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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Category: Life

  • Hello, journal. It’s me, Karel.

    I seem to remember telling myself that I’d get back to writing here more often. What happened to that? Maybe when I’m a bit less frenzied in my day-to-day life, I suppose.

    My life at the moment, in a short paragraph: Work is going well, in some ways better than I had any reasonable expectation of it going. The kids are awesome, which is nothing new but is always worth mentioning. I don’t get to spend as much time with friends and loved ones as I’d like. I need to focus on getting my finances back in order and re-learning good habits. I think I’ve made progress on my eating habits… small progress, but I’m not knocking it baby.

    Oh, and: This Fox 12 WeatherBlog posting made me think: How neat would it be to spend a night or two in a fire lookout? Then again, I imagine those things are raised high above the ground, so that probably wouldn’t work for me. (I couldn’t manage the Astoria Column, and that staircase was entirely walled in!)

    Anyway, good night, all, and may the gods watch over you. I’ll try not to be such a stranger.

  • What do you mean, he’s fourteen now?

    There are two amusing things about Alex’s birthday today.

    The first is that everyone I work with insists that I’m too young to have teenaged children. Well, obviously that isn’t true, now is it? So we started early. So what? It just means we’ll have lots of time and energy to enjoy life after the kids are adults. (Let’s not think about “the g word,” though. Nuh-uh.)

    The second is Alex himself. He’s a funny kid, and I don’t mean that in the snarky way. The boy has a genuinely keen sense of humor, so I decided to further his comedic education this year: I bought him the boxed set of Marx Brothers movies, featuring all five films that included all four brothers. This evening we watched Duck Soup (his choice), and I think Alex liked it. I picked Cocoanuts as the follow-up. Apparently restoration can only accomplish so much with such an old gem; the audio was as washed-out as I remember it. Such is life, I suppose.

    Now I just need to figure out what I’m getting my daughter for her impending official entry into teenagerhood…

  • An Interesting Week Ahead

    Not that I’ve been a frantic, every-day poster lately, but don’t expect much from me this coming week. Tomorrow afternoon I head to Denver (where they’re experiencing temperatures merely “around” 90 degrees, but they get thunderstorms as a bonus) and I won’t return until Thursday night… after which I’ll turn around and go to work bright and early Friday morning.

    This is a training excursion for my new boss and me. He’s been using the system in question for a while now; I’ve been using it for about three weeks. Guess who’s going to be taking notes like crazy? Luckily I bought new pens and a notebook just for this occasion. I also picked up some other travel supplies, so there’s a chance I’ll actually be ready for this little jaunt.

    Oh, and I took the Leatherman Micra and the Swiss Army USB Drive out of my pants pocket. No point arguing with those friendly folks at the airport about whether or not I’d use them to hijack a plane, right?

    I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping this thing updated like I originally stated I would at the beginning of the year. Events have run away with me since mid-March, and until I settle in at my new job I’m probably going to continue experiencing low energy levels coupled with high anxiety levels. I no longer go into a complete panic attack at the mere thought of going to work, but I’m certainly far from comfortable in my new role. I labor constantly with a sneaking suspicion that I’m simply not suited for the job. Not that I won’t give it my best shot, mind you. I want this to work, and not just because I don’t want to be unemployed again. If I can really settle into this job, it’ll be an awfully cool gig.

    Which brings us back to the need for training in the main software system I use to do my job. I’ll let you know how it goes.

  • Bizarre Coincidence, Wot?

    This week marks the 17th anniversary of my arrival in Portland. I moved here from Concrete, WA when I was 17 years old, so I’ve made the Rose City my home for an entire half of my life now. Before Concrete (the town in which I spent my senior year) I spent a brief time in Anacortes, WA preceeded by another brief stint in Des Moines, WA. Oddly enough, my girlfriend currently lives in Des Moines, albeit not on a small boat like I did. My junior year (and my absolute favorite year of school, ever) was spent in Bellevue, WA and my sophomore year took place in Kent, WA.

    We moved to Kent from Hillsboro, OR after Mom hooked up with her newest husband at the time. Now, here’s where it gets weird. I attended Poynter Middle School, located just off Cornell Road. Our apartment was right across Cornell from the school’s athletic field. (I used to watch Robotech in the morning until the moment the credits rolled, at which point I’d grab my things and scamper at high speed so as not to be late for school.)

    Yesterday I started work at Resource One, which is located… well, let’s just say it’s incredibly close. Check this out:


    (Image courtesy of Google Maps, with minor edits by Yours Truly)

    The green arrow is my current workplace. The blue arrow marks the approximate location (it was a long time ago, so maybe I got the wrong building) of the apartment that Mom, Sis and I lived in… about twenty years ago. The purple arrow indicates the middle school I attended at that time. (For reference, if you could “scroll” the image above so you could see what’s just off to the right, you’d find the Hillsboro airport.)

    Consider that I’ve barely set foot in Hillsboro more than a couple of times since I moved away, and then consider that I’m now working a figurative stone’s throw from where I used to live. Freaky, isn’t it?

  • Employed!

    No more “unenjoyment” for this little grey duck! I just received and accepted a job offer, and I will probably start work Wednesday morning. I’ll go into more detail about the gig itself when (and if) I’m sure it’s appropriate to do so, but suffice to say that it’s an in-the-office job managing servers and systems from an administrative and troubleshooting standpoint, and serving as a “first contact” support mechanism for clients. The pay is comfortable, the job will be challenging (in terms of both initial adjustment and long-term activities) and I get to set the standard (and develop the processes) for what amounts to a new kind of job position within the company.

    I have some experience with that sort of thing. This time around I know what to look for right from the get-go, however. For instance, I’m already thinking about how I’m going to document… everything. (You think I’m kidding. Hah!)

    Maybe my overall stress levels won’t go down very much in the immediate future, but at least it’s a positive kind of stress, the “do I really think I can do this?” kind instead of the “I’m doomed I’m doomed I’m doomed” kind. Three and a half months of “I’m doomed” really took the joy out of life. I want my joy back.

    (Hey, maybe in a few weeks I’ll be able to afford more RAM for this webserver. Cool.)

    Bye bye, job hunting. Hello, new challenge!

  • Can’t write. Too hot.

    I have stuff to post. I certainly do. There’s some geeky humor, an online toy to tinker with, thoughts to convey about recent family events, and an update on how life’s treating me.

    But not today. Today I spent downstairs, hiding from my furnace-like bedroom and (thus) the computer(s), which I left turned off for 95% of the time. (I had to check mail and at least glance at the nonexistent job listings. I have responsibilities, dammit.)

    I hate 100-degree heat. Hell, I hate anything above 90, but having 100 degrees sprung on me all of a sudden is just plain cruelty on the part of the universe. Mind you, “I take great comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe.”

    Maybe I’ll write something more interesting tomorrow. Or the day after. Hang in there, and stay cool. Drink lots of fluids. Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

    Stupid heat.

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