Friday, January 30, 2015

Tam Makes Me Laugh

Regularly.  Perhaps as often as weekly.

But today, I laughed. And it was not a snicker.  Perhaps, by the nomenclature of the day, it was an LOL. I may have even guffawed.

Because seriously?

Bandicoot Cucumbersnatch?

That sounds like a Rule 34 production/fusion of an old Sega Genesis game and Veggie Tales that I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY.

Bow-Chicka-wow-wow!

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Job Prospects

http://notboutthing.blogspot.com/2015/01/hoping-things-are-looking-up.html

Expect to have an offer from the company referenced in this post in the next week or so.

It's a big company, so things move slowly, but from what the guy told me, I'm in.

Now I've just got to wrap my mind around the fact that my new office is 83 miles from my home, door to door.

Operators Operating in Operational Operations.

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2015/01/2000-words.html

Hashtag OPERATOR?

OPERATOR?

FUCKING GODDAMN OPERATOR?  

I'm going to cut somebody.

Never mind that you're pointing your "EDC" right at your own heart, Mr. "Operator".  That's obviously some advantageous super-secret gunkata sooper ninja operator style hold, right?

I'm sick of idiots doing idiotic things.  I guess it's just part of the human condition, but please, to all you sane people out there that carry a gat around on a regular basis?

For the love of god, unless you're about to use it, STOP TOUCHING IT!.  Just leave it alone.  No one thinks you're a badass "operator" because you saved up $250 to buy an "EDC" and can carry it to McDonalds.  And I don't care if you do, as long as you put it in a safe holster, in a safe carry method, and LEAVE IT THE FUCK ALONE.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

I Do, Though...


Bad timing, indeed.  Ever tried to look for a job in the construction industry in January?  

Hopefully things open up this Spring a bit, because right now, there isn't much out there.  

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

My Post-Cable Experience

My wife and I were paying $145 per month for our basic cable TV package.  For that amount we got 160 channels, which I found on average that at any given time I was LUCKY if I could find 3 channels out of that 160 that were actually playing something that I wanted to watch.

Generally speaking, of those 3 channels, one of them was almost inevitably a broadcast channel that I could get for free.

After doing it for 9 years, Mrs. Goober and I had our yearly budget meeting, where we go over our expenditures and try to discover if there's anything we could do better, more cheaply, or just stop paying for, altogether.

Cable TV was one of those things.

This isn't for everybody.  I'm not suggesting or advocating it for most folks, but for me, this worked great.

Here's what we did:


  1. Installed a whole-house VHF antenna.  It cost $60.  I hooked it into the RG6 (cable) lines that are already running throughout the house, anyway, so one antenna will work on as many TVs as I want to install.  
  2. I purchased two Chromecasts.  The one-time purchase price for these was half of our cable bill.
  3. I signed up for Netflix and Hulu Plus.  Total cost: $15 a month.
This allows us to "cast" from our smartphones, tablets, and laptops.  You can cast YouTube, Netflix, Hulu - pretty much any net-based video streaming service.  I casted a video from Borepatch's site a couple days back, for the family to enjoy.  Your smartphone essentially becomes your remote control and TV guide.  You scroll Hulu, Netflix, and whatever else for whatever you want to watch, then cast it.  

We already had, and would have continued to have, high speed internet, so I don't consider that part of the cost of this setup.  

The pluses:

  1. You watch what you want, when you want.  The show starts when you want it to start, and stops or pauses when you want it to stop or pause.  No more channel surfing and waiting for the show you want to watch come on.
  2. I still get all local news and all major networks via digital TV broadcast, which is actually HD where I live and as good a quality as cable ever provided.  
  3. Massive selection of shows to watch, and you can "binge" watch a show, instead of waiting for next week's episode.  
The minuses:

  1. Netflix and Hulu do not have every show between them.  For instance, I like several Discovery Channel shows, such as Mountain Man, Axe Men, and Deadliest Catch, which are not on either service.  I can still watch them, but I have to buy the seasons (generally about $20 to $25 a season) from Google Play, then cast them via Chromecast.  This isn't really too big a minus, since I'd have to buy a LOT of shows to even touch the $140 a month were used to pay for TV.  
  2. Uses a huge amount off data (about 1 GB per hour) so if you don't have an unlimited data setup, or "high enough" speed internet, you're going to hate it.  Skips in the show, waiting for it to load, and extra data charges.  Ours is unlimited, and fast as hell.  
All in all, this works very well for my family.  No more staying up past ten to watch the "good" shows - you can put them on when you want.  

Also, we save over a hundred dollars a month, even on the bad months when I spend a lot of money buying shows.  

And we got to tell the cable company to GTFO.  Which was awesome.  Because fuck them.  




Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Stop Feeding the Trolls

At the link, you'll find yet another example of a guy who says something totally reasonable, has it twisted into a hateful screed by SJWs, and then apologizes for espousing a perfectly reasonable opinion.

To be honest, I'm tired of the apologies.  They need to stop.



People, if you say something that is reasonable, not hateful, and they take it out of context and twist it into something hateful, call them out on that.  Don't apologize.  It just gives them ammunition.  SJWs gonna SJW.  You can't stop them.  I'm tired of their targets bowing under to their pressure.

In short: STOP FEEDING THE TROLLS.

The celebrity in question, Billy Crystal, is probably the last guy on Earth you think you'd catch the gay lobby turning on.  He played the first openly gay character on TV, and caught a lot of shit for it.
Of course, it might have just been the hair.  You never know.
What did he say that was so offensive?

Oh, only that we should be careful about putting graphic gay sex scenes on television.

"The HELL you say!"
I am so weary of this whole charade, where having totally reasonable opinions and predilections is typecast as being hateful.

Look, I'm a straight guy who is totally on the side of any gay person looking for equality.  You want to get married and call it a marriage?  I'm a fan.  I'll vote for it.  You have my support.    You are my equal in every way.  I don't look down on you; I don't hold you out as something "weird" or "different."  I don't look at you as being less, or wrong, or immoral.  You are just you. Go, get married, with my blessing.
And be as awesomely fabulous as you dare while doing it.
But you can't change the fact that I react with disgust to the idea of gay sex.  There's nothing you can do to stop me, because it's fucking gross.  Sorry, I guess I'm a h8tr, because I have no desire to see gay sex, or be exposed to it in any way.

And so I agree with Billy Crystal.  I think networks should be careful about throwing up graphic gay sex scenes on TV.
"After that, I don't even have the energy left to clutch my pearls."
For the life of me, I can't figure out how this makes me a h8tr.  To be honest, you'd think that I'd gain tolerance points for being completely tolerant of people doing things that I find repulsive.

Because seriously, dude...  gross!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Surveillance State

Was having a philosophical debate with my brother in law last night about gun control, and why there are few other laws that stop illegal activity by banning the tools that facilitate that activity.

You don't prevent speeding by banning cars. You don't prevent marijuana use by banning glass blowers building hookah pipes. And you don't prevent gun violence by banning guns.

He brought up alcohol stills, and how owning one is illegal(without special dispensation). I proved to him that he's wrong by looking up stills for sale to private people, no strings attached, on either Amazon or Ebay.

Now, the ads on every website I go to are trying to sell me whisky stills.

I tell you, if these corporations ever start sharing this information they're collecting on us with the government...

My god...

Wait, what?

They already are?

Shit, I'm getting SWAT raided for moonshining now, huh...

Friday, January 9, 2015

Health Update

Forgot to add - heart checks out.  Arrhythmia and tumor free still.  Feeling better than I have in years.  Still kind of fighting the depression demons, but I think that will sort itself out once I'm gainfully employed and able to concentrate on my new career.

Hoping Things are Looking Up

Had a few interviews.  Have a few more lined up.  Crashed and burned on one interview yesterday - couldn't put into words why I wanted to change from General Contracting to specialty contracting without making it seem like I was saying that specialty contracting was easier and less work, which is not what I meant.  I think they were unimpressed.

Fail.

Got a couple more on the hook, just waiting to see what they say.  I expect that by the end of next week I'll have some offers trickle in.  One prospect that I'm really excited about seems to be coming to fruition quite nicely.  I've got a second and third interview with them Monday.

Then the VP is flying in from Colorado to meet me.

Sounds good, don't it?

Just don't screw it up, Goober...

Just don't screw it up...

For the love of god, man, don't screw this up!

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Keep on Keeping on....



Rare dissent here, in response to a post over at Borepatch's blog, calling a man who killed himself and his wife "brave".  

I disagreed.  It takes more bravery and fortitude to keep on keeping on than it ever does to just put an end to things.

Where's the bravery in the blackness?

I wanted to live so badly this year with my heart/cancer scare and surgery, that I forgot everything else. I became so overwhelmed with what it meant to "go on" that I ended up getting myself fired. The pills caused me so much fatigue, and the fight caused me so much distraction, and the depression (which I posted about on my blog) caused me so much "don't give a fuck" that it showed through in my performance at work, and my boss fired me.

I'm so ashamed of that, and so depressed by the fact that I failed so miserably to uphold my end, in spite of my problems, that it almost seems like all the fighting was in vain.

But screw that. I've got a vested interest in this life, and even when it feels like that isn't enough, the fact that there are people that have a vested interest in me is reason enough to hang around. '

Only cowards take the easy way out. It is the permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Monday, January 5, 2015

The Inherent Hypocrisy of Social Justice Warriors, and the Goal of "Cultural Preservation"

In response to an article that I read about transgender people, and how their plight should be treated no differently than any of the panoply of "intersex" disorders (such as incomplete, malformed, or missing genitalia), I had a few observations.  
One of the issues that the SJWs run into is that the idea of a person being transgender runs entirely afoul of third-wave feminism.  I do love so much how the twisted logic of these progressive types ends up running afoul of itself so often.  
"So, uh, like, yeah.  I only eat organic food, because all chemicals are bad.
I realized this after dropping LSD one time. You know what I mean?"
You see, third wave feminism holds out as truth that there are no innate differences in gender, and that the differences between men and women that have become evident are a result of social conditioning only.  This is just stupid.  It is a pipe-dream that I could easily refute in a million different ways, but in the interest of keeping this short enough to be readable, I will address that at some later date.
The inherent rub here is that the very existence of transgendered people runs entirely afoul of third-wave feminism's claims.  They are people who claim that they were born with the wrong genitals.  In a world where gender is nothing more than a physical difference in genitals and nothing more, transgendered people could not exist.  
I give you Franklin Roosevelt wearing a dress.  Your argument is invalid
And so, the solution to this is a push by SJWs to create a "third gender".  In some cases, they've created even more.  The problem is that transgender people don't identify as a "third gender".  They generally identify as either male or female, and in large part, they reject this attempt to pigeon-hole them into this third gender classification that they do not feel that they belong to.  They find it offensive, and do not like this ham-fisted attempt of the SJWs to re-define them so that the SJWs can feel better about their own twisted logic.  It makes about as much sense as the Icelandic language.

All of it?
It occured to me then that in most cases with these SJWs, what the actual aggrieved class wants is not important to them – theSJWs just want a battle to fight, and in their own arrogance, they wedge themselves into the battle in an attempt to make everything about them. They aren’t fighting it FOR anyone (except themselves and their own ego).
I’m reminded of the high school sports team in South Dakota, if I recall correctly, that were called the “Fighting Sioux” or something similar.
SJWs attacked them for being racist and derogatory. After a period of time, it became clear that the local Lakota (Sioux) tribes didn’t mind the name at all, and actually thought of it as a badge of honor, but the SJWs didn’t care.
Being the most arrogant and self-sure sonsofbitches on the planet, they patiently explained how years of racism and subjugation made the tribe completely incapable of seeing racism, and therefore completely incapable of deciding for themselves whether the name was offensive or not.  In a sense, they just called the entire Lakota nation a bunch of morons.
This is his "not impressed" face.
I cannot imagine anything more insulting or racist ever being spoken, and it was spoken by SJWs who were, in their minds at least, putatively DEFENDING these people that they were  so grievously insulting.
It’s like a 20th century version of “the white man’s burden.” These “brown people” (or other aggrieved classes) are too stupid to take care of themselves, so it is up to us wealthy white folk to swoop in to their rescue.  The transgender people don't know what they feel - WE know better than they do what they feel, and so WE get to define the terms under which we have any discussion about them; it's the "white man's burden" all over again.  
There really is nothing new under the sun.
"See, old chap?!  I told you that in 100 years they'd be looking at what we did here
as good and revolutionary!  We'll go down in history as the world's first SJWs!"

Sometimes I think SJWs are more interested in preserving their own exclusive human zoo, than they are actually seeking social justice.  In the same article, there was discussion about the current SJW fight to actually prevent parents from having cochlear implants put into their deaf children, in an attempt to "preserve the deaf culture, and deaf language."  

"What's that?  I couldn't hear you over the sound of FUCK YOU!"

To them, it is more important to have a "deaf people" exhibit in their own personal "cultural zoo of humanity" than it is to allow children to experience a full life with all 5 senses.

"And over here in this exhibit, right next to the transgenders, who have their own unique gender, are the deaf people, who have their own unique language and culture!  Let's observe them in their natural habitat, and understand their experience of living with a debilitating disability for our own enjoyment!"  

Most of this "preserve the culture" stuff is just anti-western reactionary bullshit, and it is absolutely wrong.  It is SWPL taken to a deadly extreme - the extreme of making sure that in the year of our Lord 2015, people are still dying of perfectly preventable diseases for the sake of "cultural preservation."  

So worth it, am I right?  At least his culture is in tact!  Right guys?  Right?
Guys?
You take a guy that lived his entire life in the Amazonian jungle, fighting for every meal he's ever eaten, making his own living/clothing/abode/etc at huge expense of labor, and living every day with the fear of that next cut becoming septic and killing him, or that next sniffle being the cold that brings him down, or the next monsoon not being monsooney enough and his family starving to death, and you give him a pair of Levi jeans, some tennis shoes, a first world education, and modern medicine, and HE WILL CUT YOUR FUCKING THROAT before he will let you stick him back in that jungle.  

"This is so much more awesome than having enough to eat and being comfortable, ever!
 Just leave me out here to die!"

But SJWs want to keep him there, unmolested by western "cultural pollution" like modern medicine and central air conditioning, in order to "preserve his culture", without giving him an educated say in the decision at all.  More of that SJW superiority.  

This idea of "allowing the brown people too stay in their place" smacks an awful, awful lot like "keeping the brown people in their place."  

We all know how un-racist and inclusive keeping the nig--- I mean, the BROWN PEO-- or rather, those "delightfully ethnic" people in their place is, don't we?   
LOOK!  There's one of those celebrations of the "delightfully ethnic" now!

I don't know who died and left these SJW motherfuckers in charge, but it sure as hell wasn't me.