"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf mutes..."
Half of the quote is excluded to spare the feelings of the conversationalist, and for your own personal amusement.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Friday, July 08, 2005
Defcon 13 baby!
Oh yeah.
I'm going to Defcon 13. And from the look of the schedule... It's going to kick ass... Defcon is a hacking convention that takes place in Las Vegas once a year. I'm going with my friend, and, uh... it's going to kick ass.
I'm a-gonna git me a lanyard!
Monday, June 27, 2005
@-D---- The white dragon dodges your Magic Missile
After months of play, I'm finally getting better at Nethack!
Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...
You turned to stone in The Dungeons of Doom on dungeon level 20 with 86483
points,
and 10451 pieces of gold, after 13279 moves.
You were level 12 with a maximum of 110 hit points when you turned to stone.
--More--
I got off to a great start, and proceeded to kick some serious ass! Along the way, I picked up the much sought amulet of life-saving (after your die, you get resurrected!) and I nearly used it on three occasions, including my fight with the white dragon, as depicted in the title of this post. As you can see from my tombstone, I made it to level 20, and was petrefied by a cocatrice corpse. You may be wondering... why were you petrefied by a cocatrice CORPSE?! Well, to those patrons of Nethack, the answer would be obvious... I was blindfolded. Why was I blindfolded? Because when you are telepathic, you can "see" any living monster on the level, but only when you are blind. I used the blindfold to see what monsters I were on the level.
Which begs the question: "why would being blindfolded cause you to die at the hands of a dead cocatrice???"
When you are blind you cannot see (I'm glad that's clear) and therefore, to find items, and other inanimate objects around you, you must feel for them. SOOOOO, if I were to walk over some items, I would feel on the ground, and find out what they are. If I feel on the ground, and find a cocatrice corpse, I would have to touch the cocatrice, and those who know their mythical beasts, know that a cocatrice is a dragon which rooster-like features who can turn you to stone with a simple touch!
Yikes... better keep some dead lizards handy!
My first death (and use of my amulet of life-saving) was after a huge fight (which included my slaying the white dragon :) I defeated a cocatrice sometime during the fight. While I was navigating the dungeon blindfolded to make sure nothing could sneak up on me, I happened upon a cocatrice corpse, which turned me to stone and forced the use of my amulet of life-saving. Once on level 20, I fought off some elf lords, and apes, and (with the help of my telepathy and blindfold) avoided the invisable cocatrice for as long as I could. When it came time to fight it, I killed it, and then (not learning from my previous mistake) walked over the body, felt what was on the ground, and...
Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...
Though I wonder, if I walk up to a cocatrice corpse with my blindfold off, I can see the cocatrice corpse, and don't have to touch it. But what if I walked up to an invisable cocatrice corpse? Would I have to feel for it anyways? I hope not, because the DEV team thinks of EVERYTHING!!
On a side note, one can avoid such a fate by simply wearing some form of gloves. I had only run across one pair of gloves on my adventures into the Mazes of Menace and they were cursed anyways... Though wearing those cursed gloves would have saved me from those two deaths... and it IS possible to remove curses by dipping the item in water... aw crap... I could have survived... Oh well. Now I have to get to thinking up a new Japanese name for my new samurai character. Nethack, why must I love you so?
Those who wish to learn more about Nethack, can head over to www.Nethack.org and get some more information. Those who want to play, follow this link:
telnet://nethack.alt.org
Critics call nethack "ASCIIcking"
If you laughed at that, you are a geek, I know because I did!
And for those of you who are interested, here's an artist's rendition of Hiroyuki snowboarding...
----------
/ \
/ REST \
/ IN \
/ PEACE \
| Hiroyuki |
| 10451 Au |
| petrified by a |
| cockatrice |
| corpse |
| |
| 2005 |
*| * * * | *
_________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______
Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...
You turned to stone in The Dungeons of Doom on dungeon level 20 with 86483
points,
and 10451 pieces of gold, after 13279 moves.
You were level 12 with a maximum of 110 hit points when you turned to stone.
--More--
I got off to a great start, and proceeded to kick some serious ass! Along the way, I picked up the much sought amulet of life-saving (after your die, you get resurrected!) and I nearly used it on three occasions, including my fight with the white dragon, as depicted in the title of this post. As you can see from my tombstone, I made it to level 20, and was petrefied by a cocatrice corpse. You may be wondering... why were you petrefied by a cocatrice CORPSE?! Well, to those patrons of Nethack, the answer would be obvious... I was blindfolded. Why was I blindfolded? Because when you are telepathic, you can "see" any living monster on the level, but only when you are blind. I used the blindfold to see what monsters I were on the level.
Which begs the question: "why would being blindfolded cause you to die at the hands of a dead cocatrice???"
When you are blind you cannot see (I'm glad that's clear) and therefore, to find items, and other inanimate objects around you, you must feel for them. SOOOOO, if I were to walk over some items, I would feel on the ground, and find out what they are. If I feel on the ground, and find a cocatrice corpse, I would have to touch the cocatrice, and those who know their mythical beasts, know that a cocatrice is a dragon which rooster-like features who can turn you to stone with a simple touch!
Yikes... better keep some dead lizards handy!
My first death (and use of my amulet of life-saving) was after a huge fight (which included my slaying the white dragon :) I defeated a cocatrice sometime during the fight. While I was navigating the dungeon blindfolded to make sure nothing could sneak up on me, I happened upon a cocatrice corpse, which turned me to stone and forced the use of my amulet of life-saving. Once on level 20, I fought off some elf lords, and apes, and (with the help of my telepathy and blindfold) avoided the invisable cocatrice for as long as I could. When it came time to fight it, I killed it, and then (not learning from my previous mistake) walked over the body, felt what was on the ground, and...
Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...
Though I wonder, if I walk up to a cocatrice corpse with my blindfold off, I can see the cocatrice corpse, and don't have to touch it. But what if I walked up to an invisable cocatrice corpse? Would I have to feel for it anyways? I hope not, because the DEV team thinks of EVERYTHING!!
On a side note, one can avoid such a fate by simply wearing some form of gloves. I had only run across one pair of gloves on my adventures into the Mazes of Menace and they were cursed anyways... Though wearing those cursed gloves would have saved me from those two deaths... and it IS possible to remove curses by dipping the item in water... aw crap... I could have survived... Oh well. Now I have to get to thinking up a new Japanese name for my new samurai character. Nethack, why must I love you so?
Those who wish to learn more about Nethack, can head over to www.Nethack.org and get some more information. Those who want to play, follow this link:
telnet://nethack.alt.org
Critics call nethack "ASCIIcking"
If you laughed at that, you are a geek, I know because I did!
And for those of you who are interested, here's an artist's rendition of Hiroyuki snowboarding...
Saturday, June 18, 2005
I'm back baby!
Ok, I'm over it. I suppose the choice to deliver an incomplete thingy is just another one of those command decisions that has to be made in some situations. Aaaaaaaaaanyways.
I promised to post more, so here I am, back to post on what? why, paintball of course! :>
I've played once in the past two months. And that time was five weeks ago. Heh... I had a pretty negative experience (which has never been enough to deter me from playing) But, for some reason, I just didn't have the drive to go out and play. So I got rusty... Ahem...
So I went out today because I REALLY wanted to go. My girlfriend was at a family thing, so it was just me. It was the Friendly Fire event I mentioned a few posts ago, so I was ready to have a good time. Before we get started, I take a swig of mountain dew livewire (the BEST dew EVER!) and head out to the field.
Once I get out there I test fire a few times, and see that I'm not getting any air. great, the screwy valve on my 4oz is acting up again. figures. So I unscrew the tank, and change to 12 grams (they always work =)) It was still firing weird, so I gave up and walked back to the car. On the way, I realized that I must have put it together wrong, because phantoms don't just *stop working* I mean... They're not Shockers! (burn!) So I start opening it up in the trunk when it hits me, I haven't oiled my baby in months! I quickly drop some oil in the ASA, charge it, and dry fire a few times. *whew* I head to the range and fire off a few, and discover that I'm shooting real low. I check out the TCP and it looks like it's all the way down... With my new light springs, the velocity needs to be set as high as it can be to make it to 280. Now I start to wonder if my springs are acting funny from the heat. (very remote...) I head back to the car and start searching for the spring set. Only to find that I left them at home. Could this be the end for our hero?! In desperation I decide that I should try to get a few more turns out of my velocity adjuster, so I start turning it, and it turns about 7 times... Ok, I must have turned it out while cleaning it ^_^;; I take a few shots, and my phantom is back in action!
Now that I've de-rustified my phantom... I've just got to de-rust myself.
We play a few uneventful games and I start feeling queasy. normal. you just haven't played in so long that the stress and strain of playing is making your stomach upset. this happened the first time you played. no big. I continue to feel worse, and decide it might we wise to sit down. I then proceeded to throw up the entirety of the small swig of mountain dew I took before playing. Wow, ok, THAT was making my stomach upset?! Whatever. I start to feel better but not yet play better! and resume one of the games in progress.
We play about three more games inwhich I play a very small part. it sure it taking some time for me to get back into the swing of things! We have lunch, and I head to the 3 man speedball field to wait for the start of the "1 on 1"s. There's a small group of what one could only describe as agg hk kids with an apparent JT sponsorship... riiiiight... I count them and see that they're even, so I don't ask if I can play on like I usually do. (I'm always eager at the opportunity to take a willing pupil to pump school) They turn to me, and ask if I want to play. I [insert evil grin here] accept. I take out 3 or 4 of them, and pretty much end the game. Afterwards they're all standing around and I tell them that a private group is coming and if they want to play again, they'll need to play quickly. The resounding reply is "err, we need more paint... yeah... more paint..." One of the players is upset that they're not playing again. I offer to play him, to which he replies, "... can you DO that?" "err, what?" "play me with a pump?" 0_0 "yes. I can." "You know that I've got a semi right?" "yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I fire one shot at him, and after seeing him play, decide to take it easy on him. I toy with him for a bit, and then when he tries to flank me I hit him in the leg. Two shots fired After the round, the group insists that they still need to leave to get paint, then hang out to watch the 1 on 1s for 15 minutes. Despite my preparedness I step onto my first round of 1 on 1s with a near-empty 12 gram... Intelligent! So it takes me all of ONE shot to realize that I need to change 12 grams. So, I very carefully divide attention between changing the 12 gram, and not looking like I'm trying to change a 12 gram. =) I get it changed and it takes me all of two shots (the first bounced) to get him. On my next 1 on 1 round I get gogged for playing sloppy. a little pissed at myself, but I didn't really care. I'd rather have someone else win and come back again I like the time after the 1 on 1s because everyone is just standing around, and it usually turns into a few pretty good games on the 3 man speedball field. We play a 5 on 5 game where I do alright, but by the time the next game starts I'm at 100% of my game. I run a pattern to the center 50 off the break, and take out the back right who was playing his bunker so loose that I could see more than half his body when I looked out. After he went out, I saw a 6"x3" area between the spool and the standup that was dark. I shot at it and heard the tell-tail sound of pants being hit I called the player out and he reluctantly left the field. I then moved my attention to the back center player, and after a bit of a fight he went out. There were two in the back left spool/standup I was in the center 50 and keeping an eye on them. After a bit of battle, I started to hear some shots where they shouldn't have been. I suspected one of the players moved to the left 40 spool. So I posted just to the left of it to make sure I caught him in case he decided to make a bunker move to the 50. I was just about to check on the guy in the back left, when I saw a blue vforce profiler pop into my sites, which was soon obscured by a splat of white paint over the mouth. I checked on the back left player quickly to find him moving to bunker up the left tape, I took a shot at him, and ran back to the right side of the 50 bunker as he hit the left side running and firing. He kept running past the 50, and curved around another bunker still firing, it took me two shots to get him. When he started walking off the field, I heard from the side-lines: "The pump wins!" Oh yeah. I'm back.
Afterwards, I caught up with some of my friends who are on a pump team. They are also quite good. I can only consistently eliminate one member of their team. I've hit another member once, and I've never hit the last. They ask me to join them on speedzone and by the time I get there they're about to play some poor souls. The two pump teammates against a pump and two semis, until I walk on to "even" the teams [insert another evil grin here]. We make short work of them, and one of the semis on the opposing team leaves, so I go on their team. After a long battle, I finally shoot out the guy I've never shot out before. twice... oops... He was stepping out, and I took the shot at him, and got back in, when I came back out, I saw him there still and shot him again. When I took the first shot, he was just standing there, so I wondered what was wrong, so I asked him, and before he could respond, his teammate bunkered me, and made short work of the my teammate. I'd like to think that if I knew for sure that the first player was out, I would have turned my attention to his teammate, and nailed him mid-bunker. But that's just speculation... The next round we all broke to our positions, and after some battling I moved up a couple bunkers to a better position (just to keep them from taking them), and we lose our semi teammate. After some more battling, the first guy I shot out the last time popped up out of a bunker 10 feet from me much to my surprise I then battled with him for about 10 more rounds before I needed to change 12grams... fuck. if he hears even the SLIGHTEST hiss from me changing 12 grams, I'm fucked with no lube. I stifle the sound with one glove, and twist with the other, fortunately, there was only a very small hiss as I unscrewed the empty powerlet. After I was back in action I battled a bit more with him, knowing too well how close I was to being bunkered, until it ended abruptly, I shot him out in one of our exchanges of fire. Wow. A few long balls is one thing, but to nail him in an evenly matched close range snap shooting contest? Awesome. by the way, when I play these guys, I have to get in so quickly, I rarely see whether or not my shots hit so when he got up to leave, I asked him what was wrong again. still not fully believing my skill. I was a little perplexed at how to get a better angle on the remaining player. I battled with him a bit and finally decided that my best move would be to a bunker in the middle (he was in a bunker to the center-left) The only problem was that the bunker was parallel to his, and about 10 feet ahead of his. So I would have a good angle on him, but very little cover (because I'd be sitting in the corner farthest from him), and very little chance of not getting spotting running there, or being heard either running there and sliding in. (still remembering that I could hear his approach before his bunker the last game) Just then I hear the train passing... I'm such a dick. I use the sound of the train to mask my approach to the bunker, and catch him totally by surprise, but still his reflexes save him from getting hit. He moves back and I sit at my bunker properly happy to use it for its fullest abilities. My teammate moves up and gets shot out just as I take out the last guy. My second shot on this player. Great fucking day.
I promised to post more, so here I am, back to post on what? why, paintball of course! :>
I've played once in the past two months. And that time was five weeks ago. Heh... I had a pretty negative experience (which has never been enough to deter me from playing) But, for some reason, I just didn't have the drive to go out and play. So I got rusty... Ahem...
So I went out today because I REALLY wanted to go. My girlfriend was at a family thing, so it was just me. It was the Friendly Fire event I mentioned a few posts ago, so I was ready to have a good time. Before we get started, I take a swig of mountain dew livewire (the BEST dew EVER!) and head out to the field.
Once I get out there I test fire a few times, and see that I'm not getting any air. great, the screwy valve on my 4oz is acting up again. figures. So I unscrew the tank, and change to 12 grams (they always work =)) It was still firing weird, so I gave up and walked back to the car. On the way, I realized that I must have put it together wrong, because phantoms don't just *stop working* I mean... They're not Shockers! (burn!) So I start opening it up in the trunk when it hits me, I haven't oiled my baby in months! I quickly drop some oil in the ASA, charge it, and dry fire a few times. *whew* I head to the range and fire off a few, and discover that I'm shooting real low. I check out the TCP and it looks like it's all the way down... With my new light springs, the velocity needs to be set as high as it can be to make it to 280. Now I start to wonder if my springs are acting funny from the heat. (very remote...) I head back to the car and start searching for the spring set. Only to find that I left them at home. Could this be the end for our hero?! In desperation I decide that I should try to get a few more turns out of my velocity adjuster, so I start turning it, and it turns about 7 times... Ok, I must have turned it out while cleaning it ^_^;; I take a few shots, and my phantom is back in action!
Now that I've de-rustified my phantom... I've just got to de-rust myself.
We play a few uneventful games and I start feeling queasy. normal. you just haven't played in so long that the stress and strain of playing is making your stomach upset. this happened the first time you played. no big. I continue to feel worse, and decide it might we wise to sit down. I then proceeded to throw up the entirety of the small swig of mountain dew I took before playing. Wow, ok, THAT was making my stomach upset?! Whatever. I start to feel better but not yet play better! and resume one of the games in progress.
We play about three more games inwhich I play a very small part. it sure it taking some time for me to get back into the swing of things! We have lunch, and I head to the 3 man speedball field to wait for the start of the "1 on 1"s. There's a small group of what one could only describe as agg hk kids with an apparent JT sponsorship... riiiiight... I count them and see that they're even, so I don't ask if I can play on like I usually do. (I'm always eager at the opportunity to take a willing pupil to pump school) They turn to me, and ask if I want to play. I [insert evil grin here] accept. I take out 3 or 4 of them, and pretty much end the game. Afterwards they're all standing around and I tell them that a private group is coming and if they want to play again, they'll need to play quickly. The resounding reply is "err, we need more paint... yeah... more paint..." One of the players is upset that they're not playing again. I offer to play him, to which he replies, "... can you DO that?" "err, what?" "play me with a pump?" 0_0 "yes. I can." "You know that I've got a semi right?" "yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I fire one shot at him, and after seeing him play, decide to take it easy on him. I toy with him for a bit, and then when he tries to flank me I hit him in the leg. Two shots fired After the round, the group insists that they still need to leave to get paint, then hang out to watch the 1 on 1s for 15 minutes. Despite my preparedness I step onto my first round of 1 on 1s with a near-empty 12 gram... Intelligent! So it takes me all of ONE shot to realize that I need to change 12 grams. So, I very carefully divide attention between changing the 12 gram, and not looking like I'm trying to change a 12 gram. =) I get it changed and it takes me all of two shots (the first bounced) to get him. On my next 1 on 1 round I get gogged for playing sloppy. a little pissed at myself, but I didn't really care. I'd rather have someone else win and come back again I like the time after the 1 on 1s because everyone is just standing around, and it usually turns into a few pretty good games on the 3 man speedball field. We play a 5 on 5 game where I do alright, but by the time the next game starts I'm at 100% of my game. I run a pattern to the center 50 off the break, and take out the back right who was playing his bunker so loose that I could see more than half his body when I looked out. After he went out, I saw a 6"x3" area between the spool and the standup that was dark. I shot at it and heard the tell-tail sound of pants being hit I called the player out and he reluctantly left the field. I then moved my attention to the back center player, and after a bit of a fight he went out. There were two in the back left spool/standup I was in the center 50 and keeping an eye on them. After a bit of battle, I started to hear some shots where they shouldn't have been. I suspected one of the players moved to the left 40 spool. So I posted just to the left of it to make sure I caught him in case he decided to make a bunker move to the 50. I was just about to check on the guy in the back left, when I saw a blue vforce profiler pop into my sites, which was soon obscured by a splat of white paint over the mouth. I checked on the back left player quickly to find him moving to bunker up the left tape, I took a shot at him, and ran back to the right side of the 50 bunker as he hit the left side running and firing. He kept running past the 50, and curved around another bunker still firing, it took me two shots to get him. When he started walking off the field, I heard from the side-lines: "The pump wins!" Oh yeah. I'm back.
Afterwards, I caught up with some of my friends who are on a pump team. They are also quite good. I can only consistently eliminate one member of their team. I've hit another member once, and I've never hit the last. They ask me to join them on speedzone and by the time I get there they're about to play some poor souls. The two pump teammates against a pump and two semis, until I walk on to "even" the teams [insert another evil grin here]. We make short work of them, and one of the semis on the opposing team leaves, so I go on their team. After a long battle, I finally shoot out the guy I've never shot out before. twice... oops... He was stepping out, and I took the shot at him, and got back in, when I came back out, I saw him there still and shot him again. When I took the first shot, he was just standing there, so I wondered what was wrong, so I asked him, and before he could respond, his teammate bunkered me, and made short work of the my teammate. I'd like to think that if I knew for sure that the first player was out, I would have turned my attention to his teammate, and nailed him mid-bunker. But that's just speculation... The next round we all broke to our positions, and after some battling I moved up a couple bunkers to a better position (just to keep them from taking them), and we lose our semi teammate. After some more battling, the first guy I shot out the last time popped up out of a bunker 10 feet from me much to my surprise I then battled with him for about 10 more rounds before I needed to change 12grams... fuck. if he hears even the SLIGHTEST hiss from me changing 12 grams, I'm fucked with no lube. I stifle the sound with one glove, and twist with the other, fortunately, there was only a very small hiss as I unscrewed the empty powerlet. After I was back in action I battled a bit more with him, knowing too well how close I was to being bunkered, until it ended abruptly, I shot him out in one of our exchanges of fire. Wow. A few long balls is one thing, but to nail him in an evenly matched close range snap shooting contest? Awesome. by the way, when I play these guys, I have to get in so quickly, I rarely see whether or not my shots hit so when he got up to leave, I asked him what was wrong again. still not fully believing my skill. I was a little perplexed at how to get a better angle on the remaining player. I battled with him a bit and finally decided that my best move would be to a bunker in the middle (he was in a bunker to the center-left) The only problem was that the bunker was parallel to his, and about 10 feet ahead of his. So I would have a good angle on him, but very little cover (because I'd be sitting in the corner farthest from him), and very little chance of not getting spotting running there, or being heard either running there and sliding in. (still remembering that I could hear his approach before his bunker the last game) Just then I hear the train passing... I'm such a dick. I use the sound of the train to mask my approach to the bunker, and catch him totally by surprise, but still his reflexes save him from getting hit. He moves back and I sit at my bunker properly happy to use it for its fullest abilities. My teammate moves up and gets shot out just as I take out the last guy. My second shot on this player. Great fucking day.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Forgiveness Please
Sorry for the lack of updates. That's it.
I suppose you think you deserve an update... Well... whatever.
Ok, so I wound up getting an iPod for my girlfriend. She enjoyed it so much I wound up getting one of my own. I'm listening to it right now, but yeah I forgot what I was going to say.
I'm just a little preoccupied with work recently. RECENTLY?! Ok, so work's great, but it's just really taking a lot out of me. (Like this web log) Most recently, I've been stressing this report/project thing for the past four days. Yeah, about 5 hours a day on average Which, coupled with the urgency associated with it for some reason They wanted us to hurry up, and then took forever sending the check... a week and a half later they're all about hurrying up! go fig. Oh, yeah, and they're doing some kind of monkey business to keep me from getting a solid bead on their network. I'm convinced they're screwing with me. What's worse, is that the lead engineer, and the CTO are just letting it slide. What the fuck ever happened to integrity??? When I told the CTO about the initial bit of strangeness, and what I suspected was happening (they were trying to get a gold star on their security test by cheating)
He was really upset by it, and was not going to sign his name on an incomplete report. So then, more wierdness happens, and I just kind of blow it off, THEN even MORE unexplainable crap starts happening, and when I send the e-mail saying that I'm almost sure they're fucking around on this report to get a better score, noone give a shit. "eh, well, it really needs to be done by tomorrow... But it would be incomplete then. Well... it really needs to be done by tomorrow...
I mean, I'm not really a dick, but that's fucked. And on TOP of that, the engineer that's going to be presenting the report, wants a day or two to change the format that is (agreeably) old, to something more user-friendly. Cool! But then she gets on my tits about turning it in "late" I really needed more time to reformat it, because the director of IT isn't going to understand what you gave me. If I was to give it to you in another format, I missed the e-mail. Well I know it's the same format that has always been used, but I just wanted to change it all around. I just rescheduled the meeting for Monday. That's fine. I understand. But when it gets down to the wire, and the customer (or one of their IT staff) is fucking up the results, you have to make the decision between complete, or now. And for all we know, the IT guy is fucking us up, so he can make us look bad. not that turning in an incomplete report doesn't make us look bad all by itself...
And what really gets me, is that the customer won't even know it's incomplete! They'll glance at it, and toss it into the pile of SEC filings! And what gets me EVEN MORE, is that the head engineer, and the CTO know this, and they're getting away with the incomplete report because they want it on Friday. I'm the only one saying "yeah, I COULD send it over, but it would be incomplete!" "Yeah... well... friday..." Well excuse me for taking some pride in my work damnit. I'm the only one upset by the fact that the customer isn't getting what they're paying for. Oh, by the way the customer doesn't even WANT it, they HAVE to do it because they're a publicly traded company!
So, to recap, the customer HAS to get a security audit done, they contract us to do it, they don't pay us for a week and a half, they demand we hurry after we finally get the check, they procede to disturb my ability to do the work we were contracted for, they want the report ASAP, I keep seeing wierd shit, so I have to backtrack, and do things over, I share this fact with everyone concerned, and they reply with a resounding; "Well... just finish it up, the customer is clapping his hands impatiently!" Way to go guys. Show some fucking backbone. At least pretend not to roll over so easily. It's not like we don't make bank. What's another 5 grand if we earned it by cutting corners and letting our customer tamper with the results and let them get away with it.
I can understand wanting to make the customer happy, but letting the customer dictate what happens when, how, and why is not (in my experience) our company style. ESPECIALLY when the the customer is paying for it against their will.
frustration
I'm just really starting to feel work catching up with me. Physically I mean. There aren't many mental things that can make me physically ill, because there are very few things that I take so seriously. But, like it or not, it seems work has become one of those things. Greaaaaaaat...
I guess there's two ways you can take work... You can either keep work and not-work completely seperate, in mind and practice, or you can mesh the two together, and hope the reaction of the two doesn't tie your intestines into a sheep's shank knot. it's not pretty... I guess you could call me idealistic, but I actually believe in "riding the brand". It's so rare that you find a company that you'd even be willing to put 75% of yourself into, that if you do, I figgure go for it. Everyone wants to belong to something bigger than themselves (it's what religion is about). Maybe business is religion to some people.
The only problem, is that lately, the brand has been riding you. You've got hoof-prints up your back, but you're still trying not to wince. maybe I'm not doing things the way I should be. Well, this is just an isolated incident. is it? is it possible you've been so blinded by your devotion the brand, that things have been getting worse and you haven't even noticed? if I haven't noticed, then how am I supposed to answer that? do you feel you're being taken advantage of? what's your real value to the company? i think this is the hole people find themselves in when they overthink things. I don't want to be in that hole. Were they overthinking things or just seeing clearly? there's no way to know that because you leave the company and either made a huge mistake or made the best most you could have. There's no way of knowing after it's done. Fair enough, continue to bust your but for a company that doesn't pay you what you're worth
better to make less working for a company you like with people you can believe in, than making more working at a job you hate with people you hate. is it? is work your life? I don't know. do you want it to be? I'm not sure. I don't think so. then why let work get to you when it can be vestigial to your life's experiences? i think it would be hard to not let work get to you at all, it takes up so much of your life, how could it not? it's been done. rethink your allegance. dont forget that at the end of the day, you are the one living your life. yeah, but at the end of the day, I also have to look at myself in the mirror. there's no shame is being selfish. and your friends and coworkers would WANT you to go some place better. it's not really so selfish if others would want the same for you. If I think bob is a nice guy and I wish him success, and he screws over jim to obtain success, am I happy for him? but you're not screwing over anyone.
youre just trying to be happy be happy by letting down my friends/coworkers? don't be so dramatic they want what's best for you. if what's best for you lies elsewhere, they'd be remiss to keep you from your opportunity.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Finances
Hokai... so, the other day I was working on my finances bills, bills, bills, paycheck and I figured a way to get everything balanced...
Usually because bills come at different times 1st-14th and 15th-30th and because some bills are bigger than others, it can be cumbersome balancing everything, ESPECIALLY when some unexpected expense comes up. But that goes without saying... Anyway, to the balancing!
Our rent is due on the first. It is paid with a check from my girlfriend. I give her the money, she deposits it into her account, and the check goes in the box. Well, I get paid on the first, so when the first rolls around, it didn't make much sense to be scrambling to the bank (especially with their hours!) to get the money out, only to have my girlfriend deposit it in time for the check to go through. So, one month, I paid my portion of the rent with my check on the first, and took out half the money for the next rent. Then on the 15th, took out the other half, and had 15 days to get it into her account for everything to go smoothly. So I "paid" a little extra off my first check to get ahead and have the money early, instead of scrambling on the first of the next month.
There have been two occasions where my company was a day late to direct deposit. Each time, the accounting department is full of apologies, and offers of advances, and driving out from Trabuco Canyon to deliver a check so there will be money in the account on the first. Both times I declined, and assured them, that nothing was going to bounce, explode, or rain brimstone from the sky if I didn't have the money in my account at 12:00:01 AM on the first.
but enough stating the obvious I managed to do the same thing with all of my bills. Or, rather, figured out HOW I could do the same thing. It would keep everything balanced, so I would have the same amount of money after bills each paycheck. No more waiting till the 15th because I have fewer bills than the 1st. But, as before, I'm going to have to pay a little extra in April. It *should* work out. Actually, there's no reason it wouldn't... two words... i, pod! Oh yeah, that. Well that's obviously going to have to wait. But for that, I plan to pay down my credit card, and use it for that purchase. keeping your credit card at 75% "full" may cost you in intrest, but is great for improving your credit. If april goes off without a hitch (<-ipod) I'll also be able to institute a good savings regiment. And put it all towards closing out some of these meddlesome bills...
So, uh... yeah. Not sure why you all needed to know that... I was just kind of proud of myself for figuring out how to balance all the crap that's been weighing me down lately.
Usually because bills come at different times 1st-14th and 15th-30th and because some bills are bigger than others, it can be cumbersome balancing everything, ESPECIALLY when some unexpected expense comes up. But that goes without saying... Anyway, to the balancing!
Our rent is due on the first. It is paid with a check from my girlfriend. I give her the money, she deposits it into her account, and the check goes in the box. Well, I get paid on the first, so when the first rolls around, it didn't make much sense to be scrambling to the bank (especially with their hours!) to get the money out, only to have my girlfriend deposit it in time for the check to go through. So, one month, I paid my portion of the rent with my check on the first, and took out half the money for the next rent. Then on the 15th, took out the other half, and had 15 days to get it into her account for everything to go smoothly. So I "paid" a little extra off my first check to get ahead and have the money early, instead of scrambling on the first of the next month.
There have been two occasions where my company was a day late to direct deposit. Each time, the accounting department is full of apologies, and offers of advances, and driving out from Trabuco Canyon to deliver a check so there will be money in the account on the first. Both times I declined, and assured them, that nothing was going to bounce, explode, or rain brimstone from the sky if I didn't have the money in my account at 12:00:01 AM on the first.
but enough stating the obvious I managed to do the same thing with all of my bills. Or, rather, figured out HOW I could do the same thing. It would keep everything balanced, so I would have the same amount of money after bills each paycheck. No more waiting till the 15th because I have fewer bills than the 1st. But, as before, I'm going to have to pay a little extra in April. It *should* work out. Actually, there's no reason it wouldn't... two words... i, pod! Oh yeah, that. Well that's obviously going to have to wait. But for that, I plan to pay down my credit card, and use it for that purchase. keeping your credit card at 75% "full" may cost you in intrest, but is great for improving your credit. If april goes off without a hitch (<-ipod) I'll also be able to institute a good savings regiment. And put it all towards closing out some of these meddlesome bills...
So, uh... yeah. Not sure why you all needed to know that... I was just kind of proud of myself for figuring out how to balance all the crap that's been weighing me down lately.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Swimming in the iPOND
I've been avoiding the iPOND for a while. it's not that it's terribly crowded, I just don't like the neighbors The extend of my Mac knowledge and experience can be summed up in a recent 90 second walk through a mac store. The possibility of buying a mac was one of those things that just kind of sits in the back of your mind, and stands in front of other thoughts or notions. So you're trying to think of whether you'd prefer paper or plastic, and BAM you're pondering the merits of macs versus PCs...
Now, don't get me wrong... I'm no mac-hater. I just hate the people who use them. People with purple hair, no less than 5 piercings, eyeshadow, and a big neon sign strapped to their back blinking "TORTURED ARTIST" (or "EMO", whatever the fuck that is). Generally, they're the crowd who got a hardon when they read apple's logo/motto thing, Think Different If... If I buy that... then I'll be different too! Yeah, dipshit. buy it. Buy it all.
Of course I'm generalizing, and I'd do it less if generalizations weren't so damned accurate.
Ok, so attention freaks who take hours engineering their hair to appear messy aside, I don't have much against Macs. especially since OS X runs on a Unix kernel! god I'm a geek. So I was just a cup of tea away from seriously considering purchasing a mac laptop.
But change is not to be taken lightly, especially THIS change There was a mac store at south coast plaza, a mall my girlfriend and I frequent. I'd resolved to take a look around, and told my girlfriend. Who probably wondered why it was such a big deal. We went to the mac store, and I couldn't do it. I felt like I was betraying all those PCs whom I'd loved so much. As we walked around I re-resolved to go in on our way out.
I cautiously approached the store, and held my breath. I was in apple country now.
Before I could take a look at some laptop specs or prices I was suprised to see how many people were in the store, clammering to get this, or buy that, asking questions to salespeople with hair colors that probably matched the "flavors" of the iMAC. We walked on. I had a tough time seeing the merchansise through the people milling about, or asking idiotic questions. "I need to get on the internet, can this do that?" My head began to hurt. I spotted the iPOD display, and wanted to check it out, but alas, surrounded by people. We walked on. Then, suddenly, sales people jumped from nowhere, asking if we needed any help! A quick, deflective retort; "no thanks." prevented almost certain annoyance! that was needlessly dramatic. Kinda funny, but still needlessly dramatic We neared the exit and left. My girlfriend asked, "Well? Did you see anything?" I replied, "Yes, I saw all the people I talk to on the phone who need help clicking on the start button"
I can't get a mac. It would be like denying my heritage. It would be like selling out. It would be like admitting defeat. Plus, this is fuggin' hilarious: http://www.ancientspear.com/mac.wvx
I won't buy a Mac.
This does not mean I won't consider an iPOD... From everything I've read, it seems nothing can stack up to it. Every "iPOD Killer" has floundered and failed, and served only to underscore the reasons for the iPOD's impressive market share.
For the longest time I'd been hard-pressed to find a reason for adding the iPOD to my portable music player collection. CD players, Mp3 players, MiniDisc players, the list goes on. iPOD's 9 hours of battery life was a great deterrent compaired to my MiniDisc player's GODLIKE 52 hours of battery life. CD players for sitting an listening to, mp3 players for listening while actively moving (they never skip), MiniDisc for everything in-between. I didn't really see why one would want an iPOD. A little bit ago, it clicked. I grabbed my MiniDisc player and my "James Bond MiniDisc case" (discontinued, it carries four minidiscs as compactly as possible. It gets its name because if James Bond had a minidisc case, this is the one he would have!) Anyways, I was trying to make a selection of minidiscs to place in the case. I was limited to 4, so I had to choose carefully. It was at this point I realized that the reason the iPOD is so popular, is because you don't have to choose. You can put every cd and MP3 you own onto it, sort them, and listen to any one of them you want in seconds. Actually, I'm remembering using the xbox to listen to music, and thinking of how nice it was to have all the music at my fingertips. Listen to two songs from this cd, then skip over to this one, then that, whatever you want. At that moment, I was sold.
I appreciate my music, and very often I find myself remembering songs or humming songs and trying to remember to listen to them when I get home. This usually leads to me forgetting, and I get stuck humming them the next day too! As a side note, when I began looking into the iPODs again, I found that the price had been lowered, and the mini now came in a 6GB version. Additionally, they've upped the battery life to a tolerable 18 hours! Score. I will have to get one as soon as I can furthur justify the purchase to myself. I'm weak, it won't take long.
Now, don't get me wrong... I'm no mac-hater. I just hate the people who use them. People with purple hair, no less than 5 piercings, eyeshadow, and a big neon sign strapped to their back blinking "TORTURED ARTIST" (or "EMO", whatever the fuck that is). Generally, they're the crowd who got a hardon when they read apple's logo/motto thing, Think Different If... If I buy that... then I'll be different too! Yeah, dipshit. buy it. Buy it all.
Of course I'm generalizing, and I'd do it less if generalizations weren't so damned accurate.
Ok, so attention freaks who take hours engineering their hair to appear messy aside, I don't have much against Macs. especially since OS X runs on a Unix kernel! god I'm a geek. So I was just a cup of tea away from seriously considering purchasing a mac laptop.
But change is not to be taken lightly, especially THIS change There was a mac store at south coast plaza, a mall my girlfriend and I frequent. I'd resolved to take a look around, and told my girlfriend. Who probably wondered why it was such a big deal. We went to the mac store, and I couldn't do it. I felt like I was betraying all those PCs whom I'd loved so much. As we walked around I re-resolved to go in on our way out.
I cautiously approached the store, and held my breath. I was in apple country now.
Before I could take a look at some laptop specs or prices I was suprised to see how many people were in the store, clammering to get this, or buy that, asking questions to salespeople with hair colors that probably matched the "flavors" of the iMAC. We walked on. I had a tough time seeing the merchansise through the people milling about, or asking idiotic questions. "I need to get on the internet, can this do that?" My head began to hurt. I spotted the iPOD display, and wanted to check it out, but alas, surrounded by people. We walked on. Then, suddenly, sales people jumped from nowhere, asking if we needed any help! A quick, deflective retort; "no thanks." prevented almost certain annoyance! that was needlessly dramatic. Kinda funny, but still needlessly dramatic We neared the exit and left. My girlfriend asked, "Well? Did you see anything?" I replied, "Yes, I saw all the people I talk to on the phone who need help clicking on the start button"
I can't get a mac. It would be like denying my heritage. It would be like selling out. It would be like admitting defeat. Plus, this is fuggin' hilarious: http://www.ancientspear.com/mac.wvx
I won't buy a Mac.
This does not mean I won't consider an iPOD... From everything I've read, it seems nothing can stack up to it. Every "iPOD Killer" has floundered and failed, and served only to underscore the reasons for the iPOD's impressive market share.
For the longest time I'd been hard-pressed to find a reason for adding the iPOD to my portable music player collection. CD players, Mp3 players, MiniDisc players, the list goes on. iPOD's 9 hours of battery life was a great deterrent compaired to my MiniDisc player's GODLIKE 52 hours of battery life. CD players for sitting an listening to, mp3 players for listening while actively moving (they never skip), MiniDisc for everything in-between. I didn't really see why one would want an iPOD. A little bit ago, it clicked. I grabbed my MiniDisc player and my "James Bond MiniDisc case" (discontinued, it carries four minidiscs as compactly as possible. It gets its name because if James Bond had a minidisc case, this is the one he would have!) Anyways, I was trying to make a selection of minidiscs to place in the case. I was limited to 4, so I had to choose carefully. It was at this point I realized that the reason the iPOD is so popular, is because you don't have to choose. You can put every cd and MP3 you own onto it, sort them, and listen to any one of them you want in seconds. Actually, I'm remembering using the xbox to listen to music, and thinking of how nice it was to have all the music at my fingertips. Listen to two songs from this cd, then skip over to this one, then that, whatever you want. At that moment, I was sold.
I appreciate my music, and very often I find myself remembering songs or humming songs and trying to remember to listen to them when I get home. This usually leads to me forgetting, and I get stuck humming them the next day too! As a side note, when I began looking into the iPODs again, I found that the price had been lowered, and the mini now came in a 6GB version. Additionally, they've upped the battery life to a tolerable 18 hours! Score. I will have to get one as soon as I can furthur justify the purchase to myself. I'm weak, it won't take long.
The Pacifier, a review
Ok, ok, before you all start throwing popcorn at your screen listen for a sec.
I went and saw this Disney movie for some reason. Mid-way through the movie I stopped and tried to recall what exactly made me want to see this movie. There was no misleading advertising. There was no shameless editing of scenes to make them appear funnier. There was nothing to lead you to expect anything more from the movie than one could ascertain by watching a 30 second preview. But for some reason I wanted to see this movie. So we went to see it Saturday night... Or sunday... no, it was saturday. Ok, so we saw it on Saturday night. And I honestly believe the only thing that kept me from vomiting all over the person in the row ahead of me, was that the director, writer, and actors, seemed to know that this was a hack movie. Same tired story, same quick puns, same token comic relief characters, same tired ending. They knew what they were doing was old news, but instead of pretending it was new and novel, they just seemed to have more fun with it. It's hard to explain.
Vin Diesel, who's real name is probably Ira Haslowzski, played his typical bad-ass self (the same self I loved to listen to in "The Chronicles of Riddick" (on xbox), and when it was time for him to put on the fake plastic tear, he did. They even injected a little bit of "coming of age" bull-shit into the movie, and I still didn't seem to mind.
This movie had everything I hate and three thing I love! A teenage boy who didn't fit in, a snobby older sister type, some "girl-power" crap, that "coming of age" bs I told you about, stupid one-liners, a vice-principal who thinks he's god, a crotch biting duck, a goofy foreigner, unreal computers, booby traps, korean ninjas, Vin Diesel covered in human waste, montages that show gradual improvement, discrimination, the phrase "You're not my REAL dad!", crappy CG explosions (way to splurge Disney), the movie Ghost, a "daring" jet ski chase, and lastly, a dance made up by a top-level scientist to put his little kid to sleep which actually is the secret method of navigating the booby-trapped hallway to his secret vault hidden in a steel-walled secret facility under his garage accessable by a trap door and a spiral staircase. try to figure out which are the three I like
Anyways, I still have no idea why I went to see this movie, but I have even less of an idea as to why I actually enjoyed it. But don't see it. This is a "blockbuster night" waiting to happen.
I went and saw this Disney movie for some reason. Mid-way through the movie I stopped and tried to recall what exactly made me want to see this movie. There was no misleading advertising. There was no shameless editing of scenes to make them appear funnier. There was nothing to lead you to expect anything more from the movie than one could ascertain by watching a 30 second preview. But for some reason I wanted to see this movie. So we went to see it Saturday night... Or sunday... no, it was saturday. Ok, so we saw it on Saturday night. And I honestly believe the only thing that kept me from vomiting all over the person in the row ahead of me, was that the director, writer, and actors, seemed to know that this was a hack movie. Same tired story, same quick puns, same token comic relief characters, same tired ending. They knew what they were doing was old news, but instead of pretending it was new and novel, they just seemed to have more fun with it. It's hard to explain.
Vin Diesel, who's real name is probably Ira Haslowzski, played his typical bad-ass self (the same self I loved to listen to in "The Chronicles of Riddick" (on xbox), and when it was time for him to put on the fake plastic tear, he did. They even injected a little bit of "coming of age" bull-shit into the movie, and I still didn't seem to mind.
This movie had everything I hate and three thing I love! A teenage boy who didn't fit in, a snobby older sister type, some "girl-power" crap, that "coming of age" bs I told you about, stupid one-liners, a vice-principal who thinks he's god, a crotch biting duck, a goofy foreigner, unreal computers, booby traps, korean ninjas, Vin Diesel covered in human waste, montages that show gradual improvement, discrimination, the phrase "You're not my REAL dad!", crappy CG explosions (way to splurge Disney), the movie Ghost, a "daring" jet ski chase, and lastly, a dance made up by a top-level scientist to put his little kid to sleep which actually is the secret method of navigating the booby-trapped hallway to his secret vault hidden in a steel-walled secret facility under his garage accessable by a trap door and a spiral staircase. try to figure out which are the three I like
Anyways, I still have no idea why I went to see this movie, but I have even less of an idea as to why I actually enjoyed it. But don't see it. This is a "blockbuster night" waiting to happen.
Reffing at Tombstone
Ok, so I reffed. Probably the most difficult part was finding out what fields were open and getting the private group there before someone else did. The private group had the name of Franzoni, last name of the birthday boy. They played pretty well, and there was a tolerable amount of ill will. The little bit of ill will was between the adults big suprise there... and was mainly over who shot who and where and when, and possibly wiping hits off. The adults are concerned with the hits and become overly concerned with "playing fair" (their perception of "fair"). The kids just want to play. Anyways. I didn't have much trouble dividing up the teams the first time, but as rentals began to fail (some to a degree of comedy) and people ran out of air at odd times, the teams became tough to balance. probably the second greatest challenge I was underestimating a group of little kids that hung around the birthday boy. Then I looked over on trenches, and saw them calling cover fire to eachother and moving up in a suprisingly organized fashion! Nice! I had to break them up though, because they were owning too much. Whenever a team was dominating, I'd switch it up a bit, and give the losing team tips on how to play the field, and the important areas. This usually caused the team to win, and then next round I'd give the other team tips. There were some great plays, usually flanking, bunkering (I made sure he was going to ask for surrender, instead of run in shooting), and in the case of a group of young girls... returning fire.
It was jungle and there were two girls behind the house hiding from an enemy in the next bunker up (20 ft away), they were just hiding, but I got right next to them, and urged them to shoot back, and told them where to look out and shoot. Their teammates were cheering them on, and they were afraid, but returned fire anyways. But one ran out of air, and the other ran out of paint. Anticlimactic? Yes. But exciting? Definately. Afterwards I heard the girls talking about how much fun it was. That's what it's all about, getting the young ones to enjoy the sport
It got rather hot that day, and I (by instruction of a more seasoned reff) stuck to the group, who offered me water and food at every turn. I gladly accepted the water, but thought food would be an imposition. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to play town, but I'm actually happy we played the fields we did, because Easter Saturday was the busiest I'd ever seen Tombstone. There were 11 private groups, and an advanced, intermediate, and beginner walk-on. Wow. Which, as a matter of fact, totaled to more fields than tombstone even had to offer. So, balance and communication was the name of the game. Unfortunately I had to take them to boot hill for the last round, which was bad, as expected. But unavoidable.
Anyways, the kids seemed to have fun, and it was fun to see the adults shrink to little kids. if only for a day
My girlfriend played the day by herself, and had a good time. She got quite a few eliminations, but was unhappy with the way the day ended. As I usually am. Near the end of the day, groups meld together, and things get rather loose. This is usually when I try to escape the walk-on groups for some private group that doesn't mind a walk-on. But she had a good time, and got some good eliminations. Oh, and she was playing really aggressively! this makes me happy. this is the one guranteed way to increase your game, play aggressively! Apparently the reffs were mocking the rest of her team for staying back, when a girl was in the front doing all the hard work. She really seems to like this.
For my reffing, I got a $30 tip, very nice of them two cases of mid-grade paint and I'll be damned if it wasn't ONE NOTCH above mid-grade, and a month of free entry that's $30 a weekend for three weekends. I normally wouldn't bother with the paint, but with my girlfriend playing, paint is necessary, so I did kinda do this for her, too.
I do plan, however, to use the paint on our next outting. I didn't get a chance to try my Frantom I barrel, so I checked for the best freak insert for the mid-grade paint and filled my tubes monday morning. I have some old Evil paint, which should still be good, but I have another motive for using the mid-grade, it has a different fill color than the shell. Purple shell (which looks cool by the way), and yellow fill will allow me to better ascertain when my paint has broken on a target. There have been cases in the past when my orange shell orange fill Evil seemed to not break on the target, or seemed to get cleaned off shortly after the break. And I, being the fair player that I am, cannot say anything besides I know the ball hit, but I don't know for sure that it broke. But with a different fill color, I'll know for sure when someone needs to get out... Excellent. I am still bringing the evil along this saturday just in case the paint (which does not have a gel shell) is reluctant to break on softer targets. The evil is a smaller bore than I would be comfortable shooting through the frantom (I don't have an insert that small) and would have to use the stock barrel and a detent ring. Maybe I could use the frantom with the smallest insert with a detent ring... I may try that.
It was jungle and there were two girls behind the house hiding from an enemy in the next bunker up (20 ft away), they were just hiding, but I got right next to them, and urged them to shoot back, and told them where to look out and shoot. Their teammates were cheering them on, and they were afraid, but returned fire anyways. But one ran out of air, and the other ran out of paint. Anticlimactic? Yes. But exciting? Definately. Afterwards I heard the girls talking about how much fun it was. That's what it's all about, getting the young ones to enjoy the sport
It got rather hot that day, and I (by instruction of a more seasoned reff) stuck to the group, who offered me water and food at every turn. I gladly accepted the water, but thought food would be an imposition. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to play town, but I'm actually happy we played the fields we did, because Easter Saturday was the busiest I'd ever seen Tombstone. There were 11 private groups, and an advanced, intermediate, and beginner walk-on. Wow. Which, as a matter of fact, totaled to more fields than tombstone even had to offer. So, balance and communication was the name of the game. Unfortunately I had to take them to boot hill for the last round, which was bad, as expected. But unavoidable.
Anyways, the kids seemed to have fun, and it was fun to see the adults shrink to little kids. if only for a day
My girlfriend played the day by herself, and had a good time. She got quite a few eliminations, but was unhappy with the way the day ended. As I usually am. Near the end of the day, groups meld together, and things get rather loose. This is usually when I try to escape the walk-on groups for some private group that doesn't mind a walk-on. But she had a good time, and got some good eliminations. Oh, and she was playing really aggressively! this makes me happy. this is the one guranteed way to increase your game, play aggressively! Apparently the reffs were mocking the rest of her team for staying back, when a girl was in the front doing all the hard work. She really seems to like this.
For my reffing, I got a $30 tip, very nice of them two cases of mid-grade paint and I'll be damned if it wasn't ONE NOTCH above mid-grade, and a month of free entry that's $30 a weekend for three weekends. I normally wouldn't bother with the paint, but with my girlfriend playing, paint is necessary, so I did kinda do this for her, too.
I do plan, however, to use the paint on our next outting. I didn't get a chance to try my Frantom I barrel, so I checked for the best freak insert for the mid-grade paint and filled my tubes monday morning. I have some old Evil paint, which should still be good, but I have another motive for using the mid-grade, it has a different fill color than the shell. Purple shell (which looks cool by the way), and yellow fill will allow me to better ascertain when my paint has broken on a target. There have been cases in the past when my orange shell orange fill Evil seemed to not break on the target, or seemed to get cleaned off shortly after the break. And I, being the fair player that I am, cannot say anything besides I know the ball hit, but I don't know for sure that it broke. But with a different fill color, I'll know for sure when someone needs to get out... Excellent. I am still bringing the evil along this saturday just in case the paint (which does not have a gel shell) is reluctant to break on softer targets. The evil is a smaller bore than I would be comfortable shooting through the frantom (I don't have an insert that small) and would have to use the stock barrel and a detent ring. Maybe I could use the frantom with the smallest insert with a detent ring... I may try that.
Friday, March 25, 2005
Paintball pictures from last Saturday
ENJOY!!!111
My girlfriend covering me before I make a run along the tapeline to bunker the last of the team.
My girlfriend covering me before I make a run along the tapeline to bunker the last of the team.
Sliding into a bunker... Just playin' in the dirt!
A Pump player in his natural habitat... the snake!
The images don't allow linking, you have to click on the glider to see the pictures... click away!
Click on any of the images for the FRIGGIN HUGE version...
YAPP (yet another paintball post)
My girlfriend and I went paintballing last saturday, and had a great day playing and rest of the day watching pros play.
We went out with group called "Friendly Fire", and or "Too Much Phun". They run every first Saturday to SC Village, and third Saturday to Tombstone Paintball park. I usually try to avoid SC Village, but considering the last time I went there was a long time ago, I'm considering going with them next month.
A quick aside about why I like FF. Friendly Fire is $20 admission, BYOP (bring your own paint), free entry to the raffle (and you can buy more tickets at less then a dollar a piece) I usually by $20 worth of tickets, and get somewhere between $30-$100 worth of gear, free lunch and I'm not talking about no shitty "continental breakfast" free food, this is a jumbo jack, two 1/2 liter bottles of water, soda (name brand stuff too!), and candy (nutter-butter, famos amos cookies, etc.) Plus, there's always extra water and soda. Free CO2 fills ($6 at tombstone for a 20oz!), free marker tech (alone worth the $20!!!) I know the tech, and he's no dummy. And a fun day of ballin'! The last one usually costs extra =) This is EASILY the best deal in paintball.
I. Shit. You. NOT.
Anyway, for more info on FF, comment on the post. I get the e-mails.
Oop, almost forgot, there's a photography crew there. They follow you onto every field and take whatever pictures seem like good ones to take! At the end of the day, they post all the pictures they took (in small form, like 50 to a page), you look over them, ask to see a few full sized, and either buy them, or don't! Oh, the options! They do photo-quality print outs in 5x7 and 8x10, trim them for you, and will even provide frames if you want. Friendly Fire is kind of based around bringing in people new to the sport in a friendly environment. and for pretty frickin' cheap at that! You come out, you pay a bit of money, get the chance to win some paintball gear (they raffle off a marker every time), and get some pictures to commemorate your outing! Ok, enough shameless plugging!
Back to my day... The group was rather small, which I like, but it verged on too small... If the group is too small, you have trouble on larger fields. We played a larger field, and it actually didn't go so badly, because I was still able to control where everyone was (another benefit of smaller groups), and was able to get some good barrel tags, and look good doing it!
In one case we were on back trenches, and another pump player was occuping (occupying?) behind a set of spools, firing to the right and left of the field. I was on the right, and instead of battling with him, I saw a blind spot, right in front of the spool he was behind. I used his cover as my cover. remember kids! always wrap around your bunkers!!! I dropped down into a trench, and ran to the center of the field, and cautiously got out of the trench and made the run across the 30 ft road to the bunker without being noticed. I began to cut around the bunker to check for feet, when I did, I saw a player sitting to the side of the spool in a trench. I shot him out, and heard from behind the spool, "are you out?" and the response from the dead man, "he's right there!". I snap around the right corner knowing he was firing to the left before his friend called me out. I see his back two feet from me, and must reign in my eager Phantom MAETH, and inform the player that he is out. It took a couple of times to convince him of that fact.
In another instance we pushed them back to their first bunker line on boxes. My girlfriend covered me while I ran in to take the last bunker. I couldn't resist buying the picture that was taken just before my run, it will follow. I ran to the last bunker, careful not to overrun it, because you can't really take a long bunker wide without being able to lay paint. I hit the corner of the bunker, and pop out autotriggering a group of three at my feet. I get back in because of a player 6 feet ahead with some cover between me and he. It takes two shots to gog him, I then run down the bunker line to the corner, and approach the last enemy low behind a board covering the trench-type bunker he was in. I popped up above the board once I got there, and let the player know that he was now out. Again, I had to tell him a few times. Afterwards the guy told me that he was confused why someone from his side of the field was telling him that he was out, and then he saw my band flying out from behind my head. (Bands are used to seperate the teams, one side ties orange bands to the back of their masks, and the other team doesn't. The teams: Bands and No-Bands) And the peasants rejoice.
We later played town. For those of you who may know the field, we were on the side nearest the back speedball field There were about 8 of us, five took left and myself, my girlfriend, and another (pretty skilled) player took right. The 5 were a group of 5, and didn't want the likely possibility of getting owned for being underpowered on an important side of the field break up their group. Fine. More elimination for us. We had little trouble taking the right side, and were soon at their 10. Perhaps the No-Bands had the same problem with the same side. Should have selected more skilled players. We began working our way toward the left side of the field from their starting point to take them by suprise. Well, the (pretty skilled) player took the far side, and jumped the gun. He unloaded a hopper in the general direction of a group of 4 of the opposing team. I think he hit one of them, but as a bonus, our cover was blown! We began battling with the players in a couple of houses who were also battling our teammates on the other side of them. To properly explain the tactics involved in the following manuver please imagine 9 square houses set up in a 3x3 pattern (as it would appear from above. Just three rows of three boxes (houses) forming a square Now remove the bottom middle box. I was in the bottom left house, in the bottom right corner (door), when I see across the open space (empty bottom middle space) an enemy in the window of the house across mine (the bottom right house, window in the bottom left corner of the house, another window in the left middle of the house). We fire at eachother a bit, and when he gets in his window I exit my door into the empty space, and run toward the side of the house in the center of the 3x3. I see his barrel stick out the window, aiming at the door where I was. Once I'm at enough of an angle, I run towards the center window of the house he's in, quickly check the other walls of the house to see if I'm safe to hang in the window, and pop through the window facing the player in the corner. He is crouched down leaning out the door aiming at the door I was at. I think he saw something out the corner of his eye and ignored it to pay attention my door. I say "Hey player, you're out." He turns his head to see me, looks back at the door, and puts his marker up and walks off. I enter the house and move to the door joining the bottom right house and the right center house. I slice the pie on the door, and see a player sitting with his back to the wall between two windows, with his marker in his lap aiming in my general direction. I took him by suprise, but since I could see down the barrel I shot him in the mask before he could react. A split second after I shot him before he could react, he reacted. He put his empty hands forward showing me his palms and said "I surrender!" yeah. You can't surrender if you're already dead! :P
I'd been thinking about reffing for Tombstone for a while, but had just decided I should do it. Everyone there knows me (or rather knows of me), and I'd like to do my part to make sure everyone has fun. aaaand... you get free admission for a month, and two cases of (mid-grade) paint! That's worth about $100 to me. I'm probably going to ref this Saturday. Rest assured that you all will know my thoughts afterwards. Update: I will be reffing this Saturday. So if anyone is reading this, look for the ref with the grey profiler and the black 100th monkey hat
Ah yes, after paintball... We went home, got cleaned up and headed to Main street to check out the NPPL Huntington Beach Tournament. When we got there, I called my friend and he got us VIP behind the main field. We had front row seats to see Infamous get totaled. It was nice. Afterwards we had dinner at Wahoo's on Main. Got the Bonzai burrito, it was good stuff. I look forward to going there in the future. Had dinner with my friend, his brother, who was in the tournament, and some of his teammates.
All-in-all, a kick-ass day. Oh yeah, my girlfriend is getting pretty good. I'm proud.
We went out with group called "Friendly Fire", and or "Too Much Phun". They run every first Saturday to SC Village, and third Saturday to Tombstone Paintball park. I usually try to avoid SC Village, but considering the last time I went there was a long time ago, I'm considering going with them next month.
A quick aside about why I like FF. Friendly Fire is $20 admission, BYOP (bring your own paint), free entry to the raffle (and you can buy more tickets at less then a dollar a piece) I usually by $20 worth of tickets, and get somewhere between $30-$100 worth of gear, free lunch and I'm not talking about no shitty "continental breakfast" free food, this is a jumbo jack, two 1/2 liter bottles of water, soda (name brand stuff too!), and candy (nutter-butter, famos amos cookies, etc.) Plus, there's always extra water and soda. Free CO2 fills ($6 at tombstone for a 20oz!), free marker tech (alone worth the $20!!!) I know the tech, and he's no dummy. And a fun day of ballin'! The last one usually costs extra =) This is EASILY the best deal in paintball.
I. Shit. You. NOT.
Anyway, for more info on FF, comment on the post. I get the e-mails.
Oop, almost forgot, there's a photography crew there. They follow you onto every field and take whatever pictures seem like good ones to take! At the end of the day, they post all the pictures they took (in small form, like 50 to a page), you look over them, ask to see a few full sized, and either buy them, or don't! Oh, the options! They do photo-quality print outs in 5x7 and 8x10, trim them for you, and will even provide frames if you want. Friendly Fire is kind of based around bringing in people new to the sport in a friendly environment. and for pretty frickin' cheap at that! You come out, you pay a bit of money, get the chance to win some paintball gear (they raffle off a marker every time), and get some pictures to commemorate your outing! Ok, enough shameless plugging!
Back to my day... The group was rather small, which I like, but it verged on too small... If the group is too small, you have trouble on larger fields. We played a larger field, and it actually didn't go so badly, because I was still able to control where everyone was (another benefit of smaller groups), and was able to get some good barrel tags, and look good doing it!
In one case we were on back trenches, and another pump player was occuping (occupying?) behind a set of spools, firing to the right and left of the field. I was on the right, and instead of battling with him, I saw a blind spot, right in front of the spool he was behind. I used his cover as my cover. remember kids! always wrap around your bunkers!!! I dropped down into a trench, and ran to the center of the field, and cautiously got out of the trench and made the run across the 30 ft road to the bunker without being noticed. I began to cut around the bunker to check for feet, when I did, I saw a player sitting to the side of the spool in a trench. I shot him out, and heard from behind the spool, "are you out?" and the response from the dead man, "he's right there!". I snap around the right corner knowing he was firing to the left before his friend called me out. I see his back two feet from me, and must reign in my eager Phantom MAETH, and inform the player that he is out. It took a couple of times to convince him of that fact.
In another instance we pushed them back to their first bunker line on boxes. My girlfriend covered me while I ran in to take the last bunker. I couldn't resist buying the picture that was taken just before my run, it will follow. I ran to the last bunker, careful not to overrun it, because you can't really take a long bunker wide without being able to lay paint. I hit the corner of the bunker, and pop out autotriggering a group of three at my feet. I get back in because of a player 6 feet ahead with some cover between me and he. It takes two shots to gog him, I then run down the bunker line to the corner, and approach the last enemy low behind a board covering the trench-type bunker he was in. I popped up above the board once I got there, and let the player know that he was now out. Again, I had to tell him a few times. Afterwards the guy told me that he was confused why someone from his side of the field was telling him that he was out, and then he saw my band flying out from behind my head. (Bands are used to seperate the teams, one side ties orange bands to the back of their masks, and the other team doesn't. The teams: Bands and No-Bands) And the peasants rejoice.
We later played town. For those of you who may know the field, we were on the side nearest the back speedball field There were about 8 of us, five took left and myself, my girlfriend, and another (pretty skilled) player took right. The 5 were a group of 5, and didn't want the likely possibility of getting owned for being underpowered on an important side of the field break up their group. Fine. More elimination for us. We had little trouble taking the right side, and were soon at their 10. Perhaps the No-Bands had the same problem with the same side. Should have selected more skilled players. We began working our way toward the left side of the field from their starting point to take them by suprise. Well, the (pretty skilled) player took the far side, and jumped the gun. He unloaded a hopper in the general direction of a group of 4 of the opposing team. I think he hit one of them, but as a bonus, our cover was blown! We began battling with the players in a couple of houses who were also battling our teammates on the other side of them. To properly explain the tactics involved in the following manuver please imagine 9 square houses set up in a 3x3 pattern (as it would appear from above. Just three rows of three boxes (houses) forming a square Now remove the bottom middle box. I was in the bottom left house, in the bottom right corner (door), when I see across the open space (empty bottom middle space) an enemy in the window of the house across mine (the bottom right house, window in the bottom left corner of the house, another window in the left middle of the house). We fire at eachother a bit, and when he gets in his window I exit my door into the empty space, and run toward the side of the house in the center of the 3x3. I see his barrel stick out the window, aiming at the door where I was. Once I'm at enough of an angle, I run towards the center window of the house he's in, quickly check the other walls of the house to see if I'm safe to hang in the window, and pop through the window facing the player in the corner. He is crouched down leaning out the door aiming at the door I was at. I think he saw something out the corner of his eye and ignored it to pay attention my door. I say "Hey player, you're out." He turns his head to see me, looks back at the door, and puts his marker up and walks off. I enter the house and move to the door joining the bottom right house and the right center house. I slice the pie on the door, and see a player sitting with his back to the wall between two windows, with his marker in his lap aiming in my general direction. I took him by suprise, but since I could see down the barrel I shot him in the mask before he could react. A split second after I shot him before he could react, he reacted. He put his empty hands forward showing me his palms and said "I surrender!" yeah. You can't surrender if you're already dead! :P
I'd been thinking about reffing for Tombstone for a while, but had just decided I should do it. Everyone there knows me (or rather knows of me), and I'd like to do my part to make sure everyone has fun. aaaand... you get free admission for a month, and two cases of (mid-grade) paint! That's worth about $100 to me. I'm probably going to ref this Saturday. Rest assured that you all will know my thoughts afterwards. Update: I will be reffing this Saturday. So if anyone is reading this, look for the ref with the grey profiler and the black 100th monkey hat
Ah yes, after paintball... We went home, got cleaned up and headed to Main street to check out the NPPL Huntington Beach Tournament. When we got there, I called my friend and he got us VIP behind the main field. We had front row seats to see Infamous get totaled. It was nice. Afterwards we had dinner at Wahoo's on Main. Got the Bonzai burrito, it was good stuff. I look forward to going there in the future. Had dinner with my friend, his brother, who was in the tournament, and some of his teammates.
All-in-all, a kick-ass day. Oh yeah, my girlfriend is getting pretty good. I'm proud.
Me getting a raise:
At a business lunch with my boss...
Conversation about customers and junk is followed by this question.
He: How long have you been working for us?
Me: Almost two years since I started part time.
He: How long since you went full time?
Me: ... about a year I think.
He: Was it last march?
Me: I'm pretty sure.
He: *eating chips*
Me: Wow. A whole year... Hey, I've been full time here a year, I should get a raise.
He: Yeah, you probably should.
Me: ... May I have a raise?
He: Sure.
Me: Ok... Um, how much does one usually ask for? Is there like a set number?
He: I dunno. I know there's a precentage based on standard of living... but I don't know if that works.
Me: Hmm... How much should I ask for?
He: I dunno. How much were you looking for?
Me: ... Ah- ... No clue.
He: Ok, well let me think about this (customer stuff we talked about) and that, (raise stuff) over the weekend and get back to you.
Me: Cool.
Conversation about customers and junk is followed by this question.
He: How long have you been working for us?
Me: Almost two years since I started part time.
He: How long since you went full time?
Me: ... about a year I think.
He: Was it last march?
Me: I'm pretty sure.
He: *eating chips*
Me: Wow. A whole year... Hey, I've been full time here a year, I should get a raise.
He: Yeah, you probably should.
Me: ... May I have a raise?
He: Sure.
Me: Ok... Um, how much does one usually ask for? Is there like a set number?
He: I dunno. I know there's a precentage based on standard of living... but I don't know if that works.
Me: Hmm... How much should I ask for?
He: I dunno. How much were you looking for?
Me: ... Ah- ... No clue.
He: Ok, well let me think about this (customer stuff we talked about) and that, (raise stuff) over the weekend and get back to you.
Me: Cool.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
A poem I found a while back
I Ride On The Bus Into The City Everyday
I Sit On My Seat And I Dream Myself Away
I Dream I'm On An Island With That Pretty Lady Too
But When I Awaken I Must Be Mistaken. I'm On Third Avenue
Won't You Take Me Away And Take Away Me
This was written by someone else. I found it a long time ago. I'd google it, but I really don't care.
I Sit On My Seat And I Dream Myself Away
I Dream I'm On An Island With That Pretty Lady Too
But When I Awaken I Must Be Mistaken. I'm On Third Avenue
Won't You Take Me Away And Take Away Me
This was written by someone else. I found it a long time ago. I'd google it, but I really don't care.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Work. What a terrible idea.
Have no misconceptions; I work. I have a good job that is turning into an even better career. But when I stop and think about it, what are we really doing to ourselves?
Lets say you work a 8-5 job with a 1 hour lunch. You are 30 mins from work, and go to sleep at 10:30pm.
You wake up at 6:30am, take an hour to get ready, drive to work, work, take lunch, work, drive home, and have free time until bed time.
You spend 10 hours working or doing work-related activites.
You spend 5 hours not working.
But you get the weekends, right?
Per week:
50 hours working
52 hours not working
(asuming you sleep in weekends until 9)
50/50 work/play seems like a healthy way to live right? Just wait. Now, "not working" doesn't mean doing whatever you want (I'm sure I don't have to tell you this), especially weekend time. Because on weekends, you have to do all the stuff you didn't have time to do on the weekdays. because you were working, right? So, you go to the bank, you go to the market, you do your laundry, you tidy up a bit, yes, the place is a sty! you run one or two generic errands, and BAM. I'd wager you've lost 30%-50% of your "not working" time. WARNING: CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE! :)
My question, is this: Who decided that this is how it should be? When I have kids, I'm going to want to spend more than 30 hours with them a week! AND, kids usually go to bed before 10:30pm right? I'm not even married, and I'm already cutting time away from my kids!
Most people to to work to support their life. In their "life" they want to do X, z, and sometimes Y. Well, X, Y, and always Z require money. As do many staples of existance. (food, water, optical mice) Hence, we must "work" to support our "life", right? If any of you are nodding... stop it. What most people don't realize, is that work IS their life.
We "work" (overall) more than half our "life".
"Work" gets us money to spend on "life".
So, we work to make money to buy things we need to live longer and continue working.
Money is worthless unless you spend it. And if you work too much, there's no time to spend it.
I spend more time in my chair at work than I do at my apartment, in my car, at a movie, or out paintballing. And, I must work to pay for these things. Is anyone else sensing an inbalance? Are we doomed to work twice as hard for a pay off that is half as much?
I'm not sure what I'm asking/hoping for. I mean, the obvious solution is to work less and make more money, and that will balance things out. But shouldn't the balance be where we all start? Then, once we're balanced, you can choose to ignore your kids, spend more time working to get that boat, or choose to spend less time working, skip the boat and spend more time with your kids. a bad example, but you get the point
I'm not sure to whom I'm compaining, or blaming, if anyone but I came to that realization a bit ago--
and I found it disturbing.
Lets say you work a 8-5 job with a 1 hour lunch. You are 30 mins from work, and go to sleep at 10:30pm.
You wake up at 6:30am, take an hour to get ready, drive to work, work, take lunch, work, drive home, and have free time until bed time.
You spend 10 hours working or doing work-related activites.
You spend 5 hours not working.
But you get the weekends, right?
Per week:
50 hours working
52 hours not working
(asuming you sleep in weekends until 9)
50/50 work/play seems like a healthy way to live right? Just wait. Now, "not working" doesn't mean doing whatever you want (I'm sure I don't have to tell you this), especially weekend time. Because on weekends, you have to do all the stuff you didn't have time to do on the weekdays. because you were working, right? So, you go to the bank, you go to the market, you do your laundry, you tidy up a bit, yes, the place is a sty! you run one or two generic errands, and BAM. I'd wager you've lost 30%-50% of your "not working" time. WARNING: CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE! :)
My question, is this: Who decided that this is how it should be? When I have kids, I'm going to want to spend more than 30 hours with them a week! AND, kids usually go to bed before 10:30pm right? I'm not even married, and I'm already cutting time away from my kids!
Most people to to work to support their life. In their "life" they want to do X, z, and sometimes Y. Well, X, Y, and always Z require money. As do many staples of existance. (food, water, optical mice) Hence, we must "work" to support our "life", right? If any of you are nodding... stop it. What most people don't realize, is that work IS their life.
We "work" (overall) more than half our "life".
"Work" gets us money to spend on "life".
So, we work to make money to buy things we need to live longer and continue working.
Money is worthless unless you spend it. And if you work too much, there's no time to spend it.
I spend more time in my chair at work than I do at my apartment, in my car, at a movie, or out paintballing. And, I must work to pay for these things. Is anyone else sensing an inbalance? Are we doomed to work twice as hard for a pay off that is half as much?
I'm not sure what I'm asking/hoping for. I mean, the obvious solution is to work less and make more money, and that will balance things out. But shouldn't the balance be where we all start? Then, once we're balanced, you can choose to ignore your kids, spend more time working to get that boat, or choose to spend less time working, skip the boat and spend more time with your kids. a bad example, but you get the point
I'm not sure to whom I'm compaining, or blaming, if anyone but I came to that realization a bit ago--
and I found it disturbing.
Friday, March 18, 2005
The PHntom Owners Group
For those of you who may have wandered here looking for CCI Phantom information, look no furthur. I joined the PHOG shortly after I got my Phantom.
It's resource has been invaluable.
Since the internet is about sharing information, I share this information with you in the hopes that you too will benefit from it. Enjoy.
http://p080.ezboard.com/bphantomphorum75007
It's resource has been invaluable.
Since the internet is about sharing information, I share this information with you in the hopes that you too will benefit from it. Enjoy.
http://p080.ezboard.com/bphantomphorum75007
Just SAY IT!
I hate it when people don't say anything when all they have to do is say something. Then they get all worked up over how they didn't say it, and get mad at the person for somehow intimidating them into not saying it. I just find it so annoying because most people are afraid of making others feel negatively about them. Thinking about it now, this might just be a west coast thing... I've heard New Yorkers describe California as The land of big egos, and thin skin We are especially afraid of making those who serve us think poorly of us.
Posit
Waitress brings you your food, it has salt on it, even though you specified that it should NOT have salt on it.
You begin at stage one: Denial
Did... did she put salt on this? Noooo... yes. Oh my, she put salt on it... I said I didn't want salt right? Yes, I remember specifically. It must have been some kind of misunderstanding. I must not have been clear enough.
You then procede to: Realization
She was standing right there when I told her. How could she misunderstand? There's not much to miss in "No salt, please." I saw her write it down after I said it didn't I? She's a professional, she doesn't have to write every little thing down. She just remembered it. Wait. She DIDN'T just remember it. That's the problem...
Now say it with me: Anger
Why would a person do something like that?! You say "No salt, Please" they say "Ok" and BAM! Salt everywhere! Salt pouring from the sky! What is this?! Where am I, the twilight zone?! (then the favorite...) How could a person do this? What did I ever do to her? What makes people ACT like this?! (wait for it...) And you know why she did it? Because she knew I would do nothing! (here it is!!) Who does she think she is?!
--------------------------
Excuse me for a second guys, I couldn't pass this up: Submitted for your approval: A waitress who writhes in extasy with the knowledge that she deliberately delivered a patron's order incorrectly knowing that he would do nothing in retaliation. Could such a sadistic, sociopathic server be a reality?... Surely... In... The Twilight Zone.
--------------------------
And then: Resolve
I'm not going to let her walk all over me! I know my rights, and I have the right NOT to be walked on by the people who bring me MY food! When she gets over here I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. The NERVE! She is going to go home thinking about what she's done here today, because everyone in this resteraunt is going to know! And... and everyone within earshot, I am going to put this place out of business with bad word of mouth. Every person I walk by on the street is going to know the kind of service I paid my hard-earned money for!
Followed immediately by: Curtailment
Do I really want to become one of those people. Those obnoxious people who complain about every little thing? Who do those people think they are, with the right to complain about everyone and every little honest mistake? Can I really become one of those people? How could I even think about doing something so mean? She's just a waitress. She goes home to her apartment just like I do. Do I want to ruin her day over this? I should be above this pettyness. I should... I should just take this with a grain of salt. Ok, ok, sorry guys, but you knew it was coming. =)
And finally: Acceptance
I don't even mind salt that much. In fact, I prefer it on things like pop-corn. I mean, it's involved in almost every bit of cooking I know of. It was demanding of me to order them to remove a necessary cooking ingredient. And who am I to question the chef? This is someone who knows what they are doing, and I am telling him how to do HIS job??? How could I be so thoughtless.
How could you be so thoughtless.
How could YOU be so thoughtless???
HOW COULD YOU BE SO THOUGHTLESS?!
This is intollerable! We ALL have jobs to do, and we can choose to do them well, or do them well enough. Those who chose to do just enough are not doing well enough! And how, HOW do you train a puppy not to do bad things? You let the puppy know what what he/she did was WRONG. It's not that hard, and we don't bat an eyelash at it! And when the puppy knows that it doesn't do that on the couch, it learns not to. And who, praytell benefits from this training??? EVERYONE. You, the puppy, and everyone who comes into contact with the puppy! Everyone benefits when someone does something right.
But wait! If you fail to tell someone how they did not do their job correctly YOU (not anyone else, you.) are doing THEM a disservice! This is a person who is walking through their job absent-mindedly and is not giving you the service that you deserve! (Because you DO deserve it) This person will eventually be fired because their job proformance continued to deteriorate, and YOU are to blame! You had the chance to warn someone, hey, you really gotta straighten up and fly right, or your going to find yourself on the street. In any other job YOU would WANT that courtesy! You're working in your cubical, things are going great, it's a friday, and you're just about to finish up with your paperwork and head off, and Bob walks in. "Hey Tom. Uh, I just wanted to let you know something. There's been a lot of talk around the office about how you've being a bit of a jerk lately. And, uh, some people were thinking about going to the boss about it." Well, it turns out that since you started doing this new report you've been too preoccupied to exchange formalities. Saying Hi, excusing yourself when you pass someone, outwardly appearing as being stand-offish. This is easily remedied, but NOT if you didn't know about it. Bob may have just saved your job. It took guts for Bob to confront you about this. And it takes guts to tell someone what they're doing wrong. YOU ARE NOT being a jerk. Do you think Tom took it personally? Do you think Tom resented Bob for telling him that? NO! Tom was happy! Tom was glad! Tom was thankful that Bob could walk up to him and let him know what he was unaware of. Tell me how this does not translate to the salt thing? I think that we all want to do a good job. Do you think waitresses don't want their customers to be happy? Customers not going to get any happier if their order is wrong. In fact, some customers who are those people will complain to the manager immediately and not even give the waitress the benefit of the doubt. Is that who you'd rather have complaining? The other employees were going to let Tom know what he was doing... Through his BOSS... Is that the kind of respect you want to show the person who is bringing you your food? I hope not. When you let people know when they're doing something incorrectly, YOU ARE DOING EVERYONE A SERVICE. If that person does not seem interested in changing, fine. You've tried. You've let them know how they can become better at what they do. What more CAN you do?
Next time someone screws up in what they say, do, or e-mail... Let them know. Respect them enough to let them know. It might not be too late for them to take corrective action, and become better at what they do.
Posit
Waitress brings you your food, it has salt on it, even though you specified that it should NOT have salt on it.
You begin at stage one: Denial
Did... did she put salt on this? Noooo... yes. Oh my, she put salt on it... I said I didn't want salt right? Yes, I remember specifically. It must have been some kind of misunderstanding. I must not have been clear enough.
You then procede to: Realization
She was standing right there when I told her. How could she misunderstand? There's not much to miss in "No salt, please." I saw her write it down after I said it didn't I? She's a professional, she doesn't have to write every little thing down. She just remembered it. Wait. She DIDN'T just remember it. That's the problem...
Now say it with me: Anger
Why would a person do something like that?! You say "No salt, Please" they say "Ok" and BAM! Salt everywhere! Salt pouring from the sky! What is this?! Where am I, the twilight zone?! (then the favorite...) How could a person do this? What did I ever do to her? What makes people ACT like this?! (wait for it...) And you know why she did it? Because she knew I would do nothing! (here it is!!) Who does she think she is?!
--------------------------
Excuse me for a second guys, I couldn't pass this up: Submitted for your approval: A waitress who writhes in extasy with the knowledge that she deliberately delivered a patron's order incorrectly knowing that he would do nothing in retaliation. Could such a sadistic, sociopathic server be a reality?... Surely... In... The Twilight Zone.
--------------------------
And then: Resolve
I'm not going to let her walk all over me! I know my rights, and I have the right NOT to be walked on by the people who bring me MY food! When she gets over here I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. The NERVE! She is going to go home thinking about what she's done here today, because everyone in this resteraunt is going to know! And... and everyone within earshot, I am going to put this place out of business with bad word of mouth. Every person I walk by on the street is going to know the kind of service I paid my hard-earned money for!
Followed immediately by: Curtailment
Do I really want to become one of those people. Those obnoxious people who complain about every little thing? Who do those people think they are, with the right to complain about everyone and every little honest mistake? Can I really become one of those people? How could I even think about doing something so mean? She's just a waitress. She goes home to her apartment just like I do. Do I want to ruin her day over this? I should be above this pettyness. I should... I should just take this with a grain of salt. Ok, ok, sorry guys, but you knew it was coming. =)
And finally: Acceptance
I don't even mind salt that much. In fact, I prefer it on things like pop-corn. I mean, it's involved in almost every bit of cooking I know of. It was demanding of me to order them to remove a necessary cooking ingredient. And who am I to question the chef? This is someone who knows what they are doing, and I am telling him how to do HIS job??? How could I be so thoughtless.
How could you be so thoughtless.
How could YOU be so thoughtless???
HOW COULD YOU BE SO THOUGHTLESS?!
This is intollerable! We ALL have jobs to do, and we can choose to do them well, or do them well enough. Those who chose to do just enough are not doing well enough! And how, HOW do you train a puppy not to do bad things? You let the puppy know what what he/she did was WRONG. It's not that hard, and we don't bat an eyelash at it! And when the puppy knows that it doesn't do that on the couch, it learns not to. And who, praytell benefits from this training??? EVERYONE. You, the puppy, and everyone who comes into contact with the puppy! Everyone benefits when someone does something right.
But wait! If you fail to tell someone how they did not do their job correctly YOU (not anyone else, you.) are doing THEM a disservice! This is a person who is walking through their job absent-mindedly and is not giving you the service that you deserve! (Because you DO deserve it) This person will eventually be fired because their job proformance continued to deteriorate, and YOU are to blame! You had the chance to warn someone, hey, you really gotta straighten up and fly right, or your going to find yourself on the street. In any other job YOU would WANT that courtesy! You're working in your cubical, things are going great, it's a friday, and you're just about to finish up with your paperwork and head off, and Bob walks in. "Hey Tom. Uh, I just wanted to let you know something. There's been a lot of talk around the office about how you've being a bit of a jerk lately. And, uh, some people were thinking about going to the boss about it." Well, it turns out that since you started doing this new report you've been too preoccupied to exchange formalities. Saying Hi, excusing yourself when you pass someone, outwardly appearing as being stand-offish. This is easily remedied, but NOT if you didn't know about it. Bob may have just saved your job. It took guts for Bob to confront you about this. And it takes guts to tell someone what they're doing wrong. YOU ARE NOT being a jerk. Do you think Tom took it personally? Do you think Tom resented Bob for telling him that? NO! Tom was happy! Tom was glad! Tom was thankful that Bob could walk up to him and let him know what he was unaware of. Tell me how this does not translate to the salt thing? I think that we all want to do a good job. Do you think waitresses don't want their customers to be happy? Customers not going to get any happier if their order is wrong. In fact, some customers who are those people will complain to the manager immediately and not even give the waitress the benefit of the doubt. Is that who you'd rather have complaining? The other employees were going to let Tom know what he was doing... Through his BOSS... Is that the kind of respect you want to show the person who is bringing you your food? I hope not. When you let people know when they're doing something incorrectly, YOU ARE DOING EVERYONE A SERVICE. If that person does not seem interested in changing, fine. You've tried. You've let them know how they can become better at what they do. What more CAN you do?
Next time someone screws up in what they say, do, or e-mail... Let them know. Respect them enough to let them know. It might not be too late for them to take corrective action, and become better at what they do.
Sharing one love with another love.
Some times I wonder if my paintballing is a little too consuming... Actually, paintballing can't take time from work since it's only on weekends, but weekends are usually reserved for spending time with my girlfriend. This was probably my primary concern, that I was paintballing and spending less time with her. Especially considering that our work schedules don't exactly match up... She usually works from 8am to the afternoon. And I work from noon to late'o'clock. On a typical weekday, we see eachother when I get home at 9:30-10:30 stay up till 12, and go to sleep. It's not a lot of time together, but it makes Saturday's all the more important. Saturdays she usually doesn't work. So Saturdays we head to movies, B&N, hang out, watch movies, whatever. Sunday she works till 9-5, I go paintballing after I drop her off, and paintball finishes in perfect time for me to pick her up. She doesn't like missing time with me when she can avoid it. She might be high-maintenence, but so am I. We figure that so long as we both are, we won't have a problem. And we haven't. A few weeks ago she casually asked if she could go paintballing one week. I was extatic. We went out, and after getting her familiarized with the marker I made a concerted effort to keep myself from telling her what she should do. It's hard to see someone make the same mistakes you did. But there are things that can't be taught if the pupil is unready. She got hit a few times (most were while exiting the field, though), she thought got one elmination the whole day, her knees hurt, she sat out a few rounds near the end of the day, and went home tired, dirty, and bruised. I thought I had a pretty good handle on how she thought the day went...
Me: So, we going out again next Saturday??? Rhetorical
She: Sure!
Me: So, we going out again next Saturday??? Rhetorical
She: Sure!
... This moment brought to you by Tombstone Paintball. Tombstone Paintball, because paintballing beats the hell outa putting a ball in a hoop, hitting it with a stick, or kicking it into a net...
I was extatic.
We got her a mask the same day.
The following weeks were very enjoyable. We were spending quality time together, she loves paintballing, and she was getting better. In fact, she was making great progress, and great time doing it! She's staying tighter in the bunker, moving better, and getting some solid eliminations. Of course there's things she needs to work on, but in a few weeks she's about to where I was 2 months after starting. Like I said, making good time. She's using my tippy with the expansion chamber, 14" barrel, and shake'n'shoot hopper. She's not using the Apache loader or the double trigger because those upgrades will come when she perfects what she has. (incidentally, she's not too far from the electronic hopper. I'm excited for her.)
My reasoning behind this, is that if you get a 20bps loader, and a double trigger you will be inclined to use them. And when you do, you will become dependent on them. You can spot the kids trying to chew steak before starting on strained peas; they're the ones with the DM4s behind the first bunker firing 20bps at nothing in particular. Don't try to fight evolution, just try to be consious of it, and it will come.
Anyhoo... I'm glad that we can share in this, and... I'm glad I can play more paintball! *smack* I'm such a punk...
Well. That's really sharing one love of mine with another love of mine!
Now I just need to get my cat to play...
Thanks for reading this nonesense... Out.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Quite a day...
Quite a day friends, quite a day. At this moment I feel like I've got three C-clamps on three different points on my head, and I'm not sure if it's the little food, or the little sleep. The past few days I've been staying up late (early) for some reason or another. Today, I was to attend a Electronic Crimes Task Force quarterly meeting at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pamona. The meeting starts at 8:30am and ends at 12pm. Well, I had the foresight to go to sleep around... 2am. Nice... Well, Pamona isn't easy to get to, especially by 8:30am! I wound up going a quarter of the way to a co-worker's house and carpooling.
The meeting was pretty interesting, lots of stuff on the colaboration of many law enforcement communities to keep us all safe. I found it suprising to know that all the police/firemen/federal agencies didn't really talk to eachother. There was one guy from the secret service who was talking about how they were trying to get it passed that it would be illegal to have malicious software on your computer... So... do viruses count? I know lots of people with viruses on their computers. John Q Public would say, "No, dummy, it only counts for people who are doing bad stuff!" But that really depends on how they word the law. If they word it as he said they wanted it... it would make things open for abuse of power. So often are the laws taken in directions they weren't meant to be taken. And innocents suffer, of course, not on a large enough scale to make them change the law, but just enough to let them get away with it. (Don't doubt it, history has proven this point.)
Man. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night... The meeting ran late, and I had to reschedule a meeting I had after that, so I finally got back to the NOC around 3. So much for an 8 hour day. Somebody shoot me. Sorry, readers for the few and far between posts, I'll do my best to post as often as I can. It was just that the last few posts I really wanted to make were paintball related, and I didn't want to overwhelm or turn off readers by harping on one topic. After skipping a few paintball posts, I stopped entirely. But Anonymous suggested I keep posting. Kind of an odd name though... I'm going to battle the traffic home and take a nap and post some more. Thanks for taking an intrest all! Out.
The meeting was pretty interesting, lots of stuff on the colaboration of many law enforcement communities to keep us all safe. I found it suprising to know that all the police/firemen/federal agencies didn't really talk to eachother. There was one guy from the secret service who was talking about how they were trying to get it passed that it would be illegal to have malicious software on your computer... So... do viruses count? I know lots of people with viruses on their computers. John Q Public would say, "No, dummy, it only counts for people who are doing bad stuff!" But that really depends on how they word the law. If they word it as he said they wanted it... it would make things open for abuse of power. So often are the laws taken in directions they weren't meant to be taken. And innocents suffer, of course, not on a large enough scale to make them change the law, but just enough to let them get away with it. (Don't doubt it, history has proven this point.)
Man. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night... The meeting ran late, and I had to reschedule a meeting I had after that, so I finally got back to the NOC around 3. So much for an 8 hour day. Somebody shoot me. Sorry, readers for the few and far between posts, I'll do my best to post as often as I can. It was just that the last few posts I really wanted to make were paintball related, and I didn't want to overwhelm or turn off readers by harping on one topic. After skipping a few paintball posts, I stopped entirely. But Anonymous suggested I keep posting. Kind of an odd name though... I'm going to battle the traffic home and take a nap and post some more. Thanks for taking an intrest all! Out.
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