Jack's Diary

Aw Jack. You know how most jobs are..when you prove you are competent they keep asking more and more of you until you break. It's OK to have boundaries and communicate them. Working on a weekend once in a while is no big deal, esp if you enjoy the work. But you don't need a pressure cooker. Maybe set yourself a future date at which you will sit down and take an objective inventory on whether this job is really worth it.

I can't wait til you are retired tho! That will be awesome!
 
Jack your work sounds stressful. If I could afford to retire I would ( although I'm s bit young still , few more working years ahead) . However I think if you can bank a bit of cash now for the future thsts great. Look after yourself though and don't stress
 
Hey Cate, Shell, Mols, Petal,

Thanks so much for rooting for me to retire! Feels good to have support.

The job actually is getting a little bit easier, for some reason. It's not like I know what I'm doing yet, but I have some familiarity now.

As far as retiring, the contract ends this year. They might not even extend it, as things seem to be slowing down a bit. Also, I found out today they're in a budget-cutting mode. Actually, that would be kind of ideal, as I would be able to finish up and leave on good terms.

If anyone wants to check out a really, really good series, check out "Carol and Tuesday" on Netflix. It's a fantastic Japanese anime about two young girls starting out in the music business. The movements, the dancing, the songs, the effects and the characters are so real I forgot I was watching an anime. I've already watched like 7 or 8 of them in one night. Really good.
 
Had a nice day today - I've more or less finished that project at work, so I can relax a bit. I still have to do my invoice.

I just came back from the beach. I took my shirt off as I was walking, and as usual I noticed im my shadow of that little bit of love-handles around my stomach that my kind of shirt covers up. So, I have to really buckle down and lose that 30-year flab. But how to eat less? How about Cate's tip - hummus and celery/carrots? I gotta do it.
 
:D I've sometimes seen things about weight change in my shadow too! Good for you, using your shadow to make a new resolution! How to eat less - my tip is (sadly) cut way down on cheese and on sweet things. And keep an eye on drinks - calories can slip down so easily by drinking, whether it's soft drinks (like Pepsi etc) or alcohol or cappucino.

It does sound like you might be retired by the end of the year - and on good terms! Coming at a good time for you and the company, too. Hooray! :hurray:
 
Well Jack that sounds more positive re work. I think no matter how much weight we lose there will always be bits we don't like. For me it's going to be the stomach where I had a c section for my kids. Perhaps some exercises to target those bits maybe
 
Well, today turned out to be kind of a work day. I've been asked to specify how much time I spend on each project during the day with my invoice. It's actually time-consuming, and I spent 2-3 hours pulling it together today. I thought it would be easier since I was concurrently tracking this time, but unfortunately, not the case. It's just kind of painstaking. Not a welcome development. Why does it take so long?

Plus I had a couple of emails I had to respond to, since I had logged on. Well, one could've waited, but the other one had to get done since it was a potential screw-up by me and I get a days jump on it by responding.

Plus, I still haven't gotten paid - it was supposed to be for sure paid Thursday, direct deposit. I checked with the bank and they said it normally takes a day to process, but nothing there Friday, either.

Plus, my rollover from Fidelity is sitting in the mail somewhere. They take 10 *business* days to get there. Send it regular mail, no tracking number. It's overdue now, I'll call them tomorrow night.

Anyway, the good news. I went to the Museum of Fine arts this morning - it's free for BOA cardholders one Sunday a month - and we saw some cool painting. I'm not a huge fan of Copley, the guy who did the portrait of Paul Revere, but he did get better after he moved to England.

Also saw some nice pre-impressionist stuff, and some work by Millet. There was one early work by Monet that we saw, a park outside of Paris, I think. It was great. I love the impressionists.

Also, the Patriots, who are the NFL team I root for, just somehow managed to get arguably the best receiver in the league yesterday, although he appears to be a bit of a knuckle-head. If they can keep him from going too bananas over the season, they should walk to a Super Bowl this year. It's been quite a run for those guys. Season starts tonight!
 
Another crazy week, but a couple of good things happened as well. First, I was having trouble sys-prepping a PC I had set-up for a customer, when they changed the PC they wanted to order. So, I kind of have to start over, which I might have had to do anyway. At least I have an excuse.

The other good thing is S. finally finished his compatibility testing on Linux, at least one version of a PC, which has been really dragging at my time.

Another good thing is my rollover check from jerky Fidelity finally arrived. They send it bulk mail (they call it "regular mail") and it got lost. They wouldn't even waive the $25 fee to send it registered mail when they were the ones who lost. Burns me thinking about out.

I also finally got my first paycheck (I might have mentioned that), but there's a 10-working day hold on it from my bank. I guess they don't trust a profitable, 100-year old multi-billion dollar manufacturing company with a worldwide presence. Or maybe they want to suck my interest another 10 days like Fidelity does by sending bulk. So, should finally have it by Thursday or so next week. At least it's been paid.

The product manager on our team has resigned, so there's an opening there. My boss asked me if I had product management experience and I said nope. He's budgeting and doesn't know if my contract will be extended, but said that he could move me over to product management if I wanted to. I don't want. If that happens, that's ok, actually would be nice. Things are heavy now, but they could be lightening up since the latest release seems to be easier to install and support, and there may actually be less need to have me around. There has been a lot of budget cutting going on because the margins aren't as good as they would like. So, right now, the odds are 50/50 I'm released at the end of the year. I'll take it.
 
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Thanks, Petal. The delay in the money is annoying, but hopefully, that will all go away soon. I do know they haven't paid my last invoice as well, but that's just a week old. So, we'll see.

So, I did guitar yesterday - that's three days in a row, after having neglected it for a while. I've just been jamming along with Pandora. It's fun, and it seems to be the most effective way to get me playing. I try to figure out the root note and the scale, or sometimes just what sounds good.

I haven't been doing my Japanese. I hope to get some in today.

I've been wasting a lot of time on sports forums, specifically Patriots related. That's got to end.

At least I did a little work yesterday - billable - to get a jump on fixing this error message a customer is coming up with. I found the code, but at my house, I couldn't get it to hit that branch. Also, I need to figure out how to dump the data to a log-file. I can do it if I change the program, but I don't want to do that at the customer site. Theoretically, it's just changing the logging parameters, but that doesn't seem to work. I'm also trying to nail down what this -1 number means in the display.

I've started using my habit program again. I've been very good about doing my situps and crunches the past couple of months, but I've started recording them again. Nice to see that streak. It also gets me into the program and thinking about my to-do's as well, at least theoretically.

Just gotta get that 1/2 hour of Japanese in.

Countdown to retirement - 107 days.
 
I think you will love retirement, Jack. You will be amazed at how busy you will be, doing things you actually want to do :)
 
Thanks, Cate. I'm not *positive* I'm going to retire as in no work, but I'm kind of pretending I will and maybe I actually will.

At least I'm down to the last week of September coming up. It was another insane week, with an implementation of a Linux system that somehow has the program's core files self-deleting. You can image the shock, but R figured out they were gone. I got them back to the guy doing the implementation, but it was a couple more days of figuring out other issues that cropped up. The guy doing it is kind of crazy, which just added more pressure.

Anyway, long story short, I got everything done by Thursday, and also figure out why the PC I has to send to another company wasn't booting. So I got them both done - which was akin to getting out from under two huge rocks.

Thursday night I dug into why the files were gone, which is when I figured out they were self-deleting. Which at least proves it wasn't something I did, so that's also a big deal. I blame the person who took over from me, who's attitude was just to just get other people to do my work for me. So we ended up using a funky installation from the offshore team, and something is screwed up with the PC she was overseeing. I proved the issue came from the PC she gave me.

Anway, Friday I came up with a different way to try something for another company, so we'll so how it goes. But a fix I tried with another company didn't work, which was a major downer. Plus, another company's rep is turning bitchy on us, so we have to get that thing working soon.

Anyway, the beat goes on. I send out an invoice today. I'm going to wait till later because I might have to do some work today.
 
I've got a streak going where I've been playing guitar for at least 1/2 hour, usually an hour, when I get home. I find the easiest thing is just jam along with classic rock on Pandora. It's fun when you figure out what the chords are, for one thing, which I'm getting better at. The other nice thing is you're hearing nice music, which is good for the soul. But I have a long way to go. I need to get my fretboard / theory understanding to the point where I can leverage it for solos.
 
So, I spent most of the morning at the beach, just walking around listening to music and my Eckhart Tolle audio book. There is something soothing about listening to his calm voice explaining all the mysteries of life. It's pure, undiluted *wisdom*. I also got a nice little snooze in because I stayed up late last night.

It's already 2 and I haven't tackled any work stuff just yet. I might let it wait - I dunno.

My ex-boss from a company I worked at for about 10 years got in touch with me via email. She's got a new company, they have a couple of government contracts. I contacted one of my ex-coworker who's still with her, and he said it's a remote opportunity, programming only, no proposal-writing.

But I had already emailed her back saying I wasn't looking for something at the moment. It might have been a mistake, but there is a problem that she broke a few promises to me. There's a lot of lack of trust there, and I don't feel like re-entering that situation. It was probably the right move.
 
So, I still have to do my invoice.

I quickly did one test for Company A yesterday and it worked like a charm. 1 hour.

Then I got bogged down for 3 your in debugging something for Company B. I finally decided I need to get the log from them so I can replicate the bug - otherwise, it's just a guessing game.

I'm up to 168. Argghhhh! I've been eating at night again.

I did get my 1/2 of guitar in finally, though. Maybe 45 minutes. Just strumming along and figuring out chords, or trying to. I can't even remember - oh, yeah. Jame's Brown's "I feel good". I was having a tough time figuring out a couple of the bridges, so I found a good youtube video on it. I can do it, but it will take practice. And the singing doesn't really work for me.

I heard from my ex-colleague that this opportunity wouldn't involve proposal-writing, and would be strictly remote. So now I'm reconsidering and have sent an email to my ex-boss asking for more info. It definitely messes with my 1/2 plan to retire at the end of the year. But, it might actually be a job I like and enjoy, and could work at a couple more years.

I also hate to leave my buddy P in the lurch. I love that guy to death. But, I also have to consider myself.
 
Yes indeed, re considering yourself as well as P. Hope the further information clarifies things.

Yes, eating at night (you mean after the evening meal, right?) is murder on diets. :( But 168 isn't very much up on where you want to be, so I expect you can get it down again without too much trouble.
And playing the guitar! No-one can eat while they're playing a guitar - so I guess that's the solution right there! ;) More guitar at night-time!
 
Jack if you feel up to working longer and would enjoy it then you should . It’s all personal .
Sounds like you are doing good .
I love the guitar but am not much good on it . Must try again .
 
Hey guys, thanks for checking in.

Aiminglow - you're right - can't eat while you're playing. Well, I've added no sweets and no after-dinner eating to my habit list, and have a streak of 1 day going (if you don't count the margarita that is)

Petal - what I've been doing recently on guitar - set the timer for 1/2 hour - then play along with Pandora. Just find notes that match. or chords, if you're ambitious.

I just got off the phone with J, who still works for my ex-boss - a very smart guy who's getting up there in age. He sounded exhausted. He's getting paid a fixed fee, 1099, by the month. I would love to help him out, but I don't know - he's definitely putting in long hours. I am too, but I'm getting paid for them. I'm talking to my ex-boss on Friday night.

I wonder if gum counts as after-dinner food? There's a long way to go before bedtime.
 
Good point you can’t eat and play music at the same time ..
 
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