slapdummy

Should I stay or should I go...

Yes, I'm sure I've entered cliche heaven with that headline, but it's appropriate. I just found out that they are going to convert my apartments into condos and I have 120 days to buy or vacate.  I went to the presentation on Wednesday and while they pulled a couple of questionable options to communicate information it was fairly straightforward.

I'm taking the day off work tomorrow to dig into my options an get my info ready for a meeting with my broker and real estate information on Saturday. There are a lot of things I don't like about this place, but it's not horrible (evidenced by five years of actually living here).  They are throwing incentives to purchase my way which amount to a considerable discount, but I still need to get an inspection and go from there. I'm still not sure what to do, but the more I think  about it, the more I'm  considering just buying this place. I'll know more after Saturday.

Breaks are good

Since January, I've been so wrapped up in work, I haven't really cared about anything else, including updating this site. Working on projects that have potential is always exciting and when it is an emerging platform everything is shiny and new.  Of course that's a double-edged sword: Business Plan - Nope, Vision - Nope, Clear Metrics for Success - Nope, Supporting Technology/Resources - Nope.

Okay, so there is a lot of work to do, no problem there. But it does make it a bit more "challenging" (My workspeak for WTF). Although if it keeps being interesting it's worth it.  I realize these aren't the only two choices but I'd rather work on a messy and interesting project than an organized boring one.

This is not to say I haven't found time to escape, well into the world of comics at least. About a month or so ago I realized that I hadn't read a graphic novel in a long time. After a little research I came across several interesting books:

DMZ - This was one I came across on Boing Boing.  An interesting read and fairly dark, in a I really like the black, dark brown and dark gray color palette kind of way. I really like it and I'll continue to read it, but is there any possibility people can move their post-apocalyptic, civil war, post-modern industrial prison stories out of New York?

Invincible - This one is a slightly dark version of Superman. Costumed superhero - check, super strength - check, flying - check, unexpected twists - check. I was actually surprised when the big finale revealed itself and was engaging enough that I'll probably keep reading it.

Ex Machina - Another Boing Boing recommendation that I really liked. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be (costumed heroes, etc...), but instead its an interesting look at politics and consequences.

100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call - Great concept of revenge, free from prosecution. Although the idea was great the execution was flawed. It felt clumsy and forced so I only bought the first two of the series.

Fables - Amazing.  This reference gets bandied about quite a bit, but this is the new Sandman. Fantastic story lines, interesting characters and mature themes. After reading the first volume I bought the other eight the next day and finished them all in a couple of days. I'm hooked.

Yeah, so it's not Shakespeare or a great update, but there you go. The alternative is talking about this, which is a bit too depressing to consider right now, especially in light of the copycats.

Diebold aka Rube Inc.

I have to admit that I couldn't stop laughing while reading this article. First, I wouldn't trust Diebold to protect my garbage, let alone something important. Second, how retarded do you have to be to put up a nice, clear picture of a universal (skeleton) key for your oh-so-secure voting machines? For those who may not be quite following along at home, yes, you can actually engineer  copy of a key from a photo - what a bunch of maroons...

Well, that was interesting

If you aren't in the Pacific Northwest, it may have escaped notice that we had a nasty storm late last week that knocked out power to a million homes.  Now, we have had storms before that downed power lines, but this was a doozy.  It was the equivalent to an Inauguration Day storm in 1993, but  caused significantly more damage.

So here's why I think God hates me on a completely personal level:

• I started getting sick on Wednesday night, nothing too bad, but I was starting to feel it.
• My friend was getting me a perishable gift delivered on Thursday (arranged before notice of the storm)
• My first day of vacation was due to start after a half-day on Thursday

My friend comes over Thursday evening and gives me the gift and it's about as perishable as possible - Lobstergram. It's a box containing two live 2lb lobsters, other assorted fresh seafood and everything you need to cook and eat them.  It's a pretty damn cool gift and one I'm looking forward to sharing with my girlfriend on Friday, even though I'm starting to feel a bit worse. As soon as my friend leaves I read the booklet that comes with the box and it advises cooking the lobsters immediately. I start to fill up a pot with water and the power goes out.

Okay, so I didn't expect it out longer than a day, which was the longest it had ever been out before. But, it got pretty damned cold. I broke out the candles, lit up a log in the fireplace and tried unsuccessfully to sleep. All during the night I could hear the wind ripping through the trees and listened to branches and debris rattling against the building.

By the time I woke up on Friday my chest cold was really bad, I thought I was going to hack up a lung.  A quick look outside showed serious damage.  I fired up my Zune and heard on the radio that the windstorm had caused outages across western Washington. Virtually every city around me was completely blacked out for miles and miles.  As I sat in my freezing apartment,  I was hoping against hope that it would be a brief outage.

By Friday night, I was sick as a dog with nowhere to go (everyone I knew was also out of power), the news was reporting hotels with power were already sold out.  And to make it even better, my girlfriend drove into town, passing blacked out cities along the way, on an empty gas tank.

After another fairly sleepless night, we had to go in search for a gas can and gas for her car. We drove around Saturday to find gas cans sold out everywhere (no surprise there) and finally had to drive up to Bothell to her parents place to borrow a can.  We also found an open gas station along the way to fill it up. The temperature dropped into the 30s that night and it actually made me forget how nice it was to be warm.

My girlfriend left Sunday morning to head home and I was fed up. I couldn't sleep, was freakin' cold as hell, exhausted, sick as a dog, the seafood was spoiled in the fridge and my first days of vacation sucked ass. Power was restored at work, so I headed in there to get warm and decided to sleep there. Which mainly meant, hanging out in my office until about 7:00am Monday before heading home to find that my power was back up again.

I was so tired at that point that I turned up the heat, took a very long hot shower and slept until early this morning. I hope that doesn't happen again for another ten years.

Another day, another small hit to privacy

I want to be shocked at another government tracking program with no oversight, but sadly it's become just another lapse in judgment and oversight.  However, the three things about this story on the Automated Targeting System (ATS) that make it interesting:

1. It's seems to have been going on for 10 years. All the current efforts against privacy have been cloaked in the anti-terrorist frenzy since 9/11. I wonder what the rationale was for this and how it was kept quiet for so long.

2. Government and non-government sources have access to the results, but you don't.  Okay, again, WTF?  This is bad on so many levels it's hard to pick one to start.  How does this pass a privacy review? It can be used to make decisions about your employment and who the hell knows what else (beyond the direct application of shipping your ass to a CIA camp).  If a private contractor or local government can get access to the data, you certainly should. 

3. Homeland Security "chose" to release the information. Claiming the release of the project to the Federal Register as part of planned effort to be more transparent is a very bad joke.  The ACLU rep quoted in the story called it Orwellian and that seems to fit best.

I really do hope that we start to reap the benefits of critical, serious and well-thought out oversight efforts fairly soon.

Winter starts early in Seattle

This is the view from my apartment right now.  Driving home last night was fun, mostly because it took two and a half hours instead of the normal 30-40 minutes.  It occasionally snows here in the lowlands, but usually it's a dusting for a day or so, but this has been enough to close down the schools and my work.

I'm not complaining, it gives me a chance to do some homework for a Dale Carnegie class my boss signed me up for two weeks ago. I got to make a fool of myself during the first class by falling on my ass while doing a charade for my name, which didn't exactly endear myself to the process. However, I'm told by my boss that it gets a lot better and will only seem cultish part of the time from now on...

But who am I kidding, as soon as I do a couple of conference calls this morning I'm going to start up a fire and whip out Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Las Vegas on the 360. Here's hoping that the snow day stretches to two.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Next!

I'm of two minds on Rumsfeld being fired (yeah, he's "quitting", whatever). Is this really a result of the election or just another lame effort by Bush to divert attention from his own deeds?  Rumsfeld has been going down in flames for a long time now in the realm of public opinion, but Bush has continued to stand by him.  It seems a particularly craven act to blame your Secretary of Defense for a stunning mid-term election defeat.  Bush waited until the results were in before making the change and you have to wonder what the line was to keep Rumsfeld; no change, minor majority, Senate only majority, etc... 

I would also love to hear Rove's spin on all of this. The last time I heard his smug responses was on NPR a couple of weeks ago.  Rove was telling NPR that he apparently had access to the secret squirrel polling data and it was very favorable for the Republicans to the point that they would keep the majority. I wonder if he still has a job or will he also be "stepping down" soon?

The end of the free world via election machines may not have come to pass, but I'm really curious how the reports of election problems will pan out.

Note to Democrats: Yes, it has been years where you have suffered the embarrassment of being tagged as unable to deal with tough issues, especially in the last few months ("Softer" on Terrorists, Cut and Run Party, and so on), on topics such as national security in general and Iraq/Afghanistan specifically. But hey, buck up little camper, now comes the fun part. You have a stellar opportunity to do something, anything to get us back on track. And by that, I mean accountability for our military and intelligence agency actions, addressing global threats (real and perceived), creation of plans with specific, measurable and practical goals to address Iraq and Afghanistan (I mean for fuck's sake, has anybody seen a real plan beyond anagrams of "We Win and the Terrorists Lose"?) and preservation of our personal and private rights. Good luck we are all counting on you. (P.S. Don't fuck it up).

Tonight on FOX - When Recruiters Attack!

I'm shocked, shocked I say to read about recruiters allegedly lying to get people to sign up.  Seriously, I wonder how many times this seemingly blatantly unaware persona is a common occurrence for recruiters.  It must be real to some degree if they confidently pass fabrications of this level without even dying from laughter.  Hell, I'm surprised they didn't also try to charge them to sign up and call it a "processing fee".

Language in overdrive

I've read about the National Novel Writing Month for a couple of years now. It's an interesting project that pushes you to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel in one month: November. I always intended to take a shot at it when it comes around, but I somehow always find myself busy with work, school or life in general.  Now, while I still have some advancement to candidacy forms and essays to complete before starting my thesis, I'm going to find the time to do this.

I'm not, to quote a wise 80's front man, expecting to grow flowers in the desert. However, I think I can manage to slaughter the English language with the best of intentions as much as anybody else. Right now, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to write and it will be a miracle if I finish, but what the hell. It should be fun.

In the same vein, I'm going to start making the time to learn another language during the traditional holiday slowdown for work. I'm looking at some local classes, but I would benefit from a good software program to use at home and work, as time allows.  I've read good reviews of Rosetta Stone, but I'll try out a couple of different ones before making a purchase.

Screw CNN, screw us

I don't think anybody is shocked that certain news outlets play favorites.  And I'm not talking about the obvious sites dedicated to one issue/party/conspiracy/trend of the moment. I'm talking about some of the contenders, backed by large amounts of revenue and unfortunately even worse amounts of ethics.  Yes, I'm thinking directly of FOX with their pandering, contemptible and barely coherent Bill O'Reilly. Although to be fair it seems like most cable news outlets have become nothing more than a well-dressed third-grade class, with less maturity.

Now, I've been a fan of CNN for a long time, mostly since it became a habit and they seemed to provide interesting coverage.  I visit their site at least once a day to check in on news and events, but I have to admit that I thought the percentage of useless fluff to useful information has been increasing in the last couple of years.  I wasn't actually measuring it or anything, it was just a hunch. 

Well, I ran across this today at Daily Kos - SCREW CNN (w/ graphics) [PG edition]. They took the front page of the CNN site and dissected it to display what was actual news and everything else.  Sure, CNN could have been having an "off" day and they just happened to have a bad ratio when this was done.  And yes, Kos isn't exactly a neutral third party in the state of the world, but it doesn't mean they are automatically inaccurate. Yeah, it's possible this was a one-off for CNN, but it seems very unlikely with the state of modern media. This feels more like a confirmation of what I think a lot of regular readers have been experiencing and it's not just CNN.

I guess it's not too surprising when you consider marketing has become such a major factor in news outlets (and I'm not just talking about the flashy graphics and theme music, though it's a part of it). Broadcast journalism has become increasing amounts of ad material, focus on entertainment/gossip stories, 30-second sound bites for the ADD generation and an ever-present shrill voiced talking head that can do one thing and one thing only - Yip like a small, annoying poodle. No substance, nothing real to add to the conversation or the debate. Just good ol' fashioned antagonism, bias and ad hominem attacks. And let's not even get into the level of insincerity, smugness and vanity displayed by the worst offenders (which range across ALL of the channels).

This is obviously going to continue for a while since there is a significant part of the viewing audience that is just hungry for style and hot air masked as news.  It's a little unfortunate, but I guess we only have ourselves to blame, the media outlets are only giving us what we seem to respond to as consumers.  Why get the depressing, brutal truth of real news when instead you can be spoon fed some drunken Hollywood starlet's latest nipple flash?

Hell, I remember when shows like "A Current Affair" used to be complete tabloid fodder and a bit of a joke to "real" journalists. But the laugh was on them as the owners of the news divisions watched the market share increase for gossip journalism and instead of keeping the course with substance, they chose an adopt and extend policy towards these tabloid shows. Flash forward a couple of years and what was once merely third-rate reporting found on some pre-prime time gossip show became front page stories in 52 media markets.

So to condemn the media is surely to condemn ourselves. It hasn't always been this way and the public is comprised of groups of followers, so I wonder what it will take to change the focus - us or them?

Good Weekend

In an unusual weekend for me, I was able to completely avoid any real work and had nothing but down time.  I ended up catching up on cooking, movies and books.  To be honest, I'm not sure how there wasn't any work to do, but I didn't spend too much time worrying about it (although I did spend time looking at houses online in Kent and Bothell). At work, we were in the middle of an office move and my girlfriend decided to spend Saturday with her brother by going to the Home Show.

I had anticipated seeing Grace at some point, so I had made an effort to look up some recipes I thought she might enjoy.  Her love for all things citrus had me investigating lime, lemon and orange bakery goods.  I ended up taking a shot at a Key Lime Cookie recipe.  The cookies came out okay, the lime flavor is more of a strong finishing taste, but still good. 

They were a bit of pain to make for two reasons that became more clear during this weekend; my kitchen sucks and I don't have the right equipment.  Now, there would be some who would blame the cook instead of the tools, but hey I'm the cook so screw you.  My kitchen isn't laid out properly, especially in relation to counter space and outlets. I also had some trouble trying to get zest from the lime.  I used a multi-faced grater, but it was a mess and not very useful. If I'm going to do this again (or any other type of zest required recipe), I think I need to get a microplane grater.

I also baked a Madeira Cake from Nigella Lawson's book "How to be a Domestic Goddess". I thought this came out much better.  It's a very simple recipe and very tasty in a simple, uncomplicated way. It's utterly fantastic with a mug of green tea.  It's very similar to a pound cake, but far more delicious.  As an aside, I have a thing for Nigella Lawson.  It could be her accent, her sexy smile, voluptuous body, culinary competence or just the way she moves.  I would obviously vote for all of the above. Although it's a bit funny, since Grace was operating under the assumption that I watched a completely different Food Network show, Semi-Homemade, only because of that host's boobage (which honestly I don't even remember thinking about until she mentioned it).

Finally, I made another batch of Spaghetti Carbonara from Ruth Reichel's book "Garlic and Sapphires". It's a completely easy recipe and far better tasting than I imagined the from the first time I read ingredient list.  I'm going to try some of her other recipes in the near future.  It was also nice since I finished her book this weekend as well which was a nice impetus to do this again.

While cooking and eating the results, I watched "Silent Hill", "Syriana" and "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang". I've been very behind on my Netflix queue so it worked out well. "Silent Hill" was lame, it didn't come off as either creepy or scary. Instead it was about as commonplace as any low-grade horror film and unfortunately provided another nail in the coffin in the genre of game-to-movie crossovers. I really enjoyed "Syriana", mostly because it did a great portrayal of how I would imagine the level of corruption, deceit and pandering that exists in that world.  However, the best of the bunch was "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang", it was written and directed by Shane Black (writer of "Lethal Weapon", "The Last Boy Scout" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight").  It was terrific and very funny, even with the level of self-awareness it exhibits during the story.  I can't remember the last time that I was laughing out loud along with a movie, it had some really great lines. It was good enough that I called my friend halfway through the movie and told him to go rent it immediately.

In between all of this I was able to finish a couple books:

Garlic and Sapphires - As mentioned before, this was interesting. She gets into great detail about her efforts to disguise herself during her work as the food critic.  Her stories are interesting and the differences between the common folks and the "recognized" are expected, but still frustrating (speaking as a clearly defined member of the common crowd).

The Warrior Elite - This is an inside look at the training of a SEAL class, specifically 228. I've seen TV shows on Hell Week and read articles on the training, but this is an insightful look of the daily activities of the BUD/S training for all the phases. Reading the amount of physical exertion, pain and emotional turmoil of the evolutions was interesting, but I didn't figure it would pull me in as much as it did.  I actually got attached to some of the trainees and their stories to the point that I was a up with their success and down with their failure. It was heartbreaking to read about some of the DOR's, especially the ones based on medical issues.  This was a good read and I have more respect than ever for the SEAL teams and their training.

It was a good weekend, very lazy and very rewarding.  I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to do that again, but it was a nice change of pace.

Where to live?

I've started my search for a place to buy and it's a bit depressing.  I can either live in a condo or townhome for ($300k) near my work in Redmond or hold out for an actual home in Kent, Maple Valley or maybe Bothell, if I'm lucky.  I've been reading that the real estate market is slowing but you wouldn't know it from the prices in King County. Although, even those prices are finally starting to be affected. 

I keep being told horror stories of owner associations that are completely nuts.  For instance, one woman purchased a condo but two years later the association passed a decree that everyone had to pay $40k to refurbish their kitchens, that's $40k each. It made me angry just hearing about it.  I can't even imagine how I would react having to go through it. The idea that you don't have true ownership and some Chets can dictate elements of your home is disturbing. However, buying a home in Kent means a lot more time on the road and a helluva lot more money in gas. The flipside is that it's an actual home, with property, rooms, garages, parking and ownership. 

My rental management just raised my rent to $1300 ($1375 for month to month), which is another reason pushing me to get the hell out of here. I'm fed up with this place anyway so the timing works out.  I just wish housing was a tad more moderately priced, which is particularly scary since I'm single and making what I would consider is damn good money. I have no idea what single-income families are doing to buy a home in this market.

I hate free furniture

Nothing is really free.  Take for instance the free love seat that my girlfriend came across on Saturday. But first, some background is in order.  Grace, and her family, has raised the acquisition of leftover furniture to an art form.  They have some rules about what constitutes whether something is usable, but if she finds something on the side of the road she will stop to check it out. Personally, I find the whole thing distasteful, it reeks of desperation and I’m not all that hip on getting into somebody’s discard pile.

This weekend was supposed to be low key because I’m stressed about buying my first home and I’ve been going through my finances and considering loan options and potential borrowers.  However, while heading out to the grocery store early Saturday afternoon Grace noticed a faded purple loveseat which someone had labeled with a “Free” sign.  It’s the end of the month so people that are moving out of the apartment complex are getting rid of items one way or another.

I realized that it would be a problem when I saw it, but when I watched her whip out the cell phone and start dialing, I knew it was going to be a long day.  After a series of phones calls between the sisters and me sending a cellphone picture of the couch, they agreed to keep it.  During the phone calls she took the sign off the couch and sat down, asking me to join her. But not only do I not know where that couch as been, but there was a suspiciously poo colored stain on the arm which I had no intention of touching.

I turned down the idea of moving it into my apartment for safekeeping but did volunteer to put it in my Explorer until her sister could pick it up. Then that idea wasn’t going to work out since she was busy with errands. I volunteered to meet her halfway someplace, but that didn’t work out either, but me driving it out to Seattle to her place seemed to work out okay (in case you missed it, yes that’s sarcasm folks).

In another charming bit, Grace made one too many calls to her sister and made her a bit testy. My response to Grace was that if she continued being “testy” she could come out and get it herself.  I tend to get annoyed when her family is crappy to her, especially since she doesn’t stand up for herself (doesn’t want to rock the boat, which drives me nuts). Also, if I wanted drama I would go to see the dismal looking local production of Evita.

Anyway, Grace wrote down directions to her place, but then said we weren’t going to be able to deliver it until around 9pm (it was about 4pm when we got the directions). The timing was due to me not wanting to go to a strangers house to move a couch into their basement without her sister being present. We finished shopping, headed back home and I made a very nice spaghetti carbonara for dinner.

We got another call from her sister that she wouldn’t be around until about 10pm and headed for her place around 9pm.  It turns out her directions were less than stellar.  I knew we were in trouble when they were giving contradictory information. If you know Seattle, when you exit 520 west to Montlake you can't make a left from the offramp, you can only head north. Also, if you are told to make a left onto 45th, you are going to be heading west up towards the UW. 

Unfortunately, the directions started to break down after that and we stopped just past Wallingford for new directions.  I only heard half the conversation between Grace and her sister, but there was mention of “two 45th streets” (huh?). Turns out she lives in Ravenna towards Sand Point which if either of those were mentioned would have kept us more in the ballpark.  But the revised directions got us there a little while later.

We arrived just minutes before her sister and noticed nobody else was home. We unloaded the couch onto the sidewalk and put the truck back together (back seats up and cover bar in place).  When she arrived she was apologetic about the directions and unlocked the door. We carried it up the stairs to the house and started our first run at getting it into the basement.  That failed miserably after several tries due to the very old and very narrow doorway. We made another series of attempts to get it upstairs which also were unsuccessful.

This led to more phone calls and discussions about what to do with the couch. The options discussed were my finding a Goodwill, my listing it in Craiglist, me dumping it back at my apartment (some ludicrous statement about how we didn’t really “own” it so it we wouldn’t be responsible if the apartment management complained about re-dumping the couch where we found it – obviously I didn’t make this argument) and finally me lugging it to Bothell to their parents place (anybody else notice a pattern for the guy who didn't want anything to do with the fricking thing in the first place?).

I opted for the trip to Bothell since it seemed the least problematic so we reloaded the Explorer, said our goodbyes and headed north. By this time it was about 11:30pm so the trip should have been relatively quick. However, when we took the “shortcut” it turns out road construction detoured us through a couple of miles of residential neighborhoods. We finally made it sometime after midnight.  Her dad was still awake and helped me unload the couch onto their deck and after a brief stay, we headed out.

We arrived back at my place just after 1am.  So yeah, the day was not what I would consider a “good thing”. After several hours of driving, phone calls, arrangements and moving of furniture I return to my original statement. Nothing is really free.

Comical confessions of an economic rube

I just finished John Perkin's book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" and I don't know whether to react with "duh!" or with something a little more cogent. It will probably be a bit of both, so please bear with me.

This is a tell-all book of his work to manipulate nations. His mandate was to create or leverage circumstances that would make these countries economically dependent which in turn made them pliable to political influences.  These machinations were designed to create opportunities for Western governments to push their own economically and politically advantageous agendas often to the detriment of the target country. Think of it as the Jedi mind trick gone global ("You don't really want to privatize that industry, do you?" - cue gentle hand waving).

Again, I'm finding it really hard to not react with a typical "AND...?" This doesn't shock or unsettle me in today's world. In fact, I would have been surprised if this hadn't been occurring. Maybe this would have been more disturbing if it was the year 1968.

Beyond the conspiracy theories surrounding the World Bank, economic exploitation and manipulation have been in the negotiation toolbox for a long time. Both during and after the cold war it was recognized that the fight against communism (or any "ism" for that matter) was as much an economic fight as a political or security action in nature. Historians such as Walter LaFeber and William Williams viewed our efforts as straightforward expansions of the American empire via color TVs and Levi's. In short, the U.S. was engaged to either create or maintain access to markets for our currency, goods and services. Hegemony, thy name is dollar.

Although I do have to admit to not being particularly thrilled with the author.  Perkins makes significant attempts to address his efforts as merely the unseemly results of his seduction.  He uses that phrase and idea many times, both in his book and in his interviews. My problem is that for as often as he informs the reader of how smart and aware he is, he also attempts to paint a picture of how he was "trapped". His uninspired confessions to his acts are laughable, bordering on smarmy and self-serving (which is funny how almost everyone who does a tell-all book sees the "truth" just in time for publishing in 52 media markets and 17 languages).

I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone, unless they had just left a desert island after 60 years. So, unless another Japanese soldier emerges from hiding soon, I would leave this one on the shelf and just pay attention to CNN and Haliburton.

To coup or not to coup

You've gotta love Thailand...

Hey, It's a coup

Just kidding, it's a "troop rotation". Nothing to see here, move on.

Okay, seriously, it's a coup.

No really, it's just a coup, get back to work already.

And just to make sure the important coup news is covered:

Nick Cage's movie is continuing

CD-R supply not affected

Another good gathering

I was at a small gathering of friends for a birthday party last night and one friend brought his new girlfriend. She seemed pleasant enough, until the conversation turned to homosexuals and their apparent transgressions against her personal views on society.

I'm still not sure how the conversation started, but if I remember correctly another person started saying something about how he didn't like "the gays" flaunting their sexuality in his face.  I reminded him that some gay folks probably feel the same about seeing overly sexual public acts of hetero affection ("the straights").  A side note worth mentioning here is that the host (and one of my dearest friends) is Mormon. He has specific views about religion, homosexuality and other things that we don't usually get into discussions about. We agree to disagree one some topics, although I know he isn't some freak fundamentalist that has a hatred hard-on for gay people. In a scenario where somebody, straight or gay, is doing some overly public display of affection, he would be equally annoyed.

Anyway, from the flaunting discussion this new girlfriend added something about gay pride parades and how she didn't understand why they were necessary. Again, I pointed out that there were many groups that have unity or pride parades and in the case of gay people specifically, not only were they for a celebratory recognition, but they raise awareness for some of their grievances.

Unfortunately, the reaction I got first was outright disbelief ("what are they not getting now?") and what I like to call "the tone".  Now, I'm a rational guy and willing to discuss and/or debate on a variety of topics and I can even allow for people who don't agree with me. But when people whip out the condescending tone as though it strengthens their argument, that's usually when I start to get ramped up.

When I listed issues such as their lack of equal access to marriage and legal recognition in some states, her response was "They can't pro-create, so why should they be able to get married?". She's a mother of three and living at home with her mom (I learned this later and the irony of which was beautiful) and was talking like she would to one of her children, not to mention her juvenile and woefully inadequate argument all combined to really annoy me. My response was the obvious one for her statement; plenty of people get married with no intention of having children should they be barred from getting married in the first place? And, by the way, there are plenty of folks who are infertile, should they too be banned from getting married or treated any differently?  I also didn't add the obvious that they actually can pro-create because I thought it seemed too complex for her to understand the distinction.

The boyfriend defused the situation before it really ramped up with a perfect amount of humor and all was "good". I apologized to my host later for creating an uncomfortable situation, to which he just laughed and told me that it wasn't even worth talking about.

Yeah, I realize that all of this is my own version of condescension, but for fuck's sake if you are going to pop off to somebody you just met, whip out the childish tone and have a weak-ass argument, then you might be better off just shutting the fuck up, sing "Happy Birthday" and eat your slice of cake. But, hey, that's just me.

Happy Slots

While on my layover in Vegas this weekend I popped in $20 to the Wheel of Fortune slots machine. Within a couple of rounds I had spun my way to $90. I played a bit longer and cashed out ahead by $67.50 beyond my original twenty. I'm a happy guy.

However, I didn't do as well as another waiting passenger. When our flight was delayed again and we had a gate change, she put in two quarters and won several hundred. Now she was happy about winning, but was also bummed that she had not put in that third quarter which would have bumped her winnings into the thousands. Instead of being happy at winning a good chunk of change on $.50, she was only thinking about the "loss" of the other money. I wonder what lesson she learned today (if any) and if she will only max out her bets from now on when she plays?

UT Football Fans

I'm not  sports fan, however I am sometimes fascinated by the spectacle. As I was waiting to board my flight home I couldn't help but notice how hardcore Austin is about football. There is a big game tonight between UT and Ohio, but you would think it was the Superbowl with the degree of presence. People disembarking were, with one exception, wearing UT clothing of some sort (bless the pretty girls with two sizes too small football shirts). Passengers were cheering each other on with giddy excitement. The exception I noted earlier... he was wearing an Ohio jersey. However, it was from the marching band, which was somewhat brave but also ranks high on the geek scale. In other words, buddyroe was asking for a punch in the head from some UT fan.

I was told by the hotel valet that 40,000 fans were coming in for the game. I thought he was exaggerating a bit, but everywhere I looked people were decked out in their game attire. The local media were also playing it up with constant coverage and special countdown clocks (as though any of these super fans wouldn't know).

The airport has huge signs welcoming their football fans (I wonder if they switch the signs out for other sports, or if the iconography of Friday Night Lights is alive and well in Austin - which begs questions of the story itself).

Seattle has the UW Huskies but rarely do I see this level of open enthusiasm for the team. The big game is tonight, probably under way or even over by the time this is posted. However, I still can't bring myself to care that much about what's happening to try and watch the game.

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I wrote this on the plane yesterday with the hope to post it on the way home in the taxi. However, my HTC Hermes apparently isn't properly setup for data transmission. Also, I thought what the hell and checked the score just now - Texas lost 24-7.

Austin Four

My last full day in Austin and the last day of the Austin Games Conference is today and I'm not too sad to see it be done and over with. I took the shots with the camera on my phone, so they didn't turn out very well. Although I had some interesting moments worth remembering:

• Having some yipping bastich of a dog barking most of the night in the hotel. Apparently, they allow pets for an extra fee - how nice for them.
• Discovering a locally branded bottled water - Ozarka.  It must be a regional thing down here, because when I first saw that all I could think of was hillbillies marrying their sisters. I was actually hesitant to drink it at first, but it was the only cold bottled water they gave us in the booth.
• Having more goth and stoned people than I care to count come up and say "Hey, I'm making a game, when can I get it published?".  I wanted to respond, "Hey, have you ever published a game before or did you just come up with an idea between layers of mascara and expect us to give you cash today?" (which I didn't, of course).

• Survey Boy - I got roped into a focus group for a potential product from Seagate, the hard-drive manufacturer. They apparently are investigating becoming some sort of service for digital objects and characters. It sounded like a mediocre bordering on bad idea. And they paid me, and a bunch of others, $200 to tell them so.

• Ozone Days - While this may sound like some sort of Eco-event, it's actually a warning to the city of Austin to stay indoors whenever possible because the pollution is considerably higher than normal.  When this happens they run the city buses for free. Apparently the buses have been running free for a couple of weeks. Combine this with 90 degree weather and it's more fun than any one person deserves.

I have to admit that this is one the most laid back conferences I've ever been to in terms of number of attendees, general attitude and shock and awe.  The entire exhibition floor was the size of just the Microsoft or Sony booth at E3. The noise level was next to nothing, I could actually hear people talking in a normal tone of voice, which is virtually unheard of at these shows.

My biggest regret is not making it to the County Line BBQ place with my friend.  Through a comedy of errors (and a miscommunication between the words lunch and dinner), I bailed on my team dinner to go to County Line BBQ only to have my friend cancel with me and make it his "company" event. I got to see him later that night to catch up and he had the audacity to tell me how good the food was at the restaurant. Bastard.

I catch my flight home tomorrow and after a brief layover in Las Vegas (with just enough time to lose some money in the slot machines), I'll be home again, home again jiggity jigg.

Austin Two

I'm on day two in Austin and I've spent most of last night and all of today in my hotel room. I have items to do tomorrow and Friday that require my presence at the Austin Games Conference, but until then I'm trying to get some other items finished. I missed the Pardo keynote, but I'm okay with that as I'm making progress on tasks that have been lingering for far too long.  For instance, I'm trying to determine if a new business can be self-funded with projected earnings or if it's going to be a money pit - good times.

On a side note, the hotel isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not bad.  I've learned it is the oldest hotel in Austin and one of the oldest buildings in town. I'm not surprised by that. They have obviously kept the place up and it looks nice, but it also has the cramped feeling of older structures.  The elevator was smaller than my TV, no really it is.  The room service is about what you expect, not horrible but not great. However, I do have to admit that they make a damn fine jalapeno corn muffin that I wouldn't mind eating eight...uh...again.

Another nice aspect of being in the hotel room, I I've had the chance to catch up on some free movies while working courtesy of HBO.  So far I've seen:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I love Tim Burton, so I've been looking forward to this for a while.  It was very damn cool. Depp came off as a creepy guy, the kids and their parents were suitably obnoxious and the story was fun (although I missed about 15 minutes of the end when my girlfriend called). Yeah, it's a remake, but at least it had quirky style. "You shouldn't mumble, I swear I can't understand a word you're saying!"

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - I don't think I've been a huge fan of this series, but I'm now a convert. This was damn funny and it was compelling enough that it made a difficult time of concentrating on my work (which ended up being abandoned for the duration of the movie). I need to check out some of the other shows as well.

Matchstick Men - This was a pretty good diversion. I was interested in seeing what happened, but didn't pull me into it.  At least not until the end, which I found to be both entertaining and sad. I don't want to give it away, but dang that was a bit harsh.

I found out last night that my friend, who is also in town for the conference, was nice enough to rent a car. The plan is to hit County Line BBQ before we leave, hopefully that will happen since he is busier than I am nowadays.