Consultants and fair trade!

We have had a Consultant in from SAP all week to help with a unicode conversion. It's not scary like bringing in the Bobs or anything, but it does meen long days. He usually doesn't know how to stop so we've been there til about 5:30 or later all week. Me being kinda dumb i usually still come in early too. Today i'm not going in early though!! Instead i'm getting starbuck's coffee for the morning to help it go faster. I know at least one of you will be happy to know that I ordered the Fair Trade coffee too! At first i wasn't sure how that would go over since my boss was joking about getting coffee where at least 10 rainforest trees were destroyed in the making of his cup. Turns out he'd rather have the workers get the money than "terrorists". I didn't do any more correcting at that point though =)

First written update from my bro (Status Update 1)

I know some of you might be interested in knowing how my bro is doing so i'm going to post most of the info he sends out to the family on here. If you will recieve it in the mail checking here will probably get the info more quickly. If you haven't given your address to him for sending updates then this might be your only option. I have left out the portion that is a journal. If you are interested in that part (some is good and tells of his drive accross country) post a comment or send an email etc. Well anyway here is his "Status Update":

Dear Friends and Family,
As of Friday January 12th (approximately 9:30pm local time), I have arrived safely in Eugene, Oregon. I'm here for many reasons, but the one that is most relevant is isolation. I'm not giving out my direct address because I do not wish to receive any "care packages." I'd also like to limit the timeframe of incoming letters to once a month. So I'm asking that if anyone wants to reach me, they send (paper) letters to my "terrific" UncleNormally I'd use the term "great," but I'm afraid he might think I'm subtly calling him "elderly."

I've sought this isolation for a very particular purpose; I intend to write a book. I figure some of you may be mildly interested in following along with the agony I go through, attempting to accomplish *something* with my life. This is the first in a series of what I like to call "status updates." I will write one approximately every two weeks.

On to the actual status of the book...I have nothing. Well I came with about 60 pages of notes, read them, and threw most of them away. Since I've been thinking about this off and on for about 5 years now, the story has evolved. Most of what I've written, while thought provoking, doesn't really fit the story or the characters anymore. So as far as writing is concerned, I'll have to start from scratch, with a new outline. Since memory isn't linear, I've had trouble trying to write a chronological outline. I've purchased some index cards on which to write the major events. When I feel I've got most of them completed, I'm going to try to sort them in what makes sense chronologically.

So you're probably wondering why I haven't done that by now, if I already have a plan. I've been watching a lot of TV. We weren't supposed to have cable here, and we still aren't paying for it. On a positive note, I've also figured out how to write a shell script to archive the photos from my digital camera. Unfortunately I didn't take many since I didn't have that script earlier. I'm not sure whether to thank my brother for that or complain to him.

I can still tell you what happened on my trip; just can't prove it without the pictures. It also won't be as colorful.

Work stuff

So i had guard this weekend and got the letter that says i am appointed into the officer position in temporary status. I still need to get my new uniforms then i will get my school dates. My boss at work seems super cooperative. I am kinda heading up a project at the moment, but he isn't worried about letting me go for the training as there will be other similar projects in the future and i'll work on at least one of them. That being said i don't think i'll go get the uniforms this week though cuz we have a consultant in all week. (no it's not the Bobs) If i could get the stuff on the weekend that would be easiest, but if not maybe in an afternoon. I'll work it out i'm sure.

So not too much else to report, but i'm really glad it finally snowed since it's been so cold anyway. I didn't do too much driving in the stuff, but it wasn't bad.

Pool table photo

Pool table photo, originally uploaded by imcokeman.

For some reason I never posted the pic of my pool table in my basement, so here it is

My brother has completed the oregon trail...for real

He made it to Oregon by this weekend and all seems well. I'm glad the trip went smoothly and safely. His Talon with ~190k miles made it accross the country in one piece! Good ole DSMs.

As for myself this was an on call weekend and today wasn't too exciting as i was sitting near a computer most of the day. At least there wasn't too much i had to do and i had rented some movies in anticipation.

Bro's trip update 3 and comp stuff

I think my brother was in Disneyland today. I know he said he made it to Cali and was staying with some relatives there. He said if he stayed til today he got to go to disneyland for free so i'm guessing he took them up on that offer today. Not sure if he is going out later tonight or what, but he seems to be doing well and is already at the other coast.

Now for me I have another computer issue. I think it could have been part of the problems i was having a long time ago and it just finally gace up. I have a WD2500 250 gig ide hard drive that gave up the ghost. I am running some utilities on it now, but i definitely won't trust it with any data i don't have backed up somewhere else. And i thought they were supposed to be the good company. Oh well i still have another 750 gig in that computer anyway i guess i'll manage.

Bro update 2

Well my brother has made it as far as arizona now and is staying with my grandmother out there. He'll be there a little, then off to Cali to visit some other relatives before heading out to Oregon. So far he's been safe, but the weather was colder as he went south. Yesterday it was in the mid 60s here in PA and there was snow in New Mexico where he was driving through.

Update 1 on my brothers trip - Chicago

Well he made it to Chicago today. He stopped a few times before making it there since the person he was visiting wasn't free until today though. He should be on his way again now and stop as far outside chicago as he can before getting tired. He seemed to be doing well and didn't report and car troubles aside from bad traffic in chicago. Maybe he'll be hitting the start of Rt 66 tonight!

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a good 2006 and I wish you all an even better 2007. I have had a fairly busy week with my brother preparing to drive accross country. He should be leaving some time today i think. I'm not sure how much news i will get from him, but i will likely post a few updates as i recieve them.

I can't believe how much food i've been eating lately either. Well i guess i'm not really too surprised, but it is definitely a lot. A few times i've eaten more than one dinner =) and of course there is always a lot of deserts and snacks around during the holidays. We'll see how long it takes for me to finish up the stuff we have on the kitchen counter!