Occupy: Unacceptable

To date I have stayed fairly quiet about my opinion on the occupy Wall Street and other such protests that are going on all over our country. This has been for a very good reason, I have no opinion, I am employed, I am earning more this year than last, and for the most part I am happy. I don't feel that this puts me against occupy protests, but I certainly cannot pretend to know what these people are experiencing. But today as I am going through my news sources I find something that I feel is unacceptable in this country. Police Brutality. Lets establish that the police are there to protect the citizens as a whole, whilst upholding the Constitution. At this point in this country there have been so many cases of the police using extreme force in an attempt to break up the protesters. As far as my take on this situation I feel that while the cities and states may not like what the protesters have to say they need to respect the fact that in this country people have a RIGHT to say it. Have we forgotten what is the first amendment of the constitution?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The constitution does not limit where, how long, and for what reason as long as it does not violate other peoples rights. Now the right to assemble has been challenged in the Supreme Court before in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 u.s. 542 (1875) and it was deemed that "...the right of the people peaceably to assemble for the purpose of petitioning Congress for a redress of grievances, or for anything else connected with the powers or duties of the National Government, is an attribute of national citizenship, and, as such, under protection of, and guaranteed by, the United States." My question is:

What Happened Here? How is this America?! Have we really forgotten that our country is based on the open exhange of ideas and the ability to peacefully protest the govenment?

We are always so critical on countries like Syria who are opening fire on their own citizens who are protesting in the streets yet President Obama has had nothing to say about a United States Marine Scott Olsen who was shot in the head with a tear gas canister and almost died. How is this not a violation of his rights that has been upheld over and over again by the Supreme Court? How are we any better?

Now I know that this was awhile ago, and at the time I had convinced myself that this was an accident, and then I saw the image of Dorli Rainey the 84 year old woman of Seattle who was pepper sprayed by the Seattle Police Department for protesting. This is the lowest of the low. She is 84 years old, how could she have posed a threat to the greater population in this protest.  The answer is simple, when you don't do what the police want they attack you. This is not legal and should not be tolerated. Here is an except from Dorli Rainey herself:

"Something funny happened on my way to a transportation meeting in Northgate. As I got off the bus at 3rd and Pine I heard helicopters above. Knowing that the problems of New York would certainly precipitate action by Occupy Seattle, I thought I better check it out. Especially since only yesterday the City Government made a grandiose gesture to protect free speech. Well free speech does have its limits as I found out as the cops shoved their bicycles into the crowd and simultaneously pepper sprayed the so captured protesters. If it had not been for my Hero (Iraq Vet Caleb) I would have been down on the ground and trampled. This is what democracy looks like. It certainly left an impression on the people who rode the No. 1 bus home with me. In the women's movement there were signs which said: "Screw us and we multiply." source

This country needs to remember that the only thing that seperates us from the countries that we attack for their human rights violations are are just those, OUR rights. We need to protect them. Just becuase you may not like what I have to say, where I am saying it or WHEN I am saying it does not mean that you have a right to attack my right to do so.

While I have no opinion on the protests themselves and while yes, I am fairly tired of hearing about them on the news I RESPECT and would die to PROTECT your right to do it.

United States Marine Corps. Sgt. Shamar Thomas from Roosevelt, New York said it best here:

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Mr. and Mrs...

As many of you know I have been working hard the last few months helping Eric and Kati plan their wedding. Well, the day is finally here, today we will don our tuxes, we will go to the Circle D farm and Eric and Kati will get married. Last weekend I was lucky enough to be able to go to another wedding with Eric and Kati and I was able to get some really good lighting and some excellent timing. So since its there wedding day, and I know that a picture is worth a thousand words, here is my two cents.

Eric and Kati,
I hope nothing but the best for you as you begin your lives together. I am so happy for you.

CONGRATS GUYS!

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Steve Jobs and his wife after his last Keynote as Apple CEO

So as most of the world has heard by now, Apple's co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs has passed away. I don't think its possible to really comprehend how influential his life was and its certain that his legacy will live on in the attitude and ideals behind the company. So being that I am not only an iPhone, iPod, and Macbook owner I thought that I would post a story that was reported on Vic Gundotra's Google+ last month after Steve stepped down as the CEO of Apple.

"One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

-Vic"

I know that as the world mourns more stories will come out about him, but this one has been in my head every time someone talks about him since I read it last month. Its an attention to detail that not many of us have, and a passion that 99.9% of the world does not have.What I really like about this story is that it not only shows that as a CEO Steve worked 24-7 365 but also shows an attention to detail that not many CEO's can say that they have for their product or their company. He will be missed by many people and is one of the few people that many of us can point to an actually say "You made my life better". Well today as we remember his legacy I would like to say this: "Thanks Steve."

Source

Distracted Driving

On October 1st, 2011 the Maryland General Assembly Chapter 471 or Senate Bill 424 went into effect. What this law does is adds a modification to the existing law where "...a person may not use a text messaging device to write [or], send  OR READ a text message OR AN ELECTRONIC MESSAGE while operating a motor vehicle…". While like most of us I agree that this would be a great things, less distracted drivers, few accidents, I also feel that this represents a disturbing trend. Violators get a 70 dollar and a one point fine on their license. I don't feel that a quick glance at your phone while driving is the problem here. I feel that this law is misplaced and feels more like a new tax to me.

Before you get upset, let me tell you a story. A few days ago my wife and I decided to walk our dog up to the local shopping center. To  do this we had to cross a few roads and while we were crossing the street (in a crosswalk) we almost got ran over by a woman who was turned around yelling at her kids. I feel that picking on cellphones and people who are reading text messages in a world where constant communication is a must is simply blaming on small thing for a much larger behavior, distracted driving. In my opinion this is like blaming the air on the fire and not the match or the fuel. Not a perfect metaphor but I have seen and witnessed many incidents where people are either yelling at kids, spouses, reading books, air drumming (guilty), or something else that is distracting them from the road. This is the actual problem, NOT the phone itself.

In addition the law will be really hard to enforce, you can read it here. From what I take from it I have my Iphone. The law states that this section does not apply to the use of a global positioning system, well since GPS is built into my phone doesn't that make it a GPS unit? They have GPS units that play music, how is that different? In addition many would say that the law says "Text messaging device" means a hand held device used to send a text message or an electronic message via a short message service, wireless telephone service, or electronic communication network" wouldn't every traffic enabled GPS device also qualify here? What about OnStar? That totally communicates through an electronic communication network. So this brings us to the final distinction, "...a hand held device". Okay so if I get a window mount for my Iphone and I am texting from there does that now mean that this device no longer qualifies and I not breaking the law?

Martin O'Malley needed to not pass a law that attacks a certain device being used a certain way and instead attacks an entire behavior, distracted driving. Pull people over for turning around, looking at the back seat and talking to their passengers, this is VERY dangerous.  The reality of the situation is that people are just going to hold their phones in their laps, farther away from the road, and this will make an even more dangerous situation. The law is almost unenforceable and I plan on keeping a copy in my glove box in the event I get pulled over.

Doing things with people you Love

So this has been coming up a bit in my personal life, so in an effort to talk about things more I will discuss it here. Some of my only memories of Germany as a youngster was not wanting to go to places like castles, gardens, and the other cool things I now want to see in Europe. Since I was young I really had no choice in the matter and was dragged along to 13 different countries on various trips. The entire way to our given destination I remember being upset at not being able to play Sega Genesis or Nintendo all day, but once there ended up having a ton of fun. Something like that happened to me last night. I don’t love baseball, I don’t watch it when it’s on and I had had a really long day at work so I was exhausted. But since my Dad had invited me as his first choice I did not want to let him down, and knew that I had never been able to go to these night games because I worked a night shift at MICROS.  I went to the game expecting it to be what I had envisioned, a long drawn out affair that would be full of some really awkward moments where I don’t understand what was going on and ending up with the O’s loosing. It could not have been farther from the truth, besides the O’s loosing. I had a BLAST being with my Dad, talking to him taking part in the game with him. Baseball is something my Dad loves, and being there with my Dad doing something he loves it made me love it. We got to talk about all sorts of things, we got to really bond and I was beaming the entire time. I really want to go to another one and it’s a shame that the season is almost over. I got to meet all of the people he knows there and we got to really enjoy each other as adults. I knew that my Dad and I had a lot in common but going to the game with him just reminded me how cool of a guy he really is. I guess the lesson here is sometimes there are things that you think that you will not enjoy, but if you go into it with an open mind you may be surprised to find that you have a ton of fun.  At the end of the night I thanked my Dad, gave him a big hug and was honestly sad that the night was over. Last night was one of the best “Father/Son” outings of all time. Thanks Dad.

No Kids Allowed

So in the next month I will be going to not one but two different weddings. The weddings are going to be very different and I am sure to have a good time at both. But last night I was standing and talking with one of the brides and it brought me back to my wedding and all of the hard work and planning that goes into that day. The bride I spoke with last night has politely asked their guests to keep infants out of the ceremony and is getting quite the backlash from her family regarding this. Her opinion is that she does not want a child screaming through the ceremony and then having it immortalized on tape. I remember that this was something that we had originally considered for our wedding and reception. In the end we did in fact get a sitter so that our guests with children would be able to enjoy our wedding with us as adults. Since issues like this have been in the news recently, see here. the question that I have is why is it so offensive to want to enjoy my eating experience without your kids ruining it? Why is it so bad that I want to be able to take an airplane flight without listening to a baby cry for six hours, honestly? Now, being that many of the people in my family have children I understand that they are part of your life, I love your kids, seriously I do. But why do people find it so upsetting when one business says that you cannot bring your kids? They way I see it is that if the business can sustain itself without child patrons, the only people who are affected are the kids themselves. You do not have to go to those establishments, but maybe I want to. I am not offended when you bring your kids to the museum that I am at, I realize that its just as important to their education and they have a right to see these things. I guess my rant really is why are so many people outraged by the idea that establishments could exist without the support of children.

Leave replies, I would love to try to understand that parental side of it.

IT - Lessons in Frustration

I have decided to take this blog in another direction, besides posting things about my hobby (which I have had less and less time to do) I will also be making this just my personal all around blog. I need a place to post about my life and I really like this blog. Don't worry I will eventually get back to posting about my photography but for today:

Working in IT can often lead to many interesting things happening on a day to day occurrence. Today, I looked in my inbox for tickets and found a ticket saying that a machine needed to have java updated. I figured that since my boss assigned the ticket to me and that it needed to get done that I would be proactive, connect to the machine remotely and update the software. So I do just that, they take software upgrades pretty seriously around here so I felt productive for getting that done. I have to leave my desk to take care of another issue, when I come back everyone is asking me why I connected to that machine, why I updated java and why all these things were done. My issue with this is that if everyone but me knows to not update a machine, why would you assign me a ticket for that machine KNOWING that I am the kind of person who would get that done. Very frustrating.