Lumpy's Corner

Well, today was "one of those days" It started off normal enough, well maybe normal is not the right word.. (I was up all night getting this blog page to look the way I wanted it to.)

It certainly turned south when I got to work. For those of you who don't know I am a Community Service Officer at my University, basically I walk you to your car, keep an eye on the campus and lock it tight at night. I am also one of the student supervisors for the job. This means that my main frustration is doing the schedule.

In summer, with a skeleton crew, it is fun, to say the least. I had to deal with 9 schedule changes in two days. The end result was a nicely printed black and white schedule with more red ink corrections and un-staffed positions than black print. Thus began my shift. I had to juggle everyone around 4 times in like ten minutes. Somehow, mainly because we have a good crew, we managed.

Today was as opposite of yesterday as it could have been. I didn't start out normal at all, instead I slept in which is something I normally never do especially two days in a row.

I then spent some time in the gnome room and updated my site. I spent nearly an hour cursing over an end tag I forgot to place in the code which is, again, something I usually do not. (I usually place both tags and insert text in between.)

I then went to a Commodore site which crrj suggested. The emulator link was broken but I did find a kool wallpaper and set it as my current desktop. This reminds me, Vorex get screenies fixed!

Today is one of those "so far so good" days. Things could be going better, things could be going worse but at least they are going. I did manage to update my site, catch up on my e-mails, tweak my schedule, do my laundry, prep some good meals and deal with some other basic chores.

I hope to continue with this burst of motivation. (I am, to quote my friend Eric, having a bust of motivation amidst my typical state of apathy.) I need too, my Lincoln Essay is due soon and I have not even really started to make it very solid and still have mega-reading to do on his fascinating life. I am having a particularly hard time doing this essay because the theme is Lincoln as portrayed in the media. This means, movies, advertisements, magazines etc.,

The 14th of August was going to become a day I will remember long and well. I was already busy enough but had to push myself to get some high priority stuff done. I had to prep for a meeting with my boss. We had to discuss the hiring of more safety escorts for the campus police department. Safety Escorts work for the police, they provide safety escorts, patrol the campus, staff sign in desks, help to lock and unlock the campus and are, basically, extra eyes and ears for the Police Department. Formally they are called Community Service Officers, we generally call ourselves CSOs. I am the student supervisor for the program. Fall semester would soon be upon us and we needed to rapidly fill our roster. Reviewing applications would be my life for the next few days or so I thought.

The evening of nine October is one of those night that, despite the fact that I may not recall the date years from now, I will never forget. It was one of those night when something you were well aware of for some time finally "hit" you. First off, it was one of my typical 24-hour runs due to two jobs. Secondly, tomorrow was going to be the same. I was already on the clock and only wanted to horizontal on the mattress.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I am quite cooked in matters of the heart. This is rather nice because it is very much mutual from what I see and hear.

Now please do not think that it took us this long to realize that we had feelings for each other. Although I am quite thick and blind in that area, I doubt I could miss this. (And Nicole K. and Halle B., I am sorry I didn't notice you throwing yourselves at me... I know I could have spared you a lot of grief in bad relationships. For that matter, you could have saved me from the few bad relationships I did have myself.)

No this one is very obvious. It is obvious to the point where there is no denial. We are in a state of mad about each other. This is SOOOOO unlike me. This never happens to me. The same, I have been informed, is true. Still here we are. And I know I have not really let you know much more than you already do. "I know."

Every once in a while one should take stock of the blessings in one's life; one should pause and actually think about them.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Grinny, Alex, Matt, Gary, Justin, Jenny, Hyuna, Terry, and Veronica. (I am sure there are some I have left out... Sorry). I know that you will all insist you did nothing much but sometimes it is the little things that make the biggest difference.

Thank You

I seldom talk about some of the more important things in my life in this blog. This is due to a number of factors. The main reason being that this mostly a geek realm and I usually go off about the Internet, spam, the RIAA or other such things. I never really had many ambitions of writing a personal weblog. I started one with a separate URL at the request of a friend, felt it was trafficked very little and removed it.

After I removed it, I received more than one inquiry as to why and more than one request to continue it. Such is.

Another reason I tend not to go too deeply into my personal life is because it consists mostly of four significant things. I work, belong to a Fraternity, attend a church and have a wonderful girlfriend.

This week has been an adventure, one of twisted fate, foiled plans and an ironic mix of blessings and curses. It has been six days of rollercoaster like antics and emotions. My original plans were to take a few days off of work and finish with my unpacking at my new residence. It was not going to go that way at all.

It started out harmlessly enough, I worked one of my "pick-up" shifts in the Chronic Care Unit. (I pick up extra hours in another department on an as needed basis. Since I am full-time in the Biological Resources Unit, I can only work in the other department when absolutely needed. This means I usually only work weekends and third shifts.)

This weekend was a bit tougher than most in terms of sleep because I worked Friday 1st shift, Friday 3rd shift, Saturday 3rd shift, Sunday 3rd shift and Monday 1st shift. This is, for me, not that bad for most of my associate believe I am part vampire and sleep little. However, being largely dayshift since June made it a bit of a challenge to get the sleep when I needed it. This was compounded by the fact that Monday through Wednesday I was flexing time to take Thursday and Friday off. In other words, I was, on this rare occasion, somewhat tired.

My third shift workday went pretty much normally. I must stray from things momentarily to fill the new readers in on exactly what I do. I work in animal research. Now, before you set PETA loose on me, let me caution you that I do so because I am an animal lover AND a people lover. My job is not always easy to stomach. I have worked in this field and in the paramedical field for humans. I have seen many people suffer. I am very much aware that many people have benefited from the work done here. I actually know personally of three individuals who have benefited from research done here. The very doctors I work for worked on my friends and it is that fact that motivates me when things are not pretty. As far as the quality of life the animals have, it is good. They are well cared for. The horror stories of animal research are nothing more than emotional appeals based on something other than fact. I know this first hand. This is important work. If you know anyone who has had neurosurgery done or has some type of heart assist device implanted, the odds are heavy that it was developed on animals first. Please remember that before you judge the people who do this type of work. The individuals in this field are compassionate, caring people. They are not evil sadistic tyrants. The difference between them and those who are so quick to protest such research is a more rational and realistic view regarding the benefits of such studies.

I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I was recently injured at work. Today's drama is not as long winded but is more of a rant. Today's tale is one of how obtaining the benefits I have paid for through taxes and payroll became more painful than getting gored by a boar. One of the details omitted from yesterday's blog was, obviously, that the injury is a workers compensation claim. I filled out all of the paperwork.

The instructions I received from the emergency room during yesterday's adventure told me to make sure that I have a follow up visit within 48 hours. I was supposed to see my "primary care" doctor. This was a bit of a problem. I started receiving benefits back in June, was a relatively healthy guy and, as of yet, had no need to see a doctor. This meant that I had no primary care doctor.

I did not even know where to start. I asked my supervisor and, as usual, he had suggestion. I started with phone call number 1 to occupational health. The "Family Fued Strike" buzzed inside my head when the receptionist informed me that I need to call primary care. This actually seemed to make sense. She was kind enough to give me the number and transfer me.

I mentioned the day that I received a pretty decent puncture to my leg. After taking some time off due to the painful nature of walking, I returned to work ready to go. The wound did hurt but not any worse than a bruise. It tended to lock up, like a muscle cramp, if I remained stationary too long so l guess working is best. It also felt more than slightly uncomfortable when I squatted. Other than that, the only annoying aspect of it was that my boot constantly rubbed against it.

I remedied the problem with a piece of cardboard partially wrapped around the inside of my boot and secured with tape. It curved the boot outward and away from the punctured area.

Before lunch on the first day of sporting my improvised fashion statement, several of my co-workers had inquired about it, others were teasing me about my "pig bite" and some creatively modified my nickname to "Limpy". (Thanks "dude".)

And then there is Scott, who is always thinking of some creative gag who, while I was at lunch, scribbled "John's Bite Safety Shield" on the cardboard in my boot. Now that is how to pull a guys leg... hehe

In a conversation regarding a conversation with another, a co-worker of mine made the statement that "one can not argue with common sense". He was referring to the validity of my point, the fact that he believed I was in the right, and that I had argued the point effectively. It was a compliment.

The conversation we were referring to is irrelevant to my point here. The point is he believed that anybody would have seen the point as it was presented and the idea should have been implemented.

Many of us believe this. If something makes sense, do it. The idea seems foolproof.

My response to him was "Yeah, it is true but, unfortunately, one can always choose to simply ignore it."

This is, regrettably, often the outcome of such "common sense debates". It is sad but true. Reflection, consideration and adaptation are more often thwarted by narrow-mindedness, stubbornness and denial.

Does any one know why major corporations spend top dollar on new "state of the art" computers and then have the IT department dissable so many features that they funciont only slightly better than an engineering calculator? Being sure to disable right clicking, save image as and numerous other features.

There is an ironic art to it. First of all they disable so many features that you can't even let Microsoft Word use web services, next they refuse to allow users to have Firefox and, finally, they still respect the work of malware writers to allow them to worm their work in through Internet Exploder. They,of course, protect the machine with Nortan's Anti-virus. So many cycles are lost that not even Lance Armstrong could find one. The end result is a CPU that moves about as fast as a glacier.

To think, these are the educated people on this subject. I gotta wonder how these machines are supposed to make us more productive. I find it more likely they will drive someone postal.

Of course they explain it is because it is a "public" computer and they must protect the network and such. Double irony... Public computers have adminstrator only private features...

First of all, I must inform the uniformed that my "normal" work week is Tuesday through Friday, each day being 10 hours. Not that I ever have very many normal work weeks, I also pick up extra shifts in another department. Although my schedule being such, Tuesdays are my Mondays. Today started out Mondayish to the extreme of Hades.

I woke to the alarm blasting country at 5 AM. Not a bad start, all in all, except I meant to set it for 4 AM. So before I even had a foot hit the floor, I was an hour behind. I rushed to get things ready. This required me to cut my morning task list down to the bare minimum.

First, brew coffee. My attempt to do so ended in disaster. First off all, my eyes (I have vision issues) were not the best. It often takes a few hours of consciousness before my vision is at its peak. In my haste and fuzzy focus state, I failed to notice that I had not completed the pot from yesterday. I still poured the same amount of water into the machine. The filter collapsed, the coffee pot overflowed and my "coffee" consisted of luke-warm gritty black stuff that would not even melt the powdered creamer.

Adventures in bathing were next. In my haste, I forgot why I wanted the extra hour. I do not run my hot water tank all of the time. It, simply said would be a waste of money. I wanted to wake early to do one load of laundry and some dishes. This would have given the tank time to warm before my shower. I realized that I did not turn on the tank right after I got the shampoo in my eyes. One good thing... The cold shower certainly substituted well for the coffee maker disaster.

I did manage to get out of the house on time and the only other incident was trying to get a receipt for my gasoline purchase. Not too big of a deal but why do gas stations offer you the option of putting a card into the pump and then not bother to put paper in the printer and make you walk inside for your receipt? Rather defeats the purpose doesn’t it?