My Inner Author

Okay, I have been (accurately) accused of providing far too much social commentary lately, and while those issues remain very important to me, I do grow tired of the battles from time to time and wanted to take a step away. So, when wondering what a socially irrelevant topic might be, I thought...me. Just a brief FAQ of my own. Since I will likely be the only reader anyhow probably, I get to choose the questions... 1) What do you really do? I work in I.T. (Information Technology, or computers for short). I presently work as a Linux Systems Administrator, Storage Area Network Administrator, and have been a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer in the past. Okay, thanks, now in English please? I work on enterprise class servers (big computers) which run Linux, an open source operating system which is much more secure than Windows. (The normal non-IT person translation: I work on blah blah blah computers blah blah blah.) A storage area network is a huge collection of hard drives cl...

What is it about politics? To many, the mere mention of it sends most people into a fight or flight response. Too many people either run from the entire concept of politics or get so sucked in their objectivity and independence go with them. The old time notions of discussion and debate are nearly gone from our country. Now it is all about control, spin, approval ratings and the elimination the opposing view. There are times when the issues of the day are as interesting as a 6-hour documentary on grooming habits of the Mediterranean fruit fly. Given all that, I can almost understand the apathy towards politics which so many people today display. But, that apathy needs to be transformed into action. Our nation is at a crossroads. Not taking a stand or making a choice is still making a choice. It just means the choices will be made by someone else. So, in the interest of trying to stir up some good old fashioned discussion and debate, I decided to lay out some of the most fundamental pri...

Where does the soul reside in people? Yesterday at lunch, my friend Jeff and I had one of our more interesting discussions. He recounted to me a chapter from a book he had just finished reading about cadavers called Stiff. Apparently there was a section of the book which told of researchers trying to determine the weight of a human soul, weighing people before they died and again after they died, in an effort to see if they could determine the weight of a human soul. Rather than carry the discussion in the direction of how these must be government researchers, since they were obviously wasting large sums of money on a fruitless effort, he asked me the question: Where do you think the soul is? Well, I am sure the average American on the street might be polled and the results would indicate a strong showing for the heart being the leading candidate (especially among Twilight fans), but I chose to ponder Jeff’s question for a few moments before I responded. My answer was rather concise, a...

Well, after my last very lengthy and political note/blog, I still had several things I had been writing. However, I thought I might depart from the political or spiritual realm for a moment, and compile a list of pet peeves, and invite others to add their own. A kind of therapy, by venting. This list is by no means complete, I am quite certain others will add some that I will go, DUH! I should have thought of that. But, the idea is to let everyone vent briefly. With the pending Monday, I am sure lots of people will want to add to the list. So, as a departure from the norm, here is my list. They are in no particular order. 1) People who insist on bringing infants to movies. As a slight variation on the same peeve, people who bring small children to movies that are wholly inappropriate for kids. (Yes I have seen people take 4-year olds to see R-rated films.) Talk about unmitigated selfishness. Hire a freaking sitter! 2) Drivers who will blow past you on the left lane, only to slow down ...