10.25.09
Posted in Penny Circular at 5:50 PM by Myles
“It’s ‘Wib’.”.
I’ve returned from a trip to D.C. for a burial at Arlington National Cemetery. It took 13 years, but the people involved finally agreed to bury my grandfather. I’ve been keeping him in my trunk the whole time.
Not really.
But it was really interesting: a firing squad, the band, the POW//MIA flag, an audience of three random civilians being accompanied by a similarly random camouflaged military person [who saluted the remains as we passed], and everything else. They even passed out [inert] shell casings that I was able to pass through airport security twice [Newark NJ airport is not the best].
The widow, my last living grandmother [and grandparent], is from The South with connections to folks who fought on that side of the Civil War. The fellow from Arlington who was playing the “family funeral coordinator”-type role had the same last name of the widow and was African American. And I got to be in D.C. during Obama’s administration.
The way back from D.C. to CA was not the best. Nobody died because they caught the fuel leak before takeoff. We did get back into CA at the less-desirable airport destination about 6 hours after schedule via stopping over in NJ instead of Houston.
That might not have been so bad had I not had to go into work at 10:30p for grave shift a couple hours after getting home… with thinking that I had left all my keys in the hotel room which has limited desk-clerk service.
So: after being awake for 28.5 hours straight, not dying on the way home from D.C. or from work, finding all my keys that I actually did not leave in the hotel room, absorbing the experience of being in D.C. for the second time in 20 years and participating in an Arlington funeral, the only things I need to do is unpack in my new apartment and get married.
I can worry about still having a job next year… next year. Which is a few months out at any rate.
Be Seeing You.
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10.15.09
Posted in Penny Circular at 12:22 PM by Myles
Dealing with people who have absolutely no Reading Comprehension is awful.
1) Please read the following sentence: “The sky is blue.”
2) Hmm. “The sky is blue.”. So, what color is the sky?
1) Blue. Just like it says.
2) Ok. The color is blue. What is blue colored?
1) The… the sky. The sky is blue.
2) Ok, got it. “The sky is blue.”. The color is sky, right?
1) Blue! Blue is the color! Of the sky!
2) “The sky is blue.” Yes, I remember. But which is the color — “blue”, or “sky”?
1) … Killing you will improve the world.
2) That’s not nice to say… I’m just trying to understand what “blue” and “sky” mean.
1) And yet it was the President who had issue with only the word “is” — and that’s because of all the lawyers.
Things Learned At The Bar.
• Bob Costas looks like Mark Hamill
• ST:Voy at a bar really is cool.
• Knowing someone for 2.5 years counts as “way back” and gets you free stuff. Including… um… stuff.
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10.11.09
Posted in Telling Stories at 1:59 PM by Myles
In my bid to move, and keep certain people happy, I posted a few pieces of furniture for sale and give-away.
Today, I sold a piece of furniture to the president of Neusoft America Inc, who is himself moving into a condo.
CraigsList, like eBay, is a great and terrible thing.
Be Seeing You.
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10.07.09
Posted in Telling Stories at 7:20 AM by Myles
There are two threads to this story, so enjoy.
::Thread One::
At my new job, I work with a father-son tag-team. Sometimes one gets emails intended for the other.
The same thing happens with other coworkers who share the same exact name with other employees.
No one confuses themselves with each other.
::Thread Two::
My last name runs the risk of mis-spelling, and I’m used to dealing with it.
Less often, my first name also runs the risk of confusion. Commonly replaced with “Mike”, with the outlier of “Nyles”, I usually go with it more often than with my last name.
The past few years, I’ve encountered several “Miles Nielsen” folks other than myself. I befriended one on Facebook. We haven’t confused each other with ourselves.
::Convergence::
At my new job, there is a “Mike Nielsen” in software. We’re next to each other in the directory. I have yet to receive his emails. I can’t speak for him about mine, though I truly suspect it’s happened in at least one occasion.
Yesterday, I open an email from my boss which detailed assignments requiring completion by the end of the week. Several have “M. Nielsen” as the responsible person — a surprise and concern to me, as I was unaware of any context [which I would have been given how these particular issues are assigned].
After inquiring, I was informed that I had confused myself with “Mike Nielsen”.
In the words of Jude Law, “How am I not myself?”.
Be Seeing You.
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10.05.09
Posted in Penny Circular at 2:31 AM by Myles
I’ve been on grave shift for the past 3 weeks or so. I switch to swing shift on this coming Tuesday. Add this to moving [due to end by Halloween Or Else], getting married in less than a month, a funeral trip, awaiting a second funeral to happen that I am not personally attending, the overtime included in the shift work… plus funding questions and rumors at work… and yeah.
After about 4h of sleep, and a really cool and interesting dream starring Richard Belzer and a particular family from my olde church, I gave up on Plan A on recalibrating to swing shift. Hence the time of this post and more of S10 of L&O:SVU… love those “ripped from the headlines” stories that you can recognize.
On a side note, a bartender at my favorite local bar quit recently. I can only guess that she got the job she was in process for. There’s an alleged new bartender newly in training [and the gossip was fun].
Be Seeing You.
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