Driving Snobs, Biking Snobs

Today I read an article in the capital times, written by a biker, about how he, and others he interviewed, get treated while they are biking. 

He talked about how he had several bad things happen to him.  Such as getting yelled at, spit on, cursed out, cut off, and many other bad things. 

But he also noted that there are bikers who earn that, but not everyone. 

Personally, the only odd thing that happened to me while riding was someone yelled out there window to tell me to "get in the bike lane," when I was getting ready for a left turn in 2 blocks.  Rather than try to cross 3 lanes of traffic at the light for the left turn, I opted to get in the left lane.  Oddly enough, the bike lanes (atleast here) are a safety guideline.  You could be in any lane really, but it is safer in the bike lane. 

Sometimes though, I know that there are crazy bikers around.  I don't know why they run red lights and stop signs and the like. 

My rule of thumb I learned from my Dad.  And it applies to riding a bike, motorcycle, or walking, and it compares you to the car driver. 

"If they screw up, you lose.  If you screw up, you lose."

And on that pearl of wisdom, Back to it.

Good night and stay safe.

Midnight Rider

I enjoy my midnight rides.  Especially when there are patches of clouds and a full moon.

More so the ride down state street.  I get to see all the drifters, and nightowls like myself.  Some of them gather in groups, while others meander out of, or into bars.

Some are the homeless, talking and joking with their belongings in bags around them. 


Others are like me, people who stay silent, and ride through the night, pondering what it feels like to be central time plus four hours.

Work IRC server

Since we took on the call center, we have a guy who works for us ( who ran the company we took over) from Texas.

He had one of our phones shipped to him, and he can log in via virtual private network to our work network.

However, constantly calling him asking questions and seeking clarifications about the various companies we answer phones for seems a bit cumbersome.

So I hit upon the idea to set up a Internet Relay Chat server on our work network.  Then, we could all log in, and seek answers from each other, and the guy from Texas, in real time, while on the phone.

I thought of doing IRC, because it would allow us to host and control the chat entirely in house.  We could do something like msn or yahoo, but that puts us in the open.

However, I've tried a few clients so far, and I've not had much luck getting it up and running to it's fullest.

IRC2 is the older style irc server, and that was hard to learn how to configure.

Dancer-IRCD was an interesting style, but it had little or no documentation, and had an error that I was unable to find any information on, online.  I was able to get the IRC portion of it running by itself, but the Dancer specific service applications were causing the error.  I may have to fall back to this and just use it without the services. 

Right now I'm giving ircd-hybrid a try.  It seems to be up and running, but it's giving me grief over the port.

Edit: I don't have to get it to work anymore (even though I may just because I'd want to), my boss boss installed a IM server on one of our servers. 

Position of Power

It's odd to have people who answer to me ( and of course up the chain too).  But it just feels odd to be telling people what they should be working on.  Showing them how something works.  How to deal with a certain issue customers are having.  

I mean, I've been here a year and a few months, but I'm not sure I have much more over these new part-time workers other than time.

Plus, I'm showing them the new answering service procedures, which I just learned that on the First.  Just a week of training, and I'm training them.

But, we need the help, so it's all good.  

Night Owl

Things are changing.

At work, my main boss felt that there was not enough going on at work during the day, so he decided to buy a call center, and take it over.  Right now I'm at work, and I will be until midnight.  Now, I'm not complaining, since I volunteered for the 4-12 shifts Tuesday through Friday.

What does this mean for me?  Well, I get to in a normal week, go home after work on Saturday (4 pm), and stay there until sometime on Tuesday morning.  Maybe I might actually get some stuff done in late July/August.  Also, in theory more time to spend with the family and friends back home.

What does it mean for you, my hundreds... dozens... of readers who randomly pass by?  More posts, because there are times like this, where there are not that many phone calls.

But all this is turning me into a night owl.  I still feel like doing stuff when I get home from work, so I've been playing games or putzing around and I'm up until 2 or 3.  (The take over of the call center was effective at the start of July).

So, I may or may not be seeing you around.