| Chickenshit |
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| 10:00am 16/11/2006 |
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mood:  pissed off
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So my contract here is apparently ending early. Tomorrow. I found out yesterday.
( Rant )
In the meantime, today is all overtime, so I think I'm going to work late. They still want me to handle an install this evening, and since I can do it from home, I don't see why not. The extra cash will come in handy. |
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| Photo enforcement sucks |
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| 10:26am 08/08/2006 |
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mood: annoyed
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x-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) seattle
So I get home the other night after visiting my sister, and I open my mailbox. I have this conspicuous letter from the dept. of licensing. I've just recently bought and transfered a motorcycle, so I think this is like the subject of the letter. Oh how wrong I was. I open the envelope to find a nice crystal clear photo of the ass end of my truck tailing through a red light at Denny and Fairview. Oh yeah, and a $101 ticket. I wasn't even aware we had these things. I actually recall the evening this took place, and I just wasn't paying close attention, looked up as the light turned red, and followed the car ahead of me through it.
So you'd think I'd learn my lesson, right? Yesterday I'm riding my bike downtown and see a yellow light. I keep going and it turns red as I'm still in the intersection. Now, this should be legal and all, as I was in the intersection, but I'm not really sure when these cameras are set to go off. And the amusing thing is I was once again on Denny (though not at fairview).
For the curious, it turns out these tickets don't count as points against your license (they can't verify who was driving). So I'm just going to pay it and be on my way. But now I'm wondering if I'll be getting another one in a week or two. |
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| i love coworkers |
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| 01:22pm 27/07/2006 |
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mood: pissed off
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And by love, I mean can't stand. The shittiest part about virtual portable offices, hoteling, etc. is that sometimes annoying shits come into your normally peaceful workspace, and won't SHUT THE FUCK UP.
When you take your cell phone out and set it next to you on the desk, it doesn't need to be heard over a jet engine. And if you have it set to fucking concert volumes, ANSWER the fucking thing, don't sit there looking dumbly at the number as your phone ROARS AND BELLOWS your shitty ringtone.
And you don't know my officemate's children better than she does, so shut the fuck up about how she should tell her 18 year old "No" because you can. I pity your children. Go away. |
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| injury woes |
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| 09:22am 26/07/2006 |
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mood: aggravated
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So my soccer team had our final game of the season on monday. During the game I hurt my shoulder. I went to the doctor yesterday and he thinks I've reinjured my rotator cuff. This completely sucks. I initially tore my rotator cuff maybe 3 years ago in a game. After physical therapy, it never really fully recovered. I couldn't throw overhand without fairly intense pain. As it started to get marginally better, I had a collision with another player during a makeup game and had to go back to the doctor. At that time I was diagnosed with a sprained clavicle, as well as having aggravated my rotator cuff injury. More PT followed and I actually had a fairly good recovery. My shoulder wasn't 100%, but I was finally able to throw overhand again, and after the past year, I was actually able to play tennis for the first time about a month ago.
Reinjuring this shoulder is not something I wanted to do. It just happened monday, so it remains to be seen how bad it is. I go in on the 3rd for an assessment from a physical therapist. Still, it's frustrating that I don't really expect a full recovery. At this point I'd gladly take surgery if they thought it would give me back full use of my shoulder and that I'd be less likely to reinjure it.
To add insult to injury, the lights didn't come on during our final game, and the league is talking about having us replay it. We were up 2-0 after 70 minutes, though really the final 15 minutes or so were so dark they shouldn't have been played. But if we replay it, I won't be able to take part, and if we don't win, we'll lose our division title. Not that I'm that concerned we won't win, but the other team isn't bad, they're only a point behind us. |
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| My bike |
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| 03:03pm 19/07/2006 |
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mood:  happy
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So I did eventually find a bike to buy.
Both fairings are a bit rashed up, and the upper fairing is busted near the mirror mount, but it's primarily cosmetic. I'm having it serviced in a couple weeks, until then I'm really only riding it in my neighborhood. I haven't gone and picked up my permit yet, and I guess the safety classes to get the actual endorsement are something like 2 months behind. I might go take them in Port Angeles, where there is no wait. |
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| Chickened out |
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| 04:20pm 13/07/2006 |
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mood:  weird
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So I have sort of a crush on my bank teller. I've actually only seen her a couple of times, I don't normally go into the bank. But I went in last week to withdraw some money, and it took awhile to complete all the transactions I needed, so I got to talk to her a bit. She's cute and kind of goofy. I went back in today to make another withdraw for the motorcycle I'm buying later tonight. I didn't have to go to that branch, but I wanted to see her again. I intended to ask her out, but I wussed out. I made up several excuses to myself, like how bad I looked coming straight from work, how I had to pee, etc. But really I just chickened out. So I should have a paycheck coming in the next couple of days, and I'm going to try again, sans excuses. Weak sauce. |
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| Pardon me while I claw my eyes out. |
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| 03:15pm 12/07/2006 |
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mood: cranky
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Plus side? My work day is done in 15 minutes.
Down side? I did about 10 minutes worth of actual work today.
It's not that I didn't try to work. Oh, we want you to upgrade this system. But you can't touch this system. People use it. Oh, that's fine, do you have a test system? No. Do you have a sandbox system? Well, we have one down in Auburn that's turned off and sitting in a corner, but the drive isn't large enough to hold a modern OS. Ok, can I get some hardware from someone? No, probably not. ...... ....
Can I change the drive out in this system and install to this box? Well, no the guy needs the box. He's open to not having it for a few days, but we don't have another drive.
Ok, well, you want me to upgrade an OS in place without disrupting data, on an OS that wasn't intended to do that (Solaris 8->9) It might be possible, I don't know, I haven't used solaris 9, but I have no test system, and you have no other hardware. You also have no space on the root partition, so even if it's possible, the new OS is pretty much guaranteed not to fit. So there's no way I can proceed and hope to be successful... "Oh, ok, could you write that up and email it to me so I have something to work with?" Sure. I'd love to.
I never did mind about the little things. |
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| 02:22pm 10/07/2006 |
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mood:  pensive
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I'm torn here at work. I'm in the process of being transfered between groups. In the meantime, I'm sort of being overlooked. I almost get the feeling I could just quietly do nothing for awhile and they'd end my contract, and I'd be ok with that. On the other hand, I could do worse for a job. So I emailed my supposedly new manager, at least I guess he is. It's all very unclear.
Basically there are two managers at the same level, managing about the same level and number of sysadmins, in two different environments. I was working for one of them, but really reporting to what would be a peer if I were full-time and not contract. One day I come to work in a bad mood, she comes to work in a bad mood, and the next day I'm almost fired. Seems she got pissed and went to my boss. They almost terminated my contract right then and there, but apparently my contracting company talked them out of it. For my part, I didn't help my case by not coming into work twice and only telling the people I report to. I should have told the manager directly, but relied on them to do so, which was (as it was pointed out to me) irresponsible. Still, I did let them know, so wtf. Anyway, two of my other coworkers spoke up for me after the fact, but the damage was done, so I'm essentially getting shipped out of the group. That's ok with me, since after being pretty much backstabbed, I don't really want to work with this woman anyway.
So the new gig will be closer to my house anyway. But I don't really know what I'll be doing. I think I'll be upgrading some Sun servers to start, and that's fine with me. I came here to work on AIX, but Solaris is fine too. Probably better if I ever opt to move to cali, since they're 90% Sun down there, especially in the internet world. The weird thing is, I keep getting assignments from my old manager, so I honestly don't know who I report to at this point. I'm going to try not to care. When I was hired, I was told it wasn't really a contract job, and I shouldn't treat it as such. But their behaviors bely that. They won't assign me any systems directly because I'm a contractor. And the shit that happened with my coworker would have been handled vastly differently if I weren't a contractor. So I'll have to adapt a contractor's mentality, which I may decide I hate.
My main goal when this shit happened though was to not go out like that. It sends a bad message to my contracting agency, and I'm just too competitive to let things go to shit over a bad day. So once I clean up the reputation, I may decide to leave anyway, and I as much as told my contracting agent that. Who knows, the new gig might be great. They had talked about me working with this guy Tom, who is a total curmudgeon. I don't think the guy has ever had a good day in his life. He reminds me of the line in Office Space where Peter describes every day at work as worse than the last, so every day is the worst day of his life. But it looks like I'll at least start out working with this other individual that I haven't met yet. He can't possibly be as bad, so I'll just hope for the best. It looks like I'll find out on Wednesday. Seriously though, I could forego buying a motorcycle, quit my job right now, and not have to work again for 6 months. That's very tempting. |
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| Bacon |
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| 09:26am 10/07/2006 |
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So hmm. On thursday I was playing co-rec soccer. After giving up a goal to a breakaway which I couldn't do much about, I rolled the ball out to one of our players, and failed to notice one of the opponents right behind one of my defenders. He stepped around my defender, picked up the ball, and made the easy shot for a 2-0 lead. So I was pretty unhappy about that, being my fault and all. In the second half we pulled back a goal on a penalty. In the dying minutes we got a corner, and I pulled out of goal and went up for it. The first corner taken was deflected out by a defender. On the second corner, the ball got flicked across goal and fell to my feet, and I shot it home to tie the game. I was so relieved and excited. I don't get many chances to score. I think my last goal was 2.5 years ago when I wasn't playing in goal. I took a penalty kick maybe a year ago, but it was saved :(
Then of course the world cup final was on Sunday. What a miserable ending to that. Hmm, nuff said.
I was going to buy a used Suzuki GSXR this weekend. I'd been talking to this guy for a week or so about his bike, but it was down in Portland. I mailed him thursday saying I'd probably come down saturday. Then I talked to him Friday and he had some guy coming down from Bellingham on the train to look at it, but said whoever got there first could buy it. So I call him up saturday morning at like 8 am and he tells me he's holding it for the other guy until 3 pm. Ok.... I'm not sure how this guy got ahead of me in line, but whatever. He didn't call me back, so I assume he sold it to him. There are 2 more I'm looking at this week. One of them has a salvage title, which I'm not thrilled about, but the price is very low. The other has cosmetic damage, which doesn't concern me much. Both are 600s, I want a 750, but I'm not that set on it.
I was pretty bummed saturday night. I stayed home and went to bed early on friday because I'd planned to be up at 7:45 to drive to portland. After the seller canceled on me, I wanted to go out on saturday, so made plans to meet up with a friend. So I called him around the appointed time, and he canceled on me. I'm sick of my friends. Actually, I don't have many around to be sick of. Most of my friends are down in texas. The few friends I have left in Seattle are mostly from college. And while I like them, they just don't do much. Tom is married and doesn't do anything, aside from the occasional late night coffee run. Scott is broke most of the time and doesn't have any aspirations outside of warcraft. He goes out now and then when I ask him, but he's also the one that canceled on me. I really could stand to meet some new people, but then I don't get out enough either. Single 30-something blues. Too old to be living the carefree life (am I really?) and too young to be packing it in at 7 pm. Maybe I'll just quit my job and join the peace corps. Only semi-joking.
I could move to california and hang out with John, that is until he gets married. I suppose he'd have to get divorced first. Actually, I don't think that John's the type that would stop going out anyway. But I also don't know too many people down there. I do know a couple of other people from online, but I don't know how much I'd hang out with them. There's this one guy I met when I went down a few years ago that I still talk to online, I could see hanging out with him now and then. Anyway, there are other reasons to go there, better job market, new setting, better weather. I'm just not sure I'd be happy there. I mostly came back to Washington to be closer to family and for the weather, but my family is bothering me a lot recently, and some space wouldn't hurt. Too much drama.
I could also go back to Texas. I didn't think I'd ever say that, but I have so many good friends down there, and miss so much of it. It's not just friends I miss either, but the attitudes of the people. Seattle has this reputation for being liberal, but it also has one for being snooty. It's just fine to be gay in seattle, and that's good. But on other things, they have these puritanical high moral views on things like vice. And despite it's conservative reputation, I met a lot of very liberal, open-minded people there. Of course, they weren't southern baptists. I'm still not sure I could handle living where it's difficult to go outside for 8 months out of the year. But there's certainly a lot of appeal to going back. Wouldn't be a bad idea to visit for awhile during summer to remind myself just how hot it is. |
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| Yummy |
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| 01:16pm 29/06/2006 |
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mood: amused
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I ate my jewelry. It wasn't really intentional, mind you. I was just finishing up lunch, putting my non-biodegradable styrofoam container into a plastic bag, so I could send it on its way to a landfill, when it felt like I had a bit of rice under my tongue. I sort of fished around with my tongue, and realized my tongue stud had come free. For a brief moment I panicked, searching my mouth for the stainless steel ball that should have held it in place, but it was not to be found. I tried to force myself to vomit, but I've never been able to do that, and it wouldn't have helped anyway. So instead I came back into work and decided to have a diet coke. Hey, maybe it's true that coke can dissolve anything!
Now all I can hope for is an uneventful passing. Err, the ball's, not mine. Try not to imagine that in too much detail. |
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| Pride Week shows |
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| 11:06am 23/06/2006 |
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Hmm, so Ms. Led is playing this saturday at the beer garden for Pride week. I should go to that. I somehow managed to tweak my neck/shoulder playing soccer last night though. 8 advil later and little improvement. Head checks on the freeway are overrated, if they're in my blind spot, they deserve what's coming to them! (Ok, not really) It actually kind of sucks, but should clear up shortly. (right?)
In other news, I've had this money burning a hole in my pocket. I thought about buying a motorcyle, both because I (used to) enjoy riding, and because it would save me a small fortune in gas. I also want to move out of my current apartment to someplace with a garage. I looked at one rental house in west seattle, but it was in the ghetto. I'd rather stay where I am than have my things stolen. Then I looked at this bottom floor duplex, and it was spectacular. Unfortunately, there was someone ahead of me, and her credit checked out, so I didn't get it. Now I'm bummed, because this place completely raised my expectations, and now finding another place like it could be impossible. It was also in my neighborhood, which I've grown fond of, so I wouldn't have had to move far. I suppose my current place is fine, and I can patiently keep an eye on ads until I find something else both affordable and wunderbar. As for the motorcyle, I want to have a garage before I buy one. I also think I might just save the money for the end of my current work contract. I have about 10 months left, and I'm alternately considering either taking all of next summer off, or going back to school to finish my degree. |
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| Taste it, bitches |
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| 09:25am 20/06/2006 |
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mood: cranky music: Inane coworker prattle
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I'll blog when I goddamn well feel like it. Actually, I don't "blog", I hate that word. I went last night to look at a duplex I want to rent. It's pretty sweet, but there are 2 other people looking at it as well. I actually send a totally ass-kissing email to the landlord to try to sway him my way. I suck at kissing ass, but I think I outdid myself this time. Shame my credit score semi sucks, since I pay cash for everything. Deep sigh, I'd so enjoy the fireplace in the winter. I also looked at a small house for rent. It was ... "ok" but it's in the ghetto. I'd rather my things were not stolen, kthnx!
I've ever so slowly been drifting back toward this site. I've been trolling my friends' journals for the past couple of weeks, with the occasional guerilla comment. Since my new job has locked down my internet access to web-via-proxy only (can't even fucking ssh tunnel out) this is one of my few alternatives for entertainment. I don't have admin rights on my desktop, and no activex controls, so I can't even get to web IM. Fascists.
So my life right now basically consists of WoW, World Cup, soccer, and tennis. I'm still playing soccer on monday and thursday, though I'm suspended from my monday team for placing my hands on a referee. Shame on me, I almost got thrown out for a year, though they determined the conduct wasn't violent, so it's only 3 games and a 40 dollar fine. Sweet! You want to know what's lame about me? (Hey, shut up!) I couldn't find anyone to go see Les Miserables with me, so I didn't go. And I really wanted to. I've seen it a few times, so I'll live, but that's just so disappointing.
Btw, ladies, 5'6" and 190 is not "curvy", let's just be honest, kk? You can't even see your toes standing up. |
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| What the fuck |
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| 09:16am 03/11/2004 |
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As goes the election, so goes my faith in the intelligence of Americans. |
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| 02:19pm 24/06/2003 |
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mood:  blah music: Stereolab - Lo Boob Oscillator
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I'm sitting at work. It's 2:20. Almost 3 hours before I can leave, and then I have to go to my class anyway. I want to go home and do nothing. I want to go outside. I want to go anywhere but here. Nothing much to do (unless you count the plethora of things I am procrastinating)
I had friends over saturday night, so now my apartment is a total disaster. I was going to clean it last night, but messed around on my computer instead. That accomplished next to nothing. That trash is going to start to smell soon. Maybe it already smells.
Growing tired of being broke. Broke because I'm putting money away for a car. Car not available till September. Need a vacation. Can't really take one until October. Might take a month off then. Maybe more. Was thinking about Houston over July 4th. Now haven't thought about it in awhile. Not sure it's worth the money.
Blah. |
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| Rare update |
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| 05:52pm 24/04/2003 |
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mood:  busy
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Everytime I think about posting here I get caught up reading friends' entries. Well I have 10 minutes before I have to go catch a bus, so I thought I'd give at least a brief idea of what's up with me.
The week has been incredibly busy. I have a mandatory class 3 times a week after work for 2 hours. On top of that I have to be at support group meetings twice a week. That in itself pretty much kills my social life. I was sick last friday so I missed my class, so that has to be made up. I also showed up 4 minutes late on monday and they had locked the doors, so I get to make that one up too. Since I'm not going tomorrow (flying to san diego) that will put me an extra week behind. Fun. I've also procrastinated several support group meetings, so I'll have to attend like 6 in a week when I get back.
Next weekend I'm going to Vegas. I'm only going overnight, doubt I'll really sleep. It was something a friend and I had planned to do awhile ago, but I had pretty much decided not to go. Then he called me two days ago and said he was going up to vegas to see his dad play in some golf tournament, so I booked a flight. It should be fun regardless, and I need to get out of town. Between work, class, support, and just everyday life, I'm ready to go insane.
A couple weeks ago I went down and put a deposit on the volkswagen r32 that's coming out in september. They're only releasing 2500 in september and 2500 more in february. I'm 5th or 6th on "The List" so hopefully I'll get the style I want (jazz blue with the 6 speed manual transmission) It's probably more car than I need, and friends are already predicting how many tickets I'll get in the first year, but I've wanted the car since I first saw it. I strongly considered the new WRX or the mini cooper-s, but this is what I chose. Mostly because of the bigger engine. I don't like the wound-up turboed 4 cylinders. The r32 has the engine from the phaeton, and it's a naturally aspirated v6 that puts out over 260hp stock.
When I get back from Vegas I'm going to get 2 kittens. I wanted to do it about a month ago, but no one had kittens. Now birthing season is in full swing, but I don't want to get 2 new cats right before I leave town two weekends in a row. So when I get back I'll have to go looking. I'll probably try to adopt from PAWS.
Anyway, that's it for now. |
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| 09:55am 05/03/2003 |
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mood: Tentatively Hopeful music: The Used - Buried Myself Alive
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I came really close to losing my job yesterday. Actually, I'm not really sure I haven't yet. To be more specific, it's not my job that's in jeopardy, but management decided it was in the best interest of my project to remove me from it. Since the project is the only reason I stayed working here, it would pretty much mean my job.
I fight very hard for what I believe in. In this case, maybe too hard. I work in IT for a healthcare organization. Healthcare is notoriously backwards and behind when it comes to technology. When I was asked to join this project, I was given a vision of a system that was done properly. So much of what we do is dictated by politics that too many compromises are made. Systems end up insecure, unreliable, and just shitty overall. This system was to be the model by which future systems would be designed.
So when people started trying to change things, to make it more like every other shitty system that we're trying to replace, I fought. At some point I failed to realize that all my supposed allies had stopped fighting. I even failed to realize that I was now fighting some of them as well. I burned a lot of bridges and pissed a lot of people off. There are a lot of people here that everyone will talk shit about behind their back, but they're not used to hearing the word "no" I never really considered the possibility they would remove me at this stage of the project. I also failed to consider that if I was removed, I would have no say at all.
I think I can rectify the situation. I pleaded my case heavily to remain on the project, accepted responsibility for my actions, and expressed my willingness to compromise. I'm awaiting the decision (noon today) but things look pretty positive at this point. If things roll my way, I'll have dodged a bullet, and it will take some serious effort on my part to repair working relationships that I have destroyed. If not, I guess I'll update my resume for the first time in a few years. |
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| 02:52pm 03/03/2003 |
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music: Tatu - Ja Soshla S Uma
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My soccer team continues to kick ass. Lost 0-3 yesterday. I played well, giving up 3 goals on 20 some shots. There were a few bright spots, but I don't think we had a legitimate shot in the second half at all.
Visited my father on Saturday along with my brother. We went bass fishing for a couple hours. We got stuck in traffic and it took us forever to get home, so we got there pretty late in the afternoon. Turned out alright though, we caught plenty of fish for a short time, then came home and had dinner. I had to come back that night though, didn't get home till after 12.
One of my players broke his leg in 3 places. He went in hard for a ball and went leg to leg with another player and just shattered it. He's scheduled for surgery today. Now I gotta recruit some more players too. Since the league just formed a new team, they don't have anyone available.
Currently downloading the Sparta album. I heard this cd in a coffee shop and it reminds me a lot of Sunny Day Real Estate. I also downloaded a bunch of Tatu tracks. Of course they're getting some attention for dressing up in schoolgirl outfits and making out in their video, but the music is really pretty good. Anyway, back to work. |
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kraex's journal