Other things

It didn’t hit me until just now that I hadn’t posted in a week. Things have been busy … well, things are always busy, but I honestly haven’t had much time to stop and catch my breath lately, much less post a few thoughts.

At work last week, the owner of the company stated that he wanted us to start accounting for our time, and give him daily production reports. The last time we all had to do this, they were preparing to fire someone … gee, wonder if anyone else has caught on to this? :roll:

I’m too tired to care anymore. And for all I know, they could be getting rid of me and/or Jim. We aren’t exactly winning any popularity contests recently. Apparently I have made a name for myself as a “self-righteous self-absorbed anal-retentive bitch” (a direct quote from one of my co-workers). It seems that I’ve made so many “friends” by speaking up at the employee meetings, voicing complaints and concerns, and standing up for my department.

This astounds me. I don’t complain about my workload. I don’t complain about not having the equipment I need to more effectively do my job. I don’t complain about being short-handed. I don’t take 10 30-minute smoke breaks every day. Hell, I even help the office man the phones when they’re short handed, or all busy. I pull my weight, I get the job done, and I don’t bitch about it. The only time you’ll hear me bitch is when there is a real problem. And usually when I am bitching, I have at least once suggestion on how to take care of the problem, or my opinion on how to make things better.

Since when is that a bad thing? :shock: Oh wait, I forgot … “any chimp can be hired to do this job” (a direct quote from the office manager a year or so ago about my department).

I don’t play games every afternoon as soon as the owner leaves. I don’t sit and surf the internet for 3 or more hours a day. Yeah, I check my emails and I blog, but I do it on my lunch/break. (I don’t smoke, I blog! hehe) During downtime, I research new software, scripts, etc.; perform software upgrades; look for things to improve our routines and workflow. (and technically upgrading my blog counted this/last month because a client wanted it done on his, so I tested mine first!)

Show me a chimp who can do that … oh wait, that’s right, that’s me.

*sigh* I need another job.

I need a vacation

It’s rainy out today, and sort of matching my mood. I’ve been really unhappy lately. I can’t pin it down to just one thing, there has been a myriad of things bothering me lately, but it’s been building … and I stand before what could be considered a crossroads due to a culmination of events over the past few years.

I hate my job. I’m sick of living paycheck to paycheck. Sure, the benefits are ok, and I know that I am lucky to have a job in this field (because I know so many who are still unemployed), but as I’ve said before: the Birmingham IT market is a proverbial black hole.

Sure, a *few* more people are hiring now than 2 years ago, but can I really wait another 2 years, 3 years, or longer, just to finally find a job that I enjoy and where the employer’s business practices aren’t quite so “shady”? (Can we say ‘Scrushy’ boys and girls? *shudder*)

But I digress …

It’s not only the job thing getting me down. My allergies are getting worse, despite the wonderful treatment of my doctors. I’m fucking miserable. I’m tired of not being able to breathe, tired of sneezing and itching, wanting to claw my eyes out, the red whelps on my face, neck, and arms because I’m allergic to every particle floating around in the air right now. I feel like I need one of those face masks whenever I walk outside, LOL.

Jim knows I’m unhappy. Bless his heart, he’s making the best of things, and tries to keep me happy. (and does a damned good job, God love him) I know he’s unhappy. He is just as miserable with his job, if not more.

We’ve been talking about moving out of state — Jacksonville, Florida to be exact. For better job opportunities, for my health, to get a change of scenery, make a fresh start. I started thinking of the things that keep me tied down here. My family and my house … the house can be sold, and I will always have my family, no matter where I am.

Last night I had to get out for a bit to get some air and just get away from everyone (we had spent the day with Jim’s mom), and I sat out in the dark listening to one of my favorite sounds and remembered why I liked it here: summertime in the south. I could hear the songs of the same tree frogs and bullfrogs Jeremy and I used to catch and keep as pets. The crickets were chirping all around me. I used to catch those to feed the frogs and some of our fish. Every once in a while I’d hear an barn owl screech (one lives near our house).

The Gardendale community is a bird sanctuary, so everybody and their brother has bird feeders and houses out for them. Every morning I can look out my window and see cardinals, blue jays, mockingbirds, finches, etc. Jessie has always enjoyed sitting out food and treats for them. (although we’ve stopped because the newest neighborhood cat has learned where the feeder was and was killing them when they came to feed … combination bird-feeder/cat-feeder! LOL)

Again, I digress …

This place has always been my home. And in a way, I’m a little sad because I know that if we are going to have a better life, we’ve gotta go somewhere else … but I *HATE* Florida for the most part. The weather: I mean I’m terrified of tornadoes, and they have freakin’ Hurricanes!!!! Plus there’s the tourists, and they have no mountains, the roadways are set up weird (no passing lane!?!?!), and then there’s the tourists, … And I would be missing college football season like a mofo! (Roll Tide *pout*)

On the other hand, both Jim and I have family down there, the job market is better. The one thing I worry about most is finding a place we can afford that’s not too close to the city, but not too far from where we’ll be working. Also, there’s Jessie and the issue of finding a school for her. She’s going to a wonderful school now, and as much as I’d love to be able to send her to a private school down there, I know we are not going to be able to afford it.

Anyways … nothing’s definite, we’re only talking about it. But Jim has been saying since I met him that he wanted to move back to Jacksonville someday. And right now, that is looking better than staying here.

If anything, sitting outside for a bit last night reminded me of something else: I hate cities! What can I say, I’m a country girl at heart. *sigh*

Ooooh, Spell-checky thingy!

After playing around with a couple of spell-check-type plugins for WordPress, the bright idea hits me to find one for Firefox instead. (Honestly, I should’ve thought of this sooner … senility I tell you!)

I remembered seeing a post on Extensionsmirror.nl about a plugin that would spell check textarea and input values.

It took a short bit of work to get installed and properly configured. (Had to use the install wizard on the site in the end because I guess I screwed up the manuall install somehow … oh well, whatever works!) And now I can spell check my posts BEFORE submitting them.

Where’d my weekend go?

Friday was an emotional roller coaster ride … or was/is that my PMS?

Well anyways … I got my check Friday, and surprise surprise! (well, not really) I was shorted a few hours AND my overtime was not time and a half pay. For a while I had not been claiming all of my time if it was little insignificant stuff like research, routine server maintenance, quick fixes, etc. all stuff done from home. That stops now. I’m tired of being nice and getting the ole ramrod routine for it.

Don’t get me wrong … these people are nice, and they are very flexible (usually) when it comes to needing time off for Jessie’s school things, and stuff like that. But when it comes to getting paid: if you’re not in the family, good luck. :roll:

On to other things … we caught Episode III: Revenge of the Sith at the Amstar in Alabaster. Pretty good, but I couldn’t help but feel DEPRESSED when leaving the theater.

Wait, I already posted on this … I swear I’m going senile …

Let’s see … Saturday I had a “mega headache from Hades” so I didn’t do a whole lot. Jessie came over late that afternoon and Jim went off with some friends, so Jessie and I vegged out on the couch and watched movies.

She had been invited to a birthday party held yesterday for one of her classmates … at Chuck E. Cheese. My GOD the amount of kids there!! LOL It was a madhouse. I honestly don’t see how anyone working there manages to keep their sanity, but the staff were very helpful and the lady who held the party said that C.E.C. did everything for her: setting the table, getting drinks, passing out kids’ tokens & prizes, getting food & cake, etc. I was really impressed. We had been thinking about doing something similar for Jessie for her birthday … after all, that’s *only* her favorite place on the planet.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm … I smell hamburgers! (We’re having a “company bonding” day here at work, the owners are grilling hamburgers for everyone.)

*grins* I grossed out the Sales manager by walking in and inspecting the hamburgers and said “Oh YUM! Charred animal carcasses!”

(hehehehe, some people are just too fun to leave alone.)

Boga

I had wanted to link to a picture of her, but couldn’t find one that was as pretty as the one in the movie. I had managed to catch a snapshot of one of the flash e-cards on StarWars.com:

End of a saga …

Oh boy, what a day … Jim and I saw Episode III: Revenge of the Sith this afternoon. Gawd, I cried my eyes out during this one!

Not a bad movie overall, but it was lacking in several places. For instance: George, where the hell is the Great Wookie Battle you promised???? tsk tsk tsk …

I hope the DVD has some deleted scenes on it when it comes out, because there was a LOT of the book that was left out.

Anyways, it was pouring when we left the theater, and seeing as how the rain was headed North with us, we stopped by Wal-mart and I picked up a new toy to “guard” my desk: Boga, the feathered lizard-like creature. She’s so cute!!!

Jim’s ex has Jessie tonight, so I’m going to spend most of the night screwing up … I mean … enhancing to my blog. I also plan to work on one of my hobby sites that I have converted to a blog/cms format. (no more hard-coding, yay!)

Jim’s mentioned having Burger King again for dinner … we’re collecting the Star Wars toys that you can get there. The problem, of course, is convincing the BK employee to take a moment to give 4 *different* toys rather than grabbing a handful of the same ones.

I mean, they don’t HAVE to take the time and effort to give me different toys … but it’s one of those little things that only takes a few seconds and ensures that I will come back to that particular BK rather than the one closer to my home or work.

… that, and I have 8 Luke Skywalkers, 3 Carbonite-encased Han Solos, and 6 Wickets … I want a Darth Maul, Boba Fett, or Yoda dammit!!!! ;P

May the Force be with you.

Yay, bios upgrade!

Ok, a new chip, some more RAM, and a Bios upgrade later, my machine decided to stop chewing on its ass and behave.

I now have an XP 2500+ and a gig of PC2700 DDR. Not a huge upgrade, but it’s a sweet ‘n short trip to tide me over until I can get one of the new Athlon 64’s and a new mobo. mmmmmmmmmm …. hardware … *drools*

WordPress Upgraded

We had a coupla hours of downtime today at work, so I decided it would be a good time to upgrade my blog. (considering my machine at home decided to try to eat itself last night *sigh*)

I’m now up to the current WP 1.5.1. Although I’m a little disappointed to find that a couple of my plugins have either not yet been updated, or are not working as they should be. Oh well, all in all it was pretty painless this time. Although one of my hacks I had apparently forgotten to document and spent 45 minutes tracking down. (oops!)

Jim and I have made plans to go see Revenge of the Sith tomorrow. I’m so excited, I can’t wait! (To those of you who’ve already seen it: show some consideration and keep your comments to yourself until after I’ve seen it too, please! Episode II was ruined for me because a ‘friend’ couldn’t keep his fat mouth shut and yapped on and on for over an hour, even after I had asked him NOT TO! *grrrr*)

I’m still a little angry that I couldn’t take off today, but I’ll get over it. I’ve been distracted anyways, today’s been a crazy day.

One big ‘to-do’ going on today is that the dude who was arrested the other day is apparently being allowed to keep his job. :shock:

That’s fucked up.

Again, I like the guy … but this is going to come back and bite the company in the ass some day. I just hope it’s *after* I’m gone!

Like the lines around my blog …

… my hopes were dashed …

Just got the word from my boss that Jim and I aren’t allowed to take tomorrow off.

EDIT: OK, now that I’ve sat here and chomped and stewed on it for a bit, this really sucks! Jim and I have given up almost an entire week to this company for that stupid server crap, and they can’t give us one friggin’ day off!??! That’s bullshit.

We are always on call for these people. We have the longest commute of anyone in the company, but I have never complained or asked for compensation (not that I’d get any anyways). We remote in and fix systems from home at night and on the weekends.

One of the biggest gripes I *HAVE* had about this job that any overtime that is not earned on the company premises does not get time and a half’s pay. They’ve ALWAYS been like that. And until this past year, it was ILLEGAL. But I never once complained.

All I asked was for ONE FUCKING DAY OFF so I could watch my stupid movie and be a happy little geek, but Nooooooooooooooo they can’t have both of us gone at the same time so soon after the server’s meltdown and that guy in the department next door being arrested.

I hate this job. I like what I do, but I hate this job and this company.

And moving out of Alabama is starting to look better and better every damned day.

It’s 9 o’clock … do you know where your chocolate is?

… ‘cuz I sure as hell don’t … *sigh*

The webserver at work is still freaking out, and I swear Jim hasn’t slept since it decided to go on a mental walkabout last week. I’ve spent the last two days returning phone calls to people who are too stupid to realize that having no webserver means having no email either and that they should STOP TRYING TO SEND FREAKIN’ EMAILS!

The calendar on my desk says it’s Tuesday, but I swear it’s Monday. It’s a conspiracy I tell you!

We had a new crisis happen at work, a guy in the multimedia department was hauled off by the cops just before lunch. He’s not what I would call a close friend or anything, but his department and mine meet once a week for a friendly lunch at a favorite Mexican joint in Alabaster.

We were all called in to the owner’s office for an “emergency meeting” regarding this person and his position. Apparently he was busted for selling pot. :shock: It’s funny, he struck me as the type who most likely smoked, but never one who DEALT IT! ??:

Everyone’s acting so shocked about the matter, but when I brought up the fact that he plays Steel Panthers: World at War every day (nearly all day!) and generally slacks about, suddenly I’m the cold-hearted bitch who’s “kicking him under the bus.” Nevermind the fact that he bitched in meetings about not having time to finish his work, yet he had time to goof off every day (and apparently on weekends too!), and play computer games on the company workstations.

I’m not completely heartless. I feel bad for the guy. I like him, he was pretty cool to hang around with in general. We shared similar tastes in music and movies. He and Jim got along great. But I hated working with the guy because he was a slacker, and even when he *did* work, I would have to go behind him and re-do a lot of his work. I have a hard enough time doing MY job, much less mine and someone else’s!

On a completely pointless and obscure note, I got a little pissed off earlier. Something that I had shared in confidence some time ago (with a coupla parties whom I had trusted) had apparently been leaked and was posted in a public forum. I know exactly what I told and to whom, and no one is copping up to it. Maybe I overreacted to it. I had mod status on said forum and had the thread deleted. This pissed the forum owner off.

I’m on a roll, let’s see who else I can piss off …

Getting back to the work thing … it’s looking like we will not get Thursday off. Now that the multimedia department is short … actually, “short” doesn’t even cover it … I like “detrimentally truncated” … anyways, they are now in deeper shit than they were before, so guess whose department now needs to come to the rescue?

It ain’t Superman that’s for damned sure …

I’m tired, I’m cranky, I’m PMS’ing, … and I’m OUT OF CHOCOLATE!

… and there’s a Dairy Queen 10 minutes from me. Can you say large M&M Blizzard with extra M&M’s, hot fudge, reese’s, and made with chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla?

Yeah, me too.

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