Archive for January, 2005

Well. The week that rang it in was pretty dang shitty. Work has been rough, two holidays in a row will do that.

But I’m pissed at a friend right now. He’s a really good guy in so many ways. But, there is this game, Carcassonne, that I really, really like to play, that he introduced me to. We play the game with reasonable frequency.

Its just that he doesn’t play honestly. By that I mean to win for himself. He plays to foul others up. Of course he does end up winning in the end anyways, so the effect is the same, its just the means are, well, dirty. By analogy, if this game was long distance track running, he would end up running into his opponent to topple them to the ground. Of course, he would still suffer slightly, but his opponent would suffer more because they didn’t expect to be toppled to the ground, and as such spent more time to get back up to speed.

Another analogy. In business, it is illegal in many instances to sell a product below cost with the intention of running your competitors out of business.

Instances like this end up being a game of seeing who can hurt the other more before one party loses.

So, tonight half way through the game I just got pissed and stopped playing. Not a literal walking away from the table, but I was placing my pieces down in such a manner as not to score any points. When I had the simple possibility of scoring points I did not announce or score them. More or less if someone is going to play dirty, I just would rather not fuck with it. Especially when its a game, and not about survival or something life threatening.

To the unnamed person: I’m not playing Carcassonne with you for quite sometime, and yes I’m serious about it this time.

To anyone else in the Cincinnati area who likes Carcassonne: Need somebody to play with?

I’m still processing The results of November 3rd. (The day John Kerry conceded.)

My first response (which I acted upon) was to leave the country (if only for two days). I also espoused a game plan to likely leave the country eventually and obtain citizenship in another country.

After my initial fit of anger I’m still not sure about this idea. Citizenship is a strange social institution. The closet thing I know to compare it to is marriage. (Not the pussy ass edition practiced by so many hetro-attracted people where if you decided to split you can get it done with at most two years in court. (My parent’s divorce proceedings lasted a bit over two years.)) To renounce your US citizenship you have to obtain citizenship in another country at the same time. This is as if to get divorced you’d have to get remarried at the same time the divorce became final.

At the moment my country and I are having a bit of a rocky relationship, but I’m not sure its time for a divorce — I want to try to work it out.

In related news I have to say I’m proud of John Kerry. Yes, I know he didn’t win. But, I read this excerpt from the November 15th issue of time in The December 21, 2004 Advocate.

Looking for a way to pick up swing voters in the red states [in the weeks before the election] former president Bill Clinton, in a phone call with Kerry, urged the senator to back local bans on gay marriage. Kerry respectfully listened, then told his aids, “I’m not going to ever do that.”

I’m proud to have supported the presidential candidate that didn’t compromise his values to get elected. If you’re not going to follow your values you have nothing.

I usually make a policy of always having any PEIDM entry be something I create, because if I didn’t there would be a bunch of other crap floating around here, and that isn’t my point for this space.

I just couldn’t resist posting this. My sister, Randi, emailed me these this morning. Its one of those things that circulates around email. Kudos to the original photographer. I won’t describe them, just take a look at them one at a time in order. I wonder if this qualifies for a Darwin award… (Those of you reading this in email, I recommend visiting this entry on the web for the full effect.)

First, Apple needs to release their new products on days that I am not at work or at least days when I don’t have class after work.

Second, all the pundits are missing the points. I have a point with the Mac mini, but I need to get it to solidify. But as to the iPod family they’ve actually out-Microsofted Microsoft and the rest of them. Apple has built a music platform around iTunes (the break-even leader) with the associated assortment of iPod music players (with an excellent selection of price points from $99 all the way upto $599, and I’m sure profit margins to boot.) (For those who seek structured similies the iTunes is to Windows as the iPods are to Office.) Everyone else in the industry should be running scared.

Now Apple, don’t fuck it up like you did the Mac a while ago…

Someone probably tried to kill me tonight. I’m stuck on this thought at the moment.

I was driving home from Dayton on I-75 around 2:30 AM or so when I got into a protracted fight on the road with another car.

After a series of repeated on the road altercations I refused to continue on with the road fight and pulled over expecting the other driver to continue on, as I figured he wasn’t going for something else, just a piss off fight on the road.

Instead he stopped in the right lane and got out of his car. Upon seeing this I accelerated and left the scene, nearly missing hitting him with my car. As I was doing this my back window was struck and shattered.

Our on the road altercation continued for another few moments at which point he pulled off on exit 29.

Initially I focused on the facts, but trying to sleep I’ve come to my conclusions on the man’s intention: to kill me.

I figure at some point initially it was just an on the road tiff until he noticed my bumper-stickers. (For the record I have a total of six, artfully arranged. I have two John Kerry stickers in either lower corner of the bumper, in the middle of the bumper I have an HRC equal symbol sticker, in the center of the rear, above the license plate I have a rainbow pride squiggly, and in the window I have a white Apple computer logo in either lower corner.

So this leads me to three possibilities:

1. The man is a die hard George W. Bush supporter. (This makes no sense as GWB won the election.)
2. The man is a die hard Microsoft Windows user and was incensed that he was sharing the road with an Apple user. (For the record I also begrudgingly use Windows at work.) (This also makes no sense, if you’re attempting to take out Mac users I recommend a Macworld Expo, or at the very least your local Apple store.)
3. The man is violently homophobic.

I believe number three is the closest to the truth. It makes no sense for him to get out of the car to talk. I believe he did not have a gun as it would’ve been more advantageous to just shoot me when he got out of his car. Also I have not found a bullet and there is no broken glass for the bullet to have exited my car.

I believe he had a knife or other sharp object. The officer suggested that he broke the glass with his hand, but that seems unlikely as I have pounded on that glass myself without breaking it. (I was removing ice.) Additionally he would have had to applied additional force because my car was moving away from him, meaning that any force he applied would have been mitigated by my car’s forward motion.

The only logical conclusion is that the man grabbed a knife to kill me, after failing to run me off the road. When I accelerated, he used it to break my windshield. After this he followed me again and gave up the issue after he noted I was on my cell phone.

The bumper stickers will not come off my car. I will get another set of Apple stickers. I will not remove the pride stickers. I will not remove my John Kerry stickers. I will not change my daily life as a result of this incident.

I will not be a victim.

I choose to feel safe.

I choose to be proud of who I am, in all my different aspects.

I choose to display that I am proud of who I am.

I choose to tell the truth irregardless if it hurts me in the long run.

I choose to be respectful towards those who have attempted to hurt me.

I choose to only use deadly force if and only if my life is immediately threatened.

I choose to never allow anyone, to cause me to deny that I have the ability to choose, irregardless of the situation.