Imagine this

You are driving down the road in the middle of a blizzard. The wind is blowing and the snow is blinding. You can not see see three feet in front of the car. Your kids are in the back seat strapped into their car seats when your tire blows out. You pull your car to the side of the road and have a decision to make. Turn off the car so that your cell phone can operate or leave your kids in the car with the engine running and the heater going, but you have to get out into the weather and wander far enough form your car so that your cell phone will work. Why these two options? Because the government has decided installing a cell phone jammer in your car is the only way to keep idiots from driving themselves off bridges, or into buildings.

Apparently now it is the business of the United States Government to intrude into your life to the point where they could disable your private property in your private property. Seriously. Lets think this through a bit though. If they put this device anywhere visible or known, the operator can just disable it. It can not be in a place where the operator can be tempted to disable it, because it will only be a matter of time before they do. It can also not have an on and off switch, as the operator will simply turn it off. This means it has to be directly connected to the batter, or the cars electrical system in some fashion; as soon as your car is on, the device necessarily has to come on.

What then do you do in the case of an emergency like the one above? How do you safely call a tow truck while keeping your family safe as well. I have been in cars that will not start up in extreme cold when minutes earlier they had been running (for those of you from warmer areas, this is why people leave their cars running while they go into a convenience store in the middle of December). The bigger question though should be is this even a valid concern of government?

I have a better solution. Let the idiots on the road be personally responsible for their actions. Stiffen the civil and penal penalties allowed for idiots who harm others while on their cell phones in vehicles. You do not punish the whole for the actions of a few, unless the whole is wrong to begin with. The US government really needs to stay out of our cars, our homes and our pants.

Umm... and I thought

Never mind. I really am suffering from a major case of writers block. I am worried about my family and other things. I had two successful interviews with a company that would take me back to Maui and my family would hopefully follow this summer if work stabilizes. I have not heard a peep from them since the second interview concluded on Thursday.

I guess there are no rules for professional behavior about getting back to a candidate for a position. I know that as a candidate I should send a Thank You, and I did. What about the company though? I have applied for a bunch of positions over the last month and aside from the auto reply e-mail saying they had received my resume... NOTHING. Not even a reply that my skill set is not what they are looking for.

I guess this is just normal practice in a time of economic hardship though. I am sure the companies are receiving several applications a day for the same position. They must just be overwhelmed. I know in the past, I have been fired for less. Maybe these companies should evaluate the people they have screening resumes...

Prayers.

Pisio

Congressional Pay

Last night I was watching the Glenn Beck program and he was talking about ways for the government to save money. One of the ways he talked about was limiting the pay of those in Congress to the average pay of what those in the military are making. While I like the premise, I think that it is flawed. I do not think that he has thought this through enough, although I have not read his book Broke yet so I do not know.

Personally I think a better method would be to tie Congressional pay to the median income of the district or state that they represent. Federal "servants" like the President and those in the military could never make more than the median income for the United States as a whole. Right now, that would mean a salary of around $50K a year for enlisted military (a huge pay increase) and the President (a huge pay decrease) (Officers should be paid on a scale that starts them at 10% above the median income and goes from there). Senators would be paid no more than the median income for the state that they represent, and House Reps would be paid no more than the median income of the district that they represent.

I think that this would serve several goods. First and foremost, Congress critters would no longer work to get people dependent on government programs. Welfare and state aid in general decrease median wages for areas therefore by encouraging state aid, Senators and Representatives are deflating their own wages. It would be in the best interests of all involved to set policy that keeps people employed and increases the chances that they would set policy to keep higher paying jobs in their areas. Providing these opportunities for those that they serve is in their best interest, and it would necessarily decrease the need for entitlement programs. The more you can do for yourself, the less you need government.

This also takes the keys to pay raises for themselves away from Congress. The only way they get a pay raise is if the economic situation of the areas they serve improves. Imagine how fast we would see common sense policy in place if they pay of those setting policy actually depended on the policy that they set. I have a feeling the budget would be balanced every year, and policies that forced companies overseas would be eliminated, or at least left to the discretion of the states.

I don't know, I just think that this makes more sense than the current way things are done and the way that Glenn Beck was proposing. My guess is though, this current bunch of leeches would just se the federal minimum wage at $200 per hour and say we tried. That would then force all business out of the area and the median income would be $0 though... Guess what they would be paid... :)

Prayers,

Pisio

A night to remember

About 6’2’’and balding hair with blue eyes and long hairy arms I knew I was in for a long night. The room was full of young women with legs all the way to the floor and hair to match; I was in search of a wing man for the evening. I found him standing against the wall. My height with a full head of hair and 50 pounds on me I knew I had found the guy; a real mouth breather.

“Hey, you want to hit Starbucks?” I queried, giddy as a school boy.

“Do we have time?” came unhesitating reply. I knew I had found my guy; kindred spirits.

He introduced himself as “Shrek”. Curiously, my name is “Donkey”. The night was off to a better start than I had expected. Shrek and Donkey, which one of the high class ladies inside could resist such a pair? Heaven knows we could not resist theirs.

Emboldened, we headed into the Starbucks. We paid for our lattes and had the extra cream added of course. We headed for the exits, but were stopped by a real smart ass. No really, we could not figure out how to get around this donkey. I would shake, and it would shimmy; spin move with the hot button double press “D” action. Shrek did what any self respecting mouth breather would do. Gave him some Captain Crunch until the ass passed out.

A night to remember.

Prayers,

Pisio

Blogvertise

So, I logged in and I have been suspended I guess. Looks like the account is still alive, but I could not find instructions on how to reactivate a suspended account. Then again, it is their customers who have lost a good plugger. Given a bit of headstart with a topic and keywords, I can develop a story around any product wether or not I believe in it, I have used it or I even have the capacity to use it in my home or not. Oh well. Maybe I will dig around a bit more, maybe I wont. I could use the extra money right now, but I am not worried enough about it to worry about it.

Please tune back in for my next post. It will be a doozy. I have decided that every 10 posts I will create a link back madlib where there is a goofy story and I randomly link to my followers blogs throughout it.

Prayers,

Pisio

Aliens in the Attic

Last night my wife and I watched this movie, and I have to be honest with you... I have not laughed so hard since the first time I saw Idiocracy. My wife was really leery when it showed up from Netflix. I think she really wonders about me when I put movies like this in our queue. I wonder about some of the movies I put in our queue as well, but that is another whole blog posting.

Aliens in the Attic though, was absolutely hilarious. It had the typical kid realizes he being different is not a bad thing story line, but story itself was just great. I really do not want to ruin this for you, but just think of a kids version of The Hangover. It is everything you wish would have happened to you on a three day weekend with your cousins in high school, and to boot you get to ruin your sister's life :).

This movie would be great for one of the upcoming cold winter nights with the family, or if you are a single guy, one of the many cold nights you spend alone... I mean honestly... you are reading my blog... you can't be a stud or anything... :)

Prayers,

Pisio

City of Wonder

I had been avoiding playing games on facebook for what seemed like ever. The reason being that I was afraid I would get addicted. The time off though has made me want something a little more interesting than Farkle and Bejeweled Blitz to play. So I started playing City of Wonder. Mistake. I am hooked. I hate having an addictive personality.

I am already at a level 9 and want to go farther. The only issue I am having is getting gold bricks to expand my territory and build the marvels and things I have to build in order to progress. It is maddening. I never thought I could be this hooked on something. Last night I even caught myself doing surveys to try and earn gold bars. That was actually pretty frustrating. I spent 20 minutes trying to qualify for a survey only to be told I did not meet their requirements, even after answering specific questions about experiences at WalMart and things. What a frigging scam I tell ya!

Oh well. Anyway. I need to convince a bunch of my friends to become my allies. That seems to be an effective way to progress in the game. I am not really sure what else I am going to be able to do. I guess I will just invite 26 a day over and over again until a few of them sign up and help me. HEHEHE... It has worked on me in the past, why not on them?

Prayers,

Pisio