Monday, October 16
Flooded Commute
Ok, the drive home today was great, it is flooding all over the Houston area, so I took some video of my drive down the rivers of Houston this afternoon.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, on Bay Area Blvd on the way to Baybrook Mall.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, just outside the Friends Church on FM 518.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, on Bay Area Blvd on the way to Baybrook Mall.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, just outside the Friends Church on FM 518.
Labels: commute, flood, travel, work
Friday, October 13
New job update
New job is great.
Got to order a new HP laptop, got a massive monster of a system, 17" widescreen, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD. Thing rocks.
I'm in a temporary desk right now while my CUBE is being built out. Relearning the joys of cube living in a regular office. Heard one of those funny sentances start up just now over the wall:
"Back when I had my teeth..." started the conversation on the other side of the wall.
Yeah, this is going to be a blast!
I'm having fun getting to know the network here, getting reacquainted with some old friends and settling into a great job.
Oh, and the commute. My last job was 22 miles from home and took an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning on average and an hour and a half at night. The new job is 20 miles from home, and takes forty-five minutes in the morning and about forty-five minutes in the evening for a net time saved of about a hour a day. That's five hours a week. 250 hours a year saved with two weeks vacation figured into the mix. Wohoo!
Got to order a new HP laptop, got a massive monster of a system, 17" widescreen, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD. Thing rocks.
I'm in a temporary desk right now while my CUBE is being built out. Relearning the joys of cube living in a regular office. Heard one of those funny sentances start up just now over the wall:
"Back when I had my teeth..." started the conversation on the other side of the wall.
Yeah, this is going to be a blast!
I'm having fun getting to know the network here, getting reacquainted with some old friends and settling into a great job.
Oh, and the commute. My last job was 22 miles from home and took an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning on average and an hour and a half at night. The new job is 20 miles from home, and takes forty-five minutes in the morning and about forty-five minutes in the evening for a net time saved of about a hour a day. That's five hours a week. 250 hours a year saved with two weeks vacation figured into the mix. Wohoo!
Labels: commute, compaq, cubefarm, work
Wednesday, September 6
Always blame the PC guys...
Ok, this morning on the way to work, my vehicle died out.
Luckily, the nice guys from Pearland Police Department stopped by and pushed me off the road to the Diamond Shamrock station nearby.
I thought, cool, I'll go in and get some breakfast.
That's when I noticed the station was all closed up and out of business.
As I was bored, and wandered over to the door, which had this sign posted for the world to see.
Now, I'm no expert, but I don't think it was a computer problem when the inside of the store looks like this.
Oh, and the dealer just called, I had a bad air valve somewhere that was causing the truck to stop running, so it will be ready by the end of the day, just in case you were concerned.
Luckily, the nice guys from Pearland Police Department stopped by and pushed me off the road to the Diamond Shamrock station nearby.
I thought, cool, I'll go in and get some breakfast.
That's when I noticed the station was all closed up and out of business.
As I was bored, and wandered over to the door, which had this sign posted for the world to see.
Now, I'm no expert, but I don't think it was a computer problem when the inside of the store looks like this.
Oh, and the dealer just called, I had a bad air valve somewhere that was causing the truck to stop running, so it will be ready by the end of the day, just in case you were concerned.
Labels: commute, gas, stupid users
Wednesday, August 9
Greedy Oil Companies
Ok, this monring on the way to the office I stopped at Exxon to get gas, coffee and some cookies. Normal thing for me a couple of mornings each week.
Today was not normal, my Speedpass would not work, not outside at the pumps, not inside at the register. So I paid with a credit card and drove on in to work.
Called Speedpass when I got to work, nothing wrong on their end, they can transfer me to Exxon customer service.
Get on the phone with Exxon, somehow my July payment was $14.00 short. Guess I typoed on my Electronic Bill Pay. So, without any warning, or adding the total to my August bill, they cut off my account.
Ok, I can see if I was way behind. I could see if I completely missed a payment. I could see if I was a new customer. But I've been a customer there for over five years. I've never missed a payment. And they didn't even send me a letter saying, "Hey, you shorted us $14.00, pay up or else." What a bunch of assholes.
Our Exxon bill runs $200-$400 per month. Thats $3000-$5000 per year.
Exxon made $10.4 Billion Dollars last Quarter. That is: $10,400,000,000,000.00 in profit for three months. That is about 743 Million times $14.00.
So they cut me off for 1/743,000,000 of their quarterly profit. Yeah, way to make your customers satisfied.
ExxonMobil quarterly profit at $10.4B
Today was not normal, my Speedpass would not work, not outside at the pumps, not inside at the register. So I paid with a credit card and drove on in to work.
Called Speedpass when I got to work, nothing wrong on their end, they can transfer me to Exxon customer service.
Get on the phone with Exxon, somehow my July payment was $14.00 short. Guess I typoed on my Electronic Bill Pay. So, without any warning, or adding the total to my August bill, they cut off my account.
Ok, I can see if I was way behind. I could see if I completely missed a payment. I could see if I was a new customer. But I've been a customer there for over five years. I've never missed a payment. And they didn't even send me a letter saying, "Hey, you shorted us $14.00, pay up or else." What a bunch of assholes.
Our Exxon bill runs $200-$400 per month. Thats $3000-$5000 per year.
Exxon made $10.4 Billion Dollars last Quarter. That is: $10,400,000,000,000.00 in profit for three months. That is about 743 Million times $14.00.
So they cut me off for 1/743,000,000 of their quarterly profit. Yeah, way to make your customers satisfied.
ExxonMobil quarterly profit at $10.4B
Labels: bad support, commute, dining, gas
Tuesday, July 4
Um, yeah, well, OK
Ok, I'm going to be cleaning out my Blogger folder today when I have a spare minute.
Saw this sticker on a Kia Sedona minivan one day, and the only things I could think were:
1) Dog can't be too smart, it hangs out with you.
2) It will be hard to identify the biggest bitch in your vehicle.
Monday, July 3
Weiner Mobile & More
Wow, to call things crazy around here would be the ultimate undersatement.
My wife is home from the hospital and doing well. The twins are in NICU, getting stronger and learning to eat.
Our firstborn has become a little terror due to the strange schedules and such, he is really upset.
I've got lots of cool stuff to add to the blog once things settle down a bit. Right now I just need a clone.
Time Warner Cable did fix my cable modem, turns out my idiot neighbor dug up the cable. That makes 3 CATV cables and 4 phone cables they have dug up back there. What a bunch of morons.
Oh, and I've been seeing the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile parked in the same spot for about two weeks now.
Labels: commute, dining, vehicle
Thursday, May 25
4 Homeless Guys Missing In Action
I took this picture this morning at the corner of Westheimer and Loop 610. You can see the four duffel bags for the homeless guys that normally occupy this corner. Yet they were nowhere to be found. I looked all over and did not see them.
I've named them all, there is Smelly - who I can smell from 10 feet away, even with all the windows of the truck rolled up, Yelly - who holds up a Vietnam Vet sign and yells at traffic, Belly - has a big pot gut and runs the squeegee, and Clyde - he sells Houston Chronicle newspapers.
Maybe they panhandled enough money this morning that they could walk over to the Starbucks down the street.
I've named them all, there is Smelly - who I can smell from 10 feet away, even with all the windows of the truck rolled up, Yelly - who holds up a Vietnam Vet sign and yells at traffic, Belly - has a big pot gut and runs the squeegee, and Clyde - he sells Houston Chronicle newspapers.
Maybe they panhandled enough money this morning that they could walk over to the Starbucks down the street.
Number of people who will never get their time back from reading this page:
