tinfoil, whiskey, and computers

4 eyes

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 21:41:37 GMT

Me with 4 eyes.

I need glasses

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 23:28:09 GMT

I am old.

heh, eh

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 16:40:12 GMT

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
The Midland
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:33:32 GMT

Borrowed from anotherkaren

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:

HERE COMES THE FUN ... ... ...

1. Do we know each other outside of LiveJournal?
2. What's your philosophy on life?
3. Would you have my back in a fight?
4. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
5. What is your favorite memory of us?
6. Would you give me a kidney?
7. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
8. Would you take care of me when I'm sick?
9. Can we get together and make a cake?
10. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?
11. Do you/have you talk(ed) crap about me?
12. Do you think I'm a good person?
13. Would you drive across country with me?
14. Do you think I'm attractive?
15. If you could change anything about me, would you?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?
18. Would you go on a date with me if I asked you?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

Quick question

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 00:28:51 GMT

When a customer already isn't paying you any additional money AND you are offering them free services they haven't paid for, can it be considered a threat when they say they are going to leave for the competition?

damn that's good

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:38:49 GMT

I make perhaps the best bloody marys around. Complete with all the garnishes.

I am a black man

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:17:48 GMT

Disappointed too

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 01:36:19 GMT

I didn't get picked in the TC 10 Miler lottery. That sucks. My friend did and she's pissed because no one else got in. I told her I would train with her. She already has a weight trainer but I think we might join a run club or get a run trainer.

Fri, 19 May 2006 20:48:28 GMT

The goal this month was to lose 10% of my body weight. It was more of a lofty goal that I would try hard to get but probably not reach in one month. My friend and I have a weight loss bet this month. I've been working out really hard and watching what I eat. Everyone I see that I haven't seen for even 2 weeks says I am looking slim now. The month is only about 2/3s of the way through and I've already made it over 60% of the way to 10%. If I want to fudge it a bit and drop weight like a wrestler I could easily hit my goal on the final weigh-in.

I will certainly hit the goal next month if not this month. I'd like to hit another 8-10% past that by end of July. 20% in 3 months used to seem so difficult but it's proven pretty easy now that I've put my mind to it. Then, once I hit the low, I will probably start to pack on more muscle again.

Go me

Tue, 16 May 2006 03:16:01 GMT

I just got a promotion and raise today. I am having a BBQ at my house on Friday to celebrate. You are all invited, I'm providing all the food and booze.

5 miles, bitches

Thu, 11 May 2006 01:19:11 GMT

I think my feet may need a few days to recover from the blisters, but I just did 5 miles. I actually really like the new course I ran today too. It's mainly a maintained trail the whole way, crosses over a lake, and a lot of people use it so you get to see a lot of faces. I can also continue on the trail further than I did when I add more distance.

Moleskin.

doop doop doop

Tue, 09 May 2006 18:59:17 GMT

I'm up to 4.5 mile runs now. This Saturday I am bumping it up to 5 mile runs. Then I start bumping up the pace and possibly/probably biking then running in preperation for some triathlons. I am supposed to do the Twin City 10 miler in Oct. I should definitely be ready by then considering I've double my distance in a little over a week. It will take a bit to hit the next plateau, maybe a few weeks, but then I should be up to probably 8 mile runs or something like that.

The biking is going ok but man it's a pain in the butt, literally. I have the gay biker shorts with the padded ass and everything. I've only been doing the biking for 4 days, so I'm not expecting dramatic results just yet. It hits the quads in a different spot than running so I have to build up that endurance there.

Anyway, good times. It's a good way to get rid of the frustrations of the day.

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:27:40 GMT

Find your own pose!

I got my first official customer complaint

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:20:20 GMT

At least, it's the first customer complaint that I'm aware of.

Yesterday I refused to help a customer configure their Cisco switch. I looked at their Cisco log files, told them what was wrong and what to change, but I wouldn't walk them through how to do it. I don't work for Cisco, we don't support Cisco, customer's have support contracts directly with Cisco. I told him to call Cisco to find out how to make the changes I specified (even telling him those changes is above and beyond our required support agreement).

The customer called their sales team who then complained to my boss. It gave me a good chuckle since my boss is on my side.

This describes me perfectly

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 06:09:40 GMT

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man		85%
Spider-Man		75%
Superman		55%
Green Lantern		55%
Hulk		50%
The Flash		50%
Robin		40%
Supergirl		40%
Catwoman		35%
Wonder Woman		30%
Batman		20%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:52:21 GMT

From: rev_p

You Are 29 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:38:40 GMT

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

If you have a 2U ICON system, use the 2U ICON system serial cable.

Wow, that's pretty intense stuff right there. Just reading that out of context (or, really, even in context) is hysterical. Do we really need to tell people if you have product A then use the product A cable as opposed to some other random cable? Apparently we do. Of course, user manuals are exercises in futility as no one reads them anyway.

I'm 31

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 21:37:26 GMT

I'm 31, go me!

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:59:59 GMT

The most retarded thing ever just happened. The VP comes walking by and says, "Are we having fun?" in some happy voice like you'd talk to a 3 year old. Yesterday he handed out candy. Seriously, that just shows what he thinks of us...he treats us like we are idiots, like we are kids. Average experience in tech support here is over 10 years. We aren't kids.

oh well

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:47:02 GMT

I didn't get the job. Instead they decided to change the role of the position (again) and hired 2 people instead of 1 to do different roles than they originally defined. The original role they defined was sketchy as well.

The hiring manager said he had a lot of respect for me but I didn't explain well enough what it is I bring to the table. I reminded him I sit 10 feet from him and have a HUGE whiteboard where I list nothing but broken processes and my solutions to them. Not sure why he would forget that in an interview or why it was worth rehashing.

I also told him I was a bit disappointed in the way they went with the role. Not with the people they chose since I know they will do fine, but with the process. There was never a clearly defined job description. I never knew exactly what they were looking for, just the general idea. So that's how I approached the interview, in generalities rather than specifics. I told him he just confirmed to me it was unclear since they decided to hire 2 people instead of the original 1 position and changed the roles of both positions. One will be a web developer (not at all in the original description) and the other will be taking phone support calls from our field engineers (also not in the original description).

It was supposed to be a process implementation and documentation role. Apparently their processes are so broken they can't even define a job role. That might just be part of the problem.

I hate the politics of business. It's all so silly.

jorb inteview

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:23:55 GMT

I had a job interview yesterday for an internal position. It went pretty well. I don't know what they are looking for so I don't know where I stand. Well, other than there are only 3 of us who interviewed. So I at least got 3rd!

But I had some good news from my current boss. He said if I don't get this job that he wants to promote me in a couple months and give me a senior role. That ain't too bad for 6 months on the job considering the other seniors all worked there 3-8 years before getting promoted.

So it's a win-win I guess. I either get the new job with a pay bump or I get a promotion in a couple months with a pay bump.

blah

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:51:31 GMT

I visited my goddaughters this week. They are 3 now and getting big...and smart. Mostly smart-ass, but that's cool. Their dad was in school most of the time so I got to hang out with them. I got them carebears that they never put down the whole time. They were so much fun.

BUT, I think they made me sick. They were both sick and I think I got whatever they had. I took some of that Airborn stuff so hopefully that will help. I hope a good night's sleep will get me over whatever I have. I wouldn't mind staying home sick for a few days from work except I have an interview for a new position on Monday afternoon. I don't know what my chances of getting it are other than I get along really well with the hiring manager. It would be more of a lateral move but has some benefits. I would probably get a raise so that's always good. I would also not have to deal with customers, so that rules. And I would get to write documentation and processes, something I think I'm pretty good at and enjoy doing.

wasteful company

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 17:08:54 GMT

So many companies seem so wasteful. The one I work for now is one of them. We have a silly thing called the spend smart task force. I am on it (technically I am the group leader I guess). The idea is we come up with ways for the company to spend smarter. For example, last year they stopped buying styrofoam cups for the soda machine. That saves like $2000 a year. We don’t do big budgetary stuff, just little things. All told, they saved around $60k last year. Not bad really. We want to repeat that success this year but we have gotten rid of the obvious stuff so now everything becomes more difficult.

We figure we could save close to $300k in cell phone bills this year. But we can’t convince any of the executive management to follow through. Basically they say all the sales people (they use cell phones the most) are religious when it comes to their cell phone so they’d rather not disrupt that. The thing is, our plan doesn’t require anyone change phones or carriers. So wasteful.

Another thing that personally burns me up is the waste of computers. We quite literally throw out dozens of computers a month. If you have to dispose of computers it costs money. Some companies will pick up your computer waste for free so you can avoid the charges. Then they recycle/refurb them and sell them. That’s fine with me for the computers that are broken. But we throw out perfectly fine computers. Right now there are over a dozen perfectly working 900MHz machines. They work! Why are we throwing them away?!?!

Support can always use machines for testing. Many employees would love to take them home for personal use. I think that’s a fine thing to do, give them away for free to employees who can use them. But why are they throwing them out? Giving them to some dude just so he can make a profit? Partly it’s because the “facilities guy” knows this dude and hooked him up with the deal. Such bullshit. Such waste.

I am working today and no one is in the office so I am testing the machines in my free time and I am keeping whatever works and hiding them. I am going to build a linux cluster for shits and grins. :)

Late for work

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 05:33:07 GMT

The reason I was late for work is that I stopped caring. It’s an Office Space sort of thing. My cubicle even faces a window so I could take the wall down. I think playing Tetris and eating Cheetos is a good way to pass the day.

The news got even better after work today. We have had an open position in my department since late Oct. We have had a hard time finding candidates. Recently one of my coworkers quit. So essentially we had 2 open positions, his and the previous open position. Now we have no open positions. No, we didn’t fill them. The company decided to eliminate them. So now instead of getting the +2 head count they promised, which was cut to +1 in Oct. We are now getting a -1. I only minored in math so I may be wrong here, but it seems we will end up with fewer people after they promised more.

I am very much thinking of writing a book, the great American novel so to speak. It will be a book about what many businesses do wrong and why those companis don’t succeed. I don’t have decades of experience, but I do have A decade of experience. In that short time I have worked for 5 companies, 3 of which are out of business, one that’s barely hanging on, and the current one that ain’t doing too hot either. I sure know how to pick ‘em apparently.

It’s very hard to go to work every day. I found out today my boss is looking for a new job. He just got promoted to manager about 3 months ago and he’s ready to get out because our VP is a jackass. He can’t take it any more either. It’s not worth the stress, it’s just a job after all.

I am seriously thinking of trying to get our entire group to strike. We are tech support. If we stop, everything stops. If a customer is down and no one helps them, no sales are made. It’s that simple. We aren’t better than anyone else, but we are an equal part of the whole equation. We can’t work without sales, sales can’t work without marketing, marketing can’t work without engineering, engineering can’t work without money, and there’s no money unless there are sales, supported by support, supported by marketing to make the right product decisions, supported by engineering to make a good product. They are all equal parts of the equation. One can’t work without the others.

Unfortunately, support is getting the shaft because our VP is not an advocate for our group. He is quick to side with sales over support or marketing over support. It can’t work that way. These departments NEED to butt heads. It’s a good thing so long as it’s done in a healthy way. Conflict is good because that’s the only way to get new ideas. The more ideas, the more discussion, the better the product or the process.

Ah well. I could go on for many, many chapters :)

Yes, I work for crappy companies

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:55:15 GMT

The owner/CEO and the former president of my last company were both just indicted on 6 counts of tax-evasion.

Comtrol founder faces tax-evasion counts
North Oaks businessman Robert Beale, 62, was indicted Thursday for allegedly cheating on his taxes, the U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis said. Beale, the founder and chief executive of Maple Grove-based Comtrol Corp., allegedly concealed $5.6 million in income from the Internal Revenue Service. The company's former president, Lee Stagni, 52, also was charged with helping Beale. Each man faces five counts of aiding and abetting tax evasion and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. They face up to five years in prison on each charge if convicted. Beale was arrested Wednesday and released, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Neither man could be reached for comment.

Possibly could each get 30 years. Why do rich people get so greedy after they are already rich?