Why.

Commercialisation.

Here we are bordering on 3/4 of the way through October which can only mean one thing. It’s just a little over two months until Christmas. How do I know this? The natural way of course, by the ample display of Christmas trees, wreaths and hearty ho-ho-hos coming from the various big box stores that have been puked up all over this otherwise beautiful part of the state.

I think I might sound a little bit bitter.

Recently there was a photograph of a sign that was hanging at a Nordstroms Department Store. I’m too lazy to find the sign, but the gist of the sign was that Nordstroms would be ‘decking the halls’ for the holiday season on Friday, November 27, after Thanksgiving. They believe that we should celebrate each holiday for what it is instead of cashing in on the holiday ‘frivolity’ early.

If we had a Nordstroms nearby, I’d kiss the nearest cashier, male or female doesn’t matter and give them a hearty “thank you”. Since I don’t know where the nearest Nordstroms is, I’m going to instead browse their online shopping site and see what I can do about buying my holiday gifts from them.

The irony of my desire to hold off decking the halls until a more appropriate time is that I’m actually in the mood to do a little bit of holiday shopping. I know that every year I crow about how much Earl and I enjoy going to a distant mall in a faraway land and getting all the shopping done in one swoop, but the reality is that I would be much happier if I could point and click my way to a few token trinkets to let me loved one knows how much I care. I’m not really in the mood to make someone breathless with the scope, weight and hefty dent in the bank account from picking out some crazy gift, rather, I’m trying to find things that actually mean something and this might take a little bit of practice.

I really should be thinking about the upcoming Halloween holiday and how I might have the opportunity to eat my weight in Peppermint Patties or something.

I love this time of year, especially as the autumn chill grows a little more pronounced, the winds sing a little louder as they blow through the leaves that are heading to the ground and the air feels a bit more crisp with each passing night. It’s that magic that I want to box up and put a new bow on so I can share it with my family and friends as a holiday gift. I sometimes fear that a gift will be opened and there’ll be a wide-eyed look of excitement replaced by a look of inquisitiveness and the comment, “Oh look… wind!”, as they start fiddling with the bow.

So I am avoiding the retail establishments that are urging us to deck the halls early and start thinking about slinging holiday lights all over the house. I want to savor this season, these holidays, right now and figure out how to share my love for them in a gift later down the road.

Call me when Nordstroms puts up their decorations. Until then, enjoy the moment.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Embarrassing.

Am I the only one appalled that there were “boos” at the Republican debates last night when a soldier, who happens to be gay, asked a question via YouTube? Really? People that scream about being patriotic and the constitution and all of that were booing a soldier simply because he’s gay?

Wow.

I’m sorry, but the way I see it, you can’t get more patriotic than to put your life on the line defending your country and it’s constitution. I don’t care if he or she is white, black, pink, purple or beige. I don’t care if they sleep with women or men or get their pleasures riding a washing machine. They’re doing their patriotic duty and anyone that boos them for upholding the honor of being a soldier is a shithead.

I am starting to become embarrassed by my fellow citizens. Worse yet, I can’t even identify with half of them anymore.

23 September 2011 by J.P. Why. 6

14.

I am sitting in the Jeep at lunchtime, like I do most everyday. The one thing that I don’t do everyday while sitting in my Jeep a lunchtime is shed a few tears. But that is what I am doing right now.

Jamey Rodemeyer was a 14-year old teen living in Buffalo. As a gay teen, Jamey was bullied for his sexual orientation. He was called the usual onslaught of names and received the horrific threats and the like from the ignorant. So much ignorance in the “greatest country on the planet”. As much as we claim things are progressing in these fine United States of America, we have barely taken only one small step forward. I truly believe that historians will call these times the second Dark Ages. Ignorance is at an all time high.

Earlier this year, Jamey shared an “It Gets Better” video on YouTube. Like many of his generation, he maintained a blog. And on Sunday, his last blog entry was a mention that he was looking forward to seeing his grandmother that passed on. He then committed suicide.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. The thought that a young man, hell, a _child_ killed himself, ended his life, because of the bullying he got as a result of his sexual orientation is mind boggling to me. The taunts and threats and name calling because he is different got to him. What has our society become? So the folks that wrote these comments on his blog …

JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!

And

I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 🙂 It would make everyone WAY more happier!

… I hope they feel better now that they got their wish. Because your words ended a life and destroyed a family. I hope his family is strong.

When I see people going out of their way to prevent gay marriage, saying that it’s wrong or people picking on another simply because they’re different, I wonder if these folks realise what impact they are having on their targeted individual. We may smile on the outside or shrug it off as the “usual banter” but it can go much deeper than that. Folks start believing what they’re told. A young person that is still formulating who and what he is could very well take these comments as guidance. So while Michelle Bachmann makes jokes on Leno about thinking that the gay “rehabilitative” program that she’s concocted with her husband was to target those that were GRAY (Google the video and you’ll see very few people chuckled at the chestnut of humor), innocent gay youth see these things and determine that they are defective in some way and would be better off dead. They begin to buy into the hype and decide to do something drastic.

I could do “It Gets Better” videos all day long but if the right person doesn’t see it, it’s one person that could make a drastic, fatal decision. (Don’t get me wrong, the “It Gets Better” campaign is brilliant and very much worthwhile and very important, but we need to make it LOUDER.)

Jamey’s mom works for one of Earl’s customers in Buffalo. Our paths will probably never cross hers, but if it did I would give her a big hug. And I would tell her that I’m sorry, I’m sorry that the world is the way it is.

He was only 14 years old. And now he’s dead. Simply because he was different. Rest in peace, Jamey.

21 September 2011 by J.P. Why. 0

Respite.

So it is Friday afternoon and I am looking forward to the weekend. There are plans involving road trips and frivolity, but my body is apparently thinking differently. I am feeling some signs of impending bed rest and sneezing. I should be in Vitamin C shock by now with all of the juice and fruit and vitamin C tablets and Airborne. Better now instead of the weekend of the wedding I suppose.

Let’s see which set of plans for the weekend come to fruition.

16 September 2011 by J.P. Why. 2

Remember.

I still remember sitting down and writing this blog entry on Sept. 12, 2001. On Sept. 11 I couldn’t bear to sit down and write a blog entry; Earl and I had been glued to the television set watching the news and I wasn’t able to put my thoughts into words that would be coherent for anyone to read. The next day I was able to muster that brief blog entry.

I have said before that I had a weird sense of ‘something’ as I rode the elevator up to my office on the 16th floor. The phone rang as I got off the elevator, Earl called and said a small plane had run into the World Trade Center. I had a whole bunch of spidey-sense going; I didn’t know why but the best I can describe it is borrowing from Star Wars, there was a disturbance in the force.

As I entered the doors of the radio station I worked at, the satellite feed was switching over to an ABC News special bulletin. We soon quickly put together a makeshift antenna and hooked it up in the production room of the adjoining advertising business so we could watch the news and get a handle on what was happening. The rest is history. History that I hope will never be repeated.

Yesterday at the SU game was Patriotic Day. As we honored those that have served our country and the lives that were lost on 9/11 (and those living with that loss today), my eyes teared up quite a few times. I mourn the loss of life and I’m sad for the loss of the pre-9/11 USA. Sometimes it’s so weird to step back and see where our country has gone since this tragedy. An event that united us in it’s aftermath has ultimately turned out country into a land much more markedly divided than it was 10 years ago.

As I asked last year, please burn a candle of peace today. While we will always remember the events of 9/11/01, let’s continue to learn and find ways to come back together as a united people.

11 September 2011 by J.P. Why. 0

Reality?

I try to do my best to stay abreast of what’s going on in the news, especially in the political arena. When I have the privilege of casting a vote for the leaders of our country, I want it to be a well-thought out vote for the candidate that I feel will do the best for the job they are being elected for. I believe that it is the responsibility of every citizen to cast an intelligent vote at the ballot box. To skip voting or to just randomly color in dots, hang chads, pull levers or whatever is irresponsible.

That being said, I must admit that watching the news is getting more and more difficult for me these days. One person commented on a tech board yesterday that they “cut the cable”, meaning that they disconnected themselves from cable television, opting to download media to their computers and the like instead. One of the reasons for their decision was the fact that watching the news made them feel homicidal. I have to admit that I grinned when reading that remark, because while I’m not at that limit, I certainly can sympathize with the feelings in that general area.

Every time I see presidential candidates make promises that they can do better and make our country a better place by doing a laundry list of ridiculous notions it makes me want to kick in the television screen.

Our TV is much too nice for that sort of abuse (the kick OR the babel from the candidates).

I end up yelling back, or at the very least, asking the question, “Is this the best you got?” I know my grammar is bad when I ask this but I don’t care.

I’m beginning to see a blurring of the line between reality show-like contests and presidential campaigns. Let’s see who can be the most outrageous by eating the biggest fried corn dog. Before you know it they’ll be eating live bugs with a cow’s blood chaser. Let’s see who can make the most absurd proclamation (i.e., “I’ll have gas to below $2 per gallon in three months!”). Let’s see who can steal the spotlight but trouncing around the country in a big bus but proclaim that they don’t really want to run for the presidency, they just want the attention. And let’s see who can spend the most money that we don’t have and hope that some of that money goes somewhere and sticks to something so that millions of people can find jobs.

It’s sad to me that elections have gone in this direction, but when you have to compete with the likes of American Idol and Big Brother, I guess politics have to be made extreme, wild and sexy to get the attention of the ever dwindling collective IQ of the American public.

The founding fathers have to be spinning in overdrive in their graves.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

6 September 2011 by J.P. Politics. This Ain't No CNN. Why. 1

Daylight.

Back when we did the Industrial Revolution thing I wish we had decided to base the workday on the natural time of day instead of rigidly adhering everything to a clock. Perhaps we would be a happier society today if we weren’t constantly fighting against the natural order of time.

Nearly 18 months into doing this I pretty much have the getting up at 5:30 a.m. thing down pat. I know what time I need to go to bed, I feel tired at the appropriate time at night and I feel rested when I get up in the morning. I’m still not a morning person but I’m at least functional and I’m able to speak English when prompted to do so. But it’s 5:45 a.m. right now and it’s still pitch black outside. It’s going to be like this for the next few months until the end of daylight saving time, when it will just be semi-dark out until we get to the cold, hard reality of winter.

I have mentioned many times that I despise Daylight Saving Time. Perhaps I complain about it too much, but it is such a stupid, idiotic concept because it’s deception. The only reason we have it today is to trick the population into thinking they have more time than they really have. It’s man’s feeble attempt at trying to control nature. And Bush’s extension of DST back in the mid ’00s ranks right up there with the Iraq War and waving a hello to Stevie Wonder on my Idiocy Top 10 list.

One might think I’m cranky this morning, the first morning back to work after a long, holiday weekend. But I’m not. I’m just brutally honest, but that’s not much different than the way I usually am. I just can’t wait until it’s dark at the end of the day like it’s suppose to be.

Then I’ll find something else to crank about.

6 September 2011 by J.P. Why. 0

Tragedy.

I have watched the video a couple of times of last night horrible tragedy in Indianapolis (the stage collapse prior to the Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair). The first thing that crossed my mind was how you see a number of people run towards the fallen stage, looking to help their fellow man. This helps reinforce my belief that we are basically a good lot of people with just a few morons sprinkled in. I hope that in that situation I would have done the same, run towards the stage and help those that were trying to lift it up off the people that were trapped underneath.

The second thought that crossed my mind was that of an engineer: why on earth did they have such a temporary, and apparently not very sturdy, stage setup in such a tornado prone area of the country? I find it mind boggling. My only point of reference is the New York State Fair, which has a pretty sturdy grandstand setup for the concerts that take place there. I find it hard to comprehend why such a temporary rig would be used in a weather-volatile area of the country. It just doesn’t make sense to m.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those that are injured and with the families of those that were killed in last night’s horrible tragedy. The things should not happen and it is horrible when they do.

14 August 2011 by J.P. Why. 0

Down.

So I was pretty pleased with myself. I had successfully completed 39 miles of my planned 40 mile long ride and it was only a few more moments before I could get out of the increasing blazing sun and into the relative coolness of the house. The ride had gone fairly well. I had found some quiet spots on the road that had let my mind wander as it tends to do when I’m riding my bike. I like getting lost in myself that way. It’s something that I don’t do enough.

I approached the traffic light slowly as it was red. I was in the right hand margin of the center lane, like any responsible cyclist would do. The right lane was for right turns, the left lane for those turning left and I wanted to go straight through the intersection so I was in the lane traditionally designated for that. I slowed way down so I wouldn’t have to come to a complete stop.

I saw the opposing side of the light turn yellow. There was a car coming from my right, very slowly, with her turn signal on, indicating that the driver wanted to turn left, back towards the direction I was coming from. Since the light was yellow and she was slowing, I figured she stopped.

I balanced myself a bit by riding slowly as I waited for the light to turn green. It’s easier to do that instead of getting unclamped out of my pedals. The light turned green and I picked up speed.

Except the motorist from the other direction decided to run the light. Then she saw me. So she stopped.

Directly in the path of my bike.

I couldn’t go left or I would have been mashed by the vehicles that were also going straight through the intersection. Going right wouldn’t have worked, because the rest of her car would have been in the way. The only way was down.

So I went down.

I couldn’t unclamp from my pedals before hitting the pavement, so the bike and I went down together. I landed on my right knee and skidded a little bit. My left foot then unclamped. I swore, A LOT. I looked up and the woman in the car that had stopped in front of me decided to continue through the red light. I jumped up, pissed and for a brief nanosecond, considered throwing my bike at the car that was starting to make it’s way across the intersection. But I decided not to. I jumped up on my feet and did what you’re suppose to do when you fall off your bicycle. I got back on it and rode home.

Earl listened to a really loud rant of mine when I walked into the door. God bless him. He puts up with a lot of crap from me. I profusely apologized for my outburst after getting myself together again and cleaned up. My knees are sore and one is scraped up pretty good but I’m not really that worse for the wear.

At least I was able to do 40 miles on the bike today. And that’s the part that made me feel good.

31 July 2011 by J.P. Why. 3

Limits.

I have been listening to the debates about raising the debt ceiling. I’m finding the various political commentators, with their differing point of views, to be quite interesting. I listen a little to the left, a little to the right. I’m surprised that it’s hard to find commentators that are traveling down the middle. Polarization of the people will do that.

There are a few things that I don’t completely understand about the debt ceiling limit and what will happen if it isn’t raised on August 2. If someone would care to enlighten me I would be thankful.

1. Why aren’t we controlling our spending more so that we don’t have to borrow as much money? There is a LOT of frivolous spending in progress within the government. Why aren’t people looking at these things? For example, in 2005 a bill was passed by Congress for the mints to start printing dollar coins to commemorate each President. A certain number of dollar coins must be made for each President, and they can only be made to commemorate those Presidents that have passed on. The law was written so that they can’t stop printing these commemorative dollar coins until all of the presidents have been commemorated. In addition, the Sacajawea dollar coin must be printed in a ratio of 1 to 4, for every four presidential coins printed, one Sacajawea dollar must be printed.

Have you used a dollar coin in the United States today? I didn’t think so. Yet, the U.S. mint still prints millions of these on an annual basis because Congress passed a law in 2005. They sit in bags in vaults in various secret places in the country, unused and unneeded. The amount of money used printing these coins, storing these coins, etc. is a waste, not to mention the actual value behind the coins.

2. I keep hearing that all of these domestic programs (social security, veterans’ benefits, etc) are going to be cut if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. Why aren’t we talking about cutting war efforts or even cutting foreign aid? Why are we cutting domestic programs first. Shouldn’t we worry about the citizens close to home? If we are forced to pick and choose, shouldn’t we pick and choose the ones that DON’T contribute to the country before cutting from our own citizens? Where is our sense of priorities?

3. I am not a fan of welfare. I am very offended by the fact that people are actually saying it is unconstitutional for welfare recipients to be drug tested by the government, after all, I can be subject to a random drug test at any time at my job and I had to take a drug test to get the job in the first place. I’m sorry, but I believe that if you don’t contribute to the system, you don’t benefit from the system, plain and simple. These people that live off of Welfare for one, two, three or more years should be cut off from their funds and forced to grow a garden and find a way for themselves. Our lack of natural selection/the natural thinning of the herd through these things have overtaxed our resources in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend. Call me cold, call me callous, but if you don’t put in, you don’t get anything out. And don’t attack me about retirees and the like, they’ve earned their place and their benefits. I’m referring to 25 year old baby machines that enjoy junk food on a check from the government that has been funded by our tax dollars. Here’s a cute story: when I was a baby computer maintenance guy I was hired to show a computer user how to dismantle, remove and then reinstall their high-end computer system of the time because they needed to hide it from the state inspectors when they were being inspected for welfare eligibility. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Being lazy does not equal being disabled.

4. If I were to go to the Apple store to make a purchase and my credit card was declined, I was be forced to not buy whatever doo-dad I was trying to buy. I could ask for an increase in my credit limit, I suppose, but if that was denied, I would have to stop spending and reprioritize my budget. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this post, we need to get our spending under control. Scare tactics of making grandma hungry because we can’t give her her hard-earned check are unnecessary.

5. And last, but not least, has anyone ever considered a flat tax across the board for all Americans? I don’t care if it’s an income tax or a consumption tax, but eliminate every deduction, every loophole, every piece of legislative bullshit from the tax code. You earn a dollar? 23% of that goes to the government. You earn one billion dollars? 23% of that goes to the government. If you have a social security number, you pay. I don’t care if you’re married, single, swinging from a chandelier, rich, poor and nasty and maladjusted. A flat tax across the board would eliminate a lot of this bullshit and the screams of “it’s not fair!” If you have a tax ID, you pay. Plain and simple. And, this is where Earl and I disagree, by the way, I don’t think that folks with kids should get a tax deduction based on the number of children they have. People are pumping out babies and taxing the system/resources all in an effort to lower their tax responsibilities. This has got to stop. Yes, we need to fund education so that we can perpetuate the species responsibly, but penalizing those that don’t have kids by making them pay more in taxes is just not fair.

I think I’ve reached my rant limit for my lunch hour.

– Posted from my iPad with BlogPress

29 July 2011 by J.P. This Ain't No CNN. Why. 0

Why.

Commercialisation.

Embarrassing.

14.

Respite.

Remember.

Reality?

Daylight.

Tragedy.

Down.

Limits.

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