Alex really hurt my feelings today. He was so negative towards me, and in his expectations of me. It sucked... now I feel depressed and a little lost, because he's one of the few people I've felt like I could count on unconditionally these last few months, but now he has all this negative energy directed towards me. I was crying after the phone conversation. Stupid.

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I played my first ultimate game with my new team today. My left knee kept popping; popped on almost every step when I was running. It sucked, and it worried me. Then someone on the other team broke their ankle during play.

I'm glad, I guess, that I have health insurance again.

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I dreampt last night that there was a fire, or something, in my apartment, and all but one of my birds got loose. When I came home and found out, I walked around the neighborhood calling for them and most of them came back to me. Pookie came right away when I called her. But I called and called for Cricket, and she never came... it made me really sad.

Somehow in the dream she wasn't dead yet, or I didn't know that she was dead. But looking for her, never finding her again... I don't know. Maybe it was some symbolic attempt on the part of my subconscious to come to terms with her death.

Even now it still makes me really sad.

:-/

I eat out a lot since I started working again. Problem is, I have all these friends at MS, and I'm there all the time so it's convenient to hang out... but there's not a lot to do in Redmond outside of going out for coffee, lunch, or dinner. It's cutting into my paycheck more than I'd like, and I'm afraid I'm starting to gain a little weight, as well. Gotta watch that.

There's a large group of folks that I used to work with, back when I was still working on MSCRM, who have all also escaped to newer and better jobs. They all have lunch together maybe once a month, and I went with them on Friday. They all looked so... happy. Much more so than I remembered them. Several of them said the same of me. It's so good not to be in that environment anymore.

You are The Cap'n!

Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

Yay -- I'm able to blog again. Blogger was doing strrraaannge things this morning. Following are a series of posts that I wasn't able to post at-time-of-writing:

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My officemate was unexpectedly not here today. It's been such a nice, relaxing day. I've been mad-productive. Crazy.

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I finally got my own net-id and my badge. It's only been a month and a half... about time! It will be nice, not having to call up every morning to find someone to let me into the building.

I guess Company_B keeps everything forever, because the picture on my badge is my newhire photo from September 25, 2000. Oh, the memories.

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Company_A gave me a new box today. No more sud<CLICK! reboot...>

Er, no more sudden reboots, one would hope. The new computer is pretty sweet. I've never had a Pentium 4 before.

I spent 4 hours of time building the new box and getting all the patches and software I need, though. Painfully long process.

I neglected to install one patch. Turns out the Media Player Critical Update patch is what keeps 89.5's internet radio player from playing for me, so I'm being a rebel and skipping that one.

Okay, going to try to just work it out with him then.

So, hey. I have a question for y'all --

It is no secret that I am less than enamoured with Mr_X0. I feel that with his constant questions, his loud, frequent non-work phone calls, and the requests he makes for me to do this or do that, he negatively affects my productivity.

Additionally, someone came to the office today to ask me a question, and he kept stepping into the conversation and trying to answer it for me. Not only was that rude and annoying, but his answer was not helpful and was even misleading. I actually had information to share with the woman to answer her question, but he made it very difficult for me to do that.

Are these things that I should bring up with my boss and/or his boss? (I'm thinking of his and my managers at the contracting firm, not our manager here at Company_B.) I don't want to be bitchy and to complain needlessly, and I don't want to come off sounding to them as if I'm just a whiner. At what point is it appropriate to escallate the problem, who should I escallate it to, and to what degree should I elaborate on the problem?

I have a commenting system. If you have any advice, please leave a comment or send me and email to let me know what you think.

He's been so quiet this afternoon. So much nicer.

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Bush administration is easing rules that say hospitals must examine and treat people who require emergency care, even if they're unable to pay.

Great.

Thanks, President Bush.

So I just went back and edited a bunch of old blog posts. I changed all references to the companies I am currently associated with into variables: Company_B and Company_A. I doubt that anyone I work with/for or anyone from the HR department at either company will ever stumble across my silly little blog, but I guess it can't hurt to be safe. It's probably for the best at least as long as I'm still working there.

Score 1 for test, score 0 for dev.

My dev was trying to push a horrid fix through for a bug. Worriesome in many ways -- risky, very time-heavy, including changes that weren't really needed, etc.

I voiced my concerns, and then he, I, my boss, and the woman responsible for rolling his changes out to the live system then had a meeting where his preferred solution was vetoed. He's now working on architecting something safer. Yay.

Long day.

I'm ready to go home.

In other, stranger news, I keep dreaming about hooking up with women. Different women every dream. Some I know in real life, some I don't.

My alarm clock wigged out last night. I set it for 6:45 am, radio setting, but it apparently decided to start its buzzer going off at 3:00 am. I was so tired that I thought it was morning and I needed to get up for work, but I was soooo tired -- so...tired... -- couldn't think -- I kept hitting snooze, and I didn't understand why I felt so tired and horrid. When I went to hit snooze for the hundredth time at 6:40 am, I woke up enough to realize, "Woah! It shouldn't even be going off yet!"

Stupid alarm.

So I spent 3 1/2 hours last night trying to sleep but waking up every 10 minutes to snooze the buzzer.

It sucked.

And now I'm tired. Go figure.

Yes! An answer to all my officemate woes! Strong Bad answers the age-old question: How do I deal with the office dullard? The office dullard is a clever foe but there are ways to beat him, and Strong Bad tells all. It's as if he were speaking directly to me.

From: SweetLindyLorraine (SLLORRAINE) 2:31 am
To: Kathryn (KATHYANNIE) (80 of 81)

2904.80 in reply to 2904.79

Hell yeah my Balboa baby~

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Last night Lorraine came up to me at the dance, talked to me (for the first time ever), and said that she hadn't known that I did balboa but that she was impressed.

And now she called me her Balboa baby, on the public forums!

The Seattle Balboa Goddess has noticed me. This totally makes my week.