Quote of the Day:
I’m running as fast as I can just to keep my head above water. -management

QotD came from a meeting I went to today. I won’t bore you with the details, other than to say I’m amazed at the hypocrisy that exists at all levels of this organization.  Really high management telling people to do things that even they don’t do.  Senior peons complaining about how management treats them when they do the same things to junior peons. The thing that really bugs me is our group telling the division management that the group can’t effectively do it’s job because we don’t have enough certified people. When, internal to our group, they punish and hold back people who try to get certified faster.

The politics of this place are starting to wear on me, and I’ve only been here 6 months. No wonder the average turnover here is 5 years.(seriously… out of a group of 21, there’s only 1 person in our group who was here in 2001.) this is apparently the norm.

Ok, enough. No more whining from me.

Today sucks.  I lost my dog and I lost my Ra account.  Overall, this day is not off to a good start.  I would say that it can’t get much worse, but I know something will happen, so I won’t say that. 

Dear internet sub-population that reads my blog (yes, all 3 of you). 

First one to name this song title and artist gets crazy money… or at least crazy kudos points from me.  How about that?   Here’s your title:

:

No, really, that’s it. 

This morning was nice, so I left my coat at home.  Then, as I’m getting to work, the radio gives today’s weather as 80% chance of strong thunderstorms.  Typical, no? 

In other news, I bought trees on Friday.  Yes, bought trees.  Our poor yard was barren, so we thought we’d fix that.  I just had no idea that trees cost so much.  We bought a magnolia, a pecan, and a maple from a local nursery.  The trees come with delivery, "installation", and a one year guarentee, but still…  I had no idea it’d be that much. 

Anyway, can’t talk, must work, more later.

I wrote a Haiku
To inform you exactly
How much today sucks.

Up at 6 am
To drive my car to the shop
And get a rental

Then to the doctor
To dialate my eyes for
Glaucoma testing.

They tested pressures
And did a fields vision test.
Oh, what fun that was.

After one more test
I’ll be on medication
The rest of my life.

In a few minutes
I have to go get my truck
And hope that it’s fixed.

Karate tonight,
Dinner, then quickly to bed
Back at 5 am. 

Vocational introspection:

My boss’s boss brought up a point yesterday that I hadn’t thought of before.  It takes 18 months to get a cert for our system here, and he pointed out that you can get a master’s degree in a year and a half.  So, basically, he says we’re earning a master’s degree in our ISS subsystem.  I think that’s pretty neat, really.  And very true, when I think about what you have to go through to actually get awarded your cert. 

Thought I would share. 

Quote of the Day:

"Basically, the pilot exceeded the "don’t never ever" exceed speed and the wings broke off."

(As a note, the rest of the email refers to the pilot breaking the DNEES.)

Some good quotes I heard in a lesson a few minutes ago:

"Good decision makers assess risk… bad decision makers are teenage boys."

"If all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail."

And I think my favorite:

Quote of the Day:

"My goal in life is to never have a 60 minutes crew stick a mic in my face and ask me ‘Why did you think that was a good idea at the time?’"

So I need to print a one page document I’m reading.  So I click print, wait a minute, hear the printer warming up, and walk over there.  The first page rolls out, and it’s not mine… and it says in the corner "page 1 of 672."  and I think to myself, why yes… yes, it is Monday. 

It’s not everyday that you see something banned because it’s "un-American."  Shunned, sure… but banned?  As in, outlawed.  Made illegal. 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245380,00.html  (my hyperlinks aren’t working for some reason).

Tells the story of horse slaughtering plants that are being shut down.  The plants ship the meat overseas.  Or, they did.  The American Vet. Assoc. said it was a kind way to deal with older horses, but the Humane Soc. disagreed and helped shut them down. 

The thing that really bugs me about this has nothing to do with horses.  It has to do with the law behind it.  Is it really any different to slaughter cows or dogs?  The humane society does a great job of killing stray animals.  There’s nothing illegal about it, assuming it’s done in a humane way.  So, why outlaw this?  Because it’s "un-American." 

What is that?  What is american vs un-american?  If we’re going to make law based on such a vague concept as un-american-ism, rather than, say, rights, freedoms, justice, or punishment, then hey… we need to make some serious changes. 

There’s nothing more American than a celebrity, right?  So, we should make it legal to drink and drive, cheat on your spouse, commit tax evasion, do drugs (lots of and many types of drugs), etc etc etc. 

I could come up with many different examples, but I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to fill in the blanks.