It’s that time of year again.

It is the time of year that I spend crazy hours at work and do little else.

I’m not complaining. I honestly don’t mind.

Most of the time my department is pretty laid back. Almost too laid back. It’s fun to work in an environment with a little intensity. At least for a little bit.

And besides, they pay me overtime. So bring it on. I can take it. Work me as hard as you want. I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.

The down side is I won’t have as much time to play on the internet. I’m already pretty much an absentee landlord of my stupid little club. Now I’ll be practically invisible. Who cares, it’s a shitty little club any way.

My stupid Internet Radio Show will suffer also. I mean who wants to tune in to hear some freak bitching about how stupid people are? Come to think of it, maybe the show won’t change that much.

I went backpacking weekend before last and I went to lake with my neices and nephew last weekend. So I’m pretty relaxed. I’m ready to be busy. Today I’m setting 20-some-odd High Powered CAD workstations. Woo-Hoo. In case you can’t read the Sarcasm, it’s not very exciting. But at least I brought my iPod with me.

It’s quarter till eight in the moring.

I’m at work.
I’m not leaving.
I hope you bet a lot on this.

I’m packing up and I’m heading out.

And not a moment too soon.

Some weeks at work just aren’t worth the head ache.

This has been one of those weeks.
Nothing serious. Just a lot of stupid, useless shit.

I’ll go to work tomorrow. I’ll some how make it through the day, and then I’ll go home grab my backpack and head for the trail.
I just need to get away from all of it.

Usually when I go, it’s me and my dad or me and Shutter. This time there will be 6 of us. We’ll be like a field trip or a scout troop or something.

It doesn’t matter. I just need to be out there, exhausted from walking, relaxing in the woods.

I can’t out there soon enough.

Tuesday?

How did it get to be Tuesday?

My weekend was over before I knew it.

Friday, I went to M&T Bank Stadium to see the Ravens First Preseason Game. Shutter’s sister has Season Tickets and she let us have them for this Game. I know that these games mean nothing and all that, but I was looking forward to get a preview of Steve McNair.

I wasn’t disappointed either. The first team offense looked great. And not just because the Giants were without three starters on D. Jamal Lewis ran well. McNair’s passes were sharp. He was patient in the pocket. And in the Red Zone when all of his receivers were covered, he stepped up to avoid the rush saw an opening and ran the ball in. Dragging two defenders behind him.

On the second series, Boller took over at quarterback. On his first snap, he tripped over his feet. I am so glad we have McNair now.

The rest of the game was still entertaining, but I spent a fair amount of time watching the people in the stadium. I hate people, but I find them extremely interesting to observe.

Saturday was an odd day. I worked all morning on this web app that I’m working on. Went to a cook out in the afternoon. Came home and worked to the wee hours of the night on the app. I’ve got the Data Model for the databased designed. And I think I’ve done a very good job of setting it all up and making all normalized and stuff.

Sunday, I got up and started trying to code the code the app. It would be easier if I actually knew how to write PHP. I know sort of how it works, but I don’t know how to make it do anything except connect to the database. So every time I want to make it do something, it’s off to google and reading dozens of pages until I find one that answer my question. Then I get to spend an hour or so coding it till it works correctly. Then I try something new and the process starts all over. It is very frustrating. By six o’clock or so, I was so burnt out I couldn’t think straight. I was sure that I will not able to complete this.

We had dinner in front of a movie, the Incredibles and popcorn too. I was able to unwind a bit, but I must of still been stressed.

Sunday night (or actually Monday morning) I had a very vivid dream. I was sitting in a classroom. My 10th grade homeroom, I think. All of the people from my Department were there. My boss was trying to run a department meeting. But people were goofing off and not paying attention. It was odd. I woke up unrested and with bags under my eyes, even though I went to bed at a reasonable hour for once.

I had wanted to see Monday Night Football last night, but I missed it. I don’t care about the Vikings’ and Raiders’ scrubs battling it out in the preseason, but I did want to see the new crew of MNF. Especially Tony Kornheiser, I loved his Radio Show and I hope his humor will translate to the show. But it’s hard to tell, just ask Dennis Miller.

I seem to be engaged in a turf war at work.

I hate that my life is as stupid as this.

My ‘office’ is located in a warehouse. The IT dept has a corner of the warehouse. It’s where we keep all the spare hard drives and computers that need work. The parts aren’t my problem. I’m here cause our main office is overcrowded. Most of the time this works out for me. It keeps me away from office politics and besides, mostly I’m a field tech. I just need to come back here to do paperwork and do repair work.

Of course, most of the building is occuppied by the Facilities People. That’s fine too. But, for some reason yesterday the Facilities Supervisor decided to pick a fight with me.

They keep at least one pot of coffee brewed up in their break room. Instead of brewing coffee back here, we just go up and drink theirs. And of course, every month or so, I give the lady who buys the coffee ten bucks to pitch in towards coffee.

Yesterday, Shutter and I brewed a pot of coffee, up in the break room. I must have made it a wee bit too full, because it spilled a little while I pouring my cup. Shutter grabbed a sponged, I grabbed a paper towel and we cleaned it up.

I went back to my desk and back to work. Five minutes later the Supervisor of Facilities strolls back. He laikes to come and visit us and pretend that he is in charge of us, since we are in ‘his building.’ Whatever. Usually it is benign.

He comes and starts shouting, no biggy, he always yells. I don’t know why.

“Hey Fellas! What’s this Music? Sounds Like someone being killed!”
Well, it was Rage against the Machine. But, what od you say to that, so we just kept doing what we doing. He looks right at me and says, “Hey Coffee Guy!”
I looked up at him.
“There’s plenty of Coffee Up There!.”
“I know. I just brewed it.”
“I Can Tell! I See Where You Spilled Coffee All Over the Floor!”
I look at Shutter and he looks at me. Before I can I ask if I missed something, he goes on.”
“Marcie Just Cleaned that Floor! Jay-Sus! This Music is Terrible! It Makes Me Want To Kill Myself.”
He walks over starts looking at my computer screen. I minimize the email I’m writing. He walks over and looks at Shutter’s monitor.
He says to Shutter, “Is This Music Coming From Your Computer? What’s Wrong with You? What Don’t you Play Some Sinatra? This Fucking Shit is Terrible.”

I could tell Shutter was getting pissed. Any one could tell. His back was getting stiff and his face was gettign a little red. Even this assclown could tell.
“You Know I’m Just Kidding With You! Right? I would Kid You If I Didn’t Like You! You Know I Like You. If I Didn’t I wouldn’t let you drink MY COFFEE!”

I almost lost it. His coffee? His Coffee! I gave ole what’s her face ten bucks not 3 day ago, but it’s his coffee? To hell with that. I paid for it. It’s my coffee. I couldn’t stand anymore.

I finished my coffee and started to pack my shit up. Shutter asked where I was headed and I told him. He offered to lend me a hand. I stood up and started to out my coffee cup away. Mr. Facilities Supervisor sees me walking with the empty cup.

“GOING FOR MORE COFFEE?”
“no. i’ve had enough. thanks.”
“OK. SON. Did You Hear That? He’s Actually Had ENOUGH Coffee!”

Shutter and I walked out of the Office.

I will not drink anymore of His Coffee. I don’t know what that was about. And I don’t care. I’ll either brew it in my office or I’ll bring it in with me. But I will not drink His Coffee anymore.

I hate this shit.

I spent last weekend installing Linux, Xubuntu to be precise, on my test box. I got it running and have been using it since then. I like it.

But I guess that wasn’t enough.

Tonight I Installed the Windows Vista Beta on a Virtual Machine on my Regular Computer.

So now at my finger tips I can work with Xubuntu, XP or Vista.
I’m such a dork.

Vista is going to take some getting used to.
It is different. Very different.

I’d like to be relatively fluent with it long before it is released.

Maybe I am doing all this geekery because I am avoiding making this database I am supposed to be designing.

Writing and designing the web app excites me and I can’t wait to do it. But first I need to design the data model. And that is as exciting as… well it isn’t exciting at all.

Just a week and a half till I go back packing. I think I’m ready. Very ready.

I went to REI.

That’s the store that I buy my backpacking gear at. It’s a sort of “candy” store for the outdoor crowd.

I picked up some new boots. My old boots aren’t really worn out, but they have never been quite right. And unfortunately, I didn’t buy the old ones at REI. They a have a lifetime guarantee on everything they sell. If the boots don’t work out well, trade them in for new ones. If the tent didn’t seem as great out in the rain as it did in the store, bring it back. It is a great store. They understand that you have to use your equipment to know if it is right for you.

After the last two trips, the tendons in my ankles have been rubbed raw. I decided not to make matter worse with another trip upcoming. I picked up a pair of Merrrils. They seem pretty good. And they have some extra padding around the ankle. And if they are not the ones, I’ll take them back and try again with new ones.

I also picked up a camp shirt and some waterproof stuff bags. With me, it is best to be waterproof.

I don’t remember if I’ve explained about how I cook on backpacking trips. I like to eat. The idea of wandering off into the woods and walking all day just to eat some ramen noodles holds no appeal to me. I cook actual meals. Using dehydrated veggies, pasta or rice, and canned chicken or shrimp crab meat. It works out pretty well. I have it down to a pretty good science.

For fun, I’m going to try to dehydrate my own veggies, instead of getting them through mail order. Right now, I have peas, corn, potatoes, banana peppers, and some apple slices drying. I’ll also see about some Green peppers, jalapeños, onions and whatever else crosses my mind.

I’ve been hearing that the blogathon folks have been real inconsistent with sending out emails to let you know how to fulfill you pledge. You can go to Freedom from Hunger to donate online (whether or not you sponsored me.) Thanks again for all of your support.

I went to the gym today.

This is significant mostly because I didn’t go last week. I was too tired on Monday from the blogathon, and everything went down hill from there.

And as is my tendency, I added insult to injury by over eating all week.

The treadmill kicked my ass. I was useless. I had to stop after 20 minutes. This doesn’t make sense at all, I’ve taken more time off and been able to run for 30 minutes.

I don’t know what combination of factors were at work, but it sucked.

I got into a discussion at work about Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah. I didn’t mean to. Nothing good ever comes from these kinds of conversations. It just sort of happened.

The what of the conversation doesn’t really matter. What surprised was not that he disagreed with me on this, I’m used to that my views are less than popular. What I found shocking that this man, who is by far one of the smartest people I know, was giving me the same stupid arguments I’ve heard on FoxNews and the like. I would have expected a more original line of reasoning.

I was a bit disappointed.

And too many people overheard the conversation. I guess I’ll get the evil eye for thinking unpopular thoughts around the office for a while.

Good thing I don’t spend much time in the office.

I’m not sure what the correct term to describe it is…

Maybe Anal-retentive, maybe OCD, maybe just plain old uptight.

I like things neat.
It makes my life easier. I like to to know where things are. If they are put away correctly, then I can find them later.

Yes.
I am one of those people who walks around saying:

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Annoying isn’t it?
The people I live with certainly think so.
It’s a war.

I ignore it most of the time. I ignore the shit scattered about my house. I step over the crap left on the floor. Hell, I might even even pick up after them, but most of this stuff doesn’t even have a place, its just shares time sitting here and later it gets moved to sit over there. So I benignly ignore it. I don’t have much choice, I’m outnumbered.

But once in a while, like today, the war bubbles to the surface.

It goes like this. It’s time to clean the house. My idea of cleaning is dusting, vacuuming, and that knid of thing. But I can’t do that, because I have to pick up a bunch of stuff before I can started. Other peoples stuff.

Not that you care, but it makes me crazy. Well, crazier.

I can’t beleive that the Blogathon was only a week ago.
It seems much longer ago.

I’m a dork.
But you knew that.

I took my ‘extra’ computer and installed Linux on it.
The PC is a 500 MHz Dell with 384 MB RAM. It isn’t exactly a speed demon but it is stable, with decent hardware.

I’ve been monkeying around with Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Well, mostly Kubuntu because Gnome plucks me for some reason. But KDE is a resource pig. I stumbled on to Xubuntu. It is another flavor of Ubuntu but it comes packaged with XFCE as its Windows Manger. So far so good. But then again, I haven’t done anything but set up my IM and start typing this. Of course, that is most of what I do.

As if that wasn’t enough, I installed VMware Server on my main computer. I set up a VM with Kubuntu but I over tweaked it and had to punt. I’ll try again later.

I’d also like to set up a Windows Vista VM. But its seems that I missed my chance to download the Beta. I’ll see if I can’t find some other source to get the Beta from, but don’t tell Big Bill.

My goal here, I guess, is to use Linux for all of my Internet-ing. I have some apps that require Windows, but most of what I do is … well it’s this. We’ll try it for one month. If I am still liking it when the month is up, I’ll investigate Migrating everything I do (at home) to Linux.

This is the first time I’ve made that threat. Something has always come up to piss me off and make switch back. But its been a year or so since I tried, so I’ll give it a shot again.

Maybe I need one of those jobs where I don’t have to deal with people.

Like a developer.
Just let me sit in a cube and write code all day.
I could live with that.
Except that I don’t know much in the way coding.

I could be a writer.
I could sit at a desk and write for hours at a time each day.
Write until a novel happened.
Think I can get an advance on that plan?

Maybe I should be a hermit.
Go live in some shack in Montana.
Line the walls with foil and hide from the world.

The funny thing is, despite what you guys think, I’m very good at dealing with people.

I smile. I say the right things to the right people.
Usually I can get things accomplished.
That’s the trick. I’m in no position to demand anything of anyone.
So I talk. And talk. And talk.
I talk to all kinds of people. And I listen to what they say, I hear their concerns and explain to them why and how it should be.
And they listen. Usually.

But it is frustrating. Very.
Especially when I get to those who will not listen.

Don’t you know who I am?

So what do I do about it.
I blow off steam.
I shout and yell and cuss.
(Speaking of venting, listen to SBR tonight at 9 PM EST to hear what I’m talking about.)
Later when they cannot hear me.

So that later, when I have to deal with them again, I can smile and talk. And Talk.

Just skip this post.
It is boring and unnecessary.

It is never good to brag, to toot your own horn, but this is my blog and I can’t think of a better place for it.
I’ve been biting my tongue and being humble at work.

No one will care or understand.
Geek nerd talk follows, with little explanation or clarification:

We are going to Migrate from Netware E-dir to Active Directories. Since I am supposed to be an expert with the MCSE and all I’ve been working in the planning meeting with the consultants. It’s been fun.

I was discussing a naming convention for security groups with a colleague, when it occurred to me that we could assign permissions to Domain Local Groups and then be able to ‘effectively assign rights’ to Domain Global Groups by adding them to the Domain Local Groups.

We went back to the consultants and floated the idea to them. At first they were like you don’t need Local Domain Groups, this is a Single Forest Single Domain Model. But as I explained that we could use it to ease administration, they understood where I was going, and totally endorsed the idea.

</ geek nerd talk>

The point being, I had an original and smart thought today that will become the way we do our jobs someday.

That doesn’t happen every day. At least not to me.