everyday

Today, while finishing up my holiday shopping I was waiting at a crosswalk. While waiting I witnessed something that struck me as funny. You see, a man approached the crosswalk and after a few seconds of looking around in an obviously perturbed manner he asked me if anyone had pushed the button. I suppose I looked like an expert on the subject, but I politely told him that I didn’t know. He then proceeded to cross the street while the red hand was clearly informing him that it wasn’t safe. He was in such a hurry that he forgot to look for traffic in both directions. Halfway across the intersection this man found himself mere millimeters away from a collision with a fast moving automobile. The funny part of all of this was that I passed him later staring at some useless trinkets in a shop window. He was almost killed (or at least seriously injured) so he could stare mindlessly at a window display of things he probably had no intention of buying. Why do most people have such a hard time waiting for a few seconds? I notice this type of behaviour at almost every stop sign, or stop light or general intersection. People are so put out that they have to stop and wait that they regularly brush aside their own safety and the safety of others all just to get somewhere a few seconds faster and probably do nothing of import.

I was listening to Kevin & Bean on KROQ this morning and they interviewed a lady on whose child was expelled from a christian school in Ontario, CA because the lady was gay [news article]. While not atypically appalling behaviour from a christian organization, the issue is noteworthy in that it has received a bit of press. My personal opinion on the matter is the school has the right to expel students who are in violation of school policies. The problem here is that the woman, whose child was expelled, was never told that her lifestyle was grounds for the child being expelled. I hope that the woman sues the school for breach of contract and at the very least gets her tuition money back. I also hope that the schools administrators ask themselves “What Would Jesus Do?”, and practice what they preach!

So it is September 11th, 2005. Four years have passed since the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. I have come to the general realization that 9/11 did not affect me that much. It wasn’t the first time, nor was it the last time that a tragedy of that magnitude befell our nation. 9/11 is fast becoming, to me at least, the date that should have united our nation under an umbrella of bi-partisan cooperation, the date that could have sparked a change in our oil centric foreign policy, and the date that we should have embraced our friends and allies. We have failed to learn from 9/11. Our government is more partisan than ever, our foreign policy is as driven by the need for foreign oil as ever, and we have no friends left. The reasons for all of this, well many of you will say “The President”, and you are right. Just don’t forget that it has taken failures in all three branches of our government to get us here, and it will take changes in all three branches to get us out.

From time to time I am moved to make a donation to a charitable organization. The last time I was so moved was after the tsunami struck Asia. I urge anyone with money to spare, to donate it to any of the charitable organizations providing relief efforts to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I personally donate to the Red Cross (usually the International Red Cross). The Red Cross isn’t the most efficient of organizations, but given their size and capability I think they provide best bang per donated buck.

• The American Red Cross
• The Salvation Army
• Amazon.com (goes to Red Cross)

If you know of anymore reputable charities, please feel free to e-mail me with their information shane.pinnell [at] gmail.com

It is hard for me to digest the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The scenes that I have witnessed from the various news agencies are surreal. I am saddened by the utter desperation of those who have been trapped by the water, especially the young or infirm. I have this unnerving sense of disbelief in regards to our insignificance in the face of the awesome power of nature. I find myself wondering why we haven’t done more, why haven’t we stopped the water, why have those people not been evacuated yet, why are people dying? The answer to these questions is simple; we simply lack the ability to do those things. Despite all of our technological wizardry and self righteousness, we are powerless.

I could more easily accept the devastation caused by the recent tsunami that struck Asia. The devastation occurred in areas that, for the most part, lack the benefits of our modern society. People just don’t die in such large numbers here, at least not as a result of a natural disaster. While the loss of life is equally saddening in both disasters, it is more difficult to accept and understand when it happens so close to home.

I have started building a desk. So far so good (no lost appendages). I will post some pictures of the completed desk, assuming it isn’t hideous, when I am finished. It is crafted from Birch to match the existing furniture in the room, which came from Ikea

NOTE: riddle from Coudal Partners

By Albert Einstein (maybe)

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.
The question is– who owns the fish? Feel free to post a comment with your answer.

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.
There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.
If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

I love it when it rains in the summer. Living in the inferno-esque Inland Empire of Southern California makes me truly appreciate water falling from the sky. It has been miserably hot and atypically humid of late. This rain is most welcome.

So I signed up for Match.com.
I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I feel like a dork for
trying it, but on the other hand “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. So
I set about crafting what will hopefully be an attractive profile of
myself. I answered all of the questions truthfully, and actually spent
a fair amount of time typing. I had to laugh when, upon completion, I
was directed to search for matches. So I find a few attractive women in
my area and I clicked on the “Do we a match?” link. And lo and behold,
we did. Then I got to thinking, well of course we do. The questions
that are asked do not truly reflect ones self. My idea of a perfect
first date (from the available selections that is) is as follows:

Verdant conversations over cobblestone paths, each of us captivated by the perfume of blooming perennials

So
what is the problem, well all of the choices were equally pleasant.
There is no way to select a bad answer. There is no “Get high, and
fuck” selection for the perfect first date. Not that I believe that to
be a perfect first date, but I am sure that some people may. Actually,
that wouldn’t be so bad if it happened, would it?
The point I am
trying to make is that if I do go on a date from Match.com, should I
expect that the woman wants to walk along a cobblestone path and
delight in the fragrance of blooming perennials, or would she rather do
something for which there was no available option on Match.com? I guess
I was hoping that this would be easy, but of course nothing is.

I want to write a book. Who doesn’t, right? I have a few stories floating around in my head, but I have no clue as to the proper method for putting pen to paper and producing something of merit. The stories I have thought about are science fiction based, but don’t dwell on the science fiction. I like science fiction that uses science, and fiction to tell a good story. A story about human suffering, the quest for power, insanity and so on. I guess I am into sci-fi because just regular old fiction seems to me to be too plain. I need the fantastic for some reason. This doesn’t always hold true, I do like plain old fiction when it is well done. But even then, I consider it to be well done when the author has described his world in a way that allows my imagination to envelope it. I like thinking about why a character acts a certain way. What physical, outside pressures are acting on him. What is pushing him to make the decisions he makes. So perhaps I will begin to write…