One Man's Whatever

Updating

2012-02-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

Well, who could've seen this coming?

My first entries for both INSERT COIN and Booked Solid were scheduled to be up by now. Then life hit. Big time. To make a long story short, January was just awful for the wife and I (well...more so for the wife). I did have a book planned out and had games to talk about but little to no time or drive to do so.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what's going to happen next. January's book is now going to be February's book, which I plan on starting this week; it's kind of short, but it's one I've been very interested in reading for a while. As for the games...well, there will be talk about what I've been playing for the last few weeks as well as an RPG I started just an hour ago that I'll be playing routinely until it's complete.

Thanks for understanding, and hope to have something for you soon.

WELCO METOT HENEX TYEAR

2011-12-04T22:54:00.000-08:00

Well, well...2012. This year means a few different things for myself: 10 years since graduating high school, the whole "end of the world" craziness, another 3 years until Marty McFly goes back and buys a sports almanac that fucks with the space-time continuum. However, this also marks the start of an interesting "experiment" of mine; folks call these "New Years Resolutions," usually. To me this is going to be an endurance trial. For you see, my main resolution this year is to stop purchasing video games.

This includes every type of video game-related thing across the board: physical media (disc, cartridge), digital media, consoles, accessories, DLC...the whole shebang. If it's something I have to pay for, it's forbidden.

As a result of this resolution, I was able to set forth some other resolutions that I hope to accomplish as a result. For example, tackle the backlog of games that I already own; there are so many things I've purchased that I've either barely played or haven't played at all. Coincidentally, this ties in with another resolution - to blog a lot more than I have. Tonight, I formally announce a monthly feature here on One Man's Whatever: INSERT COIN, a look at a game or games from my collection that I managed to play in each month.

Not much of a game fan? Well then, hold onto your hats...I'm also announcing another feature for the site that also ties into another resolution: Booked Solid. Each month, I'll read a book and post my thoughts and feelings on it.

Of course there will also be random posts to the site throughout the year whenever the feeling catches me. Everything new will be posted to my Facebook account for easy access.

To anyone and everyone that reads this, I thank you for taking the time to read my crap. I wish you all the best in this new year, and ask you to please look forward to what I've got coming.

WARNING: Rant, Ahoy

2011-06-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been going through some internal reflection. For the most part, this is due to my job; for well over a year now, I've worked to the best of my ability and managed to continue living despite working very unusual hours (by typical standards, anyway). Even though I show up on time, do my best and eventually leave, I feel as if it's all for naught.

I graduated from college with the degree I gained for a rather simple reason: to help those who need it both mentally and physically, and to hopefully one day make a difference in someones life. This required classes in psychology as well as human development; I graduated in 2008.

Here it is, the year 2011, and I have a job in the human services field. Only I have no use for my college degree with this job; if anything, what I needed was a degree in patience for both those with disabilities and those with little to no common sense.

A job that I once considered fulfilling and meaningful is slowly but surely contorting into something that I (in more stressful situations) loathe going to. And the thing is, this loathing has little to do with the clients I serve. I mean, yes, it was a very crazy night on my birthday when I was nearly knifed for some cereal; it was even crazier the night I had to leave early due to stomach issues that were later revealed to be a panic attack. No, honestly the clients are fine. It's the pure bureaucratic silliness that has pushed me to levels of frustrated anger that only my car knows about from the many rides home where I've vented.

Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that the situations that bring me to annoyance generally are attributed to a kind of "who's on first" implementation of rules and guidelines. While some will insist that something must be done a certain way, there could be another 3 people who have no earthly idea what you're talking about or that such a rule was in effect. Paired with that is a very backwards method of motivation for staff. And the backwards part of it is that there is no motivation. For every crisis that was handled to the best of the ability of staff, there's at least one or two things that were supposedly done incorrectly that are pointed out first (and, more often than not, last).

So where does that leave me? Well, that's the issue. I don't know. I'm not quite past my threshold for frustration yet; honestly, I'll be as far away from that as possible thanks to the staff I currently work with. But I gotta tell you, folks, I'm about ready to start considering going back to school at some point. I will need a change, this I know for sure. But when will it be best? When could or should I make my move? No idea.

For now, I'll continue to do what I do. And hopefully this will include more writing. Like I said in my previous post, there's some things I'm working on that I'd love to share as soon as I can put them in type. With the exception of my wife, at this point it seems like that will be the only thing that'll keep me sane.

We Never Talk Anymore

2011-06-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

Hey there. How's it going?

It's around 3AM and I'm up and about, so I figured it's probably best to blog. I mean, why not, right? That's what normal people do. I guess. Shut up.

Anyway...I haven't been making any posts lately; there's a pretty good reason for this somewhere in my mind but the bottom line is, I'm lazy as shit. Inspiration to write has been lacking for a while, as well. I can't really put my finger on why this is; there's just been a dry spell that I can't seem to get past. There's no doubt in my mind that this is a passing phase because writing is what I dig. With other interests in my life, I find that sometimes a major downtime is needed to keep things fresh. Is that downtime coming to an end? I kind of hope so. But I honestly don't know.

So with that, I'm just going to say that yes, I fully intend to keep this going and that it might just take a little while longer for me to get back in the swing of things. I've got some ideas for regular features which might make things interesting, so please stay tuned.

G'night, kids.

The Trouble With Hand Washing

2011-01-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

My wife and I go out to dinner often. Our usual "hot spots," if you will, are places like Chili's, Ruby Tuesdays, etc. Nothing terribly fancy at all, really; just a place where she can get a decent meal and I can get a decent burger. Lately, however, there's been something that's been irritating me to no end. No, no, it's not the decor of these places (though really some of them need to just take it down a notch)...it's not even the varied levels of service at some locations.

It's these bastards.

You've seen them. You've used them. Chances are you've yelled at them as if they'd give you some sort of response back. And the thing that kills me is that some ass-hat thought these would be a great idea.

If, for some reason, you've never even seen something like this, let me break it down for you. What you see before you is a paper towel dispenser that is motion activated; you wave your hand in front of it and magically the towel comes out. Sounds like it's convenient? It's about as convenient as a porcupine booster seat - sure, it might be a big porcupine and give you some height, but it's still a pain in your ass.

You see, they dispense one sheet at a time. One sheet. I don't know about you, but when I wash my hands in a public restroom with paper towels, it usually takes about 4 of them to actually absorb the water on both of my hands. "So what," you may ask. "Just keep waving your hand, get your towels and get on with your life." That's the idea, alright...if it would let you do that in under 3 minutes.

The thing that really blows my mind is the fact that people think these are going to help cut down on excessive paper usage. These "people" are also the same fools that want you to use one piece of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom, and (though this hasn't been totally proven yet) carry around a bag of granola to swallow just in case the idea of food springs to mind and they can't find something "natural" to eat.

There is, of course, a simple solution to this problem. Trouble is, it might require actual thought on the part of restaurant and store owners.

This is the Dyson Airblade. When we went on our honeymoon to Niagara Falls, my wife and I decided to check out a local mall. Much to my delight, these amazing marvels of hand-drying innovation were in every bathroom, right along with the dumbass motion-sensor towel things. Basically, you place both of your hands down into the opening, and a very strong blast of air comes out to thoroughly dry them in under a minute. These are, quite simply, the best damn air dryers since those jet-engine reject blowers seen at almost every Target. The only difference is that the Dyson doesn't make your skin ripple and make farty noises due to the strength of the airflow.

So this is my simple plea to the people who design mall/restaurant/movie theater bathrooms - ditch those abominations of humanity that give you one sheet of paper an hour, and splurge for the Dyson Airblade. Not only will you make your customers happy, you'll actually be doing something to save the damn planet.

Meep

2009-12-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

There seems to be this thing going on around the internet now where the word "meep" has entered the lexicon thanks to the Muppets. Well, Beaker specifically.

I was not aware of this phenomena at first. But rest assured, it has annoyed the hell out of me. You might be surprised to know the reason for this, though.

See, it has nothing to do with Beaker or any of the Muppets at all. This may come as a shock to all, but "meep" is not a new thing. I've known this word for years. And it's all thanks to a forgotten comic book called The Maxx.

Ah, The Maxx. Created in 1993 by writer and artist Sam Kieth, this was one of the original Image brand comic books to hit store shelves. Unlike Spawn, The Maxx never really attained a major fan following; it was more of a cult favorite, which managed to extend it's fan base thanks in part to an amazing animated series created for MTV (where I first became aware of it). The series was relatively deep, dealing with the inner workings of people's minds and emotions, and touching subjects that I always figured were taboo for a comic book.

However, there were characters in this series that offered a sense of comic relief from time to time. They were the little black and white eyeless critters known as Iz.

Isz (the plural form of Iz, pronounced is-is) were creatures that would be seen from time to time doing many different things for the main villain of the series' first arc. Besides being incredibly short, eyeless and (at times) vicious, they were known for uttering one thing and one thing only: Meep.

This phrase became a part of my vocabulary shortly after watching the TV show. In fact, I know this to be true of many fans of the series.

So what the hell does this have to do with anything? Well...nothing, really. It's just irritated me that suddenly now "meep" has become such a big deal. The word has even been banned from a school in Massachusetts. And all because of Beaker. And don't get me wrong, I loved watching Beaker and Vincent Honeydew on The Muppet Show all those years ago. I just think that if anyone should receive proper credit for this wonderful expression, it's those little residents of the Outback who have been forgotten.

If you missed The Maxx as a TV show, then I'm going to point you in the direction of the fine folks at Amazon.com. Through their "made-to-order" DVD service, you can now pre-order the entire 13 episode series. Get clicking here to do just that. Let's face it, you could do worse for $20.

Health Care Reform

2009-12-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

Health care reform. It's the big debate surrounding all of us, and has been ongoing for the past 3 or 4 months (maybe longer). People either want it to move forward and finally happen, while others are staunchly opposed to it.

Consider me on the side of health care reform. I have been for a while now, even before Barack Obama took office and made this one of his prime focuses. It's something that I feel this country has been long overdue for. To me, universal health care is something we as a country should have had at least two decades ago. Yet so many people have rallied against the notion of it; even today, people turn out in droves to oppose it. But why?

Well, my understanding of the situation is that people are afraid that the national debt will grow even larger and that our taxes will increase. These people also believe that the quality of our health care will deteriorate as a result, in an effort to save money. And even more people out there simply do not like the fact that our health care would be in the hands of the government, saying that certain "rules" or "regulations" would be put on things, thus miring things even more.

Let's try to break this down into parts, shall we?

Firstly, the national debt. As of this writing, the national debt is very close to approaching 12 trillion dollars. Upon looking at this, I admit, I almost shat myself. This staggering amount is unprecedented; just ten years ago, the debt was close to half that amount. Therefore, the main idea of spending more is simply disgraceful to opponents.

Consider this, however: in under nine years, between 2000 and 2008, our national debt rose by 5 trillion dollars. In that same amount of time, from 1990 to 1998, the debt rose only by 2 trillion dollars. Now, I can already hear some of you saying to yourselves, "Of course, we had a war to fight and an enemy to snuff after 9/11. That explains the major difference between the decades." While this is true, for the most part this was a very spend-friendly time for all the wrong reasons. Money went to national defense, yet soldiers were without some essential things, such as body armor and properly armored tanks. It also went to unnecessary tax rebates, which did little (if anything) to stimulate the economy for the short-term.

Yet now, our country is presented with something that can potentially benefit millions of people which would, at this point, set us back by 1 trillion dollars. And now, suddenly, THIS is the tipping point for conservatives; this, which could relieve people suffering both monetarily and physically from ailments. THIS is where people on the conservative side of things say, "Wait, hold on. Apply the brakes, Mr. President...we don't want to fit the bill for this." And frankly, it makes me sick.

One trillion dollars to initiate what could be a major step in the right direction for this country during a very hard time is but a drop in the bucket, as far as I'm concerned. What people who are on this side of the argument lack is the foresight to see that this could ultimately stimulate our economy, reduce the amount of foreclosures across the country and make America strong once again.

Which brings me to the second part I want to tackle: the fear of our health care deteriorating. One of the things I've heard repeatedly is how awful the universal health care elsewhere in the world is. Canada has long waits, the UK system is in shambles, and the French are, in fact, French, and we just don't want to be like them. So here’s my question to people clinging to this argument: Do you honestly think that we will be like them?

I had to endure so many people saying during the war in Iraq that America is the greatest country on Earth. That no one is better than the good ole US of A. Well...where's that chutzpa now? Now you think we'll suddenly not be so great because we'll have universal health care? Like you've all said, this is America; if we're so great of a nation as you believe, where's the faith that we would become the nation with the best nationalized health care system? Seriously. At this point in time, would we really want to emulate countries with flawed or failed systems?

To me, it sounds nothing more than belly-aching coming from people who feel we shouldn’t have to pay anything extra tax-wise. The main thing lacking here, again, is foresight; yes, taxes would rise to support this and yes, it can become an issue for people. However, in the next 5 to 10 years, there is the distinct possibility that these taxes would either disappear altogether or deteriorate over time.

So, I propose something. I encourage anyone out there reading this that are firmly against a universal health care program to please comment on this entry, and explain to me your reasons for being against it. However, I ask that you give me good, solid arguments defending your position.

Welcome

2009-12-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hey there, how's it going? Welcome to the blog. I'm currently in the process of setting up shop, so this will be all you're going to see for a while. So enjoy, and be patient. kthnx.