Personal Musings category archive

Whew! That’s a load off my mind! I’m sure that terrorists were targetting Bingo Games and Poker Nights big time as a way to raise funds.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky has been awarded a federal Homeland Security grant aimed at keeping terrorists from using charitable gaming to raise money.

The state Office of Charitable Gaming won the $36,300 grant and will use it to provide five investigators with laptop computers and access to a commercially operated law-enforcement data base, said John Holiday, enforcement director at the Office of Charitable Gaming.

(via the Huffington Post)

Guess who Kentucky voted for in 2004?

Before I got my current job, I worked for the railroad.

Now, make no mistake, I love my job. I get paid to muck about with computers all day, and I get to work with some of the nicest people in the world, not only my co-workers, but also the persons who attend the training classes I conduct (I R the trainer for my division).

But it’s not the same. I loved the railroad. There is no other industry like railroading. Sometimes I liked my job there; sometimes I hated it; but I always loved the railroad.

No experience I have ever had beats standing next to an Engineer watching the world go by at 125 miles per hour between New York and Washington; or standing on the rear vestibule, in the open air, watching the New Mexico desert recede behind the train at 79 miles per hour; or being in the downstairs kitchen of a double-decker dining car as the crew prepared meals to be sent upstairs to the dining room for the passengers; or waiting for the train, not in the waiting room with the civilians, but in the crew room with the train and engine crew, waiting for the train to pull into San Antonio from New Orleans to board it for Los Angeles; or pounding through a grassfire in the Humboldt Sink at track speed; or creaking at 30 miles an hour over the Donner Pass, under miles of snow sheds, remembering what happened to the Donner Party when they were stranded there in the blizzards.

During my years with the railroad, I traveled all over the country by train (being a trainer is and always has been a traveling job–you go to them far more often than they come to you). I have seen Independence Day parades in Chicago; waded through snow in Boston; held a safey investigation in a classroom in Lancaster, Pa., when a trainee uttered those words of import, “I’m hurt” (Rule A: Safety is of the first importance in the discharge of duty); watched the sun rise over Dr. Kildare’s hospital in Los Angeles.

It reached the point that I could wake up in the sleeping car, look out the window, and tell you within 20 miles where the train was.

And, when you boarded a train wearing 20-years-of-service pin, you got respect. The crew knew you were an Old Head; they didn’t play any games and they took you in. The word spread down the line and every replacement crew knew an Old Head was on-board.

This weekend, I will be reliving those times. We were a tight-knit group, the Amtrak training department, and some of our members have organized a reunion.

Most of us are no longer with Amcrap Amtrak. Those of us who are still there are no longer in the training department. Management changes came and went, and, ultimately, the incompetents triumphed, and the competents were scattered the winds. I took the money (severance) and ran–to another company where I could continue practicing my craft of designing, developing, and delivering training courses. Some of my colleagues fled to other departments within Amtrak, but most of them are in other places now.

It will be interesting to see who shows up and fun to catch up on where we are now.

Managements come and go.

But on the railroad, a clear board will always mean proceed at track speed. “Pulling the pin” will always mean retiring. “Highball lunch” will always mean “skip lunch, finish the job, and go home early.”

And “two to go” will always mean it’s time to pull and see what lies on down the road.

Give me a break. From Reuters:

“My biggest mistake was not recognizing (in time) that Louisiana was dysfunctional,” former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, who was pulled from the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort and resigned after chaos and destruction in New Orleans.

But Nagin expressed compassion. “Mr. Brown is under a lot of pressure, I feel sorry for him,” he added.

The facts clearly establish that, even with a less than coherent state and local response, the Federal Administration could have taken many actions to ensure that relief supplies and personnel were available in a timely fashion after Katrina passed.

I’ve already considered the lines of responsibility.

Mr. Bush doesn’t want to play the blame game.

No wonder.

He and his administration would lose.

Maybe a nice horse show will help the residents of the Gulf Coast forget their troubles.

Unfortunately, Mr. Brown is not available to organize it. He has a new job.

(CBS) — CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate its response following Hurricane Katrina.

Dodecahedron suggests Brown should provide his consultancy on a skill he knows: tying a half-windsor. Personally, I think he might do better consulting on a four-in-hand; windsor and half-windsor knots are complicated.

I have been filling out forms for my kids’ schools for 20 years. They are without a doubt the worst forms in the world.

They have improved the medical form. They’ve made it 8 1/2 by 11, rather than 8 1/2 by 5 1/2, so at last there is room to fill it out.

But, oh my goodness, tonight I lost it. One page one, they asked for the name of the family doctor and dentist. I supplied them.

On page two, they asked for the name of the family doctor and dentist. I supplied them, but, after the dentist’s name, I wrote, “It hasn’t changed since the other side of this form.” After the doctor’s name, I wrote, “It hasn’t changed between page one and page two, either.”

Nothing else changed, either, not the addresses, not the phone numbers, not the insurance.

They asked, “Allergies.” Answer: “Penicillin.”

They asked, “What happens.” Answer: “He dies.”

Duh!

Now, my son has attended this same school district since first grade. Somewhere, they have all this information lost in a computer. Why can’t they send home a printout saying, “This is the information we have. Please indicate what has changed”?

I know the answer to that. Their forms are for the convenience of the staff. They don’t take into account the convenience of the parents who are filling them out.

Well, no, that’s not the answer. The answer is that the administration is not creative enough to think of that.

I’m glad this is my last year of school forms.

They are worse than income tax forms. At least, on the US IRS Form 1040, you only have to enter a particular item once.