Andy’s Blog

Don’t worry, I am not going to delve into my personnel sex life, rather I wanted to comment on former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The governor resigned from his post today after allegations surfaced that he had several encounters of questionably legality with a prostitute. I am not writing to comment on the morality of a person partaking in the services offered by someone in the oldest professional known to man. I think the more interesting point is that he resigned after being confronted with only allegations, not actual charges, let alone a conviction, and further more why do we care?

Now I am not saying, that if Gov. Spitzer did in fact break the law, we should just look the other way. If he was convicted of a crime, he should be impeached or asked to resign. I am sure many people would disagree with me saying that, as an elected official, he should be held to a higher-standard. So even allegations of such an grave moral transgression are enough to warrant his dismissal. Conversely though, should we not give him the benefit of the doubt? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

I think the real issue is two fold. The media loves a good sex scandal. It sells papers, draws in viewers, and ultimately, generates revenue. I would bet that if this had been another type of misdemeanor, this would probably be on page 6, and we would of never heard about it. But of course its sex, so its a huge deal. Which leads me to my second point. Is the United States sex-o-phobic, or sex-obsessed?

Arguments could be made for either position. Judging by the media, and some public officials reaction to the accusations, it would be reasonable to believe that the United States (as a society) is disgusted by sex. But then again, unless you have been living on the moon for the past 40 years, you can not even open your eyes without being bombarded by sex from every direction. Everything from movies, TV, music and all other forms to media to current fashion trends, is about sex. Rverything revolves around it.

But, perhaps this really has nothing to do with societies obsession or phobia of sex. Its possible that we have become conditioned to being manipulated by the “powers at be”. Media executives will use sex to sell advertising to increase the bottom line, while at the same time donate money to republicans only a holy war against the “degradation of family values”, and we seem to get caught in the middle – scratching our heads.

After probably over a year being “blog-less”, I finally asked Matt for a new blog. So thanks Matt!

So what have I been doing with my life? Well, I stopped going to WPI, and I work full time for Velcro USA Inc. People ask my why I don’t go back to school, and I pretty much tell them that its not for me, which I am okay with.

Work has been pretty cool as of late. In September, I was promoted to “Sr. Systems Administrator”, (which is ironic because I am still the youngest person there). I am responsible for maintaining all servers, storage, and infrastructure for our two data centers. Its been an amazing ride, and I learn something every day.

Consequently, my company is in the process of converging IT systems for our eleven sister companies. This has given me the opportunity to travel all over the world. Last September, I traveled to Mexico City, and then November I was in China, and later this month I will going to Hong Kong, followed by a trip to Spain in April, and probably the United Kingdom shortly after. Not including frequent trips to Arizona and Michigan. I uploaded some pictures from my travels on Facebook, so check them out.