Rally it up!

I am at the Ted Cruz religious freedom rally, and, as usual at a Republican event, I feel really out of place.

It started with the Von Trapp family, I mean, the Bontrager Family Singers (I counted 10 kids), singing, playing instruments, and endorsing Ted Cruz.

I mean, I like Ted Cruz. He seems genuine where a lot of other people seem like campaign conservatives.

But, I am not a Republican. I don't like having to defend freedom of association under the religious liberty umbrella. And I don't even know if I'd vote for Ted Cruz.

However, I like politics, I'm much closer to Republican than Democrat, religious liberty is important, and it was the right price (free. And Dad bought my dinner, so net gain I'd say).

Also, now I have a small copy of the Constitution with Ted Cruz's face on it and a cheap American flag (courageous conservatives for Cruz). I passed up the Cruz 2016 sticker.

So bring it on.

"Our rights come from God, not from the government." - England

My libertarian self can get on board with that.

Now they're going to show the people who have been hit recently with discrimination lawsuits and fines for refusing service to homosexuals in the context of marriage services.

First off, I think that any private business should be able to discriminate against anybody for any reason. And by "private" I mean not government owned. The Post Office can't discriminate because it's a government monopoly and we have no choice but to use it. I think that if someone started a business, even if it has expanded to the point of public trading, it is still a private business. It is owned by the shareholders, but it isn't (or shouldn't be) a government enforced monopoly. And people can go to another business if they don't like it.

But does that mean that businesses can discriminate against [insert favorite bleeding heart group]? Homosexuals, black people, white people, men, women, people with tattoos, people without blue hair, whoever? Yes. If you built the business, you should be able to choose who it serves. You should have the freedom of association, the freedom of discrimination.

But that's wrong! That's racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.

Then don't go to the business. Write nasty Facebook reviews, convince other people not to go, try and drive them out of business. But don't aggress. Don't call the bully government to force your fight, don't threaten them, their families, whatever. This is a (supposedly) free country. They don't owe you the use of their business. Go somewhere else. Can we agree to disagree? But let the market decide. That's freedom.

Are some people awful and discriminatory? Yup. But not everybody is going to agree with me on a lot of things and I'm not going to go around trying to force right thinking on everyone. As long as they aren't aggressing on me, they can be ignorant. God knows we can't get rid of ignorance.

Just don't bring the bully government to ensure everyone does what you think is right by aggressing on the rights of people. Not "right to cake" and "right not to be discriminated against," but right to life, liberty, and property. Rights to discriminate are under property, if you were wondering. Freedom to use your personal property as you see fit.

That said, religious liberty is important. It's part of our right to liberty. As disturbing as it is that we have forgotten the right of association, what is also disturbing is that the "tolerance" camp is busy trying to enforce against thoughtcrime of what they consider the backwards bigots of Christians. Thoughtcrime isn't a real crime. And they have their crosshairs on Christians. They have decided our point of view is wrong.

Thoughtcrime isn't a crime. Well. It was in 1984 by George Orwell. And Big Brother is watching.

I hate they way they come after Christians, trying to destroy our point of view because they disagree with it. Even if they are right and we are wrong (which I don't agree with), they should not be able to force their views on us.

The America I was raised to believe in doesn't look anything like the America I see now.

"Nothing says tolerance like death threats." - Steve Deace

And it's being enforced by the government. "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." They no longer secure our rights. They violate them. Big Brother is watching.

But the rally is good. I'm enjoying it more than I thought. There is a lot of truth being spoken. People are very enthusiastic. I can't imagine being this enthusiastic for anyone short of Dr. Ron Paul.

Also some protesters outside. I'm not sure what their beef is. And then some protesters inside interrupting. "Citizenship Now!" They were shouted down by chants of "U S A!" as they were escorted out. Ted Cruz thanked them for their speech, but informed them this was not a Town Hall.

All in all, some political fun on a Friday night. Even got some up-and-down standing clapping reps. Newsboys are here. Free concert!

Add pizza and beer and it would have been a real party.

Shiner

Now that the swelling is down, the bruising is pretty much gone, and the black eye is fading, I'll tell you what happened.

It's kind of a funny story. Although we did try and come up with all sorts of easier, and funnier, alternatives.

Coworker 1: Tell them you were slacking off. And so I kicked you in the face.
Coworker 2: No, say that you were talking back!
Me: That does sound like me. And that you backhanded me!
Coworker 1: Say you fell on a doorknob.
Me: Or I'll say I fell down the stairs. And then look away.
Coworker 2: Say you got hit by a table. Or that you punched yourself while trying to move chairs.
Coworker 3: Man, that is swelling.
Me: He's getting me ice.
Coworker 3: I would say that he was being a gentleman, but...

So at Scheman, sometimes people want classroom sets (rows of tables with chairs) and sometimes they want power to those tables to run laptops or whatever. We pull out our huge collection of extension cables, quad boxes, and power strips, and tape them down under the tables, daisy chaining them from any available outlet. This building is from before personal computers. On this day, we had to strike a bunch of classrooms with power. One of my coworkers, Isaac, likes to make balls out of the duct tape, making it bigger and bigger as we pull up the cords. He prides himself on being able to make it very firm.

Three of us were waiting for another coworker to go and check exactly what we had to pull in a particular room and started playing hackysack with this duct tape ball. I suck at hackysack, but wasn't the only one. And then Isaac bounced it twice and then kicked it off his toe. It hit me in the face on my right cheekbone so hard it rebounded to the back of the room.

We all burst into laughter, even as I'm clutching my face and Isaac is leaning on the table. "Ow, my toe!" are the first words he managed.

"I can't say I feel very compassionate about your toe," I say between laughs.

"You okay?" he asks.

"I might cry. But just like I would if I got hit in the nose."

One coworker walks in, sees us, and walks right back out.

For the rest of the day, when Isaac says to do something, Dean is like, "I'll do it, I don't want you to hurt me!"

I didn't cry, I did get ice, and I got a bit of a shiner. And that's the actual story. I was attacked by a vicious duct tape ball. Later Bryan kicked it in the general direction of Isaac and nailed him in the knee.

Isaac: We need to make it bigger.
Me: Seriously?
Isaac: Yeah. So we won't be tempted to kick it.

I'm sure that will work brilliantly.

Smoooooth...

I would like to start this post with a confession. I have seen my muse. I have seen what I desire in a blog post, in a continuing blog, and I do not have the ability to produce it. I have seen the Crisler blog. I shall spend the rest of my life attempting to achieve that level of humor and balance. This is one of my favorite posts. Enjoy. I'll understand.

Still here? Well, practice does make perfect I suppose.

I shall now attempt to segue, meaning a smooth, uninterrupted transition from one thing to another. Pronounced seg-wey, for whatever reason. It's Latin, I guess, I don't know. And it really kind of amuses me that they named those two-wheel powered scooter things Segways, the actual pronunciation spelling. Like the scooter thing (which makes you look silly) is a real life smooth, uninterrupted transition from one place to another... a really clever name.

Yeah, I blew that segue.

Did you know that the Segways can keep pace with bikes, on like a biking tour or something? You could be the tour guide. It's like a rolling podium. They should give them to politicians or something. Or politicians can buy them, whatever. It'd at least give me a laugh.

I'm not transitioning anywhere, much less smoothly.

You know what? Nevermind. I'll post something else some other time.

Farewell Jawbone UP24

I purchased a fitness tracker by Jawbone called the UP24. It was like a chunky orange bracelet, but I don't like the watch ones, so I went with Jawbone. It just died it's third and final time in the last week and a half.

It was only fifty bucks, since I purchased it after it had been discontinued by the manufacturer. They came out with an equivalent but newer version for $100, and I just wanted to try out having a fitness tracker while waiting for Jawbone to get their head in the game and get active heart rate tracking like Fitbit has.

Honestly, if it were just a functionality thing, I would go Fitbit Charge HR, but I can't stand how Fitbits look. And their only colors are black and plum. And I've heard their step tracking can be way off.

Since the warranty for my product expired in March (before I purchased it), they won't replace it. The best they can offer is a 25% discount code for their website. The UP2, their current band, is $100. I would be paying $75 to replace my $50 band.

And I asked if I could use the code at Best Buy, but no, it's just for their website. And since my band freaked out after three months, I want Geek Squad protection. They'd replace it for the next two years.

Dang it. I'm more frustrated by this than I thought I would be. I've read bad reviews on the UP2. None of the other fitness trackers look good.

And apparently I've become addicted to having something track all my steps and workouts, like I'm working toward something, even just my 10,000 step daily goal.

I have a lightweight app on my phone called Google Fit, and it can track steps and actually is smart enough to tell when I'm biking. But I don't want to have to carry my phone everywhere, or if I want credit for that dance exercise I did in my basement, have to have it on me.

Really, the takeaway from all this is 1) I love fitness trackers, and 2) get them from Best Buy and get Geek Squad protection.

Oooooh, I've wasted my life.

Props to anyone who can tell me where the quote in my title came from. Largely because I can't remember it. Someone says it right before being squashed in an amusing way, so I'm guessing cartoon. Simpsons maybe?

Anyway, I was quoting it because I am feeling the guilt of having too many interests and then squandering my time on computer games.

Time Sink #1: Computer games. And when I get bored of computer games... different computer games.

Time Sink #2: Work. I'm listing this as a time sink because, while productive, I don't generally like it. Or more specifically, I like about two of my potential five jobs.

Interest #1: Working out. This is number #1 because I actually do it. Usually. I have a certain level of self-motivating guilt going on. I blame My Fitness Pal app. Which I highly recommend for the same reason. Nothing is as effective as noticing you are spending 700+ calories on that pizza tonight, so you should probably go run today. It's also what encouraged me to give up soda for the second time, largely by me realizing that it's 150 calories and like half my sugar allowance for the day. Did you know a tiny bag of Cheetos was 310 calories? And if that doesn't sound like a lot to you, try keeping track of calories with the goal of staying under 1200. Which meal are you giving up for those Cheetos?

Interest #2: Reading. I had a goal of 100 books this year. That's two a week. I've been playing computer games. I am 13 books behind schedule. Time to go read children's books...

Interest #3: Writing. I've been playing with a story in my head labeled "epic space odyssey," joining the collection of "chanters' fantasy," "steampunk gang," and "angsty-music-stagehand" and half a dozen other half-baked ideas. That don't get written. And I need to actually write things because if I leave them alone too long, I forget them, or at least major plot points.

Interest #4: Steampunk. I have a costume. There are tons of DIY ideas out there and I know people and I want to go to events. And I don't. Steampunk's problem is that even DIY stuff tends to cost money. Maybe I should get a sixth job just for Steampunk.

Interest #5: Playing a musical instrument. I have a recorder, penny whistle, guitar, and piano. I want to play fiddle. I don't play any. Usually I hit a wall pretty early in where it doesn't seem like I get any better and that demotivates me.

Interest #6: Learning another language. I have an app called Duolingo, set for Turkish. It's free. My goal was 20 minutes a day. Hah.

Interest #7: Misc self-improvement. Basically there are a lot of little things I want to learn, like bike maintenance, ham radio operation, Krav Maga, homebrewing, etc. And I don't.

And I should.

But I liiiiiiiike computer games.

This post is about earrings

Back about maybe ten years ago, I decided to fulfill my dream of getting a cartilage piercing. I'd used those little slid-on cuffs for a while and pestered every piercing person I found with the question, "If my lobes got infected, will my cartilage as well?" Since my lobes had managed to get infected and remain that way for four years, while still being pierced. And then I put sensitive solution earrings in them and they cleared up and everyone was happy. But apparently a cartilage infection can result in surgery and probably losing chunks of your ear.

I like my ears.

But when I was nineteen, I finally just went and got it done at Claire's and got a cutesy pink bottle of stuff to rub on it and so on. It was also several months before I could sleep on that side of my head. And a bump of displaced cartilage formed on the back of my ear for a year or two before disappearing again. Claire's has since ceased doing those, which is probably good because I think they use the regular earring puncher for it and an actual piercing place uses something like a mini hole puncher, I think. Instead of displacing cartilage, it just takes it out. But my cartilage didn't get infected, although it did get jarred during roughhousing a few times and bled and was painful.

I tried with various earrings, but some were too thick and a ring pressed into the ear when I slept, making it sore. So for the past couple years, I've just been rocking the ball-post-back combo, which is basically a normal ball earring. Which I take out at night because it presses into the side of my head.

All this to give some background for when I saw a cartilage earring on another girl on vacation with a flat back, like a tiny coin.

Ok, so stuff like that exists at every piercing place ever. How was I supposed to know?

"Where did you get that?" I asked. "Cause I wouldn't take mine out ever if it didn't dig into the side of my head."

She told me about sketchy-sounding Chinese-run jewelry stores that apparently sold everything and could fix anything. And apparently I had just missed one that day in a shopping center we were at. I had, understandably, spent the entire time in Barnes and Noble.

And so began a quest!

Objective: Obtain a flat-backed cartilage piercing.

"Wayne, can we stop back by Zona Rosa? There's a jewelry place I want to hit up."

"We'll see," Wayne replies. Then later I get told it probably won't be open when we leave the next morning.

"I've lived with this for five years, I suppose I can wait a week," I say.

So at the end of the week, I try again.

"Those are sold at all the piercing places," I get told.

"Does that mean we can't go?" I'm stubborn about getting an actual answer.

We'll see.

On the drive back, they call John from their truck to tell him that we're not able to stop there cause we're going a different way.

Bah.

Back at home, I Google piercing places, but end up going to the mall cause I had a return. In the mall, I stop by "Shag," one of those hippie places that sells incense, baja hoodies, and boxers with weed leaves on them. Shag replaced another hippie place that replaced a Hot Topic. Anyway, they pull out a bunch of flat-backed studs for ears, but there is a problem.

"Those are really thick," I say. They're labeled 16G. "Is that the standard size?"

"Yeah, I think so," replies the guy.

I explain my situation. He tells me that standard size is 22G (which is somehow smaller than a 16G) and how some people up their size by some weird process involving rubbing, lotion, irritation, ibuprofen, and ramming. "What' does Claire's use?" he asks.

"I don't know. I guess I'll go look."

At Claire's, they do actual have varying sizes of cartilage piercings. "Yeah, I was trying to figure out how to do mine, too," the girl says. Apparently, she got hers done at Claire's as well. I pick out a 20G, that looks more blingly that I like, and an 18G, since buy one, get one for $5. I'll start a process of gradually expanding the hole, like I did with my lobes, although there is no cartilage in lobes.

At home, the 20G goes in easily and moves easily and without pain. Too easily. Also, the ring is so small I can't close it around the side of my ear. Too bad I can't return earrings.

No pain, no gain. So I go for the 18G. First problem is that apparently, it is a wire pressed into indents on either side of a ball. So as I pull it out, the ball pops out. So I'd need to realign the ends of the wire and push them in on either side of the ball. Also, since it's an 18G, the wire is fairly hard to bend. Even harder when it has been shoved in a hole too small for it in my ear.

"David? I need your help!"

David's help comes in the form of large pinchy tools that I don't know the names for. If this doesn't prove that I trust him, I don't know what will.

Somewhat needless to say, my ear was NOT HAPPY with me. It's still sore. Guess I'll be sleeping on the right side of my head for a while.

So, Quest Incomplete, for now. Until the hole gets a little happier.

Anyone want a tiny 20G cartilage earring? I know we aren't supposed to share them, but I could probably boil it or something...

Sunday's Dose of Guilt Doesn't Involve a Sermon

Unless your portable snacks to Prairie Moon Winery are carrot and celery sticks, sans ranch dressing, I would not recommend bringing the Fitness magazine.

Now I feel guilty.

Those cheese curds and sea-salt&vinegar chips still tasted good, though.

Curse my lack of self-control.