Good as any, Better than most

Monday, September 18, 2006

Tra la la, la la la.

Finally, a weekend where I didn’t have to drive, or go anywhere, or really do anything.

I skipped out on 2 birthday parties, and a family reunion, and felt kind of bad about it.  I feel much better today though, after a weekend of puttering around the house, putting up shelf brackets getting the jungle I call a lawn cut, playing Warcraft…

I also made some beef short ribs on the grill.  They were OK, but as I was eating them, I kept wishing they were pork.

Speaking of food, the diet is going well, I’m down 16lbs from where I started.  I’ve basically stopped drinking soda and milk (can you believe milk is 100 calories a cup?), and have just been eating a little less.

If I can keep it up, I will fit in my old dress pants in a couple months, and won’t have to buy new ones.  That’ll be awesomeness.  Yes, awesomeness.

Peas!

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A branch, a sword, a gun, a motorcycle.

When I was young, a busted off branch represented an infinite realm of possibilities.

For hours, I would be the brave hero, defeating swarms of evil grassy minions, relishing the conquest of my villainous foes.

I could lock and load, fight my way through the snowy hell, and claim the mountain from the commie horde.

Squealing my rear tire, pulling a wheelie for hours, I was the fastest rider on the dirt track.

I miss my stick.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Monday Monday

Ah Monday.  How I love and despise you.

It’s been raining all weekend.  Usually the gentle patter of rain lulls me into a deep sleep.  Last night, it woke me every time drops would hit the window.  When I rolled out of bed at 7:45 this morning, already 45 minutes late for work, the floor looked so far away.

Over the weekend the lovely wife and I went to her grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary.  At least I think it was the 50th, I don’t really pay attention to those sort of things.  I played a little volleyball with a few of the regular players (LW’s brother, sister, their significant others) and a whole crop of cousins that I’d barely heard of, much less met.  If I were a farmer, I’d have left the crop on the field a little longer to mature.  The fun was a little dulled by having to play twice as hard for half the effect (when volleying for serve takes 15 minutes, you know it’s going to be a long game), but I still had a good time.

Yesterday, we came home, and took a little nap.  I then played WoW for a few hours.  A few hours longer than I should have, but it’s always a good time to hang out with my “online friends”.  And I say “online friends” because over the years, they’ve become real friends, that I just happen to have met online, and only see once or twice a year, but I digress…

This morning, I paid pretty harshly for that good time.  Arms and legs aching, the floor looked 100 miles away.  I dropped down to it, winced and performed my morning ablutions.

I rolled in to work just under 2 hours late.  Now, I’m writing this, because it seems more productive than just staring at the screen, not having any ambition to do any actual work.

I wonder if other bloggers read what they’ve written, before they post it.  I know I don’t…

Friday, September 08, 2006

It does what?!

Being fairly new to the world of online publishing, I don’t know much about the subculture it has generated.

Granted, I’ve been reading online journals way before the quasi-word *blog* every appeared, but I read them for entertainment value, never giving a thought to the fact that their very existence was part of this entire new world of ideals and “foundations”.

I jumped in, head first, without even testing the waters first.  I found that not only was the water way deeper where I jumped than I thought, I was in a stagnant pool, connected to a river larger than any I’d seen before.

That’s OK though.  This isn’t about notoriety, or fame.  Hell, I’m not even trying to entertain people.  I just need a spot to spout off once in a while, and have a creative outlet.  I’m going to break all the blogger rules, and follow them.

Because really, that’s what it’s all about.

Off to do the hokey pokey....

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it

I work for a property management company.  We rent out spaces.  We deal in commercial and residential units for the majority of our operations.  Our single biggest department, number of employees-wise, is maintenance.  They deal with every complaint from leaky toilets, long grass, to “odd smells”.

This isn’t about them though, it’s about me.

The department uses an archaic Lotus Approach database for all their work order and time sheet needs.  This same database is later exported into our accounting system for payroll.  It’s also used for all the reporting to individual projects.

It’s the slowest piece of garbage ever.  The database itself is homegrown.  Read that as designed by someone that doesn’t really understand what an index is.  OR why there should be separate tables for specific things, instead of just random extra databases.  Granted, the guy that wrote it did a damn fine job, given the circumstances.  It works, albeit slowly, for everything they want it to do.  Most of the time.

Every 2 weeks, we get a constant stream of complaints about the speed.  Almost 2 years ago, we contracted with a company to rewrite the application, using a Web front end (most likely ASP) and a SQL back-end.  This company specializes in exactly this sort of custom application building.  They haven’t even started on it.

I think I could hammer something out for in, given a month to work.  And it looks more and more like I’m going to have to do that.  I don’t want to do that, at all.  I know how much time it will consume, and how much of a headache I’ll get just writing it.  Then we’ll have to support our users, and train them all up on the new way to do things.  Just thinking about it makes me anxietous.  That should really be a word.

And to top it all off, my video card crapped out, and the new one I ordered is on back-order.  Maybe it’s time to sneak in an order of a couple workstation PCs for the IT department.

Currently Listening:

Artist:  Gordon Lightfoot
Album:  The Complete Greatest Hits
Year:  2002

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Faster than I thought

Ok, all of my myspace blogs are moved over.  I’m going to leave them over there, due to the quality comments they got.

I’m almost wondering if I should mirror the new ones over here, with a link over there, since only 3 people know about this site at this point.  Maybe a global link?  I don’t know.  I’m not really sure what I mean to accomplish with this, other than to give me an outlet for stress, and possibly some creativity.

I can’t promise the creativity though.

I intend to follow the “Mine.” storyline up.  Really.  There’s some other pieces like it that I have laying around, started, half a chapter here and there, that I’d like to get into digital format, and be able to work on as the mood strikes.

I’m also moving everything I had up in a subdirectory on the Windows server, over here.  I’m not 100% on file sharing/file modes in a Linux environment, and this gives me a great opportunity to sharpen up on that.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Exiguous skills

Sometimes configuring things that should have been setup for months, is like swimming upstream, in mud, while wearing combat boots and parachute pants.

Yes, I’m saying it’s really unfasionable, and sort of smelly.  Ok, so maybe that’s not the point I’m trying to get across.

Really though, why am I spending hours working on web server log reporting, that I’ve only been asked for once, 3 years ago.  Usually, this is the sort of thing people save up until right before review time, so they can drop the “look at my skills” bomb.  Maybe if I get a bunch of these duties that should-have-been-done-but-never-were set up, I can drop them all on my boss about 2 weeks out from review time.

That gives me about 8 months, I’m sure I could slide in a power point depicting how awesome I am too.

I think I’m getting the hang of the self promotion game that is the business world...and myspace.  If it’s not about me, it’s not worth reading.  That’s the way, uh huh, we blog it.

Blog, what a stupid word.  I’m going to find the schmuck that started calling it a Blog and beat them silly.  Maybe I’ll make a recording of it, and Podcast it.  Podcast?!  Seriously, who the hell is making these up?

Friday, July 21, 2006

Done Broke

I had a coworker back in the days of telephone support named Brian.  He was a super friendly guy, talkative and very outgoing.

He also had a habit of putting things in a way that totally downplayed his intelligence.

Whenever something would break, it was “done broke”.

That’s really what myspace is.  Every blog I’ve tried to post this week done broke.  Pour out inane trivial facts, and they’re lost in the ether.

I will valiantly attempt another post, this time keeping a copy of it outside the browser, in hopes that the blog can be like the boat, done fixed.

Currently listening :
Fractures in the Facade of Your Porcelain Beauty
By Atreyu
Release date: By 29 January, 2002

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Autocomplete_enabled

Current mood:  geeky

Modern web browsers have a feature called autocomplete.  It basically stores everything you’ve typed into a text box, so that if you type the beginning characters later, you can just select the text.

What if conversations had an autocomplete feature?  I could probably spit out my little nuggests with rapidity, but at what cost?

Daily, I interact with people using nothing more than “Morning, how are you good”.  If I had conversation autocomplete, my mouth would simply spit that out, while my brain stayed focused on the important things.  Such as not stepping on any cracks, and why it feels like my left leg is shorter than my right sometimes (but not always).

Of course, if I just relied on autocomplete, I’d miss out on the blank looks that often follow a jolly “Morning!” at 6am.  Tragedy.

Shan turned me on to a remake of Seal’s “Crazy” by Mushroomhead.  Of course the song is 6 minutes in on a track that’s 14 minutes long, and contains scratchy record samples, babies crying, bagpipes, and I’m pretty sure a calliope.  If you happen to find a copy of Mushroomhead “13” (song name and album name), I suggest skipping ahead to the 5 minute, 20 second mark, and having a good listen.

Currently listening :
Suicide Notes & Butterfly Kisses
By Atreyu
Release date: By 04 June, 2002

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Geocities

Current mood:  nostalgic

Big C once said, if he wanted a myspace, he’s got his own website, not some crappy networked version of geocities.

Rips me right back to 1996, uploading images, trying out layouts, and generally making the world’s worst websites.  I didn’t know so much, and I knew I didn’t know that I didn’t know what I should know about knowing things I should know.

If you know what I mean.

Currently listening :
Aurora Gory Alice
By Letters to Cleo
Release date: By 15 November, 1994

Monday, July 10, 2006

Lassitude

As the peons say “Work, work”

Monday morning, is there no juncture that is more reviled by the masses?  Not I, for Monday allows me to rest my weary, sun reddened body and feel the cool breeze that only Mother Freon can provide.

Thistles are the bane of my lawn.  My lawn is the bane of my free time.  Of course, since my boat is still in the shop, and I sold my bike, I’ve plenty of free time to offer up to the gods of turf.

4 days until camping.  4 days until the boat is done.  Let’s hope this actually works out.

Currently listening :
New Times
By Violent Femmes
Release date: By 17 May, 1994

Friday, July 07, 2006

Shallow Is, as Shallow Does

Current mood:  aggravated
Boats.

The saying goes, The two greatest days in a boat owner’s life are the day he buys his boat, and the day he sells it.

Next weekend is camping with some friends and family, and my boat is still in the shop.  It was slated to be ready to go today, but apparently certain shops don’t realize that there’s a holiday that reoccurs every July 4th.  They fail to order parts in time, and thus may fail to have a promised repair complete, a week after the date.

Perhaps they won’t mind if I take a loaner from their sales lot to use for the weekend.

Currently listening :
Conspiracy of One
By The Offspring
Release date: By 14 November, 2000