Scabs On Strike

I'm Back

2007-09-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

I know it's been over a year since my last post, so let me update this blog. I still work in the conversions department. The department had been operating without a budget under the previous manager, but we now have one. We all got new computers (dual core) and raises (yeah!!). These two actions alone made the job a whole lot nicer. We also got a new team member to spread the work around. M@tt Schaff3r went to the development side of conversions about a month ago, so our efficiency just shot up. My wife had a baby girl in May. Her name is Olivia. Cute girl.

Update on Hell Week

2006-10-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

After waking up at 5:45 each morning this week and working out, I'm sore as all get out. I'm not able to move my arms without them hurting. It feels like I gave 2 pints of blood out of each arm after being sticked with the needle 20 times before they found the vein. I must admit I know this exactly what my body needs and will continue for as long as I can. My wife has been the biggest help. She wakes up at the same time and says, "Go, you'll feel better if you do."

My next thing to work on will be my diet. I need to eat smaller servings and eat better as well. I will have to do this slowly otherwise I might reject it altogether. I feel proud of myself and know my body will thank me for it.

HELL WEEK!

2006-10-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

Today is officially Day One of Hell Week. This week I will wake up at 5:30 am and go to the gym. From the gym, I go straight to work (after showering of course). I woke up today at 5:37 and drove to gym. 15 minutes of the ellipitical and 45 minutes of working the back. Shower and change and go to work. I actually feel really good. My goal is to keep this up for the week and continue it thereafter. As many of you might have noticed, I have a few pounds I can spare to lose. This will definitely do that for me. I'm also off Dr. Pepper until further notice. Crystal Lite is now my best friend.

Work and Family

2006-10-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we fried two whole chickens in a turkey fryer. It was a blast. My brother come over with his family and my mother-in-law was in town also. The whole process was fun. First heat the peanut oil to 350 degrees. Then throw in the two chicken with spices injected. The noise and the oil boiling was fantastic! This is the way food is supposed to be cooked, with loads of fanfare. Needless to say the kids were far away during this time. The smell was better than KFC or Popeyes.

After 30 minutes of cooking, the birds were ready to take out. The skin was a dark golden color with some spots browned from the touching the bottom of the pan. They tasted so scrumptious. The meat was tender and moist and just tested awesome. I highly recommend deep frying your fowl for the best flavor. The peanut oil also has no trans fatty acids, so the whole meal was healthy ;-)

As far as work is going, it's a big improvement over support. Come in when you want, do your job, don't take any annoying phone calls. Right now I have 4 folders on my desk that need to be converted either to Dentrix 11 or Ezd 2005. I'm in the middle of a DOS EZD conversion. I can't believe how barbaric the program is. It really is in the stone age. It's easy to use, but I can't imagine using it every day to run a dental practice.

Everyone in the department is a gamer. They seem to talk about WOW and other games and can't believe I don't play anything. I said I play Halo and they were like, "Amateur!" Anyway, I do not have time to play games and take care of family and school. Maybe later when things aren't as hectic, yeah right.

Conversions

2006-09-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first day here at conversions. I did two conversions(automated). They were both EZD 2003 to DTX 11. It's just a matter of copying data files and converting them to dentrix and doing totals trouble shooting. After you make changes to the operatories and providers that they requested you copy it on a cd and have 3 other techs check your work. It was actually fun to do. After mastering the automated conversions, I'll be put on the more difficult conversions from third party software. They still have one opening. I highly recommend it.

Transfer

2006-09-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

So I call up to Gary Burke and ask him if I need to bring up my computer and monitor and he says no, I have two computers waiting for me up there. Sweet!
I'm feeling so trunky right now, I'm sure my stats suck right now. Since Luke is leaving too, I'm sure he doesn't care about our numbers anyway.

Ode to Marion Barry, former mayor of D.C.

2006-09-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

"The contagious people of Washington have stood firm against diversity during this long period of increment weather."
"I promise you a police car on every sidewalk."
"If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate."
"First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I'm a night owl."
"Goddamn setup . . . I'll be goddamn . . . bitch set me up."
"I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less."
"The laws in this city are clearly racist. All laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist."
"I am making this trip to Africa because Washington is an international city, just like Tokyo, Nigeria or Israel. As mayor, I am an international symbol. Can you deny that to Africa?"
"People have criticized me because my security detail is larger than the president's. But you must ask yourself: are there more people who want to kill me than who want to kill the president? I can assure you there are."
"The brave men who died in Vietnam, more than 100% of which were black, were the ultimate sacrifice."
"I read a funny story about how the Republicans freed the slaves. The Republicans are the ones who created slavery by law in the 1600's. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and he was not a Republican."
"What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?"
"People blame me because these water mains break, but I ask you, if the water mains didn't break, would it be my responsibility to fix them then? WOULD IT!?!"
"I am a great mayor; I am an upstanding Christian man; I am an intelligent man; I am a deeply educated man; I am a humble man."

Last Day of Dentrix Support

2006-09-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

My last day of Dentrix High Tech Support will be September 22. No more Dentrix calls, ever.

2008 Election

2006-08-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

This is who I wish run for president and vice president in 2008.

Controversy

2006-08-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of American Service men and maybe women who have been killed in action in Iraq. I'm getting really tired of our fellow Americans getting blown apart to keep Iraq from falling into an outright civil war. I use to think President Bush knew what he was doing, I even voted for him twice, but I'm growing very tired of him. He's not doing a good job, domestically the U.S. is doing OK because he hasn't meddled with any thing serious.

I know things have to change in Washington, I just hope the country doesn't have too much a knee jerk and go totally liberal.

Tattoo

2006-07-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Kris wrote about tattoos on his blog. Ever since I got out of High School I've wanted to get one. I know that if I was to get one it would be this painting by Hokusai. It has a lot of meaning to me. My brother who passed away over 20 years ago painted a replica of it as a mural in the house I grew up in. I have the poster at home and even though its a still painting, it looks like the wave will crash any time now.
I dated a girl when I attended Utah State University who had her tongue pierced and she and I discussed getting tatoos of the Celtic design. Even though I'm Danish, I thought the designs were cool. Even though she was a great kisser, we parted ways before we took the steps to get tatoos. I would really regret the tatoo now, so it's all good.

I See You!

2006-07-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

The infamous webcam.

Damn you to Hell, webcam!

What does download mean?

2006-07-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Sweet Case Mod

2006-07-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

My daughter loves it and all geek friends drool when they see it. Of coures I spent booko bucks on it. No expense was spared. About $ 5 at wal-mart for paint.

What kind of pencil are you?

2006-07-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

You are a No. 2 pencil.

For as long as pencils have been available in different grades, the #2 or its equivalent has been the most popular for general use. It's called #2 because it's the second darkest of the four major grades of pencil marketed under this system.

What kind of pencil are you, like I care.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil

My Subaru

2006-06-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is what my Forester looks like now. Plain Jane. Plastic piece of crap bumpers and standard height.
This is what I want to do to my Forester. Heavy duty metal bumpers and a 3 inch lift. I also dig the rear tire holder. i Muy Macho!

Jesse, what can you do to your Geo, tint the windows? Ha ha!

Picture of the real Eric Bishop

2006-06-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Jamie Foxx was born Eric Bishop. Not my coworker.

Great American

2006-06-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

I present to you, the Greatest American since George Washington and the Greatest co-worker since Woody at Cheers.

Confession

2006-06-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

Typical beach we slept at in Mexico.
San Felipe, a sleepy fishing town, also the home of the fish taco, yummy!

Since everyone in the dept. is basically spilling the beans on past and present crimes, I too will confess of my brush with the justice department or Departamento de la Justicia de Mexico. It was Spring Break of 2000. My room mate and I decided to go to Mexico and sleep on the beaches of Baja California for the week. By chance, one of my uncles was actually going to be in San Felipe during the same week for an off road race, think Baja 1000 but smaller. The first half of the week was awesome, we slept in a tent on a different beach each night. We ate good food at restaurants and from street vendors. Pure Fun! On Thursday, we met up with my uncle. He rented two beach houses. Enough for his older sons, the driver, and the five Mexicans that work for my uncle (he's in the drug business in case you were wondering). We helped with the race by fueling the race car (Baja Bug) at the pit stops. It was a blast. Our team didn't win, but it was fun. After the race we ate a restaurant and everyone but me and my roommate got drunk. Since we were the only sober ones, we had to buy the candles for the night (no electricity at the beach houses). When we got home from the market, my drunk uncle had successfully started yelling expletives and getting everyone riled up. Now my uncle is about 4 inches taller than me and 50 pounds heavier and his name is Big Jim. This is when I was thinking it would be a good time to get going. So we packed our bags and headed North. This is when the real fun starts. More later.

Profile Picture

2006-06-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

This is where I lived in my mission for 6 months. This was the good neigborhood of East Saint Louis.

Mexico

2006-06-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

Do not ever drive in Mexico without first purchasing Mexican Car Insurance. Other wise you go to prison when you get in an accident. More to come.

Britney Spears, Gross!

2006-06-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Previous image removed because of dry heaving.

Yeah, I know this isn't a contributing journalist's blog from People magazine, but I've had enough. And what I'm going to type can't be repeated in People anyway. The image above was taken from the online version of People. The printed quality is lot better, but you get the point.
Item number 1. Look at her knees and her calves. The knees are doubled, as in double chins. The lower calves are just plain big and fat. While I'm no size 6 petite, I wear conservative clothing while in public. I also don't depend on looks for my career (thank goodness). Now onto Kevin. Not only is his underwear showing and his wifebeater looking slimy,but look at the pager on his hip. What? You don't see one, neither do I because it's a freaking garage door opener! The word Genie is quite legible in the print edition. As can be seen, he has about 6 big pockets on his shorts, yet decides to put the garage door opener where he can impress everyone. I want to vomit!
Normally I don't care about celebrities or even read People magazine, but my wife bought one (magazine, not celebrity, I hate potty-training) and I had about 45 minutes to kill. I keep thinking that if we just ignore the Spears-Federline union, they would go away. But she is an attention whore and needs to be out and photographed. The word emnity is coming to my mind. (Quivers)
I wont be in work on Monday, I'm taking my daughter to Primarys for testing. One of her kidneys isn't draining correctly. Hopefully it's nothing serious.
Take care guys.

Ummm, I thought this was the weekend

2006-06-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so today was exceptionally busy. My wife let me sleep in till 7:30 and then it was nonstop after that. We took all the boxes from our storage room and back shed and put them in the living room. Four hours later I was in the drop off lane at the D.I. We got rid of a ton things we will never use or need again. The storage room actually makes sense and the back shed can now be used for it's real purpose, my future woodworking shed. Give me another two years to get all the tools I need. I plan on making wooden caskets to sell on Ebay or locally. It's been something I've been thinking about for 3 years. My wife and I were talking about what we would do if we won the lottery, I knew I would just build things with wood for the rest of my life. So until then,it'll just be a hobby.

My neighbor across the street, J. Kirk Richards, is about two years older than me and he is already an up and coming artist. Google him and see his work. He's kind of inspired me to be more creative and use my fledgling artistic abilities. Any way I plan on using my right side of my brain more often to even out the hemispheres. This will give me the equilibrium I'm looking for . That's all for now.

Latrine

2006-06-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

As promised in previous post. The unusable urinal in the Chinese Restaurant.

Driving in Style

2006-06-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

Unlike Brandon, my van was a lot cheaper to fix than his Geo(may it rest in peace). I picked it up yesterday after paying $198 for two parts for the ignition. It now runs as smooth as a silk. Never before did it drive as great as it does now. I mash the gas pedal and 13 seconds I'm going 60mph! That may seem like a long time, but I previously had to use a calendar to time it.

So at work, someone ( not quite sure who at this point) came up with the idea to make a quasi-free for all blog for the hi-tech dept. Only hours after it's inception, its a success.

As everyone knows in the dept. a certain someone left Dentrix. I entered the dept. being naive. I thought "......" was an ok guy. Only after being told what happened did I change my mind. Dentrix will carry on without him.

PS. My van will be going to California this weekend without me. My mother's mother passed away last October and they are just now getting ready to sell the house. Her siblings are meeting this Saturday to divy up the belongings and my mother plans on taking things to her house. That's what happens when you have a van or a truck. People borrow it to move their things. I don't care really, the van's 15 years old.