1.30.02

Ahhhh…back to my regular readers (all three of you).

I really haven’t been doing much lately except writing, working out, and working - and been enjoying them in that order to boot. Actually, I’d say working out and writing are pretty neck and neck right now. It feels so good to get back into the gym. I didn’t realize how much I missed lifting weights. That tight feeling you have for the next few days after a good workout is just the greatest feeling in the world. Eh…maybe it’s just me. Either way, it’s been feeling good.

Saw an interesting film this evening – Brotherhood of the Wolf. Definitely not for everyone, especially those of you who can’t read as the entire film is in French with English subtitles, but worth checking out if you know what you’re getting yourself into. Let me just say it’s the best film mixing elements of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Jaws” that I’ll probably ever see. If you like all those films you’ll probably like Brotherhood. If only two out of the three sound good to you then skip it - you probably won’t like it.

So you’ve been hearing me bitch and moan about being poor over the last, well, ever since I started this site really and although that won’t be changing permanently, thanks to Uncle Sam I have a little extra cash to throw around right now. Only problem is, all that extra cash is going towards stuff I need – more GIS training and brakes on my car. Whoo-hoo! However, after all that, I should still have a little left over for some fun. For example, this weekend my roommate and I are having friends over for a Super Bowl party (Go Rams!) and I’m also going to a car show with said friends on Saturday. Should be a good time.

Recently, my roommate suddenly became inundated with magazines. He is now receiving: Stuff, Maxim, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Automobile, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and the one that I found the most intriguing, US Weekly. Maybe some of you ladies can explain US to me. Why do people care what celebrities wore to the Golden Globes? Why do people care what the stars eat for breakfast? (I wish I were joking about this one, but I swear I’m not) Please…someone explain to me the purpose of this publication. And while you’re at it – please explain to me why my MALE roommate is receiving such a magazine. Is there something he isn’t telling me? Hmmmmm….

Little tidbit about the birth Mom situation. I spoke to her Monday night and it seems that the big meeting is going to take place the first weekend in March – literally two days after my birthday. Should be interesting. We talked for a little while, typical getting to know you chit chat. Did I ever have a chance of being tall? Hell naw. She’s about 5’2”; he’s about 5’8 as she remembers. Here’s some freaky shit – Mardi Gras 2000, she was down in New Orleans visiting her brother, I was on Bourbon Street – there’s a damn good chance we saw each other at some point. Whenever I’m in a crowd I always have that wonder in the back of my mind and, well, it looks like my wondering might have been dead-on that time.

Speaking of New Orleans, next week I’ll have pictures from my New Years trip. I’m getting five rolls developed tomorrow and should have them on Saturday. I’ll get the decent ones scanned in and post them someplace for you to check out. Then you can be jealous as hell.

Writing class tomorrow. Not to brag or anything, but I’ve been getting quite a bit of positive feedback from my class. We’ve turned in two writing exercises and both times we’ve spent at least twenty minutes discussing each of my pieces – well over the amount of time spent on others’ exercises. Last Thursday as I was leaving, I actually had people sort of gathering around me to discuss the piece a little more. It was quite a strange feeling, and frankly, I didn’t handle the attention very well. I was very polite and thanked everyone for the compliments and was happy to talk about my intentions as I was writing the piece, but I just wanted to get out of there. I guess my writing is something I’ve been doing “in the closet”, so to speak, for so long that I’m not used to other people reacting, even positively, to it. It just felt very strange.

Work’s been…weird lately. I haven’t really been looking too hard for a new job because now there’s a possibility I’ll be able to take over the GIS position. The guy who currently does GIS wants to move to an open computer administration job, but there hasn’t been any decision yet. If he moves, I’ll be the first one to apply for his position, but dammit, they haven’t hired him yet or even said if they’re going to. So I’m in limbo as we speak. Plus, I’ve been getting a lot of strange assignments. Right now I’m working on a website for our building department, one of the computer guys asked me about the possibilities of putting GIS stuff on the web, and now I’ve been given the government access cable TV channel’s logo to animate in Flash. What’s going on here? I don’t mind the work – that’s not the point – it’s just that I’ve been sitting on my ass for over a year now and suddenly everyone realizes that I’ve been sitting on my ass for over a year now and could have been doing so much more for them. I guess sometimes you can wave your red flag and no one notices, but as soon as you wave the white one, everyone notices. How strange.

Well, I think I’ve bored you enough for the week. As I said, check back next week for New Orleans pictures. Thanks for stopping by!

Space Monkey X