Catching up
Nov. 10th, 2004 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusWhat's been going on in my life lately?
Well, lots of different things.
First, OryCon was a blast. We didn't raise nearly as money for Geeks Without Borders as we'd hoped, but I had a great time doing it. Even got to volunteer at hospitality for a few hours. Man, those people work hard. And I mean, a lot. Running that con is no easy thing, and the con committee deserves all the praise I can think of. I just spent three hours there and I was pretty worn out. Thanks, guys, I don't know how you do it and keep things running so smoothly.
Pictures should be forthcoming - I don't have the camera anymore, so I won't be the one uploading them. I'll link to 'em once they're up, though. Since we didn't have a table, I was able to go to a few panels this time. The American Empire one was fun, but too unbalanced toward the thinking side, so the Bush Cabinet's PNAC supporters didn't get much representation. Oh, well. Nothing on Space Elevators, though. In fact, not a whole lot of science panels at all.
Since I was flying out at 7pm (which turned out to be 9:55pm) that night, I got to spend a few hours sitting in hospitality at the end of the con, having some great conversations, and even me someone who's gonna be making me a chainmail dice bag. Oh, yeah, baby, geek points way up with that! Plus, it was a good way to decompress a bit before I had to head back to the airport and face mundania again. At least PDX doesn't do the terrorist watchlist, so I got onto the plane with no problems.
Still in St. Louis. Still like my job. And it's been three weeks. I'm making much use of Outlook to organize my tasks. I got half a dozen of 'em checked off, but the list keeps growing. At least I'm learning the other Rational tools, other than ClearCase, which I already know pretty well. Spent most of today writing requirements documents for the scripts I'm going to be writing/updating in the next few weeks.
This coming Sunday![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meisha and dragon_gunner will be driving out here and bringing some of my stuff. I'm looking forward to having my cats with me again. And my chairs. This sitting on the floor thing is getting annoying. I have no furniture at all other than a self-inflating air mattress, which doesn't inflate very far. They're staying a week, so it'll be great to see them again!
Some kind of light in the living room will be very welcome, too. As it is, 2/3 of my apartment is dark once the sun sets. And that's the big part, where I'm sitting now next to my open patio door.
Let's see, what else. Oh, yeah, I loved this little rant. It goes well with my "Lincoln was wrong!" T-shirt that I'll have up on my plutherstore on cafepress someday.
US Bank is still fucked up, by the way. Several years ago, I threw out a checkbook from an account I'd closed with them about six months previously. Someone found the checks and wrote 6 of them to a store in Vancouver, WA, for $200 each (the maximum amount the store would cash), over six days. I was able to prove it was fraud - the store never checked ID, it was a woman writing them (the name on the checks was "Patrick", too - not that she signed that name to each one, or spelled it correctly when she did). Anyway, after about a year, I finally was able to obtain a court order forcing them to remove my name from the credit reporting agencies. Apparently, though, there's another credit agency only used by banks which they reported me to in 2000. That's right, they reported me to a special agency THREE FUCKING YEARS after the court demanded they remove the report to the other agencies. Now it's keeping me from getting a checking account. Which sucks especially since SEC regulations are requiring me to close my other two checking accounts, since they're both with financial consulting firms (Charles Schwab and E*Trade). (As an employee of AG Edwards, I'm not allowed to have accounts with other ones except for in rare circumstances.) I'm hoping I can get an account at AG Edwards similar to the one I set up at Charles Schwab (no minimum balance, no fees, interest bearing, unlimited check writing), but so far it doesn't look like they offer anything similar, but we'll see. If not, I'll see if I can get special permission from the feds to keep my Schwab account. That should be fun.
Not too much going on other than all that. Still bummed about the "election" - and no, I have no doubt whatsoever that it was fixed. I know too much about software engineering to ever believe that a system like Diebold's would have seen the light of day given all the problems it's had unless there was tremendous pressure to implement it, ready or not, and why would there by that much pressure unless they intended to use it? I'm sure that it's just coincidence that in every county in Florida and Ohio that it was used in, upwards of 50% of registered Democrats voted for Bush, whereas in every county it wasn't it was closer to the national average of 8%.
I haven't been able to get out to go hang with anyone yet. A friend of C's called me last week, but I've been too busy to call her back so far. Tomorrow, if I remember during work (I don't want to call late at night). B - if you're reading this, give me a call again tomorrow, I'll call you back this time I promise!
Looking forward to Monday, too. I get my first paycheck in a year and a half. That'll be nice!
And, if anyone wants to come visit St. Louis, let me know. After next week, I'll even have furniture!
Goodnight everyone.
Well, lots of different things.
First, OryCon was a blast. We didn't raise nearly as money for Geeks Without Borders as we'd hoped, but I had a great time doing it. Even got to volunteer at hospitality for a few hours. Man, those people work hard. And I mean, a lot. Running that con is no easy thing, and the con committee deserves all the praise I can think of. I just spent three hours there and I was pretty worn out. Thanks, guys, I don't know how you do it and keep things running so smoothly.
Pictures should be forthcoming - I don't have the camera anymore, so I won't be the one uploading them. I'll link to 'em once they're up, though. Since we didn't have a table, I was able to go to a few panels this time. The American Empire one was fun, but too unbalanced toward the thinking side, so the Bush Cabinet's PNAC supporters didn't get much representation. Oh, well. Nothing on Space Elevators, though. In fact, not a whole lot of science panels at all.
Since I was flying out at 7pm (which turned out to be 9:55pm) that night, I got to spend a few hours sitting in hospitality at the end of the con, having some great conversations, and even me someone who's gonna be making me a chainmail dice bag. Oh, yeah, baby, geek points way up with that! Plus, it was a good way to decompress a bit before I had to head back to the airport and face mundania again. At least PDX doesn't do the terrorist watchlist, so I got onto the plane with no problems.
Still in St. Louis. Still like my job. And it's been three weeks. I'm making much use of Outlook to organize my tasks. I got half a dozen of 'em checked off, but the list keeps growing. At least I'm learning the other Rational tools, other than ClearCase, which I already know pretty well. Spent most of today writing requirements documents for the scripts I'm going to be writing/updating in the next few weeks.
This coming Sunday
meisha and dragon_gunner will be driving out here and bringing some of my stuff. I'm looking forward to having my cats with me again. And my chairs. This sitting on the floor thing is getting annoying. I have no furniture at all other than a self-inflating air mattress, which doesn't inflate very far. They're staying a week, so it'll be great to see them again!Some kind of light in the living room will be very welcome, too. As it is, 2/3 of my apartment is dark once the sun sets. And that's the big part, where I'm sitting now next to my open patio door.
Let's see, what else. Oh, yeah, I loved this little rant. It goes well with my "Lincoln was wrong!" T-shirt that I'll have up on my plutherstore on cafepress someday.
US Bank is still fucked up, by the way. Several years ago, I threw out a checkbook from an account I'd closed with them about six months previously. Someone found the checks and wrote 6 of them to a store in Vancouver, WA, for $200 each (the maximum amount the store would cash), over six days. I was able to prove it was fraud - the store never checked ID, it was a woman writing them (the name on the checks was "Patrick", too - not that she signed that name to each one, or spelled it correctly when she did). Anyway, after about a year, I finally was able to obtain a court order forcing them to remove my name from the credit reporting agencies. Apparently, though, there's another credit agency only used by banks which they reported me to in 2000. That's right, they reported me to a special agency THREE FUCKING YEARS after the court demanded they remove the report to the other agencies. Now it's keeping me from getting a checking account. Which sucks especially since SEC regulations are requiring me to close my other two checking accounts, since they're both with financial consulting firms (Charles Schwab and E*Trade). (As an employee of AG Edwards, I'm not allowed to have accounts with other ones except for in rare circumstances.) I'm hoping I can get an account at AG Edwards similar to the one I set up at Charles Schwab (no minimum balance, no fees, interest bearing, unlimited check writing), but so far it doesn't look like they offer anything similar, but we'll see. If not, I'll see if I can get special permission from the feds to keep my Schwab account. That should be fun.
Not too much going on other than all that. Still bummed about the "election" - and no, I have no doubt whatsoever that it was fixed. I know too much about software engineering to ever believe that a system like Diebold's would have seen the light of day given all the problems it's had unless there was tremendous pressure to implement it, ready or not, and why would there by that much pressure unless they intended to use it? I'm sure that it's just coincidence that in every county in Florida and Ohio that it was used in, upwards of 50% of registered Democrats voted for Bush, whereas in every county it wasn't it was closer to the national average of 8%.
I haven't been able to get out to go hang with anyone yet. A friend of C's called me last week, but I've been too busy to call her back so far. Tomorrow, if I remember during work (I don't want to call late at night). B - if you're reading this, give me a call again tomorrow, I'll call you back this time I promise!
Looking forward to Monday, too. I get my first paycheck in a year and a half. That'll be nice!
And, if anyone wants to come visit St. Louis, let me know. After next week, I'll even have furniture!
Goodnight everyone.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:11 am (UTC)I agree with you, I'm trying to build a case.
OK
Date: 2004-11-11 04:30 am (UTC)Just experience - none of the company's I've worked with would let a system so famously unready for prime time out the door - even Microsoft fixes all the bugs that've been widely reported in the media before a release. The only reason for the Republicans to push it so hard is if they intend to use it. I predicted beforehand (along with most of the readership of slashdot and everyone else who'd looked into the system) that any county that used Diebold would go for Bush.
I haven't done any serious research, but I'll post whatever I find. But it'll be a while before I have the stomach for real research into it again.
The saddest thing is, they didn't have to tilt the vote much. 5% would have done it. Nearly half the country really does want Bush to be president. Which is why I'm so in favor of something like the citizenship test before you're allowed to vote. If we limited the decision making to people expressing informed opinions, there's no way we'd ever have someone like Bush in office. Even Kerry probably wouldn't make the cut.
"Moral issues" my ass. If we just got rid of those people who think the Bill of Rights is a direct translation of the 10 Commandments we'd be way ahead.
They complain how "the liberals" are too condescending and talk over their heads and think they're stupid. My answer to that is Prove Us Wrong! Please!
Re: OK
Date: 2004-11-11 07:22 am (UTC)Back in the day, the Right Wing had the same idea. A bunch of Southern States required a LITERACY test. This was regarded as a blatant attempt to disenfranchise blacks.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:12 am (UTC)Could Kerry have taken a dive?
They ARE both bonesmen...
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 08:14 pm (UTC)