Folks, we've reached a new low in this society! The text color choice is due to both anger and embarrassment!
Let me tell you a little embarrassing story! I'm not shy about this, but after today, you bet your ass I'm afraid of the world we live in. And I'm only embarrassed due to the fact that both parties have no idea how we were tied together in this instance.
See, I have this friend, for general purposes, let's call him Big Daddy Love Muffin! Well, I only know Big Daddy Love Muffin thru my beloved XBox and XBox Live. Now this is a great friend of mine and damn near a brother to me, along with a few other love muffins online this guy is top notch in my books!
Well I got home tonight and my lovely wife tells me that Big Daddy Love Muffin called and that it was important that I call him back ASAP! So I call immediately!! Now folks, this is where you might want to make sure you are sitting down, you are about to enter Scary's episode of the Twilight Zone!
So Big Daddy plays phone tag with me and we're giving our hello's and he proceeds to ask me if I have ever used his phone number or given it out to anyone ever. Well, duh! I wouldn't know Big Daddy Love Muffins number if I had a double barrel shot gun at my head and my life depended on it. I rely heavily on my phone book in my home phone. On top of that, I only know that it's #13 in the phone book. OK, so I at least know where it's located!!
Big Daddy Love Muffin proceeds to tell me a story of how he got home from work and there was a message on his phone for ME. What? Are you kidding me?? I'm in utter shock. So we sit and knock ideas around about what is going on, who this is, and why in the f'n world they would have Big Daddy's phone number, let alone be attached to me. People, what the frickin hell is going on here.
Now I'm seething with anger, near a meltdown stage, and hyper-ventalating!!! Profusely!!! Big Daddy gives me the number and I call this bitch right up!!! I may have made Satan blush with the vulgarity flying out of my mouth! It was an ugly sight. So here's where we step deeper in to weird.
The lady that is talking to me will not divuldge any information to me only that she's looking for an "insert my name here" but the funny thing is it's me with a different middle name, AND she gives me the last 4 digits of the social and their not mine. But she's looking for "insert name here" in Massillion, Ohio. Now I'm originally from Ohio, but not Massillion. Now I'm freaked out. I scream that she better lose Big Daddy's number and note the account that it's not me they are looking for.
People, I ask you, "what the f' is going on?" Is this where we are at as a society? I wouldn't ever have Big Daddy's number written down for any reason, nor would I write someone down as a reference without first verifying with them that it was OK to do so.
Now I have to deal with the embarrassment that it's caused me. Now Big Daddy was totally cool about it, but what the hell man?
Let's just say this is just the beginning! I have an attorney at my disposal at work and I'm gonna do some checkin! Hell it is the new millenium, maybe I'll hire a vulture to get to the bottom of this for me!! Stay tuned folks! This story's just starting!
By the way, hey Big Daddy, thanks for workin with me on it, and lookin out for me! Trust that we'll get to the bottom of this nightmare!
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Review: Operation: Mindcrime II = Saaawwwweeettt!!
As some of you may or may not know I am a very huge fan of the band Queensryche. I've followed them for years and years and years. I caught em for the first time when they opened up for Kiss back in 1986 on the Animalize tour.
To me, these guys are innovators in their genre and were always taking chances. Operation: Mindcrime was all I listened to the year it came out. The story in it was riveting and THE BEST concept album I ever ran across. Mind you, these are my worthless opinions!
So when I heard that they were going to tackle Mindcrime II, i was a bit skeptical. First and foremost, the heart of the band, Chris De Garmo is no longer with them, and it's sad to say, but their music just hasn't been up to snuff since he left. Oh yeah, I still loved every album thus far, but it was missing that feeling the Chris brought to their song writing. So with my fingers crossed and holding my breath I waited patiently......
After scouring the internet this morning I was finally able to snag it off of Rhapsody for a cool 9.99$! Not bad! I started with Operation: Mindcrime to get me started. I wanted the big lead up and then I then was thrust in to a very hard rockin, spot on album, Mindcrime II!! 17 songs telling the story of Nikki who has been in prison for 18 years after his crimes committed in the first Mindcrime.
The album has an appearance from the legendary small man himself, Ronnie James Dio, who plays the role of Dr. X. His vocals go to work battling Geoff Taite on the track 'The Chase' and gave me goose bumps listening to it!
Do yourself a favor if your in to this kind of music, download it or go buy it immediately! It's a great album. Rhino Records is streaming the album in its entirety today. I'd encourage you to go give it a listen!
Rumor also has it that Queensryche will tour this summer and perform both Mindcrimes, in the entirety. I cannot wait to see this one pulled off!!! Count me in!
Monday, April 03, 2006
Catching up!
So of course, I said I would keep this updated, and I'm a slacker!
What else is new!
Well, actually a lot.
Work is really kicking in to high gear, and we are making tremendous strides. After some internal house cleaning the past few weeks, we've eliminated some bad seeds around here and things are looking up!
These days, it just seems that no matter what, your going to run in to jackasses, where ever you work. This place is no different. But in this case, a certain jackass helped a brother out! I've had the pleasure of picking up the pieces on 4 major projects here and my good friend and co-worker Gary smacked the hell out of the work, and delivered! Fortunately, due to the last disaster the guy dropped on us, the owners finally saw thru the guy and cut him loose! Sweet!! Sorry to gloat, but I just felt lately that I was breaking my back, having tremendous pressure and stress on me and no one else recognozing what was going on. Now it's time to get back to what I enjoy the most, working with customers!
It's paying big divends so far. A customer that came on board with us called my boss and thanked em for the tremendous efforts I gave on a project, beyond the scope of what we were contracted to do for them. I ended up saving a disaster from occuring. A few parts we were to manufacture weren't up to snuff and we caught a major snafu! I called the engineer, walked her thru it, and helped her on the design. Well, her boss from France was here that following Monday and was just beaming ear to ear that a manufacturer would take the time to check the part for 'manufacturability' and voila, another satisfied customer, not to mention a boss who was overly impressed!!
Home life is great! Tiffany and I are just doing awesome now that we are down here away from the cest pool that is Ohio. The move couldn't have been more needed by both of us. It's showing every day in both of our attitudes towards each other. It's almost like being married for the first time again! That rocks!!
Alex and Brooke are doing spectacular! Brooke's finally settling in to her newest school as of January, and has pumped those grades right up! I'm so happy to see her doing well again. With the moving and everything else the past year, she needed some stability and I think we've finally nailed that for her. She's gonna pass with flying colors and has bet me on gettin straight A's! Let's see ya do it kid!!!
Alex is growing like a weed.!! He's discovered his vocal cords and learned how to play mommy and daddy now. Lil bugger! But hey, we all did it as kids! We're very close to him crawling around now, and at almost 8 months its about time! We're kinda getting the feeling that he may be walking before he even crawls. He's got the army crawl down to a science, that and the roll technique, but just cant figure out the whole crawling deal. It's funny as hell to watch, but you can see him trying so hard to get it.
I miss posting here and having all my friends stop by and comment, so I am going to make more of an assertive effort to be on here more often.
Thanks for stopping by and reading folks!
What else is new!
Well, actually a lot.
Work is really kicking in to high gear, and we are making tremendous strides. After some internal house cleaning the past few weeks, we've eliminated some bad seeds around here and things are looking up!
These days, it just seems that no matter what, your going to run in to jackasses, where ever you work. This place is no different. But in this case, a certain jackass helped a brother out! I've had the pleasure of picking up the pieces on 4 major projects here and my good friend and co-worker Gary smacked the hell out of the work, and delivered! Fortunately, due to the last disaster the guy dropped on us, the owners finally saw thru the guy and cut him loose! Sweet!! Sorry to gloat, but I just felt lately that I was breaking my back, having tremendous pressure and stress on me and no one else recognozing what was going on. Now it's time to get back to what I enjoy the most, working with customers!
It's paying big divends so far. A customer that came on board with us called my boss and thanked em for the tremendous efforts I gave on a project, beyond the scope of what we were contracted to do for them. I ended up saving a disaster from occuring. A few parts we were to manufacture weren't up to snuff and we caught a major snafu! I called the engineer, walked her thru it, and helped her on the design. Well, her boss from France was here that following Monday and was just beaming ear to ear that a manufacturer would take the time to check the part for 'manufacturability' and voila, another satisfied customer, not to mention a boss who was overly impressed!!
Home life is great! Tiffany and I are just doing awesome now that we are down here away from the cest pool that is Ohio. The move couldn't have been more needed by both of us. It's showing every day in both of our attitudes towards each other. It's almost like being married for the first time again! That rocks!!
Alex and Brooke are doing spectacular! Brooke's finally settling in to her newest school as of January, and has pumped those grades right up! I'm so happy to see her doing well again. With the moving and everything else the past year, she needed some stability and I think we've finally nailed that for her. She's gonna pass with flying colors and has bet me on gettin straight A's! Let's see ya do it kid!!!
Alex is growing like a weed.!! He's discovered his vocal cords and learned how to play mommy and daddy now. Lil bugger! But hey, we all did it as kids! We're very close to him crawling around now, and at almost 8 months its about time! We're kinda getting the feeling that he may be walking before he even crawls. He's got the army crawl down to a science, that and the roll technique, but just cant figure out the whole crawling deal. It's funny as hell to watch, but you can see him trying so hard to get it.
I miss posting here and having all my friends stop by and comment, so I am going to make more of an assertive effort to be on here more often.
Thanks for stopping by and reading folks!
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