How do you say VIC Card in Spanish?

So some academic types did some research and put some words around something that's been bugging me for a while... What the Naive Consumers Don't Know, Can Help You - New York Times

Of course, they were a lot more sophisticated about their investigation and not nearly as disturbed as I, but it essentially comes down to retailers taking advantage of the poor, uneducated, or unsavvy consumer. Maybe it bugs me because I'm grade-A cheap and am always looking for ways to save money, but it just doesn't seem fair. Based on this article, I should be happy, because these folks are the ones are subsidising my discounts. But retailers are making it so that the folks who don't have the means or the planning skills to jump thru the necessary hoops to get a good deal are getting screwed. Retailers seem to make things as complicated as possible in order to get discounts sometimes. Buy 1 and pay regular price, buy 2 and get a huge discount is unfair. 'Loyalty cards" (a subject for a future rant, I'm sure!) are a pain. Collecting scraps of paper from the cash register to turn in after 7, 8, 15 whatever weeks is ridiculous.

So what's my point? That the system is being stacked against those who don't have the means or the English skills to find the deals... meaning the poor end up subsidizing the discounts of the rest of us. Hmm... I haven't heard that point come up in the recent immigration debates.

Stop the Madness!

There's so many things about the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence that disturbs me its hard to know where to start. I'm not Muslim or Jewish, nor a historian, but I suppose I know more than the average Joe on the American street about the who/where/what of over there (thanks to an interest started by a great 8th grade geography teacher). This round of insanity, like those in the past, just puts a pit in my stomach when I think about it.

This isn't a fight between armies on some remote battlefield somewhere. This is fighting going on mostly amidst real people just trying to live their life as best they can. I don't claim they are all innocents, but many of them are. I can't imagine what its like to be living in Haifa, Beruit, or the other cities involved.

What makes me saddest is the so-called "asymmetry" of the fight. This isn't a tit-for-tat fight. For each pinch that Hezbollah inflicts on Israel, Israel comes in a breaks a few bones. The death toll is 10-1 Lebanese vs Israelis. And that doesn't begin to tell the story. Beruit, just starting to prosper after the last go-round in the 80s & 90s, has been bombed back 50 years, and well on its way to the stone age.

What makes me maddest is the continued unequivical backing of Israel by the U.S. government. We could end this quickly by threatening to withhold the billions of dollars of aid we give to Israel. That "aid" puts blood on our hands - my hands - in just the place and time where we can hardly afford to be seen as more of a bully.

Let's pray that Condi Rice can make some progress today.

What day is it?

We've been home from our travels for a week now. Seems like an eternity. But its been just seven days. Amazing how an unexpectedly busy week at work, combined with the realities of a family schedule - even one slowed by the summer - makes our time at the farm seem to be in the distant past. I have found myself actually a bit confused as to what month or date it actually is. Maybe its the various plans for events in August that have been happening, the discussions of Kindergarten with Madelyn (and the very exciting "practice run" on the school bus on Saturday!) Its still very strange, as we are in a time of year where I'm usually very aware of the date.

Indeed, generically, a time of year when most folks are very aware of the date. You see, my birthday is in less than a week. In many years, that day served as the day upon which all other things in July were based off of - something would be happening a week before or a few days after my birthday, rather than on the specific date indicated by the calendar. Not so this year. Maybe it is because I'm getting older & my birthday is becoming less of a celebration and more of an acknowledgement of the passing years.

I'm definitely slowing down & starting to get those aches and pains that one associates with getting old. I associate them more with having a desk job and a severe lack of motivation to get any exercise lately. But you get the idea. I'm sure there is little I could add to the volumes written about getting old that hasn't already been said, so I will suffice to leave the discussion at "I've noticed it"...

Certainly, I haven't been out chasing any chickens.

On the Road Again...

We've been traveling. That's how I've had the extra brain ergs to actually start writing this blog, which I've been pondering doing for quite a while.

Yes, I take a computer with me on vacation. We actually sometimes take 2 or 3. Don't ask - I'm a nerd.

Although my dear wife might disagree, I don't really have this undying devotion to my work which means that I must check in constantly for fear that the entire operation is going to fall apart without me. Quite the contrary. First of all, my employer (Lenovo) is an organization with some 10,000 employees worldwide and enough revenue for it to be well up the Fortune 500 list (although not sure if they actually are on the list since we're not listed on a US stock exchange). They do quite fine without me there.

Bringing the laptops with us is a combination of addiction to being connected, relief from the tedium of hours on the Interstate system, and the ability to skimp on vacation time taken. Oh yeah - and an occasional DVD for the kids.

Summer is a time when the media trots out their reports about how Americans can't take vacation, and when they do, they can't disconnect, and on and on. One I heard the other day said something along the lines that the "typical" American doesn't use 4 of their entitled vacation days each year, even though we get less days than folks in most other countries do. While I'm sure in some ways I would be a prime example for these reports, I don't think its all that clear cut.

I like being connected. I get a lot of my information from the Internet, whether it be at home or at work - weather, news, what time the museum opens, or what have you. I stay in touch with friends scattered around the world as well. I have a keyboard under my fingers or very close by most of the day. Its just easier to click to the information I'm looking for than dig out a phone book or turn on the TV and do it the old fashioned way. Its just part of my life. If I continue that while on vacation, does that make me a bad person? It doesn't seem like being connected is all that terrible. Especially when I can choose whether to connect to work or not while on the computer. I don't have a Crackberry - just an old fashioned laptop. And a cool array of toys which make it possible to connect from the highway or wherever. Maybe that makes it different, in that I'm connected on my terms, not someone else's. I find cell phone calls much more intruding than Instant Messages or emails retrieved while on vacation.

A nerd, but maybe a wierder than normal one. Oh, and no chickens were harmed in the writing of this post.

Ready or Not, Here I Come

So I'm not so sure how to go about this blogging thing. But I have the urge to share some of the cool things that I learn about & write down some of these random thoughts that I have... so naturally figured that rather than doing so in a more private or traditional way, it seems sharing them with a bazillion strangers is a much better way to go. Maybe I just won't tell anyone that this exists... what's the blog equivalent of the old line about a tree falling in a forest? You tell me. Or maybe the real reason is that I'm a nerd to the very core of my being and am much more likely to blather on electronically rather than using pen and paper.

Note that I am identifying myself as a nerd quite specifically, as opposed to a geek. There is a long history here which may or may not be subject to future postings, but according to Dictionary.com, geek is defined as "A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken". Really. Check it out. (wow, a link... in my first-ever blog posting... aren't you impressed?) Ok, its also A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept. -- a definition which is also cited as applying to nerd. I'm actually socially inept enough to not know whether other people feel that I'm socially inept, but I definitely consider myself to be socially inept. But regardless, I have never, and never intend to do anything like biting the head off of a live chicken.

Oh yeah, and I dare you to tell Ozzy Ozborne that he's a geek to his face.

Welcome to my blog, and be assured that no chickens were harmed in the writing of this post.