Ok, so I'm sitting here trying to be a great employee, and I'm finding myself constantly distracted with the way things are going in this country. If you ask anyone who knew me growing up, or even 3 years or so ago, they'd tell you I'm not a political person at all. Well, things have changed. Call it "growing up", or "maturing" or even "becoming an old fart", but I have changed. I used to not care at all about anything but myself (and since marriage and children...my family). I would just go about my business, day-to-day, not realizing what horrible problems were creeping up for decades in our country.

About a month and a half ago I downloaded our U.S. Constitution, and read it all. Do you know what I realized? We are slowly losing a lot of the liberties that were put in place by our founding fathers. I challenge you to go out and get a copy of it yourself. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html READ IT ALL. Tell me if you feel the same way. Now, I know what you're thinking...this is just another one of those email spam things that people send out--chain email letters or whatever.

Well, I assure you, that is not my intent. I am a man who has been working hard to stay above water, providing for my family, and slowly watching our country go to hell, and I don't know what I can do about it. I started thinking....everything you heard when you were a kid was stuff like "If you want to be heard, you need to vote.", or "If you don't vote, you don't have a voice". Frankly, I don't believe voting for anyone matters anymore, because things have gotten out of hand. Do I think we have some good candidates for the upcoming 2008 election? Sure. Will I vote? Of course. Will it help out our economy? No. Not quickly enough, at least. If you think the economic stimulus package that will be coming around here in a month or two is going to help, you're wrong. That money was borrowed from China, which now means we owe them even more money. Basically, our President just gave us all $600 and put it on a proverbial credit card. How is that supposed to help? "Gee, Mommy, thanks for the Band-Aid(tm), I feel so much better now." Never mind the infection. You can't see it through the bandage. Which is where I began my thinking....(and trust me, I have a pretty good imagination for a lot of things, as any of my friends will attest)

How much longer are we going to sit back and just watch things happen and do nothing about them? I mean, I know I'm not the only one who, as of last week, is now paying ~$4.00 per gallon for gas. I've read the little chain emails about "Let's stop buying gas from Shell for 1 week" and they'll be forced to lower their prices, or "Let's only buy from Oil companies that are solely run from the U.S", or whatever. Well, guess what. That doesn't work. We need something more drastic. How about we stop going ANYWHERE? I'm talking about a Nation-wide strike. Don't go to work. (or work from home) Go to the store by foot, and only for necessities like bread, milk, and eggs, and some fish/meat, etc. Stuff you can carry home in a couple of bags by FOOT or BICYCLE. What would happen if we did this for a month? 3 months?! How about as long as it takes to make something happen? What are they going to do? Turn off our power? My wife and I have been talking for a while now (her idea) about turning off everything in our home every night and living by candlelight. I'm not kidding. I'm not saying this would be easy on anyone, but what is our alternative? If we continue to let credit card companies raise our interest rates, and lenders raise or mortgages because they are just passing on the increases from the Federal Government or whatever, then where does it end? Have you looked around lately?! How many homes in your neighborhood are for sale, vacant, or bank-owned? There are 7 in ours. How much longer will it be until the next "notch" on our country's belt is tightened? It's a very helpless feeling, and we don't HAVE to feel this way. Surely we can do SOMETHING.

Our employers would be mad. Would they fire us? Sure...if only 2 or 10 of us did it. But I'm talking about ALL OF US. Remember the familiar hippy saying "United we stand, divided we fall". If NONE of us went to work, and when they asked why, we said "Because gas prices are too high and we're making a stand", what would happen? Large companies would not know what to do, and somewhere along the line, the government would get involved. Would that not make our voices heard? So much, in fact, that if the country were at a standstill, it would FORCE our government, which is made up of people WE VOTED FOR, to go to the Oil Companies and say "Enough is Enough...the gouging has to stop". Our government is able to do stuff that we can't do by ourselves with no voice, but together, we can do something that's non-violent, non-destructive, and can make a change to something that we would immediately see results.

This whole thought process reminded me of one of the most popular movie quotes ever (the subject of this message). The movie was "Network", with Peter Finch, and Faye Dunaway, and if you haven't seen it, you probably should. We NEED to get MAD. One of the things that pissed me off when I told one of my best friends this idea was when he said "I'm just one guy. I can't change anything. What can I do?" THAT is the PRIMARY REASON that our country is in the toilet right now in so many ways. We've all gotten too comfortable being selfish punks and we've let people into government who have corrupted everything, and who are silently slipping little amendments and "Acts" in here and there, that are eroding away our freedoms. Am I on drugs? Hell no. Am I paranoid? Not in the way you're implying. Why does someone have to be on drugs, crazy, or otherwise if they are concerned with where things are headed? Let me ask you this: At what point WILL you do something? Is it when gas prices are $5 a gallon? $6? $8? Is it when the new hydrogen cars come in full force, and the majority of the gasoline engines are off the roads, and yet, somehow, hydrogen prices start to inflate? Cuz if you don't think that is going to happen, then you've got another thing coming. 5-10 years down the road, when hydrogen cars are the norm, do you think that the prices for hydrogen fuel will stay steady? Go down? Wrong on both accounts. Prices will rise. Greed and corruption will kick in and they'll tell us some lie about how it costs more to generate the fuel or something. You do know that Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in our entire universe, right? So, what then? Will you take a stand THEN?

How about NOW instead?

If you've managed to make it to the end of this tirade, I appreciate it, and I can only ask three things of you:

1) We have a tendency as humans to become more like sheep, and just follow the herd. I don't know if it's because of fear of change, or that we just don't want to rock the boat. (e.g. one of my best friends) I am only asking you to stop doing that, and start questioning things around you. Don't just take someone's word for it when they ask you for some piece of information that you don't REALLY feel comfortable answering but you do it anyway, such as a social security number, for instance. Tell them they don't need it, or ask why they need it. That's a specific example, but I'm really talking about more general things.
2) Maybe you don't like my idea, or you have more intelligence than I do about economics and politics, and you think this plan won't do anything. I say to you, then, come up with something else. I'm not saying I have all the answers. I'm just crying out to everyone I can think of, to do SOMETHING, and that was the best idea I had at the time, with no violent or destructive intentions. This leads back to 1 (above), which is to QUESTION things. Shake things up. Come up with a plan to make something happen, if you don't like my idea.
3) If you feel so inclined, and something I've said has moved you with this email, pass it along to someone else. And if, by chance, it makes the media, then let's just say that Independence Day, July 4, 2008, we can start our own independence, and make that the day we start changing the United States of America back into the country that our founding fathers created for us and our families!

Well, I finally got back in the air today.
One of my skydiving buddies, who moved to Tennessee back in April, came back to California for the Holidays, and prior to his visit, he called to let me know he wanted to do some fun jumps when he was in town. I informed him that I hadn't actually been skydiving, and that I was worried I was going to need to re-certify now.
He told me he'd be in town during the Christmas break, so I set my goal to get things in order for his visit.
Fast forward to today. I had taken my skydive rig up to Perris to get the reserve re-packed. I picked it up first thing in the morning, and met up with Ted. We immediately got ourselves manifested and got on the plane. I have to say I haven't jumped out of a plane for 10 months, but it was amazing to me how it all came back.
The smell of the plane fuel.
The little routines we all go through before we get on the plane (gear checks and idiosyncrasies).
The 10,000 foot handshakes as we put our helmets and goggles on, readying ourselves for the fun that is about to transpire.
Standing at the edge of the plane with the wind blowing like crazy, as you give the count--READY, STEADY, GO! and we freefly exit out of the plane!

I could go on, but I don't think there's a single friend on my list of MySpace friends that understands what I'm talking about.

All I can say is: I'm GLAD I'm back into skydiving. I have missed it, and I'm going to make sure 2008 is filled with many, many jumps.

I'm at jump 340 as of today, and I hope to be at 440 in one year's time.

If there's anyone out there in my friend list that is ready to experience true adrenaline rush...excitement that only gravity and 160mph can provide, teaching your body to use the air to move you wherever you want to go in the air, and do whatever you want to do...then join me.

Ok, I'm probably going to offend some people out there, but I can't stand it anymore.  I have to voice this.

I'm sure you've heard the recent news blitz about radio DJ Don Imus and the remark he made about some women's baseketball players of color.  First of all, I need to say that I've never even listened to this guy in my life.  I have heard the name because Howard Stern used to talk badly about him all the time, but I just wanted to make it clear that I don't give 2 shakes about this dude.

That being said, here's my take:

Here we go again.  Look.  I'm tired of hearing all this shit about hurting people's feelings or accusing people of hate crimes and whatever else goes on in today's world.  ENOUGH.  I see nothing wrong with stating the obvious about things.  Why do we always have to pussyfoot around?  I mean, first we lose prayer in school.  Then I find out (luckily it was after I had already graduated) that they took the pledge of allegiance out of schools because some freaking idiot athiest said it was against his beliefs.  I think it's back now, but for a time they even omitted the words "Under God", which pissed me off to no end.  I asked my son about it, and he said they say the whole thing in his school, but who knows what's coming in the years ahead.

I was watching the news about a month ago and there was some gang-related shooting the reporter was covering near or in Los Angeles.  They interviewed some lady, and I immediately start hearing spanish and see subtitles on the screen.  What struck me as odd was what she said:  "I've been here for 10 years and I've never seen anything like this in my neighborhood."  What struck me as odd, you say?  Was it the fact that she's never seen a shooting in her neighborhood?  NO.  Guess again.  It was that she has lived in OUR COUNTRY for TEN YEARS and still hasn't fucking learned english.  ASSIMILATE, BITCH!  COME ON.  I can't remember which comedian said it, and I really wanna give them credit, but they said "America is called The Melting Pot, but we're not MELTING."  Look, I'm all for keeping your culture.  But keep it in the privacy of your own home.  I don't want your culture interfering with the cultures that our forefathers started this country with, and a LARGE part of that was believing in GOD.  Not buddha, or allah, or whatever the hell else.  Sure, call me ignorant if you want for my lack of knowledge on all the different religions.  I believe in GOD.  And I live in America, which was founded on that same belief.  Look it up. 

I'm trying hard to stay on point here.  Back to the topic at hand.  Now we've got this radio DJ who is being pulled off webcasts and possibly going to get fired because some black women don't like a comment he made about them having nappy hair?  UH....guess what...black people have nappy hair by nature.  Some "relax" it, but the point is....who cares?  The dude is stating the obvious.  Do we ever hear news stories when someone makes a "dumb blonde" joke?  Hell no.  Does the media go into a frenzy when some black dude calls a white guy a "cracker"?  NO. 

Our country is slowly turning into a whining bitch, complete with P.M.S. and sensitive nipples.  We need to grow a pair and get out of this funk.  People need to learn to relax and learn to laugh more.  And most of all, if you live in America, you need to take on the values and beliefs that were handed down by the founders of this great country.  Don't go trying to change it.  That's what causes all the ill-will among men.

By the way, I think I want to start being called "American American", instead of "white" or "caucasian".  It's more politically correct, after all, since no one calls "African Americans" "black" anymore.

 

I'm starting to wonder about intelligence in our world.
I looked it up on wikipedia, and they define it like this:
"Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related mental abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn."
Now, that being said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in today's world, I think intelligence is something that's being pumped into most of us.  We then THINK we're intelligent, but really we're just proud that we came up with the same answer that someone else wanted us to derive.
For instance, I've started to notice (and maybe I'm the only one that's slow to figure this out) that certain things I see in movies or on television lead us a certain way, and give us the false impression that we're intelligent just because we figured out the plot of the movie before they revealed it, or in a book from an author who's known for their twists, so you can anticipate where the story is going.
To me, that is not intelligence.
Now let's talk about intelligence in the workplace.  Employers want to think they have the smartest employees in the business, and they help to propagate this lie by sending their employees to training classes and then having them pass tests, so they can say they have "the most" certified in whatever product they sell or whatever.  Does the test prove they know their shit?  Hell no.  It proves you know how to take a test, or worse, how to find a cheat sheet website that sells the answers. 
To me, that is not intelligence.
I don't think there are as many intelligent people in this world as we all give credit to.  I think, much like laboratory mice, who are trained to find the end of a maze through repeated attempts, or teaching a monkey sign language, we are all just a highly trained species, that have the capability for SO MUCH MORE, yet most of us don't know how to harness it, or break out of the mold.
One of my best friends calls me a hippie.  While I think the intent might be to criticize me, I take it as a compliment.  I prefer the term "hacker", myself.  I think the hackers from my generation are the last of a dying breed.  While taking the risk of sounding like an old fart, I plan on teaching my children how to think for themselves.  To try new things.  Experiment.  HACK stuff.
Let's face it--the world is a big place, and there are more and more computers and technology in our world every minute.  The intelligence that people are teaching today is not going to prepare us for the future.  I already feel completely left out from "web world" when it comes to html programming, and all that goes into designing and building a website.  Just imagine what things will be like in another 10 short years.  I hope I am intelligent by then....
 

Why are we here?  A question that has been asked , no doubt, by every human being since the beginning of our existence.  Some ask friends.  Some ask our God.  Some ask themselves, perhaps in the hope that by hearing their own inner voice, it will somehow wake them up to do something drastically different to invoke a change in their life or lifestyle.  Which brings me to a couple of random and incomplete thoughts and questions:

What would make a person purposely want to start a slow descent into evil?
Is it boredom?  There is an old saying that "idle hands are the devil's play things".  Could this really be true?  Or is it that they feel their good and evil "pendulum of life" has favoured the good side, and in order to really experience all that life has to offer, some gray ingredients need to be added to the recipe to make for better wisdom?

Is God Himself the director of each and every one of our lives, and He intervenes from time to time to make sure you learn certain lessons in life, so you can go to Heaven with some kind of celestial knowledge?
I don't know.  None of us will ever know until it's too late.  So, do you play it safe on Earth, and risk angering God for not learning all you could while you were here, or are you supposed to do the devil's work early in your life, then suddenly accept Jesus as your Saviour, just in time to ask for forgiveness (and do so before you die), guaranteeing your place in Heaven on a technicality?

Sadly, I think most people do the latter, which in my opinion is a slap in the proverbial face of God.  I'm not saying He has spoken to me or anything, but I just have a feeling that He wants us to experience the good, AND evil that life has to offer, so we can REALLY appreciate Heaven when we arrive.
I say:  Draw up a list.  A list of all the good things you've done in your life, and the bad ones.  Think of everything.  Leave no dirty little secret or skeleton in the closet untouched.  It's the only way to truly get an accurate reading of which way that pendulum is swinging right now.
Then adjust your life accordingly....

 

What the hell is going on here? I've been trying to buy a Nintendo Wii for my daughter for Christmas since its release date (November 19th) and I still can't find one.
Don't you people have jobs? I mean, shit. The only way I see to get one is to freaking take off work for the whole month of December and spend every waking moment driving from one store to another in the hopes of hitting it just right where they have cleared them from their warehouse. This is ridiculous. Nintendo: You guys suck. I've read reviews and news clippings talking about how you were going to do things differently than Sony and Microsoft with their Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, but you haven't. You freaking KNEW that Christmas was only a month away from your release date. You should have your workers round-the-clock cranking out these boxes from the assembly lines. There shouldn't be a supply issue.
All I have to say to all these assholes who are selling them on craigslist and ebay is:
Nice one. You have no soul. What kind of world do we live in where we MUST profit from others that weren't able to stay home or camp out? And seriously, if it weren't for you fuckballs, maybe the working class joes like myself would actually be able to swing by the local Toys R Us, Walmart, Circuit City, GameStop, Best Buy, or CompUSA after a hard day's work and grab one with no hassle at all. Here's what I hope: I hope that every single last one of you who sold a Nintendo Wii for more than the advertised price has a serious car issue that costs you in excess of 3 times the profit you gained from ripping a parent off and not allowing their child to have a nice Christmas.
Ebay should have a 10% cap on the profit you receive from these auctions. This would prevent people from doing this kind of shit. It's ridiculous. It's also what causes the riots in the stores, too. But I digress...

Well, I went ahead and got myself really sick from drinking Saturday night at two different Halloween Parties I attended.

I have decided I no longer need to experiment with the whole drinking thing. I did not mind the puking that night, so much as the next day, when i felt like I had the stomach flu. I basically wasted my entire Sunday doing nothing but sleeping and dry heaving.

So, to any of you out there who thought this might be the next "extreme" thing Brian does to excess, I can safely say "nope." Plus the fact that I have been told by at least 5 different people now that I am an "obnoxious" drunk, and by only a few that I am either "too flirtacious", or "hornier".

To whoever may have seen me in any of these metamorphic stages, I can only say I hope I didn't offend you too much, I hope I didn't make you do something you didn't want to do, and I hope that whatever I said to you was taken to heart, because even though I was drunk, I totally knew exactly what I was saying to you, and I meant every word of it.

It will be a LONG time before I feel like I want to do this again. I just didn't like having the cost of being that ripped to be THE ENTIRE NEXT DAY.

I'm really starting to get sick of making someone else rich off my hard work, and the amount of time I put into things.
I just don't have the business sense to run my own company, but I seriously want to be my own boss.
I've got 10 friends on here. Like Micah says...quality not quantity. So, out of these 10 friends, I think we could seriously be like the freakin' Superfriends at the Hall of Justice or some shit. We all should do something together. Let's see if I've got this right. We've got:

SQL/Oracle wizard(s)
Web designer/artist(s)
Programmer(s)
Storage experts
Networking (both social AND computer-related)

That sounds like a freaking KICK ASS company right there. All we need is something to do. Together we can RULE THE WORLD! MUhahahahahahahahahahah. *sniff*

I"m at UCLA most of this week for an installation.  I figured I'd take a moment to vent about a couple of things.

1.  No sooner do I get onto the campus lot, I am reminded of exactly why I did NOT finish college, and why my friend Micah calls me a hippy--becuz there are TOO MANY FUCKING RULES.  I mean, the parking lot guard says it's going to cost $8.00 to park in lot number 9, which is the closest to my destination.  I don't have any cash on me, becuz we live in a digital world, where money shouldn't be needed anymore, but apparently they only accept cash.  Not even a check.  So, he says "well, you can park in lot 8, which is further away, but at least you can use your debit card at the pay station."  So, I park, and try to figure out where said pay station is, and after walking all the way over to a building that looked like it could be something, I see a sign saying they don't even open until 8am, and it's only 7am.  I turn around and walk back to my car to get my backpack, and then I see the pay station ISLAND. 

I get to the building where I'm doing the installation, and what's up?!  What a fuggin' dump?  This is UCLA!  You college people are getting ripped off.  Where in the HELL is your tuition money going, becuz it sure as hell isn't going into the buildings.  The data center is someone's old office they converted.  The inside of the building looks like I stepped back in time to 1985, when I was in high school.  Maybe the whole campus isn't like this.  Anyway, there was a fleeting moment about a month ago when I thought about going back to college to see if I could figure out what I want to do to change my life, but as I believe everything happens for a reason, going to this client site changed my mind.  Well, that and: 

2.  Am I frankenstein?  I mean, here I am, walking on the campus, and there are beautiful college women everywhere.  My type of women.  As I was walking to a crosswalk to meet my "friend" for lunch, I passed one of these girls and said a very friendly "Hello."  I got nothing.  Not even a glance.  No eye contact.  What the fuck?  It's not prison, where eye contact is a sign of aggression.  All I'm looking for is some positive feedback that I'm a human being and that I exist.  Then I get in the car and tell Micah what just happened, and he tells me "uh...that's becuz you're the old creepy guy."  AM I?  I mean, seriously?  What is it that makes people feel uncomfortable to be around me?  How come in a social situation, such as a company event, birthday party, etc, I don't get hugs?  How come when someone sneezes, I'm the first to say "Bless you.", yet I rarely EVER get reciprocation? 

God put me here for a reason, and I'm trying to figure that out, but so far as I can see, it must have something to do with rejection. 

Today I made my 333rd skydive.  I sure wish you all would get into this with me.  It's lonely at the top.  Literally.  When you're skydiving, it's so much fun to jump with someone else.  You learn more.  Plus, it's cool to see the other people in the sky; their facial expressions, like whether they're really concentrating, or are they still a little nervous.  Me?  If you jump with me, you can rest assured I'll have a huge smile on my face.  I do every time.

Come jump with me!

All I can say is by the time I get to my 500th jump, I better have at least one of my friends on MySpace to share that jump with.  In the immortal words of Barney from "How I Met Your Mother", "Suit UP!  It's going to be legendary!"