Respect? What's that?

Seriously...I'm going to fucking lose it. Now I see why our IT consultant is the way he is. If you aren't firm, and know when to say no, you'll get walked all over.

We have this new guy in our office who transferred from our office from BC. He's not technically an employee, still just a consultant, but they are trying to get him on staff. This means that every time he wants something, he gets it. New, larger monitor? sure. Wireless keyboard and mouse? Of course. Now the guy he's sharing an office with, who used to be pretty decent (or so I thought) is being a little fucking prick and trying to bully me into getting him things. Just because this new guy has them, he figures he should as well. Fuck that. You don't need it. You just want it b/c you are a little man with a Napolean complex. The thing is that he doesn't even get it. He doesn't see that he's being a little bitch. I get no respect. I'll talk to the boss and what happens? Oh just order it. WHAT THE FUCK? All these little frivolous things come out of the bottom line, which means less money in my bonus.

I kind of understand where he is coming from, but I'm just sick of people asking for, and getting, shit they don't need.

No respect...

My new car!

So I bought a new car yesterday. Well, we bought a new car yesterday, I'll be driving it to and from work, while Mama Bean has her Civic.

It's pretty sweet. It's a 2008 Mazda3. And boy is it awesome. Wanna hear about some of the features?

- power locks with remote entry

- power windows

- power/heated mirrors

- rain sensing window wipers

- cruise control

- steering wheel mounted controls for cruise and audio

- Aux jack for my iPod

- side mirrors and door handles the color of the car (did you know this was a luxury?)

- a rear center armrest with cup holders for those in the backseat

- A/C with a micron air filter

- 15" aluminum alloy rims

- front seat thigh support (what?)

- ABS (toyota's corolla doesn't have this)

- front and side curtain airbags (these either)

- 4 wheel disc brakes

- 2.0L 148hp engine

- and a whole shitload of other little things that they use as selling features (cup holders, vanity mirrors, espresso machine, 60/40 split seats, etc...) that I don't really care about.

Oh yeah! And because I don't get enough people making fun of me and my purple sunfire, I bought this in purple as well! It's pimpin! It's a sweet dark metallic purple that sparkles. No, I'm not gay.

That's what it looks like. In 5 hours when I pick up the real thing, I'll post pictures. :)

Credit given, where credit due...right?

You know what would be awesome?

If people stopped taking FUCKING CREDIT FOR THE FUCKING SHIT THAT I DO.

I'm the IT guy. Most people don't know what I do, or just how vital a role I play. I work behind the scenes. I keep your computers running. I keep you programs running smoothly. I keep you connected to the network and the internet, and make sure you can print. I am the maintainer of the heartbeat of the office.

Where I work, along with all of that, I also implement new policies for our data management system, am the administrator of our Client Relations Management Database, devise new, more efficient ways to run things, write little programs that decrease the amount of work people have to do, and take about 50% of the tech calls that come into the office.

But do I get credit for any of that no. Why? Probably because I don't speak up and tell everyone. I just quietly go around doing my business, content with the fact that what I'm doing is making everyone else's life easier.

But this past week I've been swamped with work. Up to my eyeballs getting a whole bunch of shit done for this morning. I was supposed to be rolling out this new way of doing things this week, but I've been so swamped with everything that I haven't had a chance yet. So other people are jumping on it, and under the guise of helping me, they get all the credit for all my ideas and work.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY!!

Just another little way I am getting fucked over here...

Car woes

So we're looking at purchasing a new car. Mine is running a little rough, and I'm not sure I awnt to go through another winter, worrying everyday whether or not it's going to die on me. I could sell it now and maybe make a couple of grand, or drive it until it dies (in the next year or so) and get nothing from it and have to scramble to get something else. I can get something now while there are good deals, and fix up my car and sell it, and there's alot less pressure.

But it's a lot of extra cash outta our pocket every month. $300-350/month, which is actually pretty awesome, but that's $3000/year that we could be putting towards student loans. Sacrifices...decisions... Why is being an adult so hard? /sigh

So we are debating between a Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, or Nissan Versa, but I think the Versa is out. All the reviews I'm reading have it quite a bit lower and it's usually a battle between a Fit and a Yaris. The Fit is a little more expensive, so I leaning towards the Yaris. We took it for a test drive the other day, and I quite liked it. I want to hit up the Honda dealership and check it out though. Kari and James have a little fit, and it's just so cute and fun, and I love the way the seats all fold down. It's got better handling and it seems to be an overall better car, with some of the best passive safety features, so that's one of the debates of price vs. safety.

WTF?!?

So there's this lady, or rather girl, in our Edmonton office who has been talking about getting a little dog. She was looking at getting a little shi-tzu or bichon.

Yesterday she found a lady giving away a pair of them, male and female, 2 years old, and it was okay if she split them up. So she went and looked at them, and they were super cute, and she took the male one home.

I ask her today how her new little puppy is doing and I hear "I took it to the SPCA." WHAT?!? Yup, she figures she's not ready for the responsibility. Which is all well and good, some people are not fit for raising dogs, but seriously... I'm sure it'll get adopted, and find a nice home. But could you imagine what the previous owners of the dog would have thought? Give their dog away to what they think is a nice home, and the next day it's at the pound. Give your head a shake woman! WTF?!!!?

So yeah, that's my rant for the day. My give-a-shit factor for work has run out, and I'm exhausted and sick and tired of dealing with all this stress and bullshit. All that travelling and server upgrades and whatnot have drained me. I'm off tomorrow, and will work half day Saturday and take Tuesday off. That'll give me a long weekend, and allow me to recouperate a bit.

enough to make your head spin

Fly to Vancouver Friday morning at 7 and spend the day rushing to get a software upgrade done in that office.
Flight to Kelowna at 6:30, then a 30 minute drive to Vernon Friday evening. (ended up cancelling the flight and driving the 5 hour trip from Vancouver to Vernon in 7 hours, saving a few hundred dollars, but having to sit in horrible traffic)
At work for 7am, spend the day stressing about finishing the software upgrade in this office, then drive to the airport for a flight at 5 pm to come back home for Calgary.
Have a day off to recuperate and spend a little time with my wonderful wife.
Will be at the car rental Monday at 7am to drive the 3 hours to edmonton, finish the software upgrade, and drive back to Calgary.
Hopefully home by 10pm.

P.S. My tattoo is healing and is VERY itchy.

Raising my badass quotient

So on Tuesday I went out and made a permanent decision. A rather awesome one I might add. I got myself a tattoo. My very first, I might add. How awesome is that? Well it doesn't really matter what you think, because I love it.
For those of you who don't know (and yes, there've been a number of ppl to ask me what it is) it is a bass clef. Being a bass player, I thought it suitable. I put it on the inside of my forearm because I play a 5-string and so it's the clef at the beginning of the staff. :) I'm so clever. Though I'm realzing that I need something on my opposing wrist to balance it out, which made me wish I played piano b/c then I could get a treble clef on the right wrist and it would be perfect. The clef to suit the hand that plays it. Again, yes I'm clever.

Anyway, it was super exciting. I was so very nervous about the whole thing, especially since everyone says it's so painful there. It really wasn't, so in the scale of things, if that was painful other places will be a breeze. Teika at Impact Body Art did it for me. She was amazing. Very calming, explained it all to me, talked to me during it and generally was the best tattooist I could have asked for for my first time. I'll definitly be seeing her again.

It was sad that Mama Bean wasn't able to be there to share the experience with me, but we'd gone on our day off and they were too busy. They are one of the places in town that take walk-ins (the others being very skizzy, and the non-walkin ones booking into November).

So I'm quite happy with it. Now I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow, then Vernon tomorrow night, then home on Saturday night, home for a day before driving up to Edmonton for a day or two. Gotta love being the only IT guy, and having to travel around to do te big software upgrade alone. And she bitches when I ask for a raise...

Crazyness

This is nuts...
Disturbing Children's Book