Angry Baby

Not that I am in any way nervous or afraid of the fetus in my wife's belly, but I totally am, so disregard the first half of the sentence that is ending now.

First off, the thing hides for like 3 months in the back room of God-knows-where. Then at 18 weeks, BAM, you're gonna be a daddy. Here's a bit of coincidence. Did you know that the same symptoms of pregnancy are also the same for ovarian cancer? Yeah, we didn't either until our son/daughter hid from the doctors.

Secondly, Jess went for an ultrasound two weeks ago, and the baby runs away from the scope thingy! The midwife is pressing into Jess' stomach with BellyCam2000, and our little angel won't stay still. Disobediant at such a young age. I blame it on the Dawson's Creek.

Last, the baby gets furious when Jess lays on her stomach. It decides it's too cramp so he/she starts thrashing around in a manner best described as "intoxicated, beligerant, make-rude-phonecalls-to-you-ex, hatred". I swear when it gets all krunk-y that I hear late 90's, Cedar Falls area, Alt-Death Metal music playing.

Lazy Weekend

I haven't done anything today, and if feels great. I have a four-day weekend (Sat-Tues) because of Easter and a British Bank Holiday. Friday, I was tabbed for escort duty, and that means that I watched two British contractors survey a field where we are building a new intelligence center. All I did was sit in the car for 9 hours and read USA Today, Car and Driver, and whatever reciepts I had left in the car. One more stripe (up one rank) and I won't have to deal with this escort junk anymore, and I couldn't be happier about it.

It's kinda unique being a Graphic Designer in the Air Force. As an Airman (E1-E4), you are trained to do artwork and basically how to do your job. But, you end up spending alot of your time on mindless details (see above, cleaning, sitting through briefing after briefing), and don't get to do your job. Once you become a Sergeant (E5-up), and are finally good at your job, you don't do it anymore. You are expected to only supervise those Airman below you that aren't really getting to do their job anyways.

And that's my main problem, one that I have to swallow everyday. There really shouldn't be graphic designers in the Air Force, and I've actually heard that they might eventually get rid of the career field altogether someday. It doesn't seem right to me to promise someone with an artistic bent that they are going to be counted on for their creativity, but then only let them be creative 5 hours out of the 40 they spend at their desk every week.

I look at it as if I ran my own business. If we weren't in uniform and had contracts with Uncle Sam, how many of my coworker's and supervisor's would I have work at Tooley Co.? The sad, un-exaggerated truth is that only 1/4 of the people I've worked with would have a job with me, the other 3/4 might as well be on welfare. If the Air Force could find some way of rewarding and promoting individuals in a way that held any integrity other than just book tests, maybe rank and awards would mean something. But, they rarely do. They just mean that you're good at fill in the blank tests (rank), been around a long time (also rank), or it was your turn to win (awards).

Okay, enough ranting. I don't even know where I would go with this next anyways. I'm just hoping that in three years, when my enlistment is up, that I have good opportunities on the outside to work hard at something that actually makes a difference.

Profile Picture

This is just a picture for my profile. Or maybe, I'm looking to the left of your screen because there is some sort of immenent danger over there? You'd think I'd look more concerned, but then again, maybe I think you have it coming.

I guess we'll find out in the papers tomorrow morning. 

Trisha's Wikipedia Demand

Three Facts:

1. 1965 - Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court. Dang that's hot!

2. 1969 - Apollo Program: Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. Or did they?! Er, yeah, they probably did.

3. 1984 - Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse published nude photos of her. For our sakes, this had to happen. If it hadn't, Howie Long wouldn't have had a partner to hock Radio Shack crap to us.

Two Birthdays:

1. 1947 - Carlos Santana, Mexican guitarist. The man that introduced the world to the second coming of Rob Thomas.

2. 1973 - Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway. Norway. Friend or foe?

One Death:

1. 1973 - Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (b. 1940) No snotty quip here. Bruce was the man. Chuck Norris, take off your ranger hat and bow to one knee.

Me and the Missus

This is more me just learning how Picasa works with Blogger than anything else. This is my wife Jessica (married June 2005) for all the Pottershouse alumni (Alter, etc) that I haven't spoken with in a long long time. She's preggy with our first kid and due in Sept. If it's a boy, we plan on naming it Ian Scott Tooley. If it's a girl, we're trying to decide between Apple Lauren Tooley or Cricket Elizabeth Tooley. Jess likes Apple, not because of Chris Martin and Gwenyth Paltrow, but because she used to work with one. And Cricket because she knew one in Tennessee. Doris is also in the running, as I prefer old timey, dusty and dignified type names. I never pictured having daughters though. I never had a sister, so it's just kinda foreign to me. If I could plan it perfectly, I'd have a son, then a daughter, and then another son. The older can defend the daughter, and also defend the younger son from the daughter. We'll see how this goes. 

Get Your Fill.

Many Ways to Reach Me

Just so y'all know, I opened this blog so I could post to friends on Blogger. My blog is at www.xanga.com/scottie_in_the_uk. Go there are you'll have lots of fun.