Here I am again

So I should be doing the schedule right now, but that can wait for a little bit.
I am so stressed about work and work, because lets face it that's all I do. Oh well when you don't have kids what else are you supposed to do? I am starting classes in the fall again at DMACC. One is an online class, it's my first online class but Eric will help me. He's a pretty great guy. I'm so lucky when it comes to him.
I have so much to do and never enough time to do it in. Every week when I try to devote time to the schedule at the store something always comes up and of course I have to work on the floor instead. So then when I get home and want to do anything else but McDonald's I have to log into the store and finish the schedule. I also have book work here at home that I need to devote time. So I need to pretty much accept that I have no free time from McDonald's. Even when I do take time to do nothing I stress out because I know what I should be doing. My job is rewarding, just very frustrrating.
I will try to continue this at a later date, however that stress I was talking about is creeping up again....

Well, well here it is Memorial Day and I'm working. And supposed to be trying to get a jump start on the semester that starts tomorrow, in addition I'm trying to figure out finances and perform a degree audit for Renee. Yet, I still take a break from all of this muy important stuff to update my blog for the second time in three days. You better feel honoured.

That’s right, I’ve worked all weekend. Actually the weekend started for me Friday evening. I was here in the office until 9:30 pm or so. Other than today we had been fairly busy. Today has thankfully been slow and I hope to go home whenever Renee gets back to town from McDs. I’m nearly ½ done with one of my classes. It doesn’t start until tomorrow, but I had the book and it was easy stuff, so I went ahead and worked ahead. I’m hoping to finish off the first workbook completely before I go home (won’t happen). I’m also hoping to get a jump on the “Long-term Liabilities” chapter for accounting 102. It’s the same instructor and book I had for 101. I’m expecting to carry an A in this class. I finished with a B+ for the spring semester in 101, and this is basically a continuation of the course. I scored an A on every single test and homework grade, however, I had missed every single quiz except one or two, which dropped my grade just enough to cost me just enough points to drop to the B+. I have fewer classes this semester and will be getting my car back to running condition soon, so hopefully that will no longer be an issue. As for the other class, being half-way done before the class starts is something I can build off of and hopefully finish the course (except for tests and forum discussions) over the next couple of weeks.

Renee's getting closer and closer to her promotion. It's going to happen; the details of pay and date haven't been ironed out. Hopefully, we'll have some closure on that come Tuesday. She has a meeting with her area supervisor and store manager. Her store manager is in full support of her, which is good. Also, this area supervisor actually likes her (unlike the last one), so that's also good. Last night we discussed the best way t go about pitching her base-level as a first assistant. I think we settled on something that is believable, honest and fair. Her sister, Ronnie, when she was in a similar situation told them that she already had another job offer (lie) for $x/yr. Renee didn't want to take this approach, which is good because I don't think they'd have believed her. Renee is pretty much a "company woman." She likes the company (for the most part) and is well liked by most everyone. So we settled on something more along the lines of, Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in favor of her giving an ultimatum. Now that they're actively talking about her development and future, I'm not nearly as concerned. When she made the decision to pursue a career and shoot for the corporate level at McDonalds', I was skeptical but happy. I knew that she wasn't going to be happy in an office-type of atmosphere. It’s not her style, not yet anyway. I was skeptical because the first thing they wanted was for her to transfer into a different store, a store that needed some serious help. It was a good store (perennially in the top 2-3 stores out of 15 or so), but they were hard-up for swing-level managers. They didn’t really need salary managers. What the store needed was bodies capable of pulling entry-level management duties. It turned out better, though slower, than I had thought it would. I was pretty happy about that. I wasn’t happy with her area supervisor at that store, though. He completely took her off track (one reason I was pushing her to go to Norwalk) and likely slowed her progression by six months (six months of salary, we’d like to have back). She’s back on track now. The last thing I want is for them to corner her in a dead-end position and as soon as I start to get that feeling, I’ll let her know. She’s far too good and smart to let her waste away like that. So in the mean time, we’ve also decided that she’s going to start working directly toward an associates’ in business. It never hurts to have some bookwork to back up practical experience and an excellent work ethic. Plus, as soon as she has it, then she can start bluffing for raises like her sister did. ;p

That’s about it for now. I’ve got emails in the queue I should answer, and then some homework – or at least a degree audit.

A ray of hope?

From Cubs.com (referring to the team at least sticking together through this lousy-ass year in which the management has done absolutely zero since the season started):

"You don't see guys throwing jabs at each other or blaming the pitching or the hitting or anything," Baker said. "These guys are together, and when you're together, you've got a chance. It's May. Hopefully, we can look back on May and say that was a nightmare we don't want to live again. When you're in it, you're in it. You've got to learn from it.

"The average team would've just thrown in the towel yesterday," he said. "That was a pretty good indicator, don't you think? That's a real good indicator of what these guys are about, what we're about as a coaching staff and what we instill, what we teach, and what we expect."

I'll get back to my normal updating stuff in a little while. I wanted to comment a bit more, but won't on this topic just now.

Soul Searching

Most of you will probably find this menial and/or boring, however, there's something that I need to address straight away. I'll try and do an update later about things everyone else might find more interesting.

I'm beginning to ponder if my stalwart support of my Chicago Cubs should be suspended. I've been a huge Cubs' fan since ... well for just about as long as I can remember. Easily since 1988. I was eight years old and truly discovered the beauty that is baseball about that time. I didn't fully understand all of the intracacies -- most people don't. If they did neither basketball nor football would be more popular, and certainly not soccer. Baseball is as perfect a sport, as well as a game, as is possible. It's a sport that so perfectly encapsulates the human condition, that one only needs to look to the health of baseball in any given to gain a knowledge about what it is the community values. Case in point: In Los Angeles, strangers don't talk to one another between innings, they watch the Jumbotron for the latest movie releases and pop music videos. They spend (on average) around two hours and then leave. It's entertainment in LA, nothing more nothing less. Much like most things in LA, baseball is a fleeting thought in the minds of the citizens.

Back to my point.

The Cubs have never been a really great team. They've flirted with greatness a few times: 1969, 1984, 1989, 1998, 2003. This doesn't bother me in the least. Baseball, and ultimately life, isn't always about winning. It's not about spending $120 million dollars a year to try to buy yourself victories. Baseball, and (again) life, is really only about one thing. If you don't know what the one thing is, take three hours out of your life and watch a game. If I told you, you wouldn't understand, it's much more something you have to feel. Much like the Tao, it is inescapably beyond words.

Back to my point.

If the Cubs lost every single game in a year, I'd still spend those three hours dutifully watching every game that I could. This year the Cubs have not been a good team. I don't care. But, there's something that saddens me greatly. It's really got absolutely nothing to do with the team itself. My issue is with the owners. The Chicago Tribune (technically Tribune Co.) owns the team. Their behaviour is frighteningly business-like. Now, anyone who reads this blog or is around me long enough realizes that I will be among the last to criticize a business's decisions, as long as they are profitable for the owners (shareholders) and aren't out blatantly breaking the law. In fact, I'd be among the first to say that privatizing police forces would be a far better and secure our neighborhoods and borders. That's a topic for another day, however.

Back to my point.

The Tribune Company is an evil force behind the Cubs. There is a singular fault in all Cub fans. We are utterly devoted to our team. We support it on television and in the stands. We perennially buy new hats and shirts. If we have spare money, we'd give it to Cubs Care, their charity organization. Cubs fans are seen in almost equal numbers regardless what what city they happen to be playing in. If it would support our team and you can say it, it'll be done. And it'll be done, lovingly. Year in and year out, the Tribune Co. feigns upgrading the Cubs. They scour the Minor Leagues and young players on other teams. The sign good, but (almost always) undervalued free agents. However, what they don't do is allow their General Manager, Jim Hendry to sign excellent free agents. Dominate free agents carry high price tags. This inevitably leads to less-than-great teams. Baseball has profit-sharing feature, when a team reaches around $115 million dollars on payroll, they lose part of their profits to the smaller markets (such as Kansas City).

Back to my point.

No Cubs' fan really wants the team to go that far. No one is saying the Tribune needs to open its pockets and let Tampa Bay and KC reach in, but it would be nice if they showed us that they care. Devotedly we buy tickets and merchandise, for losing teams -- increasing the profit margin enjoyed by Tribune Co. There is a rarely a Cubs game, regardless of how bad the team is, that doesn't reach at least 20,000 in attendance figures. There are 81 home games in a season, that's a LOT of scratch. When the team is playing well, or the Cardinals or White Sox play at Wrigley Field, there is always over 35,000-40,0000/game. I understand that to add an additional good player, it’s going to cost $5-8 million dollars, but they just added something like 1,800 seats over the last winter. But at around thirty bucks a pop over a full season it’s $4.34-million dollars for a single season. And it’s just a rough average. Ticket prices depending on where you sit can run upward of $60/seat. But, I guess as long as Cubs’ fans remain the most loyal in any sport, they can cheap-out and fans will still support their (the fans’) team.

There is something remarkably different in the past couple of years. Perhaps it’s the change-up in the broadcast team. No more Steve Stone/Caray (Harry or Chip) combo on commentary. Perhaps, I’m just becoming more aware of the Tribune’s lousy attitude toward the team. There is something is just plain different about the team. I don’t know what it is, but it’s enough for me to question whether or not this should even be classified as one of Cubs’ teams. Is this the same team that has remained one of the few commonalities that my dad and I have had? It’s something I’m being forced to think about.

I watch the games almost daily and every year I buy a new hat in the spring and a new shirt in the winter, I look for new Cubs’ shirts. I carry the same devotion to my team as fans in the bleachers. But, I may have to suspend that habit for a few months.

Will I be looking for a new hat come February or a new team?

Note to self: Rant about those ridiculous "cops ticket for seat belts to save lives" commericials.

In which I reclaim my title prefix: "In which"

Ya know for the longest time I've sat idly by and watched Rob consistently and persistently rip-off my title prefix: "In which". But it's gone a bit too far and now Dana is also using it. I just wanted to remind everyone in blog land that I am the one who engineered the "In which" basic title. Yes, I ripped it off of someone else, but that's not important. What is important is that I wanted to draw attention to myself. Now, that I've accomplished that, I can move beyond my whining.

So, I've decided this week, on the back of one of my other updates about hating work. That I need to go into business for myself. The only major drawback is that I don't really have any ideas. I also don't have much in the way of ambition, aside from becoming licensed as a CPA and eventually finishing my book (which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with accounting). What's more is that I don't have any driving ambitions or competent skills to do anything (career-wise) beyond owning a company that owns other companies. Scroll down a couple of entries to see my ramble on that.

Compounding the basic issue of having ambition but few resources (read: money) and even fewer unique abilities, is that I am surrounded by people who are not lacking in the realm of ability. Rob is starting a company for (eventually) serving people with web design needs. Breck, a DMACC compatriot, is getting together a site for graphic design, as well as more traditional illustration (drawing, paintings, etc) services. (By the way, I wrote the copy for the front page of that site as well as his "About Me" page. Like I told him, it originally looked like an artist wrote it. Now it's far more palatable, IMNSHO.) Danny, also from DMACC, has been awarded an spot at the commissaries at camps Mitigwa and Wappello for he and his son's Scout song, "Scouts Across America, (A.K.A "Hiking Trail". (A very catchy song. It can be played for free there at Rhapsody, and it's really worth the $.99, if you care to purchase it.) He's also going to play at Sec Taylor (or WellsFargo field or whatever it's called now, after the Scout night at the I-Cubs). He's not been signed to any contracts and needs a label, that he can't even really own because of a messy personal situation. And, those are just a start. My dad and brother have enough time and experience that we could easily start a real estate-flipping business (and I think they'd go for it if the money was there to fill in what they make now). That's just a start, Jake has friends who want to start their own mechanics shop. I know people who ultimately want to run freelance nursing operations. Renee's family would love to own a restaurant. We'd certainly have the experience and the managment capabilities, there. Renee and I ourselves have thrown around several ideas for businesses: bookstores, entertainment outlets (family fun centers, if you will), along with some others that I don't recall the details of at this point. It seems where ever I look, there's something I could see being able to eventually exploit, but nothing is falling into line with any of it, just yet.

There are plenty of opportunities to exploit for me, and they've mostly been landing in my lap, but being at a lack of funds and a lack skills on my behalf, I have no way to get started. My credit isn't clean enough yet to get the sort of the money to get anything done. The most I've done is rounded up accounting rights to most of these. And I'm not sure that's even legal. I think it's okay because I know the people in person.

So, I need to figure out how to get myself started. Once I get rolling, I think I can really put together a lot of opportunities for a lot of people, and cash in on all of them myself. Plus, then I'd not have to work at my lousy job. C'est la vie.

I'm off to contemplate my options.

Unfocused

It's going to be a longshort day. I'm incredibly unfocused. Well, I suppose it's more of just having my focus split in too many directions. For starters, I have the day off. I have to work all three days of Memorial weekend. I want to enjoy my day off, but still have it be productive. I wanted to get in some light reading, watch my Judge shows here in the morning, fill out applications for scholarships, work on my some of my creative writing projects and maybe make time for a game or two before "Deadliest Catch" tonight. I had also considered thumbing through my accounting book, getting a headstart on the summer semester. However, I've decided that can way until this weekend. I don't know how busy it is going to be, but if my past experience is any indication, then the first part of the day will be mostly emails and the latter part will innundated with phone calls. Which means the first part of the days will be easy enough because I can make the emails wait an hour or so before answering them. The phone calls, not so much.

So far it's 10:00 in the morning and I've been up for less than an hour. My neck aches, probably because I softened up my Sleep Number bed. I've had a headache since about 4:00 this morning and I'm just really tired.

So now I gotta wander off and figure out which I'm going to do first. Probably start off with video games for a couple of hours, me thinks. Afterall, Renee's not going to be back until later this evening. I should have plenty of time to work on the rest after lunch.

Oh yeah, my shins

Since I forgot to finish my thoughts on my shins before I got way off track, I decided I'd come back to it real quick.

My shins are killing me because the running I've been doing are causing shin splints. The only remedies for this is rest and icing the area. (Stretching was also suggested, but it's difficult to stretch the front side of your lower leg, there's only one position I've found that does that, but it requires sitting in a chair which is awkward and feels silly.) I've tried both of these things and neither is working. Rest helps, but only if they remain completely immobile. Once I start to walk again, they get sore again. NSAIDs aren't doing the job either. The ice feels good while its on my shins, but once the initial numbing wears off I'm back to dealing with the problem. I'd rested them for a week or so, before I ran again Friday afternoon. As soon as I started to jog, they flared up again. However, I was determined to run, so that's what I did. I ran for a mile, mile-and-a-half. Now the problem is worse than before. I sometimes used to get shin splints after I ran, but it was never this bad and I always recovered quickly. It seems somewhat unfair, I all I want to do is run with my doggy and enjoy it. It's a bit discouraging that I can't do it.

Bound and determined

Well, I'm bound and determined to update today. I don't know why or what I intend to write, but I'm fi'n' to. There's really only two things on my mind, so I'll probably touch on those and call it good.

June is shaping up to be a banner month. Renee and I have been pushing to get our credit cards paid off and it's looking like June is going to be a big strike against interest payments. We should be able to pay off all of the little ones and a good chunk of the larger ones. After that, come August/September we should be able to kill off the rest. As it stands all of our "free" money (that's what I call our income that's not spent on utilities/cars/mortgage) is being tied up with credit card payments. We might even be able to take out a sizable portion on my car come September. It'll be nice to free-up some extra cash, even if we don't get my car paid off. It's not been particularly bad, but it's annoying to have to shuffle around money out of other accounts.

About the only other thing (non-work) on my mind is my shins. I've been trying to step-up my activity and have been running off and on. Mostly off. I felt good the first time Cooper and I went for a run. But then we had a stretch of daily rain that eliminated our runs. I have to be careful running when the ground is wet because of my knees. You'd be surprised how little one has to slip to seriously aggravate tendinitis. Tendinitis is the main reason I had to quit running. Once I learned that I could run almost nonstop, it was always one of my favorite activities. I was never particularly fast, but I could run at a decent pace forever.

During my brief track stints, I was always involved in the 2-mile run(3200m), the 1-mile (1600m) and the 1/2-mile (800 m) runs at track meets. Oddly enough, the farther I had to run, the better my split times would get.

400 m - 1:45 (mins:secs)
800 m - 3:10 (-:20)
1600 m - 5:45 (-:-35)
3200 m - 11:04 (-:26)

As you can see there was a little fall off from my best times for the 1600 and 3200, but that's not unusual for best times. My average for the 1600 was usually closer to six minutes and I consistantly ran the 2-mile (for our PT tests for Basic and AIT was a 2-mile run which is a tad farther than 2-miles) was always right around 11:10 to 11:15. My crowning moments and a good piece of the reason I was able to graduate from Basic training on time was due to my running.

See, in Basic I didn't do so well at a lot of the combat stuff. It was by far my weak point. Luckily, being a non-combat MOS, it wasn't a big deal. I could do the field CPR stuff alright, and I could navigate using a map and compass, but setting Claymore mines and things like target shooting (and even cleaning my weapon) were not among my strong suits. In fact, I nearly had my position stripped because of it. Running (and being a non-combat MOS) is what saved me on both issues. Fortunately, Basic training is as much about team building than it is about actual combat training. For our physical fitness tests (PFTs), they broke us down into running groups. The fast runners would run first, then the medium and finally the slow group would run. Obviously the fast and medium runners had no problem passing the tests. However, the slow group risked a lot if they didn't pass. Least of which was having to retake the test if they didn't pass, and then being sent to the Army's version of fat camp (or being kicked out altogether). So I'd run with the fast group, most of them were quite a bit faster than myself and a couple of them held their states' track records for long distance running in high school. Sometimes, during the week before the test I'd sink my times to the medium group if I didn't want to finish last in the fast group ;p. Anyhoo, so after my run, I'd go out and pace the slow runners. There were several runners who we thought probably wouldn't make the time and if they missed it twice, that's when they got sent to fat camp.

It started because my "battle-buddy" (still seems like a gay phrase to me), was asthmatic and didn't tell anyone because he wouldn't have been allowed to join without jumping through a bunch of hoops. So, I volunteered to pace his run. He initially blew me off because he didn't think I'd be able to do it immediately after running my own two miles. (We were allowed to pace runners so long as we didn't touch them). So, he was surprised (as were my drill sergeants) when I showed up after running my own tests. The DS's were pissed at first because they had thought I had missed my run and so I had to run with the slow group. I'm also not sure they believed me when I told them that I had already run because they delayed the start of the slow group to check and make sure I had actually run it and passed. By this time several of the other guys in my platoon from the slow group had also gathered to run with me and Basil (my battle-buddy). After they cleared us to start the run, I found out what the minimum time requirement was and paced their run. Out of the 10 or so runners in my platoon who ran with me, two didn't pass. One of them passed their make-up PFT and the other one ended up at fat camp.

This became a tradition within our platoon and during our practice PFTs I could usually count on two or three other guys to help me pace the runners. There was only one other guy who ran with me the full time, the rest would pace our guys for a lap or so and then drop back out. Which did wonders for me because a 2-mile run is about 8-9 laps around a standard track. So while the other guys jumped in to help pace, I could drop back to the back of the pack and conserve my energy. We were also given permission to go out and run in the evenings during our down time. We did that a couple of times a week. It also became a bit of a tradition to the point where on the final PFT for the slow group, 10 or 15 of the faster guys jumped in to run the final two laps with the slow runners. But the guys didn't just pace the slow guys from our platoon but from the entire battery (company). The pace of the entire group was increased noticably and several guys from throughout the battery had their best times during that test.

This was really the only reason that I was given a leadership role (near as I could tell anyway) and I also think it was my saving grace because while my intention was only to pace the guys in our platoon, several guys from other platoons within the battery ran with us as well. In fact, usually when the other guys would jump in to help pace the group, I'd drop back and invite the guys from other platoons who hadn't jumped in to come up and run with us. So, the Drills from the other platoons started to recognize me -- good thing too, because the Drill in charge of the Claymore mines (which I outright failed), had recognized me and after he verified I was a non-combat MOS, he gave me a passing grade and told me I was lucky I wasn't an 11-B and waved me through. I received similar treatment (given lax work duties and such) from other Drills throughout Basic training. The only other remarkable thing I did was finish the 20Km march with swollen ankles. That's a cool story in and of itself. Though I think I've written about both that and the running before, I'm fi'n' to write about it again, for good measure. ;p

All of this extra running eventually caught-up with me. Aside from having minor case of tendinitis, my ankles swelled up just before the final road march. It was a 20Km march (about 12.5 miles), in full field gear, with weapon. So, I consulted with a couple of guys to figure out what I could do. It was the final week or two and I was going to be damned if I wouldn't finish it. So, we taped up my ankles. We didn't have any medical, and asking for it would have only invited a lot of questions from the Drills, so we used duct tape. We taped my ankles really tight, so they were supported enough to carry my weight, plus that of my ruck and then we sinched down my boots really tight. Then we did the march. We bivouacked that night, taped them back up just before we left and when we got back we were getting ready to cut off the tape and the Senior Drill instructor walked in. At first he seemed none-to-happy with what we did. He told us it was a stupid thing to do, asked why I did it. We told him I didn't want to miss the march; he kind of smirked, and told me I'd be going to the doctor first thing in the morning and walked off. I think he was impressed. While everyone else was preparing the grounds for the graduation ceremony in the 100*+ heat, he had me in the air conditioning in his office, emptying out the current files and preparing them for the next class. I was also slated to leave in the afternoon that day and he came back to give me permission to go wait for my bus and he took the time to chat a bit with me and gave me some parting words that I will probably never forget.

The End.

If my thoughts seems disjointed it's because they are. My blog and writing skills are being pressed into service a day early. Renee was supposed to have the day off and close tomorrow. However, another manager decided he needed to go home early, so she had to go in. It's a short night for her, though. She had the day off until 6:00pm, so other than falling asleep during The Ultimate Fighter, she had pretty well accomplished everything she had planned for the day. However, she now has all of tomorrow off, so it should be similar to having two days off in a row.

I'm sick of this layoff from school -- actually, to be precise, I'm sick of work. I'm anxious for school to restart so I can start looking more toward clear waters of the future instead of having to wade around in the stagnant pool that is my job. I hate going there. I hate getting up in the morning and trying to force myself to go. It's really only because of one person at work. One day she's tolerable, the next she's an ass. What's worst is that she continually changes the rules to the game. So by the time I figure out the new rules, she changes her personnae and I have to deal with some new BS that pops up out for no apparent reason. It's gotten to the point where I've seriously been considering just quitting and looking for a new job -- going to work with Renee until I can find a new job. I'd really like to avoid that at all costs. I rather enjoyed my first (and second) stint at McDonald's, but I have little interest in doing that again. That's part of the reason, I've decided to spend a good chunk of time over the summer semester going back to working in the lab during the evenings. It's my best bet for maintaining my sanity (read: employment). The only real reason I've stayed with DMACC is that I get whatever hours I want off with little-to-zero notice. However, over the last week, week-and-a-half, I've had to seriously consider whether or not that's worth it. I'm not sure it is. I could get similar work making more money. I have the experience and knowledge to land a job making 1.5-times as much, with more hours guranteed. Plus, I'd not be so close to home, so I have to think I'd not be as tempted to want to leave. In the past, when I've worked other places, I simply entered survival mode until the end of the day.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides to getting a job like that (as my experience has proved to me) is to work for an even worse bureaucratic mess -- like Qwest or Wells Fargo. I really don't want that. That type of thing sure as hell isn't in my interest. But, I’m at a loss as to what to do. I’ve disliked my job for a great long while. Five or six years ago, I’d have quit the stupid thing as soon as I started to get bored with it. Now though, things are different. I’m dependent on the income and my nerves for up and quitting and testing the waters for new positions is not what it once was. I believe a year or two ago, I updated about how I almost had to force myself to not go in. Those days are long gone and now I’m back to having to force myself to make the trip into work. It’s not a good feeling. Then once I do get to work, I have to force myself to stay there. It’s a shame too, because it’s really easy money. Frankly, a lot of it, I think, has to do with simply being bored. On the days where I actually do something, it’s at least tolerable. Most of the time we’re doing prep-work for some project down the road. Those days suck. They’re long, boring and more or less pointless. A lot of the stuff is better done on the day we do installs. Occasionally, they send us to a different campus for a few hours, but I don’t particularly like leaving Ankeny because I get stuck going with someone I don’t like or don’t know well. Or, we’re sent with only a slight idea of what we’ll be doing once we get there.

I’m sort of stuck at the moment though. The bad stuff won’t drop off of my credit report until next year and I don’t have enough class time under my belt to talk my way past an interview. I really know very little and really I won’t until December. So, I can’t really get a position in accounting. I’ve been considering going retail and testing the managerial waters (more on this in a moment), but I don’t have the personality to be a manager. I’m far too concerned with looking out for #1, and I’m far more introverted than I probably should be. I can’t help that though, I don’t consider most people I know to be worthy of my attention, much less my concern. There are a few people, mostly the ones reading this page, that I do care about and like.

Anyhoo, as I was saying, the DMACC program transfers to Grandview into the Accounting/Business bachelors’ program, which in turn is a track into MBA stuff (and looking at the revision of the GVC page, that is apparently changing somewhat). But I’m not sure I want to do manager stuff – except as it applies to owning my own business(es). And even that is more a matter of being involved in the ownership (financially) than actually running a business. I want to do accounting stuff. I suppose the closest thing I have to a dream for my own business consists of me owning a business that has ownership stakes in other businesses. I’d have an office somewhere that I’d sit in and look at the finances and prospects of small businesses and filter out the good ones and look at options for either a) buying the entire company and leaving its management more or less in tact, or b) entering as a silent partner, collecting checks. If I did out-right own a service/production business it’d be an accounting services operation. Probably I’d only own it long enough to make the contacts and the money to get into the above mentioned aspect of purchasing parts of other companies. I also have plans that only one or two other people know of, about starting new businesses – these I’d also act as a silent partner in. But with the accounting services company (truly with any business that I was in charge of directly), I’d only run it until it was a success. Then, I’d promote someone else to run the day-to-day stuff and turn my focus to other business ventures.

The only management experience I really have is my AIT and Basic training stints as squad leader. That’s far more of a counselor/advocate and coordination position than management. I never had to plan anything, or punish anyone, or reward someone. Mostly I was a go-between. And I didn’t much care for that. I guess all I really want to do is collect checks and spend the time at work looking for different ways to make more money. I’m not a 9-5 guy. I’d be more than happy to put in a 40-55 hours/week, but I’d like to have the freedom to work the hours when I want to work them, not when its convenient for someone else. I’m greedy and disattached to reality like that. ;p

Let me start by saying that this is the other of the two Gookins... you know tha one that never posts.
The reason i start with that is because I wanted to type about my Grandma. She passed away on Monday morning and i didn't want people like me to jump ahead in the post and think it was Eric's grandma.
So that being said I will continue on with my posting.
My Grandma (on my Mom's side) was a wonderful woman full of life and love. She and my Grandpa lived in Florida. They were a big part of my life growing up.
I went down to Florida about two months ago to oddly enough see my Grandpa. He has been very sick lately and in and out of the hospital. My Mom and two of my other sisters went down together believing it to be the last time we would see him. We got a chance to spend a lot of time with my Grandma, and hear a lot of her stories that I had never heard before. I didn't know it at the time but looking back on it I would never trade that week of my life for anything in the world.
She was so full of energy and her mind was as sharp as I remember it being, she looked the same as well. I can only hope I age as gracefully as she did.
So it was a shock when my Dad called me on Monday to see if I could meet him at McDonald's to pick up my Mom. She was at work and he wanted to tell her in person and needed to make sure that she had a ride home.
He told me over the phone. My Grandma had a doctor's appointment later that day and she was walking around the house getting little things done when she passed out. The paramedics were called and she was revived twice before they pronounced her dead. The viewing is Friday evening and the funeral is Saturday morning. My whole family went down there I chose to stay here. My reasons are my own, and Eric and I will go down to Florida together and I will get to say my goodbye.
I take comfort in knowing that it was sudden and I am actually glad that no one expected it because she didn't spend the last of her moments in pain. We sent flowers with a card and although I will be at work during the time of the funeral I plan on finding a quiet corner and say a prayer for her.

Cooper = Forty-two

Well, I figured out the entities I wish to place the blame on for getting me riled up last night. No surprise, it's the usual suspects. The government and the media. However, tonight is a night for reflection and not a night for irritation. So, instead going into a rant, I'm going to type on completely separate subject: My dog, Cooper.

The more I watch Cooper (indeed, dogs in general), the more I realize that if there was ever an species that we should endeavor to learn from it's canis lupus familiaris. Here is an animal that thrives on play and cuddling. The typical family dog is the epitome of happy just to be next to the people s/he loves. The list of things that Cooper enjoys doing throughout the day is on a very short list: Eat, play, walk, nap, sleep, answer nature's calls. The simplicity of life at its finest, really. And what's more is that nary more than an hour passes where he doesn't do something that makes me smile.

As far as I am concerned, Cooper is 42.

Y'all are in luck, Eric Takes Two.

Well, I hadn't planned on updating again tonight. However, as fortunes would have it, I stumbled across an article relating to a video game that resulted in needing to sell off a bunch of stock at a loss.

I understand the risks of the stock market. It's part of what appeals to me over letting money stagnate in a savings account. However, this loss sucks. It wasn't a great deal of money. In fact, it wasn't even "a bunch" as I previously stated. In fact there was less than $100 involved. Normally, I'd just ride it out, however, this has really cheesed me off.

As you may or may not know, a few months ago Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (a fantastic game, btw) was discovered to have an undisclosed adult scene in it that could be unlocked through a series of button punches. I've never actually seen the scene, but I was certainly not shocked by it. Take Two Software, the publisher, and Rockstar Games, the creators, were taken to task and made an example. There were fines and boycots and even threats of censorship. Not to mention several more threats of [frivolous] lawsuits over the whole thing. Instead of allowing the videogame companies to attempt to reconcile it through self-policing (through ESRB) it was insisted that such inaction would constitute a falling of the sky. Nevermind that the movie industry does such things all of the time, it's obviously just not possible. The government, FCC and several "family" organizations got their panties in a bunch and eventually (after having Take Two's stock price drop) forced the company into changing the ESRB rating from Teen to Mature (granted it probably should have just been rated mature from the start). The same action that would have been ineffectual and "too little-too late."

(Now, one has to remember this was a bit after Katrina (and a couple/few years after the infamous Superbowl Nipple Scandal), so the government immediately goes into knee-jerk reaction over it.)

Now, I told you that story so I could tell you this story:

Bethesda Softworks created a game called "Oblivion" it is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the deepest, greatest games ever created. Bethesda is famous for making outstanding games. The gameplay, story, art, sound and immersion of the game are above board in every respect. They are one of the few game companies that can appeal to its core audience and still make a game a commercial success. One of the reasons Bethesda is able to this is because they don't code a lot of the program. They create a toolset that sets guidelines for everything in the game. Then they basically write the story into that toolset and fill out the bulk of the game world with it. Then they go back through and supplement the game with code. What's truly remarkable, however, is that they ship the toolset out with the game. Actually, this time the tool set was available to fans before the game was. This allows players to go in and create modifications. Players can tweak combat, travel, time rates, and even create new areas and change existing areas within the game itself.

According to IGN, a modder has released modification to the game that changes allows women to be topless. Tacky? Perhaps, but hardly Bethesda's fault. A modder, hacker as Bethesda chose to call him/her, wen into game files, changed some of the art. Unlike above, Bethesda didn't create the art and leave it to be uncovered. The art isn't in the game, unless its put there by the user. Over the next couple of days this will probably make the mainstream news cycle. Undoubtedly the media will screw this up as they have every other story released in the last 120 years. The blame will fall on Bethesda, and the publisher of the game, that's right Take Two Software (or Interactive or whatever it be called).

I bought Take Two in January when it was sitting around $15. I bought it because I found out they were publishing what will be the biggest grossing game of the year (outside of Madden football), and not one analyst seemed to know how big of a success it would become (it ended up selling double what was predicted in the first week). I knew. I've played Bethesda games before. On top of it all, Take Two had some accounting issues while I've held it too. Come the opening of the market tomorrow, I'm selling it for 16.31/share. The loss comes in that I basically had to pay 32$ (total) to buy and then sell it. Normally, I'd just have held the stock and contemplated buying more. But I have a feeling Take Two is really going to be hurt by this. Bethesda won't be, but Take Two will. Well this and that their Major League Baseball game, the only one for Xbox and Xbox 360, was mediocre at best.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I'm cheesed off. I'm not upset at Bethesda (although I'm a bit taken aback by their reference to modding as a "hack"), or even Take Two. However, I'm too tired, now, to explain why am I'm upset or who I'm upset with. I need to sleep on it to make sure I'm ripping the right agency apart. I'm also interested to see what this does to
Take Two's stock. I'll be back tomorrow to write more about it. I've suddenly run out of energy.

The time has arrived:

Lads and lasses calm your nerves.
Tonight, your hero returns.

So I take a sabatical for six weeks and no one even complained in comment form? I ask the lot of you, "What's up with that?"

Where the love be at? What if my computer had asploded with me in front of it? No one would have even known. Then you'd have missed my funeral and that would have made angels cry. For shame... all of you.

Now that the guilt trip has been successfully transfer from my lack of updates to my readership who have abandoned me, I can update with a clear conscience. You on the other hand, must cry while you read. That's the only way you can make up for your lack of concern. In fact, you have to read the update twice. I'd give a reason, but I'm on questionable ground for everything I've written so far.

So, I have survived yet another semester at DMACC. Now that I think about it, I honestly believe the course work at DMACC is getting more difficult. Sadly, I still have another year left. Oh well, it's hard to imagine a tougher go than this past spring. Since I'm not into masochism, I won't bother to try. I'll just dismiss and forget it.

Rnee just got a raise. Then she got a promotion, which I think means another raise, but she won't ask about it, so I really don't have any details past that. Besides, she's been talking a lot about updating. However, she insists I have not shown her how. I say I walked her through it at least once and that she just didn't pay attention. So, someday, soon, I'll show her how (again ;p) and get her to post. She's kinda shy though and isn't sure if anyone wants to read about her life. I tell her not a single author of any blog she reads is living the a rip-roaringly fascinating life and that a blog isn't necessarily supposed to be interesting, just informative and mildly entertaining.

Now, I really wanted to update and I have. As I feared, I have had really very little structure to the update, but at least it's done. I'm preparing some topics (read: rants), but since I've latched on to my CDs again and haven't been listening to talk radio, I'm afraid I'm flying rather blind about the world's goings-on. However, because of the lack of influence from the media, my brain feels relaxed and not as though it's been force-fed propaganda. It's kind of nice really.

Anyway, I'll be updating again shortly. I doubt that'll be tonight, but probably in the next couple of days. Then again, I'm feeling rather typy so we'll see what happens.