The Day the Fun Died

Yesterday my fall text book came, it’s called “The Organization of Information.” Hardly grabs you from the get go. In fact the first two chapters failed to inspire (me to stay awake).

So it seems that the fun is over. No more watching DVDs, playing games and messing with Mindstorms (I’m not doing the all caps) or other fun. At least not in the quantity that I’ve been doing them; I’m sure that I can squeeze something in. Now much of my free time will be spent reading and writing about databases with people who care very much about databases.

I am currently debating the wisdom of spending my time on a library degree. It no longer makes as much sense as it 9 months ago. (Actually it’s a year ago when I first started down this trail.) Most of my mentors said that it was a futile move. Now I am starting to think they were right. What will all of this effort get me? Probably nothing. Was it a knee-jerk response to temporarily crappy work conditions? Most likely, but those times are over now and things are looking a bit more pleasant.

When I express concern that I might never use it, most people respond that I should just go ahead and finish it. But what for? It’s not going to help my current job or career path. All I will get is a few more student loans and a boatload of wasted free time. Time better spent learning more Flash or some sort of programming or electronics skills or reading literature in my current field.

After this semester I will be around half way done, so should I just might as well finish. There are some large things to do, but nothing insurmountable. I just have to answer the question “Why bother?” If the answer is amusing enough I will stick with it, if not then I can save my money and time. And certainly play more WoW.

More Work Stuff

More Work Stuff.

True to form I was in a meeting today where “opportunity” and “flexibility” were used like crazy. I had to fight down the urge to smirk and snicker. Maybe one day I will call some one out on what they are actually saying. Probably right before I get fired.

More work strangeness: I was cruising the halls, probably getting my mail or something, when I passed to two office bees talking. Apparently one of them had been on vacation for a week or so and they were discussing the bee’s return to the hive. The bee actually said “It’s good to be back.” What?! Who the hell says that? What hideous thing happened to this poor woman on her vacation? Maybe she went to some sort of spa where they poke you with hedgehogs and insult you all day long.

When I told The Cat about what I had heard and she said “Well if you are on vacation with your kids at Disneyland then yeah, work is probably better. But if you are on a lovely romantic getaway, then you never want to go back.” (Or something to that effect; I wasn’t taking notes) I agree, though in theory only as I don’t have kids. But we did have a great time in Cigar Town and I didn’t want to return to work so she is probably right.

Next time the long over due Cigar Town recap! Even though The Cat has recapped and Flickred the heck out of it already.

Reassessing the Orange Paradigm

As noted yesterday Barnelia has been telling tales of work. Not just any tales, but stories about bureaucratic management systems. This sort of stuff makes my blood boil. Check out the most recent Pretty Lab post for the discussion of “red box.” I want to know is it a verb, noun or adverb. It would be best, and most useful, if it were an actual red box. You know, for storage or maybe it has snacks in it.

Even after a graduate level management course I still can’t endorse any management system or method or whatever. I am extremely thrilled not to be in an extremely silly office environment. Sure it starts to weave into some obtuse crap, but we’ve avoided a management system . . . though we did have a close brush with “balance scorecards” a while back. I think everyone realized doing all the work for the scorecard would then become our primary task instead of our product.

What kills me is that it’s all fake or at least fake sounding. While we need some order there is no reason to slap a fantasy role-playing game on top of it all (“Meetings & Managers in my den this Saturday night!!”). Managers hide behind the game and use fake rules and words to sound purposeful.

I can’t tell you how many times I hear the word “flexible” in any giving meeting. What they are really saying is “I can’t make a decision!” or “I want it all!” Well guess what, there comes a time when everyone has to put on their big girl pants and make a decision. Most decisions close some doors and limit choices but that’s how you get things done. Not by dithering around and being flexible all the time, but by making a freaking decision. I really feel that some managers are unable to decide because they can’t own the fact that they will have to say no to an “opportunity” (more on that in a bit). To be honest, I’ve been in this position myself: you can’t make a decision so you waffle in the name of flexibility. I’ve had to push myself into making a decision and it was always for the best because we were able to move forward.

The other word that gets thrown around a lot is “opportunity” and its slutty cousin, “partnerships.” Both of these are great in the abstract; they are powerful ideas that let organizations grow and really do some great stuff. But only certain people should use them: disciplined people. For me these two words have become meaningless. They are used so much that everything is an opportunity and everyone is a partner. I realize that in order to be flexible (HA!) one must have this view, but it’s unrealistic. You can’t do everything all the time while partnered with everyone, so limits should be established to focus efforts.

At work I am often the “No Guy,” the guy in meetings that chimes in with a jigger of reality. While I am sure that I’m not perceived as a “team player,” I am often the one what has to execute the opportunity management and partners dream up. So I often have to burst a few bubbles. Maybe I am a jerk or just too stupid or red box in flexibility.

Wow, this wasn’t fun at all. Here. (I haven’t played it, but it seems promising).

Oh, I forgot about “strategic.” Grrrr.

Bits and Things

I has been a while so I will dump some random stuff into one catch-all post (I'll have to save the Getaway to Cigar Town for another post unto itself).

Been playing lots of Worlds of Warcraft and watching season 2 of Doctor Who. I can't get enough of the new Doctor Who series. I'm about half way through and I've made the adjustment to the Tenth Doctor. It was slightly rough at first but its working out for the best. He certainly dresses more like The Doctor than the Ninth, who I always thought was a bit to fashionable. Ten seems to be channeling Rowan Atkinson on occasion, which is strange or very purposeful considering. I just finished the Cybermen episodes. While they looked pretty pokey, they didn't fail to creep me out. Same with the Daleks; pokey but pretty menacing.

Speaking of “ten,” I've also been watching Cartoon Network's Ben Ten. Sure it's formulaic and the titular Ben is a bit of a jerk, but it's got a lot going for it: cool gadget, cool aliens and a great theme song (A good theme song goes a long way. This one and Doctor Who's I listen to every time. I have to skip over BSG's warbling). And Grandpa Max, who I am sure is some sort of former MIB.

Last Saturday The Cat and I went to an antique mall; not sure why really, we were passing and figured what the hell. The last time we were in this particular mall I had such a horrific allergy attack from the dust and mold. This time nothing except yawning from the boredom.

It's not a very exciting place but I did manage to find a real treasure: Put 'n Take dice. Many of my father's NYC relatives played this simple dice game and I used to play it with them when I was young. It consists of 2 dice, one with P's and T's on it and the other numbered 1, 2, 3 and All. It's a gambling game so you need to have some pennies or matchsticks or tokens or whatever. To start, everyone antes up to the pot. The players take turns rolling the dice and doing what they say: either putting or taking 1, 2, 3 or All tokens from your pool or the pot. There might be other rules but I can't seem to remember any. I suppose when you are out of tokens your out of the game (which could happen with a simple “Put All” roll. Hey, life's rough). I have vague memories of playing with my parents and grandparents after dinner for hours.

Next time Barnelia and Cecil are around we will play and drink anisette and espresso. My pa and kin are of the Italian persuasion; I can't think of anything more Italian than anisette and espresso (involving tiny cups and tiny spoons) except perhaps downing cannolis and calling in a mob hit.

I'm not sure what happened to THE family set of Put 'n Take dice after my grandmother passed away. I sure hope my father saved them. I still need to snag a copy of Cosmic Wimpout (Check out the tournament poster, those cats look like they are having a blast!) Now there is another fun dice game.

The Cat continues to forward me attacks on Kristen Bell's fashion sense. I don't care what she wears in “real” life, just that season 2 of Veronica Mars is on DVD. While the first season was great, I am a bit skeptical on how the second will hold my attention since most of the major bits were resolved.

Damnit! I wanted to write a harangue about management stuff after hearing Barnelia's horrific, yet amusing, stories of work. Perhaps next time.

Oh and . . .

Watch the Skies!

ARGH! My Eyes!

Tonight has not been a good night to be my eyes.

First I watched 2 episodes of Drawn Together (bunch of cartoon tropes {look it up} “live” in a house, reality show style). It’s an amusing premise but the show is wantonly stupid and unnecessarily nasty. I have no problem with either stupid or nasty but only when done with intelligence and discretion. The only moderately funny character is Ling Ling, a Pikachu-like Asian battling monster. He doesn’t speak English (maybe Japanese, but I doubt it is actually anything real) and the characters constantly misinterpret him. For some reason his subtitles are in Engrish, which is slightly amusing. The really funny part about him is he acts like you want Pikachu to act: constantly pissed and raring for a fight. It’s too bad the rest of the show is crap; I’m sure that Ling Ling is a riot.

This isn’t the first “adult” or “mature” (read “crappy” or “juvenile”) cartoon I’ve ‘flixed as of late. A few weeks ago I watched 2 episodes of Tripping the Rift. (I figure that if they can’t prove their worth in 2 episodes then they are a complete waste of time. . . beyond those two episodes that is) Boy, was I sorry. Everything was wretched about this cartoon. It’s really sad when the title sequence contains most of the jokes you’ll see in the episode. This wouldn’t be such a huge problem but it’s the same damn sequence for every show (except for the computer saying something stupid).

I should have listen to The Cat for both shows. She said they would suck and she was right.

The second threat to my vision tonight was sausage and peppers. The Cat purchased me some from Whole Foods and it was a bit shy on the pepper side. Just so happens that a coworker gave me some homegrown peppers just the other day, two red bell peppers and two long green ones. I decided to add in the two greens. For some reason I thought they would be mild like bells, after the first bite I knew I was mistaken. So I ate a bit more bread and everything was spicy but ok. After dinner and the above mentioned crapfest, I went to lie down for a second. I was snuggling in when I rubbed my eyes. HO SHIT! It burned! YOUCH! My left eye was on fire from a bit of capsaicin on my finger tip. Just the other day I read how you shouldn’t drink water on capsaicin because it is oil soluble; water just spreads it around. Bread or liquor is recommended to temper the heat. Both of those seemed really bad to rub on one’s eye so I just used cool water and ice. It went away, but not after some intense discomfort.

I must have had my idiot hat on not to realize they were hot peppers. Usually I wear rubber gloves when dealing in hot peppers to avoid searing my eyes out. I know next time I will go for the gloves when ever I am around peppers that clearly aren’t bells.

Thankfully the capsaicin washed out or dispersed; no lasting damage. But, as they say, you can’t unwatch something bad. I’ll have to live with the Drawn Together damage for a while.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to The Cat.

I’m sorry you were under the weather for it. We’re going to have such a blast in Cigar City and traveling around the Bikini State this weekend that you’ll forget all about it.

Keeping Busy

It’s been a while. I suppose that some disinterest has set in; I’ve moved on to other pastures. I don’t have a harangue this time around just some notes on my furious media consumption over the past few weeks.

Right now I am loading up all my “second string” CDs on to my Zen Vision:M. It’s all that dusty crap that one once loved, but now you just scratch your head and wonder “why?” They are lovely CDs; some with just that super-nifty song or others with lots of goodness. Stuff like The Offspring’s Ixnay on the Hombre and Aqua’s Aquarium or Jimmy Buffett’s Barometer Soup. *cha-thunk* What was that? Oh that was The Cat leaving me for some one who has a music collection that doesn’t inspire shame. I’m sorry baby, I just don’t know no better. Now I just have find my De La Soul CD.

After finishing the cute and somewhat cuddly Sly 2: Band of Thieves I began God of War both on PS2. OMG: the violence, the blood, the nudity, the anti-hero who looks like a WWE actor, uh, wrestler. I didn’t realize it when I got it but it is rated M and certainly has earned it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game. Nothing like knocking a minotaur on his back so you can stick your sword up his nostril. The Cat doesn’t approve of this game and can’t say as I’d blame her. It’s everything that the parent’s groups are all freaked about (and again for good reason). But I am a big boy so I guess I get to play the games that let you rip medusa’s head off with your bare hands *pop*

Still reading some Manga to see what the fuss is all about. Full Metal Alchemist continues to be cool. But Fruits Basket is starting to loose me. It’s just too damn complex and all of the characters look the same. I also read a book called Comic Party. It was just bad; bad story, bad characters and bad art. It also contains some questionable art in the back, you know the kind parents don’t want in their teen’s books. I won’t be reading Comic Party 2 (which I am sure is as bad as House Party 2). I think I am back on “normal” comics for a while.

Stop reading this right now and go watch the pilot of The Amazing Screw-on Head. It is freaking amazing (just like the title says). It’s based on Mike “Hellboy” Mignola's book by the same name. I know some purists have pooed on it, but I was very satisfied. Great art and superior voice acting (Paul Giamatti and David Hyde Pierce) So go, watch and vote so that it will become a glorious series that I will have wait to see on DVD.

And finally, I’ve been spending lots of time with my new, shiny Lego Mindstorms set. So far I’ve built 3 of the 4 provided projects and two of my own. My first creation was Wakeybot: designed to go into the bedroom and slap The Cat’s side of the bed while saying “Good Morning.” It had a button on top that, when pressed, would stop the slapping and cause Wakeybot to retreat. My current project is a low to the ground bot that moves like a Roomba and plays music based on the color of the surface it is driving over. So far it plays a dirge, but it should be a perkier tune soon. Programming the little buggers isn’t that hard, but building them is a bugger. It’s those damn studless bricks. I understand why they went with them, but I do wish they were just normal Lego. Adjusting to the different building style has been frustrating.

I leave you with this. Holy Freaking Cow. I am going to need one of those. Not sure when and where I will use it, but it is just too amazing.