What stuff may you ask? I dunno, I’m just gonna ramble.

Worst. Transitional sentence. Ever.

Last weekend, the Jets lost yet another AFC Championship game. I’m not the biggest football fan, but I grew up watching the Jets. I also pull for the Giants (some old college buddies had my leaning their way) and everyone who is playing against the Cowboys.

It would have been nice to see the Jets in the bowl, seeing as how I’ve seen the Giants there a few times, Buffalo four times (those were sad days, when I liked the Bills) and those damned Colts once. I think Peyton Manning is a douchebag, but I can’t take away from his skills on the football field.

I’ll still be rooting for the Saints, in deference to one of the few coworkers I respect.

Baseball starts soon. Since the season is so long, I’ve promised Amy that I’ll stick to my usual baseball routine of ignoring everything but the standings until the All-Star Break, then listening to every Yankee game on my iPhone until they’re on free TV in the playoffs.

But hey, pitchers and catchers soon. Can’t wait to see how this new pitching rotation works out.

Speaking of the Yankees, I didn’t get the chance to comment on their World Series Championship. Because I’m lazy, and I was too busy being happy. Say what you want, but the Yankees are another team I grew up with, and it’s always fun to see them play.

They’re coming to Arlington to play the Rangers in August. I plan on taking Amy and sitting in the outfield seats that come with food. Not a bad deal for $40/ticket.

Typically those seats are $35. The two Yankee games are considered “premium games,” which nets an extra $5 for most seats. So even in Dallas, home of the most overrated quarterback in history, they know who people are really coming to see.

Yes, I’m taking potshots at Tony Romo. No, I don’t care.

I’ll Howl again soon enough. Work has become extra stressful. I’m the only team lead on first shifts on the weekend, so I have more to worry about. I’ve also been asked to take more calls, though I thought I’d been managing the call volume successfully.

One of the other accounts just finished up. Nearly all of our overflow agents were with that queue, and they’re all gone now. Including our one Spanish speaking overflow agent. Net overflow agents for the majority of the day: one.

I’m currently seeking better employment. I can do nothing but take phone calls elsewhere for more money. I’m miserably underpaid, more than most people think they are. People I’m responsible for make more money than I do. Which sucks.

What doesn’t suck is exercise. I’ve turned into quite the gym rat. Which has turned my calves into gelatin. New shoes will be necessary, and soon.

Over in the sidebar my DailyMile exercise posts should load. If you follow my Twitter (@attackman) or have me as a Facebook friend, you’ll see them there as well. If you don’t see them for a while, let me know. It means I’m slacking off.

The dryer should be done soon, which means I can walk to the library to acquire the book Flatland, a wonderful science fable. I’ll then head over to the workout room and bust it for 30 minutes on the elliptical.

I would have gone in dirty shorts (eww) but the iPad announcement was this morning. Yes, I want one, but it’s not an immediate must have for me. Not waiting for any features, just the money and maybe a better job so I can consider spending money on things like this.

All morning people have whined about the iPad not having Flash. This will be the last time I say this: Flash sucks. We allowed one company to have control over web content, and they’ve failed to keep up. They continue to make poor software, forcing you to watch your processor melt to watch a video. And it’s not the video that is killing your playback, it’s the Flash container.

I use Weight Watchers eTools on my Mac, which is a Flash app on their website. They have a decent mobile app made in HTML and AJAX, but it doesn’t have all the necessary features. They could implement everything in a nice looking, proper web app, but I gather their devs are lazy.

I looked at the CPU usage for this app earlier. Flash Player, with nothing going on, was eating 5% of my cycles. Anything that requires that much CPU to idle is crap.

John Gruber has a great breakdown of this terrible tech over at Daring Fireball, which is currently pretty trafficky. I guess everyone would rather listen to him, even though he hasn’t said much yet. Here’s the article.

There, now I won’t have to subject Amy to the rest of the rant I started ten minutes ago. Sorry, love. Does Austin have a speaker’s corner?

Time to split. Later cats and kittens.

Amy has us working on “uncluttering,” or the purging of all the crap from our life, leaving only things we need and have a place for. Thus far, it’s working. We’ve reduced our wardrobes severely, and finally attacked the mess that was our dining room table. Soon, we might actually be able to eat in there.

I’ll post updates on the Unclutter 2010 project as well. I hope to have photos of our spaces once we’re done.

I’m on lunch at work right now. Today is Friday, for me. For most of you, it’s Tuesday.

Damn, it feels good to be a Timelord.

Yesterday, I turned twenty-nine. Over ten years have passed since that day.

I found a that book while looking through some things in our hall closet. I thought about Schneider, and I thought about what he wrote.

To this day, I’m not sure what he meant, nor mad I sure if I have a “howl” to speak of. And it made me sad.

Now, I tend to get sad around my birthday as it is. Since meeting Amy this has lessoned, but it still stings a bit each year. Therefore, I decided I had to do something to alleviate my moroseness.

I decided the answer would be an experiment. I need to blog more; this goes without saying. My writing is not what it used to be, and I could use the practice. I also wanted to explore Ginsberg’s classic poem, Ginsberg himself and try to figure out what Schneider was trying to tell me.

By the time I’m done, I also hope to determine what I think my “howl” is, and if I’ve found it.

I have all kinds of new toys on my Mac thanks to MacHeist and their crazy bundles. I also intend to spend more time with the Mac Mini on my desk rather than feeing me crap on my TV. Perhaps we’ll all learn something.

Come on a journey with me, friends.

Amy took these, and we decided they worked as a great animation.

Let’s rewind a little, shall we?

Last time I posted something, I had gotten a haircut in preparation for a job interview. I’d never interviewed for a promotion anywhere. It usually just happened that I’d get a new title or more money or additional responsibility.

I’d determined a few months back that I was sick and tired of answering phones for a living. I don’t mind helping people, as I seem to have developed a quixotic nature over the last fifteen or so years. The feeling that people wanted my assistance and asked me to solve their problems was amazing. Actually solving their problem felt even better.

Technical support seemed like a natural fit for me. I’d spent much of my life figuring out my own PC issues, something that became a lot easier after the World Wide Web became easy to access. Once I got to college, classmates and flat-mates alike sought me out to look at their printers, or their network connections, or the ugly viruses they’d acquire after looking at porn in Internet Explorer. Initially, it was because I’d show up before ResNet Support did, but soon I developed a reputation.

People I’d never met would come to me, and it was quite the rush. Looking back, I should have parlayed this into bedding women, but geeks were not en vogue yet. If I looked like a pop star, I may have stood a better chance.

After leaving school, I found that people would actually pay me to do this type of thing. Fix computers, not sleep with women (oh, if only!) that is. A technical placement company got me contract work with IBM Global Services. I moved into a smaller desk at RailEurope about a year on. Six months later, I got tired of driving an hour each way to work, and slid into a job at Time Warner Cable.

Each job was about the same. I’d answer the phone, isolate an issue, and fix it. That may have entailed getting someone else to fix it. Or actually getting up and going somewhere so wiggle a cable or figure out why the crap Internet Explorer gave up on rendering pages. Each time I made slightly more money.

Amy entered my life as I was getting tired of hearing overpaid whiners in Manhattan complain about when techs were coming or that their cable internet service was too frigging slow. No offense to my friends in Manhattan. I don’t think any of your are whiney and overpaid. Usually just one or the other.

I used my newfound love as an opportunity to get the hell out of dodge. I loaded up the Neon and moved to Texas. I was hoping to fall into a support gig at Texas State, which was down the road from our apartment in San Marcos. This did not happen. I magically got hired by Apple to do iPhone support. I was again taking calls, fixing issues, and eventually hating my life. Yes, that’s possible even at Apple. Expecting call from iLawyers in 3, 2, 1 . .

I picked up at my current job supporting Rodale Publishing for Unisys Technical Services. I later starting taking calls for Texas Workforce Commission and Fox Feature Entertainment. As it was elsewhere, people would ask me questions and keep me in the loop on stuff that was happening. I was a golden god, ruling tech support with lightning bolts and plagues of frogs.

The email came in December. A UTS position was opening up. Typically, all the good jobs were only on the Unisys side, for which phone agents rarely, if at all, were eligible. This was a technical lead gig, under the umbrella of UTS. I jumped on it right away. Had my resume in a week before they were due.

The holidays came and went. In early January they scheduled my interview. They did so three times. Eventually I sat in a room with three men, one of whom had wet hands. I was grilled on Windows 2000 networking, which isn’t my forte any longer. It was 9 years ago, when Windows 2000 was relevant. Rather than WAGging, I answered honestly. This won them over. They also like the fact that I turned my rage against other agents that couldn’t do their jobs in the will to do mine better.

A few weeks later, I’m told I have the position. This was after nerve-wracking days sitting in my cube, answering phones, processing email, and being miserable after a Mac Mini refresh wasn’t announced. My emotions were destroying me. This wasn’t good, as we’d hit the two year anniversary of Amy and I meeting in person. This should have been a very happy occasion. Instead, i was walking on eggshells.

So I’m invited to a conference room. The Aftehours Support Manager tells me I’ve got the job, that I’m giving OS X training for Afterhours agents the following week, Rodale training the week after that, and that I’d still be taking calls in my current queues until I could be backfilled.

It took a while before this all sunk in. I was going to be a lead, the person who coaches agents, answers their questions and generally leads them to be better agents. I’d only be answering calls during crunch times. They’d pay out my performance incentive (this is how they avoid giving me a raise, but this works just as well) and I’d only have to submit to working Saturday through Wednesday.

After my first drink and some form of cheese bread at the Brazilian restaurant Amy took me to that night, the realization finally knocked me over. Well, maybe the mojito knocked me over. Either way, I’d finally taken the first step towards bettering my work career. Or so I’d thought.

This past week, I spent time after in the afternoon shadowing agents taking Unilever calls, as they’d be my charges Monday through Wednesday. They’re a good group of people with some heavy, heavy expectations placed upon them. I think I’ll grow to really like these cats, so long as they keep trying.

Tuesday, we learned that an ice storm was coming to Austin. Coming from the Northeast, ice storms have never bothered me. In Texas, it’s the Apocalypse, similar to how North Carolina treated them when I was in college. They offer overtime for us to sleep in the office that night in case the roads got really bad.

The prospect of driving in an ice storm does not scare me. Doing so with other Austin drivers does. I also like money, to paraphrase Frito Pendejo. I took Unisys up on this.

I get back to the office at midnight, only to find that a Rodale resolver had dropped a dozen issues back on us, some mishandled, others requiring followup. Not knowing if my counterpart Kevin would be coming in the next morning, I knew they had to be dealt with that moment.

Around 1:30 AM, I was done. I fell asleep about 45 minutes later. I heard voices around six AM, bellowing about Detroit Public Schools. I tried to sleep through it. My alarm went off at seven. I crawled out from under my desk, saw that Kevin made it there and that everything was fine. I got dressed in the bathroom and slept for another hour.

That night, I gave some damn fine OS X training. I gave it twice, then went home to sleep. For five hours. I then did it again the next day, minus the early wake up at work. In fact, I overslept, but nobody gave a rats ass. They knew what I was up to, and they were working to get someone to take the calls I normally took.

This may not happen anytime soon, sadly. Another client in the group I’m about to leave wants to dedicate 70% of our agents to their calls. This would leave about three people to take the other five queues. I may be stuck taking calls for the foreseeable future, at least until new people can be hired. With our stock price still under a dollar, this may take time.

At the very least, Amy and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary before the horrible week began. We had a fine time at McCormick and Schmick’s, eating fish that isn’t caught in sustainable fashions and enjoying getting dressed up for dinner in a fancy downtown joint. It was wonderful night on the town, and is probably the only reason why I haven’t completely lost my shit.

It’s been a roller-coaster of a week, of a month, of a post-collegiate life. I’ve set every twist, turn, loop, roll, hill and dip into motion myself, and it’s high time I waved at myself manning the controls from my other posts in the front and rear cars.

Wow, what a terrible analogy.

So, here’s to long nights, better jobs, stupid clients and the road ahead. Here’s to Amy and I, two years on and getting stronger each day. Here’s to everyone who has hated what they do for a paycheck, and an extra drink for those who have done something about it.

Speaking of Amy, as I tend to often, I have a sinking feeling she’s getting worried. She’s likely out cold, but I’ve been out here for a while now. At least an hour. And it’s coming up on three AM. I should sleep.

I leave you all (you few, maybe?) and retire to bed. After another Diet Coke and some knockoff Benadryl. Enjoy the rambling, friends.

I’d like to wish a happy new year to everyone who reads my blog. I thank you for checking it out. I know it’s not the best, but that’s something I plan to work on this year. Well, this and getting my yoga done.

Wil Wheaton did a neat year in review post, looking back at everything he’d blogged. I think I’m going to try that tomorrow, after trying to figure out Objective-C delegates again.

We also get a new bed tomorrow. More fodder for this thing.

Enjoy 2009 everyone. I’ll try to make it more enjoyable.

I’ve also dropped the site to a very simple template for the time being. It’s all a matter of finding the right one. I want to go back to three columns, but this should keep things simple and readable for now.

If only Helvetica was licensed for the web . . .

Over at Livejournal, I’ve found that dropping my account to Basic level removes the big stinking ad from the top. Looks a lot nicer now, and I didn’t lose any functionality I had previously. Thanks for the tip Amy!

I want to figure out if I can completely abandon categories for tags. I’m surprised that WordPress hasn’t moved that way yet. They work in a similar fashion, except you can’t render a page of exploded posts from a tag link. Maybe someday.

I also need to figure out what I want to do with the main page. That’s where I’d just link to crap. I do most of that on Facebook now, so the main site has become rather useless. I’m quite open to suggetions, and our host supports all the latest tech, including Rails.

Work is over in 15 minutes. Then the weekend begins. We’ll be doing some shopping tomorrow. Hooray

In recent years, getting older really got me down. Roll in the proximity of December 15 to the winter holidays and the severe lack of sunlight and things got worse. I once walked away from a cake and candles at my mother’s house.

Two years ago I escaped to Walt Disney World for my birthday week. Figured I’d never been sad in Disney World, save for the time my sister Laura vomited in the lobby of the Kodak theater at the Journey into Imagination pavilion. I’d waited months, saw every preview, knew everything about 3D technology and was ready to see Captain E-O. And she just yakked all over the lobby, when we would have been in the next show group.

I digress. I got to see the flick a few days later, and really enjoyed it. So always happy in Disney World. And as I spent my birthday at the now defunct Explorers Club watching some amazing shows (holiday themed, as Christmas was so close) sipping Bacardi and Diet Coke, I was quite happy.

Of course, this set me up for disappointment. I can’t afford to fly to Florida and live in a theme park for a week every December.

Last year, Amy and I spent our first December together. Her birthday falls three days prior to mine. We skipped down to a nearly deserted South Padre Island for a few days away. It was pretty good.

We had to split the day before my birthday though. I’d won tickets to see the Toadies, and we had to get back to Austin. The Toadies were great, but the venue and the rest of the crowd were horrible.

Already a bumpy start.

Later, we went to Dave and Busters for lunch and gorged on sushi for dinner. Turned out to be an okay night, but the birthday doldrums had already kicked in.

This year, things felt quite a bit better. We didn’t go away, we went for sushi and shopping on her birthday, and out for cooked seafood on mine. We kept it simple as she was still in exams and I’m hoarding paid time off for when we can go away.

Amy noticed that I wasn’t feeling as down. And I realized that I was feeling better about this time of year because I have someone to share it with, something I failed to realize last year. That’s a tough feeling to beat.

The week has trudged on, with work being as annoying as usual. I’ve put in for a promotion to technical lead. We’ll see how that goes as well.

That’s the one thing about having another birthday that bugs me. Four years on after leaving school, I’m still answering phones for a living. I still wait for people to reboot. I still answer stupid questions, both from client and coworkers. At 28, I no longer want this.

I’ll keep everyone posted on the new job if it comes to be.

Look for me to post again as the holidays wear on. I’m liking the new WordPress interface, which is good, as MarsEdit doesn’t appear to have tagging support for WordPress, unless I’m just not finding it. I’ll check again later.

See you all real soon.

I really didn’t like BloodRayne. I don’t know why I kept playing. It might have been recapturing my lost youth. Days of guzzling caffeine and playing video games until my thumbs hurt.

It might have been the fact that I wanted to keep playing that disaster, like watching the proverbial train wreck. There were so many issues. Voice clips that played back long after the caption displayed. Effects that occurred too late (I nearly lost it seeing an elevator fall on some Nazis only for their models to clip through it, then scream in terror and die). The inability to aim, or even have a targeting reticle.

It was probably just a horrible lapse of judgement. I keep having those for some reason.

GameTap and Red Bull aside, I’m awake again. I was in and out all day long. And I have work in a few hours. Allergy shots prior to that. My vacation can’t come any sooner.

Thankfully, that starts Monday afternoon.

Amy and I are going to South Padre Island. Sure, it’s December, but it’ll be warm. It’s been a toasty December here in Texas. Sure, there will be very little to do, as it’s off season. But we need time away from the Austin area. And I haven’t seen a beach since Wrightsville over a year ago.

We’re spending three nights down there, then coming back up to see The Toadies, speaking of recapturing my youth. We were gaga over these guys back in Middle School, or maybe ninth grade. Amy saw them earlier in the year, right before she came to visit me in New York. I won tickets in the same manner she did: texting a radio station. Beats trying to be caller number X (which I’ve been on a few occasions in the past).

A week from Saturday I turn 27. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s true. I’m getting up there. Well, not like some cats are. I don’t know, I just feel old. Amy’s turning 26 a few days prior. Having a December birthday and coming to dread this time of year isn’t something isolated to me. I guess the whole birthday and Christmas gift paradigm combined with the lack of sunlight tends to add up.

I think I’m going to pop a Sonata and catch some shuteye, as much as I’m enjoying listening to “The Mist” in 3D audio and playing with WriteRoom. I wish this thing had a means of publishing right to the blog. I kind of like writing with no distractions. I think I’m gonna pay for this one.

I’ll post again before we leave, and probably photoblog some while we’re out there.

Goodnight, world.