The worst day of the year is over

Ok, so it's 12:45am on the 25th. That means I made it through the 24th without killing myself. Why was that even a worry?

Apparently January 24th is the worst day of the year according to a bunch of websites and radio stories I heard this morning.

So how bad was it for me?

Well, it was my first full day back at work after being sick for a year.

I had to turn in my yearly career objectives today.

I went to the dentist and got my braces tightened.

While I was there, I got flossed until parts of my gums bled. Apparently, they are not being flossed enough thanks to my braces, and there's nothing I can do about it except try to poke them with plastic sticks.

I paid 2000 bucks on my credit card from Christmas and STILL haven't paid it off.
I found out the Condo I was in love with has a next door neighbor, and it's for sale....but I'll never live there.

Had traffic on the way home.

Lost more games than I won in Halo tonight.

Played some REALLY crappy games to finish the night off.



So, I wouldn't say it's the worst day of the year, but it certainly wasn't a good one. I'm going to bed now.

It's about damn time

All I can say is it's long overdue, but I finally did a new show tonight. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but I sometimes think this new house totally killed KEEE Web Radio. I have this whole downstairs area that is PERFECT for radio shows. The problem is, I never go down there unless I have company.

I have the DJ stuff and my office separated.....which is a first in the 7 or 8 years I've been doing this. I like my office being upstairs, but I recognize that when I don't have the office stuff next to the DJ stuff, that "spur of the moment" thing of doing a show is so less likely to happen. I mean, if I'm staring at the mics and mixers all the time, I'm never going to do one, right?

I have so many problems with this house. Let me do the list:

The pipes need replacing (we get rusty water out of several faucets if we don't run them often enough). My bathroom off the master has a broken shower I can't use (until I fix the leak) or it will soak my Star Wars room. I'd like to totally remodel both of the upstairs bathrooms at some point. The electrical system needs a total overhaul (or at least a new panel). I need new kitchen appliances, but especially the oven and dishwasher. The furnace will give out eventually. I need new rain gutters. The back yard has a drainage problem that needs to be fixed sooner or later. I need a new fence on at least one side of the yard, and more than likely both.

Aside from that, we need to hang pictures, unpack my massive Star Wars collection, and eventually decorate the downstairs so it's more inviting and I actually venture down there more than once a month or when we have guests.

Everything I just listed will probably cost me tens of thousands of dollars I won't have for over a year (after the wedding) and/or my own worktime that I'll probably NEVER have. Ugh.

But somehow this is better than renting, or gasp.....buying a condo where there are almost never half of these problems. :-)

The world is normal again

I haven't posted in awhile. I have a theory as to why that is. I'm going to blame it on complete and total exhaustion.

I've been sick since last Saturday. Seeing as how it's 1:22am that means I've been sick for one week. It started out feeling like a cold, then progressed to a bad cough, sore throat and aching bones. By Tuesday and Wednesday, I was having trouble getting out of bed without becoming REAL tired.....so I pretty much decided to lie still all day long both days. Some people might say "you just have a cold". Other people might say "You have the flu."

You know what I say?

"Who cares?" That's what I say. I don't care what it's called, it just sucks to be this sick. Anyway, Thursday, it felt like the worst was over, but my cough was still there. I was also REALLY tired for pretty much the entire day.


Friday, (today) I went to work for the first day this week....but only for four hours. Then I came back home and camped on the carpet for another night. I'm sure I contaminated my entire work force with this big meeting we had today, and I'll probably be blamed when everyone else is sick next week.

Anyway, because I had a mid day nap, I wasn't exhausted today...so I'm up late. And WHAT was I up late doing? Yup...Halo 2. So at least things are getting back to normal.


Now I'm genuinely tired and going to bed.

The best song in the world....

Ok, this is hilarious. Rated PG-13 or possibly R for bad language and suggestive images.

http://www.lohanfreestyle.com/

My friend the Borg

I have a friend, who for the purpose of protecting her identity, I'll call "Care Roll". Instant messages or emails with Care Roll can sometimes be filled with acronyms and abbreviations that I'm pretty sure she comes up with herself. I like to think that's because she strives to find the most efficient form of communication possible, much like the Binars, the Borg or other beings from Star Trek (a show she doesn't watch, but I'm pretty sure she somehow based her life around in some small part anyway).

Often, written or spoken dialog with her is quicker than might be with other folks I know. That's not to say she's not filled with useful information, she just (like a computer) dispenses it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Like a computer, requests for information must be entered properly, or correct results may not be immediately obtained.

Recently, she had informed me about some gift certificates Costco was selling that would enable the bearer to purchase dinner at the Met for less than menu prices. 80 dollars for 100 dollars of credit or some such deal. Definitely an amazing bargain.

Today, I was thinking about having some steak there and thought I'd ask Care Roll where in the store I would find those gift Certificates. I sent her the following email:

Hey....where do I get those Costco gift certificates anyway?

One second after hitting the "send" button, I realized my question would not be a sufficient query, and ammended it with this follow-up email:

And before you say "Costco"...I mean, online, in a certain section of the store, or what?

I think I'm going to have to take advantage of that deal.

Alas, I was not fast enough and as I hit "Send and Receive" on my second and more complete question, I received the following from Care Roll:

Costco,

C

Right afterwords, I received the following email from her:

too late
i said costco

Ya gotta love that. Even though I deserved that answer, I still had to laugh for awhile that I had actually just received it.

It took 3 more emails to finally get the location of the store she bought the gift certificates from and the approximate location inside of the store. I have determined this is all totally my fault for not asking the exact right question in the first place.

Nevertheless, it was one of the funniest email threads in awhile and I wanted to preserve it for all time.

Viva La Vulcans!

Mario DDR

Some good news today in the DDR arena. Turns out that Nintendo Gamecube is finally getting Dance Dance Revolution in the form of a Mario DDR title.

I'm not sure if it's coming to the US or not, but this looks like it'll be a lot of fun. The article says that there could be some mini games and a few other things besides just the standard DDR stuff. I'd definitely buy a copy.


http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=5925

Waiting for Star Wars

I heard on the news this morning that Jeff is back out there at the Cinerama again, waiting in line.

http://waitingforstarwars.blogspot.com/

You gotta admire that, especially considering it was snowing this morning and is supposed to really snow this weekend.

Episode 3 countdown is at 132 days!

I guess I'm not a nerd

This is rather surprising considering....well, that most "regular" people might consider me a nerd.



I think it has to do with the fact that most of the questions are old school computer, math or science related and didn't take into account Nerdlike hobbies (collecting, movies, gaming, etc, etc) that I am interested in.

Collecting and the Costs thereof

I'm a die hard Star Wars Collector. Everyone that knows me knows that. I spend a lot of time on Star Wars collecting sites like Rebelscum and Jedidefender talking to other collectors like myself about our hobby. I use those sites to buy, sell and trade collectibles with people I've never met (but still "know") and get all the latest news about my hobby.

Last year however, someone over at JD had the bright idea of starting a thread where we would all keep track of and calculate exactly how much money we spend on our hobby over the year. I saw my total, and I wasn't happy with it. It was much too high.

This year, I'm doing the same thing, only from the beginning of the year. So far I've spent a whopping $21.50 on Star Wars toys (for 3 new figures)....but with Star Wars Episode 3 toys and Celebration 3 coming this year, I have a feeling that number is going to get a lot higher than it ever should.

This hobby is definitely expensive, time consuming and difficult, but it's also fun. However, in a year like this one (where I'm supposed to be saving for a wedding)...I'm not sure I can afford it. I'm really worried that I'll spend money I should be saving and end up in huge debt at the end of the year because of it. While this normally isn't a concern, I know the wedding is going to take every spare nickel I can store away, and that's a scary concept.

Here's hoping I can somehow balance the two out financially, because in a year when Star Wars Episode 3 is being released, it would be a shame to have to quit collecting.

Back to the grind

Coming back to work today after that nice long Christmas break was like test driving a Ferrari into a nice big ditch. Things were going so well for awhile there, too. :-) Having to come back to work makes you realize just how fun vacation actually is, even if you really aren't doing anything that exciting.

I don't have another vacation to look forward to until Star Wars Celebration 3 in April in Indianapolis. That's the next trip I'll be taking. After that, probably not until the honeymoon. Wow. Something tells me 2005 is going to be a looooooong year.

Happy New Years

We had a good little New Years Eve last night. I spent most of the day sleeping off the Halo party, then went to John and Elizabeth's at about 10:30. We ended up playing some DDR and then stayed there for the fireworks:



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After that we went to Andrew's party for awhile. It was winding down, but it was still a pretty good sized shindig. Today, I have no idea what the plan is. Maybe I need to sit down and start out on some of those resolutions. :-)