Catch Up Time

Long time no post...

It's been busy and I've given up a large portion of my net life. Why you may ask? Well, I have a fiance` and 3 kids that now make up my family. You read it right, my family.

Eva and her 3 boys have become my family, and I have slowly begun to take the father role. I do strugle often with being a father so quickly to 3 boys, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Eva and I have been engaged now for approximately 6 months (date vs days), and I have been living with her and the boys for 4 or so months. She is the wonder of my life and the source of my daily strength. I've had very few fits from my CFS under her watchful eye, and she's put a few pounds of great home cooking on me. I try to do everything possible to make her the happiest woman on the face of the earth, not that I succeed every day. At some point I am going to have to put a real ring on her finger, as I had put a temporary one there while I attempted to get my mothers from my sister. Since that isn't happening, its time to go get a bridal set of my own. I wish I could put a huge rock on her finger, but I'm just not able at this time. I'll be trying to find an elegant, yet simple set that come in two-tone if at all possible. Haven't quite got a clue where to find one that is affordable to my current living, but if I have to not eat for a couple months of lunch, I can survive. I would do anything for the one love of my life, and I am striving to do exactly that.

I'm making strides in my relationship with my father and all of my family, with the encouragement and support of my far better half. My family adores her and the boys. My parents can't wait to meet all of their grandchildren (its been rough getting there with all 3). While at the reunion, I was told under no uncertain terms was I to come back to the reunion without the kids by several memebrs of the extended family. Thats not a bad thing, just a 'we really want to see them' thing. "Behind every man is a -//- better woman" is too true. (I scratched out good)

I spent 5 months on unemployment, and while I am working full time, I continue to struggle with back bills from my ""state vacation"". It's good money and it will be even better when I get my first commission check. I work as an IT Specialist III @ UNETSCO, but I'm really a developer and network admin.

Bro is being trained in/out on potty, which is GREAT. No more temperment problems since that started.

So... I am fired.

SO yesteraday morning I called in sick.

I was out cold by around 11:15am-ish, and work called around noon. I can't be woken up without physical contact if I am in REM, so I was unable to answer the call. I happened to sleep until 6:30p, and missed yet another call around 5:00pm.

When I woke up, not having a clue what time it was, I performed my normal out-sick-checks, where in I check my work email and maybe log in remotely to help out with any administrative tasks I can. First bad sign: I cannot log into my OWA that had been sitting open all the time I was sleeping. Second bad sign: I tried to log in as administrator since I could not get in as myself, maybe OWA was acting up. failed. Ok, maybe the email server is misbehaving, log in remotely. Connect, login with my normal user credentials: "Your account has been disabled. Please contact your system Administrator for more details." WTF. Try to login as administrator : "Please check your username and password".

Dread sets in. I mean wtf, I called in sick. I told them I wasn't going to be in today. WTF.

Check my voice mail that it says I have 7 of: 2 from work, one at noon, one at 5; 2 from Eva checking in to see how I was feeling; 1 from the phone company cause I was apparently behind on a bill (which is autopay); and one from a friend wanting to meet up sometime. The other one seems to have ben garbled along the way. Message 1 from work: "Jason its , I need you to call me at the office when you get the chance." Second message from work: "Jason its . I have tried to contact you throughout the day without result. You need to call me in the morning before you leave for the office." I'm thinking there is next to no doubt now, but I need to call 's cell phone to find out wtf is really going on, in the event that I am *not* fired. Nope, I'm fired. Apparently I'm viewed as unreliable because I was home sick in bed, asleep, and didn't hear the phone ring to answer it. Blah blah, in corporate poisition I need to be available even when I am not at work. Ok, now, what part of I didn't hear the damn phone... Whatever, they are lawyers, fighting it would be fruitless in the end.

SO, I am fired, have no idea how long the health insurance is going to last, nor what my next paycheck will look like.

The good news is that I contacted my previous boss, and he has informed me that he is getting in over his head with work. We parted on good terms and he is more than willing to meet me sometime in the near future to discuss contracted jobs and/or a salaried position. Also, there are many positions available in the area for network admins and high level techs. SO I may be out of a job, but I've got 1.6 years straight working, and have been at my last job for 6 momths, thus allowing me the possiblity of unemployment. And, the job market is looking up.

I am likely going to take this opportunity to take an extended vacation to visit my girlfriend Eva, and get some non-work related things sorted out/worked on while I relax there. I'll fill you all in later on the details of how all that is going, cause it is all minor stuff.

[btw]
For those of you who might not have known, I have a similiar condition, though not as severe as my sister (PoC). There are days I wake up and feel like I spent the entire night running a marathon or doing concrete work in 20 degree weather. Yesterday just happned to be one of those days. I just happened to have been fired because they refuse to accept the fact there are times when I can not operate on their schedule due to serious problems. Fine, fuck'em. They have no one in the office that can remotely do my job with the Summation DB, has no FUCKING clue what I have spent 4 months writing in perl so that will never be of use to them. Too bad to, because I had made contacts in the imaging world that *really* wanted that program. 4x1000 gone for them.

Been a while!

SO, I know that I am gonna catch flak sooner or later for not posting in such periods, but hey, here you go!

It has been an interesting time over the last 3 weeks. I finally completed the purchase of www.warheads.net and all associated intellectual properties, got to deal with office politics on a grand scale, and found myself a wonderful new girlfriend.

The purchase of WarheadsSE has been in the process since November, but was delayed when a partner in the transaction up and disappeared (which we have recently discovered was because his cellphone/wallet/etc got jacked ... and all that that entails). The community surrounding the game seems to be happy with the change of hands, regardless of certain discrepancies in overall views (everyone has their detractors). I can't place the $$ amounts for legal reasons, but my wallet hurts having to cover 3/4 of the cost instead of 1/3. But, its finally in my hands, SO, on I go a programmin'.

Office politics? Yeah, MAJOR BITCH FEST, and I really don't care to get into it.

Girlfriend:
Well, who saw this one coming? Not I.
We met online through mutual friends and chatted up a storm (lol, private pun) before swapping phone numebrs and proceeding to spend *hours* of the evenings of a week talking. My rollover minutes took a hit even if I had 7pm nights.
So, after talking for a week straight on the phone for said ridiculous amounts, plus having been chatting such storms up, we lined up a date this past saturday, me meeting her near her home town for park, dinner, etc.

Eva lives near Scranton, about 2 hours north of me. So, on friday night, knowing it was an all-day date, I drove up arriving just before midnight. I manage to get a little bit of rest starting at 1:30a+. The jackass next door had given them the wrong room number the night before when he called down for a wakeup call. 6 freaking AM, in a hotel room, in a part of the state I've never been in. Needless to say at this point I am living on coffee while being nervous and catching the morning news then perusing the local paper that was slid under my door at 8am. When 9pm rolled around, I gave Eva's cell a buzz and left the message that I had come in over the night and some jackass had sent me a wakeup at 6am, and thus I was awake whenever she felt like swinging by.

10am I head over to the local Dunkin' Donuts to pick up 2 coffees (1 24 oz with cream no sugar and 1 12 oz with sugar no cream [if you know me you know which is mine]), a apple raspberry jelly donut and a boston creme (again you should know which is mine). Eva's back at the room at this point reading the newspaper I left on the desk.

When I get back we spend something like 2 hours sitting there just b.s.ing about stupid stuff, the news, me asking about the area, her GFs calling to see how its going (or if I had even shown my face [!?]), and the random call from someone in my area who didn't understand the meaning of "off limits this weekend".

So sometime between 12:30 and 1:00 we left for a park that was around a 10 minute drive out of town (although it took me like 15 cause I had no clue where I was going, nor the speed limit [didn't help we had a dude with a busted spedometer in front of us]). We arrived at some point after 1:00 and perused our way around the park, walking the littel path down by the local tributary passing all the little rustic benchs we never managed to stop and sit on. About a mile and 20 minutes later we ended up in the clearing that had a couple of trees (which I'm not keen enough to name the types of), pikced oune out and sat in its shade whilest petals of its buds occasionally flitted down in the wind.

More talking and chatting and yet more calls from Eva's GFs on how it is going (why can't they just wait for her to call them?), eventually ending up that cute couple that ladies out for a jog and the occasional old couple end up pointing and giggling at.


This post is getting way to long, so for those interested you can call me (that is if I have given you my cell phone #) and get more details :)

Ah-WEEEEE!

Ok, I found this and had to shut my office door. I do suggest showing this to your geek/tech/blogger friends, but in enclosed and sound proof environments.

Title

So, finally, after 4 months.

I have a title.

Database Engineer / Systems Engineer.

DBE/SE

Not bad.

And to think they wanted to label me DBA.. pfft, right.

79 + 5 (that night) + 20 (previous week before arriving) + 14 (sunday) + >15 = ?

133 at.least

*gawd*

AND I HAVE 2 DAYS LEFT! (well, It got extended another 2 days.)

Time.

Hours worked since 9:30 AM on 3/6/06:

79

Expected remaining hours until next *scheduled* arrival in phila:

29

Now do you understand S.C.?