W00+ I GOT L00+

Tonbo was free for a bit today so we went down to Half Price Books to unload the stuff my parents had passed on while packing for the move. Scored about $11, $2 of which went to getting Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad. Spent the rest on anime rentals: volume 1 of Kino's Journey and Saiyuki. I was hoping for Witch Hunter Robin, but it was checked out, and the back of the Saiyuki volume had the line "where dragons turn into Jeeps" - how could I resist that?

Had lunch and dessert at the Black Forest Cafe while waiting for call at Half Price and read an article about translating the language of women so men could understand. Written very well, with enough humor and truth to be really memorable. Both Tonbo and I were nodding at various points in the article such as the reason a woman asks a man "what are you doing?" and how men interpret the question and don't necessarily give an appropriate answer in the woman's opinion.

Home for a short nap and then the guys were back over for more Firefly. Have finished the second DVD which is where a lot of the more "funny" episodes are, although each ep definitely has it's moments. Not sure when the next showing will be since this weekend is Project A-Kon and 2 of the 3 are very to very very involved with that.

Patryn was very generous this evening and left Season 6 of Stargate SG-1, the premiere of Jeremiah (another JMS creation traumatized by clueless TV execs), and a hardback collection of Discworld books (Rincewind themed) he found in his own explorations of a Half-Price Books.

Remember that article I mentioned earlier ... well Tonbo and I had a re-enactment of the "what are you doing?" situation. My intention was as a shared joke, but the literal answer he gave me made me laugh so much my sides hurt.

Sometimes it is so obvious male and female brains really are wired completely differently.

But some things can be shared ... such as a love for SG-1, the desire to see what happens next, and then it's 5 hours later and damn it's a good thing we don't have to go to work tomorrow.

II TENKI DESU NE

People should not be allowed to mow/edge/blow their lawn before 10 am on a Saturday. Sheesh.

Spent the morning weeding and trimming and playing in the garden. Decided the wildflowers were a little too wild and hauled out a bunch so i can now see my little desert willow again. Someday he'll be bigger than the Indian paintbrush, but not this year.

Lunch in and watched my last ep of Master Keaton. Need to rent more. Starting to have unseen anime withdrawal ...

Tonbo mowed my lawn (ha-pi!), went to his nephew's 1st bday party, and then out to work. The office job seems to working out really well for him. We were talking about it the other night, how he has "fun" there. Listening to him describe his day is very entertaining, and we both agreed that it would destroy me to work there. :P

Temperatures are starting to get into the Texas summer range, but with the patio door open (showcasing my refurbed screen door) and the windows in every room open, I can get away without using the air conditioner. And wandering around summer wear helps as well.

Spending waaaay too much time on the computer, but I did want to catch up on the blog a bit. I tend to get around 1-2 hits a day, so that's fun to see. Have no idea who they are or if they come back, but maybe they were entertained for at least a little while.

DEKITA!

My lateral file cabinet was waiting for me when I got home, so I have something to occupy me this evening. Tonbo is going to his brother's high school graduation tonight.

Took almost 2 hours to build the thing. For an extra $100, it would have come assembled, but it also would have looked like a medical corporate steel thing and I do prefer wood furniture ... even if it doesn't fit anything else in the home office, it fits in that it doesn't fit. Packed away about a third of the biz magazines and will work on it some more tomorrow. More floor space is now visible and I like it.

Watched some anime previews on the first volume of Haibane Renmei (thanks for the set, Patryn!) and was once again underwhelmed. At least the majority of them where the Japanese opening songs cut to footage from the show. But, IMHO, not cut very well.

Then again, so much good anime is available professionally that I can't really complain. Okay, I can, especially when the subtitles don't match the spoken Japanese. My Japanese is no where near fluent, but I recognize some stuff, and when the subtitle is less or not even close, I wonder what was really said, and how it affects the situation and the tone of what is going on with the characters. Especially when someone says "gomen" [sorry] and it's no where in the subtitles.

But I love anime, so there will always been something that I think could be better about the pro releases. At least until I am fluent and don't have to worry about subtitles any more. ;)

CLIENT FEELINGS

bad sucky miserable emotional day. feel like a client - i don't know what i want but i don't have it and am unhappy. think part of it was the hand-off. main goal = accomplished. secondardy unrecognized goal = blatantly ignored. i want to be recognized for what i do, not to feel useless about what i don't.

"see me not hitting him. i think i've grown."

if it's not your genius, it's not your job.

look, it's an introvert in a network marketing business, silly little thing.

WORK

Looks like things are picking up at the office, even as some of them slow down.

It's interesting how involved and excited a client can get in a project ... at the beginning. Then, when we need content, deliverable reviews, input and direction to make THEIR Web site, you can't get a hold of them or a meeting with them to save your life. Or the project.

And putting stuff on hold affects all kinds of little things like staffing and billable hours and the Numbers. Which, having June be the end of second quarter, are important things.

If you are an employee.

Which is why it's better not to be.

THE GREAT THING ABOUT THE INTERNET ...

Full day of work, then another hour reviewing a site for a potential project.

Anyone can write and they do. Anyone can publish their written material and they do. Anyone can make a Web site.

And they do.

Personally I've very thankful. Fansites have been a hobby of mine for a while, and although they are all rather dusty and neglected right now, eventually I will have the time to make them shiny and shiny.

And fansite are a perfect venue for a control freak. With just a little bit of HTML and graphics skills (whether or not they are 733+) you are master of your own domain (literally if you want to) and can present whatever you want to the world.

Whether or not the world care is a totally separate issue.

But I have been surprised and please to the response I've gotten from my various online activities, from KFF to CCSvsCC to my anime music videos. Yes, I've gotten hate email, but it's very difficult for me to take anyone seriously who RITES IN AL CAPS AND CANT SPEL. But that's just me. :)

HANDOFF

Meet with my (new as of last month) Silver this morning to hand off 365. Nervous, but it seemed to be well received. At the very least, the main goal of having it passed up to the next level was accomplished and should take place on June 14th.

Guess I need to find something else to do with my spare time now ...

FIREFLY PERSONALITY TEST

Found a Firefly Personality Test

Zoe - 83%

Shiney!

STRESS - IT DOES A BODY HARM

I think I've decided on the punching bag I want. Been a lot of high intensity stress lately, and when I am to the point that I feel it like a line of fire through out my blood stream, I really want to hit something. And since right now my house does not contain anything that can be used for that purpose, I'm going to buy a punching bag.

Used to have a Wavemaster but I gave it to Tonbo's brother, thinking (hindsight: so, I really wasn't thinking) that I didn't need it any more.

But I do.

I

really

really

do.

There is something immensely freeing in feeling the impact of fist on target. Pillows don't really cut it. Mattress is an acceptable, short-term solution. But something designed to take abuse is ideal, and yes, I'm talking about the punching bag.

I don't really care about form, or strengthening my arm muscles. Besides, to really land a punch you should swing from the hip and follow through past the surface of what you're aiming at. It will make me tired and worn out, which means my physical state will then match my mental state and hopefully I'll sleep better.

And it'll be no where as near as loud as the Little Drummer Boy next door.

EH

Working on, well work.

Final printing of 365, unless Tonbo finds something to fix.

Going to be doing gfx for a friend's project so he dropped of some source materials in the evening. Interesting stuff, and more to come on Wednesday. Once it gets published, I'll put up a link. ^_-

Putzed around most of the day.

SpoonPrez got a new toy to he, Patryn and Tonbo are out making lots of little holes in targets (I hope the little holes are in the targets) until the place closes. Then it's WingStop for dinner and Ryoma is joining us for more Firefly.

Fun stuff.

PRODUCTIVE

Had a good errand day in that I got lots of things checked off the TTD list.

Bank - deposits (always a good thing)
Grocery store - prep for company on Sunday
Hardware store - all I want in another garage remote, why is this so difficult?
Office supply store - plaques and binder for a meeting with my BST this coming Wednesday about 365, which is in final proof stages.

This project is unique and odd in that I can't see the end of it. Well, I can on a very limited scale which is me going to Kinko's and spending nights cutting and gluing and shipping. But I want so much more for this thing, more than what I can personally do. Which means relying on someone else. Which in my little S-Quadrant mind, means they aren't going to do as good a job as I would, or they are going to drop the ball and it will end up on a shelf, or .... or ... or ...

But you have to trust someone at some point.

(damnit)

KUNG-FU ON ICE

Stayed late at work because I'm going to FNA which is currently held about 5 minutes from my office. Only Patryn and SpoonPrez showed up and stayed (other than me & Tonbo and Ryoma), so it was a nice, comfortable event.

We watched Hero and I absolutely want to see it when it hits American movie theaters. Amazing cinematography and use of color. And plot, good plot. :)

After that we got them hooked on Firefly by watching the 2 hour original pilot. hehehehehe ....

Overall a nice evening, although I ended up with a monster of a headache by the time I got home. Guess it might rain in the next few days.

THURSDAY

Lovely, screaming child 7:15 am flight. Local Diner BLT (sans T) for lunch, and then it was time for SEO training. Really interesting stuff. And, as with most things, there is a Dark Side, although the penalty for using such stuff (and being reported) is pretty much being blacklisted on the Web. It's pretty easy to stick to the Light, however, since what you should be doing to create a good Web page anyway is going to help your rankings.

WEDNESDAY

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Saw an ep of Teen Titans in the evening. Very cool, intro to Terra ep. Like the animations and voice-acting a lot for an American show. ^_-

TUESDAY

Back to MN. Didn't have to hang out with Mom & Dad Tues evening, so Barbie and I went to dinner and then each had a nice evening in our room.

Tried to rip some Firefly ("This must be what it feels like to go mad." -Simon) and Snow Fairy Sugar (I like to think I'm not as Saga as Saga is, but yes, I think like that ;) and Read or Die (battle of the Nancys is sooooo cool) to my laptop, but it didn't completely work. S'okay, just a little disappointing. Flipped though Firefly chapters on the plane as a distraction from the screaming child (I swear, Sun Country must have those things in storage and make sure that there is one per plane all. the. time.), so I saw the last part of "Shindig" and most of "Jaynestown".

MONDAY

Back to work. EB coming together, which is a good thing, considering we're presenting on Wed morning.

FRIDAY - WEEKEND

Sick. Took Friday off and removed it from my calendar. Slept. Ate. Watched anime.

Big "Domouarigatougozaimashita" to SPOON-PREZ for the load of anime he sent home with Tonbo. Working my way through Bubblegum Crisis 2040 Perfect Collection and like it a lot.

WAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally found a good anime radio station that isn't blocked by the firewall.

Keiichi.net EX2: Extreme Anime Radio

And it only took me poking through every menu item to find the "Open stream" listing under "Advanced" so I could add it to my library. Simple enough, but neither the iTunes Help not the AppleCare online system had it. Anywhere. And I looked.

HA-PI!!!!

NEO-BLOGGER

Wow - big update at Blogger with lots of new stuff to play with, when I get a chance (ie not tonight). They still haven't added Blogger to the spell-check, though.

Have put a link to Project A-Kon in the Links section (how appropriate), and will get a picture for my Profile for possible posting tomorrow.

Also spent some time surfing Firefly sites. Best one of the day is The Dictionary of Mal.

Yes, I am a Malcontent, but in a nice, non-salivating way. ^_^

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Got down to the parents house by 10:30 am as planned. Mom liked her card. She's a really wonderful woman - strong (inside and out), energetic, creative, knowledgeable ... all kinds of stuff I didn't truly appreciate when I was young. But now I do, and I can tell I do, which is important.

Made 2 trips to the shop with the trailer. Then it was packing the little places left in the pallets Dad created.

They have a "container" on the side of the shop - one of those big 40' x 10' things you see go by while waiting at a railroad crossing. Dad re-engineered the front wheels on the tractor, built a ramp, and moves the pallets in and stacks them 3 high all by himself. Well, almost all by himself. Mom has to sit on the box attached to the back of the tractor as added weight to give the little machine traction when it goes up the ramp into the container.

Got something in my eye which proceeded to turn very red and start to swell, so I took out my contact (thankfully I had my glasses with me in my car :) and took a break for a bit. After loading up 12 pallets, we were ready for lunch.

Went to a local Chinese place that has above-average Chinese food. There was a bit of concern when we pulled in the mostly-full parking lot, since everyone and their mother was out for lunch today. But the restaurant was mostly-empty, and it was nice to sit in a peaceful setting and have hot food and drink. Pu-pu tray time!

Drove home and took a nap. Eye is almost back to normal. Tonbo cut the lawn this morning (yeah!) and it looks very nice. Weeding I like. Cutting lawn I don't. We basically consider it an exchange of services: he cuts and edges the lawn and I cook him lunch. Works for me.

He was with his family in the evening and then over to Hentai-kun's to judge music videos for the mv contest at Project A-Kon. I neither submitted nor judged this year, and am not on video staff. Don't have plans to attend the kon at all, actually. Thanks to my well-connected friends, I have seen most of what is airing in the video rooms. My only interest is the Dealers' Room, but that's just a little too tempting right now.

Maybe next year ...

PUTZIN'

Tonbo's doing a full day of work, so I'm on my own today.

So I putzed, which is to say I "behave [sic] in an idle manner; putter"

Some functional stuff was done: laundry, taking out the trash, taking out the recycling, emptying the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher ...

Some non-functional stuff was done: watching GALS!, copying CDs to my computer for 365CD, looking through a big ol' box of photos my mom gave me, making a Mother's Day card, watching more GALS! ...

And basically those two lists were enacted in a very random and seemingly mindless order. Such as: I started copying a CD, took dirty laundry to the washing machine, emptied the trash, put the clothing in the washing machine along with detergent and started it, copied another cd, looked at photos, emptied the dish washer, took out the recycling, copied another CD, loaded the dish washer, etc.

Very happy, stressless day.

Tonbo came home a bit early so we went for a walk. Then a quick trip to the store for hamburger accoutrements. Firefly commentaries made for nice dinner entertainment.

Helped Tonbo make a Mother's Day card and it turned out really nice. He had to explain the theme behind it which is based on the southern tradition of wearing a red rose if you mother is alive, and a white rose if she is deceased.

Bed a bit early, since I'm getting up early (for a Sunday) to go down to the parents house and help them move stuff and have Mother's Day lunch with my mom.

TGIF

Following up on results from the earlier meeting and getting ready for next week's work. Found out the deliverable will be pushed to the following week, which is good in that we have a bit more time to really make it solid, which I appreciate.

I am grateful to be working with UncleM on this project - he has a much better handle on what we're going for. And that works out really well considering the majority of the project falls into his discipline instead of mine. ^_-

With the added daylight available, I was able to weed behind the back fence. Niceness on several levels, from getting rid of too-tall weeds, to feeling my muscles work, to having a great sense of accomplishment when looking at the very obvious and visible signs that "work has been done here".

WORKING FOR THE MONEY

At work ... somewhat working ... still not completely healthy, but much better than yesterday.

And it's Thursday, which is one day closer to Friday, which is only one day away from Saturday, which is the whole point of going to work in the first place, right, to live for the weekend?

Actually, I go to work to pay for my house, food, water, electricity, gas/heating, car insurance, mortgage insurance, cell phone, land line, ISP, occasional new piece of clothing, entertainment when I can't borrow DVDs from so-called friends, and some other stuff I can't think of right now.

So, if all of the above expenses were taken care of, I wouldn't need to go to work.

And it's not that I don't like what I do ... I do. And it's not that I won't do the exact same thing or something similar after I retire. I just want to work on projects that are of more interest to me than, say CPG marketing.

And I do believe that anyone who says they would still go to their place of employment even if they didn't need the money has not really thought it through.

You'd rather drive to work in heavy traffic than sleep late?
You'd rather travel during the week than spend time with your family?
You'd rather deal with people you don't like than people you do?

Uh huh.

Sure.

SICK

So I figure going to bed around midnight means I'll be tired in the morning, but able to sleep on the plane.

Waking up and feeling xcessively sick at 4 am was not part of the plan. Watch the commentary on the Firefly ep "The Train Job" to pass time until it was worthwhile to get up, shower, and check out to make the 7:15 am flight home

Which I wasn't able to sleep on.

Sometimes you just can't win.

Went straight home from the airport. Tonbo was home and cooked me shells for lunch, which was about the only thing I felt like trying to keep down. He's a good boyfriend, have I said that yet today? Afterwards I curled up in bed and ignored the world for a few hours. Slightly better by dinner, but only slightly.

Watched another Firefly which helped a lot. :)

... THE MORE I LOVE MY HOUSE

So apparently everyone hits the highway around 5 am up here, because the traffic noise woke me up. Repeatedly. Sounds like Tonbo's old old apartment. At least I'm not the only one because another co-worker commented on it during breakfast/team mtg.

Traveling is always stressful at some level - leaving your comfortable surroundings, your normal routine, your used-to-it foods. The hotel is fine, and for about $70/night, it's got the necessities - bed (rather comfy, actually), pillows (nice thick ones :), indoor plumbing, and most important to me, hot water for a shower in the morning. I can wash away most of the evening/night crap if I can have a hot shower in the morning.

Needless to say, I don't go camping much.

Working in the room which has high-speed access before lunch and client mtgs. It is nice to see the spread of high-speed access into various hotels across the country. For my line of work, we're usually in one, because you can be receiving emails from the PM at 11 pm at night that are relevant for the 8:30 am mtg the next morning.

My apple-cranberry tea has an after-taste of bean since I had to run it through the little coffee maker to get hot water. The first cup was okay, but I think I'm going to go back to my water bottle.

Much drier up here than at home, although my contacts didn't stick to my eyeballs as bad as last time I was up here with Nissan.

Should probably get back to work now ...

A IS FOR APPLE, PC IS FOR ...

Am experimenting with DVD ripping. For the past 3 hours. Am not yet completely successful. A co-worker, using his Apple laptop, however, has had much success and is much further along the path of happiness than I am on my PC.

Grrrr ...

Would basically like to have it on the harddrive to save the battery power of running the DVD drive. That, and I can have several DVDs on the laptop without having to haul the DVDs with me.

Am re-packed to hopefully make it through Sun Country carry-on rules. Replaced the backpack with a laptop bag and kept the standard smaller Eagle Creek carry-on. Last time, the problem was not on this end, but in St. Paul trying to come home when both Nissan and I got abused and had to check bags.

Will be a long day, but at least it's billable.

ALSO, I CAN KILL YOU WITH MY BRAIN

Backed out of going to OTWA's rehab class. Still a lot to do, and 5 hours in a crowded room wasn't going to help me much today.

Did some planting (irises forgotten from yesterday), some weeding, some laundry, some packing, some cooking, some iPOD updating.

Tonbo went out working and got all his stuff done which he deserves an omedetou for. Then he hurt his shoulder doing his calisthenics, which he deserves a kyotsukisute for.

More Firefly in the evening with dinner. Still a damn fine show. Terrific writing, learning a bit more about the characters, and traits that have been established are even further defined. Backstory on the formation of the crew, and more two by two, hands of blue. Only have 2 eps left, but it will have to wait until I come back from St. Paul, because Tonbo was starting to fade at midnight and I was being "responsible" and going to bed since I've got work and travel and work tomorrow.

It'll be nice not having to be "responsible" ...

*MY* FIREFLY

So it Saturday evening and Tonbo and I are lying around trying to decide what to watch.

Unfortunately, all we can come up with is Firefly, but that's not possible due to a lack of a DVD box set.

And I'm being good and not spending money.

...

So it's an hour later and we're at the local Best Buy and I'm swiping my credit card, my hands itching to grab the plastic bag that holds my obsession.

Made it through the second DVD and it was all good.

Hentai-kun had serious hyped up tis DVD as being the best, so I was slightly disappointed. Not in the show - each episode was awesome, but they didn't seem to be of a higher caliber than what we had already seen on the first DVD. Personal taste, I guess.

HA-PI!