What kind of luck do I have? It’s actually rather good luck but sometimes that is hard to keep in prospective. Murph was in rare form last night. I step away from the computer only to return to black monitors. The power is gone. I try turning on the box and reseting it and I get nothing. I finally figure out that the UPS/SurgeProtector has died died died. A fruitless search for an extra surge protector/power strip leaves me ready to go to Walmart to buy one then I cast eyes on a 3 pronged extension cord. How fortunate! So I plug the extension cord, sans surge protection, into a wall outlet and boot the computer. As the computer is coming up, the entire house goes dark. My first thought, "would the power company cut us off at midnight?!?" Two minutes later the power returns but it takes another 4 hours of troubleshooting to get my computer to actually boot.
Category: Philosophy
Think deep.
Because, we know when something is up!
Yes! That’s it! Exactly!
Of Grasshoppers
Student: My choices always seem wrong.
Master: There is no right or wrong. It’s just a choice.
Insight #8 Into Understanding Women comes from Knoxville!
Guys spend an enormous amount of time trying to understand women. At some point, you get married and have that ah-ha moment when you realize that really it is impossible to understand women and all those years you wasted trying to understand women you could have been watching football. It is at that moment in time that the man generally quits talking to his wife. It isn’t that he has gained wisdom and come to terms that life will be much happier if you just listen to your woman and respond only with "yes dear" to everything that she says. That’s just a fortunate side effect. He is stunned and depressed into silence over the coming to terms with the quantity of football that was missed during his hapless pursuit.
Crumbly Cookies
Because in my world, if it can go wrong, it will go wrong twice!
Shock Blogging
Because some posts should be read as if you were watching Robin Williams on stage.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: It all falls on me.
Master: Only what you stand under.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: How many more beatings must I take?
Master: If you were n’ver knocked down, how would you e’vr appreciate standing up?
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I just want to hide under the covers.
Master: Covers do not hide you from the enemy within.
Thank you Internet!
Today’s Confessional – Harassment
As I child, I was taught to "never air your dirty laundry." I am certain that many people, family in particular, find it confusing that I am so willing to openly share my life with the world touching on such taboo subjects as sex, drugs, politics and religion. Why dredge up the forgotten past and mar my reputation, or future possibilities, with a permanent record of folly long forgiven? This is a good opportunity to point to the Why I Blog page.
First off, I want to say that blogging is stupid. Most bloggers, such as myself, have no journalism training. We are not professionals, are prone to errors, tempted to propagate rumor, and are busily creating a permanent record of non-retractible statements. We paint targets on ourselves and encourage friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers to make comments which, depending on our mood, may hurt our feelings or cause us to make a flippant remark in jest or anger that changes our relationship with those commenters. It is dangerous waters. [Source]
That said, I do hold back a lot that others may find interesting. I have done much in my life. I have explored. I have experimented. I have experienced. I have done good and I have done things for which I am not proud. Some of these stories, told briefly in writing and out of context, could all too easily be misconstrued. I would never want to lose friends, job opportunity, or something as important as being able to volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America over a misunderstood story. Now, for a story from my past, which I had hoped to let fade from memory and never have retold.
I love mentoring. I love leading. Years ago I was promoted to a management job. That was the greatest job! I took one last look at my swimsuit calendar and passed it onto a ex-peer. I deleted all my inappropriate jokes, sanitized my office of general offensiveness, took some leadership classes, and stepped into the position ready to be the world’s greatest manager. I planned to be friendly without overstepping bounds. I would be approachable but demanding. If the staff went to an after work gather and I were invited, I would be the last to arrive and the first to leave, if I showed at all.
One day, one of my female staff asked for a meeting with me. We made it a walking meeting since the weather was nice. She asked that I promote her into a position that didn’t exist. When I explained that I did not have hiring authority and that I definitely did not have authority to create a non-existent job, she said, "you’ll regret that" and walked away. I then spent my remaining days in that job giving HR a daily report on how this one particular employee was not being harassed, how the environment was not hostile, and answering questions about the various rumors which flew around the staff. Apparently I was having the greatest sex of my life because there weren’t many people I hadn’t slept with–if you believed the gossip. I was fortunate that HR was on my side; they had good files and we would have triumphed in a legal battle! None-the-less, it did hurt. My reputation was tarnished. Decisions had to be made on the assumption that this employee told an unproven truth. My boss was 2000 miles away receiving my stories, HR’s version, and the gossip. It detracted from the business at hand and I am certain was an underlying reason for the final closure of that division of the company.
The irony is that I saved that employee. She had come from a different division of the company which was being downsized. She was slated to be laid off. I didn’t need any additional staff. As a favor to a VP, I created an additional position for her (yes, that authority I did have) and she was transferred instead of laid off. It is from that position that she insisted I promote her. I should have promoted her. No. I should have fired her on the spot.
I may be a little jaded when it appears that someone is trying to makes gains at someone else’s expense. I don’t like win-lose. I don’t like lose-win. I like positive. I like win-win!
You old?
Apparently I’m Generation Y.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: What does it mean when your wife meanders past without grousing a "morin’"?
Master: Means you’d better hope she was sleep walking!
Of Grasshoppers
Student: The bar is too high.
Master: Then go under the bar but look good doing it.
Paralyzed
I woke up early in the morning ready to get up and program while everyone slept but I could not move. I was lying on my right side in the shape of a C. The dog lay on feet. Evan was leaning against my back. And in the C the cat was curled up against my stomach and purring.
Sometimes, the signs are telling you to keep sleeping.
