Mis-Communication?

About a month ago a friend of mine, who lives in Las Vegas, was hired to escort some dogs to Denver for their owner. Of course she immediately sent out a notification to those of us in Denver letting us know when she would be here and for how long. Essentially, Friday through Sunday. Well, from what I understand, arriving Friday, delivering the dogs to their owner and leaving sometime Sunday.

Seeing as how I have a very flexible schedule right now I told her I could hang out Friday afternoon after she's completed her delivery. I also happen to know the brewmasters at a local brewery and I thought it would be a fun "Denver" specific thing to do while she was here. Neither one of us are swimming in extra money and a chance to drink for free and especially a chance to drink at a brewery before the beer even reached a keg or a bar isn't something everyone has a chance to do when they come to Denver. In other words, it's a cool insider thing to do when people come to town.

I knew from previous correspondence that she would be arriving in Denver in the early afternoon, had to make her delivery and then she would be free for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I told her we could go for a drink and let her it would be free when she was done with her client.

She learned of Denver's Oktoberfest celebration going on this weekend and decided she wanted to do that on Saturday. That didn't interfere with my Friday plans for us so it wasn't an issue at all for me aside from the fact that Denver's Oktoberfest is lackluster at best. Yesterday, or the day before, she indicated she had a birthday party to attend with another Denver friend and she didn't want to get into anything too serious before she met up with them Friday evening. This also didn't interfere with my brewery plans since the brewmasters leave at 4:30PM on Fridays. Plenty of time to meet up with her friend later after a couple of beers.

Knowing all of this, I decided to head downtown this afternoon and be available to her once she'd completed her delivery. Like I said, I knew it would be early afternoon and thought perhaps it would 2 or 3ish. Downtown Denver is about an 18 mile drive for me, but I decided to take the light rail train from one of the park-n-rides since it's usually easier and less expensive than parking downtown. I also knew I might have some extra time to kill so I brought my dSLR and figured I could walk around and practice some street photography while I waited.

I send her a text message:

Me: Hey, I'm heading downtown now. Should be there somewhen between 3 and 330. Give a shout when you're available. I'll be walking around with my camera. 2:25 PM

I ride my motorcycle to the light rail station, park and catch the next train downtown. While I'm waiting for the bus I check my phone to see if she's replied yet, but see a IM from my roommate instead. Apparently the HOA wanted to tow my truck for being parked in the same spot for too long. There was a notification on my truck and while I check the truck every day, I always look at the windshield expecting any notifications to be under the wipers. She tells me they notify on the driver's side window, not the windshield. I tell her I'll move my truck when I get back home. That annoyed me especially since I don't drive my truck a lot in the summer time, summer is what motorcycles are for!

I send another text to my out-of-town friend about 40 minutes later:

Me: Did my last text not go through? I texted that I was coming downtown and to let me know when you're free. Well, I'm downtown now. 3:09 PM

Me: Weird, its showing me texts being sent but not to this number. 3:11 PM

I finally receive a text from my friend, nearly an hour after my first one, but since I wasn't sure about exactly when her plane landed and what her schedule was until she made her delivery to her client, it didn't bother me much:

Friend: Cool, with the client doing the dog drop off now, then get checked in and chill a bit. I'll text you when I go out and about. 3:27 PM

I never told her there was a time limit on the free beer, so I let her know we only have until about 4:30:

Me: Okay, but 'free beer' is over at 430. 3:31 PM 

 And a response letting me know that she's not really interested in drinking so early in the day due to Colorado's altitude and what can happen to people who aren't used to being a mile above sea-level:

Friend: No worries, With the altitude issue I'm not really in a hurry to drink. 3:34 PM

 Which, to be honest, is fair enough and smart. A lot of people come to Denver or to the mountains every year, think they can party like a rockstar only to have the altitude hit them which can result in vomiting, dizziness, blood pressure issues and other effects on the body. Besides, I don't drink a lot these days so not having a beer or three didn't bother me at all. I just thought it would be a cool "Denver" story for her.

Apparently she was hungry because she sends me s text message asking me if the brewery served food:

Friend: What's the name of the place? And do they serve food?

And I reply with the name of the place (which I'll delete out so as the brewmasters don't get in trouble for serving for free:

Me: [Downtown] Brewery and no. they brew beer. But, if the restaurant is open then yes. 3:52 PM 

The restaurant next to the brewery isn't open every day and to be honest I've never been there when they were, so I wasn't quite sure if they were open on Fridays or that early in the day. Or, perhaps they were closed for the afternoon. Like I said, I really don't know, but I ask where exactly she is so I can meet her nearby and I can escort her through a strange city to act as tour guide and to make sure she doesn't get lost. It's a simple case of: hey, you're visiting my city, let me show you around:

Me: where you at? are you hungry we can go eat. 3:53 PM

She let's me know she needs some time to freshen up and apparently has some auto-correct issues with the text:

Friend: Ok, vine new about half an hour 3:55 PM

Friend: Sheesh. Give me half an hour lol 3:55 PM

Okay, so now it's nearly 4 o'clock PM, our window for free beer is rapidly closing and she needs a half hour to check-in to her hotel and refresh. I understand completely -- she's been traveling all day, met with a client and just wants a minute to relax. That's fine, but now I have to start thinking of other places to grab a bite to eat. Since she's a guest in my city I decide I'll wait, see what she's in the mood for and steer her to those options. Downtown Denver has a plethora of restaurants including fast food, national chains, local chains and stand alone options. There are a plethora of Mexican restaurants, bar food style restaurants, Cajun-style restaurants and many many more for the discernible palette to choose from.

Referring to her "vine new about half an hour" text and her follow-up non-auto-corrected response, I reply:

Me: I was wondering what that meant 3:55 PM

Throughout this entire exchange I'm walking around Denver, hovering in the northeast area I thought she said her hotel would be in, so I wouldn't be more than a few minutes away when she was ready. It's also an area a lot of street photographers don't photograph often due to the lack of touristy interests and I thought I might get some shots that weren't photographed to death by other photographers.

I use Android's voice-to-text feature to send her a text message at 4:30PM, a half hour after she said she needed 30 minutes to get ready:

Me: you're not at the [name] hotel in hospital are you? 4:29 PM

Since I'm using Google's voice-to-text feature as I'm walking around with a camera in one hand it comes out a little weird, but I get no response at all. The intent was to ask what hotel she was staying at so I could steer myself in that direction. No reply to my message at all. By this time I've been walking around downtown Denver for more than an hour, carrying a camera bag and wearing my leather motorcycle jacket. I'm hot and  thirsty so I stop at a 7-11 nearby to grab a soda, more for the caffeine than anything else. I come out, walk across the street to an outdoor patio area for a local deli, shed my jacket and sit down to have my drink. I'm looking at pictures on my camera to see if there is anything worth keeping when I get a couple of texts:

Friend: Almost there. Waiting for the light 4:58 PM

Friend: I'm in purple 4:59 PM

 Uh... almost where? To the best of my knowledge we hadn't decided on a place to meet up at yet. So I ask:

 Me: almost where? 4:59 PM

And a final text message to her before I get tired of the back-and-forth messageing and finally call her:

Me: almost where? 4:59 PM 

I call and she answers. "Where are you?" At the restaurant, she replies.  "What restaurant?" The one I told her I was at, she tells me. Um..."I never said I was at any restaurant, I said I was walking around with my camera, my original plan was to go to that brewery. I'm not even near there, I'm on the other side of town," I tell her.

At this point I don't know what she's thinking; perhaps she's thinking I'm miles away when I was only 7 or 8 blocks east of where she was standing.  Denver's not a huge city with a giant downtown -- worse case scenario it would take me 20 minutes to meet up with her if she stood still. Less than that if she met me in the middle. To me, this is no big deal and I start gathering my things from the table where I was resting, put my jacket back on and start walking.

"I just walked a half an hour to meet you," she says. I didn't mention again that we'd never agreed to meet at the brewery and I certainly didn't point out that she's contacting me at 5 o'clock when she said, in text mind you, so I have a record of it (see above), she needed a half an hour putting our meet at 4:30PM. As far as I was concerned she was a half hour late and since we didn't have definitive plans to meet anywhere she shouldn't have gone to any particular place. If anything, she could have let me know what corner she wanted to meet at and I would have made my way there. I was just making myself available to her, at her convenience, so we could hang out before she met her other friend later in the evening. But, she's upset and I  didn't push my perspective any further in the interest of not arguing with someone I don't get to hang out with that often.

She says something into the phone and I don't quite catch all of what she's saying. I'm right next to the road with cars and trucks driving by and the light rail's bells and whistles screech as it passes.

"What? I didn't catch that." At this point I'm thinking it's inconvenient but nothing world-shattering. We'll meet up, hang out and grab a beer or a bite to eat and she'll go meet her other friends and I'll head home. I apologize, "I'm sorry for the miscommunication, but ..."

More garble from the phone, I don't know if it's hers or mine, "[something something] walk around [something] see you tomorrow."

Did she just tell me she'd rather walk around a strange city than wait 15 or 20 minutes for me to meet up with her? I don't have a chance to get clarification as she hangs up on me.

Did that seriously just happen? Okay, now I'm not only annoyed I'm very annoyed. A friend comes in from out of town, I rearrange my schedule to make sure she's not alone on her first evening there, I walk around for hours to be available when she calls and because she thought I was waiting for her at a restaurant (or nearby brewery) when I told her it was closed at 4:30PM she dismisses my efforts and calls off the entire afternoon?

Really?

Yes, I understand it was inconvenient for her -- it was inconvenient for me, too. Yes it was frustrating, too. For both of us.

It's now a little after 5:00PM and I'm not too far from the nearest light rail station. I start walking towards it, but after some simple math I realize I'd get to my motorcycle in the middle of Friday rush hour and have to sit in traffic for 16 miles, or so, at a snail's pace. So, I decide I'm going to make another effort to meet my friend. I walk a couple of blocks to the 16th Street Mall and catch one of the free Mall Rides west. I figured I knew she was wearing purple (but purple what: shirt, jacket, dress?) and she was probably walking around catching the sites. If she asked anyone local they would probably send her towards LoDo and 16th Street Mall. Those are the places where all the tourists go first when they're in downtown Denver.

I get off the Mall Ride at Market St. and walk north scanning every purple anything for the right height, gender and hair color. Nothing, nothing, nothing. A couple of blocks, well four blocks north and one block west, and I'm standing at Blake St and 20th. I don't see her. I didn't see her in passing. It would have been very easy for us to miss each other for a variety of reasons -- she could have been in a restaurant or bar, around the other side of a block or caught a cab. I just really didn't know, but we've all seen movies where people looking for each other find each other in the largest cities or the busiest places. It happens, however serendipity wasn't going to happen for me this time around.

It was about 5:30PM now and I decide with my walk back to the Mall Ride, the Mall Ride to the light rail station and the train ride to my motorcycle, it would be near 6:00PM when I finally headed home and I would miss a lot of rush hour and that's exactly the plan I went with at that point.

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Bain Capital

I saw this posted on Facebook by a Tea Bagging old high school friend of mine. I'm not going to get into the Theory A versus Theory B argument but to say that in a capitalistic society, sometimes companies go under. It's the nature of the beast.

However, the claim that Bain created jobs or left companies in a better-off position than when they began their 'investment' is false in a number of ways.

Bain Capital, which forced in-trouble companies to take out massive amounts of debt so Bain could get paid for their advice? That Bain Capital? 

Like the Bain Capital that sold AMC theaters to the Chinese? You know, to keep America America? http://goo.gl/arSYj


Or Burger King: http://goo.gl/LVEAq

Enter — ta-da! — private equity. In 2002, Goldman Sachs, along with two private equity firms, TGP and ... hmmm ...Bain Capital, teamed up to buy Burger King. This is exactly the kind of situation private equity firms like to trumpet: taking over a downtrodden company and nursing it back to health. And to get them their due, Burger King’s new owners did some good, stabilizing both the company and the franchisees, many of whom were in worse shape than Burger King itself.

But the private equity investors also cut themselves an incredibly sweet deal. Their $1.5 billion purchase price included only $210 million of their own money; the rest was borrowed. They immediately began taking out tens of millions of dollars in fees. Four years later, they took Burger King public. But, first, they rewarded themselves with a $448 million dividend. In all, according to The Wall Street Journal, “the firms received $511 million in dividend, fees, expense reimbursements and interest” — while still retaining a 76 percent stake.

Does it need to be said that Burger King was soon back to its old struggling self? Or that the solution, once again, was to sell to another private equity firm? Of course not! In 2010, Bain, Goldman and TPG cashed out, selling Burger King to 3G Capital, for $3.3 billion. In sum, the original private equity troika reaped a fortune by selling a company that was in nearly as much trouble as it had been when they first bought it. Surely this represents the apotheosis of financial engineering.

Or the massive debt held by BCF: http://goo.gl/PQBfv

Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp., the discount clothing-store operator, pulled $1.5 billion of debt financing it planned to repay borrowings and fund a dividend to owner Bain Capital LLC, according to eight people familiar with the negotiations.

Or, were you referring to Clear Channel? http://goo.gl/AWVrr

Consider Bain Capital’s Thomas Lee Partners’ $26 billion acquisition of Clear Channel Communications — home of Rush Limbaugh — and his $400 million, eight-year syndication deal inked in 2008. This takeover has turned a company that formerly earned net income of nearly $1 billion into a money-loser (almost $4.7 billion in cumulative losses), resulted in thousands of layoffs, extracted millions in fixed management fees, and recently resulted in a multi-billion special dividend for the two PE owners paid for by highly risky borrowing.

Or, Dominos Pizza: http://goo.gl/RT4hV

In 1998 the acquisition of Domino's Pizza was "a huge deal" for Bain Capital, the Boston Globe reported in January 2012. The company wasn't in trouble, nor was it a turnaround case, but it was a good investment for Bain. While Domino's grew its revenues and earnings under Bain, its debt also rose to $1.5 billion, leaving interest payments that eat up half its profits each year. 

Or, Dunkin Donuts: http://goo.gl/ncdxI and http://goo.gl/KpCQY

as a P.R. rep for Bain was happy to inform me: The company has cut itself loose from Dunkin’, having just sold off the last of its shares a matter of weeks ago (it went public in July 2011), completing the private equity cycle of life. After growing the stock price, while hanging the company with $1.25 billion in debt, Bain sold its stake in the company on August 15, making a tidy $600 million.

And

 If you borrow billions to buy Dunkin' Donuts and the firm flourishes post-takeover, that's one way for investors to get paid. But another way is getting Dunkin' to take out a $1.25 billion bank loan to hand its investors $500 million in tribute payments.

It's hard to imagine anything that's dumber, from the standpoint of trying to grow a business, than taking out a billion-dollar loan to pay a dividend – one buddy of mine on Wall Street used the word "retarded" – but for a private equity firm and its investors, that might very well be a smart way to get your investors paid.

Or, Guitat Center: http://goo.gl/BGy6L

Fender's debt problem consists not only of what it owes but what it is owed. The company is currently owed $11 million by its biggest customer, musical instruments retailer Guitar Center. Fender's fortunes are intrinsically linked to Guitar Center. The retailer accounts for nearly a sixth of Fender's annual sales, and Fender CEO Larry Thomas had previously held the same position at Guitar Center. Thomas was responsible for taking Guitar Center public and then selling it to Bain Capital in 2007. Until the sale, Guitar Center was also partially owned by Weston Presidio.

Guitar Center has been losing money every year since, making it a nightmare investment for Bain Capital. Moody's rated it a lowly Caa2 (defined as "poor standing and subject to very high credit risk") in November 2010. In its report, the ratings firm stated that "the company's capital structure is unsustainable over the medium term at current levels of operating performance, and hence the probability of a default has increased."

 Or, Sports Authority: http://goo.gl/TPxpB

There's only one problem with Romney's story: It doesn’t describe most of what private equity firms actually do. The companies Romney holds up as successes – Staples, Sports Authority et al. – were not Bain private equity deals; they were venture capital investments in companies that Bain neither owned nor ran. All well and good: Venture capital is a good thing – essential for funding the growth of new and developing companies. But Romney didn't make his fortune through venture capital­; he made it through private equity – and private equity, as President Obama pointed out this week, is a very different proposition. "Their priority is to maximize profits," the president said of PE firms, and "that’s not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers.

Staples, as seen at the above link, (or this one if your eyes don't go up: http://goo.gl/TPxpB)

There's only one problem with Romney's story: It doesn’t describe most of what private equity firms actually do. The companies Romney holds up as successes – Staples, Sports Authority et al. – were not Bain private equity deals; they were venture capital investments in companies that Bain neither owned nor ran. All well and good: Venture capital is a good thing – essential for funding the growth of new and developing companies. But Romney didn't make his fortune through venture capital­; he made it through private equity – and private equity, as President Obama pointed out this week, is a very different proposition. "Their priority is to maximize profits," the president said of PE firms, and "that’s not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers.

Or Toy 'R Us (KB Toys): http://goo.gl/OSlMF

A Bain partnership bought KB Toys in 2000, putting up $18 million and borrowing the rest, $302 million, the Times reported. Less than a year and a half later, KB Toys borrowed more to pay Bain and its investors — which would have included Romney — an $85 million dividend. (That dividend was part of a $121 million stock redemption, funded in part by $66 million in bank loans, Bloomberg reported based on other news coverage.) Bain partners made a 370 percent return, but left the company heavily in debt.

Or Warner Music Group, after $700 million dollars in debt added after being acquired by Bain Capital and their partners: http://goo.gl/b0wc8 and http://goo.gl/izIem

Private-equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, Bain Capital LLC and Providence Equity Partners hold the majority of the company’s common stock, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings grade Warner Music B+ with a “negative” outlook, while Moody’s Investors Service has a Ba3 ranking, one step higher, with a review for a downgrade, Bloomberg data show. High-yield, high-risk, or junk, debt is rated below Baa3 by Moody’s and lower than BBB- by S&P. 

 

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Facebook and the Goo(.gl)

Apparently Facebook doesn't like goo.gl  links, even when they're pointing to respectable sites like Forbes.com and Rollingstone.com.

Granted, it could be the number of links in the response post, but FB didn't inform me the content had too many links, only these were spammy. Does Facebook have a special relationship with companies that prohibit linking to their competition?

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Mi Familia (Again)

What annoys me more than anything? One guess and I'll give you a hint: it's the same reason I live 2000 miles away.

That's right, it's my family.

This morning my mom called and since the call came about 7 hours before she normally calls me I answered call thinking the reason for her call was some sort of emergency or death in the family.

Nothing. Just garbled background noise as though I'd been pocket dialed. But she just bought an iPhone 4 (or 4s, I really don't know) and as far as I know it's a little harder to pocket dial those handsets with screen dialers than phones with physical keyboards.

So I call her. "Did you call me?"

"No.

"Yes you did, at 7:15 this morning."

"I did? Oh, I must have dialed you from my purse."

That seemed weird to me since most modern touchscreen phones use a capacitive technology, which I'm told means electrical signal. The electrical signals transmitting throughout our skin is what forces the screen to select what we're touching. Nothing with a current touches the screen and nothing happens. That's why you can't use a pencil or a stylus or a fingernail to select items on your phone.

Then I was informed that you _can_ select items on your capacitive touchscreen without actually touching the screen. But, that's another story for another day by another blogger.

Okay, so maybe my mom did purse-dial me. For the sake of the story I'll move on.

She spends the rest of the time on the phone telling me what she's doing as though I'm following a really annoying Twitter account. "I'm driving around the parking lot looking for a space." "I'm parked, let me change ears so I can use my other hand." I'm in the store now and heading for the [whatever] department."

And on. And on. And on.

Finally she asks me if I've heard from my brother, T.

T and I share a father, but different mothers. T recently became engaged to the woman he's been with since the mid-90s and neglected to inform me via phone call, email, text message, letter or card, that he became engaged. I only found out about it because I saw a status of his on one of those rare occasions I'm on Facebook. His status was something vague like: Thanks for all the congratulations, guys.

I popped in an wrote, congratulations for what? He replies: There was an engagement.

Fan-friggin-tastic. What kind of engagement, I asked. At this point, I'm fairly certain he's the engaged one, but I really don't know for certain. An "engagement" could mean a number of things, and since he's been with this woman for a decade and a half, I wasn't sure if it was a marriage engagement or something other form of engagement.

The kind of engagement where one person asks a question and another answers came his reply.

Why the f*ck is he being so cryptic?

A few other people pop in at this point and offer more congratulations. I come back an hour or so later and say something like, I know it's not a marriage engagement because as your brother I would expect at least the respect of a phone call or an email letting me know you're engaged.

And that was it. I never heard another word from him. It's been two and a half months and I still haven't heard from him. A few weeks after this FB exchange I spoke with our other brother, A. We talked about this and that, what's going on in your life -- nothing -- what's going on in yours? You know, that sort of thing.

I finally told him about my exchange with T. That's when he let me know T was pissed at me. Huh? How is he pissed at me? I live 2000 miles away, T never calls me on my birthday or follows up with my life and I got tired of reaching out to him for information on his. Heck, I was homeless and in Florida staying with my mom (T's stepmom) for 3 months and even though he was only about 2 hours away he never once called and invited me over for dinner or drive the two hours to see me while I was there.

So, again, how was he pissed at me?

Apparently I didn't congratulate him on his engagement and he's mad that he's not the center of my universe. I explained to A that T still has yet to actually tell me he's engaged. When he does, I'll congratulate him.

Anywho, I'm explaining all of this to my mom when she says what she always says, "You know [T], he's always been a jerk." And he has. He's always tried to manipulate people and I can recall clearly once when he tried to manipulate our dad and Dad threw a fit. He's also very competitive, having to one-up anyone he thinks he can. You got promoted, he got promoted faster. You make X amount of money, he makes X plus 5 dollars, you have a 1000sq foot house, he just bought a 2000sq foot house.

He always has to have the bigger fish.

I've never been motivated by physical gain or monetary success and I think that annoys my family.

So, my mom asks me if I've heard from T. No, why should I, I ask. "Apparently he's only sending out invites to people he knows will come to the wedding instead of everyone, so I thought he'd call and ask if you were going to make it."

I haven't heard from him. I seriously doubt I'm even invited, I told her. He's getting married in February in Vegas, so I might go and wedding crash just to prove a point, but I have yet to be contacted via phone, via email, via Facebook, via carrier pigeon or via any other avenue of communication about whether or not I want to go to his wedding.

For the record, no I don't. Like I said, he's been with D for somewhere around 15 years already so this is (in my opinion) just a move for tax breaks or other legal reasons. You know, those reasons gay people who are in committed relationships don't get. However, I digress.

But, T is my brother and I will go to his wedding if I'm invited -- and perhaps if I'm not invited. [enter maniacal laughter] That's what brothers do for one another.

I then go on to relate to  my mom how little sense it made that I came to Florida, in dire straights, and T wouldn't even take the time to call me or see me in the 3 months I was there. My sister, K, did, and my brother A spoke with me on the phone a number of times, but T made no effort to acknowledge me at all. I stayed with my brother C enroute to Florida. Why was T being such as ass?

She said she understood. I told her she doesn't. She said she did. I told her she didn't, with a more firm tone. She tried to tell me that when she goes back to her hometown sometimes her high school friends don't have time to visit with her to which I replied it wasn't even near the same thing. "You go up for a week and yes, sometimes their lives get in the way of seeing you -- I was down there for 3 months and T couldn't find the time to ask me over for lunch or come see me for a beer. Nothing! It's not like he couldn't find an afternoon in 3 months. It's not the same thing at all and you can't understand how little sense that makes to me!"

"But I..."

"But nothing. Have you ever, in your life, traveled across the country to spend a significant amount of time somewhere and had family who snubbed you?" No. "Then you don't understand." She admitted at that point that she couldn't.

Don't get me wrong, my feelings aren't hurt, but I am angry. Angry that the whole situation doesn't make any sense. I have friends come to Denver and I move heaven and Earth to make sure I make time for them. My brother A came weeks after I foreclosed on my house and I made sure I made time for him and his friends.  I'm in Florida for 3 months and my brother T couldn't make an afternoon for me or invite me over for dinner at his house? Really?

By now I was annoyed with my mom and I think she heard it through my tone of voice because she excused herself and hung up.

I stay away from my family on purpose. Every single one of them is a beer swilling fried-food eating asshat. Not a single one of them as an enlightened understanding bereft of the physical need to prove their worth to society without amassing possessions. I tried that game once, when I was younger. It never sat well with me to choose fashion over function, or keeping up with the Joneses.

Anywho, my family annoys me. If you didn't read this entire post and just skipped down to the bottom to see if I attached a picture of some sort, then take away that sentiment and you'll get the gist of this entry.

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Dream a Little Dream

I don't normally have nightmares. Actually they're so rare that when I do I remember them. Vividly. I learned later that what I was having were designated night terrors, not mere nightmares. I used to get the terrors infrequently, every few months and experienced nearly every classical example of what people go through with when the terror strikes: immobilization, feeling awake, seeing a faceless figure standing over me, perhaps reaching for me, seeing a giant spider-like creature crawl across the roof or the floor coming towards me -- you know, the basics.

When I was in my twenties I thought I'd beaten them. I gathered the strength to wake myself out of the night terror, usually with a scream (I will say I screamed in bravado and leave it at that) and rolling out of the bed and launching myself to the nearest light switch. I'd always be disoriented for a few minutes and when I finally realize what was going on, I'd crawl back in bed and go to sleep.

I scared my dog a few times, but to the best of my knowledge, due to their infrequency, I never scared any girlfriends or overnight guests.

Like I said, I thought I'd beaten the attacks, and yes -- they are attacks -- but occasionally I still get them. Maybe once a year and usually when I'm beyond exhausted, I've discovered. Last night was one such case.

I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep and I believe sleep eventually came to me. And then I was wake. I couldn't believe I'd only slept for a few minutes and as I lay there on my side, staring at the wall across from me, I wondered why I was awake and if I would fall asleep again anytime soon. The wall has a bookshelf and a TV stand with an as yet unused TV sitting on it and between the two pieces of furniture a backpack. I  clearly remember lying there looking at the TV stand and the backpack thinking I needed to get back to sleep. 

And then the backpack moved.

Did I see that? Was I looking at Rufus lying over there next to the backpack and he moved in his sleep?

As I lay there trying to reason out what I was looking at and wanting desperately to fall back asleep the backpack stood up and jumped in my direction, reaching it's arms out as though it were reaching for me. I then realized I wasn't looking at a backpack I was looking at a, a ... thing! A shadow-thing about four feet tall I'd guess, with sharp spiky fur, a barrel-like torso and short legs, that was now launched towards me and reaching as though it's intent was to grab me.

I moved as fast as I could backwards and screamed (in bravado, mind you), then woke up. I also woke  Rufus and my roommate's dog, Charlie who weren't even in the room with me, I discovered as Rufus' head poked in the slightly ajar door.

Once I realized what had happened I became extremely annoyed with myself -- I turned on the reading lamp next to the bed, did a once over of the room, and turned it back off to hopefully drift off to sleepytime-land.

I hate those night terrors. Sometimes I'm able to fall immediately into a deep sleep and others I'm up all night wondering if it's going to hit again as soon as I drift off. I did fall back asleep in no time, but I was awake a few times throughout the night, but not for nightmares just because I couldn't stay asleep.

Anywho, I thought I'd share.

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Surviving on Hoth

re: How Luke Skywalker Should Have Died on Hoth

Okay, so there's a flaw in his reasoning. The author of the piece states that he doesn't believe that Han would have a temporary shelter with him as he keeps it on the _Falcon_. However, one must assume that since the Rebel Alliance is a military organization and they're very aware they are stationed on Hoth, an ice planet, that their tauntaun's patrol packs, and or, standard mission equipment would be to have emergency shelter kits with them while out on patrol.



Since the tauntaun was already packed when Han drafted it, assumably from the stables, then we can also assume the emergency kit was either with Han already or with the tauntaun and he already knew this was standard operating procedure. Especially since Han clearly says, "This will keep you warm until I get the shelter up."

But, let's go ahead and assume Han nor the tauntaun had one with them as the article suggests. We have to also remember Luke _was_ out on patrol when the wampa attacked him. There's a very good chance Luke did, indeed, have a n emergency shelter kit on him while he was performing his routine duties.

As for the science of how fast an animal would freeze to death and how long either Han or Luke could survive during exposure to the Hoth nights, I have no knowledge to add.

I would like to point out that this is a galaxy of spaceships, and Death Stars, bacta tanks and droids. Is it too far fetched to assume that their cold weather gear (uniforms, jackets, boots, etc.) are self-heated or at the very least lined with a thin substance that prevents freezing? Perhaps an anticoolant gel or something?

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Obama

Campaign season is in full swing. We know this because of the commercials, the watercooler-talk and the meme after meme after chain-emails that are being passed around the aethyr known as cyberspace.

In 2008 I volunteered with the Obama campaign because I believed in his vision of an American where the Patriot Act wasn't taking away individual liberties, where due process wasn't a pipe dream to the accused and conservative ideology of voodoo economics wouldn't be tearing the economy apart.

However, Obama has continued to disappoint.. And while I don't agree with all of these items Obama has failed to accomplish, many of them were needed to ensure equal protections, equal rights and equal playing fields under the law. But it didn't stop there. Obama, when he wasn't turning a blind eye to Bush-era violations of the Bill of Rights, was expanding on them.

But his silence might have been the most deafening roar. His silence during the Occupy Wall Street movement -- his silence when peaceful protesters had their civil rights violated time and again. His silence on the GOP's War on Women and his silence on climate change.

The president of the United States doesn't need to speak an opinion on every little matter the media determines in the topic of the day, but he should show his support or indignation at public policy that affects the nation as a whole.

In May I received a phone call from the Obama re-election campaign that was just installing an office in Denver. I went down and talked with her (the state coordinator whose name I cannot recall) for about an hour. I let her know how disappointed I was in the president's record thus far and while there are areas of policy he can't control, such as a do-nothing Congress, even his silence on matters of importance set a tone he, as the Chief Executive, must accept the proverbial buck.

For the past few weeks I've been receiving calls from an unknown number. A number that does not leave voicemails. Today I finally called the number back and spoke with (whatever his name was) a local field coordinator for the Obama campaign asking me for my time to help Obama get re-elected.

I informed him, that while I will probably vote for Obama in the coming election and while I will continue to try and show people the true Mitt Romney, I can't in good conscience actively try and promote Obama anymore.

He politely disagreed with me, blamed Congress and blamed the GOP for preventing Obama from being too  successful. But that wasn't the point. Even had Congress prevented Obama's agenda for one reason or another, Obama held his tongue when he should have spoken and turned a blind eye when he should have been calling attention to gross violations of American ideals. We won't even get into his caving to the Tea Party members of Congress in matters of the economy and the police state.

What's the point of this rant? Nothing really. Obama is still a better choice than Romney, but he's not what he promised a lot of people he would be when he campaigned for office and he's spent the better part of 4 years disappointing a lot of us.

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Social Media Etiquette

Social Media Etiquette

If Person A blocks you and Person B, whom you're still connected with, shares Person A's posts, is it a violation of some etiquette rule to comment on the shared post?

Is it unethical to show your disdain for the person who blocked you?

I know people get blocked for a lot of reasons, but there seems to be a lot of blocking on social media sites currently based on political beliefs and around political discussion. People who are posting pro-political beliefs (or, pro-party, pro-policy) are blocking others who debate the essence of those beliefs. Those same people who are posting anti-political beliefs (or anti political party, policy) again are blocking people who want to discuss the hows and whys of those beliefs.

In real life it's not uncommon to tell one set of friends that you're not speaking with another friend over an argument or disagreement, so why should it be different on social media?

A couple of weeks ago I had dinner with a friend whom I didn't know had severed ties with the people who actually introduced us years earlier. She explained why they're no longer talking and then we moved on in our conversation.

Why can't we do that in SM? Is there some unwritten rule, or _faux pas_ that only applies to internet communication? Can friends or acquaintances not speak about other friends or acquaintances? Is the internet some politically correct social structure where everyone is an angel and no one is allowed to speak ill of the another?

Social media certainly makes it easier. We don't see those we're not talking to at work, at parties or at happy hour. There's never an uncomfortable silence when _that_ person shows up unannounced. We simply move our mouse over to the unfriend, uncircle or the block tic-box and move on with our lives. But is that how real social interactions are? 

I can promise you it happens in the business field. Behind closed doors, in private meetings it's a office political arena of who is currently in who's good graces. Who not to invite to a project and who is being shunned by the office or a team, or a manager.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I've been blocked and I know I've had people in real life stop talking to me for a variety of reasons. I'm not in the business of making sure everyone loves me, respects me and thinks I am the center of the universe. I'm in the business of being me. It's that simple.

“A man with no enemies is a man with no character.” ― Paul Newman

A few times now I've seen posts where Person A shares a post by Person B. Each time I've made a comment along the lines of: "I can't post on the original because Person B has me blocked for disagreeing with him on another matter, but ..."

Usually the response is "don't bring your drama to my thread," or some variation thereof.

It's not drama it's a statement of fact and yes, sometimes I'm a little annoyed and let my annoyance show with a jab to Person B. Especially if a block or unfriending happened for what I believe to be childish reasons.

Recently, on Google+ I have been blocked by three people (that I know of) and on Facebook I have become a "hidden" friend.  I can go on to talk about the acceptable reasons for blocking, but if you get 10 people in the room you're going to get 100 reasons on what is an acceptable policy, so I'm not going to get into that particular discussion.

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Google Maps Really Does Hate Me

In my last blog post about Google Maps, I noted that whenever I try to create a map using the Draw a Line::Follow Roads tool GMaps always saves as straight lines, for some unknown reason.

This time, using my Google Apps account, I decided to create the map I was creating last time I became so frustrated I stopped. And look! The same friggin thing happend! What the hell? Google Maps really does hate me. This is, not only, a completely different account, but its also only a year old, so is probably on a number of different servers.

This is very annoying, Google!

EDIT: So, apparently, if you open the Map back up, edit it and right-click on the line you can then select snap to road to fix this issue. However, it must be done for each and every line separately and doesn't save that as a feature any additional lines being drawn.

So the question of the day is, why these extra steps? Why not "draw lines to roads" and have them, oh, I don't know, draw the lines to the roads and save that way? Still annoying, Google!

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T-Mobile Wins This Round

I haven't complained about T-Mobile much on this blog, but instead have made my complaints known on social media, specifically Google+. I've had numerous problems with their network and have called to complain countless times. I have troubleshot with their CSRs and Tech Support, changed out my SIM for a brand-spanking new one, and downloaded apps I was told (by T-Mobile retail staff) would help stabilize my network connection.

Today, on my monthly sojourn to the T-Mobile store to pay my bill, I again mentioned my dissatisfaction with my bill of roughly $90, and the non-consistent service I've been getting for a while. I ca literally sit in one place and and watch as my service goes in and out, or be using my device and in the middle of adequate service, the entire voice and data connections is lost.

These aren't isolated event, but happen multiple times a week across a large span on geography. Yes, when I'm near the outskirts of town or in a smaller area further away, I understand the service will be less than stellar, but when I'm in the middle of everything, just two miles from an interstate and mere miles from a large office park, I expect better service.

For months all I've been hearing from T-Mobile is "buy a new phone." "Update your device," or (and I love this one) "Use wifi and Wifi Calling."

Um, wait. You're answer to me is to use a service other than your own when I'm paying roughly $90 a month? Then why on Earth do I have your service? Why don't I change carriers?

Anywho, back and forth over months and my friend suggests I change to Sprint. She has a family plan and can get me on it easily. My portion would only be $40/month, less than half of what I'm paying now. However, I would lose account control and should we ever have a falling out, she could seriously, screw me over.

As I'm explaining to the girl behind the counter about my networks problems she looks to her computer and says she's going to check my warranty status. This is another problem I have with cellular phone carriers. I sign a two year contract to get a "rebate on a handset" and theoretically my monthly bill subsidizes the handset. However, if I choose to buy a handset flat out with no two year agreement, I don't get a reduced monthly subscription fee?

That aside, but the warranty doesn't cover both years? That's right, mine, yours, everyone's warranties are only good for a year after we've received the handset, nothing more. So, all of us are paying for a piece of equipment that isn't covered if it breaks on us and the whole cycle begins again when we have to replace it via a new two-year contract.

The whole system is set up against us. Convenience is a bitch.

Regardless, the girl says she can sign me up for an extended warranty. It might allow her to order me a replacement phone. She asks if it's okay for her to try. I give the go ahead. Within minutes she's telling me that she can order me a new replacement handset of the same model. Refurbished more than likely.

Also, I get it with overnight shipping, so it should be here tomorrow!  YAY!

As we're discussing this we start talking about a handful of other things. I let it slip that I leave about 2 miles away from the store so I'm in there a lot. She says if I live near X street and Y street then it's a KNOWN problem with T-Mobile's coverage. There's a hole there that T-Mobile has been trying to fill for years but can't get a tower in the area to cover the gap in coverage.

I live in that hole! Or close enough to it. But what shocked me was the fact that it was a known issue and for months I've been hearing there are no outages, no coverage problems and no low signal areas. Heck, T-Mobile's own map shows the area as "Satisfactory" yet there's a hole right smack dab in the middle!

So, there's a known problem I was never told about. Ever. That annoyed me. She suggested I call 611 (customer service) and request a Signal Booster.

She also asks me if I own a small business. I tell her I do some business on the side, but nothing formal and am not incorporated. She informs me that once I am incorporated (with a tax ID) I can get a business account that would be nearly $30/month less expensive than I'm paying now. Why hasn't anyone told me about this before?

So, T-Mobile, your employee Angela won the day for you. I learned a lot of things I didn't know and am actually getting some resolution on my network problems.

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Scared of Dogs and the State of Consideration

What do I do first thing every morning? Well, if you've known me for more than 30 seconds, you know I walk the dog(s) first thing every day. This happens before anything else each and every morning of my life. Unless of course, on that rare occasion when my roommate is awake before me and has walked them, or is in the process of walking them. 

This morning was no different. Wake up. Hydro-evacuation. Grab the leashes and out the door. 

For those of you who don't know, I live in a condo in the Denver area. The community is 25 buildings divided between two distinct styles. One style, the kind I live in, is eight condos per building in a square shape. The other half of the community, the buildings are in rows with 5 to 9 condos per building.

Since this morning's walk was just a short pee-walk to allow the dogs a chance for their morning hydro-evacuation we weren't walking very far. In fact, we walked two buildings over around one and back. The whole walk should have taken 10 minutes and given both of them a chance to claim a number of bushes and light posts.

However, a simple morning walk around the buildings in ten minutes or less wasn't to be had this morning.

Last weekend a rental unit in the building we walked around received some new tenants. I didn't officially meet any of them, but rather saw them moving in as I returned from the gym one morning. A few days ago I noticed a little girl on their deck (as this is an upstairs unit), maybe 9ish years old) looking as though she were trying to figure out how she was supposed to get her bike down the stairs without some sort of crash or bodily harm. Since I'd never seen her before I said "Hi," without braking my stride. And then I said, "I don't know how old you are, but right over there," and I pointed at the grassy area behind her building, "there are some kids playing that look about your age." She looked at me like she couldn't believe I just spoke to her, or I was some sort of creep and since I hadn't altered my stride, I kept moving on towards my home.

Fast forward to today and as I come around the corner of their building I hear a little girl saying, "Oh look, there's a dog! Oh, there's two!"

I rounded the corner to see the little girl coming down the stairs with an older woman holding her hand. I have no idea who the older woman was since she didn't bother saying hello, but the little girl, recognizing me, did say "Hi." I said 'Hi' back.

The mother (grandmother, aunt, friend-of-the-family, I don't know) stopped and let us pass. The dogs stopped to sniff something on a bush. I waited. We moved on a few more feet and the dogs stopped again. So did I. This is how dog walks go, especially in the morning when all the other neighborhood dogs have already been walked.

We walk a little further and I notice the lady, with the little girl still hand-in-hand, are now behind us, going in the opposite direction of the parking lot. In fact, aside from other condos and another further parking lot, there was nothing in the direction I was going and no conceivable reason for the two of them to be following us on our walk.

The dogs and I walk along the side walk, going relatively slow since the dogs are stopping to smell every single blade of grass, it seemed. The woman finally speaks up, "Can you move faster? I don't like dogs."

"Congratulations," I reply. "But we're on a walk."

Then she changes tactics, "I'm scared of dogs."

I look at her, "You've been following us down this sidewalk. If you don't like dogs, go a different direction."

"But I'm scared of dogs, you move."

"Um, no. You're following us. You can't be that scared of dogs if you're following right behind us."

She finally quieted and I walk a little further along than I originally planned to, just to annoy her. At the next sidewalk junction I turned left and they turned right.

I started thinking about a scenario a couple of weeks ago when an older lady was out walking her Scottish Terriers (maybe Westies) in a nearby park going in the opposite direction we were heading. She stepped to the side and said she didn't like her dogs socializing with other dogs. I stopped, letting Rufus and Charlie get closer to her dogs and told her I like my dogs socializing with other dogs.

She yelled at me as she pulled her dogs, her non-aggressive dogs, further away and reiterated how she doesn't like her dogs to socialize.

Why is it that everyone in this country thinks we all have to cater to their whims? You don't like dogs? It's obviously my concern to make you feel better. You don't like socializing, I have to cater to your whims. You don't like your picture taken in public? I have to acquiesce to your wishes.

When are people going to understand that the rest of us want to do our thing too? I want my dog to socialize, why does your concern outweigh mine? I want to walk my dogs in peace, why is your fear of dogs my problem? I want to live my life without having to always make sure everyone else around me's need are met and I have to live on the proverbial egg shells.

Men live with this a lot every day. Somehow it became our responsibility to make the the toilet seat is down, but no one ever makes sure it's up for our next use. We're the ones who have to live with the A/C turned down to luke-warm because the women in the office are always cold and it's our bother to have the heat turned up to sweltering for the same reasons. We're the ones who have to go out into the rain to get the car and it seems like we're always walking the dogs when the weather's inclement.

When do the people who always want their considerations and vices respected want to respect other people's ways of life? Sure, those people are out there and I meet them every day -- heck, I'd like to think I am one, but why do some people think their selfish-interests outweigh everyone else's personal interests?

There's more I want to say long these lines, but I can't think of how I want to say it, right now.

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Google Maps Annoy Me

Hey Google,

Your maps program sucks. This is a problem I've had for quite some time and have even complained (and recieved a "it's a known issue" response) about it on Google+.

This is really friggin annoying. Because the "follow the roads" lines never save along the roads, instead saving as straight lines as shown below. I have once again just wasted hours of work documenting routes on Google Maps to have the maps become totally utterly useless. Each one of the blue lines in the screenshot below should be squiggly as only mountain roads are in Colorado.

Link to Map as saved.


I have been able to have the roads save properly under another account, but since nearly everything I do online is tied to this one, I would really like Maps to save properly. Otherwise, using it as a tool is just a waste of my time, effort and resources.

I haven't created a Map outside of the My Tracks app on my Android in more than a year because of this problem and I'd really like to see it addressed.

EDIT: So, apparently, if you open the Map back up, edit it and right-click on the line you can then select snap to road to fix this issue. However, it must be done for each and every line separately and doesn't save that as a feature any additional lines being drawn.

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Hypocracy

Another Google+ post where someone got butt-hurt, called me a name (granted, a variation of my username), tells me not to reply and then prohibits replying. Wilson Hines, you're a class act. Luckily, I can copy and paste the entire conversation.

And since we're talking about free speech and Wilson's obvious distaste for it, I find it hypocritical that he condemns the White House for asking Google to take down an offensive video, while at the same time prohibiting free speech on his own public post.

I'll never understand the conservative mind.

Wilson Hines

8:47 PM  -  Public

White House rejects freedom of speech! Ask Google to take video down

Bennett Ruda originally shared this post:

Google Rejects White House Request to Pull Mohammad Film Clip
Gerry Shih, Reuters

"We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007."

White House officials had asked Google earlier on Friday to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's terms of service. The guidelines can be viewed here

Google said on Wednesday that the video was within its guidelines.

Read the whole thing (http://goo.gl/Ys3Uz)
------

Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online a controversial YouTube movie clip that has ignited anti-American protest...

1

+5

Jason ON9:05 PM

How do you get "the White House rejects free speech" from that? The WH made a request and Google denied it. Had the Executive gone in with the military or NSA and taken it down, then that would be a violation of free speech.

Wilson Hines9:07 PM

+Jason ON I didn't say violates, Jason Off.  I said rejects.  How stupid can the administration be to ask Google or anybody to take public free speech off of anything.  Don't reply, you'll just look stupid again.

Mute postView post

As you can clearly see, the option to comment and the option to share the post have been removed for me, presumably by the poster, Wilson Hines. Here's a link to his post. 

Amendment: Going to the original post by the link provided shows the Share button still available to me. It's just hidden in my screen capture. My error.

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