Since John’s 4 month trip to Iraq is between January and May, we get to miss out on 3 special occasions together. The occasions being Valentine’s day ( which he really doesn’t care for much anyway), our 1 year mark, and my 21st birthday. We had decided before he left that we would celebrate these events when he came back. I didn’t mind this idea at all because well either way I get spoiled
I guess my guy didn’t feel right about me not having him here to celebrate with me. So, he gave me the amazing gift of human touch. I got a spa trip, good for one pedicure and one massage. I am so excited. He really hit the nail on the head with this one. I get 2 hours of massagy goodness on my worn out body. I also get to just relax and spend some much needed “me” time.
This is the best present he could get me. Ok second best, the first being him home. I think that this pretty good substitute though. He did very well. Thank you honey! I dunno, I might have to keep this one around for a while.
First off, I am an undecided voter who is unsure as to what party or candidate that he will be voting for in the general election in November. I am worried about our country as a whole and I am particularly worried about our the education of Americans and our job market. I’ve been reading economic books as a hobby for a while – I am no expert by any means but I’ve got a firm grasp of the principles. Barrack Obama gave a speech today at a General Motors factory and talked about jobs and education. Needless to say, I was intrigued by what he said because I consider him a front runner. So, I checked out his website and found the following excerpts.
Trade that Works for Workers – Obama will end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and give breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages here in America.
Millions of New Green Jobs — Obama’s energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create millions of new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. He will also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.
Ok, Mr. Obama is planning on stopping tax breaks to companies that outsource employees from other nations. In the classical view of economics if you are unable to compete in a market and another company or location can do it better you should let them. Prime examples of countries that do much of the work we used to do in house are China and India. We have moved a large number of technical and non-technical jobs to these companies because they can often do our work for pennies on the dollar. When a company moves jobs out of the country we need to react accordingly to create new jobs left in the vacuum. Occasionally, we must move vertically instead of horizontally in our job choice. Instead of moving to the same job we had before we might need to increase our skill set or education level. Obama plans to help people move vertically with training required to create and obtain “green” jobs. What I don’t understand is why he is planning on penalizing companies that outsource jobs – other markets that can do the job better should do the job. It is in the best interest of the consumer if a product is produced by the cheapest and most efficient manufacturer at all levels. Yes, the unskilled labor will face a crunch at the on set of such a change but if he moves vertically he will be able to get a product at a cheaper price than when he was making it.
Below is an excerpt from a speech he gave today -
I believe that we can create millions of those jobs around a clean, renewable energy future. A few hours northeast of here is the city of Manitowoc [MAN-a-ta-WOC]. For over a century, it was the home of Mirro manufacturing – a company that provided thousands of jobs and plenty of business. In 2003, Mirro closed its doors for good after losing thousands of jobs to Mexico.
But in the last few years, something extraordinary has happened. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Doyle and Mayor Kevin Crawford, Manitowoc has re-trained its workers and attracted new businesses and new jobs. Orion Energy Systems works with companies to reduce their electricity use and carbon emissions. And Tower Tech is now making wind turbines that are being sold all over the world. Hundreds of people have found new work, and unemployment has been cut in half.
Here he is talking about people that moved vertically – this is exactly what we should do in every situation. We should stop trying to prevent outsourcing – even though there is some short term pain it is in the best interest of all to do so. From what I’ve read on his website it almost seems like he is contradicting himself. I’m not quite sure if two separate people are writing his speeches and press releases but it doesn’t make much sense to me at the moment.
I want to get McCain’s take on the whole thing – but, his website is down at the moment – well, I can’t get to it on a govt. computer at the moment – so his website could be working without a hitch.
John McCain is the guy leading the republican side of the race and Obama is in the lead on the other front.
I’ve been watching McCain for years and I’ve gotta say that I like him more than any of the other candidates. He has been under fire from conservatives because he isn’t conservative enough. I like him for that reason alone. He has been branded a hot headed maverick. He plays both sides of the field. He stands up for what is right. He listens when he needs to and acts when he needs to.
Obama feels like media hype to me. I don’t know enough about the guy to understand how he might react to something. When I choose a candidate I stray away from the “issues” and try to determine how that individual will react in a crisis. Will they make a sound judgment call?
I’m still quite undecided – aside from the fact that I will never vote for Hillary – unless Cheney was running – in which case I might move to Canada.
I took a few new photos – including one of myself
I tried out the panorama maker software of my camera with surprising results (click the image for the BIG version)
I’m looking to the time I get out of here – I’m planning on doing something – as identified by the photo below. Its never Miller time – its Guinness time -
I took a few random videos – I don’t even remember what they were – you’ll have to watch and see
I wish I had time to really write something of note but this is all that I’ve got time for at the moment.
So Today Katie and I decided to join team Weyerhaeuser for the March of Dimes. I got a chance to raise money and participate when I was in fourth grade, so when the opportunity came up again, I jumped on it. March of dimes is my Charity choice. They raise money nationally to fund research to stop premature babies, and birth defects. The March of Dimes was founded my President Roosevelt in 1927 and 17 years later, they cured Polio. Now, their focus in on premature babies and babies born with birth defects. In 2006, 91 cents of every dollar raised in Washington State went directly to grants which were given to our own hospitals, right here at home.
It’s a great cause and I do it because I want to be able to help out a heart broken mother by donating and raising the money to support her suffering premature baby. I want to give something, do something that will impact a life. So
So now I am going to ask for your support. Please, any donation will help, EVERY dollar counts. My goal is to raise $500 for this fund. Thank you so much. You can click on the link below to make an online donation to me and my team. So, now I will raise the money and March for Babies, 6 miles on April 19, 2008. Thank you for your support, guys. It means a lot.
Ok, so I still haven’t done what I set out to do on my day off but I’m getting closer to it with each passing week. I have extremely little free time on a daily basis as I have scheduled only enough time to plow through my routine. There is no extra time for anything else unless I want to cut into my sleep schedule. I do well on 6 hours of sleep but 7 is better. Unfortunately, I don’t move fast enough when I wake up and that extra hour is imperative. Jessica, on the other hand, wants 10 hours of sleep a night. I have no idea how she sleeps that much and still has enough time to do everything. Even when I am bored and have little to do sleep is always a last option for me – she is down for a nap at almost anytime of the day. Often she insists that I join her – Continue reading A little bit of that and this and that and a….
I had a choice to make. I could root for the first team that could go undefeated or I could root for the underdog. I could root for a team in a conference and division that I didn’t really care about or I could root for a team in the conference that I watch the most. I could root for the team that everyone thought would easily win or I could root for the team that beat the Packers.
I chose the Giants – and it appears that I made a wise decision.
I missed watching large portions of the game due to work – yes, it happens. I was quite glad that the game was so close. More than anything else I wanted to watch a good game. There is nothing worse than watching a blowout. The last few minutes of the game were great – it reminded me of watching the Giants vs. Green Bay a few weeks ago – it was one of those endings that just got your heart racing.
Ok – its a shame that the Patriots couldn’t rewrite the record books. If they were in my conference, or playing against the Packers, I would have gladly cheered for them. Unfortunately, they were playing underdogs – and underdogs always know how much it takes to win.
We’ve won a small battle – we now have the ability to take showers on even numbered days. This is far better than the 4-5 day stretch we went through last week. The laundry service is open, at reduced capacity, but at least it is open again. I no longer have to walk around for days trying to ignore how much I stink.
I tried to win another battle but to no avail. I need an extra pair of boots so I went to supply with a letter signed by my commander. They told me that the wrong person signed the letter before my commander. Who gives a crap who signed it first, his signature trumps all! Imagine if the general went to go something and some lowly airman didn’t make an initial on the page – would they turn the general down? Hell no! The military can do things that baffle the mind.
The did it in Abu Ghraib prison to people that didn’t deserve the treatment. I do it to myself on a daily basis. Why in the world would somebody beat the ever living crap out of their body? Why would someone push themselves until they were in so much pain that they thought they were going to puke?
Boredom
I decided to see how hard I could push myself today. My shoulder is almost completely rehabbed – almost to the point where I don’t have to worry about it. I’m still working on strengthening the anterior deltoid muscle (the weak one in the bunch) so that it keeps all of the other muscles where there are supposed to be located. It was leg day – the most brutal day of the week. Leg day is an all out assault on the largest muscle group in the body. It is the muscle group that is constantly in use and the one that takes the most punishment (save for the heart of course). I went through my normal routine but I cranked it up to three sets of 20 reps. I normally work in the 3×12 range but I essentially doubled my reps while maintaining the same weights. By the time I was done with each set my legs were on fire – veins were starting to pop out from my skin that I didn’t even know existed. I could barely walk by the time that I was done – not being able to walk isn’t a bad thing in this case – it merely shows that I properly worked out the muscle group. If you’ve watched any bad horror movies and have seen zombies stumbling about – its probably close to how I’ve been walking around. We probably smell the same too – its been a few days since we’ve had running water. Unless the world goes to hell, I’ll get my first shower in days tomorrow morning.
I’ve been resisting the urge to expunge the material in my stomach – its been 30 minutes since I’ve walked out of there but the pain is so intense that I can barely hold my guts in check. Its a hobby – albeit a painful one.
I meant to spent my evening doing something for the greater good but the water shortage deterred me doing it. I had intended to spend a few hours at the hospital doing whatever they needed to do – I didn’t want to go over there smelling like I do. Its been a few days since I’ve last showered and I’m starting to smell myself. I’m sure everyone else can smell me too.
If was in the comic strip Peanuts I would probably walking around with a dusty stink cloud around me. Then again, I think there are quite a few of us in the same situation.
This post hasn’t been made without some extreme effort. Yesterday, a schmuck accidentally cut a few fiber optic cables north of Egypt. I can’t say for sure that our internet is routed through those cables but the timing of our EXTREME connectivity problems is a bit dubious. Yesterday it took me over 20 minutes to get into my email. It was dreadfully slow – things have picked up a bit as the signals get rerouted but its a tedious experience. It reminds me of the days when I was rocking the 56k modem. Its a shame that most websites (including mine) are designed for people with some sort of broadband connection.
I don’t have much else planned for my day off – I think I’ll go watch a movie that I’ve already seen and read some more of my book. If I get really froggy I might go back to the gym for another hour or so – it gives me something productive to do and I feel better about myself after I’m done. Its my primary method of relaxing – yes – working out calms me down.
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