June 10, 2006

Puttin' in the hours

Work has been in-sane as of late. Well maybe not that crazy, but I have definitely put more work into the project that I am working on than I ever have at my previous job(s). And as tiring and stressful as it has been at work this past 3-4 weeks, it has also been very rewarding. I'm not saying that I want work to always be as insane as it has been, but I have definitely learned a lot. The project is (for the most part) over now...and will be at the end of its cycle on Tuesday.

I'll be glad because I won't have to put in 12 hour days 3-4 days a week in the coming weeks like I have been.

Posted by Michael at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2006

Work update

Work is going pretty well for me so far. My provisional period has ended, which now means I am a full-time employee. I had a 60-day review which went very well. I am starting to get into development work now and I am trying to churn through stuff as best I can.

I should have my apartment situation figured out by this weekend.

Posted by Michael at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2005

Rite of Passage

I was informed last week that every new employee has to do the "Dome Burger Challenge", which is basically to eat a 1lb burger and all that comes on the plate in the fastest time possible. Today was my day to attempt such a feat.

I accomplished my task, but my time was definately sub-par. At least I won't need to eat for the next 3 days. =)

Posted by Michael at 01:49 PM | Comments (2)

November 29, 2005

New job

So I started my new job yesterday and so far it's going pretty well. It's in a nice location right in the middle of downtown Indianapolis. I have a desk looking out a window and have been put to work almost immediately. It didn't take me long to get back into the swing of actually working.

I'm pretty happy so far, now I just need to find an apartment and other fun stuff.

Posted by Michael at 12:16 PM | Comments (4)

December 21, 2004

So full

My manager took our entire group out to lunch today as a Christmas group lunch thing. I ate _so_ much food. Not to the point of gluttony, but I don't think I can eat another bite. It was this really good somewhat out of the way Italian restaurant in Mountain View. Very good stuff. There was pizza, pasta[0], chicken, salad and dessert.

I think I may take a little walk....or a little nap. On the bright side, I won't have to eat dinner tonight. =)

[0] Penne marinara and linguine (sp)

Posted by Michael at 01:34 PM | Comments (2)

September 08, 2004

Really fricking hot

The place where I work is at quite an uncomfortable internal temperature today. I think the AC may be broken or something. Then again, the 3 computers, 1 laptop and 2 other machines in my cube may not be helping. But other people have mentioned how uncomfortable it was. So I don't think it's simply my cube space that is generating this large amount of heat.

Must drink lots of cold beverages.

Posted by Michael at 04:13 PM | Comments (1)

July 12, 2004

Foosball at work

When your manager asks you to go play foosball, is that considered a 1-on-1 meeting?

Posted by Michael at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2004

Oh happy day

We now have Sun Chips in the Engineering vending machine. It's a good day.

All I need now is Vanilla Coke at work and my life will be complete. Well, not really, but definately closer than it is now. =)

Posted by Michael at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2004

Dumb scripting languages

I've traded one dumb scripting language for another. Why must companies who make products with their own scripting languages make them such a pain to use.

Blah.

Music: Smile Empty Soul - Who I Am

Posted by Michael at 04:25 PM | Comments (4)

June 03, 2004

Annoying sense tingling....

There's a printer at work that when it is printing proceeds to emit a very high-pitched hecka-annoying noise. What really sucks is when someone decides that they need to print a whole lot of stuff. Ugg. Chalk up another reason for listening to music at work.

Music: Metallica - Hero of the Day

Posted by Michael at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2004

This just in...

Installshield _still_ sucks. Debugging one's own installer sucks more.

I was updating an old Installshield script yesterday and it was definately a not fun experience. In order to debug my installer, I had to build the installer, copy it over to a different machine[0], uninstall the old software and re-install the new application. On the bright side, I didn't need to reboot between un-installs and re-installs, but having to do this about 15+ times started to be a royal pain in the ass. Blah, it's times like these that we need a punching bag down in the gym at work.

[0] We have a policy about installing the software on the same machine as it is built. It's a good policy, it just happened to add an extra step to my process.

Music: Rob D - Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Mix)

Posted by Michael at 07:11 PM | Comments (1)

May 03, 2004

Code maintainence

I have no problem maintaining my own code. Meaning, that I will not be too bitter about lack of comments and general "wtf?[0]" moments, mostly because I have noone to blame but myself, but also because I know the level of coding and competance that I have.

Now, I have a piece of software that I am responsible to maintain. The author is no longer available. The author also was nice enough to leave the code in a completely broken state. There are so many issues with this code, I don't even want to think about it, but I have to go through and fix all the problems. It's highly frustrating. I'll give you a few examples.

But I'm not bitter...

[0] what the f*** (for my non-geek friends)
[1] yay perl

Posted by Michael at 05:10 PM | Comments (1)

January 08, 2004

"To be supplied..."

Don't you just love the lack of documentation on a product or API that seems to come along all the time? Or after beating my head against a wall for a week trying to figure something out, and asking the person responsible about the problem, the person says "oh! you didn't do thing X" or "that's not the way thing Y works".

So either I can't read what little documentation there was, or the things I am being told I was just supposed to intuitively know about someone else's code. Ug.

Posted by Michael at 02:48 PM | Comments (1)

September 03, 2003

Who to believe?

Microsoft Word says that the word is extendibility while Mirriam-Webster says it's extendability.

My gut tells me that I shouldn't believe Microsoft. It's usually a safe bet. =)

Posted by Michael at 03:56 PM | Comments (9)

July 21, 2003

Taste the Rainbow

So today, my company had a meeting/lunch for all the employees in our division in the courtyard of our building. It was a Mexican themed outing, so the menu for lunch was "Make-your-own-Burrito". I fixed myself a chicken and steak burrito with gratuitous amounts of sour cream and sat down to eat with a couple friends from work. Now, as I said, it was a Mexican themed outing. However, last I checked, the music selection (specific songs elude my memory) was about as far from Mexican as they could be.

Complete with said Mexican-themed lunch, there were also 2 pinatas (sorry, I don't know the unicode for the n with the ~). These pinatas contained such candy as Twix, Jolly Ranchers and Starbursts. Being a man of diverse tastes, I scrounged to acquire as many Strawberry starburst chews as I could. I think I have had at least 10 today. Mmmm, strawberry.

Posted by Michael at 05:35 PM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2003

2 weeks of intermittent boredom presents....

What do you do when you're really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really bored at work??

Posted by Michael at 01:32 PM | Comments (3)

July 10, 2003

Zug zug

I have come to the conclusion that I don't like working until 1:30am. I had to come into work last night to test, and I really wasn't happy about it.

And in case anyone missed the reference in the title, it's from WarCraft. It's the noise a Peon makes when you tell him to go do something.

Posted by Michael at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2003

More InstallShield

So continues my tinkering with InstallShield. Although at this point, I have decided to take the script that was definately not written by me and make it concise, robust and easier to read. It feels good to be coding again. Yes, yes, I know, it's InstallShield, so it's not _really_ coding. But it's the closest I have been to coding in the last 4-5 months.

/me needs coding fix

Posted by Michael at 04:53 PM | Comments (1)

June 18, 2003

Mama says Installshield is the debil

Arg! Normally I don't mind learning new tools and applications, however, learning those tools becomes a giant pain in the ass when the interface to the application is crap.

So, in short...I hate Installshield. The editor in the IDE blows, and I don't think the rest of the application is very intuitive.

Posted by Michael at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)