Random Fun

So this past weekend I did the skeleton!!!! For those of you that want to see the track I tackled go to www.bobsleigh.com. Then click on the sports, click on tracks, click on Park City. That's the stats of the track. I started at turn 6. I was very nervous to try it, but I knew that I needed to try...just to see if I would like it. My best time was 47.84 seconds. 47.84 seconds to get from turn 6 to the finish line. Calculated out that is about 53 miles an hour, plus 3-4 G forces pushing down on me, plus my chin inches off the ice. The first time was kind of bad. The one thing the major coached me not to do was have chicken elbows, I had chicken elbows. He also coached us not to pick our shoulders up off the sled. Let me tell you, when you are getting thrown into a corner at a couple Gs your shoulders have a mind of their own. As a result I ricocheted down the track the first time...much like a pinball. It kind of hurt and I was really shook up. My time was 51.56 But, I had to go again. I knew I could go faster and do less ricocheting. The second time was much better much better, I didn't ricochet nearly as much, I was less nervous and I shaved off almost 4 seconds!!! Needless to say....I'm addicted. It was such a rush!! I think I am crazy enough to do it again. Plus its a sport I could really excel at, the running distance is short...and if my asthma kicked in the adrenaline from rocketing down a hill would take care of the breathing problem. I was on the adrenaline high all night...well until about midnight....then I crashed...hard, but I couldn't go to bed because I was packing until 2 am. Which leads to my next random bout of fun.

I am currently in Ohio for 3 weeks for an Air Force training course. All in all, not a bad deal. Except that it is way warmer in Utah than it is in Ohio right now. But, I am away from the craziness of Utah...so that's nice. I already found my way to the important places...target, coffee and ice cream. The class itself should be ok...but we have homework. Booo to that. Although a kind lieutenant who shall not be named has helped me prep for the course. I also don't have internet in my hotel room...which makes me wonder what on earth I did before internet. While I was sitting in class I got asked where in New York I was from. When I said a little town north of Syracuse, the lieutenant informed me that he was from Liverpool. What are the chances a girl from Central Square, educated at Syracuse and stationed at Hill AFB, UT would meet a lieutenant from Liverpool, educated at RPI and stationed at Eglin AFB, FL in Ohio? Random I tell you. But I have met some cool people to have lunch with. Of course per usual its me, the female civilian, surrounded by male lieutenants. (Of course I am 1 of 2 civilians and 1 of 5 girls.)

I am going home this weekend, so that should be nice. It's going to be a long drive...but I think that will be therapeutic. I like driving long distances a lot. Plus driving is much cheaper than flying...and it is just a little longer, timewise.

I think that's all there is to update.

I like the skeleton a lot!

That is all!

This rant is going to have absolutely nothing to do with my day to day activities, just an event that occurred this week at work.

Ethics:

According to Webster’s dictionary ethics is defined as “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” It has many different historical derivatives, but more or else it is the difference between right and wrong.

It has been the case of many firms’ downfalls (Enron and WorldCom) and even some in the government side (AF acquisition executive Darleen Druyan). So why do I care about it?

Well this past week I had to go to a contractor/government meeting about “the way ahead for the missile world while the US is fighting the GWOT/Iraq and any other fight Bush decides to start.” Clearly, Iraq is draining a ton of money from the services. Because of this the missile system is getting drained of money because we are no longer in an arms race with the Soviets. So there is this touchy feely movement in my area to figure out how to keep morale up while we are getting stripped of funding. During this meeting we had to pair up with the person next to us and quasi-interview them. So I am sitting next to a Boeing contractor, and I introduced myself. He seems rather young…mid-late twenties. He asked what I did on the government side and I explained that I was a Palace Acquire Intern and that I just moved to Utah…the whole spiel. He then informs me that someone wanted him to be a Palace/Acquire but why would he want to do that and make less money than he was making at Boeing. He then went on to say that if he got laid off at Boeing, he could just jump to the government side as a GS-12 and not have to deal with the lower pay. I was of course, a little offended. You don’t work for the government for the money, you do it for the cushy hours. Oh wait…no that’s not it…you do it because you want to make a difference in the lives of everyday civilians, even if the civilians that you are serving, never know that you do that job. So I am already miffed, but I bit my tongue and we continued talking…because I had to talk to him for 20 minutes. Then someone in my chain-of-command is brought up. I am not going to mention names, that would be unprofessional of me, but this person is a civilian…and as you will discern from the following remarks is clearly a male. Anyways, so this person is brought up and the scum contractor to my left said, “Oh he’s the greatest guy ever!!” Not my first thought of course…but I digress. The guy continues, “He was the head of my church when I went on my mission and he released me for my mission when I came back.” Now I know that you all know what I think of the Mormon faith, and Utah mormons specifically, and this is not the purpose of this rant…so I’m just going to let it go for the time being. So, I probably rolled my eyes, but I kept listening. He unfortunately kept talking. He then said, “that’s how I got my job here at Boeing. When I decided I didn’t want to work for the government, he knew some people over here…pulled some strings and here I am.” That’s the part that just drove the stake in my heart. I think my mouth hung open for a moment. Not more than 3 years ago the AF was in trouble for this sort of thing. Darleen Druyan is not a nice person. She’s not. I know people that have briefed her. She’s not nice. I’m pretty sure she has no heart. But anyways, she apparently loved Boeing. She loved Boeing so much that when she knew her time in the government was up, she was negotiating contracts with them and oh low and behold…they had a job for her when she left the government. Boeing executives pleaded guilty to insider information, conflict of interest and she went to jail for having no ethics. Boeing employees now despise her because they have to attend ethics training on a regular basis. (Side note: I think this is a complete waste of time…either you have ethics or you don’t…you either know right from wrong…or you don’t…end of story.)

So here I am listening to a contractor tell me about our own little ethics violation. Of course you would think that church going people…especially Mormons who are so holier than thou….you heathen with your cup of coffee…would have ethics. So needless, to say I left that meeting very very bitter at my own leadership.

So I come back to the office. I sit in my chair…and one of my coworkers informs the coworker that I have mentioned before in many previous blogs, that he should be nice to me because I am going places. “We’re all going to work for her someday.” (I’m not sure where this came from or why it was brought up in my presence…but there it is.) To which my not so likeable counterpart says, “Oh really? You going to move back to the east coast with her.” To which guy 1 says, “No, she’s going to be working with the president, telling us what to do.” My not so likeable cubemate then says, “Yeah, she can be the next Darleen Druyan.” I don’t think any other person could have pissed me off more that day. I was so offended. Because everyone around here knows what she did and what a horrible person she was. For him to even suggest that made me want to kick him…hard…somewhere vulnerable.

So I being the good nonviolent employee that I am, I got up and went a found my program manager. I told him what had happened in the meeting…I omitted the part in the cube. And his eyes just snapped and he said “Don’t you ever let them bring you down. You just keep doing what you’re doing and keep your integrity. It’s not always easy, but you can still sleep at night. You’re doing something good. Don’t let their lack of integrity influence you.” It was a decent peptalk…but I still felt dirty.

Which is why I had to blog about it. I’m not naïve enough to think that this whole contractor getting a job thing is an isolated incident. I’m sure this happens quite frequently. And why that person ever felt the need to divulge that to me, I’ll never know. But I just lost a lot of faith in the system today. I know, welcome to the real world. But that’s not how the real world should be! And this Mormon mafia (clearly not as legitimate as the Maxwell mafia) that I thought existed…does indeed exist. And that makes me very bitter. Oh yeah and one guy who I can’t say I had an overwhelming amount of respect for, just lost what little I had left for him. Now every time he talks, I’m going to think he is a joke.

That is all.

So I have a little bit to update on, so I am going to put it into two separate updates. This one will be about recent events. The next one will be a rant/pondering entry. Last week I went to Florida. The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane was the humidity. It was like I could taste the air….evidence that I am drying up in Utah. The Florida trip was productive and it was nice to get a break from the freezing temperature of Utah and escape to 70s for a little while.

Last weekend was busy. Friday night I went to the Officers Club, which I didn’t think I would be allowed in, but no one cared. It was more of a “real world” bar atmosphere…complete with real alcohol. The only thing not real about it was all the military folk dressed in BDUs. There were like 5 people total in civilian dress. It was a good time though.

Saturday I went to this Japanese steakhouse with a bunch of friends. More or less the same crew that I had hung out with the night before. Afterwards we went and chilled at a friend’s house. All in all a good time.

This week flew by, even though I had to work a 5 day work week. It’s been awhile since I have had to do that because I don’t consider going on business trips as really working…I mean they are…but you get to go somewhere cooler than a warehouse turned office building.

It has been hotter than Hades up in my building recently. That’s because it is finally starting to get nice outside! Yay! It’s supposed to be 66 by Tuesday. This of course makes the building unbearable because the AF in their infinite wisdom doesn’t shut the heat off until a certain date.

And unlike ski season, which I couldn’t have cared less about…I am totally looking forward to golf season!!!

Next Sunday I leave for my 3 week engagement at Wright-Patterson. Whoo Dayton, OH! It’s a training course though…so I have to do it!

I don’t really think there is much else to update.

That is all.