A Quick Update Before I Must Depart Once More...

Well I guess this has been a relatively light month for my blogging. Not much to say for it, I mean, it isn't exactly as if the month has been any less noteworthy, I just haven't had much time to devote to it. I've worked a pretty good bit of overtime lately, of course. Oddly, the evenings that I've expected to be “easy” have been directly and proportionately opposite. Friday was a good example of that – we expected to do about 4,900 orders – an easy night. Sure, we did about that number, but I was still there over an hour of overtime. Why? Because other people fail. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about that right now...

I've also spent a lot more of my free time in the evenings this month playing games on the computer, Civilization V in particular. I've always been a huge fan of the Civ franchise, and while I've really enjoyed the game, I must admit my disappointment in just how resource-hungry each new Civ installment has been. I have a quad-core PC with 4 gigs of ram and I'm crashing in the end-game on large maps with the graphics settings set way low. Ridiculous. In any event, I'm learning the new game and I actually like some of the more drastic changes they made to how military units behave.

In other news: Dalton's schooling has progressed nicely. This morning I logged in and found that he is officially out of Kindergarten Language Arts and Phonics – both replaced with first grade materials. I'm sure we'll be seeing some new materials in the mail as well before too long. Assuming a slight slow-down in his speed (due to more challenging materials), I expect he'll still finish both before the end of the Kindergarten school year in June (even though the end dates projected by the school are at the end of July).

As for his History class, we have finished the Africa unit and, today, started South America. In Africa, the focus was not on specific countries, but on the different geographical regions instead. South America looks to be set up similarly, with only one lesson focusing on a specific country, Brazil. Antarctica follows before we finally see our own continent and begin a series of nine units focusing on everything from native American tribes, the colonization period, U.S. independence, and civil rights.

Lessons completed so far have focused on the following regions/countries:

Well, I have to start readying myself for work so, once again, if I had something more to say I'd not have the time to say it. Another time, perhaps.

Interesting Happenings in Hickersonia...

Last night I returned home from work to find nearly a dozen law enforcement vehicles, including canine unit(s), at my apartment complex. Blue and red lights flashing all over the place and dogs barking – many of the neighbors standing outside wondering what was going on. One neighbor said something about “dey be shootin' people 'round here,” but I had to brush that off as rumor since, quite frankly, I just didn't really think that so much commotion could occur without waking my wife. That and the neighbor in question didn't sound intelligent enough to tie his own shoes let alone be aware of anything around him...

Well I come to find this morning that someone was indeed shot last night, but news sources are rather tight-lipped on details at the moment.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101019/NEWS010701/310190024/1196/NEWS/Man-shot-in-Fairfield

http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=13346749

I can't find much on the subject aside from the above links. I call Fail on the law enforcement and news right now because in this day and age of radio, telephone, and internet, there is simply no excuse for information to not be distributed more quickly and completely. Speaking technologically (not ethically or legally), If the police cite me for jaywalking on my way home from the Wendy's restaurant a couple blocks away, I should be able to look up the citation on that law enforcement agency's website when I get home. Basic information on something like a shooting in my parking lot should have been available to me within minutes of police responding to it -- I shouldn't have to wait until morning for half-completed blurbs.

Anyway, I hope they can find the shooter – I really hate to think that I could be walking from my car some evening from work and get shot for the 30$ in fuel money I carry or something else equally stupid...

Circular Reasoning Prevails

One thing I've noticed about all the overtime at work recently is that I don't really mind the 500$ weekly paychecks. I don't mind that at all, seriously. I think my problem is that I work harder and longer for it than I used to and I have a major objection to that in and of itself.

Yes, I do realize I'm not the only one in the country that has gone from one job to another with a net decrease in pay. I admit to be quite perplexed at how easily my wife tolerates her own, rather massive, income drop, but I never hear a complaint about it from her. Face it, folks, if I didn't complain about it, I simply wouldn't be me.

My biggest problem with getting a different job right now (ignoring the economy) is a problem on paper only, or that of lacking paper to be more exact. I spent ten years working with and learning a great deal about computer networking, and even with that aside, I've got the same period worth of data entry time that should still land me a much less stressful job. Thing is, I don't have any documentation (or degrees) to prove that I have any skills at all. Sure, that's no one's fault but mine – it only serves to illustrate how I incorrectly expected employers to be more interested in workplace experience than book knowledge.

While I'm not entirely confident that a degree would save me in today's economy, it has caused me a lot of grief to not have it. Pretty much every job advertisement to which I would consider responding has declared firmly “those without at least a two-year degree need not apply” or similar. Even then, a lot of such jobs advertise lower pay than I receive today – are the overseas techies really willing and able to work for so much less?

So I guess I've resigned myself to sticking it out in the job I'm in for the foreseeable future... I mean, putting it in another way, if the economy isn't going to start adding “real” jobs until, oh, 2019 or so, I guess I'd better get entrenched where I am or get used to the idea of taking less pay in order to get out. So, like I said at the start of the post, I guess I don't really mind the 500$ weekly paychecks...

Dalton's Continued Progress

Today we finished the Asia unit of Dalton's history class, focusing on the Arabian Peninsula and the countries of Japan, China, and India. As an added bonus, I developed a lesson on The Philippines so as to increase the unit's scope.

Today's lesson was focused on the Arabian Peninsula, with emphasis on Saudi Arabia in particular. I think seeing this lesson on the plan was one of the reasons I decided to add The Philippines-- I mean, I don't mind him learning about other countries but I guess I didn't really want too much focus on countries I consider “enemies” of the United States. Oh, and no, I didn't express that opinion to Dalton, at least not in the context of the lesson (he knows I don't like buying goods made in China, but not why, nor does he really care I suppose).

Finally, today's lesson closed with a review on the entire Asia unit. Tomorrow he goes on to Africa, starting with the Sahara. Below I have included his “Progress” meters for each class.

With Social Studies completed, I will be focusing on Science two days a week – possibly three if I can get the energy and time to do it. Trying to not get over my head though since I still have to have time to get ready for work every morning. I'm hopeful take taking on Science will give my wife the time she needs to handle the remaining four classes while not over-extending herself during her pregnancy... but I do expect at some point I'll need to take on a little more to help out... we'll see.

Anyway, just wanted to share his progress.

I Wasn't Kidding...

On September 24 I made the comment on Facebook that I was feeling as if I were “starting a new chapter of my life.” I have found that this is more true than I at first believed... Over the weekend we came to the realization that Michelle is pregnant, and calculated that she is possibly as far as five weeks along.

Of course, this revelation compels me to the realization that I do, indeed, need my job a lot more than they need me, first and foremost in order to maintain health insurance to cover the to-be-determined cost of bringing another child into the world. Of course, I also have great need of many, many more Federal Reserve Notes... Even if the currency is merely a fake paper facade, it still proves useful from time to time.

So now I have the daunting challenge of funding the further growth of Hickersonia under the circumstances of a seemingly endless economic crunch. I have some measure of faith that things will be OK, but I have to admit my hesitation to assume it at face value... More on this later.