Late update

Wow, its been a while since I've written anything, I've been busy with the job search - found position with these guys Spartan College teaching avionics on an on-call basis.

Pay isn't too bad, the drive sucks, but they're paying me to sit through the course and work up my lesson plans, so that's pretty cool. Actual money coming in - there's an idea. Much better than my normal quantum bank account.

I'll keep you posted....

Coal, the other fossil fuel.

Wonder of wonders! I finally got my new coal forge set up and the flue plumbed in. Yippee! Now I can play again. It's been ages since I had a decent forge, my last gas rig was just that - a rig; not very good as far as forges go. This new coal forge is a real beaut. Time to start making new tools now - its amazing the things you don't need with a gas forge; I've never had to rake the fire in a gas forge, and I don't know the last time I used a gas shovel to put more gas on. Never had a clinker in one either.

So I should be turning out the knick knacks again here shortly. Guess what everyone's getting for christmas........

Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson

I do so love Monty Python. I think I shall start heading all my posts with a sketch or quote.

I have arrived back from Portland after my friend's wedding in mediocre shape, it's only taken me a *couple* of days to recover from it. But what a beautiful wedding. 17:00 on a Saturday! what bride wouldn't blush - reception in a vineyard, no drunken family members vomiting on the dress! And now the lucky couple is on safari in Kenya. Oh what fun they'll have. Lions and tigers and bears - Oh Criag! (If you don't know him, you won't get that.)

On another note, (about me, I mean,) The interview went, (I think,) quite well. As long as I can stick in the mind of the hirer and beat out four other well qualified applicants I'll be ok. I know I have the skills and the drive to do the job, not sure I have the smarmy interview skills though. Oh well, still applying for other jobs as we speak just in case, But I have to say that if they can find a better candidate they better hire him.


Now I have to check out some libel over on weaselkeeper's blog. Something about a rocks glass. He started it - remember that.

Partly cloudy; chance of job.

For all of you familiar with British radio announcements and/or Mike Harding,

"This is a warning for all shipping in the Oklahoma area: Bugger off, there's no water."

But seriously. I've been quiet of late, lot of stuff on my plate. Got some responses on my job hunt - only one seems likely to pan out. But still, thats good. Nice job, some travel, (well mostly travel,) but home on weekends. No idea what the pay is yet, but it should, nay must, be good.

Now that I'm fairly sure that my future employment will have a 50-70 mile commute I've decided that, (if and when necessary,) I shall buy a commuting vehicle. That is to say a vehicle that fits only one niche - commuting 100-140 miles a day. If you know me, (and you probably do if you're here,) you know that that means I'm getting a new bike. But what fits like a glove? I'm looking at the Honda Silverwing, Suzuki Bergman, and Yamaha Majesty. All "maxi-scooter's" all with good mileage, and all with great element protection. Of course they're all scooters too, so I don't have to worry about scaring old biddies at stop lights - really, even I won't look dangerous on a scooter. I'm leaning towards the Bergman at the moment, but that could change quickly - I need to find the one that fits the commute role, and not the cool role. I'll figure it out in the end.

I actually can't wait to get back to honest-to-god bike commuting, I really miss it. I have several bikes in the stable that I could use, but none that would deliver the comfort and mileage of a maxi-scooter. I can't imagine commuting for long on the Triumph (at 34mpg/120mph) or the Ural (at 40mpg/55mph) The BSA is right out because I have to be able to trust it and it's, well, a BSA. A new scoot with good MPG and a dependable name that can pay itself off in gas savings, or at least reduce the cost, is what I'm after.

I suppose I could buy a cage..........

I'll let you know what I think after I get a couple of test rides in.



Cheers

An understanding of Digital watches

I haven't posted in a little while, not because I've been lazy, but because of computer troubles. I lost the adapter for the power supply on my windows box the other day and haven't had time to replace it. I thought that this would be the ideal time to get the Linux box functioning again. And so it was, I suppose. Had the usual teething problems, everything except the wireless worked fine. But what's the point of a laptop if you have to plug it into something? After a couple of v.frustrating sessions loading and unloading stuff and generally messing around with the programs I found this. Worked as advertised, trouble free and quick to install. I feel as if I have an understanding of computers...............

So I'm back online, and here's the full quote from Time Bandits for those that didn't get the reference.

"Evil Genius (David Warner) When I have the map, I will be free, and the world will be different, because I have understanding.

Robert (Derek Deadman) Understanding of what, master?

Evil Genius Digital watches. And soon I will have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being! God isn't interested in technology. He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time: forty-three species of parrots! Nipples for men!

Robert Slugs.

Evil Genius Slugs! He created slugs! They can't hear, they can't speak, they can't operate machinery. If I were creating the world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would've started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one."

Time off for good behavior

Today we're off to the lake for some relaxation and possibly to engage in some exotic red-neck courtship rituals, e.g. falling from a high-speed jet ski into a semi-submerged tree inhabited by poisonous reptiles of the family Ancistrodon piscivorus.

It should be a good time.


And I'll be unreachable until the swelling dies down and the bandages come off.




POST SCRIPT

Well, we made it back from the lake without encountering an Ancistrodon piscivorus, or a semi-submerged tree. Please notice that I did not mention the falling from a high speed jet ski. I didn't fall, I was ejected at about 35mph, sideways. I'm not in too much pain, just a bad rib that only hurts when I do something silly - like stand, or sit, bend, or breath. Dawn has only a headache, but she earned that and it was from the late night with Pabst Blue Ribbon.

So it's a slow Sunday for both of us, but that's what Sundays are for.

Goodbye Mr. Froggy

Sad news today, the crippled frog has passed. I found him in the middle of the living room this morning. Apparently one of the dogs didn't want me to miss the fact. I don't really have the words to describe how I feel, so I'll use this edited excerpt from Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch.

"E's passed on! This frog is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-FROG!"

Strange things are afoot.

Afoot. No one says that anymore. I wonder why. I guess it must be that we drive everywhere nowadays. I think I'll start using it more myself.

On that note, busy has been afoot in my life. What with the ongoing resume massage, job search, and working on my foetal consultancy business, (If I advise people about dancing, would I be a Consultant of Swing?) I haven't had time to.. do.... things... that.. take.. time. So I'm taking the time now, (away from very important projects - don't you feel special,) to say that I don't have time to say anything.

Any Questions?

Good.

Old news

For those that missed it, I took a motorcycle sidecar trip a while ago from Anchorage, Alaska to Oklahoma City (via a little town north east of Kansas City, Missouri.) Documented here with pic goodness and snappy writing courtesy of neon-buddha.

Check it out

Good food

If you're in the mood for some good recipes and don't have any dead animal flesh in the larder, check this blog out. They all look pretty tasty.

Automated Human Relations strikes killing blow - Match to HR

If you haven't read Human relations dept. strikes first blood. Point to HR, please read it now.

Back? Cool. I reformatted my resume/cover letter, submitted it to the automated HR program, set up a skills list, etcetera, and etcetera. Let's just say that it took a while. Quite a while. I invested a goodly amount of time in applying for the job. 32 seconds after finalizing the on-line application I get an email with this in it:

Thank you for your interest in career opportunities with Koch and its
affiliated companies. Your answers to our initial qualifying
questions associated with the job to which you applied indicate that
your background and/or experience do not meet the minimum
requirements for this role. Blah blah.

That's several hours I'll never get back. At least I have the experience and the decent resume now. (Is that what losers say? "At least I got to run the race!")

Oh well, I was looking forward to fencing a little more with the all powerful HR.

Bike spot

Inspirational bike posters.



thanks for the pic guys.

Human relations dept. strikes first blood. Point to HR

I finally re-engineered my resume. I reset my paradigms and shifted the focus of my efforts towards correct formatting, tuning the content towards the specific position I'm applying for, doing away with all acronyms and technical jargon, and generally making the product easy to read. It looked pretty good too. I even had a nice cover letter and everything.

Then I checked out the HR site at John Zink, (that's the firm I'm applying at,) and golly gee I'm glad I did. Here's the hidden rule that you have to look for, I wonder how many more there are?

Resume formatting tips

• Use only Helvetica, Arial or Times Roman Fonts
• Use 10, 12 or 14 point size fonts
• Make sure the entire document is left justified
• Set margins for approximately 65 characters
• Use spaces or dashes to emphasize text
• No bullets
• No Graphics, including Wing Dings or special characters

So now it's off to refont, rejustify, debullet, remargin, deunderline, debold, and rewrite.


Bugger.

Bitte ein Bit

On the way home today I stopped to get some beer. Normally I'll get a slab of Pabst, but I didn't want to drive all the way across town to the store that has it cheap, so I went to the liquor store nearest my work. Low and behold! Their price for Pabst was about the same as for Bitburger. This is the German equivalent of Budweiser, which is to say that it is the number one selling beer in Germany and not to say that it's crap. So I came home with a case. The last case. Now it is helping me keep writing my resume even though I know that no one wants to write a resume almost as much as no one wants to read one. So I'm trying to write a resume that someone wants to read; boy it ain't working. I get bored reading my resume. It's all Blah blah did this, and blah blah did that, worked on this antiquated system that you've never heard of and probably couldn't spell if all the letters jumped into your alphabet soup in the correct order, and by the bye I'm really good at this, great at that, and if you hire me I'll triple your productivity, cure your dog's mange, and make you appear is if Mother Theresa was your protege. What I really want to say is, " Yeah, this is what I've done 'till now, and I really don't wish to do it anymore. I'm a pretty good joe with a great work ethic if I like what I'm doing, but If your stupid job bores me you may as well push a rope uphill because you'll get more out of that than out of me - challenge me, let me run, allow me my whims and you'll never be disappointed." But seriously, Mr. or Mrs., (or even Ms.,) Human Relations probably doesn't have the sense of humour to let that one go into the 'look at' pile. So I guess I'm going to play the damn game a little more, put my money on red or black when I really know that 00 could hit, and join the lice infested, ought to be eaten by the cat or at least chased by the dog, rat race.

But I'm not bitte.

Post Script:
If any one knows a professional resume writer, please put a tyre iron in their head; they're just perpetuating this whole damn thing.

How much can you download?

I have had some issues lately with my internet provider, (hughesnet - satellite.) Mainly that it goes out often. I normally associate these outages with the weather, but upon arriving home today, I found, or rather did NOT find, the internet. I ran my usual tests, and called Ramjam Fulla at tech support, (if you don't know, don't ask.) He reckoned that I'd exceeded my alloted download capabilities, i.e. downloaded too much stuff. Now, I've downloaded music, and streaming radio before, but I've never downloaded too much stuff. So I says to myself, "self, who's been downloading stuff on your connection?." And I answers myself, "not you, you've been at work. Not Dawn, she's in Alaska. Who's been here?..........Zachary has been here." So thanks to the Goldilocks deduction theory Zach now owes me and extra $10 per month for downloading crap.


by the by, Zach got a job, (and actually turned up for it,) and passed his, (written,) driving test. Next thing you know, he'll be paying the rent he owes us.




now if I can just get the damn dogs to get jobs..................

Electric bike

I'm picking up one of these soon. It's an electric hub motor laced up to a bicycle wheel. You take the current front wheel off the bike, and replace it with the electric one, put a rack on the back of the bike to hold the batteries, a throttle on the handlebars and a controller on the front and you're ready to go. You can pedal or not, up to you. We're starting to sell them at the shop I work at, and I thought it would be a good idea to have a demo. I also thought it'd be nice to bike into work, (12 miles,) and save a little money on gas. Ok, I just want it, but I can rationalize it anyway I want to.

The manufacturer says it'll go 20+mph and should have a range of 14 miles at full throttle. We'll see how it works next week. I'll keep you all up to date.

Creepy cat story

Interesting article here, basically, Oscar the cat lives in a hospice. He visits the patients, but only sits on people that are in the last 4 or so hours of life. Creepy, I hope my cats don't read this.

Resume writing

Well, it is resume time again. I'm searching for a new job, (Not that I don't like my old one, but the money's just not there,) and I have found my resume to be, in kind words, laughable. I imagine HR folks emailing it around with the daily joke. Not that I mind bringing a little humour into peoples lives, but I'd rather have a well paying job. So now I'm paying the price of not keeping my resume up-to-date. As always, I started out with a mediocre product that was 1-1/2 pages long, very readable, concise, and clear. I now have an unfinished manuscript that confuses and mocks the reader, leading him in circles and wearing him out with sentences such as,

"Experienced with: airborne radar and computer systems; mission systems forms and reports; electronic principles, including integrated and transistor circuits; pulsing techniques, shift registers, counters, buffers, logic gates, and flip flops; solid state devices, principles of radio frequency (RF), phase shifting devices, RF transmitters and receivers as applied to airborne warning and control systems; capabilities, limitations, operations, and functions of electronic test equipment; binary, octal, and hexadecimal numbering systems; basic computer programming techniques; interpreting technical orders, wiring diagrams, logic diagrams, wire lists, and processed data lists; digital data processing; general purpose computers and interface unit; software diagnostic routines; and maintaining nuclear hardness as it applies to airborne computer, data display, radar, IFF, and ancillary systems

That little beauty confuses me, and I did it! (Although I did steal it from a job description.) So I know what I'm doing for the next week or so.

Wish me luck in my endeavors: drafting, quality checking, spell checking, paragraphing; cutting and pasting letters, whole words, sentences, and paragraphs; formatting, re-writing, and re-formatting; organizing into chronological, technical, educational, goal oriented, task oriented, and objective based formats; file saving, forgetting to file save, document recovery; cursing, drinking, and banging head into laptop when frustrated.

Morgan inspired three wheeler

Here's something that old car buffs and bikers can appreciate:
http://cycle-car.com/

Man oh man, what a nice ride. Harley powered (No, I don't know why.) three wheeled sports car. 1000lbs. classified as a motorcycle in most states, hand built in Seattle, (and it doesn't have a rain top.)

According to the Pete Larson (company owner) it sneaks up and eats Porsches on the twisties and is, apparently, so much fun to drive that Ferrari owners say, "that's fun to drive."

and its only $30,000.00 (minus the motor.) Lets see, add 10K for a killer aftermarket motor and we're up to $40K. Now that's a lot of money, and you could get a BMW 3 series for the same price. But they don't hand build many BMWs for that kind of cash, and no-one is going to look at a BMW 3 series and say, "Damn that's Cool."

Go check out the site. I insist

First post

Ok, I'll keep this short and to the point: This blog is not a political venue, a poetry competition, or a place for me to delve into my deepest emotions. It is merely a easy way for those who know me, (and, I suppose, those who don't,) to keep in touch with my daily happenings.

It's Sunday morning, I'm out on the back patio enjoying the morning and thinking of the things I have to do today. I suppose I'm actually putting off the things I have to do, but it's Sunday so that's okay. Sooner or later I'm going to get dressed and start weed-eating the yard. But right now that can wait - there's still coffee in the pot.

On an interesting note, I have a paraplegic frog living in my pond. One of my dogs decided that he was a frog-catcher and brought a big assed frog into the house the other night. I thought it was dead, but it turned out to only be half dead, (the lower half.) Now he's recovering in the Iris. We'll see if he makes it. It's only been two days, but he ain't dead yet. I'll keep you posted.

Ciao