Paradoxical Contradiction

Maybe a post every three months?

Denver's great.  The job, not so much.

I'm at a crossroads of sorts.  I'm at a point where I could rent on my own instead of having roommates.  My roommates are great.  But space is an issue.  So is saving ~$400 a month.  So I don't know where that's going to go.

There are some open positions here in Denver that I could apply for.  But they're a step down in pay and position.  Not that that's everything.  I was offered a position with Whole Foods a few years ago when the crap at my current company was just beginning to hit, but I was talked out of it for the same reasons - pay and position - plus they couldn't guarantee that I could get vacation for committments I had already made.  That was the reasoning I eventually used to turn down the position, but I really wanted to take it despite the pay and position because of the Whole Foods culture, and I feel like the corporate culture where I am now has just gotten worse.  At the same time, my pay and position continue to rise, as do the perks, and that's making me complacent and coloring my judgement.

I kind of suck at my job.  That's also contributing to my discontent.

I feel I need to leave, and quickly.  Then, I get talked out of it.

It's really bad - our team gets along really well but we're all unhappy.  Misery loves company?

I might as well meander until I get fired, no?

The vitriol coming from the "down with Warren" crowd saddens me.

Do these same people watch The Daily Show and nod their heads when Jon bemoans the era which follows the philosophy that you only need to govern to 51% of the country?

Do these same people not realize that the "Change We Can Believe In" actually wasn't "we're changing from anti-gay to pro-gay" but rather a change away from divisiveness?

It's so interesting how people talk about the tone of the ruling party when they are in opposition, but then it suddenly becomes about the correctness of the policies when their own party is in power?

People should be honest with themselves and with each other and not kid themselves about wanting a less divisive nation.  Perhaps it's not "anti-gay" versus "pro-gay," but rather "with us or against us" versus true consensus-building.

Why not make a post after 6 months?

Lots of thoughts popping through my head.

Obama.

Rick Warren inaugural pick.

Us vs. them. - So, everyone who is protesting this Rick Warren pick... what did you think of Bush's "you're with us or you're against us" philosophy?

Warren and the ex-gay movement: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/rick-warren-and.html - okay, this gentlemen has a personal reason to be upset.  Now what?

If we think we're convinced in our views and there's no convincing of Rick Warren of his views, doesn't that mean that there's no hope, really?  Sounds counter to the audacity of hope, no?

Perhaps I'm more conservative than I thought?  Mr. Socialist?  EU citizen?

I kind of like the pick.  I feel like it shines a light on the crazies on both the left and the right.  True moderates and mainstream Americans don't freak out over the selection of a speaker in a largely symbolic event.  It's all relative, people!  Maybe I'm not moderate, I'm just a relativist instead of an absolutist.

That's a spectrum too, isn't it?  Absolutism on one end, relativism on the other end?  As much as a culture may accept it, I think arranged marriage of underage girls sucks.

That's all for now.
 

 Remember when I said I would update everyone on my travels?

Yeah, that went out the window when I started hitting two cities a week.

But I'll go ahead and type out the stuff that jumps out.

On Long Island, fast-food-type restaurants say "to stay or to go" instead of "for here or to go."
In Montreal, it's "manger ici ou a apporter" but I guess that's expected.

On the subject of Montreal, there are several people with Peter Jennings English and "I grew up here" French.  Makes me sad about the state of my French, which is what I would call "I grew up with it for a year and then settled for high-school and college classes" French.

In Oklahoma, they say "fixin'" a lot.  Like, "I'm fixin' to go out tonight if I can get all my bills done."  Or maybe not, I'm not from Oklahoma.

Vancouver is stunning.  Absolutely the most beautiful city I've ever been to.  Sorry, San Fran.

I find that I take on elements of the local accent wherever I'm travelling.  This was most apparent in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Take some Minne-soooo-ta and Far-goooo and shake it up with some Canadian oat n aboat eh?  And you get the way I was talking for a good three days.  Quite a pro-cess.

WestJet is a great airline - if you ever have the chance, which may be never as it's mostly Canadian domestic, check it out.

Finally tonight, I've set my move week to Denver for the week of the 12th.  We'll see how that goes.

...announces that Vince is moving to Denver, Colorado. 

Current Mood: excited

 Bleh.

Current Mood: cold

A real post!  And in doing so, I am contributing to a phenomenon I blame for my distaste of politics today and why I left it behind in college.

So, I work for a company specializing in information management and services, right?  And who is responsible for the explosion in need for these services?  The knowledge worker, whose job it is to take different pieces of information and generate new information out of it.  And what phenomenon has enabled the knowledge worker to access these different pieces of information and produce more information?  That's right: digitization.  Web pages (inter and intra), emails, blogs: they all contribute.

And a majority of it is crap.  Crafty opinion is passed off as fact, and baseless vitriol masquerades as high-quality editorial.  There are so many people so used to producing information that 1) a large number produce information without filter or thought and 2) no one has time to sift through it all to learn what actual facts they should be searching for, much less learn those facts.

Which brings us to this year's presidential election and what it will take to help voters decide who would make the best president.  Now, to be fair, my complaint is partially my fault: I don't have a TV and can't watch the debates, and I cancelled my newspaper subscription because I wasn't making the time to give the paper away, much less pull it out and read it.  So I rely on news.google.com to quickly inform me about what's going on.  Yeah, that's probably a mistake.  By doing that, I'm doing what every 24-hour news network is counting on me to do: ignore the in-depth and go for the eye-catching.

Oh, but what crap can catch the eye.  Reporter is suspended for saying that Chelsea is being "pimped out."  Bill Clinton used the words "fairy tale" to describe something about Obama.  Men interrupted a Hillary rally with an "Iron My Shirt" chant.  Ann Coulter doesn't like McCain.  (When anyone has ever cared about what Ann Coulter has to say is but a minor sub-point.)  22 states were holding nominating contests on the same day.  It was called Super (Duper) Tuesday.  Normally it's called Super Tuesday, but wow oh wow, 22 is the most EVER and so we're going to call it Super DUPER Tuesday.

By the way, I think it's sweet sweet revenge that state governments and the press who have been conducting self-fulfilling prophesy by hyping up the importance of conducting an early nominating contest have very little to show for it after more than half of the contests have been held.

So, after absorbing all this information, can I decide who will be the best at repairing the standing of America in the world?  And really, that is the primary role of the head of state, no?  We can argue about the president's role as head of government and what justices he or she will select (oops, eye off the issues again - I typed he or she without even thinking about it.  but the fact that it came to mind after I typed it shows that we can't really get away from the big elephant in the room) or what position this person will take on the issues, but there are other mechanisms to help blunt the effect of policy that I disagree with (notice how small an issue gay marriage is right now).  The current president has been a very poor head of state, and there is no mechanism to blunt that.  No senator or representative can replace that role.  When Bush unilaterally exits from the Kyoto Protocol, it's done.  When Bush conveys an attitude of "with us or against us," all the goodwill towards Americans as a people can't remove the distaste for our government.

Back to the point.  Who will be the best head of state?  Well, after reading all the comments, I now "know" that Billary is/are "devious" and "will do anything to get elected."  I also "know" that "Oprah Winfrey and MSNBC have their noses up Obama's ass."  What i "know" now is really not helping the process of making a decision, is it?

When it comes down to it, I think either one will make a fine head of state.  Hell, McCain would too.  Hell, Ron Paul couldn't possibly screw up more than Bush, right?

So in the end, perhaps the goal is accomplished, but does the process have to be so disgusting?

I suppose I should have disclaimed at the beginning that I'm not a citizen and therefore can't vote, but oh well.  Besides, the problems are neither magnified by my becoming a citizen nor diminished by being discussed by a non-citizen.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Sarah Silverman - I'm F*ckin Matt Damon

because i'm very very very behind. in everything.  i think i will be caught up by 2009. 

Welcome to Newark airport!

Seriously, New Jersey is one of the greenest states... I think the whole state is a giant forest preserve that has some cities carved into it...along with some oil refineries.

When you live in the Midwest, you don't realize that not every non-mountainous plot of land is either farm or suburb.

I love driving in Chicago city traffic.  I think it's a fun challenge of lunge and parry.  New Jersey driving scares the shit outta me.

For the first time I was able to put faces to names, and that was cool.

We sat 2 hours on the tarmac trying to leave New Jersey, and that was not cool.  Then we spent a half-hour circling Newark.  That was hot.

Locked in:  SF Bay Area next week, Pittsburgh the 15th, London the 18th, St Louis the 22nd.

In the cards:  Phoenix, Miami, Greenville SC, Memphis, Cleveland.