Today is my last day at my current job. I will be moving on to some greener pastures starting Monday Oct. 31st. This unfortunately leaves me at a bit of a loss to guarantee that my next job will afford me the same amount of free time to blog. Time will tell. Either way, I feel that it is one step closer to my ultimate goal of making some type of real, lasting contribution to the universe I inhabit. As I have already stated, making money is great, but I need something a little more rewarding, and, knowing that I must crawl before I can walk, I think I'm heading there.

On a completely random side note, I think I am only a few good throws from breaking into one of the leader boards in my dart league...Probably won't happen, but I'll do my best. Of that you can be sure. By the way, if any of the 2 people that read this blog have any idea why "The Office" wasn't on last night, I'd love to know what happened. I should go, I have to wrap up a few things today before I leave. Next time you hear from me, hopefully I'll be a little more refreshed and cheery. Until then...

I have a real problem with the record profits being posted by fuel companies: natural gas or oil...they are all guilty, in my mind, of using the media's coverage of recent natural disasters to boost their profits. With respect to oil companies in particular, I don't see how decreased oil extraction capacity and decreased oil refining capacity can lead to record quarterly profits. Logic dictates that the lost capacity must result in less product for the company to sell. Less product would mean that the company has to increase its unit prices to to maintain its current profit margins. Ok, I can live with that, its the cost of living in a free market society, but why is it deemed acceptable to raise prices to the point that profits actually exceed the previous levels when the country, or at least part of it, is in a state of emergency. I mean how does that meeting go? A group of exectives are sitting around a long table, taking cues from and nodding heads toward some slick haired decision maker, when he says, "Let's jack up prices and see how much the market can handle," his voice trailing off as he thinks about his 3 retirement homes. It makes me sick. I view access to energy as an essential in today's industrialized society, and I think it should be treated as such. I'd be interested to hear what someone from the oil industry would say is the reason for the increased profits...Anyway, my brother is getting married this weekend, and I am giving the best man speach. I'm hoping that goes alright, because I have a tendency to fumble my words a bit when speaking in frony of large crowds. I'll have a couple of drinks first, and all should be fine. I hope that the two people reding this have a great weekend. I leave you with this stupid quote I saw posted on a sign out in front of a hotel.

"The future is happening one day at a time."

Seriously, this doesn't say anything. Essentially it says that tomorrow is tomorrow...wow that's a relief. Here I was thinking that the future only happens in one week chunks. Its kind of like...nevermind, I think you get my point.

-S

I'm not a fan of those magnetic ribbons that people put on their cars. I mean what are they supposed to convey? Some deep allegiance with a cause or group? Hardly!! True support of a cause would be shown by actually affixing a PERMANENT marking of some kind. How seriously should we take an easily removable statement. There is something to be said for the permanence of a nice, sticky, mess-up-your-paintjob-if-you-ever-try-to-take-it-off, old fashioned bumper sticker. Further adding to my agita is the fact that there seems to be no consistency among magnetic statement manufacturers. Some have words, some don't. Some ribbons that appear to support the same cause, can look totally different. It drives me crazy. No seriously, I can't STAND the magnetic ribbon craze.

Moving on...I ran into a buzz saw in my dart league this week. He was a very talented player, but, and I'm probably going to sound like a real ass here, he sucked at life pretty bad. As such, I figured it was good for him to have his one thing that he was good at. Before you judge me, let me share with you the verbal exchange that led to my "he sucked at life" conclusion. In the dialogue below, I will be represented by an M for me, and he will be represented by a T for tool.

Our scene opens with the two of us waiting for drinks at the bar, which has a clear view of the Red Sox game on the TV.

T (as he steps in front of M): Oh sorry, were you waiting?
M: Yeah.
T(to the bartender): He was here first.
M: Thanks, I'll take a pitcher of Sam Adams.
T: I can't wait for the Patriots game this weekend.
M (looking at the TV): Not a baseball fan?
T: No. Football, all football. Ya see, I used to play quarterback in high school.
M: Oh, really?
T: Yeah, I played in junior high, and then I played my first year in high school. I got kicked off the team when they caught me smoking.
M: Hmmm, what are ya gonna do, right?
T: Yeah.

Now that I've made an effort to provide a reasonable recreation of the conversation, I'd like to fill in some of the thoughts that were going through my head while this was happening. First off, I'd like to say that he was nice enough to let the bartender know that I had been waiting before him, very cool. He gets weird on me, though, by throwing out the unsolicited comment about the Patriots game. I figure, ok, he's not a baseball fan, and he just wants to talk a little shop about his sport of choice. No harm there. Then he throws out this nonsense about playing quarterback in high school probably thinking he would impress me. Being who I am, a 25 year old engineer who played soccer in high school, I was utterly unimpressed by this ~35 year old man talking about the glory days. What the hell was that? Did he expect me to offer him my lunch money and do his homework for him? Uncle Rico anyone? Ok, so I'm already thinking this guy is a little off when he gives me his football bio. So let me get this straight, essentially, you played Pop Warner and you played a year on the Freshman team, right? I think that's great, but it can hardly be summed up as having "played quarterback in high school". The smoking thing cracked me up, too. Now, I have to admit, I'm being a little tough on this guy, but he was very arrogant during out dart game, and, as such, I think he's earned this commentary. I hope everyone has a great weekend.