Juegos Del Hielo

Buenos Dias,

Every couple of years, I read some commentary by a journalist or editorialist who has discovered the strange attraction that is Curling. Well, I woke up this morning, turned on the TV and fell victim as well.

If you don't know, and I really hope you never find out, Curling is some strange ice game that seems to be a love child of darts and shuffle board, but utilizes giant chunks of polished granite, and ice brooms. I know that it all makes sense to you now, but if you are still a bit confused, don't be ashamed. I have watched for an hour, and it still eludes me. The sad fact is that my confusion has led to an obsessive attraction to watching it so that I might penetrate this shroud of Olympic mystery.

I'm pretty sure that this game was created by Canadians after consuming a large amount of bad beer and back strap bacon. The Americans are whipping up on the ice queens from Deutchland, so it's like WWII all over again, sort of.

Okay, I'll get back to watching so that I can figure this thing out. I can only hope that no one on the American team is from Texas. That would just be embarrassing.

-Pooh out.

The Hotel Life

Howdy Ya'll

Okay, so another chapter in the hotel life brings us a fright night of drunken baseball fans.

So, last night I got to bed around midnight, which was already pretty late, and I thought I would be tired enough to sleep through anything, but I soon had to redefine "anything." Around 0100 hours I woke up to the sound of someone trying to open the door connecting my room to the one next to me. It's annoying enough having a connecting room even though there are locks on both sides, but it becomes freaky when you are jolted out of bed in your underwear because you think someone is walking into your hotel room to watch tv or something.

Anyway, they obviously couldn't get in, and after that processed through my half asleep brain, I sat awake for about another hour wondering how long people would try opening the door. It became somewhat entertaining. I guess I finally fell asleep again, but it made for an interesting night. The moral of the story is that you should always check your locks and, above all, consider wearing pajamas. Just in case.

-Pooh out.

The "Org" Chart

Howdy All,

Okay, for those of ya'll that don't recognize the topic of this discussion based on the title, well, you aren't in the corporate world so I will explain. The Organizational "Org" Chart is a hierarchy of management and staff used in the corporate environment at all levels to provide upper level management and directors an overview of responsibilities and work delegation of their staff and project teams. For those of us at the very bottom of the Org Chart, it is a constant reminder of how many people can make decisions for you and assign work to you every day.

This leads us to the story for the day. I was cordially invited to attend an engineering kick-off meeting up at the main office for a new project. I was informed that I would be the star speaker in regards to schedule development for the pre-planning phase. Now, while you may, at face value, take this as a wonderful compliment from the project manager, allow me to dispel such nonsense by elaborating further. You see, I was informed of this required attendance at 9pm tonight, for which I will need to prepare paperwork and discussion topics between now and 8am when the meeting will begin. In addition, the reason I will be interacting with a mess of engineers and architects is because the project manager is probably not willing, and more than apparently not capable of coordinating this project schedule himself. Something which he is paid much more than me to know.

Don't misunderstand my sour grapes. I need to complain or he will assume I am naive to his intentions, but I will make the most of this opportunity and make myself the star of the meeting, rather than the quiet underling that he really intends me to be at the meeting. If I handle everything correctly, I will make sure that this designers understand that they will report and interact with me on successive planning issues and skip the project middle man.

Perhaps I am being to harsh toward him. He is, in fact, an engineer and was a bit unwittingly cast into the roll of project manager, and therefore a bit out of his element. By why should I cut him slack. He went to school for probably 6 years. Engineers are much smarter than any construction worker, right? That's what I was led to believe.

Oh, well. I hate Org Charts. Have a good weekend ya'll.

-Pooh

Where you been?!

Hola a Todos,

Well, I was threatened with spam email from my wife until I get around to updating this thing, so here I am. Yeah, it won't be the most exciting update, but it will get the ball rolling. You can look forward to more frequent updates because I have to keep Mrs. Bear happy.

So, I just got back into San Juan this evening, and it was a warm reception from the hotel. I'm not kidding, so sarcasm here. They greeted my by name and I got a hand shake. On top of that, I was set up in a nice suite so it's some high livin' round here, I tell you what.

Oh, so I had a birthday back a few days ago, but we completely forgot about it for almost half the day, so that will tell you how important of a birthday it was. I guess 28 just isn't an interesting age. The good news is that my mom thought I was turning 29 so once she got her math right she realized she was a year younger too. That was my little gift to her.

Wow, there is so much to tell, no wonder I was harassed for not updating. I'll have to get to everything in successive postings, so here are the highlights of what's to come:

• The weefey got down here for a visit and we had two weeks of fun, food, and rainforests.
• I got home for a quick honey do project and we put up some new baseboards
• I am never going to get to leave Puerto Rico

Okay, so that will cover a few posts for the rest of the week, so you just keep on checkin' back in and I'll keep you boys and girls entertained as best as I can.

Adios y Buenos noches,

-Pooh