What an eventful weekend.

Thursday, Nicole was having a terrible day, traffic violations, fire departments and the like. She called me to vent, and though she wasn't talking about what had happened, I could tell something wasn't just right with her voice. So sensing that she had a bad day, I went down there that night to give her a hug. It sounded like she could use one. So I drive up there after work, comfort her for a few hours, and get home around midnight.

Doing this must have made some kind of impression on Nicole. Because she gave me a long awaited surprise the following night.

I head over to Nicole's place the next night. The plan was to go out to see Hide and Seek. Well on opening night, the movies are PACKED. So we make it a video night. But before we leave, she tells me that when I showed up at her place the night before, it was the last straw. So she made the relationship official. She had a hell of a time doing it too... kind of funny. I knew what she was trying to say, but because I'm an asshole, I just sat there and played dumb.

I left Nicole's house the following morning to go to Best Buy and see if they can install my car alarm. Which they couldn't because they were booked. So I have an appointment for next Saturday @ 10:00 A.M. I guess I’m not the only one who thinks that Best Buy is the best store on the planet.

I went over to Charles' place after Best Buy. Played computer games and drank beer till 11:00 P.M. Charles had a whole freaking bottle of Absolute Raspberry Vodka (minus 4 shots that his dad swiped). So HE woke up drunk, and I just woke up cold.

Went home at about noon on Sunday after playing CounterStrike: Source on Dugdog's Server for a few hours. I took a shower, relaxed for an hour, then went down to Corona to meet Benton at Chris's house. Now I don’t think that Chris likes me too much, so I wont be over there any more. Anyway, I fixed their kids X-Box wireless connection because Benton couldn't do it, played a little bit of Bass while Benton played a really cool little travel gacoustic guitar, then went bowling. We lost 3 out of 4 games, which will move us out of 2nd place. I had a beer to break up a 5 dollar bill for the quarter frame. Went home. Blogged... on my laptop... which is almost out of power. So I'll end this post here.

Spell check...complete. Posted. Done.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 8:43 AM

I spent most of my morning outside the office today. You see, last weekend sometime, some of the local trouble makers went down to the store and made a purchase. With this purchase, they decided to go to our office and use this purchase in our fountain. This purchase, is now known as "The super detergent that is in our fountain." Jeff and I start cleaning out the 2 feet of suds which is in the fountain, then I take over getting the rest of it out.

Mid way though cleaning, I decide to get a bucket to stand on so I can get to the upper parts of the fountain. And low and behold, I solved the mystery of what kind of soap I as cleaning out. A whole bottle of DAWN Dishwashing Soap. Now I know that this stuff is trouble even in the slightest amount. Put a dab on your hand, and you're washing it off for 10 minutes. I grab the bottle and notice that there is about 1/8th of the bottle still full of solid soap. I parade around the office saying "I solved the mystery... behold!"

Noon comes around, and I'm almost done. I'm soaking wet from the damn hose that has a mind of its own, my hands have never been cleaner, and I am getting a headache from the constant smell of DAWN. Jeff calls down and we go to lunch after I had filled up the fountain when I was satisfied that it was clean enough. He and I go to a little hole in the wall Mexican Food place, and go back to the office.

After lunch, Jeff started my Estimation training till about 4. It's detailed work, and if you miss a line, you're screwed. But it was alright once we got past the basics of fiber technology.

I went home at about 5:15, searched for 30 minutes for a gas station in Redlands, deposit a couple checks, and get home. Eat dinner, then blogging... to where I am at this point. I'm full, my neck is a little sore, but I'm glad that I'm getting the chance to learn more about my job. That in itself is worth it.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 7:29 PM

Wow. This new job is amazing. But, I do have my work cut out for me. I've already completely measured out the Fox Theatre, and I will be done with it tomorrow morning. I just hope that it's adequate enough for Jeff, Craig and Ed's uses. I think I was off by a couple inches on the main steps, but the only way they'll notice, is if they take a tape measure to it. Which I don't think they'll do any time soon.

Yesterday, was a company meeting at The Mission Inn. It was a brunch meeting, and to my enjoyment, there wasn't that many people I didn't know. I mean, the wives of all the employees were new, but I knew all of but one employee, which I didn't let slide for too long. Ronnie, Jason, Gerardo, Ed, Jeff, Craig, Richard, Richard, and Randy. It's amazing how I can remember everyone who was there, and it was only my first week of working there. I had six or seven glasses of champagne... which I might add, is really good stuff when you're having brunch.

Afterwards, I went home, took a nap and then went bowling. How was Benton going to react, now that I resigned, and Christine was laid off, all on the same day? I'll tell you how it went. Benton is a great friend, but some of the comments were a little... how would you say... underhanded. Referring to UNI as "Spectrum Jr." was a little uncalled for. But all in all, he's still a good guy, and he can understand that I want a better career than 12.50 an hour doing tedious BS work that no one really cares for. I'm doing a lot more now than I ever was at Spectrum. UNI trusts me a little more because they WANT to know what I want to do with my life. They WANT me to be a success. Not just some guy that does all the CAD work and gets shit on when crap hits the ceiling.

I like my new job. It's challenging and eventful. And I think I'm going to stay a while. BUT I still want to finish school... that's still a major priority.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 9:35 PM

Well, I did it. I told Jeff and Ed that I was going to give Spectrum my two weeks tomorrow. And I will do just that, just out of courtesy. They're going to put me out in the field for a week, so that will give me the ample time to build a computer for the office. Which, by the way, after hours I can start playing Counter Strike : Source on Dugdog's Server again after hours. So Charles will have to help me build a new computer system for that.

I don’t have any doubts about what I'm doing anymore. I know that I'll move up in this company, and at least be the manager of something when the time comes. Where as, at Spectrum, I was where I was and I wasn't going anywhere. Screw that!

The pay is better, and that's a plus. It will be the first job where I break 30K a year. Maybe now I can start paying some of these goddamned bills!

Charles is still a little worried, but Nicole is worried that because of the increased distance that it will effect our relationship. It won't, I wont let it.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 9:45 PM

Well, let's just say that it's a good day for me to get paid. I'm $64.17 overdrawn as I type this, and by midnight tonight, that will go away. Turns out, all these bills are really killing me more than I realized. I paid my parents the monthly rent, and my car payment. Well, the sad thing about this stupid bank I'm with, is that it takes forever for a check to clear. I paid my parents on the 1st, and now, almost 2 weeks later, it finally shows up. Why can't my parents accept PayPal©? Additionally, I sent out a 500 dollar check to my BestBuy card, and paid off my VISA. So I'm going to be a little tight on funds for the next two weeks. I wonder when I'll start working with Jeff... because that will help.

I've been ripping CD's all week. So far, I've only ripped my "Easy listening" CD case. By "Easy listening" I mean all the CD's that EVERYONE makes fun of. I'd rather not get into specific titles, only to fear that the rest of net will laugh at them too. These "Easy listening" CD's have completely swamped the rest of my free space on my 80 Gig External Hard Drive. I now have 43.9 Gigs of Mp3's. the rest of the space is consumed by either application install programs, Drawings, this blog, and a small collection of pictures and videos.

There is one downside to actually listening to these "Easy listening" songs though. These "Easy listening" songs bring back a lot of memories. Some good memories, some bad ones. One memory in particular came to me when I was ripping a certain "Boy Band" CD I have. Brought back memories of an old friend I haven't talked to in a while. Her name is Nikita. Typical internet crush case. But last time I talked to her, she told me she was engaged to be married. It's amazing how times flies when you get older. And it really sucks.

Speaking of flying. I'm going to have to haul ass down to Redlands tonight by 6PM to talk with Jeff, Ed, and Craig. I want to see when I can start working there.

Additionally, I've been talking to Kahn and Dugdog about programming programs so I can start getting some comment sections on this damn blog. And with any luck, it will be up soon so all 2 or 3 of you who read this thing will be able to post comments.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 3:27 PM

Reflections- Artificial Sweetener

Sometimes we know in our bones what we really need to do, but we're afraid to do it.

Taking a chance, and stepping beyond the safety of the world we've always known is the only way to grow, though, and without risk there is no reward.

-Wil Wheaton Weblog Archives, August 27, 2002 & Chapter 12 from Just A Geek, "All Good Things"

Reading that, at 8:37 PM tonight, brought a tear to my eye, and a feeling of... of...

I'm just sitting here, ripping my CD collection onto MP3 format, in preparation of my new MP3 Player I'm going to be getting in a few days (My insurance came through... after 4 months of absolute Bullshit).

I had just finished listening along with Wil reading his "Wesley Dialogues" via his ITConversations Audio MP3. And in the middle of throwing CD's into the CDRW bay of my blue glowing desktop tower, I continue reading Wil's "Big Book" as he calls it. I want to get to at least Chapter 12 tonight so I can listen to his bashing of William Fucking Shatner as I read along.

I come across those couple lines at the top of page 192. I stop. A feeling of clarity and utter fear take over me. My stomach is now filled with bunny multiplying butterflies.

"What the hell?" I think to myself. "Did wil just...?"

I re-read the first two sentences. Only at the end of the last sentence, a tear rolls down my face.

Wil had broken the final straw, and told me what to do.

Nicole and Charles both have been telling me the pros and cons of the "New Opportunities" Saga, but neither have given me a definite "Yes" or "No" opinion. Even my dad said that it was ultimately my choice, and that I alone would have to make it.

Turns out, I knew what I was going to do, I just needed a good swift kick in the but to do it. Wil Wheaton, provided that swift kick with those words.

Fate that I would read that tonight? Maybe. Luck? Not the way my week has been going. Maybe it was just time for me to read it. Whatever it was, I don't care, I'm going to take this as some kind of omen (sign if you will), get off my lazy ass, and do something about this situation.

I'm going to take Jeff's offer, and start something that will be one of the adventures I will not soon forget.

Wil,
If you're reading this... Thank you again.

This entry is from the damn acknowledgement section. Posted by evin at 9:27 PM

I've been doing some research into BICSI and RCDD information pages. You know what? It's mostly a lot of Geeky technical stuff that I would probably love. One drawback, is that there is a TON of information that isn't cheap. But if I'm going to be making the cash later on, then it's worth it. I don't want to be a CAD monkey forever, I've known that for a long time.

Jeff told me last night while I was on the phone with him, that once I got my RCDD, that "HeadHunters" would start calling me, offering me jobs and whatnot. Now Jeff had the same thing happen to him, and I would forsee the same thing happening to me when I get my RCDD. I would remain loyal to the company who helped me get my RCDD, who helped me get ahead in the world and gave me a place to use my talents. Notice I said WHEN, not IF. If I have to become a bookworm for 4 months, then I will... though I'm sure that Nicole and Charles wont like that too much because I would most likely be stuck at home or in the office, but I'm a Geek, not a Nerd... I'll make the time.

I'm constantly thinking about this, as well I should be, as it's a big change, in lifestyle, in commitment, in salary, in driving distance. But the more and more that I think about it, the more I know that Spectrum is a dead end. Even if they do give me a raise to try to keep me (which wont happen), they wont do anything for me. It's been a good job for the 3 years I was here, but honestly, I only came back because I was kinda desperate for a job after Aurora went under. It's about time to move on.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 2:27 PM

Ok, so my math was a little off. At 15 dollars an hour, my yearly salary would be over $28,000.00. Which is over 4,000 more than I make now.

This entry is from the damn Corrections Department. Posted by evin at 6:19 AM

Jeff called me tonight, just before Nicole called me from the movie theater. But I was in such thought deliberation, that I didn't tell her that I just spoke to Jeff 20 minutes earlier.

Well, It's not as good as I hoped, but it is better than where I am in some cases. Being that the company is still new, they don't have now, nor don’t see having in the future, a company based insurance policy. Which kind of sucks, but it’s a perk I can probably get on my own. I have insurance now through Spectrum, and though it's not the best, it's better than nothing. If I decide to take the job, I wont have a company based insurance plan.

The pay is better, about $2.50 starting raise. Conditions would be that I would need to bring in my laptop to work on the drawings until I can afford a new desktop. The 15 dollar an hour job would be a raise for me, and if the company doesn’t have to furnish me with a computer, that's more incentive to give me a higher starting salary. $15.00 an hour equates to about 600.00 gross a week, which means about 480 take home (fucking taxes). That's roughly 200 dollars a month more than I am making now. Now gas at 60 miles round trip, 4 days worth of gas at 25 dollars (280 miles per tank approx)... yeah, that seems that I'm still out on top. Plus Jeff is going to make me a member of a few networking groups, get me some RCDD books, and hopefully, I'll be able to go to a seminar for RCDD training courses later on in the year. I'll be working out in the field for a couple weeks (the cash at 28 dollars an hour will really help me build my computer for the office. Plus the drop counts at the plan rooms job.

It's a lot of responsibility, as Charles promptly told me a week ago the he feared that I might be going in over my head. I think I'm ready to take on something with more responsibility though. I don't want to be "Just a CAD Guy" for the rest of my life, I want to get into a command position, an administrative job... something that takes a good amount responsibility to get to.

It's a risk. Do I venture out into something that may swallow me hole, but demands me to become more than I am? Or Stay where I'm at, in a capped out position, where it's (moderately) safe?

...

What a day this is turning out to be. And on top of it all, I didn’t get a very good night sleep last night, which is unusual because I always sleep well at Nicole's place. I'm going to chalk up a night of crappy sleep to the 3 earthquakes we had, which I never felt. How's that for strange?

I was asked to call Nicole at 11:00am today to wake her up. Well, low and behold, Russ comes into the office and needs me to go to Mountain View to drop of a bid. This is the second time in two days that he's asked me to drop off stuff in far far away cities. My car cant handle much more of this crap! I got a P0455 error code on my Mustang and I know what it is. My gas tank filler tube gasket is shot to hell, and it's leaking not only gas when I top off my tank, but it's also releasing the vacuum pressure the gas tank needs. Plus my throw out bearing is going out. Anyway, I didn't call Nicole. She called me at 12:00 and I hung up the phone because I was on the phone with Russ and Dan telling them about the bid. I call her back and she says that she can’t talk because she's at work.

I Get back to work, and Benton left for lunch already. Oh well. I ran to my favorite Chinese fast food and brought my lunch back to the office. Now, my stomach is outrageously full, and I still have a headache.

I cant wait to talk to the insurance company tonight to tell them what complete idiots they are. After they did over 1,200 dollars worth of work on my car, NOW they want to see that I own the car? What the hell is wrong with you people?! What the hell do you think I pay you almost 200 dollars a month for?? Just give me enough credit to get a stereo replaced in my car and leave me the hell alone!

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 3:20 PM

New Opportunities Pt. II

Jeff called me again last night to give me a brief summary of what I would be doing there. It is, in a nutshell, Benton's job plus estimation. Now why wouldn't I want that job? Honestly. What moron wouldn't want the job that his supervisor has? Plus, Jeff has all the RCDD books and PDF files. which means that I can start studying for an RCDD.

I emailed Jeff again today with questions like insurance, and hourly or salary. I'll just have to wait and see what I can get.

Charles starts his new job on Monday. Which is only about a mile away from Spectrum. So he, Benton and I are probably going to set up a lunch. It's cool that the two companies were fighting over him, and his current company said to give them a call if it doesn’t work out. Options are a good thing Charles. When I was at Spectrum and got laid off, Aurora was my option. I never stopped working thanks to you. Good luck with your new job bro!

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 3:40 PM


Rare and Outstanding Event

Wil Wheaton, a personal inspiration of mine, and whom I've talked to personally twice, has just come up to the third time he's acknowledged me. In his blog, he has a comment section for each post he does (I'm still trying to get this onto my blog, but to no luck yet). On his post of his announcement he's going up to San Francisco, I told his readers what to expect when they attended the reading and signing of Just A Geek. And the very next comment was from wil thanking me for saying that. I know, lame as hell, but hey, when someone who inspires you to become more than you are (who isn't related), thanks you in a public forum, it's a great feeling.

This entry is from the damn acknowledgement section. Posted by evin at 3:56 PM

I got to talk to Benton today about my possible career move. He's all for it if someone else can offer me something that he can't. So I'll shoot Jeff another email tonight. See what he can do for me.

The "powers that be" here are snooping though my company email. Jeff mentioned to me last night that he didn’t want us discussing business over the company server. I can really understand that. Spectrum is kind of paranoid about stuff like this. So I gave him my GMail account. So to further insure that "the powers that be" don’t get a hold of what I'm trying to do, I'll only email from my home computer. Which reminds me...

My Desktop is FUBAR. Ever since I installed that Audio Converter so I could get all these WMA files off my External Hard Drive. It freezes when I play DVD's, it hangs when ever I try to do anything, and Explorer crashes from time to time. I must have a nasty virus. But none of my virus protections have caught it (Spybot, Adaware, Norton). And It's really starting to piss me off. Why do viruses exist? Because damn little script kitties have nothing else better to do than pretend they know how to program viruses to piss people off.

I have Firefox, but I haven’t had a chance to install it yet. But I doubt it would do anything for my computer as it stands. But screw IE, Screw Windows. Next format, I'm partitioning a Different OS. Something like the Penguin sounds a lot better than all this Windoze crap. But I'll still have to have it so I can go to Charles' house and LAN with him. Since I don't know the communication protocols between the Window and the Penguin.

It's sprinkling outside at the moment, which is only adding to my parents driveway destruction. My dad wants to use Saturday to fix the driveway, but I already told Nicole that I would spend the day with her. So I'll have to tell my dad that I wont be able to do it. I'm sure he wont like that very much, but damn it, I want a life outside the normal "work during the week, work during the weekend" that I've endured for the last ... 23 years. If I get this job in Redlands, I'm fucking moving, no if's and's or but's. I should be able to afford something out in the boonies. At least the boonies has DSL and Cable connections, which is better than the 26.4 k/sec dialup connection that I've set this entire site through.

I'm still trying to get a comments javascript up and running, but I know nothing about that script protocol. I'm trying to learn it, but as you may imagine, it's not the easiest thing to do. But you can still email me for the time being. As soon as the site gets more completed, I'll link my CAI Article to the Mustang community. That will give the site a Bandwidth surge . I'm sure I'll be hearing something from Kahn about it eventually too.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 3:24 PM

Benton wasn't at work today. So there goes the idea of talking to him today. I'll have to do it tomorrow.

In the mean time, I'm useing my new Cold Heat Soldering tool that I got for Christmas. For some reason, my mother wants me to stop borrowing hers. Fine by me . So I'm building a 3 Volt FM Short Range Transmitter. A much larger version of a "bug" that is used for federal listening purposes. Not that I have a use for it, but hey, I have the kit.

At the same time, I'm watching The Matrix: Revolutions. It's not my favorite of the three movies, but It's the one I've seen the least.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 8:35 PM

I'm over at Charles' Parents house today, visiting with them and "borrowing" Chucks DSL Line to get some desperately needed updates.

Charles, Chuck and I have been playing some video games, but I called it quits early because I have been waking up pretty early the last week for some reason. So as usual, Charles give me hell for it. Damn it, I 've been waking up at 4 am every morning or earlier for the last week, give me a break if I want to catch up on some sleep bro... come on now.

I just got back from bowling. Jeremy showed up again, which shows me that he's there for Christine and not just to hang out. Oh well, I've got my girl (kinda), and I'm COMPLETLY happy with that. We didn't win all of one games, but we're still in first place. Now that is a major improvement from last season's 28th place (out of 28).

I went next door afterwards to play some "Texas Hold'em". I didn't win anything, but I didnt't loose anything either. So I guess you can say I'm a "break even" player. But I'm okay with that, because when I'm in Vegas, I always come out on top.

I'll bet you're all wondering how my visit went with Jeff went. Well. He took me through a tour of a HUGE facility they have, and we just talked the whole time. Mostly BS'ed, but still. At about 10:00am, Ed Dumane came in the office and we all chatted. And by the end, we were talking about me coming to work for them. As an estimator, a CAD guy, and a plan checker; All of which puts me about one step above Benton.

I'll talk to Benton tomorrow about it. Career wise, it would be the only logical move for me... but friendship wise, I don't know. I mean, Benton stuck his neck out me so many times, and it would be wrong for me just to leave him high and dry. He is one of my good friends after all. But honestly, I see no future in Spectrum for me, and I'm sure that Benton will say the same.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 10:56 PM

Does it really feel like a new year already? It seems like last week I graduated high school, a few days later, it's the WTC attacks, and now, it's 6 years later from when I walked with my classmates of Santiago High School class of 1999.

It's time that I start taking a more objective look at my life. I'm not too thrilled about my job, being at the same pay for the last 2 years, but it's a great job to go to while you're in college. I'm going to apply for Fanatical Aid this year, and try to get into UCR by fall 05. I'm thinking I just need to sprint through the last 3 or so years to my degree.

If you think this blog is going to be a waste of time, well, fuck off. I'm not doing this for anyone but myself anyway. If you want to read it and know what's going through my mind, then by all means, read it, email me with comments or thoughts. I'm pretty good about emailing people back.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 4:38 PM