Leelanau Whippersnapper

There was once a time when I considered myself to be pretty “conservative”.  I was all for small government, self-reliance, and basic values.  Ya, not so much any more.  The Log Cabin Republicans can eat my shorts.  I have no use for today’s conservative.  They are all about big governement, spying on citizens, control of the masses…you name it, the face of conservatism today is VASTLY different from what it was years ago and I’m not even that old.  On the same note, I’m not real fond of liberalism either.  I don’t really appreciate the  dumbing down of everything to the lowest common denominator just so nobody gets offended.  I really can’t stand whiny rants of inequity about whatever.  I guess I don’t really fit either mold and I’m OK with that too.  I did find a nice blurb on conservatism tonight that I wanted to post.  I agree with it but know that there is an equally disturbing converse side for liberals.

It Must Be scary to be a Conservative – By Chris Bowers

It must be really scary to be a conservative. To be one, you must live in constant fear of terrorists nuking the United States, of gay people on the verge of convincing you that you really enjoy sodomy, of Spanish becoming the official language of the United States next week, of every African-American voting seven or eight times in the next election, of radical Islam suddenly becoming the latest hip thing among kids across the country, of perpetual lesbian orgies in girls bathrooms in high schools across America, of liberals forcing everyone to become a vegan, of Christians being rounded up into concentration camps, and of Democrats outlawing private property if they were to ever take power again.

Here is another picture of complete stupidity.

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This has been a rough week at work.  This time of year, I always prepare myself for exceptionally busy days, exceptionally rude customers, annoying (and mostly unsupervised) children tearing around the store, and self-professed Do-It-Yourselfers (who should not be doing ANYTHING themselves).  I prep myself each day before work and I tell myself not to take shit personally and for the most part I don’t.  This year is different.  I’ve been up here working in this job now for 4 years.  NEVER in those 4 years have I come across SO many people who are SO oblivious to every single other person around them.  Today alone, I had no fewer than 5 customers storm up to my desk, cut in to conversations I was having with OTHER customers who were there before them and rudely BARK what they wanted.  SO completely oblivious to the fact that there was anyone in front of them in line and so completely unaware that they were doing anything even remotely uncivilized.  This sort of behavior is usually reserved to the rich and privileged who have never worked a day in their pretty little lives but this sort of thing is leaching out of every class of person we see and it’s happening MUCH more frequently than at any other time that I can remember.  Even the day after Thanksgiving is not this full of arrogant assholes.

OK, usually when people are assholes to me, I will step back, and take a look at my OWN behavior.  Maybe I’m the one with the problem here, maybe I have the attitude and my existence is just pissing people off.  Once I determine that I’m in reasonably good spirits I look at the bigger picture, what’s my team doing? Is anyone else having these issues.  When it turns out that EVERYONE is having the same problems with customers then there is something much bigger going on, something beyond my direct control.  That’s where we are folks.  EVERY single person I talked to at work is having the same problems with rude, arrogant, and completely oblivious customers.  A LOT of these customers come in to the store just pissed off at the world and ready to fight with anyone who even DARES ask them how they are doing.

Reason:  Its the economy stupid.

So my rant for today is WAKE UP WORLD.  Your lives are ALL way too short to be so pissed off all the time.  You WILL NOT automatically get your way by being rude and inconsiderate of everyone around you, in fact, you will likely end up quite embarrassed that you were so foolish to believe you were ANY better or more important than the person in front of you.  YOUR behavior is the problem, it’s not my fault that you don’t know what the fuck you are doing, it’s not MY fault that you can’t read directions, it’s not MY fault that you are an impatient bastard.  GROW UP FOLKS, love each other…make love not war…

Fucking bastards.

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I thought that I might not write again until Monday however I didn’t mention this in my last post and wanted to do so before I forgot about it.  Today was Sarah’s baby shower and I got to hang out with the ladies for a while this afternoon.  Quite pleasant really, no drama, lots of fussing, and I didn’t have to do anything but sit back, watch, and take pictures all afternoon.  Not bad really.  Sarah looked like she really enjoyed herself (why wouldn’t she…she and Brian have made out like bandits with lots of loot for baby Christopher).  I’m getting very excited for them, Brian and Sarah will both make great parents, it will be fun to watch their family grow.

I was going to rant tonight about my experience almost getting a ticket at the beach the other day but I’ve decided that those people who might have found this story amusing have already been told.  I didn’t get a ticket but suffice to say I won’t be making many trips to the national lake shore this summer.  Way to loose the support of a local dip shits.  Clearly the feds want nothing to do with me or my dog.  They sure want my money though.  I’ve got mixed feelings about what happened but I’m still not really that happy about it.

Awesome weather here lately…all over the country really.  Sarah and Brian go back to Iowa tomorrow, from what we understand most of the state is now under water.  It should make for an interesting trip home for them.  Saw some really great clouds tonight.  Check out leelanauphotography.com for more but here is a sample.

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Another rainy day here in Northern Michigan.  I am gearing up here for quite a busy 3 weeks.  This weekend is Sarah’s baby shower so all the relatives are up here.  I’m going over to the cottage at 2 on Saturday to take pictures of the festivities.  Typically baby showers are girl events (dad, Brian, Lou, and Frank) are going golfing.  I’m not your typical guy I guess.  I don’t really mind hanging out with the ladies.  I’m sure they don’t mind it either.  Anyhow, it should be fun.  Sarah received a diaper cake (I’ll post a picture next week) and I’m curious to see what else baby Christopher will get.  All the fuss about a new baby makes me want to get in line for one..no, wait, they are cute for about 5 months, then it’s all about them for the next 18 years!!!  Sorry, my ego can’t take that kind of blow.  I’ll be content to be the uncle who can spoil the kid rotten and at the end of the day when he’s crabby and whiny, send him back to mom and dad so they can deal with him!

Well the weather is getting pretty violent here so I won’t write more tonight.  Next post will be early next week.

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It’s been an interesting year for me this past year.  I’ve split up with the person I thought I might spend the rest of my life with, I’ve discovered (although I already knew this) that I don’t live well with people I don’t care for, and I’ve been able to evaluate my life as a single person now in my mid 30’s.  I found some old cassette recordings of me singing today in the basement with lots of other shit that I was going to toss.  I thought that I would try and salvage these from sure ruin.  It amazes me to think how far technology has come in 20 years.  When this recording was made, cassette tapes were still the norm.  CD’s were just getting off the ground and digital recordings were unknown.  Tonight I was even able to edit this recording to make it cleaner and easier to listen to.

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The recording you are listening to was created my junior year at Grand Valley State University.  I am singing Dixit Dominus and I am sining countertenor.  I had perfected my upper range at the American Boychoir School after my voice had changed and this became my range of choice when I got into late high school and into collage.  Nobody else that I knew could sing in this range like I could and I was never one to blow my own horn but I was pretty dam good.  When there was an alto or countertenor solo to sing, I got the part, when it came to teaching it was perfect because I could sign in the same range that the boys I was teaching could sing in so they understood what I was looking for.

This recording was made during a fairly critical year in my quest to pursue a music education degree.  I had become by this time rather cynical of my education and actually I had become exceptionally board with it.  I was in my 4th year of teaching for the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys and my 4th year of Collage and I saw little value in the education I was getting as it did not relate to real life at all and was in fact quite far removed.  NOTHING I was learning in collage even remotely related to what I was teaching with the GRCMB.  Not even close.  Sadly, that narrow view of reality would continue until I eventually dropped out of collage about 2 semesters short of graduating with a degree I would never end up using anyhow.  This recording was an attempt to escape the mundane and lackluster world of higher education and try to join the ranks with what I considered to be the premier mens chorus in the world: Chanticleer.  They did not develop a relationship with the American Boychoir School until several years after I had graduated but they were indeed the gold standard when it came to professional choirs.  Having been let down tremendously by the substandard and rather pathetic choirs of high school and collage (and even the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys although that was a higher standard than I could get anywhere else), I wanted to experience professionalism again and I held Chanticleer on an exceptionally high pedestal (and still do).  It was a long shot to audition considering the members of Chanticleer were all well into their 30’s and 40’s and all  professional musicians but I wanted to try anyhow just to see how I stacked up.  My impression from the note sent back to me from Mr. Jennings was that I was certainly qualified and capable but not yet mature enough in my age or technique to join their ranks.  I wasn’t shocked but I was disappointed that my exhibited talent had been reduced to a simple lack of professional experience.  Oh well, it was not the end all for me but it set me on a path that would end my collage career and put me out into the world pursuing other dreams in unrelated fields.

I’ll be posting other mp3 files in future posts.  I have one from when I was 2 years old sining nursery rhymes with dad and I have one of Sarah and I singing show tunes in high school.  It was important that I try everything I can to preserve these recordings even though the quality is lack luster.  The memories are worth hanging on to.  Here is another picture I found the other day.  Early on in life Sarah and I were treated to the establishment of traditions.  To this day, I still shove my hands into pumpkins and revile in the gooey mess.

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Well today was an exceptionally productive day!  It was hot as hell (upper 80’s and humid) but I got lots done.  The day started off getting a new mattress from Aunt Joan and Uncle Lou.  Mine was getting pretty old and I have no issues using expensive hand-me-downs.  Tonight I shall see how well I sleep on it.  In any case, it’s leaps and bounds better than what I had so all is good.  I met the Indian that lives in Lou’s garage as well.

From there the parents and I headed back home and swapped out the mattress and took the old one to the storage facility for Jirar.  He will get that one.  We then went through lots of rooms and filled up the trailor full of shit for Goodwill.  They took everything but 2 air conditioners (which I was able to unload on a team member at work) and an old chair.  Got rid of a LOT of stuff today and it feels good.  Thank God for Mom and Dad, I never would have been able to accomplish what I did today without their help.  Anyhow, tonight I am now relaxing and scanning pictures.  I was thinking about how in the world I managed to get up to this part of the world.  I found a picture that explains it.

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OK, I am ripping off a post from another blog I’ve read.  First, the previous post on gas prices…it appears that I was the only person reporting Maple City’s gas prices to that web site.  So, if I miss a day, it doesn’t show up on the map.  Go figure.  If you care, the Mobile gas station in Maple city is ALWAYS about $0.15-0.20 higher EVERY DAY compared to Traverse City.  This is highway robbery and should be swiftly condemned.  You tourists are being HOSED at the pump in Leelanau.  DON’T BUY YOUR GAS IN LEELANAU COUNTY!  Save a few bucks and buy it at Meijer in Traverse City when you are there buying groceries anyway.

Now then on to the reason for this post.  The longer I am separated from Jirar the more I tend to reflect on my life and where I am in my life.  First, I have absolutely no regrets about where I am today or who I am today.  Despite my rants, I do in fact really like my job, I don’t have many friends but the friends I have, I value, and I am quite happy living up here in red neck land because it gives me something to smile about every day (and it sure beats the gang wars I was dealing with in Grand Rapids).  That said, I came across this tonight and figured I would share it.  Some time ago, I fancied learning about far east religions if for no other reason than the logical truths that come out of them in the form of convenient little sayings.  Here are 18 Rules for Living as stated by the Dalai Lama.  Credit to OwenKelly.net

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
   1. Respect for self
   2. Respect for others
   3. Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

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OK folks, what is wrong with this map below? Look at Traverse City area and then look at the Maple City gas station price. Keep in mind that Maple city is 20 miles from Traverse City which absolutely CAN NOT be considered a difficult distance for any hauler to travel outside a metro area. There is NO reason the price of gas should be $0.15 higher out here compared with TC. I’ve become a regular contributor to www.michigangasprices.com and I frequently update prices of gas in Leelanau County as I see them. Don’t buy your gas out here folks under any circumstance. Don’t even buy your convenience foods out here. Those of you who do are BEING RIPPED OFF BIG TIME!!!!  You can move the map around by clicking on it and holding down your mouse button.

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I’ll admit that I’m pretty much a tech-geek but in the same breath I’m nowhere close to a true nerd!  Anyhow, this is an issue that is of great concern to me and it should be to you as well.  When the internet was young back in the early 90’s, AOL was the primer internet service provider.  They charged BY THE HOUR for internet access on their networks for speeds up to 28.8kbs.  This was a great model for making HUGE profits and ripping consumers off.  Since AOL was the service to have, I signed up and I recall my first bill of $250 for a MONTH of internet access and I nearly got rid of the computer all together.  After that, I did all my internet browsing at GVSU using their high speed connection for free in the computer lab until AOL finally went to an “all you can eat” program for a low monthly fee.  That price structure became the norm in the internet access world, until today.

Time Warner has announced that they will now be testing “metered bandwidth” pricing schemes in a few markets.  They will put a cap on the bandwidth you can consume per month and you’ll be charged if you go over that amount.  Bandwidth for those of you reading who don’t know is the amount of data transfered upstream and downstream (uploads and downloads) between your computer and your internet service provider.  If you don’t use your internet connection for anything but email and basic web page browsing, these new caps won’t mean anything to you and they really wont’ affect you.  HOWEVER, if you are geek like me and you get all your music, video, and on occasion your movies via the internet this is cause for significant concern.  I installed a bandwidth meter on my computer about 3 months ago when I caught wind of the potential for providers to move in this direction.  I wanted to know what my average consumption was per month so when monthly plans are eventually introduced, I could select the one that best suits my needs and so I could start to gauge how much internet access would cost me in the future.  Keep in mind that becuase I’m an early adopter, I’ve paid up to $130 a month for broadband access in the past, and I would think that in some markets today, people are still paying that much a month.  I do not however think that broadband should be costing ANYONE anywhere more than $50 a month.  I consume about 30GB of bandwidth a month, more downloads than uploads but still, that is considerably higher than most people I know might use.  That bandwidth consists of web browsing, email, streaming music, streaming TV and video, and a movie or two via my access to OneBox at Amazon.com using my TiVO set top box.  According to this article, it is only 10GB short of the cap on their best plan of 40GB per month and that plan is more than I’m paying now.

There is somewhat of a war going on right now in the tech world.  On the one side you have the big monopolies (Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, RIAA), on the other side you have the open access activists (of which I am one).  I strongly believe that access to the internet should be treated as a utility with the same quality, speed, and unrestricted access offered to EVERYONE regardless of location (like electricity).  I am a very strong opponent of censorship campaigns pertaining to content on the internet, and I have real problems with forced advertising although I support some advertising methods as legitimate ways to reduce the end cost to consumers.  I DO in fact understand that it costs money to provide internet access.  I’m not an idiot.  In most cases however I’ll pay more for something to get rid of advertising.  On the flip side are these big companies who want to control how we access information on the internet and how we acquire digital media.  They loose money when I watch TV online becuase I am subjected to different advertisers who may or may not be subsidizing my viewing to my particular service provider.  It’s ALL about the money (Again, I’m in sales so I know what that means however, there are other models out there for making money).

So, to conclude this chapter, it’s generally in your best interest to use service providers that do not put restrictions on bandwidth and if it’s introduced if you have the option, you should switch providers.  Increasingly your media will come from the internet in various forms and that media will consume bandwidth at higher and higher levels as everything moves into the HD world.  Cable companies want you to watch movies on THEIR cable services, they don’t want you to download them becuase when you do that they miss out on a critical revenue stream.  Too bad.  I don’t like monopolies and while I generally don’t like government intervention either, this is one area where our government must act to retain low cost access to information and media via the internet.

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OK, the title might be offensive.  At the front, I want all readers to know that there is a HUGE difference between a set of PARENTS, and a set of BREEDERS.  The first use shows a defined commitment to a child or children under their care who blatantly express through a multitude of actions that their children are their first priority in nearly every aspect of their lives.  I would lump my parents into this category as well as millions of other sets of parents who truly care for their children.  The second use (Breeders) is defined as 2 people who fuck for fun, who then conceive, produce a child, have no concept of how to raise that child, disregard that child, care nothing for that child and create a situation that is not only unhealthy but exceptionally unsafe for that child in nearly every situation they enter.  I had an encounter today at work with some breeders that I must share here becuase people like this should be shot 30 times in the face and then skinned alive.

My intern ran over to me late this afternoon somewhat laughing but somewhat concerned as well about some guy in my grocery section shoving his face with chips and dip.  A manager was needed (me since I was closest) to resolve the situation.  I approached what was a GIANT of a teenager, mumbling and opening jar after jar of chip dip from the store shelves.  My own background in having dealt with a few difficult (and different) children kicked in, I immediately recognized severe autism.  Clearly my co-workers (including my own boss) had no idea how to deal with the situation.  This child’s parents were nowhere to be found.  Gut reaction was to simply stay put.  Distract from the food that was now all over the kids face and try to get a parents name out of the child so we could begin searching for this child’s parents.  No such luck.  The temptation of food was too great and too distracting and even with good intrepreation skills, I could not make out either his name or anything else.  I’d say his vocabulary was quite limited.  So the next move was to remove and redirect.  Using the chips as a lure, I was able to convince the kid to follow me to the front office.  At this point at least 25 minutes had passed with me making all the effort and my co-workers not being much help (ignorance).  I wasn’t about to blame the child for his condition but each minute that went by that the parents didn’t show up created more tension and rage within me.  I was able to to get the kid to sit quietly on a pile of bird seed while we figured out how to use the intercom (NOT a good idea when it c comes to lost kids but in this situation our only choice).  We announced “would the parents of a lost child please report to the cash registers”  Eventually, another disabled person showed up and approached me.  I asked if he was a parent, no he was the brother.  Clearly in better shape but also clearly autistic.  It was clear at this point that this was a family relation and the child was released to his brother.  All of this was being filmed by security cameras, the child was followed as he walked back with his brother to another department where he was reunited with COMPLETELY unconcerned and inattentive parents who continued to shop as though nothing had just happened.

Nothing further was done with this incident.  We took the loss on the food that was consumed and that was the end of it.  The only reason I relay this story is to say that had I been the general manager, those parents would still be dealing with child services.  My GM rightfully pulled me into the security room after I released the child because he knew I was pissed off, we watched the security cameras to make sure the child ended up with the parents and then out the door with them.  Had I seen the breeders in question in person I likely would have gone ape shit and caused a scene.  I do not understand how any parent can be so callous, so disregarding, so completely unaware of EVERYTHING around them that they would loose a 250lb teenage boy who stood at least 6′ tall, who was VERY audible (even in gibberish), and who could have easily hurt me (had I not known how to act) or hurt himself.  How could you NOT notice that this child was not with you?  How could you so completely disregard his safety?  In the 30 minutes he was with me at the front of the store, any predator with intent could have had this child nearly to Kingsley 30 miles away.  People like this should not be permitted to breed.  It just makes me sick. OK, that’s enough.

Now then, tomorrow is another day, the landlord receives a letter tonight, I suspect I’ll get a phone call tomorrow pleading for me to stay here, I will be getting the storage unit tomorrow and the next several days off will be spent getting some things over there and out of this house.  The fun begins.

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