Tag Archive
for Rant
Tagged as: Rant, Seen-Around, Tip-For-Life
Jan
14
Given enough time, we rather forget about the origin of things. That reminds me of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy where the novels are set thousands of years in the future, and the things that we know about now have by then become so far removed so as to be thought myth. They could not fathom the planet that we live on, and they could barely remember that they had originated from Earth.
Even when we are not so far removed from the origin of things we begin to see disagreements about the facts. As time moves on, opinions diverge. Sometimes no opinion even leads to the truth. Sometimes people become fanatical about their opinions. In any case, we can see this phenomenon here and now.
Give a new idea a couple of years, and it will be as if they had always existed. Nicknames just need time before they become the preferred way of referencing things (case in point: not too many people could tell you that “blog” is actually just a chopped up version of “web log”). Games are invented and taught to others with no regards as to why certain things are the way that they are. It is amazing, really, to think of how much information we pass on without even stopping to think about where that information comes from.
It seems to me that the most important aspect would be the origin of information. I know that I want to know if I can trust the source of information before I willingly pass it on.
Oh by the way, Lean On Me is a song by Bill Withers. You cannot use it for worship.
Tagged as: Political, Rant, Seen-Around
Dec
12
I have frequently heard people advocating government jobs. That is, the people that I know will talk about how good it is to be a government employee. They talk about the pension, benefits, and job security, to name a few. All of these things are true. But just as the unions will get you in the private sector, so also will the unions affect the public sector. Sometimes the unions in the government are organized, but one could make a case for the entire federal government being one gigantic union that stands against their employer (aka the American people).
In a USA Today article, we find out that things are in fact not too good. People are being paid quite a bit nowadays, don’t you think? It is especially interesting that there has been such a boom in government increases during the same time as the private sector losing so many jobs. And by interesting I mean awfully disturbing. The government is becoming a behemoth that is going to continue growing until it collapses and knocks down the support columns that hold up this house.
The thing that I do not understand in the least is how people in government positions can work without the fear of being fired! Whether incompetent or able, they will keep their job (unless perhaps they are grossly ill-performing where even then it will take quite some effort to make a move on them). So when people are presented with the option to try their best or do as little as possible with both seeming to result in the same outcome, what would people do? Exactly, they would do the least possible. There is no incentive for people in government jobs to continue to do their best. Now you see what I am saying about the government employees being similar to a union.
Just as the unions have been able to cripple portions of the private sector (such as the American automakers), it is going to be the government employees that are going to bring down the government. If you have not read what unions can do to the world, I suggest that you read the ever popular Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
All of the signs are there. Health care reform that will dictate much more than we need or want it to, a growing government influence in our lives, a government that dictates what companies will do (since it owns them), perhaps even the degradation of freedoms to which we are rightly entitled to under the Constitution. This is something that concerns all of us, and we all need to care about it. Because we sure are going to have the live with the consequences together. And disregarding warning is a terribly foolhardy thing to do.
Tagged as: Rant, Seen-Around
Dec
03
When there is a disaster happening, the affected agencies always seem to appoint a spokesman. And that spokesman always seems to have no idea what is going on. Is it really that hard to have a spokesman with a little bit of knowledge?
I am rather tired of hearing the endless stream of:
- “I do not have that information”
- “We are not aware of that at this time”
- “I cannot say whether that is true or not”
- “I do not know the answer to that”
- “We have not heard of that rumor”
I do not understand any of the people that are involved in putting these spokesmen out there!
If you are the agency or group that is being spoken for, I would think that you want to seem competent. You want to put out someone who is excellent because they are going to be the face of your group. You do not get that if you present someone who cannot even answer the questions that they field.
If you are the person who is to be the spokesman, I would also think that you would want to be knowledgeable of everything that you are supposed to know. Otherwise, as so often happens, you will get roasted by the questions that the audience has. They are going to ask you about what they have heard and apparently their sources are better than yours. So you will sound clueless and lost. Who wants that to be them?
And me? Yeah I just want someone who will give some answers. I can get tired real quickly of hearing people avoid the questions that they just don’t know the answers to. No, lame answers are not better than no answers.
On another note, salesmen are just specialized spokesmen that are trying to get your money. Time to get those salesmen up to speed on what they’re selling, huh?
Tagged as: Mac, Rant, Ridiculous, Seen-Around
Oct
16
While there are many advances in mobile technology, there is none more prominent (nowadays anyways) than the Apple iPhone. Subsequent to its release in June 2007, it has made a definite mark on society. It has created huge lines, buzz in media, envy in people’s eyes, and a huge increase in revenue for the companies involved. Despite much hype and doubt, it has been a game-changing device for the smartphone world.
It has a user interface that is the standard to which all others are (now) compared, it is sleek, it is expensive enough to stay out of the hands of the less privileged (like Coach purses for girls), and it has an entire fanatical subculture to support it. There are some people who use it for its useful features, others who just want it so that they can be hip with the times, and others who will probably say that it’s an essential part of their life.
The thing is, I think that we need to help these people. Their iPhones are taking over their lives. Here we thought that Attention-Deficit Disorder (although this has been replaced by Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in psychology as of DSM-IV, but I could not apply the hyperactivity to iPhone users) was something that we could treat. Unfortunately it seems like we are inducing it in people. And while I am talking specifically about the iPhone, the general principle still stands that people are getting worse at maintaining their concentration on tasks at hand. They have instant messaging that they’re always connected to, text messages that encourage deplorable grammar, and the ever annoying Twitter (dumb as far back as 2007), which combines all of these things at one time.
Most people with iPhones seem to have an incessant need to check them. People need to stop this. They need to start living lives that do not involve the Internet. Let us move onward from our digital slavery!
I am slightly amused that I am writing such a thing for a couple of reasons:
- Hello this is a blog, which is an entirely digital medium.
- I am in front of a computer at least 8 hours a day as a software engineer. Usually more like 10, including off hours personal time.
Tagged as: Political, Rant
Oct
09
Nobody likes to pay for health services. And health services are not perfect at all. They (medical professionals) charge more than what seems reasonable, and they do not seem to have to answer to anybody except for the health insurance companies because they only listen to the money. It would be nice to have personal doctors and nurses to tend to your every whim. And it would be nice if you did not have to pay anything for it.
But this is not how the world works. For one, medical professionals are people as well. They are individuals who have gone to school, invested hours and nights to their profession. (Well at least I hope that they have. The ones that have not are not ones that I would ever want to go to.) Their work is indeed important, and it is at times worth the cost.
People sometimes claim that a single entity watching over the entire operation here in the United States will be more efficient. More efficient? Since when did a government project ever win awards for efficiency?? Yeah that’s a pretty crazy health plan chart, isn’t it? It is only a guess at what the new health government would look like, but it sure is a scary one.
If everyone has access to all of the doctors, people are going to take as much as they can. Do you think that you will get to pay the best doctor what he/she is charging? Well when everything costs the same for everyone it just logically follows that the best doctors are going to be as busy as people can schedule appointments. People dismiss the supposed “death panels” that will decide on life and death decisions for everyone, but if there is a shortage of supply (doctors) compared to the increase in demand (patients) then some of those patients will have to be left out. There is just no possible other way for that outcome to be different.
It is pretty debatable whether or not other countries have succeeded at this or not. That is not really the question. The question is: do I really want to cede more control over my life to the federal government? To that I say no, I am still a huge fan of the 10th amendment.