Well folks, it has been WAY too long since I have last written. One month to the day, to be exact. Last entry was a review of the successful Fagan-Bachoven wedding. Successful in that both participants showed up and, as sources tell me, continue to be happily married.
There have been several events that came along this year that I never could have prepared myself for. Ever. Let me list off, month by month, the happenings in my life.
It was a pretty football-centric month. Unfortunately, the Eagles did not even come close to knowing anybody who made the playoffs, and their coaching staff was dumped. I think only Deuce Staley made it through the sieve as he is just too huge to pass through anything right now. I predicted maybe 50 percent of the NFL playoffs correctly, and found myself rooting for the Seahawks. My times have changed. As the playoffs progressed, I actually finally predicted the correct Super Bowl matchup as well as correctly picked the eventual winner!
The Eagles hired Chip Kelly and I shared with you the picture of him and Chris Farley side by side. Chip was one of the final coaches hired during a spree in which the NFL declared the fact that no new minority coaches were hired was a travesty unto the league. For real? Seriously, who cares. I don't believe somebody should be discriminated for their race, religion, sexuality, animal preference, or liking the show Glee...but I do believe that only qualified candidates should get the appropriate jobs. You can't even hint at racism in the NFL when the majority of players are actually from a minority!
Speaking of race, religion, and sexuality, Manti T'eo was revealed as having been duped by a man with a woman's voice who and nearly ruined his professional prospects. In my favorite post title of the year, Manti Te'Oh Noooooooooooo!, I backed up Manti as perhaps just being a big ol' goof who didn't know any better.
Once the Super Bowl was set, I relived several classic "Brother vs. Brother" stories throughout the history of mankind as well as describing who I was rooting for individually in the Super Bowl. I very much anticipated the big game, which took us into...
February started off with a bang. Literally only the first couple days. I turned 33 on Saturday February 2. On February 3, I saw a great Super Bowl that I accurately predicted as well as damn near got the score right as well. I reviewed the game, and all was splendid the following Monday. I wrote my review, and had a lot of fun doing it.
Later that night, everything in the world for me changed. I received the phone call from Brandon that I'm sure he never wanted to make. I received the news I never wanted to hear. I received the news I have not yet fully recovered from. A very dear friend - NO...my brother, a source of my inspiration and strength, a hallmark of what I have loved about my life, a go to guy who could make anybody's world better by just showing up - passed away. I do not and will not get into these details. That is for my other forum. Needless to say, the gamut of emotions that still run through me today are hard to sort out. I work on it everyday.
I miss you, my friend.
After the start of my new forum and paying my respects, I was back to work. Normalcy was hard to achieve, but the best thing to do was to stay busy. I put myself back to work at the farthest job site I had where I gave you all a couple snippets about the innovative remediation of groundwater I have been working on/developing. It was a grueling day of work, but the results should be tangible in a quick amount of time. I also exposed each and every one of you to some of the lesser known Duba's of the world. In this month, I wrote a synopsis on the Duba Plains of Africa. An animal hunting/observation/possible-death-by-lion resort, you can swat away mosquitoes the size of bats for the price of a month's salary. Don't bring your kids though because they will be considered food.
After poking Russia in the side at the expense of my second ever HTML based blog post, I did something I never did before. I predicted the Best Picture winner for the Academy Awards. I don't know who actually won, but I really liked the fact I got to use a picture of Kano from Mortal Kombat.
I loved using Kano. He had that great cannonball roll move.
A little thing I like to call "FAT Tuesday" - Free Agent Tuesday - occurred. That's when all NFL teams open up the checkbook to sign new toys before the football season begins. Not sure exactly what I predicted, but that is for me to revisit next March. I look forward to that. I know I did a little bit better with the players I chose to highlight this year.
The Church elected a new pope. Pope Herbert of Quahog, MA. Not quite. It was some dude from South America. I got to find a picture of Poprah Winfrey as well as try my hand at pope name humor.
A couple days after that post it was time to party with the Bachovens. Bach's brother Dach got married to the beautiful Jen Fagan and put on a party I will always remember. Kim and I had a blast. It was great to be with old friends in a more jovial and celebratory setting than the darkness of February. It still felt weird to me, to be out and partying around. I allowed myself to let go, and life took it from there.
Then, the undocumented-by-Duba month began...
A coworker of mine since I started at my company resigned, and I got his position. That included an office all to myself and exclusivity of work pertaining to project management. I had always had my share of project management experience, but I was still also the utility player. I stepped into my office the day after he resigned and moved everything. Set up all my folders, computer stuff, and pictures. I came in that Monday, ready to kick some environmental ass. I did. I had to play catch up and relieve myself from previous work I was doing for other people. However, one of the first things I had to finish was reviewing files available up at the NJDEP office in Trenton. It took two days, and by the end of that second day, a Tuesday, shit hit the fan.
Seven executives as well as the company that employs me, were indicted on charges stemming from election law violations. They were (and still are) severe charges. It was shocking. At the time, nobody knew how to take it, other than it was bad news. What we later learned in an online news story was that the State had also won a court order to seize all cash and assets of my company. The State and my company tried desperately to salvage our paychecks, but nothing could be hashed out. Pay checks were put on hold and the future quickly became uncertain. The company filed for bankruptcy, and the State fought tooth and nail to prevent it. That fight went on for two weeks. The low point was when the company furloughed all 300+ employees. People went on unemployment. Others just stayed home and began planning their next moves. I, like a few others, came back in to work. Whether I was employed or not, I still had clients who depended on my services. It wasn't easy, and the distraction of the latest newspaper article was always there.
Now the company and the State have come to terms to allow us to operate as usual. The damage has been done, though. If you want all the details and specifics, you can just look up the few hints I dropped in the previous paragraph. It was a very, very difficult time. It still is as everything from seems to be pretty dynamic (i.e., constantly changing). To have to deal with bad news after bad news and do your job while everybody around you wants to chit chat can be exhausting. Also working not knowing if you will get paid is difficult. That takes us up to today. Four days after we were no longer furloughed, and now I am awaiting feedback on some things I just submitted.
What does my future hold? I shan't tell you here. I am The Great Jim Duba, not The Unwise Jim Duba.
I will have future updates soon. But I finally caught a break, so here is your treat.
COMING UP...
The NFL schedule was released for the 2013 season last night. I will attempt to do something I never have before - Predict every single game, the entire season, including through the playoffs and eventual Super Bowl winner. It will be like a March Madness bracket, only successful. I also will be predicting the NFL draft on April 25. Perhaps I should predict the season after the draft. It may take me that long to write, anyways. I also have come to learn that my involvement with Rocco's Cub Scout meetings have turned into an AT&T commercial. You know, the one where the adult sits around a bunch of kids and has hilarious conversation. I love those. The werewolf one is my favorite. I look forward to taking my boy camping on the beach next month as well as hopefully my vacation review.
Stay tuned! It's all uphill from here!!
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