MikeBrum.com

I’ve been wanting to get the pair of 3/4″ double flairs in that Mariah left me when she stretched up to 1″. They just haven’t been giving at all. I got the 3/4″ non-flared acrylics to a point where there’s no problem at all. They slide in and out without any pressure at all. A very smooth fit. But, the double flares just weren’t doing it.

So, I’ve been moisturizing my lobes for all of a couple days now and decided that it’d be worth a shot to see where the double flares were at. I did a nice lobe massage and then put some moisturizer on the flares and *VOILA* – they went in!

They look a little larger than the acrylics looked in my ears. Very nice :)

I’m going to try to upload a few pics. I don’t think I figured out the problem I’m having with the thumbnail routine I wrote. They’re probably going to look really shitty, but still click the pics and see the full sized pics that don’t look shitty at all!

Well, it’s President’s Day or some crap so I didn’t have work. Can’t beat a free day off.

Anyhow, I rolled out of bed around 1:00 or so. I just continued to go back to sleep after I woke up. I can’t say it’s a bad thing. I stayed up rather late most nights since Friday and I generally don’t get enough sleep anyhow, so it was good.

I talked to Mariah for a bit and then we both took a break to shower. After talking for a little while longer, I decided to go out and take care of a few chores. I wanted to stop by Tower Records and drop off an application for a part time job because I need to do some saving for this summer. When I get to the counter I ask the guy for an app and he gives me one. After the guy behind me finishes up his purchase, he hands me his card and says, “If you know how to use a computer, give me a call. We’re always looking for help.”

Now, I think to myself, “I know how to use a computer!” and after I finish my app at Tower, I head over to the address on the card, which is all of 2 blocks away from Tower. I go in, talk to one person and show him the card and tell him the gentleman’s name that told me to call. Well, the person that gave me the card is actually the owner of the company! So we talk about me, the company and pretty much what the company does. He basically told me to send him a resume with some contacts and that he’d get ahold of me in a few days after checking them out! He wants to see about some part time stuff and maybe entry level jobs to see where I fit in. He was already mentioning a project for running reports for some marketers he has in the Baltimore area as a “test run” so to speak.

This could very well be the “break” that I need to get into the web/technology industry. And it was so very random. If I were a minute earlier or later getting to tower, this never would have happened. Needlessly to say, I’m both really excited and weirded out (in a good way) about today!!!

After that, I went up to Virgin (where Tower USED to be) and wanted to get the phone number to call one of the managers about an app that I put in there about a month ago. When I was in there, I ran into Leza, Pat’s girl, and she was just about to go to lunch. So we grabbed some food and I talked about my really wacky job experience and just shot the shit. I got the number and I’m going to call a manager come tomorrow or Wednesday. Looks like they’re hiring again, so it should be pretty good with Leza and another manager, Asia that are pushing for me to get a job.

After that, I talked to Mariah about my day then started in on laundry, which I have to get in a few minutes, and also did some grocery shopping after I threw it in the dryer.

All in all, I’d say this was a really good day that really picked up my spirits. I really needed this. Now, I just need a break and hopefully something will work out with this company!!!

Wish me luck!

I grabbed this from Nick’s LiveJournal. It’s surprisingly accurate… though I think I can do better next time!

Are you Addicted to the Internet? 77%    Hardcore Junkie (61% - 80%) While you do get a bit of sleep every night and sometimes leave the house, you spend as much time as you can online. You usually have a browser, chat clients, server consoles, and your email on auto check open at all times. Phone? What’s that? You plan your social events by contacting your friends online. Just be careful you don’t get a repetitive wrist injury… The Are you Addicted to the Internet? Quiz at Stvlive.com!

Well, I futzed around with the webcam last night. For some reason it wasn’t fixed. Well, I guess the *real* reason was because I didn’t do it right. But what I did *should* have worked. Hmm…

I think I need to re-do my page header & footer. I currently have it so that from the opening <HTML> tag to the content box is the header. Then I insert the page-specific information and then the closing of the cell to the </HTML> tag is the footer. So, what this means is that I can’t add onLoad() calls in the <BODY> tag. I think my manual call to the function further in the script isn’t executing the same way as from an onLoad() call, but I don’t see why that would have any effect on it. All I do know is that it was working prior to my implementation of the header & footer… so I’m going to give it a shot.

So, it looks like I have some code finagling to do… which shouldn’t be *too* difficult… as long as I can find all the references to my webcam page on here.

Wish me luck.

I think I know what I can do to fix my webcam page. I just got into work a few minutes ago (it’s just past 8), so I can’t work on it here. But I’m mainly writing this as a reminder to myself to get my ass around to fixing it tonight, so don’t mind me.

I think it has to do with the fact that the image source is hard-coded into the page, and not dynamically generated initially. I think with this little change, everything should fall into place. Keep your fingers crossed.

I think I REALLY need to pick up a book on mySQL soon. I’ve undertaken the task of trying to set up a developement server here at home. Now that’s a pain in the ass!

I have PWS set up without issue. I then installed PHP and that’s working fine (finally). Now, Ive installed mySQL. I believe that it’s working without issue, but then again, I have no clue what the hell I’m doing… so I could be horribly wrong.

I use mySQL as a backend to CrazyTed.com, but that’s just using PHP as an interface for it. I have little control in the way of the actual mySQL server itself, which is what I’m trying to install and administer for the developement server. And to say that it’s confusing is an understatement.

So, I think sometime this week I’m going to pick up a mySQL book and dive into that.

I’m also looking for a copy of winXP to put on one of my other machines to see what it’s all about. If someone has a copy I could eval, let me know.

Well, I’m going to be futzing around with this image crap… hopefully I’ll figure something out.

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Well, the first pic of my fat forehead is black and white. B&W pics seem to take thumbs just fine. The color pics, on the other hand, aren’t so forgiving. I’ve tried playing with the resolution of the picture I initially upload, I’ve played with the compression of the actual thumbnail… still nothing. I have no clue what the deal is. GAH!

Well… I had some work to do with code for deleting images that I upload via the web (opposed to standard FTP). I was removing the database entries for the images, but I wasn’t actually deleting the images themselves. It wasn’t a major problem unless I was testing things. It was a real bitch to delete all the images manually, re-upload then delete again, etc. I figured it was about time to fix that problem. After a bit of tweaking, it’s done. Yay for me. :)

Now, I’m going to try to fix the apparent problem I’m having with the thumbnails being compressed beyond recognition. Take, for example, the image in the previous entry (the septum pic). All you can really see is a grey outline and some black shapes. But when you click on the image, you get the full res one (although that pic is actually blurry, it’s not the compression). I just need to find out how to get the thumbnail to be recognizable. Hmmm…

If anyone has any ideas, please drop me a line via email or leave a comment on here.

Well… this is the first day that I’ve worn *real* jewelry in my septum since I stretched and put the 4g plug in it. It’s finally looking *big* to me. 6g didn’t look impressive at all.

Well… here’s a blurry pic taken by myself. I look like hell… but it’s better than nothing. Enjoy. :)

Well, it’s Friday. I can’t say that I’m sad to see the weekend. It’ll be nice to unwind.

Yesterday I got some bad news. The company I work for is being acquired by another company. And as a result of this transaction, my position is being eliminated (read as: I’m getting laid off)

My termination date is at Change of Control – the date that our processes are officially taken over by the other company. At this point, that date is 4/5 (just shy of 2 months).

There were a few people laid off yesterday. Most of their last days are today. Only one other person was asked to stay until Change of Control.

I know a lot of peple really get down when they get laid off, but I honestly believe that it was my position that is being terminated, not me personally. I can’t believe that they’d ask me to stay for another two months if they didn’t want me around. On top of that, when you match up the organizations side-by-side, it’s not surprising that my position is being eliminated. It just makes sense from a business point of view.

I’m getting a decent severence package come April. I’m not going to disclose any numbers here, but if you’re one of my nosey friends (and I don’t know who else reads my page), then just drop me an email or give me a call. Bottom line; I’m going to be taken care of and I don’t think it’ll be overly difficult to get at least some sort of job too long after 4/5. I always have temping to fall back on and my skill set has grown considerably in the 3.5 years that I’ve been working here. I just gotta get my ass back into the job market and start searching.

One thing I do have to say though, is that my manager is being very accomodating and considerate. She’s shown sincere concern for my well-being and has offered me a lot of flexibility over the next couple of months. It’s wierd to think that these people that I’ve seen virtually every day for the past 3 years, aren’t going to be a daily presence in my life in two months. It’s amazing how comfortable you can become with something given long enough exposure to it.

Well… I’m going to wrap this up now. Like I said, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment to this or drop me an email. And… if you’d like to send me some “condolances”, here’s a link that would be much appreciated:

 

The Mike Don’t Got No Job Fund*

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*Note: This is not a real fund, nor can I give you receipts for your “donations” and I really don’t think it’s tax-exemptable. But any/all donations are greatly appreciated!