Wow... it's been since October 2007 since I posted on this. Blame a wedding, honeymoon, new car, sold car, sold house, new house, numerous semesters of school, and all sorts of haywire at work. Oh... and there's facebook too.

Not that anyone is listening but here's a quick (nearly instant) update.

The wife and I sold the house in Jonesboro and bought a place in Fayetteville. Its nice to have a home that we picked for ourselves. We still have the three cats that we had after we put Nuno down (see previous post) but will be adding a bull mastiff puppy to the household here in a few weeks. Should be fun.

We've become pretty active in our local church and its nice to have a marriage that is on the same note regarding its dedication to God.

I've become a BBQer... I got a sidebox smoker a few months ago and have been diligently perfecting smoked pork shoulder and beef brisket. I'll admit that I've had some pretty good success thus far.

Still riding the motorcycle. Spent about 6 months or so as a single car family which meant I commuted on the bike rain or shine, cold or hot. Its nice to have another car now so that I can take a break during the summer months and not sweat my nethers off.

School continues... I'm about half way there and aside from my first two B's last semester, I've had a 4.0 average since I started back to school way back in 2006. In fact, I was chosen by the History faculty at Clayton State University as the 2009-2009 winner of the Excellence in History award. Nice to have my efforts validated :)

That's all for now. Hope to be back before another two years passes.

Ciao!

An Ode to Nuno.

Okay, not really an "ode" per se, but perhaps, a public farewell...

Nuno was almost 16 years old to the day when I took him for his last and final vet visit today. I'd say that's a ripe old age for a cat. I read that it equates to about 75 in people years. I hope I make it to 75.

Nuno was a barn cat/kitten when I got him. He was from a little town outside Kitzingen Germany, call Bielbelried. It always smelled like onions. Don't know why. Perhaps they grew onions there?

He and I always had communication problems. He never picked up English very well and despite my high aptitude for linguistics, I never learned German. Despite that, he seemed to be a good fit and we got along pretty well most of the time.

He moved to the states in 1993. I never got him registered with Immigration and Naturalization Services... so I guess in a way, he was an illegal alien. Oh well, I tried to keep the burden from the American taxpayers. He never really recovered from the plane ride though. Given how bad food is in Coach, I can't imagine how lousy the service was in "hold". For the first couple weeks in the states, he hid under a dresser and began this odd habit of licking a spot on his arm or back raw. This would be a recurring theme. Whenever anything changed in his normal routine, from me leaving on vacation (or returning for that matter) to rearranging the furniture, he would lick a raw spot. I guess some people drink under stress. Nuno licked under stress.

About 1994, I adopted my other cat, Eddie. She was terribly frail and tiny when I got her. Nuno did not appreciate the addition all that much (perhaps the language barrier - Eddie being an English speaker) but after a new nicked ears, they became best friends and would remain so until the end.

Nuno enjoyed chasing a coat hanger around on top of the bed. The coat hanger was referred to as "the toy". He knew what it was called and would run to the bedroom when I said it. He never cared much for cat toys and over the last fews years his play-wrestling matches with Eddie trickled off to nothing. However, he was always affectionate, fairly vocal, and perpetually curious. He loved anything from "the counter". If you were cooking something at "the counter", he wanted some. If you gave him an olive from the counter, he'd eat it. Give him an olive from the couch... not so much. He loved the holidays because turkey would almost always find its way on the floor. He was fond of head butts and would lay on his back on my lap with arms stretched skyward and let me scratch his belly. Yeah, okay. He had me pretty well trained.

We had our disagreements. He liked to leave calling cards on my army uniforms. Nothing worse that realizing that your cat he whizzed on your pants after you got to work. Couldn't really say, "Sorry sir, may I go home to change? My cat whizzed on my pants." And here of late, he had taken to waking me up to be fed. No problems except for when the time would change and his 7am became 6am - or on weekends. But for the most part, we were pretty good buddies.

Earlier this year, my fiance moved in with her two kittens. Nuno was not really sure what to think of the two sisters at first. But after a while he accepted them with not too much problem. I think he liked to have a couple hotties sniffing around his 75 year old butt. Eddie on the other hand has not taken to it too well. I hope she does okay now that her buddy is gone. I'll have make sure to hug on her quite a bit.

So. 16 years. That's longer than my marriage lasted.

Well old buddy, I'm sorry it took so long for me to learn to say something to you in German. I hope its not too late, old friend.

Auf Wiedersehen meine kleine schwarze Katze. Eddie und ich werden Sie verpassen. Sie waren ein guter Freund. Tchuss Nunochen!

Forgot to title the below video...

I am starting to get pumped now baby! It's going to start cooling down in a month or so...

FOOTBALL! BUCKEYES FOOTBALL!

I know that Ohio State took a load a shit last year (and since then for that matter) for losing to the Florida Gators in the National Championship Game last January. Frankly, we deserved it. The Gators cut out our living guts and used them to to grease their cleats!
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HOWEVER!
The Michigan Wolverines LOST to a Division II-A team in their season opener... at home... in front of 109,000 of their own fans...

I don't care how bad we (I'm an Ohio State Buckeye fan for those of you just tuning in) looked against Florida. We got tossed around handily, by the number 2 team in the nation...

Appalachian State, those gladiators from Boone, North Carolina, completely humiliated Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr. It's okay Lloyd. If they fire you from Michigan, the Buckeyes will give you a job. You can be our "What-Not-To-Do-Coordinator". You write up your gameplan for beating a Division II-A team and we'll promptly toss it in the trash, pat you on the head and let you go play with Brutus on the practice field.

Thanks Lloyd Carr, you just made my day!

MICHIGAN SUCKS!
GO BUCKS!

Many of you know that my best friend Fish is currently stationed in Iraq as part of the 3rd Infantry Division (my old unit, oddly enough). From time to time, I ask him via email about living conditions, mission successes and such. Here is an interesting reply he sent this week to my most recent barrage in inquiries... such as how much of an impact has the troop surge had, etc. I thought some of you might like to read his comments as I am sure he has a unique perspective on the situation compared to the press who feeds up dribble everyday - anyway, here it is:

I can't remember if I told you (again, I know I am a crappy pen pal) but I am no
longer at Victory, but have moved to Camp Delta; which is a "coalition" camp in
a different sector...Coalition means there was no significant US presence there,
so there is a mix mash of allied countries that are here to help us out...(makes
staff call a challenge)...and is much smaller scale and remote (No PX, no burger
king, barber, or AAFES support) than anything in Baghdad, but it is not that bad
here. In order to get snacks or whatever here you have to deal with a local
vendor "Habibi" who is a 50+ year old Iraqi guy from the area with about 40% of
his teeth...who has "squatted" in one of the abandoned buildings here on
post...however, if you go to his shop, you have to be prepared for the dreaded
"Habibi Man-Kiss"...

As for the Surge, I can tell you that militarily is spectacularly successful. We
are kicking jihadi ass seven ways to Sunday here. We are being successful in
pushing AQI and other baddies farther and farther from Baghdad, giving the
people and the government some breathing room. The thing we don't control is the
competency level of the government here...you just don't shake off 1000's of
years of systemic Arabic style government corruption and 30 years of Stalinist
Totalitarian corruption easily...will the Iraqis be able to get all of their
shit into one bag before the Dems force us to surrender? Who knows...

The longer I am here, the more I am convinced that this is not a civil war, but
a proxy war being fought by Iran, Syria, SA and others through the various
terror groups...Joe Iraqi is (or at least was) very grateful, and by and large
still are that we took out Saddam and have given them "freedom"...Joe Iraqi
however, believes that because we are American we can literally do
ANYTHING...(We call this the "If the US can put a man on the Moon Syndrome..."
If we can put a man on the moon, then the reason that he doesn't have a job or
security, or electricity in his house is not because the terrorists are killing
/ destroying things, it is because we don't care enough to stop it. (this is
Arab logic at its finest). The Iraqis are tired of getting blown up every day
when they leave their house, and the places where we have gained and maintained
a foothold, and established security has been transformed, which is "real"
purpose of the Surge...Push the bad guys out, and keep them out, so that the
Iraqi people can be safe, and the local government can re-establish control.
There are areas of Baghdad, and whole provinces of Iraq that are practically
tranquil and the former "nationalists--i.e. the sunni / former Sadam guys
fighting the "Occupation" have actually come over to our side--they are
realizing that we are not the ones doing the killing of their people. (took em
long enough). We would have Wal-mart, Starbucks, a most of Disney Land built
here by now had we done this 3 years ago! Now what to do about the A-holes in
the surrounding countries; that is the $64,000 question.

So yeah, there ya go.

This passed Sunday, I took Lisa for her first motorcycle ride. It was my first ride with a passenger as well. We both came back in one piece with nary an incident and she enjoyed it. Now that we know she is not terrified from the ordeal and wishes to continue, we can invest in some better riding gear for her. I'm looking forward to it. I think it will give me more chances to ride if she can come with. "Hey Sweetie, want to ride down to your mom and dad's and run across Pine Mountain?" "SURE! Let me get my helmet!"

See how my logic works?

I was inspired to blog about this due to a recent post from a friend.

I was in the grocery store with my fiance this past weekend. We had a cart full of groceries and proceeded to the checkout lane. There was nobody in front of us so I pulled my cart up and began putting my items on the belt. I got about half way down the length of the belt when another customer comes up behind me, with his baggy pants, hat turned to the side and oversized t-shirt. He has four, maybe five items. As I am still putting items on the belt, he places his stuff on the belt at the far end. I look down and it is OBVIOUS that I have WAY more stuff in the cart yet to unload than will fit on a totally empty belt, let alone the half that was left of it before he put his shit on it.

It occurs to me that everytime I've ever come up behind someone in the checkout line, I wait until they have emptied their cart before I start to put my stuff on the belt. Maybe I'm just stupid in the regard.

So... I take one of those divider sticks and put it in front of his stuff and continue to offload my cart. Well, naturally, I fill all the belt up to the point where his stuff is. Now the belt starts to move forward as the cashier starts to scan my items. Naturally, his stuff moves forward along with mine, only I have half a cart load of crap yet to put on the belt. Does he not get it? Where the F*CK am I supposed to put my stuff? Hand it to the freakin' cashier one item at a time? I have 40 cans of cat food you oblivious buffoon!

So I grab the stick and push his stuff back to make room to put more of mine. I look back and admire how he is consumed by the headlines of the National Enquirer. I doubt he can read. He must never have finished school - or even attended because I am pretty sure that in school, when you go through the cafeteria, you are taught early one that there has to be a place to put your tray down while you are moving through the line. If the child behind you does not allow enough room between his tray and yours, there will be no place to put yours and you'll have to stand there like a dipshit, holding your tray... SOUND FAMILIAR? Yeah, this grocery line is pretty similar in concept!

I have to move his stuff back about 6 times before I've unloaded my cart. I catch the eye of the cashier (who obviously picked up that lesson when she was 5 or 6 years old) who just sighs and raises her eyebrows. I'm glad she's sympathetic, though I can remember the day when a cashier would have said, "Excuse me... Sir? You'll have to hold your items until this customer is finished with the belt. Thank you." Of course, in that day, she wouldn't have had to say anything because people had common sense. And if you weren't born with it, you learned it quick. And if you couldn't learn it, they kept you in a special school and you rode the short bus and somebody ELSE went to the grocery store FOR YOU!

Between assholes in the movie theaters, assholes on the road, assholes at the grocery store and those assholes who make NO attempt whatsoever to even pick up their pace when crossing the street in front of you, even though its not a crosswalk (not to mention the fact that you were courteous enough to stop in the first place... courtesy is a TWO WAY street people), I'm beginning to wonder about people.

Its bad enough that we have to have Forrest Whitaker doing a public service announcement before each movie, reminding people to silence their cellphones... do we need him to do another one to remind parents that their children might be kicking somebodies seat and they should be supervised? Well... actually I guess not. The target audience for these announcements aren't there to see them. They're the scumbags that stroll in 15 minutes into the movie (not the previews - the MOVIE!) with six kids in tow and a whole unemployment check's worth of candy and nachos.

We have a new building at work. Our department (an MIS/IT support department for a local school system) had previously been split over two buildings side by side - one of which had at one time been the "colored" middle school during segregation. They were pretty pathetic facilities. Old run down buildings with really sorry bathrooms, break rooms... anyway, they sucked.

So they built a new building for us. I could down a very long list detailing the bad decisions and money wasted on the whole project but I won't bore you... Typical non-accountable bureaucracy type stuff.

However, they formed a "decor" committee to ensure a proper workplace environment. Our building basically consists of a huge rectangular hallway. Along the outside of the hallway are offices. Inside the hallway is a large cubicle farm (where I reside; I'd had an office in the old building) where the tech support people live. In my old office, I had 4 star wars posters (framed) on the walls, with 7 lava lamps on my desk and beads in front of the door, bookshelves with various toys and such, a fishtank in the corner and all sorts of stuff on my desk. Pretty sweet as far as office environments went. Nobody EVER said a word about it. In fact, people would stop by just to marvel at how cool my office was.

Well, apparently rather than asking me to tone it down in the new building... they formed this committee and released a rather nebulous, arbitrary and subjective memo explaining the new standard of office decor. All pictures on desk must be framed, frames must be in a similar style, art on the wall can be no larger than 18x24 inches (so much for my posters)... blah blah blah... no extraneous items on the desk such as empty drink cans...

So this is what we have to worry about? Nobody worried about how to get our mail delivered to the building or how pickup of UPS/FEDEX/DHL/USPS is going to work. Nobody arranged for vending machines or water cooler service. Nobody has addressed the parking situation. Nobody got a committee together to decide XY or Z about the building when it was being built so it would better suit our needs (not "wants" - NEEDS!) and would be much cheaper AND esthetically pleasing...

I AM grateful to have a job. I am grateful that my job allows me to take certain liberties regarding my education. I am grateful to have a 2 minute commute (it went up from 45 seconds when we moved into the new bldg). I am just disappointed when it seems like if given a decision to make regarding something that would have no operation impact but would be a bonus for morale, all things being equal, they'll go the other way. You hate to feel harassed over petty stuff. Thats always been par for the course around here to a certain extent... but it seems the mickey mouse bullshit is reaching critical mass.