:: infonography :: camarilla :: avatars :: memento :: menology ::

{08:57pm :: 01 Aug 2008}
{mood :: giddy}
{music :: Juli - Dieses Leben}

So, my day started with a bit of a downer. Yesterday I received a note on my door saying I had to go to the post office to pick up a certified letter. In my experience, these sorts of things are generally bad news. The only certified letters I've ever received have been bills or legal documents. I took a lunch from work today in order to pick up said letter. I just threw the letter in my passenger seat, and went back to work. Once at work, I peeled open the envelope and read what turned out to be great news. The letter read,

"Congratulations! As the independent judging organisation retained by Intel Corporation, we are happy to officially inform you that your entry video has been judged to be the Grand Prize winner in the Intel "Best Office Pranks" Contest!"

The letter goes into a lot of legal detail, but the basic idea is that I've won the following items.

Panasonic TH-50PZ700U 50" Plasma TV - 2300
Onkyo TX-SR605B Home Theatre Receiver - 350
JBL Cinema Sound CS6100 5.1 Home Theatre Speaker System - 1000
Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-ray Disc Player - 500
Universal Remote Complete Control MX-350 - 250
HP z560 Digital Entertainment Center - 750
Monster Power Home Theatre Reference HTS 2600 MKII PowerCenter - 250
Sanus* LCD Wall Mount - 70
Monster Cable 127632 XPHP advanced speaker cable - 70
Monster Cable male RCA to male RCA subwoofer cable - 30
2 x Xtreme cables, braided HDMI male to HDMI male cable - 30
An Amazon giftcard worth $500 dollars - 500

According to Intel the approximate retail value of the Grand Prize is $6,926.72. Oh yeah, and I got a raise at work today. This was just an awesome day! And how did I win the contest? LOL, for pranking my boss and posting the video on Youtube. You can see the videos at the locations below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC_9O476nTs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMV1LMcKEBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xW7MAH-BNM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90JNCacyR94

Today was crazy, and I have the weirdest luck.

3 stayed :: Make trouble.

{01:53am :: 02 Jul 2008}
{mood :: restless}
{music :: Something For Kate - Seasick}

Tonight clinches it... I am an emotional whore.
I don’t know what to say. I feel like I should write something, and I want to... I just can’t get my mind to be normal. Sometimes I wish I could be “normal”... actually that happens a lot.
Last week an ex-girlfriend told me, “I wonder what it is like to date someone normal.” At the time, I took it as a compliment. I wear my “little weirdo” badge so proudly when others are around. And yet, sometime this afternoon those words echoed in my mind. When I heard them again in my mind, I took offense to those words and all they implied. The more I think about it, the more apparent my distance from the social norm becomes. This idea implies I actually understand what normal is to other people. I don’t have a clue! I only know how people react when I say or do some of the things which are considered to be abnormal.

10 Startling facts about my love life:
1) I have never made the first move with a woman, and I have never asked a woman out on a date.
2) I have been cheated on by two different women, both more than once. There are still musical artist I can’t listen to because of these events.
3) A married woman, who I once considered a good friend, tried to seduce me multiple times. One of which was in her daughter’s bedroom. Her daughter is three years younger than me.
4) I kissed a guy once, but it was to get our girlfriend’s to do the same.
5) I was once engaged. At least as much as a very selfish 17 year old can be. She would later invite me to her wedding.
6) I was once romantically involved with a woman born on the same day as me, which goes against one of my cardinal dating rules. She would later invite me to her wedding.
7) I have been in real romantic relationships with 8 women, 4 of whom have invited me to their weddings.
8) I have had 2 “flings.” One which I wanted to develop into a real relationship and one I wish I had never met.
9) I begin relationships quickly and with a great deal of blind, careless passion. Two summers ago in Korea, I met a girl. After only 3 days together, we were both willing to begin a long distance relationship. Those three days were the most romantic of my life, and we never even kissed.
10) The only romantic partner I’ve ever been able to stand living with, was on vacation the entire time we lived together.

I don’t know the point of this entry really. I haven’t been able to sleep lately, and these are some of the things that have been going through my head while still awake.
I’m sorry if you read the whole thing.

5 stayed :: Make trouble.

{06:48pm :: 18 Jun 2008}
{mood :: geeky}
{music :: Metric - Give Me Sympathy (Acoustic Version Played at Coachella '08)}

I only have a moment, I'm going to see a movie with some people from work; however, we are doing this thing at work. The details are a little "you had to be there," but the outcome was an eBay auction. the winner will receive a video of one of my co-workers going off in a random, pointless, almost funny rant. It is partially to tease him, but partially to make him feel better about himself (because an auction of him sold on eBay).
Right now, one of my co-workers has the winning bid in at a dollar, so if anyone wants to place a bid for this that is less than a dollar, you can't win! (And if you want to win, feel free to bid more than a dollar.)



the auction


I really have to go, movie starts in 20 minutes.
Good night.

Make trouble.

{10:48am :: 13 Jun 2008}
{mood :: pissed off}
{music :: Gavin Rossdale - The Trouble I'm In (Featuring Shirley Manson)}

I realised today that I’ve been waking up in a terribly pissy mood as of late. So much so that I don’t want to go to work or deal with work stuff. This is being exaggerated when I actually arrive at work, and have a new laundry lists of task or complaints. I was finally convinced not to talk about work in detail on my livejournal, but things are getting more depressing and stressful.
I’m not sure what is causing my bad mood in the mornings. Usually, they go away after being in the office with my friends and coworkers, but today I just can’t shake this mood. Part of me wants to cheer up today, but another part of me wants to fly off the handle at some of the people outside of this office. Maybe I’m just tired.
In good news, I got free tickets last night to see Clue at the Loft tonight. I don’t know why, but I always liked that movie... I think it’s just Tim Curry.

1 stayed :: Make trouble.

{09:45pm :: 02 Jun 2008}
{mood :: cheerful}
{music :: Regina Spektor - 20 Years of Snow}

In and out of livejournal land, I've had a handful of inquires about my livejournal's open policy and my recent posts concerning work. To the best of my knowledge, only my ex-boss Ken has ever read my livejournal (and he even replies from time to time). I don't think I have anything to fear. Everything I type is either true or speculation (like what Chris is up to). I do not believe I will be fired over expressing my opinion... I think it would have happened already as I'm pretty vocal at work too.

Besides, I'm already hated by many of the people outside of my little office. This fact was again reinforced during one of my meetings this past Friday. With that said I'm comfortable and not struggling to for money. I also love dearly the people in my little office. My small group gets along amazingly well, and many people within the group regard each other as family. That's why I love my job. Sure I'm making myself indispensable by doing the shit no higher up wants to do, but once I'm in my office everything gets better. I look forward to seeing the small group I work with, when I'm sick I can work from home, and in my mind the pros still outweigh the cons. But thank you all for your concern, I can only hope my arrogance in this matter doesn't bite me in the ass later.

This isn't everyone, but here is a video of work from two weeks ago. There are a few more videos on that account if anyone feels like watching.

3 stayed :: Make trouble.

{10:14pm :: 29 May 2008}
{mood :: weird}
{music :: Zero 7 - Today (Featuring Jose Gonzales)}

Because of my schedule, I had missed the last 4 episodes of Lost. Yesterday I caught up, and tonight the season finale was quite good. However, I have completely abandoned any hope of J.J. Abrams original statement that all the science is entirely plausible. Nope, that was a lie Mr. Abrams.

I ate two dinners and desert tonight. I've gained 10 pounds in the past 6 weeks. When I went to the doctor last week I weighed 208. Like every doctor, mine has one of those sliding weight balances to determine your weight. The first time that weight had to rest in the 200 pounds notch to balance out, I made a face at the scale. But for the most part I'm much more healthy. If only there was something I could do about work...

( more bitching about work. )

Ken left yesterday. His wife and son flew to Rhode Island on Wednesday, while he drove a moving truck, pulling a car, with two caged cats, across country, by himself. Wherever you are, good luck! There isn't enough music on my iPod to get me through that trip. At least he made it out of Arizona. When you read this Ken, we miss you and want you to come back. We are sending Chappy to get you, prepare the emus.

I'm going to bed, good night everyone.

4 stayed :: Make trouble.

{07:56pm :: 27 May 2008}
{mood :: energetic}
{music :: Mos Def - Sex, Love & Money}

My grades have finally posted. I got three A's (although one was a low A), so that's a relief. At least I don't have to deal with school for three months. That's a plus!

Work was fairly uneventful today. Some servers blue screened for no apparent reason, which kept enough people busy to prevent the new sweeping theme of politics for a day. (YAY!)

The Andromeda Strain miniseries is pretty good. It strays from the book quite a bit, but I guess that's to be expected given the fact that the book is almost 40 years old.

I'm cat sitting for a friend this week. I miss having pets (eels don't count), but I don't miss that chaos and destruction that comes with them. (I still want a dog though.)

I've been buying a lot of music lately. It is amazing how much my musical tastes have changed in the past 3 years.

I keep getting these weird calls from a number in town. They happen at 11:00pm every night, 4 or 5 calls in a row. I'll answer and hear someone breathing, but after greeting the anonymous caller several times, they hang up. Almost immediately, they'll call back. If I the number from home at night, I get a fast busy; however, I tried calling the number from work today and it rang! A Spanish speaking woman picked up, said she didn't speak English, and hung up. This is getting annoying.

1 stayed :: Make trouble.

{06:51pm :: 26 May 2008}
{mood :: calm}
{music :: Gnarls Barkley - Going On}

It has been a little more than a month since I last updated this livejournal. I all but disappeared from life at that time. The reason for my absence is something I never expected to have to say. At the time of my disappearance, I suffered a physical breakdown due to severe stress, combined with a lack of food and sleep. My body quite literally gave out on me. At that time I was working 10 hour days, and going to school every night for 4 hours. The only way I could find the time to finish the tasks which I had undertaken, was to forgo massive amounts of sleep. When it came, the exhaustion hit me all at once. I was at work when it happened. Late one afternoon, I was overcome with the urge to vomit, and my body tried several times over the course of the next three hours. Despite my body’s efforts, I couldn’t vomit, largely because I hadn’t eaten at all that day. My body began shaking uncontrollably, and my eyes twitched horribly. I went home that night, and stayed spread out in the middle of my dark and silent home, all alone.

That event scared me. I quickly adjusted my habits to create a little more free time in my life and improve the amount of food I ate. But there wasn’t much I could change. I still had to go to work, and I still have to pass all my classes in order to keep my job. Unfortunately, my friends were the ones to suffer... as did my livejournal.

I’m back now, and a lot has happened since my last update. I’ve had to set aside the urge to update my livejournal a few times, to maintain the schedule I set out for myself.

I believe school went well this semester, they haven’t posted all my grades yet. I should know tomorrow, but I believe I have A’s in all my classes. Finals were terrible. I let myself get so worn down in April that I contracted a sinus infection, the likes of which I’m still unable to shake. That didn’t bode well for my finals, but I showed up as necessary to complete the assigned tasks. I’ve been checking the school’s site multiple times a day, hoping that my teachers would post the grades before the mandatory post date. No such luck.

I could have made some new friends from my classes this time around. Unfortunately I had so much going on, that I had to turn down invitations to go out after class or get together on weekends. I kind of regret that decision now, but looking back I don’t know how I could have safely made the time. School was taking up a large portion of my time, but even that was dwarfed by my commitment to work.

Work has changed a lot. I got a promotion, of sorts. Not more pay mind you, just a lot more responsibility. I’m literally doing 2 full time jobs, plus some of my former boss’s duties. Our IS Security department “gave” my group a position, and have demanded that we do work for them to make up for thier imaginary loss. I am now working 20 hours a week doing their work, all the while performing (and supposedly improving) a job that used to be assigned to two people a week. Add in the handful of completely new task (a generous “process improvement” title) and some of my former supervisor’s duties. I’m working non-stop for 10-12 hours a day, for the same pay that I had back in October of 2007. I am going for my boss’s job ultimately, but I’m running myself ragged in that pursuit.

I keep referencing my "former boss" Ken. Friday was his last day working with us. As his wife put it, they have bigger fish to fry. I knew this day was coming, but I had hoped it was a long time off. This man was the best boss I’ve ever had, and sincerely convinced me I was not only an employee, but a friend. After a 6 hour good-bye party on Friday, I went to his house for 4 hours on Saturday. The premise was to pick up his car (which I bought... more later), but we stood in his kitchen just talking for hours without realizing it. On top of his car I got a steam cleaner and an office full of plants from him. (He tried to give me more stuff on Saturday, but I don’t have room for what I own right now!) He is moving across country to run his own business in Rhode Island. He insisted I come visit several times on Friday and Saturday. The whole situation is terribly sad. I’m losing a great boss and a friend, at a time when work is restructuring my department.

The “restructuring” at work includes Ken’s position (which has been elevated from manager to director), and the position this new job will report to is also vacant. Another new job was created which will report directly to Ken’s elevated position, and a rank higher Help desk position was opened as well. Rodney, who left in April for a better job, is back as one of only two of our contractors from Siemens AG. This is a position no one knew was open until it was announced that Rodney was filling it. Other changes include the loss of my dear friend Philip, who after being told he was fired for pursuing a better job, landed said job. Phil is now in Brazil, interviewing for positions at IBM and Google while working for Mangels Industrial SA. This just illustrates the amount of office politics I have to deal with on a daily basis. Rodney is fought over after seeking a better job, while Phil is told not to come back for doing the same. In my opinion Philip was immensely more valuable to the company, but Rodney played the game better.

Unfortunately I don’t play the game at all. I say this because I was asked out to lunch by another member of the IS department last week. He told me that I was not liked outside of my group. I thought I already knew that, but he laid out who and why certain people don’t like me. Many of who, I had no idea they had any feelings about me. I learned I have one new ally, but several more people who want to see me fail. On the positive side, my group does not feel the same way about me. Many of them have told me that they want to see me gets Ken’s position, and restore some sort of order and peace to our little corner of IS. However, my hopes for getting Ken’s job have been dashed after last week’s lunch meeting. I’m still trying for this new position, despite the logical conclusions.

As I said earlier, I have started eating better. The image I posted earlier this year of my refrigerator filled with sugar flavored water has changed drastically. No more Vitamin Waters or Sobes, the only juice I have is Orange Juice and Organic Strawberry-Lemonade. I actually have food in my house (although these images might not illustrate that), but as you can see I need to go to the grocery store. I take lunches to work now. This freaks out my coworkers, who after 3 years are used to me not eating anything. (And yes, the geek in me is proud to show off my Microsoft lunch bag!!)

As I mentioned above, we had a good-bye party for my ex-boss on Friday. I brought my Wii and my group went into one of the meeting rooms at work to play games all night. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but there is some pretty funny videos that I’ll get around to posting on one of my Youtube accounts later this week. Last week we had a small outing to say good-bye to Phil. (Another really good friend from work who is moving on to bigger and better things, which just happen to be on the other side of the globe.) I didn’t take a lot of pictures at this event either. Only a few people showed up to say good-bye to Phil. It didn’t hit me that I may never see Phil again until after we said our farewells. I feel kind of dumb now for the way I left things between us. But, I’m just hoping that I’ll get to see him again.

One of the weird situations between Phil and myself, was our bids for Ken’s car. Phil wanted to buy it, fix it up and turn it over for a profit. I wanted to buy the car to learn how to drive a stick shift. Ken gave it to me, despite the fact that I was the lowest bidder (turning down at least two higher bids). Now I am the proud owner of a red ’94 Nissan Sentra, which has seen too much of the desert sun. I still own (and love) my little Yaris, Shiva; however, driving a stick can be a lot of fun. But even the Sentra doesn’t get the mileage my Yaris does. After a single modification and a slight change to my driving habits, the Yaris is getting a little above 40 mpg in city! Despite that, I’ve been driving the Sentra around all weekend. I wouldn’t call myself a master, but I picked up the manual transmission really quick. I’m pretty sure it has a lot to do with the free copy of Gran Turismo 3 that Sony sent me a few years back.

Another big change came in the form of a haircut. I did it for two reasons: the first is that I wanted to make an impression at work, but the second is because I was just ready for the change. I took this picture Monday night before getting my hair cut. This second picture includes the suit I wore for my first interview on Tuesday, and this final picture I took on Thursday evening. It’s a pretty drastic change from the look I had less than a week ago, but I’ve gotten (mostly) nothing but compliments. (Strangely, Heather’s partner implied that I used to have an afro when she saw it on Friday. I’m not sure how to take that really.)

A part from my hair, I’ve made quite a few changes to my life style in the past month. I mentioned my new driving habits a few paragraphs ago. I’m accelerating much more slowly, and maintaining a slower max speed. This not only improves mileage, but decreases the amount of stress I get from driving. I’ve also been averaging 7-9 hours of sleep each night for the past several weeks. This was an answer to the illnesses propagated by my worn out physical state. But I’ve also been taking time out to relax and do nothing. I’ve set aside time in the evenings to listen to music while reading, and have been using my mornings before work to watch some of my favourite canceled television series. I’ve made it through Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Sports Night and Miracles. I recently found the entire La Femme Nikita series on eBay for less than half the retail price. I’ve already made it through the second season just by watching an episode each morning while getting ready for work. It is relaxing not to be rushing around before going to the current craziness that is my job.

I believe this entry has covered most of the important points from the past month. I’m sorry for those people both within and outside of Tucson whom I’ve neglected in my absence. I have my reasons, but they hardly make up for the way I’ve acted in the past month. I’m sorry.

As for tonight, I'm calling it quits. A&E is airing an updated mini-series version of Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, and I’ve been wanting to watch it since I first heard about the project. Daniel Dae Kim, Christa Miller and Eric McCormack are in it, so it can't be a total waste. Good night, and wish me luck.

9 stayed :: Make trouble.

{09:12pm :: 13 Apr 2008}
{mood :: nerdy}
{music :: Love Outside Andromeda - Razorstonefree}

This weekend has been devoted to the completion of homework and job-work. (I have explored several words in order to express the idea of bringing work from my job home with me. So far the pretend vocabulary includes: "work-work", "employed-work", "job-work" and "horrorbeaver". While none really have a nice ring to them, I've elected to use job-work for the time being.) Sometime yesterday, while researching Hesiod's Theogony, I allowed myself to get side tracked. I ended up at one of my favourite band's Myspace page. While the band is on hiatus, it appears that the lead singer is writing some solo material. I went to her MySpace page...
*side note*
My mother, in her infinite hipness, thinks the site is either named "MyFace" or "SpaceBook". Also, my unhinged art teacher told us this week how much she loves playing "Guitar Player" on the "Playbox". I find these misnomers to by hysterical!
I now return you to our regularly scheduled livejournal.
I went to the lead singer's MySpace page, and listened to her solo material for roughly half the day. After a little more homework, I went all fan-boy and sent her a message on MySpace. You know, just the typical thumbs up message. Nothing embarrassing or involving flailing in person.
Anyhow, the point of this non-sense is that she messaged me back a few minutes ago. When I first saw the reply, I was nonchalant about it. I assumed it would be some typical generic reply with little value. Instead, it was an actual reply about three times the length of my original message. Her reply was grateful, inquisitive, and invited me to communicate with her in the future. Upon reading her message, I went momentarily giddy. In a rather embarrassing and temporary loss of control, I jumped up and down until I hit my head on my ceiling.... (being tall has obvious disadvantages).
*sigh* I'm better now.

*Caution* Pointless trivia below!! *Caution*
In reference to the title (plus the fact that I learned this little tidbit over the weekend), apparently Dr. Seuss is credited with the creation of the word "nerd"... again, this is something which I find funny.
Good night!

3 stayed :: Make trouble.

{09:21pm :: 10 Apr 2008}
{mood :: geeky}
{music :: Love Outside Andromeda - Boxcutter, Baby}

My eccentric Art teacher's latest assignment is building a 10 page book from scratch, and filling the pages with new and original art. I really dislike this class. I've had way too much homework lately. But tonight's entry was supposed to be significant and upbeat. So on to my big announcements. My boss, who is the greatest boss in the world, is leaving us for greater things. His last day will be sometime in May, and the higher ups haven't yet decided what to do with his position. Also, over the summer, my team will be moving from our cramped office to a big new building. The higher ups are also uncertain how to configure this new space. Finally, my boss and his bosses have appealed to the senior staff for ideas in how to improve my team. I had a meeting with the four of them last week, and we have another meeting scheduled for next week. Basically, I am proposing a drastic restructuring of our current jobs and duties. Next week's meeting is to discuss how to implement my changes on a trial basis. I have also been asked to make suggestions on how to best utilize our new space. And finally, I will use next week's meeting to officially announce to my boss's bosses, that I want and deserve his job. Basically I have a chance (albeit a small chance), to pick a team, design their roles, create a new and higher position for myself, as well as design the space in which we would all be working. I'm know this is probably getting my hopes up for something that won't come true, but the chance exists... and I'm going for it.
In last week's meeting I made up packets explaining why and how I think we should be restructured. I introduced a phased plan with which to gradually change the structure and picked out the candidates I believe would function best in each role. Next week we discuss the implementation of my first phase, and how best to track the results it produces. In the new packet, I will be showing my ideas for designing the new office building. Please look over the five four models I've made up, and tell me what you like and dislike about them. (One – Three – Four – Five) The double doors at the bottom and the pillar in the centre of the building cannot be moved. There must be a call centre area, a waiting area, and a hardware area. There can be optional offices as seen in design Four. The hardware area must be behind a locked door and the call centre needs to be separate from the other areas to reduce noise. Other than that, the design is pretty open. (Honestly, it was just fun working out the different floor plans.)
In preparation for the upcoming meetings and proposals, I have already purchased two suits and will be getting a hair cut in the near future. Again, I appeal to the masses to find the best hair cut. Do I go for "One", "Two" or "Three"? (Yes, I realise I am not as good looking as these three. The pictures are for hair ideas only, not comparisons.)
There at least are my plans for corporate domination. First the utility companies, then the world! Any help I could get would be appreciated!!
I had planned on more content, but tonight's homework was more time consuming than I planned. I hope everyone is doing well!

4 stayed :: Make trouble.