Whirlwind

[ehowton]

The scheduled repairs from the outcome of our 2-month builder's interview was scheduled for Wednesday and my wife asked that I take the day off so she wouldn't have to be in the house alone with what turned out to be a team of tile guys, an electrician, and a plumber. I sat here, where I am sitting now, for 12-hours trying to keep up with the suddenly demanding schedule at work. I deployed a new software system to all our production boxes via a perl script. That is, except the boxes I didn't have accounts on. Or expired passwords. That evening stuffed 2500 envelopes with a team of 10-people at the liquor store to prepare for mass mailing to all registered voters who didn't sign the prohibition petition. Politically, this thing is getting way out of hand. More information comes to the surface every day about what types of people we're dealing with. Funny how dirty people will play all the while playing their 'morality' card. These people are as filthy as any I've ever seen, and I can't help but think how had they kept their religious aspirations to themselves, they might never have been caught. We worked late into the night, then I had to finish another project at work, so I logged in and didn't get to bed until 0100.

0700 came awfully early. I had to go to a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new liquor store which recently opened its doors, hosted by the co-founder of http://annaalcoholrepeal.com , the prohibitionists. Awfully humorous. Pulled into work and these two assholes (see previous post) parked on the center line, taking up two parking spots each, to not dent their cars (I assume). With nowhere else to go, and filled with righteous anger as this was the third day in a row, I pulled my vehicle right between them, then reported them to security. Lots still to do at work, so my boss buys me a Monster to keep going. I am Popeye, and those are my cans of spinach. Seriously. I wound up to about a thousand degrees Kelvin and unleashed fury on my workstation. I was all set to leave as soon as I got a chance, but that chance never came. More things piled up. They always do. I left at 1800 with the promise of not having to come in Friday if I finished a new script and deployed to all the development boxes for testing.

Now, a word about my son's teacher. I love that teachers are now online. I can email them. I love emailing them. Its so...easy. First, a little something about me. I'm a literal person. Very literal person. A couple weeks ago, we rec'd a sheet of paper explaining that we would pick "someone famous" (from a pre-approved list of famous people) for our son to portray at the Living Museum they would be hosting at the school. Also, the parents would be asked to assist with the costume. No problem. A week later, we received a note telling us that our son was going to be Neil Armstrong from the list of three potentials we'd chosen. Very exciting. A week later, we get a note instructing us to have our son's costume ready by the end of the week.

Excuse me?

I fired off another email, and she graciously played back every thing I just told you, reminding me that I had three weeks to prepare for this.

Bullshit. We found out only two weeks ago which character he was to portray, and in my small, literal mind, "assisting with the costume" does not translate into creating it from conception to production. My wife was livid! She thought we might be able to make a "jumpsuit" from his navy blue sweat pants & shirt, if I could find a NASA patch. Brilliant idea! Unfortunately, finding an online store which both HAD the NASA seal patch, AND offered overnight delivery was an unsuccessful waste of time. Back to the drawing board. With two days to go, she pulls out his Stormtrooper costume, and I root around some unpacked boxes for my old military patches, rank, etc. A little magic sizing & safety pins later, we have what I am quite sure will be a passable character costume, and it far surpasses his teachers suggestion of "wrapping his arms with trashbags." O. M. G.



I had some dinner, played with the kids, read to them, put them to bed, and started coding. At 0100, I lost my VPN session. Support says, "Sir, you're not having an outage - you're just not getting a signal. I'll get a tech out there tomorrow for you." Its not an outage. IF I HAVE NO INTERNET ACCESS, ITS AN OUTAGE! She wants to send a tech out. I explain to her that there are always interruptions in service between midnight and 0700, and I'm 100% positive it will magically start working sometime in the next six hours despite her protestations that its 'not an outage.'

By the time I finish this entry, it's back up.

I hate people.

I really do.

At least I got my script finished and pushed. I'm going to go grab four hours of sleep before my boys recitation of his script. I told him I'd be there.

Comments

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

You should get DSL it doesn't go out like a cable modem!!!!

Your boy looks good in his costume!!!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I'm holding out for FIOS. DSL forces you to have a home phone, which I don;t require, plus all taxes associated with landline fees. No thank you.

Thanks, he did great at school. All the kids looked really good!

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

On, second thought the Storm Trooper helmet would look cool on him!!!


These aren't the droids he's looking for!!!!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Yes, David, that's a Star Trek Communicator on him.

[lehah.livejournal.com]

I take it the teacher is completely goddamn batshit?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Yes sir, I'm beginning to believe that might be the case.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Do we need any further proof then his teachers suggestion of "wrapping his arms with trashbags."

And you thought I was insane!

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

That is very possible. :-P

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

completely goddamn batshit
I'm stealing that phrase.

[codekitten.livejournal.com]

nice work on the costume!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Thank you ma'am. And I'm glad we went to the trouble - all the kids in class looked great.

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

Mr. Stress was kicking in. :-P You did fine on his costume and I am sure that either way, he would still love you just as much as before it happened that you needed to come up with a costume in the first place.

Grr... my fingers refuse to type what I want them to. I am thinking one thing, and then they type something else, something which generally has something to do with what I am thinking, but it isnt' the specific word. :-P

Anyway...

Catch you later

(P.S. You should be proud of me, I'm learning to function on a standard key board! :-P Wow eh?)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I'm learning to function on a standard key board!
Pray tell, what were you using?

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

It was a direct descendent of beacons on hills, indian smoke signals, and semaphore towers.

Eric: key board

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

An economic/carpal tunnel prevention key board. One which allows me to spread my hands out and not cramp my wrists up.

On the economic keys I can type about twice as fast as most people on a standard (from what I've been able to tell)

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

It turned out GREAT!!!!! Your wife is fantastically creative.
Does "G" know how to pose or what?! :)

BTW...magic sizing is the coolest.. I use it all the time to hem my pants. It's better than the packing tape I had to use at work that time...remember that?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Thanks! He is a bit of a ham for the camera, isn't he? Well, I prefer to just sew things, but in this case I didn't want to ruin either my patches, nor his stormtrooper costume. So...magic sizing it is! Not only to I remember the tape, I remember when you tried to staple a hem, too.

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! :)

[(Anonymous)]

Great costume! Amazing what you can do in a pinch.

I was at WalMart looking for parking and seeing a person getting ready to leave I pulled up and waited. Setting there I suddenly realized, "I'm an ASSHOLE!!" Thank you.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

One day at a time.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

I'd say that it's safe to assume that your mom would never thank you for helping her realize that she's an asshole, so pray tell, who is this mystery commenter?

[texas-tangent.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome costume. It looks great.

So who is the Mystery person?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The Mystery person is exactly who schpydurx thinks its not.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Funny. I just can't imagine you writing perl code.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I took an existing script and heavily modified it.