Good news, I'm not fired yet

The state's new system was scheduled to go live tomorrow morning, making today the last day of programming and preparation before the big day. However, due to hurricane Katrina, the date was postponed. So, we're expecting to have the date moved back a day or so.

This marks the second time the deadline has been moved. The first being a move from August 8th to some point a few weeks later, which soon materialized into August 30th. Now, August 30th has turned into the 31st at the earliest.

We're running a bit behind in beta testing and in having a few working solutions to some of the complexities of managing a real-time data transmission system. These issues of course mean that my job is in jeopardy. The boss has made it abundantly clear that we can't fail on this project, and we won't. On the other hand, the job won't be done perfectly, and will take a bit of work after the deadline to perfect our synchronization with the state's system.

I'm paranoid about losing ye old jobby job, and so is Kristina, but we're making it. I can't imagine getting fired over something that was pretty much out of my hands, as far as timing goes... especially since I've put in as much time as I can to push this thing through recently.

The biggest regret I have is that I waited too long to let the boss man know that I was running out of time and didn't have all the answers I needed to complete the project a month before I did. I waited until two weeks before the deadline and told him my problems. He created a crisis situation in the office because he thought I was telling him that we weren't going to make it... which wasn't the case at all. He assigned more people to help us, which was necessary, and finally got another programmer to help me test the software (the biggest help so far).

If I'd been wise, I would've admitted that I was beginning to struggle (even with putting in extra time) and that I needed him to allocate more resources to getting this project completed on time. I imagined that going into his office and telling him I needed help would be admitting defeat. However, after seeing the effects of waiting to notify him, both on my image in his eyes, and on the project itself, I know I should have said something weeks before I did.

Now, I just hope that I've proven that I'll do what it takes to get the project done... commitment, I suppose... and my ability. For a first job out of college, this was a rough project. If I haven't done that, then chances are I'll be tossed out here in about a month. I'm not fired yet, though, and I'll be doing my best to show that I'm a valuable asset to the company.

The Fantasy Football draft has begun

My fantasy football draft has begun. I've got 4 players so far, so there's still quite a bit of drafting to be done, but I'm happy with my first four picks. I can't wait for football season...

In other news, Katie has a week of work left. We already checked out the apartment and moved a few boxes this past weekend. It's a nice little place... but too close to the interstate. We'll be renting a truck this weekend (probably) to get the rest of her stuff at once.

In other other news, the deadline at work is still set for the 30th, and we're making a lot of progress. Tomorrow afternoon, the state will shut down the old system that has been in place for decades and will begin converting that system's data to the shiny new system. We're still doing testing and last minute patches to make sure our users can synch their local data with the state's servers via XML. I'm feeling the pressure of having fallen behind, but I've not been fired yet...

I still have a chance, with Kristina and Robert's help to get this project off on time. We still have to convert 27 districts over the next few days, and after a breakthrough with the state's contractors yesterday, I can finally finish programming the last touches to the XML system (the error response handling system).

Other than those few things, nothing noteworthy is going on... so I'm gonna get back to researching my next Fantasy Football draft pick.

The weekend and week.

It's Sunday, thank goodness. Actually, I don't know why I'm so thankful that it's Sunday because I'm still gonna go to work... but I don't have to be there all day, so at least that's something.

The Katie's in town too though, and that's always a treat. Friday night I went down to Ruston to hang out with her after a late night of work. We ate Pieworks and tried to do a little bit of wedding planning. She's also in the middle of packing up her apartment to be moved next weekend. That's right folks, the big move to Shreveport is only a week away. I'm really excited about it. I'll probably be at work when it happens, but nonetheless it's great that it's finally happening.

Yesterday I worked from 9-5, alongside Kristina and Robert to get our project up to speed. We've got an outstanding request to the state to fix a few things and change a few others that aren't really broken, but are designed in such a way that it makes it impossible to program in any reasonable amount of time. The boss, Kristina, Robert and I went over to IHOP yesterday and had a lunch meeting... and apart from that, the only relief I got came in the form of a short night with Katie.

After work, we went and checked out the new apartment for which Katie signed the lease last week and we unloaded some boxes there. It's fairly nice, but it's right off I20... and I mean right off I20. Maybe 20 yards out the back window. It's loud, but bearable for now. I won't be in there for another 8 months anyway though.

After seeing the apartment we'll be newlyweds in, we headed to Roadhouse grill for dinner. It was extremely hot in there and the wait was 10-15 minutes, so we left and ended up at cheeburger, cheeburger (I feel retarded every time I have to say or type that). This experience there was better than the first time we went, since we actually got our food in under 45 minutes.

We decided to go over to her Mom's house and watch some TV after that and ended up watching Lord Of the Rings until I went home.

WORK

ARRRGGGHHH! is all I can say about work recently. Our deadline is looming and nothing is going right. I'm two tenths of a gnat's eyebrow from having an episode at work, but I'm making it. I got off work a little after 7 tonight, which isn't half bad when compared to the recent nights.

I can only hope for a miracle, more time, and divine inspiration to get me closer to completing this insane project. I'm gonna give it my all, and if that's not good enough, then it wasn't meant to be completed in the time I had. I've not messed around, I've not messed up and I know what I'm doing. There's just too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it.

I'm proposing that my boss pay for a clone of myself, a tax write-off I assume. This way I'll still be getting paid the same amount, but doing the work of two people will be an acceptable amount... since I would be two people. I've just got to finish up that paperwork...

Men in Coats - funny stuff

http://www.koreus.com/files/200505/men-in-coats.html

Bargain Shopping... I got my fix today.

This morning, right before I left work on my lunch break, I checked fatwallet to find that office depot was putting a laptop on clearance. A wonderful deal on a Gateway laptop ($624-$200 Mail in Rebates for a Pentium M 1.6, 80 gig HD, 512 MB RAM, etc., etc.,) was staring me right in the face.

I hopped in the car and drove over to the nearest office depot, only to find that they had sold the remaining stock earlier that morning. I called the parents to alert them to the deal, since my mom is looking for a backup laptop in the court room. After leaving the store and chatting for a bit with the parents, The Pops called back and said that there was another laptop that was listed on clearance and that the Office Depot by my store had one.

I waited, went back to Office Depot, looking for this laptop and a third laptop discovered before leaving work, only to find that all these had been sold too. I called my dad and he said that my mom had been lucky enough to pick up the Sony Vaio laptop that was on clearance.

So, I got to bargain shop, my parents got a new computer, and I will have to keep prowling the deal sites for a desktop computer for myself and good deals to put up on Ebay. I wish I could do this for a living.

My first nap attack... or "When Zzzz's attack"

Yesterday afternoon I came home at about 6:30... or thereabouts after working late, then going by office depot to see about their clearance deals. I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, but like every day when I work longer than the normal 8 hours my brain is exhaustered.

I got home, looked around on the internet and thought about making a post on the blog here. I didn't see anything interesting online and couldn't get in the mood to write, so I decided to lay down in bed and watch TV. I moved my cell phone, iPod and keys off the bed and laid down to start watching TV. I couldn't locate the remote, so I turned over and closed my eyes just resting for a minute.

I woke up close to two hours later with wrinkles all over my arms and a groggy feeling I couldn't shake. I'd gone to sleep as soon as I turned over and had been sleeping for two hours on both my arms with the light on. Quite the nap attack...

Bargain Shopping is like Crack Cocaine

I've become a bargain shop-a-holic. I would say that I'm a bargain-site-visit-a-holic, but that has too many hyphens for its own good. Each day, whenever I have my first leisure internet session I surf to bensbargains, then to fatwallet to see what they have in store for me. It's really the only reason I keep getting online each day, apart from this blog.

I think it may be a chemical addiction that I've created. You see, when I find a bargain at a store, especially an electronics store, my brain releases massive quantities of dopamine. I smile and get all gassy. My eyes water if the discount is above 50%. Good times...

Today, I worked late, until about 7:15. Before leaving however, I made sure to check the deal sites to make sure there wasn't anything I needed to check in on before I made the trip home. Ben didn't post anything good for me, but fatwallet came through like a champ for me.

Someone posted on the fatwallet forums that Target had a price mistake on their TV & Movie DVD Box sets. Sex and the City, Friends, Third Rock From the Sun, Monk, Gilmore Girls, Batman, Superman, Band of Brothers and quite a few others were all marked down to $5.99 (normally $40+ on average). So, I snuck over to Target on my way home (actually 20 miles out of the way) and perused the DVD section casually (like a child molester at a playground).

I found that the local Target still had the price errors in their system and that they had one copy of Sex and the City (Season 5), Friends season 2 and 3, the L Word season 1, and Third Rock From the Sun season 1 all marked at the $5.99 price. So, I bought them all. The friends and Sex and the City go to Katie, and the other two will be sold on Ebay if I can make $10 or so on each of them. Otherwise, I'll soil them up and bury them in the backyard.

Once again, I left Target feeling great. I'd gotten a steal of a deal and got a few new presents for the Katie. It's been a while since I've been able to find a clearance deal or price mistake like this, but I hope I can find more opportunities soon. I may go into withdrawal otherwise.

Fantasy Football season is creeping up...

This year's fantasy football season is getting closer, with my first action coming late last night as I picked my keepers from my previous year's team.

A big gangly group of our friends from college participate in a league each year, and this is the second year of our first attempt at a keeper league. A fantasy football league where you keep a small number of players between seasons, if you so choose.

I'm getting excited about finally having something to do online. I've been rummaging around online trying to find something worthwhile, and every once in a while I find a good site or two, but for the most part I end up going to watch TV or pick my nose.

I'm gonna be spending some time (if work allows) in the next two weeks trying to put together a cheat sheet for our draft in late august. I was robbed of the championship last year by a bunch of dirty scoundrels, and I intend to claim the championship prize this year.

I think I'm off the hook

My days of making excuses are over. I don't listen to Katie well because I can't hear her. I'm used to hearing male voices, you see... Yahoo! news has my back on this one!

Another great weekend

I'm still debating whether I should leave Ruston a little early and try to get into work today. I know, it seems stupid. I should be enjoying my weekends since I've been working like crazy during the last few weeks. I just feel like I need to do more to make sure this deadline gets met.

The only compelling arguments I have against going, and ultimately the deciding factors in not driving an hour to Shreveport and back yesterday morning, are that 1) I only get to see Katie on the weekends, and 2) I work better after having a little bit of time to rest my brain.

I'll have to decided here in about an hour what I'll do, but I'm leaning toward just working my butt off this week instead of going in on an air condition-less office day. My weekend has been great though, apart from dreading the possibility of ending my weekend prematurely.

Katie's house-sitting for an acquaintence here in town... a rather wealthy family. Before they left town, they told Katie to feel free to invite me over if I came into town. So, we took advantage of the offer for the last two nights and enjoyed TV and movies on their big screen TV and Bose surround sound system.

I also wanted to get over there because they have pets - two dogs, two cats and a bird. I'm not really interested in the cats or the bird, though the cats are well behaved. I wanted to go play with the pups.

That's basically been the story of our weekend. Television, dogs, Katie and I, and the same old Ruston restaurants.

Another long day...

Today I left work at about 6:30, and left at that time only because Katie was in town. So, I only got in close to 11 hours today... At around 6 I had a breakthrough with the problem I've been working on recently. It began with the revelation that there are many people smarter than I am,which made me look into pre-existing secure http connection clients.

I would love to have built my own, which I did. However, the code I made didn't account for the need for tunneling a secure socket through a proxy (one of the most complicated subjects I've encountered in java so far). To my dismay, apache released an open source java library, httpclient, which is robust enough to fit my needs.

I plugged in the new library and gave it a test run just before I left, and I believe it worked. I'll look into how they're achieving their results tomorrow.

After I left work, Katie and I went to Cheeburger Cheeburger in Shreveport and had a nice visit before she left to get back to Ruston. Cheeburger Cheeburger, the extreme summary: great burgers, good manager, at least one crappy waiter, nice 50's diner atmosphere.

So, here I am at the house for my hour and a half of relaxation before bed. I intend to enjoy myself...

A 12 hour day

Ladies and gents, I put in a 12 hour day today. It was much better than putting in a 13 hour day and much worse than an 8 hour day, but I had things to get done.

Things at work haven't really been going as I would like, at least for the last few days. I expected to be working like a madman this week and next in order to finish the current project... whose deadline has been moved back until at least the 22nd of August. Instead, I found myself moving my own furniture yesterday and spending most of my time apart from that yesterday and today trying to get a test district's software to make a successful connection to the state.

Firewalls and proxies are tools of the devil, I say! I'm trying to make a SSL connection through a proxy in order to POST data to a server down south. Testing the software on my side reveals no problems, but upon testing at the test district's computer I get all kinds of crazy errors. We're using the same software, the same database and even the same proxy server... it's weird.

Anywho, my co-worker on this project is also leaving the office for the next two days, which means I can pretty much count those days out as far as productivity goes. She's been handling phone calls and support issues while I develop the new software. So, when she's not there I end up trying to do both and usually only do support for our software(which I still don't have a great grasp of because I'm only developing new software).

At least I know that staying after normal hours will ensure that I'm able to get some work done without the phone interrupting me. However, I have to admit that my most productive hours are in the morning.

ARGH! I just know that these days are going to make me feel like I need to go in to work this weekend. I had planned to go to Ruston, and still do, but this project is growing steadily out of control.

Ahhh... I'm just in the complainin' mood today. Too much work, not enough sleep and not enough Katie.