(no subject)
it's been a while.
in no particular order:
- aunt's 60th birthday was last week, so i flew out to detroit. ended up playing bartender since the actual bartender showed up smashed. gift of a digital picture frame went over really well. i really love my garmin --- it made getting around michigan (which, i'm beginning to realize, is as impossible to navigate as virginia because it's just as flat, just as green, and just as generally lacking obvious landmarks) a ton easier.
- the same tactics used to claim that intelligent design is "science" are being used to claim that global warming is a hoax. it took all my strength to not yell at the people across the aisle from me on the airplane when i happened to overhear them discussing how they thought global warming was a myth. turns out that the right has, in general, been monumentally successful at getting people to live in a world that simply doesn't correspond with the reality i experience.
- finished stage 1 of computer build, which involved adding more ram and a dlink pci-e wireless nic. in the process, i discovered that comcast botched the cable installation on my apartment (quelle suprise!) and didn't turn on cable in the guest bedroom. not a happy camper. i think that i'm getting rid of them pretty soon, maybe altogether if quest has reasonable prices for naked dsl.
- work has been meh. they lost about half the company's health insurance stuff, which means that it took about six weeks extra for us to get our cards. that's annoying, but what really galled me was the reaction when i went to ask brave and fearless leader if (a) he knew about the situation and (b) if there was maybe something he could do to help. i've been spending a lot of time on the phone lately trying to work with the support desk to get things that had been working working again. it took me a while to figure out that axis network cameras have some really strange behavior. they'll auto-configure via dhcp, but they won't honor their dhcp leases expiring. i did finally manage to get a static ip for the thing, so the past two days haven't been a complete wash. actually, i managed to get a lot done w/r/t getting nighttime in good working condition. it's remarkable how changing a single, fairly simple assumption can totally break your software design (or, in this case, lack of design).
- in other work news, i'm not really sure how happy i am about my title. i'm still trying to figure out how big of a deal that's going to be in terms of career mobility, but i'm more irked by the fact that when i read my current job description and compare it to what i had been responsible for prior to the merger, i keep on coming to the conclusion that i got stiffed. i suspect that they brought everyone across at the lowest possible grade that fit their salary and experience. the jury's still out on why tho.
- most recent attempt to date resulted in epic fail. nice enough guy, but jesus... i'm not impressed by people wearing tri-force necklaces, zelda jackets, and bsg t-shirts. people who have nothing nice to say about their friends also don't impress me. not saying "thank you" or even acknowledging that i'd picked up the tab doesn't just not impress me, it pisses me off.
- did pretty well in my controls class last semester - certainly far better than i'd expected to. the big lesson for me at least boils down to: arbitrary pole / mode placement doesn't buy you a damn thing if you don't know what those poles and modes should be. optimal control ftw! i'm about 80% certain that next semester will be stochastic processes, assuming that me being late to work 3 days a week isn't going to be a problem. if it is, i'm going to have to backtrack.
- a couple conferences coming up that i'd like to go to. we'll see if i can get work to pick up the tab.
been looking at buying a condo, with mediocre levels of success so far. more on that when i get time.