Early Morning Cold Chicken

I'm at work.

I figured it was just as easy to get writing done at work as it would be at home. I don't really like the desk setup we have going on in the kitchen. So I'm eating Cindy's Sunday leftovers from Mimi's Cafe for breakfast this morning, hence the reference to cold chicken. We have a microwave at work, but sometimes I'm in the mood for cold chicken. Sometimes cold pizza too.

The home computer is still messed up, largely because I have stopped trying to mess with it. Ed's latest suggestion is to restore 'last good configuration' or something along those lines. I'd like to back up all our folders before I try any 'revert to old' steps - I'd hate to lose anything.

This will probably be a very busy week, about a hundred new issues were entered yesterday, and I'm sure there are plenty more where they came from. This project will not be complete on time, what project ever is?

So there will be overtime aplenty. Good thing too, my truck could use some new tires and it's running kind of rough. And the air conditioning switch is going out. The AC works fine, but the low-med-high switch only works on high. Better than no AC, but still.

I don't usually remember my dreams.

I had a very odd dream this morning. My mother came out of the bathroom at my apartment. I went in right after her to find the walls entirely smeared with feces.

My shower back-scrubbing brush was on the sink, caked in more feces, and apparently was the tool used for the wall smearing. My mother is the cleanest woman you'll ever meet. This would never happen.

My attention was grabbed by bright flashing or strobing from the bathroom window. I climbed in the shower to look out and saw a beautiful deep space scene, with stars and planets and comets flashing and strobing and whizzing around in a dynamic show. It struck me as beautiful at the time, and eventually I thought to go get my camera.

I only got to take a couple of pics before the entire space-scene began to rapidly retreat away, as if it didn't want to be photographed.

Isn't spectacular stellar phenomenon a bad omen?

What the Whoo Haa?

Monday Again? Didn't I just do this? Yesterday? Oh, that was a week ago, wasn't it. Damn.

I had Sunday off, did lots of nothing. Slept in, took a nap, went out for lunch with Cindy, came home and napped, watched some tv, pretended to work on the web site (all right, actually I fixed the font inconsistencies on a few pages. But I'm not proud of it, ok?) and then went to bed.

I overslept this morning, and remembered (whew) that I had no clean clothes at all. I did only 1 load cause someone else was doing laundry at 7am (early waking bastards), but I now have enough clothes to last 2-3 days. I'll try to remember to do another load tonight.

I'm ready for another day off please, yes thank you.

The web site is coming, slowly but surely. Cindy thinks I'm procrastinating with the layout so that I don't have to get to the writing, which will be a considerable effort.
She's only about 1/3 right. Mostly the layout looks pretty slipshod right now, and I'd like to get it firmly finished so that I can concentrate on the writing.

I was supposed to be done with this job the second week of September. I thought I'd have a month off to work on it before going to Ohio. That is no longer the case. Oh well. I'll just have to get up earlier, and make a point of going to bed earlier too.

It's hard when Cindy doesn't get home till after midnight a few nights a week. I started leaving my fruit at work, which saves me time in the mornings. A lot of people whip up their snacks in the kitchen, and we have 2 fridges, so plenty of room.

I'm a Big Dope

All right, so I messed up the computer at home. I was trying to show Cindy the game I'm working on, so I brought home a disc and tried to install it. The installation failed.

However, somehow it locked out my desktop.I have no taskbar/start button, no desktop icons, nothing. Right clicking on the desktop will not bring up the display properties dropdown.

Nothing. I can ctrl alt del and use explorer to navigate. Everything works fine - except the desktop. I deleted the desktop.ini that the game installed... Still no luck. I checked Microsoft's web site and they just suggest uninstalling the troublemaking app. Problem is, there is no uninstall. I already deleted the folders, but whatever locked out the desktop is a part of stored settings now.

I'm sure it's an easy fix, if you know what you're doing. I emailed Ed and asked for help, since he is the wise IT Master. Ugh I hate it when I do stuff that reminds me that I'm a big dope.

Working the weekend (again) oh how I love my job

Bored, and tired of looking at this game. The last build was missing most of the sound, that was refreshing. It's Friday and I dunno how late we're working. I think we're waiting about an hour for a new build.

I messed up the PC at home, Cindy can't really get in to Windows (it sounds like a problem with the desktop.ini) - My Bad. So she's screwed until I can get home, and I don't know when that'll be. Sorry Babe!

Rubber Sex Fetish Garments, and etc

I got to leave work early last night (after only 8 hours!) because my work computer crapped out and the programmers were huddled in a concerned fashion around it.

I don't think anything conclusive was found, the only thing they found was nothing. I keep getting corrupted assets during my installs. I think that's what you get when you install over a network, instead of with a disc, and don't ghost between installs.

Cindy and I went out to eat at the weird A&W Burger/Long John Silvers fusion in Manhattan Beach. Gotta love those frosty mugs, they make your root beer all slushy, as God intended.

We ended up at Target and spent much money. I got some new clothes, mostly, and the Kill Bill 2 DVD. I got this freaky shirt. It seems nice and normal, just a white shirt. Until you put it on, then it turns into a weird rubber sex fetish garment - which was not the intent.

Oh! I also got some of those rubberized anti-slip mats from the household items section. We're using them under the dance pad for DDR. It helps the slippage factor.

Tales of a PF Chang's Virgin

Just got back from lunch. PF Chang's today. It's good - I'd never been before. Doing regressions on the game and writing up what goodies I find. Not too much going on today.

I've been getting some good out of DDR since we got it, I played for 30 minutes last night, and then again this morning. Good workout, and it's fun. Definitely a change from riding the exercise bike.

The first night, I tried playing Doom (for the PS1) using the dance pad. Was bad. I suppose you could learn to use it eventually, but getting the controls right would be more work than fun.

I need to look online for Mad Maestro - it's a music conducting game that came out a while back. It's probably available for like $10 now. It might be a fun one for the dance pad - Cindy especially would dig it I think.

I'm working on getting my refund from SamAsh.com - they sent me a $200 violin that I canceled because it was on backorder. Now I have 2 violins. They will not believe that I requested the back ordered item to be canceled.

So they have to go back to the audio file recording of my phone call and listen to it, and find out exactly what I said. Ugh. This is going to be a pain in the ass.

I'm afraid I'm going to get stuck paying to ship it back to them, and wait forever for my refund. They're supposed to call me back... I'm going to give them a couple of more hours and then call them back.

Deep into Crunch Time

Still working!

I think the word 'work' would be the most used word across my different entries, if I bothered to count.

We just got back from Johnny Rockets, which is good, but not as tasty as Ruby's. Ruby's is classier than JR too. Brian and I went, and Tim paid - what a nice producer!

Cindy is staying late at work tonight to catch up on paperwork, returns, merchandising, and so on. Her District Manager and Regional Manager will be in over the next few days to snoop and Cindy wants the snazziest possible store ready for them.

The game is supposed to be done within 2 weeks, so we are deep into crunch time. I forsee lots of late nights and lost sleep.

Aint No Sunshine...

While there IS a marine layer going on this morning, I'm referring to the song, which I had on 'repeat' on the way to work. I can't recall the singer... It sounds like the original to me.

Mournful, lonesome, and I enjoy singing it - especially the "I know, I know,I know,I know,I know,I know,I know,I know,I know,I know," line - Perhaps because I'm a terrible know-it-all and like to reaffirm myself.

Here I am at work again. I didn't get any work done on the web site, after working late last night I found it difficult to drag my ass out of bed this morning.

I still did my workout, made my lunch, my fruit bowl, and breakfast. I did dishes, cleaned up my dirty clothes, and watched 'Finding Nemo' while I snuggled with Cindy. Good thing I got up early! I should start doing more at night, and free up the morning for snuggles. And maybe some work.

Big Nasty Bitey Beast

Cindy is at home and I'm working overtime. I've got her new DDR disc here and she's fidgety about it.

I knew she'd want her game right about now. I suggested she stop by my work and get it on her way home, but no.

I'll probably work 12 hours today.

We're installing a new build, which takes about 30 min, and then we'll test it. We'll do a smoke test and then a cheats playthrough.

That's like chumming the ocean to see what big nasty bitey beast - er - bites.
Rinse and repeat.

We went to TGIFridays on like Thursday of last week. I used my debit card, but they still have not charged my account.

Did we skip out before the card was swiped? Do they think we ate-and-skate? Should we call them?

Overtime? Sure boss, I'll take your $18.00 an hour. Laptop Laptop Laptop it's my new mantra.

Heady Woozy Blink Blink

The Jamba Juice I had for lunch (aka sugar high) is wearing off.

Consciousness fading... Fading... Ever had a Jamba? I recommend them. Roebeks Juice is good too. But I digress from my lack of focus. I can feel my blood sugar plummeting and it's taking my consciousness with it. All that's left is pure will. Determination. And the caffeine pills I took about a half an hour ago.

So I'm feeling a little perky despite my low blood sugar, which is a quirky sensation. I want to put my head down on my desk for a little nap-nap, ala first grade. I remember that I had this green towel in Kindergarten - we all had to bring them in for nap time so we could lie on the floor and rest. How weird is that? I had that towel for about 20 years, until I cut it up for a LARP outfit I needed scraps for.

We're waiting for a new build of the game (video game tester dude, am I) and it's overdue, and it takes 30 minutes to install. I'm foreseeing overtime today, since we'll need to at least do a quick run through before we FTP the new build to the testers up north. Lots of hurry up and wait.

Cindy's new game (Dance Dance Revolution Max 2 with Dance Mat) (woo!) came today. Her birthday was last week, so this gift is late. Her other goodies were all on time, and she enjoyed them a lot.

We're hoping that DDR M2 will be a good way to exercise. Right now all I do is the exercise bike and my weights, so it will be neat to have another way to work out. I just really don't enjoy aerobicising to a videotape. I don't know that I have the rhythm for DDR, we'll see.

No More Overtime?

The new overtime laws went to effect recently, it seems... I was worried for a few minutes until the brilliant Cindy explained that I was safe, being in the right tax bracket. Whew! I was fretting about that one. What good is being a video game tester if you can't earn overtime?

I got some more work done on MysteryInteractive.com this weekend. Not as much as I'd like of course, but progress. Everything takes so damn long to do, and I'm always second guessing myself.

Add to this the fact that I'm not an artist - I'm just an ameteur doing my best to make it not look like ass. I'd like to have all the layout completed this week, and then dive headlong into the writing starting next week. It's going to be a hell of a lot of writing.

I'm looking forward to doing the audio book version of the stories, I think the public will enjoy interactive audio fiction. We'll see! Might have cell phone applications too. Neato.

Monday Again??

Yeah, it's Monday again.

I'm expecting even more overtime at work this week. The game is supposed to be done in like 2 weeks, but games, they are always late.

So I should be able to score OT most nights this week, and probably weekend work too. This will further my 'Gotta Own a Laptop' quest, which has become all-consuming. I have this foolish idea that I will be far more productive with a laptop. We'll see!