Why I'm scared about the upcoming election

As seems to be the case lately, I'm writing as I fly home from somewhere. This time it was the south. Well, not TRULY the south, but a small town in northern coastal Florida called Titusville. (it's not like I was in Alabama or anything). If there's anything I've come to learn about small towns (southern or otherwise) it's that they're usually filled with sweet, genuine people who would give you the shirt off their backs. Those same people, however, are often deathly afraid of change...not to mention the unfamiliar. Now, before anyone who's from a small town starts firing off hate mail, I know that what I've said is a generalization that isn't necessarily true of everyone in said bergs.

But one startling example of this was brought to the fore when I made the mistake of talking politics with someone I thought was somewhat progressive in his world view. After all, he's more than ok with gay folks, and seems to have a live-and-let-live attitude for the most part.

Anyway, I started out by asking him what he thought about the upcoming election. He mentioned favoring McCain, which made me ask what would make him a good candidate. He wasn't really able to come up with any true positives...and then paused to ask me

"Well, you're not gonna vote for that ni**er, are you?"

After I'd collected my jaw off the floor, I explained that, yes, I was going to vote for the most viable and intelligent candidate...which in my opinion is Obama. He went on to spew rediculous vitriol about how "they" were gonna be blasting rap music in the white house and trying to take everything from the wealthy white folks and give it to the black folks. (Can you tell he's a republican?)

I found myself raising my voice and getting angry when he started blaming the democratic congress for our current economic quagmire. I explained that if his buddies in the white house, and the previous republican congress, hadn't de-regulated the banking industry then we wouldn't have had the sub-prime loan quagmire that led us here.

It only got worse from there, especially when his girlfriend joined in with even less informed wild ideas about a black president...who she still thinks is muslim. I tapered off the conversation, and made a mental note to NEVER discuss politics with said individuals again. EVER.

More than anything, all this showed me that those of us who consider ourselves progressives, and want to see Obama elected, have a VERY uphill battle to fight to het him there. I had hoped that most of our country might be ready to move on and put someone of color in the white house, but I'm still a bit unsure of that.

Time vs. money

Being an airline employee, I have the truly great benefit of being able to fly pretty much anywhere I want to. Which, given the current state of gas prices, (combined with my extreme cheapness), means I'm willing to fly from Phoenix to Tucson and back.

That I even have this option is fantastic...but it does have it's drawbacks. As I wrote this I was sitting in a broken airplane on the tarmac in Tucson, waiting to find out if the "fault code" that our #2 engine was giving the pilots was something that could be more or less ignored until we got to Phoenix. Yeah, that idea scares me as much as it would any of you, believe me. But, given that I was flying as a guest on another airline, I don't feel like I have the right to bitch.

Well, it turned out that the broken engine on the plane was more of an issue than was originally thought. Moments after I wrote the last paragraph, all of the passengers on said aircraft were uncerimoniously herded back out into the main terminal, where our fate would be determined by one of the customer service folk...who were suddenly inundated with an angry mob who had places to be.

And it's here that I started to contemplate the true nature of my situation. To save money, I had decided to fly to Tucson and back...but it wound up costing me far more in time. So I began to wonder...which, ultimately, is more important? Time or money?

In flying, I saved a good $40 in gas...but spent a good 4 or 5 hours round trip more than I otherwise might have. Now, it was my day off...and I didn't have a lot on my plate...but would the extra few hours spent with my family and friends have been worth that $40? Not to mention the saved frustration of dealing with airplane delays? After all, if time is money, then what's money worth?

Or, more to the point, what are those extra hours and frustration in dealing with the usual hassles of flying (security, etc) worth in a monetary value? So I guess my question is this...would you have flown (provided it was free, but possibly riddled with hassles) or driven (and spent the $40)?

Don't call it a comeback...

..but here I am trying to get back into the swing of blogging again. You would think with all that's been going on in my life lately, that blogging would be easy to do. Lots to talk about, and all that. But it always seems when I have the most interesting things going on in my life is usually the same time that I end up not having enough time to write any of it down.

So now here I am trying to get back into it, and asking myself, do I bother playing catch up on all the stuff that's happened since my last entry? (yeah, I know, it was before gas went over $3 a gallon) Or do I just start clean, telling all the stuff that's new and now? So I guess I will attempt to do a little bit of both.

When I have fun new stuff to talk about, I'll blog about that...if I don't, then I'll go all retro and talk about anything that's happened in the ages since last I posted.

Movin on up...

...to the west side...of Phoenix.

Well, since the last time I updated a few things have happened. So it's time to play catch up. And I figure since I don't want my usual instinct to blather on for several paragraphs about the mundane details of it all to take over, I'll sum it up neatly with bullets!

So, since last I wrote:

-I transferred with the job up to Phoenix (and noticed that I have decidedly more hot co-workers up here than Tucson).

-I moved in with my best buddy Perry (while I'm looking for a good place up here to dwell).

-I attended PHX pride with my friend Sean (and discovered he has a hidden talent for dying someone's hair into the rainbow flag...no not mine)

-I've started learning my way around the city (and have come to realize the advantages of having a functioning freeway system...ahem...I'm talking to you, Tucson urban planners)

-I've been fighting with my laptop to get it to connect wirelessly to secured networks (and have just about gotten on a first name basis with the staff at the Apple store)

-I've taken to using parentheses (more than I probably should)

So that's the latest on my end. Now that I have my wireless working again, I'll do my best to keep up a little more. (And use parentheses a little less)

So that's the latest as of right now.

Uh-oh...I think I'm a convert.

No, no...I'm not thinking of jumping the sexuality fence and starting to ogle boobies...nor am I thinking of getting religion. (Sounds like getting typhoid or something, doesn't it?)

No, today I think I've been converted from a non-nap person to a snoozer. I usually abhor naps because they seem like a colossal waste of time from which I always wake groggy and disoriented.

But I took one today...and it was fantastic. I think this may be the beginning of a trend...

At what point does technolust...

...become something for which you need a techno-restraining-order for?

Ok, ok...so I'm exaggerating just a little, but take a good look at the Xperia phone and tell me you wouldn't do dirty, awful things to get your hands on it.



It's a Windows mobile 6 phone with a bad-ass touchscreen user interface AND slide out qwerty keyboard. And...well...it's just purdy.

My one major problem with it is that it's made by Greedy...er, Sony(/Erickson)...whose DRM and proprietary software meddling usually hobbles every great device they make.

It's just as well, I suppose...otherwise I'd be dropping a paycheck to get my grubby paws on it.

Reason # 4,568 that I'm an Athiest...

...is that religious people just don't seem to know when NOT to try a sales pitch.

This morning I had cause to set foot inside a church for probably the first time in nearly 4 or so years. And I'm not a religious bigot, I swear I'm not...but every time I'm in the presence of devoutly religious people I seem to grow less and less tolerant of some of their behavioral traits.

I was in said church for a wake. For the first half of it, it was a very pleasant remembrance of my wonderful grandmother who passed last month. Some very moving words were said about her by her son (my dad) and a few others....and memories were shared.

Then the priest stepped in for his portion, and it somehow turned from a fond farewell to Nancy...to the Catholic version of Amway. Yes, he said his kind words about her and her family...but then started to meander into unwelcome territory.

He managed to fit in a few delightful messages about how the best way to serve god was to get married and have kids....and how the Jews have the wrong idea when it comes to having closeness to god.

There's nothing like a little subtle heterosexism and antisemitism to dress up a funeral.

Oh well, at least the corned beef and cabbage lunch we had after was nice...though I promised myself that for the sake of those around me I will NEVER have cabbage again. Just ask anyone who was near me at the gym today why.