Random Thoughts for July 2011

I don't like algebra.

I enrolled in online classes at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh at the beginning of the year, and classes have been going great. I had a 4.0 grade average until I got to my current class - algebra. This stuff kicked my ass 30 years ago, and it's not changed a bit. I have another math class after this one, so it's 11 weeks of swallowing a bitter pill, and then I get back to the fun courses.

The finger I broke last year has healed up very well, and I'm playing bass again regularly now.  I still don't have a place to play that I feel good about. I've got a weekly gig in church every Sunday morning, but it's only a few songs, and we don't practice enough for me to feel competent with the material.  In my old band days, we'd practice for a few hours on a weeknight and then play for 8 hours over Friday and Saturday night, so we had things down pretty good.  I still want a Rickenbacker, but I'm also thinking about picking up the regular guitar again and making an effort to learn that.  The guitar shop here in town had a sweet 12-string Fender acoustic/electric for about $350 last year that I wish I had bought. There's always another guitar, though. Rickenbacker makes 12-strings, too, so they still make what would be my ultimate goal.

I have a Fender Precision that I took apart last year that I need to finish painting and put back together.

Been really getting into marketing on the web lately.  I'm doing the website for the company I'm working for now, and most of it is active at www.wwspwear.com.  We're a large silk-screen t-shirt company, and we have almost 30 years worth of work to showcase, so I chose to put it in a Picasa gallery rather than on the site.  That way, I can update the gallery and arrange however I want, and not have to keep editing multiple webpages.  I've also got drawings for business cards, window lettering, and packaging to create an overall image for the place.

I have my own sites that I need to update as well.  My web design company I have with my wife at www.brickhousedigital.com, and my comic book site at www.skulfrak.com.  I used the Skulfrak site as my portfolio when I was job hunting, but hopefully I won't need it again for that purpose for a long, long time.  I'm going to switch it over to my idea for comic book publishing, but between work, family, school, playing bass, and some gaming, I don't have a great deal of time for anything else right now.

I wish Obama would just mint two trillion dollar coins, throw them in the treasury, and put this debt ceiling crap to rest. You're the POTUS, dude. Grow some stones and show the tea party you're like a BAWS.

Disenfranchised

I've always been a lifelong democrat, but the recent nonsense dumped on us by the party leaders has made me question why I put my loyalty with these people. I'm certainly not swaying towards republicans, but I'm feeling that the entire two party system in this country is hopelessly broken, and has let the people down.

There was some excitement a while back, when democrats assumed control of congress, crowing that "the people have spoken, and the people want change!". Nothing changed. They promised not to give Bush any more money for his war until he came up with a strategy for getting us out, but he didn't and they gave him money anyways. Nothing but political bickering and partisan posturing while more kids die in Iraq.

Now, here in Florida where I live, we have a particularly weird set of rules for voting. In primaries, we're only allowed to vote for the candidates in the party in which we're affiliated. In the big election, you can vote for anyone. Whoever wins though, gets the entire state, which is huge in the electoral collage.

So, to set the stage for my problem, for the last 12 years or so, my vote hasn't counted for shit. Even though I voted for the democratic candidates, Florida (my vote included) went to republicans, which of course handed the last two presidential races to George Bush. And we've had a nice long string of republican governors here too.

This year, I finally have the opportunity to go to the polls and cast my vote in the primary to help decide whom the democratic frontrunner will be. Or so I thought.

Florida decided to move up its primary to have an earlier say in things.

"The Democrats are taking that possibly ill-advised risk because Florida stunned the nation last year when it leapfrogged its primary from March to January. It was an act of rebellion against what the state called an archaic system that gives the traditionally early primaries, especially in small states like Iowa and New Hampshire, inordinate influence in determining presidential nominees. But the shift also violated Democratic National Committee rules - and prompted the DNC to declare that it would not seat Florida's 210 delegates at the party's convention next August in Denver, essentially declaring that Florida's primary wouldn't count. That also led Clinton, Obama, John Edwards and other Democratic hopefuls to sign a pact not to stump on the peninsula for the primary."

Are you fucking kidding me?

Howard Dean and the DNC are actually going to punish me by throwing out my vote? I know it's just a primary, but why the fuck would you conspire to keep democrats away from the voting booths? There were other unrelated measures up for a vote as well, but democratic turnout was very light, thus ensuring that republicans dominated the day.

Now, the Republican Party punished their people as well, by cutting the number of delegates in half, but they campaigned heavily here, and someone legitimately won the state. Why does the DNC feel so strongly about punishing their own people? They continually hammer us with "We want your money! We want your support!" But you're not going to count my vote? Go fuck yourselves.

Florida is a major powerhouse in every election, and the Democratic Party is so disorganized that they'll shoot themselves in the foot before they've even left the starting gate. If they can insult a state with more than 18 million people, they they've completely lost their vision.

I'm not planning on going over to the republican side, but I'm seriously thinking about switching my party affiliation to independent. I'm fucked out of primaries anyways, so I don't really have anything to lose.

I don't think we'll have any real change in this country until someone from outside the status quo process comes in and says, "enough of this bullshit!" And not someone like Ralph Nader. Someone people will genuinely be excited about and who will knock the good ole boy system out of power and start doing something for the people, by the people.