selling out - part i

big news for the week:

1. the apartment sale has gone through, the keys have been handed over and all that's left are niggling details. awesome!

2. tensions in the office are low, either this whole mess was the right thing to stir up or i'm enjoying the calm before the storm. bottom line: right now i'm feeling more appreciated, i'm getting things done and i'm worrying less.

3. i've discovered a well of supportive friends in my hour of need - the need to learn french.

4. i feel like i'm at the end of being sick. i'm still tired, but that's probably because i just don't sleep enough.

---wednesday:

i started dinner late anyway, i didn't need ps3 to force me to upgrade in order to provide me some entertaining accompaniment. while waiting for that i installed the "voice translator" app on my phone, and i gotta tell you it is SERIOUSLY impressive!

...

lots of variety in my dreams. i woke up to a few bills that needed to be paid, not least of which being my rent. i apologized for being a day late and was told about the building manager's policy which is actually really considerate - not only do they not mind rent being a couple of days late, but they're only too happy to make allowances for families living on the edge of their salaries and who can only comfortably pay rent in installments.

i don't have any idea why, but wednesday was an alanis morisette day. it was chilled, but i was a bit cross-eyed by the end of it. during the day i spoke to a fellow gym-buddy and he informed me that he was just as sick and for just as long as i've been, and that whatever it is it's been properly making the rounds. yesterday i heard that newk'd's girlfriend was as bad as well...

arguing with megaman over tools: apparently one button when you begin a task and one when you complete it is too much for a software developer to manage. *facepalm*

i left the office when i was tired, bored and unable to connect to the internet (for work). just before i left i put in an order to a tel aviv florist and the site crashed as i pressed "submit order".

---i was quite surprised when they phoned me directly to ask what had happened - it must have been around or after midnight! when i finally got it right, i was shocked to see the order go through and receive confirmation without my actual payment. usually when one opts to pay with paypal one is linked through to a page that lets you log in and pay immediately; with these guys, they receive the order and then bill the sender's email address. in my case, i didn't want to pay with that paypal account!

i was complaining about the fact that paypal won't let me transfer funds between accounts when aota remarked that i could simply charge myself for goods or services. what?! brilliant. so that's what i did. which only serves to reinforce my opinion that limiting a paypal account to a single country and not allowing direct transfers is bloody backward.

i'm glad to report that pg received her flowers (thanking her for all her assistance with the sale) and was happy with them, but i was offended by her certainty that they were exclusively my mother's idea :(

---on the way home there were two other tristar members on the metro. i've been in the same car as the one guy before and he totally ignored me even though we take classes together; this time when i looked at him and smiled he raised his hand high to give me a thumbs-up. that was amusing, we continued to not look at each other and everything would have been fine if he hadn't stopped in the doorway as we walked out to shake me by the hand. we still had another train to catch together, and we still had nothing to say to each other.

my inner ear was hurting most of the day, and as i returned home i worried that i'd developed another infection... fortunately, that seems to have gone away.

wednesday was laundry day, and some bastard was hogging the machines :(
the day was vastly improved with soup godmother had sent me home with on monday - that woman's soups are insane.

after a how i met your mother binge i was too tired to make proper dinner so i just did a smoothie. it was a laziness thing, but i had to wash even more dishes afterwards so i'm not sure that was a good trade-off.

---i don't know what got me so nostalgic, but i found myself reliving (in my mind) a night at the gallery with protoplasm in the february of 2000; it was me celebrating completing my diplomas and celebrating three totally sober months by getting fantastically hammered. of all the weirdness of that night, the only thing i wasn't clear on was whether that was the night they'd set up tekken 3 on a projected screen above the dancefloor... i recall playing panda. and playing badly. i double-checked with protoplasm and it appears i'm not making things up :P

---thursday:

dreaming: a cross between a large canine and a prairie dog found its way into my lap. it was particularly vicious: i was face to face with the creature and could not let go of its neck for fear of being mauled. nobody would help, and the longer i held him the more aggressive he became.

the apartment sale:
finding out that the tenant missed a water bill from half a year ago wasn't as surprising as the fact that municipality let it slide until now. speaking of the municipality, why the heck would they lie?!?! i called them up and they told me they'd contact pg to get it all sorted by phone, then phoned her to tell her the only way to get anything done would be for me to send a fax.

seriously?

...

the day before i'd been describing a bad service experience and creeper suggested responding by sexually harassing them over the phone. on thursday i was explaining a system to someone and he overheard, overly-loudly asking "what's a cronjob? sounds dirty!"

...

i've been holding on to an idea about ebook sales for many years now and i'm always complaining that nobody's done it yet - i was discussing it with aota and she made a really insightful suggestion, bringing it into the realm of practicality without large investment and providing me with something very interesting to do if i do get fired :P

---although i've declared that i won't be managing the team anymore, nobody's said anything to the developers and i'm still being tasked with interviewing. i joined megaman in talking with an older guy applying for a job as senior developer. at first i thought he'd be replacing me... his resume was loaded and he talked a very big story, which made it all the more disappointing when he was presented with one of megaman's standard questions and he completely floundered. at first he couldn't handle the problem definition, and he followed through by demonstrating an incredible inability to think on his feet. wonderful for my ego, not so wonderful for our talent shortage.

the bit that really killed him, though? after his less-than-inspirational performance i asked him about his attitude towards comments.
"there are no comments in my code," he proudly proclaimed.

what a fool.

---thought for the week: it suddenly occurred to me that the way megaman behaves he could be on acid all the time. except that if he was he'd come across more intelligent.

i joined aota and newk'd for some hardcore shopping and dinner at her place with her daughter and newk'd's girlfriend. it was an enjoyable evening but i got home around midnight again.

---friday:

extremely complex dreaming. i woke up to a surprise, i'd be interviewing potential interns and the call would start before the time that i usually leave for work. that surprise turned out to be a bonus as i could chill and do my own things in the background; the other surprise wasn't as much fun. in all the excitement i'd completely forgotten that i have a driver's exam on monday!!! i'd be in slight panic mode until this morning.

favourite resume moments:
1. a candidate who described himself as "junior data ninja". he was rated "outstanding" by his previous employer - does that mean that nobody ever saw him in the office? or, as nystire suggested, that he can insta-kill a database?
2. a simple personal summary consisting of "i am the lion in shark tank". total winner!

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