I am so fucking livid right now it’s unbelievable. If I could skip today and keep what I learned, I’d be all for it. Lets start at the top, shall we?
A few days back the skies opened up. Got a leak in my apartment bedroom that messed up my semi-good sheets and stained my matress. No big deal, I caught it in time and cleaned it up. I spent a good chunk of Sunday moving shit around, re-arranging everything so that if the roof leaked again, I wouldn’t have a problem.
Well today I spent a good 12 hours at the office. After work, I go to the Vernon Inn. Now the past few times I’ve gone there the food has been utter shit. Tonight was no different, and the bartender I can’t stand was there. So I get in the door around 9, take care of some shit and go into the bedroom… Where my mattress is SOAKED THROUGH because a different part of the roof leaked. So now my 500 dollar mattress is slowly drying. I’m seriously sick of all the shit I have to put up here. Yes I like the place, it’s small, it’s cozy, it’s quiet, and the rent is low. Just the same, the roof leaks, I can’t run air conditioning because the wiring is so old, the place never heats up enough in the winter, and I have to share my bathroom with my 70 year old shits on everything BUT the bowl neighbor who I have to constantly clean up after. For a long time it seemed like a good deal. Didn’t mind smoking, I quit. Didn’t mind my ex staying there all the time, now that isn’t an issue. Didn’t care about a lot, just let me do my thing as long as the rent came in on time. Now I think I’ve just outgrown the place. I want a house, or a condo, a place of my own, but I don’t have the money. I made a mistake buying my last Intrepid which I’m paying for now in the form of higher payments on my VW. Still, just like I payed a small amount more for piece of mind when I bought the Volkswagen, at this point I’m willing to pay a small amount more for piece of mind when I walk in the door at night. Nobody should have to come home after a 12 hour day to a leaky roof they don’t own and be forced to sleep on a futon while their bed dries out. So I checked the classifieds, there are a few decent places in the area at a reasonable price, I’m going to check them out. Like I said, I’m willing to take one more good shot in the wallet if it means a warm, dry bed this winter and a cool dry apartment come summer time. Things will be tight for a while, but a little sacrifice makes a man humble.
So this week has been a week of tying up loose ends at the office. I had promised a file-server for my marketing department a few weeks back. My initial plan was an open-source Slackware Linux and Samba based setup, integrated into my Active Directory Domain. I had it almost working for almost 3 weeks before I finally scrapped it and gave the folks what I promised. I learned quite a bit, which is why I’m not all that upset that I changed the plan after a week or two. I still plan on building another file-server based on Linux that’ll integrate with my existing setup, but not when it holds up everyone else… Also, awhile back I built a fax-server for my customer service department… Pretty much put it together out of spare parts. It held up great for about 2 years before lately when it started having random lockups. Considering it’s a used machine made from used parts which were likely overclocked by the genius I replaced, not bad. Catch was I had files on that fax-server which were going to be moved to the new file-server, so one project held up another one. I could have put it all off another day but I stuck it out and got it done. I’m absolutely in love with these SATA RAID-1 systems. They’re easy to set up and any worry about losing data due to a hard drive crash is a distant fear. That little file-server I set up ran about 600 bucks, but equivalent performance sans-OS from any major manufacturer likely would have ran at least 2 grand. Not bad IMHO. The new fax-server is a warrantied Dell system with an extra bit of RAM and another SATA RAID. Can’t beat it.
Now to the first thing that really set me off today. I’m building that fax-server and need to install a fresh copy of Windows on the RAID array. Now it used to be that you could reinstall Windows, and activate it, no big deal. Not if you have to reinstall it on a system by one of the major manufacturers like Dell who sticks the damned license keys to the side of the case where anyone can see it. As such, Microsoft apparently considers anyone who has to reinstall Windows on one of these systems is a pirate by default and subject to an Inquisition that’d make Marie Antoinette blush. The setup is absurd. First you waste a good 5 minutes punching in the 60-digit numeric installation ID on their 800 number. Then another minute goes by as the attendent checks and forwards you to a human. No English man for you though, oh no, you’re too good for that, you get a nice little Hindu man taking time away from his civil disobedience to interrogate you over your decision to use Microsoft Windows XP. 5 times I was asked why I had to reinstall windows. 5 times I had to give the same answer to this guy who spoke worse English than a World War 2 Kamikaze pilot. I had to tell him what company the computer was built buy, how I bought it, the CD key, and so on and so forth. I wasted a good 20 minutes justifiying to this flip-card toting moron just why I needed to reinstall SOMETHING I FUCKING OWN. Now I haven nothing against big companies trying to save a buck and support American unemployment rates by shuffling off certain departments to overseas call-centers who work for a scruples. That’s their right. Just the same, how about some English lessons. Seriously, there was no Spanish option on the menu, and I could only imagine this twit interrogating me in broken Spanglish.
So now I’m going to kick back with a glass of bourbon and sleep on the couch. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll find a new place to live that won’t bankrupt me.
