Loving Unemployment

This isn't intended as a brag post, but parts of it may read that way, I'm sorry and hope you're not offended.

I've been unemployed since August of 2009. This isn't that rare, millions of American's are like me. What is different is unlike most American families in this situation my family isn't in a financial crisis and worried each month that we are going to lose a car, the house, or not have enough food to eat.

Yes I do draw unemployment, but it is less than half of what I made before I lost my job. However we have never lived above our means, we don't have any credit cards or bills that come with them. Between my unemployment and what Heather makes doing daycare at home we can pay all our bills each month and have also been able to completely pay off a rather large outstanding balance to a local hospital.

During this time Heather has had a major surgery with a week off work and a miscarriage that made her miss a cumulative 2 weeks of daycare and yet we are still current on all our bills, and have credits on a few.

We've been able to do this mostly by being smart, but we've also become big fans of Dave Ramsey who advocates being debt free and how to get there. We haven't followed his plan exactly, we've bought Alex a new bike, we go out to eat occasionally, etc but between him and advice our parents gave growing up we're actually SHRINKING our debt while I'm spending time with my family and waiting for the right job.

Please don't misread that last line, I'm still working hard for work. However I'm presently looking almost exclusively in my chosen profession rather than having to take the first paycheck someone dangles in front of me simply to make ends meet. I have a deadline of 2 months before my unemployment runs out that I will then open myself wide up to any job I'm qualified for that will allow me to provide for my family. In the mean time I've been able to be home and shoulder the household tasks during Heather's two medical problems, I've spent lots of time playing with and enjoying my son, and I've gotten a lot done around the house (and thought of a lot more I'd like to do.) I'm enjoying my unemployment, however I'm ready to work if anyone has a job in my field.

Parent Ultimatums

I don't understand parents who give their grown children ultimatums. Mine never did, and while my son is only 4 I don't think I could ever do it.

I've been witnessing it 3rd hand however and while I'm only getting one side of the story the threats being made seem completely out of league.

Someone close to me has recently gotten engaged and his finance's parents don't approve of the engagement based (from what I've been told) solely on the couples age. They have stated she can't get student aid if married (untrue) and most recently that if they don't wait until they (the parents) approve they won't attend their daughter's wedding.

I realize parents want to protect their children, but at some point you have to recognize that they are their own person and have grown up. I was lucky in that both of my parents recognized they were raising a person not a baby and that their goals were to create an independent person able to make their own choices in life and take responsibilities for those choices even if they didn't necessarily approve of those choices.

The couple above has at least outwardly not let this dissuade them from their plans on a life together, but they do have a length of time between today and their wedding date that they will likely have to listen to a large dose of negativity the whole time. While this is a good test of the relationship, families in my opinion should say their piece and then if the choices aren't what they wanted they should move out of the way and support the course the individual is on rather than throwing up roadblocks every step of the way.

Watching this couple and the way they support each other and are facing this first of many challenges in their life, they have a strong relationship and I believe they will have a long and happy life together as long as they know that the only true opinion they have to care about is each others.

Because the couple will likely read this, and their families might I am not giving names, some people will know who I speak of, that's fine, I just ask that in the comments you don't name them and possibly cause more difficulties for them.

Bad times in perspective

I consider myself an amateur historian of both the American Civil War and World War 2 because I view them as the two most pivotal points in our countries history. During the D-Day invasion America lost 135,000 soldiers in 24 hours (29,000 killed, 106 wounded and missing) UK lost 65,000 (11,000 killed, 54,000 killed and missing) Canada lost 18,000 (5,000 killed, 13,000 wounded and missing) France had over 12,000 CIVILIANS killed and missing (wounded unknown) in one day. Germany had the largest removed from action in one day with 320,000 (30,000 killed, 80,000 wounded and 210,000 M.I.A. or P.O.W.) Consider those numbers the next time the nightly news talks about the effects of one homicide bomber in the middle east and remember the price of freedom just 65 years ago on a single day.
*Source of statistics is the Encyclopedia Britannica and deaths include those that died later from wounds inflicted on June 6, 1944.

This has been one of the worst weeks in my life. Not to be topped by this week, but pretty bad for reasons that if you know are self explanitory, and if you don't I'm not going into.

However, driving home from one of my nieces graduation parties (not one of the reasons for the bad week in case you were wondering) I was reminded that 65 years ago there were men storming a beach in occupied France who, after that day had no more bad weeks, days, or moments. This didn't solve any of the problems that have come up in my life recently, but it did make me realize that the way I've handled them has been fairly petty and childish. I still feel the way that I feel, nothing but time and communication will change that, one I can control if the other parties involved will join me in it, the other I have no control over other than to keep drawing breath.

BTW if you think you know all the parties I'm referencing in the second part of this post, you're probably wrong.

ATTENTION COOL KIDS, Geeks blazed the trails you're on

I'm a geek. I readily admit it, hell I use it to define myself to people when they first meet me. I was never one of the "cool kids" yet I regularly find they are "into" what interested me years earlier. Below are some examples.

Computers: This one is fairly obvious at first glance, but look again. In the early 80's while the cool kids were tie-dying their clothing, and meeting at the roller-rinks us geeks either were convincing our parents to get us a computer, or were teaching ourselves how to use the computers our parents had reluctantly let us use because they had gotten it for themselves for work and they thought maybe someday we might possibly get some value out of the things. While I never taught myself more than basic programming I can troubleshoot a computer, you can point to any component and I can tell you the proper name, what it does, and what the specs of a current generation of that component are. A few years after us geeks were handing in neatly typed papers for school our classmates started getting in on the act and getting computers, mostly for gaming but reluctantly for school work as well.

The Internet: So now everyone, geek and cool kid, had a computer, but us geeks went to the next level, we connected our computers together and were communicating back and forth. The cool kids started making fun of us again, talking about us sitting in our basement lairs talking about Star Trek and getting tanned by monitor radiation. Now the internet is everywhere. Cool hang-outs would be barren if they didn't offer free wifi access, you can't go 30 steps in a store without one of the cool kids with a cellphone out, not to their ear, but to their thumbs checking their facebook status.

Blogs: Ok I was late to this party, I admit. But the geek collective used blogs to spread news that traditional media ignored either because they didn't find interesting or didn't want out (Bill Clinton's affair with Monica was first reported on the Drudge Report, a for stories that were refused by the AP.) Then the cool kids started blogging about everything from what they had for supper to who they slept with that night. Not really the point, again we were there first.

It's not just technology either, look at the last few summers big blockbuster movies, all comic-book movies (Spiderman, X-Men, Hellboy, etc) hell even Star Wars was ours first and has been embraced by the cool kids.

My point is that even though the cool kids ridicule us, tease us, beat us up, they need us. They all follow each other meaning no one finds fresh new things, the geeks are the trail blazers, willing to take the risks find the awsome new technology, figure out how it will benefit the herd and return it to them. I wonder if Lewis and Clark were ever given a wedgie?

End of an era?

Time for more politics....

America's days as a super-power are numbered. I state this not due to anything that is presently happening, although plenty there leads me to this conclusion as well, but by looking at historical trends.

The duration of Dynasties has shrunk as time has gone by. Egypt was a "superpower" from about 3150 BC until 332 BC. thats almost 3000 years. The Greek Empire went from roughly 2000 BC until 250 BC. (roughly 1750 years.) England was an empire from 1689 to about 1901, about 200 years. These are just 3 examples of an observation I've had, and I can give additional examples if people want them.

I would say the US has been a super-power from about the end of the Spanish-American war (1892) to present... that's a little over 115 years. With China and India starting to flex their muscle and Americans growing tired from being the world's police force how long can we stay a super-power?

Losing my religion

Removed by request of family of those involved

Keeping a promise

I was thinking about my posts here, and I meant what I said when I would respect the office of the President no matter who sat in it, however since I started this blog I haven't said what I liked about President Obama either during the campaign or since his election, that changes now.

Obama has embraced technology and the new connections it can bring. This was one of the strongest points in his campaign, he used the internet to connect with the public in ways never seen on the national stage in this country. He used text messaging to announce hsi running mate rather than a press conference, he used the web to allow for micro-contrabutions so that people could donate as little as $5 to his campaign (weather this was to bypass audit trails is neither here nor there.) In these ways an many more President Obama has changed the way campaigns will be used for years to come. It is no longer reasonable for a Presidential candidate to not understand, or use technology. The micro-chip did for Obama what the first televised debate against Nixon did for JFK.

Obama has expressed a desire for volunteerism that I strongly agree with. I would love for programs similar to the GI bill and ROTC where if you donate time either before or after collage to helping the country (teaching inner-city children, being a cook or administrator in a homeless shelter, or other charitable work as your primary, or reserve type of job) for an agreed upon ammount of time, the government would help you with your college tuition.

This also allows those who oppose the military, but feel because of their background it's the only way to pay for college another way to assist the country and pay for college without going against their moral beliefs. I don't believe ALL benefits should be equal to those our soldiers get (government backed morgage, Healthcare, etc.) but enhancing the overall education of this country will only benefit it.

President Obama has also expressed a desire to increase stem-cell research. I have mixed opinions on the abortion debate that I will probably blog about at some further time, but as long as they are the law of the land, why not at least put the cells to use with research so the lost life counts for something rather than sending it to a medical waste landfill? Also fetus' aren't the only way to get stem-cells.

As someone who has had medical issues most of his life, I can see only benefits to furthering medical science down this path. This research is going to happen somewhere anyway, why not in this country where ethical standards can and will be maintained?

Those are the biggest 3 things I can think to praise President Obama for at the moment, but as I see more I will certainly add praise as well as criticisms.