Only in Texas

Why am I wearing shorts on December 31st?! Because Texas doesn't even know how to stay cool in Winter! I don't honestly know how I'm going to survive here for 5 years. I'm a true northerner. I love winter, even though it gets way too cold sometimes, but it's invigorating. I love to see snow, and there's nothing more beautiful than going for a drive after a big snow storm and seeing the sun reflect off the snow. I miss Wisconsin…If only Rochester had a program that I really wanted to go into, but their plasma physics program was mostly laser based, which isn't what I wanted. Oh well.

There are advantages to Texas winters, like the fact that my wife's knee doesn't bother her as much, but it's hard on me psychologically. Now I know I have to go home every winter for a little while in order to keep me happy. Once Carrie gets a job we can start saving and hopefully make early summer trips to Yellowstone which still has snow in June, or to Alaska or some other place suitably north. I'd go back to Antarctica if I wasn't in school, but that requires a few months comittment which I cannot do. Eventually though, because Antarctica is just beautiful.

Enough wishing I was somewhere colder. It doesn't do any good to wish for something that can't happen right now anyway. I'll just embrace the weather as it comes and try to enjoy it all.

Google Adsense

I don’t understand this program. It keeps showing the same ads, having to do with something I have no affiliation with, and has only shown one other ad once, and it disappeared shortly after. I actually liked the new ad it put up, it was really useful information, so why can’t I keep getting ads that are useful? I wonder if it’s working right.

BBQ

And so it begins, the smoking of the pork butts. I didn't even realize I liked BBQ until Carrie made pork butts this fall. It's amazing! So in honor of the new year, we're going to smoke two pork butts, which will then be done tomorrow. On New Years day we'll make black eyed peas and cabbage (for good luck, Carrie's family tradition). A few friends are coming over, and it should be good food and fun for all.

I hope everyone else is having a good New Year's!

destruction

Last night, as I was sitting at the computer I heard a loud bang, then another, followed by the sound of glass breaking. I jumped up and looked out the window just in time to see a teenager running away from a car. I thought for a second to call the cops, but then I remembered that this is Austin and unless someone is dying the cops won't bother with you. So that threw me off for a minute. I also thought to just run outside, but then my fear got a hold of me and thought what would happen if he saw where I came from and wanted to come back and attack us. I'm not afraid of him attacking me physically, because I'm pretty sure I can take him. But I don't want all our stuff destroyed. How superficial is that? I wouldn't care if we had renters insurance, but we don't yet. And without a computer, schoolwork and TA paperwork is a bit harder. All excuses, but in the end, there's no substitute for the illusion of safety, which would be gone. All fears, and all silly, but real. Afterwards we did go outside, but didn't recognize the car and no one around us was home to ask. This morning a tow truck picked the car up, so whoever's car it was must have noticed it. I just wonder if it was a random attack or if this was something personal. Haha, I wonder if they caught it on video since they just put surveillance cameras in. I'll probably never know.

payday mess

How hard is it to pay people on time? Isn't that the whole point of direct deposit, I get paid on the same day every month? Apparently not at the University of Texas whose motto should be "we pay you…occasionally". Every other month I got paid 2 days before the first of the month, which should be today. I looked at my earning statement (which I didn't realize I could do for the next payday until today) and see I'm not set to get paid until Jan 3, which means no money until the first. What?! Direct deposit is not supposed to be affected by holidays, and if anything it should push the date up, not back! What is wrong with this university? They just can't get anything right when it comes to money. So now we have to go to a check cashing place to have money to buy groceries.

I'm not mad…really…

Homeless

Since moving to Austin I've dealt well with the homeless population. Everyone I've talked to is considerate and never pushy when you say you can't spare anything. But I just returned from Thundercloud Subs where a woman walked up to our car as we were leaving and would not leave us alone. This really annoyed me because we are flat broke. I had to take change out of are change jar to have enough money to buy our subs, which was only $6 because we had a coupon. So to have someone ask us, who are totally broke, and then not respect us when we say we are broke just pisses me off. I know I shouldn't be upset about it, she's trying to survive and the $1.75 means more to her than me, but why be so pushy? The reason Austin at large tolerates the homeless population like it does is because they aren't pushy and are usually considerate. When people act like she did, that's when you end up with mad people who try to pass ordinances targeted at the homeless.

In the end, I'll let this go after some time. I don't like feeling like I was taken advantage of, and that's how I feel. It's not the money, it's respect. I respect you, I help you when I can, please respect when I can't help. That's all I ask.

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

This is the most useful site I’ve seen when it comes to getting aid to the regions affected. I hope no one reading this has to locate loved ones there, but if you do there are many links to help with that. I’m going to use the links for donating as soon as I get paid. It’s so true that many organizations receive donations of goods, but it still takes actual money to get the goods to where they are needed.

It’s shocking to think how many people died in those few short moments. The numbers continue to climb, 57,000 is the last I heard, but that’s just a guess. No one will know for a long time. And how many people will die in the aftermath due to lack of food and safe water? I can’t imagine how a person survives through this. There are not enough natural sources of food to feed everyone, and how many people are able to boil their water so it’s safe to drink? I can’t even begin to understand how this all works. How do you coordinate everything to make sure aid gets to the people quickly. Mind boggling…

Ten Tips for Donating a Computer

Ten Tips for Donating a Computer

This is a great daily action link from care2.com! Eventually I’ll transfer everything I want off of my old computer and it’d be great if it went to good use somewhere. At least now I can try to find a refurbisher or recycling center now. I hate throwing things away, especially when then contain things that should be recycled. So everyone should check this link out, it’s pretty handy!

The war

SSG Lazzari

This is a website by someone in my cousin's unit. I like it because there are pictures of everyone, including my cousin. It's always a conflict for me when I look at pictures of the war. If things had gone differently, I should have been involved in this war. My original discharge date was supposed to be 8 June 2002. They would have kept me in, and it's quite possible I would have gone. Instead I was discharged for homosexuality and they can't take me back without rewriting laws. My life is definately better for the route it's taken, but it can be hard to think about what I'm missing because of it. Do I want to go to war? No, I really don't want to have to kill people and have them try to kill me. But it's an experience…an experience part of me always wanted. So I follow the war and look at every picture I can, experiencing through those pictures. It's amazing how few of them there are…

adding a counter

I've decided I want to add a counter. My next step is to have links on the side, but I haven't gotten that figured out yet.