The Direction of Things

I started my new job 2 weeks ago and it's been good so far. I've been doing simple stuff and some more complex stuff as well. To be honest, the project itself scares me, not because it's too much to handle, but because it's a clusterfuck. I wouldn't put my name on that. Unfortunately it's mostly done so there's no chance of a rewrite. It's horrible and I've tried to merely do as I'm told in terms of fixing or adding features. I've had to fix stuff for browsers they didn't even test on like Safari and Chrome and even some javascript issues on IE7/8 which they DO test on but somehow didn't catch. I know this sounds like I'm bitching but it's a good thing. I'll be working on a new project soon and it's from scratch so there won't be any horrible code to look at :).

The car situation still isn't sorted out. The loan went through, luckily, but now I have to figure out how to get the title. It seems the seller's bank is going to send it to my lienholder, which I then have to request it from and have it sent to the DMV to register the car. It's annoying, but at least we got this far. I'm one step closer to driving my (realistic) dream car, an E46 M3.

I'm at my uncle's right now. I drove here last night in order to drop off his car, which he so graciously offered the use of, but I realize it's been 2 weeks now and he needs his car. I'll borrow my mom's car for a bit and if this takes too long, I'll simply rent one for a bit or ask my other uncle if I can borrow his Grand Prix.

I don't remember if I posted about this, sorry if I already did. I've been planning on moving out of my parents' house. My stepdad's company is closing in the next two years and he's pretty close to retiring anyway. They're planning on buying a house in Puerto Rico and moving there within that time period. That's not why I'm moving out, though. I've felt it's time for a while but after having been unemployed it took me a while to get back on my feet. I made a budget a few weeks ago and was planning on moving out with a friend of mine. Unfortunately it seems she won't be able to. I would've saved a lot more money by getting a 2 bedroom apartment and sharing the cost of utilities, furniture, etc. even if the rent was more than a 1 bedroom. I found a nice 1 bedroom near work for ~$1200/mo. It's a really good price for the area it's in considering the average is between $1300 and $1400. On paper, it should all work out and I'll be out of credit card debt by next May. I plan on moving in around April 1^st.

Cross your fingers! If all goes well, 2010 could be the year of my independence and a turning-point in my life.

The Universe and its Complexities

Buying this car has been an absolute nightmare. It's just been one setback after another. The bank screwed up from day one and then wouldn't give us a replacement check. They said we had to reapply for the loan in order to get another check sent out but failed to mention there's a 90 day waiting period to reapply so we got immediately denied the loan when we reapplied. 2 days ago I applied with Bank of America instead and they handle EVERYTHING. We don't need to register the car or pay any of the DMV fees, they handle all of that and include it as part of the loan (hehe, not free unfortunately). They also offered to refinance the loan in a few months to get a lower rate which means that everything worked out as it should. Had BMW Bank NA not fucked up, I would pay somewhere around 7%, but instead Bank of America is willing to refinance at 5%. EPIC WIN!

I got a call on Thursday from the job I had interviewed for and they asked me to lower my hourly rate. I lowered it b $2 (not a huge deal) and they agreed to it. I got a new job starting February 1! I gave my two weeks notice yesterday as I left work. I sat down with my manager and he understood that more money and shorter commute isn't something they could very well compete with.

I was incredibly pissed off this week (any of you who follow on Twitter may know) because before Thursday everything just seemed to be on a spiral downturn. The car seemed to be slipping away and I hadn't heard anything back from the job. The loan was completely fucked up at that point and everything seemed to be coming down on my head. Thursday everything changed though and the loan came through on Friday.

I must admit that there are greater forces at work here. I can't fathom that all of this happened like this at random. I seem to have done something right and gotten in somebody's good graces.

Damn Snow

Friday night my cousin had a sleepover and his friend stayed until last night. They had a lot of fun and I have to say that I did as well. We rented movies, bought junk food, wrestled, and they went outside and had a snowball fight as well. It snowed about 16-18 inches down here. I had no idea it was even going to snow. I have to say, I felt like a kid again when we played made up games and what not.

Unfortunately the snow messed with my plans for the weekend. I was supposed to have run the errands to get the ball rolling on purchasing the car but unfortunately due to ridiculous amounts of snow, I wasn't going to drive 400 miles. I tried to get it done yesterday but unfortunately we didn't have time to get to the bank. I got there and they had already closed. I had planned on signing all the paperwork there since they had a notary available, and who else would have a notary working on a Sunday? I drove 8 hours, ~400 miles yesterday for nothing. The kids weren't thrilled. They were basically just along for the ride. I felt bad. I left them at my parents' house while I drove around and then came back for them when it was time to leave. They were bored out of their minds.

I hope we can get this car thing over with soon, though. It's annoying to have to wait this long but the upside is that I get to look over all the paperwork and make sure we're not missing anything. Here's to hoping.

One Step Closer to My M3

I've been out looking at cars the past 2 weeks and I found the one I want. The car is a 2004 BMW M3. 6 speed manual, all the options except navi and parking sensors, completely stock, Titanium Silver, 62,000 miles. The car is in GREAT condition and I test drove it...I should've taken a change of clothes because I had FAR too much fun driving it.

My aunt got the loan for the car, she has far better credit than I do, and she got approved tonight but I'll be paying the monthly dues for the loan. If all goes well I should be able to register the car sometime next week and I'll be driving my M3! It's been so mentally draining to go car shopping on such short notice. My rental runs out on the 21st. I could always call my insurance company and try to extend it though.

On an unrelated note, a recruiter called me last week and I'll be going on an interview tomorrow morning. The position pays $40/hr which is quite a bit more than I'm making right now. The other good part is that the position is a stone's throw from where I was planning on moving. We'll see how it all works out. I have to do some homework on the company, see what they're about and formulate some questions for the interview. Hopefully I'll impress.

I'll need to fill you guys in on the family situation. Maybe I'll write about that tomorrow when I tell you about the interview. Hopefully I won't forget to post.

I can't believe my luck

Today started off particularly shitty.  It all stemmed from yesterday at work.  If other departments could get their shit together before they talk to a developer, that'd be great...but apparently too much to ask for.

I put up a whole bunch of shit, I check it, I have QA check it, I have the creator of the task check it, then I go home.  I receive a nasty email at 6:45 forwarded from my boss that she received from the marketing manager.  Apparently it was an absolute fucking emergency that some banners go live on the website at 6PM and not midnight like I coded them.  I told the person that put the task in that they'd go live at midnight with all the other banners they had given me.  I wasn't going to bend over backwards for them since the task was already late and being done on only hours notice.

The marketing manager raises a HUGE stink about the fact that it's not live.  Luckily we have a system that keeps track of all our tasks and all comments posted to it where it clearly says "this will go live at midnight" and the task creator says "ok".  I sent the marketing manager an email detailing all the events leading upto the task going live and pointed out that if there was a problem it was with the communication between her and her team.  She then went to my boss and my boss more than backed me up, especially considering that they fucked up yet again this morning.  She didn't have a leg to stand on.

So after all that drama and aggrivation at work, I come home in the sleet/snow and break out the snow blower and clear my driveway, clear the sidewalk and the walkway around the house.  I'm almost done and I run over an extension cord...awesome.  Now I have to untangle this shit.  I tip the snow blower over and start to untangle the fucking cord.  After getting it free of the machine I continue.  I'm outside for about an hour and in that time what I first cleared is now covered with snow again so I give it a second go for good measure before putting the snow blower away.  I go to put the snow blower away but we have 2 cars parked side by side in the driveway so I need to move one before I can get the machine back in the garage...my car key is missing.  It's not in my pocket and it's not in the ignition.  FUCK!  I remember hearing a clicking sound inside the snow blower when I went over the area I was untangling the extension cord at.  I must've dropped my key and the snow blower threw it somewhere in the front yard.

Now I'm out a $300 car key.