The Force is strong with you... How
strong? As strong as a small pony... yes that is strong... can you hang
on a moment I have another call coming through.

Well, CoderMike and I went to see Star Wars Episode III on
Friday.  Overall the movie was impressive to say the least. 
The action was only non-stop until the acting of Skywalker and Padme
which dragged it down... but even those minute scenes couldn't take
away from the overall movie.  Jar-Jar Binks appeared in it for all
of 30 seconds and even that was too much, but on the brightside he
didn't say a word.... But, he still didn't die. Guess you can't have
everything and eat your cake.

However, my only real complaint was the fact that Christensen has no
emotions what so ever... I mean his voice was either whinny low-pitch
or whinny-high pitch, even when trying to show emotions with his
version of a heart felt sobbing.... A sight to behold.

In my opinion, I would place this fourth behind the original Episodes
of IV, V and VI. I'd see it again but I don't really want to spend the
money for a second time.

So for those that haven't seen it. Go for it, you really wont be disappointed. I promise you that.

On a side note (this is a first for me)

Upon entering the movie theatre CM and I were assulted with kids begging for tickets to be purchased for them...

Kids: Hey, could you please buy us tickets to see Star Wars? We'll even give you the money.
CM: No.
Vx: You'll have a better chance of begging for tickets outside.
Kids: Aww man, come on!
Vx: Just leave, its embarassing for you.

Then CM's friend Erwin appeared right after these kids left us alone
and I was expecting him to beg for tickets as well... that was until
CoderMike said that this was his friend Erwin... *whew* Glad I didn't
snap at the guy lol...

Nice guy too, from Hong Kong as well.

Long weekends are great... but working on grandparent's computer issues aren't all the time...


So this was our wonderful May 22-24 weekend. It was Fantabulous! 
Saw movies, went out to dinner. Slept in at the grandparents. Got woken
up by the grandparents after only 6 hours of sleep because their
computer is infected with spyware/virus.... and it's still not fixed so
I have to go their tomorrow and try and fix it. I'll just be wiping the
computer clean and starting from scratch.

Everynight  I was up until 1am, which I haven't done in a long
time It truly felt great to do that again.  Now I have to get
back into the swing of things for work.

Also, this coming weekend I will be moving computers at work for time
and a half. One person moving 6 computers... shya-right it'll take only
3 hours... Sorry HR Manager you're smoking some crazy shite that's for
sure.

That's what you get when a company cracks down on excessive overtime. Oi-vy lol

Vx Out

Just a side note...

It seems that my guestbook is being signed by women that strip in front
of webcams.  Now I'm all for women's rights to express their own
sexuality and heck if I don't enjoy it myself from time to time in real
life.  The fact that it is the same opening sentence is
interesting if not common... could be the same person, no?

Did you get the SW-EPIII Memo? No? Well I'll send it too you, M'kay?

As I said in a previous post, CoderMike wanted me to go to the show
tonight, but I postponed my viewing pleassure of Star Wars Episode III
till Saturday.  I've heard the reviews, they lean towards the
positive that this is up there with Empire Strikes back.... If only
Lucas had stopped smoking the weed and worked with his actors in the
first two Episodes, then people might not of had such low expectations
of this final installment... But I shall comment more on it on Saturday.

45 days of work on the wall, 45 more days to go, you take one down pass it around, 44 more days of work till I'm fulltime!

Everybody sing!

Well, I was told that my 45th day review was to be scheduled at 10am
tomorrow morning and that my Boss and the Secretary would be in the
meeting.

Boss: V, your 45th review is tomorrow at 10am.  You'll have 1
minute to read over your review and have till 10:15am to sign it. If
you refuse to sign it you must email me before the end of the day as to
why you haven't signed it.
Vx: Well that 10:00am meeting is a bit tight on my schedule, but I think I can fit it in.
Boss: Oh, and just to let you know, I am very disappointed that you
haven't met your killing quota this month... Show better numbers or
you're gone.

This conversation was then followed by laughter. Good times.

My day consisted of adding a user to five workstations... surfing the
web... and unpacking legal copies of Windows XP and placing them in a
vault... not bad for eight hours of work.

The conversation stems from a few inside jokes in regards to HR
manager's style/mannerisms as well as the Use of Technology Policy that
he put into place with no future planning... If I haven't explained
that bundle of joy, lemme know it's rather interesting.

On ward and up ward from here.

Vx wondering where all the comments have gone...

PS: Yes, I still read your blogs, I just dont get a chance to comment in them... here's one that caught me eye:

magicbeanstalk wrote:

It has always been clear to me, although sometime I choose not to see it.

Long
ago, I realized that my mission in life is to live life to the fullest
and to light up lives of those around me. More importantly, you have to
sort yourself out first.

One has to live a righteous life before preaching the subject of righteousness.

One has to be optimistic before seeing positive aspects of the lives of others.

One has to be brave to encourage.

One has to be self content to help.

One has to love one's self to love others.

----------------

I couldn't of said it better myself, Numfar

Junk? Junk! We don't need no stinkin' junk!

One person's trash is another person's treassure. That people is called a yard sale.

For the past two weeks, roughly, we have been getting together
every-single-thing that we could sell for a one day event called:
Block-party Yard Sale.  It is always (apparently) the weekend
before the long May two-four weekend (May 22 to 24) that all blocks in
this little town have a one or two day Yard Sale to get rid of
collective junk/treassure.  Hey at least we cleaned out the
16-foot Trailer and the Side porch, you can't go wrong with a little
spring cleaning.

From 7am till 4pm we (and by 'we' you know I meant my folks and I, just
checking ) and bartered, sold and virtually gave away a majority of
stuff.

In fact, I did some pretty interesting dealing of my own. Now, I'm not
really a sales person but you toss in a little charm, a little flattery
and some solid lines about factory seals, good as new and other phrases
and the lot and you can sell virtually anything, at least when it comes
to yard sales...

At the beginning, I solid a brand new (not good as new) Epson Printer
with software, 2 black cartridges and 1 colour for $20, a Mouse for 50
cents (Shhh, don't tell the IRS on me now, I'm not reporting this
increase of income), and a DVD/VCR player (that the DVD didn't work...
I had to say that our TV wasn't compatible with that player, the player
actually broke after the 2nd time it played a DVD.) for $20 as well. A
few hours later, a guy bought all my games for $2 a piece, a mousepad
for 50 cents.... My other big sale was, a Big Bertha Warbird 7-Wood for
$40 ... regular price is over 125 in golf stores, used.... here's the
convo:

Guy (holding the BB and another 8.5 degree driver): So how much for this club (BB)
Vx: $40.
Guy: ok, how much for this other one...
Vx: $2 (I just wanted to get rid of it)
Guy: Hmm, well we'll have to get some cash out of the bank machine then... Would you take $30?
Vx: No. It was $75.
Guy: Ok then.

Surprisingly to my mind, he actually came back... I really should of
increased the price to $75 at least to start and drop down to $55 at
the most.... but that's besides the point. Give them some rope and
they'll take it running. lol

The final person at the end of the day, a kid and his mother came up and were looking through my electronics stuff...

Vx: I'll make you a deal.  Take the Mouse pads (there were three left), free
Kid: Really? Cool thanks
Vx: In fact I'll give you a mouse even for 10 cents.
Kid: Wow! Great thanks mister.

Another kid stopped by, looking at the golf clubs....
Kid: How much for this set, it's for my brother...
Vx: $10 (it was a full set too) and I'll toss in the golf bag (This kid
must of been like 10 or something, if I was a mean person I would of
just told him that the bag was extra )
Kid: Ok... how much for these clubs (single clubs) it says $3 a piece
Vx: $2 each
Kid: Ok, I'll come back with more money then...

A few minutes later, he was looking at records in a bin we had:

Kid: Do you have any Beatles records?
Vx: Not sure you'll have to look through that box... (What are you
going to sell it on eBay or something? Pfffttt ya right, if there was a
Beatles Record I would of snagged it already. Nice try slick.)

All-in-all I made $88.15.  I'll try not to spend it all in one place

Use the force CoderMike... and so help you if you dress up like Jar-Jar, there is no way in hell that I'm an Ewok

Called up CoderMike at the end of the Yard sale and he asked if I
wanted to go see the Star Wars film on Thursday (I think when it opens)
Barring work I'm there   Here's just a little tidbit of an
alternate part of the movie (presented by CtrlAltDel-online.com)

May the Force be with you in your quest to become the ultimate Kickball
champion Anakin... Use your Force powers for the good of the game.. and
not the evil (which you know is kick ass way cooler )

Vx Out to raid yet again

Things are slowing down and yet they aren't.. can you believe it?

Work is great first off. Just wanted to get that off my chest

But when dealing with people or as the boss calls them 'scum sucking
vermin of the afterlife' (I paraphrased a bit)... in the world of
computers we as an IT department sometimes have to bare the burnt of
the people's wrath.

Now, not to draw attention to the atrocites of World War II, but the
Germans (who were going through their rebellious phase at the time) did
some extremely bad things in the name of a vegitarian and a painter,
Adolph as his friends called him.... 'Sparky' as his wife called him
and 'Ze big shotz' as his racketball club called him... But the IT
department and ze Germans of World War II are sometimes considered to
be one in the same as the people gather to discuss the latest
crackdowns on computers.

The reason I bring it up is because the 'Policy' that I may or may not
of described in a post (if I haven't I'll talk about it later on...)
has caused the company's employees to determine that 'Yes! Ze IT
Department is the Gestapho! Un they will ruin our lives with their
policies!'

We have recently requisitioned for 4 plates of bulletproof glass be
added to our windows and the Company has been gracious enough to
provide us with Flak Jackets with Target... I thought it was from
Target.... hmmm, must of been a typo. We are still awaiting the glass
however.

I had my lawyer look over this document or Policy on Use of
Technology... it was your standard clauses in it, and nowhere did it
mention that I was to 'sell my soul' or my 'first born used as a door
stop' So I signed it. No lightening bolts. No being sucked into hell
(apparently the boss says I haven't worked with the company long
enough... *shrugs*)...

So I go about my day. Eat lunch, listen to music, do my job and I have my first review in about 2 weeks I think....

Things are going well what can I say.

Now, onto the more important things.... WoW... yes yes I know I've doddled long enough.

Acutally, I reached level 60 at 19days, 15mins and 53 seconds and I've
spent the past 2 days completeing quests and getting loot.  In
that time, I have also gotten my gold stockpile up to 45g, yes 45g..
only 900-45g = 855g to go before my epic mount... then I can die in
peace or go blind.. one of the two...

But the for past 3 days I've been watching the Stargate SG-1
DVD's.  They are great I have to admit. Now I've popped in Season
8 and I'll be all set.

JJ class is going well. I'm getting ready for my Green belt and I'm
looking forward to it, however, I think I need to go to the
chiropractor to get my shoulders, back and wrists realigned. I'll see
how I feel but they've been pretty sore as of late, especially the
shoulders... I guess I'm not as young as I used to be.

Good news is out of all of this, that magicbeanstalk has provided me
with some motivation. Thanks Numfar, I appreciate it. 

The jist of what I should be doing is to get off my lazy ass and
workout... (no, magicbeanstalk didn't say that too me. It's my own kick
start)

JJ tomorrow then regular 30min workouts till I drop from 180lbs to
160lbs at 5'3" tall that's a load of weight... your thoughts would be
appreciated and recommendations as well

Vx Out,

Policies not just for the faith of heart anymore...

There comes a time when you enter into a family owned company that you
deal with events that are not of your control and you can do one of two
things... 1) get caught up in the politics. 2) stay the fuck out of the
politics. Being the Neutral Switzerland that I am (contractor till 90
days are up woohoo!) I can stand back and either stir the pot or input
my opinion, which could sometimes be considered as stirring the pot...
depends on my mood

Company #3 (or is it 4?) has been great.  I can safely say that...
(knock on wood for the love of god, you'd better knock on wood) I'm
enjoying it, the people are great and I've been having a good time.
(Yes, I'm sure I've said that at the beginning of other companies, but
this one is different.. I swear)

Being in IS or MIS or IT departments that I have been in there is
always some cases of priacy in software.  Many times companies are
more than happy and willing to legalize it.  Company #3 is the
same they are working hard to fix this situation that has been
happening ever since computers have been implemented into their
facilities over the years.

However, politics have come into play and not only family politics... but office politics as well.

Now, I safely can't say who is doing what, but I have a good
idea.  This has all started because of family restructing in the
company. That doesn't phase me.  I've been through that with
Company #1 (or was it 2).  Don't care really, unless my job is on
the line, then I will start to show interest in caring for politics of
a company.  So now there is a policy that a supposed HR
manager/backstabber (not my words, just what I hear) is creating and
has been revising a 'Use of Technology' policy that he has been pushing
our department to sign.  Once we sign it, then the other employees
will sign it.

But, due to the fact that we are the MIS department, and its a long ass
policy that we have been reviewing ourselves we found that there are a
few glaring errors (that were supposedly cleared up today in a 3 hours
meeting.)  Due to the fact that we are trying to get illegal
software out (and readying the EMS for the bill that the company is
going to have to pay... I'm sure there will be a few heart attacks
along the way too) and a number (95% of the computers) have illegal
software we as the MIS Department would be liable. Ok, not us persay
the Organization would but in a court battle you know well and proper
that, that document would be brought out and the coal we would be a
raking over.

So, revision #30000 has been read over and amended/editing and we shall await the next batch.

<Insert your killing phrase of the day here >

But I'm tired and I'll chat with you all tomorrow evening


Vx Out

Have you killed your daily quota of people this morning? No?!? Well get on it!

With this new job, I have been busier than ever.  I have an
AutoCAD project due on June 24th which means that I have to draw the
entire facility of Company #3 to not only include all machines, but
doors, fire extinguishers, I-Beams, safety walk-ways, etc, etc, etc....
All so that the company has an accurate diagarm that all departments
can use.  Now, I'm up to the challenge that is for sure and I even
'purchased' *wink wink* AutoCAD 2006 and Architectural Destop 2006 to
help me out.

I have come to a few conclusions: 

1) I'm not blind or cross-eyed (yet...)
2) this facility which has been added onto over the past 50+ years is
not only NOT level (I believe that it is a parallelagram in many cases)
but if you looked at the facility from above, looking down, it would
look like a person got their ass handed to them in a game of Tetris...
(Insert Tetris music here)

So, I have my work cut out for me and I am looking forward to finishing
it... But I told you all in a previous post that goals are good for you
to set for yourself and complete.... I'll get to that a little later.

The people at this job are extremely friendly and helpful (no, really
they are ).  There's BlindGuy, who is an HR type that is a
great person to bounce Ideas off. I asked him about my organizing this
project and he gave me a few areas to start to help me along with this
project.

He said, ask the maintenance guys for a site survey... which they
didn't have....  So I asked Maintenance if they had any meassuring
tools other than a tape meassure... they didn't.  I then took it
upon myself to research what tools I would need and came up with a
device that meassured by lasers noless.... Cool, not only could I
meassure the facility accurately (or as accurately as a parallelagram
can be meassured) but I can also blind the workers that piss me off
and/or get in my way

That theme of killing workers is an on-going thing with my boss
Stevie-O and the exUofWGrad.  These guys are funny, and know their
jobs well and they aren't threatened by my being there (unlike previous
other positions..... )

Many phrases that go on in our department are:

"I hate people", "Fuck off (to the phone that never stops ringing)",
"I'm out to go kill my daily quota of people... where shall I stack the
bodies", "Did I mention I hate people?"

Just to name a few... you know these are the type of titles that would be great for video game levels.

Speaking of which, once I complete this project I will be turning it
into an Unreal Tournament 2004/5 Level.  Look back here once in a
while for screenshots

Goals? Goals! We dont need no stinking goals....

But, goals as I've said before are important.  In fact in WoW, my
character on Cenarius finally reached level 60! Yay for me. It only
took 19days, 15hours and 53mins.  Now my goal is to get the
Magistrate Set and totally kick some ass .

I have also figured out that with every pick-up group that I have
gathered to do a Dungeon run that fails... costs me 2 gold 20+ silver
to get my shit repaired... at last check I only had 6g to my frickin
name.... only 894G till my epic mount.... fuck me it'll be a long time
before that happens

Also, I have started the whole PvP raids with others to get my kill
count up to get a rank and to get cool stuff.  over 125 kills and
no rank... must kill more...

Really I'm not addicted, I'm just really, really enjoying the game

Too that end, I shall see you all at my next post

Vx Out

New Pope.  New Rules. This Sunday only on PPV!!! Be there filling the pews to the rafters.

I'm not an overly religious person.  Personally, a person's
religion is one's own and it thus should be a private matter.  But
the voting in of a new pope, just seems to bring the catholic masses
together... or as I called it, PopeWatch 2005 the year of the Pontif.

I could see even the Sin city itself, Las Vegas betting on who would be pope...

I'll finish this thought tomorrow... WoW just put a patch out... lets see how they screwed over the Mage class...

Vx Out

Week 2 has commenced, proceed to Charlie Tunnel...

So far, week 2 has been busy...really busy... so busy that I haven't
gone to the gym, or even played on my computer... Yes, you heard it
hear first, I have neglected my computer. So I warmed up a DVD of
Highlander Season 6 and sat down and watched only half of the first
episode before I went to JJ class.

Since we havent had class in about 10 days (which is equivalent to 3
classes in those 10 days) I can say that I'm rusty. I really should
just look at the White to Yellow, Yellow to Orange, and Orange to Green
bus's and go through them.

Also, I have a problem... my balance is horrible.

I have walked on the fronts of my feet since I can remember, I think I
was trying to have that hip-hop walk of the mid 80's... and it stuck
with me. That or, my pant legs keep getting caught in my shoes, or
finally the fact that I'm short and wanted to be taller than I was...
Call it all three or you pick one of the above. Go ahead, I don't mind.

So my throws are off-balance because I'm falling forward, (on toes),
etc... Rolls are kind of the same, I will have one foot just slightly
raised... it's annoying me to the point of me wanting/trying to
purposely walk on my heels.... anyone know how to fix this?

Worse comes to worse, I could wear heels and I would have no problem
walking in them... As Eddie Izzard would say: "Yes, in heels as well...
If a woman falls over in heels, it's embarassing.. If a bloke falls
over in heels, its the end of his life... yess..."

Thus I shalt leave you all with that..

Vx not thinking about heels.. no no no no....

Work work work.. damn I cant remember when I've been this busy...

You know I had a post all lined up a few days ago, but I've been drained...

I guess I'm not used to the whole getting your tired ass up early, to
make your lunch and drive into work... I'll have to 'unlock' that mode
soon

But, anyhow, for the past three days it's been great.. installing OS's
on old crappy computers. Learning the old systems again... systems like
a PII-300 to a PIII-800. These systems I haven't touched in many many
years. So, its refreshing that I still know how to work with them.

My boss, Steve, is a quite, but funny guy and my other co-worker Nate,
is a great guy, that plays a wide-selection of music. The staff is
funny, the office staff is great and the floor guys and gals are
interesting.

All in all this is a great place and it's only been three days. 
This is alot better than Company #3 and company #2. They tell me what I
need to do. I do it, I ask questions or for clarification and it gets
answered.

No hassles, nothing.

I have also been offered other jobs in the past 3 days as well... why
cant they hire me before I get a job I like? Geez HR's of other
companies get on the ball! lol

Vx Out