Mike Campbell

Wednesday and Thursday were rough day for the family, but yesterday and today have seen impovements. Wed: The wife finds out that the kids are being excluded from the Science Expo next month, on the basis that they're in 3rd and 1st Grade and there won't be any activities for kids that age. The expo is suppose to be for grades K-12, and the head of the school's Science Dept has said that the effort they've put into their project equals that of high school kids (although obviously not as advanced). Thur: I get an email that the job I was *definitely* going to get at the county detention center, isn't happening. On the basis that my father in law was recently promoted to Captain and it's against policy to have someone he's related to under him. My bro in law already works there, and will probably be let go. Fri: Turns out that the people in charge of the Center *AND* HR are fighting on the issue of my bro in law and me working there, because they're so desperate for people. I have a fucking degree and my bro in law already has a year and a half there. So, its in the hands of the lawyers, the big issue is that they're afraid that if either of us were to get promoted, they'd be sued on the basis of showing favortisim. I wasn't supposed to get that email, because they're fighting this out. So, the HR person who sent it got chewed out for it. Sat: The head of the science dept told one of her collegues about my girls being shut out of the expo. She made a few calls and someone from NASA wants to do a skype session with them about their project. This is in addition to them still fighting the people putting on the Expo.

I've a bottle of Ommegang's GOT "Hand of the Queen" in my fridge for months, which was supposed to be our "Mike got a new job!" celebration drink. But, with GOT's new season starting tomorrow, we're openin it to celebrate. And, I dropped (far too much) money to order a bottle of GOT "For the Throne" to hopefully celebrate me getting a new job.

I'm attempting to read "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. I say "attempting to" because, it's so long-winded, that reading it feels like a challenge. I can usually knock out a 400-500 page novel in a few days. But, after forty five minutes last night, I couldn't beleive I'd only read ten pages.

We had to petsit for my older kid's class pet. A brown Hamster that was named "Snowball Fluffkins" - I told her that I refused to call her that. So, she spent the weekend being called "Dirtbag Fluffkins." She's a great Hamster though, she let the wife hold her, and was cool with the kids petting her.

Nothing like interviewing for a job that you were more or less told that you'd get, and then getting an email that you weren't getting it. Even worse, is applying again nine months later, and once again being told that you're a shoe in, and then getting the same email. Fool me once........

I would have gone apeshit on whatever manager had to deliver the message. That's total horseshit.

The last day of my ten-hour workday stretch. I wish I knew when I turned into an old man. I used to work 10 -11 hour shifts nightly without batting an eyelash. But, this feels like it's draining the life out of me. Even worse is that I'm out of coffee and the wife denied my requests to either go to the store for more or to go to the coffee hut and get me a cup after school (she's a teacher). So, I guess I"m getting though today with coke (I meant the soda ? ).

I need to find 21st Amendment Back in Black. It was my first experience with the Dark IPA, and I was really put off by it. But, that was at least three years ago.

I got a package from my best friend in NY yesterday, with two IPA's, a stout, and an amber ale. I had the stout last night. It's called Shadow Ball, from Burlington Beer Co. in Vermoint. It's a stout with peanut butter and salted pretzel flavors.

The girls decided they wanted to get Hamsters with their birthday money. They named them Elmo and Sweetie Pie, but we more or less overruled them and now everyone call themn Pinky and The Brain.

I used to hate IPA's, but after a while I started coming around. I'm totally on the hazy IPA bandwagon. A couple friends from back east have sent me a bunch of different ones, which have been really good stuff. And, now they seem to finally be making their way to my area.

A bunch of us lived through this when the whole Benoit thing happened. I've always had the same opinion, which is basically "You do you." If you can watch the matches, or listen to the music, and be able to make that separation, more power to you. If you can't, like Brian sometimes feels like with Benoit, that's perfectly fine too. But nobody is wrong.

That is my biggest issue with Episode VIII. Snoke was a great mystery character in VII, we know who he is, but nothing about him or how he came to be. But, instead of build on that, VIII just kills him off and now we'll probably never know.

A buddy of mine flat out said that if Charlotte replaces her, then he's cancelling his subscription to the network.

Honestly, the only real issue I take with the RAW Tag Titles match was the fact that they didn't really show any struggle with the near falls. Even early on when Gable does the German to Dawson, he just lays there until the ref gets to two. There were a couple of times that they made that work, like the blockbuster/German spot and the near fall where Roode pushes Dash into Dawson to break it up. But other than tha, they cut a good pace, they fit in the right amount of work to fall within the constraints of the TV time, and neither of them did anything stupid.

Sorry to hear that Brian.

I didn't want to write off LA completely last night, since they spent most of the game down by three, and then tied. But, when Goff got that big completion and on the next play took that nasty spill onto the sideline, I knew they were done. I was yelling at the TV "Just throw it away!"

I have a job interview on Wednesday at the local courthouse. By coincidence, my wife was yapping with another girlscout mom, who also works there. When she told her I'd applied there, she said "I hope he gets it, we're always short-handed and desperate for help." Which ought to be a good sign. And, unlike the last time I thought being desperate for help was a good sign, nobody I'm related to works there, so I don't have to worry about getting axed due to office political bullshit.

I checked out a book called "Manslaughter" by Parnell Hall out of the library. After about seven chapters, and not having the first clue who the first person narrator was, I did some googling. It was the actually the fifteenth book in a series. I finished it, and the downloaded the first book "Detective" (Mr. Hall seems to fancy one-word titles).

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the title of this thread was their cover of Bad Company, with Godsmack's butchering of Rocky Mountain Way being a very close second!

We just had another tech come over yesterday. He replaced a couple of joints and connectors, and said that we shouldn't have any other speed issues. My desktop is still tracking slow, which he's attitributing to the computer itself since it's an older desktop that runs on Windows 7. But, at least I can work again. I'll sometimes get kicked out of the remote server, but it takes 30 seconds to get back in. As opposed to the week before Christmas when I couldn't do a damn thing for two hours. Hopefully, this won't be an issue much longer, and I can finally get a new job. My father in law is pissed that I passed on applying for a position that was part time/when needed. Since me being on call was never going to work out. And, if I applied and it didn't go anywhere, I can't apply again for six months, so if a full time one opened a week later, I'd be screwed.

My seven year old certainly has some odd choices for reading. The family is in a used bookstore, that is in the process of trying to turn into an online bead shop. So, everything was 50% off, and if you buy more than thirty books, you get another 20% off. We wound up spending $27 on fifteen books. The kid has a few books that seem suitable for her age. The wife says to me "I think I want a couple of trashy romance novels." The kid perks up and says "Me too." and goes with her Mom, and picks out two of them. We brought our haul to the register and the woman was impressed with her little arms full of books, but when I told her to show the lady which ones were hers, she clammed right up. Everyone is shocked that we actually let her get them. But, they were $1 and change apeice, and it's not like she's actually going to read them.

Green Bay wanted to interview Pat Fitzgerald. He told them "Thanks, but no thanks."

Were you still down south when the Carolina Reaper became a thing?

My wife was shopping in El Paso and stopped at Moes for lunch, I asked her to bring me home some hot salsa. Well, the options that they had were Mild, Mild, and Extra Hot. She chose the last one, and I had yet another reason to realize that I'm not as young as I used to be.