Tralfaz

Author: geoffand

  • Apartment Living – Deliveries

    Apartment Living – Deliveries

    Ah, the holiday season, where UPS and FedEx work overtime to deliver packages to people filled with joy and gifts. Alas, it is too tempting of a target for many people.

    I speak of the theft of parcels from front doors. I appreciate Amazon in their interest to not inconvenience people by demanding a signature, and to just deposit parcels on the stoop. I am sure this reduces the cost of their shipping (as often a delivery service will need to return to an address more than once to catch the resident for a signature.)

    But the allure of an Amazon box, perched on the door stoop in plain sight is too tempting for otherwise honest people. What delight may be in the box? A computer? An iPad? or some DVD/BluRay movies? It is like easter and christmas all over.

    So, the box gets stolen.

    Last Friday, the delivery service for Amazon dropped a medium sized box on the stoop at 11:30. I had a half day at work, so I got home about 12:30. In that hour, someone decided they needed our parcel more than us.

    What bountiful booty did the perpetrators get?

    • Cosequin glucosamine supplement for our greyhounds. Tablets to help their arthritis.
    • Wellactin – a fish oil (omega-3 fish oil) supplement for our greyhounds’ coat and skin.
    • An inexpensive metronome. My wife bought it to help her and her mother play violin/viola duets.

    I hope the thieves are satisfied with their ill gotten gains.

    Amazon will replace the goods (they are good about that), and the shipping company will no longer leave things at our stoop.

    Thanks assholes.

  • Apartment Living: TMI edition

    In the continuing saga that is apartment life in South San Jose, we are surrounded by neighbors who all have interesting stories, sometimes too interesting.

    We have always tried to be friendly with our neighbors, in the spirit of you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But this can go too far.

    Our neighborhood is predominantly hispanic. Households of hard workers, lots of kids, and relatively constant turnover (parts of families leave, to be replaced with other relatives). This leads to the appearance of new kids and adults pretty frequently. I say hello (or hola as the case may warrant).

    The other day, a new kid was out in the courtyard, so Barbara asked this cute kid if she was new. The answer…

    We just moved here. My daddy pushed my mommy into some clothes hangars, and hurt her, so we can't live with him anymore.

    Not to make light of domestic violence, and the wide web of chaos it invokes, but it is sad that to hear it come from a child of no more than 6 years old.

    Sometimes, the less you know, the better off you are.

  • Quick test post

    New verision of WordPress, and the ability to create posts from the WP.com site. Need to test this out.

    Nothing exciting here, so just move along.

  • Apartment Living: The Rainy Season

    People tell me that California has been in a drought. Bullpuckey. It has rained constantly for almost three weeks. The ground is saturated, my car is waterlogged, and I am tired of getting soaked walking our dogs.

    At the risk of being heretical, I would like the rain to stop. Living in an apartment is not easy (I am unsure how people do it long term, I am hoping that we won't be here any longer than we must), add in 2 80 – 90# dogs, and heavy rain, and it is a chore.

    Have a house, with a back yard, and the regular potty walks are just tossing them out of the house, and you are done. Now we have to suit up in rain gear, put the dogs in rain gear, and practically drag them out. So painful.

    Here's to hoping to be able to buy even a tiny house next year.

  • Wicked Tired this Weekend

    The last two weeks have been wild at work.  Starting with a quick trip to Boston, then the WW Sales meeting this week, I have been on the ragged edge.

    Monday December 1 I had to wake up at an ungodly hour to catch a 7:00AM flight to Boston. Long crappy day of travel on an airline I have no status on, to arrive in the evening.

    Tuesday the 2nd, I spent the day on the floor of the conference, meeting with peers, and vendors. A good day for me (but the exhibit hall was empty).

    Fly back on the 3rd. Again, woke up at 4:00AM to catch a flight back to San Jose on an airline without status. It was an excruciatingly shitty flight for a variety of reasons.

    Back in the office for 2 days, I begin to get that back of the throat tickle. Fook, I picked up some bug somewhere that was going to hammer me. By Saturday, I was descending into yearly cold hell. Sore throat, moving to nasal congestion, then finally on Sunday, it dropped into my chest. Yep, a full on chest cold has settled in. Just in time for the WW Sales meeting that kicked off on Monday.

    (more…)

  • Powerpoint HELL

    Powerpoint HELL

    Powerpoint HellNext week we have a sales meeting, and I have three hours of presentations scheduled (since I had control of the schedule, I was able to not do 15 hours of presentations in 3 days like the last meeting). Naturally, I am way behind on preparations. This is no surprise. So I am working the weekend.

    But why is it that it takes at least 15 – 20 hours to prepare the slides for 3 hours? I swear it isn’t so much that I have to create from whole cloth, but most is repurposed, and reused. But it still takes five to seven times the time it takes to present to prepare.

    Sigh, the life of a mid level product marketing person.

  • Deja Vu – almost double posted – Airplane Carry On

    My recent trip to Boston reminded me of the cattle car experience that is domestic travel (the last bastion, international travel is quickly degrading into this experience as well).

    I already posted on the delight of an asshat trying to take my under seat space with his friction’ laptop jammed in there, and my followup was going to be the amazement of abuse the overhead bins that is the Carry On baggage game. But I see that I already posted this.

    Sigh.

    But I do have something to add.  Something that really gets me riled up is the people who fill the overheads with their carry on baggage close to the front, then head back to their seats in the rear of the airplane. Not that I usually carry on, but since I don’t carry a roller onboard, I do like to put my briefcase up, and keep the under-seat space in front of me, so my legs don’t get cramped.

     

  • To the Jackass in front of me

    To the Jackass in front of me

    Yesterday, I had the pleasure of flying back from Boston at an ungodly hour. Worse yet, it was on an airline that I have zilch status on. So, I was stuck in a middle seat in Steerage class.

    Just looking to stretch my legs as much as possible and catch a few winks on the 6+ hour flight, I was appalled to find that the inconsiderate asshole in the seat in front of me, felt compelled to cram his laptop under the seat (and hence, into MY legroom.

    At first I gently pushed it back into his space. And then he slammed it back.

    So, I made sure to get my feet all over it. Next time, I think I will take the gift in my space. I would have this time, except it was a POS HP Craptop. Who the hell wants one of those…

  • Suck: Camera edition

    Suck: Camera edition

    We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting my sister and her wife in the mountains. Great food, great company, even our menagerie of hounds behaved well (except for the torn off nail from “zoomies”) I even brought my “big” camera to take “good” pictures. Sigh.

    My main digital SLR is a second hand Canon 5D. Bought from a good friend, who lovingly maintained it, it was in great shape in 2010 when I bought it. I also have a couple of the fabulous Canon L series lenses, so the combination takes great pictures.

    However, since I bought a Canon G12, I haven’t used the 5D as much. This weekend was to be different.

    eos_5dI pulled the 5D out of the bag, put the 24-70 F2.8 zoom on (a MONSTER chunk of glass) and the troubles started instantly. After a couple of frames, the reflex mirror “fell off” the frame. Fuck. Not broken, just flopping around loose.

    Sigh, my father was there, with his canon Rebel Digital SLR, so I figured he could borrow the lens. Quickly he realized that it wasn’t autofocusing. Fuck.

    So, now my best DSLR body, and the best glass I own are both knackered.

    (I still have my older 20D body, so I tested the lens on that, yep, no autofocus).

    Time for the shop. Hope it isn’t too expensive. At least I will get the sensor cleaned really good too.

  • Bad Bicycling Luck

    Bad Bicycling Luck

    Last weekend, my feet hurt (long story, but running down the stairs at 1:00AM because your dog is having a seizure can cause your plantar fasciitis to flare up. Who knew) so instead of a grueling mountain bike ride, I took a nice easy loop around Marshall-Cottle park.

    Bad idea.

    My tires were like pin-cushins. So many goat-head thorns were picked up that I was stuck with two flat tires. Poopies.

    I counted at least 8 in my front tire, and 3 in my rear (I guess the front tire cleared the path so my rear didn’t get hammered.

    Today I replaced both tubes, and put in Mr. Tuffy strips (something I should have done before the first ride), and I expect to not be bothered by this again.

    I should be thankful that 6 weekends of riding without any protection were blissfully trouble free. But I was cursing the shrubs that drop those bastards the entire walk home…