A Busy Few Months
I haven't posted here in a while, particularly what one might call a status update. For those of you who don't read the reviews, well you are of course missing out on some great (ahhh ego) writing, but also on a majority of the updates. On the other hand, I know of a few people who frequent the site for the personal updates and less for my own attempts at literate writing. So, I guess for those people, here is an update, not just about the weeks past, but most importantly, about the weeks ahead.
The next few weeks are going to be intolerably busy and thank god I am getting some time off from work. For one, I find work these days to be utterly uninspiring. Mostly, I am learning that it is our job to succumb to the lowest common denominator. When coding for these folks, and trying to out-think their stupidity, their stupidity once again rebounds back to ask us to allow for their idiocy to run free. Unfortunately, we relent up here much more easily than I would like to. Then again I have just resigned myself to thinking that the version of LSA that rests in my mockups folder is the best version, period. It is bereft of the flights of fancy of the designers, ever divorced and forever far from Earth. It is grounded in the reality of the web, design and engineering, while still focusing on achieving the attainable goals. The code in this folder is pristine and clean, as the pages work, load and play a little too. So today another idiotic change was brought to my attention and I quietly said "OK" and "It will be finished today." Maybe it was the lack of coffee that provided me with a subdued demeanor. However, this zen like calm, I would to attribute to a general disdain and apathy. Bring it on, as they say.
My personal life is coasting along. I hope to have some new soon, but while that can wait for another post, I have a paragraph or two of information to relay. We of course moved into our new apartment and it is a two-bedroom instead of our previous one-bedroom. We hand over the one-bedroom on the 15th (of August) and I look forward to getting rid of that. Our new place is quite a bit spacious and I have an entire room for myself in which I can study and work at times. It is decorated entirely in Batman paraphernalia and I hope to take pictures soon. Our bedroom is smaller, but still fits all of our stuff. We unfortunately live on the second floor, with a floor above us, and so we tend to hear the people upstairs walk. Luckily their schedules are similar to ours and so the noise is rarely a problem. The extra room also gives me a quiet place since I have exams coming up soon. Oh yeah, that is what will be keeping me busy for the next few weeks. Standardized testing is once again the bane of my existence and this time around, far from shying from it, I hope to best it handedly. In accordance with these plans I have also signed up for classes. These run on Tuesdays and Thursdays and so until the second week of October, I will be taking these days off from work. There was hesitation in giving me this allowance, but I frankly said that I would quite if necessary and more importantly, my colleagues were getting work schedules that were a good deal far from the 8:30-5:00 fare. I have yet to sign the papers, but we will see how this goes soon enough. I look forward to the extra time to work on this stuff. Simply, I am only taking the test once and I need to get it right. No pressure, right?
In other news, my two best friends are now married, to each other. No it was not a gay ceremony, Michigan no longer allows that. Natela and Kevin tied the knot in a nice ceremony and I was there to witness it as best man. For my immense contributions I got a lovely Waterman fountain pen. I carry it around for a good bit and play with it. The wedding was a good time, and other than one idiotic remark stating that I am next, I was most pleased with everything. My own best man speech was quite hilarious, in my opinion. Apparently though I should have held the mic closer to my mouth. Thus, few people got to hear my jokes. They were stellar jokes though and even had a lovely gay joke inserted in there, right under everyone's noses. Of course, they did not get to hear it. So... Well at least the bridal party could hear me. Anyway, that little thing is done with and my own stress in the matter has dissipated. "No more wedding stuff," I cannot stress that enough.
Lastly, I got an iPhone 3G. Getting the damn thing itself was a royal pain because of AT&T and its stupid contract. On the other hand, the Apple employee who "helped", and I use quotes judiciously, was totally worthless. Here I am buying a $300 piece of equipment, focus on me and not some guy who wants to buy a $30 mouse! Especially when I approached you first! AT&T had some dumb discounts on the phone and so I had to deal with getting those off and etc... etc... In the end getting the phone required two trips to the store and the second time the girl who helped me was quite awesome. However, my Vaja case had not come yet, so I had to pick up another case in store. It is a hard case, but it does not protect the front. So, I had to buy a screen protector. I was afraid of it interfering with the touch sensors, but so far I have found it to be splendid. So how is the iPhone? Absolutely great. I spend a lot of time these days converting shows to an iPhone format and with those TV shows on here I can work all day... I was afraid of being constrained in my music, but after fine tuning my playlists, I always have a good track to listen to. So in all I give this thing many thumbs up. I am still quite protective around it, but I hope to change that when the Vaja case comes... Or maybe I am just deluding myself, eh?
So that is all for the updates, for the moment. Work, personal and life in general. I am going to need a good dousing of luck for the first week of October. Unfortunately this entire thing means I miss a few important things: Camille's father's 50th birthday, Josh's wedding, etc... Sacrifices and all neh? Hopefully the rest of you, unlike me, have no exams to take and few enough classes to do while working. Take care of yourselves and have a good one.
