Look, I really appreciate the flattery, but can the people from Hard Rock Park, stop harassing me.
Yes, I referred to the SVP of Finance, Shawn Levesque as Charlie Brown, and the CEO Steven Goodwin as King Henry, and I feel as though I need to give a bit of an explanation.
I wasn’t going to name people by name, because frankly a.) no one was reading my blog and b.) because of how the internet gets indexed, associating their names to events may or may not be beneficial for them; but seeing as how I’m putting it out now, it’ll now be part of the google record, like it was used above to find this blog. Both Shawn and Steven are good men, and frankly they get a bum rap in some circles. Those circles frankly can get bent as far as I’m concerned. While I am sure that there is plenty of blame to go around for the failure of Hard Rock Park, there is a group of about a dozen people *including myself* that were responsible for the park. Shit happens. We move on and go forth.
I didn’t come up with the name of King Henry, it just stuck, maybe because of the Tudors on Showtime, maybe because it was accurate. I don’t know. What I do know is, is that the person who came up with the name never was employed by the Park, so whatever that is worth, it’s out there now.
I chose the name of Charlie Brown for Shawn because I always admired Charlie Brown, and always have. Charlie Brown is always the underdog, and always the believer. I never thought that Shawn was a poor manager, nor that he was unqualified for his position. In fact in his own way, he tried his best on a very difficult project. I cannot begin to understand how he managed to keep all of the plates spinning for as long as he did. When I first met Shawn close to two years ago, the first impression I got from his face was “Charlie Brown” so it all fit. In no way was it meant with malice.
So, to my surprise, I am now being obsessed about by these two, for reasons that I can’t completely understand. If my blog was such a problem at the time, then I should have been fired. Were I in either one of their positions, I would have fired me that day. Hell, I had asked Shawn on no less than three occasions to let me go, so that my other ducks could remain longer, looking for new jobs - a fact that I told all of my ducks. I was told however, that I was off of the table. I was too important. Important to the company? More than likely not. I suspect that it was because I was the one who a.) knew how to update the company’s website (which to this day I still don’t understand why they don’t go to the webmaster to do what I no longer have access to… he’s a webmaster after all and b.) because I had sacrificed enough of my personal ethics already to them, that I must have been somehow thralled to them. Looking at this blog, I couldn’t even begin to understand why either one of them would be upset about anything that I’ve posted here. Any of the frustrations that I shared here were just that, mine, and they were generalized speaking to the situation as a whole, and not to individuals.
In reality, I am not that important to the company. I was the least important person on my team. I designed the team that way so that I could, as I planned, leave and let the park continue on, to the point where they’ve gone to my other website that has absolutely nothing to do with anything Park related (thedatacenterblog.com). All the good stuff however, is at the Red Leather Couch; and I would suggest that they would have more fun there, so go sign up!!!
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to know that, even after my dealings with the Park are over, I am viewed as some important person to them. Perhaps I should take my lessons on hubris from them so that when I grow up, I can be just like them, but until then I’ll kindly ask that you not put me upon this pedestal of importance that you seem to think that I must need to be on.
Got invited to a Tech Summit and am there now…. It’s odd to be surrounded by my past in various iterations, then getting introduced to some new technologies. It makes me want to go out and try out/deploy all these things, but I don’t have a place to do it in.
“Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction.”
“When I say ‘Capitalism,’ I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism - with a seperation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church”
- Ayn Rand
While I usually limit my political discussions and pontifications to the Bully Pulpit of my website (plug, plug, but you must be a member of the site to see it), this current issue is moving me to no end.
I’m hoping that the measure fails in the Senate tonight.
Back in August of 1864, there was this little thing that was called the “Battle of Mobile Bay”. Imagine the scene, This was one of the final stands for the Confederate Navy; their Thermopylae if you will.
The Union fleet was led by an Admiral David Farragut, literally a lifetime navy man (entering it when he was ten years of age….. Ten.) At age twelve, he was given his first command, bringing the USS Essex back to port from battle. While not really liberating Paris, or organizing the Surge, a lot to deal with for a child. Throughout the rest of his career, Farragut was known throughout the Fleet as a dependable, devoted commander, who was quite aggressive but not always one to fall right in line.
Sense a pattern as to where this is going?
So let’s skip back to Alabama. The Confederacy needed to keep Mobile Bay open to continue support for the war, and was one of the last three ports held by the Confederacy. Farragut’s mission was to take Mobile Bay for the Union with his fleet of 18 ships vs. 4 and cannon from Confederate positions. Between the cannon, or the guns from Confederates any assault would be difficult at best, but the addition of mines (called torpedoes at the time) made the whole attempt perilous at best. With the job presented to him, Farragut knew what he must do.
It was the monitor USS Tecumseh which struck the minefield first. By all accounts, it sunk within minutes claiming close to 100. The Fleet began to move about in disarray and would soon be lost if action was not taken. Farragut, onboard the USS Hartford (lashed to the ship mind you) was witness to all of the events, and the battle soon to be lost. He asked out why the ships were retreating.
“Torpedoes!”
His response has become historical.
“Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!”
The Fleet manged their way through the minefield, and quickly took care of the Confederate cannon. End of Story. Make it a special on the History Channel.
But there is a lesson in this, for another man, who has a similar lineage to Farragut. This man is also running for President now, and has been charged by the residents of Arizona to represent them in the United States Senate, and now by proxy the Republican Party, and if successful, the citizens of the United States.
What is going on now is the economic version of the Battle of Mobile Bay, and it is McCain that is the commander of this Fleet. McCain has had a proven track record of voting against stupid spending for stupid projects, and this Bill that is being voted on tonight is full of these torpedoes in that the political implications for voting against this. McCain needs to damn these torpedoes and do what is right for this country, and what is right for the concept of capitalism.
Four Bells Captain McCain. Full speed!
This is absolutely just a bunch of hot air blowing around. Since I’ve landed, we’ve gotten between .25″ ~ .5″ of rain, and looking at the latest radar, we’re missing most of the storm, *and* it’s about to make landfall about 40 miles north of me.
Bah. I wanted something.
I made it back, and I can now say that I’ve officially flown into a tropical storm (albeit it was in one of the outer bands).
The park is all locked down and secured, and as usual, the IT department and my ducks were ahead of the curve by finishing our preparedness days ago, so when Raider Duck gave me an update today, he was uncharacteristicaly calm and took some delight in saying that the rest of the people were doing their thing, today. Now granted, there has always been a plan in place, but the IT department is pretty flexible and rapid-reaction compared to most other lines of business.
I’ve noticed that the national media is here in Myrtle Beach, and I’ve been trying to figure out where they are basing themselves. I may go visit them tonight. We’ll see. If I do, I’m taking my camera.
This is what is on the little towel that is over the edge of the tub, THAT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRAKIN’ ROOM.
This is what I have been surrounded by for the previous 24 hours.
I’ve been really wanting to do some blogging for a few weeks, but things have been just too busy at times and then I realize that time has passed up.
So, what has been going on? Well, a lot.
I found a way to have HP come out to the park to film the park and IT staff for their website and some viral video stuff. If all goes well, it should come out in October. I spent two days with the HP people and it was quite fun, even though stepping into that world of marketing and filming was quite trepidatious.
I also got to meet KC from KC and the Sunshine Band fame Friday night. The show itself was a fun diversion, and I stuck out like a big sore thumb wearing a Bauhaus T-Shirt. During the after party KC kept looking at me and seemed a bit scared of me. Afterwards when I was hanging out with The Italian Job, I had to explain to him that it wasn’t too surprising that KC was a republican (Italian Job was shocked that KC said something about hoping McCain wins), because of where KC lives in Florida, and that just because he did drugs in the 70’s doesn’t make him a democrat.
Hell, I had to remind him, Johnny Ramone voted for Nixon…twice.
I am heading to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon and will return on Friday afternoon. I’ve been invited by Cisco to join them to be interviewed as a customer who has implemented their physical security product during their Global Sales Meeting. Basically, I’m going to be treated like a piece of meat in a convention center, getting passed around to all of these sales people so that they can find out why I, as a customer make my technology decisicions the way I do.
Heh, that will be funny. One of my demands was that I go to In-N-Out Burger.
These hurricanes are a mess. I get back from SFO when Hanna is supposed to make landfall in or near Charleston, which is about 100 miles south of me. Yippie.
Then we have Ike, which scares me. That one has the potential to hit the house in Tampa.
And then now, Josephine.
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