what, me worry?

The week ended on a positive note, with everything getting finished for the project. I even did a simulation of a business process which is really going to knock the socks off of everyone in the final meeting tomorrow.

I got done in spite of my "team". The two guys who have been supporting me on the project just stopped working on Tuesday and refused to do anything I asked. They did it in a nice way, but it was infuriating and because of the jack ass way my company works, there is nothing I could do about it. They are just damned lucky they left at 3 pm on Thursday. My customer R had agreed we would leave at 3 because I worked so much overtime this week and I had to go into the office yesterday. I was starting to come down with a cold and just wanted a few hours to rest. As my team walked out the door I asked them if they had tested the web site we have to demo on Sunday to make sure it's working. They told me it was.

But, since I've worked here for long enough to know people are full of shit, I decided to test the web site before I left. It wasn't working. R started flipping out. I had to spend 2 hours fixing it. I was furious, but all those guys are rolling off the project and Thursday was their last day so there's nothing I can do.

As it seemed the day couldn't get any more annoying while I was finalizing the web site fixes, Habib called and insisted I go to dinner with him. I refused, saying I had too many errands to run (since I knew I would be working all weekend I had to get everything done Thursday night - groceries, picking up dry cleaning, getting stuff I ordered from the pharmacy). I walked out the door to the office 20 minutes later and there was Habib. He insisted he would drive me around for my errands, and then take me for sushi. It was 130 degrees outside, and no cabs were in sight, so I finally agreed.

I told him where I needed to go and he started programming his GPS. It was taking forever. I was like "dude, I know how to get to all the places I need to go" but he insisted on using the GPS. Then he cranked up the radio and started blasting Hotel California. I had a splitting head ache and I wanted to kick him in the nuts for acting like a college kid.

We finished my errands and I dropped everything off in my room. I was going to ditch Habib but right as we got to the hotel he said "the reason I came to see you is that my son (who's 12) was diagnosed with bone cancer. He has 6 tumors in his legs and the doctors say he can't do any sports or activities because the bones will break. I can't find a good treatment here." I felt bad so I agreed to hang out with him for a bit so he could talk about his son (he's going to take him to Germany for treatment).

But Habib totally took advantage of my good nature. We went to the Yacht club and he drank 3 martinis. Then he man handled all of the cigars before deciding he didn't want one. He treated the staff there so badly and I was so embarrassed that I gave them a $30 tip on top of the tip he left them. He was in a horrible mood, I guess because of his son, although he kept saying it was because I was leaving. He tried to grab my hand at one point and I told him I would punch him in the face if he touched me (can't call the police on him because he has wasta, though normally that's what I would do). He then started making a scene because I said I was tired and didn't want to go to dinner. I was like whatever dude, let's go get sushi. We drove to my sushi place, Sushi Samurai.

While we were in his car he said he was mad that he had planned a trip last weekend to a resort in Egypt and I didn't go. Then he was mad that he was going to a resort in Liwa this weekend and I refused to go (not just because of work but because I have no desire to hang out with him). To piss him off I started smoking in his car. He didn't say anything to me but I think I got my point across to him about how little I care that he's upset.

Once we got to Sushi Samurai Habib admitted he didn't like sushi. He told the waiter to bring him something that was like KFC. I was like dude, why don't you eat something healthy instead of having fried chicken and he went off on another tirade about how he was fat and probably had cancer so who cared if he was eating healthy. He also was upset that I had taken him to a restaurant that didn't serve alcohol.(which I did on purpose).

He told me that while he was in Egypt he and a friend of his had gotten their driver to get them some hashish. Drugs are not treated lightly here, and in most countries there is a potential death sentence if you are caught using drugs. He might have been trying to impress me, but I told him that I couldn't believe he would take such a stupid risk since he has 4 kids. He got mad at me and said he's going back to Egypt next week to smoke more hashish. Seriously, the dude is just crazy.

After dinner I told him to take me back to the hotel so I could get some rest. It was 10 o'clock, I was exhausted, and I had to get up at 6 the next morning for work. He kept driving the wrong way, so I finally started yelling at him. I'm not even sure what I said, but he started crying. I felt bad but I didn't apologize.

I got a text message from him yesterday and today, but just ignored them. I hope I don't have to see him again before I leave. It's sad that he has so much money, and family connections, and is one of the most negative and miserable people I've ever met.

I was talking about that with R on our way into work yesterday. He said that this place is one of the most negative he's ever lived in. It just seems to be the nature of everyone here. If you do a good job they still criticize you. If you piss of the wrong person, for whatever trivial reason, they make it their life mission to destroy you. R said that if the people in the middle east spent even half the time they spend screwing each other over doing something positive there would be a huge difference.

But, things aren't going to change in the foreseeable future. What happens instead is that people like R, who are good people, get sick of this place and leave. He's had a hard life. His family was decimated in the Lebanese war. But he won't even go back to Lebanon now. He's working hard to save up money for his family, and then they are going to Canada.

In any case, I'm out of here next Saturday. And I won't be coming back.

my week, and it's only wednesday

So much for cruising through the last weeks of my project. Highlights of the past few days:

• The server where all of my work is had a patch installed on Sunday. This somehow removed my rights to the server.  All of my work is on the server. It took 2 hours that I didn't have to fix the problem.
• 20 people were fired on Sunday. Chaos in the office.
• Etisalat blocked bb service because RIM wouldn't agree to let them monitor messages. All Sunday I couldn't receive emails on my bb at work which is a major problem as the customer was emailing me stuff to use for a presentation I had to put together but COB sunday. I was at work from 7 am to 9 pm.
  
•  Monday a fired employee took down the wireless network. I didn't have email access again, and couldn't get on the server, which was fixed by then, because I connect through the wireless. Service came back Monday afternoon, but the office was full of people screaming and yelling. Two important meetings I needed to have were postponed because of the security incident. They finally happened at 7 PM. Once again, I didn't get home until almost 10.
• Jakey, my car, was rear ended in Montana. Not sure what's going on with that, too busy and tired to find out.
• The office I was working in smelled horrible. It turns out two birds flew into the air con shaft and died. The tea boy kept coming in and spraying some vile baby powder air freshener in the office. It almost made me vomit.
  
• Tuesday I decided to make some vid clips of my customer to use in the final presentation. The clips were great and everyone was really excited (they don't do stuff like that here, mostly because the locals usually won't let you even photograph them, but, my customer likes me) but I was up until 2 am editing them for the presentation.
• An idiot member of my architecture team imported some faulty code and took down our database. Then the little shit left while I was in a meeting. Of course the IT guys weren't backing our server up. I didn't leave the office until 9 PM fixing the issue. And then the little shit came in at 9 this morning and was mad because I didn't let him fix the problem. Like, if you break my system and think I'm going to wait until your candy ass rolls in here at 9 am, you really know nothing about working for me.
  
• An idiot sales person introduced a technical requirement at a customer meeting that we couldn't do. My customer was freaking out because we had to have the requirement done by today. I probably could figure it out, but not in the amount of time I have left. Allah bless this kid in Singapore who fixed the problem. I seriously wanted to get on a plane, fly there, and hug him.
• I found out the CEO is going to be on vacation during the final presentation for my project. He wants to set up a vid conference on August 16 so I can do the presentation again, from the US. Ech.
• The vids were so successful that more people want to make them. I have no time to film people.
• The air conditioning in the office I work in broke at 2 pm. It was almost 100 degrees in the office by the time I left this evening.

I know. Stop whining. I'm almost home. Thankfully..