WangNet

You hit 200,000 miles on 156th and Maple yesterday circa three minutes before 8pm. Congrats on the achievement.

A lame day was followed by a fun fire pit hang out at Anders' and Emily's place. All was going well except Head decided that the party wasn't going his way and threw a fit. He got his laptop, played his Michael Jackson CD, and became sullen. He was barking at The D' and making irrational demands. There was terse discussions that lead to the all too familiar party-buzz-kill from those talks. He wanted to pick a fight and I am certain he probably did before the night was out.

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A user was causing all sorts of ruckus yesterday in our exception log. I noticed one of her issues was she couldn't open a screen and tried from every conceivable other screen to open it. No such luck - a null value constraint where table A has a foreign key constraint on table B.... suddenly table A has data deleted but fails to mark the rows in table B.. so when the data is reloaded B can't match up to rows in A and hell breaks loose.

I had support give her a jingle (I can't call her directly - protocol!) and she comes back with "Nope.. everything is hunky dory here!". I could only say "LIAR! Your pants are surely on fire!". I go down to support and explain (and show them) what's up - waving off her other questions to them about deleting something out of this system or another and press upon them that she can't access part of the system and we need her to cop to that so we can put a request in to have me data fix it.

Sheesh.

What does it take for a man to HELP his customers/users before he throws his hands up and say "damn if I didn't warn ya!".

I was in a good flow of traffic today. I am attempting to correct my start and end times at work - no longer will I be late night support for CB so thus it makes little sense to start work later. This is going to suck. I mean the amount of wasted time in traffic at say 7.30 versus 8.10 is amazing.

(ir)Regardless of happy-morning-whee-I-got-sleep mood I get to work to find three more projects having problems due to Sticks' bungled procedure move two days ago. *sigh*

Sticks attempts to explain this is a different issue... then we worm out the truth that this was fallout from his procedure he 'fixed' for the move. I sigh again. Louder. We do a quick search and see there might be a few other projects that have this problem in the future, and so Mark and I ask Sticks if he preemptively fixes those will it not screw up their data? His response "I don't know... probably not... I really don't know what's going on in the conversion".

Ah.. what?

Ten minutes of more hyped up discussion around those comments we came out more annoyed at Sticks and how he can't know something he's been billing time to FIXING... grrr...

I should just get a new job somewhere else and run away.

Deals.Woot.com has a special alleging "$329 -- St. Thomas 4-Star Marriott Vacation w/Air, $400 OFF".

More like 5 nights (with flight) for $1129.00 per person. Hmm.... no food or transportation there.. plus baggage fees... Hmm.. that could be do-able..

Screw savings accounts.

Falloutboy refused to believe Sticks would come and ply him for answers to why three projects error'd out. Well - at least not today... maybe tomorrow. No way Jose! After lunch the Thermian sashayed over to FOB and there was a tense conversation. Eventually the Sticks left, wanted back to his desk, and I heard him report to Mark (but not to me) that he was finished and the projects converted. That might a land speed record for the guy. Let's hope he didn't bungle this one as well.

On a mild note after reporting up the chain of command how the move went well sans Sticks' obvious failure we both (Sticks and I) received an "atta boy". Great.

Off to learn sharepoint development!

FMJ some days...

Thanks Sticks.. you once again remind us how worthless you are. Case in point - the move went well last night... except for the emails this morning about some conversion process failing.

Falloutboy was getting the emails and he looked into. Sticks changed a condition that said 'select all these things in this table for this project and period.. if it equals one then delete crap'. Ah.. wait a minute. It's a given that table will have more than one and we need to delete if it's greater than one.. so a simple "if crap exists in this table for this project and period delete it". One can't pass a condition if you have 50 things and are checking if 50=1. Fucking fuckity fuck fuck.

Now off to "appraise" my current boss of what's up... make the correction to the procedure... and roll back to the old one.

I am on the conference call for the last move of Control Budget. I am confident it will be fine, but alas this marks an end of an era. I mean three and a half years on this thing and in a few weeks it will be handed off to the Indians and poof... it's gone. Relief and a cat like sense of purring pleasure for a job done as well as it could (given the adversity needed to over come) but a sense of confusion and loss at what to do now? Design work for a fake project so DK and prove something to someone and maybe keep us developing? Do I quit and find a new job? Do I try and move to a different team?

I think I will miss the autonomy and leadership position (and powers) the most. I was someone forging my own destiny and getting it done my way. Oh fuck I quoted Frank Sinatra. This isn't a good sign.

I was able to secure three bags of crap (well technically one bag and at minimum three craps) from woot.com's wootoff at 4.15pm today! I don't think I have anything left from the last BOC - which I got 11/17/06. Hurray for me!

I got an email from CSG telling me I won't be getting the c# dev job. I probably nailed the coffin when they figured out I was moving towards a more leadership role than a route code monkey. Cest la Vie... now I am playing internal politics to find out where I should be moving towards here.

I couldn't get back to sleep until about 5.30a or so.. Was mildly hallucinating that I could feel the Benadryl working. Finally got to sleep.. slept through two alarms.. got up about 8.30a to head to work.

The Bennies are definitely working. The painful swelling is reduce and it no longer looks like my lip is going to burst and spew forth some foul liquid. I took two more with some gatoraide. Hopefully the fluids disperse more.

So yes, I am alive.

Circa 9pm I noticed I was scratching at the side of my face and my lip was getting puffy... this would be the bottom left size of my mouth.. almost at the corner of my mouth. After watching the episode of futurama the puffy was expanding..

I scoured google for a few... realized I had no Benadryl and just iced it.. a lot.. Got some drawing done... read my book (and iced it some more) until about 12.15am.

Woke up about 4am and the swelling was worse but localized to the whole bottom left lip from the corner to the middle. Yikes. Went on line to see if missed anything. It's now about three times larger than normal and a bit painful.

PC boots up and facebook starts... future brother in law was hammered and thinks it might be herpes. I jet out to get some Benadryl from the ol' walmart. I took two about eight minutes ago. (4.30am.) We'll see how this goes. If it's worse in two hours then Emergicare I go. I would prefer not to, but will if I have to. I would also prefer not missing the yankees game in KC this Saturday.

As far as I can tell the only thing consumed today (Thursday):
- lunch (11.30am) - elephant ear pork loin at the Crescent Moon.
- dinner was BW3 circa 7.15pm.. usual spicy garlic but I added six caribbean jerk (versus usual honey bbq).

My guess something in the jerk sauce is causing it.

I was a bit hot.. sweating subsided... I think the tablets are kicking in. Let's hope so.

For the record I am not having problems breathing (constricted throat) or tongue swelling.

If I die - let someone know the circumstances.

A special Legal Lunch occurred Monday. It was in honor of my biggest fan's bday (or b-dizzle for you hip folk). Tasty "mexican" food, humorous conversations, My Lawyer playing the fun scenario of "my eyes are more hungry than my belly", and what not. The more interesting pressure points was conversing with Susan about her soon to be daughter. Tsk... I can't help but see the Queen from Snow White as Susan was going off on: truncating this girl's dreams of getting all a's, wearing too much make up, acting too much like a teen age girl, and other things. Amusing on some level.

In other news I saw the first praying mantis of the impending fall. Long sucker.. about five or inches.. oddly patterned and in a funky yellow-green (versus the usual dark or bright green). It was in the parking lot Tuesday morning slowly shuffling across the concrete. I stooped down to get a good eye on the sucker and some lady would have ran 'em over if I wasn't there. I shall name him Lester. Lester was wise and was not there at 6.30 or so when I was going home.

Too damn hot I would imagine.

I should have snatched him up to kill that stupid toad that hops around my front door and pees as he was escaping some nonexistent threat.

No call back from CSG. I think I might apply for this job internally here. What not?

Wow.. so one of our testers out in India found his/her way into a remote part of the system rarely, if ever, used. The error came down to some moron not understanding "is not nothing" and "is nothing" are two divergent concepts.

I corrected the problem, then out of curiosity checked the file history to appropriately direct my wrath and scorn... woah... it was meeting? ! Meeting? has been gone for a long long time and still his code bites us in the ass.

Well.. not really team per-say, but jefe said the 'cb' folk need to have a "thanks for the hard work" lunch. Suggestions were floated around (I threw out Charlestons - nom nom prime rib), but had to reconsider due to their overly meaty fare. In a fit of awesomeness I threw out Biaggis and that's where we went.

A fully two hours and I didn't have to drive anyone. Score.

Lunch was good but Jefe kept pushing the conversation about who was leaving or looking. She advocated we wait six months to a year and things will be better, or different in a good way. Her concern is the crazy number of "directors" being hired on at crazy pay... so the top management is widening and the bottom folk are shortening. The breadth is crazy. RichieRich is really going for a total management only division! Odd.

Well Jefe expressed how she is now apathetic.. lacks life in her work, and cannot concentrate. She's pissed, annoyed, and unhappy - but won't leave.

Cest la vie.

Interestingly jefe said since Dannyboy left he has asked a few times for a permanent dev job. She offered a contractor-to-hire spot as a PM under her and he said no.

Bloopers asked for a reference a few times from her and she had a few folk check on him for various contractor jobs... and she exclaimed that she only verified he was employed here... and there are far more lazy people currently here than him. Ah, what?

Meeting? she has seen a few times and I think Sticks indicated they meet each other off and on. Greaaaaat.

Funny lunch over all. Now I am sleepy from my pasta.

Best comment goes to MarkieMark: the sincere tone he had when he graciously thanked me for not abandoning him and scouting for jobs until CB was over. Awwwwwwwwww.

I finally snagged my new 'used wacom 3 graphic tablet'... stupid $14 shipping.. but i got it for about, on average, sixty bones cheaper. I was happy then was struck with "oh noes! That's 162 + 14 shipping! n00000000000eeeeeeeeesssssssss!".

So I paid and it better be everything I have dreamed about.

Complainer pants at work put his two weeks in..
Hairy Palms is gone by Monday..
Team lunch at Biaggis tomorrow!

For some reason this is really really bugging me. Where in the hell do I find my slashdot 'join date'?! I can track back posts and a few comments I have made over the years but really how do I tell?

Stellar freaking interview. Crazy good. The interviewer indicated a few other managers are shopping around for Senior C# guys and at best case scenario this "may start a feeding frenzy". Boooooojaaaaaaaah!

This should be fun... let's see how far this rabbit hole goes.

.. and the mood is fidgety, nervous, and mildly stressed. I reviewed the job post a few times over and I am certain I am good for it. It's a hopeful sign that the guy doing the phone interview is *not* the same guy as the other two people from my department.

Oh and Seattle is expensive.. so moving their for a job that brings in 94k is like getting a job for 67k here.. boooo Seattle.