back with a Rant

So, it's been a while and I'm maybe going to give this a try again. We'll see. Don't expect much, though, cuz I'm a slacker.

I was talking with my girl today about political issues, and she asked me "what I was going to do about it?". What I really need is a radio show, since my behavior wouldn't fly as a politician. But, getting a radio show is kind of tough, so I guess I'll start with a blog. Blogging sometimes just seems so futile sometimes because SO many people do it and I doubt anyone will read my blog if I don't self promote it....and I hate self-promoting. I guess advertising is pretty important in this country, but for some reason it feels differently when you're "advertising" your blog. Now that I think more about it, it's different because my blog has little or no value to you where as goods/services we see advertised everyday have some value albeit in many cases only marginally more.

I bought a thirsty V8 not too long ago, and luckily I don't drive much so these gas prices aren't killing me, but I've been watching the prices more. I have to use premium now too, so I guess that's another reason. While the domestic oil problems are surely playing a huge, probably majority of the role in these ridiculous prices, the subject of Iran and the Middle East keeps coming up. I'll try to solve the domestic oil issues in a future post. But, as I started thinking about Iran, I started wondering this:

Why don't, or can't, we just assassinate officials of other countries anymore?

I feel like it's so easy to call our (America's) bluff these days because it's so hard to bomb other countries in terms of all the red tape and media massaging and the results aren't even that great. We end up killing a ton of civilians and destroying infrastructure with no real quality outcome. It's just really hard for us to get to that stage, so these leaders can do what ever they want. But, if these leaders were scared that they were going to be assassinated, they would probably be less cocky. A great example is Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, who is apparently a "Top Revolutionary Guard Commander" and made a statement a few days ago that Iran would target Israel if the US attacks. Now, I'm not even defending Israel here, but this just goes and gets everyone worked up around the globe. We don't need this while we're still trying to avoid a war. If the guy were to wind up dead tomorrow, suspiciously assassinated hopefully the next top guard would be a little more reserved with his threats.

But on a larger scale, why can't we just take out whole regimes? I don't see why we really need to have ground forces there to help. The worst that can happen is there is a short fight while the next group takes power. If we don't like this group, they're gone too. It won't take too many iterations before the group that gets power stays in line. Everyone loves power, but in order to weld it well, there has to be some checks. I feel like revolutions are the only checks in some of these countries, so maybe bringing a little fear of assassination would provide a good check for some of these leaders.

Now, clearly the US cannot have any clear ties to these assassinations. This brings me to my next idea. Whey doesn't the U.S. setup our own terrorist organization, Islamic extremist group, cult, whatever you want to call it...? How hard can it be to recruit guys into caves, sell them a mission, and then command them to do it in the name of something. We could then use this group to carry out assassination missions and other important missions. If these gents felt so strongly that they chose to die in order to carry out the mission to the fullest extent, they would be honored, of course, but such practices wouldn't be encouraged.

Okay, so this probably seems outlandish, but the fact remains; we're not that good at fighting the extremists groups in the Middle East. I think it's because we're not thinking like them. We bust in with guns and large bombs. They blend in with small bombs. In the U.S. we have undercover workers all of the time, but we have to abide by our laws. If we enlist natives to our cause, they can abide by the local laws which are much less stringent. They can lie, deceive, and cheat in order to get information, access, and opportunity in these hot spots. We can then carry out our pro-democracy missions with much more efficiency.

If we truly believe our cause to be just, I'm just not so sure that our means need be so proper. We need to use the best means possible. I could string a few more cliques along here about winning ugly, etc. But I think I made my point, however crazy it was....it was a rant after all. See you next time!

back in action

Well, I’ve already lived up to the “slouch” part of the name for this blog. I thought that it would be easy for me to get some good posts up here on a regular basis, but I underestimated the motivation I’d need to get back on the computer to write after spending all day in front of one. So, I’m writing this at work.

I just returned from 10 days in the Midwest; went back for business and pleasure. So, now I need a real vacation to recover from the drunken debauchery that I either find or create when I go back home. Redbull and vodka is always a bad decision. I still plan on drinking it again, probably soon, but that’s just because I think I like making bad decisions. Not all the time, but I have to be honest that I’m quite happy with most of the bad decisions I’ve made. They almost always at least make for great stories.

Last Saturday night started with two Redbulls and plenty of vodka on an empty stomach. It ended at 4am at a White Castle. I know that what ensued in the middle was a damn good time although all of it isn’t clear. I wasn’t driving, but my buddy that was remembers less than me. More bad decisions…but old habits die hard. White Castle is also always a bad decision. But it tastes damn good after a hard night of drinking and being inside the place with every other drunken person in town is priceless. I’ve been known to get hit on once in a while, especially at home, but last Saturday a 300 pound women with boobs that probably made up half that weight asked me if I wanted to party with her. Clearly I was flattered that she thought I could handle a woman of her caliber because I’m not exactly a large guy as far as you know. But, I had to decline because she didn’t want to party with all of us and it probably would have taken the three of us to “turn that party out”.

So, after two weekends in Illinois I’m pretty partied out. I have my company holiday party tonight and I’m really not that stoked to get wasted, which is surprising. I’m sure I’ll rise to the occasion though; I’m a sucker for peer pressure. I’ll take some pictures and hopefully I’ll have some good stories to share. You know dressed up, drunken engineers, many with random dates, is a combination that will produce some good material.

On to current events…Do you think that a man or woman came up with this woman sex patch thing? I’m guessing a man did; it has to suck when your wife gets old and wants to have sex even less than she did before. My only question is why the guy didn’t make it a side effect to a more applicable drug; maybe something for clearing up skin problems or treating migraines or stress headaches. That way, not just old women will have higher sex drives. No offense to the old women, but I don’t see anything wrong with younger women wanting more sex too. I’m going to make this warning now, though, if Oprah endorses this drug, women in theirs 50’s all over the country are going to be looking to get laid. It’s a scary thought; I’ll be staying away from the bars for a few weeks. But, maybe if old guys start getting laid like the young guys do now, we can start driving the expensive sports cars they bought when their wives stopped sleeping with them.

Okay, so I’m going to try to get something up a little quicker this time. But, don’t hold your breath…

the first one

First post…well, I’m starting this blog without knowing what I’ll write about or what I really want from it. I guess I want it to be an outlet for me and at the same time maybe amuse people; who knows, it might even enlighten a few. But, these are vague goals, so I guess I’ll just see how it goes.

So, I might as well write a little about myself. Not much, because I think it will be more fun if the posts shape my character. I’m a software engineer and I live in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I’m originally from a suburb of Chicago and I moved out here almost a year ago. I’ll be honest; I wish I was actually from Chicago and not a suburb. Not because it’s actually better to be from Chicago, although I’d like to live there now, but because I’m extremely annoyed when I get called out by saying I’m from Chicago and someone has to say, “Did you actually live in Chicago or a suburb?” Does it really matter? Do you really care where I’m from so much that 40 miles is going to make a difference? Sadly, I seem to have gotten myself into the same predicament again. I’m only 35 miles from Midtown Manhattan, but I can’t really say I’m from New York City, can I? Maybe I’m just lazy and I don’t want to explain where my suburb is in relation to a known location. But like I said, I don’t really think it matters that much. If you’re going to come over, then I’ll tell you EXACTLY where I live.

Wow, I got carried away a bit there. I have the feeling that this kind of thing might happen a lot. I just hope someone that reads my rants might be able to relate. I haven’t read a large amount of blogs, but I don’t think continuity is always a must, but I will try. Anyway, I think that’s a sufficient introduction…

I haven’t done much writing in the last 3 years. Well, writing English sentences and paragraphs, I mean. I do write a lot of code of various types, which I guess I should cover right from the start. I like being a software engineer and I know a lot of very cool engineers. But, let’s be honest; “software engineer” doesn’t have great appeal. Rather than blow my own horn and tell you all that I’m the coolest software engineer ever so that you’ll read my stuff, I’m going to try to prove it. However, just so you know, it is possible that I am and I’d certainly argue the matter. But, just bare with me, this won’t be the blog you’d expect from a code jockey.

I just wrote a few paragraphs intended for this first post, but I don’t want to get too deep right from the start. So, I’ll end on the reason why I’m taking it easy this weekend. After all, I am writing this on a Friday night.

Clearly you know last weekend was Halloween weekend. I gave up candy long ago, but unfortunately I’ve gotten confused and replaced eating large amounts of candy on Halloween with drinking large amounts of Jagermeister, which will be referred to as “jager” in all other posts (and I’m sure it will come up again). It’s one thing to do shots and then not remember the subsequent events. But, unremembered shots of any kind are bad, very bad. In my case, they led to throwing up in my sleep on the floor of my boss’s basement. There’s nothing like waking up in only shorts in a strange basement knowing that your last memory included you fully clothed in scrubs, a large black afro, gold chains, and gold dollar-sign glasses.

Sadly, this is one of many times I’ve woken up without recollection of what happened to my clothes. But, this is the first time I woke up and learned that my boss and his girlfriend had to strip me of my clothes because of jager-induced vomiting. The fact that my boss was totally cool about the whole thing, washed my clothes for me, and hasn’t mentioned it since speaks for the fact that he’s an awesome guy and that there are some very cool software engineers out there. He''ll probably never read this, so I'm not kissing ass, merely giving credit where credit is due.

In any event, I haven’t been able to get real pumped about partying since. So, I stayed in tonight and got this thing started. I’m pretty stoked about it.