Or maybe the last four years, I don't know which.
Four years ago I was severely out of shape.
Four years ago I was making a lot more $ than now.
Four years ago I was part of a decaying company.
Four years ago I lived in an apartment without Sweetie.
Four years ago I was unhappy.
Very dramatic post, Deej, you meathead. Now, four years ago I would not have been posting this on my iPhone lying in bed on my day off, but that's for another post.
But seriously, now I am living almost stress free, am much healthier, and somewhat poorer, but life is good and I once again place the blame squarely on The Champ, by some definitions the most patient person on the planet.
So I get this email that Anonymous made a comment about my most recent post, back in 2007. All it said was "Very similar" and does not appear in the comments below. Strange. It was a reminder I had a blog in the first place, what an exquisite surprise!
Other thoughts:
Does the Fray exist anymore?
Did the ghost ever exist?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Low tide now
Things are not well. The center may not hold; after all this time, all the blood and sweat and tears, the end may be as uneventful as seaweed washing out with the high tide. If that happens, it will be too bad, really too bad. Many folks have laid their shingle and bet their sanity on the promise of something good, and it is the loss of that which turns my laptop into a sort of cult of agony and my desk into a waterboard.
Sigh.
Sigh.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Rotten Apple - Their Bad
It’s a first: an Apple ad I don’t like (click on the security one). The recent series of Microsoft-bad Apple-good shows a young hip dude talking with an older nerdish guy about the benefits of Apple versus Microsoft, with the usual ad propaganda language we’ve all come to know and love from corporations. I judge the series as good/above average, being clean and to the point, much like the recent UPS ads (the guy on the whiteboard, coulnd't quickly find a link).
But one Apple ad is getting past the pundits and I can’t believe it. Here we have the young hip Apple guy saying the Apple is better than the security-plagued Microsoft product. Oh the horror of Vista trying to protect its users from security threats! Huhn. It seems Apple assumes we will ignore the fact that the only reason Microsoft has been targeted by the criminal element is that it was far more successful than Apple’s OS back in the day, for both home and business users. Now we are tasked to believe that Apple is better because it lacks the very security threats it would have had had it been the better OS back in the 80’s and 90’s? I guffaw at the very notion that we should be so blindly led into believing the propaganda now before us. Apple would kill for the very market situation they now rail against to be reversed and we are asked to buy their product because it was less successful than they wanted 20 years ago.
I recently had the opportunity to obtain a widescreen MacBook as my everyday work computer but said no. Sexy as it looked, I did not like the potential networking headaches and would rather stick with my three year old Dell that has not missed a day of work for reason of sickness or need of a day off.
But one Apple ad is getting past the pundits and I can’t believe it. Here we have the young hip Apple guy saying the Apple is better than the security-plagued Microsoft product. Oh the horror of Vista trying to protect its users from security threats! Huhn. It seems Apple assumes we will ignore the fact that the only reason Microsoft has been targeted by the criminal element is that it was far more successful than Apple’s OS back in the day, for both home and business users. Now we are tasked to believe that Apple is better because it lacks the very security threats it would have had had it been the better OS back in the 80’s and 90’s? I guffaw at the very notion that we should be so blindly led into believing the propaganda now before us. Apple would kill for the very market situation they now rail against to be reversed and we are asked to buy their product because it was less successful than they wanted 20 years ago.
I recently had the opportunity to obtain a widescreen MacBook as my everyday work computer but said no. Sexy as it looked, I did not like the potential networking headaches and would rather stick with my three year old Dell that has not missed a day of work for reason of sickness or need of a day off.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
A Wiki Death
So the guy that saved Slate's The Fray wiki entry (after a lengthy votes for deletion) has been shitcanned from his admin job at Wiki, looks like he lied about being a professor of religion, of all things.
I won't speak of Essjay in particular, as I know very little of him and his abilities, but the point is more about the growth of good things and how administration and bureaucracy eventually catch up to claim the life of good things everywhere.
Wikipedia is a good example. Good concept, certainly, and in theory, with all people participating in good faith, the thing is gold. But once the iodiots got a foothold, which was inevitable and should have been planned for from the start, rules had to be set to control contributions. Soon, the bureaucracy of keeping track of certified contributors will overhelm the good thing and it will be nothing more than a collection of wiki entries few visit for anything other than rubbernecking the tragedy of Wikipedia, call it rubberwiking, if you will.
Anyways, it is too bad. I have often used Wikipedia for general interest reading and basic reference, knowing it has a poor reputation as a scholarly resource (at best) and not really needing it for this purpose. This leads one to wonder how long it will be before MySpace or Craigslist meet the same fate, longer for sure only because on those sites "viewer beware" reigns supreme and there is little in the way of content review.
Best of luck to Jimmy Wales and the honest folk at Wikipedia. It has limitless potential, let us hope that common sense prevails and it keeps its dignity and its charm.
I won't speak of Essjay in particular, as I know very little of him and his abilities, but the point is more about the growth of good things and how administration and bureaucracy eventually catch up to claim the life of good things everywhere.
Wikipedia is a good example. Good concept, certainly, and in theory, with all people participating in good faith, the thing is gold. But once the iodiots got a foothold, which was inevitable and should have been planned for from the start, rules had to be set to control contributions. Soon, the bureaucracy of keeping track of certified contributors will overhelm the good thing and it will be nothing more than a collection of wiki entries few visit for anything other than rubbernecking the tragedy of Wikipedia, call it rubberwiking, if you will.
Anyways, it is too bad. I have often used Wikipedia for general interest reading and basic reference, knowing it has a poor reputation as a scholarly resource (at best) and not really needing it for this purpose. This leads one to wonder how long it will be before MySpace or Craigslist meet the same fate, longer for sure only because on those sites "viewer beware" reigns supreme and there is little in the way of content review.
Best of luck to Jimmy Wales and the honest folk at Wikipedia. It has limitless potential, let us hope that common sense prevails and it keeps its dignity and its charm.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Ball Buster-o-ramma
So what have those sonsabitches been up to lately? Most of you are aware of my rants and I'd like to examine the history of them and why I continue the practice, without saying fuck too often.
I have forgotten many of the reasons those rants are there, but not the feelings I had while writing them, mainly frustration and loathing of the company. How many times can you tell a person to wait? I mean fuck, it gets a little tiring after a while and eventually the brain either stops working at all the wrong moments or it simply implodes, often with a quiet bahhhh.
So anyway, I move positions in the company, being tired of the pressure of sales without much of a product to sell. I get to manage product now; I get to tell the engineers to hurry the fuck up and sort out that power supply or to get off their ass and get testing. I say it nicely, of course, gotta team build, gotta get everyone on board with the vision, etc, et al, and so on. Still, we have a good team all around and I look forward to it.
Further down the road brings problems of advancement. MBA? Well jesus jumping christ $40k for a basic program is not something I can support now or even in a few years. MA? Half that, looking better but still... I guess I'll see to it later, I need to get ramped up in PM first.
But back to the Ball Busters. Is it normal to stiff an employee of a "freebie" trip he's earned as promised by middle management? Is it normal to deny wage increases because we are in a growth phase? I've accepted it all because I see the vision, the big boss is quite convincing and trustworthy, the bank is on board with financing, etc. But still, a guy's got to eat, a guy's got to advance, a guy's got to feel valued, and the constant whining of "next fiscal will be better" is a bit of a drag and a bit of a drain on the patience well.
And now they take my laptop away. What. The. Fuck. Is the phone next? How about my cheap office chair that smells worse than it looks (believe me it ass-ugly). I have to buy my own pens facrissakes because the ones they buy are the cheapest available (and are ass-ugly too). They pay for coffee but it is probably the worst in history, something closer to stale molasses with a bit of water.
Is the brass ring worth it? Is the big pay day actually going to happen? All signs show positive at this point, and having five and half years of sweat equity should mean something. Regardless of all that, it will be fun and I will be learning a helluva lot every day.
But I will still say fuck rather often.
I have forgotten many of the reasons those rants are there, but not the feelings I had while writing them, mainly frustration and loathing of the company. How many times can you tell a person to wait? I mean fuck, it gets a little tiring after a while and eventually the brain either stops working at all the wrong moments or it simply implodes, often with a quiet bahhhh.
So anyway, I move positions in the company, being tired of the pressure of sales without much of a product to sell. I get to manage product now; I get to tell the engineers to hurry the fuck up and sort out that power supply or to get off their ass and get testing. I say it nicely, of course, gotta team build, gotta get everyone on board with the vision, etc, et al, and so on. Still, we have a good team all around and I look forward to it.
Further down the road brings problems of advancement. MBA? Well jesus jumping christ $40k for a basic program is not something I can support now or even in a few years. MA? Half that, looking better but still... I guess I'll see to it later, I need to get ramped up in PM first.
But back to the Ball Busters. Is it normal to stiff an employee of a "freebie" trip he's earned as promised by middle management? Is it normal to deny wage increases because we are in a growth phase? I've accepted it all because I see the vision, the big boss is quite convincing and trustworthy, the bank is on board with financing, etc. But still, a guy's got to eat, a guy's got to advance, a guy's got to feel valued, and the constant whining of "next fiscal will be better" is a bit of a drag and a bit of a drain on the patience well.
And now they take my laptop away. What. The. Fuck. Is the phone next? How about my cheap office chair that smells worse than it looks (believe me it ass-ugly). I have to buy my own pens facrissakes because the ones they buy are the cheapest available (and are ass-ugly too). They pay for coffee but it is probably the worst in history, something closer to stale molasses with a bit of water.
Is the brass ring worth it? Is the big pay day actually going to happen? All signs show positive at this point, and having five and half years of sweat equity should mean something. Regardless of all that, it will be fun and I will be learning a helluva lot every day.
But I will still say fuck rather often.
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