Been a while

I’ve been pretty busy with the new job so I’m just now getting back into the swing of things and budgeting time for this again.  For now I’m going to stick with the random thoughts and quick topics although I do have two other column topics in mind.  One is sports related and the other is based off the Hannibal Lecture quote “we covet what we see” but is in reference to dating.

Hates:
Driving
Everyday I have between a 40-60 min commute to work.  It takes me from downtown Ft. Worth and into Las Colinas.  During this drive I see so many asshole drivers.  I really don’t understand how someone can be nice in person and then a complete cocksucker when they get in their vehicle.  People will ride the shoulder as far up as possible when the lane is closing, driving past numerous signs telling them the obvious and they have to get as close as possible to an accident before merging.  What in the hell is wrong with people?  Why do they think it’s OK to have such disregard for other people when they are surrounded by half a ton of aluminum and plastic but if someone were to do this in the grocery line they would be flabbergasted?  I wish people would start doing the right thing more often for their fellow man than be conceded enough to believe the world revolves around them.

I think all the NFL owners are all douche bag jerk offs (more on this later)

I think all of the banks and finance companies that recevied bail out funds shouldn't be allwoed to give any sort of bonus to their execs.  They should also have their books scrutinized or the Ex Committee gets waterboarded- their choice

Network TV

Politically censored thoughts

Over-serious people

the cocaine and boob job crew at the playoffs.

bland food

Questions:
Concert Tickets-
My favorite band is coming to House of Blues in July, the tickets are $57 each.  I saw them two years ago with 2 other bands at The Palladium Ballroom and the cost was $31.  What in the hell is going on with concert ticket prices?  The band isn’t one heard on regular radio, they don’t have a top single not are mentioned in critically acclaimed lists or were on the Grammys.  So does it cost so damn much to see a band at House of Blues on a flipping Tuesday night???
Is online dating now an acceptible form of introduction
Is gas ever going to go down
Why do people cling to end of the world date theories?


Likes:
Turkey, bacon, and avocado
Spy Sunglasses
1953 Bowman Pee Wee Reese Color baseball card
DVS Heir Enduro- black and white color way
Monster Coffee
Summer Moon Ale
Jalapeño Cheetos
Reef Flippers
College Football season is almost here
Bolivia
EOTech Sights
Oakley Si Assault Boots
Carnita’s
1310 The Ticket
The Big German AKA DIRK!
Red Texas Rangers uniforms
Bill Simmons

Comedy Central

Things are Looking Up

Things are looking very positively up.  On my drive into work on Monday I was coming over a hill on I-30.  The weather was very overcast with a slight drizzle of rain, as I came over a hill approaching Weatherford I could see a defined horizon with the sun adamantly making its approach towards me.  I’m not one to liken a random weather occurrence to life’s up and downs but this time I had an instant feeling of calm over me.  I can’t really explain it other than the oh so obvious metaphor of a bright light shining through dark times was exactly how I felt. 

On the previous Friday I had an interview with a new company that I’ve been looking forward to.  I didn’t feel incredibly confident with the interview as a whole.  They gave me a written SQL test which I’m pretty sure I failed.  I informed my recruiter that I didn’t get a warm and cozy feeling from the interview.  Then yesterday I was offered the position, got all my paperwork done and put my notice in at my current job.  I’m very excited about the new job and its possibilities for growth.  Learning some more in depth SQL coding is another very appealing aspect of the job too.  My last day here will be 3/16 and I start the new job 3/17.  I tried to work it with a couple days off in-between but my boss said that he needs me here until he can get someone in from Houston. 

Sunday I had an indoor game pretty early in the morning.  It was my first game back since tearing my calf the second weekend of January.  The team we played wasn’t very skilled so we won 15-0.  This provided me with the opportunity to work myself in slower than normal which was good for me and the team.  Once I got home I spent almost 3hrs on the phone with AC.  It was a great conversation where we talked about everything in the world.  The conversation flowed as if we had known each other for years.  This chick blows me away.  She’s the easiest person to talk to while projecting a relaxed confidence that very few people exude.  We’re having dinner on Friday night in Austin so I’m sure we’ll pick right back up where we ended Sunday. 

Those two things together will be a great start to this weekend.  I’m heading to Austin on Friday to celebrate and the Houston Crew will be there for a mini-vacation.  I’m going to dinner with AC Friday night and then meeting everyone out at the Perd to do some ridding on the lake.  Hopefully Austin will be everything I expect it to be and then next week a new chapter will start in my life. 

Random thoughts

*I still love the line in Mall Rats with “Breakfasts come and go, Renee, but Hartford, "the Whale," they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime”

*The two best lines I heard today came on the hardline this afternoon.  “It smells like fart and loneliness in there” and “throat yogurt”

*In order of most excited list of movies this summer I really want to see:

3. Priest

2. Atlas Shrugged

1. Hangover 2

Atlas Shrugged would be number one but I can’t see how it will fare to the screen.  It’s an amazing book, but the thoughts and ideals that Ayn Rand put forth won’t translate too well.  I am excited for it though.

*In and Out Burger is coming to Dallas this weekend.  I’m interested to try it but I think it’s going to be overrated.  I hear The Habit is better.  I still want to try the burger and I hear it’s pretty great, but I’m not waiting in lines for it.

*I’ve got Mexican food on the brain, after last night’s waste of Mexican food I’m going to hit up Mexican Inn tonight.  Although I have to do laundry so maybe I’ll just order Chuy’s Take Out.

*I’m ready for the temperatures to heat up now.  It’s been chilly the last few days; ready for the warmth to kick in.  I’m also ready for this freaking calf muscle to start its healing process jump started.  I’m going to try and run or cycle tonight to loosen it up.  My training for the MS 150 has gone to crap with the injury. 

*I’ve recently found fig newtons again.  Very solid snack and underrated.  Fig Newtons, Flips, and Twizzlers are currently my favorite ones. 

*I ran out of toilet paper Sunday (today is Tuesday), I wonder at what age I make a special trip to the store for toilet paper when I run out as opposed to using the left over chipotle napkins I have.  I guess tonight since I have to stop by target I’ll get some.  I also want a new trash can for my kitchen, the one I currently have sucks.  When it’s full and you try and remove the bag it always rips multiple holes in the bag.  It’s pretty annoying.

*The funniest people on twitter are NikiWithIssues, Just_Alison, and JennsDrunk.  None are professional comedians and all have a dark sarcastic sense of humor.  All 3 are apparently hot in their 0.28”x0.28” photo on my black berry as well.  The fact that two of the 3 names give them away for loony is also a turn on.

2010- The Year for Sports Heartache

2010 was a horrible year for my favorite football teams.  Both the Longhorns and Cowboys played at a ridiculously bad level.  The Stars were… well, pretty much the same team they were from the year before.  The Mavs and Rangers were the only bright spot.  The Rangers, of all sports teams were the glowing star on top of my sports Christmas tree.  Yup, the Rangers of all teams not only made the playoffs but gave us an American League Championship Series win over the Baseball Anti-Christ Yankees.

Texas was bad, very, very bad.  The highlight of the season was the Nebraska game which gave us hope; it was more of a tease.  We thought after that game the ship was righted and they had their swagger back.  The Longhorns wouldn’t lose again for the rest of the season or at least that was what my thoughts were.  The decisions Mack made and the defense slipping so far were heart wrenching.  Even with the offense firing on 2 cylinders we thought the defense would keep them in the game.  I’m not sure what Will Muschamp was drawing up but it seemed to work for about 15% of the time.  Texas was consistently punched in the mouth by every running back they faced.  The inept offense continued running my kryptonite offensive play: throw across the field behind the line of scrimmage to the wideout and hope he can break a tackle.  It worked as well as their non-existent running game.  Saturday’s became so disheartening that I began to dread any highlights of UT’s game knowing full well it would showcase their opponents running skills.  The only benefit from their horrible performance was “cheating” time.  I snuck a few Pac 10 games, a little more SEC, and devoted more than a few afternoons watching TCU.  I purchased a couple purple shirts of my new adopted city’s home team and cheered them on with great fervor.  When UT lost to Aggie in their final game of the season I was slightly relived I wouldn’t have to see ads for “Your University of Texas Longhorns will be taking on the Winona State  Warriors in the Aladdin Cups Car Care Cup Holder Bowl”.  With a new season brewing I was once again ready for National Signing day and looking to see what recruits committed to them.  The whole team knowing McCoy and Shipley 2.0 were in the making while hoping the new coordinator faces bring some life into this team.  I sure hope UT gets a running game this year too….

Dallas looked equally incompetent and clumsy.  Once Romo was lost the team gave up and you could see it in almost every play.  Keith Brooking looked every bit his 35 years of age, the secondary couldn’t cover anyone, and every shot of Wade Phillips from the sideline looked as if he was starring at the Burger House menu but couldn’t quite figure out what to condiments and sides to order.  Once he was finally fired by Jerry a collective sigh of relief was instantly heard from the Metro-plex.  The move to Jason Garrett was initially thought of as a band aid until the season was over and (fingers crossed) Chucky Gruden or bill Cowher would land at DFW wearing silver and blue.  Then a strange thing happened; Jason Garrett knew what he was talking about and his game plan was followed.  Garrett followed a few Jimmy Johnson theories: Practice in pads, practice as you will play, and dress nice on the team charter.  These little changes along with the major ones helped Dallas psyche tremendously.  You could tell the team had talent, but it wasn’t being put to use.  I have high aspirations this year due to the return of Romo and Dez, the draft (did we really buy the BS a few years ago of drafting for special teams), and mainly due to Garrett being able to implant his system from the start of camp. 

I’m going to skip over the Stars and Mavs for now.  The Stars missed the play offs again and the Mavs went about as far as they were expected to.  I think the Mavs are pretty fairly rated on a consistent basis.  They are one of the few teams that isn’t over or underrated, they are rated correctly.  I’m a huge fan of everything that Cuban has done and I go to 4 or 5 games a year and catch another 20-25 or so on TV.  Since they are playing right now it’s more relevant to focus on this year and I’ll postpone that topic for another day.

The Rangers.  The wholly shit did that actually just happen Texas Rangers.  The MLB season is looooong.  Unless sports is your job there just isn’t a way to catch three quarters of the games on TV.  With the day games, the time changes from East to West coast games, and double headers it’s almost impossible to catch a majority of games.  Listening to baseball on the radio is horrendous.  Baseball is a game of anticipation which doesn’t translate well to radio broadcasting IMHO.  With that in mind I still caught a decent number of games on TV during the week nights, on the weekends, or heading out to the ball park to see them live.  The rangers have always been treated as the metro-plex’s red headed step child (sorry Jerry) since their lack of consistency and notorious failing.  This season had a different aura on it pretty much from the start.  Nolan Ryan’s presence in pitching made me feel good.  I can still remember the days of Ryan playing and man was he an intimidating presence.  Here was a guy who was in his forties and throwing at an amazing speed racking up career milestones.  Then came August 4^th, 1993; the Robin Ventura episode.  If you have to ask about it, you should be shot.  That day entrenched Nolan into the Ranger Faithful, hell even Astros fans loved it.  But I digress…  Ryan in the bullpen teaching to pitch more by feel and fatigue than pitch count seemed odd to everyone under 40.  I remember talking to my dad about this.  He told me that when he was in high school in Hereford, he pitched one game, and then caught the next game of a double header.  He went on to play a little college ball, but that was the mindset back then.  When the pitching and the bats were on point very early on people were heading out to the ballpark, but the mindset was to see a fun game with the undertones of “knowing” this won’t last.  About midway through the season there was still a strong buzz about the Rangers.  Towards the end of the regular season the DFW area had a sports boner for the Rangers.  They made the play offs and had a great chance to get to get to the ALCS if they beat Tampa.  During the telecast (which was shown during the worst possible windows ever) every sports bar was packed, blue and red were prominently seen on people who couldn’t tell you who Toby Hara, Juando, or Pudge were.  The atmosphere was awesome throughout the DFW.  Once Texas dispatched of the Rays and the Yankees were the ALCS opponent people were still pretty confident in Texas.  I remember seeing a sports graph ESPN put up where you guess the outcome and the show the results by state.  Texas and Oklahoma picked the Rangers, but the rest of America had the Yanks, in a sweep I might add.  The games were great from start to finish, awesome endings, A-rod going down looking and before you know it the little Rangers (not the little Mavericks) were headed to the World Series.   It wasn’t the ending we all hoped for; I’ll leave the story here. 

With so much sports drama in 2010 I sure hope 2011 fears better.  I’m not sure how well my Saturday and Sundays will fare if my teams are in the same category as Cleveland.

Retort: Where have the good men gone- WSJ, Kay S. Hymowitz

This morning I was reading through the journal and came across this article by Kay Hymowitz.  The gist of it is women are set to start making a family and become an adult well before men who now relish in video games, one night stands, and binge drinking trips to Vegas.  From spending time in 3 major cities from my early twenties to now being thirty-one I’ve come to dispute this to a degree.  Each city has its own culture and within that you have multiple sub-cultures that exist.  The singles scene in Dallas is entirely different in LA and neither is like Austin.  From everything the author says I’m going to assume that she lives in NYC.  Her opinions as well as the comedian, Julie Klausner, she references are ripe with prejudice from their industry and cities.  As a comedian making a living your living situation isn’t stable.  You’re constantly on the road, working late hours due to the scheduling of comedy shows, and the allowance for routine isn’t readily available.   As a writer almost the same situation applies as above.  I also know from personal experience the dating pools in both LA and NYC are fairly lacking.

The mindsets of women who are dating in today’s time are considerably different in the real world then the writer gives credit for.  Women in major economical powerhouses such as Dallas, LA, and NYC aren’t mainly focused on settling down or dating in the traditional sense in their early to mid twenties.  I think a portion of this comes from the “I deserve this” attitude handed out by Sex and the City, the reality TV shows, and idolizing people for their whorish ways.  Women want to be neck deep in the scene factories these cities produce.  They want to be with the $30,000 millionaires, they want the appearance of living the lives of celebrities and all that entails.  The women in Dallas have an idea that you should provide for them the life they think will make them happy.  More often than not this revolves around materialistic items as opposed to emotional support.  The women I’ve hung out with and dated in and around these major metropolitan cities will let you in their body in a heartbeat, ask them something to let you in their mind or heart and you have a better chance of winning the lottery.  Women these days want a guy that is built in the image they have for prince charming.  This idea they have built up to have every piece exactly as imagined is a humorous all be it ambitious way to go about dating.  From my experience the majority of women in these cities aren’t looking for an emotional need; the ones that are have been the exception.  Women don’t seem to want to settle down until they start getting near their 30’s.  They don’t want a relationship with someone who is emotionally available.

Guys, in general, seem to see how far they can take something before they get their hand slapped.  In the case of relationships or as a lot of people call it these days, “hanging out”, guys will continue on the one night stand/ hook up with someone until they aren’t allowed.  From an age of friends with benefits where courting someone has become such an oddity can you really blame the guy for the situation?  I have a good number of girl friends that have fallen into the trap of allowing the following scenario.  They meet at a bar with their friends, later in the night the guy shows up with his friends and they leave together at the end of the night.  The next morning the guy or girl leaves bright and early.  This also happens when one person sends a txt around 1:00 with the intention of meeting up after 2:00 when they leave.   This relationship of sorts continues like this for weeks or a months until one of the people assumes they are dating and they wither become a couple or separate because of differing opinion.  The differing opinion is what gets me.  There is a test I use when I look to see if dating is in play or this is just hanging out. 

1.       Do you see each other in environments that do not involve alcohol?

2.       Does the communication routinely start before 9:00pm

3.       Is there an assumption from either group of friends the other will be joining you for plus one situations?

4.       Have you had any sort of in-depth conversation where drugs, sex, cartoons, or movies weren’t the main focal point?

5.       Have you ever spent the day with them, tubing down the river, partying on the lake, attending a beer garden or football games does not constitute spending a day with this person.

If the majority of the answers are no then you aren’t going to end up dating the person you are hanging out with anytime soon.  Most likely never unless the hanging out had recently started.  I firmly believe you can’t force the transition from hook up to dating.  If one party’s idea of taking the relationship to the next level is inviting them to pre-drink with you before going to the bar things won’t work out.  Girls, for some unknown reason, tend to gravitate towards project guys.  They want to fix and mend then mold this person until the person they really think they are capable of being.  The problem is, most guys don’t care who you want us to be.  You push, we run.  Numerous relationships start out with both parties not looking to be in a relationship.  Girls see a guy (or vice versa) who they think is very attractive and has a devil may care attitude which they find sexy.  They’ll date him for a few months, usually finding out very quickly in the relationship they are low on this persons priority list.  I’ve found that girls want a guy that isn’t too available.  Since they aren’t looking for a relationship they continue on this redundant process. 

I think the author of this story negates to address the problem as a whole.  Guys or boys or men all have routines.  We are simple creatures by nature and easy to understand.  The issues come when a woman tries to apply her logic to a guy; it’s nowhere near the same.  It’d be like comparing simple arithmetic (guys) to wave mechanics (girls).  We just don’t over analyze and complicate things as much as you all.  One of the funny quotes in the article, “They watched movies with overgrown boy actors like Steve Carell, Luke and Owen Wilson, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Will Farrell and Seth Rogen, cheering their awesome car crashes, fart jokes, breast and crotch shots, beer pong competitions and other frat-boy pranks”.  What the author doesn’t seem to understand is that this really is the essence of the male.  At some point we all partially grow up.  By partially I mean we can be corralled into doing dinner functions and present acceptable behavior in some public situations.  I have some very intelligent friends (I don’t lump myself into that category); more lawyers than I should know, a soon to be dentist, investment bankers, network administrators, and a doctor.  Yet we all go into hysterical laughter when someone gets hit in the nuts.  We get speechless at the site of a beautiful woman who is a little cold and “it’s a wee bit nipply” style jokes come out in droves.  These same people do and say everything the author things is boyish.  As a man, in age only, this is who I am.  It hasn’t changed since the dawn of time, yet for some reason women tend to believe they can change who a man is fundamentally.  Note the author in the article cited multiple physiological experiments, DNA tests, statistics to come to her conclusion.  She could’ve gone to a local pub and done an hour of observation to get the same loop sided conclusion.

Teaching/ Union rant

There is a big stir going on right now about the pay cut to teachers in Wisconsin.  There was also a huge out cry when “Waiting for Superman” suggested that bad test scores were brought on by bad teachers.  I think if anyone is honest with themselves they know bad test scores are a combination of bad teachers, students not paying attention, and teachers having to teach for a test as opposed to real world applications.  Everyone had teachers growing up throughout the course of their educational journey who were horrible.  They treated everything as black and white (unless the subject is math it doesn’t hold water) and ruled the classroom with an iron fist.  We also had teachers that could care less about anything that went on in their classroom.  They were usually older and tenured treating the class with the same enthusiasm of a bad marriage; going through the motions just enough to get by.

My personal issue with unions of any kind boil down to protecting the weakest members at the expense of the public.  They are also ripe with corruption.  There are always hundreds of stories of corruption, walk outs, picketing, etc from every labor, police, or teaching union every year.  Its basely politics with a pyramid scheme in play.  The closest thing I’ve ever come to being involved in a union type job was when I was in the military, so I don’t have direct firsthand knowledge.  From the research I’ve done unions aren’t beneficial in today’s modern society.  In the public sector you don’t get a blanket raise every year regardless of performance, you can be fired at any time for any reason, and you climb the promotion ladder based on your talent level, not seniority.  I manage a good number of people now and I filter out and fire (I know management would rather I say release) whoever doesn’t make the cut.  I don’t care if they have been with the company for years, if they don’t perform then I let them go.  Now I do try to see if their skill set is better put to use in another department before I fire them and I give them an opportunity to improve their performance.  More often than not though they go the way of the word processor.  This isn’t so in Unions, you have to show just cause for firing someone and you have to put in multiple corrective action forms along with continuing education training before showing a panel someone should be released.  That’s ridiculous!  It constantly allows people to perform at a certain base level instead of achieving a bell curve like result that a normal company has in its employees.  If the employee performance is flat it shows collusion between employees not to beat certain levels of performance and production.  The standard theory is if you can make x widgets x hours then that is your base, some people will do x+5 and some x-2 widgets but you have a base.  The whole theory in unions is everyone always makes X widgets. Period.  If you make X+5 widgets then management expects the base to increase to X+5 and you should only increase your base when it’s time to negotiate a new contract.

In teaching it’s a lot different, but their some best practices that need to be put in place.  I strongly feel education as a whole needs to be overhauled.  The same basic education system hasn’t been touched in 15 years.  The subjects taught need to be re-vamped and updated from Kindergarten through high school.  I think cursive writing should be taken out, foreign languages should be installed way earlier than junior high, mathematics should be applied and budgeting along with computer courses that teach excel should be mandatory.  History in general needs to be updated.  There are huge portions of world and US history that are routinely left out or given a small paragraph on.  Teaching for a test doesn’t impress upon a student the need for continuing education throughout their life time.  All it does is reinforce to students they are only learning this portion of information to score well on a test.  It’s a short term goal that doesn’t continue to long term learning. 

Teachers that provoke our thoughts and challenge our minds are the ones we remember.  Those are the teachers that should be getting paid a lot more.  Yet they are usually the ones that are ostracized by the masses.  I do think as a whole teacher’s should be paid more, a lot more.  If you job is to train societies next batch of humans to contribute to society the goal should be to get the best and brightest people in there.  Private Schools act this way and make a large profit doing so, public schooling should take a clue from the public sector and start operating under this notion.  They can’t though; the union wouldn’t allow hiring the best person for the job because they are available.  They wouldn’t allow replacing someone who has constantly let down the students and treated teaching with indifference.  They can’t truly gauge how a teacher interacts with his or her students because they have to give adequate notice on reviews.  Is it any wonder the profitable companies become so by their actions and governments at every level are going broke due to their operating procedures?  Would Warren Buffett, Gordan Bethune, or Michael Dell even consider operating their companies in the way a union or government does?

ATX Job Hunting

I’ve recently decided to move back to Austin.  I was talking to Lani on the phone last night and she made a lot of good points for coming home.  My reason for staying in Dallas was always worked related.  Since I changed jobs and this one wasn’t anything near what I thought it would be I might as well start looking in ATX.  The market in Austin is definitely more competitive and the pay isn’t the same, but I think the quality of life in Austin is so much better. 

The last weekend being in Austin reaffirmed by belief in this.  We didn’t do anything we wouldn’t have done any other weekend but it’s the people that make the experience so much better.  Being able to hang out with my really good friends and reminiscing about things from the past was great.  Most of my friends are now married, have a kid on the way, or are engaged but being able to sit and talk with them through dinner or over drinks was great.  People in Austin don’t have the initial reaction to judge you based on your appearance, job, or vehicle.  It’s all about who you are and what values you hold true.  Even with random people in Austin I’m able to hold debates on subjects that would inspire fury in Dallas due to a difference of opinion.  Austin people just seem more open minded about everything.  The women are hands down better than Dallas; each time to go to Austin I meet someone new that is great.  She is entertaining, has a unique style, and seems like a genuinely good person.  It’s about 1% of the girls in Dallas that come off to any of this degree.  The ability to road bike and mountain bike is way better, the food isn’t a competition, and the lake scene is the best in Texas.  I know that I mentioned the women, but when you combine a healthy city, with 3 colleges, and good industry you have a Mecca for the most beautiful girls ever.

I applied for a few jobs at a company in Austin today and I’m going to start blasting out the resume tonight when I get home.  I definitely have a high outlook for a possible future if I can just get back to ATX and find a job.  So if anyone out there knows of a company in Austin that is looking to hire someone with Crystal/ SQL/ Access/ Excel certs for a business analyst I’m all in!