And like a true hero to all my non-downtown friends, I got pics. Oh, the protest? Well, it was a NEKKID protest. And they wanted you to know that looking at this (mostly) naked woman laying on a very cold grill was supposed to make you not eat meat. Or something. Anyways, you can click on the Flickr stream on the right (until I upload something new) or you can click the link below to see the PETA protesting goodness.
Lots of good things going on this week (well aside from the wife and my daughter being sick). I got my review yesterday and it went smashingly. I was told that I was doing an excellent job and I received a nice raise to go along with the praise.
Hey that rhymed!
Anyways, that made for a good Monday, but then I also stuck to my guns (after not being able to wake up to run early) and I ran Monday night as well. Running felt good. In a desperate attempt to get myself ready for the Fangtastic 5K. My friend Paul is ready to run it and is encouraging me to do so, as well. Of course, he’s knocking off 10-13mile runs on the weekends now while I’m struggling with less than two miles. My strategy has been to increase my speed and punish myself a little in the short term so that I can perhaps run slower – longer. We’ll see how it works out. I’m still in the “getting my wind back” stage now. I was able to run until my legs gave out before, but now the huffing and puffing has more dominance over how long I run. However, I’m getting there.
No news about China yet.
No news cars yet, however I’m making a definitive listing of what I want and I’ll be pouring over that for the next few months. And I’ll be sharing the boring details here. Oh, and I’m not buying new or anything – so no more calls for Dave Ramsey to come and whap me on the head. It’ll be used.
I’ve got a whole post about how pissed off I am with the Fox show Prison Break coming soon. So, don’t miss that!
So, I’m pumping gas into the wife’s truck (with the wife and one child tucked safely inside from the biting cold outside). I marvel at how women can get the fuel level of their vehicle to such a low point and keep it there until I drive it and notice that it’s about an inch below the “E” marker. I’m sure she does it on purpose so that she won’t have to pump her own gas. But I digress…
So, pumping gas and this little red Honda pulls up across the pump from me and this REALLY cute girl gets out of it. I’m going to hazard a guess here and say she was 19. 20 tops. Dark hair, pulled back and light colored eyes. Like I said – cute. So we’re just, you know, pumping gas into our vehicles and then I look just past her to notice a guy in a black Toyota 4Runner roll down his window and lean out as if to say something to her. But, he doesn’t say anything – he just kinda leers at her as he drives past. I was pretty sure she knew him but she had turned around to see what the deal was and when she turned back around she had this annoyed look on her face.
In a feat of pure wit I summoned the phrase “Yeah, that wasn’t creepy or anything”. To which she replied with a healthy laugh and mumbled something about the guy being weird. Then we both met with the sounds of him “peeling out” in his four-cylinder Toyota SUV. We both exchanged grins and I finished filling the tank and shared the story with my wife – who also thought that the girl knew that guy.
I’m sure the guy did that for his friends since I had a look at him and I’ll use the words “ugly stick” to best describe his facial features. I think it takes an older guy to really see the desperation in these young guys. Now that I am “older” I suppose I see it. Did I really just cop to being an old guy? Wow.
Why is it that cars have such a magical pull over me? Seriously, it’s bizarre. I can literally sit for hours and troll automobile forums and read reviews and day dream about owning all sorts of things. I swear – it’s a sickness for me. I guess part of it is the fact that I am locked into my current vehicle and I can’t just go out and get what I want (I’m sure that’s part of it). But it’s also the fact that the last vehicle I bought (my truck), I took such an ass-raping on it that I swore then and there that I’d never let that happen again. I (foolishly) trusted the sales guy to give me what he said, a good deal, and I didn’t look into the details of the deal until later. I saw the payment and decided that was what I had agreed to and moved on to get my new truck.
*sigh*
But, I’ll be out of my truck soon enough. August is when it goes bye-bye and that time can’t come fast enough for me. I hate that I got suckered, yeah. But I hate that I ended up paying through the nose for something that I just don’t like to drive anymore. And I’m paying a LOT for it. It’s like salt in the wound of my bloody ego. I’m also not going to buy new again, well, I shouldn’t say NEVER, but I’ll say that the circumstances would have to be pretty much completely in my favor for me to even consider it. Used is where it is at for ol’ Joey.
Now for the next thing. I’m stuck over what to buy. A part of me wants to get an older rough and tumble Toyota Land Cruiser (which the wife currently drives). I absolutely love them! But the other side of me wants a nice sedan or coupe. Preferably German engineered (although a Lexus GS400 would suit me fine also). I’ve just got a bad, bad desire for a sporty sedan to drive around. I guess I’ve been in a truck so long that I want something a little more fun to drive that doesn’t burn gas like its on fire.
So, there is my quandary. Of course, I have MANY more months to figure out what I’m going to do, but that doesn’t stop me from trolling every auto place I can find on the Internet (and eBay) to look and see what my pretend options are.
Why can’t I love flowers or something?
To illustrate my point?
Dead.
Sexy.
My provider has put me on FOUR separate new hardware platforms in the past four days. They are sitting inside the data center of Liquid Web, who is one of the top few providers in the industry. Not sure why Liquid Web can’t get their hardware straight, but supposedly this is a heat issue within the drive array. So, instead of 6 150GB drives I’m now sitting on a pair of 500GB drives.
So, it’s back up (again, again). For now.
I tell you what, the stress of that – along with everything else that is going on in my life is just about to send me over the top. My jaw hurts from having my teeth clenched all the time. Which is a nice change from my jaw hurting from the pain of my tooth extractions, btw.
I really need to do something about the stress. I ran yesterday – and it felt wonderful. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I was huffing and pushing myself to get through it – but I did what I set out to do distance wise and time wise, so, that is something.
So, in the past three days or so my Linux server (that I lease from a company to host my sites) has been down for about 24 hours total. My Windows server? Fine, just fine. It’s really, REALLY becoming a problem as one of my biggest customers was holding an “event” and that event was completely a cluster for them since the server was up and down the entire day. And then in the last 30 minutes of the event when all the users who procrastinators were finally purchasing their stuff? The server finally died. My service provider put in a completely new piece of hardware and built it from the ground up and then restored all the data to it. Problem solved, right?
Umm, no.
Today it’s already been down twice and they are telling me ANOTHER drive failed. So, the server is functioning in a “degraded” state. Fantastic! How is that two completely separate pieces of hardware can have the exact same problems?
Anyways, this is pretty much a disaster for my little hosting business. You know, I’m really starting to wonder if I’m cursed.
Seems that some people can’t change their mind about things. I mean sure, everyone knows that for a GREAT many years anything Apple related was gay. Now, however, they are dropping the rainbows and coming out with some GOOD stuff. And while this represents a contradiction in the stance that I previously held about them, I know proclaim Apple stuff to be cool. That’s right, cool.
Yeah, I needs me one of them iPhones.
I think this comic really sums it up best, there was a LOT of talk and hand-wringing about this new iPhone and time will soon tell if it lives up to the hype or not.
Why all the excitement? I think a lot of people are hoping that the iPhone represents the first-strike in the war against shitty cell phones. I know I hope that. Motorola, LG, Blackberry and everyone else will have to stop resting on their past and really innovate. At least, that’s the hope. The cell phone industry has been in bed with the carriers for far too long – and we shouldn’t fail to mention the carriers that take perfectly good phones like the Razr and mess them up by installing their own HACK software. Okay, you buy a phone and pay extra for the camera functionality? Oh, well you can’t actually SEND anyone pictures from your camera or copy them off locally unless you pay Verizon an extra chunk of cash a month. That’s some nerve right there. I buy a phone with a camera on it and I get to pay AGAIN to use that camera. Oh, and the software cripples the coolness of the phone as well. Want a new wallpaper or ringtone? Well, Verizon will sell it to you for more than the cost of a WHOLE song at iTunes.
Verizon SUCKS. And I’ll be moving away from them (after being there for 15+ years). Good riddance, I say.
Yeah, actually had a good day today. I was billing, I was busy – it was just fantastic. All in all a very good day. Time seemed to just fly by. Yesterday was the day I was supposed to get my review and I didn’t hear anything about it from my boss. He was out of town in the morning, but was there in the afternoon. No word. But that’s okay, the day more than made up for the fact that I am feeling like I am struggling at work.
Just wanted to post a quick note to talk about the good news. A good day! A really good one. So, I’m just enjoying it.
Okay kids, it’s teef time! My teeth (I’m delighted to report) are doing better. I’ve been without packing for over 24 hours now (flying without a net) and I’ve experienced only mild pain/annoyance. So, I’m pretty fired up to report that I am feeling much improved. I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.
I’m still a little bummed about the story I mentioned in my post yesterday – but, there are some very odd circumstances surrounding the whole case. Why would you pick up your shell casings? And if they were truly shooting at the guy, why were there no rounds found in the sand? And how could a jury of these guys peers find them guilty of all of this? I just don’t see how testimony from a drug dealer is better than testimony from two Border Patrol Agents. Anyways… the sentence is friggin excessive. Way too much for the crime. Especially considering these guys have had exemplary records and no previous criminal history. Unreal… But, I’m moving on.
I’m glad it’s Friday today. I’m done with work. The people here have been exceptionally annoying today. Oh man, perhaps some day I’ll detail all the annoying things – let it suffice for me to say that imagine the soft soothing sounds of a donkey braying. It’s like that.
Yeah.
Here it is, day 13 and I think I might be seeing the end of this ride. I woke up this morning (after a FANTASTIC night of sleep) and felt pretty normal. Still fat, still out of shape – but normal. No headache. Since then I’ve felt a teeny tiny little bit of a headache sort of come and go, but I haven’t taken any aspirin so far in an attempt to really gauge how I’m feeling. But, I am exceptionally pleased to report that things finally appear to be looking up.
I have yet another appointment in the morning and if I make it to that point pain free, then I might be where I can finally remove the packing and let this sucker start healing. Which would delight me more than I once thought possible.
In other news – I have a really good thread going on Ars about Indian food. You should check it out – here.
Also, I was able to help out a friend of mine yesterday whose company was under siege from a virus that was only a few days old. I offered to come over and visit him and help him out (no charge) as a way to both entertain myself and help him out. It also allowed me to talk to his corporate Director and get my name out there. So, win-win. I was only there for about three hours but I think I was able to do my reputation some good, help him with the problem and just generally feel good about the fact that I was able to contribute positively to their organization. All in all it did wonders for my feelings of self-worth that have been sagging here lately. Just read back a few days in case you need more details on that. I think the experience of yesterday has also helped me to feel more directed here. I am feeling somewhat encouraged to get some extra things done here and there – and that only helps out everyone involved. Lots of positives coming out of me here, enjoy it while you can. 
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