Not Screaming

It is implied, based upon the name of this blog, that I would talk about most anything that bothers me each day. Even to talk about those things that should only be written in a diary kept secure under your pillow. It is obvious that I don't do this as well as the obvious that there is a lot going on in my life to really scream about.

Blogging is actually very scary. It really puts yourself out there for the entire computerized world to potentially see. It also has the potential for people who are close to me to get the wrong idea of why I'm writing certain things. For this reason, I don't write about personal relationships or business relationships.

As stated before I have a lot to scream about (I've lost my job, my house is for sale, and my divorce is winding it's way through the court system). Just looking at the previous sentence makes me scream as well as get a 'woe is me' attitude.

However, I am not feeling miserable about the way things are. I actually feel pretty good and here is why: the job was a crappy job working for a crappy company, the future ex-wife was a crappy wife, (who did 2 really great things in delivering my 2 wonderful kids). I'll miss the house if I have to move, but there will be other places to keep the rain off of my head. I believe I have good marketable skills and will not be out of work for long. I only hope I can find a job so I don't have to sell the house.

But most importantly, I have someone in my life to share everything with, and she is my source of strength (as well as some aggravation, but that goes with the territory) as well as some really good friends and of course my family.

I know all will be well, thus there is no need to scream, nor panic. I've been in worse places, such as drifting onto Rikers Island (NYC Prison in the middle of the East river) without engine nor sail to keep us away with prison guards aiming rifles at us. I didn't panic then either, but there was a certain amount of yelling.

Linked In

The other day, my sister sent me an invite to a site called Linked In. I have to admit that I didn't think too much of the idea at first, but since I've got some extra time on my hands, I tried it out.

Once I set it up, with my information, job history etc., I went in search of other people. I was extremely surprised at the results. I found colleagues from companies past that I am now linked with as well as my first recruiter! I also found my best friend from high school who we've lost contact with each other about 20 years ago! I'm now in touch with other recruiters, collage buddies and old friends.

I have an interview as a result of Linked In in about 40 minutes.

I called my sister a few minutes ago to apologize for the attitude as well as to thank her for the introduction to the site. Thanks again Sis!

Anyway, I'll be putting an icon on this blog shortly so you can all see my profile.

Sleep Study Results

I had an appointment with the ENT Doctor this morning to review the results of the sleep studies that I did. let me recap for a moment: I snore very loudly and it effects not only the way I sleep, but everyone else within a 20 yard radius. So I went to an ENT doctor to see what can be done. Before anything else, I had to do a sleep study. The first sleep study was done, but I didn't sleep enough to do the CPAP test, so I had to go again and wear the masks.

The results are in: I have a mild case of apnea, but not enough to use the CPAP masks effectively. The study shows that I spend about 52% of the time in stages I and II which is light sleep. The bottom line is that I'm not getting enough deep sleep which causes me to be tired, sluggish and forgetful. The Doc says that there is too much stuff in my throat and not enough space for air to pass due to the tonsils and pallet constricting my 'snore box'. When this happens the apnea index is about 7 times an hour which wakes me up.

So we are now down to 2 options: surgery or wearing a mouthpiece every night. The mouthpiece is designed to hold out the lower jaw (kind of like Bill Cower when he gets mad) so there is more room in the 'snore box'.

After some careful consideration keeping in mind that I don't have any pressing engagements at the moment, I decided to take my ex-employees up and actually use the medical benefits I still have until the end of March and do the surgery. (consider this my last act of passive aggression)

I'm getting my tonsils removed and my pallet scraped next Tuesday. I'll be staying one night in the hospital and then I'll be home for recovery, and then it's a liquid diet for the next 7 days.

I am really looking forward to sleeping better and I'm sure everyone else near me is as well.

On pins and Needles

I'm new to this blogging thing, so I haven't yet gotten into a decent rhythm. I also need to work on my writing skills a bit more to present an argument more fully. I have now a greater regard for those who do this daily and for a long while. The point of saying this is that I am not yet to a point that I can apologize for the light posting lately.

I have been distracted by events at work (I know, I shouldn't let a thing like work get in the way of blogging...). Our workforce needs to downsize for various reasons. It is not a well kept secret at all and coupled with the visibility of the CEO, VP of HR and CFO being huddled behind various closed doors, has made the rest of us very worried for our futures. My company also has a problem in that we cannot execute a plan very well. things tend to drag out too long.

All of us are on pins and needles waiting for the ax to drop, and it will soon. Morale is extremely bad and has made everyone very tense. Ive noticed that people are taking different attitudes:

• 'Duck and Cover' -- these people keep there heads down, do what they are told even if they are told to do something they know is stupid.
• 'wtf' -- these people figure since they are sure to get a pink slip, they will make life even more difficult for everyone else by being uncooperative by saying something like '... do it yourself, I have my own job to do'.
• 'Who cares' -- these people think it wouldn't make that much difference if they worked here or not working at all. They feel very put upon already, so being laid off would be a relief. These people spend more time on Monster.com and Dice.com than actually getting their job done.
  
• 'I want to keep my job' -- these people are now, all of a sudden, the model employee, unlike what they were doing previous. They can be seen sucking up to everyone who may have some influence over the decision. (I don't want to speculate how a select few women are behaving)
• 'The Axe? What Axe?' -- These people are too naive or too stupid to know what is going on. fortunately, there aren't too many in this category.

As for me? I'm a combo of 'wtf' and 'who cares' with a judicious use of 'Duck and Cover'.

Update 2/19/2008: Well, Thats a relief. The axe fell today. I wasn't around long enough to find out who else was 're-organized' out of the company. It is just as well. The company is dying a painful death. If it survives the year, I will be shocked. The brands will survive and probably be sold off to various major companies, but the current company will disintegrate.

More on this later. for now, I'm going to do what any self respecting person who is 're-organized' should do: get drunk, get laid and get some well deserved sleep. (perhaps I can get 're-organized' tomorrow as well..heehee)

Pease Please

I saw a bumper sticker today that says 'Peace Please' with the peace symbol in between the two words. I saw another bumper sticker the other day that says 'coexist' written out in religious symbols from each major religion.

I think this is a great sentiment. I share their desire to have world peace. It would be great if we all could 'just get along'.

Id like to meet the owner of the stickers and prove a point. I'll bring along a 'neutral' party (you'll see why in a moment) for this meeting.

here is how this will go:

1. Slap peacenick in the face
2. Referee says to peacenick 'Peace Please'
3. Repeat steps 1-2 for as long as it takes for the peacenick to walk (or run) away
4. Follow Peacenick and continue from step 1
5. Repeat steps 1-4 until peacenick finally asks 'why are you doing this?'
6. Answer: 'Because you are not Muslim, will you convert?'
7. Repeat steps 1-6 until peacenick answers 'yes'

This is exactly what has happened to America. We were getting slapped in the face all throughout to 90's, but we did nothing. We finally hit back to break this cycle and are still at war with those who have hit us. We will stop waging this war when they stop their war against us.

It is these radical-islamofascists who need to coexist with us. from all the evidence at hand, they are unwilling to do so. It is their stated goal to make the entire world Muslim. If you are not a Muslim, you are an enemy of theirs. Unless you are willing to convert, you will never have peace with them nor will you be able to coexist with them.

Their complete intolerance of everything not of their liking, such as those cartoons of Muhammad and the 'outrage' that ensued, makes it very difficult to 'co-exist' with them.

So for those with the bumper stickers, don't tell me about their desire to have peace, go tell it to our enemies. They are the ones responsible for this war and they are the ones who can end it by either surrendering (and coexisting with us) or dying. It is their choice.

As for us, we have a choice as well. We can either surrender (and convert), or fight on.

Update: Since I will NOT convert, I am already a target and an enemy of these radical-islamofascists. I have been waiting for an opportunity to post the following cartoon, and Captain Ed has given me this. Thanks Cap'n!

Rattling the Windows

I went to an Ears/Nose/Throat doctor last week to find out if there is anything that can be done for my neighbors. You see, ever since I moved into my new house, my township has been puzzling over the question of seismic activity in Central New Jersey. I snore. Apparently, I snore loudly.

Tonight, I go to a Sleep therapist to determine if my snoring is life threatening (not to the local wildlife as my township fears). I had to fill out a sleep survey and one of the questions was 'what wakes you up at night?' Knees, elbows and pokes wasn't one of the answers. They'll strap me in to a thousand wires and hopefully they will wear ear plugs (They've done this thousands of times so I'm not too concerned for them).

From this analysis, there may be a host of options. I'll describe these when I know more. The point is that I'm finally going to know if there is a way to stop snoring. My house can't take much more rattling.

Update: Well That sucked! They hooked me up to dozens of wires, each with either glue or tape, and as each went on, I knew that each would have to be pulled off. To top it off, I don't think I slept at all, and it didn't seem that I gave their windows the 'full treatment'. Now I'm very tired with sore patches all over. Now I wait (2-3 weeks) for the results.

Update II: I got the results back the other day. As it turns out, I did sleep for a bit, but not enough to do the CPAP test. So I had to go back. (How embarrassing, a test I've studied for literally all of my life, and I had to re-take the test) So not only did I have to where 2 dozen wires taped to me (OUCH x2), I had to wear a mask that forces air into me. The fun part is opening your mouth because the air pumps from nose to mouth. You can whistle without breathing! ( I think with practice, you can sustain a whistle forever and breath at the same time.)

At first, I used something like this:

Just shove this up your nose and breath against the stream of air while keeping the wires from strangling you. I challenge anyone to sleep under these conditions. I slept for about 2 hours and woke up with such a sore nose, so I had to switch masks for this:

This was way more comfy. I went back to sleep only to wake up gasping for air! My nose clogged up as it always does and breathing through the mouth is difficult with the CPAP. With assistance, I blew my nose, disentangled wires and went back to sleep.

Anyway, I'll get the results of this study in a few weeks. For now, I've got sore spots, residual glue and a lack of sleep. Good Night!

Vote for Me!

Each candidate has a theme, and a strategy to get elected. Speech after speech you'll hear the same things over and over again, but for each candidate, when you strip out all of the gobblygook and similar policies, when you acknowledge that none of them have any executive experiences and all of them are sitting US Senators, it all boils down to the following sentences:

Clinton: Vote for me because I'm a woman.
Obama: Vote for me because I'm black.
McCain: Vote for me because I'm not a democrat (really, I'm not .... trust me)

I feel sorry for ....

I'm feeling sorry for Democratic black women in America during this election cycle. They have a very pleasant, but difficult choice to make during this primary season. They can vote for:

1. An African-American
2. A Woman
   

I am a white male, so I won't presume to offer any advise, but it seems to me the decision should be:

3. The most qualified to be President


I'm not suggesting that they should select a Republican(even though it's in their best interest to do so). I'm suggesting that all people should evaluate what the person is and does, not if the person has tits or is darker then the rest of us.

After all, who said that we should 'not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character'? oh yeah... Martin Luther King Jr.

I'm not saying.... just saying.

Miami Dolphins win!

I went to the local bar to watch the game, and needless to say, it was crowded. There were 4 types of Football watchers last night (keep in mind that I live in NJ where the Giants play):

• Giant Fans (60%)
  
• Patriots Fans (5%)
  
• General football fans -- those that don't have a horse in the race but wanted to watch the game (10%)
  
• Dolphin Fans -- those who were rooting against the Patriots to preserve the Dolphins Perfect Season exclusivity (25%)

These poor Dolphin fans didn't have much to cheer about this season, so there was a lot of pent up excitement for the Patriots Loss. They were almost as vocal as the Giant Fans.

What a Game!!!

The NY Giants win the Superbowl! Most people believed this was almost impossible, highly improbable at the least.

NE Patriots had a phenomenal season and looked invincible. They are a tremendous team, one of the best I've ever seen, and Tom Brady (when not spouting inane politics) is among the quarterback greats. During their season, however, there were times when being great wasn't good enough; they needed the other team to screw up so they could win. Philadelphia and Baltimore showed everyone how to play and beat the Pats, but they both gave up bad penalties late in the game to allow Brady to do his thing. These teams lost the game, as opposed to the Pats winning the game.

Even the Giants played the Pats well in week 17, but came up just short.

as for the Giants, something happened to Eli Manning during Week 16 playing Washington. He went from a tier 2 quarterback (at best) to a tier 1 QB, but no one recognized this. He played the Pats virtually mistake free and almost won the game. TB wasn't a real problem for the Giants. Next up was Dallas. No one thought they could beat Dallas, but they did. No one thought they could beat Green Bay, but they did. And still, most people didn't give the G-Men their due.

Nobody thought the Giants could beat the Pats. Last night, Tom Brady got knocked around more than the entire season combined. The Giant defense played extremely well and kept Randy Moss out of the game. They put pressure on Brady that he couldn't find a rhythm, thus he had to rely on the short pass to Welker the entire night. That play to Welker was run about a dozen times, and still the Giants couldn't defend against it. But, you can't win a game with this one play.

This game was among the best games I have ever seen. It was even better than the Giants vs. Bills Superbowl XXV when the Giants won in the last minutes with a Matt Bahr Field goal, and then a Scott Norwood Miss from 47 yards with 4 seconds left. The reason: The Bills lost that game. Last night, the Giants Won because they outplayed the Pats.


What a game!