My son just showed me a website called F#&k My Life that let’s people share their tales of woe. I could relate to lots of the examples. Some are shown below.

Today, I caught my dad squishing my stick-on bra cups in his hands, trying to figure out what they are. He’s an engineer who graduated from MIT. I still don’t think he knows what they are. FML

Today, I was driving my car and I thought the construction guy was flirting and waving at me. So I drove by him, waving back and hit an oil spill and my car ended up spinning out of control. He was trying to direct me away from the oil spill. FML

Today, I woke up to the sounds of birds singing, the smell of butter pancakes in the air and thought to myself “Wow, today is going to be great day. I can feel it!” Excited, I jumped out of my bed and threw open the door to see my 58 year old mother doing her morning stretches in the nude. FML

Today, I found out why my 5 year old son’s teacher acts so awkward around me. My son told everyone in his class that I work as a stripper. I’m not a stripper, I work at the strip mall. FML

Today, I had my friend Mark over for dinner. My Dad asked him what his dad did for a living. We all squirmed a bit when he told us that his dad died last year. We all went about finishing our meal when suddenly my dad says: “I’m sorry, Mark, what did you say your dad did for a living again?” FML

So maybe your life looks just a little bit better, by comparison.

The article at this link tells 5 short success stories from varied industries. Opening with a story about a guy who goes from assistant construction superintendent to vice-president of a $1 billion construction company (with no formal construction education), the article illustrates the possibility of career growth. He also give some good people skills advice.

The other four stories, taken from widely scattered fields, will also motivate anyone considering change. In these times, we all should be considering change. As I stressed in the last posts, take some time to think deeply about where your current job and industry are going and where you want to go.

Another recent story that amused me concerned a Construction Superintendent in Virginia who had his Bank of America credit card rate almost doubled, for no real reason other than they could. He made the sign shown below and put it in his pickup truck.

He gets lots of comments and has become a local celebrity. His bosses decided they don’t need BOA as an enemy (who knows who will finance your next project) and told him to keep it off the job site. He complied, mounting the sign on the trailer shown above and dragging it around on his non-work hours. It’s a fun article to read if you have the time.

Finally, in anticipation of the thrills and chills of grandchildren, I give you this 25 second video that will make you laugh. Doesn’t he look like a future engineer, as he parks midway between the two cars?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UMWhJsd0JE]

I’m working on a post about Building Information Modeling and 4D and 5D charting, but saw this fun little video that I’ll share in the meantime.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wAjpMP5eyo]

Do you think that guy really flew that far and landed in that little pool? I’m skeptical, but I suppose they could have tested it with a dummy to get a concept of the range.

This video of a building demolition shows a big oops. Watching it makes me feel better about my bad days.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyaz5_2cB2Y]

We are currently renovating a building originally built in 1752, then expanded in 1868. We had some beautiful 1868 sandstone stairs in the front that we needed to just slightly reposition. I got the call yesterday that the one stair tread broke in half, which disappointed us all.  Later they found a piece of sandstone in back that was the perfect size to use as a replacement tread. Now that’s clean living.

I came across this cool free download that I thought you might enjoy.

The Secrets of Jujitsu: A Complete Course in Self Defense

Written in 1920 by Captain Smith, a US Army hand to hand combat instructor for WWI, this book illustrates his years of learning self-defense secrets in Japan from the Jujitsu style. He also includes several great submission tricks for bringing a hooligan to his knees with a simple wrist grip or escorting a trouble maker outside with special arm grip.

The writing style of the book makes me smile, this honorable guy teaching valuable information back at the Great War. If you check it out I’m sure you’ll learn something useful you didn’t know. He ends the book with the phrase “Death Before Dishonor”, which I hope I embrace in my life.

While thinking of death, I got an odd email from my son today telling me about Google Health and one of their programs which lists one’s Advance Directive for End of Life Care. I’m not sure what Lex is trying to tell me…or if he knows something I don’t. It’s a good thing to have one of those in place, though, and I don’t. So I printed it out and will make my decisions, then sign, scan and file on Google Health. One more thing off my to do list. I encourage you to do the same.