Um... Ouch!

Yeah. I'm in pain.

Why? You might ask?

I'm exercising.

Yes, this late 30's male with extra weight and no body tone is trying to exercise more.

How am I going about this?

I'm playing sports again.

I used to LOVE playing volleyball competatively when I was younger. I was actually pretty good, too!

Now?

Not so much.

I mean, the skills are still there, and I know what I need to do, what I should do in a given situation.

However, the physical responses just aren't there. Reflexes that would have helped me dive for a ball in my younger days just don't cut it now. Those reflexes helped move a body that was 140 pounds lighter than it is now! The joints don't want to move as much. The muscles ache from a lack of training and use..

But I refuse to give up.

I'm sore, and I ache in places I'd forgotten I had.

But that just lets me know that I'm on the right track!

I mean, how much weight and exercise can I get from work? Most of my day is spent watching a computer screen, or spent on the phone trying to get a technical issue resolved. I spend some time moving and tossing boxes, and quite a bit of time walking around this giant warehouse... But for the most part my job is a sedentary one.

Add to that my habit of coming home, and camping out in front of the TV or the home computer, and you've got a recipe for laziness and an ever-spreading butt and flabby gut.

So I'm going to try to get my lazy ass out there and do some serious exercise to wake me up, and get me moving again.

Sure, I'm going to be hating life for a while until my body re-adjusts to doing a physical workout, but I'm willing to deal with it!

Wish me luck, and make sure to take out stock in Aleve or Tylenol, since I'm going to be going through those like candy for a while!

General Ranting

I hate it when folks can't make up their minds.

Or is it that they can make decisions, but they just can't decide which decision to stick with?

Whatever the cause, it's running amok with my schedule yet again.

I was asked to switch over to 5 8-hour shifts because I was needed each day that this warehouse is open.

Yet just yesterday I was called in to be informed that I need to switch back to 4 10-hour shifts starting next week.

OK.

Quit yanking my chain, and let me know..

Is it going to be one, or the other?

My guess is that in six months, I'll be asked to switch back again..

Any takers??

Yet ANOTHER close shave!

Well, not really.

Yesterday I had my annual evaluation done by my corporate "support", and passed with flying colors.

At least for all of that headache I was able to get lunch out of the visit!

So now I'm good until March sometime when my OTHER corporate advisor comes into town to asses my ability to do my job.

So many candidates, and so few bodybags left.. What is a semi-respectable IT guy to do??

Speaking of IT and bodybags:

I LOVE this reader that I'm able to get here at work and read.

The name of the runny read is BOFH: the Bastard Operator from Hell.

Yes, the author is British. Well, New Zealander, really, but still QUITE funny to me and my "techie" ways.

I find it in at The Register.com.

Full Address is: http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/

I honestly have read this only the last year or so, but I went and found archives and read it from the beginning to the current issue. It puts into words EXACTLY what I feel like doing to some (l)users who happen to bother me while I'm trying to get a database done, or finish an inspection, or any other number of jobs..

Read it for yourself, and see if you can't find something funny in the reading.

The only requirement is that you know something about computers, and a bit about older functions, and a bit of "true" English to be able to not lose something in translation.

I'll talk with you all next week, and hope that you have a great weekend!

Random whining

Yeah, I'm bitching..

However, this is my blog, so cope!

I'm _really_ not liking the "new" things we're doing at my work.

Each and every Friday, we're having to do a "special" project for our Quality Control department.

Because of the actions of ONE store that's located well away from our warehouse, we now are doing what I'd call "espionage QC checks" on this store's merchandise.

We're having to tear each and every pallet apart, double-check the entire store, then rebuild the pallets, and make it look like the entire thing was never touched before loading it into the trailer for shipping.

I really don't know what good this step is going to do, since all we'll be able to claim is that the merchandise was fine before it left our dock.

It still doesn't take into account the shipper needing to replace load bars between deliveries, or driving conditions, or load shifting, or many other influences OUTSIDE of our part of the delivery chain.

But I can't argue.

So I cope, and basically write off an entire day's worth of work to get that one store done.

It sucks.

Not only that, but this weekend I helped my younger brother move.

Yeah. That sucked too.

Two trips.

The first packed most of the stuff into the moving van, and I didn't do too badly until the 7th trip upstairs with a heavy dresser, or bed, or armful of boxes.

Yeah. I was hating life right about then.

But the icing on the cake was the last part I helped with.

Moving his pool table.

Getting it into the van wasn't bad at all. There were six of us to move it then, and we moved it all in one piece.

However, two of the six left right after loading the table.

So that left FOUR of us to unload the beast.

My arms are still killing me, and my legs and knees aren't going to let me forget about this weekend anytime soon, either.

Maybe it's time for me to admit that I'm getting older, and really can't quite do the things I was able to do just a few short years ago?

NAH.

I'll just take more pain pills next time!

See you all later!

In Memory: Patrick Swayze

Now this is a guy I'm going to miss.

I _so_ wanted to be like him when I was in high school. He had all the girls drooling over him, and his movies just seemed to make them melt.

I remember watching his movies, and wanting to be the hockey player, or the post-apocalypse freedom fighter.. The dance instructor, the ghost..

He's going to be missed.


On a different note:

Kanye West interrupted Patrick Swayze's funeral to tell everyone that Michael Jackson's funeral was the "Best of all time!"

I return you to your normal broadcasting..

Blah, blah, blah...

Well, it's that time of year again.

Corporate visitors who are determined to make your work week (and workday) hell on earth.

They come in, act like they're doing you a favor just by being there, and then tear apart each and every job that you do.

"You know, you could spend a little less time doing that job, and spend a bit more time doing this one."

"Why didn't you take more time doing (job I just said you could take less time on)?"

"By the way, I love how you've got control over this area, but here are some pointers to really help you get the most out of your time at this task."

Ad nauseum.

I'm at the tail-end of an entire network upgrade.

Beacuse of this, I've got computers, memory, and laptop stuff ALL over my office. I can't get rid of the towers or laptops until I've taken the memory and hard drives and disk drives out of these old pieces of crap. Once I do that, then I get to pile said parts into a HUGE box that I'm unable to lift by myself, and try to find some place to store it for a short while.

Then I can put the rest of the stuff on a pallet, and shove it in some dark corner of our warehouse until the disposal truck comes.

While trying to do all of this, said corporate inspector drops by, and offers these words of wisdom:

"You know, if you only did one or two machines at a time, your office wouldn't be as cluttered or crowded."

This is the same fella that two days ago sent me the email stating that all the PCs and laptops needed to be done by the time he got there, or my job would be at stake.

I don't know about you, but when given an ultimatum like that, I tend to take serious action.

Now, we've had the PCs and such for a LOOOONG time. Purchasing bought these back in January, and they got here in March. However, I couldn't DO anything with these machines, beacuse the computer lab folks on the corporate end hadn't gotten their machines yet, and as such, didn't have protocols set up for the new PCs to be installed on our network.

Yeah, that little gem there forced me to sit in my office with 40 boxes of computers that just gathered dust.

Once everything was done, it was time to take ONE machine, and work out the bugs. First, it was the operating system not liking some of the programs we run. So we start going over TONS and TONS of code in order to fix that problem.

Then it was access to specific much-used internet sites that were being denied. So we went back into the firewall hardware to reconfigure security settings.

Finally, I was able to install all the programs and configure the PCs the way that they needed to be. However, each PC took a little over 4 hours to get ready.

Do the math:

4 hours per PC

40 PCs

8 hour workdays.

Yeah. LONG time getting it ready.

Then comes the easy part.. Replacing the old one with the new PC.

Simple, right?

WRONG.

Then you get the calls about this screen saver not being on the new machine. Or this one program that they downloaded (against company protocol!) that they want back on the new machine... Yeah. I lost hair at this point.

So I'm frantically trying to get PCs done, changed out, and then stored in my "locked" office facility.

My office isn't really that big.

In fact, it's really quite tiny.

Once you add the networking hardware and servers, and battery backup and alarm monitoring equipment, it gets even smaller.

Now add 40 boxes of monitors, PC towers, laptops, and memory upgrades.

I have enough room to walk, very carefully, from my desk to my door. That's about it.

So, I finally get the stuff done, I get the drives and memory pulled, I get the towers stashed far and away from my office, I get the new PCs installed.

What next?

"You missed two PCs that need to be installed here this year."

Yeah. The two he's referring to aren't even here yet. One he's directly responsible for, since it's the security PC that hasn't been upgraded for 10 years.

The second is the "new" trial PC they're using for applications. This one is basically going to be a "dumb" terminal, where you turn it on, and it automatically boots to our application site on our LAN, and nothing else.

So yeah, I'd have replaced those if they'd gotten here, but since they're not here, nothing's been done about it.

So here I am, looking fondly at the reclaimed space I now have thanks to my hard work, and wonder just when this guy will leave so that I can get back to doing my job without having the moronic statements put me over the edge.

Wish me luck!

I'm gonna need it, I think.

Have you ever really stopped to wonder....

What does it all really mean?

I'm talking about the complaints and belittling that folks feel the need to heap on people who like to blog.

I enjoy blogging. I write about stuff that moves or affects me.

At times I tell stories about growing up, other times I reveal things about my past.

I rant and rave about work. I complain about behavior and actions that really tend to stomp on my last nerve.

Sometimes I make the posts personal. Other times, I leave them open and ambiguous.

Does it all really matter?

To all of you, maybe not.

To me? It means something.

Yeah, this blog is almost like a diary. However, I don't care who reads it. I don't feel the need to take it under lock and key, and force folks to read what I put down.

If you don't like or agree with what I have to say, then it's as simple as NOT reading for the problem to correct itself. I'm not forcing you to read this, I'm not creating an incident by writing what I feel. I'm just being ME.


There have been a couple of times where what I've written has actually touched someone. That's great. However, it's not really what this blog is about.

There are times when I've offended and upset folks. Again, this is unintentional. That's also NOT what this blog is about.

This blog is here as my sounding board for whatever mood takes me. If I'm feeling nostalgic, then I can write down about fond memories I had growing up. If I'm feeling pensive, I'll write something similar to this post, beacuse it gets me thinking. If I'm in a good mood, I'll write silly stuff. If I'm angry or annoyed, I'll write down arguments about actions or activities that have really set me off.

So no two posts are going to be the same. They change just as often as the wind.

My wish here isn't about gaining readers. Those of you who like what I read, great! Keep reading!

Those of you who don't like what I write.. What are you still doing around here? It's not going to change anytime soon.. Get a clue, and move on.

Maybe at some point I'll decide to let my creative bone take control, and I'll write narraratives that will stir some kind of response from people, and have folks clamoring for more.

For now? I'm content to write what I feel, call a spade a spade, and not concern myself over the technicalities of personal involvement.

So sayeth the author of this mediocre blog, and thus shall it be!