The Impossible Burden (a.k.a. UN Security Resolution 1441): I once read that it is impossible to prove the negative. For example, you can’t prove you haven’t done a thing, say drive a car. Try to prove you’ve never driven. Is every instant of your life on tape? No, then how can you ever positively establish that you have never driven an automobile? Have you ever smoked pot/dope/maryjane? What, can't prove you haven't? Same problem, you have lived 24x7xYears and yet how much of that time have you spent alone? How much of that time is witnessed by another human being or a video camera? Do you know what you do when you're alsleep? Video tape your sleep some time and see how much of it you remember.

I bring this up because last night during his State of the Union address, President Bush never spoke on the State of the Union for which he is President, but on the state of his rant against Iraq. The US of A has placed an impossible burden on Iraq, proving they do NOT have nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. You cannot prove you don’t have something, you can only prove you have something.

This is very convenient for a President who has failed to rally a domestic economy that continues to teeter on the brink of further massive shrinkage, a President that has managed to gut every piece of environmental legislation of the previous eight years. A President that has so far managed to not pass a prescription drug plan that will make medication affordable to a large and ever increasingly senior population, a President that has proven ineffective in managing the dismantling of ‘affirmative action’.

Why is this contentiousness over a possible war convenient? This is convenient for the President in that as the country argues amongst itself about the morality of going to war against Iraq, we as a voting population are distracted from his failures in all other areas of his leadership. Why do we argue whether we have the right to interfere in the affairs of Iraq? Surely if the peoples of Iraq don’t want Saddam Hussein as their leader, it is their responsibility to overthrow him and ask our aid to assist them, heck it worked for Israel.

I must admit I only watched the last 32 minutes of the speech last night. During the time I watched the President, he spoke for a brief moment on North Korea and the lessons of the Korean Peninsula, he spoke briefly of our armed forces gathering in the gulf region and being prepared for the task ahead and for 29 minutes he spoke of the impossible burden the US had pushed through the United Nations (Security Council Resolution 1441) and how Iraq had failed to prove they had no nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. President Bush even created a wonderful doomsday scenario wherein terrorists released a chemical or biological weapon, the horror of which would leave 11-September-01 pale in comparison.

What is the state of our Union Mr. President? Have you distracted us sufficiently to ignore the state of the economy, the value of our investments in our retirement funds, the state of Social Security, the cost of prescription medication for people on fixed incomes, the growing number of unemployed and the lack of new job creation, a raped environment and a failing educational system?

What is the State of the Union Mr. President?

Where are your caretaker responsibilities?
Where are you economic leadership responsibilities?
Where is your representation of the young, the old and the infirm?
Where is your recognition that you represent the residents of Alaska and Vermont as well as Texas and Southern California?
Where is the AMERICAN PRESIDENT?

September to January: What's happened? Well dating hasn't gotten any better, in fact it hasn't gotten at all. The holidays came and went, I got lazy and basically stopped going to the gym, although I did increase my running. I managed to only gain 10 pounds from September to January. Now I am running and back in the gym and working to get by body back. :-)


I spent Thanksgiving in S. Lake Tahoe with my brother Kenin and his family, my niece and nephew are awesome and I should do some juggling on my website so I have enough space to put up pics of them. Winter came early with rain in the Central Valley and snow in the High Sierras, but January, the wettest month of the year in California has proven to be very disappointing. It is going to be a low water/snow pack year.

Along with Thanksgiving came 15,000 less jobs at Hewlett-Packard, the folks that provide my meals and the roof over my head. Fortunately I wasn’t one of them. One member of my team didn’t make this initial cut in headcount. 10 become 9, makes me think of the Agatha Christie novel “10 Little Indians” or “Then there were none” depending on which edition of the mystery you picked up.

Christmas holiday season began and I spent most weekends hitting one or more parties and generally have a good time wondering how I was going to pay for Christmas. I am now two years running on a cash basis for Christmas. Fortunately, HP did very well against our competitors during our fourth quarter and we actually got a 2.6% profit sharing, the first in almost two years. Christmas is paid for and I didn’t have to skimp. {Deep sigh of relief}.

HP is closed for Christmas week to save money, this is no surprise as it is the second year that it has happened. HP has asked us to take the following week off as well if we can in order to save additional funds and reduce the debt (employee vacation) on the books. Since I have maxed out my accruable time off, I take both weeks off. I don’t have the funds to go anywhere, but not working is a nice break.

The first week I am supposed to go back to work I actually get called to jury duty. “Please Mr. Custer, I don’t want to go”! Mr. Fairley, please take seat number 11. Three days later, “We would like to thank and excuse juror #11, Mr. Fairley”! Woohoo!! Who wants to sit on a trial that is going to last a month? Not me, especially since I got an urgent page telling me that two more of my teammates have been released. And now there are 7 and another one has taken a transfer to San Diego, then there were 6. 40% of my original team is gone. So much for the expected 15% reduction in staff due to merger related redundancies. It is a bad time to be in IT.

It is now officially January 26, Superbowl Sunday! In 27 days I will be 40 years old. Kind of funny, but I am looking forward to the big day because all my friends are going to gather and give me a ton-of-shit about my age. But at least it will be a big party for and about me. I just love being the center of attention. :-)

The next four weeks should bring some changes to my life, one I will be 40 years old. The second is that with my tax refund I am planning on getting certified as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) so I can go to work part-time and finally make some significant reductions in my debt. I have way too much debt for this type of economy and I will really want the extra income in case HP decides to do without me in the next series of cuts. The income would allow me time to find another job that would hopefully pay nearly what I am making now, but I have serious doubts.

I have so many things I want to do, but cash is so limited that none of them are happening. This is another major reason for getting a second job and reducing my debt. It is starting to interfere with my living life. I want to be able to travel, I want to be a father, I want to get a degree in graphic design, I want to be able to retire… lots of wants and no clear plan on how to get them accomplished at this time.

Well… that pretty much brings you up to date. It’s a long entry, but it was necessary. Maybe I will have more sleepless nights and more opportunity to keep this current.


Later…