This is my second Kurt Vonnegut book I have read over the summer. Boy recommended Slaughterhouse Five earlier. This was a collection of shorter stories and honestly, more than half of them seemed like they were pulled from the events that made up Slaughterhouse Five. He spoke of Dresden for a second time with a sense that I really believe Kurt, the man, was there during World War II and he experienced what he wrote.
Two of the stories stick with me because they are so different, in time. The Unicorn Trap, is set in old England in the year 1067, the bad guy is a feared Robert the Horrible. He has just executed 18 people of the village and laid the responsibility of new tax collector on Elmer, an honest poor woodcutter, after the last one had failed. As Robert the Horrible is done explaining his command, his men and himself charge off after a deer and disappear, never to be seen again. The protagonist is conflicted about his new title. He does not want it, as he would rather be poor and invisible. His son, meanwhile, is trying to explain to his father about his unicorn trap and what he has been doing. To his father, this is his son being a boy, playing, but his boy has been busy growing and the trap has grown too. Elmer decides he will stand up to Robert and refuse the job, knowing he will die for it, he cannot see himself trying to take money from the other poor people. He waits for the next day to tell Robert the Horrible, but he never comes. His men are running on horseback back and forth, but they cannot find him. In the end, Elmer goes to see his son's trap and it is huge and it goes on underground, like a cave, with timbers at its entance that fell and killed Robert, somehow.
The other story is Armageddon In Retrospect, namesake of the book. It is set in Oklahoma and is based on the study of Demonology. It is quite grand, getting its start from a doctor from Dresden, Germany. He had a unifying theory for mental illness related to the devil. He wrote book after book, then died broke. Time passed, a rich oillman in Oklahoma wanted his library filled with 200 feet of books. This is how he came in possession of the doctor's works. He found german translators to convert the text into english and this caused him to spend the rest of his life and millions trying to prove the german's theories. He had a lavish Institute built with an army of researchers and scientists studying in demonolgy. The story gets quite grand, leads all the way to the UN before coming back to itself. The end is also a little far fetched, and possibly just describes another doctor losing his mind and playing the very character he tried to find.
The other stories all seemed to be from the eyes of someone in a war zone. Interesting, but not unique enough to stand out. There was a story about a kid who lived with an old man. As mch as the old man wanted the kid to experience just one day of normal, he takes him out of the city, into the countryside, next to a stream. The kid still manages to find an old shell of a tank, which fascinates the boy.
There was a story of the prisoners of war constantly talking about food. They are supposed to be clearing the streets of Dresden as their work, and three of them are under the eye of an older german Klenheins, who tolerated their bickering over food and minimum work, as long as he was left alone. In the end, Klenheins has been wanting to be transferred out of that job assignment and after a superior officer comes and demotes him for carrying notebooks with pictures of food the prisoners had been drawing, we find Klenhein realizes he is as much a prisoner as the americans. In the end, there is nothing better to do than to join them in talking about food to get through the dread of the day.
Most stories, as I said, had the war as a backdrop. After a while, they all kind of seem like one long story. I enjoyed the book, and read it in about a week. It is about 232 pages long, but has several cartoon drawings which take a page or two apiece.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
8/30/15 Just The Tip?
Thursday night I was at work, fixing to come home around 8:30pm. I have an arrangement with my Supervisor, I officially work in two week increments, and the first week I am supposed to work Monday night to Thursday night, for 12 hours a night. This automatically gives me 48 hours, so 8 hours are paid at OT rates. The second week, I was told to work 40 hours even. It was suggested I do 10 hours a night, Monday night through Thursday night, but I gamble that there will be work and that they will let me stay, so I work 12 hour nights Monday through Wednesday night, and Thursday night I do four hours unless, there is work that needs to be done. By the way, these are hours from when we were part of the big fabs working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Back to Thursday night, there was hardly any work. I was kind of taking it easy, talking to Wife on phone about going to the coast one last time, then talking to my Mom, just checking in, night was slow enough, I didn't feel guilty. Around 8:30pm though, I got a call from the other supervisor who watches the other guys who still actually work for the fab. We share the same space and many of the same tools. We are familar enough with their technology and work, that when they get backed up, they send us work. He had some work for us, I quickly text my supervisor who was either having a party or just does not keep track of her phone, but finally says to stay at 10:30pm. I put ina full night of twelve hours instead of four, then I get a text Friday that I can do another full night. All of a sudden, I have an extra twenty hours on my timesheet, all at OT rates.
I come in Friday, and that one guy I like arguing with, is there. He starts with the "what are you doing here?" routine. I joke with him that "yall are too slow, your boss called in the big guns. He then said "you should give him a tip, for all the work he gives you." I had not thought of that. His supervisor has made me $1000's of dollars, in OT. He is a supervisor, he makes a good living, possibly makes more money than me. Is it cool to give him a tip, or would it look like a bribe if I started giving him money? The whole thing sounds weird to me. I was thinking maybe a nice christmas gift. Wife says gift certificate for a steakhouse for 2. I was thinking nice big bottle of tequila. He didn't have to call me thursday night, he could've waited until Friday, which I would've missed all that money, if I had gone off to the coast like we almost did.
Back to Thursday night, there was hardly any work. I was kind of taking it easy, talking to Wife on phone about going to the coast one last time, then talking to my Mom, just checking in, night was slow enough, I didn't feel guilty. Around 8:30pm though, I got a call from the other supervisor who watches the other guys who still actually work for the fab. We share the same space and many of the same tools. We are familar enough with their technology and work, that when they get backed up, they send us work. He had some work for us, I quickly text my supervisor who was either having a party or just does not keep track of her phone, but finally says to stay at 10:30pm. I put ina full night of twelve hours instead of four, then I get a text Friday that I can do another full night. All of a sudden, I have an extra twenty hours on my timesheet, all at OT rates.
I come in Friday, and that one guy I like arguing with, is there. He starts with the "what are you doing here?" routine. I joke with him that "yall are too slow, your boss called in the big guns. He then said "you should give him a tip, for all the work he gives you." I had not thought of that. His supervisor has made me $1000's of dollars, in OT. He is a supervisor, he makes a good living, possibly makes more money than me. Is it cool to give him a tip, or would it look like a bribe if I started giving him money? The whole thing sounds weird to me. I was thinking maybe a nice christmas gift. Wife says gift certificate for a steakhouse for 2. I was thinking nice big bottle of tequila. He didn't have to call me thursday night, he could've waited until Friday, which I would've missed all that money, if I had gone off to the coast like we almost did.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
8/29/15 Winners Can Be And Usually Are The Biggest Losers?
I have been obsessed with a song on youtube from Garfunkel and Oates, called "Loser." It seems to be making fun of three separate individuals in the cartoon about being losers, yet they keep trying. One of the characters in business, one is running, like in races, and the third in the dating world.
This, in my head, applies directly to Boy, who just started his new semester. The song is actually very positive, you have to fail, you have to know how to scrape the bottom to know that even when you feel your worst, you can always pick yourself up and continue. Boy has been texting me during the week, a little worried about his classes. My best advice was just go in there and give it your best. I would rather you try and fail, than to avoid a class because of fear. Fear defeats most people, once you get yourself in a competitive mode you become a different person. As the song says:
This, in my head, applies directly to Boy, who just started his new semester. The song is actually very positive, you have to fail, you have to know how to scrape the bottom to know that even when you feel your worst, you can always pick yourself up and continue. Boy has been texting me during the week, a little worried about his classes. My best advice was just go in there and give it your best. I would rather you try and fail, than to avoid a class because of fear. Fear defeats most people, once you get yourself in a competitive mode you become a different person. As the song says:
At least you’re not that guy watching from the side
Who thinks he’s doing better ’cause he wasn’t defeated
When he’s just a non-entity who never competed
You’re the one who’s out there reaching for something greater
And you know
It’s better to be a loser
Than a spectator
Who thinks he’s doing better ’cause he wasn’t defeated
When he’s just a non-entity who never competed
You’re the one who’s out there reaching for something greater
And you know
It’s better to be a loser
Than a spectator
Back in high school, I went to state competing in saxophone, my senior year I finally made it all the way. It was a big deal back then, I even thought I might major in music, but that one year of success and the success was based on practicing with my instrument 20-30 hours a week, after all the school work, and homework. Staying in the band hall until 10pm every night. There were also the previous four years (I was allowed to compete with the high school students in eighth grade as well) in which I was beat by better students, and those years had the same amounts of time dedicated to learning several pieces of music. You just keep trying, hope for the best.
I could say the same thing when I came to UT. I had gone to a junior college, and had come to the University with a 4.0. Of course I thought I was hot shit. I took a physics class which on the first exam had three questions, I could not answer one of them, I had no idea. I went home crying, wanting to go back to my shitty small town. My mom told me, just do your best in the other classes, see what happens. Different professor helped following year that physics was only offered in the fall, still, physics was a C for me, and I only had 5 C's on my transcript.
I have had my share of battles, mostly mental, but they are what make a person stronger. Boy will learn, possibly from failing even, that the important thing is to keep getting up. That is what ultimately matters.
Friday, August 28, 2015
8/28/15 Unsure About Chubs Joining The Leadership Program At School?
Chubs ended up going back to his elementary school he has been going to since kindergarten. He is now a fifth grader, and was selected at the end of last year to join this year's Leadership Program. These are the busy body kids that do a lot of behind the scenes set-up and break downs. For instance, they bring out the flag in the morning and put it on the flagpole. That sounds great, my problem is that these are also the kids helping in the morning and after school during drop-off and pick-up of the general population in the school.
I just feel they are not as safe, once they are moving about between cars, setting up the orange cones, then of course, the cones must be picked up after school. They have little poles also, and control the flow of traffic in the mornings, helping people cross the street, with the help of a professional crossing guard. I would just rather my son stay in the school, but as I am told it is an honor for the child to be selected.
He has until Friday (8/28/15), to decide whether he is going to do it or not. He seems excited, since it is mostly the good kids in his class, and of course my boy is one of the good ones. I see the kids, during assemblies, they help people, telling them where to go. This are really efficient miniature teams that take care of tasks like ants.
Another benefit to him joining is that he can get dropped off a little earlier, and Wife needs those extra minutes to allow her to get to work on time. There would also be a slight delay after school, so I could sleep just a little bit longer.
I understand it is an honor, and these are the most trustworthy kids, so if he wants to do this, we fully support him. It may help build friendships that continue through high school, so it could be important to him, socially. But if he joins and just complains, I will be the first to act in his defense. This might cut into our after school lunch eating routine, but I guess both of us could stand to skip a meal or two, once in awhile.
I just feel they are not as safe, once they are moving about between cars, setting up the orange cones, then of course, the cones must be picked up after school. They have little poles also, and control the flow of traffic in the mornings, helping people cross the street, with the help of a professional crossing guard. I would just rather my son stay in the school, but as I am told it is an honor for the child to be selected.
He has until Friday (8/28/15), to decide whether he is going to do it or not. He seems excited, since it is mostly the good kids in his class, and of course my boy is one of the good ones. I see the kids, during assemblies, they help people, telling them where to go. This are really efficient miniature teams that take care of tasks like ants.
Another benefit to him joining is that he can get dropped off a little earlier, and Wife needs those extra minutes to allow her to get to work on time. There would also be a slight delay after school, so I could sleep just a little bit longer.
I understand it is an honor, and these are the most trustworthy kids, so if he wants to do this, we fully support him. It may help build friendships that continue through high school, so it could be important to him, socially. But if he joins and just complains, I will be the first to act in his defense. This might cut into our after school lunch eating routine, but I guess both of us could stand to skip a meal or two, once in awhile.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
8/27/15 Filthy Riches On Netflix Was Cool?
I just saw the first season of Filthy Riches on Netflix, and it was quite enjoyable. It follows about five different harvesters of our country's weird riches waiting for any and all. Each is quite unique and even the personalities of the people vary quite a lot, but their personnas match what they go after.
I believe the most profitable is the family of "ginsengers." The family is led by the dad who is no nonsense when it comes to business, but while in the woods and doing his job, you can see the family has a lot of love for each other and they get to be together all the time. Time and again, they show demanding customers from all over the world needing specific ginseng or crazy amounts and the family joins together to make themselves the ginseng people.
The second group was "wormers" they go in where the tide goes out and dig on riverbeds, looking for bloodworms, which are prized for saltwater fishing. They spend their days bent over with a little rake device that cuts up the mud about 8-10 inches deep and they then collect the worms. They are paid .27 cents per worm, .50 cents if they are jumbo. They manage to make about $200 a day. This is a dirty dangerous job, as the tide can come in and trap them, sometimes the mud acts as quicksand, and in one scene, one of them was sucked in to his waist and he did panic. The two guys showed have been "worming" like 25 years together.
Then there was the guys who hunt for burled wood, which grows like a knot on certain trees. This burling, gives the wood a beautiful color and texture, so it is prized and used in high end cars, and other high end furniture. These guys don't make the furniture, they just go and find the huge chunks of trees, weighing as much as 10,000 lbs. Guy is fifty years old and runs up and frequently falls out of the trees, doesn't seem to hurt him.
Then there were the "mushroomers", both totally look like stoners, but they go in the woods and find all sorts of varieties of mushrooms, which they sell to local restaurants. They also have their own business selling the mushrooms at whatever local farmer's market. They move all over the country depending on the seasons.
The last exotic collector was an eel farmer. He has a very specific eel trapping device, called a weir. It siphons the river through a wooden box with layers, once the eels get in, they cannot get out. He comes and checks on his contraption daily, sometimes twice daily and smokes the eels and then sells them in his little store he has set up by his house. He can catch as many as 60-70 and sells them for $20-$30 an eel. Seems to do alright.
All this people are proudest of the fact that they answer to nobody. They live and die off the skills they have for their given craft. The people were a little rough around the edges, but I really enjoyed watching them do their thing, even if some of the drama is a little staged.
I believe the most profitable is the family of "ginsengers." The family is led by the dad who is no nonsense when it comes to business, but while in the woods and doing his job, you can see the family has a lot of love for each other and they get to be together all the time. Time and again, they show demanding customers from all over the world needing specific ginseng or crazy amounts and the family joins together to make themselves the ginseng people.
The second group was "wormers" they go in where the tide goes out and dig on riverbeds, looking for bloodworms, which are prized for saltwater fishing. They spend their days bent over with a little rake device that cuts up the mud about 8-10 inches deep and they then collect the worms. They are paid .27 cents per worm, .50 cents if they are jumbo. They manage to make about $200 a day. This is a dirty dangerous job, as the tide can come in and trap them, sometimes the mud acts as quicksand, and in one scene, one of them was sucked in to his waist and he did panic. The two guys showed have been "worming" like 25 years together.
Then there was the guys who hunt for burled wood, which grows like a knot on certain trees. This burling, gives the wood a beautiful color and texture, so it is prized and used in high end cars, and other high end furniture. These guys don't make the furniture, they just go and find the huge chunks of trees, weighing as much as 10,000 lbs. Guy is fifty years old and runs up and frequently falls out of the trees, doesn't seem to hurt him.
Then there were the "mushroomers", both totally look like stoners, but they go in the woods and find all sorts of varieties of mushrooms, which they sell to local restaurants. They also have their own business selling the mushrooms at whatever local farmer's market. They move all over the country depending on the seasons.
The last exotic collector was an eel farmer. He has a very specific eel trapping device, called a weir. It siphons the river through a wooden box with layers, once the eels get in, they cannot get out. He comes and checks on his contraption daily, sometimes twice daily and smokes the eels and then sells them in his little store he has set up by his house. He can catch as many as 60-70 and sells them for $20-$30 an eel. Seems to do alright.
All this people are proudest of the fact that they answer to nobody. They live and die off the skills they have for their given craft. The people were a little rough around the edges, but I really enjoyed watching them do their thing, even if some of the drama is a little staged.
8/26/15 Temptation Lurks All Around
I have no problem saying I am a very materialistic person. I want one of everything, just in case. I am trying to curb my wants, not spend money just because I can. Yesterday, I made two simple stops, one pissed me off, the other left me wanting more.
I was waiting for Wife to have dinner and decided to go to the Sprint store. First of all, the two dingbats up front seemed more interested in their conversation which is fine, but I asked where the Sprint phones were at. They just said all of them and went back to staring at each other. I stupidly tried to go an extra sentence, into a conversation they had ended. I said "oh, used to be you also had Nextel phones in here." Both of them stopped, gave that bitchy young girl knows how to write her name so she must know everything and said in unison, "no Sir, never. We just have Sprint." Idiots hadn't had their first period the last time I was in the store, never mind they never offered to show me any phone in particular.
I was then bothered by the new gimmick of "renting" the phones for two years at $10-$30 a month. Doing this times 4 is going to add up. Pissing off your customers is no way to conduct business, Sprint. Every other phone company has the same phones, get smarter, now.
I then went over to a mattress store. I was thinking of a full, maybe a queen bed for our fifth bedroom, it doesn't have any direction right now, maybe my lounge room, but that's a little lame. The guy, being a decent salesman, got me on a Temper-Pedic Breeze mattress after I told him our foam bed is always warm. This test bed had all the bells and whistles, the head and feet lifted, it vibrated, it did feel cool, but DAMN!! He coolly says "it'll be $7400 plus tax." Wife eventually got there, and I forced her on the bed, she hates testing anything in public. He got the price down closer to $4000, without the vibrating massage, wired controller instead of wireless and a closeout mattress, still the same thing. I really want/wanted to do it, but Wife pulled me out with her no, no, no.
After talking more about it at the house, she said she would leave it up to me. She read some negative reviews online which she told me about, so I guess I am leaning no right now. But I do not sleep well, probably cause I'm a swollen cow.
I was waiting for Wife to have dinner and decided to go to the Sprint store. First of all, the two dingbats up front seemed more interested in their conversation which is fine, but I asked where the Sprint phones were at. They just said all of them and went back to staring at each other. I stupidly tried to go an extra sentence, into a conversation they had ended. I said "oh, used to be you also had Nextel phones in here." Both of them stopped, gave that bitchy young girl knows how to write her name so she must know everything and said in unison, "no Sir, never. We just have Sprint." Idiots hadn't had their first period the last time I was in the store, never mind they never offered to show me any phone in particular.
I was then bothered by the new gimmick of "renting" the phones for two years at $10-$30 a month. Doing this times 4 is going to add up. Pissing off your customers is no way to conduct business, Sprint. Every other phone company has the same phones, get smarter, now.
I then went over to a mattress store. I was thinking of a full, maybe a queen bed for our fifth bedroom, it doesn't have any direction right now, maybe my lounge room, but that's a little lame. The guy, being a decent salesman, got me on a Temper-Pedic Breeze mattress after I told him our foam bed is always warm. This test bed had all the bells and whistles, the head and feet lifted, it vibrated, it did feel cool, but DAMN!! He coolly says "it'll be $7400 plus tax." Wife eventually got there, and I forced her on the bed, she hates testing anything in public. He got the price down closer to $4000, without the vibrating massage, wired controller instead of wireless and a closeout mattress, still the same thing. I really want/wanted to do it, but Wife pulled me out with her no, no, no.
After talking more about it at the house, she said she would leave it up to me. She read some negative reviews online which she told me about, so I guess I am leaning no right now. But I do not sleep well, probably cause I'm a swollen cow.
Monday, August 24, 2015
8/25/15 First Day Of School Jitters?
As it always happens, Chubs could not sleep last night. It is one part nerves and one part staying up late all summer long. During the summer, we don't really keep a curfew and it does happen occasionally, I come home from work at 6:30am and they will still be up.
Sure enough, I went home for lunch at my usual time and Chubs ran down, said he was waiting for me, to give me a hug, I said nice, now drag your butt back to bed. He decided he was going to sleep with mama, for old time's sake.
Thirty miles away, Boy was going through his own stuff. He was kind of caught off guard, not realizing school did in fact start on Monday. He thought like previous semester, maybe it would start on a Wednesday. He managed to scam us out of yet another laptop, this being the 4th or 5th one, not to mention two regular computers. The last laptop we bought him, was a professional model, with a separate graphics chip for gaming and engineering. The only problem was that it weighed like forty pounds and well, Boy only weighs 130 pounds or so. Of course, he wasn't going listen to me when I was telling him to just buy something good enough for class. He was also spazzing out a bit over a statistics class. I told him to just show up. Better to try and fail, than to assume something is too hard and never try.
I don't know if I had the jitters, but I could not sleep. I found myself staring at my phone, every little bit. Even more weird, at 1:59pm, I distinctively heard Chubs' voice, like he came in my bedroom and call me, "Dad!" I then woke up scared that I had slept though his after school pick-up. I jumped out of bed and looked for him or Wife or even Boy. Nobody was in the house. It was a jump start to my heart. I decided to get up and go work on his old room, I have been converting it into a lounge room, media room. I'll have a record player there, along with all the other fun stuff a fat old guy like me likes, Girlie posters on the wall, I do like tacky.
Upon picking up Chubs, he had a great day. His class is loaded with kids he already knows, Boy said statistics sounded scary, but professor said to bring a laptop to class, he is glad he got his new one. Wife had a good day, she does her first actual driving of the big bad bus tomorrow, I'm looking forward to that.
Sure enough, I went home for lunch at my usual time and Chubs ran down, said he was waiting for me, to give me a hug, I said nice, now drag your butt back to bed. He decided he was going to sleep with mama, for old time's sake.
Thirty miles away, Boy was going through his own stuff. He was kind of caught off guard, not realizing school did in fact start on Monday. He thought like previous semester, maybe it would start on a Wednesday. He managed to scam us out of yet another laptop, this being the 4th or 5th one, not to mention two regular computers. The last laptop we bought him, was a professional model, with a separate graphics chip for gaming and engineering. The only problem was that it weighed like forty pounds and well, Boy only weighs 130 pounds or so. Of course, he wasn't going listen to me when I was telling him to just buy something good enough for class. He was also spazzing out a bit over a statistics class. I told him to just show up. Better to try and fail, than to assume something is too hard and never try.
I don't know if I had the jitters, but I could not sleep. I found myself staring at my phone, every little bit. Even more weird, at 1:59pm, I distinctively heard Chubs' voice, like he came in my bedroom and call me, "Dad!" I then woke up scared that I had slept though his after school pick-up. I jumped out of bed and looked for him or Wife or even Boy. Nobody was in the house. It was a jump start to my heart. I decided to get up and go work on his old room, I have been converting it into a lounge room, media room. I'll have a record player there, along with all the other fun stuff a fat old guy like me likes, Girlie posters on the wall, I do like tacky.
Upon picking up Chubs, he had a great day. His class is loaded with kids he already knows, Boy said statistics sounded scary, but professor said to bring a laptop to class, he is glad he got his new one. Wife had a good day, she does her first actual driving of the big bad bus tomorrow, I'm looking forward to that.
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