November/December 2004

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12/25/04
But... but maybe he's only a little crazy like painters or composers or... or some of those men in Washington.
Happy Holiday time period.
Yup, I'm alive and well...alive.  Been quite busy lately, both at work , which often left me tired at the end of the day, and at home.  See the work part stems from this:  many of our clients are title agencies.  Almost all of the title agencies in NJ use the same software.  Well, the company that makes it announced that after the new year, they will no longer be supporting the old version of it, so many of our customers have to update.  This, of course means they need new computers and servers.  So, yeah, it's been quite busy doing all these upgrades in addition to regular service calls.
So that's it for work. I've also been quite busy with my fun times too.  Since my last update, I've been to Philly for Philcon.  That was fun and interesting. There were some cool panels there, and some not so cool ones.  I learned the term filking which is frightening but not as dirty as you think.  I did realize that I'm not as big a nerd as I once thought.  It was fun to hang out with Dr Atomic as well.  Though the hotel was kind of ridiculous trying to charge you for any little thing it could.  This was two weekends ago by the way.
Last weekend, I saw Handel's Messiah performed by the NY Philharmonic.  Apparently it was their 14,000th performance, which is supposedly the most performances by any one group.  I think the runner up is the Grateful Dead.  The show was fun, though after singing it for 4 years in high school, my mind tended to single out the bass line amongst the chorus.  It's amazing that I still remember the words.  Oh yeah, it was held at the Riverside church in Harlem, which was simple cool.  That Sunday we were invited to my cousins AJ & Jen's new place.  It's nice.  The building is an old school converted into condos.
Huh, thought I'd have more to say.  I think earlier I did, but it's gone now.
Well, hope your holidays are nice and fun and full of niceness and funness.
See y'all soon.

12/07/04
You said it!
Sedatives supplied become laxatives
My eyes shit out lies
I only kill to know I'm alive
Twas an interesting weekend.  Full of ups and downs.  Friday, I can't really remember.  I probably played GTA all night, but I honestly don't recall what I did.
Saturday was fun.  I played some video game all morning, can't remember which one...  In the afternoon, I went to the rents for a post turkey day turkey dinner.  Twas yummy food.  Yummy in my tummy.  Yum.  After dinner, my Dad, sis and I went to NJPAC to see the Symphonic Lord of the Rings.  It was really cool.  They had a full orchestra, two choirs, soloists and a conductor that looked like John Larroquette.  They also showed concept art on a screen behind the orchestra.  Yup geekfest fun.  Afterwards I headed to the remnants of T&C's holiday party.  I got many compliments on my Giles Jacket.  The party was a good time and I finally skedaddled around 2:30.
Sunday was quite the interesting day.  Myx got into some PCP or something because she was just insane.  She attacked me many times, actually ripped a playstaion controller right out of my hands, spilled my soda all over my desk and attempted to destroy all potential energy in my room.  Suffice to say, I was a bit pissed at her.  Just as I was ready to anger every animal activist on the planet, I got an IM from Elyzium informing me that she is sick and has extra Ministry tickets for that night.  FREE tickets!  I was sad that she could not go, but leapt at her generosity and mighty coolness.  I called Sean and D-mo and we went out to meet with some others and went down to Starland Ballroom in Sayreville.  The show was cool.  I bumped into Jen and Brian there, which was nifty.  Hansel und Gretyl rocked.  I definatly need to check out their stuff.  Ministry really rocked.  It was lots of fun.  Got home around 3 though.  Definatly not such a good thing any more.  Not on a work night.
Any way, at some point during the weekend's spazzfest, I took theses pictures.


Conspiring with her natural enemy, senor squirty.

Attacking a sunbeam

Perched atop my pile of precariously stacked items.  She likes knocking things off at 5AM

That's all, go away.

12/04/04
Could they be the miners?
Sure, they're like three years old.
MINERS, not MINORS.
You lost me.
Yeah, well...you know.  So, I spent most of last weekend going out on dates, but since you guys probably don't care about GTA, I'll just skip that part.  Twas a busy weekend, but loads of fun.
Wednesday evenink was Zak's game and we almost lost someone to the fog of confusion, but with a few bumps and scrapes, Tony made it through.
Thursday was a fun Thanksgiving day.  Went out with the family to Charlie Browns.  It's quite surprising how many people do this, the place was packed.  The food was good though (well, depending upon who you ask) and fun was had.  Then we hiked up to my aunt's house for dessert and the November birthdays.  Nummy!
Friday was CHold's big day.  Tom and I celebrated it by going to see Alexander.  I enjoyed it, but I'm a sucker for huge historical epics.  Though I'm certain that certain persons I know might be a bit uncomfortable with some of the scenes.  After the movie, we killed some time by driving around the scary countryside and then picked up Li and headed to Vinetti's for the big celebration.  Though Tom and I did manage to pick up the two of the exact same card for Cathy, except Tom's was in Spanish.  Vinetti's was fun.  I finally got to witness the phenomenon that is Cathy Holder performing karaoke to Baby Got Back.  Got to hang out with lots of cool people and fun ensued.
Saturday evening was Contempt.  I drove Li and Jaws home and took advantage of the free parking in Brooklyn.  From there we headed to Remote for some fun.  I was pleased by the amount of Jersians that showed up.  Po, Mike, Sean, Craig, Lauren, Dave and Shawn were all in attendance.  Plus there were the ever cool NY Contempt regulars.  You can see much of the fun here.  Sean, Li and I left around 3:30ish, went back to Brooklyn to get my car and Sean and I headed home.  Got in around 5:30 on Sunday and immediately lost consciousness.
Around 9, I was awakened by some claws and teeth digging themselves into my fleshy hand.  Suffice to say, I was a bit tired all day.  I did manage to get out and meet up with my mum for my birthday gift to her, lunch at El Coyote.  Well, El Coyote was closed so we went to a Japanese place near her, and I'm blanking on the name, but I'm pretty sure it was called Okinawa.  The food was really good, though it was a bit expensive (at least for me), but I'd like to head back there someday and maybe do some hibachi.  After that I headed home by way of the grocery store.  Relaxed all afternoon and was going to hit bed early when Galaxy Quest came on.  so, ended up staying up until midnight watching that.
My week was good.  Had a couple of slow days at work which was a bit of welcome relief.  Stopped by T&C's to finally donate some alcohol to the cause.  The cause being the bar they have in their basement.
Well, I think I have to end it here, since Myx keeps attacking my hands.
Behave now.  Especially you, Liz!

12/02/04
I Know it's not much of an update, but this is one wacky car commercial.

11/21/04
Sorry. Sorry. I got a little agitated. The thought of escape crossed my mind, and then suddenly - suddenly - suddenly I felt like bending the fucking bars back, ripping the goddamn window frames and eating them - yes, *eating* them! Leaping, leaping, leaping! Colonics for everyone! All right! You dumbasses. I'm a mental patient. I'm *supposed* to act out!
Tomorrow is Terry Gilliam's birthday.
Been busy lately.  Spent a lot of time working, so I haven't had much to write about.  In fact, I spent 13 hours working yesterday, Saturday.  Server upgrade, transfer users, files (with rights intact), Email etc from the old server to the new server, then connect every workstation to the new server.  There has to be a better way to do this.
Myx is much calmer now than she was when I first got her.  It is amusing how she follows me around the apartment.  she doesn't have to be next to me, just in the same room as me.  Looking forward to this weekend.  Four days off!  Plus Contempt.  Not sure what my plans are regarding going and returning yet.  I have an offer to crash in Brooklyn, so we'll just see what occurs.  Friday is CH's Birthday at Vinetti's.  Will be fun.  Hope I get to see her rap this time.
So, I broke down and out of sheer boredom got a myspace account.  Woot.  Another place to write down random musings.  And oh, how random they will be.
December will be busy, yet fun.  Although it seems that I will be missing out on all the Holiday parties.  Meh...
Think I'll do my holiday shopping this week.  There's something to be said about online shopping.  Finish in 10 minutes and then just wait...
Well, hope everyone has a happy Turkey/Tofurkey day!  Gobble gobble.

11/14/04
Oh, fuck it, I don't have to talk either, man! See how you like it. Just total fuckin' silence. Two can play at that game, smart guy. We'll just see how you like it. Total silence.
Yeah, haven't been to talkative lately.  Life's consisted of a lot of work and GTA.  Though this past weekend was cool, hanging out with the D&D crowd on Friday night after a week of late work nights.  And Saturday hanging with everyone, plus the girl at the club in Morristown thought I gave her a 20, when I gaver her a 10 and gave me $12 change.  I made 2 bucks off the cover charge!
Myx is getting quite big.  4 pounds already.  Still have no idea why she keeps dumping her water out on the carpet.  Bleh.
I have to work this Saturday.  Server install/upgrade.  Can't really shut down a business during working hours now can we?
The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the next Contempt.  You should all go.
Well, drawing a blank here.  Like I said, don't feel like I have much to say.
What do you say about that?

11/1/04
Well, I have a bit of free time at work so I thought I’d type an update. I’m typing it in word and will do a cut & paste when I get home. Let’s hope it doesn’t get totally screwed up in the process.
Tomorrow is the wonder of wonders in the democratic society, election day. I wish it wasn’t a day that filled me with dread. I really hope that some day during my lifetime, the choice isn’t between the lesser of two evils. Though last time I voted for whom I wanted, Nader, but now every democrat I know gets pissed at me if I mention it, despite the fact that I don’t live in Florida and NJ was a Gore state.
After watching the debates, well reading the transcript of the first one and watching the other ones, I noticed there were 3 different parts to the candidates stances. First was what the other guy did wrong in the past, second was defending their past decisions, third was plans for the future. I noticed that Bush was sorely lacking in the third category, so much so, that he almost ignored it completely, basically causing me at assume we’ll get 4 more years of the same.
Now, on the issues. For me, the most important is the economy. After over a year of being unemployed, (though according to the government, I was only unemployed for about 9 months because if you are not collecting unemployment, you are not counted as being unemployed. And while I didn’t get a job after 9 months, my unemployment did run out.) the economy is quite a hot issue with me. Now, if Bush’s plan is 4 more years of the same, well, the last 4 years put our economy in the crapper. Now it’s not necessarily his fault that it went down, but his policies didn’t do anything to make it any better. Kerry has a plan to tax the rich more, well, repeal the huge tax cut they got. Hell, I don’t have a problem with that plan personally. I’m far from rich. Besides, even with the extra taxes, those guys earn way more than I will any time soon. So, it would be nice to get someone in there who helps the economy grow.
Probably higher on most people’s lists, but second on mine is security. Now, I feel that getting everyone on the planet pissed off at us will not make us more secure. I may be silly, but I think that people are less likely to attack you when they like you than when they hate you. Plus there’s the fact that our airports and seaports aren’t really any more secure than they were before 9/11. So Bush has failed miserably at this. I’m not sure Kerry will do better, but since he actually seems to want to bring the US back into the UN, it will probably help. I’m sure it wont hurt if the guy who pissed everyone off to begin with is no longer in charge.
Healthcare is another issue, though after about a year and a half, I finally get some. Call me a communist, but I’m all in favor of national health care since our current system is really screwed up, unless of course you’re a CEO of a healthcare system, then you must love it. Again, after watching the debates, Kerry seems to be the only one with a plan.
So, the night before the election, I submit my two cents.  But, then again, it doesn't matter what I think, it matters what you think.  It's just that this is my website and I can post here and you can't.  Nyah.