Over the last month I've been pretty much swamped with things to do.  I joined the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes and have spent a good deal of time going through inititiations and classes.  It's been a good thing so far for me.  I expect that as time goes by the examples set by the men should do wonders to straighten out some issues I've had with growing up.  I've worked through a lot of them, but I expect that having a group of men of good moral standing will help me.  There's also a sister organization that I think my wife might be interested in, and a daughter organization for my kids. 

Also attended the state Democratic convention in May.  What a snorefest.  It was held at U-Mass-Amherst.  The speeches were done in the morning at the campus arena.  A resolution was brought forth to request the state US Reps and Senators to vote to end the war in Iraqnam.  Another was to request that the state step in and help stem the tide of foreclosures in Massachusetts.  The last was to ask for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.  I voted yes on the Vietnam question, no on the foreclosures, and yes on the impeachment.  The yes on impeachment is more to make a point.  There is no chance in hell that Der Fuhrer will be impeached.  Hopefully he'll leave office in a legal fashion.  After the speechifying and voting we were told that we had thirty minutes for lunch, that we had to walk to the U-Mass student center which is ten minutes to walk, then find the discussion rooms for the next set of meetings.  Yep, thirty minutes.  Didn't work out that well.  I skipped lunch.  As the afternoon progressed the best discussions were held in rooms that should only have forty people in them.  They had 100.  I've found that being involved in a party structure like this is a fulltime job.  I see why people don't stay involved for long, or if they do they do it on the fringes. 

In other news this weekend I learned that I've been elected as chair of the town Finance Board.  I couldn't make the meeting, so I don't know what transpired.  Since we rotate the chair through the members it's not a huge honor, but at the same time since I have only two years done it's nice that they decided I could do it, and not skip me.  Personally I would have skipped me and gone to someone else.  We have a defined process and really get moved along in what we do by the needs of the town meetings.  So there isn't any benefit to being chair.  Likewise this is a volunteer position.  On the high point having been chair will make a nice addition to campaign flyers assuming I choose to run again.  I've got so much going on now that I can't say if I would run for an office next year, but that depends on the actions of the school committee over the next year.

What would my diary be without a commentary on the Bush Admnistration.  Today's is brought to you by Alberto Gonzales.  GWB has been quoted on the Senate vote of no confidence that's expected shortly.  He said "To me, it's political,a political resolution on my attorney general that's going to have no bearing on whether he serves in office or not."  Well, I don't think anyone really expected him to take the thoughts of the Senate into mind on his staffing decisions, but to point out that it's a political gesture by a policital body.  No shit.  Whenever I think the man can't impress me with his simple minded ways he finds a new way to do it.

Over at Business Week there's an interesting article about offshoring and GDP.  It has brought to my attention that I don't actually understand what GDP really is.  I thought I understood, but this article points out that I don't.  Interesting article none-the-less.  Business Week has been doing a series on offshoring and the whole series has been a good read.

Concerning work over the last month.  I'm tired.  Very tired.  As I've noted before my job isn't challenging it's annoying.  It's like babysitting.  You babysit the employees, the client, and the senior managers.  No one knows how to take care of themselves and when they have a problem they come looking for the babysitter.  So, I'm tired.  Very tired.