Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I hate Legos

  To be more specific, I hate Lego sets. I have nothing against the idea of Legos themselves. I loved them as a kid and like to use my imagination to build planes, and houses, and swords. Back in the 70's and 80's legos were a little bit bigger and would stay together for the most part, unless you were being to rough. My 4 year old son asked for a Harry Potter Lego set and a Star Wars Lego set as well. The company builds some nice looking sets with a lot of detail and multiple figurines to play with. The problem is that your average set has 500-600 pieces that require more than some assembly. Within 10 minutes of a child or children playing with one of the lego sets, things start to fall apart due to the fact that the pieces are incredibly small. So whenever Harry casts the patronus charm, the god damned hair falls off his head or the bunk beds in the Griffyndor dorm room falls apart. They should just make the castle itself a few easy to put together pieces so that kids still get a chance to make something and then get to enjoy the toy without concern that Hogwarts is going to be nothing more than rubble before they finish reenacting the first week of school. The kick in the nuts for all of this is the fact that the cost of a lego set ranges from $50-$160 depending on the size. I would have liked to have bought the Millenium Falcon for my kids, but between the 2 business days worth of work, the 13 1/2 minutes it would have taken to destroy, and the $159.99 (on sale) price tag made me want to cancel Christmas. Legos is in the business of causing stress.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Living life in the specter of death

  A couple of nights ago, around this time, I was working on my magnum opus of a blog entry that I have been talking about for quite some time now. It's real, I swear. I was taking a short break to check my twitter account and saw the news that Christopher Hitchens had passed away. I knew that he had cancer and was nearing the end, but it still caught me by surprise. I don't claim to be a big fan of Hitchens and only knew a little bit about him. I had seen him on the Bill Maher show some years back and was pulled in to his aura by how honest he was, even his general demeanor. He was smoking a cigarette, if I recall correctly and drinking a glass of scotch, which Maher pointed out. At first, I was annoyed at his brazen and confrontational attitude, but then like many, charmed by his intelligence and wit.

  The next day, I read a few news stories about him and watched a few interviews given by colleagues and friends of his. I was especially moved by a short remembrance that his brother had written about him upon hearing of his death. Without going into great detail, the two brothers were philosophically opposed on many subjects, to the point of not speaking for a long period of time. They had gotten on better in recent years and had mutual respect for one another. The one strongly held belief, of the many that he possessed, that struck a chord with me was atheism.

  For all intents and purposes, I am an atheist. To be much more specific I am a non-theistic realist or perhaps an apatheist. Personally, I don't believe in a god or afterlife, but I don't claim that there isn't one. Some have said that explanation than falls in to agnosticism, which basically states that the existence of god can't be known. I don't necessarily agree with that. Perhaps we don't have the technology or knowledge to prove or disprove the existence of god or a deity. Religion just doesn't play a part in my life, with the exception of having to deal with the obligatory residue of believers I come in to contact with. When I was younger and first came to this realization of belief, I was a bit confrontational about it, when confronted. I did not seek out arguments, but didn't back down either when the conversation arose. Now, I prefer not to talk about it much, especially if it is likely to turn in to a debate.

  The bottom line for me is that regardless of personal beliefs, whether they be in the area of religion or other, each person has their own values, priorities, experiences, and viewpoints. I don't believe that my perspective on any given subject is right or wrong, with little exception. As I approach middle age, I believe less and less in right, wrong, good, and bad. These type of labels become more of a hindrance on life, discussion, and understanding due to the generality of their use and scope. The discussion of religion or the absence of it, has become similar to the question of, "What's your favorite song of all time?"

  These types of discussions are far too limiting in nature other than for the purpose of  setting up an understanding within the context of conversation. General beliefs such as religion, politics, and favorite sports teams are the builders of barriers that herd people together and more importantly, keep us apart. They limit us within the community and shun those who may actually be more like us than we think. These futile exercises in identification hold us back from truly being a more global community, which I have come to believe is a problem without answer. It is far too normal and common for humans to clench these types of description and labels in order to make sense of the world and perhaps more importantly themselves. I believe that this behavior, no matter the reason, is  a basic human reaction for the purpose of self preservation, whatever the goal.

  As I have grown and learned about the world we live in, which I am still quite ignorant of, I have attempted to be honest and objective within my stubborn opinions which has been at times, quite painful a process. One thing I have come to believe in more and more as I have moved farther and farther away from religious thought, is the old adage, "The more I learn, the less I know.", which at first is rather frustrating, but also uplifting. In addition to the most precious gifts in my life, my wife and children, I have gained a greater thirst for the future and the experiences I wish to have and although they may be intertwined with fear and frustration, they have caught me none the less.

 I think that it is my lack of faith or absence of belief in an afterlife that instilled a passion for life and experience which has grown and renewed itself with each door that opens in my time here. I have always said to my wife that I love the idea of being wealthy and the thought of living in luxury, but the only true possessions that I value above all are the lives of my children followed closely behind with that of my wife and my own as the caboose.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Update on the non-events of the last week.

I don't have much to update as of right mainly because my activity has been directed towards finishing up the 1st part of my (thesis statement) multiple blog entry on government's policies towards the financial sector and online poker. I was hoping to have it done by now, but the more I research (mostly the financial aspect) the more I feel needs to be written. I am approaching the home stretch with regard to the meat and potatoes of the entry and will have to compose the overall introduction. Once I am finished with the 1st part, I intend on posting each section a week apart so that I can put my focus on the poker aspect, part 2 as it were. I would like to post the entire section together at one time on another off-shoot blog page for this entire paper, just in case anyone comes across it and wants to read it as an entire piece. I hope that I can finish everything before online poker legislation is passed as my writings will be moot (not that they're going to be gorundbreaking shit to begin with).

  I still have not been running. I believe I informed my reading public that I would be suspending my running plans, as being a stay at home dad has been claiming more of my very little free time due to the fact that my sons are no longer willing to take naps. I was hoping to have made much more progress by now, but I had an injury about 4 weeks back that put me on the sidelines and then my home schedule just got tougher. I am going to have to reacess my goals for the Chicago marathon next year and make it more realistic. Plus, I really love drinking beer and eating fatty foods which is not good for staying healthy.
I hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season and staying safe. I will talk to you all soon. Have fun!
 

Monday, December 5, 2011

I love Scotch!



I am a apprentice when it comes to Scotch. When I was 28 I used to drink 7&7 which is hardly drinking scotch at all. I then moved on to Scotch and soda and the scotch itself was probably swill. When I turned 30 I started to give Johnnie Walker a try and liked it for a little while. Then I began to taste some real scotch whenever my wife and I would go out with other couples for dinner. Soon I ditched the water part and was slowly sipping single malt scotch neat. I finally bought my first "nice" bottle of scotch in my mid 30's and that was a bottle of Laphroaig 16 year.

I loved that smoky peat flavor with a nice smooth finish. After finishing that rather quickly I gave a bottle of Lagavulin a try which was quite nice as well. Still a bit of a novice I moved on to a bottle of Bowmore which was much smoother with a bit of sweetness to it. Not my favorite, but not bad at all. I just finished up a bottle of the Ardberg Corryvreckan (sp) and that took a while as it was strong. Tonight I went back to Binny's (they always have a great selection of everything) and debated trying something new or going back to the ol' standby by Laphroaig. I decided to try a bottle of Highland Park 12 year (which has a small bottle of the 18 year-schwiiinnggg!) and a bottle of Caol Ila 12 year to boot. That's about it for now. I will let you all go as it is getting late and I want to give these bottles a try. Have fun you scotch drinkers!