God Bless Potected Left Turns

I’ve been thinking about some things for a while, and haven’t had time to write them down. So I will give you all the general update, and some thoughts here.

First the job. I’m sure some of you want an update about that, so I’ll give you the low-down. The job is OK, boring at the moment, but I’m still just getting it all figured out. Everyone is friendly here, they don’t talk a ton, but it is OK. A lot of people eat in their cubes, I’m actually doing that today, but someone is having a meeting in the break/conference room. That kinda wierds me out, most places I work people talk a little more. At least I get to talk to this nice guy named Brandon, he usually sits down and eats with me. Today I’m working on my first quote. And besides that I’ve been doing a lot of learning about our inventory. And I have to say we have some sweet stuff. Most of it is priced to move into industry, but a few things have really spiked my interest for future ideas for my computers. Anyway, I think it will be OK here, especially after I get going on my sales / account management stuff. Jobs usually suck when you are just getting started.

The commute. While this is at most 2 hours out of my day, I thought it was worth mentioning. As most of you know I hate poor driving. I abhor drivers from Chicago because they almost all univerally suck, especially people from the suburbs. I’m sorry, if you don’t know how to adapt to the style of driving around you, you are not a good driver, stop pretending you are. If you drive 45 in a 55 during rush hour (people around here do this), you are not a good driver. If you slow down because a cop has someone else pulled over on the side of the road, you are not a good driver, because you are backing up the freeway, and pissing me off for no good reason. He can’t pull you over, he is writing a ticket for someone else…the guy is busy, stop galking and keep driving. That is a univeral complaint…that was the worst in California, but here is about to rival it I think.

Now, that being said, I think people drive sorta slow here. The funny thing is, I can’t completely rectify that with the people I know, and have ridden places with. They all seem to drive fast. Especially my boss, which is cool, cuz it made the ride with him to a customer site pretty fun. But overall, if the sign says 55 people aren’t averaging much over 60ish. I just pick someone going fast and follow them most of the time.

I’m one of those people that will analyze anything, right down to the core, until I understand how the thing or system works inside and out. The one thing that always has driven me nuts is traffic. Other than widening lanes I have no idea how to improve traffic in Minneapolis, and even more to the point, I have no idea why traffic backs up like it does. We’re talking miles, that’s plural, of backed up traffic. So, I’m working out which way is best to take home. I’ve done lots of experiments and it seems to be a crap shoot. The morning is usually OK, but once in a while it backs up and makes me a little bit late.

On the way home I really wish I had a protected left turn onto the road for my building, that would be nice. At least we have underground parking…that is nice. Speaking of cars, we’re probably going to try to buy something. Nothing amazing, but something newer than the BMW. We’re open for suggestions.

In other news, Debate tonight. I saw a sign on the way to work that says “Don’t Vote.” I laughed really hard at that, and still chuckle passing it now.


I thought I would break down the last debate a little too, before this one.

If you really think Bush was the lesser of the two debaters up there, watch Kerry’s hands tonight. He won’t be behind a podium, they are both on stools in a more casual atmosphere at Wash-U in St. Louis (nice campus, I visited there during my senior year of high school) Only about 150 people are attending and the audiance is submitting questions for the moderator to read. Should be a good time, but should also expose Kerry’s flaws while standing up in front of people. He was rediculously nervous at the last debate, he hid it OK, but I was unimpressed by his inability to address the people watching, and instead choosing to stare at the moderator. I wanted to scream “hey, your talking to me and the other 50 million people watching this, not the guy from PBS.” But I don’t think he would have heard me. I could also point out Bushes problems, like his annoyed looks, and then the second half stuttering. I kinda think the stuttering was to avoid the rediculous quotable phrases he sometimes says when he is not thinking, but also I’m pretty sure there were a couple questions/responses that caught him off gaurd.

I’m going to Jeff and Q’s tonight to watch this one, like I did the last one. I told Jeff that if he wasn’t here to talk to I think I would go nuts without Rob or Seth around to argue with me. Granted I don’t miss the constant arguing, but a little is nice.

Something to think about if you didn’t like the topic of the last debate. Korea. That was a great point. If you think foriegn policy is not a big deal compared to domestic, think agian. Employment issues, public safety (not this terrorist alert crap, like real public safety) is all tied together with our foreign policy. When Colin Powell goes overseas to India and delivers a speach that claims we will continue to support offshoring is that a domestic problem or foriegn policy one? When countries much much closer to us than Iraq have nuclear arms, do you really think trying to sit them down 1 one 1 and talking to them is going to fix the problem. We’re talking fundamental Democrat – Repulican differences here, and the ideolgies behind these candidates foreign policy is what help shapes their ideologies on domestic policy, and vice-versa. So pay attention close to both sides of the candidates, because you never know when America will get thrust into international conflict, and you want to know what the root ideals of the candidates are, because that is what they will fall back to in tough times. It happened with 9-11 and Iraq, it could happen again.

Well, enough of that, maybe I’ll say more after the next debate, and I’ll keep you updated hopefully more often then I have.

BTW, reading “Rising Stars” right now….AWESOME. Too bad it isn’t finished and the last three scripts are still being held by Straczynski since he is pissed at Top Cow, but whatever, these books are great.