Aperture Science Chronological Life Data Tracking System

(Insert obligatory excuses about a two-month gap in posts here.)

2010 is gonna be a good year, I think. Lots of change on the horizon for yours truly.

In five days (holycraponlyfivedays!) I will be getting married. It’s definitely a bit of an untraditional ceremony – there isn’t one! It’s looking like we will be having a small dinner with Jess’ mom and my parents on the night of the wedding (the 9th), and then a larger family deal somewhere later this month. The real full-blown wedding ceremony will hopefully take place sometime within the next year. I can’t imagine how much fun that’s going to be to plan based on just this one – we don’t have rings, our honeymoon is going to be just staying here, Jess is sick – still, I’m happy that we’re finally able to get married.

Work… arrgh. Work has been all kinds of stress lately, but hopefully that will be changing in the near future. A lot of the problem was that our CIO (Boss’ Boss’ Boss) has been only marginally present in the corporate environment because of a really nasty battle with lung cancer; unfortunately he passed away late in December. Currently his position is empty, with one of the directors filling in as interim CIO. It looks like this particular director might get the position, which is rumored to bring a rather wide-sweeping management shakeup in the IT department. This could be both good or bad (and I’m sure I will have more to say on the issue later).

We’re also still looking at the possibility of Jess going into the Air Force as an officer sometime next year. Maybe. Possibly. To be honest she doesn’ seem very enthusiastic about the idea, largely because of pressure from her parents. I’m hoping that once she’s out from under her mom’s umbrella that she’ll decide to do it on her own, or stop wasting time and figure out what she does want to do as a career. If she does go in the service, though, that will most likely mean me stepping down from my job and following her to whatever posting she is assigned (pending of course the whims of the military).

Gotta admit, I’m nervous about all three of these things. Any one of them is a pretty major event, and they’re all likely happening within the first half of 2010. I definitely have the feel-good-vibes about the wedding, but the other two are just wild cards. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Obligatory resolutions that may or may not be realistic and/or followed: less WoW/practice guitar/keep working out/manage finances better/be good husband.

The other day Reggie’s gtalk status was “Gentlemen, how do we kill the MOON?”. The following conversation ensued.

me: You don’t kill the moon – you only hope to wound it so you can get away.
Reggie: I don’t even have to be faster than the moon, I just have to be faster then the person next to me.
me: Exactly!
Reggie: The moon is vengeful.
me: The moon is ruthless.
Reggie: The moon holds a grudge.
me: The moon was given swirlies as a kid.
Reggie: The moon once shot a man in Memphis just to watch him die.
me: The moon shot the sherriff – but it did not shoot the deputy.
Reggie: The moon went on a tri state killing spree, and still hasn’t been caught by police.
me: The “LASER” belongs to the moon, not Dr. Evil.
Reggie: The moon hates puppies.
me: The moon kills a kitten every time someone masturbates.
Reggie: The moon also kills the masturbator. Because, if nothing else, the moon is fair.
me: Truly the moon is wise and just.
Reggie: The moon when to Harvard Law school, and graduated, not just with honors, but with a parade.
me: The moon then went on to build a time machine. From a DeLorean.
Reggie: Because while the moon is a scientific genius, it is not very original.
me: The moon is a very left brained individual, it’s true.
Reggie: The Moon is so smart, it went on Jeopardy and made Alex Trebeck cry.
me: The moon really is not made from cheese. The moon HATES cheese.
Reggie: The moon is lactose intolerant.
me: However the moon loves ice cream. Poor moon.
Reggie: The moon has a hard life. It was born in the wagon of a traveling show, it’s mother used to dance for the money they’d throw…
me: The moon hates that whole tides thing. It’s very sensitive about its weight. Hyperactive glands.
Reggie: The moon wishes people would stop mentioning that whole “low gravity” thing too.
me: Space is a cold, harsh mistress – the moon needs a blanket.
Reggie: The moon is lonely and looking for someone to love.

Every once in a while I will get extremely lucky with what I say and when I say it, and it’ll wind up striking a chord with someone – that perfect phrase that can help lift someone’s spirits, or help them with that elusive self-realization. It’s pretty nifty when it happens (okay, I lie, it feels great) but it’s rarely when I expect it to happen, and a lot of times it’s never when I think I need it to happen.

( Screw it, I’m tired of retyping everything after this line. Blog or bust!)

I hate talking to my mom sometimes. She’s very good at hiding it, but sometimes there’s just this utter despair in her voice, and I can tell she’s close to tears. I know she’s not happy with her life and where things are right now, and I know there’s absolutely nothing I can do or say to make it better. I hate feeling helpless.

I won’t lie – money is part of it. My parents have never been wealthy. There’s always been food on the table, but it’s very much a paycheck to paycheck situation. They’ve always had “his” and “her” bills, and kept the separate bank accounts in addition to a joint account. This actually caused a huge problem a few years ago because my stepdad kept to himself how far behind he was on several of the bills – they wound up having to declare bankruptcy (which really sucked for my mom because not only had she paid off almost all of her credit card debt, she actually completely lost a several hundred dollar positive balance on one of her cards). They cleaned up their finances after that, both working their respective retail jobs (true story, I don’t make that much but I pull in more than the two of them did put together >.<) and handling their own bills again.

Until about a year ago when my stepdad hurt his knee and had to stop working. He was on disability for a while until they got surgery to fix it… but he hasn’t gone back to work, just stays at home and watches movies and plays internet poker all the time (God, I wish I’d never set them up with a computer. If I had known this would happen I definitely wouldn’t have.)

So my mom works her retail job. She does the bulk of the housework. She does a lot of the yardwork. And… that’s it. She just exists from day to day, trying to make ends meet while my stepdad blows through his retirement money to pay the mortgage and “his” bills.

I can tell she isn’t happy, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Woke up this morning feeling just ever so slightly not awesome, and as the day progressed it just got worse and worse, ending up with me sitting at my desk with the chills.

So I’m home, taking it easy and quietly hoping that this stops just shy of a full blown fever. I don’t like being sick. >.<

I was entirely unproductive today, both at work and at home. Kitchen is a mess. No creative stuff done.

I always seem to have this recurring problem when I write. It usually begins with an idea that happens earlier in the day that I’m not able to act on at the moment. No worries, I’ll just file it away for later… then when later comes I just stare blankly at wordpress/word/whatever – not so much from a lack of remembering the idea of awesome as much as the actual act of getting it into words. In fact, I find that the only way I can really get anything going is to pretty much just start rambling on paper, let my thoughts take hold, and then go back and edit out the ramblings later.

I think this time I’ll leave it, just for you. All the text after this is edited, though. >.>

I started the year with a 60-hour work week, which sucked, followed by a 20-hour work week and 4 days of the flu, which also sucked. I feel like I’m just now caught up enough to really appreciate the fact that a new year is here.

One thing I’m trying this year that I’ve never really done before is making a resolution. But ugh, I really hate that word. It conjures up images of false promises to oneself just to fit in with tradition. Let’s look at this another way, hmm?

Looking back over the recent years of my life, it’s not very hard to recognize a trend in how I spend a lot of my time – I do things I enjoy doing which are easy to do. Computer games, reading, and so forth. Unfortunately this tendancy of mine means there are lot of things I would enjoy doing that are not easy which I have not done. I own two guitars I don’t know how to play. I own a bike which is in disrepair, rollerblades and running shoes which haven’t really been used, stories that I started two years ago and haven’t touched, half-complete computer programs… I have left a trail of unfinished and half-assed stuff in my wake. What’s sad is that I can point exactly to the root of all this – I procrastinate the hell out of everything. “Eh, I’ll do it tomorrow.” “I’m not in a guitar mood today, maybe another time.” Pulling back the microscope a bit farther shows that this lethargy has affected other aspects of my life as well, from a to z, and specifically in areas like work.

So, how do I fix all this?

I’ve started trying to actually establish goals and make lists for myself (by the way, the program OneNote has been absolutely amazing for this), and then sticking to those. It’s a process which is taking some getting used to. I’m also trying to get in the habit of doing things as the occur to me (“Man, I should really go clean the kitchen before playing WoW.”) and not postponing them until later.

I guess we’ll see how it goes.

A few weeks ago I asked the instructor of our kickboxing/Krav Maga class if he had any nutritional info that I could have. He told me that sure, he had a packet of info that he’d be happy to get for me.

Well, last week he finally got it to me! Horray! I was somewhat surprised at it though, because while I was expecting something along the lines of “eat x amount of x type food” I got the below list.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

Breakfast
• 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites
• 1 cup mixed fruit

Lunch
• Tuna sandwich on whole wheat
• Banana
• 1 cup cottage cheese

Dinner
• 6oz grilled salmon
• 1 cup steamed broccoli
• 1 cup brown rice

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday

Breakfast
• 1 cup oatmeal with brown sugar
• 1 banana
• 1 cup green tea

Lunch
• Sandwich on whole wheat (any lean meat)
• Fruit salad with 1 cup cottage cheese

Dinner
• Pasta with chicken
• Cooked squash and zucchini
• Spinch salad with veggies

Really, really specific. I guess it makes shopping easy though!

He also included something called Myoplex on the list that he suggested I have 3 times a day, between meals. It’s a protein and nutrient shake, and the idea behind it is to steady the body’s energy levels during the day. It’s kinda like eating more smaller meals, except 3 of the meals are a slurry – and they taste like someone put chalk and chocolate in a blender.

The Myoplex is also somewhat pricy – about $40 for a week’s supply. Somehow I don’t think my budget will like that much at all. I’ll have to find some kind of alternative.

This is gonna sound really weird, and may not make a lot of sense… but I can’t really think of any different way to phrase it.

I feel like more of an adult today than I did yesterday. It’s nothing specific that happened, just… I dunno. A realization, maybe? I mean, I’m 27, but I can honestly say I’ve never really felt that old.

Maybe this is what growing up feels like? It’s weird. I’m not sure I like it.

It’s been far too long since I’ve written anything in here, and a bunch has happened that made me stop and think, “Hey, I should blog about that!”

Whoops.

Boston is a pretty sweet city! You’d probably know I was in Boston if I’d written about it, but you don’t cause I didn’t and that’s all there is to that.

Whoops again. I really need to make myself more diligent about this.

I didn’t even know I was coming to Boston until a little more than two weeks ago, when my boss called me into her office and asked if I’d be interested in attending the Red Hat Summit. To say I was surprised would be an understatement, but there wasn’t anyone else who they could afford to do without for a week. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, but I try not to dwell on it.

Once I found out that the summit was in Boston, I immediately began making plans to meet up with Greg. In the face of extreme adversity (otherwise known as a delayed flight and almost getting lost on the subway) success was obtained, and Greg, Lauren, Chuck, and myself all went to Fire and Ice for dinner.

Good food, yummy cheesecake for desert. Yummy, yummy cheesecake for desert.

I won’t bore you with details about the summit – it’s a bunch of computer geeks getting together to talk about geek things. They did plan some pretty awesome entertainment for us, though – Wed night we had a party at Fenway Park, and tonight the party was up on the 50th floor of the Prudential building.

I’m tired. Gonna go sleep. More posty tomorrow!

Because I have one!

More words later. Pictures now!