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July 31, 2005

The Jam-A-Que

Well, this weekend rocked. Literally. Every year my brother and his rocking lady throw a jam-a-que. They humor me and let me play a few songs while the real musicians are kicking back, taking a break and getting some beer. It was a birthday celebration as well, with just a few of my closest clan driving a total of 9 hours just to see little 'ol me embarass the heck out of myself.

After the jam we drove over railroad tracks and bingo halls to find an 'ol fashioned ice cream shop. You know those moments when you're a kid and your parents bring you to paradise? It's not much different when you're an adult surrounded by the people you love. Despite a near-wedding incident our gang had a nice stroll down memory lane. I miss all of them, and if I move closer to one, I move further away from the other. There is always the ranch...

Anyway, me and the fellah are gonna go strut around downtown a bit, thanks for tuning in.

Posted by lysa at 2:16 PM | Comments (3)

July 26, 2005

Thank you Mr. Vonnegut

"Science had given humanity forces enough to destroy the earth, and politics had given humanity a fair assurance that the force would be used."

-Kurt Vonnegut,
"Thanasphere", Bagombo Snuff Box.

Posted by lysa at 8:40 AM | Comments (1)

July 24, 2005

24 hours of sleep on the wall, 24 hours of sleep...

I know, I know, you are hardly surprised. It seems that this waking up early thing has made sleeping without blackout curtains easier than I expected. It wasn't 24 hours *straight* but a nice combination of 14 hours on Friday night and 10 on Saturday night.

I feel nice.

So, after spending 1 whole week working again, I think I have to quit. The busses and trains are even more unreliable than I had planned for, and it seems that there may not be any way to make it to school on time in the Fall. The whole reason I took this job was because it was condusive to my school schedule.

It sucks, I really like this job. I wish they believed in tele-commuting, it would be perfect.

And in other, totally unrelated news, this makes me smile. From Pixar's 'Boundin':

Here's a story on how strange is life with its changes and it happened not long ago On a high mountain plain, where the sagebrush arranges a playground south of the snow Lived a lamb with a coat of remarkable sheen it would glint in the sunlight all sparkly and clean Such a source of great pride that it caused him to preen And he'd break out in high-steppin' dance.He would dance for his neighbors across the way I must say that they found his dancin' enhancin' for they'd also join in the play Then one day... farmer takes sheep away and shears his coat, leaves him naked and pink in the cold rain. His friends laugh at him and he is sad Then a-boundin' up the slope came a great American Jackalope This sage of the sage, this rare hare of hope, caused to pause and check out the lamb, Hey, kid, why the mope? I used to be something all covered with fluff and I'd dance in the sunlight and show off my stuff Then they hauled me away in a manner quite rough and sheared me and dumped me back here in the buff. And if that's not enough, now my friends laugh at me 'cause they think I look ridiculous funny and pink. Pink? Pink? Well, what's wrong with pink? Seems you got a pink kink in your think. Does it matter what color? Well that gets a nope Be it pink, purple or heliotrope. Now, sometimes you're up, and sometimes you're down when you find that you're down, well just look around You still got a body, good legs and fine feet,get your head in the right place and, hey, you're complete. Now as for the dancin' you can do more.You can reach great heights, in fact you can soar.You just get a leg up and you slap it on down, and you'll find you're up in what's called "a bound".Bound, bound and rebound. Bound and you're up right next to the sky And I think you can do it if you give it a try.First, get a leg up, slap it on down. So every year, long about May,they'd load him up and they'd haul him away.And they'd shave him and dump him all naked and bare He learned to live with it, he didn't careHe'd just bound, bound, bound and rebound.Now in this world of ups and downs... so nice to know there are jackalopes around.

Posted by lysa at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

July 22, 2005

The Transit Blues...

"Due to a stalled "A" train at Canal street, there will be no uptown "A" service"

In this space between the ladies first and second spoken line, I will add some internal dialogue, and some information for ya'll to understand how fucking insane this is. I have 2 single points of failure in my commute. The "A" train is the ONLY train that stops at the station I want to go. It is the only train that stop CLOSE to the station I need to go to. Without the "A" train, there is no me getting to work even close to ontime.

So, now i'm contemplating going back into bed and just calling in. Normally, we sysadmins call this "working from home". A good laptop, an old movie and a VPN and a day stuck in bed can turn fun. But we don't have that quite yet... give me time..

*3 minutes later
"Ladies and Gentleman, there is an "A" train approaching West 4th Street"

Unbefuckmelievable. But not half as frustrating to me as it must have been for the hordes of people who followed the speakers instructions to get a Queens bound "E" train in hope of, actually, I have no idea what the point would be..

I get to the GWB terminal at 7:41 and run, and i mean RUN to the bus gate, nearly throwing up along the way. The bus is gone. It is 7:43.

The end result is that I miss my bus by 3 minutes and I am 30 minutes late for work.

Posted by lysa at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2005

compromise

Compromises are betrayls of self that you do in order to not grow old alone.

Posted by lysa at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2005

In Summation.

I have a humdinger of an update to write. I don't know if I have anything to say, but I figure it's been a while.

I started a new job today. It's in fucking jersey. I hate fucking jersey, but they are paying me to be here, so I guess we'll see how it goes. The place is a little odd, they have a 'clock-in' system which weirds me out a little. What technical company has a clock-in system? Where are we, a supermarket?

I have been informed several times now that having girls around in a technical position is an abnormality around here. I've been seated in the area called 'the pit' and share a space with two boys. I cannot tell them enough that this is not the first time I have been the only girl in all boy meetings and that I can handle myself. It was brought up again that if anything should happen that breaches my comfort level i should inform the boss immediately.

I wonder if i can tell him how uncomfortable the clock-in system makes me?

One of the guys has offered to postpone my insane commute and drive me home on some days, which will really, REALLY rock. This of course is the same guy who just went head-to-head with me on the altrusim of the United States and declared that we are not imperialists. I hope there isn't traffic.

Vancouver was really nice. The sites were pleasant, Whistler (home of the upcoming winter Olympics) was beautiful and I made friends with a horsie named Major. Major likes peeing in mountain streams, so bathing beauties in your bathing suites, watch out.

Speaking of bathing suits... actually, no. There will be no speaking out my latest bathing suit experience.

I was quoted on shameless... which made me feel all gooey and wise.

I got to see Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce in concert this past weekend. He was promoting his "Devils and Dust" album and had some very, very not Bruce songs.. namely Reno, which is a heartwearming tale about a prostitute. A note for anyone looking to go see Bruce in concert. Bring food and water. Sneak it in, be proper and buy it at the concessions, but for humanity's sake, have water. Bruce has interruption issues. He closes the concession stands 10 minutes to concert time, shows up 30 minutes late and doesn't allow seating during songs. If you get up to pee, and Bruce is playing a 10 minute rendition of some good 'ol folk, you're ass is staying out of the seating area until the song is over. On a positive note the sound was amazing, and I think I'll be buying his album. It's a lot of acoustic, some piano, and an organ! There's one song, which I can't remember that is audibly astonishing, with Bruce making a driving drumbeat from his boots into a piece of wood that was on the floor. Really astounding. The Pepsi Area was at least 80 degrees, and we had no water. Really Bruce, deal with the interuption. It's fucking water!

I want to talk more about Vancouver, but unfortunately, I am forever going to associate the London bombings with my stay there, and I don't want to think about that right now.

I saw "War of the Worlds" and to quote the guy who was a hero in bed last night:

"The most compelling first hour and a half of moviemaking i've ever seen. It blew Signs out of its "Aliens cant open a wooden door" ass, it bent over Independence "A Mac Can Crush an entire alien civilization that's capable of interspace travel with an ass virus" Day and smacked it around. Intense visuals, compelling storyline..characters i actually liked."

I highly recommend it. Seriously. Even for those of you who don't like to watch shit get blown up. It is a little gory, but also, kinda pretty. Like entrails blowing in the breeze.

Posted by lysa at 2:53 PM | Comments (2)

July 3, 2005

Filing and the XY chromosome.

So, we have these boxes.

They have been there so long we're thinking of matching the walls to them, and just have a cardboard motif through the living room. Today, we decided, that the boxes have to go. We bought some filing cabinets (big, plastic, brightly colored) and decided since most of those boxes hold paper, some filing cabinets would do the job just fine.

I would like to share with you, my friends, the XY's version of "filing".

Posted by lysa at 7:44 PM | Comments (1)

July 1, 2005

I want to be a sellout, mommy!

Professional speaking, when it comes to what I want to do for the rest of my life, I *still* have no idea. Had you asked me when I was fourteen, I would have had an answer, sort of. I would have said "I do not want to sit behind a desk for the rest of my life". I was intent on saving the world back then, I just couldn't figure out how I'd get paid.

I started at Icon, CMT when I was in my early 20's. I was the only woman (girl) in the IS department. There were female programmers, and female managers, but in the IS department, I was the only one. After I had left Icon, a system had been put in place: women would come in as receptionist, move up to help desk, and get some level of certification. I was proud to make the way for others after me, and I had felt like a compromise had been reached between the old me, and the one that realized that what you do for a living, is not who you are.

It's years later and I am back in school, finishing up the education that I left behind for Icon. I just had an interview at another company in Jersey, which is about 2 tasks behind 'blow hole in the back of my head' on my ToDo list. The company allows a work schedule which will work with school, even though it means getting up at an hour in the morning I have never seen. The CTO and I were talking about the place, and after going over salary, health benefits (both of which are fair, but not excellent) he told me (as we were walking to the bus) that the CEO of the company is a bit of an old fashioned fellah, and the idea of a woman being in a position of power in the company concerned him. I felt the fire start in me, I was ready to be enraged, fight for my rights, prove myself to this 'ol dinosaur, and then the CTO tells me I would be the only woman in a powerful position, making almost as much money as the CTO, and my coming on would probably open up the doors for more women to hold positions of influence in this company.

Can it be done? Can you make money and still change the world? The CTO mentioned that this wasn't supposed to be a selling point, but truth be told, this was the best point I had heard about the company yet.

Maybe this is another compromise, maybe I can reduce my pay a mere 2-3K and open up some old, dodgy republicans eyes ( the CEO's office had a Bush-Cheney sticker, I nearly ran out but then I found out it was not the CTO's office ).

I think maybe, I can change the world and make a living.

Posted by lysa at 4:36 PM | Comments (1)