Updated the Daily News and Weather pages… better formatting for the weather page (and upgrade to Lightsoft Weather Center v2.0 on the backend) and a switch to Google Gadgets for news headline feeds… Big News Network was starting to get a weird anti-US vibe to it, and who knows where the hell they were pulling headlines from… Mumbai Daily News? WTF? I know no one reads those pages but me, but it gave me an excuse to make a post about it.

…or Yet Another Virtual Move.

I’ve consolidated my websites, that were spread across two servers I shared with my roommate, onto one server that I own and under a new domain name; katsden.net. A couple of reasons for it, one is that it just made sense not to have them spread out like that (not real worried about a server fault taking them all out; they’re not exactly mission critical); another… I’ll get into later.

For right now, the personal photo album isn’t up, as I didn’t feel like trying to move the outdated Coppermine installation; and my business (hah!) photo/video/web design site is down for now as well, as it really needs to be redesigned.

Yup, I’m talking about myself. Why? Well, with one stupid, panicked decision, I threw away a 14 year career. Fired from my current job, charged with False Statements, most likely going to have my certification as a police officer revoked.

Wait, what? What did I do? Murder someone? Take a bribe? Bone the mayor’s daughter?

No, no, nothing like that. I really can’t- or, rather, shouldn’t, until the mess is over- spew details. Long story short, I made a mistake on a record, and lied when called on it. When I realized that I was in fact wrong with my facts, I fessed up… but by that point it had gone too far. The record itself is wrapped up in a rather politicized, highly publicized case; and while others have done much the same sort of thing, it’s far too public to minimize. The mistake itself was forgivable; and, in fact, really had no bearing on the case it was associated with one way or the other. But my lie- induced by panic at the mistake I’d made on such a public item- isn’t forgivable. I’ve told students in my classes countless times that the one thing in law enforcement that you can never get back once you’ve given it up is your integrity, and that’s the one thing I tossed away in a frantic moment of panic.

And, actually, that’s probably the hardest thing to deal with- the number of cops that I know around this part of the state, who I’ve either worked with or taught in a class, calling wanting to know what’s going on. Most of them are expecting me to say that I’ve gotten shafted, that I’m the fall guy for something, that there’s more to the story that absolves me of some of the guilt. And I have to tell them that nope, this was my fault; I made this bed and I have to lie in it. Some of them still believe that there’s some kind of conspiracy behind it, because they know me, and this isn’t something I’d do… and I thank them for their belief in me, but sometimes you never know what a person will do under extreme stress.

So now I’m once again looking for a job… and the market sucks. Really sucks. I do have real-world experience in a number of areas- supervision, management, abundant computer skills- but it’s hard to get an employer to realize that when all they see for the past 14 years is law enforcement. Well, that’s what a resume is for, right? Describe those skills and how they’ll relate to whatever job it is your applying for? Sure, sure… if a human ever sees it. So many jobs direct you to a website to apply… and if that script doesn’t see exactly the right combination of words, it dumps it into the “not qualified” bin before a person ever sees it. Gets downright depressing, it does.

One would think, then, that I had ample free time to exercise my writing. And, in fact, I have been thinking about writing down all the strange, disturbing, funny, or otherwise somewhat interesting anecdotes I’ve lived through in my now-aborted career, grouping them by subject, and posting them up here.

Right after I check monster.com for the hundredth time.

…for not updating. I blame the curse of World of Warcraft. A friend of mine bought a copy of it for his kids, and I warned him that if he started playing he’d become addicted. Little did I know that I would too. I keep asking myself why I’m playing but I also keep logging in every night to level my night elf druid. Sad, sad, sad.

So, over the past few months, a routine has developed. Work during the week- the usual administrative slog of creating and teaching classes, minding the quartermaster duties, background checks- then make the hour commute home, find something for dinner, and log in to WoW. Weekends I end up over at the friend’s house mentioned earlier to either go hunting, paint guns, or- you guessed it- log in to WoW. Lather, rinse, repeat. Although I did get promoted to Lieutenant at work- same job, but butterbars and a slight pay raise.

The modeling bug as bitten again, and I purchased a new airbrush and compressor. Unfortunately, the writing bug hasn’t bitten again, so no progress on the novel.

Oh, and I sold the Mustang. I didn’t want to, but I’ve had it three years and only put 15,000 miles on it. I went for stretches of a month at a time without starting it. By contrast, I’ve got 12,000 miles on the bike in a year. Why sit on a chunk of money that’s depreciating every year without driving it?

Sounds like a band name. Actually, it’s a set of heated pants, jacket liner, and gloves for the bike. And man, do these things work! Rode in 38 degree weather Saturday morning and only needed to put it on low… why did I wait so long before buying these? Have also ordered a Givi E52 top case and mounting plate, but they’re apparently being shipped from Nevada and haven’t arrived yet.

In other news, that firewall seemed to fix itself… and I have no idea how or why. I hate it when that happens, as it could happen again at any time and I still don’t know why. And I created a Facebook account… God knows why, but I have heard from folks since doing it that I haven’t heard from since childhood; so maybe there’s something to it.

Sooo… first week at the new job. I knew I’d have a job ahead of me setting up a training program pretty much from scratch; but no idea how much of one. It seems the former Sheriff of this county- we’ll just call him “G”- was basically coasting until retirement and never pushed for the budget the agency required nor allowed his deputies to do… anything. There hasn’t been a ticket written in the county in two years. The only training the deputies were allowed was the minimum required by the state. He was so anxious to move into the new jail before he retired that none of the jailers received any training on the facility. And, apparently, no one knows where anything is or how it operates.

Well, he retired in 2008, and his successor- my new boss at this new agency; call him “R”- has inherited a mess. A severe lack of equipment, uniforms, vehicles, and training; but at least the deputies seem eager to improve the office. When I started Monday, my training room in the new jail was bare except for a small wooden desk with a penis carved into the top of it. Spent the week getting desks, tables, chairs, office supplies, organizing and preparing; but it’s finally starting to come together- except for two things: The thermostat in my office doesn’t seem to do anything. Cold enough to hang meat in there. I suspect that the thermostat was turned off from a central location to save energy, since the room was vacant for so long. Heating and air guy is coming Monday to look at it.

Second thing is that since no one really knows how the new equipment in the jail works, no one knows how to service the phones, network, or camera system when they fail. Friday the hardware firewall that controls a VPN tunnel between the jail and the courthouse- and, therefore, internet access (not needed for many but essential for my job), the LiveScan fingerprinting system, and criminal record access went tits up and no one knew how it worked. The original contractor, when contacted, was helpful and friendly but wasn’t contracted to service it. The company that manufactured the firewall has a product support service that includes hardware replacement, but the old sheriff had let it expire to save money. On top of that, the model of firewall we have will be discontinued and unsupported after October of this year.

*sigh* So I spent the day, after spending $74 of my own money to re-instate the service contract through October, on the phone with tech support. Must be a problem with the DSL connection, they say; so now talk to Windstream. Everything’s fine on our end, they say; so back to WatchGuard. Finally get WatchGuard to send a new firewall that will be here Monday; so I guess I’ll be setting that up after the weekend and keeping my fingers crossed that it works.

So, if you have any experience with a WatchGuard Firebox X5 Edge, I may have a job for you.

2009 will certainly be a year of change!

If you’ve read earlier posts, you’ll recall that the candidate I supported for Sheriff of the county I live in (and the office I work for) lost the primary election. Wondering every four years who your boss will be is hard enough; but in Georgia, an “at will” state, unless your agency has civil service protections in place, you serve “at the pleasure of the Sheriff”. In other words, if he chooses, he can fire you for no reason at all.

You can probably already see where this is going. New Sheriff; not the guy I supported but I’m willing to work with him. I’ve got a good job, doing what I like, and an excellent pay check. Except, that on New Year’s Eve after swearing in the employees, he pulled me aside and informed me that he was bringing someone else in from the outside to take my position on February 1st and would not have a position for me after that date.

Well, yippy skippy. That’s the strangest way to be told to hit the door. I’m not the only one, either; but it’s a fairly common occurrence around Sheriff’s Offices after every election. There’s a long history, in Georgia at least, of outgoing Sheriffs destroying records and spending every last penny in the budget and incoming Sheriffs firing anyone who might be a political threat or whose position is needed to provide a job for a crony or supporter. Which brings us to the question: who do you want your law enforcement to be beholden to? Theoretically, an elected Sheriff is beholden to the voting citizens of his jurisdiction; but the same thing could be said of any elected official, and tell me with a straight face that they have the interests of the citizens in mind and not pandering to the loudest voice in order to get a vote. On the other hand, an appointed official, such as a police chief, is beholden to the mayor or city commission; who, also, are theoretically beholden to the voters but more often than not will be the real rulers of that agency. Six to one, half a dozen to another; both have some serious drawbacks.

In any case, I’m not waiting until February 1st; my resignation is effective January 23 and I start at a new agency the following Monday. I didn’t have a whole lot of time for job seeking; while my resume is impressive, in this economy, agencies are either in a hiring freeze or only have entry-level positions available. I’m taking a pretty heft pay cut, but it beats standing in the unemployment line.

It’s been a really crappy couple of months. First the election- covered in the last post- then the usual drama around the station house, and then I find my mom has stopped taking her medication and had a paranoid episode in which she called 911 and got five cops respond to the house. She’s spent the last week in a behavioral health center and has returned home this weekend. What causes the most stress is that dad is convinced he can handle this on his won’t tell the kids what’s going on, so quite a bit of it came as a surprise to me. Not surprisingly, when I went to my doctor to renew my migraine medication, my blood pressure was pretty high. Doesn’t help that I have the eating habits of Michael Moore.

Found this, which appeals to my inner geek- don’t have much tolerance for graffiti “artists”, but this is a non-destructive graffiti that’s pretty damn cool.
Laser graffiti!

Farkles- the little bits and pieces you add on to a bike. Or so the term seems to be around the sport-touring community, I’ve found. Started with the electrical support for other bits and pieces- TomTom Rider 2 GPS, iPod. Ran wires from the battery to a Bluesea fusebox under the tail:

Only iPod power/audio adapter I could find ended in a cigarette lighter plug, so I needed a corresponding socket. It was also pretty short, ending at the edge of the tank. But, socket and plug fit (barely) under the tank skirt:

With the cover on the Bluesea fusebox… fits under the seat with a hair’s width to spare:

Mounts for the GPS and iPod should be here Monday; then it’s frame sliders, Datel voltmeter, and (pricey) Starcomm unit to tie all the audio together and feed it to the helmet.

I’ve got plenty of room in the garage for it now, as my roommate just sold his Suzuki SV1000. Well, he never rode it, anyway.

We’ll just ignore the date of my last post.

In the early ’90s, when the bikes I rode were all used ’80s Universal Japanese Motorcycles, Yamaha was producing a “sport touring” bike called the FJ1200. Sport tourers are comfortable, long distance touring bikes that still retain the power and handling of their sportier cousins. While plenty of people racked up amazing mileage on long trips on relatively small displacement UJMs in the 80s, long trips were definitely a chore. The Honda Silverwing and later Goldwing reached bigger, plusher sizes in the ’90s and became the long-distance touring motorcycle standard; but, while I’ve seen folks ride the hell out of those things, they’re far from sporty. Sport bikes and supersport bikes took off in the 90s and got faster and faster- and more and more uncomfortable for long trips. Towards the end of the 90s, Harley Davidson re-invented itself and the cruiser era took off.

But, for me, the slick plastic enclosed crotch rockets left my back sore; and the underwhelming cruisers left me unimpressed. There were sport touring bikes, sure- the ST, Concours, Pacific Coast *shudder*; but they were still more touring than sport and out of my price range. The Bandit was the closest I could come to the old reliable UJM of the 80s… but I kept my eye on the FJ (now FJR) as my “ultimate” bike.

Sooo… last Monday I traded in the Bandit on a 2008 FJR1300. I had to wait until Thursday for it to be delivered; and, of course, it decided to rain for the next three days. I’ve still managed to put 100 miles on it in that time. But what I’ve found so far is that it’s just as sporty as the Bandit was while being far more comfortable and suited to long rides. The adjustable windscreen keeps me a lot warmer (and drier) than the Bandit’s, I’ve got saddlebags now, the seat is far more comfortable…

I think I’ll keep it.