A whole bag of "I'm back"

Yeah about each year I'm "back" to blogging, or updating a website. So I'll try it again. I have a whole bag of "I'm back" with your name on it!

Life is going well. I have left so much behind it's a wonderful feeling.

• Left the BOCES
• Left the 3 part time jobs
• Left NY and the horrible government
• Left places and people that were unhealthy for me

I now work for Lockheed Martin down in the DC metro area. I live in Arlington, VA with my fiancee and we have two wonderful... beta fish. We had to leave our other "child", Spork the Goldfish, with my parents. We are still adjusting to life together and all that comes with it.

Things are better than we expected financially which is wonderful news for us. We haven't had the time to make new friends yet (I've only been down here a week at this point) but all in good time. We do miss our families a lot but we also know we are making them proud so it's a fair trade off.

Yeah definitely a better life, both in quantity and quality.

Soon & Armchair Researchers

... Tyler's coming home soon... around a monthish.
... Playing hookie, well a planned hookie day, with coworkers soon... Darien Lake here we come!
... Camping with family for a few days soon... in 8 weeks.
... CUC RoadTrip of Aut-Six soon... in just over 8 weeks.
... Enjoying life... Already started... a few years too late.

So I got thinking the other day about little research things that I would love to undertake but then realized I have no formal study in the field of research in question. It started to make me wish there was a way I could get someone to research for me or a way for me to research the entire theory I had going.

Then I remembered reading some books and there was a chapter in one devoted to armchair Archaeologists and at the time I didn't think to hard about what the book was saying but I spent the drive to work thinking about it the last few days. Here is my main reason why armchair archaeology (and similar "researchers" in general) should not be dismissed as quickly as the academic world tends to.

The box. Simply put the armchair researcher has the ability to move out of the surroundings and to think about an even larger picture than say an Archaeologist of Middle Eastern Culture. An archaeologist takes the vast volumes of knowledge they have learned over the years to analyze and assess the data and, artifacts to come up with an answer or more questions. They look at it in context to the surrounding landscape, other artifacts/ data and preconceived notions or previous research. The problem with this is the phrase "they have learned over the years".

Unfortunately any scientist can not overcome their preconceived notions of what something should be and how something should work. This is an unintended side effect of their education, they learn different theories and through exercises and pratical applications they become loyal to one or two theories over others, thereby discarding the others. An armchair researcher on the other hand will have only volumes of data from other's, all with their own preconceived notion but the notions are wide and varied so that the armchair researcher has to make decisions. He has to weigh each notion and therefore begins to remove himself from saying "Well just because this pottery shard is such and such it must be from so and so a culture." The armchair researcher is more apt to say "Why is this even considered to be from so and so a culture when I have two different sources with varying opinions?"

I believe that armchair researchers have a place in the world of research, not as scientists in the true sense of the word, but they should not be written off as lazy, or stupid and most certainly should not be ignored because of lack of a PhD behind their name.

Just my thoughts. Take it or leave it just don't flame me. I'll discuss it but not if you attack me.

I weigh how much??

Yeah so went to the Dr.s last week for a followup on my chest pains since they hadn't gone away. It was definitely a sports injury from being cross checked and now he says the pain might never go away. My cartiledge was wrecked in my sternum and it doesn't heal well or at all. Then I had him take a look at my finger, which I smashed on a metal edge while unplugging equipment. Yeah that's getting xrayed because there is something solid in there. Doesn't hurt unless I hit it against something.

Life changes again. Still have my friends and now that I finally gave in and created a myspace account I found some of my old friends from HS that I lost. Now I just have to get my health back; I just spent 11 hours sleeping which I _never_ do but my body was shutting down from stress and work. Lost weight as always, stopped eating like I am supposed to and dropped down to 155ish again. Not quite as bad as the summer of 98 when I went down to 145 at 6'3". But not good at all.

One day and one meal at a time. I have to be careful to make sure I eat enough do I don't have a seizure like a co-workers husband who has the same metabolism etc as I do. *crosses fingers*

Airman Tyler Meyer

Yep it's official Tyler has graduated from Air Force Basic Military Training and is now an Airman.

He just missed out on Honors because he got an 85 on his exam instead of a 90 although he aced all his physical fitness tests. Miss him terribly and can't wait for August when he gets to come home after his Tech School stuff.

Congrat's Tyler.


I will post a picture of him and his girl as soon as I get it off my phone (dad has been sending me clips and pics through our cellies)

*gasp*

So I was having chest pains a few weeks ago after I got cross checked at a broomball game. Figured I sprained something and it would go away. It didn't go away and I was having problems sleeping so much that I actually was sleeping on my back, which I almost never do. Well it kind of went away last weekend, at least that I didn't notice it much unless I did something stupid. And then last night I ended up waking up in the middle of the night with severe chest pains like someone was reaching in my sternum and twisting everything with one hand while stabbing me with needles with the other. I was thinking "If I die...." Yeah it was that scary.

Yay let's be racist again...

Pissed off thing of the week: Hillary Clinton and "Chuck" Schumer

Yeah no surprise I am about to say something about two Democrats right? Well not really, this extends beyond just Democrats to many Republicans, the news media and the sheep-like mentality of the many citizens in this country. Listening to NPR on the way to and from work I came to realize that the news media and the two New York Senators have been misleading the public about the true facts with regards to the transaction of the operations in 6 ports from a British company to the company owned by the United Arab Emirates. Comments about this merger border hate crimes and are easily labeled as discriminating and biased. It would seem that Hillary Clinton is not even directly attacking the sale as much as she is trying to run for president by trying to discredit the entire Republican party and current administration. Some of her comments are prefaced with snide remarks about previous decisions. I shall break the points down to make the whole thing easier to follow:

1. British company wants to sell operations, essentially the equivalent of the control tower at an airport, in 6 ports to Dubai.
2. United States Coast Guard maintains control of security.
3. United States Border Protection maintains control of security

Well that seemed easy enough. Now you know why my feelings are so high about this topic. There is no more chance for the UAE to sneak terrorist "stuff" into the country through these ports as do the Chinese, Vietnamese, British, Danish or any of the other companies that control some portion of operations at these ports. Please, stop being racist, biased, and stupid Mrs. Clinton and other congressmen. I was actually happy to hear Sen. Lieberman (D -VT) speak out against the critics pointing out the obvious facts I have stated above. On a plus note the Dubai company has offered to postpone the final transaction until the United States citizens can be satisfied that there is not a security issue. This uproar is a black eye on the American people, especially after the fight to overcome initial anti-muslim feelings from the bombings in 2001. I can only hope that the truth is published more than the hate-mongering and rumor spreading comments of Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Charles Schumer of NY.

A new beginning, a new life!

Hey this is Lush/ Gumby/ Kevin/ Slush.

I finally let my other blog be about gaming which is what it's meant for. This one I'll keep to semi-personal things and my various assorted rants that many of you know I am capable of.

Working with my parents, I now have a solution to my impending financial doom and it looks promising. Anything I earn at my new job is for living expenses and all my side jobs I get for computer repairs I can use for whatever but I'll mainly use it to save up for stuff like computer parts and potential emergencies with my Jeep. It's amazing how much of your life you spend half-ignoring your parents then all of a sudden they kind of know what they are talking about. At least in life lessons.

I have changed all my passwords on everything since someone I know, knew a few of my more secure ones and I don't trust hardly anyone with these passwords since they control bank accounts, access to sensitive data I work with, and other personal information. Also getting a new phone with a new company and by extension a new phone number. It'll help with my determination to forget the past. I've heard some people having problems with that despite their claims to the contrary. I figure that if I forgive/ be forgiven then the "damage" has been healed and should be forgotten. Dwelling on it makes for a bitter life as has been shown in some acquantinces of mine.

Selling off my computer/ tech toys and gadgets that I don't really need anymore. Like my ipod and laptop. They were too much of an impulse buy and I don't use them enough to warrant keeping them. I haven't even bothered to upgrade the memory in the laptop from 256 to 512. Yeah that sad eh? I am also going to finally throw away broken parts, outdated parts and the stupid monitors that kind of work but not really. My keyboard i have had since '99 finally died cause someone spilled something in it while i was out and it wasn't worth the cleaning effort. I am now using the old Packard Bell keyboard and it works great. The old keyboards were the best designed for the abuse I give them.

Speaking of abuse, Ryan is the latest to get a kidney stone in the family. Dad had five of them, i had one large one and now Ryan has a small 2mm one. He's lucky in it being so small, mine ended up causing bleeding and extreme pain and nausea. Though that's not to belittle his experience, a kidney stone no matter the size is of great importance. I just hope he is able to pass his soon so he can stop taking the meds and get on with his life.


Well finished with lunch stuff so I am going to get back to work. 1 school finished, 7 more to go for the first round of conversions. You should see more of me as my life continues to settle into a routine that I can accept and like.

~Kevin M.