Monday - Jan 22nd
After months of discussions with my friends and family, I have decided that I would like to have my own voice in my local government. So after work, I ran down to the Wichita City Hall and went to the city clerk on the 13th floor. I filled out a few forms, wrote 2 checks, one for $10 and one for $35 and I was on the primary ballot. That's it. It took me about 15 minutes (including the snap shot the clerk took for me) and $45 to become a candidate. I walked out of city hall very proud, this is my first time running for an elected office. Even though it was 5pm, my day was just beginning. I ran home, formulating plans as I drove, and grabbed a quick bite of dinner and my school books. Monday night is Micro-Economics and it was the first day of class. The professor makes us mingle for an exercise and I use the opportunity to introduce myself as a candidate for the first time. There is an excitement in those words, every time I say them. It motivates me even more to be successful. After class, I took 5 minutes to ask the professor a few questions about her thoughts of the Wichita economy, what she says validates my months of ramblings. When I get home, I stay up til 1am studying the incumbent's record for the last 4 years and to find any information I can. The hard work is just starting.
1.28.2007
Happy Birthday Ethan!
Congratulations to my cousin Jill and her husband Kevin on the birth of thier first baby on Saturday Jan. 27th. Ethan Craig is a beautiful healthy baby boy that I got to spend some time with yesterday, and he is absolutely peaceful. Mom and baby are resting peacefully at Wesley, stop by the birthing center if you can and give them your best wishes!
1.24.2007
Jason Wenke Announces Bid for City Council District 2 Seat
Wichita KS January 24 2007
Jason Wenke is now a candidate for Wichita City Council for District 2 after filing with the city clerk on Monday. Jason was born and raised in Wichita until age 14 when his family moved to Halstead Kansas where he graduated high school in 1993. After high school, he worked and attended college until joining the US Navy as an aircraft mechanic at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. After 3 years he was promoted to an E5 and ran the high-tempo Airframes shop during his last year of service. Jason returned to Wichita in 2000 after he was honorably discharged and was hired on at Raytheon Aircraft as a line assembler. He has continued successful employment in a number of jobs from the shop floor, to production control and is now a part of Supply Chain Management. He is a member of APICS Wichita, a production and inventory control certification association. Jason is currently working toward his degree in Business Management at WSU. He is also an active member of the Young Professionals of Wichita as part of the Leadership Link action team.
Jason is an advocate of civic and personal responsibility. He believes the city council needs to be accountable and transparent to the citizens through a more effective use of the tax dollars and by ensuring projects are completed on time and on budget.
Jason supports both residential and business development to draw people back to the center of Wichita and supports a higher level of cooperation and communication between city, county and Wichita education leaders to better the community as a whole.
Jason feels that the key to a strong economic future is attracting more diverse businesses to Wichita while continuing to support the strong manufacturing industry. He feels this can be done by providing a foundation for other industries in the region and supporting better education to develop the future generations into a more diverse and productive workforce.
As part of the city council, Jason would like to develop economically viable attractions. He feels this can be done by working to make the current attractions self-sufficient and also developing innovative entertainment destinations that the community will support.
12.06.2006
Disconnected
Some may have noticed that I haven't been online for a few days. The cable company has been having issues that got fixed Friday. After that, we come to find out that my modem went bad. So now I have a new modem and I'm linked back up with the collective, obviously :)
I did get about half way thru a pretty good book in my days of information exile. It's called the culture of fear. It makes you think about the trash that you read and hear on the news. Check it out. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
I did get about half way thru a pretty good book in my days of information exile. It's called the culture of fear. It makes you think about the trash that you read and hear on the news. Check it out. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
11.25.2006
Thinking About Freedom
A while back, I watched a documentary about why the United States has become such a war prone nation. It began with the farewell speech of president Dwight D. Eisenhower when he left office in January 17th, 1961. I went and found the whole speech here (link) so I could read all of what he said in his own context. In my opinion, it speaks volumes on the state of our country today. If you get a chance, watch the movie "Why We Fight" to learn more about our wars. For now, arm yourself with a bit of knowledge of the past. Here is Eisenhower's speech in it's entirety. I've highlighted some of the parts I thought were important.
Eisenhower's Farewell Address
My fellow Americans:
Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.
This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.
Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.
My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.
In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well; to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.
II
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
III
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology-global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty at stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research-these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs-balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage-balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between action of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.
IV
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, and even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, and every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
V
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
VI
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war-as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years-I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.
Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.
VII
So-in this my last good night to you as your President-I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find something worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.
You and I-my fellow citizens-need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.
To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:
We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.
Eisenhower's Farewell Address
My fellow Americans:
Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.
This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.
Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.
My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.
In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well; to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.
II
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
III
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology-global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty at stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research-these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs-balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage-balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between action of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.
IV
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, and even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, and every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
V
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
VI
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war-as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years-I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.
Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.
VII
So-in this my last good night to you as your President-I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find something worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.
You and I-my fellow citizens-need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.
To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:
We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.
11.05.2006
Saturday Night or Sunday Morning
It's 6:00 on a crisp fall morning
or night is the appropriate term
staring down the full moon
on my porch steps
listening to the maple leaves
fall one by one
It's an improbable time
to be contemplating the evening
or night
that is quickly shifting to morning
The full open face mocks me
almost condescending
"Do you really think
that you said something witty
or full of meaning
something worth remembering?
You're sitting here
watching the sky shift to dawn
getting covered in leaves
that don't care where they fall"
I laugh in his face
with a wink and a smile
It doesn't matter if I did
I was there the whole while
I spoke my mind
open and honest
and had fun all the time.
It wasn't a contest.
With me... or her.
Or even you Mr. Moon
so don't smirk at me
if I sit here and swoon.
Don't laugh at me
as you run from the sun
your day is over now
but mine has just begun.
or night is the appropriate term
staring down the full moon
on my porch steps
listening to the maple leaves
fall one by one
It's an improbable time
to be contemplating the evening
or night
that is quickly shifting to morning
The full open face mocks me
almost condescending
"Do you really think
that you said something witty
or full of meaning
something worth remembering?
You're sitting here
watching the sky shift to dawn
getting covered in leaves
that don't care where they fall"
I laugh in his face
with a wink and a smile
It doesn't matter if I did
I was there the whole while
I spoke my mind
open and honest
and had fun all the time.
It wasn't a contest.
With me... or her.
Or even you Mr. Moon
so don't smirk at me
if I sit here and swoon.
Don't laugh at me
as you run from the sun
your day is over now
but mine has just begun.
10.15.2006
Make Mine A Double
Here's something to add to the silliness. I like my mix pretty well, just garnish with something black if you like it a little spicy 
| How to make a Wenke |
| Ingredients: 1 part intelligence 1 part humour 1 part energy |
| Method: Add to a cocktail shaker and mix vigorously. Add lustfulness to taste! Do not overindulge! |
10.07.2006
Halloween 2006 Party!
Its that time again! Come out and have some fun!
Message me to RSVP or if you need the details. Surprise us all with a fun costume!
Message me to RSVP or if you need the details. Surprise us all with a fun costume!
8.27.2006
Veni Vidi Vici
Blame it on the silly lil bulletin I posted earlier, or the bottle of homeade hard cider I've been drinking tonight, or my hyperactive imagination... But an interesting concept fired off the synapses this evening.
At what point do the actions of a person quit being the result of that person, and become something that defines that person? When do actions quit being the means and start being the ends? We see it in movies, television, books, etc. where a person starts down the slippery slope, hits the bottom, only to come back in the end and show the world that they are still the wholesome hero that they started out as. Is it the slippery slope that defines us? How far down we go? Maybe its the dramatic recovery that hooks viewers but that's not life.
I see it all the time where we judge the person by what they have done. I try to maintain the objectiveness and not judge a person by their actions, but I am just a man with all his beautiful flaws. I jump to conclusions, judge the book by its cover. No matter how much I try to seperate the emotion from the logic, I still have the gut reaction that condems the subject by whatever few actions are shared with the public. I say all of this is just trying to predict the nature of a person by their actions.
While it is true that the universe follows patterns, there is so much more that we cannot comprehend. That's why there is the rule that every forecast is wrong. No matter how well we can identify the pattern, there is still the wild card that nobody can put thier finger on. Coincidence, fate, serendipity... The little bit of chaos that we cannot contain. But yet we look at the past to give us some kind of insight into the future.
So how do we look at a person; a collection of actions, circumstances and appearances; and decide that person is good or bad? How can we say that the ends define the means? I don't want to do that. Even more, it bothers me when other people do that. Yet I still work my ass off. I create all kinds of positive actions to try to define myself as a good person. Is it just an attempt to throw the scales in my favor? Offset my negatives with some kind of goodness to over-compensate and make me look good? All I can really say with any real conviction is that I have to do it with every bit of force I have.
Whatever "it" is... good or bad.
At what point do the actions of a person quit being the result of that person, and become something that defines that person? When do actions quit being the means and start being the ends? We see it in movies, television, books, etc. where a person starts down the slippery slope, hits the bottom, only to come back in the end and show the world that they are still the wholesome hero that they started out as. Is it the slippery slope that defines us? How far down we go? Maybe its the dramatic recovery that hooks viewers but that's not life.
I see it all the time where we judge the person by what they have done. I try to maintain the objectiveness and not judge a person by their actions, but I am just a man with all his beautiful flaws. I jump to conclusions, judge the book by its cover. No matter how much I try to seperate the emotion from the logic, I still have the gut reaction that condems the subject by whatever few actions are shared with the public. I say all of this is just trying to predict the nature of a person by their actions.
While it is true that the universe follows patterns, there is so much more that we cannot comprehend. That's why there is the rule that every forecast is wrong. No matter how well we can identify the pattern, there is still the wild card that nobody can put thier finger on. Coincidence, fate, serendipity... The little bit of chaos that we cannot contain. But yet we look at the past to give us some kind of insight into the future.
So how do we look at a person; a collection of actions, circumstances and appearances; and decide that person is good or bad? How can we say that the ends define the means? I don't want to do that. Even more, it bothers me when other people do that. Yet I still work my ass off. I create all kinds of positive actions to try to define myself as a good person. Is it just an attempt to throw the scales in my favor? Offset my negatives with some kind of goodness to over-compensate and make me look good? All I can really say with any real conviction is that I have to do it with every bit of force I have.
Whatever "it" is... good or bad.
8.01.2006
...And then the papa tomato says "ketchup"
OK, so it has been a score since the last time I actually sat down and dumped my brains on some paper. It's technically been 0.015 score, but folks are terrible at math these days. So here's the abridged version of the summer with all my news that's fit to print, granted I can print it in 30 minutes or less.
I finished my spring semester at WSU, two A's and a B 'cause I'm a friggin' genius. The 17 and 18 year old freshmen don't have nuthin on me, except the hope of a boundless future and smart decisions.
A big company up in Montreal, Canada flew me up there for a nice weekend and a job interview. I got a job offer on the spot, double my salary but I would have to cut ties with everything here (family, friends, house, job, school) and start all over in Los Angeles. At least I grew up on gangsta rap so I'd know the native dialect.
While I took two weeks to make my decision, I got an interview and job offer for a promotion at my current company. It was for a different kind of job as the other offer, so I was at a career crossroads. I was not ready to pick up my roots quite yet, so I pushed my luck and asked for a fat raise along with the promotion (that's phat loot for you west-siders). Since my only true skill is applying pressure to said luck, I made out the best I could.
Amidst all these easy life changing decisions, my friends and I went to Lake of the Ozarks for Memorial weekend. My buddy has a house and boat right on the lake so we spent a long weekend drinking beer, cruising around the lake, watching pretty women, cliff jumping, my poor atempt at water skiing, and yet more beer drinking. For as much as I avoid the sun, I had an amazingly fun weekend.
So back to school for the summer... this time it was Business Statistics and the Information Systems lab. In other words, the joy of charts and how to make them in Excel. Lucky for me, that's what I do at work since noone else can seem to understand the cryptic symbols they call "numbers". Once again, a two wonderful A's again. See, I told you's I's a friggin genius. (sorry, that sounded much better in my head).
Now it's been a few weeks at the new job. My stress level has been reduced to almost nothing. That has been by far the hardest adjustment I have had to make in my career. for the last 12 years, I have worked in high stress environments. The steady pressure has always been a fire that has tempered me with a valuable hardness but luckily hasn't burned me out. Without that fire to keep me motivated, I'm having to figure out how to deal with work the way the rest of you folks do. I can tell you that normal is not normal for me. We shall see how this hand plays out...
So this past weekend, some more friends and I headed up to Hays and Wilson lake for a peaceful weekend of camping, swimming, drinking and conversations. I've made it through another summer with two trips to the lake and no sunburns this year. Gotta tell ya, it's been one of the best summers ever.
So here we are at today, a few weeks from the start of the fall semester. On the menu this time is Management and Organization, Marketing and the coup de gras... Oceanography. Not exactly my most wanted choice, but you gotta do some silly stuff when you are chasing that paper. It should be interesting at least, and that's always appealing. On the homefront, things are peaceful. The cats are terrors, but they are my lil terrors. The family has been patient with me and that's always nice since I'm hard on most nerves out there.
So there's my ketchup. Hopefully most get the Pulp Fiction reference and hopefully I will be able to maintain this a bit better. God knows I need to speak out more
I finished my spring semester at WSU, two A's and a B 'cause I'm a friggin' genius. The 17 and 18 year old freshmen don't have nuthin on me, except the hope of a boundless future and smart decisions.
A big company up in Montreal, Canada flew me up there for a nice weekend and a job interview. I got a job offer on the spot, double my salary but I would have to cut ties with everything here (family, friends, house, job, school) and start all over in Los Angeles. At least I grew up on gangsta rap so I'd know the native dialect.
While I took two weeks to make my decision, I got an interview and job offer for a promotion at my current company. It was for a different kind of job as the other offer, so I was at a career crossroads. I was not ready to pick up my roots quite yet, so I pushed my luck and asked for a fat raise along with the promotion (that's phat loot for you west-siders). Since my only true skill is applying pressure to said luck, I made out the best I could.
Amidst all these easy life changing decisions, my friends and I went to Lake of the Ozarks for Memorial weekend. My buddy has a house and boat right on the lake so we spent a long weekend drinking beer, cruising around the lake, watching pretty women, cliff jumping, my poor atempt at water skiing, and yet more beer drinking. For as much as I avoid the sun, I had an amazingly fun weekend.
So back to school for the summer... this time it was Business Statistics and the Information Systems lab. In other words, the joy of charts and how to make them in Excel. Lucky for me, that's what I do at work since noone else can seem to understand the cryptic symbols they call "numbers". Once again, a two wonderful A's again. See, I told you's I's a friggin genius. (sorry, that sounded much better in my head).
Now it's been a few weeks at the new job. My stress level has been reduced to almost nothing. That has been by far the hardest adjustment I have had to make in my career. for the last 12 years, I have worked in high stress environments. The steady pressure has always been a fire that has tempered me with a valuable hardness but luckily hasn't burned me out. Without that fire to keep me motivated, I'm having to figure out how to deal with work the way the rest of you folks do. I can tell you that normal is not normal for me. We shall see how this hand plays out...
So this past weekend, some more friends and I headed up to Hays and Wilson lake for a peaceful weekend of camping, swimming, drinking and conversations. I've made it through another summer with two trips to the lake and no sunburns this year. Gotta tell ya, it's been one of the best summers ever.
So here we are at today, a few weeks from the start of the fall semester. On the menu this time is Management and Organization, Marketing and the coup de gras... Oceanography. Not exactly my most wanted choice, but you gotta do some silly stuff when you are chasing that paper. It should be interesting at least, and that's always appealing. On the homefront, things are peaceful. The cats are terrors, but they are my lil terrors. The family has been patient with me and that's always nice since I'm hard on most nerves out there.
So there's my ketchup. Hopefully most get the Pulp Fiction reference and hopefully I will be able to maintain this a bit better. God knows I need to speak out more
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