Random Ramblings

Well, once again a long time has lapsed since my last post. I had good intentions if that counts. Some time ago I started on six drafts. But that was about it. As I've said in a few of my previous posts, I just can't seem to get into the habit of writing more regularly. Odd, I used to enjoy the daily journal that was kept as part of Mr. Cooney's 8th grade English class. Or was that Social Studies?

Now the tricky part is that I don't want to dive into any of the topics that I started on drafts about. At least not too deeply if at all. So I think I'll just give a quick look at what's happening lately.

At work, we had to let one of the Unix/Linux Systems Administrators go a few weeks back. I am somewhat surprised at the lack of qualified applicants applying for the open position. You figure that with 10 or 12 percent unemployment that I'd have people beating down the door. But no. Some applicants are the same that applied for an open position last year, so obviously I'm not the only one who thinks they're not qualified. A couple that had real interesting resumes were quickly unavailable as I was scheduling interviews. They accepted positions somewhere else. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I don' think I am (think the people still looking). But at this point, I may have to revisit some of the resumes that my team and I passed on.

I'm am still digging the Challenger SRT8 and no regrets about purchasing it. Scheduled its 12 month/12K mile service for next week. But the beast has only 4600 miles on it! By the way, I've given her a name. Her name is Arion (or Areion). A horse from Greek Mythology. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areion for more information about the mythical horse. Lately I've been thinking of a somewhat major upgrade to her. A little voice in my head is telling me to buy an Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger. I have to check with the local speed shops and see how much installation would cost me.

I did purchase season tickets for both the SF 49ers and the NY Jets again this year. Haven't made plans to head to NY for a Jet game, and so far I've only been to the 49er home opener. I sold the tickets for the Niners/Cowboys game on Craigslist a couple weeks back. I have a bunch of tickets for both teams listed on both Stubhub and TicketExchange, but no bites so far.

Back in August my good friend JJ Connelly was out this way. We headed up to Arcata for some outdoor type stuff. I had a blast, even though there was a few issues. But I think I'll cover that in more details in a separate post.

As we enter October I am definitely looking forward to my annual trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I'm going to spend time with my daughter Reagan, but I'll probably go down again in March around my birthday and spend a few days with her before visiting with dad again.

As I'm sitting here watching the season premier of "Fringe", I am running out of things to ramble about. So dear readers I think I'll call this post done at this time. For now, a goodbye and goodnight.

Long overdue post

It's Sunday evening and I'm sitting home, watching National Geographic Channel's 'Shark Men' while I type this. Hard to believe I haven't posted anything since December. But then again, as I've stated some time ago, I just can't get into a good habit of regularly updating my blog here. I don't really have anything in particular to say, but figured I need to fill the void.

I guess the biggest news since December is that I celebrated birthday number fifty in March. I headed down to Florida for the occasion. Spent a couple days visiting with Reagan, and then a few days including my actual birthday at dad's. My sister, niece, and niece's boyfriend were also down in FL. I had a good time. A couple of excellent days with my daughter spent at GatorLand and Universal Studios, followed by just as good days relaxing at dad's and spending time with family.

So what else? I just saw the orthopedic doctor again about my hip. Still it's up to me when I finally get the hip replaced, but the doctor did mention something. Seems if I wait too long, then the damage to the cup part of the joint will make the surgery more difficult and recovery longer. I just don't know. Definitely not this spring or summer, but maybe late autumn or winter? Definitely after the holidays.

The job... I need to make some decisions. I really believe the stress of the management duties is a big part of the problem keeping my blood pressure under control. So do I step back from being a manager? Or seriously look for a new job outside of Northrop Grumman and the USPS? Another thing suffering because of this is the consulting work I've been doing for my former employer back east. Not getting some key projects done adds to the stress from my regular job. Perhaps multiplies is a better word. Either way, not good.

I was going to head to FL to see Reagan in a dance recital next month. Again, work and stress get in the way. I wish I lived closer where travel wasn't a one day thing each way. Right now, I'm feeling a bit too burnt out to plan a trip down FL.

Don't be surprised, the non-running motorcycles are in the same state. I'm still loving the SRT8.

I purchased a bit of gold recently. From the U.S. Mint I ordered a 2011 1 oz Gold Eagle Proof coin. It's now in my safe with the Gold Double Eagle I have. I forget what year, early 1900s though.

Looks like the Shark Men are about to land a large White Shark, so I think I'll call this post done and watch the shark wrangling.

One last thing though, I'd be remiss if I didn't say Happy Mothers' Day.

Santa is not from the North Pole

I had somewhat of a epiphany last night while relaxing on the couch watching television. Santa Claus is not from the North Pole! Not only is he not from the North Pole, but he isn't even from the planet earth. That's right readers, jolly old St. Nick is an alien from another world.

In recent years it has been recognized that it is physically impossible for Santa Claus to complete his gift giving journey throughout the world in a single night. This fact has even been published on the popular urban legend site snopes.com. Please see http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/physics.asp.

So where is Santa from you ask? I believe the logical answer is that Santa Claus is a Time Lord from Gallifrey and that his sleigh and reindeer are his TARDIS. It is the ability to travel back and forth through time that makes it appear that all that traveling is completed in just one 24 hour period. As for the reindeer and sleigh, that must be some sort of illusion projected by the TARDIS to hide Santa's true identity.

A belated Merry Christmas to all! Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings.

What's wrong with air travel?

Looking at the title, along with the current news, you may think this is going to be about the TSA and the new scanners or search techniques. For those of you who are chomping at the bit for such a post, sorry to say that this is not about those subjects. Nor is this about terrorism. Hell, it's not even really about flying! Ah-hah you say, it's about the long lines to get through security. Still, you would be wrong, but you're getting warmer. For the most part, my problem with air travel is the boarding process.

I'm going to break the boarding process into two parts. The first part of this is when us passengers are allowed to start boarding the aircraft. Most flights these days are full or near capacity. That means it's important that people board in the manner directed (and this is partly because of things mentioned further on in this post). We all know the drill. Pre-boarding for those who will need extra time is first. Families with small children, people with various disabilities, etc. Not really a problem here. After that, it's usually first (or business) class next, followed by zones or rows starting with the back of the plane. First class aside, this is done so passengers can get to their seats without having to get around multiple people attempting to stow away their carry-on items. Part of the problem starts before people even start getting onto the plane. As boarding time nears, passengers will start moving towards the gate. So much so, that the patient passenger then has to work his or her way through a mass of people to board. What, you people think the plane is going to take off without you? The gate attendant will ask that people keep a clear isle, but that falls on deaf ears. Then it never surprises me that as I board and walk the isle, there are always more than a handful of passengers who decided that they are more important than the rest of us and needed to board before their zone or isle was called. Yes, a few people may have pre-boarded, but you can definitely tell that most of the passengers getting into rows not called yet are not of the pre-boarding variety. Yes, my faith in humanity as being a bunch of rude and selfish people is confirmed.

Why is this a problem? Well let's get to part two of the boarding process. This is where we find our row, put our carry-on away, and sit down. Think of it people, it's a bus! A bus that happens to fly. Why can't people do this step quickly? It's an easy answer. They have more than the allowed (usually two these days) number of carry-on items, and one or more of them are definitely too large. People get away with it because the poor gate attendants would probably have near riot on their hands if they started policing carry-on size and would likely delay takeoff. So while attempting to stuff the oversize roller into the overhead, instead of stepping into a row to let others go by as instructed by the flight attendants, most clueless passengers block the isle for minutes at a time. Again, selfish, rude, and inconsiderate. Added to this is some of the passengers in isle seats. The window seat or seats still unoccupied, some people will get all settled in and even put on their seat-belt. Years ago, maybe. But as I said earlier, most flight these days are full or almost full. It's a good bet that someone is going to occupy those other seats. But no, we now have to wait for someone to a few minutes to get up out of the isle seat to let the other passenger(s) in.

I could go on a bit more, but I think I've made my point. What's wrong with air travel? Well, in my mind it's the majority of the passengers that is the problem.

Lost in thought

Or perhaps not lost in thought. I realized it's been almost a month since last posting, and I have thought about writing something a few times in the last couple weeks. Is it I have too many ideas floating about my head, or none? Whatever the case, I figured I should post something.

Let me start with a shout out to John Force, who at 61 years old won his 15th NHRA Funny Car Championship. He also won this weekend's race to sweeten the victory. At 61, he is the oldest person to win a championship in motorsports. Good on him! Coincidentally, the ProStock Motorcycle Championship was won by a rookie, LE Tonglet, the youngest to win a major motorsports championship. See http://www.nhra.com/story/2010/11/14/dixon-claims-full-throttle-top-fuel-championship/ for more details.

I have a feeling this will be slow week at the office. I head to visit my dad for Thanksgiving this Saturday, and maybe even get some time in to visit with my daughter and her mom for a day or two. A few things need to be taken care of at work. It's time for annual review process to start, and I have to work in the performance evaluations for my team. One member needs to travel after the Thanksgiving holiday, and as a manager I never went through the process and I'm not even sure what it is. Of course, when I asked my manager last week I didn't receive a response. Yet another example of why I really don't like working for the man. That's on top of the billable work I need to get done for the customer, aka the USPS.

Seeing dad and my daughter will be good, and I look forward to spending time with family. I do need to plan another trip where I just go down to visit with Reagan. There's a dance recital thing in June, but I definitely would like to visit again before then.

I'm still stoked with the SRT8. Definitely a fun machine to drive. It may be having the affect that I am wanting to get off my lazy butt and get the Triumph Chop and my '89 Springer back on the road. But that makes me think of something else, and that is why can't people frigging park correctly?! I usually back into the left hand spot of a two spot slot outside my apartment, and close to the curb as possible. I'm maybe 4 to 6 inches at the most from the curb, leaving a nice space between my passenger side and the white line. However, it seems the neighbor that usually parks in the other spot doesn't know how to f___ing drive! Seems they always pull into the spot and are usually right on top of the line or even over it! WTF! Really, not just once in a while, but it seems that almost every time. I think that one can tell a few things from this. 1: That they really don't know how to park since they are almost never in the spot correctly. 2: They must think they have more important things to do, since they don't take the time to adjust the position of the vehicle once they pull in. 3: They are inconsiderate, not caring that although their neighbor takes the care to leave a nice amount of space between cars (they have a young toddler and need to put the kid and car seat in their vehicle), they seem not to care how much room they leave between the parked cars. As you can see, it's sort of a pet peeve of mine. Even with my old Durango, I took the time to park carefully.

Enough of that, in other news my neighbor was evicted last week. Shame, because I liked the dude. Friendly guy, and we chatted quite a few times when I'd run into him while he's outside smoking a cig. Seems his wife took off a couple months back, and he couldn't swing the rent by himself. Oh well, I just hope the next tenants in that apartment are cool.

Hmm... seems like the CSI:Miami tonight is not the new episode that the guide says it's supposed to be. If I recall, last week was also wrong. But I'm thinking that this is what was supposed to be on last week, because I don't think it was a repeat like last week.

Back to vacation, I need to arrange my car service to SFO for Saturday morning. I've been using All Cities Limo for a while now. I definitely recommend them. So far great service, and always professional and on time.

One last thing before I call this a post. Reagan now has Skype, and it was nice to have a video chat with my daughter Friday evening.

Back to the last half of CSI:Miami, then time to hit the sack and visit with the Sandman.

Where's my mojo?

Alright, I haven't a clue where this post is going to go. As I start typing, I'm not even sure if it will have anything to do with the title. It's a little past 7:00pm PDT, and I'm switching back and forth between the Vikings/Packers game and shows on the History Channel. First it was IRT, and now Swamp People. In the game, the 3rd quarter is just about to start. But what's this about mojo?

As of late, I'm just not as motivated as I used to be. There was a time when I loved to spend time in the garage wrenching on the motorcycles for any little thing. But now... two non-running bikes that have been all but neglected. The '89 Springer was pulled apart after the pinion shaft sheared in 2004, but I haven't done anything since. The motor is spread across my workbench in parts. The '71 Triumph chopper is almost as bad. It's together, but in need of a little TLC. It probably won't start unless I rebuild the carb again. I've been meaning to upgrade the ignition and charging systems, the new parts I purchased some years back are stacked on my bedroom floor. Moving back to my professional life, I've let a major project for a client slip for a long time. Again, there was a time when I got zoned into doing computer work I would get a lot done in a short time. Now, I just can't my mind wrapped around the tasks I need to do. Like the title of this post asks, where's my mojo?

So what else is going on. A few months back I was given a promotion at work. If you can call it that. I'm now Manager IS Technology. But I'm also still a Senior Unix Systems Administrator. 40% more work for a lousy 2% raise. I think that's part of the problem. Before the promotion, there was all sorts of related work politics. With the promotion, there's now conflicting priorities that compete for the same time. At some point, somethings going to give. I've been on a few interviews, and one of the prospects looked promising. Alas, no job offers yet. I'll have to polish up my resume and see what else is out there. It seems that almost anything will be better than reporting to the two-faced liar I have now as a manager.

Life isn't all doom and gloom though. Being reconnected to my daughter Reagan over this last year has been a huge bright spot. She turns 10 on November 1st. I hope she likes what I got her for her special day. Speaking of gifts, I have to start thinking of what to get people for Christmas. In the past, I have tried to have most of my gift shopping completed before Thanksgiving.

The new car has been a blast, and I'm taking a little road trip in it this week. Driving down to Henderson NV to visit some old friends. But from there, we're taking his RV to Dumont Dunes for the weekend. My bud has a sweet sandrail with a supercharged V6 Honda engine. I went to the dunes a couple times in 2008 and I'm looking forward to this weekend. Plus I'm looking forward to a nice road trip in the SRT8.

After that, my annual trip to FL to visit pop for Thanksgiving. I've spoken to Reagan's mom, and I hope to also spend some time with my daughter while in Florida.

Still the question remains. Where's my mojo? Even in my faith. You may or may not know that I'm an evangelical christian. If you had to label me, something close to Baptist. My attendance at weekly service is dreadful. Back in NY, I rarely missed a week. But nowadays, quite the opposite and there is no good reason.

I think I've rambled on enough. Back to pay more attention to the TV. It's Sunday, so I'm looking forward to this week's episode of Dexter on Showtime.

Good night all.

Mayflower Madness

Work has been somewhat hectic these last couple of weeks, and it's taken the motivation to write out of me. I promised you all the story of my horrible experience with the moving company Mayflower. I'll try not to drag this on. Thinking about it, the story of how I ended up moving to the west coast may also be something I'll post about. But to keep this entry somewhat short, I'll skip details on that although it is related.

In November of 2000, I found myself with a job offer here in the SF Bay area. It was an awesome deal and the company hiring me was paying for everything related to the move. They had contracted with Mayflower to move me from Long Island, New York to Foster City, California.

The first step was advance relocation services. They come to you place and pack and get ready to move all your goodies. They give some nice tips, leave boxes for packing some stuff yourself, and that part of the move was pretty sweet. I recall giving those guys a decent tip as well as buying pizzas and soda. Molloy Bros Moving and Storage was their name, and I have no problem with them. Hell, I'd recommend them.

A few days later the moving truck showed up, or what I thought was the moving truck. Yes, it was a tractor trailer with a full size moving rig. But I was told that only about half my stuff would be going on this truck. There was someone else's belonging's fulling up half the trailer and that was being dropped off in NV or AZ. Still, the driver and his helper were pretty cool. My two motorcycles were loaded on this trailer, and a bunch of other stuff. For those familiar with moving, the little stickers with a lot number and sequence number were put on my belongings and written down in a log or sort of a bill of lading. Except for the unexpected load split, this was also a pleasant experience. Another tip for the driver and his helper, and more pizza and soda.

Now things start getting dicey... The pickup for the rest of my stuff was delayed once, getting a phone call at the last minute that the truck will be by the next day. The next day, a moving van shows up, but not a tractor trailer. I ask about the vehicle and I was told that they are at my house to just pick up my stuff and it will be stored and transferred to the big rig that will drive it west. Whatever... Now, I had two window air conditioner units. One was an old Sears Coldspot, probably about 20 years old that still rocked. The other was a white Friedrich unit that I purchased that August, only a few months before. The little stickers were applied, logged, and the units wrapped in those moving blankets. More tips, more pizza, more soda. Soon, except for the things I was taking with me when I drove across the country, all my goodies were in the possession of Mayflower or their agents. A day or two later, I was driving across the country with my buddy Andy and Jessi my dog.

The trip to the west coast was for the most part uneventful. Played cat and mouse with a snow storm or two, but made it in four days.

I believe I arrived here on a Wednesday. That Thursday, the first truck arrived. The driver and his helper made great time getting my stuff unloaded and when we couldn't locate some small wood pieces for a bed frame, the driver paid for some wood we had bought and had cut to size at the local Home Depot. Not a problem with this crew. Once again; tips, pizza, soda. Hearty handshakes with the gentlemen and took the Harley for a quick blast around the neighborhood. So far, all is good.

A day or so later, no second truck. But I had bid my bud Andy farewell and dropped him off the at the airport (company that hired me paid for his one-way ticket back to NY). I also start my new job. I get a call saying my stuff will be delievered the next day. I take the day off, and about lunch time get a call saying not today. This happens about two or three more times! WTF! I'm starting to get concerned.

Finally, the truck does arrive. This second driver and his helper just don't seem all that right to me. As we're unloading my stuff, we get to the air conditioners. Sears Coldspot, check. Friedrich... hmmmm... unwrap the moving blanket and there's some brown generic brand air conditioner. Oddly, it has the same exact sticker; lot number and sequence number, that was put on my Friedrich. Think about that. Someone needed to unwrap my AC, move the sticker, and wrap the other AC. I make a stink and call Mayflower. I refuse to sign the receipt until the driver and myself make a note that the AC is not mine and initial it. There's also another box completely missing. This is getting annoying. Finally, small tip and no fucking pizza or soda, the moving truck leaves.

Mayflower customer service... sucks! When calling to complain, the customer service rep told me to contact the police where the AC was stolen. I was fucking furious! I told him to tell me which of his crack head employees stole it so I knew which jurisdiction to call. I mean, it seemed lost on this idiot that someone who worked for Mayflower had the access to unwrap my new AC, take the sticker off and put it on some other piece of shit, and wrap that. This guy was complete prick! My saving grace was that the company that hired me and was paying for the move (and at least one other person's move) played hardball. Basically, it they didn't pay for my loss, they weren't getting paid. So I was asked to supply a receipt for the AC and a list of the contents of the missing box. I had a receipt for the AC, which they did pay for in full. But at the time I could not figure out what was in the missing box. So, I made a list of various power tools since the box was from the shed or basement (I don't remember which). Unfortunately, I didn't put up my Christmas Tree until the next year. The missing box was Christmas Ornaments. That might not not seem too bad, but I had the ornaments from when I was kid. Hand blown glass ornaments from Poland (my maternal grandparents) and other sentimental ones.

So, if you're moving. Don't use Mayflower!

Now as I let out a sigh, I'm going to catch the Hawaii 5-0 premier.