Musings and Meanderings

Ah the weekend My heels hurt. I worked 25 hrs this weekend, busy days except for Sunday evening where the last hour was completely dead. Sold a cell phone today though, and the bonus on that made the day worth it. All these things become very unimportant though in the light of what also occurred today. When I was checking my email via Yahoo online, I found a disturbing e-Mail from my Dad alluding to my brother being in the hospital. Apparently Andrewski had the worst of these very bad days he has been having and decided to admit himself to the hospital, before he did any harm to himself. So Dad is off to Europe to be with Andrewski. I had a informational conversation with Greg and MW during my break at work so I'm pretty up to speed. I am very impressed with the way Dad has stepped up to the plate so to speak with Andrewki's situation. I am not, however, surprised. Dad and I have had a very good relationship for quite a few years now, and his action of dro...

Black Friday Well I did it. Black Friday. 12 hrs on my feet. Woke up of all mornings, on this morning, with the killer sinuses. I get them every year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall. I think it has to do with the change in the seasons. So this was not good. I filled up four baggies with Echinacea, 2k Mg of Vit C, Tylenol, and Advil and then as almost an afterthought I took one of Alexander's "soft tab" Claritin's. WOW. That stuff really works, and didn't make me feel like my head was in a fog like the anti-histamines I am use to. So any way: Black Friday. Some wit in Marketing decided to "Target Market" zip codes in the Capital District based upon data still unknown. Practical upshot is that the central part of the Capital District did not have the Radio Shack flyer in the Thanksgiving Times Union, though the outlying areas did. This flyer powers Black Friday, and in the end, we just missed meeting last year's numbers. Bla...

2004 Turkey Trot Here we are at the start of Alexander's third annual Troy Turkey Trot. The "grade school" kids run a mile. We are very proud of Alex for wanting to run this year, because he was definitely not ready or trained. His time was, alas, slower than last year. But he did it and that is what counts, and here is the finish:

A great opportunity I re registered with some Headhunting firms last week including my old friend Mark at ExecuSearch. He was the one who got me into the CableShoppe oh so many years ago now. Got a call almost immediately, as he remembered what I had gone through with the CS in the early days, as Ned was trying to not pay him. Anyway he said he had some candidates in a job interview situation and he would see if we could get me in the door as well. So the call came this week, and I set the appointment for Friday at 2pm. Got there 15 min early and met with one of the owners. This company is a Network Services company providing B2B services from phone systems to Network building and monitoring. They have been growing rapidly and the less technical owner has been doing the sales. He feels the need to grow the company and cannot do it without a "real" salesman. In addition they have tried out others in the past and not been successful so they went with He...

Well this didn't take long I got this email today. I bolded the lines I liked the best: I want to thank you personally for what you did in the election -- you rewrote the book on grassroots politics, taking control of campaigns away from big donors. No campaign will ever be the same. You moved voters, helped hold George Bush accountable, and countered the attacks from big news organizations such as Fox, Sinclair Broadcasting, and conservative talk radio. And your efforts count now more than ever. Despite the words of cooperation and moderate sounding promises, this administration is planning a right wing assault on values and ideals we hold most deeply. Healthy debate and diverse opinion are being eliminated from the State Department and CIA, and the cabinet is being remade to rubber stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reforms in health care and education, weaken homeland security, and walk away from critical allies arou...

Some fun places you can go Here is a list of some amusing web sites to visit. Clicking will open a new browser window so you can always get back here. ALLERCA is working to produce the world's first hypoallergenic cats. Someone has found the Lost Continent of Atlantis . The Beeb has come up with a very cute Flash Game called MicroLife . 'Brain' in a dish flies flight simulator . Tired of your old God? Get a new one at God Checker . The Necronautical Society makeing trips to the Afterlife! Today in Alternate History Blog is updated daily and should be on your faves. If you are really bored with you Mini Cooper your can Transform it!! Finally so you don't think I have way too much time on your hands, all these great weird sites were brought to my attention by the Daily Illuminator !

The Right closes its fist on the House of Representatives Proving that at least the House of Representatives is a one Party body, House Republicans today in a bold move changed party rules regarding the eligibility of House leadership if they are under indictment for a Felony. Well what the hell if Italy can do it we can too right? So what does this mean to the average American. It means that if Tom "jerrymander" DeLay is actually endighted for the two felonies he is under investigation for, he can still serve as the House Majority Leader. Doesn't that just fill your heart with Patriotism? Seems in his hurry to Jerrymander Texas so that he could screw 5 Democrats out of their seats, he failed to follow Corporate Campaign Laws regarding use of monies. But really, who needs to follow the law???? His party owns the White House, the Senate, the House and is ideologically about to take the Supreme Court as well. The most the Democrats could do, becaus...

The Fundies Strike Again APPARENTLY down in Texas they have been having "cross dressing" day at one of the local school districts for some time now. Or at least that is what some Christian Taliban has called it. TWIRP, which stands for "The Woman Is Requested to Pay," was hosted by Spurger schools for years during Homecoming Week — to give boys and girls a chance to reverse social roles and let older girls invite boys on dates, open doors and pay for sodas. Two things are of imporant to remember. One that Homecoming week is usually a High School event, or so I remember. Second this has been a tradition for some time now apparently. Knock me over with a feather that this even happened in freakin Texas. This is the land of drive through liquor stores! So kudos to the far thinking educator that had boys and girls "walk a mile in someone elses shoes" for a day. So along comes Mrs. Delana "Christian Taliban" Davies who has a 9 yr...

A "Third Way"? It is quite nice to be able to return to commentary of a less political nature now that the election is over. Obviously I've taken a break from blogging, which I will be easing back into slowly. So it was with great interest that I began to go over my November issue of Wired. Arriving in a plastic envelope because stored inside the front cover was a CD containing 16 songs by a wide variety of artists. What was special about this was that all of these artists have agreed to allow you to "Rip, Mix, Burn. Swap till you drop" these tunes. They have all signed up for a innovative new licensing concept founded by Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, called the Creative Commons. Simply stated the CC license allows anyone and everyone to swap the songs on any P2P network as long as you don't resell them. Furthermore it allows you, me or any artist to sample any part of the song, and integrate them into something fresh and ne...

Radio Daze Ok so I got the "night" job. Radio Shack of all places. A place for my inner geek to go and get paid. I urge you if you are friend or family, shop at the Colonie Center RadioShack! Better yet go when I'm there so I get the commissions.... Yea greedy but why give your business to a stranger?? I spent today, and I mean ALL of today (10 t0 930) doing in store training. Watching videos, reading corporate propaganda, and taking online tests. I took 7, of which none scored lower than a 93%. So I'm doing pretty good. Today was the last day of the pay period so I will actually get a check next week. I'm allowed 32 hrs a week till "Black Friday" then I can go to 40 if I want (I think). Then after Christmas I either get the ax as a seasonal or get asked to stay on. Well we will see. In addition this week: I got registered with the temp agencies, and got the paper work from Albany School District to apply for Substitute. T...

Nice to see people are responding. In fact I so enjoyed this rebuttal to my last blog that I am posting both it and my responce below. This person is a very bright Conservative whose opinions, I don't agree with, but respect. The rebutal: Glad to see you took the election results so well...."body bags, endless war and rapine and pillaging of our economy by the rich..." All in the first sentence...Didn't take too long to get to the point did it... Sure 48% of America picked John Kerry and a large part of that 48% (like you) would likely vote for him no matter who or what he was, because they are Democrats. Don't get me wrong, the Republicans have the same clan. They would vote for Daffy Duck if he had an "R" after his name on the ballot. That explains 90 to 95 percent of America, but how do we explain the 5 to 10 percentage in the middle...most of them picked a guy that, in your own words, creates body bags, endless war, rapes and pillages...

America has spoken I guess it will take four more years of body bags, endless war, rapine and pillage of our economy by the rich and powerful for the American populace to realize what is being done to this great country. No way Kerry wins Ohio, 100% of the votes are already cast and Bush got 51%. I don't see how "provisional balloting" is going to change this. More disturbing was the loss of 3 to 5 senate seats and a quite a few house seats to the Republicans as well. This country is officially a one party country as of today , with people like Tom Delay in power in the house, and people like Tom Dashle out in the Senate, the Republicans will force thier conservative christian right wing agenda upon 100% of the American People. I'm not sure I feel worse for Democrats like myself or Republicans like my Dad. Although this is a crushing disappointment for 48% of Americans, the real blow is to the moderates in the Republican Party as this is a vindiacati...

Here is some good news..... A 144-page report, which is due to be officially released a week after Tuesday’s elections, says the accelerated warming of the globe – which it blames mostly on the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by the industrial age – is transforming the Arctic region dramatically. The Arctic “is now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth,” according to the report, which was obtained by the New York Times and the Washington Post this weekend, apparently from European sources that wanted to publicize its findings before Tuesday. “Over the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate, contributing to major physical, ecological, social and economic changes, many of which have already begun,” the report stated, adding that greenhouse gas emissions have clearly become “the dominant factor” in the Arctic’s changing climate. It confirms earlier studies that the Arctic has warmed and is warm...