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Mudcat35

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Everything posted by Mudcat35

  1. Cross-posted by request from the Embarrassment thread. Damn, yesterday was hard. Yesterday I experienced the sum total of 2020 in one two-hour episode. To be fair, it actually began the night before. Let me explain. My wife had knee replacement surgery two weeks ago, so Tuesday was her first visit back to the surgeon in Austin. She got a good report, so we decided to celebrate by going to one of our favorite little diners in Austin. Keep in mind that we've been trying to eat healthier and have changed our diet. This will become important later in the story. We sit down at our table and order. Service is terrible. Things are forgotten, things are wrong, tea runs dry, but we get through it. My fried okra, I thought, was especially good. Again, this will be important later. We leave the restaurant and go home. This was her first real trip out of the house, so she's tired and her knee hurts. This means that she doesn't sleep at all that night, and of course means I don't either. Great. It's starting. I wake up yesterday morning with my asthma going crazy. I can't breathe, I'm coughing my head off, and I have a really nice headache. I get up anyway to go into my office to go to work, and I notice that something just doesn't feel.....right. Stomach is gurgling, but I don't think too much of it. I sit down at my desk and do a couple of emails. It's at this point that I have to SHIT. RIGHT. NOW. I don't mean in the 30 seconds it's going to take me to get to the bathroom, I mean RIGHT NOW. I'm concerned and flummoxed, but I decide to chance it anyway. I stood up from my chair. Bad move. Apparently, the pressure from sitting was keeping things in check. With that pressure removed, it was on. I loaded up my drawers in spectacular fashion. This resulted in the cheek-clenching death waddle into the bathroom to clean up while trying not to drip anything on the floor. I get to the bathroom, I'm cleaning up, and it hits again. I make it to the toilet before it's too late, and once there, out of my ass comes substances and odor that should NEVER come out of a live human. My eyes were burning. I could taste it. I wanted to run. From the other room, I hear my wife asking "Are you alright?" No, I am not alright. I may never be alright again. I can only think "OKRA!!!!!" I survive that episode and head back to my desk. An emergency call comes in from a colleague, telling me that the customer we've been working closely with for the past year or so has suddenly changed direction and won't be purchasing the system we've mutually developed. This is about a $21M hit. This is not good. We've been ignoring other customers and opportunities to chase this one, and we were counting on landing it, especially since we had verbal confirmation we were good to go. The first thought in my head was "we're cooked". I hate it when I'm right. Not an hour later, my boss calls telling me I'm laid off. So, to recap, in a two hour period, I've managed to: 1) wake up feeling like crap, 2) shit myself, 3) scared my wife with the things coming out of me, 4) lost a huge deal, and 5) lost my job. Fuck you, 2020.
  2. Yeah, I'm OK. I survived two rounds of layoffs during covid, and I work in a group that's sort of cutting-edge. All the projects are slowed down, so I'm not really that surprised.
  3. Yesterday I experienced the sum total of 2020 in one two-hour episode. To be fair, it actually began the night before. Let me explain. My wife had knee replacement surgery two weeks ago, so Tuesday was her first visit back to the surgeon in Austin. She got a good report, so we decided to celebrate by going to one of our favorite little diners in Austin. Keep in mind that we've been trying to eat healthier and have changed our diet. This will become important later in the story. We sit down at our table and order. Service is terrible. Things are forgotten, things are wrong, tea runs dry, but we get through it. My fried okra, I thought, was especially good. Again, this will be important later. We leave the restaurant and go home. This was her first real trip out of the house, so she's tired and her knee hurts. This means that she doesn't sleep at all that night, and of course means I don't either. Great. It's starting. I wake up yesterday morning with my asthma going crazy. I can't breathe, I'm coughing my head off, and I have a really nice headache. I get up anyway to go into my office to go to work, and I notice that something just doesn't feel.....right. Stomach is gurgling, but I don't think too much of it. I sit down at my desk and do a couple of emails. It's at this point that I have to SHIT. RIGHT. NOW. I don't mean in the 30 seconds it's going to take me to get to the bathroom, I mean RIGHT NOW. I'm concerned and flummoxed, but I decide to chance it anyway. I stood up from my chair. Bad move. Apparently, the pressure from sitting was keeping things in check. With that pressure removed, it was on. I loaded up my drawers in spectacular fashion. This resulted in the cheek-clenching death waddle into the bathroom to clean up while trying not to drip anything on the floor. I get to the bathroom, I'm cleaning up, and it hits again. I make it to the toilet before it's too late, and once there, out of my ass comes substances and odor that should NEVER come out of a live human. My eyes were burning. I could taste it. I wanted to run. From the other room, I hear my wife asking "Are you alright?" No, I am not alright. I may never be alright again. I can only think "OKRA!!!!!" I survive that episode and head back to my desk. An emergency call comes in from a colleague, telling me that the customer we've been working closely with for the past year or so has suddenly changed direction and won't be purchasing the system we've mutually developed. This is about a $21M hit. This is not good. We've been ignoring other customers and opportunities to chase this one, and we were counting on landing it, especially since we had verbal confirmation we were good to go. The first thought in my head was "we're cooked". I hate it when I'm right. Not an hour later, my boss calls telling me I'm laid off. So, to recap, in a two hour period, I've managed to: 1) wake up feeling like crap, 2) shit myself, 3) scared my wife with the things coming out of me, 4) lost a huge deal, and 5) lost my job. Fuck you, 2020.
  4. Mudcat35

    RIP Gale Sayers

    He was absolutely electric on a football field. I had a chance to see him play against the Oilers late in his career. He wasn't the same, but at least I got to see him take the field.
  5. I didn't feel like spending a bunch of money on a better computer, so I went with a Zoom 16-track. I'm able to pass files to my friend's Logic system so that we're able to collaborate. We did our last album on the Logic, and it sounds great after mastering.
  6. Was Steve's cut in dollars or pesos? Mexico is paying for the wall, right?
  7. Oh, I've had some good ones. 1) Torn ACL while playing basketball. My buddy threw up from the sound. Took my breath away. 2) Hit by a truck on a motorcycle. Pavement is hard, as it turns out. I was really surprised at how loud it is when your head hits the concrete, even in a full-face helmet. Nothing broken, but a nice concussion, and I hurt in places I didn't even know I had places for about 3 weeks. 3) Motocross wreck at a track in Houston. Compound arm fracture, two compressed vertebrae. A little hard to walk after that one. 4) Multiple tears in my throwing shoulder labrum while playing baseball. That one hurts to this day.
  8. This right here. I swear, if I ever buy new furniture, I will not buy ANYTHING with a flat, level surface on it.
  9. Getting back out and playing shows with my band.
  10. Have McElroy and Kinder woken up yet?
  11. I have built lots of bolt-on guitars in my life, but I never did a set-neck. I thought I'd try my hand at it, so I grabbed a Les Paul Jr. kit from Stew-Mac. I was surprised at the quality of the wood - much better than I expected. They advertise these things as really, really simple to build, but I had to take a little more care with mine on the neck joint. Since that's what really determines how the thing is going to play, it was time well spent. Ultimately, I'm really happy with the result. I'll probably do another build in the future, maybe a 335-type since I don't have one of those. Anyway, here's a pic.
  12. This is a can't miss for Mrs. Mudcat and me.
  13. Dear God, those Aggy uniforms are awful.
  14. GTFO. Needs a 3, calls a play to drive the lane. Blocked. Still needs a 3, calls the same play, blocked again. At the very end, STILL needs a 3, calls for a drive to the hoop, BLOCKED YET AGAIN. Absolute genius.
  15. I'd be surprised if there were 7,000 there. I do know that there was a pretty large continent of KU fans. They were sitting all around us and made almost as much noise as the Longhorns crowd. I never for a second thought we were actually going to win the game, even when we were up 8, but at least they played competitively. I really wasn't expecting that.
  16. Not a home run hire, but if you're Jerry Jones, who are you going to get? Most top-tier coaches are not going to want to work for Jerry. Is McCarthy an upgrade over Garrett? Oh, hell yes he is.
  17. I am truly hoping that Jerry isn't waffling on this one. If ever there was a no-brainer to move on from a coach, this is it. The guy's been given 10 years and hasn't won anything.
  18. I'm pulling so hard for this kid. It's great that he's doing modified workouts - that's a good predictor for moving on to living a pretty normal life. He's going to school. He can get a degree. He's setting himself up for the future. If he gets to play a little football on top of that, great. If nothing else, put him in to take the snap and kneel down at the end of the game. Or, if he never suits up, I don't care one bit.
  19. It's 10:53am and Jason Garrett is still employed as Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I am not happy.
  20. Based on recent performance, we shouldn't be a 10.5 point favorite over ANYBODY.
  21. I usually watch the presser, but today I didn't. After reading the updates you guys gave, I sure am glad I didn't tune in. I've had just about enough.
  22. I really like the double coverage on the official here.
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