Word is fine. One of the better MS products imo. If you want to rail on a MS product look no further than Outlook.

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I caught a trout with a lure and while I was reeling it in, a shark ate most of it.

Haven't posted in a while. Partially because not much happening and partially because I've been pretty busy which doesn't make much sense I know.

Although I love the boat, it's a lot of work and a bit of a financial drain. I've been debt free for a long time and it's somewhat painful to be paying loans again. But, hopefully that won't be for long (except for the boat payment).

I haven't been able to work on story 2 but hope to get back soon.

work update, coming up

Work update:

So, the two systems that my team is responsible are supposedly going away. They want to transition me to a team that is currently undertaking a big development effort. This will require learning a new technology, which is fine.

However....................................... For this effort they've acquisitioned a fairly large room and put in a bunch of folding tables. The programmers sit elbow to elbow at these tables. You only have a laptop. No phone or anything else allowed on the table. It's ****ing horrible. I'm sure if anyone comes to work sick, everyone gets sick.

Not only that, I'll be losing my work from home day. AND, it looks like night and weekend work.

Although what I do now isn't great, at least I've learned to navigate things and the pace has settled down so we don't feel rushed all the time. I absolutely do not want this transition.

I've started looking for jobs again but I really got screwed here. They assigned me this creaky system that uses antiquated technology and my resume looks like crap now. It's going to be difficult.

There are some other internal positions and I'm hoping I can snag something. Anything. Please.

That sounds not like a productivity enhancing environment.

I think the idea is brute force productivity. More makes up for better.

And some corporal punishment would increase this productivity even more. An Innovation might be to execute this in sm style. ^^

So, out of the blue a recruiter calls me. He sets up a quick interview with a company that is much closer to me than where I work now. A really good opportunity I think.

The guy at the company calls me and my phone never rings and he goes straight to voicemail.

FML.

Call rescheduled for Monday.

In the meantime, got the boat back from my 20 hour servicing which means I can run the motor as hard as I want now. Took it offshore yesterday. The wind laid down and I was able to get out there but I doubt my boat could handle any big seas.

It was a crazy day. Our goal was to catch kingfish. They migrate through in the spring and fall and they are here now. We spent the morning catching bait and then went out to troll some. We really didn't know what we were doing and we probably wasted 2 hours. Then we decide to hit a couple of spots my friend knows.

We caught a bunch of snapper on the first spot and kept 3 big ones. I cooked some of it tonight. Yum!

Then we went to another spot he knew and I immediately hooked something. Then my rod just sort of stopped. I tried to reel it in but couldn't budge it. I just swam around slowly. We are pretty sure that a goliath grouper ate the fish I originally caught. If you aren't familiar with these, they are HUGE fish. You almost need a winch and cable to get them in. I cut the line.

Then a few barracuda showed up and we hooked one of them but it got off. Caught a nice cobia (see below).

On our way in we saw a lot of birds working and headed towards them. Kingfish everywhere. We hooked about 6 or 7 but lost them all. I question the hooks we were using but all the fishermen here use them. I dunno.

Then about 20 dolphins showed up and the kingfish disappeared and didn't come back.

All in all a great day. I love this stuff.

The phone call interview went very well so they brought me in.

I talked to 4 of their tech guys. I got peppered with a ton of tech questions. I pretty much knew I was in trouble.

I just don't do well with these sort of interviews. I just don't process information like other people. I don't store the minutia of technology. I don't feel like I need to. I know where to look it up if I need it. For an analogy, it's like memorizing thread sizes on bolts. I don't really care. I'm more interested in how many bolts it's gonna take to hold it, or if we really need screws instead of bolts. I can go to look up bolt sizes once I've decided. If that makes any sense.

I also review resumes where I am. The trend now is a pages of bolded technical keywords. I've read so many of these and have no clue what the person has actually ever done. It just doesn't make sense.

I think part of the problem with me is I've done this forever and I feel like I know that the actually nitty gritty tech stuff really isn't that important. I've seen guys (figuratively) try to connect a porsche engine to a ferrari transmission just because it's cool technology and the damn thing never works right.

Part of the problem is also I just don't care that much about my career. I'll do whatever it is I'm asked to do, and do it well, but I'm just not all that fired up about learning about all the gadgets out there. I can work with whatever is handed to me.

And, in this case, as weird as it sounds, I've sort of settled in where I am. It isn't a great place to work professionally but it fulfills my needs. I get paid pretty well. I'm not micromanaged any more. I've sort of figured out how things work around here. And, I really like the people I work with. If it weren't for the brutal drive every day, I probably wouldn't even consider another job.

And, I'd be losing a possible bonus and raise (got both last year), a bunch of vacation time, and get a cut in pay.

Maybe things work out the way they are supposed to.

File this under "things work out".

One of the reasons I was really considering a new job was they are planning on breaking up my team. They wanted to move me to a new project where they are trying some sort of new programming nonsense. Essentially, there are bout 100 programmers in a big room sitting elbow to elbow coding away. No phone, no place to put personal belongings. It's pretty bad. The vast majority of programmers doing this are contractors from India. They have different motivations than I do. I can't think of anything worse.

We had a team meeting yesterday and learned that a LOT of work will be coming soon and they won't be breaking up my team. Yeah! Even weirder is that I will be working on some technology that I was essentially rejected for not knowing in my recent interview.

I really like my manager and tech lead so this is fantastic news.

Funny how things happen sometimes.

One of the guys on my team is dying.

He officially occupies the cubicle next to me but he's rarely here now.

When I first got here he was a real livewire, full of energy. He's sort of a "I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do" personality and damn the consequences.

He is a lifelong smoker and has some sort of lung disease. My assumption is emphysema but I don't know for sure.

He went on oxygen about 3 months ago and now gets around on a cart. He's gone downhill pretty fast.

Jfc. Stay safe bro.

I flew to Austin to visit Mom and Dad and friends this weekend.

My friends (that I stayed with) have a 2 year old who had some sort of aids that I now have. Little germ factories.

And, speaking of two year olds, that's pretty much what my Dad is now. They have taped a multi-page list of things that his caretakers do for him to keep him happy.

I brought food to him and his immediate response was "i'm not hungry. I just don't get hungry anymore". Except for the french fries which he gobbled down. A couple hours later the facility brought their lunch which he immediately rejected as being not good. I ate some of it and it wasn't bad at all. However, he didn't waste any time eating the apple pie that came with it. I suspect this is pretty much his diet now.

He complained a lot about not sleeping and waking up having nightmares. I'm pretty sure this is primarily caused by the meds he is taking. My sister was there a couple of weeks ago and figured out he has a private stash of Klonopin which he takes whenever he thinks he should take it. He took 8 times the recommended dose while she was there. They took it away from him. But when you mention his med abuse he gets mad. His standard line is "you don't know how I feel". Grrr.. I think I've already talked about his obsession with meds.

His biggest issue now is he can barely move. It takes a long time just to get him to the bathroom. He can't get out of bed by himself any more either. He pretty much needs someone there all the time now. While I was there a physical therapist showed up (doctor's orders) to evaluate him to try to get a program in place to help with this. He completely refused, stating they never do any good.

Grrr........... Part of me realizes that his is just the natural aging process. But the other part of me still resents him for his buttheadedness. He never takes any responsibility for anything at all. I just gotta let that go.

He's not in a good emotional state at all. He called me later that evening to just talk. He keeps thinking "what did I do to deserve this?". What do you say to this? It's old age coupled a complete lack of doing anything about it. I try to just listen because I really can't say anything that would make it better for him. I can't make him young again.

Is he in some way religious? Can you sell him in some way idea with afterlife and virtue of patience? It completely doesn't matter if you yourself believe in it. From my experience it just makes the process of aging and dying easier.

I don't think he is. He's sort of dabbled with different religious philosophies through the years but I don't think he thinks about this too much. He's extremely self absorbed so he can't get past how the universe is doing this to him.

My mother just sent my sister and I a long email indicating she wants to move him to another facility with around the clock care. I'm not sure I agree. He already has someone there close to 24/7 and he has one caretaker that he really likes and has helped him emotionally. She won't be able to work with him if he moves. And, he won't be able to take his cat which would be devastating. The only plus is they can respond to health emergencies quicker but, as bad as it sounds, I'm not sure that is really as important as what little quality of life we can give him.

They are finally installing my boat lift. Weeeee......

This is the barge they use to work on it.

Talked to Mom today. She wants Dad in another facility but my sister and I can't think of a good reason to move him.

Then I called Dad just to check up on him. He sounds pretty bad. It sounded like it was hard for him to breathe. He's not very coherent but he said they were trying to get him a different bed. I'm assuming it is one with bars that can lean up. He's not happy about it but he's not happy about anything so it's hard to gauge.

Hugs. It is tough when parents are at this stage.

Thanks.

The boat lift is finished. Woohoo! I'm broke but, hey.....

As I've already mentioned, the boat probably wasn't a good idea from a financial perspective. I worked hard to be debt free and all of the sudden I'm not. I'll dig myself out again but all of the sudden I'm getting hit from all sides with unexpected expenses. Discover loves me I'm sure.

/firstwordproblemsrant

Enjoy the boat instead of thinking too much about the debt.

Mom is again pushing to move Dad to another facility where he would have 24 hr. care. She said his helpers are onboard too which makes a big difference. One of his helpers is his favorite person and they've really bonded. She has the pulse of the situation better than anyone so I'm inclined to be OK with it. Not sure what my sister thinks - I just emailed her.