Blog of Billy

Just got back from a week in Baltimore helping the Eagle fly. Boring times were had. More on that later. First:

Why do I love Oklahoma so much? Fun random adventure! During some coffee shop time shortly before I went to Baltimore, my esteemed roommate met a cute little air traffic control student. (Apparently the *only* reputable air traffic control school in the US is here in OKC. I never would have guessed.) Apparently through the past week, the two of them have been seeing quite a bit of each other. Patrick was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and directly took me for some coffee with the two of them. Cherie had started making some glitter signs for her friends from Utah who were coming to visit. Her plan involved meeting these girls at the airport, screaming and waving her sign. Such good will need not be left as a voice alone. After a quick trip to the local dispensary, we had a few more sets of glitter pens and posterboards, and did it up proper. Chris Brodt's welcomed them to Okie Noodlin', mine suggested we go eat giblets, Patrick's yodeled a gleeful "Yee-Haw," and Floyd's (more on him in a moment) greeted them in the full spirit of "Okie City." We then trucked down to the airport (my second trip in 4 hours) and stood waiting for them while the monitors overhead described the status of flights as one of "In Air," "Arrived," "On Time," "Landed," and "Now at (time 10 minutes ago)." Sometimes even in that order. As we waited, I made conversation with Floyd. Turns out that as well as being a Vietnam veteran turned electrician with sleeve tattoos, he's also been a late-night Denny's waiter, an oil platform roughneck, a truck driver, a mechanic, and in lockup for something that he doesn't talk about anymore. Really cool and interesting guy. After tracking the girls down we went for an evening of drinks at the HiLo. They were appreciative of our enthusiasm. We were appreciative of their company. How equitable.

Somewhere in this crazy world, there's a great picture of all of this.

I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality

You can "loose" the dogs of war by removing them from their leashes, leaving the leashes themselves slack and wet-noodle-ish.

You can "lose" your keys by dropping them in the couch cushions.

These are different words. Please treat them as such.

A similar admonition exists for "ask" (Amelia "asked" you for directions to the nearest shop that sells complicated cheeses.) and "axe" (your boss "axed" you when she found out about the poorly-executed embezzlement). That concern is more verbal than the previous, but no less important.

Seriously, people. No one important will respect you until you master at least one language. Certainly it ruins romantic possibilities.

You have killed me.

As has been brought up elsewhere, the Billy-Casey romantic interaction is no longer. It's upsetting, but I really think for the best.

At the time of my divorce, I decided that I would try my best to lead a life that had no secrets. I consider myself an open book, in that anyone can ask me any question they want, on any topic, and I will respond fully and truthfully. I have nothing and have done nothing that I need to hide. It's kept me from making a lot of mistakes in my day, as I can't justify that "if no-one knows, then it didn't happen." It had another, more devilish advantage too, in that if I got the story of what all happened with Rosie out in the open first and most plainly, then I could control the rumors, and be sure that popular opinion was on my (correct) side. It worked really well. The rumor mill does not work against you when the most reliable source for information is your own openness.

The problem that I'm running in to is that very few people seem to share this ethos. I decided as an amendment a while back that any of my secrets are available, but I can hold the secrets of others. Tales that I don't "own" are not tales that I can decide whether to share or not. I have to respect the decision of the person that crafted the tale. Unfortunately, the "ownership" of stories as such is often not so cut-and-dry. How do I deal when I am involved in the creation of the story, but it's non-trivial to make it public? Historically, I try to throw some disclaimers out before I do anything worth gossiping about. Darn if I forgot this time. Now I have to climb up the back side of the bracket to make all of this work out according to how I see the world.

The 4th of July was entertaining in the way that only the Man can make it. My first run-in with the Moore police came at about 1 in the morning when all the fireworks that Chris Brodt and our various associates were shooting off in the backyard became subject to civil forfeiture. Granted, just a warning, but that's a good start. Certainly, the Man did not need to bring the 'cuffs and backseat rides.

Also, the rain? Yeah, we can be done with that.

Transformers is a good flick, but you don't need me to tell you that. Just go see it, and get excited for the sequel.

And if you're not content to just believe
And if you don't consent to just let it be
Stretch out your legs and dance with me
All night.

So here is the job situation that has kept me without internet access for the last few weeks. To sum it up, I'm unemployed. Well, kind of unemployed. More like I start a new job Monday.

Unemployment does have its perks: lots of time for naps, my yard is well-mowed, and I took a trip to sunny South Padre Island over the weekend. I'm also now a Starcraft master.

The work situation is 2-fold. For the last few months, we've (The Hertz Corporation) been looming under the threat of outsourcing. It's pretty much a guarantee that some of us are going to be outsourced, the only question is who. We'll find out sometime in the next couple of months. Late September probably.

Some of it is happening even as we speak. We were told that there would be a "handful" of people layed off in the coming month or two to get ready for outsourcing analysts to come in after that. That "handful" turned out to be about 500 people.

I have 3 plans to deal with that:

• Plan A : Stay with Hertz, and be pretty sure I'm not getting outsourced. My department is not one that could go easily, and if the department stays, I'm fine. Another option is that if my department goes, I can use my Lean/6-sigma training to stay at Hertz in a different area.
• Plan B : Find another comparable job. I don't like change, but I may be forced into it.
• Plan C : Take on another roommate (Bryan or otherwise) and a part-time job doing...something, take out loans to finish school as quickly as possible (3 semesters). This operates under the assumption that the reason that plans A and B didn't pan out was the lack of a degree. This wouldn't be that big a deal, but is the bottom plan for how big a change it would be.

Now, at the beginning of May, the rumors around the IT campfire have been about a massive offshoring of jobs at IBM. The media has it that there are to be about 150,000 layoffs in the States, and slightly fewer hires in India. They'll take over about half of IBM's Global Services division. That means that, in a world where Hertz outsources me a couple of months afterward, I have to compete not just with the 3000 or so reasonably qualified, degree-holding people for jobs nearby, but also the 150,000 similar professionals country-wide. The pickins may get rather slim.

My response was to start moving forward with Plan B, to see what the world could offer me that was more stable, but comparable with Hertz. I freaked out about that one night, and couldn't get to sleep over it so I updated my resume. The next morning I had 2 offers, and more came in the following few days. After a round of interviews, I decided to take a job with The Harris Corporation that is just a few miles from my house and seems to be a pretty happenin' place. I was also able to hook Chris Brodt up with one of the jobs that I didn't find quite as attractive. He's a sell-out now too. Commence the fun-making.

So that's the story. For obvious reasons I didn't really want to post too much information about it where people from Hertz could easily find it. Thoughts?

This Sunday night, btw, is a Roller Derby bout. 7 p.m. at the Rocking Roller Rink in Edmond.

Welcome in readership to attractive girls from Australia. Always glad to have a more international look at my daily grind.

It was always worth it
That's the part I seem to hide
And the busy ant empire
Put up the closing sign.

Yes, it's true. I bought a house. I've really gone and sold out this time. White male landowner. I can even retroactively vote in the election of 1844. 54-40-or-Fight!

Immediate next steps are to get it cleaned and sprayed for bugs. I hate bugs so very much. Steps in a similar timeframe are to purchase such needless little conveniences as a fridge, and a washer and dryer. Also installing them. Luckily, new super-roommate Chris Brodt is up to the task, as I manage things, beer in hand.

Matt Steenson came for a visit, just before the Man did extend his tour. It's really upsetting that he got here 50% of the way through his time in the hot hot desert, and left 40% of the way through.

Modest Mouse's new album is pretty good. It'll take some getting used to, much like the last album, but I'm pretty sure it'll sit in my CD player for a while. Favorite track so far is #4, Florida. It's not the single (oddly enough).

Home buying is an adventure. Look forward to a few more-frequent updates with pictures and commentary and such.

Even as I left Florida