Fun and Games Dept

So I’m driving home from work this evening and I decided to tune into “Stand Up With Pete Dominick” on Sirius/XM’s POTUS 124. I don’t always agree with host Pete Dominick’s views but there are times when we think alike and he has interesting guests so I listen to him when I’m in the mood for a little political discussion. Today’s topic for the last half hour of his show was about the government’s mandated use of CFLs, or Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. Because I was in the midst of my commute, I briefly pulled over to the side of the road and sent this tweet to Pete:

As Pete was fielding calls, mostly from callers that did not believe the government should be mandating the use of CFLs, he mentioned the aforementioned tweet. And then he blew up, focusing on my points of “they’re junk” and “they slowly light up.” Apparently I’m selfish.

Okay, here’s the thing. First of all, it’s nearly impossible to get a full point across in 140 characters, and hence the reason for this blog entry. First of all, I don’t believe that the government should be mandating the use of technology that isn’t all the way there yet. That was my point with “they slowly light up.” A couple of years ago I replaced the majority of lightbulbs in the house with CFLs. It was an expensive venture but I thought it would be best for the government so I went ahead and did it. The damn things are awful. We have replaced more CFLs than regular light bulbs since making the switch (initially we replaced about 75% of the lights in the house). They don’t work with dimmers, so when we use them on the home automation system (which turns on lights only when we need them), they blink erratically when the home automation system turns them off (which I think is actually achieved by dimming them down all the way). When you turn the lights on in the morning, you can’t see anything for the first five minutes of use because they’re warming up and you’re left in this weird, seemingly drug induced haze. Because of this, you end up turning the light on EARLIER than you intended to so you can see what the heck you’re doing when the light finally ramps up to full brightness, resulting in the light being on longer and using MORE electricity. Pete suggested that folks put in more lights during his rant in which he mentioned my Twitter handle on several occasions. Putting in more lights defeats the purpose of using CFLs in the first place.

I fully believe that we should be doing everything we can to live as green as possible by conserving energy, not using fossil resources whenever possible and consciously making an effort to reduce are carbon footprint. I believe that it is the responsibility of every individual to do their part. But like so many other well-intended laws, regulations and the like, the government is going to go at it half-baked at best and ultimately make the situation worse. CFL technology is not at 100%. To compensate, when forced to use this technology, people are going to end up using more of what we are trying to save. That’s not the right approach. It’s like emission standards that reduce gas mileage. Yes, we are putting less crap from our exhaust pipe in the atmosphere, but we are burning more oil to achieve less emissions.

I don’t have an answer to this growing problem. I think lifestyle changes, such as the voluntary disuse of air conditioning when it’s only 55F outside, will make a greater impact on trying to get us on a greener path. Education, not edicts, is what the government should be doing until the technology is where we need it to be and people have a TRUE incentive to use greener technologies instead of just demanding it be so.

The Dunkin’ Donuts clerk just asked me if I was going to ever change up my order a bit. Everyday I order an unsweetened iced tea, because my headaches made me give in to the Great Iced Tea robbery boycott, where they jacked the price up from $0.99 to $2.69 for a large, unsweetened iced tea. The boycott did cost me my mayoral status of the local Dunkin’ Donuts. Some young girl got the title. I’m not sad. I don’t really know why I check in on Foursquare. I don’t really get anything out of it. Once in a while it’s fun to play “spot the other Foursquare person”, but I don’t collect pins or badges or anything. I did get a discount on a tree once. Maybe we’ll try that again. We need more trees.

As I was sitting at the supervisor’s station at work, being all supervisor like for the obligatory 10% of the work week, I decided that I must be a heck of an employee to try to manage. I don’t do that well with being told what to do. I kind of find the whole “this is a directive” thing kind of amusing. Many years ago at an old job I was in a staff meeting with the management staff and the owners of the company. The president of the company told me during the meeting that he wanted a list of everyone’s passwords for his records so he could monitor their internet usage. Now he was known for yelling and screaming and swearing to make his point. I politely stifled a giggle and told him that I wasn’t going to do that, the users’ passwords were none of his business. He screamed and yelled and swore. I screamed louder. Don’t tell me what to do, especially when we both know that it’s not the right thing to do.

Because I go through life with this “I know what I need to do” attitude (albeit with some guidance once in a while), I kind of expect people follow suit and know what to do as well. I mean, if you’re in the same job for several years, you kind of have an idea of what to do at your job. At least I’d hope so. But there are people that have no idea as to what they’re suppose to be doing unless they’re told what to do. I find this concept a little foreign. If something needs to be done, do it.

It’s not complex.

So Jamie just told me that they keep me around because of my awesome IT skills. His email stopped working on the 18th of this month and nobody could figure out why. I had it fixed in two minutes, while eating a salad and working at my desk. It helps when you can hack into your home network from work. I highly recommend that ability for everyone that has a home network. If I wanted to, I could advance every clock in the house by an hour. How many bloggers do you know that boast about that? In fact, I could STOP TIME with just a few keystrokes. Let’s see you do that with your Amana Radarange.

I am parked in a different parking lot for lunch today. I have migrated to the city neighboring where I work and have situated myself next to the big sign that proclaims the variety of businesses in this shopping plaza. This used to be home to an Ames (which had taken over a Big N in the early 80s). That space was chopped up into a Dollar General and a Bargain Outlet. It appears that there are still bargains by the bagful. The inventory systems at Ames are what got me interested in tech in the first place. Well, mostly interested in tech; I did have a passing interest in the debut of scanning technology at Wegmans in the late 1970s. The cashiers didn’t roll their eyes when the item didn’t scan back then, that option came much later to our society.

The FedEx truck driver snagged the better spot of this parking lot by parking on the north side of the big sign. He is hiding in the shadow of the sign and keeping his truck cool. I think he’s quite resourceful. As resourceful as I wanted to be. It’s not overly hot today so I don’t care. I’m enjoying the late spring breeze and puffy clouds in the sky.

The seagulls that are far from the sea but usually very close to the adjacent Burger King are nowhere to be found today. Must be they are in a Big Mac sort of mood. Over the weekend I mentioned to Earl that I remember Burger King cashiers (back in the 70s) taking orders by coloring in dots with a grease pencil on a plastic card and then feeding that card into the cash register. No one seems to remember this sort of thing when I mention it to random people (and I just do bark it out like some sort of geek tourettes from time to time), but Earl said he remembers it well because he got a grease pencil in his hamburger once. I don’t know that I would enjoy that option.

Apparently the seagulls can read because they just arrived. They’re terrorizing the parking lot again, targeting the FedEx truck. Someone call Homeland Security.

Have you ever had a moment where you said to yourself, “today I’m going to do what I want to do, not what I have to do” and then actually did just that? That’s how I am feeling today. I always start to get all analytical as my birthday approaches (even though it’s still over a month away), but as I sit here and ponder on the fact that I might be approaching the halfway point of this lifetime, I think about the fact that I should probably be doing things I enjoy instead of doing stuff because I have to do it. Which brings more happiness? A job that brings lots of money but little in the way of personal enjoyment or an adventure that makes your heart sing but leaves you wondering where your next meal comes from.

These are things that I think about.

I put a lot of credence into dreams. I think there’s all sorts of dreams, including those that include messages from our subconscious when we are too dense to see what’s right in front of us all the while. I frequently dream of my DJ days, spinning the records while watching a dance floor full of half-naked people dance to the beats of my choosing. This past weekend we went to a big nightclub that was in such a state, though I wasn’t choosing the beats (DJ Jesse Mercado was picking many of the same beats I would have selected). Earl and I danced like we haven’t danced in years, shirts off, sweat pouring out of my bald head. It was a grand time and something that we don’t have where we live anymore. Those days are gone in this area, but they’re alive and well elsewhere.

I think we’ll be traveling more often. It’s what we do.

I always need a creative outlet. I’m a creative person, I guess and I always feel the need to express myself creatively. Work gives me some of that with the work I do building applications, but it’s not all the way there. It’s sufficient but not completely fulfilling. That’s okay. It gives us the funds for me to do things like have a recording studio in the basement or for us to travel where the social life “pops” a bit more.

Pursuing happiness. I’m always in favor of that.

There’s a blogger who goes on about his tennis games. There’s another who talks about taking walks and go hiking in the desert. Yet another talks about his love of life near the coast of the Pacific. Some find their ongoing chats about these things monotonous. I find it all to be quite the contrary for they’re all in the pursuit of happiness.

It’s really cool when you find it.

So Earl and I flew into Chicago for the long weekend and joined Jamie for a weekend of fun. We spent most of our time with the bears (the big, furry guys, not the sports team) at BearPride, going to various venues for parties and finding some good food to eat. We also made a stop at the vendor mart at IML (International Mister Leather contest) where we looked but didn’t buy anything other than a gift certificate to give as a gift. While over there, we ran into our friends Matt and Anthoney. They are Canadian. We still like them (and we still like some other Canadians as well).

For the record, I was not the only handlebar mustache in attendance, but the other guy was kind of snooty and didn’t seem to want to take a picture with me. His loss.

Earl and I ended up flying out of Buffalo on Friday because Earl was already in Buffalo for work and it was cheaper to fly out of Buffalo instead of Syracuse. Buffalo is a good airport to fly out of. Plus, they have Chipotle and more important, a company funded hotel room for the husbear, so it was a win win win with salsa on top. All good.

Since we had two cars in Buffalo, I ended up driving home alone in the Jeep after landing. The weather was gorgeous. Fully sunny skies, a slight breeze and very warm at 95. It was the perfect opportunity to roll the windows down and let things blow around the Jeep as I zipped along at 67 MPH (I’m still doing what I can to obey the speed limit without being killed).

As I watched cars zip by me with their windows rolled up tight, undoubtedly due to ample use of air conditioning, I enjoyed what Mother Nature had to offer: warm breezes, the scents of wildflowers and a big breath of fresh air. It was warm and it was humid and I sweated a bit, but it was well worth it. The aroma of late blooming lilacs and other flowers just made me feel grand, bringing a very enjoyable weekend to a nice close.

The smile has continued on through today. It’s a good feeling.

Dear Flight Attendants,

You get my undying respect. Earl and I have just set foot on Delta flight 3882 and in two minutes we have witnessed two people throwing a hissy fit about their seat location because it’s too cold, another having a fit about the fact that row 1 has no seat in front of it and a third who keeps asking for a pillow. This has been within the first two minutes of boarding this flight. I am sorry that the American public has stooped to such a poor, selfish display of behavior. I’m sorry that you have to be reduced to keeping passengers safe on what an industry has turned into glorified bus service with wings. Not all of us are like that, but there’s that whole bad apple – spoiled bunch thing.

Fondly,

A grateful passenger.

Birthday idea.