Sheep Guarding Llama

I slept in as long as I could this morning but I had to be logged in and working by eight in the morning. Oreo did not stay in bed at all. He has so much pent-up energy – he is totally ready to get back to daycare. He has had four days off so he is about to explode with puppy power.

I had such a busy morning that I didn’t even get a chance to leave the house until after noon! I ran over to Food for Life and grabbed a sandwich since it was already so late. I figure that I earned it. Then it was time to hop into the Pontiac G6 rental and head off to the office.

Today, or recently – I am too lazy to check – Scott Adams argues that the United States does not have a government. He is probably right. Scott also has a good essay on “Is Copyright Violation Stealing?” I have often said that you can tell a real musician (or artist, or writer, etc.) from a wanna-be based on their opinions over copyright. A real musician (or artist, or writer, etc.) wants to either get paid for what they do OR wants to know that what they did was for the common good and can choose to give away their work for free. In either case it is a drive to create more, good stuff. The Creative Commons has become popular because so many musicians, artists, writers, etc. WANT to give their stuff away but they don’t want to be seen as big evil companies that the revolutionaries can steal from! They want to be seen as being awesome people giving stuff away for the common good.

I read the book “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and in that book the author makes a really awesome point about fundamentalist Muslims living in Iran. She talks about how many Iranian women, wanting to show their dedication to their religion, used to chose to wear the burka because it was a statement of faith. Just by wearing the burka they were telling people that they were dedicated to what they believed in and it wasn’t just something that they did easily or, as we often say in the US, something that they do “on Sundays.” But once the extremist Islamic regime took over and forced all women to wear the full burka in public at all times that statement was stolen from those who valued it most. Instead of wearing the burka being a statement of faith to Allah it is now a statement of subservience to the state. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with politics and fear. Who was hurt more – the women who wear the burka who wish that they didn’t have to or the women who wear what they always wear but now wear it with shame instead of pride?

The point is that the choice is the critical factor. If you chose to give away what you write it might be because you think that it is so important that it is more important to let people read it than to make money off of it. Being able to make that choice is critical. If there is no motivation for a writer to write, an actor to act, a singer to sing, a dancer to dance, an artist to… art then who loses out? The artist or the observer?

I found out today that on Saturday cartoonist Johnny Hart – Broome County’s favourite son – died of a stroke while drawing.

I worked a little late, until about half past six, and then headed for home. I got home and Dominica and I ran right over to Food for Life for dinner. I got the Cuban tonight which I almost never get. It has been probably five months at least since I had one.

I spent the evening playing Dragon Quest VIII. I needed a break. I got about two hours in which is amazing for me – especially on a weeknight. Dominica watched some Dancing with the Stars (ABC is available online – no requirement for having cable or an antennae – they are really thinking clearly) and then watching me play DQ8 and did a little studying for her A+ test that she absolutely has to take in the next few weeks ready or not.

I had to get up and continue working this morning. Not nearly as much work as I did yesterday but still – I was looking forward to having at least a little downtime this weekend. I worked for a few hours and then we headed over to Dominica’s grandpa’s house for Easter dinner.

We were not able to visit for very long at all. It was starting to snow and we have a lot of errands that have to be run tonight. So we were on the road at a very reasonable time.

We got to Newark and got to the apartment, picked up the BMW and made a run down to Iselin to get the car repaired. It is scheduled for tomorrow and tonight is our only chance to drop it off. We got that taken care of and then drove up to Newark Liberty International Airport where we had managed to get a reservation at National Car Rental for a Chevy Cobalt for me to drive this week while Dominica drives her Mazda PR5.

We were just in time for me to get the car. They closed at ten and we got there at nine forty-five! What a busy evening. Dominica circled the airport while I road the AirTrain to get to the car rental area. Newark Airport is gigantic and one of the most confusing airports ever to drive around. It is totally nuts. (NVTS!)

National gave me a free upgrade to a Pontiac G6 and sent me on my way. I have the car for the whole week and don’t have to return it until Sunday night. We have no idea how long the BMW is going to take so we figured that we needed to be safe. And since we are probably traveling this coming weekend we figured that we might as well take advantage of the rate on the rental and put some miles on it instead of on the Mazda. At least get something for our money.

I was impressed with the Pontiac. It doesn’t handle well which is to be expected from a mushy American car but it is comfortable and stylish inside even if it is an ugly, sad jellybean from the outside. It is decent to drive and quite impressive for an American car. It has a lot of power. That was very surprising. But new cars often do.

I got back to the apartment and picked up Dominica who had gotten back ten or fifteen minutes ahead of me and we drove up to IHOP for a quick dinner. I figured that that would be faster than trying to figure anything else out. We hate and were back home before eleven.

Dominica went to bed but I stayed up for several hours working on my class at RIT. I have my regular weekly work to do and a paper due tonight. To I was up until after three in the morning working on all of that. What a weekend it has been.

We arrived in Frankfort around midnight last night.  The drive really isn’t all that long and now that we live in Newark and know how to escape to the north via US 280 and the Garden State Parkway we are able to make great time to the north.  As always we were wide awake by the time that we arrived and Dominica is addicted to having television to watch so we stayed up until well after three watching whatever was on.

I wanted to sleep in this morning but I didn’t get to.  I had to be up before ten so that I could work on a project at the office.  It was supposed to be a small project but it ended up taking all day.  I didn’t get a chance to do anything all day but work.  Even when everyone went out to Denny’s for dinner I got stuck at home babysitting the process and working on miscellaneous projects since I was already on the clock.  The upside is that I did manage to get a lot done and it was a very productive weekend.  The downside is that I didn’t get to relax at all.

We did manage to squeeze in Casino Royale and Stranger Than Fiction today.  Casino Royale is, in my opinion, one of the best James Bond films ever made and it is really great to see them going back to the original and starting the series over again.  It was really needed.  A fresh approach to the whole Bond story.  Stranger Than Fiction was okay, I guess, but I thought that it was really weak and quite boring.  Once again proving that if they have to stoop to using Dustin Hoffman that it would just be better to avoid the movie altogether.  I don’t think that I have found any actor except for Jack Nicholson that make me so unhappy just to see them on camera.

I ended up working until the wee hours of the morning before getting to go to bed.  There is more work to be done tomorrow so I can’t stay up too late working tonight.  What a weekend.

It’s my day off. Whatever that means. Oreo and I got to sleep in late today. It was cold in the bedroom and so he was very snuggly and wouldn’t let me get up until a quarter to nine. That is the latest that I have slept in on a weekday in a very long time. It was nice.

My goal for the day was to play a lot of Dragon Quest VIII. I got started nice and early after checking my mail and making sure that no one needed me by the time that I had pulled myself out of bed. My allergies flared up horribly today. It was one of the worst allergy days that I have ever had. It was awful.

I managed to play several hours of DQ8 today. Oreo laid by my side or on the futon beside me all day. It was a nice day interrupted only by my allergies. It was really nice to get to relax for once. I really enjoyed my day. I did have to do just a little bit of work today but it wasn’t too much.

Dominica got home and I was pretty much ready to go head out for Frankfort but work needed me to hang around for a while. Min and I were ready to head out the door by minutes after six but we got stuck in Newark for a long time. We got stuck for so long that we popped in Bosom Buddies and Dominica made dinner. So much for leaving early.

It wasn’t until after a quarter after eight that we were finally able to get on the road. Over two hours of just sitting around waiting for the go ahead on five minutes of work. So much for arriving in Frankfort early. We were all set to be there by ten!

Today is my work from home day. And it begins a stretch of four days without having to go into the office. Very nice. Although I am working from home all day today, doing a little tomorrow and even have to do scheduled work on Saturday morning. But at least I don’t have to drive into the office to do any of it.

Today actually ended up being pretty slow as it is the last day of work leading into a really long weekend. A lot of people took the day off and even those who were in the office weren’t seeming to be doing all that much. So I got to lay low and relax a little today. I was at the computer all day but not doing back breaking stuff.

I did get a chance to squeeze in just a tiny bit of Dragon Quest VIII today. Not a lot but just enough. I was playing when Dominica got home and she watched me play for another hour. So maybe I got two hours at most in today.

We ordered in from Food for Life and Min ran over to grab the food. I tried the fajita for the first time. It was quite good. I did lunch there this afternoon too.

We finished watched the first season of Family Ties and then it was off to bed. The second to last episode of the first season is one of the ones that I remember best – where Mallory has to learn what SCUBA stands for to help Alex on the High School Quiz Off. I remember watching that like it was yesterday. I almost completely remembered the entire first season. There wasn’t a single episode that I didn’t know. I am not sure if I ever even watched Family Ties in reruns or if I only watched it when it was still coming out. But I am positive that I haven’t seen the show since 1989 when it went off the air. It amazes me how familiar the show is. I can practically quote it!

It was off to bed early for us tonight. I am really looking forward to my holiday day tomorrow.