RedJen's Rearview Mirror

May the new year bring you health and happiness.

I broke the news about Neko this morning to my friend that was responsible for me bringing her back to North Carolina from Ohio.

After she told her mom about Neko, she came back online and said, "Mom wants to know if we can mail you another one that we found recently. My mom was serious about mailing you a new one. We think it's a girl maybe 3 or 4 months old and whiney. Prissy (her cat) hates her because she has run into the house a few times. She's little, grayish/black and white and very cute. Want me to Fed Ex her to you?"

So now running through my head is a kitten smuggling ring running from Ohio to North Carolina. How many kittens can you fit into a single Fed Ex box and just what are they willing to pay Prissy to escape from the harsh winter in Ohio for a chance at a new life in North Carolina. As soon as word gets out will Prissy start taking bribes? Will there be cats lined up outside their house ready to make a dash for a chance to be shipped to my porch?

I think I did manage to dissuade them from exporting kittens to me using Fed Ex, but only because I pointed out that I don’t think Fed Ex would be real happy with the idea.

That was a close one. I came really close to being the last stop on a feline version of the Underground Railroad.

Notes: A few things before anyone gets their knickers in a twist. Yes, I do know what the Underground Railroad was and I think that the conductors were some of the bravest people who lived at that time. No, I’m not saying that this is in any way the same thing, but that was the first thought that came to my mind. That thought was followed closely by a box sitting in the back of a beat up old truck under a tarp filled with Mexican hairless cats smoking cigarettes and playing poker as the truck inches across the border.

There is a sleepy kitty curled up against me. I started looking at cat breeds early last year and prompted by Blue’s positive interaction with Toby in Ohio, I intended to find him a playmate. This weekend’s mission was to check out a local cat show for Bengal kittens and if there were not any that I liked, continue the search at the local cat shelters. I didn’t make it to the shelter, which is probably good, since ShaeSin and I would have wanted to bring at least half of the cats home with us.

Mya and Blue seem to be getting along well so far. She hasn’t met Omega yet and won’t for at least a few more days. When I took Shae home, I left Mya set up in the downstairs bathroom with everything a new kitty could need. When I got home, I found her and Blue in the bathroom together. Apparently, Blue decided to help her bust out and they decided to chill together.

It has been a long stressful weekend for Mya. She arrived in Raleigh Friday with her sister, then spent most of the next three days in a loud and busy cat show. I’m not surprised that she’s crashed out. I’d be tired if I had to deal with all that too.

She’s acting a bit camera shy at the moment. I hope to have better pictures of her soon. Don't get confused, she's in both pictures.

I'm falling apart fast here at work today. I think my body is about to give up the fight and put me into bed for the next few days. If nothing else, I may have to work from home so that the people in the office don’t have to listen to me cough all day long…

I promised to send Mya's breeder an update after I took her to the vet

She seems to like the upstairs landing. When I got home from work today, she came to me and nudged me to pet her. She and Blue have been playing tag this evening and chasing each other in laps around my downstairs.

Random thoughts from a cross continent conversation, during which time I have been doped up on NyQuil and decongestants. What follows is not themed and may make absolutely no sense at all.

It would appear that this week is going straight down the crapper. I’d suggest skipping this entry, because it is boring and completely uninspired.

She lives her life naked, punctuated by a few moments with clothes on.

When I think of entitlement, I don’t immediately think of subsidized housing. My first thoughts associated with entitlement are centered on the rich and over-privileged. In general, I’m anti-entitlement and to be honest, I may even agree with some of this on an ideological basis if not on an implementation level.

According to the New York Times, mandatory spending, which includes entitlement programs, accounts for a growing share of the budget, 49 percent in 1994 and 54 percent last year, and under current law the Congressional Budget Office says they will reach 58 percent by 2014. A legislative proposal drafted by the White House would make it more difficult for Congress to pass legislation increasing the "long-term unfunded obligations" of benefit programs like Social Security, Medicare, Civil Service retirement and disability, veterans disability compensation, health benefits for retired federal employees, housing assistance for low-income families, farm programs and Advanced Technology Program in the Commerce Department, which is spending $142 million this year to speed development of high-risk technologies in medicine, manufacturing, engineering, computer science and other fields.

(Put down the rock and take a step backwards.)

I’m having a hard time with this one. I’ll be honest, the fact that I hand over about 50% of what I earn bugs the hell out of me. I agree that there are things that we all need to contribute into so that we can have common services, but I’m not sure I like how my money gets spent. Roads, police, fire departments, schools all make sense to me. Once you get to the “extras” that’s where I have issues. Maybe if I were able to choose what things my money is spent upon, I’d be happier. At least when I give money to charities, I get to pick who is spending the money.

Imagine what the budgets would look like if people had to sell them to each member of the general public. Roads – fixed, schools – funded, crazy ball of twine posing as art – ignored.

So entitlement sucks, regardless of where people stand on the economic ladder. I’m all for helping people pick themselves up, as long as they want to get up and are willing to put forth effort to get into a better position. If someone isn’t interested in bettering their own situation, then I don’t think they have the right to be kept indefinitely. I don’t believe people should be given cash based on the number of kids they have. That only encourages people who can not support themselves to have children they can not afford. I wouldn’t be opposed to requiring people who get public assistance to submit to temporary sterilization as part of the qualification for public assistance.

Nothing is free, it’s about time that people learned that. People should be helped up, not encouraged to remain dependant. Dependence doesn’t help anyone.

In the 1980’s people ran up insane charges with 1-900 phone calls. No one could imagine that anyone would actually charge $5 a minute to talk on the phone. Well, people did and they still do. Now you can have these numbers blocked from your phone to avoid finding such charges on your bill.

In the early 1990’s, aggressive credit card companies took advantage of naïve college students to lure students into credit card debt. Anyone who thinks that the credit card companies didn’t know what they were doing is kidding themselves. I was a college student and they flat out told students that it was okay that students didn’t have a real income, because the credit card company expected the parents to pay the credit card charges. If you didn’t have parents who would pay off your credit card, that was okay too, they’ll be happy to run up hundreds of dollars in charges for you to pay as soon as you have an income.

The new debt building gimmick aimed at the naive is disguised as a telephone. The cell phone is quickly creating a younger group of people with significant debt. Credit cards were aimed at very young adults, now the invisible fee monster is aimed at teenagers. At ten cents a message, text messaging is cheep, until you add it all up. Teenagers are building $500+ cell phone bills and when the bills arrive, no one knows how they got that high. Now you see commercials for services that will be happy to sell you customized ring tones, the charges will just be added to your existing cell phone bill. There’s nothing extra for you to do, according to their terms of use, if you use their service, you are enabling them to pass their charge directing to your cell phone bill.

The next step in helping people to build new fees into your cell phone bill is on the horizon. Work is underway to be able to use your cell phone to buy candy from the vending machine.

So many people are having to fight their way out of debt or declaring bankruptcy in record numbers. You’d think someone would realize that the only people getting ahead on these scams are the credit card companies. You can rest assured that the credit card companies are making money, they wouldn’t continue if they were losing money. They’ve spent plenty of time watching old gangster movies, they have the moves down and are great at putting the screws on the people who bet and lose.

If it has a per use or per minute fee, it is probably a bad idea.

I will not be spending extra energy to keep track of information that does not pertain to me.

Your teeth like air...

I'm spending the first half of this week in class for work. Today we took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator profile. I'm interested to see what comes of the information. According to my results, my previous typing has been accurate, although I had not realized how much my Sensing/iNtuition score played into things. Generally you expect that your extreme scores are the ones that drive the definition of your personality and that is true. It would seem that my 50/50 split of using my physical senses and my intuition can explain why some people baffle me. This is the trait represents how people deal with things in their environment. Apparently people are either focused on now (details) or they focus on the future (big picture).

Extroverts – aren't always trying to be the "center of attention", a lot of the time they are just trying to get interaction.
Introverts - often assume that Extroverts just want attention.

Sensors - gather information using their five senses.
iNtuitors - gather information using their intuition "sixth" sense.

Feelers – would rather draw straws to avoid having anyone disappointed by their actions.
Thinkers – would like to strangle Feelers for suggesting people draw straws instead of using logic and reason.

Perceivers – aren't fond of schedules.
Judgers – like schedules and getting things done.

Let's ignore the fact that it rarely takes more than 20 minutes for me to get home from work and today it took well over an hour. Right before I managed to get to my street, I saw an accident that was composed of 15 cars, vans and trucks AND two school buses. The radio was reporting accidents all over the place, including a case where 2 18-wheelers were sideways and blocking each side of one of the state highways.

I consider myself lucky that I didn't get into any accidents. My car is definitely NOT built for driving on ice. I've never before been driving up a hill sideways.

Anyway, the car is in the garage, the driveway shoveled and treated with a de-icer. All I can do now is wait. According to news, there are still thousands of people stuck on the roads and kids stranded at their schools.

After being late to take the final test, choosing not to study last night and completely missing the "review" session, I took the exam in 15 minutes and only missed one question out of twenty-five. Not bad when you factor in that there were people who missed 6 and 7 questions after studying and being there with for the review...

You'd be tired too if you spent the entire day tearing around the house...

Which Member of the Endless Are You?

I hereby admit that I’ve spent the day being torn between doing what needs to be done, what I’ve been planning to do for some time and absolutely nothing.

I need to do my routine cleaning and sort through the mail. I’ve been planning on writing up the introduction of Eve for the Naked Justice Squad (her Official NJS name is Evolutionary Upgrade). I’ve ended up mostly doing absolutely nothing. I have been saved from a complete absence of accomplishment today by ShaeSin’s impulsive deletion of files on her website.

Alive & kicking, just VERY busy with work at work and at home. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I've been able to get to the gym every morning this week.

Rocking back and forth during your interview is bad. While this may make you feel better, it leaves a negative impression on the person with whom you are talking.

If you are going to lie, at least avoid the obvious. I may make a habit of assuming the best in people, but even I’m going to be suspicious of someone with a Masters degree in an engineering field who says their ideal job would be data entry and data administration.

If you don’t care whether or not you have a job, don’t bother me.

It is a seller’s market as far as jobs are concerned. Beyond giving the candidate an honest representation of the work they would be doing, if there is any selling going on, it is from the candidate.

Desperate is not attractive.

I've been playing geek this weekend and tweaking tiny things on my blog. It amuses me and doesn't involve actually breaking anything. Pretty much it came down to doing this or alphabetizing M&M's.

That’s two interviews down, six or less left to go for this position. I wonder if this will follow that same pattern as the previous set, where the first candidate sets the bar and the rest are compared to it. I’ve found that in the case where you really only need to find the one you like best out of a group that if you start with two objects, keep the one you like and toss the other. Grab another object and repeat. One time through the pile and you’re done.