Reinke Faces Life

The Short March

The disaster happened. (Does it really matter which one?) I was fat, old, and unprepared. There was no choice but to go on the dole. I went to the grocery store, turned in my Real Id driver’s license, the private swiped it. “Go to the Meat Department”. The woman in front of me was sent to the Bakery; the guy behind the Vegetable Aisle. I wonder why, but there was no time. I was directed thru to the loading dock and onto a deuce and a half. With many other old souls.

It wasn’t a long ride. It looked like a College campus. It could have been an office plex for all I know. There was a loading dock and a ramp down to the parking lot. There were numbered circles. We were directed to stand on one. A UN Officer addressed us in perfect English. “Please put down your bag and get your tag. There’s a short walk to your new home. Your bag will be returned after it was searched for contraband. You get cleaned up, fed, and settled in for the night.” OK, sounds good a fellow in scrubs comes, tags the bag, gives me the other half, and whispers “God bless”. That was strange.

The officer blew his whistle, the “scrubs” all ran to the side and a platoon of soldiers ran to the orange circles that I just noticed. The “soldiers” all looked “different”. Not in a big way. But in shoulder patches, ranks, and the all important divisions. When did you ever see MPs mixed with Combat Engineers? The Macy’s day parade. I had a very bad feeling. I was on the outside. The soldiers were place every other row on both sides; each side was off set one row. All guns were pointing into the formation. That was really odd. You never point a weapon at what you’re not prepared to destroy?

I remembered a conversation when I was a little boy with an old Jewish refugee. He tearily described how he was separated from his family at the concentration camp. The showers jumped to mind. I was now very afraid.

The officer blew his whistle again, “Forward March”.

We sloppily moved across a little field and up a smaller path. There was a disturbance on the other side. Th guard’s attention was diverted. So, I exited stage left with all due speed. I never looked back. I could hear something behind me. When I ran thru woods as a kid, I always high stepped. Old habit came back. I heard a thud. Stopped and turned around. The guard was down. I hustled back. He was dead. Broken neck I think. I grabbed the gun and what I could and moved sideways into the thickets. I head a lot of shots from where I came. Embolden with a weapon, I crawled back. I heard a group coming down the trail, they found the guard, and dragged him back to the parking lot.

I saw the guards on their orange circles. The UN officer was with an American Officer who was doing all the yelling. I was now ready to kill. Was I really? The American Officer went to the last guard on the far side and executed him. He did the same on “my” side. I wondered if this rifle was sighted for distance. Nothing I could do. I put the American Officer in the sight, remembered my breathing, and slowly squeezed. The bullet covered the distance, but I missed. The center of mass that is. The gun fired high. Who knows where was sighted? It went thru the taller American’s throat and into the taller UN guy’s head. Time to exit stage right. When I crouched up, I heard a crack.

“Herr General, we have casualties in the Population Reduction program.” “Of course, we pruning civilians.” “No, Herr General, one of ours. And, one of the snotty American traitors.” “Who?” “Colonel Franz Shummer” “Was he in our uniform?” “No, the switch was on.” “Strange, I thought that this would be bloodless for us.” “Who did it?” “Some fat old man.” “Dead?” “yes” “Too bad, I’d have like to have had him questioned”. “Send a replacement and how will this effect our numbers”. “It’s only one location. We should have no trouble meeting our quotas!” “Very well, 95% reduction is a big quota”

Silently the General remembered a famous Admiral and a sleeping tiger.

# # # # #

Capturing the crux of the Third American Revolution to regain the freedom lost in the War of Northern Aggression. The “Gettysburg” is a battle where the heroes are a farmer, an old man, and an old marine.

I’m excited again about my next “book”!

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http://glcavalier.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/
the-true-penalty-of-procrastination/

GLanC’s post on procrastination made me realize that my BLOG2BOOK project went much better when I blogged about my progress or lack there of. So here goes. (P.S.: Thanks GLaneC for a need butt kick).

(Not prog-ress, but drag-ass!)

Announcing Writing Project #2 MV!!!

Chapter One is done and thru first revision.

I’ll be doing a roadmap shortly. Probably Tuesday.

I have a really lame cover art piece done with the MV map. Just have to superimpose the title on it.

I’m going to envision Lulu-ing it. But, I’m not planning to make a big deal out of maybe a copy for me and Mom. Frau can read my copy.

:-)

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COMMENTS IN REVIEWING A RESUME

***Begin Quote***

So, structurally, you want the reader’s eye to focus on your uvp (i.e., what you are going to do for the person who pays you).

You have between 15 to 45 seconds to “hook” the reader and make them want to read more. I want, you should want, that time spent on the value equation. I prefer my “objectives” statement to be at most 3 sentences maybe 60 words. Like a telegram.

Also your PDF format, while it will ensure the reader will see what you want, will turn off the hunters cause they can’t trim your contact info off and put their professional info there.

So what IS your UVP?

I like a networking profile that can answer three questions: What will the person do? Where do they want to do it? What are they looking for in comp — $, format, travel, relo?

So your pdf doesn’t work for me in either genre — resume or profile.

Does that help you or make you want to yell “turkey feathers” or “barbara streisand”?

***End Quote***

Think of anything you read. What was the hook that got you interested? Guaranteed if the headline didn’t “hook you” or have a magic word, then you didn’t read it. True?

# # # # #

***Begin Quote***

It seems that “advertising”, especially to the inet or to the high value execs, is ineffective at best and a negative at worst. Advertisers are seen as the equal of used car salesmen.

Cute doesn’t cut it.

If anything, the expert’s blog, with the built in reputation of that person, cuts to the head of the line in the buyer or exec’s perception.

That’s why you are seeing the A-list bloggers getting tremendous support from businesses. Enough support to pay like a full time job. It’s like the guide role on a safari.

I think that is how the model is morphing right under everyone’s nose. Traditional ads are less effective; bloggers are guiding the conversation.

***End Quote***

I’d like to think that I have some influence. How’s that for self-delusion?

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/boukhonine8.html

Everybody Can Write One Good Book
by Sergei Boukhonine

***Begin Quote***

During out conversation, one lady shared a simple yet profound thought. In a nutshell, she said that most anyone can write one good book, or at least a few interesting and insightful articles. Most of us have quite a few interesting experiences under our belts.

***End Quote***

I think that that lady hit the ball right out of the park. Everybody can at least write an autobiography. And, in today’s inet, it can be found by anyone. And, like I found out with Lulu, you can actually have a real physical book cheaply.

Amazing.

I wonder what Gutenberg or Pi Sheng would have thought about it today.

RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Saturday 31 March 2007 Volume 24 : Issue 61
ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/24.61.html>

***Begin Quote***

Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:49:52 PDT
From: “Peter G. Neumann”
Subject: Alaska Government worker formats wrong disks, backups unreadable

A computer technician accidentally wiped out Alaska’s huge data file (and the backup disk) containing nine months worth of information on the annual payout from the state fund (reportedly worth \$38 billion) that pays dividends to Alaskans out of the oil revenues. Seventy people had to work overtime for six weeks to re-enter the lost data from 300 boxes of paper. The error cost the state \$220,000 in overtime and consultants. [Source: CNN, 20 Mar 2007; PGN-ed, with thanks to Lauren Weinstein.]

[F. John Reinke also spotted this one (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17702021/) and commented:

Gooferment IT at its best. Great design and architecture. How come the only two copies of the data were in the same time zone? Where was security that one “custodian” could access both copies? Where was IT Leadership that had processes and procedures that could fail so miserably? An interesting object lesson. In business, there would be terminations for all involved. FJR

PGN]

***End Quote***

Makes my day when I get included in RISKS. Peter is a fussy editor (Sorry, Peter.) And, he rejects or ignores some of my submissions. But every once in a while, I slip one by the “catcher”.

I added true links to the blogroll and move my whiz dumb to a separate section.

Leadership — aka Management — by Movie Line
© ferdinand j. reinke 2007 all rights reserved.

*****LANEC sent me:*****

On a lighter note:

Mr. Turkey,

The other day I took your line (ok Yoda’s line) about “Trying” and explained it to my 9 year old and a few of his friends. Since then every time anyone says “try” (even their mothers or teachers) they reply “there is only DO or NOT DO, we never try!”

So by proxy, you’re now influencing a whole new generation! Kinda creeped me out.

LaneC

*****AND I REPLIED JOKINGLY:*****

ROFL!

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/fun-i-think-i-made-a-funny/

Be careful if they start to gobble and talk about UVP, USP, and UxP! Then you should really be afraid.

UVP, or UVP not, there is no UVPing!

On a serious note, it has to be one of the most-memorable most-significant movie lines I can remember.

Maybe I’ll create a book?

“Leadership aka Management by Movie Line” © ferdinand j. reinke 2007 all rights reserved.

I can extract my favorite movie lines and write a one minute manager – who moved my cheese and sell a grazillion copies and retire to aruba.

?-|

Fjohn
The Big Fat Old Turkey hisself
http://tinyurl.com/lxu93
http://tinyurl.com/2lo4hw

********************************

Which upon later reflection, may not be a half-bad idea. Especially after I read this:

http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2007/03/price-of-irish-land.html

Friday, March 23, 2007
Price of Irish “land”

There are always loads of stories about Ireland/the Irish – in Ireland, in America, everywhere – in the papers around St. Patrick’s Day. This year my favorite is one that just has me shaking my head and asking how I didn’t think of this golden idea.

The Auld Sod Export Company, founded by 27-year-old Pat Burke, sells Irish dirt to Irish emigrants and Irish-Americans. 12 ounce bags of dirt go for $15 a bag, although there’s a sale during March – 4 bags for $20. They’ve shipped $2m worth of dirt since November.

****************************

2M$!!!

So maybe I should start that book!

Remember the “pet rock”?

ALT169 (Hold the ALT key and tap 1 6 9 on the numeric keypad) gives you the little copyright symbol. (If it’s defined in the font your using) 

To whom it may concern:

I’ve been trying to claim my wordpressblog reinkefaceslife. I’ve been able to do it on Technoratti. I’m pretty tech, but I can’t just seem to make it click on bloglines. What am I missing?

As an IT exec, I’d say that the process is flawed. If you have diagnostics, they aren’t apparent to me. So for example, if there is a two step check, then there should be two distinct red / green lights would be a good start. The site really should have a diagnostic mode that reports or journalize the steps that it is “seeing”.

Then, maybe I’d have a clue what is wrong.

Interesting “finding” yesterday. I wanted to find a good sample of “concepts” to steal.

It was all around the meme: Having a _(blank)_ doesn’t make me a _(blank)_!

A friend (Yes, I have one! TYVM) said “You’re a writer, my friend”.

So I want to write a jaunty response like:

Having a book makes me no more a writer than … …

To which I drew a blank! All I could come up with was some lame ones.

> Having sold three copies doesn’t make me a writer.
> Having some Gold coins doesn’t makes me rich
> It’s as if having a Degree doesn’t makes me a Professional
> Having a Computer doesn’t makes me an Expert
> Having a Friend doesn’t makes me feel like I have a life.

I tried Google, but didn’t come up with any pithy witty rejoinders.

After I slept on it, I can add:

Having a child doesn’t make me a parent.
Having a kid doesn’t make me a goat.
Having a car doesn’t make me a driver.

Having a blog doesn’t make me any smarter, but it does expose my ignorance to 200 of my closest “friends” and spammers.

:-)

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/odd-pages-of-interest/2006-winners/

A reader of my 2006 tome,

(Yes, I am astonished that I have one. And, I can’t believe that I have sold THREE copies. I wish I knew who the three fools are. I have swampland in Florida, a bridge to Brooklyn, and some great “growth” stocks for them.),

suggested that I should have a fast way to get to the 2006 “Beauty Queen” winners.

I’d have thought they’d have wanted a fast way to the egress … or exit. ;-)

Always, wishing to please my adoring public, (What is the singular of a one-person public? A publican!), here it is!

Woke up this morning with a weird dream. Almost a nightmare. Any interpretations?

I got a lucrative consulting contract in the city for which I needed a room like an extended stay. It was in Downtown. Around the corner from the Fiftieth Precient (which isn’t in downtown), where someone I know practices out of. And, I had to go give cash deposit (huh?). It was snowing. So I went in with an envelope stuffed with money and the application. AND after I had slipped it into the tiny slot. Some one came and told me it was a terrible place and I should look around. I didn’t care it was a lucrative contract. So to humor him I walked around the corner and realized it was a nursing home. With dogs and cats. So I left, wondering how I’d get my money back and what I’d tell people. After all it was a lucrative contract.

I woke up as I got back in the car. Thankfully.

1. Why Letters Why Unknown Letters Why Collect Thoughts

2. Lessons Learned

3. The Shouldas, Wouldas, and Couldas

4. You Only Get One Life

5. “Start with the end in mind”

6. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

7. “By their fruits, so shall ye know them.”

8. The “monopoly money” dream

9. Diagnose the “hidden rules”

10. Trends versus Fads versus Enduring Values versus Principles

11. “Fun”

12. Habbits — ruts or grooves

13. Happiness, as well as success, is the state of a process aot a destination or a quality

14. Primitive “self reliance” & Robinson Crusoe

15. Data, Information, Knowledge, & Wisdom — Knowing what you don’t know

16. Cars & other depreciating assets

17. The habits you create today will be with you the rest of your life.

18. Follow DiVinci’s advice.

19. Do something with your other hand.

http://south-brunswick.blogspot.com/

The Blog of South Brunswick

***Begin Quote***

The Blog of South Brunswick is sponsored by the South Brunswick Post and designed to give residents of the township a chance to comment on what is happening at the local, state and federal level. It is a companion blog to Post Managing Editor Hank Kalet’s Channel Surfing.

***End Quote***

I’ve been invited to post at the “Blog of South Brunswick”. No contract, no commitment. But, it does give my voice some volume. :-) Think they know what they got themselves into?

Reformulate website content into a book?

Novel MV is my next writing priority. While others are closer to the finished line, this one is probably the one that excites me the most. Having seen the blog2book output, it’s the one that I’d like to see next. I’m energized to make it my highest “hobby” priority.

Maybe having a personal web log (i.e., a blog) should only cover one category? Instead of “Reinke Faces Life” where all is jumbled together, maybe it would be better to have several blogs all related to a singe category (i.e., Reinke’s Political Rants, … Technology …, … Rant Rants)? It’s probably not much more work. Probably not much more effort. You might get confused. And what about cross posting. A rant about a politicians abuse of technology who’s an alumni. ;-) Heresy!

http://reinkefj.newsvine.com/

“The Angst … of the unknown path”

in the din of the crowd, one only has to look to see the lonelyness, the emptiness, the mindlessness of the individuals in the crowd. They need the crowd, the din, the purposelessness activity to hide the truth from themselves. As if the quiet world would scream so loud that it would frighten them.

• get a card from every doc
• take pics
• keep a record book
• card page collector
• audio record if too sick to write
• ask about exactly what every med is
• who rxed it?
• talk to dietician
• gripe about tv and phone rip offs
• roomie rules
• myob
• books and tapes
• spanish
• learn asl for “private” conversations

Suggestions?

How hospitals can be better:

• blood taking
• test sequences
• if i’m sleeping don’t wake me for routine tests
• if you’re understaffed or over crowded, don’t take it out on me
• why xray and radiology separate billers

While I’m waiting for “output”, (that dumb robot movie comes to mind about needing “input”), I am think about what next. The blog book was probably not too valuable other than an ego or learning experience. So what do I follow it up with. Here’s some possible next steps (in no particular order):

Fiction: Militia Valley
NonFiction: Wizdom
Fiction: Brakein (Home Invasion — Working title)
NonFiction: Principles of Information Security Architecture
NonFiction: Principles of Information Technology Architecture
NonFiction: If I’m So Smart, why ain’t I rich? (Working title)
NonFiction: Ending Gubamint Education (Working title)
Fiction: Sitting Wolf
Fiction: Unwinding FRBie (Working title)
NonFiction: A Lifetime of Jasper Rants
NonFiction: things I found inspiring
NonFiction: The power of Negative Thinking
NonFiction: Find Your Next Job Like The Big Turkey You Are
NonFiction: Home Computer Techniques
Fiction: What I did in Church on Sunday
NonFiction: 2DO, or not to do?

Your feedback is welcome.

Now that I have done the book, the question is why put the effort into “facing life”. This has helped me record things that I’ve seen that were “interesting”. It’s allowed people to look inside my head. But, what has it done for me, versus the time invested? Hmmmm.