06/02/99

Later…

By the way, I really, really hate UPS. Let me explain why… I ordered Civ:CTP from Loki [archive.org link] a couple of weeks ago. It arrived at my house last Thursday around noon (I didn’t know this), and I got a call that night saying “what is your buzzer #?” (I guess that looking on the waybill and looking on the board for my last name was too hard for them). Anyway, I gave it to them, and was told to expect the package before 5 Friday. Fine, no problem whatsoever. So I call them at 5 on Friday saying “where is my package?”. I’m told that they don’t have the buzzer # and can’t deliver it. groan. So I give them the buzzer # again to make sure that it arrives on my doorstep on Monday. Now, while I had been working that week at home I wasn’t sure if I would be at the office or not so I asked if I could change the destination address when I find out monday morning. I’m told sure, no problem.

I work at the office monday, waiting for my package. It doesn’t arrive. I call that night, wondering where it is, and I’m told that address changes take 24-48 hours to take effect. ARGH! Ok, no problem, I’m told to expect the package by Tuesday most likely, or Wednesday night for sure. It’s now 1pm on Wednesday, and I call again to make sure that I’ll get it today, and to check their “up to the minute” tracking.

When I call at lunch I’m told that there is no destination address. WTF? Apparently when I gave the lady my workaddress to send it to she didn’t actually enter it into the system, and the package (containing my Civ:CTP in case you’d forgotten) was sitting in the Vancouver UPS office because they don’t know what to do with it (even though my work # was attached to the shipping number). So I gave the UPS peon my work address again and was told that they’d fax the information out to the office right away, and it “would” be delivered tomorrow by 5pm.

All I can say is “it better be.”

Another semi-exciting day in the life of me(tm). Spent today upgrading some of our clients. That went quite well, with only a couple of little gotchas that we hadn’t encountered in the office (which were promply fixed). A bit of coding in deep hack mode getting an online business searching thingy going and it was 6pm! Yay! time to go… eerhm… well, close down my work telnet sessions anyway. Sometimes working at home doens’t have the thrill of leaving work that working in the office does (note to boss if you’re reading this: this doesn’t mean I don’t like working at home ok?).

Went out with Iambe and a friend who is out from Alberta Pommie [archive.org link]. He took us out to dinner (!!) and we all caught up and generally had a good time just getting oot and aboot. Came home, worked out (go forearms go!) and then (as in now) finished up some email/stuff that had to be done before going to do that sleep thing that my bed keeps telling me to come over and do. Tomorrow I get to go to the office and then sometime (maybe) go into vancouver (to do more upgrades? your guess is as good as mine). The good news is that the business stuffs that the boss-person has been working on is pretty much done and we’ll all be getting a real salary again! whoho! good boss… gooooooood boss….

A black cat has been hanging around outside lately. I went out to say hi to it the other day and it’s not in all that good shape 🙁 One eye is all puffy and gooped shut and it’s got some old scars and nicks. I’m pretty sure it’s not a neighbor cat that’s wandered over for mooching of love food. If it is I plan to have words with that neighbor about their treatment of their pets (grrrrr). I cleaned it’s eye a bit with a cloth (must get some polysporin (sp?)) and fed it and petted it. It’s very friendly. Not the most beautiful of cats (pure black, nicks and cuts, generally dirty…) but a very friendly one. Maybe abandoned by people moving or something. Since I’ll be moving out of here in the next 6 months or so (with roomiewife having a kid and all they’ll need all the room they can get, and I don’t want to be here with a screaming kid at 3am), maybe I’ll take the cat with me. I left a note on the building bulliten board for the owner to call me, in case it’s lost or something, but I don’t thin it has an owner. Of course, I’ll have to get it to the vet, get it all cleaned up and have it’s shots etc, and hope that it and corny like each other… Hopefully if I get a basement suite (with an ADSL connection of course) there’ll be a backyard for the cats to go into. Finally corny’ll have some new stuff to explore (though I worry about him and roads and cars, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it).

Oh, and contratulations Iambe [archive.org link] on your new job, even if it is with bleah realtors!