OMG

Listen, the first thing that I want to make absolutely clear is that I am NOT whining, just stating what is (quite obviously) the facts of the situation here.

Okay, here we go:

I am 47 years old - not an old fart, not a spring chicken either.

I am trying to grow my own company since I cannot seem to hold a job for more than four years. I have been laid off from the past 5 jobs I have had. Who says the economy is good? Assholes!

I am taking online courses in an attempt to earn my Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology. And the financial aid office disables my account because I can no longer afford to pay them what they are demanding.

I am on my 3rd divorce. That's it, I'm done, women are crazy! Period.

I just can't seem to catch a break in all this. I am living one catastrophe after another.
No freakin' stress here... .

My blood pressure is off the scale; you can hear the blood rampaging through my arteries from across the room.

I quit smoking.
I quit drinking.
And God knows I have enough reasons to do both!

My friends don't talk to me anymore.
It seems that even my own family will only talk to me on the Holidays.
I am alone on an uncharted, sinking island and no one can hear me scream.

Okay, I AM whining. So sue me.

WTF

I just don't understand life, I suppose.

The harder you try to get ahead, the more effort you put into tyring to make something of yourself, the more life just seems to flip you off while taking a rather large crap on your head!

It seems to me that today's business environment is reverting back to the days of the industrial revolution where only the rich could afford to advance in society. All us "blue collar" type were relegated to following orders for minimum pay, just enough to survive and serve the company.

If you didn't perform as the company's goon robot managers specified, whether it is due to overload, lack of competent direction, or extreme ass-kissing by co-workers with an peculiarly discolored nose, you are released from employment. They call it a lay off now. Call it what it is - age discrimination.

There is no longer any dedication to the most important aspect of a business - the employee. We have become, once again, a commodity item; a disposable tool; a consumable supply of inexhaustible quantity. We suffer the indignities of insufficient paychecks, we endure the caterwauling of insolent owners and the browbeating of incompetent managers, we bear the consequences of the foul ups and blunders caused by nonchalant mismanagement, we allow ourselves to be raped and gouged by the oil barons running this country, and we carry the burden of corrupt and illegal taxation inflicted upon us by our very own government.

And no one says a damn thing.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone. I certainly hope that this will be both a safe and prosperous year for you all.

One thing that left me in quite a stirred state was a video I saw at http://www.freedomtofascism.com/ produced by Aaron Russo ("The Rose", "Trading Places") and, quite frankly, it left me scared and pissed-off. Some of the reviews went something like this:

"This is a movie you MUST see. This is a movie the government MUST keep you from seeing." ~ By Mike Rivero, WhatReallyHappened.com

" A thought-provoking clarion call for the masses to wake up before it's too late."
~ Kam Williams, The Black Star News

"See this cinematic call to arms..."
~ Jeff Craig, Sixty Second Review

"The scariest film you'll see this year. Makes Fahrenheit 9/11 look like Bambi."
~ Todd David Schwartz

From the website:

Determined to find the law that requires American citizens to pay income tax, producer Aaron Russo ("The Rose," "Trading Places") set out on a journey to find the evidence. This film which is neither left, nor right-wing is a startling examination of government. It exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America since 1913 when the Federal Reserve system was fraudulently created. Through interviews with U.S. Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents and tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, and the national identity card which becomes law in May 2008. This ID card will use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips which are essentially homing devices used to track people. This film shows in great detail and undeniable facts that America is moving headlong into a fascist police state. Wake up

Chilling. Absolutely frightening to the extreme.

Please, take a bit of time to check this out.

This is the United States of America we are talking about.

Some individual are taking this once-great nation and turning it into a stinking sewage pit.

It's about time this country, "of the people, by the people" stands up and returns it to the great glory and shining symbol of freedom and democracy for which it once stood.

Happy Holidays

Christmas is nearing rapidly and, before I forget, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very, Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Support for Microsoft Windows XP x64 Not Worth Anything

Almost no one is supporting Microsoft Windows XP x64, the 64-bit version of Windows XP.

There are no Antivirus programs that work with x64 and most applications won't work with x64 (unless they run the crippled 32-bit equivalent).

Programs won't install printer drivers because, apparently, no one can figure out how to write a 64-bit printer driver.

If Windows XP x64 has this much trouble with basic elements such as printer drivers, how can anyone expect the much maligned Windows Vista to be of any value?

Frankly, my high opinion of Microsoft is quickly fading away, and my shop used to be a staunch Microsoft shop.

Open Source alternatives are looking better and better every day.

The Economy Sucks and the Media are Puppets

Don't be fooled by what you see on TV or hear on the radio or read in the paper...
The American Economy Sucks and is getting worse!

That's right. We are headed for another recession and this time it's going to be pretty dreadful. No matter what the lying political machine in Washington would have you believe, no matter what the puppet media spews from its sewer of falsehoods and misrepresentations, all signs from the future economic indicators are pointing to a coming economic disaster.

In spite of the misdirection plays being executed from the political high-chairs in our nation's Capitol with name-calling, scandalous interplay, secret indiscriminate behaviors being exposed, and other typically expected bone-head moves from our ELECTED officials, the coming financial collapse of our economy is building a full head of steam and is going to come barreling down on us as we have our collective heads up Washington's posteriors, just the way they like it.

But is it really surprising that this should happen when we are being "lead" by the absolute worst President that this country has EVER seen? Then again, what would you really expect from an impertinent Republican? The current administration is certainly not going to make it easy for the next incoming administration, which by all accounts is going to be strongly democratic. In fact, it would appear that the Republicans are purposely creating a bad foundation for the next administration to make them look worse than the incumbent administration.

And the media are only reporting what they are told to report. They are only saying what they are told to say. They are spewing forth the lies and deceitful misrepresentations that they are being ordered to spread about. How can we blame them? Just like the blind leading the blind, the media is being lead around by its nose from the federal administration. And if they would dare to tell the truth (even if they knew what that was), they would risk being tossed in the pokey without being given a reason and labeled combatants.

This is what America has become.
How sad it makes me.
How embarrassing for this country.
How ashamed we all must be.

As the Bush administration erodes our civil liberties piece by piece, and the yes-men in congress follow the trail of ignorance, we as the citizens and backbone of this country are being reduced to nothing more than pieces of voting meat. Even our votes don't have any meaning any longer; not since the last federal election where the popular vote lost to the Electoral College even though the popular vote had greater numbers. It's the good ol’ boys club in the Capitol that are running things, not the citizens of this country, the ones that pay for everything (one way or another).

But at least we still have free speech.

For now.

Until that, too, is taken away as well.

Are Americans Working to Live or Are Americans Living to Work?

It's just insane anymore.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Truer words were never spoken and that's a fact!

Has anyone ever noticed that the rich always run the government? Why do you suppose that is? Politicians (professional liars) seem to buy themselves elections. And once they are in office, they gleefully appoint their cronies into lofty positions of the cushy government.

Where do you think that leaves the common working person? Peole that have worked in large companies for 25 or 30 years are now finding themselves out of work with little or no real-world skills to speak of trying to figure out how they are supposed to support their families. Real blue-collar men and women losing their livelihoods in record numbers while the fat-cat white collar vultures stare and laugh at them while wiping the trickle of drool from their fat chins.

Where is the justice? Where is the humanity?

People are beginning to snap! Look at the rash of school shootings taking place; presumably normal, average citizens simply going off the deep end. Child molesters sprouting up everywhere like spring weeds. Escalating suicide rates by the elderly.

Meanwhile, oil companies continues to rape the average citizen while making record profits. And now the government is spying on the very people it is supposed to be serving. A Congressman who wants to play Internet Rump Ranger with the little pages that run around the hallowed halls in Washington D.C.

I truly expect the thought police to be out in force any time soon now...

The Harder I Tries to Move Forward, The Behinder I Gets

Circles upon circles upon circles...

It's the death spiral for sure.

How can I be denied employment because I am OVER qualified? I'ver been in the IT industry for over twenty years and one thing that I have learned is, because of the high rate of change and development of computer technologies, there is NO ONE that is over qualified.

This world seems so insane at times. Look out if you know too much. Beware if you make too much money. Good luck if you don't kiss the boss' ass.

And these so-called employment agencies that call you up and tell you to come into their office so that they can discuss a couple job opportunities with you. HA! All that is nothing but runny bullshit to get you in their office so that they can boost their body count quota for the month.
They already have all the information they need when you send your resume to them, what more do they want???

The newspapers are full of low-paying jobs; nothing more than slave wages. The government bufoons don't care, they just vote themselves another raise and path themselves on the back for another good day's work.

...sigh.

Disaster Strikes!!!

Well, for me, anyway.

I was informed, at 5:00PM on August 11, 2006 (a Friday, of course), that I was being laid off. All of my hard work, dedication, and efforts all out the window. Lack of work was the official excuse, er... reason.

Later, I come to find out that the following Monday, there was a new person at my desk doing my job. WTF!~ Apparently, I was making too much money and they hired a new kid for a lot less than what I was making. Stabbed in the back I tell you.
And I'm only pissed because I was LIED TO about the whole thing. I was given my two weeks vacation pay as a severence, I assume. How lovely, giving me what I worked my bloody ARSE off for!

So, this is what corporate America has come to? Screw the little guy and kick them when they are down?

Now I have to look for gainful employment, and in this economic environment, I better get my burger-flippin' arm in shape. That won't even come close to paying the bills, but neither will unemployment "compensation."

So if any of the faithful out there has any good ideas, I am open to suggestions...

ALERT - Orange Construction Barrels Reproducing at an Alarming Rate.

There are two seasons here in the Great Lakes Region, Winter and Road Construction.
You almost can't look in any of the cardinal directions and not see an orange construction barrel or traffic safety cone. One day they line up on one street and proliferate on the adjacent street on the next. They are reproducing like rabbits; I swear it.

Main streets, side streets, cul-de-sac, highways, interstate; there just isn't any relief from it at all. Downtown, uptown, suburbs, rural communities - the short orange goblins are simply everywhere. About the only people that enjoying this are the manufacturers of the brightly-colored diminutive little creatures.

Perhaps if we used better materials and construction methods in the building of our roadways and thoroughfares they would last longer and require less maintenance. But cities always use the lowest bidder using the poorest materials and the cheapest labor; job security for city workers, I suppose. And besides, it isn't their money they are using anyway - why should they care? Just keep dumping more and more of the taxpayer's money into the streets every year.

But I'll bet if it WAS their money, the roads would be in much better shape.
Something to chew on there I would say!

Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime...

Ah yes... warm breezes in the shade of a tree, a cool iced tea in one hand and the back of your head in the other while resting comfortably horizontal in a hammock listening to the ballgame on the radio - a famous and popular memory of summer, now in full swing.

With the price of gas the way it is, this is about all that's going to happen too! Anytime the oil barons decide to further RAPE the American consumer, they blame some innocent refinery or supply line, transport service, or whenever the natives get restless over in the middle east.

It's bad enough that a bag of popcorn and a beverage at the movie theater is more than twice the price of admission, but just try to bring your own snacks in - the department of homeland security will swarm down upon you and relieve your wallet of that heavy cash residing within.

It's no wonder that Americans are the hardest working people on Earth, it's all we can do to keep up with the rising costs of EVERYTHING (except wages).

But isn't summer just great?

A Day, of All Days, to be a Day. And Again...

Yeah, right. Whatever THAT means...

So life goes on at its usual frenetic pace where the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, the fan is squealing, there's a knock on the phone and the mail delivery is late. The boss is yelling, the coffee is burned, and there are ants all over the floor.

Just another day...
So after all the confusion, I go home to the peace and quiet to design the future and all the goodness that goes with it. I have been working on a prototype android project and things are going swimmingly well. I just wish I had the funds to develop it.

We are heading into mid-spring and looking forward to summertime fun. Just though I'd update what's going on, or not going on, as the case may be...

Later!