Dealing with idiots.

I'm sick of idiots... unfortunately, I am one.

I got an email today. Here's the entirety of it: "What happened to the winSCP Server?? I can't log on!!!" (Yeah. now you know why I get short with people on emails. I get stuff like this all the time.

I hate when someone at work tells me they can't get to "The" FTP server or "The" Web logon or "The" Links site. I manage about 70 of the first two, and I don't know what you're talking about on the third. Why can't they give more information instead of expecting me to read their minds?

So, I send an email back explaining that there are several servers, and to which is she referring?

"The winSCP server that I upload product information to!"

I ignore the fact that winSCP is a client, not a server, and try again to get more information. After about 3 more emails, I finally learn which server she needs access to. I reply:

"Sorry, we had to move that site. Nobody told me you needed access. You need to log in to [address] and use the same username and password."

She replies with "What's the hostname?"

"I just gave you the hostname. It's [address]."

"What is the username and password?"

...

Seriously, what?? Could she be that dumb? At this point, I tell the story to Joel via IM and we discuss how at least she'll survive the zombie apocalypse.

I send her the login credentials again and she replies that it keeps saying 'access denied'. I look it over, then try to log in myself.

>.<

I gave her the wrong address. I'm really, really glad I was polite in the emails while thinking she was a complete dolt, because I'm the idiot.

Fat-tastic

I'm sick of seeing pictures of myself looking much pudgier than my mental self-image. I think it's time I finally take some major steps to fix that.

I figure by publicly posting these, it should help me hold to them better:

1) Fast food: no burger/fries type fast food for a month. Exceptions include casual dates, travel, and when I've been out working all day like when I help my parents with projects on the weekends.

2) Exercise: 90 minutes a week minimum. Mostly I plan to get walking on the treadmill. I'll count half of any time I spend working on my house.

3) I'm only holding myself firmly to this for a month, but if I get in the swing of it, plan to continue through the summer.

Help me accept the things I cannot change...

The other day a friend told me I was not prepared for marriage because I refused to accept blame for something that wasn't my fault. (I think he was 30% joking)

I counter that it isn't an issue of being unprepared, rather it is me enjoying that freedom while I still can.

Thoughts?

Manly Things

All through Jr High and High School, the majority of my friends were female. As a result, I've seen just about every chick flick out there, have helped make flower arrangements, learned to dance, etc. I did decide, however, that there would be some things I would never participate in, just to hold on to some semblance of masculinity.

These things include reading/watching the Twilight series, any kind of "product party", and my biggest holdout of all, Pride and Prejudice.

What is it with P&P? I have never met a girl who didn't love that crap. And it's long. I know girls who would plan a P&P party where they'd watch the 77.5-hour-long PBS version of the thing.

Well, Joel just brought this to my attention.

It may be time to lower the ban.

The House

Ok, it's more than a month overdue, but here's the post about my house:

I bought a house. Actually, I kinda bought two houses. There's the original house, then the add-on "mother-in-law" apartment that's close to the same size. I've got it zoned as a legal duplex now. My friend Joel is renting half.

Seen from the front corner. My half to the left, Joel's to the right

There's an awesome back yard that's totally enclosed because of the way the house is "L" shaped around the corner.

Yard includes a gazebo, fountain, and playhouse.

Now I have somewhere to sleep when my future wife is mad

Here's a panoramic of the backyard that I photoshopped together.

Unfortunately, the wiring is pretty bad, so I've been redoing it.
Holy Fire Hazard, Batman!

I'm also kinda crazy about getting cable and network into all the
rooms, so I've been doing that, too. While I was at it,
I found the poor man's way of doing whole-house audio, so I've been running audio wires as well, and have been installing ceiling speakers.

Several rooms were set up for swag lighting, so the power sockets were tied to a light switch (like a motel). I hate that, so I fixed it, and I've been installing lights in several places that needed it. (Including one bedroom that had no lights whatsoever!)

Lotsa light. Also note ceiling speaker!

I've ripped a whole bunch of holes in the walls to do my wiring, but luckily my friend Daniel used to be a drywall guy, and he's going to help me patch it up, then my sister Judi is going to help me paint. Hopefully, I'll be moved in in the next two weeks. (I've stayed out knowing I'll have to patch and paint)

Examples of my wall destruction. Take that, walls!

I wish I'd had the foresight to do "Before" pics.. I'm going to see if I can't find some of the original MLS pics.

So there you have it! Joel's family is living in the house section currently (we call my half the "Apartment"), so I didn't want to jump in there and take a bunch of pictures. I'll try to get some later.

(Can I note that I hate working with pictures in Blogger? I had to republish 17 times to get this to lay out correctly. Sheesh.)

New Blog Title

The new blog title is a quote from a dream I had the other night. A friend and I were being attacked by a group of evil women, and I told him to go on ahead, and I'd take care of them. He asked what made me think I'd survive, and I told him: "I'm an expert on sirens."

I woke up realizing that it was the truest statement I've ever made.. even in my sleep.

Playing Favorites

Thanks, Jon.

http://lifeofjonali.blogspot.com/2008/12/moms-favorite.html

'nuff said.

Tagged again

I'm sure Christa tagged me because I never update this thing, but here we go...

8 Favorite TV shows:
1. The Office
2. Heroes
3. Mythbusters
4. Futurama
5. Scrubs
6. House
7. Monk
8. Law & Order (any variant)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Wendy's (fast food counts, dangit)
2. Panda Express
3. The Melting Pot (mostly for dessert)
4. Cafe Rio (go go Pork Barbacoa!)
5. Gandolfo's
6. Spaghetti Mama's
7. Denny's (at 3 am)
8. Subway

8 things that happened yesterday:

1. I slept through my alarm
2. I bought an eyepatch to add to my perpetual pirate costume
3. I convinced the CEO to buy me a new iPod cable, since he stole mine
4. I spent 2 hours at lunch watching "The Office" with my team
5. I watched 3 new episodes of Red vs Blue
6. I couldn't see Heroes on Monday, but I recorded it, so I watched that.
7. At night, I record songs myself on my computer. It's a little lame, but I have fun arranging stuff. I finished the last verse backup vocals to "Tongue Tied".
8. I couldn't sleep, so I watched Donnie Darko on demand until about 2am

(wow, there's a lot of "I watched" in there... how exciting am I?)

8 things to look forward to:

1. Cali trip in November. Booked tickets today!
2. Getting my own home
3. Cancun in January, if certain people don't wimp out on me
4. Getting off the IT team completely
5. Being debt-free
6. Finding a girl who can stand me enough to want to marry me
7. Taking a couple days off next week "just because"
8. Kids. I freaking love my nieces and nephews and can't wait to really grow up and have my own.


8 things I love about Fall:

1. It's not hot, it's not cold. I love the temperature
2. Driving to work in the morning when it isn't dark, but it isn't bright
3. Football
4. Not minding having to wear shoes instead of flip-flops
5. Using my heated seats in my car
6. New seasons of my favorite shows
7. I usually do some kind of "fall cleaning", usually because I'm too busy in spring
8. Dressing up like a pirate every stinking Halloween :)


8 things on my wishlist:

1. '69 Stingray Corvette
2. A new desk chair. This one is falling apart.
3. A recording studio
4. The girl mentioned above
5. A monkey butler
6. To find my fondue pot
7. More hard drive space for my movies. (I've almost filled up my terabyte!)
8. Jenna Fischer (take THAT, Christa!)

I'm not gonna do the second tag just now. (hey, why waste another post?)
OK.... Jim/Marie, Amy, Loni, Luke.. I dub thee "tagged"

Welcome to the 21st Century....

So, we all know I'm a techno-junkie, but there are a few things I've held out against. I still do avoid many of them, because they're evil, (cough - myspace - cough) but there are two that I've recently given in to:

Text messaging
I've never been against text messaging per se, but I never understood those that would text all day. I'm starting to get it. I've sent more texts in the last two weeks than I have in the last two years. There's something fun about having a conversation with friends over the course of a day while at work. I also find that I'm much more witty in these texts than I am in person.

Facebook
I know, I know. I told you all to stay away from it. I told you I'd never do it. When one of my old roommates saw me on there, he said: "Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa. This is blowing my mind! Jeremiah Jackson on a social networking site rife with possible viruses! .. I think I felt my brain just break."
Yeah, well. I decided that Facebook, while having the potential of being as evil as MySpace, isn't actually evil, and potential is not enough to judge something. After all, I have the potential to go to Hell, yet I still hope people treat me like a good person. And I was sick of everyone being on there and not me.

So yes, Jer has joined the masses using this techno-stuff. Hope I don't have to call support to figure out how to use it... maybe I'll ask Jon

The girl for me...

So, after my last post, people asked what my criteria for setting me up would be. OK, I’ll bite.

First off, I’d like to point out that I don’t consider myself picky. I don’t really have any physical characteristics that are way important. Tall or Short, blonde or dark, blah blah blah. Minor exceptions would include that girls who are too skinny scare me, and she’s gotta have an attractive face. Now that can be very subjective, so we won’t go too much into that.

I like smart girls. Don’t set me up with airheads. I’m not intimidated if she’s smarter than me, but those sometimes get bored with me. Try to match us intellectually (however intellectual you think I am). I know people don’t mean it this way, but when I get set up with an airhead, I wonder what the person who set us up thinks of me.

Stronger personalities are nice. I’m friends with a lot of shy girls, but I fall for the tough ones. Not necessarily tom boys or uber-aggressive girls, but not the ones who are big wimps. Any girl who can playfully spar with me verbally usually passes the intelligence and toughness test. Note that I said playfully.

Middle-maintenance is the key. Another subjective trait, I know. I like a girl who showers, combs her hair, and attempts to look nice. But it can go too far. The girl who won’t be seen in public without makeup, always wears high heels, and freaks out if her hair gets out of place? Pass.

Activities can vary. I’ll change my routine for a girl I like. You’ve all seen me do it. I’m looking for someone who will encourage me to be better in all things, so it’s ok if she likes to do some outdoor/physical stuff. Obviously some of my favorite things are movies, games (not necessarily video games), and casual hanging out, but I am willing to broaden for the right girl. If you know someone who actually likes video games, call me. Now.

Let me know if there are any other things you’d like to know and I’ll edit this.

One other thing, just because she passes this list, it still may not be great. I know I've talked to many of you about one person in particular who seems perfect, but I just don't feel it. Not to be pessimistic, just pointing it out.

High School Quiz: tag

Ok, found this on Jason's blog. I'm gonna answer the questions, then tag a few people that I want to fill it out on their blogs. Yay, internet fun!

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yeah, Loni, Kelli, Brynn, Luke... uh.. I mean..

2. Did you win anything in Senior's Who's Who? "Most likely to take over the world" It helps to have friends on the yearbook staff

3. What kind of car did you drive? 1981 Chevy Celebrity named "Spike"

4. It's Friday night...where r u? Amy's basement for a video. Or driving around town asking each other "what are we gonna do tonight?"

5. Were you a party animal? I was a party pooper.

6. Were you considered a flirt? Yes. I was much more attractive then.

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir, duh!

8. Were you a nerd? And freaking proud of it.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No, the faculty liked me too much.. I probably should have been, though.

10. Can you sing the fight song? Not high school. Jr high, though.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Any that let me call them by their first name or a nickname. "El Barto"!

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Front/Side Lawn

13.What was your school's full name? Olympus High School

14. School mascot? Titans

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? Sophomore: Debbie Merrill. Jr: Mercedes Wilding. Sr: Kelli Towers

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? I was the KING!

17.What do you remember most about graduation? Loni crying and holding my hand while we sang with Ensemble, Walking with Marti Gray to get diplomas.


18. Where did you go senior skip day? ... every day was senior skip day... 3rd Period, especially.

19 Were you in any clubs? Co-founded the math club. We ate Pie.

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Only 40 lbs or so (yeah, I'm serious)

21. Who was your Senior prom date? Amy Williams. Took my best friend instead of my girlfriend. Best decision ever.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yup.

23. Who was your home room teacher? What's "home room" anyway?

24. Do you still talk to people from school? Pretty much all my friends are from high school...

Ok, so people to do this: Ali (not Jon), Jim, Joel, and Amy Williams. Ready, GO!

I got me this job...

It has occurred to me that many of you don't know what I do for a living. So here's a bit about my job.

I work for a company called My eBiz. We're a part of a bigger company called National Marketing Resources. My eBiz basically provides online marketing tools for people trying to start a business. I take care of all the web-based servers, which include our websites, email, DNS, and customer network issues.

This is Jim:


Jim is on the IT team and shares an office with me. He smells like fish and nobody likes him. (At least that's what I tell him on a regular basis)

My little workstation:

Dual monitors, docked laptop. Lovin' it!

Where the REAL work gets done...

Ok, this is really what I do all day..

The door to our office:
Yes, these signs are up all the time.

And a pic that Jim took when I... wasn't paying attention...

We're moving to a new building in a month or so, so I'll get some pics of that when it happens.

Personalities

So, in response to a comment I made on his blog, Joel asked if I was being personality #1: Smart-ass. I asked if I had other personalities, and he came up with this list:

#1 Smartass Jer
#2 Rage-a-holic Jer
#3 Computer Genius Jer
#4 Jer, the Star-Crossed Lover
#5 Generous Jer, or Jer the Giver
#6 Witty Jer
#7 Lead-foot Jer
#8 Jer the Middle-Aged Chinese Woman (I've never met her personally)
#9 Jer the Singer
#10 Jer Who Does the Other Musical Stuff Like Play Guitar
#11 Surly Jer, who beats people up for insinuating he has multiple personalities
#12 Jer the Chef, specializing in cold-cuts and fast food

So I've decided to do a series of posts about these personalities. Before I do, does anyone have anything to add or modify on this list?