Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Playing Catch Up

Well, it's been a long time since I posted last, so here's a quick(ish) catch up on what's been happening.

First of all, the main reason I haven't updated is because my computer got a virus a few weeks ago. So that shut things down for about a week. Then we bought the latest Kaspersky virus protection, which protects your computer from all kinds of bad stuff and comes with the added feature of slowing your computer down to a snail's pace. It's still not 100%, but it's usable.

Okay, that happened, and kind of put me in a bad mood, which was only made worse by the general public, particularly the ones at my job. Everyone has those days (weeks) where they can't stand their job. You know those days where every little thing annoys you and you don't even have a reason? I got there for a while. It seemed like every part of my job was a chore, even the easy stuff that I normally don't mind a bit. My frustration level with the customers was at an all time high. I actually was angry with people just for showing up. Most people who work with the public go through this from time to time, and lately it's been my turn. Now, I never exploded at work (a small miracle), and I'm pretty sure nobody at work had a clue. The fact remains though, that I was in a funk from about 8:00 am to 5:00 p.m. every day.

But then I had a good week. July 15th was our 2nd anniversary. We didn't celebrate until the next day, which I had off. Valerie and I went to an early dinner at Yaccovelli's (the site of our wedding rehearsal dinner) and went to see a movie. Having a child hampers your ability to go to the movies, so what used to be a fairly regular and easy date becomes something special. And what did Valerie want to see on this romantic night? Hellboy II! Why? Because a). my wife is awesome, and b). we saw the original on one of our early dates so that made it appropriate (good flick, btw, complete fantasy and a touch long, but cool).

July 18th was my birthday (neat how that works, huh?), and we went to dinner again (at Lonestar steak house, so, y'know, nothing special-but steak!). After dinner, we met up with the guys in my band at The Brewhouse, to see Men Without Rogaine play. For those who are unaware, MWR are an acoustic cover duo comprised of my good friend and best man (tying the anniversary back in) Tim Heeley and all around good guy Lee Nix. After the first set, and a few drinks, Tim asked if we'd like to play a song. Yes, please. We had to improvise a little, not having our own instruments and being an electric outfit, but we were grateful for the opportunity and rose to the occasion. We wound up doing two songs, one in each set, and were well received. Blue Tattoo has had their first gig, impromptu though it was, on my birthday. That's cool.

My birthday was celebrated again the next night with family from both sides, giving everyone an opportunity to give me presents and visit with 3 month old Tessa. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that the 15th was Tessa's three month birthday. Not that we made a big deal about it, but it's another thing that happened that week. Kinda interesting, at least to me.

So I guess the point is that as frustrated as I get with the mundane day to day stuff I deal with, my life is actually really good. Things seem to be going in the right direction for Blue Tattoo, I have a happy marriage with a beautiful daughter, and a family that loves me. Overall, I'm a pretty lucky guy.

Okay, that got long. I'll be back soon with a bunch of ranting (and Carlin quotes) like normal.

Bye

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Can we?

"The next time someone gives you that civic bullshit about voting, remember that Hitler was elected in a free democratic election."
-George Carlin

More people should have thought of that back in 2004.

Okay, so unless you're really stupid you've figured out that I'm going to get all political here. Now I'm not a super political guy, but I try to keep up with what's going on, and I try to form logical and educated opinions. Around election time this is especially true. So why am I having such a crisis right now?

As stated over to the right, I am a democrat and have been pretty much since day one. I think I've only veered away from the party twice. One was in the 2000 election when I voted for Ralph Nader. I wanted to send the Democrats a message about how their choice of nominee, Al Gore, who had no personality, a royal bitch of a wife (those little "Parental Advisory stickers on CDs?? All her.), grandiose delusions about his involvement with the Internet, and a positive but unrealistic view of the environment and what we should do about it. I mean, hey, I love this planet too, I just don't have a hard-on for it. We should all do a little more to help the earth, true, but as Carlin once observed, the planet is fine. It's survived the ice age and the dinosaur, it'll survive us too. In view of all this I threw my vote away and cast my ballot for Nader, again, to send the message. I knew Nader wasn't going to win, but I didn't think Bush had a chance in Hell of winning either, so I assumed this was a safe choice. Oops. Sorry America.

The only time I voted Republican was in a local election, and I don't even remember when it was or who was involved. All I remember is the Democratic candidate came door to door, and I didn't like him. Plus, the asshole woke me up.

Anyway, the point is I am a Democrat and I sincerely want to believe in Barack Obama and vote for him in November. However, as of right now I'm having trouble with that idea. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Obama as a person, he's clearly an intelligent and pleasant man. I just don't buy his rhetoric. Any time a politician starts talking about how they're going to change things my bullshit detector starts going off. Where is the change coming from, what's it going to be, how will it happen?

Granted, having an African-American President would be a huge change in and of itself, and I support that. What else ya got? Sure, there's lots of talk about change, but I haven't heard much about policy. At least, nothing that differs much from standard liberal policy anyway. It seems as though the media go out of their way not to discuss it. Maybe I'm just watching the wrong shows and reading the wrong articles, but I haven't seen a thing.

Also, people seem to be under the delusion that his "lack of experience" is a good thing and a catalyst for change. Wrong! First of all, Obama is a senator. That's experience. Maybe not quite the same as other politicians have, but it's a start, and it's more than most of us have, so it's a non issue. Secondly, it's a nice romantic notion that an outsider can come in and fix a broken system, but more often than not they just wind up getting eaten up by the system, and becoming part of it. Sorry to burst your bubble kids, but that's how it works. Maybe Obama can prove me wrong. I hope he does.

The other thing that bothers me is he's already giving people fodder to call him a flip-flopper, an experienced politician move if there ever was one. Granted, the guy's got a right to change his mind, but still..., let's look at the big two instances. First, remember when Obama gave that speech about how he could no more turn his back on Rev. Jeremiah Wright than his own family? Well, we know how long that lasted. In fairness, he did the right thing here, but it doesn't look good when questioning his loyalties.

Another thing people tend to be all excited about is the fact that he's decided not to participate in the public financing process. Originally, he'd promised to do so if Sen. McCain did the same. So what does Obama do? He decides to pull out of that and make himself out to be a revolutionary thinker while making McCain look like an antiquated asshole. Dirty political pool, that's all it is folks. And by the way, does anyone else wonder what happens to the money he didn't take? Does John McCain get it? Does it go back into the fund? how about this idea: Obama takes the money and instead of using it for his campaign, he donates it to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army so it can be used to help the flood victims all across the Midwest get their lives back on track? That's probably impossible, but it would bring him my vote.

So that's where I sit right now. Clearly this is going to be an interesting campaign season. If any fellow Democrats out there can direct me to some good information about Obama's policies and what changes I'm supposed to expect (and a sense of connection to government doesn't count-that's bullshit speak too), feel free to leave me some links in the posts. Maybe I can get on board and I won't have to make the same mistake I did in 2000. Once again, sorry.

Happy 4th!

Dave

P.S. The above is not an endorsement for John McCain, nor is it intended as such. And don't leave me nasty comments questioning my patriotism-if I wasn't patriotic, I wouldn't care!