Saturday, November 29, 2008--So... whatever happened to the
second turkey? Well, I had so much fun roasting the first turkey, that I decided to go ahead and roast the second turkey today for a post-Thanksgiving feast. Now, the first turkey was great, but I saw some room for improvement and applied what I learned to make the second turkey even better. And all my friends loved it.
Thanks to these two turkeys, I've rekindled my love of cooking. That and, probe thermometers and electric carving knives are just too much fun. I think I'll make a roast beef next.
Friday, November 28, 2008--gas-watch: $1.97/gal
Yes, I have work today. This is
Amazon.com. Black Friday is the single biggest shopping day of the year. So I have work today, technically...
Thursday, November 27, 2008--Happy Thanksgiving!
Today, I woke up and brought the turkey to Jon Ng's place, where I would roast the damn thing and help Jon make the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. We would finish just in time for the guests to arrive and eat dinner.
Now, I'm exhausted from all the cleaning and preparing and cooking, and handling a raw turkey is a great way to kill your apetite, so I barely eat anything. But my friends, they all tell me what a great turkey it is. Now, my friends and I have an understanding: no bullshit, we're honest about these kinds of things so we can continually improve ourselves. So when they tell me I did a great job, it means I did a great job.
Pics on
Facebook.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008--So I'm staying in Seattle over Thanksgiving this year, 'cause you know, I just started at Amazon and don't have the vacation time to go home for Thanksgiving. And some of my friends and coworkers are sticking around, too. And you know, I'm not gonna let my buddies miss out on a Thanksgiving feast just because everyone's out of town. So a few weeks ago, I called people up and organized a big Thanksgiving dinner, and I get put in charge of the turkey.
So I'm planning on brining the Turkey. Brining, it's a funny thing. You make the turkey more delicious and moist by putting it in saltwater. That's right, you make the turkey
more moist by putting it in
saltwater. Counter-intuitive, I know. It's a biochemistry thing.
So I had gotten the turkey over the weekend, but as I'm preparing to brine it tonight, I discover that it already had a saltwater solution injected into it. Now you do the math: turkey injected with saltwater brined in more saltwater, that's just too much salt. Plus it just doesn't work. So I'm like, well, crap, this is Thanksgiving dinner. I gotta do it right. So I head back out to the grocery store in search of a replacement turkey, and at Safeway, of all places, I find the perfect turkey. Perfect size, fresh, not frozen, not injected or Butterball or anything. So now everything's going well. I got the perfect turkey, put in the brine, and then I go to sleep, 'cause you know, I'm frickin' exhausted from preparing for Thanksgiving dinner.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008--gas-watch: $2.01/gal
On this day:
In 2005: I do the (second most) stupidest, craziest, most impulsive thing I've ever done... I sneak off in the middle of the night so I can go Black Friday shopping with Princess. (This was surpassed on
December 1, 2007.)
Thursday, November 20, 2008--gas-watch: $2.13/gal
It was actualy $2.19/gal this morning, but on my way back to Bluemond, as I passed the very same gas station, the price had changed to $2.13/gal.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008--gas-watch: $2.19/gal
On this day:
In 2002: The name "RustWyrm" is born.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008--
On this day:
In 2006: I beat FF12.
Monday, November 17, 2008--Today was my first day at Amazon. It was strange, but at the same time liberating.
Also, every day, when I drive to work, I pass by a gas station on Rainier Ave, so now I actually notice gas prices. From now on, if I see gas prices change significantly, I'm gonna post it on my bloop as a record. So we can say "wow, gas prices are so cheap!" Or "wow, gas prices are so expensive!" And have a basis of comparison.
gas-watch: $2.25/gal
Saturday, November 15, 2008--Today, I went back to playing Disgaea 3. I've been travelling in the item world trying to encounter pirates so I can get Illegal Tickets to unlock Dark World stages so I can unlock the Land of Carnage. Apparently, at higher levels in the item world, you encounter pirates a lot more frequently. Unfortunately, at this point, the pirates are actually dangerous, so I can't let myself get sloppy, or I risk losing it all.
Also, I'm running out of Mr. Gency's Exits.
Friday, November 14, 2008 - Addendum--After quitting my job at Microsoft, I went to Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall for another Alara draft. Amazingly, there were 20 people in the draft, so we split into two tables of 10. (Two tables of 7 and a table of 6 prolly would have worked better, but I don't think we had that many tables.)
In any case, I got passed a Sharding Sphinx, so I figured today was a good day to try the artifact deck again, since I had a bomb that only gets better when I have artifact creatures. However, I made sure only to take the
good artifact creatures to avoid overcommitting to an underdeveloped theme. (And since most of the artifact creatures are in Esper, that is, white-blue-black, I ended up in white-blue-black with a heavy commitment in blue.) I also picked up a bit of burn and some good Grixis cards, so I splashed red. So I was playing white-blue-black-red, or not-green.
In my first round, I was evenly matched with my opponent, Sam. I won game 1, but he took game 2 (likely because I was too conservative with my mulligans--that is, I erred on the side of keeping my hand). In game 3, I could have won, but at the last second, he played a [creature that temporarily removes all lands from play], so I killed it instead of his creature that could attack, and that cost me the game. Well played, Sam. Well played.
Record: 0-1
In rounds 2 and 3, I played against some weaker players, who chump blocked too readily and didn't apply the pressure when they arguably had board advantage. Incidentally, they were both playing Bant with lots of Exalted creatures, which as it turns out are quite annoying. But I still beat them both anyway.
Record: 1-1 Record: 2-1
In round 4, I played against a guy who was also close to me in skill level. I beat him in game 1, but he outplayed me in game 2. In game 3, we were both manascrewed, but he managed to recover before I could and won the round.
Record: 2-2
In round 5, I played against a kid who relied heavily on life gain. Fortunately, in game 1, my killing power overcame his lifegain power. In game 2, however, I had a slower start, and he managed to drop two [life gain artifacts], so he was gaining 2 life every turn. However, that wasn't so terrible, but when he pulled out the Battlegrace Angel (?), that's when things became difficult for me. Fortunately, he couldn't attack me either without risking getting his angel killed (and it was arguably the only thing keeping him alive). Fortunately, I was able to draw into my Executioner's Capsule, so I executed his angel and swung for the win.
Record: 3-2
Overall, this left me in 10th place (out of 20), and not eligible for prizes, so I just went home. Good night, everyone!
Friday, November 14, 2008--So it's time for the big reveal. I'm leaving Microsoft. Today is my last day.
Why am I leaving Microsoft? Well, it all started in about February (I don't remember exactly when--it was a dark time in my life). You know how the EU has been bullying Microsoft for a while now? Well, their next target was Office, and they told Office that they (we) needed to document their (our) shit. And for some reason, the Office management decided to make all the devs write the documentation. So they made us all stop writing code and told us all to start writing documentation. It was a project they called MC.
Now, that in itself wouldn't have been so bad. But the scope kept expanding every day, and the guidance kept changing every day, and no one had any idea what they were doing (mainly because the guidance kept changing every day). So basically, it was a poorly organized clusterfuck. Not only that, but what was originally supposed to be a 1-month project ballooned into a 3-month project.
It was pure hell, sheer torture. It was the only time during my career where I dreaded going to work. I almost quit my job right there on the spot. But they told be that I just needed to hold out a little bit longer and that I'd be rewarded for my good work and compensated for my suffering.
That never happened. What did I get? A Zune. A frickin' Zune. I already have a Zune, and I barely ever use it. Why the fuck would I need a second Zune?
Fast forward to early September. Over the past year, I had been putting in a lot of effort and getting a lot of things done. I was the only person who not only finished my assigned work on time, but I actually finished
early, took a week off, and came back, inherited all the work of my boss who had left the team (which he had only half-finished), and took care of that in a timely manner. (And no one can claim that I had an easy share of the work. I scheduled the precise amount of work that I was told to schedule from the powers that be. And since there's buffer in the schedule, it's only natural for me to have finished early. Also, Microsoft just sucks at pulling in the scope of a project and cutting stuff in order to make a schedule. I mean, really, they suck.)
Not only that, but my old manager told me I was doing a really good job. My new manager told me I was doing a really good job. All my teammates told me I was doing a really good job. So of course I'm gonna get a good review, right?
Nope, didn't happen. I got a shitty raise, a shitty bonus, and the bare minimum for stock awards. No explanation. When I went to talk to my manager about it, all I got was bullshit.
I should have quit back in February during MC. Hell, I have friends who are honestly surprised that I didn't quit back then. And like I said above, the only reason I stayed was because they told me I would be rewarded for my good work and compensated for my suffering. When that didn't happen, I resolved to tell management, correct my numbers or I'm getting the fuck out of here.
So my current direct manager is incompetent. He didn't even try to stop me. He just handed me off directly to my 2nd-level manager.
My 2nd-level manager flat out told me that most Microsofties get a bad deal. Hell, you'd have to be in the top 20% to get a good deal at Microsoft (and even then, you generally wouldn't see it until you get to a senior level). He also told me that Microsoft pays at the 66th percentile of the industry. So you'd think Microsoft hires the best and the brightest, huh? But no, they don't pay us like we're the best and the brightest. They pay us like we're slightly above average.
He also confirmed that I was getting a bad deal right now and told me that I would have to wait for a few release cycles (something like 5-6 years) before I'd start seeing the rewards of my good work. Now, why the fuck do I have to wait 5-6 years to be rewarded for the good work I'm doing
right now? Why the fuck do I have to wait 5-6 years to be compensated for the suffering I'm going through
right now? Why the fuck do I have to wait 5-6 years to get a good deal when I could go to another company and get a better deal
right now?
His response? I didn't have to.
Originally, I was planning to keep going up the management chain until someone listened to me and corrected my numbers. But no, this was all I needed to hear to make my final decision. Fuck this, I said, Microsoft clearly doesn't respect me. I'm getting the fuck out of here.
And the rest is history. I resolved that I would leave Microsoft by the end of the year, no matter what happens. Even if I couldn't find another job (which is a highly unlikely scenario), I was planning on quitting anyway. Not even the so-called "financial crisis" deterred me. I sent my resume out to Google and Amazon. Unfortunately, Google was only hiring in California, so I went forward with Amazon.
About two and a half weeks ago, Amazon gave me an offer, and I accepted. Today is my last day.
Good riddance.
Thursday, November 13, 2008--After work today, I went to see
Into the Woods, put on by the MS Theatre Troupe. Lois wanted me to go, since she was the first violin in the orchestra pit. I thought the play was moderately amusing. Unlike Phantom of the Opera, I know I'm not supposed to take this play seriously. So it was just a funny, amusing play. (But like all funny amusing plays, there were well done serious parts.) And the MSTT actors were really good, too. Their facial expressions were spot on.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008--Happy Veteran's Day!
Also, Happy Birthday, MichCh!
(In Canada, they call it Remembrance Day.)
So anyway, to celebrate MichCh's birthday, we all went to PF Chang's. It's funny. I've been at PF Chang's before, but I've never eaten there because the wait is always ridiculously long. This time, though, Meher made reservations for us, so we didn't have to wait too long to eat.
Monday, November 10, 2008--
On this day:
In 2005: I beat FF3.
Sunday, November 9, 2008--
On this day:
In 2002:
- Joyce Lai's first appearance in my Journal.
- Connie Chu's first appearance in my Journal.
- Bernard Liang's first appearance in my Journal.
- Kellie Liang's first appearance in my Journal.
Saturday, November 8, 2008--So today, I finished Fallout 3. I was wrong about it being Oblivion with guns. It's actually Oblivion with a good story and interesting quests. Sure, there weren't as many quests in Fallout 3, but every quest in Fallout 3 was very well-done and very deep and compelling. I especially liked the *spoiler*
Tranquility Lane and Liberty Prime*spoiler* sequences.
All in all, Fallout 3 is a great game. I wouldn't mind if it won game of the year (though it's not by any means a personal favorite). It is good enough that, if you like Western RPGs, I give it my wholehearted recommendation.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008--Where was I when Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States? I was at Applebee's, eating dinner with my Tuesday Night Dinner and Games group.