Summary

So I spent part of my day yesterday complaining with co-workers about our work enviroment and jobs. I spent the rest of the day upset and looking for a new job online. I have grown tired of feeling so depressed and upset with my career and my lack-luster job and need to reassure myself that I am actually capable of doing great things. I used to feel like I was able to do anything, that as long as I put my mind to it, it would be done. I was confident, bold, and not to toot my own horn but smart. Or at least I felt like I was, but that has all changed.

I read an article today that basically summed it all up. As I was reading it I continued to repeat "YES!" and "YEP that's how I feel" in my head. I hope that for the sake of my health, personal growth, and continued happiness, that I find a new and exciting job.....and soon!

Target Practice

So the boss went on a vacation and I decided to take a peice of styrofoam and a sharp pic and perform a little target practice in good fun. I figured I would include some photos.


:-)

One of my co-workers and I have coined a sort of "childish" yet fun phrase to let each other know of the bosses presence within the office. We continually used birds for describing him such as "the teradactyle has entered the building" or "is enroute". However, this morning one of the funniest looking and fun to say birds popped into my head. I know that I watch too much Discovery Channel when I come up with the bird "Blue Footed Boobie" and it's actually a bird. To top that off when my co-worker asked whether I was serious I listed off some of it's traits and where it was found on earth. In amazement he listened as I went on to describe it's relatives, the "Red Footed Boobie" and "Masked Boobies". Quite funny after actually thinking back to myself that it's actually true and I knew about them. Anyways, we have decided to use this bird as our description for the boss and will continue to announce his presence or lack there of to each other. Obivously, since it is so early in the day and I am writing this, the Blue Footed Boobie has flown the coup!

Whine...Whine!

Yesterday was a scorcher outside which as you probably are already thinking meant it was hot as hell in the office. As I sat at my desk working, yes I said working. I was starting to get tired and felt my forehead sweating. So I turned up my personal air conditioner which proceeded to not really cool me down but move more of the hot, stagnit air in my office around. The other annoying side affect of my air conditioner is the higher I turn it up the louder it gets which adds to the distraction already caused by overheating. I remember thinking to myself, "Ugh... I need water... ice cold water." I was so hot at that point that I didn't even want to move. It was almost like working outside on a hot, humid day and feeling that overwhelming exhaustion that the heat creates.

I finally dredged up the energy to get up from my desk and go get some water and hopefully some fresh air. As I left the door to my office I noticed that my office was actually hotter than the rest of the office. Believe me though, the rest of the office was not much cooler. I decided on my way towards the sad excuse for a kitchen, to check the thermostat. As I read the display I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. It read 83 degrees!!! My energy level immediately plummeted and I sank back into an almost depressed state of mind. I was angry, hot and super pissed now. I filled up my coffee mug with water and moved back to my office with a sudden burst of energy from the adrenaline pumping through me.

As I opened my Outlook my computer even seemed to drag in the heat, as if it was feeling more pain than myself. Without thinking in a blur of frustration, I clicked on the new message button and proceeded to type my bosses e-mail address into the TO: field. Then, pondering the different expletives I could use, I typed a subject, then deleted it. I decided in a brief moment of clarity to keep it simple. I titled it: "Seriously!!!" Then I went on to type the simple message:

The thermostat says 83 degrees!

I had continued to type more into the message. I eventually reverted back to the simplicity of the above line as I could tell the more I typed the more pissed I was getting. I had added lines like, "Unacceptable", "I will be working from home in a controlled and productive environment since we continue to maintain a sub-par climate". I went on and on, almost for 10 minutes thinking of the rants I could carry off on. Then I highlighted and deleted everything but one sentence, and in a blink of an eye hit the SEND button.

My boss was out at a meeting and arrived shortly after the message was sent. He came into my office as he usually does to ask me what I'm working on. I occasionally fill it with some bullshit and pop a couple of screens here and there, but today was different, I was attempting to work. I don't know if he didn't notice the hurricane like wind blowing on me from my fan or the sweat beads on my forehead, but I became all the more enraged. He left and went back to his office, and that's when I recieved his response:

I know, I just discussed it with management. You have my permission to change it the next time it goes past 78.

Bullshit! Management? WHO IS MANAGEMENT? We have all of 6 people in the office at all times. Two of whom are the owners! The rest of us are under-appreciated pee-ons, who suffer daily either regarding office environment or disrespectful treatment. Anyways, what I hadn't realized until later was that he had forwarded this message to his wife. She stated back another simple statement and yet a perfect example of what we at the office deal with on a daily basis.

Whine! Whine!

I can only say wow! I need a new job. While her response was only to this issue, this represents all other issues that she, in her infinite wisdom, does not agree with or believes she is right about.

I have now posted the schematics for the T.E. Stealth Thermostat.

Dionaea muscipula

So before I start, I just wanted to apologize for my complete disregard that my Blog Title was spelled wrong for the last couple of weeks. On that same note, I would like to thank all of you reading this for NOT informing me of this blunder! Either that or no one is reading this and I'm just making myself feel better thinking that there are people out there who actually waste their time trying to follow my A.D.D. like blogs! I know I'm all over the place with these.

Anyways, back to the wonderful and mysterious new idea I have had today while attempting to get motivated. It all started one fine Sunday at Lowes looking for a last-minute Father's Day gift. We were moving up and down the isles trying not to find anything that was expensive but also something that didn't seem cheap and meaningless. We had desided on a new American Flag as this was something he would love (Being Super Patriotic and a Veitnam Veteran) but also something he needed (His was torn and weathered). However, our search was not progressing as quickly and efficiently as we had hoped. We had stumbled down about 12 isles in search of this item and had not seen it. We finally came upon one of the glorious and definitely over-qualified Lowes employees. Always willing to help with a good attitude and a smile. (I hope you have sensed the sarcasim!) After he pointed us to the Garden section (How come I didn't think of that?), we wandered over there and to my amazement there was the item that I needed to purchase for myself. It was sitting on a long, narrow table with 20 or 30 others, begging me to purchase it and take it home. It was one of those items that you have always wanted but didn't know it. A tiny VENUS FLY TRAP in it's own little plastic box! Perfect for me on this Father's Day! That's when my better half or fiance made it clear that this was not a shopping trip for me and that I wasn't even a Father. I though, "Oh well... I'll just come back when she's at work Monday." Well I forgot and days and weeks went by until today I ran across the idea once again. Only this time I decided why buy one in a plastic box when I could grow my own? Bigger, Stonger, Hungrier!!! That's when I got motivated and started the research!

I found out that the Venus Fly Trap is only found naturally growing in North Carolina in the boggy, marshy areas. So I am not looking for a place to purchase the seeds or bulbs to harvest my Venus Fly Trap farm from my office. That way it will hopefully kill off the stupid fruit flies that are everywhere. I mean not only do I have to have my fan on because I am hot but it also keeps them from flying in front of me while I am working. They are super annoying and I will defeat them... yes... with my new ally the Venus Fly Trap. We will be unstoppable together! Then it will grow big enough that I can sing to it like in Little Shop of Horrors and have it eat my boss!

I guess we aren't the only ones!!

Well I just found this article on the web. I was laughing so hard that I was crying. This article seriously made my day!

Please read this if you have read the following blogs:

Thermostat
Hot and Muggy
Freezing

This will make more sense if you have read those!!!

Feels like Monday

It forsure felt like Monday today. That feeling when the alarm clock goes off, like ugh.. the sleep in your eyes as you force and pry them open. You wake up to a crappy looking day outside and find that it's really later than you had thought. You must have hit the snooze button twice, and although you aren't running late, now you feel rushed. That was how my morning started. The coffee tasted like tar it was so thick, apparently my fiance felt the same way and decided to spike the coffee with 2 extra scoops. I mean hell why not dump the hole can in there.. it never helps, just makes it harder to swallow. Plus she's one of those that puts the cream and sugar in and makes it more like a coffee flavored candy drink. Anyways, so I get up have a smoke or two with her before she leaves, all the while my eyelids feel like cement k-rails pulling down as I yawn and force myself into coherencey (Not sure if that is a word). Right before she left we came back into the house and I laid down on the couch. She promptly made me get back up stating, "NO!NO!NO... that's not a good plan at all!" She's right but I still felt like going back to bed. Anyways, after she left I went to shower and realized I had missed 3 phone calls. I thought, "Man, 3 phone calls... who the hell wants what at this time?" Figures, it was work. Right then I knew that even though I was going to attempt to make myself feel as though it would be a good day, I couldn't force myself to believe it! So I call back work and find out the e-mail server is down. Oh well at least I had an excuse now to be a little later because I could be working from home to get it resolved before coming in.

It was no big deal or at least not as big as it could have been... just the server log files taking up too much space and since we haven't upgraded, the hard drive needs constant monitoring because it fills up after too long. I guess if I actually did my job and monitored and cleared it regularly then I wouldn't have that problem.

So once I got in... the day dragged. Although, I did chat with one of my closest friends online today which I haven't done in a while. She's quite a person but I can talk more about her later.. basically my point today was that I am glad this day of work is done. Now I can head home and do some real stuff!

Thermostat

My boss yesterday decided to join our side, he is upset with the heating and cooling issues within the building and the fact that his wife is constantly monitoring the thermostats and adjusting them to make everyone including him uncomfortable. So last night before leaving he started fooling with the thermostat and seeing if he could calibrate it differently so that she would think it said 79 but it was really only like 72 or something. Anyways, after figuring out that this wouldn't work because it's a digital thermostat, he decided to assign the task of figuring out a work around to fool her into thinking she had control over it. Bob (Name changed for security reasons) decided that he could figure this out.

A while ago Bob had a mother-in-law or something like that who had a light beneath her thermostat at home and for years couldn't figure out why she would be across the room getting a chill but her thermostat would read that it was warm in there. Finally, she made the connection and moved the light or used a different light to light up the room. Using this theory, Bob has figured out a brilliant way to fix out current problems and give us "THE EMPLOYEES" control over the temperature within the building.

He calls it the T.E. Stealth Thermostat! Basically it is an extra thermostat located in an area of the building that it would not be noticed but would still feel the temperature change that we feel when the bosses wife messes with the "Office" thermostat. The location would be the server room, because she wouldn't have the faintest clue of any electronic devices or their function in there. They are just a bunch of boxes with pretty lights that make noise. Anyways, this thermostat would have connections not to the Heating/Cooling unit for activation but to a Thermo-Device that would either heat up or cool down depending on the temperature. This Thermo-Device is flat and would be installed behind the "Office" thermostat and would heat up or cool down depending on the season and cause the "Office" thermostat to activate the heating and cooling unit. Therefore, as an example, if the "Office" thermostat read 79 and the T.E. Stealth Thermostat was set at 72. The T.E. Stealth would stay active warming the Thermo-Device behind the "Office" thermostat until the T.E. Stealth Thermostat reached the desired temperature. I will include the Schematics for reference here.

It's brilliant what people will do to avoid confronting the bottom-line issue.