No, I didn’t throw my vote away.
Yesterday, millions of Americans voted to elect Donald Trump president of the United States of America. The close vote results, as has been the case for the last few elections, in a very divided country.
I’ve made no secret of my support of a “third party” candidate and proudly voted for Gary Johnson this election.
As I woke this morning, I found myself greeted with countless messages on how I “cost Hillary the election,” “threw [my] vote away,” “didn’t give a shit,” and so on.
Let me be very clear… There is no scenario where Fred votes for Hillary Clinton. There was also not a scenario where I would vote for Donald Trump. I instead voted for someone who most closely backs my political beliefs.
There’s no reason to get into a “who’s worse” debate between Clinton and Trump. They were both HORRIBLE candidates.
Chipolte as an Example
Normally, Yeni and I have a “no chains” rule when it comes to eating out. Many reasons why on this… from Karma to the 68 rule to keeping the community unique, there are many reasons why a personal no-chain rule works.
Of course, rules are made to be broken, and we do this with the no-chain rule from time-to-time. One of the reasons is to see the process. We don’t feel that chains are evil, far from it, we just normally choose to patronize local independent businesses. Because of this, we still understand that there’s a lot you can learn from visiting a chain… and any brick and mortar in the community is still a good place to spend money.
Too Cool
At the White House Yeni demonstrates her coolness while taking a break in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Evil Exists
Let me preface with a reminder—I’m neither Democrat nor Republican. I proudly have No Party Affiliation. With that out of the way…
There is Evil in this World
I’ve worn many hats throughout my life, and without hesitation I tell you Evil exists, it’s real, and most of the time in this world, you will be the only person capable of defending yourself.
When you have a mass shooting, like the shooting in Orlando, people are very quick to assign immediate blame. People want to blame radical Islamics, gun control, Obama, Bush, or what have you.
Thoughts on Shaving
Shaving—that time honored tradition of holding an extremely sharp instrument to your head when you’re still half asleep.
I started loosing my hair at a young age and by 30, I declared my hairstyle to be “bald is beautiful.” As such, I’ve bought a few razors overs the years and I can get into a shaving discussion with the best of gents.
When people ask me if I’ve used the Dollar Shave Club and seem surprised when explain that it’s (1) too expensive and (2) I wasn’t happy with the razors.
Yeni Loves Bears
It’s Earth Day 2016 and my beautiful, smoking hot wife loves bears. On her behalf, I encourage everyone to do a little more to help keep our planet alive and sustainable for the creatures providing my wife so much joy.
Kamailio, TLS, and LetsEncrypt
If you don’t know me… my name is Fred, and I’m a Kamailian. Kamailians are users of Kamailio— an open source SIP server capable of building large scale Voice platforms.
It’s a great product, and in a different post I discuss why I love Kamailio. Today, I want to talk about TLS, Kamailio, and Lets Encrypt.
Receiving SMS from Flowroute with Perl
Flowroute, a SIP service provider, recently enabled SMS on all of their phone numbers (DIDs). This means that if you have a DID from Flowroute, your phone number can now be used to send and receive SMS messages.
Sunset with Yeni on the water
Sunset with my better half on the ocean. Good times.
Passing time at Disney
Living in Florida allows you to enjoy great beaches, beautiful weather, interesting news, and incredible discounts to Disney World. The discounts make sense— we residents become “ambassadors” to the park and generally buy food, drink, and gifts during our visits.
Yeni and I purchase an annual pass each year. We meet family at the parks, hang out with friends, and enjoy days and events for just the two of us. Before Yeni and I visited the parks together, I’d go with my godkids, cousins, family, and friends.
Because of these trips, I have some great photos through the years.