Why bother. Nobody reads this crap anyways.

So I was driving home from work the other day, on I80, and the phone rings. It was Dad calling in. We talked about the little stuff, small talk. But then he asked how my workday was. Needless to say, I was not having a good day, nor a good week. But then he said something, something that made a world of sense. Furthermore, it made me realize that my father is in the same boat as me. All of a sudden, I had a newfound respect for him, as well as sympathy. Let's just say that he has been employed by a certain offshoot company that makes certain parts for a certain American automaker. Ever since I could remember, I thought my Dad was superman when it came to work. He NEVER complained. He NEVER came home and wanted to sleep, or drink, or argue about work. But thanks to this wonderful country we live in, it's not the case now. He is in the same boat as me, if not worse. To be honest, this scares the hell out of me! If super-Dad can barely make it through, how on earth can I possibly have a chance! This all came about when I stated, "...well, at least I have a job, right?" He replied, "That's the problem with this country in it's current state. The elite upper management trim down their workforce, and at the same time, boost productivity by pushing their employees to work longer hours, take on more responsibilities, come in earlier, stay later, skip your lunches, the list goes on. We just keep on taking it, walking with out head down. All they have to say is '...at least you have a job'". Wow Dad! That really hit home. At least I have a job. Yeah, at what f$#^ing cost! I went to school, I got my degree, I work my ass off, and still, I'm no better off than I was 10 years ago, living barely above the poverty line. At the same time, these CEO's and CFO's and COO's are raking in profits left and right. I'm ready to leave America. I quote the band, Clutch: "Everybody move to Canada and smoke lots of pot. Everybody move to Canada right now! Here's how we do it. We bum rush the border guard before he and his dog ever knew it." Hey Dad, you with me!!

Well, Linux lasted almost exactly 1 month. Yes, I'm back to good old Windows. Don't get me wrong, Linux is amazing if you like eye candy and all you do is surf the internet. However, I found it increasingly difficult to integrate Linux into my network and my software needs. Sure, there were ways to do it, but they were either sub-par or a complete hack. Case in point, the software program I use to create this site. I tried everything that Linux had to offer and none of them worked. The forums gave me a hack way to port my Windows program over to my Linux machine, then use my Windows emulator program to run it. Too much work. On paper, Linux is built, and operates much better than Windows. I believe that if these two OS's were born around the same time, and were given equal market share, Linux would reign supreme. But we all know that this is not the case. Windows is king, and looks to remain that way. Well, all my machines are back up on XP and all is right with my world. Hey, it was fun while it lasted.

Thus ends another year. Wow, for a change, I have the same job and living in the same place I was last year. That's a good thing. Logged more miles on the bike this year. Definitely a good thing! All of my friends, family and loved ones are still here. I watched my nieces grow up. I watched Martin Brodeur, live in Pittsburgh, break Terry Sawchuk's record and become the NHL all-time leader in shutouts. Thanks Les for that one! All in all, I'd have to say that this has been quite the good year for me. I can only hope that 2010 will be a good year as well. Actually, it's shaping up to be that way. I would like to wish each and every one of you a happy New Year and a prosperous 2010!

Well, here we are at Christmas Eve. As I was back in 2006, according to my blog archives, I'm relaxing at my parents house up in Hartford. Unfortunately, I'm the only one here right now. I arrived just after my family left for church service. That's ok though. This gives me some quiet time. Pandora is streaming some Mogwai, and I'm reading through my past Christmas posts. Quite a bit has changed since I started this site back in 2001, too many to note. Fortunately, most all of them have been good changes. Enough about that. I really hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas day. I know I will. My day will be spent with my entire family, along with friends and loved ones. Who could ask for anything more. Well, I've reached the end of my Great Lakes Burning River. Time to grab another. Sign off time for me.

I just don't know. Today is December 20. Honestly, I don't feel the least bit of Christmas spirit. It seems that with each passing year, this season becomes harder and harder to embrace. When I was a kid, my mother put up what is called an Advent Calendar. Starting December 1, we would hand up a random felt ornament on a small felt christmas tree. This calendar was stitched together and hung on our closet door, about the size of a standard poster. Myself and my brothers would fight over who gets to hang up first ornament on the 1st, and the final ornament on Christmas Eve. Speaking of Christmas Eve, my grandmother used to host a traditional Slovak dinner called 'Valea Supper':

The Slovak words for Christmas Eve are literally "bountiful eve" and the bounty of this sacred evening lies in the wide range of festive dishes, of which there had to be twelve different kinds. Even today many Slovak families must have on the Christmas table garlic (to ward off demons), honey, wafers, nuts, cooked peas or French beans, dried fruit, and the main dish, cabbage soup with mushrooms and "opekance" - small pieces of dough - with poppy seed and honey. At the beginning of this century, fish has become the traditional meat served during Christmas Eve (their scales are said to bring wealth into the house) in the Catholic portion of the population while the Lutherans would add smoked meats and sausage to their cabbage soup. Christmas holidays are also very rich in Slovak pastries and baked goods that are prepared over many evenings during the month of December.

Our entire family gathered together for this wonderful evening. Sadly, and not by anyone's fault, this tradition has fallen by the wayside. I also remember not being able to fall asleep on Christmas Eve as well. The excitement was just too much! I'd be up at 4am, 5am, 6am. Usually, my parents put a limit on how early the morning could begin. Talk about counting down the minutes! Man, those were the times! Now, when I think of Christmas, I think of traffic, obscene drivers, gift shopping, obscene shoppers, work deadlines that need met before the one day off I get for Christmas, dividing my time among my family and friends who are home for the holiday, bills that need finished up before end of month, the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the time I get to spend with my family. In my mind, this is the best part of Christmas. But even that comes with stipulations and restrictions...which I accept. What makes this year especially hard is the fact that everyone, and I mean, EVERYONE I know has been beat down by the current economic status of this God forsaken country we call the United States of America. Everywhere I go and everyone I talk to has been modifying their usual routine and are opting for alternative gifts, or setting up a gift exchange. I have no problem at all with this. Honestly, this takes from the commercialism of the season and add back a little more of the old-time goodness. Put myself in this boat as well. I do not have enough money to spend on gifts for everyone. As much as I'd like to, I just can't. To put matters into perspective, I just had my annual review. My poor boss (and I mean that with the utmost sincerity) nearly broke down when he presented my meager wage increase. Being prepared for this, I was grateful for whatever increase I received as I know that I am one of the lucky ones this year when it comes to that. He wanted to give me what he thought I deserved, but his hands are tied. I understand. If this doesn't make me sick enough, I can check online and see what our executives are making this year. See for yourself. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that they have the responsibility of the entire corporation to worry about, but come on. $760,000 per year with exercised $1.1 million...and I can't even afford to by Christmas presents. To make matters worse, my own bank, the company I work for every day, recently turned me down on pre-approval for a home loan. If that isn't a complete smack in the face, I honestly don't know what is. But I digress. Friday is Christmas, my parents are alive and well. My brothers and their families are coming in. I am going to give myself a present by forgetting everything I've just poured out on here for one day and spend the day with the people I love. Despite the sad state of this world today, I sincerely wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas season.

Well, I know that this post will not look any different than any of my other posts. However, this is my first post on my Linux Netbook. Yes, Linux. Over the past month, I've fallen head first into the geeky world of Linux. I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I had no idea how far I'd fall. Linux has many flavors 'distros' to pick from...all free! The first few weeks were spent distro hopping, hopping, and hopping some more. I finally settled on a nice little distro called Linux Mint. The user interface is amazing, as is the usability. Granted, it takes some getting used to as this is NOTHING LIKE WINDOWS! I admit, I feel like somewhat of a noob. Oh well, what better way to learn, right? Just the other day, I successfully ported the program I use to create this site over from windows to linux. Pretty exciting. Honestly, the real reason I'm doing this is because the company I work for maintains a lot of Linux servers. I figured I had better know a thing or two in case I ever get a chance to move up. Oh dear, my battery is about dead. I guess that happens when you're cranking on Dreamweaver while running your network file sync program and streaming music from your file server over wifi. I'm a dork.

Noooooooooo! Its December!!!!!! Yep, dark when I leave work, dark when I get home. I haven't done a lick of exercise in 2 weeks. This is horrible! Even thought the temperature is at a blustery 29 degrees, I'm making myself run today. If not, I may just explode just like Mr. Creosote! I sure hope I don't freeze...