Wow!  So much has happened since that last ridiculous post.  I haven't felt inspired to write anything here in so long...  I began to wonder if I shouldn't just take it down.  Alas, I am too lazy for that too.  I have in the last two years got in touch with some long lost friends and lost touch with others.  Sadly I have even lost touch with some that had recently reentered my life.  But that's the way it goes sometimes.  I finished my Bachelor's degree and my MCSE cert for work, changed jobs and homes a few times and I'm even planning on continuing to get my Master's degree.  But in the end I still didn't feel that anything worth writing about was happening to me.  Or at least if it was worth writing about I didn't feel I could make it interesting.  Among the many things that I've done and  not done, I quit paying attention to MySpace and opened a FaceBook account and then subsequently quit paying attention to that.  Did I mention that I was lazy...?  Surviving a mediocre existence isn't as exciting as say being a spy but all in all I'm happy with the way things are going and for the most part I wouldn't change a thing.  One day you wake up, and your shocked at how little the kids know about what was pop culture only a few years ago and not only is mediocrity sneaking up on you but suddenly so is middle age!

In my search for employment I came to realize that I am a whore. I really don't care what I do for a living. I do have some preferences as far as what the job entails but ultimately I just want a paycheck and a reasonably comfortable lifestyle. I can keep myself happy with my hobbies and friends. Sure, it would be very kewl to have a job that I absolutely loved doing. But, my interests change from time to time. With a way higher frequency than one can change jobs.

Hey, I know, I like to do video editing one week and 3d animation the next and then later do special effects and maybe tweak out on a computer later. Oh maybe work in photoshop some occasionally. Um, let me see, oh I like to work on RC cars too and building models and drawing and working in graphic design. Reading I love to read, and learn new stuff too. maybe do some desktop support for windows and linux and mac and maybe even some unix. Oh and network stuff too like tcp/ip support cableing, switch and router configuration. If you know of a job where I can do all of that and do it when the mood hits me... I'll be great at it!!!!

I guess whore isn't the most flattering description I could have chosen. I guess I could have said I'm pretty mercenary when it comes to employment. But, why pretty it up with flowery, cool sounding words. If the price is right, there isn't much I won't do. And if you find something that I say I won't do... well, if you keep raising the dollar value of the offer, eventually you will reach a point where I just won't be able to say no.

I'm a whore.

I have recently located an archive of some of my favorite online story telling. I used to spend many hours ignoring users and work to read this guy. I absolutely love his sense of humor. You should definitely check it out. The Bastard Operator from Hell lives!

The BOFH Archive

The Rev pointed this out to me cuz I never woulda thunk to check but there's a hero quiz too... so I had to find out.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 65% Catwoman 55% Spider-Man 50% Supergirl 50% Robin 50% Hulk 50% Iron Man 45% Batman 45% Superman 40% The Flash 25% Wonder Woman 20%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 53% Green Goblin 52% Magneto 51% Lex Luthor 46% Apocalypse 41% Mr. Freeze 39% The Joker 38% Catwoman 37% Kingpin 35% Two-Face 28% Juggernaut 24% Poison Ivy 23% Riddler 21% Venom 21% Dark Phoenix 20% Mystique 20%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

Everyone thinks of evolution as that process by which mother nature advances the animals and brought humanity to our current level. No one considers the fact that evolution is still occurring within the human race. But, no one and nothing is directing that evolution. Are we doomed as a species? Will we ever evolve in a positive way? We are in fact the only species with the knowledge and capability to direct it's own evolution. Yet, we do nothing.

Evolution happens all around us. It's very slow in most cases, but we have been able to visibly increase the rate of change through selective breeding programs. That is how the domesticated animals, and plants, change and evolve. Through selective breeding. In the course of a single lifetime a good breeder can create from several breeds a completely new breed of dog or cat and have that breed accepted into whatever governing body there is for showing that animal. The Argentine Dogo (http://www.dogo.org) is a perfect example. This breed is less than 100 years old. And while it resembles other breeds, it is in fact a completely different breed of dog. Created through the will of it's breeders.

Humanity is subject to evolution still, but it is not directed evolution. We have removed ourselves from natural selection through the use of science. Not a bad thing in and of itself, but we are not controlling our breeding process at all. Generation after generation we reproduce and spread potentially lethal genetic mutation and our answer to that is more science, more medicine. We selfishly save those who could not survive on their own and then when they grow up, they selfishly reproduce. Simply put, this is bad breeding. If a professional dog breeder did this with it's dogs, they would go broke. No handlers would buy his/her puppies.

We have possessed the knowledge to control our genetic destiny for centuries. We have taken no action to direct it at all. Before you bring it up, the misguided attempts at racial supremacy are not what I'm talking about. I don't care about racial, religious or ethnic background. What I'm talking about is deliberately breeding traits that are a detriment, to our species and society, out. For instance potential breeders should be both physically healthy and free of genetic defects. Including physical deformities. Also, a potential breeder should be required to pass an IQ examination, based on his/her particular social, ethnic and religious background. This would have two positive effects. One, we would eliminate all diseases that are passed on through reproduction and genetics. Two, we would begin to raise the average IQ of our species and thus get smarter and hopefully wiser.

I know what your thinking. "How can this guy be willing to sacrifice our freedom?! Our 'right' to pass on our lineage." Most of the people in the US are lining up to sacrifice their freedom for the illusion of security and safety from terrorists. I am talking about a much more serious and dangerous threat. One to our very survival. If we continue to corrupt our gene pool, we could breed ourselves into extinction. I guess that will teach the terrorists a lesson.

I would like to think that we are evolved enough socially that we could fairly and responsibly manage our genetic evolution. I wonder if that's too much to ask of us though.

Failure is eminent;
prepare for it.
Success is possible;
be ready to seize it.
Opportunity is everywhere;
exploit it.

Posted by Frater V:I: at 3:23 PM - 2 Comments


Comments:


Hey Frater, I like the post. Failure is eminent, huh? I have started a blog on this server too. reverandtom.blogstream.com.
I put a link to your blog on it.
Tom



by Rev. Tom on Thursday March 9, 2006 @ 4:08 PM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


yeah, it's my version of pessimistic, optimism or the other way around if you like. Welcome to the community and thanks for the link. I'll check out your blog very soon.





by Frater V:I: on Saturday March 11, 2006 @ 9:48 PM

Hello and welcome to my Hell. I am moving a blog that I've been writing for about a year off and on to myspace so I'm going to start by posting my archive from that blog here. It's a slow process, but makes for a lot of entries really fast and some strange comments from people that aren't even members of myspace. All in all it's gonna be boring. So read or not I don't really care. Catchya round the water'n hole.

Some readers who are religious may be offended by some the things I say in this entry. If you are religious, and you get to a point where you just can't wait to the end to make a comment, please read the last paragraph before you make a comment. It may save you some time.

I watched a documentary about Albert Einstein a few weeks ago. I left me perplexed and generally questioning Einstein's greatness. Everyone knows about his famous mass/energy conversion equation. I've even seen it on T-shirts. But what is less known and the source of my consternation is that he spent his last few years on this earth ignoring and more or less discounting important findings in the area of quantum physics.
I'm not going to rehash the documentary here but to summarize… Einstein didn't like the inherent unpredictability of quantum particles. It wasn't in keeping with what he thought God's ordered universe would and should be.
On the one hand I'm almost offended at his ego in thinking that he could comprehend a mind as complex and powerful as a deity, much less, The Deity. Then again I'm shocked and astounded that a brilliant and rational mind, such as his, would ignore important scientific studies and findings because of a religious viewpoint.
And the irony of the whole thing is that Quantum physicists are close to completing the work that Einstein was trying to prove when he died. He was trying to find a unified theory to explain everything in the Universe. He felt that God would have made an ordered and predictable Universe, so Quantum physics had to be wrong because it was filled with random events.
The problem I have with his inability to get past his religious viewpoints is this. When Jesus was born, the people still believed that the earth was flat and that it was the center of the universe and that everything in the sky moved around the earth. Now, bearing in mind that we were completely wrong about all of that (with the one exception of our moon) and those things are readily apparent for us to see and study, I ask you this. How can you possibly believe that the people of that time got their theories about a being as complex, abstract and powerful as The One True God, correct the first time out? Our view of the universe has been changed several times in the last 2000 years, but our view of god has not. In fact the older your view of God is, the more adamant your fellow believers are that they are right and everyone else is wrong. So, why didn't Einstein even consider the possibility that he was wrong? That is the nature of the scientific method!
This is not a new concept. It has probably been tossed around for decades at least. I'm sure that it must have at least been presented to Einstein if it had not occurred to him on his own.
I guess he wasn't really clinging to a 2000 year old view of God, but his own view of God. Which I can respect a little more, since it means that he at least thought about God and decided what he was going to believe instead of just accepting whatever the priests of his church fed him. In which case we get back to his amazing ego! Can you imagine the size of his own self importance to think that he knew the mind of God? I really would have loved to have met him.
Even though I can be seen as criticizing him, I am filled with a profound sense of relief. Einstein was plagued with all of the shortcomings that make us human. And he was a genius to boot! I think that this may be his biggest contribution to humanity. That it is possible for a mere human to have such a huge impact on our advancement; and still be human at the most basic levels. Maybe there is hope for our species after all.

Before you waste your time damning me to Hell, just know this. I have in my possession several passes for the gates of Hell that read, "Head of the Line Privileges shall be granted to the soul in possession of this pass." So, your work is already done, if you're going to comment on the entry then try to stay on topic. And, just in case you're wondering, this entry isn't about religion or God… Hopefully you can figure out what it is about on your own.

Posted by Frater V:I: at 3:12 AM

My air conditioning unit stopped working on August 31, 2006. Which sucked, but these things happen. So, I call the service techs in. I was very lucky and managed to score an appointment the next day, this being the peak season for these guys I considered it a good omen. So, tech shows up early the next day, and looks at my A/C unit.
"Oh yeah," he says, "Blower motor is frozen. Gonna have to replace it."
Guy spends the next hour on the phone trying to identify the part number and get the motor ordered. Finally find the part and discover that they have to replace a capacitor along with the motor. So he puts together a quote for me, tells me that the parts and labor w/ the diagnostics is going to total out at $417 and some change.
"Ok," I say(cuz I really don't have a choice, I need cool air), "Lets get the parts ordered and put 'em in."
He orders the parts and schedules the next available appointment for me 2 weeks later!!!
I'm a patient guy, so I bite my tongue and accept my fate. Fortunately we only got up to 100 degrees F about 5 times in the two week period, so all and all it could have been worse...
Parts show up on Sept 7 and the repair tech ( a different guy) again astonishes me by showing up early on Sept 13, to install the parts. And here is where everything goes sideways...
He replaces the mystical capacitor and turns on the unit, it starts up! I'm excited! :) yeah! I say... When are you going to be done.
He informs me that the "Motor is fine" and writes me a parts refund slip for the motor. Closes up the A/C and finishes his paperwork. I sign of on the job and he leaves. The A/C is running this whole time. I'm very pleased.
10 minutes after he leaves, it stops working... odd but not unusual if I have the thermostat set too high, and it could be with 2 different techs monkeying with it, so I check the stat. I'm assuming that the A/C should have been on, cuz the stat worked fine up until it failed and my house didn't feel like it was 50 degrees F. So, I call tech at his cell phone and tell him what happened.
He returns and informs me very politely that I'm a filthy home owner and if I cleaned my A/C filter and the inside of the blower's compartment it wouldn't be overheating and shutting down. Again he leaves and I don't complain as I'm very excited that my A/C will work properly again, once I do the right thing and clean it...
An hour later and a lot of vacuuming, I have a clean A/C blower compartment and filter that is so clean it looks brand new. I close up the covers and fingers a twitch'n I turn it back on. Still setting the Thermostat to 50 cuz I want to make sure It's gonna run for more than 5 minutes. It doesn't.
I Call the tech again, this time no answer... :( I leave a message detailing what I've done and ask for further advice. Also, noting that by this time my excitement has worn off and I notice that the motor for the blower is humming. For those of you not familiar with electric motors... if they are humming they are under too much load and pulling an enormous amount of electricity to keep turning. Since this motor was engineered into the system, I have to assume that this is NOT normal. Anyway, he never returned my call. But I patiently waited until the next day.
I call the service center and after a maze of guessing and guessing wrong in the phone systems automated menu I finally got a human being on the phone. I explained the situation to her and explained that the system still wasn't working. She informed me that the next available appointment wasn't for a week, I was not pleased. ;) I managed to get her to schedule an emergency visit for the following day.
Once again the tech (yet another person) amazes me by showing up early, when in the history of time has this happened so many times. I would rather they showed up late and fixed the problem, personally. But, I guess you can't have everything. Anyway, He listens to my story, and the A/C unit and agrees that the motor is definatley not sounding right. He informs me that SOP would have been for the other guy to drop the motor off at the shop and ship it back to their vendor, but He is going to try to track it down and hopefully get it. He will call me and let me know... famous last words...
That was Friday, Sept 15, 2006. I waited, patiently I think, until today to call the service center again and navigate that maze of a phone menu to get to a person. I got a very nice lady on the phone that informed me that she can't make head or tales of the situation based on the notes in my record but, the good news is that she can tell me that I have an appointment for Tuesday Sept 26 to have a tech come out. For what she couldn't say and there was no record of the tech that placed the appointment.
They say you catch more bees with honey than vinegar... That may be true, but I'm beginning to think that a 12 gauge shotgun would be more satisfying.
I have no Idea who I can call to get a real answer and I'm going to have to play my cards right so that I don't offend them as they already have my freaking money!
Who, you ask, is doing this to me? The government? Some angry person bent on revenge? No, it's SEARS Service and Repair Center! I have such a good relationship with their sales business, I didn't even think to question their customer service for repairs...
So here I am looking at a month with no A/C and all I can say is, "What the fuck?"

Posted by Frater V:I: at 1:31 PM - No Comments