Happy new year
My biannual year end report... yeah... I am on time.
Though this post is about three month late to be biannual, I figure you can cope. Since last I posted, mostly small successes and minor milestones. I am usually horrible at the architecture to these reports so once again, I will try
Home
In April, we finished the guest bathroom. Since then, Nikki and I installed book shelves in the main bedroom, put an acoustic sound board between the master bedroom wall and the kitchen. Fixed the roofs and fixed the leaky windows. I paid a contractor to finish the master bath (finished Dec 17th, had guests Dec 18th). I tore out the master closet and had a contractor redo the rails and shelves to be functional. I have put some cabinets in the garage and finished off details that have been out there for a while. The house is now officially considered done. All rooms have been restored, redone, and retrofitted. I love alliteration. Anyway, as soon as I finished, I thought of five or six things that I still want to do. Replace the water heater, redo the backyard fence, blinds instead of curtains in the kitchen, make storage space in the attic and maybe some new attic insulation.
But really, it's done. I think I will move onto furniture. As a celebration of finishing the house Nikki and I purchased a new bed and donated the old one. We upgraded to a king from a queen. Mostly, my reason was based on sleeping on Goon's kind bed. Though I went with a tempurpedic mattress that is wonderfully sumptous. Try one if you can.
Companion
On 1/25/07, I will have been married to Nikki for two years. I can't say that it has been an easy two years. Rough comes to mind. But I haven't ever had a relationship that has had such rough patches that it still exists. I can't say everything is rosy. But I can say that the relationship has improved and I look forward to making it better.
For 2007 is about myself and Nikki and not about the house.
Work
In December of 2005, I told my boss that we would need another MAGE lead engineer. He said that he would open a requisition for the position. It took over a year before we found someone with the necessary background, talent and experience for the position. He starts in three weeks. That is the good news.
I have been working this fall and winter most weekends and mostly 50-60 hour weeks. While I know many of you do 50+ hrs weeks, it's the nature that I am on call to come in for emergencies at all times and odd times. I guess it wears the hell out of me to get pulled into work at odd hours and in unpredictable manner.
In late December, around the 19th, when I had taken a day off to spend with my dad, they began calling at 7:30am. Around noon, when I was receiving one work call, another worker called me on my private cell phone because my work phone was busy. That annoyed me enough to smash my personnal cell phone and destroy it. It seems for myself, that around the holidays, I get more anxious and testy. I have destroyed my cell phone twice now. Once when I was spending time with Dita and this incident. Well, it didn't stop them calling and I received later on a call on my home number.
When I got into work, I did a career limiting meeting with my boss about what happend. I had extremely sharp words with him about what occured. Expletives were traded and most of my team could hear the yelling. Enough that it was official gossip.
Weirdly, this meeting prompted two things, the first was that my boss pursued getting the second mage engineer and second I received a promotion and 10% pay increase. This promotion had been in works since march where I had laid out to my boss what I was doing in comparison to similarly compensated folks in the department. (I have 30 cost accounts that I run and hold, it allows me through a matrix to figure out the loaded and unloaded labor costs of anyone who charges to my accounts. I did a little spread sheet and figured out exactly what everyone made and decided that I was unsatisfied.)
I am not as satisfied as I have been. I have never been so full of rage as I have been this last month. I used to be angry when I was younger and I would do everything I could to soothe those emotions. Now, I am angry and tired. I know this is a bad way to be, and it is on my plate to fix. With the house done, and the stressful holidays over, I am going to sever the ties to work that make me so unhappy.
Media
I haven't actually seen that much. I saw Casino Royale (which was very good) and before that... I can't remember. I rent a few things but nothing stands out as good.
Heroes, Grey's Anatomy and Studio 60 are my secret pleasures. Well, not so secret anymore.
My nephew picked me up a game called F.E.A.R. and it reminds me of a game I run called Kult Fiction. It definitely has elements of that.
I tried DnD Online, WoW, Guild Wars, NWN2 and City of Villains. None of them really hold my interest for long. I think it might be more with me than the games. I know that I want to play with my friends without any hassle. If they could combine the friends features of IM with a MMO for what server you get put on, it would be excellent. Guild Wars comes the closest.
I am sure the next generation will improve on that aspect as that seems to be the direction the better MMO products seem to be going. A distributed server where accounts can port over.
Travel
In July, Nikki and I visited Northern Italy for two and a half weeks. In comparison to everything else, it was incredible. I love travel and know that I will go someplace else the next time. We have talked about Vienna, Ireland, Sydney and Prague. I am sure one of them will work out.
If you have debated Travel... don't. Travel. Take the risk and see the world.
Play
I have a monday night Dungeons and Dragons game that I run. It is the one activity I have kept constant as a release. Though sometimes I try to kill the players with a little too much glee and too much enthusiasm. They all enjoy the campaign quite thoroughly.
The funny thing is that two of them are going to get a modern day campaign going. It's funny in that is what I like to run and not fantasy games. If I could have convinved them awhile ago to play a modern day game, I would have been much happier.
I miss Kult Fiction though. My local group would not enjoy it. I love the range of emotions you can explore especially the darker ones of fear, anger and horror. (Which conversely, makes the other emotions so much brighter of camaraderie, victory, righteousness and humaneness.)
I haven't done the other type of play in months. Too much emotional baggage to do so with enjoyment or control.
Friends
I haven't seen my friends in a while. I see the guys that I play DnD with but I haven't hung out or seen movies with quite a few people. I haven't had dinner with Dita like I said I would 6 months ago. I haven't called Matty back in months. I haven't gamed with Wade or Brad in months (though I did loan Amy an outfit). I haven't mocked Miguel in email. Or praised Scott or Chaz either. I haven't called Melissa, Matt, Matt, Jane, Doug, Erik, Julie or Tyson. I haven't let Shea or Smitty know that I still live. I did write Jen and hope that she let's Matt know happy holidays. I still have a wedding gift for M'Cori and Geoff and Jon and Lindsey wrapped and in the back of the closet. I haven't seen Graham or Carri for the holidays, I haven't touched sane larp in months. I haven't asked Charles about his Xbox 360 or Hallie about her lattest sewing project (or how it might apply to fetish pajamas). I don't even know what TC is doing now. I didn't even know that Ron got hellishly hurt and recovered until months after it happend. I haven't congratulated Fool on being a foolish ANST or congratulated her on a well done game. Sean, Tim, Alexandrea, Jim and Leah are a mystery, they could have been locked away in an insane asylum for all I know. And Steve could be their doctor but I think he and Russ have work that keeps them sufficiently busy.
So if your reading this, have a happy new year and I will eventually try and get in touch.
The end
Though this post is about three month late to be biannual, I figure you can cope. Since last I posted, mostly small successes and minor milestones. I am usually horrible at the architecture to these reports so once again, I will try
Home
In April, we finished the guest bathroom. Since then, Nikki and I installed book shelves in the main bedroom, put an acoustic sound board between the master bedroom wall and the kitchen. Fixed the roofs and fixed the leaky windows. I paid a contractor to finish the master bath (finished Dec 17th, had guests Dec 18th). I tore out the master closet and had a contractor redo the rails and shelves to be functional. I have put some cabinets in the garage and finished off details that have been out there for a while. The house is now officially considered done. All rooms have been restored, redone, and retrofitted. I love alliteration. Anyway, as soon as I finished, I thought of five or six things that I still want to do. Replace the water heater, redo the backyard fence, blinds instead of curtains in the kitchen, make storage space in the attic and maybe some new attic insulation.
But really, it's done. I think I will move onto furniture. As a celebration of finishing the house Nikki and I purchased a new bed and donated the old one. We upgraded to a king from a queen. Mostly, my reason was based on sleeping on Goon's kind bed. Though I went with a tempurpedic mattress that is wonderfully sumptous. Try one if you can.
Companion
On 1/25/07, I will have been married to Nikki for two years. I can't say that it has been an easy two years. Rough comes to mind. But I haven't ever had a relationship that has had such rough patches that it still exists. I can't say everything is rosy. But I can say that the relationship has improved and I look forward to making it better.
For 2007 is about myself and Nikki and not about the house.
Work
In December of 2005, I told my boss that we would need another MAGE lead engineer. He said that he would open a requisition for the position. It took over a year before we found someone with the necessary background, talent and experience for the position. He starts in three weeks. That is the good news.
I have been working this fall and winter most weekends and mostly 50-60 hour weeks. While I know many of you do 50+ hrs weeks, it's the nature that I am on call to come in for emergencies at all times and odd times. I guess it wears the hell out of me to get pulled into work at odd hours and in unpredictable manner.
In late December, around the 19th, when I had taken a day off to spend with my dad, they began calling at 7:30am. Around noon, when I was receiving one work call, another worker called me on my private cell phone because my work phone was busy. That annoyed me enough to smash my personnal cell phone and destroy it. It seems for myself, that around the holidays, I get more anxious and testy. I have destroyed my cell phone twice now. Once when I was spending time with Dita and this incident. Well, it didn't stop them calling and I received later on a call on my home number.
When I got into work, I did a career limiting meeting with my boss about what happend. I had extremely sharp words with him about what occured. Expletives were traded and most of my team could hear the yelling. Enough that it was official gossip.
Weirdly, this meeting prompted two things, the first was that my boss pursued getting the second mage engineer and second I received a promotion and 10% pay increase. This promotion had been in works since march where I had laid out to my boss what I was doing in comparison to similarly compensated folks in the department. (I have 30 cost accounts that I run and hold, it allows me through a matrix to figure out the loaded and unloaded labor costs of anyone who charges to my accounts. I did a little spread sheet and figured out exactly what everyone made and decided that I was unsatisfied.)
I am not as satisfied as I have been. I have never been so full of rage as I have been this last month. I used to be angry when I was younger and I would do everything I could to soothe those emotions. Now, I am angry and tired. I know this is a bad way to be, and it is on my plate to fix. With the house done, and the stressful holidays over, I am going to sever the ties to work that make me so unhappy.
Media
I haven't actually seen that much. I saw Casino Royale (which was very good) and before that... I can't remember. I rent a few things but nothing stands out as good.
Heroes, Grey's Anatomy and Studio 60 are my secret pleasures. Well, not so secret anymore.
My nephew picked me up a game called F.E.A.R. and it reminds me of a game I run called Kult Fiction. It definitely has elements of that.
I tried DnD Online, WoW, Guild Wars, NWN2 and City of Villains. None of them really hold my interest for long. I think it might be more with me than the games. I know that I want to play with my friends without any hassle. If they could combine the friends features of IM with a MMO for what server you get put on, it would be excellent. Guild Wars comes the closest.
I am sure the next generation will improve on that aspect as that seems to be the direction the better MMO products seem to be going. A distributed server where accounts can port over.
Travel
In July, Nikki and I visited Northern Italy for two and a half weeks. In comparison to everything else, it was incredible. I love travel and know that I will go someplace else the next time. We have talked about Vienna, Ireland, Sydney and Prague. I am sure one of them will work out.
If you have debated Travel... don't. Travel. Take the risk and see the world.
Play
I have a monday night Dungeons and Dragons game that I run. It is the one activity I have kept constant as a release. Though sometimes I try to kill the players with a little too much glee and too much enthusiasm. They all enjoy the campaign quite thoroughly.
The funny thing is that two of them are going to get a modern day campaign going. It's funny in that is what I like to run and not fantasy games. If I could have convinved them awhile ago to play a modern day game, I would have been much happier.
I miss Kult Fiction though. My local group would not enjoy it. I love the range of emotions you can explore especially the darker ones of fear, anger and horror. (Which conversely, makes the other emotions so much brighter of camaraderie, victory, righteousness and humaneness.)
I haven't done the other type of play in months. Too much emotional baggage to do so with enjoyment or control.
Friends
I haven't seen my friends in a while. I see the guys that I play DnD with but I haven't hung out or seen movies with quite a few people. I haven't had dinner with Dita like I said I would 6 months ago. I haven't called Matty back in months. I haven't gamed with Wade or Brad in months (though I did loan Amy an outfit). I haven't mocked Miguel in email. Or praised Scott or Chaz either. I haven't called Melissa, Matt, Matt, Jane, Doug, Erik, Julie or Tyson. I haven't let Shea or Smitty know that I still live. I did write Jen and hope that she let's Matt know happy holidays. I still have a wedding gift for M'Cori and Geoff and Jon and Lindsey wrapped and in the back of the closet. I haven't seen Graham or Carri for the holidays, I haven't touched sane larp in months. I haven't asked Charles about his Xbox 360 or Hallie about her lattest sewing project (or how it might apply to fetish pajamas). I don't even know what TC is doing now. I didn't even know that Ron got hellishly hurt and recovered until months after it happend. I haven't congratulated Fool on being a foolish ANST or congratulated her on a well done game. Sean, Tim, Alexandrea, Jim and Leah are a mystery, they could have been locked away in an insane asylum for all I know. And Steve could be their doctor but I think he and Russ have work that keeps them sufficiently busy.
So if your reading this, have a happy new year and I will eventually try and get in touch.
The end