Blogging My Life

Paul, if you read this, give me a call.

Hey Everyone, Just a quick note to plug a forum site I belong to called MyOffTopic.com . It used to go by another name and be focused on technical help, but the creator, Joe, turned it into a site that serves a wider range of topics. Anyhoo, Joe has been very helpful with a server project I'm working on at my internship, so I thought I'd mention it here. follow the link and bookmark it when you get there.

Two weekends ago, Jessica and I went camping at one of our favorite spots with some friends of ours. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip where I din't have to think about servers, or IP addresses, or computers at all. I was totally unplugged for four days. Here is a picture taken by one of our friends, Patrick.

Hey Kids! I know it's been quite some time since my last posting. I'm sure whatever readers I had are long gone, having given up hope of seeing a new post from me any time soon. But, haha, here I am! My summer internship with the Washington State Democrats continues. We moved the offices from First Avenue (Pioneer Square in Seattle) to Second Avenue (still Pioneer Square) last week, and then everyone took a four day weekend. So, the deployment of the new server and wireless network has just now begun in earnest. I was in the office until 11:00PM last night, and will probably be there late tonight again. I have every confidence that I will be able to get that server up and running by the end of the weekend, and then I'm thinking about taking a few more days off! But that all depends on my being able to get this thing going. Over the four day weekend, Jessica and I went camping with some friends at Ross Lake and had a wonderful time. We met some people from Israel out there a...

Well, how is everyone's summer going? My summer is going very well. My internship with the Washington State Democrats is going very well; I'm learning quite a lot. The Dems will be moving to a new office space next week, so I will be setting up a practice network this week to try to anticipate problems for when we set up the new network. I must confess to being very nervous about setting up this new network. I don't want to be responsible for the Dems losing any races because I fucked up the network! I doubt it would be that bad, like I said, I'm just nervous. Every one I work with is very cool and I'm really enjoying the learning experience. ----- Eurosport Summer What with The French Open, Wimbledon, the World Cup, and the Tour de France, my DVR is really getting a workout! The World Cup was so much fun this year! Yes, yes, The US team sucked, but it was still fun to watch. I would have liked to see the championship match be between Germany and France, with Fra...

Hello all! Well, the past month has been interesting. I've gotten myself an internship this summer working for the Washington State Democrats. They are going to be moving their offices from one office to another, so, they will be tearing down their existing computer network, and rolling out a new wireless network in their new offices, which is where I come in. Computer networking is what I've been studying in school for the past year, and now I get the opportunity to do what I've been playing at. Good things about this internship: working for the Dems will be cool. Even if it had meant I would be full-on Network Administrator, I don't think I would have taken the offer if it had meant working for the republicans. I wasn't looking to work for any party, I was just looking for a summer internship, it just turned out to be the WA State Dems. Bad things about this internship: I'm working for free this summer. I would say half of all the internships I saw listed, w...

Team USA looked flat and totally uninspired in their 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic today. Supposedly the 5th rated team in this years World Cup, team USA did not press the ball forward at all, everyone looked like they were standing around waiting for the ball to come to them, and as a result there were only 4 or 5 real shots on goal. Even though team captain Claudio Reyna had one shot on goal that missed by only inches, the play of Reyna was disappointing. He seemed unable to rally his mates into pressing the ball forward. Indeed, team USA spent more time playing the ball backwards than they did moving toward the goal. The only excitement for team USA came from Forward, Eddie Johnson, who tried a few times to press the ball and make a run, but his attempts came to nothing. All in all, it was a flat, dismal performance by the Americans. America's next match is against Italy this coming Saturday. They will have to come out much faster and much more willing to go for the ball. Today...

You know, kids, anything that puts President Bush's polling numbers in the dumper is a good thing as far as I'm concerned...usually. But I'm amazed that concerning the price of a gallon of gas, people don't seem to be getting the bigger picture. President Bush, and Congress for that matter, are not directly responsible for the price of gas. It's all about world economics. Primarily the economies of India and China. In years past, neither of these countries placed that huge a demand on oil, and in India's case, they couldn't have afforded it if they had wanted it. Now, those two countries are using more oil than ever before. Why? My theory, at least in part, is that it's because the United States has exported so many jobs to both India and China, there are a lot more people there who can now afford to purchase cars. I have tried googling to find some statistics and have so far come up wanting, but I bet some astute reader could come up with the relevant ...

I don't normally blog my school experiences, but I just found out today that I have to take more math. I thought I was done with math, but now I find out I have two more classes to take. I am so upset I can't hardly breath. I am so math phobic it's not funny. No, really, it's not funny. I have anxiety attacks in math class. I start to sweat and sometimes I literally start to shake. Years ago when working on my philosophy degree, I had to take logic and did relatively well. And I get so tired of having people tell me that since I did well in logic, I should do well in math. Well, it doesn't work that way, at least not for me. Otherwise (meaning except for the math) things go well. I am actually ahead in my Cisco class, primarily because I didn't take any math this quarter, and my Net Security class is a breeze. Fucking math! Whose ideas is/was it that one has to be a math whiz in order to work with computers?!

Fox News' Tony Snow will be taking over for Scott "Mclyin'" McClellan on Monday. As I understand it, Snow is considering removing the television cameras from his daily briefings. While we will still be able to read his lies in the print media, I guess he doesn't want to actually be shown lying on TV. Think about how much fun the Jon Stewart Show had with the McClellan clips, Snow wants to avoid that. Anyhoo, the good folks over at Media Matters have documented some of Snow's previous lies in the media. Things like: Snow said Joe Wilson says he was sent to Niger by Dick Cheney, Snow claimed that President Jimmy Carter had authorized warrantless surveilance of U.S. Citizens, Snow suggested that the Democrats objected to Bush's warrantless wiretapping because they think "the government shouldn't be able to listen to Al-queda." Maybe being able to come up with this shit all by himself was what got him the Press Secretary job.

Honestly, I don't understand the furor over this latest Kennedy flap. There is no proof that he had been drinking, and nobody got shot in the face. And as we all know, according to precedent, it's perfectly acceptable for high ranking government officials to get liquored up and shoot folks in the face. That didn't happen, so as I said, I really don't understand what all the fuss is about.

As you know, dear readers, I am loathe to agree with President Bush on anything; but I'm afraid that I must when it comes to our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. Perhaps it is a sign that, at forty years of age, I am in fact an old curmudgeon. Perhaps my view denotes a bit of xenophobia on my part, but I cannot lie, I do not think there should be a Spanish language version of the Anthem. As far as the whole immigration issue goes, I think our borders need to be strengthened and illegals kept out. I believe it is a national security issue. I sympathize with those immigrants, both legal and illegal, who say that they are not terrorists. But if we cannot secure our borders against illegal immigrants, no matter how benign their reasons for entering this country, how can we expect that our borders are safe against those who really do mean to do us harm? Illegals and Taxes Illegal immigrants argue that they are in fact paying taxes. But those are just local sales taxes that all...

Why does the Democratic party leadership in the U.S. Senate continue to sit on it’s collective hands and not speak out more loudly against what Bush and Co. are doing to this country? For too long, Democratic senators have been cowed by this administration, and have refused to give voice to the rage that their constiuents feel. One of the senators from my state (Wa, Patty Murray) is up for reelection this year; I’m thinking about writing to tell her that I will be running against her. I’m of the opinion that any candidate who promises to kick George Bush in the [political] balls, metaphoricaly speaking of course, any chance they got would win, simply because most people are tired of their senators doing and saying nothing.

``There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch. There's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.'' - Sept. 30, 2003. ``I'd like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information. As you know, I've been outspoken on leaks. And whether they happened in the White House, or happened in the administration, or happened on Capitol Hill, it is a - they can be very damaging.'' - Oct. 28, 2003. Q: ``Given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name?'' Bush: ``That's up to. ...'' Q:...

Still no vote on Sen. Feingold's Senate Resolution to Censure the President . Which means, you still have time to call your Senators to insist they support that resolution. For all my fellow Washington staters, the telephone numbers for Sens. Murray and Cantwell are: Sen. Murray: 202.224.2621 Sen. Cantwell: 202.224.3441 These are their numbers in Washington D.C. People from other states can go to the United States Senate web page for names and numbers. The Bush administration is down, it's time to start kicking.

Consider for a moment: The republicans have already resorted to vote fraud in both the 2000 and 2004 elections, engaged in illegal redistricting in Texas in order to gain more seats in the House of Representatives, and propagated the most vile smear campaigns against Democratic party candidates at all levels, just to name a few things. Now consider that the republicans have to know that the Democrats stand a very good chance of regaining the upper hand in both the House and the Senate in the up-coming elections. If this happens, the Democrats will have subpoena powers to compel the release of documents that will undoubtedly show the world exactly what kind of thuggery the republicans have been engaged in. The republicans have to know that impeachment procedures will be initiated in the Senate against President Bush for his crimes against, and lies to the American people. These things being true, I am very concerned about what the republicans will be willing to do (and what they are per...

How can Sec. of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, say he had no idea about the "port deal" when he's on one of the committees that approved the deal and his signature is on the document that cleared the deal with the defense dept?

Sittin here watching Bush on CNN and he's talking about improving education and turning out students trained in math and science. And yet the republican controlled congress removed 13 billion dollars from the student aid program. Is he the very picture of hypocrisy? or just stupid?

I think the head referee of tonight's game should get the MVP award. A bullshit pass-interference call deprived us of one touchdown, and a six point gift was given to Rothlisberger. We didn't play a perfect game, but I think the officiating definately turned the tide for Pitttsburg.

The economic realities of the aborton debate. Go to the link above for an excellent description of why the conservative right, is wrong....again.