It has been a few days since I've posted and I just wanted to check in. I still don't have a job, and the economy sucks so not much has changed. The biggest headlines have been about the death of Michael Jackson from a heart attack. People suspect it was from an overdose of pain medication, but the autopsy did not return anything definitive (thats what they say anyways, the truth will come out in the end).
Since I've been without any income for about 2 months now, I've been selling a lot my old stuff. At least if I ever do go back to work I'll have a lot less clutter to deal with. All this selling I've been doing really makes me realize how much money I've wasted over the years. Hopefully, once I go back to a steady income I'll become a lot more frugal (I may not have a choice).
I've also done some soul searching over the weekend and I'm trying to think about a new career. I've spent the last 4 years of my life as a truck driver (what a waste) and I don't want to continue any more. Amazingly enough, I've also held a Comptia A+, Network+ and I-Net+ certification that entire time. I'm pretty much done with my CDL, so I figure its time to pursue my real love. When I was younger back in the 80's and 90's I wanted to be a computer expert, but good luck now. What exactly is a computer expert now? Back in the early days of PC's it was easy to be an expert, because the field just wasn't that big. Today there are some many specialties in the PC field; Webmaster, System Administration, Networking, Network Security, and Programming just to name a few. Of all those specialalties I think Network Security is pretty much the toughest now, because you have to really be an expert at everything for this job. While this really appeals to me, it seems to be a young man's game and I'm pretty certain I don't have the chops or time for it. For once in my life I really don't know what direction I want take, I just want to be a computer expert.
I was really surprised when I read the paper this morning and found out Daryl Hannah was arrested in WV for protesting mountain top removal mining. Thinking my wife would be as shocked as me I told her about it when she got home. Well, my wife was like, "Daryl Hannah! Who is she?" I was in disbelief, because I had such a crush on her growing up. I loved the movies, Splash and Clan of the Cave Bear. Wow, what a difference 3 years in age makes! I can still see Daryl in that skimpy little cave girl outfit just like it was yesterday.
It turns out my DVD-Rom drive was busted, so I'm going to have to save up for a new one (it's tough being unemployed) Fedora 11 was a no go, because it was behaving like a drunken sailor; so I ended up installing Ubuntu 9.04. It all turned out well in the end.
My Fedora 11 install is going about as well as expected :) I'm having some dvd-rom trouble, tried compressed air already, I ended up disassembling it and cleaning the drive by hand. The drive still does not work. My next guess is the cable. (yeah, I know that's the first thing I should have checked)
Ok, I'm going to go off on a tangent. I'm going to try upgrading my system to Linux Fedora 11 today. I'm currently running Fedora 9, and it's been serving me well for about a year now. So hopefully all goes well, and I'll be up in running by the end of the day with a new Operating System. Which brings me to a Mouse. What?
"To A Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest, with the Plough", is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns. That poem is where the often used phrase of ,"The best-laid plans of mice and men / Go oft awry." Even though it was written in 1785, it is still applicable 224 years later to my life and our world.
Seems like every time I read the news there is an article about healthcare. Usually, the best part of the article for me are the comments from readers. All of the articles basically say the same thing, it's too expensive. The people crying the loudest are the insurance companies and political parties. Of course a few of the readers will also comment about how they don't want higher taxes and people should be responsible for their own healthcare. People also fear the debt the United States would be taking on and worried how where going to pay for it all. My question is, are we not already paying for it?
I'm currently one of those uninsured Americans and I would welcome low or no cost insurance. While I was working it was costing me $520.00 a month to insure my family for an 80/20 policy with a $2000.00 deductible. That's like $6240 or possibly over $8,000 a year if I met my deductibles. If I was not paying over $500.00 a month I could have put the money back into the economy or paid down some of my own debt. I know some Americans pay more or less for their monthly premiums. If everyone had access to free coverage just think how much more money they would have to put back into the economy and how businesses would be relieved of a huge burden of providing these benefits. I understand our government would be taking on huge debt, but that money is staying in the country. That money is not gone, it's being put back into circulation to drug companies, hospitals, doctors, ect ... If people are not putting off health care that means more business for all health care providers.
I'll admit I'm not a financial genius, heck I can't hardly balance my check book, but won't freeing up money for people to spend kick start the economy. The question should not be, "how can we afford health care?", it should be "how can we afford not have it?"
I'm still working on my TO-DO list for today, but I'm getting sidetracked right now. I had an idea about adding personal videos to the blog. I just wanted to share my workout room with everyone.
Yes, it's pink and very small, but I can solve the color problem with some paint.
I did manage to do my weigh in today 216.5 pounds and my ideal weight is calculated to be 177 pounds. So, lets see that's 39.5 pounds I've got to lose. I'm figuring I can lose about 2 pounds a week, that's 7000 calories per week or 1000 calories per day I have to cut to lose weight. My calculated caloric expenditure is 2700 calories per day, so that means I'm allowed 1700 calories per day or 11,900 calories per week. By my estimates I should be able to reach my ideal weight in about 20 weeks and that means sometime in November. Can I do it? I guess we'll see!
Now that I've joined the unemployed 10% of the population I'm going to start a to-do list for each day. I'm figuring if I tell enough people (a few million should do) it might actually get done.
Wow, I was just looking at the guest list and they included: George Lucas, Glenn Close Sting and Trudie Styler, Miranda Cosgrove, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, Jon Hamm, Eva Longoria Parker, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Brooke Shields, Alicia Keys, Kenneth Cole, Kerry Washington
I'm just wondering who paid for dinner? And how much did it cost?
Hello, everyone! This is my very first blog, so it's going to be rough around the edges for a while. But, here I go -- I was born in the mid 70's, but I truly feel I'm a child of the 80's. I miss so many things from society and myself during that period. Things like my Tandy Color Computer (Tandy CoCo as it was affectionately known), movies, games, toys, and people. Everything seemed so much simpler, families seemed so much closer in the 80's. What has happened to society? Maybe, it's just me... Maybe I was just a child then and was seeing everything through a child eyes, but I sure remember being a lot happier with much less. I think that's what I miss the most, the innocence.
