Anti-American civil liberties opponent Jack Valenti dies today at 85. Valenti was an ardent opponent of the American public striving to promote big business over the good of the nation and its people he was a powerful political figure from Hollywood famous for his corrupt movie rating system but more recently becoming famous for attempting to destroy fair use rights in the US. Valenti was as powerful a force against America as all but a few in Washington. Our founding fathers look down and smile on our country today.
Dad left Pavilion this morning around nine to head down to Pennsylvania where I will be meeting him tomorrow morning to bring him back out to Newark. This is dad’s second ever trip to New Jersey and the first time that he will ever be coming to Newark itself. It has probably been eight months or more since dad last came down.
Today is another day of very heavy rain in New Jersey. Dominica and I woke up last night to the sound of rain and thunder and flashes of lightning shortly after we went to bed. It was a pretty serious storm.
Today was much better than yesterday. I guess the bottom line is that I enjoy going to work quite often more than I enjoy staying at home at 1180 Raymond Blvd. How sad is that? That is a really harsh statement that nothing ever goes so wrong at work as to make up for how wrong it often goes at home!
Dominica got the BMW in for its insurance inspection today. That is two out of three cars done. Now just the challenging Mazda 6. Dealing with everything in New York is so hard.
Tonight we are supposed to receive the paperwork for the sale of our Geneseo home. They were DHL’d up to us last night overnight and I am to sign them and overnight them right back tonight so that they will have them tomorrow morning. I called the front desk at 1180 and they said that the package had arrived so everything is looking good so far. The closing on the house is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. We aren’t holding our collective breath but at least things are moving forward to some degree. This is the most movement since we started the process the last week in December. We will be very happy to see the house finally sell. It has been such a burden the last several months. We are trying to eliminate things like that as much as possible.
I went out to lunch with the guys from work to Houlihan’s on Route 22. They have really good food there and good service and the prices aren’t too bad. Dominica did some shopping on her lunch break and got some luggage that we need for our trip in less than two weeks (can you believe that?) The two week mark was from last night so we are getting close now. We are very excited.
Today is my first day in my new office (read: cube.) I have been sitting in the same seat since I started over a year ago (this weekend will be thirteen months) and finally I have been moved so that I am sitting with my group instead of off by myself.
The RIAA went to a federal judge today asking, in secret, to be given the right to demand subscriber information from Internet Service Providers without a court warrant. The judge turned down the request but this shows just how much power the RIAA assumes that they have – which probably means that it is close to what they actually have. The RIAA is a private company that believes that it has the right, a RIGHT, to private corporate information that is a secret between that company and its customers. Imagine if a credit theft company demanded all private information from any major company. What makes the RIAA any different. I don’t steal anything from the recording industry represented companies. Therefore the RIAA is attempting to invade the privacy of a legal customer. The RIAA is treating you and I like criminals and trying to force vendors that we work with to be forced to comply with anything that the RIAA demands.
Today a major headline in the US is that a Cary-Grove English teacher requested a student write an essay that the teacher then used to have that student arrested. The school is attempting to prosecute for two account of disorderly conduct for the student’s following of directions. The English teacher is clearly criminal in this case and should be investigated thoroughly. This is entrapment and disgusting. Students at Cary-Grove have rallied behind the arrested student posting quotes from the English teacher on walls that encouraged this student to write this paper. The paper did not make threats and was taken completely out of context – obviously what the teacher was attempting to incite according to the reaction of fellow students. The student who was arrested has already been enlisted in the US Marines and is not happy that he is considered fit to die for his country but not to attend school. Teachers like this who are attempting to harm innocent students should be locked up. Teachers receive extensive training on dealing with students and should be help accountable for actions like this. Dealing with students who are forced to take their classes brings a grave responsibility that too many teachers take lightly. Teachers often act like students choose school but they do not – not normally. Students have little choice and by the time that they do have a choice (at age eighteen) they have been forced to invest so many years into the program that it is not reasonable to act as though they actually have a choice to stay or go at that point.
Dad arrived in Tannersville, Pennsylvania at a quarter after four this afternoon. He is tired from his drive but he has all evening and all night to relax and then I will be driving him from Tannersville back to Newark first thing tomorrow morning.
I paid our month end bills this afternoon. I hate paying bills. There must be a more straightforward way than most of these places use for online bill paying. None of the sites are similar. Some are so obtuse that from month to month I can’t remember how to navigate through them. Some show totals incorrectly, or not at all. One shows two separate accounts on one screen but only one can get paid online and the other can only be paid over the phone. And none of them, ever, save my login information even though each of them have a checkbox option for that that doesn’t work.
Dominica stayed late at work tonight. Her last two weeks have been really busy and she has had almost no time to do anything because work has been so busy. Unfortunately they don’t give her the option of overtime or else she could but in a little extra time to ease the load. My Friday nights always run late as it is deployment night. I got to leave at half past six which isn’t too bad. Fridays can easily go much later.
Tonight’s plan is cleaning and early to bed as I am scheduled to meet dad between eight and eight thirty tomorrow morning in Tannersville. So I will have to be up quite early to make that drive.