Activity on #7 today. I really hate my job. Really bad. Ever since my friend left the position of manager for our department, we have kinda wandered aimlessly. Today they split my group into two departments, and put some up under one group, and the rest up under another group. Neither really makes any sense, but that's what they did. I had a post recently about the concept of change and why people fear it. I do not fear this change at all, but I do no like it, and I do not like where the changes the current management is making is taking our company.

We were told not to knock the idea before we tried it, but that's bullshit. I don't have to try getting shot in the face with a bow and arrow to know that it is probably not much fun.

Anyway, during the meeting when they told this information (which we already knew ahead of time by accidental discovery), I just sat there looking disgruntled and people took notice. Then shortly after the meeting we had our typical insider post-meeting pow-wow, where we slam on the ideas that were just presented. During this time the new manager guy walked up. He said a few things and I said a few things. I stated that if anyone didn't like the change, they knew where the door was and stuff like that. At one point, he asked if anyone didn't value their job. I spoke up and said that I didn't, and he appeared to be blown away by the concept.

So after lunch he called me in to talk to him and the director about what I had said in front of my teammates, and how I reacted during the meeting. In retrospect, I suppose I can see their point of view, that my statements might invoke other people to feel a certain way. So they didn't want me rallying people up against them. This was certainly not my intention, so I just explained my position that was that.

We went on talk about whether or not I was happy at the company, and I told them that no, I wasn't. I told them I came to this conclusion by comparing how I felt while working with how I felt after work each day, and in comparison to how I used to feel about working there. I used to like it there, and now I don't, and I get to work at 7am and can't wait until 4pm. By these metrics, I am unhappy. The shitty part is that I do not altogether dislike the people running the show on a personal level, but more that I hate the general direction the company is headed.

It is not fair for me to dislike the new manager, just because I am pissed off about other things, So I explained this to him, because he was really concerned about starting off on the right foot. I am sort of like the guy on Office Space, I pretty much just say whatever is on my mind, and in the past people have always enjoyed the fact that I am so candid. I just feel like its a waste of time to beat around the bush, or lie.

I have worked there for 8 years, and never once have I been called in for a talk about something stupid like that.

Anyway, the future there looks bleak, very very bleak. The fact that they let politics get in the way of hard black and white technical IT work just stinks to high heaven. I guess I will try and get my resume updated tomorrow, and start hitting the job hunting sites over the next week or so.

I ordered my Biaviian symbol from Riley Martin the other day. Whoa, back up. Who is Riley Martin and why should I care you ask? Riley Martin is the author of the book, The Coming Of Tan, which chronicles his abduction by the Biaviian people. During one of his abductions, the Biaviians downloaded 144,000 different symbols into his brain through his neuro-syntaxes. These symbols are your ticket to get on the mother ship when the Earth is transformed in the year 2012. There is no telling when all 144,000 of the symbols will be purchased, or if something bad will happen to Riley before he has a chance to release all 144,000 symbols, so it is a good plan to get your symbol as quickly as possible. You can get no more than 7 symbols. Each one is hand drawn along with a note from Riley himself. Each one is 100% unique and tuned precisely to you.

If you need more information you can see the following resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riley_Martin
http://www.thecomingoftan.com/default.html
http://www.artistfirst.com/rileymartin.htm

I ordered my symbol roughly a week ago, and Riley contacted my by phone yesterday. I was unable to answer the phone when he called so he left a number where he can be reached. He needs to speak with me before he begins to crate my symbol, so he can be sure it is tuned exactly to me so he will know that I have the right one.

I intend to record the phone call, so maybe I can provide some excerpts from the call at a later date.

Anyway, everyone needs to get their symbol as soon as possible. Please do not hesitate.

I spent the last three days attending the 55th Annual NHL All-Star Game festivities at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. It was awesome. I have a friend who was a volunteer, so he was driving pro athletes and celebrities around town and stuff, and he had special access to the events, but being a lazy bastard, I opted to just kinda chill and go with the flow, rather than working hard to go out of my way to use an insider hookup.

Monday night was the Tribute to a "Generation of Stars", which was hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr. They brought out several new/old school hockey guys like Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Al MacInnis, Brett Hull, Mario Lemiuex, and others. Each player said a few words and it was a nice little ceremony. Then the actual all-stars come out for a warm up/practice thing.

Tuesday night was the official red carpet arrival for the players, the Young Stars Game, and the Super Skills Competition. I got there a little bit late, but I was right by the red carpet stage and took some good pictures. The young stars game was cool, but it was 4 on 4, and didn't last very long. The Super Skills Competition seems to be everyone's favorite. It was a blast to watch.

Then finally Wednesday night was the actual All-Star game. The Western Conference dominated the game for the most part, but the Eastern Conference got several fancy goals as well. The final score was 12-9, well over 15.5 point over/under set by Vegas odds makers.

I saw several celebrities there such as wrestling's Triple H, Wade Williams, who plays Officer Brad Bellick on Prison break, William Fichtner, who plays Agent Alex Mahone on Prison Break, Gordie Howe, Troy Aikman, and a few others, including many local celebrities from radio and television.

It really was a excellent experience, and one that I simply could not miss being a huge hockey fan.

Let's chat a minute about on line gambling. I gamble on line regularly. It is not illegal at a federal level or in the state in which I live. The recent law that was passed makes it illegal for US banks to deal directly with gaming companies of any sort. It does NOT criminalize making wagers, or playing poker on line.

So to combat this, there are companies similar to PayPal that are offshore, so they do not have to comply with any US laws. So basically, you give your money to them, then send the money from that, into your sports betting account. Is this illegal? Absolutely not. Is this "workaround" equivalent to money laundering? That is a gray area I suppose, but it is not illegal.

I noticed that a lot of these "middle man" companies are pulling out of the US market, and no longer working with any US customers. So today I funded my account directly from my Visa Check Card that is tied to my bank account. How is this possible? It would appear that the most recent methodology of a workaround is through the purchase of VOIP phone minutes. Essentially, you use your credit card to purchase minutes of voice over IP phone technology, and then you trade the value of these minutes with the gaming company. The gaming company handles everything, so all the customer sees is... put in credit card number, get money in the betting account.

So to sum up, the law has really done nothing to combat on line gambling, it only complicates business for the companies involved, and penalizes banks for doing now illegal business.

At the root of all this is that the government is, in a way, controlling what you do with your money. I suppose you could compare this to drugs, the government makes drugs illegal, so spending your money on drugs is illegal. The difference is that there is no law criminalizing on line gambling.

Now, here is the problem I see. I have talked to literally hundreds of people about this subject both in person, and through various forums and whatnot, and no one, NOT A SINGLE, SOLITARY PERSON agrees with what the government is doing. The government already has their cut since my money is already taxes before it hits my bank account from my employer. Additionally, it is perfectly OK for me to walk to Las Vegas, and take that same exact money out of my pocket, and make the same exact sports wager. The same applies to going to Antigua or some other offshore island and making a wager directly with the gaming company. The government says these things are NOT illegal. So if it is not illegal to bet this way, and I cannot find anyone that approves of what the government has done, why in the hell did someone even invent this law? Who is sitting around coming up with this shit? I am about 110% certain that there are far more important issues for our government to deal with than this. It is extraordinarily hard to find a person in this country who likes the government and thinks they are doing a good job, other than government employees. How long is it going to be until the people rise up and do something about it?

If this is one of those things where the government wants more money, well there is tax form for reporting gambling income, and it basically works on the honor system, just like reporting income from tips or other untraceable income.

It is my money, and so long as I am not doing anything illegal with it, there should not be a problem, and no one can disagree with that.


***if some of these thoughts seem out of order or disconnected, it is because I am still slighty ill, and on medication and beer, not because I am stupid.

I am 100% full on sick. I think I enjoy being sick. My body feels like I got kicked repeatedly, but my mind is still 90%. Plus, you can walk around all strung out on meds and no one seems to care or shun you for it. I am also intrigued by the concept of the placebo.

[1 a : a usually pharmacologically inert preparation prescribed more for the mental relief of the patient than for its actual effect on a disorder b : an inert or innocuous substance used especially in controlled experiments testing the efficacy of another substance (as a drug)]

Placebos can be quite powerful. The concept of the placebo is usually that the subject does not know that what they are taking is actually nothing, but as for me, I have been pretty successful in convincing myself that something innocuous can be helpful.

Whenever I get sick, or even feel like I might get sick, and in some cases after only being around people that might make me sick, I start a steady regimen of Dayquil 3 times a day, and Nyquil shortly before bed. I firmly believe that if I do this, it will make me better. I know that Nyquil is certainly not a cure for everything, but if I believe it in my head, then it somehow magically becomes true. I suppose you could say it is mind over matter, which I am a firm believer in.

Also, I never go to the doctor. If I am bleeding profusely from the ears or something, I might go to the ER, but I certainly don't go for colds, flu, pneumonia, etc.. In fact, the last time I went to the doctor, I was 19 years old, and my tonsils were black! I felt as if I had no option, so I went. The doctor gave me some crap that made me vomit a whole lot, so it wasn't very cool. After getting the right meds, I got better, but I kind of think I would have gotten better anyway. The last time I had been to the doctor before that was when I was 12 and had mononucleosis. So in the last 20 years, I have gone to the doctor only once. I guess this means that people that go to the doctor every time they get sick are puny little retards.

Another thing that cracks me up on this subject is the age old myth about wearing a coat when it is cold outside. When you are little, your parents tell you to not go outside without a jacket, or you will catch a cold. Somehow, this bullshit has been propagated from generation to generation, and now people equate being out in the cold air, with getting sick. OK people, listen up. GERMS CAUSE SICKNESS, NOT THE AIR TEMPERATURE!

What does this all mean? I don't have a clue, and I don't care.

I started thinking today about the concept of change and why people fear it. This came about because a change was going to be made at work, and the right people whined and complained to some other right person and the changes got squashed. When change comes around, it would appear that only one a few outcomes is possible, and there seems to be a silver lining to all of them. The first scenario would be that the change causes no negative affects, particularly on me, so basically this can be put into the category of "Who fucking cares". No harm, No foul. Secondly, the change could actually makes things better. This is win/win, so again, no big deal. Thirdly, the change could make the situation devolve into mass hysteria and ultimately result in the end of the universe as we know it. If this is what you suspect will occur after the change takes place, simply make your contrary opinion known, and then you will be able to overnight a whole crate of "I told you so" to the dipshit that made the change.

So, it would appear as if any change can ultimately end with my having the upper hand. Having obtained this new understanding, I am going to strive to open the gate, and invite change into my life.

There are a few phrases that I hear several times a day that piss me off. One is "a whole nuther". For example, "Since we are out of whiskey, we could drink this can of gasoline, but that would cause a whole nuther set of problems". A whole nuther? Really? No one should ever say this, so I am going to try really hard to never say it again. The other one is "Everything except for". For example, "Everything is absolutely 100% perfectly normal, except I am bleeding from the eyes". I hear this all the time. People say shit like this all day. Wouldn't it be a lot better to say something along the lines of, "Short of my eyes bleeding, everything is normal" or "My eyes are bleeding, but everything else is normal". Saying everything then having an exception seems contradictory and stupid.