h1

Confessions of a HALO Fan 02/28/10

28 February 10

Hey what’s up peepz sit down and have a nice cup of coffee, I have a real confession to make, and I’m not proud of it Photobucket

I started one of my projects in 2009 in a rush, so I didn’t have my own office yet. My manager asked me if I minded to share an office with the secretary. I didn’t. After two uncomfortable days she and I hit off. While we never really discussed it, we both recognised that we were on our own and that we both knew what kind of struggle life could be and we both didn’t want to be treated any differently because of it and therefore hid it from the people we met. Quite frankly her life then (and now) is a bigger struggle then mine atm and I really respected her for still being cheerful and trying hard to make something of it. (Don’t you guys dare to give me the Oprah Winfrey crap “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” Photobucket , that is the biggest bull ever Photobucket Photobucket, if you don’t believe me, go do volunteer work for homeless people). While there were parents somewhere in her life, I could tell the only reason she was in touch with them was because of her son and that they never ever did anything for her Photobucket

After sharing an office with her I noticed a couple of things – she was absent way too much. She always had a “valid” excuses. Her son had gotten ill, she had gotten ill. In the six weeks we shared an office she was absent like this 4 times. I warned her about it, I told her that people were noticing  and making comments about her absence behind her back. I knew exactly why she was absent, when you are on your own, really on your own, and there is way too much shitty stuff on your plate which you have to solve yourself, the kind of stuff that makes a lot of grown people run back to their parents. Going to work and staying there seems the hardest thing to do and the easiest place to stay away from. Even though deep inside you, you know that it’s the stupidest thing to do because all you have in this world is your ability to make money Photobucket Been there done that.

The other thing I noticed was that she was computer illiterate, she didn’t have her own private (free) e-mail addy, when she needed to do something in Word she asked me or would Google how to do it. I had to teach her how to retrieve files from a USB device, I am talking about a 34 year old single mom here who has worked as secretary for the last 8 years! She was afraid of electronic banking, instead waited in line at the bank and paid their ridiculous fee to do payments manually. Even the dude behind the counter told her to get electronic banking. Her financial situation wasn’t good, she would always wait until the last minute to pay her bills…

This one day she came to my desk and asked me if I could make an electronic payment through my bank account. I looked at the bill and it said that if she didn’t pay before 3 in the afternoon they would cut off her gas and electricity…I didn’t say anything Photobucket I just made the transfer, she was willing to pay me the fee she normally paid the bank. I looked at her and I said, “Please don’t think of me like this” while giving her back the money. Since I sensed she was afraid of electronic banking, I then made her do payments herself using my account (I didn’t care that she could see my financial details) I just wanted to get her used to it. It might sound stupid to you guys that she was afraid of electronic banking and that she was paying those ridiculous fees. Try to see her point of view – she has been on her own all her life, she is in serious debt, she is computer illiterate, she has been hearing the internet horror stories. So she is in a situation where she would rather be 100% sure the bill is paid than somehow, due to the internet, something goes wrong. She can’t afford to make any mistakes with money.

Also, almost every week she borrowed money from me for groceries, which she paid back a week later. That all being said I could see how hard she was trying to get her life going. Her way of keeping her job while being absent too much and not actually meeting the job requirements was allowing other people to treat her as a doormat. She once told me “Rampancy there was a time when I thought like you and I wouldn’t take that kind of crap either. But I’m a single mom now, I can’t afford to lose this job. I need the money I’m making here THAT much.” Despite the fact I’ve been there myself (minus the child and minus not meeting the requirements of the job) it was still very painful to witness this Photobucket

When I was kicked off of the project I “made” her make an e-mail address for herself. A couple of weeks later she wrote me an e-mail thanking me and telling me that no one ever made such an effort as I did for her, she was now even using electronic banking by herself! I was so proud! I e-mailed her that it was nothing (for me it really wasn’t) and that I was glad that I could help her out. We stayed in touch through mail.

Last Friday when I came home from work and checked my mail, I saw an email from her saying that she had been fired…. The only way I can reach her is through mail, she even doesn’t own a mobile… And God knows where she e-mailed me from Photobucket She really can’t afford to be jobless right now, not in this economy. She was always two months late with the rent, because of the many debts she had to pay off. She got in serious debt after being jobless for 8 months and unlike most she couldn’t go to her parents to have a free dinner etc., etc. or pay for  “little” things for her.

And you know what is truly horrifying and disgusting? That I’m hoping she will not ask me to help her to get her a job… I can’t recommend her, I really can’t. I knew back then she was being overpaid way too much. If I recommend her now, I’m afraid that due to this economy it will kill my reputation, since I’m known to be extremely picky and I only recommend people who I think highly of as a professional whether I get along with them or not. This must be one of the truly horrible and disgusting things a person can think, right?

h1

I’m pretty sure that by now

23 February 10

You can find a vid of me on youtube, where you can see me get dragged out of a building by two pissed off firemen Photobucket

While I was at work the office communication system went off and people in the whole building were asked to leave. Being too cool for school Photobucket I decided to ignore this and continue to work. Don’t ask me how they managed to do it but the employees whose job it is to secure the building missed me Photobucket So I continued to work. At one point there was a fireman standing next to me asking me in a strained voice to leave the building NOW. I stood up and grabbed my stuff, the fireman just pushed me away from my desk and told me that there wasn’t time for that. I walked off, waited until he was out of sight and went back to get my stuff Photobucket  When I got to the elevator, I was just about to enter when I was dragged out by another fireman. Really, weren’t these people supposed to be outside taking out the fire? WTF were they doing inside the building Photobucket This fireman called his fuckbuddy, the one at the desk, each held one of my arms and they dragged me down 8 flights of stairs and out of the building. When we came out of the building I saw several people holding their arms out like they were about to give me and the firman the Nazi salute Photobucket Turned out they were holding their arms like that because they were filming with their smartphones what was going on. I am telling you people these days Photobucket

And no, I wasn’t being stupid, arrogant or what so ever by not getting out of the building myself or by trying to use the elevator Photobucket The building in where I am currently playing office bee is newly renovated, and its security (what happens in case of fire, hostage situations etc., etc.) is done by a well known international engineering company specialized in creating so-called ’smart buildings’ Photobucket Throughout the building there are stickers and seals in discreet places, saying when something was last checked etc., etc. I happen to be able to decipher the codes on those stickers/seals/certifications Photobucket and therefore knew what kind of fail safes would have taken off in case of a real emergency. If that were the case all the doors which normally only open if you hold an entrance card in front of it would have been wide open, the elevators would have stopped working etc., etc. and all of this would have happened AUTOMATICALLY (=WITHOUT ANY HUMAN INTERACTION)Photobucket Since none of this happened I figured there was nothing to worry about and I was right Photobucket

h1

Confessions of a HALO Fan 02/21/10

21 February 10



The good news, I have internet access at home Photobucket I shall not discuss the details about how I managed to do that Photobucket The bad news is I have Baby – Dell wrapped up in bubble wrap in a box, yes I am going to send her away Photobucket She fails to recognize my adapter, this could mean that either the motherboard needs to be replaced or the jack needs to be soldered. I thought of sending her back to the seller, but have decided against it. I like Baby-Dell’s size and I was planning on upgrading it anyway, which would cost, what, at least two times the price of a brand new mini Dell? So next Tuesday she is off to a repair servicePhotobucket

Yes this means that I dusted of my old Asus 7’ EEE lappy. I must say EB4 runs very well on it, better than expected Photobucket the only problem I have so far is with banshee. If you subscribe to a lot of podcasts (I listen to them in four languagesPhotobucket) and watch videos online it crashes. Other than that it runs fine. If watching vids and downloading podcasts would be just as smooth as when I just bought my 7’ EEE lappy I would have sent Baby – Dell back to the seller Photobucket

The other good news is that I can pick which project to do after the current ones end, I have 5 offers atm Photobucket plus my manager at my current project asked me if I would stay until the first of September of this year. The crisis must be over Photobucket or it could be karma the last couple of weeks I helped 3 people get a job by recommending them. Who would have thought that there is a networker in me after all Photobucket

h1

HALO 3 theme for Blackberry

8 February 10

(Cliccie for larger piccie)

You know you are pwnd when the receptionist at your office owns a Blackberry and you don’t Photobucket I’ve read that these days not owning a smartphone or not having internet is being seen as a form of poverty Photobucket Last Saturday I spent 140 dollars on 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 knife and 1 teaspoon, it’s design people it’s design Photobucket While this set of cutlery looks amazing while eating rice, the spoon is a bitch Photobucket then again it’s design people it’s design Photobucket Anyway for the people who want to pwn dem n00bz Photobucket in the office, the above theme can be found here.

h1

No I am not using UBUNTU UNR

7 February 10

(Cliccie for larger piccie)

I know that in this post I wrote that by now I would be running UNR on my Mini Dell. I’ve decided against it Photobucket For several reasons, I decided that I must refuse to use software that has a professional team of developers behind it and yet there still  isn’t an out of the box solution for an issue that has been known for at least 3 yearsPhotobucket I am not talking about a minor issue here people. Instead of focusing on a six month release schedule and inventing all kinds of “cool” names (may I add a suggestion for the next release? “Lazy Lama” Photobucket) they should focus on fixing that issue. Also, quite frankly, I like the fact that I’m using internet through a Live USB stick which means that none of my passwords and usernames are saved. If you steal Baby-Dell all you can find is some HALO pictures, my podcasts and some posts written with OOo Writer. The third reason why I’ve decided not to have UNR is that the next version of EEEBuntu (based on Debian Photobucket) will ship with some of the important plugins for Firefox already working from the Live USB stick, which means that I’ll be able to watch youtube vids (I can’t with the current Live USB stick). How cool is that Photobucket I wonder if something like this is possible with the Ubuntu Live USB stick, I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t Photobucket The plan for now (notice the emphasis on now Photobucket) is that if I for some reason can’t install the latest version of EEEBuntu (called EB 4), I’ll keep the current install with the broken wi-fi and use the latest version through a Live USB stick when I want to use the intern3tz. I’ll end this post with my history in Linux in a nutshell:

Knoppix

Redhat

Ubuntu

(I gave up on Linux because back then I had a USB modem, for which there wasn’t support for Linux, a lot of modems were but of course the one I owned wasn’t Photobucket There are still no Linux drivers for this modem to this day. This was in my HALO 2 period, the thing was this modem was unstable with Xbox Live, causing all kinds of trouble for me and the people I was playing with. But boy when I found out there were no drivers at all for the modem for it Linux, I stubbornly held on to it Photobucket Remember how I was ranting and raving on XBOX Live about how Linux should be all about freedom of choice etc. etc. and yet my modem was not supported. Remember how I was deaf to your guys’ arguments that I was planning on buying a new modem anyway and how I continued to cause “grief” to you all with that unstable USB modem of mine Photobucket).

Ubuntu (this time I had a laptop, which, of course, I broke a long time ago Photobucket)

Debian

Ubuntu

EEEbuntu

And still I fail at Linux Photobucket