Morning Seditionists

Remember that $2 billion loss JP Morgan had? Well, looks like that was a wee bit off. Now it’s said to be at least $3 billion. Oops. Of course, that’s just a pittance, and taxpayers are ever eager to help them out should times get tough. And, no, we certainly don’t expect a share of the profits when times are good. That would be socialism. (more…)

Somebody named Juliana Smoot keeps writing to me. She seems to think I would find it totally awesome to have my name on a stock car called “Powered by the American People.” So awesome that I’d pay $5 for the honor. It’s something to do with “Charlotte in 2012,” which I’m guess is the Democratic convention. Today is my “last chance,” so hopefully she’ll leave me alone now. (more…)

Finally, it’s Friday. And the shitty weather of the past few days appears to be taking a turn for better. It’s actually supposed to be sunny and warm today. I had to come in rather early this morning because we were implementing a major change to one of our systems that had the potential to be a real nightmare if something went wrong (which would have been a bummer, since it’s me who wrote it). Fortunately, there were only a couple of minor glitches (so far, anyway – knock on wood), and it looks as though my early day can be parlayed into an early release for the weekend. (more…)

So, President Obama has finally realized that gay people have as much right to get married as anybody else does. Well good for him, though he should have done it sooner. Not in the sense that it was the morally correct thing to do (though there’s that, too), but in the sense that it would have been politically more expedient to come out (so to speak) and say it a lot sooner. Whether this will help, hurt, or have no affect (I’m betting on either no affect – as Barney Frank said – or maybe some slight help; homophobes weren’t gonna vote for him anyway) on his reelection remains to be seen, but it must be heartening to those who support marriage equality after the horrid North Carolina thing. Now if Barry would just quit it already with his obsession of keeping pot illegal. (more…)

This is turning out to be a difficult week to get through. All I wanna do is sit on my deck and read (and maybe whack down the dandelions, which seem to have achieved a record height this year – at least in my lawn), but, no, I have to keep limping my way into work every morning. This sucks. My latest physical ailment is my foot, and it hurts like hell. Enough to keep me awake most of last night. I believe it is the beginnings of a bunion, though not as severe as some of the pictures I’ve been looking at (which are pretty damn creepy). Of course, it may not be a bunion at all, as my toe doesn’t seem to be pointing in all that much of a direction. It could also be arthritis, or something. Whatever it is, I’m very much hoping it goes away. (more…)

Well, the sun is setting on my nice little four-day weekend (not really; sunset isn’t for a couple of hours yet, and anyway it’s turned cloudy and drizzly). It rather depressing, but much was accomplished this weekend. Shed roof replaced, new 12×16 foot deck built (and christened with a nice fire last night), a whole bunch if painting today, and my last load of laundry (well, that I’m actually gonna do) is in the dryer. I’m beat, and wish I had a few more days off to recuperate. But, I don’t And it will be back in the windowless office in the morning. Oh well, time to get my laundry out of the dryer.

You learn a lot when you deal with people. Mostly, you learn that people are really stupid. At least those people commonly known as “users.” No, not druggies. Most of them are OK (except the meth heads, who are kind of toothless and stupid and scary), but the people who use the systems that I program for. You know, the ones who generate the 1D10T and/or PEBKAC errors. The inherent stupidity that exists in a typical user necessitates that I spend hours upon hours idiot-proofing the things I write. (more…)

I didn’t watch the Prez’s speech last night, but I gather he announced that we were getting out of Afghanistan by not actually getting out of Afghanistan. Or something. So if you were planning on holding your wedding reception somewhere outside Kabul, I advise you postpone your plans until 2024 or something. (more…)

It was a chilly weekend, but a nice one. And things are supposed to warm up this week, which will be good. Unfortunately, it’s Monday, and that sucks. It’s a short week though, ‘cuz I took Friday off so I could take Fritz in for his rabies vaccination. I’m not really looking forward to it. He’s pretty good, but I don’t like to see him get stuck with needles and whatnot. I’m sure they’ll want to do the Lyme/Heartworm test. That’s worse than a shot (which dogs don’t really seem to feel when it’s just under the skin – which is good, considering how they bit the crap out of each other when they play), because they need to get blood. Siggy did not like that needle in his leg one bit, but Fritz was OK with it last time. Oh, well, I guess I’ll just have to worry about it after I get the next four days over with.

As you probably heard, President Obama has been squandering tax dollars by traveling to college campuses and giving speeches to enthusiastic young folks (much to the chagrin of Jon Boehner, who says this is just plain terrible – and certainly unprecedented).  BTW, that link is to the Christian Science Monitor. I’ve always wondered, is that something that monitors Christian Science? Or a science monitor that happens to be Christian? Either way, there would seem to be an contradiction in terms, there. Anyhow, not to be outdone, Mitt Romney did his college tour this week as well, rousing the kids with tales of such exciting things as, um, well, office supplies. (more…)

A rather annoying, sleepless night last night. That seems to have become the norm for me these days. And my days are spent sitting in a chair that’s trying to kill me. By the end of Monday, my back is a little sore. Tuesday, it starts hurting pretty bad around lunchtime. Wednesday, I’m in pain from about the first half hour on. So things are aching pretty bad right now, and tomorrow will be a real killer. Kinda sucks. (more…)

So I talked with my mom in Anchorage, and she says that someone broke into her apartment and took her computer charger again. That’s right, again. Now, if you steal from a woman who is over ten grand in debt, has a car from the 80s, and can barely hold a steady job because of her health, I’d want to kill you if you did it a third time. (more…)

Tuesday! Oh shit, you know what that means. It’s time for everyone’s favorite show The Deadliest Catch. Now, I wasn’t always a fan of this show, but I really needed an excuse to excessively drink on a Tuesday night. Albeit alone, but another reason to be drunk as a skunk none-the-less. (more…)

Well, we didn’t get the heavy rain they said we would last night. Instead, we got a few inches of snow. It was a regular winter wonderland out at my house – and just a bit of a hassle getting out of the driveway, now that the snow tires are off. No snow in Syracuse, though. Just rain and wet and cold. Supposed to be like that all week, I guess. Good thing I managed to get the grass cut yesterday. But it was pretty cold out there on the tractor. It was OK for a while, but it takes me about an hour and a half, and by the time I was done, I was chilled to the bone. I even had to light the pellet stoves, and I thought I was done with that. I’m starting to think the year without a winter is about to be followed by a year without a summer. Of course, it’s only April. Worse, it’s only Monday. There’s a long way to go yet.

Happy Earth Day, planet Earth. Back on the very first Earth Day, I was about nine and a half years old. That was a long damn time ago. Fortunately, during the ensuing 42 years (42 years! Holy shit, when did that happen?) we’ve stopped polluting the air and the water and the land, have made huge strides in getting off of oil (why, we Americans use a mere 19 million barrels a day) and coal with alternative energy, and are taking Climate Change seriously. (more…)