Yes, Odn is alive and well. Many things have happened since the last post. Including…

• Ended the World of Warcraft obsession and freed up 6+ hours each day. I believe I overdosed for quite awhile and finally reached the point where I felt I had experienced everything I wanted in this game. Level grinding to 60, no thanks. Since there is no ending I suggest making up your own (if you are extremely goal oriented like me) or playing very casually and enjoying for a longer period of time with friends.
• Finding out a family member may expire before their numerals reach the answer to life the universe and everything. The optimist in me believes they will come through although those around me are not quite as hopeful.
• Resuming the great VHS escape project. Hundreds of hours of ancient cartoons, old commercials and the occasional Ewok Adventure all in very good condition. The goal is to digitize all of it, ditch the tapes and make a dent in the herculean tasks of cleaning the Odn Stables. Only seven tapes left to convert!
• The realization (through great Parr research) that after two years of hard study and the potential extinction of our savings would leave me looking for a job in an industry that churns out a lot of bad titles, demands 80+ hours a week and pays less than what I’m currently earning.
  • I got married for a reason folks, to be with Parr and believe me, she is infinitely more rewarding than a killing myself for a career. I think I’ll do things on my own terms, make things I want to make and enjoy the experience instead of depending on it.
• Finished the live broadcast of a rather graphic knee replacement surgery. Taking live audio/video streams, encoding them, splitting streams to internal servers and external partners along with many other assignments. I’m damn proud of myself and must say that my realm in this major production went puurfectly. Major, major brownie points at work, especially figuring we have saved many, many thousands of dollars vs. the old style of doing these productions.

I had put off a proper vacation until after the live broadcast and now I find myself drunk with lack of sleep, highly elated at finishing this gauntlet and looking forward to relaxing properly tomorrow night. Life feels slightly reset, as if I can assign new stat points after a major XP gaining quest.

Tonight I sleep good and tomorrow I breathe a sigh of relief, do a bit of work, maybe some lunch off campus and have a night of free thinking. Ah, yes, that will do nicely Mr. Odn.

Nighty!

…me, tears at my lungs and drags me down. For each problem solved, a new one arises and claws at me with renewed vigor. It has been this way for quite a while now. I no longer remember how this started or even care. Only the fight is left and with the help of stimulants and bone weary determination I will vanquish my foe!

Actually, the only reason I can make this posting today is because things finally went really well. It started with a quick-fire triple semi-major problem solve followed by oodles mini task completions. Things went so well that I actually left work at 6:30pm and not 9pm as usual.

Of course, being the salary man that I am lately, work does not stop once I get home. I take a quick break, maybe squeeze in a Dr Who episode, Japanese Drama/Comedy or just leave a comforting MST3K vid running while I get back to work via our VPN.

Armed with this VPN (Vital Personal-time Neutralizer?) I have been working till 2-3am reliable, even on some weekends.

Ack! It burns me. My muscles atrophy from lack of exercise. My gut twists from a bad diet and my eyes water from the electro glow of a million monitors.

I know it’s bad for me and I know I grow more inefficient when I push past a certain human limit. I just can’t seem to stop sometimes. My guilt, my honor demands that I keep pushing for the good of my tribe. One more victory, one more battle. Tomorrow will be a rest day…

*alarm buzzes*

No… time… for rest… must get to work.

*Odn stumbles out of bed, leans against a cool calming wall and stares blearily into the bathroom mirror. An aging man looks back with remorse on his face.*

When did I start looking like this?

*Odn runs a veiny hand through his thinning hair, shakes off the fear and stumbles into the shower*

Tomorrow will be a rest day. I promise.

—dust—

As in the sound Ms. Pac-man makes as opposed to the Fozzy Bear image in your mind. Why Ms. Pac-man? Well because I had to work on these cheap kiosks at work and quite frankly I needed a break from their undocumented ways. I mean I can understand a certain level of quality is expected or perhaps overlooked when you order from cheapkiosks.com (not my recommendation by the way) but please, how about an instruction manual on how to wire the thermal printer? Must each person assembling it have a comfortable knowledge of computers and electrical wiring?

I wouldn’t mind so much if this was a project done on my free time or if I had to build a cabbage launching device with the A-Team, but please, not for work. They pay me to be professional, not run Junkyard Wars.

Speaking of being professional at work… everyone kept suggesting that the kiosks looked like video game cabinets. These comments became so prevalent that I just had to bring them to life in the form of one very expensive and slightly, um… misused piece of equipment. The 2.4 GHz Pentium IV powered MAME emulator!

It’s a good thing we had those extra 2.397 GHz too. The emulator is set to mimic a 3 Mhz CPU and the left over cycles could come in handy to keep the frame rate up during those daring getaways through the side tunnels on either side of the screen.

My job may be hard sometimes but the fun factor can’t be understated.

Batduck is very good at Street Fighter 2. He actually beat the CPU with one punch key before we figured out how to remap the keys!

By my estimates, the arcade machine emulator has killed at least 5 hours of other employee’s productivity! Teehee!