In Which the Overlord Becomes Metaphorical Via Rocketry and Lives Through Holidays.
And here's your mid-holiday update. I am still alive and well. There is a Christmas present for me following me around--was going to be delivered at the end of the day in MI when I was leaving that morning, so I called ahead to get it held at the facility so we could stop by there on the way to the airport. It wasn't at the facility, so I had them redirect it down here to Texas. Well, now it's supposed to arrive in the afternoon of the day I head back for Michigan in the morning. *headdesk* What else? I got threatened with getting fired because I forgot to hand over my keys at the airport until I was starting to board the plane and the driver had already headed back, apparently the CEO has a real thing against company vehicles being parked outside a secured storage area and my manager was not happy. Fortunately, gate agents are sweethearts and the driver was willing to go the hour back to the airport on a early-off Friday to grab my keys from the insecure side. I need to get him something in thanks--I LOVE my job and it's only going to keep getting better as they feed me deliberately broken machines and I get to learn another kind of them after the new year. And then the delicious dessert of actually getting to go out to location!
What else? Christmas here was pretty low-key, but there's still two trees and a construction-paper fireplace / chimney and hand-embroidered stockings. Compared with last year in the cabin...VAST IMPROVEMENT. Hardware failure month has been and hopefully gone. On a trip out in Bug, the usual rocker arm clatter turned into something that sounded for all the world like a horrible knock or a spun bearing. I tried pulling spark plug wires off by the side of the road but it didn't isolate itself, so that led to cramming three passengers into a single-cab tow truck. Raine had to sit on Z's lap and I had to sit sideways while the guy desperately tried to keep his hand off my thigh while shifting. A modest sum of money, most of a week, and a one and a half mile walk to the garage (my treadmill habits are at least occasionally useful) later, the rocker arms are now firmly secured and the only rattle is (I think) either the timing chain tensioner or the valves. Sigh. Also the camera body is more or less toast--for my and others reference, I bought a used Canon Digital Rebel, the old 300D, a number of years ago to replace the film Rebel. Well, it's now doing this /thing/ where every picture is three-quarters black, like the shutter timing is off. It's not flash synch, it's apparently a known issue with these bodies once they've had a lot of shots run through them. I wouldn't exactly call 2-3K a lot of shots, but it's old, it's been a lot of places. Fixing it is ~$200 from Canon USA. A new used 300D body is ~$75, but I've been getting fed up with the limitations of a digital camera body dating from ten years ago. I found a refurbed 400D body for ~$120 shipped from a major Canadian photo/video store, which considering they still go for $200+ on Amazon and the like, seemed about right. Still vintage 2008 or so, but it's closing the gap. Comes with a battery and charger too, which ain't bad. Usually hardware failure month takes a LOT bigger of a toll but I figure I can offset the costs by getting Chris to sell off my old iPod, dead Triumph, and the 300D body. For a cut, of course, but that's kind of his thing.
The party thing was a pretty good success. First house party, everybody had fun, woo! Right up until 5:30 PM turned into 12:30 AM and one of the gals remembered she had to work next morning. Nice to able to play Cards Against Humanity with people just as warped as us. Talked to Fox about the Z, she says she doesn't even care about the price, she'd GIVE it to me since I'd be happy with it, but she'll bounce the offer off her dad. Amanda's realtor dad is perfectly OK with working with Z and Raine to try and find us somewhere reasonable, a couple preliminary locations were tossed around. Ultimately my predecessor did his job from a point further outside the ring roads than I am, but we're living here under false income pretenses now that I have a real job, I WANT to be closer to civilization, and screw this little podunk town anyway.
It's good to be here, to have some time to unwind, to remind me what I'm working for. That said, it's also going to be good to get back to work again. I said something somewhat offhandedly to Grammy but it's stuck in my brain since then. All these times when subjectively I've felt like I'm slowing down and coasting, looking at it from the outside it's just after one stage of the rocket has expended itself and before the next one roars to life. If I decouple from my intrinsic inertial frame of reference HOLY SHIT I'VE DONE WELL FOR MYSELF. The trajectory's looking damn good for at least orbit, if not a moon shot. How high will it be? Depends on how long the fuel lasts! God knows there's been obstacles, inner and outer, not the least of which I've contributed to set in my own way, but...I've only been out of college for, what, 10 years? (Can never remember if I graduated in 03 or 04.) There were several times I wondered if I'd ever even make it to 30--and how dull and boring I'd be then--but here I am and I daresay I'm even more of a character than ever. A touch more seasoned, a touch less stupid at least some of the time. Maybe not the Saturn 5 roar and fury and bombast of the lower stages of adolescence, but I'm through the thickest part of the atmosphere, through max Q, the buffeting is starting to die away and ahead there's still plenty of dirt but there's a lot more star-shot potential. Here's to keeping the Gs on.
What else? Christmas here was pretty low-key, but there's still two trees and a construction-paper fireplace / chimney and hand-embroidered stockings. Compared with last year in the cabin...VAST IMPROVEMENT. Hardware failure month has been and hopefully gone. On a trip out in Bug, the usual rocker arm clatter turned into something that sounded for all the world like a horrible knock or a spun bearing. I tried pulling spark plug wires off by the side of the road but it didn't isolate itself, so that led to cramming three passengers into a single-cab tow truck. Raine had to sit on Z's lap and I had to sit sideways while the guy desperately tried to keep his hand off my thigh while shifting. A modest sum of money, most of a week, and a one and a half mile walk to the garage (my treadmill habits are at least occasionally useful) later, the rocker arms are now firmly secured and the only rattle is (I think) either the timing chain tensioner or the valves. Sigh. Also the camera body is more or less toast--for my and others reference, I bought a used Canon Digital Rebel, the old 300D, a number of years ago to replace the film Rebel. Well, it's now doing this /thing/ where every picture is three-quarters black, like the shutter timing is off. It's not flash synch, it's apparently a known issue with these bodies once they've had a lot of shots run through them. I wouldn't exactly call 2-3K a lot of shots, but it's old, it's been a lot of places. Fixing it is ~$200 from Canon USA. A new used 300D body is ~$75, but I've been getting fed up with the limitations of a digital camera body dating from ten years ago. I found a refurbed 400D body for ~$120 shipped from a major Canadian photo/video store, which considering they still go for $200+ on Amazon and the like, seemed about right. Still vintage 2008 or so, but it's closing the gap. Comes with a battery and charger too, which ain't bad. Usually hardware failure month takes a LOT bigger of a toll but I figure I can offset the costs by getting Chris to sell off my old iPod, dead Triumph, and the 300D body. For a cut, of course, but that's kind of his thing.
The party thing was a pretty good success. First house party, everybody had fun, woo! Right up until 5:30 PM turned into 12:30 AM and one of the gals remembered she had to work next morning. Nice to able to play Cards Against Humanity with people just as warped as us. Talked to Fox about the Z, she says she doesn't even care about the price, she'd GIVE it to me since I'd be happy with it, but she'll bounce the offer off her dad. Amanda's realtor dad is perfectly OK with working with Z and Raine to try and find us somewhere reasonable, a couple preliminary locations were tossed around. Ultimately my predecessor did his job from a point further outside the ring roads than I am, but we're living here under false income pretenses now that I have a real job, I WANT to be closer to civilization, and screw this little podunk town anyway.
It's good to be here, to have some time to unwind, to remind me what I'm working for. That said, it's also going to be good to get back to work again. I said something somewhat offhandedly to Grammy but it's stuck in my brain since then. All these times when subjectively I've felt like I'm slowing down and coasting, looking at it from the outside it's just after one stage of the rocket has expended itself and before the next one roars to life. If I decouple from my intrinsic inertial frame of reference HOLY SHIT I'VE DONE WELL FOR MYSELF. The trajectory's looking damn good for at least orbit, if not a moon shot. How high will it be? Depends on how long the fuel lasts! God knows there's been obstacles, inner and outer, not the least of which I've contributed to set in my own way, but...I've only been out of college for, what, 10 years? (Can never remember if I graduated in 03 or 04.) There were several times I wondered if I'd ever even make it to 30--and how dull and boring I'd be then--but here I am and I daresay I'm even more of a character than ever. A touch more seasoned, a touch less stupid at least some of the time. Maybe not the Saturn 5 roar and fury and bombast of the lower stages of adolescence, but I'm through the thickest part of the atmosphere, through max Q, the buffeting is starting to die away and ahead there's still plenty of dirt but there's a lot more star-shot potential. Here's to keeping the Gs on.