Unsocial Media

I got gas for car rented while I am on temporary assignment.  It cost 30 bucks and was 10 gallons of gas.  Very friendly on the wallet.  The car is a Kia Forte.  It's a cheap little car and drives well enough.  It's not fast.  Isn't full of safety nannies.  Just basic transportation.  If I was in the market for a small car, I would give this consideration.  At the same time hesitant due to chronic engine problems with engines from Korea.   My son has a Hyundai sonata and it had the engine replaced under warranty because it suffered from rod knock.  Less than 90,000 miles.  You get what you pay for in almost all instances. Compare the fill up to my primary car.  It holds 22 gallons of gasoline and requires premium fuel.  I think the most I spent to fill it up was something nearly 80 bucks.  Running on fumes and over 400 miles to the tank. I was shocked the day that happened and surprised I could go over 400 miles ...

 One of the greatest marches of all time, written by John Phillip Sousa.  The march has a certain optimism and pride to it.  There are a few ways the march is performed.  My personal favorite is when any ensemble is playing the last string where the trumpets have the option of taking a note to a high c vs taking it at the octave written.  Every time they play that note as written it is just a let down.  The string wants to go the high C - it's got the momentum and taking it as written is always such a huge disappointment.  Go For It! Another element of ornamentation I like is at the last two bars there is an option for the percussion section to play a "roll off."  I like that too. The best performances apply both pieces of flair to the performance.  It caps off a wonderful march with two wonderful exclamation points - as it should be!

 I work in a facility owned by the government.  They have parking garages.  In the short term parking garages they let people charge their electric cars for free.  All they have to do is find a space with a plug and plug in.  The executives where I work also charge their cars for free.  One the city dime. Why is the city subsidizing electric car fuel and not fuel for internal combustion engines?  Why can't I top off my tank on the city's dime while I'm working like other people get to do? Is it the city's way of incentiving green technology?  Is it throwing them a bone for doing good for the environment?   If they're not subsidizing everyone's energy needs they should be subsidizing no one's energy needs.  I'm responsible for making sure my car has gas to get me where I need to go.  EV drivers should do the same.  I think I'll bring it up at the next tenant meeting.

 I got fed up driving the nanny laden Toyota corolla hybrid.  There's nothing like having a car argue with everything you do when you drive.  Maybe I'm a poor driver?  I dunno... who cares.... The interesting this is I went to the airport to do an exchange for a normal car.  With a gasoline engine.  A car that doesn't have all the safety devices on it. I got to go to the premium line since I was doing an exchange and the line was out the door.  The car rental place had few cars that weren't electric or hybrid,  I got one of the last ones.  The lady helping me said I don't know why they're making electric cars.  Nobody wants to drive them.  Well no kidding. I wonder how many people regret buying electric and go back to gas.  It's good for the environment.  Is it?  I don't think so.  I think the data is skewed.  They're just as bad for the environment, just in different ways. IF you ask me, everyone who buys o...

I've been in the aviation world for a long time.  Today as I was leaving work, I saw a giant engine out the door to the ramp.  Went to look at it and it was a British Airways A350.  It holds 325 people.  I wanted to take a picture of it but couldn't get far enough away from it to get a reasonable picture.  Everyone once in a while I see a plane that is just beautiful.  The 787 Dreamliner is one of them.  And the A350 is another.  I'm also partial to the Boeing 767, too.  It's a classic! A350 Dreamliner 767 Delta

10 years ago my wife was deathly ill.  She and my youngest had traveled to Florida. My youngest got sick and was in the hospital during the trip.  My wife was having breathing problems shortly after her return.  It was so bad we took her to the emergency room.  Her oxygen levels were all screwed up and she seemed stable.  After spending the day with her in the hospital I decided to leave to make sure the kids at least got dinner.  While we were eating I got a call that my wife's oxygen levels dropped significantly and they had intubated her and she was now in a medically induced coma.  I couldn't believe what transpired in such a short amount of time. My wife ended up on life support for approximately two weeks.  While she was on life support is was determined that she originally had a respiratory infection that turned into pneumonia and then turned into a staph infection in her lungs.  The doctors were monitoring her condition through blood ...

 My youngest is turning into a young man.  Last week we shaved off his first growing of a mustache.  Today he helped mow the yard for the first time.  My wife was originally campaigning against me to not have him help mow the yard because he's too young.  He's 13.  I started mowing the yard when I was 8.  He got a 5 year reprieve from how life was when I was a kid. As my wife and I debated the issue with him being too young - I told her it was my job to turn him from a boy into a man.  Part of being a man is learning how to do manual labor that no one else wants to do.  It's doing something because it has to be - even when no one wants to do it. My job is to teach him a work ethic and the satisfaction of a job well done. As always, the first attempt is pretty rough.  Figuring out how to control the mower, how to look at the grass and position the lawn mower properly and how to operate and control the tool.  He did good considering h...

 How on Earth can Joe Biden claim Bidenomics is good for America?  How can he claim inflation isn't out of control.  How can he claim anyones financial situation has improved under his leadership?  How can he claim anything is better under his leadership as of late?  Two wars have been started under his watch.  Russia vs. Ukraine and Hamas/Palestine vs Israel.  TWO.  We went to the grocery yesterday.  We bought two bags of goods and the cost was 90 dollar.  There was some laundry detergent, some cosmetics for my wife, and a few snacks.  90 dollars and none of this stuff had a battery or electronic component.  WTH?  Some make up, laundry detergent and a salad.  The makeup wasn't designer makeup.  It was grocery store make up.   I think Joe is happy with oil being expensive because he waged war against fossil fuels the day he took office when he cancelled the keystone pipeline.  He's drained the strategic...

 Toyota Corolla Hybrid...  All I have to say is I have never driven a more ornery car in my entire life.  It's like riding a stubborn mule.  If you change lanes without using a turn signal, the wheel fights against the will of the operator.  If the car deems you are following the car in front of you too close, it automatically applies the brakes.  It's got a CVT transmission.  It doesn't shift gears - the engine revs and it feels like a rubber band. I don't like driving a car that thinks it knows more than the driver.  If I want to change lanes without signaling that's my business.  If I am at a comfortable distance to the car in front of me that's my business.   Also because it's a hybrid, when it is traveling less than 20-25 miles per hour, it makes this hideous sound - like a cross between a whirl, a hum and a whine.  Then it turns off when you speed up.   The engine starts and stops randomly.  The car doesn't even driv...

 Pumpkin is a most unusual fruit available on planet Earth. The months of October and November are prime for pumpkin consumption. There are many pumpkin flavored culinary delights that sprout up at the start of fall. Pumpkin flavored drinks, cookies and pies. Candles emitting pumpkin spiced aroma.   Pumpkins are also used for decorations at Halloween and the Thanksgiving tradition. The carving of pumpkins started in Europe to ward off evil spirits in the form of the traditional jack o’lanterns. One would cut an opening in the top of the pumpkin and scoop all the guts out. Then they’d carve a face and put in a candle to illuminate the face in the dark.  Pumpkin carving has always been rather crude as carving with precision on a hollowed out piece of fruit isn’t easy.  Around the turn of the millennium  pumpkin carving really came into its own art form. Suddenly companies were making an assortment of tools to aid in the precise application of one’s creative vision...

 We had a major hail storm...  Hail the size of baseballs.  It sounded like bowling balls being dropped on the roof.  Roofs, windows and solar panels destroyed.  Cars totaled due to dents, windshields and sunroofs shattered.  A lot of damage was done.  Total carnage.  Probably a once in 30 year storm. I can remember the last one like this - it was in the early to mid 90's.  Right on schedule this time around.  Climate change.  Whatever.  This has happened before and it will happen again. After the storm, it's always interesting to see the roof robbers hitting the neighborhoods for complimentary inspections as they look to hustle some business.  There must be 20 different roofing company signs in the neighborhood.  Flyers galore.  It's always interesting to see which roofing company's get the most business.  Some reduce deductibles for yard sign placement.  Other companies entice with free shingle upgrad...

Chinese dining is fun.  I know people who get a strange enjoyment and satisfaction from eating their meal with traditional chopsticks.  Me and my unrefined self like to eat western style with a fork, spoon and knife.  I always enjoy the Kung Pao chicken.  Wonton or egg drop soup.  Fried rice is a personal favorite.  Beef fried rice is an entire all by itself sometimes.  The best part of a Chinese meal is the fortune cookie. There is a certain amount of delight and wisdom to the fortune cookie.  If dining with multiple people, one is supposed to pick the fortune cookie nearest to them.  Like somehow a cookie is pre-determined to go to someone and what appears as random to the untrained is actually some kind of Chinese spirit voodoo is choosing the cookie for the individual.  Then the fun begins as each person reads their fortune message.  It's a fun way to end a meal as everyone reads the wisdom contained on "their" fortune.   S...

 I live in a house with three people.  Me, another tenant and the homeowner.  When I initially moved in the owner and I were on the same trajectory.  We both had jobs keeping us away from our homes for a year and a half.  Life was good.  Two of us living in a parade of homes style house with everything coordinated in a way that only an interior designer could assemble.  A lot of whites, grey and blacks with brushed nickel ornamentations in the cabinet pulls and door knobs.  Custom made furniture that is more form over function.  It's terribly uncomfortable; however, lovely to look at. The owner's remote job terminated due to the company she worked for hitting unsurmountable financial headwinds.  Suddenly, with three full time residents the household is generating exponentially more trash.  By all accounts, two dudes don't generate much garbage.  Add a woman to the mix who likes to cook and the garbage can and recycling bin is f...

When was the last time you were in a modern grocery store? It's been about a year for me.  I typically shop in lousy Walmart neighborhood markets.  They're kinda small and have just about everything one needs to sustain themselves. Back home I went to HEB and was just blown away by the number of choices for things like mustard, barbecue sauce and salsa.  There must have been 100 different choices of all of the above.  Like, WTH?  How many choices are too many choices?  Are they catering to the foodie segment of the population?  The one that needs mango banana peach green salsa...  that sounds more like a smoothie recipe.  What I see is a gluttony of choice.  Pretty much epitomizing the fall of America.  Who needs 100 different choices of anything? I've always appreciated simplicity.  The older I get the more simpler I want to keep my life.  I drive a 19 year old car.  It's simple.  It works.  One has to be e...

If all goes well, as one progresses in their career they become a corporate asset.  Once corporate asset status is achieved corporations can deploy the asset wherever it is needed.  Think of it as being a special agent.  In my career I have been fortunate to be selected for a good number of special assignments because leaders throughout my department see value in the work I do.  A true testament and reinforcement to the work I do.  I'm just a guy who shows up, does the job asked to the best of my ability.  I make the best decision with the available information.  Execute to meet performance objectives.  Create an environment where those on my team buy in to what we're about and bring out the best in each of them.  It's a lot like parenting. Currently have a job I love with a team I love in a  place I love with a boss I love.  An opportunity presents itself for promotion to return to the station I opened.  The field of candidate...

There are many things I'd like to say to the president on a wide variety of topics.  But if I could say one thing and one thing only, here's what it is - Take your electric car and shove it up your ass.  It sums up so many aspects of his administration that I cannot tolerate.  His war on fossil fuels.  His push for a green economy.  His governance through regulation and mandate.  His interference in free markets.  The fact that is decisions are shortsighted and have unintended consequences - or maybe they are intended consequences.  I don't know.  But seriously, Joe -  take your electric car and shove it up your ass.  That old coot shouldn't be allowed to eat ice cream and is not worthy of driving, owning or thinking about a corvette.  

 There comes a time in life where one asks the tough questions.  What am I doing?  How do I improve and secure my family's future?  What am I capable of?  Am I living up to my potential?  Do I thirst for something more?  Is what I am now good enough?  Is good enough the enemy of achieving greatness?  How do I level up and move forward?  How does one navigate these questions while in a committed relationship.  How do you reconcile and move forward?  I don't know. I stand before you today as someone who has experienced peaks and valleys in my career.  I've been on the fast track climbing the ladder.  I've had thoughts of jumping off the ladder.  Taking my toys and going elsewhere.  Contemplated ending everything due to being clinically depressed with no fulfillment.  No direction.  No drive.  Stuck on a treadmill running to nowhere.  Living life nothing more than a drab shade of grey, searc...

 Facial symmetry...  most people's faces are completely symmetrical when they're children.  As the grow, symmetry sometimes goes haywire.  In the mirror I've noticed my jaw lines aren't symmetrical.  It bothers me, to some degree.  Not enough to do anything about it - but I notice both sides of my face are not the same.  My check bones are different too.  One of my eyes is bigger than the other or more pronounced on one side compared to the other. For people with non-symmetrical faces, the discrepancies from side to side increase with age.  Especially in the eyes.  One eye looks total different than the other eye.  Like they got one eye from their mom and the other eye from their dad.  Or one eye droops more than the other. Wonky Weird.

 I don't know if I'll continue to have the time to write with the same fervor and discipline as I've had since relaunching Unsocial Media.  We'll see how it goes.  If I am absent or my quality/quantity of work decreases, know there are many obligations competing for my time and attention.  

 Hello.  My name is bob and I am a synesthete.  That means I suffer from a condition known as synesthesia.  According to wikipedia "Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a secondary sensory or cognitive pathway."  What on Earth does that mean?  It means some of my senses are crosswired.  Specifically, I hear instrumental music kinesthetically and visually.  I don't hear music as  just a series of sounds.  Yes, my ears hear the sounds of the instruments and how they're combined to create different effects in timbre and texture.  Yes.  I hear music texturally. Or, with physicality.  I feel the music.  As in light, dark, soft, hard, pointed, hot, icy, heavy, relaxed, tense, thick, thin, open, closed, etc.  Sometimes I hear staccatos as jabs.  Glissandos as a rip.  I feel the conflict and tension in dissonant chord...

 My first post upon relaunching The Crooked Toad - Unsocial Media was officially a month ago today.  Not sure if anyone reads what I write, but that's cool.  I write for myself to espouse my own opinions and the things I think about or that bother me.  Or the things with which I struggle.   I usually write about a week and half out.  Sometimes posts have to be reordered if there's something I want to post closer to real time.  Reording is tricky...  I usually just pick the day and change to the last to post and insert a new post where the old one was.  That means my posts aren't necessarily timely. It's also been a month and 10 days since I closed my Facebook account.  No regrets.   Earlier today I looked through ALL the pictures on my phone.  Lots of documentation of challenges, vacations, special events, silliness, food, my family.  The biggest change I see is in my kids as they've changed and grown up.  It's weird ...

 John Fetterman is a pot smoking, porn addicted, brain damaged slob.  I wonder if there is a segment of the population in Pennsylvania who is proud to have him represent their state.  Probably, there is.  I don't know if that is a reflection of Lurch's ability to persuade people of his representational and legislative prowess or a reflection of the electorate in the Keystone State.  But whatever. Fetterman has always dressed like a maladjusted, video game addicted psychopath spending way too much time in his parent's basement alone and in the dark.  Gym shorts, hoodie and sneakers.  A rogue Mark Zuckerberg; at least he wears pants.   So he tragically had a stroke and is unable to understand bits and pieces of the English language.  He reads most conversations through some kind of tele prompting device.  His proficiency in speaking English is clumsy at best.   Apparently Lurch managed to get the senate chamber dress code changed to e...

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is really nothing more than good old fashioned racism under the guise of equity. In life equal input does not yield equitable output. America's number one export is mental illness. Behind the public facade, Democrats and Republicans are on the same team. Executive pay is out of control... they've mastered the exploitation of labor. The American Dream is dead. Surgery between the legs won't fix a problem between the ears. Elon Musk is the richest man in the world yet he receives more corporate welfare than anyone. Economic prosperity is not possible without fossil fuels. News is propaganda.

 I'm looking forward to the weather cooling off - when the temperature is in the 80s instead of the 90s.  Why?  So I can go back to walking on the beach.  There's something most relaxing about walking on the beach when the breeze is cooler than the temperature with the waves gently rolling up onto the beach.  The rhythm is so relaxing.  It's almost like a meditation.  Especially barefoot... feeling the grains of sand on your feet and the water splashing up against your legs.  Ahhhh.  Paradise found.  Hopefully it will cool off soon.