Proof that I am smarter than a coworker.

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I was discussing a trip with a co-worker who had to go in front of me by a couple of days and install the hardware in the same place I was going to do software training.  I had already decided on the Holiday Inn Express in Portsmouth, OH, and he said he had stopped at the HIE in Grayson, KY.  He had said kind of off-handedly said that he was staying closer than I would be, due to him staying in the state of KY, and I actually going out of state and even in a few miles to get where I needed to go.  I said that I didn’t think it was the case, and we disagreed.  Well, Google Maps and I just made both trips rather quickly, and I think I’ve got him beat.

Tricky Dick’s Trip

and

Deezil’s Trip

It’s just a few miles, but I consider it enough to make a difference.  Especially since the company is going to have to pay for the mileage on my trip, because I’m using my own car.

 

Morals of the story: 1.) I just have a feeling about where I need to stay, and don’t doubt it.  2.) Google Maps can travel 860 miles in the matter of 45 seconds, it’s going to take me over 14 hours.

FUCK.

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Fuck. BRB. Webhost / WP Install / some other webshit got fucking hosed. Hackers and shit. Leaving up the RSS feed and that’s it.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cdpuvbhfzz.com – That’s what’s gotten a hold of me.

ATTN: Nancy Grace, suck a dick.

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CNN, I love you. You are my pick for news. You tell me what I need to know in life. Headline News used to be a staple of my life. Over time you changed it, added more features and less of the people just giving me the straight news. I still watched, because it was CNN, and it was the most balanced news that I could get. (Attn: Other News Network: Just because you say you are “fair and balanced”, doesn’t mean you are.) But then, CNN, you went and did something stupid. You took three hours out of my night, and dedicated them to opinions, not just The News. You’ve got another channel for that, it’s called CNN. While Glenn Beck and I don’t get along, he’s fun to listen to, and I enjoy yelling at him. Showbiz Tonight’s mostly useless, because unlike most of the unwashed masses, I don’t care whatever star just did whatever. (On the huge exception: Patrick Swayze doesn’t have much longer to live, and I was shocked and saddened.)

After Glenn goes off, we have the fear mongering Nancy Grace.

I want to punch this bitch in the babymaker. Especially when every time she can sneak any tidbit in about her new twins.

Here’s my issue. She’s always right. While I know lots of people that suffer this syndrome, and I am one myself, I don’t do it all the time, and I definitely do not get an hour on TV that is replayed once three hours later to millions of viewers. She’ll spin anything she can get and turn it into the next national crisis. I care that a girl was killed at Auburn. I want to know the facts. I don’t want 4 air-heads throwing about things that they supposed happen or minutia that in the end will not make any difference. I want one, maybe two people, telling me exactly what is known, and maybe some broad theories. And there’s my issue. I want news on the news channel. And I want Nancy Grace to shut her mouth and quit fear mongering.

Tonight was no exception.

As I mentioned earlier, a girl was killed in Auburn today. That’s news. Tell me she’s dead, some of the details, and what the police are doing. Maybe flash the reward message on the screen. But do not take the tragic death of a young girl who had her whole life in front of her, and give equal time to a dog. Yes, I hate animal cruelty, and yes, it’s not very becoming of an officer in the Marines to do such an act if it is true, but we have a crappy youtube video as evidence. So while it may look like a dog, and you may hear a dog, let’s find out if it is a dog before we get all up in arms.

*sigh*

And yes, I know. This is TV, TV means ratings. But leave the fake drama to my Monday night wrestling.

R-E-A-D A B-O-O-K

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I’ve read the first of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.  I want to get through all 7 of those here shortly. 

I’m also reading Running Linux, just because I want to up my knowledge more than what I have gleaned from friends, the Internet, and just tinkering around.

I’m wanting to read more, just at a loss as what to read.  I’ll read almost anything.  Especially dig Crichton and Grisham.  Ideas?

And without further adieu, the inspiration for the title of this post (NSFW):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN2VqFPNS8w

Crazy bitch central…

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.. or How I learned to ignore everything, and end up sane in the end.

It was a normal night in my (somewhat) normal apartment, and I was doing normal things.  Internet, some TV, and some reading.  I had been pestered by the one that never wished to be caught for a while, but since we spoke in October and I told her that I wasn’t speaking to her ever again, I kept my end of the bargain and didn’t answer.  Well, in the week coming up to this, she had really layed it on thick.  Calling nightly, texting me, facebook messages, the whole gamut.  As I had finally developed a backbone, and stuck to my guns, I let them all blow by.  But that night, oh that night, there was more.  There was the crazy one.  She’s absolutely bat-shit insane.  She decided it was her night to chime in and start trying to get in touch with me too.  Her deal is that she thought I was ignoring her because she had done something wrong, that I ahted her for some ephemeral reason.  And while she had done something wrong in trying to call and text and facebook way too much when I didn’t decide to pick up her call one night when I was on the road, she had taken my silence and just convoluted the whole situation.  So what she thought and what it really was were two different things.  Basically (and if you’re reading this, please note) the deal is that you needed to learn patience.  You had to learn to wait, and I would call/text/facebook back.  Every time you sent me a text with ‘Why do you hate me :-( ‘, I just pushed the next time I was going to respond two weeks into the future.  Let’s just say that your time still isn’t caught up, and I’m glad you’ve already given me the big FUCK YOU, so that way I don’t have to return the favor in kind.  So with those two blowing my phone up one side and down the other, I turned the damned thing off.  I slept with my phone off that night, the first time I have done that in years and years.  I got up to voice mails and text messages and a count on my Inbox on both Facebook and GMail.  I didn’t delete them, I read everything either of them had to say, and then I just closed the window, shut the phone, and went about my day.  A fresh Sunday with sunshine coming in my bedroom window, opening on a cool crisp day.  I put on my pajama pants and laid around, having a somewhat normal day of Internet, TV and books.  And Sanity.  Plenty of that to go around.

I went to bed at 6:45 last night.

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I think this solidifies my status as an “old man”.  Sure I got up a few times during the night, especially at midnight when my body usually thinks that the right amount of sleep time has passed.  Again at 2, 4, and 6:30, but those were short stirs, then face back into the pillow for a few more hours.  Except at 6:30, then I just got up and carpe’d the fucking diem.

Now to get a shower and head to work.  What a wonderful day ahead.

I’m gonna pound on the keys until I get it right.

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Let’s try for a non-trivial update, shall we?

Lot’s happened since the last time I properly blogged. Sure, I gave you the funny anecdote mid-October about the customer who was basically dumb. That’s not the best story I’ve got, but it’s one of my more favorite short ones.

First, I’ve ditched Windows. And I believe it’s for good. I installed Vista around the time I moved into the apartment in early May. I knew that something in the back of my mind kept me from fully trusting Vista. I kept all my data on my external hard drive, and refused to let it go anywhere near that hard drive. Other than the sheer volume of crap I have on my Western Digital My Book 500GB model, I could never put full faith and trust in an operating system that felt like a kludge. It felt like they tried to stuff cool graphics and some extra (annoying) security into the mold of XP, and broke it all horribly. And at that time, I wasn’t even dealing with it at work. Now that I have seen it full circle at work and seeing what issues it can cause with an otherwise normal system, I can say that I know I made the right choice.

Vista’s gone, and Ubuntu is here to stay.

After Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) came out, I promptly took what little data I had on the hard drive, threw it on the external, and wiped it clean, vowing never to put this rig back into the throes of Windows. Other than a couple of small issues getting things to my liking, I haven’t regretted my move to Ubuntu yet. For those that are tired of Windows, www.ubuntu.com . Get a CD, stick it in, and play with it, without installing (yes Virginia, it will be a little slow. An installed copy will go much faster). If you like, reboot, take out the CD, back up everything you own, and get to installing Ubuntu. For all those Linux detractors out there, I can play my games fine in Linux. Diablo II and Half-Life 2 both work wonders under WINE, and that’s all I really played in the PC gaming world. If you’ve got a must-have app in Windows, I would venture a guess that you can find an app of the same caliber (maybe not as polished as some professional Windows applications) that would suit what you are doing with it in Linux.

Work.

Ugh.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my job. Absolutely love most of the people that I work with, and most of the customers that I deal with on a daily basis.

But with any data set, there are outliers. And the people at work, they lie way out there. I’ve been in a constant struggle with co-workers after some things didn’t go correctly with a project I had been assigned. And while the message preached by my bosses was that “we’re not trying to place blame, we just want to get the wrongs righted”, the sermon sounded much more like fire and brimstone than redemption. Well, I think I’ve got my soul right (we’ll see after tomorrow) and maybe I’m going down the right path. Other than that, work is busy. Especially this time of year. Except for Monday where I had to work until 2:30 and took one call. They would have gotten out of Christmas Eve cheaper by telling us all to stay home for the day as a half-day paid holiday. Their money, I suppose.

Speaking of Money, I’ve realized something that will put my money right for a while. I’m moving back to Murray. In May, when this lease is up, I will be heading back down to where I came from. I’m down there just as much already, I can help save the environment by carpooling with a co-worker, and there are people and things to do. I can spend just as much money as I do every month by living there or here in Benton. Compare the cost versus benefit (negligible added cost, much more benefits as far as social benefits, and a much more kickass apartment) and see that I come out on top. So, I’m Murray-bound once again.

It’s that time of the year that I promise to work on myself for the upcoming year. But this year is different. I’ve got motivation, I’ve got a game plan, and I’ve got a goal to shoot for. I want to go to Nashville on my birthday in 2008. I want to buy a new wardrobe for my trip, and I want none of the sizes to be similar to ones that I am already wearing. It’s gonna take work with what I’m eating and what I’m doing, and how I am taking care of myself. I have to cut back on some of my vices (fast food and booze) and realize that I can go out and have fun and still make sensible choices. It’s not that I have to quit, it’s just that I have to modify what I am doing.

I also want to get rid of this cold.  As well as get to bed.  I leave it to you, gentle readers.  Have a wonderful night.

Going out of your way to be stupid…

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Customer calls. Says they need to delete a bunch of payments, because one was not in order. They were entering them in account number order to line them all up, but one had been mis-ordered. So I directed them to the DEFAULT OPTION of sort in account order when printing off the batch of transactions for the audit and posting register. They had been changing the option the whole time to ‘batch order’ which means make the report in order of entering in the payments AND THEY WERE HAND ORDERING THEM, instead of the much easier process we had in place.

Just when you think you’ve seen em all…