rawlinson – us

Global Warming Jokes Aren’t Funny

Overtime I have developed a bit of a pet peeve. I get a little annoyed when people make lame jokes on a cold day about “Al Gore and Global Warming.” It’s cold, big deal, it neither proves nor disproves any theory and is, overall an amazingly lame over simplificaiton of a complex issue.

Global warming, for better or worse, is actually happening. We don’t know if we can stop it. We do know there are a variety of contributing factors to the problem such as cows which supposedly generate more greenhouse gases than cars, planes, and all other forms of transport combined. Go read the linked article it’s pretty insane how much bad stuff livestock, and the care of that commodity, generates.

Honestly, I don’t care if you care about global warming. I don’t care if you are being more environmentally conscious or if you reduce your family’s carbon footprint at all. But please stop denying that global warming is happening. There is plenty of disagreement on the why (manmade) -vs- (other) bit it’s still a fact that the global temps are gradually increasing so please just deal with it.

The impetus for this post was a minor twitter conversation I had after someone retweeted a lame “Its cold out, take that global warming” joke. I find it funny that these same people never make an equally lame joke on a warm winter day (or a warm month like this past November, 2009). After I made that observation it was suggested that November wasn’t really that mild compared to normal so I looked and it’s true – on average it wasn’t “that mild” but it was 2.75 degrees warmer than the average of the past 12 years. Here’s a little table showing the avg November temps for Bluefield WV for the past 12 years:

2000 looked awefully nasty but 2001 sure did look nice! My curiosity kept me plugging though so I grabbed a different 12 year window; 1968-1979.

Again, this is not sufficient data to do any real trending on but I thought it was interesting that the average temp was 4 degrees cooler in this sample and that the temp only got over the 98-09 average one time during this 12 year period. All data was extracted from weather underground

The End of 2009

I suppose now is the time were we should be looking back at the past year to study our success and to learn from our failures. To be honest I’m not sure that’s a very easy task. Heck, it seems hard enough just to identify events that might qualify in either category. However I think one success for me has been my increased involvement in my community. I created the website whyhuntington.com last year and because of that I have met many great people and have had the opportunity to help on a few different projects. I’ve also had the chance to speak with the media in terms of the local newspaper, television stations, and our university radio station about what I think are the positives in Huntington and how we can address some of the negatives. I doubt my voice carries much weight but it’s been cool being able to share my thoughts on the subject and perhaps, slightly, help set a direction for positive change.

My efforts to get involved and help bring about change are also the source of one of my failures this year – my effort to join the Cabell County Board of Education. I am glad I tried and I think my primary effort was well executed I think I could have handled the pettiness of the process much better. I should not have lost my temper with Ted Barr (RIP) who was, at the time, the board president. Regardless of what I thought of his tactics I should have kept my cool and expressed my opinions in a more constructive way. I’m not sure how I could have done that but I believe I could have done better.

Another big victory for us was getting a better handle on our finances. While we are no-means perfect at saving money we have done much much better. This started a couple years ago really when we decided to take half of any pay raises or sudden windfalls we got and to put those directly into a savings account that is difficult to tap into. Sadly, we’ve tapped a few times anyway but at least, at this point, we have something in savings. A nice plus to saving half of these bonuses is that you still get to enjoy the increase a little bit while at the same time you are saving money without feeling any pinch. This is a tactic I want to teach the kids in the upcoming year and, since they have no expenses, I’d like them to start saving half of all income they receive – or maybe I’ll get them to save 40% and have them find a charity for 10% that they can donate to each year.

All of our financial preparations couldn’t have come at a better time because as 2009 comes to a close and we approach a new decade our family is deep in a period of uncertainty; specifically concerning Lisa’s career. Her company was purchased earlier this year and after the merger happened no personnel decisions were immediately announced. Instead we were told we had to wait until January 8 to find out her fate. Thus we are looking at the new year as a time of change more than we normally might. If Lisa does get laid off she has decided that she would like to try and be a stay at home mom. This will cause us to seriously escalate our efforts at living life more frugally as her income will be sorely missed if we continue to live as we do. However, we think it will be possible based on what little information we have at the moment.

In November I hit my 10 year mark with Strictly Business. It’s pretty amazing to me that I’ve lived anywhere this long let alone worked for the same company for such a big chunk of it. I don’t technically hit my 10 years of full time employment until May or June but it’s close enough for me. It is nice having a sense of job security right now more than ever!

So that is last year – what’s up for next year? First off I’m thinking of running for the Board of Education in a real election. Lisa’s job situation will have a major impact on that decision so I’m still holding out on throwing my hat in the ring. There are, I believe, 3 seats that will be up for election so I feel like my odds might be pretty good. I am also hoping to help the Tree team for Tomorrow get the tree planting progressing. We raised a bunch of money but so far we haven’t actually planted any of the seedlings yet. I am also considering getting involved, somehow, in an after school computer program at Shannon and Emily’s school. It is just an idea I have floating in my head so I don’t know if that will happen or not but it’s something I’m tossing around.

I would very much like to get more involved in the girls lives than I am currently. I feel like I am just a weekend dad and that bothers me. I’m not sure how or when I will be able to do that but it is, beyond making sure I stay employed, my biggest priority for the upcoming year. I’d also like to get my aches and pains healed up so I can start riding my bike and maybe playing frisbee again. I know, there is only so much time in a day so I’ll probably not get all of this done to my satisfaction but I want to make an effort of it.

Finally, I want to finish the few home repair/improvement projects we have started in the past. These include, but are not limited to:

• Bathroom Drywall Repair
• Back Patio Repaving
• Secret Door Trimming
• Kitchen Floor Trimming
• Upper Patio Trim
• Bottom Deck Handrail Replacement

I hope to get a few of those done in the first couple months of the year. Hopefully I’ll have reported the good news that I finished them here on my blog by April!

Veterans Day : A Strange Holiday

This is always a weird holiday for me. Mostly becuase it is so widely discussed and rehashed in the media and this year it is even worse with all of the tweeting and facebooking that is happening. Everyone seems to be discussing the day and sending out their thanks to those who have served or who are presently serving in the armed forces. It’s weird.

Sure, I appreciate everyone who volunteers and I think it’s nice that people who didn’t are thinking about them for a day or even a week; but, as a veteran the holiday always feels out of place. I’m not really the type of person who thinks having served in the military is something I should be thanked for. I joined the Army reserves while I was in High School (much to the chagrin of my retired Air Force dad) and then I entered the army as an Active soldier about one year later much to the disappointment of my older active Army brother and over the protests of my mother.

I initially joined the Army Reserves becuase I wanted to serve. I didn’t think I would need the GI Bill as I was supposed to be getting a scholarship from the state of NY and I thought it would be a great way to help the state and country in times of need. No big deal really – we weren’t at war. While I was in Basic training Kuwait was invaded and my older brother was deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of the 101st. He was there for the whole ball of wax that was the first Gulf War involving Iraq. I was deployed later; when the fighting was basically done to help keep the peace and other than a couple false alarms I had a pretty peaceful time there.

I left Active duty in Oct 1995. I was never shot at nor did I have to shoot anyone. The same held for all of my friends. It was a cake walk for me compared to what my brother, our father (Vietnam), and his uncles (WW2 or Korea I think) had gone through. The only time I was facing an armed enemy was when I found myself in the wrong night clubs at the wrong time in El Paso or Juarez. I started out in the army as a Combat Engineer (blowing things up on the ground) and ended as a Patriot Missile System operator (blowing things up in the sky). In general I just had fun, saw a bit more of the world, made some great friends, and accrued a great collection of stories.

Most of those friends stayed in the Army and I lost contact with them. I actually think about them and the times we had fairly often. More than likely they are senior enlisted soldier’s leading platoons and companies that have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hopefully they are all still alive. I have no way of knowing. I don’t really think of ex-soldiers like me when I think of “Veterans” because we had it easy and we didn’t really do anything to warrant everyone’s thanks. Sure, we were in a position where – if needed – we would have – but merely lining up for the job isn’t the same thing as actually doing it.

Today I think about all the guys who actually had to go to war. I appreciate their sacrifice and I hope those who are still out there keep their heads down and their spirits up until they can come home and join me in the safe life as a civilian. Thanks to you guys for stepping up when it was needed and not backing down – stay safe.

Links o’ The Day 2009-11-05

• Google Code Blog: Introducing Closure Tools
  Googles javascript tools
  (tags: development javascript google opensource)

Links o’ The Day 2009-11-05

• Google Code Blog: Introducing Closure Tools
  Googles javascript tools
  (tags: development javascript google opensource)

Links o’ The Day 2009-10-29

• Ninite Easy PC Setup and Multiple App Installer
  Awesome looking tool for quickly getting and installing all the apps you need to get your system configured.
  (tags: tools freeware software ninite utility awesome)

Links o’ The Day 2009-10-28

• Scratch | Home | imagine, program, share
  A way to get kids interested in programming without them having to actually do any programming. Instead they click pieces together to build their own games. pretty cool stuff.
  (tags: mit learning children interactive computer programming)