Anyway, I am leaving the big ol’ city and going rural to Duvall, WA for a little bit. Should be nice to get back to the quiet of a smaller town for a while. I’ll still have to commute into the city for work though. Tired of living in the burbs. I either need to live in a small town or right smack dab in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the city. So, I will figure out which is more in line with what I want and then see where I go from there. I’m glad I found a place I like though.

One last thing. Last month the University of Nebraska leave the Big 12 (Texas lovefest conference) to join the Big Ten. Strangely enough the count for both conferences is completely opposite of the name. Big Ten has 12 teams and Big 12 has 10 teams. I think that the change is good overall. I am looking forward to new rivalries. I am especially looking forward the the battles with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Should make for good times. I think this is the new Big Ten Conference logo… I like it.. fits well:

Verizon Datacenter in PHL

A while back I found myself in Philadelphia, PA for a weekend. I was in Boston doing some work and got word of a project down in PHL and decided to rent a car and head down that direction. I wasnt able to spend a lot of time there but I saw a bit of the downtown nightlife and was able to meet up with a friend I’ve known for a while but never actually met. I have to say that Philly has a pretty good bar scene and I wouldn’t mind going back just to do a bit more of that. Of course theres the historical sights and the other cheesesteak place that I didnt get to try.

The one thing about Philly that really seemed to stand out to me is that the buildings all seemed a big …larger than life. I have no idea why and they probably were no bigger than buildings in any other city. Some of the run down parts of the city were realllly run down. Other than that I suppose its not that bad of a place really. I’ll go back again sometime.

So far I have been able to stay in the Medford/Sommerville, Downtown, Brookline, and Back Bay areas. Brookline stands out as one of the more enjoyable areas I have been in despite the slightly crappy Holiday Inn. Not sure where i will end up for the next few weeks but I’m sure there will be some overlaps. I generally just look for hotels near the subway (T).

Scenario 1:
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack.
1957 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 – Police called and SWAT team arrives — they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1957 – Jeffrey sent to the Principal’s office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 – Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 – Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 – The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957 – Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
2007 – Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro’s English teacher.  English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1957 – Ants die.
2007 – ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents — and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny’s dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 – In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison.  Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

The United States is an amazingly stable democracy. For most Americans, the peaceful transition of power seems like a normal, common, and expected thing. Yet, over the course of human history, such peaceful transitions of power are the exception rather than the rule. Revolutions, wars, coups, and bitter transitions are the rule in most areas of the world, and the strong-armed changes that other people face undermine the stability of day-to-day lives. Currencies become worthless. People are driven from their homes and lives. Personal property is “nationalized.” In the United States, we are quite lucky that we don’t have to face such situations – and our safety from those situations is part of what gives us such prosperity.

Today, as Obama simply and quietly takes the reins of leadership, recognize that this transition isn’t taking place at the barrel of a gun – and it’s that stability and safety that plays a major role in the stability and safety in our own lives. [via - The Simple Dollar]

That is exactly why living in this country continues to be better than living in any other place in this world.

Still searching for the right WordPress theme. Something that will probably go on forever. I was fairly disapointed by my first premium theme buy. I might revisit it at some point in the future but for now I’m trying other things. I am really thinking about making the blog portion of this site a secondary page and havin a primary (front/home/splash) page that is more of an aggrigator for my online presnece.

Tonight I am heading over to the local Ford deal to see if I can squeeze a good deal out of them. I’m not holding my breath but if they can make the deal sweet enough I may be driving away  a new vehicle. Currently I am looking at a 2008/2009 Ford Escape Limited Ed.

If I dont end up with a new vehicle I think my Christmas gift to myself will be a revamp of my current tech situation. I need to redo my media server and get a full time Windows Home Server online. This will involve buying hard drives and RAM. I may decide to build an HTPC which would then shift some of my current hardware to that and enable me to buy/build an Intel Atom based machine for my WHS. I am really looking forward to Boxee coming out on Windows, however, I may need to build a good HDMI capable linux box to run it in the mean time.

That is all. Cheers.

It’s rather funny how things like this “Motrin moms” issue are viewed as some amazing show of power for social media when in fact it does little more than to show how a few herders can gather their flock, generate false rage, and create a “movement.”

The only thing to come out of this in my opinion is the fact that there are a lot of people out there so very willing to take something so clearly innocuous and blow completely out of proportion using such simple minded interpretations of what was actually said or meant by an ad.

So, when someone asks me, “what’s this social media thing anyway”, there is little to stop me from telling them that its a part of the internet where people who think they are a lot more important than they really are gather around faux celebrities who think they are even more important than the aforementioned group, waste obscene amounts of time and money, and in the end produce no real worthwhile results for society as a whole.

And as much as I enjoy tweeting, facebooking, and scrolling through endless blog entries and comments I’m sorry to say that it’s the damned truth and if “new media” doesn’t watch what they are doing they will quickly find them selves in the exact same position that “old media” is currently facing.

Now, excuse me while I go post this to my blog and tweet about it.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said,
‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.  Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected.

They would still drink for free.  But what about the other six men–the paying customers?

How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.  But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before.  And the first four continued to drink for free.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’ ‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man.
‘I only saved a dollar, too.

It’s unfair that he got ten times more than me!’ ‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man.
‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two?
The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison.
‘We didn’t get anything at all.  The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him.

But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.  They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.

The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of  Economics
University of  Georgia

The Wire premiered in June of 2002 and ended in March of 2008 but not before pounding out 60 episodes. Each of the 5 seasons focused on a different aspect of the troubled Maryland city of Baltimore which has seen it’s fair share of hard knocks. The themes for the five seasons were the drug trade, the port, the city bureaucracy, the school system, and the print news media. Each season follows a similar cast of cops, prosecutors, political figures, dealers, and fiends alike through the trials and tribulations of the massive drug trade and mountains of red tape that beleaguered Baltimore.

There appears to be a lot of political and social commentary mixed in with the series as a whole but the series creator, David Simon, has been specifically quoted in regards to Season 2 as saying that it is:

“a meditation on the death of work and the betrayal of the American working class.…[I]t is a deliberate argument that unencumbered capitalism is not a substitute for social policy; that on its own, without a social contract, raw capitalism is destined to serve the few at the expense of the many.”

It’s not all that difficult to determine that I probably wouldn’t see eye to eye with David Simon but in reading a few articles and having watched all of The Wire in only a few weeks time I have to say that despite his more liberal/left leanings and my more conservative/right leanings we would probably come out of a conversation with much closer viewpoints than one might assume.

I think a very interesting interview can be found here:

Q&A: David Simon (pt. 1) & Q&A: David Simon (pt. 2)

Bottom line is you should probably take the time to watch this series. You will most likely learn something from it simply because you will take the lessons people learn or the problems they have and filter them through the screen of your own life.

More on the show can be found at the Wikipedia article “The Wire (TV_Series)“.

Or at the official HBO website for The Wire.