Guilt

I'm as confused as a boy with a map can be. I see on the local news that this is the Chinese New Year. The Year of the Rooster. Where is the protest to this sexist, demeaning behavior? Should this not truly be the “Year of the Chicken” in order to be inclusive? Where are you Oh Cupcake Generation? Have you no soul? Have you no courage? It's as plain as the nose on your face that this should be the “Year of the Poultry” in order to not be specisist. Fair is fair and this is offensive, you see. I've done my part by pointing this out. The Cupcakes must now riot.

Lifeguard. No, not Lifebouy…..That's bath soap. It's been cold, snowy, foggy, and rainy here in The Land Of Perpetual Rainfall. Then there's that thing where I work. I work as a part-time security guy at the local community college. Part-time because if I work over 75 hours in any given month the state of Washington requires that the IHL (Institution of Higher Learnin') supply me with benefits—remember benefits? I do. Medical, dental, sick leave, snow days (yes, the full-timers at the IHL get “snow” days). It's just too dangerous for the full-timers to get to work on snowy days, but the security department must still be staffed, so, well, you get the picture….I feel no need to spell it out any further. Anyhow, I reached the magical 75 hour mark early this month mostly because SOMEBODY had to work on all those snowy days. So, I've been watching some old movies on the 48 inch wide screen high definition TV. I have a working home WIFI system cour...

I may have mentioned that I'm a cable-cutter. I don't have cable TV, although I maintain a relationship with the cable company (in my case, Comcast, but it has been others in the past—Time Warner, f'rinstance) for high-speed Internet. It's my way, it seems. As a result of this cable-cutting, I don't watch much “normal” TV. I watch lots and lots of stuff via media streamers on the televisions, but not what would be called regular cable or commercial TV. I told you that so I could tell you this: I worked a twelve hour shift at the IHL yesterday. It's the Christmas Holiday, so the campus was closed, and essentially abandoned, and the weather was truly frightful. And, there's a cable-equipped TV in the security office. How the IHL can afford this crap when I can't at home is…….Oh, they have a seemingly unlimited budged fueled by the God-Fearing taxpayers of Washington state, or so it would seem. So I watched some Fox News last night du...

.....Or, "Selling on eBay is for suckers". I joined eBay as a user on April 19th, 1997, and have a feedback score of 2179, giving me a Red Star. In the beginning, it was easy to use, and eBay acted more like a garage sale than anything else. Things have changed. Not all that long ago, I sold a used media streamer (not a ROKU, which is what I prefer).  The thing worked fine, but frankly, wasn't worth much to me because it didn't have the capability to receive feeds from my MLB.COM account. I got a fair price on eBay and sent it off to parts unknown.  I subsequently got a request for a refund due to it not working.  I refused and was then forced by eBay policy to issue a refund because of the allegation that  the device did not work as intended.  I complied, and paid for the return shipping, and paid eBay their fees.  When I got the device back in the mail, I tested it and yes, it worked fine.  I don't think I got scammed by the buyer, I just thing...

From disqus.com: LGGBTQQIAAPPK stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Genderqueer, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual(and Agender), Ally, Pansexual, Polysexual, and Kink Oh. Well, that clears that up. A number of years ago, I was introduced to the acronym “POSSLQ”. It was an attempt to describe your roomie when you were too old to call her your “girlfriend”, but you had as yet not made an honest woman of her. It was also an attempt to describe a non-marital relationship when employers started offering benefits to your roomie, provided you and your roomie had the habit of sharing bodily fluids—it stood for “Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters” and was pronounced POSSLQ (just like it's spelled). Took a little getting used to, but it paid homage to the concept of opposite sexes. It covered the question of a relationship where someone does your laundry for you at no cost. I know I most likely shouldn't ask, but what is the opposite of “...

I was a public servant for most of my working life. Law Enforcement was my line. Still is, as it turns out, even though I'm “retired”. I suffered a couple of financial setbacks, not the least of which was that the County of Sonoma, California, made the retirees retirement medical benefit so expensive that I had to drop out (or quit paying rent. It was actually a choice , you see, at least that was their take). Oh, that's enough of that specific cry-baby shit, I think. Now, thanks to the geniuses who enacted the Affordable Care Act, I still can't afford to buy medical insurance, so we pay out-of-pocket for our medical needs, and then pay a fine to the IRS when we file our taxes because we can't afford to pay the freight for “affordable” care. So I work. In the industry that I know. In the private sector. I work for a couple of private companies here in the Pacific Northwest as a security officer. Mostly armed and uniformed, but sometimes not. ...

Baseball is important to me. No, you really don't need to know why, and I really don't want to get into that. Just know that it is. I'm a Giants guy and have been since 1958. That year was important to the Giants, thus, it's important to me. And no, you don't really need to know why that is either. However, I lived near Cleveland, Ohio for quite a few years. I became fond of the Indians ball club, and their fans and radio announcer. Cleveland is a really good baseball town with some unbelievably dedicated and faithful fans. They've earned a winner. Honest. Then there's this: I didn't make a lot of friends while I was in Ohio. It's hard to make friends in NorthEast Ohio. I only made a few. One was Ron Hewitt. Ron was an Indians fan the same way I'm a Giants fan. It was in his DNA. Over the years Ron and I talked a lot of baseball. Cancer took Ron too early. I chatted with him for the last time a few days before he died. ...