Things are getting better

There are far too many people who bemoan the state of the world today. Good news! They're wrong.

Yet more reason for hope.

XO nailed it

Several months ago, XO called this election.

Welcome President Barack Hussein Obama!

I can't believe how happy I am!

Humbled

I went to my polling place after I left the gym this morning. I expected that since it was early, I'd be in and out in a few minutes.

I was greeted by some nice folks who told me the line started one door up from where it normally was. No problem I thought, it will be all of fifteen minutes instead of two; then I got in the door. There must have been 300+ people in the line I was in with more coming.

It is not often I am gobsmacked in the course of a day, but there it was. I was humbled and moved by my fellow citizens all standing in line for what they knew would be over an hour. They were all standing there waiting to exercise their franchise. Every type of person was there, the old grandfather, the young college student, the daughter of immigrants - every one wanting to make their voice heard today.

Through an accident of address, I was able to skip most of the waiting(only about 30 minutes or so). However, the actual voting area was full up. I sat on an old piano filling out my ballot scribbling my ovals in and hoping my tiny scribbling can make this nation better for my wife, son, and daughter.

Whoever the next people running the government are will have a host of problems to fix, but I have had my faith restored in the ideals of my country and the decency of my fellow citizens.

May every one's vote be counted, and may the next leader take this day of enfranchisement as a symbol of the electorate's sacred trust in him. Thank you my fellow countrymen and women for voting today.

Attitude

Last night at dinner(cheesburgers on whole wheat buns, brown rice, & lima beans), Matthew, Janet, and I were discussing his choice of Halloween costumes. Matthew it seemed didn't want to be Sportacus anymore.



You may be able to tell how unhappy he was from those photos when he got the costume, which he asked for, last week.

So being a good dad and telling him that if you don't go as Sportacus you don't go, and if you don't go you don't get candy; he tells me that he will go and yes he will get candy anyway.

Janet jumps in at this point, since I was quickly becoming cranky, and says "That's enough attitude out of you Matthew."
To which Matthew replies: "I wasn't attituding you, I was attituding daddy."

My son isn't normally that assertive and that funny at the same time. Janet and I had to look away from each other to keep from laughing out loud.



He's still going as Sportacus.

Quiztastic

FYI I have no taste...

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Balanced, Secure, and Realistic.

14 Impressionist, -6 Islamic, -3 Ukiyo-e, -3 Cubist, 0 Abstract and -16 Renaissance!

Impressionism is a movement in French painting, sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interest in the actual visual experience and effect of light and movement on appearance of objects. Impressionist paintings are balanced, use colored shadows, use pure color, broken brushstrokes, thick paint, and scenes from everyday life or nature.

People that like Impressionist paintings may not alway be what is deemed socially acceptable. They tend to move on their own path without always worrying that it may be offensive to others. They value friendships but because they also value honesty tend to have a few really good friends. They do not, however, like people that are rude and do not appreciate the ideas of others. They are secure enough in themselves that they can listen to the ideas of other people without it affecting their own final decisions. The world for them is not black and white but more in shades of grey and muted colors. They like things to be aestically pleasing, not stark and sharp. There are many ways to view things, and the impresssionist personality views the world from many different aspects. They enjoy life and try to keep a realistic viewpoint of things, but are not very open to new experiences. If they are content in their live they will be more than likely pleased to keep things just the way they are.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Back porting

I'll be back porting some of my old posts to this new site from the old one. Thank you internet archive for making backups for me!

Picture hosting

Since I've offloaded all of my web hosting duties to others, I've got a new photo hosting site to which I'll be re-uploading (OMG the data volume) the family pics. I've chosen SmugMug for the picture hosting. It seems to suck less than many other systems.

So now you can re-enjoy the pictures that have been lost from my poor HD.

Decided

This is my first post at the new address. Those of you expecting to find my old self-hosted blog will be taken here instead. I've given up on self-hosting for various reasons most of them being that I don't have the time to be a good sysadmin while watching after my little ones.

People with too much time on their hands and not enough information

Those of you who have kept up with the happenings at Chez Sader know the following:

1. Janet and I love each other very much
2. Janet and I love our children very much
3. Janet's bio-parents have abandoned her because she won't follow the inane rantings of Charles Taze Russell and his ilk.

So, for NYE we had planned to ship the kids down to grammy's so that

1. Grammy could see them
2. We could party all night w/o fear of small children wanting to be fed at some unearthly hour - like 7:00 a.m. Jan. 1, 2008.

Yahoo Chat at work:

rhg_sader: Your mom just called me and told me not to bring the kids down.
scrod_puppy: What?
rhg_sader: She said we didn't know the meaning of love and she couldn't support us.
scrod_puppy: Call me.

So one short phone call later in which Janet informed me she didn't know what the hell my mother was talking about I had the following (paraphrased) conversation with my mother.

Me: Mother, why did you tell Janet not to bring the kids down?
Mom: I just can't support you two if you're going to do that!
Me: Do what?
Mom: I know what you two are doing, it's all over the internet!
Me: What do you think we're doing?(I'm baffled)
Mom: You two are husband and wife-swapping, it's all on myspace.
Me: (angry)What? Who told you that?
Mom: I just can't support that. You two don't know how to love each other...

The conversation degenerates from there. During the remainder of the conversation, I'm told how I'm a poor parent, addicted to the internet, and that I don't know how to love someone. To use understatement to it's full effect: The conversation does not go well. There is shouting involved in my beautifully private cubicle.

Here's a short summary of the evidence(we think) that she's basing this opinion on:

1. My wife, who I've been with for eight years, in a fit of romantic passion gave me *gasp* a hickey one evening. During the course of that receding we went to my mothers and I *blatently* showed it off. I.e. I wore my normal no-collared t-shirt. I know, I'm very risque and brash.
2. My mother apparently overheard my wife talking to someone at Thanksgiving saying "You should have stayed, that's when the fun really started..." Neither I, nor apparently my mother was privy to the entire conversation since I was busy hosting and mom was nowhere near the actual conversation.
3. My wife, on myspace, lists her orientation as 'bi-'. Mind you, this is something she discovered about herself during her many hours of therapy and mind-awakening away from the JWs.
4. I have no fucking idea what else she's seen/browsed.

So, due to the fact that my wife and I enjoy a refreshing bedroom romp every once and a while, talk to people who visit our house, have a penchant for comfortable clothing, and the fact that Janet has discovered that if she was starting from scratch again she could play the field, we obviously must be swappers or whatever the term is now-a-days for orgy participants. All of this from the demon myspace and some unconfirmed commentary by a prudish third party.

This 'case' as it were is so ridiculous as to not merit a response, but respond I shall.

Here's what the inter-tubes say about 'Keith Sader' That's right, I'm having a torrid affair with all things Java/Ruby/Scrum/Roller/C++/geek. I just can't keep my pants up when someone says 'meta-programming'. Here's what the tubes say about 'Janet Sader'. Yep she's a sultry harlot for democratic primaries and blogger-socials. Whew, it's a wonder I can keep up with her the way she cavorts about! Yes had anyone bothered to search "all over the internet" this is what they would have found about the den of sin that is my household. Sometimes the cops have to be called to keep all of the horny folks away from my door begging for smoked turkey, bbq ribs, and the raconteur that is my wife.

All of this from the woman who has never bothered to turn on a PC to see the 2500+ pictures of her grand children. Words fail me. The woman I've told everyone was an example of unconditional love due to her care of my father for ten plus years has done this to my family on the scant evidence(I think) above. I never thought my mother would turn into my wife's parents, but even I the great and powerful Oz can be wrong :-(

My father's relationship was complex, but I never ever had the fear that our differences could ever take his affection away from me. My mother has turned into, for lack of a better word, a absolutist. If you don't fit the mold of exact perfection that she herself can't live up to, she will cast you aside. Those are indeed cruel words to type, but I can't think of how to phrase it any other way.

Sadly yours,