The blog that's gotten one comment ever! Thanks mom!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

What an extrordinarily horrible day

My boss's boss's boss, and the project architect, are both visiting my offices at the moment. Yesterday, we had a big pep rally sort of meeting to plan out what comes next, all building on the success of part one of the project.

Then we discover that a bug we thought quashed had cropped up again. And we had to shut down the parts of the project that were live while we worked on a solution.

I'm the only QA person in the organization. It's on me that this issue got through, and it wouldn't be so bad if this had happened once. But we've turned this part on and off like four times now because of bugs I didn't catch.

All while my boss's boss's boss was watching.

I'm really starting to question my ability to do this job.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Didn't bring the jeep home yet

The picture above is still showing the top going on in progress. We finished it up on Sunday, but Janie didn't want to drive home separately, so my dad agreed to bring it to me on a trailer once I get the garage set up. I really need to go buy the wheel dollies and a floor jack!

Monday, October 27, 2008

The dreaded Red Ring o'Death!

Just in time for Halloween, that most dreaded of specters to haunt the Xbox 360 has paid me a visit. My 360 is just over one year old, so I'm at least patting myself on the back that I waited for Microsoft to extend the warranty for this issue to 3 years before I bought. Of course, this has happened at the worst possible moment for me in terms of games. I'm nearly done with Fable 2. Fallout 3 releases tonight at midnight. Gears of War 2 is out in early November. The most wonderful moments of the gaming calendar, and I'm left playing all the games for my Wii that I've bought and never played, cause, you know, there was a 360 sitting right next to it.

Monday, October 20, 2008

The jeep is almost here

Next weekend, Janie and I are going to visit my parents. With luck, the soft top my parents bought for it (thanks guys!) will be in as well, and dad and I can spend part of the weekend getting it installed. If we finish up, I may just drive it home. I've still got to clean up the garage this week, and find something like this in order to actually get things to fit. But man, am I looking forward to it.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Back from the in-laws.

Had a nice relaxing weekend with Janie's parents down in Trinidad. I ended up having to work Saturday morning and evening, but got to relax on Sunday, watching the Bears and Broncos lose.

On the way home, I had to make a bathroom pit stop. At the exit, I chose a McDonald's over a gas station, on the premise that the facilities might be less disgusting. It's dark out, and spitting cold rain, so I hurry from the parked car to the door of the restaurant. Just as I get there, a cruel, harpy of a manager appears, locks the door in my face, and tells me that they're closing, to use the drive through instead. I look at my watch. It's 8:37 PM. Who the hell closes at 8:37. I'm tempted to use the drive through and pee on the speaker, but of course decide to better spend the time finding a bathroom run by people who aren't crazy.

Friday, October 10, 2008

How not to get a laptop.

At work, I've got a perfectly fine little laptop as my primary system. Unfortunately, it bluescreens fairly regularly, and despite having 2 gigs of RAM, can't handle opening some of the huge files I've been working with at my job. These complaints worked their way up my organization, until I was told I could get a new system, a powerful workstation laptop with more RAM, a bigger screen, it would be glorious.

A few weeks go by, and I get an email from some one in my company I'd never talked to before. They ask how often I travel for work. I think to myself, 'oh, this must be about the laptop'. I glance at the from field, see something about Hank there, so I start the email, 'Hi Hank!'. I answer honestly, that I have not been asked to travel for work, but that I sometimes work from home, and that I carry my system home nightly in case I'm needed to address any after hours issues. I hit send.

A few emails later, I see an email from my boss's boss. He tells me not to respond to the first email, that he'll take care of it. Oh. I respond to him that I had already responded, and apologized.

A few emails later, Hank responds. Danielle Hanks. Danielle tells me that she doesn't think I need a new laptop, and that I'll get some more RAM for my current, Leapfrog of a laptop. Realizing I had called her Hank, I pretty much decide it's not worth fighting about.

To sum up, I advise you to at least glance at all the messages in your inbox before responding to the oldest. I also suggest you look carefully at the from field before addressing an email to someone you do not know. It might also help to not be doing three things at once while you're answering email.

Friday, October 3, 2008

One art please!

This is now hanging in my office above my desk. It's a print by Gabe of Penny Arcade (#42/200!) of Zangief, the presumably Russian wrestler of the Street Fighter universe. I loved Street Fighter 2, but my man was Guile, I never went for the big guy pictured here. But, as Gabe explained when answering why he chose Zangief as his subject, he is 'hilarious'. It needs better framing, but this'll do for now. I view this as an investment in happy. Bad day at work? A glance at Zangief's scary expression, and strangely manscaped chest, and I'm feeling better.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

32 years old

I still don't feel like I'm 'old' by any definition. I still act like a kid, that's for sure. I spent part of my morning placing new office decorations up. They're toys, given to me as a birthday present. Janie'll be at a conference for the rest of the week, and my plans in her absense? Eat junk food and play games until I can barely stand up.

Have you read my blog?