Friday, February 29, 2008

The World is Teasing Me?

So I've had the house on the market since the beginning of August. For the first five months, I had three showings. For those that don't know, that's beyond bad. Four a week is the norm.

With the market the way it is, I now have it listed for $11,000 LESS than what I paid for it six years ago. For those that don't know, that's beyond bad. Average amount of equity in a house after six years is 25%. I'm clocking in around 8%.

Since I lowered the price, the amount of showings have increased to 4-5 a week. Which is fantastic. It's almost been two months at this price, with a good 40 people having trucked through it. Had only one offer for $30,000 less than what I was asking. I instructed my my realtor to counter offer $5,000 more than the listed price. For those that don't know, this counter offer was effectively "the bird" of counter-offers.

So I've been on the market for jobs since October. I've been steadily getting calls. About three or four a week, asking for my resume, seeing what I'm into, etc... I've only had one interview.

As near as I can tell, the vast majority of the jobs that I've applied for have never been filled. The postings show closed, but my people on the inside tell me that they never even had interviews, the position just vaporized. I've never seen anything like this happen on this scale before in the 20 years I've been employed. Things look beyond bad out there.

So all these showings, all these phone calls... it's like the world is teasing me. My money is only going to last another month... WTF?

Thursday, February 21, 2008

The weekend

I had an interesting weekend. On Friday I was asked to run sound for a band that the president of my former company plays in. This meant that I would be running into a ton of folks from my former company which could have been rather awkward.

It wasn't. I don't think I've been hugged by as many different people as I was that night. The first words out of the CEO/President’s mouth were "It's really good to see you Poobis."

Drinks and dinner were free, and the times were good.

Then my former supervisor decides to show up. I caught him walking through the door, and he bee-lined to the other side of the bar. This was fine by me. I resumed my evening.

For some strange reason when a band comes back from break to start the second set, they always sing and play louder. It's a trick to pump up the vocals a bit in the monitors so that the performers think they're singing louder, but the sound hitting the audience is still properly mixed. I was in the midst of trying to pull this off when my former supervisor decides to sit down next to me.

He stuck out his hand, and I reflexively shook it. He asked if he could buy me a drink, I just showed him my full beer. He asked how I was doing. I responded, "great."

I was making it pretty obvious that I didn't want to talk to him.

So he cuts right to the chase. "I thought I'd come over here to see if you'd like to catch lunch or a beer some time."

"Why would you want to do that?" I asked.

"I miss you. We were good friends. We had some really good times together."

"Then you shouldn't have lied about me."

"We can talk about that over lunch if you like." He responded.

"Unless you've come to offer a very heartfelt and very public apology for how you misrepresented me to everyone who'd listen to you at [the company] then I can't imagine what the hell we'd have to talk about." My barely contained anger is not so contained at this point.

"I know it didn't happen that way." He says.

I half cut him off. "No matter how many times you tell yourself that over and over again it still won't be how it really happened."

He said, "ok" and went back to the bar for ten minutes and left.

What's really funny about all of this: At the former company, just about everyone there has figured him out. He's become a running joke in the entire department. I've been hearing varying reports about what he's been telling people that I said to him. Quite a few of them have already compared notes, and it's not been the same story twice.

After that the night only got better. I'm not generally a mean person, but I really questioned that after deriving satisfation from the dejected look on his face... but then again, I don't think I've ever been flat-out lied about like that by anyone.

So then it was on to Detroit for the Dirtbombs show at the Magic Stick.

The Magic Stick has to be the best smaller venue I've ever been to. It's what the Newport should be.

On the first floor: Bowling alley, bar, and a hole cut in the wall to allow access to the pizza by the slice joint next door.

On the second floor: a full high-school gym sized room with two bars, eight to ten pool tables, and a nice sized stage.

The fact that it's the Dirtbombs home turf makes it just that much better.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Techie Rant

Sorry for the mini-hiatus there. I had to reload everything on my laptop which took two days. I upgraded from Windows Vista back to Windows XP. Yeah, I meant upgraded.

I really don't have enough bad things to say about Vista. I can barely come up with one redeeming quality or any single feature that is remotely worth buying it for. The fact that I only had the choice of paying 1/3 of the price of this ThinkPad on Vista Home or Vista Ultimate when I bought it makes me even more bitter. The software isn't even worth pirating.

I ran it for 5 months. It's not like I didn't try to make it work. It's just that bad. I'd try to unzip a file, explorer would crash. I'd be copying files from one drive to another... crash. I've never had so many freeze ups and major program crashes in all the years of my dealing with computers. As a matter of fact, I can't recall the last time "explorer.exe" crashed, in 95, 98, 2000, or XP.

Sorry for the techie rant... It cost me two days worth of job hunting to get a useable computer again.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Today's History Lesson

So this is the "grand return" of Emails From Grandma. I don't think I could have picked a longer one. All of my comments are featured in green.
Enjoy!
-Poobis
------------
Fw: Fw: Today's History Lesson
From: [Grandma]
Sent: Tue 12/04/07 1:07 PM
To: [A bunch of folks]

[Ridiculously long forwarded header information deleted]

Subject: Fw: Today's History Lesson



DID YOU KNOW?

As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view .. it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

Did you notice that Moses is also flanked by Confucius and Solon? (FYI - Not Christians.)

Herman A. MacNeil's pediment carvings have stirred controversy because the central figures were drawn from religious traditions. However, in the 1930s, the Supreme Court Building Commission did not question the wisdom of placing Moses, Confucius, and Solon on a secular government building. Rather, they trusted in the architect, who deferred to the artistry of the sculptor, Herman A. MacNeil.
http://architecture.about.com/library/blgilbertsupremecourt.htm


DID YOU KNOW?

As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.


There are lots of representations of religious and historical events etched, stamped, and carved all over the US Supreme Court Building.

One can enter the building through the opened bronze doors of the west front, each of which weighs six and one-half tons and slides into a wall recess when open. The door panels, sculpted by John Donnelly, Jr., depict historic scenes in the development of law: the trial scene from the shield of Achilles, as described in the Iliad; a Roman praetor publishingan edict; Julian and a pupil; Justinian publishing the Corpus Juris; King John sealing the Magna Carta; the Chancellor publishing the first Statute of Westminster; Lord Coke barring King James from sitting as a Judge; and Chief Justice Marshall and Justice Story.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/courtbuilding.pdf



DID YOU KNOW?

As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!

Did you notice that Moses isn't the only thing carved in the courtroom?

Overhead, along all four sides of the Chamber, are sculpted marble panels, the work of Adolph A. Weinman:

-Directly above the Bench are two central figures, depicting Majesty of the Law and Power of Government. The group at the far left represents Safeguard of the Rights of the People, and Genii of Wisdom and Statecraft. The far right group represents the Defense of Human Rights. -To the right is a procession of historical lawgivers including: Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius and Augustus. They are flanked by figures symbolizing Fame and History. -To the left are later historical lawgivers including Napoleon, John Marshall, William Blackstone, Hugo Grotius, Saint Louis, King John, Charlemagne, Mohammed and Justinian. Figures representing Liberty and Peace and Philosophy appear at either end. -Symbolized on the back wall frieze is Justice with the winged female figure of Divine Inspiration, flanked by Wisdom and Truth. At the far left the Powers of Good are shown, representing Security, Harmony, Peace, Charity, and Defense of Virtue. At the far right the Powers of Evil are represented by Corruption, Slander, Deceit, and Despotic Power.

http://www.usscplus.com/info/building.htm


DID YOU KNOW?


There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington , D.C.

Yep along with myrads of other quotes as well I'm sure.



DID YOU KNOW?
James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement:

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.-- James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822.

http://atheism.about.com/library/quotes/bl_q_JMadison.htm

DID YOU KNOW?

Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said:

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

If you can't find direct evidence to misrepresent the Founding Fathers' intentions. Why not just invent it?

Misquotations [of Patrick Henry]:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!" -- This quotation has not been found anywhere in Henry's recorded writings or speeches, as has been acknowledged by David Barton.

http://www.geocities.com/peterroberts.geo/Relig-Politics/PHenry.html


DID YOU KNOW?

Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

None other than famed "proponent of the merger of Church and State" James Madison thought this was unconstitutional.

Lynn noted that Congress has had paid chaplains since 1789 but pointed out that James Madison, fourth president of the United States and father of the Constitution, opposed them.

"The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion," Madison wrote. "The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious worship for the national representatives, to be performed by Ministers of religion, elected by a majority of them; and these are to be paid out of the national taxes. Does not this involve the principle of a national establishment, applicable to a provision for a religious worship for the Constituent as well as of the representative Body, approved by the majority, and conducted by Ministers of religion paid by the entire nation?"

Continued Madison, "[If] it be proper that public functionaries, as well as their Constituents should discharge their religious duties, let them like their Constituents, do so at their own expense."

http://web.archive.org/web/20030425233838/http://www.au.org/field/actionalerts/congressionalchaplains.htm


DID YOU KNOW?

Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies


How many people do you know that say they're Christian but don't go to church?

"Although it had its share of strenuous Christians... the gathering at Philadelphia was largely made up of men in whom the old fires were under control or had even flickered out. Most were nominally members of one of the traditional churches in their part of the country.. and most were men who could take their religion or leave it alone. Although no one in this sober gathering would have dreamed of invoking the Goddess of Reason, neither would anyone have dared to proclaim his opinions had the support of the God of Abraham and Paul. The Convention of 1787 was highly rationalist and even secular in spirit." (Clinton Rossiter, 1787; The Grand Convention, pp. 147-148.)

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/bjcpa1.htm


DID YOU KNOW?



Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would over step their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law an oligarchy the rule of few over many.

Yep, he was worried about the courts usurping power over congress, but it had absolutely nothing to do with his disapproval of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

http://www.landmarkcases.org/marbury/jefferson.html


DID YOU KNOW?


The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said: "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."


Yep, he sure did say that. Unfortunately, that man didn't consider my Grandma a Christian.

In New York, Jay argued unsuccessfully in the provincial convention for a
prohibition against
Catholics holding office.[20]In February 1788, the New York legislature under Jay's guidance approved an act requiring officeholders to renounce all foreign authorities "in all matters ecclesiastical as well as civil", an "anti-Catholic" act designed to bar Catholics from holding public offices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay


How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?

Lets put it around the world and let the world see and remember what this great country was built on.


Chamber , US House of Representatives


I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't. Now it is your turn...



It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or "In God We Trust" on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!

If you agree, pass this on

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Resurrections

To keep the pipes from freezing, and the people viewing the house from being able to see their breath, the temperature at my Beigeburbian estate is currently set at 45 degrees.


That just happens to be the optimum temperature for brewing a fine German lager.


A brew, not unlike Yeungling, is currently percolating in the chilly confines of the basement in the now dormant Beigeburbia.

Been a long while...

I killed the Ego Center nearly two years ago.

The old Ego Center computer has been reallocated to the recording studio and all the archives are backed up in triplicate for posterity. I decided that despite the reduced control and functionality, blogspot was a whole lot more reliable than my old AMD machine/Road Runner combo.

Many have asked why I killed the old blog. I blame the abandonment of Keynesan economics for the rediculous Supply-side economic theory... or maybe I was just busy as hell and couldn't be bothered with telling the whole world about it.

Well at that particular time, work became a nightmare. As the number of hours that I spent working rose, the amount of recognition for the work dropped considerably. I had recieved a barely inflationary raise for an average of 55 hours a week. I hadn't realized that when my coworker and I were working 36 hour weekends, he was getting most of the credit.

When that co-worker became my boss about eight months later it all became a little clearer.

Almost as soon as he accomplished this, he went on a long, drawn out disinformation and out-and-out slander campaign against me. He played it off by being visibly worried and concerned about "what to do about Poobis." He'd pull anyone who'd listen to him aside and make up something that I did wrong and ask advice. He pulled people in by feigning trust, and spread a feedback-loop set of lies around to key powers in the office.

In the end when he went to HR, the only version of the truth that was told was his. I wasn't even offered a rebuttal.

What was this guy's motivation you ask? I threatened him.

Not physically, or violently of course. He knew I was the only one who wasn't intimidated by him. Even his boss is bullied by him. Which I find sadly humorous.

So my meeting with HR was four months ago and i still haven't been able to retrieve all of my personal property from this guy.

I'm not bitter.

Acutally this little vacation has been quite nice. I haven't had this much time off since I was four years old.

Blame it on Andy

It is no coincedence that on the eve of Broin Down IX - FeBROary, the blog has made an unexpected return.

Blame it on Mr. Nap Daddy.

We'll see where this goes.