the final countdown
2004.12.28 13.30
Talked to my bank yesterday and was kinda-sorta assured that the manager would look into my gift cheque signing debacle ''as soon as she came back from vacation.'' Right. I should be back in Houston by that time. They don't want me to bring my mom down there, trust me. Have you ever heard of a nurse that wasn't grouchy? I didn't think so.
Funny thing happened on my flight back into Philadelphia. Checked in for my flight *exactly* 24 hours early. Seat 7D. I took my seat once boarding began. Shortly thereafter, a family came up and one of them said I was in their seat. Could the Super Genius be wrong? No way! I looked at their ticket fully expecting to see the wrong date or flight number. But no. Flight, seat, and date were all correct. What the? I hit the attendant button and let the family settle in. Turns out I was upgraded to first class. Sounded good to me. I said goodbye to the girl who was originally sitting across from me. I won't miss her -- she called me ''Sir'' when she sat down. Pfft. In first class I watched ''Catwoman'' and had the chicken pasta meal. That movie wasn't bad at all. A little cheesy here and there, but overall very slick. A friend pointed out that it is extremely rare to see a really good female superhero movie. ''Electra'' is up for the title next. We'll see.
My Matrix Phone is on its way for repairs in Plano, Texas. Or as I call it: Plain O' Texas. This is the opposite of Really Complicated Texas. You don't want to go there, trust me. They have to do a long division math problem before they'll let you pass the toll booth.
I'm selling my Old City Philadelphia apartment goodies on CraigsList for cheap. Buy my stuff. I only want to travel with clothes, my computer and its components, my various small junk items (toiletries, wires, and gadget pieces) and (of course) my dog. No, the dog is not for sale. Yes, people have asked. Durh.
merry [religious symbol]mas
2004.12.25 12.51
Super freakin' annoyed thanks to my local Bank of America branch. Avoid 9125 West Sam Houston Parkway North if you need competent banking services. Bought American Express Gift Cheques for the family. Moron teller who sold them to me *told* me to sign the cheques at the top. Didn't even flinch because, you figure, the teller would know what they're doing, right? Wrong! Bzzzt! Turns out I was making the cheque payable to Mark Shields. Say what? That's not good. Called American Express and, thankfully, they had customer service available to tell me that I could make the cheque payable to whomever I wanted to give it to by countersigning and filling out the Payable To field. The Big Drawback now is that the cheque could only be deposited in that person's bank account. That's it. If I hadn't signed the cheque then it could have been used as cash anywhere and everywhere. So, yeah, I'm pissssssssed! $1.25 a pop and I bought 12 of them. That's $15 wasted on something I could have just written a personal check out for. Bah frickin' humbug. Can't wait until Monday morning when I can teach the bank how to do their jobs. Yay.Haven't seen any of the family just yet this morning. Mom is working a shift and gets off at 3 PM. We meet up at The Sisters house thereafter. Grrr. Still in bad mood due to previous paragraph topic. That and I'm starving! I should go scramble some eggs and cook some bacon. Don't recall ever buying any bacon, however. The roommate doesn't remember buying bacon, either. Is that worse than signing a gift cheque card? No way to know. If I'm writing my next blog entry from a hospital room, you'll know what happened.
Yesterday it snowed in Houston. Very weird. Snow by my house was more like silica gel sized hail. Occasionally you'd spot a nice fat snowflake, but for the most part it was hillbilly snowflakes from the get-go. Further south from here a few inches fell. Freaky. Isn't the equator supposed to prevent that? Hmmm. This happened late in the evening after most shops had closed up for the holiday. I drove the DeLorean around to buy my (now) useless gift cheque cards, as well as hitting the mall and eating some local cuisine. I stopped at the Chipotle near Willowbrook first. Had a burrito bowl with steak, light rice, black beans, super hot sauce, sour cream, and guacamole. Mmm. Drench in the special Tabasco brand Chipotle sauce and I'm happy. Left the DeLorean parked there since the traffic on FM 1960 is hell-bent on being slow and inefficient. Ran to the Sears at the mall. Stopped by Toni & Guy to say hi to my mom and sister. The Sister was having her hair done. Bought some line items off the gift list. Stopped at the petstore to see if this hot girl I know was working there. Nope. Tried to buy some gerbil toys for my niece but decided against it since I wasn't sure if my niece's critter wanted to squeeze into a fake plastic TV. Said goodbye to Mom on the way out and walked to Best Buy. Traversing traffic is a new thing for me in Houston. Nothing is close. Sidewalks start and stop. Crosswalk signs are dodgy. It's like old times. Best Buy sucked. Everything I needed was sold out. Walked across the street (yes, again) to Toys R Us. Bought some niece related goodies. Crossed the street one last time after finding the hidden crosswalk controls that I should have used the last time. Walked back to my car. Still there. Went into Starbucks and bought a coffee. Sat outside in the 30s-ish weather and sipped coffee while no less than 4 different cars stopped and took pictures of the time machine. Three camera phones and one digital camera. The camera phones are outnumbering us. Got in the car and was stared at as I drove away. I'll bet they were thinking, ''Man, I can't believe that guy signed the gift cheques!?'''
Let me step backward a day and tell you about the fun I had on Wednesday trying to leave Philadelphia and get into Houston. My 3:40 PM flight was delayed by four hours. First they were ''circling the airport.'' Then they were ''just about to land.'' Then... they were ''suddenly diverted to JFK after circling and waiting too long to land.'' Crap! Four hours later the plane finally arrived. A few knuckleheads who'd been waiting for the 5:00 PM flight managed to get on my flight. I love it when two people start to yell at each other because they both have the same seat # on their tickets. I stood up and asked to see their tickets. ''Here, let me take a quick look... I can usually figure this out.'' I quickly spotted the wrong flight # on one knucklehead's ticket. This guy had taken nearly two minute putting some bag up in the overhead bin while he blocked everyone from getting into the plane. He was *not* happy to learn he was sitting on the wrong flight and had to take his bag out. Still, it took a flight attendant to read the wrong flight # on his ticket to him (again) and kick his ass off the plane. He was convinced this was the right plane. Hmmm. I wonder if he was related to the guy at the bank who thought I should sign my gift cheques?
Yes, I'm bitter, and I'll keep making cracks about the gift cheques for at least another month. Feel my pain!
the real world austin
2004.12.22 1.29
Just wanted to post a quick entry before I go to sleep. I just set up The Real World Austin site now that we've got positive confirmation where the show is headed to next. So cool! Anyway, below are the topics I plan to cover in depth in tomorrow's blog. Sorry for the short update.walking vs. running mardi gras with richard christmas in houston the last temptation of christ departure
the tax man cometh
2004.12.16 11.03
Owning a house is painful around the holidays. Why? The decorating? No? The depressingly happy couples smacking their faces together at the mall? No. So, why? The taxes. They are brutal. Trying not to think about them. Betting that my taxes are pretty light compared to what other people are paying. Here's the damage for 2005:346.50 Subdivision Maintenance Fee 615.37 Windfern Forest Utility District 855.90 Harris County Property Tax 1866.97 Cy-Fair Independent School District ------- 3684.74 Total (Ouch)See what the school district pulls down? Holy crap. I barely got paid when I was a teacher. All that money must go into the building and maintenance. They had a really cool idea back in the 90's with year-round schooling as an alternative to building more schools. At any point 25% of the school would be ''on break.'' This didn't turn out so good if you had kids that were on different tracks. They supposedly tried to prevent that, but it still happened now and then. I'm a big fan of the fat summer break, so I guess I'm paying The Tax Man for all those years when I'd jump on the red sofa in my parent's living room thankful that it was summertime. Which reminds me... I need to buy a red sofa.
richard simmons returns
2004.12.11 11.19
| I took four pictures of Richard Simmons while we were both waiting to board a flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in the summer of 2001. Here's the scissor-paper-rock game I wrote based on those photos. The game now features my new W3C-compliant javascript that should work on any browser. Have fun! |
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hammertime
2004.12.10 10.12
Went to Nocturne night club this past Wedneday. Convinced friends from work that they should attend. Several Long Island ice teas later, good times were had by all. Saw Amy (a.k.a. BioMechanic) and boyfriend Teejay. Teejay was wearing a black shirt with several yellow spikes on the shoulders. Wondering what the reaction would be at work if I wore that.
the starbucks line
2004.12.05 11.30
Copied Beth Trip and Prague Trip unedited footage onto laptop today. Forgot that Beth Trip videotape was originally used for recording salacious Showtime After Dark programming. Didn't erase the whole thing, apparently. Didn't know this until I used Windows MovieMaker to make clips. MovieMaker puts up the very last clip imports on your editing window. Forgot to mention I'm sitting at Starbucks *right* next to the pickup counter. One patron caught a glimpse of Showtime and ran away in hurry. Distorted my face briefly and hit ALT-F4. Waiting for perfect moment to move into a corner.Ready to watch three minutes of video featuring QueenBeth's pre-Madonna activities from July 4th, 2004? This is sans Showtime After Dark footage, of course.
cafe ole
2004.12.04 10.24
Returning to short curt sentences I used when starting journal. Briefly. Hard to write this way. Sitting in Cafe Olay drinking coffee and eating egg and cheese on whole wheat bagel. Yum. Free wireless here. Feeling guilty that I don't visit Starbucks more often. Paying for Starbucks t-mobile wireless, but no egg and cheese on whole wheat bagel at Starbucks. Free wireless at Cafe Olay. Conundrum city. Owner's dog is inside tied to table next to me. Dog smells my dog on me. Bringing my dog next time for dog face-off. Few places in city allow pets within eating establishment -- unless you're blind. Not blind. Considered hooking up Chew Chew to look like seeing eye dog. Wondering if anyone would buy it. Need to check eBay and investigate further. Can't find name of whatever it is guide dog's owners use as a leash. Decided to call it Guide Leash in meantime. No guide leashes for sale on eBay.No news on my whereabouts after new year. Wondering if I should put Account Manager hat on. Account Manager hat looks just like I Need A Job hat except you end up working for the same consulting company. Seriously need to take database classes to eliminate personal knowledge gap. Find it funny that as I slowly notifying clients that I'm leaving that many of them gasp in horror at the thought of my departure. Hoping that next assignment is closer to a window somewhere. Remembering *brief* period in 2000 when I had an office with a window. Couldn't get anything done. Need to get one of those chambers they had in ''Altered States'' movie. Probably wouldn't be distracted once I was in there. In lieu of not finding ''Altered States'' chamber, would be willing to work inside ''The Fly'' transporter pod. Need to stop watching psychedelic 80's movies.
Feeling better after sickness tapered off. Worked out abs on Monday in mini-set. Ran three miles on Tuesday. Worked out chest on Wednesday. Did back and triceps on Thursday. Ran four miles on Friday. Have to leave and get ready for 11 o'clock appointment. Requesting arms workout. Watched ESPN while I ran Friday's four miles. Couldn't care less about steroid use in baseball. Never would touch stuff, myself. Thinking media is running short on topics to sensationalize this week.
Ashlee Simpson Saturday Night Live episode repeats tonight. Can't wait to see dress rehearsal version of song she screwed up when live. SNL always uses dress rehearsal version of stuff to save face when live version doesn't go off right. Wish I had dress rehearsal version of my life to use in same circumstance.
