Wow

I can't believe I let this much time go by without posting!  Just goes to show how busy I am at work.  I am still at the aforementioned devil job, so no changes there.  I have come to a decision to merely step down within the company, and have submitted a letter to HR to start the process.

Enough of that.

I just started fishing, for the first time in years.  It has been real interesting due to my inexperience, and has been a blast!  My friend is an expert fisherman and has taught me the proper way to remove catfish from a line without being finned, so that's an improvement!  I am like a little girl around the Catfish for now, I just don't want to catch a spine in the palm.  Getting better though.  We catch perch and bass on our lake like no other, and the perch are especially fun for my wife because they strike hard and give a bit of a fight, but not enough to make it hard.  She loves catching and releasing, problem is she is too afraid to remove the hook so I get to stop what I'm doing every minute or two when she hooks one.  I am teaching her though.  The coolest part is when we catch a big one and my 3 year old goes nuts, yelling "daddy dat's a big firsh, put it in da water!"  He just loves it out there, so I plan on using up as much free time as I can this summer taking him out there.  We don't have a boat so it's just dock fishing for us at the moment.  When we make our northerly migration next year we will buy a boat.  Glad to be back on the blogwaves, sorry for the gap!

Another great day off

I had today off with my wife and son, and we also have tomorrow off.  First time in over 3 months that we've had two days off in a row together, and first time in 2 months that we've even had one day off together.  We went to church and stood before the congregation, and told them we accepted Jesus and want to be baptized.  I have already been baptized, at age 12 in a Catholic church, but I feel that adult baptisms are a better route.  When I was a kid I was just doing what my parent's told me and I really didn't grasp the importance of what was being done and what I was saying I understood.  I know now that I want to live close to Christ and be saved, and I know what it means.  All told, it was surprisingly emotional, all the members of the church (First Baptist btw, but not rigid) shook our hands and hugged us, it was a very uplifting experience.  We are scheduling it with the Pastor week after next.   We will also be dedicating my son, who is a toddler.  I am so proud to be able to raise him as a proper Christian.  He deserves to know the truth.  

After Church we veged on the couch for the afternoon while the boy went down for a nap, and relaxed together.  That was cool, but sleepy.  We ended up going to a friends house later(same one that had the fish fry) but this time we swam instead.  We got my boy all bundled in his lifejacket and taught him to paddle and float.  He didn't get it that well, but he had fun splashing and telling us he was fwimming.   It will be one of my most cherished memories of his childhood.

To close the night, I went up to work at around 11 to close out payroll(it's due at 10am tomorrow, which is also a day off for me).  I never shoulda gone up there.  It was a fairly busy weekend, but I had enough staff scheduled, or so I thought.  After months of being yelled at for OT, I finally manage to have enough varied staff to lean it out and all of a sudden the CEO decides to walk through and tell me I don't have enough staff on at the END of the night.  This kid has no experience in operations whatsoever, his daddy owns the company so he plays at running it.   It kills me that he can come out and tell me that with 5% of our business left for the day. that 4 staff is not enough to cover it.  At the start of the day and for the bulk of it, we only had 7 staff at any given time and we nailed it perfectly, but 4 guys on for literally nothing going on is not enough.  I wish these trust fund kids that get put in charge would butt out and let the seasoned veterans do the job they get paid for.  I was made Department head for a reason, they just seem to forget that I know what I'm doing.

I know this seems like a bipolar post, but it's how the day went.  I hope to have more interesting material to close with tomorrow.  Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

Stupid pre employment tests

I have been applying for jobs lately, and the process is getting more and more tedious.  No employer can just be pleased with a Resume' and personal info, they want that and they also want you to re write what is on your resume, but on THEIR form.  Why the hell do we have Resume's then?!  That's not really that bad, as long as you have only ever held two jobs, but I have had a few in the last ten years so it's a bit of a pain.  A 5 year history is much simpler for me, there are only two.

The real problem with these new processes is the testing.  You almost have to look at ink blots to get a flippin job nowadays.  The psych tests these companies are producing and implementing are ridiculous.  One took me over an hour to do, and that was after an hour of completing their weird application.  It should not take two hours just to apply for a simple supervisory job.  What happened to reading resume's and actually taking the time to INTERVIEW applicants?  It is very discouraging to think that some software is interpreting my ability to cope and could be stopping me from getting a job that I would excel at.  I have been promoted twice in the last year, so I know I must be worth something.  I wish other companies would let me through the bull to realize that.

Stressful day

I think it's high time I find another Job.  I have spent the last 3.5 years of my life working for this company.  I started out in Maintenance, then Security, then I was promoted to a Supervisor in the Front end, and most recently I was promoted to Department Head in that same Department that I became a Supervisor in.  The problem with said company is: the ownership plays a large role in operating the business, and the company is too large for that to be effective.  They micromanage their middlemanagers (me) way too much, and nothing's ever good enough.

My department handles, amongst other things, Transportation.  We do airport runs (a 3 hour round trip), local transportation, and transportation within our campus.  I get phone calls starting at around 6:30am and they finally quit around 10-11:30pm, normally.  Sometimes they are later.  My emails never stop and my days off are not sacred; they will call me if they need something and they cannot let it rest until I answer.   It can't wait until I'm back in the office, it has to happen now.

Take this weekend for example.  I have a need for all of my staff down to the last man to work all weekend due to volume, and the CEO (owners son) pops up with this ridiculous last minute promotion that will require a dedicated staff member for half of Sunday.  Sunday morning is my busiest time(and my one day off with my family, so my assistant will be there) and I have to crap a staff member for it because the other departments threw a fit about it.  I am certain that I will be asked to come in, nevermind the fact that I haven't seen my family in a month.  I can't stand this much longer.

Number 2

Well, after a fun night of fish frying and beer drinking, here is blog entry numero dos.  I headed to a friends house this evening following an invite to a fish fry.  He'd been out to lake Buchanan here in the Texas hill country to catch Striper, and boy was his trip a success.  They caught 11 fish, and all were of great proportion.  We had enough to feed 10  people and still have extras for lunch tomorrow.  We spent the night drinking beer and enjoying the fish as we watched the kids play Dance games on Wii and watched Taledaga nights.  That kinda brings me to the point of my entry tonight.  We had a friend over that was a little on the goody side, meaning she belongs in old time England because to see her ankles would be a sin.  I swear, if you are between 25 and 35, and you can't laugh at Taledaga Nights, you ought to have your head examined.  This girl turned her head and made a horrible face everytime anything slightly risque' came on screen.  A shot of ricky bobby signing some girls unexposed boob is not offensive or gross, it's just part of the film.  I actually felt a little uncomfortable watching this movie with her in the room, because my friend and I were just dying the whole time(along with my wife, she's awesome) but our guest was just hanging out with a horrible expression as if we should be catering to her needs even after she showed up uninvited.  What do you guys think, should a late arrival set the tone for an entire evening?  Everyone but her was comfortable with the setting and choice of entertainment, but she is sure to spread gossip at work tomorrow about how much we drank and laughed at boobs and John C Riley stretching in a speedo(I thought that scene was hilarilous).  -Mercury

Introduction

Hello fans of the internets!   I am Mercury, or Merc if you prefer, and I am a normal dude who has many hobbies and interests that generate many a conversation.  The problem is: I don't always have a counterpart in these conversations so I need an outlet or my wife will go insane and kick me out.  I pretty much like to talk about knives, multitools, flashlights, and anything that has to do with having fun outside.  I also love video games ranging from first person shooters to RPG's.  If you decide to follow this blog, be patient becaus it will likely be a little erratic at times, and downright crazy at others when I decide to post after having a few.  Get ready for quite a few knife and tool reviews as well as EDC gear analysis, and probably my fair share of griping about the state of the world as well.  I hope you enjoy my rants as much as I do.     -Mercury