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Greyman16
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Name: Doug
Location: Missouri, United States
Birthday: 5/27/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: I love to golf, play paintball and build and fix and mess with stuff. I love a good challenge and one of my favorite things and reason to do engineering are the graphics design involved in the major.
Expertise: I am a Mechanical Engineering student. I am currently a 5th year senior and learning faster than ever for me. I go to UMR and if you want to find out what that means look it up on google. I have a lot of experience working on golf courses and I have a USPGA card for those few of you who know what that means.
Occupation: Engineering
Industry: Engineering
Message: message me
AIM:  trombonist101
MSN: meche353
Member Since:
5/7/2004
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| Well here I am again updating my blog. First off I am sorry to say that this is written mainly to strike nerves in people and if you don't want to be too offended I wouldn't read this. With that being said first thing is first.
Why isn't there a good presidential candidate? That is my question. Why isn't there a good one. Well doing some research on my own I found a few answers. For one thing our political scene is way too much of a game for both parties. The parties both think that any view other than theirs or any compromise that could be made between the two parties is going to show a weakness in the party and the politician. This is a bad thing in my opinion mainly because our country has in the past been built on compromise. As of late, though our government thinks that is an impossibility. Both parties want... scratch that think that they are trying to compromise, but from what I see both of the parties are being stupid and acting like 5 year old siblings. Its not that the people in our government don't know whats wrong with the country its more of a problem of fixing the symptoms and not the cause of the problem.
My fix for this problem is that people need to go out and find good new candidates for election. I know that sounds crazy and that sounds ridiculous, but its true. The representatives of "the people" are greedy and all they want is to keep or to advance their power in the government. Now I know its a different time from the old days of our government, but electing fresh new people would be a good start. After all, the incumbent wins the election in 73% of all elections. Now just electing new people won't do it all and that is obvious. We need people that aren't politicians. I know that this will never happen, but I think it would be nice to have someone in office that doesn't think of it as a job and thinks of it as more of a position of responsibility.
The next problem is that the government is going to take our economy and drive it into the ground. Right now both parties need to start being fiscally responsible and stop wasting money on things that do not work. Just recently a bill was suggested to help "low income families" with medical insurance for "kids". Great cause and I agree that medical expenses are WAY to high for anyone to really be able to afford health insurance and kids. The thing that bothers me about this bill after I read it was that they were wanting to give this insurance to kids in families that make over the amount that I do in a year. If you make $60,000 a year you should be able to afford health insurance and if you are not able to then I think you have either spent too much of your money on other things and the government is not responsible for your actions, or you are a miser and don't want to pay for it when you should. After all why should I pay for people that are making just as much money as I am to get health insurance when I have to pay for my own.
Now my first solution to this is if you look into the actual reason why health costs are up. I guarantee that when you look into it and you see what the insurance companies have done to make a profit on people you will realize that the insurance companies are the ones driving the costs up. Insurance companies as a whole base their entire operations off of the idea that accidents happen, but only once in a while. Well obviously they want to make as much money as they possibly can so they try not to pay for the accidents that do happen. So, in essence what happens is they sue, doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies to try to not lose money. Well thats good and all, but all those people and companies that the insurance companies sue are also insured and since they have been sued so many times they are placed in high risk insurance. This high risk malpractice insurance can be as much as 40 % of a doctors salary without adding taxes in there. All those insurance costs, court costs, and multiple insurance coverages for different sections of medicine adds up which means the hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies pass the expense on to us. Even if we had nothing to do with the lawsuits and insurances. So my point is that insurance is the reason why health care is so expensive so why don't we place regulations on when it is appropriate to sue a doctor or etc? Or even regulate how insurance companies charge those particular premiums to lower health costs.
The pollution problem, however, is a completely different story. I know who I work for and all, but some people are ridiculous. The #1 thing that burns my hide is that people want to have electricity all the time. They don't like brownouts and they hate it when the electricity goes out. Well people there are only so many ways to make electricity. First off you have to burn coal. Oh god I just said the Coal word isn't that stuff all polluting and dirty. Well in a sense yes. From seeing data on running power plants that are new I know that coal burners put off a lot of pollutants I do not want ending up in my lungs or anywhere near me. However, with current AQCS (Air Quality Control Systems) those pollutants are reduced to minimal amounts and the only thing that really comes from the stack of a coal burning power plant is CO2. CO2 you say is a greenhouse gas. I cannot believe this, however, because if that were true the items of this world that pollute the most are people talking and doing everyday activities. Yes CO2 is bad, but if we plant a few more trees and a few more other plants I am sure that can counteract the effects of CO2.
Now speaking of greenhouse gasses I cannot say that I believe that the earth is warming up. For one thing 2005 was NOT the warmest year in history. Check the records and I believe it was 1937 or so that was hotter. For another thing the earth has run through cycles of hot and cold and I think that that is the reason for the warmer earth statistics. Plus even if there is a global warming thing going on I guarantee that the US setting standards isn't going to be effective in slowing it down. The Chinese at the moment have ten times the manufacturing sector than we do because we have placed so many sanctions on the companies for cleaner air that they can make their products cheaper in other countries.
My solution for this is to relax a few of these sanctions, but make sure to keep a high standard of air quality. Placing baghouses and SDA's (Spray Dry Absorbers) before putting the flue gasses through the chimneys would help.
Now then problems such as costs of advanced schooling and welfare I will save for another day. Right now its time for me to sign off. I am sorry if I offended anyone, but you had fair warning and you still read it. I do have to say though that I am a defender of the 1st amendment. Thanks.
- Doug
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| Ok so its been a while and stuff and there is a lot I could tell you right now. Let's get started.
So anyway my life is changing very rapidly in the last few months of college. For one thing I have a job in Lenexa Kansas working for Kiewit Industrial as a field engineer. I get to go to that job and work as of the 29th of May 2007. I am looking forward to that day and I am ready to be done with school, I just hope I make it. So over spring break I found an apartment and have it reserved for me. I will be moving on May 15th ish so if anyone could help me move that would be awesome. Or if anyone wants a couch please come talk to me. I have several that I cannot take with me. I will send the address and stuff to people later don't worry its all good and fine. So anyway my life is going crazy on me right now with all the demands I need to meet by the date of graduation.
So now on to tell some more stories of the Caddyshack.
So when I moved into the house I was VP of the Delta Gamma Chapter of KKY with an amazing counterpart named Nic Matladge (sorry hacked up your name probably) for TBS, and we were gearing up for the beginning of the school year and to take on the challenges of recruitment for our respective chapters. This is the year We Love Nic came out into full blossom and the continuonce of such is still greatly encouraged. So anyway back to the house we had several chapter get togethers at the house and all was well. I think we had a comedy night at the house that first week and maybe even a game night which turned out awesome.
Then there are the bad stories about me. I am a true blooded Irish guy and along with that a VERY Irish temper. I also have allergies to dust mold and other such contaminates. Well I lived with a guy who's name won't be mentioned in this blog and he frankly wasn't very clean. His room always smelled and he never cleaned any part of the house although he did make quite the messes. I really enjoyed that first year at the house, but living with this one guy was a struggle for me. So one day I came home to a house that was empty and this guy came home and strung his ethernet cable across the ENTIRE house to get internet in the living room. Well this was a pain for Brett and I because we would trip over the cable and knock this guys laptop off the couch and stuff. Why he had the cable out though intrigued us more because he said he had a wireless card in his laptop and we had and still have wireless in the house. He just choose not to use it though. So when I came home and it had been kind of a bad day and he was there I asked him to turn down the volume of his laptop so I could watch TV. He refused and continued what he was doing when I asked him again he told me to shut up and then called me a Neat Freak because of my cleaning habit around the house which are due to the previously mentioned allergies. Well on this particular day since I wasn't in the mood for it I took him and picked him up and shoved him against the wall and told him off. Then I dropped him and left the house. It was a bad day.
Ok so one more should do for this time.
So as mentioned this guy that Brett and I didn't enjoy living with didn't ever do anything around the house. SO... what did Brett and I do we complained. We also pulled stunts that no one would believe. Now then there was one time Brett and I were just hanging around the house and we were talking about how bad this guys room smelled so we thought we should do something about it. So we did. Now I will say one thing most of the time I didn't do anything to this guy although he thought I was always the instigator when most of the time it was the guy he complained to named Brett. Yes, you can ask Brett and he will admit this fact. So this time Brett took two old walmart sacks and placed them on his feet. He then proceeded to this guys room with a can of AXE. After entering the room he sprayed and sprayed and completely AXED the entire room. While this was going on I was in the living room watching for this guy to get home. When the guy got to the house Brett was still in this guys room. So in order to stall for Brett I started talking to this guy when he walked in the door. It didn't stall him long though and as Brett was exiting this guys room with the bags on his feet this guy was headed back to the freshly AXED room. The guy then exited the room and YELLED AT ME for the smell of his room at that time. Then he left the house. After that night this guy finally cleaned his room for the first time that Brett or I had seen and for some reason Brett was still the good guy and I was the bad. It is quite hilarious to look back on now. | | |
| I knew this would happen someday. I was kind of hoping it wouldn't be this soon in the life of the house. Yes thats right the Caddyshack is done. After this semester is over we are all moving out and our house will be rented by someone new. This is going to be sad for me due to all the memories I have had in this house. So I decided that I would write some memories down about this house. There will be several posts probably with more and more memories of this house.
First Visit:
I visited the house for the first time when the original three of us were looking for houses to rent. Brett, Me, and Craig came here looking and found our place in Rolla. We walked in and on the wall that separates the kitchen and the living room was a mexican flag. There was also several kegs sitting around in different places of the house if I remember correctly. The other main thing that changed was the carpet. It was blue and now it is brown and fluffy whereas it was really flat that first time.There was also white wooden siding on the house. The other thing is that the entire house was fairly empty and didn't have much in it. This is what surprised me. When Brett, Me, and Craig met up later that day to talk about the house we figured out how much it would cost to live in this house. That is when the ball started rolling and the Caddyshack was made ours.
Summer Visit:
Since I was working that first summer that the Caddyshack was ours I had Charles Hayes take my room for the summer. So... I came with my cousin one day down to visit and to bring the washer and dryer. Now then most of you won't remember what the house looked like when we first set it all up, but it was kind of bare. There really wasn't much in the house. There was only one refrigerator in the house and the seating was limited. First off we had two seats and two couches. The brown couch and then the sticky chair, Brett's lazyboy, and Adrian's couch. Yeah different.
Well thats your two for now. Later all.
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| Ok so on Friday September 22nd I had a little bit of a life changing experience. It has kind of made me think and realize that I am just a speck of dust compared to what mother nature can do. I mean this event is huge, and now your probably wondering what happened. Well I will give a description here or a short synopsis.
So I was out at work (The Go Cart Track) and I was working a go cart (#55), in which I had started overhauling like a week ago and just now got around to finishing it. I started to get the feeling, for some reason I do not understand, that there was something wrong. So I got up and looked out the shop door. To my suprise what I saw was not something that I had done, but it was mother nature. As I looked up into the clouds I saw one cloud with part of it moving vertically and then the outer part of the cloud was rotating. It was a funnel cloud. Now don't get me wrong I have seen my share of funnel clouds before this and have in fact been in several situations with tornados, but none like this. The first thought I had was what should I do. I couldn't stay in the shop, no shelter and too much stuff to become debris. Getting to my car and taking off I knew wasn't going to help especially with how close it was to me at that time. So the 200 yard dash to my bosses house was the obvious answer, so I sprinted, and I mean SPRINTED, (I think I broke a record for running) to the house. I then proceeded to pound on the door. No one was home... So at this point I am more than just a little nervous/anxious /andrenalin rushed/scared and I say to myself whats next? Then I saw it... there was an overhang on the house just above where the basement is attached and so I crawled into that. There were bushes next to me and a house above me at that point and it hit right then. The wind you could tell was funny because the trees were doing funny things and the wind wasn't really sucking or blowing it was just there with NO DIRECTION... Well that is the way it seemed to me. And just like that the whole thing was over. So I crawled out and looked at the horizon and saw the tornado hit the ground about a mile away. I then ran back to my car a little on the frightened side a little on the exhilerated side. I was also in awe of the power that it bestowed on the trees and the rain. Then I went home for a bit and checked the weather for an update on if I was going to have to do that more often on that Friday. When the radar showed nothing I went back out there and saw my boss was out there. I started telling him my story and he said, Yeah something hit around here my tree is now 100 yards from where it was. That is when I actually started noticing damaged signs and banners. I found the OPEN/CLOSED sign out at the beginning of the driveway. Then Joe told me about what he had just heard about a tornado hitting St. James and that is when it clicked in my head that that was the same tornado. See Joe's is about 3 mi. from St. James and to the West which is exactly on line with where the tornado hit.
So in conclusion be safe when dealing with mother nature, she is very strong and will always win.
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| So I went to church with Max and Jared this week once again. Actually this is the second time I have done the entire change the church thing. This was the week that we went to a good ole' fashioned Baptist Church. We actually went to Landmark Baptist here in Rolla. It was good times let me tell you about it.
First off we walked in after picking Max up and walked in with some very nicely dressed people. I was actually comfortable in my non-collared shirt and tennis shoes that I was wearing although most of the congregation actually was wearing ties and a collard shirt. Now then that was just my opinion, however, some wouldn't have felt comfortable that way. Then Max, Jared and I all pulled out our bulletins and started reading and found some interesting stuff.such as their outreach numbers, but absolutely nothing about the order of the services. I was very shocked at this, because most of the time Bapist churches will openly tell what will happen next, especially if it involves hellfire or damnnation, (this is coming from a former Baptist). So as the services started we sang old hymn style songs of which I recognized most. I think this might suprise Max and Jared, but it is true. Then the pastor whips out a sax out of nowhere and at this point I am asking myself
what is going on? Well he was using the sax for a small and very minute illustration which I thought was very unneccesary. Then we went on to the sermon which wasn't very well laid out or very thoughtful. It was also very very over exaggerative, if thats a word, especially with the mentions of people like David and Moses. They were mentioned as being perfect almost and heroistic. Although they are heros they weren't perfect heros and they also did things wrong once in a while. Then came the benidiction which included a baptism which was alright. The only thing I really had a problem with this part and maybe it was because my hearing was off is that I didn't think the prayers and what was going on was well announced. It was unorganized in my opinion and I think I need more out of a church.
-Greyman
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