Revive Once Again...

My work is quite strange, in my opinion, in that the company for which I work seems to be really concerned about its outward appearance to the community. And while I think it's all fine and dandy to want to be a good neighbor and contribute to the community, I think that we actually believe that anyone cares and that it matters to our bottom line. That is, in an industry where lowest-price wins and the public really doesn't know/care which contractor is building the road so long as the traffic delays aren't exceptional, I sometimes ask why we spend as much time hounding on employees to give to the food bank drive or the volunteer for the Special Olympics when we are in an extremely competitive market and ADOT doesn't exactly say, "Their bid is $4million high -- but they gave some old corn to the food bank so let's give them the contract."

That's me, the eternal optimist. Personally, I think our money would be better spent buying some elected officials or, I don't know, having computer systems that don't require users to print out data from one program so that I may enter it by hand into another program.

I guess there is good that comes from a company that wants its employees to get along; last year, I won $200 in an office Super Bowl pool, for example. I also entered our NFL pick 'em pool this year and was doing quite well until I missed saving my picks in week 9, and that was all she wrote. The latest challenge my office is offering a Biggest Loser competition. Now that all the entries have gotten in, I would like to amend my statement from a few posts ago.

I will do anything for $800.

So my calorie-loading went alright but, I will admit, I do not think I was successful in retaining the maximum amount of possible water weight before the February 1st initial weigh in. Not knowing my usual weight, I went in with the goal of weighing over 180 lbs. This didn't seem like much of a tall order considering my scale at home had me always in the 175 to 180 lbs range (though I hadn't checked since about November) and I haven't done a bit of exercise since about October. So, you can imagine the disappointment when my initial weight came in at 178.8 lbs.

Having never had to lose weight before, I have definitely felt a little disoriented this first week. Sure, I've had BMI tests show that I could stand to lose some weight, but never before have I had this kind of motivation to make me feel like I must lose these pounds. And with a three-month competition, this isn't going to be as simple as a liquid diet or downing some mexico water.

I think I have done pretty well so far though. I've cut back to preparing my own meals (I don't think I had made a meal since before Thanksgiving before this), am doing some sort of physical activity about everyday, and am drinking hard liquor instead of beer. I don't know what all this is really worth, but I figure it has got to count for something.

Still, I am not confident that this will be a [rice]cake walk. First, there are few fair opponents in the pool of 20 contestants we have. Since this is a percentage-based competition, I am actually not entirely as concerned about the 250+ and 300+ lbs guys in our office because I just can't see them dropping enough pounds to be in the mix (not saying it can't happen, just being realistic based on the circumstances). However, there are more than a couple people in this who have been thin and may only be a little heavy now because they've let themselves go a bit since moving into an office job where work orders lunch and dinner for these guys. For them, it isn't glandular, so I am a little concerned about what might happen if they eat a salad or hop on a bike every once in a while. Because, if these dudes can get from like 225 to 180, there is no chance of me catching them.

Second, I have already seen one lady at work wearing those Sketchers Shape-Ups (as seen in the Super Bowl Commercial with Dan Marino), so who knows what will happen when all the girls in the office start wearing those things. Oh shoot....and if they decide they like the shoes so much that they Google Dan Marino, they'll find out that he also did NutriSystem and then I will be royally fucked.

Don't do this to me, Dan. You remember when I used to tag-team with my Marino tackling-buddy versus stuffed Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior in Grounded-to-Sebastian's-Room-Wrestling decades ago?

The tag team duo of Black Sabbath never turns their backs on each other.

And yes, that is when the seed was planted. Don't bother going to see the prequel to my life's story to find out where Blaxabbath came from. Save your $14 (it'll be in 3D) and trust that I am telling the truth.

Anyways, our second weigh in is this afternoon, but I am not sure if I am going to make it. As I am out of town and working, I may not have the good fortune to make it in during HR's precious 20 minute windows scattered throughout the day to knock out my weigh in. We'll see. If I am going to have a shot at it, I need to be getting to work.


Biggest Loser Intro -- An Office Biggest Loser Facebook Group -- Marino Fathead

Decisions, decisions

This weekend -- which was supposed to consist of grouting the bathroom floor Friday evening and sealing said grout today -- just hasn't lived up to plans one bit. With work draining my time -- I am sorry, I just do not see the importance of spending hours of my time trying to explain to subcontractors why they only get paid for the work they perform per the contract just because they are morons.

You know what? Let me touch on that for just a moment. It's been a prevalent subject in years past but now that most every project -- not just heavy, public construction but also in pretty much any field where the state ends up being the final customer (defense, social work, etc) -- is eventually tied to federal money/standards, there is much larger focus on Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) criterion on jobs. This varies across fields and is specific to each contract, but the long-short is that one of the strings attached to government dollars is that you need to do as much as you can to help out those who cannot compete.

Of course, I say this while being employed by a large, national, NYSE-traded construction company that never has any legitimate concerns about cash flow or legal support. Of course, part of the reason I work at a large, stable company right out of school is because I know there is no way that, with my current know-how, I could succeed with my own business now. But DBEs, as my saying goes, they are D for a reason. Of course, per the government, they are D because they are owned by a woman, minority, old person, or are set up in a bad part of town (my dad's office is on Miracle Mile -- he isn't disadvantaged). It's basically affirmative action.

I really am trying to keep this short and I think you know where I am going with this.

So we end up bringing on some DBEs as subcontractors -- even though they are not anywhere near the most qualified bidders to do the work and are not the lowest bidders on their work -- and they all end up just being headaches. They don't show up on schedule because their stupid woman owner is on the rag. They don't use material within the specifications because their owner can't read the english cut sheets on the products. They never bill correctly or efficiently because their schools were more concerned about busing them all the hell over Tucson so they can be in desegregated classrooms while they learn about how much it all boils down to La Raza versus all. And, of course, dealing with their asses falls on me.

So Friday, I get a phone call from a DBE owner.

Him: "Seb, hey I am calling about our payment. I was wondering when we are going to receive the money."

Me: "I'll look into it. For which months are you missing payment?" -- I submit pay requests but after that, I just assume checks get cut.

Him: "Ummmm...Let's see. Ummm..."

Me: "What was the last check you got?"

Him: "Ummmm...I.....I guess July, August, September, October, November, December. We need payment for those months."

Me: "Alright, I will look into it right now and give you a call back."

Him: "Awesome. Because I spend all my revenues on a new 4x4 truck with a lift kit instead of storing any in the company coffers."

So I look up my records -- his contract was signed in October and he completed all of his contract work in two days in November (I remember the two days quite clearly because he was a pain in my ass for the entire time). I call him back. No answer. I call his office. No answer. No answering machine. So I decide to put it in an email. I pull up his email address and it is @AOL.com. Nothing makes me think less of a company than them having a free email account. I mean, individuals don't even use aol. What kind of manager thinks that a dial up, minutes-based browser is an integral tool to a profit-driven enterprise?

Anyways, I send him the email politely pointing out the appropriate dates and letting him know that, per the contract, since we've not yet been paid for November, while his payment is authorized, it won't be released until acceptance by the owner in the form of payment for that month. I don't know where that payment is, I am sure it is late by now, and I am sure our office has put in a inquiry on it. But considering it is late on Friday, I doubt we're really going to find anything worthwhile until next week. I promise to keep him updated as I find out more.

My phone rings about 20 minutes later. It's the owner. He wants to know why he isn't getting paid. He came out and completed a job (poorly, for too much money) and my company owes him money. He is correct. Our balance sheet shows this payment to him as a liability. I do not argue with him. In fact, I understand where he is coming from. He is probably getting calls from some vendors who want payment for maybe $1,500 worth of supplies so he needs that $10,000 payment. I have my boss asking why I have $900,000 in costs performed and approximately $3.4 million in billings of which the stockholders each want their $0.14/share. Sure, I don't own an incompetent business, but I think I actually have more invested in getting this payment turned around than he does.

So then he starts getting short with me and accusing me of holding his money. And when people turn stuff on me personally, that's when I get upset. The rest of the time, I am way too polite with these retards. So I call him on it. What would be my motivation to screw you out of ten grand? It's not my money, it's the company's. I get the same paycheck every week regardless. His response: that I am just trying to pad stats for a bonus or something. Fine.

And why would I even bother with ten grand? That's four-hundredths of one percent (0.04%) of this project's revenue. So, I explain, his company is barely a blip on the radar. Against my desires, we signed him up to come do some monkey work for an outrageous price due to some kind of politicking (the DBE rules) that goes on above me. And even then, I wouldn't really care but they make more work for me because I not only have to run my project, I am expected to run their billing department, accounts receivables, and, now apparently, their legal department because I am the only one who has ever read the contract. I don't make the rules and I've done everything I can to get him paid. He is more than welcome to escalate it to my boss (who is going to tell him the same thing about the payment conditions) but, at this point, he's better off spending his time taking a couple classes at the Baltimore City Community College than hounding me about something that is out of both our our control.

Damn it -- so this got taken over by that story. I'll elaborate on the title/photo later.

I smile, but who am I kidding?

I am sitting here tonight putting this together with Park and Recreation on in the background because FSN has opted to show Cal @ ASU instead of Stanford @ Arizona. I now am almost regretting not taking some free tickets offered by one of our suppliers this afternoon:

Him (During small talk about the game tonight): "Hey Seb, you going to the game?"

Me: "Nah. I'll catch the game on TV and catch up on some work."

Him: "Man, my wife and I have tickets to the game and something came up. Man, we can't even give those away tonight. Guess it's too short notice for everyone."

Me: "Yep."

Him: "So you want to buy this $40,000 worth of marked up grout?"

Me: "Nope. Get the fuck out of here and come back when you have some UA versus Cal tickets."

I probably should have given his offer more consideration (both of them, actually) but I've been in a fairly grumpy mood the last couple days. It could be the weather. It could be work. It could be a lot of things. But I'm pretty sure this moodiness started the moment that I heard Kurt Warner would be having a press conference tomorrow, Friday, to announce his future plans. With one year left on his contract and his recent statement about saying how he hopes God takes away his love for the game of football, bringing his sore ass to a microphone after seeing the Saints do to Favre what they did to Warner; to hear the Kurt will announce his plans publicly -- when Kurt hasn't been the kind of guy who historically announces when he will play -- I very much expect to see the 38 year old walk away from the game.

Logically, I don't blame Kurt for walking away. He's has his money, his health, and has left on the top. Sure, anyone would love to walk away like Elway, on a Super Bowl victory, but Kurt is putting up Pro-Bowl numbers and is an integral part of a playoff team. In the NFL, with one-game playoffs and the any-given-Sunday parity of the league, it's awful difficult to time the market perfectly. If he leaves now, he's definitely close enough (and way ahead of Lehman collapsing and bringing the entire global economy down with it). 

Kurt has his MVPs, his ring, and what will be one of the most inspirational stories in the history of football. And to quote ESPN's Rick Reilly, "He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer and if he's not, they ought to melt it down and start over." Kurt's got plenty going on outside the game (I support anyone who can leave their career to focus on philanthropic work) and nothing else to prove. The real question is, why would he come back? Risk versus reward, retirement is the correct choice.

So, for all this, I say thank you, Kurt. Best of luck to you and, if you ever need anything at all, just let me know.

The end is near -- Fans speak out -- First things first

We do what we do to get by and then we need a release

Was my blogging comeback last year much of a comeback? Of course not. None ever have been.

Running? There have been too many to count. Have I gotten anywhere near good since I was 18, chipped my front tooth on a jug-o-wine, and then quit the ASU track team? Nope.

School? After limping through Calculus I (Remedial Calc, as we call it in engineering circles) -- where I am sure I only got an advancing C grade because it was Pima and the lady was just too nice to give me the D, F, or 7 that I really did deserve -- I went on to a less-than-respectable performance in the Engineering Management curriculum (Remedial Engineering, as we call it in engineering circles) at the local university where I still have dark secrets about which only a couple people know the actual truth. And now? Well, let's just say that if I expect to have a shot at a graduate program, I had better hope there is a section of the exam on not following through with running comebacks.

Army? I could go off on this for pages but the short version reads: all signatories to my enlistment contract will be a lot happier after I throw my discharge party this December.

So why, you ask, would you want to come back to writing, Seb, when you've proven that you are not much for comebacks? I feel I am forced to respond to your inquiry.

Just don't call it a comeback.

I sit here typing now as I sit in front of my too-small television watching UA pull away from ASU in the latest installment of the Duel in the Desert. I've been alternating my online attention between a walkthrough for wiring this new car stereo and checking out different graduate programs. Of course -- this is between dominating a large #5 from Jack in the Box plus two tacos for 99 cents. Normally, I try to avoid talking about the pitfall of my life that is my diet -- but today I am proud to talk about my calorie-loading.

Oh, how far we've fallen.

You see, I've been in need of losing some poundage for quite a while now. Whereas I used to be in-shape, then fit, and then normal, for the past year or so (at least), the inarguable truth is that I have been soft. It was sort of a 2009 resolution of mine to get it under control, but then my job had me shipped out of town and, to make a long story short, I never took care of business. Sure, there were plenty of opportunities and, at one point, I think I even ran eight days straight. But in the end, 2009 just wasn't the year for me.

A far cry from my great plans of  knocking out Western States.

So how does the young, starry-eyed, so-much-to-live-for me who was so ashamed of not getting anywhere near his goals now become some jerkwad who feels the need to base a comeback on talking about how disgusting he can make himself?

Office Biggest Loser contest.

That's right. Starting February 1, I am going to be entered in an interoffice weight loss competition. It's a three month marathon of binging, purging, and lemonade dieting. Winner gets 50% of the pot, second and third split the remaining cash. With a twenty dollar buy-in and only a dozen or so (I suspect) entrants, I wouldn't really suspect that the potential winnings would be worth the hell of losing ten of fifteen pounds. But when I found out that our office was sweetening the pot by a grand, right off the top, I signed up and ate a mucho carne asada burro from Guerro Canello.

I will do pretty much anything for $500.

This is why, until February 1, I am going to be bragging about my calorie-loading.

My Plan -- High Calorie Foods -- Biggest Loser

I hope it's gonna make you notice

So if you are a regular facebook friend of mine (or you read my facebook sidebar here) then you know Abbey got bit by a rattlesnake on Monday. I'll let you know right now that she is fine and on her way to recovery. Her leg is still swollen and she is limping around but her tail is wagging and she seems to be in otherwise high spirits.

So here's how it happened. Abbey stayed the weekend at my parents' house with Wesley, my little brother. My parents were out of town for the weekend so I entrusted the care of my dogs to just Wes, alone. Jeff Dodge jokes aside, it truly was a bold move on my part. The weekend went without issue and I was even delighted to hear I would be working in Tucson on Monday so I wouldn't have to wait until Tuesday night to see B&A.

Correct -- that is not L&A.

Which would, of course, stand for Lever and Action.

Still, this isn't to be confused with simply BA.

Bolt Action.

So I am in this thing at work on Monday when my phones start getting calls at around 11am. I cannot answer them but when I see they are all from Wesley's number, I skip out and give him a ring. Turns out Abbey was over in the bushes, came flying out with a limp, then started tracking blood. Her leg was getting swollen and the vet said it was probably a snake bite. He was bringing her to my parents' vet when I called. This was good because my vet is both a douche and far away.

After worrying a whole bunch, Wesley called me up and said the vet had put her on IVs and that I could pick her up at 5pm. Upon arriving to the vet, I found Abbey with a huge, bleeding hind foot and a cone around her neck to prevent her from licking it. She seemed unamused. So I took her back to my parents' place, where my parents had just returned from their weekend out of town. They were kind enough to keep Abbey for the night so I brought Bandit back to CDX with me.

Yesterday I skipped out of work early to go pick up Abbey and take her back to the vet to have her catheter removed. They said her swelling was down, it was pretty much finished draining, and so as long as she didn't chew on the spot, she could go without the cone.

She has been a limping joy ever since.

Last night I brought her back to CDX. The other dogs were pleased to see her and after trying to play for a few minutes, it was obvious her club foot wasn't going to allow her to run around so she has spend most of the evening chilling on the grass licking the wound.

She has nine more days of meds ahead of her and then she should be back to normal.

Seeing as the desert has tried to straight-up murder both of my dogs' asses, I've deemed this the last straw and will be getting the fuck up out of here as soon as I can get the 821 fixed up and find a job somewhere more desirable.

Like Somalia.

So as this appears to be a more/less informative/entertaining post, I give you [what I hope becomes in Korea] the inspiration for Jeff Gehring's next Halloween costume.



Seriously though, this guy died of AIDS and Jeff is like 135 lbs and, according to his wife, "is not dying of AIDS! Stop asking that, you asshole!"

Well, complication from AIDS -- Same thing -- Drifter

Here have a dollar, in fact no, brotherman here have two

With the pre-depression rolling along, I'm sure you've heard about the worthy causes that are suffering as government grants and individual giving has dried up. That's right, along with sweet 16 parties being, "the worst fucking day of [these bitches] lives!" and Dominoes reaching out with hot pube subs, the economy is also making charities like food banks and soup kitchens reevaluate their business plans.

I've always been a supporter of the food bank. Not in the giving time or money sense, but more in the accepting it sense. Should I be proud of this? Of course not. I did volunteer there one Saturday though and I found the work -- mindlessly shoving boxes of mac'n'government cheese into 'family packages' to be very fulfilling and if I didn't have better things to do with my time, I might just consider making this a weekly practice.

The thing I really like about the food bank is that you don't really have to deal with people. I know that sounds bad, but you need to understand that I am not good with people -- let alone people that are ill or old or crazy or suffering in any manner. It doesn't mean I don't want them to be relieved of their pain or concerns -- it just means that I'd like to do it without touching them or looking in their eyes. Besides, at the food bank, if you give food you know exactly where you donation is going. I think there is something to be said for that when you have huge organizations -- take the United Way, for example -- where they spend a lot of money on overhead and you don't know really where your donation is going.

I also understand 'not knowing where your donation is going' is kind of a silly approach to giving because your money is essentially going to the general coffers of any charity. Your $20 might go towards some pamphlets, it might go towards keeping on the electricity, it might go to Sunday's dinner. Really, it shouldn't matter so long as you support the organization overall. This is why I don't give to Islamic charities. I don't want my 70 cents a day to support 200 al-Qaeda fighters while they practice crossing monkey bars.

Every morning at work, we begin the shift with a little safety meeting. Basically, we go over what's on the agenda for the day and what potential hazards we need to look out for. Many companies/organizations do this but I think it's effective for us because it is kind of informal. I know that sounds weird, but I think everyone pays a little more attention when the safety notes mixed in with guys making fun of each other. You gotta pay attention because, if someone rips on you, you need to deliver a witty response. But since they don't know when the zingers are coming, they have to pay attention to safety stuff as well.

I don't really rip on anyone or make any jokes at these meetings. No one really bothers me either though, so it's all good. Especially since I don't take being the butt of jokes very well:

Employee: "I bet Sebastian would know a lot about inserting those dowels in tight-fitting spaces because of all the ass-fuckings he takes, isn't that right Seb?"

Me: "You're fired."

Once a month, the folks from the main office in Tucson visit a job site for the morning safety meeting. They always couple it with a food drive. Last month it was at my job so I swung by Wal*Mart and picked up like 10 cans of food. I didn't mean to get so much, but I didn't know if these guys were all just going to go over the top and I didn't care to stand out. With all the smack they talk about how much they give and how the Food Bank likes to give, I was a little surprised to see these dudes roll up and place about one can each in the box as they rolled up to the meeting. I mean, they can do whatever they want -- I just don't think the food bank is exactly depending on Bill's can of corn to keep themselves viable in Tucson on a month-to-month basis.

When I saw the partially-full box being loaded up, I expressed that they should really just do cash donations. The food banks have better purchasing power than the rest of us (until Jeff and Train open KY market) so everyone would win if we could just throw in cash. Of course, this idea got shot down on behalf of it being a canned food drive; which means there needs to be cans of food to donate.

Always the beacon of efficiency? You bet we are.

Eye on prize? If the prize is a photo op, sure.

I was voicing my concerns to a friend of mine over drinks at Bumstead's last week and he explained that he could somewhat relate because he was going to be giving a few hundred bucks to a charity here pretty soon and he wanted to make sure it would go to something he believed in. Being unfamiliar with this task of 'giving' he spoke of, I inquired more about his search for the perfect charity.

He told me had typed 'Tucson Charities' into Google and pretty much gone from there. I couldn't have come up with a better search method myself.

I don't remember which charity he had picked for his big donation last year, but this year he mentioned that he liked the sound of a couple of these domestic violence shelters. I didn't ask why -- maybe he's trying to pay it forward or something -- but he explained that he was having a difficult time finding out about their operations because he was a dude and those places do not like to share many details with dudes due to, you know, it's the dudes who are responsible for putting the women/children there in the first place.

I found it to be a bit of an interesting catch. I mean, if I want to give money away I want to do just that -- just get rid of it. At least for me, I don't want to have to put in too much of my own time and effort just so I can give you my money. Stores make it easy for me to shop and give them my money. I would expect charities to at least make it that easy. I remember when I gave away a couch, they just came and picked it up off my front porch when I was at class.

Personally, I think he should give to a pet rescue but a lot that has to do with the fact that Bandit is leaning against my legs as I write this and I take that as some form of passive threat. I'll let you know where he does end up sending it though.

For my two cents, I think I would like to invest my cash in an old warehouse where I could outfit to let dozens of cats roam freely inside. Then I would bring in strays, fix 'em and whatnot, then, depending on their temperament/ability to get along, I would let them live in the warehouse. In addition to this, I would create a system where I could train/call specific cats at any time so when people wanted to adopt, we could narrow down what they are looking for then 'call' the cats that match the desired description.

It's gonna kick ass.


Failu(red) -- Dogtown -- Tyranny of Shelter

See, I'ma tell you like you told me, cash rules everything around me

As you saw, last week was not exactly heavy in the 8two1 posting world. My week-plus of backlogged work kept me much more busy than I had anticipated due to the fact that I had to show our summer intern how to do these things.

We got him a few weeks ago and Paul, the engineer I work with, immediately decided the kid should spend a couple weeks working with the equipment operators and carpenters who are really building our project. While I see the benefits of getting a hands-on experience, I am quite content with having spent my internship almost completely in the office. I learn by watching and reading -- not by doing.

Talking to our carpenters on Friday, they all gave the kid rave reviews. Being a college kid spending your summer working in the dirt in Coolidge isn't exactly a dream internship -- especially when the other interns are in Tucson, most at the main office rubbing elbows with the who's whos around the branch. Still, I understand the kid never complained and, while he is no Ryan Howard, he seems willing to take on damn near any task we throw at him. Good for him -- but I still need to get my shit done, kid.

It's kind of hard to teach interns a lot of the tasks that I do as an engineer day-to-day because most of them don't offer a lot in the area of repetition. That is to say, for example, I showed him the other day how to log and pay invoices for external costs to the job. A simple daily task for me, but since we only get these things twice a week in a courier delivery from the main office, there is plenty of time for him to forget how these things work without the somewhat necessary repetition.

I tried to get him started on a sort of cost analysis project I'd been meaning to get at for a while but it is turning out to be almost as much work for me as it is for him. I try to remember that I was a clueless intern once too -- so maybe it's just that I am not a very good teacher.

Damn this curse of being able to 'do'!

The sad thing is that it's the kids who suffer.

We have a lot of interns this summer. I think I counted seven on the last email I read. We've been purging f/t employees since January (both craft and office) so I don't exactly know why we took on so many interns. I'm not saying it's a bad move -- you're gonna need guys to run jobs when they do start coming out -- I'm just curious why they took on so many. I guess it's the stimulus money set aside for not-groups-who-contributed-heavily-to-political-campaigns-of-sitting-Congressmen/Senators/President at work.

Without going into the politics of how the whole fucking mess is wrong, I will mention that I had to go to a presentation in Phoenix a few weeks ago regarding all the strings that will be tied to this stimulus money. It was given by the local AG representative who basically opened with two important points: (1) 'Stimulus' is a bad term. It's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, 'ARRA', funds; (2) There is going to be so much damn fraud that will come with hemorrhaging this much money, this fast, at people with strong ties to DC that the AG had pretty much given up before the first penny was allocated.

It was depressing shit. As a taxpayer who hates the government, I was proud to say all my beliefs were firmly supported in this three hour disaster of a presentation. Poorly dressed government drones complaining that they work hard and the public doesn't give them any respect and they don't get the support/compensation they deserve and contractors are always fucking them and they can't ever say anything without being accused of it being a political investigation when they are required to just shut their mouths and do as they are told even though they are better than this and the brightest minds they've ever met are in public service....

Goodness gracious.

I don't know what so many of those people did/could possibly do.

I suppose that is the whole saving/creating jobs thing that is keeping the number of unemployed Americans growing at a leisurely pace instead of just skyrocketing.

I was explaining to the intern the other day that, as part of our contractual agreement with the indian tribe for whom we are technically building my project, our company is required to give preferential hiring options to members of the tribe. This is done through a standardized system which basically says, when I need a dude who can effectively use a shovel for something other than breaking beer bottles, I send a request to the Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) who responds by either sending me a qualified individual for the task, or letting me know that there is not any available.

It's like an in-house balance to make sure everyone, not just the cheif's immediate family, can get jobs.

Personally, I am a supporter of the TERO. No one has been fucked harder than the indians and if they want to have their own people construct their own shit, good for them. It's their fucking money. Spend it how you want. You want to pay my white ass to make sure your shit works? Fine. You want to pay your people to live in houses you built for them and cover expenses on? Go for it. I got bigger fish to fry than the way indians spend their monies -- which is usually on beer.

Being that the job I am on is a pretty simple construction project, I immediately questioned why we only had three indians on our staff for a $20+ million project. Paul explained that it was because TERO was run by the indians. And since the indians can't even run their own employment office sufficiently, our requests for a dude to stand around and hold a stop sign for the two cars that pass through our job site three days a week, was declined by TERO as they could not find anyone in their system who would be capable of this task.

So we hired a mexican.

Each week we have a meeting with the tribe's reps on the project -- I call them the three little indians -- and each week they ask about our dealings with TERO. And each week we complain that the TERO office is fucked up. And each week they sit back all proud, say they spoke to so-and-so, and assure us that it sounds like things are going to get cleaned up. And each week I could put in an offer for a fat dude with a pony-tail who can't grow facial hair but loves weed and metal music and I'd get back a letter telling me they can't provide anyone with any two of these attributes.

It's fucking pitiful.

Basically, I explained to my intern, on this project the tribe has spent approximately $3+ million per indian job they created. Granted, those are secure jobs as we pretty much will not fire these dudes -- but still, anything over a million a job seems kinda steep/wasteful to me.


DOL spends $40 Billion to Create One Job -- Wise to Stay -- Funployment