Dearest Power Almighty,
Please grant me the strength to not beat the hell out of anyone that refers to any amount of snow, whether small or large, as a “snowpacalypse” this winter. While I will have the urge to shove a the handle of a snow shovel up the rectum of those that behave thusly and utter this entirely hysterical, offensive phrase, please grant me the strength to findeth my way to calm in an effort to avoid calamity.
Fondly,
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Earl and I decided that as a married couple we were going to take advantage of the medical benefits offered by his company. His health care plan is better and as we get on in age, that’s always a good thing. Once we confirmed that I was on his health care plan, I would cancel the policy I currently have at my job.
Earl went to add me to his health care plan at work this morning when he was presented with a lovely message on the web-based portal form.
I’m sorry, your married spouse must be of the opposite sex.
The general manager of three of the most profitable facilities in the entire corporation is not allowed to sign his spouse up for medical benefits on the company plan simply because he is married to a man. It seems Earl’s company will not recognize same-sex marriages (which of course, are completely legal in New York State) until the Federal Government recognizes same sex unions under the federal tax code.
Well, now there’s something to think about as you make your selections at the elections coming up over the next couple of years.
The extremist in me wants both despises the facts that we work for large corporations. I don’t enjoy the politics of working at a corporation and I certainly don’t like the “one size fits all” mentality that is handed out on a whim. The realist in me realizes that we have a really good life because we work for large corporations.
But is not being recognized equally really a good life?
Ultimately, it’s up to Earl and me to be more vocal about how we feel on these issues and to educate people. Earl has made a difference in his HR department by getting them to admit that there are gay men and lesbians working for them in the first place. I have been vocal with mine.
It looks like that Earl and I will be on my company’s insurance plan instead. It’s a decent plan but not as robust as what we would have had on Earl’s plan. All because someone, somewhere decided that love is only valid between a man and a woman.
Equality. Ain’t it grand in America.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Right on schedule last night, since it was Sunday night and all, I had a wonderful case of insomnia around 2:30 a.m. Sunday nights have always been rough for me. I don’t know if it’s the pressures of returning to work or what the deal is, but I couldn’t get my head to slow down soon enough so that I could fall back asleep. I was still looking at the clock at 4:15.
There are few things more frustrating than staring at the ceiling, knowing that you need to fall asleep but you can’t and then getting more panicked about sleepwalking through the workday when you know you’re not going to have enough sleep under your belt. I tried counting sheep but that didn’t work. I tried the trick of walking through my old elementary school and remembering the teacher that occupied the room, the color of the room and the like, but that didn’t work. I counted backwards from 100 in French. And in English. I tried saying “Om” to myself. None of it worked, but then I guess I fell asleep around 4:35 or so, just in time for the alarm to go off at 5:30.
One of the things that bothers me about insomnia is that I usually get a song stuck in my head and it plays really loud and I can’t turn it down. One time it was “The Lord’s Prayer” by Sister Janet Mead and I couldn’t get it to stop until I looked the dang thing up on the internet and listened to the entire thing. It’s kind of catchy when you’re exhausted. Last night it was “Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney and Wings, but then just before I fell asleep I found myself trying to find a way to mix Jenn Cuneta’s “Come Rain, Come Shine” into “Silly Love Songs” (because Jenn’s song samples the older track) and then apparently this is what made me fall asleep.
I think another contributing factor to the bout of insomnia is the brightness of my alarm clock. A couple of years ago I bought a beautiful HD radio alarm clock, complete with iPod dock, surround sound and all sorts of goodies. Aside from the fact that we don’t have many HD radio stations in the area, it’s a sweet sounding setup, even though I had to install modern rabbit ears to get it to work properly. The problem with this little technological wonder is that it uses a backlit LCD display and even on it’s very lowest setting, the damn thing lights up the room like Times Square. When modern digital clocks started rolling around in the 1970s they used the dim, red LED displays and it was good – they barely lit up the room but you could still see the numbers without an issue. I think the backlit LCDs are cheaper and that’s why they are in use today. I usually put a picture of the husbear in front of the alarm clock, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a clock on your nightstand since I could easily rely on my phone to do the waking duties in the morning. Perhaps that’s what I’m going to do: sell the high tech alarm clock and just use my phone. I always squint at Earl’s clock on the other nightstand anyway because it uses the aforementioned red LED display.
Anyone want to buy an HD radio? You’ll be helping cure insomnia and I will have one less thing to bitch about here on this bloggy thing.
Last night Earl and I went to “the Loud House”, the Carrier Dome in Syracuse to watch the Orange take on West Virginia. It was an excellent game… the guys played well and we trounced West Virginia 49-23.
When we got to the game, along with 147 (at that time)1 other people, I checked into Foursquare. The latest version of Foursquare lets you check into a particular event (like a game or a movie or a Broadway show). Near the end of the game, I got this email:
Now, many would find this creepy but remember I checked into Foursquare so they had a definitive way of knowing I was there. I understand that it’s a marketing tool and nothing more, but nonetheless I was happy to see this email. It made me feel part of something. And that’s how good marketing is suppose to work: not overly intrusive, make the user feel good and make the user feel like they belong.
I love with when marketing organizations ‘get it’ when it comes to technology.
1 The official attendance at the Dome last night was 45,285. Earl and I bonded even more with the fellow season ticket holders around us. Go ‘Cuse!
I was perusing through the Amazon store the other day and noticed that a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while was available for the Kindle. The price wasn’t bad, so I bought it and started reading it that night. It appealed to my rabid “Bewitched” fascination, as it is a biography of Agnes Moorehead, who played Endora on the popular series. The book is “I Love The Illusion” by Charles Tranberg.
Agnes Moorehead was a pretty private person when it came to her personal life, so I can imagine that this book was a bit of a challenge to write. Mr. Tranberg obtained his information from letters in a Wisconsin library, interviews with friends of Ms. Moorehead and others that were close to her.
I’m only into the second chapter, but I have to say that it is a lovely read and rather fascinating. There is a particular passage where Agnes’ mother would ask her, “Who are you today, Agnes?”, as she loved to act out the characters and scenes from the literature she read. From the non-Bewitched appearances I have seen (including “Password” and “I’ve Got A Secret”), the flamboyancy exhibited by Endora seemed to be an exaggeration of one of Agnes’ many personality traits.
The words come to life with the style of Mr. Tranberg’s writing and I’m finding the read to be effortless. I recommend the read for those curious about this wonderful actress and fascinating person.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I grew up in a retail environment. One side of the family owned a hardware store/lumber yard/contracting business and for the most part it was family that worked at the business. I started slinging lumber at 14 and then made my way into the office area along my grandparents, dad and later my aunt. It was this environment that piqued my interest in computers because the lack thereof; it was a good opportunity to learn how things work instead of “just making it work” through computer use.
However, even though this retail environment fostered my geekiness, there was actually something much more important that I learned during this time that has stuck with me all these years. It is the concept of “I”.
When a customer entered the store and approached, they were asked a simple question. “What can we do for you today?” The question was asked with enthusiasm and naturally implied that there was a team of folks hidden in the walls of that old mill that were anxious to help the customer. I remember my grandfather sitting me down one time when I asked, “Can I help you?” instead of “What can we do for you today?” It was one of a handful of times that I can remember that he wasn’t yelling or ranting about something to me; instead he calmly explained the difference between “I” and “we”, especially when it came to teamwork in a retail environment. “You don’t own the store. You don’t own the sale. Many people will have contributed to getting the customer what he wants. You don’t help the customer, WE do.”
That’s what has stuck with me ever since.
I bristle when I hear someone run contrary to this concept. It makes me doubt their sincerity. For example, Earl and I recently asked about a dessert menu at a local restaurant. The reply was, “I have coconut cream pie, apple pie, ice cream”, the list went on but I tuned her out a little bit. I wanted to ask if she had baked the pies herself. Had she picked the apples? Did she buy the coconuts?
As part of a growing team at work, I get irked by the same thing. “I told him that I could get that done for him.” I wanted to reply, “if you can get that done, then why are you coming to me to build the database for you?” I might be a little cantankerous but I believe that if you say that _you_ can do it, then go ahead and do it. Plus, as I mentioned before it flakes out my trust in the situation just a little bit. It’s a personal thing, but I think it’s important. That’s why it’s stuck with me all these years.
Once in a while I find myself thinking along the lines of “I” instead of “we” in various team environments at work. I then remember the talk I had with my grandfather about it and try to get back on track before he starts hollering from the other side. After all, I wouldn’t be worth much at work if I wasn’t part of a bigger team and lord knows I don’t want Gramps yelling from the great beyond.
I want him to snicker instead. Snickering was good.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Show your support of LGBT teens that are struggling by wearing purple today, if you’re not already. Too many teens are committing suicide because of being bullied simply for being different. Suicide is not the answer.
Remember, it gets better. I promise.
I have been trying to be a responsible American citizens by paying attention to the news again, more specifically, politics. This is a cyclic thing for me, because it often results in bouts of depression and general glumness after paying attention to what’s going on in our country for a few weeks. It can be so disheartening.
That being said, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Republican debates that took place in Nevada the other night. There is a part of me that just can’t believe that Michelle Bachmann has been able to stay around for this long, being as bat-shit crazy as she is and all that. I hear she wants to have a double walled fence along the Mexican border in a few weeks or something. Or am I mixing that up with $1.99 gas in three months? It’s hard to keep track.
I keep hoping Rick Santorum will liven up the debates by wearing a dress that matches the one his daughter and her doll wore a few years ago…
… but given his feelings on “living on the edge” I am doubtful that that would ever happen.1
I don’t know much about Herman Cain but I do know that I have never had his pizza. I don’t know that I had even heard of Godfather’s Pizza before he came along, we are in local pizzeria country where you are practically flogged (not in a good way) if you’re seen near a Little Caesars or Pizza Hut, though I enjoy both. $9.99 is cheap for pizza though, I hope his plan works out for him.
As I make my way through the entry, I do realise that I must be engaged enough in politics, probably more so than the average American because at least I knew that Rick Perry does a damn good W impersonation and Mitt Romney is from Massachusetts.
One of the things I find perplexing is that it seems WAY too early to be talking about the presidential elections that are more than a year away. By the time the actual election rolls around everyone will be so tired of these folks that voters will just color in a dot on a scanatron sheet (because that’s SO accurate) just to get the whole mess over with so we can either bitch about the returning champion or his new replacement with the pizza or the double walled fence.
God help us.
I think I’ll switch back to the 80s channel.
1 I can’t bring myself to post the more famous photo where the young girl has such a sad look on her face, because it’s such a sad look that it prompts me to cry for this country as well, albeit for differing reasons, I suppose.
There was a pie baking contest at work today. Even though it’s a different company and a different group of people, I could not bring myself to participate because of this:
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!