Can't blog. No coffee.

The coffee maker broke this morning. That's it, I can't blog until I get a new one. There is no life without coffee, therefore there is no blog, no recreation, no work, nothing. 

Ugh. 

George Orwell would be proud

Our company computer network is attached to a national VPN network which is incredibly secure. Nothing gets through the firewall. Whenever I have to do maintenance on one of my machines or install software, new drivers, whatever, I have to call out west and have the machine "unlocked". The technician 2,500 kms away will stroke a few keys, and through the IP address on the offending computer will allow me access to do what I need to do. 

It's very Orwellian watching the mouse begin to move on it's own. I know that on the other side of Canada some guy I will never meet is poking around our computers. He can see everything anytime. There is really nothing stopping them from pulling this without our knowledge. One day I received a prompt while trying to shut down; "there are currently 12 people connected through your ethernet network. Are you sure you want to shut down?" Uh, yeah, I thought, why is anyone connected? Such is life in a big company.

Here's the point. Last night I dreamt that my stove broke. I had to call out west and give the technician the IP address of the stove so he could reboot it. It seemed to have worked, I just finished dinner.

Is it obvious that I have spent waaaaaaay too much time with these techs this week? Now they're in my dreams. I'm so lucky that none of our computers have web cams. That's all I need is a phone call saying I don't think you shaved this morning.

We're a year into this network. Prior to this we were a small back country publishing company with computers older than my car, and software that was outdated when I was in college. It's a wonder we ever published anything. Then Big Brother came in and "fixed" things. They hooked us up to the network, upgraded our software and wrote new rules. Some of my co-workers have had a very difficult time adjusting to this. When I hooked up everybody's new email last year the most common question was "can they read my messages?"

Well, yeah, it' s their company, they can do what they want. So back off on the stupid porn jokes. They may not appreciate the humour.

I have to admit the change has been frustrating for me as well. I have been the network tech here for years, and now with every new machine I get a little more control is taken away. The thirty or so computers I maintain have been my responsibility as well as my fault. If anything goes wrong, it was all me. Now, with the secure network, things go wrong more and I have to phone out west for remote repair. Here's the kicker - they're three hours behind us. That means that when our computers fail to connect up at 9am, we have to wait until noon for service. Nice. The mandate now is that nobody can crash until noon. So far, everyone has been pretty good with that. Our staff is cooperating fully with the new rules. Hell, some don't even bother turning their computers on until 11:30, just in case.

Maybe we should just change our hours to mountain time and start sleeping in. 

But I will have to run home before 7 to cook. Just in case.

Cheers.

Movies suck.

I'm sitting on the computer listening to my oldest rhyme off the movies in the cabinet. I have no desire to see any of them. None. Nada, not one. We clearly need to increase our entertainment budget. We have tons of movies, half still on VHS. We have everything from science fiction to the ever present disney flicks. But I've worn most of them out. So we will sit here watching Jeopardy. Movie night will turn into a game show night. Most of what we have in here is certainly not appropriate for an 8 year old girl, even one who has seen her fair share of CSI when I wasn't looking.

I stopped at Blockbuster Video on the way home from work looking for a copy of Fritz Lange's Metropolis - the original 1927 version. The attendant looked at me like I had a huge booger sticking out of my nose. Kim needs the movie for an exam next week, but it isn't to be found anywhere. We're big fans of old movies, but they're hard to find anymore. Everything in the stores is new garbage. Most of the crap in there is direct to DVD shit that nobody cares about. Sadly, this does nothing for movie night.

We went through a phase a bunch of years ago we would rent the films that were written, directed by, produced by and starring the same person. Horror movies in the genre of Ed Wood are great - The ones where you can actually see the ketchup bottle entering the frame. Even funnier when you're drunk. But that was before kids. Now we have to find something appropriate. Ketchup horror ain't it.

I'm tired of fake feel good disney flicks with talking animals, I'm tired of slapstick stupid comedies starring two bit comedians who should have stayed on stage at a sleazy club, I'm tired of historical docudramas that are completely off base and do nothing but exaggerate the truth so horribly that our children are completely misled and fail history class. Of course this would be rectified by teachers actually teaching instead of using these dumb flicks as text books.

We just found Wall-E on VOD.

Maybe there's hope.

Cheers.

Meme post

Hey, I'm jumping on the cheater post bandwagon. I'm too tired to actually think for more than one word at a time.

ONE WORD

It's harder than you think!! Here is what you are supposed to do...and please don't spoil the fun...copy and paste into your own note, type in your answers..using only ONE WORD.


Where is your cell phone?.......Coat
Your hair ..........brown
Your father? ........ downstairs
Your favorite thing? ......history
Your dream last night?.... no
Your favorite drink? ......... MaClays
Your dream/goal? ...........happy
The room you are in? ......library
Your fear? .........heights
Where do you want to be in 6 years?...Rome
Muffins? ............chocolate
One of your wish list items?.........cash
Where you grew up? ...........Windsor
The last thing you did? ....... news
What are you wearing?.......jeans
Your TV?..........news
Your pets? ..........Cat
Your computer? ......iMac
Your life? .........confusing
Your mood? .........relaxed
Missing someone? .....yes
Your car? .... Aztek
Favorite store?..... Rona
Your summer? ..... exercise
Your favorite color? .........maroon
When is the last time you laughed? ...... supper
Last time you cried? ......?
Three people who email me? ...Kimberly-Ann, Sara, Sharon
Three of my favorite foods? .........Steak, Pasta, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
Three places I would rather be right now? .....Rome, London, Jerusalem
Three people I think will respond? ...Kimberly-Ann, UCF, Haggerts

You?
Cheers.

The polka-dotted president

OK, so the US now has a black president. Historically, a moment in time that we will all remember. Definitely a milestone in our time. The Klan is screaming for one reason, the enlightened populous screaming for another. Now, let's move along please. This guy has work to do. Get over it, he's black, and he' s president. 

I don't really care if the guy is purple with pink polka dots. Really, does it matter? It certainly is a moment in time where the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. is realized to the fullest extent. It is a time when those who were emancipated by Lincoln have dreamed of, it is a time of acceptance. But, let's move along. 

Obama is now the president of the American people. Not the American blacks, American whites, American latinos, Americans of middle eastern, European, Asian or Martian descent. He's event he president of Americans who suffer from skin conditions that make them appear purple with pink polka dots. 

WHO CARES.

This guy is now the president of the US and should be treated like that in all media. The reason for this minor diatribe is the fact that I cannot listen to any media coverage anymore without one pundit going on at length about how his skin colour differs from his predecessor.  There is always now, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, someone analyzing the movements and decisions of Obama as they pertain to the black community. Frankly I'm getting a little tired of it. I'm getting tired of the over-examination of race in American politics. There, I said it. So please just stop it. How about talking about how the economy is affecting ALL Americans? (BTW, I'm Canadian, but the affects of this administration will be felt here as well). The only way at this point that it should matter is when it comes to the fact that Obama has broken the stereotype of the American presidency - An all white, all male, elitist club. That's news. Is he going to help middle class black people before middle class white people? I frickin' doubt it. He's there to do a job that could help everyone, regardless of skin colour. It really Doesn't matter in terms of his job performance. Being black doesn't mean that one ethnic group should or will benefit over another. 

To those who think it will...

Piss off. If someone rips off your arm and beats you senseless with it, what colour is the blood? 

I proved my point. Now shut the fuck up. 

The only reason anyone should be concerned is the right wing nut jobs who might want to do this guy harm because he's black. The Secret Service certainly has their work cut out for them, there are too many of those freaks out there. They need to be beaten with their own arms until they see the light. That should be the punishment for racial intolerance. 

Obama is an intelligent, ambitious, charismatic leader. And even if he fails in his own mandate, he will succeed by bringing Americans together in hope and light the way to a new era. He will extend a hand to the countries of the world who, because of the last guy (yeah, speculation, get over it), hate the US. He will try to bring the US back to it's position as a leader in world economics and human rights not by his being black, or by his policies, but simply by making amends and leading. Those countries are black, white, asian, european, middle-eastern, latino, and of all faiths. 

Obama being black isn't doing that, Obama being himself is doing that. The news media really should pay attention to that idea. Not the fact that his skin looks darker than the previous 43 president. 

Maybe he should have been purple with pink polka-dots. Then who would the pundits be?

Cheers.