LOL

I was going to add beef jerky and vanilla sous, but I had to restrain myself. Going back now, I realize that it sounded better in my mind. :D

I'm being serial derepped again. OY. :P

Just a piss-poor timing thing... Got the wife a new Kawasaki Ninja 300 about 6 weeks back, to replace the cycle that was too big for her. Had it in the shop early on for a couple upgrades to lower it a little bit, down for a week or so. Then she sprained her ankle badly four weekends ago and is just getting over it now. At the point when she can finally ride again, we get a recall notice in the mail: "Don't ride it until it's fixed." Ah, crap. The dealer won't have the parts for at least two weeks. Two months old and it barely has 200 miles on it.

Hopefully the parts will come in on time, and that the weather and my iffy back continue to cooperate.

Finland has a system that allows citizens to vote for kind of prototype law proposal things. Basically, this is a way for regular people to attempt to create a law that they perceive as necessary (can't think of one, sorry), change a law that they think no longer works as it is (for instance, make homosexual marriage equal to heterosexual marriage), or get rid of an unpopular or unnecessary law altogether (legalizing marijuana). Unfortunately, such proposals must still be sent to the parliament to discuss and agree upon. The system reminds me of Yes, Minister, where nothing, anything and everything gets done however the civil service damn well pleases, and sod everyone else. So naturally the proposal to get rid of mandatory Swedish (among many others) is bound to be blocked by the apes sitting in parliament, because fuck the people that's why. Things aren't made any better by the fact that just about every single party in the system is in government, a union so delicate that everyone is falling over themselves to support everyone else out of fear of losing what little power they have, so not a whole lot of decision-making seems to be going on.

The thing is, as far as I can tell, most Finns seem to be in favour of getting rid of our bilingual system, whereas most MPs are not (or cannot admit it because growing a backbone might lose the support of their party). Ironically, the Finnish word for MP (kansanedustaja) literally translates to "representative of the people", which they clearly are not.

I'm so stressed out, I feel like I'm about to get a stroke. I'm freelancing for too many projects at once, deadlines overlap and additionally some of the people I work with just are unreasonable. If people just were willing to fucking wait, stay in line and trust me when I say that I'm gonna manage to deliver the stuff they need after a break there would be no problem, but no, instead I have to work on several projects every day and prepare content for all of them which just makes it impossible for me to focus and hurts all of them.

Some people expect way too much for their money... They don't understand that a human being is not a machine.

Now, don't be too harsh, it's him who's working on too many projects. It's just bad luck that his employers all want to be updated so often :D

Pulled up to my customer Monday around 10am. Popped open the hatch of the car to get my tools and discovered a tool-box-shaped hole back there. I loaded up Sunday afternoon all of the parts that I normally tote and forgot to put the toolbox in there. Crap. Wouldn't be a big deal except that my customer is just shy of 250 miles from home, and I couldn't go get them real quick. "Good to see you and all that. I, uh, forgot my tools. Mind if I borrow some?" Soooo embarrassing. I'd have been boned if they had needed some serious work done, or if it was a longer job that day. Still, I was mentally kicking myself in the ass for the 250 mile drive home.

Fortunately this is a long-time customer and he just laughed it off, but they also don't have on-hand anywhere near the amount of stuff I normally carry. Makes some of the work tricky without the proper equipment available. That was money (and time) down the drain since I was planning to stay overnight in the Twin Cities to see another customer the next day. Instead, had to drive home Monday night to get my stuff and swing back north Tuesday to get to the next factory. I'll be eating that expense since I can't fairly charge my customers for my mistake. Stupid stupid stupid.

On the plus side, the weather was awesome and the scenery was positively gorgeous. Came home yesterday down a back route I hadn't driven in several years, along the Mississippi, and it was simply beautiful. When we get her bike back from the shop, we're going to have to take that road trip.

That's not even the problem, really, two of the contacts were even surprisingly supportive when I explained to them that I need a little break when one of my family members died recently. One of them even offered a friendly talk (which was quite shocking since it's a purely professional relationship, he's not a friend of friends or something like the other people I currently work for). However, it doesn't change the fact that people get lost in their project plans and have little understanding for the fact that I, being a freelancer, need to distribute my time and prioritize projects on the run and a lack of updates for a few days or a week doesn't mean that that's just how slow I work in general or that I'm lazy. They HAVE to be aware that I must be working on multiple projects to make a living. I shouldn't talk to one client about the work I do for others (even if I don't have to sign an NDA in most cases) but if they knew how fast I do the stuff for the other teams they wouldn't get so nervous and put so much pressure on me. I guess I'm making mistakes on my own by providing too little information on the progress and reasons why it sometimes slows down so much but seriously, gimme a break. It's not like that's the first time I'm working for someone and I haven't ever let a team down, I'd rather die of exhaustion by crunching for weeks than let a project fail.
True. True.

This is true for any type of client-based business. The client does not care how many projects you are working on. They want to be treated like they are the only one and 100% of your time is devoted to them.

UGH, sick of all the douchebags I have to deal from craigslist(I'm trying to sell some stuff). What is it about craigslist that attracts the scum of the Earth?

I have 2 tool boxes now, because of issues like that. One stays packed in my suitcase and the other one is for when I am at home. I was constantly using tools out of my work toolbag and when I got to the site I was always missing something I needed. I also have a travel equipment backpack, which has an additional trackball, and extra microUSB cables for all my devices. It cost a little extra, but is well worth the pressure off of my feeble brain.

The problem came when I needed to empty the ass-end of the car last week to use it for other stuff (it's an Outback, handy for station wagon-ish duties). I got most of the parts in there and remembered that I needed to work on a specific part (I have them made locally and do the finish work myself) so I interrupted the loading process to get that bit done. I put the box in the car and my mind went on to the next thing on the giant list of crap to do that day. How in the world I missed that gaping emptiness is beyond me. I mean, it's 75 pounds worth of tools in one of those military-style cases, so it's not like its missing presence wasn't super-obvious...



I did end up getting a second set of tools last year because I decided that toting that box from the garage downstairs to the basement probably wasn't the best thing for my back, nor the safest way to handle the need to have tools in the shop area. I imagined losing balance at the top of the stairs with that heavy beast in-hand, and then went to Sears.

I hate all the rental car companies at the Oakland Airport, Oakland Airport, and Oakland.
First off my main bitch comes to the Oakland Airport rental car companies who couldn't be open when the Airport is open so I can get my receipt. Now a day and a half later and still no receipt in my inbox. Thanks, for nothing some of us have to fill out expense reports assholes. If you are an airport rental car company you should be available during the airports business hours, end of story.
As far as Oakland Airport, the baggage claim folks there take for ever to get your bags back to you. I guess it must take a long time to root around peoples luggage for their new prized possessions. It would be different if this was a big airport, like LAX, but 30 minutes of waiting for my bag at baggage claim is a bit much.
As far as Oakland itself, if you haven't been there, count yourself lucky. One of the worst cities I have the pleasure of visiting every year.

My next door neighbor just got busted for running a pot farm. For seven years I've been living up here mere yards from a reliable source and when I finally find out about him it's because he's gotten busted!

FUCK!

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!