Month: May 2008

BBQ Weekend

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This weekend I went up to Jayson & Gretchen's new house for a BBQ. I went up Saturday afternoon so I could hang out and not have to travel on Sunday morning to the BBQ. I am glad I went up early because besides the hour and a half train ride, I didn't realize that the 7 train wasn't running at my station. That meant a 5 minute trip from my station to Grand Central turned into a 40 minute trip. I actually almost missed my train on Saturday because of the MTA's decision to do construction on a holiday weekend. Great job MTA.

Other than that near miss-hap the weekend was great. The weather was fantastic. There was tons of food. I saw a bunch of people I haven't seen in ages. Scott (not me another Scott) was there with his wife and kid. Kai was there with his wife and kid. Ian was going to come but he is expecting a new born any minute so he was a no show. There was tons of food. I am impressed with myself for not drinking that much. I don't drink allot normally but I am trying to cut back anyway because I am worried that more than one or two drinks of alcohol will trigger a migraine. I did mix up two or three Jack Daniel's Lynchburg Lemonades. They are really good.

I was able to get a bunch of photos with the new digital camera. Man that camera takes good photos. They will be up on Flickr soon.

I was originally going to stay over until Monday so I didn't have to worry about taking the train home late on Sunday night, or leave early due to traveling all that way home via public transit. Thankfully two of Gretchen's friends gave me a ride. I am glad they did because I didn't get home until past 1AM. I think it was better to do that than get a not so great night sleep at someone else's house and then still have to travel home.

Overall a fantastic weekend. I had a blast at the BBQ and got to see some people I haven't seen in a really long time!

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The New Digital Camera

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I totally forgot to write that I got a fantastic new digital camera. The Saturday before Mothers Day I went out and bought a Canon PowerShot SD750. What is funny is as digital camera's go it is a very inexpensive one. I only spent like $179 on it. What is crazy to me is that spending under $200 got me a 7.1 mega pixel camera that takes fantastic photos, and video's. After doing my research I got this model because it takes good video at 640×480, 30fps. The trade off was not having a manual view finder, but I was worth it for me. The digital display is really big so I don't mind. The only gripe I have is that even though for a camera in it's class it takes pictures fast, it is still slow compared to a digital SLR. It does have other limitations but for what I want, it was small and perfect. It is light years better than my old 1.3 mega pixel Sony Cyber shot I got 8 years ago and spent almost triple the price for!

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Day Three

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I am on day three at the new job. I am having problems timing my morning schedule right. I am ending up at work very early (aka 8:30AM). That would be ok if I wasn’t staying till 6pm the past two days in a row. Well to be technical yesterday was 6:30ish. I had less meetings today, but I had to work on the list of tasks that I need to tackle. For the record it is hovering around 75 so far. The overwhelming factor is diminished a bit today, so there is hope for me!

The Worst Timing

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I woke up with the beginnings of a Migraine today. That isn’t good on any day, but is even worse when I am only on my third day of a new job and I have no time banked and no credibility yet. I am just not sleeping. It boils down to that being my problem. I sleep half the night and then I just can’t anymore. So this morning I woke up with what felt like the beginnings of a migraine. I couldn’t chance it so I took an Amerge and went to work. Thankfully it worked and I was tired most of the day, but I made it. I even was able to stay almost an hour later than I had planned.

What is weird is when I get a migraine sometimes I might be hungry because I didn’t eat all day but the thought of eating anything doesn’t do anything for me. I ended up not eating anything until like 2:30 and even then I only had a half a sandwich. Of course I get home and I am feeling better and I am not tired! Go figure. I am hoping I am feeling better tomorrow.

Day Two

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I am still trying to get a handle on all that is going on and expected of me at the new job. I know that will go on for months, but in the beginning it is imposing to try and pick up on so much so quickly. I already jumped in and had 4 hours of meetings today. I couldn’t even spend allot of time with my team because there is so much planning that is needed. I am just tired. I need to get more sleep.

Day One

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So I started a new job today! Wow, it is totally different, and things are the same all at the same time. I don’t remember starting at my last job being so much of a radical change. I think the department was more established so that might explain it. I am shifting gears to a much smaller organization with more responsibility, vs a very large organization with a set area of responsibility. It is a big adjustment. I am currently in denial mode:) There is just allot to take in. Over time things will come together but the flood of information is allot to get used to.

On the plus side everyone seems really friendly. I can’t complain about the commute. Overall I am just tired from the grind of the first day at a new job. I know it will get easier over time, but it takes a bit to get used to.

Carrier

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I don’t normally watch PBS, but I saw the advertisement for Carrier a few weeks ago. I programed up the Tivo and finally got to watch all of it recently. I thought it was an amazing documentary. They seemed to gloss over some stuff with lots of music, but I think all in all it was really well done. That is hard to say to many TV shows recently, documentaries or not. Well done TV is rare, and the 10 hours of Carrier were worth the watch for me!

State of Play

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I am not sure if it is me or it seems like the BBC has more good shows out compared to any US network. There just seems to be more and more shows or specials I watch from the BBC that are just good. I am watching State of Play DVD from Netflix this week. I had no idea that this series was made back in 2003, but I recently found a review for it on another DVD so I put it in my queue. I am glad I did. It is fantastic. I am up to episode 4 (out of 6) and it is fantastic so far. This series adds to the long line of other great series I have watched from the BBC. Recent favorites are Foyles War, Spooks, Hustle, & Torchwood. Then there was Red Cap, The Vice, Doctor Who, and the list goes on!

When It Rains, It Pours

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It is weird. I go months without writing very much at all on this blog, and then there are times where I have written 4 or 5 posts in a day. This week is one of those times where I have queued up a bunch of posts. I know it is because I have free time to write because I have time off between jobs. I just find it funny. I am aiming (I have said that allot) to set aside more time to sit and write. I always find it therapeutic but when my schedule is hectic it gets put aside too often. I think when I start my new job I will force myself to set aside a half an hour before I goto bed to write what’s on my mind. That by the way is why there are plenty of topics I repeatedly talk about and others that I don’t touch very much or at all. I talk about what comes to mind that I can put into coherent thought in print. There are plenty of times I have stuff to say about my social life, dating or whatever and I just don’t feel like articulating it into words. So instead I write about mobile phone woes or some cool new toy I got at work. I guess I am shy about writing about some stuff. Go figure?