Another theme, YAY!

I did this image for Jessie, and I thought it turned out too cute not to use. My newest theme features Voodoo Vince and his nemesis, Kosmo the Inscrutable, from the XBox game Voodoo Vince.

It’s an adorable game, I’ve been hooked on it since I saw it on display at CompUseless, and bought it for me and Jessie to play. In this game, you play Vince, a voodoo doll trying to find and rescue his creator, Madame Charmaine, who’s been kidnapped by Kosmo and his brood of braindead lackies. This game features a slightly “altered” version of New Orleans as the backdrop, taking you from the French Quarter out onto the bayou.

In 3 words: It’s just cute. :mrgreen:

OMG, he lives!!!

I *finally* heard from my ‘brutha-man’ and long time best friend, Reggie. He was kind enough to send me an updated pic of him and his wife. Aren’t they sweet?!? :mrgreen:

Congrats, you fat loveable git. My mom will be so tickled to hear that you’ve finally settled down!

Hey Matt, now it’s YOUR TURN! :twisted:

Google me, baby!

Something that’s been on my “to do” list is to get a sitemap generated for Google. I figure it would help get my site indexed faster and/or more properly, as Google isn’t as kind to non-Permalinked WP installs (from what I’ve read). But that’s kind of a tedious task if you do it by hand … so I ran across this plugin: Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress. It took all of 5 seconds to install and run. Now I have my own Google Sitemap.

Sweeeeeeeeet!

Do I have “Kick Me” written across my backside?

I haven’t written about work that much recently, but today’s events are prompting me to sit and spew rather than pout and stew.

Quick catchup: remember that guy who was arrested and kept screwing up? Well, he’s STILL screwing up and he STILL has his job!!!

:shock:

What the Hell!?!?

I think he’s taunting the managers now because he’s outright refusing to do his job sometimes, and has been undermining his immediate supervisor … hell, until this afternoon he stopped speaking to her, said he didn’t recognize her “authority” over him. To make things worse, he threw a namby-pamby titty baby fit today by ripping a pc out of his desk and putting it in our warehouse to “prove a point.” Apparently he’s pissed off that the company won’t buy him *ANOTHER* new workstation (he has 2 already) and decided to shorten his hardware supply to make the need appear more dire.

I saw him carrying the monitor off to sit on the shelves with broken hardware and I’m screaming “Dude, what the hell are you doing?!?”

“Oh, uh … I’m just moving this paperweight”

“What?”

“Well, that machine is unusable, so I’m sitting it back here.”

“Gee, thanks for letting me know about it” (Translation: EXCUSE ME!?! We just put $800 worth of new crap in that freakin’ machine for you, asshole! You have a much nicer machine than I do, and I’m the friggin’ *DEVELOPER* here!!!) “Why didn’t you let me or Jim know about it?”

“Well, me and Jim had already talked about it … ” (lying bastard, I was there when you two talked about it and you said it was fine) ” … I think I talked to everyone about it, I just can’t use it.”

“Someone can use that machine, or we’ll gut it for parts. This should be in my department, not in here.”

(Our warehouse is always “open” … meaning it’s over 90 degrees and there’s always dust, bugs, and all kinds of things flying about in there! NOT a place for computers to sit opened!!!)

I suggest he take it to my department and he grumbles and bitches under his breath … which I hate, Jessie does that shit but I overlook it because she’s 7 … you’re freakin’ 45, dude!!! GROW THE FUCK UP!

Jesus, what does it take to get fired there?

Apparently, it’s not what you do, it’s who you piss off …

I was called into the owner’s office today. Not a good sign already. He began the conversation with “Can we talk, and keep it just between us?” … translation: this is about Jim. “Oh great” I thought to myself. I agree to it and he begins with “I’m thinking of laying Jim off.”

:shock:

I felt the blood drain from my face and arms. Knowing that I’m usually pretty transparent about my feelings, I shifted in my seat and said nothing. Ok, that’s a HUGE thing to keep from Jim.

He asked if I would leave if they did lay Jim off … uh HELLO!?! What’s the quickest way to piss Nicki off … mess with those she loves. Hello, McFly?

I told him that if that happened, I would have to find a better job elsewhere because both of us needed to be working full-time in order to meet financial obligations. Remind me: HOW was I supposed to NOT tell Jim about all of this? This can impact our household, we would need to make arrangements to be able to pay bills, buy food and other necessities … what the HELL!?!?

The bossman goes through his reasons as to why Jim should be laid off and me given a raise in lieu of taking over his duties, plus keeping my own current ones. The raise wasn’t THAT great. I expressed my concerns, and told him that my job alone is killing me and that I could not take on Jim’s duties as well as mine. Our department is a two-person job … period.

He then shifts to the multimedia department and the “problem child” there … I told him exactly what I thought of that situation. He basically put it as someone goes from that department, or from mine, but somebody HAD to go. The company was in a hole (we all knew that), and they are looking to get rid of an employee. And I haven’t exactly made it a secret as to who I think should be the one to go. *shrugs*

Of course, I told Jim about everything … he’s been out the last couple of days due to his illness, so it’s a good thing he wasn’t there today. I was ‘upset’ (to put it mildly) when I left the owner’s office this afternoon.

I’m pissed off that they are looking to shaft my husband, I’m even MORE pissed off that they have the gall to ask me not to tell him about it.

Fuck this bullshit, I need another job.

On a semi-related note, I had an interview a short while back with a large HMO in Birmingham, and I think the interview went pretty well. I should hear something in the next few weeks and hope to get a call back. If I get this job, it’s more money, better hours, WAY better benefits, and is closer to home. No downsides there.

Please, God, let me get this job.

My random thought for the day …

Have you ever wondered what bubble gum would look like if it weren’t colored?

:neutral:

Coppermine Gallery updated

I finally gave my gallery a much-needed update and even added a pretty background. :mrgreen:

Take a gander: http://www.nitallica.org/copper/

The bitch that is ‘Pneumonia’

I had heard on the news this morning when I got up that James Doohan had passed away, but didn’t know it was pneumonia that got him until I Googled his passing for an article to link to. Ironic, as it’s semi-related to this post.

Jim had been feeling under the weather off and on over the last couple of months. He’d be ok for a coupla weeks, then be out for a day or two, then be back up again … no biggie, right? Well, apparently he had been having really bad chest and side pains for the last half week or so. I didn’t know about it until Tuesday night on the way home, when he complained of being dizzy and being in extreme pain. In the early Wednesday hours he woke up in even more pain … I began to worry a little at this point.

We went by Baptist Health Systems, waited, talked to a nurse, waited some more, talked to his doctor, waited some more, had some x-rays taken, waited some more, then finally talked to the doctor again. It turns out that he has had “walking pneumonia” and his pain was caused by pleurisy.

She put Jim on some antibiotics and pain killers. What’s weird is that he’s probably had this for a while, and Jessie and I are pretty lucky that we haven’t caught it … or not from what I can tell. But then again, I did have a sinus infection a short time back and the antibiotics I was taking would have killed it plus my sinus infection.

Unfortunately this adventure ate up the whole day, so both of us were out of work yesterday, plus Jim was told to stay home one more day by the doctor. Yay, lucky me, I get to take his phone calls today, oh the joy. :roll:

heh, anyways … I’ve been having headaches from Hades again because of all these stupid storms. As much as I hate to say it, I wish it would quit raining so the barometric pressure would stay at one-freakin-level for a change!!!

Beam me up, Scotty … just one last time …

Pneumonia kills ‘Star Trek’ actor Doohan at 85

James Doohan, who played the engineer on the original cult “Star Trek” TV series and movies and inspired the catch phrase “Beam me up, Scotty,” left behind one final wish – to return to space.

Doohan, 85, told relatives before his death yesterday that he wanted his ashes blasted into space, where he would join the late “Star Trek” series creator Gene Roddenberry, whose remains were launched six years after his death in 1991.

“He’ll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful,” Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said.

Doohan died yesterday morning at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 31 years, Wende, at his side, Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, plans to send a few grams of Doohan’s ashes, along with 125 others, aboard a rocket later this year. The remains, which will be sealed in aluminum capsules, will be in orbit until they burn up upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. [more]

‘Bye, Scotty. :cry:

A very nice article and some pictures of Doohan can be found on StarTrek.com’s profile page.

Computer Frustrations

A friend of mine sent me this at work today. I swear, I feel like this everyday, LOL!!

Half-Blood Prince

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince early yesterday morning. In total, it took me about twelve hours to read, with of course, a few breaks and naps in between.

I won’t go into any specific details, as Jim is not yet finished reading his copy. I’ve had to keep my mouth shut since yesterday morning … not that it’s been hard. I came away from this book feeling exactly like I did when I saw Revenge of the Sith: DEPRESSED!

I think I cried non-stop through the last 3-4 chapters. (Ladies, prepare to have a box of tissues on hand!!) I mean, there were a lot of funny moments, and a few shorter tear-jerker moments early in the book, but the ending was … well, it was what I was hoping wouldn’t happen. (the cover art told me a lot before I started reading it)

Hell, my eyes are tearing up now just thinking about it. I think that’s the downside to being a fan, when a character dies that you’re attached to you feel a sense of loss — even if it’s just a fictional character, it was still someone to which you could identify and relate.

You Star Trek and Star Wars fans know *exactly* what I’m talking about!!!

Part of me wishes I hadn’t read this book, but I had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity since Order of the Phoenix and couldn’t stand it. I am a little concerned about the next book and how things will turn out in the very end. I also started thinking about the movie that’s scheduled to come out this fall, about the fourth book, Goblet of Fire. That book pretty much starts Harry’s “descent into darkness” (as I like to call it). GoF and each book after it show a more angst-ridden Harry who experiences everyone and everything turning against him. It’s going to be pretty hard to keep these next few movies “kid-friendly.” Reading Order of the Phoenix was hard, so I imagine watching the movie will be just as bad. (assuming of course it’s made)

But I digress … overall the book was very good. It answered a couple of questions I’ve had from the last couple of books, and confirmed something I figured would happen.

So now what? Now I’ll patiently wait the next couple of years for the next and final installment of the Harry Potter series and hope for the best.

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