I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year!

Oh, and blame , too.
Add me as a writing buddy: http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/90548

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You can feel free to add me:

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Happy Birthday to ! Hope you have a great day today!

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For my piano class final, I’ve decided to play this: http://ichigos.com/content/inc/getfile.php?id=735&type=midi

So far, I have the first section down pretty good. I’m working on the first part of it, now.

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Okay, since a grand total of none of you read what I wrote, I guess I’ll move onto other topics.

My laptop, hammerhead, died last night. I saw the warning signs of blue screens and other nonsense, so I offloaded any personal data I had on it and then did a full system recovery and restore. 5 minutes into the newly-restored laptop, it blue screened again. I called technical support at Toshiba and they asked me to take it into an authorized service provider.

This is not atypical. I just needed to grab a case number from them.

However, while I had the technician on the phone, I asked him some pretty point-blank questions. I asked if my laptop was still in rotation (ie: they had spare parts for it) and he said yes. I asked him if the laptop was discontinued, he said no. Okay, so that helps, because if the laptop is discontinued or out of rotation, then the ASP can’t help me. They won’t be able to order any parts for a laptop that has no support from Toshiba.

When I bought the laptop, though, I spent the extra $100 bucks for a warranty extension of 2 years, so the laptop is covered until March of 2009.

I took it into the service center and they got all itchy when they saw it. The first thing the technician there told me was, “Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to be able to help you. I’m pretty this model’s discontinued.” Color me shocked. Toshiba got it wrong? No way. They were pretty apologetic, though, and suggested I contact Customer Relations and have them ship me a brand new model, because they don’t even have my P25-S676/80 in their reserves anymore.

Also, the system’s mainboard was recalled due to serious problems. Gee, thanks for letting me know, Toshiba.

I called Toshiba’s customer relations and they bounced me all over the damn place. I waited on hold for nearly an hour before I got to the right department, and then she took my information, gave me a new case number, and then told me to stand by for 2 days while she seeks approval from ‘Corporate’ to offer me other options. And if they do decide to ship me a new laptop, it could take up to 2 weeks for it to get to me.

Joy.

So, here I sit, waiting for them to call me back. How much you want to bet it’ll be me calling them?

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I’ve been tinkering around with following up a short story I wrote three years ago. In order to really provide a proper frame of reference, that short story is located here:

Agamemnon: http://fiction.hopestation.net/viewstory.php?sid=1&chapter=1

The novella I’m working on has the first chapter done, and it is located here:

The Sacrifice of Agamemnon: http://fiction.hopestation.net/viewstory.php?sid=7

I know a lot of you aren’t Trek fans, but I could use some insight on whether or not I’m proceeding in the right direction.

Thanks.

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GO TRIBE!

Oh, man. Talk about a serious spanking tonight. Indians trounce Red Sux 7-3 to take Game 4 and go ahead 3 games to 1 in the ALCS. A 7-run inning started and ended by Casey Blake! I gotta say, it’s awesome when the Red Sox fall apart under normal circumstances, but having them made of complete fail while they’re facing your team in the ALCS is just orgasmic-like schadenfreude. The only way this could be better, is if it was the Giants and Red Sox in the World Series and the Giants were up 3-1. That is really the only way it could get better, I’m telling you.

GO TRIBE!

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Whipped out with the Berman-style fellatio for this one. However, I think Andy Benard said it best: “In your face, sucker!”

Folks, not only did my Tribe win Game 2, but they did it in the 11th on a 7 run inning off of Eric fucking Gagne. Poetic justice for all those years of facing him when he was wearing Dodger blue. My, how the mighty have fallen.

Suck it, Red Sox. Suck it hard. See you in Cleveland.

Bring lots of insect repellent. Those bugs sure love the taste of failure.

It’s going to be a Tribe/Rockies world series. Tribe will win it in 6.

GO TRIBE!

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This seems to be the question I get a lot lately, especially since the idea of quitting Yahoo seems to have caught a lot of people off-guard. Rather than try to break it down individually, I will just put it up here for all to read, because I don’t want to have to relive it.
I started on a contract with Yahoo in March of this year. About a month or two ago, things were great. I was having a lot of fun in the NOC and I was enjoying the job and my co-workers. Changes were being made at a prodigious rate toward consolidating the two teams within the NOC. I was part of the Tier II group, which was run by Jeff Stone (who was actually a decent manager, relatively speaking). When Jeff pulled me aside and told me the news, I had to admit that I was very hesitant. The Tier I manager, Deo, was not the type of manager I work well under; he required his direct reports to consistently agree with him in spite of his constant requests to ‘think outside the box,’ or my personal favorite, ‘think for yourself.’

The problem was never that I could not think outside the box. For those of you who know me, you know that outside the box is where I exist. Anytime I would propose an idea outside the box, I would get chastised for it. And when I would follow orders, he would return with, “I need people who can think for themselves.” At this point, I was convinced that there was no pleasing him. I was expecting to be converted by that point; I had over 120 days (30 days beyond the probationary period) and Jeff had told me that it was pretty much a done deal. Deo sat me down and corrected me; Oh, no… it was nowhere near being close to a done deal because I had to prove myself to him. So, I was basically re-interviewing for a job I already had. So, I told him that I would be looking outside of Yahoo and he didn’t really seem to care, though he told me, “I’m rooting for you,” in that patronizing manner that screams, “I don’t want you here.”

If you were really rooting for me, then why wasn’t there an offer letter at the table? That kind of bullshit just pisses me off.

So I interviewed for other positions. One in Abuse. One in NetOps. I know I didn’t get the Abuse spot. But the NetOps things dragged on for 3 weeks. Then the week before I quit, I found out (from his lips as he was discussing this with coworkers in the NOC, within earshot) that he sunk everyone in the NOC going for the NetOps position by telling the NetOps manager that hiring anyone from the NOC would “bring down the overall quality” of his department. That pretty much set me off and whatever shred of respect I had for him zero’d out pretty quickly.

From that point on, it was pretty much a ticking time bomb. I didn’t care if I had a job to go to or not, by October 15th, I was going to be quitting. On October 1st, however, I came in 15 minutes late. While working for Tier II, Jeff said on several occasions that he would respect a 15-20 minute window and anything beyond then required a phone call, so I had become used to that cushion of time. Deo was having none of that, and pulled me into a conference room and told me that he hated people being late and that I was being given a warning. Also, if I come in late again, don’t bother coming in at all. Oh, and he was taking away my overtime hours (which means I would be making less).

I saw red.

I contacted my agency and the on-site contract people and let them know I was ending my contract immediately. I dropped off my corporate assets and I was done. Yes, I let Deo know. Yes, I shook his hand (though he treated my handshake like it was diseased). Yes, I smiled and I did not explode (although Julia wanted me to… actually, a lot of people wanted me to). Is it really worth it to get that upset toward someone who’s not going to matter to me anymore? Not really.

That’s pretty much what happened at Yahoo. I could care less who reads this, because I’m done with them. I’ve never worked for a company with such bad management before, and the thing is, I’m shocked Deo’s not shot himself in the foot enough times to lose his job. And if Deo doesn’t understand one thing about leadership and if he’s honestly shocked that I’m not the only one who worked for him that is constantly frustrated by his ineptitude, then he needs to know that attitude reflects leadership. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, but probably the only one who has the ability to speak up and tell it like it is.

What sucks is… I really miss my coworkers. They were awesome. It was a good team ruined by a poor manager and horrible decisions. And I would have stayed on had I continued to report to Jeff or anyone else over there.

Instead, I got hired by Teneros for way better pay and good hours. So, it worked out in the end, right?

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I have awoken from the Autumn Dream.

Some short comments:

- akai SKY was awesome, and should have played last in the Battle of the Bands.
- Stage Crew ruled all.
- It’s too bad we never got the Internet to work.
- I may be too old to pull 22 hour days.
- My feet staged a coup on Sunday night and now there is a new regime in place. The political situation is unstable.
- Transformers was never so much fun.
- Road trips are much longer and more dangerous when you’re dead-ass tired and sitting behind the wheel.
- Earth!
- Arcee only has 512k of RAM.
- Three days of shuffling cards and dealing Texas Hold ‘em made my fingers hurt.
- High school drama is more fun when it doesn’t involve me.
- Baseball’s fun when you have people to share it with. Watching the Tribe (with help from the local insects) kill the Yankees in Cleveland was awesome.
- I really didn’t want to leave on Sunday.
- If only Ani-Magic could have been a four-day event instead of three…

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