New Car new team...

New car... a purchase of necessity more than anything because my Honda 92 Accord LX manual transmission was making some weird noise and I suspect it's almost time up for her. I miss her... she was a pretty dependable ride, 172k miles.

I sure hope she goes to a good home.


http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn309/zieglarnatta/2009_10_05_Prius/


Changed teams... Tier 2 OMS Production Fallout team. Basically we look at the order image of the customer which has fallen out, update the DB with the missing details / attribute, reformulate the XML and push the XML and help the customer get back on track in the ordering management system.


Pretty interesting, a little more challenging and uses the knowledge which I already have at hand but I think I'm getting bored soon. Pretty repetitive type work once you get used to it.



Besides that nothing to exciting I guess. I have my hopes that November I will get permission from my manager to relocate to Seattle permanently... either WFH permanent else work from Seattle Amdocs office. Say a prayer for me that this will be done and I'll be a very happy man. Puget sound / Seattle area is beautiful. lots of outdoors to see and explore, to go sea kayaking and of course (in no particular order) I'll be 3 hs away from my GF.

Developments....

It's been a while since I've written... thought it'll be a good time to write.

Sarah Palin out of Alaska's Governorship... woo hoo... but the Bulldog / pig with lipstick wants to comment on Obama's health care plan. Sigh. Kind of amateurish for an ex-politician. She has basically shamed herself with her ignorance and lost all credibility... I wonder why she is even making noise. If I were her I'd tuck my tail and retire quietly and go do her book deal, movie deal etc and make more money.

Hmm the proposed health care plan is a tough nut to crack. It's a good initiative... but it's not explained well because basically you can keep your doctor and plan if you like it, else choose what may be offered by the government plan. But all this.. will incur cost and from my limited understanding, it seems they may consider taxing people who are receiving health insurance to pay for others who can't afford it... yep money doesn't grow on trees and unfortunately I have NO SAY whatsoever as to how the govt. is run since I am not a citizen.

Hmm new car on the horizon... those solar sun roof option is an extra $1300 ... not really worth it. I'd rather buy after market solar coolers and install it myself.

Super happy... my gf has achieve the big break she was looking for... a relatively high paying job and in the field that she's studying in and seems like she likes what she's doing... Health Informatics... a hot and up and coming industry especially in Canada where they are now starting to adopt a proper Health IT system.

So much has happened between the last time I wrote till now. A few missing children killed by adults, the death of a legend Michael Jackson, miracle landing in the Hudson river, Obama swatting the pesky fly, Susan Boyle you tube sensation... a more recent wedding entrance dance which now seems to become the hottest trend to follow. I dunno sometimes I think people are just clueless about life and decency. Call me old fashion and conservative but all that dancing on the wedding day... kinda lame and stupid.

Speaking of which... I'm not anti-marriage or anti children... but people here are really obsessed with getting married ASAP and fucking and making babies.

1) If you don't have the proper finances, please do not breed

2) Studies find that live in couples have a higher divorce rate... I think this study is seriously
flawed / wrong because my own experience is that it's better to know your future spouse @ least 3 -4 years before you get married and not have any surprises because they will be in your face 24/7, so don't give me the crap "irrevocable differences". Also if you're gonna get married after knowing them for a few months or just 1 - 2 years, you're asking for trouble and ever worse if you're going to fuck and make babies and then divorce. You deserve the Darwinian award.

3) Earth already has way too many human beings and we can use less homo sapient. So please stop breeding 5 - 10 children if you can't afford it. There should be a law written for prevention better than cure where Social Services basically studies your financial viability and determines if you can support XX amount of children. I know it sounds like communism but you have to be pragmatic and realistic. If you are going to breed, and you can't afford it, please do give it up for adoption... of the best is DO NOT BREED.

Crap always comes in loads for me

Makes me wonder if my life is full of drama... but I'm actually handling it very well surprisingly.


Than again I guess my drama is not as sever compared to others who are married and with a full load of stuff to take care off on a constant basis, so I guess I shouldn't bitch as much as I do and rather just play the cards that are dealt. the last 2 rounds (Visa renewal and transfer) were good hands, but the next hand to relocate into Seattle was a huge blow.

That plus getting a notice from my GF that my deadline to get my ass into Seattle is August end that we agreed. Sigh. I won't tell a biased story but we have indeed been dating long distance since 2003 and I have my part of the blame for not trying harder to get closer to her sooner.

Then agian with the current economic climate and job loss, it's going to be tough but I will still try hard.

On the lighter side, @ least I was able to renew my Maryland Heights membership and added the fitness / recreation center membership so @ least I have a cheap gym to go to. Their equipment is not too shabby, a few cardio machines and the rest are Nautilus weight machines. And I found they have 2 very good ab machines. hope to lose that 10 lbs I gained throughout the last year or so.

Kia Spectra Automobile advertisement (Stupid)

There is a relatively new advertisement of the Kia Spectra where they show the drivers keep pulling up to the gas pump with the wrong side of the car for the pump because they rarely fill their gas tanks. They are saying that their cars are very fuel efficient that between fills it is so rare that they totally forget which side their gas tank is.

I think that's the stupidest thing, because every car, if it has been designed intuitively, has a dash indicator showing either the gas gauge which tells you which side it is else there is a triangular icon which indeed points to the side where the fuel tank is.

It's been a while

Well, job situation hasn't improved, as usual the group is biting off more than we can chew. What else, well searching for jobs in Buffalo NY and Possibly Detroit. Need to move closer to my dearly beloved.

Anyway, on my to do list: tax + update my web page yada yada yada.

OMG and finally got my reimbursement and then some from my trip to Richardson, Texas. OMG I hate travel reimbursement and incompetent accounts handling people. Maybe I should h ave taken them to court and sued them.

KEZK Soft Rock 102.5MHz STL Missouri Winner starting 9 am CST

I take no responsibility for missed names, locations and spellings ha ha ha!

9 - 10AM
Carol Miller from IL

10 - 11 am
Joe Nunez from Mayland Heights MO

11am - 12 noon
Dennis Stevenson from Granite City MO

12noon - 1 pm
Shirley Bishoff Florissant MO

1pm - 2 pm
Sherry Jones from Fenton MO

2pm - 3 pm (2 names now)
Ashley Applebaum ___ ? MO
Patricia Mann O'fallon IL (323 pm)
Kathy Harden St Charles MO (351 pm)

3pm - 4pm
Lisa Cryder Collinsville IL (423 pm)
Laura Foster Furgeson MO (452 pm)

4pm - 5 pm
Jessica ?
Maria A Bellview ? (523pm)
Kathy Lewis ? (538 pm)
Heather Viviano Hazelwood MO (553 pm)

6pm - 7 pm
Andrea Jenkins St Louis (618 pm)
? ? 6++ PM
Sherry Wolf (649 pm)

Job's mid-life crisis

Am in the middle of my usual day... contemplating my future. Heard rumors that after release 7 contractors are going to get canned. Time for me to get something more stable and something which I was trained in.

Time to flex some networking muscles which I have somewhat developed and make use of it. Need to figure out my long term goals also...

Besides that... well things are mundane as usual.

Here's some pictures of fall leaves:

2007_11_14_Fall_Leaves