I survived Friday night, ended up curing up with an old favorite book,
"Nightmare's Disciple" by Joe Pulver. Stayed up later than planned, but
that's ok. Went to sleep about 11, and pretty much stayed asleep til 9ish,
with only a few wakeups. Still feeling ick, pollen count has jumped again.
Really tired of the trees. Damn the Lorax *wink*
Me and Amythest had already decided that our plans for museuming today was
not going to happen. So I made myself go out and get groceries while I
still had tentacles. Got groceries, got a burger. Got home, took a shower
and flooded my sinuses, which helped a little.
Was going to do the massive ton of laundry and chores if I didn't go be social
today, but I don't think I'll get much more than some general pick up and
organizing (which I've already done). So I've been at the computer, and
watching 'Resident Evil' movies in prep for next weekend's release. I've
finally gotten around to setting up Crashplan backups on Hydra, so time
to watch all my files slowly back up. This is going to take forever, but
just in case Château Innsmouth gets hit by a meteor while I'm not in it,
I'll still have all my Mythos Multimedia.
I have thoughts I want to post about, but at the same time I'm pretty fuzzy
brained today, so it may wait. I'll probably work some on trip foo, been
reading fluffy computer articles and organizing files. Trying to avoid too
much social media, though it looks like today was better than I worried.
Hope it stays that way.
The rest of today, more movies, more taking it easy. I really hope this
crap fades soon. Ok, catch you all later.
Yeah, that's not going to happen. I was up to the wee hours due to the
steroid shot, got about 6 hours of sleep. Felt alright through most of
the day, then I hit a wall. Which would probably be the point where the
steroid wore off. I'm tired, sniffily and tender again. So tonight will
probably be a bad movie or to, some geekery, and early to bed with a book
and a lot of meds. Was a good day, officially going to the Necronomicon
in Providence in August. Paid for my registration, reserved a room at a
local small hotel that looks quirky and fun. Now to find a good plane
flight and I'm golden. Have some non-Lovecraft plans for while I'm
in New England, I'll go into more details another time. For now, I'm
calling it a day. May Cthulhu hold you gently in his tentacles.
Quick post about tomorrow's Inauguration of the American POTUS-to-be. I'm
going to be avoiding Facebook without a ton of filters in place, and
probably twitter utterly. I'm going to go head down into work and try to
knock out a bunch of stuff, then leave and depending on tentacle levels
either take myself out for some 'Us' time, or come home and hermit and
watch comfort movies, with the above mentioned filters. I have a possible
idea of posting an imperial arseload of positive stuff, things I like,
books I've enjoyed, the insanity of some of the podcasts I listen to.
Kind of balance out the anger, the sadness, the stupidity that will fly.
So, do whatever you feel the need to do that gets you through the night
(and hurts everyone, including yourself, the least). Prepare for me being
as silly and weird as possible, filter if needed. And on Monday, back to
work.
(Yes, this also means I won't be discussing any insanity. If you REALLY want my opinion, and you probably don't, email/message me, I may answer on Monday.)
Going to be a weird week for me. Most of the weekend was spent in some
degree of sinus pain/pressure. Worked last night on some Carcosa Corp stuff,
which wasn't bad, just took a while. Today came into work a tad late,
but no random stuff being broke due to last night's work. I have bad luck
with making late night changes that look fine, but in the cold light of
day (and customer activity) you find the errors and mis-estimates. Not
today, other than adjusting firewall rules to take the additional databases
into account.
The weird starts with DR testing at work this week. I'm the guinea pig,
as the new guy, I've been kind of deliberately kept in the dark, so when
they hand me the documentation, we can see if there are flaws in it, that
someone who's familiar with the process would just be able to fill in.
We'll see how well this works. I'm kind of anxious because, hey, new
situation. But it should be ok, or at least be educational.
I also have a friend going in for a what's supposed to be a minor surgical
procedure. All should be ok, and it should be a day procedure. But of
course, I'm twitchy. Don't like my friends in hospitals. *sigh*
Add in Friday's expected political insanity, I expect the internets to be
utterly awash in hatred and anger. So I'll probably avoid much discussion,
set filters to maximum, and maybe spend the weekend trying to translate
the Voynich Manuscript. Or go to art museums and bookstores. Or binge
on cheesy 80s horror movies. Or get on social media, and find 2000 more
groups from all over the spectrum to block...
So this week will be a tad challenging. But there are perks. And books,
and people who care. Oh yeah, and Cthulhu. Always good to have an eldritch
monstrocity that drives you insane in your corner. So on that tentacled note,
I'll ramble more later. I'm going to try to post more here, get back in
my blogging habit, vs miniposts on Facebook.
I'm doing mostly ok mentally, the depression hole I fell into for the holidays
has mostly passed. Just in time for my yearly asskicking DeathCold (tm).
Was out of the office 2 days last week. At least this time it's not
technically a DeathCold (tm), it's allergies of insane levels. I realized
today, Texas is treating me like a foreign (of the damn Yankee variety) body,
and it's using pollen as antibodies. No idea when I'll be back to
'normal'. The urge to flee the state and move somewhere without trees is
strong. Greenland or Antarctica. *le sigh*
Work is good, I'm doing some upgrade foo Sunday night. Next week will be
hopping. Second payday was today, yay income. Still like my coworkers a
bunch, both my team and the groups we worth with. So that's a major plus.
Slowly, but surely, the weird stressors from the Shoggoth Pit are fading.
In non-work stuff, I've been on a religion kick, mostly the minority sects
of the Middle East (Yazidis, Zoroastrian, and other stuff I'd never heard of),
as well as Gnostic foo. In my fuzzy brain I'm turning this stuff into head
canon for Mythos, as I often do. I'll probably dig into Hermeticism in
the future for much the same thing. NeoPlatonic Cthulhu Cultists, next on
Fox. Waiting mostly patiently for a new book called 'Winter Tide' by
Ruthanne Emrys. Things from the Deep Ones point of view, which I always
appreciate. The first 5 chapters are online Tor.com, as well as the first story in the series,
The
Litany of Earth. Go forth and do honor to Mother Hydra and Father Dagon.
Upcoming plans, some socializing with the Ufies tomorrow, Sunday will be
Amythest time before the work that evening. After that, not a lot of real
plans. Then it's mostly work and books and geekery til the summer. Then
I'm going on my first cruise, from Seattle to Alaska, by way of Canada.
Looking forward to a new adventure on the high seas. And if timing, job
and finances work out, I'm also going to try to go to either the NecronomiCon
in Providence, or back to the HPLFF in Portland. Yay traveling fun and
games. And bookstores, I have them already picked out. *grin* Yeah, I
have my priorities. And tonight's priority is finish my Friday the 13th
mini-marathon, read stuff, and sleep in tomorrow. Happy weekend to all,
and to all a good night.
Well, it's 2017. New year started, old year in the rearview mirror. The
old year wasn't that horrid for me, minus the holiday near meltdown.
Job has been good, and good for my coping skills. I wasn't nearly as
social as usual this last year, nor have I done as much computer geekery
as I used to. Still keeping up with the books and bad movies though.
As is traditional for New Years Day, I've spent today doing the things I
want to have happen more of in the new year. So bad movies, buying books,
petting cats (doing critter care for some friends that are out of town),
sleeping in, and computer geeking. Hoping it leads to good and nifty things.
Last night I went to a comic/geek convention, didn't do much besides some
shopping, hanging out with friends, and attempting to go to the 'parties'
in the evening. Figured out that I've gotten old. At one I wanted to
yell 'Turn that crap down', and at the VIP party I listened to a decent
cover band get mangled by lousy sound engineering. I cut out around 11,
to avoid the drunks in Dallas, but they were already out in force. Came
home, watched the year roll over. I did manage to find the only Cthulhu
stuff in the 'con. (A new dice game, that had cool tshirts, and a tshirt
vendor who had a HPL shirt that I didn't own), and a movie producer who
aims to recreate 50's B movies. So I had to get two. Was fun, but not
really my kind of 'con. Nothing on the tracks caught my attention, and
most everything was comics or Harry Potter. Oh well, not every convention
can be the HPLFF.
Really no plans for tonight, besides continuing with my superstition. I'm
off work tomorrow, and I'll spend most of it doing the chores I'm not doing
today (laundry, cleaning, store run) Then it's back to work. I don't have
any New Years resolutions, I'm weird and do resolutions around my Spawning
Day.
So that's about it. I may do a review of 2016, or I may not. All depends
on what I get done tomorrow, and how many tentacles I'm left with, along
with how much I want to dive into the last year. Might be better to just
aim forward. But on that note, hope it's a good year to everyone. Talk to
you later.
And today was my first day as a non-contract employee. Came in, and
happily, everything was still working. (We had expected that onboarding
would have broken at least one thing in the corporate setup). Logged into
the HR website, filled out the forms, did my I9 stuff via a semi-random
manager. Since this office doesn't have an HR person on staff, they have
a procedure for witnessing and validating ID stuff. Odd, but cool. It
could be documented a little better, as it wasn't specific if I needed a
notary, or if just anyone could do it (save relatives). Insurance picked,
it's rather nice. I have a ton of 'training' videos to watch, corporate
culture and SOP. Had a generally good overall day, though I ran out of
operating tentacles by the time I left. So my plan to go to the store
was put on hold. Maybe tomorrow before work for work stuff, or Wednesday.
Came home, made dinner, put up laundry from yesterday. Going to go to bed
in a bit, yay booktime. Tomorrow is the work holiday shindig, then I'll
be going back to Amythest's to put up the tree. Hopefully I can find some
of the Cthulhumas spirit tomorrow. I hope so at least. Hope everything
goes well. Or at least I let go of that bit of dread that everything is
going to crater on me. *sigh* *crosses tentacles* Wish me luck gang.
Well, today was my last day at Carcosa Corp...as a contractor. Come
Monday I fill out a bunch of online paperwork, pick my insurances is,
provide a lot of details, and I'll be a real employee.
What does this mean, besides I'm back oncall for the first time in about
15 months. In a very adhoc manner, which will take some getting used to.
I'm used to being on call one week, and off the next. Instead it's if you
have plans let the others know, and whoever gets to the problem first
handles it. I'd be more concerned, but I'm not the only hermit on staff.
As for working non-core hours/weekends, I've been doing that to a degree
anyway, this just makes it less of a 'keep up with hours' nickel and
dime bit than it's been, which is fine by me. I rather be salary and just
get stuff done. So lessening some of the more annoying bits of the job.
I have a new snazzy laptop, I've been trying to get the automatic VPN
part to work, but it seems to have issues. I'll talk to our desktop IT
guys on Monday about it.
So yeah, end of one chapter, begining of another. Even if it's mostly the
same. See everyone Monday when I'm an offical Senior Shoggoth Wrangler
for Carcosa Corportation. May the King in Yellow be gentle with your
feels *wink*
I've posted this on my LJ and other social media, but I can't forget
my trusty Deep One blog. A little over 2 weeks ago my boss at
Carcosa Corp called me to give me the news, they were going to make
me an offer to come on perm where I am. Same duties for the most part,
with the addition of being oncall and being responsive to alerts and
work outside of core hours. Well today I had a call with the HR rep.
Long story short, I accepted the offer. 19 PTO days a year, good benefits,
and both a title change (adding a 'Senior' to my title) and the money
that goes with it. Went and did the drug screen and filled out the info
for my background check. If everything goes according to plan, I'll come
on board on December 12th. So happy. So is everyone I work with, I seem
to be a popular fellow there. So yeah, things are going swimmingly. Now
if only Carcosa Corp would open an office in Innsmouth, I'd be set. *wink*
