edshots

writer's block

2007-04-30T21:21:00.000-04:00

I have had trouble putting together more than two sentences for the longest time. A little over a year now it seems. Even at work, where all I had to do was write what I observed, not even come up with things, I had trouble. Today, I was able to write whole paragraphs again at work. It felt good. Hopefully I'll be able to continue.

I've heard that the worst nightmare of an author is to get hit with writer's block. I always though that was kind of silly. I now have much more respect for the writers who can churn out piece after piece after piece after .... well, you get the idea.

Hopefully, I'll be able to as well.

Misty water color memories...

2006-03-11T12:53:00.000-05:00

One of the things that they say that make your life the way it is are the things that you first remember. I don't know why this came up this evening but for some reason it did.

I've several memories of the old days. Many are pleasant. Some not as much so. I think it's interesting which I remember from the farthest back. Those aren't so much as happy or sad as memorable. I think that the Freudian analyst or even some others may be able to read things into them that I haven't, but I'm not sure what it would mean.

What I think is earliest is the time that I was riding along with dad when he took mom to work. I don't remember the details of the trip to GC Murphy's (a big chain 5&10 at the time) but I remember the ride home. We drove through Latrobe and I was happy because after mom got out of the front seat, I got to move up to the front. As we drove through town, I talked with dad (granted it was not a great conversation as I don't think that I was even in school yet), we came down Jefferson Street, and turned on to Irving Avenue. I was playing with the handle of the front door, which opened up if you picked up the handle as you moved, as dad made the left turn from Jefferson onto Irving. Since I was playing with the latch that opened the door at the time...The door opened and I went rolling out of the car as it moved around the corner going from 0 to 30ish in a few moments. Dad stopped the car as soon as he could. I got up, ran to the still open door, and hopped back into the car. I told Dad that I was back and we could go ahead and closed the door. Dad, as white a sheet, nodded his head and put the car back in drive and we went home. When he picked up mom that night he told her what happened. He didn't know what to do in the meantime since I didn't seem to be any worse for the wear.

Another of my early memories is going down into the basement. Head first, as I didn't manage the stairs as they were meant to be managed. I got up and ran back up after I did what ever it was that I went down there for anyhow. Another is when I was running along the cement fences of a neighbor down the street and slipped. I can still feel the lump where then stitches went after I banged my head off the cement.

I'm not sure if there is a pattern here .It just seems interesting that most of my early memories have something to do with getting my head slammed on the cement or something similar.

And no, I don't think that's the main reason I am like this. (At least not usually)

Isn't that kind of like "Government ethics"?

2006-03-06T14:42:00.000-05:00

A good oxymoron is always a fun thing. But I think that today I encountered what may be one of the biggest I've seen yet.

The weather is getting nicer, so there are a few people driving around with open windows. Which means for some of those who have the big-ass speakers, we get to share their taste in music as they drive by. As one did today.

Speakers filling the trunk. All across the back dash. It probably even had extra speakers in the front. Volume turned up to 11.

Playing Mozart.

Assigned Seats

2006-02-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

One of the things about going into an establishment on a regular basis is that you get into the habit of going to the same general area every time. If you do as often as I do, it almost becomes funny because people talk about "Your seat". It's not a problem most of the time, after all, all of the seats at the bar will still get you a beer, but sometimes it becomes funny.

I went into my usual watering hole this evening, a bit later than usual, and there were people there who evidently didn't understand the seating chart. As such about half of the regulars, me included were out of our seats.

I pick the spot I usually sit at because of some small residual paranoia that have which means I don't like sitting with my back to the door. (I think I picked it up by watching too any cowboy movies as a youth) But the seats that were available were on that side of the bar. I mean I could have sat on the regular side but that would have meant sitting between a guy I find annoying and another I find even worse. So I sat on the "wrong" side of the bar. No big deal.

The bartender (whom I have a long unrequited desire for) mentioned that I was on the wrong side. So did a couple other regulars, one of whom was in "my" seat. Of course as soon as there were enough spaces on the other side, I moved my stuff to get on the "right" side, even though it was at the other end of the side I usually sit on.

It's no big deal, but why do all these other people come into my bar and mess with things? I know that's an irrational thought but it still occasionally comes up when situations like this occur. It's like the guy who walks into a strange church, hours before the service. There is no other person in the church but him as he sits there, pondering the mystery that is God. Not another soul is around. About an hour before the service, a little old lady walks into the church and approaches him. He thinks that she is going to welcome him to the community.
"Excuse me, you're in my seat."

Sometimes I feel the same way.

I love my job...except when I hate it.

2006-02-23T18:59:00.000-05:00

One of the most frustrating things about the job I do is that no matter what I do it seems that things are screwed up. I don't get called unless there are problems.

That is the nature of the job. I don't get called unless somebody thinks that a kid is getting hurt.

If the kid is hurt, I'm asked why I didn't prevent it.
If the kid is fine I'm asked why I had to mess up the family's life.

If I tell either of the above to go ****off, I get in trouble.

People need to understand the nature of the work.

Winter has arrived...again

2006-02-12T11:47:00.000-05:00

The big storm that they were calling for, then not calling for, then calling for again did actually hit the area last night. It wasn't too bad, It looks like about six inches of only snow instead of ice. I headed out this AM to check it out and it seems that most folks have already got the walks shoveled, so walking was easy. I put the boots on which was a good decision because it would definitely have gotten into my shoes since it was that high.

It should be interesting tomorrow when the snow that has a chance to melt freezes up again. I've always thought that the day or two after the storm were the most dangerous because people forget about the danger of driving in the storm and ignore the danger of driving on the ice. We'll see how it goes this time.

Pitt- WVU game

2006-02-10T15:09:00.000-05:00

The Panthers shut down Pittsnoggle last night and beat the Mountaineers of WVU by four, 57-53. A good game by the Panthers and even more satisfying because (a) they stop a two game losing streak, and (b) they did against the top team in the Big East and a top ten team.
Good going.

Catch Up Time

2006-02-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

I haven't been able to get things down for a bit, so here are some random thoughts at the moment...

SUPER BOWL
Steelers Win!!!!
'nuff said.

The County has recently decided to cut off access to certain sites. Among these are sites for personal e-mail. To a degree, I understand this. I would have less of a problem with it if over the last five years I had a freaking e-mail account with the county so I didn't have to do business at my own personal address. Now, they want to "assure the integrity of the system" so I have to go to another computer to do county related stuff because I am not going to e-mail 50 people saying "Oh, now you have to use this address because the county thinks I'm a f-ing idiot and will down load viruses."
Swell.
They also have stopped putting A:drives in the computers. I can't get to many of the things I used on a regular basis because of the "security issues." I could download a file to my disk and take it home with me. But I can't do that now. I'll just have to e-mail it to my regular account.
Swell.

February has set in with the usual vengeance. January was kind to us but it appears that the second month will not be so kind. They're calling for snow and cold and other nasty stuff soon. But pitchers and catchers report in just three weeks. Spring is not far off.

The last three times I bought a car, it took less than a month before some misfotune hit it. When I got the Beetle (which Mom technically bought) about a month later somebody backed into it at the employee lot at Kennywood. I then bought the Citation, a nice car, nothing much. While driving home from Connellsville to Latrobe on a majorly snowy day, I took the long way. All major highways, no back roads. About a month after I bought the car. As I was cruising down the highway at a stately 25, a Trooper began to veer into my lane. I hit the brakes. I hit the guardrail. When I got the wagon, I knew to be careful. So as I was coming back from Connellsville around the same time after I bought the car, an Ice storm hit. The wagon got to the hill before the salt truck did. I left off the brake at the top of the hill and stopped in the ditch beside the telephone pole. I recently (in December(yeah I know winter plays apart in this)), bought a new vehicle. I didn't drive it too much for multiple reasons: gas prices, weather, not needing to. I made it past a month. However, this past week, the curse struck again. I pulled into the lot behind my building. There sat a car, sitting in the aisle between parking spots. He had his reverse lights on. I pulled over to the side away from where I intended to park, giving him room to back up. He did. Just not straight. His side mirror hit the side of the car, knocking the mirror off and putting a mark on mine. Thankfully it wasn't major, as he wasn't going more than 5-10 mph. But it hit my new car. S***! At least I made it six weeks this time.

Pitt plays WVU this evening. I hope they don't get Pitsnoggled. But the boy can play ball. Since it's at Pitt, I think they'll win. But not by much.

Oh, by the way on the Super Bowl, did I say six? I meant 11.

Super Sunday

2006-02-04T18:13:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. The Steelers against the Seahawks (what the hell is a seahawk anyway, there ain't no such critter).

I am looking forward to the game. I think the Steelers will win by six. I'll have my doubts until Bill Cowher actually wins his last game in the post season.

In the meantime, I will keep thinking of all the great moments in Steelers history and hoping that tomorrow will add one more.

Grumpiness can be an art form

2006-02-03T07:24:00.000-05:00

This post was originally written the evening of jan 31, 06 on a computer that didn't have access to the web. It took until today to get it here.

Kenny may be the most miserable SOB I've ever met. I love him.

There comes a point where being miserable becomes charming. While I recognize that part of it just shielding, there is a certain charm to someone whose best compliment to you is greeting you by saying "hey, trouble," or "hey you old fart" when he's at least a thirty years older than you are.

I think that this has hit me today because there have been a couple situations today where the idea of the curmudgeon has come up in casual conversation. I work in an office where one of the characters that is there is a worker who says he is doing time. He's looking forward to quitting. He mentions that on a regular basis, saying he only needs to finish paying off the truck so he can retire. He is old enough already, having both time and age to retire according to most of the rules that I'm used to, but is just too full of piss and vinegar to actually do because he wouldn't have as much to bellyache about.

Later, I was talking to someone else who asked me if a certain bartender in town was getting nastier. I mentioned that while she was never the nicest bartender in town, she didn't seem any grumpier than usual. Of course you notice that I didn't say that she wasn't grumpy, sarcastic, or inhospitable, I just said that I didn't notice any change in her general demeanor.

Of course she happened to be working tonight. I said hello and signed the book and she seemed to be in her usual mood. Should she be on the other side of the bar, even if she looked like Kathy Ireland (who is the best looking babe ever), I would probably not last past the "hi" stage because of the negative waves. She was civil and almost nice for the most part but I did notice more negative waves coming from her toward some patrons than others. I guess my general attitude of not worrying about stuff makes me easier to deal with, but I think that the observation may have been not incorrect.

Some of my favorite bartenders were grumpy, negative waves, types of folks. My favorite of all time is still Norm, who owned Chief's Cafe in Oakland when I went to PITT, who as I sat with an (underage) buddy of mine was the subject of an armed robbery. As the guy was waving around the gun, Norm spent the next five minutes bitching the guy out. He called him every name in the book and called him everything but a white guy, because he wasn't. About half way through the rant, where he told this guy waving a weapon, what he would do if he ever got the chance (and it wasn't bake cookies) he never broke rhythm telling the crook what he was as he told the missus to get the (expletive) money out of register but not all the change. After all, he'd need it because everybody was still drinking at the bar. The guy took the money and left.
After that, I looked at my buddy and said, "Stroke, do you realize we just witnessed an armed robbery?"
"No, you just witnessed an armed robbery. I'm not supposed to be here."
"Oh, yeah. We'll have to remember that."
We finished up our drinks, (we were getting ready to leave anyway), and I stopped up at the bar to talk to Norm. I asked him if there was a problem if we headed out as Red was calling the cops. He said that there wasn't as he knew the SOB and would get his money back in a few days.

I left "the Chief" a bigger tip than usual that night.

I went back to Chief's a few years after I got out of school. Red had gotten sick and Norm wasn't up to keeping it without her. They had taken the one wall, which had paintings on the wall and gotten rid of them. Back in the day they had served Schlitz beer (not Bull which was big at the time and was not a great tasting beer), now they served the usual beers that the college crowd drank. The steel workers that had made up a large percentage of the drinkers there, when I was going in there for that very reason, who kept Sinatra and Crosby and the Andrews Sisters on the juke box were gone. So were the songs.

My favorite bar as a college student had become a college bar. It was the worst moment of a nice trip back to school.

I've been friends with grumpy old men since I was working the American Legion Bingo as a 13 year old. I loved working with guys who had fought in WW1 who the guys that fought in WW2 would give crap to. "Old Parks there, he has heart trouble and dropsy," Steve (the boss) would say. "Once he drops into a seat, he ain't got to the heart to get up."

There is a big difference between being cranky and being negative. Thankfully I've learned that. It's unfortunately not a lesson learned by many of the political figures today.

I often describe myself as either an optimistic pessimist or as a pessimistic optimist. I'm pretty sure that’s because I've run into a lot of them over the years. And they were usually right. I hope I can be just as accurate.

Protecting Children

2006-01-29T15:20:00.000-05:00

One of the stories that has been getting a lot of play over the past week from various sources is the story of Haliegh Poutre from Massachusetts. She was beaten almost to death by the adoptive mother and stepfather. The DSS of MA sought permission to remove the breathing tube from her and was granted that permission. The catch was that when they did, she kept breathing. Thank God for that.

A lot of the stories that I've seen about the case have been about how the DSS screwed up. They left her in the home. They didn't fully investigate. They didn't see the signs.

BULL SHIT.

The stories that I've read have given me plenty of cause for concern but to this point I have yet to see one which says that DSS screwed up. Yes, I know that the child is in her present condition implies that they did, but that doesn't mean that they did.

I do this on a daily basis for a living. I know that I miss things. I also know that when I have cause for concern that I have to be able to prove it to a judge, who doesn't get to see the things that I do, that there is clear and convincing evidence for my actions. People don't understand that just because I can sense that a parent is a slimey, sucky, piece of crap doesn't mean I can prove it in court.

The libertarian in me wouldn't have it any other way. I do believe that some of the scariest words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." The more the state gets into the home, the less secure the home is. I can't believe that anybody doubts that.

The problem is where the (suddenly) interested third party gets into the act and sees with the benefit of hindisght what "should" have been done. I wholly wish that some of the pundits that "know better" would spend a week with me. They would be able to see the dangerous line that I have to walk between the rights of parents to their children (which is enshrined in laws through the ages) and the rights of kids to not get the snot beat out of them (which until recently didn't exist).

Of all the stories I've seen on the case of Haliegh, I've yet to see one that looks at what the worker in that case is going through. That worker, who took the job knowing that he or she would never be esteemed, and likely vilified, failed in the primary task of the profession. To protect the child. My prayers are with Haliegh. More are with the worker who has to deal with the fallout.

Buxom

2006-01-24T07:59:00.000-05:00

Words mean things.

When I was a teenager I was introduced to the writing of some of the great pulp writers of the thirties and forties. Writers of the stories of Conan, John Carter of Mars and King Kull of Atlantis.

One of the neat things about those writers was their way with words. They used words in a way that may or (Probably) not be suffered, much less condoned today in these politically correct times. The problem with that is that the language has lost some many colorful terms that still apply today.

It wasn't unusual for Conan to call someone a son of a cur, which I learned when I went to a dictionary meant a female dog of less then reputable lineage, aka bitch, or for him to call a son of an unmarried mother a bastard. A barbarian from the steppes of Cimmeria used more flowerful language than many of today's politicians do because it fit.

It annoys me that some of the phrases that wove through the language of the pulps are now so "offensive" that they can't be used anymore. As I was walking home from the bar this evening, I happened to look at a car on the square. Inside was a young woman of significant mammary proportions. I thought to myself, "That is a buxom wench." As I walked away enjoying the mental image of a female of ample proportions, I started to think about how those words, which may have once been a compliment could now get me sued for sexual harassment. It just doesn't seem fair.

The Miss America contest was this past weekend. In it were 50+ young women, all strutting their stuff, in hopes of a year of fame and lots of money. But should I happen to see them outside of that venue and comment about the Buxomness of them, it would be wrong.

No, not wrong, improper. It would be right in that the young woman would likely be buxom. And wearing a swimsuit with a push-up bra to accent the fact.

While wench has some connotations to it that may or may not be significant, BUXOM does not. I think that I am going to have to use it more often in polite society, if only to annoy those it may offend. Then I can tell them that it is only a word and in the PC world we live in that we may be able to parse the meaning of "is" but Buxom means what it does.

A McGee mood

2006-01-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

I am in a Travis McGee mood.

When I was younger, I was introduced to the writing of an author that would most likely shape my view of the world for the rest of my life. Unlike others who found Kafka, Freud, Sartre, or others of that ilk, I found a better and more prolific author.

In a tent in the mountains of Virginia while working at a wilderness school for delinquent and dependent teens, I was looking for something to pass the time. I found a book called something along the the lines of "Shades of Travis McGee." I began to read the first story in the volume.

The story was about a guy from Florida who spent his time getting things back for people who had them taken by less than scrupulous means. It was a way to pass the time in the woods of VA.

I was hooked.

The thing that hooked me was that Travis would do what was right, no matter how untasteful, even when he didn't want to do it. He tried as best as he could to do it within his code of conduct, which was often just to do what was less harmful to the innocent, as he went outside the words of the law to do what he needed to.

The catch was that by doing this he would often tarnish the shining armour that he always pictured himself in. And he knew this. He often commented on Don Quixote and his dented, tarnished armour tilting at windmills.

Tonight, I sit here, listening to much of the internal dialog that I read in those books many years ago (and on several occasions since). I tell myself about how I do my damnedest to make the world abetter place becuase it can be one. I tell myself that the work that I do is making that happen. I say that if I can just make a difference here or ther, it will change the cosmic balance enough to shift it from Chaos to Order.

And I know I'm full of it.

I think that it is this knowledge that drives a lot of people out this job. They get discouraged about it and say the heck with it. That isn't hard to do when you can make a lot more money with a lot less headaches in a lot of other fields. In this one the hours are often long-and at odd ones- and hard hours. The pay isn't great by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, I'm supposed to be the smartest one in the family and making less than any one else. I still tell young interns to become engineers while they still have the chance.

McGee said he did it because the people that need it don't know how to do it. He was right. I doubt that I will ever get rich at this job. That's why at present I have at least two other part-time gigs going- so I can pick up occasional cash.

But the people I serve need somebody like me to do the work. Just like's McGee's clients. I won't retrieve thousands of dollars in gems or antique statues or a Florida hotel, but I may be able to retrieve something else.

A Life. Hope. Respect. A childhood. A future.

Having the hope that I can pull that off is enough to get my lazy ass out of bed tomorrow and put on my rusty, dented armour and see what windmills there are to tilt at.

C'mon, Sancho, there be dragons out there. And Dolcinea awaits us.

The Child Molester Control Act

2006-01-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

I found a story the other day about PA state senator Bob Regola wanting to introduce an act regarding prevention of child molesters repeating the offence.

The Plan? Chemical castration.

I guess that I should appreciate that at least he is thinking of the situation but I think that he is missing the boat on this one. Many of the crimes committed on children that are sexual in nature aren't really about the sex. They are about the thinking of the perp and about control or power. The need for chemical castration in these cases is minimal; what's needed is the elimination of the thinking patterns more so than the elimination of testicles.

There is already a similar bill to Regola's introduced in the State House. HB 1608, known as the Child Molester Control Act, also calls for chemical castration of offenders but it has a more important part in it. It calls for mandatory sentences of offenders whose victims are under 13 years old. The minimum is for 15 years if the offense is the first one and 30 years if there has been a previous conviction. The court can impose a life without parole sentence on the offender as well. The perpetrator would never have the opportunity to get close enough to child again to molest.

THAT is Child Molester Control.

The problem I have with the bills as they are being presented are twofold. The first is that there is no clinical proof that it would actually work. As I mentioned above the mainpart of the molester's behavior is not necessarily controlled below the belt line. It would be more effective to remove the hands or the tongue than the testicles since that is what the molester uses to get to the child. The otherissue is that it doesn't address the issue of female offenders. I know that they are not as numerous as male offenders but that doesn't change the fact that there are female offenders out there. Until that is addressed as well, the bill may be unconstitutional as it treats inmates differently based only on the sex of the offender. That may cause problems with the bill as well.

I guess we will have to see what happens with the bills over the course of the legislative session. After all, HB 1608 has been sitting in committee since June 2005 and there hasn't been any movement. I guess they were too busy giving themselves a pay raise and then giving it baack to look at other bills.

Swann for govenor

2006-01-05T16:11:00.000-05:00

Lynn Swann, of Steeler fame is announcing today that he wants to be the next govenor of PA. This will be an interesting run, even if it isn't after a great catch. He hasn't gone on record with many of his positions, but implies that he would be pretty conservative. It will be nice to see the Former Steeler take on the crooked Eagles fan Rendell, but I'm not real sure if he will be able to get the nomination, as Bill Scranton already has his political machine working. PA politics seems to be getting more and more fun.

Drew Barrymore

2006-01-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why but for some reason I was dreaming about Drew Barrymore last night. I don't really remember the dream but I do know that when I woke up this AM, she was on my mind.

I'm not a big fan of Drew; I'm not all that sure that she can act worth anything. I liked the way she went crazy on Letterman the one time and I think that she's supposed to have an interesting tattoo in an interesting place. I can't even think of a movie of hers that I've watched in the last couple of years. I mean I even blew off Charlie's Angels and the sequel. And if I had watched those it would have been for Lucy Liu or Cameron Diaz (or even Demi Moore). So I'm not sure what brought this particular episode on.

Even so, now that I'm thinking about it, I may have to check out a flick or two with her in it. Just to find out what my subconscious is trying to tell me.

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

I didn't realize how long I had gone without putting anything on here. As such, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more consistent with getting thoughts down here. As for my other resolutions, I'm not going to put them out in public at this time because that way I don't have to admit if I don't follow through on them.

Random Shots

2005-12-04T18:57:00.000-05:00

The Steelers lost today. They played lousy and deserved to. It still pisses me off.

I'm betting on Texas in the Rose Bowl. I think that USC is the most ready for a beating team to be ranked number 1 in a long time.

I need to get back in the habit of writing on this more often. I like having a place to drop notes, but its harder when I don't spend most of my day at school like it did last year.

A blog is a wonderful thing...

2005-11-25T18:24:00.000-05:00

because it gives you the chance to put out there what you want put out there.

It gives you the chance to look like a genius. Or an idiot.

It allows you to show how deep you can think. Or how shallow.

It also gives the chance for the world to see how much you have to say. Or how little.

I didn't realize how little I wanted to say over the last many days. I had lots of opinions, just not that many I thought to go out over the e-waves with. Part of that is because I haven't really cared to. Part of it because I sat here in front of the screen and couldn't think of what to go on about for 100 words or so.

The business has heated up lately at work, so I'm sure that I'm going to have plenty of thoughts coming up. Some of them aren't fit for public consumption. Some of them are barely fit to recognize and move on.

Maybe I'll get better at sharing. Maybe not.

As I write this the smoooooth sounds of a Buffett song waft through the air around me. I've been listening to his music more lately. Maybe, just maybe that's taking some of the edge off the world. Maybe I need to be listening to the news more. That would put the edge back on.

redefining things

2005-11-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

Over the past week I have had the opportunity to see how the law and reality don't mix.
I had a case where a six month old child had a bruise on his ass the size and shape of a hand. I had a case where a kid so didn't want to go to see his old man that he banged his head on the wall and threatened to kill either the old man or him self. I also get to deal with a scoutmaster asking a kid if he would be interested in providing or receiving oral sex.

The law in PA states that abuse is an act that causes nonaccidental injury. Recent legal decisions have eviscerated that definition so that a mother who swings a belt at her kid, trying to hit the child in the butt but connecting with the eye instead, can say that it was an accidental injury because she didn't mean to pole the child's eye out.

That's bullshit.

I think that there needs to be a movement to remove "legalese" and replace it with common sense terms in law. A nonaccidental injury doesn't mean that you meant to cause a different injury, it means you acted in such a way that a purposeful act caused injury.

And don't get me started on that "I didn't mean to hit the kid-I just did" crap. It takes intention for a person to swing an arm hard enough to give a kid a black eye.

Motivations

2005-11-08T12:45:00.000-05:00

Last night as I was walking home from the game, I noticed somebody had left something out on the stoop. This is a person that I'm not particularly fond of, although we generally get along pretty well. As I'm walking by it, I thought it would be a nice trick to move it. Not far, but far enough to cause trouble. I've done this kind of thing before, playing practical jokes that are mostly harmless isn't outside of my code of conduct.

Then I started to think. I wasn't thinking of doing this out of purely fun reasons, I also thought of how it would tick off and inconvenience the person. That turned it from a practical joke to a dirty trick. And dirty tricks are not within the code of conduct.

I usually scoff at people who look at motives as compelling causes to either forgive or condemn behavior. That's part of the reason I think bias crime laws are wrong. You committed a crime it doesn't matter if it was because of bias, it was wrong to do. I usually believe that it doesn't matter why you did it, you did it. In this case I made an exception to the rule.

I left it where it was.

I can accept that

2005-11-06T10:48:00.000-05:00

One of the interesting paradoxes in the world is that how the more you want something, the less effort it sometimes takes to get. Other times when you give up on something, what you get instead is even better. Accepting the way things are rather than the way you want them to be makes life a lot easier and enjoyable. I mean why waste time wishing that you had two scoops of ice cream when you could be eating the scoop you have.

Supernatural business

2005-10-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

It's Halloween weekend here, which means that there are lots of people out looking for ghosts. Last night there were a lot anyway. I had a tour last night that broke the company record for most people to show up for a tour (not counting groups). Because of the expected number of people we brought in a second walker, but we could realistically used another one or two. The group itself was a blast which was mildly surprising since when groups get that big they become unwieldly and lots of the time aren't as much fun. This one worked out okay though.

Also had a second walk last night at midnite. Not nearly as popular, but another good walk.

It's great to be able to have a job where your primary goal is to have people look at and listen to you and get your own attention needs met. It's good to get them met every now and then.

Now I guess we'll see how tonight goes.

Red Lights

2005-10-29T16:22:00.000-04:00

I would think that everybody knows that a red light means to stop. I would think that before a person can get a driver's license that he would know that.

Then why did that asswipe just almost run me over?

I can deal with people going through a light that was yellow (or officially "amber") as they were going through the intersection when the light turned. For someone to go through the light after it has already completely turned red means that they are either an idiot or an inconsiderate asshole.

I don't mind assholes. Inconsiderate ones bug me. That means that you have to go out of your way to be a jerk. I hope that this guy gets all the things that he so truly deserves...like higher insurance rates and somebody nailing his stupid ass someday. Hopefully it will be because that person did the same to him that he did to me. Run the red, buddy and nail that sucker right in the door.

Not serving the fans

2005-10-26T15:17:00.000-04:00

Last night was the longest World Series Game in history. I didn't see the end. It was after midnight and I couldn't a) stay awake any longer or b)not be able to wake up this AM. I understand that MLB doesn't want to have its biggest games of the year on TV at 300 in the afternoon eastern time. But this part about not starting a game until almost 900 PM is getting more and more ridiculous. It assures that over one half of the population of this country is going to either have to miss the end or suffer the next day. I think (I know) it is a lot easier for someone on the West Coast to sneak out a few minutes early to see the game than it is for the entire eastern half of the country to call in late because they couldn't get up.

Drunk Driving Nutsiness

2005-10-15T16:02:00.000-04:00

The other day my sister sent me an e-mail about the DUI laws in DC. It appears that you can get popped for a DUI in the District with as low as a .02 BAC. Now when you consider that most people don't notice any effects of alcohol intoxication until .05 and not any serious effects until .10 (which thanks to mommy government is now above the legal limit in all the states) this strikes me as silly.
I could have two shots of Nyquill and meet this limit depending on the timing.

The good news is that this has begun to reach the national media. Hopefully it will begin to alert those out there that don't otherwise pay attention to these types of things of the way the abolishonists have wormed their way into the body politic.

when PA drooped the level for a DUI to .08, they had the little sense needed to say that there are levels of DUI. IF you are just past the level and not significantly drunk, you're not as bad as the asswipe who is getting pulled over because he's weaving over the road and has a BAC of .20. Knowing my size and the amount of ETOH I can put into it, I know that's a drunk driver. Some poor wretch who gets pulled over because she had her daytime running lights on instead of her headlights on and getting popped is stupid.

MADD has gone from being a legitimate, worthy organization, to one that has become a prohibitionist one. Alcohol is not a bad thing. Being out of control (whether through booze or other reasons) is.

No wonder that people are beginning to talk about joining DAMM. Drinkers against mad mothers.

Smurf this

2005-10-13T09:53:00.000-04:00

There is a new cartoon out featuring the Smurfs, those cute little blue annoyances. In it the smurfs are out smurfing and dancing when suddenly there are bombers over head. The bombers begin to drop ordinance on Smurftown. There are pictures of Smurfs running for cover, getting blown up, walking around missing Smurf parts and ends with a picture of a baby Smurf crying amidst the severed bodies of other Smurfs. The tag line, from UNICEF, is not to let war touch the children.

One the one hand the idea of dropping massive amounts of bombs on a village of innocent Smurfs is disturbing. The picture isn't a pretty one.

On the other hand, I find the Smurfs to be excessively annoying. I also have concerns that there seem to be so many of them but only one is female. I mean these fellows have to be doing something to be making baby Smurfs and if it is by the usual means, the Smurfette is a slut who spends most of her time pregnant. Watching the commercial I thought to myself that destroying these blue-skinned, too happy, smurfing annoyances wouldn't be a bad idea.

I haven't decided if I like this commercial or not.

The weather begins to turn...it must be fall

2005-10-10T16:30:00.000-04:00

The weather has begun to get colder so I'm thinking that fall is actually about the corner. That's a good thing. I enjoy the change of the seasons. It's interesting to watch the world turn from the life of summer to the sleep of winter and fall seems to be the drowsiness in between.

Another nice point in this turn of the season is that it means that the tourists will begin to come back to town. October seems to be a generallly good month for walks, maybe Halloween has something to do with it. I hope that this month will not break the pattern bhecause I can use the extra income.

Changes in the weather. Changes at work. Life continues to move. I still like the saying that life is what happens when you're planning on something else.

Panther note

2005-10-09T10:26:00.000-04:00

After having dissed them so much last week, it was good to see the Pitt football team win this week against the Cincy Bearcats. Granted Cincy doesn't have a great team, but the first step in becoming a good football team is to beat the teams that you're supposed to beat.

Em-BARR-assing

2005-10-01T11:35:00.000-04:00

Last night, I went down to the local watering hole to watch what I thought would be a good football game on TV. Pitt was playing Rutgers. The Big East opener for both teams. Two teams that should have matched up pretty well.

Boy was I wrong.

Pitt played perhaps the worst football game in the history of mankind last night. They couldn't block. They couldn't tackle. They couldn't run (Negative rushing yards for the game I think). They couldn't pass. They couldn't catch.

They sucked. (I kept waiting for Jim Mora to come on the screen going into that famous rant of his. (What can I say, we sucked. Five more minutes of stating which part of the team sucked including the cheerleaders.))

Even when Rutgers did their damnedest to help Pitt get back in the game, the panthers wouldn't let them. Pitt scores! Rutgers runs the return thirty yards back, then scores the next play.

If this keeps up I'm going to have to stop wearing my Pitt hat because it's embarrassing. In fact, I'm not wearing it today. I'm wearing my Pirates hat. At least they show up for the games.

Intelligent Design & the 1st Amendment

2005-09-28T15:51:00.000-04:00

The 1st amendment to the constitution states that the government shall not establish a religion. That means forcing everybody to support that religion and/or practice it using the force of the state to make it happen. The old canard about a wall of separation between church and state is a wall that is supposed to protect religion from the government, not the other way around. The government has all the armies, not the church.

In Harrisburg, the news is focusing on the Dover School Boards decision to present Intelligent Design as part of the 9th grade biology lesson on evolution. The teacher is to read a statement of about 100 words that states, basically, "There are holes in the theory of evolution. Some people say that they are there naturally or that we just haven't found the things in between. Other people say that the jumps are the work of a designer."

There is no religion in that statement. There is the opportunity for students to find out more about it. (As if many 9th graders are going to want to sit through a slog of reading Of People and Pandas.) There is no statement that the children must believe that there is a creator. There is not even a mention of who this creator may be. For all that is in the statement, the designer could be Ralph Lauren.

Where is the entanglement of state and church? Even if, as alleged, the partiers behind the decision are motivated by Faith there is no coercion involved in this case further than the coercion of the kid having to be enrolled in school. If we want a reading of the first amendment big enough to make this 30-60 second statement the establishment of a religion, then the free association clause should be broad enough that mandatory school laws can be struck down because the students sure don't want to be forced to associate with the teachers. Of course, maybe that would be a good thing since it would finally break the government monopoly of the schools and parents would have better options to send their children to and could eliminate all the taxes that go to line the pockets of the teachers unions.

Selective Editing?

2005-09-28T09:20:00.000-04:00

One of the news stories in the sports section over the past couple of days has been the report about Derek Jeter of the Yankees getting hate mail. The reports state that Jeter has gotten hate mail, including threats of physical violence and getting set on fire unless he stops dating white women. Having read this story in different papers on on different web sites I was struck by the paragraph that got left out in about half the stories.

The paragraph that gets left out is the one that also describes some more of what the letters say. The letters include that Jeter is a traitor to his race for what he is doing.

Think about that. A traitor to his race.

When you place this paragraph in the story it changes the context. When it says Jeter is getting threats for dating white women, the average person probably thinks that some redneck klanster is getting pissed off about this uppity black guy screwing white women. After all, according to the popular culture it is only white guys that can be racist. But with the additional paragraph about Jeter being a traitor to his race, it takes on a different perspective. This implies a black person is pissed at Jeter for dating outside the correct group. It changes the entire tenor of the story.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that particular fact is an important part of the story and shouldn't be edited out to save an inch of column. There were some other things in the story that could have been cut that weren't related to Jeter, such as a high school in Ohio getting simlar letters or some of the others that have received similar letters in the past or that the letters seem to be coming from the northwest PA and northeast OH areas.

I wonder why they left out the part that they did.

Don Adams

2005-09-27T14:27:00.000-04:00

Don Adams, actor, performer and former Marine passed away recently.

Don Adams was known to most people as Maxwell Smart, agent for CONTROL, the agency keeping us all safe from the machinations of Bernie Koppell and KAOS. I remember watching the show as a youngster and laughing at how Max would mess up the situation and still be able foil the bad guys. It wasn't until I was older that I was able to appreciate just how funny the show was taking on all the Bond-esque aspects of the super spy trade. It became even more funny years later as I watched it late at night and was more aware of the political and cultural stuff that was also going on at the time.

Adams was also the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo as I recall. He and Chumly, the walrus, would get into some type of situation and need help. They would go to see Professor Whoopee and get the education on the situation that they needed so that they could save the day.

Adams hadn't done anything that I'm aware of in recent years. That's too bad. The world is a little less funny than it was a few days ago.

Horoscopes

2005-09-25T11:24:00.000-04:00

One of the guilty pleasures in the daily paper is getting the opportunity to read the horoscopes. I consider myself too scientifically grounded to put more than just a minimal faith in them, and that because I know how they are written so vaguely that anything may be able to be pounded into the phrasing of the prediction. But I wish that they were more reliable.

Each day for the past week at least one or more of the horoscopes that I've read have told me that today was my lucky day in love and fun. And each day, they've been wrong. IF I was getting half as much action as these forecasts were promising this week, I wouldn't be able to walk, much less do all the other things that the horoscope was promising. Now today, I look at the prediction and see it says that love is in the air and should get ready for the full bodied embrace of being in love with the world. I'll be happy if I get the embrace of a decent looking woman. And it wouldn't have to be a full bodied embrace.

But just in case the horoscope is right today, I did laundry and put on clean underwear.

Compassion Fatigue

2005-09-24T09:37:00.000-04:00

Over the past three weeks there has been little but hurricane coverage on the TV. The situation with Katrina and the mess that is New Orleans, the coming of Rita, the hitting of Rita on LA and Texas, the levies in NOLA breaking and reflooding the ninth ward. Day after day there has been coverage of the mess and pain and mayhem.

I'm tired of it. I just can't bring myself to care about it like I should. And I have tried.

In social work there is a term that we call "compassion Fatigue." It is when you have been dealing with so many victims with so many problems you start to become vicariously traumatized as they are. The worker is tired because the work that has been done and there doesn't seem to be any change in the client, the client is still in pain or not changing and in the same rut. It causes the worker to care less, become hardened and not be as effective working with the client. It's also commonly referred to as burnout.

I think that I am dealing with Hurricane Compassion Fatigue. For three weeks I've seen little but the pictures of New Orleans residents running around in three foot of water, some with TV's and piles of clothes, heard nothing but tale after tale of governmental screw ups, and been told that there's another one coming that's going to do it all over again. As such, I can't get myself worked up the way I should. I look at the miles of cars on the Texas interstate and the satellite pictures of Rita and rather than saying "I hope they'll be okay,' I say better them than me. Instead of thinking how I can help I say that I've already given to the Salvation Army.

Hurricane Compassion Fatigue. I wonder if I can get a Federal grant to study it as part of the rebuilding package going through congress right now.

At least hope springs eternal

2005-09-17T10:15:00.000-04:00

The Bucs played a double header against the Reds last night. They managed to win one of the games. While their record is still horrible, there is hope. They have brought up some of the players from the minors this season and many of them are turning out to be pretty good ball -players. If they can continue to develop, a big if in Pirates' history, they may turn into a good ball team down the road.

I admit I was a Lloyd McClendon supporter so I was mildly surprised when he got fired while I was on vacation. He did have all the chances to show what he could do over the years. Unfortunately what he was able to do was take a team that could play .500 ball for a big chunk of the season and then lose 25 of 30 games, taking a good team and turning it into one that's 20 games below even. I hope he makes out okay but it was probably a good decision to let him go.

I gotta get me a job like that...

2005-09-14T13:31:00.000-04:00

The geniuses in the PA legislature are at it again. As if they haven't ticked off enough people by raising their pay in the middle of the night, bait-and-switch, illegal as all get out scheme, they are now trying to rationalize why they are worth being the second highest paid legislature in the land.

It's because of the cow milkers.

Yes, the cow milkers. House leader Perzel, who buy the way got a pay raise of up to $140,000, says that they are worth it because cow milkers in Lancaster County can make 60 grand a year, so he and his fellow civil servants in Harrisburg are easily worth 81 grand each.

Now notice he doesn't mention any of these 60,000 worth of milkers.

That's because there aren't any! He once again is lying! Fibs! Miscontruing facts! Lies!

Not that it would matter to one such as the good Rep. John Perzel. He, as do many in the state house and senate, does not care about what it right or wrong. He only cares about himself. And his $140,000, his free car, free health care, and super retirement plan.

By making statements like this, Perzel only helps to continue to fan the flames of anger about the pay hike. So I hope he keeps opening his mouth. Maybe that will help one of the two bills recinding the raise get to the house floor so we can see how our representatives in Harrisburg decide to vote. For themselves or for their constituents.

Tarzan & friends

2005-09-01T15:43:00.000-04:00

Today is the anniversary of the birth of one of my favorite writers of all time: Edgar Rice Borroughs. HE was the creator of several characters like Tarzan and John Carter, the Warlord of Mars. His writing was crisp, descriptive and well paced. Some of the concepts are very dated but when placed in context make sense. He did seem to have a racist view in some of the books, describing the blacks and arabs of Africa as slow witted and less advanced than the white man and as savages, but that was a common conception back in the early 1900s. His ideas of life on Mars were fun and imaginative with creatures born from plants, huge insectoid warriors and of course the most beautiful women in the universe.

Happy birthday ERB.

Mixed Feelings

2005-08-29T20:02:00.000-04:00

I've run into the daughter of the woman I was married to in the past week. I still sorta think of her of my stepdaughter, but now that her mom and I have separated, I'm not sure of the officaial term that covers her "status."

She has a six week old daughter. The baby is beautiful. Even more than most babies (although that may be just my soak in the pleasure attitude). I was running around the first time we ran across each other and like an idiot I forgot to ask the baby's name. The second time I ran into her I did remember to ask. I told the new mom to let me know if there was anything I could do to help out and let me know how things were.

The mixed feelings come in that I'm not really attached to the new mom anymore. When I was married to her mom and she lived with us we got along mostly well, although we were too alike to get along great. As she was getting older, and less under her mom's and my control, that relationship didn't get any better. So now, I'm a stepgrandpa, sorta removed. I am as happy as heck that the baby is well and has all the fingers and toes. But I feel a bit more like I should do something special since this is my stepdaughter's kid even though the mom and I split up. I guess I'll try to figure out the proper balance of pride and happiness, but I'm not sure where that is.

I didn't realize it but that first encounter affected me more than I thought it would. The next day I was in as good of mood as a bear with a bug up his arse. I didnt even realize that until my boss asked me why I was being so miserable. And when I act like that, there is something up.

I did drop a line to the estranged to congratulate her. I wasn't sure if that was proper or not but figured it was. She sent a note back saying thanks. That's good.

Water has weight

2005-08-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

It's pretty nice outside right now. The sun is shining and the temperature is in the nice range. Last night that wasn't the case. Last night was wet and chilly. And I had a tour.

Wearing wool on a chilly night is not a bad thing to do. It keeps you warm and blocks out most of the weather. However, it is not waterproof. The wool will bounce off some of the water for a while. But soon it becomes wet. And the water then begins to soak into the clothes. I stood for the better part of three hours outside last night between selling tickets and doing the walk. It drizzled the entire time. Some light, some heavy, but all drizzle. By the end of the tour I think that I had gained about ten to fifteen pounds. All of it water weight. When I stopped by for my post walk libation, I took my frock coat off and was suddenly light again. I threw the coat over the back of the stool to wait for me. When I got up later, there was a puddle of water beneath my stool about two-and-a-half feet around. The coat was still soaked and it had dropped all that water.

The tour itself seemed to go okay, two families with lots of kids, so I got to keep the stories light. Seeing as the weather was depressing, it was probably a good idea as well. The group seemed to like the stories which is always a good deal. Now today I have off and will get to enjoy an evening of rest. Which I deserve. I don't care what anyone else says.

Busy little me

2005-08-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

It's sort of crazy here lately at C&Y, and my other jobs have picked up the pace as well. That's good in that I'm surely not bored, and it's keeping me off the streets at night. The bad part is that I haven't really had time to have too much fun of any type over the past two weeks.

Just this past weeks I've got to deal with a family letting their 15 year old daughter go running off to Baltimore to spend the night at her boyfriend's, a mother who would have a hard time beating a box of rocks in a battle of wits with her two children-both under five, A young girl who was sexually abused by her uncle, a four month old baby who had unexplained injuries and some other stuff. Later I get to deal with a 5 year old boy who was sexually assaulted by his step-brother. Yoi and double yoi!

Granted it has been more nutsy than usual. But there have been times where it hasn't been too crazy or the calls too severe. The call because a mom doesn't like the way the baby sitter talks to the kids (Don't take your kid there mom), a call about a dad making the kid say bad things about the mother (Tell dad to knock it off or he doesn't get vistation) and my favorite, which came just an hour ago, a lady saw a mother (who she didn't know) yelling at a kid (who she didn't know) about something (which she didnn't know). Oh and by the way, they drove off in an off red car (to ssomeplace she didn't know). I'll get right on that ma'am. Riiiiight.

Some folks don't understand why we're here. Others don't understand the limitations that are placed on us by the laws. It's annoying that the same people that bitch and moan about how we come into families and cause problems are the same ones who bitch and moan when we can't do anything. Or they complain that they knew something was going to happen to that poor child they just knew it. Oh, no, we never called CYS about the family. that would be impolite.

The law of diminishing returns

2005-08-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

As a CPS worker I will never tell a parent that it's okay to hit a kid. While I recognize that sometimes it is an effective means of changing behavior it is not a good long term strategy. It is specially un-effective after a kid hits about seven or eight.

I guess that's why I am specially annoyed by the parent of a teen who thinks that beating the snot out of the kid is really going to matter. What it really is going to teach the kid id that A) if I get caught I can deal with the repercussions and B) don't get caught.

I don't mind physical discipline. I mind ineffective physical discipline.

Here's looking at you, kid.

2005-08-17T07:03:00.000-04:00

Last evening after doing some running around, I stopped at Blockbuster. As a strolled through the stacks, I found two things. One was that Blockbuster, who it seems to have every movie ever made and then some, does not have the movie Meatballs with Bill Murray. I was majorly bummed. I had a couple things go on in the past few days that just kept brining that movie to mind and really was hoping to see it for the first time in probably a decade, if not two.

The second was that they did have Casablanca. I love this movie. And for what ever reason I decided that if I couldn't have Meatballs, I would have Casablanca. (Yes I know that the two are only about ten billion miles apart in everything. Don't ask me how the logic worked here, I have no idea. It seemed logical at the moment. Casablanca it would be.) So I went home and watched it again.

Casablanca is the best movie ever made. Now I know there's some people out there who would point to Citizen Kane or Gone with the Wind or Dukes of Hazzard or some other movie and say that it is, but I'll never be convinced. The movie has intrigue, it has action, romance, war, corruption, Nazis, comedy, and just about anything else that a movie should have.
It has a great star in Bogart, playing the man so kicked in the groin by life he tries to become cynical, but just can't bring himself to so it. It has Bergman, playing the woman torn between two great loves of her life, each of whom she at one time thought was lost forever. Paul Henried plays Lazlow, fearing for the safety of his wife and for the safety of the world. The supporting cast including Clause Raines, who if not for Bogart's stellar performance may have stolen the movie. The lines of being shocked, shocked I tell you at gambling as the barman comes up with his winnings and of being only a poor, corrupt official, both make you smile and sigh that there are cops like that around still.
And the Love Story. Bogart torn between his love and what's right. Bergman between the two men and Henried torn between his need for his wife and the need of fighting the Nazis. And it all comes down to Bogart's decision in the end.
Even though I've seen in dozens of times, the scene on the runway always puts a lump in my throat. Part of me wants to tell Bogie to take her with him, not let Lazlow have her. As she walks away, I feel the emptiness that Rick feels as he sees the last of Ilsa. When Major Strausser shows up I feel the anger leave me as the Nazi gets his. And I still cheer when Louie says, "Round up the usual suspects."

I think part of the reason I like this movie so much is that it is a well done, well written and directed movie. I think part of it is the allure of being the American ex-pat in an exotic locale. I think part of it is that love can win out. Even if it means letting it go. Bogie was right when he said that they'll always have Paris. They didn't until Casablanca. And at last all was right again.

And we'll always have Casablanca.

I pronounce you husband and husband...

2005-08-14T11:14:00.000-04:00

The latest news on the gay marriage fight comes from Canada. Two men have decided to get married. The good news is that they have known each other for years, they have been drinking buddies, and they get along well. They are also both heterosexual.

That's right, straight. As in not gay.

They both admit that the only reason that they are getting married is for the tax and other government benefits that come from being married.

Those who wanted the ability to marry without respect to the historic value and meaning of marriage are crying foul. Serves them right.

I just hope that this will open the eyes of some of those in America about the laws of unintended consequences when it comes to this subject here. Some how I doubt it.

Meanwhile, the kid going to the pros can't count the money he's making.

2005-08-10T13:10:00.000-04:00

The NCAA, the "guardians" of college athletics, has decided that it will no longer permit teams with Native American (or as they used to be called:Indian) mascots or nicknames to participate in its championships. The dunderheads at the NCAA has decided that the names and mascots are "hostile and abusive" to the tribes.

This, of course, comes as a major shock to the Seminole Tribe in Florida where they have worked with Florida State University for decades. The Tribe has also threatened to help legal action with FSU regarding the rule. This also comes against the wishes of many others who resent the loud mouth belly-aching minority making them look like idiots.

This rule also comes after the progress of recent years where the Indian mascots have been consistently treated with more respect than most other ethnic groups (A short bearded Irishman pumping his fists springs easily to mind). Long gone are the days when the Atlanta Braves had a white cracker in the outfield dancing a jig when the Braves hit a homerun.

The NCAA rule comes when it should be looking at rules that make sense, like requiring graduation rates or putting in a playoff system in Division I football. (Of course, there may be an out there for teams like Florida State and Illinois who may get to play for a mythical football championship since it's not "sanctioned" as a championship like every other sport.) Also do they want to keep out a legitimate contender for a championship just because the team wants to honor Native Americans by naming the most respected, most watched, most revenue producing students, namely the teams, after a group who is respected for their skills, courage and character. That's not just stupid, it's silly.

The dunderheads at the NCAA need to get their collective head out its collective anus and start focusing on making the sludge pit of college athletics better. I'm sure there are more people upset that Steve Spurrier promises two thieves on his team special police treatment if they return items they stole, or about kids that are being used to make the schools money then being dropped like a hot potato when they blow out a knee, or job hopping coaches that promise high school kids the world then jumps at the next better job, than there are that Indiana University of Pennsylvania is called the Indians. Even though the mascot is a bear.

Well...that was fun...sorta

2005-08-09T15:41:00.000-04:00

The birthday didn't go as swimmingly well as I had hoped, nor did it go as crappy as I half expected.

Went out for a bit in the afternoon, shot some bull, had a couple of cold ones. Went home, cooked up a couple of delmonicos that I had bought just for the occasion. They tasted great. It had been a while since I had one since I generally am opposed to paying over $10 for a steak I have to cook myself. Went out that evening as well to meet with someone and share some time over a pint.

All in all, not too bad of a day, but I didn't get the special gift I was hoping for. But hey, I wasn't sure what I was hoping for anyway.

Another trip around the sun

2005-08-07T09:43:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday to me.

I finished my tour last night and headed out for a drink. After I had my fill, I headed back home. When I got settled in on the chair, I noticed that it had turned after midnight. August 6 became August 7, and I had turned another year older. Listening to Jimmy Buffett, reading John D MacDonald, having a beer. Not a bad way to turn older.

Today, I celebrate (or mope, I haven't decided) the anniversary of my arrival. It will be interesting to see how it goes. Most of my birthdays have been either reason for celebration or for indifference. I haven't really had too many bad ones. Hitting 30 and 40 was no big deal for me, I just looked at it as another round number. Hitting 31 took me kind of hard as I was now over 30 and that seemed old at the time. 41 didn't hurt nearly as bad as 31 did, possibly because I didn't feel being over 40 was as bad as being over 30.

As I finish another trip around the sun and get ready to start a new lap, I sit here at my desk and wonder what happens next. I hope the next trip will be better than this last one. It has the makings to be both better and worse in some ways. I guess that time will tell. We'll see in about 300,000,000 miles or so (I think that's around how far the earth travels in a year).

Sometimes it's news when everybody on the plane is okay.

2005-08-03T16:07:00.000-04:00

After I got off work yesterday, I stopped in for happy hour and noticed CNN on the television. They were showing pictures of a plane burning near the highway. The dateline at the bottom of the picture said Toronto. My first reaction was that another terrorist attack had occurred. The volume on the TV was way down and I was unable to hear most of what they were saying. The plane looked fully engulfed, the smoke was heavy and the traffic on the highway was backed up. I kept watching, hoping that something would come up on the screen or the news crawl at the bottom to tell me what was going on...How many dead, what kind of attack, who was on the plane, anything.

Finally there came something. The plane hadn't been attacked, it had wrecked.
Well, that's good, nobody was blowing up planes at the moment.

There were over 300 people on the plane.
Wow, that plane was pretty full. I wonder if anyone made it away alive.

About thirty to forty casualties reported.
Is that how many died? Only about 10% dead. That's pretty good.
Nobody dead.
WHAT?
Holy crap! Everybody made it off alive! The casualties were only wounded.
Amazing.

This is news. Sometimes even though the picture is ugly, the news is good. Reading the reports today it seems everybody did just the right thing and it worked out right. A story for the ages.
After all, how many people can say "I was in a plane wreck"? And be telling the truth.

Trading deadline.

2005-07-31T11:14:00.000-04:00

Today is the deadline for major league baseball trades that do not have to pass through waivers. After today, the wavier part means that a team can effectively block a trade from hapopeniung by threeatening to claim the player on waivers.

Not that it means anything, but I hadn't posted in a while so I thought that I should.

It's raining it's pouring...

2005-07-21T16:27:00.000-04:00

One of the advantages of living close to work, specially now with gas prices so high, is that I can walk to the office. This is extra nice on morings like this was, where it was warm, a little breezy, and a pleasant walk. Most of day was nice in fact. Until a little bit ago. Then the skies opened up and the water came down. it is now storming rather heavily and I am faced with a dilemma. Do I leave here anad go home, getting soaked to the bone in a period of a few minutes, or do I sit and wait out the storm, which looks like it might be a long one.
At least this will hopefully remind me to get that extra umbrella that I was thinking of to keep at the office.

James Montgomery Doohan

2005-07-21T13:41:00.000-04:00

...passed away yesterday. All the obits will talkk about how he was best known as Scotty on Star Trek. Many of them will talk about how he enlisted in the Canadian army (back before Canada was weird) and was injured on D-Day, having part of a finger shot off. I think that part of his story that I enjoyed most was that he was a talented actor and was one of the most versatile voices in Hollywood. I listened to book that he read once, and he did about six different voices and if you didn't know that they were all him, you wouldn't be able to tell.

It's also less well known that he invented the Klingon Language. K'Plaugh Engineer Scott. You shall be missed.

National ID woes

2005-07-19T16:03:00.000-04:00

The federal government passed a bill last term making drivers' licenses meet certain minimum criteria to be used federally. These criteria include verification of the driver's citizenship and residency status. This will include certain biometric measured like finger prints. Certain governors, including our own "Fast Eddie" Rendell are bitching that it will drive up the cost of licenses and it's an unfunded mandate to the states. They belly ache that it will cause more problems with the driver's license process and so on.

The idea that you can get a license without proving that you are eligible to have one in this day and age is outrageous. If the process had begun a few years ago, this wouldn't be an issue now. If there was some enforcement of the immigration laws that are on the books this wouldn't be an issue. IF the federal and state governments did there job in the beginning, there wouldn't be this uproar now. To listen to Eddie Rendell complain about a cost to the state,-a legitimate, reasonable cost- after signing the budget that gave him and the state legislature a 16% pay raise for not doing their job, makes me sick.

Eddie- if your so damned concerned about the state not being able to afford the new license restrictions, give back the several thousand dollar raise that you and your cronies in the house and senate just stole from the state's tax-payers.

Beyond the Sea

2005-07-14T13:12:00.000-04:00

Last night I watched Kevin Spacey transform himself into Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea. The movie was a look at Bobby's life and career. I found the acting in it wonderful, the plotting and story grand and the music great. I've long been a fan of Bobby Darin, more for his big band sounding stuff than for Splish Splash, and Kevin Spacey did a good job of matching the style and intensity of Darin. I knew that Darin was married to Sandra Dee, but didn't realize what that relationship was like. The movie did a good job of depicting the relationship and the highs and lows that it entailed. I had never really known the back story of Bobby Darin and this gave me some insight into the character.

I recommend the film.

Comic Books

2005-07-13T15:34:00.000-04:00

I first started collecting comics back when I went to Boy Scout summer camp almost thirty years ago. I picked up a couple to take along to pass time when I wouldn't be doing anything else. Years before my mom would be able to bring home the unsold issues from the 5&10 with the covers removed as unsold issues. But after the trip to camp I was hooked. I collected for the next many years, through college and didn't really stop collecting until I moved out here to Central PA. I didn't pick up the habit again until a comics shop moved into the building where I was living at the time. I went down on Free comic book day and like a junkie falling off the wagon, I was hooked again. When the shop closed down a few months later (I guess my comic buying wasn't enough to keep them afloat) I tried to get to the shop in Hanover, but other issues arose and it made it difficult. I drifted away once again.

I was going by the comic shop the other day and had some time to spare so I stopped in. I think I'm hooked again. I'm slipping in, only picked up a few Bat-titles. But I found myself checking out some others. I almost picked up a Star Wars and a Conan, but was able to stop myself. I'm just not sure if I'll be able to resist much longer. And I'm not sure I want to.

Hmm-haa. Comics.

Bike Week

2005-07-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

It's Bike Week here this weekend. That's the chance for thousands of motorcycle riders to converge on our small hamlet and raise the level of discussion to a yell so you can be heard over the sounds of the bikes.

The picture of the motorcycle rider is that of the young Marlon Brando or Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. The outsider coming to town to disrupt the way of life and generally be bad. In reality, the average biker, specially a Harley rider, is probably well employed, slightly above average age and has no intention of upsetting the status quo that enables him to afford a vehicle that sells for several thousand dollars. Bike week allows that person to act the part of the rebel.

I had the chance to bartend out at the center of all the activities this weekend. While there were some there who probably fit the rebel without a clue category, most of the riders seemed to be letting loose like kids on spring break. It was time to let loose and raise hell because Monday they had to go back to the office. Walking around at the vending tents, I noticed that nothing was cheap except the sunglasses. And even those were going for $20. Not the kind of things that Fonda and Hopper would have been buying.

The good news is that Bike Week comes at a time when tourism is traditionally slow, the week after the Holiday. Although you couldn't tell that by the size of the group I had last night.

A little knowledge...

2005-07-06T15:52:00.000-04:00

can be a dangerous thing. I had an interview the other day with somebody that thought that by over rationalizing and thinking about things that it made it better. The fact is that it just made him look more foolish than he probably would have otherwise. He tried to convince me of facts that I knew were different and quoted sections of law that didn't exist. For example, the law does not give parents permission to use corporal punishment. There is only a defense against an assault charge by staing that the physical punishment was reasonable and in the interests of child discipline (that's not the exact wording-I don't have the crimes code in front of me at the moment-but it gets the general point). That's why I often point out to parents that if they did the same thing to me as they did their child I could have them arrested. I would have had a lot more respect for the guy if he had owned up to what he didn't know and proceeded from there.

Of course too much thinking an be just as bad. One of my favorite scenes in the Winnie-the-Pooh series is a conversation between Pooh and Piglet:
"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes, " said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that's why he never understands anything."

Well said, Pooh. Sometimes too much Brain is just as dangerous, if not more so, than too little.

They didn't make them like that when I was that age...

2005-07-04T15:40:00.000-04:00

One interesting thing about getting older is that old becomes less clear but young gets more clear. Generally old is someone about ten to fifteen years your elder. When I was a kid, that meant someone who's the age I am now. Now I don't see old getting there until about 55, and even then it's questionable. But young stays that age forever. Even when I was in my twenties, a teen seemed so young. As I've moved through the years since then, a teen is still way too young. This wasn't a problem until even young started getting older. A young woman in her twenties now seems to be young to me. A few years ago that would be prime territory.

It's even getting to this point at work. In this business you get to see the fresh out of college kids coming into the job and chuckle about how fresh and young they are. Sometimes though it seems that even after they have been here for a while that they still seem young.

But alluding to the title of the post....
I was out this afternoon and ran into a young woman who appeared very attractive. She was built like a full figured model (not one the anorexic looking ones) and was reasonably attractive. I watched her walk down the street only to see her walk over to her father. I could tell because he said "Hey kid" and she said "Hey dad." The dad couldn't have been much older than me. That's annoying.

Some People

2005-07-03T16:32:00.000-04:00

This has been an interesting week of work. The things that people do to others both never ceases to amaze and no longer surprises me. A case that is out there deals with a guy hitting a kid in the balls as punishment. That's something that buddies and I used to do as barely teens as we were going through puberty and realized that it hurt more that a shot to the arm or belly. For an adult to do that to a child is just wrong. I interviewed that alleged perp and of course he denied everything. He denied it so vehemently that I'm pretty sure that he was full of crap on at least 75% of his story. A suggestion to people being accused of things: The more you deny- the less believeable it is. ANd when somebody asks you why you be believed, you tell them that they should believe you because you're telling the truth.

Even if the guy didn't do what he is accused of, he's a jack-off.

Fourth of July

2005-07-03T16:31:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. The birthday of the USA. Pretty neat. I hope that the country lasts another 229 years.

Things Happen

2005-06-28T20:17:00.000-04:00

As a Worker where I'm at, I notice that sometimes things don't go as I plan. The perfect safety plan for a child, that assures safety and continuity, suddenly becomes a cluster fart because somebody who wasn't even a part of it decides thatthey want to change it. It's even more annoying when the person wanting to change it isn't a part of the case at the open, they just show up.
When working a case, the primary goal is to assure that no further harm comes to the child. In many cases that is simple- don't let the person who may have done the harm near the kid. When there are cases where it is not clear whom the person that may have caused harm is, it gets more difficult. Then you can only plan to minimize the probability that it will happen again.
That's where the fun starts. You talk to the parties involved, talk to others, and begin to form a safety plan. Then other people come in and screw it up. A family member that hasn't had squat to do with the child in question suddenly becomes a highly concerned family member. The Problems then begin.
As a caseworker, and an agent of the government, I have to not only protect the child, I have to be aware of the rights of the family members I'm deaaling with. ANd therfore, even tough this new entity is a total jack-off, I can't say that they are a total jack-off an prevent them from being involved in the family situation. I can see why some people would rather just let the government take charge and damn the rights of everybody.
Additionally, I have to deal with people who, for whatever reason, just can't tell people to go the hell away, you're not having anything to do with my child. Granted, it's usually the parent who isn't realted to the jack-off, but I can't believe that I would let my kid be around somebody that I wanted nothing to do with.

The boy genius at work

2005-06-25T09:58:00.000-04:00

George W Bush often refers to Karl Rove as the Boy Genius. And he's proven it again. With his remarks at a meeting of New York Republicans, he's managed to make Democrats look weak, foolish and hypocritical all at the same time. By referring to the liberal reaction to 9/11 as seeking therapy and understanding he exposed the left's weakness on defense issues. But he was slick referring to liberals, not democrats. SHortly after the remarks the usual suspects started complaining and demanding an apology. AMong them were John Kerry, who by the way denied that he was a liberal during the presidental campaign. This gave the White House the oppurtunity to point out all those other stupid things that Democats have been saying, like the comment sby Durbin and Dean lately.

Boy Genius indeed.

Batman Begins

2005-06-21T12:57:00.000-04:00

Went to see Batman Begins this weekend. I'm favorably disposed to almost anything Batman since I've been a Batfan since I was a kid, (Although I admit that even I had a hard time with the 4th Batman movie with Clooney et al.) but I thought the movie was great. It did bog down on occasion, but over all I thought that it captured the spirit of the character. I liked some of the cute lines (Gordon on the Batmobile for example, " I gotta get me one of those") and the romantic plot with Katie Holmes was little enough that I didn't mind it. I liked the touch of Liam Neesam being Ra's al Ghul who comes back to haunt Batman. Michael Caine as Alfred was a good pick. And Christian Bales as Bruce and Batman was fine. The ending of the movie where Gordon talks about how the bad guys keep ratcheting it up against the good guys was a great scene, especially the end. I liked the catch lines of why we fall and especially the one about what you do being what really matters.

A good message for the youngsters that were watching. Which weren't many at the showing that I went to, surprisingly. I went to the matinee showing on Sunday (Yes, I'm cheap) and it was 90% adults in the theatre.

Anyway on the Ed rating scale, I give the flick at least three-and-a-half of four, and part of that is just because I don't like to give out fours.

Leon Askin

2005-06-20T16:25:00.000-04:00

I read the other day that Leon Askin, who played General Burkhalter in Hogan's Heroes, passed away. I hadn't known it but he was actually a survivor of the Hitler days in Bulgaria. He and his family escaped to America after time in a concentration camp.

The man escapes the Nazis, then ends up playing one as a buffoon on a show that portrays them all as bumbling fools that Hogan and the gang run rings around. He had to get some strange satisfaction from that.

May he rest in peace.

The Senate Apologizes for Lynchings

2005-06-20T16:08:00.000-04:00

The Senate, last week, in a move to bring even more glory on itself and/or for no other reason than it is made up of a bunch of knuckle-heads issued a resolution apologizing for not making it a Federal crime to lynch a person. The same senate that each time a anti-lynching bill came before it would use the holy tactic of the filibuster to prevent it from ever voting on the bill. The same Senate that has the former Kleagle of the KKK as one of the Democratic elder statesmen.

The only thing that made this stupid move even more despicable was listening to some of the rhetoric about the bill. The same week that Dick Durbin (D-IL) bemoans American soldiers as being on a level with Hitler and Pol-Pot, they have the gumption to play this propagandistic token of high-thinking BS.

Sitting at my place here in Gettysburg, where thousands of men gave their lives in an effort to protect a Government dedicated to the concept that all men were created equal, I got to read the words of John Lewis (D-GA). He states that the US government has never apologized for the lynchings. HE says that the US government has never apologized for slavery or ever gone on the record condemning slavery. This idiot needs to make a trip an hour north of Washington and visit us here. This Dipwad needs to read the Constitution that he promised to protect and defend and read the little bit in there about slavery being outlawed. This Jag-off needs to quit hanging out with old Senator Sheets Byrd, who has the distinction of being the only senator to vote against both blacks appointed to the Supreme Court.

This is what passes for politics today. When they should be working on important issues like the war, the courts, and finding ways to cut the waste in the system, they are apologizing for something that none of them ( with the possible exception of Byrd) had anything to do with. One of the principles at the founding was that a person could not be held responsible for the acts of another. I wish the idiots in DC remembered that and would stop apologizing for things they had nothing to do with.

Wacko Jacko

2005-06-15T16:57:00.000-04:00

Michael Jackson was found "not guilty" on all counts on Monday. The key phrase is "not guilty." I noticed some of the media outlets were using that term rather than innocent , but not all of them. It's good to see that they recognize the difference. I just wonder if they would say innocent if the person involved wasn't so strange.

I personally expected that he would be found guilty on some of the charges, maybe the furnishing intoxicants to a minor or the conspiracy, but never really expected him to be found guilty on the abuse charges. I know how hard it is to get a conviction on that type of charge when the victim doesn't have credibility issues and there's forensic evidence. This case didn't have either of those making it even harder to reach the burden of proof. I would have been surprised if he was found guilty on the molestation charges.

The good news is that he will now slip back into that fog where once hot celebrities go when they aren't popular anymore. We won't hear too much about him until he dangles a baby or lets another boy into his bedroom at neverland. Hopefully that won't be for a long time.

Women

2005-06-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

Women are an interesting thing.

It is interesting how one can flirt and proposition some and it never amounts to anything. In other cases, it regularly comes close to meaning something. There was a situation recently that I was talking to a someone that I find attracive. Not beautiful, but intriguing. One that I wouldn't mind spending an evening with (wink, wink, nudge nudge). But we've known each other long enough, including while I was married, that the firting and propositioning that we had done all that time, when we knew nothing was to come of it, also plays a part.

One of the biggest adjudgements of being single again is playing in those areas. When commmitted to another, I could say "let's do the nasty" and know that neither I or her would do so. Now, there is the possibility. That makes it both more and less fun.

Back to the original point though... Women are interesting. I dread the day that I never have to deal with hese kinds of concerns again. I would much rather have to be concerned than not to.

Flag Day

2005-06-14T13:15:00.000-04:00

Today is Flag Day.

It is also the 230th birthday of the US Army.

A wonderful day.

I guess it's summer

2005-06-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

The weather has been rather warm as of late, hitting into the high 80s and even supposed to hit 90 today. The nights aren't much better, it only got down to the mid 70s last night. As I am not a svelte as I once was, the heat has a bit more effect on me than it used to. I don't really mind the heat so much but it does make me sweat. I have had to use more powder than usual just to avoid stinking.

The worst part of the heat is when I have to do a walk. I put on a thick shirt, wool pants, wool vest and get to stand in the heat. That's when the powder really comes in handy. There's not much worse than hot wool on sticky skin to drive you nuts. A lot of people wonder how I can stand it but I've found that after about 20 minutes, I don't really notice anymore than I would if I had been standing there in shorts and a t-shirt. One thing that is different though is the need for water. I found that on some of these hot days that I have walks, I can drink about a gallon of water and not have to use the bathroom since I've sweat all the water out.

I've always thought that about 90% of a person's reaction to the weather is half mental (apologies to Yogi). The weather lately makes me believe that even more.

Pirates at .500!

2005-06-12T11:23:00.000-04:00

With the win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night, the Pittsburgh Pirates are at .500 for the first time this late in the season since 1999. For most teams, that's no big deal. When you haven't had a winning season in over a decade, it's a big deal. I think I'll find a way to celebrate.

Clean Clothes

2005-06-08T10:02:00.000-04:00

As I was sitting on the side of the bed this AM, I looked over at the corner of the room. There, in three large baskets, were my dirty clothes. I am lucky enough to have a washer & dryer in the apartment building where I live, but I rarely use it. Most of the reason for that is that I don't really like to do laundry. If I were to use the machines in the building, I could only do two loads of laundry at a time. By the time I get around to doing laundry, there's about the equivalent of ten loads. To do them one at a time would take all day, and I don't really have that kind of time. I find it easier to go to the laundry mat and do all ten loads at one time. The I can dry all ten loads at one time as well. This means that doing laundry only takes a couple of hours instead of all day. I can take a bottle of diet coke, a news paper and all those dirty clothes and be finished by the time I get finished with the crossword puzzles in the paper.

Storms

2005-06-07T13:39:00.000-04:00

We had a big storm come through the area yesterday. Winds, Rain, lightning, thunder, the whole thing.

I like to watch a good storm. The gods of wind and thunder at work. It's always an enjoyable show.

There may have been some tornadoes that came through with the front. Lots of people are afraid of tornadoes, and they should be. I guess a bit of the fear comes from never having experienced a tornado. The unknown is always a big fear factor. I had an experience with a tornado years ago. Mom and I were coming home after having dropped my sister off at Girl Scout Camp. We were traveling along the highway when the storm hit. The wind and rain made it very difficult to see past the hood of the car. We eventually pulled over to the side of the road until we could see. The wind kept up and got stronger. The car could be felt rocking. The it slowed and stopped. We continued on home. Later that day we found that where we pulled over was about 1/4 mile from a path where a twister had ripped a path almost a half mile wide. If we had stopped a minute sooner, it would have been right over us. Since then, Tornadoes don't hold quite the same awfulness for me.

One more reason I hate Ted Turner

2005-06-07T13:34:00.000-04:00

The Pirates played the Braves this weekend. The Atlanta Braves. The ones who air on TBS. The TBS that's a national cable network. The one owned by Ted. The one that broadcasts about 150 of the 162 games the Braves play. Guess which three they choose not to broadcast.

That's right. The Pirates series. Not one. One of the few chances that I get to see a Pirates game is when they play the Braves since none of the cable companies in Gettysburg carry Fox Sports Pittsburgh. And they don't show one of the friggin' games!

Damn that Turner.

Starting anew

2005-06-05T11:17:00.000-04:00

It's interesting when you begin a new version of something that you've been doing for years and you feel like a rookie all over again. I did my first version of a new ghost tour this weekend. Even though I've been doing tours for years, I was more nervous than I had been in a long time. Even though I knew the stories, I knew the ground, and I knew how to handle the weather...I was nervous. I did mostly okay. I forgot the name of widow at the one house, I stopped at a place other than I wanted to at one point, and I forgot part of a story, I don't think that the customers noticed most of the mistakes. They seemed to enjoy the tour and complimented me at the end. It may have helped that I warned them that this was my first tour on the new route and was still getting used to it.

It's been similar at the day job as well. As I continue to get reacquainted with the ins and outs of the work, it is beginning to all come back to me. Which is good.

RandomShots

2005-06-04T15:59:00.000-04:00

It's been a bit since the last post so it's time to catch up.

Babies are so cool
This afternoon, I got to see the grandkid of some people I know. The child is about eight months old. It amazing how much bigger the child has gotten in that time. When first seen the child was smaller than a football. Not so anymore.
The funny part is as I was thyinking about this before I came to make this entry, I was sitting on the balcony watching out over the parking lot. A young mom that I had seen earlier (somewhat attractive from what I could see either time) came into the parking lot behind the building. SHe put the babe on the trunk and proceded to change the diaper on the back of the car. After that she put the kid back in the stroller and continued on her way. I thought changing stations in public restrooms were strange (especially in men's rooms) but now I guess that at that age it's even more true that when you gotta go you gotta go.

Technology advances
I was informed yesterday as they installed my new computer at work that the 3 1/2 inch discs are becoming obselete. I had just begun to figure out how to effectively use them to travel data from place to place and then it doesn't matter. That's not a bad thing; advances that improve effectiveness are always good. I just wish that I had time to catch up before I got behind.
Of course I feel that way about things other than technology.

Deep Throat
The mysterious source of the information leading to the downfall of Richard Nixon wasn't the saint that many thought but rather a pissed off civil servant who didn't get the job he wanted. As an occasionally pissed off civil servant I'm not sure if I like that idea or not. I know that several years ago, in the private sector, I suggested to a newspaperman I knew that he might want to look at happenings at the place I was working. I had no reason not to as I wasn't bound by any limitations about talking about my job other than the laws of case confidentialy.
I think the best analysis of the events of Watergate have been phrased up by others. It was a corrupt and out of control FBI against a corrupt and out of control president. The Corrupt FBI won.

Baseball
The Pirates are playing good baseball having won 4 of five against the Marlins and Braves. I'm looking forward to be able to watch the Bucs play the Braves tonight on TBS...what...it's not on? The team that broadcasts 99% of the games, home and away, won't be on TV tonight???
Just one more reason that Ted Turner is a major jackoff. Whether he has any to do with it or not. May he burn in the appropriate level of hell when his time comes. (Not that I'm upset or anything.)

Comic Books
I'm still trying to figure out how to get organized all the comics that I've brought home from Mom's over the past month. It is neat to be able to go through the books and pull out some of the issues to read. I look at some of the ones that I bagged almost twenty years ago and wonder why. I look at some that I didn't and wonder why not. HIndsight is always 20/20, unless it's 20/15.

Sunday morning

2005-05-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

It's already a nice day out and I'm looking forward to the chance to soak up a little sun today.

One of the nice parts about Sunday mornings is the pace of town. There's some traffic, not much, and it seems that even the tourists are moving slower than usual. The traffic ebbs and flows with the start and end of church, and in between it is almost quiet. Walking around the town is a relaxing, even refreshing experience. Soon the soccer games will begin and the traffic pick up but for now it is calm. Peaceful. Enjoyable.

I like Sunday mornings.

Pop Culture Notes

2005-05-26T09:39:00.000-04:00

I usually don't pay attention to what's big in pop culture, although just through osmosis I know more than I really want to, but yesterday I was sitting at the club when one of those entertainment news shows came on.

I noticed that the big story was about the Amber Fry movie. Here is woman who's only claim to fame is that she screwed a married man who later killed his wife and unborn son.

The next story was about Mary Kay Latourno. It was a big to-do about her marrying. She is the child molester. The story was about how this woman who sexually assaulted a 12 year old boy is now marrying the victim of the crime that she spent eight years in jail for.

Another story was about how the couple who hooked up on a desert island while on Survivor, then later traipsed about the globe as an unmarried couple on the great race are now going to have another go around on TV as they prepare to marry.

Still another story was about whether or not Brad Pitt has knocked up Angelina Joilie. Or maybe Ben Affleck has knocked up Jennifer Garner. And neither of those couples are married either.

So of all the stories that I had the chance to notice, the only one dealing with sex inside of marriage is about the child molester marrying her victim. The illegitimacy rates in this country are going through the roof. Half of babies born in the country are to single mothers, and in minority communities it is as high as 80%.

I wonder if there is a connection.

Seating woes

2005-05-24T14:17:00.000-04:00

One of the more annoying parts of being back at work so far has been that I don't know where I belong. The office has (briefly) a surplus of workers, and I don't have a real desk yet. The one that I was given is about the size of a school desk and doesn't have room for my legs underneath the desk. I spend most of the time doing the work that I have to at other people's desks when they're not in the office. I'll be getting a real place soon, as some people move to others and other people leave. Then I'll get to set up the place where I'll spend the rest of our time in this building. It will be nice to have the place of mine own again.

What I did on my summer vacation

2005-05-22T10:47:00.000-04:00

After finishing classes, I took a few days to go to meetings and visit home. Here's some of the various thoughts and observations I made during those days.

Wednesday:
The ride between Harrisburg and State College has some of the nicest scenery around. For a long stretch of the ride you get to ride along the Susquehanna River. The view from the highway over the river is lovely at this time of the year. It's even better in fall when the leaves turn.

I met up with someone that I used to work with who is now working in Centre County. It was nice to see her again. One of the nice things about getting away from the usual haunts is the ability to check in with others who have moved away. She seems to be doing well, and seems happy. That's the best part.

Thursday:
Meeting of a state wide committee today. The ability of a few to oversee a program that covers the state is a feat in itself. When you consider that we only meet every other month, it sometimes amazes me that things that we do work as well as they do. I only play a minor part in the whole thing. The part played by others makes me wonder if I could do it. I know that I lack an ambition gene, but I sometimes wonder how I could do in that type of role. Then as we talk about what the chair of the committee has been up to, I'm glad I don't have to find out.

The guys who came up with the concept for Hooters are geniuses. I like the wings, but of course I visit for the atmosphere. And the atmosphere at the State College Hooters is very attractive. Thursday is picture night. They allow you to get a picture taken with the waitresses. OF course I did.

Friday:
It's nice to be able to take your time getting somewhere. I headed back to the old hometown from State College today. I stopped in a bunch of places that I wouldn't have if I had been on a schedule. One of the places was Altoona. There's a Hooters there too. Good wings. Attractive atmosphere there too.

Back Home. It's nice to be home. Got to spend some time with Mom and talk about how things are going with her. She's shown the house to a few people already which means I really have to get the rest of my stuff out there.

Saturday:
You know a good friend when you see them again after a long time and you pick up where you left off. That was the case a few times today. Running around town today I got to meet a few people that I hadn't had any contact with for a while. It was nice to catch up and find out how they were doing. It was also another case of informing people about things. One asked me how married life had been treating me. The look on her face when I said that it hadn't been recently was almost comical. It was obvious that she was embarrassed. I tried to let her know that it wasn't a problem, but I'm not sure she got over it.

I never realized that I had this many frickin boxes of comic books. I filled the trunk of the car and put more in the back seat. And there's still more. I had some help getting them down from the second floor of the house but I won't have that help trying to take them back upstairs to my apartment. (I took all week to empty the car.)

Sunday:
Went to the Pirates game. PNC Park is great place to watch a baseball game. It's even better when the Pirates win, which they did. I kept score for the game and my notes matched the official score keeper's. I am usually more likely to charge an error and not give the batter a hit than most official scorers. There was only one play that was close and he agreed with me that it was an error. Between the guy I went with and me, I think we spent almost $200 for the game. Peanuts, beer and baseball--what a great combination.

Monday:
KCIT simulation. While I hope that I never have to use the Crisis Intervention techniques that I know, it is important to keep them honed just in case. It's sometimes more difficult to do in a simulation than it is in real life because you know that it's not real.

The trip back to Gettysburg was nice. I made good time as the turnpike was clear most of the way. Before getting on the turnpike, I stopped to get gas. Who should be there but my nephew! It was good to run into him before I left that area since I hadn't been able to when I was in Latrobe and he wasn't able to go to the game.

Tuesday: back to the grind.

A short break and back to work

2005-05-20T15:31:00.000-04:00

Classes finished up last Saturday and I got away from town for a few days. Now I'm back at work and boy!am I glad!
Not really.
I have a bunch of notes from my days away to sort out and type up and then place the thoughts here. That should happen in the next few days.

Spring Time thoughts

2005-05-10T16:29:00.000-04:00

Spring has apparently sprung here and it's nice. The weather is pleasent and I've been able to walk around today and even got a little sun. That's a good thing that has bad consequences since I don't have the ability to tan, I only burn a darker shade of red.

Baseball note

2005-05-09T08:59:00.000-04:00

It is after the first month of the season and the Pirates have a better record than the Yankees.

Can you say Schadenfreude?

Free at last...

2005-05-08T08:55:00.000-04:00

Classes are over. I have passed them all. I have completed the work for my masters.

Praise the lord.

Now, I get to go back to work...well, at least I'm finished with classes.

The dog likes me

2005-05-04T20:40:00.000-04:00

As I was walking through town today, a lot of people had their dogs out for a stroll. I don't mind dogs (they're better than those demons from hell that some people think are pets) but i was mildly annoyed today. All the dogs wanted to smell me.

Yes, I showered and cleaned up this morning. I also washed my hands after going potty. I even washed before and after I made dinner (pizza bagels...uuhhmmm). It was curious seeing a dog ready to water a tree in town and decide that I was more interesting than peeing on historic ground.

I'm taking it as compliment. I don't care if it is, I'm taking it that way.

Timewaster

2005-05-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

I was pointed to this at NROnline and found it annoying. And fun.

http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/

The strange part is that you have to think both literally and figuratively at the same time.

I scored 200 points my first try.

Another day older...

2005-05-02T17:16:00.000-04:00

With all the talk about Social Security over the last couple day, I started to look at what I'm supposed to be getting when I retire. It was only then that I realized that retirement isn't as far away as it used to be. I'm closer to retirement than I am to being in high school. I am mid way between starting my career and retiring from it. What once seemed to be eons away is now merely a little over two decades away. The kids being born this week will have to cover my Social Security bills. I will be able to share an adult beverage with someone born today on the day I retire.

I don't have any specific plans for retirement ( I'm still not sure what I want to be when I grow up), but I might have to start thinking about it soon.

The old homestead

2005-05-01T16:06:00.000-04:00

I talked with my mom the other evening. She is planning to put the house up for sale.

Wow.

I never thought that the home where I grew up might someday belong to somebody else.

I haven't lived there for almost nine years. Even Mom hasn't lived there for years (my sister is there now); it just seems strange that a nonfamily member might be there.
I'm not sure what to think.I know that it is just a structure of brick and mortar that has no meaning other than what is prescribed to it, but...damn.

Of course I also realize that one of the reasons that I don't like the idea is because that now I'll have to get the rest of my stuff out of there. I ain't got the room for all my crap now, and mom is making me take the rest of it. That might be her revenge for when I wrecked the car.

Runaway Bride

2005-04-30T17:52:00.000-04:00

I'll admit that I've never seen the movie (don't really ever want to unless I have to sit through it within attractive lady friend who MUST watch it), but I know that everybody is going to be going on about the bride-to-be from Georgia who was found in New Mexico.

If I was the groom-to-be I would very happy that she is alive just so she could come back to me so I could kill her for doing this silly assed thing.

I'm also mildly pleased that I was right when I said that there wasn't foul play involved in this one. One reason I thought that was because the fiance wasn't out there begging the "evil-doers" to bring back his beloved. The other reason was that in every picture I saw of the young lady she had a look of mild panic behind her smile. In each picture, the whites of her eyes were visible on three sides of the pupil. That is not usual. It usually means that the fit is about to hit the shan.

I hope that they are able to work out the issues that led to this. I'm pretty comfortable in front of large groups but even I would be intimidated by a wedding in front of 600 people with 14 bridesmaids and groomsmen. That is just one silly bigass wedding.

Situations

2005-04-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

I'm not one of those people who go about telling a lot of other people about my personal life. I will talk about myself at a surface to not-too-deep level, but don't go out of my way to tell everything that's going on.

As such, it's not unusual for somebody to ask me a question about old news. Somebody will ask me about how so and so is and I have to tell them that I really haven't had any contact with that person for a while. They look shocked, and then embarrassed, and I feel sort of stupid as well.

I guess I sort of rely on the grape vine to pass along information, and when it doesn't I feel ambivalent. One the one hand I wish the word had gotten through. On the other hand I'm glad that I'm not the grist for the gossip mill.

I guess that it's a situation where I would prefer the best of both worlds, and am disappointed when I don't get it the way I want.

Going...Going...

2005-04-29T15:55:00.000-04:00

Well, I had the last of another class last night and I'm down to the last two. It will be pleasing to finish. My papers are almost all done and I'm almost looking forward to getting back to the regular job.

The key word of course being almost. As much of a bother being a student is, it is nice to have more time to look at stuff, find out things and pick out what you want to focus on. I don't have that luxury at the job.

I am looking forward to getting back in the mix and hopefully making a difference again. That's always pleasant.

Oooowwwmmm...ooof

2005-04-27T17:57:00.000-04:00

One of the things that I never (and I mean never) have ever taken for granted in a woman is her hands. I say that because one of the things that I do to deal with stress is store it in my shoulders. The more stress I have the more my shoulders, and moving on down my back, ache.

I often comment that my ultimate dream of a woman is one of those 95 pound Asian women that can run a four minute mile and never have to leave my back. Some people that don't know me think that I'm joking. Most know I'm not.

At the moment, my shoulders are in a significant amount of pain. I try to stretch them but it hasn't been working. With all the school work and things coming up, I know that I'm under a wee bit of stress but it is now becoming annoying. I'm not asking for much, just a good (or even a) rubdown.

If anyone reads this and is interested, let me know.

Another one down

2005-04-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

Well, the paper got edited and handed in and that is the first of my last classes in the books. I'm thinking that if this paper is about as good as the others I'll be in good shape.

Shared a couple of cold ones with some of the class mates afterward. It's funny what you can talk about when you no longer have to worry about t-tests, standard deviations and disbursement patterns. Interesting things like Tofu turkeys, mice and jobs. All in all an enjoyable time.

Two more papers, three more classes.

The term is almost over

2005-04-26T11:56:00.000-04:00

The end of the term is a fascinating time. I never realize just how much work that I have until I get it all at one time. Three papers, two assignments and two presentation all due in less than ten days. It helps when some of the work can be related to other work, so instead of two entirely different papers, I can take from one and add it to the other.

Writing the papers and coming up with the presentations aren't the hard part. Once I get writing I can do it pretty effectively. The hard part is figuring out what the heck I'm going to write and how to organize it. That sometimes takes me days longer than the actual writing and presenting.

The bad news is there's a paper dur tonight at 600. The good news is that I just finished writing it. The scary part is now I've still got to edit it. Having an editor would be nice. But with luck it would end up being somebody like J Jonah Jameson who couldn't stand me and make me change things just because he can.

Oops...

2005-04-24T18:22:00.000-04:00

Looking at the list of entries, I noticed that the one I spent about an hour on last night wasn't there.
DAMN!
It was a really good entry too.

I'm not going to try to recreate it because it came when I was in a particularly interesting mood.

Tomorrow I have a presentation due that is worth a chunk of my final grade. The next day I have a large paper due that is also a large part of my grade in that class. It's mildly ironic that in order to help out the students so that everything is not due the last week of class, my professors managed to all have everything due the week before the last week of class. I wish at least one of them had not been looking out for me so well. Of course the good news is that I get to goof off the last week of the term.

assignments & feelings

2005-04-21T17:28:00.000-04:00

One of the parts of being back in school after being out for so many years that I still have trouble with is ggetting into the proper frame of mind for some of the assignments. I am generally a reserved person, I don't go around sharing emotional stuff with a lot of folks. A few of the assignments this term have been asking for a lot of emotional reactions.

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong abaout emotions. They're great (except for the bad ones). But when I get into my academic mind set, I find it difficult to get out it for an assignment that askss for it amidst several others that don't. It's almost like walking up the stairs and thinking you have one more step up when you really don't. The jarring impact just takes you by surprise.

I prefer my academics to be academic, not feeling.

Life would be more easy if...

2005-04-20T19:11:00.000-04:00

Working on my assignments today, I hit what may be one of the hardest writer's block that I ever have. The assignment was to talk about a loss that you have gone through and discuss how you addressed each of the stages.

Stage one: Denial. Okay this is easy. I can deny most anything if needed. Heck, I can even deny that I have to do what I'm already doing by saying I don't have to, I'm just doing because I choose to.

Stage two: Anger. I rarely get angry. I was told many years ago that I only have so many "angry's" in my life so that when I start getting there, I stop. I ask myself if this is the last "Angry" that I have, and I die after I use it, is it worth it? In 99% of the cases I asked this the answer is "NO!"

Stage three:Bargaining. I like this stage. I'm still wondering "what if..." about all kinds of things. I also know that God knows better than I do and that even if I had the silver tongue of Johnnie Cochran mixed with the communication skills of Ronald Reagan and the advertising ability of Nike, I probably won't be able to convince the Big Guy that I know better than he does.

Stage four: Depression. This stage to me is kind of like stage two. Frustration or powerlessness turned outward is anger. Powerlessness turned inward is depression. It is foolish to say "If only..." Because one may have never done it otherwise. To assume thatone had the ability to change things is hubris. One of the most important lessons I have learned in life is how little my opinion matters to the cosmos.

Stage five: Acceptance. I do not accept death. I do not accept a no-win situation. My father has been gone for a quarter of a century, but I am still not okay with that. I believe that when the world is perfect, there will not be pain and suffering. I am not going to accept otherwise in the meantime. I believe that there will be a day (God willing) that I will see my dad again and be able to say the things that I should hav back in the 1970s. That I was too young and foolish then will not be held against me.

I do not accept an end to things.
Where there is life, there is hope.
I may recognize there there is an infinitely small probability. That does not mean that I have to give up.

That's why I buy PowerBall tickets.

Hello...I must be going

2005-04-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

I haven't put anything up over the last couple days because school work is catching up with me. I have papers and presentations coming out the wazoo (and I didn't even know I had one of those until the assignments started clogging it) so I've not been able to do much more. Even today, when it's absolutely wonderful outside, I'm here at the computer wrting assignments.

Next week, when all these assignments are done, it will probably be about 27 degrees and windy.

A Social Security thought

2005-04-17T15:55:00.000-04:00

While visiting Ohio today, President Bush met with state and local public employees who function outside of Social Security and have the option of investing in personal accounts.
Ninety seven percent of Ohio’s 1,000,000 public employees and five million nationwide, exist outside the current Social Security system and can invest in personal accounts.

Why can't I?

Loverly day

2005-04-16T15:38:00.000-04:00

Well, I did walk through campus, a couple times, and it is a loverly day.

Random Shots

2005-04-16T11:25:00.000-04:00

Just some random thoughts after perusing the news...

The big stink about the judicial filibusters: If guys like Kennedy, Schumacher, Boxer and Reid are mainstream, I don't want to be.

Yankees/Red Sox: After pushing the fan that made contact with him the other night, Sheffield should be suspended. Also I don't care if they are two of the best teams in baseball, I'm sick of hearing about them. If it wasn't for teams like them, playing in big money markets and keeping it all, the Pirates may have a chance to win a World Series this century.

Washington Nationals: Now that they have finally played the first game in DC, can we not have to hear about them as much now? After all, they're only the Expos.

The Minutemen project: Illegal border crossings in the area where they are observing are down amazingly. Maybe that's what the federal government should be doing...protecting the border.

Football: The draft is coming up. The off season holy days of the football faithful. I'm looking forward to it.

Related football: Pitt is it! The University of Pittsburgh has reclaimed its old name. Now everyone can call it what it has been called all along.

Court news: If there is a bigger waste of time than the Michael Jackson trial, I'm not aware of it. Can we just convict the guy of being weird and sentence him to France or something equally nasty.

Speaking of France: A bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys. ( I just wanted to type that)

Money: It's a nice thing. I wish I had more. Well, I did in my retirement account until the market tanked this week.

Retirement: By the time they finally get around to fixing Social Security (which is neither social nor secure) I'll probably be too old to get in on the fix.

The Pope: As an out of practice Catholic, I admired the man for his steadiness. I wish I could be as strong in faith as he was.

The next Pope: Early odds are on a European to be the next Pope. Cardinal Ratzinger is the early favorite. Sounds solid to me but I think that I'm putting my money on Cardinal Arinze from Africa.

Well, it's a loverly day in the neighborhood, I think I'm going to go outside and play. Actually I'm just going to walk through the campus at Gettysburg College and look at how loverly the day can be.

I wonder what ever happened to...

2005-04-15T18:23:00.000-04:00

Last night, I was going through some of the boxes that I had collected over the years of papers and such. I was going through one of them and I found some letters that I had gotten about 20 years ago.

A (big) percentage of them were from the girl (young lady?) that I was crazy about at the time. Reading over them, I thought about how , although I didn't think about her often, I missed her. I know that part of that is missing the person I was 20 years ago, but I think the reason is different. I think it is because back then I still was an absolute romantic. I believed in "happily ever after" and "true Love." I still do, although not as religiously as I used to. It twanged at my heartstrings as I read some of the things that I know meant a lot more 20 years ago than they do today.

I've occasionally thought about her since those days. Usually I hope that she did better than I did in life, love and other things. Occasionally I hope she regrets dumping me. If I ran into her today, assuming either of us recognized the other, I would still feel all the "love" I did then. It just wouldn't be the same love that it was then.

Back then, we talked about forever. Now we would talk about since then.
A small, but very important difference.

Romance is talking about what may be. Life is talking about what is.

No wonder I prefer being a romantic.