Already worn out as it was for the month. . . and then find out that while YanYan was trying to sell her car, some idiot towel head decides to go and pick a fight with a tree while test driving the car. Now. . . far be it for me to be the racist type. . . but I have decided to be prejudiced against idiots. I won't disagree that some souls are worth saving in this world. . . but you do have to wonder about the rest sometimes. . .

So while that was happening, it just so happens that I'm now being hit by multiple major overhauls needed for the Bismark. . . the two forward drive units are completely worn down and needed to be replaced (the yard techs was very surprised to find out that they haven't blown up in my face yet). . . and then the night before I'm suppose to take it in, the secondary power plant dies completely. So there we were, in the middle of nowhere, dead in space. . . Fortunately I was able to summon Evil Twin to come to my assistance. . . but it was irritating and humiliating both at once. . . and I haven't even had a chance to do the maintenance work needed to bring the Shadow Phoenix back online yet. . .

And of course. . . the IRS. . . which is only rivaled by the INS on my shit-list. . . has decided that the offsprings of drug addicts need more welfare, and that Yanyan's and my paychecks are ripe for the picking. So now apparently we "owe" IRS several thousand dollars. My response? "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on." If I can work my ass off to try and achieve my goals and dreams, those little fuckers can find a job and work too. If the United States government can't manage their finances properly, what business do they have in trying to interfere with mine? (The same can be said for US foreign policy in entirety, but that's another debate for another day. . .) So much for my plans of expanding my arsenal (was really looking forward to either the Enfield L86A1 or the H&K SL9. . .) and preparing for the acquisition of Camelot Command II.

So combine all that with the housing issue that I reported last time. . . and I'm already at a fairly low point. So some diety comes along and decides to stomp me to rock bottom: grandfather's health has taken a turn for the worst and he is now being hospitalized. On one hand. . . it puts things into perspective for me. . . on the other hand. . . whichever diety thought it was funny to kick me while I was already on the ground. . . once I leave this plane of existence, I will spentd the rest of eternity hunting you down and then kick your ass for the grief you've caused me. . .

I made a trip back to Camelot Command several weeks back, as some family business had to be taken care of. Things were relatively quiet, so fortunately nothing to report there.

Then followed a week full of work. . . in which the IT Operations Lab was finally moved. That took forever and a day, and it ultimately boiled down to moving a mess from one place to another. Even now I'm still going through and attempting to sort out the mess. And I think the mess is winning the fight.

Then I flew to NY (uneventful trip to and from, thankfully). Yanyan and I took the train and visited Manhattan for a day, and boy did we make a day out of it. We got to the station bright and early, and watched the scenery go by as Amtrak did the driving. Once we hit NYC, we proceeded to act like country bumpkins and tried to take in the sights as fast as we could. After we got off the train, we decided to take a brisk walk. . . which in turn became a 6 hour affair in which we trekked from Penn Station to Noho/Soho, skirted by Little Italy, straight into the heart of Chinatown (good eating!), skipped downtown and hit South Seaport, missed the barge to Ellis Island (DOH!), swung back up to see where WTC used to be, and waltz into Wall Street (NYSE, to be specific) before we finally stopped to take the subway. From there we proceeded to the Empire State Building and went up to the 88th floor like good little tourists, but skipped the audio tour since its more to trace the route we spent making across town. Then we went back to street level, went back to Chinatown for more good eating, before finally calling it a day. The obvious misses from the trip was Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and Central Park. I told Yanyan that we'll come back for those next time. She's skeptical about it, but I'll prove her wrong someday.

Then its another week of work. Still cleaning up from the move. . . well. . . cleaning up as best as we can since the contractors are still working on remodeling. Spent the rest of the time working on building the training environment that several people were asking for. Its 90% done now. . . and I just have to make sure the training modules we have are updated and viable.

That weekend was spent working again. . . since it was our normal monthly downtime. Much fun ensued as I tried to maintain all the Windows servers. It finally dawned on me that my empire is steadily growing. . . including the development environment. . . I will easily have 15 servers under my command by the time I reach my 2 year anniversary.

I was, however, able to sneak a few hours on Sunday to attend the weekly military training simulations. Much fun was had that as usual. Unfortunately it was the only time I can go for this month.

And now this week. More work again. Except I just got notice from the apartment complex that they are raising my renewal rates, again. Seems like each year I rent, my living costs increase just that much more. So now I've made up my mind and have drawn the line. When I decommission Outpost Command V in 8 months time, Camelot Command II will be a long-term posting that should be relatively free from external financial influences. At least that's the idea. . .

On the other hand, I've been spending too many hours playing Eveocrack. . . no thanks to Obsidian from Whiskey Company for dragging me into it. But I am coming to grips to managing my time better, so I think the worst is over.