Think You'd Like My Job?

Maybe not based on this week. Here's my story:

The client site is down south in a place that's hard to get to. I've been there a few times, but this time they said they wanted to make all my travel arrangements. That's usually a red flag, and this was no different.

After they made those arrangements, I did make it to the arriving airport Sunday evening. I had to stay in that city overnight, because their local hotel was full - in fact, they couldn't get me in their hotel at all this week, so they put me up in a lesser hotel located about a half mile away.

But that started Monday night. They sent a driver in a van to pick me up early Monday morning and take me to their office, about an hour and a half away from the airport city. That worked OK, and I was in their office by 8AM, tired but ready to get to work.

A side note about the tired comment - I'd been feeling really run-down over the busy weekend leading up to the trip. It was a sign of things to come.

Anyway, at the office on Monday morning, they weren't ready for me. My main contact offered a somewhat lame apology, parked me in an open office, and left me alone all morning. I signed onto their system to check progress since my last visit, and discovered there had been none. You might be surprised how often that happens. I figured I was going to have to zap their folks with some jumper cables to get the project back on track.

Predictably, when they actually got the gang together to meet with me, things started off with lots of finger-pointing. Yeah, nothing I laid out for them to do since my last visit had been done, and the fault was his! No, hers! No, that other person I haven't met!

Calm down folks, let's just get this thing back on the rails.

So Monday night I settled into the second-class hotel room after my half-mile hike with my bags in tow, really feeling pretty rotten. But I'd promised to take care of some things for another client that night, so I went online and went to work for a couple of hours. Then I crashed for the night, going to sleep at halftime of the Monday Night game that right now I don't remember even what teams were playing.

Tuesday it was back to work and back to pushing the gang to move the project along. If they don't make up for that lost time, they won't make their project deadline. So I pitched in, showed them what to do, and did quite a bit myself. We divided up the work between about 5 people, including myself. I finished. Nobody else did. One of them actually didn't accomplish a single thing I could detect, making me wonder what he'd been doing all day on that computer - he'd actually seemed to be bent over something right there in the same room with me, but at the end of the day, nothing I'd given him to do had been done.

Turned out he was clueless but too proud to admit it. So somehow he managed to pretend to look busy all day without accomplishing a single thing, but never actually giving the slightest clue that he was lost.

Then there were the two ladies who spent a lot of time fighting with each other instead of doing the work they were assigned. I found out at the end of the day that they had a disagreement on how to structure some code values in the system, which bogged them down for most of the afternoon.

All the while I'm getting a headache and a sore throat, feel the sinuses draining down the back of my throat, and was wondering if I could find some strong medicine that would knock me out and let me get a good night's sleep. But I conculded that wouldn't be possible for several reasons.

First, I had promised other clients that I would take care of some things for them on Tuesday evening. So as soon as I got back to the hotel, I booted up and worked another 4 hours.

Second, since the local client was in control of my travel, I had no way to get to a drugstore. So medicine wasn't going to happen.

So when I finally shut down the laptop and went to bed that night around 10, I was sick. The congestion wouldn't let me sleep more than an hour at a time, and I wondered how I was going to survive the week.

Next morning, something interesting happened. I got into the office and kicked off the day with the fueding gang, and they noticed I wasn't feeling well. I was losing my voice, and may have looked a bit peaked. Somehow they stopped fueding and became cooperative, and we got quite a bit accomplished that day. I can't figure out whether some sort of compassion for my miserableness played a role, but I simply showed up resolved to do my absolute best to fight through another day and help them get the work done.

They decided to wrap up about an hour early, I think for my sake. It gave me an hour to rest before my Wednesday night conference call. After the conference call, I was supposed to be doing other things for other clients, but simply couldn't. I fell into bed and spent another uncomfortable night, but got a bit more sleep than the night before.

Thursday morning my voice was all but gone. I could barely croak out words, but I actually felt better. Back to work, I again found a somewhat more cooperative crew, and we had a reasonably productive day. That afternoon their Benefits Administrator actually walked me over to their clinic (this company actually has their own on-campus health clinic for their employees). I got examined by the clinic's doctor and tested for the flu. Diagnosis was respiratory infection, not viral. That's a good thing.

They hit me with a steroid shot, which if I've had before it must have been a long time ago. It had an amazing effect on me, giving me a boost of energy that I carried through the evening to finish the rest of that night-time work for the other clients. I wrapped up the day's work at 10 that night but couldn't sleep. It must have been the steroid that kept me awake all night.

So Friday, we finished up our work for the week, met with the executive sponsor to discuss the team's decision to ask me to take over a bigger role in the project. He didn't blink an eye, told me to just put together the time estimates and he'll approve it. I was pleased to find out the guy knew a lot about what had been going on this week, and was well aware of the, umm, staff issues.

Headed to the airport and home, so relieved and anxious to get a restful weekend to try to kick the infection before heading out on next week's adventure.

But the worst wasn't over yet.

It had been raining hard Thursday night and all day Friday, with flooding and high winds. My flight out of the little airport was delayed 2 hours, because it's a VFR airport and the plane was flying around waiting for enough of a break in the cloud cover that would allow it to land.

So of course, I got to the stopover point that night with no hope of catching my connection to Indy. Delta falls back on the weather-related excuse, so I'm on my own for a hotel room. I call the hotel and request the shuttle pickup. They tell me it will be there in 15 minutes. 45 minutes later I got on the shuttle and rode to the hotel.

I got to spend about 5 hours in the hotel bed, my cough denying me any serious sleep. Caught a cab to the airport at 4AM for my 6AM flight this morning. Instead of riding the 8AM direct flight to Indy, I had to take the 6 through Minneapolis because the direct flight was oversold, I assume partly with other people who didn't make it on last night's flight.

The flight finally arrives in Indy about 1:30 Saturday afternoon.

Without my bag.

So how was your week?

Will Freedom be Saved?

Aside from my constant state of scrambling to keep up the last few weeks, I haven't posted lately because it's been difficult to gather thoughts concise enough for a meaningful contribution to the conversation.

This morning my thoughts came around to the fundamental problem, which is the fact that our very freedom is under attack by this radical new government. The only question is whether we will be smart enough or strong enough to stop them.

The news only gets more disturbing as time goes on.

I really don't care one way or the other whether Rush Limbaugh buys a minority share in the St. Louis Rams. But the chilling part of the story was that he could be unceremoniously dumped from the group that is bidding for the team based in large part on fabrications by Limbaugh detractors and repeated without any attempted confirmation by so-called "news" networks and amplified by axe-grinders like Sharpton and Jackson.

The chilling impact of this story is the implication that anybody can now be denied freedom to participate in commerce based on a political affiliation.

Next came the series of stories about the White House attacking Fox News, with David Axelrod basically telling the networks that Fox is not a "legitimate" news organization, and implicitly suggesting that any of them that report stories that reflect negatively on the President will be marginalized by the political machine.

It got worse when Mao-admiring Communications Director Anita Dunn continued the campaign to marginalize the network, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs singled out Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity as specific examples of Fox commentators who should no be permitted on the air.

A sideshow to the new era in government happened this week, when the Democrats on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee skipped out on the hearing in which the Republicans on the committee planned to force a vote on whether to investigate the preferred mortgage loans received by members of congress from Countrywide. Later the Democrat committee chairman locked the doors to keep the Republicans from causing any more trouble.

It would be comical if it weren't so damaging.

If this government succeeds in their agenda, the freedom that made this the beacon of light to the world for 200 years will be gone forever. Prosperity will be a distant memory we'll describe to our grandchildren. America will no longer be the America we grew up in, but will more closely resemble China.

Unless the citizens wake up and stop them.

National Insecurity

As is my habit, I have been studying the approaches and philosophies Obama has been phasing in in the first year of his presidency. Although he deserves some credit in his support of the Patriot Act, a successful albeit indecisive outcome with the Somali pirate escapade, and bucking his constituency on terrorist surveillance, much of his other initiatives are troubling at best.

His premature announcement of a deadline for closure of Guantanamo without a clear plan for how to deal with the prisoners was his first rookie mistake. I know his left-wing worshippers loved the announcement, but like them, he fails to understand the consequences of such shallow and reckless decisions.

His consistent anti-American rhetoric, in an emerging pattern that clearly shows the world that he isn't a fan of his own country, may delight his left-wing consituency as well, but effectively projects weakness to the rest of the world. His recent speech at the United Nations clearly emboldened the rogue dictators in attendance, who went so far as to publicly state their wish that he could be installed as the permanent American president. When ruthless dictators such as Chavez, Qadaffi, and Ahmadinejad offer praise, it certainly isn't because they've suddenly decided to get their acts together and behave.

Obama has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of taking meaninful steps to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. The announced agreement, with Iran agreeing to have their fissle material processed by Russia, is certainly a PR move by Iran with Russia's covert support to fool the naieve new American president.

In the meantime, Obama searches for an elegant rationale for abandoning Afghanistan. He was reportedly seriously angry with his commanding general there, with whom he had spoken with a grand total of one time before being shamed into meeting with him briefly when that fact escaped the control of his sychophant media. General McCrystal had the temerity to participate in public interviews and gave a speech, in which he stated the simple fact that if America hopes to salvage the effort in Afghanistan, he'll need at least 40K more troops. Otherwise, the mission will fail.

Obama knows he'll get strung up by his liberal constituents, and probably doesn't believe he would get much conservative credit for making such a decision as long as he continues pushing his socialist domestic agenda. Thus the floating of a variety of Afghanistan "alternatives" through his loyal media outlets. He seems to be moving toward a strategy of abandoning Afghanistan and focusing instead on neighboring Pakistan, where the Taliban find support, rest, and resupply between attacks on Americans and Afghans trying to establish some semblance of order.

Illustrative of Obama's inability to understand and implement the right strategies in national security matters is his trip to Denmark to pitch Chicago to host the 2012 Olympic Games. It seems clear now that Chicago's bid was hanging by a thread, so Obama's buddies from the Windy City asked him for help.

The glimpse into Obama's stunning narcissism was on full display, as both he and his wife spoke to the Olympic committee about ... themselves. The president had clearly decided that Chicago should be awarded the Olympic Games simply because of his own awesomeness.

How is that relevant to the foreign policy and national security issue?

It may be the most important factor in explaining Obama's seeming lack of serious understanding of the threats facing our country. His narcissistic self-importance actually makes him believe that he can win over our enemies through the force of his personality. And a dose of pacifism.

Thus the unilateral and sudden cancellation of the missile defense systems in Poland and the Czeck Republic. He apparently felt that by giving Russia such a gesture, thus proving he's a stand-up guy, Putin would reciprocate. Perhaps in the form of joining Obama in isolating Iran and stopping their nuclear arms program.

Did Russia reciprocate? Not as far as anyone can tell. Instead, they thanked him and continued their march toward reunification of the old Soviet bloc.

Clearly, Americans won't take this seriously until the next 9/11. I don't say that as a partisan who sort of hopes that will happen; instead, I am looking in sadness at what seems inevitable.

Will it happen before or after a nuke explodes over Israel? Will it be a nuke in one of our own cities? I still hope not, but if so, what a costly lesson we will be forced to learn.

Explaining Myself

Whether a political strategy to further polarize people or a heartfelt opinion, I for one find all the charges of racism from prominent Democrats and homophobia from local "progressives" personally offensive.

The left-wing big shots came out firing at the Tea Party folks, led by Jimmy Carter, who has decided those who object to the overreaching centralized socialism being enacted in Washington as ignorant, red-necked racists. As one that is happy to see so many people energized in a united effort to stop the madness in Washington, I reject Carter and company's characterization and am personally offended by it.

The local newspaper published an announcement in the weddings section of a pair of gay men who apparently were married in California. It stirred up outrage among many in the community, who wrote to the paper to excoriate them for publishing such an announcement and cancelled or threatened to cancel their subscriptions.

Again, the supporters of same-sex marriage wrote in to accuse those who expressed their anger over the newspaper's decision to publish the announcement of being the worst sort of knuckle-dragging bigots. Once again, as one who happens to agree that it's inappropriate to publish wedding announcements for same-sex couples, I'm personally offended by the accusation.

Getting past the name-calling, all I can do is try to explain my position on these issues.

Having followed the Tea Party movement, I know they're a large and growing group of ordinary Americans who are appalled at the path being pursued by the leadership in Washington. They are protesting outrageous government spending and corruption, for which both parties have long been guilty, but the Democrats seem to have turned into an art form immediately upon gaining control over the executive and legislative branches.

The simple fact that President Obama is leading and/or supporting these policies, including massively expensive and liberty-destroying nationalization of healthcare, energy, banking and automotive industries, simply includes him as a focus of the protest. However, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the rest of the Democrat leadership in Washington are equally targeted in this protest. The protest is aimed at the policies, not the people.

I find it hypocritical that the same party that chuckled or looked the other way as a large proportion of their constituency engaged in a daily slander of the previous President and Vice President, going as far as hoping for assassination or disease to remove them if Congress couldn't or wouldn't remove and imprison them.

Nothing even close has been evident in the Tea Party protests.

On the same-sex marriage issue, my objection is simply this: Marriage is defined by Judeo-Christian tradition as a union between a man and a woman as the foundation for a family. Although I believe homosexual behavior is a choice, no more than adultery or polygamy or even deviant sexual practices, I don't believe a free society should be in the business of punishing individuals who choose the homosexual "lifestyle".

But neither do the homosexuals have the right to force me to give up my own morality and celebrate their chosen lifestyle. If you want to call me homophobic, then what word would you use to characterize my "intolerance" toward adultery? Or my moral disagreement with couples who choose to co-habitate without the institution of marriage? Do I hate them all? If that were true, these days I'd be left with very few people I didn't hate.

There is objective right and wrong. I am guilty of things that are wrong, but I don't run around demanding other people respect or celebrate those behaviors. Instead, I try to do reform and do better.

How about this: I'll agree not to call you horrible names if you agree to the same.