Abject Geekery

Archive for August, 2009

Mondays from 7-9pm, I will be hosting a web based talk show on www.wafs.tv !!!

WAFS.TV has a streaming feed and an IRC chat.  This will be a great adventure.  Look, listen, and call in!

(PLEASE CALL IN!!!)

For those that Pre-Ordered from either Gamestop or Bestbuy, you are allowed to start playing Champions Online as of 1pm EST today.

I love this game and am happy to be a part of it. However, I will not be able to log in till this evening. I am wage slaving until 8 pm.

My guild, the Lost Order of Akalabeth will have a presence in the game as Champions of Akalabeth.

I’ll post more with screenshots and such when I have them.

Over the last few jobs I have had (over the last 20+ years) I have been one that has taken on as much responsibility as I can. When I got hired on as a full time employee where I work now, my boss, the president of the company, hadn’t had a vacation in about 7 years. My goal was to take enough responsibility away from him so that he would be able to take a vacation without having to worry that something would go wrong while he was gone. My philosophy is, the President of the company should only be doing the things that only he can do. If he is doing something I can do, then I will do it, or get someone else to do it for me. After I worked here for two years, he took a one week cruise. Mission accomplished!

The last few jobs I have had, I have increased in responsibility and pay faster than anyone else in the history of those companies. When you take on more responsibility than you are required to, you make yourself an asset to the company. Essentially, you create job security.

When the recession hit, my company had to reduce the number of employees they had in order to cut costs. Definitely not an unfamiliar action in today’s world. However, since I spent my time taking on responsibility and pushing my comfort zone way out there, I have become indispensable. I would venture to guess that I would be one of the last people to be laid off because I do so much for this company.

People need to realize that they do control their destiny. Things don’t just happen, unless you let them.

I have been working on getting debt free for a while now. You see, while I have a good work ethic, I have shown laxity in my finances. I wish I would have found someone like Dave Ramsey when I was in high school, instead of just a year or so ago. Although what he preaches is common sense, sometimes you just have to be hit upside the head with a 2×4 of common sense before you get it.

Now, making myself indispensable with the company I work for sounds like some really good job security, right? What happens, though, if the company goes out of business? That is the possibility I am facing now. How’s that for a 2×4 of common sense. It doesn’t matter how indispensable you are if the company no longer exists. That’s why you need to be debt free, and have an emergency fund in place. Once you have indispensability, no debt and an emergency fund, then you are “recession proof”.

I’ve posted way more political stuff than I wanted to. I’ll work on true geek posts for the rest of the week.

Some things of note:

• Champions Online Open Beta Ends
• True Blood season 2 thoughts
• Re-playability in gaming

Behold…

The Ganelonian

PATTON wrote on 08/21/2009 02:36:18 PM:

The assumption is commonly made that some oppose reform, when in fact, the proposed reform is what is opposed. The number given for “uninsured Americans” is 46 million. If you go to the US cesus bureau, page 22, you can get a break down of the 46 million “uninsured Americans.” 8.3mill make between 50 and 75 thousand, 9.1 mill make over 75000$, 10 million are non-US citizens(notice I did not say illegal immigrants) another 9 mill are children, many are in the above groups and a large portion would qualify for SCHIP. That leaves around 10 million who make less than 50,000 and are uninsured. Not quite the bogeyman we’ve been told to fear.

Seems like it would make more sense to:

• Tighten regulation on insurance
• Have some sensible tort reform
• Make insurance portable
• Give tax incentives for individual insurance policies,
• Make it easier to form a “group” to take advantage of group plans

Allow people to get insurance from out of state if it is a better deal

I mean… the idea of a government run Health Care program denying life saving treatments while encouraging euthanasia…just to save money? That’s crazy stuff.

Here’s a question: If you already see the “unintended” consequences of government run health care, and you still want tp push for a system that can only lead to government run health care… can you fairly say the consequence in “unintended”.

Nearly three years after her husband passed away, Rose Friedman has joined him.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the Friedman family in this time of loss.

History has its share of intellectual giants, but it is a true rarity that two are together so completely as the now eternal Mr. and Mrs. Friedman.  Scholars will sing their praises until mankind transcends the use of monetary devices.  As long as there is money, there will be the philosophy of a Friedman behind it.  These champions of liberty have progressed the embodiment of their surname, derived from the Yiddish word “Frid” meaning peace.  Peace to be reached through free and open trade.  The peace of a humanity acting freely in its own best interest.

It is cliché to say that behind every great man is an even greater woman.  It would be disingenuous to both Rose and Milton to make such a statement in this case.  She is his counterpoint.  They were, and are, one.  Without Rose, there would have been no Milton.  His life’s work has Rose’s golden touch.  We can never thank them enough.  Mr. and Mrs. Friedman in respect to the title of your memoir, it is we who are the lucky people because of the two of you.

If all Mr. and Mrs. Friedman had given this world was their work, it would have been enough, but they were even more fruitful.  They multiplied.  If these offspring were simple, hardworking, productive members of society it would be enough.  However, the son, David is the uber geek.  And his son, Patri is the son of uber geek.   The rest of the descendents are either productive members of society or the family is damn good at keeping a lid on it.  Pretty amazing considering the family a) promotes maximum individual freedom and b) has a lot of fiat currency to invest in vice if they so choose.  It is not a stretch to say that Rose was the foundation for the success of the family pedigree.

I have only dialogued with Patri in passing on his STI forum, and do not flatter myself that I know the family on any personal level or even know the man himself.  What I do know is that I am who I am largely because of my grandparents.  As close as I observe the apple to sit by the tree, Patri and his father David did not fall far from the great tree of knowledge that is Rose.

We who remain are so blessed that her light was allowed to shine so bright for so long.

Patri, whatever you may feel about where (if anywhere) your grandmother is now, know that because of the continued work of you and your father, she will live forever.

So what would Tholan do with regard to Health Care?  I am not exactly sure, but here are some ideas  have read and I have made some embellishments of my own.

As outlined previously, I began my search to understand Health Care from a primitive prospective.  No matter how advanced we become we will never overcome our primal selves, nor should we try.  It is our primal self that rose from the great contest and became a man, the steward of all creation.

Yesterday I posted my belief that the market is the superior form of rationing, not only because it efficiently distributes scarce resources, but it does not deny people the opportunity to preserve themselves.

Before I post the skeleton of my ideas for fixing the inequities of our health care system, I must first state that the problems of health care in the United States are grossly overstated.  As pointed out by Mr. Ridley in his interview by Reason in the Friedman library, we are living 30% longer and are 3 times wealthier then we were 50 years ago.  This is significant for two reasons: modern medicine as we understand it has only existed since the development of penicillin, and people are in the prime of their productive lives longer.  There can be little doubt that much of humanities gains in science, technology, and even the understanding of ourselves can be directly attributed to medical advancement.  We will never know the full impact of our collective prosperity in the free markets of the free world.  How brief would the history of time had been if Hawking was cut down in his youth?  How far have we come standing on the shoulders of people who just fifty years ago would never had lived.

Major breakthroughs in the care premature birth including the development of artificial lung surfactant happened just months prior to my birth.  Without those advancements I would not be here today.  Without those advancements the work of my life would not be done.  Without those advancements I would not be married, nor would I have a pregnant wife. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are a few more things worth taking in… Note: My current passion is the Health Care/Insurance Reform process that is raging… so most of these Worth Reading Posts will reference that.

• 5 Liberal Myths of Healthcare ‘Reform’
• Sarah Palin Define the Healthcare Debate …this is of particular interest to me, as the Extreme Left has stated that the Right is spreading “myths” that Obamacare will promote euthanasia. This is a rhetorical dishonestly used to frame the opponents issue as dishonest or absurd. In fact, it is the Left that are being dishonest in the debate of very real issues.