Catching up

Just to let you guys in on what's going on in my life...

I took a business trip on the 19th, and that was the last one so far. Only one more to go! err...hopefully.

Anyway, this was one I was actually excited about, because it was to where I went to college (the first time). It was so fascinating to head back to where I lived for almost six years when I was young. Reminiscent of my youth, I guess you could say. I was told I should just drive up the morning of the meeting, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out my old digs/haunts.

I tried to contact The R.A., one of my oldest and dearest friends. Last I heard he was manager of a place where I used to work. Mr. Mcguillicutty, currently MIA, is truly my best friend in the world. But The R.A. is the one that knows more about me, the one that we did quite a few notorius (i.e. borderline illegal) things together. He's the kind of friend you would have no problems with, and almost expect to be thrown in jail because of. I called the place, and they never. heard. of. him. My heart dropped. I'm sure he was still with the corporation, so
I looked it up and called. They wouldn't tell me. I called back on the 800 number, put on a accent (Pakistani, FTR) and called back to "verify employment." Thank Gawd for US Labor Laws. All you need is a name. He still works for them, but they wouldn't tell me where. Looks like I'm going to have to hire Magnum PI to find him. Maybe he'll do a two-for-one and find Mr. McGuillicutty while he's at it.

I ended up doing some barhopping anyway. I hit the bar that I pretty much lived at from age 18-24, and stopped off at two others where I used to work. I felt kinda old (in the latter two I was definitely the oldest one there), but it made me feel youngER. Sort of a "Reliving your youth" moment. Felt good.

The following weekend was the moment I've been waiting for. I turned off my phone, refused to go in to work, and did... NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. For the first time in almost two months I sat on my ass. I napped a lot, did NOT clean, did NOT work, did NOT blog (but y'all know that). It was awesome.

TBC...

Thank You

Everyone should be told regularly how special and important they are. Not necessarily as an ego boost, but it gets really easy to forget.

So without further adieu,

ChaCha- You are an incredible woman. You helped me find the kickass guy you see today. I (heart) you for being you. The complete package. You put the stars in my eyes. Take good care of my heart, for it still belongs to you.

N- You're one of my closest, dearest friends. You and I are kindred spirits, and we are the foundations from which we both can build. Thank you for being in my life.

Mr. McGuillicutty- We haven't spoken in years, yet I still consider you my best friend. You are the only person I have EVER played straight man to. Hopefully we shall find one another again, and rekindle that kind of lifelong friendship that is legendary. Plus, your wife is really hot.

Jesus and The R.A.- Same goes for you. Let's go to Vegas! (Or Bossier).

A- You're a new player in my life, and I see this friendship heading far forward. Thanks for reminding me something about myself. Great minds think alike, even if they are a bit deviant. Like Mr.McG, you seem to be the type that can get us into serious trouble, legal or otherwise. See you at the bail hearing.

To everyone else in my life, past, present, and future- I would not be this person without all of you. Since I am so awesome, you all are awesome by association... Even the tools and the fartknockers I've known.

Thank you.

NO DISASSEMBLE #5!

As a child of the 80s (cringe), I remember quoting Short Circuit, the appalling Short Circuit 2, and the best out of the bunch, Short Circuit 3.14159265358979323846.

And now, for a limited time, you can OWN JOHNNY #5!

That's right, the last original surviving robot is for sale on eBay.
For a low, low price of $100,000.

Clicky

Talk to you soon, off to buy a lottery ticket.

Man, Has It Been That Long?

I've been slacking.

DUR.

After returning from my last trip on Thursday, I was faced with a conundrum. That is...

A weekend. Really. It's been a while.

Two days where I didn't have to go in to work. Or pack. Or run to the cleaners. Or have to explain to the Execs that the reason why I was so far behind was that I was on the road wasting my time.

And so, as Saturday approached, I decided what I was going to do.

Nothing.

Zero.

Zilch.

Which was EXACTLY what I did. No going in to work, no packing, no bill-paying, no blogging, nothing.

It felt good.

Ok, I DID make some notes for future posts, do two loads of laundry, saw a movie with ChaCha, and went to the gym on Sunday, but that was it.

Did I mention how good it felt?

And now, refreshed, I'm ready to take on the world again.

YAY! "LIFTED" New Pixar Short

If you haven't seen the new Pixar short, you don't know what you're missing out on. It was cracking me directly the hell up.

Check it out, before Disney and their legal gestapo gets it taken off.







Ok, found another copy. This one isn't as high a quality as the last one, but still watchable.

I'm Done

It's 5am and I'm awake. I came back from another business trip last night, and by this afternoon I'll be heading out again. After this week if everything goes as scheduled, I'll only have one more trip to go this year. And yet I'm done.
I've said in the past several times that I am quitting, even walked out twice. But something happened last week that ensured my exit.

For the record, I like my job.
LIKE.
Not Love.
Like.

I feel as what I'm doing is important in a grand scheme. It is a job that not many people are even aware of, and because of the uniqueness of the work, it comes with great security. The pay isn't great, but decent, and plus I'm on salary.

I also like my company.
Small-"L" like.

There's a lot of freedom I have as well. For the off-season, I can take off early if I want, take 2 hour lunches, etc. They don't monitor my Internet usage, and that's where I do quite a bit of blogging. Plus, I can spend quite a bit of time on IM.


Am I willing to walk away from that? You bet.

Several things have happened recently that helped me create this choice. With that came several realizations.

• Regardless of the words my VP and others up the food chain have told me, they want to keep me in this position. Forever. At the same pay. Did I mention forever?
• I'm an idea man. I've come up with numerous plans, ideas, tools, software, improvements in the past, almost all met with great excitement, enthusiasm, and fanfare. And in the three years I've been there, exactly ONE has been implemented, and that's just because I was able to do it my own damn self in my free time, and rolled it out without their help.
• COROLLARY: As much as they've touted the company as "progressive," even to our clients they promise improvements they are capable of, yet don't deliver. Because of this, we keep losing clients. Big Clients. And since we're a government contractor, the number of potential clients is finite. This is a sinking ship IMO. Which brings me to:
  
• Salary. For the past 26 months I've had exactly the same salary. And chances are good that they'll pass us over again.

Those are the main points, and nothing new. Underpaid, Overworked, and Unappreciated. But not the most important one.

It's me.

I don't like who this job is turning me into. I'm normally a happy, driven, goal-oriented, caring individual. But lately I'm someone completely polar from that. Some of the things I say or do ARE NOT ME. I'm not happy. I say things that are insensitive, and occasionally dickish. Something like that happened yesterday. I tried to say something funny to someone, and it spiraled and morphed into something completely foreign. Worst part, I didn't even realize it until this morning.

So I'm done. I will be quitting sometime in September. That is unless something miraculous happens, like they randomly decide to promote me, or give me a fat raise, or the Grinch's small heart grows three times that day and breaks that little window.

But it was very emancipating when I made the decision to give my employers the virtual finger.

This will give me time to take my vacation, look for other venues, buy a house, and time to get my business going. Updates soon to follow.

Quote of the Day

"All children need a laptop. Not a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, dads, grannies and grandpas, aunts, uncles -- someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals and knowledge of a hundered previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectations of them, their hopes, and their dreams."

--General Colin L. Powell

These Hands

My hands define me.

They are not beautiful, but my entire history can be found within them. They probably have aged more than any other part of me, the skin a little thicker, the veins pushing out, the wrinkles a bit more pronounced.

But it is the part of me that has accomplished so much.

People that know me are used to me connecting with them by touching. Holding someone's hand, cradling their face, caressing their skin has such an incredible connection for me. Holding them close out of joy, love, or sadness makes me feel conjoined to the soul, the humanity intertwining between us.

I notice my scars. There's the ironic circular one on my left ring finger from when I first cooked dinner for my future wife. The jagged one from four years old when my sister cut it with a hatchet (For real). The one on my palm from when I once rescued a little girl's toy from a fire.

It's the accomplishments of these hands though, that make me love them. They have created art, countless sketches and paintings, wielding a brush as a conductor of a symphony. They have held the pen when I have written beautiful love poems, enigmatic stories, and dismal confessions. These hands wrote numbers on a page and made them dance. They have molded clay into sculpture, dough into bread, and raw wood into form. They can take tiny metallic bits and create technological wonders. And the typing.

These hands have worked hard to enable my survival. I remember the manual labor I once did in my youth. I was young, but my hands were hard and calloused, as I went home with the blisters and sores and stiffness that came with it. I have had many jobs, and even today, I thank my hands for the work they put in tirelessly, even though it has moved from a sickle to keyboard, from a wrench to reams of paper.

I am so incredibly grateful that I know Sign Language. Because of them, I can communicate with others that cannot speak. It amazes me even today when I see these hands carve words in the air, bridging the gap between cultures. There is a poetic movement in speaking without voice.

And yet, with everything they can do, it is nothing compared to what they have let me experience. They have held a newborn baby, cradling it, as the child reaches out for their first human connection, and grips tight one of my fingers. They have also held the hand of someone breathing their last breath, feeling that one final squeeze as they pass on.

With these hands I have held close someone I love, was able to feel the strands of hair as I run my fingers through. The way their skin feels as we lie next to one another, the skin warm beneath my touch.

They have held people close, and pushed people away. They have been used in Love, as well as anger. They can tickle and scratch. They are who I am, and I am this person for having them.

Thank you.

Damn Those Game Designers!

I've wasted quite a few months hours addicted to Desktop Tower Defense lately, and I finally had the addiction to flash games licked. I was grateful since now some actual work could get done.

SIDE NOTE: My secret to curing my gaming addiction? Heroin.

COMMA

A reader recently sent me the link of a relatively new game called BLOXORZ (Thanks a fuckin' bunch, Joel!)

Don't even THINK about opening it unless you:
A)Have a lot of free time
B)Don't care about minor things like eating
C)Have a 12-step program on speed dial

You can click here to play it in full browser mode.

So far I'm up to Level 28.

AND A POX ON THE DESIGNER!!!

Red Commie Bastard.

Getting in shape

In my plan to get even more kickass than I already am, I just now joined a gym. Finally. I decided to go with 24H Fitness. First of all, it's closer to me AND cheaper than the Y. I spoke with Gold's Gym, and they flat out refused to give me a price over the phone. I know that means they want to give me the hard sell. When they gave me a "courtesy call" back about a week ago, I kindly refused. Ok, I'm lying. I laughed, and gave an anatomically impossible suggestion on what to do with a barbell.

Anyway, I found some workout videos so you can play the home game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are best with the sound on.


It's almost hypnotic...


I tell you now, don't watch this. After scrubbing my eyes with bleach, it still haunts my dreams.


I challenge you to not crack directly the fuck up. It's like a train wreck. I had to watch it twice.