35 Weeks 5 Days: End of the World... I Mean Year

It's the end of 2009 and like always, it's time to make some year-end / new-year lists:

MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM 2009:
- Knocking up Krystal.
- Buying a trailer and then selling it because I needed the money.
- Deciding not to switch jobs.
- Going snowboarding for the first time.
- Cutting the tip of my finger off with a circular saw.
- Finding out that my friend Lish got a book deal. Way to go Lish!
- Sold my old 1969 F250 for scrap metal.

THINGS I DISCOVERED TO BE AWESOME IN 2009:
- Flight of the Conchords
- Zombieland
- Bad Astronaut
- Glee

THINGS THAT WERE NOT-SO-AWESOME IN 2009:
- Seeing Transformer 2 in the theater.
- Cutting the tip of my finger off (still not as bad as Transformers 2).
- Realizing that I can't play guitar with my aforementioned finger injury... Still can't. Possibly gonna switch to drums.
- Deciding to change careers - who am I kidding? I'm a builder.
- A Band called "Owl City". Somebody wants to be Ben Gibbard.
- Dropping my iPhone and shattering the screen. Though I still have the same phone and it still work just fine. Way to go Apple.
- Glue down solid bamboo flooring.

MOVIES THAT KICKED ASS:
- Zombieland
- Star Trek
- The Boat That Rocked (name changed to Pirate Radio, psht)
- The Hurt Locker
- Taken

MOVIES THAT SUCKED HARD:
- Transformers 2
- Jennifer's Body
- Extract
- Year One
- Land of the Lost

WHAT I LISTENED TO THE MOST:
- The Fray 'The Fray'
- All That Remains 'The Fall of Ideals'
- Foo Fighters 'Mixed CD'
- Green Day '21st Century Breakdown'
- Shooter Jennings 'Electric Rodeo' & 'The Wolf'
- Social Distortion 'Sex, Love & Rock N Roll'

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2010:
- Poppy Soleil
- Zombieland 2???
- To find out what happens to Tom Everett Scott's character in Southland.
- Flight of the Conchords Season 3.
- Maybe being able to play guitar again???
- Keeping my business going even though the economy is bad.
- Reading Lish's book.
- Fallout New Vegas.

THINGS I WANT TO DO IN 2010:
- Get another trailer (and not sell it).
- Get a drum set and a piano and get better at playing them both.
- Finally start my Rosetta Stone Spanish language software.
- Pay off bills.
- Not see the movie 'Frozen'. Seriously, look up the trailer and then plan on NOT seeing it as well.
- Have my child be alive and unharmed (for the most part) by 2011.
- Do the robot more often... Or the robo-boogie. Both are acceptable.

33 Weeks 0 Days: Finally a Northwesterner

{You can click on any image to see it bigger}

I finally went snowboarding! I've lived in the Northwest for 25 years and had never been skiing or snowboarding. So I finally got to go with Krystal and our friends Mike and Sarah.

Here's Krystal and I at the Timberline Ski Resort. Mike is an experienced snowboarder so I just got the Discovery 123 pass. That pass gives me 3 days of lift ticket, gear rental and a lesson on each day. And I can use the three days any time during the season. The first day I was limited to the Bruno run, which is the beginner slope. And that's fine because I wouldn't have tried any other run. The other two days I'll have an "all mountain" pass.

Here, Mike is helping my strap my boot into the binding. It's really hard to do when you're overweight. Eventually, he left to do some other runs and I had to do it myself and it got easier after I limbered up a bit.

Standing up was one of the harder things to do. As soon as you get up your board starts sliding all over the place. And it doesn't care which way you're facing.

I finally got up and got the board to go the way I wanted. The next problem I encountered was not knowing how to stop.


Which brings us to my inevitable toppling. I actually fell many more times up until that point.


And then the easiest part of the day, the chair lift back up. Mike is in front of me, I'm in back.


And then, after a little break, back at it.

The first 4 runs I did left me completely exhausted after each one. Climbing back up after every spill took so much energy. And I've had a cold so I was out of breath way easier. The first two runs I had a break in between. The after the third run I had to go into the bathroom and remove 75% of my clothing layers. It just wasn't cold enough to be wearing everything I was. Then after the fourth run I took a little break and waited for my lesson which started at 1:00pm. That was really helpful. Once I got through the basic lesson and we went down as a group to do a run, I was finally able to balance a lot better and after a few tries I was making it all the way down the run, cutting back and forth across the slope, not falling nearly as much and most of the time I was just dropping to my knees. And that took much less effort. After my first post-lesson run, I got off the chair lift and realized I wasn't exhausted. So I went straight back down. And then after that run I was still not tired. I was finally getting the hang of it.

Krystal and Sarah had lunch and hung out in the lodge by a giant fireplace and the conditions on the mountain were getting pretty grim, so I ditch out on the last 30 minutes of lesson. The instructor showed me a few more things to practice for next time and I went and turned in my rental gear. I was the only one in the group that he didn't really need to hold's hand while teaching. He'd just show me and give me a few tips and I'd practice it on my own until I got the hang of it. So next time we go up, I'll practice those new things before my second lesson.

There were a lot of little kids around, learning and I'm already excited to bring our kid up there and get her started whenever she gets big enough. It's great exercise and it's just kind of a nice setting. Being on the lift with all the people skiing below you. I like the snowy mountain setting with people just gliding around wherever they want. It's very graceful... Unless you're me on the Bruno. The people there were all really friendly. I'd lose control and get close to running into someone and I'd yell out, "Coming through! Sorry about that!" and they'd all go, "No problem," and move over. It was a nice and maybe one day Krystal can get some lessons and we can have some family or multi-family trips up there.

Here's Krystal and Sarah with Bruno, the Timberline dog.
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32 Weeks 5 Days: People Helping People

I know I tend to be pretty negative all the time. I'm really not. My blog is kind of like the news: The news rarely plays good-will stories because the stories with destruction, crime and violence get more ratings. They have a saying, "If it bleeds, it reads". If they get a last minute story of someone being injured, they will pick a nice story (fluff piece) and drop it like 3rd period French. I use this as a forum to express all the things that are idiotic (hence the title of the blog). But 75% of the time I'm happy with things. The world isn't a perfect place but it could definitely be worse.

Me and contractor friend of mine, Mike, are working a project right now. It was initially planned to take about 7 working days. Not a huge project and we were all on schedule and doing really well until one of the homeowners had a major medical problem and had to go into surgery and will now be in the hospital for at least a month. We were able to keep working, but the homeowners were planning on doing some of the interior work themselves. So we added insulation and drywall to our bid at the last minute and a few other things which added a few days of labor. Well, I ended up giving her a free day of labor just to help them out in a rough time. And they were planning to remodel their attic as well and their friends and neighbors have offered to help out wherever they can. A community of people that are looking out for each other and if one person fails, the rest help pick them back up. Now, I know that's the definition of Socialism, which is apparently evil, but doesn't that seem like a good way to live? Even small things. A few months back I was in a hurry and grabbed a few things out of my garage and then took off without closing it. My next door neighbor noticed and closed our garage for us when he was leaving for work. Just looking out for your neighbor so nobody steals their stuff. And I'd do the same for them. Why is that so hard?

Instead we have people just ignoring a guy stomping an infant to death on the side of the road. Just drive on by because, "I just don't want to get involved". Or people being so sue-happy that it makes other people afraid to get involved because you could help someone and then they might turn around and sue you. Which is ridiculous (there is supposed to be something called "the good Samaritan law" but there are so many legal loopholes it doesn't matter). Or people saying, I don't want to pay for other people's healthcare out of my taxes (even though you pay for everyone else's now with increased medical bills). Everyone just looks out for themselves and ignores everyone else. And that will work fine until something happens to you and you need someone else's help. Then you hippocrates are fine with socialism.

And we're all afraid of each other. The other day I saw a car broken down in the middle of the road. There's nothing more frustrating than a car just sitting in the road with it's hazard lights on with the driver making no effort to get the car out of the road. This driver was a little old lady so I understand that she couldn't push the car. But she was right next to a parking lot and there were a couple of young guys standing at a bus stop right by her and they were trying to offer to push her car into the parking lot, to get it out of the road, but she just ignored them and kept the doors locked. So there was a huge traffic jam because she was afraid of a couple of guys who were just trying to help. We don't need to fear everything. I know the news tells us to, but they're lying. Like I said at the beginning of this post, the news only plays crime ridden stories, so it seems like that's all that's going on in the world. If they played good and bad stories at the same ratio as they happen in the real world, you'd rarely hear a story about crime.

If your community is the kind that band together and help each other out and work as a true community, you should be very thankful. I have to admit that I don't even know most of the people who live on my small street and I should change that. Soon. But I'd still help them out if I saw them in need...

31 Weeks 6 Days: Merry X Mas

From the Oregonian:

Police responded to a tussle that broke out at the Jantzen Beach Toys 'R Us store as shoppers who'd started the line on Thanksgiving night clashed with late-comers gathering by the door. At the Northeast Portland Best Buy, shoppers complained of line-cutting and shoving.

Frayed nerves are often the norm on Black Friday. Yet this year the potential for tension seemed higher, as even more folks are financially crunched than in 2008 and retailers, too, are hurting and have cut back inventories.

"People were really pretty rude and pushing," said Tarin Elliot, who arrived at Best Buy around 12:30 a.m. and was leaving the store with a Nintendo Wii for her kids at 5:15 a.m.

She and others complained that fellow shoppers were selling -- for as much as $50 -- the free tickets Best Buy employees handed out to early birds to assure them they'd get a certain doorbuster deal.

That wasn't the only tactic aimed at calming shoppers that backfired.

Following last year's fatal trampling of a Wal-Mart employee in New York, the discounter kept most stores open all night to prevent another door-opening surge. But what that really meant, Portland shoppers said, was that they could fill their carts all night, but couldn't check-out until 5 a.m.

"People were standing there all night with their full carts. They were grumpy," said Carol Brashear of Gresham, who didn't know about the all-night deal and was irked to find the laptops and movies gone at Clackamas Wal-Mart.

"We almost got run over by crazy moms with shopping carts," added her daughter, Ashley Brashear.

At a Target store across town, Megan Clohessy, 21, of Troutdale said people seemed more selfish this year.

"People were going into the stores for that certain $3 something and they didn't care who was in their way," said Clohessy, who said she was pushed even though she's pregnant. "I've been doing this since I was 12 and this is the craziest year yet."


-Man it's great to celebrate Christmas isn't it? We can prove our love to our family members by putting ourselves thousands of dollars in debt in order to buy them crap. Because if we don't buy them presents, they may not know how cool we are...

And people wonder why we don't celebrate this holiday of misery.

Let's not forget about the Walmart worker who was KILLED by inconsiderate pricks who were so focused on Christmas shopping they didn't realize that they had trampled a human being to DEATH.

31Weeks 5 Days: Autism Schmautism

I just heard a commercial on the radio warning everyone that 1 in 166 kids are diagnosed with autism. "Your kid has autism!!!". I'm sorry but 1 out of every 166 kids is not autistic. 1 in 166 kid are diagnosed with autism. You figure it out.

31 Weeks 4 Days: More Shit You Don't Need

Here are some links to some stories about some crap you don't need for your kid.

"Revealing how Dentists profit by abusing children" - An investigative report on a local dentist who was doing unnecessary, painful procedures in order to make more money.


"Children exposed to harmful radiation from unecessary CT scans" - An article giving CT scans for children with minor head bumps that are low risk for head trauma. A great example of parental paranoia mixed with a doctor being will to do it to charge for it


A Video of Obama taking about how doctor's are taking out a kids tonsils when it isn't necessary because they make more money than just diagnosing it as allergies.


"Many kids get unnecessary ear tubes" - A study that shows many kids who get Tympanostomy tubes because of ear infections don't actually need them.


"Flexible flat feet in children: a real problem?" - The American Academy of Pediatrics did a study of flat footed children and concluded that and excessive amount of orthopedic treatments have been prescribed unnecessarily.


Basically, people are paranoid and want a to "fix" their children and the doctors are greedy and want to charge for the proceedure which equals a lot of unnecessary treatments. So first, calm down. Everything is going to be alright. And next, don't just do it because the doctor says it. He is not perfect, above greed, infalible and he only knows about how 1% of the human body actually works, the rest is guess and check.

31 Weeks 4 Days: Orthopedic Nonsense

We visited the midwife yesterday and talked a little bit about the day of delivery. What hospital we would go to in case of emergency and we wanted to make sure she makes the call early enough where an ambulance isn't needed, since we don't want to pay for it. Which she said is usually not necessary. Then we had a conversation about how everything in the medical world just costs too much. More than it should. Like my $308 tetanus shot. But it's not only cost that steers me away from the hospitals and conventional doctors. It's the unnecessary crap they tell you you need. It's not enough to want to overcharge to increase their profit margin (more the hospital than the individual doctor), but just like any other place where you buy something, they will also "upsell" to you. Upselling is the practice of getting the customer to add a little more to their shopping cart before ringing up at the register. Examples:

1. Obviously the vaccinations are the first. Yes, there are some that are a good idea, but there are bunch that are completely unnecessary and could potentially be harmful. Plus, in nature, our bodies are meant to learn to fight off illness, why are we teaching out newborns' bodies how to NOT do that?

2. Braces. A majority of people I know with kids have been told they need braces. I'd estimate 75% of those people never got their kid the braces and all those kids' teeth are fine. I have really good teeth (straightness wise) and some of those kids who "needed" braces and never got them have better teeth than me! It's all based on "overbite". An overbite is like lower back pain, someone can say it exists and you just have to take their word for it. And it's easy to do because EVERYONE has an overbite. That's the way your teeth are supposed to go. Unless your kid has crooked teeth, and I mean seriously crooked, don't waste your money. And don't waste you money if your kids teeth are a little crooked. There is some value in individuality.

3. The Orthopedic Helmet. This is a new craze I've been hearing pop up a lot lately. Not too long after your baby is born your doctor will say, "oh, your baby's head is misshapen and he needs an Orthopedic Helmet". B-u-l-l-s-h-i-t! Every baby's head is misshapen and that's the way they're supposed to be. Nobody's head is perfectly round. Could you imagine what it would be like if everyone on the planet had a perfectly shaped head and they all looked the same? We could just shave out heads and look like aliens.

The key to the Braces and the Orthopdeic Helmet are that they get you when the child is young enough that the problem hasn't corrected itself. Of course the baby's head is misshapen, it just squeezed between it's mothers legs. But a baby's head will harden and change shape as it grows up. They always suggest the helmet before that. And the "overbite" is another thing that changes as the child grows and it's always suggested to the kid when they are young enough that the growing process isn't done. These doctors know exactly what they're doing and they know that your fear (and your assumption that the doctor is always right) will help them sell you some shit that you don't need. If you walked into a Bestbuy and the salesman told you that you really needed this little elctronic device that you could put on your kid and it would help them stay healthy or in a beauty store they try to sell you an expensive piece of plastic that will help keep your kids' teeth straight, you'd shrug it off as another unnecessary gadget. But if a doctor told you that you needed it to keep your kid healthy or keep their teeth straight, you'd be 10 times more likely to buy it. And they know that.

But the thing that really freaks me out is that these doctors can sell this shit because we as a people have decided that we need to eliminate anything about us that sets us apart from everyone else. Everybody wants to look perfect, but in looking perfect we ultimately will just all look the same. You have a couple crooked teeth, you're head is a little more pointed at the top, you have a birthmark in a visible area. Those are the things that make you YOU.

And where did nature go so wrong that man has had to step in a fix all it's problems? Nature created us with the ability to come in contact with an illness, figure it out and learn to fight it off. But you have to let the human body do that in order for a person to have a strong immune system. Nature made it possible for the baby's head to be soft so it can squeeze out of the mother. It's supposed to be that way. We have decided as a people that nature is wrong and that we can do better, but so far we haven't done anything that even compares to what nature has provided. and every time our cocky asses try, people get sick or get killed.

Besides, do you really want to put you kid through this? This kid would have hated his parents a lot less if his head were out of shape.

30 Weeks 5 Days: Family Matters

Dear Baby,

Your Aunt Janet is throwing a baby shower for you and your mom. She had these really nice invitations made and even put on there that we didn't want any disposable diapers of wipes. So, if you ever get mad at her in the future, just do what I do in those situations and remember how great a sister/aunt she is.

29 Weeks 2 Days: Death Race

I've done a ton of shit in my life. I actually know a lot of people who have done more, so it doesn't feel like a lot to me, but then I also know a lot of people who haven't done shit so I guess it is. But I want to do more. I like having crazy stories and it feels like the older I get, the less crazy stories I log. In the past few years I've... Uh... Worked and... Uh... Oh, a few years back we went to Leavenworth and had quite the adventure getting home. We almost slid off a cliff, we got stuck in massive flooding. It was fun. But since then... I got nothin'. So I'm compiling a list of things I want to do before I die.

1: I want to fly a helicopter. I'd say learn to fly a helicopter, which is probably where I'll have the chance, but if the opportunity arises and there happens to be a helicopter unguarded... I might hop in and try to get her off the ground.

2: I want to hop a train. I'd like to just hop a train to a random destination. Also I'd like to run on top of a moving train and have to lay down real quick when it's about to go through a tunnel.

3: I want to go into Mexico and then pay a coyote to smuggle me back into the states. Just to see what it's like. And the best part is: if we get caught, I'm a US citizen. I didn't actually do anything illegal.

4: I want to design a costume and go out at night and secretly beat up guys who abuse their kids or wives. I guess it's not a secret anymore. Shhhh, don't tell.

5: I want to buy and old car and rebuild it so it looks like a giant roller skate.

6: I want to make a movie about my life where everything is extremely exaggerated. And I think Jack Black should play me. And I'm best friends with Mr. T.

7: I want be friends with a robot.

8: I want to walk down the entire west coast, with a handkerchief on a stick and a pocket full of dreams. Meeting people and causing trouble.

9: I want to go out treasure hunting. Or maybe go look for D.B. Cooper's money.

10: I want to get another motorcycle, start a little motorcycle gang and take a cross country trip on our hogs. And maybe save a small town from a bigger, meaner motorcycle gang while we're at it.

11: I want to go bull-slapping.

12: I want to to win first prize with something I entered into a state fair.

13: I want to run a marathon.

14: I want to go to a really famous museum and touch one of the exhibits.

15: I want to get kicked out of somewhere for not wearing pants. Anywhere: the movies, Denny's, Barnes & Noble.

16: I want to sneak onto a Hollywood movie lot by wearing elaborate disguises and then get chased all through different sets by security.

17: I want to beat up a midget in self defense.

18: I want to have to smuggle a monkey somewhere. I don't care where. Maybe through airport security or into Disneyland or out of the the Zoo.

19: I want to take a whole bunch of pictures of myself in wacky poses and just send them to 100 random addresses all over the country with SASE's enclosed. Just to see if I get anything back.

20: I want to walk halfway across a casino floor and then break into a dead sprint to see how long it takes for security to tackle me. I'm guessing... 12 seconds. Who wants the over/under?

I'm sure I could do this all night. That's just the way my brain works. If I had a nickle for every time I went, "Oooo, you know what I should do?!" I'd have a lot of nickles. Now it's just a race to do as much of this crap as I can before I die. Who's with me?

28 Weeks 0 Days: Scary In More Than One Way

I don't know about Halloween. A lot of people know that I'm not a big holiday guy. There is a part of me who thinks I shouldn't celebrate holidays that are based on a religion I don't practice. If people who are not christian celebrate the birth of christ, why don't they just go ahead and start celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Oh right, because it's really about buying shit and getting shit. And that's where my biggest problem with holidays comes in: It's what people have turned them into. Christmas is just a big orgy of buying crap to the point that people put themselves into debt over it. Thanksgiving isn't about being thankful. I've cooked food for people on Thanksgiving and its, "I don't like that and I only eat this and you should have made this..." By the way, YOU'RE WELCOME!

Yesterday I needed a new shop vac. Mine died, so I went down to the Fred Meyer to pick one up and it was packed full of last minute shoppers trying to get candy and costume supplies. It was insane. And now that Halloween is over I can't set foot in a store. The Christmas season has completely destroyed any idea of going shopping. Because people become assholes around Christmas. People are miserable, everywhere is crowded and the people are just looking out for themselves. People have gotten trampled in attempts to buy toys or get into sales. Merry fucking Christmas!

All of them: Valentines Day is another attempt to sell shit. And you are obligated to tell your significant other that you love them on Valentines day or it means you don't. Screw you! I won't be dictated as to how or when I love someone. The 4th of July isn't about freedom. Do you think anyone is thinking about our freedom while they light off fireworks? No, they just want to light off fireworks. They light off the fireworks while our president signs a bill to start wiretapping people without a warrant. GO FREEDOM!

Now I've realized that Halloween has been taken too. Not just the crowds, they were actually much better then the Christmas crowds. It's the fear. It's the fact that we get 1 trick or treater because everyone else takes their kid down to the mall to trick or treat because its "safer". Back in the day (which was a Wednesday), people used to make cookies or caramel apples to give out. Not anymore! Some crazy will poison the candy! It happens all the time... Doesn't it?

The answer is no. There was one, I will repeat, ONE documented case of a kid being poisoned by Halloween candy and it turned out to be the kids own parent. In 1974 a man put cyanide in pixie sticks (pre-packaged candy) in order to collect the insurance money from the policy he had placed on his son. You may find a second death, but it was determined that that kid got into his father's heroin stash the day after Halloween and over-dosed. So they sprinkled some on a piece of candy to try to make it look like it was a stranger, but heroin junkies aren't too smart and the police figured it out. Then ever since, a whack-job poisoning candy has been the reason for countless sick kids and every one of them turned out to be caused by something else. That's the beauty of our news, they play the breaking story over and over, "DUMP OUT YOUR CANDY IT'S POISONED!!!" Then when the investigations done, the story is cold and they never broadcast the results. So please, next year, let your kid go out and trick or treat. Make some candy apples and give them to the kids. Have fun.

And I know what you're saying, "What if..." Well, "what if you get in a horrible car accident" doesn't stop you from driving. Actually, you strap your kid in a car seat and do one of the most dangerous activities every day. As you should. Nobody should live life based on "what if". Because it's not rational. You have a 1 in 75 chance of dying in a car accident (and there's no way you'd stop driving) and the odds of a kid getting poisoned candy from a stranger are... Well, there aren't any odds because it's never happened. NEVER HAPPENED!!! But you're still afraid of it.

Look, I'm just trying to make this world a happier place. Yes, you could get attacked if you go out and yes, your kid could get hurt if it does certain activities. But do we really want to be huddle inside all the time asking ourselves "what if"? And where does it end? Can he swim? He might drown. Can he go to school? He might be in a school shooting. Can she go on a date? She might get raped. Can he learn to drive? He might get in an accident. Can he go to church? He might get molested.

Just live. Take a deep breath and just live.

27 Weeks 3 Days: Our Economy Must Have A Facebook Page

Dear Facebook,

It cannot be a coincidence that your popularity has grown as the economy has fallen. You are sucking so much productivity out of our society we will soon have nothing left. Please stop destroying the world.

Sincerely,

Jiles

26 Weeks 0 Days: To Be Or Not To Be... Vaccinated

Look, we're not idiots. And I know that my family doesn't take me seriously. They just believe that I follow a bunch of baseless ideals for the sake of being "anti-everything". Which isn't true. I'm just one of the few people who actual stop and think about the effectiveness of actions before I do them. Most people just do what they're told to do by someone they feel is more educated then them like a doctor. And especially if fear is the motivator. "You could get sick if you don't..." is a very persuasive arguement. Unfortunately it's isn't true 90% of the time.

So to all you people who feel you are above the rules (see previous post) and want to tell us what we should do with our child. Stop. And especially to all the people who say we should do some research (thanks for just assuming we hadn't, again, my family doesn't take me seriously), it's pretty hypocritical for you to be saying that when I guarantee you did no research on the effects of all the immunizations you gave your kid. Did you? Did you research all the vaccinations, how well they were tested, the test result and all the side effects? No. The doctor says do it and you snap in line. "Your baby could get sick and die!!!" I better do exactly what the doctor wants. Even though he is getting PAID to sell you those vaccinations. So, maybe you should do some research, since I already have. Here are some highlights other than talking to our Midwife and Doctor.

You can read "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations", by Stephanie Cave.

You can read the CNN Health article that printed: Currently, newborns receive hepatitis B shots before they're discharged from the hospital.

"I've never understood why we give this at birth," said Dr. Richard Frye, assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology at the University of Texas Medical Center at Houston.

Hepatitis B is spread by having sex with an infected partner, by sharing needles, by sharing razors or toothbrushes with an infected person or by contact with blood or open sores of an infected person. Health Library "I don't know babies who have sex or share needles," said Dr. David Traver, a pediatrician in private practice in Foster City, California.

Other fun information:

An unpublished study by the World Health Organization (WHO) on a "measles susceptible" (malnourished) group of children showed that the group who hadn't been vaccinated contracted measles at the normal contract rate of 2.4%. Of the group who had received the measles vaccine (MMR), 33.5% contracted measles.

In 1975 Japan raised the minimum age for infant vaccinations to 2 years. As a result, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or, crib death) and infant convulsions virtually disappeared. In the 80's, Japan lowered the minimum age back down to 3 months and the rate of SIDS returned to previous levels.

According to the U.S. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (est.1986): To qualify for compensation, the adverse effects of vaccination must occur within four hours of receiving the vaccine. Despite this extremely severe limitation, as of February 28, 1998 compensatory payments have totaled $871,800,000.00. This figure is even more alarming when it is revealed that only one in four claimants were awarded compensation.

Some researchers postulate that the use of live viral vaccines introduce foreign genetic material into the human system, which has contributed to the unprecedented escalation of auto-immune disorders (like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, cancer, Crohn's disease, asthma, etc.) in recent decades.

Now tell me again to do some research! There are way too many things we don't know about the effects of a lot of immunizations. Blindly injecting them into your child based on the recommendation of one person who is gaining financially from you accepting them is irresponsible. They aren't all necessary, we are researching which ones are and we will get our child the ones we want, when we want. And we are doing that to make sure our child stays happy and healthy, not because it's what we've been brainwashed into doing.

Do stuff because it makes sense to do, not because it's social routine...

25 Weeks 6 Days: A Socially Acceptable Post

Dear Baby,

I know you will not end up normal person because I am your father. I don't do the things that other people do. My basic rule of thumb is, if it starts with the words "supposed to", I don't like it. Things you're supposed to do or not supposed to do. Most of those things don't have any real logical reason, people just decided that they better do it or else other people might think badly of them. Well, I don't give a shit what other people think. So there are a lot of things that I might or might not do that you'll probably see a lot of other people do based on habit, social acceptability or because someone they feel has knowledge (ie. a doctor) told them to even though that person is probably full of shit.

- I don't do everything the doctor tells me. They talk as if they know everything about everybody, but they don't. We're all different and they can't accurately account for that. They just go off of a book.
- I don't run out and get flu shots every year (and I've never needed one).
- I don't plan on pumping you full of vaccinations that you don't need (ie. most of them).
- I don't celebrate christmas. It's the celebration of a religious figure from a religion I'm not a part of. And I don't like to add to the corporatism that fuels the sheer madness of the season.
- I don't think it's shameful to spend time in jail. It happens and if you go because you were standing up for something you believe in I'll be very proud of you.
- I don't hold back my opinion because someone else might not like it. I don't want to live in a world were everyone is sheltered from everything all the time.
- I don't give a shit if you swear. On TV now they bleep out crap and balls and words that aren't swear words because they might reference something "naughty". Oh no! Not balls! BALLS BALLS BALLS. SHIT PISS FUCK. There you heard it, I'm sure you'll turn out fine.

Honestly, I don't think life is as complicated as the media and the doctors and the police and the politicians what us to believe it is. Be yourself, don't take shit from anyone, tell people how you feel, question the doctor, don't even listen to the news and enjoy your life.

I was somewhere the other day and their was a sign on the wall that said:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, latte in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO, what a ride!”

Please, take the ride...

24 Weeks 4 Days: My Brain is Melting

Dear everyone,

Shut up. Just shut up. All of your little bullshit idiotic ideas about how you think things should be are wrong. Everybody on the face of the planet is wrong. You have no idea how wrong you are. All of us. So just shut up already.

23 Weeks 3 Days: Legal Drug Dealers

I got my bill in the mail from my emergency room visit. Just a reminder of what I had done: Cut the tip of my finger almost off, went to the emergency room, had a nurse take my blood pressure, then they gave me an X-Ray to make sure I didn't hit the bone, then I was given a room and another nurse gave me a Tetanus shot, then a Nurse Practitioner came in, numbed my finger, rubbed it with some iodine and put in 7 stitches, she left then the nurse came back in a wrapped it with gauze. I was there for about 2 hours, but I was in contact with hosptial staff for a collective 30 minutes. Grand Total: $1,135.08. And that's after a "uninsured discount" of $463.62 which brings that actual amount they feel they deserve to $1,598.70. Now lets break that charge down.

Mediations: $47.30
X-Ray: $91.50
Emergency Room Services: $608.75
Medications With Detail: $304.15
Professional Fee Emergency: $547.00

Medications is the Lanacane they used to numb my finger. They did have to use twice as much as she planned on so this seems to be the most reasonable charge though still a bit pricey. You know they mass produce this crap dirt cheap and the hospital puts a 1000% markup on it.

X-Ray is obviously the X-Ray. After paying the X-Ray tech and for the supplies and use of the room I guess this isn't horrible, but it did only take about 10 minutes which means this room costs $549 an hour to operate. Seems a bit inefficient.

Emergency Room Services is the fee for just having me use the emergency room itself. Well, is the use of the X-Ray room in this charge? I mean, if it's not, then they charged me $608.75 to have a receptionist enter my info into the computer and sit in the waiting room.

Medications With Detail is supposedly medications that were administered by a medical professional (I guess I gave myself a shot of Lanacane). The only medication I got besides Lanacane was a Tetanus shot. I double checked with the lady at thefinance office and yes, this $304.15 is for one Tetanus shot and nothing else. Again, you know that this is being manufacture dirt cheap, and then the drug company marks it up to make record profits and then the hospital marks it up to make record profits and the patient get screwed. And when I asked the lady, "It costs $304 for a Tetanus shot?" She said, "Yep," like there was no reason for me to question that.

Professional Fee Emergency is the fee for Nurse Practitioner who stitched me up. Again, she was in the room for maybe 15 minutes which means this lady makes over $2000 an hour. And supposedly, people get into the medical profession to help people... Really? And I know she's got expenses to pay (insurance, ect.), but this charge is ri-god-damn-diculous. I'm going to find a job where I install one door and then send the person a bill for $500 just for labor. They would call and question that bill.

So the hospital is sending me the form to fill out to get a financial assistance discount. That will come in the mail in a few days and then it will take a few weeks to process it. So we'll see where that gets us. Oh and their wonderful cleaning job didn't work because the damn wound got infected. I had to go to my doctor so he could soak it in an iodine solution, took out some of the stitches and put me on antibiotics. I bet if I brought my finger in and asked for a refund they would probably laugh at me.

And this is why I have little faith for any health care reform that might happen. It's not about who pays for it, it about how much it costs. These procedures and medications should not cost as much as they do.

23 Weeks 0 Days: Words Can't Describe

I was sitting in a Fred Meyer bathroom the other day, relieving myself when I glanced over and noticed a funny device on the wall. It was a seat, or really more like a "dock" for your baby. You could dock your baby there and take a dump while not having to worry about him/her crawling away. The idea already seemed stupid to me, but then I took a closer look.





Upon careful inspection, I realized that, not only was the strap to hold your baby in missing, the top two of the four screws that is supposed to hold it to the wall where gone. 50% of what hold your baby 3 feet off the ground where not even there. Hopefully nobody uses it because the strap is gone, but what if the strap was there? Some idiot would stick their baby in there, it would fail off the wall and that jack ass would sue Fred Meyer. And yes, Fred Meyer should be fixing these things, but do we really need to live in a country where our child's safety is up to everyone else? If your going to use a random device in a shopping center bathroom, you don't think you should give it a once over before you use it? And are we surprised that this stupid device is broken? I mean, the logo for the "Safe-Sitter" is two babies head butting each other?!?!

22 Weeks 6 Days: Don't Bite The Hand...

Dear Baby,

Power tools are dangerous.

Sincerely,

Dad






So, yes. I cut the tip of my finger off with a circular saw. The homeowner where I was working had to take me to the emergency room where the sewed it back on. And then they will be sending me a bill. Who knows how much that will be. $10,000. Maybe a million? And then I have to go back and pay a doctor to remove the stitches. Of course my inexpensive doctor said he could do it, but I'm thinking about just doing it myself. Snip snip, pull. Snip, snip, pull. It's not rocket science. Which makes it so frustrating that these doctors charge so much. Some of these procedures are really simple.

And of course, not only did the hospital cost me money, but it backed up my workload so I had to reschedule a lot of work this week for next week and I'll be making less money. So it double screwed me. I guess I'll be more careful around power tools from now on.

21 Weeks 6 Days: A Shotgun And A Shovel

So, we found out last week that we are going to have a girl. I do like the idea of having a daughter but we are definitely going to need to start a bank account with a reserve fund just for legal fees for myself. It's almost guaranteed that I will eventually beat the crap out of some loser teenage boy for getting a little too gropey with my daughter. And in this day and age of parents suing everybody over their kids' bad behavior, I'm sure to end up in court more than once.

But it's a small price to pay to be that dad that scares the living shit out of all your kids' friends. And it seems especially more satisfying to be that dad that makes teenage boys afraid to date a certain girl because when you come by the house to meet her parents, the first thing the dad does is take the boy into the garage to show him his shotgun and his shovel... And I'll be that crazy dad that provides his daughter with all sorts of weapons and teaches her how to use them, because nothing drives me crazy more than person who is victimized because they just didn't know what to do. Seeing a woman in a traumatic situation who is just curled up in a ball screaming is retarded. FIGHT BACK! Here's how you get out of a choke hold, then you give him a swift kick in the nuts, get your retractile asp that daddy got you for your birthday out and hit him as hard as you can on the back of the neck. Not only did you save yourself from getting raped, you can now laugh every time you see his sorry ass try to get up a flight of stairs in his WHEEL CHAIR!

Not that I want my child to be paranoid. I grew up with, "don't go out at night because their are crazy people all over the place," when 99% of the time you are perfectly safe. But at least be prepared for something. Have a little knowledge of defense and don't freeze up and at least make an effort. And if you are a couple that is having a boy sometime in the near future, know this: If your son does anything inappropriate with my daughter, I will smack him around. And god forbid he do something worse like rape, I will use my sledge hammer on his junk then I will shoot him in the face. And I might shoot you in the face as well for raising him like that. Then My family and I will start our early retirement in Panama...

21 Weeks 4 Days: AMERICA! F**K YEAH!

Dear Baby,

You are an American. I know it comes as a shocker since your mom and my distant, distant relatives once lived in Ireland, England and Germany, but no that doesn't make you Irish, British or German. You will be born in America, your parents were born in America, your grandparents were born in America, Your great grandparents were born in America and at least some if not all of your great, great Grandparents were born in America. I think there is enough lineage there to savely label you an American.

And I'm no super patriot shouting, "America! Fuck Yeah!" in the streets or anything, but there are way to many people who call themselves some other nationality than American when they are in no way that nationality. I use Irish as an example because I run into more Americans who tell people they are "Irish" than anyone else. Irish culture is cool. I'd like to go to Ireland some day and maybe learn some more about my roots. But I'm not an Irishman. If you weren't born in a country, never been there, parents never been then, grandparents never been there, then you aren't Irish. And I wonder what the Irish people (the real Irish people who currently live in Ireland) think of all the Americans who claim to be "Irish" when they aren't from Ireland. I bet they think you people are retards.

I feel the same way about people who call themselves Jews because they're heritage includes some Jewish people, but they in no way follow the religion. Jewish isn't a race, it's a religion. If you don't believe in the religion, you're not Jewish. Dark hair and a big nose don't automatically qualify you. Those people just want to be able to be involved in a group of people who suffered hard times. They are the people who don't belive in Judaism, but are constantly referring to themselves as a "Jew". Seriously, SHUT UP!

So, I'm going to tell you right now baby, you are an American. That is your nationality. Your distant ancestors are from a handful of European countries and if you want to learn more about them, there's nothing wrong with that. Learning stuff is a good thing. And I'll show you any info I have found about my ancestors. But please, don't plan on getting a giant clover leaf tattoo and start telling everyone that you are Irish because you're not. As much as America can suck at times, that's your country and you should be proud of that. We may not be perfect, but as a nation, we've done some good things.

19 Weeks 4 Days: Be Cool, Stay Home From School

Today in the paper there is an article about some conservatives who are keeping their kids home from school because the President is going to address the kid in public schools (which is completely voluntary to the school). Of course, these wack jobs think that Obama is trying to get to the children with his socialist message. In reality, he's doing a generic, "work hard, stay in school" speech which many President's have done before him. And I think it's fitting that the dumbest people on the planet find the education portion of school less important that their crazy conspiracy theory. They are so focused on hating the President that pulling their kid out of school and denying them a days worth of education is a good idea.

And they're using the public school system! You know, one of those government run programs that they hate so much? They're using them! They're using government paid, public schools, but don't want the president to address their children. Of course these are the same people who want the public school system to teach creationism... Again, these people obviously got as good an education as they are providing for their children. Their parents probably pulled them out of school the day they let coloreds integrate... "I ain't be wantin' my dang ol' kid in school with no dang darky!!!" They'll probably use the time off of school to plan more segregated proms like in Charleston Mississippi which had it's first integrated prom in 2008! (to much resistance!)

I don't want to generalize, these people aren't all rednecks. One of the places listed in the article with complaints was Utah. Right, Utah. We'd rather spend the day at home brainwashing our kids into believing that Polygamy is okay. Or we're just going to use the day out of school to sell our 14 year old daughter to a middle aged man with 4 other wives.

You people need to be put down, because I guarantee it's not the president who's the biggest problem in our country.

Read the article here

19 Weeks 2 Days: WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

Dear Baby,

Don't bother watching the news. It's all bullshit. Today the headlines read, "Swine Flu May Be Less Dangerous Than Predicted". Yeah, you think? Just like the Bird Flu. That was supposed to kill millions and destroy the country... And nothing happened. Or like Y2K was supposed to crash all computers and destroy the country... And nothing happened.

Everything in the news is always the worst possible situation ever and WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! Unless we buy something to fix it. The news is owned by giant corporations that sell stuff and it's much easier to sell stuff to people who are living in fear. If you're told you should buy something because it will save your life, you're more likely to do it. You don't need a vaccination or most of these identity guard deals or a pre-made disaster preparedness kit. Those are just things people are selling to you as a means of cashing in on your fear. We're all doing alright despite what the news says.

19 Weeks 1 Day: Officer Babysitter

I heard on the radio today that the Portland police will be putting a bunch of resources into watching for people who don't have their children in the proper booster seat. Really? What the hell happened to cops protecting us from dangerous criminals? Now they sit on the side of the road and look for people who aren't wearing a seat belt or people who don't have their kid in a booster seat. Do we not have any real crime going on? I mean, I understand that a child can be too little for a regular seat belt and they could get injured, but really isn't that the parent's responsibility to do that? Not a tax paid babysitter. I don't need a babysitter telling me what device I should put my child in and when. I'm an adult with some common sense, I know what I'm doing. How about you go out and stop some real crime! Not just sit on the side of the road and wait for revenue building, ticketable offenses to occur.

And what kind of person decides that they want to be a police officer and then is okay with doing that kind of BS. You're all proud to serve your community, you graduate the academy and then you're handed that assignment. What a load of crap.

19 Weeks 0 Days: Imagine All The People

Dear Baby,

God is not going to save you. Just like politics, only you can make things happen for you. God is not going to reach down and clear a path and make everything work out for you. There will be no series of lucky breaks that are really God looking out for you. Everything good that happens to you will be due to your own hard work and determination. Just like anything bad that happens is not because some Devil is trying to tempt you into a life of sin. It will be because you got lazy or unfocused or unmotivated or something like that.

I've been thinking about religion because I heard a pastor on the radio today who believes that the President should die because he is not making abortion illegal and therefore he is killing babies. ??? Though, when asked if, since he is in a position of influence, someone kills the president because of his preaching, should he be held responsible? Of course he said no, because he's not responsible for someone else's actions. But the President is responsible for the actions of an abortion doctor? What kind of double standard is that? This pastor also believes that gays should be put to death AND since the bible says that any child who curses their mother or father should be put to death, that we should be carrying out that little biblical rule as well. And he is the reason I question Christian teachings so much. This guy, as stated on his web site, has no college education, but has most of the bible memorized. He is a fanatic, who has no other life experience, who read the bible over and over and decided to start a church and did. And now he preaches his own interpretation of what he reads in the bible. There is no qualifying process. He just wanted to preach, so he does. And he preaches a bunch of evil, hateful beliefs and people are flocking. That's Christianity? That's the message that "Christians" are looking for? And that is the religion we are supposed to base our moral standards on?

We really are better off with no religion. My biggest pet peeve is when people say, "well, with no religion, how would we know right from wrong?" I'm not religious and I know right from wrong. And who's to say that what the bible says is right or wrong is so. Killing your child when he curses his mom or dad seems wrong to me. I think we as human beings can figure out what's right or wrong without any of the many religious trying to jam it down our throats.

So, Christianity; this thing, this belief, this ideal that is all about morals and God doing good things has spokespersons in the media preaching that the President should die, gays should die, and children should die. And these rules were created by the guy who's supposed to be guiding you and making good things happen? No. You're doing good things for yourself.

So don't sit around praying to some imaginary giant to make things happen for you, because you'll be sitting around for a long time. You have to get up and do it on your own. God isn't making it happen, the government isn't making it happen, not even I can make it happen. I'll support you in whatever it is you want to do, but I can't do it for you.

And not all Christians are like the aforementioned crazy pastor. I'm lucky to know a lot of Christians who have, um... brains. But it's the few extremists in the group who really sour the whole idea to me. Don't discriminate, a cool person who happens to be Christian is still a cool person, but if you happen to meet anyone like crazy pastor, RUN! Run like you've never run before.

18 Weeks 6 Days: Back on Track

Dear Baby,

I tried to play it cool when I first found out that you were on your way. It was about 3 days and then I found myself standing in the shower yelling "FUUUUUUUCK!" up at the ceiling. Then I panicked. I needed a new career and all these things in our lives need to change. And so I ventured forth into an unknown of dress shirts, ties and insurance sales. Even though I kept telling myself that I was doing this for you and that I didn't care what I do for a living as long as I made a good life for you, I couldn't force myself to be happy. I could try to convince myself all day that being a general contractor was not a good job to have while raising a family, but I couldn't make myself believe it. I missed it. I was cramped up in a cubicle, dreaming of being outside creating something with my bare hands.

And I then I figured something out: Why should I teach my child that it's acceptable to be miserable at work just to make more money? I don't want to send that message. And I don't want to do something I don't love doing all day long. So I ripped of the neck-tie noose and because free of that cubicle! Instead of having a dad that brings home a lot of money, you're going to have a dad who's happy and think that's far more important. And if I just focus on what I'm doing and be smart about how I advertise and get referrals, I could be much more successful than I am now. And it's not even like I don't make very much money. In the time I've owned my business I have made a lot of money. There are just slow periods that scare me. But there are a lot of other things I enjoy doing that I can do on the saide, from home, that can supplement the income. I'd like to build furniture and sell it. And I'm learning HTML & CSS right now to improve my own website, but maybe I could do a little web design on the side. It couldn't hurt and I love doing that kind of stuff. I love creating.

So I hope that I can stay organized and build my business up enough for you to have a comfortable life. I'm doing everything I can while still staying happy.

18 Weeks 0 Days: Do It For The Kids

I have been slacking off big time when it comes to working. I know I want to get into a different industry so I can make a decent living without killing my back, but it's been a lot harder than I thought it would be to adjust to the different environment. I'm having a hard time getting motivated. I tell myself over and over that I have to do it for my family but I just can't seem to muster the get up and go I did when I started my contractor business. I'll have to see how things go this week and if I can't get things going I'll have to really reevaluate what I'm going to do. I'm going to do everything I can to really push myself.

17 Weeks 2 Days: Who Are You... Ou, ou... Ou, ou.

I really wanna know...

We met up with our good friend Gainen and his two sons, Caden and Jake (and no one else... Heather) at the OMSI so we could check out the CSI exhibit. Unfortunately, it was supposed to be for ages 12 and up, but the lady working the door said that one of the sections was more kid friendly so we went through that one. Basically there are three crime scenes and you have to go through and collect evidence and solve the crime. The one we went through was just bones found out in the desert, so you collect trace evidences at the scene. The only lame part was that you don't REALLY collect evidence, you just look at a model of the scene and you are blocked off from actually going in the scene. But then you go around to all these lab computers to inspect the evidence that you "collected". It was fun. Then we went around and played with all the science exhibits and let the boys play with the science stuff. Then Gainen took the kids to the play area while Krystal and I went through one more CSI crime scene. It was basically the same and was starting to get crowded so there was more waiting to use the lab computers. This scene was of a car that crashed through a living room, but the guy in the driver's seats injuries didn't seem to match with crashing a car. It was interesting. Then we got some food at the OMSI Cafe which a little bit more expensive that if we had gone somewhere else, but it was convenient since the OMSI is in an area of Portland that has businesses without really good parking.

The CSI exhibit made me miss watching CSI. Krystal and I used to rent the DVD's and just watch entire season's over a weekend. Back in our tiny studio apartment in California that cost almost as much in rent than our 2 bedroom house does now. Anyway, Maybe we can get the old first season and watch it for nostalgia's sake. We can watch it with the baby, because I don't really care about our kid seeing death. I know a lot of people tend to shield their kid from dead, most of the time they end up lying to their kid to shield it from death, but the lying seems just as bad. Why is death such a terrible thing? We're all going to die. It's a natural part of life. I guess those same people spend a lot of time shield their kids from sex or nudity as well. I just don't get it. It's all natural. It's all stuff that is much more accepted in European countries and turns out much more open minded, mature children. That's my opinion. You can't shield your kids from things and then expect them to be mature and understanding of them later on.

16 Weeks 5 Days: They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

What the hell is up with cartoons these days? Are they for adults or kids? I can't tell most of the time. Is it Total Drama Island or Total Drama Action? Is it for kids or is it just for elitist hipster twenty-somethings? I don't even know. Same with Drawn Together and Sealab and Metalocolypse and Aqua Teen Hunger Farce and The Venture Brothers and Superjail. There's a cartoon about a jail?!?! Let's face it. The Cartoon Network is not for kids anymore. I mean, it is for kids, but not little kids, like "young adult" kids with horrible music taste and dyed black hair with a layer of bleached hair underneath.

So let me get this straight: I'm about to have a child and the one channel they won't be allowed to watch is the Cartoon Network? What kind of backward world are we living in?

And why do all the new cartoons have the shittiest drawing in existence? Here's the rule: If you can't draw, don't become a cartoonist. Because eventually those loser hipsters are going to realize that they are, well, losers and they're going to go get real jobs and become contributing members of society and they won't be watching your cartoon any more. And then you won't have anyone to watch your poorly drawn cartoon, because the hipster fad will be gone and when you are a hipster there is some chemical in your brain that makes things that look or sound like shit, much more appealing.

I digress. I was complaining about cartoons, not hipsters. I wish someone would make some real quality cartoons actually geared towards children. And not this Dora the Explorer crap (newsflash, Dora and Explorer DON'T RHYME). We don't need a bunch of lovey multi-lingual, let's try so hard not to offend anybody that our cartoon becomes useless BS. We don't need a Sesame Street where Snuffleupagus can be seen because everyone is paranoid that their kids will be encouraged to have invisible friends. Who cares?!?! It's called an imagination, maybe if you had one you'd see how horrific these cartoons are! I can't believe that I have to complain about the cartoons.

Where is Tranzor Z when you need him?

16 Weeks 3 Days: Babies in Politics

Dear Baby,

Don't waste your time on politics. People have always gotten all freaked out of various political ideas that our government may put in place. It doesn't matter. It's not going to "destroy the country" as so many people say. If they reform healthcare, it won't destroy the country. But I'm for health care reform, so I'm biased. Well, I was against the war in Iraq, still didn't destroy the country. The billion dollar financial bailout didn't destroy the country. gays getting married won't destroy the country.

The point is, that 90% of the time, it's business as usual when it come to running the country. Things change here and there and those policy changes work well for some people and don't work for some people. Some people are okay with them and some are morally opposed to them. And sometimes those changes don't work for a majority, or raise our deficit or get a bunch of soldiers killed, but they have never completely destroyed the country. We have been a country for a while and we've gone through depressions and booms and wars and times of peace and law changes and democratic presidents and republican presidents and protests and you name it. None of it has destroyed the country. Short of getting nuked, I don't think anything will.

But people like to freak out. If something is happening that they don't like, they have to spin it so it's going to have the worst possible outcome. Reforming healthcare is going to DESTROY THE COUNTRY! Really? Even if it's not a perfect plan, you really think it's going to turn the US into wasteland. Because that woud be a destroyed country, if that's not what you mean, then stop saying that. You think that a couple of gays getting married is going to destroy the country? Because there is so much sanctity in marriage now with our drive thru weddings and reality shows about bridezillas and who wants to marry a millionaire and wife swap. Right. And if we're so dead set on following god's will, what's up with all the multiple children due to invetro fertilization? God made you infertle, so now it's okay to go against god's will. I see.

Basically, the country is going to keep moving forward. We're going to make some changes. Some will work, some won't. But none will work for everyone. There is no one thing that is going to make 100% of the population happy. We're a mass of different people from different upbringings and different cultures. So there is always going to be an unhappy group. But for the most part, some things will change. Most things will stay the same. And the country and it's people will keep on living. And some of the problems in our country now weren't create entirely by our government. Wall Street dug it's own hole as did the auto industry. Those were huge corporations that got too greedy for their own good and didn't look to the future. Sure, the government could have changed some regulations, but ultimately it was their decisions that got them where they are.

Work hard, plan for the future and have fun whenever you can. Do those things for yourself, because nobody is going to make those things happen for you. Not the government, no matter how much you protest.

15 Weeks 6 Days: My PC Days Are Short Lived

For my new job at Farmers Insurance, their online quoting program is not compatible with a Mac. So I had to go out and buy a cheap PC laptop and I can tell you that within the first 30 minutes of using this piece of crap I was ready to pull my hair out. I haven't used a PC in years and I haven't owned one in probably 7 years. I cannot believe people use these things. And I'm not a computer programmer, so I won't get into what is better than what with regards to computer programming, but for the average computer users. The people who just use computers for regular daily routine or general business use, I cannot fathom why these things are still in use. From the minute I started it up there were pop ups and I got the wireless internet to work and then it stopped an I had to jump through hoops to getting back up again and the constant asking of me to make sure my virus protection is up-to-date. Virus protection??? Oh right, I normally use a Mac. And still things are constantly popping up asking me to check this or asking if I should update that. This has got to be the highest maintenance device I've ever used. And PC people always boast about how simple it is to make your PC run smoothly if you know what you're doing. That's the point! I don't know what I'm doing! I like using a computer that just works even though I don't know what I'm doing. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp. Do you think my Mom or my Grandma are computer programmers with the ability to reconfigure their system to work correctly? No! Why should they be expected to do that in order to make their computer work? You wouldn't buy a brand new car and be expected to give it a tune up and add a couple of air bags for protection as soon as you got home with it? Would you? You expect that thing to perform perfectly right off the lot.

I think we have become way to accustom to the idea that our computers are full of bugs and problems and just exept it way too easily. And as I type this on my piece of crap, PC laptop, I'm realizing that Internet Explorer has no auto spell checking. Sweet, I get to run a spell check program after I'm done typing. What is this, the 90's? I guess it's time to download Firefox. Or, I can just save this and go log in on my Mac and have it auto corrected... Yeah, that's better!

15 Weeks 0 Days: A Letter About Time Travel

Dear Baby,

I wish I could travel back in time so you at least grow up when I did. I mean, I'm sure it would be cool to grow up in the 50's or 60's, but even my childhoods was a simpler time than now. I'm glad I grew up at a time when there was no internet. I'm sure it existed even when I was a little kid, but it wasn't in anyone's houses. I remember when I was in my mid teens I think I knew one person who had America Online at their house... And their dad was a doctor! That was like a big deal. But before that, there was nothing. If I needed information, I had to go to the library. If I wanted a job, I had to dig through the newspaper then drive around town putting in applications... That I wrote out by hand. If I wanted to go to the movies, it was back into the paper. And if I wanted a date, I had to actually meet a girl in person and TALK to her face to face. It was nerve wracking and you could get rejected in person, but it built character and social skills that are far lacking today. There was actually work involved in getting anything done. And I think that our society has grown too used to the instant gratification that modern technology brings. In reality, it's supposed to save us time and make us more productive, but has it really? Has sitting on a computer all day, growing pail and allergic to sunlight really made us more productive?

This is why I can't get into social networking sites online and I get frustrated by the amount of time I spend online no matter what. I always think it's too much. It's because I remember before the internet and I think of those days as better then now. I liked when you had to go out into the world to do stuff. I wish I was out doing stuff right now, but the damn internet has got me in it's clutches.

And what about exercise? When I was a kid, I had no other entertainment than to run around outside. Sure there were video games and television shows, but they sucked. So we would walk 2-3 miles to go into town and hang out. Is there any kid living today that would walk two miles? And I was a very thin teenager. I had teachers in school think I was on drugs because I was too thin. But then the computer came about and I turned into a fat bastard. And as these "conveniences" become more prominent, as video games get better and more realistic, the fatter a nation we become. Plus, we just had so much fun. Me and my buddies, running around town, causing trouble, playing music in bands, going to local shows. And that was in a small town where there was nothing to do, think of all the possibilities here in Portland.

Even now, as I sit here and type this letter I can feel myself getting fatter and lazier. But by the time you are in your mid teens, there will be computers that you stick on your head so you just think you're doing something. There will be no movement or leaving the house required for existence. At least not in this fat country... Every other country in the world still goes outside.

14 Weeks 6 Days: The Internet for Children

I can't wait to see what the internet is like when our kid gets old enough to use it. At the rate things are going that will be like 2 years old. It will have it's own facebook and myspace page. Because a 2 year old needs that. I think we should just put ourselves ahead of the curve and get it a facebook page the day it's born. Then it can brag to it's friends in kindergarten about how it had a facebook page first and how many more "friends" they have. Of course by then there will be some other fad site that everyone will be using. And those social networking site are a good place for kids because that's how all the people who use them act. Like drama obsessed high school kids. And we can aslo get it a cell phone the day it's born so it can twitter every move it makes.

-1 hour ago: just pooped
-2 hours ago: woke up from a nap
-4 hours ago: going to take a nap
-5 hours ago: sucked on mom's boobie
-7 hours ago: just pooped

It would be awesome. Because we need constant updates of what everyone is doing all the time? I don't even have constant updates of what my wife is doing, why do I need it from anyone else?
And I can't wait until our kid pisses off some other kid somehow and that kids parent goes online to under an assumed name to try and get back at our kid.

Man the internet is full of such greatness. I understand why so many people spend all of their free time on it.

Here is a great article about the evils of social networking, including how sites like facebook really disconnect people more than they connect them. I associate connecting with people as a personal thing, not a sentence that gets sent to everyone you know. It seems like social networking sites work best for people who have trouble facing real people in person. It's easier to hide your real self with a computer. And I know, I was using it for a while. Even Luke Skywalker turned to the darkside for a brief moment, but the fact that I wasn't enjoying any moment of it was the important part. I can't handle communicating with people on a mass scale. And using the computer to comment on one persons opinion is a good way to make everyone misunderstand everything you say. If someone is important to me, I'll find out what going on with them on a personal level. If you don't have time to catch up with me on a personal level, then you aren't my friend. Everyone else I am more than happy to send the occasional email or make a phone call from time to time. If you ever want to know what's going on with me on a personal level, email me or call if you have my number. And no this blog is not me personally. It's just a collection of random ideas that maybe krystal, myself and our child(ren) can read some day in the future. Or other people that are not so lucky as to be my "friend" can read if they are in a similar situation. I get quite a few hits from people who just search for a similar topic and read this. Maybe it helped, maybe it didn't. I don't care.

With Friends Like These, by Tom Hodgkinson

14 Weeks 2 Days: Otters Are Not For Eating

I'm the kind of guy who will try the meat of any animal: gator, snake, ostrich, bear, opossum. I don't think I could eat Otter though. Denis Leary is right (must be why he's a doctor), we won't eat the cute animals. Though I guess I'd eat cat and most people think they're cute. When I look at a cat I see a flaming hell spawn, but that's just me.

At any rate. We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium last weekend and it was rather enjoyable. It only took us about an hour to get through the entire place but I bet if we had a kid in tow it would probably have taken longer (if you don't tug on it's leash too much). I mean, an hour was worth it, but adding in the 3 hour drive each way, it could have been a little more. The Oddwater exhibit didn't really have that many "odd" sea creatures. There were a lot of regular fish and jelly fish and that kind of junk. I classify those things as fairly normal. All in all, a decent place to take your kid. Once they are old enough to be fascinated by touching the sharks and sea urchins and giggling at the silly otters.

And you are not going to see a video of a wacky otter because blogger won't upload it... Ah, technology at it's finest. this is the best I can do:

13 Weeks 6 Days: $200 For a 15 Minute Dr. Visit

A while back I went to the doctor because my blood pressure was through the roof (couldn't use my normal naturopathic doctor, long story). So I was told, since I have no medical insurance, I couldn't see the doctor until I paid a $150 deposit. Which I did. Then I saw a nurse practitioner (not even a real doctor) for maybe 15 minutes, no tests were done, she checked my blood pressure, listened to my lungs and wrote a prescription. That's it! I figured they would credit me back some of my deposit. Until today when I got a bill in the mail for another $50. It was $200 to see a nurse practitioner for 15 minutes?!?! Are you out of your mind? Our healthcare system is fucked. All you people that say a national healthcare program would ruin our country are crazy. It's already fucked! All you people are either 1. rich, 2. already have some healthcare that is paid for, or 3. not in need of healthcare (ie. young, unmarried, no kids). When you're middle class and want some healthcare to protect yourself, your wife and your upcoming baby and you find out that it would cost $500 a month plus a $5000 deductible (after the baby is born since the pregnancy is a pre existing condition), you open up to new options real easily. But it's easy to ignore if you aren't in a market for healthcare. What we have now is not working, plain and simple. It's time to try something else. So if you are one of those people not in the market for healthcare and you are campaigning against single payer or a public option: you can bite me. I need healthcare for myself and my family and I shouldn't have to pay out the ass for it because the insurance company wants 40% of premiums to be profit. This isn't meant to be an attack on anyone. Everyone is entitled to their views. But so am I and views against healthcare reform affect me A LOT. It's just really frustrating to hear people talk out their ass about how reforming healthcare will hurt the country while at the same time, I'm not able to get any good healthcare to save my life (almost literally). So if you don't need healthcare, shut up. If you have great healthcare that is affordable, by all means clue me in. But if you want to tell me I'm wrong, then you better be ready to tell me about your healthcare or experience shopping for healthcare or how to get great affordable healthcare at the same time. If you can't do that, don't bother. I don't need to hear people talk just so they can hear themselves talk.