Sean's 'blog for 2007
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Merry
Christmas - I feel it, why can't I say it?
December 19, 2007
Mike Huckabee is a religious man. He makes no bones about it. A very nice guy, totally sincere, and a devout Christian, probably in the real sense of the word, unlike Evangelical Christian Fundamentalists who are so anti-Christian it's embarrassing. Mike Huckabee should never be President of the US because his religious convictions, while being sincere, will rule the country, and that's never a good thing for a country as diverse as the US. (The Fundamentalists I refer to go around hating people and trying to ensure the only people with rights are those exactly like they are, preaching messages that are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christ himself who taught tolerance, forgiveness and inclusion - these nut-jobs teach intolerance, vengeance and exclusion exclusively.)
(Ahem... mini-rant over)
But I can't believe I'm in agreement with Mike Huckabee on an issue.
This morning he was on The Today Show defending his "floating cross" in his new ad (a shelf behind him that looks like a cross - duh, it's a shelf - he's not actually defending it, becaus it was unintentional - he's just explaining that people see what they want to see, and that the crew of the video was quite amused to see the response to what was just a nice set dressing), and he's upset a bit about people not being able to say "Merry Christmas" anymore.
I've been upset about political-correctness for a long time now. And suddenly this tendency towards political-correctness reached its limit in my brain and something went "click". It's been building for several years now.
It's the one thing that's been bugging me all this month. I'm sick to the teeth of hearing "Happy Holidays", or people talking about what they're going to do over "the holidays".
Sure, there are a few other holidays in this month, and a lot of us are taking some "holidays" from work, but let's face it, most of us are not celebrating "the holidays", we're celebrating "Christmas". Yes, even atheists like me are actually celebrating "Christmas". We're not celebrating "New Years", not yet anyway. That's a week later. When we do celebrate "New Years", we'll be saying "Happy New Year!" not "Happy Holiday!" or "Happy Yet Another Winter Holiday"
Some of us are celebrating "Hanukkah". They're not celebrating "8 Holidays". They should be able to say "Happy Hannukah", yes, even to people who aren't Jewish. And I have a lot of friends and extended famliy who are Jewish, and during Hanukkah we serve Jewish standards (I look forward to the yummy latkes) for dinner so Charlotte can help celebrate that particular holiday since so many of her friends are doing the same.
Some of us say "Happy Winter Solstice." They're not celebrating "the Holidays", they're celebrating the shortest day of the year, which has been steeped in pagan and other traditions on earth since the recognition of the passing of time began. They should be able to say "Happy Solstice".
I'm not offended when someone says to me, "Happy Hanukkah" or "Happy Diwali" (I have a lot of Indian friends and neighbors) or "Happy Ramadan" or "Happy Solstice". I usually respond in kind. They're telling me what they are celebrating, and I'm telling to have a happy celebration, whatever it may be.
What does offend me is this politically-correct total public conversion to "Happy Holidays".
It didn't start grinding on me until I saw that Rachel Ray (the Joker of cooking hosts - have you seen that smile? Her ears may fall in at the corners) Dunkin Donuts ad where she repeats several times in one paragraph about "the Holidays". Not "Christmas", which she is most likely really has fond memories of (when it was called "Christmas", not "Holiday") since she comes from a Sicilian background. But it sounds so hollow generifying it like this.
Yeah, I know "Holiday" simply means "Holy Day" but that's not what it sounds like when I hear it these days. I hear "Happy Government-And-Corporate-Approved Word For Whatever Happy Day You May Deem Worth Celebrating".
Whew... Rant over.
Merry
Christmas
everyone.
srsly
Class-Action
Lawsuit - How Did I End Up Having To Make A Choice Between Two Abhorrent Courses
of Action?
December 12, 2007
Today in the mail I got notice of a class-action lawsuit settlement that involves me.
VISA, MasterCard and Diner's Card, for hiding a 1-3% surcharge on international card charges, had a class action lawsuit filed, and the settlement entitles me to $25.00 without hassle, or 1% of all of my foreign-based card charges from 1996 to 2006.
During that time I spent a lot of vacation time and money in Canada.
But it rankles me. I absolutely hate hate hate class-action lawsuits where the gathered plaintiffs receive $25.00 each, while the four lawyers who invented the suit and won it get millions each.
But if I don't send it in, that portion of the money goes to the god-damned lawyers.
What to do, what to do... Unbenownst to me, I'm placed in a Catch-22 situation where I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't.
Either one I'm doing something I find disdainful - claiming the money, or leaving it in the coffers of the blood-sucking lawyers.
One way I get money, the other I don't.
Perhaps I should claim it and use it to pay a portion of my VISA bill. That at least would be the least-abhorrent course of action here.
(Please don't take my anti-blood-sucking-lawyer rant here to mean ALL lawyers - it is aimed solely at blood-sucking class-action-muck-scrounging lawyers who get millions while their clients get pittance in invented lawsuits in which no one got harmed much or at all, while lawyers rake in the bucks.)
Pumpkin Carving
October 28, 2007
Tomorrow my company will be holding a company pumpkin carving contest, among other things. It's a busy day of company meetings and Halloween partying.
This year, for the company contest, I used my previous experience from last year, carving a pumpkin, only this time I did a slightly better job. It's still not perfect, but I like it. I went wth a similar stitched-up face from last year, but this year I went with tearing the flesh off the face below the nose and exposing the skull underneath. I think it's better.
After finishing it and photographing it, I stared at a photo long enough to notice it needed a bit more detail. I had torn the lip on the left (our left) side of the nose, and when I saw the photo, it seemed tacked-on. So I had enough pulp left there to carve in another couple of stitches which were more in keeping with the theme, and makes it a bit creepier.
(Note: I did win the contest! - $25.00 Best Buy Gift Card! Woot!)
Last year I tried this new technique of pumpkin-carving, inspired by this site, that I thought was good, if you're good at actual sculpture, but even an amateur could get some results. Here's my result:
Overall I was not very happy with it. Using unfamiliar tools and techniques I did generate an interesting pumpkin, but I found the realism less than I had hoped for. But hey, what the heck.
Casablanca
Pass
October 14, 2007
My daughter loves books, and she loves antiques. So imagine her delight when at a recent Church yard sale she found a bag of old books. She snapped it up. In it was a bit of a delight. There was a small military Bible with photos in it. Also in it was a rank insignia for two years' oversea service, and the following:
Note that it's dated January 2, 1943. The film "Casablanca", a major film classic, came out this year. In fact, according to IMDB, it was released January 23, 1943.
The soldier was in the US Army, and was named Herbert Tonner. Another interesting thing about that is if you Google that name, you only end up with German hits. So it's a very German name, though he was obviously an American in the US Army.
There was another pass too, but this one is a major find, being so relatable to one of America's greatest films ever made.
R.I.P. Charlie,
aged 18 - Summer 1989 - September 22, 2007
October 7, 2007
We got Charlie at the Village Mall in St. John's in the late summer of 1989. Carol went to pick us up a cat and found this adorable beige tabby frolicking like crazy while his siblings slept. She fell in love with him immediately. She had no cash so she asked the store clerk if they'd hold him while she went to get some money from the ATM. When she got back the clerk told her several other people wanted to buy him while she was gone. We were so lucky! Charlie bonded with me almost instantly. He was wonderful.
In October, 1989, when he was still a young kitten we put a fire log in our bedroom fireplace and when it eventually burned out, Charlie was intrigued by the burning embers, the way they danced, and he jumped into the fireplace. A red-hot ember got caught between his back toe pads and he let out a yell and ran right out to me. This was Halloween night, as we were all dressing up to go out for a party. Charlie ran down the hall and found me. The burning ember was still red hot in his foot and I swept him up and immediately put his paw under cold running water. We took him to a vet the next morning and she said he might lose some pads and that surgery was likely. But first, we were to clean his wound three times daily with saline solution squirted directly into his burned pads. We held him in the sink and soaked his paw, and then we'd hold him tightly and squirt the salt solution into his raw flesh. He yowled, and then we'd have to give him antibiotic in another syringe directly into his mouth. He was listless, didn't move much. We kept a towel on a low chair so he could just sit there most of the day. His fur got unkempt, as he wasn't taking care of it. Then one day, a couple of weeks later, I came home from work and he was all clean, glittering and fluffy, and bounded down the hall on all four paws. His paw had completely healed. Since that day he's been healthy and very happy.
He also learned to fetch coke bottle tops. I'd thrown them down our long Victorian hallway, and he'd run and get it, running back with the cap in his mouth - so cute! and he'd drop it... just shy of my reach while I sat on the couch, so I'd have to move to pick it up and toss it again. A game he never tired of.
When Carol went to Corner Brook to get her Education Degree and then to La Scie to teach for a year I moved to a one-bedroom apartment where Charlie and I spent a long time really bonding. He also gained a lot of weight. While Carol was in La Scie she took in Spike, our other lovely cat who died at the age of 14 about 3 years ago, nearly to the day Charlie died. When Carol finished her stint in La Scie and we were re-united, Charlie and Spike were thrust together and they never liked each other.
We had to have Charlie and Spike declawed before Charlotte was born, for fear they would scratch Charlotte. We wouldn't have been so paranoid except someone I worked with had her baby mauled by their cat, and his face was scarred. They didn't like it. We didn't like it. But it was necessary and neither would ever be an outdoor cat.
Charlie and Spike greeted Charlotte with some skepticism, but while Spike eventually came around and more or less became her cat, Charlie never totally warmed up to Charlotte. Kids make so many sudden noises and moves. Cats aren't comfortable with that. But they did love each other in a way.
Charlie went deaf about 4 years ago, not long after Spike did. Spike died 3 years ago from Renal Failure. He stopped eating, and he showed all the signs of renal failiure, which is common in elderly cats. This year Charlie started to show the same symptoms, but while Spike's symptoms lingered - he was losing weight, and we tried new diets and other methods of making him eat - Charlie declined over a period of 3 days. On Saturday, September 22, we took him to the Vet, and when we got home later that day we had a phone call from the Vet's office saying he had severe renal failure and should go to Emergency at the Tufts' Pet Hospital a few miles south of here. Well there was no way we could afford that, and renal failure is not curable. After consulting with Tufts, we all more or less agreed Charlie should die at home, with us making his as comfortable as we could.
That day he was stumbling worse and worse on his back legs. He couldn't get around very well. At one point he slept on a cushion, and fell off it and couldn't right himself at all. I had to pick him up. That night we figured he might go in his sleep, but the next morning, Sunday, he was still alive. But he couldn't make it to the litter box. I helped him in where he stood for a while, then laid down in the litter. I picked him up and put him on his favorite blanket and looked at his mouth. It was awful, it had blood in it. He was dying, clearly.
So we decided it was time to take him to Tufts to have him put to sleep. Charlotte was great about it. We thought she'd be more upset, but even she, at 11, said the best thing would be to have him put to sleep. The rest of his life would be agony. So I held him in my arms as Carol drove. We took him in, they took him in the back and put an IV in his arm, and then brought him back out to us where I held him with his head in my hand, and everyone petting him. He looked comfortable and happy to be with us. Then the doctor came in and ended it. He went very quickly and peacefully and I could feel his head become a weight in my hand.
After about 10 seconds I could feel his throat gulp, then he let out a gasp of air. But he was dead already by then.
It was a sad day, but the day itself was beautiful, and we took a long walk through Stonybrook after giving Charlie over to be cremated.
After Spike died I had kind of been saying good-bye to Charlie for a long time. I never expected him to live to see 18, but he did, and I'm grateful he did. I did some of my grieving in the two or three years before he died, so it wasn't as hard on me as I thought it would be, but I was still broken-hearted. My buddy was gone. And he was my buddy. We were inseparable. We were incredibly close, and I'll always miss him.
Just the other day we got his ashes back and I've been searching our photos for a good picture of him to put with his ashes. I was thinking of one of these:
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Charlie, we'll miss you.
So what's happened since May 13, the last time I wrote on this page? Plenty. Rowan's growing up and is just as cute and cuddly as ever. We went on vacation to Newfoundland and had a spectacular time in Gros Morne and with my cousin Mike and his family in Port Aux Choix. Man, we spent a bunch of time finding fossils on the beach at a 10:00pm or later beach marshmallow roast and fire. Work's going ok, I got to rig Gollum, and while I made a few boo-boos, it was the most complex rig I've ever done, and I learned a HEAP! Lots happened since May, let me tell you. So I'll just try to write a few specific entries to catch up.
New Room-mate -
Rowan
May 13, 2007
Yesterday we gained a new room-mate. Name of Rowan, an 8-week-old six-toed male tabby kitten. We were somewhat concerned that Charlie, the 18-year-old ginger tabby, generally intollerant of other guests, especially animals, would get very upset, but that Willow, our two-year-old female tortoise-shell, would be more welcoming, due to her constant interest in ingaging Charlie.
But if anything the opposite was true. Willow started growling and hissing right away, and even attacked us, not in a nice way, but with claws fully out and viciousness on her mind. Charlie, on the other hand, showed some mild interest, but absolutely no hostility at all, completely the opposite of how he reacted to Willow when she first entered the household.
Anyway, Rowan is very sweet, very cuddly, and after just a few hours of getting used to the place (and her new much larger counterparts) he was already acting quite comfortable, playing and roaming, not giving much mind to the other cats. In case of threat he retreats to the legs of the table where he feels more secure, but in general he doesn't feel the need to anymore.
Enough chat. Here's the pics:
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An Atheist's Nightmare, Apparently
April 24, 2007
First, watch this video: "Peanut Butter - An Atheist's Nightmare"
Then watch this video, "The Atheist's Nightmare: The Banana:" (And yeah, that's the Kirk Cameron)
So if either of these could give an atheist a nightmare, imagine the horror of:
The Grand Unification Theory of Nightmaring Those Atheists!!!
The Peanut Butter And Banana Sandwich!
Comcast Cable - Ridiculous "Customer
Service" - Someone else's theft is now my problem???
April 24, 2007
So we're moving to a new apartment. We jump online to avail of Comcast Cable's online transfer service.
All was going smoothly for about 8 seconds until we were told that the person who previously rented the apartment we are moving into did not return their Cable equipment.
So guess what that means? They can't process my order.
Now I have to go to their office, wait in line with my new lease to prove I'm not the guy who was the previous resident of that apartment.
Uh... you know I'm not. You have my current address, and all of my information. You have my payment records at my current address for 11 years. That's worth repeating. 11 years!
The chat log follows (with some information removed for privacy) Areas in bold for emphasis. Actual names replaced with "Tech One" and "Tech Two"
