+1

Ditto to all that.

Is that Mrs. BB in some of the pictures or niece or someone else?

BTW, I forget what we're supposed to call her. Probably not Mrs BB. Oh well lol.

Thanks everyone!

Mrs. BB is in front of the church. Niece is next to the raven. Sister is picking Trump's nose.

The second book is complete. Both the hardcover and softcover have been approved (technically approved). I've ordered copies of each before I put them both "out" there.

I'm super duper happy with this one. I think it's better than the first. The illustrator has already begun book 3.

This gets me that much closer to retirement. My goal is to have these (4) books paid for. My plan is to get a regular part time job, and work on marketing these books as my second job. I have a lot to do and still no illusions that these will ever be significantly successful.

However, the feedback on the first book has been very positive. I sort of dismiss the primary feedback. I mean, nobody is going to tell you it sucks. However, when I hear from people that their kids say "balloonee balloonee!" at night when it is time to read a book, it is very encouraging. I've heard this sort of feedback multiple times now.

Accidentally stumbled across your excellent TR . I especially loved your detailed descriptions of using the tube.

Just a few things in case you're interested:

- the car you saw Lewis Hamilton entering is a Maybach, which is a luxury arm of Mercedes

- Big Ben is actually the bell

- that door looks like a replica of 10 Downing Street, which is the official residence of prime ministers during their tenure (essentially equivalent to the White House)

- wtf English toilets are fine! You must drop a lot of floaters

For some reason I missed this post. See replies above.

I guess a work story is overdue.

Today I had to fill out a form to request a new job get set up. I've filled one of these out a long time ago, but the form has changed considerably.

As with all other forms here, there are about 5 items that are important and 25 administrative nonsense items. Most of them I have no clue so I spend days trying to find someone that knows. Some of them I'm not even sure what they are asking.

The form is really a big spreadsheet with subparts. There are templates for each of the subparts. This probably makes no sense other than it isn't clear from the form whether I need to submit 2 forms for 2 jobs or put 2 jobs on one form.

So, I asked. Now, I should know better by now. Never ask because nobody will ever tell you. The best tactic is to submit your best guess then get berated, then told how to do it correctly.

But, I asked. I asked if they needed 2 separate forms or 1 form with 2 separate job requests.

The answer I received was:

"You need to highlight the changes in the TOF "

Not kidding. This was the answer.

So, I LITERALLY banged my head on my desk, then just set my head down. I then looked up to see my boss and 2 coworkers hovering over me asking if I was OK. They thought I had a stroke.

Lol strokaments.

That exchange would make a great Dilbert. Just a completely amazing response.

Retirement continues to be at the forefront.

I still have my eyes on October but I'm really hesitant to actually pull the trigger. This is more emotional than practical. I've run the numbers a zillion times and all looks good. But not having that steady good income is uncomfortable.

Another factor now is biggerwife. Our plan has been to put me on her insurance. However, she is increasingly dissatisfied with her job. She has been really burned out lately and she just got another blow. Her company was bought out and they have refactored how her productivity is measured. She already works over 40 hours a week and I suspect this will put her much higher. There are a lot of other issues, but this might be that proverbial straw. I've been encouraging her to look elsewhere but, like me, it's hard for her to make this sort of change.

We've sort of tossed around her putting me on her insurance when I retire. She won't ever admit this, but I'm almost positive this is a huge factor in her decision to stay. I'm going to work on this because I don't think this should ever be a factor.

But, it does affect my decision. I almost have to find a part time job that offers health insurance. I'm still leaning towards Lowe's, but there are a couple (not many) options. My plan to find a part time job after I quit is no good. I'll have to have this set up before I leave my current job.

The second book is now on Amazon! Woot!



https://www.amazon.com/Loonee-Balloo...eywords=Sillee

LOL me.

When I was checking out the new book, I saw a link for the hardcover version. I had no idea I had set that up. It is through another company. I set up the hardcover so I could send to bookstores when the time comes (if the time comes) but they also set up an Amazon link.

After doing some digging, it seems the hardcover version of the first book has been out there since May. I had no idea.

The third book is getting close to completion as well.

It's interesting when you click on your name all of your books come up. The contrast between the children's Balloonee books and the more mature The Fishing Trip is jarring.

Wow. I kinda forgot about that one. I have another novelette that I've been working on that is pretty dark as well. I'm not sure what that says about me.

I submitted my first official job application for my retirement transition.

I've narrowed down my search to part time jobs that offer health insurance. That isn't a very big pot, but I think I'll be satisfied. It pretty much comes down to bank teller, Lowe's, or Costco. I'd rather not do Costco.

My first application is for a bank teller job. There aren't any current Lowe's opportunities in my area.

I just had to fill out a fairly long online questionnaire. A lot of the questions were about my experience selling products. I guess that's what banks do now. I did not do well, I don't think.

work rant:

Oh, what's the point anymore...........

/

why not costco? from all accounts seems like a great place to work.

Yeah, I've been coming around to this idea. I've sort of balked for two reasons. One, I worked in retail for 12 years and got a little burned out. But, these are different circumstances. The other issue is the closest Costco is a bit of a drive. Something I'm trying to avoid. But, yeah, I'm going to check it out for sure.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this, but I self published the first book in the Loonee Balloonee series quite some time ago. I still have a box of them - lol. I never was really happy with it. I didn't care much for the final product, mostly the artwork. But I also got some negative feedback on the actual story. At the time I sort of dismissed it because it's my story dammit. But after putting these other ones together I came around to the criticisms. The first book just didn't fit in well with the themes. So, I've been racking my brain to come up with a better story that fits in with the basic premise.

It came to me yesterday! Book number 5 (chapter 1) will be coming to a theater near you.

Work stuff..........

Timesheets are VERY important here. If you don't have them done by Monday afternoon, you get put on a bad list. You can even have your bonus docked if you miss the cutoff enough times. They take it very seriously. It's probably in the top 5 things you can get in trouble for.

Here is how it works. You get assigned to projects. If you are assigned to a project it is your responsibility to get that task on your timesheet. But, as with everything here, you don't have the authority that should go with the responsibility. So, you have to track down the project manager in charge of that particular project. This quite often takes scores of emails and weeks to accomplish.

There are categories that are always on your timesheet for administrative and keep the lights on (general duties). However, management constantly tells us they don't want us to use them.

The time you end up logging has no correlation with the work you actually did. The challenge here is to log time without having someone call you up to explain why you logged the time the way you did.

This week was particularly dilberty. The timesheets go from Sunday through Saturday. But, they also close them out monthly. So, if the end of the month falls during the week, you fill out two timesheets. We are strongly encouraged to complete our timesheets before we leave Friday, which means there is no way to know what to put Saturday. This is fine because even if you work Saturday, they don't want you to log it because it shows up on someone's budget and, well, we don't want that. Anyway, this month Saturday was the 1st. I filled out my weekly timesheet on Friday and thought I was done. But, I failed to fill out the Saturday only timesheet because I never really think about Saturday. It just remains blank all of the time.

Sooooo............. I just got in trouble for not submitting my timesheet on time. Ugh. My boss pinged me since I'm now on the naughty list. Turns out he didn't submit his either.

Sounds like someone didn't read the memo about how to file his TPS reports!

Just going to go ahead and send that over to you again...

LOLOLOLOL.

It is everywhere the same. I just got troubles for forgetting to submit my time sheet. I hate it. I hate it with passion! But there is no escape from this time sheets. I learned a few thing from this time sheet terror:
- I don't move a finger without a project number on which I can write this time
- If a project manager calls me and demands any explanations, he will get every minute explained. But the time I use for that + few hours for recovering my psyche will be written on his project.

It is soooo incredibly demotivating.

I've been doing my best to channel Peter Gibbons.

Bean counters....................

Yesterday my boss pulled me in for a quick "one on one". I was pretty sure it wasn't good. Turns out his boss was on him for not having one on ones. Also turns out, my boss seems to think I'm doing fine. My perception of my performance doesn't match his perception of my performance. That is a good thing I guess.

Meanwhile, the project I'm currently on has me completely baffled. I simply don't understand the software. Unfortunately, it isn't like Java where you can just google questions and see that someone else has had the same issue. It is extremely proprietary so there isn't much out there. They have a lot of documentation but it isn't all that helpful in figuring out how to do certain things. My tech lead is the only person that knows it and he seems to be constantly up to his ears in alligators. That or he's tired of having to stop what he's doing and show me stuff. Not sure.

Fortunately this project isn't high on anyone's radar. In fact, there is a fairly reliable buzz it gets dropped for a while.

Meanwhile, I'm still actively hunting part time work. I applied with the city. I don't expect to hear back soon, though.

I recently deployed an application that I've been working on. The changes were fairly minimal. However, I missed several things in the deployment. These are details I should have never overlooked.

I find this happening more and more. I don't know if I'm just losing it, or it is a function of not being able to juggle multiple projects. Or maybe I'm just getting lazy or don't care. It is somewhat troubling because in this instance I thought I had covered everything.

My tech lead keeps finding these little errors with my work. I'm guessing he probably doesn't trust my work much and he feels like he needs to double check everything I do. I mean, he pretty much does.

It wasn't all that long ago when these roles were reversed. I had a programmer working for me that would always miss little things. I remember my frustration because I knew I had to check everything he did. We had many discussions about things he should do to improve.

Ugh.