Doctor Who

I probably really look like I don’t have my act together with a Thanksgiving-themed post in my journal still the most recent writing as of January 7th. Sorry about that, December totally flew by and I was running around in circles all month. It was a great success, though. A good solid holiday, made it up North to visit with family over Christmas and relaxed at home over New Years.

We got our first snowfall here just a couple of days before Christmas, and it wasn’t a substantial snowfall. Just a week or so ago we got hit by a few serious inches, but it’s mostly melted over this weekend. Without the snow it really didn’t seem like the holidays as much, and it just doesn’t feel like winter in Minnesota yet. I’m not complaining really, except that it’s been so dry that I’ve been drinking water like crazy and my eyes have been burning constantly. I’m going into the eye doctor this week and the plan is to switch back to glasses primarily, I just can’t do contacts anymore. Between the dryness in the winter here and staring at computer screens all day, contacts are just a real hassle for me.

Not much else has been going on around here. Just busy as usual with work. I’ve been watching a little TV lately, and I’ve picked up on BBC’s reincarnation of the sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” I’ve been a little nostalgic watching it, I remember the show being on late at night when I was very young. I only remember seeing the show out on my family’s farm which the family no longer has, and that’s quite a few years for my lifetime. I don’t remember much from that long ago, but for some reason that blue police box from the show always stuck in my memory.

I’ve recorded about four episodes of the first new season so far and I’m watching the fourth tonight, and I’m already absolutely hooked on the show. Christopher Eccleston is great in the lead role as The Doctor, I’ve seen him in a few movies and have always enjoyed his characters. Billy Piper really brings the show together as Rose, the sidekick. This new incarnation is full of humor and tongue in cheek appeal, and it’s already bringing back all kinds of memories I didn’t even know I had of the old series that I saw in the late 80s. It’s playing late nights on BBC America so I’m sure not everyone is going to be able to see it. I don’t believe it will ever be as popular in the States as it is in the UK (Sci-Fi just hasn’t been much of a mainstream attraction in the U.S. recently), but I hope it’s around for a while as I’m really enjoying it. It’s good to have a new show to watch since HBO made the absurd decision to cancel “Deadwood,” which resulted in my cancellation of HBO.

Well I’d better be off to bed, I’ll try not to be so neglectful with the writing this month.

Thanksgiving Day Truth

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a great time doing whatever you’ll be doing, whether it’s spending time with your family or sitting in your underwear watching Dumb & Dumber on cable tonight (It’s on Comedy Central). We’re spending time with some of Lizzie’s family here in Minneapolis today, so there’s not a lot of traveling involved this year which is good. You see, I spend so much of my time in my car that I don’t always consider getting in it and driving for several hours a great vacation. However I will miss my family this year and usually the long drive is more than worthwhile. I will get to visit most of them over Christmas, so I have that to look forward to.

Like every year, I’m sure that in nearly every household the family know-it-all will tell everyone that the reason they’re so tired after the feast is due to all of the tryptophan in the turkey. Everyone will go “Hmm, how interesting!” even though they’ve heard this over and over for years. Guess what? It’s a myth! The tryptophan in turkey does not make you sleepy. Now it’s your turn to be the know-it-all.

From National Geographic:

Purified tryptophan is a mild sleep-inducing agent. That probably spawned the idea that turkey and other foods heavy in tryptophan cause drowsiness.

But tryptophan can’t get to the human brain in large amounts when ingested as part of a massive Thanksgiving feast—it needs an empty stomach.

Turkey isn’t even unusually high in tryptophan. Many foods, such as beef or soybeans, boast higher concentrations.

“Think about how much turkey you have in a turkey sandwich without getting tired,” said Sherrie Rosenblatt, spokesperson for the National Turkey Federation. The Washington, D.C. nonprofit represents the turkey industry.

So why the traditional Thanksgiving nap?

The slumber may be caused by the stressful hustle and bustle of the holidays, alcohol consumption, and the massive caloric intake of the year’s biggest feast.

So there you have it, the only reason you’re sleepy is because you just inhaled 2-3 times more calories than your body is used to. Finally this broken record can be put on the shelf for good.

I’ll be extra tired after today’s meal, the holiday season already has me exhausted. It really has come up on me quite fast this year. The last two months have felt like one long week, it’s all just gone by so fast. As for “Black Friday,” I’ll be working. No dashing off to the stores to get that extra 10-50% off. I probably will stop by the Mall of America this weekend, but only to see the world’s largest plasma TV and world’s largest gingerbread house. I guess unnecessarily over-sized stuff is the theme this year at the unnecessarily over-sized Mall of America.

Best wishes to everyone for a happy, safe, and filling Thanksgiving!

Sleepy, but Can’t Sleep

I’ve been hit with insomnia the past couple of weeks. I get myself all tucked in at the normal bedtime, and just as I start to drift off - BAM! I’M WIDE AWAKE! Then I’ll have trouble getting to sleep for most of the evening, and as a result I’ll hardly be able to keep my eyes open all day at work. I’ve been requiring a lot more coffee than normal lately, I’ve went from making one thermos to two in the morning.

This wouldn’t be a bad thing if I got up in the middle of the night and did something productive. Instead, I flop around and toss and turn and whine and whimper and generally annoy the hell out of Lizzie. Eventually, I get up and read or look around on the internet for a while.

I used to get by on very little sleep when I was going to school. There were many nights I just didn’t sleep at all, and the day after was always unbearable and I always regretted not getting any sleep the night before. Catching up on sleep on a bench in the IDS tower’s Crystal Court downtown was no picnic, what with all the homeless people wandering around. I couldn’t sleep in the school’s student lounge, because all the benches were always taken by other students sleeping. It was nice to know I wasn’t alone. Those were the good old days.

Fall is beyond being here, it just kind of came out of nowhere this year. I had to pull the ice scraper out of my trunk a couple mornings ago, I scraped in my short sleeves for a few minutes and then ran in to pull the winter coat out of the closet. The heat kicked on in the office while it got below 40 degrees outside. Christmas decorations are on sale at Target. The sun is at that awful angle where it hurts the eyes to be facing it and sunglasses don’t help. Either that or I spend too much time indoors - the jury is still out on that.

The other day at work, I was sitting in the lunch room reading. I rested my head on my left arm, and suddenly I found myself waking up and the sunbeam was no longer on my back. I fell asleep in the lunch room. Don’t worry, I wasn’t late getting back to work or anything.

I’ve been going into work early Wednesdays through Friday, I’m just more productive in the mornings, especially in the latter part of the week. It’s harder getting up at 4:45 in the morning though, especially when it’s pitch black out and it’s getting to be below 30 degrees in the mornings. At least I beat the traffic, that’s the best part and will be really nice once we start getting snow. Traffic in the winter is really brutal around here, especially in the morning. I don’t think I was hardly ever to work at a consistent time last winter.

In case you were wondering, I’m still pretty torn over the elections. I can’t come to any conclusions, even after listening to the debates on the radio and spending all of those sleepless nights reading about the political agendas online. My best bet right now seems to be that I should cast my vote for all the independent candidates to help them meet their 5% quota so that their parties get automatic inclusion in the next elections. Otherwise they have to get a lot of signatures to get on the ballot and into the debates next time. See, voting independent isn’t pointless. They get the 5%, and it makes it easier next time when there is an amazing independent candidate that actually has a chance against the DFL and GOP. For those who think Independents never have a chance, remember that Minnesota elected an Independent Governor a few years back, and he was a former pro-wrestler, remember him now? The sad part of it is, that pro wrestler probably did more for this state than our current Governor has in his four years.

Well I think I might go out for a walk this afternoon. It’s actually pretty nice out today, in the upper 50’s and sunny. All the geese are hanging out in the parks this time of the year, and they’re usually pretty fun to check out. Maybe I can catch up on some sleep on a park bench… haha. Maybe I was homeless in a previous life… Seems odd that I fall asleep so easily on benches, doesn’t it? See-ya later…

Minnesota Elections

Election time is nearing it’s meridian and the elections here in Minnesota have been getting pretty ugly. They’re too ugly for me, really. Ugly enough that I’ve been reading up on the independent candidates a lot. The only problem with the Independents here in Minnesota is their vast inexperience in certain areas worry me. I’ve found one independent candidate I’m definitely voting for - Peter Idsusogie - his focus on Education would be good for this state I believe. I think Education should be one of Minnesota’s biggest concerns, yet so few candidates seem to want to talk about it. Here’s a good poll that shows just how important education is to Minnesotans this year. Not surprisingly, the budget defecit and taxes round out the top three.

The major candidates have been talking a lot about foreign policy, taxes, gas prices, and immigration. You know, the sensational ones that everyone gets all riled up over. I’m certainly not trying to suggest that these issues aren’t important, but like usual none of the candidates are really offering any coherent solutions to them. They’re just saying “so-and-so supported what-have-you, and I think that’s wrong!!!” So what’s the right way, smarty pants? Apparently we only have two kinds of politicians, those who have no ideas and love to complain, and those who have bad ideas and love to defend them.

Frankly, Minnesota’s current Governor, Tim Pawlenty (R), needs to go. While he was running around spending so much time trying to get the Twins a new stadium, college tuition rose by over 50% (link). Minnesota’s economy and public education systems are a mess. I’ve considered voting for him, but I just can’t make any real sense of doing so. The DFL candidate for Governor, Mike Hatch, seems pretty respectable on the issues. Plus, I’m sick of thanking Pawlenty every time my car gets an unwanted alignment from all the pot-holes all over the interstate highways.

In the U.S. Senate campaign - probably the ugliest campaign of them all in Minnesota - I can’t bring myself to vote for either Mark Kennedy (R) or Amy Klobuchar (D). They’re both sleazy candidates taking constant cheap shots at each-other on the airwaves, making empty promises about taxes, gas prices, and foreign policies. That kind of talk really turns off the middle-of-the-road people like myself.

In Minnesota’s 6th district for House, we have Patty Wetterling (D) vs Michele Bachmann (R). I don’t live in the 6th district, but I work in the 6th district so I’ve been watching that race a little closely. Wetterling is the candidate who made national headlines for using the Foley scandal in one of her political ads. Here’s a link to the TV ad hosted on Wetterling’s web site. And then here’s a good article about it that ran in the StarTribune. This is sleazy politics at it’s finest, people. Why is it relevant for Mark Foley (R-FL) to become part of Minnesota’s elections? He’s not running in Minnesota! If you didn’t hear about it, Foley was outed as a pedophile weeks ago when transcripts of disturbing online chats between him and a teenage boy surfaced. [ Here's an article about it. ] What it seems like Wetterling is trying to pull on us here is leading people to believe that if one Republican is a pedophile, they must all be. People aren’t that stupid, are they? Now I believe Foley deserves all he gets, what he did is disgusting, but the entire Republican party doesn’t deserve to be chastised because of him. Cover ups by his colleagues should be addressed, but it doesn’t belong in Minnesota’s political ads.

Is it always going to be like this? Am I ever going to find a party or candidates that I can wholeheartedly agree with or am I going to continue to feel so undecided and always have the feeling that I’m voting for the lesser of two evils? It gets awfully frustrating, no wonder so many people don’t vote. But I hope people will vote. Please go to polls and use your brains, hearts, and common sense rather than picking based on the D or R next to each name.

Aside from the politics, for me personally the busy season continues. It’s been an exhausting month, and there’s much more work ahead. My allergies are still keeping me miserable, but fall in Minnesota is just so beautiful. More so than North Dakota ever was, for some reason. The leaves are turning to their beautiful bright colors and the temperatures are perfect. If it weren’t for the allergies I have this time of year, this would be my favorite season.

Talk to you again soon!

Another Month Has Gone By

Well, another month has gone by and I haven’t written squat on here. I’ve intended to, honestly. It’s been an uneventful month outside of work, a very hectic month inside of work. The last thing I want to do is come home and write about work.

I’ve also been in one of those ruts lately where I just kind of prefer to be alone and keeping to myself. Haven’t been talkative, haven’t been keeping in touch. I don’t know why I get this way, I guess sometimes I just need a little down time to refresh my brain from all the confusing and stressful things that seem to always go on.

Plus, I’ve been spending some time exploring possibilities for a second job and/or contract/freelance gigs. Nothing has come up that will work. But I’ve faced the fact that not only are the holidays coming up, but I also need to start earning a little extra money so I can start making some moves here pretty soon. Lizzie and I would like to get out of this apartment we’ve been in for four years now, and eventually we’d like to get out of Minnesota. Of course there are other moves that need to be made that have been put off far too long.

But like I said, work has been busy. I have some really big projects in progress and on the horizon, I’ll be sticking around there a while longer to take those things on. There’s still some work to be done before I feel like I can move on to the next level and leave Minnesota. We’ll be here to endure at least another winter or two. I really hope it won’t be much more than that.

Speaking of winter, I don’t think it’s too far away. What a cold and miserable week it’s been, and it’s starting to look pretty dark outside when I leave for work in the morning. The cold snap gave me my annual cold. It was pretty bad this year, I felt pretty miserable for a few days there. I had to go to a new cold medicine this year because the usual Tylenol Sinus just wasn’t strong enough. I went to a new kind of Tylenol Cold Day/Night, the nighttime version really knocked me out. But it worked well. Tylenol Sinus has worked for me the past few years, it kind of worries me that it wasn’t quite potent enough this year. Am I getting sicker every year or was it just really bad this year? So I’m just getting over the cold, still not quite 100% better. Well, with my year-long allergies that I deal with, I’m never really 100% better. Not much else to report about me.

A tornado went through the suburb I work in last week, doing quite a bit of damage in some of the residential areas but leaving my workplace untouched. Sadly, a 10 year old girl was killed in the tornado when the home she was in collapsed from the Tornado. Seems like everyone is looking to point the finger and make someone accountable for it. Every day there has been an article in the Star Tribune about the National Weather Service’s reaction time. What is up with people these days? Why does someone always have to answer for it? It’s mother nature, people have been warned about these things their whole lives. Even if the national weather service would have gotten the warnings out a little sooner, what different could it have really made? The little girl was in her basement, doing everything she has been told to do. It’s a tragedy and there’s nothing we can do to change it. Why is everyone looking for someone to blame?

Also in the news, Rodriguez’s death sentence in the Dru Sjodin trial has been a strong subject of debate. Driving home listening to WCCO the other day, a caller raised the point that “People think the death penalty will be a deturrent to crime, if this were true then why is Texas one of the highest-crime states in the nation but also one of the most active at putting ciminals to death?”

I guess I’ve never really thought of capital punishment as a crime deturrent, and I see the caller’s point. I, too, am a little uneasy about the death penalty, because it’s a real tragedy that there will always be people who are put to death that are actually innocent. But with today’s technology, I think that there is such a thing as a slam dunk case. In these extreme cases where a really awful crime has been committed, and all of the evidence against the person makes them so unquestionably guilty, I feel the dealth penalty should be considered. In this case, his guilt is unquestionable due to the evidence. In another case, I may feel a different way. This kind of violence toward women or anyone is just unforgivable in my opinion, and people who commit this are beyond insane, they are beyond human and belong in neither our society nor our prison systems.

The fact he was ever let back into society is a real tragedy in itself. Something really needs to be changed about that.