Coffee, Tired of Contacts
I think I'm experiencing burn out. I'm tired. I'm irritable. All I want to do is sleep and read and sit in front of my computer. This must be some early phase of burn out. Heck, I'm even yearning to "get away" for a while.
Right now, approximately 8:54pm, all I can think about is a cappucino and a good book (or my PowerBook - that's a good book). I was watching that movie,
Secret Window with Johnny Depp. Depp's character lives in a cabin in upstate New York. That really hit a chord in me. All I can think about is spending a week in a cabin with no television, no
work email, no cell phones,
nada.
I would love a week to do nothing but read, drink coffee and wine, sleep, etc. Not thinking about money or loans or underwriting or anything.
Liz wants to go on a cruise sometime after Bella is born, but I'm thinking about getting away to the woods. Maybe northern California or Washington state. That would be really nice. I would love to be able to get away from this south Texas heat for a while. Even in late November/early December, it's still reaching some stifling heat indexes around midday.
Sunday Night
This past week at work was ridiculous. I felt like I was working retail again. Oh well, the traffic wasn't bad.
I put some more item on auction at ebay. I really should spend more time designing my auction pages. I think I would make more money, but I have a bad habit of just making stuff up as I go along with little to no research.
As of tomorrow, this will be an Apple only household. Well, I guess not. I still have an old Gateway desktop that is sitting in my closet (want to see it? check ebay in a few days). But I did sell my last winbook on ebay and it ships out tomorrrow. What took so long? It took forever to get all of my pictures and MP3s off of the hard drive. I don't know if it's just a slow computer or Windows sucks that much, but it was hella tough getting CD-Rs to burn correctly. Finally, E got it to work using some obscure commanded embedded directly into windows.
I've been reading about Apple's retail stores. It seems that Apple has a mega-tight lipped policy when it comes to there retail employees. I can understand that though when your best strategy is the ability to shock the market place with cool, new products. All of the reports I've read make it sound like Apple retail is not the best gig in the whole world. But, I mean, it's still retail. At least it's retail working with super cook products.
If I didn't have any responsibility right now I'd quit my job to become a Mac Genius. That would be a really cool job! So many articles I've read state that Mac Geniuses have a highg turnover rate because of more money and better hours with outside employers. I'm seriously thinking about order the Apple Technicians Training Package from the on-line Apple store to start studying. If not for anything else than to give myself free tech support.
[Scott, if you're out there - call me!]
Another Mac Geek
My aunt and uncle came into town today, and believe it or not, my uncle Mickey is a Mac Geek (though I'm not sure if he would understand the use of the word "geek" in this context). My aunt, on the other hand, is not. Oh well, not everybody can be cool like me!?!
Mick has a G5 iMac, he has a subscription to MacWorld, he listens to almost all of the same Mac-oriented podcasts, blah, blah, blah. While he's in town for Thanksgiving, I'd like to take him to the Apple Store at La Canterra.
In related news, I think I've narrowed my search for my next Mac down to either a vintage G3 Pismo PowerBook, G3 Lombard PowerBook or a Mac Mini to attah to my flat screen TV. Most of the Mac rumor sites are claiming that Steve is going to introduce a new Intel-Powered Mac Mini for early next year. I'm not totally jumping on the PowerPC bandwagon just yet, but I would like to see what Cupertino has planned for the first Intel offering.
I'll stay tuned.
どこにペンギンはあるか.
Where is the penguin?
I spent part of this afternoon feeding Phia and watching
Revolution OS. It made me think of my days as an unemployed, amateur Linux hacker. Oh, those were the days. The laptop I'm currently selling on ebay (my Gateway M210 if anybody is interested) is to subsidize the purchase of a new iBook, but I paused for a moment and thought about putting a copy of Mandrake or Red Hat on it. Of course I still have my old Gateway desktop that I could load up a later distro of Linux.
If only I could find the time to do everything I wanted to do. I know Elizabeth feels the same way. She's got it a little worse than me when it comes to having no free time. At least I have the choice (though not excercised very often) to leave my office when I'm overwhelmed. Elizabeth can't just turn Phia off, she's got to be on 24 hours a day, every day.
Soon, when I finally learn where I'm going to be moving to or if I'm staying here in the Alamo city, I'll pull out my old desk top and treat it with a little Linux love.
金曜日
I'm so glad this week is over. Some weeks are so much harder to get through than others. And it's not that this week was especially difficult, it was just a hard week to get through. I guess I was still coming down from the conference in Dallas but needed more energy because of all the catch-up work that needed to be done.
On a good note though, I bonded a little bit with A.L. when we talked a little about books and buddhism for a few minutes over the phone. That was nice. It's always cool when you have those little bonding moments with other people.
I'd really like to live in San Francisco. It's got to be better than Texas. Texas recently voted to constitutionally define marriage between a man and woman. I'm not pro-gay, I'm not anti-religion; but I'm tired of people trying to impose one set of values upon another group. In todays world of violence and sloth and spite and wrath - let good people be happy. If that means they want to marry another person of the same sex, go for it. If that means they want to dress up like Dr. Spock and argue over the voltage calibration of Klingon vibrators - be my friggin' guest. But if I'm carrying four bags and a pot of spaghetti and you take a moment to hold the door open for me or if you bump into me and say "excuse me, I'm sorry" than this world is that much better for it.
{this post made little to no sense, but i'm tired and felt i needed to post something. i especially like the part about klingon vibrators - it just sounds funny}
ふと耳にした
While eating lunch this afternoon I over heard the girl in the booth behind me say this into her cellphone, "So it's supposed to be OK because she looks like me...only taller." That in and of itself is funny, but doesn't hold a candle to what happened next. After slinging a few f-bombs and other assorted profanities, she finally told what appeared to be her boyfriend, "I'm gonna' kick your ass, bitch, but I have to take the bus so I'll be there in after a while."
God, I love this town.
盗まれたカメラ
My Canon PowerShot SD400 was stolen out of Ephrain's trooper at the
The Wash Tub. I wasn't with him when it happened, but he called to tell me that the police were called out and a police report was done. I don't know all the specifics yet, I'll talk to him more at work tomorrow.
It's just a camera and it is not in me to have strong attachements to material objects, but I will miss the pictures from the HD Vest conference in Dallas.
動きのauto ショーのgm
GM's new concept for an auto show is awesome. Instead of walking around and looking at a bunch of cars, they let you line up and drive them around a closed track. There are separate tracks for classes of cars: luxury, passenger, truck and SUV. They even had two special courses which required "qualification" to use, the off-road Hummer course and the high-performance road course.
The entire event was free and we even got a free lunch. The concept is really nice because of the ability to compare and contrast each vehicle in a given class. For example, I can tell you that the Acura MDX's ride is much smoother than the Honda Pilot's, and the Volvo SUV chassis and steering is way too stiff for my liking. I know that the Chevrolet SSR is a blast to drive, but the lateral cockpit room is limited, especially for a broad shouldered lad such as myself.
I really enjoyed driving two of my dream cars: the BMW 530 and the Lexus ES300. I had a little too much fun in the Lexus and got a warning by one of the course wardens for making the tires squeal a little too much through the last turns.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the event and am even thinking of going back tomorrow, especially since I didn't get to drive the Corvettes or Hummers which were the main exhibits.
Grandma's Clavicle
My grandmother had a bad fall off the bed last night and broke her collar bone. She walked around all day with a seriously commuted bone in her left shoulder. It wasn't until the afternoon that she decided to go to the emergency room - a stay which lasted approximately 8 hours +.
It's so frustrating to sit with a sick or injured loved one and here a group of nurses or doctors or techs or whatever laugh away at the nurses station. I know it's just another day at the office for them, but there are people who are worried and tired and frustrated and don't know what to do. You'd think they would be a little more cognizant of that fact, but I guess not.
Packing
Packing...I really hate packing for trips. I'm no good at it whatsoever. I've spent the past three hours packing for a three day conference in Dallas and I'm still very wary about if I've packed the rightg shirt and suit and blah, blah, blah.
I did pack my PS2 and Madden '06 (which is not nealry as good as the '05 edition due to newest feature: Quarterback Vision. Too much, just let me play the game). That was the easiest part. This particular event is even more difficult to pack for because there are so many uncertainties. I know I'll be on the exhibition floor with hundreds of CPAs, CFPs, brokers and the like. The company has dictated what must be worn during th exhibit hours. However, there are dinners to go to and other social activities. It could be reservations at a 5-Star restaurant or a Bar-B-Q at someones house. I don't know.
Right now as I type this entry, Liz's iPod video is being loaded with episodes of Lost and several Mac related podcasts. I wish packing my suitcase was as easy as packing my iPod.
Oh well, guess I'll wing it again. At least I won't be like that one guy who forgot to pack shoes for a meeting in Minneapolis and had to go barefoot. I did pack two pairs of shoes.
Bright & Early
Up at 5am today...for no discernible reason. I guess getting up every day at 5am is starting to take.
I just finished doing the books for Palumbo, Inc, and now I'm going to Starbucks to start reading my new books from Amazon or listen to some of the new Podcasts I subscribe to. Either way, a nice way to spend some "me" time early on so I have the rest of the day with my family.
I thought about bringing my PowerBook, but I'll wait until I get the smaller, lighter more mobile iBook.
I'm still wishing they'd outfit our office with iMacs. I was watching BusinessWeek this morning (or at least that's what the TV was on when I was getting dressed) and they were doing a story on mothers and daughters going to into business together. And so many of the estrogen units they focused on were toiling away on iMacs or PowerBooks. Damn, why can't corporate America see that the Apple is just a better machine.
But before I get on that rant *again*, I'll leave it be with the following statement: I'm probablay glad, overall, that corporate America is not using Apples because it leaves the niche market to its own devices. If GM or Wal-Mart implemented a change to the Mac, you'd be sure that virus writers and script kiddies would start producing more and more malicious script for OS X. I guess it's a good thing. But I still want one at work.
Are you a NEET?
Tokyo Calling is an excellent website (and even better podcast) if you're interested in mostly modern Japanese culture. In a recent post on the companion website, the acronym NEET was used to describe Japan's version of Generation X. Although "Gen X" has a broader marketability to it (good job Pepsi), NEET is so much more concise in exactly what it's describing:
Not in
Education,
Employment or
Training. Although this word is officially being used by the Japanese government, it originiates with the Brits and the end of the 90s.
What really caught my attention is a quote from a Washington Times
article. "Reflecting the concerns of the government, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuko Hosada recognized 'such people will certainly face a troubled future. We need to guide them and bring them out of these circumstances," he said in December."
Wow! A government that seems to care about it's people. The quote was geared in a more humanitarian tone as opposed to the American economic tone. Japan seems to look at it's people as citizens while the Yankees (us, me) look at it's citizens as infinite capital. However, if you've been to the mall lately, you know NEETs are not exclusive to the island of Japan. I see young, stupid kids walking around fresh out of high school with neck tattoos. Yeah, good luck in your big job interview. Oh, they might not care right now, but wait until rent is two months past due and the McJob just isn't cutting it anymore...
Sleep
I was up all last night. Note to self: Don't eat spicy sausage before going to sleep! So I spent almost all of today in bed, sleeping. I half-watched a History Channel show on Houdini and an episode of a CSI spin-off.
My order from Amazon.com came in today. I got eBay: The Missing Manual and I also got Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. Man! I'm missing a lot of manuals. And I'm still trying to read the book I got on Japanese history.
Liz spent the day with her friend, Sandra. Like I needed sleep, she needed to get out of the house.
I really should have gone into work today, I've got so much work backed up from being out of the office three days last week. Maybe tomorrow?
Spoofed
You hear about these people from other countries trying to take advantage of "rich" Americans. I never thought it would happen to me. I don't have an exiled president's fortunes heading towards my free checking account, but I put my old winbook on sale at Ebay. It was bought immediatly for the "buy it now" price. I was like, "Yeah"! However, it all started to become a little too obvious that somebody was trying to spoof or scam me when I got the first email from "MARTIN CARL":
Hello,
Compliment of the season to you.I am Mr MARTIN CARL from INDIANA, but Presently i am leading a conventional church program in Holland. I saw your item below and i will like to buy it for my son that will be starting a Computer science course in University of Nigeria Next week. and also i will like you to tell me how many item you have to sell, so you can send me the total cost ok.Do not worry about the shipping, i have an account with fedex and i will be sending you my fedex account number for the shipping . Moreover i would have prefer to send you a cheque but simply because i want you to ship the item first thing tomorrow morning, i will be sending you payment via PayPal,so make sure you get the package ready for tomorrow shipment ok?And kindly send me your paypal email address ,so i can make the payment right away.
Thanks.
MARTIN CARL
And then I received an email that was supposed to be from Pay Pal telling me that he had paid, but that I wouldn't see the money in my Pay Pal account until I send a Fed Ex tracking number?!?!
It's sad really. It's sad to think that these idiots are smarter than us, that we're not going to catch on to their obvious rouse. It's also sad that anybody would be so hardup that they would have to resort to something like this. Here in America we can tell people to go out and get a job, dig ditches, work the fry machine, something. But in other countries there really aren't any jobs to be had. You just sit there and do nothing and watch you baby die and you can't do anything but spoof ebay and pay pal emails.
It's really sad.
