Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

So it's a bit after 10 pm of Xmas Eve 2008. My kids are quietly excited in their room, unable to get to sleep. I'm patiently waiting for them to do so, as the last presents have yet to be wrapped. The year is almost over, and I'm thinking about next year and what it might hold, and what this last one has been.

I'm coming to terms with the idea of being friends with my ex without us being active participants in each other's lives.

I'm thinking that dating is a good thing.

I am really enjoying the company I work for. The company as a whole, and my team in particular. I've never had the good fortune to work with a more professional and competent group of people.

I'm just as much in debt now as I was a year ago, and two years ago. It will take a drastic, ridiculously drastic, improvement in my income to alter that. I make better money now than I ever have in my life, and even if I spent no money on anything but rent and child support, it would take years upon years to dig myself out.

I somehow have a much worse social life now, in my home town, than I did in Walla Walla, surrounded by strangers.

I haven't exercised in about a year.

This time last year, I had begun talks with the recruiter for my current employer. I have no regrets about having worked for the fine folks in Walla Walla, nor do I have any about leaving them for here. I miss some of my friends from there, though.

All this change, and yet I feel stagnant. I've made little progress on things I'd like to accomplish.

So what does 2009 hold?

Sunday, November 02, 2008

So this is my life

I work. I take care of my kids. I do my laundry. I go to the grocery store. I read. I spend time online. I tutor a student in precalc and physics.

That's it.

I lead an utterly uninteresting life.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Marking Time

I guess it's been two years now, according to what I wrote last year. There's really not much to say about it. My income is much better than it was, but my debt is still there. I've dated a small number of women. My kids are growing up. I drove across the country solo twice. I've gotten some good stories out of this time.

So why does it feel sometimes like nothing's changed?

Friday, October 10, 2008

Faith based economics

I'm pretty sure the economy is a religion. When you have values of things based on what people believe they are worth, and when their fear of the future can radically alter the economic terrain...that's just not science. That's faith. That's religion.

The people throwing money at this mess have no idea what they are doing. None at all. If they knew how to fix it, they should have done so a long time ago.


The stock market didn't begin to recover from the 1929 crash until 1932. That's when it bottomed out. Think about that for a little bit. Quick fixes? At this point, I'd suggest just doing what it takes to keep your job, although companies that start right now will probably do frighteningly well if they can make sales and avoid needing external funding.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Last Sunday

I meant to write about this sooner, but forgot. Last Sunday, the 7th, I was setting up the TV for the kids. First day of football, you know, and there was a brief delay between turning on the TV and the DVD player. Next thing you know, Zoe is saying something really fast, and it takes me a second to decipher it:

"Football season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Football season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Football season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Baseball season!"

Good lord, she's funny.

Friday, September 12, 2008

So I've been thinking

I've been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming election, and about some people that I consider to be my friends, and about how people live their lives, and I'm undergoing some cognitive dissonance.

Let me preface some of this by just coming out and saying, up front, that I'm not a Christian.

What I mean by that is that I don't believe that Christ came back from the dead, and I don't believe that he worked miracles. I am completely uncertain about the existence of an afterlife, and my concept of "God" is wholly unlike what pretty much all the Christians I ever talked to seem to believe. I also really don't care for organized religion as a whole.

What I do get is the message on how to live your life, though. Peace, hope, love, charity. These are things common to pretty much all major religions. What's interesting about Christianity is the concept that the message and the messenger are one and the same, but that's tangential to where I'm going with this.

See, the cognitive dissonance I'm running into here are my friends who are Christian Republicans. I live in Indiana, a really conservative state. Despite that, I see a lot more Obama bumper stickers than I do McCain. A lot of the time when I see a McCain sticker, I also see a Christ-fish thingy as well. These people are devout, deep Christians.

But what does that mean to them?

One of the things that people like about the Republican party is that it offers moral clarity. Things are simple - right or wrong, black or white. They don't like the apparent wishy washy nature of the Democrats. I can see how that would have some appeal.

Christ, too, had such moral clarity. Incisive. Things were very clearly right or wrong for this man.

But Christ was the ultimate liberal.

By today's standards, he'd be considered a wacko hippie freak commie. Help the weak, feed the poor, shelter the homeless. End war. Love thy neighbor.

Christ's intolerance was toward hypocrites. To people who placed monetary wealth over their souls and the souls of others. He accepted the outcasts, the people that you and I would walk past without a second thought as they sit on the sidewalk without hope.

I am reminded of a great post over at Waiter Rant that talks about God's economics, explaining the parable of Legion. Go read it, it's worth thinking about.

Both parties consist of people who believe they have America's best interests at heart. But one of them seems far more willing to kill to protect those interests, and those same people are more likely to turn their backs on our own people who need the most help. And those are the ones more likely to strongly identify themselves as Christian.

So that's my cognitive dissonance in a nutshell.

To the people who read this who consider themselves Christians, I ask you: Are you a Christian only one day a week?

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Sad day for local gaming

My favorite local game shop, The Boardroom, closes its doors yesterday, forever.

I'm going to miss the place, and Jerry, and his daughter Alaine.

Sucks.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Working

So I'm sitting here at work, wondering how to test some of this code, and my coworker says to me, "You've got a Blogger account? Make a post!"

So here it is.

Friday, June 13, 2008

4e

So I got a copy of Fourth Edition D&D in the mail from Amazon yesterday. (Sorry, Jerry, I know it's stuff like that that's making you close up shop. I'll come buy some stuff soon.) It's...different. I can't tell yet if I'm going to like playing it or not. It's going to be ridiculously easy for someone, anyone, to convert that to a computer game. A character generator, monster generator, hell even a class generator - all those would be so simple to code up it's absurd.

I don't think WotC has put the license up (GSL) for this just yet, but I strongly suspect it will ban software implementations of the game.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Ow, poor Ben

Seems that Ben fell down while jumping rope yesterday and took a divot out of his chin. Chris tells me that she doesn't see how it can't leave a scar, as it's chewed up pretty badly. She's making sure it doesn't get infected and all of that, and I'm sure he'll be fine.

Still, I feel bad for the guy. I know stuff like this is part of being a kid, but I don't like him being hurt.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

I'm ok

Seriously. Several people have emailed me to make sure I'm fine after the last couple postings about being ill. So...I'm ok.

Sleepy, but not sick.

(Waiting for email expressing concern that I'm not getting enough sleep...)

Friday, March 28, 2008

Better, sort of

Well, I'm not violently ill like I was, but I'm certainly not completely better. There's this sick spot in my stomach that makes me hungry/not-hungry. Schroedinger's Appetite.

I was up too late last night.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I feel sick

I stayed home from work yesterday. I pretty much never do that, but when you're violently expelling fluids from your body, it's pretty much a given that you don't go to work.

At least I'm not doing that today, but I do still have a terrible headache. Not much fun. Also feeling rather weak. I thought about not coming in today, either, but here I am.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Can Aaron hear me?

That's right, I'm referring to the other Aaron Stanton, the more famous one.

I've gone and created a Facebook group for our namesakes. Let's see if he joins.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Love

I was just thinking about my kids, and how I look forward to seeing them fall in love, and then it hit me - my own father never got to see that. He left the country before I ever fell in love. I never got to talk to him about it.

It makes me sad.

Springtime

Spring is officially here, but the weather is fluctuating a lot. Warm one day, cold the next. We're supposed to get snow here soon. I want clear blue skies and no jacket. I want to eat lunch outside and watch pretty women walk by. I want fresh air.

Not much going on right now with me. Getting ready for Easter with the kids. I hope they like it. I don't care much for holidays any more, myself, but if it makes them happy, I'll go for it. I haven't thought about whether or not we'll do anything special. Maybe we'll go over to my mom's house.

Anyway, I'm a bit lonely. A girlfriend would be nice.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Ugh

Yes, I arrived in Indiana just fine. I've been busy getting an apartment, moving into it, taking care of my kids, figuring out my new job, and all the mundane crap associated with all of the above.

It's all extremely stressful.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Day 4

I am here right now.

So what happened to days 2 and 3? Well, day 2 should have ended with me in Evanston, WY. It turns out that Evanston is a crappy little town, very poorly laid out, impossible to even see the hotel signs until after you've passed the exit you'd have to take to easily get to them - at least, when you're coming from the west. I got there shortly before midnight, and the hotel manager wanted $100 for the room. I asked if there was a AAA discount, and he said that actually the AAA rate was *higher* than that. wtf? So I drove about 40 more miles to the east, pulled over at a rest stop, and slept with the engine running for warmth.

Wyoming, by the way, sucks. I would say that it's a total waste of space, except that it's a great example of space. Lots of it. Lots of useless space.

So day 3 I crossed it and about half of Nebraska. Also mostly space. Somebody really ought to consider colonizing those states and doing something with them. Anyway, at about 10 last night I decided I was tired enough to stop, and since there's nothing within a whole lot of miles of anything out there, I found another rest stop and, well, rested. From 10 til 2. Woke up, thought maybe I could drive some more, made it to the next rest stop about 37 miles down the road, and decided I was wrong. So I pulled over again and slept another 2.5 hours. 4:30 this morning I woke up and started driving.

And kept driving. For 18 hours I drove, stopping only to get gas, buy snacks, and use the bathroom. Oh, and to clean my frickin' windshield, because apparently even though I filled the wiper fluid, it has decided to not spray anything. Whether it's clogged, frozen, or just stupid I can't tell and don't really care.

So I've stopped in Danville, Illinois, less than 100 miles of Indianapolis, why? I mean, what's another 100 miles after the 1000 I drove today? Nothing! Except that the weather has turned to crap. I've finally hit active snowfall and icy roads. Icy as in I slid in a straight line right across 2 bridges. You know how signs say "Caution, bridges may be icy", or some such? Well, this is the first time in memory that has actually mattered. It seems that towing a trailer with a small car is a very tricky thing to control on ice. So, given those conditions, my fatigue, and the aforementioned lack of working wiper fluid (which makes driving in these conditions even more interesting, let me tell you), I decided that the better part of valor would be to stop in Danville, IL.

So here's the amusing part: The annoying hotel in Evanston was a Best Western. Why? Monday's Best Western was good. But that's not the amusing part. The amusing part is that here in Danville, a Triple A discount actually means you pay less for the room. Which is a big part of why I am not sleeping in my car tonight, and why I did Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Day 1

I made it to here today.

I have a splitting headache, and will be taking a nice hot bath soon. Ahhhh...

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Leaving soon

I plan on leaving Walla Walla in 9 days. I got a job in Indy that I am pretty excited about, and I finally get to be back with my kids.

I am really not looking forward to the move itself, though. I do not trust the weather here right now, and am going to have to leave the vast majority of my stuff here and come back for it later. I'll probably just load up my car and drive back.

I'm going to miss the people here.

Meh.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Kids

Yesterday Ben lost his first tooth, and, taking after his mom, he accidentally ate it. Seems it came out while he was enjoying a Rice Krispy Treat, and gulp, gone.

Sigh...one more milestone I've missed by being out here.

While visiting with the kids Zoe apparently decided she's afraid of spiders. Not that she actually is, mind you, she just decided she is. A conversation:

"A spider!"
"Did it bite you?"
"It bit my booty!"
"Is it gonna eat you?"
"Yeah."
"Is it gonna eat me?"
"Yeah."
"Is it gonna eat the world?"
"Yeah."
"Is it gonna eat the sun?"
"Yeah."
"Is it gonna eat space?"
"Yeah."
"Is it gonna eat itself?"
"Yeah."
"What's gonna be left?"
"Its booty."
(laugh) "And then is it gonna eat its booty?"
"Yeah."
"And then what's left?"
"Just biting."

That last response gave me pause. Ah...that's my girl.