Grumpy Old Viking

Communication

2006-12-19T08:44:00.000-06:00

From a post on What Men are saying about "Women"

bombbombbombbomb said,

"... there is not a problem with men’s communication skills, just a problem with what and how much women want to hear."

Well put... for a man of course.

Working with women, continued.

2006-12-19T08:37:00.000-06:00

Working with women

2006-12-18T10:57:00.000-06:00

Sometimes Scott Adams hits the nail on the head.

Mommies who drink...

2006-11-13T12:52:00.000-06:00

The Eternal Batchelor posted this about an article about a book called "Mommies Who Drink."

No it is not a book about the evils of drinking mommies, rather it is about how women shouldn't sacrifice their lives to child raising.

That hurts just to read.

My mom was an alcoholic. She remained and on and off drunk until she died of old age at the age of 55. It wasn't an overdose, it wasn't a car accident. We figured it would be one of those two in the end. No, she died in her sleep, her body just gave up after too many years of too much drinking. Martinis were a favorite, when she wasn't just drinking straight vodka.

Being the youngest of three, I never knew a sober mom. My older sisters say she was a great mom before she started drinking. My dad still speaks of her very fondly, even though they divorced about thirty years ago and she has been dead for fifteen. He says she was just an incredible mother and wife before the drinking. The would have celebrated their golden anniversary next year. He still regrets that he didn't try harder to keep things together. He mentioned this last just in September when I went to visit him and we took a trip out to the farm that he and my grandpa had a dairy on. He showed me where he and mom had talked about building a house.

I never knew a sober mom. Before I can remember my dad said he came home from work one day to the smell of smoke coming from a burning pot of potatoes on the stove. The water had completely boiled off. I was there on the floor, in diapers, playing with blocks and mom was passed out on the couch.

Having never known a sober mom, I couldn't tell when she was drunk. At least not until she got behind the wheel of a car and couldn't keep it between the lines. And yes, I have been in the car with her when she was drunk at least three times that I can remember. I can remember being 8 and telling my mom to watch out for the stop sign, slow down that light is red. Please mom I don't really want to go on this picnic, lets just go home and watch TV.

My parents split up when I was 8 because of the alcohol. I went with my dad. Visiting mom was like spending time with a silly, crazy friend. She was fun but she wasn't really a mom. When I was 9 and over to visit her. I still couldn't tell she was drunk. She was just taking a nap on the couch. I asked her if I could go play games at the arcade. This was back when Space Invaders, Asteroids and Galaga were new. She gave me $80 in cash and called a cab to take me to the arcade. I knew she gave me a lot of money but I didn't really have any idea how much it was until the guy have me two rolls of quarters for just one of those $20 bills. Do you know how long you can play video games with two pockets full of quarters? You also make a lot of friends with that many quarters. I didn't even have to cash in another $20 for more quarters before I was ready to go home. The problem was that I didn't know where home was. I didn't know my mom's address. I could describe what the apartment complex looked like but I didn't know what the name of it was. In a city like Portland, OR there are many apartment complexes that fit the description. I had to call my dad. He was very angry. He took the remaining money away from me. It was probably his in the first place, having gone to mom in an alimony check.

By the time I was 15 my mother moved back to Canada to be closer to my grandma. I went to visit her the summer I was 15. It was great she lived close to the Okanagan lake in Summerland, BC. We would go buy a bag of fruit and just sit on the beach and read or do what ever came to mind. It was great. When it was time to go home she wanted to drive me rather than put me on a bus. She could visit friends in Portland that way. I actually did most of the driving because I had a learner's permit. When we got close to Portland she said she would drive since I didn't really know the way through the big city and I was still just a learner. We didn't get far before I realized that she was piss drunk. I have no idea how she pulled that off. I don't remember letting her out of my sight short of when she went to the bathroom, but some how she got a hold of a big ol' jug of wine and got hammered while I wasn't looking. I told her that I really needed to use the bathroom again and as soon as she pulled over I had to physically take the keys from her and make her get in the passenger seat. That was the most terrifying driving experience of my life. I had to drive though downtown Portland coming in on 84 and trying to get to Beaverton on the other side. If you know Portland then you know that 84 ends in downtown and it is not exactly a straight shot to Beaverton. At least it wasn't back in the mid 80's. Crazy rush hour traffic and white knuckles all the way.

When 23 and just finishing up college I saw my mom for the last time. She was visiting friends in Albany, not far from where I was going to school in Corvallis, OR. I went to pick her up in my broken down Honda and took her to a movie and DQ. She was so helpless, so dependent. She was like a kid. It was heartbreaking but I was just glad to see her. I didn't know that would be the last time I would see her. I was lucky. That last time with her was nice. My sister's argued with her the last time they saw. Even when you know that your mother is going to die sooner or later because of the alcohol it still hits you like a ton of bricks when it happens. My dad called me one bright Saturday summer morning less than a year later, to tell me that something terrible had happened. My first though was that someone died. A cousin? An aunt or uncle? Maybe grandma. I wasn't ready to hear that my mom died.

This is how I remember my mommy who drank.

The truth goes a bit more like this...

2006-11-09T10:19:00.000-06:00

Great post over at the Eternal Bachelor. Seems some "wishes she was a dude" made this comment to a earlier post on tramp stamps:

my white english wife of 8 yrs has a tramp stamp as you call it.its a chinese symbol that means alot to her. she is a great cook kepps the house spotless and loves my family. she raised a great kid on her own who is now a scientist after the father left her without a cent and then dissapeared o s when she was only 21 and her son was 1. he was the 1 who wanted to start a family in the 1st place. she got 2 jobs as a cleaner to put herself thru uni and got 2 degrees and shes never been on benefits. she has a good job and helps in my business. shes sexy smart and a real laugh.like a lot of women. to read shit like this just because of a tatoo is bullshit. your going to rely on women nurses when your lonely sad old men stuck in the lonely sad old mens home with noone to visit you so youd better sort yourselves out.i wouldnt trade places with any of you.

The truth goes a bit more like this...

My white Irish ex-wife of 3 years wanted a tattoo, but I didn't want her to have such an ugly thing, let alone pay for it. She was an passable cook, when she cooked at all, which was at most 3 evening meals in a week. Usually more like 1 or 2. She had 5 kids with a guy and then was stupid enough to cheat on him. Though this was not how she spun the story. She held multiple jobs as a cleaner to put herself though junior college and got a single, 2 year degree in marketing. Probably so she could use her "amazing" communication skills. Despite her jobs she was still on every form a public assistance she could scrounge and ran up significant student debt that she wanted me to pay off. Needing this kind of help might sound reasonable for a single mother of 5 except for the part where the kids lived with their father! When we were married she didn't have a good job, in fact she quit her crap job a month BEFORE we got married to be a stay at home mom to her now teenage kids. She also didn't help me in my business. In fact, for the most part she was a hindrance. Wanted me to take time off and work less to help her do things at home. Take vacation just so that I can work at home! WTF! She thought she was sexy, she thought she was smart, she thought she had a great personality and was a real laugh, like a lot of women think, but aren't. The reality was that she was a man hater. Addicted to her sense of victimhood having being abused by her stepfather as a child, which I am not entirely convinced actually happened. She was amazingly bitchy and controlling about everything. The marriage counselor even came straight out and told her that she was being a bully. To read shit like this just because of a tattoo makes me think, hell yeah, this guy knows what he is talking about. Keep on posting. Your going to rely on women nurses when your lonely old men stuck in the lonely old men's home with nobody to visit you, but at least you will be able to afford that nursing home when you get there. You could have gotten married, gotten cleaned out by some bitch and turned out a lonely old man stuck on a park bench with the Sunday Time for a blanket. I was stupid enough to think that I wouldn't be lonely if I was married. I lived in a 4 bedroom house with 6 other people and I was just as lonely as when I was single, perhaps even more so since having any friends of my own was close to impossible. And not only was I still lonely I was now also broke all the time. Paying for and buying things that I didn't want. You can be surrounded with people and still lonely if those people don't really like you. I ranked a solid number 8 in my house. 1 wife, 5 kids and the dog ranked higher on the list than I. I wouldn't trade places with you only because I don't need to. I am right there with ya bud.

Stay strong. Stay single.

What a picture

2006-11-09T09:06:00.000-06:00

Great observation by John Lillpop in his latest article on MND.

Picture the scene if you have the stomach: From the White House, President Bush surrounded by the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy proudly signs the amnesty bill.

Are you sure he's really a conservative?

2006-11-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

At his first post-election news conference, President Bush seemed cheerily
optimist about the "good chance" he now has to pass the
so-called "comprehensive" amnesty bill:

"I think we have a good chance [at passing the amnesty
bill]. Thank you. It's an important issue and I hope we
can get something done on it. I meant to put that in my
list of things that we need to get done."

That sure didn't take long. With Republicans like Bush who needs Democrats. One might hope that a Republican president might resist a liberal congress for the two years he had left. You might hope that but you would likely be sorely disappointed.

End of the world or the beginning of a world gov't?

2006-11-07T11:01:00.000-06:00

This story from the Telegraph reports that, according to Sir Nicholas Stern and others, the UN's report on global warming is more about their grab at the reigns of a one world gov't than it is about the impending doom of our planet.

Surprised?

Me neither.

Something to chew on while I play my game.

2006-11-03T11:36:00.000-06:00

Most readers here are probably familiar with these essays but for those who might not have come across them I would say that they put forth the most basic arguments against marriage in our matriarchal society. Each is progressively longer and more detailed than the last but all are very intelligent.

Stay single, young man! is a short essay by Vox Day. It gets right to the point.

The original dontmarry.com essay is a bit longer with more detail.

The Garbage Generation is not so much an essay as an entire book, only published on the web. (that I am aware of) It is very scholarly, very well researched and has lots of references and citations.

What else would you put forward as the foundational documents of the "Stay Single" philosophy?

Because I felt like it, that's why!

2006-11-03T11:09:00.000-06:00

Sorry I have, once again been out of the loop. First there was the week from hell at work. Got to pay the price for having taken a vacation after all. Then I ordered a brand new computer and started to play World of Warcraft.

What an amazing time sink.

The great thing is that I don't feel guilty. I don't have a wife to bitch at me for not working harder to make her more money to spend. It has been basically 5 long years since I have played a game like this, and with such abandon. Sure there was that short stint on Star Wars Galaxies during our second year of marriage but I paid for that indiscretion in spades. She gave me hell for "wasting time" on that game. Nope basically lost my hobbies, recreations and friends after getting engaged. 6 month engagement, 3 year marriage, 6 month divorce, 1 year getting out of debt. I still have 1 more year of getting out of debt but I figured I would spend a little money on a computer since she got my laptop and 2 desktops, (not to mention everything else) bought pre-engagement, in the divorce. My only access to the internet has been a loner laptop from work. Not exactly an appropriate place to install personal games. Not that it even could run something like WoW.

And wow is WoW wow. Lots of fun not to mention safer than dating the psychotic women who are my age and single out there. Thanks, but I would rather die a single nerd, than be some privilege princess' pack mule.

How many crimes can you fit in one paragraph...

2006-10-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

Another morally challenge female that:
1. Made a false accusation of date rape.
2. Abandoned (attempted murder in my opinion) her newborn in the trash.
3. Statutory rape, the father was a 12 year old boy.
4. Incest, the boy is her cousin.

What the @#%$! I guess if you are going to be a psycho bitch you might as well go for broke and have a story worth selling to Lifetime as a miniseries. Speaking of which...

She wrote "Sacred Womb" and formed Second Chance of Life, a nonprofit group...

Her work led to appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "20/20."

Gotta love the big O.

This is why our society is dying, and probably should.

At least she is getting jail time though I am sure she will be paroled within a year. She did say she was sorry after all.

Another Child killing mom!

2006-10-12T10:49:00.000-05:00

French woman in South Korea kills her two newborns by wrapping them up and sticking them in a freezer. What the hell is wrong with women!

Absent

2006-10-10T22:58:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the lack of posting this last month. It was vacation time and though the vacation didn't last the whole month, getting prepared for the time off ahead of time and then catching back up after my return took its toll. The work just keeps on stacking up when you are gone.

I never could get that across to my ex. She was always wanting me to take a day off, usually to help her with something around the house. Why would I want to take a day off to work around the house only to have to make the day's office work up over the next week. When I took a day off it I wanted to have the day completely off or go on vacation. Of course we never had the money to go on vacation because she didn't understand what saving was. Then when I was home it was a constant nag-fest. Work was my vacation. The office was my sanctuary. More or less.

Not any more. This time I spent two weeks with my parents. Ok so its not Aruba but then I am still paying off the debt accumulated from the long nightmare. Now you have to understand that my parents live near a lake in northern Idaho. And they are retired. Now retired people now how to chill out and enjoy life and doing that in the midst of trees and mountains and lakes is alright with me. Very nice. Fishing and layin' about and close enough to Canada to get some good Canadian beer.

Who will be the more favored minority?

2006-10-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

from Men's News Daily:

Muslim cab drivers say ‘no dice’ to transgendered fare

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the liberals. I mean, how are you ever going to be able to choose who you favorite victem of society is. It's like a normal person trying to decide which of their children they love the most.

Good news for fathers

2006-09-04T17:13:00.000-05:00

Lets hope this idea catches on.

Fundamental Rights in the EU

2006-09-01T09:41:00.000-05:00

Now that's funny. Though we yanks don't have much to boast about. What I can't figure out for certain is if it really is a joke or for real. Surely it is a joke but you decide.

VeriChip Sells First Baby Protection System

2006-09-01T08:14:00.000-05:00

Well here's and article that will curl your short hairs. We all knew it was coming. I was just hoping it was a few more years away. I love how they try to spin it as a baby protection system. I mean, who wouldn't want to protect their infant. Be a good parent and join the New World Order. I for one already have a baby protection system. It is called a Remmington 870 and I have a backup called a Kimber Desert Warrior 1911 45 ACP. Beyond that, the best advice I can give is to watch your little ones. That's right, keep an eye on them as opposed to say, drinking another margarita. Nanny statism pisses me off.

Stay away from career women

2006-08-24T23:51:00.000-05:00

That's the message of a new Forbes article but then for a while the article disappeared. Hmmm. Seem it was a bit too controversial. But lo and behold, the article returns, now with a counter-point article. The original article sites studies, books and articles but the counter point is a bit less rigorous. The first to words after the title pretty much sum it up.

“Studies aside.”

‘nuff said.

Ha, just too funny.

2006-08-22T23:50:00.000-05:00

Just had to post this gem. Liberalism just doesn't get why their ideology cannot sustain itself through the generations. Unfortunately even the Republicans are not doing a great job at filling the gap. Oh well. Republicans are pretty disappointing as well so I guess it isn't that bad.

Good News

2006-08-22T23:19:00.000-05:00

The world didn't end but then you probably noticed that. The one sure fire way to make certain that the world doesn't end on a particular day is to predict that day will be the day. Every mad man wants his special day to be a suprise so I am sure President Wacko decided to postpone the apocylpse to a day not quite so predictable. You don't want some American professor to be able to say that he guessed the day after all. It'll probably be tomorrow just so that Mamood can say, "Ha, got ya" or the Arabic equivalent. It's all for the best. I really wasn't sure if I was suppose to be greeting people with "Happy Armageddon" or "Merry Armageddon"

Take care now and don't forget to kiss your kids good night. Each day is a gift after all. Whether we are taking them very seriously or not.

The eve of Armageddon

2006-08-21T21:19:00.000-05:00

So here we are the night before the world is suppose to end. At least according to some guy whose name I don't care to look up now. I guess he believes that President Wacko of Iran is going to pull something because tomorrow is the anniversary of something important to Islam. I suppose it is possible and I probably shouldn't be so flip about it. I guess I just don't know how to prepare for the end of the world since I have never been to one before. I have maybe two or three weeks of food in the cupboards though I don't know how I would prepare any of it if the power went out. At least my can opener is hand powered.

There is a small part of me that wants to be more of a survivalist. To be able to live 'off the grid' if I had to. I am just enough of a pessimist to believe that America is not going to survive another two decades even if it does survive the next 30 hours or so. But financially I am still just digging myself out of the hole that my now ex-wife dug us into over a three year period that ended about a year ago. I guess I am just hoping that the end of the world is a few more years off. By then I hope to be out of the little apartment and back in a small house with a storm cellar that I can fill up with Spam and ammo. But for now I am stuck in my little apartment that doesn't have a fireplace that could be used to cook something in a pinch. What little camping gear I did have is now gone. I think she sold it in a garage sale. I am truly at God's mercy. But that's not so bad. God's a pretty good guy to have at your side when the going gets rough.

Blessings and I hope to chat with y'all some more about this time tomorrow.

$5 Coffee Cards

2006-08-18T10:30:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else find these little buggers annoying? You know that almost worthless $5 gift card from Starbucks, the only place in the world where a coffee might end up costing you more than the $5. It seems that I am getting more and more email advertising a technical web seminars that come with a $5 Coffee Card for signing up today. Some kind of fad with there marketing folks I guess. Now I guess $5 is not a whole lot of money to a company that charges hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the maintenance contract on their software but honestly I would be much happier with a crisp $1 bill. I would be buck richer and big shot tech company would have save $4 on their advertising. Everyone's happy. Well, not Starbucks but who cares about them. With my $1 bill I can buy 20oz Dr Pepper from the vending machine or shave a dollar off of lunch but with a gift card I have to go out of my way to go buy overpriced coffee from snotty liberal college kids. And I don't know what half that crap is. Venti cappa what? Is this a fraternity? I'm I on a hidden camera? This is going on a website called "Making fun of the coffee illiterate bumpkin." Not for me. Give me an old six table diner with bar that serves two kinds of coffee, regular and decaf. And a waitress with a country accent and a pretty smile saying "Cream or sugar with that hon?" And you know how much that coffee cost? That's right, one dollar.

News Photo Fraud

2006-08-17T16:14:00.000-05:00

Stunning, just stunning. This clip about news photo fraud should just floor ya.

Thanks go to Minute of Angle for the link.

Wrongfully Convicted Man Freed

2006-08-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

This chilling report of a Wrongfully Convicted Man Freed shows just how dysfunctional our justice system is. In this case it had a happy ending but in the end it came down to the fact that his accuser recanted the story, a politician got involved and almost by chance, they found the real criminal. This guy got lucky

He was nailed and sent to prison for 7 years because his 6 year old niece, who was raped in the dark of night, said that it sounded like Uncle Clarence. What does that really mean? That the man was about the same size and his foot steps sounded the same? Who's not going to sound like Uncle Clarence. The prosecution then barely even tried to get any other evidence. They basically preyed on the fact that people desperately want to believe a frightened little girl who was victimized. The article make a great point.

Both victims and defendants suffer whenever the standards of proof required for a conviction are lowered.

You do nobody any good if you grab the wrong guy. Punishing someone, anyone is too often the goal of a prosecution team. They are too interested in just rapping things up as quickly as possible and then if there are inconsistencies, they work double time to cover their ass and hide any evidence that they may have made a mistake. What ever happened to wanting to find out the truth. What ever happened to seeking justice simply because it is right. This poor guy is going to get a million dollars for wrongful imprisonment but in my mind money is not the point. I would rather have seen the prosecutor and the judge put to death for such a hideous abuse of power. There is no excuse for this man having gone to prison on the basis of one flimsy piece of testimony and no physical evidence.

Do any of you guys know a 6 year old girl? A family member maybe or a neighbor? If you do then you might not be safe. What if the real rapist leaves the state? In the end you might not turn out to be as lucky as this guy.

Speaking of stupid people...

2006-08-16T15:16:00.000-05:00

"The problem that President Bush has, that in his mind he wants to solve everything with bombs. Today is the era of thoughts, dialog, and cultural exchanges."
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

What's a person to say to a thing like that. Pot, I would like you to meet Kettle. Kettle, this is Pot. What is that your making there in your dessert Mr. Mahmood sir? What is it that your young men and even a few women are strapping to themselves and going into Israel with?

Of course, liberal weenies across the country are eating this up. "He just wants to talk." Right. Keep telling yourself that Neville. This dude is crazy. He is going to blow something up before the end of the year.

Perhaps even in just a week.

First!

2006-08-16T14:19:00.000-05:00

Wait a minute. That wasn't much of a contest.

The truth is I just didn't want a first post on this blog to launch straight into a significant topic. Don't want to get anyone's expectations too high. And I damn sure didn't want it to be an introduction to who Viking is and what he likes to do in his free time. This ain't a chick blog. You don't need to know that much about me and the kinda folks who might put up with my ramblings probably want to keep it that way. Seriously, I am just not that interesting.

Mostly we are going to talk about stupid people. Why? Because stupid people piss me off. Too much babbling and not enough thinking going on in the world. So who are these stupid people? Ah, well that could take a bit of time to properly define. Stick around.