Wednesday, October 15, 2003



Random Thoughts On The Highway

I spend a lot of time driving around at work. I am still doing the whole windshield delivery thing, but I hope to get into something else sometime in November, but for now just to be working and supporting myself is good enough. There are several reasons why I'm going to move on from this job though.

I find myself yelling at other drivers more than I ever have before, now this doesn't mean I'm actually leaning out my window and yelling obscenities at them and giving them the middle finger (well, not usually anyways, most often I reserve that sort of behavior for family and co-workers). But I sit in the cab of my truck and silently mutter under my breath about the ignorance and stupidity of other drivers. What is bad about this is that the things those drivers are doing are things that I do in my own car when I'm not at work, so what right do I have to be that way? Although, there are some especially bad drivers that I reserve the most vehement attitudes for, those that are out and out dangerous and those that are just purely stupid. I tend to be an aggressive driver in my own vehicle but that doesn't necessarily make me a bad driver. But when I find myself driving the company vehicle sometimes like I would my own then there in lies a problem.

Another reason is the heavy lifting. Now, a windshield in and of itself is not all that heavy, well, some are, but most aren't too bad. But when you are lifting them while standing way up in a cage on a forklift it's precarious and twice now I've thrown my back out doing it. Plus at the end of the day I go and try to work out, be it running a few miles or doing a couple hundred push ups and situps, and I find myself tiring very easily.

I could also attribute that last part to the rampant cigarette smoking that goes on at work, I can't handle being around that, it makes my eyes hurt and I would swear it contributes to me having a sore throat and ear aches too. Add in the fact that there is no upward mobility within the company, and that the company doesn't give a crap about it's employees (we were on 410 days or so without an lost time injury at work, and there is supposed to be a pizza party every 100 days, and no pizza was ever given, no party either), put it all together and I realize I should begin looking for employment elsewhere.

Don't get me wrong, I like the people, for the most part anyways. One tends to be really lazy, but I can handle that for the most part. It's rare I've ever worked anywhere where I actually got along with everyone I worked with.

A little side note, I have noticed the "YELLOW" fleet trucks out on the interstate, and one question comes to mind. Why isn't that company called "ORANGE"??? The truck is NOT yellow, that is for sure, it's a very, very orange shade. Anyways, just a random rambling there.

Tuesday, October 14, 2003



World's Scariest Special Effects Editing

I'm not sure how long those police video shows have been on now, the ones that have actual police footage from cruisers and helicopters of people running from the police. I would say about 10 years now? When they first came out, they were really interesting. I guess that's because for the first couple of years they were working with probably about 20 years worth of video, and able to use the cream of the crop.

But now you watch the show and it's just a watered down version of what it once was, probably because they ran out of decent footage and have had to resort to the use of the crap that never made it into the earlier shows.

That doesn't so much bother me, you can't have all great footage when you've used a lot of the best stuff so far. What really annoyed me one night was a sudden realization about "World's Wildest Police Chases". As I was watching, I realized that the helicopter guy's voice sounded just like the voice of a sheriff involved in a chase in Georgia from previous footage on the same show.

This is because nearly every sound on that show is added in. This is something they didn't do when they first started making the show. I find the 'added' tire squealing, sirens, and crashing noises to be irritating, but that's not the worst of it. The worst of it is when the show adds in the voices of cops to the video. No cop in his right mind says something like "Okay, there he goes, he's crossing traffic, WOAH HE GOT CLOSE THERE, he just came back into my lane" and on and on, they don't give a running commentary over the police radio like that, they never do.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the show doesn't need all that extra gobbledeegoop to make it work, it does well enough on it's own. Adding in fake asinine sirens and 'officer narration' is just the same as lying about what is going on in the first place. Heck, who knows, maybe those are actually blood thirsty goblins driving those police cars and it's the innocent humans trying to get away from them. What? It could happen!!

Oh, one more related note, Paul Stojanovich, a former producer of COPS who produced World's Wildest Police chases, fell off a cliff while his fiancé was taking his picture and he died. Talk about wierd... do you think his fiancé has a video of it? World's Wildest Cliff Accidents, coming to a television near you.


Sorry I've Been Complacent

I am going to try to add a post a day until I leave the 25th for my two weeks of military schooling. I have been looking forward to this for some time now but I'm also very disappointed in the timing because it will not allow me to attend my sweetheart's sister's wedding, which would have been a wonderful time to meet her extended family, and to meet even her sister whom I have yet to meet.

I wish the Nebraska Military Department would have gotten me into the earlier class this month but they did not. I will be attending ANCOC, advanced non commissioned officer course, to be at least eligible for my next promotion in rank to E-7, Sergeant First Class.

Anyways, back to the reason I'm posting, I am cleaning off the cobwebs and getting to work in here again, going for a month and a half is way too long between posts.