Stuck in the Middle

2006-07-26T22:07:00.000-04:00

So, as I said before........

I still have not gotten this darned thing updated. I guess it doesn't matter too much but it would be nice personally if I could get a rythym going.
I seem to find the time to read everybody elses blog why in the hell can I not get mine going?

2006-03-11T21:36:00.000-05:00

Well, what can i say? I have made the job change and I feel like I have a life now. It has been a long time since I last posted and this whole time I have been enjoying my new found free time. I have done alot in the past 2 months and have been keeping a journal and will post entries as I have time. I just thought it would be best if I took an internet break while I was becoming adjusted to my new schedule etc.....
So look for more here shortly.
And if you have time go check out my other blog.............http://donkeypokerfish.blogspot.com/ That if you cannot tell is my poker blog.
I will also be opening my political blog, which will probably take the name away from this one and I will rename this blog. I will hopefully after that start my music blog and if I can handle it a football blog. Lotsa stuff, eh?
Well I did not want to cram everything into this one so I will split all my main interests up and this blog here will have my personal and everything that does not fit into the other categories.
OK, that was alot and I hope it was understood.
I just finished a micro SnG on Pstars and am going to play in another now. Placed third in the last. If you wanna know more see the Donkeyfish Blog.
TTFN

2005-12-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Well it has been awhile. I have in fact decided to take a step back in my working life. I will some time in the next few weeks be taking a position with the non-profit arm of the organization I work for. I will loose 1/3 of my salary. This seems to be a big thing for people. But I see it as buying my time back. Now I work (averaged through the year) about 60 hrs. a week. I do not receive anything for overtime. I also have to work 40 hrs. even when it is slow. Scenario---- I can work 80 hrs. for 3 weeks straight with no days off and the 4th week I would still have to work 40 hrs. with no time or monetary compensation. So I will dump 1/3 of my pay and work only 40 hrs. and if I work over that I will get overtime pay. Pretty basic stuff.

This will allow me to spend time with the wife and the boy and do some things that I have not done for many years. Such as have friends, play recreational sports and whatever else I gave up when I signed on to the job I currently hold.

Will the money matter? At first, maybe. But we have been credit free (consolidated and 2 yrs. out from total payoff) for awhile now and we have done everything with cash so I think we will be fine. I will take extra work in the spring and summer and will more than likely make back 1/2 of the 1/3 I will be missing.

The big thing here is time with the family. For the past couple of years it has seemed that we are living two seperate lives. Boy & wife together and then me by myself. I don't think that is fair to them or me. So I will make this change to better (hopefully) all of our lives and in the end it will be our life.

Besides this deal I have been laying low getting ready for the holidays and such. Playing some poker, tanked at the local casino this past weekend but then came home and won some back at pstars. Gonna play tonight in the weekly WWDN tourney. It has been moved to Tuesdays. Hopefully I can play well this week. Last time we played I made the final table and then dumbassed my way out quickly.

I could write pages about what is going on in DC. But I will be brief. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where does the authority of this wartime president end? I mean, come on. This man is basically saying I will do what I want and if you do not like it go screw yourself. Your either with us or against us....... I don't really see a good future in store for King George. Even the cons in the senate are starting to back away from him. Mid-terms are coming up and I guess we will see how it plays out. The repubs will have to do some fancy footwork when it comes around to their closeness to his lordship. It should be interesting.

RIP John Spencer.

Damn, West Wing rl drama. I am sad and somewhat intrigued by the whole thing. What the hell will they do now? I have some thoughts but will keep them to myself for now. I want to see what is said and seeing a new episode would help.

Well, ttfn.

2005-12-06T09:05:00.000-05:00

I still cannot seem to get in any kind of rhythm with this damn blog. So I started carrying around a micro recorder to get the thoughts out of my head so that I can write them here later. I know that I do not have anything profound to say and that the likelihood that someone actually reads this is extremely low but, if anybody has read my first post they will understand that this blog is my way of clearing my head, making sense of things and basically self analysis. So I hope this will work out and I will be able to post more frequently.

Some thoughts for today. I hate the modern day version we have of Christmas. I am speaking only from a respectful point of view. Explanation............... If I have not already posted it, I am an atheist. I am not anti- God or anything, I just think that the worship of a higher being and all is a little reaching. On top of that, look at what good religion has done us recently. I am respectful of all religion and even in awe of the faith that people put into something that cannot be touched, seen or heard. Ok, some say they do all these things with their specific omniscient being but we call others who believe in aliens, ghosts and other such things wacko, so? My point is this, I feel that there is no one true way to worship and to think otherwise is arrogant and that arrogance leads to other people being looked down upon for their beliefs which leads to bad things man....... So X-mas, what seems to have once been a beautiful holiday and celebration of the birth of Christ has become another commercialized farce. I mean come on, the only thing you hear about leading up to the actual day is how retailers are saying this and online sales are this and so on and so on............. What a load of horseshit. It seems we are expected to spend as much as we can without going bankrupt or we are bad citizens or something. Wouldn't it be nice to just get together with family and be happy that your all there and hopefully healthy and happy? WTF do you need to spend $1,000's of dollars for?
It's like, "Honey, I know you know that I love you, but in case you didn't, I bought you this piece of overpriced jewelry to show it and I didn't pay the electric so you could have it and I hope you like it and if not I can take it back and and and and..............."
Load of horseshit it is. I buy my child things all year to make him happy, but if we don't go overboard for this one gd day we are bad people. Makes no gd sense to me. Stupid holiday. Unwilling participant, etc............................... P.S. Wife loves X-Mas, bad for me, yes, oh so bad :(

So enough of that rant cause I could go on forever. More later................

2005-11-28T11:32:00.000-05:00

Wow, I have had so much going on that I have forgotten to update the blog. It seems that I should have a ton to write and I do. However, my son is down with the flu (been 4 days now) and he went to the doctor today. It seems that he is right on the edge of dehydration. Not our fault by any means. He has been puking and such since it started and has not been able to keep anything down. I feel bad for him. Poor little guy. He looks all thin and frail. He is a stubborn little bastard so he won't drink the pedialyte we offer and gets frustrated because he throws up when he tries to eat. So the doctor gave the wife a script for something to try to stop the vomiting and he has until 4 pm to keep down some popsicles. After that he goes to the hospital and the dreaded IV will be administered.
I am hoping for the best. Will try my damnedest to keep this th9ing updated a little more. Have a meeting about a job tomorrow. I'd say interview but it is with people that kinda work for me and it seems a little weird to call it that.
more to follow.........

2005-11-18T20:02:00.000-05:00

It seems there is a little more time between posts than I would like. This is a quicky. WWDN poker tourney went off early today and luckily I left work early and was able to play. Had a decent showing and made it into Wil's live blog. I ended up 11th. I have a real problem staying focused after about an hour when I play in tourney's. Maybe that is why I never win a tourney but usually place in the money in SnG's. I dunno. I start playin cards I shouldn't and blow what I made by playing smart. Gotta get over that.
Here's Wil's live blog from the tourney....................

http://www.cardsquad.com/2005/11/18/live-blogging-the-wwdn-heykidsitsbg-invitational/

In other news. It seems that the whole Iraq debate is coming to a head in the House:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/18/congress.iraq.ap/index.html

I do not care for the pissing contest going on here. It puts alot of people in a crummy spot politically. But that is the purpose and I guess in the end, may be a good thing. I'm not sure, I need to ponder it for awhile.

OK, I'm getting called for QT. I will hopefully be able to rant some more later.

2005-11-15T10:33:00.000-05:00

Ya know, I have been reading WWDN for a long time and Wil often talks about time and keeping his blog updated. I have in the past thought, "OK, how hard can it be?" Well, I have begun to realize and have found a new respect for that string of posts. I mean I could just log on and crap out some stuff, but I like to sit and think about what I am putting down. It takes time. Wil, I feel I owe you an apology for doubting you. Sorry.

Anyhow. There is so much going on I do not know where to start or what to leave in and leave out. So maybe I'll talk about none of that stuff and just say, "The Steelers kicked the Browns ass!"
OK, a little harsh but I am a rabid Steelers fan and was raised one, so it warms my heart to see them thrash one of our chief rivals. I could go on and on about the game and such but I will not bore anyone. Unless you want me to.........................................

I applied for a job yesterday. It is with the same organization that I work for now, just a different department. It would mean a pay and status decrease but I need to do it. I need to concentrate on my family. I need to have a life. It is work that I could enjoy and still not be poor. Not that being poor is a bad thing. But my wife works hard and makes a decent salary teaching and I do not want to be a burden on her, financially. Do you know what I mean? Well, if not I can explain it when find out about the job.

World is still going to hell. Small victories are made the big news and all the crummy stuff that piles up each day is swept under the carpet. When will the administration understand that you can never defeat terrorism on a worldwide scale, democracy is not for everyone and religion is one of the worst things for stability in the world. I need to explain all that and I will in the near future. I also need to go back on the issues thing and go further on my views etc.......... So much to do and so little time........................ Hopefully, I can get back and write more later today. Right now I have to do some work at my current job................................... Later...........

2005-11-10T09:25:00.000-05:00

Election season brings up thoughts of where I stand on issues. I consider my self an independent straddling the line between good and evil (you choose which is which) and do not confuse my position with Indpendence party.

I strongly believe that we as a people are not practicing democracy as we were intended to, but rather a duocracy (if that is a word). We are ruled by two parties and within those parties there are extremes to the left and right of whatever side they are on. Why can't we have multiple parties representing exactly what they believe and not compromising to fit into one of two parties? Take this for an example: You go to a car dealership. Do you just look at two models? Do you look only at one option package within that model line? No, you do not. We as Americans naturally like to have options. Option 1 and Option 2 do not cut it. I am not looking for every crackpot party out there to be a major force (we really have some odd parties out there) but would like to see the power spread around. I think this would lead to a healthy national conversation and you would see a little more compromise to benefit all Americans. I could go on and on with this and I will in the future, but for now back to my stand on issues.

When I look at national issues I see many ways to position oneself in them, that however, is not our way these days and we unfortunately live in a "Your either with us or against us world."

I will list a major issue and state my position:

The big A- abortion- Though I feel that this is a horrible procedure and wish that it was unnecessary I have to support the right to choose. This is an issue that has so many angles that I believe the debate can never end. OK so this is awful, accepted. Then the questions abound........ One, when does life begin...... I am not doctor or a scientist do not ask me but those who do know can have their answer and take comfort in it. Two, ownership...... Who owns your body? Who owns the life of an unborn child? Does the government own us? If not, then they have no right to pass any law that would pose their will on our bodily person. See how this can get messy? Now, say abortion is outlawed............. Then we have millions of unwanted or unintended children in this world. Some feel that childbirth is magical and once a baby is born they are automatically loved and so on....... Big BS on that one. So now that we have all these kids in the social services arena ehat do we do with them? Foster homes, adoption, wards of the State type things? What good does that do anyone? What kind of lives do these children have? How many can our tax dollars support? Kinda hard to support these kids when we are having trouble raising our own. See this can go on forever and there are so many angles to come from on it. Basically my stand is this, it is your body your life do what you want and leave me out of it.

Next issue................... Guns. I like guns. Guns do not kill, people do. Take away the guns and people will kill with knives or sticks or cars or poison and on and on ..................... You cannot take away the guns because they are not the problem, people are. You can limit, restrict and all that other stuff but take them away and you have to move onto the next killing instrument.

What's next? First a recap..... OK, abortion stand puts me on the left and guns on the right.....stuck in the middle.

Next is .............. Government.
I do not believe that the Executive branch should hold as much power as it currently does. The strongest branch should be the legislative and the House Of Representatives should be the strongest chamber. The US government draws it's strength from the American people and that it something that is being lost, on especially our current administration. They work for us, we do not work for them. The White House is our house, not the president's. He serves at our will. The food he eats, the cars he rides in, the military he commands all belong to us. All your bases are belong to us....lol. Seriously, the current admistration teters on the brink of a dictatorship. I think when one party controls both all three houses that is bad. No matter the party in the majority. But what can you do. Moving on........ I am a fiscal conservative. I think that low taxes and only necessary spending is the way to go. Welfare sucks........ the system is in shambles. People should have to work or if unable should have to contribute to society in some way......... This is a whole separate post for me. I will continue on this at another time...........

As a matter of fact, I will get back to this line later. I got some calls to make and the next thing on my list is the military so I want to start fresh.

P.S. There are some spelling errors. I do know how to spell but am a sucky typist. Blogger spell check is not the greatest etc.................................. deal with it.

2005-11-09T17:36:00.000-05:00

Well, the elections are over. Looks like we have a new County Executive here in Chautauqua County. His name is Greg Edwards and is a Republican. I voted for him. I know his family and have a brief memory of him way back when in school. We are from the same village (town for those that don't understand) and this was a vote both for the candidate and against the incumbent. I just feel that our area is in a slump and needs some new blood.

I briefly thought about running for the legislature seat for my district. The seat is held by a Republican. He is a good man and I grew up with his kids. I don not see any problems with him but.............. He doesn't do anything. Well, it looks as though he won against a Dem and by a decent margin. My point is this on the whole thing. I think it is time for people of a younger age to get involved with the leadership of their communities. This is something that is happening all over the country and I am hoping it catches on here.

I did not run for the seat because of my job and it's demands on my life. I do not get to spend much time with my family and I do not think it would be fair to fill up what little free time I have with legislative affairs. I will however look at it again in 2007. I just think I need to be involved. Maybe a school board seat? Who knows.

Anyhow, I am really looking closely at my current employment and whether I should continue. Class is in session...............

I work for a profit arm of a non-for-profit problem #1
problem #2 is that it requires a lot of my time (60-80 hrs. Depending on the time of year)
#3 I do not like what I am doing
#4 there is not a lot of support from the parent company for what we need to be successful
#5 I believe and others do as well that I am under paid for what I do

OK, get the picture the list goes on and on...................

end lesson.......................

So, I am at a crossroads and need to make some decisions. More on this later..........

more to follow after some QT wit da famlee.....................

2005-11-08T09:31:00.000-05:00

Today is Election Day!

Make sure to get out and vote for whatever and whoever in your area!

This is they day that we the people get to speak by using our power to vote. If you do not vote you are not going to be heard and when you start whining about the way things are, STFU, because you had your chance to have your say. Be part of the process. I hate to be blunt but this is a right that was fought for starting way back when the Kings of Europe still controlled this young nation. It is your right and obligation to vote. Do not squander it.

More later..........

2005-11-05T19:07:00.000-05:00

So, I have been putting on a new roof on one of the additions to my house. It is finally done and I feel that I have accomplished something this week.

When I got home from work today I opened one of my bills which happened to be a credit account with a major company. The rate isn't too bad so it does not bother me to leave a bit of a balance on it. Well since the Federal Reserve and Al Greenspan have been raising the overnight lending rate I have noticed that my interest rate has also increased at a "measured" pace. Ok, I understand the hike from the Fed, gotta keep inflation down and so on. What I do not understand is this, when rates dropped the past couple of years the credit mongers never dropped their rates. But now that the rates are going up so are their rates. I do not understand. The key rate is still well below when I opened the account but my interest rate is considerably higher. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's a conspiracy.............lol. Not really but I have heard some horror stories of those that have been trapped in the credit card web. They get a great rate run it up a little and then bam! they are screwed. Credit card companies and insurance companies, two things that should be watched and are borderline illegal. RICO anyone? Yes, I know but it would be fun if somebody tried it.
Rant off...................
Missed the Friday WWDN Invitational again. 7 pm EST start is a little tough. Maybe Wil will (hehe) adjust the time for the West Coasters which would help me out a bunch.
Wife is leaving at 5 am tomorrow for a conference. Just me and boy for three days. Should be interesting.

Favorite GIS for today:

It made me chuckle. More later, I gotta play some cards.

2005-11-03T09:40:00.000-05:00

Back to the pre-war intelligence thing. I see that "Scooter" Libby is headed to court today. This is an interesting story to me. It is much bigger than somebody leaking a CIA operatives name.

Read please:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/03/leak.probe.ap/index.html

This whole thing is a mess and it gets deeper and messier with every turn.
One thing that really chaps my ass is this, if this were you or I being accused of these things where would we be? Held as enemy combatants or something? I guess rank does have it's privilege.
One thing is certain, the whole "Your either with us or against us" thing really sucks. It is the arrogance of this administration that really gets to me. One view of the world, share it or you are wrong and you will pay. What a way to lead. Got a lot going on right now so this post is incomplete and not thorough enough but I will talk more about it later. More to follow.........

2005-11-03T07:44:00.000-05:00

Well I ended up playing in 3 different sit n go's last night. Busted out in 6th in the first, 4th in the second and brought home the bacon on the last. I was the short stack for quite awhile on the last one but played pretty tight and caught some cards with 5 ppl left. Was down about 7,000 when we went head to head, played tight and caught a break on cards I shouldn't have played when it looked like I was a goner. So I ended up making back the buy-in for all three plus a little extra, not bad.
I quit playin at about 1:30 am and found that my son was still awake. 4 years old and awake that late, I should be shot. Well, it seems he had taken a nap earlier in the day and was not tired. And at 4 I don't think he has grasped the concept of needing sleep even if you are not tired. Got him to sleep around 2 am and hit the rack. Didn't sleep that well. I kept thinking about an email I sent to Senator Clinton and a small mistake I made when referencing the 9/11 terror attacks. BTW, I do live in NY state and Senator Clinton has done a fine job for us so far. Anyhew, I said horrific bombing when I referenced the attack and did not realize until I was driving home from work. No big deal I guess but then I started thinking.
Wasn't it a bombing? I mean you had a plane loaded with fuel and after it was hijacked the sole intent of the pilot was to use said plane to blow up or demolish the World Trade Center. Isn't that a bomb? I don't know, makes some sorta sense to me.
I do not make a habit of emailing representatives but I did want to comment to her on the new press from the Democrats on pre-war intelligence. I support this new found urgency to find out more and make someone accountable for misleading the American people. Did I mention I am an independent? Not Independence party. Totally independent. I straddle the line. Thus the Blog title, Stuck in the Middle.
Here I'll post the letter:

Senator Clinton-
I am an independent voter (leaning left) and I want to comment on the sudden pressure that the Democratic Party is putting on the majority to finish the pre-war intelligence inquiry. I believe that this is a move that is far overdue and hope that the pressure continues and increases. I believe that there is still much that must be answered for on this issue and the parties that led us to war based on false or skewed intelligence must be held accountable.
We have spent billions of dollars on what seems to be a personal agenda and instead of making the world safer from terrorists that we are told lurk around every corner; this war has destabilized a region that was not too happy with us to begin with.
Saddam Hussein posed no threat to my family while he was in power.
With him out of power I feel no different, my life is not better nor worse.
But billions of hard earned tax dollars have been spent on this folly, dollars that could have been used to help make life better for families like mine.
Please continue the fight for what is right and hold the President and the Republicans accountable for their actions.
I am a former soldier and I support our troops, I cannot however support a war based on nothing.
In the Republican eyes this make me un- patriotic and that sickens me. It did not take a horrific bombing for me to fly the flag in my front yard and nothing will ever make me take it down.
If the current administration is not held accountable for their actions and are not shown that they can only go as far as the American people will allow them, then we have lost just what they say they are spreading across the Middle East, democracy.
Thank you.

Nothing to profound but my thoughts on the subject. I have to get some work done now. The organization I work for is having their November Board of Trustee meetings and I am responsible for some of the going-ons. More to follow.......................................

2005-11-02T22:22:00.000-05:00

I seem to have some real problems trying to get this damn blog started. I wrote a really nice opening piece last night and when I went to spellcheck....... It wiped the whole thing out. Oh well!
I've got plenty o' crap in my noggin to put down so I will just start again.
I wanted to do this blog because I have one of those brains that does not stop. I don't sleep very much, my thoughts will not allow it, so I need to get the stuff out of my head and hopefully it will allow me some peace.
I am constantly thinking about things. I will run through an entire issue in my head and that goes into another and another and ....................................
This goes on constantly. It is somewhat of a nuisance but it could be worse, I could not have cognitive ability at all. I don't mean to come off as some big brain asshat that says OMG, I AM JUST SO SMART THAT I AM A CONSTANT SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is not what I am talking about. My thoughts range from the political, philosophical type things to the mundane everyday things like, should I get new gravel laid in my driveway and what is the best way to save money on a monthly basis for a vacation. Stupid stuff. But it goes on in a continuous circle and never seems to stop.
So I thought that if I started to put these things down in some form I would stop thinking about some of them. We'll see if it works.
I also need some sort of creative outlet so this will be a blog about anything and everything that interests me and maybe people will read it and a dialog will start and ................... See constant circle.
I do not know what specific format I will follow but as time goes on it should take on it's own form. I hope.
more to follow.........................I'm up on a sit n go on PStars.