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I ve been slipping again as of late. I feel bad about depriving people of their FDA recommended daily allotment of Bampf goodness. But work has been pretty crazy lately. It s release time and there have been numerous late nights over the last two weeks as we try to get a product out the door. It s madness I tell ya, madness. Not at all like Stoner.
I don t mind too much though, it s been a good experience so far. Plus I m getting a very vivid glimpse at the culture differences between Stoner and Liquent. I find it extremely interesting to see the wildly different approaches to software development. If nothing else it s become very clear that Stoner is an Engineering firm that makes software... their process being very engineering centric. Whereas Liquent is a true software shop and it shows.
Well, enough talking shop. I don t wanna bore people any further. Kristyn and I are heading back to the midstate this weekend again. Gonna see The Huy s play tonight... with high expectations... it better be good. Wedding stuff to attend to Saturday. Gotta meet our minister/pastor/whatever she is that will be marrying us. I keep calling her a preistess, which I think is a pretty sweet title, but Kristyn tells me that s wrong. Sunday, I ll be hanging out at the Guild. I m looking forward to that. I may even pull out my orks and play a Sunday League game... exciting huh?
Have a good weekend, all.
-bampf |
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I thought I d log my first real gripe about Liquent... the toilet paper. Now, this really isn t Liquent s fault as the bathrooms are common to the building, not just our offices so the building owners have full control over these matters, but none the less... the toilet paper is a modern marvel in so much that it some how manages to be thinner than tissue paper yet coarser than sandpaper... amazing huh? All in all a pretty unpleasant ass-experience.
Not much of a gripe I know. But I had to get it off my chest. That and they have a delay between time sheet submission and pay period. Not a biggie but the problem here is that Stoner did not, so I ll have a two week period without pay. Kinda messes up the budget and such. Oh well.
-b |
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During me first full week down here, Kristyn and I went out and joined a nearby health club. This was long overdue. It s been several years since I ve worked out regularly. Really, since the opening of the Guild I haven t had time to work out. Before that I was always a member at one gym or another. So, I am delighted to get back into the weights and such. Hard to beleive, but I really haven t lost all that much strength. Regaining my cardiovascular fitness from my rugby days may take a bit more time and effort.
Now... here s the problem. Right down the road from the gym... we re talking a block or two... a Krispy Kreme just opened up. And everyone knows hot Krispy Kremes are the greatest indulgence known to man. We visited the store for the first time Saturday. I had never had a Krispy Kreme until my trip to Vegas a few years ago, and hadn t had any since... however I couldn t help but remember the absolute euphoria and zen-like transcendental goodness of the Kremes. This was all brought back in a rush Saturday. As we waited in line to place our order we were given complimentary Kremes, hot, right off the conveyor belt... heavenly. So, completely helpless to further resist the lure of the Kremes, we settled in for a dinner consisting of Kremes and chocolate milk. Mmmm... good, and good for ya.
So, now we re faced with the daunting arrangement of having to drive by the sweet sweet Kremes after every work-out session... it s like we ll have a built in excuse... "I just burned 300 calories on the treadmill, so it ll be OK to have a few Kremes." No good can come of this. Of that, I am certain. What a cruel, cruel, sweetly iced trick fate has played on us.
Hopefully we ll be able to resist the power of the Kremes frequently enough to obtain some net gain from the gym and drop a few pounds before the wedding. Hopefully. If nothing else it ll be a fantastic test of our strength of will. I ll keep you guys updated on the status of the struggle...
-bampf |
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Just an FYI to all you out there in inter-web land. Many of you have my cell phone number so I wanted to let you know that that phone is now Kristyn s cell phone. So the number is still active, but don t expect me to answer if you call. The whole reason I got the phone in the first place was for cheap long distance calls to Philly, so it really lost its raison d etre when I moved down. I ve always hated phones and moreover always hated talking on phones so we canceled Kristyn s more expensive cell phone account and she got mine. We have a land line at the house (which I still feel is superfulous) but if you need to contact me, email is really the way to do it. All non-electronic forms of communication have just about become obsolete if ya ask me (up to and including spoken language).
This has been a BampfBlog(tm) Public Service Announcement.
-bampf |
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I love snow. I love a blizzard even more. Especially ones that get ya a snow day off work. Kristyn and I were stuck in Shippensburg for the duration of the storm. It was a fun time. Lots of slothfulness, just laying around watching TV interrupted by jaunts out into the winter wonderland to play in the snow. Doesn t get much better than that. Would have been nice to be snowed in at Ridley Park (along with all the DVDs and games and such) but it was still pretty nice.
To ensure I didn t miss work today we drove home last night-- dodging jack-knifed trucks all the way. Exciting stuff. There were lines of trucks stretching miles and miles on three different on/off ramps along Rt 11. With some creative navigating we eventually made it onto the turnpike. And of course, after finally arriving over 3 hours after our departure, I had to shovel a parking space out for my car. Joy. Oh well... small price to pay for the sweet sweet blizzard.
-bampf |
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OK so we have a huge stockpile of sodas in our kitchen here at work, and then a big restaurant size fridge. Despite all of this there remains only 3 bottles of Code Red... I d like to think I m personally responsible for the shortage.
Yeah... life is good.
Have a good weekend all, I m off to wrestle with horacious (KN s custom word) Philly traffic.
"GRIDLOCK!! I'm outta ammo!" --Gen. Stockdale as played by Phil Hartman
-bampf |
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Eventful first day at work today. For my first day I was expecting a lot of paperwork, excessive tours and many handshakes. Not what I got. My arrival was very timely and I ended up spending most of the day working on a desperately needed install (good thing Stoner paid for that InstallShield training... suckers, and good thing Dover gave me a couple refresher courses). So I was able to prove my worth numerous times in a pinch so that was a pretty good first day especially considering I don t even have a PC yet (nor even a phone). I ve got a desk, but nothing else really... well a chair. But that s it. Not even a stapler.
Couple things of note about Liquent now that I have a decent basis for comparison... they really seem dedicated to taking care of their employees... there s a deli in the first floor of our building and all Liquent employees can expense breakfast there every morning. Then there s the unlimited soda and juice. In the afternoon there was a snack cart loaded with fruits, candy bars, chips, you name it... all free. There was also a decided lack of rigorous procedure and the other BS that Stoner was so fond of. So long to that crap. I think I m gonna like it here. Didn t get to meet many co-workers outside my immediate team, but those I did meet were perfectly pleasant.
A very auspicious start, I thought.
-bampf
PS can t wait to hear Dover, TGM and The Wanderer s take on this entry as they slave away for their Stoner overlords. |
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The deed is done. Friday was my last day at Stoner. It s a strange situation to be in... what do you say to co-workers who you ll almost certainly never see again? Odd indeed. But it was a good day overall. My manager brought a tasty chocolate cake, had my lunch paid for, and I even managed to finish my last assignment at the proverbial buzzer. There were a couple sad goodbyes. TGM was so distrought he didn t even come into work... the big softie. TGM, The Wanderer and Dover will still be around I m sure... getting rid of those three would require more than moving out of the area. As for all of my other co-workers, I ll probably never contact them again, despite all the promises to the contrary on Friday. Oh well. So long, suckers (and thanks for all the fish).
Saturday was the "No Mo Mongo" going away party at the Guild. I am definately more sad to leave the Guild than Stoner. I ve been having a lot of fun with the Magic players and roleplaying and have developed some wonderful friendships recently... so it was sad to walk away from that. But I ll be back to hang out on weekends so it ain t so bad after all. I intend to keep roleplaying with my group... our plan is to meet once a month or so, either here or there. I am walking away from a couple of good character who I ll miss playing... Kirwan and Gort, goodbye my friends.
I did say a furtive goodbye to my family. The only one who took it kinda hard was my grandmother, as Philadelphia seems like a world away to her rural eyes.
On to the good stuff though... I m really ecstatic to be down here. Kristyn is absolutely elated, obviously, as she s been alone in this house for seven months. We re both really excited about the prospect of living together. Can t wait to continue our exploration of the area and the city.
Got to hang out with the Jersey gang yesterday as we made a trip to AC. As I ve mentioned before, it s really nice to be able to move 120 miles and have a group of friends already in your backyard.
I m also excited about my new job. Should be a really cool place to work. They sent me a basket of candies and snacks as a welcome aboard gesture, I thought that was really nice. Wednesday is my first day, so look for some comments on my new work environs then.
Well, this is getting lone so I m gonna wrap it up.
-bampf... full time Philadelphian
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Haven t had much to say as of late. Look for a flurry of posts around this weekend as I make the big transition to permanent Philly life.
I just wanted to make a quick entry urging everyone to swing by the onion today (www.theonion.com) and read the interview with Terry Gilliam in the AV Club (www.theonionavclub.com) as there s no human living on this planet who I hold in higher esteem.
-b
"I love Brazil. Gilliam is God."
-Johnny the Homicidal Maniac |
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The subject is the title of a tastless rugby song (mentioning the tastless is redundant, as anyone familiar with rugby songs knows they are all implicitly tasteless) about the Challenger sung to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon. I can t get the song out of my head and I m starting to feel guilty about it...
I kept seeing flags at half mast yesterday and today and had no idea what was up. It wasn t till this morning that I learned of the newest shuttle disaster... although in this day and age I m not so sure the term 'disaster' can be applied to the loss of 7 lives.
I m really wondering what this will do to the future of NASA and space exploration. Seems NASA is continually being pushed to the back of people s minds (until something goes wrong), and I wonder if its only a matter of time till a politician decides that it s no longer worth the expenditure. I see Bush has already suggested additional funding to prevent further accidents. Guess we ll see.
-b
"Christa McAuliffe, English her specialty
She went into the shuttle and now she s history
Puff went the shuttle
Launched from Kennedy
It went into the atmosphere
And fell on you and me" |
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Many lasts...
Last week at Stoner. Last two hour monday morning commute was this morning. Last week apart from Kristyn. Last week of not living in our house. Happy days.
Its all very exciting. This sorta thing only happens a couple of times in a lifetime so I m doing my best to take it all in...
-bampf |