Miasmatic Review

Candidate Health care stances

As many people are really tired of poltics and hearing about the lack luster candidates (McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden, either way we're screwed). Here's something else to make you question both of the "top" candidates.

Over at Health08.org they have a handy side by side comparison of the candidates views and platforms on Health care and Health care related issues.

"Health care has been an important issue in this year's presidential campaign and the candidates have staked out positions on key health care issues. Both major party candidates have developed comprehensive health care reform proposals addressing health coverage and access, rising health care costs and health care quality. A side-by-side comparison of these proposals has been prepared and is available..."

It's actually a very useful page, so if you want to learn more, it's a good resource.

Belvidere Pioneer Festival

After a four year hiatus, Ktreva, Clone and I returned to the Belvidere Pioneer Festival. We stopped going due to personal issues that had nothing to do with the events. Finally a friend of ours that is the Booshway, Marshal, asked us at an earlier event this year to come. We had nothing else going on and it's literally 15 minutes from our front door to the camp, so we thought we would attend it this year.

The committee that runs the event put us with Clan Chattan. We didn't mind as we're still friends with them. However I did have to make sure they knew that we were not members of Clan Chattan. Marshall said he put us with them because he knew we were all friends.

Now of course he camped us all in the back of the camp with the Indians. I kept inquiring what we had done not only to be shoved back in with Clan Chattan, but then to be camped next to the Indians. I figured it was punishment for not going to their event in four years. The friends of ours that portrayed Indians kept telling us it was a reward for being such great people. I think they just wanted us to entertain them.

Unfortunately the musical talent for our group didn't show up which meant that we had to entertain ourselves and more scarily that meant that *I* had to do some singing. That's right folks, I sang. We could tell that it was a huge hit because NOBODY ELSE entered our camp.

It was a good time and we had fun. The event is what it is, A festival. There were arts and crafts, and farmer's market stuff. They had volunteers walking around dressed in everything from Little House on the Prairie (The High School musical) costumes to 18th century fur trade and everything in between. Including the Austrian mounted army from the Napoleonic wars.

Since this was an unplanned event, I'm not updating the Spoon and Blade with a review, this was a last minute decision.

Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale

I’m sorry that this week’s Beer Review is a night late. Yesterday was, uh, interesting. But that’s a post for a different day. Tonight I’m review another donated beer. Tonight’s beer is Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale by the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Chico, CA as donated by Shadoglare.

It came in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is a white label on it. The Sierra Nevada logo is on the top in a yellow banner. The name of the beer is in the middle in green lettering. Between the name of the beer and the company logo is a small picture I can’t make out. There is a description of the beer on it. They also note that this is the 25th release of the Bigfoot barely wine style ale.

It’s dark brown in color with a nice rich ruby highlights. It poured a thin tan head that faded quickly to a film on the top of the beer. It is cloudy, light passes through easily enough, but you can’t see any clear images. There was some lacing.

The smell is of dark fruit with a hint of vanilla. The scent of bourbon from being aged in a bourbon barrel. The bitter scent of hops is present, almost overpowering. The taste is a mixture of roasted malts, vanilla bean and hops. The bitterness from the hops overpowers the scent and the taste of the beer, and leaves a very IPA like aftertaste to it. I’m not sure if this beer is just a little skunky or if it should taste like this as it doesn’t taste like any other barleywine style ale that I’ve ever tasted. Although I will say that you can’t taste the alcohol in this 9.6% Alcohol by Volume beer.

This is medium bodied beer that is light on the carbonation. There is some coating to it, which may be why the aftertaste sticks around for a long time.

This beer has been sitting in my fridge since June; I’m really thinking that it may have turned. I had two of them and in the non-traditional style of beer, the second one was worse than the first one. Overall I was not impressed and I’m currently giving it a 2 out of 10. Due to the circumstances I’d be willing to re-review this beer.

Mental note, cleaning out any beer in the fridge that has been in there from before I left for Oklahoma.

Work so far.

Well I've been in the office a whopping whole 7 business days. In that time nothing has been brought up about my little, uh, heated expressing of dissenting opinions. However I have discovered that I have reached a level of "I don't give a damn" that I've never reached before. Including, I think, a nasty case of self-sabotaging behaviors. Such as telling a manager that bad management by her does not mean that there is an emergency for my team.

Oh something about the BlogCrawl must have gotten out at work. Some rumors about me, and AK-47 and a printer are working their way through the employees.

I survived... maybe?

Okay, it's just after noon here and I'm still getting information about all that happened yesterday. I'm going to start at the beginning to tell the whole story.

First off, Shadoglare, Wes, Boopie and I went shooting. I was hoping some others would join us, but they weren't able to. This was Boopie's first time shooting modern firearms and he did pretty good for his first time. He shot my Colt 1991 .45, Taurus .357 Tracker, Walther PPK .380, The AK-47 and he even put one round through the Mosin-Nagant M44. He decided that he didn't like the kick of the Mosin.

At the range there was a a guy that had a German MG-42 machine gun. We only got to see him fire a couple of rounds through it as he was having problems with it loading properly and kept jamming.

After the shoot we returned to the house to find Petey, Wil and Red already drinking and waiting on us. Of course once we got the firearms unloaded we were eager to join them in the activities.

Now, this is where things start to get a little fuzzy.

So at this point I'm blogging with hazzy and hole filled memory. I know Bruce stopped by for part of the day, but he left early. I don't remember Graumagus showing up, but apparently he did as he left a post on here. I know that there was some puking... not by me... and apparently people started taking their shirts off... again not me. Unfortunatly this was not good shirtless... this was man boob shirtless.

I know that I finally came into the house around 3:00 AM. I fell asleep earlier than that, but they were nice enough to let me sleep where I sat.

I can see I missed some blogs again, but damn, looking at the time stamp on my BlogCrawl post that I was pretty drunk early on. I also know that it was hard to work the blogroll as the computer wouldn't sit still.

Even thought I don't remember a whole lot, I can see it was a good and successful BlogCrawl. And since I survived, I will proudly display my badge of honor!

Where in the hell has Grau been?

Hi, remember me? Graumagus? The asshole who used to have a blog that's now a spark plug emporium site?

Contagion is drunk enough to let me set a few rumors straight about where I've been lately.

Rumor 1) I've been in prison for federal weapons violation

False: What happens along the US/Mexico border stays on the US/Mexico border.
(PS: I can neither confirm nor deny that INS gets upset when they find smoldering greasy spots covered in tattered ponchos smelling of burnt frioles)

Rumor 2) I'm dead

False, unless this is hell, which would explain much...

Rumor 3: I've been kidnapped by a cult of nympho contortionists who worship fat, bald guys

False. Dammit.

Frizzen Sparks will return, goddamnit, and an explanation of my disappearance will be forthcoming.

All I have to say is A) OJ Simpson can't frame himself and B) If you should happen to find yourself banging a Philipino whore so fugly you need to put a bag over her head, the authorities prefer you use paper, not plastic.

-Graumagus

Blogcrrawl 098 post!

I refus eto edit this post, I'mk back from the rang and m>aking comints! yea, I've draink al ot at the beer teasting but dammit What is it for? We've got abotu 16 people in my back hyard including Shagodlare, Wes, PEtehy, Bruce and comse blogless friends! Graumagus is going us later.

Shagoglaqre, wes, boopie qnd I went shoooting earlier. We had a lot of fun and shot a lot of ammo. The rest of them caught up to us at our, ktreva and mine, house when we returned.

Now I'm making comments!

BLOGCRAWL 08 IS HERE!

The time has come and we have our BlogCrawl! I'm getting ready to head out to the shooting fest, but I wanted to make sure that everyone knows the activities and rules.

We should be at the Buffalo Range around 11:00 AM. We should be back to Rockford around 3:00 PM. Then the drinking is on.

There is a chat room for those that want to chat later in the night. You can enter the BlogCrawl chat by clicking the link. The password is an original blogcrawl

The logos:

Thanks Pamibe!

The Rules:

A) You have to be 21 years old to participate and drink. I don’t want some minor’s parents coming back and saying I told them to get pissed drunk and go on the Internet. If you are under 21, you may still participate as a designated blogger. If you don't want to drink but still make stupid comments, be my quest!

4) Try to leave a comment on every blog in the Bad Example and Frizzen Sparks family. You may use my side bar as a reference if you don’t know who they are. Do not feel limited to these blogs only, go ahead and hit any other blog you would like as well. Oh, and a drunken post on your own blog is perfectly acceptable and encouraged.

Okay, there we go, let's have a great BlogCrawl!

Happy Hippie Hunting

I'm going to preface this post with a note for my wife: My darling Ktreva, please do not read this post. I know how you are senstive to my dislike of the soap fearing clans of roaming idiots, but this story was just too good not to share.

In order to get prepared for the BlogCrawl shoot tomorrow, I headed to a local gun store to pick up some 30 round mags and ammo. As I pulled into the parking lot, which is shared with some other local businesses, there were four hippies, tie dies and all. standing on the sidwalk. As I pulled in I was greated with "Hey man, No guns, more fun!" and "Guns are the root of evil."

Of course I just smiled and waved at them. I walked in, picked up my items and as I was leaving there were still there chanting something about the evils of guns. When I went to leave I had to wait for traffic. My windows were rolled down and one of the female protesters asked me "What do you need a gun for?" I couldn't help myself, I responded with:

"It's Happy, Hippie Hunting Time! I'm going to go bait a field with tie dies and pot and see if I can bag my limit."

The ghastly look on her face was classic.

So in honor of the day and the BlogCrawl I present:

The 2008 BlogCrawl Happy Hippie Hunt!

BlogCrawl 08 is almost here!

The BlogCrawl is tomorrow! Don't forget! Just so you remember, here are the rules.

A) You have to be 21 years old to participate and drink. I don’t want some minor’s parents coming back and saying I told them to get pissed drunk and go on the Internet. If you are under 21, you may still participate as a designated blogger. If you don't want to drink but still make stupid comments, be my quest!

4) Try to leave a comment on every blog in the Bad Example and Frizzen Sparks family. You may use my side bar as a reference if you don’t know who they are. Do not feel limited to these blogs only, go ahead and hit any other blog you would like as well. Oh, and a drunken post on your own blog is perfectly acceptable and encouraged.

And there will be a chat available!

Red Dog

I’m trying to clean the fridge out of left over donated beer. I don’t remember when this particular beer made it to my house, but I do remember who brought it. It was Bruce of Back to the Batcave. Now he bought a case of this for himself to drink, not for me to do a review on. I just asked him to leave a couple for me to review kind of as a joke. So this one does not count against Bruce. I wasn’t in the mood for anything particularly flavorful or good for that point tonight, so I thought it would be a good choice. Tonight I’m reviewing Red Dog by the Plank Road Brewery in Milwaukee, WI (AKA Miller).

It came in an aluminum can. There is a picture of a red bull dog on it, and in white letters outlined in red with a black background it says Red Dog sideways. It also claims to be uncommonly smooth. The main body of the can is silver in color.

The color is a pale gold color. It’s clear, you can see through it easily with no distortion. You can see the carbonation bubbles rise through it easily. What head there is made up of tiny ultra-white bubbles. It disappears quickly leaving nothing on the top of the beer or any lacing on the side of the glass.

There is a scent of malts and yeast to the beer that combine to remind me of boiled corn. It’s not the most pleasant smell, but yet not a horrible turn off either. The flavor is very subtle grain combination. There is almost no hint of hops or even bitterness to it at all. There was no noticeable aftertaste.

This is a light bodied beer that borders on almost being medium bodied. There is a very mild carbonation level to it.

I remember when this beer first came out. I was in college and you could buy it cheap. This is not a beer I would go out of my way to buy, but it’s not undrinkable. There are a ton of other beers that I would pick up before buying Red Dog. Basically the only way I’d drink this is if it is free or if it was really cheap and I was hard up for money. Overall I give it 3 out of 10.

Time for some Campaignin'

okay, they took down the Palin/Clinton SNL skit video, but this one shouldn't go anywhere. This really doesn't help my feelings about this election, since they seem to pretty much hit the nail on the head, both candidates are just whores for a vote.

And yes, I'm still planning on voting Obama, just because he's not McCain.

Blogcrawl '08 update.

I haven't received much of a response on this years BlogCrawl. So I thought I would tantalize you with some more details. First off, we are going to be shooting at the Buffalo Range in Ottawa, IL. After shooting we are going to head back to my place for a beer tasting, we should be there around 3:00PM. give or take half an hour.

EVERYONE is welcome, just let me know.

Now, I would like to see a lot of people to participate. So please, spread the word. Let's have some fun! Oh, and just in case you really want to know, here is the logo that Pamibe has done for this year.

You know you want one of these on your blog! I'm holding onto the designated Driver, Survivor and extra special pimped out Survivor logo!

Too Funny

For those of you that missed it, here is the intro to Saturday Night Live this last week. Tina Fey does an excellent Palin. She looks and sounds like her. For those that follow politics, this is hilarious.

Football!!!!!!

A group of friends of mine, including Bruce, usually get together on Sundays to watch football. Today I'm hosting the gathering. YAY! They never wanted to come here in the past because my TV was too small. I only had a 32 inch. Well last January I bought a 50' HD and now it's okay to come over.

I'm not sure how many people are going to be here, as it always fluctuates week to week. But I know I'm grilling up a ton of burgers.

If you're in the neighborhood stop by, just bring your own beer.

Rock has a future

Now for the cute content of the day. The future of Rock is alive, check out this little kid lipsync Jukebox Hero by Foreigner.

Soda Vs. Pop

This arguement has been going around the blogosphere for a long, long time. I remember seeing many a post about it. What do you call soft drinks? Is it soda, pop, coke, etc. This arguement has even gone on outside the blogosphere. I know many of my friends and I have had this debate.

Someone has taken this debate to a new level and actually did a survey to find out. Then they made a map based on the answers. Finally we have the Soda Vs. Pop map.

Click to enlarge.

They also have a breakdown on to how the map can be read over at Strange Maps. Looking at this map I have to conclude pop is the most used term!

Magazines of tomorrow, today.

This is really cool! Esquire magazine has come up with a cover using E-Ink (Electronic Ink) that blinks.

Apparently they are only producing 100,000 of these.

Looking at this makes me wonder how far away are we from the days when we have moving pictures in newsprint. Think about it. All those fantasy and Sci-Fi movies may not be far off. The newspapers from Harry Potter and the wanted posters from Serenity/Firefly.

Now what I really want to know is, how much is this going to cost?

Post it note fun

From the creators of the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, EeepyBird show us how to have fun with sticky notes. eepybird.com

Oh man, I could have been doing this when I was in Tulsa! I wish I had found it earlier.

Home at last.

One last explosion from Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Two hours sitting on a tarmac at the Tulsa Airport due to flight delay because of weather

Three seats in a row, me in the middle

Four and a half hours of being stuck in the plain on a 1 hour 45 minute gate to gate flight.

Five buses that arrive and leave before my bus arrives to bring me from O'hare to Rockford. Due to a traffic accident on 90 holding everything up.

Six hours and 45 minutes from boarding the plane, I finally arrive in Rockford.

It's all worth it to be home.

Seven years.

It's hard to believe that it's been seven years since our world changed thanks to some crack pot terrorists. It's even harder to believe that there are people out there that have already forgotten about or are forgetting what happened. This morning while I waited in line for a cup of coffee I heard a couple of ladies (my age or older) that were talking about 9/11. They got into a discusion about what year it happaned, how many planes were involved and exactly what buildings were hit. I kid you not, one lady thought it took place over 10 years ago while Clinton was in office.

Because of this when I got into class I asked some questions about politics and 9/11. Mainly I wanted to see if they were up on current events or if they were oblivious too. Most of them were good, but a couple were really confused. We didn't spend a lot of time, and I didn't tell them why I was asking. It surprises me how apathetic some people can be to a situation like that. Including one that cause our current president to declare a war on terrorism.

Personally, I'll never forget. Four planes, The World Trade Center, The Pentagon and a fiend near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2,974 innocent civilians, police and firefighters lost their lives.

Blogcrawl '08!

Okay folks, because of my predicament with Tulsa, I wasn't sure this was going to happen this year. Now that I'm coming home predominantly, it sure the heck is! I'd like to get as many people as possible to join the Blogcrawl this year. The Date is September 20th!

What is the Blogcrawl?

The Blogcrawlis a night that you are supposed to get intoxicated to a level of personal comfort and make comments on blogs. Why? Because I love reading drunken comments. Of course there are some rules with the blog crawl and they go like this:

A) You have to be 21 years old to participate and drink. I don’t want some minor’s parents coming back and saying I told them to get pissed drunk and go on the Internet. If you are under 21, you may still participate as a designated blogger. If you don't want to drink but still make stupid comments, be my quest!

4) Try to leave a comment on every blog in the Bad Example and Frizzen Sparks family. You may use my side bar as a reference if you don’t know who they are. Do not feel limited to these blogs only, go ahead and hit any other blog you would like as well. Oh, and a drunken post on your own blog is perfectly acceptable and encouraged.

The day's activities will start off with the second annual BlogCrawl shooting fest at the Buffalo Range in Ottawa, IL. This is open to anyone that wants to go shooting, even if you don't want to do the rest of the activities. If you are interested in carpooling with me, we'll make arrangements when the time gets closer.

After shooting we can all get together for a Beer Tasting. Taking in some of the lessons I learned from the last event, we'll only be tasting six beers before getting to business. The actual Beer Tasting will be RSVP. You need to let me know if you want to participate in the beer tasting and if you want to supply one of the beers. Please let me know by September 18th. If you want to come and socialize and just hang out, you are more then welcome and you don't need to RSVP.

After the Beer Tasting we will have an open party. In stead of going to a bar, we'll be building a fire and drinking beer here. I have a computer and wireless so we can all comment together for the actual BlogCrawl. Depending on the weather. If it's really crappy we'll be inside.

So come, have fun, lets do it right!

Boiling Point

Have you ever been pushed so far that you just can't take it anymore? Well I hit that point today. Since I've been down here in Tulsa this round the communication has been absolutely horrible. I get told one thing from one person, another tells me something different, then a third contradicts both of them. What the hell is with that?

I came down here with a set of directives to get accomplished. The first week they they changed those directives 4 times, most of the time I'm not finding out about it after the fact when someone gets pissed because my team didn't do what they wanted done. Then they were making changes with my classes with out telling me and then expecting me to be able to support all of this when they spread my resources to absolutely nothing.

I couldn't take it anymore after everything else when I had a peer down here get on my case because I was teaching something that someone else had told me to teach. All my frustration, anger and irritation over this whole thing came to a boiling point.

I

went

OFF!

After a bout a 30 minute tirade involving three peers and a manager down here and my basically telling them where they can shove their support for the next three months, I finally calmed down. Even as I walked back to my desk I knew that probably was not the wisest decision to make. It's pretty much guaranteed to be repercussions for my actions.

Flash forward to 4:30. I get an IM from my manager. She wants to talk to me about the support for the class. Okay, I kind of new that wasn't all she wanted to talk about. She told me she was going to be on a conference call until 5:00. I told her I'd be back in the hotel by then, but she could call me on my cell.

I get the call. We discuss changes back in Rockford the need for support for that, the classes, personel and finally she says that they decided that I would better benefit the company back in Rockford than down here.

Fine

By

Me.

So I'm coming home on Friday for good. I will not be coming back down to this cesspool of a project. I'm washing my hands of it completely.

Thank Jebus.

Go Pack GO! Finally

It's been a shitty day. I didn't get home until the start of the third quarter. Now I'm going to sit back, drink some beer and watch my pack. They better win!

Food and Firearms

On Friday I asked the class were the best Barbeque was in Tulsa. Of course I was given different opinions, but half the class agreed on one place. That was Knotty Pine . Now I was warned that it is a hole in the wall restaurant that looks run down and very mom and popish. Don't let the fancy looking website fool you. I'm talking paint pealing off the building and sign, circa 1950 diner furniture, things looking hard used. But when you walk in, you will get hit with a great scent of barbeque. The staff was really friendly and when I told them that I was from out of state, they went down the menu and explained everything. Then they made recommendations. I ended up getting the assorted meat plate.

It was fantastic. This was some of the best barbeque that I've had in a long, long time. As I said, this is not a fancy place, but it's damn good.

Then on Saturday I went to a chain restaurant called The Rib Crib. This place also came highly recommended. Now this is a much nicer looking restaurant. Everything is new and modern. Nothing is in a state of disrepair or needs replacing. The smell is of campfire and barbeque. Again the wait staff was nice and friendly and they recommended a four meat sampler. It was good, but I'll be honest the Knotty pine tasted better.

Other than that, over the weekend I went to the Bass Pro Shop. Which is huge. I spent a good 3 hours there walking around and looking at stuff. I even bought shirts for the family. They had an impressive selection of sporting goods. They also had a nice restaurant inside there, but I had eaten prior to arriving, so I didn't try it.

After leaving the Bass Pro Shop I drove around Tulsa. I had looked up gun shops and ranges in the area and had found a couple that had ranges and would let you rent firearms. Unfortunately the two places that I found both told me upon arriving that in order to rent a firearm you have to be a member. The cheapest membership was $75.00. I wasn't about to spend that, plus rental fees, plus ammo fees. Oh well. I did spend some time looking at their firearms and the costs. I ended up spending a couple of hours doing that.

The nice thing is that I've spent the whole weekend with out having to see Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Product Placement Hell

Over the last year I've noticed more and more product placements in everything from movies to TV shows. It's gotten pretty annoying when they change the flow of a whole show just to pimp out the fact that Dunken Donuts sells coffee (ALA USA's Psych).

however, it isn't the worst. Over at cracked they came up with The 10 Most Shameless Product Placements in Movie History

McCain is the Green Lantern?

As I was stumbling through my weekly random crap I ran across a guy that found a startling resemblance between McCain and the Green Lantern.

This still will not make me vote for him.

oh the possibilities

When I was a kid, my friends and I would go to Skateland every Saturday. One of our favorite things to do when we were there was to order a "suicide" from the snack bar. I don't know who named it or why that, but it was a combination of equal parts of every softdrink on the fountain. Now they normally had a Cola, a Lemon Lime, A Root Beer, Dr. Pepper and an orange drink. It was all the rage with the kids. I think the snack bar workers hated making them though.

When I discovered that Coke testing 100-flavor soda fountains I wondered what that "suicide" would taste like, and how hard it would be to make one!

This is just mean

Someone out there really wants to ruin peoples fun. They put together a quick paced video clip of some of the most famous spoilers in book and film.

I just can't believe he left off that Soylent Green is people!

Just in case

Before I came down here, Blogspawn Bruce advised me that my traveling companion is a couple of sandwichs short of a picnic. I never realized that she truly is insane. I'm not sure if she's bi-polar, paranoid, manic depressive or what, but damn the girl is CooCoo for Coco Puffs. I'm talking boiling the bunny crazy. She also has the social graces of an 8 year old.

She's staying down here this weekend with me, and honestly I'm a little afraid. I'm big enough that I can take her physically, but she might have that captain insane-o strength or just do something when my back is turned. So if for some reason you don't hear from me in a while, let me tell you now; Those of you that know my traveling companion give the police her name.

I'm going to try to avoid her as much as possible over the next couple of days, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. Next week I'm going to try to stay as far away from her as possible, which will be hard when we are in the same room.

It's not so bad.

Okay, I've heard people complaining about Hurricanes for so long that I just took it for granted that they are bad horrible things. Well today Hurricane Gustav* hit Tulsa. The temps dropped to 66 degrees, it's windy and sure it's been raining all day long, but seriously folks. This isn't bad at all.

I'm not sure what the fuss is all about

* what's left of it

The answer has finally arrived.

After two months of being up in the air about my job and work status I finally got an answer to my situation. At 9:00 this morning I was called to an important meeting. During this meeting there was the director of my office, the director of the Tulsa office, my manager and the Tulsa manager. We discussed how the transition was going and what support was needed, and the need for experience management in Tulsa.

We went over a lot of details as well as the logistics and cost benefit analysis of continuing long term support. It was determined that in order for this project to work they need to have staff permanently located in Tulsa that has a thorough knowledge of the products. Finally it came down to my assignment, or re-assignment. It looks like I will be permanently relocated.

I will be returning to Rockford on the 13th and 14th, then after that I return to Rockford for the last time on the 26th. After that there will be no more taking time off to fly home. It's a done deal and I really don't have a say in the matter.

On September 26th, I'm going back to Rockford permanently!

That's right, on September 26th I wash my hands of this project. Thank the powers that be that I'm finally coming home. I've had enough of this place, this project and this job. I'm pretty much thinking that come October I'm going to start looking for a new job outside of this company.

Here comes the stress again.

After last weeks debacle my stress level was through the roof. Then I had a great relaxing and fun weekend. Now today I was at work no more than two hours when the stress came back. Everything started falling apart. I started catching flack for shit other people did. Finally, the staff that I was promised didn't show up today.

I couldn't locate them anywhere. Fortunately they were on a different flight and someone forgot to tell me the change in flight plans. But for about an hour I was stressing over how I was going to handle the week.

My slightly mental companion returned this week and is back to old tricks. That really wasn't what I needed. I've figured that she doesn't realize that I don't play games and that this is going to come back to haunt her. Either way it is not helping me out.

Now the upside is that I have more support than what I need this week. One office sent an extra person for support and another office sent a person up that wasn't supposed to. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of this support. Especially the office that sent a person that wasn't supposed to, she doesn't know the book of business that we are training.

System issues that were supposed to be taken care of last week, weren't. Access issues that were supposed to be completed two weeks ago weren't. And stuff that was supposed to be in place today hadn't even been started.

I'm pretty sure once this project is over I'm going to actively look for a new job. I know it's going to kill my re-enacting, but seriously my grey hair is coming in so fast that for those of you that know me, I'm starting to get the Reed Richards (Mr. Incredible, Fantastic Four) look. You know, where the side of my head is mostly grey.

I return home(?)

After spending the day drinking beer with Bloodspite yesterday, I finally headed off home this morning. Fortunately for me I was still tired so I could take a nap on the way home. Just kidding, I did not fall asleep driving the car.

In my travels of Oklahoma and Texas I did discover a couple of things. First off. Whomever keeps telling me that Oklahoma is flat and treeless is a damn liar! It's pretty hilly and there are a ton of trees. Now it's not mountainous, and even though they label it a mountain, Arbuckle Mountain is not a mountain. It's too damn small.

Secondly, I think I found all the Indian reservations that were kicked out of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. I passed through the Kickapoo, Sac and Fox nations. It seems like every 20 miles I would pass a sign telling me what nation I was passing into. At one point I was starting to wonder if there were any Indians outside of Oklahoma. I mean, I know there are not, but I was surprised at the number of nations here. No wonder my Indian jokes flop!

Finally, HWY 75/69 from Dallas to Tulsa is a horrible road. Not because state of the road, but because it's not a limited access highway. There were stop lights, road side stands, oh and casinos what seems to be at least every 20 miles. Lets not forget the speed zones where the speeds dropped down to 35 mph. It made for an annoying trip.

Either way, I made it back to Tulsa. Back to my room, where the cleaning staff can't follow directions. I left a do not disturb sign on the door and they came in anyway. They threw away a couple of receipts and a piece of paper that had important information on it. They had been sitting on my desk. I complained to the front desk, they apologized but had no way to get the missing stuff back. I left explicit instructions that in the future when I want my room cleaned I will take the sign off of the door. I don't care if they see me leave with a suitcase, they don't need to clean my room.

Now I'm just kicking back and relaxing. Thinking of Ktreva and wishing she was here... cause I really could go for her doing that thing that she does really well, but she hardly ever does it, but she's really good at it.