Jason Ramsey Online

New website!

2009-04-25T21:18:00.005-04:00

For anyone still checking out this site, go check out my new, less personal but still enjoyable endeavor: Trail Rookie

I'll probably leave this site up for a little while longer. There's a lot of history here.

Trapped in time

2009-01-09T16:39:00.003-05:00

I was done with stuff at work this afternoon and got an email from Classmates.com telling me twenty people had signed my guestbook - and I only had to pay $15 to find out who they were and what they said. Extortion, I tell you.

So, I spent some time on their site reading through the class roster of my graduating class, 1994. However, Classmates.com never really fit me well, because I lived in three places during my formative years - the most time in the place where I was youngest, the least where I was oldest, so it's all topsy-turvy as far as who I remember and why. So, Classmates has me down for three high schools.

I've only kept in touch very tenuously with a few folks I knew in middle school and high school. A few of them have found me here, but many more have reconnected via Facebook, which has been a crazy blast from the past. But looking back at all the names from elementary school, I have this odd "trapped in amber" recollection of folks. They're all people I haven't seen since 1989 or earlier, and who I frankly remember exactly as they were in the eighties (and maybe them, me...) I think I've kept this blog going in an odd need to somehow reconnect, even though reconnection would probably be uncomfortable, unnecessary. Do I really need to know about that girl who moved to Chicago in the third (or was it fourth?) grade, who was my first real crush? Or the couple of guys who were sure to have been my buddies all through high school had I stayed? The ones I was in the sixth grade spelling bee with on the radio or academic competitions with Mr. McCool? The girl who couldn't say the Pledge of Allegiance because she was a Jehovah's Witness, but debated by my side for the Democratic candidate in the mock debate? The one who had a crush on the babysitter and asked me to explain how that stuff all worked. The ones on the bus trip to Pittsburgh, where all the kids thought my mom was cool because the group she chaperoned let them in the art exhibits where they showed the boobs in the paintings?

It's at once vain and selfless. I could have kept in touch with them, but realistically, not really. Now, I'm dying to know that these people I cared about are doing okay, but really I'm dying to know... I remember the names and the faces, but do they remember me? And then, that's it. Let's not do lunch. Let's not pretend we still know each other or anything, because we all have our own lives now.

It's like the games of kickball we used to play back in elementary school - I wasn't remotely athletic until at least high school, so they let me be the umpire - and it wasn't even for show. I was the umpire. I think I still am. Observing from the middle of the action, but never really a part of it, or at least deluding myself into believing that.

I'm willing to bet there's a little of all of this in everyone. But, that was my story.

I started this blog back in 2000, back when it was really the only social networking out there. The public nature of the blog both appealed to me and discouraged me, but I'm finding Facebook satisfies nearly all my needs of expression, and I never get around to posting here. A good bit of my postings have been generated by the ups and downs of life pre-marriage. The other good bit came from eight years of disaster in the White House that's now thankfully almost over. Neither really generate much in the way of content anymore. Moreover, I've got a better use for the domain name I think that I might start working on over the summer.

So this is as good a time as any to hang it up. My twitter page and facebook page will get more of my attention than this ever will anymore. End of an era? Nah... But, time to hang it up anyway. It's been fun. Good night.

And you're not getting my $15, Classmates. Not today, anyway.

I didn't know...

2008-11-05T07:32:00.002-05:00

First off - what a classy speech from John McCain. His campaign took on some scary tones, but he started to turn that around last night with the classiest move of anyone in the campaign - his concession speech. He took the high road, regained my respect, and had the good sense to step out of the way of the history unfolding before him.

I started to get an inkling of that unfolding history when Chris Matthews on MSNBC started to blather after it became clear Obama would win. At first, he was making all kinds of comment about race and populations in his typically insulting way. But about 10:45, he stopped the broadcast and rendered both Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow speechless (no small feat), and started talking about what the night really meant, the incredible moment in history we were witnessing and the PRIDE, the absolute pride in America he felt that we were able to do this like nowhere else in the world. I stopped. And I said, "Holy shit. He's right."

By the time 11:00 rolled around and Keith called it for Obama, I started to comprehend the signficance - I had voted for a black man for president. The wonder wasn't that though, the wonder was that the true relevance of what I had done did not hit me until then. When I pressed the button in the booth, I voted for who I thought was the best man, for so many reasons. Until 11pm that day, I gave no thought to his race. As I watched cheering crowds from across the nation, I felt like this country began to heal. Really heal its divisions.

Then the clincher - whoever thought to jam that camera in Jesse Jackson's face, a face in the sea of humanity at that park in Chicago and to see him have such an incredible reaction, awestruck with the moment, tear on his cheek, finger over his mouth in quiet contemplation. That is an image that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

The final realization hit me later even. And this was even more powerful. That my son will grow up until he is five, hopefully nine, only knowing... ONLY knowing a black man as president.

-- I have to pause here - and really stop this post... There is nothing left to say. --

Go vote

2008-11-04T08:28:00.002-05:00

You must vote. If you don't vote, you insult democracy, you insult the dead generations of Americans who believed in their country and built the world you see around you, you insult our troops who risk their lives daily so that you can sit on your butt, read this blog, and not vote.

Go to Start -> Shut Down -> Shut Down in Windows or Apple -> Shut Down -> Shut Down, get up, go outside and go vote. Don't know where? Go to Google. They will tell you where.

That being said - here's my call:

I've been to Virginia too many times in the past five years - Northern Virginia is more liberal than Western Pennsylvania these days. (Side note - PA is not the nail-biter McCain is trying to make it. Rural PA will always surprise you on how red a blue state can be, but it's less red than it was in 2004.) Ohio is either too conservative for McCain, or too freaked out by Palin, depending on who you ask. That sends Ohio our way. Florida got screwed by the mortgage crisis (or screwed themselves...). Either way, there are enough upset people with extra time on their hands to just barely tip Florida to Obama. That goes ditto for Nevada. Colorado is still buzzing from the convention and has gone towards the center politically, meeting the democrats on their way there in the past four years. Welcome back to sanity, Colorado! New Mexico barely tipped to Bush last year, so is totally vulnerable to even the slightest headwind for Obama, and he has that for sure, they go Obama. Finally, Iowa loves Obama - something I can not explain at all, but hey, there it is. See you all tomorrow in a much brighter world.

Vote on Tuesday

2008-10-31T07:22:00.000-04:00

This quote about Sarah Palin was in our local paper today:

“She’s been a mayor, is presently governor of Alaska,” “She’s dealt with oil and gas pipelines. I think she’s well-qualified.”

Yikes. Vote on Tuesday.

I read an article about economic flight from South Africa because of governmental mismanagement. If it can happen there, it can happen here. Bush has led us down the road of national disintegration. Attitudes like this, well she's good enough and she seems alright, will doom America to mediocrity.

Dukakis/Bentsen in 88

2008-10-28T22:21:00.004-04:00

Twenty years ago today, I was giving up politics forever. I had spent my first eight years growing increasingly disillusioned with my obsession with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the point of my third grade debate, where (along with the sole Jehovah's Witness in the class, who made poor company supporting a Democrat) I took the side of Walter Mondale to play devil's advocate, and I never really switched back. I'm still not sure if it was my distrust of supply-side economics, or my love for Wendy's Old-Fashioned Hamburgers (which indeed, had "the beef"), but it stuck.

If only everyone would have as much sense as I did when I was eight. (And for some of those nuts who put Ronald Reagan in a class of "great" presidents - To think that eight year old STILL has more sense than you. Amazing.)

So I watched Iran Contra unfold, where Ronald Reagan's administration refused to sit down with a dictator and terrorist (pre-condition or not), but rather funded them through a embezzlement scheme. (Yay Ronald Reagan.) And I waited for 1988.

When it came, I was a fiesty twelve year old, seventh grader getting into bus stop fights defending the man who would not defend himself, Mike Dukakis. (This is true, I ended up with six stitches in the chin and a hospital visit, but my opponent agreed to switch his loyalties, so I count that as a victory.) When he lost, I stayed interested in politics, but really I had given it up. I put up with four more years of Bush's slightly competent leadership, then watched as my man Paul Tsongas went down to the intelligent but flaky Bill Clinton. We all know that story. I just kept seeing flashes of what could have been, had it not for silly tank photos and badly spun answer to a gut wrenching question. 1992 was a hollow victory, because every time I saw Bill and Hillary, it should have been Mike and Kitty's second time. Even though the images and words were right, I kept feeling like I was buying snake oil rather than real ideas.

And well, 2000 and 2004 were just too agonizing for words, but I never really put myself quite as out there as I did in 1988. I think I just assumed the country would have common sense and elect Al Gore, so that snuck up on a lot of us. And John Kerry was the just the best we could do from a list of flawed candidates, who but for 60,000 idiots in Ohio, would have been the 44th President.

But still I think back to 88 and what could have been, what should have been. Click the picture above to join me in a retelling of that dream - what I'll be dreaming about when I go to sleep tonight. 2008 is the start to writing the wrong of that mistake, electing leaders who seek the lowest denominator, the hatemongers who seek to praise this country by tearing its own people down. Too many have passed before who have lived and died for this country for us to tolerate the constitution desecrators who run the show today and who want to stay in charge, for four more years. I'm happy to take six more stitches (figuratively or literally) for Barack Obama. He is a man who will lift us up, not tear us down. This country could really use ideas again. We need to hear about what binds us together, not what tears us apart.

Four more years? No. Seven more days.

Tim Hortons - Meadville

2008-10-21T08:06:00.003-04:00

Tim Hortons is now open in Meadville. Today is grand opening. I was not first in line, disappointingly. But, they were still there when I got there.

Also, it looks like the same guy who opened the East 12th St. shop is the owner of this one too. My old boss at my old job talked with him and told me a cool story about how he and his wife came down from Nova Scotia to open a Tim Hortons. It's very good to see he's got three of them now.

Go forth and eat Timbits!

Out of Control

2008-10-10T12:51:00.003-04:00

The recent comments made at McCain/Palin rallies about Barack Obama being a terrorist (or worse) show just how out of control John McCain's pitch has become. Sure, the candidates aren't coming out and saying it - but they're inciting their audience to draw an obviously incorrect solution and taking no responsible action to correct the falsehood.

John McCain has embodied a persona of civility and independent thinking over his career in Washington that has appeared to go out the window over the last couple of months. If he has any chance at legitimacy, both for the future and in the history books, he needs to actively stand up and refute those who would seek to inject chaos, fear, and doubt into the hearts and minds of Americans for political gain.

Sarah Palin and the people running the McCain campaign are playing a dangerous game that at best, keeps his campaign in the running, but at worst, threatens the democratic process that so many of our brave troops, leaders, and every day citizens have given their entire lives to protect.

I personally believe that a responsible bi-partisan circa 2000 John McCain campaign would have weathered this economic crisis with better poll numbers than what we have seen from the moment Sarah Palin accepted the nomination for Vice-President. John - You are a patriot, and have put service to this country higher than many of your peers. It's time to do that again. At this point, more important than winning the Presidency, it's time to stand up for a legacy of vigilant governance, cooperation, and common sense. Where are the Colin Powell's, the Tom Ridge's, the Joe Liebermann's of common-sense leadership, behind all of the paper patriotism of Sarah Palin and her rabble? I've disagreed with all three of them, but at least I trust that they "get" the big picture of responsible governance.

Write your story in the history books before it's too late, and it gets written for you.

I have an ancient blog

2008-10-03T09:06:00.002-04:00

I did a google search on myself on the 10-year anniversary site of Google. Google's oldest index they could find was in 2001. On it, you can see my website in it's early early glory, and boy - I still really like the design of that site. It was before all these blogs were cookie-cutter, Web 2.0 garbage, and I am going to sound like a grandpa here, but back in the day, when you had to write your own HTML code...

You have to imagine buttons along the left - for some reason the crawlers and indexers didn't pick those up in the archive, but they were just grey text buttons as a menu along the left.

I really like my swoop design though - I put a lot of time into that in my single days, and I think it was the furthest I ever went with web design, before I realized I was out of my league and I should leave it to the professionals. I've taken design classes and have it in my blood - I miss graphic design quite a bit. I think my site presaged a lot of what was to come, linking to friends, talking about life...

Thanks for the memories... Google, but more importantly the Web Archive project.

Tax the poor?

2008-09-16T07:21:00.000-04:00

I'm going to echo a comment I read on this article.

McCain: Fear the Democrats and Obama in particular. They will raise taxes on the rich, which will cause bank collapses, layoffs, businesses going under, plummeting value of the dollar, skyrocketing oil prices... er... um... Put the Republicans in office!..er...again.. and... you'll see... er... Did I mention my hot running mate didn't force her daughter to have an abortion? What? What did you ask? Love your country. Vote McCain!

Okay, not laughing. Neither am I.

Obama = Better tax plan for the people making under $250,000.
McCain = Better tax plan for the people making over $250,000.

I don't plan on making more than $250,000 any time soon. If you do, and you have a total disregard for our nation's future, by all means, flip that McCain lever. Or push the button, or hang the chad, or whatever. Otherwise, what are you messing around for? How many times do you have to be hit over the head, hard, with the Republican mallet before you realize you can tell them to stop.

"Free" republic

2008-09-10T08:46:00.004-04:00

I had a hilarious experience last night, that led me to a disturbing revelation. I thought I'd troll some of the conservative...er...that's too polite...wacko sites like Free Republic last night and stir up some trouble. (Yes, I am a political masochist...) I should have saved the post, but it was something to the effect of:

Sarah Palin, an inexperienced pork-barrel governor from a small state is not ready to be president, and as a result I have begun to question John McCain's decision making capability. I worry that four years of John McCain will submarine the conservative movement for good.

I totally wrote it from a conservative libertarian perspective - did not even hint at anything positive for Democrats. It was an experiment to be sure, but I'm a good enough writer to assume a voice outside myself.

Not only didn't they approve the posting. They revoked my posting privileges, period. After a single post, which I promise was not inflammatory - very controlled, very calm.

Then I realized... This is what we are up against in the world of Sarah Palin. Disagree, and you're fired, or erased. It's not even hidden in the shadows like it was with Bush and Cheney, under some veil of legitimacy. She'll nakedly do whatever she wants, and if you don't like it, you'll get shouted down, slandered, and ruined forever. Meanwhile, everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie or so misinformed, you wonder what is going through her brain. It's truly amazing. (And heaven forbid, you question her thought process and be elitist...)

If I were really a Ron Paul supporter, which was the direction I intended to go with this "voice", I'd be very very worried, not about John McCain, but about Sarah Palin. She is such a perversion of what it means to be conservative - she's got to be truly galling to someone like a Ron Paul.

For the good of the republic, conservatives and liberals alike, she needs to be stopped in November. Whether you agree with him or not, four years of Obama won't kill us. And if he screws up, we'll have another shot in four years, hopefully by which time Sarah Palin will have crawled back under the rock she came out from. Four years worrying about Sarah Palin taking the oath of office is such an insult to this country, I can not truly describe. Mark my words, while you can still read them.

Republican hypocrisy

2008-09-05T12:56:00.002-04:00

Republicans aren't for lower taxes, they're for more money, for themselves.

Witness:

The top 10 states receiving more federal funding than federal taxes in 2005, along side their picks months before for President in 2004:

1. New Mexico - Bush
2. Mississippi - Bush
3. Alaska - Bush (Sarah Palin - small government - lol!)
4. Louisiana - Bush
5. West Virginia - Bush
6. North Dakota - Bush
7. Alabama - Bush
8. South Dakota - Bush
9. Kentucky - Bush
10. Virginia - Bush

and now, the top 10 states for paying more federal taxes than received federal funding, and their presidential selection in 2004:

1. New Jersey - Kerry
2. Nevada - Bush
3. Connecticut - Kerry
4. New Hampshire - Kerry
5. Minnesota - Kerry
6. Illinois - Kerry
7. Delaware - Kerry
8. California - Kerry
9. New York - Kerry
10. Colorado - Bush

I tend to agree. Let's let the beggar states fend more for themselves and start squeezing back the size of our government.

An analysis so far of the election

2008-09-01T18:18:00.002-04:00

I really would be amazed to see a McCain presidency at this point. Let's see where we are right now:

1. McCain is a political opportunist of the worst sort. The left won't vote for him, of course. The right wouldn't vote for him in the primaries, so he had to run to the right to go grab those votes and come very close to trashing his strong chances with the center. The Republicans that were motivated enough to drag themselves to the polls sensed the "chosen candidate" and played the dutiful "fall-in-line" role the party is known for. Will the Huckabee or Paul supporters go to the polls and check McCain? Some will. Some will not. Will some of the Hillary supporters go to McCain? Probably. (And, if they're the leftover racists from the old-line Democratic party, I say - what took you so long? Buh, bye. Your kind is dying out.)

2. The religious right is in political disarray, for good reason. They don't like any of their options right now. (Note, I say "political" disarray... I think if Mitt Romney had been a Baptist instead of a Mormon, Obama'd be ten points behind. And his veep would have been John McCain - an excellent choice for vice-president.) McCain is a rich politico with a beer tycoon wife. The Obamas may be rich now too, but they're definitely not spending mommy and daddy's money like the Bushes or McCains. I think a lot of the rank and file of the Republican party would be willing to swallow another richie rich, if he spoke their language like Bush. McCain does not.

3. Sarah Palin. LOL. Is she for real? Obama may not have much leadership experience, but he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He's smart and a quick study. And with Biden around to be counsel, he'll be in good shape. Does the McCain campaign really think this "inexperience" gives them the green light to put a former mayor of a town smaller than the one I live in, who then rode a wave of discontent to the governorship of a state smaller than the city of Pittsburgh? Mayor Luke Ravenstahl seems pretty cool, but can you see Obama picking him to be veep?

This matters to a lot of folks on the right, folks I disagree with philosophically, but who I agree with as far as caliber of candidate. And unlike the Biden mentor relationship with Obama, McCain doesn't even seem to be consistent with himself, let alone be able to mentor someone else.

4. Sarah Palin. LOL. Her, um, seventeen-year-old daughter is going to be an unwed mother, unless we have a wedding before 2009. This doesn't bother me. I am friends with two women specifically who had children before they were eighteen out of wedlock, and they rock. But, this is going to and SHOULD bother a lot of the religious right voters, who would have jumped all over this, had this poor (almost) woman's last name been Obama or Biden. More drifting from the polls.

5. Katrina comes back to haunt the GOP. We get reminded of how botched of an even more bloated federal government we have thanks to Bush and company on the eve of their own convention. This just brings us to this "we strayed from our mission, we deserve to be out for a few years" sense of doom shadowing the GOP. They just don't want it bad enought.

Finally, the Democrats have an inspirational leader that is probably the best we've seen since Kennedy. We may have had a messy primary, but we didn't pick too soon. We nailed it.

If the GOP wins in November, I will be certain that there is a God, and that "he" is Republican.

My prediction. Obama, and more of a nail-biter than you would think, because of the Republican advantage in the electoral college. Romney will be nominated in 2012 by the Republicans. If they have any sense. (Not that I'd vote for him, but he's disciplined, and that's something.)

Depends on how you define "house"

2008-08-21T09:19:00.000-04:00

Or "own"

McCain can't remember how many houses he owns. Lovely... At least George Bush had a funny comeback about not remembering that he owns a lumber company.

Funeral for Grandpa

2008-08-11T06:25:00.003-04:00

I was just at the funeral for my grandfather of eighty-three years. There was an obituary in the Detroit Free Press as well as the Farmington Observer that do him better justice than any recap I could give.

My grandmother asked me to say some words at the service, which was a more difficult thing than I had imagined. I knew immediately what I wanted to say, but how to say it was a real challenge. I ended up scribbling some few key phrases that I couldn't get right when I was practicing.

Afterwards, my grandmother asked for the hard copy, as did my dad, so now I need to write my recollection down. I'm certain they want it because my delivery was far too fast, and rather than ending it the way I had intended, I just ended it after getting to the point, because I wasn't sure I could keep going. So, here is what I would have wanted to say, had I been able to get it right:

Thank you all for coming today. First off, I'm honored to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of my grandfather, whom I deeply miss.

When trying to figure out what to say today, I had a lot of time to reflect. As a new parent, raising a child for the first time, I've tried to get my head around the awesome task of helping this new person grow and find their way in this big world. Parents get the chance to both mold a child and sometimes inflict their own personality upon their children. But, when reflecting, I thought more about the role that grandparents play as well. The chances they get are fewer, rarer, but all the more precious as a result.

I'd like to share with you four lessons I've learned from my grandparents. While I do this, if you'd like, think of George, my grandfather... Your parents or grandparents... or your children or grandchildren and the lessons you've learned or taught with them.

From my grandfather in Florida, I've learned to do what you love, and if you can't, love what you do. I've never known anyone as passionate as him for what he got the opportunity to do for a career in life.

From my grandmother in Florida, recently passed away, I learned to appreciate the simple little things - they're often the most enduring.

From my grandmother here with us today in Michigan, I've learned to keep your mind open to learning from ALL sources, because knowledge is power.

And lastly, probably most importantly today and to my life, from my grandfather here in Michigan, the final lesson... But let me stop first and tell a background story. For those of you who might remember me as a small child, you'll know I was a very serious child, doing serious things. Like writing letters to then President Reagan about his foreign policy strategy. I often didn't get the joke, particularly if it was on me. And grandpa liked to play a lot of jokes, and they'd often land on me, which was difficult. However, I was taught, and learned to watch for the twinkle in grandpa's eye. Because if his eye was twinkling, I knew he was joking out of love.

So my lesson from grandpa, the one I'm certain he lived his life by, is to not take life and most importantly, yourself too seriously.

These four lessons are central to the way I try to live my life. I never thought about it so carefully until I was asked to speak today, but having thought about it, they are even more central and I'm glad for the opportunity to reflect and to share to this willing audience. Thank you again.

Houhou the DJ

2008-08-01T09:24:00.000-04:00

Tiff started TiVo'ing Ni Hao, Kai Lan for the little guy, which is kind of like Dora the Explorer for Mandarin. We were watching one evening and this one came across which still has me laughing. I would LOVE to have a turntable/scratch set that I could float down from a tree when I'm bored.

Dunkin' Donuts - not as good as Tim Hortons

2008-07-25T19:41:00.001-04:00

But, they have better commercials. Especially when scored by They Might Be Giants...

Meadville Tim Hortons in September

2008-07-23T20:18:00.001-04:00

The Tim Hortons is opening in Meadville some time in mid-September. They deftly ignored my questions regarding the opening of a second one....

Dear Jason,

I would like to thank you for contacting our Head Office regarding the
opening of one of our stores in Meadville, PA. We always appreciate
hearing feedback from valued customers such as yourself.

We are excited to inform you that the new location is currently under
construction! The tentative opening date is for mid-September.

We greatly appreciate the time you have taken to contact us, and if you
have any further questions or comments please do not hesitate to call us
toll free at 1(888)601-1616.

We look forward to serving you in the near future.

Sincerely,
The TDL Group Corp.

The Father's Day from hell

2008-06-15T20:01:00.003-04:00

So. I love Canada and biking, so Tiff says, go to Canada this weekend. Stay a night and get up early and do a bike ride, I'll watch the baby. You can watch him on Monday.

So I forgot the sunblock.
And I broke my bike.
And my car.

It could have been a lot worse, though. I woke up bright and early, and had had my double double from Timmies and was down to the trailhead near Brantford by 7:30am. The rail trail was pretty shaded for the first half, so I didn't burn anywhere near as badly as I could have.

When my bike broke, I was only 3 miles from my car, having done 37 already. I was able to hold my grip shift in tight, keeping the bike in gear for the last three. Again. I could have had to walk...

And back in the US, on the NY State Thruway, my radio cuts off. Meh.... My Ipod isn't super reliable anymore, so I figured it would come back on in a bit. Then I checked my speed. 0MPH. 0RPM. 0 Fuel. Er....... It sure seemed like I was doing 65-70 as I watch the world whizz by, so I figure, hrmm.... I know where I need to stop for gas, I'll get there, get gas, and see if I can start the car again.

Then my car tells me I'm going 140, 7000RPM and I have a full tank of gas, but my airbag is broken and one of my doors is open.... Sweet. I'll take the free tank of gas, but I'm not too keen on getting an airbag in the face going 140, and if my door is open, my luggage has just been donated to the Seneca Nation. Then it's all back to zero again. This would all be amusing, except my transmission was trying to adjust repeatedly to what my car must think is a disturbing new driving pattern on my part.

This happens back and forth enough for me to eye up the shoulder for a place to stop, when my music comes back on, and everything is as it was.

Fast forward to 15 minutes from home, and everything starts all over again, except this time, the 140 to 0 to 140 delusion happens about fifteen times instead of three, and my transmission is not at all impressed. So I do something dumb. I pull over. And I can't start her back up again. Called Tiff to come get me, with baby in tow... Then I do something even dumber. I try to push the car into an actual parking space and the darn thing almost rolls down a hill. (I jumped in really quick and slammed on the brakes.) Luckily, this must have woken the darn thing up, because I try starting again, and she starts, just as Tiff is pulling in the parking lot.

Getting home the last few miles was an adventure, as my car just decided to stall whenever I stopped. Don't know if that was related, but a car that has trouble starting is not what you want to have stall, so I took a creative route home that had a minimum of stopping and made it.

Now I need to decide if it's worth getting it fixed, or if we should just go to one car.

Up since 3am... what the heck

2008-06-06T08:28:00.002-04:00

I've been up since 3am thanks to a helicopter that buzzed our house last night. Didn't wake baby, but I definitely couldn't go back to sleep. When I woke up, I had the strangest sensation of feeling like it was five years ago. It's not that I was delusional or anything, I knew it wasn't 2003. But, the detail of my memory, particularly of my former job, was strikingly clear. It made me value all the more what I have now and be grateful for it.

On another "try to get your head around it" topic, I was recently reading a news article about the recent attempts at an altitude record for sky diving, and about the current record holder. I found this video on YouTube that I've been watching over and over. I still can't comprehend it. I ended up downloading the song from the video though, Boards of Canada. Pretty cool.

Wings in 6...

2008-06-05T08:33:00.003-04:00

Wow, that was the closest non-OT game I've ever seen. Credit to the Pens that the Wings totally outplayed them in five out of six games, and they still made it THAT CLOSE.

Henrik Zetterberg: - The 5 on 3 kill in game 4 won him the Conn Smythe. He deserved it just for that, let alone scoring the cup winning goal.

Chris Osgood: - Strong when he needed to be. What a comeback story. (And my favorite player, so extra good for me... So glad Hasek got chased...)

Nicklas Lidstrom: - The perfect human.

Darren Helm: - I like this kid a LOT. It looks like we have Draper 2.0 at least.

Johan Franzen: - Holmstrom is good, but I think Franzen should be the top winger with Datsyuk and Zetterberg now...

--------------------------------

Marc-Andre Fleury: - No fault here. This guy is a solid goalie. It's too bad his biggest in-game mistake had to be the one that cost them the cup, but with Kronwall's mistake in Game 5 that ended up losing it for the Wings, I can't say anything except "Karma's a bitch."

Sidney Crosby: - Needs to grow up a little, but hopefully he'll get there. Way talented, no doubt about that. If he can get some good coaching and mentoring, he has the talent to be Pittsburgh's Stevie Y. (Rather see him go that route than the next Lemieux. He needs to quit with the whiny attitude...)

Evgeni Malkin: - I felt bad, since I LIKE Malkin. He just wasn't in the game at any point in the series. Even his goal didn't wake him up. Reminds me a lot of Sergei Fedorov, both in good ways and bad ways.

Brooks Orpik: - I'd have him on my defense line - any time. He definitely made a name for himself this playoff in my book. He was the name I was most frustrated with, which makes him the peskiest defender for sure.

Ryan Malone, the entire defensive unit... You guys played your hearts out and should have no shame in this loss.

Vindication

2008-06-04T08:38:00.001-04:00

Ah, it's nice to read all the articles about $4 gas and the changing face of American car ownership. Tiff and I made a smart move in 2002 buying a little Mazda Protege5 instead of a hulking Tribute. There have been maybe 10 times we wished we had a bigger vehicle for trips or carrying stuff. Ten times. Five years. We get over it.

Warning. This post is about to get crabby. (And I'm generally a pleasant guy in real life, although not so much up here in the blog...)

There's still this notion of an "entitlement society" in our country. I'm going to "pamper" myself... I deserve it... I'm great... Why is it that people fail at math when it comes to looking at their own finances and condition? Right now, people are learning that that sense of entitlement is just entitling them to foreclosure and permanent penury.

A former colleague and I had a conversation about housing prices around that same time in 2002, when Tiff and I were thinking of buying our first house. Another guy, who was not really a responsible type, had just dropped way too much on a house, I'm sure with an ARM, saying it was a can't lose proposition, better than wasting money on rent. I told the colleague I was talking to, that if that guy said it was a can't lose proposition, we better re-think what's going on right now. Perhaps he was missing the boat.

SUV = You lose. Way to go, smart one. Ditto for that McMansion you can't afford. Should have thought harder in 2003, but you didn't did you? The problem is that to get there, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, "My self worth is not dependent on the things I buy for myself." Good luck with that.

Tim Hortons and Red Wings FTW

2008-05-31T23:11:00.003-04:00

Just got done watching the best game of the series tonight, wired as heck after eating all those red Twizzlers and drinking all that Faygo...

I actually verbally counted down the seconds from about 3:30 left in the 3rd period. Tiff was thrilled with that, thank God I didn't wake the baby.

Now, for even better news. The Tim Hortons on Conneaut Lake Road in Meadville is finally making some headway. Moreover, I now have it on good authority that there will be a second Tim Hortons opening in the city of Meadville itself, on Park Avenue down by Subway. (Two unrelated sources have independently relayed this possibility to me.)

Stanley Cup? To heck with it... I'm ready for my old-fashioned plain and a double-double.

Bah... Shutout streak over...

2008-05-29T08:09:00.001-04:00

Damn... Pittsburgh scored, even won a game. That's good for Pittsburgh though. It's good for the NHL to establish a fan base in a non-hockey southern (albeit geriatric) market. Throw them a bone, maybe they'll want to keep their team.

My wife knows about my secret crush

2008-05-28T09:23:00.004-04:00

on Kristen Bell... So I can post about this without offending her. Because, articles like this do NOT make it any easier on me... And Chris Freaking Osgood is her favorite player. Could she find a way to possibly be more hot than that.

(Sigh)

Tiff, the fact that I married you over Kristen Bell even though your Penguins fanship might get in the way, should really mean a lot to you!