Of Pens and Swords

I do feel like I’ve made a damn good contribution here though. Being an IT guy that has the responsibility of everything from being the CIO to being the desk side support, it can be both hectic and frustrating. Having a table full of tasks and projects that have to get done creates the hectic part. Having a user come up every 10 minutes and interrupting your work is the frustrating part. When I complain about spending 40 hours getting 2 hours of work done, I’m not kidding. There are documents that I have actually had to make line by line, because that’s the time I get. Type a sentence, and someone needs help. Get back, breathe, type a sentence, and someone needs reassurance. Get back, type a sentence, and someone forgot how to hit the caps-lock key so they can type in their password…It sucks that some days I feel completely under-appreciated and questioned as to why something isn’t done yet, but the days like yesterday when I finally got the security system up fully, and having the senior staff here very happy about that, makes it worth while.

Anyways, other than work, I have the National Guard to deal with. I guess it’s not really ‘dealing’ with it so to speak, it’s just that it takes a little more time than I want it to sometimes. Just not having a weekend occasionally. The unit itself is brand new, one of two of this type of unit in the whole National Guard (all 50 states, PR, so forth) so it’s a little exciting in that regards. The challenge comes with it just being a NG unit, and having people with the NG mindset…not wanting to do anything or contribute to the greater whole of the unit, people who take the drill weekend as an excuse to get drunk and come to work in the morning barely being able to stand, sometimes getting sick…It gets frustrating at times like when I put together a class to give people a little refresher for weapons qualification, nobody participated. It’s even worse when people who are legally considered adults make the same type of excuses that a 3 year old girl makes when they don’t want to do something. I can’t shoot because I had too much coffee and I’m jittery, or I can’t because the sun is in my eyes, or I can’t because I need practice…My response to the first two was simple….you’re jittery now? how jittery do you think you’ll be when someone is shooting at your ass…ahh, the sun is in your eyes, well that’ll never happen in a combat situation, because we usually put in a request for dimmer sunlight prior to an operation…yes, it’s the same form we use when we get it to rain on you in the field…and the third one, the one I think I loved the most…I can’t practice because I need practice. Apparently, this person is over their head as soon as their feet hit the floor in the morning.

We have a lot of good people in the unit though. We have 2 semi-Fullers, not quite as bad as the real thing, but they’re still hero’s in their own mind. And after both of them have been in the NG for 10 years, wow, with all that experience under their belts (almost a full year, non-contiguous), who am I to argue…The only thing I dislike more than new privates, and even more than new Female privates, are Hero’s…the good thing is that privates can be trained correctly if given the time, and Hero’s usually are the first ones off the battlefield, in one way or another. Some assault MG positions with their Leather man, and some just quit early, because war just isn’t what it is in the movies, and they get scared. About the other people in the unit though. We have a lot of good guys and girls who actually try to do the right thing, the Army way, not the “I’ve been here in this very unit for 15 years and we always done it this way” way. It’s refreshing. It’s also more comfortable for me. Even though I don’t have the systems I’m supposed to manage at this unit (quite similar to my old unit), at least the 1SG and the command let me (try) train people, and get involved.

I am volunteering for a week to work a Law Camp, for adolescent kids. It’s also tying into my NG time as well, so I don’t have to worry about doing a 2 week AT this summer. I have another week sometime late august to complete my 2 weeks. It’s nice to have a little flexibility in this, this year at least.

And now, its time for the random thoughts section:

Ever notice how the more nice you try and make society, the more jacked up it becomes. Look at the schools for instance. We try and make it to where more teachers speak Spanish to help the Latino kids to pass, and to help them not learn English, and they drop out more than ever. Look at just our society…people no longer have to take responsibility for their actions, because the government makes an excuse for them. Now, instead of having inner city people trying to get a job, quit selling drugs, quit shooting each other, they don’t have to, because blacks were slaves 200 years ago.

Ever meet that one person who takes an infatuation with something or someone, and try to shape their lives around it? They live around the premise that an infatuation can be made into something real….You can’t live off of chocolate alone…all I want to say is that infatuation is fleeting, why sacrifice the rest of your life on something you know really isn’t there.

I had to get my drivers license renewed. Not a big deal, though the line was long. The whole time standing in line, I never once saw a sign that says that it’s against the law to use turn signals in Kansas, or multiple lane changes at high speed for no apparent reason is a rewarded way of driving here. Yet, I see these non-driving fools do it many times a day here…

I noticed today that sometimes I have a hard time trying to collect my thoughts when talking to one person, and making a concise statement. But when put on the spot in front of a group of people, I’m razor sharp. Maybe it’s the questions I have a problem with, and not the size of the group….hmm.

I like steak. Not an infatuation.

apparently I don’t know how to spell apparently without spell-check…