August 03, 2017

Announcing: Operation RTPTIFG!

I miss The Pond.  I miss the way it was around here.  A vibrant group of readers that I collectively called "The Pond Scum."  Mildly clever writing about occasionally interesting subjects.  A laugh or two along the way.  Times were good, things were fun, and I had a blast.


...and then a series of things happened to derail the happytrain.  I got promoted at the Bookstore, which took up more of my time.  Then I got fired from the Bookstore which, while it gave me back all that time (and more!), sent me into a slide that ended up in a deep depression.  Then I was hired by a job where I spend all my time in front of a computer.  Then SDB passed away, something that hit me harder than I expected or realized.  The good times were gone.

Well, no more.

Today, I'm putting into motion Operation RTPTIFG (Restore The Pond To Its Former Glory).  Beginning this weekend, I am going to create time to write here at The Pond.  The plan is at least five days a week, there will be a new post.  Now, it may very well be a short thing, a Random Anime Picture or something of that sort, but there will be something.  I may not be able to regain all that has been lost... blogs in general appear to have faded, eatenby the twittermonster... but I'm sure as hell gonna try.

Together we can make The Pond great again!

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July 31, 2017

Not The Best Start To The Day...

So my morning began the way it usually does, with me desperately attempting to claw a few minutes of sleep more out of my alarm.  Failing that, I began the day properly, with the usual shower, shave, you know the drill.  I was dragging, however: Mondays, y'know?  Eventually I did leave for work, though I was running a little later than normal.


As I walked down the stairs to the parking lot, I noticed that a black SUV was parked perpendicular to the DuckMobile and directly behind it... nope, no driver visible.  Swell.  A few more steps down, and I realized there were two more parked in the lot... and all three were marked "County Sheriff".  There were also two sheriff cars, and a white van labeled, and I kid you not, Crime Scene Investigations.
I had to find an officer and ask politely to move their ominous black SUV so I could go to work.  He asked if I had heard anything strange last night, and I explained that I have five different fans running in Pond Central... I can barely hear myself think, let alone the outside world (...and that's how I like it!).

Off to work I went, walked in, sat down at my desk, started up all the various programs and pdfs and text files I use every day, opened my e-mail to see what the assignment was...

...nothing but the worst type of claim possible.  All day.  All stinkin' day.

I've had better mornings.

Edit: Before anybody asks, I didn't find out what was going on.  It wasn't in Pond Central's part of the building, so I wasn't overly concerned.  Also, once I returned home I didn't bump into any of my neighbors, one of whom I'm sure would have known.  It is a puzzlement.

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July 24, 2017

Wonderduck - Similar To An Octopus

Remember back when I was employment-bereft (...and would you look at that?  It's been three years since I announced my status to The Pond!  Time flies...) I would sometimes spend entire weeks without leaving Pond Central?  Hermitdom suited me in many ways, mostly the "lazy bum" way.  Shortly before I was plucked from the ranks of the jobless, I found a cartoon that described my state of mind perfectly:


I mention this because some vestige of those days still remains within me.  That is, when I return to Pond Central after work on Fridays, it's quite common for me to not leave again until I have to go back to work on Monday.  Sometimes I don't even open the door to the outside world for the entire weekend.

As I briefly mentioned in my last so-called "post", I had myself a little three-day weekend, but something interesting occurred today.  I went out.  I went out!  In public and everything!  I went out to lunch with the folks, then came right back to Pond Central, elapsed time less than two hours, but I was outside.
Yes, very much like that, including all the controllers and the band... and I'd like to thank Pond Scum member Mauser for mentioning Public Service Broadcasting over at Brickmuppet's place.  Instant fan here.

When your life appears to not have much in the way of big triumphs, you take the little ones with enthusiasm, y'know?

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July 23, 2017

Long Weekend

I have Monday off, taking a PTO day.  I've gotta admit, this has been a lazy weekend, even for me.  I've done a little bit more than nothing, but not by much.  And y'know what?


I don't care.  I'll have to be back at work soon enough, but until then t'hell with it.  I deserve this extra day off.

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July 21, 2017

Impact Warning!

Wednesday morning, I make it into work at my usual time, do my usual things for the first hour, just settlin' in to the routine while easing my way into the day's claim rotation.  Nothing particularly special or remarkable.  A day like any other day, only moreso.  Ah, if only, if only.  Continuing with my regular routine, after about an hour I went off to the loo, then went to the break room to grab a bottle of iced tea out of the vending machine.  Heading back to the production floor, I noticed HR setting up the portable loudspeaker system the business has for the every-two-month all-staff meeting... there's so many of us that people at one end of the office can't hear the goings-on at the other end.  However, and this is what puzzled me, there was no such meeting scheduled for that day!  Upon returning to my desk and signing back into my computer, all became clear: Name That Tune.  I sighed.


See, here's the thing.  Name That Tune is a fun game, and under most circumstances I'm a natural at it... all those years working as a radio DJ, or being the go-to guy at BigBlueBox's music department, or hell, just being a teenager, that's all gotta pay off some way, right?  But the pity of it all is that the songs involved are selected by my boss.  My boss, who loves Barry Manilow and Modern Country music.  The last time we played, it... wasn't pretty.  One of the gamers and I wound up kvetching about the selection later and we came up with out own list, which would have at least separated the music snobs from the children if nothing else.  But I digress.  Not only am I not interested in the game as it stood, it also did a fine job of distracting me from my work.

But something had changed.  The first song was... good.  I mean, really good.  If you knew the tune, you had to get to the HR person and tell her title and artist before anybody else.  Then the song would be stopped, and the next one would come up.  Rinse, repeat.  It became obvious that they had gotten some help with the song list... to the point where I was actually paying attention.  And then it happened.  A song came on that I knew... and after about 30 seconds, I realized nobody else did!  
It's not my favorite Dire Straits song.  It wouldn't even be on the short list.  This was from when the band became a cartoon version of itself, all peppy and cheery and money for nuthin'.  On the other hand, I preferred the Dire Straits that made "Sultans of Swing", but hey, I wasn't going to turn a jumbo Reese's Peanut Butter bar down!  I got to my feet and, leaving my cane behind, I began to walk quickly to the HR person.

I made it four steps.

I actually don't know what happened exactly.  One moment I was upright, the next I had killed all forms of life within a few tens of miles I was getting a closeup look at the office carpeting (light gray, industrial, not at all soft).  I can only assume that one of my shoes, the right one like as not, had been grabbed by an invisible gopher.  I stayed down, taking inventory of my body, when I finally realized that I had just completely wiped out in front of the entire office... and just as the shame and embarrassment began to hit, the HR lady asked "do you know the song?"

I'm sure it's just cosmic coincidence that the song was "WALK of Life".  

Of course my knees hurt.  My right elbow throbbed, as did my left arm in the shoulder area.  By the time the workday ended, I wasn't concerned about my knees: they hurt, but it wasn't an internal pain.  They were just going to bruise (and now, two days on, they probably won't even do that).  My elbow still worked, so I wasn't much concerned about that either.  My left shoulder, though... the next morning, I woke up and it still hurt.  Heck, it still hurts now, though it's much better.  I still can't lift my arm over my head, and trying to push or pull something with it is a cold-rolled b*tch, but it's better than it was.  

But I got a Reese's Bar.  Totally worth it.

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July 16, 2017

If You're Happy And You Know It...


... for what it's worth, I'm sorry.

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June 30, 2017

Remember Last Week...

...when I said there was a review of a fantastic show coming?  Remember when I said it would drop last Saturday?  Remember when it didn't?  Yeah, me too.  Good times, good times...


This weekend for sure!  

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June 28, 2017

Stormageddon 2017: This Time, It's Personal

It's shortly after 11pm here at Pond Central, and I got home from work about 15 minutes ago.  Yeah, I did a 12 hour day, plus some, but not because I was feeling diligent or anything.  No, it's because leaving would have been stoopid.  But why, I hear you ask.  Well, let's take a look at the weather radar picture for 910pm Pond Central time:


Boy, that's a lot of red and dark red.  Do you see where it says "Cherry Valley"?  That's approximately where my job is located... have you ever seen purple on a weather map before?  I sure haven't, and to be blunt, I hope I never do again.  Because holy crepe on a popsicle stick, that was a completely horrible storm.  At one point, there were three angry red triangles on the radar, each one signifying "tornadic activity"... either an actual twister on the ground, visible strong rotation in the clouds, or spotted via doppler radar.  My guess is that they were all doppler'd, since one of them was heading right down the street my place of employ is situated upon, yet we're still there.

No, what my side of Duckford got was rain and lots of it in a short time, followed by even more immediately after, accompanied by a side of rain, with a rain apertif.  Torrential would be the word I'm looking for.  Low-lying areas were completely flooded... and please note, the main exit from the job's parking lot is "a low-lying area."  I know this because of the squad car parked blocking the way out.  Fortunately, there's a back exit, which isn't low-lying, but then came the drive home.  There are three major ways I can get to Pond Central:

1) secondary/tertiary road "A" to road "B", aka "Pond Central's road".  

2) Arterial road "C" to secondary/tertiary road "D" to road "B".

3) Road "C" to Arterial road "E" to road "B". 

...there is also 2a) "C" to "D" to side road "F" to "E" to "B".

1) is the way I usually take to get home, and I never even considered taking it tonight... no streetlights at all, and it's nothing but up hill/down hill the entire way.   I never take 3)... it's too far out of the way.  So 2) it was then!

Until I got to "B"... and saw the police had blocked it off due to flooding in both directions.  Right, time to double back and try 2a).  I take this way even less than I do 3), just because why bother?  Well, halfway up "F" there was a frickin' river flowing across it.  I saw a semi cross it okay, but it bloody well left a wake and mini-tsunami behind it.  Hell, there was a bow wave any naval vessel would have been proud of.  Did I mention that the Duckmobile is not a semi?

Turn around, double back again to take 3).  This worked, all the way until "E"  intersected "F"... where a river ran through it.  Not a deep one, fortunately, but it gave me pause... and it made me wish he Duckmobile was a DUKWmobile.  So thus ended my epic trek from work to home... a trip that usually takes eight minutes was a 40 minute adventure.

I just saw that we got three inches of rain between 7pm and 8pm.  Good weather for rubber ducks!

Okay, I'm going to bed... gotta go to work in the morning!

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June 22, 2017

When 300 Isn't Enough...

...you do 301.  Simple, right?  Been a little busy at work the past couple of days, first time I've ever had 300-claim days back to back.  'Snice.  But oh my am I getting burned out.  Mandatory overtime is not pleasant except on the paycheck


Also, I've got a review of an utterly charming series that I completely missed when it first aired coming down the pike, hopefully Saturday it'll be up.  How much I liked it came as quite the surprise to me, to be honest.  It'll only take about an hour or two to finish up, but I'm going nuts as it is.  Two hours?  Right now better spent sleeping!  Of course, there'll be the usual F1 stuff this weekend too!  Look forward to it, won't you?

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June 15, 2017

A Long Hot Day

Duckford has been in the midst of a heatwave for the past week or so... highs in the 90s, humid as all get out when it hasn't been raining, either no wind or too much, you know the drill.  Summer in Northern Illinois, it's what's for breakfast.  I've been kinda grumpy as a result of all of this, of course.  I'd rather be cold than hot... at least when you're cold, you can always put on another sweatshirt; when you're hot there's a legal limit to how far you can disrobe.  I'm in the process of finishing up my mandatory overtime for the week... it's 930p, and I only got home about 20 minutes ago... and for the last two hours all I saw were corrected claims and reversals.  One after the other, here's a physician rebilling a claim because the contracts changed and now he can get two more dollars!  Which means working the new claim, then going into the old claim and cancelling that one in a way that we get our money back, then documenting in the new claim AND in another location altogether that you've done that, then pay the new claim.  For two frickin' hours.  There is blood in my eye and murder in my heart.


And tomorrow?  I'm makin' waffles 11 hours!!!  Wheeeeeee!  Pfeh.

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May 26, 2017

(Quiet Moaning)

Two days.  23 hours at work.

I'm too old for this.

Still, some good did come from it... I discovered audiobooks today.  Believe it or not, I've never actually listened to books on tape/cd/whatever before.  With an Amazon Prime account, you get a free trial of Audible: two books.  So I thought, what the heck, why not?  I've always wanted to read Ready Player One, plenty of people have said it's good, so I downloaded it last night and started listening to it this morning at work.  Surprise #1: it's read by Wil Wheaton.  Surprise #2: he does a great job.  Surprise #3: holy crap that's a fun book!!!  I got some seven hours (out of 15) into it, and had to stop myself from starting it back up here at The Pond.  If you've read the book, Our Hero has just arrived at The Distracted Globe for a Very Important Birthday Party.

I never did like Joust, though.

Three days off... in a row!  How ever will I manage to stand it?

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May 08, 2017

Definitely Sometime

I keep starting a post on AMVs, get about a paragraph or so into it, then lose interest and go off and do something else.  Like this, right now.  Except at least you're reading this, as opposed to all the other posts I started and deleted.  So, yeah, posting.  Not exactly the most amazing thing ever, I admit, but at least it's something... right?

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May 06, 2017

Man The Tory!

Okay, yes, I miispeld it.  I'm still on 10 hours of overtime slaving over a hot keyboard, but this past Friday just bloody took the biscuit.  After working two 10-hour days on Wednesday and Thursday, I had to pull an 11-hour shift.  Fortunately the claims stayed friendly the entire time, but holy crepe was that unpleasant.  I went into work that morning feeling fresh and clean and energized... and came out feeling worn out, dirty and exhausted.  I came home, ate something, then fell asleep until the next morning.

Two good things happened, though.  First, I broke the 300-claim barrier for the first time.  Sure, it took me 10.5 hours to do it (we get an unpaid half-hour on the clock if we want it... bathroom breaks and the like), but it still happened!  Second, and more importantly, I was given a new monitor.  A 27" inch monitor... I think this one.  As opposed to the teeny-tiny 20" not 1920x1080 monitor I had before.

I pretended to be overcome with emotion with how beautiful it was, got big laffs from the people around me.  It was very easy to pretend, because I very nearly was overcome with emotion.  The bigger screen means more room on the desktop... meaning more room to have things open and easily accessible.  Plus, hey, I'll get a suntan off it in no time flat!

...and then I put in a couple of hours today, to get a headstart on next week's mandatory 10 hours.  I'm going to go take a nap now.

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May 02, 2017

Today At Work, I Cried...

...but in a good way.  Let me explain.

Anybody here ever play the Command & Conquer games?  I played one of them, and that experience, along with the time spent playing the original Warcraft game, convinced me that I really disliked the Real Time Strategy genre.  One thing that C&C was really well known for, though, is the music.  One track in particular, the theme song to C&C: Red Alert, is still famous today:  Hell March.


more...

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April 23, 2017

49.

Today is April 23rd.  Today is Impossible Astronaut Day, so go hug a Whovian.  In 1985 on this day, Coca-Cola introduced "New Coke", prompting Vaucaunson's Duck and myself to search around Duckford for a case of the original flavor.  The first youtube video was uploaded today in 2005.  Both Æthelred the Unready and William Shakespeare died on this date, as did Buster Crabbe, Howard Cosell, and Jaap Havekotte, a famous manufacturer of ice skates for speedskaters.  Meanwhile, John Hannah, Roy Orbison, Herve Villechaize, and Stephen A Douglas were all born on April 23rd.  In Bergen, Norway, there's heavy snowfall, and back in 1917 Buster Keaton made his film debut.  The International Space Station was visible from Newton Falls, OH, for 454 seconds and Hank Aaron hit the first of his 755 home runs today in 1954 against the Cardinals.

And in a hospital just off Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, a Wonderduck was inflicted upon a confused and slightly frightened world.

birthday candle!
I am still surprised.

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April 20, 2017

Still Alive. Again. I Mean, Still. Alive, That Is.

This was a triumph. 

So I tell ya, it's more difficult to do 10 hours of mandatory overtime in a week when on two of those days you have a less-than-swell feeling that forces you to leave "early" instead of getting some of that overtime knocked out.  Sure, it's my fault, no question, damn my weakened-by-age immune system, but it does mean that Thursday and Friday are gonna be long.

Heck, I'm writing this at 330am after I woke up from what was going to be a short nap.  What does that tell you?

I'm going back to bed now.  The alarm's going to ring in a few hours after all.  Pffffffft.

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April 07, 2017

News To Chew On

First, something a little light-hearted for y'all!  Practice 2 was run today at Shanghai, and I'm going to let you watch the whole thing right here at The Pond.  Ready?

Just stare at this picture for 90 minutes, you'll get the same effect.  It rained and rained and rained and then it fogged all day... P1 was shortened, P2 never got rolling at all.  All that weather meant the medical helicopter couldn't fly... no helicopter, no cars on track.  Fun times!  I love rain delay theater... for baseball, a good broadcast crew can make a rain delay interesting and informative.  The Legendary Announce Team is... well, they're okay when it comes to Rain Delay Theater.  There was some talk about moving the race to Saturday, but that was shot down ASAP.  The race may be... interesting, as the weather isn't expected to improve.

Now for the Interesting (as in "may you live in interesting times" interesting) News.  My boss called me into her office today and we had a talk.  Upshot is, I'm still employed.  I managed to do enough to save my job.

Except that I'm still on the hot seat.  If my average numbers drop below the target for a month, I'm fired... and that state of affairs will last for at least a year, or until I'm fired, whichever comes first.

That was not the conversation I thought we'd be having.  I thought there'd be some congratulations at the great job I did getting my numbers up, or a pat on the head, or something more than "don't get excited yet, you're still in trouble."  So I'll admit to a little bit of downheartedness in my spirit at the moment, yeah.  Always good to get a morale boost, hey?

Quals allegedly in the morning.  See ya then. 

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April 02, 2017

Not Dead Yet! Pt 2

It's been a few days since I last updated y'all on the Great Work Adventure.  What it comes down to is this: if they want to fire me, they've got data to back it up.  If they don't want to fire me, I gave them results to point at to justify it.  Now it's just up to them.

I am not exactly filled with warm fuzzies by this.

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March 29, 2017

Not Dead Yet!

I'm locked in a titanic struggle with the claims at my job.  If I win, I stay employed.  If I lose... well... I won't be employed.  I might know the answer on Friday, I dunno.  As a result of my life-or-death fight, I've adopted some... unusual... sleeping habits of late.  To whit, I've been taking a nap around 8 or 9pm, getting up for an hour around midnight or so, then going back to sleep until I need to get ready for work, around 730a.  It seems to be helping, I guess.  Posting may be somewhat light for a few more days (chorus: "it's been light for a long time").

No ReLife for me.

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March 26, 2017

Internet Problems

My internet connection is having a repeat of the problems I had earlier.  W8 just seems to lose the ability to talk to the internet... the modem is connected and fine, but the computer says there's nothing there.  Eventually it recognizes there's a modem, but pretends there's nothing hooked up to it.

Eventually, it figures things out and reconnects, for the same reason it lost the 'net in the first place... in other words, for no good reason I can see.  Today, I had been browsing the web for 10 minutes, no problems at all, and then it just up and... went away.

I mention all this just on the off-chance that it disappears again when I'm supposed to be uploading the F1Update! for Australia.  We'll see, won't we?

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