Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Pruning Dead Leaves

I have a tendency to try too many things at once. I am already overloaded and I have had the long-standing plan to play with Linux. I even had a box set aside for it.

Work was cleaning out their storage, so I grabbed a Dell box because it had a legit Win license sticker on it.

Last night, I spent 1.5 hrs taking apart the Dell box and trying to put it into another tower when I realized the hardware was hella-old. I took another look at the license sticker.

Win 98 SE.

I was less than pleased.

I have already been in a "change" mood since Dec and have been slowly working through getting rid of the excesses in my life that are dragging me down, so I may have ganked the RAM, cards, and hard drives from 3 separate super old machines I had pending to do some project or another on and just tossed them. Them and an annoying CRT monitor.

I feel much better.

All I have now is my primary box and some extra hard drives and random cards. The next step is to do something I haven't done in years. I plan on putting the sides on my case ... with thumb screws and everything. It'll probably take 2 cans of air to do it, but I'm fairly confident it can be done.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Statement of Intent

I don't have more time. I just decided I wanted to do this. So, this is the Sun before XMas. My batteries are recharging. I got to go to Cali to Cali to Cali. YAY. Smell the air. You catch that? They're called the Winds of Change. I have recently started reevaluating the person I have allowed myself to become. Long ago, I looked at my long term goals. They required me to go into a sort of hibernation mode. It has served me well. I have reached the goals I required of myself.

Hibernation mode is no longer required. It's time. It will likely take me a month to get myself geared up, but it should be an interesting month.

I have recently been in a couple of situations where I have come to realize that my hibernation mode is no longer working. I know this is all a bit cryptic.

Truth be told, I'm bored. I need more.

Monday, August 13, 2007

S M R T

"I am so smart S -M -R -T" -Homer

Thursday night I went to bed later than I should. No legitimate reason. I just never got around to going to sleep.

Slept 4 hours.

Friday, my Ward had a camp out. That was fun. We ate, hung out, and as soon as the ecclesiastical leadership went to sleep, the tunes came out. The guy that did all the planning came prepared and we danced around the campfire to random tunes and quite a bit of Latin Music. I got to shake my Bon-Bon. It looked very pagan and decadent. We finally shut it down after 1:30 am and I managed to get to bed in the general vicinity of 2 am. Very general vicinity. Someone was nice enough to loan me a spare air mattress, so I slept as well a can be expected while camping, even though it partially deflated and I spent the night in search of a position where more than a small section of me was padded. I've got to get me one of those.

Slept 6 hours-ish.

Saturday. We went to Payson Lake after breakfast. The original plan was to hang out and make our way there around noon-ish. The sun was bearing down on us at around 9:30. Sun won. We went to the lake. Canoes, cool people, cold-ish water, burning sun. Good food for lunch. Good times had by all.

I went home and had the requisite 45 minute shower to wash the nature off me. I was beat to hell. I was supposed to hook up with some chick friends and go out to eat. They were then going to go to SLC to dace at a Latin club and I was going to ditch them and get some much-needed sleep. Yeah... I got to their place and found out they had to make an appearance at a work party. The work party turned out to be for my favorite personality types. You know, the ones responsible for getting people to buy stuff. yay. They did have Latin music there, though. It was a decent DJ and the girls wanted to dance 2 songs before we took off. 2 songs turned into 2+ hours. I'm not sure on the time. I found my happy place and danced there. I was at the point where the DJ played 3 slow songs in a row and I almost fell asleep from exhaustion. The fast songs were good, though. They kept me awake just fine. We finally made our way to some 24 hour Mexican place. If I was smart, I would have found a nice comfy chair after the 5th song and had them wake me up when they were ready. Oh well. I had fun.

Slept ?

I have no reliable memory of when I went to sleep or when I woke up for early morning meetings before putting in an 8+ hour day on sun.

This is 2 days before a week-long marathon of long distance driving and running around Disney.

S M R T

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT...

... YOU WERE FINALLY RID OF ME:

I'm back.

My life got a little complicated there for a bit. I am sure many of you are asking yourselves: "What could possibly complicate **'s life?" Well, since you asked nicely, I'll tell you.

GIRLS

You see, I'm not smart enough to pick one and run. I have to start getting to know a couple at a time. Of course they know each other. It would make too much sense to do it otherwise.

That's enough of that. I decided it was time to simplify my life. That means less girls. That means more time for the little things like sleep.

Wish me luck.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Plan B

I was supposed to go snowboarding for the second time in my life this Saturday. That didn't happen. I was going to go with my bro, but he and his wife would have been leaving the next day for a week-long cruise. They decided it would not be in his best interest to go. By that, I mean she let him know that if he tried anything strange and broke off a leg, he would have to drag his bloody stump around the ship, Catalina, and Mexico. Somehow, reason won out. We're going when they get back. They get back Fri night and we're going Sat. Poor B-tard is probably going to sleep through Sunday.

So, I had an opportunity to go with a plan B. Last week, this chick at work mentioned Red Iguana (mexican restaurant in SLC - Good Stuff). I hadn't been in many months and started craving it pretty bad. Darn her to Heck. So, with the opportunity, we went to see 300 at the Gateway and then went to Red Iguana. 300 was ok. The food was great. The problem now is that I want more. I snagged a take-out menu. I wonder if they deliver to AF.

In my last post, I mentioned I should probably start asking girls out on actual dates. Well, a day or so later I get an email from a chick in my Ward asking me out. We're going out this week. I learned long ago that when the Universe tells you to jump, you jump or you get a kick to the head. Metaphorically speaking. I don't know very much about her, but I guess that's what the date is for. Note to self: Be toned down. I'm not entirely sure she can handle my personality full-force. I'm not misrepresenting myself. I see it as more like "measured doses" and protecting the innocent. Keep my Latin-ness in check. (am I joking?)

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Therapy

Last night was fun. Sort of. Ok, let's say therapeutic, then.

Background:
I moved into an apt maybe 6 months ago.The three other roomies are either never around or live in their rooms. The one I have the most contact with, I see about once a week. When I moved in, there was no storage, so whatever didn't fit in my room went in the living room with all the stuff that was already there. I wasn't overly concerned because I usually only sleep there. It was kind of sad when I had to take a carload of stuff to cook for some girls because I was ashamed of them seeing my place. I guess I'm over that, since I'm putting it here. My things are in the plastic containers and the boxes on the left. The boxes in back are from a roomie.


I was finally sick of it and was going to talk to the roomie whose stuff is all over, when another roomie complained to management. PR (pack rat) did not take it well. He was all angry that someone dared to question his actions in even a roundabout way. I saw an opportunity. The roomie was more concerned with it looking messy than concerned about all the stuff.

I took all his boxen (yeah, I know) out of shelves inside and a lot of the ones in the outside storage area and threw them in the living room. I figure this way, his girlfriend can see that it's his stuff that's out of control. I assume she thought it was mine, since mine was in front.

I did it because he wasn't about to and his mother wasn't available. This is what 80 boxes of books looks like. Mind you, I am only counting the UHaul boxes I personally stacked, not any of the others on the side or the ones still scattered around the apartment or the damaged boxen still in storage.



So, the roomie shows up when I'm done and slips into a "concerned salesman" voice and tries to share his concern with me moving the modem and router to my room. Everyone has been tripping over the cables, so he can put it in his room on top of one of the stacks of books that cover every flat surface, or he can cope. I was nice about it, although I didn't do much more than pause while doing my own thing. I figure you're not allowed an opinion if you say you're going to rent your own storage space, then ignore reminders to do so. I cleaned it, so I "own" it. I have no problem notifying you of changes, but I'm not asking permission.

Old related story:
When I moved into the apt, there was a lot of stuff in the fridge. I checked with the roomies (took me a couple of weeks to track them down) and none had anything but milk in there. I went through and threw away so much stuff. It was disgusting. There was stuff in there that had expired 2 years before. I went as far as to throw away anything that offended me, including some pots and pans someone had likely put in the cupboard years ago without washing. That made the kitchen mine. I arrange things how I see fit.

This will likely be one of the few times you'll hear me whine like this. I don't like to whine, it serves no purpose.

Tension releasing rant over.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

You Thought I'd Forgotten About You

I know it's been a while since anyone has heard from me. I make no apologies. I'm worth the wait.

Let me catch you up on my life. Christmas was nice. I was able to go to Cali. I gave a lift to a chick friend of mine who passed out just outside Provo and woke up as we were coming up on St George. She slept through Winter and woke up in Summer.



Time with the fam was nice. The drive back was interesting. Jesus was my copilot.



I drove back on Christmas Day, so the Po-Po were with their fams. I found a pack of cars going a little faster than your average bear.



This shot was taken a little later on and shows how close the cars in the pack were to each other.



I did see one car get pulled over, but that was a bright red mustang going much faster than even we were going. For the Law Enforcement readers out there, this actually happened with a professional driver in a closed course. Do not try this at home, children.

Work:
The takeover continues slowly. My department was acquired by a corporate partner who happens to have a competing software. Happy New Year to you too. The original estimates on the transition were 3 months with a possibility of 8 months. Almost 2 months later, only a couple of people on their management side have even seen our software. They are still working out procedural stuff. I'm not certain the Decision Makers were fully aware of exactly how much goes into supporting our particular software. We have a lot running on the back end and we do a lot of troubleshooting on the Windows side. The actual managers charged with making it happen have so much to do. I don't envy them. I'm probably going to be one of the last few people transitioned back into the company, since I am still considered one of the Senior techs for some reason, but not before my position is dissolved and I return to the phones full-time. yay.

Social:
I have access to so many good people, it's not even funny. Props to the Sushi Crew. Props to the Latin Dance Gang. Props to the worshippers at the altar of the Box with an X on it (even though my schedule makes me a non-practicing believer). Props to the people who help me get through work without doing what the voices in my head tell me to do. I think the voices come from my headphones, but I can't prove it. Props to all my homies in County in Cell Block 6.

Twice now, my Local Ecclesiastical Figure has sat me down to give me some recommendations on girls to get to know better. The Maternal Parental Unit has taken a break from asking about girls, but you can almost hear her biting her tongue. This might be an opportune time to take my interactions from an informal basis to a more "actually ask girls out on legitimate dates" thing. Oh well. Had to happen sometime.