Personal

Visiting Friends

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I traveled long and far (15-20 minutes) to Time Square last night to meet Joe & Karen for dinner. Jayson & Gretchen also joined in. Joe is in NY to help Karen move, so we all decided to get together. We ventured out in the freezing cold to get some food. We ended up at the Olive Garden on Broadway near 49th Street. It was a nice low key dinner.

We were able to catch up. Joe was in a few weeks ago, and we hung out but we don’t get together that much so it was nice to have a long relaxing dinner with everyone.

Joe tried to give me a lesson on wines. He was attempting to culture me a bit, but I still do not like the taste of wine. Even though what they were drinking was not as bad as other wine I tasted, I still was not ready to begin drinking it.

We also had an interesting run in with someone while walking to the restaurant. We were on the street and we passed by Ice Cube as he was going to his limo. A bunch of people were standing around as he was walking by. We were smarter than that and continued on our way since it was SO cold out. Of course it is my luck I get to see Ice Cube but Sunday Jayson & Gretchen stood in line with John Stewart while at the Apple store. John is like my new comedic idol, and he was in one of my favorite stores. That is what I get for sleeping in on Sundays.

Joe was prodding me to come visit him sometime down south. I want to go, but I know if I go during the work week I will not relax but end up working with him at his company for a few days. I have been known to do that before. I don’t mind it, but I need a real vacation! Karen did tempt me with being able to play Halo all I want. She pointed out that I suck as bad as her in the game so I could possibly kick her ass in it. Hmm tempting!

Saturday And The Jets

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Saturday I went to Queens to go buy a suit with my dad for an engagement I was invited to. I have (had) 4 suites, but after trying them on I realized that I have in fact gained weight in the past 6 years, so it was time to go out and buy some (a) new one. I ended up with a nice black single breasted 2 button suite. It came with 2 pairs of paints, or in case I needed a less formal grey pair for some reason. I have to pick it up after alterations in a week or so. Men’s Warehouse is easy and I think I got a good deal!

After that I trekked back to Manhattan and went to Dan’s for the Jet’s game. It was a relatively small turn out so it was quiet. Of course any get together without Nelson is nice! Coop & Pierre got to play for the first time. They ran all around and it was very funny to watch them. BTW, Coop & Pierre are two dogs. Dan’s Cooper got big. I haven’t seen him in a while, and he is not the little puppy I remember. he is still funny.

The Jets lost. I didn’t really care since I don’t like football, but it was funny to watch everyone else get upset. I have to say the way they lost was not fun. They should have had that game. Oh well…

Out of It

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I was out of it yesterday. I left work early (3:30PM). I got a bad migraine. We finally fixed our application problem that plagued us all weekend. Miguel finally figured it out and we were at 100% by lunch time. The lack of sleep, the constant work, etc had caught up with me by then. I started feeling like crap around 11AM. The meds didn’t work even after double dosing on it. I should have left work earlier than I did, but I am stupid.

I took an express train (thought I would hurl on the local) and walked the 10 blocks home from the express stop. The cold air helped allot. I got home and crashed. I woke up at 9PM still in pain. I bairely survived the night to goto work late today. I felt out of it, but I survived. I decided to take tomorrow off. I am feeling better now, but I figured it would be nice to just rest! Hopefully tonight I will get a good night sleep. I may have slept for 16 hours yesterday, but it was not a restful sleep.

FIghting A Cold, And It Is Winning

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I have been fighting a cold for a few days. It is winning for now, so that is why I have not posted. I am writing up a few things and hope to post more soon. I am contemplating taking tomorrow off since I feel a bit sick. I am not so bad that I want to take off, but I am borderline so I feel if I do goto work I might make myself worse. I am going to sleep in tomorrow and see how I feel when I wake up. That is the joy of living 20 minutes from the office. I can jump down there whenever I want! Or that could be a bad thing…

2004 Recap

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As most people do near the end of the year, I am looking back on 2004 the year that was. For me it was a year of change, and a year of some things staying just the same.

I moved (again) this year. I now live in the big city. Well I always did, but Manhattan is allot more city like than Queens. I took no vacation, but it wasn’t because of trying. My niece turned 1. I don’t see her as often as I would like, but she is so adorable. I can’t imagine the universe without her! Now my sister has to have another one!

On the technology front this year saw me buy my first store bought desktop (PC) since 1992. It also saw me get 1 Apple Power Book, and sell one iMac. Pretty normal year for me! Ebay has caused my gear to turn over quickly. I only bought 1 new cell phone this year (if you don’t count the extra # & phone that I got). I went from a Treo 270 to the new 600. That is down from the 3 or more phones I got in 2003. I saw a Tivo die, and another one get adopted.

At work I lost a boss, and of course gained a new one. I lost a colleague who I thought was a friend, only to have a long time friend surprise me and come work with me. My group went from a rag tag team of 4 to be a group of people I would trust to do anything (anything technical that is) that will grown to 8 in the next few weeks. I completed (with lots of help) moving 99% of our call center to its new home upstate. I lived through countless upgrades, and system changes. I traveled the east coast looking at ACD software in action. To date no decision made on that front. Began to work on building out phase 2 of our call center. That will start to happen in 2005.

As I look back on 2004 I remember something that is always in the back of my head. I may seem pessimistic allot of the time. I think I am just a realist, but it comes out as being pessimistic. But while looking back on 2004 the year that was I can safely say I am happier and better off today than I was 365 days ago. I hope everyone that is reading this can say the same thing?

New Years Eve

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I go back and forth on what I do on New Years Eve. This year I sat at home and just hung out. I haven’t felt that great this week. And to be honest I didn’t really want to do very much. In years past I have done parties, hung with friends, gone to Time Square (twice), done Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and traveled far and wide to ring in the new year with friends. It is nice to just relax at home sometimes. Why does everyone feel compelled to do “something” on new years. My family has been asking “what am I doing”? They don’t understand when I say I want to do nothing.

Here is to a low key (aka restful) new years eve!

What In The World Is Kwanzaa?

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I am told it is Kwanzaa. When thinking about this “holiday” I can’t stop thinking about an episode of Futurama. Bender is talking to “Kwanzaabot” about what gift he is giving out to all the children that year. Kwanzabot’s reply is the traditional Kwanzaa gift. he holds up a book with two kids looking at each other with a bewildered look on their faces. The title of the book is What in the world is Kwanzaa. It was very funny. That whole show is very funny, but I remember that scene. Tried a little while ago to find that scene on the internet and I was unable to. Futurama’s entire X-Mas theme’d episodes are really funny. You should check them out.

So after thinking about the book reference above, Jayson showed me the Official Kwanzaa website. After checking it out for a minute I have come to a conclusion about holiday’s I will observe. First I will say that I respect other people’s believes, and their right to celebrate any holiday they want. I for one am a fan of Festivus. What I have come to believe is that I don’t think I will observe any holiday founded by someone who is still alive. Furthermore if that person was alive at any time in my lifetime I have to question a holiday’s integrity, unless that person was killed and the holiday was formed in his or her honor. For example Martin Luther King day to me is a legit holiday. Mothers & Fathers day’s, not so much. So I guess another rule is if some company somewhere made up the holiday it is just as bad as some guy somewhere doing it. A holiday that the founder has a message on his website (aka Kwanzaa) does not convey to me the long standing legitimacy. But that is just me. I am 30 and I still believe in Santa Clause.

Now anyone that may stumble upon this posting when searching the internet should hopefully realize that any writing like this one that refers to commentary from a cartoon when talking about a holiday should not be taken very seriously. But if you are a whack job, you can feel free to be offended.

Allergy Med’s and Good Food!

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Today I felt horrible. I ran out of my allergy medication Zirtec. I ended up going out and buying over the counter Clariton D, but it will take a while to get in my system. I feel like I have a cold, but it is all due to allergy’s and the dry heat in my apartment. Yesterday was no better. I had a head ache right when I woke up. That is never a good thing. I ended up taking 2 doses of Butabitol to get me through the day and night. At least I was feeling better enough to go out and meet some friends.

Joe was in from Baton Rouge for the a few days visiting his girl friend. Jay, Joe, John, myself and Joe & John’s girlfriends all got together last night for dinner. We hit City Crab. It is right by my office so I didn’t complain. I wasn’t feeling so great so I didn’t splurge on the King Crab legs. They looked good, but I stuck with the cheaper (still very expensive) Crab Cakes. They were great. Most everyone else got the surf n turf. Jay had a salad! We had a good time catching up. Joe went to the Christmas show at radio city tonight. he was then going over to John’s for some Halo. Jay and like 6 other people also went over there. I still wasn’t feeling so great, and I was tired from the craziness all week so I bowed out. I had no good excuse, but I was just tired. Everyone will have to get by fragging others.

It’s Snowing Outside

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As I sit here writing my Blog I notice it is still snowing. It started snowing a little before we left the movie theater. Now about an hour later there is a sizable dusting of snow on the ground. The sidewalks are covered in snow. The roads are being used enough that no snow has accumulated on them yet. They say there will be up to 2 inches tonight.

I love snow. Being in it, not so much. But watching it snow is cool. Coming in from the snow was always a nice experience. Hot Chocolate, Mmmm. Commuting in snow or other bad weather, not so good. We shall see how living in Manhattan and relying on mass transit that is entirely underground for me goes tomorrow. Should not be a problem, but since I am a realist I am prepared for problems! For now I am finishing up this entry and going to look out the window some more…

Holiday Week Recap

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I could say that I took the week off, and that is why I haven’t posted in a few days. That would not be true, but I could say that. I worked all of last week. I even ran to the office on both friday and Saturday. I had off both days but I had some quick stuff to do so I ran down there for about an hour each day.

Christmas eve I did some rewiring of my TV and computer. I bought RCA cables to hook up my computer video card to my TV and stereo. I can now use Beyond TV on my TV like a Tivo. It actually works really well. More news on that as it develops. I ended up down at Outback with Jayson and Gretchen for dinner. It was empty because it was Christmas eve, but the place was open till 10:30PM. I made it down in record time. The cab powers that be have been kind to me for finding cabs in the freezing cold. Gretchen knows I cannot pass up Outback. Dam her! That was the third time in recent memory that I have dropped what I was doing and went down to Outback because of a phone call. She is not helping my diet. Since I don’t have I diet, I shouldn’t care:) I did have a bloomin onion for the first time in months. It was a good day!

I went to my parents friends house for a Christmas party. it was ok. My family is friends with a bunch of crazy people. I should learn not to trust my mom when it comes to time or how far someplace is. The trip to the party was LONG. traffic was bad. Coming home it was not as bad, but my sister got into a small fender bender. As she was pulling over to the curb to let me out to the subway we hit another car. Some dumb-ass was stopped at the curb, so my sister went to pull in front of them to park and let me out. The dumb-ass begins to move and hits us in the side of the truck. I could see no damage to my sisters cherokee, but the other car had a nice dent and paint off of the bumper by the front headlight. After some “nice” words between the group of us, we exchanged insurance and off we went. Not sure who will be blamed by the insurance company. I think we will, even thought this ass-whole was not moving when we were moving into his lane. At least morgan slept through the whole thing.

As for commuting on the subway on a cold holiday, I was surprised by how quick most of the trains came on Christmas. Maybe I got lucky, but 3 out of the 4 trains I had to catch came quick.

Today I hung out at home. I had work to do on my laptop (see another post on that) and I had to update my checkbook in quicken. What fun. I just got back from seeing meet the fockers with Jayson and Gretchen. I went down to their neck of the woods and we saw it. That movie was stupid but funny.

Lets hope this week will be a calm and q—t. I won’t say the “Q” word. But I am probably wrong about it being “Q”. Why you ask? Because I am thinking it will be.