Sarcastic Bastard

just wanted to say thanks to dave for pointing out that the "-L out" i used on my last post was really gay. i'm trying to think of a decent sign off term that i can use, cuz each post i've been trying to say something unique and different, but i'm running out of creative ways of saying that my post is finished. over the next few days/posts (whichever comes first), hopefully i'll come up with something better, just to appease dave :)

leor

posted by leor @ 12:47 0 comments

i took the day off today. mostly because i'm working a night shift downtown tonight, but also cuz i just didn't feel like going back to that stupid office for another mind-numbing day of doing nothing. meanwhile, i've already gotten a call to my cell phone. fortunately, it's turned off, but i picked up the messages. apparently, someone from montreal called ME to tell me that one of the monitors isn't working, and can i figure out why. WTF? why is this woman calling me? (i know it's not her fault - somebody obviously told her that i was the one to call, for some reason) i have nothing to do with the screens or the computer network. i know very little about how the whole thing is setup (who's the one who said ignorance is bliss? i want some bliss, dammit!), and i certainly don't know how to troubleshoot the stupid thing from toronto!

now i'm getting a headache again. that's about it for now. -L out

posted by leor @ 12:05 0 comments

in the words of al bundy, "i feel good, yep i do"

i had a great weekend getaway with my girlfriend. we didn't go far, just about an hour outside of toronto, and we had a lot of fun. we went to a few nature conservations, did some biking, went blueberry picking, went to niagara on the lake to see a play at the shaw festival, visited a winery, and lots more. the greatest thing about it was that we didn't even need to spend a lot of money to enjoy a fairly luxurious weekend! it really does a body good to get away from the world for a few days and relax with someone special.

but alas, now i'm back at work. actually, i was back yesterday, which really pissed me off. two weeks ago, i told the boss that i'd be away this monday and tuesday. on friday, he asked me if i could come back to work in the evening to get some things ready for tuesday morning before i left. i said okay, but then never heard back from him, even after leaving THREE messages on his voice mail! so i left saturday morning, thinking for sure he's going to call me in a panic before the end of my trip. sure enough, tuesday morning (at least i was on my way home) i get a call asking if there's any way i could come in that afternoon. so i went in, and i'm pretty bitter about the whole thing.

i have to say that the saddest thing about returning home was seeing that the four e-mails i received in the 3 days i was gone were all junk mail. and it's not that i'm a big e-mail nerd (well, i guess i sorta am), but i was expecting replies to some fairly important letters, and was hoping to hear about prospective employment. just not meant to be, i suppose...

posted by leor @ 14:44 0 comments

...and the number 1 reason why i hate my job: there's a woman here who works for a department store. she basically is the liason between our company and the store. she is the biggest fucking bitch i've ever met in my life. this skank complains, and yells, and asks stupid questions, and wants ridiculous things. although it is kind of amusing that she's got my boss wrapped around her finger, in the sense that he might like something, but then if she doesn't, neither does he. amusing, but pathetic, really. this job honestly gets worse and worse every day. yesterday, i wasn't in the office (more on that later), but i got a call at around 9:30 am asking if i could come in later in the day! he KNEW i was going to be out of town...how did he think that would work??

but now, finally, the moment you've all (both?) been waiting for...what exactly i do: basically, i create content, or take existing content and prepare it to be displayed on the plasma screens. you're probably thinking "that sounds pretty easy, i'll bet any monkey could even do that!" but whoever thinks that is retarded (and gay). first of all, i have to be somewhat creative when creating content from scratch. secondly, it takes a certain amount of skill to reformat the content, add effects if necessary, etc. for example, i'll have to watch a movie and then edit something resembling a trailer for it to be displayed. another thing i have to deal with on a regular basis is aspect ratios. since some stuff has to go sideways, i have to flip it sideways, stretch it to fit the screen, etc. this means a lot of rendering and crap. it's really stupid, and pointless, because video should NOT be displayed on a 9:16 ratio! (for those who aren't home video purists, this results in two problems: major cropping off the sides, to the point where maybe only a person's face is visible on screen, or half a car, or something; the second is stretching - because video is shot at a certain height, in order to fill it to a higher screen, you must stretch it, and distort the image). then, the other shit i have to deal with is people asking me where things i've never seen are! asking me if someone else did something, and "oh, can you do ?"

but now for some better news. yesterday, i worked for NTV (Nippon TV from japan) in niagara falls. a company i do some freelancing for was hired by them to provide a satellite uplink and a partial crew for a segment of their morning show back in japan. it was pretty fun, if long and tedious. we got to the falls at 8am, and didn't really do much all day, really! some of the setup had been done by the japanese crew the day before, so we just ran a few cables and were pretty much done. they had a huge budget, and the show was pretty cool (even though i couldn't understand it!). they had an underwater camera, and were on both sides of the falls. the funny thing was that they were sending audio and video via microwave from the american side to the canadian side (where the satellite truck was), and they had a backup laser transmitter...but the laser wasn't feasible for the falls because the mist would completely refract the beam and make it unusable. i was on the american side, and it was really cool...i'd never been on that side of the falls, or gone down to the walkways there. my favourite part was the "hurricane deck", which really lives up to its name! you get drenched standing there for a few seconds, and i was up for several minutes! it was fun :) long day, though...i didn't get home till midnight, and then had to be at work early today cuz i wasn't in yesterday.

well, that's about it for now...i'll be continually updating the trials and tribulations of my work saga, and whatever else. next week i'll tell more stories, i hope.

but as i leave, i pose this question: wouldn't it be weird if water was lighter than air?

posted by leor @ 12:26 0 comments