The Creeping Crud
A week ago I paid a visit to my doctor for a routine checkup. By that afternoon my throat was scratchy and I was starting to feel decidedly under the weather. When I went to bed that night I was running a 101 degree fever and I’ve been feeling like crap since.
I was supposed to return to the doctor’s office the next day for a followup test, but I called and rescheduled. I wasn’t going anywhere.
The fever disappeared that night, so the following day—feeling much better— I decided to get out and run errands. Big mistake. That evening the fever returned with a vengeance. It broke later that night and I woke up drenched.
Thankfully there’s been no more fever, but as has been typical for these things, it’s progressed from a sore throat into my sinuses and down in my chest. Thank the baby Jeebus for Mucinex, although I’m now blowing/hacking up what I affectionately refer to as creamed corn. A little over a week has gone by since this started. If the past is any indication, I’ve got another week and a half to go before I’m feeling back to normal.
AND WE ARE NOT AMUSED.
The Second Amendment at Work, 2015
Just Because (NSFW)
Current Mood
We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. ‘Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.’ And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!
We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, ‘Why are we here?’
Plastic… asshole.” ~ George Carlin
20 Non-Sexual Sensations That Feel Amazing
Found somewhere on the interwebs and copied verbatim. Not necessarily my own choices, but I found the list interesting enough to pass on:
1. The feeling when you first wake up but don’t have to get out of bed yet.
2. It might not be sexual, but having your hair played with.
3. Taking a big poop with only a little resistance. Combined with a dry wipe and you’re winning at life.
4. Getting goose bumps from music.
5. When you’re congested and then suddenly your nostrils open up.
6. When you finally get rid of that thing stuck in your teeth.
7. Dipping your hand into a deep bag of uncooked rice.
8. Sitting down after being on your feet all day.
9. That moment right before your favorite part in the song then that motion you do afterwards.
10. Pee-shivers.
11. Burying yourself in hot laundry fresh from the dryer.
12. Dangling a cool metal chain over your hand and slowly lowering it down so it collects in your palm.
13. Lying in the pool and smacking your arms down in the water to create a rush of tiny bubbles underneath you that envelope your entire body for a few seconds.
14. Putting on a brand new pair of socks.
15. A shower beer. I highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it.
16. Turning your pillow to the cold side.
17. Getting into my bed after I’ve washed my sheets and made it.
18. Opening a book to the correct page on the first try.
19. Twirling a q-tip in your ear right after a shower.
20. Pulling the protective plastic covers off new electronics.
Flashback Friday
June 1993
Submitted Without Comment
Congressionally Acceptable Background Checks
Word
And That’s How The Fuck You Well-Regulate A Goddamn American Militia
Quote of the Day
How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion—mandatory 48-hour waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, and an ultrasound wand up the ass (just because). Let’s close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun. Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun.
It makes more sense to do this with young men and guns than with woman and healthcare. I mean, no woman getting an abortion has killed a room full of people in seconds, right?”
I Thought I’d Put This Out There Again
Hi Universe. It’s me, Mark.
I need a job.
Seriously.
But I guess I that’s not going to happen if I don’t spell out exactly what I want now, will it?
While I had complaints about my last job in Phoenix before we moved to Denver, the mere fact that I stayed there nearly eight years (and would probably still be there in some form if we hadn’t relocated) says a lot about what works for me. Unfortunately, my work situation in Denver was—how shall I say this? Unacceptable. So let’s not do anything remotely like that again, m’kay?
I’m looking for a smallish-firm, maybe 250-500 employees or so—or a larger firm where my assigned responsibility would be for about that same number. I like smaller firms, but not so small that I’m the only I.T. guy. I don’t mind being the only desktop guy, but I don’t want to handle servers, connectivity beyond basic troubleshooting, dealing with telecommunications vendors, purchasing, receiving, or anything that is—as my former boss used to call it—”behind the wall.”
My first job in Denver was pretty much like this, but upper management maintained a continual adversarial stance toward I.T. in general, which meant that during the two years I was there we went through three I.T. directors with an average gap of six months between each one, during which time I was expected to handle everything, and was given copious amounts of attitude when I failed to meet their unrealistic expectations, so I know that’s not an environment for me.
As I said, while I had complaints about that last Phoenix job, the basic mechanics of it were nearly ideal. We were a large firm, but since each desktop guy had their own facility to support with anywhere from 250-400 users, it seemed much smaller. The workload wasn’t horrific, but it was enough to keep boredom at bay and allowed for occasional down time. The entire I.T. department was very close-knit, and while I rarely socialized with any of my colleagues after hours, I still came to view them as friends and not just co-workers.
I don’t mind driving between multiple facilities to help out my colleagues, but I want a home base; I don’t want a “field tech” position.
Pay? $50K a year would be nice. I’m worth more than that, but I’m trying to be realistic considering the current pay scale here.
I’d also like receive a modicum of respect from whatever company I work for and not be treated like an I.T. Janitor (or required to wear a requisite uniform) as I was at DISH. And while I enjoy a fun work environment as much as anyone, there’s a fine line between fun and frat house.
As far as the industry? I still miss Healthcare, but getting back into it isn’t an absolute. I’d also love to be able to build on my Mac experience in an enterprise environment.
I don’t think I’m asking that much, but if I know if I don’t put it out there and focus, it’s gonna be kind of hard for it to come my way.
Failing this, a winning lottery ticket with a $1-5 million payout would be nice. Just sayin’.
Experimenting With Infrared
Ben’s aunt takes a lot of pictures, so I wanted to get her something photo-related for the upcoming non-denominational winter holiday. I don’t know if Jody was even aware of the technique, but something I have always been intrigued with was infrared photography. I first ran across some examples of it it as a kid in the owner’s manual of my mom’s old Kodak Tourist Camera, and the white foliage and nearly-black skies fired my imagination. But back in the days of film, I never had the wherewithal to actually find the film, buy the necessary filters, and then locate a shop that could develop it. The results could be stunning, but seemed more trouble than they were actually worth.
All that changed with the advent of digital photography, requiring little more than a special filter and engaging the manual settings on the camera.
So I went ahead and ordered the filter for her, thinking it would be a fun diversion for her photos. It arrived today. It’s not the size my camera needs, but I decided to test it out as much as I could to see just how involved the whole process would be. No use giving a gift that would be too much trouble to actually use.
It was a lot of trial and error, but I finally got a decent shot. I had to set the camera to record in black and white (if I didn’t want pink-tinged photos), manually set the exposure time and aperture, and then use a tripod since the required exposure lengths were well beyond the hand-held, point-and-shoot range—making it completely unacceptable as a gift for Jody.
But I’ll have to admit the results were certainly interesting!
So I’ll be returning this one for a general-use polarizer (something she also doesn’t have) and then get my own IR filter to experiment with further.
Colorful Decay
Plus Ça Change, Plus C’est La Même Chose.
Then and Now
1983 and 2015. 32 years and 50 pounds later…
Visiting an Old Friend
Ben and I were itching to get out of town, so yesterday we drove to Tucson where we met up with Bernie and Damon for lunch at a place we’ve been going to since I was in college.
The place hasn’t changed at all. Bernie said, “You almost have to look through the ghosts.”
And why is this so special?
Hamburger patty tacos. Yeah, I know it sounds bizarre, but they’re a South Tucson staple. They tasted a bit different from what I remember; the seasoning in the meat had changed, but otherwise they were still delicious.
Black Friday Photos
You were expecting pictures of Walmart?
Just Run With It (NSFW)
Just Because
What. The. Fuck.
From RawStory:
An enraged Waffle House customer shot and killed a waitress early Friday who asked him not to smoke.
Police said Johnny Mount was eating about 1 a.m. at the restaurant in Biloxi, Mississippi, when he lit a cigarette, reported WLOX-TV.
A waitress asked the 45-year-old Mount to put out the cigarette or smoke outside, and he began arguing with her.
Police said Mount then pulled out a 9 mm handgun he had concealed under his shirt and shot the 52-year-old waitress in the head.
She was taken to a nearby hospital but died from her wounds.
Mount was arrested as he tried to leave the restaurant and has been charged with first-degree murder.
He remains held on $2 million bond.
Commentary on These United States
My Thanksgiving Blogging Tradition
All I can say is the world would be a lot duller without Barry Sonnelfeld and Paul Rudnick.
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend everyone!
What. The. Fuck.
Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising:
And yet, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. So. Much. 1968. Haight-Ashbury.
There Are Good People in the World
Sometimes we lose sight of that.
Couldn’t Be More Fitting
Quote of the Day
The next time you hear me attacked as a socialist—like tomorrow—remember this: I don’t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families of this country who produce the wealth of this country deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down.
I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad.
I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally start paying the taxes that they should.
I don’t believe in special treatment for the top 1 percent, but I do believe in equal treatment for African Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that Black Lives Matter.
I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice of which we have been hearing a lot in recent months, and I do believe in immigration reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better life. I don’t believe in some foreign “ism”, but I believe deeply in American idealism.
I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s the turn of all of us to live in a nation of hope and opportunity not for some, not for the few, but for all.” ~ Bernie Sanders
Triptych (NSFW)
‘Murika!
While I don’t feel this is a completely accurate depiction of politics in these United States, I think it is a good rendering of its overall Zeitgeist. Yes, I agree that the Democrats by and large do much, much more for the 99% than the Republicans would even consider, and by and large (there are exceptions, of course) they are —at least for now—foregoing the current fear-mongering being spewed by the Right Reich, but when it comes down to the interests of the 1% who ultimately control both parties, I think this is pretty much spot on.