Sometimes work REALLY sucks....

Well, I'm on-call (or on-pager as we say) for my job this week(end) until Tuesday. I work with computers by the way (in case you didn't know). Normally, you get calls throughout the business day & sometimes a call after-hours (some even very early in the am). However, this weekend's been the worst I've ever experienced.

It pretty much started with a network outage (unplanned) on Friday around 2pm. An e-mail was sent out that it should be fixed by 3am the next morning. I had a bad feeling about the whole situation.

I was awakened at 3:30am yesterday with a page, and on average, I got paged about every hour after that. I finally finished working around 8:30pm last night & was in bed asleep within an hour after that.

This morning, another page at 3:30am. It seems that even though the network outage was fixed, apparently some addresses were changed & not corrected on our mid-range computer. This meant we had similar issues as the night before.

The frustration in this for me is that I'm getting paged for things over which I have no control. I'm basically a code-monkey (or software-simian for you Dilbert fans), with means I have no problem writing a program. However, I'm not very well versed in how systems operate, and these issues relate directly to system issues. Bad for me.

I've already been involved in one conference call about this, and I have another scheduled for 4pm. Plus, I've already been 'volunteered' to wake up at 2am tomorrow morning to check some jobs. arrggghhh!

As you can guess, for me, Tuesday can't arrive fast enough.

Gay Marriage & Judicial Rulings....

A lot has been going on recently on the subject of gay marriage. Some say that it shouldn't be allowed because it demeans marriage for non-gays. Others think it's okay as long as it's not called marriage; they prefer the term "Civil Union." Still others don't believe it should be allowed in any way, shape, or form. Some states have enacted actual gay marriages, and some have allowed it under the term of "Civil Union." There are court cases pending on the issue throughout the country. It seems like a lot of ado about something that's (in my mind) very simple. If two consenting adults truly love each other and want to make a life-long commitment of living together & sharing their lives, I think they should be allowed to do so. I don't think it demeans anyone else's commitment, and I think there is precedence for my view.

When I was very young, there were a number of states that made it illegal for people of two different races to marry. This was in the mid-1960s & the years before. Now it's kind of hard to believe that if I, a Caucasian male, wanted to marry (let's say) an African-American female, it wouldn't be allowed in some states. My home state, Alabama, was one of them. The thing that's so astounding, to me, is that people used to use religious texts (the Bible mainly) to justify this. It's the same thing that's used to justify being against gay marriage. It wasn't true about marriage between races, and I don't think it's true about gay marriage.

The other aspect of this is when some folks claim that allowing gay marriage will make a mockery of "traditional" marriage. This is a totally laughable claim for me. I have to ask how letting two people of the same gender marry can make a mockery of marriage? No one's been able to give me a plausible answer to this question. This is especially true when I bring up people like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Cher, Mickey Rooney, Britney Spears, & other celebrities who marry & divorce as the winds or seasons change. Why aren't they pointed out as making a mockery of "traditional" marriage? Some have answered me that, "at least they were marrying someone of a different gender." "So what?" I retort. It's more a mockery, to me, when people use marriage as a convenience that can be discarded when it's inconvenient.

During the last election in November of 2008, there was an initiative on the ballot in the state of California. Known as Proposition 8, it was set up to establish, in the California Constitution, that marriage meant a union between a man & a woman. With a lot of lobbying & support by the Mormon church (formally know as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; LDS for short) it passed. The passing means that the Constitution of California was changed, and gay marriage is now illegal. I think it sucks. However, I don't now, and haven't ever lived in California. So it really & ultimately doesn't effect me. But I still don't like it.

Recently, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, and a lot of people are upset about that. However, I actually have to applaud the Court's decision even if I don't like it. As stated before, Proposition 8 amended the Constitution of California. The Court's job is to determine if a law is unconstitutional, and in this case, it's not; it's part of the Constitution. It's not the Court's job to disallow an amendment to the Constitution. So, though I don't like it that the amendment was passed, I do like that the California Court did it's job. What needs to be done is to re-amend the constitution to repeal Proposition 8. This was done when Prohibition was enacted; an amendment was passed the allowed the sale of alcohol. That's what needs to be done in this case. However, its up to the people of California to do this, not me in Washington, & not Pat Robertson in Virginia. This is an issue for Californians & only them. Until a federal law or amendment is passed, everyone else needs to stay out of it.

To sum-up, two people who love each other & want to share their lives together should be allowed to marry. It's no one else's business. That's my two cents anyway.... :)

1st 100 Daze...

So, according to the talking heads on the news, Barack Obama's administration is closing in on its' first 100 days. These 100 days are seen as a bench-mark for how the future of the administration might be. I'm not so sure about that. I think the 100 day mark is not an indicator for anything, except the passage of 100 days.

Take, for example, the George W. Bush administration. I didn't vote for him, & I didn't think he had what it took to be the president. However, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted him to prove me wrong. And he almost did.

During his first 100 days, he rescinded a lot of good things the Clinton administration did. But I was still going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then 9-11 happened. Initially, I was totally surprised with how well W seemed to be handling the situation. He seemed to be showing restraint. He seemed to be doing what a president should, reassuring the nation. It seemed like I'd been totally wrong about him. That was until he started talking about going into Iraq.

We were involved in a war in Afghanistan in which we were trying to find Osama bin Laden. He's the guy whom we had been told had planned & organized the 9-11 attacks. At one point, it looked like we had him, but he escaped. I didn't blame W for that (not then anyway) because things like that happen. But when he started up about Iraq & Saddam Hussein, I was like, "What the hell did Iraq have to do with this?"

Everything I could find about Iraq & 9-11 pointed to.... nothing. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. Even the news, initially, was saying that. But when people like me started raising the same questions I had, the W administration came out with their, "You're either with us, or against us"
BS. I noticed that the bulk of the news outlets started reporting what came from the White House as truth. They didn't even seem to be checking any facts or sources. It was like being inside the book 1984.

Well now we've been out of that administration for 100 days. We now know (at least most of us do) that W's administration had no reason to go into Iraq. Even though I agree Saddam needed to be deposed, that was not, and still is not, our job. Even Bush said he wasn't about nation building, but he ended up being about nation building in Iraq. I've not seen anything that proves this, but I think he did it to shore up his father's legacy. Either way, a lot of people died and are maimed for life, for no good reason. And where's bin Laden? Still on the loose somewhere.....

Anyway, back to Obama. He inherited a huge mess. The mess didn't get made overnight, it took eight years to create. So it won't be cleaned up overnight either, but I hope it won't take 8 years. Barack seems to be working hard to get things turned around. To me, I think I can see some small things changing for the better. He seems like a good guy too. I'll admit I was reluctant to back him at first. It was mainly due to the experience issue, just like with W. I'd been burned on that before & I was worried about history repeating itself. To me it doesn't matter if the President is Democrat or Republican. He just needs to follow the will of the people at large & not pander to special interest or religious groups.

I'll admit that I'm not too surprised to see some Republican folks already doing/saying stuff like "we're worse off now that under Bush," "I can't wait until Obama's out of office." Jeez people! Give the man a chance! He just might be the best president in 50+ years. Of course, he could be turn out to be the worse too. But you'll never know until you see what he can do. And just because he's part of a different party than yours doesn't mean that he's automatically bad. I gave W a chance back in 2001; he totally showed me how bad he was, but I did give him more than 100 days. I was fairly ok with him until he started up about invading Iraq.

Anyway, let's not be too quick to judge Obama or anyone else. Give them a fair chance. I think we should be able to see where things are heading in about 6 months. That's my take on it.... :)

Where the hell have I been.....

Well, I've been not blogging for one thing. For another, I've been just doing stuff. Other than that, I have no explaination or excuse, not that I need either. :)

My brother & his wife & son came to visit early this month. It had been about 5 years since I saw the FloJacks, so it was good to see them again. My nephew had really grown in that time too. When last I saw him, he came to just under my chin (I'm 5'9" by the way), now he's almost as tall as I am. They grow up so fast. :)

In other news, I've gotten a new fridge & stove; they were delivered today. Both are very nice, the stove is the kind with a ceramic top, digital temp control for the oven. The fridge has a much larger freezer and those great adjustable glass shelves. There's also plenty of storage space in the door.

I've also been hob-nobbing with celebrities. My friend, Baby-Girl, was playing sax for a band putting on a benefit for cancer. The band was an all-star line-up of rock legends. I'll see if I can remember them for you. There was Alan White (drummer for Yes & John Lennon, and the event's organizer), Chris Squire (bassist for Yes), Trevor Rabin (guitarist for Yes), Mark Hudson (of the Hudson Brothers), Elliott Easton (guitarist for The Cars), Roger Fisher (former Heart guitarist), Simon Kirke (drummer for Free & Bad Company), Taylor Hawkins (drummer for Foo Fighters), Michael Shreive (drummer for Santana), Eric Bazilian (of the Hooters), Nona Hendrix (of La Belle), & Sheldon Reynolds (guitarist for the Commodores & Earth, Wind & Fire). The great part is that I actually got to shake hands with each of these people. They were all very nice and didn't give off an ego trip at all. By the way, Baby-Girl was awesome, and she looked even better, as she usually. She's just awesome in every way.

That's about all I can think of to write about for now. I'll try to post more often (where have I heard that before).

T Minus Seven Days & Counting...

In just seven short days I will have a house full of refugees (or house guests if you will). It's my youngest brother & his family (wife & son). They will be flying up from Florida next Friday to stay with me for a week, and I am so excited. I've not seen them in almost five years. It will be so great.

I think this is a first, people from Florida, where it's now in the 80s temp-wise, taking a vacation in March to Seattle, where it's barely breaking the 50s. I've told them to all bring coats, and it will be chilly, and it could be rainy. But I think we'll have lots of fun anyway. :)

Actually, this will probably work out really well. Being that it's the off-season, we shouldn't encounter many crowds at the main tourist spots around town. Therefore, we shouldn't have to wait in many, if any, lines. My main hope is that we have a few days of sunny skys, because the views will be awesome, and I want them to experience the scenery.

That's about all I can think of about this topic, so I'll just sign-off. :)

Light at the end of the tunnel???

I don't think I've mentioned this before (and I'm too lazy to check my previous posts), but my apartment building is undergoing renovation. It's been in that state since I moved in back in September. I moved in anyway because the rent was less than my previous place by about $500, and I really like this neighborhood. Because of the renovation, the landlady is knocking another $250 off the rent while it's ongoing. How cool is that? :)

When I moved in, the landlady, a lovely older woman named Mrs. Anderson, said that she had been told the renovation would be completed by mid-December. That didn't happen of course. It's nice to keep the lower rent going, but I will admit that it's been a bit of a pain seeing all the cracks in the walls and the bare drywall ceiling for the past 6 months. But the charm of the neighborhood, & closeness of the busstop really does outweigh the 'under construction' condition of my digs.

Well, this week the workers have finally come back to finish up the inside of my place. The work has been good quality, though the pace has been slow. They came in on a Thursday in the 1st week of December, worked that day, and didn't return until 2 weeks ago. When they came back, I was assured that they would finish everything by 3-6. They worked on Monday & Tuesday of that week, and didn't come back any other days. I called the site boss on Monday (of this week) and asked if they were ever going to finish. This time he assured me that all would be completed this week. Each day I saw small signs that people had been in the apartment, but didn't see any real signs of work being done; until today. A note on my door said, "We'll be back Monday to finish up, hang the blinds, & clean up." After Monday, I may actually be able to put things where I want them, and not have people come in a couple weeks later & move them all around. What a concept that will be. :)

I'll have to discuss this with Mrs. Anderson, but there's still work to be done on the exterior. Therefore, I won't be able to access my parking space until that's completed. I believe our agreement about the lower rent was, 'when the scaffolding comes down, the rent goes up.' So my lower rent should continue for a bit longer. However, I doubt that will be the case when I pay May's rent. But it's looking like there's some light coming in at the end of the tunnel.

Randomness...

I felt like I should post something today, but I can't really think of anything linear. Therefore, I thought I'd do some random bullets. It's a technique used by many bloggers, I'm sure, but I'm copping it from one of my favorite blogs Miss Zoot.

• I recently did a post about a couple of my favorite shows. However, I omitted one, "Burn Notice" on the USA network. I think it's one of the best spy dramas in quite some time.
• The company at which I'm employed is very big. It's a multi-national. However, I'm continually amazed at how homey it feels. I get the same sense of community there as I did at my last company. It was a small textile company.
• I've recently been invited to play guitar with some guys from work. This past Wednesday was the first time out. It was the 1st time I'd played in a group in five years or so. It was the 1st time in more than ten years that I played guitar in a group. I played bass in the last group. It's still fun. :)
• Recently, an old Air Force buddy tracked me down via facebook. We lost touch and I hadn't heard from him in quite a while. Technology is amazing some times.
• I'm wondering when the construction crew will be coming back to finish their work on this building. It's been almost 2 months since they last did any work on my apartment. It's very frustrating.

That's all I can really think of for now. I think I can expand a couple of those into full-blown posts. Thanks for tolerating my rambling. :)