Jibralta

I love this kind of 80s music. Kyrie Eleison Mister Mister [video=youtube;9NDjt4FzFWY] ]

I think this is one of the best songs of all time. Check Berry Johnny B. Goode [video=youtube;ZFo8-JqzSCM] ]

^That's lovely

My company is actually building a flood wall around the plant, but since we have to coordinate with the operations people, I get to see a lot of the day-to-day facilities management. Which is really cool. I find that bigotry and prejudice, which come in many, many forms (not just sexism, racism, etc) are among the most difficult situations to navigate. Because you are dealing with a person's belief system, and because people are not always aware of their beliefs (and how ridiculous they are), it's often necessary to find a way to navigate around the situation rather than confront it head-on. So, sometimes I just nod and look like I am learning something interesting because I know it will pay off later. But it's not always necessary to be so tactful. I am fortunate in this position to have very supportive coworkers, all male. They will go to bat for me if my feminine will is not respected. But it usually is. At my current company, I met a couple of men who are simply unable to see me as an equal because I am a woman. It's not a major loss, because it turns out that they are not very intelligent people and I have been able to succeed despite them. Now I know who not to work with, which is about as important as working with the right people!! I find that on a construction site, relationships are very important. If I am non-confrontational and cause a guy to consider what he is actually doing (or refusing to do), most will drop the B.S. and do the right thing. Because at the end of the day, it's their ass. But it does take a bit of patience and most importantly perseverance. I can't be worried about what the guy thinks of me, if I'm a nag or a b**** or whatever. The thing is, I am not there to tell them what to do. They are really the experts when it comes to means and methods. But if I see something going sideways, I have to say something. Where I am now, I get along with most of the subcontractors. Many of them are older and I think they have a fatherly sort of demeanor (I look like a kid to a lot of people--truth is, they were probably 10 or 15 when I was born). They wave and chat, and are generally happy to teach me stuff when I ask questions. When people first get on site, they tend to be a little edgy. But everybody gets used to each other after a while. The general contractor is another story. I don't get a ton of respect from them, but I am there to watch them so they have reason to be wary. Also, I'm not on site the whole week, and I think that makes me a little less relevant to them. Which I can actually understand.

My mom has never dealt with stress well. And for her, holidays were very stressful occasions. For my sister and I, holidays meant our mom flying into an unprovoked rage, screaming insults at us at the top of her lungs, and bemoaning the sorry state of her life. Then a silent car ride to a cousin's or an aunt's house, where we all smiled and pretended everything was fine. Then we stayed until we were the last ones there because that's what my mom wanted to do, and whatever my sister and I would prefer didn't matter. I don't dwell on that too much because it's in the past and it's pretty useless to my everyday life. But there are a few memories that I do revisit, because they are so ridiculous that they have become funny. One of these events occurred at Christmas time. I guess I was about 14. My mom, my sister, and I had just moved for the third time in four years. We got a fresh cut Christmas tree and brought it back to the house. This was the last fresh-cut Christmas tree that we ever had, because of what happened next. ] It didn't fit in the Christmas tree stand. There was a low branch, about an inch thick, that prevented the trunk from sliding down to a stable position in the stand. There was a very short length of trunk that could clear the diameter, but it was not enough to support the cantilever of the tree. We made several attempts to tighten the bolts against the available length of trunk, but the tree would teeter over the moment we stood back. This effort did not take place in a calm, jovial holiday setting. On the contrary, the atmosphere was one of fear and hostility, with my mom yelling and cursing, complaining about the situation but refusing to accept anyone else's input. And there was no escape. My idea was to ask a neighbor for a saw. Of course, this idea produced an eruption of rage from my mother. Asking for help was one of the most egregious errors we could commit. No one outside the house was permitted to know that things inside the house were anything less less than perfect. We would all die trying to get this tree to stay up before we would ask a neighbor to borrow a saw. So, I did the next best thing, which was to grab a serrated bread knife from the kitchen and saw away at the branch using that. All the while I was crying, with my mother hovering over me, yelling. I got about halfway through the branch before the knife stopped cutting. I grabbed a hammer from the garage (the one tool we did have!) and hammered the branch until it broke at the knife cut. The stump of the branch still bulged a bit from the trunk; a saw would have produced a better cut. But we were able to get the tree to sit in the stand. The next morning, we woke up to find the tree lying across the living room floor. The memory cuts off here. I think we got the tree to stay up. After that, we had a pre-lit fake Christmas tree, and The Saga of the Broken Lights began. This story makes me laugh now, but at the time, it was awful. And, you know, I don't decorate for Christmas. I don't think it's because of the dismal experience I had during the holidays as a kid, but it really could be. I do, however, love the way my mom decorates, despite her insanity. She does a spectacular job. In time, perhaps I will begin decorating.

The Who Love, Reign o'er Me Awesome song. [video=youtube;gDbAtWpoA6k] ]

Dang. Very astute! I was trying to be vague, but some of the phrasing and terminology is a dead give away. Like, I couldn't figure out how else to say "lose the use of the retention basin." Yes, it is a drinking water treatment plant. They are very diligent about environmental safety, but I'd like to see them take human safety a little more seriously.

I got into a bit of a tough situation today, at work. Basically, I pissed one half of the client off, and made the other half happy. The Happy Half is the project owner and the operator of the facility in question. For the purposes of this story, his name is Orville. And actually, he's probably not happy per se, but more likely only marginally satisfied. The Pissed Off Half is the project manager. His pseudonym is Manny. And he is definitely pissed off. Just to be clear, the facility in question is a piece of critical infrastructure that serves nearly 3 million people in this state, including two major cities. It's not like a Walmart or Pep Boys or something. You would think that Orville and Manny would be aligned in their goals for this project, since they work for the same company. But they're not. As with any project, there is only a certain amount of money available. To keep the project at a certain budget, Manny made some design decisions that Orville was not happy with, and these issues come up from time to time over the course of construction. One of these issues has to do with a leaky retention basin. Orville wanted to have sheet piles driven at the leaky embankment. But for cost reasons, Manny chose grouted rip rap. This in and of itself is a point of contention. But the situation is now further complicated by the fact that a nearby excavation has caused the adjacent embankment to become unstable. Last week, I noticed that water was leaking out of the earth in this area. Furthermore, the ground around the outside of the trench box was caving inward and sinking. I took some pictures and sent them to my company's project team. This morning, the project manager on our side (John) told me that he was concerned about the stability of the embankment near the trench box. He felt that it could fail, and that if it failed the facility would lose the use of this retention basin. This would be a catastrophe. So, I emailed and called Manny. True to form, Manny's first concern was budget. He asked me to have the contractor explore options for stabilizing the bank. I emailed the contractor, and when I didn't hear back in what I deemed to be an appropriate amount of time, I forwarded the issue to the facility operators, who are on site today and can storm the contractor's trailer. This got a response. I guess Orville must have chewed out Manny because Manny called me, irate. He wanted a geotechnical engineer to show up at the facility instantaneously to visually inspect the area and calculate the flow rate and the probability of failure. He wanted this in a memo. He didn't want to raise false alarms. We shouldn't be going by photographs. Blah blah blah. He even started to suggest that I should have gone through him before I contacted operations. But here he stopped short because as a P.E. he knows that life safety is priority #1. Plus, he knows that our project manager has inspected dams for 30+ years and knows his stuff. We got Manny the geotech and the contractor is now filling the unstable area with a good, sturdy embankment fill. But Manny is in high dudgeon, and I will probably be under fire for the next couple of weeks until the contractor pisses him off worse. I really don't care. I think I made the right decision.

I heard this song when I was about 20, and it described my feelings to a T. I'd heard it before, but never listened. And this one day, I was driving to my boyfriend's house. It was a hot day, and I was on the top of a hill, looking down at the traffic below me. This song played, and I just felt it, every lyric. I have to turn my head until my darkness goes.... Paint it Black [video=youtube;uUWn29soySI] ]

Angie [video=youtube;w8vriMbOaFA] ]

My boyfriend HATES the Rolling stones. But I think they have a couple of good songs. Wild Horses [video=youtube;yE2B_kCfvss] ]

Cowboy Junkies Blue Moon [video=youtube;Atfc4NOxRco] ]

Maria McKee If Love is a Red Dress [video=youtube;Vst6c_cTqrY] ]

That’s really nice Congratulations!

I think I remember you posting about that. It stinks. I don't want to shed any friends. Day by day is probably the best policy. But I'll be increasing the length between those days, sadly.

[video=youtube;Q34z5dCmC4M] ]

I think a friendship may be coming to an end, and I feel weird about it. I've been friends with this girl Carol for about 15 years. We met at work. After she left the company, we'd meet for a drink or a meal maybe once or twice a year, often with other work-people. Carol had a charming, quirky personality, eclectic tastes, interesting perspectives, and a wonderfully inappropriate sense of humor. Over time, our acquaintanceship evolved into a nice friendship. Carol and my boyfriend get along pretty well. Since we all love good food and good conversation, the three of us make a point of going to new and interesting restaurants a few times a year. In the past, I've always looked forward to seeing her. But lately, I find her more annoying and aggravating than fun. We went out on Saturday night, and again she got on my nerves. All day yesterday I thought about it. She's become rude. She complains loudly about waiters, she talks over me unapologetically, and she behaves in this flippant, silly manner that is not cute. It's like she's become less mature. But she's 44, so I don't know if that is actually possible. Now, I know she is depressed. She's overweight and getting heavier. She's jobless again and has been mostly jobless for years. She's been single since I've known her. She lives with her mother (although the place is absolutely gorgeous and I almost can't blame her for staying). She's always in debt and makes really foolish decisions about money. In short, there's a lot going on with her and there always has been. But I don't think she's ever been unpleasant to be around until now. I don't know what's changed, but I don't think this is something that I can talk to her about without her becoming defensive. I almost sense it on her, like this over-jovialness is a cover for inner anger--which I am sure she has. No one fails so persistently at everything without anger being the root cause. It just sucks, though. I feel like the best thing to do would be to take a big step back from the friendship. But that just seems so sad.

Minority Report Excellent.

Something that I love about my relationship is that we take care of each other. No detail is too small. If he needs something, I make room for it. And vice versa. It feels nice.

Field of Dreams Such a great movie. Classic now, actually. The meaning of the word "come" has slowly transformed since the movie was released, which could make the key phrase awkward for some ("if you build it, he will come." (eeeek)). But if you can get past that.... Man, it's fantastic.

This song reminds me a lot of Daft Punk's Instant Crush. Daft Punk draws a lot of influence from music from the 70s and early 80s. It doesn't bother me when artists use the work of other artists in their own work. It bothers me more when they get sued for it. Creative inspiration must bend to the will of the almighty dollar. [video=youtube;NNiie_zmSr8] ]

This song was on the radio when I was a kid. I heard it again recently and realized that the saxophone riff is just awesome and has become iconic. I'm not a huge saxophone fan, but I love this riff. Turns out the saxophonist, Raphael Ravenscroft, was only paid 27 pounds for his bit, and the check bounced! Fortunately, he was not bitter about that. [video=youtube;Fo6aKnRnBxM] ]

Very true, both!

I believe you are correct about that, dias

Near this Spot are deposited the Remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the virtues of Man without his Vices. This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery if inscribed over human Ashes, is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog ~John Hobhouse for Lord Byron