technospiritualist

Just another intelligent persons view on 3d movies – very funny!

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/3d_movies

I’ve thought often about lashing verbally out at the companies that cause me stress. Microsoft is probably at the top of that list, but currently Verizon has vaulted into first place.
Dietlinde and I were forced to get Verizon DSL (stop your whining, guys. I don’t really need anything faster!), and at this point, I’m ready to declare that I would rather have my organs scooped out by dirty trained monkeys with really dull spoons than go through this horrible experience again.
We’ve talked to five representatives. Here’s a summary of the calls
Rep 1 lied to us (or was incompetent) about the charges that would appear on our bill. Also, either this representative added Recurring Credit Card payment, or someone or something else did, directly against my wishes.
Rep 2 was incompetent (or malicious) and failed to remove the Recurring Credit Card payment (see above).
Rep 3 lied to us (or was incompetent) in advising us that their “financial” department was closed after six pm, and they couldn’t help me with the above Recurring Credit Card payment, which caused my checking account to go into the red, and incur $32 in fees from my credit union.
Rep 4 lied to us (or was incompetent) in advising us that no, Rep 3 was wrong, and the “financial” department was closed after FIVE pm, not six pm (I work until five, and called right after work…)
Rep 5 told us that the “financial” department is really open 24 hours a day, and gave us a $10 credit on our bill (even though the $39.99 service I thought I was paying for has now cost me over $111.99 for my first months bill), so I don’t believe anything she has said.

If I was this pathetic at my job, I’d be fired, but I’m beginning to think they do it on purpose. Verizon has a history of “gray” financial dealings. Anyone have any other horror stories of this company? I’d love to hear them.

Matt

I have a secret to confess. I know a girl that has fulfilled a fantasy for me that most men (and more than a few women) dream of. When I see her, it’s always like we’ve never been apart. We always have something to talk about, we’re comfortable around each other, and we like to do many of the same things. When we can find the time to hang out together, which isn’t very often, we snuggle, we watch movies, we take walks and, yes, we have sex. I see her as often as I can, and it’s pretty tricky sometimes, getting our schedules to mesh enough to have some private time alone. But it’s totally worth the effort. Yes, she is my “FWB”, the mystical creature spoken of in dark corners of bars and living rooms late at night. We happen to be friends who happen to like being with each other in every way.

Now, this may surprise some people who know me. “What” they might exclaim “would your wife think?!” And that, of course, is the beauty of it. She KNOWS about it. She knows that I have a relationship with this woman that is simple and straightforward. I enjoy her company, and I enjoy her physical presence. She knows, because she is that woman.

I think the point I’m trying to make today is this; the terms husband, wife and marriage are so loaded with expectation, with preconceptions, with emotional baggage for many people, that they don’t actually understand what being married really means today.

I’m not going to say our marriage is perfect, or that we get everything right (Yes, Deet, I did finally take the air conditioner out of the window – today, during the snowstorm…), but we approach it with a common point of view, a common goal, and we remind each other of this often; we like each other. As people, as humans, as friends, we simply enjoy each other’s company and we respect each other. It’s been more than two and a half years and we still like each other, better than we did before.

That approach in our marriage to friendship is vital. If you say you want to marry someone because they are “hawt” or have money, or have the friends you want, or you like sex with them – and that is your primary point of attraction – then you run the risk of having what attracted you to them change or disappear. Likely someday they won’t be so attractive, they may lose their money, their friends may change, and you might not be interested in sex with them for ever.

Remember, the only two things that will be constant in your marriage will be you, and your spouse. If you don’t who they are very much, then you’re going to be in trouble. Make sure you actually like the person you’re choosing to be with for the rest of your life.

The pain was fast – it was always fast, and unseen – and I sprawled on the ground senseless for an instant.

The books that hadn’t cascaded across the tiled school hallway when he punched me left my right hand of their own accord, and I was on my feet in a blur of rage, blur of pale yellow wall swimming behind his head. My left cheek was hot and sore, sensory data that I would decode later.

The villain, Morgan Esser, danced in front of me like a mirage. He was fast, too fast for me, with reflexes he’d picked up in martial arts classes, courtesy of his rich daddy. I was moving towards him fast, reckless, swinging wildly, and missing just as wildly.

I was just barely aware of the crowd that had gathered like they were expecting a fight, and I knew somewhere behind the blind white-hot rage that they had been. I was the only kid in the Kutztown Area Junior High School that didn’t know I was going to be in a fight that day. Fuckers.

He decided out of apparent boredom to swing at me again. It’s funny, adrenaline. I could actually see the blow coming. Not at all funny, to him at least, was the fact that he missed. He missed me.

I raised my fist again, preparing to swing, and then it came to me. Morgan Esser was attacking me, showing his dominance over me with his body, picking off the weak Gazelle on the edge of the pack, yet he couldn’t even begin to touch my mind. I lived in a world he was completely unable to reach, let alone comprehend. My white hot rage was still there, but I realized that I could do something to him he could never control. I realized with crystal clarity that I was the one with the power.

I did the one thing they weren’t expecting, had no defense against, the one thing Morgan had never considered. I turned and walked away.

“Pussy!” I heard from behind me. “Come back here and fight, you faggot!” The words rolled off of me. I walked away, and with each step I took away more of his power, more of their power. They could have grabbed me, sure, but they didn’t. I had beaten them, because they knew I wouldn’t fight back. I would just take it, and then leave. So they let me go.

Morgan never talked to me again. He also never picked a fight with me again. Other kids still messed with me, knocked my books out of my hands, slammed my locker shut, pushed me down the stairs. They did what they could, but they did it from the shadows. I had beaten them all.

Later in life, I learned about Gandhi, and realized it wasn’t new, but I had learned it myself. Yay me, I guess.

A few months later, in my early days in the High School, a tenth grader gave me a nickname. Monk, he called me, because I was separate from them all. I was also lonely a lot, but that wasn’t new.

I don’t know where any of them are now, Morgan and the Fuckers. I don’t care. And why should I, except to thank them for helping me to learn? I don’t have to step on the bugs, but knowing I can, and instead I leave them alone, well, that’s made all the difference.

Someone once told me everyone was the same, that we were all equal. They were wrong. Some of us are better. Some of us choose not to be vermin, and some choose not to step on the helpless little bugs.

Ok, I know in advance that I’m going to catch flack for this one, but I’m compelled to write this blog, so here goes.

Americans aren’t special. Not one bit.

There. I’ve gone and said it.

I am sick and tired of hearing  news stories that go something like this;

1) Today, in [place country name here], x number of people died in a horrible and painful way. Thankfully, none of them was an American citizen.

2) This just in, a terrorist attack in [place country name here] has killed x number of people and wounded hundreds of others. One of those slightly grazed by a tiny piece of shrapnel, and enduring the tragedy of a few stitches, was an American citizen, and here’s his entire life story, along with video of his weeping relatives.

3) In [place country name here] someone said something disparaging about Americans, which might even have been true. The State Department, however, is mobilizing resources and special forces combat teams to bring the offender to justice.

Ok, ok. I’m exaggerating a bit, but you’ve all heard stories like this. It’s not really that far from the truth. And yes, I know I’m hearing this on mostly American-based news organizations, so there’s bound to be some bias. But I’m not really going out too far on the proverbial limb here.

The truth is, Americans are not special. Our country happens, for the time being at least, to be the Top Dog, and the Top Dog often commands more respect than they should. But really, America? Do you really think it matters more if a single American citizen is killed than if a whole ferry full of Bangladeshi people die? I don’t. We just aren’t that special, and it sickens me to keep hearing news stories like these. We are humans, just like everyone else, and only our extreme fortune at being born into the United States of America makes us stand out from anyone else. It certainly isn’t our humility that is doing it.

Here’s something to think about. On 9/11, almost 3000 people lost their lives in horrific terrorist attacks, almost all of them American citizens. Old news, but it still made big headlines a few weeks ago, during the 10th anniversary observances. It was a dark chapter in American history, and I suffered along with all Americans, and a good part of the world.

Plus, it made really good copy, and generated great headlines. It was a a perfect news story. Lots of death and destruction, tons of video and pictures to splash all over everything, and all packed into a very narrow span of time, to hold the typical American’s gnat-like attention span. There have been literally hundreds of commemorative works and books, magazine specials, movies and made-for-TV movies, works of art and songs, poems, newspaper articles and, and, and….

But lets look elsewhere in the world. You know, that annoying place that isn’t America?

To date – and the numbers I am about to give are only estimates – total casualties from the Iraq War (civilian – the majority – military and other, Allied, Iraqi and Insurgent) are widely considered to have exceeded 100,000 by most sources (such as the Iraqi Family Health Survey, 151,000 and the Associated Press, 110,600), and some sources place the figure much higher (such as the Lancet survey at 601,027 through 2006 alone, and the Opinion Research Business Survey, putting the number over 1 million as of 2007). Only about 5,000 of these terrible losses were American deaths, but they are the only ones you are likely to hear of.

Also, to date in Afghanistan, as a direct or indirect result of Operation Enduring Freedom, it is estimated that between 17,611 to 37,208 civilians alone have been killed. Numbers here are much less firm as the infrastructure of Afghanistan was already decimated when the Operation began, and these numbers are not including civilians killed by the insurgents in the country for their own reasons or as reprisals against those aiding the coalition.

None of these numbers even begins to consider the number of physically and mentally wounded people who will never be the same again. Just the forever dead.

Occasionally you hear about some student protest, or some celebrity or artist will speak about this massive and unneeded loss of human life, but that’s about it. Why? I don’t know, and I’m not going to try to guess. There are Atheists, Christians and others who are heart-broken by the unneeded deaths, and there are Atheists, Christians and others who are indifferent to this pointless suffering.

It’s about time we all talk about this. It’s about time we start calling ourselves HUMAN.

Sorry all. My internet has been down for weeks now (plus a long vacation), no nothing major posted in a while. Hoping to have internet back up this week (I’ll get you, my little Verizon! And your lousy tech support too!). Your patience is appreciated!

Hello, Everyone!
Just got back from a wonderful and well-deserved vacation. Dietlinde and I spent 11 days in California, 9 actual days on the ground exploring, and two traveling. It was tons of fun, and I feel like I was finally home somewhere. To my two dear brothers; Yes, I should have been born in California. Beyond a doubt.
New blog post soon. We’ve been having internet troubles and then, you know, vacation.
Cheers!

I love getting comments on my blog posts. On my most recent blog post, the comments were either neutral, or attacking my position. Let me be clear on a few things, in some sembalance of order of importance;

1) I love hearing views that disagree with my own. I don’t usually believe in them, but I do try to listen and modify my position if I am wrong. Please, PLEASE leave me your feedback, positive or negative. The only thing I want is civility. My blog is for a rational discourse, and so far, that’s the way it’s been. Thank you all VERY much for keeping your blowtorches in the closet.

2) I am not wrong in what I posted previously, and I stand by what I said. However, I was not telling the entire picture, just a piece of the story as I saw it.

3) Representative Boehner is of dubious political worth to me for two reasons. First, he is very tightly linked to lobbyists, and I will site Wikipedia for this.

A September 2010 New York Times story said Boehner was “Tightly Bound to Lobbyists” and “He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R.J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.“

There are other sources to find that support this position if you wish to look for them. What I’m saying here is plain fact, and can’t be disputed or refuted. But my point here is I don’t trust any politician who is so closely bound to lobbyists. They will skew an otherwise righteous man’s votes, and that is assuming Mr. Boehner started out as a righteous man. To this point, I have no evidence, and therefore no opinion.

4) Though I singled out Mr. Boehner, make no mistake, I apply this to nearly every single politician in Washington. Some are better and some are worse, but all of them are corrupt on some level. I voted for Obama (as if you didn’t guess already), and though I still think he’s doing an alright job, I didn’t vote for him to do an “allright” job. I voted for him hoping out of desperation that he could shake things up a bit. I guess I was looking for a Lincoln, and that’s not what he’s shown himself to be so far. Please see my upcoming blog on why the American system of elections is, in the 21st century, completely broken, and judge for yourself.

5) The Tea Party is suspect in my mind from the start. Screaming fascist rhetoric about how their views are the only correct views, and anyone who doesn’t believe them is a “Commie Pinko Faggot” (and yes, I use that strong language on purpose, as a Tea Party supporter once said that exact same thing to me) makes me doubt and dislike them at a very deep level. And though I know the “average” Tea Party supporter (whatever “average” is) is just looking for change so their country works again, the core of the movement is a radical one, and reminds me, the historian, of things I’ve heard said in 1930′s Germany. And if you don’t believe me there, again, look it up. Read about the rise of the Nazi party and tell me honestly if you don’t see frightening similarities. I sure do. And just to mention it in passing, the fact that the Tea Party generally supports people as “respectable” as Sarah Pailin, Christine O’Donnell and Michelle Bachman really frightens me. I live in fear that another Hitler will be voted into power. For those of you who don’t realize it, Adolf Hitler was voted into power by the people of Germany, who were hoping he could fix the economy and bring the glory and prestige of Germany back. Change “Hitler” for the latest Tea Party darling, and “Germany” for “America”, and the propaganda sounds very, very familiar.

6) Yes, to my Tea Party friends and relatives, I am anti-tea party, but that doesn’t mean automatically I am pro-left-wing liberal (or any other title for that matter). I want desperately for my country, the U.S.A. to function correctly. We are better than this.  And right now, we very much NEED to be better than this. Both sides. Democrat and Republican, Left-wing Liberal and Tea Party activist, and independents to boot need to come together and work as a team. Above your title of Liberal or Conservative, we are all Americans and, above even that, we are all Humans. Race, creed, color, gender, religion, it doesn’t matter. America is faltering. China and India are making serious attempts to put men on the moon, and we have just scrapped our last independent launch system. China’s military is growing faster than ours, and even if we’re still better, every year that margin shrinks. China has, in just 10 short years, been able to field their own unmanned drones, a technology that we’ve had to ourselves up to this time. And they have publicly announced they are building their first air craft carrier fleet. They are not resting on their laurels, everyone, and neither is anyone else. The world has become very dangerous for the United States, and our oceans won’t protect us for ever. And global warming is becoming an increasing problem. This past July, 2011, every state in the U.S.A. reported record breaking heat waves. That has never happened in all of recorded weather data, more than a century. Note even close. Again, if you doubt me, look it up. All sides need to work together, and they need to start now. Attacking each other is destroying our country. To quote a man far wiser than me, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. Obama is no Lincoln, so it seems we all need to step into the role, and do our part to get along. We need to look towards the future together, not bicker about the present, or argue about the past. Massive global change is coming very, very fast, and we are not ready for it. Are you ready for your children to grow up in a second-rate country? I’m not.

I fancy myself a historian – I should have gone to school to be a history teacher – but what we are all witnessing in Washington right now has no parallels that I can recall. Let’s review.

The United States of America, the most powerful nation – militarily, socially, culturally, economically – is about to default on it debts. As of this writing at 10 in the morning Eastern time, Saturday, July 30th, 2011, we are within 70 hours or so of being unable to pay our bills. Our bank account is very literally empty. If your personal bank account ran out, that would be a bad thing. If your bank account ran out, and hundreds of millions of people were immediately going to suffer because of it, that would be a very bad thing. If your bank account ran out, and the impact of that was enough to shove the entire economy of the planet Earth over the edge and into a recession – or worse, a depression – that would be catastrophic. However, that is exactly what the legislators in Washington are threatening to allow to happen, and for all the wrong reasons.

Now I’m not naive enough to say it’s the Republicans fault, or the Democrats fault. I’m also not an economist, but it’s clear to anyone that both “sides” are playing a dangerous game. However, my point today is this. Representative John Boehner, though not doing so well with the elected Tea Party candidates, is scoring points left and right with the general tea party electorate. In other words, the average Joe or Jane who identifies with the Tea Party thinks Mr. Boehner is doing a great job. And here is exactly what Senator Boehner is doing; Nothing.

For well over 200 years, our country has thrived because we were able to compromise. Mr. Boehner is turning that tradition on it’s head by refusing to compromise in any meaningful way. And lest you think I’m making this up, just go read the news. True, nobody really knows what is going on in the backroom deals except those individiuals involved, and they aren’t talking right now. But it is a matter of public record that President Obama – the Democratic president – has put the offer of cutting entitlement programs to balance the budget on the table. Let me repeat that. The Democratic president – and these are the folks that created and have repeatedly defended the entitlement programs for decades – is willing to consider cutting the “flagship program” of his party. He has even publically stated he’s willing to put his re-election in jeopardy to do what’s right for the country, and that is balancing the budget. I haven’t heard anything of the sort from Mr. Boehner. How many bombers and tanks is he willing to cut from the defense budget?

Our country has always thrived, and that’s because we’ve always been able to compromise. This current  battle – to raise the debt ceiling, and to make a real attempt at balancing the budget – is the most important decision to face lawmakers in a very long time. Some are even saying this might be the most important decision ever to be made in America. We need compromise, serious compromise, and we need it now. This isn’t Republican versus Democrat or Liberal versus Tea Party. This is really and truly one of those moments when we need to come together as Americans and fix what’s broken, not use the situation for political advantage to try to ensure re-election. This isn’t a game, this is our future. The entire world is watching in abject fear and horror, because if our economy falters right now, if we are unable to pay our bills, then the entire global economy is in peril.

Representative Boehner, it’s time to compromise. There’s no time left.