Le Blogeur is pretty damn funny. He looks like the kind of guy who would use the word "dahngerous" repeatedly.

Thanks to brig for sending me a new copy of my favorite movie, Office Space. It's one of those rare movies that I find myself watching over and over again. In case you're wondering, I'm the pale pasty white guy who listens to rap loudly in his souped up Sentra. Except that I'm not a guy and I have a Passat.

Maybe I'm an idiot, or maybe there's a bona-fide bug in the state tax form that I needed. Either way, I now have the complete 64 page booklet because I couldn't get the 1 page that I actually needed to print. Which means that I have at least 3 copies of every tax form California has to offer. Ugh.

We've seen some fine movies this week. Bowfinger was hilarious. I'm a long time Steve Martin fan, since he wrote it, I was sure it was going to be good. And it was. Not change your life good, but keep you laughing good.

Part 2 of our unintentional Eddie Murphy fest was Holy Man. Another quality slice of entertainment. Again, it didn't change my life, but it did keep me focused for the duration of the film. No small feat for my spastic self.

Our 3rd film of the week was Erin Brockovich, which featured Julia Roberts in some seriously trashy outfits but kept me entertained despite it's bladder-testing 2.5 hour run time.

Were I less exhausted, I'd use this down time to do something great. Like what? I have no idea. Usually I do the stuff I've been putting off when I'm in the middle of a huge project since my energy level is in overdrive and for a while, I'm superwoman. Today I'm just tiredwoman.

It's been a slow week here in the exciting world of work. Good things are going on with the higher-ups, but there's not a lot going on with the peons.

In other news, I dreamt in UNIX last night.

Toyota is trying too hard to capture a younger market. Just because my dad has a Camry (just like everyone else's dad) doesn' t mean that you have to have a super slick website to get my attention.

No comment

I did it. For the first time in the 6 months since I left beyond I went back to visit. I'd avoided doing this because I knew it wouldn't be easy. The people who work there (for the most part) are fabulous. Smart and fun, were it not for one guy, I'd probably still be there today. He made my life so miserable that I felt I had no choice but to leave. Of course he's gone now, too, along with 1/2 the people who were there then.

A year ago it was like shangra-la. Yes, we worked hard. Yes, a lot of stuff was wrong but the people were by and large great fun to be around and the only serious problems were with upper management. You can still have fun if management sucks, the regular folks were far enough removed from it.

Since I've left, I've been at 3 different companies. The first one, I didn't even like that much, but the salary was astounding enough that I felt I had to take it. The second was a 3 day nightmare and the third is turning out to be pretty good. But not like beyond of a year ago is for me, not like the place and the people that make me cry because I miss them. Nothing can be that place again but the few people I saw today were enough to make me cry because I miss them.

I think everyone has a time and place that can never be recaptured. First love, first kiss, whatever. My time at beyond was one of those things, I wonder if I'll spend the rest of my working years looking for it.

Realized today that my things that rule section was remiss for not including the almighty, wonderful, excellent blogger. So now it does and always, thanks to blogger for making the world a better place.

Got myself a loan yesterday. Within 15 days, I'll have enough cash to buy out the lease on my most excellent car, thus changing my monthly lease payment into a purchasing payment. I learned all about daily compounded interest in this process and all I know now is that I'm in a huge hurry to pay it off.

I must chuckle at the prolific typos in this job. Anyone out there a Firewords developer?

Yet another spectacular headline: Palestinian Refugees Hail Pope, Then Fight.

Yesterday my benevolent boss and I were discussing the Amiga, lamenting it's demise and today I find this. It's like Disco, it never quite left and yet it's making a comeback.

The good folks at Blogger added exciting new ways to display the date and time. Rest assured, I'll try each of them at least once!

brig found this this... thing and I'm just not sure what to say about it. It seems so creepy.

It hadn't occurred to me that a discussion forum is the logical next step in this endeavor. Is it? My former employer is trying to capture an easy to use way to share the web, I just didn't see why how it would work. There's a fine line between true interaction and a set of links. I like to think that a blog captures that, giving you, my most excellent readers, a way to find some new stuff on the web with a little bit of background along with it. Somehow, a discussion forum doesn't fit into what I intended. (not that I'm sure what I do intend)

Newsweek had a good article about all of us becoming intimate strangers, how we're connected with this web thing, but yet we're not. I think the web gives us (okay, me) a place to share things that we might not otherwise, but then it makes it easy to forget that there's a big pretty world outside. I admit to getting so caught up in my head that I forgot.

But... I've always been a writer (it's only the last couple of years that I've been paid for it). That means a lifetime inside my head, thinking of things to say, how to say it and how to write it. The magnificent medium of blogging only makes that worse or at least easier.

Had to link to this article because it uses the word chippie.

If you can't call yourself an ass occasionally, then perhaps you're not laughing enough.

I'm an ass

Feeling the need to quote myself here,

"I've realized that you can't always make people happy. Sometimes I'm just going to say stuff that not everyone likes and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. Nothing I say is meant to be malicious, while I may think of malicious things to say, I rarely say (or write) them. It's not worth pissing people off."

If I am to have a child while still driving my 99 Passat, I must take the P, A, and T off so it becomes a 99 ASS. Lest my child think that I'm a grownup.

No idea where brig found this, but I'm weeping.

This article is right on. With so many companies trying to get off the ground, traditional option plans aren't going to cut it anymore. Who wants to wait a year when your options could be worth nothing? I would rather have a decent salary and interesting work than a truckload of options (aka lottery tickets). 10,000 shares of nothing is just that. Thanks to brig for the article.

Alice is feeling better today, but now she can't bark so I guess she's got a sore throat. Someone suggested this collar instead of the plastic model she's currently sporting.

Is it just me, or does Macy Gray look like a derelict? I really like her music, but every time I see her on tv, I think 'derelict'.

I keep thinking that my phone is ringing and pausing to look at it. Maybe I'm going crazy.

Alice is so miserable in her new torture device, I had to take some pictures. We're headed back to the vet later today for some relief.

Last Friday, I had every intention of making a list of the good things that have happened in the last year. After all, it was a pretty good year. So here it is, a little late:

• Alice came home. Honestly, I'm not sure how the sun came up every morning before she was part of my life.
• Weezy, my 1972 VW Squareback fell into my lap, fulfilling my dreams for a vintage VW.
• I finally got an excellent job where I can do all the stuff I like to do, close to home and for a decent salary.

That's all I can think of for now.

Reno was a trip, as always. We saw many many mullets and fat people in tight clothes. And of course, thatched huts!

My party was okay. Before everyone arrived, Amy and I got really really wasted and watched the Iron Chef, where the competitor made an unprecidented 4 dishes. We were enthralled. Andrea showed up with a bag of ice. In my altered state, I tried to empty the sealed bag into the freezer. It didn't work very well, but I kept trying for quite some time until Andrea took over. While my house was filled with people, I was so grumpy that I just wanted them to leave. And it was my party for what may have been my worst birthday in recent history.

I feel like an ass
My mom's dog, Buddy has terminal cancer, which causes pain. So he's been taking Rimadyl. Turns out that this drug causes serious liver problems, and death. I usually do gobs of research on everything that the dogs in my life take, but this time I didn't. Hope it hasn't done any damage yet...