Employees Must Wipe Hands on Pants

Ugh. More snow again today. I’m getting really tired of this stuff at this point.

Oh, and Happy New Years, everybody.

He he. I’m the first one of all my friends to post a blog entry in 2009. WHO’S THE LAZY ONE NOW?!?

Seriously, though, I hope everyone got through the holidays okay. I’m still standing.

Given the recent server problems, and due to the fact that I’m helping my folks with an online project, I’ve decided to start sprucing things up a bit around here. As such, I’ve installed a new theme. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it yet, but I like it better than the Wordpress default, so it will probably stay until I find something I like more (or decide to break down and design an original theme of my own).

Any comments about the new look are welcome.

…had some technical problems in the last few days that took the blog offline. I’m sure this was a huge disappointment to my hoards of admiring fans. In any case, the issues have been sorted out and we’re back online.

And to everyone NOT in the office where I work, yes, keeping backup copies of your data is a GOOD IDEA.

Well, my bonus from work came in, and allowed me to make a major dent in my CC debt. As a result, I decided it was appropriate to set aside a small amount for myself (about $200) to get something nice.

Then my boss decided to give me an extra bonus on TOP of that, for some extra work I put in last week.

As a result of all this, take a look at my new guitar.

No, I didn’t buy this one from Guitar Center. They didn’t have it in stock. Portland Music Co. did, however, and I’m quite pleased with this. Good, solid, nice looking, incredibly good sounding.

I was a bit surprised that an Ibanez could sound as warm and rich as this one does. Usually they’re very cold-sounding metal guitars, but this one is NOT one of the models that include active pickups. This makes it sound warmer and fuller, in my opinion. This incidentally made it cheaper, meaning I got a hardshell case to go with it, and still spent less on it than I was preparred to. Not bad.

I think I’ll do some recording this week and see how it sounds. Time to get practicing…

I find myself suddenly swimming in video games to play. In addition to Spore (see review two posts down), I’ve been playing Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I have a couple of other games I’ve been unable to really “finish off”. (Last game I really got all the way through was Lego Indiana Jones.)

I don’t know what it is. I enjoy playing games, but I have problem immersing myself in most games for anything beyond a short period. For whatever reason, even games I really like, and keep coming back to, just don’t hold my attention for long periods.

Sigh. Maybe I’ll just go read a book.

For those who are interested, I’ve started a joint SF project with one of my co-workers.

Here is the first of what will hopefully be many many exciting installments.

Lately it feels a lot like I’m just marking time.

Perhaps it’s because none of my creative projects are very active right now. As a result, my life recently has been just work/sleep/sit around home playing video games and watching shows on my massive new TV.

While it’s nice to have entertainment options, I can’t help but feel that I would be spending the time otherwise engaged in movies, TV and video games making music, writing, or otherwise producing something tangible or meaningful.

I’ve always had something of a creative itch. Sometimes it just gets buried in the couch somewhere while I’m fumbling for the remote.

I’ve got some really fun things planned for later this year. First, a trip to Seattle over Memorial Day weekend with a bunch of my friends. Later in the summer, another long vacation when I take my annual beach trip with most of the same friends.

In between, I’ve just got work. This is not nearly so stressful anymore, but I don’t think most people really enjoy what they do for a living to the point that they would do it if there wasn’t a paycheck involved.

So, it’s just somewhat monotonous. I really am looking forward to getting some recording done with Shawn, who finally called me back, to ease my ennui.

I’m writing this on my new iPod Touch. Kinda a pain, but it’s cool that I can do it at all.

Woot. Technology.

So, got the news today, I am officially off the phones at work!

Well, not totally. They still want me to help with calls when things get really backed up. But mostly. This is a good thing.

My focus will now be email support.  This makes me so much happier at my job, I can’t even begin to tell you. Now I can listen to tunes all day, and if an email is idiotic and mean, I can just stop, go get a cup of coffee or something, and come back to it with a clear head a few minutes later. Not having the pressure of having to respond to the customer in real time is just an awesome improvement for a support tech.

Finally. After nearly 8 years in tech support, I’ve finally found a non-inbound call role to fill. Phew. Took long enough.