Goodbye January

Well, this has been quite the eventful month. I wrapped up my first extended vacation from work, hung out with my Floridian friend, met a few new folks in person and in spirit, got sick and better twice, and messed up my car. I'll get to that last one later, since I haven't written about it. So far it's a pretty good start to 2009, considering this time last year was when I first handed my resume to somebody wearing a Lockheed Martin polo in Coffman Memorial Union.

It's crazy to think that I've come this far in a year. Graduation, getting a real job, getting settled into a career, and high-tailing it across the country to my new life. Inside, though, I don't feel all that different. I've always been pretty proud of what I've been able to do; I'm not the kind of person that has to do everything right or else I get upset with myself. I like doing a good job, sure, but if I have to toss a little duct tape on there so be it, as long as whatever I'm making still works. Hell, even if I were still job hunting, I'd be proud that I got my degree and just figure that times are a bit lean.

But now I've flown the coupe and I'm out and about. I do whatever I want whenever I want, make the mistakes that go along with that kind of behavior. Case in point at a little after midnight on Wednesday when I slid on the freshly-fallen snow and smacked my wheel on the curb, shattering a bit of the hub cap and screwing my alignment up. This caused the steering wheel to wiggle back and forth, which was extremely annoying. Anyway, I took the thing in yesterday and I got a replacement wheel, tire, and realignment. Thankfully nothing was bent in the undercarriage and so the cost wasn't sky high. I did have to shell out more than four hundred bucks, but it could have been a lot worse.

But yes, car works again, I am no longer dying of space plague, and everything's sunny and happy. I was however planning on bulking up my savings a little this month, being a five-Friday month and all, but a good amount of that fifth paycheck got eaten by my car. Oh well, though, at least I didn't have to choose between getting it fixed and eating, for example.

In other news, I'm already setting up appointments for folks to come visit again. Parents will be out to visit in late April along with my sister and Sylvia, and possibly Sylvia's dad Randy. Tony's got to come out and see me again soon. Scott's due out and/or I've got to haul myself over to the west coast just in time for it to break off into the ocean. Adriana wants to come out and possibly look at schools. Andy will be about four hours away, so I'm sure I'll see him frequently enough anyway. Andrew should get out at some point and I don't know, be loud in my apartment or something. Anyway, lots to look forward to!

Schedule for Week Ending 2/8

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Monday - 15:30 to 24:00 (8.5 hours)
Tuesday - 11:30 to 20:00 (17 hours)
Wednesday - 11:30 to 20:00 (25.5 hours)
Thursday - 15:30 to 24:00 (34 hours)
Friday - 15:30 to 24:00 (42.5 hours)
Saturday - 7:30 to 16:00 (51 hours)

(REVISED January 31, 13:15)

A few too many hours methinks, but I could either come in late on Monday or skip Wednesday altogether (or both), depending on what Brian wants to do. I'm fairly indifferent to either contingency, though having the full day off would be nice since I'm getting my weekend cut into by Friday night and such. We shall see. I'm just happy I don't have anything overnight and I'm getting plenty of hours, which are usually pretty mutually exclusive.

This place cleared out around seven tonight, so I'll probably just jet home early tonight.

Walk Away

Fantastic the panic that shown in his eyes
He shrugged when I asked him about it
He said, "Young man pay heed, you listen to well to what I say,
"Now there comes a time for a man to walk away."

Walk away
I'll be a parade
And I'll be determined
And no one shall dissuade
I'm on my way
I'll take my sweet time
And burn all the bridges that I'm leaving behind.

He passed by again and he was shivering from cold
I'm not sure but I think that he was trying
He told me about the weather and something old to pay
"But tomorrow," he said, "I'm gonna surely walk away."

Metropolis

New air filled my lungs as I took it in. I held my breath for a split second longer than breathing would require just to fulfill my need to analyze the novelty of it. As the breath passed and I exhaled, the familiar projection of smokey steam rose from my lungs as I expelled the warm air from my nostrils.

This place was new, something I hadn't seen before. Glancing upward I was only offered a small sliver of the midafternoon sky, clouds lazily drifting from one side of the strip to the other. This was something strange, not seeing the sky stretch out before me as I had been used to. Here the streets were narrower, as if part of some remote Italian village where automobile usage never caught on. The buildings towered over me, blotting out significant portions of the sky in favor of squeezing in a pair of tenants in the crowded city.

The streets were not as bustling as I had expected, but did contain a fair amount of pedestrians, most of them hurrying toward their chosen method of public transit to return home for the evening. My own legs carried me from block to block, each looking uniquely different but still vaguely familiar; the same half-canopy of brick and aluminum rising to shield me from the sun's occasional appearance.

In the city, everything shifted constantly. In no direction could you observe a lack of movement. It reminded me inversely of stepping out of my front door in wintertime back in my suburban home. Silence when it snowed. Silence and a kind of permanent twilight, the reflective qualities of the cloud and snow cover exchanging the dim light as the sun sojourned on the other side of the planet. Dead quiet, no wind, with the eerie reddish-pink color that accompanied night in those times. Freshly fallen snow betrayed no trace of passersby, laying fresh and clean in the streets and sidewalks alike. Cold and silent.

The city was bright, the city was colorful, the city was noisy. Where those cold winter nights represented death and sleep, I told myself, daytime on these streets was the symbol of life and activity. Each of those people had a life to live, a place to be, people who loved them. It took a moment or two of pause to recognize this and to truly integrate it into my thoughts, but the feeling of epiphany was worth it.

Eventually the city held less promise than it once did, less splendor and wonder. Getting to know the street layout made navigation easier, but adventure much harder. It's a shame, really, that novelty has to eventually surrender to practicality.

Reflection

Well, it's a new year, and I haven't gushed about what I'm looking forward to, yet. There may be some repeats, but eh, it'll be nice to type something out again. I so rarely am motivated to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) that I may as well appreciate it while it lasts.

I'm looking forward to flourishing friendships, from those people back home who I've known for years, the people here who I am just beginning to know, and people who are at present complete strangers to me. Everything seems so new; even when I go home, it seems like so much has changed between visits that everything is novel and interesting again. The new people I've encountered, shared meals and drinks with, and sat in front of a glowing movie or television screen with have been incredible, every single one of them unique and irreplaceable. Oh and the people I pass on the street whose names I don't know, I look forward to shaking your hands, too.

I look forward to more people from back home seeing how I live now. I look forward to seeing more of them head off into the world and make new lives for themselves, or stay content in the lives they have now. I'm especially curious about the juxtaposition of the old and new, for those who would be open to such things; the environments of home mixed with the faces of Philadelphia, the voices of Minnesota speaking in my apartment.

I'm excited to see where my career continues to move. It was recently shared that I may be taking the leadership position that Brian may vacate come the summer, along with responsibilities and visibilities I've never had working anywhere. It will be a challenge, but I'm determined to continue learning and growing to fill the role when it's ready for me.

I look backward in awe of all the things I saw and learned throughout 2008. New experiences, new locales, new feelings. Obviously I've never been a college graduate before, but along with that I've never experienced a September that I was not attending school that I remember, much less the rest of the year. It was a curious feeling and almost uneasy at times, but now that I'm comfortable with it, it's fairly liberating, but a little regretful at the same time. A stage exited, a new entered.

I look on with excitement to all the things that I will see and experience in 2009. I hope last year was merely a crescendo, leading up to an even more adventurous and enlightening one.

Perhaps most importantly, though, I look forward to the people in my life and being there for them through fun and bad times. It's cheesy, yes, as is most of this post, but there are times when the magnitude of sunlight in someone's day depends solely on someone whose hand they can grasp, someone who will listen. I want all the people I love to have to use SPF-60.

Bixby Canyon Bridge

"And the silence, it became so very clear
That you had long ago disappeared
I cursed myself for being surprised
That this didn't play like it did in my mind

Then it started getting dark
And I trudged back to where the car was parked
No closer to any kind of truth
As I must assume was the case with you."

See you somewhere on the road, Mister Kerouac.

Back in the Saddle Again

I'm not dead, woo. The antibiotics seem to be quite effective thus far and I've been feeling better every day since starting to take them. Hooray.

Anyway, schedule time for this upcoming week; it's gonna be ugly.

Monday - 20:00 to 24:00 (4 hours)
Tuesday - 0:00 to 8:00 and 15:30 to 24:00 (20.5 hours)
Wednesday - 15:30 to 24:00 (29 hours)
Thursday - 0:00 to 6:00 and 15:30 to 24:00 (43.5 hours)
Friday - 0:00 to 8:00 and 15:30 to 24:00 (60 hours)

Hahahahaha. I just redid this and I'm laughing a lot at how this worked out. Working 14+ hours for three days? Woo, yeah right. It seemed way more realistic without anything on Friday, but now it just seems grotesque and hilarious. Working on Friday night sucks but I can probably shave things considering there is nothing during actual business hours except on Tuesday and Saturday. Let's see if I can pare it down a little so I'm not dead at the end of the week:

Monday - 20:00 to 24:00 (4 hours)
Tuesday - 0:00 to 6:00 and 18:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)
Wednesday - 18:00 to 24:00 (22 hours)
Thursday - 0:00 to 6:00 and 18:00 to 24:00 (34 hours)
Friday - 15:30 to 24:00 (42.5 hours)
Saturday - 11:30 to 16:00 (47 hours)

This seems a little more realistic. Not as much overtime, but I feel my sanity is worth a certain amount. Still no Friday night, but eh, Saturday night's just as good. Then there's a matter of getting Brian to cover for me...

I'll probably shave a couple hours off of Wednesday afternoon and Tuesday morning, but I should still get some nice overtime. Now I have to decide whether I want to comp it for future time off or just get paid some extra cash. Probably the former, since I just got a raise anyway and it seems I've been keeping my head above water pretty well despite my holiday splurging.

In other news, my good pal Andy Larson seems to have acquired a job with NavAir in southeastern Maryland. The location he'd be working is approximately four hours by driving from where I am currently, on to the coast near Washington, DC. This is a pretty exciting prospect, considering all the people who I know back home are mainly still back home, and this would be a good opportunity to head down to DC and check out the digs there.

Ramos and Compean

Names you might not have heard until now. I actually hadn't heard of them until Whitney mentioned them a couple weeks ago in the context of a grave injustice being done to them.

Their sentences were commuted down to two years today from the original eleven and ten for Ramos and Compean respectively. So what do I think on the issue? Honestly, I don't know what to think. It seems like the issue of immigration is a firebrand that sets a lot of people off rather needlessly. DEY COMIN INNA ARE COUNTRY GRR type stuff. And really, if they were acting in self defense as they claimed, I would agree.

But it doesn't seem like they were. A man was crossing the Rio Grande from the Mexican side and border agents are there to prevent things like that, fine. Is shooting him the answer? I honestly don't think so, but if the need arises to discharge a weapon in self defense, it's probably necessary. So let's assume all that was true; they were acting in self defense. Just as a starting point. The man was also a convicted drug dealer, but that shouldn't affect how authorities deal with him.

1) The man was fleeing at the time, since he was shot in the buttock. This doesn't imply self defense all that well, as allegedly the man was unarmed.
2) The officers allegedly covered up the shooting by picking up spent shell casings.
3) The officers lied to superiors about the weapon discharge truly happening.

I don't understand why they would go to these lengths to cover up the shooting if it was, indeed, in self defense. It sounds like a case of incompetent law enforcement just out to pump lead into an illegal. And for that, they've become heroes to the hyper-nationalistic conservatives in this country.

So began a Department of Homeland Security internal investigation that uncovered what appeared to be a straightforward case of two federal agents shooting at a man as he ran away and then concealing their actions. Investigators found that Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila had put his hands in the air and tried to surrender, but Compean—instead of apprehending him—had swung at him with the butt of his shotgun. Aldrete-Davila had bolted, and as he ran, Compean and Ramos had fired at him fifteen times, with Compean stopping to reload his Beretta as he tried to hit his mark. Neither agent announced the shooting over the radio or informed his supervisor of what had happened; the official report about the pursuit made no mention of their firing their weapons. And rather than secure the area so that evidence could be preserved, Compean had retrieved most of his spent shell casings and tossed them into a ditch. Only when questioned by investigators a month later did he offer the explanation that he and Ramos had acted in self-defense; Aldrete-Davila had been “pointing something shiny” that “looked like a gun.” A federal jury, which heard both agents’ testimony, rejected their version of events and convicted them on five out of six criminal charges, including assault, obstruction of justice, and civil rights violations.

Prosecutors had offered plea deals to the defendants before trial, including an 18-month term for Ramos and 21 months for Compean, if they would plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges. It was a package deal that both men had to take and which they had declined.

Schedule for Week Ending 1/25

This week's schedule looks pretty good, even coming off of what amounted to a half-week because of my dumb illness. I'll write more about that later, hopefully.

Monday - 14:00 to 24:00 (10 hours)
Tuesday - OFF
Wednesday - 12:00 to 24:00 (22 hours)
Thursday - 12:00 to 24:00 (34 hours)
Friday - OFF
Saturday - 7:30 to 16:00 (42.5 hours)
Sunday - OFF

A few long days and one early wakeup, but three days off? I'll take it.

So... Does This Count as Incest?

Yahoo is reporting that two of Showtime's Dexter's stars have apparently eloped in the past couple weeks and are now hitched. The creepy thing is that these two stars, Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall are sister and brother on the show, respectively.

Weird.

You're Wrong

You're wrong about virtues of Christianity
And you're wrong if you agree with Sean Hannity
If you think that pride is about nationality
You're wrong.

You're wrong if you celebrate Columbus Day
You're wrong if you think there'll be a judgment day
If you're a charter member of the NRA
You're wrong.

You're wrong if you support capital punishment
You're wrong if you don't question your government
If you think her reproductive rights are inconsequent
You're wrong.

You're getting high on the downlow
A victim of the COINTELPRO
You're wrong
And we'll probably never know.

End of a Road

Ah, so the holiday buzz has finally worn down for me; I say finally because I just dropped Whitney off at the airport this morning after she spent the week with me. Hopefully she got home okay. Sadly I didn't get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked due to working all week, but hopefully she had an okay time (and more importantly, a relaxing time).

So I've got a bit on my plate in the next few days. Today I worked from just before noon until about six just to fill in hours, and tomorrow I'll be pulling the "normal people shift" from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon. After that, I anticipate hanging out with Nicole and spending Sunday driving somewhere random and interesting - preferably photograph-worthy. I won't be coming into work until about four in the afternoon on Monday, so I could be in for a late night.

At some point I've also got to coax Claire to meet me at a restaurant so that I can give her the (especially teensy) Minnesota-themed gift I got for her. Nicole seemed to like hers, so that's a plus!

Tonight I just get to hang out and be alone for a bit, which is pretty cool. It seems like I have a grass is always greener mentality; too long alone and I get lonely and seek out other people to be with, and too long without having the apartment to myself makes me long for a day of privacy. So, I suppose today is that day. My plan for the evening is to grab a sandwich and eat some ice cream before heading to bed fairly early tonight. I got about four hours sleep last night, so I could use a good night's sleep and a half before I pull my eight hour tomorrow. I'll live. And I've got something to look forward to!

Schedule for Week Ending 1/18

Whoa, January, slow the heck down here. You're just speeding along at a nice clip.

Monday - 15:42 to 24:00 (8.3 hours)
Tuesday - 0:00 to 0:36 and 16:00 to 24:00 (16.9 hours)
Wednesday - 0:00 to 4:00 and 22:54 to 24:00 (25 hours)
Thursday - 0:00 to 8:00 (33 hours)
Friday - 7:30 to 12:00 (37.5 hours)
Saturday - 11:30 to 16:00 (42 hours)
Sunday - OFF

Ugh. Having trouble scrounging up hours at these ridiculous times. I guess I could stay longer on Thursday morning or just come earlier on Tuesday. We'll see.

Lively Live Blogosphering

So I'm at work now. What a treat. I already basically did pretty much everything I need to do for the next four hours, but I can't leave. Isn't that awesome? Post comments about how drunk you are.

11:54PM - oh, by the way, that "I do not bite my thumb at you sir, but I do bite my thumb, sir." phrase came up at the New Years party I was at with my friends. Freaky. Stop reading my mind.

12:07AM - went upstairs and was greeted by absolutely no one. Hopefully people actually show up or I'll be a little irked. Anyway, listening to some music and poking around the day's news, how droll.

12:48AM - everything's set up for now. Still listening to music and debating turning on some talk radio that will keep me awake. Like an hour and a half has gone by so far - that's pretty quick, actually.

12:52AM - do you two plan on being up past four by chance? If so, is there anything you want me to pick up? I can certainly stop by ze Wawa.

1:06AM - kind of want to go home. Listening to Ron & Fez and just chilling for now. Three more hours. Every minute is like a year.

1:17AM - R&F are talking about how long you could go without communicating with someone. Fez said a week, and I really doubt I could do even a day, even without work.

1:53AM - went up to fix something and found lots of candy in a bag by Martin's desk. I got some of those weird Warhead Extreme Sour candies; haven't had these for years. Hopefully the sugar can keep me awake.

2:24AM - oh boy, the night keeps getting better. Considering just shutting off my dumb e-mail for the rest of tonight.

Metaphorically Challenged

On the walls of the day
In the shade of the sun
We wrote down
Another vision of us
We're the challengers of
The unknown

"Be safe," you say
"Whatever the mess you are
You're mine, okay?"

Back to the Awesome

Now let me regress into a mass of nostalgia for one of my favorite film series of all time.

Enter: Back to the Future. The first film was made before I was born, and the other two when I was young. I don't think I've ever met anyone who dislikes the first two films, and the third can be forgiven and enjoyed just because it features the same characters and continuity as its predecessors. Although Back to the Future is long gone (hopefully Hollywood doesn't want to clumsily reanimate its corpse), the catch phrases extracted from it are alive and well among myself and my friends. If I made a reference to hoverboards not working on water when they lack power, you'd better get it.

Anyway, although I already own the original DVD release from 2005, I'm eyeing the February 10, 2009 release of an updated and enhanced copy on DVD and Blu-Ray like a hawk. Why, exactly? Well, not only is the quality upped (Blu-Ray, mmm), but the discs contain something that isn't on the old discs.

Now, for those of you who have never visited Universal Studios, you missed out. The Back to the Future ride opened in 1991, and featured a trip in a (now mass-produced) DeLorean time machine chasing down everybody's favorite prankster, Biff Tannen. The 1955 hooligan managed to sneak into Doc Brown's lab and swipe one of the DeLoreans, and he leads you on a wild goose chase while throwing early nineties insults like "butthead" at you. The gist of the ride is a large screen that you watch while the DeLorean you sit in rocks back and forth, simulating motion. Highlights include almost dying in a volcano and being briefly eaten by a T-rex.

Yes, you've guessed it. The updated DVD release includes the video from this awesome ride. The ride itself was closed down in both the Hollywood and Orlando locations last year, so this is a nice bit of nostalgia that I'd like to own, eventually at least. Kind of sucks to have to pay for the same thing twice to do it, though.

Back From the Dead Plus Schedule

I'm back from Minnesota, and there's lot to write about, which I'm sure I'll be tossing on here at some point. For now, though, my schedule for the next week. Any time not included in the work time will be either sleeping or Whitney time:

Monday - 15:30 to 24:00 (8.5 hours)
Tuesday - 15:30 to 24:00 (17 hours)
Wednesday - 23:30 to 24:00 (17.5 hours)
Thursday - 0:00 to 4:00 and 15:30 to 20:00 (26 hours)
Friday - 10:30 to 16:00 (31.5 hours)
Saturday - 7:30 to 16:00 (40 hours)
Sunday - OFF

So basically I have Wednesday and Sunday off this week. A lot of my shifts are broken down to itsy bitsy bite sized, too, which is nice for when I have a guest.