Category Archives: Paul

April 20, 2014 · 23:08

Telemarketer Wars, Round Three

I’ve recently ranted (and that’s all it really is, I’m well aware that in the big scheme of things, if this is the worst problem that I’ve got going on in my life [and it isn’t], then I’m pretty freakin’ lucky) about possible suggestions on how to deal with telemarketers.

We’ve pretty well established that the BEST way to handle telemarketers is to not answer the phone if your Caller ID doesn’t show you that the call is coming from someone you know and want to talk to.

Having said that, sometimes that’s harder to do because you might be looking for a job and sending out lots of resumes and filling out a lot of online job applications. (I am!) While you’re putting your cell phone as your preferred contact number, the home number is on the resume and needs to be filled in on many of the online applications. So maybe it’s someone calling about a job?! (Hope springs eternal, despite the odds against…)

Or you might have your own situation or phobia or neuroses. Maybe it’s a hospital calling about someone who’s been in a car accident. Maybe someone really liked a blog post and wants you to write for them, or it’s an agent wanting to know if you’ve got a book you’re shopping around. Maybe it’s really, really that Nigerian prince who’s trying to give away that fortune of his.

Or maybe you just were warped and scarred at a young age by nuns who instilled an unhealthy sanctimonious vengeance response into your brain stem and you feel the need to PUNISH those assholes, just because! (I used to know someone like that. Yeah, that’s it! Someone I used to know…)

Anyway…

At first, I couldn’t figure out the paradox of how these scammers could stay in business, because I didn’t see how anyone could fall for their blatantly obvious bullshit. Well, at least in some cases, it seems that it may be a cultural issue, or a generational issue, and they prey on people’s fear.

Then I had a fortuitous accident and came up with a possible scheme to potentially confuse, befuddle, and waste the precious time of telemarketers, thus (hopefully) disrupting the efficiency and automation which are the core of their business model.

These posts have generated some lively conversations, both with people I know and with friends of The Long-Suffering Wife. So, in the interest of thoroughness (and the fact that my brain is all screwed up after the Kings’ second embarrassing loss tonight to San Jose) here are a few more ideas and suggestions that have come in:

  1. Just take the phone off the hook. Period. Anyone who really, really needs to reach you should know to call your cell phone. (The argument against this in my case is that my mother doesn’t know this, and our son overseas in the military always calls on the land line, so maybe there are issues with this approach.)
  2. Someone sent a link to an online anecdote from a confessed telemarketer with a situation that stopped him dead in his tracks — the person started singing, belting out a whole song while he listened, laughing. I’ve given this a try and it does work, at least in the sense that it gets rid of the telemarketer, stunning them with kindness (or at least surprise) instead of cussing them out. I started singing “The Star Spangled Banner,” which has the additional benefit of being really hard to sing (listen to anyone at the beginning of a ballgame) so if you suck at it (I do) it’s just what everyone would expect anyway. Emotionally, I would like to start belting out the chorus to Julia Ecklar’s “Temper Of Revenge.” (“Find me a horse as red as the sun! / Find me a blade that will make their blood run!”) Don’t know the song? You should! You can get a copy of the album from Prometheus Music, highly recommended.
  3. Someone at the hanger suggested just holding the phone out away from your mouth and saying something like, “Are you running the trace now, officer? It’s one of them again!”
  4. Someone suggested, if asked to let them speak to John Doe, to say something like, “He’s not here right now, but if you give me your personal cell phone number or home phone number, I can have him call you back when it’s most inconvenient.”
  5. Someone suggested just saying, “They’re dead,” and hanging up.
  6. I actually prefer a variation on this if you need to practice your acting and/or improv skills. No matter who they ask for, start stammering and crying, “You… You haven’t heard? You don’t know?” Sob, sniffle. “They died last night!” See just how much BS you can shovel, sort of like the way the guys got dates in “Animal House.” (“She died in a horrible kiln explosion.” “What, I talked to her just the other day, she was going to make me a pot…”)
  7. You can always just say, “Hold on, I’ll get them” or “Hold on, let me get to the other phone,” put the phone down, then go about your business. They’ll hang up, eventually. Then your phone is off the hook and you’re back to #1, above.

The gist of it is, don’t let the bastards get under your skin, and if you can turn the situation on its head, turn the tables so that you’re in control of the situation, so that you’re using the opportunity to get what you want or need (even if it’s just a good laugh at the expense of someone who deserves it), then take the opportunity and take back your life and your time.

Or you could complain to the police, the FTC, or your congress-critter. After doing so, please get psychiatric help if you think any of them will actually do anything about the problem.

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Filed under Farce, Freakin' Idiots!, Job Hunt, LA Kings, Moral Outrage, Paul

April 11, 2014 · 21:16

Living Safely In Cyberspace

…and THIS is the reason that I’m just as happy my extremely non-tech savvy mother isn’t on the Internet.

I’ve got a pretty solid computer background. I started learning programming using machine language on a PDP-8 in high school. (Nixon was President.) We didn’t even have a monitor, or punch cards, we used paper tape. (Uphill both ways!)

I saw my first computer monitors at Dartmouth (25×80, monochrome), then took programming classes at UC Irvine where I was a physics major. Following graduation I worked for five years as a programmer. I’ve built PCs from the ground up, and I’ve upgraded more than I care to remember.

One of my functions for the next 25+ years was to be “the tech guy” in the office, which meant not only keeping the office computers running (hardware, software, training, upgrades, backups, the whole magilla) but also performing those tasks for the computers at my boss’ house.

If there’s a computer problem, I’m probably “smarter than the average bear.”

Today was my personal tech support day as I opened the can of worms that is the Heartbleed security flaw and the need to change passwords. What a mess!

First of all, from everything I’m seeing, now that the patches to close the security hole are being installed, you really, really need to be paying attention to the warnings and changing your passwords.

SIDE NOTE: If you want or need a simple explanation of how the flaw worked, check out today’s XKCD comic. If you want a good review of how to make a good password, read this XKCD. If you just want to be a decent and more intelligent human being, read XKCD every day.

This morning I was just going to change a couple of passwords from major sites (Google, Facebook, Dropbox) that were known to have been compromised, but were now safe. Six hours later…

Part of the time-suck was that I also was activating two-step verification where I hadn’t already done it. But once you do that, then you have to go through every stinkin’ computer you have (or at least the ones you’re using regularly) to update the password, then get an application specific password for the mobile devices, then get access verified, all the while making very damn sure that you are entering the correct password (there’s a system) and updating all of your records in case you forget one, as well as printing and filing away the emergency backup verification codes…

To me, none of this was rocket science, it’s just tedious and you have to be very meticulous. Very bad things can happen if you skip or mess up one little thing. But conceptually and practically, I’m not lost. But that’s just me. I’m well aware that I’m well above average in tech proficiency.

For folks who don’t have my background, who just want the freakin’ thing to work, this has a huge potential to leave them confused and pissed off. Which, in turn, is why so many folks have passwords like “none” or “password” or “abc123.” These folks won’t be bothering to change their passwords now when they really should. These folks won’t be making sure that they have a different password for each site.

Then I think of how my mother would react to this mess, and I shudder in terror. Mom’s not stupid at all — but she’s very inexperienced when it comes to tech. She had a cell phone, once, for a while, but receiving or sending text messages was beyond her skill set. I don’t know if she’s ever had a bank ATM card, but I suspect not. I do know that she has never had an email account. Ever. She has trouble looking up channels on the programming guide channel for her cable service. If she were to go online, it would be tough enough for her to keep track of a handful of simple, weak passwords, let alone strong passwords or the processes to change them.

So when the next security crisis comes along (and it will), or even when the consequences of this one come home to roost in a few weeks or month, more and more people will be hesitant to trust the security of the internet.

But there’s no way to not use computers or the internet if you’re in a first, second, or even a third world country. I guess in theory you could demand to be paid in cash and pay for everything you buy with cash, but even then, if your “cash paycheck” isn’t coming from some illegal and undercover activity, you’ll end up in the computer systems run by Social Security, state and federal tax agencies, and so on. How would you have a driver’s license or register a car or pay property taxes without ending up in the DMV or county assessor’s computer system? If you get sick or end up in the hospital, you’re in their system and some sort of insurance or Medicaid computer system. Get a traffic ticket? Someone hits your car?

You get the drift. I’m pretty sure even the Amish and the survivalists up in the Rockies can’t really and truly get out of the system and off the grid.

Let’s hope that the powers that be get their act together and learn a little bit from this mess. There will be another mess to follow, and more beyond that, but if we learn a little bit each time and we get a little better each time, maybe we can stay ahead of the bad guys.

In the meantime, realize that your online life has many analogies with your real world life. There are bad guys out there who want to hurt you and steal from you. The cops can’t catch them all, and sometimes the “cops” have their heads stuck where the sun doesn’t shine. You’re the first, second, and third line of defense, like it or not.

Make sure to do as much as you can to keep your cyber stuff locked up, the cyber burglar alarms armed, and the cyber watch dogs alert. If you’re going to do the equivalent of leaving your doors and windows wide open with all of your possessions out in plain sight, don’t be surprised when said possessions turn up missing.

Do it even if it is a tedious and meticulous can of worms.

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Filed under Computers, Death Of Common Sense, Family, Paul

March 31, 2014 · 23:27

Word Herding, Number Wrangling, And Opening Day

Today has been a good day, with many fears faced and hurdles attacked. As expected, the fears and hurdles are ahead on points, but the day isn’t done yet and I’m still swinging.

Many numbers both small and large have been herded into order so that my income taxes can be prepared. Given the last year’s employment (or lack thereof) situation, I’m not looking forward to getting any good news when all is said and done in the next two weeks. At this point, if the news is bad, at least that will mean that the news won’t be really, really bad.

But it’s necessary at times to realize that there aren’t any good alternatives, or at least none that you’re going to like. Even then it’s possible and generally necessary to distinguish between the bad and the catastrophic, choosing, and working to live with the bad and move on.

In better news, I’ve also herded many words today, something that’s also been put off for far too many days and weeks. There are always plenty of excuses to not get it done, when what is needed is a single reason to get it done anyway.

Today, I’m at 2,308 words on my way to 3,000, so it has been a good day.

More importantly, I was reading over the Chapter Six I wrote weeks ago, in order to get my head back into the story for Chapter Seven. And I really liked what I had written. It was making me laugh reading it and I was almost having trouble believing that it had come from my brain. I really like the characters, I really like the wacky, madcap, slapstick story I’ve got going.

I’m still a very green novice, groping my way through this process, but that feels like it’s a good sign.

Through it all today, it’s “Baseball New Year’s Day,” opening day for most teams. (We won’t count those two games last week in Australia or last night’s gala opening game in San Diego.) Even if your team didn’t win today, there are still 161 games left. If your team won today — don’t get cocky, kid.

As Crash Davis said in “Bull Durham” (truly one of the finest movies ever made):

“Some days you win. Some days you lose. Some days…it rains.”

That’s still some really deep stuff there.

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Filed under Job Hunt, LA Angels, Paul, Writing

March 19, 2014 · 23:57

If Not Madness, At Least A Bit Disturbed

Ukraine vs. Crimea vs. Russia. The missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Unemployment. That stupid skunk that’s back in the neighborhood. The cat whining at me because she wants to sit on my lap and claw up my legs and I won’t let her.

All sources of stress.

But in the United States (and other places), it’s time to be distracted by something both totally irrelevant in the big picture but tremendously important if your team is involved. If you know anything about sports in the United States, you know that tomorrow kicks off NCAA basketball’s three-week long championship tournament, otherwise known as “March Madness.” (Yes, I know that the “First Four” play-in games were yesterday and today, but they’re just stupid marketing. It’s a 64 team tournament because 64 is a power of two — either expand it to 128 teams or have a “preliminary” round of 96 teams with the top 32 teams getting a bye… But that’s another rant.)

Anyone who loves March Madness also will be filling out a bracket, making their own WAGs (Wild Ass Guesses) about how it’s going to turn out. POTUS even does it, live on ESPN. (He’s picking Michigan State to take it all, playing Louisville in the final game.) This year there’s an additional incentive to spend a few minutes filling out a bracket — a certified perfect bracket is worth one billion dollars. For real. It’s being run by Quicken Loans, Yahoo, and Warren Buffett.

Reality says that it’s not much of a threat to Mr. Buffett’s cash. In describing the odds, I believe the sports and news shows are making up new words to describe what lies beyond “thousand,” “million,” “billion,” “trillion,” “quintillion,” “septillion,” and “octillion.” (I may have made some of those up myself.) Picking randomly give you a one in holycrapillion of getting it right, while even picking all of the favorites only lowers the odds to one in toughshitillion.

But it’s a lark, and you can’t take your one in a youhavegottobekiddingillion chance if you don’t play.

So here is my bracket (click to embiggenate), with my heart ruling my head in that third round where I’ve got UCLA beating Florida and going on to win it all. In my fantasy world (and “fantasy” is truly the key word) UCLA beats Louisville in the final. Holy John Wooden vs Denny Crum, Batman!

NCAA BracketAnyone want to give me odds of staying alive though tomorrow night’s games? 20:00 tomorrow night? 16:00 tomorrow afternoon?

 

 

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Filed under Entertainment, Paul, Sports

March 11, 2014 · 21:11

Every Day You Give It Your Best Shot…

…and then the Universe reminds you that it can mess with you at will.

Not “someone’s got a brain tumor” messing with you, or “five-car sigalert blocking the left three lanes and you’re bleeding out at the bottom of it” messing with you, but still, messing with you. More like a “here’s something pretty which you really, Really, REALLY want, right here, see it — BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE IT, psych!” messing with you. And then the Universe does it again, just because it can. And then the Universe reminds you that there are some demons lurking just over the horizon and the horizon is getting closer.

And then Wendy’s messes up your order and you don’t get your fries, which is really good because you really shouldn’t be eating them anyway, so maybe this is the Universe’s way of saying that it’s looking out for you even if you don’t appreciate it, but damn it I was in the mood for fries!

And then you read the comments on an internet article and we all know you should NEVER read the comments on an internet article, but you do it anyway then you’re once again having your faith in humanity put to the test.

And in the end, you feel like this:

2012-07-21 iPad 002But then you feel just the teensy-tiniest bit better (even though your head really does feel like that thing looks) because instead of shouting at the Universe using language of which your mother would not approve, you went and wrote 285 silly words and one stupid picture. And deep down in your soul of souls you know you chose the better alternative, no matter how much you might doubt that from moment to moment.

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Filed under Paul, Photography

March 10, 2014 · 17:45

The Optimistic Skeptic vs. Spritz

I love to find new, interesting, neat things — ideas, discoveries, innovations that can change the world or change the way we look at the world. We should all do our best to hold onto that proverbial “child’s sense of wonder,” although many of us don’t.

On the other hand, I have long been a card-carrying skeptic. If it’s too good to be true, it isn’t. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Occam’s Razor says the funny-looking clouds at sunset are probably not UFO’s, but either some simple atmospheric phenomenon, a jet trail, or a rocket launch out of Vandenberg. There are no gigantic international conspiracies with thousands of evil henchmen and minions flying black, stealth helicopters and “disappearing” anyone who finds out about them. And so on.

So when I saw this, my first reaction was, “Yeah? Right, I’ll bet. It’s too early for April Fool’s Day, isn’t it?”

On reading the article, it seems at the least that someone will soon be putting out an app that will try to do what they claim, letting you double, triple, quadruple, or more your reading speed, with better comprehension to boot. Given their coverage in the mainstream media, I went to their website to see their example.

I encourage you to go take a peek. I’m not 100% convinced yet, and I would like to see it in a real world application with something other than their advertising and promotional materials. But, at least at first, it did seem to work, work amazingly well, and be really easy to get used to very quickly.

The example they have starts you off at 250 words per minute, which they say is just a touch faster than most people read. I thought that it was real slow, dragging. Then you’re shown how to pick a faster speed. I went straight to 500 wpm and was very surprised at how easy it was right off the bat. I then pushed it to 600 wpm (which is the fastest that the demo goes) and found that I could read, but I had to both relax (don’t think about it, just do it) and concentrate (don’t look away!) simultaneously.

My first impression is very positive, to say the least.

But that brain of mine is already looking at the problems that there might be. For example, when reading normal text, our eyes tend to jump around. In dialogue, we jump back a couple of lines to make sure we know who’s speaking which lines. In exposition, we jump back to check something that we might have glazed over at first, but now realize what we were being told. I often have to flip back a few pages or a chapter to double check something.

E-books are great for this by the way, especially since on most of them these days you can search, flag items, bookmark passages, make notes, and so on. I would be curious how Spritz will allow you to do that.

More importantly, I said that I had to really concentrate at the faster speeds to get everything. If there was information that I needed to process for a second, I missed the next half sentence or more. If the cat (with claws freshly sharpened) jumped onto my lap (she did), then the distraction caused me to miss quite a bit.

I’m sure there’s a way for the software to allow you to go into a “browse” mode, and I’m sure that there will be a way to jump back a little bit if you get distracted. For all I know, they may be using the forward facing camera on the smartphone to be tracking your eye movements, allowing the software to “know” when you got distracted and mark that spot in the text. Now that would be cool, if a little bit spooky at first.

Anyway, check this out for something interesting that may be more than just a technological parlor trick. If it works as advertised, it could really help us speed through our daily reading. (You do read a lot daily, don’t you?)

I just hope that neither e-books nor this kind of technology ever replace the option of having a good, old fashioned, “dead tree” type of book to read while sitting out on the porch at sunset with a beverage of choice.

LATE NOTE: Just before publishing this, I went and browsed the Spritz website a bit more. A couple of other very nice bits to check out if you go there:

  • It seems that every sub-page on the website (“Developers”, “The Science”, “FAQ”, etc) can in turn be “Spritzed”. Just click on the button at the top of the page. A little bit more of a demonstration on how it works, and it seems to continue to work well.
  • Read the FAQs. You can skip over some of the technical ones if you wish, but there are some funny nuggets buried in there. One of the big concepts that I took away from my MBA program was “corporate culture,” and I like one that’s got a sense of humor and some actual wit to back it up. And about four screens down, the picture under “Human Trials”? That’s funny!

They’re hiring programmers and database experts, I wonder if there’s room for a jack-of-all-trades accountant and office manager dude?

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Filed under Paul

March 1, 2014 · 21:35

Midland Selfie

So late, so tired, such bad heartburn, and tomorrow I finish up here and fly back home. At least I’m not trying to get anywhere to the north — it looks like another nasty system will be dropping snow and ice from Colorado to Pennsylvania.

So have a selfie of me in front of a wonderful SNJ here at the CAF Headquarters and Museum in Midland.

20140301-233141.jpg
I will now attempt to be unconscious for at least five or six hours.

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Filed under CAF, Paul, Photography, Travel

February 19, 2014 · 21:55

It’s GOOD To Drive The Nice Car!

In today’s bulletin from the Department of Irrelevancy:

I’ve been doing a LOT more driving in the last couple of months, despite the unemployment thing. Out to Camarillo to the CAF Museum and hanger three days a week or more, down to Orange County most weeks for a writer’s group — it’s starting to add up.

Normally I drive my stupid and well-worn old “Momdude-mobile”, an 2001 Chrysler Town & Country minivan. It was very practical and functional when I got it, since at the time we had three kids in school and tons of schlepping to do on a daily basis. I got one with lots of upgrades, including the bigger engine, a towing package (bigger radiator & heavier shocks), the good leather interior, and so on. I wouldn’t ever buy another Chrysler, but this one has hung in there reasonably well for the most part.

But — at this point it’s got over 166,000 miles on it and a lot of things are starting to go. There’s a funky grinding sound from somewhere in the front suspension every time a bump is found, and those “speed humps” make it sound like the whole front end is going to fall off. The radio works sometimes, but mostly not. Of course, the car was manufactured a decade before things like built-in navigation systems or satellite radio were around. Hell, it doesn’t even have a simple jack for plugging in an iPhone or iPad. (Neither existed in 2001.)

These days, with the kids scattered around the planet, it’s primarily used to haul my butt around. It’s also the vehicle we use whenever the dog needs to go somewhere since she sheds like a fiend and I don’t want to ruin the “good” car. And it’s still big enough (barely!) to carry a 4×8 sheet of plywood or drywall. But it’s not terribly fuel efficient for me to use as a single-person commuter-mobile, and it’s a bit of a “battleship” to drive. It’s got plenty of power for a minivan, but that’s sort of like being the best leper in the colony.

A couple years ago, when The Long Suffering-Wife needed a new vehicle, we splurged and got our “lust-mobile”, a Volvo C70 convertible. Not very good for carrying anything other than two people and a tiny little bit of luggage, but damn if it isn’t a joy to drive, especially with the top down. Most noticeable, especially compared to the minivan, is that when you stomp on the gas, it GOES! There’s nothing I love more than getting onto the freeway and merging into traffic driving it. In the minivan you creep into the slow lane hoping someone cuts you some slack and leaves a hole big enough for you to wallow into — in the Volvo you pick your spot, punch it, pick your spot in the next lane, keep doing it, and in seconds you are in the fast lane doing “maximum freeway speed”.

It might not be terribly fuel efficient either, but who cares?

While The Long-Suffering Wife is back to driving after her surgery, she’s still taking it easy most days, so I’m getting the option to take the Volvo instead of the Chrysler some days. Would you rather drive the car described as “practical” and “functional” or the one described as “WOW!” and “cool?” Yeah, me too.

It’s good to drive the nice car!

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Filed under Castle Willett, Paul, Ronnie

February 16, 2014 · 22:11

Mood Triggers Out Of Balance

Tasks that should be simple and quick turn out to be more complex and take longer.

Every time I get one thing done, it seems like three or four more pop up.

Something that should be a joy is suddenly turning into a source of stress.

Something that’s been a serious source of stress for well over a year is getting worse, not better.

Something that I thought would be routine is turning to real work.

Something that I’m doing to get away from some of the other stressful things is turning into the exact same type of stressful things.

26% of Americans believe the Sun orbits around the Earth.

I’m trying to obey Wheaton’s Law (“Don’t be a dick!”) but it’s getting harder by the day.

Some people I admire and yearn to be compatriots with are again this week demonstrating that they haven’t read Wheaton’s Law.

Then they’re doubling down on stupid and toxic — like that ever worked.

That’s all enough to put you right off of your fresh fried lobster. The hopeful, good, uplifting things I need to balance them out?

Saturday Night Safety Dance.

Occasional funny videos passed on by friends.

Spring training’s under way.

The LA Kings’ players in Olympic hockey are playing well and Team USA is playing well.

Writing.

No pressure guys, but I’m really going to be needing to see another Stanley Cup and another World Series victory if this shit keeps up. A Super Bowl next year wouldn’t hurt either.

And no, it has not escaped my attention that in that list of the Forces of Good, one of these things is not like the others.

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Filed under Job Hunt, LA Angels, LA Kings, Paul

February 14, 2014 · 21:23

Not Celebrating Valentine’s Day

First, a side rant — why are there ads for the last two or three weeks that start with, “Valentine’s Day is February 14th!!!”

Valentine’s Day is not a “floating” holiday like Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, and so on. It’s fixed on the calendar, like Christmas, Groundhog Day, or New Year’s Day. So why do these advertising morons feel it is so freakin’ necessary to remind us over and over and over what day the “holiday” falls on?

Of course, they also have ads that say “Christmas Day is December 25th!!!” and “New Year’s Day is January 1st!!!” God help us, they probably have ads that say “The Fourth of July is July 4th!!!” So, in the end it boils down to:

  1. Are we really that stupid?
  2. Are we just fine and the ad agencies only think we’re that stupid?
  3. Are we just fine and the ad agencies are that stupid?
  4. Are we all freakin’ idiots? (Sorry, this last option might be a trick question.)

As for the “holiday” itself, The Long-Suffering Wife and I are not today and never have celebrated Valentine’s Day. I consider this to be a good thing, and not just because I don’t have to “perform” by buying an appropriate amount of candy or flowers or jewelry or whatever.  Our lack of fervor over this supposed holiday is actually due to The Long-Suffering Wife’s views on the day, and I happen to agree with her reasons.

Others dislike the holiday for their own (highly valid) reasons. For example, The Bloggess refers to it as “a ridiculous non-holiday made to make everyone feel insecure about their relationship” among other things. Then there are some wonderful cartoons from Ursula Vernon at her Red Wombat Studios blog, especially this one that’s been passed around the internet circles that I lurk in. There are many more “Valentine Day deniers” that are left as an exercise for the student to find.

But that’s not why The Long-Suffering Wife has always instructed me to ignore Valentine’s Day and forbidden me to get her anything for the day. (Well, when she first told me she was The Should-Have-Known-Better Fiancé instead of The Long-Suffering Wife, but that’s a different story.) Her reasoning is that because of the social pressure and marketing and sales tsunami that Valentine’s Day involves, too many couples, and guys in particular, are forced to perform and buy things and demonstrate their love on that one arbitrary day. It’s all marketing and peer pressure and fear of punishment, having little to do with actual love.

Her view is that, if you really love someone and care for them and want them to be happy, you should show that every day, not on this one day picked out by Hallmark and Madison Avenue.

This is a wise point of view. We celebrate other holidays and events, such as Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and so on. But we also both make a point to try to make each other happy every day, as well as find reasons to give each other something special now and then. When I send her flowers at work a couple of times a year, it’s not because “IT’S VALENTINE’S DAY AND HALLMARK HAS BEATEN ME INTO SUBMISSION AND I GOT SOME $2 FLOWERS FOR $20 FROM A GUY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FREEWAY OFFRAMP”, it’s because I want her to be happy and surprised and reminded that I lover her.

This is neither a subtle or a small difference. The Long-Suffering Wife is wise.

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Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, LA Angels, Paul, Ronnie