Hey, I Actually Blogged

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The non-Macomb part of my weekend:
Thursday: Amtrak was supposed to leave Springfield at 5:07 PM on Thursday (payday). We left at 5:40 PM. Shana was meeting me at the Joliet train station, so I called her to tell her I would be late. We made some time up on the way, but had to stop for freight trains outside Joliet. After arriving, I lost $8.50 at the riverboat. After that, it was time to do the traditional “train arrived late so we have to eat at Steak and Shake” thing. After dinner, we went back to the Land of Big Ass Windows and went to sleep

Friday: I woke up (for some bizarre reason) at 8:15 that morning. I was quickly entertained by watching the episode of South Park with the shitty wall and damn mongorians. Shana wanted to rent a car for the weekend, so we stopped by Enterprise in Joliet to pick one up. Apparently, Enterprise is going out of business because they had no cars available, even though the website said they did. There was no customer service whatsoever. Instead of calling around to the other 150 stores in the area to get a car (like any good business would do to get a few dollars out of someone), they told Shana that she was SOL. What kind of crap is that?

It was then off to Naperville to eat at Mongolian BBQ (sensing a pattern here?). First, we stopped off at Barnes and Noble. I didn’t buy anything, but did some window shopping. After lunch, we saw the biggest goose in the Chicago Land area try to drown other geese. There was some great graffiti on the sidewalk as well. We left Naperville, picked up my 80 pounds of luggage and headed for Macomb at about 2:30 (slightly ahead of our 3PM scheduled departure).

We drove almost all the way to the I-80/I-74 interchange until nature called. At the next exit, I swore the Dairy Queen sign said left ½ mile of the exit, so we turned left and drove for a ½ mile. ½ mile of the exit to the left is a barn. This is where the ice cream originates, I’m sure. Turning around, we went to Hardees’, returned nature’s call and continued onward to Macomb.

Maybe It IS Who You Blow?

Can you tell the difference between these two?

Reading through the WIU website today, I came across the story announcing the naming of the new Director of the Beu Health Center. The name looked familiar to me at first, but didn’t throw up any red flags at first. I went back to the story and re-read it.

Sure enough, the new Director is the wife of that useless piece of shit Al Harris, who is the “Assistant Vice President for Student Services” at WIU. More like a leach on the student body. Guess who was in charge of hiring the new Director? You guessed it, that bearded bastard Garry Johnson. Looking further back, there were better candidates being considered. Keeping it in the family, Garry? Surrounding yourself by more weak-minded yes men who will do your bidding? Maybe you’re giving the Harris family a boost in salary now for an increase in retirement benefits later.

The Director of the Beu Health Center is an important job. For many students, Beu is the only place to get medical treatment in Macomb. I pray that Mrs. Harris didn’t adopt Mr. Harris’ “student services” attitude. If she did, students will be buying medication at ten times cost, while she sits behind new furniture every year.

This “who you know” crap is what has Illinois screwed up. Every agency or state institution is run the same way. The important jobs are given to those with the best connections, qualifications be damned. Things need to change. If our “leaders” can’t facilitate this change, we should find someone that will.

I find it funny that WIU (and everyone else) makes these announcements when the students are gone. They must think no one is paying attention and they can get away with it. Does the Board care? I don’t think the students would have given two shits one way or the other. I know that their student government would not have. Guess I’m hoping for something that will never happen.

What a Dick!

I’ve said my piece about VP Cheney before. He was a fine Defense Secretary and is a loyal VP. However, his usefulness has come and gone. He’s a drag on the administration. He needs to be put out to pasture. I wouldn’t send him out there with a gun though; he might shoot some defenseless farmer. I try to give people a second chance. Then he pulls this shit!

http://www.dailyherald.com/opinion/constable.asp?id=198138

Senator Geo-Karis is a living legend in Illinois politics. She is a class act, always putting her constituents first. I should know; I was her constituent when I was stationed in Great Lakes. While I was there, I had a run-in with a local bank who was trying to charge me for insurance on a car I bought, even after I proved I had insurance through GEICO (the one with the little lizard). The bank wasn’t budging, so I contacted Senator Geo-Karis’ office. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen.

The very next day, I got a call from Senator Geo-Karis. Not her office, the Senator herself. She had the bank president on the other line. I explained my situation to her. While I was listening, she told the bank president “It seems like someone screwed up at the bank. You need to fix this problem today. Fax my office with the information.” The problem was fixed later that day.

It’s people like Senator Geo-Karis who make me believe in politics and government. It’s assholes like Dick Cheney that make me want to vomit. Hopefully, the good in politics prevail!

Revise and Extend

I got bored with the old set-up, so I revised the lay-out. I extended the links section, hence the title of today's little post. I took out the MIG and SGA links because, quite frankly, they aren't updated enough or correctly (too many mispelled words in the minutes for example) to my liking.

A couple of things caught my attention this week. The first was the death of that douchebag Al-Zarqawi. Betrayed by his own people because they knew they weren't winning, Al-Zarqawi managed to survive 1000 pounds of explosive being dropped on his head before dying. At least he's dead. That's the main thing. A great day for the war on terror!

Democrats have their own problems or else they would have jumped all over this death. I really expected to see Durbin, Schumer and Clinton come out all over the TV saying, "Well, it's nice that he's dead, but Bush lied and still hasn't gotten Bin Laden." Boo hoo! Damn Democrats!

Instead, we have them infighting over the off-chance that they take control of the House in November. God help us if Pelosi becomes Speaker. Even worse would be that crybaby Murtha becoming Majority Leader. I don't like Stenny Hoyer, but at least he supports the troops. With Delay gone, the Democrat's whipping boy will soon be out of sight. We'll see in November just how effective these "party of corruption" binge pans out.

MHS Redux

June 24th hangs like a dark cloud threatening to envelope everybody in a hurricane-like maelstrom. OK, I’m being overdramatic again. The 24th is the day of my 15-year high school reunion. Every five years, we bring the band back to Macomb for a couple of days. We’re having the reunion during Heritage Days weekend. This is good because a lot of people go home for Heritage Days anyway. This means that (hopefully) more people will attend the festivities.

The actual reunion is planned for the Forum at 8ish on Saturday night. The Forum is the old Illinois Theater. It was turned into a bar after I left Western. That in itself is going to be interesting because I cannot picture anything else other than theater being there. Like any old time theater, there were balconies. The reunion is going to be on the upper floor. More on that situation as it develops

Shana is going along for the ride this year. Actually, we’re taking her car so I’m probably the one taking the ride (I have to pay for the hotel rooms). I am riding the train up to Joliet on the evening of the 22nd. The train is supposed to get there about 7:30 PM. If it gets there on time (or shortly thereafter), I might want to go to the riverboat and donate a couple dollars to the education fund. Friday is a day to play by ear. We might head into the City or go north to visit Ira (if he isn’t on one of his globetrotting adventures). Whatever we do, we’ll head to Macomb that afternoon. Friday night is supposed to be the kick-off of the reunion at the Pace.

I’m looking forward to the trip. It will be nice to see everyone again. I’ve been going through old photos and stuff from high school. I had no idea I kept so much stuff, but I did. I have old Sentinels (the MHS school paper) sitting in a plastic tub. I should see if the school would want them back. I’m not using them.

The picture at the top are the old football bleachers at MHS!