073007
072907
072807
072707
With only one bug left in the bucket for this level, I leave work unable to think straight. Have to finish it in the morning.
072607
Brutal, brutal day. Made sure I was at work early today, before nine, so I can get as much as I can get done before tomorrows’ deadline. All these small bugs and fixes just take forever. A missing color here and a missing collision there, and you have to go hunt them down to verify that they actually exist. Those testers sure earned their pay this week – give them fifty lashes for their effort, and may they come back for more!
With a surprise preview of the Simpsons movie for the team only, around three, my day was pushed back three hours. In other words, I didn’t get home until close to three in the morning, so that makes a seventeen-hour day. Just shoot me now
072507
Today is just one of those shitty ass days that you just want to end as soon as possible. Today started late because I had to take my car in for a tune-up and valve adjustment. With no other way to get to work then to take the train and then walking from the station to the work site, which took thirty minutes. I arrived at work around 9:30am and proceeded to get the latest build, etc. As I'm working away, around noon, everything shut down. Great! Want a time for a power failer! I've just lost my work for the past two hours! Nothing I can do but go to lunch and gym while Facilities get my power back up. By the time I get back, everything's on again. Now nothing worked because the dev kits needed updating, which caused another hour or so to do. Now I have to make up the lost work.
A little after four, the mechanic called and said the car was ready. Raveboy, who was supposed to give me a ride to the mechanic, couldn't do it, so I had to bum a ride off a co-worker. When I picked up the car, I was informed by my mechanic that the valve for the number one cylinder was too stiff, and that I was not firing all four cylinders. That would explain why my car was running a bit rough and the fouled spark plug that he showed me indicated that the rich mixture was fouling the spark plug preventing it from firing. That was two and a half bills that was geared towards the new suspension that I wanted. I guess that will have to wait.
There's more I want to say, but too tired to do so. Need to get up early in the morning for a full days work tomorrow.
072407
I've been feeling really strange for the last couple of days. Strange like, everything feels new even thought you've it's not because you interact with it everyday. I guess that's what having amnesia must feel like. It's like someone telling you something, and you should now what they are talking about, but you don't. You just stair at them and trying really, really hard to comprehend what it is that they are saying. It's like driving out in the desert for the first time and not knowing what's around the next corner or how long to the next corner will come up. For example, my body is moving on its own accord, following a prewritten program and my mind is no longer in control. My mind is tied up, helplessly tied up, looking out through the open pupil of my eye. That's an example of what some of the moments that I feel like in the past two days.
072307
072207
Too many angry thoughts for the moment so I need to immerse myself into the latest Harry Potter book. Later
072107
072007
071907
071807
071707I'm a soldier, damn it! So was my father, and his father before that and his father's father. We're Legacy, and damn proud of it, too. And we're damn good at it too, soldiering that is. Where my country wants me is where I want to go. We engage the enemy and we kill them. And we kill them good. Any threat to my country is a threat to me, and I don’t like that, see? I don’t like that one bit. So you better watch out.
071607
I do it. I keep on doing it because it feels good. And why not? I like feeling good. Makes me happy, and I like to be happy. Happy with my big bow tie, and my big happy smile, and even when I have no hair, I'm still happy. And I like that, see? I like that nothing gets to me any more because it's all BS anyway. Why worry about something you have no control over? why waste your time? Just do the things that make you feel happy and you're all right, see? Give it a try, why don't you. Yeah, give it a try. You'll see what I mean. Then you'll say to yourself "He's right!". Then, you'll be happy, and that's a good thing. Yeah.
071507
Oh, oh, ah, I don't know. I guess you could say that my occupation is kind of a, downer, you know? It's a never ending job and I'm constantly on the move, right? My days are totally filled and I have no spare time, you know? Like, ah, never, right? Life ends and that's where I come in, you know? I guess I can't really complain, I mean, it's like, ah, job security, yeah. It's job security. And it's not like they can just fire me or something like that, you know? HAHAHAHAHA! sorry, sorry, that always gets my goat, hee, hee, hee. Ah, anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, ah....yeah, I just lost my train of thought. Oh, wait, now I remember, yeah, it's not like they can fire me, I mean, I've got all this experience and there's like, no assistants, right? And what are they going to do if I'm gone? The whole world would be in misery. Think about it. You "kill" a chicken, but guess what, it an't dead. Even when it's hacked to pieces, it an't dead. It's still moving around. And even if you eat it, it's still "alive and kicking", as they say, yeah. And it's still "alive and kicking" when it comes out the other side, hahahaha. Oh, sorry. So who are they going to train? It's like, I can just take him and no one would be the wiser, heh, heh. Oh, wait, ah, I can't really say that, can I? Oh, that'll go well, "Death likes his job too much!" Or "Death takes life for own pleasure!" I mean, what the heck is that about about? Well, actually, I don't really care, what ya goina do? Fire me?
071407
Yesterday was a long one. Stayed at work far longer than I'd expected, and this was after I left for a few hours to go see Bill Mahr with some co-workers for a co-worker's birthday. The show started around eight and was over by nine-thirty. Bill Mahr was quite funny and as expected, he's jokes touched a bit on the political side. Anyway, after I was dropped off at work, I had to go back up to finish the level that was due that day. Needless to say, I was not in a very humorous mood for the next four hours, tearing my hair out trying to figure out why some things were not working the way they should. It also didn't help that I had to clean up things that I should not have to clean up when it was supposed to be clean. I guess it was a down-up-down day. Three more weeks to go and I hope my mood don't get ugly around work.
071307
2:30am. It's a super long day.
071207
071107
I am throughly tired. Today was quite a work day. The rookie finally got his stuff checked in after lunch, so it was a mad dash to try and get the things that were on the back burner boiling before the end of the week. I anticipate tomorrow will be a late nighter for I'm not doing that on Friday. The next three weeks tasks to finish the last of my levels are going to be crazy. With over sixty bugs in the que, it's going to be a hard drive to the end of July. However, I do have two lackies assigned to help me, so guess who's going to get the Collision bugs, heh, heh>)
071007
Well, today was another slow and unproductive day as the rookie has, again, failed to finish his task and have the files I needed checked in. As the end of the day approached, the Professor and Raveboy dropped by work to pick me up so we can head over the the local theater for a free company screening of Harry Potter. Since we publish some of the games that are related to a movie being re least, we sometimes get free screenings. It was quite a surprise to hear the Professor giving positive reviews of this latest iteration after the show, for he's often quite critical of the movies he sees. As the evening wore on, I was surprised again as rain fell from the sky. Rain, here, in July?
070907
It was quite hard to get up this morning for work after a nice five day break. Even when Raveboy, while doing his meter reading rounds in the neighborhood, called to go for some breakfast, I was not ready to get up. I put that off for another hour just so I can get back to some sweet dreaming. Now it's almost noon and I'm still not productive because of the large amount of data that is still being updated to my computer from the missing two days of work, doh!. I guess this means a long day and night. I don't like Mondays. But it wasn't all bad. A co-worker brought in his Les Paul that he bought recently. That was a sweet guitar. the action was low and played really nicely. Now I'm all jealous for one. Maybe one day I can afford to put down two grand, hee, hee. Since the database was locked for check-ins to stabilize the E3 demo build, and the file I needed to work on was checked out by some on else, today was non-productive day. Tomorrow will really be a long one. Crap.
070807
070707
070607
Seems the simplest things in life is what makes it worth living. Take the last two days. Since I'm maxed out on my PTO, I might as well spend some of it and string up a five day weekend. So, the last two days have just been great. I can get some things done around the house and know that I actually have the time to do them without feeling the rush of just tow days, which sucks. I mean, by the time all the chores are done, it back to work the next day. I just feel cheated sometimes because I didn't get a "real" relaxing weekend at all - no stress lost. So today I'm starting to feel relaxed. I have Andy McKee playing in the background, his acoustic guitar music is really relaxing, and I'm updating this blog with a new sketch that I actually spent some time on than just the quick ones I've been doing for the past few weeks. It feels good to have another two days to finish up the chores - slowly, very, very, heh, heh. Too bad I can't do this every week, then I would totally be into what I'm working at work, hahahahaha. Yeah. Never going to happen, oh, well.
To my dearest across the seas, I miss you very much!
And now off to the Mutts' house to celebrate this day of his birth with card games and booze - what a wonderful combination??? Hopefully the long hours at work will end at the end of the month, oh, let us pray!
070507
070407
070307
For the past week or so, I've been trying to learn a guitar piece that I've heard a long time ago in my beginner guitar class. While I was trying to grasp the complexities of reading music and fingering notes with my clumsy, short fingers, the intermediate students were playing more complex pieces from the same work book that I was using. One of those intermediate pieces was "Saraband". That piece sounded so nice, that I've always remembered what the first few bars of it sounded like and on occasion, I would try and play it with no success.
So after these many years, I've finally found that beginner guitar book, "Solo Guitar Playing" by Fredric Node. As I flipped through the yellowed pages from twenty years past, I saw all the chicken scratched notes that was scribbled inside it from that time, and I chuckled. But at last, I have found what I was looking for - Saraband! Since there were no "tabulature" for guitar music back then, like they have today, all the notes are in standard music notation - big problem. Right now I don't have the patience to re-learn music notation, so there was only one solution: transcribe the notes into the guitar learning program Guitar Pro. This program allows me to input music notes into sheet music format and it'll translate them into tabulature format and visa-virsa, heh, heh. What's good about this program is that it can play back the music you write and it also has a looping function. But even this took some time because I am not familiar with music or the program. To make a long story short, it was transcribed, not perfect, but close enough for what I need. Now that I have the music memorized, I don't need the sheet music in front of me and can concentrate on the fingering and timing.
Currently, as I'm growing the finger nails on my right hand for picking, the finger tips of my left hand are in dire pain from the nightly practice sessions, but I'm pretty happy with the progress, which has not easy for a non-musician like myself:p
070207
070107
It's July already and I'm in a bit of a daze as I wonder where the months of May and June went. Seems like earlier this year I thought I was going to actually get a Summer off from the "crunch" that's been filling every Summer for the past five or so years. Thinking about this just gets me a little bit pissed off. It's almost time to go see a movie. I'm off.
