Late

After my last post, I realized I forgot to post about the trip to Phoenix. Oops. hehe

It was hot! Ok, all done.  j/k

Yeah, it was hot but at least they have A/C. You basically go from a/c to a/c to pool to a/c. Tangent/ We had thought of taking Cooper with us but it was so hot I know we’d had to leave him in the empty condo most of the time anyway. I don’t think he would have done well at all. /tangent  The nights weren’t that bad actually. Oh, it was still hot but it was easier to handle and there was usually a light breeze blowing. I was totally bummed I missed the big haboob that hit right after we left. Well it was a thunderstorm that caused a haboob. Either way, I was not amused to have missed it. I love me some violent thunderstorms.

Pool parties are the big thing in PHX apparently. It sure as hell isn’t the bars. For such a large city, the gay bars are reminiscent of a small town. I’ve been down with Shawn several times now and each time we’ve checked out different bars. Most were a disappointment. Several seemed to have potential but it just seems like not as many folks go out. No the pool parties on the other hand are the shit. We squeezed in several and they range from intimate gatherings of 6-10 people to mega shindigs in the 100s.  If you have a pool, you tend to be popular.

Anway, the trip was part work, part fun.  We were actually worried we’d be bored alot. We managed to fill a lot of the time with things to do and only got on each others nerves a couple times. Shawn’s dad came down to help us do work on the condo. Shawn has decided to sell it and it needs a little work to tidy it up for sale. No single major project but lots of little ones. Shawn’s dad was such a trooper and helped us quite a bit. I’m always envious of their relationship. It was something I never had with my dad. Seeing his dad miss and help him so much was very heart-warming. Sadly, we only got about 1/3 of the projects done. hehehe.

We spent a lot of time in the car, which was my only real complaint. Part of my love for SF is you rarely need a car. In Phoenix a car is a must. Everything pretty much requires a trip in the car. Breakfast? Car. Starbucks? Car. Dinner? Car. Pool party? Car. You get the drift. I think a lot of places are still like that so I’m not picking on poor Phoenix. It was jus very noticeable since we spent a whole week this time.

Everyone kept saying we picked the worst time to visit and that the weather is so much nicer in the fall/winter months. We are going back over the Xmas/NYE break so I’ll get a chance to verify said ‘better weather’. heehee

Of course, the last couple weeks here have been on and off heat waves. Nineties in the city several days in a row!

Work

There has been some major drama at work lately. While I was gone on the PHX trip, 3 of our union chapter officers resigned. There are only 5 positions. (I leave for a week and all hell breaks loose apparently. Oy!)

Frankly, the whole mess was completely counter-productive to our goals. It has already set us back on several ongoing critical negotiations w/management. While I won’t be fleshing out the details, the point is I got drafted to be the acting chief steward again. If you read with any frequency, you’ll remember I chose not to run in the last election. After 12 years, I needed a break. And the break has been nice. I show up to work with no cares. [1]I realize the irony in thinking just handling life/death calls is less stressful than my Union duties. I only have to be responsible for myself and I’ve loved it. But, we have to have a functioning chapter. If we don’t, we give up a lot. It is my hope that more folks will step up for the interim elections for the 3 positions vacated.

One of my continuing frustrations from within is the lack of support. Many employees think because they pay dues that absolves them from any involvement. WRONG! A union is only as strong as it’s members. Members that work together toward common goals are capable of changing just about anything. Sadly, it just isn’t that case in my department. There is a lot of infighting and conspiracies. It borders on high-school to be honest.

I think part of the problem is the chapter doesn’t communicate well to its members. We put out meeting notes from one of our monthly meetings from management but that is just a snapshot. There is so much more going on behind the scenes. The antics aside, it is human nature to fill in details with guesswork when we don’t understand. I get it. People need to know what is going on.

I’m left with the choice of stepping down again after the interim election in a couple months or stepping up for a bigger position. I have time to think it over. Part of me wants to go back to being just a member. No worries, no cares, just work and go home. I did my time and then some. It is somebody else’s turn. Then the other part of me sees the big picture and really wants to step up to see if I can really make a difference. I have no idea what I’m going to do. Maybe someone else strong will run and I won’t have to. Yeah yeah, that’s it. I’m totally sure that will happen.

References

References
↑1 I realize the irony in thinking just handling life/death calls is less stressful than my Union duties.

Contempt

Poor Kim, she is being played for the victim and being left out to dry. Once the crazies are done fund-raising off of her, they will leave her high and dry to pick up the pieces of her broken life. She will scuttle back into obscurity to be randomly evoked as a bad joke.

Of course, a simple civics lesson might have helped educate her on how her job role and the government actually works. She then might have avoided be played for the fool. Sadly, that isn’t the case. And her willful ignorance is not going to save her, no matter how the crazies spin it. They want her to lose so they can hold her up as their new martyr.

As an elected clerk, she took an oath to uphold the law. You have the right as a citizen to have a religious belief. You have the right not to be persecuted by the government (and your employer when different) for that belief. You can even request a reasonable accommodation for said belief. However, you do not have the right to refuse to do your job based on belief. An important distinction the people taking advantage of her are deliberately obfuscating. The moment the SCOTUS ruled on the Obergefell vs Hodges case, it became defacto law. If she now feels she can no longer follow her duty/oath of office because it violates her "god’s law," then she should resign. You are not guaranteed employment if you feel your personal religious belief conflicts with your employment requirements.

Not only did she refuse to do her job, she also refused to allow any of the deputy clerks to do their job. The judge gave her a way to save face and not be in contempt and she still refused. [1]again, it appears based on advice from her representation with an agenda This negates any possible resolution through accommodating her belief. She has repeatedly and steadfastly projected her bigotry onto her subordinates. In the best possible twist of ironies, her employees could now sue her for religious discrimination. Wouldn’t that be lovely!? hehehe

Of course, the fundies might take her on as a spokesperson after she loses. Like previous made up martyrs, they’ll trot her around until the money-making dries up and then she’ll be abandoned. She’ll be the punchline of memes and jokes for awhile and after that forgotten completely. The annals of history will not remember her. And their failed (and marginalizing) attempts to align her with such great civil-rights activists such as MLK and Rosa Parks are frankly insulting.

References

References
↑1 again, it appears based on advice from her representation with an agenda

Admire

I’ve mentioned a few times I’ve become addicted to Instagram, partly for the narcissism and party for inspiration. It can be very uplifting one minute and a total shit-show the next.

I opened a can of worms a few weeks ago. This body builder guy was posting pics on his public profile of his legs, torso, and buttocks. To clarify, he was clearly a legit bodybuilder and his pics focused on showing off his hard work. The pics were also often very revealing and left little to the imagination regarding his generous package. Said pics routinely got lots of hearts and comments. One day, I guess he’d had enough with what he felt were insulting comments on his sexiness (and his generous anatomy) and goes off on a rant. Basically, he didn’t like when people left comments about how nice his groin/butt is, how sexy he is, etc when he is just trying to track his progress.

I couldn’t help myself and left this comment:

While I can understand your frustration, it is unrealistic and somewhat hypocritical to post the types of pics you do in a public forum and then act upset when people see you in a sexual way. Yes, it may not be your purpose but your implying that every random person who finds your profile should just know that your pics are meant to be solely about your progress, not your manhood or overall good looks. Of course, this set off a firestorm of comments on both sides. The comments ranged from polite banter to the extreme of being compared to rape. I think he has since made his profile private. (smart man)

I have no idea if the guy was gay or straight, it wasn’t really relevant. I just found his faux outrage humorous. If you don’t want people gawking at your naughty bits, don’t put them out there.

Question

I’m playing catchup on some of my emails. I got asked why I only use one-word titles for my posts.

Answer: I think I’ve mentioned it here before but it is mainly because it helps deter the naughty bots and junk comments. Such a minor change made a huge dent in the number of fake comments I have to moderate. Who knew, right? Yes, I know I don’t get the best optimization for my posts that way. That is what categories and tags are supposed to do. Yet, I so often forget to add tags too. Ooops! Oh well, I never set out to be the most popular kid on the block so I don’t mind. Besides, I find my comments elsewhere on the net that link back to my blog often bring in more quality readers than SEO crap ever did. [1]That sentence sounds awful when I read it. I wonder how many grammar rules I broke there Another reason is I get soooo annoyed when I get baited into clicking an article based on a bogus headline. I routinely won’t even read articles from the worst offending sites. One word titles avoids that completely.

Question: What happened to the private part of your blog?

Answer: I stopped updating it mostly. All the old stuff is still there, I just haven’t added anything new lately.

Question: Do you ever plan on doing more videos like you used to?

Answer: Wow, you must be a glutton for punishment. It has been a while since I did a vlog update. I used to use my laptop cam and now that I’m rarely on my laptop, it just hasn’t occurred to me. You’d think having a phone that does top-notch video I’d be all over it. I guess I’m behind the curve on that one. I rarely take out my phone to "film stuff" like I see a lot of people randomly doing. If I’m being honest, I get really annoyed when I see people taking pictures or videos of an emergency instead of calling for help or you know actually helping! Maybe that has prevented me from embracing the video everything movement. I’ll try to do a vlog soon though. Thanks for the reminder.

Ok, I’m all caught up now. *whew*

References

References
↑1 That sentence sounds awful when I read it. I wonder how many grammar rules I broke there

Picture

Speaking of my blog, my photo blog has seen a huge uptick in visits. I’ve tried to set it up so anything I share on social media gets updated there as well. This benefits me for a variety of reasons. The biggest being if I ever leave or lose an account, I still have all my pretty photos. heehee I didn’t really think it would be that popular but it seems to have taken off.

I wonder though if it has more to do with the top level extension. When I moved from the old mobius.name [1]Sadly, these domains are pretty much assumed to be spam and are routinely blocked by filters domain to sfmoby, the .com version wasn’t available. There wasn’t anything there, it just showed as owned by someone. My inquires to the vaguely defined domain owner went unanswered so I gave up and settled on the .us version. Fast forward to present and it suddenly showed available last year so I gobbled it up.

So now I wonder how often people are hitting it first simply from habit. Most people always think of the .com version of pretty much every site first. Think about the last time you randomly typed in a domain name. I bet you used .com, even if was wrong.

I’m just thinking out loud here so there isn’t really a point to my ramble today. I just thought it was odd and now you know why.

References

References
↑1 Sadly, these domains are pretty much assumed to be spam and are routinely blocked by filters

Mundane

I’ve gotten more than a few requests lately about how well the personal life is going. I’ve also gotten a couple alarmed messages asking if I had quit blogging. And I got one very sweet email from a long time friend. (Brian, I’m getting to your email I promise!)

On the home front, things are good. Actually, things are awesome. My life is on a good streak right now! Things with Shawn and I are excellent. Of course, life is pretty simple most days. We work, we come home, play video games, eat, sleep, repeat. It’s mundane bliss. hehehe. In other news, Shawn recently went permanent with his job and got a fat raise with stock options. He is very happy to finally have the weight of being a contract employee off his mind. And they’ve let him know recently how much they appreciate him as well. He has begun to settle into the company and be a part of it vs just going to work at a job.

As I mentioned previously, I’m finally debt free. I’m working to keep it that way too. I caught up on 6 years worth of back taxes and I’m getting money back. The checks have started to roll in. Apparently, they send you a check for every year instead of one check. I owed California for a couple years and sure enough, I got 3 checks and a bill. hehehe But the stress and worry over that is gone. Yay!

Cooper is still sassy as ever. His daily worries revolve around food, treats, and how often he can sneak up on the coach. His ever present skin issue has him back on antibiotics for awhile. Beyond that, Daddy is trying to stay on top of keeping his nose, ears, and tail clean and stink-free.

*

No, I haven’t quit blogging. I’ve just been super busy this last month. I’m still here. I don’t always blather about insignificant topics like I used to as they usually end up on social media. I save the blog for lengthy rants. My long time friend Brian recently sent me a very heart-warming email about his experience w/my blog over the years. Almost made me cry. I’m glad that people enjoy coming here for my nonsense. Lawd knows I’ve come a loooooong way in the last 11 years of doing this. As always, I write first for me but I also write knowing others read what I share. This has never been a popularity contest and hopefully never will be. I seem to be one of only a few left from the old blog crew though. I miss some of the other blogs.

So there you have it. A down and dirty update. More to come.

Busy

I wasn’t joking when I said my training assignment kept me busy. The last 30 days have flown by. Tomorrow is my last day training for the records office. Next week I got back to my normal schedule and days off.

As mentioned, the work isn’t hard at all. However,  it is steady. The office runs very smoothly and thankfully so. If it didn’t, things would back up quickly.

My department is also in the process of signing up for shift schedules for the next 6 months. Since I don’t have exact start date for my permanent assignment, [1]It is a 5 year assignment I’m on the sign up. I already got bumped off my days off. Tangent/ Even after 14 years my schedule isn’t a guarantee. It is one of the more annoying parts of my type of work. It isn’t all bad. I got pushed from Fri/Sat/Sun off to Sat/Sun/Mon instead. I mention it only because Christmas falls on a Friday this year. You might remember we planned to head to Phoenix for the week between Xmas and NYE. We are still going but now I’ll have to work Xmas day. Not the end of the world at all. It is a little disappointing after my excitement at finally being able to get such a primo week off. I can still remember sign-ups where I got pushed completely off an entire shift. Seniority still has some perks. /tangent  The coworker before me on the assignment list is not part of the sign-up. While nothing has been announced, one can read between the lines that her assignment to records isn’t far off. I’m projecting I’ll be assigned sometime in the next 3 months. And if I do get moved before the holiday, I’ll still have xmas off! *fingers crossed*

Anyway, I’m all backed up on blogging. I had so many things I wanted to cover and didn’t. *grumble grumble* Time to catch up, I guess.

References

References
↑1 It is a 5 year assignment

Record

I signed up for a new assignment at work and have been in training the last couple weeks. Basically, I’ll be reviewing, preparing, and sending out legal documents for my dept. [1]DA’s, public defenders, FOIA’s, etc The work itself is very tedious, and mostly administrative, but it keeps me very busy. Extracting and redacting the data is very time consuming. Big or high profile incidents have to be reviewed in every detail before it can be released. Different types of calls fall under different rules for what can and cannot be released. It also depends on who is requesting the data. You get the drift. I’m a third body in the office of two people. Even with my help there are days when the work can keep three of us busy all day.

My training is 30 days and then I go back to my regular job until a full slot opens up. Both of the current coworkers are on the supervisor list for promotion and one’s assignment ends in a few months anyway. I’m 2nd on the list so once the last person transitions out, it will be my turn.

The assignment lasts 5 years unless I just absolutely hate it. Most of our assignments only go 3 years; however, due to the degree of training and skill required this one is 5 years. Afterwards, I would rotate back to my normal duties.

Why am I doing this you ask? Well, I’ve always said,  ‘knowledge is power. The more you know, the better equipped you are to make good decisions.’ This assignment will make me better at my normal job as it will provide insights into how my work effects other departments. Knowing how the data get used later makes me better equipped to get information I might not otherwise worry about. It also gives me a break from the bombardment of negativity. Let’s face it, no one calls the police because they’re happy! Hehehe  I’m pretty good at shrugging it off but even the most resilient person succumbs eventually. This gives me a break from the madness of day to day critical calls.

It also gives me a little more flexibility with my schedule. It’s slightly easier to get last minute time off.  Said time doesn’t equate to overtime either. Obviously, I can’t stack all my time together as it would leave the other person overwhelmed.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to it. I have 2 weeks of training left.

References

References
↑1 DA’s, public defenders, FOIA’s, etc