It has been kind of a rough assed week. Two major projects had deadlines this week. And it hasn't been my usual "Nothin' but Net" kind of week either.
One of the projects has serious issues program philosophy-wise, but the tool itself works fine. It's going to require some user training so people know what to do and where to click. I am frustrated with the project itself, so sick of it, and it HAS to be released on Monday because it was SUPPOSED to be released YESTERDAY, but because of all sorts of issues and the fact that any stake in the ground that had been planted for tool features had moved so many times, we kind of lost control of the thing and how.
The other one was also supposed to be pushed yesterday but due to server problems it was pushed back to tonight. Now it is pushed back to Friday. So I have a tiny bit of time to tidy up shit and make it all work better. I just spent the better part of 3 hours cleaning up the findings from a QA report on a huge section that my intern did for me. He either didn't realize he was leaving shit undone or just sucks, but the whole 5 page report was stuff he messed up. And I blew up. He is of course gone for the rest of the summer and hurried through this because he was SUPPOSED to do this section of the site while I was on vacation but says that was never put on his list of things to do, so he had no idea... and he got defensive and mean about it. I'd kill him, but he's like the CEO's only son and I may go to jail for the rest of my life and it just wouldn't be worth it.. so I'll go home and have a beer.
I hate projects that feel rushed so I absolutely LOVE when there is an extension and the extension has nothing to do with the fact I have not yet completed my shit. My 2nd project is like that. I got all my ducks in a row today, busted my ass. Came in early, stayed late every day this week so far, and I am caught up on that shit. So the fact that there is a delay simply means I have more time to focus on Project One now. There is still some help and training documentation that I have to finish writing and get up onto the portal.
Another thing that pisses me off about both of these projects IS our portal. We are switching servers, and the new server is currently serving as a QA site... which is great, so we can check all our new shit before the world gets to see it. I can't get, or I get but cannot maintain, an FTP connection for longer than 2 minutes, or, 2 files. So I have to disconnect, restart Dreamweaver, send things one file at a time (a bitch and a half when you have to send 50 files). Then we find our our UNIX group changed our password on us due to some security issues... and never told anyone, so none of the WebDev team could get in for like a whole day until we finally got it figured out.
My boss is out of town... and normally if I went in there and asked her to go kick someone's ass she would. I like that about her (except when someone asks her to kick mine. ouch.) But there was no upper level command chain person to go scream to this morning, so one of my co-workers on the WebDev team went to the director of the Helpdesk area and let him have it because his team sucks at communication, does shit without sending out a message and is just generally no fucking help. I'm glad he went instead of me. I would have gone house on the dude. (ha.)...
Okay enough bitching about work. I am done. Done with bitching about the projects, deadlines, interns and lousy UNIX eunuchs.
We have an update on movie rentals... We rented 3 Wallace & Gromit movies, for my son really but they are lots of fun to watch. I enjoy the aardman animations. Geoff is a funny 4 yr. old... I've never met anyone like him.
We also rented Clay Pigeons, which Doug watched but I didn't because went to Maine for the weekend with the kids (Doug was at a conference so I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Hyde-A-Way, ha ha ha, in Maine... home of Marcia, Wayne, Pete, Natalie and Mary Hyde...). He really liked it and said I would have liked it too, but it had to go back to the store so we could avoid getting our collective movie-rentin' ass hit with a fine.
And last night, after being beat to crap tired, we went to Newburyport, MA for their "Yankee Homecoming" suare, and saw the Boogaloo Swamis... kind of a zydeco meets Jimmy Buffet band. And when we got home at 10pm, Doug popped in the movie rental for that night, which was "Gone in 60 Seconds."
I have a LOT to say about that flick.
- It was corny and stupid. It took forever to establish that the brother was a reluctant hero. He was sent away from "the life" of stealing cars by his momma, and came back to save his brother, but only with his momma's blessing. What a tool.
- I didn't like Nick Cage's performance here. Mind you, he stars in my ALL TIME FAVORITE MOVIE IN THE WORLD, "Raising Arizona." And his character is supposed to be slick, and clever, and witty... I found him dull, boring and unconvincing.
- What is the attraction this world has with friggin Angelina Jolie????? She can't act her way out of a sopping wet paper sack. Someone do something with those googly eyes and them big ugly flappy lips. She makes me sick. Stupid hair on her too. She's a doorknob.
- The "Low Rider" scene where they all stand there and crank that hackneyed alleged classic rock song before going out. Was it a beautiful prayer like ritual, focusing on their family of car thieves with a moment of prayer, or was it just fucking retarded. I say the latter.
- The snake scene... where Sphinx and technogoober, Chris Tucker wannabe, stupid glasses, freaky black kid dude are riding in the Hummer and the snake is in the kid's lap... there were so many opportunities for that to be funnier by the dude throwing the snake into the cop car or the booth where the garage attendant sat, or, Sphinx could have picked it up out of the kid's lap and bit it's head off, thus appearing as homo-erotic and super on edge! But no. A great lost opportunity.
- Not enough good driving scenes. The one good scene at the end, I had to wait almost 2 hours to get to. Gone in 60 seconds isn't a driving fast movie, it's a stealing cars quietly movie. So it wasn't nearly as great as I had hoped.
- Goofy white cop needed a smack in the face.
- The dialog was pretty horrid... Especially the fact they had to establish that Calitri loved to build wood furniture. Every bad guy has a hobby. We know that. And the dialog between Cage and the dude that comes to get him was pretty horrid. It was almost laughable.
This movie wasn't a complete waste of my time.
The stuff I liked is heavily outweighed by the stuff I didn't like though...
- The Sphinx is Vinnie Jones, who stars in "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock..." and he has the best line in the movie. He also is one fun to watch, crazy summabitch so I did like that. He is awesome.
"If his unpleasant wounding has in some way enlightened the rest of you as to the grim finish beneath the glossy veneer of criminal life, then his injuries carry with it an inherent nobility, and a supreme glory. We should all be so fortunate. You say poor Toby? I say poor us."
- Nick Cage's retarded and hopeless asshole of a little brother was played by Giovanni Ribisi, who I loved in the X-files, when he was in the episode "D.P.O" as the kid who could channel electricity and do all kinds of crazy messed up stuff (note also that Jack Black is in this episode too, and he's cool...). He sucks in this movie though and you so want him to either get crushed in the car by the crazy Irish asshole who forces Nick Cage back into the life...
- The Irish bad guy, Calitri, was truly hateful, and your arch-nemesis has to be truly hateful. He made good furniture. And he had a great accent.
- Robert Duvall. Need I say more.
- Nick Cage's face when he jumps over the traffic accident in the GTO. Usually in movies, or the Dukes of Hazard, the driver is like "yeah! cool!" or way too calm about it. Cage's face was that of a man stunned that he was still alive, driving and going to make his deadline. It was the most convincing scene in an unconvincing movie.
What movie is on tap tonight at the Way Out Inn? Who knows. All I know is I've been typing for an hour straight, I feel much much better about my horrible day... I have funny pictures to pick up at Osco, and I am outta here. Hurrah!
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