The Most’est of the Post’est

Sweet.  It’s the little things that make us IT geeks smile.  Old laptop, new attitude.  🙂

Rat

Its kind of funny, life is all about perspectives. What you do and the direction you take your life or your life takes you, is all about your current point of view and whether or not it is a path of resistance you can deal with. Sometimes, depending on if we are stubborn, we may do things on “principle” or “just because” or because we are deaf to our own hearts – that little voice that speaks to each of us. Each of us has a “talent” or call it a “gift”, something that you may excel in, without or with minimal effort. Some of us find this out early in life, some late, some never. Some listen to that tiny voice and pick up the torch and run, towards the voice that speaks from the heart. Some hear it, some stick their fingers in their ears and scream “la, la, la, I can’t hear you”, some are honestly deaf to it. It is said, that “God never gives you something that you cannot handle”. You can ignore it, eventually you may get tired of hearing it – it happened to me that way.

I started drawing as a child. My father was a commercial artist and taught commercial art at the Printing Institute of Illinois. My parents always encouraged me to do art, either with pen and pencil or markers – “squeakees” as my dad called them. They squeaked when you used them, meaning that ink was flowing and they were not dried out. Never did I consider not doing something with art – it was something I was “geared” to do. In grade school, I was always one of the better students when it came to art. When I was in high school, I excelled at architecture and drafting. I loved architecture. That was what I really wanted to do, except that when I tried math or physics – I failed miserably. I was told, “forget it, kid”. I felt that I had to “settle” for a future in fine arts and by the end of my high school career, it was due to my inability to understand math and physics. Enrolling in the American Academy of Art, having my portfolio accepted, I was excited to go to the city and get my first real art training. Commercial art was a language that I was used to speaking and had some natural abilities. I don’t think I ever really did anything original. I think I always took what someone did and mimicked it. The teacher that I had at American Academy was the same teacher that my father had. Yep, I went to the same school as my dad. I had his teacher 25+ years later. My teacher pushed and pushed me to be original, very few things were ever “approved”. I think he was trying to do me a favor, but I just thought he was trying to be a “dick”. Looking back, I don’t think I was ready to hear what he was saying. I never really finished my first year fundamentals class, I completed only 10 of 12 projects approved. I was tired, frustrated, and burnt out from a creativity standpoint. I loved life drawing but didn’t want to be what I considered to be a “fine” artist. I wanted to be an illustrator or commercial artist. I wanted to say “fuck” art. It was then that I took my life in a completely different direction – or so I thought. I asked my artist friends, (the guys that I respected) what is the thing that is the furthest away from art? Science and math! That was the direction I was going to head.

Enter math and science. Now when I was in high school, I was not the sharpest tool in the drawer. Looking back, my meds for epilepsy kept me in a fog. That and the fact that I had ADD (never knew that until later). In high school, the farthest math I had was “Senior Consumer” math. Essentially, math for the common man. Balance the check book, understand cook books, figure out the light bill, etc. After leaving art school I took math 110 at College Of DuPage or COD it was high school algebra, in my new school – I was hooked. It was like I now understood math, took college algebra, trig, calc i, ii, iii, and iv. Took diff eq, linear algebra. It was like the clouds parted and the sun shone. All of the sudden, I understood math. At the time, I was also taking electronics technology and was doing awesome. I really liked the junction theory of transistors. I started taking physics and voila, did well in that also. After COD, I went to NIU and was doing decent in physics and found myself at odds with theory. I was losing sight of what I was doing. I was able to understand the mathematics and solve the problems, but I couldn’t understand the application of the actual problem or it’s reasoning. It was weird, mathematically it all made sense. Conceptually, I had no clue. It was time to finish my degree and get the hell out of physics and out of school.

The thing that makes me special is not that I’m a great analyst. It’s not that I have this special understanding or awesome problem solving ability. It’s that I can jump to an accurate conclusion based on some completely unconnected intangibles what I call intuition or experience. Somehow, my creativity is a huge influence in my intuition. It’s like a bolt out of the blue. I can’t explain it, I just roll with it. I think it comes from the creative part of my brain – unexplainable. What makes a person creative where others are not? Its my personal belief that everyone can be taught almost anything. You may never be great, but you can be good. Is good – good enough? I don’t know. It’s a personal choice. It goes back to my first statement, can you live with the resistance? But this is what sets me apart. I also tend to be introspective. I love color and am very visual. I like the mystical properties of colors, light, and glass.

No matter what job I hold, I’ve always used my creativity in ways that amaze me in retrospect. I look back and think, “wow”. I can’t believe I did that or figured that out. I’ve been doing IT for almost 30 years and I’m still amazed. I love to learn. I love change. I love to be creative. I love my muse. I look forward to retirement where I will change my creative focus and pursue my love that I have pushed and tamped down for all these years. The thing that I was scared of – Fine Art. It is the embodiment of pure creativity in my mind. Controlled creativity in a defined field is where I have made my career – IT. Unleashed creativity is where I will reinvent my career. Or, that is my hope anyway. God willing. At least I will still be happy – that is what I tell myself. I cannot continue to be happy in my current career. I see the end of the road, the horizon is no longer out of sight. I am starting to grow weary of the constant technological change – sometimes for change sake. It is starting to grate on my nerves. I guess when you have to change because its expected and you don’t have a choice, it’s easy to just roll with it and accept. But when you know you have a choice, its sometimes hard to pick the difficult path. That’s where fortitude, integrity, and execution comes in to spur you on – to do the right thing and make the hard choice.

I think that it is something visceral from my childhood that draws me to colored glass. It is probably the dichotomy in the differences of my neighborhood church’s – St. Rita’s: the grandiose scale of the large, colorful round windows, streaming light in on the south side of Chicago. The environment was cold and aloof – marble, glass, and distant. Then there was the flipside of our suburban church: the warm, carpeted, touchable, thick, rough-hewn, stained glass of St. Mary’s church in Darien (OLP). The church was warm and cozy – made more such in my mind by the stained glass. The warm sunlight streaming in through these windows – always the rising sun in the morning or the setting sunlight depending on the mass times. But that’s what I remember. The one that impacts my mind the most was this red heart surrounded by flames, which incidentally is omitted from the stained glass on the parish website. But the beautiful afternoon summer sunlight streaming through the reds of the heart is what I remember the most. I think that light through glass is what really fascinates me – it can be transformative and emotional. It is what draws me to stained glass, neon, blown glass, and glass in general. I guess that is the subliminal part that draws me to collect Czech art glass. Each representative piece is like a small stained glass object now that I think about it. Funny, I have been collecting it since the early ninety’s and never realized the drivers behind it. It’s also what draws me to the impressionists, each piece is a virtual “stained glass” piece with the brush strokes as small panes with no leaded separations.

-Rat

Purchased a SSD drive for my Dell laptop to slightly upgrade it and forgot to order the O/S. Ah for the good old days… yo, ho, yo, ho – a pirates life for me. Too legit these days. I guess I recognize hard work more and actually see the value of some development. I'm really enjoying the Adobe suite of products. Love the Creative Cloud, ease of use, and the seamless experience.

Rat

So there is this thing (phenomenon) called “swimmers rash” caused by a snail parasites that exists in water and pushed this way and that by the wind and the waves. These things are a type of water mite and they travel about in clouds that you cannot see. Don’t fall into a cloud. At least that’s the word on the street. So I have to let nature take its course for 7-10 days, ugh. The DNR knows about it, my doctor knew about it. No one else seems to know about it. It cannot be treated, only the symptoms can be treated. Mild steroids, antihistamines (Zyrtec), and cortisone-10 (anti-itch) cream is the way to get through it. Sometimes it’s itchy, sometimes its painful, sometimes its both. No fun.

Rat

Hi all, we went up to Castle Rock Lake this last weekend, and I got to do some kayaking – which was marvelous. Very fun. Upon trying to get in an unfamiliar kayak, I fell backwards into waist deep water sitting with it up to my neck. We then got in the kayaks and went paddling that morning for about 90min. It was the first time I made it out this year. Unfortunately, I got more than I bargained for – I got a little parasite commonly called “swimmer’s itch”. It took about 36hrs for all the welts to appear. On the plus side, it will only last (or should last) for a week. On the negative side, I have hundreds of bites on my skin, very itchy, sometimes painfully so. Busted out the cortisone cream. Ugh… Can’t wait for this to pass – it’s like slow torture.
Rat

Happy Moon day! No, it’s not Monday but moon day. 48years ago today. What a cool event. I would say thank god for President Kennedy, NASA, and the “American will” to put a man on the moon. But really, it was Russia (USSR), the cold war, and the space race that drove the US to put a man on the moon. Russia, at first beat us at every turn. First successful unmanned spacecraft, first orbit, first animal, first man in space, first man back up and back, first satellite. We did all that, then we put a manned craft around the moon, then we landed there – we won. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, then the Space Shuttle. What happened to our science? What happened to our creativity? What happened to our innovation? What happened to our drive? I would blame it on the bleeding heart liberals, but I really don’t believe that – I am secretly part of that group. Because you see, I am an artist. While, it may not be my day job, it is what I am. I believe in sponsored art endowments, art programs, thinking outside the box. Sponsored science, sponsored research projects for Americans. (As a side note: I remember Bell Labs – my first electronics teacher was part of the team that invented the semi-conductor. My first Russian Language teacher was on the linguistics team that developed one of the first programming languages for the government.) Bell Labs, the space program, NASA, American pride. I remember the SR-71, spies, parades, the CIA. I remember Vietnam, the un-winnable quagmire. The summer of 69′. Rock legends.

It is my total and complete belief that as Americans, we can and always have come together to get anything done that we want to. Anything we want to put our collective wills to. In this day and age of complete political gridlock, really only 3 things have changed. There are only 3 things that stand in the way of us, the American people from becoming great again.

First, we have elevated professional arguers to an unheard of level – lawyers, versed in the art of politics and self marketing, steeped in the pockets of big money, and in bed with the media, rule. There is no accountability – that is the fault of the people. There is no end to their sociopathic reign – also the fault of the people. We are too busy as a people to fight anymore. I don’t want to know, don’t bother me with the details, just get it done – has been our mantra.

Second, media which traditionally included news is now completely biased. There is no such thing anymore as the news – that is if you take out weather and sports. I don’t believe squat that comes out of any announcers mouth. I just think of it as entertainment, until the weather begins and it continues through sports. Then I turn it off and go to bed. There are no more reporters – only announcers.

Third, the internet. This began the 24hr news cycle and due to unchecked facts and an absolutely limitless propensity of anonymity, and circular re-quotes without revealing sources, anyone can get away with anything.

When you combine the first 2, and throw in the 3rd just for fun, you get today’s political environment. Gridlock. Sociopathic “Leaders” that are complete hypocrites, lying and stealing from the public with absolute impunity, backed up with politically agenda-ed media, and a bend for 24hour hammering the info/entertainment-starved populous with unchecked bullshit. When I think of efficiency – I do not think of government. Really, what do politicians bring to the table? Do you have better health care? Why not? They do. Are you making more money these days? Why not? They are. Is government getting things done faster? Don’t think so? Does the IRS run better these days? Nope. Are we going to Mars? Nope. Does the government have a science lab where they are making huge advancements? Nope. A cure for cancer? Not in their best interest. Do you love going to the DMV because its just the pinnacle of efficiency? Nope. Is the environment better? Nope. Are there more people working today than ever? We sure as hell have more people. Nope. The government exists for the governments sake – or so it seems. Where is the lottery money going? Schools? Nope. What about the war on drugs – winning? Nope – not in their best interest (yet). EPA good? Nope. Taxes going down? Nope. FDA good? Not really. If I had anyone that was un-corruptible, maybe. But I don’t. Do we really need all these subsidy’s? I doubt it. Why do they exist? If something isn’t profitable, why is it in business? Oh, wait! Government is in business. And you can sure as hell believe its profitable – to someone.

My state (Illinois) is so corrupt, it makes me feel ill when I think about it. Republican in Governors office, democrats have the majority senate and the house of reps. Can we get anything done? Hell no. Except raise taxes. Why? So they can spend more. Cut spending? Hell no. How can I give you something if I have no money? Make money? What are you fucking kidding me? How does the government make money? The government makes nothing, except more government. More lawyers, more laws, more courts. When is the last time anything the related to the government, has cut costs? Service cuts, hell yea, price increases, hell yea, more taxes, yep.

I need to bring my rant to a close. In general, I think we are a society of egocentric enablers driven by the thoughts and feelings of the past. Its ok to think about the past because if you forget about the past, you are doomed to repeat it. But we need to live in the present. We need to deal with todays problems today. The problems of the past become todays problems when we don’t live in the present. Now, I’m not saying to forgo the future for today, but as a collective, we need to make some harsh decisions and maybe do without for a bit. I know that’s not popular and would never get me elected. But, I have to live within my means. I think that the government needs to live within its means. Bad decisions have consequences. Its time to let our politicians know that and vote them out. It’s time for change. That is the beauty of our system.

Rat

So, on Friday I went to the Orland Park Cultural Center’s website to look for an Art Class. Lo and behold I found a watercolor class. Got the nod form my better half and tried to sign up. No dice, the class was cancelled. WTF? Aggravation is starting to set in on the ol’ South Side. Hopefully McCord is going to put up their fall class schedule soon.

On Saturday, I went up to my Sister in law’s new summer abode in Wisconsin, just North of the Dells. All I can see is a lot of work. Not that I wouldn’t be up for the challenge but I think it will take years. 6 acres in the woods. Lots of work inside and outside. On the plus side – 2 bathrooms. So while you could be working on one, you would have the other one still functional. Also, I found out that there is some type of mosquito trap that emits CO2, traps and kills the little buggers. I hate mosquitos and will post what the thing is. If it were my house all the way up there, I would be seriously looking at 2 things – a heated driveway and solar power.

Rat

Damn, I haven’t posted for an eternity. I feel like a total slacker. In that time – my wife retired, we went on vacation, I had breakfast with my kids: twice, we hosted the twins communion party, I acquired an AR15, celebrated Fathers day, I had my go live – worked like a fool, my old life drawing teacher had a show, I took some time off, celebrated 2 holidays, and my boss’ job was eliminated. WTF? My basement that I lament is slowly getting cleaned and straightened. I am a step closer to resuming my art career. I am completely saddened by my art marooning on the South Side of Chicago. I am pissed about my inactivity on the Tai Chi front, and my trainer left the gym to pursue his MS at Eastern.

I will tackle these in no particular order… One thing that I have noticed: Morraine Valley JC, while very beautiful and has an impressive campus is less than exciting/inspiring when it comes to art classes after 5:00pm weekdays. WTF? Is there no art on the south side of Chicago? Only drunk Irish? You can find a gazillion Irish pubs and Guinness galore, but try and find an oil painting class after 5pm… forget it. Life drawing… no way, watercolor… maybe in a pool, plein aire… 16″ softball (yep, it has no bearing). At least DuPage has art… a veritable flipping “Art Corridor”! Oak Park, Elmhurst, Villa Park, Lombard (I just stuck that in for continuity), Glen Ellyn, Wheaton (kinda runs out of steam there). Hell, even Naperville has an Art League! What the flip happened to Orland Park, Tinley Park, Oak Forest, Palos, Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Beverly? Welcome to the South Side Art drought…. I’m art parched just thinking about it. Kudos to the Beverly Arts Center, Tinley Park Vogt Visual Arts Center, and the McCord Center for the visual arts! You guys are the south side art oasis’.

Rat

It’s been a crazy week.  Next week should be crazy again but in a different way.  Heading off to IBM for some training.  This is last weekend before communion party for the twins.  Lots to do this weekend in 4hr window.  Including JDE app shutdown, SQL package deletion, IPL system, POC application on WebLogic, backup, restart JDE app, and restart of EPM production system.  On home front, have lots of weeds to pick, chopping up weed from hell, maybe get fire pit going, cleaning house. 

Somehow my XSport membership slipped through the cracks – ugh.  At least now I can go into club and discontinue.  Have health club session tonight.  Leg day.  Yesterday was a good chest, shoulders, and triceps day – sore today.  Texted by Danny concerning working out at dojo.  I miss touching/push hands.  I would love to do that – wish I was retired.  Not enough hours in the day for everything.  Love these Bose earbuds – SoundSport in ear headphones.  These work great with the iPhone 7. 

Ratpuke7