Southbound...

Well, it's been quite a while since since my last post. Let's face it; I'm not a good blogger. However, I never claimed to be in the first place. Maybe I'll get better, maybe I won't, but I'll keep it up.... as I feel the need to. But enough about that, there are other things to speak about.

I'm starting on a couple days worth of packing right now. The packing is because I'm flying back to Alabama for a visit on Sunday. This is the first time I've been back for a visit in two years, so I'm pretty stoked. I'll get to see my Mom, my only sister, my only niece, & one of my brothers.

The other thing that I'm really looking forward to is food. Now, Seattle has some of the best restaurants & cuisine I've ever eaten. But I just haven't been able to find good bar-b-q, grits, gumbo, or okra. I never realized how much I love okra (in gumbo & fried) until I didn't have it. Yeah, I know, it's an old story, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone." I was also missing Sonic Drive-In's, but they opened one in Puyallup, so I went there & had Sonic. :) However, they still don't have Krystal or the northern equivalent, White Castle. I'll totally be filling up on Krystal at some point.

Anyway, I've gotta finish up some laundry, and get a good jump on the packing. By this time on Sunday, I should be at Mama's house. :)

Conspiracy Theories...

To me, Conspiracy Theories, all of them, are totally bunk, garbage. This because no matter what proof is provided to counter-act them, the believers will say the proof is doctored or flawed. The Conspirists themselves then continue to believe & propagate the theory.

This will be a very short entry because I have four words that debunk ALL conspiracy theories... "The Monica Lewinsky Scandal." This was a sexual tryst between two people, White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then President Bill Clinton. No one else was even in the room. Yet, news of this secret event went completely around the world and was report by almost every major newspaper and network & cable news shows. For two years this thing was debated, reported, & hashed-out ad-nausea.

Yet, this event happened in private, between two people, one of which was the leader of one of the most (if not the most) powerful countries in the world. The President of the United States of America was not able to keep this very small secret out of the public eye. If you remember, Bill Clinton was thought, by some people, to have actually ordered the murder of his Deputy White House Counselor, Vince Foster. Vince Foster was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gun-shot wound in a DC area park. Multiple investigations have ruled the death a suicide.

So, the "Government" is keeping the "real" evidence of... The Kennedy Assassination, The Faked Apollo Moon Landings, The Alien Spacecraft that crashed as Roswell, NM, The Fact that 'They' actually cased/staged/allowed the 9-11 attacks to happen, A car that can be fueled with tap water & get over 100 miles to the gallon, & President Bill Clinton having Vince Foster killed; a secret. And they are doing this via pay-offs, suppression of evidence, & death threats to parties that might speak out the "actual" truth.

However, they can't keep the secret of the President getting oral sex in the Oval Office out of the news papers? C'MON!!!!!

Hey, did you hear that Jim Morrison & Elvis are living anonymously on the same Tahitian island in the South Pacific? ;o)

Flaws in the Star Trek Universe....

I am a big fan of Star Trek. I enjoy the original series, Next Generation, Voyager (Don't care for Deep Space 9 & haven't seen Enterprise), and I like all of the films. However, there's been a couple of things about the Star Trek universe that have annoyed me.

The first thing that bugs me about Star Trek is the music. I'm not talking about the theme music or background music. It's the music they depict Star Trek characters listening to or playing for entertainment. In all the series (that I've watched) & the films, they depict the characters listening to or performing Classical or Jazz. I don't have a problem with either of those forms, but I prefer Rock, Metal, or some Pop music. None of the characters is ever seen listening to or performing Rock, Country, Blues, or even Folk music.

In the few instances that Rock or Pop music has been heard in an episode or film, it's always either some sort of galactic hippies (in the original series), or in the past (the First Contact film). It seems to imply, to me anyway, that those forms didn't "survive" or aren't "proper" in that present. It's like it doesn't matter, like it's not allowed. In First Contact, you can see that when Efrem Cochran plays his rock music, that most of the Star Fleet folks seem to act like it's a dentist drill. Granted, one part they dislike about it is the volume, but even after it's turned down, it's still seen as an annoyance. Then there's been no Country music that I've noticed. No Hip-Hop, no R&B, no Soul, no Funk. Especially no Latino music, salsa, rumba, bossa nova. It's not right & should be addressed.

Second, is depicting real diversity. Of course the aliens (Klingons, Vulcans, Andorrans, Romulans, Ferengi) are diverse. However, when depicting people of Earth, though they are racially/ethnically diverse, they don't depict people wearing yarmulkes (Jewish), or kufis or other Islamic clothing. It's as if the whole Earth is one homogeneous religious mass. Why? I understand that the shows/films aren't about religion, but the people of the future would still have religion & practice it.

Finally, is the depiction of dissenters. In the Star Trek universe those dissenters are call Maquee (which I've probably misspelled). The Maquee don't believe Star Fleet offers a utopia; they think it only enforces conformity. It seems they are right to a point. People who don't want Star Fleet are considered outlaws. They aren't just left alone; they're arrested. It just seems wrong to me. I will agree that at least the series/films acknowledge the existence of these dissenters. However, they don't seem to be thought of as having any valid points of view.

I'll still watch Star Trek in reruns & films, but I'll always be aware of these "omissions" while I'm watching.

F1 Please Come Back to the USA....

Those of you who know me personally, know that I'm an avid (& sometimes Rabid) fan of Formula One auto racing. To me it's the cream of the crop, tippy-top, be-all-end-all when it comes to auto racing. These cars are amazing; they're high tech, can reach speeds of 250+mph, and they race on the best road/street courses in the world. For me a close runner up is the Indy Cars (& the now defunct CART), but only when they're making right turns as well as left. For me, it's the truest proof of how good a driver is. Driving in circles it boring, but I do watch the Indy 500 & a NASCAR race from time-to-time (when I'm bored).

Throughout the modern era of Formula One (starting in 1950), there have been US races on the ciruit. The Indy 500 was an F1 points race for years; they've also raced at Phoenix & Watkins Glenn. The latest incarnation of F1 in the US was back at Indy. However, in about the only good idea Tony George ever had (imho), they designed an F1 section within the infield of the track. Then they used the famous turn 1 & straight-away with the infield to complete the course. As an extra change, they ran in the opposite direction; turn 1 became F1's last turn on the track. It was great to watch them there, but for me it was a bit too sterile. Don't get me wrong, I loved it but wished for a better test for my favorite drivers.

The now defunct CART circuit used to race on some great tracks around the US. They did race some ovals (big & small), but they also raced a number of street & permanent road courses. To me there are three of these courses that would make a great F1 race in the US. Here are my top 5 track choices for the US Grand Prix....
#5 - Road Atlanta (Atlanta, GA): To the best of my knowledge there's never been an Indy or F1 type of race there (unless there was a Skip Barber Series there). I've watched several sports car races there via TV, and the course is really good. It has the elevation changes & good turns that would be a good test of skill. However, I think this track would take way too much renovation in order to be safe enough for an F1 race. Another potential strike against might be when the race is scheduled. If a Grand Prix were scheduled in Atlanta in August, it would be as bad (if not worse) than the heat & humidity of the Malaysia race.
#4 - Watkins Glen (Watkins Glen, NY): Hey, it's an awesome track, it was on the F1 calendar before & it's currently on the NASCAR calendar. With some renovation, I think it could be made F1 ready without too much cost. Another point in this track's favor is that it's fairly close to Canada, so this race could be billed as the North American Grand Prix, thus killing two birds with one stone.
#3 - Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Lexington, OH): This is a really nice track. To me, it's very similar to Watkins Glen so it could offer the same caliber of racing. However, like Atlanta, I'm afraid that it would be too expensive to get it F1 ready. It also has the heat/humidity factor depending on when it's scheduled.
#2 - Portland International Raceway (Portland, OR): This is one of my favorite CART tracks. The CART races here were always exciting & interesting. It has the elevation changes & different turn types that would be a great test for the F1 drivers. Plus, the climate is way more moderate than most others. The potential downside is that the Pacific-Northwest is prone to a lot of rain. But then again, some of the best F1 races are in the rain so that could be a plus.
#1 - Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI): For me, this is THE BEST permanent road course in the United States. Some of my favorite CART races have been held here, and I've seen some of the best passes & maneouvers on this course. To me it wouldn't take much to get this course F1 ready, and it's also close to Canada & could take care of both races.

Well, that's my opinion about the situation. Maybe I'm totally wrong & none of these track would work. But from what I've seen in racing in recent years, I think they would all give us some great races.... :)

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.... :)