Month: July 2004

This weekend started, and didn’t stop until it was about time to go to sleep on Sunday.

Friday evening was a going-away party for a coworker who’d been at the company for longer than me, and another ex-coworker decided to try and invite as many ex-Yahoos as possible. There were people there that I hadn’t seen in years, and some that had been working at the company for as long as I have and I was just now introduced to. At 10pm, though, the patio ceased to be a private function space, the bar closed, and people started trying to sneak away… I finally managed at about 11pm, got home and went to sleep.

Saturday was games day, but I was a bit “late” because I was waiting for to get back. Of course, when I got there two hours late, I was only the fourth person there (which is usually the case.) That went on for quite a while, including the personality revealing game of Four Swords and the messing with Katie’s mind game of Apples to Apples. Got back home and went to sleep well after the sun has risen.

Woke up in the afternoon and went to Poker/Magic/Sendoff for Ken who is moving to Tennessee day, stayed there for most of the day, got home, did a bit of fishing in FFXI/watching BtAS DVDs and went to sleep.

It’s been a day. Any day that starts off with a phone call that wakes you up and reminds you that, oops, you forgot to do something is not going to be a good day.

Hit almost every red light on the way in, some changed at the last possible moment. Got stuck behind a slow car that took forever to turn right into a random intersection. Got into work to get invited to a meeting where a few of us discussed this nasty issue of censored due to NDA which was partly my fault. Once again, lunchroom was full of people and had trouble finding a table. Got back to desk and had a string of conversations with various people about working around various annoying issues.

I want to go home now, but I can’t because I’m waiting for people to get out of a meeting so they can hand off work to me.

I’m in a melancholy. Hearing bad news from other people does that to me. It’s contagious, and it always brings up weird memories and feelings. Ironic, because I was on Cloud Nine earlier because of my story being put into Warren Ellis’ Fast Fiction Friday (even though I wish I’d made the ending better… it was written “fast”, after all).

It’s warm. Maybe even warm enough to warrant closing the windows and turning the AC on, but I’m too tired to get out of bed.

I could use this moment of trying to find things to say to speak about something impersonal, like FFXI. I’ve made it to level 50, and I’m 2/3 of the way through the Genkai to raise my limit to 55. My pimp hat is getting closer, only 10 levels to go.

My grandmother knit me an afghan for my couch. It matches the room.

The leather upholstery in my car is starting to crack, or it’s been cracked for a while and I’m just now noticing it.

Tired, but can’t sleep. Not like that’s a new thing.

Go read Die Puny Humans. Hi!

Now I feel a bit guilty for not writing enough entries recently.

I am now the (proud?) owner of a badge that doesn’t expire until 12/31/04.

Another move, another time that IS manages to get all three of my computers and my phone not working in my new cube. Of course, this was mostly because the movers didn’t realize the ports on this cube weren’t in the same orientation, so one of the computers was plugged into a voice line, and the phone into a computer port. Then, after that, it wasn’t working so it took two IS people on their lunch break to figure out that there was a bad ethernet cable causing the last computer to not work.

On the plus side, for my first time in six years, I have a window cube… but I’m sharing it with someone else. I’ll take what I can get.

“Welcome back to work, Andy! Your badge doesn’t work anymore because it expired again, and you’ve moving in three hours! Better pack up!”

When I pulled next to the security booth to tell them that my badge expired and I needed to be let in, their response was “Again?”

Yeah, they remember me. Well, time to go home… and see if I can manage to work while my computer here is off.

Yes, I was at Anime Expo, as my last entry indicated. Even though I came back in the wee hours two days ago, I’ve still not had much of a chance to sit and rest. My brother decided to visit me this week, and he was at my house already when I got back (asleep on the couch). He had spent the evening with Leon, I later found out.

Yesterday, we went to the Jelly Belly factory tour (I got to see it when it was actually in production!) and then Marine World. I didn’t pace myself and got nauseous, so I got to playing with my cell phone while my brother rode the rides over and over — the lines were non-existent, so he kept going on everything twice. I saw the Stargate motion/show/Star Tours thing, which almost put me over the tipping point… the motion was a bit too jerky, and not quite in sync with the video (which was also too blurry.) We also saw Shouka, the new killer whale they’ve been advertising the heck out of around here. It’s a… killer whale like any other, I suppose. She’s pretty small, she must be young, and she didn’t have as many tricks learned as some of the ones I saw back in Sea World in my youth.

Today, we went to Great America, and I was able to pace myself a bit better, although it still involved playing with my cell phone while my brother rode on certain rides over and over. The lines today were a bit longer, but still only about five minutes at the longest. I spent a bit too much money on the fool’s task of winning a Gamecube at one of the carnival games, and showed off a bit at DDR to some kids. We left early, then went and saw Spiderman 2 and Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Mercado.

As for the latter half of AX, I’ll write about that later… I’ve got photos to upload before I can tell stories… yeah, that’s my excuse.

Now, I think I need to lie down.

So, when I paid $25 for three days of Internet on this computer, I failed to realize at the time that my laptop would be integrated into the karaoke setup most of the time, therefore making it unavailable for actual use in the hotel room. Fortunately, because Luke closed the room last night, and I’m opening it today (very soon), it’s actually here, and I could catch up on LJ.

AX has been… typical. There are still so many people I haven’t seen yet — ones I want to see, and ones I’m glad I haven’t. I introduced myself to team_tim, but aside from that, haven’t met anyone new. I saw the huuuuge registration lines, and at least three people cosplaying in Red Mage AF armor (of which I’ve gotten pictures of two.)

More later. This precious sliver of Internet time has better ways it can be used than by blabbering to you guys. Time for online comics!

In preparation for driving down to LA for AX, I went to Costco this morning to finally get my new tires installed. It took a bit longer than I expected, but I was able to pass the time by reading and watching pigeons do some… uh… seasonal thing, I guess. (I’ve never seen a pigeon flare up its neck feathers and drag its tail feathers on the ground… it was just like watching National Geographic or something.)

Finally got on the road, but it was a bit later than I hoped. I hit traffic in San Jose, but it was due to an accident, and it was smooth sailing all the way down, with the exception of the standard snag at the 152/158 merge.

Checked into the room, wandered to the other hotel, and managed to stumble into the exact place I was supposed to be, the staff meeting…. which of course told me nothing I didn’t already know (or care about). Helped Luke gaff the karaoke room, then went to conops to pick up my badge (which did have my custom art… sorry, Kirstin) and shirts.

Went back to the room, and after trying fruitlessly to get dialed up to the Internet, ended up shelling out $25 for three days worth of hotel ethernet. Which is where I am now.