Thoughts on Car Pool Lanes:

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday, while heading home from work, I noticed a gigantic, jacked up full sized pickup truck bouncing down the I-405 south car pool lane, trying to herd it between the lines. I was thinking why should a mess like that be in the car pool lanes, then it hit me, the solution.

I don't know how it works where you live, but the carpool lanes here in the greater Seattle area are an absolute disaster.

The traffic here is horrible and the car pool lanes are not helping a whit. Indeed many times trying to drive south near Renton traffic is bumper to bumper stopped and the car pool lane is virtually empty. The car pool lanes here actually make driving considerably more dangerous.

I am assuming the main intent is to convince people during rush hour traffic to carpool so that there are less cars on the road. So now un-employed house wives use the carpool lanes to go shopping during rush hour in their monstrous SUV's, and take a three year-old child with them to be legal. This does not get cars off the road. Also many carpool lanes here were literally 24 hours a day, the lions' share of the time they sat empty while working folk commuted to work at 5:30 am, what a screaming waste!
It is so bad here that Tim Eyman recently had a referendum on the ballot to entirely dispose of them!
Here is the solution I am confidant you will agree it is elegant.
Change the car pool lanes to ECO-LANES!
They will only be used by vehicles that get 30 miles to the gallon or more. A sticker would be purchased to affix somewhere that is clearly visible. I have noticed that virtually all the huge SUV's cruising the carpool lanes have heavily tinted windows, who knows how many people or legal drivers might actually be in there? The police would have to pull them over just to check!
Of course this solution would not only help with traffic, it would help to minimize buying foreign oil, it would help in the department of global warming as well! The more I think about it, the better the solution works.

Current situation: Car pool lanes are being used by people carrying individuals who are not legal drivers, who are not commuting to work, the intention it being abused. Cars used in the car pool lane are often three time the size and weight, and burn three times the gas of a commuter car.

Proposed Solution: Make the Eco Lanes about real improvement of; traffic, fuel use, carbon emission, pollution, safety, and wasting the very limited resources we have!

How can Twitter turn a buck?

Image via Wikipedia

How can Twitter turn a buck?

We keep hearing stories about maybe Twitter will be sold, and nothing happens. We hear about revenue models but nothing happens. The idea that keeps getting kicked around is advertising ala Google, and yet there doesn't seem to be any concrete idea how to make it work and nothing happens. To me this is a failure.

I feel just treading water in the rapid breakneck social media world is the very definition of failure. How big a failure? Big. Jolie O'Dell says it is one of the "Top ten failures of 2009" http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_failures_of_2009.php I agree. The promise was so great and the growth so fast to not make a major move of some kind really saps the momentum. Can you feel the slowing of the Twitter momentum? Yeah I can too.

We can talk about MySpace and how it went from 60% to some 30% of the market in one year and now will lose some hundreds of millions of dollars. In my opinion something like a social media service once tainted as being undesirable and un-cool is almost un-repairable. I don't think we will be able to re-cool MySpace. We can talk about all the little Twitter copycats too.
http://www.wired.com/software/webservices/news/2007/05/twitter_clones

So what to do?
I find the downtime and lack of service or "Fail Whale" the most disturbing aspect of Twitter. It was funny at first, now I wonder if there is any plan at all to move on this and get the infrastructure fixed. I know this costs money.

How to make money? I would look at the users and grade them. We have all seen the studies that a fairly small percentage of people do 90% of the tweeting I would charge these people. A formula should be utilized which considers the amount of tweets, the number of followers, and the value therein. Personally I would pay a small fee, say $10 a year for better service. I would rather deal with this than cheesy advertising. Whatever you decide Twitter hurry up! You are running out of time.

What the Hell does that Woman want for Christmas?

What the hell does that woman want for Christmas?

Are men and woman different in what they like to get for Christmas, or presents in general? Sure they are, and you know they are, but sometimes slip up in the thinking anyway. Have you ever heard a woman say this, "I don't want anything that plugs in"? Think about that while I make an all encompassing statement;" If you buy her something to wear, that she really wants, you will rarely go wrong".

Think about this in the most round terms. Women wear perfume and virtually all woman want a exotic scent they think as their own. Woman like jewelry. If you have the means, every woman should have diamond earrings and a pearl necklace as classic pieces of jewelry, these can vary in price wildly of course. Women like clothes and if you can latch onto a jacket, dress or shoes she really likes, she will be most happy and also appreciate the effort you have taken to notice what she likes and admires in dressing style. This includes purses of course and if she is a business woman that travels, a nice briefcase or laptop case is part of the package. Cell phones are considered a necessity by most women and a nice I-phone or blackberry could be very handy and help her stay organized and save time.

In broader terms when a woman gets in her car she wears it, I am not suggesting you buy her a new car for Christmas, but it follows with this whole "wearing" concept. In the same way a day at a spa for pampering is something she is seen in, it is something she puts on, a facial etc. A new kitchen, or just new paint, is part of her ensemble. Men rarely care all that much the color of the kitchen wall. You metro-sexual, Architectural Digest magazine readers, I am not speaking to you.
Contrast this with most standard issue, heterosexual men, they want toys.

Things that plug in are fine. If you give a man who woodworks a nice table saw he doesn't think of it as a tool to work with, he sees it as a toy to play with. If you buy him a nice pistol, he doesn't think "oh now I can protect my family", he thinks "ah this is going to make noise, make the other boys jealous, feel nice in my hands, and be fun to play with". A car can be seen as a status symbol by both men and women but guys oftentimes will want to "thrash" a 4x4, dirt bike, maybe even a pontoon boat through rapids, and make no mistake they are playing with their big toys out in the world's sandbox. If you are looking cheap, many men like a video game that caters to their interests, if they like racing maybe a racing game, if they like sitting around and drinking beer, maybe a Wii so they will move occasionally, their skin won't graft with the recliner vinyl.

Men rarely want clothes for gifts, clothes are something required by law to wear in public, you cannot play with clothes.

If you give someone money it says "I don't know you that well, and I don't want to work very hard at this whole gift thingy". If you give them a gym membership it says "god I wish you would clean up your fat-ass act'! If you give them a vacuum cleaner it says "yes the house is dirty and this kills two birds with one stone..right"? If you get them a book or CD it says " here this was cheap, easy to buy, easy to wrap and it technically fulfills the minimum gift requirement". if you buy someone booze it means "hey this is the minimum gift and also I can share it, and I need a shot right now". If you get someone some type of subscription it means "I want to piss you off for the next YEAR"! If you send them a fruit cake or one of those boxes full of sausage, cheese and crackers it means "secretly I hate you and want to poison you". If you give a nephew or grandchild a drum set or puppy it means "HA! you thought my revenge would never arrive and now here it is"!
Homemade gifts? Ahh..it depends of course but the hook is the gift receiver feels obligated to keep it. A book or ugly sweater (unless you knitted it),they can ditch and say they lost it. If you paint them a picture that is 20"x30" and they really hate it but know you put a lot of work into it? Ahh...tough, a Jerry Seinfeld episode of a mess.

Christmas is basically for kids IMHO, but I told my wife today she was" the equivalent of a hard-headed five year old girl". She said "and you are like a 13 year old boy". I said "so I am older than you", she said "yes but boys are more immature so divide by two and there you are". There we are indeed.

Thoughts on our Holidays

Today my wife went into the post office and it was closed being November 11, she asked an older man there “this must be a holiday”? He said snottily “yes young lady,… this is VETERAN”S DAY”!

Anyway it got me thinking about holidays and what we celebrate and how, the meaning and importance of our holidays and how things are changing.

January 1- The New Year of course at least in most of the western world. I like it from the standpoint it is non-political and basic, it is not someone’s birthday and it is non-religious. It marks the change of seasons and the passage of time and we can all agree these things are in fact important in the larger swirling cosmos of things.

January 18- MLK Day Not so much for me. I think Martin Luther King was a good man and I think he worked hard for changes for the betterment of civil rights in America, which is cool. But his agenda was limited, he wasn’t for equal rights for all, for instance gays, he was about black equal rights when you get right down to it. I feel he was second or third tier when compared to Abe for instance. I also think if he lived, instead of dying a martyr, his reputation would have been dramatically different, just look at the changed opinion of Ralph Nader as an example. MLK’s reputation has grown so outsized to what he really was that it is the only holiday of the year the Seattle Times takes a full page ad to promote every year-preposterous!

February 2- Ground Hog Day A simple holiday without much importance it has become a cultural thing since the movie “Ground Hog Day”. When asked how they doing people now sometimes say “its ground hog day” to indicate the day is the same as yesterday or “same shit different day”. Just about everybody can relate to this, but it isn’t worth a day off. (see Black Friday).

February 7- Super Bowl Sunday One of the very few activities left almost all Americans participate in. Those that don’t like the games like the TV commercials, there are parties everywhere, and it is the biggest gambling day in the world! It is a time to reflect on the Holidays maybe not with your family but your friends. More people are loaded that Sunday afternoon than maybe even New Year’s Eve. Simply put, Super Bowl Sunday is a monster whether you like it or not. People from other areas that can’t even speak English, strangely, can relate to this blood bath of schlock.

Feb 10?- Chinese New Year I don’t know about you and where you live but Chinese New Year gets bigger and bigger every year around the greater Seattle area. We do live in a diverse culture here, and this holiday is celebrated by many Asian communities and also by people connected to them. This holiday seems to vary year to year according to date because it is tied to the lunar calendar. In addition there seems to be separate New Year’s celebrations by some of the SE Asian groups, on different days and some of these will glom onto the Chinese dates, others will stubbornly stay separate. Even on close interrogation- er..questioning it is hard to really tie down the exact dates here. Also it seems the main group-of-people feels this is a three day holiday but some will celebrate for two weeks. Asian’s in general do not have holidays throughout the year as Americans or Europeans do (the more the better IMHO), so this is a big deal; a combination of Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years and everything else all wrapped up in a huge bash!

My prediction is this: CNY will continue to grow and get bigger and more visible as we blindly Wall Mart ourselves into oblivion.
February 14- Valentine’s Day is a big thing whether you want to admit it or not guys. Yeah it is just a Hallmark Holiday kind of deal to screw you out of time and money but it will cost you if you don’t pay attention. Women view this as a romance thing, if you don’t get involved somehow it is like you are saying you don’t feel the need to woo your woman anymore, you take her for granted.
If you are in one of those “gee whiz I think I should break up with them deals” do it before Thanksgiving for crying out loud. The holidays are a time when many people have parties and mixers, hence this is a good time to be a free agent, yes it can be lonely but a melancholy holiday with the wrong person is worser I thinks.

February 15- President’s Day is one reason for writing this, what a twisted-corpse of a holiday this is! We used to celebrate Washington’s and Lincoln’s actual birthdays on the 12th and the 22nd respectively. Now we glom all presidents together! WHAT! The name of George W. Bush shouldn’t even be in the same paragraph as that of truly great men. Now this holiday is worse than meaningless, it is insulting to those we should actually honor. In times gone past all kinds of stores would give out free cherry pies on George’s B-day. We need to get rid of-or change this horrible idea gone grotesquely wrong.

March 17- St Patrick’s Day If you feel the need to play the Irish card or you are at that stage of alcoholism where you need an excuse to drink excessively. Green beer-Nyquil what’s the difference?

April 2- Good Friday Uhh…what?

April 4- Easter Sunday Well there is Easter Candy, although the candy isn’t as good a deal as Halloween’s. This is now mainly just a Christian Holiday based on when Christ supposedly arose from the grave. Actually it was the spring equinox festival the Christians were trying to supplant. This holiday, more even than Christmas (Saturnalia), really has become the most successful “taking over” of a secular holiday by the church. Interestingly, I have discovered the whole thought about the dead’s spirit rising three days the body’s death is a very universal idea and is common amongst Asian cultures.

April 15- Tax Day similar to Valentine’s Day actually, in that if you forget it, you will pay stiff penalties. If you forget Valentine’s Day maybe no-get-laid, if you forget Tax day maybe get laid by Uncle Sam against your will and big whisker burn on your back!!

April 22- Earth Day something for grade-schoolers to draw pictures about. You will have to pry my carbon footprint off my cold dead foot.
May 1- May Day Originally a pagan religious holiday it was often celebrated with a may pole by Germanic Paganism. A central pole had ribbons emanating from the top which people would hold and circle, symbolizing the seasons and the circle of life. This holiday is also the traditional day to celebrate many workers rights, Labor Day and International Workers Rights day. Interestingly May Day is also the international distress call which supposedly means in French “you come help me”, HA!

May 5- Cinco de Mayo This was the day of a big turning point battle in Mexico, it is not the Mexican Independence Day, although many think it should be. Many also think it should be an American holiday and as the Hispanic population continues to grow and is now by far the largest subset in America, who knows? It is the Mexican equivalent of St Patrick’s Day and involves mucho partying. It also seems to be a good time to party as it is the kick off of good hot weather eh?

May 9- Mother’s Day Ah the chance to go out and stand in line for a truly mediocre meal! She gave birth to you for crying out loud, do SOMETHING for her! Anna Jarvis who instituted this holiday in Grafton, West Virginia was so put off by the Hallmark commercialism of it she opposed it at the end of her life.

May 15- Armed Forces Day ah no.

May 30- Memorial Day it has become the three day holiday to go camping and fishing and basically it kicks off summer doesn’t it? Well that is cool but almost no-one actually goes out and lays flowers and wreaths on the dead anymore. But here is the deal schlemiel—Memorial Day used to be known as “Decoration Day” it was commemorated to honor UNION veterans of the civil war and is celebrated at the time of the re-unification of the United States. Hey that’s great! But why do we also need a Veteran’s Day, an Armed Services Day and a Flag Day on top of this day, and the Fourth of July? Patriotism has gone way the hell overboard to the point where we honor soldiers for “protecting our freedom” when all they did was take over a small helpless country thousands of miles away that never attacked us (Iraq), and never posed any threat whatsoever, and we all know that don’t we? If you pretended you didn’t understand that before it is time to let it go flag-waver and fess up.

June 14- Flag Day Ah no.

June- 20 Father’s Day Well here is another day to show appreciation for dear old dad and all he has done for you, even if it is just the bare minimum required by law.

July 4- Independence Day Well, no one calls it Independence Day and maybe that is part of the problem it is another three dayer between Memorial Day and Labor Day for fishing trips. It seems every year there are fewer and fewer shows put on. There is a lot of noise in the neighborhood and people go buy tranquilizers for their dogs.

July 25- Parent’s Day No.

September 6- Labor Day- The end of summer for the kids and the last big car trip across the mountains or whatever it is you do. The holiday has no actual meaning other than a day off and the time of year is good to break things up. So I propose we ditch/change the import. We can still have the day just not take it off work; of course it will fade away because of that but no big loss.

September 11- 9-11 (Patriot Day), I think this should be the new holiday to replace Labor Day. http://425traveler.blogspot.com/2009/09/celebrate-9-11.html The name Patriot Day I don’t like because the word Patriot has been stolen, abused and raped by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Teabaggers and the Glenn Beck no nothings, it no longer has any real meaning. I would call it something like “Live Brave and be Free Day”. I don’t think the day should be about mourning the loss of a few people, and I don’t think it should be about remembering tragedy for a revenge type feeling like Pearl Harbor Day. I think it should signify that no terrorist act will ever make us afraid enough for us to abandon our way of life and cower in fear. The Patriot Act is just that; a crazy overreaction due to piss-pants fear. Do you see how the word Patriot has been stolen?

9-11 should be about doing the things we have put off due to fear; it should be about laughing in the face of fear. The “No Fear” bumper stickers could have meaning for the masses. Dr Phil and Oprah could have shows about rejecting fear and moving forward in our lives in a positive way. Instead of passively honoring someone else who did something long ago how about a holiday to encourage people to do something positive NOW…..

September 16- Stepfamily Day yur kiddin’ right?

September 17- Citizenship Day I was going to say we could check on our neighbor’s legal citizenship on this day but the Patriots and the Cinco de Mayo people would not see the humor.

October 11- Columbus Day Apparently the US Post Office is the only US institution to still honor this day. Chris Columbus is riding the reverse trajectory of MLK.

October 31- Halloween Hey how about Halloween huh? A truly pagan, secular holiday still survives even after years and years of the Christian Church trying it’s damndest to kill it. The costumes and parties are great although the door-to-door candy thing has been all but wiped out by the fear mongers. The pumpkin mottoes and the time of year make this the beginning of the dark season.
The funniest story I ever heard in regards to Halloween was from a very small Laotian Hill tribe man who was complaining to me about how many holidays we have in America. He said it was right after he got to the states, late at night and dark, there was a knock at the door; he opened the door and……people with masks screamed at him, he fell to the floor in fright, almost having a heart attack. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him what he had done wrong? Who was out to get him? He tried to compose himself and just when he had calmed down…another knock at the door!

November 2- Election Day They had kept running this levy (every six months) to raise taxes to build a 3 million dollar high school football field. The one time I forgot to vote it passed by six votes, enough said.

November 11- Veteran’s Day Like I said how many military holidays do we need? And how many times was America’s freedom really, actually at stake? How many of these wars weren’t just for corporate profits?

November 26- Thanksgiving What many people think of as the true start to the holiday season, what is not to like about thanksgiving? If it involves good food, getting family and friends together, I am for it. Thanksgiving is rarely about spending a lot of money and is not known for hellacious drinking compared to other events. It really places an emphasis more than any other holiday for the whole family to sit down together at one table and be thankful. Good show I say.

November 27- Black Friday A truly funny, although very apropos, name for a madhouse crush of consumerist carnage. People actually camp out at mid-night, to save a few bucks, on the latest plastic-electronic-made-in-china junk they think their kids cannot live without. It really demonstrates everything wrong with America, our values and the empty values of consumerism, all in one bleak terrible day. People have literally been trampled to death in Wall Mart on Black Friday---The Horror! Of dying in a Wall Mart I mean….. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html

December 7- Pearl Harbor Day Like I said how many military holidays do we need for crying out loud? It makes you think we are just a military-industrial complex run machine.

December 12-19 Chanukah/Hanukkah I know in some places this holiday resonates but it seems to me as a whole Hispanic and Asian holidays are blowing this out of the water, for people not directly involved in this religious rite that is.

December 25 Christmas Everyone likes presents don’t they? And drinking and eating to excess and a day off? The kids like lights and putting up the tree and well.. Christmas is really for kids anyway I think, for the big people it is a lot of work and money out. This was of course a popular pagan holiday and it was in fact SO popular the church could not stomp it out and extinguish the JOY people felt. so one day SHABAM! They decide in a great coincidence BABY JESUS just happened to be born then!
The fact that Baby Jesus just happened to be born on a very old and very popular pagan holiday makes everyone happy really, the kids YEAH! The retailers YEAH! The born agains YEAH, and of course regular working folk like you and me …yahweh…I mean yeah!

By the way, I have determined through a very close sampling of data that the fancy Christmas Eve is now the most dangerous day of the year to be out driving. Amateur drunks are out in great number, the weather is bad, roads are clogged with people who are PISSED TO THE BREAKING POINT (these people are going to have a perfect Christmas if it kills them), and they are drunk and have to drive to the hated..INSERT here: mother-in-law, X-wife’s house, other hated relative, brother who always did better in school etc…so watch out if you are forced to drive somewhere on this day.

December 31- New Year’s Eve Regular New Year’s Eve is a sad thing really in comparison to the Chinese New Year extravaganza. Many people used to stay up till mid-night and get falling down drunk but the whole DUI thing is paramount now. It is a time when people reflect about the past year and try and make resolutions for the New Year in ways in which they want to better their lives.

So in celebrating the holidays remember:
1. Your “family” can be anyone you choose to be your family.
2. Money and working overtime won’t count for shit while lying on your death bed.
3. People and relationships are all that matter in the end.

Boeing (787) was Always Leaving....

This was posted in the Seattle PI by an unregistered user> I thought it was excellent in a turn-the-tables sort of way so I wanted to save it for others to read:

Posted by unregistered user at 10/29/09 6:08 p.m.

Boeing was always leaving. There was nothing that could be done by anyone other than Boeing to affect this decision and this is just the start. In less than twenty years, when the "legacy" aircraft are no longer being manufactured in favor of newer fuel efficient versions, Boeing will be completely gone from this area. Boeing is a "modern" corporation that has no loyalty other than to shareholders. Period.

So, the question is, what does the Puget Sound region do? Is an aerospace manufacturing industry something we want in this area? If so, then there should be immediate steps taken for the future of the people in the area:

1) Immediately drop all Boeing tax breaks in the state of Washington. Use the surplus funds this generates exclusively for education at all levels. An educated workforce is essential to the future and especially in aerospace jobs. Boeing is not living up to their agreement to build the 787 in Washington so they can pay us what every other business in the state has to pay.

2) Starting now, the leaders of this state should be talking with anyone in aerospace - and that means everyone. The region has lots to offer. For Europeans, our union "troubles" are nothing. The IAM is minor league compared with the their unions. We can offer an educated work force (if suggestion #1 is implemented), facilities capable of manufacturing and assembling large items, and a whole support infrastructure.

3) As Boeing closes plants, exercise eminent domain and seize them for fair cost as pieces of vital infrastructure. Pay them what the buildings are worth. Boeing will try to sell the property and tear down the buildings having agreements in place to do this years before it actually happens. Once those buildings are gone, so is the aerospace industry in this area because there just isn't affordable land available to build new ones close to the population centers.

The people of this state can not be afraid to play hardball with Boeing. If the USD is still weak at that time, I wonder if Airbus would be interested in acquiring existing facilities in an area with a trained aerospace work force? There would probably be others from Canada, Brazil, etc. that would be interested, as well, especially if someone is trying to break into the market for large
So much to do in so little time. The only thing that is certain is that Boeing is gone. The ball is in our court.


http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/183633.asp

“Boeing to workers: “Talks were in good faith; union’s offer fell short”.

Guns, Guns and more Guns, and the NRA of course...

The gun-kook NRA folks really crack me up. They are so far out in la-la land about the reality of keeping and owning guns and the crime rate, and the need to own guns they make me laugh. They always talk about overthrowing the government. I have started asking them that if the police showed up on their doorstep un-announced and demanded all the guns in the house, with the caveat that if any non-registered guns were found upon later search, they would immediately go to prison would they still hold out? Of course not.

Obama is the best thing to happen to the NRA and Glenn Beck. The gun kooks are stockpiling guns and ammo at such record rates for the upcoming “war” they want so badly, the ammo makers can’t keep up with demand. The truth is that if you own guns your chances of being involved in gun violence go way up. The next truth is that people who move away from the big city because of crime have a much bigger chance being killed or maimed in a car wreck than being a crime statistic in the big bad city.

The gun kooks always talk with glowing eyes about getting up in the middle of the night and “shooting a burglar” as if that is a secret wish, a fantasy to fulfill. I wonder if they had a 16 year old neighbor on their living room carpet bleeding to death if they would really feel all that triumphant? This is what really happens:

A kid at work gets shot IN THE SHOWER by his girlfriend. He had thought he heard a burglar the night before and got up and loaded a gun to check it out. He had left it on the nightstand and now his girlfriend was trying to un-load it the next night. She pulled the slide back and BANG~ the bullet took off the end of her finger, went through a wall, and hit him in the arm breaking his arm. It could just have easily killed him, as it was he missed a month of work and she is still in trouble with the cops.

A local man shoots himself in the foot. http://www.mynorthwest.com/?sid=223212&nid=11 This happened “accidentally” while he was unloading the gun. He might be charged with reckless endangerment because the bullet went into the apartment below in the bedroom. People in the comments section have stated he was stupid to be pointing his gun down, but where should he point it? As we see in the story above bullets go through walls fairly easily. There might exist in a crowded apartment people above him, below him and on all sides.

Here is a case where a man hears a noise at night when he is in bed and immediately he gets a gun, and shoots his fiancée who got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. He saw a figure standing in the hallway, so before determining the identity of the figure he shot first. Who knows he may have been drunk, that is not illegal is it? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/12/national/main5378015.shtml

But what if there is a actual burglar and he is in fact stealing some small thing covered by homeowners insurance and you do in fact stop him, by shooting him? http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=217024&page=1 Here is a typical example of what happens, two people’s lives are ruined to “protect” a car stereo! Smart thinkin’ fer sure.

Sunshine Cleaning: The real story

Image via Wikipedia

Have you seen that movie “Sunshine Cleaning”? It is pretty good. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862846/

You know what else? It is a real story. A woman I work with Stacy Haney and her friend Theresa Borst are the real women who started Bioclean in the greater Seattle-Everett area.
Stacy had told me the story when I asked her what she had done while she was laid off and how she got into working in Haz Mat at our current employment. She explained that she found out that when there is a murder, or a dead body is found it is usually up to the family to clean up the mess. She and her friend felt like this was being victimized twice, first the loss of a loved one and then have to clean up a real nasty mess. They were out of work so started this business. Yes she had all kinds of horror stories that would give anybody the willies!

Today, on seeing the video Sunshine Cleaning on Sunday I mentioned it to her and she said “yes that movie is about me”. I said “no way”, she said “way”. I got the impression she might be a tad miffed about the whole deal too. Here she does an interview for NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1123029

Then someone else hears it and gets a revelation, they write of a screenplay and BOOM, they make money off of YOUR life story. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101794925&ps=rs
It seems weird from the standpoint that maybe she thought she was doing something a little unusual but not enough to make a Hollywood movie out of (yes of course it was embellished). It got me thinking about everyday lives and writing about them.
I asked Stacy to remind me today why she closed it down and went back to work for someone else. She said it was too much, the hours were terrible and it was either the job or her family. Good choice Stacy.

Celebrate 9-11

I propose 9-11 should be “National Travel Day” and as Americans who refuse to be afraid of the big bad wolf, we travel, go out to eat and spend money lavishly and in hedonistic ways.
I remember 9-11 well, the burning towers etc, I was working nights and woke up to my morning coffee and the internet news I couldn’t quite believe. Yes for several minutes I thought it was a hoax of some kind.As time went on over the next several weeks it actually got worse as people literally stopped living their lives, and adjusted everything to cowering in fear that some ridiculous imagined threat might materialize. A man I worked with who always talked about his church, cancelled his trip to Hawaii, he was afraid. He was in poor health and about 66 years old, apparently his savior was not powerful enough. People actually called the police if local kids played in the woods and wore camo clothing; they thought “terrorists had targeted their important neighborhood for implosion. People turned in neighbors who took photos outside it was completely nuts.
Things of course have cooled off some but we are nowhere near back to normal are we?
One of the moments I have been proudest of my mother is one week after 9-11 she had plane tickets to Montana. I asked if she was still going and she said of course, she was more worried about airlines cutting down on maintenance (very real), and drunken pilots than terrorists. Her reasoning was; why would the terrorists bother with a little old lady like her. Well, right on.
The terrorists attacked the World Trade Towers as a symbol, a symbol of American might, but also American values, freedom, morality, and happiness. They killed some people sure… but the total effect was a 1000 times worse because they did cause terror, and panic, they did change American life for the worse. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams because we rolled over, pissed our pants and let them.
So in all seriousness I think 9-11 should be made a holiday and it should be based on travel, and partying, and going out and not being afraid. People should go skydiving or take that hot air balloon trip, or do something new. It should be about breaking out of ruts, mental, physical and spiritual. Don’t tell me about your wonderful life-after-death god and show me your fish bumper sticker, show me your powerful faith by living a fearless, powerful life.

I know we have a lot of holidays but we have tweaked them haven’t we?

We used to celebrate Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday and now we have the watered down “President’s Day” which means nothing. Columbus Day went the way of political correctness to a dried up death. MLK day is actually the only day the Seattle Times takes out a full page in the paper to remind us, hard to believe, good thing he is not still alive to disappoint us with being human. As near as I can tell Easter has waned and most stores are open now. Memorial Day and Labor Day are just days off from work. Fourth of July is only fireworks day. Thanksgiving and Christmas still retain pop because the weather is bad and hey we still do the family over for dinner right? Halloween is too scary because we can’t trust strangers any more, we are too afraid.
So why not ditch Labor Day and have a real holiday? We could call it American Values Day or something. I honestly think if we had a big holiday spectacular every year it would make Bin Laden’s butt burn. Instead of singing about the “home of the brave” why don’t we go out and live our lives like we always have and be brave or at least not afraid of living our lives like Americans used to live their lives.
Personally I think it would be like a Pearl Harbor Day that we really celebrate, it should be a three day national holiday and can replace Labor Day which has no meaning anymore. People should have resolutions to do something they want to do but have put off due to fear. Ask out that special person on a date you have been afraid to ask. Try out that risky blog idea. Go down to downtown Seattle and take some photo night shots you have been meaning to do, but inexplicably haven’t. Try something new like a play, or new ethnic restaurant you have never tried. If at all possible travel somewhere for no reason at all, other than you are happy to be alive and living in America on September 11, 2009!

So, join me in celebrating 9-11, Amercia is alive and kicking Day.

The Black Leather, Paunchy, Hordes: Being a Biker

I was just at the gas station trying to remember which side my gas cap was on when I noticed two lesbians on a Harley taking off. The front/driver/husband had on a wife beater t-shirt, huge arm tattoos on her huge arms, and a grim visage. They were both about 50 years old, 5’5” and 250 pounds. Although you would normally never say a full sized Harley is too small for two people, this one certainly appeared to be so. I hope they don’t encounter any sharp corners…good bye and good luck..ah..ladies!
I was considering how people who buy Harleys and bike around now feel the need to play “dress up” very similar to how the peddlers who I call the “neon hordes” feel the need to don a certain type of hideously bright, skin tight second skin costume to feel like they can pedal their bicycles leisurely down the middle of our local highways. http://425talker.blogspot.com/search?q=neon
I know at the turn of the century some women referred to the swim suits of the day as a “swimming costumes” maybe that is what is developing today. People seem to feel the need to identify with certain groups and assume that they must broadcast their allegiance so you will know for sure what-the-fuck they truly are. I suppose this is why evangelical Christians feel driven to wear logo shirts, get tattoos on their calves of Calvary, and having fish bumper stickers swimming sideways on their Volvos.
There is a man I know whose nickname is “little Mike” (or thereabouts) and he is quite diminutive. He does have a Harley though, and a full beard, long hair, (looks like Hagred in Harry Potter)long wallet hanging out the back attached with chain, black t-shirts that usually say something about Harleys, biking or drinking, and black boots of course. At times someone will say “Watch out for little Mike… he IS a biker you know”, laughingly.
If you own a Harley almost every article of clothing you wear needs to be black. One group of people I occasionally visit in the Fall City area all wear so much black that I stick out like a sore thumb with a red jacket and blue jeans. Also you really need to fight the helmet thing with all your might, ala Jack Nicholson in “Easy Rider” wearing the football helmet. A half helmet, Nazi style, or maybe even an old ass WW1 leather helmet, but whatever it is it has to be as non-protective and goofy as possible. It has been fun to watch a female friend accessorize herself, now that she dates a man that owns I believe, two Harleys. She has donned the doo-rag on her head and is trying bravely to appear as “bikeresque” as possible. One of the most bizarre examples is a man I met who had the back covering, spread winged Harley logo on his jacket, the same logo the same size on his vest and on his t-shirt. I remarked on this. He said “yeah that goes skin deep too, if you want me to take off my shirt”. I allowed I believed him, without the need to see more corporate logos.

Biker definition: Merriam-Webster says a biker is a “motorcyclist especially one who is a member of a organized club or group”
Biker definition: according to Me: (1)A biker is a person who rides their bike rain or shine, summer or winter to all activities they participate in, including work, school, dating and mom’s house. (2) Someone who is the member of a club or gang and they wear colors and have office titles like “Bandidios Sergeant at Arms”.

Unfortunately, Harleys are expensive and few dudes who are 20 and struggling with their first job can afford one. Most Harleys these days are ridden by fat, middle aged, Microsoft developers and they only come out on weekends, (in the summer when it is unseasonably nice), where they drive them down to the local tavern in someplace like Duvall, where they can stand outside in their leather chaps and leather vests and look at the latest chrome gew-gaw they paid someone else to install on their $27,000 dollar “bike”. This is fine and good I suppose, but owning a consumer good does not change your personality or make you tough, or much of anything really. You are just someone who gets to play dress up all summer instead of only on October 31st. Are these people bikers? Well…not to me.

Of course there are those two who play biker and have a Harley knockoff or worse yet a Goldwing. Finally there are the biker wannabes and they dress in Harley gear and don't have a bike at all...WTF?

I suppose I think more of a book written by Hunter S. Thompson titled: “Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs” as true bikers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1648890

Why these baby-boomers are trying to pretend they are tough, tattooed Harley ridin’ bikers, I can only guess, midlife crisis? Thinking the purchase of an overly loud motorcycle will give them courage and freedom? I can’t say only watch and wonder. I suppose it is easy enough; you don’t have to exercise or get in shape, you don’t have to read or practice or learn anything, you just have to buy a dangerous toy and you have a whole new exciting life………. They try and cram lost cubicle years into a few crazy weekends, riding their expensive avatars over to Winthrop, dressed in the finest biker livery, Steppenwolf songs playing in their gray haired heads.

Your Dog Won't Laugh if it Sees You Naked

Do you know if your dog sees you naked it won’t burst out laughing? I know this because I have tested it. Dogs are pretty much man’s best friend I guess. If you quit feeding a cat it will go to the neighbor’s house for food or even go and kill something but a dog will just sit there and starve.
You have most likely also heard the saw about “the more I get to know people the more I like my dog”. Dogs are supposed to have true unconditional love. Anyway I find it odd people so often are more outraged by people’s treatment of animals than of other humans. For instance, there have been several police shootings here recently, one at an Everett Restaurant and one on the Woodinville Duvall road where people were killed. In both those cases eye witnesses said the police had no reason whatsoever to kill those two men. Neither was armed. There has been almost zero public outrage.
However, if a couple State Troopers beat a couple baby seagulls to death the public goes completely nuts! http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009510595_webseagulls20m.html (there is 107 comments). To the troopers credit they did say the seagulls were “being aggressive” and this is usually the same terminology they use when killing a person. They were “afraid” or the person was “walking toward them” even when unarmed, and instead of shooting them once in the leg they were compelled to shoot multiple times in the heart-lung area. I am sure these troopers felt real and unmitigated fear from those small birds.

Can you remember back to when the Marine threw the puppy off the cliff in Iraq and had a U-tube video posted of the event? http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080613/OPINION01/46575095 I would post a link but I am sure it is gone because it caused a FIRESTORM of controversy. The kid was local to the PNW, I think Monroe and even his family here was getting death threats. Jeez! But of course thousands of innocent women and children have died in Iraq and no one says much do they? Even the men fighting our troops are just trying to repel an invading force that really has no business being there. Wouldn’t you fight back if we had an occupying army in the US no matter how much you hated and despised our current administration? Of course you would, if you have any balls and you are a patriot. Now that the US army is not allowed in Baghdad without permission, the government has not asked for help or given permission one single time, the Iraqi people do not want us there at all under any circumstances, which of course is not only not surprising but makes perfect sense. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2009400213_iraq30.html

Why did I write this? Was it the incredulity I felt as I read about the latest PETA stupidity about not throwing dead fish at the Pike Street Market? No. It was this article today about a poor woman who happened to leave her two dogs in the car and they died. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2009400213_iraq30.html Reading the comments from the people, and their bitter stupid outrage, was jarring evento me, even though I am used to it, and a bit jaded. I am sure this woman loved her dogs very much and is horrified enough as it is. Leave it to the animal crazies though to kick someone when they are really down and to not really have much of a perspective about much of anything important

Yes I have a black lab Pinky(pictured), that I love very much. She made the King County “read to your dog” poster this month.

15 to 25 Year-Olds will Change the World!: Just Kidding

In the last month about fifty articles and blogs have come out addressing how kids/teens use various media and social interaction differently than adults. Apparently, the hook is that people in the 15-25 year old demographic will eventually come up and completely change the world and the way of doing things. Things like business and living, making money and paying bills right? Because isn’t that what we really care about? They will turn the social media world on its ear and everything will change to the way they currently do things..right? Isn’t that the fear that a business doesn’t have a leading edge strategy in selling to the next great new wave of consumers?
Many people have spotlighted this article by Matthew Robson, written for Morgan Stanley. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/teenage-media-habits-morgan-stanley . Basically the kid says teenagers don’t have a lot of money, they upgrade their phones every two years on their birthdays, because they have no money. They play a lot of video games and they watch TV, and they use their cell phones a lot. Does this really impact what a business strategy should be for the future? Will these fifteen-year-olds get older and out in public and have a job and change the way people do things? The answer is no.
Reading between the lines of his article the reason kids make the choices they do is that:
They have no money
They see no reason to act differently
Well that will change my deary, very quickly in fact. If you ask a 20 year old or a 25 year old right now what is their main concern, I will bet you cash it has to do with getting a cool job-score! Or making money in general. Sure they want to get laid (money), have fun and party (money), and have really cool toys (money), could be some want to actually get married and have kids (mucho money), or buy a house (extreme money).
They business world will change them in its’ due course. Like the action of a glacier it will move them. If you have been on Twitter at all, just about everyone on there is trying to network and get information, mostly to further their ideas, advance their pull, and of course make money. Yes I know all these reality shots sounds a little jaded.
Personally, I just graduated from college last year and I also work with many people in the hallowed 15-25 “solid gold” demographic (although not there myself). I remember having a conversation with a young woman working her way through school hooking. Her attitude was this: She wanted a college education to get a good job and make money. She could bust her ass 40 hours a week or hook for maybe 10 hours a week and make the same money and have more time for herself and homework.
As these young people matriculate into the work force they will not all be video game designers. One of the best “Fail” posters is a young boy sitting at a window it says: “Reality the toughest game of all”! Many will have jobs doing pretty much all the same crap we currently do, such is life. Sure, cell phones are king, everybody uses them, many of these younger kids will get Blackberries and I-phones and get on whatever social networks they think they need to, to make money and move up in the company. Some will start their own cool businesses and by far the lion’s share of those will fail.
Many of these kids are on Facebook and guess what? So is my 75 year old mother! Bottom line is this; the social media network that provides value, is easy to use, and helps people make money, will make money itself. MySpace didn’t do this, kids used the hell out of MySpace and for all intents and purposes MySpace is already dead.
My point is this, the kids will adapt to the world, the world of business, not the other way around. They will get haircuts, cover their hideous tattoos as much as possible, or get them re-done, and they will travel to social media conventions for the wishes of their company. They will start to discuss insurance and 401K plans with their friends. They will get Costco cards and yes, they will use Twitter, (or its equivalent), to try and make a buck. Once mommy and daddy quit paying the bills it is a rude awakening out in the real world, wasn’t it that way for you?

Google and the Cone of Arrogance: The New Monopoly in Town

Responsive customer service is a hard find wherever you look these days it would seem, however, I choose to discuss the software/internet/search engine business and their approach to customer service. Due to a complete lack of customer service I no longer do business with Symantec. I was a good customer for years and they made a lot of money off of me. I had bought a new laptop and did a couple re-formats on old machines and they said my suite of software could not be reloaded again. I looked for a way to communicate with them so they would have the opportunity to do right by a loyal customer. Finally, I gave up, and the thing is there are many options available, and I have tried a couple I am happy with, like Kapersky, and there is no reason to ever go back. In a competitive business like theirs this is very, very stupid because I influence others as well.
Google lately has surprised me with their approach to communicating with them; try to do so, I dare you! I had an idea to make their products better and really there is no way to even get a hold of them. One commenter (James Gecko), on a blog comment wrote I could go to a “feedback forum”, yes I suppose I could James. IMHO, telling your customers to go post on a forum is the equivalent to telling them to fuck off, because you are too busy to help them. Let’s say I was in a line at a customer help desk and I finally get up to ask a question and the clerk says “Geez can’t you ask a simple question like that to someone ELSE in line”! That is equivalent to a “help forum” as far as I am concerned.
So to start some semblance of service the customer has to have an open, very easy to find line of communication available. Alan Hogan talks about the arrogance of Google in this post http://alanhogan.com/arrogance-of-google . Sure Google has a monopoly at the moment, they have about 85% of the search engine market, and that is a monopoly in my book. Basically the customer service issue is this: just try and contact them, see if it is even possible. I wrote this post “Google are you there”?http://425talker.blogspot.com/search?q=google to voice my frustration, I couldn’t get through the “cone of arrogance”.
I started to think to myself are Microsoft and Yahoo just as elusive to contact as Google? So I decided to run a test. It would be to go to the home page and count the clicks to “feedback”, or maybe “contact us”. Simple enough right?
At Microsoft.com, “contact us” was on the home page; three clicks later are phone numbers, e-mail customer service, and mailing addresses.
At Yahoo.com “send feedback” is on the home page.
http://www.bing.com/ has “feedback” right on the home page.
http://www.ask.com/ has two clicks to get contact info.
So, really Google you are in left field as far as any customer service gestures go. It is not so much you hear but you don’t listen to customers, (to read an analysis of the difference try this post by Lisa Hoesel http://conversationalchaos.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-we-hearing-or-merely-listening-to.html ), you allow your customers no chance to be heard in the first place. I am sure your many young billionaires are quite pleased with their new found purchasing power and it is hard to be humble. Competition can come quickly though as http://www.myspace.com/ has found out.
When Bing debuted I remarked I hoped it would be a success because Google really needs some competition, to light a fire under their complacent asses. I encourage everyone to spread the love around a bit in the search engine department. If they have no customer service now, imagine what it will be like with their new Operating System!

MAIL-online attempts to demonize the Knox family

Do these people look happy to you? Me neither. However, somehow, someway the MAIL-online wants terribly to spin it that way. The headline states: "Revealed: Foxy Knoxy's sisters posing happily for 'macabre' photos at the house where Meredith Kercher died"

At first it seemed to me Amanda Knox was guilty, but as time goes on it seems more and more that she is being railroaded. The fierce preoccupation Europeans seem to have with her sex life and her partying at the University of Washington seems like something out of our own Puritanical fascination with anything sexual related.
It only seems natural these people would want to see where all this supposedly happened since there is at least a coin flip of a chance they will ever see their sister or daughter out in the light of the free day again.
This kind of slanted journalism is that much worse when you realize these Italian jurors are not sequestered, they are being bombarded with this every day in their lives. I am really wondering how Amanda Knox can expect anything like a fair trial.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199111/Revealed-Foxy-Knoxys-sisters-posing-happily-macabre-photos-house-Meredith-Kercher-died.html

Freedom: Fourth of July style

On this Fourth of July I ask you what is “freedom”? In the US we have all been brainwashed from birth and told we are so much “freer” than the rest of the poor world, we should be so grateful. What really is it, and how do you compare it? Have you ever noticed that the people who say that we have so much freedom in America and we should prize it so, are people who never travel and have no real idea what is going on in the rest of the world?

Here is a definition for a baseline from http://www.dictionary.com/ :
free⋅dom
 
Use freedom in a Sentence
–noun
1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.

2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.

3. the power to determine action without restraint.

4. political or national independence.

5. personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom.

6. exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually fol. by from): freedom from fear.

7. the absence of or release from ties, obligations, etc.

8. ease or facility of movement or action: to enjoy the freedom of living in the country.

9. frankness of manner or speech.

10. general exemption or immunity: freedom from taxation.

11. the absence of ceremony or reserve.

12. a liberty taken.

13. a particular immunity or privilege enjoyed, as by a city or corporation: freedom to levy taxes.

14. civil liberty, as opposed to subjection to an arbitrary or despotic government.

15. the right to enjoy all the privileges or special rights of citizenship, membership, etc., in a community or the like.

16. the right to frequent, enjoy, or use at will: to have the freedom of a friend's library.

17. Philosophy. the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination. Compare necessity (def. 7).

What about number 1? We have more people in prison in the US than any other country in the world, by far! Currently we have over 2 MILLION people locked up, many for minor offences like drugs, and by far and away most of them are people of color does that sound like a free state to you?

How about 2? Have you simply tried to drive to work up 405 or I5 and seen the cops sitting on the side of the road ready to pull people over if they drive slightly too fast, or are in the wrong lane, or have a light out, or talk on the cell phone, or don’t have their seat belt on? If you have ever been outside the US you know you will not see this kind of harassment anywhere else in world, it is bizarre what we put up with every day.

What about 3? Try and build an addition to your house without jumping through a myriad of rules determined by minor potentiates. Try and shoot off fireworks =on the wrong day to celebrate your “freedom”, try and go fishing or hunting without and folder full of licenses and certificates and vouchers for the multitude of fees.

4. Political or national independence. Do you think we are independent of other countries when we own China so much money right now we could never pay it back?

5. Do we have personal liberty?

6. I like the example “freedom from fear”, America is riddled with fear. Our news outlets don’t really even report actual news anymore so much as they hype fear. Going through the security checkpoints at LA airport recently about 17 TSA people performed a “security drill” everyone running around screaming BRAVO BRAVO!! There were only five of us beaten down tired travelers trying to go about our business. Do these displays make me feel safe? No. They waste my time and make me realize we have really lost something in America that used to be called balls. See number 8 here as well, “freedom of movement”? HA!

9. Might be OK if no one hears you and you aren’t a teacher or etc. etc. More and more people have jumped on that politically correct zombie speech thing. These people are comical as they try and stumble through life trying to keep up on all of our societies’ “community thought” on what is correct 0or, ok, or won’t ever offend anyone at any time even if it is true.

10. Freedom from taxation… and fees and B&O taxes and car fees and “sin taxes” and GAWD DAMN IT! We are taxed silly to keep all those police on the street and the largest army in the world with standing troops in every country I can think of, and more people in prison than anywhere else (some being tortured with no charges against them). It costs a fortune to keep up all these laws and rules and regulations over every tiny detail of our lives, a police state is very expensive.

14. I don’t think there is anyone alive that doesn’t feel our civil liberties haven’t taken a huge hit under Bush and Cheney. I have been disappointed so far in Obama’s action to turn back the clock to where we were before. Suffice it to say that there was a time when America’s civil liberties were the envy of the world. That time has been very limited. The civil rights act was what 1964? Until that late date people of color might have different rest rooms or be told to ride in the back of the bus. You see the freedoms that people in America take for granted have never been for EVERYONE just the privileged few. Our justice system for instance is for the rich.

15. The freedom to enjoy all the rights of the community? Really like what our justice system that is tilted to the rich so far it no longer even functions or our wonderful health care system that millions and millions of full time working people can not afford?

Yes I know the standard response in our free country. If you are not giddy in love with it the way it is, and the way it is transforming, then leave! If you do not buy into the brainwashed official line then leave.

I once talked to a guy from Laos who made the comment “you Americans think you are so terribly free but you are not”, and shook his head. He had lived around the world. I asked him to name a country that was “freeer” for the common working man than the US and he said Thailand.

Consider this: I know many, many people working here now that were not born here. Almost to a person they have no intention of staying here. They are here to make money. When they retire they are going back home to Canada, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and others. They are not here for more freedom and they are not impressed with our freedom at all. They think we are ruled and regulated and micromanaged and taxed to death.

Make sure today you buy your fireworks from the right stand today and check the regulations on your local city, county and state to make sure you will not be arrested by the police or ATF or labeled a terrorist and put on a do not fly list. Check your noise regulations. Make sure someone of the proper age and wearing the correct safety gear is lighting the fireworks. Make sure you hang your flag properly (there are tons of rules about the flag).

Role Playing a Human Being

So I do know some people that have had problems in their lives. I know a kid that got high on meth and knocked someone’s windows out of their house, he got a felony for that. I know a guy who did time in prison and joined the Aryan Nations, although now he is just a dad who drives truck with four kids. I went to high school with a dude named Randy Roth http://www.seattlepi.com/archives/1992/9204240068.asp , I had him in auto shop, since I didn’t have a car at first I worked on his 57 chevy shorty. But to look on the front page of the PI and a number of other papers like the Huffington Post and see a woman I used to know in cuffs charged with first degree murder, is somewhat bizarre. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090613/NEWS01/706139922/-1/RSS02

Shawna was always a trouble maker and didn’t take too many things very seriously. When I worked with her she was always in HR, although I don’t think she was actually fired. One time she baked brownies and brought them to work and they had rubbers baked inside them, you can imagine how that went over!!

She had stopped here a couple times at my place on the way to Snoqualmie area to visit her mother. I try and look back at the person I thought I used to know a bit and ask myself~ did I ever see or imagine she could or would ever become a cold blooded murderer? The kind that kills kids, so they won’t be witnesses? The answer is no, hell no.

She had two kids and when she wanted to split up with her current husband she decided to leave her son with him (he wasn’t the father), I asked why? She said her son liked living with him. He is currently in prison now for selling guns illegally among other things. I guess she just never learned the whole humanity thing, about loving and actually caring about other people.

Well you should be happy now Shawna, you are on the front page of the paper! You don’t have to punch the clock and everyone knows your name now. I would imagine that in your own mind you can somehow justify what you did because it seems your mind has become a warped record of a thing that doesn’t work anymore like a brain should work. It is just so sad there are people like you, sneaking around in the midst of people like the rest of us, the most of us, who try and do our best to get along with people and live the right way, do the right thing.

The WIsdom of Solomon can solve the Boeing Tanker Fiasco

The Military Tanker Battle between Airbus and Boeing has been going on for some time now and nothing is happening; people talk and talk and talk and nothing is happening.
At first of course Boeing was found guilty of ethics violations and fired two of its top employees, (who went to jail), and then the next round Airbus won amid concerns the air Force did not tell Boeing it wanted a larger tanker. Now it is up for bid yet again. This all started approximately 2002 and there is no end in sight. The problem is the current re-fueling tankers the Air Force is running were built in the 1950’s and the other thing is the USA needs the jobs NOW, as in yesterday.
At first I thought, you know what? These are American jobs and should be kept in America, are defensive technology shouldn’t be spread around. Now I have changed my mind, I think the order should be split in half.
By doing the King Solomon division, many problems with this messy affair would be solved. For one, no matter who wins at this point the other conglomerate will whine and scream for years, and the problem is they will most likely be right.
Secondly, this thing needs to be expedited so the Air Force can get their planes and so jobs can be created immediately. Also, by splitting it I think the maximum amount of US jobs would be created, the Air Bus plane will be assembled in Alabama. Although I have not much sympathy at all for our confederate flag waving friends and their right-to-work states, (slave state) mentality it is what is best for the country as a whole. The 767 line could be re-energized and the Boeing Everett facility could be fully utilized with four wide body lines going at once.

Since Boeing off loaded everything they thought they could feasibly get away with on the 787 (turned out far more than they could get away with), they can’t complain about giving away US jobs ever again (incredibly stupid and shortsighted on their part). If the 787 flies this month (HA!) the Everett facility will be buzzing busy and the 747-8 is still being launched. I don’t think trying to come up with a new 777 tanker makes sense right now.

Also I would really like Air Bus to have the pain and discomfort of trying to deal with the US military establishment. It would just hurt them in trying to fix the A380 and launch the A350 new plane at the same time. Dealing with the Air Force and trying to train the southern boys to be somewhat useful would keep them in a whirl for sure. It would provide endless hours of viewing enjoyment, also they have claimed Air Bus would build freighters at the same US facility.
So I say split the order and let’s all move on and get back to work!

If I had only Ten Movies to Watch (for all time)

A friend and I who discuss movies frequently at work have kicked around the idea of the “top ten favorite movies” to pick as the only movies we could watch the rest of our lives. This would be like the desert island scenario, where these movies would be the only choices available. So in that vein this list might be different than some others. A movie might be truly great but not have the kind of staying power where you could watch it again and again, still getting something out of it. Looking at IMDB.Com and seeing Shawshank Redemption, Schindler’s List and Pulp Fiction in their top five I can’t see these particular movies being something to watch over and over.
Also it would seem a person would want a little variety. Even if a huge science fiction fan I don’t think you would want more than five in that one category. SO hopefully you can see my thinking here and come along for the ride and make your own picks. (These are in no particular order just part of the ten).

1. Blade Runner (1982)
To me a true classic, with great actors and a steamy wet, futuristic netherworld with lots of cool atmosphere. I really think a re-visit sequel (27 years later), would be great here as in the end Harrison Ford took off with Sean Young to escape and start over. Ridley Scott’s director cut does not have the Harrison Ford narration and it changes the feel (there are seven different versions of this film). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

2. When Harry met Sally (1989)
This movie is not highly rated although several scenes have been quoted in popular culture ad infinitum. Directed by Rob Reiner, written by Nora Ephron with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as the stars. Favorite line from Carrie Fischer “tell me I’ll never be out there again”….Film asks the question can men and women attracted to each other just be friends?

3. The Godfather Part 2 (1974)
The Godfather series is big and rich, being wonderfully slow and thorough storytelling. Out of the three movies I like this one best showing the history of Don Corelone going back to the 20’s in flashback sequences, I feel it is better and more interesting than the first. Supposedly, Francis Ford Coppolla says that there should have only been one movie the other two were cash grabs. http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/5450-coppola-qthe-godfatherq-should-have-stayed-one-movie.html

4. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Here again I liked the second of three movies the best. I thought the battle scenes were bigger and more sweeping. The last (third), movie in my opinion was too long, especially the last third with Frodo climbing the mountain which I thought would never end!

5. Princess Bride (1987)

This movie is somewhat silly and a bit of a sleeper it seems to have something for everyone. Everything from Billy Crystal, to Andre the Giant, it is a movie that is often quoted. A classic fairy tale with fighting rodents of unusual size included for your enjoyment.

6. Caddy Shack (1980)
One of the silliest movies ever made, it is endlessly silly and repeatable. I originally wrote that for Monty Python and the Holy Grail but it fits this movie too. Although shown constantly on TV I can always watch a few minutes and see Bill Murray’s bit about the Dali Lama and get a chuckle.

7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Many have said this is the best movie ever made, especially pre-Godfather days. Directed by David Lean this movie has a fantastic cast: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/ It was filmed back in the days of the real cast of thousands and location shooting. A truly sweeping epic of 216 minutes (directors cut).

8. Aliens (1986)
Once again the second movie of the series turns out best in my opinion. Paul Reiser is creepy, Bill Paxton is super whiny, and all around science fiction blasting takes place. The many characters and their development make this a fun ride for me.

9. As Good as it Gets (1997)
My favorite Jack Nicholson character catches a dog pissing in the hallway of his tony apartment building for one of the best film starts ever. Love this movie.

10. Unforgiven (1992)
Clint Eastwood’s best movie in my opinion and maybe the best western ever made. It shows the darker side when maybe there is no bright side to matters. Realistic and gritty, it shows realness absent most Hollywood westerns.

Honorable Mention:
Taxi Driver (1976)
Wizard of Oz (1939) The wife’s favorite
Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, African Queen
Commando or Total Recall
Vertigo or The Birds
All about Eve
True Grit
The Big Lebowski, Fargo Raising Arizona

Well that was tough I almost made some last minute changes. If I make the list a year from now it would change, but for now, if I was stuck forever with just ten movies (and ten movies only), I will pick these.
2 romantic comedies
2 science fiction
2 fairy tales
1 goof
1 western
2 serious sweeping epics

Let me know what you think?