Been a Long Time, Been a Long Time, Been a Long...

Whew! Seems like I've been off-line forever!

Mucho apologies for you fictional readers of this blog. I would normally post at least once in a week, but there have been extenuating circumstances lately, consisting of:

• Food Poisoning, which may have been a stomach virus, taking me out for 2 days
• Dead Computer, which had two on-site service calls and finally had to be sent back to Sony for repair, taking a week to return
• The Head Cold, which threatened to become strep throat, which I valiantly fought off for two days and now have forced back to the threat level of "Nuisance"
• And somewhere in there, there was Christmas and the festivities thereof

I may have mentioned that my family's version of Christmas is embarassingly extravagant. I will detail only the highlights of the Holiday Haul to illustrate:

Jason:

• Kitchen Aid Food Processor
• 4 appropriate for the office Shirts
• 3 appropriate for the office Pair of Slacks
• Stone Mortar and Pestle (for grinding fresh herbs)
• Computer Game (The Movies)
• Cast Iron Pot
• Waffle Iron
  
• 3 Books
• Calendar (with pics of my wife so I won't miss her so much when I'm at work)
• Bottle of Stoli Vanil Vodka
• Umbrella
• Money
  

Bernie:

• 2GB memory card for her camera
• Radar Detector (she doesn't appreciate it...yet)
• Gift card for the Glo Spa
• Hair Straightening Iron
• Jeans
• Blouse
• Pajamas from Victoria's Secret
• Desk Fountain
• Scrapbooking Kit
• Stepstool (for getting into bed)
  
• Money

Trust me, there was more, but these are only the highlights. We couldn't fit it all in my truck to get home. That's Christmas in my family. Everybody shops year-round for gifts and hoards them in secret until Dec 25. The result is a Christmas tree that looks like this:
Not that I'm complaining.

Since Christmas, I've been back to work. Bernie's been off all week. Is that fair?

Hopefully, now that I've paid off the Visa card (oy, vey!), we'll be able to start saving again so we can afford our trip to Malaysia later this summer.

Totally Exhausted

My company has asked that each corporate employee spend one working day in one of our stores during the Christmas rush. This helps out the stores that need help the most. Today was my day.

I spent the day condensing the Christmas merchandise on the shelves and filling in the blanks with new merchandise. Then I spent the afternoon getting boxes of toilet paper unloaded and on the shelf. (I suggested to the manager that since the store had so much TP that we could make a display of it in the front of the store with a sign saying "This year, give your kids something they can REALLY use.")

Anyway, this is the hardest day's work I've had in a looooooong time. I am so sore, it actually hurts to sit and type. All that bending and lifting wears you out. I must say that I enjoyed it, though I certainly wouldn't want to work that hard every day (for $7.50 an hour!). Thank God for a college education.

Bad Mood

I have caught a bad mood that I'm having a hard time shaking. Maybe it's a leftover from the food poisoning. I am grouchy and surly, and I am having to be very careful not to let it out on my family, who certainly don't deserve it.

Maybe I need to go out and get in a bar fight or something.

Why I haven't been posting much

Well, my computer is dying, and persists in dying despite two on-site service calls. The darn thing keeps rebooting after a few minutes. Sony has replaced the power supply and the motherboard, and it stubbornly persists in continuing to reboot. Now I have to pack the thing up and send it to the repair depot and I won't see it again until after Christmas.

And the news of the day is that I had a bout of food poisoning last night and am still sweating and shivering today. Hopefully, I'll recover to go to work tomorrow. It's been a long week.

Stream of Consciousness

Sometimes, I get a brainwave with a nice piece of philosophy.

Ever wonder why people get depressed when they are in college? It's the sudden realization that a gap is opening between the way you want your life to be, and how it really is - and that the gap is getting bigger every day.

You don't realize it until this point in your life because up until then, you don't have the freedom to really steer your life off course. Suddenly, the road you are on has no lane markers and very little signage, and you don't have a map. You can either decide to explore your new horizons and end up off course, or you can lock the steering wheel straight ahead, get where you're going, and miss out on all the fun in the process. As we get older, we learn to navigate better (or get used to being lost).

***

I haven't given a work update in a while. My new job is still fun and interesting. I don't dread getting up in the morning any more. The days fly by quite quickly now, and I think I'm bringing a lot to the team.

Every day I realize how bad my previous job was, with the CEO slinking around looking for people to criticize, an absentee boss, total jerks for co-workers, etc etc. I work with genuinely nice people now, and I don't fear for my job every day like I used to. I think for the last 5 years, I have lived in constant fear of losing my job (at IBM, at Arcatech, and at my previous employer). Not any more. And without that constant fear, I can be myself and do what I do best - be creative and think outside the box.

I've got love, I've got financial security, I've got ambition. Now I just need to do something about my fat body, and life will be perfect.

(sound of frantic knocking on wood)

On My Own...

Well, I'm all alone this week. Mama, Papa, Bernie, and my Mom and Dad are all living it up in Williamsburg, Va this week, and poor, vacation-less me had to stay home.

So, I'm a bachelor again. You know, this seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think I've gotten used to being married. I've never been alone in this house before, and I've gotten used to having a whole family around since Mama and Papa arrived back in October. At least I've got the cat.

To top it off, my computer has been acting up - rebooting itself, thowing dll errors on startup, etc. I couldn't figure out whether it was hardware or software, so I restored it back to October 31, and still had problems. So I did a complete factory restore. Still had problems. So I called Sony and told them it had to be hardware and they are coming on-site to replace the power supply.

Of course, as soon as the computer heard that, it decided to straighten up and fly right. Don't tell me that computers aren't intelligent and emotional. This one got well as soon as it heard that surgery was in the works. I don't care, though. The power supply is going to be replaced just as a precaution.

Now I have to decide whether to watch Heroes or the Panthers tonight. If I watch the Panthers, Heroes gets DVRed. If I watch Heroes, I join the Panthers at halftime. Hmmm...decisions, decisions.

Update on the Imams

The Washington Times has this article today.

These guys need to spend some time in jail.

1. They were SHOUTING their prayers in the concourse.

2. They shunned their assigned seats and one of them sat at each of the exits of the plane (TERRORIST-LIKE BEHAVIOR), including two of them in first class, which they did not have tickets for.

3. All 6 asked for seatbelt extenders, despite not needing them, and they placed the extenders on the floor at their feet instead of buckling them. (TERRORIST-LIKE BEHAVIOR)

4. Then they refused to explain or get off the plane when directed.

Put 'em all in prison or ship them off to the Middle East. This was a planned, deliberate, and possibly a real terror operation. Even if they were doing this simply to provoke a fearful response, I consider that to be terrorism as well.

If Only We Could Draft An Australian for US President

I stumbled upon this article on the web today. Gosh, if only we had such sensible people in US politics, with the guts to stand up and say these sort of things. What a shame that sensible attitudes regarding Islam and immigration seem to only exist in Australia.

Some exerpts:

On Islamic law being practiced inside democratic countries:
Peter Costello: "What I've said is that this is a country, which is founded on a democracy. According to our Constitution, we have a secular state. Our laws are made by the Australian Parliament. If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you. This is not the kind of country where you would feel comfortable if you were opposed to democracy, parliamentary law, independent courts and so I would say to people who don't feel comfortable with those values there might be other countries where they'd feel more comfortable with their own values or beliefs."

On whether Iraq is the cause of the anti-America attitude in the Arab world:
TONY JONES: Right. Given that the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq is probably the leading cause of anti-Americanism in the Arab world, does that make us, as an ally of the Americans, a greater target for terrorists?

PETER COSTELLO: I don't think it's the principle cause at all. I think if you want to look for perceived areas of anti-Americanism in the Arab world, it was around a lot before Iraq. It's been around for a very long time, Tony, and most of it, I believe -

TONY JONES: I'm talking about what's happening right now. We're seeing it even in the lead-up to the Islamic summit we've been having in Canberra. What we are hearing is young Australian Muslims are particularly angry with the
American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

PETER COSTELLO: No, I couldn't disagree with you more profoundly. There was substantial hostility to the US in the Arab world long before Iraq. Whether it's over perceived injustices to Islam, whether it's over the Palestinian issue, whether it's over support for Israel. Most of these things, and I don't believe justify hostility at all, but it's been there long before Iraq. Let me tell you this, Tony - you are profoundly wrong if you thought hostility to the United States started in 2003. It was around long before that.

I was also led to this article, which has quotes from Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

John Howard:
"Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. I'm tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia. However there are a few things that those who have come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of Australia being a multi-cultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our language, and our own lifestyle.

"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

"We speak ENGLISH; not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!

"We will accept your beliefs; all we ask is that you accept ours and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means, keep your culture, but do not force it on others."

Man, do I wish we had politicians like these guys here in the USA.

Then you hear about things happening in the US like this.

6 Muslim Imams on a commercial flight, decide to kneel in front of the gate and chant in Arabic before takeoff. What did they think was going to happen, I wonder? I don't care if it was that time of day, have some common sense! There are prayer rooms in the terminal for that! Even in Muslim countries, they don't pray in the terminal at the airport. And furthermore, they have the unmitigated gall to blame the rest of the passengers and the airline for "ignorance of Islam". Hey, dudes, maybe you should think about how ignorant you are of other beliefs. I call this a total lack of respect for others. Would you want to be on a plane with these guys after seeing them have a group chant to Allah outside the gate before takeoff? This was either complete and total ignorance on the part of the Imams, or it was a premeditated attempt to provoke an incident.

Hey, Imams - the guys who hijacked the airliners and crashed them into the WTC, the guys who blow themselves up in Iraq killing hundreds of innocent people at a time, the people who talk about "wiping Israel off the map", the people in Pakistan that sentence women to be raped because of some imagined insult by their families, they are praying to the exact same god that you do and using the exact same book you worship to justify their deeds. Some of them proudly call themselves "Imams" as well. Don't go around pointing fingers at other faiths and belief systems and accusing us of "ignorance", OK?

There's a saying from the Christian Bible:
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Have A Nice Day!

23-9

Not Much To Say

Well, folks, we made it back from the beach OK. Charleston was disappointing, Myrtle Beach was nice. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium and I thought it was a solid B+.

Butch belongs to the Tar Heels, and the clown in Raleigh is shaking in his red booties.

I'm going to have to diet until Thanksgiving. I can't stand myself at the moment.

We're having dinner with the LeFebvres (Sophie's folks - and I hope I'm spelling that right) this weekend and I'm quite excited about it.

That's all for now. Maybe later I'll have more to say.

Butch Davis to UNC!!!

You heard it here first...

So, How's It Going, You Ask?

This is a great week. The new job is everything I could have asked for. I keep remarking how it feels like IBM used to back when IBM was good, and that was very good indeed.

The first day, after a 1/2 day of boring orientation, I met with my manager and she took me to my cubicle. She had personally ordered and stocked my desk with office supplies, and cleaned it herself on Friday evening. A brand new Thinkpad with a docking station was installed and working, with all the applications I need already installed. She had already requested all the passwords I would need (only half of them were processed by Monday, but that's certainly not her fault!) I had a nice new office chair, and my phone had the instructions for setting up voice mail taped in front of it. She had printed out my ID's and passwords and handed them to me personally.

This company uses the "buddy system" for new hires. The Senior Business Analyst was my buddy and she had prepared a binder for me with business processes, all the current requirements that the team was working on, org charts, maps of the building...just about everything I needed to know.

This company is VERY strict about use of their IT assets. NO NON-BUSINESS USE INTERNET! And their IT team is actually competent because there's no way around it. If you try a non-approved web site, it's blocked. If you try an approved site outside of the firewall, you get 10 minutes on a timer before it starts tracking you. Chat clients are blocked. No goofing off.

Now, the above might have been a bad thing for me in the past. My previous jobs have sometimes had the work run dry, leaving me with not much to do on occasion. Well, the good thing here is that there is a great deal of work to do, all of it interesting, and the day seems to pass quite quickly. I don't mind getting up in the morning (much) any more.

Now that I'm no longer employed by my previous employer, I have to say that the worst part of working there was the people. I swear, there weren't three people working there that I would have spit on to put them out if they were on fire. Arrogant, abrasive, unhelpful snobs, every one of them with very few exceptions. All of them were indispensible because of their knowledge and experience, and they were very jealous of it and wouldn't spend a moment trying to teach you anything. I spent two years there and never found anyone I wanted to go to lunch with. Until this week, I didn't realize how that experience completely drained me every day. I don't know how I put up with it for so long.

Anyhow, I've already executed a test script, uncovered some bugs in the code, rewritten the same test script, and documented the business process that takes the requirements from concept to production with a Visio flow. Once I get access to some SQL databases, I should be full speed ahead.

Did I mention that I like my boss?

Starting the New Job!

Tomorrow, the new job begins. Orientation early in the morning, followed by HR paperwork, then "getting to know" the new department! I have to dress fairly nice, which is a big change from the slob company I just left. I'm sure wearing true business casual clothing will chafe a bit after the jeans and t-shirts I've gotten used to. This is going to be like IBM was before IBM decided to let the PC division rot on the vine and drown in its own filth. People taking pride in making changes for the better, I mean.

I'm excited. I'm going to knock them dead. They're going to want me to run the company in less than a month. I'm gonna be a STAR, baby!

Update On The Stealing Thing

Grrrr...It doesn't go on my Dad's car insurance policy. It goes on my Homeowner's policy, which has a $500 deductible. So these scumbags cost me 500 bucks. Makes me want to go back and kick some carnie butt, is what it makes me want to do. (The NC State police officer says it was almost certainly done by carnival people)

The best revenge will be that I will probably see $300 after the deductible, and I'm planning on replacing the camera on the Friday after Thanksgiving with something better that will probably be on sale.

Quick Update On The Big Weekend

We're back home for a quick nap before heading to the mountains for 3 days. We went to Raleigh and Chapel Hill this weekend and stayed overnight on Saturday to go to the State Fair. We had a great time, but someone broke into my parents' van while we were there and took my Dad's new Q phone, my Zen MP3 player, and my video camera. We got a police report, and I guess insurance will cover most of the loss. They rifled through my Mom's purse but declined to take the credit cards in there, choosing to take the quick score of electronics. We gave all the serial numbers to the police, and Dad got the phone turned off by Verizon.

Here's a strange coincidence - Bernie left her purse at my Parents' house and was complaining about it most of the weekend. If she had remembered to bring it, it almost certainly would have been left in the car and stolen. Sometimes fate works in mysterious ways.

Last Day On The Job!

Well, tomorrow (technically today, since it's after midnight) is my last day at my job. Today, I sent the customers the "I'm leaving" email, and I immediately realized that was a bad idea, the result being akin to saying "Well, we're about out of time, are there any more questions?" EMAIL FLOOD! Lots of "Wait, before you leave, can you do this?" emails.

Anyways, nothing serious. The boss took me and the department to lunch and we had a good time. I don't expect to spend too much time there Friday, probably just handing in my badge and going home. I'm grateful to them for giving me a job when I needed it, but I won't miss the constant stress one bit. I'm off to a better job where I won't have customers calling me. What I'm really looking forward to, however, is the WEEK OFF.

Bliss. Sheer bliss.

The Weekend Events

Whew! I feel like I spent the entire weekend at a party! Friday night we had the family over for take-out fish, then Saturday, we went to the flea market and to the Asian Corner Mall to pick up some things.

Saturday night we went to Oktoberfest at the Waldhorn Restaurant and had dinner in the restaurant, then went outside to the beerhall and danced and partied until late. Papa Lau got a slice of black forest cake with a candle because his birthday was on Sunday. The waitresses and the accordian player came over to sing to him after dinner. Mama Lau danced quite a bit and had the best time of all of us, I think. The band was very good. Maybe next year I'll get my Raleigh friends to come and do this with me.

Sunday, the family went to church, but I stayed home to child-proof the house and make lunch, since I didn't want to miss any of the Panthers' game at 1pm. After the game, the family came over again and we celebrated Papa Lau's birthday again with cake, pie and pizza. Bernie got her "kid fix" with the nephews, who had a great time. We all collapsed afterwards and only Bernie still had the energy to stay up until 11pm. I was in bed and nearly asleep.

Tonight, I have to watch last week's Heroes before it comes on again for this week's episode. I may have to start watching this show on Friday nights when Sci-Fi channel replays it and be 4 days behind everyone else.

Strange Dreams

Two nights ago, we opened the windows in the house. The influx of oxygen has given me strange dreams both nights. Last night's took the cake, I must say.

I started out attending a parade on a college campus. As the parade rode by, some guy in a convertible pulled out a gun and fired a shot into the crowd and drove off. I saw it and told a policeman and gave a description of the man and the gun (a 44 Ruger, black). I turned the corner from the cop and somehow ended up in the basement of one of the buildings.

I came face to face with a homicidal maniac that looked like Pin Gillette, only 8 feet tall, 400 lbs, wild hair, unshaven, wearing overalls - kinda like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you know? He chased me around the basement of this large building with some sort of weapon. I grabbed some sort of garden tool and hid and snuck up on him and hit him (You know how you can never actually hit someone hard in a dream, everything being sort of slow motion?) and ran away.

OK, well somehow, I ended back up in the basement again, only this time I had my friends from high school with me. Ed, Brendan, Jeff, Bert, and Dave. The maniac came after us and we all grabbed shovels, axes, picks, etc and scattered. A long melee and chase followed and after I hit the guy twice in the head with an axe, causing very little damage, Jeff managed the telling blow with a pick. It took two more whacks with the pick to kill the guy. (Again, this being a dream, there wasn't any blood or gore - his head was empty).

Congrats to Jeff! Now somebody tell me what this means.

They Have Arrived!

Bernie's parents got here safe and sound this morning. We got up at 4:30 to get to the airport at 5:45 because I knew the red-eye from LAX always arrives early. It did (6:12am scheduled, arrived at 5:54), and there were apparently less than 20 people on board. We got out of the airport at 6:30 and took them straight to Waffle House (best to get them acclimated to grease right away). Dad and I had to go to work, so I missed the initial reactions to our house and lifestyle.

I've checked with Bernie and her Dad is asleep (they've been awake for all but 3 hours in the last 48) and her Mom can't manage to sleep, so is watching TV.

Poor Bernie was soooooo stressed out, but now she can relax.

Sunday

• Made breakfast
  
• Both cars vacuumed
• Shopped at Aldi for groceries (LOTS of Dutch and German people there)
• Bought more plants from a local nursery (banana tree and elephant ears)
• Lunch
• Panthers game
• Garage parking ball hung up
• Pot rack put away
• Kitchen ceiling sanded and painted
• Stop sign removed from front yard and planted in a place any person with an IQ over 50 would have chosen

Just need to clean the kitchen and vacuum the house and I think we're all ready for Bernie's parents!