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Cutting the Cord

I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere down the line, I just stopped watching television. Not completely, mind you, but I just can’t veg out like I used to behind the ol’ boob tube. The last show I tried to see was Heroes, and after missing a few episodes, I got lost and never tuned in again. I missed out on the Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica reboots, and except for NFL Football, Spurs games, and the news, there really isn’t anything I watch on a regular basis.

Thus, after waiting for 20 minutes and then watching the guy at the counter type for another 5 (hell, I hated my job at the cable company too, but I at least tried to be civil), I now no longer have cable TV. Its no biggie, though, I have some rabbit ears for the living room TV and I will have to get one of those converter box thingies for the bedroom TV, but I think I’ll live.

Besides, that $70 a month can go to other things…like video games 😉

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Super Musings

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, which means lots of folks getting together, eating too much, and rooting for teams that we normally don’t care about, because our team got beat like a narc at a biker rally (yes, I am a Dallas Cowboys fan).

I will be at a party myself, hanging out and chowing down and rooting for the Cardinals. Curiously enough, some folks said they were not going to the party because they did not care about the game.

Funny thing is, a Super Bowl party isn’t about the game. Its about getting together and seeing friends and hanging out and all that good stuff…there just happens to be a football game showing at the same time. I’ve noticed people tend to get more hyped up about the commercials and the half time show more than anything else anyway. Good for them, just so long as everyone is having a good time.

To be fair, a few of the more recent Super Bowl games have been great, but that isn’t always the case. This looks like it may be a potential blow-out if the Steelers can knock Kurt Warner six ways to Sunday, but who cares?

Its a good excuse to get together with friends and family and have a good time, so raise a glass, pass the chips, and GO CARDINALS!

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The Kids Next Door

I’ve had problems in the past with my next-door neighbors (not sure if I’ve biatched about it here) playing loud music. The funny part is, I never actually saw them. The first time it happened, I knocked on the door and they didn’t open the door, instead I had to tell them to turn it down through the door. The second time, they didn’t answer at all and after a call to the apartment office, I haven’t heard much since. I can’t help but think that we could have found some middle ground if they had just opened the door and talked to me face-to-face.

There are also some kids that live down the hall, I can often hear them running around outside my balcony. It never bothers me, as its more random (running around the building, for example) and also, it eventually stops. The kids were playing with a soccer ball today and I heard the occasional ‘thump’ against the side of the building. It was certainly not enough to raise my ire (not that it is easily raised) but frequent enough for me to notice. The thumping soon stopped. I thought the kids had gone inside, but soon there was a knock on the door.

The ball had ended up on my balcony and they wanted me to get it for them (insert ‘get off my lawn’ joke here). I told them I would get it and gave it to them.

It would seem the kids down the hall have more common sense than the kids next door.

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I never thought I’d say this…

but Thank God for Vista…

I was surfing away last Friday evening, and then BAM, just out of the blue, Ye Olde Blue Screen Of Death. XP has never blue-screened on me before (instead finding other various ways to give me grief) so that was something of an eye-opener. I then restarted the PC and got a “NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND” message.

As I like to say: the feces have struck the oscillating air-movement device.

Luckily for me, I had been running Vista for a few weeks and had transferred my files over some time ago, so all was well…otherwise I would have been one very unhappy geek!

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Ear-Full

I went shopping for a pair of headphones today. Now that I have a job where I can listen to music while I work, my MP3 player will be getting a lot more use. I am also exercising again, and music makes the time on the treadmill go quicker.

With this in mind, I head to the Big Electronics Store nearby. I ponder my choices…ear buds, ear buds with squishy things on the ends, around-the-ear clip things with ear buds, earbuds that go around the back of your head, and a headphone-looking thing with earbuds on the ends.

I sigh and walk out of the store, because for the life of me, I CANNOT FARKING WEAR EARBUDS! Something about my ears is not right, because after about 5 minutes in there, they hurt like hell. Thus, I have to wear the old-school headphones that go over the top of your head with the speakers on the ends that go on the outside of the ear.

I begrudgingly go to the discount retailer nearby and find a set of “classic” headphones, cursing the “cool kids” under my breath with their iPods and white earbuds every step of the way.

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Forty Off The Grid

The new job is starting great so far, albeit with the usual bombardment of new acronyms, procedures and list of Things That You Can’t Do Here.

Sadly, near the top of that list is the Internet. Up until this point, I have been fortunate enough to be at places where the tubes aren’t being monitored. This employer has it locked down, though, and unlike other companies I have worked at, they actually monitor and enforce the rules. I was told early on about a guy that got the boot for installing a torrent client on his work PC…but honestly, anyone dumb enough to do that deserves to be Insta-Fired.

So, its no more IM-ing my buds over at other offices, no more checking e-mail or the news throughout the day, instead its just work, work, and whatever music I can squeeze into my 2GB MP3 player. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though…I think it will keep me focused more on the task at hand, and I’m looking forward to learning some cool stuff at this new gig.

I cheated the first week by using my phone to check my email and even IM, but I’m now paranoid enough to have stopped doing that, as well. I’m not sure I want to see the reaction of the gal that the unemployment office upon hearing “I got fired for browsing the Net.”

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Requiem for a Job

The desk drawers have been cleaned out, the desktop has been cleared away, the comics on the walls have been taken down, and the last emails have been sent. There is nothing to do now but wait for the appointed time to arrive.

It is time to say goodbye to coworkers, while also looking forward to meeting new ones. Keys and access cards are turned in, hands are shook, well wishes are given and recieved, and farewells are said.

I take the nametag I had used as an improvised “This is Eduardo’s cube” sign down from the outside of my ‘door’ and wonder for a moment how long this cube will remain empty, or even if another person call it their workspace again…such are the times we live in right now.

A cubicle may not seem like much, but in a sense, its a home-away-from-home, littered with the little things that make it a person’s own instead of just another modular piece of furniture in another office building…the comics on the walls, the whiteboard with random stuff written on it, the Easy button given by a friend, the cracked coffee mug that holds pencils and pens, even the way my computers, monitors and phone are arranged all combine to make it “Eduardo’s cube.” It is the only one like it, and surely, the one I will be sitting in at my next job will bear my unique mark on it as well.

As is usually the case, I will not miss the work, but I will miss the people, and while emails and phone numbers are exchanged, realistically, I know this will likely be the last time I see or speak to many of these individuals ever again. That is not always the way one wants it, but that is life, I suppose…

And so, the final checking of email, the final logoff, and the final handshakes are performed. The computer and monitors are shut down, and the phone is turned off. It is a goodbye, but after a brief respite, with the next Monday comes a new hello, and a new opportunity will begin, with new faces, and new challenges.

I hope they don’t mind the drawer full of plastic grocery-store bags.

😉

Eduardo Soliz
Former Technical Support Specialist,
ASNA Blue Phoenix

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Next-Door Nuisance

Recently, some new people moved into the apartment next door, I don’t know who, but I do know that they like to play music…a lot…quite loudly, actually, to the point where I can hear it in my apartment. Usually I can tune it out, but Thursday night I could not stand it any longer and went knocking on their door to ask them to turn it down.

Strangely enough, they did not open the door, instead a man asked me who I was through the closed door. I told him I was his neighbor and that I would appreciate it if he could turn down his music. He did so, I went to bed, and life went on.

Fast-forward to Friday and he is at it again…this was during the day, mind you, but even then. I’d like to think that as a general rule, I should not hear anything coming from my neighbor’s apartment, and they should not hear anything from mine. As previously, I knocked on the door, and knocked, and knocked, but nobody answered.

I didn’t want to call the police, but I had to do something, so I called the apartment office and they said they would call my neighbor and ask him to turn it down. The music continued and a half-hour later I had to call the office again. Eventually (later that evening, actually) the racket stopped and I haven’t heard anything of consequence since.

I obviously don’t know what the apartment people told them, but I’m glad they finally got the message. I suspect that the source of the noise is a subwoofer, they have a nasty tendency to reverberate through walls. Regular speakers, not so much, but the bass coming out of a subwoofer will be felt in surrounding rooms pretty easily. Turn down the subwoofer, problem solved.

I think its a pity that I had to resort to calling the apartment office, I think we could have easily worked it out if they had just answered the door, but what can you do?

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