That is all.

Just watched the Season 2 premiere of Joss's new attempt to be relevant. I gotta say -- I'm liking it. All throughout Season 1, I just kept feeling like there was all this potential that was being wasted, and the show wasn't nearly as good as it ought to have been. This episode, it finally clicked -- it's like Joss needed an entire season of exposition to finally get to the story he wanted to tell. I dunno.


In completely unrelated news, my office was, in fact, NOT firebombed by G20 protesters. Wow, who could have predicted that?

How many of you are planning on committing acts of domestic terrorism at the G20 summit? Or know someone who is? Even just little ones? Anyone? At all??

...Thought so.


So, for those who don't know, I work for a coal company outside of Pittsburgh. (Yes, I know, and I'm sorry.) Of course I know that coal + G20 protesters = potential for badness, I'm not stupid, but... I mean, I would think you'd want to hire a few security guards just in case protesters show up and start harassing employees. Management is acting like they're expecting the ELF to firebomb the place. I mean, seriously, WTF?

Okay, so it's two days late. I justify that by the fact that I never, ever post here. Still, it needs to be said, because it's important:

First of all: I've realized that 90% of my icons aren't ever appropriate for what I want to say. Gotta fix that, but I'm lazy. But that's besides the point.

It's been forever since I said the Pledge of Allegiance. It's been a hell of a lot longer since I meant it. It's been ages since I heard the national anthem without being a little disgusted, and longer since I sang along. Last week, when Obama was here in Pittsburgh, I did both. The man has made me believe in America again, and I wasn't sure that was possible.

I kept tearing up last night, and randomly throughout the day today. It's... It really is the dawn of a new era in the world, and I can't wait to see what the next eight years bring.

Yes we can. Yes we will. Yes we did.

The one thing that I think got me the most last night was a sign that I saw someone holding, for only just a moment:

WE HAVE OVERCOME

I didn't say it earlier this week, but it needs to be said:

Radiohead. Live. In concert.

TOTAL AWESOME.


Also, thanks to relativity, I am currently wearing this at work. :D

So... Yeah. Looking back over my last few posts in this journal, a disturbing number of them have been "hey, I haven't posted in months now, but I'll start posting again starting now." The last one was a year and a half ago. Back before I joined fandomhigh, even. So... I'm not going to make that same promise again tonight. Instead, I say to you this: Starting today, I may or may not post here. Possibly. Every now and then. I also might just read your journals and comment. Maybe.

Hey, so. I still exist 'n stuff. (Imagine that!)

I've been tired, and fried, and out of it for months now, and relativity and I just bought a new house and moved in, and we've got a new kitten who's adorable but making our other two cats get pissy, and ... and so I haven't been on LJ in ages. But, you know, I was thinking I should try to fix that.

Except I shouldn't try to write stuff in the last few minutes of my lunch break. I need to get back to work.

Anyways, hello, everybody!

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
-- The Princess Bride

So, I was reading an editorial just now that basically says that the defining test of the UN's relevance in modern diplomacy will be whether the cease-fire in Lebanon actually holds, and I noticed that the cease-fire is UN Resolution 1701. (Which struck me because the Enterprise's serial number is NCC-1701.) It just would be poetically appropriate, given the extreme-left leanings of the Star Trek universe, if this manages to be the moment that the UN is invigorated, asserts itself, and manages to gain some real authority.

Then we just need to convince the UN to move from New York to San Francisco...

So... I've been kind of antisocial lately. Er. Hi. Sorry.

I nearly had my place burned down by a stupid neighbor, lost my job, got a new, better job, and other sorts of stuff. But you can catch up with all that news over on relativity's journal.

In other news, KINGDOM HEARTS II!!!!!!! YAY!


Also, the char * is my enemy. Down with the char *! Viva la System.String!

Get this: they're reshooting bits of "Snakes on a Plane" in order to help it live up to the hype. Specifically, so that it will now include the line "I want these motherfucking snakes off the motherfucking plane!" How cool is that?

So... The place where I work doesn't have a standard cafeteria, per se; it has a lunchroom with microwaves and vending machines and every day a different restaurant brings in food and sells it set up on a table at the end of the room. Friday is Chick-Fil-A, Monday is a caterer, etc. So.

Tuesday used to be Pizza Hut day. I'm not really a big Pizza Hut fan. But Pizza Hut decided not to come any more -- so now Tuesdays will be the new Chinese place that just opened down the road.

You have no idea how happy this makes me. :D

So, I got spam in the mail that included an image with the actual advertisement, surrounded by piles of gibberish text. And I felt that I had to share.

( sharpen aim )

HAPPY HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THE LOVE OF MY LIFE, relativity!!!!!

She is so wonderful, so amazing, so super-spiffy... I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I really am.

So. Pop quiz time:

You've just spent 14 hours curled up in bed recovering from mild food poisoning. Your first solid food after you start feeling better is:

A) Crackers
B) Soup
C) Maybe some dry chicken
D) A loaded plate from your company's superbowl "tailgate" party, complete with a slab of ribs, a large scoop of baked beans, and some butter-drenched pierogies.


Yeah, I failed that one, big time.

My Allegra ran out a while ago, and I couldn't afford more because my new health insurance didn't cover non-drowsy antihistamines (WTF???). And the generic Claritin I bought instead has run out. And so now I'm discovering that I'm allergic to something here at work. Fuck knows what. But my eyes are itchy and watery and it SUCKS.


Fortunately, my gorgeous wife remembered that drugs are cheaper in Canada. MOOSE!!!

The same meds, in the same quantity and dosage, manufactured by the same company, is prescription-only and $100 here, and OTC and $20 just a few miles north. I knew that drugs were cheaper in Canada, but it's hard to believe just how MUCH.

So.

We have lots of aggressive changes planned here at work.

We have all sorts of "teams" trying to brainstorm and plan and things.

We don't have the infrastructure (servers and stuff) to support the plans that we've already got finished, and most of the plans are only partly finished anyway.

The actual maintenence that I was hired to do has slowed down to a trickle, and QA is swamped, so everything I've been assigned is done way ahead of schedule.

We're hiring more developers for these planned future changes, even though everyone's just twiddling their thumbs right now.

The only thing I have on my plate to do this afternoon is to help my co-workers come up with a catchy name for the new team that's going to be created to help us improve efficiency.

They've already given the thumbs-down to "Team Irony". Anyone else have suggestions?

THIS IZ A POST 2 MY LIVJURNAL!!!!1111!1

HI EVRY1!!!!!!