Car Problems

I noticed, about a week or so ago, that my "Check Coolant" light kept coming on. Obviously, I have a leak because I would have to add water to the overflow tank every two days. It progressively became worse, especially after my final drive from College Station back to Plano. To help locate the problem area, my father and I put red dye into the radiator, and waited until the next day. By this point, the water was leaking at an alarming pace. The red dye allowed us to trace the problem to the backside of the housing around the water pump (where it connects to the block). We soon realized that we did not have the tools to take apart the front of the engine (timing belt, auxilary best, pulleys, etc.), so I would have to send the car to the shop. Being out of a job for the next few months, this is not an ideal situation. However, what are you going to do? The quote from the shop was not too terribly bad (about $315), but I later found out that quote for replacing the water pump. Well, the water pump is not the source of the leak, it is the housing. They called me back to tell me this, and said it would now cost $689. I got another call saying that my timing belt is badly worn due to a frozen bearing in an idler pulley; tack on another $200. This leaves me with a grand total of $889, and I am sure that does not include tax. Given the large amount of hail damage my car has, I wonder how the price of this repair compares to the value of the car itself?

First and Last Ranger Games of the Season

I finally made it out to some Rangers games this year. However, my excitement was tempered by the recent play of both the Rangers and the A's. As expected, the Rangers lost both games, but it still did not ruin my time in Arlington. I got to see a Teixeira homerun (3 RBI), a Soriano homerun, Adrian Gonzalez play first, Rich Harden pitch, and Bobby Crosby make a heck of a diving catch in shallow left field.

Here is Melanie and I outside of the Home Plate entrace to the Ballpark in Arlington (I refuse to call it Ameriquest Field).

Originally we started out in the CF bleachers, but it was so bloody hot that I could not take it out there any longer. So we went to stand in the homerun porch (which is covered) to get out of the sun. Some people left their seats, so we took them, and this was our view. That, of course, is Nick Swisher, but for some reason the announcer kept calling him David Swisher.

Here is Melanie and myself sitting in the shady confines of the homerun porch. Wanting to buy a new baseball cap, Melanie bypassed any and all Ranger caps in favor of the Washington Nationals.

Danielle, one of Melanie's good friends from A&M, stayed with us for the weekend. It had been a while since the two of them got to hang out, and, more importantly, Danielle helped me to move my stuff to Dallas. She is a big baseball fan (though for the Astros, but I'll forgive her), and she even bought a Rangers hat.

One Long Year

It was on this day last year that Melanie and I became engaged. It seems as if that happened years ago. I spoke with her parents over dinner about Melanie's and my desire to wed. I get the feeling that her parents met this with some skepticism. Our plans to teach English in France most likely did not sit well. I then had to tell them how Melanie is going to support me throughout graduate school. They undoubted would have prefered a life with a little less uncertainty for their daughter, but uncertainty is inescapable. This is what Melanie wanted, and I am sure they noticed how happy she was, so could not say "no".

I guess over time they have become accustomed to the fact that they will now be related to an American, and I think my moving back to College Station, unemployed I might add, also helped. Things have gone well over the past year, aside from our separation for the summer. However, it is just over two weeks until the wedding, and I can't wait for all of this to be over with.

More Economic Woes

I could hardly believe what I saw when I went onto CNET's news site and read this article . Basically the new CIO of Hewlett-Packard gets a $15.3 million pay package for leaving Dell and signing with HP. If you scroll down the page a bit, you come across this article . It states that HP is about to lay off approximately 15,000 workers in addition to the already 4,500 workers who have been fired this year. The goal of these layoff is to reduce expenditures by $1 billion a year for the next two years.

If HP is struggling to keep costs down, why do they pay so much for executives? Clearly this is a case of favoritism for those in power. They lavishly spend upon themselves, while taking from those who make the company what it is, the workers. In further evidence of the above favoritism, the article states that, "HP's management team and business units will remain in their current form, with the restructuring mainly focusing on the workforce...". Unbelievable.

The workers of HP and Compaq were screwed as soon as HP's ex-CEO Carly Fiorina announced the merger. With the exception of HP's printing services, the merger created almost a 100% overlap. That means pink slips. The new CEO, Mark Hurd, will continue to layoff more workers. Even more forboding, his track record at his former place of employment indicates he will now attack the pension and option programs of employees.

Corporations care nothing for America save it's lenient tax laws. The current adiministration is unabashedly a proponent of big business and corporatism. This is tantamout to giving the American working class the proverbial finger.

All Star Game

Since I have removed my TV, I have missed baseball. Last night was the All Star Game, something I make an effort to see. While I still have a radio, the thought never occured to me flip the dial to ESPN. Out of habbit, I checked my baseball websites once I got to work, and I am glad that I missed the game. Many people panned Fox for the crappy coverage of the game. Even newpapers got into to mix by criticizing the game.

Some of the worst moments include when Kevin Kennedy called out Pedro Martinez for not coming to the game. Martinez has been an All Star seven times, but only made it to the game three times. I can understand the desire to see the All Stars, but where is the criticism for Scott Rolen? He played Sunday (last game before the ASG), and is scheduled to play on Friday (his first game after the ASG). You might argue that he had a serious shoulder injury earlier in the season, but Pedro has been pitching with a torn labrum all season. Pedro said his not playing was a decision made by the Mets organization. However, Kennedy said he understands the situation as Pedro sitting despite the wishes of the Mets. Kennedy never mentioned any concrete sources, so this is nothing more than a classic case of "he said, she said". Singling out a player on national TV is not a very professional way to conduct business.

Fox also spent some time talking with Ernie Harwell. For those of you who don't know, Harwell was the longtime radio play-by-play man for the Detroit Tigers. He is generally considered to be one of the best radio broadcasters in the history of baseball. Since the game was in Detroit, it only seemed appropriate to speak with Mr. Harwell. He was in the middle of a story about a former Tiger player who recently passed away, when Jeanne Zelasko interupts him by saying, "Yeah, we wish we could just go on and on. There's so much to say about him." How classless can you be? The only reason that Ms. Zelasko got her job is because she is moderately good looking, and TV stations want to seem more progressive by hiring female reporters to cover sports. After hearing about this, I have come to the conclusion that Ms. Zelasko has the journalistic abilities of a sack of doorknobs.

The game was also mired in shameless advertising by corporate sponsors. I want to watch baseball, not see logos for crap I probably won't even purchase. In some cases, the cameras focused on Joe Buck and Tim Carver (horrible, horrible announcers) while the game was essentially ignored. The list can go on and on, but I would suggest that you read the following article and discussion thread here. If you want to have an intelligent and humorous discussion about baseball, I would suggest you make Baseball Think Factory part of your daily reading.

A Break From Political Stuff

I finally told my boss, Karen, about moving to France, though I said it was Melanie who got the job. Regardless, I was really nervous about it as I hate confrontation, but I got to do it over the phone. She was working from home, which made it a little eaiser to tell I was leaving in two weeks. Of course, I told her and then went on vacation for two days. Oh well. This is the worst time to leave as a colleague with experience at my job is leaving as well. Some of her jobs are now transfered to me, or, more appropriately, to the next person hired. In the interim, they will have to improvise. To make matters worse, they are in the midst of giving me a $6,000 raise, why could they have not done that earlier?

So I went back to work today, the first day after announcing me departure. People are excited for me, which is nice. Work no longer seems so bad now that I know my days are numbered there. Karen called me into her office to talk about my last two weeks. She was really nice about everything. She told me of a story about a job she took, and they explicitly asked her about getting married. She said no. Well, an old boyfriend walked back into her life, and within ten months she was married and moving to Arizona. The company had spent big dollars flying her around the country to various training seminars. She understands that unexpected things happen. Her story was conforting. She really is a great person to work for; she has high expectations, but treats you fairly as well. She said she always expected me to move on to bigger and better things.

I feel bad that I am leaving them just before things get really crazy with the upcoming Fall semester. She told me not to worry, Blinn will continue on just fine. She's right.

Belated G8

I know that G8 stuff is over, but I was in San Antonio and could not add these pics. When I was in Lausanne, Switzerland, the 2004 G8 conference was held across Lake Geneva in Evian, France. Lausanne became a mad house with protestors and police, here are some of things that I witnessed:Here is a bank boarded up to keep people from looting. Most stores did this, but left a wooden door to enter/exit the shop.

One of the many anti-G8 posters around town.

Cops in riot gear getting ready for the protests. There were many soliders patroling the town.

Graffiti: "I spend therefore I am!!!" It is a play on the famous words of Descartes, "Je pense donc je suis" or "I think therefore I am".

Normally, this was a lake-side street, but was barracaded. Notice the barbed wire on the top of the barracades.

Booming Economy

If we listen to current political discourse, the economy is on its way back to stability, yet I found this flyer on every car at my place of employment. This person is anything but unqualified for a fulltime job.

Life In College Station

As I wait to leave for France, I get to spend the next month with this classy guy. While many Americans respond with utter indignation, it is a simple fact of life that others will disagree with US foreign policy. Hooray for intolerance!

My Fiancée

The future Mrs.

First Post

I am creating this blog so that I may share what goes on in my life with others. Since my fiancée and I will soon be moving to France, it will be difficult to let others know what I am doing. Melanie, my fiancée and I will marry on 6 August, and then leave for France on 20 September. Between those two dates, we will spend some time in Port Aransas and Montréal.