Serious

Orange Nation

• by GeekMan • In Politics, Rants, Serious •   0

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow may very well go down in history books as the true beginning of the unraveling of the United States of America. While you might believe I’m being hyperbolic in my declaration of doom, I respectfully disagree. In fact, I’m trying my best to be as calm as possible. Oh, you might want to point out that America has weathered crises before; The Civil War, the Great Depression, WWI, WWII, the Cold War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis to name just a few. And yes, the country may have been even more starkly divided in times past than it is now but, and this is important, never before has there been an American President-Elect as ill-prepared for the presidency as Donald J. Trump.

Regardless of how you might personally feel about the man himself, whether you voted for him, against his opponent, for one of his opponents, or for no one at all; it doesn’t matter. Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. And THAT should worry EVERYONE. And it’s not because he’s a thin-skinned, sexist, narcissistic, rude, bombastic, aggressive, obnoxious, lying, buffoon. That’s not really debatable because he has shown over and over and over again, through tweets, speeches, and interviews, that he is all of those things and PROUD of it. And despite all his flaws, the hard truth is that enough people in enough important districts in enough important States were willing to ignore all his negatives and vote for him. So, yes. Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States.

And no, this isn’t a “not my President” moment.

However, it must be noted that never before in American history has there ever been a President-Elect like Donald Trump. Not only is he frighteningly, WILLFULLY ignorant of nearly EVERY facet of the unimaginably huge bureaucracy he will soon be in charge of, but he’s actively and AGGRESSIVELY attacking the people he should be relying upon for help and guidance. Attacking political enemies is one thing, attacking the press can perhaps be overlooked by his supporters, but attacking the very agencies he’s now supposed lead? Belittling and antagonizing the science and intelligence agencies he’ll need to rely on for unbiased, up-to-the-second, top-secret information? How can even his supporters not feel a little uneasy? If he doesn’t trust anyone in the government now, before he’s receiving the truly scary, life-or-death, wrong-decision-and-the-world-ends reports, who will he trust and when will he trust them? Where will he get the information he needs to make the important decisions the President needs to make every day? His gut? Twitter? Putin?

But, you say, he’s a billionaire, a successful businessman. He must be smart enough to run the country, right?

Wrong. Dangerously, foolishly, horribly wrong.

There are a myriad of reasons that type of thinking is wrong, and nearly all have been hashed to death for the last two years all over the web by nearly every media outlet in America. I won’t even bother to use the usual talking points of his many bankruptcies, poor business decisions or even his failed businesses and fake school to make my point. Instead, I’ll try something a little easier to understand.

Let me give you a hypothetical that will hopefully illustrate what I mean. Let’s say you’re a big fan of flight simulator games. Let’s also say that you’re a huge fan of one of the top players in the world. Let’s also say that player becomes so proud of his flight simulation skills that he decides to get his adoring fans (you) to demand that NASA let him fly the space shuttle. Caving in to massive public pressure, NASA not only agrees, but allows him to fly a shuttle that will carry a payload of 25 armed nuclear warheads. You and millions of other fans cheer him on for taking on, and “beating” NASA and it’s silly rules. Not wanting the mission to fail, NASA tries to help our flight simulator hero prepare for the awesome responsibility of flying such a dangerous mission by offering him private lessons and all the studying materials he could ever need. But our hero not only refuses their help, he actively and publicly mocks and ridicules them for even trying. To make matters even worse, our intrepid hero then chooses a flight and ground crew with absolutely no experience in the positions he gives them. The mechanics he brings in have never even changed the oil in their car. The scientists he hires are “smart” people suggested to him by his sponsors. His head of mission control is his manager. When people in the press point out that he should really study for the upcoming flight and maybe think about hiring people with some actual experience, he just insults the reporters and bans them from future press conferences. When other, more experienced shuttle pilots, control and ground crew personnel voice their concern, he cries that they’re treating him unfairly because he’s going to be the best pilot ever and they’re all just jealous. Then, word gets out that your hero may have won his flight simulation matches because the referees were influenced by a third party and that maybe he’s not quite as successful as people thought…

Now, no matter how much of a fan you might be of this person, and no matter how great he may or may not be at playing flight simulator games, can you honestly say you’d be comfortable letting him fly a nuclear shuttle?

The point is, just because a person is good at one thing does not mean they have ANY aptitude at all in something else. Even if that something else seems superficially similar to their own area of expertise. Especially if that something is VASTLY more complicated than the thing that person is supposedly good at. And even more especially if that person refuses all advice and assistance offered by experts at that new thing.

And this is just the tiniest scratch on the very tip of all the things I see and feel when I think about our President-Elect. As I said before, this goes way, WAY, beyond my personal feelings. Sure, we’ve had Presidents who weren’t very smart before. And of course, some Presidents of the past have done things for selfish reasons, or passed bad laws, or been lousy human beings. But at the very least, all of them, ALL of them, surrounded themselves with smart people who knew what they were doing and had experience in the roles they were cast. And that’s because those past Presidents, no matter how personally incompetent, mentally challenged, or downright evil they may have actually been, NONE of them were truly willing to destroy the country. Each and every one of them believed what they were doing was best for their country. So at the very least, previous generations of the American public that may have opposed their Presidents policies could rest easy knowing that as bad as things might have seemed to them at the time, the Executive branch of the government wouldn’t really destroy America in a fit of anger over an imagined insult.

The question now is; does anyone have 100% confidence that the same will hold true after Donald J. Trump is sworn in tomorrow?

I Hate SOPA/PIPA

• by GeekMan • In Announcements, Education, Rants, Serious •   3

I was going to write a long and drawn out post explaining what SOPA and PIPA are, why enacting them into law would fundamentally change the internet for Americans in a distressingly negative way, and what you could do to make your opposition heard AND counted. However, this infographic combined with this one-sheet breakdown from EFF and this easily digestible website from Google do the job much better than I could have on my own.

So, here’s what you can do right now to stop these two poorly written and ultimately draconian bills from becoming law.

The Simple, Fast and Easy method:
Go to Google’s Anti-SOPA/PIPA site, fill out the form on the right and click “Sign the Petition”.

The Slightly More Involved Method:
1) Look up your senator to find out if he/she supports or opposes.

2) Click on your appropriate representative’s photo or name to get their contact information.

3) Print out the following on a piece of actual paper, sign it and physically mail it to your Senator.

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to oppose S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration. I also urge my representative to vote “no” on SOPA, the corresponding House bill.

Over the coming days you’ll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you’ll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation by voting “no” on cloture.

4) Share this post with EVERYONE you know so they can add their voice to the opposition of SOPA/PIPA.

Old and Busted Gives Way to New Hotness

• by GeekMan • In Breaking News, Geek Life, Serious •   2

It’s official.

After eight years of the leadership and policies of an administration that I believe will be remembered as the worst in American history, we the people have sweeping new leadership in Washington… for a little while, at least. I don’t know if this new administration will actually deliver on the messages of hope and change that they have been continually bombarding us with over the last two years, but what I do know is that if this change in leadership had not taken place, then the America that the world has known for the last 200 years would have died. The outgoing administration has so vilified America in the eyes of the rest of the world that I dare to say that this new administration cannot possibly cause more harm without resorting to filming Americans soldiers cooking and devouring foreign toddlers as the President looks on and smiles.

And even then I’d hedge my bets.

To say that I’m optimistic about the next four years of President Obama’s administration would be a little misleading. But only because optimistic is too weak a word. Now, while it’s true that I would have been happy with nearly ANYONE who promised to alter, change or reverse as much of President Bush’s policies as possible, I must say that I was behind Barack Obama from the moment he gave his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was obvious then that he would be a great political force to contend with, and I dearly hoped he would run in 2008.

And then Hillary threw her hat in the ring.

Not in my wildest dreams did I think a young, political neophyte African-American could come even close to winning once Hillary joined the race. She is a Clinton after all and voting for her would net TWO presidents for the price of one, but still I held out hope that Barack Obama might be her pick for VP when she got the nomination. Then the momentum started to build behind Obama and it became a two person race between the old and busted leadership and the new hotness that America could become. And then, against all odds it wasn’t Obama who was fighting to be Hillary’s VP, but Hillary who was trying to garner a spot in Barack’s administration. Talk about surprise endings! All of which brings us to today. For the first time in eight years there is a president in office who I believe can do what we the people need him to do. And what do I believe we the people need most right now?

Leadership.

I hope that President Obama will lead us through these dark times the same way he led his presidential campaign, doing what was necessary in an open and inclusive way without anger, without fear, without hatred. Leading us with humility, strength, intelligence and understanding while forgoing the divisiveness and heavy-handed fear mongering of the previous administration. I pray that President Obama will continue to lead all of us through his example; taking the high road of intelligent discourse without blindly attacking when provoked. Use his humility where those before him used smug righteousness.

Show the world our compassion instead of our judgment.

I also hope he makes use of thorough, comprehensive study so that he fully understands the problems we face before he makes the hard, long-term policy decisions that may take years to come to fruition but will certainly be better than a quick and hasty fix that is meant to show involvement but solve nothing. Will he solve every ill that has arisen in the past 8 years? Can he fix Wall Street, the housing crisis, health care, the banks, our economy, our reputation and all the other things that are failing or threatening to fail?

I don’t know. But for the first time in 8 years, I have hope.

I’ve got a lot of my faith in the democratic process and the American way of life riding on President Obama’s shoulders, and so do a whole lot of other people in America. That’s a whole lot for anyone to bear, let alone a young and newly appointed President who is also the first African-American man to ever lead this country. But I believe Barack Obama can, and will, prove to the world that America can survive. That we did not all join the dark side and drink the cool-aid of hate, fear and isolationism. We the people, with the right leadership, can repair the damage that has been done by those who came before. If the incoming administration truly believes its own message and follows through with its promise of hope and change, then America will once again become the world’s brightest beacon of freedom, equality and opportunity. I’m not saying our new president will be the answer to every one of our problems because it will take all of us working together for many years to right this ship and make a better future for this country. One person, no matter how charismatic or talented he, or she, might be, will never be enough by themselves to bring about the changes we now know we need. But one person can lead us out from our yesterdays of dark despair and into the light of the bright future we have nearly lost hope of reaching. We need a leader with vision, fortitude, solid morals and intelligence and it is my firm belief that President Obama is such a man.

And now tomorrow doesn’t seem so scary to me anymore.

Mapping The Future

• by GeekMan • In Announcements, Geek Life, Serious •   0

So, I’m going insane… insane-er.

The reason I haven’t been writing lately is that every time I start writing I make the mistake of looking at news sites or turning on my TV and I see stuff that makes me unable to write anything funny. A real estate meltdown, a presidential debate, a bank collapsing, a failed bailout, etc. No matter what I start writing about it almost always turns into a diatribe on current events, which is something I didn’t want to ever do. So, instead of writing something fun, I just didn’t write anything at all.

But now I’m bored with not writing.

So, in the hopes of getting SOME sort of writing done on this site, I figured I’d allow myself some small amount of serious posts here and in so doing hopefully write other, more funny, stuff all the other times I post. I have no idea what I’ll be saying, but truth be told, I have a lot of topics to choose from so almost anything goes. I’m not saying these ‘other’ posts won’t be funny or silly, I’m still The Mighty Geek, but they might not be.

You have been warned.

Here’s a little something on a more Geeky note. I’ve been playing around with Google Maps for the last day or so, and I’ve created one that I think might be fun. It’s called “Where in the World is GeekMan?” and it’s a map showing all the hotels I’ve stayed at during my travels. Now, it’s FAR from a complete listing since I’ve only included about the last year and a half of my travels, plus a few others that I remembered off the top of my head, but I’ll be adding every place I travel to from now on and marking where I am with a green thumbtack. Plus, I’ll keep adding all the places I’ve been to in the past as soon as I can remember all of them. And hey, if you see a green thumbtack in your neck of the woods, drop me a line! You never know… you might be lucky enough to score a drink with The Mighty Geek!

Ahem.

The drink would be a very manly Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri, of course. With a little pink paper umbrella. And a crazy straw with a loop-dee-loop. And a cherry on top. But no whipped cream, because I’m lactose intolerant. Huh? What do you mean, “Why a daiquiri?” It’s obvious, isn’t it? Because only a real Man can handle such a manly drink, that’s why. And I’m the fricking Mighty Geek, baby. That’s right. You know you like it. Who’s your daddy? Who’s your Daddy?

I am. I am your Daddy. Boo-Yah.

Step By Step

• by GeekMan • In Breaking News, Serious •   6

Slowly I turn…

So, I’m getting closer to actually writing here again but the thing that’s really causing me to stall is the stupid design of this site. I’ve got another one of my “neat” and “cool” designs all done up but every time I try to port it over to WordPress I get stuck. I just can’t wrap my head around WordPress’ use of templates and I’m beginning to believe I never will.

It just baffles me.

Of course, if my design was something simple I think I could handle it, but unfortunately for me my designs aren’t so easy as your standard: header, left column, center column, right column and footer. Oh, no. I have to be fricking unique and design something with overlapping columns, multiple image swaps on mouseovers and icons for links instead of standard text links.

Yeah, yeah, I’m a moron.

Anywaste, like I said, I’m getting really close to having the time to once again update on a regular basis. However, after once again being thwarted in my attempts to get this site design updated by my lack of Mad WordPress Coding Skilz, I came to the conclusion that I just didn’t care to continue banging my stubborn noggin on the concrete wall that is WordPress and that maybe, just maybe, I should give up my cool design.

Then I came to my senses and decided to ask for help.

So here I am, begging for help from anyone who might be able to take my design and images and creating the proper WordPress templates for me. Most likely no one will take me up on this without a bribe of some sort, so I came up with a silly idea of a nice exchange. In return for your help in turning my design into a set of standards compliant WordPress templates I will do one of the following (your choice):

  • Design or redesign a website for you
  • Write a funny post about you and link to your site in said post
  • Be your best friend (for one day only and I chose the day)
  • A happy dance

Please, won’t someone help this poor Geek?

Excuses Suck

• by GeekMan • In Breaking News, Geek Life, Serious, Traveling •   8

This is not goodbye.

I’m not leaving so save your teary-eyed farewells for another time. I really want to write about everything that’s going on in my life right now, but because of time constraints and my inability to get more than 4 hours of sleep a night for the last three weeks, I just can’t.

I just don’t have enough time.

So, instead of adding yet another impossible task to my ever-growing list of things to do each day, I’ve decided to put this site on hiatus for a few weeks until things slow down enough for me to devote more time and effort to my writing. If I can find some free time between now and when I think I’ll return full time, of course I’ll write something here. But for now I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be writing anything until the New Year.

I know, I know. It makes me sad, too.

Just so I don’t leave you all in the lurch without any clues as to why I’ve disappeared (again), I think I’ll give you a quick rundown of some, just some, of what I need to do over the next two months. HoBiscuit and I are moving to a new apartment while selling our current apartment ourselves (no broker) and, at the same time, renovating the new apartment. I am working every, single day (except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day) from now until March 21st. I’m also traveling to places like Texas, Paris, Arizona, Barcelona, Miami, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and California among others. Don’t get any ideas though, all this traveling is for work so I won’t be seeing any of the places I’m going to, or doing any sightseeing or anything. I’ll just be there, working, and then heading to the airport to catch a flight to the next place I’m supposed to be.

Yeah, yeah, sucks to be me. I know.

The good news is that once I do start writing again I’ll have a whole new site design for you to see. I’ll also be launching a new PhotoBlog where I’ll be sharing some of the gazillions of pictures I seem to take everywhere I go. And, if you’re all real good while I’m away, I might even have a Mighty Blog spin-off or two for you to read!

Wow! Talk about rewards!

Anywaste, being this busy with work and other stuff is all good for me since it means I’m making money, but it’s also bad since it keeps me from doing all the things I really enjoy doing, like updating this Blog. However, once I come back everything will be even better than before, so have a great Chrismahannakwanzica and a Happy New Year and I’ll see you all back here on New Years’ Day, 2007.

Word to your mother.

Mind Over Matters

• by GeekMan • In Serious •   6

So, America has spoken.

Democrats ‘lost’, Republicans ‘won’, and the psycho wing-nuts on both sides of the fence are still absolutely positive that they’re ‘right’ and the other guys are ‘wrong’ and they’ll most likely never, ever stop their vitriolic diatribes against each other. Even so, for most of the rest of America, there is acceptance of the outcome of this election. Sometimes reluctant it’s true, but acceptance nevertheless.

This time around the numbers do not lie.

The barely hidden undertow of resentment for the electoral process itself that has so fouled the emotions and minds of the people of America for the last four years should now be put to rest. Americans should once again have faith in the electoral process even if they don’t care for the candidates who might be running for office because this election once again proves that the democratic process works. And while Democrats have every right to be saddened by their defeat, they should not be angry at the electoral process itself, only at this particular outcome. This defeat, and their anger, should galvanize them to re-evaluate what their party stands for so they will be ready for the next election. Because no matter how despondent and bitter they might feel right now, they must remember that 51% of America, and more importantly more than enough of the Electoral College, wanted this outcome.

And in a democracy the majority rules.

At this point you may be wondering who I voted for, which candidate my brains and beliefs led me to cast my precious, vastly important ballot for, and I will tell you. After researching for months each candidates ideas, ideals and plans for the future, I found myself unable to vote for either of them. On one side there was no real plan for the future beyond vague rhetoric and hopeful dreams, and on the other side there was an ideological plan for the future that I could not see myself ever agreeing with. So, on November 2, 2004 I did what I now believe almost half of the voting public of America did, and I voted for neither candidate.

And cast my ballot for John Kerry.

Now, before you all light my butt on fire with your flaming emails of hate and burn my eyes out with your acidic and vitriolic comments, let me first say a few words. I am not a member of ANY political party, and over my lifetime I have in fact voted for both parties to serve in a multitude of public offices. I do not belong to ANY religious group or faction, not even the Atheists, but I respect almost all religions and have read (yes actually read) many religious texts including the Bible (Christian, Catholic and Mormon), Torah, Teachings of Buddha, several Zen texts and some of the Koran. Also, I have never, nor will I ever, vote a certain way just because some people I consider to be friends are voting that way. I’m an individual who tries to use my brains to discern who is best for the job regardless, and sometimes in spite of, their political and religious ties. Also, my opinions are MINE not yours, so if you don’t like them (quoting Gollum) go away and never come back.

So now you’re wondering why.

It’s a fine distinction I spoke of above, voting against Bush by voting with Kerry, a subtle twist of definition that I believe most of America will slowly come to understand over the next few months. You see, instead of voting for someone who I could believe in and stand behind with confidence, I was forced to vote against someone else. And that is simply not the way I ever thought I would ever us my all-important vote. It is my current belief that should you take an equal sampling of people who voted for each candidate and ask them why they voted the way they did, you would find that most of those who voted for Bush believed in something about him and/or his policies, but that almost ALL of those who voted for Kerry, including myself, merely wanted to remove Bush from office.

Precious few who voted for Kerry truly knew what he stood for.

Looking back today I can honestly say that I’m sad that the results turned out the way they did, but strangely I’m also glad. I’m sad because a man I do not agree with or respect is holding an office I feel he should not hold. However, I’m glad to once again feel that I can have confidence in the system that placed him there. I’m sad because I believe that this administration relies much too heavily on governing through fear and the growing insecurities of the general public in order to pass foreign policies that are slowly degrading America’s world leader status militarily, economically and politically. I am also very saddened by what I see as this administration’s increasingly invasive and heavy handed approach to homeland security and personal privacy that I believe is slowly but surely stripping away the freedoms we all hold so dear.

And I’m absolutely despondent at the sorry state of affairs our economy is in.

But I’m also kind of glad that he’s still in office, because I believe that Bush will be watched very closely for the next four years by both sides, and I’m hopeful that he’ll be held accountable for whatever policies he might enact. There can be no more finger-pointing or I-told-you-so’s, by either side. No more evasive answers and half-truths backed by lies. He’s won a second term fair and square and all of his campaign promises from both 2000 and 2004 need to be fulfilled or the very people who believed in him will probably be the first in line to pull him down. I hope he does reach across the aisle and find a common ground where both Democrats and Republicans can meet. I hope with all that I am that this term he becomes a uniter instead of the polar divider he has been in the past. I hope and pray that four years from now MORE than 51% of America is happy.

And deep in my soul, I really hope that I’m one of them.

I hope that we will be better off in four years than we are today. I truly do. I hope with all that I am that there will be no more lapses in the intelligence gathering community that would lead to another questionable war that would further divide this country. I hope we find Osama and that we destroy all of Al Qaeda and any other terrorist group that may threaten America, today or tomorrow. I hope that the democratic processes that are being instituted in Iraq and Afghanistan work and they become a bastion of truly democratic governments in the Middle East that will help spread freedom far and wide. I hope that our economy recovers, jobs are restored and a time of great prosperity for all of America begins today.

But, based on the past four years, and the entire history of second term presidents, please forgive me for being skeptical.

I’m not usually this serious, but today I feel the need. Again, I don’t belong to any political party, I’m just an American. And as an American I feel that the Democratic Party let me down by attempting to prop up a weak candidate on the premise that he wasn’t Bush. I honestly believe that Kerry did far better than he would have had he been running against ANYONE other than Bush. Reading through his ‘plan’ on his website and after watching all three debates, I feel that Kerry had nothing to offer the American public other than the fact that he wasn’t Bush. And even though that is exactly the reason why I voted for Kerry, it is clear to me and I hope everyone now that that was not nearly enough.

And I’m glad because I don’t believe it should ever be.

For the Democrats, this is a harsh blow and a reality check. There are a lot of people out there in America who are questioning their Party affiliation today. The Democratic Party needs to reevaluate its entire platform now, starting today, or there might be hell to pay later on down the road. They should look into the polling numbers and redefine who they want their constituents to be based on who voted for them and why. Now is the time to start surveying the public and find out what it is that most of America truly wants from the Democratic Party of the future. I’m sure that many Democrats both young and old feel betrayed by their Party, let down by a group they had poured their hearts out to support. The Democratic Party needs to find out exactly why their people feel so betrayed and how the damage can be repaired. Democrats need to start defining their new leaders now and prepare a better, more cohesive and comprehensible platform upon which to rebuild their Party for 2008.

And I do mean rebuild.

They should begin with the whole issue of ‘morality’; define it for the Democratic Party so people will understand EXACTLY where they stand and why. Because if they don’t, if the Democratic Party simply sits and sulks without making any truly fundamental changes, then I do not believe it will stand a chance in four years.

I actually believe that if it doesn’t change, it will not continue to exist.

These are just a few of my thoughts on this election. I probably won’t talk politics here again until the next election, but since this was an important issue to me I thought it was important to at least TRY to spell out my thoughts here where everyone could read them. These are by no means my only thoughts or opinions on this subject, but the reason I rarely express them here is because I don’t believe my opinions on politics (or religion) to be any more or less valid than yours. I won’t ever try to change your beliefs because they are YOUR beliefs, and you will never be able to change mine. So, please remember that these are opinions, MY opinions expressed on MY website, and whether you agree or disagree with them really won’t matter to me at all.

You have your own mind, use it.