Long Time...

Wow, it's been quite a while since I last posted. So much has changed in the time between these posts. In this time I have started a new job and officially applied for graduation in this Fall semester. I guess I'll give a little update on both...

The job...
The situation at my previous job began to make me feel uneasy, so I felt I needed a change. I just began to feel like I was not growing and advancing as quickly as I would have liked. On top of that, I was about to be transferred to a new work group for the third time in less than a year. Each time you get transferred you pretty much have to start from scratch as far as building towards a promotion because you have a new boss and a new set of co-workers and you have to learn about what they are doing so you might as well be coming in straight from college. Not a good situation at all...

So the day I found out about being moved I went home and got on Dice.com (excellent source of jobs for you techies looking for work) and started to browse job openings. I saw a posting for a job in Fort Worth doing something that was similar to what I was doing and applied. Low and behold, they called me the next day to set up a phone interview and the rest is history. I've been with my new company for a month now and I am enjoying it. It is a completely different atmosphere and a nice change of pace. If you are feeling unhappy in your current role or position I would suggest you consider making a move. It could literally make you instantly feel better.

School, school, school...
Well, what can I say? I am actually going to finish this whole grad school thing this semester. I have applied for graduation, but there is plenty of work left to do. I am about 75% done developing my simulation. I'm actually taking a break from working on it as I type this post. As soon as I finish my simulation I will be meeting with my professor to fully test it out and come up with some test scenarios so I can execute some runs, gather data, and finally finish writing the paper. Then all I have to do is give the paper to my committee and prepare to defend this thing.

Once all that is done it is one to making that walk across the stage. Maybe I'll do the Soulja Boy when they call my name, haha. I am really looking forward to finishing so I can haev some more free time in my life to be a bum. I'm sure I'll think about a Phd at some point, but not anytime soon. I need some time to be school free. Now that doesn't mean I won't be doing any exciting projects on my own. I mean, I am Black Dilbert for a reason...


So folks, that is what Black Dilbert has been up to lately. I'll be sure to post more often from now on.

Slacking Off..

So the past few weeks I've been slacking off. I haven't made it to the gym to start working off the tire around my waist. I haven't made much more progress on my simulation for my thesis. I've basically done nothing but go to work and come home and sit on my @$$. I need something to light a fire in me so I can get back into the grind of things. I need to start eating right and working out. I need to start setting aside daily time for the thesis. I basically just need to do better than what I'm doing now. I don't know what it is, but this has to stop.

Random...

I've come to the realization that I can be very random. Tonight I was working on my thesis simulation while the wife watched television in the other room. I was doing that most of the night, but soon after wifey went to bed I got the sudden urge to do the dishes and clean... Now mind you it is midnight when this begins. I bust some suds and get the first set of dishes in the dishwasher (we had quite a stack of dishes, don't ask...) and decide that now is the right time to go return movies to Blockbuster and go get some milk and cereal from Wal-mart... So I finally make it home at 1:30am and proceed to go back to the last set of dishes to wash. And now at 3am I'm here typing this entry in my wonderful blog. Man I need to kick this night owl habit...

Frustration, Frustration

If you are ever working and feel like the project is beginning to slip away, speak up or forever hold your peace...

When you feel your project is suffering from misdirection or is not going as planned, you should speak up. You may feel like you are a peon at the bottom of the org chart, but you better believe that when the project is overrun and mandatory overtime kicks in your peon ass will be the one staying day and night....

Here Comes the Consultant

I worked from home today because I had a bit of a sore throat, but in the morning I have to go to work almost no matter what. Why, you ask? Because we have a consultant coming in the morning to step us through a vendor product install.

Now, for those of you who are entering the software development and engineering world will most certainly encounter these scenarios. The boss man will say we need to save money so instead of building something yourself you will buy something existing that already does it. Nothing wrong with that, but in most cases you will need to learn how to use it which is where the consultants come in. They will come in and show you how everything with the product works, which is great but usually these guys come in and throw so much at you that you spend the next two weeks trying to figure out what all they said, lol.

So tomorrow I will be sitting there trying to write down as much as possible while Mr. Consultant shows me how to install a bunch of extra features that we probably will never use. Oh well, I guess it could be worse. I could be killing roaches with Milton in the basement....