Month: August 2006

While I have no official ties to my former employer, a little birdie told me a couple of interesting facts:

  • they’re officially closing the Iowa office on 9/29.
  • they sold the company (or at least part of it) again.

The CLB was quoted as saying: This is an exciting day. I am thrilled for all of us… After running his statement through the realitizer bullshit remover, we found his real meaning was : This is an exciting day. I am thrilled for all fat loot I just made by screwing all of you over (again).

Good luck to all you still stuck working for that place!

I don’t know if it’s because I was extra-tired & cranky this morning but it seemed like everybody forgot the basic safety rules of the road today. Let’s start with the bicyclist who cut me off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sharing the road and I know cycling myself, but I also know it’s suicidal to cut off a car with my bike. But that’s exactly what this lady did. Without even looking she rode right out into the street, cut right in front of me (forcing me to slam on the breaks to avoid running her over. Then instead of getting over to the side road like a cyclist should; she just kept going right in front of me just slowly enough so we both got to the stop light as it turned red.

After getting past Ms. BikingWithADeathWish, I headed down towards to the interstate and into heavier & heavier rain. I got about halfway down the highway when I got stuck behind some giant, red Ford pickup. I don’t know what was going through this driver’s mind but I do know it had nothing to do with his driving this morning. Slow to stop at reds, slower to start at greens and an almost total lack of acceleration on the ramp leading up to the interstate. Then after finally getting on the interstate, I was able to get past Mr. ImDrunkAtSevenAm and on with motoring up the interstate to get to work.

Most of the way up wasn’t too bad, though the rain did get pretty unpleasant at one point. On the other hand the rain was also nice & soothing; unfortunately, I was tired and did not need any soothing this morning. *sigh* Anyway, I finally made it into town and was working my way past downtown through three-lane traffic with the rain pounding down. And what do I see before me as the traffic hits the 55 MPH zone? Why wouldn’t you know it, it’s another giant, red Ford pickup! This one had a few more of the extras installed and was an even worse driver. I first noticed him tailgating a vehicle in the lane to my right, but then I got my own taste of his brand of “driving”. When I was only about 2 maybe 3 feet back from this idiot; he suddenly decides to cut over into my lane (without signally) and go on to cut over to the far lane where he could pound down the gas pedal as he headed into the slower section of the interstate.

That pretty much covers the worst offenders on this morning’s commute. Now I just have to look forward to the insanity of driving home tonight. Wheeeee!

Update: Actually, it turns out I got to witness some extra fun insanity driving over lunch. I realized at lunch time 3 things:

  1. I was totally out of the trail mix emergency rations I keep at my desk.
  2. I’d packed a small lunch today.
  3. I was really hungry.

So I made a quick trip down over to a nearby Target to pick up one of their containers of trail mix1. Then I drove back to the office but I didn’t even make it out of the parking lot before I had encountered both idiots.

Idiot #1 decided to start walking in front of me on wet pavement after I’d started moving forward from the stop sign. If I’d been driving our old car, that pedestrian would have been road pizza.

I had just about made it out of the parking lot when idiot #2 showed up. Oddly enough, it was another red pickup truck; though I’m not sure if it was a ford. In any case, I was heading for the back/side road access as it leads to a stoplight making it much easier to get back to my office. That’s when this idiot came tearing into the parking lot without slowing down at all and tried to turn to follow the curve of the “road” in the Target lot leading to the parking area. The main problem with this “plan” of theirs is we’ve been getting rain all day today and the pavement was wet slick. The idiot lost control of his pickup and went into a slide/skid/spin/whatever that missed hitting me by mere inches. He didn’t quite pull off a full 360° and he did pull away shortly so I figured besides being terminally stupid; he’d be ok.

But I really have to wonder, what the frak is up with people who drive red pickups? I mean that’s 3 of them in 1 day that all were driving recklessly!

1 They’ve got several flavors sold under their house brand, “Archer Farms”. And every one I’ve tried is good stuff.

Before I explain why I’m feeling giddy, I’d like to thank one of my readers by the name of Robin. Yes, you Robin. I didn’t reply to your email before now as it got accidentally caught by my spam filters. Sorry about that. When I read your offer to advise my wife & I; I was totally flabbergasted that a total stranger would offer to do that for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t see your offer until after things have been settled upon. So thank you very much for the incredibly generous offer of your time and expertise!

Which brings me back to why I’m feeling so giddy today. Ariesna & I made an offer on the house we’ve been looking at and the offer was accepted! We take possession next month1 and begin our journey as first-time home buyers. The house is a charming, older home in a great neighborhood. Hardwood floors, central air, a basement (pretty much required if you live in Iowa), ceiling fans in most of the rooms2 and the neighborhood is loaded with mature trees. We were at the house today taking a final look through before putting in the offer. The a/c was off but with the windows open and all the trees in neighborhood; it was perfectly comfortable. Compare that to the apartment we’ve been living in for 8 years with a window a/c unit stuck into the wall of our living room and with all of our windows facing to WEST. It’s going to be heaven once we’re moved into the house. As an added bonus to the house, my daily commute to work will drop down to about 15 minutes. Sure that’s not as good the 5 minute commute I used to have with the old job, but it’s massively better than the 30-45 minute commute I’ve got now. Did I mention how the neighborhood is loaded with trees? I just love that part. 😀

1 Technically, we’re setting up an appointment with a house inspector for next weekend to check over the entire house for problems. However the house has been very well maintained, so we do not expect him to find any problems that would kill the deal.
2 1 in the living room, 1 in a sitting area on the top floor, 1 in the kitchen and 1 in each bedroom. Though the one in the master bedroom will have to go, as the ceilings are a little low in there and I can look directly at the blades of the fan without standing on tippy-toes. Sometimes being tall can really suck. :p

Between posting my solution to challenge #8 and finally getting a chance to sit down & read me email this evening, I got hit with 6 emails and a few comments about it. Rather than trying to reply to all of you individually, I’ll just post my answers here. Sorry this comes so late, but I’ve been swamped today.

Krystal wrote:

I am having a hard time with the latest Treasure Hunters Challenge…When I pick up the Gold Dabloon (sp?), all I get is either an extra pair of goggles or Laird’s wallet. I took out the business card from the wallet and typed in “Emergency Support” in the Visa “department” line, it says I do not need emergency support at this time. Can you help me??…I’ve been putting Library of Congress also and I haven’t gotten anything like that either 🙁

As I recall from last night, there were 3 items on the river bed: a wallet, a boot and the doubloon. First, empty your web browser’s cache and then restart your browser. In the IRC channel I had been hanging around on last night, that seemed to clear up most of the really weird stuff. If that doesn’t work make sure you are following my instructions step-by-step. If you get stuff out of order, things may not work right. If you’re still having problems and want more immediate feedback, try going to NBCTreasureHunters.com and following their instructions for connecting to the IRC server & chatroom they are using. It’s a really good resource for getting help with the puzzles. If all that fails, leave a comment on this post with a detailed workflow of what you’ve tried and where you are getting stuck.

sandra r. wrote:

i need help week 8 is there any help for me

on disability need money so bad please help me

Hmm, well there’s the help I spelled out in my solution to challenge #8. There’s the NBCTreasureHunters.com website (and their instructions for getting to an IRC server where you can chat live with other hunters. However, you should keep in mind even if you solve all the puzzles correctly; the official rules state “the Administrator will select ten (10) Winners from all eligible entries in a random drawing.” This means there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get any money from playing along with the NBC Treasure Hunters online game.
Beyond that maybe one of these websites can assist you:

neil wrote:

what is the combination for the final clue? I dont have a printer to do the folding thing.please help! thanks

Check out the footnotes at the bottom of my solution to challenge #8.

rob wrote:

any luck with the 8th challenge, i got the coin and things but when i get back to the boat the seagull knocks the backpack into the water. was not sure if it is something i am doing/or not doing.

Check out my solution to challenge #8 starting with step #14.

Tristine wrote:

Hi, can you please help me with the order for the final puzzle? I have the cutout of the star and have entered all the possible combinations that I see (“feather symbol”, sun, door with “c”, hands, book, arrow, other door) and I cannot get it to work. Please help! Thanks!

Check out the footnotes at the bottom of my solution to challenge #8. To be perfectly honest, I had my wife do the cutout thing for me, couldn’t figure it out and relied upon the kind people chatting about the puzzle in the #steeple_media IRC channel on AccessIRC. You might also want to read one of the comments on my post covering my solution to challenge #8.

ben wrote:

how do you arrange the puzzle pieces? it looks right but the fireplace is not opening.

Make sure your pieces on the gameboard are arranged in exactly the same method as shown in the image on my solution to challenge #8 post. If you’re still having problems, try clearing your web browser’s cache, restarting your webrowser and trying again.

First off, the lack of recent updates is due to 2 factors:

  1. I’ve been busy with the new job and I don’t really talk about such things here.
  2. Ariesna and I have started some serious house hunting. Well, to be perfectly accurate we’ve seen a house we like and now we’re mortgage hunting.

Still, while I won’t discuss who I work for or what exactly I do for them on this site; I do have to share some thoughts that occur to me at the office. Which brings us back to the title of this post, it’s the strangest thing how different companies treat office supplies. In my old job, there was one stapler provided to each department and it was always jealously guarded. In the new job, I got a stapler given to me practically as soon as I walked in the door. In the old job, the newest computers generally went to the people with the most seniority. In the new one, I got a brand new machine my first day while a co-worker who’s been here a while is still waiting to get a new one. In my old job, if you needed things like paper or pens or whatever, you had to go ask one of the secretaries to get it for you. In my new job, I was shown where to find things in the supply closet on the first day.

Corporate culture is really weird sometimes, but at least here it’s weird in a good way.