I was just reading this article on msnbc:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25311529/, and from the start thought the writer is living in la-la land.  The premise is the american "can do" attitude is under assault by outside forces beyond our control.  The truth is, our american ingenuity is under assault by forces from within - which are completly under our control, but we've chosen to do nothing about.

We've had a two party system for so long, we've forgotten how to put anyone else into power.  The two major parties have worked their magic to practically guarantee several things:  1) No other political party is going to get enough face time to gather traction, 2) People are too distracted by "ideological" differences to realize both parties are almost exactly the same, and 3) the american people are divided enough that absolutely nothing of any value can get through congress except spending more money in the guise of bolstering "american interests". 

The major thing eroding american "can-do" is the millions of americans who won't do much of anything.  You can't keep going when most of the people are living off the rest of us.  This is going to get much worse when the baby boomers do retire and finally crush the social security and medicare systems.  The truth is, the US government is such a mess, there may not be any way to fix it.  I've been hearing several musicians suggest maybe it's time to start over...

Before you say "well, those guys are just hippies", bear in mind it was the hippies that pretty much started a revolution back in the 60s and are currently ruining the country now.  They've already destroyed our country's values, why not destroy our value as well.

It's no wonder people are feeling like they can't do it anymore.  Our leaders have placed this country in a position where we rely on them for everything.  The sad part is, we've done it to ourselves.

My mother-in-law discovered a pattern.  Everytime I go away for an extended period and work long hours, I get sick.  I've never really thought of myself as a sickly person, but since I've been at ITS, it seems like I get sick frequently and it always seems to coincide with long work weeks and strange sleep schedules.

Some of you may remember around Christmas when I almost cancelled the Christmas party due to nausea, diarrhea, and slight fever.  Fortunatly, that wound up being an 18 hour thing that passed and no one else got sick so I'm guessing my immune system just can't take the lack of sleep.

I wonder what's more frustrating for my wife, having me gone for days on end, or having me around the house sick?  I'm sure it's no fun being around someone who is constantly complaining about not feeling good.  I won't even let her give me a smooch since she's less than 4 weeks from D-Day (Delivery Day) and I'd hate for her to get sick now.

Plus it's freaking hot outside.  I wonder if all the extreme temperature differences have anything to do with it?  I was in a siberian computer room this past week and the average temperature was 58F.  Temperatures outside were running high 90s.  I'm sure that probably takes it's toll on your body as well.

Is anyone planning on seeing "The Happening"?  It looks fairly apocalyptic and I'm all about some end of the world movies.  I know Shane wants to go, and my wife said she'd like to skip it but has no problem with me going.  "The Happening" and "The Hulk" are on my to see list before the baby comes.  Any takers?

I just wanted to alert my few readers of the creation of a new blogsite which has a lot of potential to be a lot of fun.  The Zombie Survival Force (ZSF) which will discuss all things apocalyptic and zombie-riffic...as well as anything else people want to talk about.  Contact me if you want to sign on.  It's multi-contributor which means anyone who has an account set up can log in and make a blog contribution.  So yes, Anna can talk about setting up a new religious order, while Shane can talk about man skills, Christopher can talk about the finer points of energy generation, and I can talk about whatever weirdness I happen to feel like discussing.

It's kinda like here, except it gives more people the chance to start a thread. 

The link is http://zsf.boldlygoingnowhere.org/zsfblog

My newest stupid injury is from this weekend.  It seems like I never come back from a state holiday completely intact.  This time, I managed to slam my finger in a window while opening it.  My fingers got pinched between the windows and after the blood sacrifice, the window now slides easily. 

I'll probably lose the fingernail on my middle finger, considering the angry purple and blue colors underneath it.  I should have drilled a hole through the fingernail I guess to relieve some of the pressure.  I can type (gently) and I've got it in a foam splint because despite the overwhelming pain, I tend to hit it on everything I come close to.

This is the first time I've ever been hurt so badly I almost threw up.

So we finally got our dining room pantry cleaned out for use as an actual pantry, which is a relief because I went on an "essentials" shopping trip a few months ago when I started reading about world-wide food shortages and that Sams Club and Costco were limiting flour purchases. 

It didn't dawn on me until later that we've not used 5 pounds of flour since we got married, and we don't eat that much rice or sugar.  Of course, history is not an indicator of future perfomance.  My brother-in-law and wife were working around the house the other day, and my wife directed him to put something in the "apocalyptic pantry" in obvious reference to the stores of sugar, flour, and rice.  I was telling Shane about this yesterday at lunch, and he said "man, I need to get one of those".  Scott at work said "I think everyone should start thinking about that..." and my brother said "good, did you remember to get a small hand mill?"  It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks about these things, but I wonder if I'm the one of the few that actually sticks something aside for later "just in case".  It's not like I've got a safehouse full of stored goods just waiting for our approaching doom.  I just like the idea of at least being able to make bread if fuel gets so costly it becomes difficult to maintain regular shipments.  I realize that sounds all gloom and doom, but certainly stranger things have happened.

Of course, my wife could be absolutely right...it could be that people just seem interested because they like getting me wound up to see what nutso thing I'll do next.  If so, I bit hook, line, and sinker.  Naturally, when I start canning goods this summer I guess that will give everyone a good laugh too.

I hope I'm not the one laughing later...but if I am, it'll be through the crumbs of my delicious apocalyptic pizza, made from the flour, sugar, and tomatos I saved before it all hit the fan.  Maybe I'll give my wife a slice.