Lifelog supplemental-commute rant

I have decided that it is time to start paying my stupidity tax again. It has been quite some time since I have seriously considered paying my stupidity tax, but life has progressed to a point that my stupidity has been once again activated.

It is not that I have any illusion that I can actually win, I'm not that stupid. But by paying the stupidity tax I buy a ticket to dream of freedom. It's not that I hate my job. I actually take a certain amount of pride in my job. ( perhaps a little too much pride.) I am very good at it, and very knowledgable. While some aspects have changed over the years. I still get to help people have a better life. (why am I hearing echos of "code monkey"..."this job fulfilling in creative ways". Yeah) Beyond all that I like most aspects of my job.

I think what I actually hate about my job is the commute. I mean, honestly, well again I am hearing a song echoing 2NU "Frank's chair" has a line. "...when you live in a society whose philosophy is "Why make small problems when you can create a holocost?" then you have to make your way home in a society that maintains that philosophy in their driving".
(or something like that). It's the driving. ONE WHOLE HOUR of my life ripped from my soul in the company of people who's only goal in life seems to be either to get in front of me and slow down...or to position their vehicles in such a way that I cannot get into the lane I need to be in. EACH WAY. And it doesn't seem to matter what day, orwhat time I sm driving. They are always there waiting for me. Sure, sure there is some variation in the thickness and hostility of the traffic. I have even noticed a correlation between the volume of traffic I encounter and the pace of my day. (more on that later unless I get distracted). In the interest of complete honesty I have to admit here (Well, I don't HAVE to, but if I don't say something it will be stuck in my brain and bug me for many days(not necessarily in a row) so here it is) I have voluntarily extended my commute. After a couple months I could not take driving on the freeway for 45 minutes twice daily with the only hope of some distraction from the drivers crowding my car like a bunch of sardines with seperation anxiety. So, I took a stand, made a lifestyle choice and decided tocdrive the backroads through a small town and along a river. It lengthened my commute by 5-10 minutes (up to 15 depending) but it removed 20 minutes of freeway travel (per direction). Plus, I get to drive along a river which I can convince myself is peaceful if/when I'm not stuck behind a string of cars all deciding to go travel 7 mph below the speed limit until I try to pass. I swear they go out of their way to make my cruise control useless.

I mentioned earlier that I noticed a correlation between the volume of traffic and the pace if the day. I think there is anoylther correlation. I think mist people enjoy their work. Or get sone kind of satisfaction out of it. People tend to stop doing things that make them miserable (except perhaps driving which is interesting) and yet people constantly complain about their jobs. I blame traffic. I think that commuting is so horrible that it influences the perception of work. I mean honestly the bookends of the workday is the commute and however that turns out creates the frame in which we view our job. I hear a voice in the crowd saying that they work from home and are still miserable. The question I ask is...sure you work from home,but how many meetings do you have to travel to attend?How many in a day? Sure you do not have a big commute but several tiny commutes throughout the day is even worse.

So I gave decided it's worth occasionally pay some stupidity tax. Dream of opening a game store, or a snack bar, of anything. Just something I can walk to in about 7-15 minutes. I could still get the fulfillment of doing a job and doing it well. But it would not be tainted by the horrors of driving. Of course there is no chance of actually winning the lottery (hense the term stupidity tax). But the occasional (maybe once or twice a month) dollar to dream is acceptable. It won't solve my troubles but indulging in the dream will help distract from the horrible people my fellow men (andw women) turn into when you get more than 5 of them on the same road.


Questions inspired

1)is there a way to force people to listen to the songs I mentioned in this rant?
1b) should I force people to listen to the sons mentioned in thus rant?

2) why is it that if I doublespace after a questionmark the frustrating I-thingee I am using turns it into a period?

3)why don't I just look for a job doing the same thing closer to home?

Convention log

Here I am halfway through gamestorm. I am kinda tired. Stayed up playing until 2am. One of my friends mentioned it's like Vegas. The lights are always on and you never leave the hotel. True enough. Maybe I will get fresh air today. We shall see. I've played tons of games. And I haven't. Lost them all either. Which is kind of surprising. I saw Wes a really good friend from days Gond by. Isn't that a fantastic phrase? "Days gone by" kinda Old or traditional sounding. I think more people should say that. Of course it depends on the circumstances. For example if somebody were to ask " what's for breakfast?". Days gone by would not be an appropriate response. Unless, of course, you were a cronovore. But then we probably wouldn't. Be having this conversation because I would be fleeing in terror. Although... I don't really know what a chronovore looks like, so I guess that could be prejudism on my part. I am getting a little more relaxed here at the convention. I have decided that I don't care if they failed to reschedule my rum & pirates game. Wow, spellcheckers or...what's the word? Word completion software? When I type on my I thingy it gets bored with my ramblings and decides to guess my words as I type them. If it guesses right I press the spacebar. (except it's really not s bar because I am using a touchscreen so I guess it's the space space. But I digress (all the time).). Anyway if I indicate it's correct it locks the word in and scores a point. I don't see it as particularly fun but it's that behavior I am talking about when I say word completion software. The two funny things about this are 1) it's bad at the game, and 2) It cheats. It's bad at the game because it guesses stupidly. For example when I typed "cheats" it guessed chests. Or when I typed games earlier, I accidentally hit fs instead of ga. It guessed fsme I didn't let it use that. But I mean come on put some thought into your guess I-thingee (another example. I just typed "thingee" and it guessed "thonged" I mean honestly is thong even a verb?

But it makes up for it's lack by cheating. For example if I type the word "I" it guesses I am typing the word I and takes credit for the win. Admitedly that does save me the trouble of capitalizing the I but it's still pretty unethical to claim points for a 1 letter word. That is not the only way it cheats. If I am typing a word and it guesses a different word with the same number of letters. It will score it's word without souch as a "by your leave" which is another cool phrase that should be used more. Except that cylons have corrupted and ruined it. So anyway that's the mid-point gamestorm update. More later.

Empty nest blog recap

Okay it has been a long time past that empty nest started. So I am going to recap and hit the highlights here.

First off what you have to understand is that empty nest starts before the child actually goes off to college. This is a weird time for both the child and the parent. The child is exploring it's independece, and the parents are trying to figure out where the boundaries are. Relationships need changing but rarely do those involved know how to change them. We are after all human and more inclined to emotion than ration. So even in the most ideal relationships ideals pre-emp common sense. Basically nobody knows where they fit they just know that things will change and try to prepare.

The preparation is itself worrisome. How far to go? How far to let go? Admitedly I fared on the side of long windedness. But still how do I speak with authority. Where does my gerisdiction reach?

iPod log phase 1 (aside perhaps?)

Okay so here goes nothing or something. I don't know but i am typing from my itouch thing and it is totally different than having a keyboard. But, it's better than not logging at all. Well not really the thing is I totally need s video game because some days are worse than others. So, what happens when you get an ithingee and only have like a dozen cd's to add to it? Well in my case you fill the stupid thing up with podcasts and free apps. Although if I were going to be completely honest it is not even half full yet. Still I can play cribbage and roll dice and score boardgames. And now apparantly I can post to my blog as well. The sad thing is that this doesn't work when you turn it sideways. Okay that isn't truthful completely because it "works" BUT...it doesn't slide the keyboard into the wide and less likely to hit the wrong letter thing. So, I am not writing this in order to complain about the stupid tiny keyboard, but more so that I can talk about th podcasts I listen to and what i think about them. It's funny because the look of the keyboard reminds me of when I was a kid. For Christmas one year my father got the family a computer. Specifically s timed Sinclair 1000. With the big block extra ram and a cassette storage device. Ahh the hours of fun playing "dukedom" and then the even more fun changing the program to triple my crops. Bug that silly thing had s membrane keyboard which is exactly nothing like this "touchscreen" keyboard. EXCEPT. The fact that you cannot type forcresl on either one. still it was my first introduction into the wonderful world of technology. And now where an I? I've got e cell phone without the phone and I have actually concidered a facebook account. What I really want to know is why in the ever-lovin turbid world can't I log my games through my ithingamajobby? There is a bgg app but it doesn't log plays. Or am I just to technophobic to actullu check for that? One thing I have learned is that I still forget what I'm typing mid sentence. Oh yeah I learned that wifi is not near as common as media portrays it.


Questions to ponder:

Why do people feel a need to pretend like they are going to pass me and then just pace me as the lanes end?

Do they make the screen keyboards so cramped to discourage parents with fat fingers from emulating their children?

How likely am I to post more frequently now that I can do it in a new and tinier yet more portable way?