Having a baby. Dead serious. If you ever need time to fly by and lose track of the days that have past, having a newborn in the house will do it. I seriously can’t believe my son will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. It feels like yesterday. It’s probably due to the lack of good sleep and the holes in the memory that causes but wow.

I’m starting to have flashbacks of when my daughter was first born. I can honestly say I can’t account for the first 6 months of her life. I remember next to nothing about anything from that period of time. Pretty scary.

Anyway, having the new kiddo around is kinda fun. I feel sorry for poor Amanda though who has the worst sleeping schedule out of all of us. She’s been doing really good with though, I’m really impressed.

On another note. Started the second round of P90X this morning. This should be interesting since I’m switching up the workout times to early morning instead of after work. It’s just easier on my schedule and my body. When I get home in the evening, the last thing I want to do is work out after a day of dealing with my usual day of tasks and being gone from home for almost 12 hours. Early morning though seems to be the trick. I’ve got a friend of mine, Adam, who is joining in. I think he was successfully destroyed this morning, lol. Still, 4:30 am wakeups… *shudder*.

We’ll see how this goes.

Well that’s it in a nutshell.

At first glance one might think this is about the new kiddo… nope… this is about politics kids. That’s right, I’m back with a brand new slam on people who whine like little babies yet do nothing to help themselves.

First and foremost, I’m neither Republican nor Democratic by association in political views. I follow the issues and while sometimes I might favor republican views more, I’ll just as quickly support an opposing Democratic motion should I find a Republican one over bearing. Just don’t label me “green” and we’ll be okay.

Now… onto the rant. So, as I do most mornings, I popped over to CNN to view the usual headlines and such so as not to get left behind on current events. What do I see? pictures of sad, gloomy Republicans and quotes of their dismay over the results of the election.

I figure we would have to have seen these no matter who won so I’m sure I’d be picking on democrats right now if the tables were turned, so keep that in mind when you read what I’m about to say. It’s not directed at any one political party, just the people individually who complain ignorantly.

“Being a conservative, I think the Republican Party’s kind of lost some of their identity of who they are. I really don’t understand how it could happen,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s really sunk in. It’s hard to understand.”

Ok moron… How did the Republican Party “lose some of their identity of who they are” ??? They are still the Republican Party and they still have the same ideals as they did during the entire campaign and years before. Just because a Republican lost the Presidential election does not mean Republicans in general are now empty voids with no identity. Ok, so maybe some of the over-the-top ones lost some of the bigot attitude and looked past someones skin color when they were deciding who they would vote for but that’s hardly losing one’s identity unless that’s what you base your life on… *rolls eyes* As for understanding “how it could happen” … That’s easy…. the majority of the American people spoke via ballot how they felt and a decision was made. End of story. Take your diaper off and go about your life, the sun will still rise in the morning. We may not be able to see it due to pollution one day, but hey, it will still be there. LOL

“We have to watch this guy and not give him an inch,” one McCain supporter wrote. “The same way he criticized every move of President Bush. We have to make things as difficult for him as he did for Bush.”

And what are you going to do about it during the next four years? Turn into a Cindy Sheehan and camp out in front of Obama’s house? Give me a break. Of course we have to pay attention to what the President of the United States is doing. That is the whole reason we’re in the mess that we’re in. Everyone talks about “watching our government” and making sure they don’t trash our rights but yet nothing ever gets done. I’m sure this next run will be no different as long as people like you make comments like that and don’t actually do anything about it.

The fact of the matter is this. More than half the country voted for Obama and he won. Now instead of causing problems and running around whining like little babies, continue to do something to help your country rather than hinder it. McCain lost, Obama is in so stop living in the past and wondering about what you could have done to make things better then and focus on making things better now and in the future with the tools you have. If you’re afraid of certain things Obama wants to put into effect, start your process now with getting all the facts on what it is you’re going to protest and mail/call your local representatives about. Being President doesn’t mean “absolute power” even with a support Democratic House or Senate as long as the people exercise the check and balance system in place. Bring light to the faces of those representatives that don’t do what the majority of the people ask of them as they are failing to do so and start making the government work for you. If you don’t do anything to interact and involve yourself in the established channels, no matter how hard it is, you have no right to complain about anything that is put in place. 

As for making things as difficult as possible?! That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You sir or ma’am are and IDIOT! Use the system to support or fight individual policies but don’t go off and make some half-cocked comments that we need to make things as difficult as possible for the new President. Thanks for helping add to the problems bonehead.

So many times people like to blame the top of the food chain first and foremost for all the problems in the nation and while it is easiest to do so, it also isn’t always where the blame should be. Yes, the top of the food chain may come up with ideas, albeit some dumb ones, that get pitched, accepted and put into bill form, but it takes representatives to vote it in or out at the end of the day. Now if the entire representative system is voting in the favor of the people and the President still pushes back - then we have obvious problems which do have solutions through that same system. So many people want to complain that the government doesn’t work for them yet they are doing nothing to make it work for them. Yes, many politicians are crooked but in some ways it’s the American people’s fault. We allow them to do it. We see them doing what we don’t like and we allow them to stay in office. If we’re not going to do anything about it, why worry right? WRONG! Pay attention and educate yourselves on what your representatives are doing. If they aren’t doing their jobs to what you believe they should be, vote them out. If you lose in such a vote and people have voted them in again, look at it in two ways. 1) Maybe you’re wrong and should educate yourself further or, more often than not, 2) The people who voted them back in are uneducated and you should focus your efforts on ensuring they make good educated decisions.

Education people. It’s what this nation lacks most. It’s probably one of the biggest reasons why our government is in the shape it’s in. When I say education I don’t necessarily mean a college or other post-secondary education. I mean self education on what the current issues are and what people are standing for. I wonder how many people didn’t vote based on issues or actual track records of representatives but instead voted to keep the existing status or voted for some other reason (race, religion, whatever) this election. I’d bet more than 70% easily.

Anyway, I’m rambling and this is quite honestly something I could go on about for hours that I don’t have. If we’re ever going to survive as a nation we need to not only pull together and work together, but educate ourselves before blindly voting, protesting or trying to influence others. If we don’t, we’re doomed. PERIOD. As I stated before, some of the things I said earlier, weren’t a slam on a group of people but a slam on individuals who blindly or ignorantly complain. Aside from that what has been said over and over again is so very true. Education and Unity are the only things that will save us. Hopefully somewhere in the near future enough of us can put the past in the past, look to the future and move forward together as “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” If we don’t find and embrace those roots that this nation was built on and immerse ourselves in striving for the same future the founders of this country envisioned, then it was all for naught and this nation will perish.

I’ve just been that busy.

October 11th… wow, that’s almost a month. It’s not for a lack of things to rant and rave about that’s for sure but alas, I haven’t had any time. Seriously. It’s been one thing after another at work and home. Between projects at work and projects at home it’s a wonder I still even have something resembling an ounce of sanity.

So… I won’t drag on about projects, but I will post up a little update.

On October 28th @ 9:33 am, weighing in at 8lbs 9oz and 21″ long, our new son was welcomed into the world.

Both mom and baby are doing great and are now at home. He’s an awesome little guy with so much personality already. It will be interesting to see just how he changes as he grows.  Let’s just hope he allows us to get at least som sleep over the next few months, lol.

Other than being busy with preparing and welcoming home the new kiddo, things have been going well. I’m just hoping I’ll be able to get all my projects all finished up before the end of the year. That would be nice.

One nice thing that’s going on…. SNOWBOARDING SEASON IS ALMOST HERE! YAY! As most of you know this is my favorite time of the year, kinda like Christmas for some . The weather hasn’t been too nice to the mountains of the last week but it looks like tonight it could turn around and we could start seeing the snow we’ve been waiting for. I’m so excited for this season to get up there and take Arwen and Amanda (when she’s all healed up) back up there. Arwen is super excited.

Anyway, just a pulse post for now. I’m sure after the elections are done tonight I’ll have something fun to post up tomorrow.

So, I open up my email this morning to see what appears to be a nice new approach to getting people to willingly install malware on their computer. A word to the wise people. If you get an email concerning a Microsoft Update, it IS an attempt to install something on your computer which is most definitely not an update. DO NOT EVER INSTALL AN UPDATE FOR YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM THAT YOU DO NOT GET THROUGH WINDOWS UPDATE OR DOWNLOAD YOURSELF FROM MICROSOFT.COM! Can I make that any more clear?

Supporting Links:

http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5159

http://www.scmagazineus.com/Fake-Microsoft-email-contains-backdoor-virus/article/119306/

The message is obviously a fake as it came from the computer of some chinese punk using his/her hotmail account. The following message is as followed (headers included):

Received: from 254-190.78-83.cust.bluewin.ch (254-190.78-83.cust.bluewin.ch [83.78.190.254]) by progressive.ginetx.net (8.13.7/8.13.7) with ESMTP id m9B9EgDM092724 for <*************>; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:14:45 GMT (envelope-from QWGMBD@hotmail.com)

 Received: from [83.78.190.254] by mx1.hotmail.com; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:14:45 +0100
Message-ID: <01c92b8a$2ef41880$febe4e53@QWGMBD>

From: “Microsoft Update” <customerservice@microsoft.com>
To: <*************>
subject: *** SPAM ***Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:14:45 +0100

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
      boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_0006_01C92B8A.2EF41880″

X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2741.2600
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.4325
Return-Path: <QWGMBD@hotmail.com>

 —–Original Message—–
From: Microsoft Update [mailto:customerservice@microsoft.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:15 AM
To: ********************
Subject: *** SPAM ***Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows

Dear Microsoft Customer,

Please notice that Microsoft company has recently issued a Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows. The update applies to the following OS versions: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Millenium, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista.

Please notice, that present update applies to high-priority updates category. In order to help protect your computer against security threats and performance problems, we strongly recommend you to install this update.

Since public distribution of this Update through the official website http://www.microsoft.com would have result in efficient creation of a malicious software, we made a decision to issue an experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft Windows OS users.

As your computer is set to receive notifications when new updates are available, you have received this notice.

In order to start the update, please follow the step-by-step instruction:

1. Run the file, that you have received along with this message.
2. Carefully follow all the instructions you see on the screen.

 If nothing changes after you have run the file, probably in the settings of your OS you have an indication to run all the updates at a background routine. In that case, at this point the upgrade of your OS will be finished.

We apologize for any inconvenience this back order may be causing you.

Thank you,

Steve Lipner
Director of Security Assurance
Microsoft Corp.

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Version: PGP 7.1
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3ENU0PQFNKDQ9O1H6QRD4C1VNOC77RT3PNTSD670Y7VCXBLG4JJXTBOAKOSSHCAM7
PWQU9FV965AKOIKXZF6D41VXAK2OQR8NJ3QFWX4951ZX79CLN75M6RK7A464RHLGD
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“World leaders are trying to calm anxious investors…”

That’s a the words I read this morning on cnn… did it make me feel any better? No. Why? Well, as the market shows, it doesn’t matter what the governments are saying, investors (not to mention people in general) don’t trust them any more.

You say things will get better, but yet instead of stepping in and directly regulating failing banks, you simply produce a bailout plan that pays these companies billions of dollars to recoupe their failures. Why? Don’t you understand the biggest problem is not the fact they are in debt, it’s how they got there.

Between million dollar payouts to high ranking executives to poor spending habits (see AIG’s 500k retreat for their execs after an 85 billion dollar loan) these companies will continue to downward spiral until the money that us taxpayers are footing the bill for in some way or another is all gone yet again. You might as well sit out front on the steps of the Capitol and burn money and throw it to the wind.

Someone asked me why I was a bit cranky this week. Wouldn’t you be if you were watching as the key points of your 401k were just burning out? Now, keep in mind I am optimistic as to my investments and have faith in the particular ones I’ve chosen only because I trust the people who directly influence them and know that somehow those investments will recover once the bottom of this pit has been reached. Those investments don’t depend soley on the health of the stock market to continue doing business and that is why I chose them. One day, they can recover. But do I trust things will get better when government officials who allowed this to happen says they’re doing everything they can? *NO*

As I made pretty clear yesterday, I’m unhappy with the political and economic health of this nation. While being a nation of unparalleled freedoms it has also become a nation of greedy politicians and businessmen. While not all are blatent liars and thieves, the vast majority of them which directly affects us are. While at this point in time, my family is doing ok, who’s to say tomorrow says the same tale if things continue the way they are.

We’ve tolerated too much as a nation by putting our trust people who do not have our best interests in mind. They don’t care about their neighbors, just themselves. You see them with multiple houses (*cough*McCain*cough*) that they don’t need while families are losing their homes. Now, don’t get me wrong here… just because many of the leaders (both business and government)  are crooked doesn’t mean some of the American people aren’t to blame either.

The mortgage crisis, is in part the people’s fault for allowing it to happen. Wether through ignorance or plain stupidity, a lot of people fell for these shady offers that lenders put out there. I’m sorry, but a subprime loan that has an ajustable rate… use your noggins. If your payment was 1200/mo at the time of signing and you could barely afford it, you had two options… a) have a solid plan to refinance on a fixed rate within 2 yrs or b) make enough money to handle the hike in price. A huge chunk of the failed mortgages were due to the fact that when those loans adjusted up, people couldn’t afford their payments anymore. I blame both parties there. The lenders for allowing people to put themselves into that position without properly educating them and the borrowers for not having the sense to walk away if it was something they couldn’t do.

Regardless, the nation, the world is in turmoil and bleeding out due to many factors and instead of actually addressing and fixing those things, we’re trying to apply bandages where stitches and sometimes amputation is necessary.  I wouldn’t be too surprised if we dropped under 8,000 today. *shrug*

who knows…

yes, the rumors of my demise are false…  after a brief little vacation from technology, with the exception of some copious amounts of video gaming and movie watching when not being all consumed by work related projects, I am back with more material…

so, politics… *rolls eyes* wth!? I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m voting Myke Reinhold this year. (i’ll post the explainatory link attached to his name once his website issues are resolved) So. In looking at the candidates what do we have? Obama and McCain, but lets not forget their shadows, Biden and Palin.

Between one that constantly puts his foot in his mouth and the other who couldn’t answer a question with a straight answer if her own life depended on it, I think we’re in trouble either way on the VP front. I’m not saying we’re doing better on the actual Presidential side either. We’ve got Bush’s BFF and a man who I think intends well but I’m unsure on how well he can deliver without plowing over the American people in the process of fixing things. Let’s face it, we’re all done for. I guess the moral of the story here is, if you want the same thing that’s been going on for 8 years to continue, you know which way to go. If you’re the gambling type you have a choice there as well.

To each and all who vote:

Forget about your party of preference, forget about what your friends or family tell you about a specific candidate. Ignore commercial spots and emails as their sole intention is to use the lowest tactics possible to tempt your vote. Educate yourself. Learn about the individual and how they will govern andc hoose the person, not the party that will best handle what you feel is important. If you simply vote Republican or Democrat or follow the advice of others, you’re acting out of ignorance and might as well have not even showed up to the polls as an ignorant vote can be more devistating than a missing vote.

Now… onto the economy… So, where’s my t-shirt that says “I told you so” about the bailout? When the first bill failed, the market dropped a little shy of 700 points… when the second attempt passed the market dropped almost 1000 points. Take a hint!

I think government bailouts are just another method of prolonging the inevitable. I mean, let’s face it. One of the first bailouts with AIG was not only dumb but it proved that nothing would change. There is a reason why AIG was in trouble and it wasn’t because they were the victim. It comes from being poorly operated and making bad business decisions. I look at CNN this morning and see a headline “Three weeks after an $85 billion bailout, AIG is turning to the New York Fed for additional funding,” and I think to myself why do they need more money? Then I read about how they spent $440,000.00 on a retreat for executives that included spa treatments, banquets and golf tournaments!? uhhh… that’s taxpayer money you just spent! I personally am sick of these CEO’s and other executives who get retarded amounts of money and boards who willingly allow these stuck up rich bastards to negotiate contracts which allow for them to take in ridiculous amounts of money no matter if the business flops or succeeds then pass along those costs to the consumers at the other end labeling it as needed due to increase in costs to produce products.

Hey, instead of giving someone a golden parachute or lining their pockets with enough money in one month to pay the salaries of 200-300+ employees, how about use that money to HELP the American economy rather than kill it!? Instead of taking some reductions at the top, these companies lay off workers at the bottom and then go begging for money from the government, which is our tax money by the way, in order to keep their billionaire lifestyles and sit behind their desk signing off on ridiculous expenses, talking about their golf game with their cronies and giving themselves raises.

I say let the banks fail. The FDIC insures the deposits up to a limit so the working class doesn’t lose their money because the banks are stupid and when the bank rolls over and dies the pieces get picked up by another bank. I saw it happen with WAMU and everything seems to be running okay there and Chase bank is now bigger and stronger because of it. Yes, the world economy is going to feel it and things will get bad before they get better, but this bailout business is just prolonging an even bigger collapse. It teaches nothing to these folks except that it’s okay to continue acting the way they are.

But… what do I know? I’m just a server administrator for a natural gas company. I’m not a political or economical expert nor do I pretend to be. I’m just an angry American citizen who is fed up with the way things have been allowed to get. I worry for my family, our freedoms and our financial future and where the world will be tomorrow.