A different perspective on the snow

So, as you all saw, I ranted about the early snow on Friday.

Just a few minutes ago, I got conclusive proof that there are always two sides to these sorts of thing. I believe in my past posts I've mentioned my Thai friend Silk. As a quick refresher, Silk is a native Thai who became a Christian back as a teenager while the first wave of BIC workers were in Thailand, in the Bangkok area. As a natural connection upon their arrival, she became very close with my friends who are serving there now, and is actually in the process of formally joining their team. As part of that process, she is in school for a year here in the States, at the Global Awakening school in nearby Mechanicsburg.

It doesn't snow in Thailand, and though Silk had been to the US on two previous occasions, both times were in Florida. So, though I didn't think of it at the time, last Friday was her first time to see snow (actually she saw some on Thursday too, but it didn't REALLY snow until Friday). She just sent out an update to friends and supporters, and man, was she excited. Lots of exclamation points. Let's just say she was probably the polar opposite of my attitude.

It's just really interesting to think about that, and how your own experiences completely color the prespective from which you see the world, such that the exact same event is perceived and reacted to in completely different ways depending on the person. For me, the snow was a source of complete frustration, for Silk, a source of complete joy. The reality of how everyone views the world through a very different lens is one I've been very aware of for a long time, but tonight it just stepped up and slapped me in the face. It's something to think about, whenever you see someone overreacting to something, or doing something that seems irrational to you. There's a good chance (I mean, a really good chance) that they have some experience from their life that is coloring that event, one that you don't share, and therefore don't understand. Whether we see it or perceive it, or even understand it, there's always a reason why we do what we do and feel how we feel.

So, I guess, retrospectively, I can be glad for the snow and glad for the joy that it brought my friend. However, Silk did mention in her e-mail that she's praying for a LOT of snow. We may have to have a chat about that one next time I see her...

Remind me again... why is global warming a bad thing?

In order to set the mood for those of you who do not not live where I live, here is the view from out my back door:

For further reference, I live outside of Harrisburg, PA, and it's November 21st. This should not be the current view from outside my back door. In this part of the world, at least in my lifetime, we rarely seriously have a good look at a white Christmas, let alone a white Thanksgiving (I think it's going to get just warm enough in a few days that we will avoid that fate, but still). It's like we almost completely skipped fall this year. It stayed warm for a while, then got unseasonably cold for a bit, then was unseasonably warm for a long stretch, and now we're getting full on winter weather in November. Boo.

And this had to have the most annoying way to get an inch or so of snow in history. It was snowing quite hard this morning when I drove to get the bus, it was snowing quite hard (and the wind was blowing pretty hard as well, from the direction I was watching for the bus in) while I was waiting for the bus and while I rode the bus back to my car and then drove home, while almost no snow fell while I was at work, and it quit shortly after I got home. That's like the exact opposite of how I want snow storms to operate!

Oh, well. You win this round, nature.

Read the sign!

There's a good chance I've already ranted about tonight's subject in the past, but I'm too lazy to try and find out for sure, and even if I have, it's worth mentioning again. So here I go.

Anyhow, I was at Wal-Mart tonight. Now, I know that I've ranted about various ridiculous human behavior that I've witnessed at Wal-Mart and other stores like it in the past, so a trip to Wal-Mart is always quite likely to yield blog material. And tonight's trip did not disappoint, because I suffered through what might be my single biggest pet peeve. I'm serious. Those who know me know that I'm fairly mild mannered. I might get short or terse, or give someone attitude, but it's very rare that I get upset enough to yell, and I really can't recall ever going off on someone in public. However, were I ever to get crazy fired up and go off on a random stranger, I would almost GUARANTEE it would be because of this one thing: someone going into an express checkout with dramatically more items than you're supposed to have!

It happened again tonight. This guy had raided the toiletries section and had two levels of a mini-cart lined with soap, shampoo, travel size stuff, etc, and he was scooping it up to the register, and the cashier was ringing it up, like nothing was wrong. That, I might add, is what makes this situation particularly frustrating, because there are two people involved, and I can never figure out who I should really be mad at - the person who saunters up to the register blatantly ignoring the rules, or the cashier who refuses to tell said person to go pound sand (or, if they insist on being polite, telling them to go to a different aisle).

Let me be clear, I'm not the item Nazi here. I personally count to make sure I'm under the limit if I'm not sure, but if you're a couple items over, that's not really a problem. Most of these express lanes say "About X items or less", so they give you some wiggle room. There was no way this guy thought he only had 20 items, and no way the cashier thought that either. I think tonight I was more upset at the cashier for not simply saying: "Excuse me sir, this is the express lane". It's a more serious problem at Wal-Mart than some places, because their express checkouts are designed for that sole purpose. They don't have the conveyor, so when someone has a ton of items, it takes extra long.

This behavior has become more widespread in recent years, at least to my eyes. I would like to simply pass it off on the ever increasing self-centeredness of our society, and I'm sure that's part of it, but I see another culprit as well - the mini-carts. It pains me to say this, because I love the mini-cart, but I think people seem to have this belief, conscious or unconscious, that if they are using the small cart, they can use the express lane, no matter how many items they've crammed into the thing. It seems to me that the most outrageous violaters are always mini-cart users these days, which is a change from when I used to see the typical express lane violaters as those who had stuffed a bunch of small items into a basket.

So, please, if you're a violater, think about what you're doing next time, and obey the rules. And if you're a cashier, have the fortitude to enforce the rules. You'll both contribute to make the world a better place. Well, at least a better place for me, anyhow.

Does this stuff happen to you?

So, I was thinking on the way home today that it had been a while since I had blogged, and that I should probably write an entry tonight, but that I didn't really have anything to blog about. Well, upon arriving home, I had something to blog about, and I think I would rather have thrown something together out of nothing.

Anyhow, here's the story. I live in a townhome development. Like many developments of our kind, we don't have individual mailboxes at our homes, but rather a neighborhood mail station where we all have our own mail slots. This presumably is to save time and walking for the mailman. The mailboxes are on the other side of the development, and it's not a long walk, but it is a walk. My usual routine is to drive up there after I come home from work. However, since I don't work on Saturdays, that doesn't work out. So typically, if I don't end up going out and coming back after the normal time for the mail to come, I'll just let the that mail set until Monday, unless I'm expecting something, in which case I'll make a special trip up. I don't really get time sensative mail, so it's not a problem. This past Saturday was one of those days. I actually did go out after the mail would have been gone, but it was to the grocery store, so I came right to the house.

So this afternoon when I come home, I pulled out the mail and found a letter from the property management company that handles the finances for our homeowners' association. Without even opening it, I knew immediately what it was. I had forgotten to send in my association dues for the month. (To be fair, I didn't totally forget, when I went to pay it a couple weeks ago, I couldn't find my coupon book, and I just never got back around to it) Not a big deal, really, just ten dollar late fee. Here, however, is the problem. The 10 dollar fee is if they don't get the fee on or before the 11th. If they don't get the fee on or before the 19th, there's an additional 50 dollar fee. Now that stings. Astute observers will note that today is, in fact, the 17th. And, the mail had already gone for today, which meant that if I put the check in the mail now, the best case scenario was that they would get the check on the 19th, which is the last possible day. Rather than risking the slightest of delays, and being forced to call the homeowner's association and beg for mercy, I raced around to get the check ready and then took off to the post office to get it out with today's mail. That seems to have gone off without a hitch, so hopefully this is all resolved.

This is probably the first time in several weeks that I've left the mail sit on a Saturday, and wouldn't you know that it's that one time when I get something that's actually very time sensative. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. I have no idea by whom, or to what end, but it's definitely a conspiracy.

PS - After going to the post office I ran over to the grocery store to pick up an item or two I had forgotten on Saturday night, and on the way home I nearly got into 2 seperate accidents, one of which would have been totally my fault, the other, not so much. I think I'm just going to start being thankful when things are so uneventful that I have nothing to blog about :)

A day long awaited...

If you've been to or seen pictures of my basement, you know that the walls are adorned with various memorabilia of the various sports teams I root for, from my favorite pro teams, to my favorite major college teams, to the local minor league baseball team, to my alma mater, Messiah College. Well, there's a space that was purposely (and somewhat conspicuously) left empty for quite awhile, and after I got my mail today, I was finally able to fill it in, exactly how I had hoped to:

That's right, amongst my various pictures, pennants, and the banner commemorating the only team (aside from Messiah College soccer) that I cheer for that can be deemed as perennially successful (Duke basketball), there now hangs a Philadelphia Phillies World Series Championship banner.


It's likely that I would have at least posted the picture under any circumstances, but there's a somewhat bizarre piece of this story which mandated the post. I mentioned at the beginning that the space the banner currently occupies was intentionally left empty, and it was, for the purpose of being eventually occupied by a banner for the next Philly team to win a title. You'll notice, however, just how perfectly the banner fits the space (excluding the wrinkled part on the left side that needs to fall out), and that is the truly interesting part. I bought the Duke banner and hung it where it is now very shortly after I moved in, so probably about 3 years ago now. The top picture to the right of the banner is a commemorative picture of Lincoln Financial Field that my Dad got me a while back (not sure how long ago, probably in the vicinity of 2 years, however) When I put that picture up where it is, I determined (based on looking at the Duke banner, that the remaining space was probably about right for another banner, so I resolved to leave it clear for such a purpose, which is why the bottom picture, which is a team picture honoring the Phillies 2007 NL East championship, is lined up directly below it. So, I never actually measured the space or looked at any banners, until after the Phillies won.

When I was shopping online, the first (and only) banner I looked at was listed at 27 inches wide, so I measured the space. 27 inches, exactly. Weird, huh? I know it's just a bizarre coincidence, but I find it amusing anyhow. And yes, I'm fully aware that there's space to the left of the Duke banner, you'll just have to trust me that I didn't move the thing for the sake of this story :)

Getting ready for "Country's biggest night"

If you've watched anything on ABC over the last several weeks, you know what the title refers to. Well, perhaps that's not accurate. If you've watched ABC at all, you've heard about that to which the title refers, whether it ever registered with you or not is a seperate matter.

Tonight is the Country Music Association (CMA) awards, and they'll be broadcast on ABC from 8 to 11. Get those DVRs ready, baby! Okay, so I know a decent chunk of my readership doesn't share my passion for country music, but I absolutely love the CMAs. I really don't care that much about who actually wins the awards, but no one puts on a better award show than the country folks, that is if you like actual performances as opposed to tons of random fluff and filler. The acts that perform on CMA night are ALWAYS a veritable "who's who" of the current country crop, and this year is no different. Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Keith Urban (meh, but he's at the top of country right now), Sugarland, Taylor Swift, and of course, Carrie Underwood, who is also sharing hosting duties (in HD, at least in my house. Sweet, glorious Carrie Underwood...), among others. The one notable exception in terms of the current super-hot acts is Rascal Flatts, and I'm pretty much okay with their absence. These are all great singers and great performers, and I expect nothing less than an incredible show this time around as well.

So, I'll be glued to my TV later tonight. And, I'd encourage any of you who sit firmly in the "I hate country" camp, but who haven't actually really listened to any country in years to take a quick pit stop while channel surfing. You might be surprised. Did I mention that Carrie Underwood will be live in HD? Because she will.

I'm still not going green...

Or am I? Not really, but I am trying to save energy due to it's benefits to me!

Lost among last week's shuffle was the fact that I got what was my lowest electric bill in at least the last 2 years (the electronic records only go back that far) According to the bill, my usage was down by more than 10% over my previous low month in the last 2 years, and more than 25% over every other month.

There are a few reasons for this, one of which has little to do with any efforts on my part. My current roommate is easily the one who spends the least time here amongst the roommates I've had, and thus uses the least energy. I'm not sure how big of a difference that is making, because he still does the major energy consuming activities here, he just doesn't watch TV, have the lights on in his room, etc. as often.

But the fact is that I have been making efforts to conserve energy along with that. Back this summer, when I actually had two roommates, my electric bills were way down from the prior summer because I kept the thermostat a degree or two higher. This winter, I'm shooting for reduced gas bills by keeping the thermostat 2 degrees lower than last winter - we'll see how that one goes, I started out at 3 degrees lower and quickly surrendered :)

October is a pretty neutral month, however, not much heating or cooling, so the big difference had to be my latest adjustment, and the reason I'm bothering to mention this at all. About 6 weeks or so ago, I broke down and replaced all the bulbs in my house that I could stand to with compact flourescents. I had always been hesitant to do this because I didn't like the light that those things put off back when I first encountered them, but they are much better now. I was kind of uncertain how much of a difference they would make because I didn't have a really good grasp on how much electricity I actually used for lighting, but now it's pretty clear.

I also like the compact flourescents, because in a couple places, they allowed me to get some extra light out of a fixture where I had wanted more light, but the fixture wasn't rated for the heat that higher watt incandescents would put out. They also appeal to my lazy side - it should be years before I have to replace any of these bulbs again, which is awesome!

So, yes, I ride the bus to work, and yes, I have a house that uses noticibly less electricity than the average similar house (that's according to the electric companies online tools), but am I really going green? I'll leave that up to someone else to decide. And if I am, I guess I'm going to have to be okay with it.

I "threw my vote away", and I feel fine.

I know it's almost a week after the election, but last week's hectic schedule left me little time for blogging, and I didn't want to let this go.

I've detailed on this blog over the last weeks and months my status as a registered Libertarian, and my reasons for being such. However, as of last Tuesday night, I went from a registered Libertarian to a voting Libertarian, and I'm pumped about it. That's right, critics, I went "all idealistic" and "threw my vote away" by voting for someone who had no chance to win the election, and I ENJOYED it :-)

You know, I'm not about to spend a lot of time convincing someone to think Libertarian. I think most people either resonate with that set of political ideals from the get go, or they don't, and I've already given the reasons why I do on this blog in detail. What I will spend some time discussing is what is, in my opinion, the fallacy that you have to vote for either the Republican or the Democrat in a big election for your vote to count.

I personally contend that there are only 2 ways to "throw your vote away", and neither of them involve voting for a non-viable 3rd party. The first one is obvious, and that is simply to not vote. The 2nd one is less obvious, and that is to vote for someone you don't really want to be President. I personally feel like I have thrown my vote away in one of the 3 Presidential elections I've voted in, but it wasn't this time, it was in 2004. I voted for George W. Bush fairly enthusiastically in 2000, but by the time 2004 rolled around, I was no longer impressed. I was (and remain) convinced he was better choice than John Kerry back then, so I voted for him again, and have spent the last 4 years watching the guy I voted for frustrate me again and again. To quote a rather important person in my life, I was "disappointed, but not surprised." I got pretty much what I expected from President Bush, because it was pretty much what we got in the first 4 years. Anyone who voted for the President in 2004 expecting something significantly different from what we got might want to direct themselves to Einstein's definition of insanity. About 2 years ago, shortly before the 2006 mid-term elections, I told myself I wasn't going to do that again - if neither of the 2 major parties gave me a candidate I could expect much better from, I was going to find a better choice - even if that meant that in some way, I was "helping" to elect a candidate who fell even further from my ideals.

As all of the candidates I could really resonate with (there were maybe 2 or 3) fell to the wayside in the primaries, I knew I was going to have a decision to make. I gave Sen. McCain a good long look, and determined that if I voted for him and if he won, I would be setting myself up for another 4 years of "Yeah, that's terrible, but what can I say, I voted for the guy". The weight of that particular decision was made less when the fallout from the economic upheaval made it clear that Sen. McCain was going to lose regardless of whether I voted or him or not, but I'm pretty sure the decision was made before then.

So, I did it, I "threw my vote away" (as, by that sort of definition, did a number of McCain and Obama supporters in various solid red and blue states, if the definition of throwing your vote away is voting for someone who has no chance to win, since the national Presidential election actually is nothing more than 50 state elections plus one in DC), and I'm cool with it. My true voice was registered in the election this year in a way that it wasn't 4 years ago, and I'm pleased by that fact. Here's me hoping that more people begin to join me in voting their true feelings (wherever they might fall on the political spectrum) and as a result we might begin to move toward real change.

(Note: This will be my last post related this election, for those who were worried. My views on rescuing the health care system in this country can wait until President-elect Obama becomes President Obama and starts pushing his fixes through, at which time they will be much more topical)

Weekly recap

Well, it was a fairly eventful week for me. Here are the highlights:

Tuesday: My friends Lynn and Amy, who have been serving in Thailand, returned back to the States. Lynn continues his battle with ALS, and it has progressed to the point where they need to be back here. Right after work, I raced to vote and change before joining a group to meet them at the Harrisburg airport. It was a very tough experience, because as much as I was glad to see them, the fact that they were having to come home, coupled with seeing how much more Lynn's condition had worsened in the 4 1/2 months since I was in Thailand was very discouraging. I still have faith that Lynn will be healed, and have not wavered in that, but it hurt a lot to see him as he was.

Wednesday: Despite the fact that Sen. Obama won the election, the sun came up, which I believe was a surprise to some people I know, at least listening to the way they were talking prior to the election. (There were others I know who gave you the same impression about a potential McCain election.) I tried to catch the earlier bus home from work, and it either came insanely early or didn't come at all. Chaser had a vet appointment in the evening, and for those who have met Chaser, that is everything you can imagine, and perhaps more. He's not bad or aggressive, he just rarely stops spinning like a top. The vets are always really good about dealing with him, but I got a new one who really enjoyed Chaser, was as patient as you can be, and even gave me some tips on handling him in general. His summary report on Chaser: "He's young and healthy". Heh, yeah.

Thursday: Not a particularly eventful day overall, but I did have a meeting here at the house that took up the evening pretty well.

Friday: We had a prayer meeting for Lynn at my old church back home in the evening. I took advantage of the opportunity to come early and see the folks, and also get my Mom to cook for me - score! Contrary to the discouragement of Tuesday night, the prayer time was an incredibly encouraging time, even though nothing changed from a physical perspective. Afterwards, Lynn and I spent some quality time chatting about and revelling in the Phillies' World Series victory. I don't know if I mentioned it on here or not, but Lynn is a huge Phillies family (his entire family is, tracing back to his paternal grandmother, of all people) and early in the playoff run he had sent an e-mail out to pretty much everyone in his address book that he knew to be a Phillies fan, which led to a running e-mail dialouge throughout the playoffs. He's got a brother in Florida, a cousin in Russia, he's in Thailand, etc, so it was a really cool to be sharing in the fun with folks around the world.

Saturday: I pretty much got a break in the schedule. I had a breakfast meeting, after which I picked up a small bookshelf at Wal-Mart and assembled it as a more permanent stand for my HD antenna, and so I could set my living room back in order from all of that. Then, after some football, I went out bought the new James Bond game for the Wii, and then watched more football.

It's almost over!

That's right, tomorrow is election day! The long, winding road is finally over with, and I can stop being bombarded with radio ads every break during the day, and stop having to run from various TV commercials. I can't tell you how bitter I am that, due to my DVR's automatically starting to record a minute before the scheduled time of a program, my recording of the Phillies' glorious World Series clinching Game 5.5 victory will forever have a minute of Obama's message to the nation on the beginning of it. (And I feel the same way had it been McCain, no politics with my happy World Series moment, thank you)

Other than the radio ads, I'd been able to keep myself relatively insulated from the maddness, until last week, when the one other place I couldn't really defend began to be bombarded - the mailbox. It's been insane. Multiple print ads everyday, on the national races, local races, etc. Last Thursday, I got 4 different ads for the same state house race on the same day. There was one from each of the candidates, and then two from other groups supporting one of the candidates. Craziness. Not to mention I've gotten 3 variations of the exact same Obama piece stuck into my door in the last month, and then there's the near daily flyers from Republican entities on various levels telling me about the evil Democrats who want to destroy me, or something like that...

I partially blame myself for this, because I believe that, at least on some level, this is a result of my change in party affilitation. When I was a registered Republican, I typically seemed to only get the standard Republican get out the vote materials, and the Democrats left me alone. Now, as a Libertarian, the Democrats apparently think I'm fair game (silly them), and the Republicans are going full out on me (ironically, doing a great job of affirming my decision to end my association with them in the process). Enough already.

Oh, and a quick note to the Republicans - that whole "fear the other guy" tactic only works when you can sell the status quo as a good thing. In case you haven't noticed, that's a REALLY hard sell right now. I personally think Sen. McCain would make a better president than Sen. Obama (though at this point I don't plan on voting for either), but he's been a terrible candidate for president, and in general, I've found the Republican efforts to be pathetic. Whether you agree with Sen. Obama or not, he at least has a vision and he's selling it. McCain and the Republicans as a whole have largely been selling fear of the Democrats, rather than anything positive about themselves. Not that they don't have a valid point or two in those arguments, but I don't like that tactic in general, and it's totally ineffective in the current environment.