The Workermonkey

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Inspiring Obama 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/28/2010 06:03:00 PM

anyone see last nights state of the union address? awesome. that a boy Obama, call out the republicans, the justices and lay down the law! awesome speech and a true reminder of what got him there in the first place. i liked all of his new proposals, there was far too much common sense in that speech for anyone to understand it. the constant standing and applauding and who was and wasn't standing or applauding was just down right funny. its all like a really poorly scripted play where you stand at any hint of good for you and sit with a shit eating gin at what your party tells you is not OK to be happy about. the look on the generals faces when he said they were still pulling out of Iraq and that gays were OK again was priceless. i wish he'd have one of these more often and not just once a year.

2 comments

I thought the Q+A at the house republican retreat was good too. Obama admits failures but also pushed back on many issues and called out their shit. I couldn't imagine Bush putting himself in that position.

By  Brancibeer, at Saturday, January 30, 2010 12:51:00 PM  

i liked seeing obama push back. i liked seeing him call out hte republicans directly for obstructing progress. unfotunately it turned in to a soap opera about who stood and who sat at what point. silly

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Wednesday, February 03, 2010 11:29:00 PM  

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

just another day at the office for peyton manning 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/24/2010 06:19:00 PM

the jets made a nice attempt in the beginning, but that first touchdown to edwards was just a good move to get open. the colts are just a solid all around team. i think they'll beat either of the NFC contenders

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

kibble and bits from spain 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/17/2010 09:43:00 AM

1.) seriously, airport security is the dumbest thing i've ever seen. they delayed my plane out of Barcelona by 2 hours because of the security check point cluster fuck. they took everything out of everybody's bag and turned it on/ played with it. molesting every item like a retard on extasy. now, i carried several pieces of electronics with me: a camera, 2 cell phones, an ipod, my gameboy, a lap top and a power converter with all the cords associated for each. i had to turn on the laptop and the ipod, and he went through some pics on my camera. but the gameboy and both phones didn't need to go on. he also took the caps off all my pens. or at least the ones he actually found, missing half. apparently my shoes smell funny cause those caused a funny look of concern, because after standing in line for 3 hours waiting to be molested was somehow refreshing. not one of the pat downs or searches would have caught any of the items recently associated with terror attacks. plus now they check all your baggage both getting on and getting off the plane. in some cases twice at each end. pointless. on a side note to this, the security at the Spanish train stations wasn't even watching the screen, they were busy talking to other people standing around. hilarious.

2.) the NFL in europe. i know know why your don't watch it over there. the game is mangled for TV. now i had a chance to watch the pat's game last sunday, at the wrong time. it was on later and massively edited. they don't show all the plays, removing any kicking play that didn't involve a return. halftime was only the length of a short commercial break. The commentators acted as if they'd never seen an american football game before. they were obviously soccer guys who just happen to be hanging around the makeshift studio. they would have been far better off just leaving the English guys on.

3.) public transportation, far, far better over there. no problems at all and easy as could be to get around.

4.) Tapas bars. those would never fly here in the states, we're just not honest enough... wait, while looking up how to spell tapas on google, i'm immediately introduced to the fact that there are several around hartford. i'll have to investigate further, i hope they don't carry over the tradition of throwing your trash on the floor. that was kind of gross. the little piles of used napkins everywhere was unsettling.

3 comments

Sounds like successful trip. I think that security checkpoints are as much of a deterrent as they are for actually catching people.

By  ron, at Monday, January 18, 2010 10:31:00 PM  

If you wanna do a Tapas Friday sometime, let me know, ive driven by them in my travels and always wondered what the heck they are...

By  wyldshaman, at Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:16:00 AM  

one of the last times i flew they actually marked my ticket at the gate with a red "X" so i knew they were going to inspect my bag more thoroughly (i had been randomly selected). so i went to one of the airport stores, bought a porn magazine, and got into the line of the inspector who looked like they would be most embarrassed to find it. yeah, she was not a fan.

tapas bars are popular in certain places (i know DC for sure), but it's cool to hear they're in the hartford area as well.

By  josh, at Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:38:00 PM  

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Friday, January 15, 2010

20 Year Reunion... VEGAS 

# posted by wyldshaman @ 1/15/2010 08:51:00 PM

Just got finished watching the Hangover... got me thinking about our futures.

I mean where the fuck are we all going to be?

We should really plan a 20 year get-together. Something to get us away from our kids, wifes, jobs, life, reality!

For Area 52, for all the shit i missed at UCONN, for all the shit you missed in Europe, for old-times- sake, for friends, for Graduates of 99, for... the Haddam Boys!

Logistically its perfect, flights/rooms are cheap, easy to explain away as a business trip or a sacred high school oath to the wife's, and god-damn we will be almost 40.... next stop will be the grave!

And who couldn't use a few days with friends just before/after that mid-life crisis? Of course we can all still do the school thing, but this is something special, something genuine and real.

2019 VEGAS

3 comments

can do, just please, no rouffies.

..and i totally want to steal a tiger. or maybe something else from mike tyson.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:41:00 AM  

Not a big fan of vegas. I would rather do a camping trip or something. Somewhere nice. Plus...camping should bring back all the right memories...

By  Brancibeer, at Monday, January 18, 2010 10:57:00 PM  

sounds like your the guy on the roof

By  wyldshaman, at Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:12:00 AM  

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

career advancement 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/14/2010 02:33:00 AM

Career Advancement:

Its 1:00 am local time. I worked 12 hours today, plus dinner and drinks equaling almost 22 hours of “on” time. I’m flat out going to be a mess tomarrow. I’ve stayed up far past my bed time, I haven’t slept in days cause I’m in a forign country and i’m not pooping correctly anymore. I’ve use some shit disposable razor for three days and I can’t get a good shave to save my life. The hotel i’m staying in has a bed about as soft as concrete. I’ve also spent nearly 300 euro’s of my own money.

But I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve done more in the last 48 hours for my career than I could have done in years of good hard, honest, work. The good work I’ve done over the last three years has apparently been noticed and is both awesome and bad. The bad is that I’ve made the people above me look like fools because I can contradict what they tell the people above them. But at the same time, I make the people I like look like geniuses. Maybe I’m being overly confident from a great meeting over drinks with people I hardly know. Maybe I just don’t get corporate culture. But I’ve made the right people look good, and the wrong people look bad. To the right people. That’s the key part, it has to be to the right people.

Here’s the back ground. I’m in spain to fix a cleanliness problem with parts we make. The VP sent me here, which I now know, was because he’s fucked and on his way out. I don’t like him and don’t agree with many of the things he’s done, but he knows I’m a good engineer, and when his back was against the wall, I was sent to spain to cover his ass. He sent me against his own wishes because he was told to or he would look bad. I’m here to make his management decisions over the last 6 months look good. I don’t agree with them and tonight I had the ear of the right person. This problem has caught the attention of the board of directors and without my knowing it, I’ve solved it.

Now, I haven’t actually solved anything. I’ve really just gotten us closer to a solution. But that doesn’t matter. I’ve impressed the right people and there happens to be 5 upper management people staying in my hotel at the same time. I couldn’t have planned this better if i tried. I’m having breakfast with them every day, and spending at leat 2 hours a day making the people I like look good by giving results proving what they “feel”.

One of the guys I work with who has a direct line to thte VP’s ear, he loves me. He’s staying 2 rooms over. The other VP of quality, I’ve never spent more than 5 minutes with him, he loves me and three drinks tonight with him and a 40 minute casual car ride has done more for my career than anything I could have ever done on my own. This is like a perfect storm situation.

At first the guys in spain told me to fuck off cause I arrived a day before everyone else. I had one day for them to impress me or treat me like a normal person. They blew me off. The lab guy I was here to see, told me very directly on day one, “ I don’t’ know why you are here, but just keep busy and stay out of my way”. Wrong answer, asshole. That has now been communicated to the VP of his division, who loves me because I told him David beckham was a punk ass bitch in the states. This guy happens to be from England, not “British”, apparently they take offense to that.

I’ve spent ht e last 4 hours drinking beers abd telling stories with this guy. He couldn’t be happier and neither could i. we agree about a lot of things and appently I have a good reputation with the board of directors. And they agree with a lot of the things i say. Including when I yell at people.

I was correct about getting the HR guy knocked down a peg but it wasn’t as much my fault as I thought. I just put the last straw on the camels back and forced the issue. They used it as an excuse and at that level, any excuse will do. It’s more like high school than you would think. Remember; cover your own ass, at any cost. Piss off everyone and anyone who gets in your way. There are lpeople who notice, because there are others who benefit from the people you hate failing. Now the HR guy has been knocked down from Global HR director of 20+ plants, to HR manager of 3. fuck yeah.

Corporate culture is amazing.

Don’t get labeled as a YES man, its not good. I might leap frog my boss because of it. And get a few people fired. Not intentionally, but totally worth it. Apparently the people above me notice more than I think. Not one level, but two or three levels above me. The one drunken message I spew gets moved around until the right person can use it against the wrong one.

Amazing. I couldn’t write a better script if I tired. The most amazing thing in the world is the truth.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

5 comments

I'm giving you till April.

By  Brancibeer, at Thursday, January 14, 2010 9:11:00 PM  

hahahah....

no it was a good trip and the best thing i did over there was spend time with my upper bosses. i can't believe how many times i heard "i shouldn't be saying this.."

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:42:00 AM  

yeah rereading this, it wasn't the best rant. i can say as a follow up, i was the only one who was able to make it in the next day. the VP never showed and the other guy went back upstairs after breakfast.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 10:05:00 AM  

Sounds interesting and good for you. It is rather clear that personal interaction is more important than one's resume. All my engineering work (5 different employers/clients) since moving to VT has been found in some way other than looking at openings.

No one is British, and the Welsh in particular are offended by that (since they also get screwed when people refer to Britain as England, and are generally forgotten about.)

By  Damon, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 7:35:00 PM  

Be wary of the corporate karma. Some young punk may come and boot you in the ass in a few years...

By  ron, at Monday, January 18, 2010 10:37:00 PM  

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Saturday, January 09, 2010

7years and still going stong 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/09/2010 12:01:00 PM

so i missed this from last month but the blog turned 7 years old over the holiday. here's wishing it another 7 years of drunken rants, funny pictures and crazy chatter. I am hoping to update the site at some point, of course I've been saying that for at least the last 5 years. maybe the next 7 will bring greater prosperity for it. is there anything you'd like to see happen here?

I've contemplated moving the whole thing over to something like Facebook and as strange as that sounds we might have more readers there. of course, employers check Facebook so that might be too incriminating. plus parents are on there, that might be awkward. would twitter work better for anyone? how many of you are using an RSS reader? i think i should take a poll at some point to see what everyone wants out of the monkey. i know forums have been suggested in the past. Tino, would D be able to help me design something?

PS: as an aside here, i'm typing this from the airport while i wait for my flight. hooking up to the internet was a breeze at Bradly, this really is a good airport. i showed up two hours early but as usual that was dumb, this airport is never that busy. the security line was empty and i had as much time as i felt like to get through it. the only problem so far was the scanner not reading my passport correctly but that was incredibly minor, just went to a different machine and it worked.

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Friday, January 08, 2010

Child's Play 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/08/2010 08:08:00 PM

i'm pretty sure i've mentioned this charity before but today's topic is the Child's Play Charity. run by the guys at Penny Arcade its a pretty bad-ass idea. give videos games and toys to children's hospitals. the penny arcade guys themselves have been the subject of an online tv show of sorts chronicling all the cool/crazy stuff they do and have become involved in simply by creating a funny web comic and posting a new one 3 times a week. the episode on child's play can be found here. i suggest you at least watch it as its kind of heart warming for video game fans. i kind of see these guys as modern day nerd legends for what they are doing.

tim/jesse, the video game con in Boston I've mentioned is one of their projects that found a massive following once E3 decided to shut it's doors to the public. it was literally one of the only of video game cons and now its spreading to other cities. does Mo have a children's ward at the hospital? and if so does it receive child's play donations? i'm curious if anyone has actually seen this type of stuff at a hospital.

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Thursday, January 07, 2010

Spain 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/07/2010 06:51:00 PM

i'm getting shipped to Spain for work on Saturday, apparently i'm the company's leading clean room and microscope expert. this aught to be interesting. i'll be headed to Epila, Spain, about half way between Barcelona and Madrid. this was one of those things were three plants are on a conference call and the guys at the spanish plant tell us in all seriousness that its going to take a month to move a computer to the other side of the wall. our VP didn't like that answer very much and i got anointed to go fix it. this is also the plant that has been working on a nylon extrusion line for over a year which myself and another guy put together in 3 months. i've been amazed at how many holiday's they have in Europe, i would have been there two weeks ago over the holiday if they didn't have so much time off. i guess i'm lucky, theres an american guy we work with who's been stuck there for 6 months trying to get a few of these projects off the ground. he's excited to have someone to talk to for a few days. he's already offered to be my schoffeur and buy all the beers.

because we've had a few more conference calls with these guys now knowing that i'm coming, the VP is acting like i'm some kind of superman who's going to solve all these problems. i'd like to let him know that it might not be possible but at the same time it's a good thing he thinks i'm awesome. if i had a superman shirt i'd wear it over there.

at this point, i just hope i can actually find something to do and not be a total fuck up who gets stuck myself.

3 comments

How long are you there for? Awesome opportunity.

Sounds like a case of "send in the American no-nonsense ball buster for a high-level shake up". Now who here speaks American?

By  Brancibeer, at Friday, January 08, 2010 11:24:00 AM  

i'll be there for a week, flying Saturday to Saturday. i should get friday night in barcelona to hang out and have some fun.

they all speak english, all of them. its amazing that we're the only country that refuses to learn another language.

i wish i could shake stuff up or had that authority. apparently i did inadvertently get our HR guy knocked down a peg. no skin of my back though, that guy screwed me and and i let him know it. that topic may either be a reason to fire me or a nice lawsuit so i'd rather not talk too much about it.

josh you're still my lawyer right?

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Friday, January 08, 2010 7:05:00 PM  

i'm unlicensed, but absolutely

By  josh, at Friday, January 08, 2010 11:21:00 PM  

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Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Jury Duty! 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/05/2010 07:40:00 PM

I've been summoned! time to preform my civic duty and fry someone. or not. I'm kind of excited for this, i hope i get picked. I'd like to see a real trial before i find myself as the defendant in one. i don't understand why but the first thing everyone says when i talk about it is some kind of sure fire way to get out of it. i want a sure fire way to get picked! this isn't something i can just sign up and do when ever i want. i got summoned once before when i was in college but got out of it cause i was in a different state and it would have been during finals. I've got to do it in Hartford so i'm guessing its going to be a busy mess. anyone else had to do it there? what can i expect?

2 comments

i haven't but have wanted to. one of my friends got grand jury duty here last summer and was gone for like 6 weeks. got paid from work plus her 15/day or whatever from court and was out in the early afternoon most days. said it was real interesting too.

By  josh, at Wednesday, January 06, 2010 8:31:00 PM  

yeah i'm far too excited for jury duty. i really do hope i get stuck on one. plus you get paid! sweet.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Friday, January 08, 2010 8:20:00 PM  

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Mr. Rogers died 

# posted by Brancibeer @ 1/05/2010 12:32:00 PM

Sad, I never got to tell him "I'm sorry".

http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2010/01/02/opinion/doc4b3e9fd000f43377207174.txt#blogcomments

2 comments

what the hell did you do to him that you need to be sorry for? you were in middle school.

if we need to start doing that then i got a lot of explaining to do, Matt, tell your dad that if i want to build bombs its not that hard and i don't need sulfur for it anymore. i'm now an engineer.

i never had him as a teacher and i didn't really know most of you then. i have no memories of the man but its a shitty thing to have happen around the holidays

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Tuesday, January 05, 2010 7:58:00 PM  

The class I was in was pretty bad Chump. We teased and tortured the man. I believe Willy Pitt, Kenny, Jon Bonvini, Murphy to name a few were all in the same class. It was a mad house.

By  Brancibeer, at Tuesday, January 05, 2010 9:33:00 PM  

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Sunday, January 03, 2010

Porn Mobile 

# posted by wyldshaman @ 1/03/2010 09:55:00 AM

Well i finally broke down and got myself a PPD(Personal Porn Device), which for my family and friends sake also has a phone option built in.

I can also watch my Saints in real-time on the go, hopefully they start to actually play again in the playoffs, im not sure if they know the season goes beyond week 13? Maybe ill send them a tweet and let them know.

Anyway i love my Iporn, i mean PornPod, i mean iphone.

2 comments

haha, I'm waiting for an Android phone. That's a bit more urgent now that I learned my current 2.5 year old phone is among the highest emitters of radiation, about 10 times as much as the best phones.

By  Damon, at Monday, January 04, 2010 2:52:00 PM  

Iphones are pretty awesome. Don't worry, the Saints are just taking a breather.

By  Brancibeer, at Monday, January 04, 2010 8:45:00 PM  

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