Grubulub: dirvish’s Blog

I upgraded my Wordpress install and I dig the new interface.

Mother-in-law: You should put Christmas lights on your house.

Me: No way. That’s a waste of electricity and I’d probably fall off my six foot ladder trying to reach the eaves.

Mother-in-law: I put lights on our house by myself.

Me: Jesus and Santa really appreciate that, but Christmas lights are not going on my house.

I think I’m currently experiencing the second stage of the seven stages of grief over the passage of California’s Proposition 8: “Pain & Guilt.” A vulnerable minority was in need of protection and California has failed in this duty. I’m very disappointed and I feel like I could have done more to help the cause.

I am looking forward to the “Anger & Bargaining” phase if it involves punching a bigot in their hateful face…

I got seminared in Sacramento yesterday so that I can “be an effective supervisor.” Most of the material was really good and the trainer was an energetic and often humorous speaker. My only real problem with the training was that the whole thing seemed to be based on creating a defensible position in relation to labor law. Not bad information to know, but not really applicable to my situation. I have my own supervisors and an HR department to worry about labor law issues for me. That and the trainer tended to be combative with the class, at one point apparently threatening me with violence:

Trainer: Relating a story about helping his daughter find material for managing a bank. “I just typed in [name of some standard HR form that I don't recall] in Google and up came 1.7 million results. And the great thing about all these documents is they are all in the public domain. You are free to use them however you want.”

Me: Raised eyebrows, head tilted to the side.

Trainer: “What’s going on over here? I sense some negativity over here. What do you have to say?”

Me: Not feeling up to debating copyright law with a combative and overbearing professional speaker in his class. “Um, nothing.”

Trainer: Points at biggest guy in the class. “Jim stand up. Keith, I want to introduce you to my brother Jim.”

Jim: Stands up, looking confused.

Class: …

Cricket: “Chirp.”

Me: Look of incredulity changes to look of confusion/annoyance.

Everything on the menu would have four levels of spiciness: mild, medium, hot, and Yo Mamma. To order something at the Yo Mamma level you tell the waitperson a yo mamma joke. It should be as tasteless and offensive as possible. The waitperson will then relay your joke to the chef (for whom it is actually intended) who will spice your dish according to the quality of your joke. If he is actually offended he will try to kill you with spiciness. At the chefs discretion you may get your meal free if you manage to eat all of your horribly spicy dish.

Yo mama’s so dumb, that the Psychic Friends only charge her half price to read her mind!

Here are my totally uneducated picks for the NCAA tournament, subject to change in the event of some (unlikely) education or (likely) random whim. So far I’m playing it pretty safe…I don’t think there are any major upsets in there.

Opening Round
*Mt. St. Mary’s

Second Round
*NC
*Indiana
*Notre Dame
*Washington
*Oklahoma
*Louisville
*Butler
*Tennessee
*Kansas
*Kent
*Clemson
*Vanderbilt
*USC Kansas State
*Wisconsin
*Gonzaga
*Georgetown
*Memphis
*Mississippi
*Michigan
*Pitt
*Marquette
*Stanford
*Saint Mary’s
*Texas
*UCLA
*Texas A&M
*Drake
*Conn
*Purdue
*Xavier
*West Virginia
*Duke

Sweet 16
*NC
*Notre Dame
*Louisville
*Tennessee
*Kansas
*Vanderbilt
*Wisconsin
*Georgetown
*Memphis
*Pitt
*Stanford
*Texas
*UCLA
*Conn
*Purdue
*Duke

Elite Eight
*NC
*Tennessee
*Kansas
*Wisconsin Georgetown
*Memphis
*Texas
*UCLA
*Duke

Final Four
*NC
*Kansas
*Memphis
*UCLA

National Championship
*UCLA Memphis
*Kansas

Champion
*Kansas

I’ll be at Camp Okizu this weekend helping build a fishing pier. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

I’m not convinced that Hillary is the demon spawn that many make her out to be, and as far as Republicans go McCain isn’t the worst…but I think Obama blows them both out of the water. I’m not a phone calling dude either (I talk on the phone more than enough at work), so I’ve taken Ryo’s challenge and contributed to his mini-fund raiser. I’ll post an update if Ryo gets back to me on how to say “yes we can” in Japanese.

Drug induced dreams night 3:

I don’t remember any dreams from last night as well as the ones from previous nights. The one I vaguely recall involved me scoring my first triple double in the NBA. My team lost despite my efforts.

A relative forwarded me the following email:

TAKE A FEW MOMENTS AND READ THIS LETTER. THESE ARE STRONG, POWERFUL AND COURAGEOUS WORDS COMING FROM A RETIRED COLONEL. AND READ WHAT LINCOLN HAD TO SAY AT THE END. WOW! 33 Senators voted against English as America ’s official language on June 6, 2007. Of the 33, only one is a Republican and two are Independents; the rest are Democrats!

On Wednesday, June 6, 2007, at 23:35:23, Colonel Harry Riley, USA-Ret. wrote:

Senators:

Your vote against an amendment to Immigration Bill 1348 to make English America’s official language is astounding. On D-Day, no less, when we honor those who sacrificed in order to secure the bedrock, character and principles of America , I can only surmise your vote reflects a loyalty to illegal aliens.

I don’t much care where you come from, what your religion is, whether you’re black, white, or some other color, male or female, Democrat, Republican or Independent, but I do care when you’re a United States Senator representing citizens of America and you vote against English as the official language of the United States.

Your vote reflects betrayal and political surrender. It violates your Pledge of Allegiance, dishonors historical principle, rejects patriotism, borders on traitorous action and, in my opinion, makes you unfit to serve as a United States Senator. Impeachment, recall or other appropriate action is warranted or possibly even worse.

Four of you voting against English as America ’s official language are current or former presidential candidates: Senator Biden, Senator Clinton, Senator Dodd and Senator Obama. You are and were four Senators vying to lead America, but you won’t or don’t have the courage to cast a vote in favor of English as America’s official language when 91% of American citizens want English officially designated as our language.

This is the second time in the last several months this list of Senators have disgraced themselves as ‘political hacks’ unworthy of being Senators and certainly unqu alified to serve as the President of the United States.

If America is as angry as I am, you will realize a backlash so stunning it will literally ‘rock you out of your pants’ and, preferably, totally out of the United States Senate. The entire immigration bill is a farce. Your action only confirms this really isn’t about America , it’s about self-serving politics and it’s despicable at best. It has been said, ‘Never argue with an idiot. They’ll drag you down to their level!

The following Senators voted against making English the official language of America :

Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE) (Unsuccessfully ran for President)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Clinton (D-NY) (Wants to be President)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT) (Unsuccessfully ran for Pre sident)
Domenici (R-NM) (Coward. Protecting his Senate seat.)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI) (Not unusual for him!)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA) (Unsuccessfully ran for President)
Kerry (D-MA) (Unsuccessfully ran for President)
Kohl (D-WI))
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (I-CT) (Disappointment here.)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL) (Wants to be President)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV) (Senate Majority Leader)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)

President Abraham Lincoln stated, ‘Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged!’

PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING AROUND THE UNITED STATES UNTIL THE ELECTION!

Breaking my normally strict rule of NEVER responding to or forwarding chain letters I did ~5 minutes of research and sent the following response (hopefully I got my facts right):

The issue isn’t as simple as the email makes it sound. The democrats in question voted for a similar amendment sixteen minutes earlier. Some of the language of the cited amendment contradicted the first, but the spirit behind both amendments seems the same. It doesn’t make much sense to vote for an amendment that contradicts another you just voted for.

The only problem I see here beyond the usual political shenanigans on both sides is the confused souls who voted for both amendments thus potentially making the bill in question very unclear.

It also shouldn’t be assumed that there really is a Colonel Riley and that he really sent this email. A similar email went around based on a bill that actually passed in 2006: http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/englishvote.asp

Keith

I kept it mellow since I was also breaking my rule of NEVER talking politics with family, but I felt like it needed some response.

Also, Lincoln didn’t really say that.