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Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Good and bad… bad and

Good and bad... bad and good. What happens when Clayton goes to an early afternoon meeting that wraps around 4:00 and he stops for a drink with “the guys” from work, drinks steady until 10:00, and has to work the next day? He isn't happy about being at work. There's nothing like some good conversation on the patio over a few hundred dollars of beer and tequila to stifle a good attitude towards work the next morning. Grrrrrrr... Anyhoo, I am settling and adjusting to my revisited cube life well. Of course, it looks like a shrine to EL because I have pictures of her everywhere... kinda marking my cube. It's the only cube in the MATRIX that have signs of humanity... pictures of my sweetie, a flying pig, a Linux penguin, plants, etc. Of course, I have jazz and blues playing all day, so my cube neighbors are forced to listen to it. “I was told that I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume.” Heh. I needs me some mo coffee yo!
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Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Isolated showers last night made

Isolated showers last night made for a glowing sky this morning. I thought a lot about what went on yesterday afternoon on the way in this morning. I lost my boss. He was replaced by some new guy that no one knows. A bunch of engineers were reorganized to report to different business units in different parts of the company. The core team that I'm on report to the new guy, but we were all moved into cubes. It sounds like they are paving the way for our escort out the door to me, but I'm speculating. It certainly isn't any way to treat someone that supports this place 7/24/365 without question. I guess that puts us back at the age old conundrum of Corporate America. I'll try and keep a good attitude about it, but truth be told, they are cutting their own legs off and don't even realize the severity of their actions.
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Monday, April 28, 2003

I’m an NPR freak on

I'm an NPR freak on the way to work. It's like a drug actually. Anyhoo, I thought it was kinda cool that Desert Combat had a spotlight on NPR this morning despite the fact that they spun it as a Iraqi Freedom virtual warfare game. Whatever. I parked in the new Reliant building this morning... the one that is still under construction... the elevators didn't work. I've parked there a few times without issue, but this morning there was some make-clayton-walk-too-many-flights-of-stairs maintenance in progress. It all ended in a copious quantity of coffee, so it's all good. If you have a few minutes today, please stop by my boy Michael's site and look at his photos. He just added a commenting system to the photo album, so feel free to leave him some thoughts on his photography. Update on the distro switch: I love Mandrake 9.1. I'm not going to say "never", but I will admit I'd be hard pressed to go back to RedHat now. My only issues right now are with corporate connection. My Connector license is not being put to use because the build of Evolution packaged with 9.1 is not Connector enabled... so I have to wait for the next release. The other problem is with my Aironet 350. It works perfectly, but we have some pretty crazy layers of wireless security and I'm having some difficulty with part of the authentication process. I'm sure I just built the client wrong, but it's my only other frustration with Mandrake 9.1. Everything else is buttah. We have some inspectors coming by our place today to check it out for the landlord's refinancing appraisal. It's not that big of a deal since our place is usually tidy and stuff anyway... except EL just got a call from our landlord (who is less than fun to deal with) saying that she took the day off to oversee the process... which means she's gonna hang at our place today. That sucks in general, but there is an especially high suck factor for EL because she has to be there for the ordeal. I feel like going out and po-in' a foetie fo her. *Sluuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrp* Mmmmn... coffee.
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I slept terribly last night.

I slept terribly last night. I woke up several times through the night and had some really weird dreams. It's still dark out and the house is quiet. You know you're up too early when all the pets are still asleep. I can count without effort a total of seven Starbucks between my house and the office. I only live eight miles from work. One of those bitches better be open this morning.
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Sunday, April 27, 2003

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet my son...





Sorry about the server being down for an hour or so today. I had to physically move my rack (including server) into a room with better cooling. I hate moving stuff. Anyhoo, everything seems to be up again now. I'll probably have another outage in the next few weeks for some scheduled upgrades. My plan of doing nothing today was a good idea, but I fucked up the implementation. I decided to relocate my home office with the equipment move and never realized how much shit I actually have... and I mean shit... I am probably going to throw out several garbage bags of old articles, magazines, empty software boxes, etc. I guess it's better to do it now than in the middle of our move in June, but damn... my day is slipping away.
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Holy shit! The new Rocket

Holy shit!

The new Rocket Arena is OUT!
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EL and I went to

EL and I went to see Dom Irrera at the Laff Stop last night. He has done some work on Comedy Central and run the typical late night television circuit (Tonight Show, etc.), but oddly enough, I didn't recognize him from any of that stuff. I recognized him as the guy that played Tony the chauffeur in The Big Lebowski... I love that movie.

Tony the Chauffeur: So he says 'My wife's a pain in the ass. She's always busting my friggin' agates. My daughter's married to a real loser bastard. And I got a rash so bad on my ass, I can't even sit down. But you know me. I can't complain'.
The Dude: Fuckin' A, man. I got a rash, man.

Anyhoo, that guy was friggin' hilarious. The two opening comics were good too... especially the guy right before Dom. His name was Chris Baker and I think he does local talk radio here in Houston, but I've never heard his show. Funny dude.
We stopped by the village for a few martinis and to catch one of Harry and Eric's sets at Baker Street before rollin' back to the house for an early evening. I really haven't been staying out late much recently. It ebbs. I'm looking forward to doing absolutely nothing today. Nothing with a capitol 'N'. Oh yeah.
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Saturday, April 26, 2003

Our “luncheon” at Baba Yega

Our "luncheon" at Baba Yega was good hockey. EL hooked me up with some pain killer when we arrived, so by the time the "luncheon" was done, I was all better. We were headed for the zoo, but it was way too crowded for me, so I think we are going to tweak the wedding registry with the new and refreshed info EL got from the house last week. One tidbit of tasty news... I bought a new camera. This means that I'll be back in photo-junkie mode in no time. I was seriously jonzin' for snippety snap all day long like I did when I had my Powershot S230. I loved that camera. I have been putting a lot of thought into getting back into photography as a art hobby and not just a journalizing pastime. I used to be big into photo back in the early 90's... before my ex stole my EOS and lenses. I decided that, in light of my decision, a more versatile and configurable camera was for me... clickity click on the Internet and sometime next week I should be the proud new owner of a Powershot S50. I can't wait... *drool*... at any rate, this mean more regular photos on the blogournal and regular updates to my Fotki site again. EL and I stopped briefly at the house after a moment at Chez Satan where they fucked up my drink (again... as usual). You know, I'm glad these dudes are in the service industry and not pharmacists or something where their lack of attention to detail could kill someone's kid from a mis-prescription. I'll take a cheesed up coffee order over that any day... so let the fucktards mess up my lunch order and bring me chicken instead of shrimp or mess up my coffee order or any other various benign mistake... keep them working for minimum wage where their piss poor care factor and carelessness will never mis-anesthetize someone going in for surgery or give someone the wrong medication. Yeah. Don't mind me... I get ranty when my coffee is not puurrrrrfect. Coffee snob? You know it.
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Last night EL and I

Last night EL and I went to the Yanni concert. I wish that I could sit here and bash him up one side and down the other... supporting my never liking him or the image he clings to... but I can't. I attended that concert as a musician and in utter appreciation and amazement, I have to tell you that the musicians touring with him were breathtaking. It was absolutely amazing. EL looked fabulous and most of the peops there were well dressed. As I sat there in an old shirt and blue jeans with a hole in them while I drank Bud Light out of a paper cup, I felt a sense of peace. It was all good. Honestly, by the end of the show, I forgot about pompous-ass Yanni and that it was even his concert. My jaw was on the floor. The talent displayed during the course of the performance was inspiring. In retrospect, the only thing I would do the next time I went to one of his shows would be to grab my friends tSM and “E” because there was nothing but sensory input at this gig... totally unreal. I woke up with a crazy headache again. Maybe I'm dying. If that's the case, EL and I are going to have some yummy lunch outside to enjoy the day before I go. I hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend.
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Friday, April 25, 2003

Oh look… more lame talk

Oh look... more lame talk of my "luncheons"...

I dig when vendors take me to lunch. I'm all about a juicy filet mignon and some lobster bisque to cut my day in half. The weather is absolutely amazing this afternoon and I soooooo want to go home. Bring me the weekend! Bring it now!!
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The weird headache is back

The weird headache is back today. I'm exhausted today and without good reason. I feel like a rag doll. I just want to sleep. In other news, my craptop computer came back from the support folks today in somewhat better condition. It works. I can't fly a helicopter to save my life in Desert Combat. I did finally checkout Planetside. I was thoroughly unimpressed. It's like a bastardized version of Tribes 2 where there are several thousand people online in the gaming environment at the same time. I'm just not into it. I think there were a little over two thousand folks on the server I was logged into last night. It was a little uneventful for such a populace. I'll give it the BOD since I'm suppose to be beta testing it, but it's just not my cup-o-tea. EL and I had our one night of TV last night. We watch CSI as often as possible. That show is crack cream cheese on a perfectly toasted bagel. EL whipped up some more homemade cookies for the office to ensure the arduous-ity of my return to better fitness. They were delicious as always. Other than getting roped into an unexpected meeting this morning, my day was going just fine for a Friday... right up until the headache. Motherfucker. I need some pain killers... serious pain killers.
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Thursday, April 24, 2003

Me and my big mouth.

Me and my big mouth. I attended a technical presentation yesterday in the conference room down the hall from my office. It was really hot in the room so I placed a call to request facilities to lower the temperature a little bit since all the A/C is zoned and we don't have individual controls. Ask and you shall receive, right? Today it is fucking Antarctica on my floor. I think snow is coming out of the ducts. Bitches.
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The morning unfolds unexpectedly… I

The morning unfolds unexpectedly... I found the web site of a local electronica musician yesterday and really dug his work. He had a few samples available for download, so I burned a road disc and was geared for my morning commute to take a one day vacation from NPR (which I fucking love) and explore this Clear Lake talent's creative offerings. While I was burning, I remembered a promised CD to Ben that I needed to burn, so it was next in the queue when *ring ring* brought me a voice from the past. Life works mysterious and often quite ironic ways. A few days ago I was thinking of my old friend John and how I missed him. I was scrounging around the house looking for his father's mailing address... the one I'd written so many years ago as a backdoor to always reach John if we were to be separated by time and distance as military folk often are through occupational commitments. I was all set to write a letter to John's dad outlining what a terrible son he had for falling off the face of the Earth just like me when I found something peculiar in the comment archives of this site. I found John. He had somehow found this blog and left a note that I never found. I emailed immediately and was surprised by his call this morning. Outstanding. So... long story short, NPR was happily replaced with John this morning and not the talent from Clear Lake (who'll have to wait until the drive home). John's an spec warfare officer now. When he's not blowing shit up, he's home with Nicole and their new baby girl. Congratulations to both of them! I've missed my little grasshoppa ever since he took the pebble from my hand.













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Wickywickywoo! I’m effin tye-red this

Wickywickywoo! I'm effin tye-red this morning. In some feeble attempt at waking up, I came in to my office to finally check out Panetside. I'm beta testing the game at a friends recommendation and apparently you don't have to do much to get accepted into open beta, so I figured I'd give it a shot. My schedule has been hectic, so I haven't put much time into it so far, but I was hoping it would be impressive enough once I dug into the middle that it would blow the sleep from my eyes. All the servers were down. It must be a sign. I'll give it one more attempt at some point in the future... If still a no-go, it will be recycled into free hard drive space. Work kept calling until around 9:00 last night. The gave me a tiny break and then I got another call at 10:30. It's a lot like being a doctor on call... Except I don't get to operate on people and I don't play golf. Maybe I'm over-simplifying. Oh well, the only thing that really matters at this instant is that tomorrow is Friday and I'm a few blocks from dark, hot lovin' in a cup that I need like air in my lungs right now. Off to work... toodles.
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Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Speaking of desert warfare… I’m

Speaking of desert warfare... I'm itchin' to download this new Battlefield 1942 mod called Desert Combat. It looks to be off the hizzle fo shizzle, dizzle!
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