Fire Academy?

So I am getting close to getting my degree now, within a year and a half if I am able to stay motivated and get things done, and starting to look at jobs and careers that interest me.  The jobs that interest me the most would require me to be outdoors and doing things in the mountains and forested lands around the country.

Unfortunately these jobs don't pay as well as the job that I am currently at, but they do have more options for advancement which would be a great benefit to me and my future family.  Now I was thinking in order to set myself apart from the rest of the field and give myself the boost that is required to get one of these jobs would be getting my entry certification as a wildfire fighter.

So now that I am in the process of working towards finishing my degree I am thinking of taking a week long course at some point during the remaining schooling to get me the certification required to become a member of the forest service or a like-minded agency later on in life.

What do you all think?  Is this something to look at or is it just another opportunity for me to waste money and prolong actually entering the work force?

Resume Building

I write this as a way to get my ideas on paper.

So I have been looking for replacement jobs for a while and after being employed for the same company for almost 12 years it occurs to me that I have not had to write or use a resume in a very long time.  I don't even know where to start, in fact I am so close to paying $50 so that I can take an online self guided course on how to put together a great resume.  Is this a good idea?  Is this something that any of you have had the chance to do over the years?   It is almost more stressful to research and write a resume than just staying at my dead end, no chance for promotion, job.

So as I go through and realize that I am nearing the end of my schooling and doing the things that I need to do to become a better member of this society, I realize that I am stuck and unable to really get out without basic business education.  It is almost as if my entire school experience has pruned me into not being able to do much with it afterwards without the basic writing skills that are required in order to be the best that I can be.  

Okay so my rant is over.  It is time for me to start researching and figuring out how to write a killer resume and become not just another brick in the wall, but a stand outside the wall and on my own two feet.

The Automobile Idea

This week I have been working on a research proposal for an ecology class as well as thinking about Earth Day which is coming up tomorrow.  I will be spending Earth Day playing a round of golf after work, in case you were wondering.  But that is besides the point of this short blog post.  

Traffic was horrendous yesterday and it took me an extra 20 minutes to get to school, which put me in a bit of a sour mood but it was no big deal.  As I was taking the bus looking out the window trying to figure out why traffic was so bad, other than the fact that it was 420 and all the potheads and stoners were out and about, I realized that almost every single vehicle on the road that was not commercial in its use was occupied by a single driver.  There were no passengers anywhere to be seen.  

This fact got me thinking about the traffic issues that face the greater Denver area, what if people actually carpooled, or better yet took the same public transportation that I was taking at that very moment.  So I did a bit of a thought experiment.  I thought of the most common places of work in the Denver area and realized that there are really only three, so the chances that a neighbor or even an acquaintance would be working within the same area were pretty high.  This led to the next phase of my thought experiment which had me counting private vehicles that had just the driver in them.  I counted 55 out of 56 cars had only one person in it.

What would happen if just two people drove together every day?  I thought maybe, just maybe traffic would be cut by 50% during the rush hour time slot.  In my mind this alone would cut travel time by roughly 5 minutes each way saving you and your new carpool buddy 10 minutes of aggravated driving each day and if the work week was 5 days an entire 50 minutes per week.  

Now let's think about the old carpool ads from the early 90's where every seat in a vehicle is occupied by coworkers all traveling with their coffee and breakfast alternating who drives each day.  So that would be 4 people per vehicle during the rush hour time or a whopping decrease in vehicles on the road by roughly 75%.   Now we are saving 8 minutes each way and a giant 80 minutes each week!  Now we are talking.  I am not writing this with the environment in mind even though that is where this all started, but what is the biggest cause of delays on a commute besides volume?

Road Construction.  If everybody just carpooled the need to widen the roads would not be there since the amount of cars would stay low.  This means that big construction projects at least for the near future would not be happening.  Road maintenance would not be as frequent since the normal amount of vehicles on a road would be a lot less as well.  

So to look at the overall outcomes of just carpooling or taking the many options for public transportation we would have a happier, healthier community.   Let's all do our part.

Back to the world at large

It has been a weekend that has been so much fun that coming back to the daily grind of work, school, and taking care of the housework has been hard for me to come back to.  For those of you that are not following my other blog, "Weights and Games" I just got back from Utah where I stayed with my grandmother and uncle while also attending a wedding.  I love going out to the town where they live as it is a step back from the city, a slow pace where I am able to think without feeling the rush of people or commitments all around me, it is an oasis of thought in the middle of the desert, not to mention a really cool little community where everyone waves at you and is pleasant on the outside.

Now  I sit here thinking about what to write for my other blog, reread journals on the feeding habits of coyotes in the south eastern portion of Utah, and wait for my turn to go back to work and think of the joy that I feel when I am able to step back and take a hard look at the world as a whole from the bubble that is Emery County.

I guess my putting thoughts here is a way to get my creative juices flowing as I try and make the other blog more of a professional branding blog, and to keep it free of the randomness that encompasses me as I write down just feelings, events, and daily life here.

I will continue to propose school projects here as a sounding board, will continue to put a few little tidbits of my side projects here, and will continue to make this as much of an intellectual pursuit as I can, for example I have just begun reading "The Prince" and will be discussing thoughts and learning here for the world to digest it with me, but it will also be a safe place for me and anyone else that wants to comment to discuss the events of the day and how they impact the life at large.

I guess these last four paragraphs have really been just me saying...  I'M BACK YA'LL AND LOOK FORWARD TO WRITING AND TALKING WITH YOU ALL ONCE AGAIN.

Football Manager 2013

As promised it is time to rant and rave about Sega's Football Manager 2013.  Since my last post my steam account tells me that I have put in 68 hours on this game.  It was not because it was great, or a must buy, in fact if you do not like football/soccer I doubt that you would find it interesting. It is the business side of football, so you don't even get to play the actual matches.  The makeup of the game is: you get to pick your squad, setup training schedules, arrange friendlies, trade and cut players, as well as everything else that a manager does in real life.  The business aspect is very well done and something that makes the game feel real in a way that I haven't experienced for a while.  The interface can be translated into English, Czech, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian, which makes the game accessible to many from all over the world.  The game starts in one of three ways, one can pick their favorite club and take them to glory, once can coach a national squad as well as a club, or one can start unemployed.  I decided to start unemployed and got a coaching job in tier 3 Norway.

The game is fun and sucked me into it like I did not think that it would.  I played through three seasons and ended up staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning on many occasions.  The newness of the game has finally worn off and I am able to get some sleep once again.  Now time for my good, bad, and ugly that I started with the first game I ever talked about on this blog.

The good:

Immersion- you can take a club from the bottom tier to the top.  The game has almost all the tournaments that real life has as well as the possibility for international call ups during federation cups and world cup play. The transfer window is only open during the actual time for the league that you are a part of and if you want to bring a player from a country that your nation does not recognize they must obtain a work permit before they can play for you.  (I have had three transfers declined because the Norwegian government would not allow a work permit for the players, very upsetting when you have spent three game weeks negotiating with agents for this player.)

Database- I am playing on medium database and have over 50,000 players that are in the database.  I even looked for random youth and reserve players that nobody really knows and was able to find the actual player.  Very impressive for the ultimate coaching experience.

Game Play-  Pretty easy to pick up, yet there are a lot of things that I still have not learned about or utilized.  (Good thing I am still playing tier 3)

The Bad:

This might be a first but I have nothing that goes into this category.  It is a solo game so I can't even complain about trolls in this section so I have to give it a stamp of approval for not having anything in the bad section.

The Ugly:

Processing speed-  I put this here instead of in the bad because it takes a lot of time to manage all the job opportunities, games, player moves, and general news to come up on the computer screen.

Match View-  If you want graphics on par with what is coming out right now this is not something that you would like.  I have seen better soccer game graphics on a virtual Foosball table.  Not a highlight, but the pixelated players are good enough for the player to understand what was going on and how to make changes to his/her tactics in order to improve or decimate chances of success.

Funny moment in real lower tier football

Game Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcyHvtTqcd4

I would recommend this game to the soccer nut who thinks they can do any head coaches job better than the real person.  I will continue to play this game and may even try and achieve glory.  

Good luck to all you future or current managers out there and I hope that you have a lot of fun building your team from the bottom up.

*Just learned from a friend that this game has a tool from steam that allows you to change the database and create your own team, I haven't played around on this but I will let you all know how it works if I ever get around to it.

**sorry for any spelling mistakes I was listening to a Danish morning show on the radio while writing this and was having a hard time going between the two languages.  I probably would have written this in Danish but I am not yet proficient enough to do so and make it pass.  If you want to listen to the station I was listening to you can go to:   www.anr.dk   and click on (lyt om anr) under the radio tab.  It is a fun mix of pop and top 40 music.    (There I gave you my plug maybe you'll get some more listeners....... or not....)  

Four Brand New Games in the Works

It has been a while since I have done a video game blog, and my audience usually isn't the type of audience that goes for that type of thing, so I wanted to warn you all that if you are not fans of video games you have every right to turn away for the next four blogs and join back in future.

For those that are interested the four games are:

1.)  Civilization V: Gold Edition

2.)  Grand Theft Auto IV

3.) Football Manager 13

4.)  Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I may do some others on DotA 2, Team Fortress 2, and Just Cause 2, but I downloaded them and then stopped playing them just as fast.

My Last Essay from Sociology

So this is my last essay from my Prejudice and Discrimination class.  I think I did a good job even though I only had a day to complete it.  I guess that is how the teacher tested us to see if we payed attention to the different theories surrounding the topic.  I hope you all enjoy it and remember I enjoy comments, even if you want to give me a negative critique I will learn from them.

Muslim Americans

To be Muslim in America today is not an easy thing.  On September 11, 2001 one of the worst orchestrated terrorist attacks came at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist group Al Qaida.  This group has origins in Arabia which has led to manly believing that all Muslims are Arab, which in turn has led to many to think that all Arabs are terrorists.  The truth is that terrorists make up such a minute part of the Muslim population that to say that all Muslims are terrorists is extremely inaccurate.  According to the textbook “Racial and Ethnic Groups” of the Muslims in America 20-42% are African American, 24-33% are South Asian, 15-22% are white/Hispanic, and only 12-32% are actually of Arab descent.

            According to Schaefer there are 5 characteristics of sub ordinance which lead to further subordination from the dominant group.  The first characteristic is the experience of unequal treatment.  Since September 11^th Muslim Americans have experienced a loss of constitutional rights.  When the US government passed the Patriot Act, suspected terrorists can be imprisoned without trial indefinitely.  With racial profiling in practice this tends to affect Muslims and Arabs more than any other group today.  The second characteristic is a shared physical or cultural characteristic.  The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, is written in Arabic and through education and religious practice most can speak and or at least understand the Arabic language.  The third characteristic is involuntary membership.  Even though Islam is a religion and can be thought of as voluntary, the way Muslims are treated and perceived gives them an involuntary membership into a subordinate group.  The fourth characteristic is a strong sense of group solidarity.  The rigid doctrine of Islam, which involves Friday services, strict diet, and obligatory prayer, leads to a sense of community within the group.  The continued prejudices towards the followers of Islam take the sense of community and make it stronger.  The final characteristic of a subordinate status is in-group marriage.  In the Muslim tradition Muslims must marry Muslims.  This means that one must be part of the faith or convert to the faith in order to marry a member of the faith.

            There are two theories that can explain why Muslim Americans are placed in a subordinate status.  The first is called Social Learning Theory, which states that people learn from one another in a social setting.  In other words what people initially believe and embrace comes from observing the behaviors and attitudes of others.  After September 11^th the media covered the Arab world concentrating on terrorist activities, and the perceived threat of the Islamic religion.  This media coverage placed a lot of prejudices and stereotypes in people’s minds.  These prejudices are then passed onto others through the Social Learning Theory.

            The other theory that could explain the subordination of Muslim Americans is the normative theory.  This theory states that norms, which are behavioral expectations, are situational and socially constructed.  Anything that goes against social norms is usually mistrusted and those breaking norms are placed into a subordinate status.  The norms that dominate American culture have deep roots in our forefather’s Christian roots.  The Islamic faith is very different from the Christian norms of today.  It encompasses a Sabbath on Friday instead of Sunday, five obligatory prayers towards the holy city of Mecca, strict moral codes, as well as a diet that forbids alcohol, swine, and any substance that could prevent one from practicing their faith.  Because of these differences many view people of the Islamic faith as a threat to their very way of life.

            The future is not as bleak as the current situation makes it appear, in fact the future could be bright for Muslim Americans.  Most have a strong familial structure, which provides a strong support system within the home.  There is a strong emphasis on education, with many college graduates and post graduates within the community.  Many new immigrants have upper college degrees and are a viable resource to the American Labor Force.  According to “Racial and Ethnic Groups” many Muslims have set up companies and businesses in America that have become very successful and play an important role in the American economy.  The aspects of the Muslim faith which help lead to a subordinate status help build strong communities which look out for one another.  All these aspects help strengthen Muslim Americans and in the future could help them rise above their current status of subordination.

If you have reached this point you have read my essay.  I hope that you enjoyed it, maybe learned a bit from it, and that it at least put things in perspective.  Thank you for reading.