So...logical.

Quite possibly my favorite single class when I went to college was Introduction to Logic. It wasn't because I was particularly fond of my philosophy professor although he was a nice enough fellow. It was the subject matter itself. Logic was orderly and it made sense. And it allowed for useful insights into what people were saying. It in fact amazes me sometimes how people do not see the logical conclusions to be drawn from the things they say and do.

I believe my love of logic is because of my upbringing and my FOO. People are messy and illogical and the world made little sense to me. What understanding I have of humanity and sociology has only come from studying people in an almost scientific fashion, since people were unreliable to me and made little sense.

The problem though is that whenever you get a shiny new hammer, everything looks like a nail. I had logic and it worked (and works) well for me in a lot of areas, so I used it to try and understand, explain, and solve everything. And using logic about (and in some cases with) people only gets you so far.

It wasn't until today though that I realized that my love of logic was an understandable reaction to the unpredictability and sometimes irrationality of my home life. As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating."

---

1, 2, 3, 5!

She cried

Sometimes you have to smash your forehead against a brick wall a good several times before you really get it.

I keep trying to deal with Portia, my ex-wife, as if she is a mature human being and honestly, she just isn't. I was talking to Tina, my granddaughter, on the phone and I was thinking that it might be worth it to try and persuade Portia to allow Tina to go on my annual vacation back home. But I really didn't want to have that conversation with Portia if Tina didn't want to go. So I asked her to think about whether or not she wanted to go with me and if she did, I would talk to Portia about it.

As soon as Tina and I finish, Portia calls me up all on fire, asking how could I ask the kid the question and saying there is no way she was going with me and Lord only knows what else because I said "Okay, she can't go" and hung up on her. This didn't satisfy Portia because she called Kathy and yelled at her for an hour too. I later found out (because Kathy and I were in different places when this occurred) that Tina was in the background sobbing because Portia had told her rather nastily that she couldn't go, repeating the lie that I have an anger problem.

What I have is a "My ex-wife is a lunatic bitch" problem.

---

Jay & the Americans, with the first Jay, John "Jay" Traynor.

Gung Hei Fat Choi 2013

I am not sure why I started paying attention to Chinese New Year, but it was Chinese New Year Sunday and I had some delicious twice cooked pork to celebrate.

I know. Anything to eat Chinese.

An apology of sorts to Google

A while back I complained that Google AdSense cancelled my account without explanation. I had assumed it was for fraudulent click activity. (I don't know if they said as much.) But as it turns out, I was in violation of their TOS, which I only found after being bored and having nothing else to read.

See, I like to post song videos here. And even though AdSense, YouTube, and Blogger are all related IIRC, posting YouTube videos that you didn't make on your Blogger blog is against AdSense's TOS. So I do owe them an apology about saying I did nothing wrong.

But not taking the time to explain yourself is still crappy customer service. Sorry.

Breaking up is hard to do.

Don't say that this is the end.

— Neil Sedaka

It really isn't as big a deal as it would have been a year or so ago, but since I told you about Kathy and Portia developing a relationship I think it only fair that I tell you about "The Breakup."

Over the course of the last few months of 2012, Kathy and Portia's relationship cooled. Kathy seems to think that Portia finally got the idea that Kathy wasn't going anywhere. Also, Portia had begun to be more and more negative, again according to Kathy. I like to think she just was more and more her true self.

But at any rate, after she and I returned from spending the holidays in her home state to where we live, she noticed that Portia had suspended all contact with her, down from contact at least once a day. Kathy was fine with that but curious, so she texted Portia to get the scoop. Portia then set up a meeting to have a "talk".

Portia then had a dramatic conversation with Kathy that seemed an awful lot like a break up meeting. Portia claimed that Rick, my stepson, had advised her that it wasn't healthy to keep having a connection to my life and so she was ending her relationship with Kathy so as not to have a window into my life. Of course, that was the only reason she had pushed a relationship in the first place, but I digress.

She said that I would always have access to my stepdaughter Tina (who mysteriously is nonetheless never available to me when I want her) and that their mutual friend could still be friends with Kathy. Kathy acted like this was a loss and then went on her merry way.

And I feel better than I used to.

---

Neil Sedaka.