Ok, now a new computer

The new computer is set up. I'm still deciding which Linux distro I want to set up on here. I'm torn between Gentoo and Slackware. Debian is still a possibility, but the other two are in the lead for now. I am even wondering which window manager I want to use. I suppose I could experiment with all these variables, but I find research first means the experiments can be much more efficient.

Anyway enough about my new computer and on to a tiny rant. Recently a few people have been making some 'job proposals' to me. These 'jobs' tend to be more like free labor for a doomed project. Now I have no problem working on doomed projects, but not for free. I have heard so many people offer to pay me after the project takes off, or by giving me a percentage of the company itself.

I have said no every single time. It's hard enough getting people with money to pay me what they owe me sometimes. I do not want to deal with people who have no money, but 'the next (youtube, facebook, twitter, digg, etc.)'. Not that I wish for these people ill fortune. If they make it, awesome. I, however, have a desperate urge to eat on a fairly regular basis, and so I prefer to be paid when I am working or when I have finished my work.

If you are wondering what I mean when I say it's hard to get people with money to pay me sometimes, I have had a conversation pretty close to this several times over this past year:

Me: Hello, Kate here.
Employer w/ finished work: Yes hello..
(insert pleasantries and small talk)
Me: (Cutting past the attempt at small talk) So what can I do for you? Is there a problem with (the project)?
Employer: Well yes and no. Everything looks great and works just fine, but there's a small issue...(Pause)
Me: Yes?
Employer: I'm afraid we can't pay you what you're asking.

Now it's at this point I should tell you that any job that this is an issue for, I always give them an exact figure at the start. They have already agreed to pay me the amount in question, signed a contract to that extent, and now wish to cut down the costs. The conversation at this point varies quite a bit. But the jist of it is I try to be somewhat nice. I don't want my reputation to take a nosedive because my employers refused to pay. Still I remain firm on the cost, and if they keep trying to weasel out of it I inform them that they can either pay me in full or they can pay a lawyer to tell them they have to pay me in full, and then go ahead and pay me anyway. But I leave that only for the most stubborn of asshats.

Sometimes it feels good to rant about these things, although doing it at 2:30 am may not be the best time. I am sure my prose has suffered due to how tired I am. Is prose even appropriate there? I feel like it could be, but I'm not sure. Too lazy to look it up.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Seems unlikely, but who knows.

Have fun!

Learning How To Lose

I have yet to meet anyone who likes to lose. Be it an argument, a game of risk, or anything else the appeal of getting the better of your opponent is far greater than letting someone be dominant you. So I would like to appeal to anyone reading, that they learn How To Lose.

Games can be a great example of knowing how to lose being a beneficial thing. I mentioned the game of Risk because I just recently saw a game escalate into an argument and some raised voices. Anger over a board game. The reason the person sat down and began to play the game was that he intended to have some fun with his friends. His anger and yelling are probably good indicators that he has failed to achieve his goal of having fun. So when he began to lose he failed to remember his original goal of having fun and forfeited it for a new goal of winning the game. Thus he lost. Even if he turned it around, and began to win the game, his original goal of having fun has been diminished if not obliterated.

This applies to life as well. I avoid time consuming arguments by letting people win. You might recall me having a brief 'argument' with a co-worker in a sketch a while back. I avoided correcting him, didn't press any issues I had with what he said, I just made my best attempt to move along in order to get the job done. The goal was to repair his computer and get back to work quickly. I achieved that goal far faster than I had hoped, despite the holdup.

I don't think I did this topic the justice it deserves. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Hold back that urge to inform people of their own ignorance or even that your opinion differs from theirs. It will usually do very little but waste your time, given the inherent difficulty of changing anyone's opinion. I'd like to try and be more through, but sadly I must return to my work. But look forward to sketches soon, as I have ordered a new scanner out of a necessity. (I took a job that required one. Deductible!)

Arrg, rant time!

I usually love work. It's tiring and at times, and painful at others, but all in all I have few complaints. And all in all my day was quite grand, minus the forty minutes I spent with one particularly annoying fellow (whom I hope never reads this blog). Now as I mentioned before I work desktop support, so I get called around to offices where I either fix their problem or show them how to fix it on their own.

Today I was called to some guy's desk. Now, I suppose I have seen him about, but never really talked to him more than to say Hi. So for all intensive purposes I don't know him at all. I ask him to show me the problem and he does so, but while doing so starts this kind of atheist bashing rant. How they have no moral compass, and how without faith there is no hope, burning in hell, and so on.

Now it's not a fact I advertise to everyone, but I am an atheist. Now how exactly this random guy I work with knows is anyone's guess. Because some of the questions he asks during the rant are aimed specifically at me. Asking how did I decide, and how I should come to his church. It takes some willpower but I avoid opening my mouth at all throughout his tirade. When he paused for some questions I start talking about the computer. I won't be baited into an argument or debate. I finish watching his demonstration and start telling him how to fix his problem.

Unfortunately he is not listening to me at all. He is far too interested in telling me how wrong I am. So I continue to try to explain, and he begins to slowly do as he's told, after having me say each step at least twice. In the end as I'm leaving he asks me out!? I tell him "Sorry, no." and I'm off, with probably the most dumbfounded look on my face ever.

So let it be known that telling me I'm wrong for nearly 30 minutes is not a way to get me to consider you dating material.

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I left out details about who it was and what the problem was in order to keep my job. I hope this is still vague enough to avoid problems.

Thanks for the support whoever is still reading this, and look forward to next time, where I hope I will have something other than a long winded complaint about my day!

This movie made my brain crawl

Now I'm not a movie reviewer by any means, but 'The Last Templar' offended my geek sensibilities. The main character, might have been a bad female Indiana Jones, except that she really could care less about any artifact that isn't associated with the Templars. So she breaks through a roof into a supposedly ash and pumice buried city (with tons of inaccuracy there). She cares nothing for the potential find of the city itself. She could care less about the fact that her haste is basically to blame for the site's destruction. Nope, she just loves the fact she found the one item she was after. That is treasure seeking, not archeology. *grumblemuttergrumble* It seemed to be a commercial for religion, and christianity specifically. Not exactly what I call a good premise for a movie.



I'll stop there, much more of it bothered me than that, but I just had to complain a little.