Back from the coast.
It's nice to be completing a lot of the stuff we've been doing, but I tell you what, I'm getting REAL tired of this early morning weekend shit.
It's about 4:30pm right now, and I've been home since about 8:30am, but sleeping most of the day. I'm gonna be dog-tired tomorrow, due to this fucked-up sleep schedule.
UGH.
Am I the only one with enormous hands?
I can't be.
Ever since we moved into the house here, and ever since I had a shop that I could put my vehicles inside to work on, I've been searching high and low for a pair of Mechanix Gloves (or a knock-off clone brand) that would fit me.
The largest anyone ever had was an X-Large.
Somehow, the local Autozone here in BFE got a shipment of 2X-Large Mechanix Gloves, and I was able to snag a set tonight.
It's about damned time!!!
I'm going to have to go back when I get paid, and grab a couple more pairs, if they've still got them.
So, I've been going to the doctor repeatedly for some back pain issues arising from the auto accident in February.
Got the results of an MRI:
Now I've got an awesome appointment with a neurologist/neurosurgeon to discuss "options", which likely means getting cut again.
Sweet. Super Sweet.
Goddamned fucking female drivers, anyhow.
So, where am I going with all of this? I don't know. I guess this is kind of just a big gripe about growing up, and missing out on the hey-day of my hobbies.
I'm a major sci-fi buff. I'm a comic nerd. I'm an RPG player. I'm a heavy reader.
I didn't get into most of that until I started going to school in Albany - more appropriately, I didn't get into most of that until I got a job during my junior year of high school.
When I finally did get into the majority of my hobbies, it was at the end of the peak years, and the market has kinda crapped out.
My biggest lament is growing up in Halsey. I look at all the things that I would have had access to, and all of the ways that growing up would have been "better", had I lived in an area that wasn't as backwards as Halsey.
It's no place to raise a child that has a modicum of intelligence, and I really wish my parents would have stayed in Corvallis, or even moved to Albany or Salem.
My parents claim that they wanted a child, and that I was planned, which causes me to attempt to wrap my head around the decision to move someplace like Halsey, with an inferior school system, lack of any kind of community resources (library, youth centers, etc.), that kind of thing.
Looking back at our trips to Albany or Corvallis (shopping, doctor appointments, etc.), it always seems like I was an afterthought. I certainly remember kid-friendly or kid-interesting places that I wanted to go to, like video arcades, hobby stores, book stores, toy stores, etc., but we never had "enough time this trip", or some other reason not to go into them.
I suppose at some point, the financial aspect of some of these places became an issue, but, you know, if you have a kid, you need to spend money on their entertainment.
That's not to say that we didn't do things - we made the requisite trips to the zoo, to OMSI, The Enchanted Forest once or twice, but realistically, we never went anywhere that I would have REALLY dug going into.
I didn't set foot into Trump's Hobbies until I was 13 or 14. We visited the store after grocery shopping at Cub Foods (now WinCo), because Dad wanted to look at the HO scale train stuff. It was there that I discovered the Dungeons & Dragons Game boxed set that was released in 1991.
My 8th-Grade art teacher, foolishly thinking she could coax some artistic skill out of me, gave me a handful of old Dragon magazines, chock full of some excellent Sci-Fi and Fantasy artwork. The short stories inside were intriguing, and the idea of RPGs was amazing - but short of mail-order places from the adverts inside the magazine, I had no idea where to get the stuff, until that fateful day at Trump's.
Within a month or so, I had saved enough money from allowances or birthday or wherever it was that I got it, and I bought the box set. I tried to get my parents to play with me, but Dad never much was a fan of games, and Mom, while she tried to humor me, really wasn't interested in the thing.
Not really having any friends with a similar interest, I read and re-read the rules and contents of the game over and over again - and then about a week later, I put it in a box, and it collected dust for about a year, until I traded it to a punk kid at South Albany for a beat-to-shit set of the Marvel Super Heroes basic set, which I have to this day. YAY Halsey.
I didn't set foot in an actual comic store until the summer of my sophomore year. I stayed with my Grandma up in Tigard for a week or two, and she let me have a ton of freedom my parents never did, which included walking the short distance from her place to a nearby Safeway, and staying there for hours, browsing all of the magazines and comic books.
I bought a bunch of Wolverine and Marvel Comics Presents books there during my brief visit, and when I got back home, after weeks of whining and convicing, finally got my Mom to take me by the Comic Crypt in downtown Albany.
I had discovered geek Mecca. This place had it ALL. Comics, cards, RPGs, anime, figurines, action figures - a tiny little hole-in-the-wall shop, and it was AWESOME.
But, it wouldn't last. The comics industry was going to crash in 1996, and the RPG market was already in the gutter.
Once again, I missed my generation's golden age. The 1980's were gone, and the 1990's were nearly half over, and I lost out on the cream of it all.
Driving around, seeing the few places still in business, and the locations where those now closed used to be got me bummed-out.
I really regret growing up in Halsey. There was nothing to do there, and when we did go to a bigger city, I didn't get to enjoy it - I got to march around a grocery store, or wait in the car.
I think the rural upbringing limited a lot of things that would have been beneficial.
I don't mean the last few days to be any kind of scathing criticism of my parents - I think that, overall, they were pretty good at the job, but there's times that I wonder if they realized that they really didn't want kids...
Today, I don't know that I'd change things, given the option - today, I enjoy where I'm at and what I'm doing, but the grass is always greener, you know?
It's just that I see my hobbies drying up and fading away. Where there used to be five or six comic stores in the area, there's now one, and even with that one store, the comic industry seems to be in a self-destructive loop, pissing off their long-time readership, time and time again. The D&D RPG is getting all fuckered up with the new version, and the alternative RPG market really isn't there like it used to be, so you're stuck with a couple of major systems, and that's about it.
One upside to all of this is that, with all the years that I didn't spend reading sci-fi and fantasy, there's a TON of material out there for me to pick up and read now, which is a bonus, I suppose.
Ah, well. Time to stop whining about things I can't change.
My Mom has always been, for lack of a better descriptor, a techie. If anyone gets the credit for turning me into a nerd, it would be her.
In the early 1980's, if someone owned a typewriter, it was likely a non-powered, or low-end electric model. Mom bought an IBM Correcting Selectric II shortly after they were released in 1973.
Around 1984, Mom had purchased a TI-99/4A "personal computer".
A few short years later, we had an IBM PC-XT (8088) clone, complete with a 360K 5.25" floppy drive, a 20mb HD, an EGA monitor and a 9-pin dot-matrix printer - a decision I complained about continually, preferring the sleek and sexy Apple IIGS that I had fallen in love with in 5th grade over the clunky DOS-based behemoth.
I told you I wasn't much of a nerd.
At some point, she purchased a SupraFAXmodem (2400bps data, 4800bps fax) - more of her gimmick/gadget addiction.
Growing up in Halsey, going to school in Central Linn, nobody knew what a modem was capable of. I had no exposure to any other real geeks, so I didn't see the potential in plugging the computer into the phone line. She bought it because she thought it would be nifty to have a fax on the computer - and it was a cool gimmick.
Around the 8th grade, the XT was replaced with AMD-based 386 clone, and the modem followed it. My freshman year of high-school brought me in contact with a some imports from outside of the area - a science teacher from Eugene, and a couple of students from the same area. *THEY* knew what modems were, and it wasn't long until the science teacher had a modem installed on his PC, and a phone line in the classroom. Soon after, I was introduced to the world of BBS'ing - totally awesome, but too little, too late. The BBS era was coming to a close.
After getting a terminal emulator setup on the 386, and a couple of several hundred dollar phone bills, that particular avenue was cut off, but I think this is what finally prompted my parents to resolve the situation they had put me in. I was transferred to South Albany High School the following year, and things got a LOT better.
I was still living in Halsey, but I was able to interact with more people with similar interests. If it hadn't been for Mom's technology addiction, I don't know if I'd be where I'm at today.
But what about all the time I had lost?
More Tuesday...
I took my lunch break yesterday, and ended up driving around Corvallis for about an hour.
I drove by our old house on Green Place, and tooled around the area (Kings & Circle, Kings & Walnut, around there), and realized something:
My childhood sucked ass.
Whether or not you care, I'm going to expound upon that a bit, over the next couple of days.
Today, a brief biography.
I was born in Corvallis, OR. Somewhere around when I was two, my parents sold their house in Corvallis, and bought a place in Halsey, about 20-25 miles away.
Halsey is a tiny little farm community. In the 1980's, the place had a population of about 500-600 people, a gas station, a small grocery store (not a mini-mart, but an actual full-fledged (albeit small) grocery store), a bank, and a crappy little diner.
Today, it's got about 700 people or so, the gas station, the bank and the diner are closed (though, there may be some crappy sandwich place in the same area).
Now, as then, it's primary purpose is grass seed growing, shipping and receiving. The Union Pacific Railroad goes right through it, and it's about 2 miles away from an on-ramp to Interstate 5.
Halsey is the self-styled "Grass Seed Capital of the World" - a title that Linn County (of which Halsey is part of) also claims. Supposedly, more grass seed moves in and out of Halsey (and by default, Linn County) than any other location in the world.
Cool. Grass is important. A metric fuck-ton of it's farmed around here, and it's pretty much is the explanation for Halsey's existance.
In the opposite direction of the freeway, another 2-3 miles away, is the Georgia-Pacific and Pope & Talbot corporations, which have been one of the big area employers for quite some time. GP makes toilet paper and paper towels, while P&T pulps wood, both for the GP facility, and other customers.
Given Halsey's proximity to Eugene, Corvallis and Albany, a good portion of the mill's workforce lives in these towns.
It is, without a doubt, a podunk little rathole with nothing going for it, save for cheap land/housing located close to the freeway, and a reasonable commute to a real city.
And this is where I grew up.
Halsey is at the center of what is known as the Central Linn School District. Take three jerkwater towns (Shedd, Halsey and Brownsville) and put their schools together, and you get this district. When I was there, there was an elementary school in Shedd (K-4), an elementary school in Brownsville (K-4), a Middle School in Halsey city proper (5-8), and a High School between Halsey and the freeway (9-12).
Due to the chronic mismanagement of liberal state officials who'd rather give money to illegal immigrants, shiftless layabouts, career breeders and other assorted flotsam of the genetic cesspool, compounded by the general attitude my many of the area residents who don't have school-aged children, and therefore, pretty consistently vote against any bond measures the school district tries to pass (an attitude that I sadly share, these days), the school district isn't really getting any better.
Enrollment numbers are up, but money is way, way down, and that has resulted in the Shedd school being sold, and the Brownsville having it's staff relocated to Halsey, and the facility turned into the District Offices.
The Middle school is now a K-6 Elementary School, and the High School is now a 7-12 Middle School/Elementary School.
I'd agree that things are worse now than when I was there, but not by far.
Due to Apple's publicity-mongering charity stunts of the 1980's and early 1990's, most classrooms had an Apple II-series in them, or a Macintosh as we got into the upper end of Middle School/High School.
Toy computers in a time that is quickly becoming digital, and me a burgeoning computer nerd.
The school libraries sucked, and the city didn't have one. Going to a library meant traveling to Brownsville, which had a public library slightly larger than the school library, or traveling to Albany, and using theirs.
Brownsville happened infrequently, Albany happened never. As a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and tons of other Sci-Fi growing up (thank God for syndication!), my access to other avenues of this particular interest was blocked.
Social interaction consisted of sports, shitkicking and goatroping. I was a nerd living in a hick town, and both of my parents were educated professional types, and my primary male role model, Dad, didn't partake of the vast majority of the stereotypical male hobbies such as sports or hunting/shooting/camping like the parents of my peers, which led to further social ostracism. The one "manly" thing that Dad was into, cars (and he definitely has an aptitude for repair/restoration) never grabbed me, due to his oh-so-excellent tutelage - Dad brought home one of his first projects, a 1939 Dodge sedan (suicide doors!!) that was to become a street rod project. Listening to him talk about everything he was going to do to it, and getting all excited about the eventual end result, I was hooked on cars! Finally, something that I could relate to the rest of the kids my age with.
It lasted about 30 minutes. Dad, as much as I love the guy, had an awe-inspiring ability to crush my interest in things. I think all young boys are fascinated with tools and machinery, and I was no different. Any time Dad went to work on any of the family vehicles, be it as simple as changing the oil, or something a bit more complicated, like replacing head gaskets, I (at least, initially) was quick to be there, ready and willing to help. Obviously, there's not a LOT that a kid can do, and more often than not, the kid gets in the way, makes a mess, and makes things take twice as long as they should. Again, I was no different. Dad didn't have a lot of patience with me or the job at hand, and my role quickly became that of curb warmer. Dad wanted to get the job done, he didn't want to deal with me under-foot, and he didn't want to include me on the job. Today, I can't say that, in his place, I'd do any different. Kids annoy the piss out of me, but I was *HIS* kid.
Fast-forward to the street rod project, and the last chance I had to get interested in cars (until over a decade later, when I had moved out and bought my own). Dad announces that the street rod will be a family project, and is going on about some things, and, with the exhuberance of a small child, I can't wait to find out what my job will be.
Then he announces it: my job will be body prep. Specifically, when he takes the fenders off, my job is to sand the crap down to bare metal, so he can primer it. Do I get to do any of the painting? Nope. Do I get to use a power sander? Nope. Will I get to work on the engine? Nope.
FUCK THAT.
Cars, tools, mechanical type stuff? The interest this might have held just got dealt a deathblow.
So, I stayed a nerd, or as much of one as I could become in a dead-end town, with nothing but re-runs on TV to feed upon.
More Sunday...
I turned 30 today.
No longer can I blame my immaturity on being a child.
Dammit.
Now what am I going to do?
"Everybody dies. What matters is what you do between now and when it happens to you."
I need to start figuring out what I'm going to do with the time I've got left.
Granted, I've got a while (or so I assume), but that's not really the point.
What is the point, you might ask?
Well, it's that I'm going to hit 30 in a little less than a month, and I'm not satisfied with my accomplishments.
I don't have any assets, to speak of.
I haven't started a family.
I haven't traveled abroad.
I haven't made my "spiritual journey of discovery".
In short, I simply exist.
"Get busy living, or get busy dying."
Decisions need to be made. Things need to be done.
I'll be damned if I know what they are, though.
Fuck the War on Terror.
We need a War on Colds.
This SUCKS.
I wasn't about to call in sick today, even though I feel like I've been hit by a freight train.
My head is pounding, my sinuses alternate between being plugged solid to running like a broken faucet, my throat is raw, and I can barely stand.
One one hand, thankfully this happened at the end of the week.
On the other hand, thanks for ruining my weekend, asshole cold.
I better be able to make it to Sears to get my cool screwdriver ratchet socket things on Club sale.
If not, I'm going to be really pissy.
I'm going back to bed now, if I can sleep more than 15 minutes.
OK, so, I rule.
This job is going to rock so much!
Things are pretty steady right now, so I got a "technical" tour of the place I've been working, which is great. I know where everything is, but I didn't know what everything was.
I'm really going to enjoy this.
Of course, my cubicle could be better. It's among the smallest cubes in the office, and they're right on the main path to the conference rooms and the coffee machines. Oh joy.
All is not lost, though - with any luck, rumors of expansion in the department will hold true, and they'll be forced to either reorganize or move us to larger quarters (the preferred solution).
We shall see.
ARGH! :(
I had fully intended to do all of my travel laundry yesterday, to have it folded, packed, and ready to go, so I wouldn't be up late again tonight, but I'm only about half done.
I'm going to go throw another load in here in a minute, and I should be good, but, damn, I was tired.
I really hate that I've only got the two days off, and I spent most of them catching up on sleep.
I did run the couple errands that needed running, so we're good there, but I'm still disappointed.
Oh well.
1.5 weeks to go!
So, I "lost" about $90 last night, which sucked. I'm still ahead, overall, and it took me about two hours to lose that much on a $5-minimum table, so it's not too bad.
I'm also going to be at the coast ANOTHER two days, so I can briefly train the new guy, and the guy who's going to finish his training.
Jolly good fun!
My new laptop better hurry up and show! :)
Got to go to Olive Garden for their never-ending pasta bowl tonight, and I was really unhappy.
Alfredo, as always, was good, but I just wasn't all that hungry, the 5-Cheese Marinara sauce sucked, and I left my leftovers at the table.
DAMMIT.
OMG THIS GAME ROCKS!
So, today, several of my co-workers from various departments in the valley were over at the coast for work, and everyone decided to get together and come to Lincoln City for dinner and drinks.
Afterwards, a couple of the guys and myself decided to head over to Chinook Winds Casino.
Now, I've never been to a casino before - ever.
They had a few casino-style poker games going - some crap like 3-card Poker and Pai Gow Poker (nothing that I wanted to bother trying to learn and play), a fuckton of slot machines, and Blackjack!
They had some $10-minimum tables, and a couple of $5-minimum tables, which is where I found myself at.
I played with $60, and ended the night up about $200, which was pretty fucking sweet!
I'm going back tomorrow night, to see if I can recapture the magic!
As we enter Week 4 of my coastal visit (one more week to go!), I'm finding myself bored out of my gourd.
There's really not that much to do around here, unless your a touristy-type person. Having lived at the coast, I've done all the touristy crap, so it doesn't appeal to me.
Chuck and Heroes is on TV tonight (soon!), so I'll be watching that, but other than TV and the Intarwebz (and slow hotel Intarwebz, at that), that's all I've got. I'm not a solo-movie or solo-dining kind of guy, so, bleh.
Oh well. I just need to power through the next couple of weeks, and I'll be home!
Found out that I also get a new cellphone, since my current craptacular phone is going to my replacement.
Woot!
I truly hope I get something half-way decent. It'd be so badass to get a SmartPhone or PDA deal.
My first phone when I joined the company was a retarded Samsung, with the world's worst user interface.
You know how most phones have a "Call" button (usually green) and an "End Call" button (usually red)??
Yeah, this one used softkeys - those buttons that change depending on the context/feature you're in. Completely retarded. I don't know if the developers at Samsung thought they were being smart, but, seriously - way to go, fucktards! Let's change the most basic features of, what, EVERY SINGLE OTHER CELLPHONE SINCE THE INVENTION OF CELLPHONES?!
Morons.
My replacement was a semi-nifty (for being cheap/free) Nokia flip deal, and it worked pretty decently, until, for whatever reason, I didn't receive half of my calls. Not great.
So, I got them to replace it. I asked for a RAZR, since that's what I've got for my personal phone, and I know it works. They claimed they don't have them, but that's bullshit - they just didn't want to buy me a new phone, so they took whatever they could get for free/cheap. It's a Motorola, so it uses the handy mini-USB charging adapter, but it's still crappy - and this one has no camera, which comes in REAL handy for a lot of things.
Thankfully, I'll soon be rid of it, but, knowing my luck, I'll get another one of the same. Yay.
So, this is pretty sweet.
My new position as a Network Administrator means that I get a laptop!
Woot woot!
Since the company doesn't seem to recycle too much in the way of old hardware (not that there's all that much to recycle, as it is), a brand new system is being purchased for me!
I'm going to be the proud pseudo-owner of an IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad T61!
It's not exactly what I would have purchased for my own personal stuff, but this is a pretty killer sweet machine.
The specs of the one I'm getting:
2.0ghz Core 2 Duo CPU
4GB RAM
14.1" SXGA+ LCD (1400x1050)
128mb discrete Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M
80GB HD
Wireless, Bluetooth, Fingerprint reader, all kinds of other goodies...
I'm pretty stoked...
The video card is about equivalent to a GeForce 8400GS mobile, so, while not super-great, more than adequate - I should be able to do some gaming on this bad boy, not that I'd ever take advantage of work equipment in such a manner.
The other cool factor is, now that I have this for my job, there's really no restrictions on me taking it wherever I go - vacation, etc.
Obviously, there's all the associated risks with personal use of company equipment, so I'll have to behave myself, but, all-in-all, it's not too bad.
This means I can put off buying a personal machine - at least, for a little while.
I was just offered a position as Network Administrator!
Woot!
I *think* that I'll start in about two and a half weeks, but we'll see.
How freakin' badass is that?
Argh.
I seriously hope that the sickness isn't coming back.
What sickness?
My hobby-fad sickness.
I have a few different hobbies, and they all seem to cost way too much money:
Arcade Games
Firearms
Radios
Automobiles
Computers
Music/Audio Equipment (mostly automobile-related)
I seem to rotate through these at the most inopportune times - usually before I see a particular project through to completion.
I have a number of arcade games (full-size cabinets) in various states of disrepair. I have a number of gun projects that are far from completion. My radio collection (which wasn't cheap) is sitting around, waiting for me to buy some of the final components needed to make use of them. I want to do more with my vehicles. I need/want to upgrade my computer. I want a new stereo in my Vic.
All of this costs a metric fuck-ton of money, which I don't have.
Right now, I'm on the computer kick, which is, for once, not seeming to cost me a ton of money.
Sadly, though, it may lose ground in the battle for firearm stuffs, again.
I've been pretty lucky on the firearms front. I love my collection, and I definitely want to finish the projects I'm working on, but the cost of ammo these days has tempered my desire to spend any money on that set of projects - until the news of the latest Indiana Jones movies.
For a variety of reasons, Indiana Jones (and, to a certain extent, the Mummy movies) have got me wanting to get my 1911's fixed up, want me to get a pair of Browning Hi-Powers, want to get me some cool older revolver stuff (especially a nice pair of those sexy Chamelot Delvignes, if I can find them)...
Hopefully, for the time being, I can keep the monster down, and actually finish one of these hobby projects (the current one being my workstation "upgrade"/rebuild, and the build of a Windows Server 2003 machine/domain)...
Argh.
I need to find a job that I can do in my sleep, so that I can have money just for the hobby stuff.
So, I stopped by Casual Male to pick up a couple of shirts.
My plan was to get the shirts, and get out, spending a total of $32.
Such was not to be.
On my way to the register, I spied a rack of jackets. Owning a single windbreaker and a 7/8ths length leather coat, I decided to splurge and get a new jacket. Add another $45.
Then I spied a badass normal-length leather coat. Price tag said $200, so I (audibly) expressed my displeasure and decided not to get it. The salesgirl offered to price-check it for me, as she believed it was on sale.
Price? $99.99 - it's mine.
Then, I spied a vest. I've been wanting a vest for quite some time now, as it's something that can be worn in even warm weather, but allows for concealment of my carry piece.
The price tag of $45 almost dissuaded me, given the unplanned $145 extra that I just decided to spend, but the helpful (and cute as hell) salesgirl was correct about it being on clearance - $22.
So, I ended up leaving the place, having spent about $165-$170 more than planned, but I got a hell of a deal on a fair amount of stuff.
I rock.
Goddammit.
I wake up this morning, and I'm all congested.
This shit better go away fast.
Had the official final test for CCNA2 tonight.
Got a bit worried, when after taking the practice test twice, and scoring a 65% on it each time (that's a D, and not a great one at that), I took the real test, and ended up scoring an 88% (2% short of an A).
Hot damn.
I don't know what the hell I screwed up on the practice test, but I'm glad it wasn't on the final.
My case-study presentation is Thursday night, and we should get a B in that, so I expect to see a mid-to-high B in the class overall, which isn't bad.
Another A would have been preferrable, but not going to happen.
So, I got ahold of my agent today.
Over the weekend, Allstate deposited money into my account - apparently a partial refund for services not provided.
Apparently, I screwed up, and completely missed a payment in December, so, my policy got canceled.
Apparently, I've been driving without insurance for nearly a month. Unknowingly, I became one of those pieces of shit that I hate.
Goddammit.
I was able to have a new policy written, though, and ironically enough, the stupid laws regarding insurance companies use of credit scores benefitted me.
See, the insurance companies can't use credit information once I'm already a customer to screw with my rates - they can only use it rate new customers.
Allstate has five credit/rate tiers, with "1" being the best, and "5" being the worst, that they lump you into.
When I last initiated a policy with Allstate, I was put into credit tier "4" - not the worst, but pretty damned shitty.
When I had this new policy written, they pulled my credit again, and somehow, miraculously, I'm in bracket "2".
Color me fucking surprised.
So, my rates dropped about $40/month due to that, and in September, will drop at least another $60/month when the last of the points fall off my record, and quite possibly even farther, when I get into "preferred" rates.
Spiffy.
So, kids, the moral of the story is, don't pay your insurance bill, and you get cheaper rates - and they give you money.
Shit.
So, I went to pay my insurance bill online, and it's telling me my policy is cancelled.
This shouldn't be happening until the 15th of this month, dammit.
Now I have to wait until sometime Monday to get ahold of my agent, since he's not open at all on the weekend.
ARGH.
On a better note, I bought myself a bench grinder today, but forgot to by the adapter so I can use the wire wheel I bought for it, so I'm going to have to go back to Sears tomorrow, I think.
DAMMIT.
I am so freaking exhausted.
I hope to alleviate this soon.
More on that later.
Let me take that back - I don't hate school.
I hate pointless class projects.
I hate having to do stupid shit, and then present it in front of a class full of people who don't know how to do stupid shit, but also have to make presentations.
I hate grading those presentations.
I need to get out of school.
Argh.
So, I had my pre-employment drug screen yesterday.
I went over to HR, filled out some paperwork, and they told me that I'd be starting today at 8am.
Then they sent me over to pee in a cup.
Jolly good!
Apparently they have some kind of "instant pass" test or something, that they can tell within minutes (or seconds) if your pee is clean.
Mine wasn't.
About 10-15 minutes after leaving the urine office, I get a call from HR telling me that they have to send my specimen off for "further testing", and I can't start today.
They'll be getting back to me next week.
Now, overall, I'm not worried. I haven't done anything that would warrant a non-hire failure. I'm as clean-living as the next guy who eats today's fast food.
Apparently, however, there's a number of things that can fail the instant tester cup.
It's quite possible that ranitidine, the over-the-counter acid reflux medication that I take, is the cause of my issue.
Not even thinking about something like that causing a false-positive, I popped a couple about 3-4 hours before the sample donation, because I woke up with some massive reflux attack.
Ah, dammit.
In a way, I'm mildly pleased, because I didn't really want to start working this week - I'd have preferred to start next week, or even a week later, as I'd like to tie up some school stuffs prior to resuming a 40-hour work week.
Looks like I got my wish.
I fully expect the comprehensive testing to come back clean, and start working as soon as they get those results.
Of course, there's a tiny bit of me that's paranoid that they screw shit up, and I don't get the job, so keep your fingers crossed for me.
Had an interview today for a network tech position. Don't really want to go back to being a tech, BUT, it's not a bad deal.
Starts out fairly decent, good upgrades in pay and what not, and great opportunities for promotion.
Given that Chemeketa has dropped the ball on the MCSE stuff, I won't be able to finish that by the end of June, so I need to start looking for a job now.
Don't especially want to go back to work quite yet, but we all have to do what we have to do.
Oh, and scrubs rock.
I'm such a nerd.
So, I have to go back to school in about 13 hours.
I'm finishing up some laundry, and was reading my textbook, refreshing myself on stuff after a break of over a month.
I find that I'm (unsurprisingly) semi-depressed about going back to class.
It's not like it's a hard class, and it's not like I have such a busy life the rest of the week, but what does suck about it is the schedule of stuff.
Classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for about 4.5 hours per night.
I hate the break-up of the week, and I hate the fact that classes are on a schedule that conflicts with what little I do have going on in my life. The free days that I end up having usually suck, because they conflict with some of the housemate's work schedule, so that's another crappy aspect of it.
The messed up part of this is that the college that offers this course, they know that the majority of people enrolled in the class aren't full-time students, but industry folks who are taking the class for their certification.
Just about everyone in the class works Monday-Friday, and has expressed an interest in taking the class on Saturdays, from 8am-5pm, getting it knocked out like that, so the rest of the week is free, and they don't have to go to class right after work twice a week.
Does the college pay any heed? Nope!
So, my other option is to take the class in the mornings, on the same days, but that doesn't really solve much of anything - in fact, it actually presents more of an issue, what with having to change from a graveyard-shift sleep schedule to a day-shift schedule, something I really don't want to do right now.
Oh well. Another 6 months, and I should be certified up the wazoo, and get a job that rocks.
God, I hope so.
My buh-buh-buh-Biiiiirthday!
One more year until I'm considered "old". :P
...and it's fucking cold outside.
I'm thinking I need to buy a recumbent bike.
Set that up out in the shop, along with a couple heaters and a DVD, and go bike for an hour or two per day.
We'll see.
Or not.
Credit cards are really great, when you have a job.
When you become unemployed, they suck.
That is all.
So, it was everything I thought it could be.
Of course, I'm just whining.
With any luck, tomorrow night's class, and subsequent classes, won't be so damned boring - theoretically, there will be new stuff to learn, and it'll be half lab/hands-on type stuff, and not five hours of lecture.
Last night, though, was pure unadulterated hell.
It's bad enough that it was five hours of sitting there at my desk, listening to the instructor. I don't care how engaging you are, I don't want to sit there for five hours. You could be a hot stripper, and I'm still not going to want to be there that long.
What made it worse was it was ALL review - and not a good review.
We're talking about stuff that I learned YEARS ago.
Stuff that I covered earlier this year in the MCSE networking class.
Stuff that I covered last month in the Network+ online class.
And once again, I get to cover it.
If I have to be presented with the history of networking, and all the various different types of networks and blah blah blah, I swear, I'm going to nut someone.
History is all well and good - to a point. In the technical field, however, is it really necessary that we learn about networking technologies that have been dead for years?
I mean, how does this shit pertain to ANYTHING we're going to do today? I guarantee that 99.99% of people will NEVER EVER have to do anything with any kind of 10Base2/10Base5 or Token-Ring network. They're just not used anymore.
I can handle instruction about 10BaseT stuff, involving older crap like repeaters, hubs and bridges - you'll still find tons of that crap in older networks, but when's the last time you saw any coaxial cable that was related to an Ethernet?
I just got done reading up the next chapter of stuff that we're going to cover tomorrow night, and it does appear that we're moving into semi-decent material now, so, I suppose that's nice.
I truly hope that we're going to get some hands-on time tomorrow - I don't care if it's just making a damned patch cable, as long as we actually DO something other than sit there and listen or watch the projector screen.
So, I go back to class tomorrow, beginning the Cisco Certified Network Associate training.
Yay.
Once I get these certs, things will be super great and all, but, damn, I'm not looking forward to sitting in class for 5 hours a night.
Ooog.
Ugh.
This is getting depressing.
I've got "income" - through this Trade Act deal, I'm getting enough to pay bills, and then have a bit left over, but some months, like this one, I end up getting just enough to cover bills, and that's it.
I really really wish that I had at least the MCSE portion of the training done, so I could start shopping myself around, because, let me tell you, it'd sure be nice to be employed again.
Besides - being a bum is only fun for a little while - then you're hella bored. Not that there's not a bunch of stuff to do - there's just not a bunch of stuff that *I* want to do.
At least, stuff that doesn't cost money.
Argh.
I shouldn't be surprised.
And I shouldn't place the blame fully on Chemeketa.
They've cancelled my classes again.
This time, though, things are pretty damned dire.
Before, I had another class going on so that I didn't have a major break in my training, and, while delayed, not a huge deal, I could take the classes later.
Well, now that's it's Summer Term, and I have three classes scheduled, I find out that my next two classes are cancelled.
Great. I'm fucked.
Now, I understand, to a point. It's not entirely their fault. The school offers these classes to make money. In order to be profitable, they need to have a minimum enrollment.
That's all well and good.
The problem I have, though, is when I discussed all of this with Chemeketa, they knew that I was going to be going through the entire MCSE program. They gave me a schedule, back in November of 2005, that detailed out the classes I'd be taking, and when they'd be held.
Nevermind that they told me I'd be taking MCSE 2400, the Exchange 2003 elective, and that's part of the reason I chose them. Nevermind that the instructor has decided that Exchange is too hard for everyone, and changed it to a security elective, which is rather weak-ass.
They never once mentioned anything about needing to maintain a minimum enrollment.
They never once mentioned anything about cancelling or delaying classes if that enrollment wasn't met.
They never once mentioned that there might be a problem with obtaining the minimum enrollment.
Quite honestly, if I had known this shit before I entered training at Chemeketa, I'd never have enrolled with them.
That's what chaps my ass.
Now, as things appear to be working out, I'm not so fucked.
The group at the college also works with the State of Oregon, doing training for some of their folks. Apparently, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has a couple MCSE classes running in August that I'm going to be able to sit in on, with all of the DAS-holes.
Well, sweet.
With the time the classes are running, it appears that I won't have too big of a break in my training, and everything will be all bunnies and sunshine, and I'll get my classes.
Yay.
Let's hope it all works out.
So, back from my first day of Summer Term school, and my first class is a shitty Windows XP MCSE class.
I know I need the class, and I know that there will be a couple things in there new to me, but, dammit, this first night (and it looks like the next night) will be nothing but a rehash of shit we went over in my worthless A+ class.
This is HORRIBLE.
Two classes teaching me how to install Windows XP. Just what I needed.
So, I'm unsore again.
I need to exercise, and badly.
I've always been a big boy, but I'm moreso now.
In the past, even though I've been big, I still haven't been so out of shape that I'm sore a day after a few hours of hard work.
Any ideas?
I've been thinking about getting a bike - either a real one or a stationary.
I've tried the walking/jogging thing, but that blows ass. Same thing goes for a treadmill.
Help me out.
I hurt.
All of this raking and picking up the grass piles, and hauling them out to the burn pile - it sucks.
Two days later, my legs are freakin' sore as hell, and I can barely walk without falling down.
I really need to get myself a bike or something, and get these muscles some work - and hopefully lose some fat in the process.
Science needs to hurry up and discover the fatburner drug, dammit.
So, every four or five days, I have a sneezing fit. There's no common denominator - dust, irritant, allergy.
It's infuriating, too, because I sneeze probably about 30-40 times, and I can't stop it.
So, I Google'd "sneezing fit" today, and discovered that temperature variants can do it, as can exposure to the sun (known as photic sneezing).
We're not talking cold, we're talking just changes in the temperature, either up or down.
How fucked up is that?
Sneezing sucks. Someone needs to stop working on cancer, and find a cure for sneezes.
So, another A+ class done and over with. Only too fucking many more to go.
Today, we got to "break" computers, and then have someone try to "fix" them.
I kicked ass, but that's not saying much.
Mr. Chat-On-Internet-In-Between-Nintendo-DS-Playing-The-Entire-Day is a fucking idiot, and couldn't figure out a goddamned thing without the instructor's assistance.
Not that I've changed my opinion of the certification (that it's worthless), but I'm strangely happy that I know his stupid fucking wise-ass idiot self won't be able to even come close to passing the test.
The fucked up part of this is, not 5 minutes before we began, the instructor said - MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS SEATED PROPERLY, AND ALL CABLES ARE PLUGGED IN.
So, toolbag got to attempt to "fix" my computer.
My "break" was something stupid - I unseated the RAM on one end of the DIMMs, and aligned the empty slot retention levers to look the same.
The dipshit spent 20 minutes trying to figure it out - never once attempted to seat/reseat ANYTHING per instructor comments prior to commencing the exercise, and then finally the instructor had to fix it for him for us to move on.
His subsequent "breaks" on all following computers consisted of whatever the break he just received was.
Wow. Real talented, dipshit.
I don't know what I hate more - supernerds (i.e. annoying fucking dorks), or wanna-be nerd morons who know jack shit.
So, nifty.
No more MCSE classes until July or something.
The community college where I'm taking the classes has fooked everything up, so we'll see how things go there. I'm going to have to figure out when they're offering the next series of classes, and go get the Employment Department to mangle my schedule again.
Whee.
In the meantime, I have those wild and wacky A+ classes until June 17th, wasting my Saturdays - Saturdays better slept sleeping, or counting gravel in my driveway.
I'm seriously not learning ANYTHING new - that's how inane this A+ stuff is.
I spent probably 80% of my class on Saturday doing an online practice test for the Amateur Radio Technician Class license, so many times that I'm starting to memorize the questions.
I'm going to pass that test so freakin' easy.
Anyhow...
Sunday through Friday, it appears that I have no major schedule conflicts.
I'm going to have to see if I can float a cheap hotel over at the coast or something, and go over there for a couple days. I haven't been there for a few years now, and I dig the coast. One of my favorite past residences, even if it is all tourist-trappish.
This next week looks nice, weather-wise, too. Highs in the 80's, even up to 92 or something one day this week.
Yay for summer!
Of course, it's too early to maintain that weather. We'll have more rain and cooler days for a while, which sucks, but I'm sure I'll be missing the cooler days come late August/early September.
Ugh.
This has been the nastiest, shittiest cold in my entire fucking 28 years.
I've had a real bad cough before. I've never had a bad cough that leads me to choking and gagging, and almost passing out due to lack of air.
I've been congested before. Without going into gory mucousy detail, this was worse. LOTS worse.
My throat hurt(s), my head hurt(s), my EARS hurt (and still feel "plugged", so I'm at about half-hearing right now), the whole body was all fucked up.
Plus, sleeping for about 10 minutes an hour is great, too.
This wasn't/isn't some common cold bullshit, this was the superflu from The Stand, sans-vomit.
I half-expected to go to bed one of the few nights I actually got a bit of sleep, and wake up a couple hours later zombified, that's how bad this damned thing was/is.
Seriously messed up stuff.
Now, I'm just hoping, within the next couple of days, that this stupid ear-clogged sensation goes away.
Being sick is lame.
I'm still sick.
This is a yet another filler post.
Deal with it.
I'm still sick.
This is a filler post.
Deal with it.
So, MCSE classes for this semester are a go.
Yay!
Of course, it's not like they called me to let me know.
Or returned the phone call.
Or returned the email.
I had to call them 7 times to finally get someone to answer the phone, and confirm.
I'm REAL glad that I don't actually attend that place for any kind of "college" education. If this one little department that handles this stuff is any indication of how things run, I feel for the fully-enrolled students, I really do.
Well, it seems that Chemeketa isn't going to start my next classes until the week of the 9th, so I get another week of break.
Cool enough, I suppose, but not when I have to deal with pissed off people at the employment department who like their nice static paperwork filed 3 months ago.
They've got to change things now, to compensate for the extra break, so I continue to get paid.
Not like it's majorly hard work, to be sure, but I can agree with them, I'd be annoyed, myself - Chemeketa has consistently dropped the ball on this entire program.
Now that the Chemeketa clowns are back from their break, I need to get ahold of them to make sure that they haven't canceled the MCSE class that they told me 3 months ago they'd be holding - the main reason I signed up with them.
Wish me luck...
So, I think I'm going to mix up my posting schedule a bit.
Since I setup the site, I've had a daily post. It's getting to the point that I'm now posting retroactively, so there are no gaps in the schedule, and I don't like doing that.
I'm going to try to make a minimum of 10 posts a month.
Starting today, I'm going to have a posting schedule of Tuesday-Thursday one week, Monday-Wednesday-Friday the following week.
We'll see how that works out.
Obviously, if I feel like posting something else on another, non-scheduled day, then, yay, bonus!
Anyhow, that's about it.
See you Thursday.
Ugh, these classes keep dragging on.
Tomorrow night - an unscheduled class - is when we finally start delving into something useful, Group Policy creation and management.
Up until that, everything has been painful re-reviews of stuff I've done a billion times (and taken a class for).
I can't wait until I'm done, I'm an MCSE, and I've got a new job.
Life will be good.
So, I'm currently attending Chemeketa Community College for my MCSE and some other certs.
I swear to God, the IT department, if not the entire college, has it's head on crooked.
It took me nearly 3 months to get my training information from Chemeketa, just so I could give it to the Trade Act folks, and get it approved.
We're not talking paperwork delays, we're not talking any kind of problem.
We're talking that one person, maybe two, had to look in some books, or at some calendars, and email me when a number of certain classes would be being held.
That's all.
Well, they finally did that, and now I'm attending the first of 8 classes for the MCSE.
I get to my first class, and the instructor starts making comments to the effect that part of this course may be cancelled, and how they may not be offering one or two of the classes that are required for the damned thing - classes they told me they'd offer, that my training request/approval is based on.
Then, instead of the Security+ certification I wanted, they signed me up for an A+ certification. When I discovered that, it was too late to change, as the training plan had already been approved.
Neat.
So, today, I email the contact I have to ask what building/classroom my A+ class is, the class that starts this Saturday.
She responds back, telling me that "Oh, yeah, we pushed that class back to April."
Nice.
Thanks for telling me, jackasses.
"Oh, we just decided that this morning, that's why we hadn't told you yet."
Suuuuuuuure.
So, hopefully this won't fuck-up my whole training plan.
We'll see what happens.
So, not too bad.
The class is small. 4 people signed up, one no-show, and another won't be in class until the 3rd session.
Big problem, however - the way the instructor is talking, the classes that I'm supposed to take via Trade Act may not be offered come Summer Term or Fall Term.
That could be annoying as fuck-all.
We'll see how things go.
So, I start classes this Wednesday for my MCSE stuff via the whole Trade Act deal.
Yay.
I found out yesterday, official and final, that I don't qualify for mileage reimbursement, like most other people.
Why, you might ask?
Because I'm IT.
My job is supposedly specialized and unique, and as such, I'm expected to open my market area up to Eugene and Portland, as the nearest "metropolis" areas.
As those areas are my job market area, and I won't be traveling outside of it, no mileage.
Just fucking fabulous.
On top of that, the douchebags at Chemeketa signed me up for an A+ certification - one that I can't get out of now that the training plan is approved. If I don't go to the classes and pass the tests, I get booted out of the program.
Fun, huh?
So, a worthless A+ cert is going to mean an extra trip or two from Lebanon to Salem per week, meaning more gas money spent.
Goddammit.
I've always been fascinated with demonology, as my license plate would seem to indicate.
Perhaps it's because I never look hard enough, but I've never found any books that I've ever though were cool enough.
Until now.
Thanks to Pirates! Man Your Women! for the link:
Damn. I do believe I'd teach myself Latin just to examine this book...
If that had been for sale when I bought my G36, I'd probably not have a G36 right now...
Oddly, I'm questioning whether or not that's a bad thing...
So, I ran into an ex-roommate's ex-girlfriend today (L, not J).
I had been going out with the ex-girlfriend's friend at about the same time.
Anyhow, she works at the Book Bin (a local downtown used bookstore).
I went in there today, and she was acting bitchy and standoffish, so I stopped trying to make polite conversation, and went about my shopping.
As I'm leaving, and buying the books I wanted, she all of a sudden changes from bitchy to super cheerful, and starts asking me questions, then she mentions that she'll tell her friend (*MY* ex) that she saw me, and tells me how excited she'll be.
Uhhh.
Yay.
No, I didn't give her my number.
I swear, this girl must be bi-polar.
Of course, getting completed on the 22nd is nothing to brag about...
Once again, online shopping rules the season!
With the exception of a couple of items, everything was purchased online - most of it through Amazon.com.
I should put one of their little affiliate things on this page, make me some money from my thousands of readers.
HAW!
On another note, I got my Ryobi tools today. Quite badass.
All I need to do is buy me my mitre saw and get the $80 rebate on that, and I'm set.
Life is peachy!
I'm going to buy this:
http://www.ryobitools.com/index.php/catalog/tool/p890/
tomorrow.
Oh yes.
10 badass cordless power tools for one low low price.
So, I'm supposed to start school here on January 4th.
I'm ready to go, just waiting on Chemeketa (the community college where I'll be doing my MCSE and CCNA classes) to give me the information that I need, so that I can finish the paperwork and get the thing approved by the employment department.
I keep getting excuse after excuse on this, and it's getting really fucking annoying, since we're about 4 weeks away from the start of classes.
You'd think they'd be happy about someone wanting to give them nearly $15,000, you know?
Instead, they're treating me like I'm trying to book a 3-credit class.
Cretins.
sO CHECK THIS SHIT OUT.
tHIS IS MY FIRST "drunk post".
WEIRD.
THE CAPS LOCK MUST BE ON.
ANYHOW.
i LOVE RUM.
i LOVE caBANA bOY wILD cHERRY rUM,.
i LOVE mALIBU cARIBBEAN rUM wITH nATURAL cOCONUT fLAVOR.
gODDAMMIT.
Stupid caps-lock.
Anyways.
Thank god I'm a computer nerd.
Otherwise, I'd be typing all fucked-up-like and stfuff and you'd never usnderstand what i'd be saying.
By the way. XM Radio rocks.
I'm currently listenning to their iNternet stream. It's on BPM (Beats Per Minute, the club/dance channel) and playing Shape UK - Lola's Theme (Original Mix)....oh wait.
It just swtiched to Natasha Bedingfield - These Words (Lenny B Radio Mix)
NAtasha is kinda hot, and fuckin' a, she can sing like a hardassed bitch.
You know I'd hit iti.
Speaking of hitting it...
GIRL, ARE YOU READING THIS?
LET'S STOP FRONTING.
YOU WANT IT. I WANT IT.
LET'S DO EET.....
So, I deposit a check today, and my balance is far less than it should be, due to overdraft charges.
Cocksuckers.
They played musical chairs with my transactions, so that the whole $25.00 I was overdrafted was on 5 transactions, so they could hit me for (5) $34.00 fees.
Beyond that, I'm supposed to have overdraft protection, but it appears that my Visa with BofA was overdraft protecting an account that's not even mine (don't ask.).
So, they refund 3 of the charges, claiming that they're "just being nice" and that the overdrafts didn't happen due to a bank error, so they can't get rid of the other two.
Not a bank error? How the fuck do you figure?
First, based on order of transaction presented to the bank, the only overdraft was a $160 payment, so I should have only had ONE overdraft fee.
Second, I was supposed to have overdraft protection, but those assfuckers linked my Visa to the wrong account, and then played stupid about it.
Finally, let's say I was completely in the wrong here, and everything was my fault, and I wasn't supposed to have overdraft protection.
The idea that charging a person $170 for a total of $25.37 overdrafted amount is not only bullshit, it's fucking immoral.
This horseshit would NOT have happened a few years ago.
Once again, society has taught businesses that they can fuck their customers, and the customers keep coming back for more.
Not that they're particularly any better, but Washington Mutual has a branch in my new town, unlike Bank of America.
Not only that, Providian, who owns one of my credit cards, just merged with Washington Mutual, so, yay, banking under one roof again.
I'll keep Bank of America on the side, since it is a free account, but I'm going to pay off my credit card with them, cancel it, and just sit on a free checking account that I'm keeping in reserve for who knows what.
I'll be goddamned if they get any more of my money.
So, one of my roommates expects to be going back to work soon, meaning I'll be the only lazy bastard around here anymore, and we can't have that.
Besides, other than unpacking and still having a bunch of stuff to go through, sitting around all day long is getting a bit boring.
Maybe it's time to go to school...
So, one roommate went fishing, and filled an entire freezer up with salmon.
This isn't a BAD thing, technically, it just meant that we had really limited freezer space.
Then, another roommate and I decide to drive into Lebanon, and we stop at Shop-N-Mex. They have lots of cheap freezer meals and entrees for sale, so we stock up on a bunch of them, and get home to realize that we don't have freezer space for them AND the salmon.
Thank goodness for Costco! Cheap 7 cubic foot little freezer that fits perfectly in the space where we wanted it, and it's in stock, and we brought it home about 45 minutes later.
Having fridges and freezers stocked with food and drink is a good thing! =)
Stay tuned - I'm going to write and publish a book!
We take delivery of the new rental house tomorrow.
Yay.
Moving still sucks.
I probably won't start moving my stuff in until the 4th (Sunday), but it'll still suck, because, you know, moving sucks.
Oh well.
It'll soon rock hard, once I'm in, unpacked, and organized.
I pretty much am not a fan of bugs, in general, but wasps (and their close friends, hornets, bees, yellowjackets, etc.) rate right up there with spiders.
"But wait, Brian!" some may say. "Spiders are beneficial, they eat harmful insects and help the environment and get rid of the hole in the ozone layer!"
I don't care! Go save the ozone layer outside of my house. I don't like getting bit by spiders (itchy mosquito-looking bites).
"But they only bite you when they feel threatened!"
Look, they only bite me when I'm freakin' sleeping. I'm not threatening them, THEY'RE INVADING MY BED.
Creepy bastards.
Of course, I've learned a bit about wasps, too.
Wouldn't you know it? Wasps are "considered beneficial to agriculture, (since northern or paper wasps feed abundantly on corn earworms, armyworms, tobacco hornworms, etc. and hornets on house flies, blow flies, harmful caterpillars, etc.)."
You know what?
I think some weird little bug scientist (entomologist, yeah, whatever - I prefer "weird little bug scientist") somewhere has formed a cabal of fellow creepy people who manipulate the populace into believing that these things are beneficial to people.
"Guys, people are getting wigged out by spiders!"
"Oh no! To the media-manipulator! We've got to make them believe that our 8-legged friends are beneficial, and not miniature versions of evil space monsters that want to rip your head off, and stare into both of your eyes with all eight of theirs, before they exterminate all the spiders!"
That's all crap.
I don't like bees, but if I found bees, I wouldn't kill them - I'd call a bee keeper. Bees pollinate pretty flowers, they pollinate tasty fruits and vegetables, and they're responsible for savory and delicious honey.
They're creepy, but they're creepy like the old man who doesn't have any grandkids, but still tries to act like a grandpa. He's not going to hurt you, he's just going to give you a candybar and some money for Christmas.
I'll leave the bees alone, unless they swarm near my picnic table, and then I'll smack those particular uppity bees down.
As for wasps and spiders, forget that - they don't give me any tasty treats, or anything like that. We have chemicals and genetic engineering to counter the ill effects that these wasps and spiders supposedly prevent.
Anyhow, I don't know which kind of wasp freaks me out more...
You've got hornets and yellowjackets that make nests that are completely enclosed by a papery covering, so you can't see what kind of world domination crap they're planning in there.
That's scary.
On the other hand, you've got these paper wasps all over the place (the most common around here, from what I've seen) who build nests with exposed combs, so you can see everything they're doing, as if they're saying "Whatever, jerkoff - you can't stop all of us!"
There is no good here, there is only evil...
And they're right...you can't stop all of them.
I only brought two cans of Raid with me today...I was able to successfully tag one entire end of the shop, but didn't have enough to get the other end - and the jet spray didn't reach the second floor of the back of the house.
I'm going to have to go back out there again, armed with 10 or 12 cans of this stuff, and engage in full-on chemical war.
It's on like Donkey Kong...
Packing sucks.
Moving sucks.
Cleaning sucks.
This is going to be SUCH a blast. Yaaay.
I can't say I'm really looking forward to some of the stuff we're going to have to do to move in.
In some respects, I guess we should have waited until October 1st, instead of September 1st, to move in, but it should all work out, eventually.
I'll be happier when my shop is clear, and I've built myself a habitat out there.
I got printed.
http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2005/08/07/news/opinion/edit03.txt
I'm so cool.
Ugh.
So, I went to court today at 9:30am.
Today was the follow-up to my visit in May, where the judge condemned me to traffic school.
It could have been worse.
I sat through all manner of idiots.
I got pissed off about a case involving a Mexican who spoke no English, so that he had to get a translator, and oddly enough, I was pissed off on his behalf.
The officer had pulled over a Mexican driver, the driver had no ID, so the officer wrote down the information that the driver gave him, then cited and released him and the vehicle.
The defendant that showed up today claimed that he wasn't the one pulled over. The officer admitted that he did not recognize the man.
The judge then drops the bomb that it's up to the defendant to prove that he wasn't the person who was pulled over and cited. Excuse me, what? INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.
I'm no fan of Mexicans in this country who refuse to learn the language. It pisses me off, but goddammit, that court/law policy is FUCKED.
Fortunately, Mr. Nohabla had a Driver's License that was issued 2 years ago, and the judge dismissed the case, with the reasoning that if it WAS Mr. Nohabla that had been pulled over, he would have provided his license - why wouldn't he have?
I can think of a few reasons, such as the cop essentially saying "All Mexicans look alike..." but hey, that's neither here nor there. The guy got the ticket dismissed, and didn't get fucked by a stupid burden of proof that should NEVER be on the defendant.
My case finally came, the judge took my certificate from the class, and didn't make me read my stupid essay.
He asked me some questions, then reduced the citation from a "Driving While Suspended" ($495 fine) to a "No Operator's License" ($178 fine).
I'll probably end up earning another 30-day suspension for this conviction, but at least I saved a bunch of money, and got the thing delayed.
So yeah. We're moving.
Again.
Moving sucks.
One year ago, we were packing up shit at the old apartment, for the move to this one.
And it sucked.
It's funny - when I finally get mostly settled somewhere, that's when I decide to move.
...is hazardous to your health.
Don't believe me.
Ask your "friend" to hurl a can at your forehead, and see how safe that shit is!
Driving school today wasn't as bad as I expected.
Got out early, instructor was cool, class went by rapidly.
Now, all I have to do is write a 500-word essay for the judge. Yay.
I feel like I'm back in 5th grade.
On an upbeat note, the title for my truck showed up - I officially own it now.
Life is good!
So, I submitted to cash out my 401K on Tuesday. Clicked the box that said "overnight me my check."
Figured, ok, one business day for processing, I'll have it no later than tomorrow.
BULLSHIT.
It takes 5-10 business days to process.
Now, ain't that some shit?
Goddamned whores, not giving me my money.
Yesterday was certainly a workout that I haven't had in a while.
I need to start hitting the treadmill/bike again, because being fat sucks, and being this sore after riding a jetski sucks.
Heh.
Usually Sunday sucks, because I dread work the next day.
NOT ANYMORE!!!
This feels really good.
Filed for unemployment today.
Paid off my truck, today - that's a nice relief.
Bought some gun stuff today.
I love having no job, having money, and having guns.
It's the official 1-week anniversary of me getting laid off!
We celebrated yesterday with some past co-workers and buddies, had a blast at McMenamin's (as usual!), and got decently buzzed!
This unemployment thing kicks ass!
It's Saturday.
It's the weekend.
It still doesn't feel like I've been layed-off yet.
Weird.
Maybe Tuesday or something will be different.
Goddammit.
I didn't shut my alarm of this morning.
Oh well.
I DON'T HAVE TO GO TO WORK! HAHAHAHAHAH!
Whatever the hell it is, it's my last day.
Yes, you heard me - IT'S MY LAST DAY!!!
NEENER NEENER!!
The end is ever closer!
Oh, and this right here is some funny shit.
Well, my pseudo-boss didn't show up, and won't be this week.
Potentially smoother sailing, I suppose.
Now we just do things, and get the fudge out.
T-minus 72 hours until I wake up a free man!
The final week begins...
The Phoenix contingent is due in this afternoon.
Four more days...just four. more. little. days.
So, my crew and I spent the last week dismantling racks, re-racking servers, palletizing boxes and gear.
All of this happened from about 4pm to about 10pm-11pm.
All of this happened with me still going into work at 8am.
Now, I know that a lot of people (two of the afore mentioned friends included) work 12-hour shifts.
That's great.
I REALLY don't like 12-hour shifts.
My friends kick ass...
Thanks for the help, guys!
Hey, it's also Friday - WEEKEND AT LAST!
Rackmount computers are cool. Racking or unracking rackmount computers sucks.
...to be done with work.
12 more days of employment, that's it, then I'm out of there.
I'm sick and tired of packing one thing, putting another away, and uncovering 12 more issues that have to be fixed before the 29th of this month.
This is REALLY starting to get me bent on the whole IT thing again.
I hate computers.
I need to start my own sect of Christianity.
I mean, you've got the FLDS nutties (I wish I had 3 women, damn!), you've got Mormons, you've got Catholics, Baptists, Protestants, Episcopalians, the list goes on.
I need to form the Reform Catholic Church or something.
It'll be cool.
Of course, until I get several thousand members, I'm just a cult, and the ATF will raid me.
So, I received my offer for Albuquerque this morning.
I think the word that best sums up my general attitude is "offended".
Without getting into too many details, let's just say that I was offered no relocation expenses ("We don't pay those."), and the annual increase offered wouldn't even cover my moving expenses.
Hah.
Beware, Oregon - this conservative isn't going anywhere.
So, I got offered a job in Albuquerque today.
Same company (SUMCO), same position.
We'll see if they come through with a legitimate offer - supposed to have one by Wednesday.
Abq ain't that bad - it's a bit cheaper than here, and it's definitely more conservative...
So, I've decided that I'm tired of being fat.
The roommate and I are going through the fridge and cupboard this week, getting rid of all things carbohydrate. We're eating up everything this week, and I've got a fridge full of good no-carb or low-carb foods.
Sweet.
We've also started a semi-regular exercise regimen that we pussed out on last week, and need to get back into the swing of things. Given that we're eating all the carb foods this week, we may puss out and just start things next week, but we'll see.
This sucks, working alone.
My office is all empty and quiet and stuff now.
Hrmm.
Well, in a couple weeks, my manager should be laid-off, so I'll probably pack it into his office, and be a bit more social.
Why does someone choose such a career?
Is it because they like torture?
I swear, the dental profession must have done most of it's research during the Spanish Inquisition.
Ever hear of a "crown lengthening" ??
That's what I had to have done yesterday.
It's done when there's not enough tooth to grab onto and weld a crown to.
The procedure requires them to cut open the gums around the tooth in question, grind off part of the jaw with a drill, and then chop off the excess bit of gum, and stitch everything back together.
WHAT FUCKING SADIST CAME UP WITH THIS SHIT?!
Of course, I'm the masochist, because I'd prefer to keep part of my original tooth over getting a bridge or an implant.
Sucker.
Wooooohoooo!
Close to getting my credit on track, finally!
Providian approved me for an unsecured $4000 limit Visa, which is pretty cool.
Now, to just use it responsibly, and not fuck myself over - that's probably the harder part than the 7 years without credit.
So, the root canal wasn't the horror story I built it up to be.
It wasn't that fun, mind you - I've always had a decent tolerance towards novocaine. They had to give me a bunch of injections to numb it up, and then ended up having to numb the nerve directly.
Anyhow, they were able to save the tooth, but it's not going to be a picnic.
I got the root canal today, and a bit of a build-up.
I have to go back in two weeks to get a "crown lengthening", and then go back a few weeks later for the actual crown.
YAY.
They're going to chop part of my gums out.
I'm beginning to think teeth are overrated, and I should just eat soup.
So, I get a root canal and crown tomorrow - if all goes well.
I could end up getting the tooth yanked, and then getting a bridge, YAY!!
What the hell did those stinkin' cavemen do? I saw those fossils, and they've got teeth - and they died WELL before toothbrushes, toothpaste, flouride, floss, mouthwash, etc.
LAME.
Right on!
Resolved the bed and room setup issue. Thanks to a co-worker, I started thinking more about my desk setup, and then remembered a piece that I had bought for a potential setup, and then left in storage.
Got that out, got a couple of brackets from Home Depot, and affixed the new piece.
Voila! Bed fits in old location, I didn't lose too much desk space, and everything is hunky-cool now.
My room feels as big as it was, I've got the extra floorspace back, and all is well.
Rock on.
Cool ass burly brass bedframe from Costco.
It's cool. Makes me feel all grown-up and shit.
The only issue is, it's about 3 inches wider than the old steel frame, so I had to re-arrange the desk and room and stuff. Now my room feels all small and stuff.
Not horribly happy with the setup, but the bed is still damned cool.
You know what's weird?
Our perception of physical space.
When my laundry all sits unfolded in a pile at the end of my bed, my room seems really small.
I just folded all my laundry, and my room seems to be bigger on a LARGE magnitude.
It's weird.
Now that I can see floor, it's a completely different room.
Cool.
Once again, I desire more meaning to my life.
Obviously, not everyone in this world can be "important" and stuff.
I just wish my life were a bit more important than resetting passwords.
Maybe I should become a secret agent.
So, I get to work this morning, and the network has taken a crap.
We've got a couple of main network switches that run the redundant backbone of the campus. Very cool beasts.
Unfortunately, our network person doesn't monitor them like he should, or hasn't patched them, so there's a problem with them that causes them to take a crap about every 6-8 weeks.
Today was that day.
Wonderful.
Bounce the switches, go about resolving server issues, yay.
Then Qwest calls at 10am to let us know that our scheduled disconnect of part of our site-to-site WAN link is about to commence.
OK, no big deal.
Well, it's Qwest. It's always a big deal.
They have an order to disconnect 5 of 7 circuits.
They disconnect all 7.
Wheee...
Spent all day working on that issue, and still no resolution.
I'm so glad that we don't have production at our other site any longer, and that it's not a critical issue, because it's so nice not having to stay late anymore.
I have $173.27 worth of alcohol, and I fucking know how to use it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Made out pretty good here!
Got me a gift card to Fred Meyer, a metric fuck-ton of DVD's, including Smallville, Alias and Roswell seasons, and new cellphones!
My brother got my dad this hella freakin' cool display with all of his military medals and stuff in it - quite probably the coolest Christmas present I've seen in a long time.
All told, a very nice Christmas this year!
There's an insane feeling of freedom when one has had a major surgery, and can finally move about unassisted again.
That same feeling fades really fucking quick when you realize that you can walk again, but you can't stand from a crouch, or run, or jump, or any of those things that you could have done before.
And you know, I've been exercising, working on trying to rebuild my strength (specifically in the legs), but it's going agonizingly slow.
Bah. Humbug.
So, I made some turkey-potato-cheesey stuff for lunch yesterday.
Tasted good.
Called in sick to work today, been hurling all day long.
Apparently it wasn't that good.
Now it's like, 11:00pm, and an entire day has been wasted.
I hate that.
Anyone want to hire me at $50/hr to do professional web surfing or extreme book reading or something?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
I don't like riding bitch.
It's not cool.
This fucking sucks.
You know how I said that the 10-day weekend (following my surgery, for rest and recuperation) was getting old, because there was nothing to do?
Well, maybe I was partially wrong.
Maybe 5 or 6 day weekends with 3-day work-weeks would kick quite a bit of ass.
You see, I just had my 10-day weekend, and then I worked 3 days, and had another 4-day weekend.
And I don't want to go back to work tomorrow.
=(
So, my birthday "party" kicked quite a bit of ass.
I bought this awesome poker chip set at Costco a few days ago, and had been trying to talk everyone into playing poker - with one catch - that we play for money (i.e., bring a couple bucks, buy some chips, and play).
I honestly don't think there was one officially positive reaction to that.
That's not to say that all reactions were negative, but as soon as I brought up playing for real money, everyone got sad.
So, I further explained that we're just talking a couple bucks - $3-$5, nothing major, nickel-ante poker and other card games and stuff.
Got the roommate, the ex-roommate, both parents and sister to play, and we had a freakin' blast, it was great!
So great, that everyone seemed pretty positive about a recurring (say once a month or something) poker night.
I have such great ideas!
Someone buy me an HK SL8-1.
PLEEEEEEEEAAAASSSEEEE??!?!
So.
I go back to work today.
I get there at about 8:30am, and I'm only working half-days, so I figure that I'll leave somewhere between 1:00pm or 2:00pm.
At about 12:30pm, one of the gals in the office comes over to chat, and we decide to run over to one of the pubs in the area, and get lunch to bring back to work.
So, I drive.
We get our lunch, we leave the pub. We're at a stoplight, it turns green, but there's pedestrians. They have the right of way, so I wait. They cross, I pull into the lane, and start driving back to work.
Almost immediately, a Keizer bike-cop puts on his lights and we pull over.
He tells me that, basically, I didn't wait long enough for the pedestrians to cross (they were off the damned road, but, whatever), and he's not going to give me a ticket, but he just wanted to warn me that I need to make sure that they're more than a lane away from me before I cross the crosswalk.
OK, no problem.
He wants to check my license, insurance, registration.
OK, no problem.
He walks back to his bike, writes me a warning "ticket" (not really a ticket), and then radios in my license stuff to verify all is good.
Then he comes back and asks me if I'm aware that I'm suspended.
OK, big problem.
No, I don't. I tell him that I was aware that I have an upcoming suspension, but having not received the DMV letter yet, I was under the assumption that it was at least 30-days out.
He asks dispatch when the suspension activated.
November 10th.
Great.
To his credit, the cop was incredibly cool - he gave me back my license, didn't tow my truck, cool cool cool.
He still gave me a goddamned $421 ticket that I really have no hope of getting out of, because, let's face it, ignorance, even when the DMV fucked up and didn't send me a letter, is not a defense.
You're either driving while suspended, or you're not. It doesn't matter that nobody informed you.
So, I have no defense, I've got another ticket on my record, and it's ANOTHER DWS ticket.
Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck!
This means, at the least, another 30 day suspension.
I'm also just learning that 3 DWS tickets in a 5-year period = 5-year suspension.
Fucking FABULOUS.
This is such a load of shit.
Yay and nay.
Yay, because daytime TV sucks, and I've been pretty bored.
Nay, because, let's face it, it's work - and work sucks.
I need a job as a bouncer at a strip club - a strip club that pays bouncers at least $25/hr.
That'd rock so much ass - in more ways than one!
