Anyway, a guy pulls in next to me, a young and fairly well dressed guy, he's got on a suit, I have on jeans and a polo. He jumps out of his Acura. I jump out of my Kia Spectra. I guess that he's probably one of our sales guys, and sure enough he hits the 4 on the elevator, I hit 3, yep, he's one of ours. He's talking to someone on his phone in the elevator talking about taking "the new guy" out on a run this afternoon.

So I'm leaving to get a Chipotle Burrito, as I often do on days that I get to eat out without the fam (the wifey no likey the Chipotle), and who jumps in the elevator with me, but the suit and the noob. He's sounding more like the guy who likes to hear himself talk and is very self-centered, but hey...that's sales. He's talking about dressing for sucess and how you can always tell how much people make by the car they drive or the clothes they wear, etc... I almost break in at this point with a note about that's the difference between sales people/buyers and the rest of us, but I hold my tongue, he's shaping this kid into a powerhouse sales person and I want my bonus to be big because of people like this. So we get to our cars, his being across the row and two up from me, and I hear "hey, buddy". I can't imagine anyone is talking to me, but I look around....yup, they're strolling towards me. Maybe it was the fact that I looked at how I was dressed when he was talking it up, maybe it's because I smirked and had that "wow, what bullshit" look on my face, but yep, here they come. This is really vivid in my mind, because it made me laugh all the way to Chipotle....

Conversation:
Suit: "Hey, if you don't mind me asking you something real quick, how much do you make a year?"
Me: "Me?"
Suit: "Yeah, just wondering you don't have to answer...it's okay"
Noob: Smiles in an awkward way, wondering what the hell he got himself into working at VZW and riding with this guy
Me: "No, it's fine... hey, do you work for Verizon Wireless?"
Suit: "Yeah, I do, I'm BlahBlahBlah Sales Coordinator for somethingorother, blahblahblah" extends hand
Me: "Norb Angell, Senior Engineer, Digit Translations, Midwest Area and you know I can't talk about what I make, but let me ask you. How much do you make and I'll tell you if I make more."
Suit: "Okay, well I was top seller for 7 months last year, so you know, I make more than most, it's XXXXX"
Me: "Well, I hate to tell you, but I'm a C band and I have you beat by better than 30k, but then again, that's with STI and LTI included last year"
Noob: Suddenly wondering if he should have been an engineer instead of in sales, chuckles, then coughs and stops himself, jumps into the Acura
Suit: "Oh, okay, I didn't know we had Area employees in this office, sorry to bother you."

See, I don't actively seek out pissing contests. I know some I'd win, some I'd get blown away, so why worry...your salary does not effect me, nor does your car, your house, your family....nothing. I hate having to hack people off by telling them that I make more, nor do I like someone bragging to me how much more they make. I'm happy with my life, my family, my car...all of it.

Never start a fight if you're afraid of losing...

Let me set it up for you.
I'm in Oak Park Mall.
There are a few boobjob soccer moms hanging out and gabbing.
The rugrats are running wild in the mall.
Two mexican guys walk past the moms and then past me as I head towards the bleach blonde rejects from Desperate Housewives...

One woman turns to the other and says:
"I don't know where all these mexicans are coming from."
The other, matter of factly turns and says:
"Well, you know, there are a lot of Mexicans in Dodge City, I'll bet that's why they come to Kansas."

So there is it ladies and gentlemen, the entryway from Mexico to the rest of the midwest is through Dodge City. I propose that instead of putting up fences along the border, we wall up Dodge City and start taking names and ID cards, because Lord knows the mexicans must have tunneled under Texas and Oklahoma, magically emerging in Southwest Kansas. After a few weeks surely the mexicans will go home and stop "bothering" us by taking our shit jobs and trying to find a better life. I mean, I know that the folks there in Dodge City must be greatful to lose a few mexicans this way every once in a while... I mean, from this lady's demeanor, they must just be overrun with the blighters. Surely to her knowledge Dodge City is some sort of Mecca to them. They make a pilgrimage of sorts and just get stuck in the midwest, dispersing from there?

A couple of facts:
There are over 100 buildings on the Virginia Tech campus map.
Giving over the administrative and sports facilities, around 70 of those buildings would be ripe targets any school day.
Blacksburg is about 38 miles southwest of Roanoke (not a huge city, but the largest/closest city).

Given this information and some edumacated guesses about the police force in and around the surrounding area, I'm guessing they could have mobilized maybe 200 officers at any one time, and it would take a little over an hour to do so, in the face of an issue such as this. If that's the case, that's a little under 3 policemen for each building. Not nearly enough to cover all the entrances and exits to every building. Also, they sent an email out around 10 am, and most students would either be in class, or on the way to and from class, not necessarily checking email. The administration DID shut down the classrooms and bar the doors, at around the same time the assault on the second site was taking place. Personally, the first shooting would have just been a singular incident to me. Unless the guy ran away from the first shooting saying, I'm going to kill all these people in X hall. How would they have had any indication that the second part of the attack was taking place, and even knowing that he may strike again, I think they did what they could, under the circumstances. The had NO clue where to find him, and were running under the assumption the gunman was leaving the campus. After making an irrational mistake like blowing the girlfriend and RA away...would you expect a shooting rampage? Most shooting rampages in the past at schools were planned, there were indicators prior to, etc...

Here's the thing folks. Any person could take a gun, bring it to school, and start shooting. Period. Death toll would be high. Period. Unless you took the steps to have metal detectors on every door and a guard to check each one of those metal detectors, there is no possible way to stop this kind of thing from happening. That is so cost prohibitive. Now you could simply gate up, and ivory tower every single campus and basically make them inaccessible to the public and search everyone coming in and out. But even then, if someone wants to get through...they will.

I just can't believe the media in this situation, they always focus on the controversial, but now it's getting to the point that they're putting the doubt into people's minds about the capability of the campus administrations and that's horrible, there is only so much security force that can be put into place until your campus becomes a military state.

I'll grant that I don't freak so much as to have them pull the plane over and let me off, but I really do have to come to grips with my mortality and resign myself to dying pretty much each time. I'm not sure why I'm spouting this, I'm just saying, "Flying really really sucks".

It's all about the "Death of the DVD". Automagically I think, oh, well they probably mean DL videos from actual pay sites or that new AT&T system or computer hooked to your fat TV, or the fact that BluRay and HDDVD are coming out, etc... Well, it was about pay systems where you can DL the movies to your PC. Half-ass interesting news story, but really about 2-3 years late, as some of the more mainstream DL sites have been around in some form or another for at least that long.

This is what gets me...the idiot person who wrote the copy and then the talking head that spewed that copy said, "the question remains, why would people want to download movies to their computer when they could pay just a little more for a DVD to play on their TV in their living room." What the hell? Are people that technologically retarded? The fat DLP TV that sits near me, or my parent's LCD TV are all very BIG computer monitors. It'd be easy to pipe the picture and audio out of my Desktop/Laptop onto that monster screen. Why is it that people don't understand that? In fact, their TiVO? It's a hard disk that records just like your PC would. In fact, I know a lot of people that have their PCs already acting as their DVR boxes.

Seriously, I thought this shit was mainstream by now, but then again, I gotta remember that average joe sixpack has no clue or want to touch a computer most of the time. Their kids will set their shit straight I guess.

Seriously, I'm not the kind of person that goes around and gives out a Nyah Nyah when one of my teams wins, so why in the hell do I get it from others? It's just mean spirited....and it's not like I had a bet with them to warrant some sort of evil email bright and early monday morning!

Even my old boss Mr. Magoo gave me crap this morning, but at least he commented that was the largest snorefest he's ever watched and both teams are either really evenly matched and are good this year, or it's going to be a damned long year for us both.

WHO IN THE FUCK SHITS ON A TOILET SEAT?

So someone, some neanderthal went and SHIT on the toilet seat in our bathroom.
I'm not sure if it's like a warning from the Janitor's Local 328 to Pedro for some slight against their organization or if someone waited too long to release their bran muffin and coffee, but damn....

At least clean that stuff up so Pedro doesn't have to touch your shit, or so none of your fellow workers have to see that.

So the newest thought that may or may not hit the leg. is Nix the Baggy Pants. That's right, fo' real, the man is gonna tell you sumfin bout' yo baggy pants. Straight up trippin' from the old white folk....oh wait....you know what? It's not an old white guy stirring it up this time, it's actually DISD Trustee Ron Price, a black man on a mission to have the youth show respect for themselves and others by basically stopping the public "flashing" their doing. He says he's not concerned about the bagginess, but the basic asscrackery that he's seen too much of lately.

This one I can believe in, but I gotta ask where will it end? Are we going to tell 13 year old girls to stop dressing like French whores? Oh....okay, maybe it's not so bad.

With that being said, I think there is one man that truly is a GOOD Politician. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Throughout all the adversity and strife in the area, he has stuck around. Like the people that just don't know when to quit and move to a safer area, or hell, even leave when their houses and apartments are under 10 feet of water, he has stuck around (or did he run away at first?). When the people cried out that it was a travesty that someone couldn't help them fast enough, and that the hand outs weren't enough...he cried just as loud. Rather than naysaying his people and telling them that everything will be all better and giving them hope of help from the outside, he has continually trash talked the government and agreed with his people that the "man" is out to get him and that nobody cares about New Orleans. So, for his undying strength and conviction in what his people believe in and sticking around when other people would have...oh, I dunno, relocated for the safety of their families. I salute you, mayor Ray Nagin!!!

(Disclaimer: I'll grant that I'm not in the situation, don't know how I would have reacted, whether to move out or rebuild, but God knows, I'd have dealt with life as it came at me, and not made stupid statements on television like this ass did, nor fully expected that the government should support me for a year while I tried to rebuild in an area that no longer has stable infrastructure. If you can't obviously rebuild your life there? Move...welcome to America, land of opportunity, as long as you are willing to do anything for your family, even....gasp....work a shitty job or two to get by!)

You know, the list of issues with the government is so long that it's hard to nail down a set number of reasons why our system of government moves so slowly. The current beef I have is really with people more than our system of government, but it rolls along with the question: why do idiots have the right to try and block certain injuctions on a local level when really it's federal law?...let me explain.

Illegal Aliens are well....illegally in our country. Secretly, we all like the security screeners and the strip searches at the airport because of the false sense of security we get. And even though I hate it and think it's bad to bias against past terrorists' races and creeds, racial profiling can be a necessary evil. But the illegal aliens of the Mexican persuasion we'll just not give a crap about because they do the crap services and laborious jobs that nobody else really wants.

Alright, so with that groundwork laid and the card carrying bunny huggers angered....here in Texas, a local city official wants to make it illegal in his community for people to rent housing to undocumented illegal aliens and make it illegal and punishable for companies to hire undocumented illegal aliens AND to declare english the official language of his city. So...LULAC asked for his resignation, which he firmly stated a "NO" to, and now they want to sue to stop him from putting the ordnance in place. Um....he wants to stop something that is technically illegal anyway, and force illegal aliens to become documented resident aliens if they want to live and work in his town. What exactly IS wrong with that? And just because there is an abundance of Mexican workers in his city, and it's probably his underlying want to make sure his city is on the up and up...how is this NOT what we want to do to make our country safer?!? Document those that are un-documented and then figure out if we can deal with or without them being here...track them in case something comes up or they become implicated in something. Hey, we can all be tracked, anyone that lives or works here needs tracked as well. So if his laws are in place and it forces undocumented workers to become documented or leave....well...force em to sign up!!!

On the other hand, the baby was sitting on her lap, and jerked every time we set one off, somehow, this crap works. Wierd. Never would have guessed it was real.

Crap...that's all I got...CRAP!

I'm sorry, but free coffee is exactly the right price when it comes to caffeinated goodness in the morning!

I'm probably mostly upset that it was implied that I came in late and that's why I missed to coffee run...I didn't see any of the rest of these people online that morning at 2:00am trying to clean up that mess in Wisconsin!!!!

Anyway...I'll sit here with my extra couple of bucks a month and my free motor oil....thanks!