These are the “motivational” posters that I mentioned in my previous post. There is one in every level in every main stairwell.

I don’t know what’s more scary: that someone came up with this, or someone approved it.

What the fuck does this even mean??

I had a doubly-interesting commute on new motorcycle, Raptor. The first item of interest was the weather. I got rained for about twenty minutes. I was geared up, and my textile motorcycle jacket did a great job keeping me dry. Fully extended, the windshield protected my helmet visor from being obscured with rain. Unfortunately the aerodynamics of the bike are such that so much rain accumulated on the screen that I wound up lowering it so I could see … which put rain all over my visor. Six one way, half a dozen the other.

I was zipping down the highway when I approached two dump trucks, traveling single file (to hide their numbers) in the left-hand lane. I passed the first one on the right when I saw some pigeons flying about in the median. I didn’t pay any attention to them but two seconds later there was a shower of feathers in front of the lead dump truck. Apparently one of the birds was so overcome by Firefly’s cancellation it just couldn’t take it any more.

I instinctively ducked under the windshield (fully extended) and rode through a bunch of feathers. I heard a “flthlunk,” and there was a half-dollar sized piece of pigeon … stuff … on the dead center of my windshield. It wound up getting washed away later in the rain, but I can’t help but wonder how that would have felt if I was riding a naked bike.

Anyway, the bike’s doing great. It was just as stable in the downpour this morning as it is on dry land, and now I know it can take a pigeon strike and keep on ticking. ;)

Yes, I know this is similar to the title I used when I wrote about the hardwood stump borers I find every now and then. But these bugs are just as damn scary, and this time they are inside the house.
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The new job is going really well. I had my first wireframe review with my boss yesterday. I came armed with Visio wireframes and a sheet detailing what I changed and why. I comped three different approaches and gave her a quick run-down on the pros and cons of each. I probably talked a little bit faster than normal, and at the end told her everything was negotiable and asked her if she had any questions. After my experience at my last contract I expected an earful, with borderline accusations about whether or not I was qualified to even do my job.

“Questions? No. Looks great!” she said. “Pass this on to the other project members. Good job.”

Holy shit … maybe it wasn’t me at the last job after all. Crazy ex-boss-lady. ><

The commute is becoming manageable. I have taken some very good advice from Starbuck and take two different routes. The morning route is up the toll road, and the afternoon route is via a longer, but toll-free route. They wind up taking the same amount of time (30 – 45 minutes, depending on accidents). The biggest strength of the afternoon route is that I avoid toll plazas and other slowdowns that make riding a motorcycle less fun.

Speaking of bikes, Raptor has been great. I rode him in two days this week. Cylon looked sad and neglected, so I brought him along today instead. There is such a difference in performance and demeanor between the two bikes I wonder how anyone who hasn’t owned more than one motorcycle can ever say that one type is “better” than the other. What an amazing thing, this motorcycling.

Dogs have been adjusting well — probably too well as I almost want them to be as devastated by the hours apart as I have been. Luckily Starbuck has been taking care of them, as my niece has ducked her responsibilities for watching them during the day. She’s moving out in the next week or so, and I’m glad for many reasons.

The corporate culture over here is a huge shift for me. I wear a dress shirt and dress pants every day, and about half of the people here don’t smile or say hello. It’s as sterile as can be; I’m going to sneak some pics of the “motivational” posters in the stairwells. It feels so Orwellian. Unfortunately (I guess?), the people here are really excited that I’m on board and want me to help them. They have done the best they can, and are either out of their element or too busy to do much more. I almost wish the entire job sucked so that I would be totally happy about leaving when my contract is up, but I feel like professionally this could be a very rewarding experience.

Break time’s almost up. I have discovered that there is an unsecured wireless access point for contractors that doesn’t have the restrictions of the corporate network. I try to stay on for my lunch break and then reconnect to the real network after.

Thanks for reading, I’ve missed writing.

It’s a good thing I don’t believe in omens. Otherwise I wouldn’t have shown up for my first day of work yesterday. Besides the natural sizes (full moon, torrential downpour), there were a few portents that almost kept me in bed.

I also missed my alarm. I sat up bolt upright in bed, and had snapped the table lamp on without realizing it. My heart pounded in my chest, and I picked up my watch to see what time it was. I hadn’t missed my alarm at all: it was 12:34, just a half hour after I had closed my eyes.

This is the first time I had to regularly report to a position within “normal” business hours since 1999. It’s unnatural — and highly undesireable — to wake up before 8:30, let alone be in dress code at my desk. I am pretty sure my little “alarm” anxiety is due to this, hopefully it won’t happen again.

I also treated myself to a zombie dream. I only have those when work is stressful. The zombie theme combined with my guns jamming in the dream … not the first time this has happened, but certainly the first time this happened prior to starting a new position.

Lastly … I got a new video card from someone on Ars, and either the card itself or the drivers for said card corrupted my Windows XP install. My XP install CD developed some kind of cancer since I used it last and wouldn’t load critical DLLs during the install. I tried making a new boot disc, but the only computer left in the house with a media burner was my file server … which had its resolution set too high for my spare monitor. Starbuck took pity on me and brought over her XP install disk. I’m trying to rebuild the machine as I write this. At least I had a spare hard drive just for this purpose.

I am going to try really hard to remain positive about my new job. As a few of my friends have already said, “at least it’s not [the last place you worked].” Yeah, we’re also only on day two, but the drive in and the corporate culture is already making me nervous.

Wednesday is a new day.

I follow a simple phrase about motorcycle safety equipment: “All the Gear, All the Time.” That means protective gloves, boots, pants, jacket and of course a helmet. The difficult thing about ATGATT — besides being getting funny looks in public — is that the comfort and performance of your gear can totally make or break a ride.

I wear leather gear as often as possible. It has the greatest abrasion resistance out of the three material types used in safety gear (leather, textile, and mesh). The problem with wearing leather is that it isn’t great in the cold, and sucks when it’s wet. The protective properties aren’t affected, but wet leather is cold, heavy leather. Between getting stuck in a torrential downpour coming home on a trip and freezing my ass off during the winter I started looking at textile gear.

Most protective textile gear is waterproof and are equipped with a removable insulated liner. They feature body armor of varying degrees. The trick would be to find something that kept me dry, kept me warm, and kept me safe, without busting the bank.
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Last of my ongoing photographic and gibber-acular tribute to my home office, now that I’m moving back into a cube farm.
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Part of my ongoing photographic and gibber-acular tribute to my home office, now that I’m moving back into a cube farm.
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Part of my ongoing photographic and gibber-acular tribute to my home office, now that I’m moving back into a cube farm.
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In an effort to expand my collection of board games that look really cool but we never actually play, I purchased Monsters Menace America from Tanga.com in December of 2006. It so intrigued my friends that I’ve only played it three times so far. I kept trying to push it on them, but they wanted to play Settlers of Catan, Pecking Order, Magic: the Gathering, or any host of other games. Even Hoity Toity got a nod over MmA.

Sometimes life tries to give you omens and portents. STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME, PLAY SOME OTHER SHITTY GAME INSTEAD!! But most times, I just don’t listen.
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