House Of Cards

Well, Yesterday House of Cards released on Netflix, and so we sat down and ended up watching six episodes last night, then another three this morning and finished off the last four tonight. I won't provide any major spoilers so don't worry about reading forward if you haven't yet seen the season, or haven't finished it.

My overall review was that the episodes were good.  I enjoyed watching it and was glad it was back on, however it seemed to be lacking in comparison to the last two seasons.  In fact, I feel like it was certainly the weakest season they've made.  I remember that in the first two seasons there were multiple episodes where I was shocked or that something really exciting happened that made the episode awesome.  Season two I think started out with craziness right from the first episode. I feel like season three lacked anything unexpected or shocking at all.  Perhaps some of that has to do with the position now and how that is somewhat constraining what Frank can do, but it just seemed less exciting than the other seasons.

However, perhaps that is the point that they are trying to make with this season since it seems that Frank and Claire both aren't necessarily satisfied with the results of all their scheming.  They've done a lot to get to where they are and have made personal and professional sacrifices, so what happens when they finally reach their goal?  What will be next if they make it to where they have been trying to get to?  I think you see these cracks that have been pasted over start to show more and become bigger issues now.  I think given the ending of the season they will have to do a season four, and hopefully that will be more exciting.

I also hope that the slowness of this season is all part of the plan and was done on purpose to illustrate that people become set in their ways and comfortable.  Perhaps becoming uncomfortable will help them get moving again.

Other complaint: Frank breaks the 4th wall far less often than before.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 59
Took Sal over to visit my Gran today.  She just loves that little girl so much, and just goes on and on about how beautiful and perfect she is!  My gran even got to feed her.  It was a nice visit and I'm glad that my gran gets to know my daughter.

Mr. Spock

Today Leonard Nimoy died, and given that I've been a huge Star Trek fan for a very long time it seemed like I should say a little something about it.  I first started watching Star Trek when I found a VHS tape of an episode of The Next Generation. The episode was called The Neutral Zone and was about the Enterprise finding an old spaceship with three humans in cryogenic sleep who they wake up and cure.  They are of course completely unfamiliar with the world they are now in.  I remember that My gran said that Mr. Worf's head looked like a Walnut. 

I started watching Star Trek after that, and then went back and watched all the movies, and when new series aired I watched them as well (though there are still a few episodes of Enterprise (and possibly Voyager) that I missed due to VCR programming failures).  I never did watch every episode of the original series, but I did watch the movies over and over again. Like many people on the internet talking about the loss of Leonard Nimoy, I felt like I could relate to Spock and the way that Leonard talked about Spock as being an outsider.  When I first started watching Star Trek and really getting attached to it I had moved to a new place where I was certainly the outsider.  I was from a different state, I didn't fit into the socioeconomic groups that most people in the school did, I like things that other people didn't like, I was the smart kid, the nerd, and was teased and taunted every day.


However, I felt like I could learn a lot from Spock, to control my emotions in a way to help me get through the day without being intimidated by the people who physically threatening, to stay stone cold and unresponsive when they got in my face.  To ignore the people who threw slurs like "faggot" at me to try and make me feel bad.  I was able to isolate those feelings and analyze them and realize that the problem wasn't me, the problem was the other people.  I was able to detach the feelings that resulted and instead let them go and move on rather than make them feel badly about myself.  After all, allowing myself to feel bad about something that is untrue about me isn't logical.

Mr. Spock was someone I could relate to, being not quite like everyone else.  Being surrounded by people who were different but being ok with that and just being who he was because that was the only logical thing to do.  It is unfortunate that he is now gone, however he lived long and prospered and we can all be pleased with what he brought to us.  \\//

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 58
In honor of the release of House of Cards, we present our feast.  Generally, we call this dinner the Gilmore Dinner but since it's House of Cards night we will call it Frank's Feast!  Though Gilmore Dinner usually also includes cheese sticks to go with the chinese, pizza, and doughnuts.

A New Nephew?

Apparently tonight my sister was sent to the hospital because her blood pressure was too high and they were going to induce labor.  She's due later next week, but they decided that it was time to get the bugger out and so she went in and they started doing their thing to get him moving.  Apparently talking to my mom this could be a bit of a process because it will be at least a day before they start using certain drugs, and they'll be doing other things for the next day or so. 

So perhaps sometime this weekend I'll have a new nephew.  We shall see and update accordingly.

UPDATE: As of this update on Sunday, it turns out the measures didn't work and her blood pressure came back down into the normal range so she was sent home.  So, no new nephew yet, though he should arrive sometime soon, surely.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 57
So, apparently this might be a thing?  This is from the book that was co-written by John Green and David Levithan called Will Grayson Will Grayson.  One of the side characters was called Tiny Cooper, and he was quite an interesting character. I'd be interested to read this if it's actually a real thing.  I'm also intrigued by the "A musical novel" part of that.  Will there be songs with music written in? haha!

Dust Off The Soap Box

I haven't done any rants in a while, but I'm annoyed.  When did it become cool to be a helpless, hapless, incapable, or an otherwise talentless lump?  It seems that inability is something to brag about. It usually takes some form of seeing someone who can do something and then pointing out you can't even do a fraction of that.  "Watching these kids on top chef bake a cake, and I can't even make spaghetti."  Sure an element of that is trying to be funny, but the truth is that if you can't even boil water and put noodles in for the time specified on the back of a box then what is wrong with you?  Step one: put water in pot.  Step two: bring to boil. Step three: add pasta. Step four: boil for 8 minutes stirring occasional. Step five: drain water and enjoy.  It's not that hard and there is no room for error to someone who is capable or reading, and who has full motor function.  It's in total a 15 minute endeavor from conception to filling your belly with tasty pasta.

It isn't funny or cute that you can't operate as a normal human being, yet all the time I see posts and statuses proclaiming how pathetic and helpless people are.  It isn't cool that you aren't capable of taking care of yourself.  I'm so tired of hearing people talk about their shortcomings in a way that they're almost proud of them or that it's a cute little quirky part of their personality.  Being able to feed yourself isn't a personality trait, it's a necessary skill that can be learned and ultimately not that hard.  But instead there is so much time and self-talk associated with how people are unable to do basic things that are necessary to get by in life. Isn't it cute that I can't balance my commitments based on the false pretense that no one can have more than one (maybe two) thing(s) going on at any given time!  Uh-oh, here comes that adorable meltdown where I question my entire existence because I have to renew my license and that requires going to the DMV or Secretary of State office.

You attract the kind of people to your life by your actions.  You are who you surround yourself with.  Do you really want to surround yourself with people who think that kind of nonsense is cute, funny, and enviable?  Do you really want to be surrounded by people constantly talking about how they aren't able to do things?  Amazingly if that's how you always think and talk, and that's how the people around you think and talk, you'll find that you really can't do those things because you'll never try.  You'll always have excuses about how you're just unable to do things, how you're just not good at something, how it's just one of those things that you will never be able to do.  You'll start making excuses to explain away why you haven't done things.  And if you stop and take a good look at how you react to obstacles you'll find you constantly are making excuses for things rather than finding solutions.  Is that the kind of person you want to be?  The kind of person that find excuses instead of solutions?  Who gives up instead of finding a way around, or devoting the time to be successful? 

The truth is that everything in life you can do if you devote enough time for it.  You're a normal functioning human being, there is absolutely nothing in this world you can't do given the proper desire and dedication to learning it.  These are all skills that require practice to gain mastery, so you won't be able to instantly do something, but that doesn't mean you never will.  Look at your life and think back to all those things you "can't do".  Think about the excuses you give for when you don't succeed and think about how often you give those excuses rather than finding a solution.  There are people in this world that simply find excuses for why they are in the situation they are in.  They blame it on everyone except themselves and refuse to acknowledge that they have the power to change their situation, but that requires more work than sitting around and making excuses.  Do you want to be trapped in your situation or do you want to be something else?  Do you want to someone who never can do things, and who says "I can't" or would you like to say "I can't yet, but I will!"

What's important isn't to try and be cute and funny all the time and broadcast your flaws like it's something to be proud of.  Rather, wouldn't you rather impress those around you by saying "Yeah I don't know how to do this one thing, so I decided to learn how." Rather than saying, "I can't cook, I could burn a glass of water,"  You should look at skills you haven't learned yet as exciting challenges that you can master and then become good at not unmovable obstacles that you just aren't good at.  The second an excuse enters your mind stop and and instead find a solution.  As they say, excuses are like butt holes, everyone has them and they all stink. 

In the end you should want to surround yourself by positive people who see challenges as nothing more than a puzzle to figure out, not obstacles that are impossible to get around. Don't play the bubble-headed ninny who can't do anything, but rather be the strong, clever, and determined person who defeats challenges rather than plays the victim so others will dote on you.  If you play dumb you'll only attract dumb.  Play smart, and get people of a better caliber.  

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 56
On my outing yesterday I saw these neat sculptures in the lobby of the building I was working in.  It's funny because this morning when I was scrolling through Tumblr I saw a similar set of horses made of wood instead of metal but of a similar design.  Anyhow, I thought they were neat!

Meeting Goals

Well, it's not an official goal for the year, but it helps set me up for my goals for the year so I'm happy to say that I have gotten my hard drives under control and neatly organized.  I've deleted off hundreds of MB worth of information and freed up space for my project to get videos and photos organized and set up.  It took a lot of time and as we speak there is still a queue of file transfers going on, but everything is now organized and in a logical space.  There's probably still some that I could review and probably throw away, but I didn't need to go through all my teaching documents right now so they are fine being in a snazzy little folders that says "teaching". 

On the downside it seems that there are some compatibility issues with my video editing program that I prefer to use and some of the old format items that I'm trying to get uploaded.  In the end I have four possible workarounds so I'm not dead in the water or anything, but it is annoying.  Some of the workarounds would require the purchase of additional hardware or software, which I'm not keen on, and one of the workarounds is a bit buggy, but if I use any of them then I'll be able to load them to my preferred program and we'll be on the way to getting stuff done!  Over all, I'd say some good progress has been made today, and I hope to have more major progress as time passes over the next few weeks.  I feel like the hardest part so far is behind me.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 55
Today I had to trek across half of campus to get to a different building so I could "usher" all the hoards of people that were coming to a lecture.  Turns out that we had about 70 show up, which looks a little bad in a room that holds 500+ (we blocked off the balcony so the main floor holds a bit over 300).  Despite all that, the room was freaking beautiful.  So that was nice.  The downside was that I had to walk all the way across main campus to get a bus back to North Campus.  Not amused since the windchill felt like -8.

Oscar Review

Well the party was a good time as always. I ate way too much candy, but sometimes I can't resist Reeses Pieces or Peanut M&Ms.  I did not eat too much popcorn, which is good, but I did make too much popcorn (even though we made the bare minimum).  It's ok because we still have way too much popcorn supplies that we're never going to use and will eventually go stale.  So overall the event was lovely and a nice time.  We had some good chatting about the movies and the ceremony, though I'm sad to say that I lost my crown and Becky is now the champion of the Oscar predictions.  I only got seven predictions correct, while she got I believe 10.  Jasmine tied with me, so well done there.  Guess I'll have to work hard next year to try and regain my title.

As for the winners themselves, I didn't really see many of the movies so I can't comment too much on it.  I was a bit surprised that Birdman won, I kind of thought it'd go to Selma (even though I hadn't seen either, it just seemed like that was they way they were going to go.  I'd love to see both, and I'm very intrigued by Birdman.  It seems kind of weird.  I wasn't surprised by Eddie Redmayne's win because that is just the kind of thing that the Academy loves, an actor portraying a physical or mental struggle.  The Grand Budapest Hotel won a lot of side awards like Best Score and such, which I expected.  It's the kind of movie that wins things, but doesn't win the big categories.

I did get Patricia Arquette correct in my predictions, but after seeing Boyhood I really didn't think she deserved it.  Even from the clips they showed I thought her acting was just terrible.  The showed a clip of her doing the exact thing that I thought she was the most terrible at, which was fake crying.  It was like watching a young high school student try to do it.  Somehow she got the Oscar for it though.  I don't get it.  Pretty much anyone else on the list probably deserved it more.

So, another year down!  I'll have to plan better for next year's event.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 54
The reason I get so many Sal pictures for my picture of the day is that my day is the least interesting thing that can be, but I get photo updates at work of what's going on at home with Sal.  And she's so cute!  I mean, really, that's probably the best thing I'm going to see all day, so yeah.  Also, goofy face.

Party Time

Tonight is our third annual Oscar party.  It's not really anything too fancy, unless you count the cheese plate and the tomato tarts as fancy.  Thought in their defense they are paired with candy and popcorn to make a nice movie theater going experience.  This year I was super late on the planning, and for some reason I thought the Oscars weren't until March.  Then again I didn't realize we were starting the final week of February and I keep thinking that we have another week before we arrive at March.

The movies up for best picture I'm also not really familiar with.  I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Boyhood.  That's it!  Two!  Last year I think I saw all except two.  It's not that I don't want to see them either.  In fact the only one on the list I'm not all that interested in seeing is American Sniper.  The others (Birdman, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash) I actually would really like to see.  I'd especially like to see The Imitation Game, and the Theory of Everything.  Though, Birdman is getting a lot of attention and from clips I saw when Michael Keaton was on The Tonight Show, it looks pretty interesting.

So, tonight we'll have our little party, I'll defend my two time reigning championship of Oscar predictions, and we'll see how Neil Patrick Harris is at Oscars (since he's great at other hosting gigs).

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 53
The worst thing about tummy time is that Ronan gets all interested if we go over and look at her.  If we're not near her Ronan is totally uninterested.  If we are near her then it's time to lick her ears.  I've realized that she's taking up a lot my pictures of the day, but I've been really bad at taking pictures of other things, but I take tons of pictures of her.

A Farewell To Lame

Well, I've finished my second book of the year.  I wasn't sure what to read after Children of God, so I was poking around the bookshelf and decided that since I hadn't read any Ernest Hemingway and decided on A Farewell to Arms since it was the only book of his on the shelf and it seemed like a good sized book.  I feel like I shouldn't form an opinion on an author, especially one that apparently is supposed to be some great writer, but after one book I feel like he's really just a shitty writer.  He uses run on sentences frequently. Much of the book was useless conversations that served no purpose and didn't even really add any depth or interest to the characters. His dialogue was in no way how people actually talk (even given the difference in time period, it was not good dialogue).  Basically I felt like I was reading the writings of a 15 year old boy that had never really written before and fancied himself a writer.  The story was winding and really uninteresting, the characters were flat and boring, and the ending was abrupt and seemed more like he got tired of writing and just decided to stop.

Someone saw me reading this and said, "oh I love that book." Why?  Seriously, why?  It reminded me of some internet fan fiction written by some internet troll that spends most of his time being a terrible human being on comments of YouTube videos.  The best I could say about it was there were a few points that were mildly interesting, specifically when he was retreating from the front, and then in the boat on the way to Switzerland.  Other than that it was like the script of some terrible reality television show played by high school theatre actors who don't quite know how to act.

Basically, I thought it was crap and I don't think I have any interest in Hemingway.  I plan to read something else since he's supposed to be so great, but I don't have high hopes after reading this.


Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 52
I don't know why but this is another one of the many Sal pictures that just makes me laugh every time I see it.  Something about her face and that look she's giving me cracks me up.  I also feel like in that little swaddle thing she looks like a little bug, or a butterfly without wings.

Stir Crazy

I'm going stir crazy today.  Seriously, I've got this list of things I want to do, and I'm stuck not being able to do them because I'm stuck at work, or because other people aren't really doing their part which is stalling me out.  The solution is to find other people, but the problem is that there isn't anyone super motivated to replace them.  It's really starting to annoy the hell out of me because I want to keep momentum going.  An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and that's true of me.  I need to keep moving otherwise things slow down and then go nowhere.  I don't want things to go nowhere, but at the same time I can't push the rock uphill alone.  I need help doing it.  MEH!

It's making me kind of cranky.


Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 51
This is from 10:00am.  When I left the house this morning it was -15.  Listen here, winter.  It's almost March, and that means you need to cut this shit out.  You're supposed to start getting a little milder, you're welcome to dump snow, but this negative business needs to end.

The Decider

So in the end I decided to drop my Thursday class.  I think it was the right decision and I feel like my stress level has dropped a good 20% knowing that I don't have to sit in class every Thursday until 9pm.  As it turns out I can take the same class over the spring/summer semester and it's about 30 minutes shorter, so if I really want to take it I can still do that starting in May, so I think that's a better alternative since it would be the only night class I'd be taking so it wouldn't be so terrible.

However, in related news I'm really pissed off because they released the schedule for summer and fall and it looks like there is not one class that I can take for my program.  I have three freaking classes left, and not one of them is available.  There is one of the three that is running, but it's at noon on a Tuesday or something similarly useless.  The other isn't offered, and the third I can't take until I take the class they're offering at noon on a Tuesday!  What is wrong with them.  That means in all of 2015 they didn't offer any classes when I could take them for my program.  I mean I have the technical skills for the most part, but there is still some design stuff I need to finish.  I may poke around on Lynda.com to see if they have anything that I could do to teach myself.  It's really absurd that a community college doesn't offer classes in a program at night when a good portion of students need night classes.


Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 50

Sal and I doing our regular lounging around watching Star Trek.  Tonight's episode, the one where the Captain has to go back into Tuvok's memory to his time on Excelsior to figure out a repressed memory. Way better than the ones from season two where Tom and the captain became giant salimanders and then had babies, or where Neelix and Tuvok became Tuvix due to a transporter accident (though that one had some nice undercurrent about life and death).  Anyhow, good times.

Long Days

Monday and Wednesdays are long days, and when I get to the end of them I feel so drained.  I'm also feeling really stressed out and trapped again about my job.  It's great! I get this overwhelmed feeling followed by the feeling that I'm slowly being squeezed and that my chest is going to be smashed and my heart is going to explode.  It's delightful.

Basically that's how I feel every time I try looking for new work because there isn't any.  The only thing that I'm "qualified" for is more of the shit I'm doing now, and I obviously don't care for doing that.  I don't know enough to do anything with my computer work because I don't know JavaScript, PHP, or any of the other languages that every job apparently requires at the moment.  There are no teaching jobs so I can't do that, and other than that there's nothing for me to do. 

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 49
Extra meetings today means I had to make lots of coffee.  I never know if the coffee is any good since I hate coffee and it all tastes terrible to me.  The best is having to wash the pots though, because the opening is not big enough for my hand, so I have to use a sponge and a letter opener because we don't' have a vendor that sells one of those dish wash sponges on a stick, and I'm sure not going to spend my money to buy one.

The Barrier

I've been working on three projects quite steadily the past month or so, but I feel like I'm at this barrier that if I could just cross I'd be able to rocket ahead pretty substantially.  I'm not sure why it seems to be getting stuck but I feel like I'm getting slowed down and can't get enough momentum to get it over the wall.  I keep working at it, but it feels a bit too much right now.  I think that may be part of it, the project is really large and it can be very overwhelming to try and work on it when it's so big.  It's like trying to row across the Atlantic, it just seems so vast that it would never work.

So far my strategy has been to just try and keep things in small parts and trying to only focus on those specific parts and not the entire project as a whole.  I suppose that is helping as I'm making progress, it just feels like I'm not.  It also sometimes feels like it's way too much work for only one person to do, but I don't know anyone really who could help.  I'm the "expert" in this subject so I can't really outsource anything at the moment.  There may be a time where I can get some people to help with finding things for me, but right now it's just me in a boat along rowing across the Atlantic.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 48
My mom got this pretty awesome gift for Sal to put up in her room.  It's a wooden base with this on the front.  Looks like an old movie poster from when it originally came out which I think it neat.  Pretty neat!

Overbearing

If there is one thing I hate more than anything else, it's school group work.  I absolutely can't stand to work in a group with other students.  I don't like my grade dependent on someone else and their varying degrees of focus and discipline.  I don't trust others to do work, or if they do to do it to an acceptable level that I would feel comfortable putting my name on.  Group work is basically something I attempt to avoid at all cost because it is pretty much the worst.  I can work with a partner if necessary, but group work not so much.

Cut to today in class where we were put in groups for our first project. Apparently when we walked in he had already put the class into three groups, however it turned out we were missing over 1/3 of the class who decided to just not come in so the instructor decided that how about he split the people who decided to show up into two groups and then everyone who decided not to show up was in their own group since we shouldn't be punished because other people didn't show up.  I was very appreciative of that idea, however the group was just every other person and I'm not a fan of my group at all.  I've got one guy that is ok, but is very remedial in his skills related to this class.  I've got one girl who has a strong language barrier and there were multiple times where there was misunderstanding between the instructor or group members and her.  Finally there was one woman who seems technically illiterate, and I'm not even sure why she's in the class because this isn't something she wants to do so I don't know why she'd take an unnecessary class on it.

To add to that our language barrier group member also has a very overbearing and controlling personality, which isn't necessarily good for this project because when you want to brainstorm you need to just write everything down and then come back afterwards to look at it.  You can't pick other ideas apart as you go because then it seems like you're just shooting down everything you hear.  In fact she and the other lady got into it about the concept of our first movie and the other lady said "So are we writing this as a group or are you just doing it yourself?  I thought we were doing this as a group."  And she's right, the overbearing girls seems to want it to be her specific idea and doesn't really want to take anyone else for the most part.  I attempted to settle one dispute by finding a way to incorporate both ideas, but in the end I think this is going to be a huge pain in the ass.  I think once the script is settled on we may be fine because then it's just doing the actual work or shooting and editing, so that's not a big deal. 

I don't know, I would have preferred doing this individually or in pairs, I'm not sure this format works well for a larger group because getting everyone to agree can be hard when there are strong personalities.  In the end, the concept is good, but they're going in the wrong direction if they want to make a good movie. Perhaps we'll be able to work it out.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 47
A bit of sun, though freezing cold out.  It was -11 when I came to work this morning. For a few minutes I thought perhaps due to cold they cancelled classes for the local schools but then I realized it's President's Day.  I'll be glad when it's warm.

Blast From the Past

I got an e-mail from my distant uncle about two weeks ago with an audio file that he asked if I would burn to a CD and give to my gran.  Turns out the audio file was an interview he did with my great grandma back in 1978 that he recorded and though that she would like to hear.  It was really kind of weird to hear my great gran again after she's been gone for 22 years.  People say that you forget how people sound, and that I guess is sort of true. I remember her voice but it wasn't quite the same once I actually heard it again. However, at the same time I remember her voice from when I last knew her, which was over 10 years after she was recorded on this tape.  I didn't get to listen to the entire thing, it was about an hour long, but I did listen to about 10 minutes of it and it seemed pretty interesting because she was talking about family history.

I haven't hear what my gran thought about it but she seemed pretty excited when she called to tell me that she got the CD to work (originally she thought it wasn't working but then got it to). It's going to be totally different for younger people today because everyone walks around with a video camera in their pockets.  They can take video anytime they want and it won't be uncommon to see and hear people once they're gone.  I will have video that my daughter can watch or my grandchildren can watch long after I'm gone.  They will have tons of pictures and movies of me as a teenager, in school plays, hanging out, going on vacations.  They will have an interesting picture of my life, in a way that I don't have of my parents or grandparents. 

Just something I was thinking about recently.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 46
A little Valentine's Day selfie from yesterday.  I did the math and it turns out that this year was our 17th Valentine's day together.  I recall the first year where I made Becky cookies.  Well actually Lonnie wanted to make cookies for his girlfriend (or potential girlfriend? I don't recall) also, so he came over and we made cookies.  However he insisted that they be pink so he put a ton of red food dye in the chocolate chip cookie dough... it didn't change the color, but you could taste the dye so after he left I made Becky fresh cookies that didn't taste bad.  Funny times.

Salintine's Day

Some friends of ours decided that they wanted to host a little get together today and call it Salintine's Day.  So we went over there this afternoon and had some nice snacks and hung out for a while with everyone.  It was really nice, and they've actually been really supportive and kind with the whole new baby thing.  They made us some nice prepared meals that were frozen and we just had to pop them in the microwave or oven.  They're just in generally really kind people and I appreciate that.

Not much other to say today.  Just appreciative and grateful for kind people.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 45
So, to continue the Saturday tradition I'm posting the activity from class today.  Basically we had to take a feather animal and a furry animal and merge them together on this background.  We then had to add something else.  So, this is what I did.

Oh, We Got A Comedian...

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is video production, which I believe I've mentioned is something that I've wanted to take for years.  I've fiddled a bit on my own with things but I'm already learning things I had no idea about.  I've even learned not production things like how to save any YouTube video to my desktop so that I could use it in my own video.  It's amazingly easy and I had no idea.

This week was interesting because it started with our first class on Monday where we learned about the cameras that we will be using.  After learning about how they work and the basic functions that we should be aware of we had to go out and do some shots from a sheet and then upload them to our computer.  It was pretty simple and was things like a big close up, five different shots of the same thing, someone walking, a wide pan, just basic stuff like that.  We had about an hour and were working with someone else (though we each had to do our own shots and didn't share them).

Well our second class was putting them all together to to make one "movie" of all our shots.  It wasn't going to be a terribly exciting movie give what the clips we had were.  He told us to add sounds and transitions and such things just to practice with using the program and seeing what there was already loaded in terms of music and effects.  I was a bit bored with it so I decided to just do whatever and try to make it as interesting as possible.  In fact after I got it going I thought it was pretty funny, and kind of giggled at my own work as I turned it in.  Well, then he informed us we'd be watching everyone's movies.  Instantly I realized I'm not as funny as I find myself, and now everyone is going to watch my weird movie.  Had I known my audience was more than just the instructor I may have come up with something else. 

For your viewing pleasure I have decided to let you watch it:


Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 44
I wonder what exactly she is thinking when she looks out at nothing and has this face of concern.  She's just staring out into space thinking about something.  Or she may just be concentrating really hard on preparing to load her diaper.  She may just be making mental notes on things she has to do later.  Also, she is adorable.

Too Much

Next week my third class of the semester is supposed to start and I'm beginning to feel like it may have been too much.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to drop it or not, but right now I'm heavily leaning toward dropping it.  Being in class two nights a week until 9pm is a lot, and I don't know if I really want to do that three nights a week.  It'd be one thing if it was only an hour or maybe two hours, but two nights of my classes are 5:30-9:10, adding a 6:00-8:55 another night a week where I'd have to sit around campus after getting off work seems like it isn't something I want to do.  However the class is supposed to be "blended" where most of it is online and the meeting times are for labs and exam.  So I'm not sure how much time I'll actually be using in class on Thursday nights.  I think I have until March 6th to decide if I'm going to drop it or not, so maybe I'll go to the first class and see if it seems like I'll need to be there every week or that I'll need to be there all night every week.

Really, I just want to be able to go home, have a meal, and be with the family and the idea of three nights a week plus half the day on Saturdays is feeling like a lot to do right now.  I mean, in the end I could do it, I just don't know if it's something I want to do.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 43
Look at her making silly faces now.  Recent discoveries have been that she has a tongue, and that she can move her mouth in different ways.

A Tragic Day

Jon Stewart is leaving the Daily Show.  What is going on with the world!  First we lose Colbert, and now Jon Stewart is leaving too?  I mean, sure John Oliver has a show on HBO which is great, but Jon Stewart, while hosting a "fake news" show that commented on the news was very important for the news in general.  He put light on hypocrisy and the foolishness of the media as well as politicians and those in power.  So now who is going to step into that spot?  What's next?  Who will be taking that role, and will they be able to do it the same way that Jon did?  Will they have that voice and speak to the things that a lot of people feel?

Part of me wonders if someone else can really fill that role the same way.  Jon Stewart started in 1999, and that was a different time.  He has gone through the transition with us, gone through the major events like 9/11, the Bush years, and all the nonsense that has gone on.  It's a lot to have gone through and that builds a kind of unique relationship with the viewers.

I wonder where he will go next, and I'm sad we never got to go to a taping of the show.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 42
One of Jon's bits is that he will say terrible things are "brought to you by, Arby's." As a little joke.  There's no real reason for it, but it's something that you probably have heard if you've watched the show regularly.  Well shortly after the announcement broke that he was leaving the show I got the following promoted tweet in my feed which I thought was hilarious.  Well done, Arby's.

Breaking Better

Season four of Breaking Bad has been really hard.  I've felt like it's been dragging and filler, which has made it really hard to watch.  After watching a couple of episodes it seems like I was still exactly where I started and still had a long way to the end of the season.  Basically I became very bored with the show, it became constantly this state of "them meth boys in a heap of trouble" that was really kind of boring.  Basically I wanted to just finish it so I wouldn't have to watch the show anymore. 

The last few episode have finally felt more interested and I've enjoyed them a lot more than the rest of the season.  Specifically there is an episode with our main "villain" (I guess he's a villain if you consider Walt the "hero"), gets some revenge in a way that was really good.  Then you had the season finale that I just watched that while being very predictable really moved the plot along and was excellent.  I mean, I totally saw a lot of it coming once they showed you all the parts, it was clear what the plan was, it was clear how things were going to pan out, and then having seen the episode name I even suspected once the climax came and it seemed like things were going one way that when they panned the camera over we'd see things differently.  The one thing I didn't necessarily predict was what Walt apparently did to get the entire thing moving.

To be honest I don't like Walt and I never have.  He's rather disgusting and nasty.  He's not a good person and while he's doing this for his family, I don't think that really redeems him.  He's petty, he's got this inferiority complex that compels him to do things that just makes his situation worse, he's prideful in a negative way, he's not very attentive as a family member and seems to spend more time fighting than actually being there when he knows he has limited time left.  Yes, it's all for them apparently, but really all the things he's done and trouble he's caused those around him makes me expect that he's not going to make it out of the 5th season, and I'm not sad about that at this point.  I think he probably deserves it.  His wife isn't much better, I don't care for her attitude or the way they interact.  Basically I feel bad for the son.

Anyhow, four seasons are down, one to go.  Given how season four ended, I'm not entirely sure what the point of a 5th season is other than to kill Walt.  If he were to live it seems they could have just ended it at season four where things are all tied up and he could continue on doing whatever, maybe he dies of cancer, maybe he doesn't for some time, maybe he's hit by a bus.  Either way they could have ended it, and I'm wary to go into another season given that the "villains" have resolved their issues with Walt.  Guess we'll see.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 41
It was sunny today and the sky was super blue.  It's days like this that I enjoy working in a building with so much natural light.  Well I actually always like lots of windows, but the point is that it's especially nice on sunny days like today.

Lyin' WIlliams?

I don't spend a lot of time watching the news on television, I get a lot from tweets or from news locations that I follow on Facebook.  I do record the NBC Nightly News and watch that ever day, it's only 20 minutes when you take out commercials and it covers a lot.  It's not the greatest as often the top story is weather or something stupid when there's a lot going on in the world.  They also spend a lot of time at the end leaving on a high note (I think because everyone says "the news is too depressing, I don't watch it).  However, I do generally get the major stories that are big at the time, and also get some smaller interesting stories that I might have missed otherwise. 

I like NBC, and I like Brian Williams who anchors the broadcast.  A few days back he said something about a helicopter story from 2003 but I was not fully listening as I was feeding Sal so I didn't catch exactly what the issue was but gathered enough that there was an error in reporting.  Well since then the story has become more widely discussed and it seems that in 2003 there was a report while Brian Williams was covering the Iraq war, then a few years ago he was on David Letterman and told an exaggerated story about the event from ten years ago, followed by a report later that talked about the original incident, but instead of sticking to the original story it used the embellished story.  Basically, Brian Williams lied on the air.

So, what's the big deal? Well, unfortunately he lied on the air about a story.  It's a stupid lie, it's a lie that doesn't really mean much in the context of the story itself, however in the broader view of things it undermines the trust of the public who consumes the news.  It immediately makes you question what else was lied about, especially in an environment that is distrustful of institutions. You can't be someone who presents the news if you are someone who isn't honest. 

At the same time you have Fox News that reports verifiable false information with no remorse and they are allowed to operate and are one of the most widely viewed stations. Or other stations reporting speculation that often it gets wrong. How does that make sense?  It's no wonder that institutions aren't trusted when you have constant erosion of credibility?

Right now Brian Williams is on leave while they investigate.  I really like him, I like the Nightly News even if it is less than robust, and I wonder how this will turn out.  I don't know if he can come back from this because broken trust is hard to regain, or at the very least the image of trust that NBC News will want to maintain.  In the end I think it's less about Brian Williams and more about what the news is and the need to be credible after years of failing to do so. It's why shows like The Newsroom really appeal because it is the way we all hope and wish news agencies operated, in the interest of the public and to challenge and report on things that should be seen in a republic if it is to operate properly.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 40
Had to take something over to the UPS box next door, but rather than putting on a coat and going out into the cold I just took the tunnel.

Creativity

Friday I was doing some creative sort of work and it was suddenly evident that what I'm doing now is not me, it's not the kind of thing that I need to be doing, and that I enjoy more creative things, even if they are technical.  Making coffee, printing invoices, handing our parking passes, it's a total waste of my time and does nothing at all for anything that I want to do with my life.

I had a great time doing the creative things that I was working on.  It was a lot of fun and things were just flowing right out in a way that they haven't in a while.  I probably came up with two dozen ideas while I was brainstorming things for one of the project that I'm working on.  Sure, many of them will be nothing, but that's what brainstorming is, throwing things out there and seeing what sticks. 

Anyhow, the point is I really enjoyed myself and that sort of thing is what I should be doing.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 39
I may have a new photo for my phone lock screen because this is totally cute!  She's just started to learn that she has a mouth. She's been sticking her tongue out and doing silly things with it, and then randomly moving her face around, which sometimes results in a smile.  What a little cutie!

Slow Down

Why do weekends go so fast?  It seems like I blink and it goes from Friday evening to Saturday night and I've only got one day left filled with chores and work before I have to get back to work.  Really, I think three day weekends are the way to go.  The five day work week is hardly balance.  Surely balance would be three and a half days of work, three and a half days off.  That's balance.  Five days on two days off seems to have the best interests of a company in mind, not the worker.  I'd even go with 4 to 3, but 5 to 2 is just not good enough.

That being said, today went well.  Class was ok, but I think I need to move seats away from teen trashy girl squad that sits and talks all class about their boy trouble.  Like, it's 10am on a Saturday, if you didn't want to be here then don't come.  After that we had a great time visiting my gran and then out to visit Nick, Mandi, and Jamie.  Delicious pizza was had, and Emma the dog found her new best friend in Sal.  It was really cute because she just wanted to keep licking Sal, and barked at anyone that moved her or took her away.  As the kids would says, "totes adorbs"

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 38

This was the second little task that we had to do in class today.  Basically we had to take the photo of the Weinermobile, and photoshop it into another picture, then find a third item (I decided on the storm trooper) and photo shop that into the picture as well.  It wasn't for a grade other than a check mark for having tried it.  I wasn't super careful, but I thought it turned out ok.

Trust The Cookie

I know I've often talked about how frustrating it is for me to be in a situation where I have no visible means of escape.  I've described it as being lost in the dark and not knowing where the exit is.  Well, I got a fortune cookie this week that said that I will "soon find a way out of the maze" and I have to say I really should trust the fortune cookie.  They have actually been pretty good with things back when I we were trying to get our house as well as a few other things.  Generally speaking the fortune cookie has always done well.

So, should I trust the cookie?  Is there a way out of this maze I'm in and can't seem to get out of?  Where I keep trying different paths but end up still stuck?  Trust the cookie?  Does the cookie know?  If so the cookie should get on it and let me know.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 37
I got this lovely photo while I was at work of miss Sal sitting around chewing on her hand.  It can be hard to be at work when I'd much rather be anywhere else.  It's even harder when I could be at home with my family.

Children Of God

I've finished my first book of the year so that's 1 out of 18!  I started off my reading year by finally getting around to the sequel to The Sparrow, which was called Children of God.  The basic idea of the Sparrow was that alien life was detected on a nearby planet.  The first organization to fund and mount a expedition was the Jesuits.  So a team of priests, linguists and scientists make the journey to the planet on what they feel is a mission from god to discover the origins to the beautiful music they heard.  Things don't go well and only one priest makes it back to Earth, severely injured both emotionally and physically.  Children of God picks back up where the story left off and is about that priest returning to that planet after what happened to him.

The one thing about this book that made it difficult is that it shifts every few chapters to a different point in time.  It was exceptionally difficult in the first book, but less troublesome in this book.  I really enjoyed it thought, it had viewpoint of first contact and the mistakes and misunderstandings when two cultures encounter each other for the first time, kind of like what happened in the Americas when Europeans arrived.  It was also quite religious which you would think would be something that I'm not into, but given the story and what goes on it actually works fine and doesn't bother me to much.  Generally I'm fine with other people having religious as long as they don't force it on everyone else.

So, first reading down, really enjoyed it.  If you're into history or sci-fi you may find it a very interesting read and I do recommend both books.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 36
Keys aren't very useful when you leave them in your desk all night.

Classy

Today my second class of the semester started, and this one is on video production.  To be honest I've wanted to take this class for at least 10 years or more since they first started offering digital video production. The guy who teaches it used to teach at UM but left to go to WCC so he could design the entire program.  Before UM he actually worked in production doing mostly work on commercials, so he seems to know what he's doing.  He also seems like a nice guy.  There's also a Lab Tech who says he did cinematography work on Sherlock, though I wonder why the hell he's at WCC if that was the case.  I can't remember his name, so I can't look him up to find out if he's just messing with us or not.  Though, why create distrust on day one?

The class seems like it will be fun, and I'm glad I got to take it.  Though I'm starting to rethink my choice because it goes from 5:30 till 9:00pm every Monday and Wednesday.  I'm not looking forward to that schedule.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 35
Becky found these at the store, and being a collector naturally I want them.  I think they are paperback though, and I'm not a fan of paperback.

Lie Down

I feel like I'm always talking about people being honest, and how lies are useless and basically when you lie you're saying that you think the other person is too stupid to actually know that you're a liar.  I'm sick of talking about those things, but I'm also sick of dishonest people.  I have a long and well experienced history with people who lie.  There are a lot of things they do that give them away.  I've learned how to see those things and I have a good sense of when something doesn't add up.  I'm able to quickly process information and I have a strong skepticism where I don't just buy things but I consider them first.

That being said, there is nothing that makes me more angry than being lied to.  You may do something I don't like, I may be angry, but I will burn down the world when people lie. It is one of the few triggers that I have that will take me from zero to rage and it's one of the most damaging things you can do. When I catch you in a lie it will do far more damage to things than if you're just honest.  I might be angry but it's something that I'll get over.  If you lie that is something I won't get over.  It's forever damaging and once I lose faith in someone it's nearly impossible to regain it because you have already proved yourself to be deceitful. 

I don't like being lied to, even if it's to spare my feelings.  I'd rather know where I stand then think that you're a liar.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 34
These balloons were found today hanging out in the Office.  Why are they here?  Where did they come from?  There was also a mess in one of our conference rooms that makes me wonder if someone had some sort of Super Bowl party in the office where we have the biggest screens?  It's weird, I don't get it.  No one claimed the balloons so I was instructed to deflate them and throw them away.

How Blizzard

In the words of Mr. Garrison, "well slap my ass and call me Charlie!" I had a snow day today!  Apparently there have only been two days where things have closed at the University in the past 28 years!  As I was heading up to bed last night I was talking about how I wasn't sure if I would make it in to work with my little Focus, and then I get a text telling me the office is closed.  This was such great news because I had no desire to come in to work today.  Instead I got to spend time doing some things on the To Do List, and just being with Becky and Sal, which was lovely.

I also spent a lot of time yesterday and then again today digging out the driveway so that I can hopefully get to work tomorrow.  I was able to get the Outback out and made it up to the library. It seems that if I can make it to my mail box I should be fine since someone plowed a bit and the neighbors used snow blowers on the road to make it so cars can get through, which is awesome.  Side note, this is the first big snow we've had and I have to say that the Outback is an excellent car and goes through the snow like it's not even there.  The Focus on the other hand I think was going to have a heart attack just moving it into the driveway.  I'd like to get a new car, and now that I know how well the Outback is it makes me want something similar, though I don't think we'd need two.  Maybe a Crosstrek?

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 33
I'm not sure how much snow we got due to drifting. Mlive says we got 14 inches, and in some areas it's deeper than Ronan is tall.  This is a view out the back window.  I love untouched snow, it's one of the best things ever.  I also love when there's been wind and it makes those ripples in the snow as it drifts it off in other directions. 

Welcome To February

Welcome to February everyone!  In the realm of months February is one of my least favorites.  In fact I pretty much dislike everything from about January 10th till about March.  It's that long period of cold nasty that just drags on and feels like time isn't passing.  It's kind of like driving at night were it's just dark and there's no indication that there has been any movement of the clock.  Such is January and February.

However, we are now in the second month of the year which means that I need to take a look at the first month of my goals to see where things are!


Goal Number One - Get A New Job: I've been looking, but I haven't applied for anything this month.  I haven't really seen anything other than admin jobs that I'm qualified for and that's not something I'm overly interested in doing.  I did have a day where General Dickface got really shitty with me because his office was too hot and I actually was so angry I put together a budget to see if I could just sub and get a part time job.  When the numbers were depressingly unsustainable and resulted in utter financial collapse by June I got in a bad mood and then was cranky for a bit.

Goal Number Two - Read At Least 18 Books:  I got a bit of a late start to reading this month and didn't pick up my first book until the 16th.  I've only been reading on my break and the writing style for the book takes a bit to get used to so it's not a very quick read.  I am nearly finished with it, and I'm enjoying the story despite the heavy religious nature of the book.  I think I have maybe 80 pages left or so, so I expect to have it finished later this week and get 1 of 18 out of the way.  I also need to read a couple plays so I expect next month's count will be much higher.  No concerns about meeting this goal.

Goal Number Three - Go Out West: It turns out that I have more vacation time than I thought I did.  In fact looking at my balance today I have an hour more than I should, and 8 hours more than I thought I would have.  Basically I though I used all my time up for Sal last month so that on February first I should have 8 hours.  Well I have 17 hours, which is more than I thought.  Why does this matter?  Well, because going out West will require time off, and having an extra day will mean there is a better chance of building up enough time to go somewhere.  That being said, the question will be Sal.  If we want to go out West the major attractions will be natural parks and outdoor activities that I'm not sure a child under one year of age will be suited for.  So what will we do?  Is it weird to leave your kid with Grandma to take some time off?  Older kids now, but at what age is it ok? 

Goal Number Four - Be Consistently Active: My activity level has increased.  I'm not at my full goal of at least 30 minutes a day, as I missed some stuff early in the month but I have been slowly increasing my activities which is good.  My biggest immediate concern is finding the time once I'm in class till 9pm three days a week.  I already leave the house at 7:15, and not getting home till 9:30 three nights a week really cuts down in the time available for activities of any variety.

• Subgoal 1: I missed my step goal for January by 121,735 steps, which averages out to about 3,900 steps per day.  I'm not surprised because the beginning of the month had a lot of inactive days.  I've seen a gradual increase over the past few weeks which matches my new activity goals so I expect this to improve and I hope to chip away at that year to date.
• Subgoal 2: I missed my 30 minutes of activity per day by 316 minutes, which is about 5 hours, or about 10 minutes per day. That's not too bad as I had to make up a lot from the first two weeks.  I've been getting better at that, so I expect more improvement next month.
• Subgoal 3: It's been too cold to run, but it is my priority to finish this and to see about runnign a 5K this year.

Goal Number Five - Digitize My Photos: No work this month.  I haven't been in my office much given that I have a baby now.  I will complete this goal this year though.  I'm also taking some photography/Photoshop classes, so it'd be good to learn some before I do this.  I've already found some things I wasn't aware of before that will be helpful.

Goal Number Six -  Have Seven New Experiences:  Well I think we can count the big "I'm not a dad" thing as a new experience.  In fact, I'm going to count two here because becoming a dad is a big experience to have, but also sitting with my wife in an operating room during a c-section as also a big experience that was very stressful and a little bit scary.  It's also weird because there was this strong smell like when you go to the dentist and they drill your teeth, only much stronger.  So those are quite the experiences to have three days into the month

Goal Number Seven - Projects: I've actually done some work toward my projects.  I've done some budget work for the theatre company.  I've done some research work for the history project, I've done some organizational work for the video project, and the only thing I haven't done much for is actually the family history project.  So some movement is going on, nothing to show or share, but things are happening. 

Secret Horcrux Goal 8 - Mood: I feel like in general I've been in a much better mood this month.  Part of that may be that my life has changed and I have this cute little baby to help me forget about the things that are bothering me.  That's a good thing!  Regardless of the cause I feel I haven't been so glum, angry, or frustrated.  I also had a feeling of kind of peace and positive outlook come across me the other day, so I think this "goal" is in a good position right now.

Well, there we have it, one month in and things are happening!  I expect to see good movement on all of these, and I'd love to reach December 31 and say that all the goals for 2015 were met and to have totally new goals for 2016!

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 32
Well Sal was born 4 weeks ago yesterday, and her one month is on Tuesday, so I figured a cute little picture of her today would be the best thing as we just lounge around the house avoiding the snow.  Though, I will have to go out and shovel eventually so I can actually drive to work tomorrow.  And I'd better move the car into the drive so I don't have to worry about getting plowed in if the truck ever shows up. But hey, cute baby!