I can't sleep.
So today was the first day of the new grind. In typical first day fashion I spent all day signing forms and listening to presentations on my company's "vision" and fun stuff like that. I don't dig this "having to get up in the morning" thing but was prepared to give it the ol' College try.
I've gone to bed at "decent" hours the last two nights, but this morning, for some reason I woke up at 2:45 (a mere three and a half hours after going to bed) and can't fall back asleep. That sucks.
I've just discovered that the client that I've been using to post on LJ automatically posts with comments locked. This would explain why I never get any replies to my posts.
Dave emailed this article to the Tau alumni Yahoo group and it seems to have definitely stirred up some alumni feathers. Speaking for myself, I never in a million years would have voted to buy shirts that in any way seem to endorse a mass-murdering autocrat, and was even briefly thinking about boycotting pledging because of it when I first saw it on the website a month or two ago, but I quickly realized that it's just a Tau shirt and shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, hearing about CSSG trying to put the clamps on the group for this T-shirt choice has pissed me off something fierce. I know several Alums are talking about ordering the shirt just because of the controversy. So it'll could wind up being a decent fundraiser. Certainly the Cornellian feature will be a better promotion than any ammount of signs on the OC would be. I only worry that the Taus may be losing some of the diversity of ideas that has been a group value for so long.
Um... when I was thinking about this journal entry I figured it'd wind up being mostly about the new job/my lack of sleepyness and only briefly touch on the T-shirt issue, but my that's not how it turned out.
Oooh so here's a story about tonight.
So of course today was my first day at the new job, after driving Goddamnit home I came into the house and was taking care of some basic domestic-type chores. Around 6:15 with chores done I was talking to Adam and Delia about my frist day when I happened to pull out my keychain and noticed that my car key was no longer attached.
Understand that my key, being as it is a key to my car, is a broken piece of junk. Speciffically, there is a small crack in the loop that holds the key to the keychain, and when force is applied at the right angle this causes the key to pop off of the keychain. As I stared in surprise at my keychain I realized this had happened. Of course almost any other day in the past six months this wouldn't be a problem as I often went more than a week without driving. But I really need my car to drive to work tomarrow morning. So, I started searching around the house, searching mainly in places where I would have pulled my keys out of my pocket; front and back doors, (from unlocking them,) my bedroom, (from when I changed out of my work clothes,) etc. Unfortunately Goddamnit's key was nowhere to be found. Finally Adam suggested that I go out and look in the car, as perhaps I had left them in the ignition. I was pretty sure this wasn't the case. I mean I'm pretty bad about forgetting things, but leaving the keys in the ignition seemed pretty unlikely. A quick trip outside confirmed, I was right, I hadn't left my key in the ignition. But, it was sitting on the driver's seat, and both doors were securely locked.
Well, at least the mystery of the missing key had been solved by this time it was like, 6:45. I placed a call to a local 24 hour locksmith who informed me that it would be "only a $55 service charge" to unlock my car door. This wouldn't be so bad except, I don't have $55, not in my bank account, and certainly not in avaliable balance on any of my myriad of over-the-limit credit cards. However, I had a clever plan. I started calling around to area Honda dealerships knowing that they could probably cut me a new key if I gave them my VIN. Unfortunately, at this point of the evening, most parts departments were closed. I started close by and started slowly expanding my search to check dealers further out. Dealership after dealership informed me that their parts office had closed at either 5 or 6 o'clock. This was no good, finally at 7:05 I dialed the number for O'Hare Honda in Des Plaines (as obtained from Honda.com) of course I got some stupid VRU that wanted me to dial my party's extention, but not having such an extention, I just hit '0' and asked the receptionist who answered if their parts department was still open.
No, she informed me, they had just closed at 7:00. Cursing under my breath I complained that I should have called there first. And she, of course, was right on top of things and said, "You should always call here first." As I contemplated my dispair, it did occur to me that this receptionist was far sharper than most of the previous ones I had spoken to already this evening, most of them had to check to find out their own parts department hours, but she not only knew off the top of her head, but also had the presense of mind to fire of a little mini-commercial, that made an impact with me, because in my experience it appeared to be a correct statement.
Anyhow, at Adam's suggestion, and because I figured this person had it together, I decided to take a long shot and ask if she might have any idea where I might find a Honda parts department that would be open at this time of night. "You wanted the Honda parts department?" She replied, "I'm sorry, somehow you got put through to the Pontiac dealership, the Honda parts department is still open." She transfered me over, and actually got me right to the Honda parts office, instad of making me go through another receptionist. The Honda parts guy was able to pull up my VIN number and said he could have a new key cut immediately. Delia drove me over to the dealership, and after presenting my ID and proof that I owned the car, he gave me my new key, for the whopping price of $3.94 (including tax). Suffice to say I was pretty happy with the way things turned out, because according to my way of thinking paying $4 and getting a new key (so now I have a spare) out of the deal, is far better than paying $55 not getting a spare key, and possibly having my car damaged in the unlocking process.
I've gone to bed at "decent" hours the last two nights, but this morning, for some reason I woke up at 2:45 (a mere three and a half hours after going to bed) and can't fall back asleep. That sucks.
I've just discovered that the client that I've been using to post on LJ automatically posts with comments locked. This would explain why I never get any replies to my posts.
Dave emailed this article to the Tau alumni Yahoo group and it seems to have definitely stirred up some alumni feathers. Speaking for myself, I never in a million years would have voted to buy shirts that in any way seem to endorse a mass-murdering autocrat, and was even briefly thinking about boycotting pledging because of it when I first saw it on the website a month or two ago, but I quickly realized that it's just a Tau shirt and shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, hearing about CSSG trying to put the clamps on the group for this T-shirt choice has pissed me off something fierce. I know several Alums are talking about ordering the shirt just because of the controversy. So it'll could wind up being a decent fundraiser. Certainly the Cornellian feature will be a better promotion than any ammount of signs on the OC would be. I only worry that the Taus may be losing some of the diversity of ideas that has been a group value for so long.
Um... when I was thinking about this journal entry I figured it'd wind up being mostly about the new job/my lack of sleepyness and only briefly touch on the T-shirt issue, but my that's not how it turned out.
Oooh so here's a story about tonight.
So of course today was my first day at the new job, after driving Goddamnit home I came into the house and was taking care of some basic domestic-type chores. Around 6:15 with chores done I was talking to Adam and Delia about my frist day when I happened to pull out my keychain and noticed that my car key was no longer attached.
Understand that my key, being as it is a key to my car, is a broken piece of junk. Speciffically, there is a small crack in the loop that holds the key to the keychain, and when force is applied at the right angle this causes the key to pop off of the keychain. As I stared in surprise at my keychain I realized this had happened. Of course almost any other day in the past six months this wouldn't be a problem as I often went more than a week without driving. But I really need my car to drive to work tomarrow morning. So, I started searching around the house, searching mainly in places where I would have pulled my keys out of my pocket; front and back doors, (from unlocking them,) my bedroom, (from when I changed out of my work clothes,) etc. Unfortunately Goddamnit's key was nowhere to be found. Finally Adam suggested that I go out and look in the car, as perhaps I had left them in the ignition. I was pretty sure this wasn't the case. I mean I'm pretty bad about forgetting things, but leaving the keys in the ignition seemed pretty unlikely. A quick trip outside confirmed, I was right, I hadn't left my key in the ignition. But, it was sitting on the driver's seat, and both doors were securely locked.
Well, at least the mystery of the missing key had been solved by this time it was like, 6:45. I placed a call to a local 24 hour locksmith who informed me that it would be "only a $55 service charge" to unlock my car door. This wouldn't be so bad except, I don't have $55, not in my bank account, and certainly not in avaliable balance on any of my myriad of over-the-limit credit cards. However, I had a clever plan. I started calling around to area Honda dealerships knowing that they could probably cut me a new key if I gave them my VIN. Unfortunately, at this point of the evening, most parts departments were closed. I started close by and started slowly expanding my search to check dealers further out. Dealership after dealership informed me that their parts office had closed at either 5 or 6 o'clock. This was no good, finally at 7:05 I dialed the number for O'Hare Honda in Des Plaines (as obtained from Honda.com) of course I got some stupid VRU that wanted me to dial my party's extention, but not having such an extention, I just hit '0' and asked the receptionist who answered if their parts department was still open.
No, she informed me, they had just closed at 7:00. Cursing under my breath I complained that I should have called there first. And she, of course, was right on top of things and said, "You should always call here first." As I contemplated my dispair, it did occur to me that this receptionist was far sharper than most of the previous ones I had spoken to already this evening, most of them had to check to find out their own parts department hours, but she not only knew off the top of her head, but also had the presense of mind to fire of a little mini-commercial, that made an impact with me, because in my experience it appeared to be a correct statement.
Anyhow, at Adam's suggestion, and because I figured this person had it together, I decided to take a long shot and ask if she might have any idea where I might find a Honda parts department that would be open at this time of night. "You wanted the Honda parts department?" She replied, "I'm sorry, somehow you got put through to the Pontiac dealership, the Honda parts department is still open." She transfered me over, and actually got me right to the Honda parts office, instad of making me go through another receptionist. The Honda parts guy was able to pull up my VIN number and said he could have a new key cut immediately. Delia drove me over to the dealership, and after presenting my ID and proof that I owned the car, he gave me my new key, for the whopping price of $3.94 (including tax). Suffice to say I was pretty happy with the way things turned out, because according to my way of thinking paying $4 and getting a new key (so now I have a spare) out of the deal, is far better than paying $55 not getting a spare key, and possibly having my car damaged in the unlocking process.