Lauren Bacall, R.I.P.

a beautiful woman has slipped this mortal coil...

so anyway, the breaking news this evening is that Lauren Bacall has passed.  She was 89.
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Saturday Night Video

The "Innovative Methods" Edition...

so anyway, Ace had this earlier in the week...
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I'm not enjoying this

not even a little...

so anyway, The Weather Channel (online) claims we had 3.3 inches of snow in the past 24 hours.  I beg to differ:

That's a solid 7 inches, right there.

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Saturday Night Video

I haven't watch it yet, but his reputation proceeds him...

so anyway, I watched it, and it is OUTSTANDING

Now, there's a guy that I buy six or nine beers...

Bonus Extra!  Mike Rowe's testimony before some Senate committee:



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Just counting down

'til Walmart re-opens...

so anyway, Yes, it's been that kind of afternoon.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

so anyway, Merry Christmas.

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Tonight's earworm

You are welcome...

so anyway, this:
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Saturday Night Video

I meant to post this last Saturday but: reasons...

so anyway, this is useful, this time of year:
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I think I want one of these

I need to replace my 31 year old mountain bike anyway...

so anyway, it looks like the latest trend in off-road biking is "fat bikes".  I want one

That's just the shit for me.  I try to be a year-round rider, with limited success.  I did manage to do five miles on my ancient Ross Mount Washington today (41°, with a bitch of a head-wind) to pick up my car from the garage (where I spent $1,000 that I do not have).

Big, fat, and knobby is just the ticket I'm lookin' for.

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The Most Dreaded Season

begins again...

so anyway, I hate this time of the year.  Fair warning: I shall be surly and morose for the next six weeks or so.

thatisall

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Another Member of The Tribe

First Time Shooter Report

so anyway, back on Friday 11OCT13, a couple of colleagues and I went to the Island Lake Shooting Range to shoot the Sporting Clays range.  One of my colleagues was a mid-twenty-something young woman who had never fired a gun before.  (Yes, I know, taking a first time shooter to do sporting clays borders on cruel.  I didn't set it up, it just happened that way.  She's a Virginia Tech Engineering grad.  She dealt with it.)

On the first station, eight clays were presented.  She dusted the eighth, and was totally geeked.  By the fifteenth shot (out of 50), she was soliciting advice: what am I doing wrong? / why do you do that thing when you shoot? / can you see where my shots are going? / etc.

It was glorious.

We got "timed out" on the course and didn't get to shoot the last station.  The range staff came out and picked us up in a golf cart and carted us back up to the clubhouse.

We settled our bills (in compliance with my long-standing policy, I covered her range fees.  First time shooters shoot for free) and made our way out to the truck Fusion.

She was walking on sunshine.  About halfway back to the car, she turned to us and said "Next time, can we do rifles or pistols?"

Yes, Ma'am.  We can do both. All day.  

She has added pics of her shooting to her FaceSpace page; and has gone on about how many "Likes" she's received; and how she's told the "Dis-likes" to piss off.

We just added another member of The Tribe.  She's hooked.  I mentioned that Hello Kitty guns are available, she punched me in the chest.  (Again, Virginia Tech Engineering grad.  She holds her own)

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On this day...

an anniversary, of sorts

so anyway, twenty-one years ago today (tonight, actually, as I started on the afternoon shift) I began my "career" in The Stoopid Business™.

Over the past twenty-one years, I've had the following job titles:

Machine Operator
Quality Auditor
Service Accounts Supervisor
Cost Estimator
Applications Engineer
(unemployed)
Cost Estimator
Project Engineer
Senior Product Engineer
(unemployed)
Project Engineer
Senior Cost Estimator
(unemployed)
Contract Cost Estimator
Total Quality and Cost Management Technologist
(unemployed)
Contract Pricing Analyst
Financial Analyst
(unemployed)
Cost Estimator.

The current job is the best of the bunch, despite the fact that I'm working for 80% of market value.  These days, you don't jeopardize the job you have for one that might pay you more.  The astute reader will note the five periods of unemployment.  It's the norm for The Stoopid Business™ these days.

I mowed a lot of lawns and did a lot of house painting during those times of (professional) unemployment.

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It's going to be a long day

FML

so anyway, we usually have some music playing around the office on Fridays.  Between my boss and I, I think we have every song ever recorded prior to around 1987.  Fridays are usually a rockin' good time.

Usually.

I get to the office this morning and was greeted by horrific screeching coming from the purchasing clerks cube.  A brief conversation ensued:

Me: What exactly is that?

Purchasing Clerk: Celine Dion's Greatest Hits

Me: That's unpossible

I've never been an advocate for people wearing headphones in the office, but today I'll make an exception.

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Saturday Night Video (Updated)

stealing a page from Stephen "VodkaPundit" Green....

So anyway, I just discovered End of the Line by Traveling Wilburys a few weeks ago and it's rapidly becoming one of my all time favorite songs:
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Random Thoughts and things you should read about Benghazi

and some off-standard content...

so anyway, I managed to catch about an hour of the Benghazi hearings yesterday, and have been reading the inter-web net-tubes, as is my habit.  A couple of things caught my eye:

Polliwog ends her hiatus with a parable.  I've heard of something like this, but I just can't place it...

Ragin' Dave has absolutely no doubts about Benghazi.  I'm in the same camp.

Your first destination for anything involving the State Department, sorry, The Department of State should be Consul-at-Arms.  He has an "outsider's insider's view"  (as in: he's a Department of State Foreign Service Officer, so he knows how things are 'sposed to work; but he's outside the Benghazi loop):

"The Benghazi story certainly seems to have heated-up again this week, with three “whistle-blowers” reportedly coming forward to testify before Congress.

CAA has a few thoughts and observations, but first the caveats and digressions..."

Finally, Jeff Goldstein has had enough:

They sicken me in a way I cannot even put into words — and that’s saying something, given my occasionally-documented facility with the language.  These people are monsters of a sort, but even that appellation can do their rank cynicism and their easy disregard for conscience no real justice.

Read the whole thing(s)

In other "off-standard" news, I had an interview this afternoon that went very well, after which I went to the range and proceeded to shoot like a spastic retarded monkey on crack.  So I'm not posting any targets anytime soon.

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Comic Genius

Damn it feels good to be linking Iowahawk again....

so anyway, today's assignment is a two-step process.  I assume you already have at least a passing familiarity with the original three Star Wars movies.

First, watch this:
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Another Licensing Achievement

I'm on a roll...

so anyway, I am now officially licensed to pilot one of these bad mo-fos:

Yes, it's a fork truck.  Your question was....?

My licensing successes just keep piling up.

Yes, yes, I hear your cries: "Dude!  You're a Cost Estimator / Financial Analyst / part-time Industrial Engineer / what-ever.  Why do you need (or even want) a fork truck license?"

Because: Shut Up.  That's why.

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And now for something completely different

Identify the title's reference and win a Lifetime Platinum Membership to Supply Side Politics...

so anyway, I don't usually post this kind of thing, but this may just be the bestest cat pic posted on the inter-web net-tubes, EVAH.

Read the comments for extra-bonus funny.

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George Jones, R.I.P.

He stopped loving her today...

so anyway, George Jones passed away today
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I forgot where I found this

but twelve hours later it still cracks me up...

so anyway, this:

That's some seriously funny shit, right there.

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