I love finding things like the image above during my daily routine. I couldn’t help but laugh when the nearby Wachovia bank was changing to Wells Fargo and the contractors just left this up there for a few days.

Sometimes though, you see things like this and it’s a message you need to hear.

The leaves are changing and it’s getting cooler outside. I’m feeling remarkably nonplussed by the fact that this is happening. We had a chilly night last night. Deb would argue that the weather station is broken, but one of the local ones was reporting temperatures (F) in the high 30s. Lately the daily highs have been all of the 50s and 60s.

I’m noticing how much I love fall. The temperatures aren’t outrageous one way or the other and the leaves are becoming beautiful. I enjoy the walks I take because the scenery has changed a little bit each time. There also seems to be much less traffic. Sometimes I just want to drive with a camera on and record what I’m seeing as I cruise past. Furthermore, I’m really hoping I can make a little trip I promised myself I’d make come November or December.

There’s a place in MD called Ocean City. It’s basically a (mostly) family oriented vacation spot that has been the ideal vacation for most families in the past century or so. Everything feels old enough where it’s familiar, but there’s always new things to see and do.

When I first got my license, I’d had it for two weeks and a few days off of work for a holiday. I had no idea where I was really going, but generally had a good sense of direction, so I just decided to head East. Hopped on a local freeway, 32, and started driving. Eventually, the road melded with 97, then 50 East. After a while I wondering if I should turn off or something until I saw signs for the “Bay Bridge”. I’d never driven over it, but it was night and the roads were almost empty, so I figured there’d be no better time to see if I was up for it.

Crossing the bridge was exhilarating. I could see the little lights of boats in the distance coming up the Chesapeake Bay and the lights of buildings I was approaching on one side of the bridge while the others grew smaller in the rear view mirror. I was suspended in darkness, looking down at the world around me.

I came off the bridge on to Kent Island. Kent Island is a neat little place. It was the third permanent English settlement in the US, following only Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Its a small island with a very cozy, homey atmosphere. The neighborhoods have small shops that have operated for years because the island is small enough not to need a big box store like Walmart, but big enough where they are close for the random items one might need. 

Still heading East, I saw a sign for Ocean City. I have many fond feelings for the place, so I simply remained on the road I was on, not expecting it to actually take me there. The next few hours were spent passing through small townships of lit up gas stations and the occasional sign. Plenty of farms had a few small lights peeking out of the trees that bordered the farmhouses that I could see from the road. 

Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, this gave way to more of “civilization”. The road stopped its somewhat gentle curving way and became a straight drive. Street lights and traffic signs became more frequent. It wasn’t much more until there it was, rising almost out of the water. Ocean City.

It was dark and somewhat rainy by this point, but I was surprised and couldn’t contain my excitement. In my awe and feeling of accomplishment (remember, I’d had my license two weeks) I hardly noticed one important part of what it generally takes to be a city. Population.

The city was absolutely desolate, save for a few other cars. I slowly cruised the streets of the dead quiet city. I occasionally saw the police cars in parking lots, parked next to each other with the cops talking to each other through the windows. Obviously they weren’t too busy. 

I felt pretty safe when I parked in front of a parking meter without paying. I got out and walked up to the boardwalk. The hotels still had their large lights on, so the boardwalk had individual stretches of light spread across it as the floodlights lit the rain passing in front of them. Passing in and out of the lights, it made me almost feel like I had been spotlighted in a place I shouldn’t have been, but the constant crash of the waves and the patter of the rain on the boardwalk were the only sounds I could hear.

The little shops of tourist goods were all closed up. I could see the small signs thanking the tourists for the last season of good business and well wishes until the store re-opened next spring. Small stuffed crabs and happy shirts smiled out of the windows at the empty boardwalk.

I could see the rides and amusements far down the pier, almost ghostly in the glow of the lamps that had been put up. Nothing seemed to move as the breezes blew in from the ocean while I walked down the boardwalk.

Eventually, I realized I’d made the trip in the evening and driving back was not a very smart decision, considering how late it now was. I drove to a nearby hotel that had a single lamp on the desk and a few lights by the entry. The clerk seemed stunned and uttered only the price and check out time. I paid the meager sum and went to my room, musing to myself that this same room would’ve literally cost quadruple what I’d just paid six months earlier.

Waking to a gray day, I decided to head back to the board walk. I had to head back soon. No one knew where I was and I hadn’t planned this little excursion. The rain had subsided and the cold metal of the closed shops reflected this tint. There was one single shop I could see a ways up from me though. A yellow glow emanated from it. I could see an aged plastic sign for Polock Johnny’s that light showed through since the light was turned on.

I walked in, much to the surprise of the patrons who all must have been locals by the looks they gave. I could see them mouthing to each other, asking who I was. I ordered some Italian sausage and some eggs and ate quietly. The place was darker inside than it had been outside and the fluorescent lights above me were dim. People went back to reading their papers and quiet conversation while I looked out the open doorway to the ocean as I ate my breakfast in silence.

After that, I took a short walk on the boards some more back to my car. The trip back was uneventful until I got home and explained where I’d been to my parents. They weren’t angry, but did admonish me for not calling to give them a heads up. I remember my mother looking at my father and him just shrugging.

I hope this year to repeat that trip with Deb in tow and a camera in hand. I want to take pictures of this ghost town and wander the silent streets. I want to be soak in the sound of the waves and take pictures of the empty boardwalk. I love the idea of being able to remember how quiet this lively, joyful place can be. I’m looking forward to this.

I’ve got to say that after the global reset (which I’m sure upset plenty of people) that Red Orchestra 2 has become something amazing.

It’s intense on its own. Example;

Hearing sporadic skirmishes breakout in the distance, then suddenly hearing the echoing crack of a rifle and a bullet whizzing by causes your vision to blur and gray. You rush to take cover in a nearby building and hear the thumping of boots on wooden floors. This place is occupied, and not by friendlies.

Down a hall, you and an enemy spot each other, fire a couple panicked rounds that no longer have that distant crack. The hollow reverberations following each shot is intimately close as, you crouch down and lean around the doorway.

You can see the puffs and splinters of debris coming off the door frame you’d just been against as the wall nearby is pockmarked by incoming fire that is hoping to find its way to you as it penetrates the thin layer concealing you from your enemy.

You hear him call for cover as he’s, reloading and decide to take your chance. Sprinting down the hall, you round the corner, catching him by surprise and lunge with the bayonet attached to the rifle.

The bayonet connects. He stumbles while the world dims, crying out.

The troops upstairs remain oblivious, continuing to fire out of the windows there. You go upstairs, quietly and look quickly into the room they are in. A machine gunner suppresses those trying to move and is supported by a rifleman acting as a spotter for the sniper picking off those foolish enough to try to run from the MG.

Quietly, you pull the pin.on a grenade and count off three seconds. You don’t want to give them any chance of escape. Pitching the grenade through the doorway, you here those surprised inside shouting about the grenade before its too late.

Its then that you hear a single shot from behind you as you slump over unceremoniously.

Awaiting respawn, youre reminded that you’re playing Red Orchestra 2. It is brutal. It is unforgiving. It is gritty. Beyond all that though, with teamwork, it is rewarding and intense.

Everything I described in that example was true. It all happened in game at one point with no exaggeration. If you are looking for a game with a heavy dose of realism that will take years to master, check it out. It doesn’t disappoint.

One of my co-workers is 22 and the mother of a child and, for lack of a better term, a deadbeat baby-daddy. She’s pretty open about what’s going on in her life and my driving her home has put me in a position to /adv/ise her.

She’s making effort to improve her life by going to school and trying to take care of her kid. Her baby-daddy hasn’t been working and has accused her of cheating while she’s at work. I find it somewhat laughable that he’d say that, considering she has no license (road rage issues, from what I’m told) and doesn’t really engage the customers at all.

Anyways, she’s doing things in her life and asking me what I think. They are things that I’m concerned are setting herself up for failure and I keep asking if this is what she wants or is this what he wants?

Example 1) When purchasing a used vehicle, she has the only income in the house, but he has the only license to drive. Instead of purchasing a car decent on gas and low maintenance cost to take care of their family, he persuaded her to purchase a luxury SUV, a Lincoln Aviator, for $3000. It had 100,000 miles on it and costs $90 USD to fill the gas tank. I immediately told her she might want to consider taking it back when I found out it had 100k. I’d have told her she was just purchasing the problems of someone else.

By the time I found out, they’d already purchased the vehicle. In less than a week, I was driving her to and from work. Why? Because the prior owner had never had some of the moving parts greased. That said, the brakes froze up and held the pads against the rotor, spewing smoke and damaging the brakes.

This same vehicle also had the transmission clunking in and out of gears at the wrong intervals roughly. So back into the shop this vehicle went. Sure enough, the transmission was going out. Now most transmissions are a few thousand dollars to replace. That would mean the dealership would have to eat the cost of the entire vehicle, which I doubt they’re doing. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if they went to a junk yard and hauled out a used transmission. I wonder how long it will last…

Example 2) This person was riding home with me a few days ago and talked about buying a house. I listen to the news for nearly an hour at least once a day and I know that right now, it is absolutely a buyers market if one were to buy a house because there is a surplus of houses belonging to banks that had foreclosed on people. Since they are holding all these houses, they are losing money and are nearly giving them away just to put the responsibility on someone else.

I absolutely think buying a house right now is a valuable and smart thing to do. Interest rates have never been lower and neither have costs. Houses that used to cost over $200,000 are now as low as $100,000, so when better to buy a home to raise a family in?

Of course, that’s assuming she was going to raise her family there. That’s not what she was going to do though… She had it in her head that she was going to flip the house. For those who don’t know, flipping a house is buying a property, adding on to it or remodeling it some, and selling it at least double, but usually triple the original investment cost.

“Flip it!?” I said incredulously. “You do realize just PART of the reason the economy is blown out and why you could afford a house is because of the collapse of the entire housing market inflating the costs of these flipped houses and people defaulting on their loans? You do realize that it is a buyers market for a reason right now? That people aren’t able to sell houses for triple the value after a remodel because no one will buy it and that bubble has already burst? Do you remember the Dot-Com bubble?”

I couldn’t believe it. She was going to try to jump on a ship that had already sailed. It was the equivalent of a “get rich quick scheme” going bad! Her baby-daddy apparently had been watching HGTV recently and in now had it in his head (after a few single hour TV shows) he’d be able to make them some quick cash.

This doesn’t even begin to get into all the health problems she’s been having or the fact that her baby-daddy has been getting advice from his spineless brother who, by this persons own admission, has let his girl walk all over him.

Actually, about that. This guy has let his girlfriend walk so far over him that she has been cheating on him to the extent that she feels comfortable enough for her to say that it’s ok for her to cheat on him since they aren’t married even though he’s working and paying all the bills. She’s told him up front that the child she is carrying may not even be HIS KID, even though they’ve been together the entire time she could have conceived the child. When he claimed he put her out, she came in and said “Oh we aren’t broken up. You know that right? I haven’t said we are broken up.” She also has him so screwed up that he is excited about the upcoming birth.

Since when was this acceptable? Why does this guy let her treat him like this? What the hell is his problem!? Anytime she tells me what this guy is doing and that her baby-daddy is getting advice from him, I practically lose my mind because it just doesn’t make any sense! She’s gone so far as to say she wished I could or would sit down with the kid and beat him over the head with this stuff, but I refuse to. It wouldn’t do any good. He doesn’t know me from Adam, nor does he respect me in any way, so anything I say is moot and invalid. Besides, I don’t know him, his situation fully, nor do I feel inclined to get involved. Still though, it makes me crazy hearing about it because none of it makes any sense.

I just can’t believe people who are only 5 years my junior are this absolutely lost in the world and think that some of these things are a good idea. I can’t fathom it. You can call me egotistical if you want, that’s fine, but I make the effort to pay my bills and take care of my responsibilities. If that’s egotistical, then that may explain where some problems lie.

This girl who I work with has the brains to make it work and see this kind of thing, but doesn’t apply it or doesn’t speak up and say it. She herself found it impressive that I’d not give up my principles and lie for a few extra dollars here or there. I found it stunning that it’s so easy for people to lie about things like that. Its beyond me. I can’t say I’m surprised that no one trusts each other if that’s the case though, but that’s for another day.

Probably the funniest thing about all this, to me, is that there’s tons more on this subject that I can and would be happy to speak about, but it doesn’t fit in with this. I also would like to do a bit on Cyber-Bullying at some point, but that, again, is for another time.

So I’m not especially certain of why I created this Tumblr, but I haven’t had much of a place to shoot off at the mouth about current events, politics, social commentary, and, in general, make an ass of myself! You could also blame it on me trying to retain my capability to write anything coherently, though I don’t think this will have quite the scholarly polish one would look for. Putting it simply, sometimes I’m awfully limited by the 140 characters of Twitter and I’ve no real desire to flood the streams of my friends. With all that said, the above image takes on quite a real meaning.

Of course, anyone playing with me in my Fantasy Football league who see’s the above image laughs. Not because it’s an amusing little meme, but rather I’m 0-3. It’s not for lack of coming close however! I am going to claim ignorance, as this is my Rookie year, but I’m learning fast. My second and third games have been much tighter.

Anyways this was meant to be a quick post saying that I’m hoping to write some things on here. I have something in mind to write already, so maybe I’ll post it later.