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or Why I can’t get anything done.

You see, tonight was supposed to be the night that I finally took care of some things that need to be done. Paperwork filed, paperwork filled out, bills paid, apartment cleaned, and doing it all in a reasonable amount of time so I could actually get to bed before midnight (haha).

(As a side note, I really wish I could go back to the days of going to bed at 3, 4, or even 5 am. And to think, many of those late nights were simply due to Nick-at-Night reruns).

So what did I get done? Hah. Well, I got a haircut (good), fixed some dinner and ate (good), cleaned up from dinner (not too hard, especially when using paper plates), and surfed the web a little (I’m a total junky when it comes to tech news/editorials/etc.). Then, I actually did get some of my paperwork filed.

And that’s about it.

You see, after dinner, I sat down in front of the TV with my laptop, still doing a little surfing, and one of my friends IMed me. So I continued surfing and talking (and watching Law and Order on USA). This went on FAR longer than I intended (and even after I had told my friend I was actually going to go and get some things done).

Next I called my mom. You see, Kelsey had mentioned that I should check out Skype for calling home (after I had been griping about using all of my daytime minutes on my cell phone… free nights/weekends don’t do you a whole lot of good if you have to call home before 7pst/10est). So, I downloaded it, paired my Bluetooth headset with my laptop (originally purchased for my cell phone, but I figured that this was as good of a use as any).

We proceded to talk for over an hour. Of course, I was filing paperwork at the same time, so that time wasn’t totally unproductive. None the less, my rate of productivity slowed considerably. That said, it was good to talk to her. And Skype worked pretty well. There were a few times that she couldn’t hear me, but to be honest I’m not sure if that was because of Skype or the Bluetooth headset (it’s a great little thing, but I’ve had some issues with it… the signal between it and my phone or computer seems a little weak. Granted, Bluetooth is a short range system, but still… I should be able to be next to my computer or have my phone in my pocket without having problems).

With all that said, as usual, most of the unproductivity is completely, utterly, and totally my fault. As previously mentioned, I’m a total tech junky, so I had to figure out some things. Could I use my phone (Motorola RAZR v3c – Verizon) as a modem with my laptop, using Bluetooth to connect them (I already knew that I could use a USB cable, but that’s so ineligent). The answer was, after a little tweaking, yes, I could. It’s a little flaky (sometimes it logs in successfully, other times it doesn’t. I may have fixed it, I’m not sure). Could I enable the OBEX profile so I could download pictures from its camera to my computer over Bluetooth? (Not easily… it seems that Verizon has intentionally disabled OBEX on the RAZR and most of their other phones). Could I at least get it so I could sync my phone and computer calendar? (Yes… but, word is that Verizon’s firmware for the RAZR is, well, buggy in the Calendar application. Apparently transferring a large number of contacts between the phone and computer can hose the phone. I, of course, threw caution to the wind and enabled it. Hopefully it works out).

Having addressed the critical issue of phone/computer integration, I had to see if I could set up my spare inkjet printer to be shared over my wireless network using my Airport Express (which I originally purchased so that I could easily stream audio from iTunes on my Mac to my stereo in the living room. It works great). Yes, that means I put a printer in my living room. Why not? I had a spare printer, I had an Airport Express. Makes sense to me.

Of course, it didn’t just work when I plugged it in. It seems that HP’s driver doesn’t support using that printer with the Airport Express. And it seems that there isn’t an open source driver for the printer, though the gimp-print HP Deskjet 900c driver works… but not well. Photos look pretty bad.

After solving those two critical issues, it was, of course, time to get ready for bed. Since even that would have been productive (kind of), I decided to blog.

And now that I’ve completely demolished my list of things I wanted to get done, I’m going to bed.

Ok… I admit it. I’m a slacker. And it’s clearly not your fault that I haven’t posted lately (though my last post did get the peer pressure going again, which is partly why I’m posting again, so I suppose it worked). And my gripes about the weather might have been a little pre-mature, so I guess that’s not your fault either. See, since that post, the weather has been perfect pretty much every day (minus some haziness in the morning, but that’s no surprise).

I guess what I’m saying is, it’s not your fault. Sorry.

So, let’s see here… what’s new? Sadly, not a whole lot. Last Sunday I checked out a new church out here. It was alright, but not exactly what I’m looking for. I’m hoping I can find a church like my one back in Ann Arbor, something with a contemperary worship service, preferably that primarily ministers to people my age. So we’ll see. Hopefully I can find something.

A couple of weekends ago, I met up with a couple of friends from high school that are out here in southern california, Kayte and Meredith. Kayte moved out here about 6th months ago, and Meredith is out here for a summer internship. Anyway, since they’re up in the LA area and I’m down in north San Diego county, we decided to meet up in Laguna Beach, which is about half way between here and there (about an hour drive for all of us). After driving around forever to find a place to park (the only public parking is metered, and all the meters have 3 hour limits…), we finally found a couple of spots in a residential neighborhood and walked down into town. We walked around a little bit, found the beach, and walked up and down it for quite a while, talking and catching up. After sitting on the beach for a while, watching the kids playing in the surf (especially the boogie-boarders, they take it pretty seriously), we decided to get some dinner, which was delicious. We had all heard of fish tacos (something that at least I hadn’t heard of back in Michigan), but none of us had ever had them before. On a whim I decided to try them, and they were amazing. Now you have to understand, while I’m a fan of mexican food, I’m not a fan of fish in general. Still, they were delicious, and I’ll have to have them again sometime (though probably not at the same restaurant lol). After dinner, Meredith and Kayte wanted to do some shopping, but it was about 7:30 or 8, and pretty much everything was closed, so we found a patio overlooking the ocean and talked and watched the sun go down. All in all, it was a pretty sweet day, and really good to see old friends. We all agreed that it was pretty random that we would all end up out here, and that we should do it again, so sometime in July I expect that we’ll be getting together again.

Other than that, not a whole lot’s been going on. Work is work, and I’ve discovered that there’s not a whole lot of day left once you take sleep, getting ready for work, work, getting home from work, and having dinner. It’s weird, because I never really felt that way when I worked for DCO, even when I was working full day shifts during vacation or whatever.

Oh, and you know how I mentioned in my last post that I wasn’t going to get paid for 3 weeks, even though I’m on a bi-weekly pay schedule? Well, I got my first pay check on Friday (yay!), including my sign on and relocation bonuses, so I was pretty happy. Not to mention, it meant that I would be able to pay off the credit card bill from my move out here. So imagine my frustration (ARGHHHHHHHHH) when, to my surprise and dismay, I got to the bank, and they told me that, since I have a new account (imagine that, I just moved here!), that they were going to put a hold on the ENTIRE amount until the check cleared.

/sigh

No, really. Let’s face it, we all know I need peer pressure to update my blog. See, the way it works is, you post on your blog, I don’t, then you guilt trip me and harass me until I do.

See? It’s all your fault.

But alas, I’m posting anyway, because I’m a good guy. Or because I stopped being lazy. Take your pick. (… moving on…)

I’m pretty well settled in now (minus the lack of furniture… though I have added a computer desk, office chair, and dining room table and chairs). The bad news is, the bills are starting to roll in. The worse news is, though I started work on Monday, I don’t get paid for (/sigh) 3 weeks. But, assuming I actually get paid on time (everything else is taking forever… still don’t have my security badge, just today got my benefits fixed in the computer system, don’t have a key to my office (which I found LOCKED this morning…)) I’ll be fine. That is to say, I’m not too worried.

Work… well, work is boring. Today was better, because they finally gave me something, you know, to DO. Monday – Thursday were filled with the occasional meeting/briefing/orientation, and with me attempting to read the company policy manuals without falling asleep (amazingly I succeeded… just imagine if I had managed to stay awake in my classes!) My manager seems pretty cool (definitely not one to stand over anyone’s shoulder and micro-manage), and he’s a computer engineer too, so that’s cool (there are a ton of electrical engineers around… strange people that actually enjoy Electricity/Magnetism stuff). I still don’t really know many people in my group (I’d recognize them if I saw them, and might even remember their name… maybe), but that’s mostly because I spent all week in my office staring at my computer screen, and not actually interacting with anyone.

Like I said, I was actually given something to work on today, which was good (there was no way I was going to be able to stay occupied today if today had been a repeat of the rest of the week) and bad. Bad because now I have something that I actually have to accomplish. I’d elaborate more, but I’m not sure how much I can say, soooo… yeah. At least it’ll keep me busy for a while, even though it’s not what my first choice would have been as far as type of work.

Oh, and one more thing. I have been completely and utterly deceived. Again, I blame you.

And the media. And the universe.

You see, I’d been led to believe that SoCal was, well, paradise in the weather department. Weather.com’s average temperatures deceived me. Pop culture’s depiction of the area deceived me. All of you that professed to be so jealous deceived me. And yes, the universe deceived me.

You see, we drove across the entire US in the middle of a heat wave. 90s almost every day once we left Iowa. When we got to this area (hence forth referred to as San Diego, even though that’s not strictly where I live, I’m up the coast about 30min), it was gorgeous. High 70s to the mid 80s. Sunny. Cool ocean breeze. For at least 2 weeks.

Needless to say, I believed that this was the way May and June were. Beautiful weather, a full 2 months before summer actually hit in Michigan? Heck yeah!

Except, it seems, that I was misled. Apparently, the pattern is something along the lines of “May grey, June gloom.” NOT exactly what I had in mind. Since Monday, it’s been cool (upper 60s), overcast (think MI in the winter), and misting off and on, sometimes constantly (not even a real rain, to say nothing of a storm). And, as I’ve been informed, this is the way May and June are.

Now a couple people that have lived out here longer actually had nice things to say about this weather. A nice change, nice to not have to worry about sunscreen as much, fewer tourists.

As someone from Michigan, where grey is a season, I’m less than amused.