I Love customers Downtown
Originally uploaded by Paul Timmins.

I was on my way to a customer site. I got stuck in traffic, and subsequently almost ran out of gas. I arrive 30 minutes late, the customer's pissed, and I get all my gear in to find out?

I left my fucking USB->serial dongle at the office. Who thought it was a good idea to remove serial ports from modern machines again? ASKDJFLKJ@#$LKJ#$KJ#@P($*@#*$"AFSDFasdfasdf0989sa08f

Then I get stuck in further traffic after hearing static from my boss and the customer both.

I'll be lucky if the gas station downtown didn't just sell my credit card number to the highest bidder. Last time I used a card downtown, someone ordered a synthesizer on it a few days later, delivered to an abandoned house downtown. Not my card, not my charge, not my problem, fortunately. But ugh.

Anyway, another randomness:

More crazy stuff happens at work.

I come home, steal candy from the witch haunting my front porch, work on a telcodata interface that uses jabber, and watch my house DVDs with becky.

Life is good. I needed to unwind. I did it.

I should have taken the above picture with a tripod. That would have involved me not being lazy. 5 megapixels doesn't help laziness. I didn't want to use a flash because it undid the effects dark has on cheap haloween makeup (ie making it not look lame, but instead awesome)

Fuck you, Sangoma. You've caused me as much headache as you've saved me. I love you and hate you all at the same time.

But you make us a decent sum of money with your crap.

Please respond to my emails. Don't tell me to upgrade my card's firmware, because I won't. We've been down this road before.

AT&T, give me my access to the ASR interface. Please? I *need* it.

I just found the command "mysqlreport" today and am very pleased by what it outputs. Now I have to keep an eye on that on my servers and adjust it accordingly. One step further away from being a black box on the issue. Excellent!

I wrote a cool T1 pricing calculator and automatic CFA finder to determine the cheapeast way to order the line, and where to pull it from if it's gotta go interoffice. It's quick and dirty at the moment but it shall evolve into something wonderful.

We're carving pumpkins tonight with one of our friends. I had to invade a closed garden center to acquire them. I felt like solid snake, in "Metal Gear Solid 5: Pumpkin Eater".

I am annoyed by 7 digit dialing. People make a big deal about dialing a freakin area code. Telecom is more complex than it needs to be because people are whiny bitches. I'm not referring to customers per-se, but more about things like area code splits, and all sorts of other garbage. Overlays are the way of the future. Learn it, live it, love it. Adapt and overcome. I recommend a phone with speed dial if you are concerned about extra digit dialing. Every phone I've ever bought has the option. (Well, except the ones I've purchased because I collect weird and old phones).

I got a great review at work. Of course the day had to also be full of all sorts of strife unrelated to the review but work related nonetheless, canceling out my ability to be really really happy. Hopefully all the system related problems are done so I can enjoy this day and a half of calm. And a few hundred extra dollars from the bonus, which I needed because I don't have all my bills rearranged to this new wacky "2 week paycheck" stuff (it was previously twice a month, at the last day of the month and the 15th, which I liked better because you knew that certain stuff was due at a certain time, and that a certain paycheck always covered that. But I like this job better so it's a fair trade I suppose.)

I wish I had more time in the day. I really need to go through and organize all my shit in the livingroom. It's out of control and is interfering with day to day life again. I just need to come home at a reasonable hour one night and sit down and do it. Damn my procrastination.

The first rule of the awesome stuff paul's doing at work is to not talk about what paul's doing at work.

The second rule of awesome stuff paul's doing at work is to not talk about what paul's doing at work.

The third rule of awesome stuff paul's doing at work is to not talk about what paul's doing at work.

It's frustrating because it's so goddamned awesome.

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by Paul Timmins.

Has anyone seen my Linksys WIP330? I suspect I may have left it somewhere absentmindedly.

I sure do miss it. It could be in my bedroom for all I know though.

eep?

Thanks to a press leak, it is now public that the US Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) commissioned a report to find out about voter fraud. According to USA Today, the EAC’s report shows that there is no evidence that significant numbers of voters are lying about their identity at the polls, voting twice, or voting in the name of dead people. Let me repeat that: NO EVIDENCE.

While this has long been suspected by those of us who have fought discriminatory attempts to address “voter fraud” (e.g. voter ID bills that would, in effect, create a poll tax for poor, elderly and minority citizens who don’t have or need government issued ID in their regular lives), the EAC report makes it official: voter fraud does not present a health risk to our democracy. That is, it would be official if the EAC had released it. … But it won’t release it.

Please petition the EAC to release the report at http://www.ReleaseTheReport.com

From an email I just got.

Tires Bigger Than My Van
Originally uploaded by Paul Timmins.