David's Tangled Thoughts

Ever since I heard about Comet Lulin appearing, I have been keeping a watch out for a clear evening around the time of its closest approach. The Lake causes our part of the region to be in an almost constant grey funk with cloudy skies. I had also been in contact with my friend Kacey who is also interested in astronomy so that when the time was right, we could see it together. The last time we tried this turned out to be a disaster. During my junior year at MSU , there was supposed to be a meteor shower that promised to be spectacular. The problem was that the weather wasn’t cooperative. Michigan was under a blanket of clouds. Having the time, money, and spontaneous drive to do not-so-smart things, we decided to take a road trip to west Illinois where the weather was clear. On our way there, we would be passing near to our homes and by cruel fate, when we were only miles away from home, we hit a deer on the highway and wrecked her car. Her mom was pissed when she came to get

The D.C. Voting Rights Bill has passed the Senate. If this bill passes in the House of Representatives and is signed into law by President Obama, the District of Columbia would be fully represented in the U.S. House of Representatives. I do not support this bill. Let me give you two excerpts from the U.S. Constitution: Article I, Section 2: The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States… Article I, Section 3: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State… It seems perfectly clear to me that the Constitution intends that the Legislature—both houses—is to be composed of members from the States. The District of Columbia is not a state. Therefore granting the residents of the district a voting member of congress would be unconstitutional. Proponents of this bill say that an amendment to the constitution is unnecessary since under Article I, Sec. 8, Congress exercises “exclusive l

Eh, John did it too. 1. Put your music player on shuffle. 2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer. 3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS! 4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the meme as well as the person you got the meme from. ---------------------------------- IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY? Just Like Honey (The Jesus & Mary Chain) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? War (What is it Good For) (Edwin Starr) Scary WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn) But… I’m not a fan of Tennessee… WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? Summer Girls (LFO) God, I’m so embarrassed on so many levels WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Brand New Day (Sting) Not bad… WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? American Idiot (Green Day) I’m smelling a setup here. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now (Starship) WHAT IS 2+2? Tattoo (Jordin Sparks) close… WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND(S)? 66 (T

The happiest years of my childhood were 1986 through 1989 when I lived in Key West, Florida. Although my dad was officially stationed out of an air force base on the mainland, he worked nearer to Key West which has a naval station and housing. So that’s where we lived. Although he might not agree, it was his best assignment ever from my viewpoint. Before, we went from living in the desert to sleeping next door to the Soviets. Hmm, I’ll take a tropical island next to Cuba any day. Living on base housing was great. It was like the Wonder Years where you could run around the neighborhood and play in the streets. It was a total free for all for kids there because base housing was on its own separate island and restricted from the public. I never realized how good I had it until I came to live in Michigan (where I lived in a house that the neighborhood drug pusher used to live in.) Anyways, since it was base housing for families, that meant there were children EVERYWHERE. My best

Life in Technicolor is my favorite track on Coldplay's album Viva la Vida . I wished that it was longer and, perhaps, part of an actual song. Well why the hell didn't anyone tell me about this! As Kacey would say-- gawd !

After about a week in another part of the complex, I’ve been allowed to return “home.” The position that I had been covering has been farmed out to three other people. They aren’t happy about it and I don’t blame them. Everyone is being stretched as far as possible. Not everything is settled yet but I think that things will fall into place once they are pressed to get things done. My desk virtually disappeared underneath piles and totes of paper while I was gone. I spent a good hour and a half trying to put it all in appropriate piles and figuring out which ones had priority. I’ve managed to at least clear off my desk top. I will take those small victories! The best part of my day were people coming up to me and saying that it was good to have me back. Screw the modesty crap. I LOVED IT! It feels so damn good to have people actually miss me. For all the moaning I do about it, this really is the second best job that I have ever had and I do like it. Now if they only paid me

I remember a time when the article feed back was done in the editorial section of a newspaper. Since news sites on the web have started to have comment sections much like blogs do, I have enjoyed reading some of the most inane responses in my life. Sometimes, I like to share it with others so I am adding another category to this blog. So to start it off, here's one from an article I read a few minutes ago:

Happy Valentine's Day for all you lovers out there. The rest of us hate you. We're jealous, we hate your mushy crap, or both. It's "both" for me. Added up, I probably have spent about six months of my life not being single. This, of course, largely consists of the time I experimented in college. Even then, that was hardly remarkable. Being single does bother me but I don't worry about it like I used to. You see, I used to have this romantic notion of finding a girl, marrying her, buying a house, and having kids. Each goal would be attained by a certain age. But as my life is clearly not on the track that I had hoped, I have come to accept that I don't know what's ahead. I don’t have lofty expectations anymore. So I take things as they come and try my best to make sure that I am making choices that will make me happy. Maybe someday I will be able to celebrate this damn holiday with someone but I am not going to kick myself in the ass because I cur

This day sucked donkey balls. Chris texted me and asked me how my day was going. I couldn’t say that it was going great but at the same time, how could I bitch about work when others don’t even have a job? In a strange way that made me feel even worse. I feel bad to begin with and then I feel guilty because I should be a little more positive. I got an unexpected (but not totally out of the blue) bill. Over $200. What a bummer. And to top it off, I had to tackle some chores that needed to be done. At least it's all done with and I can relax for a little bit before I enjoy some sleep that I have been looking forward to. I’ve got some problem solving to do for the next few days at least. I think I can manage however. UPDATE 02/13 I don’t have any fears about Friday the 13th but this was one hell of a day. It’s one thing to cover for a person for a day or so. I get that sometimes there are things that happen in life that can’t be avoided but I am getting sick and tired of con

If you watched TV last night, you probably heard President Obama's speech. In it, he mentioned his trip to Elkhart, IN. I work very close to South Bend Regional so I hear planes coming and going all the time. Plus, having lived near Air Force bases, I can tell when certain jet sounds are just a little out of the ordinary. So when I heard a significantly deep rumble in the morning, I told my coworkers, "Obama is here." They didn't believe me. And when I heard it again a few hours later I told him that he was leaving. They asked me how I could know these things and I can't explain it. How could you not? Other than the modified 747s that the President has, no other 747s land at this airport. Come back later tonight. I'll have some pics. Me on board one of the planes in the executive fleet that is typically used by the Vice President or Secretary of State.

So this is the scene from my front door today as the temperatures got up in to the 50’s (about 11C for those who like to think in those terms). The snow is just melting away and I’m talking about a foot and half of compacted snow. Do you know what this means to us Michiganders? Time to break out the shorts! We’re such an odd bunch because if this were fall, we’d be jumping into winter clothes. The bee hives were checked today and one of them didn't make it. One is weak and the last is strong. We've still got a ways to go 'till spring so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

I’ve had a week to play around with my new BlackBerry Storm. Thankfully, the phone has not been the nightmare that many reviewers have indicated it was. So let me tell you what I have experienced. Lagging/Freezing. Yes. This phone lags but the switching back and forth from landscape to portrait is only a moment and I have easily gotten used it. Where it lags the most is in the camera function. Taking pictures and reviewing them is touchy. Freezing has occurred only one time while switch between applications. A correction using the end button resolved it. Random reboots. I had one the day after I got the phone and as far as I have noticed, I have not had one since. Zac’s boyfriend, Drew, suggested that I pull the battery for a hard reboot. Maybe if these happened more often, I wouldn’t need to? I have done a couple battery pulls and have not noticed any effect but looking at other BlackBerry users, it appears to be a common thing to do. Inaccurate touch screen. I sort of a

President Obama wants to impose a $500,000 cap on executive pay for banks that are receiving money from the bailout. Am I glad that failed companies and their managers are getting their frills taken away? You betcha. But that is only after they received all the tax money as a crutch—which I disagreed with for the most part. If I was a CEO of a struggling company, I would think long and hard before accepting any kind of assistance from the government. The crew on Capitol Hill isn’t just going to give away money without strings attached. There is a real danger of giving up control over how one can conduct business. Now the government is going to come in and start dictating how much compensation is allowed. They’ve already proved that they can keep companies from purchasing things like corporate jets. Is it right that the government can do this? My simple answer is yes. When tax money is involved, hell yes the government can and should put as many strings on that money as possible

There’s a 25 Random Things [About Me] meme going around on Facebook. I’ve been tagged a few times and I want to do it but I can’t come up with 25 things. It’s been a larger part of this general mood that I’ve been in for the past couple of weeks which is why I haven’t been posting as much either. I’m feeling like a lump poo. I’ve got very little interest in doing anything—even something as making up a blog post or filling out a meme. So I’m going to suck it up. First, here is your blog post. 25 Things about David are going up on Facebook in just a few minutes. I’d tag people but I think basically everyone that I know has been tagged already. Yeah, I’m that late.