Rusty but Trusty

I just got a nifty hawkeye(TM) bar code camera in for a project.

It works pretty well and it works more as a camera that decodes the image, rather than a scanner.

The biggest problem I have, is the software. Their active-x controls won’t let me delete their view-container after i’ve added it to a development form. Now, you’d think that something of this nature would have been debugged before shipping… So what do you do when you add it to a form, and realize you don’t want it on that form? Put in into a frame, and just delete the frame is the easiest work around I’ve found.

But seriously… what weak programming.

Finally installed it on the blog aspect of the site. I’ve had it running on a few other sections, but the blog is seeming to get a few more hits…. so we’ll see where they’re all coming from!

Maybe someday i’ll figure out how to ‘convert hits to cash’… doubt that!  Thanks.

My wife had left this weekend to go up north with her friends that she internshipped with.  I guess they were going to meet up with a few other teachers that have houses in the area, and hang out.   Well one teacher took my wife tubing behind his boat.

About 3 hours later I am in the truck driving about 105 MPH on i-75 going north to the Tawas Hospital.  She was having a problem that her neck was swelling shut, and her jaw was hurting a lot and she couldn’t open it.  She was hard to understand on the phone etc.  It was terrible.  I haven’t been that scared in a while.

So. All said and done, Whip-Lash.  They gave her some darvaset and some other drugs.  This morning she was super nauscius and couldn’t keep any food down. I’m thinking she’s allergic to one of the pain meds she was put on, so she’s been sleeping for most of the afternoon.  Hopefully things get better.

All I know, is that if ever meet this teacher who gave my wife whip-lash, i will punch him.    The other girl that they were with ended up poking herself in the eye, and she too had to make a hospital visit… So of the 3 people who tubed, 2 of them ended up in the E.R.   How’s that for responsible adults taking care of my wife?
Fucking clowns.

So, i finally had six minutes today and here’s what i found out.

They gave us some free product. It was XS Engery Drinks some bullshit…

Thanks to the help of Wikpeida, i found that “Quixtar” is the owner operator of the business. Although it’s bottled by logic nutrition. It is on the other hand the Largest selling engery drink in the united states… still.

So what does this all mean? According to Wiki, Quixtar, is owned by Alticor. Guess who Alticor is?

YOU’RE RIGHT!!! It’s AMWAY!!!

Seriously what a fucking joke.

read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quixtar

I am completely let down today.

Why?  It’s a long story.  so, i will write it for you to pretend you care about it….

My wife and I joined a young-adult bible study.  It focuses on marriage and life with God.  As someone who recently joined the church (8 years ago ish) I didn’t grow up with much faith in religion.  My wife on the other than did, so things like these classes really help shed some light on those questions i’ve always had. Judge me at your will, it’s not really the point of this blog.

But, the point is, we met a few nice people in these classes.  They’re very enjoyable to talk to and we like them.  One of the couples called us up last week, and wanted to if we wanted to go to dinner together. Sure?  I’m down to meet new people and The husband and I share similar trade work… Might be fun.  Why not?
Well Thursday rolls around and we meet for dinner at 7:30.  Dinner was good everyone was laughing and having a good time.  Then, POOF.  It went from a we went to be yourfriends to… “JOIN OUR PIRAMID MARKETING SCHEME THAT’S NOT A PIRAMID!!!!”

HUH?
Yep.  So… I am feeling very, very betraid by this.  Why the FUCK would you join church groups just so you can infect everyone with your worthless business?  This isn’t my intent to go to chruch at all.  This has made me very, very upset with this couple.  Are they fake? Are they only in the chruch groups to help their buiness grow?  I sure hope not.

I left our dinner feeling very let down.  Not only by these people, but for the chruch group itself.  How fake is it?  Are they the ones helping organize these groups in hopes to make more “Potentional Contacts” ?

Our conversation leading up to the “Sales Pitch” was what i thought to be normal banter, about working and life and shit.. but it was all used in the sales pitch later…

to my wife “Oh he works long hours, but with this you both could stay at home…”

Great start playing people against each other. Just what i want.

But, the good news is, my wife and i are both on the same page.   We both said , pretty much the same thing when we got in the truck to leave “FUCK THIS SHIT.”
So, so much for meeting other couples with similar interests… everyone’s just trying to make a buck.

fuckin’ scam.

My wife and I were talking the other day, and it’s one of those conversations that end up taking on a real meaning. Which is good, who wants small talk all the time? The gist of our conversation was about careers. As you may, or may not know, she’s looking to enter into her career path after finish her degree this May. She is going to be a teacher. Now, I am probably bias about the subject, because of all the hard work I watched my wife put into this, but I think teaching is tough. Sure it looked easy when I was a student, but, I also wasn’t a problem kid. My existence in the classroom was ordinary. The main idea here that I realized, as hard as being a teacher is, it’s rewarding.

Having a job that is rewarding is important to continual enjoyment. If you have no type of reward other than monetary value, it will only last a short while. I’ve worked for a few different companies doing similar things, but until recently, I never liked what it was I was doing. Each career move I made for a while was mostly financially related. I left my first job because I was severely underpaid. The next job I got a healthy bonus, but for what? Work I absolutely hated. Was it worth it? Not really. I didn’t get any enjoyment from my work.

So now the important question. What makes work enjoyable? For me this is something I struggled with for a while. It was in the conversation with my wife I finally put everything together for the most part.

To me, enjoyable is work that you can be proud of. The last company I worked for, I was in no way proud of the application. I was in no way proud of my boss or our company. I felt nothing. I was proud that I walked to the gas station a lot to kill time though. I also find enjoyment from complexity. I like PROBLEMS. I don’t like Issues; I don’t like “bugs”. I love problems… Mostly because I like solving problems. Now, this is a little harder because, I don’t like stupid problems. I just like things to solve. As a software engineer it’s my job to solve problems. I also love technology. I like to work where I get to play with cool things, and the company is into buying me cool things that help make my job easier. That makes work enjoyable.

But unarguably the most important thing to me, that makes my job enjoyable, is self feeling like you matter. Not to sound redundant, but at the last company I worked for there were something like 200 of us ‘developers’ (I use it loosely because only 10% of the people could even type, let alone program). So did my actual task matter? Did the little bit of SQL I wrote even matter to anyone? Sure. Could someone else do it? Yep. Almost the entire staff could have probably done what I was doing. It made it feel very trivial to me. Now, with my new job, we have two other engineers who do program some, but I am the main programmer. It’s rewarding, because I know that every machine built from my hire date till who knows when, as a piece of me in it. Being able to do my job, correctly and efficiently affects the product. The final product is, in a sense, a part of me. I love it. It makes me work hard, and makes me proud of the work I did. It brings me lots of enjoyment. And that is really what matters to me.

There are a lot of other little things that can make things more or less enjoyable, other employees compensation, benefits, 401k, the commute, the actual building (I have a huge problem working places with haggard bathrooms… yuck)… all of these things matter yes, but not as much as being proud of what you’re doing, and feeling needed.

So… How does this tie into my wife being a teacher? Her enjoyment will be affecting the children she teaches. Sure some of them won’t mind, and probably will go to a life of crime, that’s going to happen just because it’s a numbers game… but… those other kids, she will help mold them. That’s crazy. But more so, she will have the feeling of affecting someone. She will be needed and what she will be doing is important. This is what makes the career enjoyable for her.

So… go find yourself a job you enjoy. It’s worth more than any paycheck will bring you. Sure money helps, but who likes to be rich and angry all the time? (Besides Mr. Burns?)

My work is suffering.

the company is having a rough go at it, and they laid a few people off today.

Just wanting everyone to say nice things to jesus so that  the company stays afloat.

It’s sucks when you job hop and finally find that job you wanted, things like this have to happen.  Hopefully things will turn up better, and keep not only myself employeed, but all these folks i work with , because for the first time in a while, i actually like almost all my co-workers.  Before i liked 2 people of 100..

Argh.

What a great friday.