It isn’t that stressful, thats the good thing. It’s just I have so many things that I am trying to get accomplished.

I have school work for both of my classes every night.
I have work that I do all day, and sometimes I spent a few minutes each night on it.
I have my CAPM test I will be studying for shortly, hopefully I’ll be taking the test by the end of February.
With Spring on the way I have a training class all next week for Spotters.
My ankle is not as healed as I would like, and I’m still using a cane. I am hoping to be done with that next week if I can but right now it feels like someone smashing my foot with a hammer when i put any sort of real weight on it. Not a pleasant experience I can assure you.

During the course of all this fun and excitement I have several pieces of software that I have to buy, Microsoft project being one.

But the one that invariably always folks ask me about is my meteorological data processing program: GrLevelX.

I have used GrLevel2 for the last several years but this year I am also going to try to get my hands on Level3. They aren’t very expensive, but the work and detail they provide are extremely reliable.

With as mild as this winter has been, I am worried that the spring storms may be more robust and violent than what we have seen the last three years. Thats saying something seeing as how 2011 was one of the most deadly seasons on record.

Unless this winter freezes up soon, I think Spring may have a few surprises for us weather wise and I doubt highly we will like any of them.

And this week at work? I’m Taking Program Management.

So effectively I have 8 hours of Project and Program Management criteria, theories, and systems only to come home, put my mangled foot up, and spend another 3 to 4 hours reading Project and program Management criteria, theories and systems.

If I dream of Net Present Value formula’s tonight I’m gonna not be a happy camper tomorrow.

I was walking off my porch to head for work yesterday and for some reason I guess the “Walk This Way” portion of my brain stopped working. So I made my last step on the outright side of my foot, versus the bottom like every normal sole. Needless to say Mr Pain paid me a visit almost instantly and I proceeded to “Oooh!” and “Ahh!” in a enthusiastic fashion all the way back in to the house. I ace bandaged the hell out of it yesterday and wore a pair of my high top hiking boots to give it some support and made it through the day. I wasn’t going to be doing any suicides at the gym for sure. In fact I had to skip the gym.

Today its swollen the size of a small baseball. Going to use the same recipe today and cut out after lunch. I’ll probably see a doc since my graduation ceremony is next week and I kinda need to walk…..
That doesn’t make me very enthusiastic about this as I have already mentioned my previous displeasure with the medical profession.

Trouble comes in three’s the say. I think I’m up to about 9 or 10 now however.

John of Nobody Move! has relocated, so if your like me and you have his old blogger website bookmarked, you might want to update your links. The new link is http://armedrobbery.wordpress.com/

The Armorer, while not posting as often as he used too, has not given up the ghost as it were.

Oh and yours truly has returned finally.

I finished my Bachelors degree, it is done. And I start my Masters program on January 17 of 2012. To say I’m pretty stoked is a understatement.

Also I’m “going dark” on my Facebook account. I’m currently trying to get all of my pictures I have uploaded over the years to it, downloaded to my computer. My Internet connection is not helping me in this sadly.  My original intent was to shut it down by Dec 21, but I am afraid I may not make it to that deadline.

Let me explain going Dark and why I set the 21st. On the 23rd Facebook is introducing what they call “Timeline“.

I gotta tell you, it makes me nervous and I’m not the only one. Whats more once everyone gets Timeline, there’s no going back. Whats more with the changes with this new Timeline schema keep in mind that Facebook has already had their hands slapped by the FTC for their lack of privacy as well as for specifically “unfair & deceptive practices”.

“There’s no act too small to record on your permanent record,” said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard who studies how the Internet affects society. “All of the mouse droppings that appear as we migrate around the Web will be saved.”

So Why go dark?

Facebook to me is nothing but peer pressure writ large in to the digital era. We have already seen numoerus cases of cyber bullying, all perpetuated on Facebook to the point that kids take their lives because of something was typed out on a screen. It’s just one more assault on the senses.

Take it a step further. As users, you become a automatic advertisement for anything you click the “Like” button on. A unpaid advertiser. While psychologically many of us are wired to have a desire to be in the centerplace, the lime light, I for one am not cool with my or one of my family members pictures being posted world wide because we like Coke Cola and not getting a dime for it. But at the same time some pedo or other whackjob see’s a picture and thinks “Ooooo pretty..!”

There comes a point where sanity must come in to play. We have locks on our doors for a reason. We have locks on our cars for a reason, we put our money in banks for a reason, why would you open your world to a multitude of strangers so Mark Z van make an extra dime?

It is, simply put, digital extortion.

How so?

As Facebook’s VP of Public Policy, Elliot Schrage, puts it:

Well, it… I-I-I-I suppose, when you s…
[Silence]
So let’s pause…
[Long silence]
That’s an interesting…
[Another silence]
Y-y-y-you’re asking a profound question: What’s advertising?”

Courtesy of Computer World lets look at the video clip shall we?

As Richi Jennings of CW points out:

Think about what’s happening here: The guy in charge of public policy hasn’t even considered what the policy or position should be about this kind of advertising.

He seems oblivious to the fact that people might object when they discover their identities are being used to advertise products without their consent.

Madness? Paranoia? Or true concern?

Naysayers who point out that “Oh you can change it with your Privacy settings” haven’t seen the Q&A. You can, technically speaking…but if you changed your setting to Private from Public last year, then everything prior to that is still public via Timeline….and not subject to changing! Further it’s not easy to do at all.

I grew leery when companies started using GPS and location systems, with Timeline its automated, they always know where you are. Its a stalkers paradise.

Whats more if you aren’t a App user, the new Facebook change is going to drive you crazy as it is centerpieced on, you guessed it: Aps.

You can supposedly opt-out of sponsored stories using this link. However, this is contradicted by a Help page that says there is no way to opt out of seeing all or being featured in any Sponsored Stories!

Read that again folks and recall the FTC lawsuit I mentioned earlier…..unfair and deceptive practices.

Facebook was fun, and it was nice seeing folks I went to school with and being part of their goings on. However for me, I value my security highly. Very highly.

The good news is? It frees up time for me to dedicate to here, writing and posting without worrying about security anywhere near as much….because I control the when, where and the how of what I release here.

A close friend called me an alarmist, and maybe I am. He may be right. But that video, and the very blatant counter informative data I’ve linked here speak volumes to me and should give rise for concern.

It’s our world folks, and too precious for us to let someone else decide how it should be presented.

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.

I decided that if I wanted to get out of living in hotel rooms, working insane amounts of hours, and have something that resembled a real life I was going to have to do something. I had two, maybe three skills up to that point. I was good with communications equipment, I could motivate people, and I could stay awake for more hours than most. None of those three items alone was going to get me a job, and short of taking a job that required me to shoot people, my Army days weren’t much help frankly.

For almost four years non stop, I have stayed awake nights studying and writing papers. I have had less than 4 weeks off in that time, from school.

This coming Monday it all pays off. My last assignment, my final is due November 14, and those sleepless nights will end, at least for a few months. I will have at least partially caught up with my peers.

I got my Associate of Arts in Business at the end of 2009. Two days after I got it I was back in school working on my Bachelors of Science in Management. Thats what I am finishing.

Its hard to believe it’s almost over. Hard to believe that I will have time to myself, that I might actually be able to blog, write, or play music again.

Whats harder to swallow is the debt. After my GI Bill I am still in the hole over 50k. Paying this back is not going to be either fast or easy.

My current employer is phenomenal. I am hoping that my educational efforts will be rewarded appropriately.

No matter what however my personal goals at least have been met. I proved a lot of folks wrong, and most of all I managed to “change my stars“.

I received my first education from the military, one of hard choices, discipline, loyalty and brotherhood. Dedication, honour and integrity.

My second education came from The Road. Traveling the world, and our country, different places, different cities, new people, new hotel, new names, new work.

This is my third. It’s been the easiest in terms of physical labours, and one of my most difficult mostly because of what I experienced from my first two. I would like to hope that in some way, mayhaps I taught my classmates something as well. At my age I was the oldest freshman in my classes, and the most traveled. Several of my instructors had never been out of their own states let alone the country.

I hope this achievement will motivate my daughter as well; for if I can do this now, this late in life then anyone can.

For the moment however, a goal has been met, a dream realized.

When it’s all said and done, I just don’t think it gets better than that, aye?

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.

Most of us who live in rural Missouri like it here. its quiet. We are off the beaten path. There are few shopping malls, theaters and other items that interest the jet setting crows. What there is, is peace and quiet. An idyllic lifestyle that has become lost in todays modern Microwave Burrito age.

Abby and Isabella Chapman were last seen on July 10. Their father Matt Chapman, picked them up from their mother, Amber Chapman, with the alleged intention of taking them to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO: a large music and amusement park.

They have not been seen or heard from since.

With two small children still missing, the Barry County Sheriff’s Department has issued a warrant for the arrest of Matthew Justin Chapman, 35, of Exeter. He is charged with kidnapping his daughters, Abby L. Chapman, 7, and Isabella K. Chapman, 3, both of Exeter.

The local paper has a decent amount of information

Due to the fact that Matthew Chapman has been known to own several weapons, the Barry County Sheriff’s Department has listed the warrant with a cautionary indicator for law enforcement, said Epperly.

“I have seen a letter that was from him in which he stated that he believes the children are better off with him,” said Epperly. “After reading the letter, I believe that he loves his children very much, and as far as I know, he would not harm them, but they need to be located and this situation needs to be handled in the proper way.

“We know that he is not working,” said Epperly. “If he feels like he is on the run, things could deteriorate for him and the children very quickly.”

Amber Chapman has indicated that Matthew Chapman has said he would like to one day visit Colorado or Wyoming, said Epperly.

“We have searched his mother’s and sisters’ homes and a lot of other locations and not come up with anything so far,” said Epperly. “If anyone knows anything about their location, we urge them to call the sheriff’s department. They can remain anonymous. We just need to find these children.”

Matthew Chapman is five foot, 11 inches tall and weighs around 170 pounds. He has brown hair and green eyes. Abby Chapman is four feet tall and weighs around 45 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes. Isabella Chapman is three feet tall and weighs 40 pounds. She has blond hair and blue eyes.

Individuals with information on Matthew Chapman or his daughters are asked to call the Barry County Sheriff’s Department at 847-3121.

Matt Chapman was last seen in a silver Dodge Caravan. It is believed that he has a large quantity of camping equipment and gear so he may be at a national park, or even a very rural area.

Abby & Isabella Chapman (Image courtesy of KAPX News)

KPAX has the following descriptions
Abby L. Chapman is a white female, standing 4′ tall and weighing 45 pounds. She has brown hair, blue eyes and light complexion. She was last seen wearing a pink t-shirt and cut off blue jeans.

Isabella K. Chapman is a white female, standing 3′ tall and weighing 40 pounds. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. She was last seen wearing a pink tank top and blue jean shorts.

Matthew Chapman (Image courtesy of KPAX News)

According to family, he has contacts in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Texas. Chapman should be considered armed and dangerous.

—–

Only my electives remain.

Which means that a journey I started in 1995, stopped in 1997, started again in ’98 halted in ’99 then started again in ’08 to finally finish this year is all but over.

After ten years in the Army, one tech school and two colleges counting this one, I’m finally completing my Bachelors degree. I achieved my Associates in 2009.

It’s been a mess, a struggle as it were. A long road.

However Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote “…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” I live by that quote as much as I can. Leave something behind.

As such here is what I can pass on to those starting their learning or those who may be struggling. As a lover of philosophy, I found many to assist me along my way.

“Begin–to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.” – Marcus Aurelius.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you have a paper that is large in assignment, or is challenging, or perhaps you’re just suffering from writers block that day. Do a little. Walk away. Come back. Do the rest, Like you would eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step”-Confucius

Don’t put off your work until the last minute. Start on it. Even if your just getting the APA formatting started on Tuesday and you don’t write the paper until Thursday, start on it. When you have started something most folks will tend to want to finish it. Whereas if you never start it you will keep finding reasons to put it off.

“Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong as its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away”.- Marcus Aurelius.

Make time. Time can be your worse enemy. We have lives, jobs, friends, families. We have movies to watch, parties to attend, paying work that needs to be completed. It is easy to put off a visit to a simple website. What is not easier to do is to accomplish the goal of your degree. Make time. Even if it means sacrificing your lunch break at work, or putting off going to the lake party one more hour. Make time.

“We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation”. -Francois De La Rochefoucauld.

Don’t cheat. It’s not worth it. The integrity you violate is more than just your own. While you speak to the caliber of person you are, you also violate the trust your team mates are putting in you. Believe me that reputation will follow you to your other classes at some point. I have found there is no assignment that can not be completed or overcome by simply allowing yourself more time to work on it. Yes you may miss the opening of the latest Harry Potter film. But it will still be in the theater next week.

“If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky?” ~Stanislaw J. Lec.

You have a team. Use them. My last two teams have been beyond phenomenal and we did not concentrate on only our team assignments but we helped study for our individual assignments as well. Use your teams strengths, ask questions. Be helpful. You may have an answer some one else does not. Your team is not limited to only your team work. There is no regulation that says you can not study or work together.

“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” -James Thurber.

Listen to your team. Read some of the DQ posts made by others. You may be surprised to learn that never everyone is a 6 year old disguised as a 33 year old high school graduate who can not comprehend basic English. Some of your classmates are highly intelligent and may offer you ideas. Admittedly, some won’t. However, some of my best papers came from ideas other people thought of in the DQ discussions, their answers intrigued me and I researched it. Don’t assume just because you have lived it, you know the answer. There is always another solution.

“Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.” -Hippocrates.

Your team Charter is your guide. Make it strong. Set deadlines. Set punishments. Outline actions you intend to take if your team mates do not pull their weight. That team charter is your defense against slacking, plagiarism, and anything else that may befall you. Failure to use your team charter really means you haven’t been paying attention in class.

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness” -Dalai Lama.

Be kind. You may feel with all your being that you are right. You may know it. You may assert it. But remember your fellow students are your peers. Your co workers are your peers. You may not like them but you have to work with them, and if you want to succeed you need to overcome those differences. The easiest way to do that? Be kind. Be polite. Do your part. No reason to antagonize a already stressful situation. Breathe deep, do your best, be polite and let the chips fall where they may.

“If you fail to honor your people,They will fail to honor you; It is said of a good leader that When the work is done, the aim fulfilled, The people will say, “We did this ourselves”- Lao Tzu

Most of us have a back of the class mentality. We do not want to be a leader of men or women. We want to do our assignment, live our life, do our job and go home at night. Period. However sometimes if you want to succeed, you have to pick up the mantle. Do not be afraid. It is a little thing to organize the work. Do what needs to be done, succeed, and be proud of yourself later.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”.-Aristotle

Agree to Disagree. Everyone here has different ideals, philosophies, religions, morals and views on life. If we all came from a Xerox copier lets face it, the world would be pretty boring. Respect the fact that someone may see something different than you do. You don’t have to agree with them, you don’t even have to like their view or the person themselves. But given the amount of apathy in the world respect the fact they have a position, and move on to something else.

“I will show you fear in a handful of dust” – T.S. Eliot.

In everything we do we have fear. Fear of crossing the street. Fear of driving at night. Fear for our children, our welfare and our futures. The key is to control that fear. Do not fear your education, do not fear your endeavor to better yourself. Find strength in your successes. Find a bit of wisdom or grace in the things you can not change. Learn lessons from your failures. Work harder. Study longer. You are in control of your own destiny, and the choices you make will determine your success. Do not fear this, instead wallow in it, bury yourself in your education and strive to do your best!

“Indeed in general I hold that there is nothing truer than happiness, and nothing happier and sweeter than truth”. – Gottfried Leibniz.

Your dedication will be rewarded. Your time here is fleeting in comparison to the world you can go forth and change. Your life may not be altered in anyway whatsoever…save for the knowledge that you rose above…you succeeded where others failed. You chose the higher road, to be something and do something. To undertake a challenge that others have decided they could not or some may have said you could not do. Do not let the challenges of the world, the lack of jobs, the economy, rob you of this victory.

You came, you saw, you conquered.

Be happy. For now we come full circle. Start at the top once again. For now you have your degree. you must rise above the world, your peers, you must aim for that goal of a better job, a better life. A new way to fly. Do not be discouraged. Time heals all things. Keep pace. Make time for yourself. make time for your dedications. But above all again, savor your victory.

I hope this helps some of you, in some way or another. If nothing else know that you are not alone. For after all you are but one student in the masses of students, all with the same goal. Look to each other. Let the other things fall to the way side. Work to your goals.

I hope to see you all at the finish line.

And he’s right. As is evidenced here hiatuses typically kill blogs. Even those that have two bloggers. Unfortunately as you may have noticed only one of us has shown up for duty lately and the other is swamped under work. The former is just treading water himself as his career has taken off in the last three months.

Good things and bad things.

The good news is The Armorer is not shutting down. Personally, given the mans occasional pontifications, I doubt he will be able to completely walk away. However given the disenchantment many of us whom I think I can say are relatively middle of the road I can see how politics, and the world in general would grind us to the point that we find our selves spitting at the wind. The spammers, and fickle nature of some commenter’s can play in to that as well.

Well, more he than I. I don’t think I could buy a regular commenter around here as of late.

That said, we aren’t going away. Neither is he. The doors remain open. Volunteers are always welcome to write here. He has his own staff.

As for myself, it seems like I’m watching another ship leave the harbor. Folks are moving on, as they did years ago when Calimus and I first started Techography.

The more things change. The more they stay the same.

However I can not allow him to close that door without saying thanks. The Armorer opened his home, and his armory to me on several occasions. He has put up with my incoherent rambling e-mails on several occasions, and even furnished cold frosty adult beverages. Insofar as blogging goes he and The Commissar (when he still blogged as such) both showed much kindness and politeness to a web writer who was trying to adapt to the changing format of the Internet.

The Internet has much discourse, but little in the way of civility. He may walk away, but he deserves to know that he furnished one of last bastions of reasonable discourse that I am aware of on line. And for that he deserves a salute.

This time it’s all those angry Netflix subscribers.

A lot of folks are ticked at Netflix for raising their rate.

A lot of folks.

But seriously people. $16 bucks and your screaming?

Lets break it down to reality shall we. Back in the day before there was this thing called streaming and you had to go get your movie, you’d pay about $3 to $4 bucks a disk.

Now with streaming you can get a movie every night.

Let me cue you in on a little secret: bandwidth ain’t free. It costs money.

And that money has to come from somewhere.

In other words you folks who are sucking down 2 movies a night , three nights a week?

Not only are you not spending the $200 a month you would have spent by going to a DVD rental store, your costing Netflix money in bandwidth. Guess what? Your piddly $9 bucks ain’t paying for what it costs to operate that time of streaming activity.

Here’s another shocking news flash: A lot of us don’t have high speed Internet.

Not because we don’t want too, but because we can’t get it. And what we can get has download limitation either in 24 hours or 30 day increments. So for us to pay for your streaming is just as insulting as you paying an extra $6 bucks to assuage your greedy movie little hearts.

Your getting more product. Your getting unlimited movies. Netflix is in the money making business and are supplying you your wants. Whats the problem?

Seriously if your complaining that the $16 per month can not fit in to your bucket then your financial situation is serious enough that you don’t need their service anyway. What you need is a job. Or a budget.

Get over it.

I just do not think it can be said better than this

If I had a nickel for every time I was told I would be “Brought on board shortly” I would never have needed to take another contract.

It appears that MarketWatch has caught up with me

Temp workers are a boon to companies, but a nightmare on the economy.

As a contractor you may spent 3 to 8 months on a contract on average. The really fortunate may see a year. When those are over however its either A: look for a new contract or B: file unemployment.

Benefits are nil, the hours are long. There is little to no legal respite if you are wronged by a company. I once drove from Buffalo, NY to Atlanta, Ga after being told I would have a position on my arrival. I waited a week but was never contacted again and my calls stopped being answered.

H1B has not helped. With the new regulations foreigners can be hired at half the salary you or I would make thanks to the exchange rate.

Employers shifting to contract workers is a bad sign. For companies its great. For the American workforce…not so much.

Whereas workers have a regular and steady income, with contracting its feast or famine, and when famine bills do not go paid in order to eat.

Personally I think this situation is dire. When these new contractors are compounded by the rising gas costs,  the lower pay of contracting and the lengthy times of unemployment: the economy will rumble to a even further decline.

When they are given the choice of paying their house payment versus buying groceries because of the cost of gas. When groceries cost more because of the cost of fuel, and as credit gets stretched to breaking in a effort to stay afloat, these contractors will discover what I discovered several years ago: You can’t maintain a family, or credit as a contractor.

As the rising costs put basic purchases out of reach or on the envelope of breaking, furthered by the lower salary of contracting and lengthy unemployment, and it creates a perfect economic storm.

Think the last housing crunch was bad? Toss in lower wages with $5 gas. Reduced healthcare and more expensive coverage.

Contracting may be work, but its work without a safety net. And given the current economy, a safety net is something everyone needs.

If inflation continues look for companies to possibly start laying off, typically in FIFO (First in First out). Why FIFO? Because those employees earn more money and a replacement can be hired from outside for less or a contractor used for even further savings (no 401k, no healthcare and lower wages to boot).

Here’s some tips to help:

*Put no less than $10,000 dollars in to savings. This is your emergency money.

*Try to put at least $2,000 in to a high interest CD. A 1 year or 2 year is preferred.  Most banks will loan you money against a CD so think of this as a emergency credit collatoral without the high interest rate.

* The above 2 items may have stretched your purse but if you have anything left ignore the TV and the News: now is the time to buy stocks. Look at companies like Ford, GM, Target, Wal-Mart and others. These are companies who supply something people need even when at the breaking point financially. Buy Gold. Buy Oil.

*Every chance you get pay off a debt. Eliminate your credit cards. Ignore the hype about credit ratings and length of time. This is about survival, not buying a new house. Pay extra n any debts you have. Every debt or credit card you eliminate is more money in your pocket in the long term. Better to suffer in the short term before it gets out of hand.

* Don’t pull your money out of your 401k or Mutual Fund. The losses reflected are temporary in the grand scheme. In other words its just digital numbers. Continue to contribute during the decline if you can. When the market recovers in 5 to 10 years you’ll thank me.

When the smoke clears you may be one of the few left standing.

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