AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Those who read this know I generally don't post more than once a day, but I had to get this off my chest. I hate technical support numbers. Especially those that involve a language barrier, ie. a company such as Panasonic. My home phone has no memory left to record messages. You think, well dumb ass erase some of them and you would have time to record new ones. That would be good and fine however the Flash memory is seeing the message as erased, so I cannot replay it or access it again, yet it is not reusing the memory address again. I have no messages and no recording time. I tried two different "reboot"/"Reset" precodeures, no luck. I broke down and called. After the usual, "Is it plugged in? Is it turned on?" questions, then reperforming the reboot/reset procedures yet again, it was determined that it was indeed broken as I had told the lady when the conversation began.

The kicker. She told me to put in a piece of paper explaining why I do not have my receipt. Is, "Cause I'm F*ck*ng Human!" an appropriate answer to that? Then she told me to mail it to Kent Washington. Great. Where? Is the entire city involved in your product replacement department? I asked her to repeat the address. Kent Washington. I snapped. I don't even feel bad for it, but I asked her in a more colorful way if she could possible give me an exact address or should I hope that whomever in the city of Kent, WA gets my package will know where it should go from there. She sent me to an automated line at that time that told me three times in exactly 6.2 seconds the exact address to send my phone to, then once in exactly 4 minutes that it would take 7 to 10 weeks to get a new phone.

I think I have justified purchasing a new NON-Panafucksonic phone now.

Son of a bitch that hurt!

It took me nearly three months to coordinate my schedule with the artist that I had chosen for this, but last night I finally got my Illuminati Diamond on my leg. It took about two hours from start to finish, and for the most part it was just like any other tat I have, dull burning sensation where the ink is being applied. However close to the shin bone and going sideways into the calf hurt like hell. Many thanks to Jeff at Cat Tattoo!

What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas...

However all of the shit that you purchase while you are there has to find its way home! Luckily, as per a previous post, I am quite capable of fitting entirely more than physically possible in a small space. The two suitcases that went out were combined into one so that the souvenirs could make it back. Basically, T-shirts for every little one in the family, plus a hat or two, and a toy or three, a new purse, not for me and more on that later, new shoes, for me, and a surprise for my brother in law which I cannot describe in the event he reads this prior to receiving the gift, which I personally think he will love!

Anyhow, Vegas was a blast. We did not gamble all that much, but what we did spend on gambling eventually made its way back to us. We won some, we lost some, but all in all I think we did well in that department. My wife won the most which is usually the case, so every time she won anything, I hid the cash out of sight so that it could not go back to the casinos.

We went to see the Blue Man Group on the night of the twelfth, our two year anniversary. That was awesome! So much more than I had expected. I knew they were a percussion group utilizing random objects to make great music. But what I did not know was how crowd oriented they were. We were all involved at some point in the show, plus the three people that they brought on the stage to have fun with. I can't even begin to describe the show, other than you have to see them live to appreciate them. I got my picture taken with one of the blue men, and out of the two hundred plus pictures that we took, I think it is my favorite. The same night, I think I spent more on a single meal that I ever have my entire life. Three hundred dollars for a salad, lobster bisque, filet mignon and lobster, and creme brulee. Worth every cent that we spent on it, though. We also saw Master Magician Lance Burton. Although that show was directed more for kids, it was awesome. I watched him like a hawk and was still absolutely amazed by the tricks that he did. Sleight of hand, disappearances, making animals appear out of thin air. He was amazing as a magician.

The final day that we were in Vegas, we traveled to Lake Mead to visit Hoover Dam. That was entirely too cool for me being an engineer. I wish that we were allowed to go further into the dam to see the inner workings, but thank to assholes that try to make our country afraid of everything, we were not able to see all that much. What we did see was fascinating. Generators are way cool.

As for the purse purchasing experience, I hate uppity fuckers! Simply because I shave my head and display my tattoos, and wear what I find comfortable even though it may not have sleeves on it, does not give anyone the right to look at me like poor white trash. It seemed that every dining establishment we went into, we were sat in a room by ourselves away from the rest of the patrons. Nice to be able to spend the time alone, shitty feeling ostracized. It came to the breaking point when we went into the Coach store in one of the casinos. It was a rather long store, and it was not until we made it all the way to the back and picked up a purse to look at, did any of the ass-ociates come over to see if they could help us. I think it was more of a theft deterrent that actually trying to see if we needed any help. However, we had been in another Coach store earlier and found that the purse my wife wanted was available in the aforementioned establishment. The particular purse my wife wanted was not the most expensive one they carried, however being Coach, it was still more pricey than I would pay to carry my wallet around. Anyhow, she told the ass-ociate exactly which purse she was looking to buy, and the lady pointed to a section of the store that had nothing similar to what she described. Round two, we came back to the same lady, held a purse up identical to the one she was looking for, but in another color, which made the ass-ociate huff off to the back to retrieve it. Then lady tries to up-sale us with some dinky ass wallet, which was not on the shopping list, and was very unimpressed that we did not jump all over it. It was not until we had actually paid for the purse and heading back out the door that two other ass-holeciates even made mention of our presence in the store. I was able to let them know as I was leaving that "I hate snobby-fuck-stores that only cater to rich looking people." That made me feel better!

On a separate and completely different note, I have finally installed Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate- Beta 2, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007- Beta 2. They are pretty, but holy shit, the folks in Redmond have a lot to work on if they think they are going to release this to the general public. The first attempt at installing Vista failed after three hours of trying to upgrade. The full installation took well over an hour and finally worked. The bad part is that I now have to try to install all of my old programs and try to make them work again.

If I was not such a geek, and didn't like to have the newest thing on my computer, I am pretty sure I would switch back to XP all the way around. Even still, I will keep the Betas, and pray that RC 1 and RC 2 come out quickly to get rid of a few of the bugs.

Seeing as how I have rambled on for some time now, you should probably get back to doing something more productive than reading this!

Panorama

I am currently 999MB into a 3.12GB download of Windows Vista Beta 2. I am a geek, and I admit it. I am excited about the new OS, even though I am still a linux fan.

Besides that, work is getting very interesting. I worked 16 hours yesterday, and learned more in 4 hours than I had all last year about the operation of the plant as far as the electrical controls go. It was incredibly fullfilling. That and I believe I have made an even further impression on the big boss with my knowledge of non-volatile RAM and EPROMS.

I had every intention of staying up until Vista downloads, but that is pointless right now. I need a DVD burner in order to burn the ISO to install Vista, and I have yet to justify that expense. Although I think I may have done just that.

I can't wait until Sunday! I am heading to Vegas for a week!

I don't think it gets much more random that this one!

Those who know, will know

On the lines of serious randomness, I, too have a knack for fitting big items in small spaces.

On another front, thank (insert deity of choice) it's Friday! This has been the longest short week I have had in a while. And this evening was the kicker to it all. I love riding my motorcycle. It gives me a feeling of freedom, and since I have to concentrate on the road ahead more stringently than in a car, I can free my mind of most other things. However when assholes in minivans drive in my vicinity, I have to be even more cautious. I realize they probably have screaming kids/animals/partners/ what the hell ever in the vehicle with them, but that does not give them the right to be completely oblivious to me. Thankfully I was alert on my way to work, or I would have been one large road rash. Thank you very f*ck*ng much minivan driver.

And in case anyone was wondering from a previous post, I did officially pass my state exam.