Beth's Contradictory Brain

I Still Give Good Interview

We were hoping to hear if Nerdstar was getting a job offer that would have us moving out of the DC area last Friday, but no word yet. Ugh.

In the meantime, I applied online for a job Friday, heard from the woman yesterday, and set up an interview for today. It's a PRN position, which means I start out filling in for employees who are taking time off at their six lab locations. It's like starting out as a temp. I like that because there are several days between now and the end of the year I can't work. It's doing phlebotomy for a group of oncologists, and even better, I'll also get to learn a little of the processing side of lab tests. If I want it to, I'm certain it would lead to full time employment in the near future.

I told the woman I'd let her know by the end of the week, hopefully we hear from Nerdstar's potential employer by then.

Mistakes on Both Sides

I continued my trend of history reading and finished up Pearl Harbor yesterday.

It amazes and frustrates me to read how similar the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are. In both instances there were low level experts out there warning the events were about to happen. And they did.

But we're not the only ones to make the same mistakes. Terrorists of 9/11 made the same mistake Japan did by underestimating the true resolve of the American people.

It also makes me wonder what we'll be overlooking in another fifty years and who will attack us then.

Money, It's A Gas

I spent the morning watching or listening to C-Span and the debate and vote on the bailout. What I heard was both democrats and republicans saying they had to do the will of the people - their offices getting calls 100 to 1 against the bailout - and vote against the bailout. I am happily surprised they did.

Then I spent the afternoon watching or listening to CNBC. Now, usually I respect the folks on that network. But today they are pissed at the "regular" folks who are too stupid to know that the bailout was going to be good for them. And I think Wall Street gave us regular folks a big fuck you today.

I have no idea where all of this leads. I was very tempted to buy some stocks today, and would have except that it takes a day for me to transfer money from my bank account to my stock buying site. Personally, our 401Ks and Roth IRAs have been steady so far. The few stocks I own mostly for fun have certainly taken a hit. Hell, Apple was down over $20 today, but it's still higher than where I bought it a couple of years ago.

I believe that given time it will all be better than ever. That's the great thing about this country. What happens in the meantime is anybody's guess.

TV Watching

Now that the fall season is gearing up, what shows are you happy to be watching??

I'm happy to see The Office and am waiting to see how good 30 Rock is this season. I'm sad it's the final season of ER, although I know it's time for it to go. I have a feeling there will be tears for almost every episode. Still loving HIMYM! I've started watching Bones this season, no idea why, but I find it charming. Hell, I'll probably have to watch Grey's this season to see the lesbian story line, but I'll dvr it and get to it when I get to it. There's still way too much that's annoying on that show. Still liking House. Heroes is fine while watching it, but then you realize how silly all the decisions these people make are. Not sure who I'm rooting for on DWTS. Shut up you know you watch it, too.

And no, I don't watch too much tv... I have a dvr so I can skip commercials and boring parts. Heh.

National Book Festival

I got up early this morning to take the subway over to the National Book Festival. I've watched parts of it on C-Span in years past.

The biggest reason I want was to hear Neil Gaiman speak. I was smart enough to get to the tent where he was speaking early enough to get a decent seat. A couple of pics here.

He spent several hours after speaking doing book signings, but between being hungry and being hot and sticky, I decided not to get in line with at least 300 other people. I probably could have gone and gotten something to eat and then gotten in line, but that was just more walking than I felt up to.

It was definitely cool though.

Brilliant!

It shouldn't just be limited to You Tube.

Economic Mess

One good/bad thing about being home during the day is being able to watch/listen to the news. It's interesting to see how it ebbs and flows and changes throughout the day.

That also means that trying to keep up during all this financial stuff is maddening. I've pretty much kept to CNBC during the day.

Other than that I'm relying on two or three websites to keep up.

Megan McArdle writes the stuff that's insightful and easy to understand.

And if you can ignore the Catholic stuff over on The Corner, they do tend to help keep up with what's going on.

There's also The Conglomerate, but I haven't been following it as much.

I almost forgot, there's also The Volokh Conspiracy, a blog by a bunch of different lawyers, they've covered some of the possible legal issues of the various bail out plans.

As always, I find that if I only keep up with cable news, much less network news, there's just too much information I'm not getting.

Clothes

I know most people like to do spring cleaning, but I find cold, rainy weather brings out the cleaner in me. Or maybe it's because I've got all this time on my hands and I'm feeling restless. I tackled part of our closet yesterday looking for cooler weather wear. Because a decent sized closet and three chest of drawers just isn't enough room, there were lots of clothes in piles and hard to sort through. We got them more neatly organized. (Nerdstar came home in the middle of my project and got to help out some.)

I'd say 80% of the clothes and shoes we own are Nerdstar's. She loves shopping, unfortunately, mostly for shoes and t-shirts. Me, I hate shopping because I'm too fat. What sucks is that if I just lost about ten to twenty pounds I could wear a lot more of her clothes. Her chest is bigger than mine, but I have a bigger belly. She also tends to buy tight fitting stretchy stuff. Another reason I don't have many clothes is due to wearing scrubs to work for the past few years. That to me is/was a great reason to stay in that line of work!

I'm working out with the Wii Fit, so far the amount of working out I'm doing must be breaking even with whatever I'm eating. I'm not losing weight yet, but I'm not gaining any either. I have had sore muscles, I need to stretch more. I've been the same weight for over a year, now if I can just start losing a little.

Anyway, I didn't intend to write any of this! Funny how often that happens when I open up MT to blog.

Snuggle Weather

Perfect snuggle weather has moved in. It's cold and windy and raining. And it intends to stay that way through Sunday.

Alas, Nerdstar has a very early flight to Houston tomorrow morning. Sigh.

Fortunately for her, her grandpa's house finally got power back the other day.

Computer Update

We got a restore disk from Toshiba and it basically restored the laptop to a new one from 2003. Interesting. So for now it's a very clean machine. I've downloaded Mozilla and am restoring our bookmarks. Other than that, well, not much on it. Since neither laptop has Word or Excel, I'm experimenting with Google Docs - at least that way we can both access them anytime, anywhere. It seems easy enough to use.

Above My Pay Grade

I've taken a short break from all of my history reading and have delved into time and space. I'm reading Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. A long time ago I read Feynman, and what I loved about him was how he said up front, we can tell you what is happening, we can't get anywhere near telling you why it happens. Mr. Greene is really good at trying to walk a layman through all of the issues of time and space, and I can read the words and sentences and understand them, but the concepts are just a little beyond me.

It's fascinating to read that our perception of reality has almost nothing to do with actual, scientifically proven reality.

Monday

You know it's a really interesting day when you're to do list includes things like cutting your nails. shaving your legs, and cleaning the toilet. Throw in a trip to the grocery store to buy a few things and man, I'm not sure I can handle the excitement.

Zoo

We decided the weather was absolutely perfect for going to the zoo, Nerdstar's favorite place.

It was a wonderful day. The humans are the most fun to watch.

"There's a river of people that runs past my eyes, and it's beautiful enough just to watch it go by." Ani

Not Fun

Well, our PC got some nasty, nasty virus. I spent quite a while yesterday trying to get rid of it. Then last night we went and got Norton, but that didn't even work. I was up until about 3 a.m. working on it. So, it either needs to be shot or taken in for professional care. Ugh. It got something similar a week or so ago, and I was able to do a system restore to a prior date and fix it, not this time. We've got the Mac, but it doesn't have all the same stuff on it as the PC, so that's kind of a pain in the butt. I've got most everything backed up on a thumb drive, but so much of isn't compatible with a Mac. Fun.

Also, yesterday morning when I was in the shower, the smoke alarm started going off, I have no idea why. Scared poor Ramen to death. By the time I got out of the shower it stopped. Then did a couple more short alarms. So I just unhooked the thing. I hooked it back up today, so far so good.

I hate when things don't work. It kinda drives me a little crazy. My brain works non-stop to solve problems, so if there's something hanging out there needed to be fixed or whatever it's hard to let it be for a while.

Old Photos

I can't remember where I found this website, but I really love it. It's a collection of old photos, mostly from around the DC area, but also Detroit and other places.

Any of you ladies want to go back to wearing these? The full size view really shows the details, and has the blurb from the store.

Restraint

It's taking a lot of self restraint to not start blogging politics non-stop. Unfortunately, I have a feeling both sides of this contest are pretty well entrenched, and I'm not looking to fight.

All I will say is that Obama scares the hell out of me. But his more rabid followers, those who have truly imbibed the Kool Aid scare me even more. (I do not think any of my regular readers are Kool Aid drinkers.)

If you read through a day's postings over on National Review's The Corner, that's the information about Obama that scares me. The World Poverty Bill, the suppression of dissent. That sort of thing. Things I'm sure 80% of his voters don't even know about. Which is also scary.

See, I just can't help myself. At least you're not here to listen to me yell at the tv!

Houston

Nerdstar's sister and 90 y/o grandpa are still hanging in there at their house, but they still don't have electricity or a generator. They're doing pretty well, stores around them are open and they can get things they need, but...

It sucks not being closer. I'd drive a generator down to them, but it's a 3 day drive just to get there. Grandpa doesn't really want to go anywhere else.

So, please keep them and the rest of Houston and Galveston and areas in your prayers. It's a big mess down there.

Banking Mess

Here are a couple of good reads:

First up, two on is this the Bush administration's fault? One and Two.

The Real Culprits.

Too Personal

Our Wii Fit got way too personal today!!

Recent Reads

I read Mr. Scalzi's fourth book in his Old Man's War series, Zoe's Tale. It's interesting in that it's a retelling of the third book from the perspective of a different character. I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite in the series.

Since I saw the trailer for the new Watchmen movie, that might or might not ever be in theaters, I thought I'd go back and re-read the graphic novel. I bought it several years ago, and just couldn't get into it. Apparently, I still can't. It's taken me two or three weeks go get about halfway through. I'll finish it eventually. The movie does look cool though.

In keeping with my World War II theme, I'm reading a book about Station X, the code breaking station in England. It's a follow up for me from Cryptonomicon. I think it's all fascinating. The work these people did lead to the building of the first computers and understanding of binary. I don't think there's ever been an assembling of a group of people more smart of eccentric.

Evil

Ok, if I can't be evil on my own blog, where can I be?

Here in our neck of the woods 90% of the cars that have Obama stickers on them are driven by white people.

Over in Old Town Alexandria there are lots of what I'd still call yuppies. I saw this middle aged, probably fairly well off, white woman in a "non-profit, fair trade ethnic goods" store with an Obama t-shirt.

I told Nerdstar, there should be t-shirts that read "Guilty White Person For Obama"

Saturday

I woke up feeling a little guilty for just quitting like I did. One thing about this job - I often found it making me be an asshole, and I don't like that. There are a few reasons, maybe not good ones, why I just quit instead of doing the whole two week notice thing. Most of them have to do with mr manager man. Back in March when I was ready to quit, he was perfectly willing to let me go, no questions asked really. That's when I went over his head and ended up working the 3 day a week schedule. So I didn't figure I owned him more this time. Another big reason was I just didn't want to listen to him cuss and throw a fit when I told him I'd be leaving. I found out yesterday another lady just gave him her two week notice! He's also bad about telling everyone what they want to hear, and then not really doing what he says. I figured he'd done that to me again, causing problems with the new supervisor chick. Bottom line is, he's been a bad manager the whole time I worked there. I didn't feel like dealing with him or the drama for the next two weeks.

Anyway. It's done.

I really don't know what's next because we're waiting on some other news in the next two weeks regarding Nerdstar's work situation.

Today we went and got massages. Nice. I'll be sore later, but it's worth it. It's also the best moisturizing your skin can get! Then we had lunch at a little Irish pub/fish place. Best fish and chips I've had.

Nerdstar's family in Houston is fine, and really, really hoping the electricity isn't out for long.

Texas

Most of Nerdstar's family is in Houston and didn't evacuate. My family is still in Dallas which could get some nasty weather out of Ike.

I'm not too, too worried, but... my prayers are said.

Done

Well, for better or worse I quit my job this afternoon. It won't fully sink if for a while.

Who knows what's next.

More of Today

Yesterday was stressful enough, I was hoping for a quiet, productive day today. There's laundry to be done, books to be picked up at the library, and then taking the dog to the park to burn off some of his cabin fever.

There was a nasty incident at the dog park. One man was there with his dog, and on the way to the enclosed area, Ramen dog pooped, and no, I didn't pick it up. I didn't take any poop bags with me because there are usually some at the park, and the place he pooped wasn't where anyone walks. I heard the man yell "pick it up" and ignored him. About ten minutes, maybe less after we got into the park, the man and his dog were leaving. The man came over and was a complete ass, so I told him he was being an asshole. Then ended up telling him to fuck off. I'm sick of people bossing people around, being bullies. If he'd started the conversation off nicely, I would have been nicer in response.

This park has a fence around it with two gates - one right after the other, so you can come in the first gate, close it, unleash your dog(s), and then let them in the second gate. This park is also 50 yards from 6 lanes of local traffic.

On his way out the man deliberately left BOTH gates wide open. When I went to close them Ramen came running through them, out them and down the street. I yelled after the man who was already 100 yards or so down that street that he was a complete son of a bitch. At first Ramen was going away from the street, perpendicular to it, down by a creek. But before I could get him to come to me - and right about the time he was close to the man - he darted into the street and was almost hit by a car. At that time I'm yelling at the man to GET HIM and he doesn't.

Thankfully at that point Ramen came back to me. He didn't even seem to be phased by any of it.

I don't know when I've ever been so angry at another person. At that time I wished with all my heart that gypsy curses and/or voodoo dolls worked so I could punish him terribly. This is nothing I could have done or said for him to endanger my dogs life.

This 9/11

One of the best things about the internets is that I can always find someone who expresses what I've been thinking much more eloquently that I can.

Today it's Larry Kudlow.

God bless America for surviving 9/11.

And let us not ever forget 9/11. Let us be thankful for our safety and freedom since that day. And let us never lose our resolve to defend and maintain that freedom and safety.

Udpate:

Last night I really didn't think I'd be that affected by 9/11 today. Then I caught part of of MSNBCs re-airing of the coverage from that day.

Part of me was broken that day. I don't know why, I was living down in Austin, seemingly far from it all. But since then I cry much, much more easily than before. That might not seem like a big deal, but it means something.

Reading the comments on this post about where people were that morning also makes the tears flow.

Fail

Apparently I am not even capable of quitting a job.

There was more b.s. with the new chick this morning - which either means she's evil or my boss is a liar. Either is a possible explanation. And so I spent all day waiting to quit. I really don't want to talk to my boss about it. There is nothing to be gained and all he's going to do is throw a fit that I'm not giving him two weeks notice. Now, if that two weeks wouldn't be full of more b.s. I might consider staying two more weeks. But, honestly, I'm done. One of the basic realizations is just how much no one there appreciates just how much more I get done every day than they do. If fact, I'm pretty sure a lot of them resent me for several different reasons. So - they can suck it. I finally realized that there's no making this situation better. The new chick could have come in and treated me as an ally instead of apparently trying to put me in my place.

Ok, so as to the actual quitting - my brilliant plan was to wait for my boss to leave for the day. He's rarely there past 2:30 or 3, I leave at 4. Then when it was time to go home I was just going to hand my badge and keys over to the assistant manager who's mostly cool and tell him I'm not coming back. But nooo... boss man just had to work late today. Plan blown.

One way or another I will quit Friday.

I do need to see if I can get with the employee health nurse Friday and get updated records of my TB tests and such so I'll have them.

Cindy McCain Drifting Interview

Like most people I've always had the stepford view of her. But learning more about her international work and then seeing this ESPN interview is changing my mind!

Funny Wii

One amusing part of the Wii Fit is the voice it's programmed with. Even better is this kinda sexy "oohhhh" it softly lets out when you step on the Wii Fit balance board.

Possibilities

On the surface life looks like it's slowly moving along, nothing really happening. But there are some slightly possible changes out there and thinking about them all has my brain all exhausted.

I decided I really am sick of my job and might as well start looking into other options. It's no secret I hate the whole process of finding a new job, but I'm trying to take it slow and steady. At my current job, the afternoon supervisor position went to someone who I should have known from the day it was announced it was going to go to. I was slightly annoyed that our manager just didn't tell everyone from the start that the position was created for this person. Hope she enjoys it - I'm not sure she knows what all she's in for. I'm mostly relieved I didn't get it.

So after spending several days mulling over and discussing all my job related stuff, Nerdstar comes home yesterday and says she's in talks with yet another company - one she's tried to get hired by in the past. The big news there is if it works out we'd be moving halfway across the country again. (Unfortunately not to Texas.)

Throw in some really difficult state of our relationship conversations, and I'm ready to roll over and play dead for a while. I'd like some stability please.

Obama's Community Organizing vs deTocqueville's Democracy

This post over on Volokh by Jim Lindgren is the best I've read about what Obama tried to achieve in Chicago, how he wasn't at all successful, and how he changed over time.

There's another post over on Volokh about Obama's proposal that all public middle and high school students perform community service, such as picking up trash, for 50 hours every year and almost all college students will be induced to do 100 hours of service each year at an effective salary of $40 an hour tax free. resulting in: if a student graduates from college, he will have done on average about 11 years of community service, at a minimum of 50-100 hours each year. Almost all college graduates will have spent a total workweek equivalent of at least four to five months of their lives working in Mr. Obama’s “national security force,” starting at the tender age of 11.

That is why I could never vote for Obama. I don't share his views of the role/responsibility of the government.

I never did finish reading Democracy in America, I stopped reading when I went to Cali and just didn't pick it back up. I did, however, pick up Journey to America, deTocqueville's journals about his travels for 10 months throughout America. It's easier to read.

A couple of quotes I really liked - keep in mind this was written in 1831-32:

The greatest merit of the government of the United States is that it is powerless and passive. In the actual state of things, in order to prosper America has no need of skillful direction, profound designs or great effort. But need of liberty and still more liberty. (He's referring to personal liberty.)

Another principle of American society of which one must never lose sight: every individual being the most competent judge of his own interest, society must not carry its solicitude on his behalf too far, for fear that in the end he might come to count on society, and so a duty might be laid on society which is is incapable of performing.

If there was ever a better warning against the welfare state - over 100 years before it started - I've never read it.

One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government is the ripening of individual strength which never fails to follow therein. Each man learns to think and to act for himself without counting on the support of any outside power which, however watchful it be, can never answer all the needs of man in society.

Wii Fit

I finally gave in and ordered one online, the price was ridiculous, but oh well. It seems pretty cool. When you first set it up it figures out your BMI and "Wii Fit Age" - all I'll say is that while my BMI is way higher than Nerdstar's, my "age" is younger than my real one, hers - not so much!

It has four modes: yoga, strength, aerobic and balance. After getting it set up I tried the yoga. It starts out nice and basic and looks like it'll be good for at least learning the different poses.

It keeps track of your training. I just wish it had a way to include the time we spend doing Wii Sports boxing in the Wii Fit stuff. We get a decent work out virtually beating each other up!

Rain and More Rain

Looks like we're going to get 24 hours of steady rain from Hanna. We were planning a pretty lazy day anyway. I've got some reading to finish up, I'll try to write about that later.

Palin's Speech

I think it's almost to the point where the internet will break if any more people write/blog/comment on her speech last night - so I'll keep mine short.

I had a blast watching her speak last night. She was fun and tough. I also loved watching Rudy. It's a damn shame it's not him and Sarah instead of McCain.

If you're not a long time reader, you can go through my politics archives and see my political history. I vote Republican because national defense and taxes are two things that matter the most to me when voting.

Facebook Blogs

If you're into the whole Facebook thing, you can check out my blog that way. It all seems kinda clunky to me. What do you think?

Best of Overheard today

There were several that made me laugh, so I might as well share!!

She Who Dealt It, Felt It

--Art Exhibit, Time Warner Building

I've felt the same way!!

Who's My Little Two-Legged Birth Control?

--Gourmet Garage, 96th & Park Ave

If I were that cashier I'd simply start ringing up mangoes and charging her for them.

California's Almost Far Enough

--Thompson Square Park Dog Run

I'm sure that conversation has happened in Austin, too.

Weekend

The rest of our long weekend was really nice. One thing about living in the DC area that I find weird, but good for us, is how this place empties out on holiday weekend. There was very little traffic. Unfortunately, it also meant they were working on the metro train lines and they weren't very user friendly.

We spent a lot of the weekend taking Nerdstar's friend to a few of our local favorite restaurants.

Yesterday we were in DC proper and it was like a ghost town, not even the usual throng of toursits. Nice! We went to the Spy Museum. It's pretty cool.

Oh yeah. We went to see Tropic Thunder the other night. I'm not a fan of Ben Stiller, so I wasn't really excited about seeing this movie. It was hysterical! I was really surpised at how smart it is.