Hey, check it out!
Finally! The “Oh, my lack of gods!” shirt!
oh. my. god.
(not really)
..and as if that wasn’t awesome enough!
Even awesomer is the new “Intelligent Design Associates” shirt..
Both designs are available on a huge pile of things and stuff in the UrsusPacificus section of the UrsusPacificus KitschKave!
Whee!
I finally took the Assateague out Yesterday!
It’s fast. I mean faaaaaast! Whee!
The skeg is glorious! Whee!
It makes my Rav look tiny! Awww…
Here’s hoping the weather holds out a little longer!
Welp… I traded in the 2008 Scion tC.
I traded “down” to a 2009 Toyota Yaris.
Why would I do such a thing?
Well, the tC was barely 2 years old, but had 34,000 miles on it (Remember the LifeCrest VisionQuest), which means the warranty was going to run out a year early. Kind of a bummer.
The glass panel for the sunroof had been squeaking and rattling for some time. I’d really hate to have that become an issue out of warranty.
Plus, the driver seat had … lost … some of its… foamy comfort…? …and that made it not so comfortable to drive any more.
I’m operating on a thinner budget, now, so a more frugal “daily driver” wagon made sense… cheaper insurance, better on gas, taxes a little lower.
The tC had power windows and locks, which is “nice” but prone to failure out of warranty. It also had fairly pricey tires, which were approaching end-of-life.
…and the seat/door arrangement was kinda crummy for narrow parking spaces (and my one-car garage).
Of course the Yaris is no tC in terms of handling and acceleration, but… it’s not too bad. It’s better than the Rav4 I have 
… oh, and the Yaris actually opens up a bunch of room in my garage, which is awesome!
Oh, yeah, and since I gave up smoking back in January, it’s nice to have a car that doesn’t smell like smoke
Wow! Washington is mental!
The the NASM’s Udvar-Hazy Center was quite a bit less crazy, and seemed to be more focused on straight-forward aviation, and not so much on “exhibits” as “artifacts”. There is less of a “Boo-yah! Go, USA!” feel to this facility. It’s more of a check it out, read the plaques, make up your own mind kind of thing. A little more my speed.
The main NASM exhibit space on the Mall in Washington is far more exhibit-ey, and USA-ey. I suppose you’d have to expect that from a museum on the national Mall. Of course, we happened to be there at a particularly chaotic time, when the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was being observed. Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins and Alan Bean were all selling and signing books. That added a level of lunacy… then there’s the regular touristy crowd, who may or may not know that Apollo really happened… and maybe even think that airplanes fly because gods make it so…. Belligerent, rude, careless people. Lots of them.
Then, we got to see the astronauts. Wow. It was the annual John Glenn Lecture. This year, the featured speakers were all three of the Apollo XI crew, along with Christopher Kraft. John Glenn, himself, also spoke.
First it was Glenn. His remarks were polite, considered, and inoffensive.
Then, came Kraft, whose remarks, as I recall them, were mostly recollections of the nervousness between liftoff and Lunar landing of Apollo XI.
Next was Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin wasted little time on platitudes, and went right into, “Why haven’t we landed on Mars yet?” I happen to agree with most of Aldrin’s arguments, and I am tired of the political timidity of US leadership.
Mike Collins spoke next, and as I expected, he was more philosophical than Aldrin. Collins strikes me as more of a “neutral” thinker with a healthy sense of humor. His remarks reflected that, and he focused more on the personal impact of having been to the Moon and returning. He closed his remarks with, “I guess you could put ‘Lucky’ on my tombstone, but not too soon.”
Finally Neil Armstrong came up. He focused on what he saw as the three catalysts for the mission to the Moon: Goddard, Governance, and Geophysics.
Here’s a little NY Daily News piece.
The remarks of these three ordinary who served as the face of a team of some 400,000 Americans who achieved something singularly remarkable were, themselves, remarkable in their perspective, thoughtfulness and frankness.
It’s just a shame that our countrymen can’t be persuaded to seriously consider their positions.
The GF and I are in DC this weekend. Tomorrow, we’re heading to the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, then going to he main building on The Mall on Sunday, where we’re going to see Neil Buzz and Mike chat about Apollo 11. Sweet.
I had originally planned to make this stop back in October on the VisionQuest, but this is groovy, too!
Gonna shoot vids and pix and so on…
More later.
In light of all the dying that’s been going on in Hollywood lately, I got to thinking.
Ed McMahon, really was a poster boy for what’s wrong with humanity. Not that he WAS what’s wrong with humanity, but he was afflicted with what is wrong with humanity.
Our society seems to have a collective dream for immortality, but, as a society, we have no interest in supporting the people living the dream. Fifty years ago, if you lived to be 80, that was really something! Now, if you don’t live to 80 people think you were a self-abusive monster.
Poor Ed. He outlived his bankroll, and we all just watched, gasping through clenched teeth as he was reduced to dressing up as a rapper and doing “sell your gold” commercials. It’s sad. Sure, he was living the Hollywood life, and spending with vigor, but there’s plenty of people down here who are stuck on the same treadmill. Forced out of work because of mandatory retirement, but needing to work because inflation and corporate robber-barons Madoff with all their retirement savings. Relegated to minimum wage jobs to pay for their drugs so that can live longer, so they can work more, so they can pay for their drugs, so they can live longer…. Anybody remember that PSA?
What’s the difference?
Then, there’s Michael… always living way beyond his means….and way outside reality. Hmm… what could that be a metaphor for?
Then, there was Farrah. A little bit of Ed, a little bit of Michael, and a whole lot of 70’s living coming home to roost.
Each is sad in their own way, but each is also instructive. Take this chance to see past the tragedy, to the lessons these lives have to teach.
Well, It’s been one month since I voluntarily left the ranks of the employed. Some said I was crazy. Some said I’d get bored in a week and go mad.
I’m pleased to report that I’m healthy, happy, and free of regret.
What have I been doing? Well… I’ve been kayaking, tweeting (as “newsundies”), producing NewsUndies shows, noodling in the studio, working on my house, hanging out with my GF… It’s been good.
I’ve actually been living much more cheaply than I was while I was working. I’m losing some weight, and feeling a lot better about myself and my situation.
Still smoke-free (six months, now). That was a concern, given how everyone said I’d get bored and go mad.
The only thing that could be better from my perspective is the weather… but I’m guessing that’ll improve as the season wears on.
As it is, I’ve kayaked close to 50 miles since leaving the working world, and almost couldn’t be happier. Of course, hitting the PowerBall, and never having to return to the “working world” would be cause for celebration… but … so far, no complaints
So, I’ll be continuing with NewsUndies (although I’ll be taking a couple weeks off from even THAT, this summer), which you can see at www.newsundies.com, and you can follow me on Twitter.
Whee!
Buck, Jim, Tom and I got together and recorded a theme for the upcoming revamped NewsUndies intro. You can listen to it here: Dummyhead Songs Page
Like it? Hate it? You can comment here, Tweet us at twitter.com/newsundies, or email undies@newsundies.com
This post on the Church of No, Thanks site, in retrospect, was one of my finest moments in recent memory… sorry if I’m dislocating my shoulder patting myself on the back, here… but … Now that I’ve left the job that was causing me so much grief, I can publicly tip my hand.
I wrote the post specifically about my job, not about any other specific relationship I’m in. That is to say, the stress of my situation at work was the inspiration for writing the post on the CoNT site. It seemed to me that the process I was using to weigh my options could be abstracted to a fairly universal thought process, and there was an aspect of peer pressure to the tendency to preserve extant relationships, rather than severing them and finding new ones. It seemed like a good fit for the CoNT site, and 5 months on, I still think so.
I re-read The Line today, after having quit my job; after having taken my own advice… and I feel pretty good about it… not a euphoric “feel good”… more of a serene, peaceful “feel good”. I haven’t felt like this in a long time.
It’s been such a long time
I think I should be going, yeah
Time doesn’t wait for me
It keeps on rolling–”Long Time”, Boston
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me through this decision. Ultimately it was my decision to make, and I’m the one who has to live with the consequences, but it certainly was nice to have friends to, if nothing else, check my sanity.
Thanks everyone! You know who you are!
After four-plus years working for “A Top-Tier Search Marketing and Search Optimization Firm,” I’ve voluntarily stepped off into the abyss of unemployment.
I’m still in a little bit of shock… I don’t think it’s really hit me that I don’t have anything I need to do on Tuesday… except get ready for my NTG2K9 BBQ.
Whee!
Strangely, It seems quitting my job was one of the best things I could have done for website traffic. Prior to my departure, I had not really pressed the fact that I operate a number of websites… well, In my departure email, I gave a list of my sites… Spike in traffic across all 4 sites. So… Certainly, that’s not a sustainable method of generating web traffic… but… I suppose you really need to let people know you’re there… sort of.
