Geez, been a long time since I wrote here! Anyway, what brings me here is the current environmental screw-up called the BP oil spill (among other things.)
Now I'm part of the auto generation. I don't see any possible way for me to bike to work, and even if I lived around the block from work, when it rain, snows, is hot, or I feel like I'll drive. I also understand the need and complexities of for and of getting oil from the bottom of the ocean. That said, BP and the politicos that are running this show are screwing us over!
BP fucked up. It happens. No one's perfect, deal with it. Stop it, fix it, clean it, and move on. But that's not what they did. For a while I was willing to give BP the benefit of the doubt, but I spent enough time in the oil field to KNOW that oil wells can be killed. That means that the oil flow is stopped. Some methods stop the flow temporarily, others stop it permanently.
What BP has been has been trying to do is collect oil! OK, considering the cost of drilling, I can understand BP wanting to try and recover some of their losses. They tried the dome, fine, it didn't work! Now it's time to cut the losses and stop the damage.
While they are trying to maximize profits, millions of gallons of oil are being dumped into the gulf. Ignoring the environmental impact for now, in the sake of BP profits they are destroying the gulf fishing industry, the tourists were canceling reservations before the oil even hit the beaches. Both of those industries support countless others: the companies that supply nets and fuel to the fishing fleets, the hotel and food industries that house and feed the tourists, the shipping that supplies the food industry and transports the fish. All of these are at serious risk, all so BP doesn't loose potential profits.
As I watch the TV and internet coverage of the "cleanup" operations, the terms I hear used are collected, or recovered. What they are tracking is how much oil they are managing to sell from the waters!
To add insult to injury, today on the TV I hear them talking about the fact that BP has (within hours of the initial explosion apparently) filed some kind of legal action to LIMIT THEIR LIABILITY. If their liability is limited, what incentive do they have to fix the mess?
B.P.s LIABILITY SHOULD BE LIMITED BY THEIR ASSETS! IF IT TAKES EVERY CENT THEY OWN TO FIX IT, THAT'S WHAT THEY SHOULD PAY!!
* Shove a rubber plug in the pipe and cement on top of that to stop the oil from coming out.
* Start using those trucks that aren't going to be shipping that oil to move absorbents to the coasts.
* Hire those fishing boats, ALL OF THEM!, to dump and collect the absorbents.
* It's taken long enough now that they can take all those employees and the BP execs and put their buts out cleaning the beaches and marshes.
* I'm sure BP has labs than can apply themselves to restoring the fish to the gulf and maybe even come up with some clean-up technologies.
The big thing is that BP needs to get off their fat British Petroleum butts NOW and start fixing their fuck-up!!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Vacations
We never did the "family vacation" thing when I was a kid. I alway assumed it was because my parents family lived across the state from us, so when we had time off, we went to see family. Now I'm married with kids, most of my family is gone, and my wifes family lives in the same town we do. There's no excuse to avoid the vacation thing.
A blogg or web site somewhere describes our last vacation when we journeyed to Galveston, Texas. If you missed it, suffice to say it sucked. The beaches all had swim warnings, it rained daily, the rain was almost as bad IN OUR ROOM as outside, except outside it dried out faster!
A few years after that, I managed to avoided vacations because we had a houseboat. Every weekend we were at the boat and if there was a week to kill we could spend it at the lake. We sold the boat and that excuse is gone.
This year, I once again was forced into a vacation. Since money was tight, and the cost of gas through the roof, we journeyed from St. Charles to Branson, Missouri. Branson is where all the has been country tainted acts have ended up. For some reason totally beyond me Dolly Parton, Jim Stafford, Andy Williams, even Roy Rogers and Dale Evans have ended up having a theater here (interesting since I'm pretty sure some of the folks are dead) as well as acts I've never heard of like the "Baldknobbers", and acts tried to cash in on famous acts like Jackson Cash and his tribute to the Man in Black, and the Presley Review, The boys from Liverpool, etc.
Our trips to grandmas were 14-16 hours drive time one way. Once dad fired up the car, there were stops for gas and burger to eat in the car. If we were lucky we stopped for Bar-Be-Cue which meant we stopped at a rest area to eat. Branson was a little over 4 hours away per mapquest. With stops it took us almost 6 hours. A big chunk of the was to the dulcet sound of kids screaming, squabbling, and fighting.
Even after the short drive, everyone was too tired and crabby to use any of the tickets we had bought for friday night. Saturday morning, we went to breakfast. Both kids decided they didn't like ANYTHING on the free breakfast buffet, so the whining/squabbling/fighting started early.
After eating, we started our journey (along with everyone else in Branson) to Silver Dollar City. Before we even got there I decided that I HAD to make a blog entry if for no other reason than to remind myself to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER FAMILY VACATION. Before we are there the kids are crying saying they want to go home, hitting each other and the previously mentioned whining/squabbling/fighting. We get there and it is HOT, with temperatures in the 90's. To the best of my knowledge, there are 2 water fountains in all of Silver Dollar City, but every place is happy to sell you a bottle of water at $2.50 each.
Between the shops being air conditioned, the kids still whining and moping, mom not being able to walk well and just the generally malaise of the family vacation, we left our hotel at around 10AM, were at the park until 5PM, and we rode one ride. But there were at least a dozen fights, countless whining, one incident where Anh tried out her shoplifting skills, and everyone sick from the heat by the time we left (Kay refuses to drink water, and the kids mimick her, so between the three of them they drank less than one bottle of water.
Eventually we get back to the hotel so the kids can again squabble, this time over the PSP and DS Lite.
Obviously, I had fun. So much that I swear that this is our LAST family vacation!! And I haven't even mentioned the hassles getting ready to go (finding someone to keep all the dogs! ) and the fact that one of the dogs bit my mother in law when she was nice enough to watch the for us.
No more! Next year I'll burn my vacation time on hangovers and babysitting!
A blogg or web site somewhere describes our last vacation when we journeyed to Galveston, Texas. If you missed it, suffice to say it sucked. The beaches all had swim warnings, it rained daily, the rain was almost as bad IN OUR ROOM as outside, except outside it dried out faster!
A few years after that, I managed to avoided vacations because we had a houseboat. Every weekend we were at the boat and if there was a week to kill we could spend it at the lake. We sold the boat and that excuse is gone.
This year, I once again was forced into a vacation. Since money was tight, and the cost of gas through the roof, we journeyed from St. Charles to Branson, Missouri. Branson is where all the has been country tainted acts have ended up. For some reason totally beyond me Dolly Parton, Jim Stafford, Andy Williams, even Roy Rogers and Dale Evans have ended up having a theater here (interesting since I'm pretty sure some of the folks are dead) as well as acts I've never heard of like the "Baldknobbers", and acts tried to cash in on famous acts like Jackson Cash and his tribute to the Man in Black, and the Presley Review, The boys from Liverpool, etc.
Our trips to grandmas were 14-16 hours drive time one way. Once dad fired up the car, there were stops for gas and burger to eat in the car. If we were lucky we stopped for Bar-Be-Cue which meant we stopped at a rest area to eat. Branson was a little over 4 hours away per mapquest. With stops it took us almost 6 hours. A big chunk of the was to the dulcet sound of kids screaming, squabbling, and fighting.
Even after the short drive, everyone was too tired and crabby to use any of the tickets we had bought for friday night. Saturday morning, we went to breakfast. Both kids decided they didn't like ANYTHING on the free breakfast buffet, so the whining/squabbling/fighting started early.
After eating, we started our journey (along with everyone else in Branson) to Silver Dollar City. Before we even got there I decided that I HAD to make a blog entry if for no other reason than to remind myself to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER FAMILY VACATION. Before we are there the kids are crying saying they want to go home, hitting each other and the previously mentioned whining/squabbling/fighting. We get there and it is HOT, with temperatures in the 90's. To the best of my knowledge, there are 2 water fountains in all of Silver Dollar City, but every place is happy to sell you a bottle of water at $2.50 each.
Between the shops being air conditioned, the kids still whining and moping, mom not being able to walk well and just the generally malaise of the family vacation, we left our hotel at around 10AM, were at the park until 5PM, and we rode one ride. But there were at least a dozen fights, countless whining, one incident where Anh tried out her shoplifting skills, and everyone sick from the heat by the time we left (Kay refuses to drink water, and the kids mimick her, so between the three of them they drank less than one bottle of water.
Eventually we get back to the hotel so the kids can again squabble, this time over the PSP and DS Lite.
Obviously, I had fun. So much that I swear that this is our LAST family vacation!! And I haven't even mentioned the hassles getting ready to go (finding someone to keep all the dogs! ) and the fact that one of the dogs bit my mother in law when she was nice enough to watch the for us.
No more! Next year I'll burn my vacation time on hangovers and babysitting!
Friday, July 18, 2008
More on guitar
I still like the guitar, but there are a couple issues I thought I shoud mention...
FIRST PROBLEM
A string broke. OK I know that is no big deal, but I wasn't doing anything at the time to make it break. On examination I found a burr on the bridgeunder where the string broke. This is fairly easy fix and one I've done before. A couple light passes with a small file and I'm ready for new strings. This does appear to be an issue with Epiphone guitars though. I've only had one previous Epiphone and it had an identical problem.
SECOND ISSUE
There is a switch to switsh from neck pick-up, to bridge pick-up to both. The center position (both pick-ups) works intermittently if at all. I figured that was an easy fix and called guitar center to see if they had the switch. When I explained the problem, the guy on the phone said they' just order me a new guitar! (The one I bought was the only one still at the store and was the demo. I'll admit buying the demo kind of bothers me, I like NEW, but the demo you know the sound before you buy)
I don't have new one yet so Guitar Center may screw me around, but so far I'm hopefull.
THIRD ISSUE
This may be a non-issue, but I figured I'd mention it... On surfing the net trying to find more info about my specific model (Epiphone DOT Deluxe VS) I stumbled across how the pickfups are supossed to be set. Assuming the article was right, the pick ups are way to low. Also the posts are not adjusted even closde to the way they should be.
Since it looks like this instrument is going to be replaced anyway, I'll probably play with it myself and see if I even hear a difference. If I screw it up on this guitar and mess up the sound, I'll take the replacement to a luthier.
FIRST PROBLEM
A string broke. OK I know that is no big deal, but I wasn't doing anything at the time to make it break. On examination I found a burr on the bridgeunder where the string broke. This is fairly easy fix and one I've done before. A couple light passes with a small file and I'm ready for new strings. This does appear to be an issue with Epiphone guitars though. I've only had one previous Epiphone and it had an identical problem.
SECOND ISSUE
There is a switch to switsh from neck pick-up, to bridge pick-up to both. The center position (both pick-ups) works intermittently if at all. I figured that was an easy fix and called guitar center to see if they had the switch. When I explained the problem, the guy on the phone said they' just order me a new guitar! (The one I bought was the only one still at the store and was the demo. I'll admit buying the demo kind of bothers me, I like NEW, but the demo you know the sound before you buy)
I don't have new one yet so Guitar Center may screw me around, but so far I'm hopefull.
THIRD ISSUE
This may be a non-issue, but I figured I'd mention it... On surfing the net trying to find more info about my specific model (Epiphone DOT Deluxe VS) I stumbled across how the pickfups are supossed to be set. Assuming the article was right, the pick ups are way to low. Also the posts are not adjusted even closde to the way they should be.
Since it looks like this instrument is going to be replaced anyway, I'll probably play with it myself and see if I even hear a difference. If I screw it up on this guitar and mess up the sound, I'll take the replacement to a luthier.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
NEW TOY!!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
Happy New Year.
The fireworks went off about half an hour ago, so apparently I survived until 2008. New Year just doesn't mean a hell of a lot any more.
I'm sure a lot of that is my age. At 52, even discounting the first few that I was too young to be aware of, I've over 45 of them under my belt. The novelty is gone. That could be part of why the holidays in general are so much of a drag any more.
Another part is that my new family just doesn't celebrate in the sense my family did. Even with the depressive episodes (or maybe because of them) the holidays were always big deals with my family. Filling the larder for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feast always began weeks before the actual holiday. Cooking began several days before with poppy seeds soaking and bread drying for dressing, cookies and pies baking, on good years the Divinity (a white fudge popular in parts of the south) being make and set out, holiday candies set in dishes around the house. All the holidays had their own signature food for dinner. The turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, corn, cornbread, the usual assortment of veggies, both cooked and in the raw veggie tray to snack on between meals and an assortment of pies (mince meat, pecan, apple, pumpkin maybe more) and cakes (white with chocolate frosting ana a lemon bundt were almost always represented, and sometimes more) graced both Christmas and Thanksgiving. New years was the black-eyed peas and ham, also with cornbread. Not has much deserts for new years, but probably something.
Now, while we do have turkey for Thanksgiving (usually 2 since I do a smoked and my mother-in-law does a roasted), and dressing (but it's a white bread dressing I don't care for), that's about it. Someone usually brings brownies, and there is usually a Mrs. Smiths frozen pumpkin pie. The frozen corn on the cob or potato cassarole aren't even garanteed, though usually present. I probably start cooking first since smoking is pretty much slow cooking by definition, so I usually get up around 4 or 5 in the morning to start the turkey. Other than cleaning the smoker and thawing/seasoning the turkey the night before, no food prep occurs before the day we eat. Christmas is even less. Christmas eve we usually have ham and potatoes. When I first moved here they did Chicken and Dumplings as a Christmas day meal, but that went away. No one else felt like cooking it, so I took over for a couple years, but apparently no one liked my rendition. Now it's up for grabs from year to year. New Years they don't even do a family meal, so we just eat pretty much what we do every other day. I tried making the Black-eyed peas and ham a couple years, but I was the only one to eat it, so why bother.
I wonder if it's because my wifes family isn't partiers? While my parents didn't go out and shut down the bars that often, I've seen both of my parents after they had too much to drink. It was a safe bet that there was something with alcohol being passed around New Years (my parents weren't big champagne drinkers, but sometimes they popped a bottle), and any guest that dropped in over the holidays was offered a drink. We don't have guests. In our case, the house is to big of a mess to let anyone in, and if we did, there's not a clear spot for ME to sit in the living room, much less extra people, and my bed is usually still spread on the couch downstairs (since I don't current fit on the bed with all the junk). My mother-in-law has a couple friends she sees from time to time, but as far as I can tell, they plan their meetings. I've never heard of anyone just dropping in. A difference between north and south? Difference between big and small cities? Difference between social and asocial?
My first drink for New Years wasn't until I sat down to write this. Jose Cuervo straight. I prefer it with Pepsi or orange juice, but we're low on Pepsi and have no juice, so it's straight with an instant iced tea chaser. Aren't I the wild one!
Speaking of wild, and kind of tyeing in with the "another year passing" thing. I think I've found the thing that bothers me most about getting old. While my hair is turning gray and my skin is getting the lovely "biscuit dough" complexion, my mind still wants to be tubing down the river , climbing the cliff face, digging the bands at the bars, and in other ways having fun! Yeah, some of it I could still do, but most of the people I know my age (and few they are) are wet rags, don't party at all! The younger ones don't want to spend their time with and old fart like me, and even if they did, I'd just be the joke, the old guy trying to party with the youngsters. It's a no win situation. Especially being the only one in my family that likes outdoor or drinks! A family tubing trip would be a journey into the gates of hell with this family! "Dirty water!, BUGS!, SNAKES!!!, it's hot, the waters cold! My DS got wet!"
And of course, a lot of the stuff I just couldn't do anymore. Climb a cliff? I get winded climbing a flight of stairs! If I tried, I might be able to get in shape again, but it's a lot harder now than it was when I was 20. And any minor accident? I would guess the bones will go a lot faster now, and heal a lot slower.
So I watch another year go and a new one come, trapped in a body and life that's boring me to death. People say I'm cynical when I wish even one a happy fucking holiday!
I'm sure a lot of that is my age. At 52, even discounting the first few that I was too young to be aware of, I've over 45 of them under my belt. The novelty is gone. That could be part of why the holidays in general are so much of a drag any more.
Another part is that my new family just doesn't celebrate in the sense my family did. Even with the depressive episodes (or maybe because of them) the holidays were always big deals with my family. Filling the larder for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feast always began weeks before the actual holiday. Cooking began several days before with poppy seeds soaking and bread drying for dressing, cookies and pies baking, on good years the Divinity (a white fudge popular in parts of the south) being make and set out, holiday candies set in dishes around the house. All the holidays had their own signature food for dinner. The turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, corn, cornbread, the usual assortment of veggies, both cooked and in the raw veggie tray to snack on between meals and an assortment of pies (mince meat, pecan, apple, pumpkin maybe more) and cakes (white with chocolate frosting ana a lemon bundt were almost always represented, and sometimes more) graced both Christmas and Thanksgiving. New years was the black-eyed peas and ham, also with cornbread. Not has much deserts for new years, but probably something.
Now, while we do have turkey for Thanksgiving (usually 2 since I do a smoked and my mother-in-law does a roasted), and dressing (but it's a white bread dressing I don't care for), that's about it. Someone usually brings brownies, and there is usually a Mrs. Smiths frozen pumpkin pie. The frozen corn on the cob or potato cassarole aren't even garanteed, though usually present. I probably start cooking first since smoking is pretty much slow cooking by definition, so I usually get up around 4 or 5 in the morning to start the turkey. Other than cleaning the smoker and thawing/seasoning the turkey the night before, no food prep occurs before the day we eat. Christmas is even less. Christmas eve we usually have ham and potatoes. When I first moved here they did Chicken and Dumplings as a Christmas day meal, but that went away. No one else felt like cooking it, so I took over for a couple years, but apparently no one liked my rendition. Now it's up for grabs from year to year. New Years they don't even do a family meal, so we just eat pretty much what we do every other day. I tried making the Black-eyed peas and ham a couple years, but I was the only one to eat it, so why bother.
I wonder if it's because my wifes family isn't partiers? While my parents didn't go out and shut down the bars that often, I've seen both of my parents after they had too much to drink. It was a safe bet that there was something with alcohol being passed around New Years (my parents weren't big champagne drinkers, but sometimes they popped a bottle), and any guest that dropped in over the holidays was offered a drink. We don't have guests. In our case, the house is to big of a mess to let anyone in, and if we did, there's not a clear spot for ME to sit in the living room, much less extra people, and my bed is usually still spread on the couch downstairs (since I don't current fit on the bed with all the junk). My mother-in-law has a couple friends she sees from time to time, but as far as I can tell, they plan their meetings. I've never heard of anyone just dropping in. A difference between north and south? Difference between big and small cities? Difference between social and asocial?
My first drink for New Years wasn't until I sat down to write this. Jose Cuervo straight. I prefer it with Pepsi or orange juice, but we're low on Pepsi and have no juice, so it's straight with an instant iced tea chaser. Aren't I the wild one!
Speaking of wild, and kind of tyeing in with the "another year passing" thing. I think I've found the thing that bothers me most about getting old. While my hair is turning gray and my skin is getting the lovely "biscuit dough" complexion, my mind still wants to be tubing down the river , climbing the cliff face, digging the bands at the bars, and in other ways having fun! Yeah, some of it I could still do, but most of the people I know my age (and few they are) are wet rags, don't party at all! The younger ones don't want to spend their time with and old fart like me, and even if they did, I'd just be the joke, the old guy trying to party with the youngsters. It's a no win situation. Especially being the only one in my family that likes outdoor or drinks! A family tubing trip would be a journey into the gates of hell with this family! "Dirty water!, BUGS!, SNAKES!!!, it's hot, the waters cold! My DS got wet!"
And of course, a lot of the stuff I just couldn't do anymore. Climb a cliff? I get winded climbing a flight of stairs! If I tried, I might be able to get in shape again, but it's a lot harder now than it was when I was 20. And any minor accident? I would guess the bones will go a lot faster now, and heal a lot slower.
So I watch another year go and a new one come, trapped in a body and life that's boring me to death. People say I'm cynical when I wish even one a happy fucking holiday!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Holidays suck.
I grew up in a family with manic depressive women. No judgements, they were all clinically diagnosable. With the stress and expectations of holidays, it was always almost a game to guess who was going to meltdown and get suicidal first. Is it any wonder I always volunteered to work the holiday shift?
When I first met my wife and her family, I was amazed. even with the discussion of religion and politics (the kids were democrat, pro-abortion, atheist/Buddhist/jew, and Mom was a devout catholic republican) there was never a meltdown. It's probably hard to understand for someone from a "normal" family, but to me a holiday with out anyone running to their bedroom in tears threatening to kill themselves was quite a novelty!
Unfortunately, a novelty that was short lived.
This year we had a scene remenescient of my family in my wifes family. It was al started by my son, or maybe my wife or maybe me. Without going into a lot of detail, let just say my son open his mouth about crap that should not have been a topic of discussion, my wife over reacted, and my mother in law tried to tell my wife how to run her family. Things went down hill from there.
Right now, on the 26th of December (actually it's after midnight, so I guess it's the 27th) I'm sitting here half drunk, (don't worry, by the time I finish on the computer I'm sure I'll be the rest of way!) wishing I had to work this holiday.
Maybe it's just me. I'm not Christian, maybe the Karma is telling me I shouldn't piggy back my celebration on other peoples. Solstice was over days before Christmas. Maybe I should just ignore Christmas and focus on holidays with more personal meaning. Maybe I should just blow off the holidays all together. What ever it is. most of my life seems to have been spent dreading Christmas and other major holidays and tiptoeing around during the holidays like a soldier in a minefield.
Whatever it is, it sucks, and I'll actually be glad to go backl to work at a dead end job. Reminbd me next year to avoid taking vacation around teh holidays, and be sure to volunteer if they need anyone to go in for a few hours over the break.
I grew up in a family with manic depressive women. No judgements, they were all clinically diagnosable. With the stress and expectations of holidays, it was always almost a game to guess who was going to meltdown and get suicidal first. Is it any wonder I always volunteered to work the holiday shift?
When I first met my wife and her family, I was amazed. even with the discussion of religion and politics (the kids were democrat, pro-abortion, atheist/Buddhist/jew, and Mom was a devout catholic republican) there was never a meltdown. It's probably hard to understand for someone from a "normal" family, but to me a holiday with out anyone running to their bedroom in tears threatening to kill themselves was quite a novelty!
Unfortunately, a novelty that was short lived.
This year we had a scene remenescient of my family in my wifes family. It was al started by my son, or maybe my wife or maybe me. Without going into a lot of detail, let just say my son open his mouth about crap that should not have been a topic of discussion, my wife over reacted, and my mother in law tried to tell my wife how to run her family. Things went down hill from there.
Right now, on the 26th of December (actually it's after midnight, so I guess it's the 27th) I'm sitting here half drunk, (don't worry, by the time I finish on the computer I'm sure I'll be the rest of way!) wishing I had to work this holiday.
Maybe it's just me. I'm not Christian, maybe the Karma is telling me I shouldn't piggy back my celebration on other peoples. Solstice was over days before Christmas. Maybe I should just ignore Christmas and focus on holidays with more personal meaning. Maybe I should just blow off the holidays all together. What ever it is. most of my life seems to have been spent dreading Christmas and other major holidays and tiptoeing around during the holidays like a soldier in a minefield.
Whatever it is, it sucks, and I'll actually be glad to go backl to work at a dead end job. Reminbd me next year to avoid taking vacation around teh holidays, and be sure to volunteer if they need anyone to go in for a few hours over the break.
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