You're more of a 3

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1883614,00.html?cnn=yes

I can relate to this article. There are all kinds of rumors circling around, mandatory two weeks off without pay, new employee rating systems which assign a value to the company to you. The poor bastards with less than two years experience can only get as high as a 4, 5 being the lowest. I’m hoping I’d be about a 2. I’ve got 5 years, and I’m working on a machine which represents a significant chunk of our Tier 4 emissions credits to the EPA. (The EPA gives you credit based on the production volume and emissions level of the machines you produce. If you produce x% of “clean” machines, you can then produce more “dirty” machines without financial penalty.) Somehow seems like extortion, but I really can’t complain because emissions requirements drive our business and make for a bunch of jobs. If we didn’t have a critical emissions deadline to meet right now, Opposite of Dog would have gotten rid of way more people.

The shit just grinds on your nerves though. Always thinking there is some predator lurking in the tree line waiting to get you.

I liked the part in the article where it talked about how people who win the lottery and people that break their necks tend to be as happy as they were prior to the incident a year later. Just the other day I was fantasizing about winning the lottery and it kind of ruins the fantasy thinking I’d have no overall improvement in happiness. Life is a zero sum game. Any marked improvement is followed by something to knock you back in your place. Then you die, then the sun engulfs the Earth, then all the energy in the universe is used up (fucking entropy) and the lights turn off.

Self improvement is masturbation, but I’m trying anyway. I’ve gained the ability to gain weight since my 28^th birthday. I’m not sure it’s in a positive way, but I’m up to a solid 180. Perhaps it’s due to ingesting almost 1000 calories worth of “bold” party mix chex mix in one sitting while watching TV. Old habits are hard to break so I’m going to keep eating like I have my hummingbird metabolism. I’m also starting to do pushups and crunches in the morning. Hopefully that will fend off any gut and make me stronger for hockey. When it gets nice I may start to run in the morning. Maybe I’ll finally be able to get up to my fighting weight of 200.