Evil Thought for Today

"People! Can't live with them, can't get a licence for a doomsday device."

And now a word from our sponsor...

Two posts ago I babbled about buying winter tires. Well, today proved that to be a good idea. I woke up this morning to discover our first big, bad blast of weather for the season. Compared to last February, this wasn't much, but it still made driving a slightly more risky affair. Unlike the usual idiots who don't change their driving habits for the conditions, I took it easy on the way to work, but I could tell by the feel of the car that the grip was better. Indeed, I decended a steep, glassy hill with nary a slip. Not something to test too far, but good to have anyway.

Evil Thought of the Day

Something that popped into my head at lunch today:

"I dislike conflict. That's why I'm going to destroy you quickly."

Said at the beginning of the regular lunchtime card game.

On a more pleasant note...

...I suppose. I just shelled out $900 for a set of snow tires and rims. Yep, the car has new winter boots: Bridgestone Blizzaks. After the fun I had on the roads up here last winter, this was a must.
Also, a couple of weeks ago I attended a driving course called Skid School, paid for by my employer. I guess they would rather have us arrive at work intact. What nice people! Part of the course involved performing collision avoidance maneuvers with different types of tires. It was quite clear that they were pushing Blizzaks (must be getting advertising bucks from Bridgestone), as they made sure to point how they were superior to the all-seasons, or having snows on just front or back, and the poster in the classroom. Still, the point was made.

Just so you don't think I'm a sucker for a sales pitch, I had previously been considering these tires or the Michelin equivalents. It just turned out that the tire place I went to (recommended by several coworkers) didn't carry Michelins.

So I'll now be a little safer when the weather around here goes completely to hell. Which it will.

The next plan is to put together a winter survival kit for the car, and a first aid kit (my employer trained my on that too).

Stand By Me

The spousal unit has gone back to university to finish her degree, and some people don't seem to like it. She has been quite discouraged lately by the response of some. The latest was just yesterday, when a long time friend and his wife decided that Spouse was not making acceptable choices about her life, and that she had no right to blog about things that bothered her. I can only guess that they are leading the correct and proper life and this gives them the right and duty to rudely and arrogantly point out other's errors. I was bothered by this and fired back with my own rebuttal. At this point the former friend made it clear that Spouse was no longer acceptable friend material. I used to like this man, I considered him intelligent, well read, and thoughtful, but now I can only see him as an inflexible, self-righteous dickhead. It seems that anyone who disagrees with him or his wife, or makes choices they wouldn't, is branded as an evil idiot. Apparently we are not the first friends they've thrown away for not matching their ideal way of living. Well, FUCK THEM! Sooner or later they'll find out they've run out of friends.

Real friends will tolerate your mistakes, even if they're the only ones who see them as such. Trust me, I've made this mistake myself twice in my life and regretted both. I threw away one friend for having a drug habit (which he later kicked), and another for cheating on his significant other.

Spouse's parents have been less than supportive as well. Her mother seems of the mind that unless there is a direct, practical, quick payoff to this education it is not worthwhile. She's been giving Spouse the cold shoulder. At least she hasn't disowned us.

Others, however, have different opinions. We have other friends (real friends it seems) who think that this is a wonderful thing. They are very much appreciated right now. We'll be seeing some of them this weekend, and I'll be sure to thank them.

She gave up her chance to finish over ten years ago, instead following me when I took a job out of town. I've learned to understand what that cost her. I won't ask her to give it up again. I believe it is important to complete this, even if it doesn't lead to a monetary payoff. MONEY IS NOT THE ONLY REWARD! OR THE MOST IMPORTANT! I put off leaving a job I hated because of the fear of losing money, to the point where it got me fired. The need for money made me miserable.
We are making sacrifices to do this. I won't say I'm enjoying them, but I see them as necessary.
To hell with those who would abandon us for this, or for defending what we're doing. To those who disapprove but keep it to themselves, so be it; hold your tongues. To those with us, thank you for being true friends.

Back in the Saddle Again....and my ass is sore!

Ok, first post in a while. My lack of updates has been due to a couple of factors: large doses of overtime in the last month while lending my support to the maintenance shutdown (called an outage) which tired me out (60 hrs per week for a month); forgetfulness: I would think of something to write, but by the time I was actually I would forget what I wanted to say, or get distracted by something else; or simple laziness.

A man's got to know his limitations.

Today I was speaking with my friend B-meister, and he was telling me about some of his stresses at work. I do a car-pool type of thing with B, as he works at the same company (different building), and he often talks about work and the very impressive sounding projects he's working on. B is probably one of the smartest and most self-motivated and driven people I know. Understand that I went to university for engineering with B, back in the early 1990's. I managed to get through and graduate from that. Graduation was followed by a hell of a tough time finding work, followed by several increasingly better paying jobs, ending last year. Various people, including B, told me how smart I was because I was able to get through the program and get the degree, etc. However, it seemed every time I turned around, either when looking for a job or when actually doing it that I was often sadly lacking in certain background skills and knowledge, or would make errors that would make me fell like I didn't belong there. Often this caused a paralyzing lack of confidence in actually doing some tasks.

Since grade school I'd always had people telling me they thought I was intelligent, yet my grades were rarely stellar. High school was the same and I was just able to squeak into university. First year U was ok, but after that it was a gradual downward slide, and I ended up taking an extra 2 years to finish. All along though, I was around some very intelligent and capable people, and some self confidence seemed to rub off.

This confidence, and the high expectations I had for myself didn't seem to pay off though. Like I said, real life results didn't measure up. I'd also occasionally hear about the accomplishments of my former peers, and compare mine unfavourably. The last year or so, with getting fired and all, have forced me to re-examine my abilities. I've come to the realization that I'm not as smart as I thought I was, and I likely won't accomplish anything hugely impressive. I'm just an average guy. And I think I'm ok with that. My self image has changed, along with my ambitions. I guess this is just part of my recent experiences, and getting older and, I guess, slightly wiser. Now I think I'll be happy with just doing my job decently, and not screwing up too much. I'll go to work, do my job, and come home. I'll live my quiet little life and just try to be content with what I am, and let others do the great things and suffer the stresses involved.

A somewhat serious post.

Ok, time for my 50th of a dollar on the subject of global warming, climate change, whatever. I'm not going to argue that most scientists believe it, and a few don't. There are a zillion arguments either way, and it seems to me very little clear truth to be sifted from the mess. As usual, everybody spins things to support what they already want to believe. Same as with politics, religion, and sports.
So I'll approach it from a somewhat simpler angle.
1. Hundreds of millions of years ago, life forms started using carbon as a primary component of their bodies and metabolisms. They obtained this carbon from the environment (atmosphere, gasses from volcanos, and such).
2. As these critters and plants snuffed it, many of their itty-bitty bodies ended up in positions where geological processes changed them chemically into coal, oil, gas, and similar types of burnable things.
3. The above two things went on for many hundreds of millions of years, collecting jillions of tons of carbon and locking it away.
4. Jump ahead a while, until the mid-1800's or so. These silly little ape descendants start yanking all this stuff out of the ground and burning it, releasing this carbon back into the environment.
5. Summary: Over hundreds of millions of years, vast and ridiculous amounts of the stuff is hidden away. We dig it up, and put it back in 150 years! How can this not have an effect!

The speed at which things are done matters. Look at the gas tank of your car: burn it a little at a time in a controlled way, and you can get around town. Burn it all at once, and you have a bomb.

From one bunch of clowns to another...

I came across this link on William Gibson's blog:

Clowns KKKick KKK ass!

Good for a chuckle or two.

Ever notice how folks like Nazis, the KKK, religious fanatics, etc. never seem to have a sense of humour? Unless they're laughing at someone else's suffering. A sure sign of mental illness.

Pointed Sticks at High Velocity

I'm taking up a new hobby. Something to fill the lonely hours that's perhaps a bit more productive and active than sitting in front of a computer decimating hordes of evil whatevers. I'm taking up archery. I've been thinking about it for years, but just never had the initiative to go and do it.

Well, I happened to mention my possible interest during lunch one day, and it turns out that one of my noontime cribbage opponents is an archer. So several weeks ago we went out shooting at a local range. This was the first time I had actually handled a real bow and launched arrows. I was surprised how well I did considering this lack of experience. I only lost one arrow in the woods.

So, I'm looking to join the local club; they'll vote on letting me in next week. And I purchased a used compound bow (has pulleys, the tension lets off as you pull so it's easier to hold the draw). Today I took it to a local shop for a new string, setting up draw length, some arrows, and a quiver.

On top of all this, there is an indoor range within walking distance of home! So I can go shooting all winter. Yay.

Locational errors.

Ok, I'm back. It's been a while. We completed to moves to Spousal Unit's apartment, and the new place in the new home town near ye olde atom mill. It was certainly not without incident. Perhaps I'll write on that later.
Currently I'm at Spousal Unit's (SU) place on a visit. She is out being a venue manager at the Fringe Festival here. And as I look around the place, my eyes invariably fall on various items we had at the old house. As I look at them, I can't not think of where in that house they used to sit. I'd thought I wouldn't miss the old house much, as I hadn't felt attached to any place since leaving the house I grew up in. But it seems that 6 years in our house (in the middle of our street) had some effect.
Over the years we've moved many times, each time throwing away more or less "junk". During this last move we disposed of a hell of a lot of stuff. Things that we didn't need, didn't want, or just failed to have any meaning to us ended up in some scrap heap or other. And then I look around at what's left, and remember where it was. Some of it links back to where I grew up. A lot of stuff from back then was pitched or given away years ago, but I sometimes still think of it when I go on little tours of the old place in my mind. I lived there for 22 years, and I can still remember every detail. From the smell of old floor wax in the utility closet, to the dirty linoleum top of the workbench my father built in the basement, to the marks I put in the underside of the built-in desk in my room when I was about 6. The objects in this mental model are part of it. Some of them I still have. Many are gone. Sometimes it feels that by getting rid of them I'm throwing away my past. Or betraying my parents.
But I also see that they are just objects. Just things. And as I get older I realize that things just aren't that important. But I still feel that link to the past through them, either to my origin many years ago, or just to the last house we lived in. Seeing them here, in different, unfamiliar places just feels strange.

Misplaced good intentions, or dogmatic zealots?

Last week Greenpeace issued a "study" that made the alarming claim that "Pregnant women and children under the age of four should avoid living within 10 kilometres of nuclear power plants". A pretty strong statement. They also state that federal standards allow up to 7,000 Becquerels per litre of tritium in drinking water. This is true. A Becquerel is equivalent to one nuclear decay per second. Tritium is an unstable isotope of hydrogen. It has a half-life of 12.3 years, and decays by emitting a very weak beta particle (electron). It is only a hazard if taken into the body, usually in the form of water.
However their claim of the danger is alarmist and misleading. Here are a few facts that GP didn't make a lot of noise about:
1. Radioactive emissions of all types are closely monitored by the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission). Failure to meet CNSC requirements can result in loss of a licence to operate. With revenues on the order of $1 million per day per reactor, does it seem likely that an operator with take chances on losing a licence? Not to mention the public relations disaster.
2. Industry standards (self imposed) are 70 Bq/l, not 7000. The place I work at maintains less than 20 Bq/l.
3. Drinking 250ml (1 cup) of water with 100 Bq/l would give you a dose of about 0.0004 mrem (milliRem). The same volume of milk: 0.0006 mrem from natural sources. By comparison, you receive 27 mrem per year from cosmic background radiation, 28 from the earth's crust, 50 from naturally occurring elements in your body, and if you smoke 1-2 packs a day you're getting a whopping 1300 mrem per year. In order to get an extra dose equivalent to what the average non-smoker receives in a year (about 250 mrem), you would have to drink about 39000 litres of tritiated water (at 100 Bq/l).

But, of course, they omit little details like this. Like the fact that eating bananas (chock full of that yummy potassium-40) is more dangerous than living around a nuclear plant. To put things in proper perspective would not be spectacular enough. And flashy scare-mongering is what brings in the donations, isn't it?
Don't get me wrong, I think Greenpeace is a good and useful group. They've done some good work in the past, but as far as their attitude to nuclear power goes, I simply believe they're wrong. So does GP founder Patrick Moore.

To be continued.

**In the interest of full disclosure, the facts quoted about are taken from AECL, UNSCEAR, and CNSC.

Musical Meme Thingy

Ok, I've been tagged by the spousal unit with this:
1. Go to www.popculturemadness.com
2. Pick the year you turned 18
3. Get yourself nostalgic over the songs of the year
4. Write something about how the songs affected you

The trick is that I wasn't really much into music back then. We only had an old stereo receiver and an early '70s portable cassette recorder. But I still heard a few things on the radio and around school. Scanning the list...
Robert Palmer, Addicted to Love. Yep, a bunch of identical model types. Just the thing for an 18 year old male.
Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian. Just something heard around school. Kind of liked it, actually.
Peter Gabriel, Sledge Hammer. Very cool video. Later on I got "introduced" to PG again by some friends. 'So' is still one of my all time fave albums.
Falco, Rock Me Amadeus. Thought is was kind of cool then. Now it just sounds like pretentious Eurotrash. Yes, I hate Kraftwerk too.
Dire Straights, Walk of Life. I've been a big DS fan for a very long time. I used to play a copy of Brothers in Arms in the old mono Sony with one earplug while playing games on my Atari 600XL. This is still a sing-along-in-the-car tune for me.
Anything by Wham! Hated them. I was more than a bit homophobic back then. Now I just hate it for being sickly sweet pop drivel.
I still absolutely despise Bon Jovi. I hate the sound, I hate the image. Pure commercial crap.
Other stuff I was hearing around that time, and still like: Police, Depeche Mode, Psychedelic Furs, Billy Idol.
I know this was supposed to be '86, but here are a few others: Men at Work's Business as Usual still takes me back to my first D&D games. Huey Lewis' Walking on a Thin Line was the tune for playing Pole Position, while Zenyatta Mondatta by the Police was for extended games of Archon.
Then there was Genesis: Take Me Home. Grade 11 field trip. This was played in the bus on the way back. Great song. Bruce Hornsby's The Way it Is, I still think of the cold, snowy December/January days when that came out.

Enough for now.

Making changes...

As we trudge towards the big relocation, now about a month away, and try to ensure we cover every last detail, I'm making one other small adjustment. As the area I'm moving to is one of the few places in Canada that the Rogers vast telecom octopus hasn't suckered onto, I will be moving to another service. This means losing the old e-mail address, and their Yahoo based browser. Not a huge loss in my opinion. So I've grabbed the opportunity to switch browsers to Firefox. I've just downloaded and installed it, without any trouble whatsoever. I was actually surprised how easy it was. So far I like it. A nice clean, neat, logical interface. The only hassle is going to be with bookmarks. Yahoo has a web-based bookmark thing, where the list was stored on some server somewhere, and not on my good ol' electric abacus. So there's no easy translation. This means the tedious, one-at-a-time, go-to-the-site-and-bookmark-it method. I also need to check out the security features before I try any banking. But, so far, so good.

Going down....

I just heard Jerry Falwell died today. And the world is a slightly better place. Nasty thing to say, I know, but I can't bring myself to shed a tear for that bloated bigot. The man represented what I consider many of the worst aspects of religion. He was an intolerant, self-righteous, arrogant slime. Ever since I heard him speak back in the 80's, he's made me cringe.
There is an animation in an episode of Monty Python which features a wide-faced pastor, grinning ear-to-ear, spouting some crap about how much his church loves you, bla bla... Then the grin spreads around his head and the top lifts off to reveal a devil swimming around the goo inside. He then tries to nail the top of his head back into place. I always thought of Falwell whenever I saw this.
Well, sir, enjoy the hell that you were so eager to condemn others to.

New stress

Ok, so we sold the house. Now I've got about 6 weeks left to find a new place near the atom mill, get all the legalities, money crap, and other junk done so I can move. The spousal unit has already found a place to stay while finishing school.
The problem is that the atom mill creates a pretty big demand for housing around here, so there isn't that much that fits the price range we're looking at. I'll be looking at a place in couple of days, and if it looks halfway decent for a reasonable price, I'll probably snap it up. Meanwhile, the fluttery insects are partying in the digestive tract.

Another Triumph for Science!

This is the kind of research to be doing:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070425164048.jxev9w4o&show_article=1&catnum=9

Mmmm....beer.

He who laughs last, thinks slowest? -or- "Funny, you don't smell like you fell in shit."

Ok, now that the last of the severance payments has been received and deposited, all ties back to the hell where I spent 7.5 mostly miserable years are now cut. As far as I'm concerned, me, and the assholes who fired me, are now completely through with each other. And good riddance to them.

So now I'm working at the ol' atom mill about 2 hours drive north of here, renting out a room and coming home on weekends. And I'm happy to report that I am enjoying this job a hell of a lot more. Actually, occasionally I feel I can look back at my previous employers and laugh, imagining that they expected my career to nose dive after this. Well, the trick was to dump a career that I hated. Perhaps the new job isn't engineering, but so what?; I'm not out the thrill anyone with titles. So I am now a "Radiation Protection Technician", or more commonly, "Rad Tech". That's ok with me.

So let's look at some of the advantages of this new vocation:
1. I am starting out at a base pay rate of about 85% of what I was making at my peak in the old job. And things are starting to look like this will go up rapidly. The potential is to earn up to 30 or 40% more than I was at! This doesn't include the annual bonus paid to everyone, dependant on company performance (last year it was $1500!), and overtime. Overtime is 2x. Sweet.
2. The benefits are top notch. My sister in law works for the benefits provider, and she says the package is one of the best around.
3. Straight day shift, except for overtime and such.
4. I'm in the union. Yep, that's right, this long time, white-collared, raise anti-unionist is now a card carrying brother worker, with a definite bluish tinge around the neck. At least I now have some defense against the whims of upper management.
5. Coolness factor is high. I'm working in a nuclear power plant! To me, that is a major tweaking of my inner tech geek side.
6. Related to the coolness factor, I'm learning tons of stuff about nuclear physics, various gizmos, and the like. Beats hell out of learning to meet the latest idiotic demand from some knob at GM or Ford.
7. I can relax a bit. The expectations are much more realistic. No more being responsible for things I have no control over.
8. A beautiful place to live, on the western shore of a large lake. The winters can be brutal, but I'm told the rest of the year more than compensates.
9. Working with some good folks. For the most part, all the folks in my department are very cool. Lots of joking around and good-natured ribbing, but also making sure the job gets done.
10. Lots of exercise. The size of the place, and the nature of the job result in lots of walking and stair climbing. I'm feeling better already.

So there it is. Last summer I fell in a pile of manure, and this spring I'm coming out smelling sweet. And I can now think of my previous employer and laugh.

Today I heard someone whistling the theme music for Chariots of Fire. You know, that slow, majestic tune that accompanies a bunch of guys running in slo-mo on a beach in the 1920's. And it reminded me of something that had occurred to me many years ago, when I first heard it played: this tune is "On Top of Spaghetti"! (or the original, "On Top of Old Smokey". Think about it. It's the same tune, just slowed down and softened. You can even sing along. It couldn't be a more blatant rip off.
Well, I guess if you're going to plagiarize, it's best to steal from the public domain so you don't get sued.

Mood music.

Something that was crawling around in my skull a few weeks ago:

For some unknown reason, I was in a bit of an odd mood today. I guess thinking about selling the house and all the upcoming changes have got me in an introspective way. A combination of the weather and some tunes reminded me of a time about 18 or so years ago, back when I was young and insane. Funny how the right music at the right time can take you back.
The music in question was Dire Straits Alchemy Live album. Way back when, I had this on cassette tape (remember those, kids?) and I played it in my car until the tape was stretched and the sound distorted. A gray day driving around town with this playing gave me a hint of how I felt back then. Kind of like a burp that reminds you of a past meal. But it was only a hint of the feeling; it was clear that I could never have more than that. It's like that meal was a delicious roast of some animal that is now extinct, and the belch just reinforces the fact that you'll never have it again.

Take this Meme and shove it.

A meme thingy stolen from the spousal unit.

How tall are you barefoot?
6' 1", more if I lie down.

Have you ever flown first-class?
Yes, on a business trip years ago. The secretary who booked my flight must have liked me. Nice. Bigger seats, better food, drinks, and in case of a nose first crash I'd be one of the first to die.

One of your favorite books when you were a child?
Define child. I don't remember much of what I read before high school. Then it was The Lord of the Rings. I actually almost cried at the end. After investing so much time in it, it felt like I was saying goodbye to good friends.

A good restaurant in your city?
The spousal unit introduced me to Bertoldi’s Italian trattoria. Awesome food, but a little pricey. All my old favourites are gone or sadly degenerated in quality.

What is your favorite small appliance?
The Amazing Ronco Turnip Twaddler! But seriously, it would have to be the microwave, as I am a lazy cook.

One person that never fails to make you laugh?
Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld books. Read any beyond the first two, and you'll see.

First LP you ever bought?
The soundtrack to The Empire Strikes Back. I was such a little sci-fi nerd!

Do you do push-ups?
No, but I've recently re-started some weight lifting. A bench press is kind of an upside-down pushup, isn't it?

What was one of your favorite games as a child?
Again, define child. I started playing Dungeons & Dragons in grade 9 or so, and have loved the game ever since, though I never got to play as much as I would have liked. (still don't)

When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I never really thought about it back then. I was more concerned with my dad and helping him cope with his medical problems.

Your favorite Soup of the Day?
Spousal unit's spicy, bacon-cheeseburger soup. Great stuff. Even better the next day.

Have you ever met someone famous?
Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, at a book signing in university. He had just travelled from Toronto through a nasty blizzard and wasn't in a very talkative mood. However, I was near the front of the line and snagged a couple of autographs before his hand got tired.

Date Of Birth?
See the profile.

From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news?
Daily Show, Colbert Report, Fark, Boing-Boing, Slashdot, CBC Newsworld, CTV Newsnet.

Current worry?
That the new job will fall through.

Current hate?
My ex-boss still has a special, dark, cold, spider-infested place in my heart. I'm sure this will fade to a socially acceptable background level with time.

Favorite place to be?
At home with Spousal-unit and the cats, or out being silly with our friends.

Least favorite place to be?
Any of the various circles of Hell. But I guess that's the point.
Any place playing loud, crappy music.

Do you consider yourself well organized?
Reasonably, when given the time and quiet to concentrate.

Do you believe in an afterlife?
Rationally, no. Deep down gut feeling: I certainly hope so.

Where do you think you will be in 10 Yrs?
In the bustling metropolis of Kincardine, and still working at the ol' atom mill.

Do you burn or tan?
In the sun, I tan. When on fire, I burn.

Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
Optimistic, mostly.
"The glass is neither half full or half empty, it is simply twice as big as it needs to be."

What did you fear was going to get you at night as a kid?
Nuclear war. Seriously, during the 80's I figured I probably wouldn't live to adulthood.

What’s in your pockets right now?
A magic ring of power....why does it wants to know, precious?

Last thing that made you laugh?
The 8th episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Series, to which I was just listening.

Worst injury you’ve ever had?
I've never had anything really serious. I guess the nasty scrape down my ribs from the corner of a railing after slipping on ice.

How many TVs do you own?
One. But someday I hope to have a room with fifty or more, so I can watch everything at once.

Best compliment received?
Pass.

What leaves you speechless?
Lack of oxygen.

What is your favorite book?
I can’t choose just one.

Last meal you cooked for the opposite sex?
Hell, I don't remember the last meal I cooked for myself!

What were you doing at 12 midnight last night?
Stalking the streets in search of evildoers to thwart. I'm Batman!