Friday, November 12, 2004

Technology, huh...

Ugh. It's been hours now.

I am watching the ever-so-slow progress of scandisk on a second computer. Little blue boxes turning green at a snail's pace. And guess what - it probably won't find the problem.
I promised a friend in need of a computer that I could set them up with one. I have 2 I'm really not using anymore. Not exactly state of the art, but they work just fine... or so I thought. But, as John Belushi would say, "Buuttttttt, Nooooooooo..."

The gremlin chasing started with the first, and older computer that I have since gutted of drives and set by the door to take outside for a thorough hammering and ritual burning. Piece of crap. So I fire up the second one, thinking "I'll just transfer my personal files to CD, and clear it out like new for its new user. Piece of cake." Right.
At startup, it sticks on the windows opening splash forever...I wait...and wait... No go. Shutdown. Restart. Click F1 or F2... Startup in safe mode. Can't run scandisk even in safe mode 'cause it keeps restarting. Shutdown. Insert Windows98 startup floppy. Run scandisk.exe. Now I wait and watch. No bad clusters yet. Only 400,000 more clusters to go - another hour at least.

So what the hell is going on?? Isn't technology supposed to make our lives better? If so, why are we spending hours and hours fixing problems, running diagnostics, firewalling, and preventing viruses?

For crying out loud, there has to be an easier way!

Sunday, November 07, 2004

The Ultimate Act

I just heard that a Georgia man has committed suicide at Ground Zero.
His reason? Despondency over a second Bush administration.

It's very sad that someone feels that he has to go to these ends to make a statement. I feel bad for him, though, because I'm afraid that his self-sacrifice will be of no avail. This administration will not think twice about what this says.

Frankly, this is just a damn shame.


Saturday, November 06, 2004

Oops - Guess I Missed That

Well, it appears that I told an un-truth in my last post. But unlike some, I can admit it.

Yesterday I stated that I had tried to keep politics out of this blog up until that post, but in looking over the last month or so of entries, I realize that I did mention politics in one way or another; and on several occasions, too. I apologize for this oversite.

I will also go on to say that from now on, it's an open field. Politics, religion, whatever. What good is a blog if you can't just tell it like it is...or at least tell it like you see it. It's a new world. No more will only the rich and powerful have access to the media. One voice - ANY voice - now has a chance to be heard around the world at the click of a mouse. Whether people find you or not is a different story all together, but the odds are there. No wonder the elites are scared. Anyway, so much for self-censoring.

It's no longer politically correct to be politically correct.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Debriefing

Ugh. It's finally over, but I certainly don't feel very good.
So far, I have pretty much kept politics out of this blog, but I just don't think I can do that anymore. It's too overwhelming.

For months it has been going on.
Ad after ad after ad, speeches, rallies, tons of mail - both snail and e, and of course the final push to get people to the polls to vote. And vote we did. But for what? I am left with more and more doubts about whether things were valid. Now, don't get me wrong - I am not a journalist, conspiracy theorist, or some sort of insider - but it looks like an awful lot of people seem to have been disenfranchised.

Black box voting with no paper trail (and this was supposed to correct the Florida hanging chad/butterfly ballot fiasco from 2000???), the Ohio native Diebold president and his promise to "deliver Ohio to bush (small b intended)," challenges & harrassment at the polling places, 58,000 missing absentee ballots (Florida again...deja vu), and then there's the provisional ballot thing. I thought the idea was to make sure that we didn't have a repeat of the last election!
And it's pretty depressing to think that people were actually stepping out of the voting booth wondering if their vote will be counted... And with all this, they don't even bother to look at provisional or absentee ballots, let alone count them - including those from members of the military laying their asses on the line in Iraq, Afghanistan, and wherever else these folks might be. Aren't they curious what the soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors have to say? I know I am...

And what does this say about the direction this country is headed in? He claims he has a "mandate." Frankly, I don't see it. A landslide indicates a mandate. This was no landslide. And I feel a bit sorry for the true Christians, who I believe were conned into thinking that he is a representative for them. He specifically used them (just as Rove told him to) just like he used so many others. He appealed to people's fears, and twisted them against the whole country; pushing wedge issues to bring evangelicals to the polls. Guess it worked, though. I hope "the architect" and the swiftees enjoyed the kickbacks. The swiftees in particular should really be ashamed of prostituting themselves like that. I'm sure that McCain can relate to that stab in the back...the architect did that to him, too. He just used different people on that one.

It's sad, really. To think that you can scare people into voting a certain way. Well, not that, really... I guess the true sadness is the fact that (assumably) half of the country did it.
Americans - the people who are supposed to be the most free and independent people in the world - allowed the media and the spinmeisters to dictate their opinions to them. I thought we were supposed to think for ourselves; be inquisitive, investigative, and thirst for the truth? Ah, well - it's too late for that now.
And as this country rolls back the clock on our personal freedoms, civil rights, privacy, and the environment, I hope that we remember what we've done. It's no holds barred - a lame duck will try to do anything he wants, and with no checks and balances in the house, senate, or judiciary, we're all going to pay the price - one way or another.

The question becomes "What can we expect for 2008?" Will the problems of the voting booth be corrected? Will the votes of all Americans (who bother to vote, anyway...) finally be counted?
Of course, one must realize that change is in the hands of those in power, and if the systems in place are responsible for putting you in power, where is the impetus to change?

Think about it.