The Scurvy Pirate

Politics and Other Things

2009-08-26T17:40:00.003-04:00

Over the past few months I've found myself thinking that I needed to write a blog but for one reason or another I didn't. A lot's been going on, lately, and this blog has the potential to get large. Here are some thoughts I've been having:

Piracy - This isn't really mainstream news anymore, but I don't understand what the problem with piracy is off the coast of Africa. It's really very, very simple. The pirates do what they do because it's profitable. They will continue to do so as long as it's profitable. The easiest way to combat piracy is to stop giving in to their demands. They will stop taking ships when we stop paying them ransom money.

Politics - I've avoided politics for a long time, mainly because I felt that all politicians were corrupt, greedy liars and it didn't matter which side I voted for, because all I was doing was helping to decide the name of the guy that was going to screw me. I didn't agree with the Republicans on certain issues, and the Democrats on other issues. In the past year, however, I've really started to follow what's going on and it's pushed me to a breaking point. I have identified myself with the Libertarians for many reasons. One, they ultimately believe in self responsibility. Two, they don't want the government any bigger than it has to be. I don't want someone else that thinks they know what's best for me telling me what to do. I am an adult and I should make my own decisions, and suffer their repercussions. That's the nature of freedom.

Government Healthcare - I DO NOT want government-run healthcare. In the interest of full disclosure, I work for a health insurance company, and of course I want to keep my job. Mainly, I fail to see the arguments that are in favor of the government stepping in. First, I'm unable to list a single government-run program that's run efficiently. Second, we already have two quasi-government-run programs, Medicare and Medicaid. They both suffer from deficits presently, and there are plenty of complaints about their quality of care. The government says that it can compete with private insurers and not run them out of business. How can that be true? How can a for-profit company expect to realistically compete with one that doesn't have to make a profit? Then the proponents argue that you need a government-sponsored plan in order to break up the present monopoly. Are they kidding? There's no monopoly:

From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly

* Main Entry: mo·nop·o·ly
* Pronunciation: \mə-ˈnä-p(ə-)lē\
* Function: noun
* Inflected Form(s): plural mo·nop·o·lies
* Etymology: Latin monopolium, from Greek monopōlion, from mon- + pōlein to sell
* Date: 1534

1 : exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action
2 : exclusive possession or control
3 : a commodity controlled by one party
4 : one that has a monopoly

So, explain to me, how exactly is there presently a healthcare monopoly? Cigna, Aetna, Humana, Anthem, United, etc. etc. all compete against each other. People hear universal healthcare and think to themselves "hey, free healthcare. I'm all for that." The problem is, IT'S NOT FREE. The government pays for it. How does the government get its money? From the taxpayer. I'm taxed left and right, and I already bring home about half of my paycheck. Frankly, I can't afford to be taxed anymore.

Corporate Bailouts - I opposed both of these programs. I understand completely that the economy was (and is) in trouble. I also understand that if some of these companies failed, it would affect our entire country. However, I don't think we should have bailed these companies out. What we did is give them a sense of entitlement... they began expecting the government to keep handing them money. Then other companies popped out of the woodwork and wanted a handout too. By bailing these companies out, we reinforced the idea that they can make bad business decisions and not have to suffer the consequences. They didn't learn from their mistakes... You don't have to look far in the news to see the same companies paying outrageous bonuses to their employees, sending staff to lavish retreats, buying other companies up... The list goes on and on. It's still business as usual for these corporate crooks, and I firmly believe that they'll be back with their hands out, asking for more money again.

Socialism - I don't agree with socialism. I believe all it does is discourage the population to provide for themselves. If I go to work, and work hard, and most of my money is taken away from me, yet other people do nothing and receive "assistance" from the government, what exactly is my motivation for working? Why don't I just sit on my ass and let the government pay me, too? The only socialized thing I support at all is education -- higher education, mind you. If our country provided free education for everyone, I believe as a whole we'd see an improvement. Everyone could go to school, get a degree, and get a better job. We'd have a highly-educated and in-demand workforce. We'd make more money, and the government would make more money in taxes.

SCA and Asatru

2009-01-12T14:56:00.001-05:00

I've meet a guy in another department at work that's an Asatruar. He does a lot of SCA events and in talking to him about it, I'm interested in participating as well. I think it will be fun to dress up in armor and have battle reenactments as long as my shoulders will let me do so.

I've classified myself as a non-practicing Asatruar for the past few years, probably because all the people that I used to be involved with either stopped participating or dropped off the wagon. Getting to know other people may cause me to come off the sidelines and participate again as well.

My social circle has dwindled in the past few years and I'm happy to see it expanding again, even if the progress is slow.

IRA

2009-01-05T13:04:00.001-05:00

Like most people I have a 401k retirement account at work. That's not enough to really get ready for retirement, however, and I decided to open up a Roth IRA at T. Rowe Price. I was going to open one through my bank a little over a year ago but I held off when my marriage started failing.

The nice thing about accounts through T. Rowe Price is that they will waive the minimum investment fee if you enroll in their automated system that moves money from your bank account into your IRA every month. This means you don't have to have the usually-required large chunk of money to put down on opening an investment account. Their minimum required with the automated system is $50 per month, per each individual security you want to invest in. Virtually everyone should be able to afford that so there's really no excuse to not plan for retirement anymore.

At first Sandi didn't understand why I wanted to open an IRA right now. She said that we're tying to save for a home and for Ava and there's plenty of time to invest down the road. I told her that there's always going to be reasons not to invest the money and $50 a month shouldn't be a big deal one way or the other, and I'll invest in more funds and increase the amount invested in the future.

You have to get started somewhere. I'm really doing it for the two of them. Statistically, women outlive men, and people with diabetes have a shortened life span. Since she's already several years younger than I am, the likelihood that I'll be outlived is pretty high. I want to have enough money that when I go Sandi and Ava will be taken care of, and then when Sandi goes there will be a good chunk of money left over for Ava.

First Diabetic Bloodwork

2008-11-26T09:57:00.001-05:00

So this month I've had my first bloodwork test since finding out I'm diabetic.

In a nutshell, I'm fucked. LOL

My A1C value is 6.0, which means for the past 90 days my average glucose level has been about 135. This is right at the maximum recommended by the American Diabetes Association, so while I'll be better off if the number is lower, overall it's not anything to be worried about as long as it doesn't go up.

My cholesterol, however, is scary.

My triglycerides are 347. The good range is 0 to 149. This essentially means that I bleed gravy. Yummy...maybe the Cracker Barrel will be interested in my corpse when I die. I could probably supply a few days of breakfast.

My HDL (the good cholesterol) is 39. This value should be much higher than this; somewhere in the 59+ range.

I think my diet is the sole reason the cholesterol is bad. If you pay attention to the food labels you will see that most food is either high in sugar or fat, and it's generally in reverse proportion; foods lower in sugar are higher in fat, and foods lower in fat are higher in sugar. This is because sugar and fat make things taste good. Take both of them out and you're eating tofu... and no one in their right mind wants to eat that shit.

Now I get to take cholesterol medication as well as seriously overhaul my diet. Looks like I'll be living off of salad, low-fat sugar-free dressing, broiled chicken, and broiled fish for a while.

Haunted

2008-11-04T10:12:00.001-05:00

I am haunted by the ghosts of my past.

I said this about a year ago to a close friend of mine. We (I, really) had a soul-bearing session one night after quite a bit of rum. She told me that I was being nonsensical and that I didn't have anything to be concerned over.

I've been thinking about this for the past week and I've determined that I don't feel that way anymore. I am at peace with my past, happy over the present, and hopeful for the future. It's a new feeling for me and I think it's phenomenal.

A conclusion to a somewhat shitty week

2008-11-02T08:08:00.000-05:00

Well, it's my Friday night (yes, it's Sunday morning, but my schedule is abnormal and I'm off for the next two nights) and I'm glad for this week to be over.

It started on Monday, when the baby and I went to visit my parents. My mother dropped the bomb that she's diagnosed with leukemia, and it's hereditary. So yay for me, if the diabetes and subsequent organ and/or heart failure don't kill me, the bone cancer will.

Then on Friday when I received my paycheck, I wasn't paid for the 8 hours I was shorted a month ago. They also weren't taking out the money for my health savings account like they were supposed to, and they apparently realized it and took out in one lump sum what should have been taken out to date. That took over $200 off the top of my check.

Then later Friday morning some jackass backed right into the front end of my car, cracking the bumper. We were both sitting still and he put his car in reverse and backed up without looking behind him... then he tried to say that the damage to my bumper was already there. I was like "um, no, sorry.... this car was brand new when I bought it, I haven't even had it a year yet, and it only has 10,000 miles on it. Think again." He couldn't believe that I called the police over what he said was "nothing". Let him drop $25,000 on a new car, have someone hit it, and then see what he thinks about the situation.

On Saturday night/Sunday morning, I was shafted into having to work an extra hour due to the time change.

The good things that happened this week are my friend gave me a working radar detector, which is something that I've wanted for a long time, and the baby now smiles at me constantly. It's adorable.

The Mouse Chronicles Part II

2008-10-26T08:01:00.002-04:00

Well, I caught a third mouse. It didn't live through the process either... it managed to get its face stuck to the trap and I believe it suffocated. It was barely alive when I tried to get it off the trap but even though I was fast and as gentle as possible it didn't work out. This photo was taken the following morning when I got home from work and checked to see if it was still there. It looks wet from the oil I used to try to get it unstuck. The camera was pretty close when I took it and that made it look much bigger than it really is.... just think about how thick a brick normally is in that picture to give you a sense of scale.

I guess I'm going to have to move to the old-fashioned traps since I've managed to kill 2/3 of the mice I've caught anyway. At least by breaking their necks or their spines it will be much quicker for them.

Watching the baby

2008-10-23T12:19:00.001-04:00

Sandi started back to work this week. It's early, but she was offered a promotion (and a raise) that she couldn't refuse. Daycare won't take the baby until she's at least 6 weeks old, however, so we've been passing her around this week. I've partially watched her for the past two days and it hasn't been bad at all. She's asleep when I get home from work so I get my stuff done, and then when she wakes up I feed her and do the diaper change. Then we sit around for a while watching tv, with her generally in my arms. Holding her for any length of time kills my shoulders, however, so after a while I put her in the bouncy seat. She's generally content there for an hour or two and falls asleep. When she wakes up I feed her again and then lay her on my chest while I watch tv, and she goes back to sleep.

Easy.

She's starting to be able to focus a little bit now, and for the past two days when I've been feeding her and had my face close to hers she realized I was there and gave me the biggest grin imaginable, spilling milk everywhere, naturally. I can't help but crack up.

She is too cute.

Linux

2008-10-23T12:14:00.001-04:00

I picked up a used laptop for cheap earlier in the week. I've been wanting a laptop for a while now, mainly just to surf the web and check my email. I ran Linux on my desktop for a while but I have some apps that would only run on Windows and I couldn't live without them so I had to switch back.

Linux can be a bitch with laptops, however, mainly due to driver and power management issues. I did research and found an old model that was fully supported and got a decent deal on ebay. I installed Ubuntu on it because that's what I've used before and I'm comfortable with it, but there were some underlying driver issues and I didn't feel like ironing them out. I knew that OpenSuse claimed my model worked 100% out of the box, so I gave it a shot.

Damn if it doesn't work 100%. I'm impressed.

The Mouse Chronicles

2008-10-20T10:14:00.002-04:00

A while back I discovered there was a mouse in the apartment. I keep the paper towels under the kitchen sink and one day when I reached in for a new roll it was all shredded. I didn't worry about it at the time. Then I started seeing mouse poop in the cabinet.

I went to the store and picked up a package of traps. Since we have dogs I didn't want to use poison or the spring loaded traps and got the glue traps instead.

After I placed the traps it took about two days to catch the mouse. I felt sorry for the little guy, however, and took him outside and tried to get him off of the glue trap before I went to work. I was as gentle as I could be but he squeaked a little. I managed to get him off and put him down in the grass.

When I got home from work the same morning he was still right where I left him. The sun was up and I was able to see that I had pulled off a lot of hair and some skin when I removed him from the trap. He still had glue on him, however, and was partially stuck to the ground. He had tried to burrow a little bit and had even tried to chew one of his legs off.

This made me feel pretty bad. I didn't mean to hurt it and sure didn't want to torture it. After all, it was just trying to survive and if we didn't have a new baby in the house I probably wouldn't have even set the trap. Since it was hurt and obviously not going to make it any more in the wild I went ahead and euthanized it.

After all of this I found out that you can easily remove mice from the glue traps using a little vegetable oil. This made me feel even worse because I ended up hurting and killing one due to my own lack of knowledge.

I caught a second mouse the other day. This one survived and got away without a scratch... if you don't count being covered in vegetable oil. :)

My friends think I'm being too much of a pussy about it, and don't understand why I didn't just kill them both. I don't see the need to senselessly kill anything that doesn't pose a threat to the household though. The mouse has just as much of a right to live as we do. It just can't live with me unless it's going to help pay rent. :)

Fatherhood

2008-10-06T10:44:00.001-04:00

It's been almost two weeks since the baby was born. I've been pretty busy and haven't updated the blog in a while lately.

While I'm sure it is nowhere near as bad as it was for Sandi, it was pretty bad for me. They decided to induce her so we took her to the hospital at 7pm on Sep 23, getting me up and out of bed early (around 17:00 that night). I sat with her until it was time for me to go to work that night. It was shitty that I had to go, but I was just converted from a contractor to a full time employee the week before and didn't have any paid time off accrued yet. I worked from 11pm until about 6am, went home to feed the dogs and let them out, took a shower, and then I went back up to the hospital. They broke her water sometime around 9am Wednesday morning. Most of Sandi's immediate family was in and out through most of the day while waiting for Sandi to dilate, but my parents didn't show up. Instead, my mother told me to call her when the baby was born. At about 21:00 they decided that Sandi had made little to no progress with the dilating and a c-section was in order. It took a while to get ready and they wheeled her into the operating room around 22:45. I went in with her and got to see the baby born. I took some pictures while trying to hold it together... I knew it would be an emotional event but I wasn't completely prepared for it. Sandi was so drugged up that she didn't even respond when they tried to show the baby to her.

The nurse and I took the little girl down to the nursery, where Sandi's parents were waiting. They swarmed us in the hallway and the nurse would only give the baby to me, saying that I could give her to the others if I wanted to. Of course I did. Looking at her was finally too much, and after being up for around 36 hours I started bawling like a little girl. I'm not going to lie, it would have happened even if I wasn't borderline delusional from lack of sleep.

I finally passed out on the recliner in Sandi's room around 3am or so on Sep 25 after seeing her in the recovery room and spending some time with her and the baby. I went home around 8 or 9 to take a shower and deal with the dogs before visitors started showing up. My parents finally strolled in around 11 and stayed for maybe 15 or 20 minutes. My mother held the baby but my father declined when he was offered.

The way my parents treated this whole thing is pretty embarrassing to me. I didn't expect any of my friends or other family members to be present and involved, but my parents of all people should have been there.

Testing sending from the cell

2008-10-04T08:36:00.001-04:00

Testing sending from the cell phone.

Sweating the Finances

2008-08-20T12:11:00.003-04:00

I've finally been offered a full-time position at work and we are in the process of converting me from a contractor to a full-time employee. One of the requirements is that I obtain a government security clearance. My criminal record is clean; I think I've had two speeding tickets, both of them resolved. They also evaluate your credit history when granting clearance, however.

I had two credit card balances past due, one for several thousand dollars, and one for several hundred. My student loans were also past due. When the ex-wife and I were together we lived paycheck to paycheck and frequently went into the red. Neither of us were really financially responsible and the both of us together was worse than either of us alone. Due to that things were always late or not paid at all.

Since we've split, however, I'm able to get things back in line and I'm actually able to put a small amount of money away out of each check. It's not a lot but it's a drastic change from the past. My plan was to get a small nest egg built up and then resolve my past due debts. The security clearance had me sweating, however, because if I am denied clearance I will immediately be escorted out of the bulding. Not fun. With the baby scheduled to be here in less than a month this was causing me to lose a lot of sleep.

I've been able to make arrangements to pay off both cards and put my student loans in forbearance, however, so as of this week I'm now current on almost everything. It's a ridiculously good feeling.

Change is in the air

2008-07-25T08:03:00.003-04:00

A short time back I had a vague post expressing unhappiness with my job. It seems that things may be changing now because we've had a change in management. I'm hopeful that things will be on the rise now.

Divorced - Officially

2008-07-24T12:11:00.002-04:00

In less than a week, I received paperwork in the mail signed by the judge. Looks like the divorce is now official.

Divorced... Sort of

2008-07-19T10:46:00.003-04:00

Wedneday, July 16, the (soon-to-be) ex and I went down to the court house and filed our divorce papers. The normal process is as follows:

One person obtains the paperwork, fills it out, and takes it to be filed.
This person sends copies of the paperwork to the other party via certified mail.
The other party must fill out paperwork, sign it, and send it back in.
You go to court and things are final.

In our situation the divorce was uncontested, meaning that we already came to an agreement on property and debt distribution. I figured it would be easier for us to both go, sign the paperwork at the same time, and hand it all in right then. Once we turned the paperwork in the clerk said we should hear something in about 30 days. At this point the ex asked if that's when we would get a court date, and the clerk informed us that there wouldn't be a court date because our divorce was uncontested and all the paperwork submitted. This was a little of a shock to both of us, I believe, because neither of us expected it to be "over" that day. She was a little teary-eyed when we were walking out of the building but we didn't discuss it. I don't really have anything to say about the matter to her, honestly, and as far as I'm concerned there is nothing but pain in looking back over everything. I'm already reminded of my (or our) failure as a couple every time we talk and that's painful enough to me.

I don't consider it "official" until I get the paperwork from the court saying I'm divorced, but I guess it's close enough for government work to say that I'm divorced, or that I'm divorced pending a judgement.

Work

2008-07-01T10:46:00.003-04:00

Ah, work. The bane of existance for most people. I've come to believe that there are very few lucky people that truly love their jobs.

I'm backed into a corner on this one. I have so many things that I want to say about my current position, but I'm afraid that doing so may cause me to lose my job. That fear isn't due to NDA agreements because most of it would just be venting, but there's a history of seeing discontent people walked to the door and I don't want to be another one of them.

I just feel that my current position has such high possibilities but for one reason for another it simply isn't happening. Quite honestly I feel like my skills are stagnating and I'm not learning much, if anything, new.

Perhaps it's time to test the waters out there. I used to know a few guys working for Network Appliance in North Carolina that were trying to talk me into coming out there to work for a long time. Maybe it's time to hit some of them up and see how that's going, but I don't know if I really want to move that far away again.

Built a new PC

2008-06-04T13:10:00.002-04:00

My PC was having some hardware issues for a while and started into its death-throes last week. When I pieced the thing together a year and a half ago it was done down-and-dirty on a shoestring budget. The new rig is a little better, but the best thing is that it's stable. Historically I've always had Intel processors but this time around I went with an AMD processor. Intel may have more horsepower, but they are also at least twice the cost of AMD processors, and I don't do enough hardcore number-crunching to justify a pricey CPU.

I ordered everything from Newegg:

Motherboard:
BIOSTAR A770 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138106

RAM:
WINTEC AMPX 2GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161229

Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103064

Hard drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

I recycled the case, power supply, DVD drive, and video card from my old system.

Being a father and the associated horror

2008-06-04T12:53:00.003-04:00

As Sandi and I begin getting ready for Ava to be born in September, which is right around the corner, the surreal feeling is beginning to vanish and I'm coming to terms with the reality that there will be a baby in the household any time now.

This terrifies me to death.

The basic logistics of parenting don't really bother me; I've seen people that I thought were completely not qualified to reproduce have kids. The feeding, washing, and basic caring for are pretty mindless in my opinion. The cost doesn't bother me; with the money we make it shouldn't be a problem, and a baby may even help to enforce a little fiscal responsibility.

What has me scared is the responsibility of shaping someone else's life. How do you mold someone into the best person they can be without completely fucking them up? How do you handle complex situations? For example, I'm not Christian. I used to classify myself as Pagan, and I guess if I had to fit myself into a category it would be somewhere between non-practicing Pagan or Agnostic. Sandi is Athiest. The majority of the country, however, is Christian of some sort or another, and how do you address this with a kid? I think religion is a decision that you should make on your own, but when the questions come up she'll probably be way too young to understand that. Then say, for the sake of argument, that she decides on something that neither her mother or I agree with. How do we respond to that?

This is the sort of thing that's been in the back of my mind lately and it's freaking me out.

Ordered a MIDI controller

2008-05-21T09:29:00.003-04:00

Musically, I've often had a creative spark that seems to be thwarted time and time again. Most frequently I've had something in my head that I just couldn't get out and onto paper or the instrument. This is probably because I taught myself how to play guitar but never received any formal instruction whatsoever, so even the basic principles of music theory are lost on me. This is why I've picked up and consequently given up on the guitar several times.

With the ease of using computers to create and manipulate music now, however, I've decided to take a different approach. I've ordered a large MIDI controller that I'm going to hook up to my computer and use to learn how to play the piano. I'm not a large piano fan by any means, but it does seem that if there's one single instrument at the core of music theory, it's the damn piano. Even in computer-based synthesizers you have what's called a "piano roll" which is a vertical representation of a keyboard. I'm going to use this as a good opportunity to learn the basics of music theory as well, since having a completely new instrument in my hands may help avoid some of my old guitar habits.

An added benefit is that Sandi has a musical background and is interested in pursuing the same thing. She has the upper hand on me, however, because she used to be in the school band and played the flute, so she already knows how to read music and basic theory.

New to Cooking

2008-05-19T08:45:00.003-04:00

I've never been much of a cook; prior to being married I really lived off of frozen food, pizza, and dining out at restaurants. I can do alright when it comes to cooking things on a grill, but that's the extent of my cooking abilities. My ex-wife attended school for culinary arts and was a good cook, so I thought I had it made...

Sandi has about as much experience cooking as I do. We agreed that when the baby comes we don't want to be the type of parents that raise a kid on McDonald's and frozen chicken nuggets, so we recently tried learning how to cook together. We've been using the hell out of the Crock Pot BBQ Pit and I've come to the conclusion that it just may be the most fantastic cooking appliance ever invented. It's similar to a crock pot but it has a basket that the meat goes into, so it's a dry cooker instead of conventional wet crock pot cooking. So far we've done the following in it:

Beef brisket, seasoned and smothered in onion and bell peppers
Whole chicken stuffed with orange slices

Both dishes were very good, and the chicken was so tender that it literally fell apart when we tried to take it out. In both cases we browsed the internet for a base recipe and then altered it and gave it a shot.

This past weekend we made crabmeat stuffed shells with homemade alfredo sauce. I think it was pretty damn good myself.

As we tweak the recipes and get them to where we like them I may start posting them on here.

Getting Used to Diabetes

2008-04-21T09:53:00.001-04:00

It hasn't been very long since I was diagnosed with Diabetes... about two weeks, to be exact.

The news was pretty depressing. I expected it, however, because of the symptoms I had, and the history of it in the family. There's a difference between thinking you have it and knowing you have it, however. I was a little bummed for a while but eventually came to the conclusion that it's not something that I can't deal with. I've been working on my diet and testing my blood sugar and it's slowly coming down from a fasting level of 248 to about 160 or so. I keep planning on starting an exercise regiment soon and that should help even more.

I'm seriously beginning to have a problem with taking sugar readings, though. I don't have a fear of needles; in fact, I took allergy shots twice a week from about the time I was 3 months old until well into my teenage years. When I get ready to take readings, though, I start sweating and feeling sick to my stomach. I mean, this is a serious apprehension here. I know it's unwarranted, and taking the readings doesn't really hurt too much, but I've tried to take a reading twice this morning and I haven't been able to do so yet.

There are other locations that I can take readings from other than my finger tips; palm, forearm, upper arm, thigh, and calf, actually. I guess I can talk to the doctor tomorrow and see if maybe I can take readings from a different location.

Linux

2008-04-20T03:17:00.004-04:00

When I was a kid we always had a computer in the house because my father worked in the art department at the local newspaper and sometimes he would bring things home to work on. The first computer he bought was an old Macintosh Plus. This ancient beast sported a "whopping" 4 MB of RAM and had an optional external hard disk drive with a 10 MB capacity.

The computer at home was upgraded and replaced several times throughout the years but always remained a Macintosh because that's what the old man used at work. Of course most of my friends had PC clones that ran Windows and I was the bastard child that received the hard time about being different.

Once I graduated high school and decided to go into the vast, wonderful field of technology, I knew that I would have to become familiar with Windows in order to make it. I built myself a computer, installed Windows 2000, and got to work. At first it was pretty frustrating for me because I was used to Apple's OS, but I eventually came to know the ins and outs of the Windows operating system. I received my MCSE certification and went to work for various in-house IT teams, consulting firms, and even worked a contract for Microsoft performing support for their Small Business Server on their Charlotte, NC campus.

Work in the Windows world began to get a little boring, however. It was the same old stuff every single day. Users always had problems with spyware and viruses and I didn't really enjoy spending most of my time trying to clean porn dialer software off of Fred's laptop twice a week.

With all the hype about Linux I decided to try it out. I've been dual-booting between Windows XP and Ubuntu for the past four months, and after the first week I really didn't go into Windows at all for about three months.

Linux has been a learning experience, and sometimes a large frustration. Many times I know what task I need to accomplish, but just don't know how to do it. I also have issues with drivers for new hardware. It also goes without saying that I can't run some of my critical Windows apps on Linux.

It's amazing how much more performance my machine gives me when in Linux over Windows. I like that the OS is so modular and doesn't have tons of bloat... and also will run well on almost any hardware (can Vista say that?).

I'm not a pro-Linux Microsoft basher now by any stretch of the means, but I do find it refreshing to switch to something new for a change.