Good Bye and Good Riddance

I wrote this a while back- when it first came out in the news that Saddam was writing poetry in his jail cell, and I shared it with a few people, then forgot about it. News today of Saddam being sentenced to death brought it bubbling to the murky surface of my conscience once again:

Found in a jail cell, somewhere in Iraq:

I think that I shall never see
A despotic ruler quite like me
On oil and blood I was drunk
But now I'm sitting on this bunk

O sons of Babylon I confess
Mesopotamia's now a mess
I had the Westerners by the balls
Never happy, I wanted it all

They really liked me 'way back when
"A regional balance to Iran"'
Til Kissinger began to muse
"It's too bad they both can't lose"

To refuse help, would take a fool
How else was I going to rule?
Those pesky Kurds, they had to go
Swamp Arabs, Shi'ites, gas them, no?

In Allah now I must believe
Bush says this world I soon must leave
Truth has won, justice is served
I guess I'll get what I deserve

I dream sometimes of Hell, so hot
And always after is the thought..
Truth is some lessons I have learned
"Don't f**k with America, you'll get burned"

copyright-2006 by The Boyd Drive Follies

NATIONAL CLICHE DAY!

No, this isn't another diatribe about the Democrats- holster that sidearm, for Pete's sake! In a moment of weakness, I composed a drinking game this morning to commemorate this national day of banality:

It’s National Cliché Day!
Here’s a cool office drinking game I made up- as you read this aloud, everyone takes a drink when they recognize a cliché. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did making it up. And don’t drive after playing!

Good morning

I hope everyone is firing on all cylinders this early in the morning. As we move forward, it is important for us all to recognize that the ball is in your court now. We need to recognize that we all need to be on the bus with the changes going on in the business world. While there has been a large amount of turmoil around us, we need to see the big picture. This means getting our arms around the problems facing us while yet thinking outside the box. A hands on approach is not enough to knock the ball out of the park anymore.

Recent changes in personnel in the company, while painful, have been necessary to wipe the slate clean and allow us as a company to do more than pick the low hanging fruit. We have to run lean and mean, as survival of the fittest is imperative. It has been necessary for a few members to take one for the team, but please remember, all’s well that ends well, and hope springs eternal, even for those long in the tooth or cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel. We did not want to kill one and scare the rest, as has been bandied about, either.

To this end, management has been circling at thirty thousand feet, not swimming with the sharks, as has been rumored. The strategic moves we have recently made will grow the company by using a new paradigm. The synergy of our two companies’ core competences will help us shut out the competition. This was not a shotgun wedding of our two companies, or a wet dream, as some may have characterized it.

We need employee buy-in to make this work, and to refer to it as drinking the Kool-Aid is not helpful. A boy howdy attitude will take you far in this new venture. Remember, there is no “I” in team. You play for the name on the front of your jersey, not the one on the back.
So please take this time to reflect on your part in all this. And if you are still employed here at Five O’clock, congratulations!

(Any resemblance to any company, real or virtual is unintentional, no employees were harmed in the writing of this, offer not valid in Minnesota and Illinois)

There it is! If you can still walk after this, you must be from Pembina County! Tell me how many cliches YOU found..

Too Much or Too Little?

As election nears, the political ads are becoming near-unbearable. I only half-listen, preferring to get my information other places- a trait that separates me from most of the electorate, it seems. But I have noticed two ads that I feel I have to comment on.
The first is an ad criticizing Rep. Tom Brusegaard for the sin of not attending 19 of 22 interim legislative committee meetings. Rep. Brusegaard defends this by saying that the meetings accomplish little other than costing money, a sentiment I would tend to agree with, having sat through more than a couple meetings in my life.
The other ad is, again, a Democratic (not that there's anything WRONG with that) challenger who is saying that Rep. Ken Svedjan has spent TOO much money on legislative junkets, fact- finding missions, and so on. Rep Svedjan in turn defends his actions by saying they have benefited those he represents by the increase in networking and contacts he has made, nation-wide.
I may have my doubts about that, but let's set that aside for now, to ask this question of the Nord Akota Democratic party: Which way do you want it? Too much travel and participation, or not enough? Do you guys talk among yourselves when cooking up those ads?
Discuss among yourselves.
Any similar dissonance noted in the Republican ads? Tell us here.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....blleecchh.

Is there anything that can drag the Good Ol' Boy's normally sunny, cheerful countenance down like a snowfall? Not much, let me tell ya. As winter wraps its icy fingers around my heart and squeezes the joy out like so much lemon juice, darkness wraps itself around me like a wet carpet. Seasonal Affective Disorder is real, I'm here to say.
Driving around ice-slickened streets in four wheel drive the last two days, seeing a slushy icy cityscape is just a total bummer. This is not the beautiful white blanket of Christmas-card scenes, oh no. This stuff made our beautiful Boyd Drive look like winter had been here and was leaving already. Oh if that were only true, huh?

Speaking of weather, I found another GF blog- someone calling herself the Weather Gal has a blog, called "Tales From the Sunflake City" you should all visit and say hello to. I have linked to her blog at the right. No way to tell if she is regaling in this weather or not- ask her when you go to her blog. And remember, mind your manners! The weather is not her fault.

Also newly linked is the Lone Prairie Blog, from a Julie R. Neidlinger. She is blogging from the prairie setting of Hampden, ND, and is always entertaining. I will refrain from comparisons of Hampden to my native Pembina county. To the outsider the two settings would differ little, but Hampden is, you see, "Up on the hill" and that makes a difference, weatherwise, cropswise, and I'm convinced, peoplewise. Not better or worse, just different. So say hello to her, too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find my sun lamp....