My knee "fell out" again last night. The pain is excruciating. I can't stop working because if I stop working I no longer get paid, or I burn through sick hours (of which I have something like twelve remaining due to this whole fucking injury process) or whatever. And I can't take drugs at work because then my coworkers will say, "are you on drugs?"
No, friends, pain is my reward for dedication to work.
Ouch. It fucking hurts. It really fucking hurts. It hurts in a cast that immobilizes the entire fucking leg, and there's no more I can do to make it stop hurting except pound my skull in with opiates. I can't help but think the surgeon who wants to "wait it out" and "see if we can't make that stronger" is a sadist. The pain I went through last night is only going to happen again and again until I have no longer acl or whatever soft tissue I have left is destryoed. And each time, it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt a lot. Enough that I'll be yelling and pushing Sandy away and irritable with my friends and coworkers.
And why? To avoid surgery that's fucking inevitable?
14 August, 2008
11 August, 2008
How your company is run
Frank once quoted me, so I don't feel bad quoting him, and besides, I'm linking him. And I'm entirely serious (and friendly) when I say, can we have this man frozen in carbonite and put on display somewhere as a reminder to HR drones everywhere, this is what you should try to be. Have him beatified. Knighted. Promoted to, hell, President. Let him hire a Secretary of War, and let him run the rest of the country.
Here's Frank, freestyling, just like a Zach de la Rocha or a Travis Pastrana, in his own special way:
I wish I could buy Frank a beer, or offer to give him some of my homegrown habaneros or something... because the man can even grow his own, fabulous, tomatoes.
I'm just in awe. I've always despised HR organisations, and here is Frank, making me think that there is hope out there for corporate Earth (note I did not say Corporate America – it aaaaalll needs changing), and that one day work won't kill people like me or drive us insane.
I respect a man with a brain. I respect a revolutionary. I respect a gardener and a man who values – no, cherishes – plant life. And I can't help but be heartened by a man who, were his cause taken up by those he tries to reach, would make the world a better place for me and hundreds of thousands (millions perhaps today, but certainly soon) of others. Frank, thank you. Thank you so much. May your words reach the ears they need to and your tomatoes always be as beautiful.
Here's Frank, freestyling, just like a Zach de la Rocha or a Travis Pastrana, in his own special way:
Christ, this is a smart man. You'd think that this was all simple, duhhh stuff, but nobody is frickin doing it!. He must be so agitated that an entire industry (his!) is doing so many stupid things and doing them so willfully, thinking they're the way out, when all they do is perpetuate the same stupid things that got them where they are! I can imagine this is a lot like me screeching about how programmers and IT staff in general are in it for the wrong reasons, are doing the wrong things with the wrong people at the wrong time and other wrongisms.
- Why do you do performance reviews?
- Do you really need a vacation policy?
- How’s using email to “communicate” working out?
- Think a training class can infuse culture into your company?
- Do you ever listen to yourself when you say “employee engagement”?
I wish I could buy Frank a beer, or offer to give him some of my homegrown habaneros or something... because the man can even grow his own, fabulous, tomatoes.
I'm just in awe. I've always despised HR organisations, and here is Frank, making me think that there is hope out there for corporate Earth (note I did not say Corporate America – it aaaaalll needs changing), and that one day work won't kill people like me or drive us insane.
I respect a man with a brain. I respect a revolutionary. I respect a gardener and a man who values – no, cherishes – plant life. And I can't help but be heartened by a man who, were his cause taken up by those he tries to reach, would make the world a better place for me and hundreds of thousands (millions perhaps today, but certainly soon) of others. Frank, thank you. Thank you so much. May your words reach the ears they need to and your tomatoes always be as beautiful.
Rock fever
This is Ben Martinek, a friend of ours, leaned way over on his Ninja 250 (just like ours!) at Laguna Seca. It should be mentioned that the "other bike" is a Hypermotard. Jealous. Jeeeeealous.People in Hawaii talk about "rock fever" and "island fever" – there's nothing to do so they go crazy on the islands. Duane Johnson, "The Rock" himself, said that there was only one thing to do, growing up in Hilo: fight. I can't describe how antsy being in this stupid cast makes me. I read and I watch my documentaries, I dream about guns and motorcycles, and all I want to do is go downstairs and get on the fucking ninja.
I know I can ride it. I know I can. It's just that if something should happen to me to make it worse, or hurt the bike, I could never forgive myself for hurting Sandy's bike or betraying her trust like that (she expects me to use better judgment than to hop on a motorcycle when I need surgery on one of my knees). But I really, really want to. It's a beautiful day, the swelling has gone down, it looks like all hell is going to break loose at work tomorrow... what more perfect time could there be to get one good ride in on the bike? Just roll that right wrist back and let the bike do the rest.
Let the bike do the rest.
Let the bike do the rest.
Let the bike do the rest.
Wood refinishing on the marlin
I used some 220-grit sandpaper to take off a lot of the sealant and varnish from the Marlin's stock yesterday. It turns out this is a much more productive task than I thought. Productive, in the sense that I had a pile of varnish and other nastiness in front of me afterwards, and no doubt some of it down my throat.
It was also a lot more work than I thought. I think what I'm going to do is just break down and get one of those black-and-decker "mouse" things, let it do the heavy lifting, and do it with a respirator. For the fine details, I can just do it manually. I'm going to have to anyways.
The parts where I seem to have gotten all the way down to the wood are appearing much lighter than I expected. Like Birch, maybe. I can't imagine it would be Birch, but I also don't think it's Walnut. So it may turn out to be pretty flexible as wood goes. I guess a firm lacquering would help that, but I haven't done enough woodwork to know.
There's a tiny bit of water damage to the butt of the stock, which makes me think it was even left outside for a rain or something. It's not bad, but it's clearly there.
At any rate, with a glass bedding and pillar bedding, it should be a fairly stable 100-200yd platform, especially with the requisite barrel (starting to wonder if anyone will make a chrome-lined octagonal barrel for me).
It was also a lot more work than I thought. I think what I'm going to do is just break down and get one of those black-and-decker "mouse" things, let it do the heavy lifting, and do it with a respirator. For the fine details, I can just do it manually. I'm going to have to anyways.
The parts where I seem to have gotten all the way down to the wood are appearing much lighter than I expected. Like Birch, maybe. I can't imagine it would be Birch, but I also don't think it's Walnut. So it may turn out to be pretty flexible as wood goes. I guess a firm lacquering would help that, but I haven't done enough woodwork to know.
There's a tiny bit of water damage to the butt of the stock, which makes me think it was even left outside for a rain or something. It's not bad, but it's clearly there.
At any rate, with a glass bedding and pillar bedding, it should be a fairly stable 100-200yd platform, especially with the requisite barrel (starting to wonder if anyone will make a chrome-lined octagonal barrel for me).