Holy cow, is tomorrow Friday already?
Indeed it is.
Well, after a week where I’ve impressed my straight-line boss and my dotted-line boss, I have found out that my straight-line boss is being transferred to another team entirely (dangit!) and, thus, my good impressions qualify as “intangible”. Ah, well. Better than screwing up in front of either of them. So my weekend yawns before me and I think that all I’m going to be doing is studying for various work-related certifications (half of which that are theory questions I know like the back of my hand, the other half of which that are trivia questions of the nature of “how many d6 do you roll for a fireball cast from an 11th level caster?” are the ones forcing me to sit with flash cards and the like).
As such, I’m only kinda looking forward to this weekend. Sigh.
So… what’s on your docket?
Unpacking! If I’m a good boy, anyway. I’m also doing some work on the file server.
One of the things ended up doing last weekend was setting up a smartphone for Clancy (a Motorola Droid 2). She left hers (a Samsung Stratosphere) at the Applebee’s in Summit, a couple hours from here. In the meantime, I gave her back her old Windows Mobile phone (HTC Touch Pro 2) to use in the meantime, but decided to fire up the old Droid so that she could have access to Android and the apps.
Turns out, she prefers the TP2. It’s the last smartphone she had where she only had to power it every second or third day. She misses that and is enjoying it. She is looking forward to getting the Strat back, though, bum battery-life and all. Me? I’ve just gotten used to swapping out the battery on mine once or twice a day. I had wonderfully forgotten how great the battery life was on the TP2. Kinda makes me mad all over again how we’ve taken a step backwards, in that regard.
If I’m lucky, I will be able to force myself to study enough of this info policy stuff to take the timed closed-book exam by the end of the weekend… without deciding that we are pulling up stakes and moving somewhere like New Zealand. Or Iceland. Or Botswana. Did you have a preference, honey?
I’m sure you guys would do great down here.
If New Zealand is not a magical land, where you can live in a cozy Hobbit-hole and see The Clean and The Bats play down at the pub every weekend, please don’t tell me.
Whenever I read a “local flavor” story for Australia, it always has a “hold my beer and watch this!” undercurrent to it and New Zealand always strikes me as the Canada to Australia’s USA.
So I suspect I could pull that off. If we visited Australia from time to time.
Yeah, I sort of get that impression, too. Being from the land of the redneck, I always felt that outside the US, Australia is probably where I would feel most at home.
Australia is great. Beautiful place, very nice people. I never got the “lower hemisphere texas” vibe there. There is enough brit influence to make it feel all, you know, classy like. But still relaxed.
What? I never had more fun with my Aussie friends than when I referred to them as POMs (Prisoners of Mother England). But yeah, Australia is pretty much the only other place I’d consider living. The only argument I have against Australia being the “Southern Hemisphere Texas” is that I like most every Aussie I’ve ever met, while I could easily live without most Texans.
Judging by the Aussies I’ve known, it’s the Southern Hemisphere Texas.
Exactly. Yeehaw. I owe Russell a Tuesday Question submission I am reminded.
That’s a pretty good analogy.
FISH yes: I just got a 22 out of 25 on the motherfishing exam without studying AT ALL. (Well, you know, other than the hours and hours I put in over several months doing the readings.) Instead of my usual MO of getting a hundred by studying for two days. SO PROUD OF ME RIGHT NOW.
(I have a lot of other stuff to do and never enough time to do it. So, this weekend I will probably start actually writing my final paper in that class. And/or my final paper in the other class. Or maybe I will really wild out and spend time talking to my family and cuddling with Jay, since there is some crappy stuff going on right now. HOOOOOOO-AH.)
PS I still may need to move. Because info policy in this country SUCKS. I used to think it was just copyright that sucks. But no.
*eyes job postings in NZ*
We’d definitely come visit you. K never made it to NZ and my only experience was the airport in Auckland, which doesn’t count.
The in-laws are coming! The in-laws are coming!
Whatever is typically the case with the inlaws, it’s niiiiice having them with a newborn around. Mine were cool with doing everything for her but the diapers. It was the first “me” time I got after Lain was born.
Or, rather, the first guilt-free “me time”.
Mine are a mixed bag. Dad is VERY set in his ways… “What do you mean you don’t have the exact yogurt I always eat and don’t ask me for anything between 10 and 11 because that is when I do my exercises” set in his ways.
Mom shares Zazzy’s anxiety, so the former ratchets the latter’s up intensely. Couple that with the entire lot’s refusal to be decisive and there is lots of “Should we have dinner?” “Probably, but what should we eat?” “Well, I’m not saying we should eat anything. I was just asking if you thought we should have it.” “Well, I guess it makes sense to but ya know, I’ll eat anything. Just nothing green or strawberries and it must have meat.” “So tou want dinner?” “No, those are just what I’d want if we were eating but I’m okay not to. I’m just hungry is all.” Eventually I snap and say, “EVERYONE IS EATING CHEESE PIZZA!”
They’re good people, don’t get me wrong. But both our families struggle with recognizing the needs of others. So their visit (which involves them staying with us for 4 nights… We can at least throw my family out after a few hours…) is largely about keeping things as convenient for them, not about helping Mayonnaise or Zazzy.
But such is life. I’m bottom man on the totem for the next 20 years as it is so I’m just trying to keep everyone fed and will sneak in a couple runs while the extra hands are available.
I used to be wrapped around the axle of my in-laws. I solved part of it by taking my MIL to the grocery store and letting her pick up ingredients for things they’d eat — and letting them cook — and do the dishes, too. Them what is picky shall have their prayers answered.
Thanks, Blaise. We’re making a push to do something similar. They rented a car this time and we’ve told them that the food store is but a mile and a half down the road… three turns out of the driveway… and it is open 7AM to 10PM. We plan to let her mom cook some meals.
For me, picky is manageable. And direct, even controlling, can be manageable. But the picky-but-passive-aggressive about it is a real struggle. I know they don’t mean for it to be that way, but that’s how it is. Zazzy has some of that, but not as strongly as obviously my connection and willingness to work with her is on another level. But steam starts to come out of my ears when people say, “So do you want to go to the store and buy some yogurt?” to mean, “I really want this yogurt.” If you want the yogurt, just say so… because I don’t want to go to the store to buy yogurt but I will if you just tell me that’s what you need.
But now I’m just getting needlessly ranty. The weekend will go fine.
in laws, can’t live with them, can’t sell them into slavery (too old), can’t sell their organs (too old), can’t just punch them in the face a few million times (too justice system), etc.
Are they coming by land, or be sea?
Air. Like vampires.
But I don’t have a signal for that! Damn you Paul Revere, why didn’t you future-proof your warning system!
Going to San Antonio for a tournament my son is in. I suppose also spending a fair amount of time complaining about how much I dislike San Antonio.
An old high school friend is in town for a concert, so I should be heading to that Saturday evening. If anyone is in Ottawa (well, Orleans), come on out. The detes are here: http://www.frankhorvat.com/
Procrastinating. I’m presenting at a conference in 12 days and I just haven’t been in the mood for putting all of the interesting things I have to say into a PowerPoint. And I’m on call this weekend. Boo. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that the phone doesn’t ring for the next 90 hours or so.
The trick is to remember the basic principles, like “It’s always 1d6 per level” and extrapolate from there.
The D&D reference is appropriate for my weekend activity: PolyCon’s Spring Mini-Con. It’s an all day gaming event at Cal Poly, my local university. I’m running Monsterhearts, which sounds like the worst idea for an RPG ever until you play it and realize it’s the best.
Turkey season starts in the morning. Nap afterwards and them 1st Communion for one of our nieces. Hoping to make it to the movies Sat night. Sunday hoping to tackle some chores (grass cutting already?!) and then relax before hell week starts at work next week when our client swears their system will be back online and they are going to get the backlog of work moving along.