Paleck.com

And no I don’t mean it literally.

Today started out like any other Monday, badly. I was running late, hadn’t gotten as much done this last weekend as I wanted and I was unable to get to sleep until past midnight despite having attempted to go to bed at 8pm. After walking into my meeting five minutes late my personal phone rings and I almost ignored it until I saw that it was from my mom. She never calls me on Monday mornings, because she knows it is the worst day for anything, unless it is an emergency. When I answered she told me that my grandpa in California had died last night.

Now I have mixed feelings on how to feel at the moment. On one hand I am sad, but not enough to cry and on the other hand I am happy since his health had been declining for the last few years. About 5ish years ago he had a stroke and was no longer able to speak or to eat normally. Add onto it that in all that time I have not taken the time to go down and visit him except for one time. My mom and even my sister has managed to get down there at least twice a year, but somehow I was always too busy.

All of this leads me to the bag of bricks I mentioned in the title of this post. When my grandpa on my mom’s side died I was fine(translation: composed) at the funeral/memorial as he had been in pain for years and years. Then my grandma on my mom’s side died shortly thereafter and I completely broke down and had to leave the viewing since she was her health failed suddenly and immediately after my grandpa had died. Now I am faced with a situation where for the last few years my grandpa on my dad’s side whose health has been deteriorating only for the last few years, but I only ever saw it once. Will I be able to hold some semblance of composure or is it going to hit me like a ton of bricks where I will completely break down? Unfortunately I have no idea and that scares me. For some reason I don’t like to not be in control of my emotions especially in a public setting and I am crying uncontrollably. 

I guess I’ll see in a few days when I head off to Cali for a few days over the weekend.

Friend: I’m turning in my concealed weapons permit.

 Me: Shouldn’t the fact that you are a network engineer automatically disqualify you?

Friend: Probably

Me: …..

with DVDs!!!

I am cleaning out my old entertainment center in preparation for a new tv and entertainment center. Unfortunately in the meantime they have taken over my closet. It may not look like a lot, but the shelves are deep enough for 3 rows of dvds to fit!!

I had surgery and am now recovering. Even though I have
 the week off I still find myself too busy to post anything.   

Back in 2002 a Boy Scout troop out of the BSA Great Salt Lake Council inadvertently started the East Fork fire with damaged/destroyed 14,000 acres. By all accounts it was an accident and the source of the fire was from a campfire that had been doused with water and buried as is usually the recommended procedure for ensuring a fire is out. Now fast forward 5 years to yesterday where it was announced that the BSA Great Salt Lake Council and the State of Utah have reached a settlement. For this I applaud them rather than dragging on another 5 or 10 years in pointless court battles they have finally finished it. What I do take great exception to is one of the terms of the settlement…

The state originally sued for $606,424 to recoup the costs the state incurred in fighting the fire. The settlement terms that I have been able to drudge up so far from local newspapers and the radio are for the most part a very good compromise. The terms that have been announced are as follows: the Greater Salt Lake Council will pay approximately $300,000 to the state, oversee the planting of 9,000 seedlings(not sure if it is only in East Fork or in general), develop specific training for troop leaders and videos/training for the scouts themselves and last the Great Salt Lake council admits no wrong doing for the fire. That last one is the one that I have to take issue with, the fact that the Great Salt Lake Council will not admit any wrong doing goes against the very ideals of the Boy scouts. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America are not acting any better. According to the Deseret News article There is still a pending lawsuit between the BSA and the federal government for $13 million that they spent fighting the fire. Besides not admitting any fault of their own as far as I have seen the BSA has also filed a lawsuit that claims the “unknown Scouts, on their own free time” started a different campfire that then spread and started the 2002 East Fork Fire.

Now I am an Eagle Scout and today I am now ashamed of the organization from which I earned that rank. From both the Mission Statement and the Vision statement the BSA currently has on it’s website two lines that essentially repeat each other which would imply that it is important to them. “The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.” from the Mission statement and “Instill in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical characte as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law” from the Vision Statement. With all of their concern with instilling ethical and moral values in the scouts by not admitting any wrong-doing, they have shown their true colors. In my opinion they have lost their own moral compass by looking after their own ass instead of doing what is right and leading by example. One final note before I sign off on this post, Yes I know that if they do publicly and on the record admit liability it is possible for them to open themselves to other liability claims, but by denying it entirely they cannot profess to be setting a good example for the scouts that they are trying to teach these same values to.