Segwayne.com is now…

We’re back!  Segwayne.com is now…. Segwayne.com….

Hope you like the new look / feel, but feel free to cough up the furballs of your fertile imagination and offer ideas as to how I can do it better.

If you’ve bookmarked http://segwayne.wordpress.com, or you’re subscribed to our feed via RSS, please update the links to reflect http://segwayne.com and all will be right with the world.

This just in from the US Department of Redundancy Department

This URL has been superceded by http://segwayne.com and will no longer be updated.  Please update your bookmarks.

We’ll be right back, after these messages…

There are two reasons for this note.  First, wordpress.org doesn’t offer the ability to use the themes / layouts I would like.  Secondly, and more importantly, I’m bored.

As such, if you reach my blog via segwayne.com, you may notice a bit of quirkyness over the next few days as I migrate from the .org free hosting to my own server-hosted solution.  I’ll also be introducing a few changes along the way, and will be striving to make this place less of a “whinery” than usual.

I think I’ll be trying to move towards more of a situation where I’m covering my own hobbies and making the site more about myself, to include movies, TV reviews, riding news and notes, and anything that tweaks my nips a bit to keep me entertained.

If you’re one of the 2 people on the planet still reading this blog, and you have ideas for expanding the world around us, please feel free to drop me a line.  Otherwise, once I get everything turned over, you’ll be able to reach this site at http://www.segwayne.com full time.

You lie!

I often sit here and think to myself that if I discovered a Genie’s bottle and was given three wishes, my first would be “I’d like to know the absolute truth about everything”…  Funny thing about that idea.

There is no such thing as truth.

.. or better said that truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  Better yet, in every situation in your life, whose “truth” do you choose to believe?

Take for example the United States’ current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is it the truth that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as we were all mislead to believe, or is it more truthful that — as oil men — George W. Bush and cronies saw an opportunity to exploit the resources of both America and a sovereign nation for their own financial gain under the premise of freedom and democracy?

My point, and feel free to expand this to ANY situation, is that history (sometimes passed off as the truth) is written by those who remain to write it.  American Comedian Robert Wuhl taught us that in perfectly crystal clear valid examples in his HBO series “Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl“.  I’ve just however start to realize how correct he is, and how his examples can be traced down to the most minute of details in each of our own personal lives.

Think about politicians.  Are politicians all liars, or are they simply more adept at spinning the media for the truth they want to express?  How many sex-scandalous Republicans are getting caught versus getting ratted out by other politicians they piss off?

All I’m asking in this little diatribe today is that each of us stop to think about what we do.  Actions have consequences.  The world around you may see “the truth” differently than you, I, or anyone else.  This is a lesson that I’m being hard pressed to learn, and I believe everyone else would be better off if they kept an open mind.

Calling all Huntsville area Bloggers…

So…  Out of a mild curiousity and with a little prodding from an old friend, I attended my first meeting/dinner of the Huntsville Beer and Blog group.  They’re just getting rolling, with tonight being the fourth, perhaps fifth gathering, but I believe I’ve found a new and fun group to hang out with..

They meet on Tuesday nights about 5pm at the West End Grill (corner of Old Madison Pike and Rideout Road) to talk about “everything blog” — from how to build one, to how to get people to read it, to how to get paid for doing it….

Turns out to be a great group of people, very well-spoken, and a lot of fun to trade ideas with.

If you’re a blogger in the Huntsville Alabama (or surrounding) area, or you’ve ever even considered opening a blog to talk about stuff on the web, PLEASE consider joining us next week.

http://huntsville.beerandblog.com/

Waiting for the epiphany…

As some of you may know, I’m currently on 90-day furlough (which officially started today by the way), which is a fancy way of saying “laid off without pay”.

I’ve gone through all the appropriate steps from shock, to denial, to anger and so forth. Now I’m simply into acceptance and taking life day by day. I could easily get mired down in bitter diatribe blaming the world for my troubles, but really.. they’re all problems of my own making.

If I were a weaker person, I could blame Obama and the Democrats like everyone else, but again, my ending up in this situation really does reflect more on bad planning for myself than anything else.

The work thing is honestly just part of the business of being a contractor. Contract year ends, contract ends, work ends, money ends. Simple really. No hard feelings.

The guys at work say they’re actively searching for something to put me to work on and I sincerely pray for their success, but the natural skeptic in me is battling the hopeless optimist. You know how that goes.

I can sincerely say that this has all lead to a great number of lessons being learned about my lifestyle, my life as a whole, the stupidity of relying on credit for toys in the vain attempt to find happiness, and so-forth.

Filed for Unemployment today (online thankfully). Don’t know how much that will be, but I do know it’s “more than minimum wage but less than needed to survive”.

Between it, and the funds garnered from selling the motorcycle and other things, I should be ok for a short while, but jobs around here — for me — seem to be very rare unless I’m willing to flip burgers or work at Walmart (again, minimum wage, less than unemployment).

As such, while I continue to search in earnest for employment, I may be forced to relocate by the current market. Away from friends, my house, and everything I love. I might be miserable and suicidal, but I’d survive.

In the meantime, I’m moderately content — though simultaneously not — to use this time for soul-searching and to get both my life, and my house in order. Literally on the house, mentally on the introspection.

What I’ve come up with so far is trying to get at the source of my resistance for finishing my degree. Mostly, I can trace my hesitation back to childish resentment.  Again, I could dwell on it, but doing so would be pointless, if not self-destructive.

Historically and frankly honest, I started half-ass attempts in 85 and 89. Drafting in 85, which I gave up because I fell “in love”, gave it all up, and moved to North Carolina. Computers in 1989 because it sounded like fun, but both met with lackluster ends by my own hands.

Now, 20-years later at 43, I *know* what I need to do, but have no way to do it. What I’m afraid of is that if I get another chance at work, I’ll prioritize work (as I should) but forget about the need to do the right thing and work towards getting my degree.

As of right now, I’ve decided that should I get the chance, I’m most interested in getting back to Architecture.

There’s something soothing to the soul for me in drafting up a house, or sitting around looking at house plan books making changes in my mind as to how I’d do things better, or at least differently. Trouble I have is, Drafting and Architecture seems to have fallen out of favor in the last 20 years.

Once upon a time, when such endeavors were all based on paper and driven by intelligence and talent, you could get a Bachelor’s and even occasionally find a Master’s degree on the subject.

Now that Architecture is all based on computers and “any idiot can design a house”, it seems very difficult to find more than an Associate’s degree, which indicates to me that it would be about as useful as a Doctorate in “Underwater Basket Weaving”….

There’s also the subject of payment. An average Bachelor’s degree is $40,000 per year, $160,000 to $200,000 to complete.  How in the hell does a 43 year old EVER pay for such an education when the chances of ever making that money back (versus what I make now) are almost zero.

So, I’m sure this is all a catch 22, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one faced with such a conundrum, but for those of you who are in it, I sure could use an idea or two…

After all, my only backup plan seems to be to clear out the bank account, pick up the passport, walk away from it all, and let God land me where he may.

.. A time of transition, aka growing up sucks…

I know I babble a lot, but sometimes I have a little to say and suffer from an overabundance of words.. I love writing, so deal, ok?

That being said, I seem to be going through a period of rationality as of late. Probably brought on by the doctor’s rude announcement on my 43rd birthday that I am in fact not immortal. While shocking to a man with Peter Pan syndrome such as myself, I hope I’m adjusting to the new world around me as best I can.

The beloved and sorely missed big orange truck is gone. If I could find or afford to buy another GoldWing with cash, the bike would be on the block too. The idea of me without a bike however is just too odd to contemplate right now.

As a matter of fact, most of my unused toys are on the way to eBay (by choice) and now I’m retiring from (and selling off) one of my larger web sites that I’ve run for 15 years, in order to work towards canceling out the debt that I’ve collected over the years.

All I can say is that growing up sucks, but I sincerely hope that I’m finally learning my lesson about debt and credit.

Once everything is settled, I really want to get back to finishing the house remodel (3 years and counting, but who’s counting?), then turn my attention to finishing out my external garage with aluminum or vinyl siding, along with insulation, drywall, and other man-cave kinda stuff. All cash of course when the time comes.

Facing the spoiled American brat that I’ve become…

I’m sitting here even debating writing about this, because frankly it doesn’t show me in the best light, but after thinking about it, I believe what I’m going through is indicative of a larger problem in American society worth talking about. That socially relevant point comes later, but let me get this off my chest first…

Specifically, I’m discovering that I’m a spoiled, American brat. At least where my toys are concerned….

A few weeks ago, or more precisely the last day of July, I bought — with my dad’s help — my 2002 Mazda B2300 pickup. I say “with dad’s help”, because he’s trying to help me get my life on track and get out from all my debt, for which I’m eternally grateful and could never dare pretend to be otherwise.

Having a vehicle paid off and being able to sock that money away every month will be a remarkable thing once I get there.

So why am I sitting here kvetching about being spoiled?

Easy. Over the last 3 years, I had truly come to identify myself with the “Big-assed Orange Truck” (or BOT for short).. I truly loved that vehicle and felt like it had become very much an extension of who I am and what I represented in the world. Big, HEMI-strong, bold, and “sucking the gas outta life itself”… (haha)…

Now I’m being faced with the reality at 43 years old that I simply can’t have everything I want in life. Signing my name to a creditor’s note isn’t the answer to moving ahead in life, and some of my toys simply don’t make sense.

Like I said in my last entry, the truck was costing me about $3.50 per mile just to drive that 6 miles each way to work and back, 2 or 3 times a week (rainy days) while I rode my bike the others. As such, getting rid of the truck was the most rational and expedient thing to do, and it wiped out roughly $14,000 in debt with the stroke of a pen. Yay for me…

So why on Earth am I sitting here kvetching to you good people?

The problem for me (and a lot of Americans I’m betting) now is that I’m finding myself somewhat resentful and feeling childishly petulant about having to give up my toy and “settle” for what — for me — seems to be a DANGEROUSLY underpowered, trouble-ridden (they still haven’t fixed the clutch) “piece of shyte” “point a to point b” car.

In short, I’m childishly pitching a b*tch because even though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the truck (except the anemic 4-cylinder), I’m kvetching like a kid who dropped his ice cream cone, just because it’s just not what I want.

Over the past three years, I had the perfect vehicle for me. Big interior, LOTS of power, good ride, excellent stereo (even OEM) and lots of what most consider luxury features. Sure, the gas mileage and insurance costs sucked big time, but hey, I’m a rich American capitalist, infidel, pig-dog, right?

The “new” Mazda (let’s just call it what it is, a Ford Danger, erm, I mean Ranger) on the other hand is small, cramped, underpowered, with a basic AM/FM stereo and while it has power everything, it just feels like a huge step backwards from where I was.

That being said though, I spent most of the weekend depressed and whining about it, only to finally admit to myself that there’s literally NO used car that I could have bought for the same amount of money ($5,000 USD) that would be any better.

The Mazda — flawed as I want to imagine — is literally, the best used vehicle I could have hoped to have found — clutch problems not withstanding. The benefits of which will kick in later when I’ve got it paid off with my dad.

Speaking of Dad, he’s been great about it, offering to “take it back and sell it and go get something else” whenever I even mention my reservations, but like I said, short of the Jaguar I had my heart set on, I can’t imagine I’d be happy with any other choice either.

The socially relevant bit, as promised…

I’m sitting here writing this, as I said, because it’s socially relevant, and not just to me.

The era in which we currently find ourselves is the result of 8 years of the Bush regime and not one, but two illegal and expensive wars (though some would track it all the way back to Clinton). I don’t personally care who’s at fault and don’t want to make this political. In truth I don’t care who caused it, because “who” just doesn’t matter any more.

Regardless of who you personally want to blame for the current economic disaster, the end result — whether you’re rich or poor — is that this financial crisis is incredibly tough on everyone and for me, I’m starting to feel it the hard way.

See? It’s like this. Lots of middle-aged old farts like me who grew up on easy credit are now learning the hard way to live by their bootstraps with only what they’ve got and frankly, it’s an incredibly tough pill to swallow.

We’ve ALL gotten used to 20 years of toys, be they Dodge Daytona HEMI-powered pickup trucks, or million dollar houses on interest-only payments, and now we find ourselves driving “hoopty” little trucks, hoping to be able to feed our families, and living in apartments while searching for the dream of stable employment.

All we can do hopefully, as spoiled Americans, is to suck it up and survive long enough to finally learn the lessons about living on credit.

As for me, all I hope for is continued employment long enough to pay off the truck, then to be able to continue kvetching about (erm, I mean driving) it until I can save up enough to pay off all my bills and then maybe, just maybe, save up the cash to buy me a new Big-assed Orange Truck someday.

As for the rest of my American compatriots facing similar cut backs in real life, you have my empathy. I now know how you feel. All I can say is good luck and God Speed.

Third time’s the charm?

Ok, this morning’s starting off well….

Step 1, leave house at 6:45am. Get to the old Mexican restaurant on Jordan, realize you forgot your badge.

Step 2, go home.

Step 3, go to step 1, substituting 7:15 am for 6:45am, and leaving the garage door open for your badge.

Step 4, go to step 2.

Step 5, go to step 1, substituting 7:30 am for 6:45 am, and your phone for the garage and badge. Phone required due to truck in shop.

Step 6, go to step 2, return step 7

Step 7, go to work.

Step 8, walk in the door at work, only to realize you forgot your extra pair of shoes to change out with the motorcycle boots.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

From RAM to Jag to Mazda P’UP to the garage in one easy step…

As the entire world has undoubtedly read (I’m sure there are 5 people in the world that read my ramblings here), I sold my Dodge RAM a couple of weeks ago because it was financially irresponsible to keep it for the 6 mile journey back and forth to work 2 or 3 times per week.

Since selling the truck and going bike only, it’s rained 80% of the time, leading me on the search for a replacement (yet somewhat cheaper) vehicle that I could pay off and just use for the utilitarian stuff that I need. A week into the journey, a 2004 Jaguar X-type popped up on radar for $6,000. Needed a little bumper replacement on the rear, but was otherwise immaculate and only had 62,000 on the clock, which isn’t bad for a Ford, erm, Jaguar.

BEAUTIFUL car. Everything I could have hoped for in cheap transport, and had it been ready for resale from the current owner, I’ve no doubt that I’d be the current owner today. Alas — or perhaps thankfully based on the multiple concerns over Jag reliability — it wasn’t and the current owner showed no signs of actually getting it ready any time soon. This had the result of leading me to keep looking.

Enter Friday…

Friday morning, after a sleep apnea-induced late sleep in, my dad calls me up and we end up driving to Dalton, GA. There, I found and subsequently purchased a 2002 Mazda B2300 pickup, 5-speed, 4 cylinder, basic get-me-round. Beautiful shape, 70k on the clock, and not a scratch on it. The 3 hour ride home was great, no problems, ran like a top leading me to believe it’s a 200k miler potentially.

Enter 8pm Friday night.

We’d gotten home and I decided to go get something to eat. I got in the newly insured truck, then got about 2 miles down the road, when after a quick chatter, the clutch went out on me. Completely and totally out, meaning the truck would neither go in, nor out of gear.

Here I am, sitting in the middle of traffic on a Friday night, having just spent $5k on a dead truck, and flustered beyond belief, For the sake of the sensitive readers, I won’t tell you what language I was speaking at the moment.

A few minutes — and several rude drivers — later I decide to give it a push to get it out of the middle of the road when all hell breaks loose. I wait for a break in oncoming traffic, then give the beast a very light nudge on the A-pillar when gravity takes over.

This leaves me running after the truck, trying to jump inside, nearly ending up under the truck itself, only to have the pristine paint job meet up with the underside of a big metal mailbox on the side of the road. Imagine scraping off 18″ x 6″ worth of paint from your own car, and you’ll understand why I was crying.

… and it still hasn’t stopped raining …

This is what it’s like to feel cursed ladies and gentlemen. It’s not something I highly recommend.

Bad Wayne!

Ate like crap this weekend.

3 slices of Big Ed’s pizza Saturday, along with the toppings from the rest of the 12″ pizza. That’s pretty much all I ate Saturday, combined with a loaded omelet Sunday morning and a grilled chicken salad for dinner. The pizza was the bad thing. I was so afraid I’d lost my new-found scale status, but as of 9am, I was still at 299 and glucose was testing at 95.

Woo hoo!

I guess I’m allowed a slip now and again. As long as the slip doesn’t turn into a slide. Back to salads and chicken.

Note to self: time to buy a new belt and some new pants. Haven’t made it into 2x shirts yet, but the pants are falling off and the khakis which were originally “comfortably fit” are now completely unwearable.

Enjoy your day.