You might remember that I tried this once before with a picture of Morgan Webb, I think, so I'm going to try it again.

Please be advised that the contents of the box below are all false, and none of it is true. It's simply a ploy to (possibly) generate more traffic:

NONE OF THE CONTENTS IN THE ABOVE BOX ARE TRUE! Do NOT contact me about it. It's an intentional and blatent hoax. There is absolutely no integrity in the offer.

I know, it's lame. I'm just curious what happens with it. :)

I am in the process of uploading pictures from the wedding last night. They will be available at the gallery. There's a couple in there of me in a suit and tie.

I just got home from my best friend's wedding. I'm pretty stoked that they finally got married, and I have a feeling they'll be really happy.

It's kinda a wake-up call for me, though. I mean, I'm 24 (I actually had to use some math to figure that out!) years old, working for less than $10 an hour, still living with my parents, and single.

Before I go any further, let me say that I love my parents to death, and I am very grateful that they are providing housing for me. However, I am old enough and educated enough that I should be earning enough to pay for my own place. Plus, there are things about living on your own that I need to take part in, such as privacy.

But the being single part has been weighing on me a lot in the last couple months. I've seen several people that I grew up with get married, and even their younger siblings, yet I am beginning to wonder if I'm even going to get near being married.

First off, I am seriously overworked. I love my job, yes, but I have no "me time". Even on a holiday weekend, 3 hours from home, my cell phone would ring (at minimum) once an hour, and it would be someone from work. I come home and spend my evening hours working on stuff for work, rather than relaxing. I understand that I'm the manager and that I play a pretty important role in the business, but when I clock out and go home, and the shop doors are closed and locked, I need to be able to forget about work.

Second, because of the first point, I lack social skills. No, I don't have a problem talking to people. I don't quiver in fear when a girl says "Hi" to me. What I do dread, though, is the "small talk" crap. At the wedding reception this evening, I sat at a table with 2 other socially inept individuals, and it was very quiet and uncomfortable. I don't want to be that way anymore.

And third, this geographical area sucks balls. I know of very few girls around here who are non-alcoholic, non-smoker, non-whores. Blunt statement, but very true. Being that there's only 5,000 people in this town, my "pickin's" are slim.

Last month, I did some computer work and earned about $60 cash. I decided to go ahead and pay for a month of eHarmony with the money I earned, even though I said here that I probably wouldn't. I did get a few matches, yes, but only 1 out of about 30 has been positive. Because of that, I'm not so keen on spending the money for additional months of "service".

I'm looking at possibly changing jobs in the next couple months, which would require me to move north of here, near more people. If such a thing happens, I'll have a much better chance of meeting new people. Until then, I'm stuck.

I need to do something about it though. I'm starting to get really depressed.

Similar post, different angle.

I got up there today, spent about an hour on the phone with the software vendor, then spent another hour trying to figure out WTF to do about the situation. By then, the bosses had made the decision to go with a printer that I selected for them, but it was about 15 miles east of there.

I hopped in the car, company debit card in hand, and went to get the printer. I found out that the staff at Staples is very rude, got the printer purchased and loaded up, then got back to the shop. One of the new guys there helped me carry the printer to the front counter at the shop, I got it set up and got the other computers all working with it.

From there, I loaded up oil for the other two shops, delivered it, and started to get settled in at the Rensselaer shop, when Boss Dude called and said the printer stopped working. After about 20 minutes on the phone, trying to talk him through troubleshooting it with no success, I told him that I could be there in an hour. His response: "Seeya then."

Back up to the shop, 20 minutes spent diagnosing and fixing the problem. Probably another hour spent in discussion with the bosses and the lube techs there, then back home by way of Quizznos (with one of the guys that works down here).

Now, I'm home, I plan to stay here until at least Monday, and I'm really effing tired.

By the way, it's an hour drive one-way to the new shop.

My cell phone was my alarm clock this morning. I think that was the first time I've ever really carried on a conversation in that state of mind and actually retained what was said.

Anyhow, I'm working at the far north shop again today, an hour away. Some aliens or something attacked the main laser printer, and the shop is pretty much at a stand-still until I get there.

I typically trim my beard and such after I get out of the shower. Tonight, when I got out of the shower, I decided it was time to trim up the goatee.

I started with the mini-clippers, as I always do, and got the outline trimmed out. Then I got the actual beard clippers out and started cutting away. By the time I got the lower half trimmed up, I noticed that something was a bit out of the ordinary: Someone had set the beard clippers to the shortest possible setting (approximately 1/8").

First off, the fact that my bear clippers were used by another person is slightly disturbing. Second, the fact that they hadn't been cleaned is even more disturbing. And finally, the fact that someone set them that low without puting them back to a setting even remotely close to what they originally were at is very effin' annoying!

Now, I still have the goatee, but it looks really dumb now. In a week it'll be back to normal, yes, but until then I'm going to look like a friggin' dork.

There's this thing I can't stand about modern music. Anyone who has listened to any sort of "modern rock" station, expecting upbeat, metal, with a bit of screaming involved, knows exactly what I'm talking about.

See, the music that's being played on those stations is borderline "emo" music. You know, that stuff that the "gothic" kids listen to, while sobbing about their boyfriend or girlfriend looking at another guy... The "modern rock" bands that I've heard consist of Evanesence (even though I like Amy Lee's voice), Staind (learn to spell!), and Sum41 (that's not rock; it's just plain annoying).

When I think of "rock", bands like Soundgarden, Metallica, Mudvayne, STP, and Alice in Chains come to mind. It's rather disheartening to hear a song like that Coldplay song that everyone was so hyped up about, when you're expecting to hear something along the lines of STP's "Dead and Bloated".

What caused me to start this entry? Seeing "Theory of a Deadman", a band that I kinda enjoy, being labeled as "Heavy Metal". I guess it just goes to prove that a genere means nothing anymore.

This afternoon I got a phone call from the shop. It was the guy who is in charge when I'm not there (Charles), and he wanted to know if I could come help with a stubborn drain plug on a car.

When I got there, I saw how bad this drain plug was. The head had been completely rounded off, and the guys had already attempted extraction by means of vise grips. I noticed that they had also already attempted what I was going to: Smacking the outer edge of the drain plug with a hammer and punch to force it to spin.

Well, I tried what they tried and got nowhere, so I reached for the square punch that we have for these such occasions. After about 5 minutes of smacking it a little hard, the drain plug spun itself right out.

While I was finishing up with the drain plug, another car pulled in. The car was a Mitsubishi of some sort, but it didn't have the original engine in it. The customer said that the power steering belt had snapped and came off, and she handed it to one of the guys there. Charles ended up coming down in the pit where I was with the other car and asked me what to do about it, since we most likely didn't have the right belt in stock. I instructed him to call the parts store to see if they could run one over. Well, that was fine, but they didn't have anyone around to deliver it. So I hopped in my car and went to get the new belt.

Upon arriving at the parts store, nobody knew what I was there for. I told them that someone from the shop had just called about a belt and that I was there to pick it up. The facial expressions they directed my way were that of a deer standing in the middle of the road, illuminated by the headlights of a car speeding towards it at 70 miles per hour.

I finally got the new belt and got back to the shop. When one of the guys helped me start puting it on, he said, "Tim, we've got a problem here... There's a bolt missing from the alternator, which is why the belt came off." So from there, I had to figure out what I needed to secure the alternator, make a trip to the hardware store, then back to the shop. We got the thing anchored back down, got the belt put back on, and the customer was ready to roll.

When Charles told the customer how much the service was, she said, "You've got to be kidding me..." I thought she was going to complain about the price being too much, but she then said, "That's dirt cheap!" She ended up leaving a $5 tip, which everyone forced me to take since I was working on my day off, and I left.

So there. That's my day off. Seems nice, eh?

My Personality

I don't use MySpace, nor do I condone the use of tables.

Compared to Luey FuFu Compared to MysticStarLite

You're hired to work a job. The responsibilites for this job are basically endless, but they are outlined for you on a daily basis. Seeing that certain tasks don't really need attention since they were recently handled already, you just mark that you have completed the tasks and walk away.

A couple weeks later, you're busted.

Knowing full and well what was and wasn't done, you have 2 choices:

1. Admit your mistake and take the confrontation in stride. Learn from it and move on.
2. Protest the confrontation and threaten to quit if the supposed internal abuse (of you) continues.

I know what my choice would be, but I want to make sure I'm not off base here.

See, this problem has arised at the shop, and the individual in question has picked option #2. This isn't the first time it has happened, and this individual was around to experience the last occurance. It's going to be a very interesting rest of the week, though.

I finally got the photo gallery online from that last storm... I'll be populating it with pictures as I can, and the gallery will actually include more than just meteorology pictures.

Anyhow, check it out here: LINK!

When I set up the DSL account with Earthlink, I used my dad's name for it. The e-mail address I requested was his first and middle initials, plus the last name. Apparently, there was someone else, prior, who had the same name and same e-mail address, but had the service terminated for one reason or another.

Within a day of getting the e-mail set up, I started getting messages for this other gentleman. Now, nearly a year later, I have approximately a year's worth of monthly "Continental Airlines One-Pass" statements in my inbox.

I noticed that in these messages there was a link to their website. For the heck of it, I clicked the link. The link took me to a login screen, which funny enough, had a "forgotten password" recovery link.

When I clicked the password recovery link, I was surprised at what little information they required to reset the password: just the e-mail address. They would reset the password and e-mail the new one to the account specified.

I didn't follow through, but think about the privacy concerns for the other gentleman. It would have been so easy for me to get all kinds of information about him through just that one account reset!

So what else was I to do but be the nice "white-hat" and e-mail Continental Airlines' abuse department about it.

I am currently receiving monthly OnePass statements in my inbox, but I have never had an account of any sort with your company. I do know that the previous holder of my email account had the same last name as me, and that I have received some of his messages. I feel that it is a great violation of his privacy for his statements to be sent to me on a monthly basis. I do know that I could easily use the links in the messages you send to access his account and personal information, which I view as a very big security flaw as well. Rather than using the "unsubscribe" options in the messages you send, I feel that it would be much safer for one of your representatives to MANUALLY disable the monthly statements from being sent to my email address. I sincerely hope this message finds its way to an individual who will take it seriously and rectify the situation.

Their reply shocked me:

Thank you for contacting the OnePass Service Center. The name on the account we have on record with this email address is EDITED OUT. We can't alter the information. If Earthlink has given this email address to two different people with the same last name, you will need to go online and request that you want to discontinue email subscription. Lola Lathon-Graham OnePass Service Center

Unfortunately, to unsubscribe you must also login to the account, which again opens up this individual's personal information to a complete stranger.

Personally, seeing how their technical department handled it, I'd not feel safe flying on their airlines, for fear of what other security flaws they have in their procedures.

Even though today was a holiday (here in the U.S., anyhow), I am totally exhausted. I think I'm going to head to bed around 10:00, but I'm in need of getting a shower first.

There's some issues at work that I have to take care of, so I'll be working on my day off tomorrow. They're not major issues by any means, but any quantity of minor issues is equal to or greater than a single major issue, so it needs to be dealt with right away. As such, I'm going to pay a visit to the shop tomorrow morning and let the guys all know what's going on and what needs to be changed.

If the boss isn't happy, nobody is happy, and right now the boss isn't exactly happy.

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to another day not requiring me to work (much). I'm looking forward even more to the end of the month. I've got a lot to (not) catch up on, and that will be a great week to (not) do so. :)

This entry is just for you. Now bugger off and get to work!

9:33PM and I got home from work about 10 minutes ago. Another day with lots of time on the road.

I'm tired.