Rave: Other sister is pregnant. Very exciting. Rave/Rant: I am realizing there's lots of value I can bring to my employer in this marketing role but am growing increasingly cynical over whether or not I'll actually benefit from working my ass off. It's good to be in demand, and I shouldn't take this and having a good boss for granted, but the sales pitch of being able to grow with a startup loses it's effect when it seems there really isn't any growth for you. It'll have been here for five years in August. Might be time to look around at what else is out there since I haven't in a few years.
Rant: Teaching Civil Rights movement at a school with a shocking number of racist kids. I can actually hear the eyes rolling when I talk about MLK. Luckily they all know how I feel and if they throw out a racial slur they'll be gone. Still, hearing kids say things like "I don't understand why they didn't just go to their own schools and quit complaining," just makes my mind shut down. I've said this no less than 8 times today: I also see a shocking number of Trump yard signs and bumper sockets on my way to work, if you want to know the caliber of community I'm talking about. I need to get out of here.
Rant: I've bought a boat from someone who, apparently, had no right to sell it. I might be out a large chunk of money or possess something that I cannot register or legally use. Idiot. The guy that sold it to me is an idiot also.
RAVE? - I just realized today that I haven't had a cigarette in three weeks. It's not like I'm trying to quit or anything, I just haven't had any desire to smoke, which I guess is good. I used to smoke a couple of packs of Marlboro Reds (sans filters) a week for years. RAVE! - I just found out that there is a bikini drive-through the next town over (a town that I go to a couple of times a week). The girl who was working there today was stacked, with an American-flag bikini that was riding up her butt.
Rave: Went to see Cage The Elephant and Silversun Pickups tonight. Awesome concert. Rant/Rave: I really wanted to see Silversun Pickups as they have been one of my favorite bands for a few years. Sadly, they played almost no songs off of their old albums and I hate going to concerts where bands do that. Luckily, Cage played every one of their hits and they were amazing.
Rant: Update for the post above. The guy I bought it from never registered it in his name after buying it from the second owner, just kept using it since the Three-year registration is still good until July of this year. He did not get the proper paperwork to transfer ownership to himself. However, the second owner, who kept getting property tax bills for it, had to send in an affidavit that he sold it to stop those. I've had to send in the same affidavit for boats I've sold because a lot of people are lazy, useless and don't comply with the laws. So there is a record of that sale but it has not been registered since. It is not stolen or burdened by a lien. Just more notarized paperwork needed. There is also a typo on the registration, a 5 was used in the id number instead of an S, and has apparently been that way since it was bought by the second owner. All other serial numbers, on the engine and such, match the original sales agreement, Virginia DGIF fucked it up. More paperwork. The second owner lived and registered it in VA, the guy I bought it from lived and didn't register it in TN, but he registered the trailer in TN. Now I'm trying to fix all of this and register both in NC. More paperwork. The whole situation is really messing with everyone's mind. It will get fixed, just have to jump through all the hoops.
Biggest Rave: We're having a girl! Due date is October 6th. More excited than I've ever been about anything.
Rave: I fucking love Washington DC. I had to be here this week for work. I lived here for two years in a previous life, and miss it dearly. I miss the metro. Seriously, mass public transit is amazing. There is a drinking culture not built around loud music. Bars can actually mix cocktails. People are interesting. Young people are career driven. Seriously it is just an amazing city. Rant: I miss my wife. This is how I know I'm old. I disappear for 5 days and finally get a bed to myself. All I can think about after I'm done ooooing and awwing about my rave is how much I wish she could be here with me.
Rant: We were on the road for work today and one of my employees was riding in the truck with me. He was reading The Martian, and I noticed he was about halfway through. I've read it, and he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I decided to mess with him. This was our conversation: Danger Boy- Pretty good book? Genius- Yeah, it's pretty interesting. DB- Have you gotten to the part where he meets the alien? G- ...There aren't any fucking aliens in this book. DB- Uh, yeah there are. That's why it's called The Martian. It isn't referring to him, it's about how he meets an alien and they become really good friends. G- Bullshit. DB- I didn't like how they made the alien look in the movie though. Way too much CGI. G- You're fucking retarded. This book is a true story. There aren't any aliens. DB- ...What the fuck did you just say? He seriously thought the book was non-fiction. I had to argue with him about how we actually haven't sent humans to Mars yet. Then this conversation happened: G- Maybe I should write a book about landing on Jupiter and they could make a movie about that. DB- Jupiter is a gas planet, you can't really land on it. G- How the fuck do you know this shit? DB- I went to elementary school. G- They never taught us that in elementary school. DB- Yes they did.
RAVE: I finally trapped the huge rat that has been living in/around my garage. One day I opened the hood of my car, and the fucker was in there building a nest. I've been trying to get him for a couple of weeks, but he kept springing the traps. But not today: the bar smashed right into his face. Take that, you piece of shit. RANT: There's probably more where that came from...
Rave: My company was acquired this week. If you're one to pay attention to such news, you can probably guess where I work. Huge opportunities coming my way. They acquired us to merge their practice into ours and have us be the drivers of growth. The next few months are going to be very exciting. Rave: Raise and promotion take effect today (unrelated to the above). 25% bump and running a larger team.
Rant Continued: Not Bell's Palsy (probably). After I posted this, the pain continued to intensify in my ear and face, to the point where I was just writhing in agony as my ear felt like it was being introduced to Ron Jeremy in his prime and the nerves in my cheek and jaw felt like they were being scrubbed with glass. Turns out I have Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (maybe with Bell's Palsy, but probably not). The shingles virus is just throwing some big party up in my face. I think it is in my eye as well now. Fortunately, the doctors got some pain medication figured out. At first they put me on 200mg of neurontin which was like a drunken fraternity brother throwing the contents of his red solo cup on an out of control bonfire. Now I'm at 600mg a day with a decent regiment of ibuprofen. My only real improvement is that I can sort of halfway close over my eye. Not that it does much good considering I think the virus has moved into my eye as I have persistent blurry vision. I have an appointment with an ENT on 4/12, but that requires a 4 hour 1 way roadtrip and therefore 2 more days off work with the timing of the appointment (fortunately, I can stay with my mom). I should also probably schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist too. However, my insurance is about as robust as Kate Moss. I get 5 copay visits and then move onto my $1500 deductible (I think that's how this works anyway). Therefore, this is about to get incredibly expensive. And from my reading, there doesn't seem to be much anyone can do. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not going to fall into the 30% of patients who don't fully recover from this.
Rant: "So... did you want me to just cut these grey hairs out or did you want to look at a colour treatment?"
Rave: Only have the conditions to remove and we have bought a new house. Depending on what we can sell our house for we might not end up owing any more then I do currently, up to a max of 25k. We are going from a little less then 2100sqft with no covered parking to 3500sqft with a carport.
Rave: I farted up the bedroom so much last night that the wife woke up choking and gagging and had to go sleep on the couch. To her credit, they smelled like pure, uncut Colombian 9-volt batteries that had been decomposing in a hobo's butt.
RANT: This is why we all fucking hate IT: Dcc: I can receive emails but not send them. It says my storage is full, but I still show lots of room. What's up? IT: Yeah, you're over your limit. You'll have to delete emails. Dcc: I'm not comfortable deleting emails. I thought we reorganized the servers so that all archived data was stored better and no longer a size issue. IT: Well the program deletes all attachments that are over a year old. Dcc: So all my attachments are gone? IT: Yes. Dcc: And to free up space so my email functions again, I'll have to delete RECENT emails, with jobs that might still be active? IT: Yes. FUCK. THIS. I'm in the middle of a lawsuit right now and the only thing that I have to nail into the cross of the asshole liars suing me is a random email that I happened to save. I don't do "deleting," and as an engineering company WE SHOULDN'T DELETE ANYTHING EVER. EDIT: On the phone with IT now, who are explaining to me why I'm not allowed to back anything up on my C drive.
RANT: I had to go see my parole officer today. RANT: On the way over there, the heater control valve on my car cracked, pouring coolant everywhere. RANT: I had to call my officer to tell him I was going to be late, and this tipped him off to the fact that I'm driving now. This means that I'm going to have to get a breathalyzer on my car. (It's a requirement by the Parole Department, not the state.) RAVE?: After the meeting was over, I was able to get my car fixed in about 5 minutes; since the heater control valve doesn't affect normal operation, I just capped off the fittings on the engine and radiator. I doubt I'll be needing the heater for the next 6-8 months, if that.
RAVE: Heading to Santa Barbara (California coast) for five days RANT: Was mid 70's & sunny all week now it's low 60's and rainy until Tuesday (the day we come back) and then mid 70's again. Neat.