bavarian orgies.

miyuki and I are heading to leavenworth this weekend for oktoberfest. my parents have gone every year for the past fifteen with a group of friends and neighbours from the old neighbourhood. my sister was planning to go this year, but had to cancel on late notice, so we're taking her reservation. it'll be our substitute honeymoon, since we never went anywhere after the wedding.

I went with my parents on the first trip fifteen years ago, and was bored to tears (not much for a 13 year old to do in the middle of a tourist trap bavarian style town during oktoberfest). it also rained the entire time. my mom was telling me last weekend about how it never rains when they go, except that first year.

it's forecast to rain all weekend there.

leavenworth hates me.

but it won't stop me from drinking copious amounts of german beer and dancing like a chicken to bad polko piped over a tinny PA system in the biergarten. I pity miyuki for having to be associated with me.

I'm such a dork.

each year I do fantasy sports leagues. two years ago I did hockey, and ended up doing baseball with some of the same people. last year I did baseball again, and started doing football with some old friends from school. I do okay in baseball and terrible at football. but hockey is where I really excel, because it's the sport I really follow. last time I finished second out of 20 teams, and I was jonesing bad last season during the lockout.

my fantasy draft is this morning at 9:30. I've done some prep for it, made some notes... but last night I couldn't sleep. I kept running through mock drafts. I went to bed about 11, and I was really tired. I woke up around 2:30am and couldn't get back to sleep for more than half an hour at a time. it sucks, but I'm just really looking forward to hockey season.

11 more days til the season starts, and I'll have all the games on my tv. woo!

boycott regal cinemas.

let no one argue that I am not a petty man. I am.

a $1.50 charge showed up on my most recent bank statement for a non-bank ATM fee. problem with this? I never use anthing except my bank's ATMs. so I called. and they gave me the details.

$18.00 from regal cinemas in redmond on 8/29.

what's the significance of this? miyuki and I went to see a movie at that theatre. there was a big line at the box office, but we had noticed they finally installed an automated box office. so I decided we'd do this. I bought the two tickets, no cash back or anything else. punched in my access code, got the tickets and we went in.

washington mutual considers this kiosk an ATM. so they charged me $1.50 for using it. problem is, the theatre didn't advertise it as an ATM. they advertised it as an automated kiosk, just use your debit or credit card... no different than the self-serve lanes at a grocery store. and the fact that you could get cash back isn't a tip off either, you can get cash back from any debit transaction that requires your PIN.

so I call the bank, they tell me to take it up with the theatre. I call the theatre, they tell me to call their corporate office in knoxville, tennessee. by the time I'm done paying with that phone bill (it's a toll call), it wouldn't be worth getting my buck fiddy back. so it's too much trouble to do that.

it isn't, on the other hand, too difficult to boycott regal cinemas. there are plenty of loews and landmark theatres around here, I don't need to go to regal at all. so congratulations, regal. that buck fiddy has cost you my business, which was only a paltry couple hundred bucks a year... but it's going to your competition instead.

and but so...

things at work progress as usual.

no mention was made of the work party crashing from the weekend. my predecessor showed up yesterday tho, and I mentioned it to him. his thoughts? "that's REALLY weird" and immediately jumped to the conclusion that things weren't peachy keen.

the warehouse skank showed up an hour late this morning. she said it was approved by the boss. this after he said in no uncertain terms that everyone is expected to be here for their shift, and if you need to do something or be somewhere, you better make damn sure you do it outside of work hours. but I guess that only applies to those who aren't sucking him off. what a joke.

I also got word last night that the girl over at corporate I recommended as my replacement has been promoted within her department, after a year of being taken for granted and underappreciated. she would have been able to do this job in her sleep. she's very capable and intelligent, and I recommended her because she wasn't being used to her potential where she was at. well, someone over there finally noticed that and promoted her. the problem? I recommended her two MONTHS ago, and reiterated my request and recommendation three WEEKS ago. but because my boss wouldn't do anything, the window is now closed. there is no one else readily available to step into this position, and he damn well won't advertise on the company bulletin board. and since I won't be allowed to transfer elsewhere until a replacement is found, this limits my options for getting the hell out of here to quitting.

so now I'm back to relying on the headhunter to find me something. I was instructed not to seek employment myself while they're looking, too. I'm basically fucked.

philistines.

not a single one of my co-workers has understood the reference of my newest DS shirt, pictured below...



my co-workers are lame.

ah, paranoia, how I love thee...

one of the duties (heh, duties) my job entails is to physically count everything in the warehouse thrice yearly. this is roughly 7000 different SKUs that need to be counted on a scanner gun that fails to hold a charge for more than twenty minutes. it's a difficult proposition compounded by the fact that the warehouse is NEVER caught up, meaning there is shit everywhere that's been received but not put on the shelf.

because so much of my regular workday is spend babysitting and doing things not normally under my job description, I have as much as ten hours a week in overtime allotted to me by corporate to stay caught up. I don't like being here during the week, because the counting is easiest done while no product is moving (ie, no one picking or receiving it). since I don't want to get up at 4am or stay until 7pm, this means I work on weekends. I'll come in for six hours on a saturday and get stuff done, it's relaxing and I have no distractions.

today was, well, awkward. I rolled in around 11am after sleeping in and having a nice breakfast with miyuki. pulled into the parking lot to see the entire warehouse crew was here with herman goerring. seems he had scheduled a work party and neglected to tell me. nor was the expression on his face one you'd call "pleasant" when I got out of my car. this is where my paranoia kicks in. see, I'm usually the first one to find out about these work parties, half the time I even organise them myself.

the fact that he put together a work party and failed to mention it to me is significant in the realm of pissant office politics. it reinforces, in my mind at least, that he's trying to run me out and doesn't want me here. and most people who have been around this company for awhile would agree with that assessment. it may still be paranoia when they actually are out to get you, but at least I'm reassured in knowing he is out to get me.

worst part was how no one else here said a word to me either, 'cos I get along with most of them. icy glares and whatnot. they were probably wondering why the hell I wasn't helping them. and I'm sure they weren't informed that I wasn't invited to their little tea party...

she's not quite bonafide yet.

so three calls to homey security, half an hour on hold for each (disconnected during "transfers" on the first two), and we finally have some answers.

miyuki doesn't have a green card yet. it'll cost $400 to get that. and take six months. and then eighteen months after that we need to pay another $200 to get her green card made permanent.

fortunately, we can file a $200 application at the same time and get her work permit within 90 days. just in time for her to get a job in a mall as an xmas elf. that will be a VERY welcome income, as we're currently living nearly $500 beyond my means and dipping into savings each month to cover the difference. throw in the extra $600 from avings, and we'll be screwed and homeless by february. if she can start working in december (or maybe even november) that will reverse the frightening trend and put us back in in black...

also got a call from GMAC telling me that the ex-wife's mother paid them $1200. money she doesn't have to be bailing out her crack-whore daughter with. I feel bad for her mom having to most likely draw on her retirement fund to pay it (or the ex-brother in law's college fund), but it's better her than me. worst part of all of this is how it's going to hurt miyuki too. she's attached to my credit, and my credit is attached to the ex's fuckups... we're gonna be renting for a LONG time. takes seven years for crap like that to fall off your credit report. we might be able to buy a house in 2013...

what a letdown.

tonight has just kinda sucked.

miyuki had a doctor's appointment, basically to get her set up and whatnot since we now have her insured healthwise. they scheduled the appointment for next month, so we had to sit in the waiting room for half an hour while they squeezed her in.

gmac called to inform me my ex-wife bounced her last car payment, is now four months overdue on payments, and they're trying to repossess the car. problem is, they can't find her. they called my parents first, which makes no sense (they have NOTHING to do with the loan, nor have I lived with them during any point of the loan), then called me to verify her address. it was an address I've never heard of, which means she's moved at least once without informing me. they also had her employer address as issaquah, which made no sense, unless she's also switched jobs. no matter what happens, this is going to end badly for me. I just hope they have to break her legs to get the car or something.

we got a couple slices of pizza for dinner in the u district at my fave pizza by the slice place, but it's changed. it's been remodeled and painted ugly orange, and appears to be under new ownership. and the new owners have changed to some weird skank faux-cheese that's too melty and sticky, it seemed more like pasteurised processed cheese food than real cheese.

then we went to see the world with jenn. we weren't sure what to expect, but had figured it should be a pretty movie if nothing else. it was awful, worst movie we've seen since izo. not only was it not pretty (it actually looked like it was filmed on a handheld video camera), but the acting was awful and the story was boring as hell. it's sad when a movie has me thinking my life is pretty damn exciting and fraught with drama. we actually walked out of the movie after 90 minutes... so if anything spectacular happened in the last 45 minutes, oh well. we didn't see it.

all in all, tonight has sucked some serious donkey tent. I'm going to bed...

blah.

just had a little chat with the VP of the company, who directly oversees my boss. it wasn't a pleasant one.

I told him I wanted out of management training and out of the branch. the costs of management aren't worth the rewards. I've spoken with several people who have been more than satisfied to take the low risk, low yield routes to happiness, including one former manager in my company. he said it just isn't worth it, unless you're willing to be married to your job. and even then, it probably isn't... there's more money there, but exponentially more stress.

I also voiced my displeasure with my current situation, which isn't going to bode well. I'm trying my best to avoid the personal shit. I want to keep this professional and just get to a better place. somewhere with less stress. I can thrive under pretty much any conditions, I don't doubt my abilities. what I do doubt is my desire and ambition. maybe I'm just lazy. but I liken myself more to dave winfield... the baseball great was derided by steinbrenner as "mr. may" in response to reggie jackson being "mr. october"... reggie was a prick, but came through in the clutch, and won when it really mattered. winfield, on the other hand, was a great player that tended to wilt under the intense scrutiny of the playoff pressures.

that's me. when there's nothing on the line, I'm awesome. but the more stress you pile on, the less I'm going to succeed. call it cowardice or laziness or whatever other character flaw you want... I just don't see it as being worthwhile. can you tell I can also really empathise with ron livingston's character from office space? I just don't care that much. I'll do my job well out of personal pride, but I'm not going above and beyond the call of duty for a job and company that doesn't appreciate me in the first place. and no, it isn't worth the effort of trying to get them to appreciate me. they don't much appreciate my dad, and he's one of the best managers they have...

overheard at work...

a plumber was just in here and said the following: "the calamari looked like a foreskin."

my internal commentary? "dood, quit dipping your penis in ranch dressing."

if only I could get away with audibly implying our customers use condiments as lube...

this is lame.

I just LOVE how my country rewrites history as it pleases...

"Pinochet seized power Sept. 11, 1973, toppling democratically elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, who committed suicide during the military bombardment of the government palace."

funny, I don't recall reading about allende killing himself... I seem to recall the history being he was killed during the coup by pinochet's forces (with, of course, US backing). but heaven forbid US media actually report that a democratically elected socialist be the victim of a horrendous and unjust coup...

blah.

had an hour plus intervention between boss and methuselah. it was established that the problem lies in a lack of communication. methuselah feels slighted that I don't respect him (because he's an idiot and practially incompetent), I don't feel I should have to respect someone who doesn't do their job. I have certain reasonable expectations for productivity, which are pretty much industry and company standards, agreed upon by damn near everyone who has ever done the job... he can't come close to meeting those standards, but doesn't feel he should have to. whatever.

also got a phone call from my headhunter hookup. said he'd found a position that I'd be great for. problem is, it pays $3k less a year than I'm currently making and actually has a WORSE commute (bellevue instead of redmond). he had asked if I'd consider the eastside, and I originally told him I would for the right offer. if it's a nice raise or something, sure. but I declined to even bother interviewing for this one.

did get some good news... the manager of the ballard store got canned. he was the reason I never went there (there was a purchasing opening there the same time as redmond), as pretty much everyone told me to avoid him like the plague. there's also a potential opening in credit (my top choice) as one of the girls there has made it known she is "actively seeking other employment"... was also told not to rule out payables entirely, guess they've burned through two or three new hires recently. so there's at least some hope I could get back to the west side without changing employers in the near future...

princess ass.

the payables job has been filled.

but at least I was yelled at by the most worthless warehouse monkey today. he claimed he wouldn't be able to do the simple set of tasks assigned to him, and I had the audacity to ask him, and I quote, "why?" he told me if I "would get off [my] princess ass and do something, maybe the receiving would get done!"

this coming from the receiver. to the buyer. I BUY the stuff. other, warehouse people receive it and put it away. namely, him. but because I sit on my "princess ass" all day, his job doesn't get done. it should also be noted this is the same individual I was told to quit criticising, because he's sensitive about his apparent retardation. so I can't point out his mistakes to him, but he can verbally abuse his superior. my boss has done nothing about it.

looks like I'm back to relying on the headhunter to find me a decent job.

being a non-conformist pain in the ass finally pays off.

so I wasted about two hourrs trying to get our DSL working tonight. I'm no tech guru, but I know enough about computers to do basic networking. I also know when I'm licked, so I called qwest tech support. was on hold for 39 minutes (our call ID box has a timer, heh) before a human being walked me through the process... she seemed surprised when I told her I was running mac os x. she told me msn (the isp) wouldn't run on a mac. I told her I knew that, and tried to explain it to the guy on the phone when I ordered the broadband... several convoluted steps later (NONE of which were on the little two page installation instructions) and a randomly assigned username and password (which I was never issued), and I have interwebs.

she transferred me over to someone else to have the msn removed from my bill, and that lady was so upset by my trouble that she gave me a $32 credit for one month's service. guess she hates it when people try to sell the msn package to us lowly mac users... so I lost much of my evening, but I got a free month of internet out of it.

now we just need to figure out how to use our dish. I spent half an hour going through and removing all of the crap stations we don't get from the guide, but they're still showing up.

it hasn't been a very productive night...

am I crazy?

I just threw my name in the hat for a job in our payables department. it's traditionally been an all middle-aged fat and/or foreign female department, but recently they did hire a young guy... prestige wise, it's bottom of the barrel for corporate. but it's also vital, so there's ample job security. it'd probably be seen as a step backwards, and definitely isn't a fast track to anywhere. right now I'm in line for management in a few years, which means more money and exponentially more stress.

the lady who runs the department isn't pleasant. she's a nosy gossip, but she's also close to retirement. my current boss is an ass, he's new to management, doesn't know what he's doing but refuses to acknowledge it. he's also trying to run me out because I'm too much a threat to his way of doing things (the wrong way, btw).

the payables job is two miles from home, currently it's 20+. the payables job has far less stress, and the stress it does have is of a manageable deadline variety. all my life I've been caught up in this career path bullshit... I'm beginning to think as long as I can pay my bills and put a bit of money away for fun and old age, who the hell cares? a job is a job, it doesn't need to be a career, no? there are people in that department who have MADE it a career, putting in 20+ years... but it's not like they make much more than people in the field who have the same tenure. I'm thinking a cushy 8-5 gig with low expectations isn't necessarily a bad thing... thoughts?

rachael is mean.

while avoiding work and talking to rachael on msn, I came up with a brilliant, idiot proof scheme to get rich. see, she's in england. it's like eight hours IN THE FUTURE. it's 7:30am here, but it's 3:30 IN THE AFTERNOON there!

so I asked her to get the winning lottery numbers tonight at 7 and email them to me. since it would only be eleven here, I could go buy some tickets this afternoon, hours before the drawing happens here, and we could be filthy, stinking rich! I even offered to split the winnings with her 50/50.

but will she do it? noooooo. 'cos she's a poopyhead.

almost done. woo.

so we're mostly unpacked... just going through the last odds and ends. came across a box full of burnt copies of mac software circa 1998. it pains me to think that I've moved that fifty pound box no less than six times, and it's all totally useless... who would use software that's been completely outdated and obsolete for at least five years? sigh.

our living room is huge. it's awesome. we still need a futon and a coffee table, but there's plenty of room for it.

miyuki had her first mondo burrito from taco del mar tonight for dinner. I love those things so much...

we've got a swedish hospital two blocks away. I'm actually considering looking there for a job, even if it's crappy entry level stuff. a friend of mine used to work at a hospital, just in the cafeteria or something, and it was a sweet gig for him. a two block walk to work would rock much balls. we could also look for something clerical there for miyuki when the time comes.

I'm liking our new place. it's not perfect, but there's a lot of aspects of it I really like. we need to do a pub crawl soon. old pequliar is close, but so is the lock and keel and the tractor and a ton of other bars. ballard is definitely a cool old bar type town.

should get back to unpacking. we get our satellite tv wednesday! and I have NHL centre ice in a month! wooo, hockey.

owie owie owie.

we're supposed to be going to target tonight to procure household goods.

I'm flat on my back in bed. my bad back, which has been painfully spasming for the past ten days or so, finally gave out. in a BAD way. I've never been in this much pain before. I can't even move. I'm beginning to see what all those get fuzzy comics were about when rob's back goes out. I've had back problems before, but I always got through it and just thought people were big pussies.

I apologise. this is horrible. I had to go to the bathroom earlier and it nearly killed me...

meanwhile, this leaves poor miyuki unpacking most of the stuff on her own... we were maybe 40% unpacked when I went down for the count...

update.

we're into the new place. we're about 20% unpacked. there are two or three different pirateable net connections here, so maybe I shouldn't have signed up for a year of DSL... oops. oh well. this way I'll have a right to bitch and moan when it goes down.

my parents helped us far more than they needed to (or should have). the cats are totally freaked out. we need to procure lunch, and quickly.

tomorrow we get hattie's for breaky... mmmmm, hattie's. two blocks away!

we also need to make several supply runs this weekend. target for the essentials, maybe ikea for some cheap furniture. already picked up cat litter and a shower curtain, as they were needed direly. is direly a word?

more later.

the day from hell continues.

so today sucked serious balls. work was horrible, trying to cover for the people that were gone. and I wasn't allowed to leave early. I tried. received a phone call telling me if I wasn't back in time for the meeting I'd be "in trouble"... was away long enough to rent the truck and got back. fought with my boss for twenty minutes, then sat through a pointless hourlong meeting. nothing covered I didn't already know or that couldn't wait. he had to do an encore next week for the three absent people ANYWAY...

finally get out, and have voicemail from the new landlady. they're painting our apartment, even tho they're not supposed to. good news? no ugly purple and green. bad news? we can't move in, 'cos they're only half done. fuckers. we end up storing our shit in a vacant unit down the hall, but can't actually move into our place until tomorrow afternoon. and I wrench my back again.

we also didn't get everything moved because I didn't get home until almost 7. so the last remnants, plus the cats, are hanging out at the old, very empty pad tonight. we'll be back tomorrow after my interview to pick it up.

my parents have been very patient helping us, and even bought us harvey's pizza for dinner (mostly because my dad hadn't been there in 13 years and was jonesing).

it's 10:30, we have to load another carload and get "home"... I won't likely have net connection until tuesday when they install our DSL. sucks balls.