Life, Liberty, and me.

Greetings one and all. I’m going to start this blog differently than most of the other ones that I’ve started in recent memory: with a word of warning – I generally send this blog and its updates to friends of mine, but I cannot control whoever else may or may not choose to come read what I have to say. That being said, the things that I say in this blog are, for all intents and purposes, my life. I write about what I want to write about because it’s important to me at that time. If you don’t want to know personal updates, then don’t read. That being said…on with the show!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a couple weeks…and so far, the wait was totally worth it. What all was going on? Well…I’ll tell you.

Friday night, I went to pick up ‘Smokey’ and we went to The Windbag (a local restaurant that used to be, amongst other things, a brothel). We sat, ate and chatted for about 20 minutes even though the real world clock said that several hours had flown by. It was a great chance to sit…and just talk. We ended up leaving there around 10 and went on a short walk around the Walking Mall (it’s kinda boring at night…ok, it’s REALLY boring at night). We stopped in at Rileys (the local Irish Pub) to listen to ‘Whitey’ – this 60+ year old guy who was doing his best to play some songs. He tried…that’s about the best thing I can say. I ended up getting home just before 12 (and when you wake up at 3:30 in the morning, 12 is REALLY late).

Last week, Mrs. Rook and I came up with a devious plan to pull a joke on Smokey: I was going to purchase the most gaudy, tacky and ugly corsage that I could find or have made and would give it to her on Saturday night. I woke up the other morning and thought to myself, “How much more fun would it be to do this, but to let Smokey know ahead of time so we could reverse the prank back on Mrs. Rook instead?” So, I asked Smokey if she was in and we started making our plan. I was going to give it to her and she was going to remark on how ugly it was and say something like, “This is the worst corsage I’ve ever seen.” My job was to pretend to be all hurt (Mrs. Rook said that she would probably pretend it was ok, so Smokey getting upset was a completely different response than expected) and then to tell Mrs. Rook that it was the worst joke ever and say, “I’m not going to do this…I’m going home.” And then we would all have a big laugh at Mrs. Rooks expense.

Saturday afternoon, after lunch with everyone, I picked up the most awful corsage ever made (it’s the picture for this blog, actually). The plan was now green lighted. I went home, and after a nap and a shower, got dressed for the evening. I went to Rook’s house and when Smokey came down stairs, she and Mrs. Rook asked at the same time (although in completely different rooms and out of sight of the other person) if I had brought the corsage. I just smiled and nodded at both of them. Unfortunately, while Smokey did her part really well, I totally dropped the ball. I had the feigned hurt look, I even said it was a horrible joke…but that’s where I tanked. My acting skills clearly died in 5th grade…the last time I was in a play. Anyway, Mrs. Rook still was kinda wondering what was going on and then it dawned on her that Smokey and I had planned the whole thing. Anyway, I thought it was funny even though I botched the whole thing.

We all left their house and went to the local Thai place for dinner. Neither Rook nor Mrs. Rook had ever had Thai…so it was going to be an experience for them. We all ate our fill and then went to listen to the Helena Symphony and choir do an opera entitled “Elixir of Love” (the premise of the story being similar to “Love Potion #9”). It was REALLY well done: the music was great, the singing was really good, and the story was cool…even if it was sung in Italian (which is surprisingly similar to Spanish). We all ended up going to The Silver Star afterwards to talk and talk and talk. I think at one point the two women were trying to come up with as many ways to embarrass me as possible (you are both evil, by the way). I finally got home around 2 and after reading for a bit, went to bed a VERY tired man.

I know the weekend isn’t over…we still plan on cooking dinner tonight and maybe watching a movie or something…but I wanted to get this all down so that the post wouldn’t be 10 pages long.

Two-Face

Hypocrisy. What is it? According to Wikipedia, Hypocrisy (or being a hypocrite) is the act of opposing or not purporting a belief or behavior while holding the same beliefs or behaviors at the same time, or vice versa. That is, the act of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, or saying you believe one thing, when in reality, you believe the exact opposite or when your actions speak contrary to your professed views.

Wow…that’s a long definition. Rather convoluted and confusing…so I’ll sum it up by saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Succinct. Why is this an issue for me today? Well…this isn’t a new issue really, not for me or for anyone else, for that matter. Ancient Buddhist writings contain stories of a hypocritical man. Islamic teachings in the Qur’an have passages about this. Even the Bible contains passages and stories about hypocrites (see parts of the Book of Job, as well as New Testament dealings between Jesus and the Pharisees).

So…what is this inalienable truth called “hypocrisy”? Is it some sort of human characteristic that is ingrained in us like compassion or motivation? Is it something that can actually be overcome in ones life? What all makes this worthy of writing about?

Countless times while watching the news or reading about things, you are confronted with examples of hypocrisy: from the PETA folks who throw paint (probably not ecologically “Green” in an of itself) on furs worn by socialites (never considering that these same socialites have insured the coat and will just end up replacing it with another one, thereby killing MORE animals than the original coat), to “tree hugging” (sorry, can’t come up with a better term for this right now) individuals who hammer nails and other metal objects into trees in the hopes that, when being cut down, the saw blade will catch on these items and end up maiming those doing their job. This extends far beyond every day people…think about politicians. How many times do we hear about a politician professing one thing and hearing later on that they actually believe the exact opposite?

So, I ask again…is hypocrisy just a human trait? I hope not. I know that I, too, am guilty of this…but it’s something worth working on…to beat the stupidity of it all. I say, be true…always. Be yourself. Say what you believe and stand behind it. Don’t badmouth other people simply because you can…it only makes you look bad.

Anyway…I had a really great weekend and want to end on a high note: the weather yesterday was just awesome. I ended up going for a hike (my second in as many weeks), and got a little sunburned in the process, but it was well worth it in the end. This weekend promises to be even better than the last…so, until then…

I’m still here, I promise…

Greetings one and all. It’s me…Scott. Do you remember me? I’m still alive and kicking. Since my last update, I’ve been rather busy with work and other stuff…but to give you an idea, I’ll tell you all about it!

I’ve been working on a computer mod project for a while and finally finished it. For it, I took one of the old style radios that are kind of just a wooden arch design, tore all the guts out of it and turned it into a computer (complete with new working switches and cool light up buttons). Yeah, it sounds totally cheesy, but it looks cool. Still not 100% done with it (still need to find something to do with the tuner dial area). What did I make it for? Well, I’m glad you asked…I loaded all of my MP3’s to it and have it hooked up to the TV and receiver…that way, I can play music through the receiver and surf the internet on the TV in the front room (if I wanted to, that is).

The day after I hooked all this up to my receiver/TV combo, a strange thing happened…the TV died. I’m not talking about “the colors were funny”…no, I mean, “it won’t even turn on” type death. Being the enterprising sort that I am, I decided I would try to fix it. So, I did some searching about on the internet and found out that there were two points of failure for my model TV…a $1.60 thermal fuse, and a $1000 ballast. Decisions, decisions…which to try first, right? Hah…yeah right. I ordered the fuse knowing full well that if that didn’t work, I would be faced with spending $1000 on a 5 year old TV, or roll that money over into a new TV. Well, the part came in gingerly wrapped in a bubble mailer. I had, wisely I thought, ordered two fuses just in case I broke the first one, and besides…$1.60 wasn’t enough to really worry about. Rook and P-did came over to try and help me “repair” the TV (well, Rook helped…P-did…well, he was there getting into mischief more than anything…then again, I can’t expect a 3 year old to be a wunderkind TV repairman). After a bit of soldering and disassembly, and then more soldering and reassembly…we plugged in the TV and, with everyone far enough away from the TV in case the back of it blew up, hit the power button. The green light came on and blinked…and blinked…and blinked. And then…the red light of doom flashed before our eyes. The simple fix hadn’t worked after all. Well…we decided that maybe we could have some fun in looking at how the TV worked, so we started gingerly taking it apart. We quickly reached a point where I said, “Wait…are we going to try and put this back together? I’m only asking because we are quickly going to reach a point where I’m not going to remember anymore where things go.” Rook just smiled at me and I knew…I just knew…this TV was never going to work again. After an hour or so, the TV was reduced to a pile of disassociated parts…and a Zip-Loc baggy full of screws. RIP Old TV.

The picture for this post is actually a picture of the new TV (a Toshiba Rezga 37” LCD…MUCH better colors than the old one) and to the right you can see the computer project in all it’s glory.

Yesterday, I got a wild hair and decided that Mt. Helena needed to be hiked. Bear in mind that the high has been in the 40’s for the last couple weeks. I started hiking from Base Camp, where my friend had dropped me off (I wanted to buy a carabiner). It’s not that far, really, from the base of Mt Helena, but it’s all uphill, of course. After making it to the trailhead, and starting the hike, I noticed a marked increase in the amount of snow and ice and mud and wind. Ooooh the wind. While I had planned ahead as much as I thought I needed to (my pack contained a jacket, a hat and gloves, a Nalgene water bottle, a small thing of matches (hey, you never know), and an MP3 player (who wants to freeze to death without tunes?!)), I hadn’t really dressed for the occasion (shorts, long sleeved t-shirt, baseball hat and sneakers). Well, I trudged on anyway and came to a stretch about 40-50 yards long of snow covered ice that slanted to the right…where a nice, non-gentle, tree covered, drop-off was. I looked back downhill, and then back at the ice. I’m sure you could see the indecision…continue up, or admit failure and go back down. I ended up going “4-wheeler” (hands and feet on ice and snow) and made it up past that area. No precipitous drop-off fall for me…yet. I finally made it to the top and took some pictures which, of course, didn’t come out well. On the way down, I decided to go the other way down because that 40-50 yard stretch wasn’t going to be any easier going down than it was up. The Prairie trail is a zig-zag trail for a while, tree covered and, wouldn’t you know it, icier for a MUCH longer stretch (about ¼ mile) than coming up. Yay. Instead of going down the trail, I just cut it all off and went straight down the hill, blazing my own trail (if any Helena Park Commission folks read this…I’m sorry for not following the trail). I finally made it back to Rooks house, where my truck was parked, went home and showered, and promptly fell asleep on the couch.

Anyway, I am still alive, enjoying life, meeting new folks (more on this some other time, perhaps) and generally just having a good time.