59!
Happy birthday, Dad, and thanks for everything you do!
Word to the USA.
With any luck, we'll be here another 231 years - as long as the libtards don't get their way.
Or is that Officer Titan?
Congratulations, muh brutha.
Now, don't pull me over.
So, I called to get electricity ordered for the new house.
Apparently, we're about 50 feet too far away from Lebanon city-proper to stay with Pacific Power and Light (an Enron Company!), so we have to use this "cooperative" called "Consumer's Power, Inc."
Cooperative is another word for "Tiny Company That Really Wishes It Was Big".
First, these idiots charge a deposit, unless my previous power company will give me a "satisfactory letter of reference" for my last year of service. The letter isn't a big deal, PP&L is sending me one to fax to the CPI idiots. The whole idea of a deposit pisses me off - if I don't pay my bill, then cut me off.
Then, no joke, the guy on the phone goes to tell me how great it is to be part of a cooperative - for only a $1 life membership fee, I get a 1/20000th vote in their stupid elections, which is a big difference from places like Pacific Power, which are big faceless industrial corporations, where I get no say in things.
Who the fuck cares? I don't want a say in things - I want my electricity, for which I give you money.
Big faceless industrial corporations got that way by making good business decisions, not by being whiny little fucks whose only customers are in a territory that the big corporations don't want to waste their time with - yet.
Give it time, assholes, and you'll be bought out, and your corporate headquarters in fabulous Philomath, Oregon will be closed out, and you idiots will all be out of work.
For whatever reason, my crappy town has ceased it's normal fireworks exposition.
I suppose that's OK - the people across the street apparently spent a large amount of money up in Washington, and put on a pretty decent show.
So, we live in an apartment.
I've lived in an apartment for the past 10+ years.
I understand the concessions that must be made, living in multi-family housing.
For example, there's the noise constraints. You can't be as loud.
If you live upstairs, you have to deal with stairs. If you live downstairs, you have to deal with the noise from above.
And if you live on the second floor of a 3-story apartment, you've got to deal with everything.
So, I understand that there's going to be times when there's thumps or bumps from upstairs.
I understand that I'm going to hear people walking.
What I'm not going to deal with any longer is the MILF-bitch and her offspring thundering all over the place, rattling my ceiling, and running up and down the stairs, shaking the whole building.
So, after multiple attempts at being nice and talking to them, asking them to be quiet, I open the front door and holler at her kids running up and down the stairs, and say "Can you guys settle down a bit, you're rattling the whole friggin' building."
Things quiet down for 10 minutes, and then the thunder up and down the stairs begins anew.
I open the door again to be greeted by her hot ass walking up the stairs, which then stops, turns around, and she bends down to ask if she can help me.
I ask "Yeah, who's making all the noise up and down the stairs?"
Her response?
"My perfect and joyous children. My children who don't swear, who don't cause trouble, who aren't obnoxious. Leave my children alone! It's 5:30, and it's still light out, and they're playing! Leave my children alone!!"
She continues to ramble like this, as I try to explain that her children are being extraordinarily loud, but she won't shut her yap. I bet she gives good head.
So, I tell her that I'll just call the manager.
You see, I'm a firm believer that apartment complaints have a chain of command.
First, you speak with the source of your complaint. If, for example, the noise isn't a regular thing, just every now and then, things get a bit out of hand, then you don't involve the management or anyone else. Just knock on the door, and speak with them yourself.
Well, we've done that.
I also tried the thumping-on-the-ceiling bit - i.e. when they shake my ceiling, I punch it a few times to let them know that they're being loud. It's worked, to some effect.
Well, it's been at least 6 months of this shit, and multiple personal visits and thumps have had no effect.
So, I called the manager tonight.
I didn't really want to do that, because I really don't care for our current manager - I think apartment managers should be in their 30's - 40's, not 50+ old ladies who are generally in a power-trip induced pissed-off mood.
Our assistant manager was cute, tallish short-haired blond with big knockers, but I haven't seen her around lately, so I don't know if she's still around. Plus, even as cute as she was, she wasn't the brightest - she couldn't get the paperwork done correctly, and that caused a problem at least once.
Oh well.
Talked it over with the roommate, and we're just going to start calling the manager every time there's an issue - and if they keep up the noise, there will issues at least 3-4 times a week.
Of course, if management involvement doesn't work, we can just step it up to the police noise complaint level, which I'd prefer not to do.
I hate apartments.
Oh well - only 5 months or so until we can look for a house.
228 years? 229?
Something like that.
Either way, we rock all over the world. Fuck everyone else.
Yeah.
OK, so, I'm getting REAL tired of places that rent houses setting up an appointment with me to come get an application, or pick up keys to look at the place, or whatever, and then when I show up, "Oh, we just rented that out!"
What the fucking hell, people?
Finally got to go look at this 4 bedroom place over near Pacific and Hill.
Chad seemed to think it was great, because he thinks he's been there before.
Oy vey, it's a clusterfuck.
It's cool, because it's got 4 bedrooms, and an "office" which is just another bedroom.
The garage is huge, the livingroom is decent, the kitchen is big.
All cool.
It stinks. The bedrooms upstairs have ceilings that are sloped with the roof, which is goofy.
It's old, which means crappy wallpaper and stuff like that abound. The bathroom situation is kinda fucked up, as well.
All in all, it's an incredibly fucked up house.
I'm thinking "No!"
Another place, however, looks REAL nice - 3 big bedrooms, big livingroom, humongous dining room and kitchen area, and a "bonus room".
$950/month, which is awesome.
Homeowner seems really anal about credit histories, though, regardless of my awesome rental history (which I just confirmed with my apartment managers).
And, as we all should know, Brian has less-than-perfect (tm) credit.
We'll see how that one goes.
Hopefully Jim's credit, my awesome rental history, and Chad's decent credit will be enough to sway them, because I so badly want that house.
So, I go to lunch today with some people from work.
We hit up one of the McMenamin's in Salem, Boon's Treasury.
So, we're sitting there, and I spill my water all over the table.
We've got no napkins, and no way to sop it up.
There's a waitress standing about 10 feet away, bussing a table.
I said "Excuse me, miss?" and "Ma'am?" about 6 or 7 times, to no avail.
Now, about 10 minutes prior to my water episode, I heard another waitress call this waitress by name, so since my generic query got no result, I now say "Erica?"
She responds.
She responds by flipping out. "How did you know my name?"
I explain.
"Aaaargh, I hate that, when people don't know me, and they call me by name!"
I tell her that I tried to get her attention another way, but she didn't hear me, and that I didn't think "Hey, waitress lady!" was appropriate.
She just gives me a pissy look, and stomps off.
Bitchy for the duration of our stay.
Did I do something wrong here?
She's lucky she's got such a hot ass, otherwise, I'd have slapped her with my sandwich plate.
So, had my parents over for dinner tonight.
Mom's birthday is tomorrow - she'll be 50.
I sprung the voicemail prank on her.
You see, about 2-3 months ago, I correctly guessed her voicemail password, and changed her annoying message to one announcing her 50th birthday, and asking for birthday wishes from callers.
She's been clueless about it since it happened, complaining about people wishing her "Happy Birthday", thinking that my dad had been telling people.
So, tonight, I played the message for her.
Good times, good times. I swear, I thought my dad was going to pass out, he was laughing so hard.
I don't think she's too happy =)
So, I must completely apologize for bitching about the drive to the wedding.
Without a doubt, the coolest ceremony I have ever attended.
I'm not going to launch into a description of it here - suffice it to say, when/if I get married, the ceremony is definitely going to be influenced by Josh and Sara's wedding.
I just won't do it up at Timberline, dammit.
So, I'm flipping channels when I woke up a little bit ago, and I flipped past E!, and they're doing a special preview of the new season of that "American Idol" bullshit, and I'm reminded of my post about the decline of society.
Beyond all the "manufactured pop" one-hit-wonder bullcrap, there's another layer of this show that is truly offensive.
That Simon fucker is a mean son of a bitch. The guy gets off on ripping people to shreds, and we glorify him for it.
Now, surely part of the blame for the humiliation lies with the contestant. It's like Jerry Springer - If you're asked to come on the show, you know damned well what's going to happen.
If you're a wanna-be contestant on American Idol, and you can't sing, don't subject yourself to it.
At the same time, it's shows like "Idol" that encourage and promote behavior like this Simon asshole.
People try to find all different reasons to blame for how we're all so bad, uncaring and unkind. Well, look right here, people.
A television show that glorifies rudeness and humiliation.
And people get up in arms about "Jackass"?!
People wonder why terrible things happen in our society, and they try to blame them on the most inappropriate things.
Someone shoots up a people-crowded area, and it's the gun's fault.
Some kid stabs his teacher/classmate, and it's the parent's fault.
Some guy flips out and assaults a cop, and it's society's fault, or the media's fault (because he played Grand Theft Auto 3!).
First of all, I'm a firm believer that people are responsible for their own actions. The gun didn't make asshole shoot people. The parent's didn't order their child to go stab someone, and Grand Theft Auto 3 doesn't have subliminal messages telling you to go kill cops.
These people are responsible for what they did.
At the same time, while not removing the blame or responsibility from these people, I think they can easily get to the point where they're sick and tired of all the bullshit, and they snap - they decide that they don't care about the consequences anymore, they're going to fuck the norm up.
Case in point - Patrick Edward Purdy, the dumb son-of-a-bitch who shot up the Stockton school yard in January of 1989.I'm reading a book right now called "Under Fire - The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control".
I picked it up cheap at a used book store, thinking it was pro-gun, but it's most definately anti-gun.
I sit here after reading just the first few pages of the book, and I'm already laughing at the typical anti-gun inconsistencies. It's like "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore. In that mockumentary, Moore starts off trying to prove that guns are bad, and they cause crime. Halfway through the movie, he starts comparing the United States to Canada, and pointing out that Canada has a far lower murder/violent crime rate (which isn't neccessarily true), and that, holy crap, they have tons of guns in private hands in Canada, so why aren't they as evilnasty as the United States?
Oh, there it is - it's the media's fault. Canada's news media doesn't fixate on violent nasty crimes like murder, rape, assault, etc. Canada's entertainment media isn't fixated on death/destruction/gore/violence/villainy like the United States is.
Well, Moore, what the fuck is it? Can't you even make up your mind? Guns cause all the crime, or the media causes it?
Getting back to the Purdy instance in this book, it's the same thing. Guns are bad, yet the author details how Purdy, numerous times, had been in and out of drug rehab clinics, and mental health clinics. How Purdy was looking for help, yet the workers at these clinics just visited him for a few minutes, gave him a drug (in the case of the mental health clinics), and showed him the door, telling him to come back in a month or so for a follow-up.
The author details how Purdy had been in trouble with the law, numerous times, for felony-level crimes, yet they always got plea-bargained down to misdemeanors - and that this is important, because that's how Purdy was able to legally buy his AK-47 and his Taurus 9mm pistol that he used at the Stockton school yard.
Now, wait just a minute here - like Moore, this is damned inconsistant. What are you saying the problem is? Guns, or "the system"??
Had the shitty liberal justice system in California actually been interested in upholding the law, and preventing crime, they'd have at least one of those felony convictions stand, thus preventing Purdy from "legally buying weapons" upon failing the State of California required background check.
But, no. Convicting him of a felony places too much of a burden on the judicial system, and the corrections system, so they misdemeanor him, and release him.
And what about the drug and mental health clinics? The author notes that Purdy had many times voluntarily gone to these clinics. It sure looks like the guy was looking for some help in fixing his apparently pretty fucked-up life, and "the system" didn't give a damn, and just dumped his ass back on the street.
Now, again, let me say, I'm not trying to say that anyone but Purdy was responsible for what happened that day in January, but, perhaps if somewhere along the line, someone had done their job (either in the courts, or in the clinics), this could have been prevented. Purdy may have found that someone cared about him, and not decided to say "fuck it all", shoot up the school yard, and then put a gun to his head and kill himself. And isn't that what the anti-gun cocksuckers claim they're about? Prevention of crime and death?
I'm not trying to glorify Purdy here, but maybe the guy was trying to send a message to society in general, and those same cretins that try to ban everything they don't like have hijacked his message, and twisted it to suit their own game.
It's only a matter of time before people like these get tired of being dicked with, and do something about it. The only problem is, the media paints these people as "violent extremists", "lunatics" or "terrorists". They don't ever paint these people as John Q. Public, law-abiding upstanding normal member of society who was fucked with one time too many.
Case in point - you've all heard about the burglar who fell through a skylight, landed on a knife, fucked himself up, sued the homeowner, and won?Well, in yet another of the endless variations on that theme, here's a the story of crook who got shot by a police officer, suing the officer and his department, claiming that his injuries have made him unable to obtain employment upon his release from prison - like the prison sentence had nothing to do with that, I'm sure - too bad the cop's aim sucks, and the crook isn't dead.
The fact that this case wasn't immediately dismissed is evident of the idiotic liberal perversion that our justice system has been subjected to for all these years.
Case in point - A kid with asthma puffs on his inhaler, and accidentally exhales some on his teacher, causing the teacher to have an allergic reaction. School officials have commented that the teacher does not blame the student, saying it was an accident.But, the county attorney's office is talking about pursuing a felony suit against the 16 year old boy.
Has common sense and simple intelligence become extinct in the government?
Case in point - An airliner is coming in for a landing, and the overhead announcement about returning your seatbacks to their upright position is broadcast. A first-class passenger, who was sleeping, was woken up by the announcement, and put his seat back up.Appaerntly, it wasn't all the way up, so a male flight attendant jabs the guy in the shoulder, and tells him to put it up. The passenger gets rightfully pissed, and tells the guy "Okay, but don't touch me." The flight attendant steps to the guy, gets in his face, and jabs him again.
The passenger gets escorted off the plane when it lands, and has to deal with cops and the whole ordeal, because the flight attendant reported him to the ground as "disruptive".
Police board the plain, interview passengers, who all back up the other passenger's story, that namely, the flight attendant is an asshole.
Police decide that "no further action will be taken." Well, against the passenger, sure, but what about the asshole flight attendant?
This is the kind of shit that we put up with on a daily basis, people. Remember when you were at a fast food restauraunt, and saw the cashier getting an attitude with people, maybe even yourself? These fuckers make minimum wage, and they're employed for one reason - to service you, and provide you with what you're paying for.
You ever notice the mallcops fucking with people, especially juveniles, for next-to-nothing? More barely-above-minimum wage jackasses who are on a power trip.
Maybe people are tired of putting up with shit, and they're doing something about it.
No, shooting a school yard up isn't what I'm advocating - far from it.
But until we stand up as a united body and say "fuck you, I'm not taking your shit!", this same thing is going to keep happening, and get worse.
We've allowed this kind of crap for far too long, and we're letting the power-trippers to screw us more than ever.
They're taking away our rights, one at a time. They're stripping this country of it's dignity, and turning it into a socialist state where nobody has to do anything, they're given it all. They're making it so no person is responsible for their own actions, it's the fault of the corporations, so sue them because it's their fault you're an idiot.
And the saddest part is, when the majority of the populace has realized this, and is finally ready to stand and take up arms to force a change, and a return to the way this country was founded and supposed to be, we're not going to be able to, because they've taken the means to defend ourselves.
So, this is my call to you - the next time a wage-slave fucks with you, or is rude, don't ignore it, don't let it pass. Make a fucking scene. Either slap the fucker, or get the fucking manager in there.
The next time a mallcop tries to pull you over in his little fucking truck, spit on his uniform.
Don't put up with this shit, people. Don't put up with anybody's shit anywhere. Obey the law, but don't take any shit.
I really need to find a way to take the drudgery out of my job, and make it cool again...
People are telling me to work on my certs. Yeah, that's the smart thing to do, if I want to stay in IT.
But, I HATE COMPUTERS.
I tried, severely hard, to get my MCSE stuff taken care of. It's so damned easy, but it's so monotonous and I can't keep my attention on it for more than five minutes, then I get pissed off and bored.
Blar.
Maybe I should go get some Prozac.
And it's noon.
I love sleeping in.
Now to go wreak havoc on my apartment.
And that problem is that I'm out of fucking vodka.
And the liquor stores are closed.
And my light buzz is fading fast.
What a fucking catastrophe.
Sweetness.
Got my livingroom all re-arranged super cool, and it feels like there's even more room than before.
Changed the furniture configuration (both position, and content) and things seriously rock in there now.
Not the easiest thing to actually replace the carpet that sucks (a quick aside - my apartment owners/managers are cheap fucks. When people move out, and the carpet sucks, they don't replace it. They have someone come in and dye it, then fluff it up, so it looks new for about the first day or two, and then it falls apart again. Jackasses.), but Fred Meyer's has these 5'x8' carpet remnants that work real well, and make everything look supergreat.
Anyhow, so yeah. It's cool.
And I'm taking tomorrow off.
Someone needs to reccomend some new club/dance type musics to me.
If you're familiar with XM Radio, I'm looking for stuff like they play on BPM (Channel 81).
HOOK A BROTHER UP.
This is a positive post!
Intolerable Cruelty was a great movie! Clooney doing some slapsticky stuff, and Catherine Zeta-Jones is MUY CALIENTE.
Hilarious movie.
I'm going to reverse-rice my Exploder. It will rock.
I will install a big fucking grille guard with cool lights, and a roof-rack with more cool lights, and then I'll put big fucking reverse lights on the ass end of it, and then I'll put big tires on it and YEAH!
SWEET!
POSITIVE!
I shall also be trying to see "Lost in Translation" and "Love, Actually" this weekend. Both are promised to be great movies.
See? HAH!
Sweetness...
Got my Pancakes this morning, made all fresh-like from the Linn County Sheriff himself, Mr. David Burright.
Pretty spiffy.
Rather humorous, and quite annoying, were all the skater-fags there dressed in their BDU pants, or wanna-be military coats, with the faggy Independant skateboard sweaters or hats.
I swear, Independant is getting to be about as annoying as that Fox Racing crap that everybody and their brother buys.
I saw a 400-lb, 40-year-old looking fatbitch driving a Geo Metro, and it had a Fox Racing logo in the back window.
Give me a fucking break.
It's not even that I hate my job, anymore.
Someone made the comment that I'm bored with my job because there's nothing challenging.
That's not even it.
There's nothing remotely stimulating, physically or mentally, about this job, anymore.
I long for the layoffs, so I can sleep.
Argh. Just got done moving my arcade game into storage (Neo Geo, baby!), with the help of my brother and cousin.
Then, we helped my cousin move his gun safe from his garage to his downstairs office room.
ARCADE GAMES ARE NOT LIGHT. NOR ARE BIG STEEL GUN SAFES.
ARGH.
But, it's all done.
Now, I need to re-arrange my living room, get some nicer looking furniture, and a new carpet deal...
Then my apartment will be medium-pimpin...
LIVE TODAY! ME FUCKING OFF!
MOVING THINGS INTO STORAGE!
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
Blar.
Cleaning and organizing crap sucks.
absent, abstracted, apathetic, blah, bored, careless, dormant, dreamy, drowsy, dull, easygoing, energyless, enervated, faint, heavy, heedless, impassive, inanimate, inattentive, indifferent, indolent, inert, insouciant, lackadaisical, lagging, laid back, languid, languishing, languorous, leaden, lethargic, lifeless, limp, lukewarm, lymphatic, mopish, neutral, passive, phlegmatic, slack, sleepy, slow, sluggish, stupid, supine, thoughtless, torpid, unenthusiastic, uninterested, vacant...
Does that give you an idea of how I'm feeling?
It doesn't help that the weekend is so short, and Sunday is always the day before I have to go back to work for the week...
Yeah, yeah, I know - there's a support group for people who hate their job. It's called everybody.
I'm so tired of computer and network bullshit.
I need a new job.
But, I don't know anything else, really, except for some firearms stuff - and that's got less of a career future than most everything else.
If I get laid off, supposedly I get $12,000 for schooling, plus two years unemployment.
What should I study, huh?
WOOHOO!
Got my laptop back. Busted a big chunk off of it, Gateway fixed it all up super great for me.
That is all.
Well, I'd post a picture of my hiatal hernia, and my stomach, my duodenum, all that jazz, BUT MY SCANNER AIN'T WORKING.
Had my endoscopy today. I have a hiatal hernia.
Here's some medication, change your diet. We can fix it with surgery, but that's a last resort. Blah blah blah.
Just fix it, you fuckers. I'm fat, I know it, and I don't want to change my diet.
Stupid doctors.
STUPID COLD AND FLU SEASON...
Now, I'm staying home today, as bad as this stupid bug got. Which is fabulous.
I was out Tuesday due to vehicle repair stuffs.
I'm out today due to this.
I'm going to be out Monday due to hospital stuff (endoscopy for my acid reflux crap).
Three days in one pay period.
This blows.
And it sucks.
Stupid stuffed up sinuses. Stupid headache.
Stupid virii.
Stupid immune system that can't cope.
Blah.
So, I got called at 2:00am (about three hours ago) because "the network is down!" at work.
Well, no, it's not.
Few things annoy me more than the Chicken Little syndrome we've got going on here at work.
Anyhow, it was a fairly major problem, suprisingly enough.
Our SAN (for those non-geeks, this is a centralized data storage array - it's like the hard drive for multiple servers) decided to take a shit, and take our main production servers down with it.
Yay.
So, I've been on-site since about 2:45am, and our HP/Compaq support goons still haven't arrived yet. Should be here soon, but not soon enough for me.
I just want them to fix this shit and let me go home.
Just my luck, there'll be some other major problem, and it won't be an easy or fast fix.
Yay.
Being on-call sucks.
This job sucks.
I want to go home. Whaaaa. I'm tired, dammit.
Molester Beaten In Jail Cell By Former Victim Attacker, 22, Recognizes Kevin Kinder As Man Who Abused Him 11 Years AgoPOSTED: 6:11 p.m. EDT October 10, 2003
UPDATED: 6:18 p.m. EDT October 10, 2003TAMPA, Fla. -- A convicted child molester who was placed in the same Florida jail cell with one of his victims was beaten unconscious Thursday.
The former victim was being held on a probation violation.
Authorities say he recognized cellmate Kevin Kinder as the man who abused him and three other boys when he was 11 years old.
His lawyer said the man, who is now 22, jumped on Kinder and punched him repeatedly.
The former victim's mother called the encounter a "fluke" but added that it was very "therapeutic" for her son.
There were about 65 other inmates in the holding cell at the time of the attack.
Kinder is serving 60 years in state prison on a probation violation after serving six years for molesting the four boys. He was at the Tampa facility for a hearing.
Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.
No doubt it was therapeutic.
This rocks. More of these sick fucks need to have the crap beat out of them.
So, today sucked.
I'm late.
I get called by my buddies at work, and agree to stop and pick up breakfast at this place we grab stuff at all the time. They don't take cards, and I don't have cash. No problem, they take checks. Oh wait, I forgot my checkbook.
OK, next stop, ATM. Oh shit. Forgot my wallet.
This is an issue for a couple of reasons. First, no Driver's License - problem if I get pulled over.
No debit or credit cards. Hence, no lunch. YAY.
The worst part of it is, I was packing today. No CHL on my person. This is very bad, because the way Oregon law is written, no CHL on my person is a defacto unlicensed carry. VERY bad if I got searched.
Then, I get home, and my apartment manager's are sucking the nuts again. "Your downstairs neighbor complained about thumps coming from upstairs."
Yeah, fuckers. Upstairs, and next door.
"Well, she said they sounded like loud footsteps from above her."
Your fucking point? If she doesn't like footsteps, or noise from upstairs, don't get a downstairs apartment.
So, my crew just got their semi-official notifications.
I say semi-official, because they're not written, but it's official enough...
Anyhow, of my immediate team of 8 people, 5 are getting iced.
From the developer team, 5 of 12 people are getting iced.
No, I'm not one of them, which is good news, I suppose.
Sucks, though - I'm going to be working with the walking dead for over two months. You know these people aren't going to be cheerful or concerned about their jobs.
Can you blame them?
SUMCO to lay off 190 Salem workers.
The move raises fears that the chip maker will close its local plants.
MICHAEL ROSE
Statesman Journal
October 2, 2003SUMCO Oregon told city and state officials Wednesday that it will slash 190 more jobs from its Salem work force, raising worries that the silicon wafer manufacturer is on the verge of closing its local plants.
Salem Mayor Janet Taylor said the layoffs could mean the end of SUMCO’s south plant and could put the north plant in jeopardy.
SUMCO officials declined to comment about their plans for either plant but conceded that the company was evaluating its options.
A series of job cuts in the past few years, including layoffs announced in June, has eroded employment at SUMCO.
The latest layoffs, planned for December and January, will reduce SUMCO’s local work force to 440 employees.
That is roughly one-third of SUMCO’s peak employment in 2000, when Salem’s largest industrial employer had 1,380 workers.
“My guess is the south plant will probably close totally, and potentially the north plant will be put up for sale,” Taylor said.
The mayor said SUMCO executives told her several months ago that the company’s commitment to staying in Salem had changed.
A weak market for semiconductors and a merger completed in January 2002 are to blame for the layoffs and talk of leaving town, Taylor said. The merger of Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. created SUMCO USA, and the Salem operations were renamed SUMCO Oregon.
“This is driven by business decisions beyond the city’s influence and control,” Taylor said.
SUMCO spokeswoman Janet Clark said that “profoundly unfavorable” business conditions in the semiconductor industry left the company with no choice but to lay off more workers.
Clark said she had no information about the company’s plans for the south plant, which the company built in 1996 for $400 million. But Clark also said the parent company is studying SUMCO’s operations and will issue a report in November.
When asked whether the study might recommend plant closures, Clark said, “All options are on the table now.”
SUMCO alerted the city about the impending layoffs through a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. It stated that production and management employees from SUMCO’s north and south plants would be affected.
The layoffs will occur in two phases; 120 workers will be terminated in December, and 70 workers will leave in January.
Michael Rose can be reached at (503) 399-6657.
I love how they're lying about whether or not the plants will close.
As if they don't know, or the decision hasn't been made yet. Riiiiight.
(Yes, this is where I work.)
Yeah? Yeah.
I love it when some cocksucker (yes, I'm a vulgar man.) here at work has a problem, and rather than contact me directly, as he knows I'm the one to resolve it, he emails 18 different people, and lies, saying that I never resolve his issue.
FUNNY THAT IT'S BEEN WORKING FOR THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS.
So, we find out tomorrow about people getting layed-off due to plant closures.
I hope this guy gets his ass fired. We can't afford to employ idiots.
So, my buddy Don is moving to Arizona. I'm happy for him, and hope that everything goes well for him, but it sucks when friends move away.
Plus, I'm so damned anti-social, in that I don't have that many friends locally, so this kinda impacts me, dammit.
ARGH.
OK, so basically, this job came open with the Albany Police Department.
Sounded cool at first, according to the job description, it was looking like a cake job that'd be real fun, that I'm massively qualified for.
Well, I talked to a Lieutenant today, and he went over the whole job thing with me.
I'm still hella qualified, but the job is boring as hell.
Basically, you read a bunch of crap, go over police reports and all kinds of stuff, then go make up a bunch of reports and Power Point presentations (fucking Power Point. I hate Power Point!), and then give a presentation to all the cops.
There are some cool things - you get to make lots of reccomendations, and steer the investigations a bit, that kinda thing.
But, overall, it sounds boring as hell.
I'll probably kick myself in a month or two for not taking this job, but, that's the idiot that is me.
Sounds important, huh?
Stay tuned for more details...
So, I get to work, and everyone is running around like a chicken with their head cut off.
Seems there's a new RPC vulnerability with Windows-based OS', and it needs a new patch, because the last one that patched the Blaster shit doesn't patch this new vulnerability.
OK, so big woop? I run my handy-dandy script, and it goes out and patches machines out on the network.
People need to fucking chill out.
Yup.
I got rid of all of the SHO's. No more Taurii for this boy.
My bitching about Ford notwithstanding, I went out and bought another Ford.
I got myself a nice new (to me) 1999 Ford Explorer XLT.
Yup. An Exploder.
It's freakin' cool, man. It's green (Spruce Green or Tropic Green, not sure which one yet), tan leather interior, all the spiffy options.
Essentially, it's a fully-optioned XLT. All the cool stuff that comes standard on the Eddie Bauer or Limited edition is here, just without the special trim name.
It's got the burly 4.0L V6 (the 210hp one, not the weenie 160hp one), all kinds of cool other stuff.
Do I miss the SHO? Yeah, kinda. It was quick, but it was getting to be a maintenance pain. This thing is in perfect condition, and it's got a service contract on it, so I should be set for a while.
Need to get my stereo gear installed in it, with some modifications. I'm going to put the 12" subs in this one (as opposed to the 10's in the SHO since one of them got broken), and I think I'm going to get a new amp.
I'll have pictures up in a day or two, so stay tuned!
