Warning: Sanity Has No Place Here

3:40pm: Livejournal is dying
I have exacty one post on my friends' page. I don't even check it every day anymore. And I certainly haven't posted anything in a very long time.

Plus, since I have my own domain now, and haven't really done anything with it in almost a year, I've decided that it's time to move over to www.mack-attack.com and start a wordpress blog. This blog is going to attempt to be about writing mostly, and I'm going to try to write on it every day.

I've kinda been feeling lately like my life has lost all sense of direction, and I'm endeavoring to get some of that back, and I think the best direction to take that right now is to really start working on my writing.

I still plan to work toward getting my teaching certification and starting to teach, because I think it's a worthwhile profession that I'd be good at, but in the mean time, I need something more concrete to work for than World of WarCraft or a dozen television shows.

So over the next days, weeks and months I'm going to be focusing on writing and building an audience. Whether or not I succeed in the latter, the former is a worthwhile purpose for now.


Wish me luck, and check out the site.

2:39pm: Fuck murphy and his law
I was just about to get ready for bed this morning at about 1 pm so that I can go to work tonight, and Jennfer goes in to the bathroom and a minute later is telling me that the toilet's oveflowing. Turns out that both toilets are overflowing and backing up into the bathtub and the shower. so I've got to wait up for the plumber, who can't be here til 5:00 or 5:30 and THEN, I have to go in to work anyway because they "can't possibly cover my shift."

THis couldn't have possibly happened on thursday or friday, when I was not working and could've slept at night. and of course, because I'm their most reliable employee, they can't accommodate me at work because they know I'll come in anyway, and the stupid worthless people I work with will just refuse to come in and if they get fired, what do they care? They can live off unemployment benefits, or they have a sugar daddy or god knows what justification for walking out on a job because they can't be bothered to come to work.

I love the way she didn't even consider the possibility. Not, "let me check with the weekend guy and see if he can pick up a shift," not" let me see if someone else can cover for you tonight,"
no concern at all for why I might need to call in, just "No I can't get anybody to cover your shift because I can't be bothered to even ask anybody."

I can live with the fact that I get called at all hours of my night to get accused of wrongdoing that had nothing to do with me. I can live with not finding out about a new policy until I'm being bitched out for not following it.

But it's really hard to deal with the fact that they can't even be bothered to try to accomodate me when I have an emergency come up.

6:50am: My back hurts
I started spring cleaning today. What?!?! you say spring ended 2 months ago? ok, I guess I've been doing some mid summer cleaning then.

It all started because something smelled bad in the pantry. I guess I was just feeling energetic tonight or something, because I finally got around to cleaning out the pantry. When I first moved in, I went through and got rid of most of the food that had expired years ago. At least I thought I did. After I found the rotting potatoes and got them to the dumpster, I decided to go for broke and get rid of anything we haven't touched since the mass throwout of february. There was still quite a bit of stuff that was expired. There was also quite a bit of stuff that we just were never going to use. All of that is now gone.

So I got done with that, and we went to the grocery store. You see, Jennifer and I have decided to start trying to get more serious about saving up for me to get my teachers' cert. We've decided the first thing we're going to do is stop eating fast food all the time because there's nothing thawed or because we don't feel like cooking. So we went out today and we got food for the next week. We've planned out meals for the next five days. We're probably going to start cooking dinner when I get home from work in the morning and then we can refrigerate it for the evening, when we're less likely to want to cook. I know I'm useless when I first wake up.

So we got home from wal-mart (yes they're still a fairly evil corporation, but where else can I get groceries at 1am?), put the food away, and I decided to tackle the spice cabinet. That thing was so full of crap that we didn't know what we had and could never find it anyway. I can't tell you the number of years old spice bottles, some still unopened that I chucked. I also found a box of Shake & Bake from circa 1987. Then I decided I was hungry and so I started microwaving one of those Stoeffer's lasagnas. Then I decided to chuck all the meat in the freezer that had been there since my Grandma bought it. To give you an idea of how old this stuff was, she died in October of last year. but she was sick for a long time before that. We found a bag of chicken thighs that was labelled in her handwriting, so she was still ambulatory at the time those were frozen. some of the box dinners that were in there were dated from 1997! I mean this was a full sized standalone freezer full of old food.

So now that all the food stuff is certified new and food that we'll actually use, I decided to clean all the crap off of and out of the microwave stands. 3-4 year old bags of candy, innumerable lighters,(my grandma quit smoking over a year before she died) a box of matches that was so old it wouldn't light anymore, moldy bread, I even found about 6 decks of playing cards that we had no idea were in there.

There's so much left to do, just in the kitchen, but my back is complaining at me and I'm beat. Hopefully I'll get back into this productive mode again next week when I'm off. If I can keep it up, we might actually have this house in tip-top ship shape again very shortly.

11:59pm: hah!

Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test...

Outcast Genius

70 % Nerd, 70% Geek, 65% Dork

11:58pm: crawling out of a cave
For whatever reason, I had the hardest time waking up today. I went to bed at 5:30 because I was falling asleep at the keyboard, and woke up at around 5 p.m. sat down in the recliner in the living room and immediately fell asleep for another hour. then I got up to order dinner and get cokes at 7-11, and after eating, promptly began to doze again for another hour and a half.

Now I'm at work, and while I'm awake, I'm still kinda fuzzy. Don't know what's going on, but sure is annoying.


Jennifer should be the one having trouble waking up. She drove out to her mom's house to clean, and while she was stopped at the light at frankford and clovis highway, a semi threw a rock up which sailed through the 2" of window that was open and hit her smack dab in the middle of the forehead. She's fine. in fact, she seems to be more alert than I am at the moment :)

Maybe I just don't want to be at work today. I really enjoyed my weekend the past two days. Tuesday, we finally were able to get Jennifer a decent computer. A friend of a friend was selling his laptop, and the timing worked out where we just happened to have the amt he wanted to sell it for, and it was a decent deal.

Then, yesterday we finally got around to visiting Black Dog, where I purchased a 4th Ed. D&D Players' Handbook, bought Jennifer some art supplies at Hobby Lobby, and then went to Hatter's where I got one of those chess sets with the canvas board and weighted pieces with the travel bag that I've been wanting to get for months.

I guess I'm just having an off day. I'm sure tomorrow will be better.

6:17am: possible good news
So I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had filled out an application with Harmony Science Academy charter school. Well I never really expected to hear back from them, but when I woke up this afternoon, I had a voicemail from them. They want to set up an interview with their Principal!

I didn't get up in time to call them back today, so I'm going to call on Monday morning to see when they want to meet with me. I am equal parts excited and terrified. This is a way for me to get my foot in the door with teaching, and is probably a pretty cool gig. I really want to do well at this interview, so I've been going over in my head what I'm going to say when I am asked why I want to be a teacher. I'm also trying to find a way to downplay the fact that I don't have much coursework in computers, so that I can hopefully teach some of that.

I think what I'm going to do is emphasize my experience at Microbiology and at the A-J as proof that I'm qualified to teach a course on Web Design.

I've also been mulling over what to say if asked why I think I'd be a good teacher. I'm trying to come up with ways that I can get these kids interested in learning, so that I can have something to say about this in the interview as well.

I think this speaks to how much I've grown up in the past year that I'm actually trying to prepare for this interview instead of just showing up and hoping for the best.

Wish me luck!

5:49pm: craziness
In the past month, I have gotten married, acted as Wedding Photographer for my aunt's wedding, cleared out a room for our computers in the new place, and just been generally busy.

It's hard sometimes to find time to breathe.

In addition, when I got back from San Antonio, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't make myself go back to work at Convergys.

I called in for a week and put out probably 2 dozen applications in 4 days. This Sunday past, I accepted a position at Stenocall's call center through G. Boren Services, and began training for their order entry department.

Last night, I got a call from Super 8, and this morning I went in for an interview for the night audit position, which they offered to me. It's a considerable pay cut from Convergys, but it'll still be enough to make ends meet, and I'm willing to be a little poorer for the sake of my sanity.

However, the night audit position is obviously overnight, so just as I'm starting to get used to getting up at 8 a.m. I get to completely switch my schedule around to work graveyard.

I'm fairly psyched about it, because it'll put me on a schedule that is more in line with what my wife is working, and we'll see more of each other.

In other news, I've decided that I want to be a teacher, and so I've been shopping alternative certification routes the past 2 weeks. I think I've finally settled on the one run by ESC 4, in partnership with ESC 17. If I can just figure out how to pay for it, I could concievably be in the classroom by August.

Well, that's more than I intended to write, so take it easy folks.

12:21am: Awesomeness
We leave for Vegas in about 19.5 hours, and I've gotta say, I'm pretty amped about it.

Kenny has been touting the awesomeness of Savers for years now, and I finally went out there today. I bought a nice brand name pinstripe suit (Oscar de la Renta for those who might be interested, I've heard they make good ones too), a shirt, nice black shoes and a black belt, all for $53. I've gotta say, I'm sold. Not only are the clothes in great shape, but they all fit superbly, which I wasn't expecting from a second hand store. I will be shopping there quite a bit in the future.

We've got pretty much everything paid for now except the marriage license, which we have to wait to do until we get there, so all we have to worry about money wise is gas, and food, which we more than have covered.

Jennifer's parents have decided to throw us a reception as a wedding gift, so look for invitations to that in the near future. It's going to be sometime in the middle of April.

Oh, and if you're reading this, I need your address. Please E-Mail it to me. I have some serious stalking to do :)

12:32pm: Wedding
Jennifer and I are pleased to announce that we are getting married in Las Vegas at the Sweethearts Chapel on March 11th, 2009.

We are using our income tax money to make the trip, and I'm really excited about it.

My mom and possibly Jennifer's sister are flying in to be there.

It's going to be a really simple affair, and we're going to spend 4 days in Vegas living it up.

When we get back we will have a DVD of the ceremony and I plan to have a screening for anybody who's interested.

We will be accepting donations for the stimulus of the Las Vegas economy, especially the casino industry as I'm sure it has taken a big hit in these times of economic crisis.
Donations should be in the form of cheesey poufs and Schlitz malt liquor.

But seriously, we aren't asking for any gifts as this is more about us beginning our life together than an excuse to get swag.

We plan to have a reception some time at a later date for friends and family.

10:26pm: How do you spell relief?
Contrary to the commercials, it's not R-O-L-A-I-D-S. it's M-O-V-I-N-G.

Jennifer got to Alex's Monday night to pick me up and I could just tell that something was wrong. She'd been in panic mode all day over the situation with the roommates, and the thought of going home had her nearly in tears.

So we called my Aunt and pushed up our move. We came over to move some of her stuff around and then picked up a U-Haul at 3:00. The move was tense and awkward, but we got through it.

The change in Jennifer today has been dramatic. She's laughing and smiling like I haven't seen her do in months.

Even her pride and relief over the success of her art show at Stray Dog last month was extremely subdued. But today she was completely at ease.

We didn't get everything out, but we got everything we thought was important. We had too much crap anyway.

So we're at a new address, which I'm not going to disclose online due to concerns about petty revenge, but my cell is the same, so y'all can still get in touch.

Still no news on the job at Southern Star, but hopefully Convergys will be slightly more bearable now that the home situation is fixed.

11:00pm: Will somebody please remove the "Kick Me" sign from my back?
I still haven't heard back from Southern Star. They told me I should hear back by the middle of next week. I've called them once a week since the interview to let them know I'm still interested, hoping that they just lost my number or something. The last time I called, they assured me that it's just been crazy busy over there and that they haven't made a decision yet.

Today they shut off our landline. luckily Jennifer and I both have prepaid cell phones again, so we aren't without phone service. but they've also kicked the internet back to 1mbps, and who knows how long it'll still be on. which reminds me, if anybody needs to get in touch with me, my new number is 806 319 0895.

What's worse, Jennifer was cleaning up the living room today and found a letter from the landlord which states that we are a month and a half behind on rent. Now we've been paying our half every month to Sarazann, one of our roommates. It looks like they've been spending rent money on other things, and it sounds like the landlords are getting ready to evict us.

We're moving out on March 1st, but I begin to wonder if we're going to have until then. The only thing that's slightly good about the situation is that none of the bills are in our name.

It just pisses me off because if they would've told us that they were going to squander the money we pay them for bills, I couldn've used that money to catch up my car payment. I guess we should've taken more notice when the electric company "lost" our october payment.

4:01pm: Job
I had my interview today, and I think it went rather well. I've been talking about nothing else with Jennifer ever since I got home, and she's sure I got it.

I think there's a good chance that I did so, but am hesitant about being too hopeful. Probably just my natural tendency toward pessimism, that.

The job looks to be a good one. Something that I can see myself doing as a career. And I think that I did a competent job at indicating that to the interviewer.

The interview lasted for almost an hour, and the last interview that took that much time resulted in my job at the A-J. So I have reasons to be optimistic.

Everybody wish me luck, because I really want this job.

8:52pm: It's been awhile
I know I haven't updated this thing in ages, but I blame it on wow, wiping my harddrive and being too lazy to reinstall semagic.

The good news is, I have an interview tomorrow with a company called Southern Star, who does installations for Dish Network.

The pay is a lot better than Convergys, and it is something I've been thinking I'd like to try for some years now. I aced the phone interview this morning, and I have high hopes for the in person interview tomorrow.

I'll post back later with more info.

Otherwise, things are going ok. I'm still at convergys, and I'm still getting married.

who'da thunk, right?


I'm back on the WoWcrack, playing usually for at least a few hours a day, and I've even gotten Jennifer into it.

I wrote an e-mail apologizing to Duff for the abrupt nature of my departure from the A-J, and while it didn't go over as well as I would have hoped, I do feel I have a bit of closure now, which is helpful. I'm still not sorry I left there, although I am sorry that the manner of my leaving left Duff feeling betrayed.


Hope everyone else is doing well, and I'm sorry if I've been a bit of a hermit lately.

7:24pm: Life's a bitch
My grandmother died this evening about 5:30.

4:11pm: Big News
I'm getting Married!

Jennifer and I have decided that we want to spend the rest of our lives together, and the ring gets back from the jewelers for resizing probably tomorrow.

We're shooting for June 16 of next year, and I hope you all will be there. Formal announcements and invitations will go out at a date to be determined later.

1:39am: Happy Days are Here Again
Seline has come home after being missing for 11 days! I did a Snoopy Dance I was so overjoyed.

7:00am: new info
I guess I should probably tell y'all that my phone number has changed with the move. It's 368 3499. My new address is 2514 39th.

4:12pm: My kitty is missing :(
I've been in the process of making some major changes in my life. I've started moving in with Jennifer. We've got most of my apartment boxed up and the bed and dresser and my computer/desk are already here.

I also quit my job. I have about a month's worth of expenses saved, so I'm not terribly worried about living til I find something else. My aparture was very abrupt, and I feel a little bad about that, but I'm very happy with the decision to leave.

Unfortunately, Sarazann thought that Seline was closed up in the bedroom night before last and left the kitchen door open for ventilation while she was cleaning. The screen in the back is torn out, and it appears that Seline got out. It's really odd that she would go out in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, but I've been all over this house and can't find her. She hasn't used the litter box since that night, and nobody's seen her.

I'm taking steps to locate her. I'm checking with the local shelters and will be posting signs with pictures in the neighborhood. I'm just a little worried about her having been out in all that rain yesterday.

6:31pm: Epic Fail
I've made it through almost the first week of classes. I've decided to drop calculus and physics and go back and register for trig instead. This has two benefits. I will be easing into the math a bit, and I'm down to 10 hours instead of 14.

Going back to school has been harder than I expected it to be. I have nearly no free time to myself now what with working and school and homework. I haven't seen my girlfriend in three days, and while we have talked on the phone every day, it's just not the same. I miss her, and I miss having free time. I've been meaning to do some writing this week, but I have just not had the time. by the time I get home from work/school I'm exhausted, and then I have to do homework on top of that. I just don't feel like I have the energy for all of this.

I think the decision to go back to school may have been a bit hasty. I was dissatisfied with where my life was going, so I jumped into the first thought that came my way. I still like the idea of working as a programmer, but I just don't know that I have the drive to make it through 3.5 years of schooling. I'm thinking long and hard about dropping out and re-evaluating everything. and I'd like to make the decision in the next few days so I can get a full refund on my tuition if I do decide to go that route. But at the same time, I don't want to rush it and regret it again later.

Looks like I've got some soul searching to do, but right now I have to go to work.

3:10am: meme
You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.
Not as easy as you might think.



1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket

2. Describe your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/lover?perfect

3. Your hair? longish

4. Your mother? Houston

5. Your father? deceased

6. Your favorite item? computer

7. Your dream last night? forgotten

8. Your favorite drink? pepper

9. Your dream car? 'vette

10. The room you are in? living

11. Your fear? people

12. What do you want to be in 10 years? alive

13. Who did you hang out with last night? Jennifer

14. What you're not? tired

15. The last thing you did? drove

16. What are you wearing?  shorts

17. Your favorite book? Ender

18. The last thing you ate? cake

19. Your life? promising

20. Your mood? happy

21. Your friends? sleeping

22. What are you thinking about right now? Jennifer

23. Your car? Vue

24. What are you doing at the moment? daydreaming

25. Your summer? short

26. Your relationship status? loved

27. What is on your tv? black

28. When is the last time you laughed? today

29. Last time you cried? unknown

30. School? Yup

Copy.
Paste.
Answer.
Questions.
In.
One.
Word.

11:17pm: Taking the plunge
I don't know how many of you I've told this to, but I'm pretty dissatisfied with my Job at Lubbockonline, and have decided that I would like to go into business for myself. This will give me more flexibility with my schedule while going back to school and will challenge me more and encourage me to expand my skillset.

It's not going to happen overnight, but I've made the decision to do it, and I'm in the preliminary planning stages.

I think I've settled on a name and a set of services, and I wanted to share that with my friends.

OCIII Computer Solutions


Services:

• Web Design and Implementation


• Linux Migration




• Repurpose old kit


• Multimedia/File servers


• Lost your Software Media? Try Open Source Replacements




• Home/Small Office Network setup


• Hardware/Software Upgrade Assistance


• Data Backup/Software Refresh

The name is a bit of a master stroke. It's a subtle reference to Network technology, as an OC3 is a type of network connection, and it's also my first and middle initials and my suffix. OCIII, Orland Cecil the third.

I want to focus mainly on the website stuff and possibly the linux migration path, but feel that it might behoove me, at least starting out, to be a little bit more diverse in my offerings. And as I learn more about programming and software development through getting my CS degree, I figure that I can start adding programming services and weaning off the more mundane IT type stuff.

I'm thinking that what I want to do is try to cut back to about 30 hours at the A-J and do this stuff on the side. That way I'll still have an income while I'm building my customer base and getting established, and sometime around December or January I'll switch to the business full time. I also plan on looking into financial assistance for small businesses, i.e. small business loans and state grants. I'll probably go in as a sole proprietorship just because it's less complicated and less paperwork. My Grandma's sister is a lawyer, and I'm thinking of asking her if she has any expertise in these matters. If anything, she might be able to give me advice on the different legal structures available.

I'm really psyched about this decision, and I think this is going to be pretty awesome.

10:37am: Dentist again
So last week I had a molar extracted, and then on thursday I had part of one of my top front teeth break and fall out. I went back to the dentist today and he gave me prophylactic antibiotics and told me come back when my regular dentist(the guy who took out my bottom wisdom teeth) gets back in 2 weeks. I think I'm going to just wait til I get my student loans, because what they're going to do is a root canal and then insert a post into the root of the tooth and put on a crown. apparently, All my front teeth need this procedure or they're going to go the way of the tooth I went in about today. This is going to be pricey.

4:52am: New Toys are fun.
I got a new laptop for school on Thursday. I gave Alex my old computer because i broke hers and the only place I could find a suitable replacement processor was at a dodgy website that had lots of negative feedback. She was real reasonable about the whole deal, but I was feeling really bad about the whole situation.

So anyway, I got my new laptop, it's a Sony Vaio. So much for my Sony boycott, eh?

Anyhow, it's running Vista, and I'm giving it a chance, since it's doubtful that I'll be able to find XP drivers for all the hardware. So far, everything seems to be in different places, so it's taking some getting used to. Oh, and UAC is fucking annoying! I may have to see if there's a way to disable it. The sudo/gksudo feature in linux is not nearly as obnoxious as UAC.

Ok, so back to the laptop. It's a 15.4" model with a gorgeous and huge keyboard. it's quite comfortable to type on. And the trackpad doesn't seem to be in the way like it is with my Eee. The software that drives it seems to have a feature where if you're typing on the keyboard it ignores taps on the track pad. It's got a glossy screen, which is a bit annoying, but the reflective characteristics aren't as objectionable as I thought they would be.

Oh, and the coolest thing? It reads SD cards so moving files to/from my Eee just got really simple. Just swap the SD memory card between the two machines. Woot!

Anyhow, I've been uber busy the past three days so I just now got around to moving stuff around on my desk to set the laptop up for day to day working. I've got my usb mouse and usb printer hooked up to it, and I'VE STILL GOT TWO LEFT!!!! Oh, and I plugged my LCD monitor into the monitor plug and now I've got a dual head system, which ROCKS! if you were wondering.

My student loans were finally online Wednesday night for me to accept, so the last obstacles for me to go back to school are officially gone. CS Program, here I come.

I've also been insanely happy this past week or two. I'm not going to say more than that at the moment. Goodnight folks.

4:28am: I love it when a story comes together.
Two weeks ago at the Comic Writers workshop, we were asked to come next time with a story. They want to do a collaborative thing, kinda like the Canterbury tales, with each person telling one character's story.

Instead of pilgrims on their way to St. Thomas' shrine, it's five superheroes stuck in an elevator. We were each asked to pick a character and tell a story about that character. Just to be flippant, I picked a bum named Geoffrey. Then I decided that Geoff was a telepath. That caused me all kinds of problems, because none of these characters is supposed to know that the others have special abilities, and if Geoff can read other peoples' minds, the he already knows all about them. Since I only have the vaguest character outlines from the other people writing, I don't know what their powers are or even who their secret identies are. You begin to see the problem, neh?

So I decided that Geoff is a touch telepath, much like the Vulcans of Star Trek. He has be in physical contact with someone in order to read their mind. But this lead me to yet another dilemma. Why is Geoff a bum? Why can't he hold a job or maintain any personal relationships? Life would be easy for such a man. He just reads peoples thoughts and he can manipulate them any which way from Tuesday. He's the perfect used car salesman. He should be filthy stinking rich and living the high life on his own tropical island.

So I thought, what if this telepathic contact is somehow traumatic for him? He is scared of his power, and in an effort to avoid touching people and reading their minds, he withdrew from society. His special ability drove him right into the fringes of society, where he got lost.

Once I had that figured out, I knew why he didn't know about the others in the elevator having special powers. He was terrified to touch any of them, hence he had no knowledge of them at all.

Once I figured this out about Geoff, I immediately started writing, and in about 30 minutes I had two pages of introduction, ending right where he begins his tale.

And the great thing is, now that I've done all this thinking, I know exactly where his story starts, and I'm suddenly really excited about writing it.

Which is ironic. I was in sort of a bad mood tonight at work, and I don't think I could've properly gotten into Geoff's head* to figure all of this out if I wasn't so out of sorts.

I guess writing is therapeutic for me.



*I've never until this very night had that moment of clarity that professional writers talk about where your characters talk to you; telling you what happens next and how. But tonight, Geoff truly spoke to me from inside my brain, and I must say it's a rather exhilarating feeling.

3:03am: Why I love slashdot
I posted a comment on the thread about Hans Reiser leading police to the location where he dumped his wife's body. I post on slashdot with the nick BootNinja

The comment I posted was in defense of another poster who was equating the idea of boycotting ReiserFS because its creator is a murderer with the idea of boycotting cotton because it used to be farmed by slaves, or the idea of boycotting German automobiles because of Nazi atrocities during WWII.

Somebody replied to his comment saying, "So to "think reasonably" means that all Germans are Nazis, or that all cotton (especially present day) is affiliated with slavery? It scares me that someone like you is arguing in favor of reason."

I pointed out why it was a valid argument mentioning several logical constructs the argument used.

The dissenter replied to me with basically what amounts to an ad hominem attack and yet another poster came to my rescue with the following:


"You would do well to learn from the Ninja, Grasshopper ..."

That comment made my (early) morning.