Good Idea:  Reading a book over lunch
Bad Idea:   Reading a good book over lunch so that you don't want to go back to work

on monday, i picked up two books at the B&N in westmoreland. i really didn't need to buy more books, i have stack sitting on my nightstand at home. some partially started, some pipe dreams to finish. not to mention i have been in at about knee level deep in my books on some pre-wwii history. i never thought i'd ever read history books and find them so interesting. i think what i like about the history books i had bought, was a no-nonsense kind of look about the start of the war. it breaks it down country by country and the reasons why war became unevitable. it seems wwii has come to be a war of good (western democracies & a black sheep..communisim) vs. evil (socialism).

but it really wasn't that at all. it wasn't a better or worse time in the history of the world. it was the same thing as it was back then as it is now. countries looking to grow, in a word "to get all they can get," and it was also self preservation of those who had already grown to immense proportions and wanted to keep it that way. the smaller countries were the pawns of the bigger nations and fell victim at the hands of the more powerful countries. note how i don't lay the lines of good and bad or allied and axis. all sides manipulated "the little guy" to their own advantage. just as it is today.

i guess what i'm understanding more and more as i travel though this journey of life, i realize how naive i am about the nature of people as one and as a global realization. things about "America #1!" and how much of it can be a crock of shit. Don't get me wrong, there is no other place i'd rather be that's for sure. But there's a pompousness of this country that can be downright irritating. much as we look upon how "America Won the War." Acutally, it was Russia that won the European theatre. The fatal mistake Hitler made was that he was audacious enough to think he could wipe out the Russian people.

wow, that was quite the subject change. i wasn't going to write about that at all...just was going to say how cool the book i picked up on monday was. The Straw Men is one of those surprise books. One that sounds good but you're not sure. Well..it's fantastic...very good story and it keeps you interested the whole time as to what is going on. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. The Straw Men website. Becareful..don't poke around too much..it'll ruin some of the story.

it's been a long time since i posted on ye olde blogger...but it's time again...

currently i'm working in another building at my company. which is kind neat in it's own right, but well, there's definately some annoying things.

1. coming and going is not possible unless you're a resident in this building. i work at the same company yet, i can't enter the front doors w/o someone "buzzing" me in or following in behind someone.

2. people look at you like you're an alien. not the most warm and fuzzy feeling. i understand i'm new to the area, but man..smile for pete's sake!

3. working in a testbed sucks the llama's big toe. people coming in and out, meetings, and other loud noises.

4. working on a machine that isn't mine. this is probably the biggest complaint i have and i'm sure any developer would quite agree. you don't have admin rights to install anything on your machine so when you need something, you have to track someone down, then they have to track the software down. once that's done, they you have to log off, and they log on and install, then you log in and it doesn't work and the whole cycle starts all over. when you give your employee these rights, it makes productivity a little better and it shows that you trust your employees to be honorable and to behave like an adult.