Tannishblog

As reported in The Raw Story, Canadian Parliament ”voted to allow US resisters of the Iraq war who fled to Canada to stay in this country, thus avoiding military court-martial in the United States.” This is great news to parents of teenagers in America.

In consideration of America’s focus on a New Century of Anglican, Christian Dominance regarding oil producing nations, contrasted by it’s inability to recruit foolish youngsters, I can only surmise a culture of Patriotic-blinded youngsters forces into military draft. My daughter, regardless of her knowing better, is of ripe age for our Great Country to exploit. She’ll be 18 in October. I would fight on the street to prevent my offspring from becoming a pawn of the military-industrial complex. I would give my life to prevent such an outcome.

Street Fighting may be the only way to avoid such catastrophes. Surely the “wisdom” of our elected officials can’t prevent further destruction of the youth that represents America’s future. We have the “Best Government Money Can Buy.” Even my admiration of Obama can’t disguise the fact that he is “bought and paid for” as much as any other candidate. Never would he get as far has he has without the stamp of corporate acceptance.
I can only be proved wrong by one event - and I do not condone this - a bullet, well aimed. Surely this is Hillary’s only chance, as she has outlined.

Regardless who ascends to the White House, A military draft is the only answer to an advanced strategic conflict that involves Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. Especially in consideration of the current administration’s inability to plan it’s way out of a paper bag…

The only way for the Dominuist Christians to continue their fantasy of World Domination, is on the hides of my Daughter’s Generation. I will die before that happens. In light of the fact that I’m a Buddhist peace-nik, this is the one and only cause that I would fight for. No Freaking Way you’re sacrificing my child’s life for corporate gain - No Way!

We’ll all run to Canada first. Barring that, I’ll meet you in the streets.

The winners of the 2008 Blogisattva Awards were announced last Sunday. To my glee, I was honored with a win in the Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design category. But the best part is being introduced to so many remarkable Buddhist bloggers sharing their experiences and words. My bookmark files overfloeth.

Thank you all. Namaste.

I just learned that this humble blog is a nominee for the 2008 Blogisattva Awards. Perusing their many nominees, I see they’re promoting primarily Buddhist bloggers whom, in my opinion, can use some recognition - if even amongst ourselves. The project is quite comprehensive, boasting “26 categories of awards with an aggregate 132 nominations.” I’d love to know how they found this little blog…

Look me up under the category of:
Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable Elegant Design.

(It could use a few more superlatives, perhaps?) The winners will be announced, this Sunday, Feb 24, 2008.

Cool. Thanks, good people!

I’m determined to return to blogging - I’m resolved. That would make it a resolution!

Whatever. The point is I refuse to let this blog peter out. I also resolve to branch out from the stale and overwrought topic of Politics. Even I am sick of my constant one-note whining about the disgusting state of our disunion. There isn’t anything I can say that is not said better by more illustrious Bloggeratti.

to start, I offer a Geeks-eye-view on the sorry state of mainstream software, coming from DownloadSquad, and found via Reddit:

The Five Most Annoying Programs On Your Computer

So True!!

All of a sudden, Mike Huckabee is a frontrunner in the Republican rat race. Is there anyone who truly believes that a Repub can win the White House after the ongoing catastrophe that is Bush/Cheney/Rice/Iraq/Iran??????

Really.

For those few people so seeped in denial, my condolences. No one can argue with a sick mind. However, no matter how idealistic, how inexperienced, how indoctrinate a Democratic candidate might be, there’s no chance a Republican has for the top seat. None.

So why bother to give Mike an inch of news coverage? Only to save face in the coming disaster of credibility when the house of cards perpetrated by the Bush administration, held up by the MSM, comes inevitably to fall. A weak overture, but the only available stance left to a  failed and failing institution

The NEWS as we know it is dead. Government, as we know it, has failed. Grass roots, restructuring politics, along with our adrift national identity, will regain - with strength - a rule "by the people, for the people." Or our Great Experiment will crumble. It has come to the Point of No Return.

Ask yourself: Where will you stand. Will you stand beside the Predatory Lenders, that steal your dreams? Will you stand beside the hospitals, drug companies, and their legions of lobbyists, who hold profits before public health? Will you stand beside the Gun Lobby, as they set aside Human Life, Human Decency, to increase monetary gains? And will you stand beside a military machine that is bent upon destroying innocents for the tactical advantage of controlling oil manufacturing and distribution? Ask yourself: where does your interest lie? What path most benefits your children?

Ask yourself: What is the Lesser Evil - and, isn’t is still evil? Is it justified?

Sometimes the start of a new year doesn’t happen when expected. We all think of New Years Day, but that means nothing, really - just a societal convention. Nonetheless and to some degree, we all expect some magic moment in mid winter where some kind of difference is experienced. Like when you turned ten, and you awaited the mystical anointing that would herald in your second decade of life.

Such events rarely happen and - in my experience - never happen on time. No; major events happen in their own time and do not dance to the whims of man.

It so happened almost exactly a year ago I, while managing as small warehouse full of aluminum roofing materials, was instructed to downsize the real estate footprint of the business I served. Times were tough. Thus began one of the worst Decembers I can recall in my adult life. It also ushered in a difficult year for my working life.

January, a traditional doldrums for a roofing company, found me and a coworker, with no work. I sat at my desk rigging my laptop to the corporate Internet provider so keep awake. That’s no exaggeration. I spent the next several weeks getting paid to displace air at a certain place for a certain length of time. What work I had was in a sideline of web design, which I accomplished in an empty, inactive office. Once spring began, I believed, matters would improve, and I can again take up the job I have been place holding.

Not to be. Spring came, then summer, and this once proud roofing company floundered in the marketplace. No sales, no work. By July, it was evident that the company needed to close the office. We were let go; unceremoniously dumped.

Not unexpected, perhaps, yet unnerving. I panicked for my family’s sake and spend 80 hours over the next 9 days perusing the job boards until I found what looked to be a decent offer, and a new direction to my career. Looks deceived me. Although aptly warned during the interview process of needing to deal with "brassy" personalities, nothing - not even my youth spent with indifferent parenting - would prepare me for the neurotic insanity that prevailed at this family-owned company. I would bore you with a description, an anecdote or two, but I would neither do the truth justice, nor would anyone believe me.

From the onset, I was miserable, and for twelve weeks, I did my best to adjust for my family’s sake, and failed. After 60 days, a performance review showed, the obvious, that I couldn’t perform to expected levels. Thirty days later, more of the same. At that time I kindly asked my supervisor (who was not directly involved with the family psychosis), to kindly fire me for lack of performance. We both knew I was searching for work, hampered by my commitments, and unable interview without drawing suspicion. As a measure of his kindness and sanity, he allowed this thin veil, as long as I trained my replacement.

So, at the end of a fourteen week ordeal, I was again cast into the unemployment statistics: two days before my birthday. It may have been the best present I have gotten in recent years. Three weeks of difficult searching ended on Friday Nov 30, when I was asked in for a second interview in a local company (4 miles from home- that local), when I was hired to begin last Monday. Another small company, family-owned, and another new direction for me.

I could pontificate for days about the contrast in corporate cultures. I’ve been here less than a week and I already know my Year of Hard Knocks has ended. I have found a new home. I even have the energy, after a very busy day, to blog my experience and to welcome a new year. So Happy New Year to me, and to you, who may also be struggling through these difficult and dangerous times. May you always be open to better days ahead, and aware of the major events of your life and how they refuse to read a calendar.

My energies have turned inward as I struggle through a difficult few month. The job I took after being laid off last summer was wrong for me on many levels, and most of my energy was consumed trying to overcome that. I had to withdraw from the wit and cynicism of America’s political train wreck its blogification.

After three months in an untenable situation, and during my second unsatisfactory assessment meeting, I asked my supervisor to do me the kindness of firing me for lack of performance. He agreed to do so if I would hang on for two weeks training a replacement. I pondered the irony of the situation only briefly - that I who couldn’t meet the owners expectations would "train" someone - as my interests were best served by getting this new person up and running as quickly as possible.

Last Wednesday I was let go. Now I enter a new untenable state of unemployment. Still, my interest in headlines is diminished, as I enter Phase Two of my Employment Crisis. Regarding this site, expect a slow re-emergence throughout the winter months. I know this will never be the Blog that Shook The World, nor will it gain modest notoriety, but the fact that a few peek in everyday despite my absence is heartening. I’ll hang in there if you do… Thank you.

I’ve been a bad blogger, haven’t I? Since July I’ve been reduced to one or two posts a week, often quickly rattled off and frivolous. Pathetic. The main culprit, I admit is EVE Online, to which I have a strong craving. While I type away on this, another quick jot, My gaming computer is monitoring my avatars’ asteroid mining - something that’s doesn’t take my complete attention.

Too, my lifestyle has changed. Before Independence Day, I had a job that allowed some free time to scan the news and prepare for my rants. The free time grew, and I happily got used to it. Then came the inevitable lay-off, which occurred - you guessed it - in July. After a tense week of job boards, I landed a job nine days later. Not too shabby.

Then the weirdness started. If this isn’t The Job That Ate My Brain, then surely it’s a subtle vampiric attack on my spirit. I’ve had bad jobs before but none quite so debilitating. I’ll forego the litany.

I now find myself at a crossroads: the soul-sucking job has to go, buy I cannot leave without an exit plan. I owe my family at least that much. What meager energies I own must be diverted into another job search. And what time I can spend in the healing void of virtual outer space must be tempered by multitasking. There’s not much left to devote to even as humble a blog as this.

But, in the immortal words of a(n in)famous politician: "Ah’ll be Bock" Tannish and his pet blog ain’t dead yet. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Yeah, I know…

I’ve been away from the blog for a while. I haven’t abandoned it. In the middle of coping with a new job and resulting shift in schedules and energies, the family and I took off this past week for Quebec City for a vacation committed to before I was laid off last month. We’ll be back tomorrow, as I am currently in a hotel in Windsor, Canada that provides free wireless.

It’s been a great week, and I’ll post a picture for your hungry eyes. It will probably take the remainder of August for me to find my way back into a regular posting schedule. That is IF I can tear myself away from EVE online

A view of the St. Lawrence River Eastward toward the Isle of Orleans.

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks in Tannishburg. On July 9, I was laid off from a struggling company I worked for over the past three years. Too bad; I liked that job. Next came a week of ambiguous Internet job ads and digital red tape, as I emailed strangers and applied to a dwindling list of might-be-interesting positions. This activity netted three interviews.

To my surprise, I was offered a position Tuesday afternoon to start the next morning. This job will apply my skills in a new way, doing something I’ve never tried in an industry I never heard of until now. There’s a lot to learn.

That’s why my blogging has been sparse of late. In readjusting my energies, I’ve had less time to parse a whine out of the newsreels. I’ll get back into it as a routine develops. So please be patient, my three readers; the Tannishness will continue soon.