.: bistan.net :.

I finally made up my mind on who I to vote for: John McCain.  Actually, my vote isn’t for John McCain as much as it is AGAINST Barack Obama.  Here are a few reasons I don’t like Obama:

1. He has numerous associations with shady people/organizations: Louis Farrakkan, Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, ACORN, Tony Rezko, and more.  Come on now, if your own pastor isn’t with you, why should I be?
2. He is a socialist.  I took real issue with him when he told the plumber that we need to “spread the wealth”.  With governments around the world buying significant stakes in the banking system, this just seems a little too scary for me.
3. I’m not wealthy by anyones standards, but I don’t like the fact that he wants to tax the wealthy disproportionately.  Bill Gates and Warren Buffett shouldn’t be penalized for success.
4. In the final debate, Barack kept trying to take the “high road” and back out of an argument by simply declaring that they weren’t going to agree.  That might be fine in any other setting, but this was a debate.  This was the time and place to duke it out.  We don’t need that elitist attitude.
5. He has a funny name.  We need to get these folks with funny names out of America.  Let’s take back the Dairy Queens and Subways, the taxi companies, and the Holiday Inns from these people with funny names.  We need to return these American insitutions to Americans.

   (That last one was a joke by the way.  I’m not racist and I have lots of friends with funny names.)

For the record, I’m not happy with John McCain either, but I do believe that he is the lesser of the two evils.

Lately, I’ve realized that my job just isn’t as fulfilling to me as I imagined it once was.  Then again, maybe it’s because this is the second longest job I have ever had and I am starting to get bored with it.  Three and a half years is a long time.  In my field, information technology, it is a common belief that if you stay in the same position for more than five years, you become stale.  That being said, unless something VERY lucrative pops up, I don’t plan to step into unemployment in this economy.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love working for Mercer University.  The benefits are excellent.  Insurance is decent, although expensive.  My leave benefits are the best I’ve ever had.  I, along with my spouse and dependents, can go to (a very expensive) college for free.  I have lots of friend here and I was even recently elected to staff council a few months ago to represent fellow staff members’ concerns to senior university administrators. 

But in my particular job, there are no real challenges anymore.  It’s just the same old crap — budget limitations, putting out fires, and figuring out how stupid end users can be.  You would think that as long as technology has been around, our population would have developed some basic computer skills.  You would also think that hiring managers would expect that from employees.  You would think that the powers that be would realize that Information Technology is an investment and that you’re just not going become more productive and cost efficient without it.

Along with all of that, there are no advancement opportunities in my current job.  Here at the law school I work at, there seems to be a notion that you aren’t qualified to do anything unless you have a law degree (J.D.).  Apparently, there are these magical fairies that sprinkle analytical and problem solving skills on you like pixie dust during the three years that you are a law student and that some how makes you better than everyone else.  What they don’t realize is that I, along with many other IT Professionals (non-lawyers), have the ability to analyze situations and develop solutions.  And on top of that, I could walk through the law school and point out many, many students and alumni who lack those skills, even though they have taken on six figures worth of debt trying to acquire them.

As far as fulfillment is concerned, I’ve been thinking a lot about the role I play in the overall scheme of things.  On a simplistic level, I support people as they become lawyers or while they teach people to become lawyers.  I don’t even like lawyers.  Because of my job, I do have quite a few friends who are lawyers, but I like them because they are people, not because they are lawyers.

Let’s take a look at how the public perceives lawyers.  If you asked the average person about lawyers, they would tell you that they make tons of money and they are all ambulance chasing crooks.  Now, I know better than that, but when the average person finds out that I am contributing to the creation of what they consider overcharging crooks, then I’m judged just as harshly.  Although I have never been one to care about what people think about me, I do wonder if this is where I am supposed to be.  Is this my mission in life?  My destiny?  Is this God’s plan for me? 

I guess until I sort things out and find my true calling, I’ll continue to help lawyers who help themselves.

Today marks Day One of Breast Cancer Awareness month and everyone seems to think I should be the poster child here at the law school because my mother died of breast cancer less than 4 months ago.  Guess what?  I’m not going to be.

For the occasion, everyone is supposed to wear pink today.  As for me, I don’t get how wearing a color will raise awareness.  And for the gentlemen out there, it might be cool to wear pink here and show solidarity and all, but when you walk outside into downtown Macon wearing pink, the ignorant citizens of this town are going to assume that you are homosexual. The whole concept is like the Lance Armstrong Live Strong bracelets.  Buying one of those is really and truly the absolute least thing you can do.

I don’t believe that anyone at this law school is “unaware” of breast cancer.  I would guess, however, that not even the strongest breast cancer advocates here are aware of the effects of the treatments, the suffering and the horrible end stages of life that breast cancer causes.  Have they ever seen a cancer victim in their last moments of life?  Have they ever sat with someone as they vomited up half of their body weight because of these wonderful treatments that these research dollars are going for?  Have they spoon fed someone crushed ice who could barely swallow, only to have it come right back?  Have they paced around the house at 3:00 in the morning with someone because they were in too much pain or too anxious to rest?  I have.

These folks are pretty bold asking me for a donation when gas is $4.00 a gallon, the stock market is falling and wages aren’t rising nearly as fast as inflation.  They tell you its all for research and that one day we will have a cure.  I’ve heard this crap for almost 30 years.  There is no cure for cancer and probably never will be.  Just think, if researchers woke up one day and found a cure for cancer, do you know what would happen?  They would be out of a job, along with thousands of doctors, nurses, social workers, dieticians and many others.  And if the cure made billions, none of that would be returned to the people who contributed towards the research.

Anyway, it seems like everyone around me has their causes and they all want to shove it down my throat.  Here at the law school, it’s a million times worse.  Today alone (in less than 4 hours) I’ve been hit up for contributions for the following causes: childhood brain cancer, anti-death penalty groups, pro-military groups, and of course, breast cancer.

Now I have my causes too. I’m passionate about several things, including my children, my wife, technology, current events, finance, education and more.  The difference is that I don’t try to force my causes down other people’s throats.  A friend of Tristan and son of one of my coworkers was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.  It doesn’t look good and it upset me quite a bit to hear about it (for those of you reading this who are thinking I’m some apathetic jerk).  The survivability rate is as close to zero as you can get.  If there was anything I could do, or any amount I could give to help this 4 year old child, I would do it.  But nothing I do is going to help.  I could sell everything I own and send it to them but it wouldn’t help.  I could walk a million miles to “raise awareness” but it wouldn’t help either.

Are people even passionate about the right causes?  Let’s take breast cancer, for instance.  Worldwide, less than 1% of all deaths can be attributed to breast cancer.  Furthermore, only 7% of cancer-related deaths are attributed to breast cancer.  Is this really a cause I should rally behind?  The disease can’t even inflict itself on half of the population because males (and some females) don’t have the anatomical features needed as a prerequisite to breast cancer.  Why don’t we all get behind heart disease?  It’s the number one cause of death, causing about 30% of all deaths worldwide.  That’s 30 times as many people dying of heart disease!  And better yet, the majority of cases could have been easily prevented though diet, exercise and other means.

Can we, as a nation, please get over September 11?  Every year we lower the flag, have rememberances, read the names, make it a top news story, etc.  Am I the only one who is sick of hearing about it?  Maybe its the administration?  Will we still have to hear about it this much if Obama is elected?  I’m not trying to be unsympathetic, but if I lost a loved one SEVEN years ago and I still couldn’t get over it, people would think I am psycho.

Sure, the date did affect me personally.  I . . .

• stand in line longer at airports.
• watched my stocks and retirement tank.
• pay more for gas.
• had to watch that horrific telethon on EVERY channel.
• gave up a bit of my privacy.
• paid more taxes to fund this senseless war.

Other than that, I could care less about September 11th. I don’t know anyone who died.  Can you imagine having a birthday on september 11th?  Everyone would here the date and care more about some demolished office buildings than about your special day.

As far as I’m concerned, the individuals who attacked us are dead, so justice has been done.  Our government has invested billions of dollars into this “homeland security” fantasy, when the reality is that IF YOU ARE WILLING TO DIE FOR YOUR CAUSE, NOBODY CAN STOP YOU.

Jonathan at the White House

I can’t begin to express how sick I am of politics.  I don’t know if I can stand all of this for the next 2 months.  I don’t care if you are democrat or republican.  I don’t care who is up or down in the polls.  The more I hear about it, the less I care.  This entire election is being controlled by the media anyway.

Out of the four presidential and vice-presidential candidates, only one has governmental experience at the executive level: Sarah Palin.  Two have been in Washington for most of my lifetime and haven’t produced much of what I consider “change”: John McCain and Joe Biden.  The final one has more traits of a celebrity than a presidential candidate: Barack Obama.  One ticket is made of lawyers and the other is made of non-lawyers.  By the way — I hate lawyers.

So should I vote for the candidate who shares the same beliefs as I do (pro-life, no gay marriage, etc.) or should I go with the democrat who might bring me more prosperity (the economy usually fairs well under democrat presidents)?  It’s not likely that an abortion case will make it back up the steps of the Supreme Court during the next few years anyway.  Even if it did, it’s not like pro-lifers could come out any worse than we already are.  The economy, however, can always get worse.  But then again, I really do hate lawyers.

I could vote for someone who is not on a major party ticket.  But I think this race is going to be too close to waste my vote like that.  If you are as undecided as I am, perhaps you should write in “Jonathan Davis” on your ballot and elect me president.  Nevermind, I’m not old enough yet.

A few weeks ago — exactly 6 months before my 30th birthday — I made a list of things to accomplish before I get old turn 30.  In no particular order, they are . . .

Run a 10K without walking.
   status: up to 3.4 miles.

Go on a safari.
   status: scheduled for very soon.

Read at least 3 books.
   status: reading the first now.

Rip all of my CDs into iTunes.
   status: about 5% there.

Run a Marathon.
   status: scheduled for January

Do 100 pushups without stopping.
   status: 20% of the way there.

Drop my weight back to 165.
   status: too much junk food in the house right now.

Plant 2 trees in my front yard.
   status: waiting for fall.

Get rid of half of my junk in the attic.
   status: not started.

Go without Coke for 7 entire days.
   status: dreading this one.

The employees who work at the local post office look as if they have stepped right out of a 1970s JCPenney catalog. Their hairstyles and clothing are reminiscent of a time gone by. Then again, folks say “what goes around comes around”, so maybe they are just early adopters on a future trend. Let’s hope not.

The democrats should have never put Michelle Obama after Ted Kennedy. I personally don’t care for Kennedy, but I wouldn’t want to follow him as a speaker – especially when he is giving a speech that could be his last.

I miss the Olympics. Maybe I can talk wife into going to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I like the winter games better anyway and if they are coming to our continent we might as well go, right?

It has rained everyday for about a week now and it will continue into the foreseeable future (according to the 10 day radar). My grass is up to my knees but it’s too wet to cut. When it finally dries up, it’s not going to be much fun.

I booked our hotel for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in early January 2009. Now it just needs to cool off (and stop raining) so I can continue training.

Everything seems to be broken here at work, from the air-conditioning to email to the internet. I guess I should go put out some more “fires”.

Over the past week, I’ve begun the daunting task of removing my junk from my parent’s house.  The amount of junk that I can’t seem to let go of is unimaginable.  I am a pack rat.

I think originally it started with my mother preferring to save things for her grandchildren.  The problem with that is she is gone and my kids have way too many toys already.  There is not enough room in my 1300 square foot house for their junk and mine.

I don’t know why I can’t seem to let go of stuff.  None of it is valuable to anyone else.  I have (lots of) toys from my childhood, memorable things from high school, and paraphernalia from jobs I had in high school and college.  I guess I have a problem throwing out things that have memories attached to them.  I cherish the junk as if I had the happiest childhood and I want to relive it.  Newsflash: I didn’t and I don’t.

One day, I’m going to post my Greatest Hits to this blog.  I’m sure about 3 and 1 other will happen in less than five months, but I can’t figure out what the fifth one is.  We will see.

Nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be.

Here are the wireless networks currently broadcasting into my living room:

Just because you are wondering, I don’t broadcast my SSID, so my network is none of the above.

This week, I visited the Tubman African American Museum here in Macon.  It has been quite a while since I’ve been through there.  My library director treated all of us to lunch and the museum tour because the Tubman is running an exhibit on Brown v. Board of Education.  All of the books, documents, photos, etc. belong to the Library of Congress. 

The exhibit and museum were very interesting and thought provoking.  It is interesting to see all of the struggle that took place just to have different races attend school together.  What is ironic to me is that (especially here in Macon) most schools have pretty much re-segregated themselves.  Schools in predominately black neighborhoods have blacks and schools in predominately white neighborhoods have whites.

I don’t think that races in America will truly ever be “integrated”.  It’s not solely a skin color or ethnic issue either.  Culture plays a huge part.  We eat different foods, enjoy different activities, and worship differently.  By the way, when I say “we”, I’m not just referring to blacks and whites, but all ethnic groups including hispanic, chinese, indians, etc.  We choose to live in neighborhoods with people who resemble us.  Without this “segregation”, we wouldn’t have great American neighborhoods like Harlem, Little Italy, Chinatown, etc.

Of course, there is crossover among the groups.  On my street, we have 13 houses.  Five of those (38.4%) are owned by black families with the remaining being white.  There are whites that “act” Mexican, blacks that “act” white, etc.  I eat chinese food and there are plenty of non-hispanics that eat Mexican food.  While our schools, neighborhoods, and churches have remained segregated it is good to see how (relatively) fast the working world has/is integrating.

I certainly don’t want anyone to think by reading this post that I am anti-integration.  I’m not.  I do, however, believe in the Wisdom of Crowds.  I am glad that those landmark cases straightened out the funding discrepancies between black schools and white schools and I am even more happier to be free to send my children to whatever school I choose, regardless of my race.