Where Dogs Lie

     I really don't have a lot to talk about this week. I did finally get paid by the Orlando site, and the supervisor is already wanting me back out there, but I haven't fully decided if I will go back. Even though they finally paid me, I don't have any confidence in them paying me on time from here on out. The supervisor did tell be that a lot of people were asking about me this past week since I wasn't there. I did enjoy the experience of being out there, so I really don't know what I'm going to do come next week when she texts me to ask my schedule.

    I was offered a shift this Sunday much closer to home, which I would love to get those offers more often, because I would much rather take them than go to Orlando. I accepted the shift which is going to be an 11 hour overnight beachside. The pay is much more than I normally get and when everything is said and done, I'll have 3 hours of overtime on top of it. The site is an armed post, but I was told that even though I'm licensed to be armed, I'm only going to be there for traffic control. The pay is still the same whether I'm carrying a weapon or not. Honestly, I don't know why this is an armed post. It's in a pretty safe area and there aren't any high value targets as far as I can tell by what and where the site is. It's just baffling to me. Anyway, this means I will do my normal Sunday shift from 8-4, then I will run home, maybe eat something and go to sleep to try and get some rest to be at this new site at 10 until 9 in the morning. This also means that I will miss the Artemis launch, but this was a special request from the field supervisor and he is the one that decides if I go to any high value posts in the future. I can't turn down the opportunity or the money. The plus side is that rain is forecast for the launch time, so there is a good chance that it won't go on Monday morning anyway and I won't miss it. 

     That's all I got for work related stuff. The pooches are doing fantastic. Both Morty and The Chonk have lost weight and are looking really good. They are all resting right now so I have a little quiet time while I write this. They should be relaxing until bedtime then it will be a slight madhouse as I try to get under the covers before they jump on the bed and make it impossible. I may not interact with humans on a regular basis outside of work, but the dogs and I are doing just fine.

     Ok, time for Favorite Thing of the Week. There are no pictures of videos for this, because it's basically a testimonial about a TV show on HULU. I was once again late to the party, but I've apparently showed up at the right time for big news. Only Murders In The Building is the show I'm talking about and they just put out the final episode of season 2. I thought it was on another streaming services which is why I wasn't watching it. Ok, I guess I should really give you the what it's about and who is in it before anything else. The show is created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman. I have no idea who John Hoffman is, but we should all know Steve Martin. It stars Steve and his good friend Martin Short as well as Selena Gomez. Now if you know Steve and Martin's relationship, it is understandable that they would be great together in the show, but Selena Gomez is a talented young woman who you may or may not know and she would seem like the odd person out. That isn't the case at all. She fits in as if she has been part of the team for decades. Her chemistry with Steve and Martin is second to none. The moment it really clicked for me was I think in episode 2. There is a scene where they are all coming out of an elevator and she says something snarky to Steve Martin's character. His reply is, and I'm paraphrasing here, "I wish you weren't so mean." to which she replies in a perfect deadpan, " I know that you do." and it is easily one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in TV. I think that's the real thing about it, even though she is the young gun, she plays the role as if she is an elder states person, and it's easily believable. She is an old sole type of character and it's priceless. Ok, now what the show is about. The whole basis is that a murder happens in their building and they come together over their shared interest in a true crime murder podcast. They decide that what the police say happened isn't the case and decided to create their own podcast called "Only Murders in the Building" and solve the murder. If you have HULU definitely watch this show. I believe there are 20 episodes right now in the first 2 seasons, and they have announced that there is going to be a season 3 which will have Paul Rudd as a pivotal character. Can't tell you more about that without it being a spoiler. Now for those of you who don't have HULU, do the free 7 day trial and watch these 2 seasons. I easily watched both seasons in 3 days, so you should be able to do the same. Trust me it is easily bingeable. Once it hooks you, you won't want to stop watching it. 

    Ok, that's all I got. I'll let you know how this new overnight posts goes next week. It should be a bit of a breeze. The hard part will be staying awake, which I already have my plans in order for it. Of course that means my plans will fail for the most part and I won't get a few hours of sleep between shifts, but I'll make it through. I'll have Monday day, through Wednesday to recover any missed sleep. Peace in and goodnight.

This Can't Be Real

      It's been one of those weeks that seems to last forever. I still haven't been paid by the TV station. I really shouldn't say the TV station because it isn't on them to pay me, it's on the branch of my company that deals with them that pays me, either way I still haven't been paid, now for the last 2 weeks. I really have no hope that I will get paid this week either. As it stand they now owe me 32 hours, 16 of which are overtime. I'll now a little later tonight if anything has changed in the area. If they correctly submit the time sheet to payroll, I'll see it on my past schedule, and then I'll definitely see it tomorrow evening on the paystub for this coming week. 

     I do have some good news. There is one financial institution that I've been dealing with down. I got the check yesterday, which is odd because I submitted a slip for direct deposit, but either way, the money is technically in my hands and it will be deposited into the back tomorrow morning. This seemed like the least complicated of the 2 so it stands to reason that it would be the first one to finally stop sending me hoops to jump through. It came at the right time too, but I won't bother getting into that, the first paragraph kind of explains it. 

    Oh, I did forget to mention that I did spend my last day at the TV station due to them not paying me. I doubt I'll be back out there again. I've lost trust in the field supervisor out there.

     It has been an interesting week for, um let's go with varmint, although I don't thing that is the proper term. At the space center site I saw an interesting bee, when I looked it up today it turns out that it was a Red Velvet Ant, which is actually a parasitic wasp. Turns out I've seen one of these before, but it was a female and the female of the species doesn't have wings, hence the reason I thought this was a bee. To give you an idea of what they look like, picture a bee, but instead of yellow, they have bright red, and the wings on the male are black. It's really cool looking, but it turns out that a sting from one of them is super intense, so much so that they nicknamed it cow killer. I didn't bother trying to get near it I just saw it on my patrol and went about my way. Still pretty cool to see.

    Today was even more fun. I was getting ready to do my patrol inside the building at the mainland location and heard thunder. Now this was important because they just cut a hole in the roof this week and it was of course leaking when it rained. I went to the door to see how close the storm was and when I turned around and walked back to begin my patrol. I almost stepped on what looked like a string or shoelace kind of thing, but I thought that it might have moved. I reached down to pick it up and throw it away, and it did move. That took me aback a bit. Turns out it was a very tiny snake. It was all black with a copperish ring around it's neck. I had never seen anything like it, and since it looked like a hatchling it's head hadn't fully developed so I couldn't tell if it was venomous or not. I erred on the side of caution and got a large cup and tried to get it inside so I could take it and put it outside. It didn't not want to go in the cup so I used the cup and some fancy footwork to guid it out the door. That's when I got a picture of it so I could look it up and compare it after my patrol.

     Turns out it's a completely harmless type of snake. It's a Ringnecked Snake that is pretty common here in Florida, but I have never seen one before in my life. This one was probably an adolescent due to it being around 5-6 inches. Full length is any where from 8-15 inches. They eat insects so no humans were in danger. Now, how did it get in? Well upon further investigation The facilities guy and myself determined that there is a very small gap at the bottom of one of the entry doors, which this little dude could clearly squirm under, which he did. 

     That's it for the excitement of varmint section of this little diary journal thing. Now it's time for Favorite Thing of the Week. I went with thing even though this is technically a video of a song, but, well you'll see when you watch it. I'm not even going to describe it. I'm just going to post it up here and let you watch it and then you will understand everything. 

     Now come on, if that isn't the greatest thing that ever was, I don't know what is. I bet you are asking yourself, "is there a full mascot band?". Why yes there is. if you look up Nyango Star, who that particular mascot is, you can go down a pretty deep rabbit hole of videos and you will see him perform with a full mascot band, and they only question I have when I watch it is, "How?" I bet you thought it would be why. Nope, the why is already answered, because it's epic. The how is what I need to know because they play guitar and bass with those mitten mascot hands and I have no idea how that is done.

     Ok, I'm out for this week. I'll update you on the pay situation next week. I still have options on getting it taken care of but I want to see if they make it right first. Peace in and goodnight.

Fire and Flame

      It has been an up and down week. Sunday was a crazy day in which I did my normal morning shift, then went back in at midnight for an overnight shift. I followed that with an overnight shift at the TV station. I kind of consider that an up, because I really enjoy my job, even though overnights are really stressful. Here comes the down. I didn't get paid by the TV station. Now, it's not the TV stations fault, it is the fault of the branch of the security company I work for out there. I've been told that it is being taken care of, but I have yet to see any proof of that. As it stand right now, they owe me for 24 hours of work, 16 of which are overtime hours. I am going back this Monday for another overnight, but if I get my pay stub for this coming week and don't see any of those hours there, that will be my last night at that site. The way I see it, is they are taking my time, and now they are taking my money so, if I can't get the money, I'm taking back my time.

     That lack of money this week really hit hard. I'm finding a way to work through it, but I'm so tired of this coming from behind every week. I'm still looking at the big picture, but it's starting to get very cloudy. Here comes some more of the up. I got notified this week that the company I'm contracted to is going to have a meeting about the supervisor at one of the sites. That is as far as I know about that. I have an idea what that means, but I've been told things like this so many times now, that I'm just taking a wait and see approach to it all. I'm considering that an up with an asterisks.

     Here is the next down. The Chonk decided to find the one gap in the fence he could fit underneath and managed to get out again. I was able to track him down pretty quickly and he jumped right in the car with little effort, but I really worry about him, because of how intimidating he looks. He isn't intimidating at all other than his appearance, but that is enough to get someone like the neighbor that hit him to do something like that or even worse. I fixed that new spot and have a plan to do more, but of course that costs money that I just don't have. I'm still waiting to hear form those financial institutions that I've been dealing with to find out what new document I need to fill out that they could have told me about months ago again. If I can finally get that money it won't solve the problems, but it will at least give me some wiggle room. Oh Chonk was chasing a car this time so no people were involved, hence the reason he wasn't stressed out this week. I should mention that my course of action worked and his stomach issues have been resolved. No messes to clean up this week, that's a down with an up.

    Ok, next up. I got to work on Thursday and I was waiting to clock in since I always get there about a half hour early, and a women that is somewhat new to the site came up to me and said she had been looking for me for weeks. I immediately responded with, "How can I help you?". She then said that she had something for me and handed me a gift card for the grocery store I go to. I of course said thank you but then asked what it was for. She told me about how nice I had been to her for offering to open the gate for her to leave through. Here is that part of the story. She has a roller bag that she brings to work and to get in and out of the property, you have to go through a turnstile. I saw her struggling so the next day I was there, I told her that if she wanted I would open the gate for her so it would be easier for her to get out at night. I followed up on my words and opened the gate for her whenever she asked. I simply saw it as my way of helping out the client. She is a contractor like me, but she is still a representative of the client, plus I'm there to help out in any way I can, and when I see a need, I fill that need. It's one of the reasons the client really likes me at all these sites. I will always go above and beyond. I thanked her again and told her how much I appreciated it, as well as let her know that my offer for the gate still stands, whenever she needs it. That of course was an up.

     Oh, but that up comes with a down. My supervisor came back in from opening the gate and began talking about her, and I mentioned how she gave me the gift card for what I had done. He told me that she gave him one as well, but that she meant it for me. Since she is very polite she told him to keep it even after she realized that he wasn't me and he kept it. Not only that, but he really made no effort to figure out who was the security officer that had helped her out. From what he told me, even though she was vague about who it was, I could have figured it out very easily. Here is what he said that she said. He wears a white shirt like you and a hat that says security. Seems almost impossible right? Only if you decide to not think about it. Now all of the guards have white shirts, but two of us rarely wear the white and go with a blue that used to be the standard uniform, so you can take them out of the equation. Now that leaves 3, but really 2 since the supervisor has already been eliminated. Now, just to throw a wrench in the works 2 of us wear hats that actually say security on them. That would be myself and one of the guards that we already eliminated because they normally wear a blue shirt. Also I should point out that she would never have any contact with him because during the week he works overnight and would never see her. The other guard that it could possibly be doesn't wear a hat at all, which only leaves me. I went the long way for that deduction, to show you that if he put any thought into it, he could have figured it out, he was just too lazy to. If it had been me, I would not have accepted the gift card and would figure out who it was and then tell her when he was expected back and that I would send him to her office when they arrived for work next so that she could give it to him in person. There is no way I'm accepting praise that belongs to someone else. This goes back to the reason that the company may actually be having a meeting about the supervisor. Anyway, that was a clear down.

     The rest of the week was just kind of meh, but today I took it upon myself to do extra training. My company has these online training courses that are generally assigned to you when they are needed, but I'm not waiting anymore and I'm going to work my way through the entire curriculum. I got a big chunk of them done today. There is still a ton more stuff, but I was one training session away from finishing an entire section. There are about 30 sections or so, and to date, I've only been required to finish 1 and a half.

    I'm calling that an up because there really is no other way to look at learning. learning something new is always an up. There is one more up before I get to Favorite Song of the Week, oh and this has a twist this week. One more up for the week. I got to ride Saki to work last night and since I was out on Space Center property, I decided to take it upon myself to get a picture in front of the VAB. It came out pretty cool so I hope you enjoy it.

Ok, now it's time for Favorite Song of the Week with a twist. The twist is that it is two videos of th same song, but these videos are how I found out about BABYMETAL. The first one is from a young french woman who just destroys guitar. I love watching videos like this of people that are insanely talented. She hasn't posted a new video in a few years which has led to some speculation of what happened, but I dug deep and it seems that she is studying to be a lawyer in Paris and that is the reason she has not uploaded any guitar covers. I think in this particular video she is 16. If you ever played guitar hero and got to the end you heard this song. It's by a band called Dragon Force and they are known for being incredibly fast and incredibly technical, so I present to you Tina S. with her cover of, "Through the Fire and Flame".

  

     Super talented right. Well he videos led me to the next one, which in turn led me to BABYMETAL. This next is another cover of the Dragon Force song but it's a drum cover. I hope you really listened because the guitar isn't the only insanity going on in that song. The drums are epic and this next performance is from a young Japanese girl named Junna. Her energy is just absolute joy to watch. She is still posting new videos so definitely go and check out some of her other stuff. I give to you Junna with her cover of, "Through the Fire and Flame". 

     See, her joy is infectious. Well Junna did a cover of a BABYMETAL song which got me watching their videos, and now I'm a huge fan of all these impressive ladies. I consider all these videos an up. They bring me so much joy and happiness joys washes over me when I listen to BABYMETAL. I have listened to all 4 albums now. They have 3 studio albums with a live at Budokan, which I believe is their 10th anniversary tour. Go give them a listen, they will make you happy.

     That's all I got this week. Have a wonderful week for me. Peace in and goodnight.

Just A Little Ri Ri Appreciation

      Just had to start with a picture of Ri Ri, cause she was looking too cute. This was one of the many occasions where she hops up in the chair with me. Sometimes she snuggles and other times she does what she is doing here, which is sit at the end of the chair and wait for me to pet her. The pups are still getting along splendidly. Chonk had an issue this week with some stomach issues, but they seem to have cleared up. I think it was all stress related. Last week he got under the fence and chased after a man and his dog. The thing is though, he only wanted to play, but the man treated him as if he was attacking and ended up hitting him. I didn't know about the hit until a day or two later. I was getting things ready for work and I let the dogs out just before I leave, which is about 5 minutes while I get my bag ready. I went out to get them and only two dogs came in. I searched the back yard and then went out front hoping to find him, but no luck. I hopped in the car and rode around searching for him. I saw the man outside and he stopped me and said that my dog got out, and that he had went after him and his dog. I apologized and mentioned that The Chonk is very friendly and the man agreed. I asked him if he saw which way he went and he pointed in a direction. I apologized again and thanked him and then drove off again. I went the wrong way and turned around to see The Chonk walking across the road. I drove up to where he was and told him to get in the car. He was happy to see me and skipped the passenger door and ran around to my side, so I had to get out and let him in. That's when the man drove up and asked if I had found him. I said I had and thanked him once again for his help. I got all the dogs inside then went to work. As soon as I got home I secured the fence so The Chonk couldn't get out again and went about the rest of my day which was me going back to work at the TV station for an overnight after doing my morning shift.

     I slept most of the day, but the dogs kept barking and waking me up. Turns out it was that man coming to my door. I knew this only because I noticed a letter left on my car as I was driving to Orlando at 70 mph and nearly crashed the car. I pulled over and took the letter off my windshield and went to work. When I got there I finally had a chance to read it. I won't detail the whole thing, but he decided to tell me once again what had happened and then mentioned that he hit The Chonk. Here is the thing. The Chonk clearly only followed him and was wanting to meet his dog. If he really wanted to hurt the dog or the man, he would have done it. The fact that this man hit my dog and The Chonk didn't tear his hand off is testament to just how gentle The Chonk is. I have not, nor will I go over to talk to the man. He had his one moment and I am keeping the letter, cause if anything happens to my dogs, that letter is going to the police. It details in his own words his willingness to harm an animal. The real reason I haven't gone over this is because I want to tear his head off, so I'm keeping my distance and calming my rage. You don't hit my dog. 

    Anyway, I believe the stress of that day and that moment brought on The Chonk's stomach issues, so this week was about giving him as much love as possible to settle his nerves. He really is a big ol' softie and like I said, that man had his one moment. He gets no more.

     Other than that, this week has been rather dull. I'm still trying to put in as many hours as I can. Last week was 48, and so is this week. It's going to be tough to get another 60 hour week, so I just have to take what I can get. The good thing is that the TV station has now been fully staffed, but the supervisor out there is still giving me a day or two, because she likes the job I do. The problem with taking a job under your market value in order to get to that big picture, is that it is difficult to pay bills, and yes, I'm still waiting on getting money from the accounts that were involved with my mom. That's right 5 months later I'm still dealing with financial institutions, that every time I jump through a hoop, the set a new hoop up.

    Ok, before I get to Favorite Song of the Week, and yes there is one this week, I wanted to give you a recommendation. It is The Sandman on Netflix. This is based on the Vertigo comic, which was a subsidiary of DC comics. It was created by Neil Gaiman. If you haven't' listed to the Audible presentations, which you really should, you would notice that it is following that story to a degree. The casting is exceptional and the guy playing Dream is clearly taking from the Audible presentation of James McAvoy's performance. He mimics his cadence and dialogue perfectly. I think I'm 5 episodes in and I'm loving it. I did see that critics are panning it, but I've never listened to critics about anything so I just sit back and enjoy it. As soon as I'm done with this, I will be firing up a new episode. So, if you want a visually beautiful show with an intriguing story, give it a try.

     Ok, now for FSOTW. I just discovered this band and they are not new by any means, so I'm very sorry I've missed them until now, because there songs bring me so much joy. I feel that there music is kind of a very strange mash-up of every style possible, but most would call it metal or maybe even anime rock, ( I don't know if that last one is a thing, but I like it. ). Here is kind of the best way to explain it. It is 3 young Japanese women that are kind of like pop idols fronting a death metal band. I'm sure that makes no sense cause I'm even shaking my head trying to come up with the right way to say it, and I think I'm failing miserably, so I'm just going to let you watch the video so you can see. Oh, I should say that it does seem that all their videos are of live performances, they don't do any cinematic type of videos for any of their songs, at least none that I have found, so this may not be as clear as the album track, but it is what they actually do and it isn't lip synching or anything like that, they are actually playing and singing, and it is fabulous. I present to you Babymetal with their song, "Gimme Chocolate!".

     I know what you are saying, "I don't understand it.". Here is the thing, there is nothing to understand, just enjoy it. I've been listening to their first album for the past couple of days and it makes me so happy. Isn't that really all that matters? I will slowly start listening to all their albums, but I just can't stop listening to the first one right now. 

     That's all I got for tonight. Have a wonderful week. Peace in and goodnight.