I’m not an aggressive or overly assertive person. However, I have learned that a sense of certainty should always be a warning sign. What follows is a transcription of a classic tactical error.

(10:03:11 AM) Boss Man: You’ll bet your life that the statusID code is only set to 4 once it goes live at the site? The timing does not indicate that
(10:03:51 AM) Zero: I try to avoid betting my existence on anything, but if I had to, I would bet it on this. I’m watching our code spit out correct data right now.

…and a little later…

(10:16:48 AM) Zero: To be frank, I’m confident the webservice is returning the correct the data. So I’m inclined to think this is either a transmission error — the data getting lost between here and there –
(10:16:57 AM) Zero: or an issue with the way the results are being interpreted.
(10:17:23 AM) Zero: Not to sound arrogant or anything — heh — but the code checks out on this side

Fumbling and making mistakes is a natural consequence of uncertainty and development. However, making a complete ASS of oneself while behaving like an arrogant know-it-all is a different thing entirely. Oy, it burns.

Update: COMEUPPANCE!

Kevin Nielsen: But here’s my point.
Kevin Nielsen: When we were (doing X), this happened about three times a week and effected everything.
Kevin Nielsen: In (state Y), this has happened once in the last five weeks and effects a very discrete number of features across our applications.
Boss Man: So you have gone from a “F” grade to a “C-”

Damn — what an ugly, ugly, ugly week and a half it’s been: yet another round of instability and turbulence at work, a mexican soap opera with real estate agents, and my friends John and Noella picking up camp and moving to California. Plus: cats with contagious insomnia, plague, pox, and a tragic recurrence of my sweet tooth, long thought dead.

Seriously. Isn’t it about time for some karmic kickbacks?

On an entirely different note: Ms. Sheppard, you have expressed doubt that I have undertaken any Purrito experiments of my own. Please see the results of said experimentation here and rest assured that my people will *definitely* keep up with your people in Purrito research. So there.

Pardon me, I must now return to eating my half pound of stale “Good ‘n’ Plenty” candy.

We placed on offer on the house and are waiting for a response early this week, probably by Monday evening but possibly as late as Tuesday. After the flurry of excitement, the silence at this point is deafening. I find myself alternating between irritable excitement, a dazed sense of inevitability, and a weary inclination to just call the whole thing off saying, “sorry, we were just kidding.” In short, it’s a grand adventure.

Technology still hates me. I do a lot of work from home, and our VPN tunnels into both our office and our datacenter have been randomly disconnecting myself and my fellow geeks from our open terminal sessions. Needless to say, this has provoked a renaissance of creative profanity. I can only hope that this period of technological mayhem is working to build up my karmic equity.

I have very fond memories of the winter of ‘06/’07, with all of its endearing snow and coziness. I have nothing good to say about this winter. Too much darkness and too little snow. Too much overtime — I worked something like 240 hours between December 14th and January 15th, even with the holiday counted in. Most of all, too much death.

Daylight savings time always bugs me because I *hate* giving up that hour. I love the long evenings, but I am typically jealous of my time, probably ridiculously so (as opposed to my sister, who is apparently trying to donate some hours back). This morning I was whining to Cathy about the injustice of giving up another hour when my daily budget of 24 is already so overextended. Abruptly remembering Bjorn, I found myself incapable of further complaint. My budget is generous, and I am grateful.

(3:49:59 PM) Nicole: kevin, are you a proud homeowner?
(3:53:45 PM) Zero: heh
(3:53:48 PM) Zero: not quite there yet
(3:54:01 PM) Zero: but I have just been approved to spend a LOT of money becoming one
(3:54:04 PM) Zero: :-S
(3:54:05 PM) Nicole: that’s really exciting–congratulations
(3:54:07 PM) Nicole: no kidding
(3:54:09 PM) Zero: thank you
(3:54:39 PM) Zero: I’m pumped, actually — I really, really love the house!
(3:54:53 PM) Zero: But it’s odd being sandwiched between excitement and nervous anxiety
(3:56:34 PM) Nicole: true
(3:56:50 PM) Nicole: i’ve heard fear and excitement are the same chemical reaction–it’s how you perceive them

I have blogged elsewhere about the hidden costs of owning a cat.  Well, my cats were unimpressed.  They have decided to step it up a notch.

Ralph ate my last pair of headphones.  So a bought a new pair.  And then he ate that, and Tigerlily finished off my microphone.  So I brought home my work headphones a few days ago.  Today, I walk into the office and see my headphones are sitting on the table.  “Oh,” I said to myself, picking them up, “these are very exposed…”  At that moment, the gruesomely severed cord flopped into sight, still dripping with Ralph saliva.

There will be vengeance.