poopdog.

was just reading some poop about the instability of the new intel imacs, what with them rushing them out three months early and whatnot. has me thinking that maybe we should postpone getting a new compy YET AGAIN, and wait for them to iron out the bugs. the upside is we wouldn't have to rape our savings to buy the compy, and could instead spend much, much less to get other things we technically need more than a compy anyway... clothes, lamps, etc.

poopy.

how dumb am I?

I'm so dumb, I spent much of today panicking, trying to figure out how I could possible ship out a job by tomorrow that hadn't been painted yet. a job that wasn't due to ship for NEARLY TWO WEEKS.

there are several processes involved for my job. I plumb forgot one today.

I am essentially a production manager. I get to delegate labour to roughly ten shop guys. the sales staff goes through me to find out what can be done. I, in turn, work with purchasing and engineering to get them their lead times.

couple months ago, we get a purchase order. job would normally have, say, an eight week lead time. but it needs to go through engineering. engineering normally has the job for two weeks, which is included in the original figure. they sign off on the job, and planning begins. parts are ordered and labour is scheduled accordingly to meet the ship date. problem is, engineering almost always takes longer to hold up their end of the bargain. so between the engineering and planning steps, I reset the lead time. in this case, I pushed the ship date back ten days.

problem is, I forgot to change the date on my schedule. so all this time, I've been acting on the assumption that the job had to shipby tomorrow. amazingly enough, I almost pulled it off. it went to paint friday, due back today, goes to crate tuesday and gets shipped. except the painters dropped the ball. they didn't paint the unit. it won't be done until tomorrow afternoon.

which meant my buyer was going to scramble to get the unit from paint at 1pm (they won't start it until tomorrow morning) to the craters, which is a 45 minute drive, in order for us to have a chance to ship tomorrow night. it also meant the paint was going to look like shit, since it wouldn't have time to dry properly.

as we're going over the gameplan tonight, I notice the correct ship date. and then had to make about four phone calls telling everyone to disregard my rambling, that I'm an idiot. as it turns out, the damn thing will go a week early, and everyone will be happy.

except me. I feel like an ass.

it's done.

Receipt Number: blah blah blah

Application Type: I485 , Application to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status

Current Status:

This case has been approved. On February 27, 2006, an approval notice was mailed. If 14 days have passed and you have not received this notice, you may wish to verify or update your address.

If you have questions or concerns about your application or the case status results listed above, or if you have not received a decision or advice from USCIS within the projected processing time frame, please contact the National Customer Service Center.

*** Please do not respond to this e-mail message.


Sincerely,


The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

the mind gets dirty as you get closer to thirty.

so, am I the only one wondering how long it'll be before someone does esurance porn? you know, that pink haired chick and the doofus guy she's always buying cars from... he needs to just nail her on the hood of one of those cars.

sadly, I already looked. limewire and google both came up empty on "esurance porn" queries...

I'm a bad, bad man.

shitty day.

today is one of those days I just shouldn't have bothered.

got fed up at work today. even sent my boss an email before I left about it. asked him to validate whatever authority I have over the shop guys, since they don't seem to listen to me if they don't want to. part of the problem is I try to avoid being a hardass, and ask them rather than tell them to do things. it has a lot to do with confidence, I'm sure. I'm not comfortable bossing people around when they do stuff I can't do. I'm a "lead by example" type... so we'll see how tomorrow goes. we missed a deadline today because one of the shop guys decided to use his own judgment over my own. we needed to ship something at 2pm, so I asked him to get it signed off at 8am. plenty of time to deal with any problems... he waited til 1pm. lo and behold, there was rework required. it STILL isn't done, I had to reschedule the pick up. had he finished it when I asked, the problem would have been caught by 10am on the final inspection, plenty of time to react and get it out on time...

got home, tried to do some laundry... two of the washers were going, so I could only do one load. went back down to move the one over to the dryer, and put two more in. problem is, the two washers were still full. mind you, they had to have been finished at least twenty minutes by this point, as they were running when I got home 45 minutes previous, and it's a 25 minute cycle. so I started unloading one of the washers and piling it on top of the dryer. while I'm doing it, a lady comes in and gets all offended that I'm touching her clothes! fucking bitch. there are signs on every washer and dryer pointing out there are only three of each for 38 apartments, and if you leave laundry unattended, it will get moved. she had no right to get pissy with me over that. and you KNOW I'm going down there right at an hour to pull her shit out of the dryer if she's not there. let her complain to the fucking manager. it was her policy to begin with...

and then, as I'm typing this, I noticed a breeze on my crotch. there's a giant hole in my pants, must have just happened this afternoon. I have that problem with jeans. my thighs are too big (I had to stop wearing 501's and switch to "loose fit" to accomodate this problem), and it's still happening. the jeans are less than a year old. and now I have one pair to wear. fuck.

I need to look into carharts. levi's just don't hold up....

hoo lardy, that's a lot of money.

oh yeah, miyuki got her green card. forgot to mention that. heading up to canadaland march 4. yay.

also got our tax return today. finally. so we spent lots of it. $800 on a new mattress and box spring. fancy one, too. one of them beautyrest fuckers, so I can toss and turn without waking miyuki. pillowtop, nice and soft, but on top of a firm mattress. we went to sleep country's outlet across the street from the store. couldn't get anyone to help us in the store, but there was a really helpful guy at the outlet store. I'm happy.

we also got a whole new set of shit to go with it... 400 thread count sheets, new pillow (for me, miyuki had a nice one), nice duvet, the works. that was around $300.

so we've spent a good chunk of our tax return. we have about $500 left, and that's pegged for the imac I want to buy next month. I've been wanting a new computer for three years now. driving me nuts that I almost have one!

we've been discussing all the other stuff we want to buy as we free up money to spend. foremost seems to be new clothes. makes sense, since neither of us have updated our wardrobes much in a couple years. hell, other than replacing jeans that wore out, I haven't bought much in the way of new clothes in over four years...

new mattress is delivered sunday. only two more nights sleeping on the crap one. yay!

big day.

miyuki has her immigation interview today (damn immigants). not entirely sure what to expect, but I do imagine it'll be similar to the movie green card. put us in separate rooms, ask a bunch of questions, compare the answers. what's going to get me in trouble is the gifts. they're going to ask what we've given each other for xmas and birthdays and shit, and I can't remember. I had to ask miyuki what I gave her for her birthday, and that was two months ago!

we both got the day off from work, which was probably unnecessary. I could have gone in for half a day and had plenty of time to get down there. stupid interview is in tukwila again, which in an annoying ass drive from here. I still don't understand why homey security can't have their offices downtown with the rest of the federal buildings...

we're not sure how this is going to go, but some of the things I've read have said she could actually get her conditional green card stamped in her passport, which would mean we could head back up to canada soon. I don't know if they actually do that. when they did her fiancee visa, they printed it from a weird printer, and even cut a border into it. pretty cool, I imagine it's all for anti-forgery shit.

we're also supposed to have our tax return deposited tomorrow, so we can go look for a new bed! yay! I hope thye can deliver it on the weekend. her family is coming down this weekend too, so we'll have a fair amount of entertaining to do. or at least she will. I may escape out to work for a bit.

work is going well too. my office is cleaner than it's ever been. I'm completely caught up and actually looking for stuff to do. I've spent a fair amount of time in the shop trying to be helpful. hey, at least I'm trying. everyone seems pleased with the job I'm doing, so I'm hoping when I get my six month review in april, they'll tack on a little extra to the 5% pay increase I was promised when I was hired.

I just hope everything keeps going smoothly. I don't want any bad shit to be happening just because I'm content and bordering on happy with my circumstances...

meme.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=xian

it's funny, miyuki and I were just talking about how others perceive roles and how we often feel obliged to conform to what people expect of us. we'll see how my "character" is interpretted by those around me.

surprise, surprise.

the mystery $600? yeah, I can thank my favourite mistake for that. seems now that someone has her mommy making her fucking car payments, she's taken the liberty of accruing a massive amount of parking tickets and hasn't paid them off. oh, she's TRIED mind you. her checks bounce like racquetballs.

so collections came after me. because my name is still on the loan. because I was stupid enough to believe her when she said she'd be responsible. now her credit is so fucked up she can't possibly refinance it to get my name off of it.

this fucking sucks. I want her knees broken in the worst possible way.

god damned mother fucking shitcocks.

I just checked my online banking to see if the IRS got off its ass to deposit my tax return. when I filed, I was told it would be deposited by 2/10/06. it's printed right across my damn confirmation. it isn't there.

but what IS there is two charges I know nothing about. a $75 legal processing fee, and a "levy/writ withdrawal" of $527.56. I called the bank, they gave me a name of KC (Casey?) Hawthorne, and a phone number 253.620.2222. when I call this number, it's for a company called Alliance One. a google of "Alliance One" turns up a washington state collection agency used by name of the courts here.

there are two problems with this. one, I didn't authorize a collection agency to remove $600 from my chequing account. two, I have done nothing that would WARRANT a collection agency taking money from me. the last traffic ticket I got, over a year ago, was paid AT the courthouse. all of my other bills are paid current and on time.

the only thing this may be is the bitch's car, but GMAC hasn't contacted me in months, and to the best of my knowledge, her mommy is keeping that current as well.

the bank told me they couldn't give me any more information, and I need to contact their levy department monday morning.

meanwhile, I have no money in my chequing account because of this, and I'm going to be stressing about it all fucking weekend.

god dammned mother fucking shitcocks. I want to find out who is responsible for this and beat the shit out of them with a baseball bat.

ouch.

first paycheque today since I started my 401k at the new job. my cheque was TINY. miyuki gets her first real cheque next wednesday, and it'll likely be almost twice as much, since she has no deductions other than tax coming out of here. no savings, no retirement, no insurance premiums.

good news is, six more weeks and I can drop her off my insurance and she'll have her own. that's an extra $221 every two weeks in my pocket. woohoo! and by the time her retirement and savings stuff all kick in, my cheques will be larger than hers, therefore redeeming my masculinity.

second thoughts.

so I'm starting to wonder if I should get a vespa. while it would be cool, I don't know if I NEED one. to invest five grand (after all the taxes and licensing fees, plus the helmet and such) to ease the burden of a ten minute walking commute seems a bit like overkill. I could spend $200 on a bike and accomplish the same thing. I already have a helmet for a bicycle, and the fancy lock...

I'm such a tool when it comes to spending money. as much as I like getting toys, I always end up with the buyers remorse. I won't have a problem getting the new mattress this weekend, and I can justify getting a new compy next month without guilt, as I haven't bought a new computer in over five years... don't most people get a new computer every three years or so?

miyuki tells me I can get a bike now and get a vespa later if I want... maybe when we have a garage?

my tattoo.

man, the whole world is against me. for a couple years now, I've been talking about how I want to get a tattoo. of tattoo.

miyuki finally gave me the ultimatum that if I did get it, she'd stop loving me. everyone else I've mentioned it to thinks it would be a bad idea too.

c'mon people! how cool would it be to say to someone, "hey, wanna see my tattoo?" and then show them this:

fuck the NFL. they're fucking nazis anyway.

I'm a sports fan. at least when it comes to the home team.

so I thought it was pretty cool that the seattle seahawks are playing in the superbowl. northwest teams never get any recognition. we've only had sports teams for thirty years here, compared to the 100+ of some east coast cities. plus, seattle is tucked away out of sight of most of the country.

so seattle is up against the pittsburgh steelers in the superbowl. and they're four point underdogs, despite being the #1 seed and pittsburgh the #6. fine. I didn't expect them to walk away with anyway, but I did expect it to be a good game.

it's a fucking travesty. pittsburgh was given a touchdown on a play that wasn't. it was the SAME GOD DAMNED PLAY that cost them the playoffs several years back, when vinnie testaverde was down, pushed the ball into the end zone after the fact, and the ref blew the call. that's one of the reasons the NFL has instant replay now. too bad the ref blew the fucking call AGAIN.

to add insult to injury, there have been THREE game turning penalties against seattle. game turning penalties that john madden and chris berman, two of the most esteemed veteran sportscasters in the world, both called bad or non-calls. three calls that negated points and momentum for seattle. three calls that directly led to pittsburgh points. offensive pass interfere against darrell jackson, negating a touchdown. holding on the offensive line, negating a pass play to the 1 yard line. illegal block against matt hasselbeck following an interception (because the previous play was negated in the previous sentence) on a legal tackle.

it's fucking bullshit. I haven't seen THIS much bias in a sporting event since I watched pro wrestling as a kid. and even then, I think this is worse. I'm done with the NFL. paul tagliabue, the commissioner of the NFL, can personally kiss my hairy, white ass.

it never ceases to amaze...

after four months on the job, I finally need to hold a production meeting. I'd been putting it off and putting it off, but they're demanding one. it's gonna suck. but I found out my most senior shop guy, who has been out the past three months and was due back monday from hip surgery, won't be back anytime soon. lots of juggling and suckage. compound that with one of my other guys needing to take nine days off for medical leave, and I'm in quite a pickle. I don't quite understand the meaning of that expression, but it is amusing to say.

anyway, after many revisions and much tinkering, I managed to piece together a schedule that would see all but one job ship on time or early between now and the end of march. that's HUGE. since I started, I don't think we've had more than 50% of the jobs ship on time. and now I'm looking at thirteen jobs going on time to one going late? and five of those on time jobs will go a week or more EARLY? I'm a damn miracle worker. but there's a rub.

the one job that will go late is unacceptable. and it wasn't even my fault. the damn thing STILL hasn't been released from engineering, and some of the parts only got ordered this week. it's due to ship in four, takes two weeks to build plus a week to paint and crate, and the parts have a two to three week lead time. oh, and that guy with the medical leave? he has to build when he comes back.

there's a slim chance even this can be pulled off on time. it'll take a lot of creativity with the labour and a few expedite fees on the parts, but we could pull it off. if we do, and I manage to ship everything on time between now and march 31 (end of our fiscal year), I think I deserve a damn party. I'll definitely be taking my shop guys out for a round of beer.

I still don't understand a lot of the mechanics of what they're doing, but I am getting a lot more comfortable with my side of the job. and I think I'm coming up with ideas and solutions for long standing problems, which is really satisfying. it's good to know I've been able to adapt to this new job and I'm actually doing better than I had expected. now let's just hope that parlays into a fat raise to compensate for all the extra hours I've been putting in...