Tom's Random stuff

Another reason I'm being convinced that Universal Health Care is a good idea...

I have decided that Universal health care is a good idea.  Not for the typical bleeding heart "we must cradle everyone in our arms and allow them to suckle on the taxpayers teats"-kind of approach, but ... we're already paying for it anyway.  Just look at all these a-holes in the "Emergency" room that just have a cold or a splinter... never mind the illegals, homeless, etc..  Rather than having hospitals close because their Emergency Room is going bankrupt, we might as well drink the Kool-Aid and get it over with.  Give everyone a basic level of health care (NOT illegals). 

Now, I have another reason: atheism.  I am an atheist (why aren't you?).  This article explains how the rise in universal health care in other first-world countries is just the security blanket that people need so that they stop praying to the Easter Bunny to help them win the Superbowl.  That, and how atheists and agnostics are increasing in numbers at a crazy rate while theist are not.  Yay!

Like Peter Tosh sang...

"Legalize It!"

Here is a well thought out and sensible article that tells us why the 'War on Drugs' is a complete waste of our tax paying money.

Why continue to empower drug lords and kill people over something that people want?  It's just silly.  Like US alcohol prohibition in the past, this will eventually be legalized.  Let's just do it now and get it over with.

Helpless

http://www.alternet.org/rights/55993

This stuff makes me ashamed of my country.  That we could ever let this happen is astonishing.  That it still continues is repulsive.  An innocent guy getting tortured for 5 years by the US.  We used to demonize other countries for doing these kinds of things.  I have a feeling the taxpayers will be paying for this in lawsuit settlements once people figure out how to do it in a court. 

I never thought I would say this, but: I think that John Kerry (*shudder*) would have made a better President.  Well, at least I don't think he would have done this.

Miscellaneous

• Well, it looks like people are getting smarter after all! :)
• Reasons why I want to hurt 57% of America...
• Putting those traffic cameras to a good use...
• Out of shape teen tries to mug a marathon runner... and yep... you guessed it: run away.  Dumbass!
• Solution to kids feeling bad for not being called on in class?  Don't let anyone raise their hands, of course!  Un. F-ing. Believable.
• An idea that would last about 3 seconds in the US before a pack of hungry lawyers sniffed it out...
• A reason to stop making fun of the Amish in their slow buggies...
• People start realizing that you don't make up for racism with more racism.
• What do you do when a college kid's depressed and contemplating suicide?  Well, violate his right to privacy by telling everyone that he's suicidal and suspend him from school because "...his 'endangering behavior' violated the code of student conduct.", of course!  WTF!?
• I, for one, welcome our new virus-creating super computer overlords.

That's all for now. :)

A blast from the past...

Sometimes someone writes something really poignant and funny that touches on pop culture references and my own memories that touches me.  I'm was sitting in my basement at 7am laughing all by myself.  I still have a smile on my face when I think about it.  Things like this are great.  I wish I was as eloquent as Wil Wheaton is at recounting old memories.  We all have memories like this, but he just has a knack for phrasing it for optimum smile-factor.

My first and only poem...

I wrote this back in college.  I'm not sure where I was, but I just re-found it in one of my notebooks:

Who Is She?

Who is she, this girl who will steal my heart?
Who is she, this girl from whom I will not part?
Will she make a lot of money, or will I support her?
If the latter is the case, will I be able to afford her?
Who is she, this girl who will straighten out my life?
Who is she, this girl who will be my wife?
Is she white? black? yello? tall? short? fat? thin?
Does it really matter, the color of her skin?
All that I know is that she'll be wonderful and kind.
All that I know is I will lover her mind.
Because all that really counts is what's inside.
And that's what I want from my beautiful bride.

Not bad, huh?

Terminology

It's interesting... If you just replace a few words in this article with things like "Insurgents", "Terrorists" and "Islamic" instead of "rioters", "paramilitary groups" and "Protestants", this could be an article about Iraq.

I am of Irish descent and I point out to people often that terrorists are not just from the middle east.  Terrorism has been happening for decades in Ireland.  I hope it helps some people keep persepective and think past racism and religious persecution.

I had been avoiding talking about Katrina-esque things...

but, I changed my mind when I read this really nice article from a former Serbian refugee in Austin

I don't need to comment further.  It speaks for itself.

Reflection on life and remembering the good with the bad.

Back when I first started this blog, I posted a rather depressing first post because that is what was happening at the time in my life.

I was reminded of this time because I got an email from Chad Hollister about his new CD "Spirit" being released.  The reason this reminded me of that is that, during the sad times of going to my step-mother's funeral, Chad played at The Black Bull in Rockland, Maine.  The Black Bull is owned by friends of my brother Chris' and Chad's.

It was a nice night during what was a sad time.  I really enjoyed seeing Chad then.  It was the second time I saw him play.  The first time was at my brother's wedding in Playa del Carmen, Mexico (yeah... it was pretty cool), where Chad played in all sorts of random places up and down the beach.  It was a lot of fun.

So fun, in fact, that we're trying to get him to come to our house to play for friends.  Hopefully, we can make that happen.

View some pictures from that night

I have a "guy crush" on Wil Wheaton...

My friends have made fun of me for reading Wil Wheaton's blog so much and having his books and, most of all, mentioning him in casual conversation.

That's OK, I can take it.  Actually, I have just decided that I have a "guy crush" on him :)

I just remembered reading a New York Times article about a concept called a "girl crush". Basically, it's just someone you think is very cool and you want to be him/her.

Wil Wheaton, or at least the person he portrays himself as,  is a great person.  He's a loving step-father, husband and friend who cares deeply about a lot of things.  His writing is inspiring and makes me wish I was as good a world citizen as he is.

His latest contribution to my impression of him?  His co-sponsoring of PokerStars tournaments to benefit Hurrican Katrina victims.

Oh well, guess my friends have more ammo for harrassment now :)

Welcome to my blog's new home..

This is the new home of my blog.

Thank you for following me here.

I apologize, but the comments did not make it over with the porting of the archives (it was just too much effort).

I hope this works a little better for all you readers out there (*cough*).

Tom

P.S. Anyone that's interested can also check out my MythTV blog (very geeky topic though)

This guy is the reason torture should be legal in the US...

If ever there were a reason to look the other way while inmates are violating and brutalizing someone, this is it:

Wired News: "Man May Have Molested Thousands"

Wired 9.12: Take The AQ Testl

Along the lines of the Asperger's question, I found
The AQ Test. It's a measure of your Autism-Spectrum Quotient. People with Autism or related disorder scored higher than 32 80% of the time. I scored a 28. Pretty close. Also, it seems that it won't calculate for you anymore (it's an old article), but it has the scoring info at the bottom, so I added it manually.

Do I have Asperger's?

I read this article, and it seemed to be exactly the way I am...

I've always known that there's something a little different about how I work versus lots of other people.

There are various issues I have with my own personality:

• I won't do mundane/simple things. It's almost like they're "beneath me" in a way. For instance, homework in school (if I knew how to do it, I wouldn't -- I was there to learn, not be a hamster in a wheel), fill out time sheets for work (seems like a waste of time for so little information, even though I know this is where my income comes from)


• Inability to rapidly multitask. I can do many tasks, but my "time slices" allocated to each task tend to be really large.


• Monotonous tasks with work. Anything that is simple and unchallenging takes me about 3 times as long as challenging things. If someone could figure out how to keep feeding me exciting and challenging work, I could perform at an amazing level of productivity.


• I need to know the exact way things are supposed to be done, or I wind up floundering. The perfect example of this occurred when my wife and I were taking dancing lessons. I needed to be told the exact steps and was very irritated when I found out that they had simplified the steps to teach us in the beginning and re-taught us the right way. It was very frustrating for the teacher and for my wife, but it's just how my brain works. Obscure Corrolary: I also attribute this to the reason why I never could slide in baseball. I couldn't figure out how it was done by watching people. Since nobody described how it was supposed to be done, I just didn't even try to do it. To this day I have not tried. Of course, now it's because I have no reason too, and it seems like it could be painful :)

There are also Asperger's like things that I don't mind, like:

• Nearly OCD issues: I tend to have a seriously geometric mind. This allows me to visualize things in my head to a great degree, but it also causes me to do strange things like walk on tile floors in the patter of a knight in chess (3 tiles forward, one tile to the side -- yep, I do that).


• I tend to talk to myself: Mostly, this is silent, but I will actually carry on conversations with myself; occasionally this is in the form of talking with someone imaginary, but I am laughing at myself the whole time. I keep thinking... "well, as long as I think this is nuts, I'm doing OK" :)


• When I concentrate, I tend to rock back and forth rhythmically. Especially when I'm in distress. This first manifested as a kid when I would have really bad asthma attacks. It would allow me to focus and calm myself down. Now, when I'm really on a roll with work or reading a particularly exciting book, I will rock back and forth too. My wife noticed this but didn't say anything :)

Maybe I should see a psychiatrist about this and see if I have a real problem, or if I am just reading into the inormation. But, considering that I have a nephew with a PDD (Autism spectrum disorders), it might just be true.

There are so many more quirks and examples that I could put here, but this is enough for now. Maybe I'll come back and add more to the lists later.

We?

No... I'm not talking about that estrogen-laced cable channel.

I'm talking about commenting on your sports team. When my friends and I are talking about a sports team, like the Baltimore Ravens, I say "we". As in: "We did really well on defense, but our offense is still impotent". My wife always rolls her eyes and asks me if I'm on the team.

Yes! I'm on the team! :) I'm the proverbial "12th man". I'm a season ticket holder (since they came to Baltimore) and, as far as I'm concerned, it's very normal for people to talk about their teams like that.

What does everyone else think? Leave me a comment (all 2 of you!)

Life...

I was hoping for a more uplifting posting for my first real post, but this is the way the muse took me....

Early October started out really well for us. Debbie & I were pretty excited that we were going to Vegas (Baby!) on the 7th. We were staying at Paris for the first time (We're trying to stay at all the top casinos and then work our way to the others). Paris is a pretty place. I like it. I even talked to some people from Paris, France that said they liked it too.

So, here's where the Speed Bump Of Life (tm) comes in. The day before we left, my sister called me and told me that my step mother had a brain aneurism and was in the hospital. I could almost hear the mental screeching of tires as all my cool plans in Vegas were overshadowed by all my concerns for my step mother, my father and my step brother.

All I could think of was questions:

• What's my dad going to do if she doesn't make it?
• What's my dad going to do if she DOES make it? (there are almost always debilitating side effects to aneurisms which require extra care)
• How is my step brother going to handle this?
• Why do I keep calling him my "step" brother when I really don't want to?
  
• What are they going to do for the (upcoming) holidays?
• Did my dad have life insurance on her? (I'm not sure what this says about me, but my mind thinks of everything at once, emotional and rational)
• and on and on and on...
  

Since there was nothing we could do (my step mother was still unconscious), Debbie & I decided to go on our vacation anyway.

We tried to have fun in Vegas. We even went shopping and I did pick up the world's coolest shirt from Kenneth Cole in the Venetian. My wife was shocked that I liked it because it's apparently pink. I will try to post a pic of me wearing it a little later.

Anyway, even though we spent lots of money, I still didn't have a great time. I was worried about my step mother and the family. On Saturday the 9th, my father and step brother decided to remove the ventilator and allow my step mother to die. Telling a doctor "Hey Doc. Let my wife die." has to be one of the hardest things for a person to do. I don't ever want to have to make that kind of decision for another person. It makes me hope, selfishly, that I die first so I don't have to do that to my wife.

So, we flew home, slept, did some laundry and got in the car and drove to Maine. We spent a long weekend in Camden, Maine, capped off by the funeral services on Saturday. One lighter part of the trip was that we got to see/hear Chad Hollister, a friend of my step brother's who we first met in Mexico. He is a fun musician, I recommend seeing him if he ever gets to your town.

Then I drove the hellacious 600 miles back on Sunday. Back to work, back to daily life, back to our cool cat, Fred.

So, the wheel of life keeps on turning, and we all just ride it for what it's worth. I invited my father down for Thanksgiving this year. Hopefully, he'll come down. We all know how hard it is during the holidays when you've lost a loved one.

My next post will be happier, I promise!