It has been a hectic week.
I’ve tried to stay ahead of it all, but I have failed miserably.

I must have sat down a dozen times to write this post, just to be called away for something else, some other task, some other issue needing my attention.

Andy Gabrielson, aka Find the Tornado, was killed over the weekend by a drunk driver, just a hour from my backyard.

He died, coming back from doing what he loved: chasing a storm.

I can’t say Andy and I were close. That would be a lie. However I met him on roughly a half dozen occasions when I first started as a storm spotter. We met for coffee and chit chat as he gave me some insight. We had met via twitter. He was a good man, with a love for the chase and a eye for video and pictures. You have probably seen his footage on countless Weather Channel shorts and news work across the country.

Andy was the real deal.

Last year his truck was flipped with him inside (the last 45 seconds of the video if you want fast forward to it)

Andy did his best to get good footage, which he more often than not succeeded in. He also gathered good data which was very important to meteorologists.

His work, his candor, and his will to do good for people was practically legendary. Last year he picked up Joel Taylor of Team Dominator fame from the side of the road after Reed and Joel parted ways. Andy was always, always willing to help.

As tribute over 500 storm chasers came together to honor Andy, in a way that can only be seen on the Radar screens that we watch, haunt, and stare at for hours. He would have appreciated it I think:

The world is a lesser place, and this storm season won’t be the same without him

 

If your in the area, or you wish to make a donation to Andy’s family, or attend his service, that information is after the jump.

 

God speed Andy, and where ever you are, ride the lightning.

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Tags: Andy Gabrielson, extreme, Fatality, Find the Tornado, Severe, Storm chaser, Stormchasers, Storms, Technorati, Tornados, Weather, Weather Channel

A long time ago I was a IT Mercenary. That was my joke.

I worked for anyone, for the highest bidder. Took all sorts of zany contract work. It’s one my reason my background is so wide. The downside is I could literally have 13 employers in a year. Thats no joke. My wife and I’s accountant used to charge us $25 extra just because of the amount of paperwork he had to slog through to get ours done, between the W2′s, expenses, gas, mileage, equipment, etc it just took forever. We didn’t complain.

The only complaint we had was I had no benefits, no retirement, and my work was literally feast or famine. I would go months without a job and unemployment only goes so far.

With this constant in and out of work, our bills suffered. My credit rating was just above a joke, but its somewhat better now. We have been able to afford things that we weren’t able to before, like my daughters school, and even going out to eat.

My wife has the steady job. Almost 10 years with her company. Her’s was the steady income while I played the telecom, tower and cable monkey going across the country.

Today that changed. On March 9 her job will be eliminated. They are going to do what they can too move people around in to other jobs, and she can fall back in to a hourly position easily, however she’ll take a very sizable cut in pay….over $400 per month.  She’s not the only one. Most of the supervisors and management team in her location are being downsized.

We’re told that they will all be individually briefed, and moves will try to be made. Thats nice and all, but we’ll be preparing for the worst just to be safe. We can’t afford that kind of a pay cut, frankly.

And unfortunately that puts us in a quandary. I just started school again, and while I can cover a lot of our bills I can not cover them all. Not to mention the large quantity of competition for jobs these days.

A lot of things will be changing. There’s a good chance I will have to move my daughter to a different school, and that could cause not only problems for her but logistical issues for my wife and I as well.

I’m getting used to Roller Coasters.

But I damn sure don’t like the ride.

Tags: Home, Hope & Change!, Job, Jobless, Market, Middleclass crush, Rollercoaster, Technorati, Wife

As a boy things were pretty rough at times. Before we moved down to Taylorsville, GA our family home was a 2 room cabin in the hills of Big Creek. Our running water was a spring out front, our heat was a pot bellied wood stove, our bath a 50 gallon washtub and a bathroom that was as big as all out doors.

The military was a slice of heaven to me.

You learn to adapt. I don’t begrudge those things above, in fact in someways I miss them. I miss the cold mornings warmed by a cup of coffee listening to nothing but the trees and naught but Charles Dickens to keep me company. I miss the simplicity, and the quiet. I miss the peace. We were “off the grid” before there came to be such a concept. In those days “off the grid” just meant “poor”, but you couldn’t tell us that.

I spent the evenings after home work lost in Robinson Crusoe, As I Lay Dying, and Go Down, Moses.  You didn’t need electricity for books.

In many ways I have often considered that song to be a story of me. The cabin is gone now, my father has built his own house on the property. It’s been a long hard road for us. Trials and tribulations. I have a education I thought I would never get, and I am still traveling that road. My daughter does not lack for things to have, and truth be told is probably spoiled.

I have a few regrets, who doesn’t? Some dreams lost to the wayside. I have made many mistakes in my youth, as we all do.

So it goes c’sera sera, or as my grandfather would say: De reir a cheile a thogtar na caisleain. It takes time to build castles.

The year is almost over and the new year solstice will be celebrated, as it should be with friends. Consider me with you in spirit. Try to think of the good things that have came your way, find grace in the things you could not change. Most of all have a Happy New Year, from all of us at Registered Evil. We are thankful to have you, dear readers, among our friends.

Tags: Happy New Year, Home, irish, New Year, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Sharecroppers Dream, Solstice, Tecvhnorati, Thankfull

My Bachelors degree beat me home, today.

So back in the 1990′s when I walked out of Cass Comprehensive High School in Cartersville, GA I had tried to go to college. I was accepted to Piedmont College, but my folks were so broke and I was so (to put it delicately) inept in my studies that not only could I not fund my college experience, I couldn’t even pay for the gas to get there to have their Financial Aid department attempt to work their magic.

I had used my HOPE Scholarships attending North Metro Technical Institute (Its changed names about three times since then…it’s now Chattahoochee Tech), but at the time I had no idea what in the hell accreditation meant, and they didn’t have any. They did help me graduate high school though so don’t read that statement as a bitter one, because I am not.

Anyway long story short, college quickly became a second consideration versus “What in the hell do I do with my self now?”

Sitting by Allatoona Lake drinking beer with the boys worked real well for about a  month, but it didn’t take long for me to figure out I couldn’t build boat docks for a living.I bummed around Nashville for about two weeks thinking I’d be the next Alan Jackson or Neil Young. I made $20 bucks one a street corner for my efforts. Intro family tradition and the Army recruiter stage right. I swore one day I’d never be so broke my kid couldn’t go to college when they had the chance.

It may not be a “traditional” school, but my University of Phoenix education was not a walk in the park, and I busted my ass for my degree. The turn over rate in students is pretty high, so to be one of the last folks standing makes me pretty happy. Anyone who says its a worthless degree, or a easy school, ask them if they graduated: If they say yes, congratulations on being smarter than me. I’m an adult I can handle it. If they say no…well…I guess it wasn’t so easy was it?

But it’s time to go traditional. I start classes January 17at Missouri State University.

If someone had told me those years ago that I would one day be gunning for a Masters Degree I’d have laughed at them.

I guess my mentor, Randy Armstrong was right. I really could do anything I set my mind to it.

I just wished it hadn’t taken me so long to figure it out.

This one’s for you sir. And for anyone who spent any time in Acworth, GA back in the 90′s.

Tags: Acworth, Cartersville, Cass Comprehensive high school, Chattahoochee Tech, Graduate, Masters Degree, Milestones, North Metro tech, Piedmont College, Randy Armstrong, Technorati, University of Phoenix

I started back to school in 2008.

Most of my high school classmates got their degree’s long ago. I took the Army route instead, and set out to see the world. When that ran out I went cross country climbing cell towers, eventually working my way up to doing work inside the shelters and finally management.

It was a rough, rocky and long road.

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Tags: Education, Motivation, Self, Technorati, Travel

I don’t ask of many favors from my fellow bloggers or Tweeters. I’m asking one now. Please spread this story and help bring these little girls home – BS

15 miles.

Thats all that separates my home from the town of Exeter, Missouri. Population 700.

It’s a small town. Smaller than I graduated high school in. Compared to some towns in Southwest Missouri, however, it is practically a metropolis.

It is also not the sort of place where crime happens.

Unfortunately, in the case of Abby and Isabella Chapman, thats exactly what has happened. A crime. One that is breaking their hearts of their mother and family, and shocking southwest Missouri.

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Tags: Amber Alert, Chapman, Danger, Exeter, help, Locate, Matthew, Missing Children, Technorati

Been a loooong week.
And here it is good Friday all ready.

The week has gone well. It’s also been a excellent learning experience. Folks from my old employer are contacting me, asking to use me as a reference which I will gladly oblige.

My old job was good in many ways and nightmarish in others. The biggest issue however was the complete lack of basic human understanding. The implied desire of implicit servitude they seemed to want out of their staff.

My new job? Not so much. My hours are my own as long as I do at least 9 of them.

The biggest challenge for me right now is trying to find a pace, a rhythm, to keep up with everything. Work, school, family and this site mainly.

Done a lousy job of keeping it up dated this week, and V00d3w is also buried it seems I have not spoken to him recently either.

Anyone want a job blogging?

All said and told the new job has been spectacular. I have a gym membership now, so perhaps I can knock a few pounds off the old waistline.

And I’ve went a entire week on a tank of gas. Something that I did in 2 days with the old job.

I’m hoping good thinks are on the horizon. I just have to keep it all in perspective

No April Fools here. Totally Dead Serious, and is the wrap of events culminating that I alluded to both here and here.

During the course of my career I received the minor reputation as a bit of a madman.

Long hours were my hallmark. The ability to sleep under ones desk and work at a computer station for over 48 hours can not be under rated when talking about project support. The ability to subside purely on coffee, nicotine, and finger nails is a survival ability needed in very few occupations, but practically second nature when on a IT Roll out spanning the entire country.

I have worked almost every position that can be had on a roll out. Field Tech, Help Desk, Help Desk manager, Project coordinator, Project Manager, Logistics, SME, QA Inspector even Safety and Field trainer. I have worked in 38 states. 4 countries. Thats not even including the places I went in the service. Over 1,000 projects, and who knows what the monetary value of all the projects I have worked on would be if I even tried to add them up. I wouldn’t mind having 1% of that, heh.

Now I have been given one step below my dream job: Roll out Specialist. However it’s not just the job, but with who. The number one company on the Fortune 500 list. No other company has more roll outs, and does it on less money than they do. No one. period. You can’t find a bigger, or better, challenge than that.

It’s a corner stone for me, a turning point, and as pilots refer to it: Bingo.

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Tags: advancement, blog, Blogging, Career, goal, Information technology, Life, Point Bingo, Privacy, projects, Registered Evil, Technorati, techography, telecommunications

I worked all weekend. Pretty much everyday since December 17th I have worked.

But the first Monday of the New Year has been an absolute crap sandwich.

I get to work and login to our HR system to schedule some much needed time off. I have a Dental appointment tomorrow, a VA Doctor appointment on the 21st and a court date for a minor traffic citation on the 28th. Figured I’d use some of the held over vakay time to get paid for those days. I had almost 20 hours of vacation time that rolled over from last year, so I should be fine.

Key word: Had.

Apparently they changed our HR system last night, and all of my vacation time vanished.
All of my sick time vanished too.
My benefits? Gone. No deductions scheduled.

My paycheck is short by $200 which has put our first of the month bills, like my house payment, in to a tail spin.

Some wog in Wisconsin is advertising a wedding ballroom for rent…using my 1-800 number. I have gotten 13 calls in the last two hours from people wanting to reserve the ballroom.

To make it all even more untenable, there is no coffee and thanks to the payroll screw up I can’t buy any myself.

The first Monday of 2011 is not off to a good start, and frankly I’m already ready to go back to 2010 or to start 2012 after today.

Tags: 2010, 2011, 2012, Monday, New Year, Stinks, Technorati, work

(I wrote a similar story at Techography a number of years ago. Unfortunately the database back up does not have it so we presume it must have been lost when our then hosts Database crashed back in 2003. I have done my best to recreate the story here. Sadly memories fade over time, even a memory as strong as I feel mine is. I hope I did the original story justice as it was well received at the time.- BS)

When I was a boy, my great grandfather took me to get a Christmas tree.

My mothers grandfather was a big man, even by todays standards. Standing over 6ft 8 inches tall, the former bulldozer driver was a product of the North Georgia Mountains and the Depression. He once frightened one of my mothers suiters so badly by merely shaking his hand the boy would not speak to her until after they graduated and she had moved out. That was almost 4 years later. I recall his hands being the size of a dinner plate nearly, and though I was very small at the time, compared to even most adults, including my own father he was a mountain of a man.

He lived in Blue Ridge Georgia, until that faithful day in 1988 when he left this world, at the age of 97. It took 8 men to carry his coffin. He was a lean, strong, sturdy rock of a man. I miss him dearly. He was my mothers hero, and mine as well at a young age.

Today when a person speaks of hunting a Christmas tree they go to a farm, where numerous trees are gathered and bound, cut and leaned against a fence.

At home we went walking in the woods, looking for a suitable evergreen, be it pine, cedar or even hemlock.

And so it was on this particular day, the season of the last Christmas I would spend with my great grandfather of whose name I bear as my own middle, he summoned me to his side for us to capture a tree for the family.

More after the jump

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Tags: Arvil Stanley, Blue Ridge, Christmas, Christmas past, Clayon Stanley, Ellijay, Family, Fannin County, ghosts, Gilmer County, Glenn Bain, Home, Lloyd Bain, North Georgia, South, Stories of Home, Technorati

The Armorer was kind enough to do a post on my Uncle. Which in turn led me to thinking about stories involving him, which are numerous.

One of the better ones, at my expense, I posted there. Because I’m lacking in creativity currently and still tired quite frankly I figured I’d repost it here.

My Father and uncle spotted a hornets nest on a tree limb that looked abandoned while we were riding on the back of the Stover Mtn.

My Uncle thwapped it solidly with a stick and pronounced it empty. He cut down the hornets nest, and promptly chucked it in to the backseat with me.

I must now deviate and explain a few things. First it’s February, and we are in a 1968 Volkswagen cut down for off-roading. Being the youngest I was assigned to the backseat.

So here I sit, with my feet practically in my pockets, and with a hornets nest in my lap.

Off we go back down the mountain when it starts: The buzzing.

I am convinced the damn thing is full of hornets. The buzzing continues. I casually mention the fact that I have no desire to be eaten alive by a horde of angry hornets. My father tells me he has little doubt in my ability to escape them should their be any inside.

The buzzing continues.

My Uncle Charlie mentions that maybe the heat in the Volkswagen might be stirring them up. I stare at him in what I presume to be horror. He shrugs and nonchalantly says “They hibernate in winter and I may not have thwacked them good enough with the stick. Could be full of them.”

I am near panic.
I stare at the nest on my lap, as the buzzing continues.
Then out of nowhere a single hornet lands on my jacket arm that is outstretched to hold the “oh-shit!” handles in the back.

I screamed like a 12 year old girl and proceeded to climb over my Uncle and practically out the window of the moving car.

If you have ever ridden in the backseat of a 60′s model VW you know what this had to entail

My father screeches it to a halt, by which point I complete my Dukes of Hazard-esque escape and land on the grounding rolling in the late snow and mud while smacking at myself for all I was worth with my hat as if I were on fire when I hear something else.

I look up to see both my father and my Uncle laughing absolutely hysterically.

An expert game caller, Charlie had been making the buzzing sound. And he had picked up the hornet, along with several others, off the ground when he cut down the nest. He threw the batch at me and the one had landed on my arm while I was staring at the nest in rapt attention thinking I was going to be eaten alive.

He’d sprayed the nest with Raid 2 days earlier, which is how they knew where it was and felt certain it was empty.

I had been, most effectively, had.

Tags: BloodSpite, Family, Funny, Hornets, Nest, Ouch!, Stories from Home, Technorati, Volkswagen

When I was 12 he walked in to our cabin with an Ovation guitar, and a gallon of Canadian Mist whiskey. He took the bottle cap off and flung it in to the night and with a trademark smile said “Lets play some music, fella’s!”

I have never forgotten that.

He was my Aunt Betty’s husband. A joyful, fun loving man who had a love for life and music I have never seen in another person in my years. Always quick to smile, shake hands, offer help, advice a comfort.

He would play, my Aunt Betty would sing in one of the most haunting voice I can recall.

He almost collapsed when at my Aunt Betty’s funeral. I cried, as much because I had never seen him cry before in my life, as for her loss.

He pulled me aside one day after a playing and told me “Son you have a gift, that none of us have. you can do anything with your hands your music. Keep at it, I have no doubts we’ll see you at the Opry.”

The way I ended up there is not the way he thought, or I thought. My ability was not as good as i or he thought, but I never had the courage to tell him that because I believe it might have broke his heart if I told him I had given up that dream. He always knew, we just never spoke of it.

He had a stroke a few years ago. He was losing himself in his body. He was not the man I or anyone else.

His service will be held at the church my grandfather was honored at, interred in the same graveyard as the others of my family, in a building my family built.

The ties that bond in Northern Georgia are strong, and deep.

He was one of the few people I visited every time I went home, without fail. I loved him.  My fathers compatriot, my inspiration, a man who would give you the shirt off his back and then play you a tune.

Today my world is a little less bright, as one of the brightest souls in my world has went out.

And once again the damn Road keeps me from going home, and my heart cracks a little more.

Mr. Charles B. Marshall age 74 of Stover Mtn View, Ellijay died Tuesday November 30, 2010.

Mr. Marshall was born on October 7, 1936 in Middlesboro, KY. He is the son of the late Charles Berwin Marshall & Mamie Lucas Marshall. He is preceded in death by his wife Betty Stanley Marshall. He was a warehouse manager and a veteran of the United States Air Force.

Survivors include: Sons and daughters-in-law: Kenny and Joyice Marshall, Waleska, Danny and Beckie Marshall, Ellijay, Ronnie and Anne Marshall, Ellijay; Sister: Jean Ann Cantwell, Johnson City, TX; Brother: Bill Marshall, Wichita Falls, TX; Grandchildren: Lance and Levi Marshall, Tiffany Reichert, Bethany Marrott.

Funeral services will be held Saturday December 4, 2010 at 2pm from the Pisgah Church of Christ. Interment will be held in the Pisgah Church of Christ Cemetery with military rites by the North Georgia Honor Guard. The family will meet with friends Friday Dec.3 from 3 until 8pm at the funeral home.

Flowers are accepted or donations may be made to the Pisgah Church of Christ cemetery fund in memory of Mr. Marshall.

Bernhardt Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

Well, I know there’s a lotta big preachers that know a lot more than I do
But it could be that the good Lord likes a little pickin’ too

Tags: Charles Marshall, Ellijay, Family, Funeral, Georgia, Home, In Memoriam, North Georgia, Personal, Stories of Home, Stover Mountain, Technorati

(I wrote this October of Last year. Because I was working in Tennessee I got to attend the game. It was a sight to behold and a tromping unlike anything I had witnessed first hand before. What was originally supposed to have been a good game turned in to a 45 to 19 trouncing that was almost painful to watch. With Georgia barely squeezing out 240 yards the Volunteers overpowered them at 471 , 310 of which were passing as before our eyes we watched “Jonathon @!#$%^& Crompton” become “$%^&* Jonathon Crompton!?”. Enjoy!)

I got to Knoxville Friday around 18:00. Got checked in to my hotel and unpacked ready to rock and roll.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am I immediately headed for Cumberland.

The Cal Ecker Band was the live venue of the night and they rocked, absolutely rocked. I bet they played Rocky Top a half dozen time in the almost 8 hours I was in the club, with the entire room screaming the song at the tops of their lungs.

I partied out at The Tin Roof until about 15 till 3 am. I was pumped, tired, blitzed and psyched all at once. (I have since learned that there is a Tin Roof in Nashville, which means at some point I may have to check it out) I wandered back to my truck and drug my exhausted carcass in to my hotel room at about 03:30.

****

<-The best damn shirt of the night!

****

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Tags: Bulldogs, Cal Ecker, College, Football, Georgia, Go Dawgs!, Go Vols, NCAA, Rivalry, SEC, Technorati, Tennessee, Volunteers

The other day I reprinted an article regarding my going to a for profit university.

Given that for profit education is going under fire today via a senate hearing I thought it appropriate to write this now.

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Tags: College, Degree, Diploma, For Profit Education, hearing, Online, Senate, Skepticism, Technorati, University of Phoenix

(I first wrote this on August 21, of 2008 at Techography.. For some folks it may be very useful. For others, maybe not so much. Most of what I wrote here I still agree with. The numbers are no longer accurate, and I am in fact pursuing my Bachelors currently. Some of this however…not so much. But I’ll write about that later this week if I get time. -BS)

One thing I was concerned about when I started back to school was accreditation.And as recent News Reports show, its a serious issue.

The very first school I went to, after High School, was North Metro Technical Institute, now called North Metro Technical College. At that time they were unaccredited. They have since became so, is my understanding. But essentially what I learned there does me no good because the education I received was unaccredited at the time. Hence when I went back to school for the second time, I chose a college that I knew for a cold stone fact was accredited: University of Tennessee.

While I would have dearly loved to have graduated from there, the military didn’t let that happen.

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Tags: College, Education, For profit, Online, Technorati, University of Phoenix, UofP

Today I received my copy of my high school year book. It was the last copy the school had, and over a decade later than everyone else’s. Words from a man long since gone, and to me directly that I never got a chance to read are on its pages. I will never forget.

But within it is another story, as that one is for another time.

I had been looking for this picture for some time.
I had contacted Calimus because I could have sworn he had a color copy of a picture similar.

V00d3w also did not have one.

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Tags: BloodSpite, Calimus, Cartersville, Cass Comprehensive high school, Cass High, Friends, Georgia, High school, Technorati, v00d3W, yearbook

I first wrote this on September 13, 2004 at Techography.com. The event was still fresh for me, it still hurt. I can’t tell you it was a moment that defined my life. I can’t tell you it changed my life. I can tell you it doesn’t hurt me quite as much any more and I don’t wake up in my own sweat at night thinking I’m covered in dust and suffocating.

‘I made it a point to not blog over the weekend.

For one I felt it would be done by many, and I didn’t feel my voice in the crowd would be a tribute.

The larger reason Is I wanted to reflect it in silence.

I break that now.

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Tags: Ground Zero, In Memoriam, September 11, Technorati

My “secret weapon” finally arrived. Which means I’ll be getting up at the buttcrack of dawn starting tomorrow (as if 5 am wasn’t early enough).

Swapped from Special K to Product 19. Calorie intake is the same but with more vitamins. I view vitamins as sort of akin to putting high octane fuel in your car. Its still only gas, but your car runs more efficiently. Human body is not much different. Keep high octane in it to help burn the unwanted. Thats my theory anyway.

Took the weekend off from the workout to give the body chance to recover, but not from the diet. Raviolli with low fat cheese, light sauce on Saturday. Smoked chicken on the grill with garlic and herb on Sunday. Made enough chicken to last the week more or less.

Yesterday was back to the grind: cereal, yogurt and chicken from Sunday. Although i did fall off the saddle.

Dough nut.

Some fool put a box of dough nuts by my desk.

Its like drinking in front of an alcoholic.

I managed to eat only one before placing them on the other side of the room, bu still the damage was done and it was devoured…….

Dammit.

Tags: Army, Diet, OCS, Technorati, Weight Loss