Bad English

The managers at work are so inept it's legendary. Yesterday they gave us a script that wasn't even correct English. Instead of "how may I direct your call?," I was told to say "May I direct your call?" This was by the sales mgr., who is in so over her head that she drowned two months ago and doesn't know enough to shut up and die already.

May I direct your call?

Yes.

Now what? I don't know where to direct it. It's moronic. I said, "that's not correct English," and refused to say it. One of the other mgrs. told me that it was fine to say "how my I correct your call." Thanks for letting me speak my native language. I am an English teacher!

Morons! I'm surrounded my clueless tools!

same as it ever was...

(left: bad ass muther f@+ker, mixing both spring and autumn colors!)

Time goes by. I still feel like a fish with feet trying to swim through the ocean. 



It's cool that I'm adaptable, but where do I fit?

No worries. I'll figure it out.

But that's how this particular blog began. So thanks for reading. 

Return of The Polar Vortex

SO BLOODY COLD!

Rush Limbaugh says it's a liberal media creation.

1. The media is mostly conservative.
2. Limbaugh is big and fat. Of course he doesn't belive it because he is too insulated too be cold!

Ive been waiting here for so long
And all this time has passed me by
It doesn't seem to matter now
-Genesis

Yet another day below freezing.

40F seems like a heat wave. 

Work is boring and chipping away at my soul. 

People keep offering me all comission jobs selling insurance. I'd rather become a prostitute.

But everything else is aces!

Turn the Page

Call out
Your name
Call out
Insane
-U2

Okay. I think I have turned the page (or at least the first chapter) of my grief at having lost Ellen the way we did. My heart breaks for her in those last days/hours/minutes, but I choose to remember her the same way that Mel, Mum, Kev do; giggling and laughing. 

So this one's for Ellen. I remember playing U2's Under a Blood Red Sky for her and she had never heard it before. She went on to be a huge U2 fan. I can remember us singing our faces off. Fucking hell Ellen, the world is a truly lesser place for not having you in it. 


Link: 11 O' Clock Tick Tock - U2 Live at Red Rocks

Rebound

Trying to rebound from the loss of my friend and how she went, but obviously that's going to take a while. 

Her poor family. I can't even imagine.

The Verrazano-Narrows is 692 feet. Thanks to vast nature of the Internet, I was able discover that a fall of 3x your height will kill you 50% of the time. That means that 32 feet would probably be enough to kill almost anyone under six foot, or taller. 

So 692 is more than enough. That would be at least 15 stories. If she survived the fall, she most likely died on impact. 

And what does her husband tell her kids?

*

In happier news, Kevin, Pat and I went to go see this band to do Darkside of the Moon in it's entirety. It was an amazing show. And it was good to be with old college friends after a week like this.

Through the Wire

And through the wire 
we will walk
-Peter Gabriel

Today, I found out that a friend that I had known for 30 years, committed suicide by jumping from the Verrazano Bridge last week. She had a husband and 3 kids.  It's enough to boggle the mind. 

She was a beautiful person, inside and out. She was a beacon of light and the first true female friend I had ever had, romance completely excluded. We cracked each other up. 

Good-bye, old friend. I don't know why you did this. I can only assume you saw no other way out. The world has lost something by losing you.

I will always love you and cherish your memory. 

another day

So, life goes on. It snows, and I trade one day off at work for another to make it up. 

It all comes around. I just shoveled a bit, even though it's late. I am not a morning person, given a choice. Plus, I like being out when it's actually snowing.

blame it on the black star
-Radiohead

Super Bowl, Here We Come!

SEA is in vs DEN. A former AFC WEST showdown! Bring it on!

Championship Sunday

NE at DEN followed by SF at SEA. Will the Seahawks get to their second Super Bowl?

In the beginning of the year, I predicted SEA over DEN in the Superbowl. It's to late to change now.

Does SF scare me? Hell yes. But I am going to bank that The Link continues to be a house  of horrors for  Kaepernick. He's had his worst two games there. Why not three?

Change

Some days, it's all I can do to get up and go to a mind numbingly boring, underpaying job.

But I go. 

I am looking forward to a change. What it will be or when it will happen, I do not know. 

But it's coming. I can feel it.

Off to work. D'oh!

Boom Town

What have we done? Maggie, what have we done? - Pink Floyd

Minot, North Dakota.

In May 2013, I interviewed for an ESL job in Minot, ND. 

After doing some research about the "Kuwait on the Prarie," I withdrew my name from consideration because it sounded like hell on earth. If I wanted hell on earth, I would have stayed in Spain.

Here's a great NY Times article; ND Oil Boom

Fracking or hydraulic fracturingnounthe forcing open of fissures in subterranean rocks by introducing liquid at high pressure, esp. to extract oil or gas.  (from the American Oxford Dictionary)

Fracking: The Dangers

(from Cleanwateraction.org)

Fracking uses a toxic chemical cocktail known as fracking fluid.

• Companies using fracking fluid have resisted disclosing the contents of fracking fluid, claiming the information is proprietary. However, samples from well sites indicate that the fluid contains: formaldehyde, acetic acids, citric acids, and boric acids, among hundreds of other contaminants.
• It has recently come to light that, despite the illegality of the action, companies have been caught using diesel fuel in the fracking fluid.

Fracking removes millions of gallons of precious freshwater from the water cycle.

• Each well uses between two and five million gallons of locally-sourced freshwater which will be permanently contaminated by ground contaminants and toxic chemicals contained in the fracking fluid.
• About half of this water returns to the surface, where it is stored in steel containers until it can be injected deep underground in oil and gas waste wells.
• No one is entirely sure what happens to the other half of the water used in the process. Our best guess is that the water remains underground, though there are indications that at least some of this toxic cocktail makes its way back into the water supply.

Fracking causes a range of environmental problems.

• At least eight other states have reported surface, ground, and drinking water contamination due to fracking.
• In Pennsylvania, over 1,400 environmental violations have been attributed to deep gas wells utilizing fracking practices.
• Pollution from truck traffic, chemical contamination around storage tanks, and habitat fragmentation and damage from drilling to environmentally sensitive areas have are all related to fracking.

Also; (from Alternet.org)

Those who live along train routes aren't the only ones facing safety risks from the oil and gas industry. NPR reports that accidents among workers in the industry are on the rise—bigtime. From 2009 to 2012 the industry added 23 percent more workers but “the hiring spree has come with a terrible price: Last year, 138 workers were killed on the job — an increase of more than 100 percent since 2009,” wrote Andrew Schneider and Marilyn Geewax for NPR . “In fact, the fatality rate among oil and gas workers is now nearly eight times higher than the all-industry rate of  3.2 deaths for every 100,000 workers.”

 Not So Good for Your Health

Findings presented at a recent meeting of the American Economic Association by researchers from Princeton University, Columbia University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made headlines. The researchers “looked at Pennsylvania birth records from 2004 to 2011 to assess the health of infants born within a 2.5-kilometer radius of natural-gas fracking sites,” reports Mark Whitehouse for Bloomberg.

They found that proximity to fracking increased the likelihood of low birth weight by more than half, from about 5.6 percent to more than 9 percent,” writes Whitehouse. “The chances of a low Apgar score, a summary measure of the health of newborn children, roughly doubled, to more than 5 percent.”

It really does seem like hell.

We got a thousand points of light

For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world
-Neil Young

Xmas is Over

Putting up the tree is fun, but taking it down means Xmas is over, and that feels good too.

It means, another year gone and a new one beginning. I survived another holiday season. Cheers to me!

God bless us, every one. 

And thanks to all of you who are crazy enough to read this every day.

The Day After

Marshawn Lynch runs for his 2nd TD of the game.

SF and CAR play at 1pm for the right to meet SEA in the NFC Championship game. I will be pulling for CAR, as they are less experienced and they have a 2, 279 mile flight to Seattle.

I don't think any remaining AFC team can beat Any of the three remaining NFC teams. None of the AFC teams run the ball consistently, nor do they play good defense. 

A Rod Sucks

Cheater, liar and all-around d-bag, A Rod, has his suspension upheld by MLB. Pete Rose breathes a sigh of relief as A Rod takes his place as the most disgraced baseball player of all time.

Telegram

To the New Orleans Saints: You are our bitches - stop - You will never win in Seattle - stop - Blow up your dome and play outside like real men - stop.

NFC Championship, here we come!

Chris Christie and Bridgegate

In all seriousness, who the fuck would name their kid Christopher James Christie? You have to have the imagination of a goldfish to do that. Or you got knocked up by accident and hate the kid before he's even born.

Actually, theory 2 might explain why he's such a bully. 

Well, he can say adios to his 2016 presidential bid. Even if he gets the nomination (remember, the GOP did actually give the nomination to Romney) he'll never win the election. I doubt CC would have gotten it, but certainly not after this.

Imagine; 

PRESIDENT CHRISTIE: The president of India made a joke about how much currie I ate. We are at DEFCON 1. Nuke them!

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: But sir, is this really a reason to go to war? Nuclear war?

PRESIDENT CHRISTIE: Don't make me go all Bon Jovi on your ass. Just do it!

I have three scenarios where I go over Niagara Falls in barrel. Chris Christie becoming president is one of them.

Another Tricky Day

It's just another tricky day for you, fella
-The Who

Bloody hell! Working the night shift is messing me up. By the time I adjust, I'll be back to the morning on Friday. 

But it is a means to end.



The End = "Bite my shiny metal ass, I quit."

THURSDAY

So many things to do! Pay bills, get flu shot (finally), call about info to get my teaching accredidation, dig up that body I buried before they start construction on said site in Feb., and then work the night shift. Oh, yeah - and buy some new socks.

PS. Chris Christie, YOU SUCK!

Like Old Times

                                                                                                                   CHEERS!

To ATT Uverse for getting BeIn Sports so that I can watch Spanish Football. For the past 18 months I have not been able to watch Atletico Madrid because so many (ignorant) Americans want to boycott Al Jazeera (who owns BeIn) because they link it with Al Quaeda. Al Jazeera is a legitimate news source. They also show sports, which is how I watched football the weekend I was in Morocco. 

JEERS!

To Rush Limbaugh for saying that the polar vortex is a liberal media fabrication. This is a man who debunks evolution for creationism. 

My response to Limbaugh is this;

A) I am miniscule part of the liberal media. But overall, we are very few. Limbaugh has 3x any other talk show's rating, which means the USA is ignorant in jaw droppingly proportions.

B) RUSH is one of the best bands in the world and he is not worthy of the name. 

C) Suck my Limballs. 

Night Shift

Back on the night shift for the next 3 days. I loathe the night shift. Actually, I hate my job in general. 

But the good news is that I interviewed for a job as a server in a restaurant that is opening down the street in Ansonia yesterday. I'll find out more next week but the interview went well. 

TMI

I was on the phone with a women the other day who was concerned about using a lot of chemicals in our tubs. I told her that ours used minimal chemicals and that you could also choose an ozonator. She told me she also had to be careful of the PH in her tub due to "parts of her female anatomy." 

The day I quit can't come soon enough.

The most wonderful time of the year, part I

℉

Marshawn Lynch goes  67 yards against the Saints in 2011 in the Wild Card round. 

KC blew a 28 point lead to Indy. Unreal! I picked KC. 

NO is leading PHI 13 - 7 in the 3rd. I picked Philly but hope NO wins so that the Seahawks play them (and not division rival, SF next week.)

The 1st game was very entertaining. This second one is a snore.

NO just went up 20 - 7. 
- - - 
Also - it's so cold. It was 0℉ when I went to work this morning. Last night it was -9℉ with the wind chill. Tonight it is a balmy 10℉. Lovely. It will be 42℉ mañana, a veritable heat wave. Maybe I'll go kayaking on Lake Zoar. Then again, I guess it will still be frozen.

After Further Inspection...

After further review:

1. Snow sucks. Go Away. No one around here likes you!
2. My job at Hubba Hubba Hot Tubs will lull me into a coma if I do not leave soon.
3. It's so cold I wore my fuzzy pajamas over my jeans to shovel. I am a fashion paper plate.
4. If the Winter Olympics happen in Sochi, Russia, does anyone else but Russia watch it (especially on a 7 hour time delay?)
5. The three year movement by the right in the US to further restrict abortion = batshit crazy.

NOR' EASTER

Another nor' easter. It's sad when weather has more significant events in the course of a year than i do. 

Headed out of work today at 6pm. Who knows if i'll get to work mañana at 11am. Who cares? Not me. 

It's 4F. That's -15C! That is insanely cold. The wind is howling. With the windchill it's like -9F or -23C!

I found these poor guys in the driveway.