Not looking to alarm anyone or anything, but...

Shit is fucked up right now. Venezuela is, as we speak, being systematically converted to a totalitarian dictatorship under the guise of socialism. Soldiers and civilians are dying daily in Iraq. Iran is giving the entire world the middle finger. Oh, and the economies of the two superpowers of the world (China and the US) are suddenly on the verge of collapse.

Now, if that sounds a bit doomsday, well, tough I guess because it's basically true. The world is crazy right now. Of course, this is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that the world has been seemingly off it's rocker. It just seems, at least to many in my generation, that things have gotten really bad. You have to remember, that I was born, just after the Vietnam war ended. I grew up watching the US get stronger and our biggest enemy at the time, the USSR, get weaker and eventually completely collapse. The first "war" that I witnessed was Desert Storm. I'd seen harder fought football games for cripes' sake.

This, though...this is different. When it was just the US and the USSR at odds, things seemed simple. There was a clear enemy. Sure, there was the threat of a horrific nuclear holocaust erupting at any time, but there was always a certain sense that it would never happen. Why? Because you knew that deep down, just like us, the Soviets wanted to live. Not so now. We are fighting against people that hate us and our way of life passionately and not only are they not afraid of dying...they look forward to it! Virgins await them in heaven. I don't know about you, but I think that is some scary shit. How do you win against someone that has nothing to lose. How do you reason with a man who's one goal in life is to blow himself up and take a few Americans with him?

I wish I had answers. What I can say is that I don't feel like we've reacted particularly well to the situation. We (by we I mean our government) used 9/11 to go on the offensive. We'd been hit, hard, and God-dammit if we weren't going to knock someone the fuck out. Saddam Hussein happened to fall in the crosshairs. Was he a bad guy? Absolutely. Did he deserve to be punished for what he did to his people? Definitely. Did we have any reason to invade his country after 9/11? Not so far as I can tell.

But invade we did. And there we remain. Fighting an enemy that may very well be shooting at our soldiers with weapons we sold them in the 80's. Ironic how that works out sometimes. I have nothing but respect for the people who serve in the Armed Forces. Hell, I tried to join the Air Force in my youth. (Who knew that eczema is a disqualifying condition?) I just feel like they're being forced to fight and die for the wrong reasons.

Of course, we can't just walk away now. We're in too deep. If we left Iraq now, the already shaky governmental structure would collapse entirely and a new Saddam would step in in short order. Either that, or Iran would waltz in and take over the place. It's become a lose-lose situation. Damned if we leave, damned if we stay...either way, I'm not going to feel any safer.

Time keeps a-ticking...

Last week, I turned thirty. I hadn't really given it too much thought until I saw it stated on MySpace that I was, in fact, now thirty years old. Not that I had some sort of stunning, jaw-dropping, "holy-crap-I'm-no-longer-twenty-something" moment, but it did sort of bring it home. In the weeks and days leading up to my 30th birthday, I was not filled with feelings of dread. I did not have a sinking feeling. I did not feel as though I was crossing some sort of invisible barrier into officially "being old". Why? I've decided that there are three reasons for this:

1. I'm older than most of the people that I hang out with, so I've been being called "the old guy" for years now...why should it worry me now?

2. When you think about it, what's thirty anyway? The average life expectancy in these United States now is 77 years, 5 months. I'm therefore well short of being even halfway through my life (if, God willing, I turn out to have an average life span.) That being the case, I can hardly call myself old; even if my peers revel in doing so.

3. Things in my life are pretty stable right now. I have been married for almost eight years now. We just welcomed our second child into the world. We have a roof over our heads. I have a great, stable job. From talking to friends of mine, a lot of the consternation about hitting age milestones comes from these things not being fulfilled. As one of them put it: "When you turn thirty when you're single, you start to worry about never finding someone. No one wants to be seen as "that old guy" by the young twenty-something's at a club."

So, I figure that I'm a pretty lucky guy. Sure, I'm no longer a "twenty-something", but who cares? Like George Burns said: "You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old."

Rediscovering an old friend

Back in the day; OK, five years ago; I worked at a company that sold Linux software. Yes, *sold* Linux software. You see now why I no longer work there.

Anyhoo...working there, I obviously got very into Linux. Specifically Mandrake Linux at that point. Things were a bit rough around the edges in that day, but I loved it. The mere fact that there was a "degree of difficult" in getting things set up just so was part of the fun.

However, for various reasons (not the least of which being that I'm a PC gamer), I haven't used Linux on a daily basis since I left that company. That stops today. Why? Glad you asked.

The answer, quite simply, is Dapper Drake. Ubuntu 6.06 to be exact. Never have I seen a slicker, more user-friendly version of Linux. This makes the old versions of Linux look archaic. Hell, this makes Windows XP look archaic. The ease of the install, (on a laptop with a wireless card that I have heretofore not been able to get working, no less) is amazing. Never before have I seen a "try before you install" OS. Ubuntu 6 lets you do it. The Live CD is the install CD. It's great!

Of course, I can still dig around in the back-end just like back in the day if I feel like it. The only difference now is that I don't need to. Fantastic.

So, here I sit, hanging with my old friend, Linux. Anyone who ever wanted to try Linux but thought it was too complicated or only for geeks...now is the time. Ubuntu 6 is actually easier than Windows to install. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Common Courtesy

What is this world coming to?

What happened to Common Courtesy? I'm not yet 30 years old (hey, I have 8 more days of being able to say that) and I almost feel like I'm old fashioned about this sometimes. I was taught growing up that you hold doors open for people, say "please" and "thank you", wait your turn and generally just treat people with respect.

Today, I saw a gentleman, actually, I can't call him that...I saw a man basically slam a door in the face of a woman who was not more than six feet behind him entering an office building. I would like to be able to say that's an uncommon sight. This man looked to be about 45 years old. The funny thing is that it seems to be more common in folks that are 10 or 15 years older than I than it is in my generation. Basically every person I know has at least a shred of decency and courtesy in them.

How did this seem to skip a generation? Weren't these the people that taught my generation its values? Perhaps not. All I can say, though, is that I'm doing what I can to not allow it to skip my kids' generation. They will have manners if it kills me (which it probably will...) Hopefully, by the time they are my age, they are not looking at me and my generation and seeing the same sort of behavior.

I guess the reason this irks me so much is because it's really not that hard to be nice to people. Smile at someone once in a while, they'll probably smile back. And then they'll probably smile at the next person they see...

Stem Cells

One question...

Why would you not allow a couple who were no longer going to use their fertilized embryos to donate them to science rather than allow them to be destroyed?

One answer...

Because even though the research that would come from that science would save millions of lives, you would be destroying something that could become a human at some point.

I'm sorry, but I feel that the research is more important. We have a chance to potentially eradicate many horrible diseases simply by allowing couples to decide what to do with their own embryos, but our government, nay, our president won't allow it. Our goverment was, in fact, in favor of it. Why? Because he doesn't believe that we have the right to destroy one *potential* human life to save many others. As Mr. Bush says, "All life is sacred."

Seems strange that this same president would be in favor of the death penalty...