Esta Es Mi Vida

Wow…I didn’t even realize it had been quite that long since i’ve had an actual post. Last I left off it was what, April? Doesn’t quite seem like that long, while at the same time we are galloping into August so perhaps i’m just trying to slow the year down.

There’s been much to blog about, however just as with many other blogs (and as i’ve stated before) the time really hasn’t been there for me to really sit down and write like I wanted to. I’ve missed blogging, i’ve missed getting on here and throwing down my thoughts, ideas, concepts, opinions, and verses of my life for people to read. But alas, i’ve fell victim to the 140 character God social network called Twitter. I fell victim to the vacuum that is my job, and the drain that puts on you after you’ve clocked those 10hrs….the 1hr+ drive home.

Tack in time to throw something in the microwave cook dinner and it’s pushin’ a solid 2000hrs. No way i’m doing anything else that night after being up since 5am. No sir.

Anyway, here’s the break down of the past three months.

The Bad

My car has cost me a solid $2000 in repairs, and maintenance (everything from brakes, to tires with holes in the inner tread wall). I know I should probably get rid of it, but she was the first car I ever purchased and besides most of the cost incurred was maintenance and not things that “went wrong” or “broke down”. And considering that if I didn’t know the people I do, or the cost to fix it wasn’t so low, I would be seeing that number to double. Although, getting some of the things fixed in the car has cost me nearly three precious days of sick unscheduled leave……shame…. I only have oh, 120+hrs left of. Whatever shall I do.

My family came to visit me for the first time…..ever (really) in my new place. And suffice to say they loved it, especially my mom. So much in fact that they stayed an extra few days past the weekend, and so I come home like usual expecting dinner because they are there and all, right? No, reality check, I come home to my A/C on full blast set to 72, EVERY SINGLE LIGHT in the house on, and my sister proudly informed me that she’d been running my washer and dryer ALL day long.

The company I work for made it’s final transition into the company that purchased us last year, so that I am now officially one out of ten’s of thousands  (a number basically) of employee’s for one of one of the largest defense contractors in the world. Note: Don’t get me wrong, i’m not complaining about having employment, what i’m not happy with is the abolishment of divisions, and the “letting go” of scores of people just because those above them haven’t produced and needed to save their own tails or, so they could “cut costs” when they could’ve fired one or two VP’s and saved the same as they did by cutting 5-10 people.

I spent my hard earned $10.50 seeing Terminator Salvation. Not a bad movie once you suspend all sense of reality and logic, and when I say all I mean all!

IHOP @ 2am. Worst decision ever. Here’s the short version — I get out of a seeing a movie pretty late with [a loved one] not far from my house, and we are hungry. Not having the desire to cook, and finding out that the local Silver Diner is closed (WTF), we mosey on over to IHOP. It starts as soon as we walk in. I open the door of course and allow my date to go in before me, somehow I lagged a little behind and she had already begun to talk to the host who was very enthused to see an attractive woman walk in by herself, and eagerly asked with the million $ grin “table for one?”….I pop up, his expression dropped & he said “oh…. table for two.” Everything from that moment went down hill.

1. Our waitress was high as a kite & was outright disappointed to see us finish the meal “oh you guys ate it all?” Had you planned to eat what was left or something?
2. The brotha’s in the booth next to us trying to act all hard were about to jump eachother’s bones, it was pretty sad A little discretion or self control in the future fella’s, not everyone wants to see that or pick up on those vibes
3. We spotted at LEAST two confirmed hookers in the spot, mostly because of their attire and the wigs
4. A group of misfits all rolled in half way into our meal looking like they were going to knock over the joint after they finished raising the decible level up about 20pts and eating the entire menu
5. My date was being visual molested by the convicted fellow fresh out of the pen guy sitting across/behind me, suffice to say that stopped once confirmation was made that it wouldn’t be tolerated by yours truly.
6. Lastly, the gay Hispanic cowboys/strippers/village people hanging out in the parking lot as we were leaving Next time i’m just going to mow someone down acting like they can’t see me pulling out of a space, full throttle out the parking lot

The Good

I moved out of my old place & into a townhouse about 20min south of where I was living before. Why? Because it’s bigger, has a garage, feels more like home then living in a condo on the 15th of a 18 story building. The move itself was rough because I didn’t have a lot of help waited till the last minute to pack, and was unsure of where exactly I wanted to move to. I’m enjoying the new spot though, even though i’m nearly too busy to take a second and soak it in.

Successfully co-hosted and organized the single largest Maxus event since it’s inception some 11yrs ago. It was a lot of work, and a lot of time spent on trying to get this thing off the ground, and then trying to keep it from plummeting back down to earth.  It was so successful that I’m helping to host/organize next years event in NYC.

I bought a couch. For the first time, ever. Which is a little sad when you think about the fact that i’ve been on my own for several years and it’s one of the last things i’m buying for my residence.

I’ve 150% perfected my rib recipe! Last year i developed my own unique sauce/method of cooking ribs, tried it out on a few people and scored some giant hits and great feedback. So I kept working on it, and now i’ve got it exactly where I want it. The sauce is brown sugar based, not to be used as a dipping sauce, while the ribs are preps over the course of three days….and that’s all i’m going to say about it until I can get a patent for this or something. Yes, it’s that serious.

I have the awesomeness that is called FIOS. That is all.

I went to more weddings in the past three months then what i’ve been to in two years. Some were really cool where there were rainbows arching over mountain tops, and others were the very essence of ghetto and tacky in which basics like water and napkins weren’t available but coolaid, was.

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Ah! Crazyness, right? Most of this is pretty condensed but I think you get the jist of what i’ve outlined.

Now i feel as though you all are pretty much caught up on everything, I enjoyed this so much that I really am truly going to stay on top of blogging and post more then on a near quarterly basis

B.Price

Yeah…….so after making my last post about returning to blogging I dive deeper into Twitter, and move further away from here. I really  Needed some time to get things level which for the most part are pretty level now, and to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel…. so…..i’ll resume (blogging).

That’s all, more to come.

-B.Price

Yes, another GLORIOUS MONDAY!

Why?, Because I came into work today, opened up outlook, and saw an email outlining this:

BAE Systems Agrees to Buy Detica for $1.05 Billion (Update3)

By Kari Lundgren

July 28 (Bloomberg) — BAE Systems Plc, Europe’s biggest defense company, agreed to pay 531 million pounds ($1.05 billion) for Detica Group Plc as it expands its homeland-security business.

BAE offered 440 pence in cash for each share of Detica, whose software supports U.K. Ministry of Defence counter- terrorism operations and tax-fraud detection by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the London-based company said in a statement today. The offer, approved by both boards, represents an 18 percent premium on Detica’s July 25 closing price.

“It’s a strategic deal at a full price,” Numis Securities Ltd. analyst Clive Forestier-Walker said in a phone interview. Detica would give BAE a “strong foothold” in the U.K., he said. Forestier-Walker advises buying BAE shares.

Defense companies have increased their focus on counter- terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. BAE has already sold secure computer systems to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. BAE may make more purchases in the national security market, which may exceed 3 billion pounds by 2011, Forestier-Walker said.

Guildford, England-based Detica rose as much as 69.75 pence, or 19 percent, to 442 pence in London and traded at 437.25 pence as of 1:13 p.m. The shares jumped a record 33 percent on July 21, when the company announced it received a preliminary takeover approach from an undisclosed suitor.

BAE added 0.75 penny, or 0.2 percent, to 446 pence.

Platform for U.S.

“This acquisition will combine Detica’s well established customer relationships and technical capabilities together with our system integration capabilities,” Ian King, chief operating officer of BAE’s U.K. and international division, said in the statement. BAE’s “existing activities and structure will provide a platform for us to apply Detica’s capabilities into the U.S. homeland security market.”

In a separate statement, Detica said its sales in the three months ended June 30 advanced 14 percent, boosted by government contracts, which account for more than half its business. The company did not say how much sales were. Full-year forecasts remain unchanged, it said, without giving numbers. Detica also counts Barclays Plc and HBOS Plc among its customers.

“Strong demand in our government markets has more than offset the continuing weakness in our financial services unit,” Detica said in the statement.

Including debt, the transaction is valued at 538 million pounds, BAE Systems said.

Now most of you don’t know that I work for Detica, and have “tehcnically” been with them for 16 months now. Not happy in the least about it, because they purchased my company 16 months ago, told us nothing would change, didn’t really bring anything “new” to the table in terms of contracts or project work honestly, and laid off 20+ of my colleges and friends 60days after that statement…. that alone pretty much had a huge ripple effect for all of us that were there at the time.

Don’t get me wrong, they did bring more capabilities to the table, and shored up two very stable divisions within our organization. But overall, it’s been a wild ride. And given the fact that people from my company are readers, and others will read this i’ll keep it at that…….by saying it’s be a Wild Ride.

-B.Price

Been on the grind here at work….so much that i’ve had little to no time to get on here and blog, or even keep up with other blogs. Honestly, i’ve had time for little else outside of work period…..that’s going to have to change because I came to my current company due in part to my last company working me so hard that it burnt me out.

Anyway, that period (working night and day) has hence passed and now or until they throw another ton or two of work on my back i’ll be getting back into things and resume my normal 1/1.5posts per week.

Thanks to the 6-8views i’ve been getting from those non-tag searches which I assume are “regulars” who post comments and subscribe to my blog.

-B.Price

p.s. The Chinese symbols each have their own meaning, the one below means love, the one above means to endure.

Ok, so unbeknownst to to me I’ve apparently conducted an experiment of sorts with “a few people” at my workplace over the past 4.5 weeks or so. Allow me to elaborate on the experiment.

Being a black man I, like many in my race have relatively short, dark (black) hair that i keep shaped up, and brushed (combed when it’s long n’ nappy). Well for about 4 1/2 weeks in February I didn’t get a hair cut, not for any reason other then me not making to time to get up early to get into the barber shop on Saturday so that i didn’t have to sit there the entire day…..early meaning like 0630 early.

No one at work really “said anything” or gave me any looks that I noticed or were aware of, but it was getting to the point where I was developing a slight bush and that’s not really my style. So I took off a little early on a Friday and got it cut. I come back in on Monday and literally it was as if I wasn’t the same person. I’ve been witness to the differences in people’s response from changing my appearance and people complimenting me on my haircuts but this was something new altogether.

It was as if wasn’t me who had walked into the office that day, and even up until now people have been commenting on how “it” looks as well as subtle flirtatious activity as well has increased. Don’t get me wrong, i’m a heterosexual unmarried man so I have no issue with then attention. It’s just odd that after 2yrs of working here and coming into with a haircut twice a month that hasn’t changed since the first day I started that this time it would be a big deal that gets me this much attention.

So the haircut plays, and will be kept in check from now on.