[ed: i started this thursday, but ended up dragging it out until what is now saturday morning]
actually, the last few days haven't been bad at all. i took yesterday off (comp day for working all day saturday, but i should get 2 days off for every saturday i work...hmm. something to discuss at a later date i'm sure).
it was a wonderfully lazy day. woke up at 9am, rolled out of bed, checked mail, got something to eat, watched a little tv and then spent from 10-12 reading. then i hung some stuff up, put some stuff away and worked on filling in a few cracks in. also put the screens down in my windows and had them open for much of the afternoon so it was the first decent airing of my apartment since last fall. i've been wanting to do that for ages, but it hasn't been warm enuff. i should have left my windows open a bit more today, but oh well. i can open them up when i get home for a little while which will help.
had a winbug meeting last night and came out with a ton of booty. the biggest suprise was a full version of SQL Server 2000 (5 user). when i got there, someone who works for Mickeysoft was talking with a member of the steering comittee and asked if we (the group) would be interested in some old Win2000 books that were just taking up space (spring cleaning) so we said sure, but he then asked if there was anything we (the 4 of us who said 'sure') if there was anything else so i said SQL Server, figuring it would be a book i could bring in for our DBA (we just upgraded a few servers to SQL 2000, so it would make a nice reference). turns out what i said i was interested in was the full version of SQL 2000 Server (Standard Edition). had i known, i would have asked for Exchange as that would be more useful to us at work than another copy of SQL Server, but that's ok. i took a peek at it last night and gave it to BK this morning as he or JB will find a better use for it than i will. i also learned that Microsofties internally refer to upgrading WinXP to WinXP Service Pack 2 as a "significant emotional event". hahahahaha....
oh, and he was VERY VERY quick to say that he was NOT running SP1 on his Win2003 Server laptop. the guy who asked barely had the question out of his mouth and he went "NO". we all laughed. i was wondering if i should install it on my server, but have been waiting, but given his response and how they seem to refer to applying a service pack as a "significant emotional event", i think i'm going to wait a little while.
i also managed to get several books (most of which are here at work with me now) that are part of MCSE training, so they should make a decent reference for us here. when we finally goto active directory, i expect it to be on Win2003 and not Win2000, but at least i'll have a bit of a jumpstart in figuring out how it all works.
today has been busy. building a few laptops for weekend deploy (bleh...). fortunately, i've got part of it all scripted so it moves along a little more quickly. one of these days i'll have a single script that does everything. now that will be fun...
MT lodged (yet) another complaint in SW about the wireless. so for the 2nd week in a row, RB went down with a laptop and everything tested fine. (do you hear that you bitch, IT TESTED FINE AND WORKS THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO!) i started referring to her a 'train wreck' because everything she is involved in is nothing but a train wreck (think of that 'too many cooks in the kitchen' analogy). now i'm going to start referring to her a 'the bitch who cried wolf' because that is all she ever does. altho it's a word i abosutely despise, i'm seriously considering changing it from 'bitch' to something a LOT worse. this morning when DH mentioned that she was bitching about it again (i've lost count the number of times she has and the number of times RB or I have tested it only to find it worked FLAWLESSLY) the first thing that came to mind were the words: redwood, backside, and 'WAY up'.
going home now. i'll write more once i'm there. but then you won't really care because you'll read this sequentially whereas i'm seeing it as i type it and ... ahh fuck it. i'm only going to confuse myself.
well, i just got home and couldn't help but laugh at a few things as i was on my way home. i'll start backwards. i went to get my mail and standing up in my mailbox is next weeks tvguide (which for some reason seems to get here on thursdays rather than the monday or tuesday it used to) and on the back cover is an ad for revelations (some NBC thing i think), but what was visible was the prophetic 'The End Is Here' in white letters standing out against the reds and browns of the picture. it just struck me funny.
it got me thinking about how demented i can be, and how some people would consider me to have a very sick sense of humor. i'm the type of person who would sit in the pope's funeral and start giggling about 'coming soon - New Pope!'. actually, i thought of that last week on the way home (before he died) and have gone so far as to actually put together a concept image of what it would look like. (Now with more conservative flavor!) picture a papal mitre (you know, the pope hat), coke red w/swoosh and coke font declaring 'new pope'. maybe i'll post the picture sometime. i won't rush because i knew if it got out last week, it would have prolly spread pretty quickly and i'd be the butt of catholic ire. i'll prolly be the butt of catholic ire, but at least i've given the opportunity to get the pope placed in his crypt before spawning the ire.
as i was driving home, listening to Marketplace (on NPR), they had a woman on talking about the real estate bubble, and how she secretly hopes it bursts (1 kid, baby on the way, would like another bathroom and bedroom). hell, i don't secretly hope it bursts, i'll shout it from the top of a tall building. I HOPE THE OVER-VALUED-OVER-PRICED REAL ESTATE BUBBLE BURSTS AND MAKES A HUGE FUCKING MESS!
now, there was a minor point of how the building of houses keeps jobs flowing, supplies, etc so some money flows into the economy. but you know what? i don't care about that. i spose i should, but right now i don't. and when the story was teased at the beginning of marketplace, the question was asked - what do you call someone who said the dot-com bubble was going to burst? a pesimist. what do you call someone who says the real estate bubble is going to burst? a renter.
sad but true. i'm a renter, and i and waiting for the bubble to burst. i have looked at what it would cost for me to buy a house, and for a little ranch or split level, it's EASILY well over $500k. now, i do live in an expensive area, but i really wonder what i can afford with what i currently make. it ain't much. plus, the other day M was telling me that someone she works with just bought a house out in worcester (pronounced woos-tah) because that was the closest town he could afford to buy a house in. i don't recall if M knew how big the house was, but something tells me it isn't that big of a house. anyways, i've found it rather depressing to think of how much housing costs. at least my rent is reasonable for the moment. it's definitely better than it was where i used to live. just for no reason, let's raise your rent 40%, and i'll blame it on rising oil costs. yeah, that. bitch.
now, i'd like to say 'hallo' to Clairey who left a random comment (why don't more people do that?) while blog-hopping the other day. she lives over the in the UK and recently bought a house with her boyfriend (congrats, it sounds as tho things are a little more affordable over there than they are here.). thank you Clairey.
and speaking of rising oil prices, i paid 10 cents more per gallon last night than i did last week. last week i paid $2.08 (which is too high) only to have to pay $2.19 last night.
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
i suppose i should keep in mind that comparatively, gas prices over here aren't that bad. at least we aren't paying by the litre.
hmmm...it seems as tho there are broadband connection issues in the neighborhood. my connection currently isn't working, and when i checked a neighbors, theirs wasn't working either. hmmm...comcast sucks (at this particular moment).
oh well. i guess i'll shut this down for the moment. i'm ponder some more.
well, another night has come and gone. it looks as tho my internet connection at home has sorted itself out. for some reason i could reach some sites but not others and then i wouldn't be able to reach the first sites (or any sites) and then i could reach other sites. it was very flakey. i was beginning to wonder if a backbone somewhere had collapsed or something. but it seems to be ok now.
here's a thought for the catholic church - rent-a-pope. once the college of cardinals (including the boston-area contraversial cardinal law) selects a pope (pope vader?), they need to hire some people who are willing to be rent-a-popes, so they can spread the word that much further. think about the $$$ the catholic church could bring in. it would help settle all those sex abuse scandal cases.
another thought i had on my way home last night (around the same time i listened the thing on the home market/secretly hoping the bubble burst bit) it occured to me that i'm tired of living in this post-9/11 world.
NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!!
so, i've decided that i don't want to live in the post-9/11 world an instead, i'm going to try to refer to it as the post-3-4-5 world. (as in post march 4, 2005, or for you UK people, post 3rd April, 2005, either one works just fine.)
i don't care about 9/11 anymore. well, not entirely true, but i've grown so 'eh' over it these days that it has become near meaningless to me. i'm not trying to trivialize what happened on 9/11/01, but for fuck's sake.
now there is no significance to march 4th or april 3rd other than they are in the past of my current present (currently the 8th of april, 2005)
hmmm...i wonder because i'm so non-religious if i should just start referring to the year as something other than the julien (eg: church defined) calendar. i could base everything off of my birthday. so JJ would be born in the year 5BM (that's Before Molius). Jennkitty would be 2AM (After Molius). in turn, i would be born in the year 5AJj for JJ, and 2BJk for Jennkitty.
i like the logic, but that assumes i know how old everyone is in relation to me. that won't work. maybe i should use the Chinese calendar instead. i suppose there are semi-religious reasons for the year that they have (that whole emperor as a god thing/dynasty thing) but that's less offensive to me.
speaking of offensive, Bozo (the counterpart to Bozette) here at work has taken a leave of absense, which is pretty much her way of saying 'i want to take some time off and not lose my vacation' so her boss came over to DC (whom i have lunch with on a near daily basis, her and RB) and said that Bozo was taking a leave of absense and that we (DC et al) should pray for Bozo. uhhh....NO. now i have nothing against people practicing religion. if it fills something within their lives that would be considered positive, then by all means, pray to god (God?) or jehovah or budda or even satan. but the moment, and i do mean MOMENT you try and push your religion on me (eg: pray for Bozo) or a pushy jehovah's witness (foolish twonks) tries to tell me that their way is the right way, i'm going to get upset.
i'm not religious. i grew up in a protestant family, and i guess that's the best way to describe what i am - a protester. i protest against religion (rather than the pope in the case of Henry VIII). but i'm a firm believer in separatation of church and state, and would even prefer it be extended into the workplace. why should i be told (even if it is intended as a 'suggestion') to pray for someone? i'll pray for whoever i want. and i'm more likely to pray for something evil to happen to Bozo rather than her 'recovery'. (i guess she suffers from anxiety attacks, yet refuses to take her medication for the attacks. doesn't that defeat the purpose of the medication? or am i just being too practical again?)
anyways, long story short - don't push religion on me. it's not a pretty sight.
and kudos to Maynard for pulling the wool over the eyes of MTV. when i saw the 'announcement' that he had found jesus, all i could think of something he would ask us to do, quoting Dr. Leary:
Think for yourself.
Question authority.
THINK for yourself.
i will admit to thinking that it would be sad if it were true, and how we'd prolly never hear any of the new material, but at the same time i did think that it might actually prompt Tool to release the live DVD that's been rumored since the last 6 shows of the 2002 tour...but given the choice of live DVD or new CD, i'd rather have a new CD. i have a few shows from the 2001/2002 tour so i'll be ok. still, i think it's pretty funny.
well, i guess i'm going to post this now. i've been running my fingers long enuff, and the longer i wait, the longer and more tempted i'll be to edit this rather than post it as is. i've made a few edits, but nothing drastic, if anything i've added stuff to fill it out.
so, a day late (and a dollar short i suppose) i end this meaningless ramble of jumbled thoughts that i've somehow cobbled into a working mind...
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