How I learned to stop worrying and love my thirties.
I am a thirty-something with stuff to say. Sometimes I'll even type it out.
I just read up on this from Joey, and I have to admit that I'm fairly disgusted. I mean, if that were the law, there'd be a lot of my friends out of work, and not many of them work for an online frickin' community.
Another drink is owed to Wild Sound for making a valid point: one of the hardest things to blog about is your romantic life- and when it's as complicated as mine currently is- it's sometimes safer to no say anything. Or, as I frequently do, as little as possible. Let's just say that I'm out there. Let's say that I'm happy. Let's say that things are moving forward. Let's say that I don't want to jinx anything. Let's, lastly, just say that I need a trip to Boston soon so I can pay back the beers I owe to folks I know out there as well.
On Friday, I told y'all about the game that was taking up my afternoon, how I was trying to finish it. I left it alone yesterday, and on my first try this morning, I got it.
For reasons unknown to me, I shot awake at about 3:50 this morning. I'm thinking it's anxiety over next week's impending surgery, but I could be wrong. Time for a sleep study? Well, by the time I get to recording my dreams again, I'll be in a wonderful drug-induced coma every night. Anyways, after several minutes of tossing and turning, I decided to get up and start my day, and I'm already starting to pay for that. I feel a nap coming on.
In the coming months, I'm going to start doing a lot more fundraising for my 2005 MS Ride- given, it's about 10 months away, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it. This morning, I came across this article about sexual disfunction the people who have MS suffer from. There are a lot of other links to articles at the bottom, so please, check them out.
As you may have noticed from yesterday's posts, I was out really, really late on Saturday night(Sunday morning, actually) and was up fairly early, promising to blog about something I've been spending too much time being cryptic about, and I completely failed to do so. I apologize. I really do. Here's what happened:
I did. And I will deliver.
My friend J TM'ed my cell phone wondering if we were getting slammed today. I called her back, because she did send me an e-mail and leave a comment on the good ol' blog. She figured that we were getting slammed. We weren't. I was simply playing this online game that I was close to beating, and couldn't quite beat. I was playing a game instead of blogging.
The idea just came to me- something to hopefully garner some comments from y'all(we're talking about 90 odd hits a day, and very sparse commenting). So, after reading an article today I've taken a page from a certain magazine and decided to name an asshole of the week. I know, it's a little trite, but it's something for me to keep focused on. Without further ado, here's the Asshole of the Week.
I just wrote this really long post about how funny it is that Dave Matthews Band is apparently responsible for The Occurence at Kinzie Street Bridge and about the Great American Shoutout and about some billionaire who is preaching moderation and apparently is trying to be philanthropic without wanting personal gain from it.
Last year I posted all the ridiculously expensive things I wanted for my 30th birthday. This year, I've come across something far cheaper and far cooler. As it turns out, I like alcohol. I won't lie. I enjoy wine, beer, single-malt scotch, even vodka and sometimes, but rarely, I love a good gin and tonic. So, I'm applying to receive free coasters from one of my favorite scotch brands, and I discover that you can order bottles with a personalized label.
So, I'm cruising around the internet today, killing time, and I came across this article via Fark, which contains this totally cool picture.
I'm back at work, still tired and very hayfevery, but alive.
Last night was the launch of my friend T's e-zine. She had bands and drinks and it was fun. Real fun. I even discovered a couple new bands- that I actually like. So, the end result is that I was out too late and, most unfortunately, up far too early, as I woke up at 3:30 with a horrible sneezing attack. Not being able to take any more allergy medicine, I tried to get through it, and failed. Things just progressively got worse, to the point that I've called in sick and stayed at home, cleaning and trying to not scratch my eyes out. It's the drawback of going to the farm for a weekend in the late summer- I spend a couple days getting over it.
Whenever I head out to the farm, I come back to the city, the city I love and cherish, only to wonder why I live here. Life is so complex and full of bullshit here.
Because I've been so damn busy at work and because I'm sick to death of computers by the time I get home, I owe y'all some serious catch-up blogging. I'll attempt to deliver.
Nothing of substance...
 | You Are Crybaby From "Crybaby." You are the definition of cool. You may be tough, but deep down you're very emotional and not afraid to show it, even if it means crying. Most people don't know that you have a hidden talent for singing. But come on - that tear tattoo was a pretty stupid idea. |
You're Minnesota!
You love hanging out around lakes, even if they're frozen solid. Given
your probable Scandanavian heritage, it all just demonstrates that you're pining for the
fjords. Your obsession with wrestling got a little carried away for a while there, and
this should prompt some serious reflection about the separation of mind and body. It may
be time to celebrate, even throw your hat up in the air. You're going to make it after
all.
Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Yes. It's already 2 1/2 hours into my workday on a Friday before what should be a very enjoyable weekend. The best part, is that we've been getting constantly called since 7:30- because not only did our server go down, but we lost our connection to some of our streaming data, which everyone loves, so it's been constant.
I apologize for the rather infrequent and disjointed entries that I've been making lately. We're doing alot of work around the office, converting a bunch of clients and brokers from one trading platform to another, and it's causing a major influx of calls and e-mails to our operation. It's also creating quite a headache for those of us working here.
I held my second pub quiz last night, and raised close to $200 for my MS Ride. This was pretty good, considering that a communication SNAFU between myself and the management at the bar meant that there was no buffet, as I promised, available to people. So I cut the admission fee in half, and still managed to raise some decent money. Of course, I'm nowhere near my goal of $5000, but I'm feeling pretty good about my first adventure in fundraising.
I am home from meeting with my surgeon. The verdict is surgery.
During an all-too-brief break today, I cruised through my blogroll. From Walt Mink the Movie, a post with a picture of satan, in Brooklyn(former stomping grounds) to film a commercial. First thing I notice:
This week has been one of the most hectic ever since I started working here. It's starting to get old, frankly.
Or: It's always Michael, Michael, Michael.
It's all getting laid down on the line today. I meet with the surgeon.
Let's say that there's a certain broker that works for my company.
Saturn has two more known moons.
In a drastic change from yesterday's foul mood, I'm doing the happy dance today- at least, for now I'm doing the happy dance. This can change.
As I was walking to the train after work, a Haz Mat vehicle pulled up to the NW corner of Union Station- and they had cleared Jackson Blvd east of Canal- and there was Caution tape all over the Riverside Drive entrance to the station.
...for the lack of anything even remotely funny in the blog today. Hell, there isn't anything in the blog today- that's how lame I am right now.
We're so damn busy right now it's not funny.
I'm trying to finish my pub quiz stuff today, so I don't have to worry about it this week- and I'm being bad about it. I am half way done with the picture round, so I decided to run my usual lap around my blogroll, and got stuck on Serial Blogonomy, because she's posted a couple tests and I just couldn't leave alone.
Yesterday, we got our new monitors at work, so I stayed behind and hooked them up for myself, 2 coworkers and my boss. They're beautiful. Absolutely wonderful monitors. Made me wish I had one at home. Oh well.
I just had a wonderful conversation with one of our clients. He spelled his name out for me. This was amusing to me. Why? His name is David.
So, I was out and about at my friend J's new bar, the Globe Pub last night, and did quite a bit of liver damage... They spent something like $11,000 on this machine to regulate their Guinness pours- and I appreciate every last drop. I must have, because I spent at least $30 on Guinness alone- much more than I had planned on. But I had a good time, and that's the important part, right?
So, here's some quizzes from Henry aka Pat.
to any and all readers with connections to Florida, but would it not be much better to have named the hurricanes currently assaulting that state Bonnie and Clyde?
Henry sent me the Nation States thing a while back, and I got all gung-ho about it and created my very own country, the Republic of Schlitzistan. We're a proud little country. I got a little confused today about it, though, because one of the issues I had to address was about military spending, and one of the positions was whether or not there was enough money going into recruiting. Serving in the military is required- not something I could actually go through myself, but something I thought might be helpful. So far, it has, if you look at the summary in the link above.
Sorry to do the blog equilvalent of a reality show here, but I'm just too lazy to be really deep or whatever it is I do on a regular basis around here.
This morning, I managed to sleep in, all the way to 5:45- so I was up and running like a madman to get here on time, which, somehow, I managed to do.
I'm not sure what it is about today, if it's something in the air, water, or land, but people have maintained their idiocy today, some more flabbergastingly stupid exchanges:
Last night I got an e-mail from someone who googled one of my favorite bands, Walt Mink, and came across my profile on Blogger.com, and let me know that they're planning a movie about the band, and hopefully a bit about the professor.
Some thanks from someone out there to balance out this rather craptacular morning. Specifically thanks from Erin-Go-Blog for the CD I made for her birthday. I had actually just thought to myself 'wow, I haven't heard from her yet- either she hasn't received it, or she really, really, really hated it.'
Apparently overnight, the composite IQ of our customers has dropped significantly lower than my average daily readership(hi-ho!).
Lots of people have put this quiz up in the last couple weeks, so forgive me, one and all for not giving credit where credit is due, but here's my results:
Joey is not only is a dazzlingly fun guy, but he also has the wonderful talent of finding great things on the internet and sharing them with his readers, a service that I wholeheartedly appreciate. He's got a new link from today for the Tombstone Generator, which is akin to the Church Sign Generator. I've been playing with these for the last 15 minutes, laughing myself to tears, which is how I like to laugh. I'll try to save the more tame and postable ones.
Yesterday, I left work early for my follow-up appointment with my sports medicine doctor, who is wonderful, and got scheduled with the surgeon. I'll see him next week- Wednesday to be precise. I also got a prescription for a painkiller that's supposed to be better for my stomach. So far, no complaints. Yet.
It's making its way around the internet right now, and yes, it's gross as all get-out, but here's a not-cool thing that happened this weekend in my neck of the woods. And if that wasn't enough, my co-worker's girlfriend used to work with these people, and there's a much more personal recanting of the story here.
Yesterday was a fun, productive day.
Huzzah! It's the 1000th post! Yay! Fireworks! Explosions! Maybe a car chase scene! Whooooooooo!
SAT Quiz: Math Sampler
Excellent!
Test yourself even further with a free practice SAT from Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions. You got 8/8 correct.
I had written this post this morning, in a much more hungover state than I presently am, all about what I did last night, how I went from bar to bar to bar(less offensive link here), and how we were bidding farewell to our friend I, who is moving to China, and wishing a happy birthday to my friend B, and how J called me at 8am and woke me up(I went to bed around 3:30 or so) and how I was just so goddamn exhausted and just wanted to curl up and die.
From yesterday's post about the most annoying game I've played online, I've finally, it seems, gotten a reasonable handle on the thing. My highest score thus far is 3775.
To thank those responsible for the massive 2 am solo drag race in their souped-up whateverfuckingkindofcarthatwas which started at the stop sign below my bedroom window and ended at Irving Park Road, a total of one half of a city block away.
Whenever I head out the ballgame with my cronies, I almost always ask what song they would have played if they were a baseball player when they came out to bat. Of course, the main reason I ask this every time is because by the end of the game, we're usually too drunk to remember our conversations that well.
It's here. More aggrivating than Pingu. Much more.
Erin posted a note she got from an online dating service, I am posting a bulletin my cat's profile got on MySpace.com. It's just too funny, and yes, was sent to my cat by a girl:
I've been doing it for a while. The pub quiz I do every Sunday at Ginger's benefits not only the Lance Armstrong Foundation, but the Franciscan Outreach Association. My friend who is the quiz master, is a survivor, and a huge supporter of the LAF. So, I'm proud of him and of everyone for keeping the trend going. I certainly won't be taking off my band anytime soon. It hasn't left my wrist in almost a month, and it's my second bracelet.
It's dark, cloudy and rainy here in Chicago today, so I keep thinking that it's very early in my shift, then I look at my clock and it's almost 10:30!
I know that those not in the tech support sphere have been known to give us a bad rap. We deserve it. We have a certain specialized knowledge and we know it, which leads to a certain degree of elitism which varies from worker to worker. We're like that- akin to the discussion in High Fidelity about being snobs, we are. What's worse is I used to be a snobby music and video store worker. Perhaps I am, underneath, a complete snob. I apologize.
Stemming from my previous entry, I looked up the Art Institute's website, and got to wondering- do they actually have a place where you can view the collection? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.
They're undulating.
I used to love drinking Goldschlager. Back in the day, a shot of Goldie made me very happy- and I miss those days.
Lying in bed in the sunlight.
When I was a kid, my dad used to let my brother and I stay up past our bedtime and watch Monty Python on PBS. It was one of the more fun ways to spend time together, and it, of course, has scarred me for life. So, when news broke about the stage version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot, well, my dad and brother moved quickly, organizing a group of 20 to attend.
While I was doing laundry and procuring music for Erin's CD, I did something I haven't done in ages- I sat down specifically to watch a baseball game. Of course, it was a rather historic feeling game, what with Greg Maddux going for his 300th win, and the introduction of Nomar Garciaparra. It made me wish the Harry Caray was still alive, so we could have been regailed with his attempts to say Garciaparra backwards- but I had to do with Steve Stone's constant mispronounciation of Garciaparra. Welcome to the midwest, Nomar, you're going to have to get used to our r's and our nasal way of saying your name- no'mawr gar-see-ap-pear-a. My apologies.
I'm just tired, really. Not bluesy at all. I just couldn't think of a better title.
You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
Thanks to Jen(nifer) for the link.
Sadly, the picture of my red Corvette was too big for my borders, so I took it out. For a picture of a red corvette, click here.
I have a crush on someone who told a mutual friend of ours that she had the hots for me.
