Pride

A final serious post and then I'll go back to silly puns and pictures of walls that I've painted...
I am so tired of all the built-in division that I see everywhere; the political correctness. "I'm an African-American... I'm a Mexican-American... blah blah blah". No, you aren't. You are an AMERICAN. You may be an American of African or Hispanic or Irish descent but you are an American; first and foremost. Do you hear people say "I'm an African-Italian" or "I'm a Cuban-Canadian" or "I'm a Japanese-German"? No, you don't (at least I can't recall ever hearing that). Can you just imagine the outrage if someone said "I'm an Anglo-American"? They would be labeled a racist (or worse). Can you say double-standard? Everyone is so worried about either offending someone else or being offended. Guess what? Life can be offensive and it can be immensely cruel and probably doesn't really give a rat's ass about you and your easily offended sensibilities. Put on your big pants, grow up, and accept it.

It's almost like being an American is secondary; an "I'm an <insert ethnic heritage of your choice>... Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I'm an American too" kind of thing. Is it any wonder why we are so fragmented? The only time we seem to have any American Pride is when we have the Olympics or we send some robot to Mars. Beyond that? There is no sense of Pride in our country.

I have a good friend just recently became an American citizen and if you ask him, he doesn't say "I'm a Panamanian-American"; he says he's an American and he has waited his entire life to be able to say that and to say it with pride and one of the biggest smiles you've ever seen. He paraded around with his "I voted" sticker like a kid who just got the coolest bike for Christmas. He explained it to me; If you have never been able to do something, you are so grateful to finally have that opportunity. If you've always had it, you can never understand how lucky you are. An analogy might be the rich kid who has always had money versus the kid who worked and struggled to make his own fortune. Maybe the issue is that we take so many things for granted that people who are from other countries have never had. Maybe we really are fat, lazy, ignorant, pretentious, whiny, and spoiled like we seem to be depicted so often.

I really do think that if we were proud of being Americans, America would be the country we all want it to be. We need to stand together or we will definitely fall apart.

Division

I have to say that I'm pretty disgusted right now. Romney supporters; what's done is done; stop whining. I'm not happy about it but it is what it is. If you don't like it, do something about it; get involved. Research the issues and make informed decisions. Obama supporters; stop the gloating and hold your "man" accountable for the promises that got him re-elected. He claims he needed another term to continue his "work"; he got it. Now deliver what you promised and convince me that I was wrong and that the other half of this country was right. This whole thing reminds me of a fight on a playground. Everyone, grow up and act like adults and not like little kids sticking your tongues out at each other.

What truly sickens me is that no one seems to see the bigger picture here; it's painfully obvious that this country is divided and if something doesn't happen to unify us and make us all proud to be Americans again, this divide will only get wider and deeper. The Republican party is out of touch with the direction this country needs to move in and the Democratic Party thinks everything can be fixed by spending money we don't have on it. The Electoral College is a monstrously outdated mechanism for the modern electorate, considering the speed at which we can spread information; it was fine when it took days or weeks for information to be exchanged. This is no longer the case.

There is so much that is wrong and broken. I just hope it's not too late to be fixed.

Agendas

Okay, one of my very few political rants of this election cycle (and it's party neutral, actually): I just read through the proposed Florida Amendments on the ballot tomorrow. After I was done and found myself totally confused by the language, I did some research to find out what they REALLY mean. Seriously State Legislators? Could you possibly be more confusing about what you want to add to our Constitution? I'm infuriated by the way politicians purposely word proposed legislation (and how they hide things inside of other propositions) in such a way that normal people who do not either have a degree in Law or a handy-dandy Paralegal/Lawyer friend to translate it, have ZERO clue about what they just read. Why not just go ahead and have it written in cuneiform on the ballot? At least that way, I wouldn't be mistakenly thinking I know what it means; there would be little doubt that I, in fact, have NO IDEA what you are "selling".

Shame on you for this blatant attempt to mislead the people of Florida and of this Country. This smacks of Nancy Pelosi's comment about needing to pass a law to find out what's in it. Shame on you, Legislature (all of you; Democrats, Republicans, and all other party affiliations)! When I think about this kind of thing, my faith in our State, Country, and in Humanity itself, dies a little inside of me.

Please educate yourself before you go to the polls tomorrow;
http://collinscenter.org/2012flamendments/proposed-constitutional-amendment-summary-information/

If I were stuck in an elevator with a Zombie, a Vampire, and a Politician and all I had was a gun with two bullets, I'd shoot the Politician twice.

The Hands And The Eyes, Part II

As I mentioned in a previous Blog Post, I had the opportunity to learn how to weld. After that project was done, we had some leftover materials and in the interest of refining the skills I had learned, I thought it would be a good idea to create something that I had a need for. After a little thought (and some wandering around the house, looking at the things I had), it occurred to me that I needed a better solution for my entertainment center.

I have a fair amount of electronic stuff devoted to this (TV, Receiver, DVD player, PlayStation , Media Center PC, etc) and the TV stand I had simply wasn't designed for all of the things I had. In fact, I had a number of components that were not even hooked up. It wasn't tall enough or wide enough to accommodate everything. So, I had identified a need. Now I needed to figure out what I wanted to do about it.

The Hands And The Eyes, Part I

Back in August, I was let go from my job. It wasn't a complete surprise but I certainly would have preferred to have been the one to say "This isn't working out" when I had something else lined up. I knew it wasn't a good fit for me and apparently, they thought the same thing. They just beat me to the punch. It is what it is and given the state of the economy, finding another source of income is/was a challenge (to say the least). Fortunately, my Dad has a Machine Shop that he runs out of a large building on his property and he had just been awarded a fairly sizable contract and as such, he needed some help. He was willing to pay me a fair wage if I were willing to help him out.

Of course, I agreed. I needed the money and the idea of learning something new was very attractive. I.T. hasn't exactly been very good to me over the last couple of years and frankly, the idea of completely changing careers was rather appealing. And I love working with my hands. There is something very cool about taking a pile of raw materials and turning it into a finished product (e.g. Look what I did!)

Fresh Start

So, it looks like I'm starting over with the Blog thing. I had one hosted with a previous employer then moved to a new job (moving my website to them) and when I left that job, they promptly deleted my site after assuring me it was fine to leave it there. Looks like there is no such thing as honor anymore; you can say one thing and then do another and it's okay. Oh well. I can just add that to the list of things they screwed me over with.

Fortunately, I was able to figure out how to restore all of my posts (and the comments) so it looks like I don't really have to start over. Good thing I am such a nerd. Read on if you wish to discover the depths of my nerdosity.

Is This Thing On?

Well, to say that it's been a long time since I posted something is akin to proclaiming water is wet. It's not because I've not had anything worth posting. Quite the contrary actually; lots has be going on and I really needed to focus on getting things back on track. You'd think I would be used to things coming up by now and throwing a wrench into my machine. But in getting back into the therapeutic benefits of blogging, I will try to get back into the habit of doing this on a regular basis. Now... Where to start?

Brewing Your Own Beer

Several years ago, my Dad really, I mean, REALLY wanted of those "Make Your Own Beer" kits. At the time, my area wasn't exactly "culturally aware" so finding such a thing was a challenge (this was before the internet). I made it my goal to make this his Grand Christmas present. After scouring every grocery and liquor store I could find, I finally found one these "kits"...

Remember

My Aunt sent me a link to my cousin's blog in which she had posted a remembrance of the people in my family who have served in the Armed Forces. My Father was one of these men.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

You know how you get that feeling of accomplishment when you are just about to finish something that has taken a long time? Like completing some home improvement project or getting the oil changed or finishing that book you've always wanted to read? That's the feeling I have been having for the last two weeks.