Looking Forward

I am looking forward to several things in the near future. I look forward to getting into a new routine. When I go home, I'll again be at my mother's house, but I will take a more active role there. Money has been tight there for the last little while, and without getting into many details, I'll be helping out with that in a couple of ways. Also, I look forward to going back to school. I have taken so much time off and it hasn't gotten me much closer to financing my own education, until recently. However, the school I want to go to is a lot more expensive personally than BYU was. That is a bit intimidating but I am committing myself right now to do what it takes. I've been saying that I would go back to school now for a couple of years, and then I push my timetable back for one reason or another, but the buck is stopping here. I feel like I have held myself back long enough, and I hope that you, my friends, will hold me accountable.

I look forward to being home for the holidays, to seeing old friends and making new ones. I look forward to having a life outside of my job. I look forward to supporting my teams from the sidelines rather than from my computer. I look forward to being more involved and not falling back on old tired habits that keep me in place. I look forward to getting active and trimming down.

I look forward to getting back into a stable church setting. I have taken a step back the last six months or so from regular church activity, and I am feeling the toll of this. I have no excuse that can hold any water, all the reasons I have given myself over this span are empty. I feel myself to be at a spiritual low, and I want that to change. I have been somewhat reluctant to be open about this with anyone, for fear that those of you whose friendship I value would think less of me. But I realize that I am only doing myself a disservice trying to act like nothing is wrong. I worried that you may see that as some sort of betrayal of trust, and perhaps it is, but it only grows worse the longer the pretense continues. I have convictions and faith, I have just neglected them far too long.

Anyways, I have set down much more than I had planned when I started, and it is almost time for work. I guess these are my New Year's resolutions, but why wait till New Year's to get the ball rolling?

The Return, Part II

I just booked my return flight to Utah. I fly from Newark to Phoenix, have an hour layover, then fly to Las Vegas. Once in Las Vegas I have a weird eight hour layover before flying to Salt Lake. So, I figure since I'm in Las Vegas anyways, maybe I can slip over and catch the bowl game against UCLA. Who knew the bowl game would just happen to be at the same time as my layover. Hopefully, this will assuage some of my guilt for not being "fully invested". I'll be back in Utah on the 23rd. Go Cougars!

Living With Cliques

There seems to be a feud going on among the people I work with out here in NJ/NY. There is my friend Rob*, his wife Julie, his sister Heather, her boyfriend Tyler, Julie's friend Nikki, and me. Julie doesn't care for Tyler, so he and Heather do stuff on their own most of the time. Last week Nikki and I ended up going into the city with Heather and Tyler. We told Julie we were going, and that she could come. But I guess she didn't want to because of Tyler, and resented us going. Or rather she resented Nikki. Now she is ignoring Nikki for no real reason. I think I have mitigated any wrath Julie may have had toward me. I have tried not to go with one group more than the other. But I am having trouble keeping it up.

You see, I think Nikki has a thing for me, and I don't have it back. I would choose Rob and Julie, just to avoid her, but I share a room with Tyler, so that group is always over. I think that Nikki is starting to pick up that I am being a bit distant, I just hope she doesn't take it the wrong way. I have no problem being a friend, but that's all I care to be.

I thought I left this all behind a long time ago in public school. I am not yet counting down the days until I can go home like I did this summer, but it is getting close to that. At least the money is a lot better here than it was in Denver.

* - names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Return

Houston, the Eagle has landed!

Made it back without too much trouble. Now the trouble is figuring out what to do until January. Hmmm....

Signing Off

Just for the night, though. I need to pack the computer up for the trip to Utah, which I am starting before dawn tomorrow. I'll post again when I am safe and sound in Utah.

Done... Well Not Just Yet

I have completed my final installation! It is great. But I can't leave just yet. I felt I needed to get my car checked out before taking off. It's a good thing I did, because I might have gotten majorly stuck in the mountains if I hadn't. The passenger front tire was just about to burst when I took it in. They showed me where this nasty bulge was on the inside wall of the tire. It wouldn't have just gone flat, it would have blown out. Part of my axle needs to be replaced as well. If I had taken it in earlier, I might have been able to get it taken care of, but they couldn't get the part until tomorrow morning. I should also get the seals replaced on the transmission and have my suspension looked at, but that is not as dire a need as the other repairs. But it leaves a empty feeling in my gut knowing that so much money is being spent on my car, something I have already paid for. Oh well, better safe than sorry, and better here than out in the boondocks where I would be at the mercy of some remote mechanic.

Rise a Little Higher, Shout a Little Louder

I am majorly ticked off right now! I just checked the company site and found out that there have been 8 installs this week and that I am responsible for only one of them! I have sat here all week thinking that things were just being slow. But apparently the powers that be seemed to have forgotten that I was around, desperately waiting for a couple more jobs, and gave the work to others that are here for the rest of the month! I told people that I was going to stay until I hit my level. I told the office manager here in Denver, I told the Vice President of the company, I talked to a person in scheduling, I had a job yesterday that cancelled, it's not like it wasn't known that I was here. And yet, somebody got two installs yesterday and one today! If I don't get paid for this week I will be outraged! And if I hadn't checked the company site, how long would it have gone on for? Argh! The company is so disorganized, it's right hand doesn't know what its left hand is doing! And it has been this way the whole time! I tried to calm the other techs down when they started complaining, but its finally getting to me. I could have been long gone by now! But I should not have been naieve enough to think that the company would try to help me out here, even though that is one of it's stated missions. I should have been pestering them this whole time.

Slow Days

It looks like I am staying in Denver even longer than I thought. I needed to come back to get a few more installs to reach my level. I thought it would happen pretty fast once I got back, like I would be packing up and heading out today. But I have spent the last two days waiting for an install to come up and nothing. My install today is not 'til 5pm, and that only because I talked to someone in Scheduling and had them take it from someone else and give it to me. I don't feel bad about this as he will be staying all of September, and the sooner I can leave, the less competition he'll have for his own installs. I just don't know how long it will take for me to get the number of installs I want. But if Northstar continues to pay me a weekly salary, I guess I can live with that.

The biggest thing is that I'll probably have to be here over the weekend again, ugh.

Roll Credits

"Cause

Two (two) heads (heads) are better than one
(woo hoo hoo)
It's double the pleasure babe
It's triple the fun
I said
Two (two) heads (heads) are better than one
(better than one)
It'll make you come undone
Two heads are better than one"

-Power Tool, end credits Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

At this time I have two days to get three installs. I don't think that it's going to happen frankly. So that means staying out here a little while longer to solidify that install total and insure my pay bump. This makes me unhappy, because I really wanted to be back on Saturday for the BYU vs. AZ game. They are also retiring Ty Detmer's jersey at halftime. So to both get my installs, catch the game, and take a quick breather, I found cheap last minute plane tickets on Orbitz. Roundtrip tickets and a rental car for two days will run me about $250. That'll also give me a chance to take as much time as I need to get my car checked out, pack, and drive back instead of rushing around like a chicken with it's head cut off. My flight arrives about 10am on Saturday and leaves about 11am on Monday. I decided to go with a rental car so I can be completely free to come and go and not force anybody to be my taxi service. So I hope some of you are available for hanging out after the game and on Sunday. See you soon.

Five Golden Rings! Bada da da...

Workdays: 5
Installs: 137
Average to finish: 1.6

Well, It may be five and a half work days, at which point the average to finish would be 1.4545455. Apparently noon on the 31 is the last scheduable slot. I also should have my car serviced before heading back, there is a maintenance required indicator on my dashboardand it has gone from green-yellow to orange, and in the last week or so, to red since being out here. Probably just needs an oil change as I've gone over 180,000 miles. I was kind of hoping to have the whole day on the 31st to take care of packing up and leaving to make it back for the 3:30pm Kickoff for the BYU vs. AZ game on September 1st. Now it'll be pushing it. Oi vei!

Seven Swans a Swimming...

Workdays: 7
Installs: 133
Average to finish: 1.7142857

So I've been rather disgruntled about my time in Denver. Long hours, high expectations, not enough work, I could go on or a while. Anyways, I've been looking forward to the time I could leave the company behind. Last night the head technician who is in town starts talking to the other guy in my apartment about coming back as a lead tech next year. There are alot of incentives. The other guy feels even more strongly about not coming back than I do. Well, he starts thinking about it after hearing some of the details. And I think to myself, "Nothing can convince me to come back." But then I think about the incentives, and decide if they open an office in Philadelphia that I might think about coming back. Then I go to my first install today and it takes 10 hours. The sales guy told them it would take 1. I had to re-talk them into getting the system at one point. But I wasn't so sure that our system was better than theirs. But I did it because I need the install to make my goal before I leave. I didn't like that feeling at all. After talking things over with the head tech we found a way to make things better for them, but I still don't like that feeling that I had to re-sell the system when it wasn't going to be what they were lead to believe it was. Ick.

...Four and Four Make Eight...

Workdays: 8
Installs: 132
Average to finish: 1.625

9...

Workdays: 9
Installs: 131
Average to finish: 1.5555556

10...

Workdays: 10
Installs: 129
Average to finish: 1.6

T-Minus Eleven Days and Counting

Due to popular demand, I'll be trying to post a countdown-countup everyday til I go home. Ok, ok, it was one suggestion, but I liked it, and I hope you do too.

Workdays remaining: 11
Installs to date: 127
Average # of installs per day to reach goal: 1.636363636363