I’ve since joined the Obama for America campaign as an IT specialist for the field offices in the area.  I have been helping them in deploying new field offices in South San Francisco and East Palo Alto, where lots of people came in and made over 10,000 calls to New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, and Indiana.  It’s been a lot of fun, but the one question I keep getting from some people that I see occasionally, is why.

With the exception of a couple of years of Republican registration, followed by Libertarianism, I’ve been a registered Democrat.  I was raised by a Republican father, and a Democratic mother.  My father and I sided with Reagan in 84 and Bush in 88, I voted Republican during the midterms in 94 and then switched parties in 96 to vote for Bill Clinton, before being convinced by my then-fiancee, Stephanie, to register Libertarian in 98.  Back then, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t crazy about politics even though I stayed in touch with what was going on.  After we split up, I did not re-register for a while there until the Bush v. Gore election of 2000.  I switched back to the Democrats, because the religious right had a nice, tight stranglehold on the Republican party.  I’m a firm believer in the separation of church and state, and I feel that faith and politics have their places… just not in the same place.

Simply put, I’m not supporting Barack Obama because he’s the Democratic candidate for President.  In fact (and you can ask my wife), I wasn’t all that impressed by Obama during the primary season.  The one guy I wanted to run (Wes Clark), didn’t, and ended up supporting Hillary Clinton, instead.  As much as I admired Bill, Hillary was a stark contrast to her husband and I just couldn’t back her, either.  My mother and grandmother, on the other hand, were huge Hillary fans and came down hard on Obama.  I decided, at that time, that I would wait for the dust to settle and see who came out on top.  And when Obama became the presumptive nominee, it was time for the party to unite and win this thing.

So yes… in the beginning, you might say I supported him because he won the nomination.  During the Democratic National Convention, however, as they were rolling out their platform before America, I learned a lot more about him than I did during the primaries.  The primaries were hard-fought and there was a metric asston of bullshit that flew between the candidates.  As during the general election run from the conventions, with all the mud flying, it’s really difficult to get someone’s story without it being tainted by others.  At least during those four days in Denver, there was no more bickering.  I finally got to learn and appreciate what we had in this guy, and while I really dispised Biden during the primaries… his acceptance speech really wow’ed me a great deal.  I began to see both these guys in a new light.

I have never, in my life, been energized about a presidential campaign so much as to join one.  But then again, a lot has changed since 2000 and 2004.  A little television show called “The West Wing” turned me around significantly in participating in politics.  “Decisions are made by those who show up,” struck a serious chord with me.  It has that benefit of being absolutely true.  It was high time I started showing up and putting my money where my mouth was.  This time, it wasn’t going to be enough to donate to a campaign.  This time, it wasn’t going to be enough to hope for the best while others did the groundwork for me.  This time, I’m not going to look back at another election season and say, “Damn, I should’ve done more.”  This time, I’m not going to lament the election of a shitty Republican candidate looking to further a crap agenda for an additional four years after living through the last eight and wondering if President Gore might’ve done better.  And this time, I’m not going to threaten to move to Canada when it doesn’t go the way I want it to.

This time… this time, people… I am stepping up and getting involved.  This time, I’m going to do whatever it takes to ensure that we get a president who gives a damn about those of us who don’t make millions and billions each year.  This time, I’m not going to regret not doing more, because if we lose, it won’t be because I couldn’t find the energy to get out of my chair and add my resolve, drive, and determination to those around me.  This time, good thoughts and clenched eyes would fall way short of the goal.  And this time, Election Night won’t be spent in bed lying awake, wondering if the next day will be better.

Members of my own family are voting for McCain.  I’ve had conversations, at length, and I’m convinced that they’ve chosen the lazy way out.  Being a Democrat means you give a damn about the person sitting next to you.  Being a Democrat means you care about seniors getting proper care.  Being a Democrat means you care about everyone getting health care.  Being a Democrat means that you believe in a strong ecomony driven by a strong middle class, not the failed Reaganomics of trickle-down.  Being a Democrat means you want the next generation of Americans to have a Department of Education fully funded and packed with excellent teachers, because a smarter generation means a stronger economy.  Being a Democrat means you want government to fulfill the promise of a secured future for our retirees in protecting Social Security.  Being a Democrat, in simple terms, means you’re willing to be a caring citizen of the community, not just someone living there.

We’re stronger as a team than individuals.

Sure, it’s so easy to not give a shit and think of only yourself.  That’s what Republicanism is, to me.  It’s laziness.  It’s complacency.  It’s being okay with keeping this country in a deep economic rut.  It’s being okay with racial slurs and calling someone a Muslim because you’re using the politics of fear to further your agenda.  It’s being okay with pointing out the differences between people in order to drive a wedge between them in order to quell the masses.  It’s being okay with the philosophy of name-calling when things don’t go your way.  Republicanism is selfishness.  It’s about “me, me, me.”  It is the ideal that if you don’t agree with me, then you’re instantly judged to be either a traitor to your country or inconsequential.  It’s the ideal that it takes too much energy to learn about the other side of the argument.  It’s the ideal that you hand over your ability to decide things for yourself and download Fox News en masse in order to determine your own positions on the issues because it’s easy.

It’s just too hard to try and understand for these people.

Now, in spite of my general points, I will say that I am friends with Republicans and not all of them are of this vein.  Most of the Republicans (who are not my family) are voting for Barack Obama.  They’re lifelong Republicans, too.  And I work closely with two of them… and by the way?  They made this decision on their own, long before I mentioned my campaign work.  I just wish more Republicans showed this kind of insight, to be able to reach across the party line and really read and listen to Obama’s vision for America.

It’s just too hard to try and understand, I guess.  It’s easier to use a label and dismiss.  It’s easier to be close-minded because maybe… maybe they’re afraid of being called out as a traitor themselves.  Or maybe, deep down, they’re afraid that the ideology that they cling to so fiercely… isn’t as strong as they claim.  I’ve noticed that a lot with people who claim to be Born Again Christians.  They want to convert everyone around them to make themselves feel better about this choice they’ve made.  If you’re really and truly okay with the choice you’ve made, then the way that I think and believe should not be a threat to you.

It’s not my fault you’re insecure and self-conscious about what you put your faith in.

Obama for America means just that.  It’s not Obama for Democrats.  America.  The whole country.  He’s fighting to win back the soul of this great nation.

And I’m helping him with everything I’ve got.

Won’t you join me?

Current Mood: determined

It started on Saturday morning, when we had to wake up early to go see an apartment building where we’de made an appointment to see an opening.  I went into my office and I noticed that my five year-old LCD was blank.  At first, I thought it was my computer; I thought maybe it had locked up during the night or maybe the video card died.  So, I rebooted it before doing anything else, which was stupid.  I should’ve switched ports on the KVM before trying to diagnose this further.  But no, I forced my machine to suffer an ungraceful restart, first.  it turned out that my faithful display finally stopped working.  And to be honest, I figured that five years was a good run for an LCD that had a little burn-in on it.  By the way, I didn’t realize that LCDs could burn in.

After we saw the apartment, we had breakfast and then we headed over to check out some monitors.  The place we went to, I remembered they used to have a huge flat panel display selection and when we got there, it turned out that they’d reduced it to all of six (down from over 30) and all of them were pretty damned expensive.  I was aiming for a striaght replacement (19 inch for 19 inch), but Julia and I were discussing it and it made sense to go a little bit bigger… except that adding 5 inches also seems to add a couple hundred dollars to the price.  But we decided, reluctantly, to bite the bullet and buy it anyway, because if we settled for a cheap brand and it broke down later, then we’d be out the money on it and then we’d buy a better one, spending more money in the process.  So, I now have a 24-inch display on my desk.

Here’s the kicker: the display won’t work plugged into my KVM switch anymore, but Julia plugs in her iBook and it works fine.  I’ve been in the tech industry over a decade and I’m still scratching my head over that one.  Since I have multiple computers, I need the KVM switch… or I need to buy 3 displays.

That was Saturday.  Sunday morning, we tried to hook up Julia’s iBook to the old screen and it turned out that her DVI-D wouldn’t adapt to the VGA 15-pin connector.  So off we went, back to the store to buy an adapter, except it didn’t work.  DVI-D is not the same as DVI-A, and if we wanted to get a DVI-I to work, we’d have to buy a 35 dollar cable along with it.  Since we dropped a pretty penny on the monitor, we were starting to get a little gunshy about buying more stuff, so we set it aside for now.  I mean, we weren’t even sure the old display would work, y’know?  But, while we were there, we checked out hard drives.  As you might remember, my 250gb portable drive died in June, and all the data on it is unreachable (sadface).  I considered buying a new DVD-RW drive for my system since I usually rely on Julia’s external DVD-RW.  I used to be able to use it on my system, but I switched to a new one and it doesn’t have the IEEE1394 port on it anymore… and there’s no firewire to USB adapter out there.

Hard drives were too expensive and Fry’s had a DVD-RW for under 40 bucks, so we went with that.  I came home and installed it and suddenly my system wouldn’t turn on anymore.  Wonderful.  I pulled everything out of the case, and started troubleshooting it, component-by-component.  The result?  My power supply was dead.  I transferred everything to an older case (this old black one that glows blue when it’s on… I’ve always really liked it), and it turned on when I had the motherboard, cpu, ram, and video card in it, but it would only stay on for like 1.5 seconds when I plugged in the primary hard drive.  That screams not enough power, so Monday… we were back at the store again, this time to buy a power supply (500 watts).  While we were out, we stopped by a Mac store and bought Julia a Mini-DVI to VGA adapter.

I was really gentle with this install, folks.  I mean… I was taking every single precaution I could think of in handling each component.  We’re talking about a system whose total worth reached into $1400, all told.  I don’t think I could bear another part failure (neither could Julia).  Luckily though, I pieced it back together and everything was gold.  I even managed to salvage an old 200gb EIDE drive I had doing nothing in the old case, so I have access to a lot of my old media (mostly TV shows) I lost I had lost when Redtail (my old system) died.

With the new monitor, power supply, adapters, drive and blank discs, we spent over six hundred-fifty bucks more than we planned to.  Originally, we figured less than two hundred for the monitor and that was it.

That’s what we get for thinking, right?

Current Mood: accomplished & full

I was in awe of the opening ceremonies last night from Beijing. The Chinese know how to put on a show, but as Julia and I were commenting on the torch-lighting ceremony, I said that I thought the best torch-light I’d ever seen was Barcelona ‘92. When they passed the torch fire to the archer and he had the one shot to hit the target.  At the time, I thought it was the best way ever to light that torch.

Paralympian Antonio Rebolle gets ready to send the torch's flame into the huge cauldron at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Did anyone else fast-forward through the march of the athletes? Julia and I sat through a healthy chunk of the smaller nations, but once we got to Italy, and it was starting to get later and later into the night, we decided to time-shift on the ol’ TiVo and blow through the geographical trivia contest and slow it down during the more impressive nations (such as the UK, US, etc). I cheered for the Japanese national team early on in the march, and of course, the “Chinese Taipei” team waving their specially-designed, least-offensive Olympic flags instead of their own national flag (which China finds too offending to display). Here, I thought the Olympics were about setting aside differences and competing on a level playing field… but whatever. The reception of the team from the US was heartwarming. It makes me want to pull for Chicago in their bid for the 2016 games, and wish that the San Francisco bid for 2012 wasn’t such a spectacular failure. I think having the games in the Bay Area would’ve ruled big time, and I don’t care how much of a traffic jam it would’ve caused… I love the Olympics.

My question to my readers today is in two parts: 1) Are you watching the 2008 Games? 2) If so, what’s your most favorite event?

Current Mood: excited

Anyway, I’ve been having a field day with my iPhone.  I’ve downloaded a metric ton of applications for it and one of the cooler aspects of owning this thing is the fact that I have been introduced to Pandora.  Where the hell have I been that I’ve not been properly indoctrinated into this thing?  I’ve created like six radio stations and I’ve really enjoyed them all.  It’s not just being able to listen to your favorite stuff, it’s also being introduced to really good music that’s similar to it. I’ve discovered several new artists that I’ve got to start listening to (as if I really needed more music to listen to, right?), and now I don’t really need to put together playlists for long trips if I don’t want to. The only pity is the fact that Pandora doesn’t really have much in the way of Japanese music… oh well. Not like I’m hurting for vocal jazz or funk, either

If you previously had my phone number, ditch it. It’s no longer valid. If you’re on Facebook or you have my email address, you can retrieve the new one pretty quickly by visiting my profile or sending me an email (as long as I call you friend, of course).

I started work this morning at 7am, which is the earliest I’ve reported for work in a really long time. Usually, I’m in at 10 or later, or working the graveyard shift. It was really weird to wake up at 6am and roll out of bed while Aqua Teen Hunger Force played in the background. I’m covering for a recently fired employee who acted as the case coordinator for the team. We already hired a replacement, but it’s going to take a while for him to get up to speed, and until then, I’m the one answering all the phones. It was crazy busy this morning, too. I was exhausted by 2pm, and I’m already heading for bed so I’m not completely fucked over tomorrow.

In other news, the Giants are about to blow a seven-run lead, and the Tribe toppled the Tigers. Well, at least one of them won.

Current Mood: exhausted

Current Mood: nostalgic

It all began with the loss of my job at Teneros.  We’d just returned from Danyel’s wedding in Las Vegas, and I had to go to sleep to prepare for my shift that Monday night.  I woke up a little earlier than I had planned, but it turns out that it didn’t matter one way or the other.  I had a voicemail from the Vice President of our division, asking me to return his call as soon as possible.  This is never a good thing, let me tell you.  I hadn’t heard or seen this guy in months, and getting a phone call from him out of the blue was highly unusual.  My sixth sense was screaming big time, and I went out into the living room to tell Julia that it was resume-updating time again.  This, of course, did not make her feel any better.

I took a quick shower, grabbed the work-issued BlackBerry phone and its charger, told Julia I’d be back in an hour or two, and headed out the door.  I pulled into the parking lot at work, and I was curious to see if maybe they’d already pulled the plug on me.  Interestingly enough, my badge and secured door access were still in place, so I had this fleeting thought that maybe something else had happened… like maybe someone else got the axe and they were telling me in person that I might have to switch shifts this week.  But then, I thought, why wouldn’t they have called me ahead of time to let me know?  Nah, I was definitely getting laid off tonight.

I walked in and the only other person in the building was my swing shift co-worker.  He looked up in surprise… maybe because he wasn’t expecting me to show up so quickly.  I said hi, and grabbed the empty box I’d left underneath my desk when I arrived for my first day there.  I started packing up my speakers, keyboard, mouse, books, the picture of Julia and me from Valentine’s Day, and then the VP walked into the NOC and saw me.  I was all smiles about the whole thing, because I guess I had seen it coming… but not this soon.

There were a lot of little changes they were making at Teneros.  They switched CEOs a few months back, which was a huge shock since the CEO we had when I was hired… I mean, the company was his baby, you know?  It was really weird to find out one day that he stepped down and we got this other guy in there.  Talk of the corporate reorg came through and everyone was worried about their jobs (of course).  I spoke with my manager, and he assured me that support would be untouched, since we were one of the hardest working departments in the company (true).  I was satisfied with that, but there was that inkling in the back of my mind that said to take it with the grain of salt.  I had no reason to doubt his word, though, so don’t get me wrong.  But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t lied to, you know?

Shortly after that announcement, the kitchen stopped being stocked so frequently.  This really sucked for me, because I was there during grave shift and a bare kitchen meant I had to either bring in lunch or go hungry.  One of the great perquisites of working at Teneros was the awesome kitchen, and now that was gone.  Sure, they tried to bluff their way through it, but I told my swing guy that when a company stops stocking the kitchen, then it’s time to start looking for work elsewhere.  It’s one of the warning signs of something big on the horizon when the little things suddenly disappear.

But back to the meeting with the VP.  Now, I really liked my VP.  He was a really nice guy and I didn’t bear him any ill will about the decision he had to make.  I knew it was a numbers game (I was one of the highest paid techs, if not the highest paid) and they needed to cut someone’s salary.  Add to the fact that the grave shift was probably a luxury at that point, in spite of the day guys really enjoying their sleep being uninterrupted during the week.  It made sense from an executive standpoint, but it still sucked the big one dry.  Plus, the people I worked with were a great bunch of guys, and I’d miss seeing/talking to them on a daily basis.  My soon-to-be-former VP and Manager explained the logic and I was sitting there nodding my head.  My manager looked grief-stricken and I tried to keep a positive attitude about it.  I did make a few jokes when the stock issue question came up, considering that they were laying people off (I was one of many, apparently).  I laughed and shook my head, passing on purchasing anything that put money into a company that was showing signs of failure.

I signed my papers, took my “generous” two-weeks’ severence pay and final check, grabbed my box and walked out to my car.  My now-ex Manager walked out there with me and promised to keep in touch (he hasn’t) and also said he wanted to have a lunch with the whole group sometime (no joy, there, either).  I took his consolations with a grin and shook his hand.  I pulled out of the parking lot for the last time, and headed home.

I enjoyed unemployment for a good three weeks.  I had a large number of leads, folks, going into the first week.  I posted my updated resume on DICE and my cell phone rang so much, I blew through my anytime minutes on my phone plan within the first week and half.  Julia was pissed.  I got calls from StubHub, Yahoo (3 different positions), 2 startups not worth mentioning, and Netflix.  The Yahoo interviews were all on the phone, and StubHub never called me back.  Adobe called (as usual), but they were offering twenty bucks below my asking price, which was a deal-breaker (why would I take a 40% pay cut to work there?).  I also got an email for a job in Japan that turned out to look fucking awesome on paper, but that phone interview was a complete and utter disaster, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying.  Let’s just say that it sounded like there was an active resistance toward hiring someone in America for a job in Japan, and the guy on the phone was doing everything he could to sabotage it.

In the meantime, my nephew flew in from Arizona to stay with his mom for the summer.  I usually get him for a week in July, but since I was not working… it made sense to have him sooner rather than later.  I got to spend a week and a half with him and we hung out, played a metric shitton of Halo 3, watched a season and a half of The West Wing, and took him to Pac Bell Park for a Giants game.  We even got to play some D&D at my buddy’s house along with his nephew so we had a decently sized group to play with this time around.  He had a blast, and I had a lot of fun having him around.  I’m hoping that next summer, we can arrange for him to stay a little while longer by getting him a paying job for the duration so he’ll have some experience in the industry.  He wants to work with video games and has a keen interest in it, so I figured if I could swing an EA game tester job for him, it’ll work out great for him in earning and saving some money.  He’ll be 18, and not subject to work permit law, so I’m hoping for the best.

While I had him with us, I was going out on interviews and feeling some places out for possible employment.  In the third week, I got this call from a recruitment house.  All they do is recruit for other companies, but instead of doing it by contract, they actually place people for regular employment.  I didn’t have anything to lose at this point, since this was a longer stretch of joblessness I’d experienced in the last two years.  One more week and I was going to have to file for Unemployment Assistance through the state.  I went in, met with the really young guy who was telling me how to interview (look, kid… I’ve been interviewing for jobs since you graduated elementary school).  I smiled and nodded, took their advice and walked out feeling like my time had been wasted.  Then, I got pulled back in at the last moment to sit with a guy from a company who was already there to talk to someone else.  It was for a position at a company I’d heard of, Mimosa, but it was for a position totally not my area of expertise (if I even have an area of expertise).

Mimosa sounded cool, but I was reluctant to entertain going back into Windows/Exchange support.  I felt like I had moved on from Windows and wanted to get back into Unix support or operations again.  Nine months of bashing my head against crappy Microsoft products felt like a lifetime, and even though the job was pretty cushy, I really didn’t want to continue to lose my Unix street cred that much.  Anyway, I figured that since the job wasn’t a match, I would move on and find something else.  By that time, I was emailing my resume at least three times a day to various job listings I’d find on DICE or HotJobs or wherever.  Then, Mimosa called back.  Apparently, they were hiring for customer support positions, and they wanted me to go in and sit down with them for a few hours and talk things over.

Like I said, it was nearing the end of the third week.  The interviews thus far had not proven to lead anywhere, and the phone interivews I’d completed until then hadn’t panned out as well as I hoped.  So, I went in with no expectations whatsoever, figuring that if I didn’t go in, all I would do is watch TV, play on the Xbox or waste time in some other fashion.

Funny thing about interviews with no expectations.  After all, that’s how I got hired at Teneros.

I sat down with them, and right away I really liked these guys.  They had a good sense of humor (rather closely aligned with my own, which is saying a lot), they were pretty damned smart, and they were really driven toward their goals.  Further, they prized several things I always look for in a new company.  I was intrigued by the notion of actually going to work for them, and out of all the itnerviews I’d been on, Mimosa was the only one where I got that feeling that I could really work there.  After the interviews were over, I got the offer the next Monday and I signed it that afternoon and faxed it back in.  I would start the next week and my period of unemployment was finally over (for now).

I’ve been at Mimosa for two and a half weeks.  I really like the people.  I feel like I’m learning a lot while being there.  I appreciate the straightforward nature of the group and I like that they don’t beat around the bush when they talk to you… it’s all out there for you without having to read between the lines, y’know?  This is a very rare thing here in Silicon Valley (or possibly anywhere).  Since Mimosa is one of Teneros’ direct competitors, it’s pretty funny seeing alot of clients from Teneros show up as clients of Mimosa as they’re dumping and running toward my new employer.  The other day, I was looking through our tickets and I noticed familiar names and companies listed as customers and laughed.  I guess things are getting worse over there.

Anyway, that’s my summer so far.  How’s yours?

Current Mood: determined

I guess I should mention that the other man is her father and she’ll be back Saturday, but I’ll bet you I got you to click on the link anyway, right?  Feel free to punish me in the comments.  I’ll take my beatings like a man.

First, we upgraded to 2.5.1.  I hope you’ve all upgraded your WordPress installations.

Anyway, I have the place to myself this week and already it’s pretty damned weird to not have her around here.  I wish I could’ve gone to Hawai’i, too, but I’d already taken too much time off from work in the past thirty days to get away with a whole week off like that.  Plus, I’d just started the grave shift, so it would have sucked to suddenly take a week off on the on-call guy and make him suffer through a week of painful middle of the night calls because I wasn’t there to catch them.

Speaking of… it’s been going pretty good on the grave shift so far.  I’ve been keeping to a strict schedule of sleep and exercise that my doctor recommended.  Unfortunately, it also means that on the weekends, I have to keep to it as well.  I only get two days off and it’s just not enough to right myself to a day schedule and then prepare for a night schedule in forty-eight hours.  This makes participating in activities a little more difficult, and it always seems to result in people being pissed off at me for not going to parties or visiting.  There are exceptions, of course, but not very many.  Plus, everyone likes to get together at noon, which is thirty minutes after I go to bed.  What?  No more evening get-togethers anymore?

On the subject of evening get-togethers… I think it sucks that I keep having to cancel the monthly parties because people have better other things to do.  By the way, on May 10th, we’re celebrating Julia’s 30th birthday.  I sincerely hope that people will show up for it, because we’re holding it at San Jose Municipal Stadium this year and it should be a lot of fun.  Get a hold of me if you want to go.

I leave you all with this little gem: Hard Candy.  Rent or buy the DVD; you will not be disappointed.

At least I got seven seasons of the West Wing… well, six and a half, not counting the crappy fifth season post-Sorkin, where John Wells tried to do a stupid-ass meld of ER and West Wing by removing pretty much all the great dramatic themes that Sorkin and Schlamme put together for the first four seasons.  I was kind of hoping to find out that Sorkin would return to the show at some point, especially when they announced that it was going to be the last one…

But, I digress.

I know some don’t really like Studio 60, but there’s more to it than simply being a show-within-a-show.  Sports Night was similar but it wasn’t until they found their groove in the second season that I thought Sports Night could run with a heavy like the West Wing, with the multiple episode arcs and the threat of cancellation (plot, not reality) of the show.  I even liked the parting shot from the guy who buys the network, “If someone can’t make money off of Sports Night, they need to get out of the money-making business.”  Great line.  I miss Natalie and Natalie World.

Studio 60 didn’t really get much of a chance to show us what it could do in the long-term.  I haven’t quite completed the whole season, yet, as I’m slowly making my way back through the episodes I’ve already watched… to kind of try and get back into that mood of buildup, y’know?  I want to savor the very first time I see these episodes so I don’t take it for granted, given that eventually I will reach the end and look back with regret, wishing I could watch them all again for the first time.

Oh well.  I hope this isn’t the last we see of Shoe Money Productions.  I hope we get another opportunity to enjoy Sorkin’s wit on the small screen.

Current Mood: annoyed & working

Uh, anyway, Netflix I’ve had for a while now (the new toy), and lately I’ve sort of gotten into a cool cycle here on the graveyard shift at work, where it’s really quiet during the night.  I have DVDs I take with me into work and listen to them in the background while I’m taking care of business.  Recently, I’ve cycled through a couple of gems that I wanted to bring to your attention…

The first is Cashback, a British film starring Bionic Woman’s Michelle Ryan and Harry Potter’s Sean Biggerstaff.  It’s about an art student who suffers from insomnia following the break-up of his relationship and ends up taking a night job at a local supermarket, where he meets a group of varied personalities and an attractive girl named Sharon who’s caught his attention.  I picked it up at a Netflix suggestion, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take a chance on it, but hey… what the hell, right?  I wasn’t disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second is the Academy Award-winning Juno, starring X-Men 3’s Ellen Page as the eponymous protagonist.  A girl has sex with her best friend and it results in her pregnancy.  Since the abortion clinic scared the shit out of her, she decides to keep it and put it up for adoption.  She meets a couple that suits her unborn child’s needs (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) and befriends them, all the while having to suffer the social inequities of high school life as a pregnant student.  In spite of all that potential morose drama, it was smartly written and the performance of Page as Juno was amazing.  I was laughing my ass off at this movie, because the character of Juno is nothing short of an amalgam of most of the women in my life.  Sharp wit, acerbic sense of humor and blunt force trauma when asking questions.  Not to say that you all are bad, but there were times when Juno spoke that I remarked to myself that she reminded me of Tap or Julia or one of my sisters…  It made the movie more enjoyable, although the ending was a little out there.  Plus, it was an Arrested Development reunion, pretty much, with Michael Cera and Jason Bateman, although they never had a scene together.  And surprise, Allison Janney and Rainn Wilson’s in it, too!  Highly recommended, if you haven’t already seen it.

What’s next on my list?  Since I’m now an Ellen Page fan, next up is Hard Candy.  Check my queue on the sidebar for more information about my list.

San Francisco is immediately obvious; I live in San Jose and proximity dictates that I throw my support behind the local team. Of course, I will also throw some fandom behind the A’s because sometimes when Giants baseball kills me, it’s nice to bite into the refreshing lime wedge of A’s baseball, which at times, can suck way less.

Why Cleveland? It all goes back to my father. My dad loves baseball, and he was the one who introduced me to the game when I was a kid. We would travel to the Stick to watch the Giants in San Francisco, but also we would hang out at Municipal Stadium almost every home game during the 1989-1992 seasons and got to know some of the minor leaguers when they would go to the bar after the game and drink with us. It was a lot of fun (and yes, even though I was like 11, as long as I didn’t sit at the bar, I was cool). But my dad’s first love was and is the Cleveland Indians.

Not because he used to live there or anything, but because when he was a little kid, he would catch the sports scores on the radio during the 50s. Every now and again, he told me that he heard a pitcher named Mike Garcia (aka The Big Bear). It was one of those things, I guess, when you hear someone with your own name being referred to on a broadcast medium like radio and eventually television. So, naturally, he would root for the pitcher who shared his name and the team he played for, which was the Cleveland Indians. Ever since, he would always keep tabs on the Tribe and of course, as his son, I tried to be as helpful as I possibly could in that area.

And that carries through even today. I may not follow the Tribe as die-hard as I do the Giants, but I still follow them. When I talk to my dad on that increasingly rare occasions these days, during the baseball season our conversation will turn back to the Tribe and how they’re doing. My dad doesn’t follow the game as avidly as he once did when I was growing up, but that bond that we built between us with the Giants and the Indians will always remain, no matter how old we get.

With the start of the 2008 MLB season this week, I’m ready to go back on the trail with my teams once more; ready to live and die with wins and losses. I’ve made many friends because of my love of the game, and maybe lost more than a few loves because of it, but I won’t apologize for being who I am and loving what I love.

Go Giants! Go Tribe!

Current Mood: bouncy & working

I just got back from SakuraCon in Seattle this weekend and experienced snow for the first time since my trip to Philly in 2005. It was a metric fuckton of fun, including conversations that bordered on the absurd as whole portions of dialogue from Aqua Teen Hunger Force seemed to be the order of the weekend. We went up with Teri and Kailee, sharing a hotel room that had these tiny-ass double beds and a toilet that reminded one of the Disneyland Hotel in 2000 for Anime Expo (it will suck the soul right out of your body).

Fun was had by all, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

By the way, I know you all want to sponsor me for the AIDS Walk this year. I’m going to start walking now to build up the ability to do five miles a day, if I can. So please do me a favor and put down $25 at the link above. Thanks!

Current Mood: awake & working

We drove to the one by our house (which I skipped because their chair selection sucked) and they had it in stock. Shock. I picked it up, along with more ink for our printer, and that was it. It was one of those EZ “green foam” chairs, and it was fifty bucks off, which made Julia very happy in the long one. I’ve included a picture of it right here, except mine’s black, not brown.  I’ve had it since Saturday and I like 10 times better than my old chair.  Except the chair I really wanted was the Aeron chair by Herman Miller.  Man, if I had 700 bucks to drop, I would buy one up so quick and never have to buy another chair ever again.  I feel in love with the Aeron chair when I was working at GNAC in 2000 and all I can say is that I could fall asleep in that thing, no problem (and I have, but don’t tell anyone).  Julia wouldn’t let me buy one, though.  She’s a party pooper.

In other news, I’ve been writing straight through my on-call week at work.  I managed to get another 30k done last week, bringing me a lot closer to my 75k goal.  I”m a mere 20k away from finishing my novel and then I’m in revisions!  I guess it’s time to start querying agents.

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Now playing on iTunes: Chicago - Over and Over

Current Mood: cheerful & chipper

Including Major League Baseball.

This means I could be cremated and kept in a Giants urn, people.  FOR ETERNITY.  Fuck, yeah.  Sign me up.  I’m worth eight hundred bucks in death, right?  I can’t take it with me anyway…

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Now playing on iTunes: Southern All Stars - TSUNAMI

Current Mood: ecstatic

• The Quarterdeck Breed #5: Exeter (10,000)
• The Quarterdeck Breed #6: Farragut (10,000)
• Star Trek: Full Speed Ahead #1: Damn the Torpedoes! (10,000)
• Star Trek: Full Speed Ahead #2: Damn the Torpedoes! Part II (10,000)
• Untitled #41 (40,000 and counting)

It’s interesting to note that half my output is on fanfic, which won’t really get me very far. As soon as I finish U41, I’ll be plotting its sequel and getting FSA3 written so that the people who keep emailing me about it will let me be

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Now playing on iTunes: Corinne Bailey Rae - Since I’ve Been Loving You

Current Mood: accomplished

How did you do?

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Now playing on iTunes: Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On

Current Mood: working

In other news, I finished writing the fifth part of Star Trek: The Quarterdeck Breed yesterday.  Geez, it only took me like five years or so, eh?  Five years for just shy of eight thousand words.  I think that’s a new record.  No, wait!  KC took way longer.  Anyway, go read it if you want to.  It’s supposed to be a flashback story that has a happy ending.  Spoilers for those who haven’t seen the end of the Deep Space Nine, yet.

And the reason I haven’t been posting as frequently is that November and December burned me out on posting every damn day.  I needed a break to recharge my batteries.

Current Mood: accomplished & enthralled

It’s a little creepy being in the bathroom with the door closed, toweling yourself off in the dark.

I waited for the power to come back on, and by this time, Julia was awake and wondering what happened. The time was getting short, and I had to leave. I hopped in the car and pulled out and got to the gate…

Which could not open without power.

I got on the phone and called work and told them that my gate was locked, I was without power, and there was nothing more I could do at this point. I went back upstairs and sat in darkness. I got bored, read a little bit, watched a movie using the remaining power on my laptop’s battery. (For the record, it was Superbad, which was awesome.) And then I got hungry. When you don’t have any power, one of the rules I recall from growing up was you never opened the fridge, because it automatically halves the remaining chill within it. I didn’t know how long we would be without power, and the fact that the food could go bad if we were without it for more than a day led me and Julia to seek food elsewhere.

We wandered across the street to the mall, which only had half power. The stores on one side of the mall were all closed, while the other side were open. It was really weird. But at least Fresh Choice was still open, so we could grab a salad and stuff. I had a Caesar salad with some garlic chicken, but the preservative they used made it taste extra oily and salty. It kind of ruined the salad for me a little bit. It also kind of reinforced why when I go to Fresh Choice, I typically avoid the salads because the lettuce usually tastes wilted or about to wilt. I groove on the soups, baked potatoes, and muffins… oh, and the sugar-free Jell-O with the sugar-free whipped topping. While we were there, my mom called to tell me that they had their power restored and would we like to come over there to enjoy their company while we enjoyed the lights being on and everything. It had been a long while since I’d seen them or sat down with them and talked, so we took them upon their invitation.

Around 5:30pm, the power came back on and we weren’t there to see it. I called my apartment manager a little before 7pm and he told me. By then, we’d already made dinner plans with my mom and sister, so we all went out to the Elephant Bar in Cupertino (we figured, far enough out of the area to still have some power, as some places were dark and closed). I highly recommend the lemon herb chicken with the garlic cheddar mashed potatoes and the steamed spinach. Man, it was awesome! We came home to a powered apartment, which was nice, because we put that power to good use, immediately.

The storm has reminded me to put together a disaster preparedness kit of some kind. We had like a few candles, but no flashlight or any supplies. I know it doesn’t happen often, but I would rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

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Now playing on iTunes: Shifo - Real (acoustic)

Current Mood: working

Current Mood: awake

- The New England Patriots choking hard in the AFC Championship and Tom Brady walking off the field, refusing to congratulate the Colts like a man. Of course, that’s ancient history now that they’re 16-0… but I’m still pulling for another choke in the playoffs.

- Punch an’ Pie starting in February. Though, I had no idea where that webcomic was going in the beginning, it’s actually starting to go somewhere, now.

- Getting fired from Shopping.com and then getting hired by Yahoo in the span of two weeks.

- Starting a crap fantasy league, and then having most everyone ignore it. That sucked.

- Turning 31.

- Taking Julia to her first AX ever in July, but the lead up of force feeding her anime was awesome, too. It’s too bad she’s not going in 2008. For that matter, my going is still up in the air.

- Restarting Dorama Night. Now, if only people would actually show up…

- The Year of the Facebook: Getting hooked on it and amassing a friends list to match my LJ one. Hey, wait a minute…

- Todd packing up and leaving for Sacramento.

- Another losing season for the guys in orange and black. But hey… my Tribe seemed to be showing signs of life.

- Starting the Repository.

- Quitting Yahoo and joining the team at Teneros, all in the span of 28 hours.

- Taking a piano class at San Jose City.

- Starting up a new tabletop RPG group with friends.

- The Awful Toshiba Debacle.

- Extricating myself from Livejournal, once and for all, and moving myself to a better, free, and ad-free Wordpress blog.

- Having an awesome time at Ani-Magic, and hoping they’ll bring it back for 2008. Because if they do, I’m so there.

- Autobots Assemble!

- Winning NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row.

- Experiencing the on-call rotation for the first time.

- Building the USS Excelsior.

- Doing Holidailies again, and actually sticking with it for 33 posts!

- Spending New Year’s Eve in Anaheim with my wife, and having a lot of fun.

So there’s 2007, by the bullet points. I’ll start talking about 2008 soon.

Current Mood: awake

Second, more stuff from Anaheim! We began our day late. We went to Tiffy’s! Those of you who’ve gone to AX with me know how awesome Tiffy’s is. Well, Julia got indoctrinated into the Tiffy’s coolness because we had our brunch there. We both ordered the chicken fried steak, and yes, Todd, I thought of you. Man, I miss the gang sometimes… and I miss AX being in Anaheim even more. All the memories I have of all those years spent wandering around the convention/hotel row, and driving around to the various places we’ve been, I just miss that kind of fun. However, there’s also something to be said for spending some quality time with the wife, and somehow I don’t think having everyone here would be conducive to that one bit. The good news is, we have some more pictures for you!

We went to Downtown Disney shortly before all the NYE hoopla began. This is a shot of the sign near the hotel entrance, right next to the ESPNZone (obviously to the right). We ate there and the food was awesome. Started with some chicken tenders, then we both had classic burgers with that addictive chipotle mayo. I love chipotle mayo. The fries were good, and Julia had a sour margarita that cost nine bucks, so I made her drink it all. Tap, they had mojitos! Julia took a shot of me pointing to the drink menu. That’s when I texted you that you should have come with us. Anyway, upstairs, they had this Dave & Buster’s like arcade, but with all sports games only (of course). I played air hockey, where Julia kicked my ass; basketball, where I kicked hers; hockey, where a cardboard goalie blocked most of my shots; and a driving game, where it’s clear to me why my wife has no license.

More tomorrow!

It was nice, taking our time in the car. We stopped once for food, twice to stretch our legs, and no times for gas. Yeah, we made it down on one tank of gas and no one was more surprised than Julia. I, on the other hand, was pretty sure we were going to be fine. Anyway, we got in before 3:30pm (better than the 4:30pm we originally thought). The GPS crapped out before the second rest stop, and it was pretty pissed that we didn’t take 5 down. Finally, I think it gave up, because Julia said that it said, “Continue,” it a rather indignant tone. I was quick to point out that I didn’t think it had the ability to feel indignant about anything, but when I thought about it, I thought maybe she was right. It ran dry of battery a little more than half-way through the trip, so it didn’t have to worry about it, but we sure could’ve used it to tell us about LA traffic.

Before I go, I want to share some pics we’ve taken already!

These two shots are the views from our room. We specifically asked for a Disney view, and we got it. The weird thing is that while here, I feel like I need an Anime Expo and the gang with me. I love this Hilton, but it feels empty without 7 people in the room. The other weird thing is sleeping on a California King-sized bed instead of our smaller full-size at home. It’s huge! We’re looking forward to the fireworks show at 9:25pm tonight. They even provide like a little wicker couch that you can turn around and face the window so we can snuggle up and enjoy the show.

More later!

Current Mood: happy

Anyway, for the trip down to Anaheim, I have decided to give my wife a break and not watch TV all the way down there.  Instead, I’ll be indulging in a little music.  I’ll write more after we check in.

Current Mood: awake

We’ll be leaving early Sunday morning at around 5am, because someone wants to go down US 101 instead of taking I-5 like normal people.  I’m not entirely sure why one would take 101 all the way down, considering how much of a state the roads are in when you get past San Luis Obispo.  So, we might compromise a little bit by taking 101 for part of the way and then 5 the rest of the way down, but I’m not sure where on 101 to turn off, because 101’s kind of boring until you go past Solvang and hit the coast.

Anyone have any suggestions on that?

Current Mood: pleased

I was reading some other posts today, and I came across a flocked post by someone who will go unmentioned for the sake of privacy (it was flocked).  The general milieu of the post concerned voluntary sterilization and I was pondering the idea myself.  As you may or may not know, I am childfree.  So’s my wife.  I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life.  I don’t need children fucking my shit up.  I fuck my own ship up perfectly fine.  I need no assistance from ugly bald creatures that drool and manufacture more shit that should be physically possible for a being that size.  I just don’t need it or the so-called wonderful experience of parenthood.

Parenthood’s not that great.  I’ve seen failure in that area enough to know that if I suck at it, I’m not just hoarking my life… I’m hoarking theirs as well.

And this isn’t an invitation to persuade me from the childfree lifestyle, and I swear the person who tells me I’ll change my mind shall be drop-kicked off the planet by someone wearing steel-toed shitkickers.

There’s a lot of shit in this post, isn’t there?

So, anyway… yeah… I’m looking forward to my vasectomy.  And anytime… anytime I might have a smallest inkling of reconsidering… all I have to do is go to the mall and watch breeders and fuck-trophies and realize that I made the right choice.

Again, this is a declarative post, not a cry for help.  I’m just declaring my intent, here.  If I wanted advice, I’d ask for it.

Current Mood: blank

Anyway, I closed twelve today and gained six. So it’s like that frog-in-the-well story, but in reverse.