in which i breakdown….

…and finally buy a real cellphone.

I should have a brand new Samsung Rant on the Sprint Network on Monday.  For 70 a month, I’ll get the nw Everthing Data plan with Unlimited mobile to mobile calls, unlimited text, data and IM, and 450 anytime minutes.

Considering I use my cellphone more than my land line, I’ll be using it as my primary.  Which is new for me – I’ve always had a landline.  But I’m paying $40 a month for a landline, and I’m rarely using it.  All my friends call me (or text me) on cellphones, and it makes no sense to have the landline, when I can have a cell and it won’t cost me anything to call them.

So I’ll be dropping the land line at the end of the next billing cycle (but keeping my internet), and my phone number will be changed.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Grrrrr....

I can understand my work blocking certain types of websites.

Porn, gaming, gambling, cloud based storage sites (like DropBox), - They have no business being in a work environment.

But why block Google Reader?  I used it to read news sites and tech news in the morning.  And now it’s blocked.  I guess I shouldn’t have been using it in the morning.

I’m actually curious as to when they will COMPLETELY cut off people from the internet all together.  It’s really only a matter of time before TPTB decide “You know, people don’t need breaks from the workflow at all during the day, let’s get rid of this whole Interweb thing – they won’t mind at all!”  I understand that some people abuse using the internet at work.  I’ve seen it happen.  But just because a few people are irresponsible, they shouldn’t punish the ENTIRE company, should they?  I feel people will only get frustrated when they decide to take a break from working, and go to a site that they’ve been able to access before, only to find that it’s blocked.

And it’s not just sites like that – I know for a fact that YouTube is blocked (understandable – that can be a time sink), as is Facebook, MySpace, and eBay.   By why block The Skeptics Guide @ www.theskepticsguide.org?  It’s a Science blog about debunking the nutcases who believe they can read minds and bend spoons.  Yes it talks about those, but when it’s classified as “The Websense category "Non-Traditional Religions and Occult and Folklore" is filtered”, that make no sense!

I really understand that the bank has to protect its network.  The LAST thing the bank needs is for a virus, or worm, or keylogger to sneak on the system and compromise the security of the millions of people that we do business with.  But they way they choose to block websites is kinda random.  For instance, you can’t visit Google Documents (an online Word/Excel type bank of apps), but you can’t visit Google Calendar.  I can visit skeptics.org, but not theskepticsguide.org.

So I think they need to do one of two things.  Either give us a select few SAFE and SECURE websites that we can go to for news/weather/info for when we need to take a breather from work, or get rid of internet access completely.  We don’t NEED the internet here – it’s not a necessity for us to use it on a daily basis.  But people do need to take the occasional break from the work flow.  And continually changing the rules about where you can go doesn’t help.

in which i find out my new a1c level....

6.0 Baby!  WOOT!

The plusses to my visit?  6.0 a1c (obviously), my doctor told me I can now test 3 times a week instead of twice a day (or when I feel I need to – which is awesome on the budget!), and she is very happy my blood sugar is officially under control.

But the downside to the visit – I have to start taking a cholesterol medication (Pravastatin), and she didn’t take me off any of my diabetes meds.  Oh well – I’d rather play it safe than stop taking them and see things spiral out of control again.

Next up – need to look into lower cholesterol foods… Do I see flavorlessness in my future?

The Syndicate is coming...

Recently, I have been recording 2 minute audio segment for the World of Warcraft podcast “The Instance”.  Called “First Levels”, it’s a segment that deals with the beginning player of WoW and tips and suggestions for the player.

This caught the attention of the DM of a guild called Monkeys With Spoons (an awesome guild name, btw). Stacalm (that’s his toon’s name in-game) approached me with the idea of creating a new hourly podcast about WoW.  After exchanging a bunch of e-mails, we finally Skyped and have 2 ½ hour conversation about the possibility of creating a podcast.

The results were very positive. We have some interesting ideas percolating, with a unique twist to the podcast.  I won’t give any details here, but soon I’ll be posting a new Wordpress site and a GMail contact for the show. One thing I CAN mention right now is the show’s name:

“The Warcraft Syndicate”

More coming soon!

in which I get OT - Woohoo!

I really love my job. Lemme ‘splain. 

This past week, 3 things happened.  1) I got a promotion – I’m now the Team Lead of my department. 2) I got a raise because of the promotion. And 3) I got another raise, because they miscalculated my first one.  Pretty sweet, huh?

Now on top of that, they have offered my co-worker and I overtime to help out another department.  10 hours a week until they are caught up with the overflow work. 

Hmmm now lemme see.  Extra money for a couple hours extra work a day?  Yeah… I’ll take that.

In. A. Heartbeat.

in which i go to quahog… sorta.

I is in Rhode Island! (pardon the grammar, I’m on vacation)

But really, I’m in Rhode Island this week visiting my good friends Rob and Cate.  For some inexplicable reason, they’ve decided to put up with me for 7 days, so I guess I had better behave myself while I’m here.

We are planning on doing a bunch of stuff this week.  Today, we are heading to Battleship Cove, Rob and I may catch a movie tomorrow, and it’s off to Providence for Fire and Ice, Dave and Busters, and Providence Place on Wednesday.

I’m so stoked to be here for a week. I’ll try to post more later.

Oh and check out my flick page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekbearinggifts/) and see me almost lop my toes off at the Great Northeast War!

Our dogma got ran over by someone’s karma…

Well.  This was an interesting day.

Stayed the night at Chuck and Heather’s house and set out for Funtown.  We were having a great time, and we got there and… It was closed due to the weather.  Which I call bullshit on.  It was overcast – that was it.

So we shake off the disappointment of the Non-Funtown day, and decide to goto the Children’s Museum in Portland. we get there and… you guessed it… Closed.

So we figure, might as well go to the Maine Mall.  As we pull up to the mall at 11:30, Peaches says, “Watch the mall not be open until noon, and we end up waiting for a half-hour.  And LOOK!  New Mall Hours sunday 12-6…

Sigh..  But all was not lost.  Annie got a build-a-bear (technically a lamb named Lilly),  Charlie got a Guinea Pig Webkins, and I got me a new laptop bag. 

But I REALLY wanted to ride Excalibur……