(no subject)

Proud to be a tax and spend politician:
Last night I led a coup to a) repoint 2 buildings instead of 1 to save money on the larger project over 2 smaller ones; and
b) increase condo fees 2% instead of .55% so that over time the increases are a steady 2-4% instead of nothing one year and 5-10% the next.
That was me spending a quarter million dollars of other people's money in 30 minutes. Of course, it's money that needs to be spent anyway, and the option - LIKE IN THE US - is having to pay more when the infrastructure starts crumbling. So unlike national politics, a small group of people can identify needs, collect funds, and do the work required to maintain the property without much fuss.

Truth - we're at risk of not having a board at all because nobody will volunteer their hour a month to help out for no pay. I'm an outlier, as is everyone else on the board.

Loving work - I'm frustrated as I'm finding the case law is really illogical in the area of attorney fees for FLRA actions, but I'm fired up on a project and thinking of writing something clearly to go straight to dissenting member Pizzella - my new goal is to get a mention in the dissent. I'm also leading a work-coup to file exceptions on all cases we lose or get arbitrator arbitrarily baby-split cases, and worse, enter a clause to that effect in the beginning of all arbitrations to put these lazy asshats on notice that the Union sues for attorney fees of $20-30k on all cases they decide, even if the case is worth $120 total if we lose on the merits. The law is that a losing party, if it had the information at the time if made its decision, is liable for attorney fees if any remedy is issued...which makes sense if you lose because you were wrong. However, when an arbitrator a) reduces a 5 day suspension to 2/3 days or a reprimand, b) says when machines broke down for 4 hours so staff got paid to hang out in the lunch room half the day but disagrees the managers should have let lunch be moved 30 minutes, or c) declares that the contract required delivery via FedEx so using UPS is a contract violation...you wind up with petty issues and baby splitting costing 20-30k per issue...ALL at taxpayer expense from your fed government.

I'm a tax and spend democrat who is kind of over fed unions. I know the reasons we have them in theoretically agree with those reasons, but the actual practice is shameful. Like the condo board I serve on, it's very hard to get decent people to work for free. This greater good concept only seems to inspire loons, crooks, and religious loons (they're a special breed).

This post has no direction or conclusion despite being arguably about one subject.

Avoiding work

Today at work I first questioned why a director said he wanted drug testing, passive-aggressively yet pretty directly showing my view of "who the fuck cares." Granted, I talked about other areas of law and noted advanced issues in support of other items. He had no answer other than his feeling; "Drugs are bad." At the same meeting our incompetent jehovah witness said not word one (saying words out of order makes you closer to god).

In another casual meeting I tore off into a diatribe about how someone accused of looking at thousands of porn images was often not guilty as the images may include tiny pictures from around the screen which are not viewable but clickable ads. I also argued that I agreed with OGC not trying to go for criminal prosecution over child porn because their conclusion, that some of the pictures might have been of questionable age, most weren't and it wasn't possible to tell (I asked "Did they take pictures with their driver's licenses? Can you tell if someone is 16, 18, or 20?" ) and basically defended porn as a morally normal behavior. Then for giggles I noted it's not really a worthy issue to pursue porn compared to not doing your job, that it's putting religion and morality into the decision whether workers can do this under our existing "reasonable use" policies and noted the same base prevents us from ...
viewing lottery ticket numbers online. Didja know that? It's considered "gambling," even though the lottery is a multi-state sponsored venture that is completely fucking legal (like porn) but because some religions consider it a sin, government workers are prevented from doing it. I noted it's inherently pushing religion into the workplace and forcing behavior...

All at work. I'm not the shy, quiet, career minded type who tries to present his most sterile exterior to avoid offending or having controversial viewpoints. I'm very out, if you will.

Today in the gym I ran/walked 25 minutes...one more annoying trip and I get to 30 minutes then drop to 15 minutes just running. For the first time today I realized "run" has other definitions other than "10 minute mile." That's just a standard I picked up. So I "run" 10 minute mile paces, and "walk" 20 minute mile paces. Also occurring to me for the first time today was that while I'm following my doctor's prescription, I never meant to run. I don't run. I usually cut running programs when I get to 3 10-minute miles because who gives a fuck. So I think I'll stick with this but I'm not sure what I'm doing, running when I don't mean to be a runner. I also giggle that I accidentally picked up a program that would leave me better at something than before the surgery (unless I fail, which is an option too).

Ok, I want beer and video games but my stupid taxes are not improving with age.