Zen Ken

What do you do when you get to crush someone?
Submitted by Desi.

Cackle with maniacal glee!

Helps to edit these questions, people!

What is your deepest, darkest fear?
Submitted by [Susan].

That's like asking Superman where he keeps the Kryptonite.  Not going to happen.  You're going to have to find out for yourself.  Get to know the people rather than asking random questions.  Join a neighborhood and find out.

1. Secret Societies
2. 1984
3. Animal Farm
4. Cicero
5. Catch-22
6. Dumb Witness
7. Lord of the Flies
8. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
9. Ulysses
10. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
11. The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
12. Girl With A Pearl Earring

13. Candide by Voltaire

Candide, Zadig, and Selected Stories (Signet Classics)

Francois Voltaire

An intensely critical and humorous piece of work and in light of the events around Voltaire's life at the time of writing, a pretty brutal recanting of the religious theory that 'all is best that is'.

For One More Day

Mitch Albom

I find Albom's work a bit on the Lifetime Original movie flavor of work, though having read it just after Mother's Day really let it's point hit home to me: tell your mother you love her and don't let the last things you've said to her be in anger or a lie (or both in this case).  A bit syrupy at times, but I find the style refreshing, especially when I'm looking for an easy read.

It seems like most of my emails are about how I've been away and I guess this one's no different.  Actually, I went home to spend some time with my Mom for Mother's Day.  Next month she's going to have some surgery done on her elbow, so I wanted to have  a chance to spend some time with her before then.  I'll be going back for a week or so to help her recover after the surgery (which coincides with Father's Day).  I'm trying to remember the last time I got to spend Mother's Day with her.

I suppose a lot of people take their parents for granted when they are growing up.  We all do, and there's an awkward time in there where you feel that you need to be away from your parents, but the longer you're away the more you start to appreciate what they've done and mean to you (if you're lucky to have good parents).  You only get one mother and father.

I'm pretty recharged, so I got plenty to post about now, I think.

After sitting at the airport for a about 4 hours I've finally made it to Dallas (again).

I hoped I could get a chance to see the scenery while I'm here.  I might get a few hours on Friday but it won't be long.

I'm again at a low point in my blogging.  I'm not one who just writes whatever, yet at the same time there's plenty I could be talking about.  I'm sure plenty of you would be bored about what I would talk about.

My job is going alright, but you start getting that long distance point of view after being in a job for a few months.  It pays well and life goes on, but there's no excitement and not much challenge.  I suppose that's the same with most jobs.

So, I've started working on a few things.  I'm elbows deep in Cocoa and Programming for mac OS X, trying to get involved in developing applications for the mac and (more importantly) the iPhone.  I think it's a pretty cool programming platform and it has huge potential.  I have a Blackberry and it annoys me how often that the system just freezes while it's downloading messages.  If you're trying to look at your calendar, good luck navigating until it's done.  Maybe I can do something challenging, like starting my own company.  That would be cool.  Also, I've dug out my sketchbook over the last few weeks.  If I have anything interesting I'll throw it up for you all.

We're also debating on going to Bermuda for vacation.  Has anyone been there?  What do you think?  Has anyone been there?

Real quick review:

Juno (Single-Disc Edition)

I hate New Jersey. 

Normal procedure: 1. Get your car registered in New Jersey.  2. Get your car inspected in NJ. 3. Get your car insurance switched over.

New Jersey procedure: 1. Get your car registered in New Jersey. 2. Get your car insurance switched over. 3. Get car inspected in NJ.

If you wanted to do this in one day, you can't.  You have to waste time twice to do it, since AS A PART of the CAR INSPECTION (you know, to make sure your car operates on the road) is that is has a piece of paper saying you have NJ.  How does that make my car road worthy?

Okay, we live in the 21st century but the state still operates like it's in the 19th.

We have an inordinate number of ways to track my car: VIN, registration, title.  Insurance companies also have complex databases holding the same information including which state the car insured.  Why is it too hard to have the registration tied to the VIN and therefore the insurance such that when the insurance location changes, the MVA gets notified.  How hard is this?  If FedEx can track a billion packages a DAY.  This is not a complexity problem by any means.

I hate New Jersey.

Alright, every time someone says the word 'literally', I want to punch them in the face (curse you, social etiquette).  I see it on tv all the time, and I've had coworkers stand around and use it in conversation, as if popping the word off makes them seem more scientific or serious than they actually are.  "I literally died laughing" really doesn't mean that you died laughing because you wouldn't be telling me about it.  To misquote VGI: literally is the new totally (which is the old very).

Have you ever experienced road rage?
Submitted by Question of the Day.

I experience driver rage.  As in, 'I can't believe that idiot is driving' sort of rage.  Though, occasionally, I will get angry at the road itself after I drive over a pothole the size of the Barringer Crater, but that's about it.

Have you ever been skinny dipping?

I am skinny and I have dipped in various ways (dancing, salsa chips, etc.), but never skinny dipped.  I am sure there have been times as a kid where I've run buck naked through a lawn sprinkler....

What do you do EVERY day to take care of the earth's environment? What could you do more of?

Actually, isn't the environment there to support me?  Though it might be a good idea to keep the environment sustainable for human life.  Ever wonder why we always on ancient cultures and extinct intergalactic species (if you watch Star Trek or some such)?  Because we could be one of those species.  Kind of like the dinosaurs, except they were just sitting around eating plants and each other when they went extinct.

While I'm on the thought, shouldn't the question be: doing less of?  Less pollution (and since my commute is less than 2 miles now, so check that box AND the one for consume less fossil fuels).  Less energy consumption.  Less waste.  The only more we should be doing: more conservation of energy at all levels and recycling of materials.

Yet, look around you.  Drive by any strip mall or storefront at night.  Do all the lights need to be on when no one is around?  Why is everything lit?  We have infrared cameras and sensors now.  All the talk is for the masses to conserve and preserve.  Where's the corporate investment, the social investment and the political investment?  I think therein you'll find your answers.