Whine Bitch Moan: An Anthology
On this edition of Life’s Best with Nathan, I’m going to rant on about some things that I’m either musing about, pissed about, or generally wanting to talk about. It’s gonna be random, it’s gonna be odd, and it’ll be mostly me, complaining. You cool with that? My blog, my scenery, eh?
Let’s jump on in:
Taking It to the Next Stage — I suddenly had this extreme urging to do some acting again today. I haven’t been on a stage in character since freshman year of college which makes it about 11 years ago, but I still miss the thrill of it all. There’s just no time in my schedule to put in for nightly rehearsals, alas. Gah.
Experts-Exchange Sucks — For those of us in IT, there’s a website called Experts Exchange that allows people to ask technical questions and get responses from supposed “experts” in the field. It used to be open for anyone to read and view, but now they charge you a membership to view the answers to questions and to participate. The problem is that Google is allowed to spider their pages and so when you search on a problem, oftentimes EE is the first few links on the search, but you can’t actually see the answer. Sometimes Google has it in the cache, but not always. So they suck because they waste my time over and over.
Jesus is NOT Your Personal Coach — I’ve had it up to *here* with folks that use Jesus as their personal trainer, coach, or motivator, but only when they’re ahead in the game. Athletes are always responsible for this — “Well, I’d like to thank Jesus for this opportunity to score big for my team” — or call upon Jesus or God to help them win a contest (Big Brother, anyone?) as if God favors the believer. This is a really good reason why most religious whacks are considered to be mental twinkies, folks. If you have nothing else better in your pocket than your religion, you have issues. Quit using it as your personal crutch or fairy godmother. Either that or be sure to blame God when everything goes to hell as well — I mean, c’mon; let’s be fair, hrm?
A Weekend for US? Surely not. – Sometimes it seems like all of our time is spent trying to please everyone else in life but ourselves, doesn’t it? We were home all weekend this week and it was wonderful; we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything in particular other than take care of ourselves. I got the hallway painted, lots of dishes done, a bunch of food cooked for the upcoming difficult week, and played with my son a fair whack (got puked on once, just for good measure). It’s not that we don’t like our family and friends, but it’s good to be apart sometimes, too, ya know?
Mitsubishi, Is It Always Cold in Your Offices? — I am really, really unhappy with the automatic climate control system in our 2007 Mitsu Galant Ralliart. It’s intended to keep the temperature at whatever you set it and make it nice and easy to control. If you’re doing air conditioning, it works really, really well, but with heat it’s either 62F or above, and you get no lower choices. Now, I don’t know about you folks, but when I go outside in winter, I am wearing a good insulated leather jacket, gloves, and probably something fairly cozy underneath. I’m naturally warm anyway, so this is a great get-up for me to stay unshivering. In reality, I only need the car to be a mere 50 or maybe 55F to keep me happy, but the lowest is 62, so what the hell? My options are HOT or OFF. I think that’s rather limited, don’t you?
No Heart In It — While talking the other day about the lack of sales of tickets to my barbershop show coming up this weekend, my wife commented, “Nobody’s heart’s in it,” and it made me pause to think — you know, she’s absolutely correct. Have you noticed it lately? The heart has gone out of a lot of people for lots of things — hobbies, work, life in general. Why? Well, there’s a lot of negatives going on right now — the housing market taking a dump, medical expenses rampaging middle America, idiots in the White House, serious fear of a recession, less jobs, less well-paying jobs, higher food and fuel costs, etc. In short, we’ve lost any sort of spark in our step and spring in our eyes for much other than buckling down, working hard, and maintaining the status quo. I have a great fear that if the country slumps into a full-blown recession our hearts will go down the tube right along with it, and I’m not fond of looking forward to that.
Speaking of No Heart — Insurance companies and medical bills are plaguing us once again. Almost weekly I have to deal with one or more things that aren’t getting filed correctly with insurance or yet another bill coming through from something or other with my son’s birth and my wife’s surgery. Collectors are starting to call and we got approved for a repayment plan that is higher than our biggest car payment. Our crappy-ass drug plan goes through Express Scripts which is anything BUT and ends up being almost more hassle than it’s worth. (You know it’s bad when you prefer to pay full price than to file it with insurance.) It should NOT be this hard to get good, consistent coverage for healthcare given what we have to pay to get this. If I was paying this sort of money for a meal at a restaurant and got the service I have so far, I’d storm out and leave my meal behind. While I don’t think universal health care is the answer, I can fully see why people are hopping mad and demanding it — they’re tired of being treated like shit by companies that simply don’t care if you have a hard time of it.
We Are Too Desperate For Entertainment — This I have decided after watching TV shows get harsher and stranger the more they try to milk the ratings and get viewers, and the American public is apparently lapping it up. Reality shows are pushing the boundaries as much as possible, pitting violent extremes of personalities against one another just for the clash of it all. (”Let’s see what happens when we trade spouses between an African-American upper middle class suburban family of five and a white-trash family of skinhead Mississippians.”) Mind you, I wonder about the people volunteering to be on these shows — they’re clearly not right in the head, or money speaks volumes, but wowzers — can you get any lower? And we sit back and watch it all, like a train wreck where it’s so horribly you can’t possibly take your eyes off it.
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Never have I looked forward to summer so much as this year, when I can get outside, breathe some freshly mown grass, listen to the birds, feel the warm air on your skin, and watch the sun set. My soul needs it about now. There’s plenty of space on my front step if you care to join me.
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