Disclosure, Intro.

Back in 1997 I started going to college.  I was still dating my high school sweetheart, I had a good steady job, and I really didn’t want to go there.  That’s when I started writing.  Over the years I’ve kept a journal intermittently, mainly when I decided that speaking out wouldn’t help anyone, or just if I needed to sort myself out.

Recently I’ve gone through these documents, and relived some memories I’d completely forgotten about.  I’m going to share them here.  Names will be changed, maybe even places.  To anyone who happens to be part of these posts – just remember, these are a snapshot in time…  You know me now, you know how I feel about you, good or bad.  But if you have any questions – go ahead and drop a line.

I haven’t gotten personal here in a long time, and I think part of finding myself is looking back to acknowledge where I came from.  So, try not to laugh too hard… this is more for me than anyone else – but if you find meaning or comraderie, I’d love to hear it.

Cheers

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Words

Passed my first MCSE upgrade test today, one more two weeks from now and I’m set.

Also, while I enjoy Stride gum, and I also enjoy Smallville – I don’t exactly enjoy an hour long Stride commercial with Smallville characters in it.  They pulled the same thing with other products, like the Yaris – and it just made me feel dirty.

I have no problems seeing products prominently displayed, but when lines are worked in, or even entire PLOTS around a specific product – that’s taking the marketing a little farther than I care to deal with.  Considering Smallville is headed for its last season and has been stretched out farther than normal because of the writers strike – they really shouldn’t push their luck.

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All work and no play…

Been cramming the past few days to try and get my Windows 2003 MCSE completed.  I’ve had the 2000 certification since 2002, finished it before it was retired.  This time around I tried to wrap my mind around the book from Microsoft, but as usual they fill it full of every single detail to the nth degree, handy as a reference but when it comes to test prep its next to useless.

I ended up getting the Transcender study guides and practice exams, I used them last time around and they were a great help.  There’s literally so much to this stuff that I cannot comprehend one person short of Doogie Howser memorizing everything.

I’ve spent the past 6 years since I was certified using the knowledge where applicable, applying the concepts, and learning on the go.  That’s the best way to do it IMHO… but learning on the go doesn’t give you the spiffy little Microsoft card or the spiffier job offers.

Not that I’m all to eager to leave my current haunt, but at least I’d have some options with the updated cert… That and I’d have an easier path to a 2008 certification instead of having to take all 7 exams again.  I’d rather skip that.

So I’ve been studying, I’ve got my first test this Thursday – wish me luck.

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RESIGN.

Eliot Spitzer involved in prostitution ring

He’s been caught with his pants down, literally.  All he can talk about is how he’s betrayed his family.

That’s right, NOW you act all moral – play to the family values crowd.  If this guy was a Republican he’d have been railroaded out of office – personally I expect it to blow over and be delegated to late-night joke loops where our Yankees have been the past few seasons.

I believe for the sake of the state and the integrity of the office, and out of respect to the people who voted for him – he should resign. The past few governors have been absolute embarrasments to the state of NY, Spitzer included.  There’s no change here, the only difference is that he’s the first governor in 20 years who’s actually gotten laid.

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Odd things to see…

The other night, I think it was probably early last week to be precise… I’m driving home in the truck and I see an animal in a field off of County Route 1.  Wasn’t a deer, the eyes didn’t reflect the same, none of them did.  Best I could guess, it was a pack, at least 3 or 4 wild coyotes.  I’ve seen wolves out here once in a blue moon, I’ve even seen a fox jump the entire width of Covered Bridge Rd, but I’ve never seen a coyote – let alone a pack of them.

I kept driving, it was night – as much as I wanted to take another look I didn’t want to find out how hungry or skittish they may have been, best to leave them be.

Still… it ranks high on the list of odd things I’ve seen around here.

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Fuck you, Apple.

I’m done buying iTunes.

I’ve spent around $500 on albums and individual tracks since I started using it, and after my purchase tonight?  I’m done.

I will gladly go out and buy a CD, or even a DRM-Free MP3 from Amazon, but Apple, fuck you.

See, as long as I’ve used iTunes and been a customer, I have been stripping the DRM from my tracks so I can listen to them while I’m playing games on my Xbox 360.  Without doing this, I can’t listen to the music I’ve paid for, it just will not work.  To do this, I’ve used a tool called QTFairUse.  As of February 20th, 2008 – due to a C&D letter from FUCK YOU Apple, I can no longer get the updated versions.

I still have all my DRM tracks, but I also have non-DRM copies that give me a little more freedom when it comes to what I want to do with MY music.  Not unless Apple decides to create its own tool to remove the DRM, I say get off of QTFairUse’s back.  Seriously, they aren’t hurting anyone.  It simply gives the consumer (aka ME) who pays their hard earned cash for music from your store – absolute freedom to use listen to the music how I want to listen to it.

So FUCK YOU, Apple.  I really have no desire to do business with a company that operates under the guise of innovation but destroys it faster than Microsoft at an open-source convention.

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Wish me wisdom…

So back in 2002 I was in a dead end public sector job, earning squat and at a breaking point that almost had me moving back home.  I took a chance and got certified in Microsoft Windows 2000.  Ten grand and one year later
I was certified.  Within the year I was at a new job, and it’s been a roller-coaster ever since.

Well now I’m at a job I like, I learn on the job, and I didn’t think about my certification.  Turns out that the cert for Windows 2003 expires on March 31st.  Therein lies the rub, there’s no path from 2000 to 2008.  If I want to get 2008 certification currently, I need to start from scratch and take 7 exams.  I remember the nightmare that was, so hopefully by the end of this month I’ll have passed the two tests required to get Windows 2003 certification, and be on track to get 2008.

I wouldn’t say wish me luck, luck isn’t worth my time.  Wish me wisdom, I’m going to need it to pull this one off.

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Effing sheep.

I can’t believe all the hubhub about the Goddamned primaries today. Who really cares. You’ve got two people tearing at eachother’s throats for the presidential nomination, news agencies and highly paid celebrities at near orgasm over the utopian future that neither will provide, it’s all a load of bullshit.

Look, when I voted for Dubya back in 2000 I figured I was getting a President who’d get us off the world stage, get more money in my pockets, and do something to cut the size of government. I had no idea a bunch of wackadoo terrorist pricks were going to fling a monkey-wrench full of jet fuel and innocent bystanders into the mix. In the time since, the only parts of this country that have been improved are the walls of the Pentagon and that field out in PA.

Ground zero is still a goddamned crater, Americans are still at eachothers throats over the fiasco in Washington, the dollar is worth absolute shit which in turn is driving the cost of living up (gasoline not only costs more, it also takes more dollars to sate the coffers of Ali Baba over in the dunes) and negating any benefits the tax cuts had. We’re nose diving into a depression here, Dubya blankly tells us there’s no recession, and in the mean time we’ve got a new gaggle of idiots who are just as clueless and unqualified to fix a damned thing as FEMA and the politicians in Louisiana were during Katrina.

Personally, I’d like to buy a house and be able to afford my car payments as well as a tank of gas in my pickup – in reality it isn’t going to happen. How any of us are accepting anything other than real life solutions to the problems our democratically elected morons drop on our head every 4 years is beyond me.

Frankly I’d like to see celebrities like Jessica Alba, George Clooney and Michael Moore cast in Survivor: Darfur and laugh as they experience a quality of life that makes my 400 square foot apartment in onion country look like a goddamned mansion in Bel Air. Nothings going to get fixed, nothing’s going to improve, the American Dream has been bought and paid for by the people we owe our burgeoning national debt to. God forbid they get wise and come to collect.

Obama, Clinton, McCain, they’re all a bunch of useless meat sacks who are so far separated from the reality of the average American, illegal and legal alike – that they can’t possibly affect our future in a positive way. We need another tea party, only this time it involves emptying the bank accounts of these rich fucks into Mt.Pinatubo. Take our politicians, PLEASE.

I’m sure America could be great again, I’m sure that the dream can still be attained – but there’s no way in Hell it will happen for the average Joe like myself while we’re all arguing over people who couldn’t balance a checkbook, let alone a federal budget. Everyone seems to “know” what is best for us but all these jerks do is screw with our lives like we’re all characters on some cheesy soap opera to a round of applause from the all too useful idiots.

So here we are, worse off at every level than we were in 1992 let alone 2000, and the best thing we’ve heard from any candidate is “hope.” Fuck hope. Hope is a distraction. Hope is when you breathe through your mouth to avoid the stink that is permeating this country at every fucking level. I don’t need hope. I need government off my back, I need these idiotic police actions across the globe to end, I need the people that work here illegally to either shit or get off the pot, I need no more ideas that involve taking more money away from me, and I need to be able to afford a gallon of gas without relying on some overpriced golf-cart because the dollar bill in my pocket is worth more than the paper I wipe my ass with.

Get me a candidate who can not only promise me that, but actually pull it off – and I’ll consider voting again. Until then, what’s the point, all you fucking morons care about are a black guy, a woman, and a former POW. Maybe if I had a couple million in the bank I could afford to hope, but I don’t. I’m too busy living to hope.

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Another one…

So the guy who came up with D&D apparently died today.  Sucks for fans of it, I was never really into it though.  I’m sure I can blame him for the countless hours I spent playing that fabulous MMORPG – World of Warcraft.

That said – I’m playing again.  God save me…

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MORE!!!

Caught the 2 hour season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles tonight and was knocked off my feet.

Well that’s a lie, I was on the couch the whole time, afraid to leave it because there was so much plot and character development in this show that it has set the bar to the stratosphere IMHO.  Short of any Joss Whedon series or Smallville, I haven’t seen so much respect given to a franchise while in the process reinvigorating it – EVAR.

There’s a new level of depth given to the killing machines, far beyond the talking toasters of the films – and even that of the comics.  The human roles are on their way to surgical perfection – nobody is limited to the history of their character – nor do they go too far.  I’m not going to give anything away here – just that to a fan of the Terminator franchise – it’s a winner.  I can’t imagine anyone else being disappointed either and PRAY it comes back for a second season.

Until then, Fox.com hosts reruns, and rest assured until I can pick it up on Blu-Ray or DVD, I’ll be feeding the addiction.

Excellent job! Fantastic show!

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