Why pet's are important

In life we are graced with Love from many sources.  There are family, friends and pets.  My family means everything to me, both my immediate and extended family.  My friends define me as a person.  My pets however, ground me.  Love abounds with all the above. 

My family includes my wife and daughters along with my mother, brother, two sisters and my wife's entire family.  I love them all.  I did not leave my father and father-in-law out.  Unfortunately they both passed but, not without influencing my life.  My father sacrificed so much to make sure that all of his children accomplished whatever they wanted.  Truly he is my hero.  My father-in-law was an awesome person who made sure his daughters and son moved forward in life.  Each of these men were true heroes to the families they left behind.  Although my brother, sisters and I weren't very close growing up we are very close now.  My wife's family are very close and I enjoy being with them very much.  Our being so far away from them is a strain for us all.  I have gained a true appreciation of family since my youth.  Any of my cousins reading this, let me know that I appreciate all you as well.  You guys have seen the very worst of me and some of the good and never judged.

In my life I have been honored to know some very special friends.  They have all been there for me when I needed it most. People like Steve, Carl, Billy, Pat, Chris, Harold, Tuna, Leo, Darell, Kipper and Skip came along in my life exactly when I needed them and helped to make who who I am.  There is the David's, Pats' and others that helped define me.  I ended up where I am with the help and friendship of these people.

Growing up we had many pets.  The pet's I identify most with are Pepe a chihuahua, Pfieffer a throwback German Shepherd, Sam a small mutt, Beau an Australian blue tick healer, Phieffer II and Australian shepherd and Fiona a chow chow and golden retriever mix.  These dogs were all great companions.  Pfieffer I and Fiona are the most memorable dogs for me.  My best companions.  They both stuck with me during my darkest and saddest moments.  Pfieffer used to be with me all the time during long walks to North Gate mall, or play time behind the baseball fields at the YMCA and the mountain trails off Trans Mountain road.  Fiona has settled in with my current period of unemployment going to the dog park or just lazing around the house.  All the pets have been great in knowing what my moods were and accommodating them.

My thought is this:  Family, friends and pets make you who you are.  Don't underestimate the power of a pet's companionship in your life.

Politics in America

Politics in America is different than anywhere else on the planet.  Although theoretically we vote in the best person for the job, do we really?  I think not.  It seems that those with the most money and can align themselves with the political powers that be have the best chance of winning elections.  All the parties do the same thing they align themselves with a candidate that will tow the party line.  This puts the individual that we are electing directly in the pocket of the party.  The Media cannot escape criticism for the current political landscape.  The media backs individual politicians, where is the objectivity in that.  I was always taught that that the media was supposed to report the news and politics objectively.  Let us not forget business and social interests that have access to our congressmen and senators.  It all comes down to money.

Our media focuses a lot of attention on foreign corruption.  They ignore the corruption that is American politics.  The media, special interest groups and political parties are all about spending a lot of money to get candidates elected, so that they can further the interests of the group or party.  The Parties create platforms and back only those candidates that fully support the platform.  The media supports candidates that the media moguls endorse and the special interest groups support only the candidates that support their programs.  It really comes down to the money.  The money will get better coverage with the media and the full support of both the party and the special interest groups.  Why is not corrupt?

Politicians have been forced to go with the money.  If you want to be elected you have to support 100% of the platform that the media, party or special interest group supports.  The corruption is that if you get elected and don't do as you are told by the money people you are vilified by the media, party or special interest groups.  Any power that you had hoped to attain is gone.  As a politician you are subjected to supporting a small group of people holding the money rather than your constituents.  Our government is not for the people anymore it is for the people who hold the money.

My thought is this:  If we don't want to become a third world country known for corruption we need to enact laws that limit the power of special interests, media and political parties.

Time to Play

There are more frustrations and aggravations than there are good times it seems.  When I was younger the opposite was true.  As I've aged it seems that the good times faded to more and more frustration.  Now it is up to me to find the time to play in an already too full of a day.  I'm missing the days of my youth when all I did was play and have fun.  It seems that now I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to turn aggravation and frustration into something less stressful.

Although it took me a while I finally grew up and quit playing all the time.  I started taking my job and my life more seriously.  I buckled down and became more engaged in what I was doing.  In other words I stopped looking for the fun in my job and started to become more serious about working and living.  It is at this point that I started to become more frustrated and aggravated all the time.  My mood was somber and I no longer was the happy go lucky guy I had been.  People walked on egg shells around me because  I was more likely to withdraw and become angry than I was to smile and laugh.

Then I found BBQ contests and life was fun again.  People started to like me again.  I really enjoyed the play time on the weekends and the concentration on something other than work.  I was meeting new people with a like interest.  It was the ultimate weekend full of fun.  The weekly stress was erased.  I was having fun because I was playing.  There was stress involved with my hobby but it was mitigated by the rewards and friendships.  Life was really good and I was having fun.  Alas it came to an end when we aged and I was laid off from my job and had to retire from the BBQ circuit.

I became engrossed in trying to find a job.  This became my job and there is no time for fun or, so I thought.  I started to become moody and agitated again.  Then I found that I could literally blow off steam by going to the shooting range.  This has become my hobby and where I go to have fun.  I found that the balance between my serious life and my play life.  I still to this day do not keep ammunition in the house which is for safety reasons.  I do not keep my firearm in the house for protection I keep it here because I have nowhere to keep it.  I have a young curious daughter at home and I don't want anything bad to happen to her.  I am once again the happy person I once was.  A balance achieved.

My thought is this:  We all need to be serious about our lives and jobs but, we also need to find an outlet for our frustrations and aggravations.  It doesn't matter what it is that you find relaxing as long as it requires some concentration and there are rewards and companionship involved.

A Short Jobless Story

For most of his 55 years Hart had worked hard at various jobs.  He changed jobs only to improve his situation.  He stayed with a job for many years and left only when the job was about to expire or a new job offered more than he could get at his current position.  Finding a job had always been easy for him.

After ten years at his current job we was layed off.  His severance package was good but, the economy wasn't.  Now the husband and father had to find a new job during a period when jobs were scarce and the competition for those jobs great.  Hart bucked up and started searching, researching and applying for any position that he was even remotely qualified for.  The search for a job became his new job.  The pay was not great and the rewards were even worse.  After his severance expired he had to, for the first time in his life apply for unemployment.  His unemployment wages were far below what he and his family were accustomed to.  Finances were very tight and every penny had to be accounted for.  His family helped where they could and his life never got to the point that they became homeless, barely. 

With all of his savings and 401k used up Hart felt helpless.  The feelings of desperation and frustration were almost overwhelming.  If not for the the support of his family, friends and God he would have gone to a dark place.  The love and compassion he felt from those around him kept him grounded.  He kept up his searches, research and job applications.  As time goes on he gets closer and closer to job.  His faith and confidence keeps him focused and his family and friends keep him positive.

My thought is this:  Thank you to all my family and friends for helping me get through this difficult time.

Who I wanted to be

Back in my youth I wanted to be a writer.  Back in my youth I wanted people to read my words and be informed and entertained.  Back in my youth the literary world beckoned me.  As I matured writing seemed more a dream.  As I matured I needed people to understand technical aspects of complicated systems.  As I matured the literary world narrowed and started to close itself off to me.  I wanted people to see inside my imagination and experience a world not normally seen or felt.  I wanted people to get lost in my words and let time and reality drift away from them.  I wanted norm of everyday living to become a part time necessity.  In other words I wanted everybody to experience how I lived.

Like most people I had a dream to become something.  Some people want to become a policeman, fireman, doctor, lawyer or teacher.  A lot of those people go on to become what it is they dream of becoming.  I wanted to become a writer.  Somebody who shared his imagination or detailed the facts for those who needed to be informed.  I wrote poetry and short stories to practice my future trade.  I wrote articles about current events in a journal with the intent of sharpening my skills.  I took every experience that life presented me with so that I could capitalize on the emotion and dramatize the feelings.  I opened myself up to all of life's experiences and drama.  I engaged in all that I could.  My intent was to put the experiences, emotions and drama into writing for everybody who wanted to, to read it and experience those things through my writings.  My first musing for select friends and my wife was titled "Bedroom Spelunking".  Although I wrote this on my Commodore 64 and printed it out for a very select few people it was well received and quite popular.  I was happy that people were entertained, amused and informed by the word I wrote.

I was transferred to a project management position.  My writing was now going to be to technical and business people.  I wrote my first letter to an engineer.  After my boss reviewed the three page letter he whittled it down to 3/4 of a page by eliminating the "frivolous prose".  Thus started my future as a writer to include only those words that are necessary to the point I am trying to make.  As the years went by I resolved myself to stick to the point and eliminate any unnecessary prose.  My mind was transformed from the power of prose to the power of words.  It ails me that I no longer put details of my emotions into my writings.  I no longer deal in imagination but, deal only with the facts.

My thought is this:  I want to get back to the fun and frivolousness of writing.  I want people to feel the emotion and imagination of what I feel.  This blog will hopefully get me back to that.

Spring Break

My youngest has started her spring break.  Due to my employment status we are staying home.  This is unusual for us we usually go some place for spring break.  Financing being what it is we can afford to go window shopping at some of her favorite places.  I hate to use the when I was her age card but, I must. Things were definitely different back in those days.  Once my wife and I established ourselves financially and had our first daughter we could afford to do something for spring break.  My parents were not so lucky.  To us spring break meant that we could spend a couple of weeks with our friends playing all day instead of going to class.  When we got older it meant we could drive to White Sands, Cloud croft, Ruidosa or Elephant Butte for a couple of days.

I felt guilty about not going anywhere during the break while all of her friends are going to exotic far away places.  Then I thought about all the fun we had when I was her age just playing in our yard with all my friends.  I think this is what made all of us such good friends.  You know the kind of friends that you never forget and remember when you are feeling down.  My brother and sisters were in the same boat and more often than not we banded together with our friends to make the days not only bearable but lots of fun.  Even when we got older we didn't have to go to South Padre Island, Cozumel or Guadalajara.  We went someplace we could afford and where we could all go just for a few dollars each.

We are spending the week going to do some of our favorite things.  We are doing inexpensive things that doesn't require travel.  Things like going to the ceramic shop to paint small knick knacks that get placed in places of honor around the house, or sent off to grandmothers.  We went to the pet store to visit all the different pets that they have there puppies, large birds and her favorite ferrets  Today we are going to the music store so she can play the bongos and admire the guitars, keyboards and other instruments.  Tomorrow if the weather is nice and the ground dry we will go to the dog park with the dog.  There are so many things to do that she really enjoys here in town that we will have an adventure a day while she is on break.  Hopefully she will be able to brag to her friends of all the in town adventures she had while her friends tell her about the places they visited.

My thought is this: when we can afford to go someplace we go.  When we can't we stay here and have adventures that are just as fun.   I have really good friends in places that I would love to visit and at some point I will.  I will take my family to those places and we will have adventures there when we can afford it.  Life is good when you have adventures.

Interviews

Since I was laid off from my last job two years ago I have been interviewed dozens of times both in person and on the phone.  Hopefully this last interview was the last.  I know it was the best.  I have had some pretty bizarre interviews, I've had some competitive interviews and some confusing interviews.

Just for the record I have prepared and studied for all the interviews.  I looked up the companies I was interviewing with and memorizing their philosophies, pillars of success and direction.  I have looked up the key players and gathered as much information as I could.  I burned up phone minutes and pretty much brought the Internet to it's knees (not literally).  I worked so hard at it that my wife and children thought they were a single parent household. 

During all this time I have heard questions that no reasonable man could answer.  For any techies out there one Linux guy interviewing me for an AIX position asked me: "If you were in a restricted root shell what five commands would you need to do your job?"  How do you answer that as real administrator?  I told him I would never be in that position as an AIX administrator, I don't know much about Linux but I doubt you could restrict root to five commands and if you you could and had chmod and chown you could make any command executable and owned by root.  Evidently that was not correct because based on that I didn't get the job.  I've had interviewers ask me if I were and animal or a tree what type would I be?  (I answered live to both questions by the way.)  Also not correct.  I've had a few interviewers get competitive as far as experience and knowledge go.  I went through the whole process with one company only to find out they hire only college graduates with degrees in computer science.  (They apologized because I was the best qualified candidate but I did not have the proper degree).

Finally there was an opportunity where I took advantage of a resource and my own experience.  I got a first person to person interview.  The interview with the hiring manager went very well.  It seemed to be more of a conversation than an interview.  We discussed my experience and to a degree my knowledge.  It was the most comfortable I have ever been in an interview.  The second interview was with that same manager and some of his team.  Again it was more of a conversation than an interview.  Almost a like a personality test than anything else.  If that's the case I think I nailed it.