This one's for the kids, well sorta

There's a few stories in the news lately that just make me want to give people a good, hard, unforgiving bitchslap. Maybe I'm starting to get old, but I keep finding myself more and more saying "What the fuck it this world coming to?" Seriously.

I'm going to start off by saying this, in no sense am I trying to tell anyone that may be reading this how to raise their child. I'm not a parent myself. I do have a goal some day of being a high school teacher and I currently substitute teach, so I do have a bit of an interest as I do work with children. I can't tell you how to raise your kid, I'm not sure about that myself. I can, however, point out things that are severely fucked up.

Now that I have that out of the way, here's the news story that got me started.

Girl, 6, thrown off squad over ‘booty’ cheer

So let me get this straight. Girl comes home and practices cheer, mom finds it way inappropriate, mom complains, gets a run around, mom goes public, girl is no longer allowed to cheer. Did I miss something? I have to say, I think the mother was in the right here. Congrats to her. Lets take a look at the cheer, shall we?

“Our backs ache, our skirts are too tight, we shake our booties from left to right!”

WTF? Now I'm not prudish in any way, but even I have to say that sounds at least a little suggestive. It's certainly not something I want to hear out of the mouth of a 6 year old. Why do we have 6 year olds chanting this? Who runs this squad? Pedobear?

It would seem to me that the right thing would have been to go with a cheer that would be more appropriate for 6 year olds, not something that might entice a pedophile. But what do I know? If I heard a 20-something say the same cheer I'd want to see her booty shaking in the tight skirt.

If that's not fucked up enough, the related stories that were linked annoyed me further. I got to say, it's rather disturbing. Little girls dancing rather seductively to "Single Ladies", 6 year olds in heels, and 8 year olds getting bikini waxes. What the fuck is this world coming to? Where does it stop?

Really? What ever happened to allowing little girls to look and act like little girls? Just a thought. The song "Girl Poison" by Angelspit comes to mind here.



Am I the only one that's finding this to be severely fucked up? Am I over-reacting? Let me know.

If there is no God, there is no right or wrong.

Only nature.

So says a fundie.

They say the damnedest things, don't they? But let's take a look at this idea, shall we?

For starters, I'm an atheist. I do not believe that any god exists. I have yet to see proof of such. Because I don't believe that God exists, I don't believe in right and wrong. Murder, rape, theft, and eating babies are just fine by me. It's OK in the animal kingdom, so it's OK for people too. Right?

Of course not.

The reality is that I actually do have a concept of right and wrong. Fundies would say that I do because God gave me one. Wrote it on my heart or some nonsense. And because I have a sense of right and wrong, I know that God exists. Sounds a bit like circular reasoning to me. I'm not buying it. If you bought it, I suggest you take it back. According to some of the things I read in the Bible, this God makes folks like Hitler and Stalin look like amateurs. Why anyone would agree that they are made in his image is beyond me. I'll get to those things in the Bible later. Let's talk about where right and wrong really comes from.

I'm going to focus on the big wrongs, things that are usually touted as absolutely wrong. Murder, rape, theft, and deceit. Seems like every time I get in an argument about morality with a fundie the question of one of those always comes up.

"Is Murder wrong?"
"ummmm, yeah!"
"Absolutely wrong?"
"I think most people will agree that murder is wrong."
"So you do believe in absolutes!"

Yeah and it just goes from there. So why is murder wrong? Animals kill members of their own species and humans are animals, right? Yes, humans are animals, but we are an animal that understands that murder is not conductive to the survival of our species. It doesn't really fit in to how humans organise themselves into societies. Same goes for those other wrongs - rape, theft, and deceit. Throughout thousands of years of human evolution, these concepts have become part of our nature. We need to be told murder is wrong about as much as we need to be told to hold our breath when our heads are underwater.

There's a bit more though. Weird thing about humans, we can feel what it's like, to an extent, to be another human. We can project our feelings on to another of our kind. We can understand the feelings of another of our kind. Those things being said, if I, as a human, understand that something is harmful to me, then I understand that it is harmful to another of my kind. I wouldn't want anything harmful done to me, therefore I shouldn't do harmful things to others of my kind. Harmful things tend not to be good for survival. If an animal understands anything, it understands what it needs for it and it's species to survive. Our needs as humans are a little different from what other animals need so we tend not to do exactly as the animals do. This is why we don't eat our babies. This is why males of our kind do not regularly gang rape females of our kind.

It is nature, our nature as human beings, that dictates right and wrong, not the nature of how other animals behave. God does not make right and wrong. We do.

And if you are still looking to God for your moral absolutes, maybe you can learn a thing to a few from this video -



So what say you? Did you really need the Bible to know that murder is bad, or did it just make sense without you being told anything about it?

And here's a rare point where I agree with President Obama

Ain't this just a grand country for allowing me the freedom to disagree with the guy in charge with out the risk of getting myself in a lot of trouble?

Yeah, well I'm not disagreeing with him on something he said in his 9/11 speech -

"As Americans we are not — and never will be — at war with Islam," the president said. "It was not a religion that attacked us that September day — it was al-Qaida, a sorry band of men which perverts religion."

Source

I really wish more people would understand that. I don't hate Muslims, I hate al-Qaida. Just the same, I don't hate Christians, I hate Westboro Baptist Church.

There's no sense in hating a religion as a whole just because some assholes that pervert the religion do very awful things. Hate only those that committed the act, not the faith they claim as theirs. Why does this seem to be so hard to understand?

One pastor decides not to burn Qurans today, other's might though.

Rev Terry Jones has decided to cancel the Quran burning planned for today. He's gone to NYC to have a meeting with those in charge of the mosque being built near Ground Zero. I'm not sure what if anything he hopes to accomplish, but he says he's trying to persuade them not to build it.

Well good for him. That's a lot more civil than burning Qurans. I'm glad to see he came around.

Wish I could say the same for others.

The Phelpses of Westboro Baptist plan on burning Qurans and American flags today. I'm not surprised really. Heck if they would have announced that a few weeks ago, the publicity could have been all theirs.

Pastor Adam Briggs of Damascus Road Bible Fellowship is still voicing his support for burning Qurans, along with other books as well. This guy has some serious issues. I think he actually gets off on burning books.

Both Phelps and Briggs are total fucking douchebags that are an embarrassment to the human race as a whole. I've had my run-ins with Briggs before, he's a whack-job if I ever saw one.

But enough about those scum. This is not a day for their self-righteous attention whoring. This is a day for those who died to be remembered. A day for those in our military to be thanked and honoured. A day to show those that attacked us that we remained strong.

Rogue chose this song to honour those in the military the last time I saw the Crüxshadows, I can't think of a better song.

I bought some new music, let's review it!

One of the main things I go to DragonCon for in recent years (besides the scantly clad girls) is the music. And it seems every year there's more and better bands. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

I picked up 3 CD's at DragonCon this time around - Dying and Falling from I:Scintilla, Hate Lives In a Small Town from Voltaire, and Celldweller's self-titled album.

OK, ladies first. Well at least the band that's fronted by a lady first. I was trying to explain I:Scintilla's music to my father. Normally I don't discuss music with him because to him The Rolling Stones were the greatest band that ever and will ever exist, but their frontwoman, Britney Bindrim, is related to one of my dad's oldest friends. I:Scintilla is kind of a mix of metal, punk, and electronica with rather amazing vocals. Britney has some serious pipes and the drums guitars and electronics back her up quite nicely. If you are into metal or industrial, I suggest you look them up. If they are coming to your town, I suggest you see them. They put on a good show and I actually think they sound better live than on the CD. Speaking of the CD, Dying and Falling has a rather good mix of music on it. It's a great showcase of many of the things the band is capable of. There's a mix of fast and moderate, hard and light, guitar heavy metal and electronic. While I can't find a song on it I don't like, Ammunition has got to be my favourite. Also, the album art is pretty cool too. It's all paintings by Britney Bindrim.



Next up is an old favourite that did something unexpected and it turned out pretty cool. In fact when I heard of this album I actually thought it was a joke. Voltaire's latest album, Hate Lives In a Small Town, is a country album. I was talking to him about it at DragonCon after having heard a few of the songs he posted on Facebook. I thought it was good, but not what I would have expected, then I got to thinking some of his other songs did have a country feel to them. He even said a lot of his songs actually are or can be country songs. Honestly, I hate country music. Oddly enough, so does Voltaire. However the country music on Hate Lives In a Small Town is not modern country, but more old timey country. Think Johnny Cash. Now think Johnny Cash with Voltaire's warped and spooky sense of humour. That's about what this album is like. If you like old timey country and western, you will probly like it. If you don't like that, well, listen to it anyway, you may like it as well. If you like anything Voltaire has done in the past, you will like it. I enjoyed it and like I said, I hate country.



Finally, a band I never heard of before. They have been around a while, I just somehow missed them. Celldweller is a one man act, that one man being Klayton. Klayton is a very cool, very talented and very nice guy with a pretty damned impressive resume. I'm surprised I never heard of him. I've heard his music before and probly so have you. He's done a lot of work in T.V. and movie soundtracks. My girlfriend wanted their CD after we saw their live show at DragonCon. I wasn't about to tell her no, I wanted it too. The live show was just wow. A mix of very hard rock and pounding electronics with 2 really busy guys switching between keyboard, drums and guitars, singing and dancing all the way coupled with intense visuals on 3 screens. The CD provided more of the same, sans visuals of course. I'm glad I went to their show, more so that I bought their CD. If you like your music intense and aggressive with rock and classical influences, buy this CD. Seriously. If they (should I say he?) are touring anywhere near you, go see them. This is another CD that not only can I not find anything I don't like on it, I can't even find anything I can call my favourite, it's all that good.



So yeah that about covers my DragonCon music purchases. Just another reason I'm broke at the moment. And another reason for the Perseph - A - Thon. I know I haven't been making a post every day like I said I was, but I'm going to try to make up for that this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the music. I might be back later with a rant later on, watch for it.

The first (and hopefully not) annual Perseph-a-thon.

Yeah, so I spent more than I expected to spend at DragonCon and well, I think I might have to sell my ass on the corner to pay my bills. I'd rather not do that, care to help a guy/girl out?

I may be exaggerating. I'm not really that bad off, but, well I could stand for some cash. I need things that I can't afford. OK, I really, really, really want things I can't afford. And it would make it a bit easier to pay my bills. Or at least help me avoid a late fee or two.

Yeah so I've been a little irresponsible and I'm looking for you the reader of my blog to bail me out. Hasn't that been done before? Like I'm recalling someone that got them self into debt and set up a website to take donations to get out of it. That's kinda what I'm doing here though by my next paycheck I should be alright. Though I do have my student loans and a credit card that I'd really like paid off. Wanna help me with that? Heck, now that I think of it, that would be a better place to spend any monies donated rather than on the other things I want.

So you want to help me get out of debt? Sure you do.

Wait just a damned minute. This changes what I had planned. I was originally looking for money for a new camera, a new laptop, a good quality steel boned corset for me and another for my girlfriend. Was even going to offer to model said corset, and try to get my girlfriend to do the same. Wow. I've got some nerve, don't I? Trying to get the Internet to help me buy stuff when I have loans to pay. I really ought to be spanked. No, wouldn't do any good, I like that.

Plans changed for the better. And if I can get at least one of those debts off my back, that would make life a bit easier and make things more affordable. So, how about it? You do want to help me right?

Right?

If you decide to, and I hope you do, click on the tip jar in the sidebar. It goes to my paypal account. And if you are reading this on my facebook, here's a link to my blogspot blog.

So what do you get out of this? That's a good question. My gratitude not enough? That warm fuzzy feeling you get when you have done something nice for someone not enough? Since I'm taking the more responsible approach, pictures of me tarted up in a new corset are not going to happen anytime soon. But I will post them when I do get that corset. Until then, how about some new and interesting content? I'm considering a change with this blog. Instead of the whining I usually do about my life or my job, I'm looking at doing more rants about things in the news or just some general rant about something. I would like to do one a day. Something like some of my more recent posts to my blog. That work for ya? New and interesting post every day? At least for a start? Then further down the line maybe some new graphics?

That's what I'm thinking. If you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.

Also, if you are like me and rather short on funds, just click a google add or 2 every time you come to my blog. It's not much, but every bit helps. Exactly one month from today I'll post what was donated before sending it to those I owe. Thank yous in advance.

For once I'm not bitching about my co-workers, but still bitching about my job at the hotel

I don't know if there's any way to completely avoid having parties in rooms, but if there is, I'd like to know.

Honestly, I don't care what people are doing in their rooms, even if it is a party. I've been to quite a few parties in hotel rooms, even hosted a few. Never was a problem for hotel staff and certainly was not at all rude to them. However, when my phone rings at the desk and there's a guest complaining about noise on the line, I HAVE TO care.

I have a splitting headache right now. Been dealing with drunk, stupid, and just flat out annoying people all night. Had the police here three times so far. I'm just sick of it all. So sick of it.

I'm going to take a little bit of time for some therapeutic venting about some of the more ridiculous things I hear from guests when I have to tell them they need to shut the fuck up, erm I mean quiet down.

Which room was it?

No, I'm not telling you which room. Does it fucking matter? You need to shut the fuck up that's all you need to know, that simple. Now shut the fuck up. No, you can't smooth it over with them. You woke them up or you are keeping them awake. Shutting the fuck up is the best way to smooth it over. SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Do you know how much I spent? Do you know how much my group has spent?

I don't give a shit. If I really want to know, then I can look it up. I'm the auditor, I can do that. Turns out, I don't care and it doesn't make a difference. You need to shut the fuck up. Do you think there's some point where you have spent enough money that you can be allowed to do whatever you want and ruin someone else's stay in the process? Am I supposed to tell the person being deprived of a night's sleep that their complaint is irrelevant because of how much money you spent? If they or their group spent more, does that make their complaint more relevant? Just shut the fuck up, you are making yourself look more like an asshole.

Go ahead! Call the police!

OK. Start packing your bags now. Could have been avoided if you just shut the fuck up.

I'll have your job!

You really want it that badly? I'll take a night off, I need it. You can tell people to shut the fuck up. How about that? Oh? you want me fired? For doing my job? Good luck with that. My manager will be here in the morning and I'll still be here at night. Seriously, has any hotel employee that works in any security capacity been fired for addressing a noise complaint? No, they haven't. Save yourself the waste of time. Have a Coke and a smile, and shut the fuck up.

But it's a wedding!

Yes it is, and you had your reception in one of the banquet halls. Now you are in your room, now you need to shut the fuck up. Does that negate the fact that you are keeping people awake? And what are all these people doing in your room anyway? Party's over, get to fuckin and shut the fuck up.

I'm calling my lawyer! I'm suing you!

Cool. See you in court. I'll bet the judge tells you to shut the fuck up.

I know the owner!

So do I. If he were here right now, he'd tell you to shut the fuck up. (OK, I don't know that for sure, but if I were the owner, I'd tell them to shut the fuck up.) - True story, I called a guest's buff one time and told them I was the owner's son and this hotel would be mine someday. Know what they did? They shut the fuck up.

But what if.....

The only "what if' you need to be concerned with is what if you don't shut the fuck up. I'm not here to talk hypotheticals, I'm here to tell you to shut the fuck up. What part of "Shut the fuck up" don't you understand?

How about I....

How about you shut the fuck up? This isn't a negotiation, I'm telling you to shut the fuck up. It's not a topic for discussion, you need to shut the fuck up.

I feel so much better now. For the record, I have never actually said "shut the fuck up" to a guest. I may have been holding back the urge to once or several times. I really feel I have to say that. Sometimes the things I say here get back to those I work with. I wouldn't want them thinking that I get as foul with the guests as I do in my blog. And if they are reading this and not having a good laugh, they really need to just shut the fuck up.

$578M school? You have GOT to be kidding me

I saw this in the newspaper this morning and it about blew my mind.

Yes I still read an actual newspaper, I'm kinda old school.

Yahoo News linkage.

Now most people that know me know I'm going to school to be a public school teacher and I substitute in public schools currently. I'm all for improving education, but L.A. is doing it wrong.

From the linked article-

"New buildings are nice, but when they're run by the same people who've given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they're a big waste of taxpayer money," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. "Parents aren't fooled."

I certainly hope they are not fooled, especially after reading this -

The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation's second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.

Am I wrong when I say this is like slapping some bling on a rusty old beater that barely runs and overheats on the way to the corner store?

Did I just say "bling"?

These "Taj Mahal" schools as they are being called make even the colleges I went to look like slums and I would be hard pressed to believe the children attending them are going to get anything close to the education I had. Even if they did, that still doesn't justify the price.

I think the money could have been better spent on several smaller, simpler schools. Schools with relatively small classroom sizes. Better yet they could take it a step further and on the high school level have career specialized schools. Something like one for the arts, another for trades, another for science and engineering and so forth. These are just ideas that are bouncing around in my head that seem to work pretty well in other parts of the world where the schools don't have massive atrium's, parks, food courts, and buildings that resemble modern art masterpieces.

Here's a really radical idea in education. No text books, no computers, none of the modern "Taj Mahal" school things. Teach the way it used to be done, through lecture and have the students take notes. As archaic as it sounds, it worked great at one of the colleges I went to - Cambridge University. I learned more there than at any other school I attended and I was there the least amount of time, just a summer. I retained most of it too. I was hearing it, seeing things on boards, slide shows, pictures, diagrams and the like and writing it down all the way. Filled up 3 notebooks while I was there! In addition to that I also hand wrote 5 research papers, each about 2,500 words in length. My research was done the old-fashioned way - in a library with books. Part of that was in the same library that Newton calculated the speed of sound in, but I got myself permanently banned for reenacting his experiment.

There's a point to be made with such a radical, yet very ancient, idea. Students to not need all the expensive things that "Taj Mahal" schools have to learn. These things are nice, but are not going to do diddly for education. If I were a taxpayer in California, I would be totally fucking outraged. If I were a teacher in that school system, I'd switch to a private school if not open up my own. With 3,000 teachers laid off, it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to band together and show their former employer how it should be done.

A few muslims are terrorists, so let's burn a Quran!

Let's not.

Before I get started on what I know is going to be a long rant, take a look at these links-

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68592

http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Burn-A-Koran-Day/134718123226530?v=wall

Yeah, I know the first one is a forum post that links to the second, but there are quite a few people there that are all for this. If I were not currently banned from that forum, I'd post a link to this if not just post the whole thing there. If anyone would like to do that on my behalf, I'd be pretty cool with it. I'd like to get some comments from those that support burning the Quran or any other book. You know, have like a discussion?

I'm very against this. I know not all Muslims are terrorists. The people behind what happened on 9/11/2001 were, but they only represent a relative few that are extremist fanatics. Nearly all Muslims I have encountered are pretty nice. Aside from that I am against book burnings in general. Nearly all books serve either a purpose of education or entertainment. I think it's completely asinine to to burn a book because you don't like it or don't agree with it. Burning a religious text carries a bit of added weight as that text hols a pretty special meaning to those who are members of the religion that is attached to that text. Burning a holy text is purely an act of hate and ignorance.

From the Facebook link -

On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!

Did I read that right? In remembrance? That alone is something I've got a pretty big issue with. There's a lot better things one can do in remembrance of those that died that day than commit a blatant act of hate. It's total disrespect! Why not have a big group prayer for those that died, their families they left behind and the soldiers still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? I don't believe in praying as I am an atheist, but I do understand that most people that belong to one religion or another do. That's at least respectful. Or how about some big charity fund raiser for the families of the victims? Or send care packages to the soldiers? Or just do something positive and respectful?

But there's other problems I have. As I said, not all Muslims are terrorists. Islam is the second largest religion and accounts for 23% of the worlds population, about 1.57 billion people. At least that's what Wikipedia tells me. It's only a relative few, pretty much their equivalent to militant fundamentalist Christians, that do commit terrorist acts. It seems rather asinine to burn Qurans over a few when many of them are not bad people at all. It would be like burning KJV's because the members of Westboro Baptist Church are total fucking douchebags. In other words, committing a hateful act toward a large group is just ridiculous when only a few are the problem.

And about burning the Quran. It's a religious text. Just a book to anyone else, but to a Muslim it's pretty special. Burning it is only going to make the terrorist fanatics fell justified in their actions and at least annoy the rest. Not to mention make those doing the burning and anyone even remotely associated look bad. Great move there folks, you are doing America a real solid. If any reading this is planning on participating in burning Qurans, before you do, think about how you would feel if it was your holy text that someone was burning.

Another thought on this, where are they going to get the Qurans from? If they are going to acquire them legitimately, well that's a lot of sales of Qurans. The people publishing them and the bookstores I'm sure will appreciate your money. Heck it may even look like a lot of people just converted to Islam. And if they are acquired not so legitimately? Well isn't there something in the Bible that says "Thou shalt not steal"? Hmmm Exodus 20:15, Matthew 19:18, Romans 13:9. And it's usually in the front of the Bible with the rest of the 10 Commandments. So if you are not purchasing your Quran before you burn it and you believe what the Bible says, you are going to Hell. Why not give that money to a charity? You know, do something positive with it? A Quran costs between $8 and $40. You could feed or clothe some people with that. Heck if a large enough group gave that each, they could probly put a child of one of the victims through college, if not a few. Just another thought.

Another thing to those that are planning on burning a Quran. Have you read it? If you are going to buy it, you might as well read it before tossing it in to the fire. If anything so you really know what you are burning and why you are burning it. You might learn something. I suggest you not burn it. Read it and keep it as a reference. It may come in handy in a theological debate with a Muslim. It's why I keep a Bible handy as well as having BibleGateway.com bookmarked. This quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War comes to mind.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Not that I consider Muslims or Christians to be enemies of mine, but I do get into debates with them, mostly the latter. Getting back to the point, burning any text without reading and understanding it is just ignorant.

In closing and to sum it up, anyone that is participating in a Quran burning is only exposing their hate, ignorance, disrespect and just being a total douchebag. I feel like for the most part I'm preaching to the choir here, but if I change someone's mind or cause them to think, well them my time wasn't completely wasted. At least I got it off my chest.

So what have I been up to lately?

Quite a bit. Honestly, I spend most of my time exhausted when I'm not doing stuff, but it keeps me out of trouble. Here's some of the highlights:

Thanks for the overtime, could have done without the bad mouthing though.

So Tuesday morning I had to call the GSM of the hotel I work for because there it was 7:15 am, I'm all alone, she's the only one on the schedule and I just heard from one of the maintenance guys that there was an accident that may have been on her route to work. Now I thought I was nice and respectful, I even felt a bad about waking her up, but according to what I have been told, she had a bit of a different story. I'm not sure exactly what was said, but apparently I was shitty to her. I also heard she got corrected by the same maintenance guy that was present when I called her. Oddly enough, when I called her back later on because I noticed I left with the desk keys she didn't seem to have a problem with me then or when I saw her Friday when I picked up my check. Heck, she was pretty nice both times. I thought about confronting her about it, but I'll be over it once I'm done typing this.

Yeah, I'm over it.

Look Mom, I know you are trying to help me here, but I'd rather carry 100 pounds of lead than 10 pounds of feathers!

Well, my mom is out of the hospital, but not quite 100%. I've been helping her out. Kinda wish I could do more. One big thing though is doing the grocery shopping for my parents. May not seem like a big deal, but try carting a weeks worth of groceries across town taking buses and walking. Every week it's the same thing when my mother is giving me the list - she keeps worrying about the weight of the things, I'm worried about size. I'm built like an ox, I can carry a lot of weight. I'm not very big though, and my backpack can only hold so much. I try to keep it limited to a full backpack and 2 bags. I don't care if the backpack is full of canned goods, that's cool. But when I'm carrying a family size box of waffles, a bag of hoagie rolls, a big bag of chips, etc. well space gets to be at a premium. And in case anyone it wondering, my father can devour a family size box of waffles in a few days all by himself.

And speaking of my father....

There's some program he's on now. It's like a day care for geezers. As opposed to putting them in a nursing home. I'm thinking it's not very good. He goes on the days my mom is at dialysis. So my mom has to get him ready before dialysis and usually take care of him when he gets home. He's come home a few times with a Depends full of shit and piss. Also, I don't know what they are feeding him there, but his blood sugar has been higher than ever a few times afterwards. The program he's on is called PACE. I don't know all the details, but if things don't straighten out, expect a rather big long rant from me after we get him out of the program.

And all that being said....

It's getting up on the end of my shift here at work, which means my computer time will be significantly limited until I come back to work. I still need to buy a new laptop. I still can't afford it. Well I could afford it just fine if I was not going to DragonCon.

BTW, you can help me in a small way be clicking on the Google ads, or in a slightly bigger way by clicking on the "tip jar" in the corner.

Mom is home from the hospital, job search continues

She's not back to herself, but she's trying to make as little work for me as possible. I really wish my father would do the same. He wants to be lazy, have everyone do everything for him but won't go into a nursing home. Like he would rather make life hell for me and my mother. It's like he's trying to make himself weaker too. He can get around using a walker, but insists on using a wheelchair instead. He'd make a bed-ridden invalid of himself if he could get away with it.

In other news, remember that job interview I had?

Well, it didn't happen. I had to call and rescheduled due to my relief coming in 10 minutes late. Which caused me to miss my bus. And the next one was late. Yeah, got fucked over by both my job and public transportation. Not cool. And when I called and rescheduled I only got to talk to a voicemail. They never returned my call. I called again Tuesday, still no returned call. Really not cool. I don't think I would have gotten the job anyway. Too corporate. I doubt my current haircut and colour would have flown. And the last time I changed my look for a job I regretted it. I'd rather not do that again. Though I did meet some cool people so it wasn't all bad. Still when your boss seems to be more concerned about your grooming that how you do your job, something is seriously fucked up.

I'm still on the hunt for something else. Been thinking maybe it's time to do something that is not hospitality. Not sure what though. I've been a Help desk person, network admin, college teacher, substitute school teacher, mechanic, hotel desk guy, night auditor. I've done a lot. I'm not even sure where to go from here. I want to be a high school math teacher, but I need to finish my degree first.

I'm sick of dealing with stupid bull shit like what I had to deal with tonight. Why can't people just shut the fuck up when I tell them other hotel guests are complaining about their noise? And why do they have to tell me how much money they are spending? I don't give a shit. What makes people think that the amount of money they spend invalidates someone else's complaint? What am I supposed to do? Tell them, "I'm really sorry, the people that are keeping you awake spent more money than you so you are just going to have to put up with it." Yeah, I'm sure that will go over really well.

It's been a while since I've said anything, but I've got a lot going on

Let's start with the really big deal, my mother is in the hospital. She's got Mercer. She went in soon enough though. She's on some serious antibiotics. I think everything will turn out OK. I can only hope for it. She went in Friday. I found out after returning from a job interview, but I'll get to that in a moment. Since I have been busy with work and taking care of my father. And not sleeping much. My father is a lot of work, he really needs to do more for himself or go back into the rehab center until he can. They sent him home way too early.

I don't know how my mom does it honestly. Since my father has come home from the rehab, he's like a big baby. A 250lb, 74 year old baby, with a really bad attitude. And it's not because of sickness and old age, but that he has made himself dependant on anyone who will do anything for him. He's not doing anything to get better and attempts to get him to are met with him whining "I can't!" Seen it too many times when the therapists are over. He's a handful for me and I'm young and healthy.

Last time I talked to my mom she was doing well, or about as well as can be.

I mentioned I had a job interview, didn't I?

Yeah I'm really pissed with my job again, so I was doing some vengeance job hunting. And I got a response. And a interview this past Friday. It went quite well and I have another interview in the morning. If all goes well, I will be a call center supervisor. Heck, I'll take just about anything that pays the same or better to get me out of here. Not much has changed since I bitched about it here before and what really irks me the most is that some people can't bring themselves to show up for work on time. Like I really want to get out at 7am, when I'm supposed to, but I looked at the schedule and I know that's not going to happen. And depending on how late they are, I could be really fucked over for time. Not cool, really not cool. I made about 2 hours overtime last week thanks to my co-workers, but you know what? I would have rather they got here on time. It's not fucking rocket science. I get to work on time nearly every day and I use public transportation. Seriously, what the fuck? How can you work at the same place for years and never show up on time? And not get fired over it?

Great job done today by PSTA at 6:45 PM, left a pregnant woman and several others behind at a stop.

I was one of those others and here's the complaint I just submitted to PSTA. I really need a car.

Myself and several others were waiting for the northbound rt18 in front of the Dollar Tree at Largo Mall. This bus arrived just behind the southbound rt 18 and the Westbound rt 59. While those other 2 buses stopped at the stop and waited, bus #2202 went around them and kept going, only stopping well behind the stop to let passengers off, not giving any time to allow any one to get on the bus. People were left behind at this stop including a pregnant woman. Most of the others at the stop that needed this bus,including myself, ran across the parking lot to catch it at the other stop.

This is just another in a long list of complaints I have had about your service. I really wish at this point that I could afford a car so I wouldn't have to use you shoddy excuse for a public transportation system.

Need help deciding on a laptop

With a better soldering iron than the one I have, I might be able to fix my Dell. The power connector has gone bad. Actually the connection between it and the motherboard is what has gone bad. As I said, with a good soldering iron I should be able to fix it. According to Dell, I should be replacing the motherboard. I've looked at new and refurbished cards online and $300-450 is way too much to soak into a 3 year old laptop that has had a quite few issues since I bought it. If I can't fix it, I'm going to have to replace it.

The question then becomes what with? I at least need something that can handle Eve-Online. I haven't played Eve in too long and I miss shooting at Amarr. If it can run Eve, it can run the other games I like. I did see this Toshiba at the local Walmart. Less than $400, meets the requirements. Not sure how good of a laptop it really is though. I don't want another Dell. I will not buy another Dell product again. I'm open to suggestions here. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I don't want to buy a piece of junk either.

So can anyone recommend a good laptop with a good graphics card that's not too terribly expensive?

Can we start blacklisting people and organizations again?

Really can we?

Here's a case in point - tonight at the hotel that I am working at we have this group that is being rude to the staff and guests alike, acting like they think they own the place, being drunk, loud and otherwise obnoxious. They stayed at the hotel last year around this time and acted the same way. They were at the hotel I used to work at and were no different. In dealing with their leader guy, they think because they are spending what they think is a lot of money, they can do what ever they want. Meanwhile I have guests that are complaining about the noise. Amusingly enough they are threatening not to come here any more. Not much of a threat really.

Not the first time a dealt with a group like this. Or even an individual that acts this way. Sometimes I think blacklisting would be another method of recourse that might just reduce such instances. I could just see the potential for a group such as the one mentioned above to blacklist themselves out of places to have their functions.

Sadly there are just some people that will never catch on to the reason why people have a problem with them is because they are a problem.

Events like this also have me thinking about why people think that because they spent a given amount of money and/or have taken a given number of rooms that it entitles them have free reign over the entire hotel and not care that they are keeping other people awake or just being otherwise rude.

I think I'm done venting for now.