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Hello Old Friend

I can't believe that February 2008 was the last time we spoke.  So much has happened since then and my life has changed in so many ways.  We need to make this a regular thing again, okay?

ROTFL

Godless

I had a completely inappropriate conversation with one of my employees recently. We were talking about religion and he asked me if I thought the Bible was real, or just a collection of stories. Before I can stop myself I tell him that they are just nice stories.

He gives me two thumbs up and says "so you don't believe in god."

Yesterday, another employee walks through my office and we start talking about scientologist's. She was commenting on how fanatical and crazy they are. I said that the same could be said of people like her -- I consider her pretty religious.

I'm just amazed about how free I am lately with the fact that I'm atheist. That isn't to say that I have no faith. I just do not believe in a supernatural spirit that lords over people.

I'm sure this causes some people to think I'm some sort of freak or something and I used to worry about this. No more. I figure that if I have to listen to all the religious rhetoric all over the place, I can share my thoughts as well.

Why Work Functions Suck

I really despise going to work functions, and quite honestly, I usually skip them altogether when I can. I haven't been to a holiday party of a summer picnic in probably eight years (and I've worked here 10).

I did go to one on Saturday night. As a congratulations for a great year, the boss gave the managers and their spouses a day at the spa or a round of golf at a nice resort. There was dinner and a hospitality suite and we stayed over night. All in all, a really nice time. The Mrs. and I had massages and stuff and dinner was nice.

In the hospitality suite, I spoke to the people I normally speak with at work, and met their spouses, and they spoke with the Mrs. But there were at least three rude ass people who wanted to bug me about work.

First is the resident Greek. He asks me outside to smoke a cigarette and I'm happy to join him... until he starts in about the access points that are down. Fortunately, my appointment for my massage in in five minutes so I hastily leave him with half a cigarette.

When I get back to the hospitality suite after my massage, Tall Paul accosts me. Thankfully Jeff is there to stop him -- my hero!

Finally, FrankieQ wants to bug me about laptops. No introduction to his wife, no hey what did you do today, just what about those laptops. Yeah, I tell him, I'll be working on those, MONDAY.

So the way I see it, one of two things is going on here, they either don't care to get to know me, or they think that by discussing work with me is showing that they are interested in getting to know me.

I always assume the that it is the first case, and immediately switch off and they earn the asshole designation. Maybe I should somehow redirect the conversation and let them know that I am not socially inept.

2007 Redeux

So 2008 is shaping up to simply be a continuation of 2007. More poorly or un-planned projects. More stupid bitchy people and more micro-management. I so need a new job.

Then there is the smoking. What a roller coaster ride that has been. On again off again. I just can't seem to make a clean break. I had quit for a month and then started again and then quit again and then started again and today I am quitting again. I stopped to think about what I was doing while I was successfully quitting, and during the first time I was blogging more consistently, I guess it helps to take my mind off it. The other time I was just so sick, I couldn't smoke -- Don't want that again.

On the home front, the Mrs. travels throughout the first quarter, just like last year, and she is already talking about the next project she is working on. I love to see her get excited about this stuff, but that usually means late nights for her and missing too much time at home.

So here we go again...

My Big Gay Playlist

Santa was good to me this year. A Wii (special thanks to the Mrs and my bro who craftily pulled of a very stealthy campaign to acquire not just one Wii, but two -- one for my parents as well), His Dark Materials set and three iTunes gift cards were amongst the booty.

I did my iTunes shopping, which is completely addictive to me, here is what I ended up with. After looking back on it, I thought this is pretty gay... but oh well, it is what it is...

	Xanadu. Bought the entire album. This is one from my child hood, one of the very first albums I ever owned. Olivia Newton-John has one of the best voices of our time and ELO one of the best bands. Whenever You're Away from Me (Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelley) and All Over the World (ELO) are my favorite tracks.
	Viola - Belinda Carlisle. I love Belinda. She has one of the sexiest voices ever and singing in French just makes her sexier. I had read some time back that she was doing an album of French standards and thought that's really cool. It is rare for me to buy an album that I've never heard anything from, I'm anxious to really listen to this one.
	Into the Wild - Eddie Vedder. Another I purchased solely on the strength of this artist. I'm a huge Perl Jam fan and something about Eddie's voice just moves me. I'm confident that this one will make it into my top ten favorites list.
	Parade - Under the Cherry Moon - Prince. One of Prince's best. Stand this one up with Purple Rain and Around the World in a Day and you have, in my opinion, the pinnacle of his work. They create this sort of trilogy like the Cure's Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers. Mountains is probably my favorite track on this one.
	Moulin Rouge! - Motion Picture Soundtrack. What can I say? I loved every song in this movie. I may be wrong, but I don't think that any of it is even original, but I love the new arrangements, and the way things are combined to synthesize something new. Favorite tracks: Elephant Love Medley and Come What May.
	Blue Jean and Heroes - David Bowie. Just two really great songs by Bowie. Blue Jean takes me back to Junior High School. Thinking about it now, I should have bought Let's Dance instead. I just discovered Heroes recently.
	Hands Clean - Alanis Morissette. This is probably her best. I love the contrast between the music, which is upbeat and bright, and the lyric, which is a story about a relationship, which in typical Alanis style, doesn't work out. "What part of our history's reinvented and under rug swept?"
	Rosealia and Desperately Wanting - Better than Ezra. Back in 1995, Desperately Wanting was my favorite song. Whenever it came on the radio I would crank it up. Musically it is pretty simple, but he sings with such a passion, and the story so human, "I remember running through the wet grass, falling a step behind..."
	Waterfalls - TLC. An absolutely beautiful song. I love the music, particularly the muted trumpet, and the way the sing simply in unison, rather than using complex harmonies. The arrangement stays out of the way of the message, which is great. I could live without the rap though.
	No Scrubs and Unpretty - TLC. The acoustic guitar as No Scrubs opens gets me every time. I never get tired of this one. The contrast in the rhythm of the lyric - very, for lack of a better term, bouncy, and the accompaniment, very smooth, creates this polished sound. I love the island feel of Unpretty, with the electric guitar supporting it, it is a nice combo. The harmonies in the chorus make this song soar, despite unhappy nature of the lyric. I guess the story is actually uplifting as she is actually discovering her own self worth.
	New Song - Howard Jones. Again, one of those nostalgic songs for me. This was on a 12" single I had back in Junior High. I think it was the B side to Things Can Only Get Better and I ended up liking this song more. This guy is a synthesizer maestro and it shows in the bridge, which just soars.
	Don't You Want Me? and Some Kind of Lover - Jody Watley. My big 80ies dance entry. I just love the smooth feeling of this song. Some Kind of Lover is just a fun song. Very typically 80ies.
	Constant Craving - K. D. Lang. Probably the gayest entry here, and one of my all time favorite songs. The accordion as the song opens and in the accompaniment is subtle and creates this haunting feeling. This song gives me goose bumps - every time.
	Tell It to my Heart - Taylor Dayne. More big 80ies dance. The intensity of this song is what gets me. The first five notes state the motive for the song, tell it to my heart, and it is restated over and over. The synthesizer kinds of serves as punctuation for the lyric. Great music here.

81 tracks in all, most of which would have me dancing at Parliament House. What can I say, I love all my music. Now I'm wondering what the rest of my library says about me... besides that I have eclectic tastes.

Sorry, you have the wrong number

I was watching the news last night and caught this story about the mishandling of medical information. I was interested because privacy issues really interest me in this digital world, and as the story unfolded, I grew increasingly disgusted. Here is what happened:

A nursing home was trying to fax some medical records to a doctor. The records turned up on the fax machine in some woman's house. This "good Samaritan" calls the news to tell them about what happened and she gets an interview on the eleven o'clock news. It turns out that the only difference between the phone number of the intended recipient and this woman is the last digit.

The news story talks about the increase of theft of medical identity and the consequences for the person handling the  information - like loosing their job.

So someone may loose their job because they misdialed the phone? The woman who received the fax could take the time to find the news hotline but couldn't take the time to get the name of the sender off the header of the fax and let them know they had the wrong number; or, worst case, look at the caller id on the fax machine and send a fax back letting them know. Shame on you lady.

Shame on the news organization too for running this - I'll use the term loosely -- news. People dial the wrong number all the time, and it isn't news.