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June 16, 2008

Been a while.

Filed under: Life,School,Work — sherl0k @ 6:11 pm

Busy as ever with things not related to the internet so I haven’t really had a chance to give a real update. Oh well.

Liz and I went furniture shopping on Saturday and got a boatload of stuff. Set of 4 chairs for the kitchen, entertainment stand for the living room, and a boxspring & frame for the bedroom. Including the rental van, it cost maybe $500 in total. Not bad for all the stuff we got! Spent some time at the mall, then headed back home to organize everything. Had a fat kids night and splurged on pizza, ice cream, and baked pretzels while watching War. Surprisingly good considering I hadn’t even heard of it before. Can’t go wrong with Jason Statham and Jet Li together.

Slept in ultra late on Sunday – I blame the bed being even more comfortable now than ever – and just hung around the apartment for a few hours. I had to head home for Father’s Day shenanigans and Liz drove home to be with her family. Thanks to sleeping in late I didn’t get to bed until almost 1AM – but I woke up still feeling pretty refreshed.

Work was pretty good today. Last week, albeit being a productive one, was just bad for me. Sometimes all you need is a fresh start to get things going on the right foot, and today was definitely that.

Heading back to Liz’s parents this weekend for her brother’s graduation party, and next weekend is the huge Syracuse reunion tournament. Doesn’t give us much time to get the apartment in order since company’s staying with us during the tournament, but I’m sure we’ll be able to pull it all off.

I probably should work on some homework, so off I go.

June 6, 2008

Insane thunderstorm last night.

Filed under: Life,Work — sherl0k @ 6:48 am

We had one hell of a downpour in the middle of the night, causing me to wake up not once but twice to reset my alarm.

I woke up late because I definitely didn’t get any quality sleep. When I got into work, the entire warehouse had no lights and none of the computers in the production area would turn on. Resetting the breakers didn’t fix any of it, either. Since there wasn’t a quick fix to get everyone up and running, they sent us home. Hopefully with pay, they didn’t specify.

Spending the weekend with Liz, going to be great as usual. We’re planning on rearranging the apartment and cooking some fancy shmancy dinners. Good times.

May 2, 2008

‘Sup promotion?

Filed under: Work — sherl0k @ 5:25 pm

I’ve been promoted to head of QA for the company I work for. I will be doing the quality checking/auditing and manual-writing. I officially started today, auditing refurbished goods and ensuring they were tested correctly. I also started rewriting the manual which guidelines the entire testing process, too. A lot’s been changed since that manual was written, most of it due to me. Who better to rewrite it, eh?

I now get a company email address, get included in business meetings, and *gasp* a company laptop that I can take home with me. Which actually means I’ll be able to pick and choose any one of the laptops that go through our warehouse. Acer’s got some pretty sweet machines, that’s for sure. I’m a bit weary on using Vista but I’ll probably dual-boot it with Ubuntu. And I need Vista there because my work requires me to use it 90% of the time.

More responsibility = more $$$ too. I haven’t officially gotten a raise yet because they wait until the 3-month mark for that. Quite convenient that my 3-month is just a little over a week away.

I’m pretty stoked. I was blown away this morning when we had our company meeting and during the Powerpoint there was an entire slide that outlined my new job to everyone. Wasn’t really expecting that, but now everyone knows who to yell at when they’re told they’re doing something the wrong way. Lucky me. I’m sure it won’t be so bad though… if people do their job right, they have
nothing to worry about.

April 29, 2008

Birthday weekend.

Filed under: Life,School,Work — sherl0k @ 6:32 pm

Went pretty awesome for me.

Spending it with the girl is always the best.

Received money, some clothes, and a care package of goofy stuff from my sister. Much needed items. Liz got me some cool stuff too but I left it at the apartment; reminds me, I need to grab it at some point.

My mother’s a baking genius. The white (snow) is frosting, the blue (water) is Jello.

We *were* going to go to that rave but me and my tiredness prevented us, we went and saw Forbidden Kingdom instead. I enjoyed it, anything with Jackie Chan or Jet Li is good in my book. Putting them together is even better.

Sunday we spent the day cleaning out the apartment, we made a good deal of progress. Still more to do, but things are coming along. Also went for dinner at Ponderosa (haven’t been there in forever!) and a walk in the park. Good times.

I really hate feeling so exhausted all the time. Liz notices it too and I wish I had a way to not feel this way. It affects me at nights and on the weekends… pretty much whenever I’m not at work. I try to get enough sleep at night but I still can’t fall asleep at a decent hour. And on the weekends when I get to sleep in, I’m still tired. It’s getting tough for me to focus on my schoolwork when I don’t have the energy to get it done. I’m breaking it up into parts of the course of the week so I’m hoping that will help me. I know being on my feet for 8 hours a day will affect me but I didn’t think it would be this bad. Maybe I should try building up my stamina by working out on a more regular basis. But that requires energy. Oh catch 22′s, how you amuse me so. And don’t get me started on caffeine. I already have 2 cans of dew over the course of the day, and sometimes a cup of coffee. Something tells me adding more to the formula isn’t healthy for me.

This upcoming weekend is another rave (which I won’t be skipping out on, that’s for sure). Liz and I will be gone pretty much all of Saturday, but nothing planned for Sunday that I know of. Lazy day sounds good to me.

April 20, 2008

Blah.

Filed under: Life,School,Work — sherl0k @ 10:58 pm

Kait’s party was fun, just wish I wasn’t as tired as I was. Work drains me all week.

Weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend. We took a walk in the park… 75 degrees (24 celsius for you metric people), no humidity whatsoever. I was in heaven. And being there with Liz made it that much better.

Liz and I made a MySpace profile for the panda I gave her. The photos are extremely awesome.

Don’t let R. Kelly in your kitchen.

I also need to crack down more on my schoolwork, trying to get everything done in one night doesn’t seem to work too well, seeing as though I left the apartment earlier than usual tonight to finish stuff up. I just hate my classes this quarter… project management and research methods. Nothing really interesting to me at all. It’s hard to stay focused on them.

Still loving my car to bits. It averaged 30mpg on the drive up to Oswego, so I’m pretty happy with that. And that was with the windows down and sunroof open.

Looking forward to work this week, as always. I’m enjoying the experiences I get there.

April 14, 2008

Yay car!

Filed under: Bemani,Life,Work — sherl0k @ 7:26 pm

Man this car is one sexy beast.

So this weekend Liz and I went to Rochester for an ITG tournament, which I entered for the sake of making the 11 player bracket a 12 player bracket. I lost my round, and the loser’s bracket round. Oh well. They had a lot of weird custom songs added in, especially ones that were rated so horribly off that they didn’t make sense at all. It kinda irked me. Seeing Renard’s stuff on there was a delight, though :)

Saw my Rochester buddies which was a great sight for sore eyes. Played some IIDX which I’m totally rusty at, also I don’t play left side, but it was still enjoyable. DD’s song list isn’t as good as HS’s though, that’s for sure. Tried to get Troopers working on Liz’s laptop, but no go. They wanted to charge me $15 for just using it in the building too, wtf? Stupid LAN center, I wasn’t even touching their internet. So instead we played some Monopoly with Kait and Paul since Liz had it in her car. Good times. I destroyed everyone.

Liz and I went out for ice cream after with Kait and Brandon, and then went back to Brandon’s apartment for another round of Monopoly. I lost hardcore that time. Greens are hard to win with when there’s 4 people.

Headed back home late, and slept in late on Sunday. We needed it. Liz made me this awesome soup for lunch, which I must’ve complimented her 10 times for over the course of the day. It was that good. We spent the day at the mall playing DDR with Adamn and Dre, good times as always. Matzi showed up too, damn he looks so different now. Jiri was there for a bit, he’s still got the skill. I also think I learned how to time SN, which is quite the feat for me. I got less than 20 greats on various 7 footers. And I’ve always been bad at this silly dancing game. Liz and I had dinner at Uno’s, went for a nice walk in the park by the lake, and spent the rest of the night watching Pulp Fiction. That movie never gets old for me.

Work dragged by for me today, I just wanted it to be 4 so I could get my car. I no longer have my original work station because they keep bringing temp people in to fill the spot since I’ve been on special assignment, but it looks like I got a new spot now on the other side (read: the side where people get paid more) so I guess that means I get a pay raise soon? My boss tells me I’m the “utility guy” and I can solve problems all over the place. I like that idea, I think I’ll stick with it.

April 8, 2008

I love life!

Filed under: Life,Work — sherl0k @ 3:39 pm

Holy crap. Crazy, crazy stuff happening. First of all, I bought a car. There’s a story behind this buy, though.

’06 Chevy Cobalt LT. Black, 2 door, loaded with options. Funny story behind this one. They had a Cobalt LS on the lot which was pretty bare bones. Same color, 2 doors, but had no options on it. Not even cruise. Took it out for a test drive, and I liked it. Decided to buy it, so the paperwork and negotiations began. Including all the taxes and fees and whatnot, the total came to $12,000 flat. And that was with them installing cruise. Sorry, but I like my cruise control.

There was a slight problem with the car though: someone had already bought it.

While I was out test-driving the car, someone who was previously looking at it had came in, and decided that they wanted to buy it. They were already through the financing people while I was just sitting down to knock out prices. So as you can see, there was a problem at hand and they wanted to fix it. They scrambled to find a car comparable to what I was looking at, and found the one I ended up buying, at a car auction in PA. Arranged to buy it, and offer me the same exact price I originally negotiated for the LS. So now I’m getting a TON more options, at the same price. I’m also giving the car a coat of rust-protection, and some extra warranty time. It’ll come in handy.

As for financing, I got a pretty sweet deal on that too. 3.9% APR, 60 months, a little over $200/mo. Considering I was paying $200 combined on my previous loans, I’m really not paying anything more than I was before.

Car insurance on the other hand, is a different matter. Because the car is financed, I need collision and comprehensive. More money to the insurance companies. Staying with Geico seems to be an expensive option, which kinda surprised me. What surprised me more is that by switching back to Progressive (who I switched from originally and saved a buttload of cash), I save a buttload. Again. While only paying like $60/mo for insurance right now on my POS acclaim (which I’m trading in with the Cobalt, btw), Geico wants to charge me something like $223/mo for insurance. With Progressive, it’s $149/mo. Much more doable on my income. My pay raise at work will easily offset the added cost of car insurance.

Speaking of work, I was able to get today off because the higher-ups anticipated the day was going to be really slow so they offered a voluntary day off for some of the employees. I guess I’m cool enough to be included in that. Definitely came in handy, that’s for sure.

Liz got yesterday off so I was able to spend time with her after I got out of work, and spend the night there. It was really nice. We went to an awesome sushi spot downtown with her friend Sarah. What struck me kinda odd was that a Japanese sushi bar was playing 1TYM over the speaker system. Now, 1TYM is a Korean rap group, and the place serves Japanese sushi… anyone else here notice the lack of political correctness? Add in the fact that the Korean and Japanese people have had a history of despising each other, only adds to the confusion. But that’s just me being nit-picky. Nobody else would’ve noticed unless they’ve heard Korean music before. After the sushi place we came back to my place and hung out watching TV, then went to Denny’s for another meal because sushi isn’t very filling. And we had the weirdest craving for pancakes and milkshakes.

The weekend was also awesome, spent with Liz of course. Mallratted on Saturday as usual. Sunday Liz had a bridal shower to go to so I took the time to do my homework while she was there. We took my parents out to dinner afterwards, mm Olive Garden. Decent food.

I just noticed I did this whole post in reverse. Oh well, not everything in life comes at you in order.

tl;dr: new car is nice, korean music in a japanese sushi bar is lol, and i love liz. lots and lots.

April 2, 2008

Here’s life for you in a nutshell.

Filed under: Life,School,The Internet,Work — sherl0k @ 5:58 pm

Work: Is awesome. I love my job, I really do. I come home really exhausted at times, but it’s only because I work my behind off, going above and beyond and having a really good time doing so. Rumors afloat from reliable sources that I’ll be getting a raise at my 3 month review, so I’m stoked about that. I’m going to need the cash. I also have some awesome coworkers, hilarious supervisors, and a boss with a real sense of humor. It’s hard to find someone there in a bad mood because of their job. Such a great atmosphere.

Personal life: Is really taking off. I love Liz with everything I got, she’s the absolute best ever. I’m so incredibly happy with her and things just keep getting better for us. There’s talk of us moving in together, so we’ll see where that goes. Finally getting a cellphone under her plan, so I’ll actually have a connection to the outside world when I’m not at my computer. Newer car on the way too, I’ll be shopping around later this month.

Internet business: Has too much drama for my liking. I don’t have the time anymore to keep as close tabs on things as I used to so I’m going to be stepping down from nearly all my mod/admin positions within the coming months. Also my interest in music games has declined a lot, partly due to a lack of time, and partly due to a lack of a working PS2. I also don’t have a really fast PC in the house either, so sims/AC data is off limits to me. I prefer Linux, anyway. I will be keeping my ROM site up and running though, but I need to find a host with more options. I’m not paying another $20/mo on my bill just for another harddrive. That’s highway robbery after only a few months of service.

School: It’s school. Classes are okay, I’m doing fine in them, I just dislike having to use IE for everything. And even then IE doesn’t work right all the time. So annoying…

March 25, 2008

Easter wrap-up.

Filed under: Bemani,Life,School,The Internet,Work — sherl0k @ 8:42 pm

The weekend was pretty fun. Friday night I headed over to the apartment early so I could get some homework done, and broadcasted some radio while doing so. It works out pretty well because I’m not distracted when I’m alone there, I can focus on my work. I was able to get it all done shortly before Liz came home. Nice timing, I’d say.

Liz and I spent Saturday traveling around town. Had lunch at a local sit-down restaurant which was pretty delicious. Went to both Carousel and Great Northern malls along with some other places. I always have a good time when I’m out with her, since we’re so laid-back about everything and we just go with whatever flow happens to come our way. We hit both malls because we were both struck by the DDR bug and headed to Carousel to play. But then the coin register broke. So no SuperNOVA for us. The trip wasn’t all bad though, we looked at cell phones since I’m getting one next month under Liz’s plan. I figured it’s about time I join in on this whole 20th century revolution. We also saw Dre, which makes any trip to Carousel worth it.

GNM was nice, not many people there and it was nice seeing Adamn again. I also prefer Extreme since my scores are much better, I can’t stand SN’s timing. But this is all old news.

Sunday we went to her parents’ for Easter. I love her family, they’re awesome. Good food, good times. Liz’s brother Rob is friggin awesome too. Wish they were closer, he’s definitely the kind of kid I’d hang around with more. Aside from the whole playing WoW thing, of course.

Speaking of, a ton of people at my job play WoW. I’m not going to get hooked in though, I like my spare time. I’m probably going to pick up RO again though, but not hardcore. I still have school to worry about. I’m slowly moving away from a lot of my website administration duties only because I just don’t have it in me anymore to keep current on everything and do menial tasks. Especially the tracker. I’m behind on a lot of things there and I’m just going to pass off the responsibility to someone else, and call it quits soon after. Sorry everyone, but I’ve done a pretty damn good job of expanding the place (from an IRC channel that rarely got over 100 users to a tracker with over 2000) and after almost 3 years I’m ready to pass the torch. Here’s to hoping the place doesn’t go down in flames.

Installed the latest beta of Ubuntu 8.04. Don’t really notice much different about it, if anything X eats more processor usage and RAM. But the latest Firefox beta is lean, so that makes up for it. Packages are getting updated daily to the date of release so I’m assuming things will only get better. I’m getting rid of my desktops soon anyway, replacing them with laptops I get at a deep discount from work.

March 12, 2008

Typical life update.

Filed under: Bemani,Life,Work — sherl0k @ 4:44 pm

Past weekend was a lot of fun, the tournament was filled with awesome people and I overall had a good time. Rock Band is definitely best enjoyed via HD projector. I was obviously knocked out of the DDR tournament in the first round but I play for fun, not for competition. AG deserves my money, they run an awesome shop. It was also great seeing old faces too, Like Rodney and Lauren. Damn they’re still hilarious as ever. Kait and Brandon were there too and it’s always great hanging with them. I’m glad Liz got along with my friends there, she seemed to really enjoy herself there too.

After the tournament we headed back home, stopping at Wegmans to get some cake mix. Liz was debating on the way home whether or not she wanted to make one, and she finally gave in :) And yes, it was indeed a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.

Sunday Liz had to head to the gym so I kinda bummed around until she got back. We grabbed a somewhat early dinner at the local Indian restaurant (which was effin’ delicious, by the way). Afterwards her friend from college Sarah came over and we hung out for a while, her and Liz caught up since they haven’t seen each other in a while. Then we went to see The Bank Job, which was a pretty sweet movie. I recommend it.

Work is the usual, though Friday and Monday I was busy with a side project which was a nice step away from the norm. Also shows that the higher-ups trust me and I’ve proven to be a hard worker. Past couple days have just been a blur, really. Today dragged a bit though, probably because I didn’t have any cash to raid the vending machine for caffeine or sugar-inducing snacks. Stopped at the bank on the way home, so that won’t be happening again!

I also have to work Saturday, mandatory overtime. I don’t mind it, I get paid extra $$$ which always comes in handy. And Liz is busy for some time in the afternoon too so I suppose it works out. Supposedly my job is going to start doing 4-10 hour days, with some people working Mon-Thurs and others working Tues-Fri. I’ll definitely take that, and if I need to work overtime it can be on another weekday, instead of Saturday. I kinda like my weekends free. But for the time being, mandatory Saturday this week and maybe for another couple weeks until things get caught up. I guess there’s a lot of deficiencies that need to be worked out still. All I know is that I’m doing my part, that’s for sure.

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