McDeevers Tavern |
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A chronicle of your typical 30-ish suburban family.
Neil - Dad. Works for a big ol' company run by old white men with deep pockets. Send mail to Neil Sarah - Mom. Stays at home. Tries to keep kid and house clean and orderly. Succeeds admirably with both! Ethan - First kid. Now 20 months old. Wonderful kid. The apple of our eyes! Baby #2 - Expected Time of Arrival: July 1st.
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Monday, March 31, 2003
Thanks for your concern... Some people have asked me how I'm doing today. I'm much better. The dressing is off and only some big TOUGH-STRIPS from band-aid bandages are covering the blisters and they don't hurt at all. However, Percocet is the devil's work! The informational sheet they gave you with this strong narcotic painkiller says that you should take this after eating and should drink plenty of water and eat lots of fiber. Well, ol' dumb-ass here (that would be me) did exactly the opposite: he didn't drink a lot of water and he ate mostly junk food thanks to two days of parties ("Spring Break" party at the office, and Mom Ruth's b-day brunch on Saturday) meant on Saturday afternoon, I was popping veins in places I didn't even know *had* veins. Thanks to water, fiber, and other substances, my gastrointestinal tract is on its way back to normal. Let this be a lesson to me that I have and will continue to learn and forget: RTFM! Friday, March 28, 2003
Dammit. It's been one of those days. You get socked at work. Finished the crappy task they gave you 5 minutes before you leave. Spend time with Ethan (always the highlight of my day). Cook dinner. Absentmindedly put pot lid on a burner thats still going. Burn hand. Spew stream of half-completed expletives and place hand in water. Ponder for a moment if you should call Sarah for professional medical consult. She says go to ER. Call Colby and get thee to aforementioned ER. Wait 1 hr for doctor (record time!). Get burn cream and hand wrapped up. Get two pills of percocet (SCORE!). Get home. Eat dinner you burned your hand on. Take percocet and go to bed. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ I'm typing this at work with my pinky finger on my left hand and with full use of my right hand. It's not too bad. you get used to it after 10 minutes but i can't help but feel as though my left hand has cerebal palsy. My left hand has blisters running across the thumb and three fingers (index to ring). Dr said i need to change the wrapping tonight and keep it on one more day. Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Blog of the day http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ Some people feel that the US news media is overly focused on the US military (their wins/losses/casualties/etc.) and not on the Iraqi civilian population. The folks at Blogger.com (they own this gig) have highlighted the blog of an Iraqi civilian in Baghdad who has been posting his observations throughout the military campaign. Some people have said they thought his blog was actually some kind of CIA dis-information mechanism. However, some people (with entirely way too much time on their hands) have done some research and concluded that he is most likely the real thing. I thought it was fascinating to hear that arab radio broadcasts when B-52 bombers take off from their base and how they just go about their normal routine for 6 hours and then start keeping their eye on the nearest bomb shelter (because it take exactly 6 hours for the bombers to arrive). In any case, the blog is a great view from the other side. Monday, March 24, 2003
OK. Since I promised to expound on my thoughts regarding various issues, here's where I keep that promise: What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing.... For the record: I support the men and women in uniform. This is not meant as a Michael Moore-ish "Stupid White Men" rant. Some people have the idea that criticizing the war means you're either not patriotic or anti-military. Far from it. Sarah has a cousin who serves aboard the USS Tarawa and I know he would kick my ass at the next Ruth family gathering. The reason for our current quagmire is simple: The Congress of the United States has shirked its Constitutional duties and given the President carte blanche to wage war and infringe on our civil rights. I do believe this situation is only made possible by that singular event that occurred a year and a half ago. The 9/11 attacks exposed how divided Congress was (which is normally a good thing) and allowed a previously weak Executive branch the opportunity it needed to grab more power. I still have faith in our system. Historically, there has always been a "pendulum" of power between the Executive and Legislative branches. One could say that during the Civil War, World War II, Reagan's term and the current crisis, the pendulum was firmly in the Executive's court. During Reconstruction, the 1910's and 20's, the period after Nixon's presidency and during Clinton's presidency, the pendulum swung back into the Legislative sphere of influence. You could also argue that the Judiciary has exerted its pull on this "pendulum" as well. The Dredd Scott decision (allowing freed slaves to be recaptured without due process), Plessy v. Ferguson (permitting separate but equal segregation of the races), Brown v. Board of Ed, and Roe v. Wade have all left HUGE imprints on our country's history. Rambling a bit here (sorry), but my point is this: Congress *is* wrong in being "yes" men to the President. The Democrats and Republicans both have the responsibility of debating (per Sen. Byrd's speech), questioning the Administration regarding the cost of the war (something they've failed to do and something Bush keeps avoiding), and safeguarding individual civil liberties. Workin' for a livin'.... I had a job interview at my company for a position that would do the following: - Organize volunteer activities for co-workers - Introduce producers to each other to foster cross-marketing opportunities (eg. real estate to insurance agents, etc..) - Prepare reports regarding the revenue these cross-marketing efforts bring in It would be a promotion for me and it seems like a job I would really enjoy. *keeping my fingers crossed!* PITA Part Two.... Remember my rant about the performance review? Turns out that I wasn't being evaulated against my co-workers (the folks I work closely with). Rather, I was being evaluated against ALL of the programmers at my company who were at the same level as me. This kinda-sorta resolves some concerns but it still bothers me that I could do a job worthy of a '5' but only get a 3 because they can only give out so many 4's and 5's within a certain group. While I'm glad just to HAVE a job in this uncertain economy, it'd be nice to actually be paid for the work you put in, you know? Oh, and Christy hasn't been voted off yet. Deaf people are complaining left-and-right about her not using ASL. I don't care. I'm not like the rest of you mindless freaks who have to watch "reality shows" to escape reality. 'duh' Thanks again to Lloyd who never fails to remind me how I shirk my duty to update this page on a regular basis. I have plenty of thoughts about the following things: The war A possible new job Performance Reviews Survivor Etc. I just need the time to put these thoughts into coherent form. Thanks! Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Performance Reviews are a PITA: A major rant from Neil That's right. It's performance review time at work. That means that your pay and bonus for a whole year is determined at one moment in time in February when a a month and a few days have gone by since the previous year ended. Let's review: My company has a bonus system that is built into your total compensation package (duh). The bonus is determined by algorithms and mathematical formulas devised by Cray supercomputers and guys from MIT with advanced mathematics degrees. The major factor for any person at this company rests on one number: A number between 1-5 on their performance review. If you get a 1, you're pond scum and you're going to be collecting unemployment soon. Bonus? Ha! If you're a 3, you're average and you get a small bonus. If you're a 5, you're going to be putting down serious money on a down payment for the new Maybach soon. In 2001, I was still getting my "sea legs" with Lotus Notes and figuring out how to do whatever it was I needed to do. For that effort, I received the rating of '4' and a pretty good bonus. In 2002, with 3 years of experience in my belt, I really started cranking out Lotus Notes databases; finishing my projects early or on time, supporting two major databases, AND dealing with all the uncertainty of being merged with another area, then reverting back to our old area, then re-merging with a different area and each time, being told that my big butt is in line for possible layoffs. Still, I'm getting work done and getting it done right. And what do they give me? 3. I've been fuming on this since they gave me the review a few weeks ago. Last night, I sat down at the table, put out the 2001 review and compared it with the 2002 review and listed everything out on paper. (as you saw above). In any case: I have a one-on-one meeting with my supervisor on Thursday. I've already sent her a nice e-mail outlining my concerns above and asking how I can avoid such a lousy rating in the future. She said: "You didn't do anything wrong. I'll tell you more on Thursday." So my annoyance and fuming has to wait two more days. Great. I'll probably be an stark raving, unshaven, unclean, profanity-spewing mad lunatic by then. If you see a guy on Chestnut street in a few weeks muttering about getting three'd, please give him (me) money for some coffee. Monday, March 03, 2003
Losers Ball Thanks to Lloyd who keeps bringing up the fact that I have not updated this page in 12 days. As a sign of my appreciation, I gave him about 2 dollars of my money at a poker game held at Teck's house. I've also posted his e-mail address so you can tell him how much you appreciate his nagging skills. Poker: Not for the faint of heart... As usual, we started off with a $5/person pot and 5-cent ante for each game. Here's a few observations: Pennsylvania vs. the District For some reason, the DC people cleaned most of us out. I left the game with only $2.25 in my pocket and the DC folks left with probably a collective $16.25 in theirs. I attribute this to three things: 1- They're more experienced than we are. They've been playing these games for the past several years. We just started a month ago. 2- They keep throwing out new games. This was my one pet peeve of the evening. Instead of letting us really get used to the games they've introduced, they kept introducing a new "twists" into the games. This is great to avoid getting bored with the same game (see # 3) but it makes it more difficult for newbies to really understand the nuances of the game that was just introduced. (You also spend more time explaining the "twist" than you do actually playing it!) 3- The Pennsylvania people have no creativitity. These guys kept doing 5D7 or 5D8 (translation: 5 card draw, 7's Wild or 5 card draw, 8's wild) and THAT gets boring the third time around. I can chalk it up to learning the game but the third or fourth time you say 5D7 gets to be boring. Cable: Fun and Easy! Colby helped me out on Saturday for an hour trying to get the cable wired from one side of the living room to the other (previously, it was stapled around the baseboards and doorframe in the true college dorm fashion). Had no problem getting the cable hooked up thanks to finding a connector where the main cable line came into the house. I had already cut a hole in the wall for the plate that would hold the cable coaxial connector and Colby was drilling from the basement up to the first floor. We'd already measured out where he needed to drill and were confident that we'd get it right. He started feeding the cable through and I was groping in the wall hole (that didn't come out right, did it?) and wondering where the heck is this thing? After Colby came up to help figure out what was going on, we realized he'd actually drilled a hole into the floor of the living room RIGHT UNDER the entertainment center. Apparently, the basement walls are actually 2 inches SMALLER than the living room walls so there is literally NO way to run a new wire from the basement to the first floor unless you don't mind it going through the floor. Since it looked and worked OK, we left it as is. Survivor Update After watching 10 minutes of the show while I was in Rochester, I can't even watch it. It's just a bunch of plain.... even the word synonomous with fecal matter and rhymes with "fit" doesn't adequately describe how BAD this show is. Sarah tells me that Christy went on a MAJOR *whine whine* "poor me!" *whine whine* hissy fit during the 2/20 episode but she was not featured heavily in last week's episode. |