Brave New Face

Writing while at work isn’t ever a good idea. All the bile and wretchedness that comes with this job tends to spill over into my posts, sullying what could be a pleasant blog.

However, I use this space to exercise and purge, and so, if it’s a bad day at work, that’s what will come out in the posts.

Yesterday, I called in sick. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do a day at that place.

I’ve said it before, I need to find something else to do to make my rent money. Being in the I.T. industry, it seems inevitable that you stop being a person to the people you’re working with, and become a tool, to be used whenever and for whatever they want. It’s easy to get embittered at that point, believe me.

At any rate, yesterday was a good mental health day, even if it was sullied somewhat by a couple of infuriating emails that I ended up checking from home. When you call in sick, don’t check your work email, just be sick and be done with it!

I’ve been pretty unsuccessful at getting rid of my credit card debt. You see, I’ve got a bit of a self control problem when it comes to purchasing things on the internet.

I keep making $400 payments to my credit card each month, wondering why the total doesn’t seem to be going down while playing with the new Zune I bought online.

I even rationalize my rampant spending with promises to myself. I promise to use the money I made from the cover band this month to offset the cost of the 3 Wii games I just bought.

That doesn’t work. My cash from playing music just goes into lunches and dinners out with my girlfriend, or impulse purchases when I’m out walking around downtown.

Lately, I’ve been taking that money and putting it in a pile on my shelf. If it’s not in my wallet, I won’t spend it.

So far, that’s working well. Maybe I’ll even save up enough to finally get my Visa down to $0.

Then I just need to work on the Mastercard…. and the line of credit.

Hmmm… I should buy myself something to feel better.

The forty or so fans running in the room where I have to sit in 8 hours a day five days a week seem to have a calming effect on me.  So much so, that I’m often nodding off in the middle of typing at the computer.

The small, concrete server room is even brightly lit, with a 6′6″ ceiling and a large fluorescent light in the middle, the 8′ x 10′ room is bathed in cold, unforgiving light.  That, and the constantly running air conditioning make it so bright, cold and uncomfortable, you would think that falling asleep in such a room would be impossible.

Well friends, I’m here to tell you that I have broken that theory.

It’s very depressing waking up suddenly and finding yourself in the concrete coffin, surrounded by noisy servers and glaring light.

Man.  I really need to find a job fit for humans.

When one is trying out new technology, like say, a Blackberry Enterprise Server, and one is offered the option to “nuke” a Blackberry in order to erase the data and reprovision the unit, one should not use this option.

After a few days of being on hold with Telus, scouring Blackberry support forums and praying to the gods, I have sent off the newly dead Blackberry to the store to be replaced by Telus.

Whoops….. heh.