So I’m thinking that breaking this up into smaller posts will increase the likelihood of them actually getting written.  And as a bonus, should help me remember what the hell I was thinking.  So these will probably be computer heavy posts. Tonights episode is on NFS and why NFS. NFS is used a lot more in the [...]

Depending on who you listen to, Tuesday’s election results in Massachusetts is either the second coming of Jesus or a catastrophe on the level of Haiti’s recent earthquake (I shit you not, it was on CNBC but I can’t find a link). I know nothing about Scott Brown, so I don’t know if his political beliefs will prove to benefit anyone (as someone I’m friends with posted on their FaceBook status: “Way to F it up MA: Coakley is far from perfect, but you just helped elect someone who hates gays, women, the environment, the poor and the elderly. Awesome.”), but I can say that the lack of a super majority in the Senate will bring some sanity back to our legislature.

I have to say, while I understand the progressive movement and the overwhelming desire to tow the party line, some of my more liberal friends/acquaintances are really surprising me. Some people really believe that the current bills on health care are exactly what we need… or at very least the things we “need” in the bill far outweigh anything bad in the bill. I have a small challenge for anyone reading this, please find me answers to the following:

• Why is Nebraska getting $100M to defer medicare/medicaid costs a good thing?
• Why is Louisiana getting $100M – $365M to defer medicaid increases a good thing?
• Why is exemptions for major labor unions from the “Cadillac” tax a good thing?

Other than literally buying votes for the bills, what good is any of that going to do except put a larger onus on the rest of America? I really want to know since the health care negotiations are still continuing despite an acknowledgment that no major votes would be made in the Senate until Brown is seated (maybe Maine will get a nice buyout too to gain Olympia Snowes vote?).

Here’s my suggestion (for what its worth). START OVER and pass the provisions that everyone knows we need and that we know we can agree on.

• Allow purchasing of insurance across state lines. The public option is supposed to add competition, but I think the market can do that on its own if we let it.
• Restrict or eliminate the practice of denying insurance based on preexisting conditions
• Regulate the way insurance claims are processed by insurers to protect claimants and restrict the ways in which an insurer can drop a client
• Enact a meaningful tort reform to bring down the costs of malpractice insurance. Perhaps beginning with a regulated version of “loser pays”.
• Eliminate group insurance or allow groups of people with similar insurable interests to pool their risk (i.e. allow multiple small businesses to group under one plan)
• Add a provision that requires the costs/benefits to be analyzed after a specific time period (after reforms are enacted) and require specific actions to be taken if goals are not met

Certainly, those ideas aren’t perfect and I’m certain there are others that everyone can agree on, but these ideas would make a meaningful difference in our health care system in likely a short period of time AND the bill wouldn’t have to be 2500+ pages long.

I went and saw my first Digital 3D movie and I have to say that I could not have picked a better movie to do it with. I went and saw Avatar not even knowing what digital 3D was exactly, and I was amazed at what I saw. The movie itself is a fantastic and wonderous journey through an alien world with an amazing story. The 3D effects are not gimmicky, they really seem to be a part of the movie. The whole thing was a treat.

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT!

So another year has passed. I can’t say that I’m sad to see ’09 go for a variety of reasons. But I don’t want to dwell on the past, but look towards THE FUTURE!

Seriously though, we are finally to a year that can be said in a futuristic fashion. Saying “TwentyTen” sounds right. “Two Thousand and Nine” is so last year. And I can say I’m right on this since car companies are following suit with the 2010 model year cars. Maybe this was the one barrier we have had from finally having flying cars and futuristic clothing. I bet in 2010 we get the future that has always been promised to us!

Or maybe not, but it does not really matter now does it? I mean think about it, look at the advances in technology over the last decade. While we might not have flying cars, we do have some pretty impressive technology! It was interesting to listen to This Week in Tech Episode 228 since it really summed up my views on the decade and brought up some pretty amazing points we just don’t really think about until you look at the whole picture.

I first hinted about the business idea I had back in September. I’m happy to say I’m going forward with it and it’s one of my major projects for 2010. I’ve spent the past few months fleshing out some details and it’s looking good to announce it sometime in the first quarter of the year. Next step is getting my tax return and ’09 bonus so I can acquire a domain name, and get the LLC setup. Yes, I’m going to try and build a business properly. Since I promised a hint or two, here is one: I will be watching the Jan 26th Apple event VERY closely.

Of course that’s just one of the things I hope to make happen in 2010. More will be revealed in time!

So I think we can all agree that the 2000’s were a pretty cool decade, but how will we refer to them? I mean, it was pretty obvious with the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. I guess I’ll leave that to the experts: VH1. I can’t wait to watch “I love the 2000’s” and all the associated remixes and redoes that are inevitable. “Hey do you remember when MP3 players were huge and clunky? Do you remember the Y2K bug?” Yes, yes I do.

Wow it's been a long time since my last post! Mike keeps bugging me about updating and I've really been lazy lately. I was thinking about what has gone on in the last 6 months and at first I thought nothing! But thinking about it more I realized that a few memorable things have gone on.

In June Mike and I took a trip to San Francisco. We got free travel from Mike's benefits and free hotel from the Hyatt where I work. We didn't have any family visits that we had to make so we spent the whole time together. We walked around a lot, went to a baseball game, went to the Japanese garden in Golden Gate Park, visited a aquarium where they had sea life found in the bay, and went on a ferry ride to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. There were a lot of places to walk around and get clam chowder and sourdough bread. It was a really fun time. I did get a pretty bad sunburn on the first day of walking around. Also it was freezing when we went to the baseball game and we didn't bring jackets. The wind coming off the bay makes for some chilly evenings! We got around pretty well with public transportation. It was fun to ride the cable cars and, after a day of walking everywhere, nice to sit down on the ride back to the hotel. It was a nice trip. The only disappointment was not being able to take a tour of Alcatraz Island. The Pride Parade was going on the weekend and a lot of people were in the city to see it. Tickets for Alcatraz were sold out so we couldn't take the tour on the actual island. We did go on a ferry ride to see it though. That was pretty cold too. I got a little wet too because the boat kept splashing into waves. I think the ferry was my favorite part of the trip. I'm glad that I'm getting to see more of California. When I was growing up we traveled a lot, but not really to anywhere in the western US. It's really good to have Mike's free travel and free hotels. That way we can spend more money on activities and good food and stuff. I didn't want to return to work after our trip. It's always hard going back!

Speaking of work...it's been pretty uneventful lately. I do come home and complain a lot but nothing that exciting ever really goes on. A few months ago my boss, Jon, decided to have a Iron Chef competition for all of the cooks who wanted to participate. I didn't sign up to do it but a pair from the Grand Met did. The secret ingredients were salmon, avocado, and apples. They went up against two banquet cooks and lost. I've heard my coworkers (Irene and Nathan) bitch and complain about how they should have won and the whole thing was fixed. They think that they are the best cooks even though they lost and they don't know how to take a loss. It has been the most annoying thing to have to listen to every day. After that Irene and I got into an argument about some Humus that I made. She didn't know that I made it and she said to everyone, including me, that it was "fucking shit." I didn't like that at all! Because I knew it wasn't bad and she embarrassed me in front of all of my coworkers. I told her that I made it and that if she doesn't like it thats fine, just say it in a less harsh way. It really hurt my feelings because we were friends and we did stuff together outside of work. I valued her opinion. Not so much anymore. I don't want to get stomped on again. I've decided to listen to what people have to say but know that I know how I feel too. If I made something and I feel that it is good, I'm not going to let someone else tell me that it's shit. I know I have to take criticism and I do about things like too salty or overcooked or something. I'm just not going to let it hurt my feelings. It's a hard thing for me to do though because I'm the type who cares about what people say. In happier news, Jon nominated me two months in a row for employee of the month! I was happy to hear that! I do work very hard and I always try to do my best. It is very hard though to have a good day when the people I work with are in crappy moods or are having bad days. I just try to put it behind me, do the prep and my station, and not worry about anyone else. I have learned that I decide if I have a good or bad day, not anyone else.

In other news, I got a week off in October and my mom came to visit! It was fun because she hadn't seen my new apartment since Mike and I moved in in March. She liked it a lot and was very impressed with the decorating. I thought a lot about where I wanted everything in our apartment to go and it's nice to hear my mom say I did a good job. I really like this apartment a lot! One of the projects that I wanted to do while my mom was visiting was to build a headboard for my bed. I'd spend weeks looking stuff up online about how to build, assemble, style, and hang a headboard. I felt overwhelmed doing the project myself. That's where my mom comes in. I explained to her my vision of a solid upholstered grey headboard with padding so that I could lean against it, and I wanted tufted buttons. The final product is a kind of checkerboard pattern of 3 different gray textured panels. We used plywood as the base and put 2" foam, then upholstery batting, then fabric. We pulled the fabric taught and then stapled it down to the plywood. To attach the buttons we found the center of the square and drilled a little hole through the plywood so we could feed some wire up and attach the button and then pull it tight. Everything worked great and the buttons look really good. The hard part was attaching the square pieces together and then figuring out how to hang it on the wall so that it was flush to the wall and very secure. We attached the boards using metal connectors and we screwed all of the pieces together. We hung it on the wall using picture hanging things that we found at Home Depot. We got two just to be safe. At first we hung it too high so we had to take the screws out and start again. It was okay though because you couldn't tell where the holes were and it looked great! The finishing touch was the wrought iron decoration that I hung above the bed. All I have to do now is find some bedside tables! It kinda sucks having all of my stuff on the floor next to the bed. I think I found the ones I want I just have to shell out the cash to get them.
My mom and I mostly worked on the bedroom while she was visiting but we did go shopping too. :D One day we went to visit my aunt in McKinney and another evening we went out to dinner where I work. It was a good meal and nice to be on the other side of the kitchen, but a little awkward too because I knew all of the employees were watching us. I hope my mom liked having dinner there. We got a scallop amuse (kinda like a mini appetizer) and little crab salads, and a dessert platter, in addition to our whole meal, made special by the kitchen just for us. I was really surprised when our waitress came and said that we didn't have to pay for dinner because the managers would take care of it. It made me feel happy that they did that for us.
I'm always sad to see family go when they have to go back to Ohio. I was pretty tired the whole time she visited because I'm used to waking up so late. Ohio is an hour behind too. So if I wake up at 10:30am that means that it's 11:30am Ohio time. My parents usually get up around 5:30am and I didn't want her to have to sit around alone in the mornings. I tried not to get up later than 9am. I tried very hard not to get grouchy and have a bad attitude because of my tiredness. I just get cranky when my sleep gets thrown off. I hope she didn't feel like I was being a brat or anything! LOL I'm looking forward to going to Ohio sometime in the next few months. I don't know when it will be but it will be soon. I miss everyone there and the weather (gasp!). I just like having snow! Especially for the holidays.

Every Halloween I carve a pumpkin. It's just something that I like to do. I always celebrated Halloween when I was growing up. I am a definite candy lover so any excuse to load up is a good one for me! I had 3 pumpkins this year. The first one was a small pumpkin that I carved a cute face on. Within three days it was moldy and had to be thrown out! I was disappointed and thought it was a bad pumpkin. I heard at work that the Hyatt was having a pumpkin carving contest. I wanted to get in on that. The first prize was $100. I signed up and picked out my pumpkin. I decided to carve an owl sitting in a tree. It looked pretty good right after I finished carving it. After a few days it started limp and everything was just getting old. I was disappointed because the contest was still a few days away and I had to get another pumpkin! What was I going to do now? I went online and looked a pictures of pumpkins. The coolest one I found was a cannibal pumpkin. I decided to do that for my last try. Mike and I went to Central Market and got a really ugly, warty pumpkin. It had one moldy spot but was still the best looking and biggest pumpkin there. This time I carved it the night before the contest. I woke up early the next day to drop it off at work to get judged.


There were 20 other pumpkins there when I dropped mine off. I was surprised at how many people got involved. I didn't win, but it was fun to do. I also figured out why all of the pumpkins got moldy so fast! In Ohio it's already getting close to freezing at night in October. That keeps the bacteria and moisture to a minimum. Here in Texas it stays pretty warm at night. It may only drop to the low 50s. That's still warm enough for mold to grow. I'll have to keep that in mind for next year's Halloween. No trick-or-treaters came to our door. I didn't think they would. I've never had anyone come to the door of my apartment for Halloween. I didn't have any candy anyway. Mike and I like to go to the store the day after Halloween and get 70% off candy to have for ourselves. :D

The next adventure coming up is a trip to New York City in a few weeks. I'm really excited because I've never been to NYC. It's going to be colder than I'm used to but that's okay. I just have to pack lots of sweaters and warm things. I got a room at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station. I'm hoping that it will be easy to travel even though its around Thanksgiving. A few of the things Id like to do are see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, see the Sept 11 memorial, go to Central Park, maybe take a carriage ride, find some cool places to eat, and go shopping. Mike and I aren't really into the art scene so we'll probably skip the museums. We've already decided on pizza for lunches. I'm a big fan of the show Sex and the City and it would be cool to see some places where the show has been filmed. I'm really looking forward to having a break from work too. Even though we're only going for 4 days it's still nice to go somewhere and see something new.

New TV! Samsung 42” plasma.

- Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
- Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
- Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!


EDIT : Using this wallpaper because. well. it looks cool. Very few wallpapers are still worth using *and* still look good after stretching it across two displays.

rightclick->view image for full resolution.
and, damnit i forgot to take my desktop icons off again.