This is the foolishness I need to put up with at work. So, I fall asleep around 7:30, and wakee up to the cell phone ringing - it's almost 8:30. The tier II guy tells me there is an outage at a site, and explains that 2 slots on the ethernet switch have dropped links. He tells me that he swapped a cable from slot 1 (link down) with one from slot 3 (link up). Then slot 1 getes a link up and slot 3 is down. I tell him that this points to a cable problem.
We get the site guy to go to the rack with the affected devices and tell us how many cables he sees on the back of the cards. He tells us 1 - there should be 2. Turns out that the ethernet cable is missing from each of the affected devices. Now we spend an hour running in circles, because the site guy refuses to beleive that the ethernet cables are gone, because none of them touched anything. After several attempts - including asking the site guy if he sees ethernet cables in an ethernet port on any card, to asking him if he sees any cables lying around that are labled as beinng connected to the switch - it was painfully obvious that this guy was utterly useless.
So, now in the process of moving customers over to cards with connections.
BTW, this is something that is typical of telecom companies, be it AT&T, Sprint (which was a common occurance for a co-worker here who used to work for Sprint), Verizon (who almost daily seems to have misconfigurations taking down something of ours - well Intermedia's), or others.
Well, been playing around with the various html files. Made some minor tweaks to the index file, and changed the colors on the template. Not too happy with how things stand on the blog area, but I think I like the title and side areas. And, for now, I've chosen Gene's suggested title. Well, think that's all I'm gonna play with for today. I've just got to wait for this person to call back (been waiting an hour so far) and then I'll take off.
Wow, it's been a long time since I got that much sleep. I fell asleep sometime between 6 ad 6:30 - while dinner was cooking. Luckily, I managed to wake up within a reasonable time after the timer went off, so it wasn't burned. Then I proceeded to go back to sleep until about 11:30, when I had dinner (bowl of Rice Krispies), and went back to sleep. Woke up at 8am, and I feel like I could use a few more hours of sleep.
Bad Jet, bad Mike :)
Got some bizarre email from a guy in Norway, asking questions about some project, and the use of various phone standards in Sweden. Dunno, maybe cause my name is Swedish.... I'm the only Haglund in the company, so he didn't confuse me with someone else. So, I had to reply saying I have no knowledge of this project, nor of European dial standards.
Here's some of the things that keep me occupied at the time waster known as work:
The other site doesn't allow linking, so here is the url:
http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/index.html
Well, the Jet and Mike left during lunch today. A two day visit which was evil. I managed not to show up at work on Monday. Last night they introduced me to the evil that is Halo. So much for me getting any good sleep. So much for them leaving at 8:30 this morning.
Well, it was a fun time. Caught up on things, and reminisced about past things. They got to see the lot that my home (hopefully things will go well) will be on, and toured the model home - which is the same floor plan as mine. And, there was a few hours of Halo.
Too sleepy to look into making changes here. These next 3 hours will be kinda hellish (I plan on leaving 'early', before 5).
Some foolishness in the news, courtesy of MSNBC's news of the weird:
Despite a warning label reading "Do not use indoors because of flammability" on its carpet adhesive, the Para-Chem company was ordered by a jury in Akron, Ohio, in July to pay $8 million to two professional installers who were severely burned in an explosion when they tried to use the product indoors. One juror told the Akron Beacon Journal that he and his colleagues felt the warning did not go far enough in convincing the installers not to use the product indoors.
And in Lumberton, N.J., in July, Michael J. Devine, 36, captured in a stolen truck after a police chase, denied he was trying to escape; he said that he couldn't stop because the truck contained a bomb that would explode if his speed dropped below 55 mph.
According to an indictment obtained by the U.S. Department of Justice in May, Christopher Lee Jones of Pembroke, N.C., recently publicly attempted to sell 100 stolen Social Security numbers by eBay online auction and tried to enhance their value by specifically suggesting that bidders use them to obtain credit cards. And Tony Alston, 26, and April Lynett Smith, 20, were arrested after a brief police chase following their alleged robbery of a Compass Bank in San Antonio, Texas; police caught them easily because their getaway vehicle was a rental U-Haul truck with a speed governor that the company routinely equips the truck with to slow it down.
And, this makes me sick:
While laid-off workers of Global Crossing Ltd. (one-time value: $54 billion) try to recoup some of the $32 million in severance pay they lost by the company's bankruptcy filing, the Los Angeles Times reported that company founder Gary Winnick continues his historically detailed, $30 million renovation on the $94 million mansion he purchased before the collapse (July).
Heh, with the template already in place, 'coding' in html doesn't seem that bad. I, at least, managed to add in a link to Gene... So, if I get ambitous - prolly during the boring monotonous hours at work - I'll play around with the colors and maybe experiment with the layout,
What is up with the add mufflers? The big oversized muffles that children these days seem to think is cool. I am sorry, if you drive a crappy assed 4 cylinder 1995 Honda Civic, even adding spoilers and chrome wheel, and that annoying muffler, it is still a crappy assed 4 cylinder Honda Civic. Only now, your car sounds like it has an awful case of flatulence. Really, who do these people think they are fooling? My truck still has more power than the little shit, and it doesn't sound like it's sick doing it.
Maybe I am just too old school. If you want your car to sound cool, and powerful, you give it a nice throaty roar. I'm sorry, but listening to that higher pitched fart as they vainly try to accelarate from stop to 30 just proves that they are driving a piece of shit. It says, "Look at me, I have an obviously poor performance car, and I am trying to overcome not being able to buy a real performance car by disguising this piece of crap to draw your attention that I drive a piece of crap."
Well, need to retutn to cleaning. That'll teach me to be unusually lax in maintaining the place.
So, this has to be the most I have communicated (if a person is reading this, then it's communication) at any one time in quite some time. I can not recall, but it might be when Roy visited - which I must include only because I bought the ticket :).
Also, this is the most web presence I have ever had. There was one mention of me in an old ancient page of Eunice's, and a picture of me on Jet's page. But, this really marks my first significant web presence. Ah, so much for anonymity.
Oh, I remembered that I'll be adding an extra sink to both baths on my own as well. I guess all that time being conscripted to help my father might actually have helped. Nah, let's just chalk it up to hours of watching the DIY channel, and Trading Spaces - but the latter may be just to watch Genniveive and Amy Wynn.
Oh, and why is my page 'weblog' instead of the 'blog' used by others here? Well, blog just seems like a chunky barf - or belch.
And, I kept Mr. Kim's default title BobWorld. Unless there are any suggestions...
Well, I should start cleaning for Mike and Jet's arrival. Plus, I think I have overloaded my brain with all this 'talk'. Far far far more than it is used to dealing with at once.
So, today on the way back home for lunch, I told the manager about my wonderful evening. She was incredulous over the (lack of) after hours support, to which she says "We're working on it." Yeah, how many times have you told me that when I have a complaint/concern that you can't address? I stopped counting after 10.
Then, she dealt with a dumbass who put his garage door opener in his swim trunks while swimming. Ok, now if you were to go out swimming, would you make sure that you locked the inside deadbolt to your front door, go out your garage, close it, and proceed to carry the opener in your swim trunks to go swimming in? Is the intelligence of people really decreasing this swiftly?
So after that, I tell her about the adventures with the across the street neighbors. Now, no-one likes these people, and many many complaints have been lodged against them. A few months ago, with the original parking fiasco, she assured me that if I lodged another parking complaint, she would have them evicted. Well, 8 complaints later, they are still there. But, after my story, she replies that she'll just go ahead and evict them.
Hmm, not the way I wanted it to go. I wanted to use this among other things as leverage to get out of paying the early move out fee when I move to the house. I really do not want to get involved in a he said/she said thing. And, IF there was pissing as retaliation for my wanting to have them towed, then what will this bring? I like dealing with incompetency. If there was a contract with a towing company when the first situation happened, or the management properly dealt with the situation, things would be much better. Of course, if people were intelligent and parked 'illegaly' in a fashion that didn't disrupt others, this wouldn't happen either.
Why, why must humans be so incredibly stupid? I mean, I wouldn't really consider myself an intelligent person. I would rate myself at what should be considered average for human intelligence. It really really pisses me off that there is so much abundance of people not using any brain cells, that I start to consider myself superior to these people.
Not that this 'Additional Entry Text' really does anything ....
So, after lunch, I went to go to my final selection meeting. This is where I go over with the 'consultant' (that's what they call themselves) the options I want in my house. Since it is being built, I get to choose what flooring, lighting, appliances, etc. that I want And this was to finalize all my selections so purchase orders can be made. BTW, http://www.kbhome.com/community/community.jsp?id=00874037 is the website where you can see my floor plan. It's the R-2026 model, and since there is a model home, there is also a virtual tour of the place. Since I am putting all this, as well as closing costs into the mortgage, I gave myself a 7k limit. 3k was spent in the kitchen, so I didn't upgrade any of the flooring or lighting. I did add 5 overhead lights, and had them prepared for overhead fans. I will in the future do the hardwood floor in the kitchen/dining room myself - they want to charge 3k for crappy assed laminate over particle board garbage. So, I'll do it the right way myself - maybe add a tile mosaic to it. I'll do the tiling in the entry way myself, and the kitchen backsplash. Maybe over the years if I get ambitious, I'll do tiling in both bathrooms. I'll in the future install ceiling fans, and replacement lighting.
So, I went with:
kitchen island - a must
divided light windows - it's the regular windows with a faux panel frame to make the large pane look like several smaller frames
42" kitchen cabinets
42" fibergalss tub in the master bath - didn't want to spring for the divided shower and tub
I had them put in the tiling I liked for the master bath walls - didn't want to deal with that, and it was only 200
which means I'll have to replace the hardware in the bath to brass to
match, at some point
upgraded the kitchen sink to a bigger model, and got the waterfall type faucet
added some cable and phone jacks, so the den, all bedrooms, kitchen and family room each have phone and cable
got the in counter gas range (which the city 'requests' - i.e., you have to pay a premium to get electric)
got the built in oven, which is electric, which I found odd. All other options give you a gas oven.
dishwasher with the garbage disposer
fridge
Whew, so now that is done, they can get the building permits and start. I am also approved for my mortgage. Need to make sure I lock in the interest rate while it's still at record lows.
Hmm, so Gene says this is something I should have....
Don't expect anything all that insightful, as there isn't anything all that exciting to my life. This will prolly turn out to be a rant page... we'll see.
Eh, what does this do? Maybe I'll tell the story of my wonderful evening yesterday...
So, it's sometime after 7pm, and I notice while getting something to drink, that someone is parked in front of my garage. This very much pissed me off - as there is another loooong story about people parking in the driveaway area there. So, being the total ass that I am, I decided that I needed to go out. So, I get in the car, open the garage, and back out. Oh my, there's a car there! So, I honk my horn a few times, for the person may realize that I am honking for them to move.
Nope, no one comes out. So I drive back in and get the phone to call the towing company. They give me some b.s. about how only an apartment representative can call in a tow. Yeah, we've been through all that with the previous story. So, I call the after hours 'secretary' to have them get the 'courtesy officer'. So, while I wait outside, I decide that this will prolly take forever, so I turn off the engine. As I leave the garage outside, I see the owner of the car come out - I feel he's been out side all along, cause this timing is far too coincidental for me.
He goes to his car, opens the door, and proceeds to apologize and offer an explaination - something along the lines of that he is waiting for my neighbors to get back. I tell the guy, "I'm not really interested in an eplaination, I want you to move your car so I can get out." He just sits there, smiling at me, telling me how sorry he is. So I say, "Look, it's a simple concept. Put the key in the ignition, start the car, and move out of the way." He just stands there smiling like it was a good joke. So I look at him, and say, "Now would be a good time." With which he offers, "For what?" "Now, would be a good time for you to move your car out of the way. I need to leave, and you are still blocking me."
After a short while later, he proceeds to move. Am I just getting jaded in my old age, or do others agree that this man was utterly stupid?
So, he moves out, and I go around the block for a while. As I get back, I see him (and the other two vehicles that were parked in front of the neighbor's garage) leave.
Ok, brush with stupidity over with. Now, comes 9pm. I see my wonderful accros the street neighbors and their multitude (20-30) of friends get back from jetskiing. They are putting the jet ski back in their garage. Now, from what I can tell, there is an older guy (looks like 40's) and some indeterminant number of younger 20 year olds that live there. The friends are in their lower 20's - or at the least have the mentality of lower 20's. You know, the lets get drunk and be stupid and yell and smoke and peep in people's doorways and windows, and piss on buildings type of people.
So, the pickup gets done unloading, and it goes into the driveway for my building, turns around, and stops right in front of my door. It sits there for a while. So, I go grab the phone to have them towed, and when I get back to the window, I see a guy standing in front of my steps, with his fly open, and he's holding his dick. Well, that seems like pissing on my building to me.
Knowing that cops won't get there by the time he's done, I go to get dressed, and get my steel toed boots on. Yeah, that was a time waster, but I wanted to make sure I had the ability to make any of them stumble if need be. And, I rather liked the idea and throwing the door open - startling him into non-action - and running out and kicking him in the groin as hard as I could muster. Figure the steel toed boots would at the least keep him on the ground for some time, if not hospitalization. Like to hear him explain that to the cops.
But, it took too long, and they left.
Then 10 minutes later, the after hours maintenance guy calls me about the guy parking in front of my garage. Hello? Over 2 1/2 hours after the fact, and you are just calling me. Plus, you aren't even the 'courtesy officer'. WTF
At least, out of the 4 after hour complaints I have made, this is the first to have been addressed, albeit way late, and the wrong guy.
Needless to say it took a few hours to calm down. I can't wait till I can move into my house.