Is Ken Lay really dead?

If you're like me--and you probably are, given that you're reading this blog--you were deeply disappointed that Ken Lay croaked. I don't really mind that he's dead; I just wanted it to happen s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y. The guy deserved far better than to fall over dead and skip out. The selfish prick got away with tens of millions that will never be recovered and his worthless trophy wife will get to spend it.

I didn't hear many of the details about his death, other than the fact that a lot of cronies and Administration supporters stopped just short in their eulogies of saying he was some kind of martyr. But I really really really would have liked to see the body. Just for the satisfaction value alone.

Is Ken Lay really dead?

Debriding the office

I've been working a ton lately, which generates mountains of paper. The desk has been getting increasingly buried and yesterday I spent a couple hours debriding. What a relief! I found a couple of royalty checks that I need to deposit (nothing big, but still), recycled a pile of stuff that was irrelevant or outdated, and assembled a large stack of shredding. I spent a little while shredding paper and had to dump the shredder basket a couple of times... and also had to wait at one point to finish the job: the shredder got so hot that the motor shut off and it took an hour for the shredder to cool down.

I've got a clean desk that I can see a great deal of the surface of and I have little diamonds of shredded paper all over the rug that I need to vacuum up. And the cleanliness makes life much more comfortable.

Debriding the office

Paper cuts

There's a fascinating blog from Vietnam that you need to look at. Go look, I'll wait. You don't have to read Vietnamese to appreciate what they're doing with paper.

Paper cuts

Obstacles

It's been a day of mostly small, annoying things.

I've been trying to get work done all day and the universe has been conspiring to keep me from it. I've been chasing mortgage paperwork from 9 to 4:45 (about 15 minutes ago). The mortgage company--actually, the lender, specifically; the mortgage company's been great--the lender has been asking for stranger and stranger paperwork, including something that wouldn't be available for about 3 weeks from now: a pay stub from my new job.

Oh, wait, did I not tell you about that? Ummm, yeah. I'm starting a fulltime, captive, permanent employee-type JOB on Monday.

It's my first in a decade. And I'm seriously pumped about it. The company makes factory automation management software, pretty cool stuff, and they're the industry leader. But that's not what made me want to go captive.

It's my boss. My boss is great. She does things pretty much the way I'd do them (always a plus, of course) and she's equitable, direct, and honest. The rest of the company is like that, too, and that was the next reason I wanted to sign up: there aren't ducal fiefdoms there. It's not your typical software/high-tech company: people are nice! They are people you'd actually want to know, to talk to, and definitely to work with! There's a strong sense of "If you don't win, none of us win" in everything they do. And people tend to be pretty supportive of each other. Management knows what it's doing, too: the company makes a good profit and sets strong-but-achievable goals and they don't work people to death and then shoot 'em to get there. The offices are attractive and comfortable, they have great kitchens with lots of soda and nibbly food, and they feed people in the evening whenever there's a development push. The company is very profitable (I approve of this). Employees tend to stay there for years and their turnover rate is really low. Pay's good. There's a lot of vacation. Very good bennies.

This is the only company I've ever gone to work for where I felt that I needed to be a better person just to measure up to the quality of the people I'm working with. It's a terrific honor to get hired here and I'm very pleased and not a little flattered.

Here's the best part: I get to work at home. So I have all the advantages of freelancing (no commute, flexibility of dress code, and it's easy to solve the "What's for lunch?" problem) and all the advantages of captivity. I'm in love. :)

So, anyway, as I was saying.... the lender wants a paystub from the new job, a thing I won't have until sometime in early October. Oy. So we got it worked out that I can send them a letter from the company on Monday that says I've started the job and I'm there and so on.

And with that in hand, the final piece of paper would appear to be in place (even as I type that, I don't believe it--there's always something at the last minute, as today's scurrying around to find more bank statements, tax info, and so on), and our mortgage goes through with a small *poof*!

Next week's going to be long, but things will get done.
And now it's after 5, and it's unlikely that the mortgage company will be phoning for Yet Another Thing, so I may be able to get productive work done at last.

Obstacles

"Because nobody should have to squeal like a pig."

I sold a button to the button company several years ago that says "Well, okay, but I'm not going to squeal like a pig." I'm not the only one who saw potential in that expression.

Kinda brings out the finer points of being a banjo player. {toothy smile}

Thanks to Herb for bring this one to my attention. It's a keeper.

"Because nobody should have to squeal like a pig."

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Yesterday (Friday) was Dad's 74th birthday. He's doing well and we talked the night before. I'm really proud to have him for a father.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Further gustatory delights

There's a website for dark chocolate for those who eschew the Path of Sweetness and Light; who believe that dark chocolate is the True Way to Salvation. You'll find a lot of history and detailed information on dark chocolates you've never heard of, I guarantee. Start by looking at their index of chocolate to see how much there is to live for.

(And, if you've never tried them, the Very Best Chocolates in the World are made by Lily O'Brien, a choclatier in Ireland. My next-door neighbors in Seattle introduced me to them. It may be the fragrant Irish butter, it may be the blend, but Lily O'Brien chocolates are better than any you've ever had before. You can buy them in the US. Try them out and let me know.

Further gustatory delights

Costing the Christian Fascists $$$

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strongly negative opinion of fundamentalists. ANY brand of fundamentalist. In the US, we're cursed with Christian peasants of all stripes, including the fuckwit who's masquerading as the President. Elsewhere, there are Islamic fundamentalists. And, lest we forget, there are Hindu fundamentalists and Jewish fundamentalists, too. I figure, "Screw 'em all!" None of them are interested in my point of view because they all have God (or in this country according to the televangelists, "Gahwud") on their side.

While my distaste for all of them is philosophically equal, it's the Christian brand of idiots I get to see the most of and the ones that I consequently have the most loathing for. The ones we have in this country are a particularly room-temperature bunch, too. Unfortunately, like most mobs of fundamentalists, there are people who are not stupid whipping and driving them for their own ends (which is largely how we ended up with a mentally-defective white-knuckle drunk in office making holy war on the rest of the world while turning this country into another tinpot dictatorship).

Someone recently came up with a method for costing some of these people money directly. And I don't mean just by living a life that pisses them off--always a good idea--but by actually getting them to send you stuff on their nickel. Focus on the Family is a particularly large and toxic bunch of people who are vehement about the horrors of homosexuality and the ee-vills of a secular, liberal life in general. They mulct their flocks for millions of dollars and spend some of their loot on printing and distributing books of their brand of poison so they can do still more damage. (You know: lying to preserve the God of Truth. It's an old Christian tradition.)

Here's the cool part of all of this: You can get them to send you up to $100 of stuff for free. And you can even do this over and over again if you're careful!!

Does this strike you as a Cool Thing? I sure think so: costing Christian fascists money means they don't have it to spend on something that will actually damage people. The Stranger, Seattle's premiere gay newspaper, describes the process step by step in this article. While the article in question is aimed at the idea of gay rights and opposing these bastards who are getting in the way of that, the principles are the same for anyone who doesn't feel like living in a theocracy. Or who just thinks that there is no room for Christian fascists on a planet that has discovered penicillin.

Does this trick work? It sure appears to: I've got $94 (suggested donation price) of stuff coming to me at the moment: a 14-CD set of the Chronicles of Narnia and a set of wooden Xmas ornaments. It was really kinda hard for me to find things I'd even want in the house on their list: the books are all stuff that I think of as Nazi propaganda (I know, I know, it ain't "Nazi" as such, but Christian fascists are Christian fascists, regardless of whether they speak German or 'Murrkan) and I wouldn't want them getting loose in the community where they could poison someone else. But the CDs may be nice, although the taint of them having been done by the "Focus on the Family Radio Theater" may be enough to make me not want to listen to them. And the ornaments will make a good gift for one of several really fundie relatives. But, shucks, you can find the non-toxic stuff (The Chronicles of Narnia in almost any form are always a safe bet) and give them as gifts or sell them on eBay or what-have-you.

And in a little while, you can do this again and get another $100 of stuff from them.

I'll let you know when the package arrives and what I've gotten. Give it a try for yourselves!

Costing the Christian Fascists $$$

Which scotch do you like?

I'm fond of single malt scotch. Actually, let me say that I'm really fond of single malt scotch. So what good fortune it is that other people in this world are, too. The folks at Whisky Classified have come up with a classification system for scotches. It's based on the characteristics for scotches and the brands of scotches that fall into each of those clusters. You can start by trying scotches in the cluster you're fond of, so if you like Laphroaig, you might also like Caol Ila; if you like Bowmore, you might also like Bruichladdich and Isle of Jura, and so on.

Once you've tried a few in one cluster, you can branch out to other classes. There's a chart that shows how the clusters overlap, so you can refine the flavors you're after.

Which scotch do you like?

Amazing quote

I found this quote again in my files. It's a wonderful statement on the value of a country based on Christian morals by a popular pro-theocracy speaker.

The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press--in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years.

Actually, this isn't the exact quote; it had to be translated from the original German.

Here's the bibliographic reference:

Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 871-872.

Amazing quote

I am alive and doing well...

I'm sorry; it's been three months since I entered anything and boy howdy! has life been busy.

I've got a huge contract with a great boss and a great company.

I had another episode of atrial fibrillation, but I'm fine, I'm fine.

The house is nearing completion.

We're packing up.

We're flying all over the place, including London, San Diego, and Southern California.

I have so much to tell everyone and not a lot of time at the moment.

But I'm alive. And doing very well.

P.S. If you leave comments on the blog--which I love, btw!--and you want to get information back, be sure to let me know how to reach you.

I am alive and doing well...

I'm back from the shadows again!

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say that we made it home safely and I have a suitcase full of sports shirts to wash. And I'm going to enjoy a hot bath, something that you don't get in a basic ship's cabin.

Updates on St. Maarten, Nassau, and the trip home await, along with uploading a bunch more photos. And this time, tying them into the blog 'cause we're now at cable modem speed. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I'm back from the shadows again!