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Niekon's Journal

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Feb 22, 2007 - 10:10 AM
not ready to make nice...
I have no idea why but I've gone into my cd collection and started digging out a series of cd's since the Grammy's and have been listening to nothing but The Dixie Chicks... I can't explain it.
Hell, I even went out and picked up the new album after the Grammy's and just found the documentary Shut Up & Sing (apparently just released this week) which is pretty good... even my wife liked it and she hated documentaries and not a DC fan.

It's really odd... I'm not a country fan but really liked their sound and style when I saw them perform at the 1999 Lilith Fair and now I've been sucked into their sound again. I think I found a lot of music during those three years that I would not have normally listened to... but then again, there were performers who I knew quite well and listen to whenever I get the chance to.


Oh well... I guess I should attack this pile of paperwork on my desk. I'd rather not but I need to do something about this growing pile that I've ignored for most of this week...
Back to the grindstone I go for a few hours...


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[public entry #108]

Feb 19, 2007 - 01:31 PM
crap... I think my hair fell out...
ok... not fell out as much as it was buzzed off over the weekend. My hair is no more... no more multi-colored locks. Everything is one length... very short... and natural brown with the silver-grey sprinkled throughout.

Eventually I'll get photos of the new lack of locks to go along with my odd excuse for a beard. Either I am starting to look my age or else I'm just getting to lazy to deal with everything.



In other news... of lesser excitement. Spent most of my weekend collecting the Coins of Ancestry in WoW for their lunar event. Fifty coins in all... only one unattainable for me right now due to not having a key to that instance. Scholomance... I will get your key... oh yes I will.
Made my way into some instances for the very first time though. Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire were new areas for me since I never did any raiding. But managed to "prowl" my way through both areas for my coins... along with several other dungeons/instances. And of course the runs in and out of the three main Horde cities was not overly exciting. Worst place to have to run into is Orgrimmar... easiest was Undercity. Most enjoyable was the run into Thunder Bluff... and it was the run out that proved to be hilarious as I watched about twenty guards plummet to their deaths chasing after me.
So at some point in the near future for however long this event is taking place... hopefully I'll be able to get into Scholo this weekend to get my last coin. ^_^


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[public entry #107]

Feb 17, 2007 - 06:47 PM
El Bulli Volume 3: 1998-2002 cd-rom
following up on yesterday's entry, I've burned a copy of the cd-rom into an ISO for fellow foodies to check out and enjoy.

160MB in size... and can be found at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3X3GLMLL



enjoy...


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[public entry #106]

Feb 16, 2007 - 09:59 AM
I guess she loves me...
So in my last entry I posted about the meal I cooked for my wife for February 14th...
In this post I'm writing about the gift that I was supposed to open on February 14th but only got around to opening last night...


It seems that the spark is still there after nearly six years of being married and being together for almost eight years in July when she is willing to plop down the money on something that is a hobby of mine... and not only get me something I will enjoy... but something quite expensive that I will enjoy as well...

I present to you El Bulli Volume 3: 1998 - 2002


The bloody thing is an eleven pound book of wonders and amazement. I've got the cd-rom that came with it with me at work right now so I can start to go through the recipes to figure out what I might want to attempt in the near future. This series of books is a chef's wet dream... the dishes that are in here are so intriguing and beautiful one cannot begin to fathom where to startin the books themselves. I am just glad that the books were translated from Spanish to English. If you were lucky enough to get the original books when they started to come out then they came in only one language... and if you didn't know Spanish you were kind of fucked.

But what exactly is El Bulli? El Bulli is the restaurant owned by renowned chef Ferran Adria. This man has pieced together some of the best takes on food over the past couple of decades. His food is adored by foodies around the world... you just have to travel to Roses, Spain to enjoy it.
The El Bulli books started to come out with the volume I now own... and Chef Adria then began the progression backwards to 1983 over a course of three volumes. Since then he and his team of culinary artists have put out two more volumes to cover 2003 - 2005 (the 2005 book has not been translated into English yet) and all the volumes of El Bulli come with a cd-rom of the recipes and more... like a progression of how that dish came to become what you see within the book.

For me I'll probably start over in the desserts and work my way into the entrees.

Fellow foodies... the grail is here... and it is known as El Bulli...


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Feb 15, 2007 - 02:22 PM
surf 'n' turf minus the surf...
So I had this rather interesting meal planned for the wife for last night... unfortunately things didn't quite go as well as I was hoping.

To begin with, I had intended to leave the office an hour early so I could do some last minute shopping for ingredients and whatnot and it would still allow me enough time to prep and cook. Sadly, I didn't leave the office until thirty minutes after I actual ending time. So now I have lost a good ninety minutes. Not happy...

I have a couple of recipes for the meal and am just needing to pick up some final items. The main parts of the meal are already at my place having been delivered earlier in the day and still packed in dry ice.
Going through... finding the different items... making certain adjustments based upon what is available or not within the store. Really need to get a Bristol Farms closer to home. It would help me out a whole lot more when it came to shopping for odd ingredients.

So home I rush... grab the box and start to open it up. Inside looks like something that could have fallen off of the international space station or Mir... insulated bubblewrap is inside this box... with enough packing tape that nothing could get in or out. So I start digging through my set of knives to find something that won't destroy the bubblewrap but get through the tape so I can get to the items buried deep within.
Got it... tape it sliced... and I can peer within the casing. Only to find insulated layer pads and one particularly deviant looking device warning me not ot touch it due to dry ice (which was not present any longer). Under all of that I finally found the items I was looking for... still in their frozen state. Hurrah!!!! Frozen meat = no need to freak out about possible spoilage.
Pull out the items... set them up and snap photos (still on camera).
Two 8oz Kobe Beef New York Steaks
Two 1lb crocodile tail fillets

Croc tails go immediately into the freezer. Better to deal with them in their frozen state to preserve the juices within the meat.
Kobe beef immediately goes into a large pot and placed under running cold water to thaw out the meat as quickly as possible.

Next I am going over recipes. I had the recipes I had found online for both items. And then within the box there is a rather thick envelope... inside are several recipes on how to prepare both items. I like the recipes sent with meats... at least for the kobe beef... a lot less prep work. But needs to be done right anyway otherwise it's goodbye expensive chucks of meat.

Step 1: thaw the meat and store in fridge until ready to cook
Step 2: prepare an herb-butter sauce to go over the steaks when cooking. Basil, parsley, garlic, butter, salt, and pepper.
Step 3: get some cognac, warmed, and pour it over the meat when ready to cook. Light the cognac and allow the flames to go out on their own.
Step 4: pour half of the herb-butter sauce over the meat.
Step 5: place meat into broiler for three minutes
Step 6: turn meat over, pour remaining herb-butter sauce over the meat. Cook for another three minutes.
Step 7: serve

the steak was served medium rare.

The sides were mangos that were going to be used for a mango sauce for the croc tails but due to time constraints I did just the one item and already had the mangos cut up, so I turned it into a sidedish.
Tossed the mangos into a sauce pan. Added a bit of water. Tossed in some cinnamon and coriander. Let that simmer for a bit and came out with a nice little mango compote.

The second sidedish were almost like a fried asparagus. Prepped the asparagus like normal. Rinsed. Cut off the stems. And then steamed them.
After steaming I then rolled out the big pan... poured in some peanut oil... heated it up. Then placed in half of the bunch for a bit... being sure to roll/turn them. Moved out of the pan onto my drip tray... and did the second half of the batch.

All served up with a nice Gewürztraminer from up the coast (we're not into red wines... and prefer the sweeter whites as opposed to dry whites). Overall the wife was pleased with everything.
Tonight I'm probably going to work on the croc tails... if not then it will be for this weekend since there is a Ducks game tonight and wife is working late. Thanks Disney... you know how to fuck up my plans for cooking :P


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Feb 8, 2007 - 09:26 PM
someone get me a pint...
So this week has been an interesting one at work. A few days ago I was prepping to head home for the day and as I got back to my desk I saw an email from a client... and knowing this client is pretty cool and figuring it's something minor I opened it up and read it. Never have I been so wrong before about something being minor...

In this email is a letter from an end-user... they had purchased one variety of this product that we package. Inside after using this product they find a mixture of another product within the intended product... another product that their son is allergic to. The words "oh shit" escape from my lips as I continue to read on. Thankfully the son is fine, was just a bit ill, but no need to be rushed to the ER.
I promptly forward this email to the heads of our Production department and QC department as well as copy the big boss on it. My words? "Please read the below email and advise how we wish to proceed."
I immediately grab all the paperwork on this client from the past few months. Match up batchcode dates with receivers, production orders, and outbound bills of ladings and print off a few copies of the email and head down to the Production office where I announce that we have a problem... not a little problem... a problem. I poke my head into my manager's office and advise her to read the email that I had just forwarded and be ready for the big boss to come calling any minute now.
Production manager is now reading the email... we're going through all the paperwork... calling in QC for their inspection reports... et cetera. Two hours later we call it a day and go to pick up where we left off the following day. In the meantime, Shipping is to pull all the questionable product off of the shelves and put it on a hold for us to spot check the following day.

Next day comes... I'm dealing with other crap on my desk along with this issue. Near the end of the day we finally get around to beginning the random inspection. We find one bag that has seven chips of the wrong product within the bag. Fuck... not a good sign. I look at the batchcode on the bag... it's not the same batchcode that was mentioned in the email. Fuckity fuck fuck... an even worse sign. Now we're looking at everything. No discriminating based upon batchcodes now... we are going to continue the random checks the following day on everything that is supposed to contain the product in question.

Today's spot checks go a lot smoother. Nothing new found... possible isolated incident? But how? There were at least three weeks between the runs that contained these two different products. Three weeks during which the machines were cleaned a couple of different times and even had a totally different product line for another client run. So not possible, right? I was thinking that... not bloody possible. I still need to investigate further as to what ran on that machine during the month of November and December... but I present our findings to the big boss in an email and copy the usual folks. This is where things got interesting...
Head of QC fires off his own email soon after mine wishing to point fingers at the actual makes of this product that we are pouching for our client. He's defending his department adamantly... while not offering up any suggestions on what further steps we could take to prevent such things from happening whether it was our fault or not. And knowing how things operate in this company... finger-pointing is a favorite past time of these folks. So fuck... not being happy now... I have to now fire off another email to everyone basically reiterating that we are not here to play the blame game. There is an issue that was brought up... our client is not looking to assign blame on anyone... they are wanting to alert us to this issue and for us to look at our procedures again and confirm to them what they are. So I'm having to play the guy who is saying don't blame anyone... there is no real way to prove guilt or not in this instance. We physically don't have the item from the end-user in hand to inspect. This could have been a cross-contamination on their end that is in error. It happens... but for our head of QC to immediately play the blame game when he has not said a fuckin' word for the past few days until this afternoon is insane. He should have been one of the first people to step up to the plate and take charge. Instead it was me who is having to take charge of this situation and deal with it and present everything to the big boss.



On top of that... I have another client coming in tomorrow morning for an inspection on a new line we are starting up for them... and in setting up the line this afternoon it was discovered that there was not one UPC barcode that we need to over-label... but two. The client had made no mention of a second barcode on the container. So I only have half of the UPC labels needed for the whole project... and am having to scramble to get more made... as well as make sure that the Production folks are aware that we are now having to place a second label on the carton.
Then I'm also trying to get the warehouse folks to sort the product by the "Best By" date and bring it to the line one at a time instead of how they came in to us based upon truckloads. It's a convoluted mess... but I think we are getting a grasp on that one...


So yeah... several days in a row now... ten hours here... eleven hours there... lunch? What's that? So yeah... straight time with minimal breaks if any...


I need a drink...


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Feb 5, 2007 - 04:31 PM
think I got someone fired...
Oops?

Yeah... one of my clients has an employee who is... hmmm... a raging cunt? Yeah, that's a good word for her. We do an overwrap project for them on occasion... take one of these and one of these and shrinkwrap them together. No brainer... no big deal.
The last project we ran for them was the end of 2006... and at the end of the run I inquired as to the disposition of the rejected materials... and heard nothing from her.
A week later I get a letter from their auditors asking for an inventory count. So I mail in our physical count including rejects. Last week the inventory manager for the client calls up and balks at my numbers. I ask for her to fax over what she shows on her books... and I in turn match up my numbers based upon what we received... produced... shipped back... et cetera. My numbers were on the money. So the question comes up why we have these rejects on-hand still... and I mention that I had asked for a disposition at the end of December but had not heard anything about it since then. Typically all remaining components and rejects are loaded into the final truckload, but this time there was not enough room for us to do that.

And then there was the week prior (so two weeks ago now?) where raging cunt was out sick or some bullshit... so her boss calls up asking about status on the current project, to which I reply that I was awaiting word from raging cunt about when the next shipment of incoming components was due in... this was a shipment that was due to us the week prior and we had to shut down the line because of this crap. Constantly getting the run around from raging cunt... and got tired of it... so I stopped asking on a daily basis and it came back to bite her in the ass.
The boss wants to pick up whatever we do have done... but I have to stop here there to state that raging cunt was also notified last week in an email and phone conversation that they needed to bring their account current with about $20,000 in past due invoices from the month prior. She claims to have never seen those invoices to which I correct her and state that just a couple of weeks prior she contacted me to make a correction on one of the invoices due to a transposition of two digits in the quantity field. A savings of $84 for them... ooo... ahhh...

So yeah... not a popular person with that company... but personally I don't care. They think they are the greatest and that my company will fall apart without them tossing us the occasional bone. Yeah... sure... I have a client who is steady... and we're doing weekly shipments that exceed one month of shipments to this other client (in dollar value) for a lot less hassle.
Personally I'd love to drop this client but it's the sales rep who is wanting to keep it... fuckin' annoying shithead. Boss' son... not gonna lose that client anytime soon unfortunately.

So how did I learn of this firing? Boss' son went up there late last week for a face-to-face and butter them up for some reason. And found out while there and passed along the info to me... in which I laughed. Apparently not wise to laugh at being the person responsible for getting someone from another company fired... don't know why... I thought it was funny... ^_^



and finally upgraded to the 21st century on my home computer... got rid of the 19" CRT that took up my desk space... and got a 20" widescreen HD LCD... made World of Warcraft look so much better. Didn't know there were some many colors in that game...
So desktop is about as tweaked out as I'm going to get it for a while with the exception of adding some RAM here and there... want to take it up to 4GB's... but it's good for now at 2GB's.


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Feb 1, 2007 - 10:57 AM
someone get me a drill...
seriously... this skull-splitting migraine has been going on for the past 36+ hours... I really would like to sleep for more than a couple of hours at night. Last night was much worse than Tuesday night, but not by much. Wife is getting very concerned and I am currently sitting in the dark in my office with the monitor dimmed down and the lights off.
For some reason though... the least painful times were during the hockey game last night. I was either so medicated or drinking enough... or both... to knock the skull into la-la land for a short period of time. Too bad it didn't stay in la-la land.

And now I am sitting here... doing paperwork in near dark conditions. That's got to be doing wonders to my eyes. Oh well... maybe I'll try to escape early today so that I can try to nap a bit and try to catch up on some much needed rest.


In other news... the OMGWTFBBQ 2007 has begun the planning stages. Last year was interesting with the kangaroo, boar, elk, and gator... this year I'm looking at similar things but also seeing how much further we can push the envelope. I have six months to get things planned out... bought... prepared... et cetera. This should be interesting. Crocodile tail anyone? How about a llama burger? Smoked rattlesnake? Reindeer steak? Yup... I think this year is going to push the envelope when it comes to varieties of meats I'm bringing in. Now if only I can figure out where to get my paws on some lion... I know I had seen some place that sold it... O_o

And still yet more news... having to wait to file my taxes this year. It seems the inheritance process is taking a wee bit longer than anticipated. The trustees of the estate are awaiting a closing letter from the IRS on the sale of the home and other properties. Then things will finally become finalized. Accounts are to be set up between myself and my three brothers in the next six weeks or so... and at that time I should be able to tell if I'm going to have to owe more taxes or if the selling of the home (the profit from the sale) was enough to cover any and all taxes that would have been levied against us.
Still cannot believe I'm going to have my own personal accountant for this damn thing. Personally, it's not worth it to me... invest some of it in the market... put a nice chunk into an IRA... and set the rest aside for a long deserved vacation (ooo... and a new laptop too)...


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[public entry #101]

Jan 14, 2007 - 11:16 PM
I said I would do it...
and I did... level 60 motherfuckers!!!! And... before Burning Crusade was released...




And a couple for shit and giggles... this was an escort mission (come on... you FFXI folks know them all too well)...
Say hello to my little friend...




and when I say little... I mean little... check out the size comparison to CacheCrash...
sidenote: this escort mission stopped a lot of people on their tracks... several Alliance standing around and one lone Horde considering taking a shot at this PVP NPC...


So now I am level 60... the next stop is The Outlands with CacheCrash. And also getting MmeLeota up to level 60 soon to so that the three of us can all group up together... a warrior, a rogue, and a druid... a wrecking ball of destruction... ^_^


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Jan 11, 2007 - 02:58 PM
nothing exciting for my 99th...
Seriously? 99? I must be griping a lot then... O_o


Anyway, just a little something I found hilarious... I had "Shake A Tail Feather" going on my playlist when I happened to see the image below... practically in synch with the song.




Much laughter ensued as I had just finished pounding my head on my desk due to the stupidity of a customer who "forgot" to ship a truckload of product to us yesterday and we are closing that product line within the next hour or two due to lack of product. So now the truckload of product is coming in tonight... with explicit instructions to deliver a couple of pallets of each item to the production line for start-up at 7am tomorrow.


That is all... I now return you to more exciting journal entries...


EDIT: hmmm... thought this one was the 100th journal entry... guess not...


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[public entry #99]


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