Working like crazy.

I've had some changes in my job situation, all for the better. I'll excerpt from an email i sent to Jim on this subject:

I've had a pretty good job for the last 9 months. I really enjoy it, it treats me pretty well.
But i'm not quite making the money i would like to make (paying down debt, buying the old lady a ring and making an honest woman out of her, etc...) so i've been shopping for a part time job for quite awhile.
I was totally transparent with my first job about looking for more work, and they were ok with the situation.
so i get hired at target, tell them about it, they're ok with it.
later that week (while waiting for target to get the results of my drug/background tests) my primary job gets two more big clients. this means a whole bunch of work is going to need to get done.
So i took a day off from the primary job to go into target to do the orientation, and got my over-worked schedule.
it was going to be pretty rough. I would work from 8-4:30 at job #1, then from 5-midnight at target.
But the next day at job #1, i was summoned to the VP's office, where i was essentially "bought back" from target.
I got a raise and plenty more responsibility. but i only have to work one job now.
I'm still working late into the night, but it's at home, where i can at least hang out with the old lady and our dogs. so things kinda worked out in my favor a little more than i thought they would.
I did have to go in and resign the day i was supposed to start training. that was awkward. but i quit before they had invested anything more in me than the hiring process and the single orientation session. i feel kinda bad about it, really, but it was never my intention to skate out of a job like that.

I was actually looking forward to working at Target. I don't get to interact with many people at Job #1. And the rare occasions I'm able to talk to someone outside my office, it's to have them answer a question for me. So I was looking forward to getting to talk to people and help them find some good electronics.

I've put in 60 hours this week, and have more tomorrow. Most people ask why i put up with it.
Why do I put put up with these huge hours? I believe in the company. I believe in the people, I believe in the concept behind the company. I also believe I have a future there. And that's something I've not really had yet. It all means I'm an adult now.
Eh. It's not so bad.

I'm just glad I don't have to wear a tie to work...

Donald just commented on my last post about the ever-escalating prank war going on in our office. They all revolve around birthdays, and I happen to have the last birthday to occur out of all the people in the office. So I'm pretty much screwed. But Donald got me thinking about prank wars and that got me thinking about one of the best Barats and Bereta shorts yet. Here it is, enjoy.

More office birthday pranks.

More office birthday pranks.
Originally uploaded by fatalbush2002

The other day we celebrated Tiffiny's birthday at the office. She doesn't like spiders. I'm beginning to worry, since my birthday happens last. I'm afraid I'm going to get it worst.

Hooray!

After over 24 hours of down time, the Internet is back on at work.
I'm not sure how we ever survived, but we seem to have done well.
Gimme my crack!

The Day the Internet Died

I had forgotten just how Internet-dependent our business has become. I came in this morning, and the DSL connection wasn’t up. I went to call my boss to let him know so he could call the appropriate people to get it fixed. But I only have his number stored in our online contact management system.

I typed this sentence nearly eight hours ago, when we realized there was a problem with our Internet connection. It’s still down. I’m writing this in Word, and will take it home with me to upload from my home connection.

It’s been different, to say the least. I’m a fan of not having the constant flow of emails to pull my attention. I’m also a fan of not being able to check Lifehacker and Gizmodo, Myspace and all of my friend’s blogs seventeen times daily.

I had to be creative, today, to even find tasks I could take on without the help of the internet. There weren’t many. All of my files are stored online. The two projects I’m currently managing are Internet developments. I can’t do any testing if I can’t get online. I can’t email my developer if I can’t get online. So much is dependent for this company to be online. I’m surprised we were as successful as we were today.

Lessons Learned:

I’ve learned that I can get by without having Outlook check my email every minute. I find I actually got things done. I would start on a task, and compete it, without stopping. When I had Outlook sending me a constant stream of email, I’d find myself stopping every ten minutes or so to take care of something that “couldn’t wait.” We’ll see how I feel about this whenever I check my Inbox in a few minutes from home, but I am a really big fan of the interruption free day I had.

Best. Birthday. Prank. Ever.

So here's the best birthday prank, ever.

We received a tip from the boss man himself, Jason, that Jon's birthday was coming up on the 25th. Jon was rather hush-hush about his birthday, as he should be since he's the office prankster.

So after Jon left on Wednesday, his office was prepared. Here's what was done to it:

On the outside of the door, some random stuff to show we care.

But the real goods were hidden inside. Apparently, the USPS will deliver to your door a whole heck of a lot of flat rate boxes, absolutely for free. And, apparently, we had ordered a bunch of them a couple of months ago. So we put them into Jon's office.

Over 300 boxes were stacked from floor to ceiling, completely cutting him off from his desk.

And then we laughed as Jon cleared the boxes out of his office

Now this was pretty funny, to us, but it got even better when Jon took out his drivers license to show us his birthday was actually three weeks earlier.
And now, the rest of the story:

Jason had tricked us. And Jon. He tricked us into playing a prank on Jon, so he wouldn't have to. It was a very nicely played, well thought out prank. Multiple targets, multiple payoffs.
My hat is off to the boss man.