Trying to stay awake

Friday at 8 AM.

Trying very hard to stay awake, and not go back to bed, so I thought I would post, since it has been almost a week. The problem is, I can only open one eye, and that for only a few moments at a time. And it isn't focusing very well. Hang on, alarm going off in the other room...

Why was my bed making very alluring cooing sounds? It said it wanted to hold me and be my friend. Are beds supposed to do that?

I did have a meaningful thought ... let me re phrase that to remove the pretensiousness ... I did have a thought. On the Daily Show this week was a very intersting interview with the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf regarding his new memoir, In The Line of Fire. If I had time to read and didn't have a massive backload of books, I might buy it. That is one complaint I have with the Daily Show - since they have gone more political, there are too many books I want to buy. I can't afford them all. If someone does buy it, let me borrow it. Anyway, the interview was fasicinating, and finished with the new Daily Show feature - Seat of Heat (not sure if I like that or not) and Stewart asked if bin Laden and George W. were running for office in Pakistan, who would win, and Musharraf said they would both lose badly. Check it out.

The thought I was going to mention, which all that was background for, was a possible title for George W. memoir - "A Million Little Flip Flops". If you haven't heard it, check out Neil Young's "Let's Impeach the President" from Living With War CD.

How about "From Idiot to the White House".

Speaking of W. (not something that makes me happy by the way), how can Article 3 of the Geneva Convention be vague? "Outrages on personal dignity" is vague? Wait a second - his whole presidency has been a outrage on personal dignity, so maybe that is what he is worried about. That would probably be another good title.

Hooray to Clinton for slamming Wallace last week.

Anyway, I am more awake now, going to take a shower. See you later. I know I am going to cringe when I go back and read this.

Sunday night

I thought I would get people updated on stuff. My friend and I agreed today was nearly the end of the universe, since the Tigers clinched a playoff spot, and I went to the gym and changed my sheets. Had the Lions won - I fear what might have occurred.

I did have a meaningful thought as some point - I am the kind of person that starts working through a problem when I am talking about it, usually when I am asking for help, and I end up with the answer before I can get the question out. I was writing a post on a software message board and started to use the term "thinking out loud" - but that of course didn't make any sense since I was typing. Do we need to develop a new term for thinking out loud when we are typing to each other?

Yeah, that's it, that is the extent of my big thoughts this weekend. I am very upset with Lacie, (not a link on purpose) makers of hard drives and other computer periphials, since the CD/DVD drive I bought 15 months ago is now dead and they will do nothing to repair it. Their tech support didn't even mention that I should try to update the firmware, or that there was a program to do that. Sure, that is something I should know, but not everyone, so that should have been their first response. So, next time I look for a drive or periphial, Lacie will not be on the list.

Go Blue, congrats Rochelle and Robert, congrats Tigers.

At some point, remind to expound on my crush of Lauren Graham. ummmmm...

And, the spell check does not appear to be working for me - blame blogger - I am not going to go back and review. It is late and I am going to be on time for work tomorrow.

Monday Wake Up Exercise

No, not actual exercise, are you crazy? Posting on this thing helps me wake up a little, and I need it since I could not fall asleep last night. I laid in bed for three hours that I can remember, so I am sure it was more than that. But I am awake at 8:20 AM, and the bowl of Froot Loops was great.

The even better news is that I have already found a way to help (see Sunday's post). Imagine my surprise when I wake up and sitting in my email box is in the solution:

Please show your support for Northwest Airlines by signing our electronic petition.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will allow only one U.S. Airline to add daily service to China starting next spring. If Northwest is selected, over 120 U.S. cities will enjoy convenient, single connection service to China. Plus, Northwest's state-of-the-art McNamara terminal facility at Detroit is the premier international connecting airport in the U.S.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Northwest Airlines

Sure, I am kidding about this being the answer to my need to help someone, but I did sign the petition. Maybe helping them with their bad business model will make the labor strife end and I don't have to worry if I will be stuck in Vegas in the future because of strike or slowdown, and their employees will be treated fairly.

Sorry, had to quit laughing at the last statement before I could continue, but I did sign the petition.

See you later.

Sean

Weekend Wrapup - Sunday (serious post)

This is a slightly more serious post than the last one, so I broke them up.

Sunday could have been an important day. I walked over and had breakfast at the local coney place, and as I was eating (corned beef hash and eggs - ummm), I was reading this months Technology Review (Sept/Oct 2006), and the cover story was the TR35 - 35 technologists and scientists under 35. There are some fascinating things going on out there, and it got me thinking, I am 35, and I haven't done a whole lot. One article is about the Humanitarian of the Year - Christina Galitsky. Her main job is to find ways for companies to identify and reduce energy inefficiencies, which is cool enough, but she is working on building a new stove for refugees in Darfur so they don't have to use as much wood. This is really important since the women of the camp frequently have to wander for hours to find wood and are at the mercy of roving gangs and are frequently brutally raped. Galitsky went there and met with the women of the camps and found out what their needs really are, and used that information to modify the design of an existing stove that could be produced cheaply and used in this situation and be a significant improvement over open fire pits. Designing more efficient stoves is a very interesting approach, and not the first one that might come to mind, but it will make a significant difference in these women's lives and was accomplished by non-governmental ogranizations with small resources, big thoughts and grander aspirations. (Wow, the language of that statement makes me kind of sick ). That seems like enough to be considered a great person, but she is also working on a low cost method to filter arsenic out of ground water in Bangladesh. This is being solved by a completely different concept, figuring out a new way to bind iron particles to filter mechanisms.

So why did I talk about this woman? She is truly doing great things, in a method I like, i.e. bringing together concepts from different disciplines to solve problems. But it made me think more about what I have never done, which would be everything, and I thought about my friend Rochelle who went to Hounduras to help build a church and is now leading the office drive to raise money for breast cancer. It's also time to donate to United Way.

I think I need to start helping something - people or something. I am not sure yet, not sure what I want to do, how I can do it. I used to give money to environmental causes, but ran out of money, so I had to stop doing that. I need to find something. Follow me as I find some way to help someone or something.

What are some of your favorite organizations and how do you help them?

When I find something I want to do to help - then Sunday will have been an important day.

Sean

(btw, don't bother to mention the spelling errors, didn't feel like proofing and the spell check is not working)

(upon rereading this post - it seems like a desparate cry for approval)

Weekend Wrapup - Sat (fluffy post)

I thought I would give everyone a little wrap up of my weekend. See how delusional I have become?

So, I got so drunk during the nearly orgasmic first half of the Michigan vs notre dame game that I could not drink a whole lot more in the second half. Except for some of the shots. We asked the waitress for an easy shot for each Michigan touchdown, and she suggested Superman shots. Since Todd and Walter have an unhealthy obsession with Superman - that was the choice. After a few of them (luckily, we didn't really try to keep up with Michigan touchdowns, we would have never made it home), the guys next to us asked what we were drinking, and then bought us one.

I got stuck at the end of that paragraph trying to come up with something funny about feeling like a woman and having drinks bought by the table next to you. At least I was good enough to blow the guys, some women have not been that good to me.

So that Michigan game - big statement, one of the greatest experiences of my life, at least in a long time - maybe I care about them to much, and get too far down when they lose, but I completed reveled in this game. Reveled I tell you. The defense was active, putting pressure on brady quinn, stopping the running game, making big plays, and the offense was what I want (after Henne's interception), a strong run game that can open up the pass - Henne has such a nice touch downfield. Bring on the Badgers. Unfortunately, I will not be there, some friend of mine (and you call yourself a Michigan fan) decided to go and get married on that day.

Reveled.

So I went over to hang out with my mom afterwords. Yes, I am that cool. Well, I knew she was watching the Tigers game in hi-def (thank you Brighthouse for finally putting FSN in hi-def) on the big tv, and my dad and brother had gone to the game, so she was alone. I stopped in, she re-heated me some pizza, I left when the game was over. Got some Ben and Jerry's on the way home. Went to bed early, I was completely spent.

I went a little overboard on the links this time, but it is so easy.

Sean

P.S. Bought some candy corn this weekend as well. ummm, so good, so ... so ... I have to publish this, I am a little nauseous from ... the excess candy corn, but oh...excuse me.

P.P.S. Back, feeling fine. Maybe just one more piece before bed, but before that, I had a thought, how could you look up words if you couldn't spell dictionary?

Friday Daily Upate

Well, I did get out of bed. Had breakfast, and have been fighting going back to bed. Still fighting in fact. I started to write a complicated post, and that has helped, but now that I put that to draft status, the sleep brigade is starting to fight again, and my resolve is slipping. Must get ... to .... shower.....


If I don't make it, tell my wife I love her.



Sean

Update: I failed.

George Bush's Big Crime

Other than selling the Rangers to Tom Hicks.

Once again, listening to NPR 7 AM podcast (as part of my continuing efforts to get out of bed on time). One of the stories was about the secret CIA terrorist "concentration" [my term] camps in Europe and another was about the Republicans fighting back and not passing the President's bill on trying terror suspects as enemy combatants in front of a military tribunal.

My problem with the administrations position (and worse - actions) on these topics, plus the torture of suspects advocated by Gonzales and others, have eroded the country's moral high ground. I was alway very proud I was able to say that we didn't do that to prisioners (at least as policy, individual actions notwithstanding) and that we had learned lessons from Vietnam about treatment of people where we cannot tell the figthers from the civilians. Bush and Rummy and Gonzales (sp?) have all worked very hard to erode that moral ground - saying that we have to be cruel in ordert to beat the terrorists. I am not privy to DOD workings and have not ever been in combat or in charge of those in combat - but I don't know if I want to, or if we can, win any "war" (can't be a war with no country to declare war against) for our way of life if we continue to degradate ourselves and our prisoners in this manner. If we want to be the shining light of democracy, we can never act in ways that we would want kept in the dark.

Sean

Thoughts on the Navy Chaplin case

First off - good morning, I woke up on time, had a bowl of cereal, and, most importantly, AM NOT GOING BACK TO BED FOR THAT EXTRA TEN MINUTES that always turns into three hours. I was listening to listening to the NPR news summary when they discussed the case of a Navy chaplin convicted in a court-martial for appearing in uniform at a war protest rally (NPR 7AM news summary, 9/14/06).

My initial thoughts were that Bush needed to pardon this guy so that it does not appear they are denying soldiers the right to speak and/or protest.

Thoughts after reading more: This guy wanted to be arrested and I have no sympathy for him. He wasn't simply protesting, he was trying to get attention. He mentioned Jesus when the Navy said to be non-denominational, he changed into his uniform before he prayed - probably when the camera arrived - at the protest after the Navy told him not too. I have no sympathy for a grandstander. I thought that was pretty interesting.

And final thought, as of 2:07 pm, Apple stock is up to 74.33, about 2 bucks from just before this weeks announcements. I wish I could have some. And the new iPod, not to mention the new Mac Pro with a really nice monitor, oh, and the iTV 1Q of 07.

Leave some comments.

Sean

Hello, is this thing on?

Hello Wednesday

So, I am a dumb guy. I cannot make the right decision each morning to get out of bed. I get up, turn off all the alarms, and think that I can lay down for a few more minutes and get up and go to work. That would be fine, except THAT I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DO IT. The best definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. I am letting people down, putting stress on people supporting me, and I don't like myself very much.

Let's get to something more interesting. Only I can't think of anything more interesting. Not that I am that interesting, but I am kind of focused on myself right now.

I downloaded iTunes 7, and love the ability to browse by album covers, the only problem is that I spent a few hours last night updating the information in my music library, including album covers and correct album names. I get so obsessive about that stuff sometimes. That is what makes me good at my job.

Sorry, just spent the last hour doing it again.

Dammit, another hour. I have work to do.

See you tomorrow. I am going to try to not be stupid.

Tuesday night posting

Nice Apple announcements - go here or here for coverage, or check Apple.com. I have said I will not buy a new ipod until they came out at 100GB. Well, they are close at 80GB with the new model. They also introduced the movie download service, which most people were expecting. And the other cool thing is the iTV, where you can wirelessly send content, such as downloaded movies or tv shows (or music I guess) to your TV in HD. Of course, if you don't have an HDTV, (I don't - another reason I need to be rich), then you can get normal resolution. I am currently watching the Keynote and Jobs is cool as always.

What else is on my mind. Rain - I played golf in the rain tonight, and didn't like it very much. I wanted to leave after a few holes, but was guilted into staying. I need to buy some golf rain gear. That is all there is to it. A good rain jacket that is actually water repellant would be great. I suppose I need money for that - seems to be a theme.

Sorry I don't have anything more interesting, I am simply trying to dry out.

Daily Update - Tuesday

Ok, so, got out of bed late as usual and forgot my badge to get into the office and the parking garage, had to park outside. Bitter. Some other thoughts:

Can the Tigers trade (in the offseason) Ordenez, Minor/Grilli and Giritano(?) to the Orioles for Tejada and then move Guillen to first? I am tired of Mags non-clutchness (based only on watching, not any statistical analysis) and Guillen's errors.

What is Apple going to do today? As of 11:37 AM the stock is at 72.93, up .43. They have a press event later today, and are expected to announce movie downloads. This could be big. I wish I still had Apple stock.

That's all I can think of now, I should get some work done.

Sean

UPDATE: My buddy just sent me his new blog - I like the first posting

Daily Update

I am of the mind that if I publish a daily summary of the things I didn't do or did poorly, I will be more apt to want to do those things right - If I have to tell people, I will pay more attention do doing good things.

Shocker of shocks - my brother got a job. I am so thrilled for him, it may not be the ideal job, but it is something that will be interesting, he is working for a good person, and he will get out of the house.

Well - did I do any of the things I needed to do today? Did I drink 4 L of water? No. Did I get out of bed on time? See earlier post, no. Did I work a full day? Surprisingly, yes. I got a database to do more of what I wanted and applied knowledge from the conference I just went to. That pleased me. Did I update the blog? Kind of an obvious answer.

There was something else I wanted to talk about, but cannot remember it. Oh well.

So I am off to bed, wanted to congratulate my brother, and I will try to do better tomorrow.

Update: 12:40 AM Now I remember the other thing. Did I get up and have breakfast. Yes, I did, I had a bowl of cereal, listened to the morning news podcast on NPR The problem is that I went back to bed. Need to work on that tomorrow.

Why I need to be rich, part 1

Ok, I realized a reason I need to be rich. This will be part one of a long, long series.

A few years ago, I had very little (much like today), but I had a gorgeous hairdresser, she was beautiful. Her name is Amy. (I am going to mix tenses a lot in this blog - get used to it.) I loved to get my hair cut, and did it more than necessary (if I ever posted a picture, you would see there is not a lot of hair). She was always glad to see me, and always made me feel better about myself. She always seemed positive and was sweet and nice, always made me feel very special. I knew going in there I would come out with a good haircut, since I trusted her style and let her make all the decisions, and a light heart. These good feelings do not even include the hug (ummmmmmmmmm) or the (ooooohhhhh) erotic hairwashing. It was erotic to me since I like the feeling of a woman's nails on my scalp (and back of my neck, but that is for another time), but probably nothing special to anyone else. I loved her, no doubt about it. So anyway, she decided to move back home to Pittsburgh. I was crushed, not only did I have to find a new hairdresser, I would lose my source of hair happiness. Sure, she would be happier, but this is my blog.

The search has been tough, and I am satified with where I currently go. The two good things about where I go is that is it very close to my office (walking distance) and cheap. And they do a good job with my hair (fine, three things), but it is nothing like what Amy used to give me.

So here is why I need to be rich - I need to have the time and money to travel to Pittsburgh once a month to see my dear Amy and get my haircut. Maybe if I was rich she would go out with me as well, but that is pipe dream stuff. What I really need a quality haircut experience, so that is why I need to be rich.

Comments?

A quick one

Well, I was supposed to go to bed at a decent time tonight to make sure I get to work on time tomorrow and do what I am supposed to do. If you notice the time of this posting, you will see I failed at that. Hopefully I can go on 5 hours sleep and get up on time. I never do, so I have little faith.

Update: 11:08 AM - just out of the shower. Wrote a new song though (kind of howling) "I am not happy with myself/I am a failure of a man" Haven't gotten to much farther with it.

Women's Tennis and other sports

Wow, Maria Sharapova is a beautiful woman - you can find pictures of her all over the place. Oh wait, here is one. (From cnnsi.com)
She appears to be one heck of an athlete as well. So here is my complaint, why can't women tennis players play 3 out of 5 sets like the men? The best tennis matches in history are always the grueling 5 hour ones where two men battle it out over 5 sets and momentum makes huge swings back and forth, announcers musing about which player will break first - tennis wise, mentally and physically. A great battle of athletics and wills. You don't get that in women's tennis. How long was the match tonight (Women's final of the U.S. Open) - like 50 minutes or so? That's not even enough time to get interested. I am glad to see the money is getting up there for women - 1.7 million for Maria. From quick research they pay the men the same amount. Doesn't that seem unfair, someone getting paid the same amount of money for less work. That kind of thing should not be allowed.

That was a great dress though - based on Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's style. The shot of Maria trying to call someone on her gold Razr was of funny.

If you have a good reason why the women can't go to the 3 of 5 format, I would love to read it. I suppose I could have done some research, but screw that. I would rather assume I am right. And I will eliminate dumb, stupid or sexist comments, only I get to make those.

Women's Softball -
Why the game so damn small? Why are the bases so close together? Why is the pitchers circle so close to the plate? The pitchers are powerful enough that what little I watched of the college world series seemed like nothing but slap hits from defensive swings or strikeouts. I couldn't watch it long. Until they get rid of the feeling like I am watching a little league game, it won't have the allure of baseball at real dimensions.

That was the sensible comment, here is the inflammatory one. How am I supposed to take the sport seriously when some of the girls were wearing makeup - not just eye-black, but mascara and eye-liner. Go ahead, comment on that.

Other notes -
I would like to congratulate the Detroit Shock for winning the WNBA title. Notice I did not say my Detroit Shock, like I would with any other Detroit team. Sorry, I don't follow the game, so I can't say my team. Good going though.

My Detroit Tigers look like they are going to bomb out of the playoffs after losing another to the Twins tonight. I have thought about this and decided that I will be upset for a while, and then spend the winter thinking about the greatness for the team next year and reliving the pleasure of the season for the first 120 games. When did this team stop hitting? More on that another time.

Ahh, that's enough. Later.

Why I started this

Does anyone really care, who knows. However, I don't care if no one cares. I am doing this anyway. Keeps me from playing games and seems mildly productive.

Why am I doing this? I decided I want to be great. I think I can be great with words and ideas. Blogging seems like a way to get people to read those words and ideas. It is free and easy. I went out and bought special equipment so I that could use an old school Apple Extended Keyboard so that typing would be more comfortable, so I should actually type.

Why do I want to be great? Well, my friend was just promoted to partner at a major accounting firm. Aside from the prestige this brings, she is now making a boatload of money. I am jealous of her, not in a resentful way, but (I hope) in a inspiring to make myself what I should be kind of way. I have a good job that I don't do good enough at, and I will be able to make a comfortable living once I get out of a sticky debt situation (final relief - March '08). But I want more.

I have done what I thought was one great money making idea - but it kind of died on the vine. I designed (and paid someone else to write, Techcoders.com - they did quite well) a program for tracking gambling sessions and trips on handheld devices. I figured there would be a whole lot of other people that would want to track their progress during Vegas or gambling trips. I just didn't find them, so the program languished with like 2 sales. Painful to admit, but what the heck. If you are interested - search for GambleTrac on Palmgear.com, or duh - GambleTrac.

I have started to write movies and short stories for publication, never got them done, except for two, and they were denied the first time I tried to publish them, and I never got around to submitting them elsewhere.

If you ever read this again - or if I ever post anything again - you might notice that as a theme, I never got around to doing someting about something. Massive theme. Me and the therapist are working on it.

So, what can you expect here? Who knows, hopefully I will be witty, sparkling and intelligent. Maybe throw some of my poetry out here. More likely I will never publish anything again.