Fraize Dotcom

It’s September 12th, and all sorts of Americans have converged on our nation’s capital to protest. Looking at their signs and shirt slogans, you’d believe they question the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s citizenship, their disagreement with the direction the health-care debate is going and the country’s perceived inexorable march towards socialism.

So, I became curious – it’s what intelligent people do when presented with information that they don’t understand. I started to research other countries. See what they do with their governments, their taxes, see what health-care systems they model, and what sort of consequences those choices have on their overall prosperity.

I chose Norway to compare against the United States, and what I discovered was very interesting.

First, let’s compare the political systems of Norway to the USA. We here in the US enjoy a representative democracy, currently run by the Democratic party. Norway is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament mostly run by the Socialist Left party. Gasp! Socialists! No doubt they’ve got a universal health-care system!

In fact, they do! Their health care system is 100% covered and paid for from tax revenue. There are waiting lists for some services – a hip-replacement, for example, can take 3 months before surgery. Certainly, they must have people dying left and right in Norway, right?

Wrong! Despite our short lines for health coverage, the quality is lower. Norway enjoys the 24th highest life expectancy in the world. USA rests comfortably at 50th place – just above Albania, though not as good as Bosnia.

To pay for universal health care, Norway’s highest individual income tax rate is upwards of 48%. Well, one might argue, because of all of this socialism and these expensive entitlement programs, Norway must have no incentive to work. They must have the laziest populace out there, right?

Wrong again. Norway’s GDP per capita is third highest in the world. USA with its highest rate at 38% sites sadly at sixth place.

Okay, so Norway beats us in productivity, health coverage and life expectancy, so surely their quality of life must be lower – bland and flattened due to this redistribution of wealth, right? Where’s the drive to achieve if there’s no chance to be rich?

To be a millionaire is surely every American’s dream! Unfortunately, you’d be better off in Norway. They have more millionaires per capita than the USA. Norway beats us with 1 millionaire per every 86 people while the US has 1 per 125.

Let’s sum up – Norway’s a Socialist country with universal health care, but they live longer, are more productive and have greater opportunities to be rich than here. So I’m left puzzled exactly why the right is so up in arms?

They say that the definition of insanity is yadda yadda blah blah you’ve heard it all before, but the final quarter of this year has been the most stressful time for me ever since I started working at ThinkGeek.

We are a retail store after all, and the Christmas shopping season requires an insane level of effort. We’re still trying to find more and more cool product, write copy for it, edit videos, all while maintaining inventory for all the products we already buy. Sales explode during this time, so extra attention is required to make sure we don’t run out of hot product.

This all translates into ten to fourteen hour days, barely leaving enough time to do my own holiday shopping. It’s no accident that many ThinkGeek employees give ThinkGeek product as Christmas gifts – it’s the easiest way to save time.

So why, when I’m already tearing my hair out with business, would I dare try and do NaNoWriMo again?

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a shortening of “National Novel Writing Month,” where crazy people try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Not impossible, but very very difficult. Last year, I was so buried in work that it was a fantastic relief to quit my NaNoWriMo attempt after 13,000 words. The year before, I successfully wrote over my 50k, but the resulting “novel” was so awful, I wouldn’t dare share it with anyone. This year, I have a killer idea and can’t wait to start writing.

I think that’s why people keep trying. My friend and coworker, Jamie, told me that when he envisions a character, they demand to be written. Once my idea formed in my head, the protagonist snapped nearly fully formed in my head, and I could see him tapping the glass between my imagination and my consciousness – “hey, buddy. Why aren’t you writing? It’s kinda bleak in here and I could use some toys to play with.”

So, yes – here’s my formal announcement. NaNoWriMo ‘09 will be attempted again this year. God help me.

It was a good weekend, populated by two parts productivity, two parts slack, and one part food. Pour into a cocktail shaker with ice chips, shake vigorously, and pour into straight-sided glasses. Serve with a twist.

Saturday, we shocked ourselves by waking up at nearly 11:30am. This honestly never happens to me anymore!  I don’t think I’ve slept that late since I was in my twenties. I felt unbelievably lazy, and all the more fired up to get something useful accomplished.

Luckily, Heather was also in the mood for focus, so we went  to where our heads would be clear, the caffeine bottomless, and enough food to keep us there all day. Behold, the miracle of Panera!

We both brought our laptops. Heather organized her hundreds of photos from our recent Hawaii trip, and I went through a week’s worth of lectures and homework for my iPhone programming class. Having gotten through all my homework, I felt completely justified spending half the day Sunday playing Fallout 3.

Buffalo Mozzarella with Fresh Pineapple

Dinner tonight was pizza! My sister bought Heather and me a pizza-making kit, including a pizza stone, peel, and a dough-mix. It was quite a mess, but so totally worth it! Buffalo mozzarella, sauce, garlic, oregano, basil, and pineapple. Oh yeah, you just gotta have pineapple.

My aunt Nadene surprised me last week with an Evite. “Mr. and Mrs. Michael Zuidema request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Sarah Elizabeth to James Garrett Whitt on Saturday the 17th of January 2009.”

I was quite surprised, needless to say! One week? How can they put together a wedding in just one week? What surprised me more was how well the wedding and reception came together with practically no notice. All credit goes to Nadene and her sister – my other aunt – Cheryl. It was Cheryl’s church, and her American Express card, I’m told, that threw the whole thing together.

Watching James and Sarah get married was so sweet – he’s in the Army, and wore his dress uniform, and Sarah’s dress was beautiful. James was very cool, and more goofy than I expected in a soldier. Meaning, of course, that he’ll get along great with the rest of my family. Goofballs, every last one of them.

Probably the funniest moment of the night was what I heard sotto from the grandparents’ table on the groom’s side. “Q: What was her name, again? A: Sarah.” Ah, the wondrous pitfalls of fastrack weddings!

You can go and check out all the photos from the wedding here, if you’re so inclined.

This is mostly for me, so I can watch the inaugural on Hulu, live, from work. You can enjoy it yourself on Tuesday January 20, of course.

After the holidays are over, my stress levels actually rise! Oh, sure – Christmas, and the responsibilities thereof, can make most people stabby, but I never really had a problem going to visit family, buying and wrapping presents, and such. However, my work requires that I go to a couple of trade-shows, and the two that I’m assigned to happen in January.

I wish I was staying here

First up is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I like going to Vegas – the lights and silliness really appeal to me. Plus, I don’t gamble, so I can appreciate the casinos for their pure entertainment value. The musical beeping of the slots, and the jingle of coins is oddly welcoming.

The show itself is madness – not like Comic Con, where the crushing fanboys everywhere are muscling their way to catch a glimpse of Swoozie Kurz, but where there’s so much product being shown off, you have to set your crap-filter on medium-high, so as to avoid being drawn in by pretty lights. There are very few booth babes at CES anymore, having been banished to the automobile portion of the event.

New York Shocker

A week after that is the New York Gift Fair in, you guessed it, New York City. I do love visiting New York, but I would absolutely hate to live there. While it’s cool to have so much stuff available within walking distance, the city itself is filthy, and the people are unkind. The end-result is a population of people who have to deactivate so much sensation just so they can survive there. I’m sure there are people who will disagree with me, but this is just an outsider’s perspective of the Big Apple. 

I think of New York as the Small World ride at Disney. Fun to ride once, but to be trapped on that ride all day long would be hellish.

I’m watching Doctor Who. Again. Rose Tyler, Mickey the Idiot, and Christopher Bloody Eccleston! 

I'm the Doctor, by the way!

My friend Bob introduced me to the new series of Doctor Who a few years ago, and it was very silly and wonderful at the same time. Living plastic? Sure! Deadly aliens made from upturned garbage-cans? Why not? Human beings reduced to a sheet of skin and a brain in a bowl? Excellent. 

Heather and I got a hold of the Doctor Who Christmas Special “The Next Doctor” and watched it last night. It was a nice little Who adventure, with just the right mix of melancholy and hope to give a bit more depth to the Doctor. I loved the main villain in the story, and the idea of steampunk cybermen was brilliant!

Today, we’ve begun the last four series over. Watching it from the beginning again. Netflix was nice enough to add the first three seasons onto their XBox 360 Streaming service, which pleases me greatly.

Sunday was my birthday, and it was a great day.

It started at midnight, when Heather couldn’t stand to let me go one more minute without giving me my gifts. I love her. She does a great job of disguising gifts so they don’t look like their wrapping. One gift, a lovely copy of Fable II for XBox360, was inserted into a fedex-envelope, and then wrapped in several layers of tissue paper. It ended up looking like a t-shirt when all the wrapping was done! The second gift was inserted into a tiny box. I was totally in the dark about the second gift.

Back in the late summer, when we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, we came across a new merchant selling some unusual leatherworks. Tiny scrunched up faces rendered into leather items like bags and wallets. She bought me this:

Isn’t he cool? He’s a tr-fold wallet, and I’ve named him: “Leatherface Herbertchrist.”

The rest of the day was split between Panera writing sessions, and hitting that Fable II like a mother.

All-in-all, a fine way to turn 39.

Christ, I’m 39?

I spent a good part of the day Saturday and Sunday editing the newest ThinkGeek epic video. It’ll be released on Tuesday, so you’ll just have to wait until then to see it. Sunday’s video editing marathon was mostly done at Panera, where there is free wifi and yummy soup. Heather spent the day reading her journalism textbook, and buying a new computer.

She’s ordered herself a new lappy from Dell. The one she has is a venerable Inspiron that’s about 6 years old. It’s a seriously reliable workhorse – one I helped to upgrade and maintain so it would last 2 years longer than it probably should have. She’s been eyeing a new lappy for a while, and decided not to get a new one until her old Inspiron finally died. Well, last week, the DVD-ROM drive started to fail, so it’s time to take Old Yeller out behind the shed.

She’s sad to say goodbye to the old girl, but she’s excited to have a new machine for NaNoWriMo this year.

Yes, I’m doing NaNo again this year, too!

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with my wonderful old hosting service, Dreamhost, I’ve found that I really do like some of the new services that Apple provides in their MobileMe offering. The tight integration with iPhoto, iMovie, and iWeb are especially nice.

So, I’ve moved my domain again, and updated the look and feel of my blog to reflect the new templates and doodads available to me.

Expect to see more photos, videos, and podcasts as I get my more creative side freed up from the drudgery of maintaining the technical side of things.