So much has happened this week and I am surprised I made it out alive. Check it out.

Monday
I was working on billing stuff with Boss #2 in Henderson when his wife left to take one of the kids to grandma’s and grab food at Arby’s, if I remember correctly. She backs out of the driveway and B2 and I hear a horrible grinding noise. “That didn’t sound good,” I said. We emerge from the back yard and she’s back in the driveway. My car also has a nice little bit of damage done to it. My driver side door will open only once more after this happens, more on that later. We notify the police and get an accident report, and I drive home with a disabled vehicle, entering through the passenger door. On my way home from Henderson, a Subway bag in my car decided to empty itself of its contents and begin flying around the car. This startles and distracts me enough that I run off the road and have one hell of a ride trying to get back on the road (successful) while staying in my own lane (not successful) traveling at 60mph. I left the highway and had to sit off on a side road for about 20 minutes to gather myself, then decided to make the rest of the way home.

Wednesday
Wednesday was my 21st birthday. I know I promised last year on this blog that I’d have a party but needless to say that never happened. I actually had to work that day, for the second year in a row. B2′s insurance company gave me a check that day for the damage to my car from his wife backing into it. I still have not visited the other former customer I planned on visiting that day. How exciting, huh?

Friday
Friday, I planned on renewing my license to get the cool sideways version that all the people 21 and over get. I was still climbing in and out of my car through the passenger door, so I mapped out what the routine would be before leaving. I would go to the bank to deposit my paycheck, then walk over to the judicial center to get my license renewed, then head home. Apparently, I was concentrating too much on this planned routine because on my way to the bank, I zoned out, went through a red light and struck the side of a Ford F-250 going through that same intersection. My car did little damage to the truck but was pretty banged up itself, as seen in the picture at the top of this entry. The car was a complete loss and my insurance will not pay for it. Thankfully, the check I received from B2′s insurance company will just about pay off the car so I can sell it for parts or something to make up the difference. Not to be brought completely down by the day’s events, I went out with friends to celebrate my birthday. I had a few drinks; I figured that the way this week was going, I would be lucky if I didn’t die at Holiday World on…

Saturday
Yes, I went to Holiday World on Saturday with the OSMA/Twitterites. We planned this event at Texas Roadhouse during the big ice storm back in January, and I think that was the key to its overwhelming success. We had 21 attendees. I finally got to meet some really cool people (and catch up with others!), all the while being burned to a crisp by the sun. I did not die at Holiday World, so I can consider this week a partial success.

Can I sleep for about a week now?

Anyway, I watched the video on the Rocky Mountain News homepage today and I’ll admit I was nearly brought to tears. The stories they had and the music in the video really conveyed the tone. I suppose your best reporting is done in the face of your own demise. I have embedded their video here.

1. I don’t know what kind of fantasy world these people have been living in, but I’m pretty sure abortion has been legal for at least 30 years with the Roe v. Wade decision. At least, there’s been a legal standard for it. That pretty much renders this thing useless.
2. The methodology is just stupid. I may be an atheist and a card-carrying Dem and all but that doesn’t mean I like, support abortion or anything. I disagree with at-will abortion yet will not question a Supreme Court decision… but the way to eliminate the problem is NOT to force your religion/morals/what have you on others without regard to situations where an abortion may be needed, like those standard cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy presents a danger to the mother’s health or life. The way to eliminate abortion is to advocate policies that make the environment better so that mothers will not consider abortion once they are pregnant. Of course I have left out that “have more sensible sex education to reduce unwanted pregnancies in the first place” thing, because I don’t want to be sitting here all night writing. If a woman would rather not or later find they can’t raise a child, do the right thing and let a family who can raise the child adopt him or her. This is related to the whole “pro-life” (the buzzword) vs. “pro-life” (pro-ALL LIFE) argument.

Anyway, that’s my take on this whole … thing. I do apologize if it was a bit incoherent. Also all my best wishes to our new president and may he have a successful four (but hopefully eight) years serving our great nation.

Since the last time I blogged, I’ve ditched Windows completely, another famous person I admire died, and I took a weekend off to visit someone I now consider a very good friend up in Indianapolis.

It was that trip out of town that made me realize not all people are all that bad. Contrary to popular belief, I can tolerate people. At times I may even like them. You just have to click with me, and unfortunately a lot of people do not. Perhaps I just need to get out of this town. Kentucky is like the buckle of the bible belt and there are a lot of people I fear will not take a liking to me, especially if they knew I did not share their beliefs. I’ve said many times that around here, being atheist is a lot like being gay in the sense that you’ll catch a lot of shit for it if people find out. The culture in most of the southern United States is centered around religion and church–two things I avoid like the plague. This is my primary reasoning behind really wanting to go somewhere else, preferably larger and further north. The only problem with that lies in the fact that I’m established here. I’m a college dropout, for g-d’s sake. I probably couldn’t get a job where I do what I love anywhere else because of my credentials, or lack thereof. It’s hell here, especially since Owensboro is the black hole of technology and no one here uses it to its full potential. I can’t get anywhere here. At least in a bigger place, I’ll have an audience and someone to pitch things to. My dream is to create something that becomes popular and makes people happy. I don’t want to get filthy rich, I just want to live comfortably and contribute to the world of technology and media. Is that too much to ask? Everything I’ve tried to do around here has flopped. I’ve gotten so disenfranchised with everything that I don’t even want to stay in Kentucky. Louisville used to be the one place I would go. Not anymore. I can’t stand this state.

I’ve gone off on a tangent so I will stop talking.

Yep. You know it. And for the third year in a row, I can honestly say my birthday sucked. I had to work… it was just like any other day. At least there’s hope for 21, which as of this writing is 358 days away and is the last one to have any meaning in life. I’ve had several offers to be taken out and get plastered. I… think I’ll pass. I feel old, too. It’s like a mid-life crisis at quarter-life. If I feel this old now, just imagine how bad it’ll be once I hit 40. Forget this. I’m having a party for my 21st birthday. The planning starts now!

I’m just going to touch on this briefly because I’m not a really mushy/emotional/sentimental guy and I don’t want to come across as such. HOWEVER… I got a text message from Nick at 2:39 PM on Friday that kinda hit hard.

Tim Russert is dead.

Russert was the best of the best, and he died while doing what he loved. This shouldn’t have been his time to go but he was probably in the best place to do so–surrounded by friends and colleagues who have been touched by his hard work all these years. Such a shame he was so excited about this election year. Barack Obama should dedicate his victory speech on November 4 to Mr. Russert’s memory. Hint hint. Okay, that’s my human segment. Onward!

I’m currently in the middle of yet another server migration. Our exodus to the Alphatek NOC here in Owensboro is bringing in a lot of new and exciting things. We have all our hosting accounts moved to two servers there, and our only dedicated server account is the next to be brought in. They have a dedicated server in Chicago, and I’m busy moving all their data to the new server here. When I was inevitably baffled by the fact that the server here was installing older versions of everything I had installed on the server in Chicago, I came to a shocking revelation. This new server ran CentOS 4.4. The one in Chicago? CentOS 5. I really hope this works… I’ll keep my trusty audience posted.

And finally, I’ve recently decided to make a major change in my life. It’s mainly to put a lot of things behind me and it requires me to change just about everything. Hopefully you notice once it happens. If not, you’re blind. As always, I’ll keep everyone posted.

(7:05:47 AM) safetyguy1656: Well I gotta go get ready for school.
(7:05:50 AM) safetyguy1656: I’ll talk to you later.
(7:05:59 AM) Teh Programmer: Ok. You have fun with that.
(7:06:06 AM) safetyguy1656: Blow me.
(7:06:08 AM) safetyguy1656: Later.

ABC News: Obama Hears Tearful Plea to End Iraq War

I’ve seen the first news report of someone I went to school with being arrested. I’ll say no names, but it’s pretty sad how she was on drugs (while pregnant, I might add) and assaulted a sheriff’s deputy. I saw her picture and everything on there. It’s weird… but I guess it’s a part of growing up. I don’t doubt that I’ll see more of that, and possibly even with people I knew better.