Rough week

This week I have been writing from my hovel, my all things pod, my couch. It has been my week off and has been filled with knee surgery, a funeral, a lot of TV, and so much sitting/laying that my back hurts.

Sad things first, in the past few weeks we have lost both mine and Jana's grandmothers. We are fortunate to have good genes and have the blessing of family living into their 90s. Both Grandma Stands and Grandma Secora passed away in the company of family and will be dearly missed.

On a happier note, I had knee surgery this week. Why is this "happy"? I was given about 50/50 chance of being on crutches for 3 days versus being non-weight bearing, on crutches and in a knee immobilizer for 6 weeks, not knowing which until I awakened from surgery. I awoke to the three day option and will definintely be skiing this winter. I had a bone spur taken off the back of my knee cap, which is now healing very well, thank you very much.

Yhus, why I have spent probably 60 hours on this couch over the past four days. There is a noted impression on one of the cushions. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to sit there when you visit.

Skype-Skype-Skype coolest thing ever, oh, and John McCain too.

Talked with my bro and sis in India via the ol' interweb yesterday. Real time video and real time sound. No significant delay, skipping, or other issues. Awesome and FREE! Anyone else want to video conference with me?

Just flipped past Letterman. John McCain canceled his appearance at the last minitue due to the "suspension" of his campaign to deal with the financial crisis? I am confused. Isn't this an opportunity for him to give examples of how he will help solve the crisis? Now we're just stuck watching Hannity...or is it Colmes? All those people look the same to me.

I was really looking forward to the debates Friday night.

**update: It was apparently Keith Olberman, not Hannity or Colmes. Nothing funny here.

Too close to home

Discussing Sarah Palin amongst friends the past couple of days we came up with some interesting thoughts...

The Gov's comments about having fired the personal chef that came along with the job. This makes me more sad than anything for a number of reasons. One is that the chef was a good friend of a friend and she was crushed when she lost the job she so loved. The second is that the chef provided valuable catering services, not the "I don't care if it's midnight, bring me a deep fried peanut butter and ham sandwich" that the image brings to mind. Lastly, I would hope that the governor was so busy, that cooking for the family was something that he or she (this is not Palin specific) wouldn't have time to do. Being a high level public servant is much more than just a 40hr/wk job that you clock in and out of. The true reason the chef was fired, was that Palin spent virtually no time in Juneau (the State Capitol), having been paid a per diem for the 300 nights she spent at home in Wasilla.

Which brings us to the 300 nights she spent in Wasilla out of less than two years as governor. Her commute was somewhat ridiculous. Jana brought up the question of whether Palin will commute to Washington the same way?

Debates start Friday. Should be fun.

Indian dreams

For those of you who know Dave (my brother), you'll be interested to know that he and my sister-in-law Angela moved, somewhat suddenly to Mumbai, India last week for a new job. Mumbai used to be Bombay, just like Istanbul was once Constantinople (Don't forget that every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople. So if you've a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul).

We are excited and trying to figure out how to visit. For the time being, we are just trying to figure out Skype. Has anyone used it?

Pet Peeves: Littering and Teenage pregnancy

Who litters these days? Seriously. I know that I come from a background that treasures all that is neat and tidy (note: don't look in our living room right now, Hurricane Church recently passed through), but who teaches their children to litter? I was following a car out of one of my favorite fast food restaurants (oh, Taco Bell, I can't quit you) and watched first the driver pitch a straw wrapper - okay, small and degradable- out the window, and then immediately following, the passenger threw a handful of taco sauce packets onto the street. Really? How does this occur to you? Hmmm, I have trash, but I have a bag which the product came in, and I have the floor of my car, and I have this small receptacle for trash...what should I do with it? Out the window. Great plan.

Now my limitless loathing of litter (but obviously not alliteration) finds its true nemsis cigarette butts pitched out at street corners. I have even stepped out of my car, walked up to the car ahead of me, picked up a discarded cigarette, and glared mercilessly at the occupants while we were travelling through Denali National Park. It's a National Park! Why? Please, if you know, please, let me know how people learn that this is acceptable. Perhaps it is just a lack of guidance versus actual teaching. Maybe I'm the odd man out and all those years of sweeping up butts off the sidewalk in front of the house were a societal life lesson that I apparently failed.

Now for something completely different...Teen pregnancy? Really? I know it is at the forefront of national interest (or was a week or two ago with Bristol Palin), but why are teens still getting pregnant, and why do some of them seem to want to be? I was trapped into watching an episode of Tyra at the gym earlier this week which featured a number of 14 year old girls who were pregnant or trying to be. The cluelessness was mind boggling. Perhaps I should start up a scared straight type program for teen girls by putting them up at my house for a few days. A plan for birth control in the water and a prescription for reversal needs to be done now. There I've said it. No more electoral hopes for me. So be it. Maybe I can become Surgeon General someday. If only an Alaskan would get elected to the White House. Ahhh, pipe dreams....

Check out the link from Val on "White privilege in American politics." Take it with a grain of salt, as it is a politically motivated website, but there are some interesting points.

Media Frenzy - Not about Sarah Palin

I now work 7 days on, 7 days off, which lends to a lot of time playing Guitar Hero (yeah, I rocked the medium level and can complete the Dragonforce, bizatch...well, on the easy level anyway) and following The Superficial and Geekologie with a pathological steadfastness. The post is really just to compare a scene from Pacman: The Movie (look at around 2:20 for the monologue) with Samuel L. Jackson's monologue from Deep Blue Sea, one of my favorite movie scenes of all time. Please watch both...and enjoy. (Press the colored words, y'all.)

$3269

PFD. BFD. The benefits of being an Alaskan stretch far beyond a low sun-induced skin cancer risk, the surprise hot Governor/Vice-Presidential candidate, and bears roaming our city streets. Today a large portion of the state received their Permanent Fund Dividend check in direct deposit form. Now, knowing that my parents read this blog from time to time, I won't say that I am bitter that I had to put mine into the ol' college savings account every year, but think where I could have been if I had been able to purchase a 4 wheeler or a trip to Hawaii instead. What good has my "education" done for me? Now, much like alcoholism and child abuse repeat in a sad, sad cycle, I will force my own children to place their free money into an account that will likely never amount to anything. At least when they turn 18, or if I die, they can spend it on something fun. Now that I'm a grown up, I think I'll spend mine on something much more responsible. I'm getting a motorcycle...with a sidecar. Sweet.

If you haven't heard of the free money they give away in Alaska, it basically boils down to this: 1) Oil companies drill for oil. 2)Oil companies make billions of dollars on oil. 3)The State of Alaska charges royalties on Big Oil's production. 4)Some dude invests the money in an offshore account, municipal bond, coffee shack, or some other wise investment. 5)The man then divides a small portion of the interest between all Alaskans. 6)This somehow amounts to billions of dollars.

Now (here's the commentary part), we have no state income tax or state sales tax, and much of our state budget also comes off of this same income process. Now although I am not a Republican and am not hugely in favor or government excess, couldn't we do some better things with this money than hand it out for a shopping spree? How about schools? Alaska used to have some of the best schools in the nation, with the best teacher salaries. This is no longer the case. How about services for the disabled? (Sarah Palin is a big proponent of this on the national stage, too bad she never mentioned it here at home. Don't get me wrong, I kind of liked her as Governor, but her new national persona is much different than who she was back home). How about infrastructure or maybe, just maybe we should plan for the future when we don't have giant piles of oil money laying around the house. Just a thought. (Not to go down the ANWR road, but even if we did open it, we are 10-15 years away from production and it will never sustain our national consumption of oil. Seriously, it is a drop in the proverbial bucket of oil, when will people realize that? It will be opened, it is just a matter of time, but it will never be the savior for which we have been prepared.)

Enough of the rant already. Need to go out and buy something.

Quiet darkness

Nobody really wanted her dead, not really. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t supposed to die. She was far beyond borrowed time. She should have died 6 months ago when this all started. He kept her alive. Was it for her sake? Was it out of his own greed or inability to cope with what life was like without her? Or was it simply the psychosis that affected them both? We signed her death certificate, against his will, but out of mercy or compassion or simply to ease our minds that we will not one day be here.

I didn’t make her path or choose her direction, but I may have hastened the arrival to her final destination by simply signing the paperwork. When she came back, I heard she was blue. I wasn’t there. I had family obligations.

Even after everyone had stopped, her husband continued. He tried to provide her with the breath she needed, but all that was left was grief and anger. She passed out of this purgatory we had created for her, hopefully to someplace better, even if it was simply quiet darkness.

Beary tale wedding

Just returned from my brother-in-law's wedding (actually Jana's Mom's Boyfriend's Son's wedding, but that's far too complicated) to which we took the whole brood (bad idea-don't invite children to weddings. Get a babysitter). It was to be an outside wedding, but the elements and a bear sighting kept us indoors. Not that I have ill wishes toward generic bridesmaids or that douche-that-you-can't-believe-your-friend-asked-to-stand-by-him, but make a mental note of a bear taking out one of the attendants as the vows are exchanged. Somebody please make a movie.

Hey, Look at the Pictures of my Kids below!

Again, my thoughts on this whole political fervor are a bit at a loss right now, but here is a well written opinion of Sarah thanks to Balko by way of Brian. Happy Friday (or for those of us who work 7 day weeks...status post-hump day).

Sarah (whisper it...) Sarah

Anyone else sick of Sarah Palin yet? I thought that I would throw my two cents out there about the Gov and her surprising leap to the national spotlight, but I can't bring myself to provide anymore comment. It's there, every time I turn on the TV, the headline of every paper, on NPR for Pete's sake. Leave me alone. That being said, maybe this is my chance to whore my blog out there. Hey look everyone! I'm from Alaska!! Look at me! Look at me!!!! Step right up up, see Sarah Palin Naked!! Did anyone see the kid who knocked her daughter up at the convention tonight. What an embarrassing way to gain a national audience. I guess it could be worse, you could be on the Hills.

Trying to get back in the habit...