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.