Decisions, Decisions

or

Havin hard times in this crazy town... Well it couldn't last forever. The oilfield crash has finally hit The South 40 and forced me out of retirement as a Southern Country Gentleman. (I refuse to give up my Mint Juleps)

After an exhaustive job search (there ain't many choices 'round these parts folks) I narrowed it down to 2 choices.

Option 1: Deloitte University is a 5 Star Corporate training center and retreat located on the Perot Ranch.

The upside: The dress code is business formal (I love to suit up). 4 day work week. The place just screams high tech and posh. I was blown away by the facility and really liked the people I would be working with running the security center. It looked like something straight out of '24' with a giant video wall that covered the facility in Westlake and other Deloitte locations worldwide.
Very similar setup:


The downside: The commute. An hour each way.

Option 2: Brookshire's has bought 25 Walmart Neighborhood Markets and have raided their current staff to fill those new stores. The Bridgeport store has a management opening that I can work my way into. But I would have to work my way in. (Apparently over a dozen years of management isn't enough to be hired directly into the position.)

The upside: The commute. 10 minutes.

The downside: I have no guarantee of the management position. The pay (even if I do get management) is less than Deloitte starting pay. Less than 40 hours. Not a 4 day work week. I would NOT be suiting up.

Honestly this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Deloitte should be a no-brainer, but I'm really dreading that commute. I guess it will come down to a coin flip.

Happy Birthday Mel Brooks

90 years young!

There's not a Mel Brooks film I don't enjoy. Oh I like some more than others, but I enjoy each and every one of them. Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are classics that can never be remade. Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a film that probably shouldn't have been made (but it still makes me laugh).  I don't get Spaceballs, but it has it's moments and some people think it ranks among his finest. His remake of To Be or Not To Be is woefully underrated.

History of The World, Part 1 is pure genius and has my favorite musical number in film. 

Happy Birthday, Mel. The world would have been a much, much duller place without you in it.

Westworld

Rumored to have been cancelled before it even hit the air, the tales of it's death has been greatly exaggerated.

Can't. wait.

South 40 Fashion

I don't wear a suit often. Hell, I rarely wear one. Most of the time I look like this guy:

instead of this guy:

But when I do suit up, I want to look my absolute best. That's kinda the whole point isn't it? Sadly, my fashion sense is about as sharp as a spork from Wendy's.

Fortunately I stumbled across a site that puts everything together. All the do's and don'ts of modern men's fashion can be found at RSVLTS. From 18 different ways to tie a tie to the proper way to roll up your sleeves, they've got you covered.

Riviera Implosion

One of the final links to "Old Vegas" was imploded early this morning. The Riviera Hotel and Casino came down at 2:35am local time. It opened in 1955 as the city's first high rise resort and during it's heyday it was home to true Las Vegas legends like Liberace and Dean Martin. Deano was made part owner as part of his contract.

The Riviera was also prominently featured in the original Ocean's 11, Diamonds are Forever and Casino. In real life it was steeped in mob life and known as "Chicago's crown jewel in the desert."

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spent $42 million to level the 13-building campus and are planning on using the space to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Mike Carey ejected

The Mike Carey era on CBS has come... and gone. The much maligned "rules expert" for CBS NFL coverage has been cut. His last call was a (another) blown call during the 1st half of Super Bowl 50. 

Well maybe it wasn't his last wrong call...

"They've packed up all my belongings and taken my key card. All signs point to me being promoted." - Mike Carey  https://t.co/bgobDwHVC7

— Steve Kt (@SteveintheKT) June 11, 2016

Oklahoma Takes Civil Asset Forfeiture to 11

OHP Uses New Device To Seize Money 

From KWTV
OKLAHOMA CITY - You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture. 
That's where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime.

Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards.

It's called an ERAD, or Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine, and state police began using 16 of them last month. 

Here's how it works. If a trooper suspects you may have money tied to some type of crime, the highway patrol can scan any cards you have and seize the money. 

"We're gonna look for different factors in the way that you're acting,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent said. “We're gonna look for if there's a difference in your story. If there's someway that we can prove that you're falsifying information to us about your business."

Troopers insist this isn't just about seizing cash. 

"I know that a lot of people are just going to focus on the seizing money. That's a very small thing that' s happening now. The largest part that we have found ... the biggest benefit has been the identity theft," Vincent said.

"If you can prove can prove that you have a legitimate reason to have that money it will be given back to you. And we've done that in the past," Vincent said about any money seized. 

State Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, said that removes due process and the belief that a suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He said we've already seen cases in Oklahoma where police are abusing the system. 

"We've seen single mom's stuff be taken, a cancer survivor his drugs taken, we saw a Christian band being taken. We've seen innocent people's stuff being taken. We've seen where the money goes and how it's been misspent," Loveless said.

Loveless plans to introduce legislation next session that would require a conviction before any assets could be seized.

"If I had to err on the side of one side versus the other, I would err on the side of the Constitution,” Loveless said. “And I think that's what we need to do."

News 9 obtained a copy of the contract with the state. 

It shows the state is paying ERAD Group Inc., $5,000 for the software and scanners, then 7.7 percent of all the cash the highway patrol seizes.
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What's worse is the company doing this (and taking a 7.7% cut) is from Fort Worth. This is probably already happening here in Texas.
Erad Group, Inc.
8528 Davis Blvd, Suite 134-343
Ft Worth, TX 76182

D-Day indeed

From Bloomberg

Devon Energy selling Texas, Oklahoma oil & gas assets for $1B

Devon Energy, which has targeted $3 billion of asset sales to fund drilling and lower debt, agreed to sell fields in Texas and Oklahoma and a royalty interest in the northern Midland Basin for almost $1 billion to undisclosed buyers.

 The largest transaction was in East Texas for $525 million, the Oklahoma City-based oil and natural gas producer said in a statement Monday. The company also agreed to sell its position in the Anadarko Basin’s Granite Wash area for $310 million, and its overriding royalty interest across 11,000 net acres in the northern Midland Basin of Texas for $139 million. The transactions are expected to close in the third quarter.

 A global oil-price crash has forced Devon and the rest of the industry to slash costs, lay off thousands of workers and cut dividends and exploration budgets. While prices have rebounded somewhat in 2016, Chief Executive Officer Dave Hager said last month it’s still not enough for Devon to grow production again.

Devon intends to use a third of sale proceeds to bolster this year’s capital spending and pay down debt with the rest, Hager said last month. The company is a major producer in the Barnett Shale, with production concentrated in Wise County.

OU - Even their shirt makers are screwed up

Bwahaha!

Big wheels rollin', Movin On!

I loved this series as a kid for many reasons. First and foremost was it was about truckers and there was quite a bit of truth (balanced out with a healthy scoop of Hollywood bullshit) in the storylines compared to most trucking shows, films, ect. Second, I was a big fan of Claude Akins. The fact Merle Haggard did the theme song didn't hurt, either.

After the pilot they magically got a much nicer truck (first walk-in sleeper I ever saw), but with the same paint job.

Here's the pilot episode/film of Movin' On.

Series theme song: