Letters from the Editor

Dear Wyoming Wind,

You suck. Or blow. Whichever. Go away. Windchill down to 5 degrees is BS.

Sincerely,
Frozenass




Dear Morgan Page,

I thought you were a girl. The girl from your Longest Road video. I understand now that is actually Lissie being featured. (Yes, I know it says it right on the title.) I'm sure you're a great guy, but I can't help but be a little disappointed. Sorry. I really like your music though and certainly plan on continuing to listen to it.

Peace out,
Notadancer



Dear internet connection at work,

Why is it that when temperatures drop below 15F you start acting up? I mean really. I thought electronics were supposed to work better when colder. Please know that you are my lifeline in this boring job. Especially when it's our slow season. Reading reddit comments for 4-5 hours a day is sad, but right now it and blogging is all I have. I need you!

Hope to hear from you soon,
Holycrapthisdayislastingforever




Dear pippy (of reddit),

Whut? It's highly feasible that you generated those statements just to get points and a massive list of comments within a few hours. But really? "Most know that the CIA under Reagan made the Taliban." "The terrorist problem is artificial." And then. And THEN you go on to say that "there is no threat of terrorists being voted in to power." Then who's making up the terrorist threat!? Wouldn't generating an artificial terrorist threat, by definition, make them terrorists?

You sir. Are an idiot.

Be well,
Inthehead




Dear CoD: Black Ops developers,

You've had customers complain and complain and complain about the whole killstreak thing for as long as you've had them in your games. Giving the better players even better weapons and better chances of scoring isn't really in the interest of a fair and balanced game. I'm guessing you may all be conservatives so I understand the stance, but when the majority of your player base is in the average range and they still get matched up with the really good players, it makes for a crappy gaming experience.

Smell ya later,
ForeveraHaloPlayer





Dear opposing CAP league teams,

Post your scores would ya? It seems kind of silly to go into the next weeks games without having the previous weeks scores up. I know it's an informal league, but c'mon.

GYST,
Reluctant Un-official Score Researcher & Poster




Dear fellow bloggers,

You.

Are.

Awesome.

Love,
Ken

Morgan Page - The Longest Road Ft. Lissie (Deadmau5 Remix)

Testing out the youtube sharing thingy...

Book Review

A couple of posts ago I mentioned Lee Childs' Jack Reacher series. I just finished reading Running Blind, the 4th in the series of 15 (so far). It was phenomenal.

The first three books were heavier on the action aspect than Running Blind, which was more of a mystery. I've enjoyed them all a lot and appreciate the subtle differences in the methods and story types.

The main characters name is Jack Reacher. All the stories revolve around him. Duh. But Mr. Child does a fantastic job with the supporting characters. So far the main supporting characters have been women, which allows for some good romance & sexual tension to get included. The sex scenes aren't overtly pornographic, which I appreciate, but it's just enough to make me think that Reacher's thoughts are probably what I would have thought, had I been there.

A lot of the background is military, something I'm not experienced with at all. Child has a very useful way of providing information to fill the supporting characters similar lack of knowledge. He also does that with the supporting characters corresponding fields, like the FBI, in the case of Running Blind, which Reacher didn't know much about.

Running Blind was a little different than the first 3 books. It actually included sections written in the perspective of the perpetrator. I've read another author that did the same thing, I think it was Dean Koonts, but Lee Child did it better, I think. Koonts method was very involved and put you right in the mind of the killer, which is probably exactly what he wanted to do, but it made me very uncomfortable. Childs' method was far less intrusive, so to speak.

I don't know if this is good or not, but I guessed who the killer was at about page 460, of 533. The actual mystery part of the story runs almost to the end, but not quite, to allow for some tying off of relationship stuff. I'd actually guessed correctly way before that, but changed my mind at least twice until going back to the original guess. This was one of those stories that made me excited enough to stop reading, think back through the clues, and make my own deductions. Not many authors have done that for me.

The only problem I had with Running Blind is that Child made Reacher out to be a real asshole in the beginning. I hadn't read anything like that in the first three. It almost turned me off, but right as I began my usual nightly reading last night, around 10 pm, the story got exciting and I stayed up reading until 1:30 am. I finished Running Blind before going to church this morning and stopped by the bookstore to pick up the next installment, Echo Burning.

Overall, I would highly recommend the book and the series. Reading them in order probably makes it better, but not entirely necessary.


Sorry for the lack of pictures. For some reason, blogger isn't letting me post any.

The Opinionated Workplace

Different people place very different levels of importance on almost every aspect of their job. Some people really like public recognition, some people like flexibility, some people like to be told exactly what to do.

For some people it’s very important that they have the opportunity to share their opinions. It’s not so much that they expect a lot to be done about it, but they like to be heard. They like to be able to share their opinion with a captive audience. It’s not necessarily that they are venting, but they believe that if they speak their mind and share ideas that at some point they will have an impact. (At least that’s what the realistic view is. Some people do expect things to happen immediately, but more often than not they’re just kidding themselves.)

But sometimes it turns into venting. And that’s what I have a problem with. I’m listening to our office ventor right now. He’s not talking to his supervisor in a private setting, he’s setting at his desk along with another coworker and his supervisor. My office is at the other end of the building and I can hear the whole thing. Which means everyone else can too.

There is nothing any of those people can do for what he’s upset about. If he actually expects anything to get done, he’s talking to the wrong people. What he wants is agreement. He wants his coworker and supervisor to agree with him. I’ll give props to his supervisor, who is making some effort to explain the situation and why it is the way it is, but it’s easy to tell that he does actually agree.

You might wonder what’s wrong with that. What’s wrong with venting a little? The issue is that he’s talking about specific people. One person for the most part, but he even included the president of the company as one of the guys who are “screwing the company.”

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But in my workplace, you are not entitled to spread dissention without following the proper channels first. We have a written open door policy. There is also a policy that directs people higher up the ladder in those cases where someone doesn’t think enough is being done.

We’re all under enough stress as it is. We don’t need people adding to it. They could very well had a legitimate concern, and in our office they have the right to voice that opinion, but there are acceptable ways to do it.

You also might be wondering why I don’t do anything about it. Technically, I don’t have much ‘pull’ in the office. My assistant is the only office employee who reports to me. If I continue to work here for a few years, I will probably end up supervising everyone at this facility, but until then I need to let the people with that responsibility do their job. In this case, everyone has been working together for at least 3 years and they know this guy is a loud mouth. Because of that I think there is less impact than if there were newer employees overhearing it. There are always new employees in the shop and I don’t put up with venting. I’m sure I don’t know about most of it, but because of that I know it’s not bad enough for me to step in.

 

So why did I write this? Mostly because I’m bored and needed something to write about. But also to gather my thoughts and hopefully have a more refined response to problems like this in the future.

Oddball wishes

You've rubbed the lamp. The genie's popped out and you're pondering your wishes.

The bottomless checking account is already taken care of.

Health for all your family is in the bag. Or maybe your true love has been revealed.

What's next?

What odd thing might you wish for? Something that's not usually thought of. Something that might be chosen if your health and well being weren't in question.

I would choose to be able to read, write, speak, and understand all the known languages of the world. How cool that would be. Think of all the things you could learn. All the questions you could answer. Resurrect all the old revelations that had gotten lost.

Think of all the incredibly interesting people you could have a conversation with.


So what would your wish be?

Movie Review - Sunshine Cleaning

I've decided I'm secure enough in my masculinity to reveal to you all that I watched Sunshine Cleaning.


By myself.

Of course I have to admit that my continued viewing was heavily influenced by actresses Emily Adams, and especially Emily Blunt, being as cute as cute can be.

(Is it just me or does it seem like Emily Blunt and Felicia Day could be twins...?)

The story was good. It was personal and had just enough complexity to make it interesting but didn't overwhelm the characters. All the characters were well played by their actress/actor.

16,770 imdb users gave it a 7/10, which I agree with.

My typical movie tastes are very main-stream, big budget, testosterone soaked blockbusters. I chose to watch this to expand my horizons, so to speak. I watched the entire thing and enjoyed it. I think you would too.

Bad boys, bad boys…watchya gunna do?

Yesterday evening ended up being a little interesting. At least more interesting than normal. Had a bit of a scare even. Actually, it could have easily been a “I think I shit my pants” evening.

I had a few Halo games scheduled at about 8pm. After those were finished, around 9, I took my headphones off and heard my cell ringing. A friend of mine was calling saying that the shop alarm was going off. (It’s kind of a long story on how he knew. I’ll skip it.) After ending that call, I checked my missed calls and messages and sure enough, the alarm company had called me twice. So I called them back and let them know I was on my way.

After arriving at work, and finding two empty police cruisers and no policemen, I honked my horn a couple of times and headed inside. When the alarm company called they told me which door had set off the alarm, so after shutting the alarm off and walking all the way through our 200’ shop to check that door, I started walking back to the front door. About 30’ from an interior break room door, I saw it open and out lopes this big German Shepherd.

This is probably the first and last time you’ll read this on my blog, but I’ll admit that the words, “Oh fuck” went through my mind. I think I even silently mouthed it.

The dog didn’t do anything. Thank God.

Right behind him were the 2 policemen. They even said, “Whoa!” when they saw me. After exchanging our greetings, one of the cops said, “If I hadn’t given him a toy before we came in here, you would have had a pretty bad night.” Come to find out they never got the message that I was coming.

In the end everything turned out fine. The alarm got set off because the wind blew a sliding door away from its sensor. Happens at least once a year. Although there’s never been a police dog involved before.

Letters from the Editor

Dear snow,

You were pretty for a minute, I had my fun sliding around the corner because of you, now you may go away.

Thanks.




Dear UP 844,

I really enjoyed driving along side you today. 70 mph is not too shabby. I'm sure the residents appreciated it as you slowed down to come through town.


Godspeed.




Dear Mr. Lee Child,

I've recently begun reading your Jack Reacher series. I'm only into book 2, "Die Trying" but so far they've been great. Thank you for being a nice prelude to my Sunday nap.

Yours truly,
Sleeping Reader




Dear Beer,

Why do you have to be so mean to my stomach? It didn't do anything to you but finish you off in style. I know, it may not be all your fault, but you are usually the culprit when things don't go well down there.

Sincerely,
Rumblyinmytumbly




Dear Mr. Alan Taylor,

Your picture series have been something I look forward to for almost a year now. Your most recent one on the Asian Games was very cool.

Thanks!

What do I want to be when I grow up?

I'm bringing up an old topic here, but thoughts of a career change keep popping up in my mind. About.com has this little true-false self-assessment quiz. It's kind of funny because if you answer true to any of the questions, it says you need to change your career. I answered true to most of the questions.

I believe the philosophy of " get a job doing what you love" is far too watered down for reality. There are a whole lot of jobs out there that no one would love to do. Somebody's got to do it. So I'm not looking for that 'perfect job'. I just don't think it exists, at least for me since I can't make up my mind anyway. I believe "love what you do" is far more achievable. It's all about a mindset and being content with what you have.

But what if I'm not content? What if I'm bored out of my gourd?

What I need to do is start my own assessment. Outline my likes and dislikes about my current career, consider what I enjoy doing outside of work, and maybe come up with a plan. So here goes...

What are aspect of my current job that I enjoy?

• I enjoy the freedom that comes with being a manager and I don't mind the responsibility or the fact that most of the crap seems to land on my desk. That's fine. I'm a big boy. I can deal with it.
• I like the diversity. There are a few menial tasks I have to do every day, but for the most part I get to choose what I do. The opportunity to do a lot of different things is available. Swinging a hammer, running a saw, making deliveries, etc. I even got to design again for a while.
• I know something about the construction and component manufacturing industry. To stop using all the knowledge I've accumulated over the last 8 years would seem like a waste.
• I enjoy dealing with people. Even more than I had first anticipated when I was moving into a management position. Going from a pure design job, which means being stuck in your own little world most of the day, to trying to get people out of their own little world, has been interesting, if not even enjoyable. Developing the mentality and skill to not let the angry customer or employee drag you into their anger has been a major achievement for me.
  
• I like the challenge of looking at plans and putting together the most effective way of getting it done. I got to do that as a designer, but as a production manager, I don't get to do that outside of our own production process. It's been something to set up new processes to get that work done, but now that those are set up, it's the same process for every job. Almost every job follows the same steps and anything out of the ordinary just skips a few steps. There is no real difference between projects and it's all handled by the people assigned to handle it. I perform a few of the steps, but I could hire a minimum wage assistant and have absolutely nothing to do.
  

What about things I enjoy outside of work?

What I've enjoyed doing in the past is audio/visual tech work for churches. It was entirely volunteer and didn't get terribly in depth, but I enjoyed it. Near the end of that, I was the requested tech for weddings. The thing about getting into this field as a professional and not starting at the bottom, is that it requires years of experience or something like an electronics engineering degree. Because I'm so mathematically challenged, and I'd be starting another baccalaureate at a different school, that doesn't sound so enticing. I'd rather spend that time getting my MBA.

Something that's kind of oddball that relates to the audio/visual field is DJing. I'm something of a musician, although I've been out of practice for too long. I like the music, mostly house mixes, dance, maybe a little techno. (I know, a 30 something white manager dude liking house music? ...weird. :) I like handling the equipment (TWSS) but I have no experience at all. Would I ever have the juevos to make the jump from production manager to DJ? Not so sure about that. Certainly not while I have kids that rely on me.


Now there is a field that involves both construction and audio/visual aspects, and that's designing and installing home theaters and conference setups for new construction. It's a pretty hot field right now, but again, it may require that electrical engineering training. Might have to look into that some more.

So where does that leave me after this wall of text?

If I want to switch careers without going back to school, it'll probably have to be within the construction field. If I stay in the construction field, it might have to be in a year or two. Changing jobs during a construction slump is probably not the greatest idea.

After writing all this out, maybe it'll put off those career change thoughts for a while.

Unless anyone wants to offer me a job...? :)

Late Randomonday + movie review

- I've had to stay away from FB due to all the mention of family going to my Gpa's funeral. It's only a 9 hour drive for me but due to financial restrictions, I cannot go. Kinda depressing. My mom is going to talk to my Gramma and pass on my intentions of taking the girls to visit her soon.

- About finances, my dental work yesterday cost me $322. Way more than I'd hoped. Insurance only covered 60% of the cheapest option possible. At least the deductible is taken care of now.

- The dentist had to shoot me 3 frickin' times to finally find the right nerve. Left me numb for most of the day. Didn't eat lunch and dinner was painful. It's better now.

- Tonight is the first night of our revised parenting schedule. I'm sure glad I get to see the girlies more, but dinner is going to become more of a focal point for me. Which is good. I'll have to sharpen my pre-planning skills.

- I've decided to got the route of the local fitness gym, rather than just Kinect. It will be an opportunity to get out of the house and actually meet people. I'll probably still get Kinect, but it will be as a Christmas present for the girlies. There are some good reviews on the games for it and it's geared more towards kids games.

- Got a call from Child Support Services. Apparently a judge needs to decide the amount of child support in order for her to start getting state aid. I really hope they follow the online calculator. Or at least close. Even worst case (i.e. - she didn't make any money) I wouldn't be paying much more than we already agreed to and would be less than what I've actually been giving her.

- What's the deal with cursing so much in a blog post? I'll admit that I'm one to let 4 letters fly every now and then, but do people not understand how they come across when it's every other word?

On to the movie review!

I watched Life as a House last night. If you remember, way back when, I posted a list of movies that Nikki is also working on. Well, I haven't been watching them. In fact, at the time I'd set up my Netflix Instant Q with all the online movies available. I've since taken most of them off. I just don't care to watch them so I'm not even trying to get through that list any more. I'll still use it as a suggestion list, but I have no goal to watch them all. Sorry for bailing on you Nikki.


Despite the moral depravity that seemed to influence most of the characters, it was a good movie. Funny, sad, and had it's WTF moments.

I will say though that Hayden Christensen is not my favorite actor. He played a good Anakin Skywalker, but I just feel like the parts of the story that required him to be highly emotional fell flat. But he's young and I'm sure his acting will develop.

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it.

I love you Grampa

I know I've posted a lot this weekend, but this one is going to set for a while.

My grandfather passed away last night. He was 91 years old.

I love him very much.

I can't say enough good about him. Possibly the fondest memory I have of him is the way he read the Bible. By far the most reverent voice I've ever heard. Just recently I heard my father sliding into the same voice. Brought back a wave of wonderful memories.

He leaves my grandma behind. She's well into her 80's and has lost most of her vision. I always thought my grandpa would outlive her. Proves they come from good stock. Glad I have their genes. My grampa even had a double bypass 20 years ago. I remember him showing me the massive scar the surgery gave him.

He was very funny. Always had some quip to share. Got along great with my kids and all his great-grandchildren. I'm so thankful they got to know him. Spacie's already planning the card she's going to send him.



Gramma and Grampa loved each other more than I can imagine. Now that I think about it, I hope I can find that someday. My cousin took some short videos of him answering some questions. My cousin asked him about his wife and I'll bet he was afraid he'd start crying if he answered. Then you could hear my Gramma piping in from the background and started to answer for him. It was awesome.

There's no doubt in my mind he's enjoying Jesus' company right now.

I love you Grampa.

Looking at a new digital PnS

I took the girlies to Walmart to pick up some groceries and took a stroll by their camera display. I picked up what I believe was the Samsung TL240.



I say 'believe' because I didn't actually write the name down.

Didn't buy it, but came home and did a little research. It's not terribly cheap, at $230 at Walmart and $170 at Amazon, but compared to the $200+ I spent on a 5mp HP 6 years ago, it's not bad at all. (I'll have to double check, but I don't remember the one I handled at the store costing $230. I think it was closer to $170. May be a different model?)

So this thing is a 14mp, 7x optical zoom, with a 3.5" touchscreen, and can shoot 1280x720 movies.

The touchscreen caught my attention at the store. It wasn't focusing correctly so I started fiddling with the touchscreen options and it took me about 15 seconds to find and correct the problem, even not having any experience with that camera at all. A lot of that ease had to do with the screen and it's quick response.

No Samsung didn't ask me to sell their camera. Cnet hasn't done a review, but it's getting pretty good user reviews on Amazon. I am curious to hear your opinion if you have any experience with Samsung cameras.

Friday 5 - Packing

Haven't done a Friday 5 for a while. So here goes!

1. How far ahead of time do you begin packing for a weekend trip? If I don't start packing the night before, I'm guaranteed to forget something. I use the time between to check off the mental checklist.
   
2. What was your most recent purchase of a six-pack? Bitch Creek Extra Special Brown by the Grand Teton Brewing Company. Pretty good stuff.
   
3. What do you look for in a good everyday backpack? One without a boatload of 'extra' pockets. I have one now that has one large section, a mid-size and a small pocket. Plenty for me. This one also happens to be a 'rolling' bag, primarily for air traveling people. If I had to carry it much more on my recent trip, I probably would have used the rolling feature.
   
4. Among people you know, who’s the worst packrat? I have some very good friends in CA who have 4 kids. They keep everything. They have a 3 car garage they can't even fit one car in. They're lucky if there's a path to the door. (I love you G&D.)
   
5. How do you know when it’s time to pack it in each evening? When I don't want to be awake.
   

Where did they go?

Am I due for a blog revamp?

To my lovely regular readers, I love you and appreciate you hanging around, even through the crummy posts.

But were did everyone else go? If people read a post or two, why don’t they come back? If they’re still here, why don’t they comment?

When I started this, I told myself that I didn’t really care how many readers I had. I was kidding myself. It’s nice to be read.

What else do I have to offer? You’ve probably already gathered that I’m as boring as my posts are. Maybe not the most boring person you’ve ever met, but pretty close. I know that. I accept it. Not going to say I’m ok with it, but…

What about hobbies?

Would you read about gaming? I like to play. Not talk about it.

Maybe cooking? I’ve discovered that I hate cooking for myself. Cooking for other people is so much more enjoyable. That’s the only reason I would cook anything special. I’ve had PB&J and popcorn for dinner. It’s the fellowship I’m looking for. So until that fellowship is there, cooking probably isn’t going to happen.

Spiritual stuff? It would probably be a good idea to write about that, if only to get my thoughts in order, attempt to come to some conclusions for myself, and share them in hopes that others might glean something from it. I’ve never felt called to be an outspoken type, as far as ministry goes. I would hope my life choices would speak loud enough for someone to hear. Although at this point, that is probably unlikely.

Work? No.

My girlies? Now that’s something I could write about, but to be honest, I don’t really like reading a lot about other peoples kids. I enjoy it if it’s mixed in with other stuff, but I’ve come across a few blogs that were all about the kids. That’s not for me and I don’t think I could make a blog like that and expect other people to read it.

So what does that leave me? At this point, nothing. I don’t date. I don’t specialize in anything, work related or not.

NoRegrets talked about books she’s read. I should probably do more of that. Otherwise, I’ll keep thinking about it. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Small victories...

are sometimes the best.

The stbx and I sat down this evening and discussed our time with the girls and how we're going to work holidays. She conceded to letting me have the girlies every Tuesday and every other Thursday.

I feel great.

I feel even better than I might have because I sat down with Bellie and she counted up to 20 all by herself. I don't want to miss these days with them. There is too much at stake and now I'm not going to miss as much.

Thank you Lord.

If I were a crying man, I'd be bawling right now.

I'm back.

In response to the last posts' comments;

laura - The trip was very uneventful, which in my book is good.

dmarks - I didn't! I swear! ....and I didn't even want to.

NoRegrets - I suppose that depends on your definition of crappy. So yeah, I did visit a crappy part. Tulare County is the poorest county in all of CA. I like Visalia, but the rest of it is meh.

This whole thinking for myself is proving to be more involved than I thought. I kicked myself at least twice on the trip back for not planning a little and actually doing things. The first was driving through St. George, Utah during sunset and thinking that I should have planning to be there about 2 hours earlier so that I could have been hiking in Zion National Park during sunset. If you haven't done that, I highly recommend it. Splendid doesn't begin to describe it.



The next was when driving through Provo Canyon, Utah. I think I've been to Bridal Veil Falls before, but it must have been as a very young kid. I had no idea where it actually was and when I drove past sometime in the middle of the night, I wish I'd planned to hike that too.



I got home around noon today and promptly went to bed. Slept until 4. Since the only thing I ate the whole trip was at a Mandalay Bay buffet yesterday (why the heck do I go to those things?), a bag of sour worms, and a couple of McD's breakfast sandwiches this morning, I'm hungry and am trying to decide where I want to eat.

About the buffets, I don't eat nearly enough to justify paying for a 'good' buffet in Vegas. $25! I ate my fill and it was decent food, but not that decent. I'm sure dinner would have been a little closer to a good value, but brunch wasn't. The people that may have got their moneys worth were going through the crab legs like candy. Sat near a guy who finished off at least 3 plates worth while I was there. And considering the bored expression of his wife, I think they had been there for a while. He was still going when I left. While I like crab legs too, they are very much a dinner food for me. Not 10am food.

Then I lost some money at the blackjack table. Shoulda looked for a $5 table instead of the $10, which seems to be the cheapest at Mandalay Bay. Forgot to hit the slots before I left Vegas though. They've paid for my gas before and I was going to try again. Guess that shows how much I really think about gambling.

There is a new resort/casino further south along the strip. It might be the Summer Bay resort but I'm not sure. Then there building another one about midway. I suppose they can justify it because it was pretty busy being Halloween and all. A little disappointed at the lack of costumes though. There were a few waitresses that may have been in costume but they may have been in their regular uniform too.

The flight to Vegas was full and I sat next to a couple of very non-chatty young guys from Portugal. That's the only word I heard from them, "Portugal." The leg to Fresno was about half full and I buried my head in a book and finished it as the plane was descending.

I love people watching. Airports are a fantastic place to people watch. And of the handful of conversations I overheard, not one of them was in English.

I miss CA girls though. That is one true stereotype, CA has a disproportionate share of the attractive ladies. There are cute girls here too, but odds are a whole lot better than Vegas that they smoke. Not that I mind if someone smokes occasionally, but they reek of it. No thanks.

So the blackjack games were interesting. The dealer was nice and helpful, but even then I made a couple of dumb calls. But he played so. stinking. fast. That hour+ I spent last time I was in Vegas was probably around the same # of hands as this one...in about half the time. He did this little pause before he picked up our chips when he won, like he was giving us time to check, but sheesh, gimme a break. By "little pause" I mean he slowed his hand down to 1/2 speed between when he dropped the last card and when he picked up the first losers chips. Which was still too fast.

And I even tipped him when I won!

That's it in a nutshell. I'm going to eat and hopefully I'll get around to reading blogs later this evening. or tomorrow.