I like my job. Remember that. “It helps to remind those who think of programming as a “cushy job” that programmer burnout rates are high, programmer divorce rates extraordinary, programmer work hours are obscene, programmer job security is next to non-existent, programmers come home from long work weeks of programming to spend hours more in unpaid self-training to keep up with a field that abandons those who stop learning for even six months.“Found on USENET ...
First of all, let me apologize in advance if the following sounds a bit, well, severe. It’s had all morning to bake in my head until it was golden brown and ready to be served… I woke up this morning and turned on the news as usual. What did I see? IT’S SNOWING!! Yes, goddamn it, it’s snowing already. It’s not even Thanksgiving! You know what that means? It means winter is here. I hate winter. I hate the cold with a passion normally reserved for war criminals and Ravens fans. There I was standing out at the bus stop freezing my balls off and thinking about winter. And when I think about winter I don’t think about snowmen and Christmas carols and spiced apple-cider. I think about my car. ...
Ok, so I’m about eight hours into one of my all-day-headaches. I get a headache of some sort almost every day, and usually a couple Excedrin in the morning gets me right for the rest of the day. This is not one of those days. I think I dreamed myself into this headache because I woke up with it. Or rather, this headache woke me up. I remember having some kind of complex dream about work. I’m trying to integrate a database and some existing documents to generate documents on-the-fly for one of the departments and with the deadline fast-approaching, I’m stuck on where to begin. Nevertheless, it’s enough to give me a headache when I’m awake, let alone in a dream. ...
I miiight be a redneck… Ok, boys and girls, gather ‘round for another chapter of"I Hate My Car!" Yesterday, while driving around, I heard a thud followed by a series of smaller thuds. Upon arriving at our destination, I checked it out and found out that the muffler strap that I just had put on 18 months ago had rusted through. The original muffler strap lasted 5 years. The replacement lasted a year and a half. Damn it. ...
So we wake up this morning to a phone call. The first thought that goes through my head was…“Oh, shit! Who died now??” As it turns out - nobody died. Joe got in a car accident this morning out in North Royalton. It seems he was hit in the tire. (yeah - in the driver’s side tire. That’s it. To look at the car, you’d never know anything was wrong - no body damage at all.) The tie rod is all bent at a 45-degree angle and the strut is bent too. Luckily, the lady that hit him admitted fault completely and turned everything over to her insurance company. He had the car towed to North Olmsted Dodge, and we went out to North Royalton to pick him up. He’s getting a loaner car on Monday, so I’m playing chauffeur all weekend. ...
A Super Bowl and a Super Bill. So we went to Divot’s for the Super Bowl last night. We had a designated driver, so I’m lucky I even remember the final score. Had a great time, hung out with family and friends and even had my picture taken with my heroes: IM000338.JPG This morning after the worst part of the hang-over had passed Carrie and I finally dragged ourselves out and took the car to Firestone to see what the hell that grind-y, clunky noise was. ...
Those of you who know me, know how much I love my car. (See: I’m Scared of My Car for a refresher). So a couple of weeks ago I started noticing odd noises coming from the back of the car. Sort of a squeaking sound, not unlike the sound my computer chair makes when I lean too far backward in it. Even Carrie started hearing the noise about a week ago - so I know I’m not crazy, it’s getting worse. At first, we thought that there was something rolling and banging around in the trunk. I checked and repacked the spare tire and jack. Still noisy. I moved all the crap we keep in the trunk around a little and tried to recreate the noise by shaking things. Nothing. ...
It’s no secret I hated my 1997 Saturn SL2. Shortly after I bought it, I started having troubles with it. I also started having stress issues that took me years and years to work through. Now, I’m not saying the car made me crazy. But it helped. A classic (in my own mind). I have had a lot of problems with my car and am admittedly way too obsessed with it. Writing this helped me through one of those times when I was ready to drive it back to the dealership and put a bullet in it. ...