Category: Assholes

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Okay, I’m officially bored

I know, how is that possible with all the turmoil, yet here I am.

I’m completely over the constant diet of fear, tragedy, destruction, and protests.

I killed the Twitter account, don’t have FaceBook, hell I’ don’t even use Google. I’m not paying for Apple News or Apple TV+. I avoid the CNN, CBS, MSNBC, and ABC free streaming services. Having long since cut the Cable. 

Scanning the various online newspapers around the country is monolithic, they all say the same thing. Riots, Burning, Looting, Police bad, police defunded, White people racist, Orange Man Bad, Corona gonna get ya, social Distancing, wear a mask as a symbol of solidarity, blah, blah, blah.

At this point it’s all so bad it’s depressing as shit.

For the first time in many years, I’m glad I don’t live closer to cities. I’m 2.5 hours away from San Diego, 90 minutes from Orange County, 90 minutes from LA and that’s just fine with me. The only thing cities give me is a place to work, drink or shop. Since all that is in the shitter… Burn it all down,  or don’t, I honestly don’t give a shit anymore. 

Our nation has become something that could have been in the pages of a prequel to Orwell’s 1984, or Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

I’ve had quite enough.

I feel bad for the Police, I feel bad for those few friends that may be in the middle of it all. But my empathy is running dry. 

It’s all become noise, I choose not to listen. Come up to my house wanting to cause trouble and we’ll see how that goes. If I win, you go home in an ambulance or a body bag, If I lose then I’m dead and none of this matters to me anymore either.

I’m tired of the battle.

Go do whatever you want to do just don’t drag me into your dramatic bullshit.

One thing that does astound me is that I’ve always attempted to be egalitarian. What’s good for me is generally good for you and vice versa.

Obviously I missed the memo telling me that it was okay to be a complete asshole. Gee, I could have had all kinds of fun, had it not been for my damn moral compass.

You know the compass that was set with basic principals? The one based in the biblical 10 commandments, the one that assumed the founding principals and subsequent amendments to the principals of this country were sound ideas. Things like inalienable rights and freedom to pursue happiness, little concepts like that.

Add into that basic mix the concept put fourth by the poem “The Hangman” by Maurice Ogden, and I’ve taken action throughout my life to step in, and step up, against wrongs when I encounter them. Mix in a little classical Greek literature and some SciFi wherein the writers imagined how wrong things could go as cautionary tales and you end up with someone like me.

Someone who believes in a basic premise of; do no harm, make few enemies, be loyal and true, be honorable, treat everyone equally but with a hint of suspicion (because not everyone is honorable,) live well by the sweat of your own labor, ask for little, be helpful, honest, and kind.

And yet, after living my life to those standards and being a law abiding (Okay, I speed), do right kind of guy, now suddenly I’m a bad guy for no other reason than I’ve worked my ass off to have nice things.

Obviously I’m a fucking moron!

Hindsight being 20/20 I should have literally, and figuratively FUCKED everyone I encountered, pressed every advantage and made no choices based on morality, kindness, or ethics.

God knows, had I done that, I’d be a lot better off financially than I am. My dick would have seen a lot more action to boot. I wouldn’t have much soul left, but I could be eating $40 bowls of ice cream not worrying about how I would pay my bills for the month.

When confronted with someone like me, the highly educated elite academics say that I still had white male privilege I’m therefore automatically guilty, even if I didn’t use that privilege.

Yeah, you get no credit for not using something, you’re damned because you had it from the get go.

I guess it’s like the concept of Original Sin. You just have to take it on faith because someone in authority says it’s so. Don’t forget, you’re not allowed to call into question the source of someone’s authority.

It’s against this backdrop that not only am I bored as shit of all this, I’m actively avoiding technology of almost any kind.

Voice messages, texts, emails, all accumulate on various devices and I’m simply not interested.

I find myself reading books if I’m not outside doing something, (or trying to do something,) constructive. 

The latest of these is The AR-15 Complete Assembly Guide by Walt Kuleck with Clint McKee. No, I’m not going all survivalist. I couldn’t buy ammo anyway, as I have zero patience to navigate asinine gun laws living as I do, in California. I’m surprised I could even buy the book here.

I figure if I need one, I’ll go buy one in South Central LA, or San Diego near the border from one of the cartels. I can probably pick up a couple thousand rounds of ammo too. Oh, don’t get your panties in a knot. I use that example, as a way to highlight just how stupid the California gun laws are. 

Think about it, in order to exercise my Constitutionally protected right to own a firearm, the easiest way to get one, is the same way criminals get one. Illegally! Cash & Carry, who knows, I might be able to buy one from the Fast and Furious exercise in stupidity.

Anyhoo, I just was curious about these “mysterious, scary” machines. How better to learn about them, than by reading about how they’re assembled? It’s better than the daily newsfeed and remarkably less violent or depressing. Another advantage is that it’s a physical book with pages and diagrams.

There are folks who’d say, “You’re just not reacting well to change,” They might be right, if this was change. Increasingly, this is feeling more like we’re all in a bad movie trailer. 

When the statistics for Covid from multiple sources don’t line up. When some college students demand easier grading for persons of color, (Which by the way is racist as hell,) and no-one calls them out on their hypocrisy, when the statistics about who the police are more likely to kill during apprehension don’t fit the narratives, when average police feel the need to lay down on the ground, or kneel, out of some sense… of what? Guilt?

Well then folks, I’m not interested in playing anymore.

I, like a lot of Americans am voting in November a straight Law & Order ballot. 

I’m sick of the bullshit! All these people think times were tough the past few years, wait till they get a load of what things look like when the pendulum swings conservative.

I’m gonna take a little break. If you don’t see anything here, or I don’t answer your email or text or call instantly, don’t worry I’m just fine. I’m on a break and the tech is turned off.

 

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Gotta Love California! (NOT)

1894964978-gun-control-cartoon.jpgOkay, so I’m unemployed. I have been since Aug. I’ve also been beating the bushes to find something new.

Covered California – Health Insurance tells me my insurance will be 1400 dollars a month. I was only getting 1800 a month in unemployment. 

Leaving $400.00 to pay mortgage, car, utilities, food, and gas.

So obviously that wasn’t going to work.

I applied for MediCal. That was denied because 1800.00 a month in unemployment was making too much money to qualify.

Let me be clear, I have nothing wrong with me, aside from slightly high blood pressure. Literally no issues. 

Covered California sent me a notice today reminding me that I’d be fined 700.00 in 2021 for not having insurance.

Let me see… $16,800 per year that I don’t have, versus $700 that I also don’t have.

Any moron would like to have health insurance. But only a moron would move into a tent at the side of the road to be able to pay for it. Foregoing transportation (to interview for a new job), food to be strong enough to work the new job, or utilities to power the technology necessary to look for a new job.)

Yeah, California! The STUPID is strong here.

I gotta get out of this place!

Update 3/27/2020

Unbeknownst to me, the other half brought this insanity to the attention of our State Assemblyman.

Within 2 hours, I was speaking with a representative from Covered California.

Turns out that the records were a little messed up, which no-one had told me previously.

Once those screwups were corrected, and because I am no longer receiving unemployment suddenly my cost for insurance is less than $100.

Really?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to pay what I can and is reasonable given the level of care I actually need. I’m also happy to be on track to have health insurance.

I found myself asking this question though… Why did it take a call from an State Assemblyman’s office to get this resolved?

Any hoo now if I get sick, I’ll be able to go to the hospital.

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Used to be a saying, “You can never find a cop when you need one.”

These days I suppose that may still be true. 

Personally, in my misspent youth i never had any trouble locating the police. More properly, they never had trouble zeroing in on where I had been. Usually by the time they got to the location, I was already gone. There was that one time when I took a page from Briar Rabbit. For some reason police don’t like trekking through swamps at 3am…

Go Figure!

Today, Lawyers are much worse than the Police ever were. They’re in everything we do. Funny thing about it is what happens when you’re actually calling a Lawyer and offering to pay them.

Over the past year, I’ve tried to engage no less than six lawyers and None of them have returned my call(s). I guess lawyering means that you don’t have to worry about income and you can afford to blow potential clients off.

Good for them, I guess. 

Bad for those of us stuck in an ever increasing web of rules, regulations, law, and general bullshit.  

Lawyers have a great scam going, they’ve complicated things to the point that they’re indispensable on the government side of the equation and then charge us obscene amounts of cash to provide guidance out of the mess.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but they’re about as specialized as doctors. Now you not only have to engage a lawyer, but you have to know which speciality of the law they practice.

GREAT! just what we all need, more complexity!

To illustrate the point, have you noticed that when you deal with an insurance company, or a utility, or virtually anything else lately, you get read a long assed list of terms & conditions that two sentences in, start sounding like the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon?

“Blah Blah Blah”

Even renting a damn car there’s page after page after page of bullshit.

All of this bullshit is legalese and cannot possibly be comprehended by at least 25% of average people. Hey, read any newspaper in print or online and you’ll see that even ‘educated’ people, you know, the people who insist they’re our betters, can’t write worth a damn. We have people in professional positions that don’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re.

Given this, how can you possible expect ‘less educated‘ people to fully understand what the hell they’re signing and agreeing to after a barrage of several pages of legalese?

My Dad used to say that the best thing we could do for this country was put all the lawyers on a cruise ship, sail it out to the middle of the Atlantic and sink it.

I think his comment was based on two factors. 1) Lawyers complicate things. 2) Our government is rife with lawyers. 

Dad was always fond of the “Twofer”, and of doing business with a handshake. His word was his bond and to my knowledge he kept his word. There may be evidence to the contrary but let me keep my childlike illusions.

As a kid, I knew two things. Avoid entanglement with the law, and avoid, as much as possible, drawing the attention of the government:

Pay your taxes, don’t screw around with too many deductions and play it straight enough that the IRS, FBI, or any government agency didn’t come snooping.

Capone was our cautionary tale. Xaviera Hollander added a little color to my minimalist philosophy as I reached adulthood.

With rules, regulations, laws, and all the other complications in our lives it’s made me start to consider the following:

To play it straight, is automatically more expensive. To play the game loose and fast, keeps money in your pocket, and gets you to your goal faster.

Being a stand up guy means you’re going to get screwed. Nice guys don’t get shit except being shat upon, and honest people increasingly are being seen as fools.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves me considering coloring outside the lines. 

A quote from Captain Reynolds in Firefly or Serenity really rang true with me;

“Come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all.”

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Patterns…

1200px Fibonacci spiral 34 svgAll our lives are defined by patterns.

Some of us are more attuned to sensing and or seeing those patterns.

As a Software QA person, I honed that ability to a fine point.

Sometimes software demonstrates a highly repetitive defect in a very short period of time. At other times, a pattern of failure is demonstrated over a longer period of days, weeks, or months. A person like me, tends to start noticing patterns in everything around us.Fibonacci sequence nautilus shell1 Fibonacci sequence

We’re all familiar with fractal patterns whether we know it or not. The waves crashing on a beach and the water receding, the view of a hurricane from space, the form of a maple leaf.

Another pattern defined by math is the spiral of a nautilus shell. That pattern is seen in nature everywhere. A fern leaf getting ready to open, the nautilus shell, snail shells, usually demonstrate “The Golden Mean” mathematicians call it the Fibonacci sequence.

The point is, once you see the sequence, you can’t unsee it.

This is a brief view into how my head works. 

It’s not just math though. I’m not gifted with the ability to see equations like some people are. For me, doing math is actually kinda hard. But If I can see it represented in some kind of three dimensional space, I suddenly get it.

I suppose I’m more a creature of spacial equations than theoretical equations. A physicist can work out the math behind velocity, mass, gravity, and distance to tell that a monkey can leap the gap in between buildings, or from branch to branch.

cactus.jpgThe monkey, on the other hand, feels it and “knows” he’ll make the leap to the nice bit of fruit on the branch without a whiteboard. It’s instinct and spacial relationships.

People behave on the boundaries of chaos. Groups of people move and react in generally predictable ways, but when it comes down individual decisions people get very chaotic.

That being said, sometimes people are insanely, tediously predictable.

This appears to be the case with the other half’s employer. 

For the second time in 10 years a female boss appears to be drunk with power, feeling that she’s above reproach and deciding that the other half isn’t communicating.

The other half has responded by producing the emails, and text message exchanges. Instead of putting the issue to bed it’s only exacerbated the conflict. Now the boss is becoming more erratic, generating multiple changes in direction within a week, or day, not clearly communicating the changes and expecting people to read her mind.

I’ve seen this pattern before. In my own life with female bosses and in my other half’s previous female boss.

The pattern appears to be based in vengeance. It’s designed to create an overload of changes in hopes that the targeted individual or individuals will drop the ball and be demonstrably incompetent.

Incompetence equals unfit for job, which equals a termination offense. 

It’s a straight up process, and it works. All it takes is tenacity and the targeted individuals making mistakes.

The mistakes happen automatically because the boss is at the same time is usually haranguing the targets, increasing their stress and waiting for the targets to slip up, like a hungry shark in shallow water under a well greased bridge.

There are variations, of course but generally either the stress makes the target find another job, or they get fired.

One of the more common flourishes is to make sure that the target “fails” very publicly, securing the Bosses “High Ground” of righteous indignation.

It’s a similar system used by wives and mothers to “win” arguments with husbands and children. 

The only time I’ve ever beaten this system is by producing 5 different presentations and being able to give one of the five presentations to the boss at a moment’s notice. In that case the boss changed her mind 3 times in the conference room. My ability to produce whatever she wanted clearly irritated her. My “win” still cost me my job for being a smart ass.

Not to worry, she fired me, but one of her male colleagues hired me the same day. He & I worked well together for several years until the company was sold.

Essentially my experience in these situations has always been fatal. As such, I don’t fight the battle anymore. I save myself the stress and aggravation by finding another position. No win scenarios are pointless to fight.

When women are drunk on power, they’re egalitarian about how they abuse it.

Remarkably other women are less prepared to fight on equal terms than men.

For most men, it’s aggravating beyond belief (See American divorce rates). For women, it’s kinda like a double whammy. The women feel betrayed and aggravated. It makes women easier targets, because they do the wrong thing, & slip more easily off the greased bridge.

This of course makes finding new jobs more challenging. I’m not by nature a misogynist. When it comes to bosses I’ll always prefer to work for a man.

Things are just a whole lot easier.

All this is to say I’ve noted the pattern occurring with the other half, and yesterday I described my concern.

All I got from that was “I’ve noticed and thank you for your concern…”

Okay I’ve said my piece. Unfortunately, now the chips will fall where they may.

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I will try not to Road Rage…

IMG_1107.jpegThat’s been my mantra for the last few years.

In Southern California that’s not an easy mantra to keep.

I’ll admit there are times when I do something on the road that’s just plain DUMB!

But those events are rare and that’s mostly due to having a plan about where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.

I do not cut across 3 lanes of traffic to exit the freeway, I’ll go to the next exit and turn around. I don’t tailgate. (Unless you come into my lane suddenly, and baby if you do that, It’s ON YOU!)

On mountain roads, I’m even more careful. Usually these are single lanes and most of the curves are blind curves. Going into a turn at 60 MPH and finding that traffic is stopped as you round the bend is a recipe for very bad things to happen. This is doubly dangerous during winter when you may have ice on the roads.

Even in summer you can round a blind curve and find a large assed rock sitting in the roadway. Guess what? You’re not going to be able to stop… Ooops!

At night in winter, when the temp is hovering around freezing, and the couple of people ahead of you are driving within the speed limit and carefully. I tend to hang back at least three or four car lengths. 

That gives me time to stop, and also means I’m not rushing someone, who for all I know isn’t familiar with the road and hasn’t driven much on snow or ice.

It’s just plain common sense.

That’s the situation I found myself in last night coming home from Big Bear. There were several cars ahead of me. They were all driving well and commensurate with the conditions and posted speed limits.

In other words, they were being responsible safe drivers and while they were moving slower than I could have been, I respected their caution. 

I downshifted and was letting the engine do the braking while generally maintaining my usual following distance.

I was the last car in the line and was actually enjoying the drive. There’s a Zen to knowing what your car will do and being with like-minded drivers. Every one of them was maintaining a good following distance and it was obvious that they were simply wanting to get down the mountain safely.

Every single one of them was using the passing lanes as intended, keeping to the right and allowing people to pass if they wished. Those folks that were passing weren’t passing to be in a hurry, it appeared to be mostly about the gearing and weight of their vehicle. They’d pass a car then settle back into the line, the only notable exception was that they weren’t on their brakes as much. We all signaled when the passing lanes ended and moved back to the left.

It was actually very pleasant. The moon was bright, the stars were pretty, the butt warmer was on, and I was relaxed.

Of course it couldn’t last… 

Another car pulls up behind me. I can tell it’s a Jeep from the headlights, and they’ve come out of nowhere. Obviously they’re in a hurry but there’s no passing lane (and won’t be for another 10 miles) and this idiot is right on my ass. 

He must’ve been able to see the line of cars in front of me and the ripple of brake lights as each of the people in front of me slowed to enter the next 25 MPH hairpin curve.

But (he or she) is fixated on the fact that there’s following distance between me and the next vehicle. Obviously, the .25 seconds that following distance represents is important. 

Sigh!

The car in front of me lights up its brake lights as the driver slows to enter the next hairpin. I likewise touch my brakes to slow and the Jeep turns on its brights.

Uh gee, thanks! Now I’m partially blinded entering a hairpin curve, (A helpful roadsign contained a drawing describing the curve.)  Partially blinded, I slow more because I can no longer see the wispy lane markers. This simple act of safety apparently enraged the driver of the Jeep.

I do my best to ignore them and concentrate on making it through the curve. As I come out of the curve the line of other drivers has come to a complete stop. I do the same and now the Jeep asshole is really pissed.

There were some rocks on the pavement which the careful drivers were picking their way through. The brights from the Jeep are annoying the car in front of me too, they’ve slowed considerably to pick their way around the obstruction.

I glance at the Nav system. 20 miles to go like this… Great!

The vehicles ahead pick up speed and I follow suit. 

I’m looking for a turnout. I’d like to get this moron off my ass, they’re way too close and every-time I brake I’m concerned that this idiot is going to plow into the back of my car. I’m no longer relaxed. In fact, I’m starting to build some road rage.

There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior, what exactly does this idiot think, that those other vehicles are an illusion? I’m thinking seriously about stopping my car and having it out with this stupid fuck. (I think to myself, “There’s no excuse for you to be itching for a throw down either.”)

I drive on.  I maintain my following distance to the next car.

I’ve got exam gloves in my pocket from my day of cleaning up after renters. I could put them on, block the road, beat the shit out of this moron, push their Jeep down the cliff to be found in spring, and leave no fingerprints… That puts a smile on my face and I realize I’m giving in to road rage.

I calm myself, step back from the abyss and keep driving. The moron behind me turns off their brights. That’s better, then the brights come on again. Grrrr!

The next turnouts are iced over and inaccessible. I keep driving.

Finally a passing lane opens up I move to the right, as does every other sensible driver. The moron passes exactly 3 cars before the lane ends. Now they’re stuck behind a UPS truck and another car. They’re not going any faster, but they’re in the debris trail the UPS truck is kicking up as they round every bend. All the rock chips must be doing a number on their paint. As they passed I could see the Jeep was blue. 

I smile…

15 miles further on, the mountain road dumps into a two lane highway, then a freeway.

We’re below 2000 ft and the temp is a balmy 40 F. I take the faster of the two lanes and I’m suddenly behind the Jeep. I’m not doing anything to annoy or harass them. I’m just there biding my time…

The two lane dumps onto the freeway and there’s indecision from the Jeep about which lane they want to be in. They’re obviously trying to decide which transition to take onto the 210. They have a choice, San Bernardino or Pasadena. I’m setting up to head toward Pasadena.

The interchange is fast approaching, I hit the button setting my car to “Sport” mode. I now have the full power of 300 HP and tighter handling and suspension of my vehicle at my command. They’re still wavering in their decision about the interchange, left, right, left, the Jeep appears to be bouncing off the lane markers.

I think they’re probably meaning to head to Pasadena. I accelerate to pace them, preventing them from making the lane change. It’s a long sweeper interchange and I’m doing 85 with ease. So is the Jeep. They accelerate and so do I. They’re signaling, ( these days, in this situation signaling is the equivalent of begging. Especially in this situation, since this driver hasn’t used a signal once down the mountain.) I don’t care – apparently neither does anyone else. Other people that the Jeep has annoyed are right on my tail.

There’s no opening and the moronic Jeep sails off toward San Bernardino They’re tapping their brakes in the fashion idiots will, when they realize they’re lost and looking for a way to turn around. I know that they can’t make any choices to even get off the freeway for 7 miles, and their best option is to go on down to the I-10 interchange 14 miles down the road.

Other people behind me toot their horns in a friendly way as we make the transition signaling our intention to merge. I gently slow to ambient freeway speed and signal to take the next to the slow lane avoiding 18 wheelers.

I notice a guy next to me with his interior light on. He’s the driver of the truck that had been in front of me when this all started. When I look over he gives me a “Thumbs-Up” sign. I nod and he’s smiling as his interior light goes off.

I’m smiling too. Maybe the Jeep driver will get lost and subsequently mugged in San Bernardino. One can only hope…

I never said I was perfect.

I only said my mantra is, “I will try not to road rage”

Besides, I wasn’t raging. I was purposefully driving to my destination.

Remember, there are other ways to exact your pound of flesh and they can be just as satisfying.