Duluth, you'll always be my kind of town

"Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one."
-- Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

This will be my last blog posting for a while. I'm packing up my computer tomorrow (or later today as it were), and I'll hit the road Saturday. Depending on when my stuff arrives, I hope to reconnect with the rest of the world in a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure what to say at this point. I would list my fond memories from my time in Duluth or why I'm thankful for each of the friendships I've made in the past three and a half years, but not even the Internet would have enough space for such a list.
Since I've been here, I've grown immensely as a copy editor and as a person. So many of the friends I've made feel like they've been friends for life, rather than of only a few years or less. And I hope those relationships continue for life.

I guess what I most want to say is thank you.
Thank you for the lessons you've taught me, for inviting me into your lives, for the wonderful memories and especially for the laughter.

I'm sure that we will continue to keep in touch, and I look forward to the time when our paths cross again. I wish only the best for all of you.

Movin' on up

On Friday, the movers come to take my stuff away. There was some confusion about whether they should be here this Friday or the next (Feb. 25), but it's all straightened out now. They'll be here this week and I'll drive out to Norfolk over the next several days and start work Thursday, Feb. 24.
The first time I talked to them, I asked when they would be able to deliver my items. The answer: March 1-8.
So I've had to arrange my packing a little so that I can take the necessities with me when I drive out there -- clothes, TV, video games.
And I'll be sleeping on a sleeping bag on my floor for about a week.
Should be interesting.

The end of an era

Well, my last day of work at the paper was Saturday. On Friday, we had a nice little farewell gathering with Capt. Dusty McAwesome giving a nice speech and presenting me with a kickball that had been signed by everyone (many of us played regular kickball games during the summer) and a Pacman-shaped cake.
Last night after work, many of us went out bowling and then to the bar. Because I had lost a bowling bet, I also had to drink -- something for which I have little tolerance or desire. The result was nausea, a little drunkenness, a quick end to the drinking and a reaffirmation of why I don't do it.
Today involved us playing video games, eating BBQ and playing poker -- three things every day should include.
The week will continue like this, with small celebrations and final get-togethers -- mixed with a lot of packing and other random moving errands. It's a funny thing, saying goodbye. While I'm not sad to leave my job, I'm sad to leave the place and the people. While I look forward to the times and challenges ahead, I also look back with fondness and a sense of longing.
As Dusty has said, we were living in a Golden Age, and we didn't even know it.

Return of the prodigal site

For the two or three of you who knew about it, Gig Matrix has returned. It's bigger, better and has shorter posts, which I'm sure will be appreciated by those of you put into a coma by my lengthy ramblings before. For those that have been deprived of Gig Matrix, it's a Web site run by a few friends and I that deals with video games, movies, TV, etc. It had an earlier incarnation, went into a cocoon for a while and emerged as an incredibly geeky butterfly.
Or something like that.
Anyhow, check it out. The guys have promised to keep it pretty updated, though I probably won't have a chance to start contributing for a few weeks.

On an unrelated note, check your change. Your Wisconsin quarter could be worth, like, $1,000.

Trippin'

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I had a last minute trip back out to Norfolk to find a place to live, which I did. A (more or less) quick recap:

Day 1, Part 1: Fuzzy math

My flight from the Twin Cities to Norfolk left at 1:30 p.m. Monday. I had chosen to drive down to the Cities and fly from there rather than from Duluth because I didn't want to deal with the hassles of connecting flights and the ordeal of running through the airport trying to catch a flight. This reasoning would almost end up being very ironic.
Late Sunday night, I was figuring out when I needed to wake up and leave by. I wanted to be at the airport an hour and a half early ... so noon ... it would take two and a half hours to drive down there, so I should leave by 10:30. Great.
It was about half an hour into the drive the next morning that I realized my mistake.
I should have left at 9:30.
Oops.
I figured my saving grace would be that it had never before taken me more than 10 minutes to get through the line for the tickets and the line for security. That would leave me with about 20 minutes to rush to the gate.
After finally getting to the airport a little before 1 p.m., I desperately sought a parking space near the terminal entrance. In desperation, I asked God for an open space. Lo and behold, three spaces in from the door, I found one.
As I entered the airport, I was dismayed to see that the security line was long. Very long. Go figure.
As I checked in, the self-service kiosk told me that my flight had been delayed. I looked at the list of scheduled departures. It was delayed by exactly one hour. Good thing, too, because I was starving and I ended up flying out of a gate in a far, far away concourse that took me, I kid you not, 20-25 minutes to get to by walking at a brisk pace. There's no way I would have made that flight if it hadn't been delayed.
I'm aware that I lead a pretty blessed life. Sometimes it's just more obvious than others.

Day 1, Part 2: I want my baby-back ribs, dammit!

After landing in Norfolk and getting my rental car, I was driving to the hotel in the downtown area when I began to notice the abundance of restaurants which I have gone without since I moved to Duluth -- Chik-fil-A, Sonic, Arby's, Papa John's. It was a thing of beauty. So after I checked into the hotel, I checked out the phone book for restaurants within walking distance. I saw a Chili's (also something we don't have in Duluth) that had an address on Monticello Avenue. As luck would have it, that was right by the hotel and next to the mall that was across the street. I figured the restaurant had to be somewhere nearby. So I set out on my evening walk. By the time I passed the mall and had gone several blocks I began to think to myself, "Perhaps I should have bothered to remember the street number." But no matter -- it couldn't be that far, and it felt good to stretch my legs after being cooped up in a car or airplane all day, it wasn't too cold out and the fresh air was nice. So I kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
After about 20 minutes, I began to think I should turn around. I mean, I like Chili's, but it's not that great or anything. But by that point, I was on a quest and determined to see it through.
Eventually, I hit the end of Monticello Avenue.
No Chili's.
So I took what looked like a major road back in the direction of the hotel and figured I'd just stop wherever looked good on the way back.
But apparently I picked a road without any restaurants on it. I got close to the mall and found a McDonald's, but I had not walked for more than an hour and what I later figured out to be about four miles to eat at a McDonald's that I could frickin' go to at home.
I entered the mall instead and looked at the restaurants listed on the directory.
What was the first one listed?
Yep, Chili's.
It was IN the mall the whole time.
As I said, my blessed life is more obvious at some times than others.

Day 2, Part 1: The hunt

I had done a fair amount of looking at apartments over the Internet before I left home, so I spent the morning making phone calls and decided to visit two apartments. As I'm sure most of you know, I despise shopping. Something about the kryptonite in the lights just saps my strength. It ends up shopping for apartments is still a form of shopping, and probably a worse kind. Sort of like red kryptonite -- still bad, just in a different way. My impatience with this sort of activity is probably a double-edged sword -- I get things done quickly, but I don't comparison shop as much as I probably should.
I had an apartment picked and signed up for by 3 p.m. It seems like a nice place in a convenient location. It's a two bedroom, so I've got plenty of room and there's an outdoor pool, which is nice.

Day 2, Part 2: Where's the party at?

So having taken care of that, I had no idea what to do for the rest of the day. I had read in the paper about a Mardi Gras parade that would be going on at 5 p.m., so shortly before then, I decided to go check it out. I haven't lived in a state that celebrated Mardi Gras since I was a kid, so I thought it might be fun.
Well, to quote Daryl Zero: "A few words on looking for things. When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them."
Unfortunately, yet again, I was looking for something specific. And while I thought I was on the right street, if there was indeed a parade there, it was very small and very quick, because I never saw it.
So instead, I decided to drive around the better part of Norfolk, stop at the beach to stare out across Chesapeake Bay and generally wander around aimlessly to get to know the area a little better.
Then I called it an early night.
Maybe I'll find the party next year.

A group of journalists walk into a bar....

My cohorts and I decided to try something new tonight after work. We would ditch the usual bar for someplace different -- get a change of scenery. Those that know me know that I am not a bar person. I'll go to them every once in awhile to socialize and because I like playing pool and darts, but if I never had to go into another bar again, I'd be totally fine with that. Actually, I'd probably be quite happy.

So we got to the other bar, and it ends up it was pretty much exactly like the old one. It was smoky, loud, crowded and had creepy old guys that kept trying to hit on women the same age as their daughters.

What's that they say about the devil you know vs. the devil you don't?

At any rate, I wasn't in the mood for it, but we decided to go to Perkins afterward. We call it the Perkins Drunk Tank because after about midnight, all the drunk people go there for food. Tonight there must have been a high school dance or something, because we went from drunk, old, creepy guys to drunk, dressed up, high school kids. There were several loud, off-key, not-all-singing-together renditions of "Happy Birthday" that most of the restaurant would get into, which was almost as interesting as the one night we went to a karaoke bar and the night closed with everyone in the place going on to the stage and drunkenly singing "Amazing Grace."

One of the kids was totally greased up and trying to act very suave. We actually thought he might be a vampire (Buffy fans, you know the look I'm talking about), but I could see his reflection in my knife. The knife was pretty dirty, though, so I could have been wrong.

Too bad. Staking a vampire would have made the night a lot more interesting.

Hell, come to think of it, staking a high school kid would have, too....

Quick hits

A few totally random and mostly news-related things:

1) In answer to a question about where to read more about Social Security, I would suggest a few things -- the Common Sense on Social Security Web site (it hasn't been updated recently and I haven't looked at all of it, but the site contains some good information), a columnist for TheStreet.com has a good article as well, this is a quick look at Bush's plan, and of course, there's the Social Security Web site, too. If you have audio on your computer, you can also check out NPR's fact check on Bush's State of the Union address, which talks some about Social Security and other issues mentioned in the speech.

2) In a disturbing survey, it was found that one-third of high school students think the press has too much freedom. Even worse, 36 percent think the government should have to approve stories before they're published. PEOPLE!!!!!!! You're totally missing the point of a FREE press!!!!!
Kids these days....

3) Speaking of disturbing, it seems yet another columnist has been paid by the government (with your tax dollars) to promote various policies (without disclosing the pay). That makes at least three for those of you keeping score.

That's all for now. I promise to do something more light-hearted soon.

Social security blanket

If we're going to have a public debate about reforming Social Security, let's get a few things straight:

First of all, Bush and others have said that Social Security will be bankrupt by 2040 and that taxes will have to be raised or benefits reduced by 2018. Neither is true. In 2018, the money that Social Security pays out will exceed the money that it takes in. But Social Security's trust fund has been building a surplus of more than $3 trillion since the '80s. The fund will be able to pay all of its benefits until 2041 by most estimates and it can continue to pay most of its benefits long after that. So it's not exactly a crisis, as some would have you believe. (But calling something a crisis is a good way to induce fear and get support for your plan. See War in Iraq. Speaking of misdirection, if you want a REAL crisis, look at Medicare. Its trust fund will be gone by 2019.)

But that doesn't mean that Social Security doesn't need to be reformed -- and better to start thinking about it now than to keep putting it off as is likely to happen. But are the private accounts that Bush touts the answer? Well, if you're looking to shore up Social Security, no. Having people put money into private accounts doesn't do anything to help Social Security financially and actually hurts it. As people put money into private accounts, that's less money that will go into Social Security, exacerbating the problem. The costs of a transition into private accounts are estimated to be up to $2 trillion. (As if it weren't running enough deficits already.) Funny, no one's really talking about that, though.

Bush and his supporters are right that, over the long run, you would get a better return out of private accounts than you would Social Security. The problem comes when you retire and start drawing on that money. At that point, you're no longer dealing with the long term, you're dealing with the short term. So if there happens to be a dip in the economy when you retire, you're going to get less money than you expected. And while the market will eventually even itself out, that doesn't help you at that point in time.

So what's a government to do? Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, has a proposal that both sides have criticized, which means he's probably doing something right. It involves phasing in voluntary private accounts (which Democrats don't like), the transition costs for which would be paid for by raising the cap on the Social Security payroll tax to $200,000 (which Republicans don't like because it's a tax increase and one that hits the wealthy). (Right now, only the first $90,000 of your income is taxed for Social Security.) The voluntary private accounts would involve government-approved funds to keep the investing fairly risk-free. And benefits would be changed to reflect price changes, rather than wage rates. (This would decrease benefits somewhat but would still keep them in line with what you would be spending the money on.)

This isn't in Graham's plan, but I think gradually and carefully raising the retirement age to 70 needs to be strongly considered. (It was last changed in 1983 to gradually rise to 67.) People are living longer and the retirement age needs to reflect that.

Finally, the government needs to figure out a way to encourage people to save independently of Social Security. Right now, 33 percent of retirees depend on Social Security for 90 percent to 100 percent of their income. Two-thirds of retirees use it as more than half of their income. It was never intended to be the sole source of income for retirees, simply a safety net and a supplement.

So that's my spiel on Social Security. If you made it all the way through, I congratulate you.