This is where I bitch.

The last few days have been filled with email server and spam filter headaches. They seem to be mostly figured out, but I am not a fan of those things right now.

Been busy at work again though, which is good. Mostly last minute, "OMG we have to get the site live NOW!" and "Oh, we didn't tell you about that aspect, yeah sorry, get on that now?" and "I know it's 4:55 there, but I'm on the West Coast, so if you can get that done today?" I don't really mind. I like feeling needed and helpful. And the occasional long day means a long lunch or leaving a bit early on a different day.

I got my Christmas gift off to Jack already. Laura won't give it to him until they are on the plane. They are spending Christmas in Sri Lanka (I think). I made him a comic style eBook. It's formatted to display well on their iPad. It's about how Uncle Jason misses Jack, so he flies to see him. Then the two of them take some magical flying toys to visit the rest of their families. Hoping he likes having a book with him in it.

My family Christmas will be a week from this weekend. My cousin Nate is going up that weekend, so that makes 2 grandkids in Brantwood at the same time, which is the largest gathering of family we'll have. Paul can't get out of work, which sucks. But it will be nice to see grandma and everyone again.

After knowing about it for months, I finally had time to join the live tweet meeting (I'm sure there is a term for this) of eBook creators on twitter. It's at 10 CDT on Wednesdays. One just follows the hash tag #eprdctn. I'm going to need to find an app or client for this though, it's a bit annoying having to hit update.

It is going well, but now (15 min. in) I have a new fire to deal with, so I can't finish watching it. Oh well, so it goes.

EDIT:
The nice thing is that I can go back and bring up that hash tag search later and at least see what was discussed. Something I can do after the fires are put out (or at least contained again).

The weekend was nice. Drove up Friday with my cousin Nate and his GF Courtney. Saturday was pretty low key, saw mom, dad, and grandma, cleaned for the party a bit, feel asleep on the boat for two hours and got sun burnt. Sunday we helped set up for the party, greeted guests and family as they arrived and then spent a lot of time playing with Jack. He loved the gifts we got him. He figured out the matching games we got him pretty fast and then spent the day walking around with the two dinosaurs under each arm telling people he has "A brontosaurus and a 'ceritops from uncle Jason". Yeah, he's 2 and knows his dinosaurs, he rocks.

I'm hoping to get up there at least one or two times before Laura and co. head off to their next destination. Then we will see them out in Montana and for a weekend when they come to Madison to visit.

Softball went OK. I'm still walking too many people when I pitch, I need to find the time to practice. Next week Jess will try pitching and give me the first chance in like four years to play somewhere else on the field.

Super busy at work. Getting "interesting" juggling work and all of this eBook research and set up.

We got to see Scott Pilgrim last night. Loved it. It was cute and funny and had tons of smart little jokes and geek nods. I'm not sure why people didn't like it, probably too geeky for them. I really loved Wallace, the gay roommate. He was just a normal guy who likes other guys. No flaming, bitchiness or being a queen. Just a sarcastic gay guy slight focused on sex. Sounds like a lot of the people I hang out with.

Been too busy to update. It's been all 10-12 hour days this and last week. My manager is realizing that I'm pretty valuable and we are starting to talk about what level of pay I'll start at when my temp time is over. It's not what I was making, but this is starting out, and there should be a 6 month review. I'm happy with where the talk is going. I'm also being asked by coworkers for advice on a few things that I've shown knowledge in, mostly using GREP in InDesign, but a few other topics too. It's nice to be recognized like that.

We had our first round of high-level training for the sales staff on eBooks today. I presented the technical aspects. It went well, I wasn't too nervous and everyone had smart questions.

I'm pretty excited to go up north this weekend. It's gram's 85th birthday, so a lot of family will be there. Especially Laura, Rob and Jack. They've been in the States for a week or so now, but this will be the first time I get to see them. I'm car pooling up with my cousin Nathan and his GF Courtney, to save on gas. The three of us will stay at the cabin at the Lake, where the party will happen on Sunday. Laura and Jack won't get there until Sunday morning, so I wont' see them for very long, but it will be good while it lasts.

I had a weird dream last night, and I remember it, which is odd for me. It was kinda long and involved, but the only part I really remember was talking with Paul about how many party's and events we had to go to in the next week. We had to go to an AIDs fundraiser (which dose exist, but we can't make it), Ben's house warming party (which also exists and we are going to tonight), some event of channonyarrow's (I don't remember exactly what), a cookout thrown by Shannon, and a party thrown by exairian (she had drag queen strippers at it--I don't know why, but she did). Bizarre.

No weekend word at Omnipress, though I did get to bring home an iPad so I can play around with eBooks on it. I've used them a few times, but am not nearly experienced enough with one to do tech support for our products with our clients--something I think will be happening. I do need to swing into the office today and send out an email I forgot to send on Friday.

Working at the mall this morning, then I have an organization project at home. Paul has been redecorating, moving stuff around so that the house's Chi flows better. Things are a lot less cluttered and there is lots more open space. But I have a bunch of things to put away that he shouldn't have to do. Then tonight is Ben's house warming party, where I get to see my college/gaming friends again. It's been a while.

I have some freelancing plans in the works. More on that as they develop. I was really happy that when I asked my new boss if it's OK for me to do freelance book design and eBook conversion she said yes. She told me they encourage that, as I'll pick up more skills that I can then use at work. As long as I'm not working for a customer or a competitor it's no problem. The new company is pretty cool.

And as a random side, here is our little dragon slayer.