Last week was, by far, one of the most stressful weeks I’ve had in the 4 years I’ve been with my company and this week is looking to be much worse. Just wanted to say thanx to all the blog whores alike who helped keep me awake/sane this last weekend by IMing me. It was nice to read some fresh new type.

– 12:40am – And so we begin again.
– 12:55am – I’ve only been here for a half an hour and already Hien is mentioning delusions of evil spirits in the vending machine.
– 01:59am – Who said that?!
– 03:31am – The voices! They begin again. Kill Hien? I must if they ask. The boy will not live through the night.
– 04:14am – First attack was foiled when I tripped over my own feet. I think he’s onto me now. I must be cautious.
– 05:02am – The night moves on and my attempts at slaying my coworker have failed. I now turn my attention back to the alter. Oh great Ghosts of Boo, I hear you and I do your bidding.
– 05:19am – What I said before about the evil spirits in the vending machine, it’s all true. I’ve talked with the dark goddesses that protect the precious potato chips and candy bars. They speak of nice things, but I know they’re evil and I must not take my eyes off them in fear of having my soul sucked from my very body. Mmm. Snickers bar.
– 05:58am – Hien is no more. The sun is coming once again. The alter is no where near complete. I’ve started to befriend the dark goddesses of the vending machine. The Ghosts of Boo are angry and they will be coming for me soon. I must be prepared.
– 06:16am – In my right hand, I wield my sword (an aluminum pipe). In my left hand is my shield (a cardboard box). A great battle is on the horizon. I can smell it. Let the ghosts come. This is one human they wont take without force.
– 06:32am – Stand off. I on one side of the warehouse. The ghosts on the other. Behind me is Sheela, a dark goddess of the vending machine. Together, we will reclaim this land. All of the company depends on me. This morning, blood will be spilled and I will be victorious.
– 07:09am – We have faught hard. I hold Sheela’s head in my hands, comforting her as she takes her last breath. 7 of the 12 ghosts have fallen and I march back into the field to claim the lives of the remaining 5.
– 07:28am – 3 more ghosts slain but the last 2 have overpowered me. I am hit and am losing blood quickly. Backed into the server room, I bar the doors shut. Their numerous attempts to break it down will soon succeed and I raise my aluminum pipe for one last fight… one last stand.
– 07:46am – There is no way out. My God, there is no way out. They are coming…

– 12:30am – And so it begins. What am I talking about? Refer to this.
– 01:05am – One hour gone and I’m already getting hungry.
– 02:07am – My coworker just left. I’m all alone. I turned off all the lights so no one can see in and I can see out. It’s quiet. Too quiet. Time to break the silence with a little stop to the bathroom.
– 02:34am – Better, but I’m starting to hear things now. I’m sure it’s just stuff settling, but I could have sworn I heard voices. It’s probably my imagination getting to me. There’s a constant low hum from the vending machine. I’m gonna put on a DVD.
– 02:47am – Took a walk around the office. There are some God awful smells coming out of the sales offices.
– 03:02am – 1/4 of the way through the shift already. This is going pretty quick. Not quick enough though. I am hearing some sort of voice. Time to investigate.
– 03:23am – Something is here. I can feel it.
– 04:01am – The ghosts of Boo. The legend is true. They call and I must go.
– 04:29am – They appear in a brilliant flash, completely naked, and larger than life. At least a dozen of them. Their bodies are stiff and smooth. The skin is flat grey, almost painted on. They do no move, as if they’re frozen in time, and there are no recognizable facial features. These are my gods now. The Ghosts of Boo.
– 05:03am – I have stripped myself of all humanly clothes and now wear the minion uniform: Christmas lights and duct tape. My alter is almost complete and ready for worship. I have been instructed by the spirits to build it 10 stories high and 3 city blocks wide. It’s about 4ft tall right now, but I’m working feverishly. What an awesome sight it with be when complete. All hail the Ghosts of Boo! May all who oppose you burn at the touch of your pale grey fingers.
– 06:12am – The sun is coming up. I must hurry. The ghosts can’t survive during the day.
– 08:52am – I guess I must have fallen asleep. Was it all a dream?

test test test test

Last night, we headed off to the theater to see Narc starring Jason Patric and Ray Liotta. The flick was written and directed by Joe Carnahan who also directed what I thought was the best BMW short film from The Hire series of 2002, Ticker (also with Ray Liotta in it). The setup: Detective Tellis (Patric), who had been discharged because of an incident in the past that is questionable in the department’s eyes, is reinstated and partnered with detective Oak (Liotta) in trying to solve the case of Oak’s partner’s death. Tellis soon finds out he is also investigating Oak on this case.

I think they tried to shoot it in a way that would be unique, but I don’t think there wasn’t enough effort put in to make it stand out that much from movies of this type. The plot also plays out in a very predictable fashion, but even though I knew how it was going to end, my jaw still dropped in the final scene. The stand-out point in Narc was by far the acting. Patric couldn’t have played the role any better and Liotta was down right scary at times. The flick came out in time for the Oscar running and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see either one of them in the running. In fact, my vote would completely go to them considering everything else I saw last year.

If you miss out on this film, you’re really missing out on something special. Top notch acting is what made this flick for me and ultimately comes out as one of the most enjoyable films I’ve seen in a while. Make the time and go see this movie. Good luck to us all…

So schedules are finalized. I’ll be working from midnight to noon for 4 straight days starting tomorrow (Friday) night. Why? We’re restoring data back to our SAN. My coworker and myself are playing the role of “dumb tape-loader robot”, rotating every 12 hours. The whole process should take a little more than 100 total hours if run smoothly, so I estimate 120 hours. What does this mean? Well, I’ll be online on AIM all night so please feel free to IM me and make sure I’m not falling asleep. The following is my AIM screen name:

roguexnine

I’ll probably also log a lot of entries here as the night goes on. Wont you please stay up with me?

I don’t do these often, but I had a little bit of time and figured, “What the hell.”

What OS are you?

Strong Bad: “The internet is a place where absolutely nothing happens. You need to take advantage of that.”

And I am.

We’re having major problems with our SAN at work right now. We’re in a situation where we might have to restore from a backup made over a month ago and it got me thinking about my personal backup at home today. Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, but I really thought about it today. It’s time to invest in a DVD-RW system this weekend.

Anyway, I was going through all of my storage and found some things I haven’t seen in years. They were mostly images from the high school days that were either scanned in or taken with my QuickTake 100, but I also found some real early personal website I had totally forgotten about. I’ll probably post everything up here as is in the future, but until then I figure I’d share a little. Try not to laugh too hard. That first one is about 5 years old taken at USC. The second is me much younger. Check out what I’m holding in my hand. Even at that age I knew what computer was best.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on this site lately. From what I gather (and I’m always good at missing the boat completely), the author‘s intent is to present concepts on distributing information/ideas across the internet and how to go about applying those concepts. It just so happens he uses Google for a lot of his examples. Check it out.