Middle America's Worldview

We had a relaxing weekend. Too bad, these times are the ones that seem to run faster. But these days, everyone seems to be running out of time.

From relaxing weekend to yet another busy week. All remote employees from my company should had received a call by end day last Friday. I know of 2 groups that are indeed effected. One a really good friend. The burden of choice is not so much as, where does my friend go from here. I hope the company realizes many families simply cannot leave their current locations. Perhaps they do realize it, or perhaps they simply don't care.


For this week I have a board meeting Monday night and 13 year anniversary on top of my regular schedule of events.

My wife and I finally watched "Defnitely, Maybe" last night. It was a cute movie. Worth renting.

I came across this interesting video where the news reports T-Rex soft tissue was found.



You can see additional videos at Resource for the Christian

T-Rex soft tissue found

More good news came my way yesterday. My dad's doctor appt. came in saying everything was good. He was obviously happy last night informing me. Yesterday, my wife's doctor appt. also came in good.

After being on stress alert, with all this good news coming in, I can't help being excited yet speculative. Isn't that like humans, always pessimist.


On another note, my 13 year anniversary is next week. I can't believe it's been 13 years already. Then I look at my kids and realize how far we have really gone. During our 7th year anniversay we joked about the "itch". Supposedly around 7 years, couples tend to get the itch to split. Obvioiusly, this had not occured for us.

I was told this morning, most men break the union around year 15 or 17. Guess, mid-life hits and they need that young blood to make them feel younger. Irregardless, we were mentioning the excrutiating things that would happen to me, if that had ever occured. Jokingly of course, ahem.

Although, unless I had the money by then, I am not sure what the young blood would want. Surely I will be fatter and with less hair by then, given my dilemma at this point.

Never fear though, if a dull knife doesn't scare a guy, this will. My wife works for two lawyers. Think a one room apartment with no weekend money sounds like a drag, think of a cardboard box instead. But I digress.

Fortunately for us, I really don't think any of that will happen. Personally, I have no desire to ruin such a good relationship. Everyone (including ours) has it's ups and downs. However, when I see the alternatives, there's no challenge there.

I had posted a bit of stress in the past. Part of the burden has been lifted. As my fellow 4-5 readers know, radical changes have been occuring in our company. We has an updated meeting early this week, indicating 25% of the IS Dept was remote and 25% were working one or two days at home. They felt this was unacceptable having 50% (at times) of the work force not working within the corporate building. So, the first phase was requiring all local employees to drive to work, removing the ability to work at home. Yes, that sucked for most, considering 4 bucks a gallon and traffic in PA pretty much bites. If hit wrong, 35 miles can take 1 to 1.5 hours to get to work.

The second phase was to pull in 1/2 of the remotes back to corporate. We were informed 16-18 remotes will be effected. All remotes will be given "the call" to inform them if they are indeed affected by this. If so, your two options were some assistance to move in, or some assistance to move on. Most thought the our team would be ok, but as I said before and still believe, you only know what is told to you.

Irregardless, I received the call yesterday informing me my position and team was not effected. I had to ask if the company plans to re-evaluate the remotes a year from now, as they are currently. I was told no. So at this point buisiness as usual. I am scheduled to go up to PA in August for a week.

It was a huge stress relief, to say the least. Everyone at work kept asking if I will have to go, will I go, ect. I couldn't answer. I really didn't know.

Now I am thankful that part is over with. I still feel sick for those who are effected. It sucks. They were hired as remotes, but now that's being changed.

Yesterday I had to go to the doc. I had another bad headache. So, if I acquire another one, my job was to call the doc. Note: I never use to get headaches. In fact, I rarely get sick, knock on wood.

So, I called them to inform them as I was chewing down 3 tylenols. They called back and said they happen to have a cancel, 'why don't you come on in'. Sure. Why not, what else do I have to do but work.

The doc suspects it's migraines. The uni-lateral (one sided) pain, more than one day, yada yada. Take this freebie drug and see if that helps. So I took it then and there, sense I was still having tension.

This morning it's better. At first, I didn't think it was going to help out yesterday, but the pain later subsided. However, having 85 mg/500mg running through me, I felt like a deadpan. So I wasn't much into conversation.

I kept conveying to the doc, I never use to get headaches, but no answer was found. Simply, let's try this.

Hmm, why might I be getting them now? I know my eyes are OK, I had them checked. I suspect stress.

My wife and kids are leaving for out of town in less than two weeks.
My son is having a procedure on the brain.
I am fighting with the insurance to cover what shouldn't be questioned.
My company is radically changing with little communication.

Hmm, yeah, some things going on.

Below is a full article regarding a UK school forcing the students to practice religion during class.
Although, this is the main part of the story, notice the last two paragraphs. It indicates Britain will soon see Sharia Law being put in place. To me, this is the more pronounced story.

---------
'If Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war'
Posted: July 04, 2008
6:15 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.
Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights.
"This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail.
"I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that, but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer. Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.
"I don't want this to look as if I have a problem with the school because I am generally very happy with it."

Last month, WND reported Principal Robin Lowe was reassigned after staging a mandatory lesson in Islamic religious beliefs for nearly 900 students at her Houston-area school.
The controversy erupted at Friendswood Junior High when students were diverted from a scheduled physical education class and taken to a special assembly.
In the 40-minute session, representatives of the Houston office of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization critics link to terrorist groups, presented a lesson in the religious beliefs and requirements of Islam.
The CAIR representatives instructed students that Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets; announced "there is one god, his name is Allah"; taught the five pillars of Islam; told students how to pray five times a day; and gave instruction on Islamic religious requirements for dress.
The assembly had not been authorized by the district, officials confirmed.
In May, officials at a Minnesota charter school, housed in the same building as a mosque, attacked a television news crew investigating whether the publicly funded institution had complied with a state order to stop accommodating Islamic prayers and religious programs.
The investigation followed revelations by a substitute teacher who observed children being forced to participate in Islamic prayers.
In the Alsager School incident, the religion teacher, who was not named, made the class wear Muslim headgear and watch a short film. Afterward, she took prayer mats from her cupboard and said, "we are now going out to pray to Allah," parents claimed.
"I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don't find it acceptable," said parent Karen Williams.
"Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. They'd never done it before and they were supposed to do it in another language."
"My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson," the grandfather of one of the students said. "It's absolutely disgusting, there's no other way of putting it. My daughter and a lot of other mothers are furious about their children being made to kneel on the floor and pray to Islam. If they didn't do it they were given detention.
"I am not racist, I've been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I've also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that. But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war."
Keith Plant, Alsager's deputy headmaster, said with summer break, many of the staff was unavailable and he could not comment fully.
"I think that it is a shame that so many parents have got in touch with the press before coming to me. I have spoken to the teacher and she has articulately given me her version of events, but that is all I can give you at the moment."
Cheshire County Council issued a statement telling parents "inquiries are being made into the circumstances as a matter of urgency.
"Educating children in the beliefs of different faith is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding. We accept that such teaching is to be conducted with some sense of sensitivity."
Revelation of the incident follows this week's pronouncement by the UK's top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, that Islamic sharia law should be used in the UK.
In a speech to an East London mosque, Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'
"Those who are in dispute are free to subject it to mediation or to agree that it shall be resolved by a chosen arbitrator. There is no reason why principles of sharia law or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of dispute resolution."
Phillips signaled approval of sharia principles as long as punishments – and divorce rulings – complied with the law of the land.
In February, WND reported Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chief of the 70-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, advocated the establishment of Islamic law in Britain.

The weekend was an enjoyable 3 day weekend. We had some friends and family over for the fourth. All very comfortable and peaceful.

Now the architect part of my new site, Resource for the Christian is put in place, I am simply adding more and more vids to it. Hopefully, it will become a pretty good resource, as intended.

I watched a very good dvd entitled 'Exodus Decoded' last night. I would highly recommend it. The preview is on my Resource site, under Biblical Archeology.

This coming Tuesday, we should hear the interpretation of working remotes and their future for our company. All remotes I know are basically waiting for this ball to drop. This has become such a topic, the son's owner is coming down to discuss it with the IS department, along with HR to help him. Our new CIO is holding this one close to his vest. I guess we will see tomorrow.

Other than that, another 5 day week, a tremendous headache and 2 weeks before my family goes to Texas. Sigh.

Standardization is hard for most. Your use to doing something in a particular way, then along comes someone to force you to do the same outcome, differently.

We are having this pain in the company I work for. So the stress is high. We just moved over to our new ticketing system, and believe me, I fumbled through my first one.

They have it setup for you to "acknowledge" it. This sounds simple enough. Yet, simply adding comments or putting your actions in the ticket does not "acknowledge" it. You have to go through a certain pathway to change the status to "acknowledge" it. Grr. To compound things, a text page is sent to you initially, then another one in 5 minutes, if you dont "acknowledge" it. after 10 minutes, the page goes to the whole group informing the others this ticket has not been "acknowledged". Within 15 minutes, it hits the team and the supervisor. Yeah, no stress. Just go in there and "acknowledge" the da*n thing. What's absurbing is you cannot text an "acknowldegment". Ahh progress.


Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept. You have everyone doing the same thing, thereby everyone understanding the process, yada yada. This is pretty much where the company is heading. The writing is on the wall, so to speak. Bringing everything in house, rather than outsourcing contracts. The technology is there, so why not utilize it to it's fullest potential?

Same thing for websites. First HTML was pretty much the standard. Then scripting came in to jazz it up. Now PHP/MySQL is reigning. The technology is there for everyone, you just have to go with the flow. Note, you can't keep up with the demand, so you just try to keep up with the requirements.

This is where the other part of the stress at work is having on the employees. No-one knows what the next ball will be. Everything is changing. For some, way too fast for their comfort zone.

Personally, I don't care how you want me to do it. The outcome is the same, the means is whats difference. Just train me to do my job. I don't even care to read those 50 dollar books on my own time.

Another thing which would be a no-brainer, but fails in most levels is communication. People perceive things differently. So, when the gaps are not filled with direct communication, everyone fills them in with their own insecurities. Yeah, you can see what that causes, more stress.

Well, this post turned from a meaningful thought to a rant, unintentially.

I am sharing this full story for STOP THE ACLU.

Seems Washington Post is after the Free Republic.com.


"The Washington Post published a June 28th piece geared to protect Barack Obama from the nagging rumors that he is a secret Muslim, rumors that have been circulating since 2004. The Post’s Matthew Mosk penned an attack on Free Republic, based on an Obama flak who claims she has somehow discovered that Freepers are to blame, if not initially responsible, for floating the Barack-is-a-Muslim chain email that so many millions of Americans have found in their email boxes over the last four years."

Here is the hit piece at Washington Post.

I know I whined in the past, but when you plug 10 bucks in the tank and get less than 3 gallons, it's disappointing.

We are the cheapest in the U.S., so I am told.

A bad glare, but that is 10.04 for 2.602 gallons.

Linked-IN has to be one of the more interesting sites, I have come across. The idea is basically to put up your job experience, but more importantly to link to other professionals you had dealings with.



When your searching around, the site also shows 3 things on the side. The picture above is a snapshot of a random individual. It shows 2 to indicate she is a 2nd degree contact to me, 1 recommendation, and has 35 contacts in her profile.

The site also provides a easy way to ask others to join your 'network'. You do have to choose a means of association. Whether that be a prior company, collegue ect.

I always had heard everyone is 7 degrees of connection, but this particular site is proving it.

If your a part of Linkedin, fire me a comment.

I had already returned the Netflix movies yesterday.

I plan to mow the yard today (if it doesn't start raining again).

I continue to enjoy the new location of my desk. I feel like I have more privacy. The office was right by the front door. So I would basically hear all the action. In the back of the house, it's rather quite. Next is just figuring out a means to move my office phone. I may purchase a new personal phone for that.

Regarding work, we had another meeting yesterday. Clarification was brought in on the new cellphone policy, telecommunication and remote policy. Sigh. I guess we will see what else falls from the shaking tree.

My wife's birthday is in 7 days. I have already made arrangments, ect as of Monday. However, there is still alot to do before next Thursday.

So the plans for today:
On the personal side.
Continue to clean the house.
Mow the yard.
Make some personal phone calls.

On the work side.
I have 4 conference calls already scheduled.
Continue on my 15 projects.
Give a webex on the new change order forms.


Doesn't sound like much, but yesterday I had only 2 conference calls. Yet, each one was over an hour and half long. Pretty much kills your day.

The 3 initial Netflix movies arrived Tuesday. Kel noticed they were sent out from Oklahoma City. I was impressed how quick they arrived.

It was a bum day yesterday at work. Busy, alot of changes at the corporate office, and the morale seems to be way down up there. I head up there in August. Seems information isn't flowing up there, any better than to the remotes. Everyone is keeping their head down and doing their own work.

I will be submitting my work phone back to corporate this month. A new policy for all cell phones, ect. was put in place. Everyone that has, had a work phone, will need to either put that number in their own name, or use their personal one. We get a monthly stipend to assist in our phone usage. I had the work phone for nearly 5 years. However, I knew it was going to this, hence my recent purchase of a blackjack 2.

Yeah, it will kindof be a downer to have my electronic dog collar on all the times, but realistically, corporate had all my numbers anyway.

On another scale, I moved my office desk last night. Having the kids growing up fast, we decided to change the office to a homeschool room. It was way past time to do this move. I moved my desk to another location, which will be a nice change for me, and the kids will have a dedicated educational spot. We are all excited about it.

Regarding work in itself, I read an interesting article called No way to be a programmer expert. It touched base on the fact, we now live in such a fast pace world, with technology changing too fast to keep up. There is simply no way, one individual can be an expert on any given programming language. Rather, the programmer is required to be knowledgable and capable of learning many small bits of many languages. I am finding the same thing at work. We are at a point now, where, yes it's good to be an expert in one particular area. However, the worker needs to be good at 're-learning', as the company changes and moves in different directions.

My only statement is, "I don't really care what direction the company moves toward, just train me to allow me to keep my job."

I have been enjoying one of my gifts from this weekend. A 3 month unlimited Netflix account. I can have up to 3 dvd's at one time. I opened the account Saturday and began strolling the huge database of availible movies/tv shows/documentaries Netflix provides. Not only am I really impressed with the massive amount of choice, but there are quite a pick from their "watch now" shows.

I have been digging MI-5 as of last night. The one question Kel had was, can you choose dvd's not released yet, or find those true new releases. Seem's you can. The love of the internet is, chances are someones already found it or created it for online.

I found a posting from a search on Netflix hacks showing all new releases. Here is the link.

Choosing movies couldn't be easier. Netflix has what they call "Your Queue", which allows you to choose an unknown number of desired dvd's. For me, they fire out the top 3 availible on the list. I can continue to build my queue, and then move my more desired dvd's to the top of the stack.

Not only that, but they also have the 'watch now' queue, where I can create a list of those as well. No need to push them to the top. Simply hit play when I am ready to view. The kids already watched Kangaroo Jack on the PC. I so far seen a Ben and Teller, and 4 episodes of MI-5.

Interesting enough someone already found a means to copy the 'watch now' videos. I read it, but it sure seems alot of work to me. The link is found here.

Next, I am looking to see if it would be feasible to keep Netflix, if I continue to use it to its full potential. I am also looking to crop down the cable, removing those higher channels we really don't watch. Maybe it will work out to being the same rate. (I doubt it though).

The only other thing I can think of is having a PC to TV cable to view/listen to the streaming movies on my living room TV. Yeah, that would be cool.

The big drawback I can currently see is Netflix is a big diversion. You find yourself spending alot of time, simply looking for stuff to watch. Personally, I am interested in those titles, not availible in my area.

We should be getting our first 3 dvd's in today. The queue tells you when your items are shipped and expected time of arrival.

I may post a followup as I learn more about it.

So a Clinton-Obama ticket this year?
Now that Obama looks to be the Democrat candidatefor this years presidential race.

Gee, I thought this would occur around January, sigh. I guess it was fodder for the news outlets.

Maybe now we will learn more of Obama on his stances, like anti or prowar, ect. I would like to learn more from him, rather than these preachers everyone is flocking too.

Recently, a new video emerged showing Obama is anti-Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Ali Abunimah, I wanted to ask you about the candidates in the United States. You’re speaking to us from Chicago, so let’s start with Barack Obama. The stances of the presidential Democratic and Republican candidates on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I can’t remember when in a debate they were asked about the mounting crisis there.

ALI ABUNIMAH: I don’t know if they’ve been asked in a debate, but whenever they have been asked, they have all gone out of their way to express full support for what Israel is doing. Barack Obama is not distinguished from the rest of the pack, except by for how far he has moved to try to appease AIPAC and pro-Israel movements.

I remember, Amy—I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel and saying how Israel was forced to impose this barbaric medieval siege on Israel.

None of the other candidates in the mainstream have spoken out for Palestinian rights. The only ones who have taken forceful positions opposing the current US strategy are Dennis Kucinich on the Democratic side and Ron Paul on the Republican side. The mainstream are all perfectly comfortable with the war crimes that Israel is committing, no matter how much they talk about human rights elsewhere.