Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy

The Elephant and the Dragon

A friend of mine sent me this email about his dream. I've heard my share of meaningless dreams from friends. I'm not saying this one isn't meaningless, but for some reason this dream strung an unknown note in me....

"I had a very vivid dream last night. An elephant riding a fearsome dragon was flying from house to house. Unconcerned, the occupants would open the door and welcome them in. After the elephant was done totally destroying the home, the dragon would devour the family members one by one. Neighbors would say, "Oh, that won't happen here. Elephants can be tamed, dragons could be nice if we just negotiate with them." When these creatures landed on my porch, I woke up."

College Radio

Only on college radio can you hear The Pixies sing Caribou and Nick Drake sing Pink Moon one right after another during regular rotation. Not even a commercial 80's station would put those two songs back to back.

I find it strange that I'm blogging about something seemingly so meaningless, but college radio makes me realize how controlled the radio waves are today. Your missing all the good stuff. Support your college and public radio.

Reverendfun.com

New Year's Resolution

I actually forgot my New Year's resolution, but remembered it this morning. Pretty sad, but at least I remembered. So, for 2009 my resolution is to not take anything for granted. Here are my top ten things I took for granted in 2008:

1. My beautiful wife taking care of Asher, bills, the laundry, wonderful home cooked meals after a hard day of work.

2. Employment.

3. The most generous parents and in-laws that are always willing to help us out anytime, anywhere and with anything.

4. My 200,000+ car only needing $200 in engine repair. The $400 damage repair that I caused is not included.

5. Only one big house repair. New washer.

6. Forgiveness.

7. Love.

8. Friends.

9. Riverview.

10. Heat.

The Millen Man March

I used to believe the roar could be restored, but when Matt Millen's contract was extended in 2005 I realized profit, not winning was Ford's intentions with the Lions. Since Millen's arrival in 2001, the Lions were 31-84, 26 games below .500, and had lost nine or more games each season. During the early part of Millen's tenure (2001-2003), the Lions failed to win a road game for three years (0-24).

So now my team is faced with becoming the worst team of all time. 0-13 and 3 games to go defeated. For the first time since 1992 do I find myself feeling like they can go all the way. Winning isn't everything.

Sufjan Stevens: Songs for Christmas

Through the years some amazing Christmas albums have been created. John Denver's A Christmas Together with the Muppets and Charlie Brown Christmas are two masterpieces. But back in 2006 Sufjan Stevens put together a box set of 42 tracks (over two hours of song) that he recorded over the last 5 years. You might not even know who Sufjan Stevens is but stop right now and go listen to samples of Songs for Christmas on Amazon. Samples never do a masterpiece justice, but you'll get a good taste of my favorite Christmas album/box set of all time.

Thanksgiving

Asher's first Thanksgiving went well until he started getting cranky and wouldn't go down for a nap. I sometimes wonder what Hell could be like and I think about the worse things in life. How about a screaming crying baby who is overly tired and won't go to sleep? And all you do is try to put him to sleep for eternity. Just got him down listening to his Smashing Pumpkins xylophone music. I almost like the xylophone versions better than the originals and I'm a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins so that says a lot.

My beautiful wife made me a wonderful T-day dinner. A couple of the highlights were her amazing cranberries that she cooks with Port.....yum, and the Crunch-Topped Sweet Potato Casserole. The casserole is not just a dish but an experience. It begins with the anticipation from smelling it when it's cooking and then on the first taste at the dinner table letting some of that pound of brown sugar that goes into making it slowly melt all over your taste buds. If you haven't experienced the Crunch-Topped Sweet Potato Casserole, you just haven't experienced one of the pinnacles of the Thanksgiving feast.

200,000 Club

We currently have 214,000 miles on our 1996 Toyota Corolla. I've been a high mileage car owner pretty much all my life. Just recently we bought a 2 year old xB, so that's the newest car I've ever owned. One day I'd like to say that I was a member of the 300,000 club, but the problem is I only put about 15,000 miles on a year. I guess I could just go out and buy a car with 275,000 miles on it, but that's cheating. You have to put in your dues through the 100,000 miles in the 200,000 mile club. So far the casualties on the Corolla in the 200,000+ range is a broken parking brake and new spark plugs and wires. I'm going for it. 6 years to go......

If you would like to join the 200,000 mile club:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2007/09/200000-mile-clu.html

Asher Week 21

FINALLY!!!!! I'm all caught up. Feel like I just went through a marathon of picture blogging.....

Asher Week 20

Asher's First Halloween

Asher Week 19

Asher Week 18

Asher Week 17

Asher Week 13

I've been extremely delinquent posting pictures of Asher. We are already on week 21. I'll slowly catch up, but for now here is week 13:

Credit Default Swaps

Anyone fully understand a Credit Default Swap?

"A credit default swap (CDS) is a credit derivative contract between two counterparties. The buyer makes periodic payments to the seller, and in return receives a payoff if an underlying financial instrument defaults. CDS contracts have been compared to insurance, because the buyer pays a premium, and in return receives a sum of money if a specified event occurs. However, this is a slightly misleading comparison because the buyer of a CDS does not need to own the underlying security; in fact the buyer does not even have to suffer a loss from the default event" - Wikipedia

I'm convinced the 700 billion bailout we just went through had much to do regarding Credit Default Swaps. They were illegal on Wall Street for almost 100 years and became legal in 2000. Is it just me or does that definition from Wikipedia sound like gambling? 60 Minutes aired this piece on October 26: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4546583n.

I Hate People

It's amazing what comes out of our mouths when we are at our peak of anger and frustration. Yes, i said, "I hate people" Friday morning. I had an extremely bad morning at work. My laptops hard drive died so I had to reload windows and lost some important documentation that couldn't be recovered. I was also confronted with a slew of problems that I couldn't get resolution in a timely manner.

It didn't help that the biggest problem was caused by another employee in my department who didn't document anything and most likely either remembered wrong, or never checked what the IP address was on the device so he randomly chose an IP address in the lot for that area and knew someone else would eventually be called to fix the issue. I could go further with this, but I have decided I need to confront this person on Monday. It wouldn't be right to sit hear and vent anymore negativity about this individual.

Judgment

Lately I've been judging people. They have done things that make my life difficult so I declare them guilty as charged. And off they go to my mental prison, never to be trusted again, unless they can prove to me they won't make my life difficult. I forgive them and I will forget the hurt over time, but I will hopefully always remember their actions so they and others can't hurt me in that same manner again.

Is this the right thing to do? We all have to protect ourselves to a certain extent from those that mean to continually do us harm. I don't like to categorize, or write people off. I am never one who likes to judge, but I find myself putting people
behind bars. Is this healthy? I'm not one who likes to put up walls, but lately I feel like I own the largest construction company in the world.

Minnesota Crime Commission

Even though I think Asher is the best behaving infant any parent could ever ask for, I know what lies ahead (terrible 2's) and the only way to curtail that and on through his teenage years is through instruction. This quote from the Minnesota Crime Commission regarding child rearing might seem a little extreme, but without
instruction and consequences I know I would of been a menace to society:

"Everybody starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants, when he wants it - His bottle, his mother's attention, his playmates toys, his uncle's watch. You deny him these once and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. His is dirty and knows no morals, doesn't know anything, and has no developed skills... This means that all children are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free rein to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want - every child would grow up to be a criminal, thief, killer or rapist."