How Do You Spell That?

Man I don't even know where to start with this...

After the last two weeks of public school, I am so ready to make it my life mission to get school vouchers approved, especially after this little e-mail exchange between the parents of a six year old and a school principal regarding teaching same-sex unions in school.

The parents didn't want the kid to attend Diversity training since it interfered with their religious views. No matter how stupid this might be, a parent should have the right to exclude their own children from whatever curriculum is offensive to them. But no, the school wanted to discuss their feelings and defend their reasoning as opposed to listening to the parents and keeping their child out of the program.

What happened in the end? Well, the parents went to school and wouldn't leave until they received assurances that their children would not be put into this class. And when they wouldn't leave, the father was arrested for tresspassing.

While I don't have a problem with same-sex relationships or families, I still think it's the right of every parent to decide whether their child should participate in whatever curriculum the school is offering. I can't help but look at these diversity trainings as a way of indoctrination, not into the gay lifestyle, but into some pseduo "if it feels good, do it, or at least be mellow about it" form of reasoning (especially from PBS, where it is honestly the worst since I've attended some of their seminars and wondered what people right here in the City of Churches would think of these views).

Bottom line, the school screwed up. Some people might view it as a good thing since it is more than likely the parents will enroll their "bigoted" kids in private schools. Maybe they won't think the same when other alternative lifestyles are brought into the school....

Posted by Brian at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight of course was the release of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galazy and I and about 50 other guys (along with two women who looked like they were dragged along with their boyfriends) enjoyed the show.

Where did it miss....

Well, deleting hugely specific and comedic lines from the text, along with several scenes.

Where did it hit....

Pretty much everywhere else. Trillian was completely geekily hot and Alan Rickman was the perfect choice for Marvin.

Was it worth $7.50? Heck yes. Would I take the kids to it? Hell no.

Posted by Brian at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know, when a facility is charged with caring for troubled children who have been put there by a doctor to care for their behavioral problems, you expect a certain level of care. When this facility let's their staff do needlepoint while supposedly watching said children, that's laziness. When the facility allow two troubled teens to fall for each other to the point where they are having a hard time keeping them seperated and having it impact their mood, that's stupid. When they fail to seperate said kids when one kisses the other in front of the adults put in charge of them, and then said adults do nothing about it, that's neglect.

And when these idiots try to send me the statement of how much was paid to them for their "care" for the last seven days, well, that just does it for me.

I have already filed two complaints with the various state agencies involved, next will be the state's insurance group who I will tell to refuse to pay for treatment. This will be followed up with calls to the various facilities that I know who I will say in no uncertain terms should steer away from sending their children to this place. Oh, and I have a list of their Board of Directors AND their major donors, one who is a former NFL player (not a very good one, but still has mounds of $$$$). They will be receiving calls and letters in the near future.

You know, when I left the voice mail yesterday with the center's director that I expected a call this morning, I really meant this morning. Time to let the crap fly...

Posted by Brian at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Sept 24th, part two of my "ungodly huge research project for my BS piece of paper" is due.

Sept 25th, I'll be 34.

Sept 30th, this is released.

I'm going to be celebrating my birthday a few days later than normal... :-)

Posted by Brian at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I've been trying to sell my Tascam 2488 Recording Board and as of right now I've had two questions, both dealing with "alternate forms of payment". The first guy wanted to mail a money order, which I was fine with but right after he sent the e-mail, EBay shut his account down for fraud. OK, so I relist for free and take another swipe at it. Here's the first question I get on the item...

Hi there i'd like to order your item listed,and i want to use my credit card as a payment method,hope you can procces my card through own merchant account or card machine facility.cause it's only way of payment term that i'll do to buy your item.i'll wait for your reply and response and for further negoitation. thanks you and Sorry to bother you again...also don't hestinate to email me back.

I have to wonder about the clueless masses out there who would gladly take payment on this from what is most likely a stolen credit card number. The reason people want to avoid PayPal (from what's I'm guessing) is that PayPal likes to verify who you are in order to use their service. Maybe there's some other valid reason, but in either case I don't have a merchant account and there's no way I could get this to go through in either case.

Posted by Brian at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And of course, I'm not talking about one of my favorite Steely Dan songs.

No, I'm talking about having to relive sending a child to another psychiatric ward. I always knew this day would come, I just hoped/prayed it wouldn't be today. But it was. Things happen for a reason and today was the breaking point. Call the psychologist in a panic. Yup, most likely bottoming out. Get them in a hospital now.

Three hours later I'm reciting all of my child's sins to some strange guy who bears a striking resemblence to Hamid Karzai. Hugs, tears, goodbyes, and a 90 minute drive home to reflect.

They are thinking five to seven days. It could be five to seven minutes and it would be too damn long, but I know she needs it.

Posted by Brian at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh hell...just click here and don't say I didn't warn you.

Posted by Brian at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know, when I ran for President of the Homeowners Association, I really did it because I didn't want some psychotic idiots interpreting every whim of the covenants into their own personal vendetta to enforce some sort of "neighborly nirvana" upon the hapless saps that live here.

Now, it's coming to a head.

Over the past few weeks I've been besiged by various neighbors wanting "X" or "Y" bylaw strictly enforced because it somehow offends them even though several neighbors in the addition have been in violation of code "X" or "Y" since before these guys moved in.

Now the "offended" parties are looking at yours truly. My take on it is "If it's been here before our association became 'serious' three years ago, it should be allowed within reason".

Do you know what has all of the people with their panties in a wad? A shed. A shed that is placed on the side of a house where everyone can see it from the street. These people are going apeshit because they can see a shed from the street and somehow this affects the value of their homes. What a load of crap.

Oh, and here's the latest rumor. There's lots of "For Sale" signs up. Why is that? Because, according to the rumor, people are leaving because we aren't "strictly enforcing" every code. Now, who the hell is going to let $15,000 go to a realtor because every code isn't psychotically enforced.

I'm done. I'm going to stay as president as long as I can but I'm sure the time is coming where someone is going to ask for my resignation. And when they do I'm going to laugh. Because that isn't going to come easy (envision something like "Julius Caesar") and it's going to be well documented. Because I want to be there at the end when the carnage is over and point out who caused it.

It's going to be fun...

Posted by Brian at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Too bad Nike didn't produce it.

http://www.jaffejuice.com/2005/04/tiger_did_it_ak.html

Posted by Brian at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are so many things I want to say about the Verizon-MCI deal....but I won't. Maybe after things are done I'll throw in my comments...

Posted by Brian at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Especially when you are talking about Carbon Nanotubes.

Posted by Brian at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a lovely article regarding Norway's new policy that all businesses in Norway have at least 40% of their board members be female. Here's a beautiful quote from the Minister of Children and Family Affairs Laila Daavoey:

"If we can recruit women to our state companies why can't private businesses do it too?" Daavoey said.

It's really simple Laila, state run companies are not required to have a profit. In fact, the vast majority of "state-run" companies are usually little more than bloated bueraucracies which only exist as jobs programs. Real companies however, tend to look for experienced people to be placed in certain roles because "they are really good at those leadership roles".

It's really simple what is going to happen. Over the next year or two, various boards throughout Norway are going expand their board membership to meet the arbitrary 40% number. And in some cases experienced people are going to be asked to leave various boards to make room for "quota filler".

How is this making Norway more cometitive and somehow improving relations between the sexes? No wait, this was the country that brought us previous rant material for these fine posts.

Posted by Brian at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Medieval Times Chooses Stellar IM to Proactively Monitor and Identify Inappropriate Employee Internet Activity

You usually don't see too many people in Medieval garb downloading porn while on horseback.... Maybe someone should start a Photoshop contect for what the redirect warning page will look like.

Posted by Brian at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bad: Never ending conference calls due to time off from work.

Worse: Kids home from school for Spring Break.

Oh Sh*t: Having one puke his guts out while you are on the phone discussing an absolutely huge RFP with your Director on the phone while the dogs are whining to go outside.

Posted by Brian at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, not to the blogosphere...but to Richard Dyott who I've mentioned in my previous post. Today was Richard's memorial service in Chicago. He's been a part of my family for over 20 years and today was our last chance to say goodbye.

I'm not very good at saying these types of goodbyes. I've been fortunate enough to live in a family where both sides were blessed with longevity and a disdain for extreme skydiving. If you're a Wohlgemuth or a Petersen, most likely you will live a long and healthy life (ok, healthy might be a bit strong of a word... "cope with food" comes to mind...but I'll skip that for now). But today it was definitely surreal to walk into the church where I spent my childhood watching the comings and goings of vague acquaintences turn into a place of somber solitude.

My cousin Lynnly spoke at the service, reciting "Funeral Blues" from W.H. Auden which was featured in "Four Weddings and a Funeral". If you know my family, the BBC and any British Comedy can usually be found on the television. Anyhow, here's what Lynnly read today.

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-- W. H. Auden

Gloomy, but I know Richard loved it. But that brings me to now. Now that the children are tucked away slowly recovering from the loss, now that I'm able to think of the good times Richard and I had together, and now that I can hopefully help mom through the tough part when the world draws away; it time to say goodbye.

Richard, we love you, we miss you.

Posted by Brian at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently in South Whitley, the gas station decides to close the bathrooms at 3:00 in the afternoon. This of course is an absolutely excellent idea especially if you have a nine year old boy who loves to drink blue Gatorade on the long trips home from Chicago.

Posted by Brian at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)