Rave: Just been offered a dream job, that doubles my current salary, and would provide me with a wealth of experience i cant get in the current job market in my area (It would effectively jump my career growth ahead by 3-5 years). Rant: Its on the other side of the fucking country and the wife is not all that keen being that far away from her family (I on the other hand would be really pleased to have 1600 miles between me and the mother-in-law)... Its only a 4 hour flight but we want to start a family and all of her support is in this state so i see where shes coming from. I have a week to talk it through with her before responding.
I enjoy reading the rant and rave section, but normally I just do not see too much to really rant or rave about til: Rant: First all the rock stars I saw in the 70's and 80's started to die off in January of this year. Now Prince someone I unfortunately, never got around to seeing even though I had plenty of opportunities to do so passed on. Rant: Prince would not affect me too much except: I have a friend whom I have been best friends with for 49 years lost his older brother to cancer on Saturday. His brother was a little more than a decade older than I, and was essentially an older brother I never had. My first motorcycle rides were on the back of his Triumph and Harley trike. He gave me the first chance to drive a go cart and even a car out in a back field. He was always there to lend a hand or a beer as needed. Fuck Cancer.
Took the 13 year old to the Holocaust Memorial today. Rant: The museum asks that people refrain from photography and video and cellular usage during the tour. WHY THE BLUE FUCK IS THAT SO HARD!!? Selfies with the Auschwitz gate Photos in front of the barracks Answering the phone Disrespectful and just...disappointing.
RANT: As many of you probably know a 16 year old girl was beaten to death yesterday in a high school bathroom. I posted something on Twitter about how sad it was that everyone took video of it and no one helped her. Next thing you know, I get inundated with people asking me where they can see the video. What. The. Fuck. Is wrong with people? (And no, I haven't seen the video, nor would I watch it if I knew where to find it.)
RANT: Mother eff. Spoiler: crap My credit card company JUST mailed me a new card a few weeks ago, because according to them, "a merchant may have had their transaction information compromised." So, this is the card that I use for recurring charges, and online shopping. I intentionally keep the credit limit at $500, just in case there's fraud. Aaaaaaaand, the card was compromised this morning. WTF. I tried to make a $7 purchase at lunch and it was declined. I was like, um, do what now? That can't be right. So, I talk to the fraud folks, and the guy I'm talking with asks me about several charges that were attempted. 2 in the town where I am and 4 in the town just 20 minutes south of here. 2 of those charges were for over $400. All of those were declined, thankfully. Okay, great, thanks for catching that, card company. But, now, I have to go back and change all my recurring charges again. Dammit. I ask the guy how that happens, and he asks, "Do you make any online purchases?" Seriously? Did I go back to 1995 when I wasn't looking? Of fucking course I make online purchases. Even my mother makes online purchases. Who the hell doesn't make online purchases? So, I say, "yes, I do." "Oh, well, that's probably how they got it," he says. And, I say, "Don't you think that it's a little odd, that in the whole wide world, somebody stole my credit card number online, and just HAPPENED to try to use a fake card in the SAME town where I am?" Nope. Alrighty, then.
Rant: I have been parking on the opposite side of the parking lot at work over the past few weeks, since there is construction going on next door and it is on the side that I usually park on. The owner of the company I work for travels a lot but came back today after having been gone for a few weeks. As I was turning off my computer to leave for work today, the office manager comes over to me and whispers "would you mind parking one spot over from now on? That is [company owner's] favorite parking spot." Talk about petty shit. This parking spot is a pretty random one, too; it's not in the shade, near the door, or near an entrance/exit to the parking lot. I know I am not in any trouble or anything, but I am still irked by this. Rant: The 40-year old financial consultant who I matched with on Tinder and was supposed to go out with tomorrow night got cold feet. Go figure. So much for my first date with a cougar. Rant: Still have some papers and projects for school that I have to finish by Monday. Rave: Then I will have my masters! I am so ready for a change of job and a change of scenery. I can hope that those things are close to happening.
RAVE: We just let our Product Director go today. He took over the direct management of our dev team from me when he joined (which allowed me to concentrate on doing mad scientist type stuff for infrastructure and technology), and implemented some pretty good software development processes, but in the end he was clueless about how to actually lead people. He pissed off more and more of the team until such time as one quit, and 3 more were looking. He had no situational awareness around the cultural health of the team, had an ego, never learned how to collaborate, dictated rather than led, and despite almost 4 months of me trying to give the guy advice on how to improve (and I'm not known for my subtlety), it hit him out of left field this morning when he was escorted out of the building. The immediate relief of the staff was almost palpable. It was a hard decision to make, but I'm glad it was done. RAVE: Mom comes to town on Thursday night for a couple weeks of R&R. She's got some depression going on since dad died, and needed to get the hell out of Dodge. Straight up coincidence means that the time she's here the Okanogan Wine Festival is on, so nothing but wineries and restaurants opening their doors for tours and special events for hours driving in any direction. Mom got a surprise $40k from dad's estate from some pre-paid taxes, and her only statement was, "well, let's see if we can't fill up that stupidly big wine fridge of yours, shall we?" It's a full-sized, 200 bottle wine fridge. Shit could get interesting.
Rant: Wow Sirius is worthless. They have three metal stations and they're all bad. Let's review: Ozzy's Boneyard - Plays classic rock and metal. The music is great, but I've been listening to these songs for the better part of 30 years now and want to hear something new. Hair Nation - Plays '80s hair/glam metal. Pretty much the same problem as Ozzy's Boneyard; I'm not interested in listening to 30 year old songs. Liquid Metal - Death Metal. I guess it's reflective of American tastes, I guess. I'm not a fan of Death Metal, unfortunately. I was hoping Sirius had a metal station that played new metal of the various sub-genres, since I'm always looking for new music I haven't heard, but I guess that's just too much to ask. The thing is, I feel like as a metal fan I'm being mocked by the offerings Sirius provides.
Rave: I become a temporary bachelor just as I have the opportunity to bag a turkey, pick mushrooms, and catch some fish all in the same week. Correction, same day. What a glorious time to be alive. Rant: Being apart for 8 weeks while Ms. Katokoch is working abroad will suck but it could be worse. Rave: The new sales reps are awesome. It's way easier to train guys that aren't bitchy primadonnas. Rant: The more passive-aggression I get from management, the more I want to tell them to lick my nuts. So much for leadership.
RANT: I just got home, and as I was pulling into the garage, I saw a rat so big that it would make a cat think twice. Seriously, this thing's tail was almost as thick as my index finger! It was hiding behind a board, so I quietly grabbed a shovel to flatten it, but by the time I turned the board over, it was gone. Just "poof." One second it was there, then it wasn't, like a ghost. Time to reset all the traps...
Rave: There are pretty much two well-known/regarded art critics left and one of them (who also happens to be particularly cranky about PR solicitation) has suddenly started opening all of our press emails in the past two months, which coincides with when I started writing the press releases in addition to distributing them. Before that, he hadn't opened one from us in two years and now he's reading the press releases, going to our website to read the interviews I do with our artists, checking out our social media stuff. I don't know what got him to start but I'm FULLY taking credit for it, and knowing that someone I've admired for years is not only reading my writing but liking it enough to keep an eye out for news from us to read more of it has been making me giddy all day. If it leads to a review from him I'm going to be so pumped. That would be a major win for me.
Ravt: I just watched my 14-month-old take an inch and a half of banana down her throat like it was nothing. It was a distressing and yet pride-filled look into the future.
Rant: I've got to figure out how to deal with the ridiculously thick calluses I get on my big toes; I just took a pair of scissors and actually cut chunks of skin off the bottom of my toe.
Rave: Several months ago I met a cute girl at a networking thing. We've had lunch a few times and then grabbed dinner. All the while it was a "Well, we're definitely at least going to be good friends, but more would be awesome." Looks like it's going to be more. Great night of food, seeing Deadpool, and then making out like teenagers for awhile.
Rant: My parents' neighborhood that they've lived in for almost 40 years is going to hell. There are petty thefts, a couple down the street had their truck stolen out of their driveway, and there was a murder/suicide a month or two back. My parents had stuff stolen awhile back and had to put up cameras. My mom hand made a tire swing, even painted the damned thing shiny apple red, and the crackheads next door who were being foreclosed on took it along with all the other shit they were ripping out of the house before the bank could get there. In her own words.... "I'm so mad I could chew on a nail." When are they going to be ok with the idea of moving?
Rave: The smell of freshly split apple and cherry logs. The only thing that will smell better is when they're used in a few months to smoke some delicious meats.
Rant: I got a random slap on the ass yesterday. Not a subtle pat either - like a moderately decent slap. That's not a terrible thing, normally I'd be pretty flattered, but it came from a 60 some year old lesbian that I'm distantly related to. And it happened in a church. As we got up to leave a funeral. Rave: That pink pencil skirt apparently looks pretty damn good. Gotta wear that more.
Rave: Getting out of teaching after May and will turn in my resignation on Monday. I'll be back in school for a few years, but the future is looking up!