Managerial

Mean Mr. Mustard told me at breakfast after the St. Paul Classic that I was pushy. I pointed out that it was necessary, I wasn't waiting for hypothetical church goers to steal my chair. But I've come to realize I'm a bit more "get it done" since I've been a manager for two years. If you phrase it in a particularly positive manner. Case in point. Today a PM came in to talk to me to tell me that another PM I work with was holding up her ability to get estimates on a growth project and wanted to put the estimates off indefinitely. My response, "Tell him in a less sexist manner, 'Man the hell up, and find the time.'" I sound more like my last boss every day. When he came back to me to tell me there wasn't time after I stepped in before the other PM had to reiterate my advice, I said, "Make it happen." I'm either drunk on power, or a dick. Probably a bit of both. On the other hand, the PM I like and the developer who rely on me got what they need, and that's important, even if it means I have to be a dick.

The Last Circus

The Last Circus is on tonight at the Trylon! Get tickets while you can. Kyle and I went last week, and if you don't mind a spoiler, I'll sum it up for you. Kid's dad is a clown. He gets drafted, in his clown suit, during the Spanish Civil War at the end of the 1930s for the wrong side. So after killing people with a machete, he gets put in a work camp building a giant church/cross the size of one of the twin towers where they can store all the skulls of those who died during the war in caves beneath the cross. The kid visits his dad and says he too wants to be a clown, a happy clown. His father tells him he can't be a happy clown, only the sad clown, because he hasn't had a childhood...unless...revenge! Revenge will make him a happy clown! Kid gets revenge by blowing up a bunch of people in the caves and getting a bunch of people killed and inadvertently putting out the eye of a general before escaping. Cut to years later. Kid joins the circus as an adult as the sad clown. The happy clown is a sadistic asshat who beats his girlfriend and likes to kick the shit out of people for fun. The girlfriend likes the sad clown and hangs with him, which leads to clown on clown smack down that puts the sad clown in the hospital. When he learns the girlfriend is going back to the happy clown, he gets out of bed with his broken ribs, heads to the circus, and bashes in the happy clown's face with a trumpet until he looks like The Joker. Obviously the police don't like this. So the happy clown flees into the woods where animals fall down through the roof of his shelter and he can eat them raw and naked. Everyone is naked. Him and the animals. One day a boar falls through the roof and chases him. But he's saved by a hunter, who turns out to be the one-eyed general, who recognizes him. He forces him to act like a dog and fetch birds in his mouth. He acts like a dog so well that he bites Franco in the hand, so they decide to put him down. While waiting his execution on the general's property, he goes mad, and uses an iron and chemicals and boxes of Christmas decorations to burn/maim/bleach/accessorize himself into a happier revenge clown. He kills various folks and wanders into the city armed with large weapons to hunt down girlfriend beating happy clown. Terrorists blow up the general, lest we forget this is a historical piece. He finds the girlfriend, now working burlesque instead of as a ribbon dancer for the circus, and takes her to the giant cross where all the circus animals are hidden. Happy clown gets the police and chases him down. Sad clown, happy clown, and ribbon dancer girlfriend all chase each other to the top of the cross for hand-to-hand fighting. Circus friends get their act together and pull up the rocket motorcycle daredevil's improved-fuel motorcycle. He jumps to save them! And blows up against the side of the cross. Shooting from the police! Hand to hand fighting between the clowns! All is lost! But there's a bolt of cloth, and ribbon dancer abused girlfriend who may or may not love mutilated sad clown wraps the cloth around her and jumps. It's beautiful! She spins. She spins! She Spins!!! Until the cloth ends and she snaps her back and dies, hanging a good distance off the ground. The cops take the clowns to the paddy wagon where sad clown bursts into maniacal tears and happy clown bursts into maniacal laughter. Obviously I'm skipping some of the important bits like mutilated happy clown wearing a beard to a children's party so they can't see his teeth through his face, but I don't want to spoil the whole thing. The trailer is below, but first, if you dare, Raphael's Balada de la trompeta (Ballad of the Sad Trumpet) - don't let it drive you insane as it did the sad clown. The trailer - I'm pretty sure this is NSFW:

Trollhunter

Kyle, perhaps we could get Ming to go to Trollhunter to make up for all the movies he's missed. Ain't It Cool News calls it "Pretty Darn Spectacular!" And it's obvious the heads on the trolls don't stop at one, nor at two. And just because they show three heads, doesn't necessarily mean it stops there. That's just the trailer. It's at the Riverview September 30th through October 6 at 9:20 p.m.

Lounging in the Library (NSFW)

I'm not sure if this will make it below the line. I suspect it won't. So if you must, avert your eyes quickly and shrink your browser as necessary. While there is no actual nudity...that's actually a lie - she's obviously naked, she's just not showing her naughtiest bits...there's a lot more nakedness implied than you're actually seeing. I noticed in the paper the other day that Sweetpea was bringing "Naked Girls Reading" to Minneapolis, starting with "A Tale of Two Cities." I had an urge to go, but wasn't sure what it entailed. After a bit of poking around, it was obvious that this endevour, which started with Michelle L'amour, is a case of truth in advertising. There are girls. They are naked. They read. Lots of reading. Lots of nakedness. I'm all for reading. I'm all for nakedness. I'm not sure how I feel about sitting in an audience while the two are combined. What surprised me most while reading about the origins of Naked Girls Reading wasn't that it happens - I'm willing to believe people will do anything naked. It's that Ms. L'amour decided to pose with my company's books strewn all around. Considering my old team once removed a woman from a web header because she was showing a little too much cleavage, this takes it to a new extreme. Perhaps we should have had this available to put our header in perspective.

Cycle Shop

Ming, I got my new wheel today after the whole kerfluffle at Penn Cycle, and something occurred to me after I sent you the email about how it was 12:10 and their doors still weren't open.

I originally had one technician involved in my "fix my wheel" use case. She popped the tube, but noted in her notes that it had been her and I shouldn't be charged. She called me personally and recommended a new wheel because of the extra broken spokes and gave me an eta for the delivery of the wheel and the fix. She wasn't involved in the bits in between but, today she put my tube/tire on the new wheel and came out to personally apologize for the problems and that perhaps they'd been caused by her being out of the store in the day between the recommended wheel and the delivery of the wheel.

Contrast this to the men involved. First was the male technician who told me that the first technician to look at my wheel had been junior and "wrong". This didn't jive with him taking her work and doing it for her, while not reading the details about the tube or about the ordered wheel. He's also the one who charged me for truing and did NOTHING to the wheel other than replace the two spokes.

Or the manager who tried to charge me for a tube despite the note on the receipt until I corrected him and said I'd brought in a perfectly fine tube.

Or the manager for Penn I contacted via email who said they'd replace my wheel for the original cost, but who lectured me in email that they'd told me I should get a new wheel, despite that I'd approved the wheel and they'd gone ahead and changed what they were up to without me.

Or the store manager who was rude and lectured me about labor today when I asked if I should stick around or come back later and who had the doors still shut 15 minutes after store opening.

Three to four men involved. All of them obnoxious; two of them pointing out the new, female technician, was at fault; three of them stating it was my fault in one way or another despite charging me for two services at some point that they either didn't do or had caused, and eventually telling me they hadn't done any work at all (although even that was incorrect, there were two new spokes).

If you discount the customer problems, this might be a case of Dudey Free Zone at work.

Stereo

On the way home today I was listening to Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and realized as I stopped the convertible at the stop light that the fidelity was absolutely amazing. The sound of the children hubbubbing was downright creepy. Then I realized they were being supplemented by real children playing in the church playground near the car. Fortunately, I could see no meat grinder.

Truing

This is my bike wheel after a $16 truing from Penn Cycle in Eagan that was part of my spoke replacement.. When it slows down, you'll be able to appreciate the non-truedness of it more fully. As I mentioned before, I'm becoming very disillusioned with bike stores and their ability to repair anything. The fact that I carefully put my receipt where I could find it in case I didn't like their work speaks volumes to my growing distrust.

Creepy

This morning I looked at my toes and noticed the nail on my middle toe had a bump.  So I poked it and most of the nail fell off.  Gross.  But there was another toenail beneath it.  It seems like a new nail had been forcing the old one up and out of the way. I'm not sure what would cause that to happen. LissyJo, CookieQueen, is that what MyChart is for? Or should I just stop the teleportation experiments?

Ozploitation

Klund, if you liked Hunger Games, you should really watch the movie Turkey Shoot (second source) - it has a similar theme.  Kyle, Pooteewheet, and I went to see it last night at the Riverview.

"After these egregious and unsavory moments, the film inexplicably introduces a WTF character named Alph (Steve Rackman), a mentally-impaired, inhuman monster who looks like the unholy love child of Mr. Hyde and Dr. Moreau’s humanimals and who obeys all of Tito’s commands without question.

Now remember, this is supposed to be a dystopian film about a fascist Australia and a “most dangerous game”-style hunt, not a strange fantasy featuring mutants and other fanciful creatures. But whatever, the monstrous, hirsute Alph shows up on the scene and, eventually, gets bisected by a bulldozer bucket (but not before he dines on one of Dodge’s amputated toes)."

Silly Rhymes

I ordered a copy of Trace Beaulieu's Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children as a gift for as an unyet to be named niece or nephew.

Trace said Len Peralta had done the illustrating, and you can appreciate Len's geek a week trading card series here.

I'm particularly fond of the Felicia Day card.

A flower by any other name...

I realized today that I've had this in my cube/office for almost five years now. One of my friends at work gave me a present with a bow and his picture on it, and I clipped it to my remember-to-give-someone-an-award paper holder and it became sort of a strange flower that I see every workday.

Hatpropos

I found this hat/sun visor in the parking lot about 10 feet from my car as I was leaving work today. If you know what I do with some accuracy, this is highly amusing.

What's a Horse's Favorite Band

Why, Snow Patrol of course.  And I'm sure they're very excited about Called Out in the Dark. Excellent tune.

MST3k - Eegah

Kyle and I went to Bryant Lake Bowl tonight to watch Eegah, the MST3K episode of the month. Made more enjoyable by chicken nachos and a wide selection of beer. A special surprise tonight was that Trace Beaulieu was there. In case you're not familiar with his role on MST3K, he was both Crow T. Robot and Dr. Clayton Forrester.  He was promoting his new book, Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children.  He read a few of them, including one that involved a tapeworm.  Seems like Christmas gift material to me.

My favorite quote from Eegah, "He's like a cabbage patch Elvis."

Songs to drive home to

I love my convertible.  Even as it rolls into fall and the temperatures drop, I leave the top down close to midnight and turn on the heat for my toes and crank up some music.  It's like discovering senses that have been shut down for a while.  I get to enjoy the smell of back yard fires, smores, and all the things dogs stick their noses out the windows to savor.

Nine Inch Nails - Terrible Lie


Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman - Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine

Managerial scope

One of my reports came by for a one on one today and asked about a promotion. I pointed out asking was definitely the right thing to do because with so many people in the department, it was difficult for any one person to know everyone and their skill level, particularly with a bit of employee churn.  Now that I was sure in no uncertain terms there was interest,  we could make sure that if there were other managers in the department who didn't know the individual or didn't have team members who had worked with them, we could look for an opportunity, and so that the individual's lead and I could watch for opportunities to provide mentoring, leadership of small teams (technically in this case), interteam interactions within and outside our 200-or-so person department, visibility to upper management such as directors and the VP, and good documentation that specifically speaks to next-level responsibilities in mid- and end-of-year reviews. All of it contingent on a solid bedrock of being a good programmer, of course. I also pointed out that it was a good time to think about what it meant to be at the next level and if it meant a change in responsibility that might impact lifestyle (believe me, a valid concern - both for your ability to get out of the office on your own terms, and your ability to be heads down in the code instead of advising and leading others).

The response, "I only thought it was up to you."

It's nice to know it looks like I have some sort of authority.

Glitter Bomb

I saw the video of the glitter bomb of the anti-gay marriage group at the Minnesota State Fair and wanted to make sure my family saw it. I wish it had been more impressive, but it's still amusing to see people dumping glitter off the tram on a booth. Particularly as Ming posted a link to an article stating that 70% of fair goers disapproved of amending the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Bike Repairs

Back when Ming and I went to Minot, North Dakota, to ride around the flooded plains, I took my bike in for a tune up before taking it out for 150 miles of riding in the middle of nowhere. I took it to Erik's in Eagan because that's where I've been going since I had the argument with a Penn Cycle employee about whether he "wouldn't" sell me a new chain unless I also replaced my cogs. Before that, I had taken my bike to Erik's in Richfield until they gave me back my bike with the front wheel on backwards and my odometer in a non-functional state. Erik's in Eagan didn't fare much better, as I got my bike home, popped it off the rack, and discovered the front wheel wouldn't turn. I mucked around with it for a while and adjusted the brakes, then rolled down the street. Back and forth and up and down as well as straight ahead. Seems an expensive bicycle tune up doesn't include actually truing the back wheel, which was so out of true that my wife recognized it, and it rubbed against the brakes. I trued it up just enough to make due (I'm not very good at it, although I can get a wheel in passable shape if I spend an hour at it), and went on my trip the next day. Ming can attest that I was very grumpy, although not grumpy enough to take Erik's to task when I got back - the idea of having to deal with someone who's either a.) incompetent or b.) doesn't care about their job or the people who pay for their service, feels like a waste of time.

So this time, when I needed new spokes, I took the wheel back to Penn, violating my rule of never going back to a place that irritates me. One strike! I dropped off the wheel, and that evening I got a call from a mechanic who said that a couple of spokes were in bad shape and perhaps they should swap out the wheel. I commented that it wasn't that old for a wheel, although it was true I'd put some hard miles on it, including towing a tagalong, which is rough on a back wheel. But I approved the order. So I was surprised today when they called again and left a message for me that it was ready to pick up and there were two new spokes. I called back and asked for details, as I'd approved a new wheel, and they said that it had been a newer mechanic who made that call, and they'd determined the wheel could be salvaged. I asked, "Why did it cost me $50 for two spokes when a whole new wheel only costs $70?" They rattled off the spokes, the labor, and the cost of installing a new tube. That surprised me, as I had dropped off a perfectly inflated wheel.

They had popped the tube and were trying to charge me for a new one. SOAB. They apologized for the mistake and took the $20 for installing a new tube (really?) off my bill.

So I don't know where the hell I'm going to go next. Maybe I have to just strap my wheel or defective parts to my back and bike it up to the greenway on my other bicycle.