What a Couple of Weeks!

Last Friday I was toolin' down I-680 to work at 7:30 am trying to make it for the bi-monthly meeting and suddenly my engine light went on. I noticed it and wondered how long it had been on. I searched all my gauges and found that my water temperature gauge was so hot it was off the scale!
The smart thing would have been to immediately pull over and call for a tow. But I panicked and kept going to the nearest exit (5 miles later). I pulled onto Durham Rd. heading for Fry's Electronics and just a block away white steam billowed out from under my hood. I freaked out and pulled over into a ditch near a merge sign on a very busy thoroughfare.
I shut off the engine for 15 minutes and then tried to get back into traffic only to discover that every person on that road was a complete asshole and wouldn't let me in. I eventually forced my way in (water gauge still hot) and finally made it to the parking lot of Fry's where I heard the horrid sound of rattling in my engine just as I turned off the engine.
I got out and inspected the engine. There was a hole in the reservoir where I figured the steam was coming from.
Having no roadside assistance plan, I called 411 for a towing company and contacted U-Save Towing. 20 minutes later RC showed up with his truck. RC is a black guy who had worked for various towing companies over the years. I pulled my car onto his 50 degree incline burning rubber on the front tires trying to keep it from falling back. RC chuckled. "You got it. You ain't going anywhere." he said.
During the ride to the nearest auto shop, RC told me of his experiences in Modesto and the Central Valley vis-a-vis Fremont and the Greater Bay Area. He was convinced that people in the bay area were nicer than those in the central valley. I agreed. We then talked about racism and the economy. Talked about global warming and the changes in the weather. He said, "Here I am, a black man, talking to you, a white guy. Two people who probably would never speak together except for the intervention of fate. I know people in Modesto who are angry with me and speak badly to me simply because I have dark skin. But my question is: Why don't people use whatever anger they have inside them and use it to fight global warming, or fight fat cat corporations, or back a particular candidate, or something that really matters instead of hating minorities for something we never did? It's stupid."
I nodded my agreement. He was very fair with me and charged me a mere 58 dollars for the tow. When Family Garage opened, he left shaking hands and exchanging names. Martin emerged from the garage, a latino man who spoke good English. I told him my radiator blew and I needed a new resevoir. He said he would look at it and would probably be done around 11:00am.
My situation at work was bad. I had several calls open, a couple that were a week old and one that I could not seem to fix. I missed the meeting (I later found out it was nothing but a bad news session), and will now be throwing more money into The Beast that was my '97 Honda Accord.
I ate a good breakfast at Dino's Family Dining (what's with the whole family thing in Fremont, anyway?) and walked and walked... and walked. The temperature steadily rose to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and Martin wasn't done at 11. He was done at 4:30 pm.
He replaced the radiator and charged me 222 dollars. Not bad, except he wanted that in cash. He had no way to process credit or debit cards. I wish he had said this before. So, I wander out into the heat and coax 240 dollars out of an ATM at a 76 station. (It took two transactions since most ATM machines only allow $200 max.)
Martin didn't have a reservoir so he epoxied the cap on and sealed the hole. A temporary fix until the weekend.
So, I go to Game Kastle on Coleman Ave in San Jose and wait for the traffic to subside and the weather to cool down. I left at 7:00pm and made it home in an hour. All that time my water temp gauge was oscillating between just under the half mark to hot. As long as I kept moving, I was fine, but if I stopped or ascended a hill, the temp would rise.
Saturday: I go to Premier Auto and Tire in Manteca and guess what? They don't have a reservoir either. They have to order it from the dealer. So I have them take a look at the damage and they noticed melted plastic wiring which they repaired as well as replaced the headlight they were supposed to fix last weekend.
Again, the water temp gauge is all over the place and it's getting worse.
Monday: I kick ass on calls in an effort to catch up. I have to turn off my engine twice in traffic to keep from overheating.
Tuesday: I take two hours off work to find out if the shop has my reservoir. Nope. However, en route to work an hour later they call to inform me that they do have the part. Oh well, looks like tomorrow. I do an install for BAE Systems, fix one of their copiers, and a couple other calls. I then go to Game Kastle (again to wait for traffic and the heat to subside) and play a cool game of Federation Commander ( a newer and better version of StarFleet Battles). I met three friends who were veterans of the game and they were looking for new players. What luck! I played a Lyran Cheetah Frigate and Destroyer against a Federation New Command Cruiser and a Kzinti New Battlecruiser. My partner had a Lyran War Cruiser and another Cheetah Frigate. We won but it was a hard fought battle. It was 10:00pm and I was still in San Jose! I made it home by 11:00pm and went to bed.
Wednesday: I go back to Premier Auto and Tire. They install the reservoir and thermostat. They let go of my car at 2:30pm so it was too late to get to work. However, the water temp gauge was slower at getting to hot but it was still getting there. Can anyone fix this fucking car?
I got three new calls on top of the three old ones I had. So tomorrow will be another busy bee day. Let's see how much I can accomplish with all this bullshit going on....

Past Becomes Present

Well, where do I begin?
My biological father who I have never seen (except in one b/w photo) in nearly 40 years called me this past weekend.
After talking with him for about two hours I realized that I have another family living in Kentucky replete with aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, sisters and cousins.
This is strange.
But, this is how I wanted it to happen. I always wondered how it would happen and I have to say that so far it's going well.
The worst case scenario would have been that I died meaning it was too late for him to contact me or he died meaning it was too late for me to contact him. And the whole reason it took so long for me is because I had no idea how the rest of my biological father's family would take it. I didn't want to break the news to them that he had a 'love child' in the sixties. I think his wife would show me the business end of a shotgun.
Luckily, his family (mine as well) took it maturely and we are having continual correspondence. I feel like a missing jigsaw puzzle piece finally has been found and it fits!
There is a strange completion here.
I intend to visit them at the soonest opportunity. I'll relate my experience as soon as that happens.

Au revoir!

Top Ten List

10 Things I have learned since January:

10) My teeth are rotting out of my skull.

9) The best iPod earbuds are the ones with the rubber domes on them (they have to be large size and you have to press them into your ears until it hits the stirrup).

8) I love my job.

7) I hate my commute.

6) I'm getting back into video games and am thinking of buying a new PC desktop.

5) I will no longer build computers for ANYONE. including family. (The liabilities are too great).

4) No wife and no kids make Brian a happy boy.

3) 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons looks promising, but I will not torture my players until 2010.
2) I can't wait to see Heath Ledger's final film: Brokeback Batman.

1) Do NOT. NOT EVER. IF YOU VALUE CASH or CREDIT. GO to Tracy Honda! They will make up shit to fix and skin you alive. I am not making this up, and I am not the only one in Tracy who knows this. CAVEAT EMPTOR.

Returning Home

Well, it has been a pleasant experience here at Huntington Beach. Hold on...

A woman just came down here in the Woodfin Lobby talking to her scrapbook coterie and she REEEEEEKS of body odor and whatever fucked up perfume she picked up at Big Lots. Holy Jeezus Christ!

I am now struggling with olfactory demons to type out this post. Excuse me.

After a week of NO ROOMMATE (yay!) and decent, complimentary hotel food which has added some poundage to my already hefty frame, I have scored a 100% on the final exam!

The genius next to me (who happened to be my partner in lab) got all pissed off when he got his test back and scored a mere 92%. He fumed about it for quite a while. This guy was totally non-emotional the whole week until this happened. Now, the storm was in.
I learned a lot and I am glad I came. It was part vacation, part work. Can't really complain.
I just hope that my flight home is less eventful as my trip here.

Tomorrow, I get to run my D&D game in Yuba City with the Boyz. And a three-day weekend to boot.

Good Times.

I'm at Huntington Beach! aka Brian fumbles and bumbles his way through life...again.

Let me preface this by saying that I have only traveled twice (now thrice) since 9/11, but I have never gone through the horseshit that I had to go through to get a puddle-jumper to John Wayne airport.
First of all, all of your liquids and toiletries have to be in plastic ziploc bags. I didn't have to do this before! So now I have to yank all my crap out of my bag and re-organize it. All this -- in line! I threw away my hair spray can (which was nearly full) because they would'nt let it onboard without checking it in, as well as my normal size tube of Crest toothpaste, forcing me to buy another tube from the concierge at my hotel. In doing all this, I misplaced my hardbound book "The Pope and The Heretic" about the inquisition of Giordano Bruno. I would love to see the look on the person who found that book just lying around....
Then I had to pull my laptop out of its bag, remove my shoes, all metal on me, my coat, my iPod, everything, and put them into these grey, plastic barfbuckets. Then they get destroyed through the x-ray machine and you get them back. Now you're taking another 15 minutes getting all your shit back together and hope you didn't forget something. In fact, while I was waiting for my flight, I heard the intercom rattle off four times about someone missing a belt, a watch, a key ring, and a cell phone.
The flight to the OC (God, I hate that term, let's call it what it is... Orange Fucking County) did not involve my passing out (like the trip to Seattle did) or getting sick (like the trip to Kansas City did) but upon debarkation I was stone deaf for about 30 minutes. I am of the opinion that it is the pressurization of the cabin that affects me more than the motion of the airplane. However, I did get a window seat and the view was fantastic.
It was a fabulous day when I arrived at John Wayne. It was like summer! Here I was in my coat and I had to instantly remove it. I swear you would not know it was January here. Right now I have my patio door open and can hear the fountain playing outside near the pool. Weird.
I am to share my apartment (hotel room doesn't quite do it justice) with another employee, but he has not arrived yet. But I have one more faux pas to add before I close...
The concierge told me that Happy Hour was from 5pm to 7pm at the bar. So at 5:15 pm I saunter over to the bar and notice a congress of people watching the big screen TV Chargers game (it was already over, they were highlights on Fox). I noticed there were cheese and crackers and a vat of pasta nearby. So, I get a plate and dig in. As I sit down to eat, I notice that no one is being overly talkative or social. Well, that's normal where strangers meet. I kept looking for the complimentary beer. Where is the beer? These guys had Heinikens and Guinesses. Where are they? I finally found four Heineken cans in a sad looking tray with a smattering of melted ice within. Just as I reach for one, one of the guys call out to me (This just proves the old adage that you can touch another man's food, but NOT another man's beer). "Hey! Those are our beers!" What? I then retorted apologetically, "I surmise that I also ate your food." "Yeah." he replied. After I turned red and apologized for five straight minutes, I ungracefully left the scene. They were cool about it, though. I did tell them before I left that the concierge informed me that Happy Hour was from 5 to 7pm. "Yes," they added, "but only on weekdays." You see, today is Sunday. A small point that the concierge omitted to my chagrin.
So, I sheepishly left and decided to write about it on this blog. I'll let you know how my week at Huntington Beach goes as it progresses.

Day of Disaster (relatively speaking)

Well, today was my first day solo at KM. Here is the list of BS that transpired in chronological order:
1) Got up 1 hour late
2) Commute is vastly different from 6 am to 7am.
3) First rain of the year = dumb California drivers
4) Go immediately to first client, sit around for an hour waiting for people to call me to give me a contact. I finally wise up and fish around for it on my laptop. Bingo!
5) Meet person at site who asks if I am new. I answer yes. Her reply: "You took my job!"
6) Supervisor calls and gives me a service call that is Make or Break for the account.
7) Break my laptop reaching for my phone.
8) Cannot navigate said phone.
9) Get lost en route to second client.
10) Call second client and midway through my voicemail I realize I do not know my own phone number. I hang up.
11) I call back after I figure out my number. Mailbox is full.
12) I show up at second client to repair a copier? NO! Install a fax machine.
13) First contact wants me to install an ADDITIONAL fax. I create two phone lines.
14) Higher ranking contact stops me and tells me it's a replacement fax.
15) I set it up and leave.
16) I get lost again to Call #3. End up at right client but wrong facility (they have several scattered throughout San Jose).
17) Time to install another fax machine, this time with torn out controller board, network board and Ethernet port.
18) No one answers their phones and every building I'm in is shielded.
19) Successfully install fax machine. Correctly connect it to their network.
20) Have lunch at Sizzler. Take power nap.
21) Fetch more parts from second client. Get asked questions I cannot answer.
22) Go back to the branch office where supervisor fixes my laptop and orders parts for me.

The End.

I think tomorrow they're having me ride with someone. That is good.
They said I did a good job out there, but I still have much to learn. We'll see how it goes.
Oh, I forgot #23...

23) Come home and get a letter in the mail from the County of Stanislaus. I didn't get the IT Tech position for the Sherriff's Dept. They were looking for 85% on their Quality Interview and I only scored an 84.8%.

Just When You Thought I Was Dead...

Where do I begin?

How can I sum up everything that has happened to me since February?

I'll just hit the highlights.

I quit my job with PIS which became PDS. I quit on July 30th. I then blew some cash in Monterrey (seafood, live music, Guinesses, women -- I mean, woman). Immediately started looking for a job thereafter.
Just before I quit, I signed up for some classes at WGU (Western Governors University), an online college, for my B.A. in Education and Social Science. That shit failed right out the gate. This is what I get for listening to Dennis Hopper talk about 'the American dream' on those finanical commercials. I could almost hear his trademark 'Ha ha haaaa ha!" as I failed.
How did I fail you ask?
Here is their 3-unit course for 'Speech 101': Write a report on any topic. Attach an annotated bibliography. Do some primary research (i.e. interview some big wig on the topic). Then after you finish the report, film yourself talking for ten minutes on the subject with an audience asking two questions. Oh, and make sure all that doesn't take up more than 10 MB of space.
And what did I pick for my illustrious topic? In my brownnosing effort to impress the teachers, I chose a comparative essay on modern America vis-a-vis ancient Rome. I was halfway through this report before my mentor informed me that the teachers were not grading on topic but on understanding of how to write a report.
Gee... thanks for the heads up.
This was a fiasco from the get go. So I have now quit (effective this past week) after having done absolutely NOTHING toward my degree in the interim due to my job search and fighting depression.
Now I am getting the bill for all the money I borrowed from the government to go to this two-bit institution.
I don't know who I was kidding thinking I could go to school at this point in my life. My schooling is done. Jeezus, I'm 39.
Now for better news: I have recently found employment with Konica Minolta as a copier repair tech (actually the title is Customer Imaging Specialist). I do have to commute to San Jose from Tracy (a 90 to 120 minute commute), but the group I work with are so cool (not to mention the company itself) that I feel it is more than worth it. It's all Rite-Aid was but without the on-call bullshit. I scored. Finally, a job that fits me.
As an aside, I must digress. Once again, I was working a stint at Hobbytown USA in Tracy prior to finding my career. This is the second time this has happened and I think John and Audrey are going to start a headhunting business if this keeps up. What can I say? Hobbytown USA is a lucky place for me. (Though John hit close to the mark when he said that he thought it was due to my fervent desire to escape working there for minimum wage).
All I know is if I didn't get a job that WEEK, I was packing up for Yuba City. It came that close.

I am playing SimCity Societies now. I nice game for people tired of shooting idiots online. And not as detailed as Sim City 4. I am creating a city right now that is a combo Capitalistic society and Knowledge (with a dash of Authority and Spirituality for good measure). It's pretty cool.
Most games these days are asking for dual-core processors and Windows Vista to run. Guess I'm gonna hafta fork out another WAD O' MONEY for an upgraded system.

I'll try to post some Christmas photos next post.

Until again,
Merry Christmas!