David's Tangled Thoughts

When I was young—around six years old and living in Key West, Florida—my dad sent me to a horrible place. I can’t remember if it was a day camp or day care or whatever. It was odd because I had always come home right after school. There was always someone home. This particular day, however, was different and as I was sent off by dad, I remember feeling anxious. One comfort I had was my best friend, Brandon Mullins. He had been going to this place regularly so at least I had him around. You know how you get nervous about your first day of school? That’s what I felt like. I didn’t have any negative feelings about going to this place, I was just nervous. Oh, that was about to change real quick. I remember that a bunch of us kids were milling around on the outside of the building in the outdoor hallway. This guy appears and starts yelling at us for no reason. He barks orders for us to get into a line and then to put our backs against the wall while he did a roll call. Who the

There was a bit of exciting news that I saw today. Michigan State is setting up their future football seasons to regularly play either Western , Central , and Eastern every year beginning in 2011 for ten seasons. It’s not unusual to play one of these schools but they aren’t played regularly and they always come to Spartan Stadium. I always feel sorry for them. I mean, what team wants to take a beating at the start of their football season? That’s not to say that they don’t have a chance of beating State. Ask a Wolverine. Ah, forget it. Ask a Mountaineer. Quite honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if, say, Western gave us a good pasting. I do think that this is a good thing for our schools and our state. If this series works out well maybe it will even be extended.

Many of us locals are guilty of bad mouthing the fair as being a lame event. Yet year after year we go! We all go. There has never been an instance where I have walked the grounds and not run into (or avoided) someone I know and I’m sure that is the case for most people who go there as well. Personally, I think it’s an amazing thing as I cannot think of an even that pulls so many people together. Last night I met up with Kraig and Stacey . You might remember them from here and here . We went into the Historical Barn. While Kraig was talking with a woman that worked at the school we graduated from, I was taking a look at a display for the Schrumpf family farm. They are just down the road from where I live. One of the members, Laurie, was in my class. It was interesting to learn more about their family history. Most of what I know about mine comes from stories that have been randomly told. As far as I know there aren’t any journals, diaries, or old photo albums that can t

I may dislike clowns but I am afraid of balloons. Yep, after I took this shot I had to look away because I knew what was going to happen next.

I really, really dislike clowns. They're not scary but I suppose I don't see the point of all the getup and acting...well, like a clown. So I am a little surprised to admit that I found the head clown act this year to be one of the highlights of the entire show. Maybe because of the simplicity and audience interactions? Check out what he did to these four: Did he just leave us like this?

While walking down Michigan Ave., I was passing through a choke point manned by Planned Parenthood. Most people just walked on by but oh not me. Despite my differences with this organization, I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. My hunch was that it probably had something to do with the Health Care bill passed by the House. I was sorta right. They did lead in with the complaint that public funds could be withheld from those seeking to get abortions. I stopped her and asked her if I needed to be a resident. She was stuttered, probably wondering why I would ask that question. Well she was holding a clipboard and I thought she was trying to get people to sign a petition. As I said above, I do have my differences with Planned Parenthood and for the most part, the policies that they advocate are too far over the line that I draw. Some big examples are their acceptance of partial birth abortions and opposition parental notifications laws for minors. What I anticipate

A little while back, I got a message from a fellow blogger who was coming in from Australia to do some experiments in Chicago. John asked if I wanted to meet up. After years of commenting on each other’s blog, I thought it would be cool to meet him in “real life.” The plan was to meet at the base of the Sears Tower . I had anticipated driving and picking him up since he was out in the suburbs but his offering to meet in the Loop made it tons easier for me. Forget driving, I took the train. The South Shore was crazy packed. A lot of people had on Cubs clothing so I grimaced as I thought of how many more people would be getting on the train between South Bend and Chicago. When I got to the Sears Tower (by the way… I’m still continuing to call it that), there was a huge line and I was wondering if it would be worth the time and money just to go to the top of it. P-51s in formation It was going to be little while before John got there so I planted my butt in the courtyard and s

I got a form in the mail informing me that I was eligible to join in a class action lawsuit. I used to work for a huge retail giant. Let's call it Wally World. Apparently another lawsuit has been filed alleging that Wally World was having its hourly employees work off the clock. My own personal experiences with the company have, on the whole, been positive and they have made reasonable efforts to make sure that I was paid for my time. Technically, however, there were times when I and others ended up working when we weren't supposed to. Usually it was because we weren't paying attention to the time and we would work into our lunch hour. We'd still punch back in from lunch at our normal time. And even though we are told not to do it, there were instances on our breaks when we would help out customers on the floor if they asked. It's just the neighborly thing to do. Besides, to follow the rules would mean having spend more break time trying to track someone d

The Niles River Fest has been running for the last few days. I was planning to go yesterday to see the dragon boat races. See pictures and video of them here . Unfortunately it was raining (yay!) so I put it off 'till today. I planned to have lunch there but the place seemed deserted. The food vendors were sitting around. One was even taking a nap! And this was only 1:30pm. The whole situation weirded me out so I left after just a quick look through the stalls and the concert that was playing for a crowd of about fifty or sixty. I'm not sure why there wasn't a great turnout. Maybe it's the last day and there isn't anything on the schedule worth seeing unlike earlier in the week. It could have been the heat: high 80's with opressive humidity. It was so hot I actually saw someone splashing around in the river. Yuck not to mention stupid. That river is deadlier than it looks.

The company that I work for stores merchandise for various clients. Typically it’s not for regular consumers but for promotions and such. Sometimes, not all their materials are used so we have to destroy it. However, occasionally the company is allowed to give it to the workers. With the downturn in the economy, we have been getting a lot of free shtuff. You might be surprised how much junk people will take home if it is free. Recently we were given USB flash drives. They were old. They were 16Mb sticks. I happened to be carrying with me my own flash drive which I have had for years and it is 256Mb. I thanked them for gift but declined it. I mean I wasn’t going to use it, so why take it? Another person—let’s call him Ed, said that he didn’t want his either. “I’ve got one already. It’s an eight gig,” said Ed. The lady who was passing them out was looked at him weirdly. “Well these are sixteen .” I felt so bad even though I was shaking trying to hold back my laughter. She h

My own experience with health care lately has pushed me closer to the government, single-payer territory. Although I am a big supporter of the private sector, I have been wrestling with the idea of whether health care is a right that all citizens deserve from their government like the expectation of defense and justice. To put it simply, I am all for reform and finding some way to provide health care for all who want it. I am skeptical, though, of President Obama and the Democrats of putting together a system that would work and not cause an even more economic burden. My complaints and concerns are the same as what is prompting this push for reform. I obtained my own health insurance about 9 months after starting my job. I was a temp for the first six months and then had to wait another 3 months after officially being hired before coverage started. At first, I thought my health insurance package was fantastic. I never heard of the company before but hey, it’s not like I had a ch

I am not happy at all right now. It’s work related so I won’t get into it but I needed to share with anyone who cared, that I am on fire.

In frustration of losing an extra long blog post to internet oblivion, I have moved on to Plan B – a meme. I’m stealing this from Kacey, my friend on facebook. LAYER ONE: On the Outside— Full Name: David – yeah… I’m not telling you the rest. Birthday: On the Ides of March Single: Do you have to ask? Single [grumbles] School: No longer attending but the last was Michigan State University Major: Political Science Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Black Righty or Lefty: Righty Zodiac: Pisces LAYER TWO: On the Inside— Your Fears: That I will never live up to my potential and find happiness Goals: Pay off my credit card, medical, and loan debt. Get into grad school eventually. Regrets: Should have double majored in college and basically do more that would have helped me find a job. Relieve Stress: Believe it or not but I meditate. Hardest thing that I ever dealt with: my sexuality LAYER THREE: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow— Your first thought when waking up: Pee. …Yeah pretty much only

I made some kick-ass moo shu pork this evening. I didn't bother with the regular recipe. Instead, I just threw in things that I thought would taste good and it turned out to be great. The Chinese pancakes still turned out to be a pain in the ass but at least I didn't have to resort to packaged tortillas this time. :-)