Tag Archives: Living in Dickinson, North Dakota

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How My New Job Is Going In Dickinson, North Dakota

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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about starting a new job in Dickinson, North Dakota. I thought that it was going to be one of the best jobs that I ever had, because the company was enthusiastic about my previous work experience in several different areas that they happened to be looking for.

Because I am in my late forties, have had many jobs, and have worked for about seven companies in Dickinson, I knew that there could be complications and obstacles at work. I was mentally and emotionally prepared for things to not go well at work. I was especially expecting to experience hostility and lack of cooperation from the local North Dakotan co-workers, like always.

I had offered to drive my own personal truck to get to the work location two hours away. I was doing this so that the company would not have to find a truck for me, but also so that I would not be entirely at the mercy of others, at a work location two hours from Dickinson. When I arrived at work at 3:45 a.m. on a Monday morning, after waiting 45 minutes for my work manager to arrive, and he did not arrive, I was informed that he would not be in all this week.

The crane truck that was supposed to be at the work location, was here in Dickinson, and I would have to drive it. I was told the keys were in it, I was already late, to get in it and go. I got my personal work equipment bag and my hotel bag for the week out of my own truck and carried them to the crane truck.

The crane truck had spoiled food in a take-out box on the dashboard, all kinds of other garbage on the dashboard, all kinds of garbage on the seat, and on the floor boards. It was dark outside, but looking out the back window of the truck cab, I could see a metal gas can unsecured on top of the right side tool box. I got out of the crane truck and walked to the rear of the truck, on the back bumper, below the level of the rear deck, were two 35 lb buckets of grease, that would have fallen off on the highway. I was very angry about all of this.

I felt like I was being set up to get fired, by my piece of shit North Dakota co-workers, but I realized that it was more likely stupidity that caused the crane truck to be an accident waiting to happen for the next person who drove this truck. I was angry that any company would start a new employee out like this, I sure wouldn’t.

I went back in to the office to inform them that the keys were not in the crane truck. After about twenty minutes, they were able to find an employee who had the keys. As this employee was removing all of the keys that were needed from his key ring, he was saying that a major piece of equipment on the crane truck was not working, that would be needed. Some things were said by a manager along the lines of, it’s not my problem.

I had had about as much as I could take. Everything in my mind was telling me to say to this company, “Hey, that’s O.K., I don’t want to work here.” I now believed that I had made a mistake, and the best thing for me to do now, was to not spend another minute at this company. If I would have gotten in that crane truck and gone, I could have caused an accident on the highway and gotten someone hurt with all the things that were ready to fall off the truck. I didn’t know what else was wrong with this truck, was the boom locked down, was the other rigging locked down, what was my clearance height?

I had not been given any drive maps, work site location, work orders, work contacts, hotel information, fuel credit card for the crane truck, hydrogen sulfide H2S monitor, or been asked if I had all of my mandatory personal safety equipment. They just wanted me to go. I was getting a very bad impression of the company, and I believed that this is what the company was like, no thought, planning, preparation, care, concern, or accountability.

If anything went wrong, they would just blame me, and I thought that they were setting me up to fail. I wanted so bad to quit right then, to spare myself from the blame of everything going wrong, which everything would likely go wrong. If I would have known that I would have had to drive this crane truck, there was plenty of time on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday for me to inspect and check this crane truck, and the equipment on this truck, when there was day light.

If the crane truck would have been low on fuel, this might have been the last straw. I considered whether I was willing to spend my own money to fuel this truck, rather than deal with the people in the office, who weren’t prepared to provide me with anything.

I left the company yard being more angry, than nervous about driving a very large truck, which I hadn’t driven anything this large for six years. At about 6:00 a.m., I telephoned my co-worker that I was supposed to meet at the work location. I could tell from his voice that he was from the South like me. I was relieved that I would not be working with a North Dakotan.

When I got to the work location at about 7:30a.m., I talked to the man who I would be working with. He was my age. He had worked in the oil field for most of his life, so had his father, and his grandfather. He was very knowledgeable about most areas of oil field work and operations. He looked at the piece of equipment on the crane truck that was broken, and he said that there was very little we could do without this piece of equipment working. He said we would take his truck back to Dickinson.

During the two hour drive back to Dickinson, I had the chance to talk to my co-worker from the South. He explained to me why the company was, the way that it was. He explained that he tries to handle everything, and take care of everything on his own. To not rely on the office in Dickinson, to handle everything himself, as much as possible. As long as work gets done, and the work makes money, he is allowed to operate on his own, without much interference. This is the only way he wants to work.

After getting parts in Dickinson, I was able to drive my own personal truck back to the work location. In the next two days, I worked in the oil field with my co-worker, who was in charge of the work because of his four or five year work relationship with the customer, and because of his many more years work experience in the oil field. On about the third day, my co-worker began leaving me on my own, to go do other things. By the end of the first week, I was working on my own for most of the day.

I was a little angry, that I was having to do all of the work by myself, I didn’t think that I was supposed to be doing everything by myself all the time. On the other hand, I was being left alone, left in charge of the work, and I was not being bothered. After a few days of working with my co-worker, I had told him that I had been a foreman, a superintendent, a project manager, an inspector, and had operated my own construction business. Because of my age, my work experience, and working with me, my co-worker believed that I did not need any supervision or help, and that he could be elsewhere, doing other things.

What my co-worker wanted, and I suppose what I want too, is to be left alone to do your work. To not get phone calls where people are quizzing you about work progress and work details. To not have people pushing you to get more work done. To not have other people trying to tell you how to do the work, what you are doing wrong, and trying to direct everything you do, like you are not capable of directing yourself.

In order to get work done, I have chosen to work on many bad weather days, rainy days, and high wind days. There is a prohibition against performing certain operations when the wind is over thirty miles per hour, but I have done it anyway, because about 30% of the time there have been high winds. This is possibly another reason why my co-worker has decided to be elsewhere doing other things. If I get caught performing certain operations when the wind is over thirty miles per hour, it is better for my co-worker and my company to deny any knowledge of this, that no one knew that I was doing this, to let me take the blame, and for me to get fired. I understand that if the work does not get completed, my company can not get paid, and my co-worker and I can not get paid unless we work every day completing the work.

There are a lot of dangerous things that I have to do many times each day, that are just part of this work. Every location that I go to has multiple surveillance cameras which are monitored at an operations center. If the customer wanted to, they could watch every step that I performed, all day long. Every location has SCADA systems, supervisory control and data acquisition systems, which monitor and send oil and gas flow rates, oil and gas pressures, oil and gas temperatures, valve positions, electric motor speeds, electric motor loading, and probably perimeter breach. Every location that I go to and begin work, causes the operations center to receive alarms for drop in flow rates, drop in pressure, stop in motor load, and stop in motor speed. The multiple alarms result in the operations center looking at the surveillance cameras for that location to determine what is going on at that location. Because each location cost many millions of dollars, I get watched at each location by the people at the operations center. Many people do not know this or think about this, but they should.

I have about two or three more weeks of out of town work, then, as far as I know, I will be working out of the Dickinson office. I don’t know how this will go, or if I can handle this or not. I don’t know if I can take the lack of cooperation, unfriendliness, and unhelpfulness that I always get from North Dakota co-workers. The past three weeks my co-worker from the South has been cordial and has let me work on my own. The customer oil company personnel have been very civil and decent so far. I don’t know if I can take what is going to happen when I go back to Dickinson.

There Aren’t Even Any Skank Girls In Western North Dakota

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I have lived in Western North Dakota for almost five years now. I have written many blog posts about the shortage of women and the scarcity of attractive women in Western North Dakota. About one year ago I wrote a blog post titled, “List Of Attractive Women In Dickinson, North Dakota”. On that list, I have included three women from Watford City, one woman from Belfield, one woman from South Heart, two women from Amidon, and about ten women from Dickinson. I have only been able to come up with about twenty attractive women in Western North Dakota, and I have been here for five years.

I thought about attractive women that I could add to my List Of Attractive Women, being careful to not include any skank women, and then I realized that there aren’t even any skank women in Western North Dakota. About one month ago I wrote a blog post titled, “Skank Women From The South”. In that blog post I had intended to point out and explain that there aren’t any skank women in Western North Dakota, but I only managed to describe skank women.

Skank women start out in life being underprivileged. They are often pale and skinny as children and adolescents because they don’t have access to very much food, and they don’t get to go outside and play in the sun. Also, they sometimes have scars from a car accident, animal attack, or other mishap. When they become teenagers, they sometimes blossom into attractive young ladies, but they are poor, and not from respectable families, so they are not destined to be a cheerleader, homecoming queen, or go to college and be in a sorority. Sometimes, they have a stigma attached to them because their mother was so wild, or their father was a criminal.

As all good respectable women know, their husband, boyfriend, brother, or son can become involved with a skank woman. Skank women did not have a lot growing up, they did not have high expectations in life, they only expected to have small pleasures in life, such as going out, getting drunk, and having the affection and company of men.

Skank women are not necessarily trashy. If I wanted to talk about white trash women, I would say that I was talking about white trash women. White trash women are the next level below skank women. Now that I think about it, there aren’t even hardly any white trash women in Western North Dakota.

In Western North Dakota, besides the twenty attractive women on my list, it skips straight down past the skank women level, straight past the white trash women level, and stops at one of two lower levels, the battle axe women, and the drug addict women.

Just like there is a scarcity of attractive women, there is a scarcity of plain average women, and you mainly see women that are the battle axe women, the women with big ankles, ham fists, and scowling faces, that look like somebody hits them in the face with the flat side of a 1”x4” board every morning. The other women that you mainly see are the drug addict, problem women, that came from Los Angeles, Los Vegas, Spokane, or Coeur d’Alene.

The South is full of skank women. They work at banks, book keeping, retail stores, offices, and in health care. They are easy to meet and talk to. You meet them at the places where they work, at any store you go to, any place you go: convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Wal-Mart, laundromats, dry cleaners, the beach. They don’t go to the gym, or go to church.

Skank women like getting asked out. If they got asked out nicely three times in one day, they would probably agree to go out on three different dates. They look forward to getting slightly dressed up, to meet someone for dinner at a restaurant, or drinks at a bar. They like meeting people, going places, and doing things. They see going out with people as an opportunity to do all kinds of things that they like: eating good food, having good drinks, getting drunk, dancing, making friends, going new places, seeing other people’s nice clothes, jewelry, cars, motorcycles, boats, animals, and homes. They like to have fun, they look forward to having fun.

The battle axe women in Western North Dakota want to make everyone miserable, most of the time, they are like ogres or trolls. The problem drug addict women that came to Western North Dakota from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Spokane, and Coeur D’Alene to work at the bars, restaurants, and hotels just want to get high on meth, crack, or heroin.

I Need To Warn Everyone About Dickinson And Western North Dakota

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I started this blog about three years ago to tell everyone from out of state what Dickinson, North Dakota is like.  I wanted people to have truthful information about Dickinson so that they would be prepared and know what to expect if they came to Dickinson to work, or perhaps they would choose not to come if they knew the truth.  Now more than ever, I need to warn people about Dickinson and Western North Dakota.

First, the Oil Boom is over in North Dakota.  The number of operating oil drill rigs went from 200 a few years ago, to less than 40 currently.  There are fracturing operations going on, and work over rig operations going on, but these operations will be winding down in about a year.  There are many, many experienced applicants already living in Western North Dakota for every job opening that is advertised.

Second, Dickinson and Western North Dakota are going to experience a great Economic Bust in approximately 1-1/2 years.  There are a combination of more than four economic factors that guarantee an Economic Bust is coming.  At least 70% of the oil field jobs went away after 2015.  Many oil field workers moved out of state, but some remained.  There are now many, many experienced and able-bodied applicants for every job that is advertised.  The wage rates are decreasing, workers are making less money.  70% of the oil field jobs went away.  Every business is making less money.  Businesses need fewer employees now.  More people will be forced to move away from Western North Dakota due to a reduction in wage rates, and a reduction in jobs.  As more and more people move away, businesses will close, there will be fewer jobs, and more people will have to move away.

Three, the people in Western North Dakota have hated outsiders for many generations.  They have hated and mistreated the out of state workers in every way possible throughout this Oil Boom in North Dakota that began in 2007.  Now that the Oil Boom is over, the people in Dickinson are targeting out of state workers with hatred and hostility like never before.  The local human resources personnel with the City of Dickinson, Stark County, the State of North Dakota, and private employers, hide job openings and only disclose them to friends and family members, so that their friends and family members can get hired.  The Western North Dakota Highway Patrol and police are targeting out of state workers to try to make them leave North Dakota.

Prior to working in Western North Dakota, I worked in Tampa for seven years, Arizona for five years, Idaho for five years, and Texas for one year.  In Tampa, Arizona, Idaho, and Texas, I never once got stopped by the police in those eighteen years of working.  In the past year in Western North Dakota, I have been stopped and questioned by the police three times. None of these times was I speeding.

Strange Coincidence In New Town, North Dakota

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In a recent previous blog post, I explained that I started a new job last week in Dickinson, North Dakota.  The company that I work for, asked me to drive two hours to the north, to work in the oil field in New Town.  Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, I stay at the Native American casino in New Town, called Four Bears.

New Town is a Native American town on Lake Sakakawea.  There are no fast food restaurants in New Town, like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Taco Bell.  There aren’t hardly any restaurants or stores.  Everything closes at night, including the gas stations.

On my second day in New Town, when I got off work, I went to every gas station, truck stop, and store that I could see, to try to find a clip board.  At about 5:30 p.m., I was at the largest store in New Town, called Shop Ko, looking for a clip board, and looking at other things.  When I got to the check out line with some bottles of Powerade, there stood a strange tall fellow from Wyoming who is a friend of mine, named Seth.

I had felt like I was at the end of the earth, in the middle of no where, and here is my friend Seth, about 700 miles from his home in Wyoming.  I was surprised to see him, but not really.  He appeared to be thinking the same thing.

I first met Seth in Dickinson, North Dakota in May of 2011, at the Tiger Truck Stop. I had a truck bed camper on the back of my truck, and I slept in the truck stop parking lot or the WalMart parking lot for a couple of days until I went to work for a company that let me stay on their property.  Seth had a 1986 Mercury Grand Marquis that he paid $100 for, and he slept in the back seat, in various locations around Dickinson.

For those of you who don’t know, or don’t remember, during the oil boom in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston, an old small one bedroom apartment rented for $1,500 per month, if you could even find one available.  It was not unusual at that time, for people to sleep in their vehicles, campers, or tractor trucks.

I was not too worried at that time back in 2011, sleeping in a truck bed camper, because I owned a home back in Idaho, and I had enough money to not have to work for nine months.  I looked at being in Dickinson, as an adventure.  The oil boom, was kind of like being in the middle of a gold rush in the old west.  People were arriving every day in Dickinson, with no money, and expecting to get rich.

On some days, five dollars was all the money in the world that Seth had.  He didn’t let this get him down, or worry him.  This didn’t worry him, partly because he had lived his whole life with frequent periods of having very little money.

Seth grew up in a rural area in Wyoming.  In his whole life, he attended school for maybe a total of three years.  His parents were supposed to be home schooling him, but mostly they were trying to diminish him, to prevent him from becoming a normal adult, so that he would never be able to leave them and go out on his own.

Due to his parents trying to keep him down and sabotage everything Seth did, he became almost completely independent from them, by the time he was eight or ten years old.  He lived in tents, old trailers, and old shacks, with no water, and no electricity, away from his parents.  He did odd jobs, outside of town for ranchers, and in town for people and for businesses.

Sympathetic ranchers, towns people, and business owners would help him and give him things.  His whole life, his clothes were either given to him, or he got them at a thrift store like Goodwill.  Seth is color blind, so it was common that Seth would be given, or would find, red pants, green pants, or purple pants, and he would wear them and think nothing of it, because he didn’t know.

I am describing all these things about Seth, to explain that he is different.  He did not go to school as a child.  He was not raised by parents, he was at war with his parents, who tried to prevent him from being normal, so that he would never be able to go out on his own.  Living on his own as a child, without running water and electricity, having to scavenge for food and clothes, only ever having donated clothes, makes him appear and act differently than other people, now that he is an adult.

In the summer of 2011, on the weekends Seth and I would go camping, cooking out, and shooting in various places in North Dakota.  On some weekends we would drive to a gun show in Wyoming or Montana.  During the week after work, without planning it, we would end up eating at Bonanza at the same time, or end up at the same location that had internet access.

I was good friends with Seth for several years, but I almost got into trouble many times or I almost had an accident many times while doing things with Seth.  For instance, at a gun show in Montana, the police were called because “He was buying too many guns.”, and there was almost a police officer punched.  Another time, Seth was shooting an M1A rifle next to me, and it blew up.  Because Seth is color blind, he grabbed the wrong re-load powder, and accidentally re-loaded a bunch of cartridges with it, which after about twenty shots, blew the bolt back out of the receiver, broke the receiver, and blew apart the magazine, sending shrapnel in different directions.

I have many more “for instances” about almost getting into trouble while going places or doing things with Seth.  It came to the point, that I didn’t want to have any more involvement with him, because I just did not want problems and trouble.

Seeing Seth in New Town and talking to him, I believed that he probably did not have a place to stay.  I was going to offer to let him stay in my hotel room at the Four Bears Casino that my new employer was paying for, even though it could jeopardize my employment.  The room charge was for just one occupant, and it might go up quite a bit if the casino saw that there were two occupants.

Seth said he had to turn off his vehicle, he left it running to keep the air conditioning on for the cat.  The driver’s side window was broken out, it was taped with plastic sheeting, and the vehicle was damaged all over.  There is no way that the casino security, which drives through the parking lot every five to ten minutes, would not notice Seth’s vehicle and try to find out who it belonged to.  I could see getting into trouble and conflict with the casino hotel over Seth’s vehicle, Seth’s cat, and an unusual strange person staying in the hotel who is not a registered guest.

I was glad to see Seth, but I just can’t have much involvement with him sometimes because I don’t want to have problems and trouble.

The Police Are Trying To Encourage People To Leave North Dakota

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I first came to North Dakota to work in the oil field in May of 2011.  For the first two years, I primarily worked around Dickinson, North Dakota.  I realized very soon after arriving in Dickinson, that the police were very eager to stop people for DUI.

There is very little to do in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Especially if you are not from Dickinson, don’t have friends, don’t have family, and don’t own a home here.  There is very little to do here, except go to bars and restaurants.  The police drive around and around the downtown areas, waiting to try to get a chance to stop someone.

The police have already driven past the Paragon, the Spur, the Rock, Bernie’s Esquire Club, the Eagles Lodge, and Applebees several times, and noticed what vehicles were parked outside.  When a customer has to drive home on Villard, State, or Main, the police already know where the person just left.

I don’t call this policing, or law enforcement.  Policing and law enforcement would be to deter and detect crime.  This is more like harassment and corruption, starting out with the intention of making an arrest, pulling over as many motorists as possible, and trying to come up with something illegal that you can accuse them of.

Over the past three years, I have written several blog posts about getting stopped by the police in Dickinson, North Dakota, and Watford City, North Dakota.  I try to not ever drink alcohol at bars and restaurants in North Dakota, because I know that the police are very aggressive in stopping people for DUI.  When I have not been drinking alcohol, and have not been speeding, I have gotten stopped by the police more than several times in North Dakota.   The police are hopeful that once they get you pulled over, they will find something that you can be arrested for.

Beginning this spring, the police and Highway Patrol in North Dakota have become much, much more aggressive in trying to stop motorists for anything they can possibly come up with.  I would say, that this behavior of the police and Highway Patrol in Dickinson now amounts to violating people’s Civil Rights, and constitutional rights.

I have been a licensed driver for 30 years.  In my first 15 years of driving, I got two moving violation tickets, and had one accident.  In my second 15 years of driving, I have gotten no moving violation tickets, and had no accidents.  I got stopped by the Montana Highway Patrol in March of this year, and I was given a “failure to wear seat belt” citation.  I got stopped by the North Dakota Highway Patrol last weekend, and I was given a “failure to wear seat belt” citation.  In both of these stops by the Highway Patrol, I was going under the speed limit, and I was towing a trailer.

Let me repeat, and point out again, that prior to being stopped by the Montana Highway Patrol in March of 2017, and by the North Dakota Highway Patrol in June of 2017, I had not had any moving violations or vehicle accidents in the past 15 years.  During the past 15 years, I have driven to Florida, through Utah many times, and I lived in Arizona, Texas, Idaho, and North Dakota.

I am writing this blog post because I have had enough of the police in Dickinson and the Highway Patrol in Dickinson trying to stop me for something.

In the beginning of June, I rented an apartment in downtown Dickinson.  In mid-June I got stopped by the Highway Patrol when I was towing a trailer from the north side of Dickinson across town to where my new apartment is.  The following weekend, I was continuing to make trips to move things to my new apartment.

I was driving west on Villard, driving the speed limit, 25 mph.  My police radar detector started beeping just as I was passing through the stoplight at 3rd Avenue.  I saw the front end of a Dickinson Police vehicle sticking out beside the wall of the Sax Motor Company building.  He was hiding.  There were very few vehicles on Villard, it was approximately 9:00 a.m.  As I passed the police vehicle that was parked, the police vehicle did not pull out onto Villard.

After I had driven three blocks further, I looked in my rear view mirror, to see if the police vehicle had pulled out onto Villard, and it had not.  I did not want to get stopped by the Dickinson Police.  I did not want them following me.

Just before I reached the west end of Villard, just before the very last stop light beside the gas station, I needed to change into the left lane, because the road narrows from two lanes to one lane.  I didn’t plan on using my turn signal to change lanes, I just looked in my rear view mirror and my side mirror to make sure that there were no vehicles beside me.  Whoa!, there’s that Dickinson Police vehicle, he got behind me and he stayed back three blocks behind me, for about a mile, with his radar turned off so that I didn’t know he was there.

Attention Dickinson Police, this is beyond ridiculous, this is going too far.  First, you are hiding behind the wall of the Sax Motor Company building with speed detector radar on, and then you are pulling out behind passing motorists on Villard, and then following them for one mile, hoping to be able to stop them for speeding, changing lanes without signaling, turning without signaling, failure to come to a complete stop, not maintaining lane, expired registration, brake light not working, etcetera.

This is not policing and law enforcement, this is harassment, and interfering with people’s Civil Rights, and constitutional rights to travel freely, and not be required to explain and prove that you are not engaged in any illegal activity.   I don’t know if the Chief of Police in Dickinson has instructed the police officers to stop, question, and ticket every vehicle with an out of state license plate, or if the police officers in Dickinson have decided to do this all on their own.

Whenever I have to drive in Dickinson now, I have to try to find a way to not get stopped by the police.  I have to watch out for where the police are hiding, and watch out for them trying to sneak up behind me.  Figuring out ahead of time, that there is a temporary construction zone ahead, where you have to change lanes and reduce speed, and that this is why the police are trying to follow behind me right here, without me noticing them.

To answer a question, why do I have an Idaho license plate on my truck?  I have two trucks with North Dakota license plates, and two trucks with Idaho license plates.  I own a home in Idaho, which is my primary residence.  I have the full amount of income tax withheld from my pay checks by the State of North Dakota, and, I have to pay Idaho income tax too.  I pay motor vehicle registration, and income tax, equally to both North Dakota, and Idaho.

I purchased two trucks, thousands of dollars in construction equipment, thousands of dollars in personal property, paid thousands of dollars in truck repairs, and paid $25,000 in rent, all in North Dakota.  I wish that the police would leave me the fuck alone, instead of trying to harass me and try to get me to leave North Dakota.

I think that the police are trying to force people from out of state, to leave North Dakota, so that the less able and less qualified North Dakotans will be able to gain employment.  Also, I think that this is part of a strategy to get the people in North Dakota back under control.

Four Bears Casino And New Town, North Dakota

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I started a new job on Monday of this week.  I agreed to go work in the oil field in New Town, North Dakota, and stay at the Native American casino, called Four Bears.

In the mid 1940s the United States Government was trying to determine the best location to dam the Missouri River to create a reservoir.  The area that was decided upon, was an area where the Native American tribes the Hidasta and the Mandan, had approximately eight villages.  These Native American villages were to be flooded in approximately 1950 when the dam was completed.

The Native Americans were relocated to an entirely new town, called New Town.  The population of New Town stayed at approximately 1,700 people from 1950 up until the oil boom that began in 2007.  Then, the population doubled, and tripled.

I heard about it, and then I saw it for myself when I got here, the  Native Americans here do have some resentment towards white people.  You could say that they look upon the white people here, as a nuisance.

My experiences so far this week have been good and bad.  The reservoir, called Lake Sakakawea is very beautiful.  From a short distance away, it looks like the dark blue water washes right up onto green grass, green prairie, and green farm fields.

I had read on the internet many very bad reviews and complaints about the Four Bears Casino.  When I arrived at the casino, I agree with all the reviews that said it is very hard to find and identify the entrance to the hotel.  I had to drive around and around for at least five minutes looking for the hotel entrance, and the parking lot made no sense, it was no where near the entrance.

When I got to my room, it was quite nice.  It had been recently painted, the carpet was new, and all the furniture was nice and new.  The hotel has a buffet dining room, a cafe, and a formal dining restaurant.

I had had such a bad day on Monday, I fell asleep face down on top of the bed with my clothes and boots on, at 5:00 p.m.  When I got cleaned up and walked to the hotel buffet restaurant, it was closed, it closes at 9:00 p.m., and I was very angry.  I went back to my hotel room to study the oil field site maps, work forms, and other things until 11:00 p.m.  When I walked down to the café, it was closed, it closes at 11:00 p.m., and I was very angry.  What kind of a casino is this?

If you read my previous blog post about starting work for a new company, I was at work at 3:45 a.m. Monday morning.  I had a horrible day, and I had not had anything to eat all day.  Because there was no way to get anything to eat at the hotel casino, I went out and got in my truck and I had to drive across the bridge over Lake Sakakawea to get into New Town.  There was not one restaurant, store, or gas station open, nothing.  I wanted to pack my things and drive back to Dickinson, New Town sucked so bad.

I was looking forward to finally getting something to eat on Tuesday night.  I made sure to be at the hotel buffet by 7:00 p.m.  I asked how much for the buffet.  They said $23.  I couldn’t believe it.  I went ahead and paid it because there is almost no where else to eat in New Town.  All the food looked very good at the hotel buffet.  I am on a diet, so I ate a salad, some meat loaf, and some mashed potatoes, that was it.  It took me about eight minutes to eat.

On Wednesday night, I walked down to the hotel buffet and they wanted $30.  I told them to forget it.  I walked down to the hotel fine dining restaurant, and I looked at the menu.  All of the menu items were $50 to $70.  The appetizers were $23.  I told them to forget it.

I had to drive back across the bridge to the other side of town to eat at Teddy’s Hotel restaurant.  Man, the company that I work for has me staying at the Four Bears Casino, and I don’t know why.  I leave the hotel to go to work at 5:30 a.m., and when I get back from working in the oil field all day, and take a shower, I can’t even eat here!

Today, Thursday, I found out that the Four Bears hotel does not have any laundry facilities.  Then, I found out that the whole town of New Town does not have any laundry facilities.

When I worked in the oil field in southwest Texas in 2012, it was just like this.  I have been to every gas station and store in New Town, and I could not find one clip board anywhere.  I couldn’t find any nail clippers either.

If I would not have had a police radar detector, I would have gotten a speeding ticket every time I drove somewhere.  The speed limit constantly changes from 40 mph to 25 mph, back and forth, and I have no idea how fast I am supposed to be driving.  Every time I drive somewhere, the police have someone pulled over.

New Town is a very stressful and unpleasant town.  I am getting the impression that none of the oil field workers want to be here.  If you watch some of the movies about what it was like being in the military stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, that is what it is like here in New Town.  The local people don’t want us here, and you can’t do normal things like you did back home.

There is no McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell, Taco Johns, Subway, Dominoes, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Pizza Hut.  You can’t buy things like a clip board or nail clippers.

My New Job In Dickinson, North Dakota Almost Turned Out To Be The Worst Job I Ever Had

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This winter I was working very few hours for a company in Dickinson where I had been employed for the past three years.  I looked at all of the internet job posting websites several times each week for job openings in Dickinson all winter.

I wrote several blog posts about very few job openings being advertised for Dickinson, North Dakota.  I began looking for job openings in Williston and Watford City.  There were very few job openings in Williston and Watford City.

I applied for about six jobs, for work that I had done in the past.  I received no response.  For one job that I applied for, I had the highest level of State of North Dakota certification that you can get, and a very good work record in that field.  I contacted the human resources department of the company, and they couldn’t explain why they would not hire me.

Finally, I applied for a job, for work that I had done before, and both the first interviewer and the second interviewer were very complimentary and enthusiastic about my resume, my work experience, and what I could do at their company.  I was very happy to get some acknowledgement.  I was hired last week at this company.

I had to buy about $310 of fire resistant clothing, because it was required, and I only had four FR shirts, and no FR pants.  I had to go to an all day oil field safety training class, and later that night do some on-line orientation and tests.  I was told to show up at 5:00 a.m. Friday for my first day of work.

When I showed up for work at 5: 00 a.m. Friday, I was asked by a manager if I was willing to go work in New Town, two hours drive to the north.  I could stay at the Four Bears Casino resort.  I said that I could do this.  The manager said that the crew truck was already up there, but they would try to find me a truck to drive up there.

In order to not cause the company any trouble, and to have a way to get away if I needed to, I offered to drive my own truck.  This was fine with the manager, and it was fine with me.  I was told to arrive at the office at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning.

When I arrived at the office at 3:45 a.m. on Monday, there was no one around.  Shortly after 4:00 a.m., there were a few work crews loading their trucks, but none of them were going to New Town.

At about 4:30 a.m., a manager arrived, and this manager told me, that the manager that I had talked to on Friday would not be in all this week.  I didn’t like this, it looked like things were turning bad.  The manager that was present, telephoned the manager that was absent, to ask what was going on.  The new instructions were, that I was to drive a very large crane truck from the company yard, up to New Town.  They were mad that I was already late.  I was mad because I was there at 3:45 a.m.

If I had known that I would have to drive a very large crane truck, I would have gone through this truck on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  It is very dangerous to get in and drive a large crane truck, without checking everything.  You need to check the tires, the engine oil, if the boom is locked down, are the outriggers up, what is your height clearance, check the side mirrors, clean the windshield, make sure all the tool compartment doors are closed, make sure all the rigging and equipment is secured.  You could get someone killed if everything on the truck is not locked down.  The managers just wanted me to get in it and go.

When I got in the crane truck, there was week old spoiled food in a take out box on the dashboard.  There were about five other pieces of garbage on the dashboard along with ten other things that should not have been there.  The seat was so full of garbage and debris, that I could hardly sit down.  There was garbage on the floor boards.  Looking out the rear window, I could see an unsecured metal gas can on the top of a side tool box.  When I climbed up on to the rear bed, I found two five gallon buckets of grease, on the very back ledge, that would have fallen off on the highway.

I was very, very angry.  No company should allow employees to leave a company vehicle like this.  I had thought that I was going to work for a good company, but it was obvious that this was a terrible company.  They wanted me to just get in this truck and go.  There were no keys in the ignition, and I could not find keys anywhere in this truck.

I went back inside the office, and I said that the keys were not inside the truck.  The manager had to think a while who might have the keys, and who he could call.  I wanted so much to say, “Hey, I don’t want to work here, this place is a mess.”

I had never worked for a company as bad as this.  I did not have a company credit card to pay for fuel for this truck.  I did not have any drive directions, contact information on who I was meeting and where, and I did not have a hydrogen sulfide H2S monitor which is absolutely mandatory in the oil field.

When I was asking the manager these things, he was kind of irritated.  When a young man was found who had the keys, this young man had included the six keys for this truck and its tool boxes, with his personal keys.  As this young man was fishing through all the keys that he had, and trying to separate the ones for this truck, he was informing us that a major piece of equipment on this truck that would be required for work in New Town, was not working.

I had to sign an agreement that I would be liable for the multi gas meter that was issued to me, that cost $750.  I had already signed an agreement that if I quit prior to six months, I would be liable for the cost of my all day oil field safety class, and the cost of my pre-employment drug test.  I had already spent $310 on FR clothing.  I never felt so bad about going to work for a company, so disgusted, disappointed, angry, and tricked.

Within about one hour of driving this truck, I had to go through the mountain switchbacks north of Killdeer called “the breaks”.  With this type of truck with air brakes, the air brakes alone are not enough to slow you down on steep down hills.  Before you start going down hill, you have to shift into a lower gear.  If you don’t get the shifter into a lower gear while you are still going slow, and you start to speed up, you never will be able to get into a lower gear, it is too late.  It is a good thing that I knew this, because I found that the brakes were not enough to slow this truck down on the steep down hills.

When I made it to New Town, the experienced oil field worker that I would be working with, said that there was no work assignment that we could complete with the piece of equipment on the truck being broken.  Phone calls were made to try to get some parts.  The client who was expecting work to be completed that day, had to be informed why work could not be completed today.  We had to drive a different truck back to Dickinson, to try to get parts.

The experienced oil field worker that I would be working with, he was from the South, like me.  He was very knowledgeable and easy to get along with, so I thought that I would try to stick it out a while longer, at least long enough to pay for my oil field safety class and my pre-employment drug test.

Me And More Problems With The Highway Patrol

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About two months ago I wrote a blog post about getting stopped by the Highway Patrol in Montana, titled “Almost Getting Caught By The Montana Highway Patrol With 20 Pounds Of Methamphetamine”.

How that all began, was my room mate in Dickinson, the owner of the house where I live, was acting so mentally ill and offensive, that I felt that I needed to move out of his house.  I quickly and unexpectedly had to begin moving my property back to Idaho.  I put a 4,500 lb Toyota truck on a 2,000 lb trailer, and I began towing this 6,500 lb load behind a two wheel drive 4,000 lb truck back to Idaho.  There was a sudden unexpected snow storm, and I got stuck on the interstate in Montana, right behind a tractor truck that was also stuck in the snow.

The 25 mile tow to the nearest town cost me $365.  The roads were snowy and icy all the way back to Idaho.  It was a horrible drive, towing the trailer.  I had to drive under the speed limit all the way back to Idaho.  And I drove under the speed limit all the way back to North Dakota.  It was unbelievable to me when I got stopped by the Highway Patrol in Montana.  I am not going to repeat the whole story again here.

My room mate changed his ways when I got back from Idaho.  He had believed that I was unable to move, but now he realized that I could move.  He needed the money that he got from me for rent, because he did not have a job.  Back in Idaho, I found that there were still very few jobs, so I was thinking that I would be better off staying in Dickinson, where I had been living.

Gradually over the past two months, my room mate began acting worse and worse, again.  During the hours from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., is when his behavior is the most troubling.  He begins talking to himself, with periods of shouting, shrieking, and yelling out, things like, “I wan’t to commit suicide!”, “I tried!, I tried!, I tried!”, “I’m sorry!, I’m sorry!, I’m sorry!”  There are also periods when his talking to himself seems to deal with threats and anger towards me.

I had worked with adults with dementia, “sun downers” delirium, alzheimers, brain injuries, schizophrenia, and many other mental disorders, for three years.  My opinion was that my room mate was mentally ill, but mentally ill for the fact that he was deliberately acting crazy in order to get attention and be an asshole.

I talked to my room mate’s brother about this in private, and I asked him if my room mate had had mental health problems and treatment in the past.  His response was, “No, but our father did the same thing.”

I was having a harder and harder time living in this house.  I was not making very much money at my job in Dickinson.  I wondered if I should move back to Idaho.  I thought that it would be a mistake for me to move into an apartment with a one year lease in Dickinson, because I was making so little money, and there were so few jobs currently advertised in Dickinson.  A property manager might not even allow me to lease an apartment if I could not demonstrate a high enough income.

I was having one of the worst periods of my life in April and May.  I kept looking for jobs and applying for jobs in Dickinson.  Even jobs that I was very, very qualified for, and had done in the past, I was not even getting called for an interview.  I wrote some blog posts about this, that the local human resources personnel in Dickinson were hiding job advertisements, in order to do everything they could to hire their relatives, friends, and neighbors.

At the same time that I could not get a job in Dickinson, my room mate, who was unemployed and always home, was deliberately acting grotesque, obnoxious, offensive, and mentally ill.  Though this period of reduced work at my job could have been a time where I did things that I enjoyed, like watching movies, cooking out, exercising, going kayaking, and riding my bike, my room mate’s constant presence and his mental illness was getting me down.  Which I think, is what he was trying to achieve, to make me unhappy and miserable, because he was unhappy and miserable.

Miraculously, I went to interview with a company in Dickinson where the managers had a very high opinion of my resume and my work experience.  They even offered to pay me more than what I had asked.  The job that I was hired for, and the company that I was hired to work at, is potentially one of the best jobs that I have ever had.

I was happy that I got hired, but I was somewhat stressed because I realized that I could not afford to mess this job up.  The way things were going in Dickinson, I was very lucky to get this job, and there probably would not be another chance like this for me in Dickinson.

When I got home the day of my job interview, my room mate was trying to be obnoxious and offensive, so I just went to my bed room and stayed there, like I had been doing for many days recently.  The next day, when I had to interview with a second person, and I got hired, when I got home, I nearly got into a fight with my room mate.  On the third day, when I got home after my company orientation and training, I then told my room mate that I had gotten hired, and I told him what company.  I explained to my room mate that I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. the following morning in order to go to work.  In a short while, my room mate began acting very hostile and shitty, and I just about could not handle it at that time.

I was both happy and stressed about my new job. My room mate’s behavior took away any happiness and optimism that I had, and he added to the stress that I was feeling.  I think that he was angry that I got a good job, and he felt that he needed to cause me problems and make me miserable.  With my new job and everything that I had to do, I was in no position to move out of his house, he thought.  He looked at this as an opportunity to start acting hostile, nasty, and shitty.  It almost came to a fight.  I knew that if I hit my room mate, that this assault would be the end of my new job.  Of course, my room mate knew that too.

I couldn’t take the problems that my room mate was causing me.  His always being home and getting on my nerves, trying to be offensive and grotesque, and causing a fight.  I could not get into a fight, and be charged with assault.  This would cause me to lose my job.  Even though I was tired, needed to prepare for work the following day, and needed to be able to wake up at 3:30 a.m., I instead had to now spend several hours on the internet looking for some place that I could move within a few days.

When I woke up at 3:30 a.m. the following morning, I could hear my room mate in the living room talking to himself, making threats towards me.  I went to work, and I was unexpectedly done by about 6:00 a.m.  I was asked to go work out of town for the next several weeks, starting Monday.  I was very happy that I would have the entire rest of the day to look for someplace else to live.

At about 7:00 a.m., I went to the addresses of the apartments that I was interested in, to see what they were like.  By about 8:30 a.m., I was able to talk to a man who owned an industrial property, and after discussing things, he tentatively agreed to let me park my two equipment trailers and one pick up truck on his property for $150 per month.  By about 9:30 a.m., I was at a property management office filling out a rental application.  The property manager agreed to meet me at the apartment that I was interested in at 12:30 p.m.

I went to the bank and I withdrew some money to pay my current room mate rent for the month of June.  Even though I did not have a lease, it is customary and kind of legally required to give 30 days notice prior to moving out, and pay rent through those 30 days.  I drove home and I gave the rent money to my current room mate, and I told him that I would have all of my belongings, vehicles, and trailers off of his property by the end of the month.

I drove to several more industrial and commercial properties to find out what they would charge me to my park my two equipment trailers and a pick up truck.  I eventually found a slightly better deal, than I had found earlier this morning.  I paid a commercial property owner rent for the month of June to park my trailers and a truck.

When I met the apartment property manager at 12:30 p.m., he said that my background check and credit report was very good.  He showed me the apartment that I wanted to see, but he offered to rent me a much nicer apartment for less than what was advertised.  I couldn’t believe how nice the other apartment was, and how large it was.  This was about the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me in Dickinson.  I paid rent for the month of June, and was scheduled to move in next week.

I drove back to where I lived, and I started putting my belongings into my two equipment trailers.  I asked a neighbor kid if I could pay him to help me carry a bed up the stairs where I was moving next Saturday, and he agreed.  By about 2:00 p.m., my first equipment trailer was loaded.  I hooked a truck up to the first equipment trailer, drove it to the commercial property, unhooked it, and returned home to load the second equipment trailer.

It was a very hot and sunny day.  It was about 97 degrees in the sun according to my vehicle thermometers.  I was trying to hurry up and load kayaks, bicycles, and other things into my trailers.  I wanted to get as much done as possible, so that I could get out of this house, and get away from my room mate.  I was also trying to get one of my trucks ready to drive out of town for work the following week.

I hooked up the second equipment trailer to my truck at about 3:30 p.m., and I began driving it to the commercial property.  There was a vibration in the truck.  I could not tell if it was transmission shudder, or if it was another coil over spark plug module that was going bad.  The number eight cylinder coil over spark plug went bad about one year ago, and it cost $250 to replace it.  I was hoping that I didn’t have this problem again right now on a different cylinder, I needed this truck to not break down.

As I was making a left turn onto the intestate on-ramp, a lady driving an approaching car in the right exit lane to make a right turn onto the interstate ramp, changed lanes just before she got to me, and went straight instead of taking the on-ramp.  I was able to stop just in time to avoid a collision, but I was mad about it.  I needed this truck for work at my new job next week, and I didn’t need to be in an accident.  The shudder in the truck, the near miss collision at the on-ramp, all the events of the past few days, and what I had to do in the coming week were all going through my mind as I drove on the interstate.

When I exited from the interstate onto the off ramp, I did not come to a complete stop at the stop sign.  As I made a right turn, I could then see the blue police lights in my truck side mirror.  Fuck!  He got me.  I pulled off the road into a parking lot, and I could see that the Highway Patrol had got me.  I thought that the failure to come to a complete stop at the stop sign was a traffic violation of about 3 points, which I was willing to accept.

The Highway Patrol officer was more concerned than I was expecting him to be.  He didn’t like that I was not wearing my seat belt.  He informed me that both my trailer and my truck had crossed over the “fog line” several times.  He asked me if I had been drinking.  He believed that I had been drinking.  He did not like that my truck had an Idaho license plate, instead of a North Dakota license plate.  He explained the law to me.  He did not like that I had an Idaho driver’s license instead of a North Dakota driver’s license.  He explained the law to me.  I told him that my registration sticker was expired, but I had my registration renewal payment receipt.  He was not happy about this.

It looked to me that I was going to get enough points for traffic violations from this traffic stop, to lose my new job.  I knew from the job application, the interview, and the company orientation, that if I had 6 points on my driving record, I would lose my job.

I couldn’t believe it.  I had been looking for jobs and applying for jobs, for months.  Miraculously, when circumstances were very grim, I got a job that might be one of the best jobs that I ever had.  I couldn’t let anything go wrong.  I couldn’t risk getting into a fight with my room mate, so I paid him rent for the month of June, found an apartment and paid rent for the month of June, and I paid rent for a commercial property to park my equipment trailers and truck.  Now, it looked like I was going to be instantly out of a job because the Highway Patrol officer believed everything I was doing was wrong.

I couldn’t believe it.  Between 2002 and 2017, fifteen years, I had driven to Florida, to Texas several times, to Arizona about ten times, and back to Idaho about twelve times, and I had never gotten any kind of ticket in the past fifteen years!  I had not been in a car accident for the past twenty years.  Why, why, have I been stopped by the Highway Patrol twice in the past two months?  Again, I had not gotten any tickets in the past fifteen years, why am I getting stopped now?

I believe that the Highway Patrol is being aggressive in stopping people with out of state license plates because of suspicion of drug trafficking.  I kind of understand this, but I don’t like it when I get stopped.  I was asked to explain myself and what I was doing.  I cooperated because I was not doing anything illegal.

I was grateful that I was only given a ticket for failure to wear a seatbelt, and given warnings for the other things.

Why do I have an Idaho driver’s license?  Because my home is in Idaho, and I expected to go back to Idaho many times.  I believed that I was going back for good in March.  I believed that I was going to have to go back for good at the end of  June if I didn’t get a job.

Why does my truck have an Idaho license plate?  My Toyota truck sitting in my driveway in Idaho, has a North Dakota license plate.  Two of my trucks that I drive frequently have Idaho license plates, and two of my trucks that I drive frequently have North Dakota license plates.

Why did my trailer tires and my truck tires cross over the white “fog line”?  My trailer width from outside of tire to outside of tire is a little more than 8-1/2 feet.  My truck width from outside of tire to outside of tire is about 7 feet.  I could hear and feel that my trailer tires were sometimes running on the milled strip.  This is O.K. with me, because I know where my trailer tires are, they are on the milled strip, and the trailer is not near vehicles in the left lane.  The trailer tires stick out wider than the truck, and it would be a problem if I drove more to the left, and the trailer tires went into the left lane.  But it is not hurting anything for the trailer tires to run a short while on the milled strip, which is what happens when you drive more towards the right side of the right lane.

The whole time I tow a trailer to Arizona or to Idaho, from time to time the trailer tires run on the milled strip, and you just ease back away from it.  It is safer for passing vehicles in the left lane, if my trailer, which is wider than my truck, never crosses into the left lane, so I try to stay to the right side of the right lane.

When I got to the commercial property to park my trailer, I didn’t feel well at all.  It had been a lot of work to make arrangements to get moved, and it was very hot when I was loading my trailers, and I had gotten too hot.  I felt week, faint, and dehydrated.  I was upset about getting stopped by the Highway Patrol.

This is why people do not like the police.  When life is going O.K., you have a good steady job, a good place to live, a new trouble free vehicle, and live in a town with family, relatives, and friends, it doesn’t make much difference if you get stopped by the police.  However, if you don’t have a good steady job, a good place to live, a new trouble free vehicle, and family, relatives, and friends to help you, getting stopped by the police sometimes starts to look like the police are going to get you where you have so many points on your license either this time, or when they stop you tomorrow, or the next day, you won’t be able to drive, won’t be able to keep your job or get hired anywhere, and won’t be able to pay your rent and other bills.

I am starting to feel like the police are people that cause other people to lose everything.  This is how poor white trash and poor blacks feel, that the police are always going to try to get you for something, to cause you to lose what you have, and get you into jail.  When the police officers go on duty, I think that they are intending to perform law enforcement.  I don’t know if they realize that many people look at them as trying to victimize others.

Dire Warning About Living And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have been looking at the job posting websites North Dakota Job Services, Indeed, Careerbuilder, Monster, Rigzone, and LinkedIn almost every day in April and May.  There are very few jobs listed for Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston.  April and May are the busiest hiring months in Western North Dakota.

There are usually several job listings for registered nurses, CDL drivers with at least two years experience, and mechanic field service technicians.  About every other week there is a listing for a journeyman electrician, or a heavy equipment operator.

I would estimate that there are 30% to 40% fewer job listings for Dickinson in April and May of 2017, than there were in April and May of 2016.

I would estimate that there are 60% fewer job listings for Dickinson in April and May of 2017, than there were in April and May of 2015.

I want to warn everyone in Dickinson what I think is going to happen.  The construction workers, electricians, equipment operators, mechanics, oil field service workers, plumbers, truck drivers, and welders that are currently employed in Dickinson, will keep their jobs through December of 2017.  Then there will be a winter work slow down like there always is, with reduced work hours and lay offs.  However, I believe that at least 20% of these workers will not have a job to return to in Dickinson in the spring of 2018.  There will not be enough work in Dickinson.

Any of the workers in these trades can go look at every job posting website that they can find, and they will see that there are very few job listings for these trades in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston.  They have got to realize that there is not a high demand right now, in the busiest hiring months, and that there has been a steady decline in demand for these trades in Dickinson since 2014.

Everyone in Dickinson needs to know what is happening now, so that they can figure out what they are going to do.  Retail workers, restaurant workers, sales people, service workers, and professional workers need to realize that there will be a decline in demand for workers in their professions in Dickinson.

I recommend that everyone in Dickinson try to save money now and conserve money now through the remainder of 2017, with the expectation that at least 1 out of 5 people will lose their job in Dickinson in 2018.

I recommend that even if you have a job now in Dickinson, that you begin thinking about, and doing research about where else you might try to live.  Talk to friends and relatives who live elsewhere about what things are like where they live.  Get information from people you know, but don’t just take their word for it, look on the internet at what jobs are available in different areas.

In doing research about different areas and what jobs are available, I caution readers that though it may look like Dallas has more job openings than Williston, you must realize that Dallas has a population of 1 million people, and Williston has a population of about 20,000 people.  There might be several hundred applicants for a job in Dallas, whereas there might be forty applicants for a job in Williston.

I wrote a couple of blog posts on this website about “How To Go To Work Out Of State” about eight months ago.  In those blog posts, I suggested that if your family has a home, friends, and relatives here, it may be a better idea for the primary income earner to go to work out of state, and let the family stay behind.

It is easier and safer for the father to go to work out of state by himself, and let the family stay behind.  It is much easier for one adult to get very cheap housing, housing that would not be safe or appropriate for a family.  When going to work out of state, you don’t know what your employer, co-workers, and work conditions will be like, and you may not be able to stay in your new job.  You may have to re-locate again unexpectedly, and it is much easier to do this if you are by yourself.

Dickinson North Dakota Compared To Other Places I Have Lived

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I was thinking last night.  I was reviewing what I had done in my life, and where the time had gone.

I was shocked when I realized that I had lived 4-1/2 years in Arizona, 4-1/2 years in Idaho, and almost 5 years in Dickinson.  Dickinson has been one of the worst places that I have lived.  How could it be that I have been here for almost 5 years?

In Arizona, I counted how many people that I knew, that I could think of as friends and acquaintances.  I counted 40 people.  Of those 40 people, how many could I count on to be helpful and dependable, I counted 20, 50% of them.

In Idaho, I counted how many people that I knew, that I could think of as friends and acquaintances.  I counted 40 people.  Of those 40 people, how many could I count on to be helpful and dependable, I counted 10, 25% of them.

In Dickinson, I counted how many people that I knew, that I could think of as friends and acquaintances.  I counted 70 people.  Of those 70 people, how many could I count on to be helpful and dependable, I counted 15, 21% of them.  And as I thought about it, I was aware that most of these 15 people would not help very much.

When I did the counting of people that I had met who I considered to be friends or acquaintances, it seemed to be very consistent with the length of time and the amount of involvement that I had in the towns where I had lived.  It made sense to me and it was not surprising.

It was surprising to me that when I counted the friends and acquaintances that I could count on to be helpful and dependable, it was only 25% in Idaho and 21% in Dickinson.

In Idaho where I own a home, there is not much going on, there is not a lot of traffic or congestion, it is not overdeveloped, it is not crowded, and there is not a lot of crime.  I like the peacefulness and the dullness of it, but I have never been very comfortable there or at ease there.  When I thought about it, and quantified it, only knowing 10 people that I could count on to be helpful and dependable, that kind of explains why I have never felt very comfortable living there.

Likewise, in Dickinson, there is not a lot of traffic or congestion, it is not overdeveloped, it is not crowded, and there is not a lot of crime.  I like the open undeveloped land in North Dakota.  However, I have never felt very comfortable or at ease living here in Dickinson.  I have always felt that my situation here in Dickinson is precarious.  Of the 70 people in Dickinson that I consider to be friends or acquaintances, I can only count on about 15 of them to be helpful and dependable, and I know that most of them would not go very far out of their way in being helpful.

Restaurant Slow Down In Dickinson, North Dakota

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On Wednesday night, I felt like eating Chinese food, so I drove to the King Buffet restaurant in the T-Rex Mall.  As I turned into the parking lot, I saw about one vehicle parked in front of the King Buffet restaurant.  I believe that the restaurant had one customer.  It was 8:35 p.m.

I did not want to eat at the King Buffet restaurant if I was going to be the last customer of the night, and the only person sitting there.  I would have liked to have taken my time eating, had two different things cooked on the hibachi, and tried many different things on the buffet.  I wouldn’t do this if I was aware that I was preventing the staff from putting all the food away and going home.  I asked the cashier what time they were planning on closing the restaurant, and the cashier said that they would close at 9:15 p.m.

Because the King Buffet was closing so early, I went back to my vehicle to try to decide where else I would like to eat.  I thought that this was pretty pathetic that the King Buffet had one customer at 8:35 p.m., and that they were planning on closing at 9:15 p.m.  I can’t believe that this is what is happening in Dickinson, no customers at the Chinese buffet at 8:35 p.m.  I vaguely remember that the King Buffet restaurant expanded its leased area at least twice since 2011 in order to handle the amount of customers at lunch and dinner.  This restaurant now has seating for about 150 people.

Not being able to decide what I else I would like to eat, I thought that I would just go to the drive thru at McDonalds.  When I got to McDonalds, there was a line of about ten vehicles in the drive thru.  I turned around to drive elsewhere.

In the past month, this is about the fourth time that I have turned around in the McDonalds parking lot because there were so many vehicles in the drive thru.  This McDonalds drive thru being so busy, means something.

In the past month, I have been to Subway, Jimmy Johns, Arbys, Dominos, and Taco Johns, when there was only one other customer in these fast food restaurants.  The food at these fast food restaurants is better than McDonalds, but it costs about 40% more.  McDonalds is two or three dollars cheaper per meal, than these fast food restaurants.

In Dickinson, Burger King, Wendys, Arbys, Taco Bell, Taco Johns, Subway, Jimmy Johns, and Dominos are all less busy than McDonalds.  Though their food is better than McDonalds, it costs a few dollars more.  It is obvious to me, that it has come to the point in Dickinson, where many people are so worried about money, that they will only go to eat at McDonalds.

Child Support In North Dakota, Department Of Vindictive Women

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Earlier this week I received a Way2Go Card debit card in the mail, and I did not know why.  I tried to find out why I received this debit card that I did not request, and I wrote an internet article about it.

In response to my internet article, a woman who works for the State of North Dakota replied, saying something like child support enforcement payments might begin being paid using Way2Go Cards.  Later in the week, both North Dakota Job Services, and the North Dakota Department Of Human Services Child Support Enforcement, posted notices on their websites that they will begin using Way2Go Cards on June 1, 2017.

I was looking at the North Dakota Department Of Human Services Child Support Enforcement website, and I saw some things that I didn’t like.  I have met some men that have had tremendous problems involving child support, and here are some of the reasons why, that I found on the website:

Contempt of Court

An obligor who intentionally fails to comply with a court order for child support can be held in contempt of court.  Consequences for contempt of court can include jail time, fines, license suspension, and an order to complete work activities.

Criminal Nonsupport

An obligor who willfully fails to pay child support as ordered can be prosecuted in a North Dakota court for criminal nonpayment of child support.  Criminal nonpayment of child support can be a Class C felony, which has a maximum punishment of five years’ imprisonment, a fine of $5,000, or both.

Attention Women!  I don’t know how you think that taking away a father’s driver’s license is going to help them pay child support!  If they can’t get to work, can’t keep their job, and can’t get a job because they can’t drive, how are they going to pay child support?

Attention Women!  Once someone gets a felony conviction, they are barred from most types of employment!  How are they going to pay child support when they lose their job and can’t get another job because of their felony conviction?

There are many circumstances where women become pregnant and have children, and it was not a good idea:  Teen sex where pregnancy was unintentional, young couples where pregnancy was unintentional, relationships that did not work out, marriages that did not work out.  Sometimes it turns out that the father of the children was not a good person, not caring, not intelligent, not responsible, mentally ill, an alcoholic, a drug addict.

The father of the children may be unwilling or unable to pay child support.  Examples of fathers who may be unwilling to pay child support are assholes, bullies, mentally ill, alcoholics, drug addicts.  Examples of fathers who may be unable to pay child support are stupid people, idiots, imbeciles, fools, mentally ill, alcoholics, and drug addicts.

If the father of your child is stupid, an idiot, an imbecile, a fool, mentally ill, alcoholic, or a drug addict, he will probably not be able to get a job, or keep a job for very long.  Fathers like this will never, ever be able to be current with their child support payments.  Jail time, fines, and driver’s license suspension is not going to help them become current with their child support.  It may make the mothers feel better, the jail time, fines, and license suspension, but it makes the fathers not able to get a job, keep a job, or keep a place to live and transportation for themselves.

Jail and prison, is for criminals, for people who have committed a crime.  Fathers who are stupid, an idiot, an imbecile, a fool, mentally ill, alcoholic, or a drug addict, are probably not able to get a job or keep a job for very long.  They are therefore not very likely to always have money each month to pay child support.  This is not something that is criminal, that should result in jail time, fines, and driver’s license suspension.  This is only going to further reduce their ability to obtain or keep employment.

Prison time for not paying a debt?  I thought that we got rid of debtor’s prisons about three hundred years ago when the first colonists came to America.  I thought the first colonists and the first elected representatives in the United States all knew that you can’t have debtor’s prisons.  People have no way to pay debts when they are in prison.

I think that there are many mothers who like these laws, but they like these laws because they inflict punishment on the fathers, not because they provide support for their children.

Some legal methods to obtain court ordered money judgements and collection of debt are wage garnishment, bank account garnishment, liens on property, liens on vehicles, and seizure of certain types of property that are not necessities.  We don’t have debtor’s prisons in the United States.  We should not take away a person’s driver’s license because they owe someone else money.

Because of the irrational and punitive laws that got passed in North Dakota, I think that it should be called the North Dakota Department Of Vindictive Women.

How Dickinson North Dakota Is Controlled

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I first came to work in Dickinson in 2011.  I left to go work in Texas in 2012.  Then I returned to Dickinson in 2013, and I have been working here since then.  That is about five years that I have spent living in Dickinson.

Prior to coming to work in Dickinson, I had lived and worked in five different states.  I had worked as a laborer, engineer, estimator, inspector, superintendent, project manager, and as a business owner.  In my previous jobs, I had operated a backhoe, bobcat, compactor, crane, excavator, forklift, scissor lift, and snorkel lift.

The economy was bad in Idaho where I had been living, and I was coming over to North Dakota to work because of the oil boom.  I didn’t know exactly what it would be like, but I had a vague idea.  I wasn’t expecting to get my dream job, I was prepared to take what I could get.

I dropped my resume off at some of the oil field businesses on Hwy 22 in Dickinson.  The people at Marathon Oil Company were not nice at all.  The person at Key Energy Services was fairly nice.  An engineering company manager was very interested in hiring me, but he said he had to get approval from the company owners.  On the first or second day that I was in Dickinson, I got hired to work at an oil field service company, and this company would allow me to stay in my truck camper on the company property.

Looking back on it now, I was kind of timid when I first started working at this oil field service company in Dickinson, especially considering my previous employment and work experience.  It was probably better that I was a little timid, rather than being assertive and confident.

I used my experience to not get hurt, not get other people hurt, to help, and to stay out of trouble.  I was able to do everything that I was asked to do, and I was able to help make sure that projects turned out O.K.  As time went by, everyone else was getting hurt, making mistakes, and having accidents, but I wasn’t.  This caused resentment with my coworkers, and even my manager.

In time, I probably explained to my coworkers, that I had already worked as a superintendent and project manager on many large construction projects in the past.  But even though I explained this to them, I don’t think that they comprehended or understood, they probably didn’t want to.

I began to see pretty clearly, that the people from Dickinson did not want to acknowledge that anyone could have relevant education and experience that was greater than what they had.  Their way of dealing with someone who had relevant education and experience, was to make believe that it did not exist.

I wrote up above, that when I dropped my resume off at Marathon Oil company, the people there were not very nice to me.  I later learned through the years of living and working in Dickinson, that about 85% of the people working at Marathon Oil in Dickinson do not have college degrees in engineering.  Not only that, but with my work experience as an engineer, estimator, inspector, superintendent, and project manager on large commercial construction projects, I would have been one of the most senior and experienced people working for Marathon Oil in Dickinson.  Because most of the people working for Marathon Oil in Dickinson do not have college degrees, when they look at my resume, they just make believe that my qualifications and work experience don’t exist, and therefore they are much more qualified than me.

The second oil field service company that I worked for in Dickinson, I did my job as a crew worker, then began to do more what a foreman would do, and then more what a superintendent would do, without any acknowledgment or thanks from the manager or company owner.  Several times I identified and solved some big problems on projects, that the manager and company owner had not seen or known about.  I never received any thanks or acknowledgement.

Working for other companies in Dickinson, it was the same thing.  This is what they do in Dickinson.  This is a learned behavior in Dickinson, that is standard practice.  This is all about controlling people.  It took me several years of living in Dickinson to really see what was going on, and then another couple of years to become certain that this is what is going on.

The people who settled western North Dakota in the late 1800s were German and Ukranian Catholics.  Western North Dakota was very barren and harsh.  The settlers had such a hard time surviving, that they really could not afford to be hospitable to their neighbors.  There were so few resources in western North Dakota, that no one really got ahead.  The only way that anyone did better than their neighbors, was when their neighbors failed.  This is the origin of the belief of people in the Dickinson area, that they get ahead by other people failing.

It became prevalent in the Dickinson area, that people believed that they could be successful by other people failing.  My coworkers, managers, and the company owners were not about to acknowledge that I had education and work experience that made me knowledgeable, capable, and useful in getting work done and managing projects.  How could they be successful, if I was successful?

Another way of stating this, and explaining how this works in Dickinson, is that there is great effort put into keeping people down.  There is this belief in Dickinson, that if you don’t keep people down and try to control them, then how are you ever going to be successful?  How are you going to be successful, if you allow other people to become successful?  You have got to control people, and keep them down.

Trying to keep people down, is kind of a primitive and outdated belief in my opinion.  This is what kings, queens, lords, shieks, and slave holders used to try to do to people.  They tried to keep people uneducated and uninformed so that they are easier to control, which is also something that they try to accomplish in Dickinson.

When I was working in Tampa, the company owner required that each of the employees must read books about success and leadership.  This would never, never happen in Dickinson.  One of the books that I bought was titled “The Power Principle, How To Influence With Honor”, by Blaine Lee.  In that book, there were several chapters about getting out of other people’s way, letting them succeed, even if it meant that they would surpass you.  I was only 27 years old at the time, and I wanted to get ahead, how could I just let people surpass me I wondered?

I tried doing the things that were described in the book “The Power Principle” and within a year I was a superintendent, with an new limited edition Toyota 4-Runner as my company vehicle, and I was making about 40% more money.  Within another two years I was a project manager.  Whenever somebody working for me had a good idea or plan, I listened to them, I let them do it, I let them take charge of it, and I gave them credit for it.  Work got done better, faster, less expensively, innovatively, and with workers being happier, satisfied, and more motivated.  Who do you think got the credit for that?  Me, I got the credit.  But it all began by me getting out of other people’s way and letting them be successful.

I had a degree in engineering, I wasn’t a business major, I hadn’t read books about success and leadership.  Other books that I then began to read that had important information for me to consider were, “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People”, “Gung Ho”, “The Power Of Positive Thinking”, “How To Win Friends And Influence People”, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, “Winning Through Intimidation”, and many books on psychology.  I realized that there was a lot that I did not know about being successful.

A common theme in many of these books about being successful in business, was the importance of how you treat people.  For instance, believe it or not, a business expert explained that it was even more important to treat an employee fairly, than a customer.  An employee, in most cases, has more opportunity to affect your business, than does a customer.

Other topics in these books were the necessity of taking a genuine interest in people, to seek first to understand others before expecting to be understood, to be aware of your emotional bank account with people, and the importance of always encouraging others.

The people in Dickinson are so determined to keep other people down, that education and learning is widely discouraged and belittled.  In order to maintain control, the company owners and business owners try to hire and promote people with no education.  This just perpetuates that lack of education and knowledge in Dickinson.  The business owners now, and the business managers now, do not have any business education.

They do not know that you are supposed to treat your employees well, because employees have much more opportunity to affect a business than do customers.  They do not know that you are supposed to encourage your employees.  They do not know that by allowing employees to come up with good ideas, present them, implement them, and give them credit, increases the efficiency and productivity of their business, and makes the employees happier, more satisfied, and more motivated.

There is a final principle that I will mention called “synergy”.  Synergy is the principle that people or businesses working together in a collaborative effort, can accomplish much greater things than they could accomplish working separately.

I will give an analogy to describe synergy.  Imagine that you have water, sand, gravel, and cement.  Could you make a wall only with water?  Could you make a wall only with sand?  Could you stack the sand on the water?  When you mix the water, sand, gravel, and cement all together, you can make concrete walls, houses, and buildings.

Not only do businesses in Dickinson try to keep their own employees down, they do not cooperate with other businesses.  There is no Synergy.  For instance, I described in some previous blog posts, that I do self employed construction work in my own business.  In the past couple of years, I purchased $1,200 worth of equipment from two locally owned businesses in Dickinson.  In the month of April, I talked to these two local business owners about buying more equipment from them, and both of these business owners were very nasty to me.

Why don’t these local business owners in Dickinson see, that if I buy the equipment from them that I need, so that I can complete my projects, so that I make money, that I can then come back and buy more equipment from them?

The town of Dickinson and everyone in Dickinson would be so much more successful if there was Synergy, where everyone makes an effort work together, so that collectively everyone is better off.

Schemes Of Women, Schemes On The Elderly

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This is something that has been bothering me more and more lately.  It is making me angrier and angrier.  This is a true story involving my family.

My mother’s parents were serious, sober, frugal people.  They were in their twenties during the Great Depression.  When they were in their 70s and 80s, at family reunions, my grandmother would not throw out the plastic utensils and plastic plates, she would keep them and wash them.  My grandparents never got over what it was like during the Great Depression.  Like many people who lived through the Great Depression, they were very frugal, careful with money, and didn’t like wasting anything.

My grandfather became an Electrical Engineering professor at a university in Florida.  In the summer, he did consulting work.  After about twenty years of working, he had saved up enough money to buy three acres of land on a lake in Florida, and build a home that he designed.

The home was simple, practical, and well built.  It was four bedroom, two bathroom.  It was a very long, single story house, with high ceilings, that was built into a hill overlooking the lake.  The back of the house was half way above ground level, and the front of the house was completely exposed.  The design of the house, and that it was completely surrounded by tall old oak trees, made it very cool in the summer.

My grandparents lived in this house from approximately 1950 to 2000.  During this time, my grandfather planted the three acres with about every kind of tropical and semi-tropical plant that you could think of.  Avacados, bamboo, bananas, elephant ears, ferns, lemons, limes, lillies, ginger, grapefruit, hibiscus, kumquats, oranges, roses, tangerines, tomatoes.

Not long after my grandfather died, my grandmother wanted to sell the house and move into an assisted living facility, she was about 90 years old.  The house was put on the market for sale.

The town had grown tremendously since 1950 when the house was built.  The property used to be on the outskirts of town, but it was now right in the middle.  Large custom homes in this area, were now being built on 1/4 acre lots, or smaller.  Just the land value of these three acres with about 1,000 feet of lake frontage in this city in Florida, was probably $800,000.

A person who I will now refer to as a weasel piece of shit loser, came knocking on my grandmother’s door, “Oh hello, I don’t know if you remember me, I grew up in this neighborhood.  I used to live right over there, I am so-and-so, my parents were so-and-so.  I see that your house is up for sale.  I always admired this house.  I would sure like to buy this house.”  My 90 year old grandmother vaguely remembered who this man was.

My grandmother discussed with my mother, and my mother’s two brothers, what their thoughts were on selling her house to this man who grew up in this neighborhood, at way below market value.  My mother, and my mother’s two brothers did not object to this.

Within a few months after the property closing, my sister went to the assisted living facility and asked my grandmother if she would like to go back to the house to visit.  My sister had been going to this house for 35 years, for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, family reunions, and weddings.  Everyone in my family had many memories and attachment to this house and this property.  Certainly, the owners who my grandmother had sold this house to for about $250,000, when it was worth more like $800,000, would not object to my grandmother visiting.

When my sister and grandmother arrived at the house, and knocked on the door, the wife was pleasant enough, though she was surprised.  She was there with her boyfriend.  Her husband, the man who had persuaded my grandmother to sell the house to him, she had kicked him out.

Even though my grandmother was 90 years old, she pretty quickly realized what a mistake she had made.  I don’t know if she ever fully grasped how big a mistake it was.  The whole intention was, that someone who grew up there, and had always admired the house, would get the house, appreciate it, and be able to raise their family there.  The reality was, she had just gifted $550,000 to people that she didn’t even know, for no good reason.

My mother, my father, my mother’s two brothers, their spouses, their children, my sister, and myself, we all had such very strong memories of this house and this property.  This property is not replaceable both in the memories, and what is physically there.  No one in my family could afford to pay the fair market value of this property.  No one in my family was scheming or treacherous enough to even think of suggesting to my grandmother to sell it to them for less than fair market value.

At the time, I could somewhat see my grandmother’s, my mother’s, and my two uncles’ thinking that at least someone who grew up in the neighborhood would get it and have a chance to raise their family there.  No one foresaw that his Bitch wife, would kick his ass out about one month after closing.

I am sure that the loan officer at the bank said to the man and his wife, “We have no problem giving you a $250,000 mortgage on this property, the property is appraised at $800,000.  The day that you close, you will have $550,000 equity in the property.”  That is all the wife needed to hear.  Her husband was a loser, going over there and trying to talk some 90 year old woman into selling him her house, that there was no way they could afford.  It worked.  This was a surprise to her, that her loser husband would ever accomplish anything, and now was her chance to cash out.

1. Wait for closing.  2. Kick the husband out.  3. File for divorce.  4. Division of joint marital property.  5. Force the sale of the house by demand for half of equity.  6. Collect $275,000, half of the equity in the house.

If you have elderly parents who own valuable property, print this out and give it to your parents, and to your brothers and sisters.  Don’t even consider doing anything like this.  It amounts to giving your life savings that you have accumulated over 70 years, to people that you don’t even know, for no good reason.

Skank Girls In The South

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Skank girls start out in life being disadvantaged and underpriviledged.  They are likely destined to repeat the tragic life cycle of their forbearers.

Often, they have some physical mark on them, a birth mark, freckles, or a scar that lets them know from when they are a little girl, that they are damaged.  They look in the mirror when they are seven years old, and they know that they will never be a cheerleader, prom queen, or a beauty pageant winner.  The scar on their cheek is so long and deep from the cat scratch, it will never go away.

Their mother gave birth to them when she was eighteen years old.  When they were three years old, their father got arrested and sent to prison for armed robbery.  Later that year, their mother was drunk and she ran into a tree with her Chevy Monte Carlo, killing herself.

The little skank girl has just vague memories of what her mother was like.  Her clearest memories are of riding around with her mother in her silver Chevy Monte Carlo that she was later killed in.  Riding around with the windows open, her mother’s long brown hair whipping around in the wind, stopping and talking to people, handing them packages.  The little skank girl knew that her mother was delivering drugs.

She was staying with her grandmother quite a bit of the time, before her mother’s death.  Her grandmother was only 42 years old, but she looked older than this.  Her grandmother always seemed to be anxious and worried.  Her grandmother was always worried that something was going to happen to someone, or someone was going to get into trouble.  This is all that ever happened mostly, in her grandmother’s life.

When the little skank girl’s mother died, it did not come as a shock or surprise so much to her grandmother.  The grandmother was equally as burdened with the death of her daughter, as she was with the knowledge that she would have to raise her granddaughter.  It was not the work, the expense, or the responsibility, that frightened her, it was that she didn’t know if she could stand raising another one of these girls.

Both of her daughters were dead.  They were very much alike.  They were pretty girls, and not bad girls, at first.  They were outgoing, adventuresome, fun loving, and not scared of anything when they were kids.  After they went through puberty, all the boys were interested in them.  They could not go anywhere without boys noticing them.  Rather than spending time with boys their own age, they went with boys who were older than them, who were wild, who had motorcycles, cars, and money.

There was nothing she could do to stop them.  She was a single mother, who had to go to work every day.  She was informed by the school that her daughters were not going to school sometimes, and sometimes leaving school early.  Her daughters were not scared of anything that she threatened them with.  She realized that if she threatened to kick them out of her house, they would just go and live with their friends.

The only way that the grandmother thought that she could cope with raising her four year old granddaughter, was to not get emotionally involved.

All of these things that I have described above, are the origins of skank girls:  being born to young, pretty, wild women; being the offspring of parents who are wild and don’t care; being raised by people who do not provide them with very much.

A young skank girl begins school in the South, with all the teachers and all the administrators knowing about her circumstances.  They know all about her father, her mother, what they did, and that she is now being raised by her grandmother.  They generally don’t approve of anything her parents did, and they can see the same thing coming from her one day.

Some of the teachers look at the young skank girl, and she looks exactly like her mother when they had her as a student.  Some of the women that drop off or pick their children up from school, look at the young skank girl, and know whose child she must be.  Since nothing but bad things ever happen to anyone in her family, they don’t want their children to have much to do with her.

After school, the other children may go to dance class, karate class, or piano lessons, but the skank girl has been instructed to go straight home, go inside, and remain inside.  The grandmother does not want any problems.  No, she can’t have anyone over, nor can she go over to anyone’s house.  She can’t go anywhere, and she can’t go outside and play.

The skank girl, because of her background, is not likely to be invited to any children’s birthday parties or play dates.  In school she listens to what other children do, and what their lives are like.  She listens to what it is like to go to Chuck E Cheese Pizza, Disney World, and Sea World.

Being deprived of being able to participate in the world, makes young skank girls become observers of the world.  As a six year old or seven year old, they become aware that the more affluent families, with both a mother and a father, are able to drop their children off at school and pick them up in the afternoon.  They observe that the unmarried school teacher women are more anxious and tense, than the married school teacher women who are more calm and confident.  Not being allowed to participate, and only being permitted to observe, gives young skank girls the opportunity to develop a more thorough understanding of the world than other children.  Also, they learn to keep their thoughts and feelings inside, because they have no one to share them with.

The skank girls growing up in a household where they aren’t given very much, aren’t paid attention to, are not allowed to participate, and have no one to talk to, makes them stronger, less able to be controlled, and more likely to do whatever they want.  As they develop, get bigger, and get smarter, they are more inclined to do what they want.  What are you going to threaten to take away from them, if they don’t do what you want, they never ever had anything.  What are you going to threaten to deprive them of, if they don’t do what you want, they were never allowed to do anything.

The skank girls might have been weaker and more easy to control if they would have been spoiled.  If they had been trained to behave and get a puppy, behave and get to go to a Hannah Montana concert, behave and get a Ford Mustang, they might be controllable.

The girls in elementary school have their friends and their cliques.  They want to be popular, they want to be important.  The skank girls don’t want any attention, they want to be unnoticed.  They are aware that they are being treated differently, and they know why.  In elementary school, the pale skinny skank girl may not have any friends.  She may have to sit next to the aloof overweight fat little boy at lunch, or the only black girl in class.  These circumstances only make the skank girl stronger.

By the end of elementary school, the skank girls do begin getting attention.  Boys, girls, and adults begin looking at them longer, trying to discern what they are going to look like, perceiving some beauty in them.

By high school, the skank girls are getting a lot of attention, attention that they did not want, and did not seek.  They are skinny, attractive, and quiet.  They are not fake, phony, gossipy, or childish.  Though they did not want this attention, it gives them a sense of power and opportunity.

The boys and the men take a strong interest in the skank girls.  The skank girls seem independent, mature, and more like adult women.  The popular girls, the cheerleaders, and the homecoming queens don’t like this, and they fear that their boyfriends will go after the skank girl.

The poor, skinny, freckled skank girl, whose mother is dead, and whose father is in prison, the men now want her, and the other women are jealous of her.

Way2Go Card Debit Mastercard Fraud In North Dakota

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On Tuesday May 16, I received in the mail a “Way2Go Card Debit Mastercard” with my name and an account number on it.  I was suspicious because I did not request this card, and I do not have any account with Comerica Bank, the card issuer.

This was not a credit card offer, it was a Debit card.  On the paperwork that came with the card, in the upper right hand corner of the paperwork in large bold print was “North Dakota”, implying that it was issued on behalf of North Dakota.  But there was not any explanation or even a hint as to why I was being issued this Debit card.

There were two telephone numbers to call in order to activate this card and choose a PIN number.  I was not about to give out my social security number over the telephone to someone that I did not know anything about, but I did try to call both of these two telephone numbers to try to find out what was going on.  Both of these telephone numbers were currently disconnected at that time, which made me even more suspicious about this Debit card.

I looked up the Way2Go Card on the internet, and I read several pages of search results.  The states of Virginia and Oklahoma had begun issuing Way2Go Cards in approximately 2012 in order for tax payers to receive income tax refunds.  I also read that the states that had begun issuing Way2Go Cards, had frauds and scams where people would fraudulently telephone tax payers and ask for their personal information in order to “activate” their Way2Go Cards.

I telephoned the State of North Dakota Tax Commission, and I spoke to three people in this office.  The State of North Dakota Tax Commission does not issue Way2Go Cards, they do not cooperate with any bank to issue Way2Go Cards, and they have never heard of the State of North Dakota ever issuing tax refunds onto Debit cards.

I telephoned a Dickinson Police Detective and left a voice mail message explaining that I had received a Way2Go Card, and that I thought that it was a scam.  I telephoned a Dickinson Press newspaper reporter and left a voice mail message explaining that I had received a Way2Go Card, and that I thought that it was a scam, they should make a notice in the newspaper warning people.  I wrote an internet article about this scam.

On the following day, Wednesday May 17, I had a brief telephone conversation with a Dickinson Press newspaper reporter.  She said that she had received a telephone call from a State of North Dakota employee, saying something like they had recently begun issuing Way2Go Cards for child support payments, that my internet article was a mistake.  I explained to the reporter that I don’t have any children, I don’t owe child support, and I am not owed any child support.

I again did internet searches about the Way2Go Card,  Way2Go Card North Dakota, Comerica Bank, Way2Go Card Fraud, and Way2Go Card scams.  For each search term, I read each search result that was listed, for several pages.  I never once found a search result that North Dakota was issuing Way2Go Cards, and I searched and read for about two hours.

Then, I went to the North Dakota Department Of Human Services website, Child Support Enforcement, and this is what it said:

“This fall, the North Dakota Child Support Enforcement Program is changing the way payments are sent to families. To meet state requirements that payments be sent as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, Child Support Enforcement will send payments by either direct deposit or electronic payment card. Paper checks will essentially be eliminated…..

What does this mean for me? You will no longer receive a paper check in the mail. Your support payment will either be direct deposited with the bank or credit union of your choice or added to an electronic payment card from U.S. Bank®, known as the ReliaCard® Visa®.”

The North Dakota Department Of Human Services, wrote on their own website that the support payments will be “added to an electronic payment card from U.S. Bank, known as the ReliaCard Visa.”

On Wednesday night I continued to do internet searches to see if anyone else had reported Way2Go Card frauds in North Dakota or elsewhere.  On Thursday morning, I saw an announcement on the the first page of search results for Way2Go Card North Dakota, that North Dakota Job Services will begin paying unemployment insurance benefits using Way2Go Cards:

“Starting June 1, 2017, Job Service will begin to deposit unemployment insurance benefit payments to the Comerica-issued Way2Go Card™ prepaid debit Mastercard®. The Way2Go Card prepaid debit Mastercard will replace the ReliaCard® Visa® prepaid debit card.”

If you are expecting to receive a payment from North Dakota Unemployment Insurance, or perhaps even North Dakota Child Support Enforcement, these two State agencies may be switching to Way2Go Cards.

When I received a Way2Go Card that I did not request, knew nothing about, with no explanation on the paperwork why I was issued the card, when I called both of the telephone numbers on the paperwork the numbers were disconnected, when I looked on the internet to find out why I was being issued the card and found no explanation, when I called the North Dakota Tax Commission and they did not issue the card, I cut the Way2Go Card up, and I threw it in the garbage.

Review Of Hairball Concert In Dickinson, North Dakota

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On Friday, May 12, Pound Em Productions of Dickinson, brought the band Hairball to the West River Community Center Ice Rink in Dickinson.  This is unusual for me, I have nothing but good things to say about this event.

I was mistaken about the Hairball concert, I had heard about it last year, and I thought that they had multiple bands that performed rock songs from the 1980s.  Hairball is the name of the band, it is just one band, and they performed for about 2-1/2 hours.

Here is a quote from the band’s website, Hairballonline.com:

“Hairball is a Rock & Roll experience you won’t forget.  A band puts on a concert – Hairball puts on an event!  The lights, sound, video screens, smoke, fire, blood, bombs, confetti, spiders, snakes & monsters (oh my) and the screaming hoards of rabid Hairball fans create an event – an event that hits you so hard, it’ll take a few days to recover! Rock & Roll will NEVER die!!!

Vocalists Bobby, Steve and Joe Dandy lead the band through a 2+ hour, mind-blowing, and drop-dead accurate homage to some of the biggest arena acts in the world. Van Halen, KISS, Motley Crue, Queen, Journey, and Aerosmith are but a few of the acts fans will see brought to life. The Hairball stage becomes an entirely new rock concert before your very eyes countless times throughout the night.”

The above quote from the Hairball website describes the band’s performance this past Friday night, better than I could.  The band played for about 2-1/2 hours, non-stop.  I was paying attention to other things at the concert besides the band, and I could not give you an accurate count on how many times a “different” lead vocalist would take the stage.  By “different” lead vocalist, I mean that someone would come on stage dressed as Kiss, David Lee Roth, Freddie Mercury, or Axl Rose.  But there were more than this, because they also performed Journey songs, and AC/DC songs.

I would estimate that there were about 700 people at the concert.  I believe that pre-sale tickets were $25, tickets at the door were $35, and I heard that the VIP tickets were $100.  There was a VIP area upstairs, and also directly in front of the stage in a corral.  There was a very large open area for general admission ticket holders that was plenty big enough for everybody to stand, and it wasn’t overcrowded.  About two hundred to three hundred people sat in the bleachers.

Bernie Marsh, owner of Bernie’s Esquire Club, was the supplier of beer.  There were two drink sales areas, each manned by about four or five people.  You could buy several beers at once, and carry them away in a plastic bag with ice in it.  Bernie Marsh was in a good mood, his son Max was in an O.K. mood, and I believe that I saw his daughter Marinna Marsh, wearing very tight, black leather pants.

It looked like Marinna, but damn her legs were skinny, and she just had a baby about five months ago, could that be Marinna?  Who else would get that skinny?  I tried to stay away from her, but when she came out to clear tables wearing those tight leather pants, all I could think about for five minutes was slapping her ass very hard.  I am still thinking about it.

About half of the women who came to the concert, dressed up like trashy women from the 1980s, wearing high heeled boots, black stockings, short skirts, ripped cut-off jean shorts, and big hair wigs.  About a third of the men dressed like rock band members from the 1980s, wearing zebra striped, and leopard spotted spandex pants, and long hair  wigs.

The Hairball band was very good, the stage set up was very professional, it was indoors and not cold, there were enough security personnel, you could buy a sack full of beers and go sit down, and there were enough bathrooms.  There was nothing wrong, no problems, no fights, and everyone was having a good time.  The women got drunk, became more social, and danced with everyone.

There were many local celebrities at the Hairball concert.  Brady Paulson, who has the local band Outlaw Sippin, performed for about 45 minutes with his band Kramer, a 1990s tribute band.  Brock White, the organizer of the First On First concerts in Dickinson was there, along with event organizer April Grant.  Kim and Heather Landis of the Mollies.  Vocalist Geliza Hoese.  Sammy Chavez.

People From My Past, Getting What Was Coming To Them

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Every so often, I look up people from my past on the internet, to see what has happened to them.  I especially like to look up previous employers who were assholes, to see if they are dead yet.  Hopefully, they had a tragic ending.

A company owner named Dwayne died about six months ago, and I was happy about it.  He messed up my life, and many other people’s lives.  Here is the condensed version, of a true story.

In the 1970s, a flamboyant and fun-loving man named Keith, started an underground utility construction company on the coast in Florida.  Florida was growing like crazy at this time, many people from the Northeastern United States were retiring and moving to Florida.  There were many new housing developments, new shopping centers, new schools, and new road construction.

It was a good time to start an underground utility construction company in Florida, even if you didn’t know what you were doing, it was the 1970s.  A time or two, Keith’s construction company installed a long section of gravity sewer, sloped in the wrong direction.  The county inspectors complimented him on the work, except for it was sloped in the wrong direction, and it would have to be re-done.  The city and county personnel all liked Keith.

Keith had enough money, and he was making enough money, to buy a peninsula of land that stuck out into a marsh.  He bought elephants, lions, tigers, monkeys, and other exotic animals.  I repeat, he bought elephants, lions, tigers, and monkeys.  Keith, his wife, and his children would feed and take care of all the animals that they kept on the property where they lived.  From time to time, his neighbors would telephone the construction company office to let them know that the elephants had gotten out again.

Keith’s underground utility construction company was doing well.  The company construction office was a ranch style house, with an in-ground swimming pool, fresh water spring, banana trees, orange trees, and grapefruit trees, on about ten acres of land.  Keith’s wife’s brother, Dwayne, was not doing well financially.  Dwayne was a crane operator in Canada, with a wife and two children.  Sometimes, Dwayne, his wife, and their two children, would have to share an apartment with another married couple and their two children.

Generously, Keith invited Dwayne to move to Florida, and be a foreman at his underground utility construction company.  Dwayne’s wife and children were happy to move to Florida and have a new life with Keith and his family.  Keith, his wife, and his children were very friendly, social, and entertaining with Dwayne, his wife, and his children.

Dwayne did his job as construction foreman, but from the very beginning he was resentful of Keith.  Dwayne did not like the way that Keith spent money, had fun, was friendly to everyone, had friends, and was well liked.  Dwayne was the exact opposite of Keith.  However, it was Keith’s personality and likability that got the construction company much of its work.

After some years, Keith made Dwayne a partner in the construction company.  Dwayne hated Keith more and more each year.  After about ten years, Dwayne saw an opportunity to take the construction company away from Keith.  Keith had seen an opportunity to buy land in a different state, which he thought was going to be a good investment.  Dwayne realized that Keith had invested all his cash elsewhere.  Dwayne caused a fight, and then he demanded that because of their differences, either Keith would have to buy him out, or Dwayne would buy Keith out.  Dwayne knew that Keith would be unable to buy him out at that moment.  Keith had started many ventures and businesses, and was unafraid of starting another construction company, so he agreed to let Dwayne buy him out of the construction company that he had started.

This began the ruining of many people’s lives.  Due to economic conditions at that time in Florida, and due to Keith’s circumstances at that moment, Keith was unable to make money, and he had to sell his family home, property, and all of his exotic animals.  Keith, his wife, and his children, went from having a wonderful life, to having to give up everything in their life and move to a different state where Keith had bought land as an investment.  Within a few years, Keith’s wife divorced him, and she took their children back to Florida.  She became a divorced woman, with much less for her two children, in comparison to what they used to have.

At the underground utility construction company, the employees went from having a benevolent, fun, likable employer, to having a mean, tyranical, paranoid employer.  In order for the construction company to stay in business, a very experienced and well liked man, with an underground utility construction contractor’s license, was hired to become General Manager.  His name was David, he was about fifty years old, and he had about twenty five years experience in underground utility construction.

Due to special circumstances that I don’t want to explain right now, the company went from making about 5% net profit on construction projects, like all underground utility construction companies in the United States, to making over 50% net profit.  Dwayne’s daughter quit her job, to come to work for the construction company, once they started to make an incredible amount of money.

Soon, Dwayne had a new home built, with an in-ground swimming pool attached to the house, in a new upper middle class neighborhood.  He bought a very large, very fast, twin engine plane, and he hired a full time pilot.

Dwayne became paranoid that the General Manager, David, was somehow cheating him, in many different ways.  But the truth was, that Dwayne hated David, because he was friendly, well liked, and he reminded Dwayne of Keith.  Dwayne fired David after a little over a year, which was a shock to David, David’s wife.  David had a hard time finding a job after that.

I was only 27 years old, when I was hired by Dwayne to be an estimator and project coordinator.  In a way, I was taking the place of the General Manager, David, who had just been fired, though I didn’t really understand this at the time.

In the job interview, Dwayne explained to me some of the ways that he felt that he was being cheated.  In the first few days of work, Dwayne took me around showing me the ways in which he believed he was being cheated.  Dwayne believed that David, the previous General Manager, had provided operator and equipment assistance to other contractors on construction projects, probably in exchange for pay offs directly to him.  Dwayne believed that David had deliberately underbid work, so that he could receive pay offs directly to him.  I did not believe this.

Dwayne warned me that I would be propositioned with every kind of bribe, gift, payment, women, prostitutes, and then later be blackmailed.  He drove me by the hotel on the beach to show me where this all took place.  At the end of this story, I describe that it was my refusal to be bribed that cost me my job.

In my opinion, I think that I learned this type of underground utility construction pretty well, fairly quickly.  I never once missed something on the plan sets.  I never once missed seeing something on the pre-bid site visits, which I had to do by myself.  I never once made a mistake on an estimate, or a contract.

I was very serious and conscientious about my plan set reviews, site visits, calculations, estimates, contracts, files, and getting things sent out.  However, I was very silly with the women in the office.  Dwayne’s daughter, the accountant, the office manager, and I, would all joke around throughout the day.

The shop foreman, crew foreman, airplane pilot, yard manager, Dwayne’s daughter, accountant, office manager, and myself, we would all joke around sometimes in the  afternoon before or after lunch, when Dwayne was not around.  We were all very, very happy during those times.  Like I said, the construction company office was in a ranch style house, with sliding glass doors that opened onto the in-ground swimming pool, that was surrounded by banana trees, orange trees, and grapefruit trees.  There were company dogs and employee dogs running around outside playing, jumping up on the window ledge and looking in at me.

The group of us that I described above, were very happy in the afternoon when Dwayne was not around.  Sometimes Dwayne’s wife, sister, or brother would stop by the construction company to visit, and it was very pleasant when Dwayne was not around.

However, when Dwayne would drive into the construction company yard in his Cadillac, everyone would quit joking around and all go back to their work area.  It wasn’t that we weren’t allowed to take a break, it was that no one wanted to be around Dwayne.  Dwayne would often be angry or irritated about something, that he imagined to be wrong.  None of us were doing anything wrong, but Dwayne was sure that we were cheating him with various plots and schemes.

Dwayne’s daughter, who was Vice-President, had to do “job costing”, to find out how much money each construction project made after is was completed.  All the payroll costs for everyone who worked on the project, all the company owned and rental equipment, all the material, all the office overhead costs, everything that went into that project was determined.  For the past two years, the net profit on the work that the company was doing, was more than 50%.  Yes, more than 50%, on projects worth millions.

On top of that, Dwayne would explain to me that I was going to write a Change Order each time a certain type of situation arose.  I would have to determine, and provide documentation, for every single cost, for every person, vehicle, piece of equipment, and material, for every hour of every day, for a two week period.  I compiled several of these Change Orders for $100,000 each, and each of these Change Orders were paid.

The underground utility construction company was making a tremendous amount of money.  But Dwayne would go after each of the employees, accusing them of some wrong doing, or not doing their job.  Accusing laborers, welders, equipment operators, mechanics, superintendents, estimators, and general managers of some type of deception and wrong doing.

In my case, I was thoroughly warned not to be tempted by any kind of bribe or offer, and to never allow myself to be persuaded in my estimates.  When I had to leave the office to go look at plan sets elsewhere, or go look at job sites, sometimes Dwayne would telephone me and be very suspicious and questioning about where I was, like I was not working.

Many times, on a site visit, I would discover some site condition that would not allow the work to be completed by ordinary means, and many extra procedures would be required.  The project owner was possibly not aware of these adverse site conditions, but the engineers who made the plan sets and the bid forms must not have been aware of these adverse site conditions.

Everyone involved in the project would be mad at me for pointing out the adverse site conditions that would require additional procedures, and wish that I just would have bid the project as shown on the plans, but this would have caused my company to lose a tremendous amount of money.  Though every time I discovered something wrong with the project that made it not able to be completed as shown on the plans, saved my company a tremendous amount of money, Dwayne was not happy with me.

Finally, there was a $75 million underground utility construction project that was out for bid.  There were twenty bidders on this project.  Each of these twenty bidders needed to get a bid for part of the work, from the company that I worked for.  One of these companies called me several times, and each time they called, they offered me something more to provide them with a lower estimate than any of the other companies, in order to help them be the lowest bidder on this $75 million project.  I would not go to their office, and I just disregarded what they were trying to get me to do.

When I went to look at the work locations for this project, several of the work locations were through flowing rivers.  These locations would require many extra procedures, that the engineers who made the plan sets and bid forms were unaware of.  The one company that kept calling me to persuade me to give them a lower estimate than all of the other companies, was trying to tell me to disregard the extra procedures that would be required at the flowing rivers.  The company was trying to tell me that the rivers would be dry during that phase of construction, or that the soil was clay, etcetera.  If I disregarded the extra costs to deal with the flowing rivers in several locations, it could cause the company that I worked for to lose millions of dollars.

I explained to Dwayne everything that was going on, that the engineers who made the plan sets and bid forms had not called out or specified additional procedures in the work areas with the flowing rivers, and that we could not leave out the costs for these additional procedures.  Dwayne advised that I needed to explain this in our estimate, and to send out the same estimate to all twenty bidders.

The company that had tried to influence me, was not the low bidder on this $75 million project.  They were furious, and they partly blamed me, though all twenty bidders got the exact same estimate from our company.  Our first priority, is to make money for our company, not go bankrupt by significantly underestimating the cost of the work that we agreed to do.

The company called Dwayne, and griped and complained about me.  Dwayne figured that he would appease them by firing me.  Dwayne wanted to fire me, but he was not disclosing why, because he did not want me retaliating against the company.  I got into an argument with Dwayne, and I was yelling at him that he had told me to not be influenced by some company to underestimate the work.  If I would have not accounted for the several work areas with flowing rivers in our estimate, it would have cost him millions of dollars.  It was a really bad argument and a fight.  His daughter went and stayed in the bathroom crying.

At this underground utility construction company owned by Dwayne, I never once missed something on a plan set, site visit, estimate, or contract.  I never allowed anyone to influence me or bribe me.  Dwayne was suspicious and accusing toward me and everyone else at his company.  I really liked my job, the office, and the people there, except Dwayne.  It was unfortunate that I had to go work some place else, because of Dwayne.

I liked Dwayne’s daughter and his wife, and they both liked me.  Dwayne’s daughter was overweight, though she tried not to be.  She had gastric bypass surgery, and she died about a year later.  Dwayne’s wife divorced him, then she died a few years later.  I heard from people that Dwayne had increasing dementia for years before his death six months ago.  All the money that he made, he only managed to ruin many people’s lives.

Concluding Remarks About Hot Women

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Several days ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Disappointment With The Hottest Girl In Dickinson, North Dakota”.  In that blog post, I described that I liked the Hottest Girl in Dickinson, but after meeting her a few more times and trying to talk to her, I found that she was unwilling or unable to express herself in complete sentences.  She was very difficult to talk to.

She was good at making clever comments, saying funny things, being animated, being funny, and getting attention.  I began to realize that she was mostly interested in getting attention.  Eventually, perhaps because she became tired or bored, she more or less said that she thought that she was hot, that she was highly sought after, and that she could do whatever she wanted to.

I immediately lost interest in her.  I didn’t think that anything good would come from knowing her, or becoming friends with her.

Yesterday, I was sitting at home watching television, and I switched channels to watch a relatively new situation comedy called “2 Broke Girls”.  This situation comedy is about a young, dark haired, large breasted, lower class waitress, who befriends a down on her luck, young, upper class, tall thin blond girl.  Both women work at the same restaurant, and they also live together.

Watching two episodes of “2 Broke Girls”, the show was funny.  The two young women are constantly making lewd, vulgar, crude, sexual, racial, nasty, and inappropriate comments.  They are always having problems, doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, and getting into trouble.  After mid-way through the third episode, it was no longer funny.

Everything was funny and a joke to the two young women.  Many people were the targets of their lewd, vulgar, crude, and nasty comments.  They were always having problems and getting into trouble.  And all they would do was make clever comments, make stupid comments, and continue to do stupid things.  It was no longer funny, it was irritating, and I no longer wanted to watch this television show.  I hope that no young women model their behavior after women on television who behave like this, but I am afraid that they probably do.

This is very much how the Hottest Girl in Dickinson behaved.  Constantly making witty comments, suggestive comments, funny comments, and stupid comments.  And also always having problems and trouble.  Both the women on the television show “2 Broke Girls”, and the Hottest Girl in Dickinson, believed that they could get away with everything, and get out of anything, because they were attractive.

This attitude is repugnant to me, when women think that they are so attractive that they can get away with everything, and get out of anything.  This leads to nothing but problems and trouble.  I will give a couple of real life examples.

When I first came to work in Dickinson in 2011, I started work at a company one week before someone who I will call “Danny”.  Danny was 42 years old, and he came over from Montana.  I stayed in my truck camper on the company property, and Danny slept in a mini van that he had borrowed from a relative.  Danny had recently married a younger woman, and he left her with his Chevy Blazer back in Montana.

Danny started making about $1,200 per week, and he began looking for a town home for he and his wife to live in.  Danny called his wife every day to let her know how things were going.  With Danny making $1,200 per week, his young wife wanted to know if she could go buy a new Dodge truck for herself.  Danny told her no, he had to get a place for the two of them to live first.

Danny was in tears one morning, sobbing.  The company manager had to do something with him.  We all found out later that day what had happened.  Danny’s wife emptied every savings account, and every checking account, and took his Chevy Blazer to a Dodge dealer, signed over the Blazer title, though her name was not on the title, and bought herself a new Dodge 1500 truck, and she put it in her name.  She took about $24,000 and Danny’s Chevy Blazer, and she left him with absolutely nothing, not even a vehicle.  They had been married for about six months.  She told him on the telephone, to go fuck himself, that she was done with him.

If that would have happened to me, I would have cut her head off.  It would have been a mistake for any woman to think that she was so attractive that she could get away with everything, and get out of anything.  I would expect someone to kill me, if I did something as bad as to take everything that they owned.  It is irritating to me, and it angers me, that any person thinks that they are somehow exempted from the same rules as everyone else, and that they are excused from the consequences of what they do.

Two more, real life examples:

When I was an estimator and project coordinator at a specialty construction company in Florida, one of the new young crew workers went to work on a construction project about three hundred miles away.  This was before people had internet capable cell phones, and on line banking.  This young man would endorse his pay checks, and mail them back to his girlfriend.  He talked to his girlfriend regularly on the telephone after work, and he reminded her to please mail in his truck payment.  She never made one truck payment.  His truck was repossessed while he was working out of town far away from home, and he didn’t even know it.  You go girl!

When I was in high school, one of my father’s friends named Jerry went to work in Saudi Arabia for over one year.  He sent all of his money each month back to his wife.  He expected to have about $40,000 in the bank when he got home after working for over a year in Saudi Arabia.  When Jerry got home, he didn’t have any money at all, his wife had taken up with another man while he was gone, and she and her boyfriend had spent all of the money that he had sent home.  What’s wrong with that?

You can’t expect anything good to come from women that don’t take anything seriously, make stupid comments about everything, and think that they can get away with everything, and get out of anything.

Reasons Why I Hate Working As An Engineer

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I have had such a horrible time going to school for engineering and working as an engineer, that I do not recommend it to anyone.  In Germany, where engineers are treated with as much respect as medical doctors, it might be worth it.

In high school, I had to do well in Algebra and Geometry, in order to be allowed to take Trigonometry.  I had to do well in Trigonometry, in order to be allowed to take Calculus.  When you are a kid, especially in Florida where I grew up, you want to go outside and play.  You want to ride your bike, skateboard, go fishing, go surfing, play tennis, but you can’t if you have six hours of homework every night after you get home from school at 3:00 p.m.  I had so much homework because I had advanced placement English, advanced placement Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, Latin, and French, which require reading, studying, and understanding before you even begin doing problems and writing.

I graduated first in my high school class, and I got a scholarship to a small private liberal arts college in Virginia to take pre-engineering and general education classes.  The requirements to transfer to Georgia Tech or the University of Virginia after three years were, three more semesters of Calculus, one semester Differential Equations, one semester Linear Algebra, four semesters of Physics, two semesters of Chemistry, one semester FORTRAN programming, and one semester Electricity.  In college, you would like to have fun, but you can’t if you are on scholarship and have to have very high grades to get into an Engineering School.  After my last class of the day at about 3:00 p.m., I had about six hours or more of homework.

I was envious and somewhat resentful of the other college students that were able to have a lot more fun because their major was not nearly as difficult, the Business, Communications, Economics, Education, English, History, Journalism, Political Science, Psychology majors.  I might as well include every major, except for pre-medicine.

Before anyone starts to say that I don’t know how difficult the other majors were, I had to take English with the English majors, Accounting with the Business majors, Political Science with the Poli Sci majors, etcetera.  When the grades were posted at the end of the semesters by the last digits of the social security numbers, on a list of one hundred to two hundred people, there would be one “A+”, which was honorary and had no more grade points than an “A”, and the “A+” was me.

At the small private liberal arts college in Virginia, it was very easy to do well.  The professors were mostly agreeable, helpful, and encouraging.  They wanted everyone to do well both in school and in life, and hoped that all of their students would put in the effort to be successful.  The other hugely encouraging factor, was the young women at the school.

The school was very, very expensive.  Most of the young women at this school were from very wealthy families, or upper middle class families.  Most of the young women were very friendly, pleasant, and encouraging to me.  These women dressed very nicely, and were very decent, polite, and civil.  Most were attractive, some were unbelievably good looking.  Whether they were from the Northeast, or the South, whether they themselves were serious students or not, they were all very encouraging to me.  They admired hard work and trying to be successful.

When I had to transfer to the College of Engineering at the University of Florida after three years of pre-engineering, it was horrible.  The University of Florida was the hardest school to get into in Florida, and once you were there, it was all about getting students to quit.  At that time, there were 35,000 students at the University of Florida, and all of them were either smart or hardworking, or both.

They just could not allow all of these ambitious young people to become accountants, architects, archeologists, attorneys, doctors, engineers, and programmers, they had to eliminate most of them.  This was the most horrible, fucked up thing, that I have ever had to deal with in my entire life.

Everybody at the University of Florida had to have very good grades to be there in the first place.  All of the students in the College of Engineering had to have already completed so many semesters of Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Differential Equations, Physics, Chemistry, Electricity, and Computer Science with at least a very high “B+” average in order to be admitted to the college.  Now, after three years of college, the University of Florida was going to try to get rid of most of the engineering students by making them fail or by making them quit.

“Statics”, not “Statistics”, was the study of forces on stationary structures.  All engineering students had to take this class, whether they were going into civil, chemical, electrical, industrial, or mechanical.  Statics involved very complex mathematical equations derived using Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Differential Equations, and Physics.  It was probably twice as hard as Calculus.  About 40% of engineering students failed the Statics class on the first try, I did.

Probably about 20% of engineering students quit engineering the semester after taking Statics combined with their other engineering classes.  The course work was just too hard, especially if you had a job, and especially considering what you would be paid if you ever did graduate with a degree in engineering.

In about the fourth year overall of an engineering student’s education, in the first year of being admitted to the College of Engineering, you would need to take Thermodynamics I.  After about 20% of the engineering students quit after taking Statics, about another 20% quit after taking Thermodynamics I.  About 40% of engineering students failed the Thermodymics I class on the first try, I did.

This was very sick and sickening.  Many students who had to work, could not pass Statics and Thermodynamics because they did not have the time to study for these classes and their other classes.  In college, there is a rule of thumb, that for every hour you spend in class for a course, you will have to spend two hours studying at home.  But for Thermodynamics I, for every hour spent in class, you would have to spend four hours studying at home.  The other engineering classes had one hour class to three hours at home ratios.

There were many very, very intelligent, hard working students, that were good at engineering, that dropped out of the University of Florida because they were unable to complete the courses the way that they were taught and administered.  This is the way that the University of Florida wanted it, this is the way that the College of Engineering wanted it, and this is the way that the different engineering departments wanted it.

These young people that worked so hard in high school to take all the preparatory mathematics, physics, and chemistry, that had made very high grades in college Calculus, Differential Equations, Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Programming, were being forced out of the College of Engineering by the way that the courses were taught and administered.

Most of the College of Engineering professors, could not care less whether the students were following along with what they were teaching.  They were bored in teaching, teaching Statics for ten to twenty years gets boring.  It got so boring, that the professors decided to video tape one class session live, with no students permitted to ask questions, and then the video tape was shown for the next eight sessions of Statics that day.  Remember, 40% of engineering students at the University of Florida failed Statics on the first attempt.

Thermodynamics I was about twice as difficult to pass as Statics.  Thermodynamics is a difficult subject to learn and understand.  At the University of Florida, they had one professor from the Mechanical Engineering Department, that taught Thermodynamics I, and Thermodynamics II.  He was crazy and sadistic.  He had a good understanding of Thermodynamics, as he taught it, because that is all he taught for twenty years, and he wrote the book that was required for the course.

If you could understand the the principles and equations of Thermodynamics I, and use the equations correctly, you were only half way there.  When you went to the two hour test session, with all 400 to 600 enrolled students, the test questions would be a riddle, inside of a puzzle, with some tricks.  And, there would not be enough time given to complete the test problems.

This was horrible, insane, and sadistic.  About half of the class would be people like me, who were having to take the class for the second time.  All of our studying and understanding of the material didn’t matter, because there wasn’t enough time given to complete the test problems.  There would typically be four problems on a test, that involved first understanding what the hell he was talking about, what engineering principles could be used, did you have enough information to begin using certain equations, what could you do to possibly calculate more information to even begin, and then trying to solve all kinds of unknowns, to then use those unknowns in subsequent equations.

The calculations for each problem would completely fill one or more sheets of paper.  You could only spend 1/2 hour on each problem, but the calculations would take forty-five minutes to one hour for each problem.  Most of the four hundred to six hundred enrolled students would not turn in their tests when time was called.  The teaching assistant would have to go take the tests away from everyone.  The twenty-two to twenty-five year old female engineering students would be outside the auditorium crying.  They and their parents probably had spent and borrowed about $40,000 for college in the past four years, and now they weren’t going to be able to continue because they could not pass Thermodynamics I.

Thermodynamics I was twice as hard as Statics, and Thermodynamics II was twice as hard as Thermodynamics I.  In Statics, there might have been 300 Mechanical Engineering students enrolled each semester.  In Thermodynamics I, there might have been 200 Mechanical Engineering students enrolled each semester.  In Fluid Dynamics, it would be down to 120 Mechanical Engineering students enrolled each semester.  By the time of Thermodynamics II it got down to 80 Mechanical Engineering students enrolled.  The end result, the University of Florida produced about 50 Mechanical Engineering graduates each semester.  I made it, I graduated.  I didn’t go to graduation because I was so disgusted with everything.  My whole experience at the University of Florida was horrible.

Please remember, there are a tremendous number of very intelligent and hardworking students that get admitted to the University of Florida, which is a very hard school to get into.  Many of these students would make very good accountants, architects, attorneys, and engineers, but the University of Florida makes classes so difficult to pass, that many students drop out.  It is not just that the material is difficult to learn and understand, it is that the classes are taught and administered so that many people will fail.  One of the techniques that they use in the College of Engineering, is to not give enough time on tests for the calculations to be completed.  Another technique, is for the problems to be couched in a riddle, couched in a puzzle, with some tricks.

If the University of Florida has any reputation for being a “good school”, it is not due to the quality of education, it is that you have to be extremely intelligent, hardworking, and don’t give up, in order to graduate as an accountant, architect, attorney, or engineer.

School was horrible.  Even though I described it just now, most people can’t imagine how bad it was at the University of Florida Department of Mechanical Engineering.  I wasn’t willing to go through that kind of shit for very long working as an engineer, but I did for a while.

One of my first jobs out of college was working for a bridge construction company.  Based on information that I received about length of span, required width, required loading, contour of crossing, elevation of bridge, and type of abutments, I would prepare an AutoCAD drawing of the bridge, and make a cost estimate of the bridge.  The owner of the the company that I worked for, required that I precisely specify all of the bridge material and quantities, and send these to material suppliers to get price quotes.  The owner did not want any surprises about material costs.

I would take a lot of pride in being completely accurate and painstaking in all of my designs, calculations, and material take-offs based on my designs and calculations.  So many times, when I was expecting to get out of the office at 5:00 p.m., an asshole employee who was not painstaking or careful, (a business major), would come to me and tell me that he was wrong about the bridge span, width, or elevation.  My design, my drawings, my calculations, and my material take-offs would all be wrong.

Instead of getting to go home in a couple of hours, I would have to stay at the office until 10:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m., in order to re-do all my designs, calculations, and material take-offs, that I had already done so carefully and painstakingly the first time.  This reminded me so much of college, when I was so tired of staying at my desk studying, and all of the business majors and marketing majors were out having a good time.  The business major that had given me the wrong information, had already been out to eat, and was home in bed by the time I was leaving the office because of his mistake.

This is how things will always be for engineers in the United States for a number of reasons.  If you don’t want to be poorly paid, treated badly, and disrespected, then don’t be an engineer in the United States.

An example of how engineers in Dickinson, North Dakota, are treated and disrespected, most of the oil companies and manufacturing companies in Dickinson hire and give the title of “engineer” to people who don’t even have a knowledge of basic chemistry and physics.  They could not make any sense of a periodic table of elements, chemical formula, or calculate forces.  The people and employers in Dickinson love to disrespect and mistreat degreed engineers.