Sir Stevis' Journal

The company I work for has a side business that has been lots of fun lately. We provide tracking services for sail boat races. Our first race of the season is currently underway, and we had to perform some rather extensive web updates to support this race. As a result, I've been able to play around with web pages for the past few weeks, a task I don't normally get to do for work. Of course, this means I'm working late hours, as the normal work still has to get done. However, it's an enjoyable diversion, even if my wife doesn't care for the long hours. The web site is http://www.fistracking.com

On the EQ2 front, I'm really enjoying the triple boxing. I've got three casters (warlock, wizard, conjuror) and they can do quite a bit of damage in a short amount of time. They are currently levels 37, 27, and 27. I mentor down with my main toon (Stevis, the Warlock) and we run around and kill mobs. I've run out of good mobs in Thundering Steppes, but Nektulos has some good ones my level still. I spent a few minutes tonight running up to Bone Lake and killing fairies to complete my language quest. I only died when I tried to take the level 29 3up heroic queen (who happens to spawn a few friends when you attack her). While I didn't like the fact that EverQuest is turning into World of Evercraft, I am getting used to the fact that death has very little meaning these days. I can make up the experience in less than 3 minutes (one group of mobs is uaually enough for my level 27 toons) and the repair costs aren't all that expensive. Overall, I still enjoy the game, in spite of the changes.

My buddy David just had his first child today. He called me in the two minutes I wasn't in a meeting, which I was grateful for. It's always nice to have some good news during the day.

My wife is going out of town next week for a couple of weeks. I'll have to get used to the bachelor life for a bit. It probably just means I'll be eating worse and playing more EQ2. I guess we'll see how well I survive. I haven't had to do laundry myself in quite some time.

Current Mood: drained

Yeah, so it's no real surprise, but I'm a bit pissed off. I've been piecing together another gaming machine (yes, I need more) and had a bad experience with my latest attempt at acquisition. I happen to have an open Alienware credit card from when I purchased my laptop a couple of years ago. All I needed was a simple little sound card. I decided to order two, since I've been using my USB Audigy 2 on my desktop lately. So, I went online yesterday and ordered me a couple of $70 Audigy 2 cards.

I had forgotten just how annoying the Alienware ordering system really is. Once my order was complete, I received a nice email listing the details that I had just entered on their web site. So far, all is well. Today, I decided to check the status of the order (yeah, only 1 day, but I'm impatient). I went to their web page and checked the status. It showed the order was in Phase 1 - waiting for confirmation. My past experience was starting to come back to me like a bad dream, so I decided to give them a call. I waded through a few phone trees until I finally got to what I figured was the correct place, only to find out that they closed about 30 minutes before I called.

No problem, their online "live" sales chat was open late. So, naturally, I took it for a spin. My first question, and the obvious one, was to ask how I could confirm my order. I was told to call the phone number I had just called...I then asked (very politely, I assure you) if this had to be something I initiated or if the sales people would ever call me to confirm the order. I was informed that I was responsible for this step. I then asked (again, very nicely) how I was supposed to find out about this responsibility. I was told that an email should have instructed me in this step.

I then replied that I had received no such email, and that the only email I had received merely confirmed (okay, bad choice of words there) the details I had entered on the order. I was then given the following response. It happened so quick, I hadn't even finished reading it before the next response appeared (names have been changed to protect the guilty):

Alienware Dude "You should have received a seperate email from that. Regardless, I just told you to call in to confirm it."
Alienware Dude "Has Disconnected"

Now, I've been a right bastard in the past to sales people who couldn't provide me the answers I needed, but this was the first time the roles had been reversed. And, to make matters worse, I was hung up on ELECTRONICALLY! Have we come this far? Will I be scarred for life because of this event?

Okay, probably not, but I did write a very polite email to Alienware's sales department telling them to keep their damn sound cards and that I would never do business with them again...I'm curious to see if that gets an acceptable response.

Current Mood: annoyed

So, in typical stevis style, and as no surprise to anyone, I bought a new toy over the weekend. In fact I am writing this post from it. Since we converted from Novell to Microsoft at the office, it seemed only fair to do so at home as well.

I am now the proud owner of a Sprint PPC-6700. So far, it is taking some getting used to. It has had a problem with internet connectivity that has forced a few reboots to clear a bum connection. Aside from that, it's been fine. The keyboard isn't as good as my Sidekick 2 was, but it's more usable than my last Treo.

Once I find all of the software I need for it, I'm sure it will work out. One of the reasons I went this route is that we use Exchange 2003 SP2 at work now, and these Windows Mobile devices are supposed to like that. Unfortunately, it isn't quite working just yet.

Luckily, Sprint has a 14 day return policy. I hope to not need it. I'll post my thoughts after I've used it more. Battery life may be my only other beef with it, as I intend to use wifi whenever possible, since Sprint service seems spotty at home and work.

Current Mood: amused

So, aside from the fact that getting up at 5:00 AM to go work out sucks ass, I am at least seeing the results from it.

I stepped on the scale this morning, and have now lost 35 lbs!!!

Okay, for those of you who don't know me, that probably doesn't mean much, but I REALLY like to eat. Diets always piss me off. In any case, I'm off to the gym for more pain.

Current Mood: ecstatic

"current" in my book means at least one post per week...counting this one

Okay, so I'm going to try to stay current on updating my blog (sort of a New Years resolution).

It's been a busy last couple of weeks at work. We just moved into our new office and I ended up taking a bigger role in the move than originally intended. I worked 100 hours last week, most of them on the move (my wife is rather annoyed). In addition to moving, we also took this opportunity to convert from Novell product to Microsoft product. We bought a few new servers to support this move. The nice part is that I don't even have rights to the new servers, so I won't ever be expected to work on them. I still have my personal GroupWise server, so I guess I won't miss it too much.

Using Outlook as a client isn't too bad. I am still pissed that I don't get to view the properties of my sent items to see if they were delivered and/or opened, but I guess I'll adjust. I'm using Outlook in caching mode (the same way I used GroupWise) and it doesn't seem any faster than GW. We even have a much faster server. Oh well.

I've been working out with a personal trainer 3 days per week. I'm about to run out of money, so I'll be on my own shortly. I've learned quite a bit, but I still think I need an appointment to force me out of bed at 5 AM. Speaking of which, I'm due there tomorrow morning, so I guess I should head to bed.

Current Mood: tired

My current class is taking up quite a bit of time with homework. The next two weeks are going to be the worst. I enjoy the learning, but not so much the writing...Good thing it's my last class for now.

Work is still going along as normal. My project is (in theory) drawing to a close. We are supposed to go live in a few weeks. We should be ready by next week, so that is at least good news. We're still all anxiously awaiting the reorg announcement at work. I have no clue where I'll end up, but I'm sure it will be fun...or, at the very least, it should keep me busy. Managing projects has its high points, but I also like getting my hands dirty actually working on servers.

We had guild night last night, and managed to get some revenge on the spiders in the gnoll caves. Of course, we brought our friendly neighborhood mezzer with us this time, so we had that to our advantage. Also, we knew what we were actually going to be facing, and knew how to avoid a big pull/wipe.

I started my 16th toon last week. Making a coercer to round out the guild. We now have at least one of every single class in the guild...and I believe we have at least one of every race as well. I enjoy playing the different variety of classes, but don't really see much difference in the various races. I think my desire to have one of every class is a bit like my knowledge of computers...I like to know something about everything so I can speak intelligently in any discussion on the topic.

Haven't had much time with the wife lately due to work and school (okay, and maybe because of EQ). I need to remedy that soon, or she's gonna start sabotaging my computers. She already thinks I like them better than her...I wish we could take a short vacation with just the two of us. All of our vacations end up being visits with family and friends, so we don't really spend any time alone. Unfortunately, her work only gives her 2 weeks of vacation a year, so we really only get the one yearly outing. Maybe she will quit her job so we can take a vacation...yeah, that would work...

My wife is actually thinking of changing jobs. Her current one is very physically demanding, and she's just getting tired of it. She doesn't want to work in the food service industry, but she is thinking of trying for a job at Blockbuster Video, her home away from home. The other advantage to that is that it's only 1 mile from our place. Her current job involves driving all around the surrounding area, and with gas prices the way they are, it would be nice to only need 2 gallons of gas a week...Driving to school actually takes as much of my gas as going to and from the train station the rest of the week, so I'll be cutting my gasoline consumption by half in a couple of weeks.

Current Mood: complacent

I haven't posted in a while...even though stuff has happened. I'll try to remember the pertinent details, but make no promise as to the validity of the order of events portrayed herein...

After returning to power at home, I was able to play some EQ2. I quite enjoyed myself.

I pulled a "typical user" move on Tuesday (the one last week, not this week)...I had a paper due by 6:00 PM for my first night of class, and I had not quite finished it on Monday evening. So, I emailed it to myself with the intent to polish it up Tuesday at work before submitting it. To my surprise, when I opened the email Tuesday, there was no attachment! I'm such a moron. I had browsed to the file, but forgotten to click Upload before clicking Send (I was using a web-based email client). So, rather than lose 10% by turning in my paper late, I chose to re-write it over lunch. As you can imagine, it didn't quite come out with the quality I normally produce...and I ended up losing 12% on my grade...

On Saturday, my golfing buddy came out to my neck of the woods, and we went to the driving range, even though it was raining. I sucked, as could be expected for someone who has played exactly 18 holes of golf in the last 3 years. When we were down to about 10 range balls left, my buddy showed me how to fix my swing...resulting in perfectly straight hits...grrr. We then went back to my place and cooked up some mexican food on the grill and proceeded to eat about 1/3 of it. Leftovers are always a good thing.

On Monday, another of my buddies flew into town for work, and we all congregated at my place to cook some steaks. Another of our friends (and his wife) hadn't seen The Long Kiss Goodnight, so we had to watch it. It came up because of the line "Chef's Do That" which we had been quoting earlier in the evening. Lots of good food was had by all...

Earlier in the day on Monday, I got a call from my school. I don't remember if I've mentioned the problems I've been having with them. In a nutshell, they screwed up, and now I don't have enough financial aid to continue attending school. They have been trying to make it right for the past 8 weeks. On Monday, we jointly came to the conclusion that they can't make it right. So, my current class will be my last one. There are actually two reasons for this. First, the principle of the matter. They screwed up and can't fix it, so I'm not willing to let them get away with it. Second, it's really taking more time than I'm willing to commit at this point in my life. Between work and school, I wasn't getting much time with the wife. So, I'm gonna take a break for the rest of the year, then look for another school that will allow me to work at a slower pace.

On Tuesday, at school, my team managed to earn 1.25 extra points, which puts me back at 100% for the class (1 assignment so far, lost 1.2 points, added 1.25...you do the math).

Wednesday's guild night was fun, as usual.

Current Mood: embarrassed

Everything seems to have survived...minus the items in the fridge/freezer...oh, well, at least none of the electronics blew up from the power coming back on. A/C is working as well, which is a bonus. Maybe I'll finally get a good nights sleep.

I got up early today to be available for a call from a vendor regarding a problem we were having with their software. I was told I'd get a call at 8:00 AM. It came at 12:30...That's pretty much how my weeks been. I'm hoping the weekend improves.

Well, the power was off when I got home yesterday...and it's still off. I'm told that I'll have power restored by 2:00 AM Friday. Grrr...and last night was EQ2 Guild night to boot. Tonight, I'm supposed to do homework...also difficult without power. Guess I'll be checking into a hotel tonight.

I have sleep apnea, so I sleep with a CPAP...except when I have no power. So, I didn't sleep very well last night...zzzz

Current Mood: tired