got published.

I still is true and it was only one line so I will publish it now to sooth my conscience <cough>

So I finally finished up the never ending grind of Dragonmaw quests in WOW. For those not in on it, just suffice it to say it is a mind numbing bunch of repetition. Actually drove me off of playing WOW for a bit…but there are tons of games out there less tedious and repetitious like Spider Solitaire, and Freecell.

It is one of the biggest problems I have with the game is farming, grinding, repetition. If it werent for the social end I wonder if I could justify paying Blizzard. Maybe Ill try some PVP but the thought of getting my arse handed to me by a 15 year old from Korea just doesnt do a lot for me either.

<end of the old>

On to the New!!

Bunch of crap I could rant about since I drafted that. Crisis of faith in my Jobs. Please note the plural. Both the Job at the National Cancer Institute and Montgomery Community Television have gotten to be pains in the gonads. NCI is just a huge governmental organization. Now, to renew my ID Badge I need to go through a back ground check, be finger printed…just waiting for the colonoscopy. It is this kind of information infringement that makes me worried about the government. Not like there is anything interesting, they can find that I drink Guinness and eat oatmeal for breakfast…Take that FBI. The world knows before you did. HAHA.
It is just a pain. I must admit it makes filling out the paperwork kind of easy to say “I BEEN HERE 19 <GODDAMN> YEARS. Oh what, list all your jobs over the last 5 years? Morons…19 Years!

130.4 months to go until full retirement.

The Television Job is just getting to be a waste of time. It kills a Tuesday night. I am not learning anything new, and that hurts the most. My boss left, and now there is only one person on staff with any professional Television experience. That person appears to be barred from doing any television work though. Funny that a Television Station seems to be fighting very hard to NOT be a T.V. station. It does not bode well that a 200 Million dollar short fall is looming in Montgomery County. I cant imagine how a station not producing shows is going to survive.

Other Stuff that I meant to write about.

Last week Arthur C Clarke passed away at the age of 90. An amazing writer, and visionary, he published works both fiction and Non for over 50 years. He is credited with the idea of geo-synchronous satellites. Maybe he is best known for Stanley Kubrick‘s adaptation of 2001 A Space Odyssey.

My all time favorite of his was the short story called The Star. Probably the best crisis of faith story ever done in such a short format. It won a Hugo award in 1956 for Best Short Story. Here is a quick summary stolen right out of Wikipedia:

“The Star” is the story of a group of space explorers from Earth returning from an expedition to a remote star system, where they discovered the remnants of an advanced civilization destroyed when their sun went supernova. Their chief astrophysicist, a Jesuit priest, is suffering from a deep crisis of faith, triggered by some undisclosed event during the journey.
As the story unfolds, the reader learns that the destroyed planet’s culture was very similar to Earth’s. Recognizing several generations in advance that their sun would soon explode, and with no means of interstellar travel to save themselves, the doomed people spent their final years building a vault on the outermost planet in their solar system, whose Pluto-like orbit was distant enough to survive the nova. In the vault, they placed a complete record of their history, culture, achievements, and philosophy, hoping that it would someday be found so that their existence would not have been in vain. The Earth explorers, particularly the astrophysicist-priest, were deeply moved by these artifacts, and they found themselves identifying closely with the dead race’s peaceful, humanlike culture and the profound grace they exhibited in the face of their cruel fate.
The final paragraph of “The Star” reveals the source of the priest’s pain. Determining the exact year of the long-ago supernova and the star system’s distance from Earth, he calculated the date the emitted light from the explosion reached Earth, proving that the cataclysm that destroyed the peaceful planet was, in fact, the very star (or supernova), that compelled the wise men on Earth to travel to see the Child Jesus. The scientist’s faith is shaken because of the apparent capriciousness of God:

[O]h God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?

Maybe it was because I read this while in High School, but it has resonated with me ever since I read it. I am going to miss Sir Clarke, if only because he was smarter than Issac Asimov.

Oh well enough of all this. Get back to work you dogs!

peace and Rama grease

-gg

Not sure if I like it yet but the new site theme on the Grumpy Gecko Blog is a little more gecko-ish feel to it. Not a Tokay gecko, mind you, which would go back to that blue-ish theme.

But since I have been staring at the blog (Not writting anything mind you) it occured to me I could change it.

Staring you may ask. Why? Because I twisted my ankle and now I needed to sit with my foot up. That was Sunday night. I have also been dealing with the post traumatic stress of smacking Garrett’s face flat into the mud when my ankle went. Today, 4 days later, the image of his head bouncing off the ground, has stopped haunting me. Could be that my ankle is feeling better, could be that my memory is crappy, could be a built in mechanism humans have to cope.

Strangely enough, all I wanted to do was go hang out at the Royal Mile and drink and forget. More strange is that with all the oppertunities to do that, a bag of ice and Alleve have won out. I haven’t been plesant to be around…ok so not so out of the ordinary.

Havent been on WoW for a couple days because I am now a Guild Master!!! Nothing makes me not want to play more than responsiblity to play. Besides the fact that the 2 people who started the guild REALLY need to work out whatever issues they have with each other and I now feel like I am being their…I dont know…intermediate? translator? messenger boy?
I dont like seeing friends bickering but they need to work it out amongst themselves. They have each others phone number…

I do really want to say that Samantha was absolutely great when I busted my ankle. She was helpful, she asked people for ice, she sat with me, and she checked on Garrett. She is an all around great kid. Stacey is great too. She didnt push me from a moving car when I was pissed about everything. She didnt push me out of a moving house when I was ranting with my foot up, pissing and moaning about crap I have no control over. She is THE BEST!

And Garrett, my boy, is truely an amazing kid. After he calmed down, the stream of consciousness started flowing like it hadn’t even had a break. I got a call yesterday that he “collided with another child on the playground” and loosened a tooth. Garrett told me the story on the phone, but he doesnt believe in talking into the phone, speaking off into the ether is good enough for him. Later that night I understood that “collided with another child on the playground” is school nurse speak for “your child busted himself up, dont sue the school”. But this morning, Garrett was rambling on about everything from planets to annoying the cats to Rhea doing something…. But no Herbert and Densecat…. sigh

peace and arthritisis grease

So I realize that somewhere buried deep in this blog, I am a perpetuator of an Internet meme. Dont go lookinging for it. The spam kharma police with hunt you down and hurt you. Not wanting to turn this into a “Post a cute picture” blog, I am afraid that Herbert and Densecat are treading dangerously close. Then I read on the GLEEFUL’S page talking about Wondermark’s new Internet Meme for the new Year. Like a moth to the flame, I was sucked into the Flickr album of Bears with Ill Fitting Hats!!!! Curse you!!!!

“OK one more time, then bedtime….”GEE Master Chief, I wonder what is in this Cave…I dont know Cortana! Lets Go Looks”

Picture by   HALCYONSNOW  ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/halcyonsnow/ ) Its his picture, so if he gets mad about me putting it here, I will let him egg my house.  He is also the one who started the Flickr album.  So maybe he should be looking out for eggs.

But you must admit…its a cute bear.

Yup it might be a good year.

peace and Halo grease

Who ever said “Technology” (eg Computers) will make life easier, can have the throbbing head ache I have over my computer infront of me. For some mystical, magical reason, I can no longer use my FTP app to get pictures up on the blog. I could track down my flickr account….BUT THATS NOT THE POINT!!! Before Christmas it was fine, now it will NOT except my password. I think oh sure I just put it in wrong…I dont use it a lot. Nope I cant get it to work at all.

The same thing is happening to my spamcop account…………. One day its fine I can reply, forward everything we as the Non Luddite community expect and even take for granted.

I would like to get to something that does not cause any major changes to my bloodpressure. Samantha is now riding her bike all the time, every chance she gets. YES!!!!!!!! Oh I dont expect her to be flying down hills no hands and smashing into road signs (yet) but its a big step forward to the waffely way she was over the summer. The BIG motivation is that she will be going to the newly renovated Elementary school just down the street, and easy walk, and easier bike ride. OH SHE CAN SMELL THE FREEDOM!!!! Of course, that freedom, as always, comes with a price. A terrible price. She will be going to school……..with her little brother.

GASP!!!!!!

What the horrible price of freedom.

And dont forget folks – Buy Duct tape!

Peace and freedom grease

I try my best to be apolitical. Actually only if there is a chance to get a reaction out of an opinionated person do I even bring it up.

But I get a twitchy kind of feeling about this whole Senate Filabuster debate. Twitchy like 16 hour old 7-11 coffee twitchy.

I am not a constitutional Lawyer, but I could think of 6 people I could call right this second and get some info (although I would much rather talk, martial arts, fencing, drinking, or talking talking). It is not that the constitution has specifically stated mandate to allow filabuster (or does it?) but it is the unbalanced nature of the present federal government that allows for such an argument to even have to be made. It seems to me that since the every branch except the Judicial being majority Republican has given that party a need to install road blocks to insure their continued existance. I was going to say “continued success” but I really dont think they have suceded in much of anything.
There is a sense that the “checks and balances” concept doesn’t work for them so lets remove it.
Checks and Balances happens to be, in my opinion, one of the great things framed in the constitution. It is a self regulating idea that keeps a governemnt from getting out of control. The Bill of Rights is another great part of the constitution that (at least the first 10 amendments) clear says that the people have the rights and the Government does not. In my most cynical moments, I really feel that the present adminstration has used the 9-11 tradgedy to crowbar its agenda into place. The very human reaction to tradgedy is to make quick, reflex actions that aren’t thought through. They are “knee jerk” reactions. But when the “dust” settles, there are new laws, that give the gubbermint more power than it was intended to have. A balanced government takes time to debate, to examine, to get past the initial “Lets blow up the bastards” mentality, and then makes its choices. If the choice at the the end is “Lets blow up the bastards”, then so be it. When the Patriot Act was framed, I believe it was Senator Robert C. Byrd who said that we must be careful not to loose any of our constitutional freedom (note: note a quote, might have been some one else, I just really Like Sen Byrd, anyone who uses the word “snooker” is OK in my book)

The idea that the government is involving itself in private matters or State matters was never clearer than in the Terry Shivo case. Talk about Stomping the on the Tenth Amendment!!! OK they were not trying to pass a law about it but they WERE diverting attention to an issue that had been clearly described by STATE LAW. I am not saying Florida has the best set of laws in the world, but they do have them, so the Feds need to lay off.

I can feel my blood pressure is getting up, so I am gonna stop. Maybe I’ll calm down by downloading some mp3′s or check the stock market. Places unspoiled by the touch of human hands.

Peace and independance grease

John
P|-|34R |\/| `/ T|-|13P|-|

This morning I came crashing into one of my favorite problems. The type of problem that makes me wish I had finished my coffee before it, so I could get that full on twitching going. In my job working as a contractor to the Gubbermint, I run into bureaucracy, some would even say a fair bit. But I have streamlined a lot of thing to remove them. So sometime I get surprised when someone does there damnedest to generate more. Today, was one of those days.
After several weeks of wrestling, setting up an international shipment, I got the paperwork down and ready to go, only to be canceled due to holidays, possibility of world peace, and someone trying to smuggle allergy medicine across international borders. So 2 week, it the shipment sat. Not literally, it got up, walked around, went to the water cooler, did that stooopid stuff you do with the photocopier, ect. But I digress. So 2 weeks, now all my papers need to be resigned with correct dates. Then it happened. Someone from the office of not enough paperwork came down and told the person I needed to get signatures from, that IF THEY DID NOT GENERATE MORE PAPERS, their fingers would be removed and someone would get birds to poop on their car. This, as you would expect, got the person into a phone call making frenzy, generating multiple unnecessary forms. Does anyone remember forms that have carbon copying paper in between the multiple sheets? guess what? I got some of those to fill out. 7 layers. SEVEN layers! I am too scared to file for workman’s comp based on the tunnel carpel syndrome I developed trying to fill the damn thing out, because I recall the workman’s comp form has 12 layers and you need to write an essay in cursive. These folks have heard of computers I am fairly sure. But still, I think you need to fill the form out electronically on seven different computers lined up together.

I’ve been told I see the glass as half empty, and I say if you’re drinking turpintine, its not so bad to know you almost done.