digital ink

Another week survived.  

That’s probably not the best way to look at a week of your life, but some weeks surviving is all you can do.  Between Faith and I getting a stomach bug (I killed mine with vodka.  It worked VERY well) to dealing with overbearing, idiotic engineers who believe they are incapale of FAIL it’s been a hell of a week.  Gabe and Aiden have gotten in trouble on the bus ride home, Micah is making his teachers life a living hell and the nephew Faith watches has decided that screaming NO is a good thing to do all day.   What a week.

But it’s a beautiful Friday morning out and I’m loving it.  I’m not being sarcastic either.  I love overcast mornings, rain and storms.  Maybe we should conisider moving to Seattle…  Anyway, I’ve always loved the rain. From the puddles I got to stomp in and the gutters I raced paper boats in as a child to camping trips where I sat dry and warm, watching the rain soak the forest, rainy days have always brought me a smile.  It bodes well for the weekend. 

We’re having company over tomorrow night for Rock Band.  It should be a blast as always.  We’re making 7-layer dip again, as it seemed to be a big hit last time.  The only downside is that the house needs a thorough cleaning, but this gives us a good excuse to get it taken care of.  It’s going to be a slightly sad night too, because this will be the last party with Rock Band at our place until October.  Chris is moving to New York and taking his Rock Band with him, so until we buy the Rock Band 2 set with the instruments when it’s released in October we’ll be sad, fake-band-less people.  Ah well.  A month isn’t too long of a time, and then there will be a Rock Band 2 party, and that will also be awesome.

With that I’m back to work as the engineer I was waiting on finally decided to show up.

That’s a big number there.

I wanted to include this in my last post but didn’t really want to cross over and cheapen the lives lost in our “war on terror” with a money statement, but please, just take a second to think about that number.  That’s a lot of homeless people getting meals and shelter.  That’s our children getting the tools they need to succeed in classrooms.  That’s money that could be invested in green energy.  That’s money we could use to reeducate and rehabilitate prisoners instead of letting them rot on possession charges.  That’s road repairs and bridge repairs.  That’s money that we’re throwing away into a problem that we created.  Just think about it.

I was on some forums today and read the following:

Today is September 11th. I ask all of you to take a moment out of your day bow your head and remember all that have had their lives taken from them durring the attacks on our great nation. Also remember those rescue workers who risked their lives trying to save the lives of others. And Finally I ask that you remember all of the Soldiers that deployed in service to our country to combat terrorism and paid the ultimate sacrifice.

I had to step back and remember that I was playing in someone else’s playground and that I shouldn’t reply to this post, well, at all really.  I wanted to just agree and say thanks for the post, but I couldn’t bring myself to do even that little.  I just didn’t trust myself to stop there.

First off, I’m not opposed to the general sentiment of the post.  In fact I agree with most of it.  I pray for the souls of everyone that has died because of the tragedy of 9/11 and that includes all of the children, mothers, fathers, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and grandparents of those civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of our “war on terror.”

Now, for a few of the things that really got my goat that I want to sound off about.  First off we have “the attacks on our great nation.” Well, I used to be proud to be an American.  I really did.  I got up and saluted the flag and was even moved to tears during the national anthem once or twice.  But now, I’m ashamed.  I’m ashamed to be a part of a country that lied to the entire world to justify a war of retribution and oil, has brought countries to their knees because they don’t agree to let us walk all over them and still lies to its citizens on a daily basis.  We are a country of bullies, racists and fear-mongers and I cannot be proud to be a part of it.  We used to be a great nation, but we have fallen, and fallen far.

The other big part of the quote that I have a problem with is the whole “combat terrorism” thing.  We’re not fighting a war on terror in Iraq and we never were.  Maybe, MAYBE, in Afghanistan, but I’m not even sure about that.  We, as the general public, are kept out of the intelligence loops that might have some real idea about what happened, but we’ll never know for sure.  I’m sure this makes me sound like a conspiracy theory nut, but anyone that believes they’re getting the whole story is deluding themselves.

My last point, the one I really have a problem with, is the total number of people killed during and after 9/11.  Does the loss of 2,819 people in the WTC attacks justify the cost of approximately 90,000 Iraqi civilans, over 4,000 US Military personnel and over 30,000 US Military wounded?  I say no.  We, as a country, have destroyed the lives of millions of people based on false evidence, and instead of mourning this fact we’re getting drunk and shouting out the lyrics to Toby Kieth songs.  I am disgusted with our country and our politics and our NEVER FORGET bumper stickers.

In closing, please, mourn the dead, celebrate the living and stop trying to justify the hurt we have done to the world because of a few bad apples.

Thanks for listening.

First on my list of chores is to break out the old camera and get some new photos up on my Flickr page.  It’ll be starting from scratch again too, but I think that’s a good thing at this point in my life.  I’ll let everyone know when the first pics roll out of Flickr.

OK, new theme time!

I’ve been trying to get over the staleness that seems to have invaded my life as I rapidly approach 30.  Right now I’m concentration on the small things, like getting better about regular blogging and making my site into something I’m proud of rather than something that’s just there.  Yes it’s going to take time and effort, but I think I need to invest that time and effort into something that’s not a MMORPG.  Hopefully this will help me to overcome some creativity roadblocks I’ve been having and also to get a start on projects that I’ve been kicking around for months or years.

So, here’s to a fresh theme and a fresh start in September of ‘08!