If you ask me what gun control is, I'm going to tell you that it is how well you handle your firearm. Are you shooting on target? Or are you missing it altogether? Now, you might be thinking that I'm missing the mark on what gun control really is, but am I? Or are our legislators in Washington, DC missing the mark like you think I missed the mark? Think about that for a minute or two...
I understand the current outcry for more and stricter gun legislation. Guns are bad. They are evil. They kill people. They take loved ones prematurely. Assault weapons are the epitome of all the evil guns in the world. They are loud and they look mean and menacing. Just the very appearance of them brings fear and trembling into the hearts of the masses... Whatever.
First of all, guns are like any other dangerous tool or instrument. They must be treated with respect. I have a Husqvarna 371 chain saw (it is a 71cc, two stroke motor with a 24" bar on it that will run chainsaw chain at 10,000 RPM). The thing is a beast. I cut down and limbed a tree in my back yard in 15 minutes with this saw on Saturday. It took me longer to load the tree into my pickup truck to haul it off to the dump than it did for me to take it down and cut it up. That saw is a freaking awesome machine. If you are stupid, it will maim or kill you. If you don't have respect for it, it doesn't matter who you are. It will eat your flesh faster than you can say, "Ouch!". Yep. Its dangerous, but it doesn't mean it isn't a useful and helpful tool.
Guns are evil. No, they aren't. Guns are, well, guns. They are highly precise machines that shoot metallic projectiles from their barrels. There is nothing bad or evil about guns. There are evil people who do bad things with guns. There is the press and others that wish to villainize guns so that we can outlaw the guns so that we won't hurt ourselves. No, guns aren't bad. The people who use them maliciously are bad. The press and legislators that villainizes them are bad. But guns in and of themselves are not bad. When used properly, they are like my chainsaw, useful instruments.
Guns kill people. Nope, they don't. People kill people. If someone gets stabbed with a knife we say, "George killed Mary." We don't say, "The knife killed Mary." That's just stupid. The knife can't do anything on its own. Neither can the gun. Someone has to pull the trigger and the person pulling the trigger is the person responsible for the bullet that comes out the end of the barrel. The gun cannot think. It cannot act. It only does what someone else wants it to do.
Guns take loved ones prematurely. Nope, wrong again. It isn't the gun's fault it fired a bullet when someone pulled the trigger. It is doing what it is built to do and that is to fire a bullet and send a projectile down the barrel and out the end of it. The person who pulled the trigger is responsible for the premature death, not the gun.
Hopefully by now you are realizing that I'm not a real big fan of gun control. I look at the legislation that is in Congress right now and honestly, I'm not impressed with what I see. Let me explain why:
Banning high capacity magazines: Would a ban on high capacity magazine have prevented the tragedy that happened at Columbine High School, or Sandy Hook Elementary, or the shooting at the movie theater in Colorado? The answer is a resounding, "NO!" But why not? Because if you ban the sale of high capacity magazines, you still have millions of magazines in circulation that people can buy. The only thing the magazine ban will do is cause the price of high capacity magazines to go up because the supply will go down and demand will increase. Those that don't have will want and they will be willing to pay good money to have what they cannot have. The only way a high capacity ban will actually work is if the United States government actually bans the sale, manufacture, and ownership of those magazines and then goes door to door to confiscate those magazines from its citizens. Do we really want the police to go through our houses to search for high capacity magazines? Do we really want to make felons out of people who are currently law abiding citizens? Anyone heard of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution? Because we the people are protected from unreasonable search and seizure. Our legislator know this. They know that if they ban the high capacity magazines now, sooner or later the ones that are in circulation will wear out and go away. This will take many, many, many years to happen. This feel good legislation with little or no substance.
Banning "assault" weapons: Assault weapons are those weapons that are used by the military. The types of guns that normal, everyday people can buy are not assault weapons. Why is that? Because real assault weapons are machine guns. The average person cannot simply buy a machine gun. Real machine guns are extremely expensive and you have to go through a six month background check in order to buy one. The AR15, M&P15 and all the other M16 style rifles are semi-automatic (one shot is fired for every pull of the trigger). The way that they fire is like any other semi-automatic firearm out there: one bullet fired for every time the trigger is pulled. The reason why legislators want to ban these is they are scary looking. They look like their military inspired cousins. They are used in movies to mow down people. They are dangerous. Yep, my chainsaw is dangerous. My car with a drunk person driving it is dangerous. My razor sharp kitchen knife is dangerous. Alcohol is dangerous. The item itself in and of itself isn't dangerous, but how it is used. Banning one type of gun is just feel good legislation. Gun manufacturers will find ways around the legislation and still manufacture guns that are just as lethal as they were before.
It is getting late and I must go to bed so I can go to work tomorrow. But I want to make one last point. Alcohol is abused much more than guns are. Alcohol kills more people through drunk driving fatalities, disease, cirrhosis of the liver than guns do. Alcohol is bad stuff. But you don't hear the drum beat of people wanting to bring back Prohibition. Would we be better off if we were a dry nation? Probably. But we went through that experiment once and it failed miserably. We had our assault weapon ban from 1994 to 2004. It really didn't do anything for us. It didn't make us any safer. We still had Columbine. Regardless of what we do, we will always have Columbine, Sandy Hook or some other place. Today, at the Boston Marathon finish line, someone got a burr in their bonnet to kill a bunch of innocent bystanders with bombs (no guns, but bombs). The guns here aren't the problem. The problem is with the people. The people have to be fixed, not taking the guns away from the people.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
My 2013 Hyundai Sonata SE 2.0T
I am the proud owner of a 2009 Toyota Camry base model car. The car is a 2.4L four banger with 155 horsepower. The car is nice. It has a nice stereo and a nice ride. It is quiet to ride in it. It seats four people very comfortably. But I don't like my Camry because it is boring. Disgustingly boring. I had a 2003 Corolla that was faster than my Camry. The Corolla wasn't as refined as the Camry is, but from a pure performance perspective, it had the juice. I missed my Corolla.
Over the years I've gone to the car dealer and I have test driven numerous Mustangs and Camaros. Some of those cars were nicer and more fun to drive than others, but for the most part, they are frivolous cars. All fun, but just expensive toys. I had a girlfriend that called those cars "f-dude cars". OK, whatever. That's why she's an EX and why I never married her.
The last six to nine months, I've really been looking at the Hyundai Sonatas. In 2011 Hyundai redesigned the Sonata into its current form. I've been very pleased with how awesome those cars look. I have several friends and neighbors and friends that have Hyundais and they've had really good luck with their cars. So I've gone to the dealership and take a few for a spin. I'm not overly impressed with the normally aspirated Sonatas, but the Sonata turbo is a totally different animal. I've driven a few of those and they are fun to drive. (As a side note, I've driven the Hyundai Genesis Coup with the 2.0T and the Sonata with the 2.0T and the Sonata was more enjoyable to drive than the Genesis Coup and was FASTER!)
I have learned in my married life that there are little windows of opportunity that float by. If you are not ready to pounce on that window of opportunity, it closes rather quickly. That window of opportunity came in 2010 when I got my first (and only) ATV. In February this year, that little window of opportunity came back. At the time we owned two vehicles - the Toyota Camry and a Chevy Suburban. I drive the Camry to work and my wife drives the Suburban. The Camry gets 30MPG, whereas the Suburban gets about 16MPG. My wife has been using the Suburban extensively and it was costing us a ton of money to drive (in gas) and we were quickly adding miles. We still have many children home and at the rate of use, we were going to use up the Suburban before we could realistically give up the large SUV. So my wife said that she would like to have a small car to drive around.
Watch the window of opportunity open... So I immediately go to the local Hyundai dealership and test drive several different vehicles in earnest. I found the car that I wanted, but it wasn't at the dealership. It is in transit from the factory to the dealership. So, I bought the car sight unseen. Not something that I typically do, but I did it because that car could be sold from underneath me if I didn't buy it before it arrived.
That car is fun to drive. It is quick. Normally turbos have a bit of a lag, but this one does not have much of a lag. The only time the lag is very noticeable is when the car is first started and you romp on it. You really need to get the car warmed up to operating temperature in order to appreciate the power of that motor.
So, how does it do on mileage? Well, when I'm driving it like a maniac, it will get mid to high 20s. However, if I am careful in how I drive, I can usually get about 30MPG out of it. One day I filled it up and then drove to work with the cruise control set to 70 MPH. I drove about 45 miles to work and I ended up getting ... get this ... 41MPG. Yep. 41MPG going at 70 MPH down the freeway. In reality, I don't get that because my wife likes to drive my car around town and use my gas. Just a warning... The Sonata Turbo is NOT the car to buy for driving around town. It is very thirsty in stop and go traffic.
Some technical specs about the car:
Engine: 2.0L turbo (twin scroll Mitsubishi turbo) with intercooler.
Horsepower: 274 (same as my 5.3L V8 Suburban!!)
Torque: 269 ft-lbs
Heated front seats
Bottom line: The car is fun to drive. So if you're looking at a Hyundai Sonata, take one for a spin one day. It might end up following you home...
Over the years I've gone to the car dealer and I have test driven numerous Mustangs and Camaros. Some of those cars were nicer and more fun to drive than others, but for the most part, they are frivolous cars. All fun, but just expensive toys. I had a girlfriend that called those cars "f-dude cars". OK, whatever. That's why she's an EX and why I never married her.
The last six to nine months, I've really been looking at the Hyundai Sonatas. In 2011 Hyundai redesigned the Sonata into its current form. I've been very pleased with how awesome those cars look. I have several friends and neighbors and friends that have Hyundais and they've had really good luck with their cars. So I've gone to the dealership and take a few for a spin. I'm not overly impressed with the normally aspirated Sonatas, but the Sonata turbo is a totally different animal. I've driven a few of those and they are fun to drive. (As a side note, I've driven the Hyundai Genesis Coup with the 2.0T and the Sonata with the 2.0T and the Sonata was more enjoyable to drive than the Genesis Coup and was FASTER!)
I have learned in my married life that there are little windows of opportunity that float by. If you are not ready to pounce on that window of opportunity, it closes rather quickly. That window of opportunity came in 2010 when I got my first (and only) ATV. In February this year, that little window of opportunity came back. At the time we owned two vehicles - the Toyota Camry and a Chevy Suburban. I drive the Camry to work and my wife drives the Suburban. The Camry gets 30MPG, whereas the Suburban gets about 16MPG. My wife has been using the Suburban extensively and it was costing us a ton of money to drive (in gas) and we were quickly adding miles. We still have many children home and at the rate of use, we were going to use up the Suburban before we could realistically give up the large SUV. So my wife said that she would like to have a small car to drive around.
Watch the window of opportunity open... So I immediately go to the local Hyundai dealership and test drive several different vehicles in earnest. I found the car that I wanted, but it wasn't at the dealership. It is in transit from the factory to the dealership. So, I bought the car sight unseen. Not something that I typically do, but I did it because that car could be sold from underneath me if I didn't buy it before it arrived.
That car is fun to drive. It is quick. Normally turbos have a bit of a lag, but this one does not have much of a lag. The only time the lag is very noticeable is when the car is first started and you romp on it. You really need to get the car warmed up to operating temperature in order to appreciate the power of that motor.
So, how does it do on mileage? Well, when I'm driving it like a maniac, it will get mid to high 20s. However, if I am careful in how I drive, I can usually get about 30MPG out of it. One day I filled it up and then drove to work with the cruise control set to 70 MPH. I drove about 45 miles to work and I ended up getting ... get this ... 41MPG. Yep. 41MPG going at 70 MPH down the freeway. In reality, I don't get that because my wife likes to drive my car around town and use my gas. Just a warning... The Sonata Turbo is NOT the car to buy for driving around town. It is very thirsty in stop and go traffic.
Some technical specs about the car:
Engine: 2.0L turbo (twin scroll Mitsubishi turbo) with intercooler.
Horsepower: 274 (same as my 5.3L V8 Suburban!!)
Torque: 269 ft-lbs
Heated front seats
Bottom line: The car is fun to drive. So if you're looking at a Hyundai Sonata, take one for a spin one day. It might end up following you home...
Busy with changes - The movie 42
Life has been busy crazy since the last time I wrote. Work has been busy crazy. Always something to do and really never enough time to get it done. Kids are in school and consume copious amounts of time to go and support them at their events. Church comes a calling and you spend time there for the benefit of those that are around you...
This weekend was one of those rare moments that you get where you actually feel like you had a weekend. Friday, we were scheduled to have some friends over. Things didn't work out so that little get together got postponed until Sunday, which was a really good thing. My wife and I haven't had a date in a while and so we went and saw a movie. The movie we saw: 42 - The Jackie Robinson Story.
Short movie review: Great movie. Go and see it. Reward the movie studio with lots of money so they make more inspiring movies like this instead of the garbage they've been making for the last 12 months. It makes you appreciate how far society has come since the late 1940s. Highly recommended. Warning: If you are offended by the use of the "N" word, then you will be offended by this movie. It is probably time to grow up and take the diapers off and grow a little bit thicker skin. The use of the "N" word is to show how disgustingly racist people were in the 1940s. If you can overcome your "N" word sensitivity, this is a powerful movie which shows the determination of a young black man and a bunch of white men who are willing to endure hatred to start bringing blacks into professional baseball. Truly groundbreaking. Harrison Ford does a great job in this movie. One of the best Hollywood movies I've seen in a long time. And I'm serious about making this a box office hit. If the public will support good movies like this, then we won't have a Scary Movie XV in the year 2025 or Saw XXXII.
This weekend was one of those rare moments that you get where you actually feel like you had a weekend. Friday, we were scheduled to have some friends over. Things didn't work out so that little get together got postponed until Sunday, which was a really good thing. My wife and I haven't had a date in a while and so we went and saw a movie. The movie we saw: 42 - The Jackie Robinson Story.
Short movie review: Great movie. Go and see it. Reward the movie studio with lots of money so they make more inspiring movies like this instead of the garbage they've been making for the last 12 months. It makes you appreciate how far society has come since the late 1940s. Highly recommended. Warning: If you are offended by the use of the "N" word, then you will be offended by this movie. It is probably time to grow up and take the diapers off and grow a little bit thicker skin. The use of the "N" word is to show how disgustingly racist people were in the 1940s. If you can overcome your "N" word sensitivity, this is a powerful movie which shows the determination of a young black man and a bunch of white men who are willing to endure hatred to start bringing blacks into professional baseball. Truly groundbreaking. Harrison Ford does a great job in this movie. One of the best Hollywood movies I've seen in a long time. And I'm serious about making this a box office hit. If the public will support good movies like this, then we won't have a Scary Movie XV in the year 2025 or Saw XXXII.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Breaking radio silence
Looking at my blog postings, I went radio silent sometime in May, right after my sister passed away. Time flies when you're busy. Work has been keeping me busy. My family has been keeping me busy. Life has been keeping me busy. I'm glad the kids are back in school.
Speaking of children, my oldest son received his mission call and will enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on November 28, 2012. He will be going to Minnesota on his mission. Funny thing... He wanted two things. First, go Stateside. [check] Second, go someplace cold. [double check] My wife said the average temperature in Minnesota during the winter is 6 degrees F. Six degrees. Thinking about that kind of cold numbs my brain. He dislikes the cold so he's excited about going there. I've been getting up with him at 5AM and going through Preach My Gospel. I haven't been perfect for the 5AM thing, but we're going to do that from here on out. He has a lot to learn and he's nowhere close to being prepared from knowing the missionary discussions and the scriptures that he needs to know. We might have to buckle down and do some two a days. If he gets 2 weeks in the MTC, then that will be a blip before he's out teaching people. Then again, he'll be hitting Minnesota mid-December, so staying warm will be the top priority on his brain at that time.
Need to run. Hopefully it won't be another six months before my next blog posting.
Speaking of children, my oldest son received his mission call and will enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on November 28, 2012. He will be going to Minnesota on his mission. Funny thing... He wanted two things. First, go Stateside. [check] Second, go someplace cold. [double check] My wife said the average temperature in Minnesota during the winter is 6 degrees F. Six degrees. Thinking about that kind of cold numbs my brain. He dislikes the cold so he's excited about going there. I've been getting up with him at 5AM and going through Preach My Gospel. I haven't been perfect for the 5AM thing, but we're going to do that from here on out. He has a lot to learn and he's nowhere close to being prepared from knowing the missionary discussions and the scriptures that he needs to know. We might have to buckle down and do some two a days. If he gets 2 weeks in the MTC, then that will be a blip before he's out teaching people. Then again, he'll be hitting Minnesota mid-December, so staying warm will be the top priority on his brain at that time.
Need to run. Hopefully it won't be another six months before my next blog posting.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The death of a sister
A little over a week ago one of my siblings passed away. She had stage four breast cancer. She lasted more than five years with the cancer. This last year has been especially hard on her. In the end she died at her home. She was the most determined soul ready to beat it. Apparently that was not her path to take. As hard as it is to lose a family member, she is in a much better place than all of us collectively put together. She does not need to worry about chemo or radiation treatments any more.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
A geek's dream - A descent VMWare ESXi server for less than $1k
OK, for the non-technical geeks out there, I'm going to say I'm sorry in advance. This post is going to be pure geek speak.
I work for a company that has a cloud offering. I need to have several different devices in my lab in order to duplicate connections to the Cloud. Honestly, I have a lab at home that is probably as good, if not better than what I have at work. One of my pieces of lab equipment is a computer that runs virtualization software. What that means is I have one PC that can run many different operating systems on it all at the same time. So instead of having 10 different PCs all configured differently, I have one machine where I can make virtual machines and I can stop and start them at will.
My "old" rig had an AMD E-350 (think if it as an Intel Atom on steroids) motherboard, with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive and about 4 networking cards on it. The nice thing about it is when it was maxed out, it would only eat about 50 watts of power - max. The problem is that it was so underpowered, it would literally take me days to setup and configure a Windows server VM for duplication purposes. Not hours, but days. After much frustration, I gutted the system and purchased the following items:
AMD FX 8120 (eight core CPU running at 3.1Ghz)
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 motherboard
32 GB of RAM
Crucial M4 SSD hard drive (128GB boot drive)
Intel dual port PCIe networking card
I put this all together and all I can say is that this thing absolutely, positively flies. The difference in processing power between the two is the difference between night and day. Stability is rock solid. Worth the investment? Oh, absolutely. No doubt about it.
So if you're looking for a relatively inexpensive, but very capable VMWare ESXi 5 server, this is the equipment to get.
I work for a company that has a cloud offering. I need to have several different devices in my lab in order to duplicate connections to the Cloud. Honestly, I have a lab at home that is probably as good, if not better than what I have at work. One of my pieces of lab equipment is a computer that runs virtualization software. What that means is I have one PC that can run many different operating systems on it all at the same time. So instead of having 10 different PCs all configured differently, I have one machine where I can make virtual machines and I can stop and start them at will.
My "old" rig had an AMD E-350 (think if it as an Intel Atom on steroids) motherboard, with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive and about 4 networking cards on it. The nice thing about it is when it was maxed out, it would only eat about 50 watts of power - max. The problem is that it was so underpowered, it would literally take me days to setup and configure a Windows server VM for duplication purposes. Not hours, but days. After much frustration, I gutted the system and purchased the following items:
AMD FX 8120 (eight core CPU running at 3.1Ghz)
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 motherboard
32 GB of RAM
Crucial M4 SSD hard drive (128GB boot drive)
Intel dual port PCIe networking card
I put this all together and all I can say is that this thing absolutely, positively flies. The difference in processing power between the two is the difference between night and day. Stability is rock solid. Worth the investment? Oh, absolutely. No doubt about it.
So if you're looking for a relatively inexpensive, but very capable VMWare ESXi 5 server, this is the equipment to get.
Monday, September 26, 2011
17 Miracles, the movie
Several months ago I took my family to see the movie 17 Miracles, by T.C. Christensen. The movie recently came out on video. Last Saturday I purchased it. For family home evening tonight, we watched the movie again as a family. This is such an incredible movie.
The movie came out about the time my Dad passed away. There is a scene in the movie where a candle is burning. It burns, and burns and burns, burning all the way down to nothing before being extinguished. I have often compared my father's life to that of a candle. That scene exemplifies how I felt. The first time I saw the movie, I cried like a baby.
If you have a chance to see the movie, do it. It is a great movie!
The movie came out about the time my Dad passed away. There is a scene in the movie where a candle is burning. It burns, and burns and burns, burning all the way down to nothing before being extinguished. I have often compared my father's life to that of a candle. That scene exemplifies how I felt. The first time I saw the movie, I cried like a baby.
If you have a chance to see the movie, do it. It is a great movie!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
10th anniversary of September 11, 2001
Today is the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001. As a tribute to that day, I will record my memories of the events of that day... Details that I remember.
I got up that morning and prepared for work just like any other day. I got in my car and drove to work. As I was heading into work, I turned on the radio and started listening to the news. I then realized that something bad had happened. I really couldn't believe what I was hearing. That the World Trade Center buildings had been hit by aircraft. I quickly called my wife and told her to turn on the radio or turn on the TV and to find out what was going on.
I went into work and everyone was just awestruck. Work was quiet like a morgue. I tried to go to cnn.com and CNN's servers were so busy and overwhelmed, I was unable to get to their news site. After repeated tries, they finally put up a blurb of text up on their site and that was it. Someone pulled in a TV into a meeting room and several people were watching TV trying to figure out what had happened.
One of my co-workers had plans to be at ground zero the day of the attacks. Something happened and he and his girlfriend had to reschedule their trip to NY one week earlier. He was back at work from a trip to the NY/Boston area the previous week. He was pretty shook up about all of it. I mean, he was really shaken up about it. He was from Germany and his girlfriend/fiancee was in Europe and he was in the United States. He went back home shortly (within months) after the attacks. Honestly, I didn't blame him.
I remember thinking about my own mortality. How, in an instant, your life can be snuffed out like that of a bug. And I took an evaluation of my life and I didn't like the direction I was heading, so I made some changes in my life.
My house is 50 or 60 miles south of a major airport. While there isn't a lot of noisy air traffic where I live, there is a fairly regular stream of air traffic over my house. In the days past 9/11, I remember how weird it was to go outside and not have ANY air traffic at all. No airliners. No prop planes. Nothing. I remember how quiet it was outside and how the skies were free of any noise. I also remember how unusual it was to hear airplanes again once commercial service started again.
In the hours and days after 9/11, I remember I had co-workers who worked on people's networks and systems who had been affected by the 9/11 attacks. They were cleaning up the electronic messes made by the terrorists.
In my short life, I have lived or visited many countries of the world. I have met people who don't like Americans, but generally they are few. I remember meeting one guy (he was a German living in Argentina) who hated Americans. I'm sure he was a part of Nazi Germany from WWII. He was probably the person I've met in my life that hated Americans and America the most. I have met people who don't like Americans because we are loud and obnoxious. They don't like our government or our policies. They don't understand us or what we do or why we do it. They think we are ignorant because our news only consists of news from the United States and not the entire world. But as much as I know people have disliked America, little did I know that there were people out there who hated us so much that they wished to destroy us like Osama Bin Laden wanted to destroy us. I just didn't know there was that kind of hatred towards my country until 9/11/01.
To a degree I understand why people dislike Americans. We do have some character flaws. As a nation, we have gone astray. Religion is no longer important. Morality/honesty is losing its value or has been lost. Our elected officials can't/won't work together and compromise. We are hated because we trample the commandments of God. We are viewed as the great Satan. There are good people here in America, but I think there are ever decreasing numbers of good people.
How do we fix it all? First and foremost, we need to return and become a God fearing nation. We need to be humble. I believe we are reaping the fruits of our selfishness both as individuals and collectively as a nation. God will have a hard time blessing us unless we do humble ourselves and change our ways. If we keep doing what we are doing or we become even worse, then it won't get better. The country has had numerous wake up calls. We had 9/11. We had hurricane Katrina. We had the economic crash of 2008. We have a sputtering/stalling economy. What more do we need to wake us up and get us to change? Or are we so blinded/proud that we can't change?
The only solution that I offer is to make a change for the better in my own life. I also need to raise my kids to be good kids and to stay out of trouble. I can't change the whole country, but I can change myself and help those that are around me. That's what we can do.
I got up that morning and prepared for work just like any other day. I got in my car and drove to work. As I was heading into work, I turned on the radio and started listening to the news. I then realized that something bad had happened. I really couldn't believe what I was hearing. That the World Trade Center buildings had been hit by aircraft. I quickly called my wife and told her to turn on the radio or turn on the TV and to find out what was going on.
I went into work and everyone was just awestruck. Work was quiet like a morgue. I tried to go to cnn.com and CNN's servers were so busy and overwhelmed, I was unable to get to their news site. After repeated tries, they finally put up a blurb of text up on their site and that was it. Someone pulled in a TV into a meeting room and several people were watching TV trying to figure out what had happened.
One of my co-workers had plans to be at ground zero the day of the attacks. Something happened and he and his girlfriend had to reschedule their trip to NY one week earlier. He was back at work from a trip to the NY/Boston area the previous week. He was pretty shook up about all of it. I mean, he was really shaken up about it. He was from Germany and his girlfriend/fiancee was in Europe and he was in the United States. He went back home shortly (within months) after the attacks. Honestly, I didn't blame him.
I remember thinking about my own mortality. How, in an instant, your life can be snuffed out like that of a bug. And I took an evaluation of my life and I didn't like the direction I was heading, so I made some changes in my life.
My house is 50 or 60 miles south of a major airport. While there isn't a lot of noisy air traffic where I live, there is a fairly regular stream of air traffic over my house. In the days past 9/11, I remember how weird it was to go outside and not have ANY air traffic at all. No airliners. No prop planes. Nothing. I remember how quiet it was outside and how the skies were free of any noise. I also remember how unusual it was to hear airplanes again once commercial service started again.
In the hours and days after 9/11, I remember I had co-workers who worked on people's networks and systems who had been affected by the 9/11 attacks. They were cleaning up the electronic messes made by the terrorists.
In my short life, I have lived or visited many countries of the world. I have met people who don't like Americans, but generally they are few. I remember meeting one guy (he was a German living in Argentina) who hated Americans. I'm sure he was a part of Nazi Germany from WWII. He was probably the person I've met in my life that hated Americans and America the most. I have met people who don't like Americans because we are loud and obnoxious. They don't like our government or our policies. They don't understand us or what we do or why we do it. They think we are ignorant because our news only consists of news from the United States and not the entire world. But as much as I know people have disliked America, little did I know that there were people out there who hated us so much that they wished to destroy us like Osama Bin Laden wanted to destroy us. I just didn't know there was that kind of hatred towards my country until 9/11/01.
To a degree I understand why people dislike Americans. We do have some character flaws. As a nation, we have gone astray. Religion is no longer important. Morality/honesty is losing its value or has been lost. Our elected officials can't/won't work together and compromise. We are hated because we trample the commandments of God. We are viewed as the great Satan. There are good people here in America, but I think there are ever decreasing numbers of good people.
How do we fix it all? First and foremost, we need to return and become a God fearing nation. We need to be humble. I believe we are reaping the fruits of our selfishness both as individuals and collectively as a nation. God will have a hard time blessing us unless we do humble ourselves and change our ways. If we keep doing what we are doing or we become even worse, then it won't get better. The country has had numerous wake up calls. We had 9/11. We had hurricane Katrina. We had the economic crash of 2008. We have a sputtering/stalling economy. What more do we need to wake us up and get us to change? Or are we so blinded/proud that we can't change?
The only solution that I offer is to make a change for the better in my own life. I also need to raise my kids to be good kids and to stay out of trouble. I can't change the whole country, but I can change myself and help those that are around me. That's what we can do.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Busy, busy, busy...
Life has been very busy lately. Work, Church, kids all consuming every waking moment of my life. The hardest part is the lack of sleep. I've been averaging about 5 - 6 hours of sleep per night for the last six to nine months. It is taking a toll on me. And even though I'm tired, when I lay down, I can't sleep because my mind is going. So, I stay with the poor sleeping routine.
Several weeks ago I was having a discussion with my two oldest kids about school and the home PC. I have two kids that will need to be on the computer a lot during the year for an extended period of time. At the time, we only had a single PC to split amongst all the kids. So I decided to pick up a netbook computer at a certain large retailer for $250. When I got there, I looked at some of the other machines that were in the $300 range. Then I ran across something that made me wonder.... It was a fairly non-descript box, but it was a computer with specs better than the netbook for $278..... It was $30 more than my original purchase price point... I thought it over and decided to get it on the spot without doing any research. I ended up with a low end Toshiba notebook with an AMD C-50 as the brains. It only had 2GB of RAM, but much to my surprise, it had a 64-bit version of Windows 7 and could take 8GB of RAM. So for an extra $60, I upgraded the RAM. While it will not be any sort of speed demon, it will serve the purpose of writing papers and surfing the web just fine. In fact, I'm writing this blog posting on it at this very moment. And strangely enough, even though I'm a tech guy, this is my first laptop that I purchased with my own money. I have a laptop from work, but I've never purchased one for myself or for the family. I've been eyeballing a laptop for about a year, but I haven't really been impressed with the offerings out there. So I waited. In tech, waiting is good because it means new stuff will come out and prices will drop. The C-50 really is good because it uses very little power (I think it is rated at like 9 watts) and is sufficiently powerful to do what I need to do. And I get to do the geek thing and max out the RAM to a truly outrageous amount for such a low-end processor. Life is a balance of trade-offs. I feel like I got my money's worth out of this purchase.
Several weeks ago I was having a discussion with my two oldest kids about school and the home PC. I have two kids that will need to be on the computer a lot during the year for an extended period of time. At the time, we only had a single PC to split amongst all the kids. So I decided to pick up a netbook computer at a certain large retailer for $250. When I got there, I looked at some of the other machines that were in the $300 range. Then I ran across something that made me wonder.... It was a fairly non-descript box, but it was a computer with specs better than the netbook for $278..... It was $30 more than my original purchase price point... I thought it over and decided to get it on the spot without doing any research. I ended up with a low end Toshiba notebook with an AMD C-50 as the brains. It only had 2GB of RAM, but much to my surprise, it had a 64-bit version of Windows 7 and could take 8GB of RAM. So for an extra $60, I upgraded the RAM. While it will not be any sort of speed demon, it will serve the purpose of writing papers and surfing the web just fine. In fact, I'm writing this blog posting on it at this very moment. And strangely enough, even though I'm a tech guy, this is my first laptop that I purchased with my own money. I have a laptop from work, but I've never purchased one for myself or for the family. I've been eyeballing a laptop for about a year, but I haven't really been impressed with the offerings out there. So I waited. In tech, waiting is good because it means new stuff will come out and prices will drop. The C-50 really is good because it uses very little power (I think it is rated at like 9 watts) and is sufficiently powerful to do what I need to do. And I get to do the geek thing and max out the RAM to a truly outrageous amount for such a low-end processor. Life is a balance of trade-offs. I feel like I got my money's worth out of this purchase.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
United States Debt ceiling
Watching the Democrats and Republicans squabble over the national debt ceiling is like watching my six and eight year old fight with each other. You know what's going to happen. No one will win the fight and they will both end up crying. The thing that ticks me off about these two parties, they are more interested in pushing their own agenda than actually putting aside their own differences and working on making something happen. You can sit and blame one party over the other, but the fact of the matter is that both parties are to blame. Both parties don't care enough about our country to get something passed. Neither are willing to compromise. I'm sick of both parties. If I could, I would vote for something other than the two ring circus we currently have. Yeah, you have all the other political parties out there, but they are so far out there they are practically unsupportable. So we are stuck where we are at.
If I had more time and energy, I'd craft some clever email, spam a few hundred of my closest friends, and do some sort of march/protest somewhere. I would encourage others to do the same. But, I don't have the time or the energy to do any of that. Instead, I may blog about it and I may send my congressmen an email or two about it.
So, I don't think we will get a deal passed unless there is an outcry from the citizens of the United States. Americans are too self-absorbed to do anything meaningful about it. I don't know exactly what will happen when the government defaults, but I know something for sure, we will have some gnarly inflation happen because faith in the dollar will cease. If you look at the exchange rate of the dollar and the price of oil and gold, the dollar has weakened against all of those things.
Additionally, the country has too much outstanding debt. We will never be able to do anything about it. The only way to "fix" it is to monetize the national debt. When you monetize the debt, that causes inflation. And with inflation everyone hurts. So, hold on. Our bumpy ride will just get that much bumpier.
If I had more time and energy, I'd craft some clever email, spam a few hundred of my closest friends, and do some sort of march/protest somewhere. I would encourage others to do the same. But, I don't have the time or the energy to do any of that. Instead, I may blog about it and I may send my congressmen an email or two about it.
So, I don't think we will get a deal passed unless there is an outcry from the citizens of the United States. Americans are too self-absorbed to do anything meaningful about it. I don't know exactly what will happen when the government defaults, but I know something for sure, we will have some gnarly inflation happen because faith in the dollar will cease. If you look at the exchange rate of the dollar and the price of oil and gold, the dollar has weakened against all of those things.
Additionally, the country has too much outstanding debt. We will never be able to do anything about it. The only way to "fix" it is to monetize the national debt. When you monetize the debt, that causes inflation. And with inflation everyone hurts. So, hold on. Our bumpy ride will just get that much bumpier.
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