Well...yeah

I finally had one of those occasions that a woman contacted me on a singles site I'm on. She wanted to talk, gave me her email. I'm always skeptical of that kind of thing, but ok. I email her, attempt to come up with something to say, and asked her a question. That was at least 2 weeks ago if not 3 (I lost track), not a peep. Same old sh!t, another day. And another one of my younger friends is engaged, and I can't even get a woman to talk to me that said she wanted to talk. What kind of crap is this!? And in just over a month, I have another birthday... another year of being alone.
Yeah, one of those rough nights. And I'm typing on something that no one reads, hoping someone would care. Best I get is something like, "Aw that sucks. I'll be praying for ya." In other words, here's a hankie in lieu of a parashoot. Thanks.

I wonder sometimes...

Why do I post a blog? People generally don't care what I think (even if they ask, they have already made up their minds). People have generally shown that they think I am like a second rate human being to them. If they made a blog, I would be expected to read it, and take what they think would be like bible, not an opinion. Opinions and Ideas are fine, we all have them... but trying to force them on someone else isn't right. That is the beauty of a blog, a person can share there thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc., and people can respond. To bad I see some people turn blogs and forums into places to have flame-wars. I don't understand why people have to be like that, I generally have to work too hard to be that mean, and I'd end up hating myself for it. It offends me when someone has to flame me because they think I am wrong. Fine, maybe I am, but being a jerk about it doesn't help either one of us now does it? I'm not opposed to being corrected, so long as I'm not being attacked personally in the process. They don't like it, what makes them think I do?
Oh, I forgot, I'm a second rate human being. I'm not even worth checking on, much less responding to. Silly me.

Netbooks & Tablet pc's

Liking techno toys, I've been watching netbooks and tablet pc's with some interest. Intel Atom processors in many of the current netbooks are comparible to my old desktop machine that ran Windows XP for a long time before giving it new live with linux. AMD 64 XP 1700+ (1.5ghz), 1gig ram, Geforce 5200. I also remember how slow it was booting XP. It amazes me that they want to run Windows 7 on almost the same specs in a netbook. Solid State Drives kind of got put back on the drawing board, despite being faster than regular hard-drives (SSD's were expensive, low capacity, and unreliable)... too bad, they might have given netbooks a small boost running windows.
Now netbooks running linux (like many did when they first came out) was pretty feasible and interesting. A 1.6ghz cpu and 1gb of ram makes a pretty nice linux computer, and the low power requirements of the Atom made for some impressive "projected" battery life. The problems is price. Do a little shopping around. Most netbooks go for about ~$300, and buyer beware if you want to put linux on it, some of them have proprietary/non-compatible hardware. Now look at notebook computers, you can find some decent (usually more powerful) notebooks for $400-$500. Still have to check things out if you want to run linux, that is par for the course. Battery life isn't as nice, but in all honesty, are you really that far away from an outlet that long?

Now what is really interesting me is a bunch of netbooks and tablets pc's that are running ARM processors. Maybe you have heard of them? ARM is in many smart phones, PDA's, and other small and mobile devices. The closest thing Microsoft has to an OS to run on these cpus is Windows CE/Windows Mobile. From what I have seen of the google phones running Android (a linux OS), I don't know why anyone would want to tie themselves down with Windows on a mobile device. There are a number of companies getting the mobile band wagon with ARM based devices. Even Dell is suppose to have some interesting tablets and netbooks in the works, in varing sizes. Nokia has the N900 mobile computer running a form of linux. Several smaller companies have tablets in the works that have very impressive prototypes, all running ARM and some form of linux (Android, Meego, a few even running a modified version of Ubuntu).
And ARM is not a wimpy processor. A couple tablet prototypes were running HD videos to big tv's with only a 1gigahertz cpu. They have some prototype cpus that are running dual core 2ghz that takes less power than the single core 1.6ghz Atoms that we have now. ARM has been put in phones and PDA's for a while, I think they know how to make good low power processor.
And many of these devices are suppose to be in the sub-$200 range, a couple of the $100 range. Much more practical, and interesting.
Ok, I'm done getting all geeky for a bit.

ARGH!

Yes, I'm a little frustrated. All my "friends" have their friends or family to do stuff with. People have stuff they want me to do, but there doesn't seem to be time for them to return the favor.
Everyone has their 'clicks' and I'm standing there figiting, looking like something has my attention.
If/when I try to seek someone out to talk to, someone else has to come along and interrupt (that is probably going to call them about something piddly tomorrow away). I don't want much, but I'm tired for everyone else thinking they are more important, and other people that enable them. It irritates me to no end when I try to talk to someone I haven't seen in a long time, and someone else has to interrupt! And then we never get to catch up again. I've lost contact with some people because I got tired of it being such a fight to get to talk to them... phones and email never seem to work both ways (in essence, they don't care that we lost touch).
"Alone in a room full of friends." Yep, about sums it up, in real life and online.

Wants vs needs

Some times it amuses me what people want vs what they "need". Often it seems like that they "Need" is something rather petty and/or disposable. They think they need some thing to feel fulfilled some how, and to wave in other people's faces. They will pend ridiculous amounts of time and money on it, when that time or money should be put to something more important, something they really need.
Don't get me wrong, I like to indulge myself from time to time too. They way I look at things is, if I actually have a use for something, then fine. But, does doing or getting it hurt me in some way? Will and still "need" whatever it is a week from now? A month? Am I really doing it for me, or am I doing it for someone else.
Paying bills, or doing something more important, or reaching some goal.
A good example of that. I have some money saved up. I could indulge myself, but, I really need a new(er) car in the near future. My car is succumbing to rust, and won't last forever. I have a real need and a goal in mind.
Many people are more like, "I need that latest gadget, it would be so cool." Yeah, for about a week. Maybe. Hey, I like my toys too, but there is always some better around the corner that everyone will just have to have. Maybe I get a deal yesterdays gadget while everyones drooling on todays or tomorrow gadget. Sure, I want it too, but if I can get a deal on something no one wants, and it does what I Need...
It's like this older laptop I'm typing on. Sure, I'd like a nicer one, but honestly it does what I need. Plus, linux breathed new life into this old laptop, poor thing was strangled with windows. :)
See, there is a difference. It's called moderation, and using a little common sense, two things people seems to have a lot of trouble with.

Singles sites

Since I am single, I have been on various singles sites for several years. Out of all that time I've had one woman that I was friends with for a while, but as I said in another post, it didn't go as I would have liked. Generally it seems that women are a) too far away, b) too young or too old for my preference, c) many ads have not been updated and they have not visited the site in a long time. I have some requirements, but I don't think they are unreasonable, especially when it seems like more is required of the men they are looking for. Non-smoker, honest/considerate, and a least halfway fit (I want us to be able to get out and DO stuff together), are really my only requirements.
I have other preferences (like I would prefer with out kids), and in my area, as I don't really have the means or want to move far. I can be flexible, but I can't seem to be shown the same consideration. One woman flat out demanded that it was MY responsibility to more for her. Like I move hundreds of miles for a stranger. Right.
Most women seem to want someone taller them them. In a way I can understand that, but it out right eliminates me as possibility, because it isn't something I can change, and they can't be flexible.
They want nice looking guy. Again, understandable, as I would like to find a nice looking woman. But it is open to interpretation, and it seems their wants are actually needs.
They want a father for their children. Not unreasonable. What puts up a flag for me is when they are 28, and have 3 kids, the oldest being like 10 or something (rough example). Means she was almost a kid herself, and she didn't learn anything from the first one. I have a moral/ethical problem with this. It also puts a question in my mind 'Would she be loyal to me?' I also have to wonder what kind of morals she has. Not to be mean, but I don't want to inherit someone else's problem.
Anyway, maybe singles sites have worked for some people, and I'm glad for them. Their effectiveness for me remains to be seen. I guess I'm just in the wrong area or something. As I said, only one kinda worked, for a bit, until she couldn't be bothered by me anymore.

I like animals.

I do. I have to say I like them more than people. They are honest. They like you or they don't. They are afraid or they are not. They don't have any reason to hate anyone, unless they are flat out abused. I've even seem some that seem turn out to be a better judge of character than me.
I suppose there are some people that think animals are stupid. Some yes. But I have seen dogs that I consider to be smarter than their owners. I've seen some dogs that I swear they understand what people are saying... what they do is just to odd to be random. It's like they understand, at least to some extent, what is going on.
I also don't think people give birds enough credit. My parents and I used to raise homing pigeons, and there were a couple that were always right there when we entered the loft. They were curious. They would often land on our shoulders or our heads while we were cleaning. It was hard to tell if they were minding our business or messing with us. We hand feed them for a minute (they loved safflower seed, it was like candy to them), and go about our business, and they would ride along on our shoulders. Some times they would pick at our hats if they thought we weren't paying attention. Some times they would even fight with us, coo at us and carry on.
They had their own personalities.