I’ve watched as a number of friends and dancers have got themselves into shape again, and met people older than me who look (and I’m sure feel) younger than me. Longtime friends of mine are even fitness gurus (experts on cross-fit).

A need to get back into shape, gain some muscle tone and improve my energy level has overcome me. Any sort of exercise would be an improvement, but I’ve seen a lot of my friends do P90X with great success. Despite my cross-fit friends recommendation that I follow a cross-fit plan, I decided to try a session of P90X for my initial transformation into fitness.

I chose the path for a few reasons, with the biggest of which is that I have multiple friends going through the program at the same time, so I have a support system that I can use. Getting through a few weeks and making exercise a habit is my highest priority besides getting into shape. After I finish the program I will move on to a regular workout, and hope to get some good advice from my cross-fit guru friends, as I see how it’s worked for and become a lifestyle for them.

So I began the program a week ago. Going from zero exercise to an intense program like P90X is not necessarily the smartest thing to do. Day one was difficult to get through. When I finished the first part (chest and back), I felt like I was going to puke. The ab ripper portion went painfully as I have absolutely no stomach muscles it would seem.

Day two started off with me being pretty sore, but I made it through the plyometrics workout without getting sick. By the time day three rolled around I was so sore that I was unsure I could do another workout, but once I began warming up I knew I was able to get through it. I continued on through the week doing pretty well until I had a slight pull up bar accident and fell on my tailbone. Since then a few exercises have been out of the question, most specifically the ab workouts and anything involving jumping.

I’m now into my ninth day, and I’m feeling the results. Despite a few minor setbacks in the diet (i.e. a memorial day BBQ), I’ve lost a pound or two and generally feel better. I can’t expect to *see* any results in the mirror yet, but I’m looking forward to the day I can. Each workout is getting a bit easier to make it through, even though I still don’t feel like I’m keeping up. I’m realistic enough to know that 90 days isn’t going to bring me a miracle transformation, but it will put me into the best shape I’ve been in years.

The diet is the hardest part. I’m not following the P90X nutrition plan (though I should), instead I’m making general smart choices like lowering my portions, eating snack between meals to keep my metabolism level, and skipping high fat and high calorie foods. No more fast food, no more sweetened drinks, and a lot less bread, red meat, and sugar for me.  Oh, and I’ve all but eliminated beer from my poker nights… talk about rough!

All I have to do is make this a new lifestyle for me, where everyday consists of better food and portion choices, and every day includes some form of exercise. This public declaration of my plan is my attempt to commit to it so that should I feel like giving up, there will be a bit of shame and guilt keeping me going. My hope is that after establishing all of this as a new lifestyle it will stick and I can continue to make improvements in my nutrition and health.

Stay tuned because if I do stick with it, and there are noticeable results I will certainly share the embarrassing before pictures, and proudly share the after. For now, however, the before/current shots stay safely tucked away.

For me, this is such a reasoning, and my hope isn’t that you simply agree with the conclusions I may draw, but understand how those conclusions might be made.  For this “study” we are going to consider a term that’s been thrown around a lot lately — socialism — and a new term that I’m making up called momoism.  We’ll start with a definition.

Socialism is defined as “a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.”

There have been a lot of claims that our current administration is moving us toward socialism.  While that’s certainly hyperbole, it has an element of truth.  (This is where you must consider facts, and be logical, not emotional).  To restate the definition, Socialism is the ownership of entities by the government. These entities control production, and distribution of both capital (money and products) and land in the community as a whole (the Country in this case).

Are we socialist?  No.  We are primarily a privately run country.  Almost all our goods and services are produced by private companies.  One could spend hours talking about all of the privately produced and distributed capital, and all of the land owned privately.  We are still a regulated capitalist country in terms of the economy.

But of  course, the element of truth regarding socialism *does* exist.  The Government has owned many entities such as Social Security and Medicare or years.  While these entities are completely owned by the government, the industries they are in are not.  Social Security is a division of financial insurance, a sort of life insurance, and Medicare is a division of Medical insurance.  To some these partial ownerships are “steps” toward socialism.  That’s certainly valid, as the invention of Social Security is certainly closer to Socialism than without it, but it’s a pretty minor leap if one is honest.

Recent events can also be seen moving closer to socialism.  I’m obviously speaking of the health care reform just passed.  But before we get to that obvious piece, there’s *more* socialism in addition on to that bill that was added last minute: Student Loans.  Prior to the passage, student loans were not completely controlled by the government, but now they are.  One could look at this two different ways: Student loans as an entire industry, or student loans as part of the overall loan industry.  Either way, the step towards socialism exists, but once again it’s minor.  The fear, of course, is that each of these minor steps add up.  That’s hard to argue against. And to bring it back to health care, the reform aims to improve coverage by in part adding more people to the government systems.  A very minor step only in terms of numbers.  Otherwise there really isn’t much in it towards the academic definition of socialism.

The definition of socialism also mentioned land ownership. Did you know that as of 2008, the government owned around 30% of all land?  Further, that 30% is primarily land that contains natural resources (oil/gas/mineral).  (http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/federally-owned-land.jpg). Further, the current administration has been making plans (and indeed has been) buying up land.  (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/02/white-house-land-grab/)

That brings us to Momoism.  Yes, it’s a made up word.  I will define momoism as “a system of government, led by an executive with complete power over industry, and commerce, while suppressing opposition”.  First notice that I don’t mention government ownership, rather control.  In momoism, the government seeks to control and regulate all industries, while leaving them under private ownership.  The executive, of course, is either the leader or the “administration” and has ultimate power.

A fictitious country, let’s call it Momoland, would be under the control of  the “Momo”.  The Momo would regulate industries like Heath Care by controlling who gets what, how much companies can charge.  Even though Momoland might have other branches of government, they would largely be controlled by the Momo.  Such power would inevitably lead to the government controlling other aspects of life, and could end up up with the government controlling speech, religion, and other apsects of everyday social life.

Now obviously Momoism is an extreme situation, and I bring it up to make a point.  While there certainly are people who believe Socialism is a valid government, others think it’s evil. The truth is that all governments have their strengths and weaknesses, and I’m not here to debate that.  Momoism, though, is evil in the way I’ve described it.  Full control over your life, while ceding ownership to citizens is akin to Socialism.  Both systems control industry, though momoism does it through law and regulation, while Socialism is more honest about it and gives the industry to the “people” (government).  Socialism is usually democratic, still giving the people the opportunity to elect it’s officials, who then in turn enact laws.  Momoism pretends to do that, but ultimately cedes power to the Momo and his branch of government.  While the people may elect other Momos, and even sub-Momos, ultimate power still lies at the top because the top controls all of the private companies.

Yes Momoism is an extreme, and certainly no modern government participates in full-on Momoism.  Yet, there are some similarities between Momoism and Socialism.  I already alluded that whether the government controls or owns an industry, the end is similar in that the industry must act according to the governments rules.  Socialism takes a lot of control away from the people beyond elections, but Momoism takes it to the extreme.

Now let’s say everyone was arguing about our government heading towards Momoism instead of Socialism.  I, of course, would say the same thing: It’s a hyperbolic argument that only has elements of truth.  The recent Health care bill, of course, adds more regulation to an industry going so far as to tell private companies that they must cover people regardless of condition.  In the insurance industry, that’s difficult to overcome.  I don’t wish to get into that argument here, so it should be sufficient to say that each step taken towards telling an industry what to do, leads us closer to momoism.  Further, each time the Legislative branch gives the Executive branch more power, as was given countless times under the Bush Administration (eg. the Patriot Act which was recently extended under the Obama Administration) leads us closer to Momoism.  Even more of a step towards Momoism was the recent bailouts of multiple industries.  The bailout of GM, for example, led to the government getting more of a say what a private company can do. Once GM took the bailout they were obligated to fire their CEO (regardless of what the company and it’s investors wanted), cut entire lines of cars (again regardless of whether they were moneymakers or not).

And of course, recent talks and attempts by the government to regulate the internet (Net Neutrality) and the airwaves (The Fairness Doctrine — Renamed to include the use of “diversity” and “local”) which essentially tells us that even though we can say what we want, we have to make sure someone else will say the opposite, in equal time, before we say it.  But there I go again, getting dangerously close to idealism.

The point of all this is that we have taken steps toward both of these “isms”, and there are those of us who think both “isms” are not good for a lot of legitimate reasons.  It’s much too simplistic to simply say “Obama is a Socialist” or a “Obama is a Momoist”.  Neither are true, but the actions taken by this government, over a long period of time (decades) have moved us closer towards both and further away from our roots.  One can argue that it’s a good thing, but certainly one can argue the opposite, and have good reasons for doing so.  Pure forms of both are not good for America.

Now, one final thing.  Perhaps you were smart enough to make the connection.  While I said “Momoism” is made up… it actually is not.  Please replace the word “Momo” with “Dictator”, “Momoland” with any number of countries in the WWII era, and “Momoism” with Fascism.  Do *NOT* replace Obama with Hitler, as that’s a non-starter for me, but do recognize that the term “Natzi” is a the shortened verson of “National Socialism”.

Of course when we bring any of those terms up one immediately conjures up “Hitler”.  It’s a false immediate comparison, and in Academic terms, should not be tied to each other exclusively.  If suddenly you are offended, and think that I’m part of the crazy “Obama is Hitler” wacko fringe group, you don’t know me, and never will.  I would ask you to not read my blog, and sever any ties to me… we have nothing more to discuss.  Seriously, I feel that strongly about it.  Otherwise, I simply ask you to consider why *some* people bring up fascism and socialism, as it’s a legitimate concern to them.  History has not been kind to either form of government.  Let’s leave the hyperbole out of it, and recognize the arguments for what they are: Legitimate debate.

I’m going to the Tea Party today in Atlanta. I went last year, and wrote all about it (and re-posted in my last blog post). You can witness my excitement and reasoning there. This year I go in with the same reasoning and excitement, but with some added curiosity, encouragement, and some trepidation.

Reasoning, a year later…

Since last year, our government has done more to take away our freedoms, spend our money, and mortgage our children’s futures. We’ve seen “stimulus”, “jobs bills”, “health care reform”, and so many executive orders and decisions it makes our head spin. In a time when the economy is still trashed, we passed a massive bill which will tax us almost immediately, give us almost no benefits for 4 years, and start to dismantle 1/6th of our economy. Instead of working to improve the system by strengthening private industry (which produces jobs), while eliminating waste and corruption, we just piled on a new system which does almost nothing to help the overall problem. All this was done while the general public wanted some reform, but did not want it in the form it was given to us. It was done using backdoor politics, obscure rules, and closed door meetings. The level of distrust our elected officials showed us is only matched by the distrust we now have for them.

I speculated last year that the tea party movement was not a flash in the pan moment, that it would persist, and I was certainly right. The latest report says that 25% of voters identify themselves as “Tea Party Supporters”. That’s a huge movement. I’ve watched a lot of progressive Democrats and Republicans decide that their career is over, while watching a lot of moderate Democrats and Republicans get the message and start returning to their roots. I’ve seen many Republicans be challenged by more fiscally and governmental conservative folks who come from nowhere to take victory. And I’ve seen a lot of regular people put themselves out there to challenge the corrupt career politicians. I think anyone who doubts that the tea party had a hand in these changes is out of their mind.

I’m going to the Tea Party this year not as a protester, but as someone who wishes to demonstrate his right to free speech and assembly, and as someone who wants to let our politicians (all of them) know that we hold you accountable. The American people will remove the corrupt from power when tyranny affects them. We still have a form of government that allows and encourages this. We wanted some of the “change” Barack Obama promised (not all, but some)… and we’ve got none of that brand. We want an end to dirty politics, an end to endless spending, and an end to the erosion of our liberties under the guise of compassion and the shadow of fears.

Trepidation

There’s been a lot of talk lately about infiltrators who will show up with misspelled and racist signs in order to make us look bad. Since the news has been out there, I think it’s likely that we might not see as much of that as originally thought. I go in this time knowing that there will probably be some of those people, and there will be some legitimate crazies (birthers etc). I’m going to watch carefully and probably note them, take pictures, and document it all. If the tea party has been taken over by the crazies or if it’s obvious that it’s being infiltrated, I’ll document and report it.

I was also asked recently if I was afraid to go because we’ve automatically been branded as racists? I’m not worried, because I know the truth. I am not a racist, but the notion that people are dismissing us as such is very upsetting to me. Are there racists that go to Tea Parties? Sadly, I’m sure there are… but I know that we’re talking about a very tiny number, and that crazies unfortunately exist in any large gathering.

Preparation

I decided to take the entire day off, as there were other things I wanted to get done today as well. I started this morning by spending time with my baby boy, then heading outside to mow the lawn. (Surely the sign of an evil bigoted protester). I plan on taking Georgia’s public transportation system (MARTA) in to the gathering. It’s been pointed out to me that it’s “ironic” that I use a public system that apparently I’m protesting. For the record, it’s not ironic, and as I said before I’m not protesting.. I’m “demonstrating”. I fully support public transportation systems that serve a purpose. I regret that most of them are not as self sufficient as they should be, and would lobby to reform them so that they are, but I would point out that MARTA is both privately and publicly funded, and all in all a pretty decent system.

I plan on getting there early, and really check things out. I’m going in with an open mind regarding everything. If I see things I hate, I will probably “tweet” them. I will try to live-tweet most of the events today (GemZombie on twitter if you care).

I plan on meeting up with the same group of people I went with last year. They are a good group of people, and we enjoyed each others company last year. I will likely arrive before most of them.

I’ll be summing up the event in another post either later today or tomorrow. I’m looking forward to contrasting it with last years event, and will be looking closely for any ugliness on either side of the coin.

(Update: corrected numerous misspellings)

From Thurday, April 16th, 2009 @ 4:41pm

I had wanted to go to the previous tea-party in Atlanta, but circumstances did not allow. If you don’t know what a tea party is, then you probably get your news from CNN who chose to mostly ignore it and marginalize it. I am not one for hyperbole, but let me assure you that this was a major event, it is not some fleeting thing, and those of us who attended are by no means radical extremists.

What is a tea party and why did we go?

The tea party phenomenon caught on because there are three groups of people who have been alienated. The conservatives, like myself have been sick of the ever expanding government attempting to solve problems with our money (and our childrens money with debt). We feel these problems have only gotten worse with these “solutions”. We are of the crowd that believes George Bush let us down fiscally and politically while we praise him for keeping America safe. The second group are the many moderates, who may have voted for Obama have joined us in our fears that government officials are not acting in our best interest as they have been surprised by the actions this congress and administration have taken. The third, albeit smaller, crowd are the democrats who have had a wake up call. They, like the moderates, have been surprised just how quickly this administration and congress has latched on to the economic crisis in the biggest power grab we have seen in our lives. They know that this trumps or at least equates with the power grab of the right after the 9/11 attacks.

The wake up call has come in a short period of time (less than a decade), during which we have seen our supposed representatives use serious problems and the fear they create to expand government and their control over it.

Us tea party goers have turned to the constitution and the founding principles which state that government needs to be controlled rather than the government controlling us. To us Liberty (which is _the_ theme) is only limited by government, but also requires government to preserve. Therefore we both respect government, but are wary of it.

The list of specific grievances is large, but here are just a few:

We’re sick of companies and people who make mad decisions receiving our money involuntarily. We are a compassionate country yet we believe we know how to distribute and spend our money better than government. Especially at a time when we are all hurting, why should my tax money go to someone who should have known better than to get into an adjustable mortgage. I looked into them too, and common sense told me it was a bad idea.

We’re tired of words not having original meaning any more. Many of us are frustrated with the loss of language. Specifically we are told that we are not engaging terrorists anymore. Instead they are insurgents, freedom fighters, engaging in man-made disasters. Yet, the day of the tea party Americans are warned of right wing extremists becoming “domestic terrorists”. Amazing how only Americans can be terrorists now. This only proves that our current administration is not the “change” we expected, just same of the same old marginalizing of the opposing viewpoint, and intellectual dishonesty that plagues almost all of our career politicians.

We are tired of politicians seeking more and more power and control over all aspects of our lives all the while taking our money. As one speaker said “When our children come home with report cards and A letter grades, we don’t turn to them and say ‘that’s great, now give me 5 dollars’… instead we reward our children. The government punishes you for being successful by taking more of your money. People should be rewarded for doing well and contributing to society”.

We understand that the original constitution allowed for taxes, but not an income tax. It took an amendment to add that bad boy in. We also understand that this was to be temporary, yet know that when it comes to government control, nothing is ever temporary. We understand the math behind taxes, and know that first our income is taxed, then the usage on the rest of the money is taxed (gas taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, social security taxes, medicare taxes, phone taxes, internet taxes, alcohol taxes, car taxes), and when all added together the math means that roughly 50% of our money ends up going to a government agency at some point, even if we get *some* of that money back after it sat with the government over the course of a year.

We’re sick of government telling us we’re extremists, we’re sick of politicians spitting in our face when they say that “Americans don’t care” (Chuck Schumer). We’re sick of people like Paul Begala saying we’re “Whiners” who should support Obama, pay our taxes and shut up (Yes, he really did… on Imus’ show). We’re sick of people like Barney Frank who refuse to take any responsibility for mishandling entities like Fannie Mae, and calling us Right-Wing haters when we merely ask him about it (what would he say if we applied labels to him when referring to him in the general sense. If you know who Barney Frank is, then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about). We’re tired of being told “We won, you lost, shut up”. None of this is the America we know and love.

Despite all that, it’s hard to fully explain the culture behind the tea-parties. I suppose if you don’t feel how we do, or even didn’t attend, you just can’t get it….

The Event itself:

I planned to meet a small group of people at a Marta station (local Atlanta public transportation). Once we boarded the train immediately it was obvious that this was going to be a big event. The train was loaded with people who had signs in their hands, American flags on their clothes, and a smile on their face. The amount of red was unbelievable. Getting off the train was a site to behold… literally hundreds of people streaming into the capital.

Our group stopped briefly before getting in line to get into the fenced off area. As we sat, a 10 year old kid walks by and asks us if we’d like a sign. He handed two of them two us: One a Fairtax.org sign, and the other a witty “Welcome to Sweden” sign (complete with Swedish Flag), both handmade. We gladly took the signs and held them proudly, all the while getting a kick out of how friendly and happy these folks were.

We got in line, where we made jokes with strangers about being “right wing” extremists while dads held their kids on their shoulders and danced along to the music being played on the main stage. My favorite sign was held by a young teenager which read “Don’t Tax me, Bro”. In line we were all handed pocket constitutions, and random fliers. Expectedly, there were a few folks selling things (water, fliers to buy shirts online), but I actually expected a lot more (after all, we are the capitalists and tax-earners of the country). Another of my favorite signs was “I paid for this sign with my stimulus money”. There was a lot of wit in the signs… none that I felt really went too far, though I suppose comparing the Obama Administration to the Mafia comes close, and only one sign that mentioned “Teabagging” (A term I found offensive) in the same sentence as Chuck Schumer.

We got into the main area and we were blown away by the number of people and signs. The party was supposed to start at 7pm, and we arrived at around 6:30 where the crowd was probably already close to 10,000 with hundreds of people still streaming in. The estimates we heard when all was done came in between 15,000 and 20,000 people.

There were a lot of speakers and a few prepared videos that were all very well coordinated. Most of the speakers spoke for less than 5 minutes which we all welcomed. There were very few politicians present (and the ones that were present were pretty small-time local politicians with the only exception being Dick Armey). As was heard said more than once, this day was for the people; the politicians were to shut up and listen to us for a change.

There were repeated themes of Liberty, respect for the constitution, an expectation that our politicians should listen to us, and that we need to vote almost all of them out. Repeatedly we heard “this isn’t about Obama, we were fed up with George Bush too” (yes I know, why didn’t we complain loudly when he screwed up – I’m first to admit that many of us were willing to let it slide a bit too willingly). Lower taxes… especially support for the Fair Tax, was of course a main theme seeing as this was “tax-day”.

Only a few of the speakers had real charisma, so I was a bit disappointed there, but everyone was articulate and respectful. We heard from local radio personalities, local event organizers, local businessmen/women, and just a few national names such as Dick Armey, and that 14 year old super-conservative kid (his was the longest speech, and admittedly a bit predictably boring, but still neat to see). There were two speakers who I felt were outstanding, one was a woman, the head of some action committee, and the other a local Radio guy (One of the “regular guys”) Of course the Atlanta party was headlined by Sean Hannity doing his show there to close things out. Many people left before and during his show (we left during to get a jump start on getting home). This to me proved that this wasn’t just about having a name like Hannity show up. Many of us were so far back that we couldn’t see him anyway, and we weren’t star struck enough to try to rush up and get a glimpse, or get on TV. That’s not why we were there.

Everyone I saw was in a good mood. I saw no “Pick-up truck Republicans” like my wife likes to call them… these were primarily folks with families, businesses, etc. There was an equal mix of age groups, including young children with parents, college age folks, and a smattering of older Americans. A small group of Obama Supporters showed up. The crowd of course made jokes and laughed in their direction, but there was no confrontation, no animosity, and certainly no hurtful comments. In fact many people said “good for them”. I commented that I bet they felt pretty safe, and made a joke that perhaps I wouldn’t feel as safe at one of their rallies. This got a pretty good chuckle. There were no “right-wing” extremists, despite the guy who had a sign which had an arrow pointing down at him proclaiming he was (obviously a joke referencing the recent DHS report). We saw one person (only one) holding a Confederate Flag. It was the consensus that this guy was probably an infiltrator hoping to get some media time to show how the group was ugly, or just a moron. Either way, he was ignored and didn’t seem to garner any attention at all other than our early notice.

I have never been part of a more polite, nice group of people in my life. I had my own worries going into this since I know that a crowd can easily turn ugly, but no such thing happened. The trip back (once again a packed Marta train) was fun too. There was the 60 year old women saying things like “I’ve never been to a protest before” followed by a murmur from the most of the passengers agreeing with her. Many people couldn’t wait until the next tea party. The news reports that marginalized this event as small and fleeting could not have possibly been honest.

It was amazing to be part of a group of people who respectfully demonstrated their views. There was a lot of excitement and happiness in the air. I was proud to be a part of it, and never once did I regret going… I only regret not going to the first one.

When I was around 13 my parents bought me an electric (musical) keyboard. It didn’t do much, but it had some pre-set drum beats that allowed me to noodle around and make some actual music. I didn’t know how to play piano at all, but I was knowledgeable about music since I had been playing Clarinet for year.

It didn’t take long for me to actually create a song… well, the beginnings of a song. The next few years as I learned more about music the song evolved… I even recorded it onto a tape (which has long since disappeared).

A few years later while house sitting for my girlfriend’s family, I borrowed her keyboard which was quite a bit better than my own. Her keyboard allowed me to record multiple tracks onto the keyboard itself. A few days of house-sitting and the song was complete, but stuck on her keyboard.

Fast forward some years later. Around the time my college career was ending I discovered something called “Tracking”. A pretty popular geek musical past time, tracking is like the programming version of creating music. You don’t use a musical instrument, instead you use an application that allows you to create “tracks” where you fill in data in numbered slots. That data translates to the starting and stopping of instruments, volumes, panning, effects… etc. The sound quality was awful, as all the samples it used were 8-bit at the time (meaning they were full of hiss and muffled almost static sounds). It was a popular thing though, so I decided to give a try.

My first attempt was to convert that old song. So I borrowed the keyboard (I was happy that she kept the recorded song for so many years), and set to converting the song, one note at a time. I never had a name for the song, though I remember naming it quite a while after the conversion when I was 23, ten years after I began the song when I was 13, so I not so cleverly named it 23/13.

I’ve played the song for my wife and kids (the kids really like it)… and over the years many fellow geeks on IRC heard it as well. As the years went on, I began to be annoyed and a bit embarrassed at how low the sound quality was. So recently I decided to revisit the song and update it. I grabbed a new tracker, and armed myself with fresh 16bit samples. Interestingly enough this new take is 13 years from my last work on it (23 years after I began, making the 23/13 name even more appropriate).

So here I present to you, the first song I ever wrote. Yes, it’s a bit cheezy (what do you expect from a 13 year old), and may not be your cup of tea at all… but I’m still proud of it. It’s not Jazz/Swing, it’s not blues, and it’s not “funk” really, which are what most people would probably expect from me since those are what I’m generally listening to the most.

23/13

(Click here to download the mp3)

The next song…

During the same era of my life, I create a few more “Tracks” (we called them MOD’s as they were named after the Amiga Modular Tracker). The second one I created completely from scratch just experimenting with the tracker to see what would come out of my head. I’d kind of randomly put some notes down, listen to it, and then adjust it until I had something I liked. I haven’t a clue why, but I named it “XL-101″. After I finished revamping the first song this last weekend, I gave XL-101 the same treatment. It also is cheezy. The updated version is decidedly more electronic sounding than the first, which surprises me… but music creation is organic that way to me.

At any rate, here’s the second song I wrote…

XL-101

(Click here to download the mp3)

I’ve only recorded a total of 8 songs I have written my entire life. I’m not a gifted song-writer, but I have created a few uncomplicated songs. I’m not sure why I decided to share… I guess mostly because any song deserves to be listened to, even if it is by just a few people.

My youngest son turns 1 year old Feb. 1st, while the other children have recently turned 13 and 12. I love my family, and have been blessed with greats kids and a wonderful loving wife. Lately I feel like I have a pretty wonderful life. There are thing I’d love to change in my life (my financial situation, the location where we live), but with such a great family, I can overlook those things and enjoy my life.

Avery is so much fun. He’s become quite attached to me lately… probably because I’m the “fun” one. I pick him up when his mommy is busy and can’t attend to him instantly (ya i’m spoiling him). We play a lot, and he’s developing a fun and goofy personality. He’s also so very smart. He’s going to start walking any day now, as he’s already trying and his favorite thing to do is to have us hold his hands so he can walk over the entire house. He loves to climb stairs too (practically by himself) — much to the dismay of his mother. He’s definitely got some words now, even if they are hard to understand. The few baby signs (Sign language) we are consistent with he definitely understands, and I expect him to start repeating some of them any time. Watching all of these developments and how quickly they go by is very fun.

Ok, on to the news…

Health Care

Today is going to be an interesting day. The 60th seat of the Democratic Senate lock is likely to be broken today when Brown wins. That *should* change the game on Health Care, but I’m worried it won’t. Clearly the American people are *not* with our representatives on this brand of health care reform. The public wants reform, but they don’t want what is being shoved down our throats, and the arrogance of the Democrats in forcing it upon us is incredible. It’d be so easy for them to regain the public trust they’ve lost lately by being honest, and toning down this legislation into *real* reform instead of trying to control everything. Alas, I think these people are power drunk and don’t really even know what they are doing.

So if Brown wins, what happens? Well, I think the arrogance continues in one of three ways: 1) They refuse to seat him quickly, allowing their super-majority to stick until they pass it. 2) They use reconciliation to pass the bill with 51 votes. This would be the ultimate betrayal since that option is only for financial bills. So either they change the rules, break the rules, or change the bill in such a way that it becomes a finance bill. Either way, it’ll be a sad day for democracy. 3) The house decides to just accept the Senate Bill that was passed as is, which means they don’t need to do another vote and the previous Senate vote holds. Yet another sad day. Reference: Salon.com article

Looking Forward

Look, I recognize that the American people gave the Democrats the big majority (not the super majority mind you, that took a power hungry former Republican to make that happen), and those officials acting upon that vote is proper, except that now with a clear populace rejecting them, they continue down the wrong path. If I were a Republican election strategist, I’d be cheering for the Democrats to act so arrogantly, because it will be their demise. In fact, I think it already *is*. But in the end I want what is best for *everyone* in this country. I want the Democrats to realize their mistakes, and do the will of the people that elected them. I don’t want Republicans back in power because Democrats suck. I want them in power after they learn to be moral people and also do the will of the people who elect them. I’m looking forward to the 2010 elections, but at the same time I worry for the country. Yes, I’m quite sure Republican are going to cut the Democratic majority to almost even, maybe even better… but I have so much distrust in all politicians right now that I’m not giving the overall outcome much hope.

The Underwear Bomber

Someone asked me why I hadn’t blogged on this. I guess the whole thing is so ridiculous that I’m (almost) at a loss for words. Our government failed us. I don’t expect every attack to be prevented, but I do expect better of the money we give them. When a man gets on a plane with an explosive, and actually starts to set it off, that was a failure. When the man was on the Terror list, and gets on, that’s a failure. And for Napolitano to actually say the system worked, is arrogance in the highest. What worked was the diligence of the passengers on the flight. The only good thing that happened out of the whole thing was when Obama actually admitted that the buck stopped with him. Damn right it does, now fix it and stop trying to destroy our security with bad decisions like Gitmo and trying KSM with the same rights and courts as an American citizen. Do you know that’s going to cost $280 million or more. What a joke. He already said he’s guilty, he wants to be executed. Fine, make him a martyr, don’t read him Miranda rights and let him hurt *again* the victims families by giving him a “microphone”. What this government is doing is dangerous in both its action and inaction.

Much more to say, but gotta get back to work…

This kind of rhetoric is evil. It’s purely an attempt to stop debate. “Anyone who thinks this health care reform bill is bad is a Obama Hating, Right wing Militia, Aryan Group member”. It’s utterly preposterous.

Chalk up Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse as being another corrupt politician who has no idea what the term “Intellectual honesty” means.

It does him no good either. Honest people cannot listen to that and take the man seriously.

While I didn’t notice it, when we came back from Thanksgiving in Florida my wife pointed out that I seemed to be a better mood overall.  I didn’t think much of it until a few days later I realized I had turned off the news, and only briefly glanced at the news sites.

This got me thinking.  It’s easy for me to accept that my mood worsens when I’m worried about world event, politics, and the like.  But even that week without news did create a slight new stress for me: I don’t like being ignorant.  It also pointed out two things that make me distraught all over again.

1) It’s easy to be happy when you don’t know what’s going on, but not knowing what is going on is how tyranny makes headway.  I wasn’t worried about the things that worried me the week before because I wasn’t up to date and informed.  While I liked not worrying, it’s the worrying that is necessary to keep tyranny and evil at bay.  (Yes, Evil!).  I think that’s why people don’t care about how corrupt our government has become.  I think too many tune out… and who can blame them, who wants to be stressed?

2) Even in a “newsless” situation, I caught some news items, but they weren’t important.  One news story sticks out: The Tiger Woods story.  Of the news that was “forced” on me in my news blackout, that bit of pop culture crap abounded.  I find this ridiculous and sad. I *really* don’t care about Tiger except that it’s sad that somebody who so many people looked up to has let people down.  To me, that was a news story that shouldn’t have gone past a 24 hour news cycle.

For me, Pandora’s box has been opened, and even though I can take a few days off of “the real world”, ultimately I start feeling worse that I’m out of the loop.  Ignorance is bliss for me only for a few days.  I guess it’s lke a vacation, eventually you will likely *want* to come back.  Or maybe I’m just crazy.

On Sunday, October 18th, I headed to Decatur to DJ at Atlanta Varsity Showdown.  I wasn’t feeling that great, and had a scratchy throat.  I sucked it up, picked up a red bull and fulfilled my obligation.  At that point, I really just figured I was tired and run down.  During the drive home I quickly changed my mind.  That night I felt awful, and couldn’t sleep.

I took the next day off work, and rested… hoping that a day of rest would make me feel better.  So Tuesday I attempted to carry out a normal day, and for the most part I did, but I certainly wasn’t feeling great.  On Wednesday I felt a bit better, and I felt I was on the road to recovery.

How very wrong I was.  On Thursday I felt like I had been in a hit and run, and a serious cough had developed.  I took Thursday and Friday off of work, figuring I’d use those days, and the weekend to recover.

by Monday it was clear I was not getting better.  My symptoms were night sweats, completely achy body, headaches, congestion, intense coughing, and lack of sleep.  By this point I had already concluded that I had the flu, and not only that I had H1N1 (Swine Flu).    I decided this because about 3 weeks before I had the “Seasonal” Flu shot.  I wasn’t scared, as I watch and read the news *a lot*.  I knew that H1N1 wasn’t any more dangerous to the average person than any other flu, and I’ve certainly survived many a flu.  So I called the doctor, and went in that day. He said I probably have Swine Flu (no, I wasn’t tested). He told me to take Mucinex DM, and gave me an antibiotic, because I had developed Bronchitis (This is standard with me… every time I have any sort of respiratory infection, it almost always develops into bronchitis… this has been the case ever since I chose to go on the skiing trip with Krista and her family when I had a cold/flu when I was in High School.  By the way, my wife immediately quarantined me from the rest of the family.

The Musinex did nothing for me (I hear you all gasping, as apparently the entire world thinks this is a miracle OTC drug.  Well it sucks for me!), and my cough got much worse.  My coughing fits got so bad that my body would rebel and I’d start throwing up.   On Thursday I called the doctor back, told him my symptoms were worse.  He agreed to see me again.  He tested my lungs, gave me an inhaler, changed my antiobiotic to Levequin, and gave me TussionEx for the cough.

That helped.  The TussionEx is beautiful, it really slowed down the cough and helped me get some amount of sleep.  I eneded up taking the entire next week off of work to recover.

I began working on Tuesday of the next week (this week), but I’ve still been pretty sick.  The cough won’t completely go away, and I am very weak as my appetite has not fully returned, but all in all I feel dramatically better.  The Quarantine has partially ended, but I still sleep alone as I’m not pleasant to be with at night yet(the night sweats are terrible, and the coughing is still sporadic and annoying).

Lessons Learned

So that’s my story.  There are some lessons to be learned from this:

There are a lot of misconceptions about the flu and swine flu.

1) 90% of flu cases being diagnosed right now are H1N1.  If you think otherwise, you are fooling yourself.  There’s really no reason to test for it because it’s the flu, and you treat it the same way regardless of the strain.  For most people there really is no difference between H1N1 and any other strain.  It is true that they have noticed that children and pregnant woman are taking it a little harder than other people.  The theory is that H1N1 is showing worse symptoms for people who have strong immune symptoms.  Perhaps that means I have a strong immune system, or perhaps the Seasonal flu shot I had this year actually made it worse.  Or maybe I’m just getting older and things are hitting me harder.

2) I made the mistake of saying “H1N1″ is the seasonal flu this year to a number of people.  What I meant was that “the current season of flue is Swine Flu”.  Flu season usually really starts in January, and it’s very possible that a new batch of flu illnesses will hit the public. I still stand by the idea that if you have the flu right now, i’d bet money it’s H1N1… it’s “in season”.

3) People are terrified of the Swine Flu.  I was in the pharmacy when a woman walked up to the counter asking for the season flu shot.  The pharmacist said their store, and most of the others were out.  I interrupted and said I had the shot, and it didn’t do me any good.  The other woman’s eyes got wide as she asked me “You have the flu?”.  I said “yes”.  She said “What kind?”.  I said “You can only guess”.  She bolted from the store, while the pharmacist was happy to continue to talk to me at a few feet length.  The bolting lady wasn’t even within 20 feet of me as I was talking to her.  I understand not wanting to get sick, but that kind of fear is unjustified, and rather ignorant.

4) There’s a lot of debate about immunization, and frankly it surprises me.  Bill Maher (not my favorite person), questioned the entire science behind it.  In fact, he said something that I found quite hypocritical. (Links to video at the bottom) On his show, Chris Mathews, a guest, asks Bill “Why are fighting this fight”.  Bill responded “Just to say we need a debate about it, just to say that the science is not settled … this is not settled science like global warming”.  *Groan*  Global warming science is *not* settled, and when anyone says it is, grab your wallet, because you’re being taken for a ride.  At any rate, there is something to what he said despite his ignorance and being completely wrong in his reasoning.  Immunization for diseases that don’t mutate every year is different than seasonal and commonly mutable diseases.  I got the flu shot this year for the first time ever in order to hopefully prevent my baby from getting the flu, and having to get the shot himself.  Turns out that was at best possibly a useless gesture, and at worst made my H1N1 case worse.

5) Almost everyone I told that I had swine flu was surprised and concerned in a way I know they would not be if it had been regular flu.  It seems that people only listen to the scary details about H1N1 and don’t listen to anything else.  I encourage everyone to head over to the CDC website and read what they have to say. (http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm).

This is the video that Bill was responding to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB5DLf1Qt78

This is the video I referenced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPrLCIoxe8Y

Fox, of course, made sure it’s viewers knew about this. Then, of course, came the News Pool interview where Fox was denied the interview, while all other networks were not, until all of the other networks came to Fox’s defense, ultimately forcing the White House to back down.

What I find most interesting is the fact that Hilary Clinton will be on Fox tonight (on On the Record.) What’s even more interesting is the fact that Fox hasn’t made hay of that fact at all.  They are advertising it like any other interview, as though there was no Anti-Fox history from the White House.  One wonders if Greta will ask any questions about it, my guess is no.

The cynic in me sees it this way: The White House backed down, contacted Fox, and said “Alright, we’ll give you access to our staff, but let’s drop the feud on both sides”.  The White House was losing that bit of PR *badly*, and I think they took steps to stop the bleeding, while Fox, in the interest of news and ratings, decided that having the ability to Report the News was better than the PR/Ratings improvement the “See, we told you so” would bring.  They can let people, like me, do it for them.