Venting

Obviously a terrorist

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Zachary Christie. He’s obviously a terrorist.

How do I know this?

Why, he ran afoul of the Newark, Delaware school district’s zero tolerance policy.

What did he do?

He brought a utensil to school.

You see, 6 year old Zachary just joined the Cub Scouts. He received a folding utensil that can be used as a knife, fork, and spoon. He was so excited at receiving it, he wanted to use it to eat his school lunch.

Obviously a terrorist. Spoons… soon we won’t be able to take those on airplanes either.

As the result of this, the boy faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.

Obviously a troublemaker. Thank God those school officials acted now. Who knows what could have happened if this sort of behavior went unchecked. I mean, the boy takes karate… obviously demonstration of violent tendencies. Then he joins the Cub Scouts, with all their uniforms and handshakes and oaths, learning about camping and the outdoors, maybe even how to shoot a BB gun… what sort of paramilitary training is this?!?! I’ll say it again, thank God for those school officials.

So, what is the mother doing? Homeschooling him, at least while this whole ridiculousness is going on.

Frankly, I hope Mom makes it a permanent setup. Zero-tolerance for public school lunacy, I say.

But you know, easier to hide behind stupid policies that don’t work (in fact, they tend to make things worse) than use your brain. Wither education.

How disheartened should I be?

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Last night, Wife had a workshop to attend so it was just me and the kiddos.

We had dinner at home, then opted to go out for ice cream. The particular shop we went to has a place outside where you can sit, kids can run and play, and you can just enjoy the evening. The weather was fantastic last night, so outside we went. Being a gorgeous Friday night, lots of other people were out and about, many kids running around, chasing each other, playing. A good night.

As soon as we found a spot, we sat and started to eat. Not a few seconds later did I look over and see a little girl maybe 8-10 years old lying in the grass on her back, crying pretty hard, holding her head. One of her friends was kneeling over her asking if she was OK. I could hear the crying girl affirming she was OK, so as I watched for a few seconds I was observing a few things: was she in fact OK? give it a few seconds to see if she shakes it off, gets up, and keeps on playing? Parents coming over to check on her? Well, I saw none of this. Little girl remained on the ground crying, no adults whatsoever coming around. In fact, there was a lady sitting on a rock between me and the little girl (i.e. right there not 10 feet from the girl, closer than I was) and the lady never made a move to check on the girl.

After a few seconds, I opted to go over and check on the girl. I asked her if she was OK, she continued to nod yes and got up off the ground, sill crying, but I could tell she was OK. She ran off to go find her parents. I watched the girl run off, over the hill, down to another restaurant then lost track of her. A minute or so later I noticed a couple of the other girls that were in the same pack were pushing each other with mean looks on their faces and one got knocked to the ground. I was “this close” to stepping in but as soon as the one girl hit the ground everything broke off on their own. As I saw these girls throughout the evening, they were all still playing with each other so who knows what the social dynamic was.

So what bugged me about this?

That no one cared.

The place was swarming with adults, but there’s a little girl… crying… lying on the ground in pain. And no one noticed. No one (but me) cared. If anyone did notice, they didn’t feel any motivation to check on her and help her. I’m not painting myself as a saint, but rather an observation of how oblivious people are.

As my own children played and ran around, I kept an eye on them but also watched all the other people. Task fixation was rampant. People minded their own children to some extent, but then there was little mind paid to what was going on around them. I was just a bit appalled. Why is this? What has come of our society?

Furthermore, I watched other children on the playground. I saw the general lack of manners, turn taking, consideration for others. Then I saw their parents, and the role model was evident. Not all were this way, but many were.

Then we walk through the parking lot and I see people just walking out in front of moving cars. I don’t care if you have a legal right of way, if the driver doesn’t see you, you will lose the battle with the ton of steel hurtling towards you. Why do people do this? Sense of entitlement? Ignorance? An “I’m right and fuck you!” attitude? I don’t get it.

Just how disheartened should I be in my fellow man?

I am no saint. I used the opportunities from last night to talk with my children to reinforce some valuable lessons (teachable moment). Yes sometimes you have to resist, but sometimes it is better to yield. Pay attention to the world around you. Be polite. Treat people as you want to be treated. Be the change you want to see in the world.

The waiting is the hardest part.

/ hsoi

With apologies to Tom Petty.

That’s all I’m doing right now. Waiting.

Waiting to see how much it’s going to rain this weekend.

Waiting for Apple Developer Technical Support to get back to me with answers to the problems I’m encountering in the product I’m working on.

Waiting for the updated documentation to be delivered so I can integrate it into the product.

Waiting for the work day to end so we can attend my church’s parish fair. Which also means about the only time with the Wife and Kids this weekend. So, waiting on being able to spend my time with my family.

Waiting for the main event of my weekend to start.

Just waiting….

As long as I’m thinking about the Combined Skills class….

What do I want to get out of it? Education. Tom Givens and SouthNarc are among the best in their field. I just want to learn. I just want to further my skillset. I want to open my mouth as little as possible and open my ears and mind as much as possible.

And if it’s raining a lot, that I don’t flub up my draws too much. 🙂

Saving us from ourselves

/ hsoi

I see a headline at SayUncle that grabs my attention: Kimchi.

Being as my mother is Korean, I of course have eaten lots of Korean food…kimchi is quite the staple of my diet. In fact, just reading Uncle’s blog post and the comments, my mouth started to water, the bottom dropped out of my stomach. Man… talk about Pavolvian response. 🙂

But the point of his article was something we ourselves had encountered. Being a geek, that means my workday tends to be surrounded by other geeks, especially back in the days when I worked out of an office building. Back then a lot of the folks I worked with were single and had little life other than work. Or if they did play, often it was with people from work and many times playing multi-player games over the office network. One thing Wife and I realized was how they didn’t eat all that well, or if they did it was expensive restaurants.

Looking for a job opportunity, Wife thought she could make food for my office-mates. Make huge batches of various dishes, portion them into containers, sell a week’s worth of containers to someone. They can stick ’em in the freezer, then defrost and heat in the microwave as needed. It would have worked out great… except for massive amounts of government regulation. It’s interesting that I can make food to feed my family — arguably the people I care most about and above all others wish to ensure their good health and welfare — in this kitchen, but I can’t make food for someone else, at least for profit, in the same kitchen. That I don’t have two mop sinks somehow means this kitchen isn’t good enough to make for-profit food for someone else. I could have a huge dinner party for my friends, and that’s OK, but if I charged money to consume the food suddenly the food isn’t clean enough.

Go figure.

Playgrounds I have known

/ hsoi

Going through my morning blogs and news rolls and get to the Once Upon a Win website with this entry about dangerous playgrounds.

Ah yes, real playgrounds, from our youth.

You see, when we went up for the funeral, as I mentioned, the town was so small they didn’t even have a stop sign on the main drag. But there at the community center was a playground. A joyous playground that I’m sure would make some of the neaüveux parents of today just shit their pants with fear. 🙂

See-saws… and without handles too!

A big metal slide.

Various swing sets, with various sorts of seats from repairs over the years…. all guaranteed to burn the back of your thighs.

A tractor. Yes. A tractor. Just a big farming tractor, obviously disabled, but just mounted there for the kids to play on. Reminds me of when I was in 2nd grade, the school I went to had a giant gutted fire truck on the playground. I’m sure the “safety pencil and a circle of paper” folks of today would be calling their lawyers. But oh how joyous it was.

A hill with pipes. Just a big 4-way intersection drain pipe that was above ground, but then dirt piled over it. Talk about a great place to make a fort or other things that can just spur a child’s imagination.

A couple “merry-go-round” sorts of things.

Blacktop with basketball hoops.

Monkey bars.

All sorts of things. All made out of metal. No plastic. No rubberized or mulched areas to protect the precious snowflakes from falling and risking a skinned knee. It was just a glorious playground to behold, where kids can be kids, they can use their imaginations, and if they happen to get hurt they learn how to shake it off and keep playing.

It’s good to know that somewhere in America there’s still a place where kids can be kids and learn things that will be useful to them as they become adults, and not further the wussification of America.

How is this not a hate crime?

/ hsoi

Story here. Woman gets a brick thrown through the window of her house. Brick has a note on it: “Keep Eastside Black. Keep Eastside Strong.” And this won’t be charged as a hate crime.

Why not?

Oh that’s right… the lady is white.

Racism only flows in one direction apparently.

Going off about going off

/ hsoi

The story is short and simple.

Passenger in car takes out his gun to show off to the driver and winds up shooting himself in the leg. How did it happen? The gun “went off”.

Folks, guns do not just “go off”. That’d be like matches suddenly igniting and starting a fire. Or a car suddenly starting and driving itself somewhere. Or a lawn mower spontaneously starting up and cutting the grass. Or a book reading itself. For any of these actions to happen, it requires someone to make them happen. Someone must strike the match, someone must start the car or the mower, someone must read the book. And as such, someone must fire the gun.

When things like this happen, it’s usually due to negligence. They put their finger on the trigger and fired it. Sure it was unintentional, but it was also negligent.

Follow the rules.

If you follow the rules, things like this shouldn’t happen. I won’t say they won’t happen because we’re human and we make mistakes. But that’s one of the things about the rules (whichever ruleset you follow). They are layered. If one rule is violated, ugly things can be averted. It takes a violation of more than 1 rule for bad things to happen. If you do your best to always follow all the rules, you should be in good shape. Unfortunately in this case, the first 3 of Cooper’s rules were violated, and at least the first 2 of the NRA rules were violated.

Morning randomness

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Went out this morning for a bit. A bunch of little things came up that aren’t worth a whole blog post, but I wanted to put down somewhere. Make one big post. 🙂

More from the snub-nose files

I opted to do a little snubby shopping this morning. I think I’ve settled on something like a Smith & Wesson 640: J-frame (or the like), all steel, chambered in .357 Magnum, fully enclosed hammer. Note that while I would like it to be chambered in .357, I don’t think I’d ever really want to shoot .357 out of it; probably just shoot .38 Special +P. I just think it’d be ideal to have it chambered in .357 so I could shoot it if that was needed; for instance, I needed that extra oomph, maybe that’s the only ammo I could find and would be better than nothing, etc..  The versatility and options from the chambering would be nice, but not required; I would be happy with just .38 +P.

Went to McBrides to see what they have. They had some stuff, but nothing like I wanted. In fact, on the drive home I also stopped into a pawn shop and a sporting goods store. Basically what seems to be carried has at least some aspect of what I don’t want. First, the predominant models are lightweight models, which I’m not sold on wanting. The all-steel models aren’t much heavier (tho I was amazed at just how lightweight that S&W M&P 340 felt, and I did like that U-ramp rear sight) and will be nicer to shoot. Then if they had a steel model it would have an exposed hammer. Or one third thing might be laser grips, which I don’t want. So, nothing in stock that I’d want, either new or used. But I do think that going used would be a way to go, if I can find it. 

Questionable Fund Raising

At many intersections here in Austin you’ll find people begging for money, food, pot (yes, I’ve seen requests for this on their signs), various other things. Oh yeah, they’re also disabled vets, anything helps, God bless. I’m not insensitive to the plight of the homeless, but the vast majority of the folks I see do this as their chosen way of life. I’ve seen them at various intersections around town over the years. If they’re truly someone in need of help, Austin is loaded with help; instead of walking up and down the intersection for a few hours and spending any money they get on booze, they could walk to the help facilities or buy a bus ticket or any manner of things to help themselves. But they don’t, because they don’t want to; they don’t want help. These folks are just freeloaders and parasites and I refuse to support that with my hard-earned money.

So then I see kids out there with signs saying they’re fund raising for their baseball team’s trip, or to help the basketball team reach the finals. Or some such thing. While that seems a more noble cause — and how can you place kids in the same boat — I have to question the tactics. That some adult leader of that group thought that begging for money would be a good way to raise funds, and that the rest of the adult leaders in the group went along with it and said yeah that’s a good idea. What a wonderful thing to teach the children, eh?

Motorcycle Parking Spaces

Do you know what a motorcycle parking space is? The same spaces that cars park in, unless a specific motorcycle parking space is designated (I’ve seen such things).

What isn’t a motorcycle parking space? Sidewalks, crosswalks, the walkway in front of a business door (that’s under the awning and out of the rain, but certainly isn’t a place for vehicles), handicapped walkways. I’m a motorcycle rider myself, but I just cannot stand when other motorcycle riders think that because they’re on a bike, because they’re afraid of getting their bike tipped over or rained on or merely because they’re small enough to fit in some spot (or maybe they’re just arrogant or lazy riders), that they can park wherever they want to. Sorry, no, you can’t.

At the sporting good store, a Moto Guzzi was parked in the handicapped area. You know how those spaces can be set up in the parking lot, with a wide space then lots of paint bordering things, leading into the middle, then through the median as a “cross-walk” so that people with wheelchairs can safely get around. Well, Mr. Moto Guzzi parked his bike right in the median break; no chance of a wheelchair getting through. Why does this bug me? Because I have a nephew in a wheelchair. I’ve had times when we’ve gone out and his van couldn’t be parked in a handicapped space because of people abusing handicapped parking hang-tags. Or in a case like this, the only way for a wheelchair bound person to get around would be to navigate through the parking lot instead of the designated lane. Not a safe and sound thing.

If you ride a motorcycle, don’t be an asshole. Park your bike in a proper parking spot. If you want special motorcycle-only parking, lobby for it.

Conversation I Overheard When I Returned Home

Wife: (Calls Youngest to come downstairs).

Youngest: (Eventually shows up).

Wife: Where were you?

Youngest: I was in my hamper.

Wife: You mean your clothes hamper? You were inside your hamper?

Youngest: Yes. I was sitting in it, clothes piled on top of me.

Wife:  Why were you doing that?

Youngest: I don’t know. It was comfy.

I’m not even going to try to understand it. I’m just going to chalk it up to some random cuteness. I later found out he decorated his hamper to look like a monster, so when you open the lid to put in your clothes it’s as if the monster is eating your clothing. Fair enough. 🙂

A couple things I’m tired of

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

If I may vent for a moment….

You start to hear or see something over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and eventually it wears on you. I was reading this article at the Christian Science Monitor and I saw the words yet again….

Gun lobby

That it’s all about the NRA, the gun lobby, and they’re all pro-death and pro-baby killing. As if it’s just this single lobbiest organization that’s causing all of the death and evil in the world. I grant, it’s one big gorilla in the room and they are rather powerful. Do you know why they’re powerful?

Because the NRA is made up of citizens. Citizens that donate time, money, and effort to make things happen. This isn’t some sort of slacktivism where you can put a magnet on your car’s bumper or sign up for a Facebook page and make you feel good about yourself. No, the NRA has power because they are a representative organization. They represent millions of US citizens. That’s why they’re a force. Next time you want to bitch about the NRA and the “gun lobby” realize that what’s really behind that are millions of Americans. It’s not a fear to cross the gun lobby, it’s a fear to cross millions of (voting) citizens. In 1994, it wasn’t a triumph of the gun lobby, it was a large swath of America letting their voices be heard through their vote. 

It’s not a matter of crossing the gun lobby or not… it’s not a matter of being afraid of the gun lobby or not… it’s the citizens, that vote, that get active in the political process, that care about infringements upon themselves, their rights, and their lives. Don’t tread on us.

 

But now I turn to this same group and say… can we please stop the abuse of the word “tactical”? I’m shopping for some gear and everything is tactical. There’s tactical polo shirts (huh?), tactical bottle openers, tactical butt floss, tactical bacon (OK, that’s actually kinda cool and funny). You start seeing the word “tactical” used in places where it doesn’t apply… but it makes it tacti-cool to use the word, right?