Tightening up in November

My main focus for the remainder of November is to tighten things up; literally and figuratively. I'm going to work on losing approximately 10 pounds between now and Dec 1, which sounds like too much, but really it's not since I put that much on in the past 6 weeks. New weight is easy weight to lose. Just can't let it get comfortable, then it wants to stick around for a while.

I also need to tighten up financially. It's looking like there is a distinct possibility that I will become an unemployment statistic as soon as January, and my two job interviews didn't pan out nearly as well as I hoped they would (and was led to believe they did). I didn't get the job in Maryland, despite nearly being promised the job by my recruiter. I'm wondering if the company was misleading to him, if something got lost in communication, or what. I made it to the final 2 for the position in Connecticut, but they made the offer to the other of the final 2. There is still a chance I get offered the job if #1 rejects it, but who knows. But on the BMS front, it's not looking good for my position. There is always the hope I get a different position but that's wishful thinking at best and flat out dreaming at worst. So, let's set a decent goal to save $1000 by the end of the month. That's also not as crazy as it sounds, as I am waiting on a $400 travel reimbursement and I already have some money with no purpose in my checking account.

I need to get my shit together and now seems as good a time as any.

oh hi

Haven't written in about a week. Went to an interview in Connecticut last week. I originally thought I had no interest in the position and didn't want to go and interview for it but I'm glad that I did. I ended up liking what they had to say, the benefits package, etc. Although, I heard today that they narrowed the search down to two candidates, me and someone else (yay!) but it looks like they are leaning towards the someone else (boo!). I could still get the offer if this other person turns it down or whatever, but it's not looking 100% promising.

Still waiting to hear back from the other job. They are kinda stringing me a long a little bit. Let's see how that goes.

I'm kinda on a ticking clock here; I have about two months to find a job. I'm hoping that this all works out because I don't want to end up poor and on unemployment.

We're thinking about dressing Jack up and going to the pet Halloween costume contest that the radio station is throwing. I will update on that if it happens.

Goings on

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I'm such a nerd. I bought a turn-by-turn GPS app, MotionX, from the App Store. It's only $3, compared to TomTom and Navigon, which are $90 and $100 respectively. The difference is, you get one month voice and turn-by-turn for $3 and you have to subscribe for additional months. The cool thing is, you only pay when you need it. So you don't have to pay $3 every month if you aren't going to be traveling, but if you ever do need it you just pay your $3 and off you go. I like this business model.

So I went right over to Best Buy and bought the "RoadTrip", which is a combination iPhone car charger/iPod radio transmitter, and iPhone holder. So, it holds the phone up via steel cord (for lack of a better term) from the cigarette lighter, charges the phone, and allows it to play music through the radio. But with this GPS app, it also doubles as GPS holder. The app allows iPod integration into the turn-by-turn directions. I gave it a trial run yesterday and it quiets the music to give you your directions and then goes right back into the music.

I am absolutely in love with this; it goes directly to my nerd heart. I just thought I'd share.

I'll be using it tonight for a roadtrip to CT and it's making the thought of driving 4 hours both tonight and tomorrow a little more inviting.

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On the opposite of the cool spectrum, I finally gave in and bought a no load/no fee index fund today for my IRA that I can just throw money into and not even think about. I'm tired of picking up individual stocks and seeing how they go. Let's just make it boring and easy.

I screwed up really bad back in March. I wanted to put $1000 into Bank of America stock just to see what would happen, and guess what? That stock would be worth just around $6000 today. Ooops! I really dropped the ball on that one.

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Mentioned earlier that I'm going to CT. It's for a job interview in Cheshire, CT. I already know how much the job pays, that they will pay up to $35k for full relocation, and all that other good stuff. The salary is livable, and I've been told that this isn't the insanely rich part of CT. It's still about an hour+ from NYC so not exactly a suburb, but worth a shot.

I have no idea what my feelings on the state of CT is but I figure it's worth figuring out.

As for the other job - I have heard that I should hear something maybe as soon as this week. Although I can almost swear I heard something similar nearly two weeks ago. So I'm not holding my breath. But through discussions with the recruiter working on this for me, I have been made aware of the progressions being made internally. I know that it's a lot closer to happening then it was then; all my references have been contacted, etc. I have to just do a phone interview with a VP who was not there the day of my interview and we might be able to proceed from there.

This has been pushed back so far that I'm already looking at a first day of November 16th, even if they offered me the job as soon as tomorrow. Hey, get there just in time to take Thanksgiving holiday! Assuming that's what I end up doing - unclear at this point.

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Last weekend when Marissa and I were in the process of getting out of bed, Jack whined his way onto the bed and crammed his head inbetween us (as he is hilariously known to do on occasion; it's his favorite place to be). This is all well and good until we realized that he left a poop stain on the side of the sheets somehow. I have no idea where the poop came from - it was just a tiny bit.

It was funnier if you were there; trust me.

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A job interview on a Thursday really breaks up the week. By the time I get back it will be Friday and the week will be over. Nice!

Everybody is a crybaby

I saw Where The Wild Things Are yesterday. No thank you.

The book was maybe 10-15 pages, so adapting it to a movie is obviously going to be a bit of a stretch. Well, I think director Spike Jonze decided that having everyone get butthurt about everything and silently sit and ponder their heartbreak and problems while staring at the ocean was a perfect way to flesh out the storyline.

Don't get me wrong, the set work was pretty good and the voice work was tremendous. James Gandolifini was probably the best choice to play Carol, the uber-tough, ultra emo crybaby lead "thing". The only thing Carol likes better than destroying and/or building things is sharing his feelings in a "gosh why do bad things happen to me" manner.

I guess the message of the film is that nothing will ever be perfect and people will always ruin things. But despite that it's better to be with other people than to be alone, so deal with it. Make sure you bring your kids!

I was kinda hoping that when Max went back home to be with his mom that his boat capsized and he drowned but that didn't happen.

NOT A FAN.

?

Haven't written anything in a few days - nothing to write about. Just sitting around waiting for things to happen or not happen, however it may go.

I filled out a Cornell alumni survey today; only after about six different email reminders about it. I try to fill out surveys honestly, I really do. Filling out the survey made me realize that I'm quite proud to be an alumnus of Cornell, although I don't actually think about this fact on a regular or even semi-regular basis.

I have grown to not care for upstate/central NY very much, but that's mostly due to the fact that I feel like I should be in a city and I absolutely despise cold weather. I shouldn't associate those bad feelings with Cornell in any way, since looking back it was a really good four years for undergraduate and a mildly decent three years for graduate.

If I move to Washington there are probably Cornell Alumni events there. Is attending said events as lame as I might imagine it to be? I have no idea. It's something worth considering, but I'm unsure on the whole idea.

I saw Zombieland last week; loved it. The best part of the movie is something I won't talk about here because it's something of a (totally freakin' awesome) spoiler and knowing it ahead of time will take some of the enjoyment out of the movie. Needless to say, that's not the only good part. If you are hesitant because it's a zombie movie, then don't be. I'm not a big zombie movie fan, myself... didn't even really love Shaun of the Dead, which people constantly cream over. This movie is more of a comedy with a zombie backdrop instead of the other way around. Funny throughout. Go and see it. No joke it's probably my third favorite movie of the year (behind Up! and Away We Go).

It's getting cold again. It might even snow on Friday. This drives me crazy... it's not even Halloween yet. I have nothing more to add here without descending in to a very negative rant about my feelings on the matter.

Hmmm... I beat two separate Guitar Hero games this weekend (in to yesterday). I finally finished GH5 on Saturday, which took awhile because there are so many songs on the game. I got my free copy of Guitar Hero:Van Halen in the mail on Saturday, as well. I finished that yesterday. It was easier, seemingly. I got 4 perfect songs and I've only gotten one in my life prior to that. I think the trick is that I finally mastered the hammer on/pull offs (HOPOs as they are called in the game). I never realized it before but if the top of the note is glowing white then you don't have to strum, you just need to press the fret. Little trick for those of you who might not have known that. Or maybe everyone does and I'm just a retard. I don't know. I might go back and try both of them on hard at some point, but not now, because...

Just started a new game, one I have been looking forward to for awhile. It's called Fallout 3 and a lot of people consider it the best game on XBox360. I was waiting to pick it up because the Game of the Year edition with all of the paid DLC (downloadable content for the non video game players) didn't come out until yesterday, now I can finish the entire true game without paying $100 for all of it (DLC isn't cheap!). I started playing last night... so far, so good. It's set in 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war between China and the US. You live in a bunker called The Vault and then you have to leave and examine the area around Washington DC in a post apocalyptic society. It combines elements of a roleplaying game and a first person shooter. Not much I can really say about it so far, since I only put in about 90 minutes of play but I think it's going to be awesome. I have high hopes.

Ok - back to killing time at work. I'm kind of already getting phased out even though I might not be leaving. Fun times. Well, maybe that's not accurate since all of the people who can not directly report to the FDA next month have a bit less to do, but still... boring days at times. Sigh.

A brief review of every movie I've seen since last time I did this

Ok... picking up where we left off at the end of July.

Skipped out on: District 9, Gamer. The rest were romantic comedies and movies off the radar. I think we're officially out of summer movie season, so really I didn't miss much.

Ok, now to those I did see.

Funny People: Interesting movie in the sense that it had some absolutely hilarious parts, but overall I never want to see it again. Jonah Hill killed it in this movie, everything he said was pretty funny. Schwartzman and "Hey Teach!" was a riot. A lot of Sandler and Seth Rogan's standup was very, very funny. But as a movie? Not so much! The entire third act with Leslie Mann (who thinks nepotism is awesome, by the way) and Eric Bana really killed the movie. Plus, Adam Sandler's character was completely unlikeable. Some great comedy in this one, but overall a bad movie. I think this was the Judd Apatow ego project and I can't really say that I was a big fan.

2/5

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: I went in to this with very low expectations. The reviews were terrible, the previews weren't that great, and the cast left a little to be desired. But you know what? It worked for what it was. A brainless popcorn flick that maybe brought back some memories of my childhood. GI Joe was my favorite toy/cartoon from when I was a kid. The movie worked despite some questionable casting decisions (Channing Tatum as Duke? A Wayans brother as anyone?). Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow dueling was easily the best part. Also - the sequel set up with Cobra Commander and Destro at the end was nice. I could have done with one "Destro, you idiot!", but I guess that can wait until the sequel.

3/5

Inglorious Basterds: I enjoy Quentin Tarantino. Kill Bill is one of my favorites and all of his movies are enjoyable to me. This was a good movie with a lot of great sequences. Some of it was over the top, but I appreciated it for what it was. The performances were incredible. Hans Landa was one of the best villains I have seen in a movie, hilarious and evil. The acting was top notch. The actor, Christoph Waltz, deserves some recognition from the Academy for his work. The opening scene on the farm built up the tension and paid off in a huge way. Brad Pitt was also good here - mostly playing an unlikeable character who is supposed to be a hero. That sort of goes for all of the Basterds. These guys were crazy and a little bit sociopathic but we cheer for them because they are killing Nazis. The fact that Aldo the Apache was the best at speaking eye-talian was one of the funniest parts of the movie.

Great movie, yes. Tarantino's masterpiece as the ending might suggest? No.

4/5

Extract: Interesting movie here as well. Great cast, decent story, one of the hottest women on the planet (in my eyes), but it didn't work completely. I thought it was a passable and somewhat enjoyable film but it was definitely missing something. I think Mike Judge has had better films, but this is worth a rental if you missed it, and you probably did.

3/5

Jennifer's Body: I've written about this previously. Stupid movie, but good. I enjoyed it a lot. Cheesy dialogue, cheesy kill scenes, two hot chicks. I recommend. Don't expect anything substantial, though.

4/5

The Informant: All-star performance by Matt Damon. Outstanding is pretty much the only way to put it. The story is interesting and the layers of the plot unfold in a way that makes sense and is interesting, by the end it's hard to believe some of the things that are happening. It's made all the more interesting by the fact that it's mostly a true story. If you look it up, most of this stuff actually happened. Cornell graduate! And fun fact, same department as me, same major. Maybe some day I can embezzle 13 million dollars while working for the FBI? Probably not...

4/5

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3D: It was alright. The 3D animation was pretty spectacular, as it is for a lot of the films these days. In terms of the story, it was cute but definitely geared more towards kids. It's easy to get spoiled by Pixar movies that kids love but have adult storylines that are heartwarming and somewhat sophisticated. This is not that movie. There is a pretty funny monkey in the film, though, and it was enjoyable. Still, not even in the same ballpark as Up! or any other Pixar movie.

3/5

The Invention of Lying: Oh, this could have been so much better. It started off very funny and with so much promise.

"You're early, I was just upstairs masturbating. I'll be right back, in case I get horny again and finish masturbating" - Jennifer Garner

But not good. Two problems: 1) in a world where everyone has to tell the truth, everyone it a gigantic asshole. It's like a non-stop competition to see who can say the meanest thing all movie. Maybe that's how life would be if everyone had to tell the truth all the time, but it was kind of a shock to see.

2) They went in the wrong direction. Him inventing religion and becoming "Jesus" and the commandments on pizza boxes... not how I would have gone at all. I enjoy a good lampoon of religion as much as the next person but they got it all wrong here.

This could have been an outstanding movie, the concept is great. Execution; not so much.

2/5

Going to see Zombieland tonight, and probably Where the Wild Things Are round out the list for movies I'm going to see this month. It's getting in to a slow month or so before the Oscar contenders start hitting theaters!

100th post

Hey, this is my 100th post.

So, to all who contributed to the 2,747 page views that I have amassed since February, thank you. I realize that most of those views came from this being a #1 hit on Google for a month or so, but hey... I can pretend I'm that popular.

I have another phone screen for a job in Connecticut on Monday. I can't lie, I'm not that excited about it. I'm not even sure I want to go through with it. I already know ahead of time that the job pays $65,000, with 5% bonus and full relocation. I don't know if that's going to cut it. I never have had a strong desire to live in Connecticut. I told my recruiter to submit my resume so I have to at least take a half hour of my schedule and go through the motions of a phone screen. I probably won't go for the full interview, though.

I have this secret hope that I will get a job offer from Maryland and then somehow convince people here at Bristol to match the offer. This would be a double-win because the offer would be higher, but translate that higher offer to Syracuse dollars (cheaper than regular dollars) and it would be even MORE money. There would be other benefits to this option as well. How feasible is this? I don't know... maybe not at all. I really can't say. I do now that at the very least they might make some promises but promises do not make mortgage payments. I loved things in Maryland but if I could script it, I would probably get a big promotion/raise and stay here in Syracuse.

The truth is: I really don't know how things are going to turn out, although in my head I realize that some scenarios are more likely than others.

I spent all last night attempting to get caught up on all the TV I missed. Season premiere of Dexter, Entourage, Curb your Enthusiasm, two nights of Daily Show and Colbert Report, The Ultimate Fighter (with Kimbo Slice in action!)... that just about covers all the TV I watched yesterday.

Dexter was great. Don't want to spoil it. I know people who read this blog who still aren't caught up, but sleepy Dexter was pretty great. Why is he sleepy? I don't know... hurry up and catch up. (PS: yes you. PPS: you're sexy)

Curb Your Enthusiasm was an all-time classic episode. Here's a few reasons why:

"secondhand semen"

"I told you that blowjobs were dangerous"

"... I think you blew him."

"I'm going to go upstairs and eat this fuckin' Chinese food. That's what I'm gonna do."

"LD, I give you a taste of the chocolate and now look at you."

I love Larry David.

STILL need to catch this week's House, Bored to Death episode 2 from Sunday, and after tonight both episodes of Flash Forward. Not to mention SNL, The Office, and Community tonight. Yay, TV is back!

Which is good because it's freezing! And my heat is on already! BOOOOOOOOO.

My trip to Washington

I flew in to DC Monday for a job interview in a Maryland suburb. I conquered my fear of flying, although the fear had managed to grow in my head during the last 4 years since I've been on a plane. I was not nearly as afraid of flying as I thought I was and I enjoyed both flights, there and back. Having a few beers prior to certainly didn't hurt. They were also short 75 minute flights, which contributed to my enjoyment. I'm actually pretty sure that I fell asleep on my evening flight last night which is something I had trouble doing in the past.

The interview went well. I think the company is going in the right direction; constructing new buildings, adding jobs. Everyone seemed to love it there, I liked everyone that I spoke to, and the location is beautiful. Let's see how it turns out. If the money is right then it looks like it could be a winner.

Last night when I was sitting at the airport having a beer, everyone around me starting clapping and running towards the walkway to catch a look at something. I turned around and only noticed a lot of men in dark suits with red ties. I mistakenly thought it was some hero pilots or something. This makes no sense, but I don't know... maybe pilots get applause? Anyway, I turned around again quickly and noticed blonde spikey hair walking past me. Right around the time I put it together in my head someone yelled out, "We love you, Hillary!". So yeah, Hillary Clinton walked approximately 3 feet away from me. I could have reached out and gently caressed her face if I was in the mood to be beaten half to death by a dozen secret service agents. I shook Bill's hand in 2004, so I could have completed the Clinton circle, if you will (you're next, Chelsea).

Bill Clinton is pretty much the president of my childhood, he was President from when I was 10 to when I was 18 and will probably always be a significant Presidential figure to me for as long as he is alive. I'm glad I got the chance to hear him speak at my graduation in 2004 and also to shake his hand. I supported Hillary originally in the 2008 election before I kinda got swept up in Obama-mania like a lot of people. I still think that Hillary could be a good President - maybe some day.

This was actually my first time in Washington - I saw a lot of the monuments while in the taxi, which was cool, and I was feet away from a political powerhouse. Add that to a successful job interview and I'd say it was a good trip.

Stuff

I think I had a pretty good weekend, aside from my FFB team laying a complete egg and scoring 0 touchdowns between the entire team, save the one player I have playing on Monday Night Football tonight. Doesn't matter - I clearly lost. As of right now I'm the low score for the week. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal at all. Everyone loses and I'm still towards the top in overall points. But the big loss here is that I've lost all my shit talking privileges for the foreseeable future due to the complete suck-bomb that my team laid out there this weekend. And I like to talk shit. So I'm a bit disappointed.

But other than that, things went well. Saw two movies, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs in 3D and The Informant. Cloudy was ok, there were some cute parts and there was a funny monkey but I wasn't really feelin' it. Matt Damon really nailed it in The Informant, though. Just a tremendous performance. His character breaks off into these crazy thought patterns as he is in the middle of doing things (as shown through narration of random things while something else is going on) and I found it highly enjoyable. Pretty cool story, as well, considering that it is mostly based on a true story. Another instance of a character in a movie or TV show going to Cornell only to be a crazy person/psycho or fool (see: Bernard, Andy). Is Cornell the go-to Ivy League school for flawed scripted characters? I know it's not the best school in the Ivy League but please hollywood, give us a break.

Marissa and I were supposed to go camping but ended up not due to the 1 inch of rain being forecast. This ended up being a wise decision because the forecast was accurate and we would have been miserable. We did end up going to the Adirondacks for the day, which I really enjoyed. I like to be in the woods and to hike and stuff, even though I don't get to do it that often. Jack had a perfect doggie day of running through the trees, swimming in a lake, climbing a mountain and getting a lot of attention from strangers (which he even allowed after he was tired).

We ended up climbing a mountain, which was a half mile straight up hill. I had Jack on the leash so I ended up taking it in dog pace, which was pretty fast. Thankfully I've been exercising all summer so I was able to do it pretty easily. It was a beautiful view, and we ended up having lunch on top while enjoying the view. It was pretty nice.

So tonight I am off to Maryland for my interview. I'm trying not to be nervous about the plane trip. I kinda hate that I'm the kind of guy who worries about things that have a 1 in 8.5 million chance of happening. I'm just trying to relax and not think about it. I do hate flying though. Marissa is going to be watching Jack so I hope that he behaves. I think he is still worn out from Saturday, though, so he probably won't be much trouble.

Interview tomorrow, which hopefully goes well, and back in Syracuse by 10:30 PM if all goes well. Let's hope that it does!

Needy's Body

So while my friend Luke was here last week we went to see Jennifer's Body, starring who most people consider the sexiest woman on the planet, Megan Fox. I happen to think Megan Fox is pretty hot, especially in the first Transformers. She is also batshit crazy, if you happen to read any of the hundreds of interviews she's done lately.

In the movie, she plays Jennifer, a girl who gets possessed by a demon (SPOILER ALERT) and starts killing people. If you couldn't have surmised this already from the previews, you probably should try a less taxing hobby than watching movies.

Her best friend in the movie is Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried. You might recognize Amanda from Big Love, that one episode of House she was on, or most likely as one of the plastics from "Mean Girls", which is the only time in existence when Lindsay Lohan was awesome.

She is not supposed to be sexy in the movie. In fact, if you see the dress she wore to the prom then you would realize that she is supposed to be a giant nerd. This is in stark contrast to the vamping Megan Fox, who they pretty much want you to think is dripping hot sex throughout the entire movie.

Maybe it's my personality or whatever, but I came away from the movie thinking that one of the girls was extremely hot and it wasn't the one ranked #1 on Maxim's Hottest Women on the Planet list. It was the nerdy one.

This kind of always happens to me. After I saw Nick and Norah for the first time, I was insanely attracted to Kat Dennings; this despite the fact she isn't particularly attractive. Am I just attracted to nerdy girls, who in the case of Dennings and Needy are slightly frumpy? I don't think that's the case. It probably comes down to the fact that I'm a giant nerd myself and I can completely relate.

In high school and college this sort of behavior got me in trouble with my friends all the time. Gathered around a computer screen to look at some bleached blonde with giant fake tits...everyone would be gushing about how hot she is and I couldn't help but express my lack of enthusiasm. This lead to me being called negative or a downer or "super high standards" a lot of the time, but I think what my friends always failed to realize (and probably still do) is that my standards aren't the same as theirs. I have absolutely no tolerance for stupidity, so I would probably not be interested in a girl who looked like Megan Fox if she was as dumb as a lamppost (although if she actually WERE Megan Fox then I think I would manage)...

Anyway, the movie was pretty decent. I laughed a lot more than I figured I would. I would recommend if if you can handle "Diablo Cody" speak, which is to say a lot of metaphors and sayings that are a bit of a reach from the way people actually talk.

"I am smiling because this random guy who writes a blog thinks I'm cuter than Megan Fox. Hooray for me."

Meh says the goat

I had almost forgotten how difficult it is to write and maintain a blog when you have nothing to talk about. All summer it was so easy since I was a man possessed with goals, and missions, and all of that nonsense. I had things to write about.

Now? I work, I dominate fantasy football, I run a little bit, I play video games, and what else? I don't know... Nothing crazy going on.

I am dating someone but that's not exactly bloggable... you can get in a lot of trouble that way, and I have a big enough mouth the way it is.

I am going to Maryland on Tuesday the 29th for a job interview. Let's see how that goes. I am keeping an open mind. All things being equal I'd probably want to stay in Syracuse, but all things aren't equal. If I get the offer it WILL be for more money, with a higher bonus, and better benefits, and the weather will be nicer. It's just that I have a house here and I like my house and I kind of want to take the easy way out. But I can't, because I won't have a job come next May and I have to get a move on. Yes, it's possible that I will get an offer from BMS by then but I'm not willing to wait around and find out. I don't really want to have to find out how fun it is to collect unemployment.

When I moved to Syracuse my plan was to live here for 5 years maximum, bar the possibility that you find and marry some girl and then you're kind of trapped and even though you love her you kind of secretly resent her because you're fucking TRAPPED in a frigid ice box that gets two months of summer and is a city due to population statistics only... so there's that. So I have tried to date girls who don't plan on living in Syracuse their entire life but I failed miserably at that, since I'm pretty sure the one serious girlfriend I had here planned on living here for the rest of her life.

And that's the main warning that everyone gives me when I tell them that I want to stay here 3-5 years and leave. Be careful, because you never know if you'll get stuck in a situation where you can't leave.

So my options, as I see it, are to stay here in my comfortable house, which I love. My dog is settled here and he's happy. I'm 90% happy, if my job was better I'd dare say 100%. Or I can go to Washington DC suburb, get a job with much better career prospects and make more money. And it would probably be the kind of money that's almost a little absurd for a single guy with no obligations to be making, especially considering I'm not the kind of person who is going to run out and buy a BMW or something like that. Maybe the newest, freshest Apple product but that's not going to bankrupt you.

Long time readers are also aware that I suffer from seasonal affective disorder and I'm saying I'm happy now under the idea that winter was a long time ago and there is a dark spot in my brain kind of preventing me from realizing that it's right around the corner. If I had this decision to make in December when it's 4 degrees here and a foot of snow and it's 30 in Maryland with green(ish) grass, do I not run for the fucking door like I'm Usain Bolt after inhaling 30 pounds of meth? I don't know.

But it's not an easy thing, to pick up and move. It NEVER is, but it's harder now. I own the place I live. My name is on it. Not only am I proud of that, it makes it much harder to just pack up and go. Also, when I first got here I was under the impression I would be here awhile so I bought a lot of furniture. My dog is settled and hard to move since he's a 90 pound scary looking thing, despite the fact that he has run away from squirrels before and gotten his ass handed to him by a cat on multiple occasions.

I honestly think my brain is setting up barriers because I have repeatedly conditioned myself to take the easy way out... even though I haven't always done that. It's definitely my preferred option. The easiest way out here is to do nothing and be complacent but I don't think I can do that. I have to take the best opportunity for me. But how do I know that this is the right one? I have 8 months to try other best opportunities. I am excellent at interviews and my resume is stellar, do I need to take the first thing available to me? Ugghh... I don't know what to do.

I think today's blog post was a perfect exercise on how I am highly capable of going off on unfiltered brain leaks for long periods of time. I have a lot on my mind.

Here's a video of my dog acting crazy:

ughhhh

Today was a disaster.

Trivial: I lost the NFC championship on my Madden online franchise with my friends to my friend Gorzo. We played twice in the regular season and I beat him by a combined 40+ points between the two games. Today I threw two 90+ yard interceptions that he returned for TDs and it was just a disaster. Fuckin' disappointing.

Still trivial: I also was distracted this morning and didn't notice that Wes Welker was declared inactive at 11:50 AM, giving me plenty of time to bench him and start someone else. Did I? No - my head was in a different galaxy and I ended up playing him. Luckily my team is beasting (off the riesling) and I ended up cruising to another victory, but this so ISN'T LIKE ME.

Less than trivial: I've been a slob lately; eating whatever is put in front of me. This makes me sick to my stomach.

And this all ignores the non-trivial thing, that I don't want to talk about. Needless to say, it was not one of the more positive things that has happened in my life. I do my best these days to be a good person and I think I am suceeding at this, but there are times when I still need to question if I am being a jerk or being unnecessarily unreasonable.

Let's say that I have had to consider this today. By reading this blog you can probably tell that I am insanely self reflective and my own harshest critic, but I still don't think I have done anything that I shouldn't have lately. Yet still I can't help but feel like all my recent problems are no one's fault but my own?

I think some of my biggest problems as a human being work out for me for a long time before they ultimately bite me in the ass extra hard in the end. But I won't get in to that right now.

I don't know.

Eh

Haven't posted - nothing going on.

No job news.

Haven't thought of anything good or creative to write.

Overspending and not exercising enough... neither of which I particuarly feel like dwelling on right now. I'm working hard on improving both, although considering how good I have been on both fronts for almost a year now, it was bound to happen at some point. Just need to keep things under control.

I had a nice weekend. Not only did I win my fantasy game, on the backs of Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson, but I had the high score in week 1 which gives me the top perch on the shit talking totem pole, which is a position that I always like to have. Plus, it's actually nice to have a good team for the first time in a few years. I might actually win some money this year!

Also went to Rochester to see one of my favorite bands, fun., in concert for the 2nd time. I had a really good time, it was a good show.

I've been spending a lot of time lately with someone I think I like a little bit; but nothing major to say about that really. Well, sort of there is... I have been kind of ignoring everyone else that I have been talking to, so at least for the time being I have made some type of small scale commitment. Nothing too major or that can't be reversed if things don't work out, though. But who knows how things will turn out - I am trying to just play things by ear especially since my whole life is kind of up in the air right now. It's an odd place to be.

I think I've sort of decided that I'm only going to accept the position in Maryland if they blow me away. They can do this a few ways, the easiest would be a great offer. Cost of living is way higher, so I would need a decent raise... probably $15-20k more than I make now. Another more subtle way would be the work environment, career ladder, etc. I can't even speak on that right now because it's the type of thing I won't know until I see it. Either you convince me on it or you don't.

If I had to pick somewhere to move to, Maryland wouldn't be on the top of my list, so I'm not just going to jump on the first option that comes my way. I have 8 months to find a job.

See - I can talk about things that stress me out even when I don't have anything specific to talk about. So I'm going to stop now.

PS: The Kanye West/Taylor Swift thing was pretty much the GREATEST thing... I think I'm going to be Kanye West for Halloween and dress Jack up as Amber Rose. The only negative about being Kanye is that it would probably be an expensive costume. Still have timmmme to think about it, though.

Is this the worst sentence ever written?

"The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax."

- From the 2000 Pitchfork Review of Radiohead's Kid A

Give me a break!

early adopter

In tech terms, if you need to be the first to have that brand new iPhone, blu-ray player, video game system or anything else for that matter, you are called an early adopter.


I am an early adopter, in terms of buying new gadgets, trying new things, and life in general. I read a lot from a lot of different sources so I always tend to know when new things are set to arrive and I tend to anticipate things very heavily before most people even know they exist. As an example, I knew that Apple was going to announce iPod nanos with cameras on them probably two months ago. The announcement was yesterday. So while most people heard about it, processed it, and considered it yesterday for the first time - I already had my mind made up in July if this was something I was interested in or not.

Where am I going with this?

Well, in life, in a sense, I'm an early adopter as well. It works slightly differently, though. The way I perceiving this translating to my real life is that I make my mind up very early, sometimes before I have all the facts. To go back to the iPod nano example, what if the prototype that I was aware of was missing some key feature that I absolutely loved but I already made up my mind in July that this sucked and I wasn't interested? Obviously I could change my mind but that's not always something that comes easily to me.

A real life example of this involved something that happened to me in the 6th grade. I was a bad kid in the sense that I had a bad attitude, no one could tell me what to do and I liked to talk back to anyone who tried to tell me anything. I also was getting straight As, so my guidance counselers didn't really know what to do with me. My mom got called in for a parent/teacher/counseler conference and they were trying to tell me that I had potential but if I didn't straighten out I wouldn't go anywhere. Someone asked me what I wanted to do with my life or what my plans were and for whatever reason I said then that I wanted to go to Cornell. I was 12. I didn't even know Cornell was an Ivy League school at that point, how good it was, or what. But I pretty much made my mind up that day that I was going to go to school there and let that guide my decision making process for 6 years before it finally happened.

So why am I writing about this now?

I make this "mistake" all the time now. I have options, I think one is ok and I choose that and let that guide my decision making process for better or worse. And I'm trying to improve on that. Just last year I went mattress shopping - I only went to one store, which is among the more overpriced - found a mattress I wanted and bought it without shopping around - because I liked it. I probably could have gotten the same mattress elsewhere for cheaper (and perhaps significantly so) but I liked that one and I had to have it.

This happens in non material situations as well. I have options presented for me, one option emerges as slightly better and I begin to disregard the other options and push the slightly better option way out to the forefront. This is not ideal, because having options is a good thing.

I'm not sure what got me to thinking about this yesterday and today but it's probably for the best that I am. You never know when the thing that you disregard could turn out to be something you wish you hadn't missed.

I've been a bad boy

Haven't really talked about fitness lately, have I? There may be a reason for that.

I haven't abandonded it, ye of little faith. But I have been lax. I have not been eating well - I think I've ran through every fast food restaraunt over the past few weeks with the same excuse for each - "Hey, I haven't had this in months!". The good news is, I believe that's out of my system now.

I must have put a ton of weight back on, right? Ehhh... not exactly. But I have gained 3 pounds. I've been slacking a bit for the past 3-4 weeks, so the main detriment is that I probably should have lost 6 pounds or so. Looking at it that, way, I'm a +9 over the time frame. Yes, that a very hard way to look at it, but sometimes you have to be tough on yourself.

I also slacked on the exercise a bit too. End of August/beginning of September I only ran 11 and 6 miles, respectively for those two weeks. Abysmal, especially considering that I haven't been lifing either. I honestly think I burned myself out during the summer - which is fine, because I put a lot of hard work in. Last week, though, I redeemed myself and ran 25 miles, including a 6 mile run Saturday night. The main thing this did is prove to me that I haven't lost it completely.

This transition period is going to be tough - I knew that ahead of time. I've been going out a lot and that has hurt the exercise to be sure. I'm hoping that things will calm down as we get to the end of the month. I feel a really renewed sense of dedication, which is nice. Maybe I just was really burnt out after all.

For whatever reason I feel an overwhelming desire to return to basics and start doing some really basic core exercises. Since I'm not running in the morning anymore, I think I'm going to start doing pushups and situps in the morning. Why not, right? It's fast, easy, and actually does a lot of positive things for your body. I think that sounds like a good idea. The plan, for now, is to continue running in the evenings for as long as I can and then settle in to a good gym routine as soon as it starts getting cold (and dark early - which is coincidentally when my seasonal affective disorder should start kicking in!).

"Now everyone knows that Custer died at Little Big Horn, but what THIS book presupposes is that...maybe he didn't?"

world's greatest soda stacker

Labor Day...

It's nice to have a day off. They are rare for me. I haven't had a vacation since I started and that was about 16 months ago. I could use a week off. Hopefully one of these days.

I wasn't feeling 100% yesterday, so I did what I normally might do in such a situation - I went shopping. I enjoy shopping more than most guys, but that's ok. But maybe you know you're trending a bit too metro when you go to check out at Express and end up in a conversation with the flamingly gay cashier about how he just bought the same exact two pairs of underwear. Furthermore, you don't really think it's that weird as it's happening but only upon further reflection. He was also asking me how my day was and how I was spending my holiday... dude might have been hitting on me!

Whatever, it's worth it for the sweet deals I got. It was the labor day sale, which means bigger sale than normal. Labor Day is kind of the official start of fall, and fall is the main fashion season. Yes I'm mildly embarrassed to know that. Two pairs of jeans, an argyle sweater, a graphic tee and two pairs of underwear for $140! Express jeans are $70 a pair to start with, so obviously I did great. I think I saved over $100 from the sticker price. This makes me very happy.

I wasn't able to shop at Express for years because they don't cater to the overweight amongst us... must hurt the brand image or something. Maybe it's not like that on the girls side, but on the guys side... how much money are they losing, really? Most fat guys aren't shopping at Express, anyway. I was in the strict minority hurting for my overpriced designer clothes. But luckily I'm comfortably back in their "guidelines" so it's all good.

I'm in the process of trying to replace my whole wardrobe and this is not a cheap thing to do...especially now that I need a bunch of new winter clothes. Sigh. I need a raise.

I also got Guitar Hero 5 yesterday, to balance things out. It's pretty sweet - the tracklist is great and the crowd sings along in this one. Tons of fun! I haven't unlocked Kurt Cobain yet, but that should be fun when I do. I can't wait to desecrate his memory by making him sing the more ridiculous songs on the game. Ha! Thanks Courtney!

Only 3 days until the start of the NFL season on Thursday! But the fun doesn't really start until Sunday. Can't wait!

fun with laser pointers

running in place

Boring week - nothing to write about.

My life right now is all about waiting for things to happen. Waiting for football to start (a week today!), waiting to see how my career shakes out (looking much better that I can stay in Syracuse!), waiting for my personal life to settle out (nothing relevant to write in the parenthesis!)

If I can script a perfect fall, then I end up getting a better job here in Syracuse so I can stop looking other places. I end up having someone quality to spend a lot of my time with. I end up being able to buy all the furniture that my house is conveniently missing, including replacing the hideous tan blinds in my bedroom that I honestly might burn after I'm finished. I end up probably getting Jack a brother/sister to play with, although that will require patience. I end up dominating fantasy football.

Are all of these things going to happen? Are any of these things going to happen?

I have no idea.

So, much like myself after attempting to run last night after a Wegman's sub and a bag of trail mix... running in place.

The last of the boring Sundays...

Today was one of the most boring days of my year. I honestly can't remember the last time I had absolutely nothing to do, no movies I wanted to see, nothing I wanted to go shopping for, no one to spend time with, no TV shows to catch up on... nothing.

The day has just kinda drifted on in a lazy fashion and then it's back to work.

It's that time of year when I really wish I could take a vacation - except, plot twist, it's pretty darn cold here in Syracuse. I cut the grass today in shorts on and was kinda chilly at times. I think my uneasy truce with living in Syracuse is about to come to an end.

But in two weeks, boring Sundays are over and the NFL is back on. Based on life circumstances I have a feeling this fall will be like last fall, busy busy Sundays in other ways than just football. But that's the one thing I think of when it's getting cool outside again (besides ugh, this sucks)... football time.

I did break down and get the new iPhone 3GS yesterday. My plans prior to WWDC in June was to buy it at launch because I was getting tired of the Edge network and all the other nonsense. Also MMS couldn't be supported on Edge. Then they announced the phone and my reaction was, that's it? It looked like they didn't even upgrade the darn thing! After last weekend when my phone was my sole source of connecting to the internet (and the battery summarily died around 5PM each day)... I figured I would finally upgrade the phone despite the fact that on the surface it doesn't appear like much of an upgrade.

On the surface is the key phrase, because it's all little things that make it an incredibly smart decision. The key difference is the speed. Pages load, based on my own accounts, like 15-20x faster than my old phone and everything just moves along very, very fast. They weren't joking adding the S into the name for speed.

On top of that, though, it's all the little things that add up. Non-recessed headphone jack so I can use my fancy Shure headphones, Nike+ integration (now I will actually be able to read the numbers mid-run without squinting), better camera, video recording, a compass, etc.

Nothing special, but add them up and it's a MAJOR upgrade. Really, though, it's all the speed. You don't realize until you actually have it in your hands that it just blows the first generation iPhone out of the water, the 3G too I would imagine. I was able to watch an entire 7 minute YouTube video without waiting for it to load once (on Wi-Fi but still). Just awesome.

I'd recommend going for it if you're on the fence.

I've been totally lazy the last two weeks, but I think I'm going to try to run 50 miles this week. Uh, yeah, I'll let you know how that works out.

the origin of life as a facebook update

Becoming a normal person

Over the past three to four months I have planned everything I do around my workout schedule.

This is not normal.

As a result, I eat dinner early, go to sleep early, wake up early, etc. It's catching up with me.

If I'm out late or if I'm awake talking to someone I can't get up in the morning. Especially not to run for 45 minutes. If I'm out on a date or out doing something, I get very hungry because people don't eat as early as I have gotten used to.

It's a struggle.

Because while I am becoming normal again I still want to lose 1-2 pounds a month throughout the winter - maybe more if my life settles down a bit. Right now, I would consider it not settled. I am having a hard time keeping things straight... I am always tired.

My online Madden franchise with my friends from home isn't helping, since you need to play every day or your game gets simulated.

I'm thinking that this is partly due to last weekend when I didn't get a lot of rest, so I need to sleep this weekend.

Shouldn't make it look like I'm complaining, though, since I'm having fun now. :)

More non-unified nonsense

It's getting harder and harder to wake up every morning to run... in fact most mornings I don't. Uh oh! I should at least be glad that this insanity of mine lasted for 3 solid months. That's enough about that topic, for now.

I guess this could all be tied in to starting dating again but who is to say? I have a 2nd date on Thursday, a first date on Saturday and there are others that I am considering - some strongly. This doesn't even include the girl who canceled on me last week... I think she is now stricken from the record. Yes, you only get one crack at greatness. Kidding! Sort of. That's not the reason she might not get a return engagement.

Everyone at work is convinced that I'm going to get confused and start calling people by the wrong name but I'm pretty sure that won't happen. A lot of similar sounding names, though. I better not make any mistakes. I am obviously not cut out for dating 5 people at once; I'm really not that kind of guy. So let's see how long this lasts. I'm guessing not long. Let's just pick a winner (or two? no - still too much trouble) and move on from there.

In terms of work, still haven't heard anything encouraging that makes me think I'll be staying in Syracuse for long, which further makes my timing on EVERYTHING suspect. As of now, though, the recruiters that I'm working with have only sent my resume in for two positions, one just outside of NYC that I already phone interviewed for and another in Maryland. I have time to find a job... until next May is pretty safe estimate so I can afford to not go nuts and just be patient.

I have to go to the dentist today to get 5 cavities filled. I am NOT looking forward to it. I have a very strong gag reflex (remember kids, this is the proof from god that I was never meant to be gay) and when they cram those spacers in my mouth I have to physically remind myself to calm the fuck down. It's like a mini panic attack. It's all mental, though. When I focus on it and tell it to go away then it usually does. I wish that technique worked on some people in my life, but alas.

Last time the receptionist called me sweet cheeks which made me pause for about 5 seconds before I realized it was one of the best things that happened to me all year. She's not hot, so it wasn't that. It was just the comedy of it. I certainly appreciate these things more than most would.

Ok, I suppose I should try and do some work. I am trying to get a promotion to a job that pays over $100k after all. Time to go do that.

monday hodgepodge

Few things I want to write about so all will get a half-ass effort here at once and then I won't write anything again for a few more days... sound good? Ok, good.

Pitchfork's Top 10 Songs of the Decade:

They actually did top 500, but who can argue such minutia? Unless it's your job, of course. There will be more of these lists as the year winds down, but who else but Pitchfork can top the snobby douche quotient that I love in my music critique, oh so much? Let's see if I approve or disapprove of the songs that gave them the biggest boner this decade.

10: Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) Ok - yeah I like this song... it's probably my second favorite on Funeral so I can dig it.

9. Animal Collective - My Girls No no no. I hate this band. Maybe I don't actually hate the music but I the discussion of said music makes me want to go and do some suicide

8. Radiohead - Idioteque Only song on this list I never heard before... maybe I have but it's not springing to mind

7. Missy Elliot - Get Ur Freak On Uh, yeah ok. I always thought Missy Elliot had some really fun party songs

6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps Yay. I love this song, obv. Still their best yet (I would guess the almighty p4k agrees with me)

5. Daft Punk - One More Time I actually can't believe this song was released this decade. I feel like it came out around when I was born. And yes, it's the one you're thinking of.

4. Beyonce - Crazy In Love I like this song. It does NOT however, have the added bonus of the Beyonce dance that I mastered and busted out at the most random times to make people laugh all last winter.

3. M.I.A. - Paper Planes Dear Pineapple Express and Slumdog Millionaire, thanks for all the exposure. Where do I write the check? Love, M.I.A. (good song, but #3 of the decade, WTF?)

2. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends Loooove this song...honestly thought it would be #1 when they were counting down earlier in the week.

1. Outkast - B.O.B. (Bombs over Bagdhad) Interesting choice. Good song, crazy good to work out to. Definitely not my favorite Outkast song (that would be Hey Ya residing back at #12 of the decade but I get it)

So that's the list... it's an interesting list. I'm guessing they will follow it up, as they usually do with an album list. I have no idea how that's going to shake out... I'm guessing that Sound of Silver will be top 3 but if the list is topped by Meriweather Post Pavilion I am going to cry a river of tremendous sorrow.

Weekend

Awesome weekend. I had an awesome draft, which I won't go over in too much detail. I know who mostly reads my blog and I know those people aren't interested in all the nuts and bolts of my fantasy draft. I think I did well enough to secure a victory, but we won't know that until around New Years. Saturday was a great day, though... drinking and busting balls all day. Kind of stuff I wish I could do more often and also a more painful reminder that I don't have any really good guy friends in Syracuse.

Inglorious Basterds was a quality film, standard Tarantino and I loved it. It wasn't as good as Kill Bill to me, but considering how much I loved that movie, not much would be.

I also had a pretty good day yesterday in general and I think I will just leave it at that, for now.

Fitness

So yeah, last week didn't quite work out like I planned. I only ran twice, lifted zero times and was a bad boy all week. I think I consumed anywhere from 10-15 coffee beverages with milk in them. Oops!

Anyway, I realized that warm air and myself are running out of our precious time together so I'm going to ditch lifting for the next month or so and just focus on running - probably going to go back to banging out 40 mile weeks or close to it. This will make me really sick of running, I realize that ahead of time, but luckily by the time that settles in it will be cold and I won't be able to run anyway, so everyone wins. In the winter my fitness plan will mostly consist of lifting with some running sprinkled in, so I'm going to try to get as lean as possible now.

Running also takes less time and I think I'm going to need my free time for some other things right now.

One thing I have a small interest in is increasing my fast twitch muscle reponse... So, right now I run long distances at my slow (10 min/mile) pace and that builds cardio as well as slow twitch muscle response. I was thinking of adding in sprints and things of that nature so that I can increase my fast twitch muscles. There is also a running program out there which name escapes me at the moment, where the basic gist is that you sprint/jog/sprint and it effectively "tricks" your body into burning just as much calories during your jog as if you were sprinting. I would have to start off very small there, but the plan would be to get up to 1 mi/1 mi/1 mi/1 mi. Now, obviously I can't sprint one mile but I'm thinking something along the lines of 7 min mile/10 min mile/7 min mile/10 min mile. It might be too late in the season to try something like this but I'm going to give it a shot.

Baaaaack to work. I'm a big dummy and I reminded Celia that I owed her $13 (she had forgotten!) and now I have to take her out to lunch today. Oops. Well, tomorrow is her last day before she moves to North Carolina so I don't mind taking her out to lunch anyway. My lunch buddy is leaving me! :(

Soon, I will have no one left at work that I actually consider my friend. How depressing.

When you want it done right you call on a gentleman

I'm starting to get amped up for this weekend. If you can only handle a certain amount of nerdiness, then skip the rest of this entry.

This weekend is the annual fantasy football draft for our league, recently christened with its new title, "The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers." I have been playing fantasy football for almost 15 years now. Sometime when I was around 12 or 13, I had a family friend who needed one extra person for their league so they invited me in... I guess even then it was apparent that I liked sports and nerdy things in equal measures. The draft took place in the basement of the local VWF, which is a bar for veterans if you're not familiar with that sort of small-town thing. Everyone proceeded to get absolutely shit-faced while sixth grade Mike sat there and dilligently made his selections. If I remember accurately then I really enjoyed my root beer.

It was a much nerdier thing back then, before the internet. You actually had to wait for the boxscores on Monday morning and calculate the scores/winners yourself. I remember sitting with the newspaper between my legs every Monday morning with a pen and paper figuring out if I won my game or not.

It was awesome.

Now Fantasy Football is a completely mainstream and widely accepted practice. There are tens of thousands of leagues on probably 50 websites. Someone got paid to estimate that $8-9 billion dollars of company revenue are lost due to fantasy football every year, due to a decrease in office productivity.

Sometimes you really need to work the phones/email to make that trade... deadline at work be damned.

I enjoy fantasy football for a few different reasons now that I'm older. First and foremost, it helps keep in touch. I live away from everyone now, which isn't a new development because I have lived away for 10 years now. But now more and more people have moved away, as well, so when I go home to Pennsylvania I only get to see a few people at a time. Doing this every year keeps us all in touch, at the very least throughout the entire winter.

The draft, which is this weekend, is honestly (as dorky as this sounds) one of the best weekends of the year, because everyone comes in from wherever they are and we all get to hang out for the weekend and talk football, have the draft, play poker, go out drinking together... whatever. That doesn't get to happen nearly enough. I've been looking forward to this since we started planning it over a month ago.

The email chains going back and forth have spanned 4 or 5 separate chains that have all approached 100 emails back and forth. I love it.

Second of all, I'm ultra competitive and I also enjoy gambling. This involves both! The older we get the higher the entrance fee becomes... so now for $100 you have a very legit chance of winning upwards 0f $900. That's fun times. Also, this is the kind of thing that allows for nearly limitless shit-talking at all times and that is something I appreciate completely.

Thirdly, I realize that this makes football itself 100% more interesting. Instead of caring about only one game per week when the Giants play, I care about EVERY game. This can get dicey when girlfriends are involved but that is one of the reasons that the iPhone was invented... you can now check scores even while you are out doing whatever.

As for the title of this post, which doesn't seem to jive with the subject matter... well, my team name is of course, "The Gentleman Callers". I don't remember how or where I decided to use it, but it's been the name for about 4-5 years now and will be forever more. I even have a sweet logo!

Hell yes!

My friend Mark joined the league this year and decided to come in with a very awesome selection on the other side of the class spectrum, "My Couch Pulls Out, But I Don't"... amazing.

Now that I have sufficiently demonstrated my dorkiness with a multi-hundred word love poem about fantasy football, I shall conclude only by saying that I regret nothing.