work – Oddball Update

Full Stop

June 5, 2013June 6, 2013 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

The sidebar of this site proclaims that Oddball Update is home to “rants”, though precious few have appeared here in recent years. (As it happens, my last post — in which I complained about the direction Microsoft is taking with the Xbox One — may be the closest thing in a while.)

The Catch-Up Brain Dump

January 23, 2013January 23, 2013 Chief Oddball

This entry doesn’t have a central topic. It doesn’t even have a featured image, as you probably noticed. It’s simply a big, massive wall of text onto which I spew everything that’s been clogging up my mind for the past month while I haven’t been posting here.

Junior Programmer

October 18, 2012October 18, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

It’s a rare event when I actually go to bed at 8:30 in the evening, but tonight it’s happening because I’m whipped. A few months ago a coworker and I went through a crash course in .NET development using the custom GIS controls our company makes, and since then I’ve served as “Junior Programmer” (my words) for made-to-order projects when all of our mainline developers are otherwise tasked out.

Making Things Happen

June 19, 2012June 19, 2012 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

Just thought I’d stop in for a proper journal entry for once, since the interval between the present day and my last post on here is starting to elongate into a yawning chasm once again. I don’t really have much to complain about.

Calm

February 13, 2012September 24, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

On the heels of yesterday’s rant about an unexpectedly high (that’s putting it mildly) medical bill, I’m pleased to report that I’m no longer furious. The weekend was smashed beyond almost all repair after the arrival of that $3,450 invoice on Saturday afternoon.

Homegrown Tech

July 5, 2011July 5, 2011 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

This morning at work, I gave a presentation to a client of a project that I’ve spent the entire last week developing from scratch. It had been a tumultuous week to say the least; much of what I was doing was either tech I hadn’t touched in far too long, or brand new methodology that I was teaching myself on the fly.

Texas Bound and Flyin’

May 16, 2010May 16, 2010 Chief Oddball

Although it was a horrendous and depressing movie, Smokey and the Bandit II is notable for its theme song: “Texas Bound and Flyin’,” performed by the Snowman himself, the late Jerry Reed. Although it was little more than an attempt by Reed to capture lightning in a bottle for the second time (it’s practically the same song as his hit “East Bound and Down” from the first film), it’s still a fun song — and is entirely apropos, I find, for what may become the next chapter of my life.

Life Turns Its Tables

April 15, 2010April 15, 2010 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

It’s kind of mystifying how life can stand you on your ear in a split second, isn’t it? Last month I got a call from my boss asking if I would be willing to take an “all expenses paid” trip to Orlando to help him shop for a new house.

Thoughts on Being Thirty

February 23, 2010February 23, 2010 Chief Oddball 5 Comments

At 6:43 p.m. this evening I officially turned thirty. For the last few days — weeks, even — I haven’t known exactly how to feel. Mostly I wasn’t even thinking about my upcoming milestone birthday; I’ve been too preoccupied with how wholly dissatisfying and depressing life seems to have been of late.

2009: The Year Entropy Accelerated

November 6, 2009September 21, 2011 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

As the ill-fated 2009 starts to wind itself down, it’s making it more clear than ever that it’s not going to let us forget how much pain and suffering it inflicted on us all. Some more than others, obviously, but by-and-large it’s been a pretty depressing year.

Tag: work