Last night my ex-wife informed me that my thirteen year old son has taken up smoking. Sometimes he steals her cigarettes and, supposedly, her soon to be ex-husband has been buying him packs of cigarettes. What is my ex doing about it? Not a damn thing. I'm glad I live as far away from them as I do. Otherwise my ass would probably be locked up.
Speaking of her soon to be ex-husband. During the time they were married my son told me over and over how bad the husband treated him and his mother. Insulting, shoving, sometimes a punch. Hell, his own damn kid has a restraining order against him. Now my son can't get enough of the bastard. On the rare occasion that my son calls it's usually because "I'm bored so I thought I would call" and then I'm treated to stories of how great this guy is.
If he comes to visit and I catch him smoking I'm dropping his ass off at the bus station and he Go Greyhound to get home.
Ok, here's another cool thing about the iPhone...I can blog from it.
So what is a pain? Fixing computers! Well......not really.
Wednesday my computer died. I was surfing when all of a sudden it shut down. I looked under the desk and saw a wisp of smoke drift by. The power supply died. I spent a good bit of this afternoon piecing together parts I have to get a working PC. Luckily my hard drives survived so I was able to save data. The problem is that Windows was unhappy with all of the hardware changes and I had to re-authenticate XP, install new drivers, and resolve a few conflicts.
Here is what really sucked: When I hooked up my iPhone to do a back up it went into brick mode. The iPhone and the PC rebuild just didn't like each other. It took another hour of work but I finally got the iPhone unbricked, updated and even some new songs added.
Here's the part that is a pain. I work on computers Mon-Fri for a living. Do you really think I want to spend my weekends fixing them to???
In the end it wasn't too bad because I learned some new things.
I don't smoke. I did in the past but I don't any more. If you want to smoke that's fine, just don't smoke around me. I like the idea of "No Smoking" areas and it pisses me off to see people smoking in them I complain. If I am in an area that isn't marked as "No Smoking" area and you light up then I can simply walk away or stand there and not bitch about it. To make it simple, as long as I don't have to put up with smoke in a "No Smoking" area I'm ok.
So why am I bitching about smokers again? Actaully I am on the smoker's side here. Escambia County here in Florida has announced that as of October 1st 2008 smokers will not be hired. Current county employees have until 2010 to quit smoking or find work somewhere else. Also, there is to be no smoking on any county property. And, testing for tobacco will be part of the new hire process just like testing for drugs.
I don't like this idea. Tobacco is legal. As long as it's legal I really don't think any company should be able to refuse to hire somebody that uses it. We're probably going to see some lawsuits over this.
The county's reasoning is that tobacco users cost more when it comes to medical bills. It would save the county money to not have to pay out higher medical charges on the company insurance. Wouldn't it be easier to charge tobacco users higher insurance rates and leave it at that? Other companies do.
I am now a member of The Cult of The iPhone.
With the new 3G iPhone available people with the first generation EDGE iPhone are running to the stores to upgrade. This means there are plenty of first generation phones out there. Luckily I have an online friend that upgraded. When I mentioned I was thinking about getting a first generation phone used he offered me his. Sometimes it's good to have friends.
Some of you may remember a year ago when I said I didn't want an iPhone and you're wondering what made me change my mind. The new App Store for the iPhone and iTouch. There are a ton of applications now available for the iPhone that makes it more than a music playing phone and quite a few are free. Plus, an offer of a phone is just too damn good to pass up.
Another thing that had me thinking about it was standing in the book store and not being able to remember the name of the book I was looking for. I had stopped at Books-A-Million on my way home one day to browse and remembered there was a book I wanted but I couldn't remember the title. I started to use the customer care computer to browse for it but there was a line waiting to use it. It hit me that if I had some kind of portable internet device I could simply surf for the information. What kinds of portable internet devices are out there? The iPhone for one.
I managed to get about two and half hours of sleep. I've managed to keep myself occupied so I don't fall asleep so far today. The goal is to get a good night's rest and be fresh for work in the AM.
It's almost 2am and I can't sleep. In three and a half hours I need to be on the road taking my wife to work. I'll probably fall asleep after and sleep most of the day meaning I'll be up tonight as well. Damn.
What do we teach our kids when we have them stand in front of Wal-Mart asking for handouts? Once again I was surrounded by kids today asking for money so their basketball team could go to a tournament when I walked into one of my local Wal-Mart stores.
I've seen kids from 5 to 18 years of age asking for money in front of these stores and it drives me nuts. Sports teams, church groups, clubs/organizations, it's ridiculous! I can't even narrow this down to race or economics because of the groups I've seen.
Once on my way into a Wal-mart I saw a nice BMW stop and a little boy in a baseball uniform hop out. He joined the rest of his team asking for money at the door. If mommy can drive around in a BMW on the weekends I feel no guilt in not giving her kid money.
I've seen adult organizations, usually churches, in front of these stores asking for money as well. Of course that pisses me off as well but to see parents encouraging kids to ask for handouts is absofuckinglutely disgusting.
Is all hope lost? No. When I left the store I saw another group of kids across the street trying to raise money by washing cars.
If your kid's group needs money let them earn it. Please don't teach your kids to be beggars.
Today I saw that the gas station on the corner has lowered the price of gas by a penny. I'm thrilled and disappointed at the same time. I'm thrilled because even though it was just a penny the price of gas did go down. I'm disappointed because it's still too damn expensive.
I have never read Treasure Island. I've seen plenty of film adaptations of the book but I've never sat down and read it. This week I am correcting that. I'm up to the point where Jim has just arrived at the port where he will board the Hispaniola.
It's not a thick book and one I could easily sit and read cover to cover on a day off. I've decided to just take my time and really try to enjoy it.
As long as I can keep the image of Tim Curry as Long John Silver out of my mind I'll be ok.
I'm two weeks into my new job and so far everything is ok. The biggest hassle of the job is dealing with the end users on the company's computer network. Actually, dealing with the end user is exactly what my job is so let me clarify that statement. The biggest hassle of the job is dealing with end users that have little to no computer experience. Let me give you an example.
Me - Can I help you?
Them - Yeah. The um.......thing? It's not working.
Me - Ok, which thing?
Them - You know. The.....ah.....it's rectangular......uh....window! Yeah! The window isn't working.
Me - Ok, which window?
Them - (exasperated) The one I'm trying to work in.
Me - Ok, what are trying to do exactly.
Them - I'm trying to work in Windows!
See what I mean? They aren't all that bad but some are.
My last employer has screwed up again. The July bonus checks are not going out on the 18th like they are supposed to. There was a list of excuses made but the bottom line is the checks won't go out until August 1st and it wouldn't surprise me to see them hold those checks until the August bonus goes out on August 29th. The longer the money stays in the bank the more interest it draws. Why do I care? Because the company owes me one last bonus check! Damn bastards.
Noticed yesterday our local Steak & Ale closed. I've been to it once and have visited another one twice in my life. It's a good restaurant but not exactly cheap. There was a bright orange sign on the front door and curiosity got the better of me so I stopped to read it. The sign was put up by the local tax collector's office to let everybody know the property had been seized. I don't know if that indicates the economy is that bad or that the accounting department for S&A isn't doing it's job. Either way, the place is closed now.
Here is what I learned at work today.
- Outlook 2003 by default saves mail and calendar appointments to .pst files instead of the server.
- Outlook 2007 by default saves mail and calendar appointments to the server.
- When installing a new PC for the VP of IT make sure you copy the .pst file from the old pc running Outlook 2003 before you take the PC away from him. That way he doesn't have to wait for you to boot it up at another network drop and move the files to his new PC running Outlook 2007.
It wasn't too bad really. The VP and I both started with the company on Monday and realize we each have things to catch up with. I am so used to having Outlook keep data on the server instead of the PC that I never thought to see if a .pst file was being used. The VP didn't think of it either and we both wound up confused. Luckily the MS Exchange Server admins pointed out my mistake without making me look like an idiot and made sure everything was done right.