The beaver is a proud and noble animal

*does the happy-friggin-dance*

After 3 days of having my brain leak out of my ears, I got everything to work.

I rule!

Hey [boss].

We need to talk. I was having lunch with [coworker], and he asked me how the tension situation between us was. My first reaction was to tell him everything was fine, but in fact, it's not. This is a new and unwelcome turn of events. This wasn't the case up until a few weeks ago, and I don't know how things went from hunky-dory to their present state. It seems that all our conversations are terse and tense. I have no idea what's going on, which is actually part of the problem. I get very little feedback from you about my work, about the state of the company, clients, prospects, anything. This makes me feel like my input is not important. You probably have issues with me, I know I have some with you. I'd like for us to put them on the table. Are you free for lunch tomorrow or Friday?

A+,
[me]

I don't know what this is going to do. Hopefully, things get better. At worse, well, I'm already looking for a new job right now anyway.

I really like Non Sequitur.

I wonder what I could register…

I'm going mad, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

This will be a semi-technical rant, so please bear with me. I need to configure our stand-alone DEV environment, so we can work in peace and not trash our main production server every time something runs amok. So, I need to install the JWSDP (java webservices development platform – [insert profanity here]), and a whole bunch of secondary components.

Of course, none of them want to play nice together.

I've been spending the last 2 days hacking configure scripts and Makefiles, trying to get components to compile. In some cases, it's not recognizing the dependencies (even though I KNOW they're there and working properly), in others, headers are missing or the include paths are incomplete. Pissy little details that you have to slog through hundreds of lines of crap to get to.

#
# Check for gd
#
        if test $CHECK = "1"; then
          echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking for gdImageCreateFromPng in -lgd" >&5
echo $ECHO_N "checking for gdImageCreateFromPng in -lgd... $ECHO_C" >&6
if test "$cv_lib_gd_gdImageCreateFromPng+set= set; then
  echo $ECHO_N "(cached) $ECHO_C" >&6
else
  ac_check_lib_save_LIBS=$LIBS
LIBS="-lgd -L$-lgd -lpng -lz -lm $LIBS"
cat >conftest.$ac_ext <<_ACEOF
/* confdefs.h.  */
_ACEOF
cat confdefs.h >>conftest.$ac_ext
cat >>conftest.$ac_ext <<_ACEOF
/* end confdefs.h.  */

/* Override any gcc2 internal prototype to avoid an error.  */
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"
#endif
/* We use char because int might match the return type of a gcc2
   builtin and then its argument prototype would still apply.  */
char gdImageCreateFromPng ();
int
main ()

gdImageCreateFromPng ();
  ;
  return 0;

_ACEOF
rm -f conftest.$ac_objext conftest$ac_exeext
if (eval echo "$as_me:$LINENO: >&5
  (eval $ac_link) 2>conftest.er1
  ac_status=$?
  grep -v '^ *+' conftest.er1 >conftest.err
  rm -f conftest.er1
  cat conftest.err >&5
  echo "$as_me:$LINENO: = $ac_status" >&5
  (exit $ac_status); &&
         ac_try="test -z "$ac_c_werror_flag"
                         || test ! -s conftest.err'
  (eval echo "$as_me:$LINENO: >&5
  (eval $ac_try) 2>&5
  ac_status=$?
  echo "$as_me:$LINENO: = $ac_status" >&5
  (exit $ac_status); &&
         ac_try="test -s conftest$ac_exeext'
  (eval echo "$as_me:$LINENO: >&5
  (eval $ac_try) 2>&5
  ac_status=$?
  echo "$as_me:$LINENO: = $ac_status" >&5
  (exit $ac_status); then
  ac_cv_lib_gd_gdImageCreateFromPng=yes
else
  echo "$as_me: failed program was:" >&5
sed 's/^/| /' conftest.$ac_ext >&5

ac_cv_lib_gd_gdImageCreateFromPng=no
fi
rm -f conftest.err conftest.$ac_objext 
      conftest$ac_exeext conftest.$ac_ext
LIBS=$ac_check_lib_save_LIBS
fi
echo "$as_me:$LINENO: result: $ac_cv_lib_gd_gdImageCreateFromPng" >&5
echo "$cv_lib_gd_gdImageCreateFromPng" >&6

#Rcmodif - bug in GD detection - force it to detect
#if test $ac_cv_lib_gd_gdImageCreateFromPng = yes; then
  CHECK=1
#else
#  CHECK=0
#fi

I mean, I'm a geek damnit, and I have trouble following that.

What's pissing me off is that a lot of these components are still in alpha. They themselves say that they don't really know how everything will fit together. It's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole… except you're not even really sure what exact shape the hole is.

Fun, fun, fun.

Comment on those that are on the list, add new ones at the top if you feel like it.

40. Battlestar Galactica
I wanted one of those jackets…
39. The dukes of Hazard
Daisy duke in short shorts? drool!
38. McGuyver
Come on. Seeing a guy defusing a nuclear bomb with a tennis racket and 3 screwdrives rules!
37. The A-Team
Mr.T rocks. And that van? priceless
36. M*A*S*H
Grew up watching it. Have all the DVDs. Still good.
35. Gilligan's island
Grew up watching it. Just wanted to slap the shiat out of Gilligan.
34. Red Dwarf
Never seen it.
33. Strange Luck
Nope.
32. Stargate: SG-1
McGuyver was so much better…
31. Smallville
Never watched it
30. Northern Exposure
Never watched it
29. Highlander
There can be only one!!!
So cheesy, so good ;)
28. Wonderfalls
Never watched it
27. The Daily Show
Nope.
26. Firefly
Saw the pilot. Didn't like it.
25. Freaks and Geeks
Never watched it
24. Absolutely Fabulous
Never watched it
23. Forever Knight
I'll watch it if I catch it cable surfing, and there's nothing better.
22. H. R. Pufnstuf
Whaaa?
21. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Never watched it
20. Twin Peaks
Nope.
19. Dark Shadows
Nope.
18. Doctor Who
Saw it when I was a kid and it scarred me for life.
17. The Avengers
Nope.
16. My So-Called Life
Nope.
15. Quantum Leap
Meh, ok.
14. Beauty and the Beast
Isn't that a disney movie?
13. Babylon 5
RULES! Have them all on DVD.
12. Family Guy
Never cared for it.
11. Mystery Science Theatre 3000
I need to see this.
Apparently, it's so bad, it's good.
10. Pee-Wee's Playhouse
Saw it when I was a kid, scarred me for life.
9. Xena: Warrior Princess
Saw a few. Not such a big deal.
8. The Twilight Zone
The movie warped me for flying,
but I've never really seen a show.
7. The Prisoner
Don't know it.
6. The Simpsons
Excellent!
5. Monty Python's Flying Circus
Only seen the movies :)
4. Farscape
Watched a few, didn't really get into it.
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Cute babes, bad stories :) Cheezy goodness!
2. The X-Files
Got hooked around the middle, liked it, then got bored of it.
1. Star Trek
Dude! I grew up on Star Trek. You have to be horny to fuck a green bitch.

Well, the building A/C is at it again. I'm typing with my winter scarf around my neck, and a coworker is wearing my winter coat (I lent it to him, cause he's freezing in his t-shirt). This is completely nuts.

Reused a code snippet from mekez to automatically connect to the Loto-Quebec website and check to see if I won or not. Check it out here. If I win, I'm soooo taking a vacation (guess where!)

Slept for shit again last night. Had another series of painfully weird and disturbing dreams. I hate this. I really need to put some stuff to rest at work and elsewhere, so I can start relaxing and start sleeping well again.

† We really are listening to xmas carrols at the office…

Well, today didn't go as planned…

Went to ikea, but the friggin kitchen island was sold out, AGAIN! That's twice in a row that I go to ikea only to find that its sold out. Fuuuck.

Came back home with some sandpaper for the plaster. I semi-sealed off the breakfast nook with an old shower curtain, to try and minimize the dust in my kitchen. For all the good that did… it looks like it snowed inside my apartment. It's going to be a bitch to get rid of all the plaster dust, gaaaaah.

Edit: well, after a few bucketfuls of water, my kitchen is now clean again, though I'll have to redo a bunch of dishes, blergh. I also forgot to mention that only eniran could find sex toys in a hardware store…

There is. With freshly hatched chicks, even. I was out on our balcony last night with my roommate, when she informed me that the chirping noise that I was hearing was coming from the BBQ.

Sweet.

Waiting for eniran to call so we can go to Ikea (yay!). In the meantime, I'm updating my interests. Do we have any new ones in common?

I was up early this morning, even though I slept well. Had some coffee (yay, caffeine!) and went to flake out in front of the TV with my cup o' java and some freshly baked chocolate muffins. For reasons that are unknown to me, I watched party animals, on MuchMusic… Gah, I felt stupid for watching it, but even though I channel surfed, I more often than not ended back where I started… I feel dumber for having seen that show.

Forgive me, little brain cells.

From the website: Much VJ Amanda Walsh counts down Hollywood's top 15 superstar socialites including Paris and Nikki Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Madonna, P. Diddy, Pink and many more. See these A-listers rip it up in VIP clubs, resorts and world-famous hotspots – featuring hot clips, dos and don'ts when attending celebrity soirées, and must-know tricks to crash a starpacked bash.