Another story to tell the bartender

People should get together and watch Jeopardy. This being decided after a gem of a Greek myth reference went unnoticed for 18 hours. Come on, people!

Halloween is one of those days I never seem to prepare for. So it wasn't a big surprise people already had plans or were unable to come. So Sylvia and I bought gobs of candy and waited to see if any children would take the walk up our foreboding and treacherous stairs. Thankfully, we got some brave kids. And Isaac (thanks Isaac!)came over and made a Jack o'Lantern for the front steps that wouldn't stay lit for anything.

All in all, it was an OK if mildly depressing start to the evening. Still, would have been smart to plan more than a couple weeks ahead. Though, with the distances involved, I suppose that there's a way to optimally pick a time in advance to make sure people can clear their schedules. Or enough time to let us know that they can't make it.

Anyway, the in-laws came over today. Long day of watching Red Dragon with Al while Sylvia and Bertie worked and made us dinner. And we wrapped it all up with Doctor Who Season 3 Christmas Special. A good Saturday all around.

Who thought that using a container that is 5 x 7 inches to hold 2 items that are less than 1 inch in size was a good idea?

When it comes to most circles, I tend to be the tech guy. Just last night, I fixed an issue with an HDTV that allowed the owner, who were contemplating returning the set, to experience the full HD glory they had paid for. This, coupled with the fact that I consume all this tech info on a daily basis, is making me consider trying like hell to get into the technology news arena. Nothing too complex. Maybe just starting a blog and posting the stuff I answer on a weekly basis.

If there are any tech questions that you've been wondering, please toss them my way. I need the mental exercise.

Been back for a couple weeks and it's been odd. Moving in has definitely made me feel more at home, but I can't help but feel like things have been a bit stagnant. My fault entirely though. I've been kind of stuck with the work routine running the rest of my schedule. Hopefully, the Rats board meeting will shake things up enough that I snap out of it.

(12:30:24) Molly: if any nursedom ever happened, i think i'd want to be a delivery nurse like my mom
(12:30:43) Me: making sure the pizzas are healthy?
(12:31:02) Molly: exactly
(12:31:07) Molly: no one wants a pussy pukey pizza
(12:31:11) Molly: ...
(12:31:16) Molly: pus filled?
(12:31:20) Me: too late
(12:31:23) Molly: lol

This social networking thing is a lot of work!

Giving Ping.fm a spin.

After the awfulness of the start to yesterday, today has shaped up to be marginally better, if more hectic. I woke up late and rushed out the door to work, where I found it really didn't matter if I was late (especially considering that my hours are technically 8:30-5:30).

So I sat around until Rhee-ly (his last name with a suffix) annoying guy came over asking about a Final Cut Pro install. For those of you that don't know, Final Cut Pro is a professional grade video editing suite for Macs. It is incredibly expensive and I could easily spend half a month's paycheck for it. But what I found out today is that it is massive. This thing is 8 DVDs worth of installations. DVDs! Let's put it this way: I started the install a little after 10. I didn't finish it until 11:45. I stayed there babysitting it for over an hour and a half. And not so much as a thank you afterwards. Prick.

Anyhow, after work, I get to jam on down to Vallejo for a night of board meetings. First off, the Darkroom meeting (which I am a member of, surprising to me) is happening at 6. Then, we have the Rats in the Alley meeting immediately after that. And considering that there seems to be some overlap, we might be starting even later than I think. And to top it all off, I get to play secretary at the Rats meeting tonight. Which I suck at, as I'm sure you can tell from my writing here.

I need a nap.

I'm not usually one to talk about politics, but this just started to bug me. Just as a disclaimer, I'm not affiliated with a political party, but I have liberal leanings.

As people that follow the news are no doubt aware, Senator Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee for President of the United States on Tuesday. Senator Hillary Clinton has not yet said what she plans to do, but so far, hasn't dropped out of the race. Senator John McCain has been the Republican nominee for quite some time now. With me so far?

Now, as with any campaign, there are supporters. Some more zealous than others. Obama and Clinton supporters have been at each other for a while now, arguing over who should get the nomination. People are voicing their opinion, some more reasonably than others. In my opinion, a good deal of these people are sound, rational people. There are a few, however, that concern me.

This morning, I watched a clip from The Daily Show (where a good deal of my demographic get some news and some humor, all in one fell swoop) when I saw a clip about Hillary's speech after losing the Democratic nomination. They talked with a few of her supporters (obviously chosen for comic reasons) who refused to accept that it was over for Hillary, at least as far as the Democratic nomination was concerned. It was simultaneously admirable and annoying thinking about that, but that's not what got me. What got me was toward the end of the clip. There is a Hillary supporter that is, in his words "liberal as they come and gay as the day is long". And he said that if Hillary didn't get the Democratic nomination, he would "be all about McCain".

Now this really gets to me. I'm one of those people that gets worked up about people not sticking to their convictions. Presumably, this guy is a Democrat. And now he's planning on voting for someone that doesn't support a majority of this guy's beliefs because his candidate didn't win the nomination? What kind of a child is this guy, in addition to people like him? "My person didn't win! I'll show them?!" In my opinion, these people are reducing what should be a very important decision and reduces it to a playground argument. I'm starting to lose my faith in the voting populace.

I think I might be late to the party.

It's that time again.

-To shave the rabbits?

-To keep the forces of matter and antimatter from meeting?

No, it's time for my birthday. Not quite up to the snuff of an episode of Animaniacs, but what can I do? The big 2-5 is here and I can now rent cars with impunity. Now I just need the money to do so. Don't feel different at all (same story, different year), but I'm slowly realizing that this is my last birthday as a single man. At least, legally. The rest of my days, I will be sharing my birthdays with someone. And I must say it finally gives me something to look forward to on May 30th. I can't wait. Thank you to the folks that have sent well wishes. I deeply appreciate it.

While I'm typing, and I have you as a captive audience, I just caught a trailer for a new Coen Brothers movie, Burn After Reading. It is a dark comedy (right up my alley) starring Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney and J.K. Simmons. Its about a couple of gym employees that find a CD containing secret CIA information. They try to use it to blackmail the agent who lost it. Basically its watching a couple incompetents trying to deal in the world of espionage. So I'm going to see it. But that's not what got me typing. What got me typing is that Tilda Swinton actually looks like a woman in this movie. Now, I'm not trying to knock her. Far from it, to be honest. But in every movie I have seen her in, she appeared feminine, but not like a woman. It was surprising to me.

That is all. Have a good day folks.

%-)

The birthday is coming up and I have no idea what to do for it. Any suggestions?

The wedding is fast approaching, and the honeymoon soon after that. It's gotten me thinking about what I'm going to do about computer access abroad. My first impulse is to take a laptop so I can ease my data withdrawals. Unfortunately, reading all these stories about seizures of computer hardware at various borders as well as snooping has gotten me thinking about whether or not I want to bother with taking anything at all. Ultimately, I'm far too obstinate to let that stop me. Seeing as how the wonder of cloud computing (go Syncplicity) would enable both Sylvia and I to have access to our data without having to keep it on the machine is definitely a boon to those snooping border patrol agents that are convinced my Rats folder could contain plans for a nuclear-powered wheat thresher or some such thing.

The next step is figuring out how to get my hands on a Asus Eee PC. Or an HP Mini Note PC. That thing's nice.

Bit of a request from all of you out there. I recently joined NetFlix and I need some help filling my queue up. If you guys have any movie recommendations, feel free to shoot them my way. I could use the help along with the horizon broadening.

Thank you kindly.

The time has come! The last round of the Sketchie 2 competition has started. That means we need your help, yet again. We need to get as many votes as we possibly can. If anyone has ideas on how we can do more promotion, we're looking for all the ideas we can get. Starting today, April 9th, here's what we'll need from you:

1: If you don't already have a YouTube account, sign up for one. It's free and only takes a couple minutes.
2: Go to http://www.youtube.com/sketchies2
3: Search for our video "Capes & Cowls" in the search field at the bottom of the voting box.
4: Give our video a thumbs up!
5: Hit the "Next Video" button to move through the other videos and give them thumbs down!

The voting box seems to be cycling through the videos a little better. We've checked a few times and it seems to go through all the videos once before it starts repeating, but be careful not to vote on a video more than once.

6: Follow steps 1-5 once a day, every day starting today, April 9th, and ending April 15th!!!

This is the big one. Only vote once per video per day. If you vote more than that, none of your votes for that day will count (we read the fine print).

7: Please tell everyone you can about this. We are facing some stiff competition and we need all the help and support we can get.

8: If you'd like to help us more, subscribe to the OtherSuchProductions channel. We're trying to get partnership, and the more subscribers we have, the better.

And that's it. All told, it will probably take less then 10 minutes of your day. Thank you to everyone that helps out! We really need it!

After a month and a half of going batty, Brandon is going back to work. I will be working at the Academy of Art in SF, right across the street from Pier 39. Fixing computers and watching tourists all the live long day. Can't wait. I also hope to have people visit me for lunch on occasion too.

That's it for now.

Finished up with a 2 part interview at Academy of Art in SF for a new Desktop Support position. Dropped the bomb on the surprisingly young HR person that I have a 3 week honeymoon in Scotland and I cannae move it. We'll see how that plays out.

The rest of the interview couldn't have gone better though. If anything, I can take this away as a positive part of the whole ordeal. I'm sure if they could've hired me right away, they would've.

As for now, taking Sylvia down to Santa Cruz tonight and then back home for 2 days alone. I'll do a better job filling my time this go round.

Revising the old resume is harder than I thought it would be. 1:45 and I'm still at it. Although, to be fair, the Addams Family isn't helping with my concentration. If only Mike were here.

Between the stuttering streaming of Psych and procrastination, this wedding is starting to seem like a much bigger affair than what I had in my head. The sheer number of people (who knew that we knew this many people?!) is mind boggling. I'm half wondering if we would get in trouble with the fire marshal for violating the allowed capacity?

Ok, that last one was a bit far fetched, but not by much. Whenever I pictured my wedding in the past (yes, I have been known to do that), I pictured some nondescript location, a few unidentifiable friends and family members, my mom, brother and the bride. I could never picture the bride either. Since being with Sylvia, my picture of the wedding had gotten even more occluded. I saw my mom, my brother, a faceless friend or two and her. I always skipped ahead to the being married part.

But now that this wedding is coming, it's become this living, breathing, entity. And it's cranky. Just what in the hell makes sane people become wedding planners? I'd rather hot glue my eyes open and walk through a car wash.

Not quite sure what that was. Stream of consciousness writing gets odd sometimes. Anyhow, distraction over. Back to laundry.

%-)

The 4th day without my voice is kinda scaring me. I'm getting paranoid that it's not coming back. On the plus side, I get to be the strong, silent type in multiple groups of people.

Plus, all the Frasier and Futurama I can watch. Not too shabby.