Fun and Games Dept

So I went on a little bit of a Twitter rant this morning, specifically about news that Verizon is turning all “metadata” associated with *all* phones calls passing through their network over to the NSA. I will say right here and now that Verizon is doing this under court order and I have no doubt in my mind that the other telecoms in the United States are doing the same thing, but the article was specifically about Verizon. Broadly speaking, this activity falls under the Patriot Act and is taking place so that we have a safer place to live.

Right.

I’m sorry, but I don’t feel safe knowing that the government is amassing all of this data from innocent citizens. My rant went a little bit like this:

You get my drift.

I know that my thinking puts me over in that fringe area at times and that my ranting probably gets me labeled a lunatic now and then (put ’em together and whatya got? Lunatic Fringe! woo!), but if there is one thing that I firmly believe it is in privacy and the natural free will of people. I’ll admit that I have control issues but in no way, shape or form, does it seem OK to me for the government to be keeping track of every single phone call made by every single citizen of the United States for a indeterminate amount of time. There are too many insane people with questionable motives in governmental agencies that could tap that database for reasons other than the original intention and furthermore, when these kinds of behaviors occur without question or challenge, they become the norm, and quite frankly, this is a solid step in the direction of an Orwellian 1984.

I’m not a fan of this. At all.

The U.S. Government screws up all the time. We all know that. Back in 1990 the DMV repeatedly sent me a bill for some service charge that they felt they had failed to collect when I moved my car to its new residence. I ignored the bill repeatedly and they sent me warnings about losing my license, my virginity and the inability to digest corn.

The bill was for $0.00.

That’s right: ZERO.

To shut them up, I made a check out to the DMV for ZERO.

I never heard from them again.

Now, let’s see you have your iPhone or Android phone jammed into your back pocket. And you’ve butt dialed someone. Repeatedly. We’ve all been there, screaming into a phone saying “you’re calling me by mistake!” But your ass is feeling feisty and has inadvertently made some random international call and you’ve butt dialed some guy in Iran. Repeatedly.

24 hours later you have a drone hovering over your backyard and you’re toast.

Now, I know that sounds wicked far-fetched, but papers get mixed up, signals get crossed and some do-gooder (god I sound like my grandfather) in Washington decides that you’re a threat to National Security and you are no longer allowed to fly, see the Liberty Bell or digest corn.

You laugh, but with the idiocy in the bureaucracy, it could certainly happen.

As I type this, I’m wondering if I should be concerned about sharing my feelings on line, because it seems that the house is being buzzed by a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.

You think I’m joking.

So this morning I got up a few moments before the alarm, took a peek at my iPhone and then hopped out of bed to get my day started. It is at this moment that I made a crucial decision that would set the tempo for the rest of my day.

I decided to smile.

Even though it was a chilly morning and I needed to head to the office soon, I pulled on my sweatpants, put on a t-shirt and what I affectionately call my “trailer trash jacket” and went for a 15 minute walk to get my blood and mind moving for the day. I may not have had time for a bike ride but I certainly had a few minutes to walk.

I continued to smile.

(Taken at 5:34 a.m., I look like I just got out of bed and I’m not ashamed of that.)

It’s amazing what you can do when you decide to smile and it’s even more amazing when you decide to share your smile with others. Admittedly, this is something that I forget at times and sometimes I scowl and that scowl becomes contagious. This is not good for the human equation. It’s the smile that we should make contagious.

The reason this has been on my mind today is because I just walked into the Dunkin’ Donuts closest to work. This is the same location that once upon a time always had my large, unsweetened iced tea with lemon poured and ready to go when I walked in the door, but times change and habits are modified accordingly. The attentive staff always had a smile on their face. They were pleasant and they seemed like they were enjoying their job.

A new shift leader has apparently joined in the past couple of months. The first time I noticed that she was added to the staff, it was because she was shrieking at a co-workers about the hot chocolate machine. People may say that I exaggerate at times, but trust me, “shrieking” is not an exaggeration when used to describe the noises she was making regarding the discontent with the hot chocolate machine. It wasn’t until a few visits later that I noticed the words “shift leader” on her badge.

This new addition to the crew is never smiling. She doesn’t look very happy. Maybe things like hot chocolate machines bother her. Perhaps her till is unbalanced. Maybe she’s unbalanced. I hope that whatever makes her choose not to smile is not something that turns out to be insurmountable, because no one should have to live a miserable life.

Her scowling has become contagious, and the rest of the formerly pleasant staff have turned very quiet and apathetic towards their duties. I have noticed this on my last couple of visits. If the store is dead silent when I walk in, it means she’s the shift leader.

So today I decided to smile at her. It was a happy, well-intended smile. I even said, “Have a good day.”

Nothing was returned aside from a blank stare. Apparently my smile was not contagious enough. Maybe I’m spooky. Perhaps she found my intentions to be creepy. Whatever the reason, she decided not to return the smile. That’s all well and good and as I said before, I hope she can find a reason to smile at least once today.

As I left Dunkin’ Donuts I made the choice to continue smiling. And for me, that in itself is a reason to smile.

OK, so I guess we ended up going for a little ride today. 288 miles to be exact.

So Earl and I decided to go for a little ride in the Jeep this afternoon. As if we didn’t do enough driving last weekend with our 13 hour ride home from Chicago, we just wanted to get out and do some exploring. We decided to head in the general direction of East.

We are currently stopped for a few moments to enjoy the air conditioning in this very spacious Starbucks just outside of Glens Falls.

After driving through the southern Adirondacks for a little while, we found ourselves in Lake George. Well, actually we were in Lake George Village, because being literally in Lake George would probably be a little rough on the Jeep and on us.

It’s Americade weekend in Lake George, so the village was hopping with lots of bikers and their families. We stopped for a bit and enjoyed a munchie or two and a beer on the deck of Shepard’s.

Earl had Saranac Blueberry Blonde and I enjoyed a Magic Hat No. 9.

After our one beer each and our munchie, we walked along the waterfront and enjoyed the views of the lake and the people milling about.

In one of the shops we ran into a couple of bears. Being in the Adirondacks, there are bears everywhere.

Earl is pictured with George, so named because we met him in Lake George. He is wearing a raccoon hat and has decided to come home and live with us and the rest of the bears.

We are now en route to our next adventure of the day. We have no idea where it will be.

We are at Culver’sin Michigan City. We must be creatures of habit, because this is the third time we have been at this particular location. We will probably stop here again during our Great Jeep Roadtrip of 2013 later this summer.

Habits aren’t bad.

So I am sitting at Starbucks somewhere in the Windy City. I found this Starbucks by way of Siri and she led me to the way of one that is open on Sunday. It’s fun exploring a city electronically.

I’m indulging in my loner tendencies at the moment. Sometimes you have to get to the sidelines of the crowd and just watch others enjoy themselves. That’s what I love to do and that’s what I’m doing right now. This Starbucks is quiet. The counter people are friendly. There’s a man sitting near me reading tech news on his computer. He is bouncing his leg up and down.

Several people have noticed my iPad/Brydge combination. One person asked why my MacBook Air looked different. I explained to him that it wasn’t a MacBook Air, but rather a Brydge keyboard setup. He was impressed. I wasn’t trying to be impressive, I was just looking for a better way for me to efficiently write blog entries, but I have to admit that it’s kind of cool to be impressive.

As I’m typing this blog entry I can feel the eyes of another woman watching me type. I’m sensing it has something to do with the speed in which I type. To be even more impressive, I am now looking her in the eye whilst typing this sentence. I can easily do that. Perhaps I’m cocky.

I have to thank my mother for my typing skills. When the first electric typewriter entered our house when I was young lad, I was very intrigued and anxious to play around with it. Since I was so curious, she was instrumental in showing me how to type using the proper fingers. It’s something that stuck and is probably a major contributor to many successes in my life.

Sometimes it’s the little things that count.

I’m still not looking at the screen as I type this. I am watching people instead. Sometimes you have to trust your instincts.

I don’t know a lot about Chicago. Earl and I haven’t spent a lot of time here, but with Jamie moving here later this summer, I think we’ll probably be learning more about the Windy City.

That’s not a bad thing.

There’s so much of to big wide world to explore.

So after watching the video of the SkyScreamer at Six Flags Over Texas and with the unofficial start of summer under way, I got to thinking about amusement parks and some rides I’d like to try this summer.

In Central New York we have a phenomenon called the “Field Days”. Usually run by a local volunteer fire company, Field Days are the town or community carnival, complete with awesome food, loud music, drunk people, a parade (complete with various competitions) and most importantly, a midway with rides and games.

I used to always love the rides at the field days.

Growing up in the 70s with a quirky sense of observation, I was able to ascertain that the vast majority of the fire companies would contract with Ontario Amusements to handle the Midway for their field days, however, the fire company in the town I grew up in would contract with Hawkins Amusements, which, in my opinion, had the cooler rides of the era. I think Ontario’s fastest ride at the time was called the “Merry Mixer”, which was really a Scrambler with four legs instead of three, whilst Hawkin’s most thrilling ride was the Hurricane, but they also had the Paratroopers and my second favorite amusement ride of all time, the Trabant.

The Trabant is sometimes rebranded as the Casino and there’s a new, faster version called the Wipeout, but the original Trabant is the one I love it. Like the rebranding suggests, it looks like a roulette wheel and I think it has 20 seats. The “wheel” turns, there’s another motion that causes the wheel to ride around a bigger circle and then as the ride progresses, it tilts upward to around 40-45% while this other circular motion is going on, which makes it feel very wave-like. In the full experience of the ride, the whole thing then pauses and does the same thing backwards. In full wave, the ride is quite mild but still fun, but when it starts coming down and the wave motion stops, the G-forces can be impressive as you’re pinned against the outside of the seat.

I have always enjoyed this ride and it’s one of the first rides I remember ever riding.

My favorite amusement ride, which rarely made an appearance in our area because it wasn’t found on an Ontario or Hawkins Midway, was the Tempest.

Finding the Tempest in our area always meant waiting until one of the very last Field Days of the season (the weekend after Labor Day) and traveling a bit of a distance to ride it, but I always looked forward to it.

The Tempest is basically two big arms with two seating areas on each arm, mounted on their own little arms. The principle is simple: the two areas circle each other while the two groups of arms circle each other. The individual seating areas can spin (sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t), but like the Trabant, this is a ride that could mild yet breathtaking at the same time.

Thinking about these rides has made me want to seek them out again this summer. I don’t know that I’ll get to try to SkyScreamer this year, but I’m definitely going to seek out the Trabant and the Tempest. One of the things about both of these rides is that they’re becoming hard to find because of their age. I know Hawkins doesn’t have the Trabant anymore and I can’t remember the name of the midway company that featured the Tempest, so I’ll just have to keep an eye out for them.

I made a comment to Earl yesterday that even though I’m 44, I’m still just a big kid. I guess that shows through a little more when it’s summertime and the field days are rolling through our neck of the woods.

Ok, I might have to do this the next time I’m in Texas. It looks like an incredible rush.

So I just had a lite breakfast in the café car here on the Amtrak Lakeshore Limited. After I got my breakfast I found out that there was a full blown diner car at the very end of the train and that I could have had french toast or something down there. I’m not disappointed or anything, but I did find it surprising that the diner car is at the very end of the train, mostly because the sleeper cars are in the front and it would seem logical to me that the diner car would be in the middle so it would be readily accessible to all passengers. Maybe I should have asked for a map.

After getting my food from the man with the delicious UK accent, I needed to find a place to sit. Both of the seat areas were pretty busy, though there was no one singing “Snow Snow Snow”. Not being the crazy outgoing type, I worked up some courage and asked a woman if I could sit at her table that she was sitting alone at.

We ended up having a very nice conversation.

It turns out that she’s from Rochester, N.Y. and that she teaches comedy and improv there. I didn’t know that the folks in Rochester even had a sense of humor so this was something that I found to be a little bit fascinating. When she asked what I did, I told her whom I worked for and she was quite familiar with the company (it is the telephone company, after all). She admitted that she no longer had phone service, having opted for her iPhone, but she liked it when she had it. Ah, technology marches on.

The first question that popped into my head was how one teaches comedy and improv, since I have always thought that to be an inherent ability. I didn’t ask her this, though, because I didn’t want to sound insulting, especially since formulating sentences this early in the morning can be a struggle for me. So we talked about art and iPhones and the like. It was a pleasant conversation.

One thing that I was excited about was that she was using Siri on her phone to set reminders and all that. Now that was something that I could relate to.

Maybe these little attempts at being outgoing aren’t so scary after all.

Waking up from a nap on Amtrak, I ask Siri: “where am I”?

Kind of impressive.