Categories
Life Work

Waiting for Life…

…in which I talk about the “real world,” and what that means to me.

Every now and then I take a look at my life and try to decide if I’m “grown up.” I’m not talking about age or maturity, or even my place in society, but grown up in the child-like vision of “when I grow up.” I honestly can’t remember any of the concepts I had of myself grown up, from when I was a child, but I can’t imagine that this is what I saw. But then again, who idolizes themselves sitting in an office all day managing a computer lab and maintaining a college website?

Categories
Blogging Family Work

What Day Is It?

…in which I talk about having lost track of time and how it’s time to get back on track.

So, yeah, I kind of slipped a little bit there. Lets just say things have been crazy lately and I’m hoping that the end is near. I’ve really missed my writing sessions and have regretted not keeping it up, but the last few weeks at work have been so maddening that I’ve had no insight or energy upon getting home to even bother typing a word. Things are calming down no, so I hope that by next week I will be resuming my regular update schedule.

Categories
Work

Welcome to my Seven Day Work Week…

…in which I talk about the hell week that leads up to the first day of school.

As you may notice, today is not exactly Wednesday, but then again, by the time I got to Wednesday, not only did I have no concept of what day it was, but I was so behind on my work, I wouldn’t have been able to blog even if I’d had the energy to do so. This is the first week of classes here at UNT and for me, that means it’s the busiest week of the semester. Additionally, its the first week of the Fall semester, also known as the new Academic year and the new Fiscal year. Being that I am the solely responsible for getting all of the computer classrooms ready, as well as the computer lab, as well as hiring student employees for said lab, and making the majority of purchases for not only the lab, but the IT office in general, it’s been a pretty crazy week. And what’s worse, my week started last Sunday and once again, I’m back in the office.

Categories
Life Work

Practical Intelligence…

…in which I talk about my unique brand of genius.

I’ve never been book smart, as it were. It took me nearly 8 years to finish my undergraduate degree. After another 3 years, I still hadn’t finished my graduate degree, and it is now on permanent hiatus. I’ve also never really had an over-abundance of common sense. I do a lot of things without thinking first, and often come really close to breaking something or hurting someone in the processes. But one thing I do have, is a sort of “practical intelligence.”

Categories
Work

The More things Stay the Same…

…in which I talk about vast, sweeping, slow moving change.

There have been some immense changes in my life recently, surrounded and accompanied by many small changes. The least of which, is I’m wearing a better class of shirt. The thing is, when you get a raise, a significant raise, a raise that is years overdue, you kind of feel like you should put forth a bit of a deserving image. That has lead to me buying a few new shirts and just trying to look, overall, a bit more professional.

Categories
Cycling Entertainment Work

The Oracle Says “No…”

…in which I talk about frustrating work issues while stalling in the office because some guy needs to get into our server room every 45 seconds.

I’d much rather be outside going to get a YooHoo or even a chocolate coke at Sonic, but instead I have to sit here in the office and hold the door open (not literally) for this guy who is doing some installs in our server room.

Categories
Cycling Work

What day is it…

…in which I talk about how crazy busy I’ve been and how that stress is not healthy.

Holy shit, where did the last two weeks go? Its been a mad house up in here and I’ve not only lost complete track of time, but pretty much any semblance of order and reason as well. I can’t even effectively recall everything thats been going on the last two weeks, but I guess I’ll try.

On Ansel

If child development was an Xbox game, Ansel would have opened up a ton of new achievements in the last couple of weeks. He’s a crawler (50 points). He’s cruising one handed (10 points). He’s feeding himself chunks of food (15 points). He’s identifying common objects (25 points). He’s figured out push-toys (10 points). He’s sleeping nights in his crib (100 points). That is a gain of 210 points over last time! He made some progress on Mobility acquiring 2 achievements, Self Sufficiency acquiring 2 achievements, 1 more achievement each in Playing and Communication and oh… man was it ever sweet!

On Home Life

I think Heather is getting used to being at home. Its a little tough to tell at the moment because we just finished our monstrous garage sale and things still haven’t quite settled back to “normal” yet. We spend the majority of last week setting up the garage sale, then all of the weekend running it, and this week is still recovering. I feel like I missed my weekend completely, because of it. We made some good money, as did those who participated in it with us. Heather also said that we could use the money from the garage sale to buy me Rock Band 2 when it comes out next month. She’s so awesome.

Aside from the sale, though, there hasn’t been that much going on. I’m so exhausted from work every day that I pretty much go home, play some xbox, watch some tv, and go to bed. Its so sad that I see Heather and Ansel so little every day, and yet I can’t hardy gather the energy to really enjoy my time with them. I’m totally turning in to the husband that works all day, comes home, sits on the couch, passes out and then slides off to bed. All I need is some slippers and a pipe.

On Cycling

So, after a week long drama of trying to get my bike tuned and subsequently repaired, I finally got it back just in time for a week long downpour. When I finally was able to ride it again yesterday, the shifter started locking up and gears started slipping. I took it in to have them look at it and apparently my shifter is broken. I should write an entire post just on my experiences with The Bicycle Path because its a rant and a half, and as soon as I get my bike back, I’ll probably never go there again. At the very least, they are willing to replace the shifter for free because they don’t know if it was broken before, during or after the tune-up. Either way, I was unable to ride my bike for a week due to repairs, another week for rain, and now half a week for more repairs. Is it so wrong that I want very badly to ride my bike daily, not on the rare occasion that its not at the shop?

On Work

We have a huge server migration coming up, and we’re way behind. I don’t know nearly enough to handle my end of things, some of the things I need to handle can’t be handled until the servers are all configured correctly. We’re all trying to get things together as quickly as possible which is stressful enough by itself, but then on top of that, the semester has started and that’s always its own little adventure. Add to that the fact that we’re doing a new website, and everyone has grand designs for its potential and I’ve got upwards of 20 new computers coming in any day now… is it any surprise I drink a beer or two as soon as I get home? Then again, maybe that’s why I fall asleep on the couch every day. Its an endless, vicious, cycle.

Categories
Work

Automated for the People…

…in which I talk about my recent experiments with Applescript and Automator, and probably bore you to tears.

So, in case you’ve never met me, I am the kind of person who likes to have things my way and will go to great lengths to customize things to be as close to my idea of perfect as possible. I would say I border on obsessive sometimes when it comes to attempting to achieve that perfection, but that would be a lie. There is no bordering, I’m all the way in. I’ve taken up residence in my obsessive compulsive need for things to function in the best possible manner.

Categories
Cycling Entertainment Home Work

Where did the Weekend go…

…in which I talk about the loss of time

So this weekend, like most, flew by almost imperceptibly. I know I did something this weekend, but nothing that would be considered a responsible thing. I had wanted to do things like change out heather’s license plates, put up a clothesline, fix the toilet. You know, grown up, homeowner, husband, father type things.

Categories
Personal Flaws Work

Aggressively Passive…

…in which I talk about subversive office politics

I want to preface this by admitting whole heartedly that I am a very passive aggressive person because I hate to confront people with the probable intent of making them feel bad. I know, from experience and observation, that in fact being told something directly actually hurts less than to find out about something second or third hand, or anonymously. I know all of these things to be true, and yet, I’m probably going to rant off about things that have been bothering me lately that I’ve not confronted people about, and that’s that.