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

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

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

Posted by: Contagion at 04:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Okay folks, because of my predicament with Tulsa, I wasn't sure this was going to happen this year. Now that I'm coming home predominantly, it sure the heck is! I'd like to get as many people as possible to join the Blogcrawl this year. The Date is September 20th!

What is the Blogcrawl?

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

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

2) Drink as much as you comfortably feel you should. This is for fun, I donÂ’t want to have blog fodder stories involving charcoal slurries and ER visits. Be responsible, especially if you have to drive. IÂ’m saying right now that if you do something stupid and hurt yourself I will make fun of you. I am neither legally, morally nor ethically responsible for anything you do either in the real world or on the Internet. You are all adults and responsible for your own actions.

D) Please attempt to limit the Blog Crawl comments to the hours of 7:00PM September 20 and 7:00 AM CST September 21th. Just so itÂ’s easier to track and the time zone differences for all the participants. Not that IÂ’m going to link to every single post that has a comment on it, I just donÂ’t want to search for them Sunday to see what everyone said. Oh, and a drunken post on your own blog is perfectly acceptable and encouraged. Same with day after posts.

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

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

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

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

So come, have fun, lets do it right!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:49 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I'll probably participate for the day's social events (assuming folks will still be nice enough to let me handle their firearms), beer tasting, etc - probably won't do the drunk-off-my-ass thing as I have a strong suspicion I'll end up doing an early morning road-trip with family the next morning. LabGirl would probably be interested in tagging along with me for the beer tasting again too, if not for the shooting stuff part (so go ahead and put us both on the beer bringers list please )

Posted by: Shadoglare at September 11, 2008 06:12 AM (jHfl8)

2 Sounds like fun! I hope I can play...

Posted by: Richmond at September 11, 2008 03:30 PM (XAq2Q)

3 Oh, it is on! I have a gun raffle all day - all you can drink and a mortgage burning party in the evening for a friend of mine. I never drink, I should be well and toasted by then.

Posted by: oddybobo at September 11, 2008 07:47 PM (m+TQk)

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

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

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

I

went

OFF!

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

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

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

Fine

By

Me.

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

Thank Jebus.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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It's been a shitty day. I didn't get home until the start of the third quarter. Now I'm going to sit back, drink some beer and watch my pack. They better win!

Posted by: Contagion at 07:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Well, they won....as you know. Hubby has the Vikings as his team for Fantasy football....he wasn't so impressed.

Posted by: Rave at September 09, 2008 07:14 AM (hVKpB)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by: Contagion at 06:09 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Over the last year I've noticed more and more product placements in everything from movies to TV shows. It's gotten pretty annoying when they change the flow of a whole show just to pimp out the fact that Dunken Donuts sells coffee (ALA USA's Psych).

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

Posted by: Contagion at 11:41 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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As I was stumbling through my weekly random crap I ran across a guy that found a startling resemblance between McCain and the Green Lantern.

This still will not make me vote for him.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:36 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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When I was a kid, my friends and I would go to Skateland every Saturday. One of our favorite things to do when we were there was to order a "suicide" from the snack bar. I don't know who named it or why that, but it was a combination of equal parts of every softdrink on the fountain. Now they normally had a Cola, a Lemon Lime, A Root Beer, Dr. Pepper and an orange drink. It was all the rage with the kids. I think the snack bar workers hated making them though.

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

Posted by: Contagion at 10:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Someone out there really wants to ruin peoples fun. They put together a quick paced video clip of some of the most famous spoilers in book and film.

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

Posted by: Contagion at 10:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Before I came down here, Blogspawn Bruce advised me that my traveling companion is a couple of sandwichs short of a picnic. I never realized that she truly is insane. I'm not sure if she's bi-polar, paranoid, manic depressive or what, but damn the girl is CooCoo for Coco Puffs. I'm talking boiling the bunny crazy. She also has the social graces of an 8 year old.

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

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

Posted by: Contagion at 06:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Geeze louise... my work is simply overwhelming - yours is downright scary!!! Holy crap boy. Take care of yourself.

Posted by: Teresa at September 04, 2008 09:53 PM (mMa3+)

2 Dang, this makes me wonder who it is, but chances are pretty good I wouldn't know her anyway...

Posted by: Shadoglare at September 05, 2008 05:37 AM (jHfl8)

3 Hell I work with barking mad people all day and they are driving cars and trucks. As to the problems at work it might be that the reason your having all the trouble is the folks on the other end found out that their jobs are going south. So they're being alittle difficult. Just some thouhts of a former diguntled worker.

Posted by: wil at September 06, 2008 07:40 AM (Xw6pC)

4 Heh- you have my business card dude. And if worse comes to worse, call 911 and ask for a C.I.T officer....they know what to do.

Posted by: Rave at September 06, 2008 09:17 PM (hVKpB)

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

I'm not sure what the fuss is all about

* what's left of it

Posted by: Contagion at 07:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After two months of being up in the air about my job and work status I finally got an answer to my situation. At 9:00 this morning I was called to an important meeting. During this meeting there was the director of my office, the director of the Tulsa office, my manager and the Tulsa manager. We discussed how the transition was going and what support was needed, and the need for experience management in Tulsa.

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

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

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

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

Posted by: Contagion at 07:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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After last weeks debacle my stress level was through the roof. Then I had a great relaxing and fun weekend. Now today I was at work no more than two hours when the stress came back. Everything started falling apart. I started catching flack for shit other people did. Finally, the staff that I was promised didn't show up today.

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by: Contagion at 06:43 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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After spending the day drinking beer with Bloodspite yesterday, I finally headed off home this morning. Fortunately for me I was still tired so I could take a nap on the way home. Just kidding, I did not fall asleep driving the car.

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by: Contagion at 06:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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