Bickety Bam

Quick Coffee Rant

2008-01-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

So i go into Starbucks today on my last break to get myself a chi latte. Now my rant is not the fact that they use 3 words that mean large for their sizes. My rant is the fact that whenever i order a tall they give me this look like i am an idiot. They hold up the small cup and say, "Are you sure, this is our tall." Of course i am sure, i can see on your menu that the grande, being the tallest, costs more then the tall therefore being larger. Or is this their elitist way of trying to upsize me to a larger size.

Look i am not the idiot (probably French) that decided to come up with this ridiculous naming system. But I conformed anyway. If you don't want to have to ask every customer, "Are you sure?", just go to a normal naming convention.

Now just give me the drink i ordered without trying to squeeze more of my money on an already overpriced hot beverage.

2007-12-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ahh 2007 comes to an end and we can look forward to 2008. Which is a bonus. Not only is it an even year (never trusted those odd ones) but it is a leap year (bonus day). With Olympics that I may not watch, an election I may not vote in, and some other big event that I may or may not miss due to not watching much TV this next year will be (or won't be) quite a ride.

I have decided to list the things that i feel like listing about the year 2007.

I proposed to Mary and she said yes (well she said no first and you have to get that story in person)

My sister Britani and her cat Louie moved in with us.

I got a real-er job at Global Crossing

I quit and then restarted WoW

I learned that our heat is radiator heat, not electric like my landlord led me to believe (this is listed because of how i found out, pipes bursting are fun!!)

I was introduced to the greatness that is Heroes, damn you KPMcD. (and damn you writers strike for not giving me my fix)

We got a Wii. and GH3 and a couple of Mario games, and Metroid, and Lego Star Wars.

IF you have something to add, add it. (in the comments, good luck adding it to my post)

Buying Votes from Pur

2007-11-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Just got this email in and thought i would share. (Name changed because i always wanted to do that)

Employee of the Month for October 2007---Janet!

"Janet’s dedication to Global Crossing and to the center is excellent. Recently she went above and beyond by contributing towards the water filters so that all employees could continue to enjoy great tasting water. Thank you Janet!"

"It was very nice and thoughtful thing for Janet to do!"

"I agree Janet is a great choice!"

"I believe Janet’s exemplify the true nature of one of our employees going above and beyond. Janet’s act was very selfless and for the benefit of a large number of her co-workers without being prompted by anyone."

"I really like the idea of Janet. I didn’t know that she had done that and will have to thank you as I am a water drinker."

WTF!! Just because someone in our conferencing department bought a few water filters saving the company some $$ she gets employee of the month. And those quotes from other employees are classic.

Protect your neck.

2007-11-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while, (about a month) and i apologize to those who have nothing better to do at work then read my blog.

My life at this point.... I am the guild bank in LOTRO which means i keep track of donations to the group and distribute the items to those in need. I bought a couple of new games for my Wii. Both Guitar Hero 3 and Lego Star Wars. Both are fun games and have been keeping me from picking up any new PC games.(although i still want to try Orange Box)

Went to a Halloween party with Nord on the 3rd, because we went to a hockey game on the actual day of. Where I dressed up as a tree, or i was really lazy and dug out my old Army gear and painted my face. In order to accomplish this task i had to shave my beard /sad.

This left me at the will of nature and nature decided to strike me down with Strep Throat. Fun times. It gave me a 3 day weekend of playing Guitar Hero with my sister. But on the down side I could not swallow with out wincing.

I have been slacking on jiu-jitsu both due to sickness and to work being a bitch. They hired a new guy but he quit after 2 days. (Maybe that is a sign)

This weekend should be a great mix from them norm as i am going to Hamilton to watch some local MMA and then the UFC pay-per-view.

The Fights

2007-10-12T14:44:00.000-06:00

So my dad tells me on Wednesday that his wife won tickets to the Thursday Night Fights at the Babcock Theater, and if i wanted the tickets. I say yes and my good buddy Nord and i go to the fights. Well i have a banquet in can form at his place first and then we go.

First stop at the fight is beer. The guy there says we need a bracelet to drink so second stop is bracelet dude. We flash him our IDs and thirst(i meant to type third but my finger slipped and it kinda works(and i thought it would be better to explain this rather then fix my error)) stop is beer.

This place is packed, well general admission is. I guess no one wants to pay more then $15 for this. We find a pair of seats up front and this is what we are welcomed by:

A fine Mullet. And the lady to his left is sporting a good one as well.

They introduce the ring girls and inform us the are working for tips only. The fights begin and in between each round one of the girls goes in and shakes it (as well as they can) and the meatbags who have table seating are throwing balled up dollars. Hopefully the girls can invest on some rap videos to improve their moves.

The MMA fights were the high point for me. One of the guys from AFMA fought and Alan the Muskrat was defeated by ref stoppage due to punches. The other MMA bout was a choke out due to a gator roll head and arm choke. And not a tap due to choke, this guy went out. More boxing, more ring girls but now all 4 of them are dancing trying to get more tips. Hey i guess you need to start that stripper resume somewhere.

After the fights we head to hooligans where power hour has started. Drink a couple and then go to The Rail Yard where i run into Terrell. We chat a little and make fun of Kevin.

I then make my way home to pass out and wake up with a hangover.

Employee Recognition.

2007-10-11T16:22:00.001-06:00

So i get back from lunch and this is on my desk. This is how much my company values me and everyone around me. Now being the internet fool that i am i did some research. There are just under 100 people in this building, and these bad boys sell for $2 a piece. Not to mention the $45 for printing per order and who knows how much shipping is. $300 to give everyone here a pen that does not fall down but sucks to try and write with. But has the company name on it so we can all remember who loves us.

Change is not always good.

2007-10-11T14:23:00.000-06:00

So the Billings Bulls have started a new season and we have lost our free ticket in. $8 per person later we are in the door and i start off very confused. As i walk towards the stands i have my hand on my wallet looking to buy an orange foam puck to toss onto the ice during the second intermission. There was no table. I chalked it up to them not being ready for this season. There is always an announcement about it so i will grab that later i guess.

We get to our seats near the beer garden and Nord goes to grab some cold ones. Hmm looks like they are serving Amber Bach this night is looking good. We watch a couple of the regulars start the drinking process going past empty handed and then going by again with 2 in hand. God i love Hockey.

They got a new sound system, and by new i mean old and shitty. The only speakers they are using seem to be the ones across the ice in the center. You cannot hear the announcer, you cannot hear the music. So no more guess the artist. It has become more of a game of "What the hell is that song"

The mystery of the missing chuck a puck was revealed midway through the first period. They put safety netting around this whole side of the ice. No pucks will hit the audience, no chuck-a-pucks will be thrown, and no lawyers will be making money off of the Bulls. Ok, damn, damn.

The entertainment for the second intermission was a shoot-off. They announced seat numbers and then staff went and grabbed these people(because no one could hear the announcer). They placed a board in front of the goal that had a cutout the size of a puck. IF you nailed this shot from center ice you won $10,000 or Jesus. Your choice because no one in the building could hit that shot players included. One of the people chosen to shoot this was the old lady that reads and crochets during intermissions. (Kevin you remember the one, sat in front of and to the left of us during last season.)

Bulls ended up winning the game 5-3 (i think)

What to put here..........??

2007-10-01T10:17:00.000-06:00

Another update you say?

Damn, my last post was the 20th!?! My life has been that busy, really, no guys i am telling the truth.

2 real world weekends and 1 of my weekends, i ought to be able to come up with something.

Watched the season premiers of Family Guy and my new favorite show Heroes. Family guy was funny but lazy at the same time. It was Star Wars Episode 4 (or the first one to those of you who ignore the fact that they made 2.5 shitty Star Wars movies in the last 10 years(no really, phantom menace was in '99, man i loved the pod racer game for the N64)). The Family Guy did do a good job of matching up their characters to the Star Wars staff but there really wasn't anything revolutionary. At the end of the show Chris (voiced by Seth Green) got into an argument about the Robot Chicken Star Wars Show (written by Seth Green). Nice plug, it got me to download it.

Heroes answered a lot of questions I had at the end of the first season and is looking to be pretty good.

Jiu-Jitsu lately has been interesting. We have had quite a few new guys there. Which means they don't have uniforms, which means we have been no-gi 4 times in a row. Terrell was gone on Thursday working the MMA bouts at the Thursday Night Fights.

Kevin was in town this last real weekend. And we hung out downtown Friday night. We met Nord at the brewfest that was at trax(or whatever it is called now). We entered and they told us that they were serving for 30 more min and if anyone could down their samples in a half hour it would be us. I don't remember if i was wearing a butte shirt that night. We went up to Nord's roof and drank (you might ask if we through bottles at the trains, but if you have to ask then you have never been on the roof).

Saturday night Mary and I started the Halo 2 campaign co-op(ha to everyone who said video games would lead to me being a lonely geek) while waiting for the guys to make it up to the heights. After they arrived we played Wii, drank, smoked, no one was poisoned.

My weekend.

2007-09-20T11:46:00.000-06:00

Well my weekend was not too bad. On Tuesday i went folfing with deke a Diamond X. Ended up donating my disk to the course on hole 1 shot 2. Dont ask me how we searched that whole field and nothing. So i finished up the game with a loner disk from deke. That afternoon i was scheduled to go meet with my Jiu-Jitsu instructor so i can build a webpage for him. But come to find out Peter, the resident brown belt was in town and showed us a few good moves.

I spent Wed night with Nord and we discovered that his stolen cable is 2 hours behind. So instead of watching the UFC at his place we hiked to Hooligans, got it up on the big screen and enjoyed wing night. We also discovered the secret side of downtown that they do not want you to know about. Secret dinner tables and an underground community.

Noting much else to post about but because i have some friends that like guitar hero and i have other friends that like Dragon Force i leave you with this preview from the upcoming game.

Preview of Guitar Hero 3

Beer Fixes Poison

2007-09-17T14:58:00.000-06:00

Nord came over on Friday (my Tuesday). Well first we went to Pioneer Park to Folf it up. I really fell apart on the back 4, but i stayed out of the water so it wasn't that bad of a round.

After that we went over to the apartment to play some Wii, eat some Lasagna (thanks Mary) and he finished off a Smirnoff that we had plus a small bottle of wine. We then hit the beer.

No some of you may know that cats are poisonous to Nord and you may also know that I have 2 cats. What we learned was that the more Nord drank the less he seemed poisoned.

Lesson Learned.

UFC Beats Wedding Reception by Unanimous Decision After 3 Rounds.

2007-09-10T10:55:00.000-06:00

Well I took Saturday off to go to the wedding of a High School friend. Beckie and Brian were joined as one at St. Stephens Episcopal Church. Like all things in that place we read everything from the "Book of Common Prayer". It was a nice service but it probably was no different from any other wedding that has taken place in any Episcopal Church in the last 100 years.

We were one of the first ones out of there and made it through the line where you tell everyone "good game". I mean we congratulated the new couple and their parents and then everyone else in the party.

We ducked out of there and went to the hospital to see Mary's cousin who had given birth to a boy. I am not going to try and spell his name here because I don't want to get it wrong.

We went to the reception thinking we might be a little late because it took longer at the hospital but we were mistaken. The wedding party must have still been taking pictures and taking their sweet time. It was 6:00 at this point and there was a UFC at 7:00.

We visited with Mr. Jordan my old choir director who invited me to sing with his church group on Wednesday nights. I might have to take him up on that. We ducked out at 6:30 without eating, said goodbye to Beckie as they were preparing their entrance and were on our way to the fights.

Being on that end of town we decided that we would go to Buffalo Wild Wings instead of the traditional Hooligans so we could grab some dinner and some wings. We found a table by the bar and ordered some drinks. We then asked a waitress if they were showing the UFC because we did not see any of the TVs tuned to Spike. She said they were not. (Blast you College Football!!)

We got up without accepting our drinks (sorry wing place) and high tailed it to Hooligans. We got there just as Joe Rogan was getting into his spiel about how excited he is for this fight. We ordered a pizza and watched people punch/kick/armbar each other.

All in all a busy afternoon. Sorry Beckie but UFC sent me the invite long before you did.

Another update?

2007-09-06T15:30:00.001-06:00

Hmmm, what should this update be about?

Work? Nah no new developments there.

Apartment Life? Well Tuesday night we rented Blades of Glory and my sister and i laughed our asses of to the comedic genius of Will Ferrel. I bought a pint of gin that night and got wasted on martinis. (not the best tasting drink in the world but man do they pack a punch)

Family? Met my moms new boyfriend (yes she braved introducing him to the family). We went to Godfathers and had a taco pizza (what else would we get there). He is a ranger at Pompeys Pillar. He informed us that there is no apostrophe in the name and most tourists place on in the name. He also DJs a internet jazz station. (word!) A little on the quiet side but anyone who has spent some time around my mom and I would be a little quiet also. As Mary puts it "we feed off of each other"

Being a Geek? Ok Fine, twist my arm. Last night was the first "Guild Night" for my guild in LOTRO. We had a pretty dismal showing which tells me i need to step it up on the recruiting. Those of us who were there enjoyed some Longbottom leaf, some ales, and some pose offs for a few group pictures.

How am i doing??

2007-08-31T11:12:00.000-06:00

No this isnt a request for my small readership to grade me. This is my blog and i will do with it what i wish.

Today marks my 4 month anniversary with my current employer. I have heard rumors of monthly reports on how well we work trouble tickets. I have even hear that they used to do these weekly but the monthly ones were easier for the department that does the scoring. I have also heard that they are a little backed up. But that is all that i have heard. I have no clue as to how i am doing here.

I know i am doing horrible because no one in management has said anything to me. I know i am not doing wonderful for the same reasons. But come on!! 4 months and not one word of my performance! That is ridiculous.

TV??

2007-08-30T14:10:00.000-06:00

So I show up to work today with an email in my box:
"Rumor has it that a vendor will be in the office today to begin installing the flat screens ….. there will be one on each side of the building.. this will track various business applications and performance for the department. not sure about extra channels… but you never know."

So they guys finish installing what appears to be a 47 inch LG Plasma. They showed a win2k login screen for 5 min and now it has been broadcasting soap operas, Hollywood Access, and i know they will be changing it to Oprah when it comes on.

Is this the best use of money? No. Was this an excuse for people to watch their daytime shows because they do not have a TiVo? Maybe.

Regardless I hate it. My back is to this TV (thank the lords) but i have to listen to this garbage all day now. I went out and purchased a universal remote during my lunch break and will be programming it when i get a chance.

Ahh the weekend

2007-08-23T11:11:00.001-06:00

Ahhh the weekend. Shut-up all you mon-fri people the real time to have off is tues/wed. Ok not really.

Got word on monday that James was going to be in town for the week before he ships out and will be rolling with me in jiu-jitsu. Next week is belt tests so i hope we dont drill the same armbar over and over again like we usually do before a test.

On tuesday did the usual, gaming. A little super paper mario, some wii sports and a whole pile of LOTRO (lord of the rings online). Also went to Arbys with my sister. Went to ninja class and about passed out. Man i need to hydrate during the day not just at class. After class went up to the Thullbery house to enjoy some beer (we went to wine when that was out), enjoy some nature, and watched some WEC.

Wed was pretty slow. Drove mary to work, went home and played some more LOTRO (yes i am addicted to gaming). After picking mary up from work we got pretty blitzed from rum and cokes.

Now begins the work week.

We have our place back

2007-08-19T13:47:00.000-06:00

This week has been a busy week for our apartment.

Mary's little sister Liz was in town visiting and had planned to go to work with her as well. (Mary works at the YMCA playing with kids all day, real rough) But Liz didn't make it to work once. Must be hard to make it to work at noon when you stay up all night watching movies.

My good buddy from college KPMcD was in town for the week in between his internship and going back to school. We spent a lot of time enjoying nature, enjoying beer, and enjoying reruns of "Office" and "Heroes".

This weekend Mary's Mom was in town which meant free food at Buffalo Wild Wings and listening to her and Mary scream at the TV while playing Wii.

Mary's mom and sister are now on their way back to Great Falls and KP is back off to Butte. The apartment will be quiet (maybe i can get some gaming in)

First Post

2007-08-19T13:32:00.000-06:00

Well I have decided to become a blogger. I figured I would take this first post to tell anyone interested about who I am and where I come from.

I am 23 years old living in Billings, MT. I have a B.S. in Information Technology & Design from Montana Tech (Go Diggers!). I am currently a "Network Voice Technician" for Global Crossing which is a fancy way to say level 2 tech support.

I am living in a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend of almost 5 years, Mary, and my little sister who is going to be a senior at Skyview High School this year.

Well that's a little bit of who i am.