Category: Rant

I suppose it was too much to hope for.

The other day they “upgraded” our Lotus Notes to a “6.0 style”. Evidently I had been using a “4.x style” without upgrading it. Ok the new view looks more modern, but it’s slow. Even by Bloated Stoats standards it’s slow. About the only thing I like about it is that when you delete something, it actually goes away off the list instead of still being there but with an “X” beside it until you hit F9. The user interface still sucks like a really sucky thing.

One of the things I really hate about Lotus Notes is that it doesn’t just encourage “TOFU” (Top post Over, Full text Under), it makes it hard to NOT do it that way. I noticed an option on the “reply” button that says “Reply with Internet-Style History”. Dare I hope? Would this be a way to do trimmed quoted text with the reply text interspersed? Breathless with anticipation, I clicked it. And disappointedly, I exhaled. I ended up with the cursor at the top, followed by the reply to the reply to the reply, then the reply to the reply, then the reply, then the original text. And it was quoted with a single line of “>” quote marks, not multiple quote marks for the multiply replied to text.

Oh well. I still continue to expect miracles, I guess.

You know what sucks?

– Dental surgery sucks. I got a temporary crown this morning. Between the numb mouth, the screeching of the drill and the feel of things being ground away inside you, or the two people with their hands in your mouth, one of whom is constantly telling you to open wider as your fight with all your mental might to not bite them and tell them to get the hell away from your mouth, there isn’t much to like. It’s four hours now, and I’m getting the feeling back in my mouth, but this temporary crown feels like a foriegn object in my mouth. At least it’s not cutting into my tongue the way the fragments of tooth were doing all weekend, but I probably bit my tongue a few times while it was numb.

– Canadian voters suck. It’s almost as if they’re afraid of insulting politicians they used to like, so they keep voting for the PM who gets more and more unpopular, but wait for him to retire and then vote his replacement out of office out of anger at the one who just retired. They did it to Trudeau/Turner, Mulrooney/Campbell, and now it looks like they’re going to vent their anger at Chretien’s arrogance and corruption on Paul Martin, who seemed like a pretty decent PM for a change. I’m just hoping and praying that Harper doesn’t get a majority, because he would be a giant step backwards for social liberalism in Canada. Plus, Canada is the only member of the G7 with a balanced budget, so why vote in a guy whose going to fuck with that to give giant tax breaks to the rich?

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck

I applied for long term disability insurance. Not because I anticipate problems, but because I don’t want Vicki and I to end up broke and homeless if I can’t work.

After review of your application, we regret to inform you that we are unable to issue a policy to you because of your longstanding history of multiple joint problems.

Because if there is one thing that would prevent me from typing all day, it’s chronic knee pain.

Stupid tooth

One of my teeth exploded this morning.  I went to the dentist and they poked around, took a ton of x-rays, and scheduled me for about a bazillion appointments.  They haven’t put anything on the hole, but it isn’t hurting much.

In other news, somebody from my pimp agency came by to see me, because the INS was asking for proof that I have a legal right to work in the US, so I had to show him my green card.  Not sure why it didn’t take the last time I showed it to them.  I was asking him about the current job market.  Not that I expect anything – my contract has been extended to the end of the year, but it never hurts to keep your eyes and ears open.  He said that right now, the hot technology is J2EE.  I’m not entirely sure how J2EE differs from all the Java Swing and RDBMS stuff I’ve been doing is, but I suppose I should do some research and become buzzword compliant.

Which is too bad, because in aid of my desire to get some more experience with AJAX I was planning to teach myself more Javascript and maybe Ruby on Rails.  There just isn’t enough time, nor enough room in my head.

How dare life get in the way of flying!

I’ve been waiting for months for good weather so I can go out and get re-acquainted with the sky.  It had gotten to the point where I was resolved to blow off work on the first sunny day.  But wouldn’t you know, today was a sunny day, but I had an important meeting at 10:00am, another one at 1:00pm, and a doctor’s appointment at 3:30pm.  Didn’t leave much of a gap for getting out to fly, especially considering the time it takes to get a plane ready before and put it away afterwards.  Even after the doctor’s appointment, there isn’t much time before the sun goes down, so I went to Best Buy to get my XM radio and iPod adaptor installed.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny as well, but there is supposed to be a strong windshear at 2,000 feet.  (I think that’s what Canadian weather briefers refer to that as a low level jet.)  That can mean difficult landings and lots of turbulence.  Not ideal conditions for a fun flight.  But we’ll see.