I Just Got Slapped In The Face

WOW!!!

Not really. Figuratively.

All my life, I always hated the fact that 'old' people resisted change.

"why do you need to be in the internet so much?","why do you have to have a pager", "I'll never use a cell phone and you don't need one" were just some of the jewels I grew up with.

Sometime there in my past I swore I'd always embrace new things… I've had a SLR digital camera for years. Cell phone, got it. Get a new one every time I can and always use the early upgrade. Camera phones, blackberry, full internet access. DVD recorder, got 2. Blue-ray, got it. 2-terra byte external storage hard drive, got one!

Today, I was asking for assistance in Word… 2007. I hate it, it's different, why did they mess with my WORD?! I could use MS Office products like nobody's business. Linking OLE objects, nesting data and graphs in Word then linking that to P-Point.

I was a Pro.

As I was grumbling about damn MS and changing the software, someone here quipped, 'damn MS for evolving!'

- - SMACK - -

*ouch*

I'm getting old . . . time to accept the new MS Office and stop resisting change.

I Saw A Spider

Yes tonight I saw a spider.

It’s at least 50 feet between the building I’m staying in and the one across the way. Yet he hung there… 40 feet above the ground, blowing in the wind.

If this had been Indiana, I’d say a storm was brewing. You know the feeling… A suspiciously warm night, a strong breeze coming in from the south… rain is coming, big storm. Big rain. But here in Southern California, phft, I don’t have a clue. This weather is… weird.

The spider.

He was blowing in the breeze, moving around at least two feet. Completely oblivious to the impending death that surly awaits him should he fall the 40 or so feet to the ground. But yet there he was, making his web. Working tirelessly to construct that which would sustain his life.

There was a point… somewhere.

I know, “What the f’hell?” Yet some how, for some reason, to me, it is… was profound.

Yes. I’m drunk.

Overheard #2

"some diarrhea is good. It flushes the system of kooties. A lot of diarrhea is... shity"

Fire guys are hilarious.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Overheard

I'm sitting in an EMA CPR and AED training class and an old Marine talking about monies going to public colleges.

"they all are a bunch of God damned communists. How in the hell do they get millions of dollars to teach communism? Aren't we in America?"

I love this guy.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Yep, I'm in LA

The first class steward(es?) was doing the 'thanks for flying with us, come again thing...'. She had a deeper voice than I do. And was over 6 feet.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Vice Versa

Kinda.

You may remember my frequent trips to The Barn... Some of you may know of or about the Missus' trips to Camp Atterbury for training.

Well, this weekend we switched places. I went to Camp Atterbury for training and she went north to the barn. Granted she wasn't partying like I do but she was there, using The Barn as base camp and helping the local community.

I know she had a good time and some successes. I, on the other hand, was in school. Ground Search II. How to use a compass, how to look for people that might get lost... in the rain. Yea, rained all day Sunday. I got soaked.

The highlight of the weekend was going to a local Buffalo Wild Wings and watching UFC 97. Got back to the hotel about 1am. Good times!

*********

--- overheard at lunch Saturday;

Firefighter to attractive married lady, "so, what color is your equipment?"

Dead silence at our lunch table.

A different firefighter 'whispers' loudly, "I hope it's pink"

Lady with head in hands and turning bright red says, "some is blue and I have green and yes some of it pink."

The whole table burst into laughter.

It was great.

Another Week

I can't believe another week has passed and I'm still not posting like I should... like I want. I'm still getting the occasional comment, so I guess a few are still stopping by now and then.
Big thanks to kat, becky, nancy, tani and airmanmom - you guys make me smile. I'll be stopping by soon, promise.
Thanks to kartman, lobo and DC - you guys don't comment but I know you come by. Thanks again!

Let's see... what's been going on.

21 update - it went well. Took the kid and some of his friends and his gf to BD's Mongolian BBQ. The food there is always good. It's an 'all you can eat cook it the way you want and if you don't like it try again' place. I highly recommend it. Seems he has my endurance for alcohol. He had 1 - long island iced tea, 2 - marguita's on the rocks, 1 - peppermint schnapps about 2 ozs, and 2 - Bailey's on the rocks about 2 ozs each.
He got happy, but never really got drunk. As we were leaving he was heal-toeing a line and touching his nose. Hahaha. Spent well over a hundred dollars but hey, your baby only turns 21 once, right?

Job hunt - ya know, with CareerBuilder sending me daily updates on new job listings, i'll bet I'm sending out 10-20 resumes a week. And still nothing! I've given up on the lighting industry. Right now I'd take anything, especially if it pays decent.
I did get a lead from a guy I used to work with. Seems one of their vendors is hiring. Spoke to the owner and he is giving me an interview this Wednesday. WooHoo!! Again, I'll let you know what happens.

The other son. He didn't call today with any more details. He was at drill this weekend. I figure the COs made them stay late for one reason or another and he didn't have time. Guess i'll call him tomorrow.

The weather here Saturday was GREAT! Bright sunny all day with a high of about 65. Started out kinda cool though. It was 29 when I left the house. Went with the missus to Lafayette for a search. I rode. Had to, it had been too long again. Plus the IPG (Indiana Patriot Guard) was having a meeting in the afternoon. We are planning the 2009 rally.
I left the search about 3 and rode over to Silver Lake. The Barn. Had the meeting, some cookout food, a beer and of course a double shot.
Left about 9, made it home about midnight.
It was a great day. Got to help the wife on a missing persons case, got to spend time and eat dinner with my PGR family AND rode nearly 300 miles!

Speaking of the IPG event, you all are invited! May 8 and 9. Seriously, drop me an email and I'll get you directions. Any one questions you, just tell them you are 'DNR sent ya'. I'll bet someone hands you a beer then apologizes for you having to know me. hahaha

Till next time.
If you can't be good, be good at it!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

DNR IS alive, really

So… how are you guys doing?

Me?

meh

A couple weeks ago the missus and I made it to the Indy 1500 gun and knife show. She picked up a Sig Mosquito .22 and I got a Taurus PT111, 9mm. We both have agreed, the next fair weekend day, we’re hitting the range. Even if we have to drive all the way to Camp Atterbury.

This extended vacation shit is getting old. I think I’m at 6 weeks now. It’s been freezing ass cold around here too. I know, I know nothing like Wisconsin or them other ‘real’ north states but for central Indiana, sub zero is ridiculous. Been making the ol’ furnace run non stop. Gas bill next month is gonna be nice…

What else?

Oh yea, the big coil spring on the garage door broke. It’s amazing how much you take those for granted. I’ll bet our double insulated door is 250 pounds. You know what that means, right…? Broke the garage door opener *sigh* some cheap ass plastic part that they don’t make a replacement for.

Last months gas bill was over $400, fixing the spring thing was almost $200, the new opener was $180 (I installed it or that would have been another $110). Can’t help but wonder what’s next. Don’t karma and fate know about the job situation here?

Speaking of the job situation, funny thing about the lighting industry, there ain’t much in Indiana.

Tomorrow I head out for my bi-annual trip to Kansas City. Then off to an interview. Yep, the first face to face interview. I’ve had several phone interviews… 30 minutes, 45 minutes, some over an hour. I know this because I’ve actually gone over on my cell minutes. Which sucks to the tune of $.45 a minute. Damn Verizon!

Anyway, the interview is in Connecticut, New Haven actually. The home of Yale… yippee. The wonderful interweb tells me there is a 32-36% increase in the cost of living between here and there. The big kicker is housing, it is 45% higher there. That’s just great.

Wow, I just read back through this post… things really aren’t as bad as this makes them sound. Hell, I stay up past mid-night, sleep in til 8, 9 sometimes even 10. I surf the web and watch TV all day. It’s great.

Miss you all, hope to make some rounds here soon.

27DEC08, Already

Belated Merry Christmas everyone. I do sincerely hope you and yours had a wonderful day.
God bless.

And an early Happy New Year.

Promise, I'll be blogging again soon.

Blog Roll and...

My old blog roll host has gone away. I'm trying to use the new 'blogs I follow' here in blogger but it seems short... I read a bunch more than this. AND it doesn’t seem to go get all of the Google Reader blogs... Grrrr!!

If you were in the old blog roll and don't see your blog in the list below (down under the “They Say IT... NOT ME!!” section), let me know. I’ll do my best to get you added.

After the tattoo party last weekend (I think they totaled 18 people, 2 being tat virgins) and a weekend long search and rescue class, I'm beat and SO far behind at work it may be a day or two before I get caught up.

I need to go edit those pictures I sent in. One police officer and one fire fighter and me. Verizon adds so much crap in pix messages. I'll add some comments and re-post them, I have some more pictures too. Can you imagine getting a tattoo that big on your ribs? This weekend was his 2nd session, they are estimating 2 more, minimum. He'll have close to 30 hours in it when it's done.

Don't worry, the next installment in the Thankful series is in the works.

Also working a PGR mission for this Friday. A Korean War vet, double bronze star recipient. Not as hard on me as an Iraq or Afghanistan KIA, but still...

Better get back to it.

Be good, read ya latter!

My Office

For being Monday, today has been full of laughs.

********************

Observed in customer service;
One CS rep taking a tall stack of documents, orders, shipping paperwork, etc and dividing them into relevant groups and stapling them together. 5-10 sheets of paper per stack.
In the next cube is the CS clerk taking said stacks and pulling the staples out so she can stack them in one big stack and scan them.

***********************

Over heard in the men’s room;
I was at a bar once and this guy cam out of the bathroom with one of these urinal biscuit. He dropped it on the pool table and we all started playing hockey with it. Everything is going well until one guy pulls back to deliver a slap stick and shatters the thing into a million pieces.
The stench was incredible and went everywhere, including into our drinks.

**************************

Yeah, it’s a job, but you gotta love the people.

Just Stuff

The video card on my work PC went out a few weeks ...errr months ago and I've been forced to work at 1280x1024. Now granted it's only about 15% reduction from my normal 1600x1200 but jeesee cow! So much stuff didn't fit right on my monitor. I almost feel like I have a new toy.

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(click'em for big'un)


My son sent me this. Yeah, I'm a fan. Grew up with Speed. I remember walking through the store following my mom, pretending my hand was the Mock 5 and making the "chuuu chuuu chuu" sound as I jumped it from clothes rack to towels to... Could you imagine driving a real one, or even one that looks real... *sigh*
Yes, I own the DVD of the series, the movie (which I saw in I-MAX) is on my Christmas list. heh. The DVD box I have even has a button on the case that makes the Mock 5's lights flash and it plays the theme song.

----------------------

A local business donated 40+/- cases of microwavable "Bankruptcy Popcorn" to the IPGR. Got it delivered to the warehouse we are using. It will be packed into care packages soon. So... if you’re over there (in the sandbox) and get "Bankruptcy Popcorn", it's not a joke, it is good popcorn. Consequently we are having a packing party Saturday. If you're not busy and in the area... let me know.

What else...

Oh Yeah.

----------------------

Last Saturday we had the Troop Family Day at Grissom AFB. DC and I ran the Tattoo booth. Granted it was temporary tattoos but great fun none the less. Last year the base family support group donated that tats. Lots of little kids things, butterflies, lions, dinosaurs, races cars and some basic American flags.

This year... I wanted to get some of the older kids and maybe even some parents involved. I bought some more edgy tats for them. They were a hit. I know I did at least 2 guys that were 18 or older. One had lots of ink already on his arm and he got one of my wizard/skulls on the inside of his fore arm.





These were the big hits;




The wizard is about 7" tall, the rebel flag is about 4.5" tall, the USAF tat is about 2" wide.
If you are looking for some great tats I got them from here and here.


Tell them DNR sent ya.

Damn Fair Skin

I swear, I gotta be carcinoma walking.

Went out riding with the wife yesterday, thought it would be for an hour or so... but Noooo. We were out for most of the day.

I look like a lobster! With white sunglasses.

Thank God for aloe gel.

Nobody touch me for a few days, k?

Picture of the Day

I almost always hit a few POD sites each morning. This one (Astronomy Picture of the Day) I even go back and look at the weekend photos that I may have missed.

This picture is.... AMAZING!!! It is my new wallpaper. It was posted lst weekend.

The resolution is huge!! You can see so much. In the left third you can see a thunder head forming. They reach up to 50,000 feet above sea level.

Absolutely amazing!!

Somebody Just Shot Me!!!

Kaizen Event... Kaizen (改善, Japanese for "change for the better" or "improvement"; the common English usage is "continuous improvement"). In the context of this article, kaizen refers to a workplace "quality" strategy and is often associated with the Toyota Production System and related to various quality-control systems, including methods of W. Edwards Deming. (see Wikipedia)

Basically I just spent 3 days in a meeting. Talking about a process and deciding what to do to make it better.

Now, this is a great concept but working the process is... challenging. You can only talk about a topic for so long before it becomes a dead horse.

My brain is dead.

The ‘best’ part was that my boss was there, the Executive VP of engineering, the Director of new products engineering, another EVP of something or other and 4 oher managers. Think there were some opinions of how things ‘should’ work?? Fuck yeah!!

12 people in a conference room for 3 days yielded 18 opinions.

Good God my head hurts.

It is nearly 50 here today and I rode in... highway here I come.

PS: tanie, thanks for checking on me.

Who You Gonna Call??

I don't know why but this struck me as really, really funny. I mean like crying funny.

Do you laugh hystaricaly as stupid stuff if you are stressed out?

Enjoy!

Holy S-HITs Batman

While I was busy and not watching 10,000 hits came and went. I'm at 10,526 this am. the hit counter won't let me go back more than 100 hits so I don't know who to thank.

Thanks to everyone for you patience, encouragement and for coming back even when I don't seem to have time to post.

Here’s a double shot of my favorite to you and the next 10,000 hits!!!

Cheers!!

DragonAss

Yep, my ass is dragging.

This week and last. Haven’t hardly had time to post e-mail little lone write something. Hell, I haven’t even had time to blog about this past weekend.

Had to prep charts and graphs to present to the executive committee for my company. CEO, Executive VPs and VPs. Those 10 or 12 people in one room, had to be close to 2 million in salaries sitting there.

Should have some time this weekend to actually write some posts and maybe even another story. Submitted the last one, “The Reflection” to a contest and review group... we’ll see what happens.

Let’s see, what else...?

Remember the diet post?? Got a lot of ‘keep it up’ and congrats from you guys... hit 266 yesterday. Yeah, going the wrong way.

PGR will be in the July 4th Parade in Carmel IN this year. It is the second largest parade in the state. Only one bigger is the Indy 500 Parade.

Yes, we have undocumented proof that somewhere between 10 and 15 DOUBLE shots of Jack Daniels will put a man flat on the floor for about 5 hours. hahahaha AND some time the next morning there will still be a body imprint in the carpeting. HAHAHAHA!!!

I use my own photography as my screen saver. Last week I changed from the Memorial Day ride to a ride with ‘The Flag Lady’ or 'Flag Babe' as she became known to us. This ride was pre-blogging but I need to share the story. I think you’ll like it.

MIA and Stuff

Heading to Kansas City for 4 days worth of meetings. Should be fun, nothing but lighting and lighting geeks for 4 days. AND I get to stay at a Westin AND the company pays for the whole thing. I’m gonna gain 10 pounds this weekend... (hope the hotel is stocked up on Jack...)
I have a laptop so hopefully I can still post and comment.

I have an issue with a new BK ‘dollar menu’ commercial. I hope to use the plane time to tell you about it... be looking for it.

I’m so bummed!!! Temps in the low 40s around here and I won’t be able to ride!! Hell after last week I could have gone in shorts and a sleeveless shirt. HAHAHA!!

Also! I am a finalist in Sparrows Hiaku contest!!!! PLEASE visit Sparrows blog (found in my blog roll) and vote for me!

See ya!!

Fluffy White Sheep and A Furry Tan Bunny

Anybody out there analyze dreams?

This one woke me up laughing.

I’m watching my friends the sheep. (I know, I know... we’re off to a great start aren’t we?) They are being led across a pasture by one sheep that is actually an alien. He was leading them to a cliff with the intention of killing them. I could see this and knew it to be true but could not communicate with them to tell them so.

Another friend, a tan rabbit, found out the truth and was running through the stampeding sheep trying to tell them to stop. He’s yelling, “He’s trying to kill you!!”, “STOP!!!”, “Turn around!!”, “Can’t you hear me?!?”. All the while he is getting bumped and rolled under the hooves of the sheep. He finally makes his way to the front of the heard and starts yelling at the alien sheep. He stops and picks the bunny up holding him under his front legs and is laughing, evilly, at his success. All of the sheep are running by and plummeting to their deaths behind him.

The bunny is swinging violently trying to punch the alien sheep. The sheep laughs “So, what are you going to do now?!?”. All of a sudden the bunny swings up his back legs and he kicks the alien in the eyes. The bunny kicks the shit out of the alien and scratches his eyes out. The alien screams and drops the bunny and in the process about half of the heard turn back

Then I woke up.

My heart was pounding like it was real and tragic. But as soon as I was fully awake I started laughing.