Boo for work... Hurray for the weekend

Friday was a so-so day. Work has been going okay lately in that I am getting rid of some of the backlog stuff. It may be due to the lower volume of new issues coming in, but oh well, I'll take it whatever way I can get. The bad part includes the reorg, and the renewed attempt at sending more of us down to Rochester (Minnesota) for internships. Well, turns out the one they are trying to send me to just increased to 4 weeks... No matter when it will be scheduled (as it is doubtful I can get out of this), it's going to affect my own planned activities, and that is stressing me out.

Anyhow, went to Mississauga after work and picked up Yoshiko to go watch Memoirs of a Geisha. I thought it was a pretty good movie, although it may be because I have a soft spot for happy endings. I think I will have to pick up the book sometime since typically novels are always better than the screen adaptation. Afterwards we went to have some eggplant hotpot which was really good. Heheh, I am thinking the myth that I don't eat vegetables is way out of proportion... ;-)

Didn't do too much today other than sit at home and relax. I did manage to clear all the way to the last level of the third difficulty level of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan... Now only this damn comet stands between me and unlocking the cheerleaders. Go me! ;-)

Intrigue in the office... part 2

Well, it turns out the rumours were true. Today we had a meeting where major organizational changes were announced. What directly affects me is that the platform I work in is merging with another platform. Two things resulting from this is that 1) we just got a new manager, and I rather like the current one since she can joke around and doesn't just care solely about idiotic statistics they made up to measure our efficiency; 2) there is now a big unknown on how the work process may change. In the next few months or even more, it's suspected that nothing will actually change. Now why would they make a change like this if nothing is changing? Well, higher management always needs something they can use to congratulate themselves for great leadership in case things go right. A few examples include changing our product name every few years (now on the 4th), changing the business unit name (4th on this one as well), and shuffling the organization structure (2nd or 3rd on this one)... Anyhow, I guess I will find out soon enough what the new manager is like.

Nothing too eventful for the rest of the day. At least it's almost the weekend. Looking forward to just relaxing and getting some rest. Maybe I should do some catch up on photo stuff too...

Intrigue in the office???

Well, I suppose today was a good day at work in that each of us had a quick < 1 minute meeting with the manager to find out how much variable pay (bonus) we are getting. Suffice it to say that at an 80% payout rate, the bonus wasn't very big for me... More disturbing is the fact that we have a meeting tomorrow morning with some announcement that they have not seen fit to disclose. You know it's bad news when they wait until the last minute. There is a speculation we may be getting a new manager, and I am really hoping that's not the case... Oh well, I'll find out soon enough.

Apart from that, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Saw Mir online briefly and hopefully she will be on again tomorrow. On the WoW front, it seems like every night the login queue is increasing... now it's typically at 400+ and 30+ minutes. Oh the joys of online gaming....

Weekend recap

Woohoo, a fun and relaxing weekend! Caught up on a bit of sleep on saturday and then headed to Toronto for the autoshow. Lots of fun walking around and looking at some exotic cars that I would otherwise never see. Hopefully I will have pictures up soon. One nice gentleman from Lamborghini allowed me to go to the back where they had two more vehicles for private viewing. I was able to get some photos up close, and had a chance to sit in the Murcielago. Hehe, that's probably not going to happen again anytime soon!! Apart from that, I had a chance to chat with Carolyn and it was lots of fun. Hope work is not too stressful!! :-O

Saturday night I headed to Carol's apartment for her birthday party. It was excellent to see people that I haven't seen for the past while. Hehe, I was able to have Carol unlock the third difficulty level in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for me. Hehe, now I will have to see if I can clear some more to move closer to the cheerleaders. ;-) I am going to have to figure out when to hold Meat Day... maybe I'll have to declare March as Meat Month and form the Yonge Street Meat Gang with Dave and Noriko!! Hahaha!

Sunday was back to normal in that I woke up in time to go to church, and then headed to Ben Thanh for lunch afterwards. Hehe, it's so very relaxing to have little routines like this. Came home afterwards and did a bit of photo editing from the car show. I think definitely a new computer is in order since I keep running out of memory and what not. Oh well, new camera first hopefully. Let's hope a bonus payout actually happens for me this year!

Anyhow, time to get ready for bed for yet another week of fun-filled work.

Woot Woot, It's friday!

Ah, a friday that I can choose to work from home is pretty nice. Since I was latestart today, I was able to go out and run some errands and eat before coming home to start work. Not being busy on a friday afternoon/evening is a good thing too. :-)

I am hoping that Cancun in May will happen. I still remember how much fun it was last time. I guess I should start to do some financial planning to make sure it can happen, and check what work schedule I can expect in May.

Anyhow, hopefully this will be a relaxing weekend. Need to catch up a bit on rest since people at work are sick, people at home are sick, and I am feeling a bit tired and not well along with everyone. Oh well, my mundane life goes on....

A slow week...

Ugh, a not so great day in terms of work today. All the supposedly urgent and high severity issues has me waiting on the customer for them to send requested documentation. I guess it's only urgent when they deem so... typically around 4:45pm. Oh well, things could have been worse as they were looking for someone to go out to Tiverton to do some onsite service for a customer. Hahhahaha! I don't even know where Tiverton is until we looked it up on a map. From the way these extra work requests is coming to us, it seems to me that their decision that the professional services group was no longer needed was... well, pretty freaking stupid.

On non-work fronts, one thing that has been bothering me is that it seems like PC users are getting shafted when it comes to baseball this season. All the major consoles are getting their version of a MLB game or two (or three), but the PC has nothing!!! Thanks to EA for starting the professional sports exclusive licensing trend which killed their own MVP baseball franchise (at least for the time being).

On a more cheerful note, I am looking forward to the Canadian Autoshow starting this weekend! If all things go as planned, I will be going this weekend to check things out. http://www.autoshow.ca

Secrets of the D200...

Ah, another relaxing weekend where I don't have to think about work. It seems times like this just doesn't happen enough these days. It was nice to have been able to work from home on friday, and only half day at that. Didn't do very much other than try to check out the big AQ Event in WoW (which only demonstrated the poor server infrastructure) and take a nap. Oh well, there will be other times to be constructive hopefully. :-)

News of a more useful nature is that Nikon finally owns up to having some banding/striping issues with the D200. Check the link for information from Nikon USA. I guess I can finally feel "safe" in getting my D200... when they become available again that is.
http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=13872

Mo' Money.... not

System down.... $100,000+ loss per hour
Emergency on-site servicel.... $595 (+taxes) per hour
Time I spent on-site.... 6+ hours
Money I will see.... $0
The joys of work... priceless

Anyhow, last night was a bit out of the norm as a customer wanted to get someone onsite to make sure things go okay. Sounded like an easy situation at first, but it just snowballed from there. Trying to explain to a director and a CIO what happened is great fun when one knows only part of what happened. Oh well, I survived and made it home just before midnight.

Work today was not so bad other than trying to get some more information regarding what happened yesterday, and working on some other problems. Nothing too exciting which is nice. I get to work just half day tomorrow and work from home too! Woot!!! Maybe I will try and get online to witness the AQ opening... :-)

How to shop for a 2 year old?

Tuesday was another so-so day at work. Enough work to keep me busy through the day, which I guess is okay. One good thing is that the **L conference call only took 10 minutes today!!! Maybe this issue will finally be "resolved"!

Went to the mall after work and tried to look for a present for my nephew. It's his birthday (8th) and he will be 2. What in the world am I supposed to get a 2 year old??? One stupid thing is that Disney pulled all the old copies of Winnie the Pooh as it is being re-released for a 25th Anniversary Edition... pretty annoying practice in my opinion. I guess I'll get it for him (and me....) when it comes out later this week. :-) In the end, I was trying to look for things I like... :-P Hopefully it will turn out okay.

Went home and just relaxed. Hurray for finishing SD Gundam G Generation DS, and boo for stupid WoW server lag and login queues. At least Stormrage is finished the war effort and the gates should open on friday. Woot, more raid content I can't participate in.

Another day in One Team paradise...

Ugh, it's monday again... the conference call for **L continues at work, and it's apparently impossible for all sides (internal, no customers!) to agree on when we should be disengaging as it is becoming pretty clear that there are issues that is not within our control. Oh well, at least I just have to sit there and listen. Other than that, the work day was busy enough so time passed by quickly.

Weather was not so good after work so I stayed until 7 before heading out. Even then traffic moving slowly until I got close to Mississauga. Oh well, a little snow and wet roads causes all kinds of havoc like the morning drive when I saw a car flipped over in a ditch. Went to the mall to unwind a bit before heading home. Oh well, time to get some (non-work) work done.

Oh yeah... WoW servers were a mess tonight. Paying for frustration is... ugh!!!

Weekend recap

This past weekend was pretty relaxing. Woke up late on saturday and went to have some pho for lunch. Weather was not very nice at all though, with heavy snowfall and strong winds. :-( Picked up Xuan late afternoon and headed up to Toronto (although not before she saw the messy computer room ^_^;). Even though the drive was slow, it was all good since it was nice to chat and catch up on everything. The cow stomach story/experience is... umm... "enlightening". Now I know Xuan likes capped cow stomach!!! ;-) After dropping her off downtown, headed up to the Yonge/Sheppard area to go to Karen's birthday party. It was great fun since I haven't seen most of the people for quite a while! The slideshow Hyun put together was great! :-) Hopefully I will get to see people again soon.

Sunday was an early day as I drove my dad to the airport. It's never fun to be one of the early drivers on the road since the snow wasn't cleared at all. Oh well, it was all good since there was enough time for me to take it slow. Afterwards, I came home and went back to bed. Woke up a bit too late and just spent the rest of the day relaxing. The weekends are never long enough.....

Finally Friday!

Hurray for fridays and weekends where I don't have to work! :-) It's been a long month or so with my 18 day work week followed by the 12 day work week. I think I survived, although I may be getting sick. I just have to make it until 8pm for my latestart shift to end.

From the looks of things, I won't be going to Montreal next week as it just does not work out in terms of schedule/time or finances. Hopefully Mexico in April will happen though. I still remember the last time in Cancun which was a blast... relax, drink, dance... not necessarily in that order. ;-)

On computer gaming notes, great job to Blizzard for coming up with yet another rep grind for obtaining rewards... ugh... so much for creativity. Oh well, nothing I have influence over unless I suddenly learned how to program again, or somehow own the company. Come on 649/Super 7....

1 More day til the weekend....

And so continues day 11 of my 12 day work week.... The good news of the day is that the **L problem I have been involved with may finally be coming to an end. Of course in the end it will most likely come out as yet another problem with a system being undersized or not sized at all. Thanks to the One Team concept, what Marketing didn't do ends up being something Support has to sort out and push back. Oh the joy....

Anyhow, on a more cheerful/funny note, I continue to be amazed at what can happen in an online game. If you play WoW, check this out... http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-realm-whisperwind&T=70232&P=1

The Daily Rant... resurrected???

Well, well, well, I finally succumbed to creating a blog online with the hope that I can kickstart my more or less daily rant habit that I had kept from back in 1999 to early 2004. I am thinking the convenience of being able to do this at work (:-)) and not having to edit and then upload files will make this simpler. I guess I'll have to see how well this goes. Until then, this is it for now.