I’m going to make my comic-strip debut this Sunday, and I can’t wait to see it. I’ve always been a big fan of both newspaper comic strips as well as comic books, so to see a character based on me appearing has got me really excited.
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Agony of De-Notes
Maybe it was the six hours of Mario Galaxy I played yesterday (great game, BTW) but I was all thumbs today playing Guitar Hero…I’m trying to get a perfect score on all of the songs in Medium difficulty, and on several songs, I missed ONE FARKING NOTE IN THE WHOLE FARKING SONG and got 99% instead.
Arrrrrgh!
Re-Re-Redundnant Backup
As much as I’ve been poking Vista this week, I haven’t really taken the time to push it too much, however I think I’ll put it through its paces during the long weekend and do some fun stuff that I know will redline the CPU and bring my PC to its knees. The last step before doing this is copying my documents from my external hard drive to the one that has Vista on it. I’ve been running off a straight copy that I made to that drive a few days ago after making sure I had everything moved over, and after making a backup file using the software that came with the drive.
Now I have four copies…a copy of my stuff on the Vista drive, a straight copy on the external drive, a backup archive on the external drive, and the original on the XP drive…I feel a little bit safer now. 🙂
Every three weeks…
I really farking hate my job.
I do software support for a local company. They produce software is also supposed to bring geezers that have been doing mainframe programming for the last 20 years into the happy shiny world of Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio. The software this company creates has a programming language attached to it. With just a week of training at our facility, they will know Visual Studio, .NET, Windows programming, and Web programming. What could possibly go wrong?
Every single farking thing, that’s what.
I went into this with the hope that since I would be dealing with other programmers, they would be somehow smarter than the unwashed masses that I have had to deal with in previous customer service jobs. I could not have been more wrong. (read this to find out why) More and more I wonder how some of these people keep their jobs as my sanity slowly leaks out of my head.
We take calls from customers day in and day out, but one unfortunate person gets the -snicker- honor of answering email requests for assistance. These are usually the worst, they usually fall into a few categories:
Customer emails an error message and nothing else.
Customer wants to know how to do something, but does not specify exact details or a version number.
Customer is having problems with their code, but does not send any code at all, just a vague description of the problem.
Customer has something that OMG REALLY NEEDS TO BE FIXED RIGHT NOW but they email it instead of picking up the phone and calling our toll-free 800 number that is usually answered quickly.
Customer has a question that anyone who took Programming 101 should be able to answer.
Customer actually has a genuine question or problem. Customer provides code, version numbers, operating system, and other things that may be relevant to their problem.
Needless to say, we get the last one very infrequently.
Every three weeks, it becomes my turn. I dread going to work that Monday morning, and of course there is a (virtual) stack of things waiting for me when I get in. I also still have to answer the phone while on ’email duty,’ and every so often I get chastised for not answering a question “the right way” or not giving “special treatment” to an important customer.
I am not a salesperson, nor do I have any desire to be. I treat all my customers more or less the same. I’m only human: some folks do get special treatment (particularly if they’re nice) and some folks get to wait a little longer if they’re being dickholes. Either way, their problems get fixed, their questions get answered, the company gets paid, and everyone is happy…well, except for me.
Frankly, I think a trip to a certain monstrous career-building hotjob website is in order. 😉
Livin’ La Vida Vista
I’m not certain why I’m doing this, but I’ve decided to give Vista another try, and this time I’m actually going to activate it and use it as my desktop OS.
Make that, I’m going to try to to activate it and use it as my desktop OS…I’m going to make a list of all the stuff I absolutely need on my PC, and hopefully all of them work on Vista. On an unrelated note, I just purchased a new external hard drive for backups. I’m also doing this on a seperate hard drive, if worse comes to worse, I can go back.
Come to think of it, I do have 30 days to activate, no rush there.
I’m not sayin’…I’m just sayin
One of Microsoft’s zombies recently said that they wanted to improve the “story” in Gears of War 2…AH-HAHAHAHAHA!!
Playing a fighting game or shooter for the story is like drinking non-alcoholic beer or decaffeinated coffee, there just isn’t much point.
N00b Tube
I finally cracked…after months of “No, I’m going to wait” and “Well, maybe someday” I bought a new TV set last Sunday (May 4). As tempting as it was, I didn’t go “whole hog” and buy a humounglous set. Instead, I decided to get another 32″ set. Specifically, I got an LG 32″ 720p LCD TV, and it freaking rocks.
My previous set was a 32″ Samsung flat tube HDTV set which weighs about 150 pounds. It’s also the main reason I get a lot of “I’ll get back to you” responses whenever I need help moving to a new apartment. It had a pretty good picture, but once I started used my Wii to browse the Internet, I noticed that the picture is fuzzy in the corners. I’m not sure if it has always been like that or is just the result of six years of gaming, DVDs, and a smattering of actual TV watching. Also, the fact that it has a standard instead of a widescreen meant that the edges would routinely get chopped off when playing certain games or when watching widescreen movies, which I prefer.
The final straw was a 3-year no-interest financing deal at a certain electronics retailer and a credit card with a zero balance also from that retailer.
I thought I was spoiled before by watching Cowboys games over-the-air in HD on my Samsung, but watching San Antonio Spurs games on the new set blows that out of the water. I just can’t get over how CLEAR it looks now. Games also look great, and aside from a touch of lag on some PS2 games, all is well.
The fun part, now, is going to be trying to sell Old Faithful.
Cabin Fever
I have no problem admitting to being a homebody, but every so often, I just _have_ to get put of the apartment.
Today is just one of those days. I did some much-needed cleaning in the apartment, played some Guitar Hero, and now I just want to get away for a bit.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do after dinner, but I’m sure it won’t be at home…then again, the Spurs ARE playing tonight. D’oh!
Stop and Smell the Pancakes
Its Friday, and I’m feeling pretty good. Things are slow at work, payday was Wednesday, and the weekend is just 9 hours away.
I thought today would be a good day to stop for some breakfast, and it certainly is. There is nothing like a relaxing meal to set the tone for the day. The customers, my boss, and another day of work await, and I can honestly say I’m ready for them.
Bring it on, Friday!
Xbox is Live, Nintendo…Not So Much
I have had Xbox Live for just over a year. I think its great, especially when you get together a good group of people that you can have fun with, as opposed to the load of 12-year olds who have just learned swear words and consider everyone better than them to be ‘teh ghey.’
My friends from my old job are such a group, we’ve spent more time blowing up each other to bits playing Lost Planet, Halo 3 and Bomberman online than we’re probably willing to admit to. Its great fun, and the ability to talk to each other during a game really adds to the experience. It makes it easier to coordinate in team games, and talking smack and ridiculing bonehead moves (often made by me) is just one of those Things That Guys Like To Do.
I recently acquired a Wii, and while the single player games are fun (I’m currently playing Mario Galaxy and Zelda:Twilight Princess) I have been hungering for some multiplayer mayhem. Much to my relief, Mario Kart Wii launched this past weekend, one of the few Wii games that happen to have online support. Upon returning to my apartment on Sunday, I phoned my friend Chris to see if he was up for a few online games. I was joined by our mutual friend Ken, all three of us being veterans of almost-daily lunchtime Mario Kart DS matches. I had played a few single-player matches the night before, and was still relatively new at the game.
After exchanging Nintendo’s silly 12-digit “friend codes” we played a few online matches with Chris. Something was missing, though. The inability to hear Chris’ agonized screams when I flattened him as I passed him at the finish line takes something away from the experience. The angry phone call we received after the race was very entertaining, but it just didn’t feel the same. I suppose we got used to the instant gratification of our lunchtime matches, where the explosions of Bob-ombs and blue Koopa shells are immediately met with groans and laughter.
Granted, you can exchange canned phrases after the race is over, but that is just plain weak. The ability to send a custom message to my opponent to tell him he’s a dirty fartknocker for popping me with a red Koopa shell and sending me tumbling into the lava would be nice. Sadly, though, Nintendo is the Disney corporation of the videogame world, but hey, at least SOMEONE is thinking of the children! 😛
Eduardo Soliz 