What a letdown

Well, that was underwhelming. When a hurricane comes through and you sleep the whole time, that's pretty lame. I was really looking forward to it. Everyone freaking out around here, lines 6 miles long at the Costco, bottled water sold out...but no, the biggest piece of debris I could find was a pine needle that landed on my car. Whoopee.

I mean, come on. I lived in the midwest and southeast, and witnessed the cyclonic destruction of tornadoes...even helped my sister cleanup after one and made a small profit. Went to the West Coast and bounced through two earthquakes, one of those actually crumbled a brick wall or two.

But "Hurricane Earl" (if he's not already weakened into a Tropical Storm) did little more than wet the grass here. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking for complete mayhem and destruction. Maybe a Ficus to fall on the car so I could get the insurance money for it. After living through the tornadoes and earthquakes I have developed a strong respect for nature's fury. But it's hard to respect Category 4 Fury that brings nothing more than a simple summer shower.

Earl's running a little late

Must be some trouble with the El Camino. 9:00PM, I haven't seen any raindrops yet and the trees aren't really moving around too much. It's weakened again to a Category 2. It was a Category 4 this morning. We'll probably get some high wind in areas, not much likely over 50MPH. Probably some coastal/tidal flooding and heavy rain.

What's interesting is that we do get several bad storms here on the coast every year. They come with 50MPH+ winds, and there's coastal and tidal flooding, with heavy rain. What's the difference between those and this hurricane? The cool name. As far as we're concerned anyway. I'm sure the folks on Cape Hatteras and the Caribbean would beg to differ. The Outer Banks are expecting a more direct hit with the hurricane force winds.

Which makes me glad I'm not filthy stinking rich...at least today. See if I were, I would probably want to own one of those cool beachfront houses down there on the Outer Banks, and tonight I'd be stuck somewhere in a hotel wondering how much will be left when I get to go back. Maybe I'd just buy a vacation house there and not keep the important stuff so close to the Atlantic.

Oh well, a boy can dream, right? I do at least still have a job. I did interview today with a guy from the Network Engineering team. He's really cool and I think I would enjoy working with these guys. They're expanding in the Mid-Atlantic region and I would be coming on at the beginning of that expansion, which is a good thing. I won't bore you with details, but all the crap I've been bitching about for the last couple of years with the old company, they pretty much are doing away with. I likey.

All righty then, off to hunker down and watch Earl come rip through here.

Better get ready for the storm

So good ol' Earl is churning up in the Caribbean. I never did get the official word, is it Car-ri-BE-an? Or Ca-RIB-ean? Either way, there's a category 4 hurricane there. And it's headed north. Sort of. At least in my general direction. But I think that the only people excited about this are the news anchors, since it gives them something to do. Nobody here really gives a damn about these anymore, since 50MPH winds and tidal flooding are pretty normal around here anyway. And according to News Channel 3 and NOAA, that's about all we can expect.


But there's a name to it, and his name is Earl. Which is kinda funny if you think about it. I wonder if the storm naming people thought about it. Or maybe were fans of the show. Or maybe it's a sign that Karma is headed my way....

Make me an offer I can't refuse

About 3 weeks ago, the company I work for let us know that they were in talks with another company to buy us out. Most of us expected the process to take a few months. Much to our surprise, we were informed late last week that it was final, and our last day with the old company would be Friday the 6th, and our new employment with the new company would begin Monday the 9th.
Wow. Didn't see that one coming...
Anyway, the "offer" letters came and it's pretty much the same deal. No change in position (still installing phones systems) and no change in pay either, except that I'm hourly now and can get overtime pay, which is good since I usually put in about 5-10 hours over a week, minimum. It's an offer I can't refuse, simply because I don't have any other prospects right this second and do need a regular paycheck. Here's where it gets fun...
I just got an email from my boss, asking for a copy of my current résumé. That's interesting, since we were already supposed to send that in at some point over the next week or two. But she emailed me directly asking for mine specifically, today. I could be reading more into it than it is, but knowing the people I work for it's pretty unusual unless there's a specific reason for it.
So keep your fingers crossed.

Wait...what?

I've learned a few interesting things in the last 39 years. Many of them my Parents taught me










Say "Please" and "Thank You"














Put your name on your stuff in case you lose it











Start by saying you're sorry.










Most important of all













There are also things that you just have to learn on your own:










Very few people play by the rules










Learn a good Poker Face. You never know when it will come in handy.

Life is full of double standards, and it goes both ways. 40 year old men go to jail for gathering and screaming over 17 year-old girls.

Ronald McDonald is a serious badass

I'll leave you with one final thought. Society tries to put people into groups, then create conflict between those groups. Catholic vs. Protestant, East Coast vs. West Coast, Black vs. White, Yin vs. Yang, Coke vs. Pepsi, and so on. Me, I try to find middle ground as much as possible. It keeps life balanced.

Lost in Translation

It's getting worse. As with any progressive disease, it seems that the whole "repeating the story" problem is only getting worse. Today I found myself telling the same person 3 times that I did not need them to order a piece of cable for an upcoming project. Our highly-intelligent leadership staff saw fit to lay off every technician in the area and just hire subcontractors to do most of the on-site work, so all of this type of stuff has to get done by other companies now.

Maybe the problem is me. I guess I expect too much out of people...you know, assuming them to have common sense and all. When I go to a nice restaurant, I don't stop on the way at Sam The Butcher and pick up a steak, then hand it to the chef to cook for me. I order their food that they provide and cook for me. When I call a taxi to take me to the airport, I don't provide the car or fill the cab up with gas for them. Usually these types of things go along with the price they charge.

So I guess I shouldn't expect that someone working in telecom sales for many many years would know that cabling companies provide their own cable, and install it too? Well, OK then shame on me. Maybe it should take 3 hours of emailing to convince the areas second-highest grossing sales person that we really don't need to special order a cable. An industry standard cable, that all cabling people usually have several thousand feet of just lying around.

Maybe it's true. Maybe common sense is slowly becoming a power for only Super Heroes.

General garbage

So I got my new phone today. I needed to have a personal phone that was mine again, I got rid of my old Sprint phone when work gave me a Blackberry. But now I have things going on (like my résumé being reviewed, possibly, as we speak) and I just felt like I needed a phone. So I got one. I could take a week of blog entries to tell you everything this does. Maybe if you're lucky I'll give you my new number! But it is the latest-greatest one that does everything, and I got it online with a coupon (you have to say it like Ron White...coopin!) for super cheap.

You know those people that tell you the same story 3 times? Well, I get the feeling that I'm going to be one of those people. Not because I'll be forgetful (too late for that) or due to any mental incapacity, but because I will just end up trained to do so. You see, I seem to work around people that can't communicate. I regularly find myself getting called by no less than 4 different people asking the same question. I had a problem on an install and called it onto our support team? 3 times someone called me wanting to know what needed to be done. I got a call today from the sixth (yes, that's 6th) person asking why I sent back some product from a job that was defective. And I can't say "It's just broken stuff", no I have to replay a 10 minute conversation I had with the previous 5 people. Fun stuff...dementia here I come.

If you're wondering about the photo I put up today, see Connie's blog.
How to make your band's album cover

You know those people that tell you the same story 3 times? Well, I...