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more thoughts about graveyard shift

Apr 28th, 2012 by

So I have this new job in Pittsburg. I live in Manteca. My commute is 100 miles per day round trip. I’m not unhappy about this, for several reasons:

    My car gets 36-ish miles per gallon and is fun to drive
    I get extra money for working graveyard and it’s more than enough to cover my gasoline expenses
    I’m traveling at times of day when there is no traffic, so my commute is about an hour each way
    My weekend begins on Tuesday morning at 7:30am and I don’t have to go back to work until Thursday night at 11:00pm, so the way I’m looking at it I get three days off
    Most of my commute is through the countryside, in the shadow of Mt Diablo, and is quite nice
    In the morning when I’m driving home I’m heading East, with the sun in my face, and it’s glorious

So I’m really liking my new shift. I’m a night owl by nature, so it didn’t take long for me to get used to staying up all night.

Feels good, man.

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Graveyard shift

Apr 21st, 2012 by

So I started my new job last Sunday. Same company, different department. And, a much different shift–graveyard.

Last time I worked graveyard was 20 years ago, when I was on temporary duty due to injury, in the Navy. So this shift isn’t completely new to me.

I start work at 11pm and end my shift at 7:30am. If you’ve never worked these hours then you won’t know how badly it can mess with your head.

Here are some examples:

    I go to work one day and go home the next
    When entering dates on the computer, the day changes in the middle of your shift
    When entering times on your computer, particularly if you’re used to working days, the PM to AM shift can get confusing
    Instead of going to sleep and waking up when it’s dark, you’re doing it during daylight
    Concepts like “tomorrow morning” and “last night” occur during your 8 hour shift
    I’ll go to sleep, and when I wake up it’s still the same day

So you can imagine I’m pretty messed up right now. It’s been about a week, so I’m still getting used to the hours. I got my first solid 8 hours of sleep yesterday afternoon.

I still don’t know what day it is.

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It’s true what they say

Mar 24th, 2012 by

I’m tired of waiting for Android tablets to get better. And I’m tired of waiting for Android tablets to get good games. I’m tired of being an early adopter. I’m tired of fighting with my electronic devices.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that I bought week one. It’s thin and light. But I’ve never been truly satisfied with the device. The performance has always been lacking. When I launch apps they are sometimes quite slow to respond. When I scroll up and down web pages they stop and stutter. These might seem like little nitpicky things, but over time they become quite annoying.

I’m tired of watching every good mobile game come out for Apple devices first. Maybe later they do an Android port. But more and more, this just isn’t happening. For example, one of my good friends works for a video game company and they have made some iOS games but no plans for Android devices. I don’t expect this to change any time soon.

I still love my Android phone, an HTC Incredible. I’m tempted to get a Nokia Windows Phone. That said, my next phone will probably be another HTC Android. I really like that HTC One X, and I hope it comes to Verizon this year. But enough about mobile phones.

I use my Android tablet less and less these days. The performance sucks and there are no good games. And I want a larger screened portable gaming platform. I’ve looked at Nintendo and Sony and I’m just not impressed.

So I guess that’s it, then. I’m going to get a new iPad.

I feel so defeated right now. I feel dirty. I hate Apple. And here I am, ready to buy an iDevice.

But this summer when I’m playing Baldurs Gate on my new iPad? It’s going to feel sooo good.

So it’s true what they say: Resistance *IS* futile.

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