Thursday, June 15, 2006, 09:03 PM
I finally got to the halfway point in my 1-year probation at work. This is a big deal, since if I hadn't been cutting the mustard, I would have been dismissed on Monday. But actually, I scored reasonably well on my performance evaluation.
Basically, on a scale of 1 to 4, I scored a 2.34. I needed a 1.75 to keep my job. So that's not super-high, but it was more than enough to keep my job!
I get my first raise (a small one) on July 1st. Yay! Only six more months before I get permanent status!
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( 3 / 1009 )Tuesday, June 13, 2006, 08:25 AM
I thought of some more cool, uber-left ideas on how to contain the SUV problem. These are really inspired:
-- Make larger parking lot spaces for SUVs, but place them all the way in the back of the lot. Reasoning: I'm tired of my car getting dinged when a Land Yacht parks next to me and bangs my car with their door.
-- Charge double at parking garages. Reasoning: When I park my car in the morning, I frequently see leftover spaces next to SUVs because the vehicles are so big that other cars can't park next to them.
-- Charge triple at toll booths. Reasoning: Because these vehicles use triple the resources of a family sedan (9 MPG vs 27 MPG) and weigh three times as much (6000 pounds vs 2000 pounds), they should pay proportionally more.
-- Charge double insurance rates. Reasoning: These vehicles completely obliterate the cars they hit when they cause traffic accidents.
-- Quadruple motor vehicle fines for tailgating and aggressive driving. Reasoning: While these Land Yachts accelerate fast, they don't exactly stop on a dime. A SUV tailgating a hybrid is a terrible mistake because a hybrid's regenerative breaking can stop the car from 70 MPH to 0 MPH in only 150'. A SUV takes twice that distance.
-- Special tag registration. SUV owners who get less than 20 MPG should be required to buy bright red license tags that have a caption that reads, "This driver supports terrorism". Reasoning: Any purchase of a true gas guzzler is prime evidence that the user values "status" over National Security.
-- 7-day "cooling off" period. There should be a manditory 7-day "cooling off" period between when a potential SUV buyer requests the vehicle and when he can actually sign the paperwork. This gives the potential buyer time to reconsider the decision. Reasoning: it works for guns, and I think SUVs probably kill more people each year than handguns.
-- Maximum of one SUV per household. Residents should only be permitted to have one SUV per physical address. There is no excuse for "his and hers" SUVs. Reasoning: This would mandate that at least one car in a two-vehicle household would get double-digit fuel efficiency.
If these policies were enacted, the wastrels who own Land Yachts could finally be punished for polluting the environment and driving up fuel prices.
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( 3 / 922 )Monday, June 12, 2006, 09:51 PM - Random Thoughts
I have been tagged... FOUR meme!
I got this from Dewey’s Dartboard (Doug’s Site). .
FOUR JOBS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE:
1. Pizza driver
2. Roofer
3. Cellular Phone Salesman
4. Pretrial Release Investigator
FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
1. Any of the David Suchet Hercule Poirot films. I am watching the Mystery of the Blue Train now.
2. Syngenor.
3. High Planes Drifter.
4. For a Few Dollars More.
FOUR PLACES YOU'VE LIVED:
1. Atlanta, GA
2. Columbia, MD
3. York, PA
4. Baltimore MD
FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH:
1. The Sentinel
2. Stargate SG1
3. Space 1999
4. Babylon 5
FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON HOLIDAY:
1. Nagshead NC
2. Williamsburg, VA
3. Grand Cayman
4. St Thomas USVI
FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY:
1. Greenhybrid.com
2. hybridcars.com
3. Deweydjb.blogspot.com
4. CNN.com
FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Scones.
2. Wonderful, freshly ground coffee.
3. Some deliciously decadent dessert, like Key line pie
4. Anything Mexican
FOUR PLACES YOU'D RATHER BE:
1. On a cruise ship in the Caribbean
2. On a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.
3. Rock climbing or hiking.
4. Ireland
FOUR LUCKY PEOPLE TO TAG:
1. Coco
2. Debbi
3. Jeff (Jay’s Ramblings)
4. Joan (from church)
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( 3 / 1911 )Sunday, June 11, 2006, 02:14 PM - Cool Stuff
Doug and I went to Montecello yesterday, the home of Thomas Jefferson. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful and efficient home. Unlike typical mansions of the rich, everything in the Jefferson home had purpose and function. I liked the fact that he believed in ordinary staircases instead of the huge spirals that were so popular with the wealthy of the time.
It was also cool how he designed all the bedrooms such that the beds were built into the walls. How efficient! Many of the rooms had high ceilings and skylights.
He designed his own home. He invented the double-pane window concept. He also made windows that also worked like doors (you slid them up from the floor and just walked out!)
The only sad note was the knowledge that he owned over 100 slaves in his lifetime. While it is generally thought that he did not abuse or torture his slaves, the fact that he actually OWNED other human beings is something that strikes me as abhorrent. It was a pretty standard practice in the Southern states, however. And although Jefferson was an enlightened man of his time, he was still OF THAT TIME.
Jefferson's genious made me realize, of course, how short-changed we are nowadays with respect to Presidents. Here's how I see it:
Thomas Jefferson: He could speak, read, and write seven different languages fluently.
George W. Bush: He has never demonstrated the ability to read or write. He can barely speak English, much less any other language.
Thomas Jefferson: He couild play two musical instruments and composed music in his spare time.
George W. Bush: He cannot play any instruments. He has no interest in art of any kind and is generally fearful/distrustful of those that do.
Thomas Jefferson: As a man of science, he collected many scientific instruments and enjoyed performing experiments in his house.
George W. Bush: He has no interest whatsoever in science and has a pathological fear of those who do.
Thomas Jefferson: Was a man who promoted religious tolerance and the seperation of Church and State.
George W. Bush: He is a Bible-thumping religious bigot who misuses the Bible to push his austere Right-Wing agenda. He promotes the idea of a theocratic oligarchy based on ultra-conservative Christo-fascism.
Thomas Jefferson: He owned over 5000 books and read every single one of them.
George W. Bush: He is not known to have read any book except for the Bible. He is not known to actually own any books at all.
Thomas Jefferson: He was a natural-born tinkerer. He designed locks, clocks, doors, and all manner of appliances for the home.
George W. Bush: He has never demonstrated any desire to invent anything, and generally distrusts/fears those who do.
Thomas Jefferson: He was an expert chef and knew how to prepare French cuisine.
George W. Bush: It is not known if this man has EVER prepared a meal for himself.
Thomas Jefferson: He was skilled at various money-making trades, including farming, brewing, map making, surveying, architecture, and wine making.
George W. Bush: He has never held down a single job that his daddy didn't get for him -- including the Presidency.
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( 3 / 1700 )Thursday, June 8, 2006, 08:48 PM
I had another odd dream last night. In this dream, the Baltimore/Washington area was going to come under missile fire from some terrorist agency. In a military instalation, a lead general's advisor said, "Use that satelite that has only 6' of visibility".
He was referring to an anti-missile satelite that was nearly perfectly cloaked except for a 6' solar array that kept it charged while dormant. The general gave the command to fully activate the anti-missile drone.
High in orbit, a dark machine received its signal and became fully visible. The scene was sharp, clear, and vibrant. It was like actually being there. It unfurled a much larger solar array and began powering to full. What no one had anticipated was that in the years of solitude, the satelite had somehow become sentient and self aware. It was also desperately lonely. It's self-awareness also caused it to need more energy to function, and it was desperately in need of more power.
The people on the ground station were surprised when the satelite directly asked for more energy. The general ordered a smaller drone containing nuclear fissionables to dock with the satelite. I knew that time was running short. The dream ended with the the smaller drone docking in order to give the bigger satelite the energy it needed.
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( 3 / 947 )Thursday, June 8, 2006, 08:12 AM
Yesterday was a very good day for a lot of reasons. Some of them are good for everyone and some were merely good for just me. But hey, I'll take all the good news I can get!
--- Great for Everyone
> Bush's anti-gay Constitutional Ammendment went down in flames for the THIRD time. He couldn't even get a simple majority, much less 66 Senate votes. In fact, 7 Republicans jumped ship and voted against it. Thank you, John McCain (R-AZ) for being one of the FEW voices of reason and common decency on the Republican side.
> Zarcowi got blown up last night. Okay, I can't spell his name. But he was the #2 terrorist in the entire world. He personally beheaded several Red Cross workers and used Islamic suicide bombers to murder thousands of civilians. Good riddance!
--- Great For Me
> I passed the six month interval on my 12-month job probation. I'd have to REALLY screw up to not make it to the end of the year, since the six-month review is when most people who aren't making the grade get let go.
> I got my 5km run down to 30m05s. I was also able to jog 5.05 miles in 50m, which means that I could sustain a 10-minute mile for almost an hour!
God stuff!
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( 3 / 959 )Tuesday, June 6, 2006, 09:11 AM - Dumb Happenings
If there's ever a tired old nag that needs to be sent to the glue factory, it's the racehorse called "Gay Panic". And yet, Bush seems to trot out this nag every time his poll numbers hit rock bottom. Since his latest approval rating was in the mid-30s, it's no surprise to me that he's choosing NOW to once again "get tough on gays".
I'm really hoping that the Religious Reich isn't as stupid as Bush seems to think they are. Let's look at the Bush resume again:
-- Huge tax cuts for the rich that actually ended up with higher taxes (on the state/local level)
-- Huge deficit spending (because he has not issued a single veto in six years).
-- Terrible foreign policy that has not only alienated our allies, but severely weakened our influence in world affairs.
-- A losing, incredibly costly two-front war that has not only made America LESS SAFE, but has given nations like Iran and Syria carte blanche to develop super-weapons.
-- An immigration policy that is nothing but amnesty by another name. It's just another way for Bush's Big Business Buddies to get cheap labor and avoid paying payroll taxes and Workers' Comp.
-- Energy prices: a 245% increase over six years.
-- And he gave $40 billion to ExxonMobile as a pork-barrel gift (our money, of course).
-- He makes people DISAPPEAR, thanks to the Patriot Act.
-- He taps our phone conversations and reads our emails, thanks to the Patriot Act.
-- He gave Dick Cheney's Haliburton many no-bid exclusive contracts worth billions of dollars.
-- He has built 600 secret prisons in the United States that can house 1,500 people each. They're empty for now...
-- He has abused his vacation privilege to a ludicrous degree.
BUT THE Religious Reich is supposed to forgive all that because Bush just reminded them all that he still hates gays. I really hope they don't ride this tired old nag a third time.
I can see it now: "My son's dead in Iraq, I lost my farm because I can't afford the diesel fuel to run my machinery, my power bill's tripled, and some corporation is stealing my house by using 'eminant domain', but since Bush is going to protect me from the gay agenda, I guess I'll vote Republican... again."
I desperately hope that the Red State folk aren't really that stupid.
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( 3.1 / 1191 )Monday, June 5, 2006, 05:25 PM - Odd Dreams
I had this really odd dream last night. In this dream, I was a timeless, immortal avatar of some cosmic power of Good and Law. I understood that the universe was something that seemed to start, grow, wither, and die -- only to be reborn from the basic elements of what once was. My part of the deal was that at the end of every universal cycle, some evil power of destruction would try to prevent the universe from being reborn. I had to prevent this adversarial power from suceeding so that the next cycle of the universe couild begin as it should.
I remembered having "recently" defeated the avatar of my enemy, that being Chaos and Evil. My awareness ceased for some indeterminant time since I was not needed for a while. Now it was midway through the current universal cycle and I became aware again of my existence. Apparently part of the my job was to start recruiting mortals to believe in the existence and power of goodenss and structure (Good and Law). I began this instance of my being on some green world that I had never seen before. But when I closed my eyes, I could see anywhere on this world that I wanted. The world was mostly ocean with a long archipelagos of islands. It was pretty and pristine. The population of humans (or humanoids) was quite low, and they had not yet developed the technology required to do real damage to their ecosystem. I could feel their life forces, but I did not have the power to read their minds.
By concentrating, I opened a spiritual gateway that allowed three Angels to pass through into this world. I knew that they wouild be empowered to do all manner of good deeds for the people who lived on this world.
My own power was just beginning. I knew I had hundreds of thousands of years (if not more) before I would encounter the reborn avatar of Chaos and Evil. For now, I had peace -- like the calm before a great storm.
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( 3 / 1723 )Monday, June 5, 2006, 11:26 AM
One of my MANY flaws is that I am an incorrigible slob. My car, in particular, is pretty much a rolling SuperFund Site (an ecological catastrophe site, for you Brit readers).
Well, I decided to clean it out from top to bottom yesterday. I removed an entire trash bag full of wrappers, cans, styrofoam cups, receipts, packaging from various things, dead ballpoint pens, fried CDs, and other misc items. Then I scrubbed all the surfaces to remove 4 years worth of dust, dried-up spilled coffee, french fry residue, etc. The net result is that I used half a bottle of Windex and an entire roll of paper towels.
Now my car is actually clean! All I need now is a new set of floor mats! Doug is VERY happy about this since he thought the interior condition of my car was pretty loathesome. But no more! It's lookin' good!
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( 3 / 1024 )Sunday, June 4, 2006, 01:42 PM
The priest at my church gave a sermon today whose message I couldn't disagree with more. It was about how we need to "reach out" to the Islam community in the hopes of bringing "understanding" between our two religions. He even used the parable of the Good Samaratin as encouragement to treat muslims as "neighbors".
I can't do that.
I will just never forget how, on September 11th 2001, the muslims in THIS country rejoiced and praised both Allah and Osama Bin Laden for murdering 5000 Americans in a cowardly act of terrorist. The muslim community in THIS COUNTRY still believe that Osama Bin Laden is some kind of folk hero and avenging angel. I can tell you from firsthand experience, as a retail store manager on duty that day, the obvious and hateful glee these bastards had over what members of THEIR religion had done.
They are not my "neighbors".
Members of Islam are sworn by their unholy Koran to kill all Jews and Christians. Their unholy text extols the virtues of striking at an enemy from afar, from a place of concealment. The muslim Beltway Snipers obviously took this verse to heart.
Members of Islam who reside in this country do not consider themselves Americans. They consider themselves muslims who happen to reside in America. But they certainly do hate America.
It is just inconceivable that I should "reach out" to someone whose first goal is to see me dead.
My firsthand experience with muslims is this: they are hateful, arrogant people who loathe women, loath anyone outside their faith, loathe freedom, and loathe America. They typically have lengthy criminal records for violent crimes. While they don't drink alcohol, they frequently engage in cocaine and heroin. They father multitudes of illegitimate children. They are rarely employed and seem to have no problem collecting welfare or some trumped-up disability.
Muslims, without a doubt, would spare no time slitting the throats or Christians and Jews if given the opportunity.
That's not a neighbor. That's an enemy.
Islam isn't a religion, it's a sociopathological phenomenon.
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