Aperture Science Chronological Life Data Tracking System

So close!

I mentioned in an earlier post that there’s an absolutely awesome white cat that lives outdoors in my apartment complex. It’s just the friendliest cat you could ever hope to meet, and usually comes running up for attention when I park my car.

I was hoping to take the cat in and give it a home, but unfortunately it turns out that he’s owned by one of the downstairs neighbors. It kind of sucks that they just let him run around outside (declawed), but it’s good to know that there’s people looking out for him and taking care of him.

Booo. I was so looking forward to adopting him.

A chill wind blows

November is just around the corner, and northern Florida is finally starting to see a bit of the colder weather. For most of the last week we still had temperatures in the 70s, but the last few days have seen it drop to the mid-60s, and as low as 40 at night.

Yes, I said 40. All you people with snow suck.

Anyway, this cold weather isn’t that big of a deal for most of the people I know. Really it just means digging a light jacket out of the closet. However there’s always the weird Florida people who just can’t cope with any kind of cold. Last night as I was coming back from Krav class I passed my upstairs neighbor giong out to her car… and she was fully decked out in a winter coat and gloves, and had a scarf covering her face.

It wasn’t even 40 yet! Probably somewhere in the mid 50s.

It’s not just my neighbor, either. Every year about this time the residents of Florida start looking like they’re headed to ski resorts instead of work. We won’t even see our first freeze until after December, most likely. I don’t understand how they’re not sweating under all those layers.

Honestly, sometimes I just don’t understand Florida at all - and I’ve lived here most of my life.

<3

For saying her name and then snapping the photo as the turned around, I think this came out rather well!

( She doesn’t like cameras. )

Here kitty!

A lot of times when I write in my blog I feel like I what I want to say doesn’t come anywhere close to the amount of words I wind up putting in an entry. This is definitely one of those.

I read this morning an article on Fark about the number of pet abandonments on the rise, partially due to the economic crunch. There were stories in the comments about pets being left on the side of the road, tossed out of moving cars, even locked in homes that were repossessed.

How the hell can someone do that? I mean seriously, how? I understand everyone has different levels of affection for their pets, but it’s not a television! You can’t just leave it behind for the next person. Just…. arrrgh!

There’s this fantastically beautiful white cat that lives around my apartment complex. Just the friendliest thing you could ever pet, been declawed and everything. How could someone just put a cat like that outside and walk away?

Otherland: The MMO

I was doing my normal daily routine of catching up on news (and avoiding work) when I noticed the below tidbit quietly hidden away on Slashdot.

Otherland: The MMO

(If you’re not familiar with Otherland, I’d suggest brushing up on it over at Wikipedia real quick.)

There’s a few reasons I’m excited about this. One of the attributes of Otherland that is made very obvious in the books is the ability to completely ignore the rules when designing an area of the net. Bug-sized avatars in a giant world, corrupted versions of childhood stories, other planets - these all happen in the novels, and I fully expect the game to be the same way. Each place could have it’s own physics, it’s own rules. It would definitely make for a much more dynamic environment than most MMOs currently have. It sounds like they’re also hinting at the possibility for player-created areas. So cool!

There’s also another reason that I have fairly high hopes; Tad Williams (the author of Otherland) is directly involved with the creation MMO. According to his website he seems to be pretty happy with how it’s going, and it looks like he is having a huge role in the design process of the game. This is definitely good news, and is at least a guarantee that it won’t be the player slogging through the story that’s already been told - it will instead be an extension of the books.

I’m definitely looking forward to checking this one out.

Werk, werk

Wow, has it really been a month since my last post? It really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long - in fact, this whole year feels like it’s just flying by.

I remember when I first started this blog that I told myself I’d post at least once a day, every day. Ahhhh well.

—

I’m always used to being the person giving help and very seldomly asking for/receiving it, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that people keep asking (with genuine interest and concern) how things at work are going, and if the situation is improving at all. In all fairness, it’s not as bad as I made it out to be in my last post - that was definitely a venting time. However… nothing I said in there is an exaggeration, or untrue. It’s more of a Cliff’s Notes version of everything that’s happened so far this year.

My company is not necessarily a bad company to work for. For a financial instutition in today’s economic brouhaha we’re doing really well; they avoided all that sub-prime mortgage crap, and our business is showing steady gains. The problem lies moestly in the IT department.

The pay here is not competitive, and the company knows it. It’s not uncommon for someone to leave and get hired back at a higher pay. We also have about 2/3 of the IT staff that we really need, with most people being the sole person who knows a system. It’s stressful enough like that, more so when they leave.

We’re also constantly under audit, both from internal and external sources (including the OTS audit next week. Eeeeek!). It’s not so much that the audits are difficult, it’s that there’s so much gathering of proof and documentation that there’s less time for doing actual work. Again, more stress. Multiple audits at a time do not help.

I still say my boss has the attention span of a hyperactive monkey though. Part of that, I’m sure, is just the amount of work that she has to do and the amount of data that flows through her - information overload is very real. I’ve actually learned that it’s best to catch her in the hallway away from her desk; if you’re in the office talking to her and the phone/IM/email goes off, you might as well just get up and leave - she won’t notice.

It can be a very frustrating place to work.

Why I hate my job

• Meetings, meetings, meetings. Everything gets discussed to hell and back.
• Capslock should never, ever, ever be used in a corporate environment. NEVER.
• I don’t care how much you’d like it to happen, boss, technical support can not help me violate the laws of physics and technology.
• I am not an engineer. Why the hell do you have me working on servers? Pay me for it or go away.
• 6 am sucks as a start time.
• My boss currently has like 13,000 emails in her mailbox. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get her to reply to an email?
• I have three weeks of vacation that I haven’t been able to take because I’m “the only person who can do my job”.
• Did I mention I’m the lowest paid person under my boss? I’m the only one still hourly, too, because she’s too damn busy to remember that she said a year ago she would promote me.
• It’s impossible to work here without backstabbing or being backstabbed.
• STOP WITH THE MANAGERIAL LEET SPEAK. WE ARE PEOPLE, NOT RESOURCES. YOU DO NOT ‘ENGAGE A RESOURCE’, YOU ASK AN ENGINEER FOR HELP. IT’S NOT AN ‘ACTION ITEM’, IT’S A TO-DO LIST.
• Bosses, please don’t micromanage. If you ask me to do something, trust that I’ll get it done without calling me at 11pm.

I’m sure I’ll be adding more to this as the day progresses.

Tags: rant, work

Random anxiety

So I’m sitting here at my desk, contently stuffing my face with a brownie, when suddenly out of nowhere I get that feeling.

I hate that feeling. That sinking feeling deep in the chest that tells you something bad is about to happen, or that someone is watching you waiting for you to screw up. Some call it a premonition, some call it nerves… I don’t care what it’s called, I just want it to go away so I can finish my brownie in peace.

Sand and surf, dolphins and starfish

This last Saturday I overslept.

It put a bit of a wrinkle in my plans.

See, Jess and I were planning on hitting the beach, and I had an errand I was hoping to get done that morning. I didn’t really have time, though, so to the beach we went!

There’s a nifty little park not too far from the apartment. It has a water park for the kids, camp grounds, nature trails, boat and kayak rentals at the lake, and beach access - very cool place to go! The first date that Jess and I went on was renting a double kayak and paddling around the lake, so I thought it might be fun to revisit that.

The weather disagreed.

However! Not ones to be easily deterred, Jess and I drove over to the beach access and made our way down to the sand under an overcast, drizzling sky. Not really optimal beach weather, but it really cuts down on the possibility of sunburn and reduces the number of people at the beach. We left our shoes up on the beach and made our way down to the surf, and had just gotten our feet wet when I saw something black and pointy and moving sticking up out of the water about 100 yards out.

OMYGAWDSHARK!

Just kidding! They were dolphins! It was kinda hard to tell from the shore, but there had to be at least two groups of them, with one group having 8-10 dolphins in it. They were just swimming along parallel to the shore, breaking the water every so often in that non-jump that dolphins do. I’d never seen dolphins off our beach before, so it was very awesome. Both of us were wishing we had a boat or a kayak so we could go out where they were.

As we were walking up the beach, we noticed something else that I hadn’t seen on the beach before - starfish! Hundreds of starfish had washed up onto a small section of beach, and many of them were still alive; we could pick them up and see the little appendages on their arms wiggling about in the air. I think between the two of us we probably tossed about 30 or so back into the ocean for another chance.

After some more wading the smell from the nearby cookouts was becoming very enticing, so Jess and I headed up to Chili’s for lunch - burgers for us both! I had something with blue cheese, and Jess had one with mushrooms on it. So very yummy.

After lunch we curled up for a nap, but that only lasted an hour or so before I had to go take care of some work stuff. Boooo, work. But…. I also got to go run my errand. Yay errand!

Work done and errand accomplished, I headed back to Jess’ house to drag her out of bed. She didn’t want to get up, but after much persuasion (read - tickling of the feet) she crawled from her bed. We headed back down towards the beach, except this time our destination was a store - Kilwin’s! This store was also part of our first date! Jess got some ice cream and I grabbed a chocolate shake, then we wandered around for a bit nibbling our treats before heading down to the sand.

Dusk was starting to fall - there were no dolphins or starfish on this part of the beach, just groups of people milling around. Jess and I strolled up and down the sand a bit, chatting and contemplating the oddity of the sand bar while the sun went down. After about 30 minutes or so we began wandering back to the car and wound up stopping just before the boardwalk that crossed the dunes. I wriggled a little box out of my pocket, said “I didn’t plan the dolphins and starfish, but I totally planned this part”, showed her the engagement ring that I’d picked up earlier, and asked her to marry me.

She totally said yes.

That can’t be healthy

I’m still struggling to get used to things like food expiring, so I’ve been trying to keep that in mind as I work my way through what I have in the fridge.

It doesn’t help that Jess’ mom will buy me things like a gallon of milk, a pound of bacon, etc.

Anywho - in an effort to not have to throw it out, I had a sandwich for dinner last night with ten slices of bacon on it.

Kinda like a BLT, except more like a BBB.