"Another Year"
K's Choice

I wish you could adore
The way you did before
Now you're living through another year
Oh, the light you were
Will soon become a blur
As you're living through another year
Oh, what a waste of time it is
To indulge inside of bliss
Getting ready for another year like this
Another year to lie
Another year goes by
You're not sick, so you can't heal
But I wonder do you feel
The need to cry: 'I'm out of here'
Oh, your goal is safe
But is it all you crave
As you're living through another year
Oh, what a waste of time it is
To indulge inside of bliss
Getting ready for another year like this
Another year to lie
Another year goes by
Is it me who cannot see
The face of mediocrity
I try to smile you see
Your lightness darkens me
Filter all of your emotions.
Fake you're never low
Or face the one you fear
You're living through another year
Another year to lie
Another year goes by

Dude, the Go Go's are playing downtown Tempe on New Years Eve. Fifteen bucks to get into the block party, and they are going to play from 11pm to past midnight. How cool is that? And the best part is, I can walk there. I love my apartment!

It was Super Movie Weekend here at T.I.N.A headquarters. Went out to see 'Chicago' on Friday night. Sold out show, but I had a good seat and it was marvelous. I love musicals, and this one rock out. Since my last musical outing ('Moulin Rouge!') left much to be desired, I was a bit skeptical but Chicago lived up to everything. I must see the stage show now. Zellweger and Zeta-Jones were perfect, and Richard Gere was passible, dispite my loathing of him.
Saturday night I went out to see Adaptation, finally. Again, a sold out show, but the Camelview 5 has pretty small theaters. Being the only place in the valley that seems to show good movies, I have to remember to get there something like an hour before showtime. Even though I was in the second row, it was a good movie, with great characters and good lines. 'Catherine Keener is in my house?' I would recommend it to anyone who liked 'Being John Malkovich'.
I was going to go see Chicago again tonight, but got stuck doing laundry. Blah...

I have lost all urge to work today. Yesterday, being Christmas, depressed the hell out of me, so pretty much all I want to do now is go home and crawl under the covers and wallow in a bit of self pity.
Did the gift unwrapping thing, and exchanged gifts with the cats ( they loved their catnip blanket thing ). The fam called, so I spent about an hour getting passed from person to person to talk. That really makes you depressed, especially when you know that there are a couple of the siblings kids who have no idea who I am.
Went to see 'The Two Towers' again, which was good except for this stupid blond bimbo in front of me who wouldn't shut the hell up. That is why I hate the fact that home video technology has gotten so cheap. People think nothing of talking while watching a video cassette or dvd ( me included ), so this behaviour carries over into traditional movie theaters. I think there should be a guy who's job it is to sit in the theater and bludgeon people who talk during the feature presentation. Also, if their phone rings more than one ring. Then they should have their phone smashed and be blugeoned.
Tomorrow night, or maybe Saturday, I think will go see 'Chicago', since a) I love a musical, and b) I'm crazy about Catherine Zeta Jones and Rene Zellweger. It's playing out in Scottsdale opening Friday.

I went to see The Two Towers tonight, using my free pass from the dvd set, and I have only one thing to say. I want to have Éowyn's baby.
Seriously.
It was a very good movie, but it seemed to move a bit slower then the first one, and there seemed to me to be more glaring omissions in this one. But it still ruled, and I will purchase the enevitable extended dvd of this also, so I can have another 3.5 hour dvd movie to watch.

"Yes, I've got monkeys in my pants."
Last time I used that line, I got slapped...
via boingboing

So here's the shit. It looks like I will be in Florida for 3 days at the end of January ( looks like, I have the frikking flight confermation ). The shit is, this is going to cost me about $100 to do. I have to go down there so we can do our first real deployment of our software, but I have to have someone take care of my cats. This costs about $15 a visit, for what I have seen browseing, and since my cats get fed twice a day, that comes out to $30 a day to have someone watch my cats. And the bossmonster says just let a coworker feed them at night, but being that Baby is overweight, we have a pretty strict feeding regimen, such that the other cats eat too.
I am wondering if I can either bill this to my employer, or deduct it as a business-related expence...

At what point does management stop being 'useful direction' and become 'micromangement'?

I think I am the only person I know who would spend money to go see all three of these concerts...

02/21/03 The Pretenders starring Chrissie Hynde
02/22/03 Mix 96.9 Concert Series with Cyndi Lauper
03/14/03 Belinda Carlisle

All at the Celebrity Theater next year

While I sat waiting for my new tires, I was reading a Business 2.0 about LInux, and particularly Ximian. The main subject was Mono and it's relationship to Microsofts .Net platform.
Favorite Quote:
"One reason it [Microsoft] created .Net's programming tools was to displace another popular platform, Java. So, ironically, Microsoft can exploit Mono for now as a handy means of legitimizing .Net and diminishing the value of Java. Let Mono help kill off Java, and worry about Mono -- if you need to -- later."
Now, I am not the world's bigest fan of Java, but it has it's bonuses. I am also not Microsoft's biggest detractor. They make some cool software, and there still is no IDE quite up to snuff with Visual Studio. But this all seems just a wee bit off kilter to me.
Read the article.

Merry Christmas! This year, I got two new tires and four new hubcaps. Had a blowout on the expressway this morning ( and I was going to be on time too ), so I had to go to the discount tire and get a new tire. The other front tire was pretty worn also, so I had them replace them both and got replacements for my beaten old hubcaps for about $200 bucks. More then I was going to spend for myself on christmas, but there you go...
Also, changing a flat on the expressway is no fun at all. It's cold out there...

Have I lived in the city too long when the following phone conversation at 3:30am is no big deal?
<him>Is this the faggot living there
<me>Who the fuck is this
<him>Is, um, Keri there?
<me>You've got the wrong number
<him>Sorry...<click>

Update....
Got an xmas bonus today, instead of at the party. Odd, but hey. Also, got a gift from the folks in the mail. One of the co-workers saw it and asked me if I was gonna open it. When I said I was going to wait until christmas, he couldn't understand it. I guess it's just more fun on xmas.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go buy my cat's gifts...

Well, the xmas party last night was ok. I have found out that I really don't relate to any of the people I work with in any way other then a strictly professional one. Of course, I am finding this of pretty much all my relationships. So I spent a few hours there, got some leftovers to bring home, and no bonus.
I'm not bitter or anything, but it has been quite a while since I ever got anything like an xmas bonus. I think I got one, when I was newly out of college, doing typesetting ( on boards, not computers ). The owner of the company gave everyone a bonus ( I think I got $50 ). That was the first and last bonus I remember getting. I got this crystal thing at my last job in michigan, but I gave that to a friend because it would have gotten lost in my closet.
I have found out that my boss is truely 'the other half', as in 'seeing how the other half lives'. His backyard is huge, comparatively, with this pond thing and outdoor gas-log fireplace. Must be nice.

Getting ready for the company xmas party. What fun. It's at the bosses house way up in north phoenix. Like an hour drive, to go spend time with the 5 people I see every other day of the week. I don't want to sound like I don't like these people. I'm sure they are fine people and all, but they are my coworkers, not my friends. That's not a bad thing, it's just the way it is. But I will go, in hopes of an xmas bonus.

Why hockey players are seriously underpaid...
Red Wings defenseman Mathieu Dandenault will be sidelined two-to-three weeks after a puck hit him in the head and broke an eye socket.
2 to 3 weeks. He broke an eye socket. An eye socket for crying out loud. You never hear about this kind of toughness in any other sport, except rugby, which is simply smear-the-queer, with referees...

XML, that's like a markup language or something, right?

So, this week I found a package on my doorstep containing this and this. I have a couple of ideas who sent it, but I don't know for sure. Would the guilty party please step forward.

For luxury in nipple warmers you shouldn't go past possum fur.

Guess what everyone is getting for xmas next year.. :)

link via jwz

Super-macho-binge shopping rules.
Today I went from total xmas wasteland to fully prepared. I hit 3 malls, Target, several shops on Mill, and the super-huge yuppie craft thing. I woke up early, got dressed, stepped out my front door and said 'All you mothers better step, cause I'm gonna get my shop on.' And get my shop on I did. Gifts for 17 people, rapping paper, and I am still under budget. Which means extra fun trinket shopping tomorrow, perhaps.