Had I an AK, today was the type of day during which I might have had to use it
Today was a bad day. Bad, bad, bad. In just about every way that a day can be a failure, today was a failure. Normally, I wouldn't want to bore my beloved readers with the sordid details, but I think that this blog has taken on an unrealistically upbeat and optimistic tone. I don't want the reader to get the mistaken impression that, as the Hungarians might say, life here is sour cream all the way to the bottom, but that, in fact, some rain does fall (metaphorically) here in Lausanne. So, a brief rundown of the vacuum of suck that was today.
First, I woke up in a great mood. That should have been a worrisome sign as I usually have to drag myself out of bed, but instead I skipped out of my apartment at 8:30 with a smile on my face and a belly full of coffee. The first thing I checked when I got to work was the score of yesterday's Chargers' game. Eight and a half point favorites against an undermanned Carolina team; I had every reason to hope that the Chargers would give me a pleasant start to the day.
Of course, they managed to lose on the very last play of the game. Great. Not only does the loss make me slightly unhappy, but it also means that I can't read any football websites this week for fear that they'll pour salt on the wound. It's only fun to read sports when your team is winning. So, five minutes into my work day, things are already not going well.
Settling down to work did not improve my mood. My current task involves doing two things: purchasing an expensive piece of equipment and designing some parts to make it do what we want. The company I want to buy the equipment from is a real penny-ante operation in England that has become a giant pain in my butt. They want 30% of the payment price up front (a whopping $20,000, or so), which of course is not something that Universities typically do, so we've been trying to make special arrangements to get them their money early. Friday, they told me that the arrangements we had carefully planned were no good and that we'd have to do better. This puts me in the uncomfortable position of actually having to negotiate, something which I haven't done much of since the 1994 San Diego Comic Con. I had to write them a classic, "well, if that's they way it is, I guess we'll have to take our business elsewhere" email, and now I have to wait. If they don't blink, I have to start looking for another company, which is difficult since the only other offers I got were almost twice what the Brits wanted. Sucks. Oh, and the 3-D design program I've been using (SolidWorks 2008) is a flaming turd. If you're at all familiar with SolidWorks 2000 (which I know many of you are), then let me describe the "new" version. It's slower, it has even worse laid out menus and toolbars, it is even more awkward to make drawings, and it straight-up reboots your computer at random every hour or so. Sometimes it does this literally as you are clicking on the "save" button, thus resulting in a barrage of swear words and a forced trip to the water fountain to cool down.
Finally, this evening I had a date to visit an apartment. This is roughly the 30th apartment I have visited (not an exaggeration), so it's getting a little routine. I called up the agency last Monday, was told to visit today at 6pm the following Monday, made a note in my "apartment search" spreadsheet, and didn't think of it again until this afternoon. I took the bus to the apartment, knocked on the door, and was greeted by the current tenant who informed me that the "open house" was last Tuesday and that the agency had told her that there were more than enough applicants by Wednesday afternoon and that they weren't accepting anymore. It would have been amusing or infuriating if this were the first or second time that I'd been misled by one of the agencies, but this is probably the 10th time I've gotten incorrect information which has led me to waste an hour or two of my life. At this point, it is just depressing.
Fortunately, when I got home, Basil was waiting for me and looking better than ever. I think he's getting a little big for his current pot, so I will try to get him a newer, bigger place. I think we could both use a bigger place. Here is a picture I took a couple days ago of him, he's changed a lot since then, personality-wise, but his appearance is still roughly the same.
Fig. 1: My vast new domain. During the day, Basil gets to sit on the windowsill.
Just so both of my readers don't go calling the suicide help line all at once, I want to end this by saying that I am in a much better mood tonight. Lately, I've become a deeply religious (in an ancient-Greek sort of way after finishing Herodotus's Histories) person and I've decided to start checking auspices and auguries whenever possible. As I don't know how to properly read the flight of birds, I instead just look for encouraging signs wherever I can find them. Below, I offer what I consider to be an excellent omen of things to come. Also, eating it made me pretty happy, too.
Fig. 2: This egg and I have a lot in common: same birthday, same basic shape, same delicious interior.
First, I woke up in a great mood. That should have been a worrisome sign as I usually have to drag myself out of bed, but instead I skipped out of my apartment at 8:30 with a smile on my face and a belly full of coffee. The first thing I checked when I got to work was the score of yesterday's Chargers' game. Eight and a half point favorites against an undermanned Carolina team; I had every reason to hope that the Chargers would give me a pleasant start to the day.
Of course, they managed to lose on the very last play of the game. Great. Not only does the loss make me slightly unhappy, but it also means that I can't read any football websites this week for fear that they'll pour salt on the wound. It's only fun to read sports when your team is winning. So, five minutes into my work day, things are already not going well.
Settling down to work did not improve my mood. My current task involves doing two things: purchasing an expensive piece of equipment and designing some parts to make it do what we want. The company I want to buy the equipment from is a real penny-ante operation in England that has become a giant pain in my butt. They want 30% of the payment price up front (a whopping $20,000, or so), which of course is not something that Universities typically do, so we've been trying to make special arrangements to get them their money early. Friday, they told me that the arrangements we had carefully planned were no good and that we'd have to do better. This puts me in the uncomfortable position of actually having to negotiate, something which I haven't done much of since the 1994 San Diego Comic Con. I had to write them a classic, "well, if that's they way it is, I guess we'll have to take our business elsewhere" email, and now I have to wait. If they don't blink, I have to start looking for another company, which is difficult since the only other offers I got were almost twice what the Brits wanted. Sucks. Oh, and the 3-D design program I've been using (SolidWorks 2008) is a flaming turd. If you're at all familiar with SolidWorks 2000 (which I know many of you are), then let me describe the "new" version. It's slower, it has even worse laid out menus and toolbars, it is even more awkward to make drawings, and it straight-up reboots your computer at random every hour or so. Sometimes it does this literally as you are clicking on the "save" button, thus resulting in a barrage of swear words and a forced trip to the water fountain to cool down.
Finally, this evening I had a date to visit an apartment. This is roughly the 30th apartment I have visited (not an exaggeration), so it's getting a little routine. I called up the agency last Monday, was told to visit today at 6pm the following Monday, made a note in my "apartment search" spreadsheet, and didn't think of it again until this afternoon. I took the bus to the apartment, knocked on the door, and was greeted by the current tenant who informed me that the "open house" was last Tuesday and that the agency had told her that there were more than enough applicants by Wednesday afternoon and that they weren't accepting anymore. It would have been amusing or infuriating if this were the first or second time that I'd been misled by one of the agencies, but this is probably the 10th time I've gotten incorrect information which has led me to waste an hour or two of my life. At this point, it is just depressing.
Fortunately, when I got home, Basil was waiting for me and looking better than ever. I think he's getting a little big for his current pot, so I will try to get him a newer, bigger place. I think we could both use a bigger place. Here is a picture I took a couple days ago of him, he's changed a lot since then, personality-wise, but his appearance is still roughly the same.
Fig. 1: My vast new domain. During the day, Basil gets to sit on the windowsill.Just so both of my readers don't go calling the suicide help line all at once, I want to end this by saying that I am in a much better mood tonight. Lately, I've become a deeply religious (in an ancient-Greek sort of way after finishing Herodotus's Histories) person and I've decided to start checking auspices and auguries whenever possible. As I don't know how to properly read the flight of birds, I instead just look for encouraging signs wherever I can find them. Below, I offer what I consider to be an excellent omen of things to come. Also, eating it made me pretty happy, too.
Fig. 2: This egg and I have a lot in common: same birthday, same basic shape, same delicious interior.
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