Gift giving thought out

The past few days have been kinda "meh". Work, meetings, rinse, repeat. Boring! Not even a lot of good news stories this week to poke fun at either!

Approaching fast, however, is my anniversary. Wedding, to be specific. Of course, this means I must think deeply to figure out an appropriate gift for the woman! In retrospect, I think she planned this all. You see, the woman loves getting gifts. She gets all crazy and giddy when one is even purported to be in close proximity.

So, I am looking at this now... wedding anniversary: October, her birthday: November, Christmas: December. Well now, looky there, THREE rolling months of gifts for her! While this may look good on the surface, it certainly leaves me at a disadvantage! I have trouble finding gifts for her birthday, let alone Christmas. Now a third gift giving event thrown in?! It's madness!

It's junk, but it's not garbage yet

I am still in the process of trying to find employees for work. I get applications emailed to me daily as people submit them online. So, something of note for you folks out there who are applying for jobs anywhere - make sure you use a "regular" email.

You see, I have my personal email address. This email address has "mayhem" in it. So, I sound sort of like an anarchist to those that do not know the real meaning behind it. I also have a standard email (my real name) that I use for business and work dealings.

Nothing sends up some initial flags as an employer than when I get applications with questionable email names.. for example "bleedlikeme@" and "bitehardplease@".. hmm...ya, ok.

Anyways, I am off today, thank God. Only day off this week really. I am hoping to clean up this friggin mess in the office room. We keep gaining more and more junk. It's that junk though where is not quite garbage, so you still need it, but junk enough that you may never use it.

I realized that I still have a huge box of taped Babylon 5 episodes - the whole series actually. What the hell? OK, those need to go to make room for NEW junk. I already have the first three seasons of B5 on DVD, so I just ordered the last two seasons on DVD for a super cheap price from Amazon.... can't throw away something and not have a replacement for them! Must have my B5 episodes!

Not sure how much that one discard box will help though, especially considering the woman recently brought in (from who knows where) two boxes of work crap. Hopefully I can convince her to store these in the garbage can outside...

10 out of 100?

OK, I am busy as hell this week. I will be busy as hell next week, too! Meetings, more meetings, stupid events, and people wasting my time all over the place. Life can be annoying at times. This is one of those times.

I did have some time earlier to relax and watch some TV. Flipping through the channels I came to a realization: why the hell do I need all these channels?! Really now, most are crap. Quite a few I have blocked out and don't even see when I surf - shopping network, CSPAN, sports channels, damn Mexican channels for gods sake!

So, I was thinking, WHY can't I get channels "A la carte"? I am paying for this stupid package of channels when I really only want specific ones. All I would really choose out of the 100 channels I get now are Cartoon Network, Scifi, Comedy Central, the news channels, History Channel, maybe another one or two I can't think of right now. OH, I'd have to also have the "men are evil channel" (aka: Lifetime) for the woman.

I know this is wishful thinking, but it makes perfect sense! However, I am sure that is no where near what the cable companies want to do. I am sure they are very happy charging me for all these channels I do not even use.

Past, Present, and Future

I love technology.

Things just a few years ago that were dreamed of are available now. I can not wait to see what a few more years will bring us. Topic of note tonight: online videos. God knows these were not possible a few years back before broadband. Those horrible dial up connections could barely load photographs let alone video. (Let me go way back - I remember having to actually dial the phone and drop it into one of these bad boys on an old PC to connect online...)

Now, online video is the rage and easily available. On sites like Youtube and Liveleak you can find everything from old commercials, to home made videos, to the latest of news before it even hits your new channel. I find this later part very funny, as I usually see videos on these websites that are later found and picked up by new stations a few days later. So much for being cutting edge on quick reporting. The Internet has taken care of that.

I was actually talking with a friend the other night about Mechwarrior. A great game I use play competition league play back in the day. Met some great folks on that game. It actually had a very cool intro sequence which, especially at the time, was stunning. Still not bad today. Anyways, I figured I could attempt to dig up the CD somewhere buried under piles of debris... or, I could just head off to Youtube and see if it was up. Of course, it was. Because you can find anything on the net. Give it a try.

Remembrance

It has been 6 years today. Six years since insanity was visited upon this country.

I found myself watching television just the other day. A special was on, a recounting of the events on that dark day. They replayed the footage of the aircraft going into the towers. You really do not see that footage very often though, do you? Why not? Bad memories? Too painful to watch? I actually caught myself as I was about to turn the channel. Those images to this day are difficult to watch. I think, as a whole, we do not like to remember them. That is why you do not see them played very often, if it all.

There is a problem with that, however. It is the fact that we must remember. If we forget, it no longer remains as important. We forget who was behind it and that they are still out there. It is not necessarily one person, but an ideology. An ideology that hates us and wants to kill us for simply being who we are.

We need to remember so we can move forward with a focus and direction realizing that not everyone out there are our friends. That some mean us harm. That we should never be lulled into a sense of false security. That we must do whatever is necessary for the saftey of our country and our people.

Never forget

Watch the skies

Today is my day off! Yay!

So, I am sitting here at the computer and out of the corner of my eye a see a round pink blob zip past the window. What the hell? Hmm. As I continue to surf my usual websites on the net, I find a story, and I now realize what the pink blob outside the window was: A Flying Pig.

You see, the story is about Warner Brothers picking up the movie rights to ROBOTECH. My heart just skipped a beat.. For those unfamiliar, Robotech was one of the first Japanimation titles ported over to the U.S. back in 1985. It was stunning. Animation for prime time - drama, relationships, adult themes, death. It was not animation geared for the kiddies. It was Japanese style, hardcore stuff. I remember flipping channels one day and seeing it, I sat there transfixed at what I was seeing on screen. The 30 minute episode ended in what seemed like a minute. I was hooked.

Now, exactly HOW they plan on taking a story line that makes Lord of the Rings look like an anecdote in comparison, I have no idea. The original run of Robotech was a trilogy consisting of over 42 hours of episodes. How you crack that down to a two or three hour movie - or even 3 or 5 movies - and still do the story and characters justice will be a challenge.

Another interesting note, Tobey Maguire of Spiderman fame is currently tapped to play one of the main leads.

This will be interesting to see pan out. Certainly, at this time, special effects have finally come of age where you can actually pull off a Robotech movie and showcase the technology that exists in its world.

Oooh! There goes that pig again..

Hard to resist a Scoundrel

Well, it is a time for anniversaries it seems! You see, it was 7 years ago this week that I met the WOMAN! Yes, yes it is true. We met at her sisters wedding. I had sort of met her previously when her soon to be brother in law (one of my friends) brought her in to get a computer and a printer from me. But the wedding was the first time we had time to actually hang out.

Truth be told, she was obviously quite intrigued and she quickly approached me at the reception to strike up a conversation! As she confessed to me years later, she simply could not resist a scoundrel...

We hit it off very well and discussed a wide range of topics, including our mutual hatred for that pile of shit Scrappy Doo. We eventually took our conversation outside and around the hotel grounds where the reception was being held. I can tell you it was quite amusing - watching from our secret vantage point on a balcony - as our various friends were sent out (in pairs) by the woman's sister to track us down. I fear they thought perhaps I was up to no good!

Anyways, seven years later, the computer and printer she bought are long gone but, amazingly, I am still here. So, happy first meeting anniversary, baby.

"You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life."