Now I’ve never been one for most metal music. Only so much noise. But over on Facebook many of my friends have been posting this video:
So I dug through some of their other tracks. Disturbed for a metal band has some really good range. So much so that I ran them through the YouTube to MP3 converter and they now live in my music library.
It’s funny – the help desk/systems guy is a metal lover. He’s introduced me to a few new things after I’d shared that I like Gogol Bordello.
So as you may or may not have heard, former Mayor of Providence Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci passed away recently.
Flags in the city and on the state house are being flown at half staff.
More interestingly the former Mayor, longest serving at 20 years will lie in repose in front of the Mayor’s office on February 6th and 7th.
Love him or hate him – he was one of the biggest cheerleaders that Providence ever had. And the recent crop of Mayors, the only thing I can say for them is they love revenue generating things.
One gift I have is being able to sneak up on people and then scaring the shit out of them. I love the registration of surprise and shock when they realize I’ve snuck up on them. It’s one of life’s gifts and pleasures.
Another of those gifts is having a dry, sarcastic wit. I regularly crack up people at work.
Then of course there’s my gift in how I deal with vendors who displease me. In more than a few places I’ve worked I’ve been told that people who heard my conversations with certain shipping companies, that I’m really persuasive and I can be downright rude but in a nice way. In essence I can call you an asshole and you’ll thank me for it. Last demonstration of this is when I told the UPS President’s office that they were inept and idiotic.
I bought a couple tickets to see the diva herself. Should be a good show. I say this because Ms. Ross is 72 years old. And still performing.
So this company, Data Dog HQ has been emailing and calling me at work. Now they hold themselves out as a Cloud Monitoring as a Service. Monitoring for what I asked – did they know what SEIM was. It stands for Security Information and Event Management.
But they didn’t know what that was. Most recently a representative from the company emailed me. I shot back to her that since she admitted she didn’t know what SEIM was – I sent back a nasty-gram telling her to cease all contact by email and phone and to go lookup the acronym SEIM. After all a cloud monitoring company should know what that is.
So I’ve blogged in the past how debit cards get treated far differently than credit cards and How I want federal legislation that says merchants cannot discriminate.
Well – after the annual holiday trip I had to rent a car again for trip up to Manchester, NH. And I went with Enterprise as they’re close by and always have vehicles available.
When I rented for the holiday they charged a $200 hold – which they refunded on return.
This time – they didn’t even put the charge on. Just the flat rental fee and insurance.
Maybe it’s because this time the rental agent was a man. I seem to be able to schmooze better with guys than women. Not all that strange when you consider I’m a) pretty smart and b) gay.
It’s just strange.
The boss admitted it today. I started as Senior Systems Administrator – now I.T. Manager.
It works for me. Next stop is CIO – I’m serious. There’s an ulterior motive here. I just want to be able to give the office mate who now reports to me – I want him to have the chance to move from help desk to systems. He’s proven capable doing it. Why the hell not.
And CIO outranks Vice President – so I could also let the office mate, who was reviewed as unreliable by said Veep to review the Veep and justifiably say the Veep is unreliable.
It only brings home the old saying, be careful the toes you step upon today for they may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.
And the CIO thing – it’s entirely possible. You see I have the CEO, CFO, HR and Office manager in my corner. That’s something I learned long ago – get on the good side of those folks and they’ll deliver in spades. Office politics is so much fun.
By plunge I’m talking about Sous Vide cooking. It’s a a way to keep water at a certain constant temperature.
I’ve been a subscriber to Chef Steps on YouTube for a long time now. I’ve tried their crispy waffle recipe and their Crispy Creme donut recipe. Both were big hits around here.
So they’ve been talking about their Joule Sous Vide cooker. It’s a stick that is controlled by a phone app.
This means that in addition the the $199 I spent on the sous vide cooker I’m going to have to spend another $169 to get a new phone with enough on board memory to install the app and another $60 for a vacuum sealer and $25 for some bags.
So the total to do sous vide will be $453. Add to that the $339 I paid for the KitchenAid Pro 600 mixer and we’re up to $792 just for necessary gear. And almost forgot the $10 for the Diastatic Malt Powder necessary for both the waffles and donuts and we’re at a grand total of $802.
So cooking in a new way is expensive. Well – not that much over time.
I showed it to the boss at work. He was fascinated by it.
So now I know – the boss loves tech.
And the head of marketing likes shiney things.
Went to the 11:35PM showing at Showcase Cinemas in Warwick/E.G. RI. Actually it is at the intersection of Division Rd. East Greenwich and Quaker Lane, Warwick.
Anyhow the movie was directed by one J.J. Abrams. Known for the latest Star Trek movie as well as a few other goodies it was obvious he was directing this one.
Spoiler alert – stop reading here if you don’t want to know.
Spewing Truth in the face of Lies 