(no subject)
So not too much has been going on, at least not much that seems worth one of the occasional posts I tend to do. But I figure I've accomplished enough today to post a few things that have been going on recently.
I'm one exam and one paper away from finally finishing college, yep it only took seven-ish years of class and work and despair and annoying bureaucratic nightmares to get me there. The Greek and Roman Religion online course is pretty cool stuff, but I really don't think it added anything to my C.S. and Math degree in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully this was the last $1000 UMass Boston will be able to squeeze me for.
I rebuilt a few parts on my bike and bought some good foul weather gear, so I'm going to ride my bicycle everyday I possibly can this winter. I figure even in the worst of it, 20 minutes in blizzard conditions on a bike has to be better than on foot. Plus there's pretty much no public transportation that I can walk to in less time than I can bike to work. It's a fun experiment, hopefully one that will keep me in good shape through the winter so I can buy myself a much better bike in the spring.
Work is going really well, we've been getting new customers hand over fist, which is good and bad. The next version of our software is coming along nicely, and we've got a few alpha testers for some parts. Of course with my boss being the primary support person for all of our clients, he's completely overworked. Additionally, I ended up losing about 5 days of work b/c I had to build a wall...that's right, I had to build a wall at my software engineering job!
Quick synopsis of the wall story:
Two of the marketing kids (the same kids who didn't know how to brew coffee, wtf?), consulted with Ray, our boss, and the landlord about taking out a rather superfluous wall between the two marketing offices. A reasonable project, certainly the kind you'd like to hire a contractor for, or at least find someone who'd done demo/construction before. Never having done demo, and assuming that it would be a piece of cake, they tore the wall down using a sawzall, a rubber mallet, and a tiny little picture framing hammer. The mallet broke, the sawzall had the wrong blade on it, and they managed to take the wall down still! Good for them I said. Not wanting any part of the project, it had gone down over the weekend without me around, apparently with not one single person mentioning that they were doing demo on a wall with LIVE ELECTRICAL CONDUIT in it.
Needless to say it was a matter of time before a screw fell into a junction box resulting in sparks and curses flying around. The breaker tripped and no one was hurt, and as we rushed in to investigate it was apparently that this project was fucked. So I asked a few key questions, with some depressing answers:
Q: Why the fuck was the power on in a wall you were tearing down?
A: We didn't want to turn those computers over there off, so we just left the power on and worked "around" the conduit.
Q: What the hell were you going to do with this socket/junction box when you closed up this wall?
A: ...ummm....what's a junction box?
Q: Have you ever built a wall, or even part of a wall before?
A: No, but my cousin says it's easy...
Q: Where's your cousin?
A: .....
After finishing assessing the situation, I came up with a list of materials, a plan for how to finish the demo and patch up the holes. And from then on, it was a one man job, my job, b/c I wasn't about to let anyone else fuck this up any worse than they already had. "Family Handman" is now officially part of my job title.
I guess that's about all. Sarah and I saw Dinosaur Jr. last weekend and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists last night, both were pretty good shows. Dinosaur Jr. was better live than I had expected and played a good deal of old stuff, which was nice. Ted Leo plowed through 10 songs, then slowed down and had some really good banter with the crowd.
Can't wait to ride in the snow tomorrow!!!
I'm one exam and one paper away from finally finishing college, yep it only took seven-ish years of class and work and despair and annoying bureaucratic nightmares to get me there. The Greek and Roman Religion online course is pretty cool stuff, but I really don't think it added anything to my C.S. and Math degree in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully this was the last $1000 UMass Boston will be able to squeeze me for.
I rebuilt a few parts on my bike and bought some good foul weather gear, so I'm going to ride my bicycle everyday I possibly can this winter. I figure even in the worst of it, 20 minutes in blizzard conditions on a bike has to be better than on foot. Plus there's pretty much no public transportation that I can walk to in less time than I can bike to work. It's a fun experiment, hopefully one that will keep me in good shape through the winter so I can buy myself a much better bike in the spring.
Work is going really well, we've been getting new customers hand over fist, which is good and bad. The next version of our software is coming along nicely, and we've got a few alpha testers for some parts. Of course with my boss being the primary support person for all of our clients, he's completely overworked. Additionally, I ended up losing about 5 days of work b/c I had to build a wall...that's right, I had to build a wall at my software engineering job!
Quick synopsis of the wall story:
Two of the marketing kids (the same kids who didn't know how to brew coffee, wtf?), consulted with Ray, our boss, and the landlord about taking out a rather superfluous wall between the two marketing offices. A reasonable project, certainly the kind you'd like to hire a contractor for, or at least find someone who'd done demo/construction before. Never having done demo, and assuming that it would be a piece of cake, they tore the wall down using a sawzall, a rubber mallet, and a tiny little picture framing hammer. The mallet broke, the sawzall had the wrong blade on it, and they managed to take the wall down still! Good for them I said. Not wanting any part of the project, it had gone down over the weekend without me around, apparently with not one single person mentioning that they were doing demo on a wall with LIVE ELECTRICAL CONDUIT in it.
Needless to say it was a matter of time before a screw fell into a junction box resulting in sparks and curses flying around. The breaker tripped and no one was hurt, and as we rushed in to investigate it was apparently that this project was fucked. So I asked a few key questions, with some depressing answers:
Q: Why the fuck was the power on in a wall you were tearing down?
A: We didn't want to turn those computers over there off, so we just left the power on and worked "around" the conduit.
Q: What the hell were you going to do with this socket/junction box when you closed up this wall?
A: ...ummm....what's a junction box?
Q: Have you ever built a wall, or even part of a wall before?
A: No, but my cousin says it's easy...
Q: Where's your cousin?
A: .....
After finishing assessing the situation, I came up with a list of materials, a plan for how to finish the demo and patch up the holes. And from then on, it was a one man job, my job, b/c I wasn't about to let anyone else fuck this up any worse than they already had. "Family Handman" is now officially part of my job title.
I guess that's about all. Sarah and I saw Dinosaur Jr. last weekend and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists last night, both were pretty good shows. Dinosaur Jr. was better live than I had expected and played a good deal of old stuff, which was nice. Ted Leo plowed through 10 songs, then slowed down and had some really good banter with the crowd.
Can't wait to ride in the snow tomorrow!!!