Got my temporary admin rights. However, the Oracle Java download site is blocked.

We had an emergency meeting at work. The muckety mucks signed some sort of contract and obligated IT to have some stuff in place my May 1. My gut feel is that this is probably a several month effort, but we have a week to get it coded. I got pulled in even though I have ZERO knowledge about the application(s) that need to be modified. None, nil, zilch. I was planning on taking a day off to go fishing but, hah on that. And I'll probably have to work all weekend. Maybe the next. This is a result of the typical lack of planning at this organization. The higher ups and paper pushers have known about this for a long time. It just doesn't get to us until the last minute.

On the other hand, I haven't had to work that much overtime for a while. And, I do get to work from home 2 days a week. As far as corporate IT jobs go, I probably don't have much to complain about.

It is causing a pretty big internal struggle. I'm starting to feel like I did at my other job and I'm really having to push through it. I'm simply burned out, or close to burned out. The last time sunk me into a pretty bad bout of depression that took me years to get out of. Ruined and almost ruined several relationships. I don't want this to happen again.

However, there are some things I want to accomplish while I am still making good money. I want to get these books done, which is pretty expensive. But I don't know how else to make that happen if I don't keep working. Also, I can't really justify quitting as long as I have the outstanding loans I have.

I've updated my resume.

There are a LOT of jobs in the area that I qualify for. I would guess the working conditions range from slightly worse than where I am, to much better. A couple of the companies offer better benefits, although I'd probably have to take a cut in pay.

But, I just can't seem to pull the trigger.

Although my current job is constant chaos, I really haven't had to work a significant amount of overtime. My workload ranges from thumb twiddling to house on fire, leaning a little bit towards twiddling. My bosses are great and the people I work with are great as well. It's just the chaos I don't deal with well. I like things orderly and it drives me crazy to constantly be herding cats.

If I go anywhere, I'll probably lose my work from home days. Although the drive will be SIGNIFICANTLY better, working from home allows me to take care of a lot of personal things.

I guess my inability to pull the trigger here means that this is my best option for now. The worst case scenario is 18 months. Absolute worst.

I can do this...........

Another work LOL. My boss asked me to create a Visio flowchart. Only I don't have Visio. I can't even open a visio document to view.

Are you authorized to at least install it? Probably not. Sounds like a perfect job. Submit to IT then commence twiddling!

No, I'm not authorized.

I'm really good at submitting requests. Probably my top skillset.

So, when work really gets to me, I just need to sit back and reflect on why I do it.

These are mangrove snapper. They don't get the press that red snapper do, but I guarantee you could cook them side by side and not notice the difference.

Red snapper are really protected here. I'm not really sure why because they are pretty common. On this trip we caught several. The reason most likely is that it is so popular that without strict regulations they will be overharvested. The season changes every year. This year it is 40 days. Starts in June.

Anyway, back to the mangrove snapper. As discussed, they are every bit as tasty as red snapper. They can be kept year around and the minimum length is 10" and the limit is 5 per person. The ones I'm holding are twice that. Huge by mango (nickname) standards. Not many folks make the trip out to catch the big ones. Many smaller ones are caught closer to shore than where we were (30 miles out).

In the second pic there is a much smaller fish with a yellow tail. Appropriately named a Yellowtail. They are delicious. They get bigger but not a lot bigger. Usually if you find one, there are many more around. This time we only caught this one.

This was the first offshore trip on the new boat. Rides like a champ. I have zero complaints about it.

Anyway, a very fun trip.

With a hex editor and some good old fashioned work ethic I'm sure you'll get that Visio presentation ready in no time.

Nice haul bb. I went carp fishing recently and didn't even get a bite lol. Carp, I mean cmon that must make me the worst person at fishing in the world!

Nah. I've fished for carp before and been skunked. It's not something I do very often, but there are some lakes around Austin that are carp filled (or so people say). The ones I've caught have been by accident.

I fished at one lake once when the carp were spawning. There were thousands of them along the shoreline. It really messed up the bass fishing.

There is a small inner city lake in Austin where they have carp fishing tournaments. These guys have fancy trip wire thingies and bells and tripods and stuff to help alert them when a fish bites. It's quite a production number.

The book "stuff" is coming along. I've sold about 40 copies but mostly to friends. I have no idea if I've had sales from anyone other than people that know me.

I'm sort of slowly diving into to all of this. The createspace/amazon site doesn't do hardcover so I'm looking into that. About the only option is to use a site called Ingram. Much like createspace, you set up an account and upload the book file(s) and they print on demand.

They are networked into all brick and mortar bookstores. But, at a hella big cost. Ingram gets a 15% cut and they recommend that you price it so the bookstore can get a 40% profit. Except, by doing that the book would be outrageously expensive. They allow you to set a discount percentage for bookstores. As mentioned, the recommended discount is 55%. They suggest that most bookstores won't pick it up for less of a discount. However, they have an option of print/ship on demand. I can order any size lot and have it shipped anywhere. So I could possible get mom and pop business this way. It's still a small profit margin (for them and me). I'm not holding out much hope that brick and mortar will amount to anything.

The print/ship option will also allow me to just ship to myself and sell them over the interwebs. I'm probably going to do this. As mentioned earlier, I already have website domains. The profit is still pretty thin, but something is better than nothing.

The only other realistic option is to use a Chinese printer. I can get the books much cheaper, but have to buy in huge lots (5,000 or more). I really don't want to do this. Although ingram is expensive, there are a lot of conveniences (ease of use, buying in small lots).

I have a ton of work ahead, but I'm enjoying it so far. Working full time means I can only do things in bits and pieces. But it will take the illustrator a long time to finish all the books, so that's fine.

I seriously doubt this will ever be profitable. Maybe when I get all of the books out there and people like the concept. But, that's ok. It will give me something to do.

Also, I submitted my book to a place called Mom's Choice. My illustrator recommended this. I'll post the review (good or bad) when I get it.

There is a huge backstory to this that I'm not going to go into. But, as a result of "lots of stuff", biggerwife and I have an all expenses paid trip to England to see the Wimbledon final matches (men's and women's). Woot!

Wat?! How is a trip like that paid for even possible? Very awesome!!

Nice bonus trip!

Oh good. I was under the impression carp just leapt out of the water into your bucket the way some people carry on about fishing for them! Most of my fishing experience has been ocean based or in a river really close to the ocean.

This bad boy is a blacktip shark. It was about 5 ft. long. It jumped out of the water 3 times before we landed it. It took about 30 minutes to get it in. The hooks came out of its mouth and ended up in his fin, which made it harder to get in. As usual, we released it. Fun!

Yet another work rant.

There is a fairly large project that involves multiple groups. This project has been going on for months. Every other group has completed coding and has moved their changes to QA.

I got assigned my piece yesterday right before I left for the day. Today I attended an ongoing weekly meeting (my first time to attend) where I was questioned on when my piece was going to be delivered since my piece is holding the entire project back. Again, I had no knowledge about any of this before yesterday.

I'm not entire sure who to blame for this. Probably my immediate boss. I really want to complain about this to his boss but stirring the pot never has a good result. Plus, my immediate boss is cool about a lot of stuff like working from home and leaving early. He rarely gives me any grief. At the same time, he just doesn't manage well.

At any rate, once again I have a bunch of people screaming at me to hurry up when there was absolutely no reason for me to be in this position in the first place.

aummmm...........

This job allows me to do the things in life I want to do.

This job allows me to do the things in life I want to do.

This job allows me to do the things in life I want to do.

This job allows me to do the things in life I want to do.

This job allows me to do the things in life I want to do.

This job allows me to do the things in life I want to do.

aummmm................

My boat is in the shop for various reasons. Some routine motor maintenance and warranty work.

When we were fishing last Saturday, biggerwife said she felt a mild shock while reaching into the livewell (baitwell). There are 3 livewells in the boat and I was using a different one to get bait. I didn't think much of it, but she said it again so I reached in and did feel something. It was not really a shock. More like when you put your tongue on a 9 volt battery. After trying different things, it seemed like it was only when your hand touched the surface. It didn't seem to affect the bait at all. It didn't really hurt, but it was annoying.

The first thing I did was google this. There were 2 or 3 people on forums that posted something similar. The replies ranged from "you are crazy" to "that's impossible - DC current doesn't shock you".

When they got my boat for the maintenance, I asked them to look at it. He didn't come out and say it, but I could tell he thought I was crazy. They did take apart the baitwell and he said they couldn't find anything. Then he told me it was impossible because of saltwater and DC current or something.

I emailed one of my fishing buddies about this and he assured me that this does happen. He says it is a short.

Hopefully I get the boat back today and it magically disappears.

Blackfin Tuna. YUM!!

There isn't really much new stuff going on in biggerboat's world these days.

Work is work. I go from total chaos to nothing at all to do, and back in a heartbeat. This week it has been nothing to do. My mind is focused on the prize, though. Next (not this coming) October I'm eligible for social security. That will be the absolute longest I'll need to work. But, the window is getting smaller and smaller. I just can't see myself working longer than next March (bonus time). Realistically, I think I can do it before then, but dunno. I have a few goals to hit before I'll feel comfortable quitting.

I've been obsessed with fishing lately. I just can't get enough. When we are able to get out, it is usually a 12+ hour day and we are just exhausted when we are done. But, I'm ready to do it again almost immediately. I rarely get out more than one day a week which leaves me constantly wanting more. If I could get out more often, I doubt I'd do those long days very much. I've been scouting more places to fish closer in so it isn't such a long haul to our favorite spot. It's a process, but I really enjoy it.

The second book is coming along. The artist has sent me several pictures and it looks great. It might be better than the first one, actually. Here is a sneak peek.

When I turned 16, I got a job at Safeway. For the next 10 or so years, I worked in grocery stores.

I remember always wanting to be the fastest/best at everything. For the most part, I was. I was never good at management but I was a helluva grunt. I spent several years stocking shelves during the graveyeard shift. We were on a case count and I was always the fastest. Most of the guys I worked with were either slow and steady or tried to do their best. But there were always some that did whatever they needed to get by. This generally pissed me off that someone wouldn't put the extra effort in.

Then I transitioned into IT. I hit the ground running there as well. I was always the guy that wanted to do more and do it better. As with the grocery store job, there were some that just got by. As a team lead, I had a couple that worked for me. They were a constant thorn in my side. I just couldn't get my head wrapped around someone that wouldn't dive into everything head first.

Fast forward to today. I AM that guy now. I never take on extra work and, although I get the job done, I have no desire to do it quickly or any better than what is expected. Some of the time I feel guilty about this, but for the most part my aversion to going the extra mile overcomes the guilt.

What happened? I guess somewhere along the line I just got disillusioned, or maybe just tired. Dunno.

Counting the days.......................

Burnout is a real thing that happens, imo. Although for me it's more cyclical. Have a super productive month, followed by a week in which I just can't seem to get anything together. Rinse, repeat.

Biggerwife and I took a mini-vacation to the wonderful twin city metropolis of Raleigh-Durham.

I'm just not a fan of traveling. I don't really care too much for flying and all of the preparation for travel is a bit of a pain. I started out the trip pretty grumpy (as usual) but once I get where I'm going it seems fine.

Anyway, our previous upstairs neighbors and good friends moved to Durham last year. She is preparing to be an ER doctor. Holy moly! She works 80 hours a week. Not an exaggeration. This was after the tremendous amount of hours in medical school. She is one year into it and has 2 more years left. The payoff is sweet, though. Once complete, she can work as much or as little as she wants and will be bringing in some serious money. Her husband is a hardcore fisherman who taught me a buttload about saltwater fishing. He also introduced me to biggerwife so I'm indebted to him big time.

Wife's best friend lives in Raleigh so we decided to combine visits. We stayed with wife's friend, but made the drive to visit our other friends. That was the good part. The bad part was that wife's best friend has a 2 year old, a 4 year old, and a socially inept distant husband. We hung around all day Sunday and it just sucked. The entire time she was corralling the kids while he was somewhere other than where we were. Pretty much sucked, but I'm glad (and so was she) that she got to spend time with her friend.

We did manage to do a little sightseeing. We visited Duke Gardens. I highly recommend this if you are ever in the area. They were beautiful. It is split up into 5 sections with lots of little trails everywhere. There were a lot of people there, but you never felt crowded. And, it is FREE. Well, $4 parking but what a bargain.

I sort of failed at picture taking but here is a couple.

This one is the manicured step garden (probably not the official name).



Some weird wicker sculptures. Pretty cool imo.



A random panda appears!



All in all the trip was OK. The weather back here in Florida was horrendous (Alberto) so I didn't miss any fishing.

Just got word our company made a fairly large acquisition. My workload will be going up dramatically within the next few months.