| Checklist from near to long term |
[Apr. 15th, 2008|07:37 pm] |
Informal interview: Check
Make $19/hr to start: [pay]Check
Job application formalities: Check
Write letter of resignation: Check
Piss in a cup: Check
Pass drug test: Check
Pass background check: Check
Buy acceptable pants: Check
Start work on 4/21/08: Check
Buy Marketscan shirts: Maybe later, bought ties instead.
Buy new shoes: Check
Pay off CC debt: _____
Destroy Providian card: _____
Pay off IRS debt: _____
Convert BMW to electric: _____
Never buy gasoline again: _____
Cover roof with solar panels: _____ |
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| New Old Job. |
[Apr. 8th, 2008|12:25 am] |
Got a tip from a friend that I was mentioned in a meeting at my very-old place of employment, Marketscan. Seems they are hurting for QA right now. If the info is accurate, I might be able to score a high-teens/hr job there, or nearly double my current pay with a possibly more secure job position.
Trying to figure out WTF I'm going to do after THQ drops me has been stressing me out like crazy. can't concentrate, or even find the motivation to work on HZ, which would be like free money if I could just get myself moving... instead I sit around half brain dead, trying to avoid a total psychotic break. fun! I really hope I can get the job at Marketscan. I love my mom, but I'd like to avoid moving back in with her if I can. |
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| RIP car |
[Mar. 1st, 2008|10:36 pm] |
The other day my car went from being hard to shift into second, to nearly impossible to shift out of whatever gear it was put into (on top of being almost impossible to get into second) Transmission is totally FUBAR. And since it's a BMW, and worse, an OLD BMW ... there's no new parts for it anywhere, and rebuilding would cost huge sums of money and a lot of time...
So I made a possibly shady deal with one of the mechanics that had been working on my car... he seems to be associated with some cleaning company called Molly Maids as well as working at the shop I get my car fixed at... and he sold me a '96 Ford Focus LX in pretty good running condition for $500. He referred me to a particular smog check place, and spoke a lot of Spanish when introducing me to the guy, so I'm not sure it's 100% legit. :P
In any case, it runs, has a working radio, and shifts into all the gears; which is more than I can say about the beemer. It's also a very common car and spare parts for it are still freely available. If I end up getting hit with unexpected fines and fees due to the car's history, at least I'll have some money to pay them with since I'll have a way of getting to work every day.
I think I'll spend a good chunk of tomorrow using a razor to get the company logo crud off the car doors. Not that it'll be any less visible, since the paint underneath is a lot brighter :P
On the brighter side of news about me, I've been working part time on contract with Virtrium for the last month to do work on the Horizons client. $10/h at a max of 50h/month ... which means the extra money I made on the side paid for my 'new' car. of course, I also started being late for work after starting, so I probably lost a couple hundred in wages this month from that. :P anyway, still an extra $500/m in my budget, and hopefully I can land the job full-time once my Acro contract expires at the end of June and I'm let go from THQ. (assuming I'm not let go earlier for performance reasons) :P |
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| No valentine this year |
[Feb. 14th, 2008|11:12 am] |
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I hope you're doing well V. |
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| Still Alive. barely. |
[Jan. 9th, 2008|04:24 am] |
Caught something horrible just after x-mas, could barely move for 3 days, and was bedridden for a few more. I'm just starting to feel better now.
What was once a still fairly comfortable buffer against sudden loss of income is now a barely noticeable pile of savings. Once I spend $4k up to that point on an art project, and $2k for a lifetime membership to the EFBC to be auctioned off at the con, my savings will be completely gone. Do I know how to squander money and invest badly or what? Ah well, 90% of the money I had shifted from my hands into the hands of artists, so I suppose it's not a total loss.
In the meantime, I'm seeing a lot of art that I'd really like to buy at FC, and can't afford! x_x Maybe being broke will get me motivated to do things again. learn ajax and ruby-on-rails, or finally sit down and make a game. Or maybe being broke will just put me back to being discouraged and depressed. :P Maybe I can get some contract pay to re-write my HZ map generator program to work with the current cached data? With changes being made to the world again, new maps will be needed sooner or later...
Anyway, rambling now. expect to hear from me again in May or so, after Califur. |
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| Holloween at work |
[Oct. 31st, 2007|12:29 pm] |
last night I decided I'd be Fester Adams. No hair (at all) on my head atm. Should grow back a bit by Califur. (at least the eyebrows)
My roomie didn't come home, but a co-worker had paints with him and let me black out my eyes and whiten my skin with them... A picture when I get one from another co-worker. |
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| I've known some people that could use this. |
[Oct. 21st, 2007|12:10 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
It's a google-talk about how more choices and higher expectations tend to make us less satisfied and more depressed.
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| MFF art? |
[Oct. 14th, 2007|03:53 am] |
Well, I still haven't heard back from the art director of MFF. but I suppose it might not matter now anyway. I might have the budget to purchase a couple of items, but a new project has come up which will pretty much drain all my resources between now and Califur. It will either be the most expensive commission I'll ever be likely to make, or a sound investment that will yeild a fair return in a few years once it is complete.
I still haven't seen any MFF art online yet from the usual suspects that I feel I must have, so maybe it won't matter anyway. |
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| Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts |
[Sep. 25th, 2007|06:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
It's shipped. And I'm finally done with OT on this game. I'm not a big fan of RTS games in general, so this project has been pretty tough. Add to this that I don't like war, I don't think that war should be glorified, and I certainly have no desire to re-enact one... well ... at least my name is in the credits...
There's still several language SKU patches to check, and a new mega-patch in the works *twitch* but no more OT is scheduled, and since we have to have at least 4 days off per month, I get a mandatory 3 day weekend!
What should I do for the three days I'm not allowed to work? |
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| Some $1500 later... |
[Sep. 21st, 2007|08:19 am] |
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My car is happy again. |
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| MFF Proxy Art? |
[Sep. 13th, 2007|10:51 pm] |
MFF! Another con I can't go to because of my job. x_x I've made my first attempt at talking with the con about proxying, but just in case that doesn't pan out, I'm starting this post in hopes of attracting links to art that will be appearing in the MFF art show.
Don't let Blotch, Kitsumi, Zhivago, Diana, XianJaguar, Terrie Smith, Michele Light, Dark Natasha, Balaa, and Heather Bruton be the only ones that might get my money this con! Only interested in originals... unless it's the most awesome print ever. (just ask Zhivago) |
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| DSL EXTREEEEEEME! |
[Sep. 12th, 2007|11:56 am] |
As if being forced to use Vista at work wasn't bad enough... Vista isn't allowed on the network, so we get DSL instead... and not just any DSL ... DSL EXTREME!
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| RainFurrest Art? |
[Aug. 13th, 2007|12:46 am] |
I should take artists off my friends list. x_x
So it looks like I'm going to be allocating at least one "OT Paycheck" to RainFurrest Art... So far it looks like there's only a couple pieces I know I want, both from Heather Bruton. So here's your chance to link to other original art that's going to be at the show... if I like it, I'll have no choice but to bid on it. :( |
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| Missing a party. |
[Aug. 11th, 2007|06:31 pm] |
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I thought the PS parties were the third Sat for some reason... and was going to request to leave from work early next week to make it on time ... but as it stands I just finished a 63 hour workweek. I'm tired. I'm already way late and there's major slowdowns on the freeway. By the time I got there it would be at least 8:45, and while that gives around 4 hours to hang out, it would also mean having to drive back home afterwards ... so I'm going to skip out this time. sorries. Did I mention I'm tired? .·ºZzZzZº·. |
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| Still no word on other art. |
[Aug. 7th, 2007|06:53 pm] |
I still haven't heard from either Diana or Heather about what might have happened to the other two pieces of art I thought I was getting. Bound and Winged Fox.
I might not have won them, but Heather's email made it seem like I had. Still waiting on recipts as well so I'll know how much I paid exactly for each piece. :P Though, for all I know they're alrady waiting for me at home, I didn't go home after work last night (went back to glendale to help my mom assemle a bed) and I didn't get notification of shipping for the first bath from Diana, maybe the second box was already on its way?
Anyway, Diana or Heather, if you see this please get back to my email. Thanks! |
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| Got (almost?) all my art now! |
[Aug. 2nd, 2007|12:46 am] |
Waiting to hear back from Diana and/or Heather about the status of two more pieces I thought I won... but here's some pictures of what I got. (Note to self, save the scans used for advertising to local drive for use in database, that'll look better than pictures.)
Here's a picture of the whole collection. A few are NSFW, enlarge at your own risk. (BIG images!)
I've now got a pair of slumber party pics, and a pair of dancers on black backgrouds ... Now I need other artists to draw similar items so I can have a more diverse collection. ;)
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| Blotchy Art! |
[Jul. 31st, 2007|06:54 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
Got my package from Dark Natasha (with the piece from XianJaguar in it too) yesterday, finally. (damn you UPS) one corner of the box was a little dented in, but the only damage inside was to a corner of the matting on XianJaguar's piece... nothing serious.
Today I came home and Blotch's art was waiting for me at the door. Yay! Room mate's car is in the driveway, so they must have been asleep or something when UPS showed up... anyway, I haven't opened it yet, because this box is majorly crumpled in on one end... it's like even though it feels like an empty box, they just tossed it in the truck on it's end then piled a bunch of heavier boxes on top. >_<
I want to get pictures of the unpacking process in case there's major damage inside, but I don't have a camera, and room mate that does have one is still asleep... don't want to disturb them... but I want to see the art I bought, and make sure it's alright, waahh! ;_;
How would I even quantify damage to the art in terms of money anyway? Just by however much I happened to pay for it? The value, and worth, of art is VERY subjective :P |
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[Jul. 30th, 2007|10:40 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
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| craptacular week |
[Jul. 26th, 2007|06:45 pm] |
Monday: JitB screws up my order at lunch, AND lunch doesn't agree with me that well. bad mojo. :/
Tues: Late to work (appointment) arrived after lunch. Got a little OT to make up for it. Screwed up my clock-in clock out times, so I'll be short about 20 mins. Still not writing enough bugs.
Wednesday: Late to work, alarm clock didn't go off. WTF? I wound the damn thing just before I went to sleep, and made sure the hammer was free. Got more OT, still not writing enough bugs.
Thursday: Late to work AGAIN, not as bad as Wed. We were "not bugging" today due to doing regression. I had only 1 bug to regress, and was done in 5 mins. Clocked in late after lunch, bah! Without direction, I didn't find many new bugs just playing around, but others found many in the process of regressing 10-30 of their own. No OT today.
Friday: IF I can get to sleep early, hopefully I'll be on time for once. I have a couple bugs I can write up, but beyond that I doubt I'll find anything not already written by others. I half-expect to get a paycheck handed to me with a 'thanks, but it's not working out.' :/
I'm trying hard not to get depressed about my poor performance, I have to start thinking about each day as an individual time frame, and not let 'yesterday' average into how I feel about today ... As it stands, I'd need to find some 20 or more bugs tomorrow to bring myself back up to the average minimum daily bug count expected of QA ... and thinking that way just makes me want to give up. There's no way.
Friday Update: Woke up at 6:30 ... too damn early. went back to sleep. Woke up at 9:30 :( Since I'm already this late, I'm buying an alarm clock BEFORE I go to work this morning, and getting breakfast too. IF I can get several bugs in the database today, work OT during the weekend, and not be late anymore, maybe I can keep my job. :/ I'm awake enough to get up and move around now, so, gotta go |
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