Dramatique

The podunk neighbor saga continues.

On Thursday, they did it again: they had a little party which prompted yet another 3 AM phone call to the resident manager's line. The next day she asked me to write up a complaint Apparently they had refused to sign the eviction notice until they saw them. Now I can understand that they want to see the specific complaints, but jeez, they didn't notice people banging on their walls/ceiling/floor all those times?

Apparently they got the notices at 2 AM this morning. There was yelling, sobbing, hitting and/or throwing whatever is at hand. The female tried to blame all of it on the male ("I lost my job because you wanted to party!") but she was pretty much the loud one.

So I'm not sure what happens now: rumour has it an eviction is ninety days notice. There is no way in hell I can put up with this until Christmas. I'm going to have to look into that.

Other than that this is the first weekend where my responsibilities are minor, so it's been pretty relaxing. I ran 15 minutes straight at the gym yesterday, which is a helluva lot better than the four I started with a couple of weeks ago. I'm already noticing a mass shift in the belly/gluteus maximus regions. Long way to go though. Wonder if I should shoot for a half-marathon next summer? Mmmmm, runner babes....

All in all, life seems to be settling down a bit after August (only took about a month). Still looking for decent PC games, still looking for Miss Right-Now (finding Miss Right has been twenty years of disappointment, thanks very much) and the job is settling into being just a job.

So really, I'm back to kvetching about the usual things. Remarkably, that's an improvement.

Tuesday.

Argh, work is driving me nuts.

It was an eventful day, which is putting the "I'll give them a chance" attitude to the test. I'm not sure if global to the company or just one of my superiors, but I'm getting the distinct impression that what is being said is not what is going to be done.

Three more weeks to see.

Doin' laundry until I can get a decent ping for playing games.

I'm thinking about attraction and forming a theory based on tiers rather than the standard "out of 10" rating. Which means I'm ready to date again. Technically. The interpretation of "date" in this case can be read as "get some". The whole dating process just seems to be a "been there done that" sort of thing for me at the moment. I'm beginning to agree with what I overheard the other day.

On an upbeat note, I, er, almost finished "Guitar Hero" on medium....

Monday Wrap-Up

Well, for all and sundry who gave me all the best on my thirty-ninth birthday: thank you. I'm assuming you will be the same group of people participating in the intervention when I have the big four-oh.

The actual day itself was pretty non-descript, L'il Bro' B took me out for lunch (L'il Bro G was working) and that's about all the festivities (which I do not mind at all). Mind you it was a mind-blowing, belly-busting season premier of Family Guy. So that made my day. That an a l'il something that gets tossed out of the InterTubes once in a while. Sometimes the universe is a benevolent place.

I hate it when I think "hey I should blog that!" all day then sit in front of the keyboard and totally space.

Oh yeah!

Okay, have I ever introduced the "Moby Break-Up Recovery Calculator"? It gives an indication on how long it should take to recover from a break-up and be ready to "get back on the horse".

1. Take the duration of the relationship in the largest whole units (day, week, month, year)
   
2. Double the numerical amount
   
3. Decrement the unit of measurement (years become months, month become weeks, weeks become days).
   
4. The result is the approximate 'recovery time'.
   

Note that this does not produce a linear result. A year becomes two months but six months becomes twelve weeks (about three months).

One note on the original "duration". While the start of a relationship can be readily identified, the "end" depends not just on the date of a formal sundering, but when "emotionally" you were no longer together.

Just a little nonsensical measurement. I'm a geek after all.

Lessee, what else...

Oh yeah. NaNoWriMo is of course coming up in November. Considering last year's debacle, I'm wondering if I should try it again (without moving or wooing a member of the opposite sex this time). I'm inclined to do an informal attempt at it using my previously aborted start (which disqualifies me from the actual contest). Alternately I could start my Zombie novel but that requires a considerable amount of medical research...

Speaking of wooing, I'm not sure if I had an actual date or not last week. Long-time acquaintances getting together for dinner does not constitute a date. Besides, from what I know, the only way I could be more of an opposite of what she is looking for in a guy is to actually be a girl. Maybe I'm reading the signals wrong. Or that aren't there at all.

Women are a mystery to me: and I tend to flip to the back. Triple-entendre!

Oh yeah, one more thing: I fully expect that 25% of IT personell in North America will come down with a strange 24-hour bug tomorrow. Myself, I do not carry the correct vector conditions.

Emotional Intelligence

Today I finished my two day training course on Emotional Intelligence, a required course at work.

I had heard a bit about this before: various teachers I know had talked about it. The result of incorporating into schools seems to involve making sure kids aren't held accountable for anything so they don't get their feelings hurt. I can See where the principles behind EI can lead to that. If the people don't get it, it can get way misinterpreted.

It boils down to "Know Thyself". If you know what you react to and how you react, you can correct any negative reactions. I'm overgeneralizing of course.

A couple years back I did that sort of thing: took a good, hard look at my life and who I was, and what I needed to change. Overall the exercise was a success (still more work) but I did it strictly on the fly: no self-help books for me.

One thing that we did was one of those self-assessments. Turns out I am an "Amiable-Analytic". Amiable meaning I like to make sure everyone gets along (peacemaker) and very, very defensive of my peer group (geeks). Analytic of course is very logical, studied, thinks things through, sticks to the facts etc.

So really the Amiable was a bit of a surprise, but like I said I've been working on things.

The big revelation was part of the test profiles you in stress situations. I went from Amiable-Analytic to Driver-Analytic. A Driver is a type that is task driven, charges ahead and generally damns the torpedoes. That was the category I was dead last in the "normal" situations.

That actually explains a lot.

A lot was made at my previous job on my "leadership abilities" which I really didn't agree with. yeah I'm a nice guy and get along with people but leadership? Nah, too much work. But again and again I found myself in charge principally because nobody else would. This led to me telling a variety of managers, a couple of directors and a vice-president to "Lead or get the hell out of my way". I'm actually amazed (still) that it actually worked (on most occasions).

It probably also also led to the comment that when in a crisis, people in my way feel like they have been ravaged by a bunny rabbit.

When an Old Friend Passes

Today at 6:08 PM, an old and valued friend passed away. I first suspected something was wrong when I detected an irregular ticker. Despite the usual procedures, my watch did not last the rest of the day. Cause of death is attributed either to a dead battery or build-up in the inner workings.

My 256Mb USB thumb drive watch will be missed. It was most most prominent way of telling people, "Hey! I'm a dork!". It gave me street cred in the server room. And it has taken care of my vital files and resume for four years. The data (if retreivable) will by synched in a solemn ceremony at midnight tonight. The theme from "Pac-Man" will be performed.

So it looks like a golden opportunity to make a ThinkGeek order!

Hey, ya gotta move on.....

Karma-riffic!

The redneck podunk smacktards who keep partying are getting the boot! There is some justice in the world. Hats off to my cute building manager who is processing the paperwork now. And who flirted with me on the stairs. Which is also cool.

today I made the last push to get everything squared away in the new place. Except for hanging art on the walls, she's all done. I'll probably nit and pick over the next little while, but I ca actually move around without stubbing my toe on anything. At least no more than normal.

The parental invasion this weekend turned out to be more of a probe-in-force than a full scale assault. We watched the Riders vs Stamps humiliation just across from the stadium. I could not believe the carnage. No, not the football game: the number of accidents, intentionally broken windows, the side-swipes and a head-on collision before, during and after the game.

Next week: b-day 39.

Only in my Dreams?

Okay, just woke up from an odd dream.

I'm in HMV (or as my friends and I call it, HIV) with a couple of people who are my friends but I don't recognize. Or maybe they were relatives. The store is obviously being re-structured with a new floor plan.

One of my friends/relatives wants to browse some more, but gives me two CDs to buy for her. I go to the counter where William Shatner is working.

Bill rings through my purchases and tells me there is a five dollar "Damage and Breakages" fee in addition to the purchase cost. I ask if I broke anything. He tells me it's standard for every purchase. Bill looks a little sheepish about it.

So I refuse the purchase and tell Bill to undo the transaction on my credit card.

Okay, not terribly interesting, but is the fact that I seem to be getting to nickle and dimed even in my dreams is a tad disturbing.

I hope I haven't given anyone any ideas with this...

Weekend Shot

Okay, aside from the redneck, podunk, fucktard neighbors partying and domestic-disputing until 5 AM, I took a half-day off for a Parental Invasion. Which means my weekend, as stated in the title, is shot to hell.

Tired, grumpy et. al. beach required.

More Random Encounters

First off, I'm living in the same apartment that The German used to live in: I keep getting her mail. Change of address please! Actually it's charities begging for money, so I understand if my mailbox fills up with these things.

Secondly: two women discussing dating in the elevator at work. One is going on what sounded like an Internet date (aka the dreaded Lavalife or similar) tonight. She was, of course, nervous so her friend in the spirit of solidarity solidarity says "I hate dating, but at least you get a free meal out of it. After that though it sucks."

I knew it!

And I actually told some folks today who were trying to woo me to their company that I'm sticking with the new job. There's hope. Light at the end of the tunnel.

Which gave me sense of deju vu as that's exactly what I said about the old job. I never, ever, ever thought I would think of myself as too optimistic.

Huh-boy...

Random Encounters

So on the way home from work, I had the feeling I was going to run into my ex. That is to say, the ex before my last ex.

Sure enough it happened.

We chatted a bit, and she's getting hitched! Which is great actually: it's what she always wanted. Actually we did chat for a while: she's moving to Michigan to be with her guy, selling her condo at an outrageous profit and seems to have lost twenty or so pounds. She is quite pleased with her situation. All the best and we went on our separate ways.

And the end I had the thought that I dodged the bullet. Kinda cruel, but there ya go. She's happy, I'm .. er, me. That's all that really counts.

The apartment is looking better, but the road to organization was interrupted by my downstairs neighbor to complain about the hammering. I was putting together Ikea furniture, so a certain amount of hammering (and a large amount of swearing) is inevitable.

I was going to be polite, but the guy was an asshat from the over-load knock to the bug-eyed, mouth breathing expression on his mug. I said that I was moving in and that there probably was going to be more noise.

He just banged on his ceiling after that. Gonna be a long six months.

So by the rule of three, I should have another random encounter: roll 2d10 and look up the result on the following chart.

*rolls*

You hear someone playing loud music beneath your window. Looking out of your balcony you see what appears to be two trolls. They are drunk and wearing billed caps with with "John Deere" embroidered in the sweat stains. What do you do?

*rolls for initiative*

My Job is Like ... A Roller Coaster! Baby, Baby!

Well no details, but there's alot of ups and downs. I'm just wondering if it ends as all carnival attractions do: a vague sense of nausea and a lingering feeling you just got ripped off.

Anyways....

Facebook is pretty darn interesting. I've connected with folks I haven't seen in decades in some cases. Much cleaner interface than MySpace and fewer cam girls. I think that's actually a bonus all things considered.

The apartment is shaping up and I've finalized my to-buy furniture list:

Bookshelf (I've hit critical mass)

Small Dresser (combination night stand and storage)

Small Coffee Table (with some storage and also with wheels)

Small Bookshelf (yes, that much overflow)

Throw Rug for the living room (something with geometric patterns)

I also need to pick up cork for the legs of furniture, chairs etc. The laminate floor is easier to maintain, but it's pretty cheap: it scratched when I dropped a peanut butter sandwich on it.

And maybe, no probably a bed frame: the one I have I inherited from one of my parents. It has a busted wheel and is all bent out of shape. So I do need a new one, preferably with a headboard and bed posts. You know, all grown-up like.

I could make a joke about bedposts. And not about gum. But I won't cuz that's just depressing. Or maybe encouraging?

Fortress of Solitude

Yessir, the FoS is shaping up okay. I have the bathroom, kitchen and most of my room set up: now it's just about arranging furniture and storing Lego.

There's a couple of little idiosyncrasies of course.

First there's the bathroom: I can see the bottom of my chin in the mirror, but nothing further up. Which is probably a good idea first thing in the morning.

Second: I have no idea where to put my garbage.

Third, the dishwasher, which you have to lug into position and attach to the kitchen tap, doesn't attach to the kitchen tap.

Laminate floor also hurts your feet when you walk on it after a while.

But all in all, its pretty good. I'm going to like it here. As soon as I can get rid of the garbage...