Brain overflowing, butterflies in the stomach

I know that it has been a long time since I posted anything to any of my blogs. Things have been so hectic over the last 4 weeks.

One of the people from work (Indi) had her final day of work on Friday. I have been trying to take over her job (to say that I have made mistakes would be an understatement). My stomach has been in knots for the last two weeks knowing that Indi was leaving. I wish her and Rhys well on their travels. I will miss her, she was always really steady in her approach to the job.

The build that we are presently working on has a lot more pieces than normal due to a change in how the client is accessed and I just can't seem to get my mind wrapped around it like I should. Of all of builds in the world, I had to start off with this one? I know that eventually I will be fine but the hump that I have to get over for this one is huge. I guess that this build is good to learn on but the lessons are tough.

I figure I will look back on this in 3 months and have a good laugh at how frightened and scared that I am right now.

I will be sooooooooo glad when this build is finally over.

Later peeps.....

Digital switchover, oh no wait, well, kinda

Tomorrow is February 17, the day that has been advertised (for forever) as the day that the switchover from analog to digital for TV signals. For the last several months (I would say 3 or more) there were constant reminders to be prepared for the switchover.

Get a converter box or buy new digital TV or get cable or satellite service to avoid this interruption in your TV service. The reminders increased in frequency as the days have gotten closer to February 17 then Congress decided they were going to move the transition back to sometime in June. “People aren’t ready and it is not fair to them.” For all of the people who didn’t prepare I imagine that they will now relax thinking they have plenty of time and then will run into the same problem as they had now. I sure hope that Congress doesn’t decide to extend it again.

Now I have to listen to change messages on all of the channels all over again, right? Wrong! Apparently there are some stations that are going to turn off their analog signal after all. So now I am hoping that they don’t have to advertise about the switchover.

To me I can’t wait until this whole thing is over, at least after that they won’t be selling analog sets anymore and after a little bit (about a year) the prices on most of this stuff should come down.

Gotta SING, gotta DAN… well… Gotta SING

Work this past week seemed to have taken forever to get through. It seems like there were a lot of distractions that took up way more time than they really should have.

Thursday and Friday were a couple of bad days for Karma at work. She feels like they are picking on her and from the way she was telling me about it would seem that they are.

Tuesday night I went out the Backyard Bar to compete to advance in this week karaoke competition. This was the last weekly contest that they were having where the winner gets $100. Indi and Malinda were going to go out on Tuesday night as well but cancelled due to the storms that were going through the area. I qualified that night with 3 others. Indi and Malinda went out the next night and competed but did not advance (it is done by crowd response and there were a bunch of people there that only cheered for 1 guy who was bad).

I told people about the competition and was hoping that I could get a good crowd out on Friday night for me. There were quite a few that showed up to cheer me on (and I really appreciate it). I almost didn’t want to go due to Karma’s mood but I knew there were going to be people that wouldn’t be too happy that I didn’t go.

The bar owner told me that 10 people qualified for the contest throughout the week however there were only 3 of those that showed up (me included). He wanted more people to compete so he through open a competition for that night. There were 11 people that competed that night and only 2 people would make it to the finals. Indi and Malinda both got up and sang. Indi was able to advance.

So there were 5 people that were competing for the $100 prize, Stev (bar owner) was saying that he figured it would come down to me and Indi. Indi started joking around and asked if we could just split the prize. Indi did a really good job and some pretty good applause. I sang last and sang Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. I got a really great crowd reaction. Even though Indi was joking about the prize money I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to split it (Indi is a really great singer and people always hate to follow us in singing karaoke).

Stev announced me as the winner. After he made the announcement I asked to speak and then told everyone in the bar that I was splitting the prize money with Indi (I figure $50 on the other side of the planet will go further than it will here). The way I looked at it, I was still walking away a winner and $50 is more than I have ever won in a karaoke contest before. Stev gave me the money to where I could give Indi her $50 before she left. I felt pretty good about it.

In a previous post I talked about going and trying out for a band out of Claremore. Billy called me on Wednesday and asked me if I would be their lead singer. I am pretty happy about it. I told some people at work and they don’t quite know what to think of that. Being in a band that doesn’t really plan to go out and play much (anytime soon or possibly ever), doesn’t make much since to them. I just want to have a place to go and hang, have some fun and sing. Karma understands. I know that if later on down the line that I want more than they are willing to give then we would all be able to part ways with no hard feelings. It is like Billy was saying, “All the fun part of being in a band without the hassles.”. Right now I don’t really have any time to devote to a band that would be gigging, it wouldn’t be fair to me or that band so I am happy being in front of live music again.

My folks made it over yesterday to visit some on their way to Tunica MS. The only bad part was that Saturday was Valentine’s Day and Karma already had plans for us. It was nice to visit with them but we didn’t have a lot of time before we had to get ready to get ready for our plans.

We went to a restaurant called the Green Onion. I hadn’t heard of it before but Karma had gotten a $30 gift card for them from work at Christmas. It was a pretty nice place. I decided to order the jumbo fried shrimp, Karma ordered the rack of lamb that was one of the specials they were having that evening. The shrimp was $20 and I only got 4 (with a baked potato, salad and glazed baby carrots) and Karma’s meal was $35 (OUCH!!!!). The food was good but this is not a place that we will go back to anytime soon (perhaps if I made a LOT more money). I guess I am just too much of a bargain hunter for food and not as much into that swanky stuff.

After that we went out to the comedy club and got to watch a couple of really good comedians. I don’t remember the name of the MC but he really needed to work on his timing, he had some good material but it would have been a lot better with the right timing. The first comedian toured with Ron White for 2 years and it showed that he was really good. The last guy’s name was Jason Russell and he was fantastic. The only thing that I didn’t like about him was he would go from really quiet to screaming in the mic at the drop of a hat. Toward the end of his set he was looking for a guy with long hair to do a hair stylist bit. Karma was raising my hand. I had my hair pulled back so he really couldn’t see it and asked the guy at the next table it I had long hair to which that guy replied, “YEAH”. Karma pulled my hair off to the side and he responded, “Whoa, I think that is too long”. It was a really good night overall..

Well, I had better wrap this up. Got to get some sleep, the morning will be here before I know it.

Later peeps….

Time to post

Well, looking at my blog page I see that I that I haven’t posted anything in quite some time.

Things have been super busy at work. I am moving over to Indi’s position, over the next couple of month’s I will be learning from her. I have been trying to learn how to do her job (poorly thus far), doing my job (to it’s usual level) and then also teaching how to do my job to 2 others. My head has been reeling.

I think that the 2 others are ready to take over my position for the most part. I have told them that they are on their own for the most part. I think they understand that I have to step away to learn my new position. I think I have trained them about as well as they can be trained for this position. The rest is up to them.

With all this stuff going on I have been putting in more hours (at home, at least) and getting a little bit of burn out. I am sure that this all will pass.

A couple of weeks ago I replied to an ad that was placed in Craigslist looking for lead singer of a rock band. They don’t want someone who is wanting to gigs or make tons of money just hang and sing and have some fun. I went and tried out for them on Saturday night. I had quite a bit of fun. It was fun singing in front of live music again, karaoke is fun but this just can’t replace live music though.

I told them that I wouldn’t mind playing a couple of places sometime in the future. I am not looking at this as a money making proposition but would like to be able to perform in front of a crowd. I thought that I did fairly well even though I am only about 70 to 80% on my vocals right now as I am still trying to get over some congestion. I think the guy organizing it was fairly impressed with me but they still have one more person to try out. The way the guys in band are talking is they don’t want to go out and gig all the time which is cool with me. Billy indicated that they just wanted to hang and have fun (all the fun parts of being in a band without all the hassles of pressure from getting ready for gigs). This sounds pretty cool to me. We will see how it goes.

Today was okay. I decided to hang with Karma today and we went out and bought 4 new fluorescent bulbs for the kitchen lights. Now it is so bright in the kitchen that I am thinking about bringing in a lounge chair to get a golden tan in the kitchen. LOL

Well, I had better go. Need to get some sleep and gotta catch something to eat first.

Later peeps…

Deadlines, deadlines and more deadlines

Sad to think about but it seems that life in some cases is all about deadlines. Setting them or having them set for you by others. I would think that it is an inevitability like death or taxes. I have a few deadlines that are staring me in the face in the near future.

DTV – Yep, February 17 is right around the corner and we don’t have cable or satellite since I hate the thought of spending $50 or more a month. Besides we got more than enough information from regular broadcast channels but now those channels are going from analog to digital on February 17. We don’t have a digital TV set so we have to get the converter boxes for our TV. We picked one up from Best Buy to try it out. We got all of the regular channels in digital now except for channel 8 in the living room, which is one of our most watched channels. Come to find out we can get it on the antenna in bedroom so apparently we need to get a new antenna for the living room too but I think it will be much better than paying a monthly fee for watching TV. We tested the bedroom antenna in the living room and 8 came in just fine. Onwards and upwards or so they would say.

Job transition – I was told that I would be transitioning over to Indi’s job at the beginning of February but I wondering if that will happen on time. The 2 that are supposed to be taking over for me just got their laptops ordered last week so it will be kind of a squeak if it happens on time. The positive is Indi will have a couple of months to show me how to take over her position.

Being an island unto myself – Indi leaves at the end of March or first part of April for her trip. Undoubtedly she will have me prepared to take over her old position as best she can being that she has always been good at training. I told her and Rhys last night that I don’t really think that it will hit me that they are gone until, well…. they’re gone. One of the great things about taking my job on the national team was that I already knew someone on the team and they worked in the same building. After Indi leaves I will be working on a team with no other members in the same center, it will either be time to shine or just get by (hopefully the former). Only time will tell on this one….

Last night we all went out to celebrate 4 different people’s birthdays from work: Malinda, Lisa, Dawnita and Cheala. It was a lot of fun. Karma asked me to sing Breath by Breaking Benjamin so I got up and did that one first. I asked Malinda if she wanted me to sing anything for her for her birthday. She said anything by Led Zeppelin so I sang Whole Lotta Love. Everyone was going nuts, Malinda got up on the bar and did some pole dancing and she wasn’t even drunk. Angela has begged me for a long time to sing Hold On Loosely by 38 Special and then almost left before I got a chance to sing it. She should actually be thankful she didn’t leave before that or I would have never let her live that one down. William asked me to come up and sing the Happy Birthday song by The Beatles (Thank God I remember most of it, it had been forever since I heard the whole thing). Lisa asked me to sing her some Iron Maiden (who I haven’t been a big fan of but since it was a birthday wish…) but she couldn’t find any in the karaoke book. Karma found some but I couldn’t remember how any of them went so I just went with the song I had already picked which was Cum On Feel The Noise by Quiet Riot (Lisa said that was good she was just looking to hear some 80s metal). After that we came home, Karma was starting to look a little bit bored and it was getting long between times of singing. I had a lot of fun and there were a lot of people out that I either hadn’t seen in a long time or outside of work which was nice as well.

Right now I am watching some football and trying to relax before going back to work tomorrow. *SIGH* Weekends sometimes are just too short.

Later peeps…

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

Bowie’s lyrics never sounded so true.

I took on a new job at work at little over 4 months ago and am just now starting to get the hang of it. It might be a little annoying and grating at times but doesn’t every job pretty much. They are now going to slide me over into Indi’s job since she will be leaving the company at the end of March.

Indi tells me that this is one of the greatest job that you can have. I sure hope so, the good thing is that Indi will be here to show me the ropes over the next couple of months. That is definitely a positive thing. I didn’t have that luxury with the job that I am in now. My soon-to-be old position will be taken over by a couple of people that work for the company that runs our interface system.

I wonder if the reason they are having me take over Indi’s job is because they are more afraid of the people taking over my job taking over her’s instead. I would guess that this means they are giving me a measured form of trust by letting me take over her job.

The guy who had my job before me I have been lead to believe was a screw-up that just about everyone in the group thought was more of a drag on the team than an asset. I was telling Indi the other day that it is much easier to take over for a screw-up than taking over for someone who everyone thinks is doing a great job.

Indi compiled a really good manual for me to follow and like I said she will be here to help me through the process of getting through my first full build cycle so that will be a tremendous help for me. She has timelines set up for how to put together each build.

One of the great things about her position is that you don’t have to worry about someone calling you late in the evening to tell you the system is broke (well except for the week after a new build goes in) or having to work on issues where you are having to depend on a lot of other people for it to be successful. This will be a MAJOR positive in my books.

So, if I seem a little out of sorts for the next 3 months or so just remember that I have to learn a new position all over again.

I do think that it is kind of funny that most of the people that I deal with on a regular basis so far that have found out that I am changing position are (at least) saying they are sorry to see that I am not going to be dealing with them on a regular basis anymore. That makes me feel good, maybe I am doing a better job than I am giving myself credit for. Man, I really need to work on my self esteem.

Well, I had better go. Trying to type this up and watching my Panthers getting beat 27-7 in the first half means I am not doing either well.

Later peeps….

Hairball!

Today at work I got a new badge as they are supposed to be using a new access system sometime in the future. It was mailed to me by security and once I opened it the GOA that delivered it to me was completely in shock at the picture that was on there.

I used the picture that has been on my old badge, one that I had taken when I first started working for the company almost 8 years ago. Just about everyone in that call center knows me with long hair but the picture shows me with a fairly short hairdo.

One of the reasons that I like to let my hair grow out is that I work for a company that it doesn’t matter if my hair is short or not and I have always wanted to be a rock star and when I was growing up the only guys that were rock stars had really long hair. Another reason is that most have told me that I have gorgeous hair and I can let it grow out and then donate it to Locks Of Love (who make free wigs for cancer patients that go through chemo, mostly for kids). It is a worthwhile cause in my books.

It is usually at about this point that I decide that I want to cut my hair. It is about half way down my back now and this is usually about the time that it really starts becoming hard to handle. The end of the hair will start to rat up and become painful to straighten out. The only problem is that right now it is starting to get colder. Usually the cold doesn’t affect me much but I keep having this image of myself with steam pouring off the top of my head as I stand there shivering.

I am still debating on it, to cut or not to cut. I think I might hold on to it until Marc h when the temperatures start to come up and stabilize a little bit more.

Work goes well. I finally got my laptop in and was actually able to connect to the network from my home so eventually I will be working more from home. It could come in really handy if the roads get slick and nasty.

My mother in law is waiting on a house that her boss is having worked on. She is going to rent it from him. She was telling me this evening that she might be gone in a couple of weeks. I will be thankful when that happens. She moved in here a little after Thanksgiving of 07 and she has come a long way in that time. She got a job and even got promoted at that job. It was kind of nice having her here when she first got moved in but like most things her welcome is really starting to wear itself out. Karma said that there have been several times that her mom has treated her like a child and I think she ready to get some distance between her and her mom. She will still be living in the area so I am sure that we will see her and visits will be made but the great thing about when you visit someone is that once you are tired you can just leave.

Well, gotta get some sleep. Got a call to be on tomorrow morning and I don’t feel that I got enough sleep last night.

Later peeps….