I have been gone for several days because of my work situation. I have been going in at 6:00 AM and working to 5:00 PM with no lunches. That is the easy part. The hard part to me is that I have to drive almost an hour and a half to get there. I lose 3 hours per day on the road.

As difficult as it has been lately, I found myself in a very challenging situation today. I have six employee's who work for me. They have also been having a stressful time even to the point that the best of the group had to take a couple of days off in order to get himself together. 3 months ago I brought this girl in through a temp agency because I had a bad experience with the previous employee that I hired. She is not making a lot of money, but her 90 days ends on Monday. I am certain that she is expecting a raise. I talked with my boss today who is the president of our division and he told me that we would hire her, but at the same rate that she is making now. She will now have really good benefits, which she has not had, however her pay rate is going to stay the same until she goes through 90 days probation actually working for the company.

Even though I disagree, I am going to have to break the news that she is not getting a raise but yet still expect her to work just as hard as she has been. Are the benefits worth not getting a raise? Is the company doing her wrong in this situation? How would you respond if it were you? Do I care too much to be a good manager?

I was listening to some podcasts on my iPod and I heard a good interview with a couple of the behind the scene's guys on Babylon 5. I thought the show was great when it was on. The effects, the stories, the way the characters interacted with each other were very enjoyable to me.

Was that show before its time or was it just not as good as I thought it was?

I am a podcast listener and last night as I went to update my iPod, I found some very interesting news. On Tuesday, Apple (MAC) announced the release of the Video iPod. That sounded pretty cool, but what would you put on it. I went on to see that they have partnered with ABC and they are selling each episode of "LOST" for $1.99 to down load to your video iPod. They had a couple of other shows, but I found it very nice that a show such as Lost would be the main attraction on a major technology release such as that. They also were selling the whole season for like $35.

I also found a couple of other interesting items during my search of the new items. Marty's song Tree's has now been released as a single on iTune's. Journey has a new Album (CD, song thingy, or whatever you call it now).

The last piece of news I actually found out today. Marty will be opening for INXS. Maybe they are realizing that they needed someone good to at least save them from total disaster.

Do anyone have an iPod and what do you think of the future of portable TV?

On Friday of last week, some very good friends of our family had a child. However, they had some very serious complications. Yesterday at 4:00 in the evening, the child died. It was a terrible situation. I cannot imagine what they are feeling right now. It really made my troubles all seem kind of lame.

My heart really goes out to these guys. They plan to have the funeral tomorrow.

What do you say to someone going through something like that?

Show of the week - Invasion

Well danasdude and I went to see Serenity this weekend. I thought it rocked. For a show that got canned way before its time, this was my kind of movie. A rip roaring ride.

My wife and I watched White Noise tonight. It was a surprisingly good movie also. Michael Keaton had a good showing. This time he did a real spook movie. I still miss him in Beetlejuice though. That was a classic.

Danasdude made me new banner for my page. I love it.

I did get a chance to listen to the new INXS song. It sucks!!

That is about the extent of my week. I am curious though, what is the fastest way to move up a level? Blogs? Reviews? Forum Posts?