Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Brithday dear me-e
Happy Birth-day to me.
Today is the 30th Anniversery of my birth. Doesn't officially take effect until ~11:30 am EST. After then, I ought not be trusted.
I have some thoughts about Kasia's post wrt to her pending 30th, and the mortality she, at least momentaliry, felt. But I'm enjoying my first day off drugs, so that will wait a bit.
I'm going to go work now.
They must have seen Philadelphia. :)
Rock on, I say. Hopefully the troops down here follow suit. Then I won't have to tell them "no" when they beg me to buy caramel popcorn. I probably will still say "no", but I won't be compelled by any moral outrage. Just my Jewish ancestry.
[link]
As part of the new tax-cut bill, the child tax credit increase is being "accelerated" and $400 checks will be mailed out to ~$25 million people in July, as per the news reports.
Now, what Dan wants to know is if this is a real rebate, or just the same thing we'd see when we file next year. The last time the GOP pushed these rebates out (pre-election) it all sounded nice and good. Until I did my taxes and realized it wasn't anything but an advance. As a result, I wound up paying a few hundred bucks in federal taxes, since it was an advance on money that would have made me even-steven.
We were misled then. Are we being misled now?
I'm sick and fucking tired of every criticism of GOP tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest people being answered with "Oh, that's just Democrats trying to wage class warfare again".
Warfare? I don't see anyone burning down the homes of the Rich. I don't see GE's facilities being attacked. If there is a war, the Rich are waging it. But I don't think there is one. So Bill Frist can stop saying the word. It's as old and tired as Democrats shouting "Racism!". Not quite so old and tired as most of the Senate, though.
When someone says "The bulk of these tax cuts will go to the wealthiest Americans and corporations." they are just STATING THE FACTS!!!! And stating a fact != waging war. This is why we never have real debate anymore. Niether side can do anything that hasn't been market tested. If it doesn't envolve a keyword meant to enrage the senses of a [redneck, liberal, conservative, auto-worker, AARP Exec] then a Senator isn't going to say it.
And that, more than any police state or corruption, is the real death of our once great institution of Government. When ad hom attacks and non-sequitors are the only thing we hear from our leaders, what value do they have to us?
This guy (LotsaFlash) wrote this: (found on LMB)
"People who follow authority are dangerous motherfuckers. More crimes are committed in the name of obedience than disobedience. It's always the people who do what they're told who end up carrying out genocides and gas attacks. So just to be on the safe side I've stopped doing what I'm told, ever. That way you can always be sure."
Wow. I've felt this way since I was 12 years old. That doing things simply because someone told you to is to do things for a stupid reason. If you are going to do something, know why you are going to do it. Understand the context of your behavior as much as possible. This doesn't prevent atrocities per se, but it make you something less than a mindless idiot that takes everything for granted. And you'll hate most Television.
Of course, feeling this way for nearly 20 years has made me someone that is not all that great to have to deal with. A small price to pay for not being a mindless isiot that takes everything for granted. Or a lever puller for a gas chamber.
Mark O. had a post about the first time his (5mo old) daughter slept through the night.
Trevor is doing pretty well. I still get up once or twice to stick a suck-toy in his mouth. And depending on how his feeding schedules work out, he may want to eat now and then @ 1am. But for the most part he sleeps a solid night of sleep. My problem is that he starts @ 7 or 8PM. So 3-4 hours of his solid sleep are spent by me goofing around on the computer or a video game. Not sleeping. So when he does get into 6-8 hr window where he fusses, it's smack dab in the middle of REM sleep for Daddy.
What I really need is one of those Ozzie and Harriet setups. Then I'd be too far away from Kristi for her to kick me when he fusses. ;) [smiley added so Wife knows I'm just kidding about the seperate bed thing.]
To quell Mark's desire for the freedom he tasted...don't worry. It will be here soon enough. She's just now getting to where she can eat more at a time, and thus less often. As you introduce her to real baby food in addition to titty-milk/formula she'll continue to be able to go longer periods of time without being hungry. Trevor is now 7 mos old, and he slept from 6pm to 6:30 am last night, with only needing his pacifier to go back to sleep 4 times.
I can tell you, as the person that does most of this middle-of-the-night stuff, it makes a huge difference when you only need to wake up enough to stick a pacifier back in their mouth. I can go all night and never really be conscious. Brevity of interuptions greatly increases quality of sleep.
Provided you have used a baby monitor, anyway. :)
If ever there were a time in my life when I wished my job had an equivilant to section 3 of the 25th Amendment, it is now. I don't know if it's the drug I'm taking, the crappy weather, or the short-handed goal I allowed to FLA, but I just don't feel like I have my normal command of everything I'm involved in. At work in particular I can't seem to focus much on anything.
I can't wait for June to get here.
Belgium, innovating potato culinists, have accepted a War Crimes lawsuit on behalf of 19 Iraqi's against Tommy Franks and some of his underlings for the use of cluster bombs. Im already planning on having Freedom Waffles for breakfast.
Not accepting that appointment to the Navel Academy. [link]
Until my 30th birthday. I've left myself a few notes to make sure I remember to stay away from cats. And in case you have $600 with my name on it, I'd like you to spend it on this:
Brandt is maybe the only person reading this that understands the importance of Johnny Cash and his family. At least the widow won't need to dress any differently for the funeral.
June was one of the pioneering women in Country Music. Not this psuedo-country bullshit that Shania et al spew out. But real, honest-to-goodness "my dog ate my ex-wife and died" country music.
A taker of Pascal's wager, she is resting peacefully. Knowing that Johnny can't be far behind her, I'm going to pirate some classic Cash tunes tonight, and beat the rush.
I'm now entering the third week of getting my ass kicked by hoards of invaders I'd need a decent microscope to see. 11 days ago I saw a Dr. (or at least someone that had convinced other people she was a Dr.) and she diagnosed me with sinus and ear infections, as well as bronchitis. Gave me a common anti-biotic with a ten day course. After about two days, the Sinus infection seemed gone. little drainage, and no discomfort. The bronchitis never faded.
This weekend (spent at one of NC's many beautiful beaches) the sinus infection seemed to be coming back. By Monday night, it was in full force again. Tuesday was miserable. Wednesday was awful (I even took the afternoon off sick).
So yesterday I decided to go back to the (fake?) Dr. and try another course of meds. Enter Levaquin. A member of the quinolone family of anti-bitocs, it is a narcotic. That means it will dull my pain. Which is something I support. It's also addictive, which is something I don't support. (Mountain Dew excepted). And it should kick the living shit out of these infections.
So enjoy your first victory, you fucking microbial bastards. It will be your last.
I couldn't make this up.
Texas House orders Arrest of Dems who didn't show up to prevent a quorum for votes.
Good for them! They owe it to the people they represent to do whatever they can to protect them from a naked emperor-led party dead set on destroying government that serves you and replacing it with a government that limits you.
If any of them need a place to stay while on the lamb, I'm listed. And I just bought a comfy new mattress for the futon. Must like dogs and not mind being awakened @ 12:17 am for a few minutes until I can shove the pacifier back into Trevor's mouth.
This is why Girl Scout Cookies are Very Bad for you. The next time one of those green-clad merchants of Death come knocking on your door, politely tell them that thier cookies contain the leading cause of the leading fatality related illness in the United States.
A "public-interest" lawyer in good ole Californicate is suing Nabisco, makers of Oreos (and sister company to the Joe Camel), for putting Trans Fatty Acids in Oreos, but not disclosing that info. This is a test case, effectively trying to get the courts to force Food peddlers to do what the FDA has asked them to: List Trans Fatty Acid content on the packaging.
The FDA, according the article, estimaes that up to 17,000 cases of Heart Disease could be prevented simply by INFORMING consumers about the contents. Of course, considering most of our food is packaged by companies owned by Tobacco companies, disclosure of harmful yet addictive substances is not something we expect any time soon.
Brandt makes a good point. Why am I not updating this blog very often?
1. I'm pretty pissed off about a lot of things. But other people speak about it. I'm not against linking to other people. I just don't get passionate about it, usually. If I read something on LMB or Warblogging that lends a voice to my thoughts, I'm generally content to accept that my thoughts are out there already. Perhaps my Usenet days have cursed me in this regard.
2. I'm busy. Yeah yeah, everyone is. But everyone doesn't have an NHL2K3 dynasty to maintain. Or a fantasy baseball team to track. As has been the pattern in my life, priorities are an issue.
3. I'm sick. That covers the last week, anyway. Bronchitis is kicking my ass. First time I've ever had it, and it sucks. Can't stop coughing. I feel like the Malboro Man.
4. Mental vacation. Just wrapped up a 3 month long Win2K/Exchange migration at work. Spent a lot of my nights working on it. It's over, as of last week, and my brain needs time to readjust to the lower pressure on the surface.
Those are all of the excuses I can think of for now. Time to go cough up the rest of this lung.
I decided to change "Why am I doing this?" to something a little more relevant.
I've been pondering a name change, but settled on a subtle change for the time being.
Now that my nose has figured out it's not in a Marathon, my lungs have decided they didn't like softness that has has taken over my once rock hard abs in my advanced age. So they are making my cough. A lot. Feels like I spent all day doing situps.
I took 2 sick days this week. I took one in Feb, the last time Trevor passed a daycare gift onto us. To put this in perspective, I had never, EVER, taken a sick day from work. In nearly a decade of having a job of some sort, I had never called in sick.
But 5 months in daycare and the kid has gotten me sick enough on two occasions that I really could not have done much work. He better start walking soon. If I'm going through all this for him, the least he can do is get me stuff.
And that mower is self-propelled. No reason he can't start using it when he's 3. Might need help starting it, but I can do that. I'm all about helping him. ;)