Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC

"Back in black, I hit the sack, I've been too long, I'm glad to be back" Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos. But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last!

As stolen from my wife.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:29 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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It has been a busy week, and even my weekends are filled with work or chores or just being busy. ThatÂ’s okay, in 4 weeks from today I will be re-enacting and everything will be good. Since IÂ’m about to head out the door I thought you would all like to know that BasilÂ’s interview of me is up. See what kind of person I really am.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:43 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Happy Saturday!

Posted by: Richmond at April 08, 2006 10:14 AM (e8QFP)

2 Have a good day, my friend.

And I have to tell you - that interview turned out GREAT!! I laughed my ass off!!!!

Posted by: Tammi at April 08, 2006 10:28 AM (lfQya)

3 Yay, 4 weeks!

Posted by: Ogre at April 10, 2006 08:40 AM (/k+l4)

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I have all my access of today at work. At this point IÂ’m still in shock it only took three weeks. For the first time I had to do direct interviewing for work. I have two open positions I need filling, and IÂ’m the one that has to make the decision. Which leads me to where IÂ’m going here.

DAMMIT PEOPLE! If you are going to interview for a position, internal or external posting, prepare for the damn interview. How hard is it to:

A) Dress nice, or at least as nice as the interviewer? I wear a shirt and tie every day to work. ItÂ’s not a secret that I dress nicely. By god, wear something that is business appropriate, not something you would wear to go out drinking or picking up a date!

2) Know something about the position other then you want it. Good lord, how are you going to convince me that you are the best person for the job if you donÂ’t even know what the job is?

D) If you’ve ever been interviewed before, you have an idea of the types of questions they ask. Prepare for these, be honest, but prepare. When asked, “What do you think your greatest weakness is?” or “Give me an example of when you had to sacrifice a personal goal for the betterment of your team.” Don’t say, “I don’t have any” or “I’ve never had to do that.” Trust me you do, and you have! When you are put on the spot it’s better to have an obviously rehearsed answer then not to have any answer. Also it’s a good idea to have multiple examples to use for multiple questions.

5) Just because one person is asking questions and another is writing down answers, that doesnÂ’t mean the one asking the questions is making the decision. Do NOT ignore the second person. I let the person assisting me do all the talking; IÂ’m doing all the writing. The decision is ultimately mine, in 2 of the interviews I had today I swear the people being interviewed didnÂ’t even acknowledge I was in the room. No eye contact, not even looking in my general direction. Okay, so I intentionally didnÂ’t look at them very much. So how did I know? An old interviewer trick I was taught years ago. I had an object on the table in front of me that worked as a mirror; I was trying to observe their reaction and body language with out letting them know. No, IÂ’m not the only one that does this. IÂ’ve had four interviews in my life where IÂ’ve seen others do the same thing. IÂ’m not saying spend time looking for their mirror, just look in their direction and acknowledge their existence. Trust me, it makes an impression. Every time I looked up they where always looking at either my assistant interviewer or the table, yes I took marks off the interview for that.

ThatÂ’s all IÂ’m going to share with you now. Those are just the observations from today. I have three more days of interviews to complete, IÂ’m sure IÂ’ll find some other tips for you job searchers out there.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:51 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Today is Tartan Day. I wish I could write a larger post for it, stupid time constraints. For now I'm going to link all of my Gathering of the Blogs posts I made last year. Sorry, no orriginallity here. I didn't even wear my kilt to work.

Recipes
Minced Callops
Colcannon
Barley with Mushrooms

What is a Jacobite?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Highland Fashion Show

Just for a picture of me in a modern kilt, go to Who am I. Also if your curious about my Scotish family heritage, don't forget to check out my post about my ancestry.

For More Posts regarding Scotland and Tartan Day; follow the fiery cross to these sites:

Posted by: Contagion at 04:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Well it appears the damage to the van is worse then anticipated. The other driver hit her almost squarely in the rear driver side wheel. Yesterday there was a slight wobble that I noticed, but Ktreva didnÂ’t seem to notice anything while driving the whole 6 blocks home. This morning on her way to work she said that as soon as she hit 25 there was a vibration in the vehicle and a grinding noise.

Yea, this isnÂ’t waiting for the insurance adjuster to investigate. When I called the insurance back I informed them that due to the new information IÂ’m classifying the vehicle as now undriveable and taking it to a repair facility. After work tonight we had to go pick up a rental for her. She needed something to get back and forth to work in. This is going to make life difficult for a while, but nothing we wonÂ’t survive.

Now IÂ’m off to answer some questions.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:19 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Oh boy... I hope that it's a relatively quick fix. :/

Posted by: Richmond at April 05, 2006 08:26 PM (e8QFP)

2 Yeah, always assume the damage is way worse than you think it is on first inspection. I'm sorry to hear that it's that bad - what a pain. Hope it gets fixed fast.

Posted by: Teresa at April 05, 2006 09:52 PM (FZwDL)

3 At least you have plenty of time to deal with this stuff, what with no access to anything at work, right?

Hope it all works out for the best!

Posted by: Ogre at April 06, 2006 05:45 AM (/k+l4)

4 Glad to hear everyone is ok, but watch them for a couple days as symptoms could take a couple days to appear.

Not so good news about the van. Make sure the frame wasn't bent, cause then your in big trouble. Frame damange will screw the vehicle up for life.

Posted by: Quality Weenie at April 06, 2006 10:08 AM (XG7jZ)

5 I thought I saw a rental in your driveway. I'm so glad Nessa and the boys are ok. Sucks about the van, but it could've been much worse. Give Nessa a hug for me.

Posted by: Wes at April 06, 2006 02:35 PM (XKQLY)

6 What a pain - but I am glad to hear Ktreva and the boys are okay.

Posted by: Barb at April 06, 2006 02:35 PM (mAp1o)

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I had a post in mind to write tonightÂ… not work related! Unfortunately, that will have to wait. I was on my way home from a very late night at work when I received a call on my cell phone. It was Ktreva, and she was upset. Her and the boys had just been involved in a motor vehicle accident. The other vehicles brakes gave out causing the driver to not be able to stop and hitting her van. No one is hurt, other then the headache associated with an adrenaline dump. The van is still drivable; the surface damage doesnÂ’t appear to be that bad.

After trying to comfort Ktreva and the boys, dealing with the police, the other driver and the insurance company, IÂ’m not really in the mood to write my original post.

More details later, probably from Ktreva, but again no one was injured.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:31 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Sorry, itÂ’s been an action packed weekend for me. Well at least Saturday was action packed. Sunday was more like a redneck homoerotic gay wrestling fest. That, however, is a separate post. This post is about my Saturday night adventure, the home opener of the Rock River Raptors. Being an avid football fan IÂ’m going to do a complete review of my first arena football game.

As part of football there is a great tradition, a tradition that every football loving human, male or female, participates in. That’s right, tailgating. That is unless you live in Rockford, Illinois where they won’t let you grill in the parking deck, even on the top of it. The only tailgating option you had was to go into the Metro Center and attend their sTailgate party. Anyone that has met me knows that I will shell out $10.00 for a beer at a various events; here it was only $4.50… for a 12 oz plastic bottle of Miller Lite. Which I had to hunt down because the outside sTailgate area only had Bud Light. I’ll drink Bud and Bud light, but not if there’s a choice and I’m paying for it. The only reason this irks me is that I can get a 22 oz Miller Light at Lambeau Field for $5.00. I can get the same 12 oz bottle for $4.00 at Lambeau Field. For those of you that don’t know, Lambeau is where the Green Bay Packers play, you know the NFL. The event food coordinator at the Metro Center thinks really highly of their venue. For clarification, the Raptors have NOTHING to do with the food and beverage service. I’d review the food, but it was also obnoxiously expensive AND from what I heard people saying, small portions and not good. They wanted $4.50 for a bratwurst… dammit, that’s a beer! Thus I didn’t eat. I know for the next game I’m going to a strip club first to do some “tail”-gazing before the game. The beer is cheaper and the entertainment has got to be better.

The tailgating and food was the only down side of my experience. The rest was fantastic. The field is 50 yards long; my seats are right on the 20. IÂ’m 5 yards from mid-field. I was supposed to have seats at the 25, but the person selling tickets didnÂ’t realize the field was going to be 5 yards off center when she sold me them. IÂ’m in the first row, right behind the Raptor bench. During the game I could lean over the glass partition and talk with the players. Okay, let me rephrase that, I did lean over the glass and annoyed the players. Since there are different rules, I would ask one of the players what was going on. It was great! The only problem with my seats was that when the highway robbers beer vendors would walk down, they wouldnÂ’t go all the way to the bottom, so I didnÂ’t see them when they would walk down the stairs along my section. Yes, the game was that intense that I was more concerned about the game then beer. (Mark that day on your calendar.)

The game itself was fast paced. There are only 8 men on the field at a time, but being a smaller field; if they had more there would be no room for them to do anything. As it was people were being driven into the walls and flipping into the crowds. That reminds me, any balls that are tipped, thrown or kicked into the stands; the fan that catches it gets to keep. No, I didnÂ’t get one, but not for a lack of trying. The fans in the end zones seemed to get a lot of free balls. ThereÂ’s no net for field goals, point after attempts and kick offs. Some long passes even went into the stands.

With it being indoors, I thought the game wouldnÂ’t be as rough. Was I even wrong. These guys would hit the players so hard you could feel the impact into the walls and carpet covered concrete floors all the way into the stands. On the first play of the game one of the opposing teams players was hit so hard, he laid on the floor sucking air for a good 20 minutes. Later in the game a player was slammed into the wall right in front of me so hard it rattled my seat. I could see the snot bubbles coming out of his nose!

Yes, that is the wall the guy is diving into!

The only down part of the game was that the Raptors lost in a blow out, 46-20. Sure it would have been more fun if they had won, itÂ’s always more fun when your team wins. Either way it was a great game, great time and I canÂ’t wait until the next home game. If anyone lives in the Rockford area and wants to see some good off NFL season football, IÂ’d recommend it. The ticket prices arenÂ’t bad, $27.00, $17.00 and $12.00 depending on the seat location. Trust me, itÂ’s worth the priceÂ… just eat before you go.

Oh, and the cheerleaders aren't bad either.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:01 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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At no point did I ever think to myself, “Hey, I want to go see that Brokeback movie”. However, after seeing this poster I’m thinking of possibly going to see the sequal. I can just picture it now. Jessica Alba and Halle Berry out in the woods, rubbing each other down with sunscreen. One thing leads to another, the next thing you know they are tongue wrestling. Flash to a seen where Eva Longoria is bathing in a lake, Sara Foster comes up and helps her wash her back, her hands drift below the surface of the water. Eva glances over her shoulder, a coy smirk on her face. Sara starts to…

Â…sorry I got a little carried away there. You get the idea. I think IÂ’m going to go wake my wife up now for some, uhÂ… back washing.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:12 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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This was sent to me as the “Best Resignation letter on the web.” This is yet another case of my possibly promoting an urban legend. Either way it’s pretty amusing.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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WeÂ’ve all heard the old adage, donÂ’t poke a caged tiger with a stick. Well apparently that applies to leopards too.

Never poke a leopard with a stick

I just want to know what the hell the park ranger was thinking, of all people that should know better.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:10 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The following was sent to me in an e-mail. I guess because I worked in law enforcement for years I found this really amusing. That's also why I can see this being true. After working with many of the cops I have, I can think of at least one seperate cop to say each of the fifteen.

So you thought police officers didn't have a sense of humor.... The following were taken off of actual police car videos around the country.

#15 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch out after you wear them awhile."

#14 "Take your hands off the car, and I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#13 "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12 "Can you run faster than 1,200 feet per second? In case you didn't know, that is the average speed of a 9mm bullet fired from my gun."

#11 "So you don't know how fast you were going. I guess that means I can write anything I want on the ticket, huh?"

#10 "Yes, Sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh. did I mention that I am the shift supervisor?"

#9 "Warning! You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket."

#8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy, and step in monkey $#*!."

#6 "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."

#5 "In God we trust, all others we run through NCIC.*"

#4 "Just how big were those two beers?"

#3 "No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to have quotas but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we want."

#2 "I'm glad to hear the Chief of Police is a good personal friend of yours. At least you know someone who can post your bail."

and, ah yes, the best one (although, I really like # ...

#1 "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't...Sign here."

*NCIC: National Crime Information Center. For those of you that don't know this is the national data base that is used to check if someone has a criminal history, is wanted or just a all around douche bag. A lot of states also have their own seperate database that they use in conjunction with this.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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