a day in the life…

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Wow – I haven’t done one of these in a while!

Grey’s Anatomy is Addictive
So my wife has really been into this show lately … like, seriously! She’d nevver watched before, but somehow her sister got her hooked on it and now she’s been plowing through the DVDs like crazy … all seven seasons of them. It’s kind of hard for me to follow because whenever I come in, she’s a good two or three discs from where I saw her last, so new cast members have come and gone, and sleeping arrangements have shifted yet again, but every now and then I’ll catch myself watching through an entire episode in full because believe it or not, it seems like there’s actually some really good writing in that show.

We watched one the other day where the awesome surgeon guy has to perform a miracle for his ex-wife’s dying brother, and just the dialog between the two of them where she explains how she got through their divorce by discounting his talents, but now she needed him to “be a god” to save her brother, then afterwards thanking him and telling him they need to go back to their separate lives now … surprisingly good writing, and if I had any extra time at all right now, I’d probably be willing to sit through a few more episodes with her…

Cleanin’ Da Office
Earlier today I hit a dead spot with writing so I decided to take a break and try to clean up around my office because pretty much since we got Cleo it’s been, well, really bad! Figure when we got her, I hadn’t even completely finished unpacking yet, so there were still a couple of random boxes left to go through, and then on top of that when the little terror arrived, some of said boxes were converted into makeshift barriers to keep her from eating LEGOs and pumpkin stuff and whatnot! Now she doesn’t really come back here anymore, so I took a couple of hours to get things back where they go, and that’s one less thing nagging for my attention when I sit down to work!

I Hope I Don’t Get a Ticket…
I always assumed that the bigger the intersection, the more time they’d give you on a yellow light to get through … right? Well, my wife and I were going somewhere fairly early this morning and I think I kind of drove through a red turn light. I mean, the intersection was huge – each road is five or six lanes in each direction, with three lanes dedicated solely to left turns, and at 45 mph I realized that there was no way I could slow down before the intersection, so I went for it.

I saw the light change while we were going through it … there are so many traffic lights hanging over this gargantuan intersection, it looks like a damn Christmas display! … but no one got hurt, so hopefully there weren’t any of those pesky red light cameras around to capture the ill-judged moment on film. Don’t they have to have special signs up when the cameras are present? This one didn’t, so hopefully I’m in the clear… 😛

perspectives, by Lemony Snicket…

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After writing about it over the weekend, I’ve kind of developed a new curiosity towards the whole Occupy Wall Street movement, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading to try and wade past the traditional garbage to try and get the real scoop on what’s taking place around the country.

I’ll probably write more about it this weekend when I get a chance, but in the meantime I came across this very well written piece that covers a lot of good talking points not just for this particular movement, but really for anyone trying to have a dialog with another person in general…

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
http://occupywriters.com/by-lemony-snicket

(numbers 7, 10, and 11 are my personal favorites)

Sympathy for the Pooch (plus, she peed on my hand…)

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Recently we gave in and have been letting Cleo sleep in our bed again.

My wife recently got promoted, so she no longer works the night shift – before, Cleo would sleep in her cage at night while I slept, then when Sara got home and went to sleep, she’d rest in the bed with her while I was at work. But now with us both sleeping and being at work at the same time, we didn’t feel like it was fair to make her sleep in her crate all night long and then also all day while we were at work, so we gave in and have been letting her sleep with us lately.

That said, she did something the other night that’s seriously making me second-guess that decision, or maybe even getting a dog in the first place … she peed on my hand!

You heard me – she URINATED ON MY HAND.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, she’s in a habit of shredding all of her toys right now, and because we’re trying our best not to live like complete and total slobs, every now and then we’ll try to take five or ten minutes to pick up whatever scraps of fluff are lying about. Of course, she’s not a fan of this activity and within a day or so, the room will be back to the disaster zone that it usually is … but up until now, she’s never really acted out during the cleanup more than maybe just a little barking.

This time, however, was entirely different! There I was, sitting on our bedroom floor, just minding my own business while I gathered fluff into a garbage bag, when out of nowhere she just walks into the room, raises her leg, proceeds to pee on the hand that I’m picking up fluff with, and then walks back out of the room, both relieved and apparently somewhat proud of herself. Apparently that old adage, “Don’t pee on the hand that feeds you…” is lost on this one.

Several months ago I thought it was pretty bad when I stepped in her poop in my bare feet, but I’m pretty sure this was worse. We’re running out of new lows for this puppy to subject me to…

5 Things I Need to Do Before Year-End That I Keep Putting Off…

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Holy crap – not to spook anyone, but do you realize that Christmas is going to be here before we know it?! For those of you who are juggling projects like me, that’s a mere 12 weeks before 2012 is upon us … and boy, do I still have entirely too much stuff to get done in such a short period of time…

…but that’s not what I wanted to post about today.

Instead, below is just a quick list – mostly for my reference – of some relatively minor things that I keep meaning to do, but somehow still haven’t, because earlier today I was thinking, “Boy, it sure would be nice not to carry over that list into the new year in addition to the regular, big stuffs that I’m already plenty paranoid about getting wrapped up in time!

Setup a Backup System
I’ve been saying that I’m going to setup something on my PC to backup essential files for a long time, and I think I’ve been stalled as of late because, ironically enough, the PC that we use as our home file server has a bad hard drive. Whenever I think about this, I always get caught up in the complexities of it because on top of about 70 GB of photos to backup, I’ve also got at least twice that in music and those two items alone typically pushes me into the insanely expensive category.

Eventually, I’d still love to have a fancy, multi-tiered approach where our home server does its own internal backups for EVERYTHING using an array of terabyte drives, and then the more essential stuff (photos, writing, personal documents) would also get backed up redundantly to the online backup as well. In the meantime, though, I really just need to take the hour to setup Mozy or something on my regular PC to get the photos and other essential stuff safe, and go from there. I’ve already almost lost all of those pics once – why wait for stupidity to strike the same place twice?!

Finally Finish Unpacking
Yeah, yeah – from when we moved into our new house back in the springtime…

So here’s the thing – we only have a couple of random boxes left, and we can’t unpack those just yet because there’s somewhat of a leak in our living room near the shelves where all of this stuff would go. The landlord said he’ll pay for it, however we’ve just been having a hell of a time finding somebody to actually do the work because the particulars I guess make it kind of a pain in the ass. So this one is kind of a two-parter then – a) fix the leak, b) unpack the stuffs.

Design My Own Business Debit Card
Well, at least this is more of a fun one. I used to have my business checking account with Wachovia, who recently got acquired by Wells Fargo earlier this year. I guess they have this neat feature where you can create your own artwork to put on your debit card – not just choosing from their stock imagery, but actually uploading your own photos and stuff, too, so I thought it might be kind of neat to customize the card that I have for my business transactions.

Get New Stuff for My Fishtank
So my bigger fish died a couple of weeks ago, and all that’s left is a couple of small frys and a relatively empty tank. I know that I want to take this opportunity to spruce things up a bit, however it’s been almost a month already and I have a feeling if left to my own devices this is something that’s going to end up slipping through the cracks.

Now rather than spending a bunch of extra money on fake plants and rocks, I realized today that I should have a bunch of old accessories from a previous tank still stashed around somewhere, so that might be a good start. It just needs … something new.

Buy Rental Insurance
At this point, I guess it’s really bad that we still don’t have any! I mean, we’ve had entire leases that specified how we were required to have renter’s insurance to protect our belongings, and we just never really got around to it. The worst thing is, I’ve heard in the grand scheme of things it’s really not even that expensive – maybe a couple hundred bucks for the entire year, so this is a gap that really need to finally be closed!

‘Nuff said!

Did I miss anything???

Thin Post : Too Much or Not Enough?

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So anyways … not really been doing great with this new workout initiative that I sadistically concocted for myself a couple of weeks ago…

Honestly, it’s just been a complete lack of time – nearing the end of the year, I’ve still got a solid 9 creative projects that I want to complete by Dec. 31st and that’s a pretty tough goal to meet as it is, so to incorporate on top of that also getting to bed nice and early so as to faciliate getting up early to workout AND still taking Cleo out for her walks on a regular basis?!

I JUST NEED MORE TIME!!!!!

Anyways, what I’ve considered doing to try and preserve my own sanity just a bit is to kind of forego the AM elliptical sessions for a while and instead simply focus on trying to get Cleo her walks in the evenings before bedtime more consistently. When I do the math, our nightly walks end up ranging anywhere between 400-500 calories burned anyways (we average between 3.5-4.5 miles in 90 minutes or less), so I think if I can just do better on hitting most nights instead of every other night, that should help to close the gap if I don’t necessarily use the elliptical for a whole.

And of course, as an added bonus Cleo really enjoys the time out and about herself, and the exercise is good for her, too. Plus, worst case scenario if it happens to rain, I can always still fall back on using the elliptical instead that night, but at least until I can manage to get some of these other projects off of my plate, getting up “early” just isn’t really in the cards for me!

Cleopatra the Vicious, Destroyer of Stuffed Animals

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On a lighter note … in puppy news, Cleo continues to eat us out of house and home!

Submitted for your consideration, exhibits A and B:

She’s kind of going through a phase right now where she doesn’t so much really play with anything as she does just try her best to tear it into little itty bitty pieces. As a result, our floor is almost constantly covered with the fluff of a thousand doggie toys gone south, to the point where we usually don’t even bother cleaning it up right away because she’s just going to tear apart another stuffed bear or ball or dinosaur to return the room back to its preferred state – at least in her eyes.

In fact, my wife has even noticed where she’ll get mad if you try to clean up her mess because I think she’s actually convinced that her toys are supposed to be scattered in pieces all across the floor! She hasn’t done this to me yet, although Sara tends to be a little more strict with her so may she just figures there’s no sense in arguing with a pushover like me when I’m just as likely to get her a treat once I’m done anyways…

Boy, is Christmastime going to be fun when we have to figure out how to put our tree up with her in the same room!

one more thing, about misinformation…

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Of those Tea Party-ish folks that I mentioned earlier that seem more hell-bent on discrediting the Occupy Wall Street movement and defending their favorite billionaires instead of actually stopping to hear what they have to say, sometimes I wonder if any of them would change their tune if they had any idea that the propaganda that they were peddling around was just blatantly wrong.

Earlier today I came across a particularly offense photo that was being passed around on Facebook, showing a big banner citing, “F— the Troops” followed by plenty of dialog about how all of the protestors are vile, no-class scum who don’t deserve to have people dying for them.

Trouble is, the photo didn’t actually come from Wall Street or any of the other Occupy protests – that is, unless the protestors have somehow mastered the art of time travel in one of their afternoon workshops because it was actually taken almost five years ago at an anti-war protest out in Portland, Oregon.

I mean, it’s bad enough that it gives John Stewart and Stephen Colbert recurring material to joke about every single night, but in all seriousness, wouldn’t you start to question your own beliefs if you eventually began to learn that all of your rage and aggression towards “the other side” was based on lies and things that didn’t actually happen???

some thoughts about Occupy Wall Street…

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I’ve tried to refrain from writing about the movement that’s been going on for nearly a month now because admittedly I’ve had a hard time myself just trying to separate the message from the noise, but after spending a little more time watching videos and even reading about our own local involvement, I think I’m starting to get a better grasp of my own perspective here and I wanted to take a few moments to talk about it…

Originally I found myself getting hung up on the less informed because like it or not, there do appear to be a number of folks on the ground in various cities who really don’t have a clear understanding of what they’re against and what they’re trying to accomplish – at least not beyond “Corporate Greed = Bad,” anyways. And it doesn’t help that these are the people who many in the media are quick to put on TV because it’s a great way to drive the argument that these are just a bunch of unemployed hippies and college students who’ve got nothing better to do than sit around and bang their drums in the park all day.

That said, I don’t think that this is a fair representation of what’s taking place here because there are always some like that in every crowd.

Instead, taking a closer look what I do see is a group of extraordinarily frustrated Americans who are fed up with our current society and feel helpless as a number of issues swirl around them with little regard for their own interests as fellow citizens. Our economy is shot and people are having a hard time finding jobs, despite plunging themselves tens of thousands of dollars into debt for student loans; a lot of people are losing their homes due to irresponsible lending from the housing boom, yet no real repercussions were ever really felt by those involved; and the divide between the ultra rich and the commoners continues to grow, all the while legislation continues to serve those corporations at the top while further citing more and more cuts from the actual people at the bottom.

And then to have to hear groups like the Tea Party citing that they’re all just bums who should go out and work harder if they’re not happy because that’s what all of the millionaires and billionaires did – I can kind of understand why they’d start to feel like the cards are stacked against them!

On one hand, I certainly do agree that success should come as a result of hard work and dedication, and I don’t want to discount that by somehow implying that I think that this crowd just wants handouts and a free ride. Quite the contrary, I think the frustration lies in watching other people get handouts and continue to get propped up, giving each other huge bonuses and drinking champagne on the backs of people whose livelihoods they gambled with, while they’re left without any recourse because the corrupt Wall Street bankers have a corrupt Congress to back them up, who are then supported by hordes of followers who’ve been brainwashed into thinking that this is just how life goes.

But I guess ultimately what I’m still having some trouble wrapping my arms around is the idea of where we’re supposed to go from here, and frankly, this is where my own ignorance with regards to protests throughout history gets the best of me because as moving as it is to see tens of thousands of people around the country all banding together to say, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!”, I’m still left scratching my head as to what happens next. I mean, we’ve seen some, but not a lot of people get arrested, we’ve seen local businesses “irritated” by the occupations around the country and local governments trying to figure out ways to “get rid of the problem.” Luckily there hasn’t really been much for violence yet, except for a few isolated incidents, mostly in NYC itself, but at the end of the day, they can’t just sit in the park holding their signs of injustice forever…

Can they???

The thing is, I’m still blind as to what the real trigger for actual change needs to be. The corrupt bankers certainly aren’t just going to stop what they do – most have done little more than snicker from balconies overlooking the protests, which I guess fits because they’ve continued to get away with what they did while they watch below to see the police smacking down the angry mobs that have gathered for them. The politicians and lobbyists are all still in business, and aren’t likely to be voted out as long as we remain such a polarized nation, either.

Is it a legislative change, a sudden surge of ethics among corporate America, the realization that “socialism” can also be as simple as figuring out how to live in a society together instead of the big, scary word that many would like to suggest? Any of the above?? All of the above???

I honestly don’t have a clue, but I’m definitely starting to get a little more curious about the direction that this thing is going. What if it really is the start of something BIG…

iOS vs. Windows upgrades

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I couldn’t help but ponder while I was upgrading my iPhone to iOS5 this afternoon the differences between an Apple and a Windows OS upgrade.

And mind you, I understand that right off the bat I’m not entirely comparing apples to apples here (pun acknowledged, but not intended!) because iOS is a mobile operating system whereas Windows is on a desktop. Plus of course, the mobile versions tend to always be free because I’ve already paid for the hardware itself, whereas for traditional Windows, the software is really all that they’ve got to charge me for…

But nonetheless, as I flipped through the list of all of the cool, new features that were being added to my already beloved iPhone (notification center, enhanced camera features, automated cloud backup features – the list goes on…), my first thought as I was reading through the list was … where are all of the security updates???

Primarily being a Windows user on the PC, I’m used to OS updates being security patches – in fact, almost exclusively security patches. Really, when was the last time you applied a patch to Windows that wasn’t either a security patch or an update to the Spyware Removal Tool?
(I’m still on XP, by the way)

I honestly can’t think of a single one, which leads me to wonder if maybe that’s why people are always have such a lackluster enthusiasm towards Windows these days … it’s boring! Whereas when Apple updates iOS, yeah, I’m sure there are a bunch of new security enhancements that they bundle in there as well – I mean, the download was 768 MB – but that’s not what Apple chooses to focus on, now is it? Instead, they do all of the obvious stuff (security) in the background and alternatively direct us to the cool, new stuff that we’re going to be able to do once we’ve upgraded!

Again, maybe it’s not a direct comparison, but I think Microsoft could take a cue from Apple here if they would stop focusing on the nitty, gritty, ugly insides that most users don’t even want to hear about (i.e. “What do you mean I’m not secure?!“) and instead made those updates actually do something to improve the Windows experience that I already paid big bucks for a couple of years ago!

…

OR you can bundle it into a new version, stick another $149 price tag on it, and don’t be surprised when my next computer is a Mac. I may be nearly a decade late to make the switch, but hey, better late than never…