danithmabob

Loooong update!

2009-02-05T16:53:16Z

Ok, so it's been forever and a day since I've made an LJ post. Lots has happened during this time, so this may be a little long.

So, we'll start with my Christmas party in 2007. I was supposed to go with my friend Jess. She's a hot little redhead, but there wasn't really anything more than friendship between us at the time. Anyway, the night of the party, I call and ask when and where to meet, and she tells me she can't make it, as she's feeling sick. Dang. Well, I didn't want to go alone, as that tends to be boring. So, I thought of the people I could ask. I had recently met a woman named Natalie. She was pretty nice, but I didn't know her very well. Anyway, despite the short notice, she was able to come, and we had a pretty good time.

We started dating, and things are fine. I'm still currently dating Natalie, it's been over a year now.

As for other stuff... I did still spend a fair bit of time traveling. Things were pretty good! I went down to Philadelphia for training a couple times, and stayed with some friends down there. We even somehow crammed a large BBQ they bought into my Dodge Charger rental. It was a tight fit, to say the least! We were in the parking lot unboxing it and putting the parts into the trunk & back seat. When we got back to their place, I helped them put it together and we cooked some steaks and I made potatoe salad with these awesome pickels I picked up at the market in Philly.

So, things were good. Come this past December, I got layed off. My severance would run until March 12th 2009, so I would still have my benefits and still get regular paychecks. I was utterly devastated. That day, we were sent home when we found out the news. I got home, and found out the damned power was out at home! So, here I was, with friends who would be wondering why I just dissapeared offline after talking about layoffs, and I can't even get online to talk to them. I ended up walking around a bit, and finaly taking a cab home. (this was before I found out about the no power). I called Natalie about it (who had only recently started a new job at the Health Unit. She's an RN, btw.) and told her the story. She ended up giving me her car for the aft. so I could go pack up my office and bring all that stuff home.

It was rough. On one hand, it was kinda nice having some time off to just laze around for a bit. But that gets old quick. I did up a resume, I met with an employment counselor, I wrote cover letters... Then, my step-mother, who also works at Redpath (the company that I worked at) calls me and asks if I've found a job yet. I tell her I haven't, as all I'd had was a phone interview that got pushed back and eventually cancelled. She tells me that Rouan (one of the guys I went to Vegas with. More on Vegas later!) was livid when he heard I got layed off. I was scheduled to do a LOT of work for the Project Controls dept. She then tells me I'll get an email from him soon, about a job. That Friday, I had the papers signed and in to HR.

Now, this is where the story gets funny! (well, not really, but whatever!) They are now paying me about $2/hour MORE than I was making before, AND they are continuing my severance as normal. So I still get the regular paychecks for my severance, in addition to the pay for this new job! They were only willing to hire me on for 3 months, and I was told "We'll see from there." What makes me really positive about this is that Rouan (who's a really nice South African man. His accent almost sounds british.) sent a schedule to a consultant. The schedule goes to December. Which means, if I play my cards right, this will probabbly turn in to a permanent position! It's strange being over here, in another dept. IT is giving me a lot of leeway with stuff, since I used to be over there, but it's strange not being in IT anymore.

So, about Vegas. I can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier! (I'm too lazy to slide it in somewhere up above) I went to the Primavera Worldwide Developers Conference with the Project Controls group in November. Basically, this was nearly a week all expenses payed in Las Vegas. It was great! I learned SO much at the conference, and I had a blast in Vegas. Rouan, his wife and I went to "Madame Toussards", which is a wax museum. The figures looked amazing, right down to the stubble on many of them! Near the end, there was a little "scarey walk" kinda thing. Basically, it was just a dark tunnel with stuff and noise in it. It was actually fairly scary. People would be standing VERY still, so you wouldn't know if they were wax or not. And then, they would jump at you, and scare the crap out of you! It was pretty cool. The FUNNIEST part about it happened before we went in. Rouan and I went down the stairs to the next part of the exhibit (which was the haunted house kinda thing), but his wife lagged behind a bit. As we walk down, a man comes out, in full makeup, looking like a zombie. He goes through his schpeal about what it was, and then we hear his wife coming down the stairs. He freezes, and we try not to smirk as we take a step back. His wife comes up, and leans in close to the guy, looking at what she thought was wax. Then BAM! He yells and scares her. OH dear lord, it was funny!!!

Anyway, beyond that, I did actually spend some time in the Casino. I ended up using about $250 of my own money (Which ironically was $150 more than I planned to spend!), but I came back with $1200!!! All from 1 slot machine! It was great! I was SO excited about it.

So, I guess in all, everything's pretty good. I guess I have a horse shoe up my butt or something. Everything has seemed to work itself out in the end. Maybe I'll even make LJ posts a little more often!!!

danithmabob @ 2007-10-25T08:54:00

2007-10-25T12:54:58Z

Ok, so SJC (

princessbitie) told me I need to write more stuff, so here I am.

So, I'll start off with my trip to Sudbury not long ago. I ended up not having any evenings eating alone. Which is good-ish, I guess. Tuesday, I had lunch with Becky and drove home to play D&D. Wednesday, I was supposed to meet Samantha for dinner, but never heard from her, so I went to dinner with my friend Danielle. We went to East Side, had an ok dinner, then went to see "The Heartbreak Kid". WORST. MOVIE. EVER. Seriously. Don't go watch it. If you want to watch it because you like watching bad movies, still don't go, because you will gouge your eyes out at the sheer idiocy of it. DO NOT EVER SEE THE HEARTBREAK KID!!! That's my public service for the month, so we're good to go now. Thursday, I went to dinner with Samantha. She and I had been talking for a long time, and there was a possibility for something to eventually come from it, so I was pretty happy. I picked her up, and we went to The Keg. It's moderatly expensive, and she decides she's going to have some drinks. I told her it's fine, and payed for whatever she wanted. We talked, had a good conversation over dinner. She was a little loud, but not too much. So, we go to leave, and she's gonna have a smoke. I ask her to wait a second, and I was going to give her a kiss on the cheek before she smelled like smoke. She freaks out, and says she doesn't kiss on the first date. That's fine, whatever. So we go to drive around for a bit. We're talking, and I made some joke about thinking she's retarded. We were talking like we had the entier evening, so I thought nothing of it. She gets pissed and tells me to take her home. She then asks for my cell phone, calls her mom, and asks me to drive her somewhere else. Now, I'm in a strange city, and I don't really know my way around, but I say fine. I drop her off, and as she gets out, she says "Oh, I have a boyfriend." WTF?!? What a horrible bitch, really! I spent over $100 on dinner, and then she pulls that shit? I was PISSED. The next night, I went and saw Kris (

miiro) and Andrew, and met Kris' cousin Kat. Had a good night, but I was certainly glad to get home.

So, maybe more later, I dunno...

Old Blogs & Star Wars

2007-09-17T17:30:31Z

So, I stumbled upon an old blog I wrote on my MSN spaces. It was when I lived in my last appt, alone. I have to admit, I MUCH preferred that to having a roommate. That's not to say my roommate isn't a good guy. It's much cheaper with him around, but I do miss living on my own, cooking what I wanted, when I wanted. He's one of those guys who need to have a side with his dinner. Personally, I'm fine with just a couple chicken breasts, or even just a bunch of fries or something for dinner. Also, he has cooked a grand total of once in the over a year that he's lived here. Just a little frustrating.

Anyway, I was talking about the RIFTS game we were playing at the time, and how two of the characters got killed off, and it was the last session. Then, about how I was going to run a Star Wars game. I remember it all going rather well, but not as well as I had wanted.

On the note of Star Wars, I read

miiro's LJ entry about the Star Wars game she and Andrew are playing. From what it sounds of it, it's not going so well. Andrew's characters tend to all have the same mindset, and what surprised me is that he's playing a Jedi. I can't even picture him doing it well... At least not a Light Sider. Another thing that got me was that there's an Ewok Jedi and a Wookie Jedi. Really, wtf guys? How does that even make sense? There should really be some racial limitations to the Jedi classes. A Wookie Jedi is a horrible idea, because of a Wookie's tendency for violence. And how the hell is a Jedi supposed to mediate when they can't even communicate? It's ludicrous! And an Ewok Jedi? Primitive and not really able to speak to anyone else and yet they're a Jedi... It makes no sense!!! Now, a Wookie or Ewok Force Adept, I could see... But I don't think either of those races really have the determination, and focus that would be required to become a Jedi.

So, that's it for now. Might post more later.

Weird dream!

2007-08-28T12:35:07Z

So, I figured I'd post this here. This morning, just before my alarm went off I was having a very odd dream. Just want to share the weirdness with all of you!

First part I remember is driving up a hill in a car with my sister. Driving up, there's this big truck coming down the hill, in the middle, so I couldn't get out of the way. It was still a little way up the hill, so I didn't think of it... But as we got closer, it didn't move... I stopped, to wait for it to move, and it didn't... When it got nearly bumper to bumper with the car, I put it in reverse and started driving backwards down the hill to get away from it. For some reason, I could hear the conversation between the guy in the truck and his wife/girlfriend/whatever. He was a typical redneck type guy, wearing a ballcap, and a red flannel jacket. Anyway, as we were going down the hill, the road somehow was made of wood planks, over water... So as I was going back, the planks started to fly up, roughing up my sister and I. The truck just kept coming... The guy in the truck said that if he didn't get to the mill soon, they would have to send out a canoe. I don't know what the heck that means... Anyway, we get down near where there's water behind us, and I have to veer off to the right, into a building... The building was made of wood, and there's boards and beams flying everywhere, but we survived.

So, then, we go to this party, and I went to tell my dad what had happened. He didn't believe me, and I ended up punching him, so he would go outside to fight me, and see what happened... This is weird, 'cause I'd never hit my dad, or even want to. Admittedly, we're not incredibly close or anything, but I'd still never do anything like that. Anyway, we went outside, and then it switched to me hiding outside the building where the guy in the truck lived. He was talking about killing me, and how he was a wanted criminal and stuff... Then, during that, my alarm went off. Thank god!

What an odd, unpleasant dream...

More on Gabby, and others...

2007-08-14T11:40:10Z

So, I was thinking, I should elaborate a little more on some of this stuff. Gabby and I, like I said earlier, started Pre-K at the same time. We were in the same school through our entier lives. We were really good friends when we were really young, but drifted appart as we got older. Gabby ran with a different crowd than I did. (As in people... I was a bit of a loner through a lot of school.) As we grew older, I developped a bit of a crush on Gabby. I never really let on too much, until we got older. I hinted a bit the last couple years of High School that I liked her, but she was out of my league. I never really actively persued her or anything...

So, why's she unobtainable? Well, before, when we were younger, she was one of the "cool kids" and I wasn't. We were friends, but that's about it. Outside of school, we never really talked. She was the one person I could allways count on to be there if I needed to talk to, she was allways there for me... But as my friend. After high school, I lost contact with just about everyone from High School. Thanks to Facebook, I've said hi to a few of them, but not much. Allways in the back of my mind, looking for Gabby.

So, I find her. And there are more reasons why she's still unobtainable. First off, she's left town, moved on... She lives rather far away. Second, I was looking over her little facebook thing, and she's got pics of her, and a guy, with his arm around her. I may be wrong on it, but it seems like they are together, from the pics.

So, that's the story about Gabby...

Buncha stuff.

2007-08-13T18:49:04Z

So, a while ago, I joined facebook. I never really got "addicted" to it like a lot of people seem to be. I usually have a window open, refresh it once in a while... It kinda lets me see what people are up to and such, without having to bug them or ask them. Ever since I got it, in the back of my head, I've been thinking "Hey, I wonder if Gabby's on here?". Now, none of you will know who Gabby is. Gabby is a girl I went to school with. We were in the same class from pre-K to grade 8, and I allways made sure I had a couple classes with Gabby through high school.

I had incredibly strong feelings for her, but I never told her... So, I've been idly looking around facebook seeing if she's around at all. Well, today, I found her. I added her, she sent me a message saying "Hey, how's it going?" kinda thing. I was a bit surprised. So, I look at her profile thing, and see all these pictures of her... She still looks as beautiful as I remembered her being... And she's still as unobtainable as ever... That kinda got me a bit down.

So, what to do about this, hmm? It's been well over a year that I've been single. I think it's time to try in earnest to change that. I've been on a dating site for a while, but I don't think my profile is too good. I message people and never hear back. Lately, I've heard back from a few people, but then suddenly they stop responding to me. What the heck is up with that? So, I need to figure out what to do. I don't want to be alone anymore... I want to finally find someone... But it's hard! I don't know where to even start... I know, people will say go volunteer, etc... But I don't really have the time for that... I get home from work, cook dinner, eat, play a little WoW or something, then go to bed. Usually there's a bit of a nap before dinner too. I'm just allways SO tired, and I don't know why... So, with that, weekdays are pretty much out. But even if I were to volunteer or anything, I have no idea WHERE or HOW to do any of that stuff.... *sighs* I just don't know what to do... Anyone have some ideas?

danithmabob @ 2007-07-26T09:38:00

2007-07-26T14:00:08Z

So, it's been a little bit since I've posted. Seems like usually, when I do post something, it's 'cause things are bugging me, or about something that's bothered me... So, I was thinking I should change that! 'cept I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna make this long and extra rambley! Huzzah!

So, the emo pants part first. I think I'll put a break here to save people who don't wanna read my whinning and such...

First off, I want to thank mintos for the term "emo pants". And for getting the Kenya song stuck in my head whenever she posts.

Ok, so on with it... This has to do with dating... I'm not an extremely social person, as some of you may or may not know. I like to stay at home, and sit at my computer. Online, I'm very social, I'm allways chatting. But that's kinda hampered my "RL" social skills somewhat. I know how to interact with people and such, but what I don't know is how and where to meet NEW people. I'm not comfortable when I'm alone in a social gathering. If I go on a date, it's 1 on 1, I'm fine.

Therein lies the problem. Where do I go to meet people? How do I meet new people? I suppose this applies not only to dating, but to my entier social life. Most of the dates I've gone on have been from meeting someone online, chatting a bit, and going out. So far, there hasn't been much success with that. I frequent a couple dating sites, and message new people... But they tend not to reply.

I've had a couple people who have, but they were moving out of town the next week... Or promptly met someone and are unavailable. It sucks... I'm not sure how to approach people in that respect either. I've done the short and sweet, saying "Hey, wanna chat and get to know eachother sometime?" thing... I've done the long, paragraphed messages, highlighting points in their profile, and showing what we may have in common... But it's ever so rare that I actually hear back from someone I message. Maybe someone can help me out with this? *looks at elwyntan who would prolly be the most likely*

So, what do I do? It sucks... I don't know how to meet new people offline... Not sure where to go, and I'm SUPER shy on my own, so I won't just go up to someone in a grocery store or something like that... Maybe I need to move somewhere where I've got some people I know allready...

So, off the emo pants part... I've been thinking of where my life's going, and if it''s here in North Bay, or if I should move elsewhere. I've toyed with the idea of moving to the DC area, but haven't given it much serious thought. I've browsed jobs here and there in Ottawa and Toronto, but haven't really put any effort into it. It kinda seems like I'm just spinning my wheels here...

But on the other hand, things are going pretty well at work. I just got my frist Certification, from Learning Tree. It's not as showy as a Microsoft Certification, but it's still something! I've also ordered a self-paced exam prep book for a Microsoft cert as well. Once I feel I'm ready, I'm going to take a test, and then I'll be able to put nifty letters after my name... Like "Shawn von Doeler, MCP, MCSA" if I get the cert I want. Which looks impressive!

I've also toyed with the idea of getting a BA or BSc through correspondance. Mostly, just to be able to say I've got it... Maybe go further into my eduation, get a Masters, or Doctorate. (Pfft! Not bloody likely!)

Another good thing that's happened is I finally talked to my boss about how sucky my pay seems to be. I'm being payed marginaly more than I was when I first became Staff here. I'm making the wage of a Tech, but I'm working as a DBA and a Programmer. For what I'm doing, I could be getting payed a LOT more than I am right now, if I left this city. But the good thing is, there's a "Change of Status" in the works for me. Which means a new title, and a new salary. If it goes through, I'll be a "SQL Database Administrator". Sounds impressive and stuff!

In home news, I got a new TV. My roomate and I split on one... It was only $1000ish. Nothing too fancy. It's a 37" LCD. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! I can't believe I put off getting a GOOD TV for so long... I've never owned a "good" TV before, so I didn't REALLY know what I was missing... Everything looks so clear now! I'm so happy!!! *dances around crazily* Woo!

Well, I think this is rambling enough for now, so that's that! Sorry for any spelling or gramatical errors, I'm actually composing this in the LJ box.

So, I'm 26 now...

2007-07-09T14:10:53Z

So, I'm 26 now... I figure it's time to reflect upon some stuff...

First off, I don't know why, but I'm feeling old. I know I shouldn't.... I'm only 26, but I just feel old, and I don't know why. So, why is this? Well, I could put it on a lot of things... Stress steming from several areas is likely the biggest thing. Lonelyness is another big factor. I have online friends, people I chat with and such all the time... But I've been single for a while... In all honesty, I have very few actual friends. I suppose I could call my roomate a friend, but that's different. I have very few friends that I actually hang out with. I used to hang out with a bunch of people and watch movies, play games, and stuff, once a week. Then, the one guy's wife got pregnant... The guy who's house we would go to. He then moved back in with his parents, along with his wife. So, I have hardly even spoken to him in the past year or so.

So, really, I miss having a group of people that I can just go, talk to, hang out with. I'm single, and there's not really much in the way of prospects. There's one person I've had a few dates with and stuff, but I don't know for sure if it'll go anywhere. She lives about 45 minutes out of town, and has a young daughter... I don't know if I want to hop into a ready made family. Yes, I do want kids, eventually... I don't know if I'm ready to hop into a relationship and have to deal with a child at the same time.

So, I guess... I dunno... Anyone got any single friends? :-P

Some stuff... Part I

2007-06-26T14:06:39Z

So, it's been a while since I've posted to LJ. I figured it's about time!

Someone's LJ, I think it was

mintos, had a tag of "emopants". It made me chuckle. But thinking about what I had planned for this post, I think I'm going to come accross as a little whiney or emo. Not that I care. If you don't like it, you're free to move on to another LJ, I allways say!

So, to start off, I'll get to the most recent event that's gotten to me. WoW and RP. There's a person on a blog site I frequent who can't seem to get a lot of stuff... I made a nice post about a character background, suggesting that you research what you're planning to do. Actually, for posterity's sake, here's what I had posted:

Well, this hit me sort of spur of the moment just now. And despite what this may appear to be, I am not aiming this at anyone in particular. Just wanted that little disclaimer in there.

So, you want to be a noble? A military officer? A guard? Mayor of Goldshire? High Lord Boarslayer, Grandmaster of the Royal Society of Boarslaying? Whatever you want to do, you can do it! But, dear reader, I offer one point of advice, one point of suggestion for you. Coming up with your background on the spur of the moment works fantastically, if a little roughly. But after you've thought up a background, do some research. Find out how one acted as a noble, military officer, guard, high... You get the point. Look in to mideaval and renaissance cultures, and try to get an idea for how that person would act, were they in the world, in that time. Being a noble and saying "lolwut?" won't really fit... (well, unless they are Goldshirian...) Just a little tip on my part.

So, for those who don't want to read the above, SUMMARY! Research your background.

-Opal

Opal being one of my WoW characters. Anyway, he took it personally because I had pointed out some of his actions were unbecoming of someone with a rank of General. He flamed my post, I responded he didn't understand... Then, another person chimes in, calling me petty, and saying we should keep our feud between ourselves... WTF??? I'm REALLY upset about that...

The post had nothing to do with the guy, beyond the fact I put "military officer" in the text. But that's there because there are many characters who fit just that. Then, I get a PM from the guy... Anyway... That's as far as I'm going to go on that... Needless to say I'm quite upset about it!

So, this is a lot longer than I expected, so I think I'll make an entry on the other stuff later.

Just another day...

2007-03-29T14:14:18Z

So, I had this meeting this morning. It was fairly unproductive. For those of you that don't know (which is very few, if you're actually reading this.) I work as a Programmer. Another guy, an engineer, getting payed significantly more than I, was given a program to write. It does a lot of stuff that is in development for another program I wrote.

So, originaly he writes this program using VB6, which is a fairly outdated language.He's using that because he knows it, and since this seemed to be a "make busy" project, we didn't want to buy another liscense for Development software. So, he writes this program... And his first problem is, he's can't seem to get more than 255 objects on his form. 255!!! Sweet mother of god! So, he starts making control arrays. He has it automatically filling data, and a whole bunch of stuff... Last time I looked at it (last summer), it was about 10 times more complicated than it needed to be... Taking data, populating an excel sheet, then putting that data from the excel sheet inot a database... Lord... Confusing!

What's worse is that the program he wrote was NOT user friendly. When the executives told him "This needs to change to make it easier", he said "No, that's how it's working".

So the guy calls a meeting... We go, sit down, have a little bit of chit chat before starting... He talks about how he's buying a bike... How scratched paint lets you tell "the posers from the real bikers", and such... (Mountain bike, not motor bike, FYI) Anyway, everyone gets there, and we get started...

.My boss... Oh man! He was LIVID with some of the stuff that was said. The exec that was there isn't exactly the best for us to deal with. He tells us things like the IT department needs to sell the tools we have to the rest of the company. The BIG problem with that is the tools exist BECAUSE THEY ASKED FOR THEM!!!! How furstrating is that?!

So, they go on to talk about what stats they want. The exec pulls out these forms that they used to use. These are forms we've asked for dozens of times, and never been given. He's telling us how this is what it used to be like, and that's how we should do it in the future... Which is fine! We had planned to put statistics into MY program! I've been so swamped with other stuff, though, that I just didn't have the time!

So, the exec goes over this stuff, and one of the managers there speaks up. He's talkinga bout how he's got a lsit of stats he'd like to see available for all the sites, but he doesn't want them to have to worry about them all. So, my boss comes up with this idea of having checkboxes for all the stats that are relevant to that site. Of course, he's not thinking of the dozens of hours something that complex will take...

So, we talk, and talk... The exec is telling us how none of the managers got training for the Timesheet system, blah, blah, blah... NO ONE ASKED FOR TRAINING! It's WIDELY known what's availabel through the timesheet system... And if someone doesn't know, they have but to ask. And as for giving them training, we would be HAPPY to do that!!! When we were deploying all this stuff, I flew out to the job sites and trained helped train the field people. It's not that difficult!!! ESPECIALLY if they don't need to enter time or anything like that.

So, as the meeting is ending, they guy who called it asks "Ok, so moving forward, what should I do with my program?" And this is the part where I laughed SO hard, internally, at least. The exec looks at him, and says "Put it on hold." My ONLY issue with this is that he's getting payed a LOT more than me to do my job. And not do it terribly well, since I'm gonna be doing the same thing he did, just better!

Ahh... People... /end rant

Umm... Rawr?

2007-03-15T12:46:09Z

So, oddly enough, I'm feeling quite "up" and "cheery" today. It's strange 'cause I'm usually, well, not. I mean, I'm generally not dour, mopey and unpleasant either, just not happy upbeat and such. Anyway, some stuff's been happening that's kinda brightened my mood. I had a good conversation with one of the "women" in my life. She's got a lot of uncertainties with her bf, who she only just got back together with, (yeah, they broke up a littl bit before) and it seems like there might still be a chance there. She's a really nice girl, and I'd love to have a chance with her.

On another note, the horrible date of doom I described last time apparently wasn't so horrible as I had thought. After about a week of just not talking to her, I messaged her and asked what was up. She told me that she never saw me online, so she just never messaged me. I find that a little hard to believe, but... *shrugs* So, she tells me she had a really good time. So that's another positive little mark.

So, today I'm actually feeling strangely motivated. I actually want to accomplish stuff, and such. Maybe I'll actually clean and unpack some of the stuff in my room tonight... I mean, I don't mean productive at WORK! That's a sin.

So, that's it for now. Bye bye!

Things of the meh variety

2007-02-26T15:19:48Z

Ok, so I know it’s been a bit, and I’ve been lax in blogging. A lot of my friends (banjo_di, alexkrycek42) write most days… I keep saying I will, but never end up doing it, mostly because I feel my life is boring. I don’t tend to DO anything. I work, I come home, I make dinner, and sit around playing WoW, or whatever offline game has caught my interest for the moment, (i.e. Civ 4 and NFS Carbon for now, though NFS is pissing me off!) chatting, and maybe doing a little reading. That’s a basic rundown of most of my life lately.

Saturday, though, I did something out of the ordinary. I went on a “date” with a girl named Susan. She’s very nice, pretty, and we seem to have a few things in common. There’s a few odd things about her, like how she over emphasizes the letter L (floor = F-LOR), which isn’t bad, just a little strange. Anyway, the first time we met was lunch, about a week ago. It went well, we got along, we talked, we laughed, I bought her a salad… So, we decided since the “pre-date” went well, we’d go for dinner and a movie on Saturday. As usual, I was a bit nervous about it. For the most part, I hide it well, but when meeting someone new, or meeting someone in a “romantic” sense, I get horribly nervous. Oddly enough, when I’m nervous, I’m actually fairly witty and charming. The unfortunate part is that mostly seems to go away when I’m comfortable. I try to be witty and charming, and I may appear that way to others… But it just doesn’t feel like I am. Maybe it’s because when I’m nervous, I feel I have to be “on” and impress people, while when I’m comfortable, I don’t… Anyway, we went to East Side Mario’s (which is a chain Italian restaurant, across the street from the theater.) for dinner. I was “early”, as in I was there before I thought she would be there, and as I got there, she was standing outside waiting for me. First black mark.

So, we have dinner, and things are ok. I suggest we get the Artichoke & Cheese dip, which at most places is good, and comes with fried pita chips… But nope! This came with tortilla chips. It was “ok”, but no more than that. Second black mark.

We got our dinners, and the conversation seemed fairly lax. There were a lot of silences. And not the good ones where you know everything’s cool. The awkward ones where you’re all like “Oh god! What do I say now!?” I tried to make conversation, but she seemed a little distant. I don’t know if she felt it too, but the conversation we did had seemed kinda forced, just, ya know, not right. I try to be a good conversationalist, but I guess this is something I’ve usually found with her even online. She’s not exactly easy to talk with. Not that she’s not nice; she just doesn’t seem to put much into having a conversation. Third black mark.

So we get the bill, I leave the money and tip. She laughs me because I put down the $50 for the meal, and pulled out change for a tip. Now, for those of you not living in Canada, we have $1 and $2 coins here. I wasn’t leaving the guy worthless change. I just didn’t have a $5 bill to leave, so I ended up leaving 3 $2 coins. Fourth black mark.

So, we walk to the mall, and I take her hand. Generally, hand holding involves intertwining fingers, in my experience. She kinda held my hand like when you shake someone’s hand. It just didn’t feel right. Fifth black mark.

We get into the movie, I go up, pay for the movie, go to the concession thing, and pay for popcorn and a pop. We go into the movie, and have some more forced conversation. There was no music playing, nothing on the screen, so it felt awkward sitting there in silence. I tried my damnedest to keep a conversation going, and to my credit, there were few awkward silences. Sixth black mark.

So, we’re going home, taking a bus (as I’m lame and have no car. *crais*), and she’s looking for money. She’s like “Uh oh! I don’t think I have a $2 coin. I guess I’ll have to run in to Blockbuster to get one.”, so I say “Naw, its ok.” and hand her one. She half heartedly says thanks. We sit on the bus, and I ask if she wants me to walk her home. She says no, ‘because she lives pretty much right across from the bus station. So, I give her a kiss on the cheek and get off the bus at my place. Seventh black mark. (Ok, this one doesn’t REALLY count, I guess. But I had to keep up with the theme!)

So, in the end, I get home, feeling kinda bleh. No chemistry, no spark, nothing. So, I spent $90 to go see an “ok” movie. I’m sure Susan and I will be fairly good friends in the future, but I’m not seeing much more than that, really.

So, that’s the date I had on Saturday. Not overly exciting. Sunday, I went and got groceries… I felt like my parents!!! I’ve NEVER, since I’ve lived on my own, gone to the grocery store and had a FULL cart of stuff. It was strange… I mentioned it to the cute cashier, and she’s like “Huh? What?” I explained it to her and she said “Aww! Don’t be so hard on yourself!” She was kinda cute. Was she maybe flirting just a tiny bit? *shrugs* I guess I’ll never know.

Life’s funny that way. It’s full of missed opportunities, lost chances, second thoughts about everything. That’s one place I always feel good, and witty and such. The checkout line in the grocery store. Is that strange? Probably. I suppose it could just be that they are being polite, smiling and giggling at my potentially horrible jokes.

I see a lot of my dad in myself. Just how I act around people sometimes. I like it… He’s got a way with making people laugh and happy sometimes. I should try to be more like that more often.

So… I’ve a bunch of other stuff that I could talk about, but I’m gonna stop for now. Enough emo whining and such.

Bleh

2007-01-22T18:20:54Z

Ok, so this weekend, and this past week, have been, overall, good. I got my CE of BC at the midnight launch. It was FRIKEN COLD OUT, mind you! I was tired, and cracking wise, mocking people the whole time. Which made this cute little redhead behind me kinda giggle. Unfortunatly, I'm horrible in groups where I can just tune everyone else out. My roomate had come with me, so that meant I was much too shy to actually talk to this person.

Had I been there alone, I think I'd have talked to her, and such. I didn't realise there were SO many people who played WoW in my city. Apparently, there's 1 other person that was there who played on Shadow Council. Never saw him or anything, but the crazy old guy who was asking everyone where they played said that there was someone. I then got questioned about RP servers. It's amazing how many people are just absolutely clueless... Amazing and frustrating.

So, I've been playing my priest since BC came out. (Not steadily, of course! I just mean when I'm playing WoW!) There's SOOOOOOO much cool stuff in the expansion. So far, my favorite thing to do is bombing runs. I did the ones in Hellfire and I did the PvP ones in Naggrand for a bit too. Lots of fun!

As for RL stuff, I'd been a bit sick at the beginning of the month. My bosses took me aside and talked to me about it. Poor attendance, and apparently some people have said I'm "Sarcastic and Condecending". I can't for the life of me think of when I was condecending, but whatever. When I started here, I was the IT guy everyone liked. I don't think I've changed, really, but apparently now I've gone from being able to deal with anyone to having no people skills. Frankly, that's BS.

Oh! And listening to music is apparently a "Poor Work Ethic". That annoyed me to no end. Beyond that, because I haven't gotten some stuff done as quickly as they wanted me to, that make my performance poor. Grrr... And I was told I could work as much overtime as I wanted, but before I was told that I was not required to work overtime. Now... Apparently I since they told me I could work overtime, and I didn't, that led to my poor performance. Don't go and tell me I don't have to work overtime but expect me to do it anyway.

So, beyond that, things are allright. I'm suffering a bit of a down time today, I guess. alexkrycek42 and I were talking this morning, and I guess I kinda went on about the lack of "gamer girls" around town and stuff. I'm single, have been for a while. Every time it looks like things might change, and I've met someone, it falls appart. I get "I'm not ready for blah, blah blah.", or even better "I'll let you know once I find out from the guy I like before I wanna start anything with you." It kinda annoys me to no end!!! GRRR!!!

So, what I need to do, is get into better shape, and go out and meet people. The problem is, I don't exactly know how to do any of that stuff... I know, it sounds silly, but beyond just walking, or jogging, which I can't really do a whole lot of due to bad legs & asthma (SUCKS TO YOUR ASSMAR!) I'm not sure how to exercise. I mean, I suppose I could get some gym equipment, or a gym membership... But a gym membership envolves walking accross town, and I'm not THAT motivated. So, I'm at a bit of a loss... Maybe I'll get around to clearing out my bedroom, and maybe get a weight bench or something... I dunno...

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to write more another time, hopefully happier.

Quizzy!

2006-11-30T17:59:23Z

Well, I saw this on both banjo_di and jenni_chan's LJs, so I figured I should do it too! Hurrah for fun!

Work Stuff

2006-11-30T13:55:58Z

Ok, so for those of you who don't know what I do, I'll explain it a little. I'm a programmer for an international Mining Contracting and Engineering company. We build mines, is what it comes down to. We have contracts with companies all over the world.

My first big job here was a program called TES, Timesheet Entry System. (It's ACTUALLY called "Electronic Timesheet Entry System", but ETES doesn't sound as nice as "TES" (Like tess) does.) I started that in August of 2005, with a deadline of the end of August 2005. I had a mostly functional version by the end of August. It was given to everyone on December 15th, and I worked on it steadily until then. Over the months, there's been bugs that have popped up. The biggest problem with it is because it was so rushed to get it out, the code is messy. Hopefully I'll have time in January and be able to fix it up and make it work better. This program is now used on all our mine sites to track the time an employee puts in. It's transmitted to our offices here, and lets people get paid! Makes it sound like I did something important, doesn't it? A tiny thing that bugged me about the whole situation... This project was clumped in with the implementation of a new payroll system here. At the end, we had a big meeting where they president of the company said "Thanks a lot!" and gave everyone a small bonus. What bothers me is that me, who had been working on this steadily, putting in TONS of extra hours, got the same bonus as the people who had been keying in data for a week. Am I right to be upset over that? Maybe. Should I be grateful I got anything? I am, but that doesn't mean I can't be annoyed with the situation, right? Anyway, the bonus ended up getting me a spiffy new 19" LCD.

My next task needs a little more explanation... Our computer system here is ancient. It's called the "WANG". Now, I know there's some giggles going on... I've heard every joke you can possibly think of. I've had many good chuckles after hanging up the phone with users. Mostly, it's one in particular that always made me laugh when I was off the phone. He would call me and say things like "I got kicked off the WANG, can you get me back on?" or "My WANG is down, can you get it back up for me?"... Oh, the hilarity! Anyway, back to the matter at hand. We've moved to a new system, that runs on modern hardware. The problem is, getting data from the WANG into this system is impossible in some cases. That's where I come in. My current task is being kindly referred to as "de-WANGING the company". Yes, I realize how horrible that sounds...

Anyway, I'm on the last leg of the project. I've made 4 programs so far, and I'm working on the 5th. The scheduled date for the WANG to be brought out back and smashed with sledge hammers is January 1st, 2007. (1 month as of tomorrow... Crap! That's not long!) Thankfully, I'm writing what I believe is the last program that's required. Of course, there are 13 others that I have to write but they are listed under this heading: "Data will be converted and inquiry/report programs written when required". Thank GOD for that... If I had to write up all 13 of those programs by January 1st, I'd be looking for another job right now. I just can't do it! I'm struggling with deadlines as it is.

The biggest problem I have is getting the data. My boss is swamped as it stands, so I've got times when I have to rush, rush, rush and work... But others where I've got nothing to do. (Well, not "nothing", but nothing I *need* to do, or want to do.)

So, I gave my boss a screen of the latest program. I made it look all nice, let them choose the data by week, and it would display it. Today, he tells me he wants it more like the data on the WANG. It displayed all the weeks, then you select on, and it breaks it down by day. This is going to make the program a good bit more complicated... Which means all the thinking and planning I did was for nothing... And this whole week has been pretty much a bust. As of right now, all I've accomplished is getting a little bit of data into the SQL database.

On the bright side, I'm off work tomorrow! Hurrah! Mostly because I'm getting a new desk in my office. I don't really feel like standing around for 2 hours while they put it together, so I'm staying home. I'll be SO happy to get it. The desk I'm using right now, sucks monkey balls. The top of it is fine, but underneath, where your legs are, feels like UNFINISHED WOOD!!! I've gotten splinters in my legs from it several times already.

Anyway, I've ranted enough for one post. I have other stuff to say, but I think I'll make another post later today.

FIRST EVAR!!!

2006-11-27T17:51:45Z

So, here we go... My first LJ post ever. I've kinda been thinking about this for a while, but never got around to it. I mean, I've got MySpace, but MySpace seems kinda boring. So, due to the chatbox being down, and talking to Diane, I finally got to it. Hopefully as time goes on, and I learn more about how to use LJ, I'll make this look a bit better.

So, anyway, I guess the best place to start is about me. Yes, I realise most people reading this are allready going to know some stuff about me, but whatever! It's my LiveJournal, and I'll cry if I want to! (Evil reference to 80s pop music!(apparently, it's 60s, but w/e!)) Soooo... First off, I'm 25 from Northern Ontario. I live in a rather nice basement appartment, with my roomate and my cat. I spend a lot of my free time on my PC, either chatting or playing games. The biggest timesink in my life, which devours most bored moments I have, is World of Warcraft. Coincidentally, most of the people who will be reading this will likely be other WoW players! Dun dun duuuuuun!

Let's see... What else... I like to cook most of the time, but work's gotten me so tired that I don't want to bother most of the time... That, and my roomate hasn't ever cooked in the 3 months he's lived with me... And besides that, 1 thing isn't good enough for him. He needs something, and something else on the side. Honestly, I was usually fine if I cooked a steak, to just have the steak. Or just have a big plate of fries... Or something like that! *hits the rant off switch* Oops... Didn't mean to turn that on!

So, last thing... My work. I work as a Computer Programmer for a mining company. Right now, as I'm typing this, I'm supposed to be working on an interface to dispaly company data on a new system. Instead, I'm slacking and doing this. So what if it was supposed to be done last Friday, and I'm only starting today. (that's only 1/2 my fault!)

Ok, so maybe not last thing. A couple of my big interests, beyond WoW & PCs are RPGs and Warhammer. Right now, I play Exalted 2nd edition weekly. I love Pen & Papper RPGs. I'm also procrastinating heavily on painting my warhammer models. I have a bunch to paint up for a tournament in January, but I need to get started sooner rather than later. I've allready got a Warhammer 40k army painted, though, so I'm good to play that! Ha ha ha... The biggest problem with my fantasy army is ALL the models are metal. And in Warhammer, Metal = $$$. And I need to by 30ish more Daemonettes(crazy naked demom chicks) and paint them for January... At $45/10, it's gonna cost me... So, yeah. Hopefully I can get some painting done tonight, as I'm going to be just recording stuff.

Oh! That's another thing. I help produce a WoW Podcast. I'll see what I need to do to either link the RSS feed, or link the podcast post here at some point.

So, there you have it! First LJ post! About me! Not about what's going on, or anything fun like that, but just me. Maybe I'll post another one about what's going on soon... Dun dun dun! Stay tuned! Same Danithmabob time, same danithmabob channel!!!! *batman spinney noise thing*