Oorgo

Request for suggestions

Ok, so I need some suggestions here from all you folks in the industry.

I have been recruited to be the "Client Requests Coordinator".. in other words I will be tracking all customer requests re: software etc. I also have to make sure any time problems/requests are fixed/fulfilled that the folks who suggested/reported it are notified. Also pass on timelines given by developers for resolution.

It's a good opportunity, but it may be a big freakin' pain if I don't get software that can keep track of it all for me. Project management software? not really, almost. Bug tracking software is almost more like it, but there are tonnes of these out there, not sure which direction to go. They are also talking about implementing aspects into the current customer software.

Any suggestions from you guys would be appreciated.

Every time I turn around

They keep coming up with cooler and hipper ways of creating power.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Cooler Fuel Cells on the Horizon

Fuel cells are nothing new, but the newness of this is the miniscule size and heat generated. According to their lab findings you could power your entire house with a fuel cell the size of 2 pop cans. What I want to see is this technology used for cars, I'm sure that's the next step.

Li'l Brudder

Strongbad's email kill me. It's a new one, you must read it.

And after that, read about how Catwoman bombed at the theatres

I don't have much to talk about right now... and work is F'n busy

Stay within the lines

Here's something that continually bothers me, that I'd like to share with the approx. 5 people who read this blog.

We grow up learning things, and discovering facets of how life is, how things work etc. At some age there are people that seem to cement those discovered facets into their reality, and that's all there is. I've been guilty of writing off things I don't understand sometimes, I know that, but to disregard or be oblivious to something that is obvious and important, just because it doesn't fall into your "reality cube" is insane and not productive.

Read this great poem by Blaga Dimitrova: Multidimensional

Example: A family I know has a very intelligent child, and at an earlier than normal age he began attempting to talk. Sometimes his phrases were discernable, sometimes it was jibberish, but if you took the time you could ususally get the gist of what he was trying to say. Instead of taking a couple seconds and trying to figure out what he was trying to say, the family (grandmother included) just did the jibberish baby talk back to him "booboogababgabha" etc. Finally after a while he just gave up trying, and gave in to their jibber-jabber talk. I'm sure this didn't help his frustration level, or his opinion of his family.

Another Example: Same family takes their newest child to a parade (different kid). Because for some reason they don't think the kid is old enough ( 1 1/2 years) to be interested or enjoy the parade they park the stroller behind another lady (so he can't see). Of course it doesn't take long before the kid starts being bad, yelling, obviously bored. A family member (not in the immediate family, or grandmother) gets the idea "hey, what if I move him around so he can see?", so they do, and gee the kid is excited, and is good from then on.

I also get the distinct feeling that the mother thinks she is very "mature" and "grown-up" (of course she's about 8 years younger than I), so she knows pretty much all there is to know about child-raising, and life. To me, it's more accurately the exact opposite, it's kind of sad because I think she's limiting herself and slowing down her personal growth. Of course you could never say anything to her because it's not even within her understanding that she could be wrong.

One step closer to the edge

So lately I've been very grumpy, to the point of snapping, and I don't know why. It really came to a head yesterday when I was at the Safeway pharmacy picking up some tylenol with codeine, the pharmacist was asking me the inane questions they always do, and I had a quick flash of myself winding up and smoking him in the face. The same thing happened at a gig a couple weeks ago, the sound guy was saying some shit about how the monitors couldn't be configured bla bla bla. He was at foot level and I felt the sudden urge to kick him in the teeth. Damn, and it was a strong urge, I could actually imagine my foot bustin off a couple of his chompers.

I'm truthfully not a violent person, I've been thinking that the cumulation of the past few years of loss, suffering and poverty have done something to my patience and tolerance. Maybe it's the reverse, maybe the fact that there's nothing wrong with my life right now: I've got a good job that I'm happy with, my son is amazing and thriving, my wife is great, she is coping with her depression and being very positive. Maybe I'm expecting another hammer to fall, another spike in the heart, or another exorbitant cost that breaks my finances.

I found a good site, maybe I'll follow their instructions and take them to heart: Tools for Handling Loss: Anger Workout

100th post ! (since the new year started)

If you haven't seen Ctrl Alt Del comics, you must check out these 2 beauties:

July 16th

Today

For more crazed reviews/rants about Catwoman check out Google. Let the bashing continue.

A moment of silence for the memories of Superheroes

Ok, I heard some disturbing news on the DC Comic super movies coming out soon. Apparently Jack Black is going to be playing Green Lantern.

There's also a Petition floating around to save the dignity of the GL. I signed it.

Warner Bros. is treating these well loved comic heroes as cartoon characters from Looney Tunes. First there was Catwoman, who is not Halle Berry, and cannot jump like Spiderman, nor does she dress like a dominatrix, now they're turning a thinking character like Green Lantern into a slapstick comedy? Will he fall into toilets and use his ring to give the finger to the bad guys? I suppose he sings too. Yay.

Yew Ess EElehkshun Thangs

Norbizness found some great U.S. election merchandise for Dubya. It's no wonder that he was "elected" when you look at the intelligence level of his supporters.

Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness: Wanna Stay Free, You Pinko Asshole?

My favorite is the "America, Love it or leave it" t-shirt

Oh yay

So I guess it was inevitable, I got my first flame comment.

It was on a post I did a month or so back about my a$$wipe neighbours and their habits of endangering the neighbourhood with their backyard fire pit, and the wonders of the clouds of smoke/chemicals coming off it.

I used my administrative ability to delete it, not because I can't take criticism, but because I wanted to. I don't take kindly to being called names by someone I don't know, and if you're not going to read the entire post (I think it was actually one of the a$$wipes themselves posting) then don't bother commenting. Plus, it's my blog, I can do what I f$#@ing want.

Maniac Weather from Sunday

I was forwarded some pictures from a guy at work of the big storm in Edmonton on Sunday. These are pictures of the Whitemud overpass around 111 st.

They seriously blew my mind when I saw them and I thought I'd share them

Two more steps to old age

Well my birthday came and went, with no big whoop.

My work gives employees the day off when it's their birthday, so I almost got to sleep in, until 9 anyways. Cleaned, vacuumed, changed the cat litter, then the dude came to connect cable internet. 3.8 Mb/s downloads (456 KB/s)! Screw you Telus!.

Xavier gave me a break and slept for 3 hours in the afternoon, while Amber was babysitting at her friends. On the way back from picking her up I realized my car license and registration had expired in June, oh so happy was I. $130 later I had a piece of paper and a sticker for my license plate, damn do I love Alberta.

Went looking for dress/gig shoes at the Bay, they had some nice ones on sale but unfortunately none fit very well so I ended up cementing my progress to old age. I bought Hushpuppies. My second step to old age was to buy some Heel inserts (that are supremely comfortable and I can use in my running shoes).

When you start focusing on comfort over coolness, you have officially affirmed your embrace of the march towards the grave. When I was 20 I would buy cool shoes, no matter how uncomfortabe they were. I would buy cool clothes even though they hurt my pocket book.

Happy Birthday to me

Well.. I'm well on my way to middle age, right in the middle of 30's... do I have much to show for it? A great family, wonderful son and wife....

I guess that's all you really need right? Sure..... I'll go with that today, trying to stay positive as I inch closer to death.

Can't... look ... away..

Dammit! I'm totally addicted to watching the RADAR images from Environment Canada. It's fun watching the colors, wondering when the next dump of sky pee will be dropped on Edmonton.

The latest radical weather is making some of my co-workers remember Black Friday in 1987 when the F4 tornado killed 27 people, injured hundreds and caused 330 million dollars in damages.

Luckily that weekend I was back in St. Paul most likely at some after grad party drinking until I could stand no more.

That way.. no that way!... no... wait

Try teaching your Scout group to use a compass when the directions are unsure, or reversed. According to The New York Times

Let's see... global warming... magnetic pole reversal.... weather madness... upscaled global violence.... Dubya....

It's time to build me a rocket and get off this spinning hunk of dirt. Make me a new planet called Oorgo, where people can live in harmony with just us and free parking for all.

Family fun time

Well the reunion went well, I knew many more people than I expected, only a handful or two that I didn't know. Xavier had fun, but he didn't get much sleep so if you didn't do what he wanted he would scream... yay fun.

A cousin of my Dads came over from Norway with his family, very nice people. They were amazed at the size of everything in Alberta, "big houses, big fields, big cars". I guess there isn't too much real estate inbetween the Fjords :)

I have to say, I like my Herrick relatives, they're fairly calm, intelligent, very respectful and helpful. Most of them couldn't believe how Xavier had grown, and how much he looks like me. I took some half decent pictures, I'll have them available soon.

On the birthday side I got some early money for my birthday, just in time 'cause I need new running shoes and also dress shoes for gigs. OH for a day when I can spend birthday money on something I want not something I need.

Gonna be a wild one

Another nutzo weekend on the horizon.

I have a gig tonight at Azucar Latin Club. and tomorrow morning we go to Didsbury for a family reunion. Turns out we aren't camping (thank God because the weather is horrible), my wonderful father has reserved us a hotel room, so we should have a comfortable night sleep (hopefully).

Should be interesting... as I haven't seen most of these relatives in about 10-15 years. It'll be a lot of this "Hi, and who are you again?"

My TV is Broken

Boy on a Stick and Slither once again kicks ass

Massage the data, lie and cheat

Came upon this over at Dan's Blog

The Junk Science of George W. Bush

by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

I'm reminded of Soviet Russia, 1984, Nazi Germany. The use of science to distort truths, even well known truths, for the profit of business or government bodies. Lying to the public, to the point of putting their health in jeopardy. Heinous acts against nature, with no remorse, or regard for future generations.

Change that number, fire those scientists
The dinosaur is my business
Keep it from extinction
Gimme profit, gimme gimme
It's safe to breathe, just ask the EPA
It's safe to drink, we've proven it
Don't worry, that will heal

- DKH

Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game

Came upon this through Norbizness.com

Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game

Ok, I'm sure you have all seen this

I ran across Wil Wheaton dot net today. It's good, quite good. I was never a Wesley fan in my younger years, and that's why it seems odd to read stuff from him now. His 4th of July story is great, and sad too.

Interesting that he's somewhere around my age now, and like many of the people I know, has similar interests. He's also one of the smart Americans (jab jab) and doesn't seem to fall into the "blind angry follower" rut that so many of our southern neighbours have.

I especially like his Warning

The worth of human life

Welcome, to a world where crimes against humanity are viewed as less heinous than property theft. Where crimes against your own family are treated with lenience, whereas a theft of $394 worth of groceries from Safeway is handed close to the same sentence as the adoptive parents who caged and abused their 2 boys for 13 years.

I can't say much more, it infuriates me too much.

Gee mayil

Hey, I have an invite for gmail, if anyone wants it. Email me or leave a comment.

Sorry... too late... taken

Aggravation

On the weekend I had some computer free time, so I decided to set up my computer for its regular chkdsk / defrag. I came back thinking everything was hunky-dory... (isn't that a great term), windows was running blah blah... but the next time I booted up I received this message:

Cannot open volume for direct access.
The type of the file system is NTFS.
IFSUTIL: Can't open drive. Status returned = c0000043.
Windows has finished checking the disk.

Did a quick search for it this morning and came up with a couple of results:
JSI FAQ says that there is currently no fix for this, but you can try Chkdsk /X, which will force a dismount of the volume. MY only problem with this solution is that it's my Windows volume that this is happening on, won't that cause problems?

Microsoft Knowledge Base is even less helpful "Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem .... in XP " and if you notice at the bottom of the page it says Last Reviewed: 8/14/2003 (1.0)

Great... just friggin great... and the volume is becoming very fragmented, but I don't want to defrag until I can get a successful Chkdsk.
Any help anyone?

Happy Belated birthday Canada

The card was lost in the mail..er... my dog chewed up your gift... uh... terrorists have taken over my mailbox... um...

I am horrible with birthdays. Just found out on Wed I missed another one, my nephew's this time.... bah stupid brain

My Canada day consisted of cleaning, moving furniture, a less than enthusiastic band rehearsal, more cleaning and moving furniture, and then reassembling surround sound speaker ratsnest. On the plus side it sounds probably 75% better, because the main speakers + sub have a full wall behind them instead of the half wall.