Neanderpundit

Y’all lissenup:

In the People’s Republic of Illinois, there’s this blow dried governor named Rod Blagojevich. It’s pronounced Bla Goya vitch.

This man is a born politician in the vein of Bill bastard Clinton, only this man makes Clinton look a choirboy.
He has very specific presidential aspirations.

He is glib, interviews well, has a great line and a great sense of humor. Watch what happens to him in upcoming months, mark my words. There is an interesting scandal brewing

And all of that will not make one iota’s bit of difference to anyone, he will be running for the presidency of the United States despite, or perhaps because, of the scandal he’s heading into. Do not listen. Do not be taken in. Do not be fooled. Do not, under any circumstance, look into his eyes.

Several days ago, Vman mentioned Shingletab in a post, which brought back a lot of memories; then Rob recalls with some fondness the bleeding headwounds of his youth.

It disturbes me- no, wait, I was disturbed before this, never mind. It bothers me that Vman, Acidman, and my humble self seem to be the last people on earth (OK, in blogdom) who remember Shingletab. of course, being Canucks, they call’s em Shingle “chips”, slightly sacreligious though that may be; but the product is the same.

Shingle chips are the donut holes of the paving world. When one of the many manufacturers therof makes a three-tab asphalt shingle, there are two small slices cut out which are wasted and frankly, cannot be used for much at all.

Until some enterprising environmentally minded person decided to see how they’d work as roadway material.

Look at the pictures- it’s not horribly different from Asphalt- and for a long time, we even sealcoated the stuff. It was a great driveway, though in the dead of summer it often got hot and moist enough to stick to your bare feet, and the swiftest most painful retribution of my early teens was received at the business end of my mom’s purse strap, after tracking spots of shingletab onto her new camel colored carpeting.

Makes me want to go get some for our driveway.

Velociman talks about the array of jobs he’s held; yeah, I’ve held a lot of jobs too. Some not so pretty. I’ve been at the current gig for 13 years, but before that I did such things as:
(in no particular order)

(counting only jobs I held for more than a continuous month)

Scheise slinger, covering horse, mule, chicken, and cow.

Lawnmower

Bicycle repairman (Look! It’s Bicycle repairman!)

Lumberjack (and yes, I’m OK)

Building supplies sales

building supply delivery, truck driver.

Bulldozer operator

Crane operator, both stationary and mobile

Heavy equipment field service

Priting sales

Carpenter

Carpetlayer

Joiner

apprentice cabinetmaker, apprenticeship never finished

Apprentice machinist, journeyman machinist
Apprentice electrician, journeyman electrician

Auto mechanic- stayed just long enough to get my ASE certifications

Engineer

Cad designer

Machine tool programmer

Robot programmer

Robotics technician

applications engineer

Manager for advertising agency

DJ at local alternative radio station

stringer for local newspaper

freelance writer for local sporting magazines.

I’ve done a LOT of other things, and many of them for longer than a month, but not contiguously.

Some of these jobs are subsets of other jobs; when i was doing my apprenticeships at Inland, for instance, I did everything from small engine repair to machining special refractory blocks for blast furnaces.

There’s not anbything I can’t fix, or at least get going well enough to be useful, the folks I envy are the Robs and the Kims, the folks who have made a living(of sorts) playing/singing music. I wish I had that in my resume.