GAME05

that's just the downsides that come out in slight frustration. it's working outdoors, protecting nature, a lot of different roles, and you never know what you'll be doing from one hour to the next. And find the right park and you get to focus on whatever aspect of the job you like the best. anyway, I talked to a couple Rangers about it today. The boss said he's known people who went to Academy and got hired on right away, though the other said Law Enforcement isn't near as big a focus as Environmental Education. Also dorms aren't paid for with tuition, so we're talking about $7000 to pay for it myself. That's a year+ to recover that cost, and I'm confident I'll have a job before then. Apparently my 1:4 Interview:Application rate is really good. The boss added that often if you're Top 3 for Position A, then they won't interview you for Position B because a decision hasn't yet been made if you'll be hired for that first position. Sorry if this ended up being some thinking out loud. I'll talk to a higher-up about it all tomorrow, but I'm thinking my best bet is scraping by at McDonalds for the winter and strengthening my Environmental Ed background (which isn't much of a cost).

I'm going to be laid off in six weeks. the job doesn't start up again until mid-April and unemployment would only pay $100/wk. I could always do McDonalds until it starts up again and skirt by on $2500 in savings (rent is only $300/mo), or move back home (paying to race back should an interview come in). I'm a fairly qualified candidate for a Park Ranger job, guessing somewhere around 20th in the State based on interviews landed. It shouldn't take forever to land a job, but the competition is tough and dependent on openings, so who knows. Could be a month, could be a year. I currently have about eight applications out right now. If hired, the State would pay for Police Academy along with hourly pay during that time. The next semester of Academy starts up in January. Out-of-state tuition is $4500 plus whatever incidentals (not sure yet if dorm life is included). What I'm starting to seriously consider is taking out yet another student loan and paying for Academy myself. I would be busy in the offseason, plus I would have about four months of time to do nothing but work out (the Academy physical requirement is tough). I have been told by a Ranger that having gone through BLET (Academy) and with my strong background, that I would be the #1 candidate out there. Essentially, spending $4500+ would speed up getting hired by some rough guess of months. The theory is that I would recover the tuition+ through being hired full-time at a sooner date. Not quite sure yet. I'm hoping that the applications out right now are simply being put on hold until the fiscal year ends in September. The "What's Bugging Me" part: I have a great resume and it's still tough as heck to land this job which doesn't pay well, is inherently dangerous, works weekends and has a terrible work schedule.

Capri Sun straw wrappers are the bane of my existence. (I clean up a park and they're everywhere.)

i just think about holding off because we're looking at a decent draft pick next year, so we'd have more freedom to select best-available than if we had all the more positions blocked by bring a star in right now. same goes for some flexibility in trading Sanders (if it happens) than needing to trade him for a player in one specific position. and what's the rush? it's not like one more good player is going to make us Eastern Conference contenders. may as well let the current young guys develop more so that when we do bring some good FA in, we're a contending team for all four years the player is here instead of only being good for two of those four years.

Hanover, NH (home of Dartmouth) is also a nice town. since you mentioned hiking, I can only say about the Appalachian Trail area in New England. the White Mountains are in New Hampshire and are pretty cool to see--home of Mt. Washington. and most of the mountains in the range are above treeline. there's a hut system in place, somewhat pricey, but I don't believe there's an option for your own personal room. the mass of thru-hikers will be in Vermont/New Hampshire/Maine then. not sure if this is honeymoon-y, but doing trail magic is fun and a good opportunity to chat with thru-hikers (it's where you give food/drinks away to the hikers passing through). you could go to Baxter State Park in Maine and climb Mt. Katahdin, where the Appalachian Trail ends. and I've always heard Acadia National Park in Maine is pretty spectacular.

if we didn't have the World Cup, sports reporting would be talking 24/7 about Tiger Woods missing a cut, which would be monumentally more boring than soccer.

i had this hope where we traded down (plus some trading up) and nabbed both Exum and Embiid, but it looks more like it would have been something like Aaron Gordon and Julius Randle (just to name two in the 4-10 range). good players, sure, but with them we probably end up as a late playoff team while we lament our inability to land a true superstar. We don't really have the time to rebuild if Embiid is perpetually hurt; Exum is a bit of a coinflip; and Wiggins probably needs a great PG to reach his amazing potential. all Jabari really needs is conditioning, which is a non-issue. i wouldn't be surprised if Parker ends up as the 3rd best player in this draft, but more and more I like him as the pick even if we had the #1 and I like that we didn't trade down. upside is he's an All-Star and downside is he's what, an almost All-Star? Parker was the best combination of qualities that everyone on this board has been hoping for. I was also hoping for McDaniels at 31. I'd seen Inglis going very late 2nd in mock drafts. so following the Giannis pick last year, I'm excited that maybe Hammonds sees something special in this kid.

last pick is Lamar Patterson out of Pittsburgh. kinda hoping for Thannis there, but maybe he'll fall out of the draft and the Bucks can pick him up on an UFA contract. i'm no expert but it seems like O'Bryant may be the PF version of LRMAM, who could come in late just for some rebounding and extra aggression on the boards. surprised they took Inglis instead of the SF out of Clemson. maybe Inglis spends a year or two in the D-League. edit: nevermind. Thiannis goes to the Knicks.

Damian Inglis and Johnny O'Bryant so far in the 2nd.

it bugs me when your interviewer starts out the interview by saying "Did you see the job at X that was posted today? You know, we had 250+ applicants, so you should feel proud you made it this far. And if not this one, you'll definitely find a position eventually." yeah, I really think I landed this job! cripes, i felt like a child being consoled by two adults and we hand't even started yet. i'm brand new to the system, but i'm also not exactly 18. although good side is this was my first interview in the State system (which they actually asked me. ugh) and every interview for every job runs exactly the same way. i thought i handled it really well and i don't think i'd change any answer i gave (which is of course rare in an interview), so i think it's more a matter of being on a good number of interviews. and, you know, landing one where they don't clearly have someone already chosen. a few days ago i asked to sit down with the boss to run down what the interview process was like, and I found out in the interview that he basically gave me half the answers. one situation that I was surprised by was they set out three items in front of me and basically said "OK, pick one thing and tell us everything you know about it." One was a kind of squirrel I'd never seen before, one was artifacts of some sort, and one was fortunately a copperhead snake which I happen to know a lot about.

i guess what i don't get is that for years now everyone has been saying how you can't build a team with middling draft picks--you've either got to grab stars in free agency (which Milwaukee basically can't do) or tank to get a top draft pick or two. and now that we've got the #2, some people want to trade down to get a few extra middling draft picks. i don't mean that to be rude at all, i'm just surprised to see more "trade down" opinions than Parker/Wiggins/Embiid arguments. if Milwaukee had an established star i'd be all for the extra picks and building around that player. but Giannis isn't anywhere close to that yet. Milwaukee is already full of decent players. i don't see that adding 2-3 more "good" players are going to give us a deep playoff run. 1-4 is no guarantee of an All-Star, but sure a better chance of it than 5-10. not to mention when you're trying to convince the voting public to support a new arena, Embiid is sure a better argument for it than Aaron Gordon.

if Hammond is actually sticking around for a while, he'll definitely be in win-now mode to keep his job with the new bosses. win-now means Jabari Parker.

i'd read that they were going to produce a "How I Met Your Father" and my first thought was that it will probably go over just as well as "That 80s Show" did.

if a playground has mulch and it isn't at least 3" deep and there's an accident, the park is liable.

i'm a big whiskey fan and know a lot about how it's made. it's still acceptable in snob-etiquette to add a thimble-full of room-temperature water to dilute the proof if you want. otherwise you can get ice molds that will make a single, large spherical ice cube so your drink stays cold, but the ice doesn't melt rapidly to dilute things. but cold hides a lot of the earthy notes. but if you want to learn to drink whiskey neat, adding water/ice is the way to start and you'll eventually start enjoying the bite. just guessing, but maybe this is why drinks are often served neat (whiskey neat is not a cocktail): 1. a bottle of soda would otherwise ruin the aesthetic of a pretty bar display 2. would take too much time to watch an actor mixing a cocktail 3. straight booze is seen as more manly/tough

that episode would have been a great Series Finale on its own. i just don't know what's left to build on since all the characters have accomplished their happy ending.

a car never breaks down a week before you start your new job. it's always same-day.

thanks, guys. i ended up making $24K pre-tax over that summer, so it paid my credit card and gave me $4K in savings so i'd even be able to take a $7.75/hr job in another state. now i've got a better shot at landing a full-time gig this summer, otherwise i'll just wait out the winter and try again. always nice to have a more-set direction (despite plans never actually working out that way).

or just use a late 2nd on Giannis' little brother to help convince Big Giannis to stay in Milwaukee long-term.

just moved to North Carolina for the third time. my friends here have now moved on, but i think it's mainly because i love the weather here. good weather is important to me. sure hope the third time's the charm. i've got about five months to find out until my summer-temporary job ends.

i'm smiling because a new owner usually means a new GM usually means a new head coach.

Parks and Rec is starting to slip for me, though i still watch it. where they used to have a lot of character development and an episode-to-episode storyline, a lot of episodes now feel like filler. plus most of the characters have really reached the end of their development. all that's left is for Amy Poehler to run for State Senate. the League is a great show, though hard to find. and you'd like Always Sunny in Philadelphia if you had liked Workaholics.\ two good travel/adventure/survival shows are Dangerous Grounds and Dude, You're Screwed. you can still catch re-runs of Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations, which is another good travel show.

all the radio was talking about today is a matchup between Florida and Kentucky, and nothing about the current matchups. jumping the gun a little bit? i get the impression that this isn't going to be a particularly close game. no clue to who wins, but each team's skillset is so opposite that one of us will be overmatched. Kentucky 72 Wisconsin 59 and i sure hope i'm wrong.

i've always enjoyed the show but i have the same "meh" feelings about the finale. so much of it was centered around Robin, yet Robin was the least important main character on the show. Marshall and Lilly were important as Ted's "marriage can be this good" side, and Barney played the antagonist. but Robin was always just that filler to drive the storyline. and so i don't think the last episode should have been so focused on her. Barney. i think his conclusion irked me the most. for two seasons we watched as Barney matured and grew out of being the womanizer. then all of a sudden he goes back and says "this is who i really am"? also, it didn't seem like a "Ted" thing to do to wait years to get married. he'd have done it impulsively with the Mother getting pregnant.

oddsmakers have it Kentucky at -2.5, not that odds have a whole lot of meaning. i think it was Wisconsin +4 against Arizona. help me out, people who know more than me. what should i be scared about with Kentucky? what should i be optimistic about? i'm a little worried about Kentucky's size and ability to get second-chance points against Wisconsin. Randle looked completely lost against the double-team tonight, but it's not really Wisconsin's style to double-team a player. i'm worried about points in the paint for Kentucky and a tendency for Wisconsin to give a high OPP FG%. it's a lot of small Wisconsin guys against big Kentucky guys. at the same time i wonder that while Kaminsky may get bottled up, Wisconsin will have a lot more room to shoot the 3. also that Kentucky forces very few turnovers and Wisconsin commits very few. i'm excited! i'm nervous! but either way Bo Ryan really deserves this attention. i remember passing him by at the athletic center in Platteville all the time.