Old

thirty candles.

New Office

I've had an office since 2000, and I haven't shared an office since 2001. I thought it would be an adjustment, but it wasn't at all. As it turns out, what's on my desk mattered more to me that where I sit. Since I'm a contractor here, I was free to buy my own keyboard, monitor, and bring my laptop to work (for the record: latop to work +5, child to work -5).

I've been in a cube since I started working here last November. At that time, all the feds all got offices and the contractors got cubes. Six months later, half the offices were empty and all the cubes were full, so they decided contractors can share an office.

Someone who worked in the office will be remote for at least the next six months, so his office opened up. My boss suggested I should move in, so I did.



I had more room to spread out in my cube, but here I can pretend I moved from suburbia to a high-rise Tokyo. My two external hard drives (USB 2.0 and Firewire 400), laptop and speakers, french press and electric tea kettle, and panda-slave are tucked in the cabinet over the desk. I've run the cable for the monitor up, and the USB connection for the wireless keyboard down through the conduit in the corner (gray triangle).

Fine use of space if you ask me.

Cranky Friday

My cell phone has rung off the hook today.

I did something to hurt my lower back.

I had an incredibly annoying conference call this morning.

The only thing that will turn my day around is the french press I just made myself.

Hi. Remember Me? I'm Your Blogger?

Instead of the usual "woe is me"...

I had been extremely busy at work and at school. Last night, we submitted our group project and gave our presentation (I'm pleased with both), so the bulk of my school work is done. I'm less than a week away from graduating. Party planning and deck replacement are in progress; if you did not get an invitation, let me know.

Work has also calmed down a little, so you might actually see some blog posts from me. Who knows, I might even update my website that's been "under construction" for 18 months.

wh00t!!!

i *must* be having a nightmare

::looks out bathroom window::

there is a fucking MOONBOUNCE in my mexi-neighbors back yard

>:-\

what the christ? there are going to be...every child ever...in my earshot.

Tired. Exhausted. Burnt Out. 0% Fun.

In general, I've been posting less for three reasons:

1) I don't have much extra time to write (which we'll get into in a minute)

2) When I have time, I'm generally not into it (because of all the writing I do for work and school), and

3) I have been trying to write less nasty/snarky/sarcastic stuff, because it's stale

The last several months have been difficult for me, walking the fine line between being a good friend and making time for myself. A few friends have had some exceptional things happen to them: I want to try and be there for them, but I can't be there all the time, and they don't seem to get that.

Let's take a moment to review my April:

My real job: 176 hours
My old/part-time job: 76 hours
School: 39 hours + an 1 exam, 1 group presentation, and 2 group projects
One friend had surgery
One friend was in the hospital

Oh...and I squeezed in a weekend trip to NYC.

My responsibilities at work increased significantly in April, and I'm struggling to make that adjustment.

The semester is over in two weeks, and my summer schedule is only one class, but I'm pretty cooked. I'm starting to feel like The Giving Tree.

So apologies if I'm distant, don't take it personally. I need some space, and since no one is going to give it to me, I'm going to take it.

Memory Test

Remember The Visionaries?

Three suns align, pour forth his might
and fill the archer's might

The arrows turn, the swords rebel
May nothing pierce this mortal shell

Sheath these feet in the driving gail
make swift these legs, o'ver land I sail

And then the McDonald's Menu Song?

Big Mac, McDLT
Some Quarter Pounders with some cheese
Filet O Fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a Happy Meal

McNuggets, tasty golden fries, regular or larger size
A salad, chef or garden, or a Chicken Salad Oriental
Big, Big Breakfast, Egg McMuffin, hot-hotcakes and sausage
baby biscuit bacon egg and cheese a sausage danish, hash browns too

and for desset, hot apple pies, a sundae (three varieties)
a soft serve cone, three kinds of shakes, a chocolaty chip cookie
and to drink a coca-cola, diet coke, and orange, sprite too
and coffee, decafe too, a lowfat milk and also orange juice

i love mcdonalds, good time, great taste
and i get them all in one place

...

you want that to go?

::chortle::

Fuck, the Internet makes it difficult for me to show off my cranium sponge.

This Post Contains 100% Pre and Post-Consumer Complaining

First I want to pat myself on the back: I completed 62 credits since Summer 2006, have three classes on my plate now, and just one more stands between me and graduation. There's no doubt I'll be done in Summer of 2008, perhaps forever.

School has wadded me up and thrown me in with the dirty laundry.

Working a new, full time job, and taking three classes at night (Mon/Wed/Thu), my schedule is pretty rigid. I'm pretty good at keeping track and getting everything done, but unexpected events throw me for a loop. As soon as I get a syllabus, I add any tests or assignment due-dates to my calendar.

My Monday class is led by a professor I had last semester. He's a bright guy, and he really wants his students to 'get it' (by 'it', I mean an STD), but he's very disorganized and a little scatter-brained in his examples. He tends to dribble out homework assignments, give an unrealistic due date, then change the due date. I would rather that he either (1) post assignments AND due dates at the beginning of the semester, or (2) at least post due dates at the beginning of the semester, so I can PLAN well in advance for an assignment. All our assignments are done in groups, and everyone in my group HAS A JOB. He handed out our first on February 11th, and we were certain it was due Wed, 2/27. In fact, it was due 2/20, and we found this out when he gave us an extension to 2/21. That gave us only one day to collaborate and pull this thing together.

P.S. -- the assignment itself: asinine.

Of course we pulled it off and submitted it before midnight, but here I am: instead of doing my job, paying attention in another class, or sleeping, I'm trying to half-ass some assignment he half-assed himself. I'm paying for the pleasure of your unpreparedness.

Wednesday night was Business Law, where our professor (who works for DOJ, and used to be a DOJ trial attorney) scolded us for the grades on our first exam, and suggested that the lower quintile might want to consider dropping his class. I originally had high hopes for this class, but aside from some small legal details (understanding citations like 497 F.3d 955), it's been American history. Judicial review 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) gives you a boner: I get it. I'm comfortable with the Bill of Rights, not just because I paid attention in 8th grade social studies, but I go to George Mason University. Dude may have been 5 feet tall WASP, but he was all BOR all the time. Blah blah blah.

Thursday nights are my required Systems Analysis class. Forget that I took a 200-level Systems Analysis class as a CS major (which was more difficult), or that I've done this professionally for the past 10 years, there is no mechanism in SOM at GMU to let me waive or substitute it. My professor is an adjunct who works for Oracle, and everyone who works for Oracle is a sales person. This is the first class I've had where the professor will be getting all 0s on his evaluation. I like Oracle's tools, but I don't need a 3 hours sales demo every week.

I'm at the end of the road, and I will finish, but I am exhausted, and it's pointless. I don't care about my professors, I don't care about my course work, I don't even care about my grades as long as I pass. I want out.

And...I'm sad because I want a puppy, but it would be lonely and die with my schedule. Most week days, I leave the house by 9:00am, and I'm not home until after 10:00pm. I'd rather have a puppy than school. George's new puppy, Maggie, is cuter than words:

Tell me: would you rather have that sweet face, or a business law test?

I thought so.

Remember When My Blog Posts Were Frequent and Interesting?

Yeah, me either.

Where you at? ::chirp::

An hour ago, I packed my lunch for tomorrow:



and then this happened:



so I chirped back in time to tell my 5th grade self not to kiss Erin Whiting.

Catch Up

Finals are over.

Waiting for grades.

At least 2 weeks of posts to catch up.

Stay tuned for several (more) back-dated posts.

Crimmus Cookie Failure

Number of crimmus cookies baked: 9 + 2 pans bar cookies
Number given away: 9
Number eaten: 84

Ugh. I am fat and pale.

Happy Monday!

My Powerbook just made this cranky face:



and now it won't boot.

I have a burning bag of dog shit project I inherited three weeks ago that goes live this Sunday, along with two midterms and two group projects this week. A dead laptop is the last thing I need.

It's time for lunch: Maybe if I'm lucky, a Metro Bus will run me over on an empty stomach.

I'm so odd that I should be in a study

Nothing...nothing! Makes me happier after a 13 hour day of work and school than to fire up the grill and make Hofmann hotdogs on Wegmans wheat hotdog buns with green beans.



!!!

Does Glaxo know about this? Fuck a whole bunch of Prozac, I gots-me a weiner!

Williamsburg, VA

Back when I was a Madrigal Singer in April of 1996, we performed at Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg.



Since I couldn't get a hotel in NYC at the last minute I had not been there in years, I decided to spend Columbus Day Weekend there.

Friday

---

• Stayed at Crowne Plaza, which allows pets. Too bad I don't have a puppy.


• Dinner at The Trellis, one of the best meals I've ever eaten


• I sent text messages to all the former W&M alum I could think of to find out where the best night spot was in Williamsburg. Billy's answer: Paul's. Despite getting a Guinness in a plastic cup (and a single pour), this college bar provided lots of wonderful young flesh to gawk at.

Saturday

---

• Lunch at The Sportsman Grille. Service: D-, Food: D+


• Drank tasty Pumpkin Ale at The Tap House Grill At Ghent in Norfolk, VA


• Hooray bar-hopping trannies! Took photographs of Corey with said trannies

(Miss Angel on the left, Corey and his goatee in center, and Miss Diana on the right):


Sunday

---

• Breakfast at a random pancake house. Hit the spot.


• Went to Busch Gardens, which is running their Howl-o-Scream...whatever it is.



• While in line and being attacked from teenage werewolves, I see my new hero: Daddy Juice Pig:
  
  Daddy Juice Pig was there with his little (maybe 8 years old) son. Complete with b-acne and swollen forehead, he proved that it's never to early to show your children how important performance enhancing drugs can be.


• Dinner and drinks at Paul's (Yum!)

Monday

---

• Another pancake house breakfast


• Visited Jamestown, took pictures, and most-of-all: sweated. Everything there is basically a 100 year old recreation of its former, 400 year old self.

Restful, relaxing, and out of my system.

Who Dat?

Joey posted this pic of Kimmy and I to her Facebook page, I thought I'd share it with everyone. I have no idea when it was taken (Kim's birthday maybe?), or what we drank that we both ended up with limes.

Been a hectic but interesting few days: I went out to Five on Friday night and saw Peter Bailey, but I'm definitely not up for dancing yet. The doctor took 80ccs of fluid out of my abdomen Friday and another 95ccs on Monday.

Shitty Tuesday

My power went out last night for several hours around midnight. All the UPSes kicked in, but apparently there isn't enough runtime on the big one for kaitain to shutdown anymore.

I woke up this morning, brought kaitain and both dvrs back up, then VPN'ed in to get the call-in number for my 9:00am conference call. It was, as they always are, a crucial waste of time.

My laptop died during the call, because the battery is old, and because Virtual PC does nothing but eat CPU cycles (I could cook an egg on the bottom of the laptop when it's running). After the call was over I got dressed and went into work.

Since today is Tuesday, there was no parking. I found one secret spot in front of the PE building, parked there, and walked through the rain to my office...where people were looking for me. I apparently missed a 9:30am meeting about the same thing the 9:00am meeting was about.

Did I mention how much pain I'm in?

120CCs

The doctor drained 120ccs of fluid from my abdomen today.

How sexy is that?

Too tired to die

1.) MGMT301 Final Exam: check [25 minutes]
2.) FNAN301 Final Exam: check [2 hours]
3.) DESC301 Final Exam Review Packet: check [3 hours 20 minutes]
4.) DESC301 Take Home Final Exam (4 page paper): not started

I mean, who can't pull a 4 page paper out of the ass after midnight, after a month of sleep deprivation where you constantly just shove things into your brain and squeeze them out on demand again and AGAIN AND AGAIN??

My left pinky is numb, and the tendinitis is my left wrist is so inflamed I can't type at full speed.

Radio Silence

Some may have noticed more than others, but current radio silence will probably extend into Friday.

For Management, I need 900 points or more for an A. Right now, I have 450 points. The final is worth 400 and the paper I already turned in (and get back graded tomorrow) is worth 100. There are no +/- in there, so 800-999 is a B. The fun begins at 9:30am tomorrow.

My last two Finance homework assignments are done: 10/10 on both. I ran some quick numbers, and these are the break points:

58 on the final: C
70 on the final: C+
80 on the final: B-
90 on the final: B
100 on the final: still a B

I'll shoot for 90 and hope for 80. Final is at 1:30pm tomorrow.

As for Operations Management, I have a total of 76 points and need at least 90 for an A. There is a take home final and a take home review packet due Friday for a possible 25 points (15 and 10 respectively).

I'm going home now to make a very large adult beverage and review five chapters of Organizational Behavior: Group Dynamics and Teams; Individual and Group Decision Making; Managing Conflict and Negotiation,;Influence Tactics, Empowerment and Politics; and Leadership. Try to control your jealousy.

::crackle::