It Could Be Worse...

Friday night. Haven't touched homework yet. Not too worried about it, though...

This week's been particularly hellish. Lot of end-of-the-year fires to put out, Q4 projects winding down before the holidays, people going on vacation, etc. Really, you name it -- it happens around here in December. Add to that, that I'm also looking for a different job. I get paid quite well, but I put up with a lot, and personally I feel my career's been stunted while I've been here.

Spent all day Tuesday at the Microsoft .NET 2005/SQL Server 2005 kickoff in Denver with a co-worker. We were actually impressed. After having used both .NET/SQL 2005 non-stop for the last 3 days, We're actually happy with the latest new thing from Microsoft. That's saying a lot. I was originally planning on getting back into Java development, but seriously -- .NET 2005 is where it's at. Or rather, where it will be at. I think the net will see quite a few changes over the next year. And I'm so confident in that thought that I registered a new domain on an ASP.NET hosting service just so I can test things out on my own time outside of work.

That brings us to tonight. Mom just got cable for her computer. Her and her boyfriend fumbled around with everything for a few hours before finally calling me. Turns out it wasn't her computer -- it was her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's daughter's old machine. Athlon 1.6 GHz. No too bad...especially for them. Got it up and running, but it's in bad need of half a gig of PC2100 and some reformatting love. If I've got time on Sunday, that'll be their Chrismakwanahanuka present.

Just before I left, since I wasn't a dork (mom's boyfriend is still getting to know me, and I'm not around too often because of my own distractions), he gave me something that was in his possession...

Earlier this summer, this guy he knows was going through a divorce. Wouldn't you know it -- this guy had 2 girlfriends on the side, and one was in prison, pregnant with triplets. The other one was a crackhead. No, really -- they exist -- I sorta-but-not-really dated one in college. She wasn't a crackhead per se -- she was a meth head, and boy was she hot. Anyhoo, she OD'd on something before I went over her place, and it all finally hit her by the time I showed up and we had a fun few hours of trying to keep people from dying. She's now a techie -- how about that?

Anyhow, this crackhead that was dating this married guy that was a friend to my mom's boyfriend had this laptop. Nobody knows where she got it from -- you don't ask questions like that. You never ask questions like that. So, when this guy's other girlfriend gets released from prison for a few days to have her triplets, his crackhead girlfriend finds out, freaks out, and informs his wife. This huge fiasco happens, all hell breaks loose, and this guy pretty much grabs whatever he can and bolts for the door. Somehow his crackhead girlfriend goes with him, and they leave behind whatever they can't carry.

To keep a long story from getting longer, while I was leaving from my mom's place tonight, her boyfriend tells me this story as he hands me this crackhead's laptop and says if I can fix it up, I can keep it. Poor thing looks like it's been dropped down a flight of stairs and stepped on a couple times, but it boots up just fine. No admin password though, but that's never been a problem.

So, I can now say I have a certified laptop from a crackhouse. No doubt it's had a more interesting life than I have. Well...maybe.

While this week's been hell, I can always look at this laptop and think...

It could be worse.

 

Wow. That's quite the story. But on the serious side, you do have a good point. As hard as things seem sometimes, you're right. Things could be worse.

 

Interesting, but i'm mostly pissed from your story because I didn't get an invite from MS to the SQL Server release event, I usually go to those