Ehh.. perhaps monthly

So, lets just go for a blah generic monthly update for the 3 readers I still have. The new job is going very well. You would think 5 o'clock meetings every Friday would suck, but when beer is provided, they seem a lot better.

Well, let's get to the important stuff, sports. Notre Dame. Yeah, well, we pretty much suck this year. I'm glad we're finally moving to Sharpley. Granted the ceiling is higher on Clausen, but sorry, the kid just ain't that good. We could probably live with this if there was anyone else on our team who knew how to play football, but unfortunately this isn't the case. Anyway, I'm headed out for the Navy game (um, if ever there was a year for the streak to end...lets just not think of this). I still have extra ticket if anyone's interested.

How about my good teams. The Red Sox were doing real well up until the ALCS. This is a fairly accurate representation of my feelings on this series, except for the Joe Buck/Tim McCarver thing. I wasn't that big a fan of TBS coverage, but it was still better than those to morons. Anyway, we only have one good starting pitcher, one fewer good relievers than Cleveland, and 5 guys in our lineup who can't hit. It's a bad combination. I picked a helluva time to start dating someone from Cleveland. (She's also a domer).

Moving on to a team I don't have any doubts about, the Patriots. I feel like this is like watching a High School prep team taking on the local public high school every week. It's nice to be able to sit down and watch a game, and not just know that you'll win, but that you're going to kick ass. That's all for now. I still have delusions of blogging more often, but lets hope I least keep this up monthly.

Another Day

Another Red Sox win. Another Yankees loss. Needless to say, it is a good day. Speaking of the Yankees loss, it involved a steal of home, which in this day and age of baseball is almost as rare as a no hitter. In fact, I would argue that stealing home is the most exciting play in baseball, since it involves what I would consider to be the highest risk and highest reward. I think its a play that needs to be tried more often. Of course, that would also require everyone to tell their respective manager to sack up and take a risk even if you don't have a player named Jose Reyes.

Continuing on the sports theme, Cleveland, I must say, I'm very disappointed in you. Now, I'm certainly not that big of an NBA fan, but c'mon, your team is in the Eastern Conference Finals, you have one best young stars in the game (even if his competitive edge isn't ideal), but that arena sure as hell didn't seem like it was sold out. What, did you all stay home to watch the Indians lose to my Sox at Fenway?

For the 3 or 4 of you that still read my blog, you may remember me mentioning being locked in an office on New Years Eve. Well now there is video proof...with a few artistic liberties.

To Do List

1) Update the blog template.

2) Start learning PHP.

3) Apply for the ND ticket lottery (Penn State and a TBD home game)

4) Donate money so I can be in next year's lottery.

5) Buy my sister a graduation present (once I think of something good).

6) Buy a train ticket so I can actually attend the graduation.

Weekend tease.

So we had the first beautiful weekend of the year. Last week I was hoping to go for a bike ride on Sunday. Unfortunately, as the weekend drew closer and closer, and after tow nights at the office to 10pm, it became clear that I was going to need to work on the weekend. I suppose I got up before 11 am I would only have needed to work on Saturday, but it's still the weekend, and I still sleep like a college student, consequently I sat in front of a computer Saturday and Sunday afternoon. ::sigh:: Somehow telling myself that I got more experience in AJAX technologies isn't particularly satisfying.

In other news...damn how about that sweep of the Yankees! The back to back to back to back home runs were almost orgasmic to watch. I'm still a little concerned that we only one the whole series by 4 or 5 runs against a team that doesn't have ANYONE to pitch, but I'll take the result.

I went grocery shopping last night and noticed a woman checking out the expiration dates on the bottled water. This bothered me for two reasons. 1)Water has an expiration date?!?! Do the polar water molecules eventually eat away the plastic or something and make the water less safe? I find this unlikely. Is there a chemist lurking on this blog that can explain this to me? 2)The expiration date wasn't for like 2 years (after the woman looked at them i felt the need to do it myself), how long are you going to hoard water in your apartment? Are you planning for the apocolypse? Why would spend money on bottled water and then not drink it?

Two weekends ago I went through a downloading binge (what else are you doing to do on a rainy Sunday), and today I got around to thinking, I wonder if I shoudl download songs that I have tapes for. It's not like you can easily rip them to a computer, or like I ever listen to them, but a lot of them have music I like. I just get hung up on the fact that I paid for the music once (even if it was like 15 years ago), and I don't want to do it again.

getting caught up.

So the weekend after being woken up by runners I was woken up by workers sawing through bricks on the building across the street. I thought the blue collar people in this city had unions that told them not to work on weekends, then someone pointed out to me that the unions actually tell them to work on weekends so they make time and a half. I can't win. It's like some divine sing telling me I should grow up and start getting out of bed earlier on the weekends so I do something productive with me day. Personally, I'd rather make a lot more money and move into a high rise apartment building where I'm above all the noise. They seem to be equally difficult, but the making money idea seems a lot more enjoyable.

In other news, the second busiest time of the sports year after football season, is march madness. I may disappear for a little while.

Speaking of sports, I missed ND's loss in the tournament. I'm disappointed obviously, but I didn't see the game so I can't really comment on it. I will comment on the lack of underdogs in the sweet sixteen though. This is the most boring tournament in years. At least the women's tournament has an underdog in the sweet sixteen. I'm officially on the Marist bandwagon, but I'm pretty sure Tennessee will kill them in the next round.

Friday night I was supposed to hang out some old coworkers from Bristol, but then that whole nor'easter thing happened, and they decided it wasn't worth risking their lives to go watch the Knicks, which I can't really blame them for. Anyway, the Knicks donned green unis for the game which I thought were pretty tight. If I cared about the NBA at all, and was a Knicks fan, I definitely would have spent too much on a jersey.

St. Patty's day I found myself back at MSG for the Rangers vs. Bruins. This game was a blowout, but it was also the first time I've seen the goalie get pulled, only to see the replacement get pulled later and have the starter go back in. After this I did bit of bar hopping and ended up meeting a couple of cute girls. Good times all around except for the hour of time missing when I tried to take the subway home. That was a little scary.

How not to get promoted

Accept Big East Tournament tickets at 10 am, and then leave the office for 3 hours to go watch a basketball game. But hey we won!

I hate runners

"Run for fun" is a concept that is completely beyond my comprehension. The list of things that I would do before running include such items, but are by no means limited to stabbing myself, jumping out a 3rd story window and participating in ultimate fighting. What really pisses me about runners is that they seem to have this compulsion to do their running at the ass crack of dawn, and if there's something I hate more than running, its morning people.

Now the reason for this bitter post is the 5k that was run this morning up here in Washington Heights. From at at least 9-11 there were a bunch of people outside screaming and making noise ruining my beauty sleep. C'mon people its a distance race, its even more boring than auto racing. At least there is a chance for a crash and explosions and shit to go flying there. That's something worth getting excited over.

Also, its fucking March. Why do you want to run first thing in the morning? Would waiting until like noon when it might be a bit more comfortable be a more ideal time for running? Hmmmm? The only running that is mildly interesting is a sprinting because close and its quick. Now I know I have no power to stop people from running, but I do have an idea to make things more interesting in a distance race. This will even add a true element of strategy that I'm sure the few runners still reading this will claim exists already. My thought would be that at random points during would get attacked in different ways. At one point they could be like pelted with footballs. At another you could have people come out and try to just body check the runners (running the gauntlet was always one of my favorite hockey drills). You could also have a point they have to battle people with melee weapons, so instead of handing the runners water as they go by you hand them like a club or a bow. You could also incorporate a team concept into this as you want to run in a pack to defend yourself, or have certain members of a team try and take the hits to defend the better runner. Don't tell me you love watching this on TV.

Stumbling out of the gate

So very slowly I'm getting my new computer set up. I meant to do a lot with it this weekend, but Saturday I was doing laundry and watching ND kick the crap out of Marquette (by the way my expectations for next year will be very high for this team). Sunday I was just a complete bum. Anyway, if you're thinking of buying a new computer with Vista, I recommend holding off for a year so they can work out the bugs. I've had this thing for a week and I've already had some problems with it. Granted, I knew this was a bad time to buy a new PC, but the top of the line computer from my freshman year of college really just couldn't take it anymore. Anyway, things are at least fixed now, but I still need to re-network my computers so I can move the crap from my old PC to my new one.

In other news I have joined The University Glee Club of New York. Singing with the guys is definitely something I miss, and has been a bit of a hole in my life that will now be filled. Unfortunately I won't be able to sing in the concert May 19th because it's my sister's graduation weekend (from URI for those who are curious), but at least I'll get to sing once a week and get a group of guys to hang out with in the city, which is currently something I lack.

Can we win a road game?

Seriously. In Big East play we're 5-0 at home, and 1-5 on the road (I think the 102 spot we put up on the 'Cuse was a bit of an aberration). Ok, Carter and Kurz were less than 100% but seriously. We seem to do alright without McAlarney when we're at home, but on the road we seem to come up just short. I suppose this si better thatn last year when we caem up just short EVERY Big East game, but it's still damn frustrating. I have two other frustrations with this team. 2 or 3 times a game Carter takes inexplicably bad shots just because he seems to be feeling it. If it wasn't for that, I'd think he'd have a good shot in the NBA next year. Also WTF is up with Colin Falls taking the ball up the floor with 25 seconds left. I know he's a senior and he was having a great game, but he's still the only the 3rd best ball handler we ahve on the floor after Jackson (our actual point guard) and Carter (who is the only other player I really have faith in to be able to handle the ball). Also, both of them are a helluva lot more athletic than Falls. I suppose if you wanted someone fouled it woudl be him, but why not get the ball to Carter if you have no one back on D huh? GRRRRRR>:0

Now I must try not to drown my sorrows my finishing an entire bottle of wine.

Music: Korn - Life is Peachy

Worst. Commercials. Ever.

I think Bud Light definitely won the award for "best overall", with Career Builder coming in second, but otherwise, I think this was the most dismal year for commercials ever. Granted they've sucked for the past sevearl years, but there were usually more things that at least made me smile. There weren't even many of those this year. As far as the game went, I'd have to say it went more or less as I woudl have predicted it, thought Colts pulled away a little before I thought they would. Whatever, that Pats weren't in it so I didn't really care that much.

In other news, I ponied up for a new PC today. Since my current PC is 6 years old, had 500MG left on the hard drive, and my virus software expired yesterday, I decided to kiss that Christmas bonus goodbye and buy a new PC. For those of you that think I shodul have bought a Mac, die, now.

Also, if you are a night owl, and coem accross that conflux of a cold night where you want to go out, but don't want to go far, and can't find anyone that want's to go out near you, and consequently you just stay up late watchign random late night TV, you come accross some real intersting commecials. For instance, last night I learned they have plastic surgery for vaginas if you feel your vagina is too loose after childbirth. I'll let the feminists decide whether or not this is actually good idea. I also discovered that on public acess channels, not only do they advetise phone sex, but they do it with naked women. Good tiems all around. Sadly, if it wans't Superbowl weekend, these two discoveries would have been the highlight of my weekend.

I think I need to stop supporting ND

No, really, I have a good reason for this. I'm starting to think I'm bad luck. Here's the list of things I've attended since graduation:

October 2nd 2004/Football: L to Purdue 41-16
October 16th 2004/Football: W @ Navy (Meadowlands) 27-9
September 3rd 2005/Football: W @ Pitt 42-21
February 22nd 2006/MBBall: L @ UConn 75-74
March 4th 2006/WBBall: W vs. S. Florida (Big East Tourney) 73-66
March 5th 2006/WBball: L vs UConn (Big East Tourney)71-60
September 30th 2006/Football: W vs. Purdue 35-21
January 3rd 2007/Football: L vs. LSU (Sugar Bowl) 41-14
January 23rd 2007/MBBall: L @ St. John's 71-68

OK, looking at it all written down, it doesn't look completely horrible (4-5), but still that's a pretty lousy record considering that all of those teams have records considerably over .500 for the given time frame. Maybe I'm overreacting because the last two events I went to we lost.

Speaking of which, getting your starting point guard kicked out of school for possession of marijuana really fucks the team. Don't get me wrong, I like the punishment (though it does seem a little heavy handed), and I'm really glad we set the bar higher than many other schools (see Uconn, laptops). Torry Jackson definitely has some talent, but he definitely makes a lot of freshman mistakes. But still, we lost to St. Johns. They suck. I understand Big East road wins are had to come by, but this was a gimme. Unfortunately, I think ND had this mentality going into the game, and consequently half assed it for the first half before Brey kicked everyone's ass in the locker room and they showed up in the second half. Damn, at least my seats kicked butt.

This and that

Friday night I watched Lord of War with my friend Dipod. I remember watching the privews and thinking this movie woudl be kind of interesting. However, I thought it kind of sucked. Maybe I just got the wrong impression of it from the previews, but it wasn't about 2/3 of the way through the movie that I finally figured out it was supposed to be some sort of a political statement. I thought as far as statements went too, it did a poor job of relaying its message. Anyway, if you're thinking of renting it, I would knock down a few notches on your Netflix queue if I were you.

In other news, how 'bout 'dem Patriots! I think that was the most concerned I've ever been about the Patriots in the divisional playoff. I still think San Diego is the better team, but sometimes luck is just with you. I mean, who else has ever seen theri quaterback throw a game saving interception? Also, who else thinks this is some of the worst quaterback play we've seen out of all the teams in the playoffs? No one seems to look any good. Whatever, as long the Pats are alive I'm a happy man.

I'm alive, really, I swear it.

So for those of you who think I stopped blogging for the new year, sorry, I'm lazy. I've been busy too, but not so busy I can't post, really just more lazy.

Story 1)
So I sort of did the Times Square thing for new year's, except that I was in an office on Times Square 20 floors up, which is way cooler, and way nicer. Anyway, it was a cool party and all, and after the ball dropped, well, I was out of alcohol, and didn't see much reason to stay much longer since I had do a little work New Year's day (the downside of working on something that visible 24/7). Anyway, when I got to the door to exit, I discovered that someone else was trying to leave as well. Unfortunately the door was locked. Now, the lock was on the inside of the door, unfortunately it was no longer functioning, meaning everyone at the party was locked into the office.

Thankfully this was a theater office, so they had some tools floating around. We tried screwing around with the door knob for a while, but eventually we came to the conclusion that there was no way that lock was going to get unlocked. With a hammer and a screwdriver we ended up removing the door pins, and then someone on the other side (the hallway was accessible by climbing in through the windows off the ledge surrounding the building of other offices throwing parties) kicked in the door. Good times. I had door grease I couldn't wash off my heads for like 3 days.

Story 2.
So, I'll start by apologizing for not having any pictures. I never remember my camera, and for those of you that know Jim, you know he isn't this sort to remember that sort of thing either. Anyway, I left Tuesday afternoon where my flight got delayed over an hour coming out of JFK. Why you ask? Well, JFK sucks. Consequently I missed my connecting flight in Charlotte, and there were no other flights leaving there from New Orleans. So I had to spend the night in Charlotte. Unfortunately since missing my flight was not the airline's fault, I had to pay for my own hotel room. Grr... They did at least get me on a 6 am flight out of Charlotte to Chicago, and there I connected with a flight that finally allowed me to reach my hotel by about 11 am. The flight from Chicago to NO was first class too, which was pretty nice. One of the many annoying this about this (other than spending a night in Charlotte, and getting only 4 hours of sleep) was that I discovered Jim had gone to bed around the time my flight was taking off for Chicago. So not cool. Anyway, NO was pretty sweet , except for the game. (I think Rhema McKnight will go down as my most hated Irish player ever.) New Orleans may be the only city that is dirtier than New York, which is both impressive and sad at the same time.

In other news I finally have business cards after being in my current position for almost a year. In fact I have 2 boxes of them. I can probably count the number of times on one hand that I've actually needed one over the past year. I think I'll just go out one night and hand them out to everyone just so I can feel there is a justification for having that many.

There are probably more things I forgot to say, but I'll try not to be such a space cadet. Now I just need to get caught up on reading everyone else's blogs.

Little Things

Just a few little things since I feel like posting. I need to figure out what I want to do for the Sugar bowl. I was kind of hoping for a New Years Day bowl, but alas, this is now a difficult task with the current bowl structure. Anyway, I need to talk to the usual gang of idiot to see what's going on. I almost I feel I should just go to New Orleans just for the party, regardless of whether or not I get tickets. My counter argument is I don’t feel like dropping a grand on food, plane tickets, hotels, and possibly football tickets, as well as killing 2 or 3 of my 12 vacation days in the first week of the year.

Speaking of vacation, since I've been pretty thrifty with mine, I'm taking the next two Friday's off. I might get out and do some Christmas shopping. I'll probably just sleep late and then sit on my ass and play video games all day. I'm trying to think of it as saving my ambition for the new year, when I may decide definitely that the actuarial route will never happen, and start focusing completely on the career that seems to come quite a bit more naturally for me.

In other news, I have a new roommate. At least for about a month. He's a friend of my real roommate who most of you know is never here, so my real roommate is lending his friend his room while he looks for his own place. I apologize for the overuse of pronouns. Anyway, I now have to get in the habit of doing things I haven’t done since I lived here, like closing the bathroom door, which I pretty stopped doing. One of the perks though, is that he gets himself into the bathroom just a little before me in the morning, which is nice because I no longer have to wait 5 minutes for the hot water to make it up to my apartment:-)