Thursday, February 26, 2004

... But The Jews Killed Christ
Last night I was in a hurry to urinate. It had been a long drive back into Columbus and I was drinking water all night to fight off a nasty cough. As I rolled into the Krogers parking lot, all I could think about was emptying my bladder. I must have busted into the bathroom, because I hardly noticed I was standing on top of a teenager with a mop. I excused myself, and proceeded to tip-toe up to the urinal. He mumbled "it's hopeless" and stormed out with his mop bucket. Must have been a bad day for this guy who just couldn't keep the floor clean. All I did was leave some dirty footprints in an otherwise dirty restroom. The jews killed Christ, and they were forgiven. But that guy will give me a dirty look every time I step into his grocery store now. I will forever be that asshole who just *had* to fuck up his clean floor.

And speaking of Christ, the comotion over this Mel Gibson movie is making me sick. I guess a lot of people are angry that the movie makes the Jews look like dumb assholes, while it portrays Christians as inteligent saints. Whatever. The hooplah over this retarded film is effecting media in all markets. Perhaps its this combination of this film, following the whole Janet Jackson boob incident at the Super Bowl. The FCC has sunk a ton of money into investigating the whole boob thing, which many are calling "nipple-gate". Funny. My taxes paying for the investigation, not so funny.

I turn on the radio this morning, and Howard Stern is on a commercial break, so I check out the other stations. On my local "top 40 station" they are discussing "Clear Channel". Clear Channel owns that station and MANY other radio stations everywhere. They have bought out any stations that will sell, in attempts to own a large portion of the radio and television market. So this morning, that company decided that Howard Stern was too much, and they yanked the Howard Stern show from all of their stations. That accounts for about 6 markets such as Louisville Kentucky and the large Miama Florida area.

So who made this decision? Clear Channel did. Why did Clear Channel make this decision? Because congress told them to. Corporate Radio ... controlled by politicians ... telling YOU what's okay to listen to. Now, I am not some radical anti-government hippie .. but this is bullshit. People are saying whatever they can to draw votes. Unfortunately, the people that run out to vote are the ones that sit around and discuss how "radio and television is making my child evil". Fucking retards. Retards are taking away free speech in this country and it makes me sick.

Nevermind the fact that you can reach out and change a radio station. You can turn off the TV. You can go live in the hills and be Amish. In fact, I invite all of you anti-media hippies to get the fuck out of my country. Go inhabit an Island and do what you want. This country was built on free speech.

Why are people following this anti-American bullshit? Religion. If you have ever seen Japanese television, you will find all sorts of over the top humor, nudity, you name it. Walk around the streets and you will find that no one is 'ashamed' or embarrassed by their sexuality. It's RELIGION that has made this country that way. So our political powers go to church. Good for them. Keep that shit out of law. When pastor Smith fills your Sunday morning telling you how Janet Jackson is satan, and that you should take your children to go see "Jesus Gets His Ass Kicked - by Mel Gibson" just remember what's really on pastor Smiths mind. YOUR MONEY. Religion and law are two seperate entities last I checked.

Now that's enough of that. *Deep breath* Flipping back to the Howard Stern show the morning I was pleased to find that they were on the air on my local station "The Blitz". The station really sucks when they aren't playing the Howern Stern show, but I think I need to send them a letter. Tell them that I congratulate them on NOT being a corporate radio sell out, and for upholding free speech in this country.

Now ... let me move on. *another deep breath* Here's a story for you.

Tires and Tribulations
I was driving back into Columbus in the weeble-mobile Tuesday night. The car has been shuddering at high speed so I knew something wasn't right. I have just been putting it off. Finally, I blew a tire. I was only about a mile from home. So I pulled off into a gas station and had a look. The tire looked fine. But upon closer examination I could see that the inner side of the tire was worn through to the steel belting. Woops.

I called my wife and explained that "I had run into trouble". She suggested I walk to Lowes (home improvement store) for tools since I had a spare tire and a jack, but I was missing my tire iron. I took the walk to Lowes and I was sorely dissapointed in their tool selection. It was pathetic! They had nothing in the way of automotive tools, and they hardly had any socket wreches. I was carrying about $52.00 in cash, and I could see that I would not be able to afford a simple socket set. I bought myself a cresent wrench for $10. It was a sad looking tool, worth about $1.50. I walked back to the car (realizing now that it's about 15 degrees outside). That wrench was a peice of shit. It slipped when I put the least amount of pressure on it. So the wrench went into the truck, the laptop went over my shoulder, and I got to walking home.

I called Discount Man who always loves to hear about my disasters. I also called my wife and told her to look for me in about half an hour. Once home, I formulated a plan. I figured if the ol' Volvo would start up, I could fill it with tools and a 2 ton jack, and drive to the Honda. But I didnt expect that peice of shit to start. I haven't driven it in weeks. Low and behold, it rolled over and started right up!

Now ... I can drive the Volvo to the Honda and put the spare on, but then I have to drive the Volvo home. And then walk back to the Honda? I dug through the garage and pulled out this nasty old racing bike that belongs to my wife. It looks rusty as hell, and the tires were completely flat. I threw all the tools into the Volvo, and put the bike on top. Stopping by the gas station halway to the Honda, I grabbed the air pump and filled up the bike tires. To my disbelief they held the air. Onto the Honda, I changed the tire in no time flat, and then got back into the Volvo driving it home.

Good day for a bike ride, eh mate? I must have looked like a fucking idiot getting on this 20 year old rusty bike and peddling it up the street. It was better than trying to call someone to drive me less than a mile up the road. Or waking up my kids and packing up the whole family for a 5 minute car ride. But God that sucked. I must have riden about 200 feet and I was out of breath. What was wrong with this bike? It turns out that the bike is a 10 speed, and it was stuck in low gear. So riding it down a level street was about like climbing a hill. I threw the bike down and grabbed some wood-chips from a condo complex and jammed the gear switching mechanism to force it into a higher speed. It was at least tolerable, and I peddled onto the gas station. Once there, I jammed the bike into the trunk and drove home on my do-nut tire.

Yesterday morning I took the weeble-mobile on up to the new tire shop near my home. They wanted $45 for a tire, and another $18 bucks or so in fees. No problem. It was getting fixed. I was happy.

This morning I headed out to the Forest. It will be my last time here for months. Maybe forever. I will miss it a little bit. I liked the scenery out here. And the past two weeks I have been driving off to various dead ends and staring into the trees while I study on my laptop. Peaceful.

I was about halfway here when I felt the car pulling to the left. I pulled into a gas station and I find that my tire is just about on the ground. Yes, the new tire. I guess they didn't seal it well enough. Bad valve stem? Maybe I am so far out of alignment, that I pulled the tire off the rim. Who knows. I put some more air in it, and kept driving. It got me here. But I will be here all day. I know when I go to leave this place at 7:00PM my car will be on the ground again. Something tells me I should have kept the bicycle in my trunk.

Monday, February 23, 2004

The Eagles Nest
As I write I am looking out of a small attic window, high atop a 120 year old home in the middle of Ross County. This home was built sometime just before a large prison was established around 1900. It was built for the warden to live in along with his family and has seen several familys throughout it's history. It now stands dark and empty, and occassionally houses training, meetings, etc. for the prison just a few blocks away.

I will be teaching in this old house two days a week for the next few months. It's really not a bad place to dwindle away time. Very quiet. Very scenic (except for the large ugly prison up the road), and almost livible. I say "almost" because although it has it's share of livible features like a large full kitchen with appliances, several bathrooms, about 6 bedrooms, etc. it is missing some necesities such as "heat". It's colder than hell up here. Maybe because I am in the attic.

There is a small signed nailed above the door as you enter the attic that reads "Command Post". Not sure what that means exactly. Maybe it's some kind of inside joke. As I understand it, this attic used to house the Wardens regulation size pool table. And the shuffleboard grids are faded, but still visible on the hard wood floors up here.

This house is in desperate need of repair. It seems that the present warden decided to abandon this house for the most part, and very little happens here. It is a shame really, because this large home is heated all winter long, and checked in on several times a day for fires, vandalism, etc. I would love to live here. Not sure I would want to pay all the utility bills though.

Aslame as my work has gotten recently, it's really nice to be somewhere cool. Especially when I have to be locked up here from 9:30AM to 8:00AM.

So I have another hour before my next class. Should I got downstairs and take a nap? Go play basketball in the cold (did I mention the hoop?)? Or maybe I will call the office back in Columbus and tell them only one person showed up this morning. Yeah, and then I will study.

And Later ...
Okay, so I never studied. I got to looking at the material I will be teaching this evening and realized that nothing was set up for it. All the course really requires is notepad and a web browser. They also want for you to have installed Netscape. God I hate Netscape. Installing Netscape to all of these doggy old computers took a good long while. So long, that before I knew it ... my next classes students should be showing up.

I hurried back and forth between my Netscape setups and the attic window. Yet, my students never showed. After I was done setting up, I started to get bored, and I began wandering around this house. Most of the doors are locked (and I shouldn't be wandering around anyway) but there is some cool stuff laying around this place. On the first floor there are two nice glass cases that have been ruined with bolted on padlocks. But inside is a wonderful collection of prison "break out" stuff. There is a small collection of home made knives (shanks), some ripped up and knotted sheets (escape ropes), and even a little black mans face with some facial hair glued on. I'm not sure what it was made out of, but they did a pretty good job. All of the items look to be the real thing, so I have to wonder if they aren't from the prison up the road. Next to this collection was a sign reading "contraband". It had some bullets and stars underneath of various examples. Fun.

Behind the contraband collection was a small coat closet under the stairs. I couldn't resist looking inside. The smell about knocked me down when I opened the door. It was a FOUL odor. It looks like at one point someone had stored some dry kitchen items in this closet and mice had discovered it. The closet was full of popcorn and mouse droppings. Gross. I won't open THAT door again.

After I was done poking around, I decided to grab the basketball from the basement and shoot some hoops. The ball was pretty flat and probably hasn't been used since they held pot lucks here a few years back. Still, it had enough air to get a few dribbles out of it. I shot some hoops, and headed back inside. Strangely, as cold as it is outside, I think it might actually be colder in this attic. Isn't heat supposed to rise? Where is my heat?

Well, I guess it's back to waiting. I am supposed to have a class at 4:00 (about 40 minutes). We'll see who shows up.

Friday, February 13, 2004

Jesus Is Just Using Me
I was driving home from a late class a few nights ago. I was a little pissed off that a sales person had stopped by to visit my students and shaken things up a little bit. For whatever reason, he spent an hour talking about two seminars that may or may not ever take place. And then pulled my students aside and bothered them about "how classes are going". Now that we are two weeks away from finishing classes at this location, he shows up and asks for complaints. I wanted to slap him.

As I my blood is boiling I pass a church sign that reads "WHAT IS JESUS DOING THROUGH YOU?". I guess it's not enough that my employer uses me. Jesus is using me too. Son of a bitch! He needs to leave me alone. And I need to find a new job.

I looked around a few job sites, and found some jobs I want. But I lack a degree, and certifications. No way am I going to try and tackle a degree at this point in my life. The certifications on the other hand, are well within my reach. It's time to stop getting used. It's time to get my head out of my ass and study. It's time I get re-employed!!

I'm very sorry if you all have been looking for Wardriving adventures here. I don't want to blow the suprise I have been planning, but I should give you some idea of what is going on with me. I have been wardriving, and not sharing. I have been collecting adventures for a project. When it's done, all of you faithful Blog readers will get to enjoy my many findings.

In the meantime I may put together a mailing list of some kind to keep everyone informed of my upcoming project, once that is anounced.

I won't forget you, faithful Blog readers. ;-)

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Wrath Of The Roadrunner
I know you all enjoy wardriving stories. And lately I haven't really had any for you. This past Thursday I had to drive to the forest, as I do every Tuesday and Thursday. I had a couple of hours to waste, so I pulled into the McDonalds parking lot. I really wasn't up for trying to position my laptop just right in the car seat so that I could get my 3 or 4 in signal strength.

I headed down the street into town, and found an open access point belonging to a homeowner. Since it's off the main road, I could park right on the the street with my cantenna aimed into the owners living room window. We are talking 20+ in signal strength. The speed was much higher than what I had been putting up with. I just couldn't hide as well here as I leeched. I also found that there was something else on this network pulling down some bandwidth. The house looked dark, and I saw no signs of life inside. There were no cars parked in the back (I had cased the alley earlier). So ... I did a little packet sniffing, and then promptly put an end to the culprit by assuming his IP address. It was just Kazaa downloads. I probably interrupted a movie download. Whatever.

After about an hour I looked up and noticed the blinds were pulled up pretty high in the window of this house. Had they been that high before? I was having a long arguement with my wife at the time through my messenger, and I hadn't paid much attention. I had also been sitting there for well over an hour. Maybe I should leave. Nah! I had a couple of downloads going and I was comfortable.

20 minutes passed by, and suddenly a Time Warner van pulls off the road and onto the parking lane ahead of me. Then starts backing up, and doesn't stop until he is directly in front of me. Time Warner had been called. I noticed that the DNS servers I was using that were loaned from the access point are Roadrunner IP's (Time Warners service). So I politely messaged everyone I was speaking with and let them know "I've been caught! Moving on!". :-)

Woops. So maybe someone was home, and stopping their downloads was not a good idea. Next time I walk onto someones network, I should probably share the bandwidth. And I also burned my bridges no a strong signal and god bandwidth. Oh well.

I need to get moving. I am going to my sisters house today for the 'football party', and so the kids can hang out and play. I hate football. I think I will play with the kids instead.