Lake Buena Vista, FL

Well, Rob was surprised to see his name here in print on my blog. He was not upset about it and I am glad. Sometimes people do get upset...especially if they are coworkers and you write something that can get them into a lot of trouble !!

We are approaching the second anniversary of this blog. The first 7 months of archives I deleted because a coworker saw his name here and was very upset about it. I hear that he wanted to sue me, but when it came down to proving anything it was his word against mine. Anyway, it is harder to sue someone for printing the truth !!

Excitement today in the Team Disney Building. My desk is near the restroom, which is very convenient, but this morning the flush valve on the toilet got stuck and the men's room flooded ! I guess there was a pressure spike or something because 6 out of the 16 restrooms in the north tower were affected. Now I am sitting here with a fan making noise as they dry the carpet out.

Yesterday was an easy day on my diet. All of the water I am drinking keeps me feeling full. Last night I fried the steaks I had been marinating. They turn out soooo tasty ! I had two steaks, brussels sprouts, and cheese sticks for lunch, with a small apple for my morning snack and 30 pistachios for my afternoon snack. I need to get back to the grocery for more water. Drinking 4 bottles a day ( 1 quart 1.8 ounces each) ! I need a jar of minced garlic too - I am going to fry some fresh brussels sprouts up in butter and the garlic would be good in those !

Still troubleshooting why the new Flash page won't display properly. Netscrape will not show the buttons either. I guess what I will have to do is make a test page, with one button and two scenes, put it up on the server, and test it, then add something, upload it, test it, etc etc... Not exactly the exciting way to do it, but if I don't have a clue...

I found out why that guy, Joey, blushed so deeply on Saturday night when we spoke with Joe, the bartender. Joey works as a mental health professional, and evidently Joe was having some problems a few years back and went to talk with someone. Well, that person was Joey !

Andrea is going to take some pictures of things she wants to sell on eBay. I will help her set up her first online yard sale tomorrow or Thursday at lunch. It is not hard.

Called the apartment today and reminded Dennis to hook up the ice maker on the new refrigerator today. Hopefully I will have ice when I get home.

When I checked the mail yesterday I was astounded to see that Etta beat me to sending Christmas cards this year ! Hers was posted 26 Nov 2004 - the very day after Thanksgiving ! I can atleast say that our cards passed in the mail since I got mine out on Saturday.

Just an hour and half to go here. Slow day for orders, but that is alright too. I get some time to surf the web and harass the customers with e-mail messages.

Kissimmee, FL

It began to thunder about 6:30 PM. It rained and drizzled most of the night. I decided that I was going to go out and that I was going to wear some leather. After I got my shower, I was dressing and the phone rang. It was Rob. He remembered to call me after all !

Drove to the Full Moon Saloon. Fortunately there was not a lot of traffic. At the Moon I saw this guy from the chatroom, Joey. Joey wants to be my "boy", hahaha ! But I think he has a lot to learn before that can happen. He is not submissive enough, talks back, and asks for things that I am sure he does not want. It is not normal for a guy to request punishment !!

I stood at the bar with Joey for awhile. I introduced him to Joe, the bartender. I told Joe, "This is Joey. Joey wants to be my boy!" Joe is like, "OOOhhhhhh !! Well, just so you know, he likes to play rough!" It was so funny ! Joey blushed deep red !

While we were there, Rob came up. Despite the fact that the main picture in my chat profile is 5 or 6 years old, everyone still manages to recognize me!

I guess I started to give Rob all of my attention because Joey wandered away into the crowd. I think Rob and I stood in that one same spot for the rest of the night. It was not as cool as I expected and I began to sweat from the t-shirt, jeans, leather vest, and heavy leather jacket.

Rob is a massage therapist, but he was fascinated with my hands. They ARE pretty strong ! Of course, he was fascinated with my legs and a few other things as well.

I left around 1:30 AM. I vowed that I was not going to close the bar. On the way home I passed 5 or 6 Sheriff's Deputies. You get paranoid when you have been drinking, plus they will pull you over for anything in the middle of the night.

This morning I bought some groceries. Did not buy anything at all that I should not eating.

I think I am coming down with something. Nodes on the right side of my neck are swollen and I think I have a low fever. Probably sinuses again. Sucks now because I don't have health insurance.

Today I need to iron one or two shirts. I need to continue working on the Flash version of my site. Maybe this evening I will go out for a couple of hours even though I only have a few dollars in my wallet. I have 10 steaks marinating in a gallon Ziploc bag... will fry those tomorrow. Going to start taking my lunch to work again. That way I can control what I am eating better.

Kissimmee, FL

Well, lastnight was predictable - Rob did not call me, and when I called him he was busy making dinner and waiting for his sister to come over for the night. Supposed to have a yard sale today with her.

This morning I wrote checks for the bills. I noticed that the refrigerator has been dripping badly for the past few weeks, but this morning the freezer is not even cold enough to freeze ice cubes. So, when I dropped the check off I asked if someone would come look at the fridge. Dennis told me to go ahead and shut it off so that it could defrost. Told me to put the items into an ice chest. Well, all I have is a little bitty ice chest.

Went to the post office and mailed my calendars and got stamps for my Christmas cards. All of that is in the mail now.

On the way home I stopped at 7-Eleven and got two 20-pound bags of ice. I was sorely tempted to buy something to eat that I know that I should not have. But my willpower was greater and I only got ice.

When I came home I pulled everything out of the freezer and put it into the washing machine. Then I poured 40 pounds of ice over all of it. The items in the fridge came out and went into the sink.

Dennis came and looked at it and them left. When he returned a half hour later, he had a brand new Whirlpoor refrigerator on the dolly ! How lucky is that ? !! I deserve it after the piece of shit they gave me last time. This is the third fridge in a year. This one is nice - and clean !

Sat down this afternoon and began work on Version 4.1 of my personal website. I got a surprising amount of work done. Everything is working now except for the picture browsing part. I will have to re-edit the pictures now so they are 600 pixels wide and atleast 325 pixels tall. The resolution will be much better now. Also, all of the buttons make noise when the mouse rolls over them and another sound when the mousebutton clicks down on them. This one is good enough that I am going to tweak the html page that loads it and substitute this for my regular site - with a link back to the html-only version of it.

There are still a few bells and whistles I want to add - a lightly alpha'd analog clock behind the news page, a rotating world globe behind the about Vince page, customized cursors, background sound and controls, and a real slide show for the lower left corner. But it is good enough now to show the world... or atleast my family and friends.

It has been cool these last few nights and it is supposed to be cold again tonight. When I go out tonight I will wear my leather jacket.

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Mike Foreman called yesterday. He closed on his house, now the new owners are renting his house to him for $29 per week until he closes on his new house and can move in. Poor guy has to work all weekend.

Went to work at my usual time. I sat in the dark for about two hours because I did not know how to turn the lights on! This building was almost empty today. Finally Andrea showed up and we got that fixed. I got the queue caught up during that time.

At lunch time Jerry and I went to lunch with Ana at the McDonald's at Downtown Disney. That place was a crowded madhouse. We would have been better off going to the McDonald's at CrossRoads Plaza.

During lunch we discussed national politics, then we discussed office politics. Seems that nobody believes Ronelda is going to return to work next week. Evidently she took her family pictures and personal belongings with her when she took off on her three-week leave-of-absence. They say she was deeply unhappy. I don't know. I don't know what it means for me if she does not return either.

Went to DC-2 to get my timecard signed. Found Kimberly DeWitt and had her sign it. Kimberly expects me back in DC-2 after next week because Betsy will be returning to Hong Kong for about two weeks. Atleast I can get January's rent paid before the axe falls.

I went to the post office off of 535, but as luck would have it, it was closed in observance of Thanksgiving. So I guess I will end up standing in a line tomorrow to mail my Christmas cards.

I think I am going to make my New Year's Resolution early. I am going to start the South Beach Diet again. I really need to stick to it strictly too because I am not getting as much physical activity as I was at Rinker. It was easy enough to do before. Just gotta be sure to buy the right foods, and start packing my lunches again. I was so good before, I know I can get back on the bandwagon quickly.

Not sure what is going to happen this evening. Was supposed to meet someone, Rob, but I can't seem to raise him on the phone. Nevertheless, if I do not hear from him by say, 8:30, I am going to shower and go to the Full Moon Saloon anyway.

Lake Buena Vista, FL

On Monday evening I met someone online that I had a nice conversation with before. I cannot remember his screen name, but we chatted for awhile, then exchanged phone numbers. He called me and we talked for 61 minutes 34 seconds. His name is Rob and we are supposed to meet on Friday. I am really looking forward to that !

Yesterday Andrea and I went to House of Blues for lunch. I had catfish nuggets and sweet potato fries. Got a side of their cornbread too. It was more than I could eat and I had to take the leftovers home and eat them for dinner.

Quiet day here today. Several members of the team have taken vacation because of Thanksgiving. I guess it is going to be even quieter here on Friday. Just Jerry and myself here. Ana has set up lunch with me and Jerry for Friday and that should be fun.

Tomorrow I am planning on making the turkey roll, french green bean casserole, carrots, cranberry jelly, baked sweet potatoes, and maybe I will pick up a pie. Perhaps this evening I will hard boil a few eggs for devilled eggs too. Tomorrow afternoon I will write a short message into each of my Christmas cards and get them ready to mail. I still need holiday themed postage stamps for them.

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Not very much got done this weekend. I was too beat to go out Friday evening. On Saturday I bought some groceries. I got a turkey roll and stuffing and vegetables for my Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. I did two loads of laundry.

On Sunday I went to Waffle House and got a big breakfast of pork chops, eggs, hashbrowns, and toast. Then I vacuumed out the truck and washed it. Stopped at Home Depot and got a roll of the plastic magnets for applying to my calendars. Now they can be applied to the refrigerator or any steel surface. Printed out mailing labels for my Christmas cards too. I just need to write a personal note in each one and get some holiday-themed postage stamps for them.

Took a walk yesterday afternoon... found the source of the noise I have been hearing outside since the hurricanes. About 1000 feet from my apartment is a storm debris dump and the noise is the chipper mulching the tree limbs. There is a mountain of mulch over there. A big pile of building debris, and another hill of shopping carts !

I did go out for awhile lastnight. Spent about 3 hours at my favorite watering hole. Overall, it was a good weekend. Did not make any more progress on my website, but I needed a break from working on it. Starting it completely over seemed daunting. I know it needs to be done so that I can fix the problem with the pixellated pictures, but not yet.

Today has been a light day for work. Hey hey ! I have time for blogging ! I called Betsy to check on her and she told me that her trip to Hong Kong has been approved, so it looks like I will be returning to DC-2 after next week ! Atleast I get a few more weeks of employment, and will be able to pay the rent in January.

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Very very strange. Took lunch early yesterday. After I had eaten, Andrea came to my cube inviting me to lunch, then Deb came by. Deb said she wanted to speak with me in private, but it took her about an hour to make some space available. She got an office and we went to talk.

She said she sensed that the team had some issues possibly because it has been working without a manager for awhile. She wanted to know what I saw as someone who was new. I was very careful with my answers. I told her that I have only been treated professionally by all members of the team. I asked her what her relationship was with this team and the team in California. She explained that to me. I also pointed out that Tom's role was kinda vague to me. I guess Tom is a contractor who was hired to do analysis and oversee the team. Very odd.

She said that she had only heard "good" things about me. From who ? She said that she knew that I had lunch with Glenn and Jerry the week before. I wonder who told her that ?

She kept digging for anything that I might have seen... any signs of team resentment or favoritism. She said that she had a feeling that something like that was going on. What ? What did she see that gave her that feeling ? I believe that someone put her up to this.

Eventually I told her, "Look, we both know who you are asking about, and I think we both know the answers to your questions." But it would not be appropriate for me to point out a problem where there might not really be one. One thing that I did point out to her was that they took off to the parks the day before without inviting anyone else, whether anyone else wanted to go or not. How did that LOOK to the team member left behind ? Rich and Tom went with them. I also pointed out that each team member has a different personality and different skills, and that these do not make the team weaker, they make it stronger.

Learning new tricks in SAP from Andrea. I will have a few tricks to show Ana and Peggy when (if) I get back to DC-2. Andrea is really good with SAP.

Constantly have to be cautious when you speak in this building. But I am becomming more comfortable working here. I just wish I knew what was going to happen at the end of the three weeks I am here. Oh well, no use worrying about it.

Lake Buena Vista, FL

I wore my new pants to work yesterday and I don't think I even had them on four hours when I ripped one of the seams. As I was sitting down in the nice Aeron chair they have for me, my pocket caught on the arm and it ripped the seam between the pocket and the waist. Atleast it was easily sew back up.

Most of Betsy's work is caught up. I even found time to get Taylor's prices into the Bid Comparison Spreadsheet. Peggy is watching the queue today, Ana will watch it tomorrow and Thursday, and Dawn will (we think) watch it on Friday. I guess they will see that I actually did something all day long ! LOL !

Trying to get sound onRollOver in the Flash version of my website. Problem is that these buttons are movie clips. I inserted the sound into the clip, but it looped and made an aweful sound. The way to fix this will be to create actual button objects and put the sound into the Over frame of the button. That is okay... I have learned enough lessons from this one to make Version 4.1 a real improvement - sound on mouseover, better quality pictures, probably more pages of content too. Plus I can experiment with sound loops and more animation.

Deb and Sonia from Connecticutt (ESPN and ABC) are in the office this week. Today they took off with Tom and Rich to go to the park. Jerry came sauntering by my cube muttering, "Why didn't we get invited to go to the parks?" I just kept my mouth shut. This office is the kinda place with ears on the walls.

Molly Ivins sure is sad to see John Ashcroft go ! Her observation was that he was a man running for senate in Missouri and lost to a dead man (Carnehan died before the end of the senate race and his wife took the seat). Molly said, "If the guy lost a politic race to a dead man, maybe you guys should take that as a hint!" He was only appointed to make religeous conservatives happy. How about Condie Rice ? Failing up ! There are a lot of politicians that believe the White House, NSA, and State should be in a state of tension, but with this change they will all be speaking the same language. Oh well, we've messed up this much, I guess we can go ahead and ruin the whole thing - put the president of North Korea in jail and kill Iranians.

Read on Wired.com today that Congress is trying to pass a new copyright bill that would make it legal to skip objectionable parts of movies (which is legal now anyway), but would make it a crime to skip commercials. These guys are boneheads. They are going to make the Justice Department into counsel for Hollywood and RIAA.

Even though I do have a dynamically loaded plain text news section on my site, I think I will keep this blog because I can put so much more information out here !

Appliance bulb on my range hood finally burned out. It lasted about a year. So, add that to my shopping list along with a can of spray starch and a case of motor oil.

Just 10 years ago if you had told us the world would be running the way it is nobody would have believed you !

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Was too beat to go out on Friday evening. I did have an eventful day !

On Saturday I got two loads of laundry done, and made some incremental improvement to my Flashed website (http://vthigpen.tripod.com/flash_experiment.swf). I noticed that I have a very bad razor burn on the right-side of my neck. Swollen underneathe it too. Took a couple of naps during the day, but in the evening I was feeling feverish and decided to stay home again.

On Sunday I ironed my shirts, vacuumed the floor, and I cleaned the shower stall good. In the afternoon I went to Downtown Disney to see "The Incredibles". There was an art show set up outside too.

In the evening I went out for a couple of beers and came home early - around 9 PM.

Kissimmee, FL

Did not get much work done today. When I got to "Mousecatraz" at 0715 this morning the building was empty... sorta like the mall before the stores open. I found one lady, Bessie, working on the 3rd Floor and I talked to her a bit.

Rich came in around 0915. The others soon followed. I guess some people went to see Mike Eisner speak at Coronado Springs.

I called Betsy and talked to her about her work and what was happening with me. She was led to believe that I was going to continue to work on her commodity ! She is hearing rumors even over in Hong Kong that a Sourcing and Procurement shake up is going to happen soon. I dunno. I will help her as much as I can.

Turns out Ronelda called in sick. Andrea said she would show me how to process the orders. Andrea grew up in Jamaica, is a permanent US resident and is applying for citizenship. She likes cows and has pictures of them all over her cubicle ! She does not eat red meat.

At 11 AM there was teleconference and I was included in that. ESPN/ABC folks in Connecticutt, and some people in Burbank. That was kinda interesting. This IT/telecommunications team does not have a manager here in Florida. Their manager is in Burbank. Because they may be asked to stay late to conference with people in California, nobody is too strict about when they come or go. Nobody cares, but everyone notices Rich coming in late and leaving early. I am going to continue to work my 8 to 5 hours.

Showed Glenn and Jerry the pic I made of Rich's head on Mr. Incredible's body. They loved it ! Andrea did not think it was funny. Ana laughed so hard when she saw it !

Then it was time for the Thanksgiving Lunch at DC-2. I went to my computer and got the bidders sheet out to Paul Sundermann and verified that we had prices from Bill Peters for Lang Combi-Therm ovens on the Bid Comparison Sheet. Then I headed downstairs for the meal.

Everyone was in the Town Haul Room. They had a lot of food put out and a bunch of desserts. We ate and we listened to the woman from Give Kids The World speak to us and show a video.

Davida Heeder signed this weeks time sheet. I discussed my concerns about the work and what I was supposed to do over there vs. what I felt was still expected of me as far as Betsy's work at DC-2. Davida assured me that Betsy is supposed to do her work from Hong Kong while I am away. Funny, no one told Betsy ! That is not right.

When I got back to Team Disney I found e-mail from Matt explaining to everyone that I am not doing Betsy's work and that the team needs to pull together for a week until Betsy gets back. Even if I have to go in on Sunday, or if I finish Ronelda's queue early, I will work on Betsy's stuff for a few hours because what they are doing is not right.

Back at Mousecatraz, Andrea showed me how to get my work started. Most of the orders are actually very easy to process. I got all but 8 orders processed by the end of the day. Also faxed my timesheet to Hi-Tec and learned where the Coke machine is.

The Team Disney Building has a cafeteria, a gymnasium, a cast store, and a lot of space for offices ! I found another elevator at the extreme end of the north tower. Inside I found buttons for 1, 2, 3, 4, and PH. "PH"? Penthouse. No one lives there, it is used for storage.

The cube I work is in very close to the restroom and the mail boxes. TD N357 A is the address to my cube. The place really resembles a cell block, but I just focus in on my computer and the orders I have to process and ignore everything outside of our team.

At the end of the day I chatted with Glenn and Jerry awhile. They both believe that I will be extended again after 90 days pass. Betsy's next trip to HK has not been approved, but it will be, and they are probably right. My chances of remaining a few more weeks are better than the chances of being sent away.

Then as I was leaving I saw Clint the security man at the front desk. Chatted him a while too. Then I came home. I was going to go out tonite, but I am not up to it. Tomorrow I want to wash my truck, buy some pants and socks at Sears, balance my checkbook, and go out tomorrow night. I will probably work on the graphic for my Flash splash screen and work on the slide show some too.

Need to focus in on the meaning of Thanksgiving. For the time being I have a lot to be thankful for.

Kissimmee, FL

Mom called me yesterday around 5:30 PM as I was approaching the toll plaza on the Osceola Parkway. She just wanted to let me know that they were home from Ohio now and that Betty died on November 3. They buried her on the 8th.

I was taking the parkway to get to OBT and to be east of my house in Kissimmee so that I could get my haircut. I got my haircut after only a short wait.

Today Matt took me over to the Team Disney Building. You have seen it, I am sure. It is the big building across from Pleasure Island, the one with the sundial on top of it. That is the corporate building. It is very colorful and inside it is artfully designed, almost playful. But then the formality and heaviness sets in. You begin to understand why cast members refer to it as "Mousecatraz".

I met Ronelda, the woman whose work I will be doing, and I met Andrea, the woman who I will be working with. Rich was not in yet - and he was the one who called the damned meeting ! I told Ronelda, well, you know he has been 'telecommuting'. She was like, "What ? How did YOU know that ?" LOL ! Oh I laughed, and I told her that I knew a lot of things !

Matt tried to introduce me to Glenn Sing, but I had lunch with Glenn last week, then he tried to introduce me to Jerry, but before he could I called out, "Hiya Jerry !" He was surprised that I knew most of them already. It pays to have your homework done.

The Team Disney Building is 5 stories tall, all of the floors are open with little cubicles for the workers, and in the middle is an atrium that runs up and down all 5 floors. If you are loud they can hear you in the lobby. It is a good place to remain quiet and just listen. I have a sinking feeling that I am going to be unhappy in there.

Peggy called Betsy today and we found out that Matt told Betsy that I will be doing her work in addition to all of the IT work while I am at the Team Disney Building. Now, Matt never told ME this. (He has a bad habit of not telling me things) In e-mail I told Betsy that I cannot afford to bitch about things, but if any of her work is going to get done in the next three weeks, she'd better pitch a bitch when she gets back here. If he insists on me doing all of this work I will have to call Hi-Tec and tell them about this strange turn of events. Hi-Tec should be pleased because they could induce Disney to employ another temp worker !

Someone cut the SAP logo out and pasted it to Rich's opponent in a picture of Rick in a wrestling match. The caption read, "The Perfect Creation vs. SAP". I am saving pictures of The Incredibles. I am going to cut out Rich's head and paste it onto the body of Mr. Incredible. But you know me, working in the corporate headquarters building and doing something like this, I will be busted for copyright infringement of a Disney/Pixar animated character!

No plans for the weekend yet. Past few days have been mild and pleasant. Truck needs to be washed and vacuumed out badly.

Kissimmee, FL

Note to self: Do not park the truck under the trees anymore unless you want to have to scrape birdshit off of the windshield again.

Today was a light day for a Monday. No big emergencies. Processed about 14 or 15 orders - very routine. Ana and I had some mischief between ourselves. Talked about politics for awhile. She finally started to read Shrub this weekend and she was remarking how funny Molly Ivins is.

Tomorrow I am getting a haircut on the way home from work. I need a new shower diverter valve too. I may as well stop at Home Depot and get one.

Bought Christmas cards this weekend. Got some nice plain ones at the Dollar Store. You can save alot of money buying cleaning supplies and soap at the Dollar Store.

I would like to take the snow fall effect I saw on Kirupa's site and make a Flash Christmas card that I could e-mail to people. Put it into a projector file that anyone could click on and view. Possibly even create a screensaver with it.

The Flash version of my site is slowly coming along. It is hard to believe I have been working on it for a month already ! If you want to see what I have done so far, cut this URL out and paste it into your browser: http://vthigpen.tripod.com/flash_experiment.swf . Hopefully it will load and display properly for you. I have had some friends test it out for me and they are reporting success.

Was supposed to get to the apartment office on Saturday to sign the new lease and I forgot. I hope I remember to do it this Saturday !

There are only two things that are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I have my doubts about the former. -- Albert Einstein

Kissimmee, FL

Well, the election is over. Senator Kerry has conceded defeat, and the Republicans even gained seats in Congress. Incredibly they have a majority in the Senate and the House now. Those criminals are going to destroy this country in the next four years.

At work it a joke between Ana and me that we refer to Peggy as "Karen Hughes" (Bush campaign publicist). Peggy was so excited about her Republican victory... but it was not what I would characterize as a "mandate from the American people" 52% to 48% is hardly a landside. Bush promised to govern with humility and compassion in 2000... in reality he was arrogant and cruel. Maybe the American people deserve what they are about to get. So easily led - like sheep. But the fanaticism is kind of scary.

Next Wednesday I have to go with Matt over to Team Disney for a meeting with the people who work procurement for the IT Department. On next Friday I will spend a day there working with Adrienne McNair and Ronelda Bahar. I guess I am supposed to work over there for a week or so. Ana says that I will end up very busy. Sure, and just as busy when I get back because nobody will be minding Betsy's stuff while I am gone. He alluded to the idea that a permanent position could be opening up on one of the teams after New Years. Don't hold your breath. I am not sure how I feel about this temp assignment... it is almost like I am being sent over there so that another set of eyes can watch me. I really wonder what they are up to.

No one is going to look out for me better than me. I need to find time to check out the ads in Monster.com. Keep my resume updated and keep it fresh on the job boards.