Goal Wrap Up For 2014

Up Well, that's it folks, today is the last day of 2014.  It's been quite a year with a lot of things going on.  Every year I set some goals to try and meet, and today is the last day for them so lets get into the final status of those goals I set last January.

Goal Number One - Get A New Job: This has been on the list for a while now.  I've pretty much been looking for a permanent job since January of 2010.  I started trying to transfer six months after I got my current job.  Needless to say this is really a goal that I wanted to meet this year.  It was also one I wanted to meet last year, as well as the year before.  I'm sad to say that I am still in the same job coming up on four years now.  That sucks.  The upside to all of this?  Well, knowing I want to do something else I started taking classes this year to learn a new skill.  I've been doing a web design program at WCC and I've finished a lot of it.  I can now build webpages in HTML and CSS.  My hope is that I'll find something in the IT field eventually.  I'm planning on taking some more classes, and I want to learn some other languages if possible, but I had a hard time with JavaScript, so I don't know how well it'll go.  Needless to say this goal will continue on next year.

Goal Number Two - Read At Least 12 Books:  After finishing college I was so burned out of all the reading that I went over a year without picking up a single book.  Apparently a huge part of the country never reads a book after leaving college or high school.  So, I figured it'd be a good goal to try and read some this year.  I decided to go for a goal of one book a month and it turned out I had no trouble at all meeting this, even when I went for a few months during the summer where I read nothing.  I ended the year with 14 reads:  The Casual Vacancy, Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, Macbeth, The Odyssey, Inferno, The Cuckoo's Calling, In The Woods, City of Thieves, This Star Won't Go Out, Gone Girl, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and Hollow City.  I'm pretty happy with reading 14 things this year, and I will continue my reading goal next year, and I'm sure I'll expand the goal to more books since I felt through them this year.

Goal Number Three - Go Out West: I have this goal because I want to go places I've never been and out West is high on the list.  This one didn't happen but I did get to go Maine, which I'd never been and got to see a national park.  It was a great time!  I'm sure this one will also carry over, since I do still want to go out West.

Goal Number Four - Be Consistently Active: I come and go on this one.  I can go for long periods where I'm active, then go for a long time when I'm not.  That's why I always say "consistently".  This has a lot to do with my health, but from what I was doing I can say that my blood pressure, which was on the high normal side is down to the normal normal side of things as of my physical on Monday.  So, if I could be consistent then I think I'd be able to do even better and probably lose some weight.  I'll keep this one next year and may combine it with a 5K.

Goal Number Five - Digitize My Photos: I missed this goal this year.  I had some trouble with my scanner and recently finally got it fixed, but never got around to doing much.  I've got probably about 2,500 pictures I need to scan, and a bit of video that I need to get done.  This is going to carry over and I will meet it this year.

Goal Number Six -  Have Seven New Experiences:  New experiences are great, and I'm really happy that I met this goal.  I got to do some wonderful things this year which included going to the Toledo Zoo for the first time ever, that same day I also found out my wife and I are having a baby (which I didn't count as a new experience, though I think it does count.) In May we added flying first class to the list, going on a cruise, visiting the Bahamas and getting a massage, which was an amazing vacation that I had a wonderful time on and want to do it again.  In July I went to Maine (I'll also let New Hampshire add to this since we were only in it for the night so I'm not sure it deserves it's own thing), we visited Acadia National Park, I climbed an actual mountain which was pretty freaking cool.  So, that gets me to eight for the year out of my goal of seven!  WOOO!  SUCCESS!  I love this goal so it will carry over too.

Goal Number Seven - Work on Mystery Projects: I've done a little work on these two items, and I found out some interesting things.  One of the mystery projects was related to genealogy, and I was able to find out some fun stuff about my paternal grandfather and his experience in World War II.  The other related to an education video project that I set up a lot of the base work, but didn't move beyond that.

So, while I didn't meet all the goals I did make some progress on most of them, and that's what this is all about.  It's about trying to grow and change and have interesting experiences.  Tomorrow I'll set up some new goals for the 2015, but for now so long 2014!  And to everyone, Happy New Year! .

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Most likely the christmas tree will come down tomorrow, so here is one last look at it.  It's a lovely tree, and I've enjoyed having it.  We got it the weekend after Thanksgiving, but surprisingly it's not all brittle and dead.  It's actually doing quite well and could stay around for a bit but it's probably about time to go.  Plus with impending arrival we may not have time to take it down if we don't do it soon.

Growth

A very rewarding aspect of being a mentor to young people is to watch them grow into adults and change right before your eyes.  Sometimes it's not drastic changes and they grow in ways that you would expect them to.  Other times they take amazing turns and become so much more than you ever expected and go down some pretty exciting paths as they become adults.

Right now one of our drama students is in India on a three month exchange program, and being able to watch it unfold on social media is so exciting.  She was always the kind of person that I expected to do this sort of things.  Her compassion and social outlook on life was the sort that you would think of a three month experience in a totally different culture as something that makes perfect sense.  This is very much one of those experiences that are life changing and will probably alter her view of the world.  I use the word alter because I don't think it will drastically shift it, but make her view so much more complete and rounded.  She's one that already looks at the world in a very realistic yet compassionate way.  She's interested in social issues and the struggles of others, so being somewhere like India will certainly fill in some areas of her personal experience.  

Others are very exciting to see them discover things and become very interested in the world and what's happening in it.  They become actual participants in the world, they start to form ideas and opinions and start speaking up when they see things that go against those ideas.  That's a really neat thing to watch, and it makes me so happy that they are getting involved in issues and trying to change the world for the better.  That can be a really scary thing for some people because some don't want you to change but remain the same, or others want you to change into a certain mold.  being someone that just wants to seem them grow and become passionate about the world and issues and gaining amazing experiences means that I get to watch without fear.  Instead of fearing about not being able to relate I can ask them bout it, talk to them about how it changed them, and just be thrilled for them.

On the other side there are also those that fall into a rut where they just continue to do the same things they've always done.  They don't move out of their comfort zone and just stay where they are forever. There are people I went to high school with that are like this, they never expanded their social group, it's still the same thing as if high school never ended.  They hang out with the exact same group, doing the exact same thing, just drifting through life.  That's kind of sad, though not too much for me because it's people I never hung out with and really didn't know that well.  It is sad that they have no purpose or direction other than to just stay where they are and do the same things.  That's not to say that you should just ditch your friends, I still have friends that I've had since high school, but they've gone out and done many things, moved to different places, had different experiences, and none of us hang out every weekend at the local hangout place like we used to.  We all have other friends, other experiences, and are different than we were.  That's cool, you can grow and still stay friends, however I also have lots of other friends, most of whom I met doing a lot of different things.  

Bringing it back to the point, well done to those who are out there and challenging their comfort zone, having amazing experiences and growing into amazing people!  I'm so proud of them and excited to see the adults they become.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Some friends got me the best gag gift for my birthday, a Karl Marx piggy bank.  I finally added it to my bookcase of memorabilia right on top of my "Goldstein's Book" from when I was in 1984.  It's nice to get gifts from people who get you without you telling them what you want or even expecting that they will get you anything. So special thanks for the awesome bank.  Perhaps I'll have to add some money to it.

Feeling Normal

Today is the fourth day I've been off work (sixth if you count weekend), and it's so nice not to be spending nine hours a day hating every minute about it.  In fact I feel more like myself when I'm off work for a long period of time.  Work gives me anxiety about wondering what arbitrary thing the director will be pissed off about, or spending time trying to find something else and not being able to find it, and feeling like I'll be trapped in that shit-hole forever (especially since I've been there for nearly 4 years).  Not being at work is a lot better.

Today was spent mostly recharging, which isn't something I get to do often.  I rested for a bit, read my usually online sites, then played some Playstation, which I haven't done in at least seven or eight months on a game that I've had for 12 years and haven't beat yet! HAHA!  Though, at the same time on account of getting some shots and feeling tired and sore I didn't feel like doing too much else anyway.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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My least favorite thing to do today.  This was my view this morning as I sat in the office waiting to meet the doctor.  I had to get a whooping cough booster on account of all the terrible people who won't vaccinate their children and now my impending infant will be at risk.  They also said I should get a flu shot and do a cholesterol test.  So it was a fun filled day of needles.  As I write this both my arms are sore, but the elbow area where they took the blood feels fine, so well done there lab person!

Clearing Day

Today was apparently the day where we cleared out the Tivo.  We've had a bunch of old episodes of Anthony Bourdain's show on CNN, and a couple of documentaries.  We watched all but on of the documentaries.  The one was on these groups that operate in Russia and try to find gay people then humiliate, beat, and mess with them.  It was actually pretty disgusting.  The Anthony Bourdain episodes were pretty interesting.  My favorite was his episode from Iran, it was super fascinating, though he did one from Massachusetts and it focused on the heavy heroine problem there.

So a pretty slow Sunday of watching Tivo.  Also watched How To Train Your Dragon 2, which was actually pretty good.  Not sure if it was as good as the first one or not.  Not sure.  It was good.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Just us being silly.

Saturday Matinee: Into The Woods

Given that there isn't much time left before it will require a little more planning to go see a movie, we decided that we'd go out and see Into The Woods.  So, it's no secret that I am not a fan of Into The Woods and I really can't stand any show by Stephen Sondheim.  Part of the problem came from my first full time job I had where we had a loop tape of things that played on PBS and one of the things they had was Into the Woods, and that played probably a couple times an hour.  The problem is that it was the stupid repetitive part at the very beginning of the show.  Basically I hated it and as a result hated the show.  I've recently seen a few productions that are a little bit better and after all these years I"m a little more ok with the show than I used to be.

So, that being said I didn't expect to really enjoy the movie.  However I actually thought it was pretty well done.  I don't know the show well enough to know what they changed about it, but I have seen it enough to know that I felt like they may have removed some parts and made a few changes.  I haven't looked it up to be sure, but I thought it was pretty well done.  If they did make cuts it made the show very streamlined and move pretty quickly, so I can't complain about it.  I feel like they also cut out a few songs, but that's never going to bother me with a Sondheim show.

So, overall I really thought it was a good movie.  It moved along, and online the stage play where a lot of stuff happens off stage and they tell you about it later, but with the movie they instead just showed you what was going on.  So, anyone who likes movie musicals will probably like it, so I give it a matinee rating.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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One of my gifts was a super awesome mail bin.  It was very easy to hand, which was really nice.  It also looks very lovely.  I hope it helps keep things a lot cleaner on the counters since there is somewhere for the mail to go other than on the counter.

Holiday Wrap-Up

Well that's it for the holiday season, things are all finished.  All the gifts were delivered, cookie plates made, holiday parties attended.  Another season has come to an end for the most part.  Apart from the stupid family drama it actually was pretty good.  It felt a lot more festive than it did in the past few years which was really nice.  I enjoyed the events, I enjoyed some nice dinners and seeing people.  So over all I'd say I'd say that this year was pretty successful.

I'd like to be a lot more organized next year, both for the holiday season but also in general. I feel like my social calendar hasn't been very good lately and I'm not seeing people that I really should see more often, and who I'd like to see more often.  So next year I'd like to do better with that.

So, the season over, the year is coming to an end, and I'd say it was pretty good.  I hope by next year the family nonsense will be resolved but that seems that may be optimistic to the point of foolishness.  Only time will tell.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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A friend of mine tagged me in an article on Facebook about the International Space Station flying over tonight.  Well at 6:28 I went out side and it was a bit cloudy in the West but I waited because there was a clear area and the clouds weren't very thick.  Well, after not too long I saw a bright light quickly moving across the sky.  As it approached near to the moon and I'd been looking at it for a bit I decided to try taking a picture with my phone and was surprised when it came out.  So my picture of the day is the moon and the ISS above it.  Awesome.

Merry Christmas

Well it's Christmas!  Just a short little post for today saying Merry Christmas to all.   I hope everyone has a lovely day.  Merry Christmas!

Picture(s) of the Day:
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A picture of my grandma's christmas tree.  This year she went very minimalistic with stand only did lights on it.

It Begins Today!

Happy Christmas Eve!  Better yet, happy first day of vacation!  That's right, I'm on vacation, and I will be on vacation for some time.  So, welcome to the vacation time, the happiest time of the year. T he good thing about work is that I get the week between Christmas and New Years off.  I decided to take a vacation day today, just for fun.  After today I get Christmas and New Years day off, then the four days between.  I also have to take off the 2nd because the office decided to close, though I still have to use a vacation day, which seems like bullshit to me.

So, that will get me through until January 5th.  But wait, there's more.  That's right, on account of life changing events I'm taking the first two weeks of January off.  That's right, not one, BUT TWO!  So, that means I will not be returning to work until January 19th, 2015!  That means after yesterday, I will be off work for nearly a month!  In fact only a few days shy of a month.  That's crazytown, my friends.  The last time I had that much time where I didn't work was after my last subbing job when I was unemployed.

Now sure, all of that time won't be relaxing and just sitting around as we will be adjusting to new life and a new routine, but I won't be at work.  As someone who hates being at work and would rather do anything else, that means I'm going to be a lot more relaxed even if I'm super busy and dealing with little sleep or shit up to my eyeballs.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Hung up the mobiles that we got at the shower finally.  This is the one Sara made for us, and it really matches the room well.  Lovely.

Suprise!

One of my many distractions I have that help get me through the day is Tumblr.  For anyone who doesn't know what Tumblr is, it's basically like Pinterest, only funny instead of craft.  As far as I can tell Pinterest is a place where you go and there's pictures and craft ideas and recipies that you can like and then pin to your board or boards.  Tumblr is similar where there are tons of pictures and things that you can reblog, or you can upload your own content.  I follow some people I know, and some blogs like NASA, the American Museum of Natural History, NASA, and then some stuff on history etc.  I also have a few people I haven't met before but they have liked some of the things that I've posted and reposted it and started following me so I've checked out their stuff and like what they post so I follow them back.

It's a nice way to get through the day because I follow about 100 blogs and so there is always something new popping up.  It might be a funny comic, or gifs from popular shows.  Sometimes it's a pun,  or a joke, sometimes it's the weird and infuriating musings of young people with their heads up their asses.

Sometimes it's surprise porn.

Well, that happened today.  I was just scrolling along and suddenly there is a bunch of gifs of two people getting it on.  Apparently one of the people I follow who usually just posts funny pictures, inspirational "hang in there' sort of posts, and other such things decided to repost some hardcore business that I wasn't expecting.  There's nothing like scrolling down your dashboard and suddenly have a big old dick on your screen.  What if I had been at work and my computer froze and someone walked up just as it froze on some dude banging some girl? 

You're also at the will of the people you follow because they can post anything they like and it will appear in your dashboard.  I don't usually get this, and that's because I'm very vigilant about who I follow. I have a friend that loves to post artistic sort of nude photos, and I don't follow because I don't need that kind of thing popping on my dash if I'm at work.  So, beware of Tumblr, because eventually you will get surprise porn. It's impossible to stop, it will happen.  Surprises will happen.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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In honor of seeing the unexpected business side of people, I present to you the business side of Ronan.  Sometimes he just likes to sleep balls out.

Welcome To The Family Feud

Right around Thanksgiving my family had a feudian slip and as a result Thanksgiving was a mess and I boycotted on account of the poor behavior people were showing.  As we head into the week of Christmas the feud continues and I still remain extremely annoyed and unimpressed with everyone's behaviors. The basic issue boiled down to a disagreement or misunderstanding around guardianship rights for my aunt Dean (who my gran and mom had guardianship of because she's old and not all there anymore).  I don't know the exact issue because everyone is being very vague about it and in the end it really doesn't matter.  The argument came out of the discussion about what will happen after they die.  A fight was started and escalated to the point that they will no longer speak to each other on account of plans for AFTER DEATH.  I don't know if that really gets across how astonishing I find it that someone is going to squander the remaining years of another person's life because of a disagreement about what happens after that person dies.  It's totally baffling and absurd to me.  Like, you do realize the subject is their death where they will no longer be around anymore, and you're going to fight about it?

Basically my grandma felt something happened that she wasn't aware of and felt in the dark.  My mom felt that my gran didn't trust her.  Ok, fine.  Clearly a communication issue, a misunderstanding, and a situation where each person didn't give the other the benefit of the doubt.  I understand that these things do happen.  I get that people have disagreements.  These things happen in life, and people often are not good at interpersonal communication.  The problem I have is how absurd it got and some of the nonsense that was brought up.

The biggest issue that I am sick to death of is the villainous uncle that seems to dominate family politics. It all revolves around the idea of forgiveness and the fact that I don't feel many people really understand what forgiveness means.  They seem to combine the idea of apology and forgiveness with this idea that certain actions take place after forgiveness that require you to rebuild a relationship with ones that have wronged you.

Forgiveness means by definition to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake.  Forgiveness is about you and you alone.  When you forgive something that happened or someone that wronged you it simply means that you will not feel anger or resent toward that person for what they did to you.  It is all about you and your own well being.  Someone once said that hating someone else is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die from it.  For decades there has been this anger and resentment because of the lack of forgiveness and it has done absolutely no good.  It hasn't hurt the villainous uncle in the slightest, but it has damaged all sorts of other relationships because of that lack of forgiveness.  

Forgiveness doesn't require an apology.  Apology is about the other person because that's when they
express regret for something that one has done wrong.  Sure these things often go together because when someone comes forward to apologize it is a good time to forgive because it's a catalyst for the situation to change.  However, that doesn't mean that you agree with what happened or that you thing it was right.  You can apologize and forgive and part ways.  That's a totally acceptable outcome in that situation.  For example, I have forgiven my father for what he's done because I'm not going to let it ruin my life and waste time being angry.  Sure he has never apologized but even if he did that wouldn't mean that I am required to reconnect with him.  It also doesn't mean that what he did was in any way right.  My forgiveness is not an endorsement of his behavior, and my forgiveness is not an invitation to rebuild ties.  It is about me and my life not him.

So, what we have now is all these "wrongs" that have happened and an inability to forgive and move on.  Rather it's a perpetual state of victimization where all the wrongs are built up on these petty childish encounters (literally some when they were children) and rather than letting them go, forgiving, and moving on, they now dictate life.  This hate and anger over someone who has not been seen in over 20 years is now resulting in fractured holidays and a divided family.  The question I have, is that really worth it?  Is holding on to hate worth the ripples that it has caused?

I guess in the end I wonder when the cycle will stop.  My mom cuts off her mom, my sister cuts off my mom.  People behave poorly and then pass it on to their kids.  Will the next generation be indoctrinated with this same insane world view?  When does it end?  For me at least I know that I won't be passing it down.  My mom was never good at keeping adult things to adults. I knew from a young age how terrible my uncle was and all the terrible things that happened.  As I get closer to being the parent of a small child I realize how fucked up that is, and how that is not the kind of thing I want to pass on.  My children will not hear me talking critical of their aunts.  They won't hear the terrible stories about anyone.  I will pass on good stories rather than hate.  I will explain absences in ways that won't perpetuate the behavior that we see today.  I won't have this same nonsensical world view replicated.  Here is where it ends.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Last weekend we did our annual cooking making day where we bake about 500 cookies and then take them to all our friends.  During this I also make banana nut bread (though it's more like banana nut cake, but whatever).  Well I bought my pecan chips for the bread and I got home only to find that one of my packages somehow didn't make it from the store to my house.  I looked all over to see if maybe it got dropped but couldn't find it.  Today, I found it in the car because it fell into the little door cubby.  Crazy.  Guess I need to make more bread now.

Reading

The past few days I've had a few blogs about books that I've read lately and it got me thinking to my goal and just reading in general.  This year I've read 13 books and I'm almost done with my 14th.  That's not bad, about a book a month, a little more here and there.  But on a broader scale how does that compare?  Well if you didn't know, Americans don't really read all that much.  In fact, according to a Pew survey, 23% of Americans won't even read a single book in 2014.  Nearly a quarter of the country won't read a single book this year.  What's worse is that statistics say that nearly a third of people won't read a single book after leaving high school.  That's right, a third of people never pick up a book EVER AGAIN!

That seems crazy to me!  I mean, not surprising though if you think about how easy it is to watch TV and how much more work it is to read a book.  Though, other statistics have show that young readers are gaining ground, and that in fact the number of books read per year is higher for this group than it was in 50 years ago, which seems strange since there are so many more options.  At the same time I feel like the young adult market has gotten far better than it used to be.  When I was reading at this level I never had books that were all that great, but since then you have things like Harry Potter, Divergent, Hunger Games, Mrs. Peregrine, and countless other books that are much more interesting and fun to read.  So perhaps that's helping the trend of growing young readers.

Either way, I think given my results from reading this year I'm going to have to increase my goal significantly for 2015.  The problem is I don't know what I should read.  If anyone out there has suggestions please leave them in the comments!

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Apparently oranges are Hanukkah helpers, but that's not the important thing about this picture.  What's important is that behind that sign are heirloom oranges.  I love these things!  They only are around for a short period of time and they are the best.  I made quite the excited exclamation when I saw them.  Like: "YES!"

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Well, in addition to finishing book number 12 for the year, I also finished book number 13 over the weekend.  This wasn't hard as it is a young adult novel and was only a little over 300 pages long.  I figured that I'd done a lot of murder and death the past three books and perhaps it would be good to take something a bit lighter.  Though, at the same time there are monsters and death in this book, but it was quick and geared toward younger audiences so it wasn't too bad.

So, the basic idea is that there is this kid who has a granddad that tells him kind of crazy stories about his childhood in a home for children.  As the kid gets older he realizes that the stories aren't true because they would be impossible.  So after some incidents and the death of his grandfather he decides he wants to find out about his granddad's past and tries to find the home where he grew up so that he can find clues as to where his granddad came from and what kind of life he lived.  Of course the answers he finds aren't what he expects, a slight adventure ensues and then a climax and life changing decision looms.

So, I enjoyed the book.  It was quick, it was interesting, and the idea was pretty neat.  It's also kind of weird because the book uses actual photographs (though some of course have been photoshopped), so you get to "see" some of the things that they talk about in the book.  It was actually pretty neat and I enjoy getting these old photos every couple of pages.  I also like the book, though it is a big formula driven where you have this "special" kid who has skills he didn't know about only to discover them and save the day.  But, you can't expect much other than a fun read from a book like this. Though, it is entertaining and original enough that I've started the sequel to the first book and I'm about a third of the way through it.  So, I expect I may actually get to 14 books this year!

Picture(s) of the Day:
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A parade of sleeping animals.  The only one not here is Chubbs McGee.  He's probably rolling around somewhere waiting for someone to enter a bathroom so he has a captive audience.

Gone Girl

It just occurred to me that I never posted a blog about finishing my 12th book of the year, Gone Girl.  First of all I'm really happy that I was able to hit my goal for the year.  I took a bit of a reading break over the summer and I wasn't sure if I'd actually be able to hit my goal, especially since I generally only read during my lunch break at work, and then sometimes on the weekends if I'm really close to the end of a book. So, hooray for meeting my reading goal for the year! WOOO!

So, getting on to the book, this was a really quick read and I just sped through it.  The book is broken into three parts really, you have the first part where you're learning about the characters, you have the second part where you find out what exactly happened, and then you have the third part which just wraps everything up.  The first part was really kind of slow for a while at the very beginning.  You're not getting much, you don't know what happened and are trying to piece things together, and you aren't sure who to trust yet.  However as this part of the book progresses it really starts to move and you start to put pieces together.  The second part actually starts off telling you exactly what happened.  So all the first third is made clear and you instantly know things.

This was my third mystery book so I was on the look out for clues and they have a ton of them in this book.  The author does a really good job at hiding things but enough to make you question if that's a clue or if it's just misdirection.  I guess that's good since that's kind of how the events in the book happen.  You see all this stuff that the guy is going through and you're wondering if it's true or misdirection.  The entire basis of the book is seeing what appears to be a struggle and the question of if it was staged or not.

The other aspect of the book is that as it goes it becomes more and more unsettling.  You get these characters who have done horrible things and you don't feel comfortable about it at all.  The entire thing culminates with a really messed up ending and this very threatening and dark ending that leaves you wondering about what will happen after, which of course you never find out because the book ends.  It was a really good read and I enjoyed it.  Anyone interested in mystery/thriller genre will probably like this book.  My biggest complaint was that Becky hadn't read it so I didn't have anyone to talk to about what I was thinking as it was going.  She read it directly after me in a weekend so that we could catch the movie while it was still in theaters.  Anyhow, give it a try, I enjoyed it.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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This is the inside of the box I got yesterday. The treats are really strange. A lot have a tea flavor, which is interesting. Many are gummy but totally strange. I love trying things from Japan. 

Cheap Movie Wednesday: Gone Girl

Last night we decided to take advantage of the cheap movie Wednesday and went to see Gone Girl.  It was a rather late showing of it, especially for how long the movie was.  Normally we tend to go to the first showing of a day so it was interesting to go to the last showing and getting out pretty late (though I did get home in time for the normal evening routine, which I'm sure the dogs appreciated).

As an adaptation goes this one was very true to the book.  There were places here and there that the screenwriter (who was the author I believe) trimmed out things.  The role of the father was far less prominent, for example.  I don't feel like these cuts really hindered the movie at all, in fact they made the story much more streamlined and moving along at a good pace.  However, I do feel that they didn't leave the ending nearly as unsettling as they did in the book.  The book had quite an ending to it and while this one kept with most of it the very last scene really missed where the book left you feeling totally unsettled.  Perhaps they thought that audiences wouldn't really take to it?

Casting, I'm not sure I was in love with any of the casting.  Ben Affleck did a decent job, though the book made the character far more smarmy than he came off in the movie.  I think that's a big part of the book, especially in the first third, and that didn't come across too well.  At the same time I didn't feel like Rosamund Pike really was overly likeable in her diary scenes, which also I feel like hurts the story.  Though Neil Patrick Harris was probably the best fit for the casting.  The script didn't make him as creepy as the book did, but overall he wasn't bad.  The downside was a few times while watching him it seemed like he was being a little like his Barney Stinson character, which I guess sort of works, but I don't know. Side mention, Go and Tanner Bolt were actually cast well, and I thought overall they did a good job, as was the casting for Noelle Hawthorne and Ellen Abbott.

So, to sum it up I enjoyed the movie.  I thought it was very true to the book and told a pretty good story. I would say that anyone interested in the movie should definitely read the book first.  It's a quick read and if you see the movie first there isn't much point in reading the book since it's a mystery and you'll know the ending.  As a rating I'd give this a solid matinee price rating.  It's worth more than a cheap movie ticket, but I don't know I'd want to pay a full $10 to see it.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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The stockings are starting to look a bit full.

Why It Matters

Yesterday I posted about the torture report and how it really makes me angry.  I also mentioned that someone needs to be held accountable, and to me it looks to me like everyone up the line all the way to Bush who approved it, and Cheney who still says he'd do it again clearly broke international law.  That would also therefore mean that they committed war crimes, and I would be perfectly fine with them being tried for it.  I'm pretty sure there's a treaty we refuse to sign that would allow for this, but it's unacceptable and they deserve to be punished.

Now, I don't have a huge friends list on social media, so I don't have a large mass of people flooding my news feed.  I also don't have a lot of total right wing nuts on my friends list, and even the more conservative people are more reasonable and not the Polly Parrots of the Glen Beck types.  However, there is one that every so often will repeat something that is clearly a Fox talking point, and I got to see that this morning.  Basically the post was, "Why are we talking about this, these people are bad and deserve it.  Why should anyone care what happens to the bad guys?"  Now, first I find it kind of ironic that this is coming from a super religious person who is part of a group that has a torture device as their symbol and their savior was treated inhumanely, but hey, what do I know.

However, the point of the post was asking why it matters and anyone should care what happens to the "bad guys" as they clearly deserve to be punished.  Ok, well the first point I'll make is that the report revealed that a number of the detainees were being wrongfully held.  So how about justice for one.  It is not just to hold the wrong person, and therefore even more unjust to physically abuse one wrongfully held (and clarification, it's wrong to do that to anyone, but to someone wrongfully held it's even worse).

The second point I'd make is that it's against the law.  We signed an agreement that said we wouldn't' do things like that.  We, along with 192 other nations, agreed that torture is wrong and no one should be subject to that.  We should care what's happening because our word is on the line.  Our word that we would live up to what we say we are going to.  We said we don't want to live in a world with torture, and we signed on to make sure that happens, so we should care because we're going back on our word (which is illegal).

We should care because it's also ineffective.  The CIA before 9/11 said as much.  They said, "You know what, torture doesn't work, it doesn't produce anything, it produces false information, so it's totally ineffective."  So why are we doing it?  It gets us nothing, but we're still doing it.  In fact, I'd say that the only thing it's sure to do is to make our citizens more in danger because of a desire for revenge, or have us seen as monsters who do those sorts of things.  It serves no purpose and we should know that it's happening so we can protest it and urge our representatives to take action.

Finally, how about some compassion for other human beings.  I don't care how nasty they are.  Yes, some of these guys planned terrible events that led to many deaths.  They are responsible for murder, absolutely.  However, no one deserves to be tortured.  It is below our values and a disgusting act that puts on on the level with who we are fighting against.  That's not who we are as a nation, it's not the values we're founded on, it's disgusting.  Regardless of who these people are we are a nation of laws and these people can be subject to those laws and punished accordingly.  Torture is not one of those laws and to dehumanize people, regardless of how terrible they are, is wrong and leads to poor decisions.

Americans like to think of themselves as the good guys.  We have this World War II image of ourselves as coming to save the day fighting against tyranny and for freedom.  If that's the way you want to see us, then torture doesn't fit into that picture.  We should care because it matters, and if you're listing to anyone defend this and are agreeing with them, then there's something wrong with you.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Picture of the day... the darkness of a theater.  Haha! I thought that was amusing. Went to a movie tonight, of course there will be a review of it posted tomorrow.

Torture

Last week amid all the school work and sickness I didn't get a chance to address an issue that broke, and that was the Senate report on torture.  As you may have remembered George Bush proclaimed that, "The United States does not torture."  Well it turns out that was a lie.  Not that he was misinformed, but that he outright lied to the public.  It also wasn't that he didn't know because he asked not to be informed, which he also did, but at the time that he said that he knew it wasn't true.  The United States did torture. 

Since it's been a few days now since the report was released we've had some time to see the reactions and as expected you have people defending it calling it everything except torture.  However, here's the thing, the actions we took were the same things that we tried Nazi's for after World War II.  The treatment, the behaviors, they are the same things that people were tried for, so you can call it enhanced interrogation, or whatever else you want to make yourself feel better, but it was clearly torture.  There is no other way to describe it.  When they explain the actions, that is torture.  When they go into detail about what it was and try to minimize it, it's still torture.  Our government tortured people.

Now, I don't know about you, but I am no ok with this.  This is totally unacceptable and generally I'm not one to go over the edge, but someone needs to be held accountable for this.  Time after time we have people responsible for things go free.  The banks had no one charged with destroying the economy and the lives of many people.  Officers use excessive force, kill, beat, and injure the unarmed and they go free.  And now, people in the government approved of and ordered the torture of others.  That's it.  That's the end of the line.  That is unacceptable and not only do we deserve to be ridiculed, but our leaders who approved of this deserve to be tried a war criminals, because that is what they are.  Torture is against the rules we all agreed do, and we did it.  That is a crime, and that means those who did it deserve to be held accountable for it.

There is no excuse.  I don't care what fear they used to justify this, there is no excuse.  We do not have the right to treat others in the way that they were treated.  What's even better is that we sacrificed our moral integrity for nothing.  We got nothing by doing this, and in the end we are worse for it.  This is not the kind of people we say we are.  We are the "good guys" and that's not what the good guys do.  They don't beat the information out of people, the do the right thing even when it's hard.  This whole thing is disgusting and someone needs to be held accountable for it.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Our building is LEED certified.  That means that we are super energy efficient.  That also means that pretty much every light is on a motion detector.  This is especially fun walking into a dark restroom and then taking a few steps and wondering if the light will be on or if the main switch is off.  Most the time it is on, but sometimes you find yourself standing in the dark grasping around for the switch.  Grasping around in a dark restroom seems like a bad idea.

Project For Awesome

As many people know I'm a strong Nerdfighter,  and being such was very excited last week at the kick off of the Project for Awesome.  For anyone not really aware of what this is, the Project for Awesome is a charity drive each year run by Nerdfighters.  How it works is that videos are uploaded to YouTube for charities that they feel should get some funding, we all then vote on the charities that we feel are the best and then the money raised during the donation period is divided up and goes toward a number of those charities.

The Indigogo campaign for P4A opened on Wednesday and I of course donated.  It will remain open until tomorrow so there isn't much time for donations.  It's kind of neat that the money gets donated in and then everyone gets to vote for the charities they think are most deserving.  It's kind of exciting to wait to hear who won and what charities will get some support.  Generally I don't really care because it all goes to help make the world a better place.  The donation itself goes into the Foundation to Decrease World Suck and then gets donated out, so it is tax deductible and in the end always goes to a good cause.

The goal this year was to raise $1,000,000, and that's actually already happened. John and Hank Green along with some other famous YouTubers had a live stream going that started on Friday and went until Sunday where they would cycle out but someone would always be doing something.  I happened to check and saw they were almost at the goal and got to watch it happen live on the live stream.  It was really exciting, and funny because when they hit it John let his wife do his makeup, Hank dressed as a mummy and then danced, and it was all around just silly and fun.

The campaign is still open for a while, so if you can I highly recommend making a donation, even if it's just a couple of bucks.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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It's the great wall of Snickerdoodles.  This is part of the over 100 Snickerdoodles that I made yesterday.  There's another row behind this wall that's not quite as tall but is still pretty sizable.  Most of these are actually going to Eli because I was supposed to make him a batch for his Birthday and then never got around to it for a number of reasons.

Cookie Day!

Today was our annual cookie making day, and boy was it a long day.  A while back we determined that we had way too many friends to buy gifts for, so instead we would make them a delicious plate of cookies since it's always nice to get something delicious for a gift.  Plus, some people on the list don't necessarily get home cooked treats so it's a little extra bonus.  We used to get these great plates but Target stopped making them, so last year we got some tins to fill.  I am not so sure I"m a fan of the tins.  They are ok, but they don't' seem to hold enough, especially for the large families. 

So, on the list of things that we give out are of course sugar cookies with delicious butter cream frosting, snickerdoodles, no-bake cookies, chocolate chip cookies, butter cookies, brownies, coco balls, banana nut bread, and this year we also decided to try making some peppermint bark.  It's quite the variety of some delicious treats, and it's a good time to give them all out.

We didn't get up super early, but didn't get up super late either.  For the most part we worked on cookies until about 4pm when we had to head out and get groceries, then came home and started cooking dinner and continued working on cookies till about 8pm or so.  Then by the time we went to bed all the cookies were done and in tins.  Now all we need are some bags so we can box up the brownies and coco balls and we're good to start getting them sent out.  It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I'm a bit bummed that this didn't come out better, but iPhone cameras aren't exactly the best for low light, especially given that I have an older iPhone since we haven't upgraded yet.  Anyhow, I though this house did a nice job on their lights.  They did well with the tress, had the whole house outline covered, and it was very impressive.  So, well done house.  A on your display, though not A+ because there's always room for improvement.

Down Time

A glorious day, a day with no projects due, no house work that is vitally important.  No events to get to first thing in the morning.  No, today was the most glorious of days where there is nothing that needs to get done and I had the chance to just sleep in a little bit, relax and then head to the annual holiday party for Becky's family. 

It's a wonderful thing when you'd been rushing around trying to finish projects, both academic an house, and then you complete them and you don't really have to worry anymore.  However, often when this happens I always have this nagging feeling that I should be doing something else and that I've simply forgotten to that I have to do it.  Well, not today.  Today I got to just do whatever and then relax. 

Though, after the holiday party I did have to get started on baking for our cookie baskets that we send out to our friends. That's always quite a process since there are seven or eight families that get cookies.  Tonight we made some of the cookie dough that requires chilling, which will make things a lot better tomorrow when we have to do the rest of the cookies.


Picture(s) of the Day:
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Today was the most holy of holidays: Ribbon Jello Day!  Every year  Becky's aunt hosts a holiday party, and at this party she makes this ribbon Jello which is basically a million layers of different Jello!  It's super delicious and I only get it once a year.  A wonderful holiday ,and it's over all a lovely event that we get to go to every year.

Tis The Season

Today I was asked about coming up with a list of things that I want for Christmas for family members who don't know us well enough to get any of us gifts.  To clarify that statement that means any family member.  I really hate getting the question every year because to be honest there's not really all that much I can think of that I would want.  Sure there may be a few movies that would be nice to own, but that's kind of boring.  I could ask for gift cards, but that's not really anything special.  I suppose there are a few books I wouldn't mind having. 

I guess in the end I really don't want or need much of anything, so I don't really know what to say.  I'm also not all about acquiring things.  Sure, I have things. Everyone has things.  However I tend to be more of the kind of person that wants experiences and memories.  There's a reason that I have 25,000 pictures on my computer, it's because I do things and that's what I like to collect.  There are things that I do collect related to subject that I enjoy.  I have quite the collection of Harry Potter items, I have tons of books and movies, I have a lot of music.  But I don't really have things that I want.  I'm not moved by commercials, I'm not always in need of the next big gadget.  I'm totally unimpressed by anything "name brand" and find people who are obsessed with it or who feel the need to show off all their items as sad kind of people who don't realize that what they have means nothing and it's no more special than anything or anyone else.  (Yes, I do have some brands that I prefer, but not because of the status but because I feel that they are made better or more dependable. Example, I prefer Mac over PC because I prefer their longevity and operation, but not because it's Apple).

Given that I'm on the topic of gifts and lists today I started looking into getting some things for people and putting together a list of options,  rather than just asking them for a list of things they may want.  I see it as important to find a gift that I think they'd like because that's the point.  The point is to come up with something you think that person may enjoy,  not just read from a list and buy them something.  The list and buying them someone they want feels a lot like someone feeling entitled to getting a gift rather than the idea that it's a holiday and I want to give someone a gift because I care about them.  To that end I also did something that is a bit of a newer tradition where instead of just dumping a ton of money into things I also did some charitable giving.  In fact, that's part of the gifts that I'm giving this year.  Last year I did donations and just told everyone, this year I did donations in the name of a person or group and will be giving that donation to someone.  So for example I thought about something that the people around me care about and then got them a donation to a charity that champions that issue.  I can't say exactly what I did because they will be given as gifts, but perhaps I'll come back to it after I give them to say how it went over.  One example I can say is that I donated to the Humane Society animal shelter in our area on behalf of my family since last year we lost Simon who we got there and gave us many years of joy.

Anyhow, I feel like I was rambling a little bit on this, but the point is that this season has such an emphasis on things and getting, and I don't like that.  I feel it should be more about people and giving.  Appreciating those around you, appreciating the world around you, doing something nice for those you care about, but also doing something nice for those you don't know.  Being a better person and trying to make the world a better place.  That's just kind of where I am right now.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Went to see Jasmine's soccer game today.  This was the pain on the pillar at the concession stand and when I looked at it I pictured the person who did it finishing up thinking "that's pretty good" and now I feel bad for them.  Surely if they realized that it's kind of bad then they would have painted over it.  Perhaps it was a child that did this, then I'd feel better about feeling like it was a crap pain job.

Out Sick

Woke up this morning feeling awful.  Stayed home and rested before my short evening class so I could turn in my project and then come home and rest some more.  Illness sucks.


Picture(s) of the Day:
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Well, here is that final project I was talking about the other day.  This is a screen shot of what I did.  It's been a bit of a pain in the ass, but I'm happy with how it turned out and the instructor seemed impressed with some of the stuff I did.

The Finish Line

Tomorrow at this time I will be done with classes for this semester.  There were two classes I wanted to take next semester that have since been canceled.  There's still one that I planned to take, but I'm not so sure it makes any sense to do that.  It's a bit of a time commitment and for of course I'm paying for this out of my pocket and I'm not sure if it's worth the investment. It doesn't seem like there are all that many more jobs I can apply for now that I know how to code webpages than were open prior to me having that skill.  Though, I suppose I can go and update my resume with a new skill.

I've still got a few things I have to finish before tomorrow, and today I wasn't feeling all that well so that's not a good thing to have to deal with right now.  My throat has been feeling terrible today, and it's been progressing the past few days.  It's not a good time for any of this.


Picture(s) of the Day:
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Took a quick picture of the tree tonight.  Thought it looked quite lovely.

Success

Well, that project that I spent hours trying to do is complete.  I had to finish up two minor processes this morning and then when I got to class I was still having one little glitch that I couldn't figure out so my instructor looked at my code, asked me a question and told me to look into a specific thing and I was able to add a few words and the thing worked perfectly.  It's nice to have it done because it's a total pain in the ass.  At the same time I question going any further in this course because it was so far over my head and regardless of how much time I spent trying to understand it I got nowhere. 

The other annoying thing was that the project I thought was due today.  Turns out it's not due till Thursday.  Great that there's more time, but it would have been nice to know so I could have budgeted my time differently.  I now have to finish my final project and then prepare something for my portfolio presentation.  For that I don't actually get graded on what I build but just that I get up and do a presentation, so I guess that's no big deal.


Picture(s) of the Day:
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I found this stocking at Target and I thought it was amusing.  I'm torn on things like this because they're really amusing, but then at the same time they don't match any of the other holiday decorations that we have for the house. 

Down To The Line

Alright, folks.  We are at the end of the semester so things are getting crazy around here.  I've got three projects that are due this week.  One is due tomorrow that I've spent way too much time on and that has resulted in not having enough time to do the other projects.  It's not that  I was doing a ton of procrastination, it's that I really don't get JavaScript and I spent probably upward of 30 hours or more trying to get the thing figured out. 

That means the next few days are going to be a lot of doing homework and trying to finish off my project.  It also turns out that the final project that we have due has been a lot more time consuming than expected.  That's not to say that it's hard, it's just to say that it's taking more time than expected.  There are a lot of stupid little details that are really a pain int he ass to do.  Blah.  I'm running out of time.


Picture(s) of the Day:
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Yes, today is a picture where I filled up my entire car for only $25.  That's right, $25 thanks to some Kroger fuel points and the lower price of gas right now.  That's probably about half what I'd normally spend, which is a wonderful gift because now I have an extra $25 that I didn't budget on.  They say gas is going ton continue to decline, which is fine by me.

The Love/Hate Of Aaron Sorkin

Warning: There is a general spoiler for tonight's episode of The Newsroom.  If you haven't seen it and don't want a vague impression of what happens, go watch it then come back and read this.

If you're on my Facebook or know me personally then you know one of my favorite shows of all time is The West Wing.  The writing was great, the characters were delightful, and the subject matter was right up my alley.  I also like Studio 60, but that was shit-canned before it had a chance to really do well.  Well, I was thrilled two years ago when I heard Aaron Sorkin had a show coming to HBO.  HBO!  It was going to be awesome, and took on the subject matter of the media from an angle much like The West Wing, where it presented these strong moral characters that had a clear idea of right and wrong and strong ideals on how the world should be.

The Newsroom has the same sense where it's the way the news should be, and how the people behind the news should act all taken in the time of 24 hours news for entertainment.  Now of course there are great journalist out there, but there's also a huge problem with getting the news to be entertaining instead of informative, and this show takes in on.  The writing is very snappy, which is exactly what you expect and the characters are generally speaking delightful.  I love Don (though in season one I couldn't stand him, so I'm glad they made him grow and be better than he was), I think Sloan is probably my favorite, Will and Charlie are wonderful (Charlie being probably a close second behind Sloan), and then the occasional visit from Mrs. Lansing really is all anyone can ask for.  Needless to say, I love the show, I love the characters, and think Aaron Sorkin rocks.

I hate Aaron Sorkin.  First, he pulled a Mrs. Landingham on us at the very end of the show? One from the end!?  WHY! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO US!  Especially at a time when it's so necessary!  And don't even get me started on the BS of a 6 episode final season.  I'm so not amused at these things. I want more, and I want to see our guys win!  I get it, he's telling a story, and I like the story he's telling and it works.  At the same time it also doesn't make me happy.  I'm going to be sad next week when the final episode airs and it's all over.  I'm not entirely sure how they're going to end this for us.  Crazytown.  I love/hate Aaron Sorkin.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Well this is what I've been working on all weekend.  I've made this website from a free theme.  By that I mean that the theme is a picture of the site in Photoshop, then I take that picture and use Photoshop to slice the images out and get the colors and font styles.  Once I know all that information I have to make the website, which as you can see below I'm partly finished with.  The bottom isn't stylized yet, but I do still have until Thursday to get it finished.  Then I have to alter it for phones and tablets.  Woo. This is taking me much longer than usual because I picked something with a lot of tiny little details that are a total pain in the ass.

College Theatre

Tonight we made it out to UM to see some former students in their production of Fuente Ovejuna.  I'm a little curious about the production because they didn't really have any information about the show int he program. There was a mention that the design and productions things were all student run, but they didn't say anything about the directing etc.  It was an interesting production, and it would have been nice to get a little more background about it just because it's something I'd love to know.  I like reading about the process, so something would have been better than nothing.

I had read the script a few years a back and it had some potential, and coming in they had quite an impressive looking set.  I think what I found most impressive was the giant rounded doorway that looked like a city gate, and the size of it all.  So for set they certainly get high marks for production value. At the same time the rest of the show I wasn't overly blown away by.  That's not to say in any way that the production wasn't good, but rather it was less than I expected, and less than some recent college shows that I've seen. Given how high profile UM is, and how hard it is to get into the program that sets the expectations much higher.

I feel like some of that comes at the contrast of seeing other things so recently.  I felt a huge weakness was that there was always a feeling like I was watching actors play a part, where as in recent shows the actors had been far more genuine.  I also was pulled out a little by the time period and the feeling that the costumes and actions didn't fit the time or location of the show.  I didn't feel like I was in Spain, but that I was in England.  I didn't feel like I was in 1485, I felt like I was in a vague "Renaissance Festival" period.  They also pulled in some music and I'm not sure why, especially at the beginning.  It was quite distracting and didn't really add anything since there was no real melody of the singing so it was just weird. 

Highlights of the show were certainly the set, as well as the lead woman who was very feisty.  The bad guy of the show also was pretty good when he was all ragey and rapey, though he could have had a bit more complexity, again an issue of being a bit disappointed by things.

Overall, it was a decent production, and for what I paid it was worth an evening of a show.  I just expected more from UM.

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I loved the program for the show.  Very well done.

The Final Frontier

If you're on my Facebook or Twitter, you know that over the past day and a half or so (well since yesterday morning) I've been totally geeking out about the Orion test flight.  I didn't get up early but it turned out yesterday that it got delayed so I could watch it from work.  So I logged on to NASA TV and started watching it.  It was pretty exciting because at three minutes from launch someone came on and said "Hold! Hold! Hold! because there was an issue with one of the drain/fill valves and they ended up having the scrub the launch and rescheduled it for this morning at 7:05am.

Well, being very excited and wanting to be sure I saw it since I'd already been watching live for about two hours yesterday, I got up early and got the computer set up in the bathroom, since it was launching during my morning routine.  I got the video streaming about 15 minutes before launch and hopped in the shower as normal.  I got out and it was about 5 minutes before launch so I was brushing my teeth and getting ready.  I told Becky that if she wanted to watch it was going up in three minutes.  This time the countdown started and everything was moving right along!  They got to the 60 second mark and started annoucning times more often.  35 seconds. 30 seconds.  25 seconds. 20 seconds. 15 seconds.

Suddenly I get a little buffering symbol.  It keep turning and turning.  No more live video.  I MISSED THE LIVE LAUNCH THAT I WOKE UP EARLY TO SEE!  Totally missed it.  By the time it caught back up it was 900 miles south of Florida going faster than sound and had already detached the boosters.  I missed the whole thing.  The upside is that on the way to work I got to watch it on YouTube and saw the whole thing.  At the same time it wasn't the same recorded as it was live.  There was a lot of yelling at the computer and NASA for not having a site able to stream video.

Once I got to work I went back to the NASA stream and watched the entire four and a half hours of the test.  Well by watch I mean I listened to the interviews, to mission control, and occasionally would pop over to the window to see what it was showing.  NASA has a nice department that creates animations for what is happening when it's happening.  So a thruster fires and they show it on the animation.  While watching I got dropped from the feed a couple of times, and it again started buffering as Orion was about to deploy main parachutes until after the splashdown.  Very disappointing.

At the same time the entire test is so exciting!  Orion is the first human manned vehicle we've sent up since the shuttle program was retired a couple years back.  After today's test flight it's the highest altitude flight of a manned vehicle since 1972.  So, in my entire life nothing that could take humans to space has gone that high (today it was 3,200 miles up).  Now, of course no one was on it today, but the fact is that soon people will be on it.  It will take us to the moon, to asteroids, to Mars.  It will take us past the moon to the furthest a human has ever gone before.

Think about this for a moment.  People alive today lived in a world that never had spaceflight.  The first time anyone was high enough to get a picture of the Earth that showed the curve was in the 1930s on a balloon.  The first picture of the Earth from space was in the 1940s.  The first time we got a picture of the whole planet in light was in the 1970s.  The last time we went beyond low orbit (which is what the shuttles did) was in the 1970s.  For the past 40 years we've only gone a few hundred miles up, and now Orion.

Now, think of this.  Orion was designed to take us to the moon again if we want.  We've been there six times, and we haven't been back since December 19th of 1972.  For the past 42 years we've been handing out just barely into space.  We've stalled and stopped the forward momentum.  Sure, we've sent some robots to Mars, we've sent probes around the moon.  We've got a little robot right now on an asteroid, but people have stopped going very far.  Now imagine for a moment Orion going back to the moon.  Exciting to see, and the pictures with today's technology will be awesome. 

However, think more boldly.  Imagine going to an asteroid, or to Mars.  Think about that for a moment.  We've never gone past the moon really, people that is.  So imagine that.  Going further than any human has ever gone in all of our existence. Imagine the first humans riding in Orion as it leaves the atmosphere.  Imagine as they enter space and start a journey toward Mars.  Imagine as the pass the moon and become the only people to venture that far.  Imagine as they look back at the earth and see it getting smaller every time they look at it.  Imagine going so far that Earth is just a little spot of light.

Imagine the first human stepping out onto another planet.  Imagine them looking out on a land that has never been seen by human eyes.  To look up and see the sun setting over the Martian horizon.  To be able to see a dot that is Earth, and to look at it through a telescope.  Imagine being able to come home with pieces of Mars.  With the stories of what it feels like to have gone to another WORLD.  To see the universe from a perspective no human has ever seen it from before.  If you can't think about that and feel completely awed and amazed then there's no hope for you because that is Awesome in the original sense of the word.

Now, take all of that and remember that in the life time of our parents, or our grandparents, we lived in a world that had never been to space.  Had never seen the earth in whole.  Had never been able to look at the Earth as a planet but only from perhaps high above in a plane, but more likely only what you've seen with your feet on the ground.  Remember that in the life time of people here on the planet now they knew a world that had never gone to the moon, that didn't have robots showing us pictures of the surface of Mars.  Then, appreciate the beauty and the amazement of being able to watch live as Orion traveled faster than sound some 3,000 miles above the earth.  To be able to see the camera as it looked out the window of Orion at the earth mostly dark with a sliver of light as it orbits and to see the sun slowly come into frame. 

That, my friends, is a breathtaking site, and why we need NASA, and why we need to go out into the universe and explore.  To go further than any human has ever gone before is something that we should be doing.  It's in our nature to go beyond what we know and see what else is out there.  Today was the first step.  I can't wait for the next.


Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 356
Hairy Baby!  I thought it would be a funny picture.  He then jumped in there himself.  I now have to train him not to do that or he'll smoosh the baby.  Not so funny now.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Yesterday I was feeling really freaking annoyed about the project that I've been working on which is due next week.  I'm not good at JavaScript, so to do this I've been doing everything I can to try and learn.  I've literally put in over 20 hours of study time and time spent trying to do the "simple" project that my instructor assigned to us.  I've had limited success.  One portion I have kind of figured out, but I don't know how to get to that point, and where to go from that point.  I've spend hours and hours working on it the past few weeks.

Well, I go into class tonight and we do our lesson, which was a quick intro to WordPress.  Like just a basic "hey this thing is out there and some people use it so it may be something you could encounter and may get some freelance work fixing things people do to their sites" kind of a thing.  It didn't take long so we had about 30-45 minutes left in the class.  The instructor said, "Well, since we have time how about we go over a little bit of the JavaScript project. So basically he walks us through doing it, so we can follow along, basically giving us the code through asking "so what do you need to do now?  How do you do that" and getting answers or ideas, then telling us exactly what to do.

Basically, in a matter of 17 minutes we complete nearly the entire project that I have spent 20+ hours trying to understand and do.  SEVENTEEN MINUTES!  Are you kidding me?  I still have only a vague understanding of how to put it all together, I get the basic idea, but it's the equeavelent of knowing how an engine generally works then having someone dump a punch of parts in your garage and saying "ok, build me an engine."

I'm kind of annoyed, but also happy that I've only got a few more things to do before it's finished and I may be able to figure that out now that I have 75% of it.  I'm going to give it a try tomorrow.  Hopefully I won't want to punch a kitten in the face.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 355
Now, obviously we can't have these in with her, but since she's not here and we have nowhere else to put them, this is the collection of stuffed animals she has so far.  Cute.  Though the owl you can twist his head all the way around which is a bit creepy.

Wasting My Time

My class tuition is due on Thursday.  I just got a call telling me one of the two classes I was going to take has been cancelled.  I was only taking two classes so that my loans would go into deferment, so that's really not helping to motivate me to take any classes.  Also, I'm wasting my time because apparently in order to get hired you need to know more than just what I already know.  I need to know some other things like Javascript etc.  Well, I can't learn Javascript.  I have sat in three weeks of classes, read webpages, watched online video tutorials on YouTube, did the course work through CodeAcademy, and I still can't to my "simple" homework assignment.  I'm getting nowhere.  I'm unable to do this at all.  I have used every resource I have and I can not do it. PERIOD.  So I'm wasting my time.  It's a skill that I will never have, and without it I will not get a job.  I'm wasting my time and my money.

I wish the sun would just explode because I'm over it.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 354
Breakfast-dinner for Christmas Tree Day.

The March Of Time

I was bored today and re-read the first three years of blogs I did.  That sounds impressive, but it's really not.  It was about 125 entries, because I didn't blog all that often.  I started blogging daily back in 2010.  I get a decent number of page views, but I have no idea who reads this crap.  I know it can't just be the three people I know who read this, but perhaps they get brought in by accident and don't know why or how they got here.  Who knows.  All I know is that someone is reading this.

Reading really struck me at how long ago some things happened. We are about at the 5 year mark for when I started my student teaching and when I graduated.  I was reading over those blogs and it was interesting because I can remember them as if they just recently happened.  It's hard to believe that it's actually been five years since I was doing it.  I still remember most of the names of the students that I had, or at the very least the memorable ones. 

That also means I'm coming up on four years in my current job.  I started looking for a new job from about the first month that I was here.  It's also five years since I left Borders.  Basically I've spent half a decade trying to find a job.  People wonder why I'm in such a bad mood and why I've lost every ounce of optimism, it's because I've been looking for a job for half a decade. In that time, I've had three in person interviews, three in person teaching interviews, and one phone interview.  So, in the past 60 months I've had 7 interviews.


I'm ending this entry here.  Otherwise it's going to get really negative.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 353
Amazon started selling Surge again.  This was a huge drink from the late 90s that I drank a lot of.  I loved the stuff, I'm not even sure how we started drinking it.  It's basically Mt. Dew, only less shitty.  Well, I wasn't sure if it was just nostalgia or if I really liked it so I decided to order it and see how it is as an older wiser(ha!) person.  Turns out, still enjoyed it.