Back in the Saddle Again?

Its been a while since I've blogged. To be quite honest, my interest in doing so has lagged considerably.

In the last two years, I've graduated from UNL with a master's degree, and found a job as hydrogeologist at URS in Omaha, Nebraska. It took nearly a year for me to find a job in my field. That was a painful experience. I don't know if URS is my final destination, but I think I'll be here for a while.

In case anyone from my past stumbles across this blog, here is a picture of me, as I appeared a few months ago. I have more hair on my head right now. I tend to lop it off for the winter, and keep it longer in the summer. I do not conform to conventions, or common sense either, apparently.



So, in news of interest, my cousin, Jeri Thompson, is helping her husband, Fred Thompson, run for President of the United States. I don't agree with all of Fred's politics, but I generally find him to be wise and deliberate, which are two traits I appreciate. I may have a higher opinion of other candidates within the Republican Party (I'm fairly liberal for a Republican), but lets be frank, how can I not vote for Fred considering my family ties? To be even more frank, I just hate G.W. Bush and I can't wait for him to leave our country alone.

Just for fun, here is a list of thing I'm really enjoying right now, and a list of things I can't stand.

Enjoy
Movies on Sunday afternoon - I try to see a movie every weekend
Hornsby's Cider - A very tasty treat to beat the summer heat
Football - Yes, I still play football (flag-football now, due to my advanced age - and yes, I'm still fast)

Can't Stand
Media coverage of Paris Hilton - I don't understand this at all
G.W. Bush - Ditto
Modern Rap - Mumble, mumble, noise, mumble, mumble, noise

Okay, thats it. Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before I blog once again.

I saw the most incredible thing today!

I was driving home from Lincoln this afternoon. Right under the 10th street bridge across I-80 a motorcyclist pulled up along side me. I was going 65 mph. All of a sudden another motorcyclist pulls up. The second guy pops a wheelie, speeds up to 70 mph and rides the wheelie for about a quarter mile...at 70! Holy shit.

In some ways I'm jealous that I don't dare try that, but I'm old enough to realize that his act was reckless. On some primitive level, though, I give the guy credit. It wasn't brave, but to show so little disregard for safety is pretty amazing.

Schooooooooools Out For-Ever!

So I defended for my masters degree today. It went pretty well. I have a few corrections to make and them I'm pretty much done with school. I have one GIS project left and then I WILL be done. Its been a long, tough haul, and I'm happy its over.

I only hope one of these jobs works out. Lamp-Rynearson, HDR, or the City of Papillion...I'm waiting...

The Next Problem

Its 11 pm on Saturday night. Tomorrow starts off a pretty hectic few days for me.

Sunday - I'm going to UNL first thing in the morning to finish off a GIS project. It shouldn't be hard for me, but it will take lots of time to finish. Once I get back I need to take care of some laundry.

Monday - Besides work, I have class and then I need to come home and work on a power point presentation for the oral defense of my professional project on Friday morning.

Tuesday - Work, and then football at night. I'll probably have to mail off some eBay sales this morning, too.

Wednesday - Work, and then basketball at night. I got pretty plowed after basketball last week and a waitress at the bar might have taken more than a little interest in me. I didn't mean to flirt, but I was just in a good mood and it was slow. For the record, she is pretty hot but only 20. I've learned my lesson about girls that young. No more.

Thursday - Work, and get ready for the big oral defense.

Friday - THE BIG DEFENSE, and work, of course.

Saturday - Relax.

I still hope to hear from Lamp-Rynearson about an interview, and HDR hasn't advertised their position yet. I'm really starting to stress about this stuff.

My neighbors think my name is Tom. When I'm outside they yell across the street at me. "Tom! Tom!" They keep yelling louder and louder but I ignore them. You would think they would come over and find out why I'm not responding to "Tom," but they are pretty stupid people. I don' really care for them too much.

I found some neat pictures of monkeys at Hobby Lobby. They are technical drawings of the critters with stuff written in latin below it, as if a description. They were probably taken from some old text book. Very neat and half price!

TTFN

Crunch Time

April 1st is the deadline for me to submit my project to the graduate committee. This whole graduate school thing was really a good experience for me...it really changed who I am as a person. I hope I will feel satisfied when I'm done, but I think I'm the type of person that is never satisfied with anything. Its a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. I want to be the best I can, but I'm also constantly finding fault with my work. This leads me to make things more complicated than they really are. I don't think I will ever understand how to "go with the flow."

Another thing I've learned about myself is that I'm never afraid to ask a question if I don't understand something. In certain cases I don't really care enough to ask questions, but those are times when somebody is explaing their favorite D&D character or something.

I'm starting to stress not having a job. I think something will come up, but I just can't handle waiting.

Thats all, carry on.

Decisions

Hi,

I've decided to start a new blog about Emerald, Nebraska. I thought mixing hobbies, work and environmental policy stuff wouldn't be a good idea, so this one will just be hobby related from now on...and much more light hearted in nature.

So far I've started the environmental policy blog...its called "The Woes of Emerald." A link to that site can be found to your left.

I traded some FoW Americans for Cryx Warmachine figures. I tend to agree with Brother Bob that the Warmachine setting blows chunks, and personally I can't really get into reading the rules. I hope to play a game sometime.

Brother Bob has been playing Warlord a lot lately and tells me the game is fun. I tried it once and didn't really like it, but I'm willing to give it another shot. I've been looking at the figures for the game and I really like the Dwarves and Elves. Both of these armies have figures sculpted by Werner Klocke, and I'm a fan of this work. Reaper's prices are really high, though. You get 3 infantry models for $14. That's more than Rackham Ragnarok models, and Reaper's aren't anywhere near as nice.

Speaking of Ragnarok, I'm sort of interested in that game. If I can sell off some stuff I might pick it up. I'm trying to sell of some DBA armies and 10 ghouls.

Joropa and I may get in a game of Blood Bowl in a few weeks. I've been working on my Dark Elf team, The Dark Riders, for a while. I think they look good. Not my best work, but I can't get anything done if I don't take some short cuts.

Comic book wise, I think Spider-Man/Human Torch is a great, funny read and if you like comics at all, I suggest picking this up. Hawkman and JSA continue to be great fun, too. The new DC mega-event might be pretty cool. It sure seems like they DC guys are tyring to tighten up their universe again. DC really puts out some good stuff, and I wish I could say the same for Marvel, but I can't. They sure seem to put out some crapp comics these days, even though they have great characters.

Thats all for today...

Why "For the Greater Good?"

You might be wondering why I chose "For the Greater Good" for the title of this blog. Well, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, I am an environmental planner and my job is to try to make the wolrd a better place for a majority of the people. I take that responsibility very seriously.

Secondly, while in graduate school I was awarded (or designatd) Tau Sigma Delta, which basically meant that I got good grades. Now, since I'm a gamer, Tau is not only a greek letter, but the name of alien race in Games Workshops' Warhammer 40k game. The alien Tau believe all their actions should be for the "Greater Good," which might have been ripped off from Star Trek, I'm not sure. The Tau have human helpers who help work for the "Greater Good." And so, Brother Bob has designatd me as the "Human Helper" of our club. I don't take this responsiblity seriously at all.

I've decided to use this blog as a means to convey what is on my mind at any given time. At first I thought I would focus on one of my hobbies, but I decided that none of them were very interesting. I'm not that interesting, either, but I hope the sum of all my interests are somewhat compelling.

I'd also like to use this blog to report observations I make during the course of the day. For example, I realized today that a majority of overweight women will always take the elevator rather than walk down one flight of stairs. I also noticed that automobiles with spanish words on the windows almost always go 5 miles slower than the allowable speed limit.

Brother Bob was telling me that most blogs last for less than 3 months (or something like that) so I'm making a real effort to strike while the irons hot.

See you next time.

Welcome to another pointless blog!

Hello,

After reading Brother Matt's inspired bloggings (?) I decided to try this little venture myself. I don't know what I'll blog about, but the opportunity to write stupid things is just too attractive to me. In case you are wondering, Frito_Butterbuns is my screen name on many gaming related websites such as TheMiniaturesPage and the TalbeTopGames forum. The origin of the screen name comes from two sources. Frito, is the name of the bogie in Bored of the Rings, by the Harvard Lampoon, a spoof of the Lord of the Rings. Butterbuns was the last name of a halfling NPC in a AD&D campaign I played in years ago. If it makes you slightly uncomfortable, then it has accomplished its purpose.

I'm very excited about the new Warhammer Ancients supplement "Byzantium: Beyond the Golden Gate." It has a number of army lists representing cultures and civilizations I find very interesting, like the Pechenegs and the Slavs. This is the time period that got me interested in historical gaming in the first place.

Since I am the Chief Advisor of All Things Heavy and Metal for the Brotherhood of the Brown Bottle, I feel it is my duty to point out that Motorhead and Corrosion of Conformity will be in Omaha on Saturday night. I've been listening to the new Judas Priest CD quite a bit and I think it will go down as one of their best.

Thats all for now,

Bye