Burnt shoe.

So, I walked into work today and I swear you could have killed a damn dung beatle it smelled so bad in that place. It literally smelled like someone had set a pile of shit covered shoes on fire and then tried to put the fire out by pissing on them. A couple of people I am sure will call in sick after having to smell all that burnt plastic all day long. I know my friend Sathara is not coming in, he was one of the first people in the building and he got the worst of the smells yesterday. I am just so thankful that the fire stayed where it was because we have hydrogen and amonia tanks all over that building not to mention the natural gas lines. So if it would have gotten out of control there would have no job to come back to today.

Well here's the information I have so far to give you and as soon as I get a damage estimate I will post that:
From what I was told by security the fire started at around 12:10pm yesterday. Crews were dispatched from I believe station 10 right by the airport and when they arrived they could not see any sign of fire. We have one of the most secure buildings in the entire valley due to what we have inside. So by just looking at the outside no one can tell what's going on inside. Once our security staff arrived they came inside and found heavy smoke coming from our "wet area" which is were we store some chemicals and do some industry specific tasks. By the time fire/resuce arrived the second time the fire was smoldering itself out and had been almost extinguished by the sprinkler system. A hazmat team had to be called out to the site after people started complaining about their eyes burning.

That's all I know for now about the fire. Hopefully at tomorrows team meeting I will get more information.

Now for of course the really boring stuff. The part where I get to sit here and tell you about me. I miss my ex girlfriend Amanda, and I am trying to do everything in my power to get back with her. I know that I was never perfect, but who really is? I have never really openly talked about her before, because I was so very afraid to lose someone I cared about so much. I love her with all my heart, and we have had some rough spots through our time together but I always believed that we came out of them stronger for each other. Sometimes in life you have to let go of someone you love and hope they will come back if they loved you just as much.

Well I am having a hard time trying to let go of her and I don't think that time will make it easier for me to just walk away from someone who has meant so much to me, and done so much for me as a person. She tells me she wants to be friends right now while we work through our differences but what that could mean scares me. I am terrified she will start dating other guys or worse. She tells me that's not what she wants right now, but at the same time she's not sure what she wants. She tells me not to worry about, but am I wrong to think she may find comfort in the arms of another man? I mean am I totally crazy?

The more she tells me she wants to be friends right now, the more I realize me treating her like a friend may have hurt us. I think about things I've said and done to her and around her and realize that is no way to treat someone you love. I tell my friends how I was around her and they tell me "well that's how you treat everyone." Well, that's where I went wrong; the love and respect is there for her, but I became so comfortable with her in my life I forgot who she was to me and just treated it more like a very selfish friend instead of the mutual relationship it should have been.

I know what my mistakes are, I know how to fix them. I would like for nothing more then to have this work, I would literally move to where she is and sleep in a park (I know your thinking "wow this guy is a creep" but our physical distance has always been an issue.) I am willing to do any and everything I need to do to make it right again. If I could measure my love for her and my commitment to trying to make this work in grams of gold (31.1 grams is an ounce, an ounce of gold is $982 today) I would have enough money to solve world hunger, end global debt and poverty and still have enough left over to never want again. But is that enough, I ask myself? Is putting everything on the line, risking everything for a chance to fail worth it? I think it is, I think I would rather die trying to salvage my relationship with her then to just walk away and say "Well Matt, better luck next time." Good night everyone.

M

~te quiero mucho, no lo olvides. Mehs.

sicko mcsickness

So I left work early tonight because I could barely keep my dinner in my stomache. I have so much on my mind the last thing I needed was to start feeling sick, and of course I start feeling like a bag of smashed assholes.I did do some of those Etoile rings tonight, and for as much as I would rather be doing those the staring down at the desk all night just wore me down.

On a positive note, we are making a ring for Forrest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland, Vantage Point) and he is going to be wearing it in his next movie which he is filming right now. Right now I am laying in bed watching my favorite tv show ever, Deadliest Catch. They are going over the best of Season 3, and it is amazing what people will do to provide for thei families. I have thought doing it, but between my knee and the fact that I tend to get sea sick I don't think its too wise of and idea. But it still makes for great Tv, just not a great job.

Tomorrow I am headed to Tech for the memorials, so I will update then. I just got off the phone with my ex girlfriend we had been discussing everything we had done wrong to each other over the past while, and needless to say I came out of that talk smelling like a bag of smashed assholes, but atleast now I have a plan to work toward, it will just take a while. Hopefully we can and will forgive each other for everything and maybe hopefully one dau get back together which would be amazing. Anyway its close to 1am and I need to be up soon, sorry no quote tonight. Thanks.

M

Mondays.....

Whats to say about the first day of the week other then it normally sucks. I mowed my grass at the house today, and did a few chores around the house before I had to go to work. I checked on getting my laptop fixed, its going to cost me maybe $80 or $120 dollars depending on how long it takes him to get it done.

Work was boring as usual, I ran on the CnC machine tonight which is normally pretty boring because all I do is sit there and push a couple of buttons. I would much rather be sitting in the setting dept. and cleaning up some of those damn Etiole rings then doing stupid machining. As a matter of fact, I would just as rather not work there anymore. I know, I keep saying I don't want to work there anymore, but I am trying to do something about it. I work a second job to bring in some extra money, I am trying to get into the Police Department, so you can't say I am not trying. It's just the other things in my life that I am having a little more trouble with.

I am scared out of my mind about my ex girlfriend getting deployed to Iraq, it scares me shitless. Even though I know we are not together right now, I am terrified of anything every happening to her. To me Iraq is now a pointless war that is taking this country into no where but ruin. I found this really great quote that I am going to put at the end of this post.

I really cant wait to take my vacation, when and where ever that may be. I am really looking forward to just packing my bags one night when I get off work, and just go, thats all I want to do, just hop in the car and go. Live out the American dream, and find the unfound frontier I just want to leave it all behind. Who knows, this might just be a bunch of wishful thinking as of right now, but I can't just sit here anymore and continue to let my life pass me by with every moment. All I do is work, and when I dont work I sleep, and when I am not doing either of those two things, I just kinda sit around and think, and thinking makes me want to sleep, and so does work.

But anyway, its getting close to 4 o'clock in the morning and all this thinking about work is making me want to go to sleep. Not to mention the fact that I have a huge headache, and I am still not sure as to whether or not I am going to finish mowing the grass tomorrow considering I was only able to get about half of it done. Well good night my friends.

M

"If they've been put there to fight, there are far too few. If they've been put there to be killed, there are far too many." ~ Ernest F Hollings, US Senator. On US Marines in Lebanon, Time 26 Dec 83

GOO AARON LYLES!!!!!!

Hey this is a little piece from the Richmond Times Dispatch about the radest kid on the block. Check it out!!!

"
By OLYMPIA MEOLA
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Aaron Lyles canvassed for Chap Petersen when the Democrat ran for lieutenant governor in 2005 and made calls on behalf of Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. Despite poor weather and a head cold, he worked the polls in 2006 for Jim Webb's Senate race.
He recently created a Roanoke Valley chapter of the Young Democrats. He serves as a deputy field director for the Democratic candidate in the 6th Congressional District, and he hopes to place his own name on the 2010 ballot for Vinton's Town Council.
And somewhere in there, he wants a driver's license. That is, after all, highly important when you're 16 years old.
The 2008 presidential election -- with the historic candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- has been credited with spurring more young voters, and soon-to-be-voters such as Lyles, into action.
But local political observers and strategists say younger voters have been more involved in recent years.
On Virginia's streets, teens, college students and young professionals are pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, cold calling. They're smart, passionate, energetic and fill the ranks in state and local campaigns and political clubs. And this year, they're expected to have more company.
In Virginia's Feb. 12 presidential primary, 187,682 voters ages 17 to 29 -- 16 percent -- went to the polls, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.
A total of 134,968 voters ages 17-29 cast ballots in the Virginia's 2008 Democratic presidential primary, compared with 31,698 voters ages 18-29 who voted in the state's 2004 Democratic primary.
In Virginia's 2008 Republican presidential primary, 52,714 voters ages 17-29 cast ballots. In the previous contested GOP primary, in 2000, 66,409 voters ages 18-29 voted.
Obama gets glory for inspiring the youth vote, but it's a progression that started in 2004, says Daniel J. Palazzolo, political-science professor at the University of Richmond.
Young voters also played a large role in the 2006 midterm elections driven primarily by issues of import to younger voters, including the economy and the war in Iraq, and concentrated on get-out-the-vote movements.
In 2008, young voters are becoming more active generally for the same three reasons other people vote: the election is competitive, the issues attract them and a campaign actively seeks their vote, Palazzolo said.
"Now you throw Obama into the mix and you get an acceleration of a trend that was already under way," Palazzolo said. "The biggest mistake you could make right now is someone saying it's all about Obama. Not all -- part, for sure. But he didn't start the process."
Jesse Ferguson, 27, worked for an organization encouraging young voters to participate before he joined Del. Brian J. Moran's camp. Half of the Alexandria Democrat's office staff is younger than 30.
Ferguson said young-voter numbers have been building. "I think it's gong to be far greater in 2008 then we've ever seen before for the same reasons it started to grow in 2005 and 2006. The candidates are talking about issues that affect young voters, and they're concerned about the direction the president is taking the country."
A February 2008 report about young-voter registration and turnout trends, released by CIRCLE and Rock the Vote, projects that young adults are on track to show up in strong numbers this year based on polling that showed that roughly three-quarters of young people were already following the presidential election in fall 2007.
Republican Whitney Duff, 28, an Alexandria resident, has worked on political campaigns for seven years, from stuffing envelopes to knocking on doors. She said the local Republican Party is always looking to get more young people involved, though she said some tend to stereotype Republicans as "old, stuffy."
"It's always hard to get young people involved," she said. "You have to make them understand why it makes a difference. Why national security matters to them on a daily basis. When you're young you say, 'I'm invincible.'"
"Sheer boredom" initially got Lyles involved in politics. In the summer of 2004, he had little to occupy his time, and his mother suggested he work on President Bush's re-election campaign. When his mother called the local campaign post, Lyles said, they politely declined the offer of help.
"I was 12 at the time, and they didn't know what kind of work to give a kid. The Democrats said 'Yeah, OK, come in,'" he said.
Lyles believes other young people should become informed citizens and voters as soon as possible.
"Our very futures are at stake here," Lyles said. "There's just every reason to get involved. And if you don't get involved, you have no right to complain if things don't go your way."
Lyles now works for Sam Rasoul, who at the age of 26 is the presumed Democratic nominee for Congress in the 6th District.
Some of Rasoul's support comes from high school students, which the candidate welcomes. Even if they aren't old enough to vote, they want to get involved, Rasoul said, and volunteers like Lyles help with tedious work like canvassing.
Rasoul, a businessman whose parents moved to the United States from Palestine in the 1960s, faces Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, R-6th, who, at 55, is old enough to be his father. Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.
Staff writer Chris Young contributed to this report."

Rainy Day

Here's an old photo I took of Roanoke last summer after a pretty heavy rain storm.

Stupid COX

Sorry I have not been able to update this in a few days, my Internet has been down at my house. It has been a pretty shitty couple days at work, it turns out they lied to me about my job, they shorted me on my paycheck, I got in trouble for something I didn't do, and they won't give me a pay raise. SO needless to say I am pretty pissed off at them. I won't go off on the details as to why things go wrong at work, since I can't give away what goes on there. Cool thing is I did get offered a weekend job in Lynchburg doing some security on the side. The pay isn't the worlds greatest, and I do have to drive an hour, but he hooked it up to where I can work every other weekend so I can still have some time off.

Well today I went shooting at my buddy Lee's out in Bedford, I shot my .40, and used my friends 12 gauge shotgun, Colt 1911 and Ruger .22. We shot about 500 rounds, so needless to say I am pretty stress free right now. Now I will say this, I am about the luckiest dude alive right now, as I was shooting, I for some reason shot too low and hit the target support which happened to be made of metal. I heard the zip of metal, and realized what I did, we walked up and saw that the round was stuck in the metal frame. I was standing right in front of that target and if it had shot back and hit me I would have been screwed because we were in the sticks. If my camera were working right now I would upload a picture of what almost took me out.

Here's some interesting news for ya, Roanoke City Councilman Alfred Dowe resigned today over some very bad mismanagement of City money. He spent almost $15,000 in travel and food receipts for 2007, but here's the kicker in some occasions he billed both the state and city for re-reimbursement. The Mayor asked him to step down and he did. Now what needs to happen is they need to let Rich Cranwell take his spot. I believe that after he placed 4th in the Primary a couple of weeks ago, he should be allowed to be given the nomination for the seat in which he received enough votes to get, but at the time was not available. Rich would be the best person to take that seat, he is not someone who will let petty things get in the way of whats right for Roanoke. I will write a little bit more about what's happening in Roanoke in tomorrow nights post.

From now on at the end of every post I will be leaving a quote that is pretty relevant to whats been going on in my day. So here's today's.

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach." ~ Benjamin E. Mays

COPS

So, I come home from the work and the bar around 1:45 this morning and after I get out of my car a cop pulls up behind me a shines his flood light on me. I walk up to him and ask if he needs any help, and he tells me they are looking for some guy who has tried to break into two different cars in the last half an hour or so. Of course this is the exact thing a guy wants to hear after he comes home from work. But anyway, I come home, and of course its always nice to know that I sleep safely since my dog barks at anything that comes with in two feet of the home, including.... leafs.

I'm sitting here reading some stuff trying to pass time online before I go to bed and I see this whole Lindsay Lohan photo shoot thing. I am not impressed, she does not strike me as beautiful in anyway. I mean of course, shes famous and all that good stuff, but as someone who does drugs and drinks way too much and is always showing her kitten in the tabloids shes very unattractive.

Well, other then that, tonight was pretty lame at work, I have my class to teach tomorrow night, I am doing that on the procedures and processes at the plant, wish me luck.

M

New Blog

Well, I am going to try and keep at this thing on a more full time basis from now on. I think I have started over about three times by now, and this time its for real. I like to write and, if you know me, you know I always have a lot to say. So I guess I can use this entry as a way for you to get to know me a little better.

I am at work alot, I wont say I work alot, because we all know the truth, I dont. I moved to Roanoke, Va back in the summer of 2002, I went to WFHS and joined the Marine Corps after I graduated. I worked on V-22 Ospreys while I was in, so please dont talk shit about my bird. I got injured while I was in, so now I am back in Roanoke. I am very active in politics, I have worked on a City Council race here, as well as Sam Rasoul's Congressional Race here in the 6th District. I used to blog on RaisingKaine and Cobalt6, but I don't anymore, I wanted my own place to rant and rave.

This blog is going to be full of some very very crazy opinions, as well as some of the daily happenings of my life. Like I said, I am at work alot, and the people I work with are some of the strangest people I have ever had the joy to work with. So, I hope as time goes on you will enjoy reading all of what happens in my life. Please, stay tuned for more. Thanks.

M