Addiction

1) I am addicted to ravioli (a type of stuffed pasta). I love it! I can't stop eating the stuff.

I had some Sausage and Meat Ravioli for breakfast today. I had another variation of a meat ravioli for lunch and, for dinner I had... you get the point!

2) I discovered the treasure that is Vanilla yoghurt. It's awesome. I got the cheap version (Giant Eagle store brand). It tastes a little like sweet ogi from Yorubaland. I love it!

3) My netbook has been hacked into. It's horrible. Now it won't connect to the internet. Luckily, this means I can probably send it back to Dell for a system recovery thingy (I tried that already, but it didn't work. I was quite surprised. After about 5 years using HP computers, I had become a pro at the "restore factory settings" business. Or so I thought).

4) The US Open is on now. I'm hoping Rafa Nadal wins it. That'd be awesome. As I type, Wawrinka and Murray are playing. It's the fourth set and both of them are still going at it. Looks like they both took an injury or medical time out at some point.

5) The big audit at my factory will be postponed. I know it. My boss knows it. My factory manager knows it. We will all be in deep sh!t when that happens because we've had over 1 year to prepare. Fortunately for me, I have had just over 4 months here, part of which was spent away: what, 1 week in Arkansas, 2 weeks in training, 2 weeks of shutdown, 1 week in Chicago, etc. So I've substantively been in the plant for just about 3 months. Or less, if you count the 2 weeks I have spent giving training off-site. So it shouldn't be too bad. I suppose.

Still, we are under a phenomenal amount of pressure. A corporate visitor came around for 2 days last week and gave us a massive dressing down. It was a train-wreck. She asked a lot of questions like "Where does the factory stand with THIS or THAT", and I gave her a lot of "I think..." answers. She told me to eliminate "I think" from my vocabulary and tell her instead what I know. I wasn't sure of many of the things she wanted to know.

I know there will be several Come-to-Jesus meetings next week. You know, panic mode meetings. I am braced for it. However the cookie crumbles, we are in deep deep soup.

6) I went to my protege's house on Saturday. She is 15, very bright, very smart, etc. She lives in the ghetto. I hope she makes it out of there some day soon. She is such a beautiful, bright and kind girl. I really want to invest in her, especially in teaching her math and science. I was shocked to see the sort of mindless work she was doing for science work - at that age? She was hand-copying scrambled squares into a square grid, the objective being to form a picture of a panda at the end of the exercise. This was not for art class (as I had assumed), but was for their Physical Sciences class. My jaw fell to the ground when I saw this sh!t. At her age, I was in SS2 or SS3, preparing for NECO, JAMB, GCE and SSCE/WASSCE and had already taken JAMB & GCE once (trial run). I could dY/dX my way to the moon, and could tell you all about the circulatory system, digestive system, etc. This felt like Primary 6 work. And we wonder why some American schools are falling behind. Na wa o.

7) New addiction: iPhone games. Can't get enough of them! "Huggy: - really cute. Kind of like "Crystal Caves". Also, "Angry Birds" (free). "Chicktionary" (free). Toobz (free - like "Angry Birds", was introduced to me by my sister).

8) Looks like more traveling ahead: one week in Columbus (combining work and pleasure), two days in downtown Cleveland for work (I think it'll be in Cleveland - I'm not sure), and between now and the end of October, another 3 personal trips to Columbus.

9) Another corporate person is visiting next week. She is, however, the good cop. So I think she will be less brutal to us. I think. Hope.

10) Oh yeah! Really big news! Duke Nukem game coming out. After over a decade of waiting! Whoooooooooooooosa!


Read about it here: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/duke-nukem-whatever/20100906-14wa5.html

I was about 10 years old when the franchise fizzled out. Yikes!

11) One last note. As I typed, Wawrinka beat Murray. So it looks like Britain's search for a male GrandSlam winner will go into its 75th year. Jesu Kristi. :)