(... 28 words...)
Berix is packing stuff to send me. Meanwhile there's stuff to look at - the framework, the person-relationship add-on for it, the documentation (i.e. app specs for SpeedCanvass that we'll be building for Joe. The major part is the time specs, aka hours per piece, which will be the frame for billing and generally making money on our side. She sent a longish email explaining how this works. Later, it turned out to be a huge mistake, because we spent time on framework far more than expected, and then didn't have available time for things we still had to do... so we did them for free. But that was in may and june. Presently, she was in a money crunch, the eHosp stuff not being done and what was done not being paid on time, Sharlene having to take a partial layoff for january... so there's some financial juggling to survive until we can cut the first invoice to Joe in mid january. My reply was full of optimism.
I got a full-blown Office2k install, registered to Zero. At some point we were all getting such CDs whenever we wanted something - I got Crystal Reports 6 (could have got 7 if I wanted to), LeadTools, PcAnywhere, SQL Server 2000 Beta (though not rest of the .net beta, so only docs are usable), Windows 2000 Pro, and HackersGuide.chm*. Maybe some more that I don't remember (and don't use). Some time this year they started sleazing their way up into m$'s backdoor, and started license tracking, banned anyone from installing any software (if you needed something you had to ask the Network Guru** to install it for you, and this guy was just too good to be wasted for such menial tasks - I even wrote my own MP3 player in fox because Windows Media Player was ugly and slow, and WinAmp was banned). Not that it helped any - we were just getting pissed of, and some work took longer than needed because even freeware wasn't available; imagine looking through hundreds of pictures without a proper picture browser, looking for one picture.
...
I figure I'd have to attach a number from the spreadsheet to anything I do, in whatever logging/reporting mechanism we use. Do you have something of the kind or should I write one just to get up to speed with vfe? I have something really simple in mind - one three-paged form, actually a revamp of Rick's Task Manager we used in Prime. I'd only have to add the TimeSheetTrackingNumber, and an export/import utility to resync the data.
BTW, I've talked with him this morning - if you remember the big blonde guy from Ohio whom you probably met during one of previous courses at Kevin's, or maybe he was in the office where you found me in Prime - he was at the other desk there. I don't remember if he was present at the moment or not, and can't find the old pictures either. Anyway, I have the pleasant duty to deliver greetings from him.
News from home, the federal parliament didn't have the quorum so the decision that 29th of november is not the Republic day anymore is postponed to another year. The Council of citizens made the decision, but the Council of republics failed, the Montenegrins simply didn't come. (this scenario repeated for a few more years, and this wasn't the premiere either)
The serbian government announced that it's not a holiday on its territory, but it was too late, so the extra buses, extended weekend, special working hours of shops etc were already set up, so it's still a holiday this year. Neighbor's daughter (house behind, in sidestreet) underwent fourth surgery for colon cancer, including sewing up the anal aperture. Wishing her luck but it's clear she won't survive long (and didn't, she lasted maybe a week or two).
There was some fuckup with the emails (they're using outlook express, the worst possible email client - I left them with Thunderbird installed, but no, someone knew better), so the above email came at least three times. No, five, which I mention in my reply. We had trouble with Adelphia these days, well fuck them away, we decided to switch to DSL. Sent them cancellation notice today. The cable is supposed to be faster, but the bandwidth is split among the users on the last router. Of course they never say how many people you share it with, but of theoretical 750KB/s I sometimes saw 300, and that was at night. During the day, rarely went up to 100.
I wrote, regarding who was my contact to come here - Greg or Ford, that one answered the first message then passed me to the other guy, can't remember exactly in which order, but I still have the original ad and all the emails. So if nothing else, when I retire I have what [raw materials] to write a book from.
We just nod it off after good sunday lunch. I'm working, sort of, learning the tools. Nina is resting, she passed the SAT 2 (exam which counts against the college courses), Lena is fiddling with something, I see she took scissors and adhesive and whatnot.
Nina got response from 2-3 universities already, and she's got a chance of a grant on at least one.
The weather is crazy, heavy bear of a fog yesterday, then it cleared by nine, but dragged in the vales. Around noon, when I picked Nina, the star was roasting, the seniors milled around in t-shirts and shortses (which is incredible even here, for 1st of december). Two days ago we ran the AC to pump out the heat (I laid on the carpet and chipped off two goody hours, woke up in all sweat), and now we shifted it into reverse, to pump it in. It has this extra heater that you can turn on manually (when you need heat fast) or on automatic (when the thermostat decides it's necessary). Yesterday it was all off, today turned it on and it immediately added this exra heater (pet name Emerencija, which is a hungarian female name). It worked only ten minutes, achieved 20° and turned off. It's 20° inside, and this is just about third time this season that I'm wearing a sweater... and it seems I'll wear it regularly until spring.
These days my hemorrhoids became serious. I slept on the floor mainly because it hurts less in that position. I even gave it a nickname, Ford. When I sit down, I have to do it slowly; getting up is worse, because the vessels are rapidly refilled with blood. I found out that the ordinary wax suppositories are making the job easier (and this is the time I learned how to crap properly, both in frequency and technique). And I also know the cause - it's the whole fuckup, how we risked everything in coming here, and now within two years we're alone out in the fields. And I got lucky, found a new job in three months, but it was dense and the petty idiot found this time to pester me from behind now that it's over (and I add over my shoulder „because now it can“).
The other day I got a message from Ford (that one, not this one), said he bought a CD for someone on UScrew and asked how best to send it. Told him the best way is via courier, i.e. when a team member is returning home... or ordinary mail, best inside a cheap book. He's actually trying to feel out how am I doing, am I returning home, did I find a job, am I waiting for my visa to expire... Well, we're not a yesterday's puppy either.
News from home: Grgi got married. He's so important that even the mayor came to congratulate him :).
Of course, the mayor used to work at DBA. Sale snatched him from Big Ćale as a profficient merchant, to boost the sales. His first sale was a dl2400 to an old customer... at a price lower than cost. Some twenty years later, when the guy was already dead, I heard the story of how he became the mayor. After the 5th of october takeover, the local coalition started partitioning the duties among its member parties, and his party (LSV? maybe) got this position. Among the possible candidates they had, he was the only one representative enough, had a diploma.
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* in serbian, we called it „hakerske gajde“ - gajde are bagpipes. Cowritten by Kristin and one more guy.
** i.e. Ted
8-IV-2022 - 23-XII-2025