Hardest Part of the Day

As far back as I could remember I viewed getting up as the hardest part of the day, at least as far back as high school. Now with my back/neck a little hurt, for whatever reason, making sleep a tad bit more difficult, 5:30am is really early. I don't leave the house until 6:30/6:40 so I don't have to get up until 6ish. I did learn a long time ago however that a relaxed Trevor is a happy Trevor. Taking my time getting ready, eating breakfast, watching SportsCenter, all makes my day go much better. I even have time to do a little morning workout once I decide to start working out. I'm not in good shape, well round is a shape, so it will happen eventually. Now onto other random thoughts.

• Closed Interstates Suck. This is the third time I've been on an interstate somewhere I wasn't from. Once on vacation and twice for work. I was staying about 30 minutes outside of Boston this past weekend, left an hour before I had to be at the convention. Well 4 hours later I got to the show. It just isn't a lot of fun to have a sense of being lost on some sideroad because the main road is closed. The F150 truck ahead of me was my new buddy, where he went I went. Good thing he wanted back on the interstate as well.
• X-Men 3 was Blah. I enjoyed it, I will watch it again, and probably own it. I think I will probably watch it more than X-Men 1. It wasn't very good however. I isn't the first bad movie that I like and probably won't be the last. Also depsite saying it was the last official team X-Men (Wolverine and Magneto solo projects aside) movie I think $120,000,000 in 4 days will change that.
• Stupid Mets won't lose. Maybe they don't go away this year. I think the Braves could make a run at the division or even the wild card. With that bullpen however I don't the Braves chances in the playoffs, ick.
• My little one has finished her first year of school. Does that mean I'm now an adult or was that a few years ago. Hopefully that doesn't mean I have to stop playing games at work.

Trips Get Expensive

I've found the each of the trips I take for work over the last 12 months or so cost me some money, about $10 to $20 each. I've been traveling for work for over three years now but it has only been the last year that I spend this $10 to $20. It was last May that I got my iPod. I got Pretty Bird her's the previous November for her birthday and we both loved it. The trips cost me this before I leave, usually the night before. I spend this money at iTunes picking up some new songs or albums (yes Mark you can call them albums). I usually start out just wanting to shake things up and create some new playlists and I end up picking up some new music. It is so easy and allows me to get a nice variety to listen to on the next day's flight. Neither of us purchased much music past high school or college, hell I was just a radio guy from 1997 until last year. We probably bought maybe 20 albums between '97 and last year. So the 200 album/2500 song collection we had was mainly from our high school/college years. Since she got her iPod we've probably added another 20 albums or so. It was fun to 'rediscover' buying music again.

If you don't have an iPod yet, well what are you waiting for?

Summer Sucks

Actually I really like summer, I guess it goes back to being a kid and getting summers off. As a comic book collector and TCG player/fan it means summer convention season which I love. Hell my job pays for me to go to mulitple conventions which is even better. Nothing beats free San Diego Comic-Con, well except maybe a free SDCC where I could actually see some of the show. What sucks about the summer is my companies absurd summer hours. Our normal week is 8:00am to 5:00pm (used to be 8:30am to 5:30pm), five 9 hour days. That is a typical office type job, covers your hour lunch and gets the company 40 hours out of you.

For summer hours we have four 10 hour days and one four hour day. We work Monday through Thursday, 7:00am to 5:00pm and Friday 7:00am to 11:00am. Summers hours are the week before Memorial Day (now) until the week before Labor Day. As nice as it is to get off at 11:00am on Friday's that isn't going to happen very often. Of the Friday's I worked last year during summer hours I probably left on time less than 25% of them. We are 'encouraged' to stay later on Fridays, some people like to work as late as 2:00pm or 3:00pm on a regular basis. That brings me to my next problem, I travel a lot. Last year of the 15 potential half Fridays I was on the road for 9 of them. This year is slightly better in terms of being able to enjoy a half Friday, I'm only traveling for 7 of them.

I think even if I enjoyed all of the potential benefits of this policy it still wouldn't be my favorite idea. I think 7:00am is just too early to be at work is all. Today I was here before Yahoo updated the previous days Fantasy scores, before the building was open (I got to use my electric pass card for the first time), and was at Chik-Fil-A before they were open. How did I manage high school at the 7:20 start time, oh yeah I slept a lot during class. Well off to my daily nap :)

Amazed

I'm constantly amazed by things, all sorts of things. I think the world is full of wonders and oddities that make it interesting. I love to find these and they usually amaze me. They aren't always great things, sometimes annoying things, but anyways. The current thing that amazes me is how simliar my issues with IT departments are, no matter the scope of the job or the size of the company. The IT solutions at all seven companies (General Cinema, Taco Bell, Toys R Us, NetMarket, Stacey's Greenhouses, Decipher, and RC2) I've been employeed by have all been crap in one way or another. IT should provide, within cost and reason, tools to help the employees to their jobs. Not create things which force employees to spend time doing instead of their jobs.

Currently I want to be able to easily update from the road pictures and event write ups. I also would like a website design to allow such things to easily be displayed. I have neither. RC2 actually has a decent web team but since I'm in Charlotte and they are in Chicago I'm sure there is a little out of sight out of mind. Our website is actually one of the better ones in the TCG industry, it just doesn't do exactly what I want it to do.

But hey, I'm a smart guy (at least my mom told me that once), I can figure it out. So guess what, I'm just going to use Blogger! A free service that does exactly what I want and I can avoid stressing out about it and arguing why it is a good idea. So in case you want to visit and see the coolness that is Fullmetal Alchemist TCG events (really, it isn't that cool but I have a good time) check out my other blog. fmatcg.blogspot.com

That brings me to another thing that amazes me in the not good way. Why can I find a free solution for an IT problem that is better than the one that my company is no doubt paying a lot for. We have email issues, big graphic attachments, a redundant server set up to avoid losing emails, not enough space. When our local email server gets full the redundant system just stops sending us email and keeps it in Chicago. This problem happens about once every six weeks so now we're supposed to keep our inbox down to 20 megs. I get 6 gigs of email space from google for free and I have an expensive thing at work that I have to keep under 20 megs. Amazing.

Randomness

I don't really have a single topic to post about yet I want to keep in the habit of making a post on a regular basis. I guess I could talk about baseball again but what fun is that.

- I calculated that since I've moved to Charlotte, the last week of February 2005, I've staying in a hotel room over 80 nights. That just seems awful high. In addition there are four or five weekends staying at the guest room at my parents house. That is a whole lot of me not sleeping in my bed and I really like my bed.

- I recently had a trip to California and Arizona. I had to fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles at 6am and the rental car place in SF is a good 10 minutes from the airport. I do get to skip most of the lines but I still wanted to give myself a good 70-90 minutes to get everything worked out so I left the hotel at around 4:15 or so. Since I left so early I didn't bother to check my bill before I left and bam, a mistake. I was charged for a movie. I call the hotel and they inform me that the movie was on for less than 90 seconds at like 3am. Normally they ignore movie charges of under 5 minutes but since it was an 'adult' movie or so I was informed they always charge. Now I'm not against adult movies, I just typically don't want to spend $12.95 for them at 3am on an expense account. For me to be up at 3am west coast after flying from the east coast at 7am would have meant that I was up for 23 hours. After flying 5 hours, driving around crazy San Francisco, and only eating one real meal all day I don't even want to have sex with my lovely wife much less watch random porn movie. The Hilton Garden Inn eventually saw it my way.

- As much as I don't like Barry Bonds I dislike Joe Morgan talking about him even more. See I gotcha, you thought I wasn't going to talk about baseball. I watched about 20 minutes of last night's Phillies/Giants game and Morgan wouldn't shut up about Bonds. Bonds this, Bonds that, how great he is, how he is probably #2 on the list of great players behind Willie Mays, on and on. Joe Morgan is an idiot. This is the guy who said he respects Alfonso Soriano for finally moving from second to left field. Um, hello, for 10 million a year if Frank wants Soriano to wash his car the first words out of his mouth should be "How many coats of wax". There now I ripped three baseball (ex)players I can't stand all at once. Suck it Joe Morgan.

- How does 'greatest baseball player ever' not begin and end with Babe Ruth? He won 20 games in a year as a pitcher and was the greatest power hitter of all time. Again, suck it Joe Morgan.

- Free Comic Book Day was a great time. The local store here puts on a great show. There is my next blog topic and I was looking for one. See this steam of consciousness thing really works.

- Back to Bonds. Just sign the guys baseball, I mean come on. I know if I was this guy I would tell Bonds and his ESPN show to suck it.

I'm sure I have more random thoughts and I will probably share them as time goes on.

Its Lima Time!

Now if only we can convince the Mets to start Jose Lima every time we play them we might have a chance to win the division. There is still hope but I really believe the Braves aren't very good and the Mets are a top 10 team in the Majors.

Awful

The Braves are just awful this year. I know I shouldn't be suprised or shocked, they didn't upgrade a team that started a ton of rookies last year. I know I shouldn't complain, they have won 14 years in a row. None of that makes it any easier. They just stink. I will still watch, I will still root for them, and hope, I just think it might be a long summer. I do know in Atlanta they are probably wondering when the Dawgs and the Michael Vick Experience start.

Another Easter picture

This is another picture from our trip to Grammy's house for Easter. We spent the week previous in Florida visiting other family and of course Disney World! This is Grammy and the Little One spending time right after the outside Easter Egg hunt is finished. The Little One had never done an outside Easter Egg hunt and boy did she love it. She does love visiting Grammy and Papa though. They don't know the word no and the house is full of puppies! Good times were had by all.

Well I'm not going to buy this one, I swear

I don't mind admitting I really like Star Wars. I don't even mind admitting I like parts of the horrible movies that have been released over the last 7 years that pretended to be Star Wars movies. Hell I don't even mind buying newly redone versions of Star Wars stuff I already own, at least from time to time. I do what I do both directly and indirectly because of Star Wars. I'm a geek into science fiction, gaming, comics, etc, and Star Wars started me on that path. I also broke into the gaming industry with a company that produced a Star Wars game. I didn't start there during the Star Wars run but I did buy into their products and gaming ways because of Star Wars. Right now one of my favorite ways to waste time is Star Wars Empire At War, that game is great.

I'm not going to buy this however, I'm just not. Two years ago was the first time the original Star Wars movies came to DVD. This newer set will mark the third time the movies have been released on DVD. I'm a marketing manager for a pretty large company, I also worked at Decipher for two years, I'm well aware of shaking a money tree as hard as you can while it still giving money. With either HD-DVD or Blue Ray, whichever one survives, this gives LucasFilm at least four or five upcoming releases with little to know work on their part. I'm okay with a company doing that, in fact I would probably buy two or so of those four or five redone versions. They will have features I want for a new format, whatever. I just think three DVD versions in less than 36 months is too much, even if these are the versions I want to own the most. In the life of VHS I'm pretty sure Star Wars was released five different times, six if you count the THX pan and scan and widescreen as seperate releases (they were about four months apart). That is in what, 15 years of VHS. Obviously DVDs won't last as the dominate format for 15+ years, sorry Evan and Kevin, but 3 in less than 36 months that is just too much.

I don't even like little dogs

I do miss the AJC sports section though.

I can't wait

Superman Returns!

This is hotter than Six

Well maybe not, still good though. Another BSG series, I won't know what to do with myself. Thanks to Dr. Heimlich for pointing it out. I've been able to convince two people in the office with a third on the way of the greatness that is BSG, hell even Pretty Bird watches it and she isn't a huge science fiction fan. Good stuff, I'm very excited.

Off to San Fran

Well I leave for San Francisco tomorrow. I have many trips to "SoCal" under my belt but this will be my first trip to "NoCal". Like most business trips I wish I had more time to visit a highly recommended city that I've never been to. Maybe next time.

Some random thoughts since I probably won't post often till I get back.

• Welcome back Larry, lets try and stay healthy, that and punish the Mets this weekend.
• Stupid Brewers although I do love to watch a good, young, homegrown team do well.
• Maybe the Steelers will get lucky and LenDale will drop all the way to them, I doubt it but me and the other Steeler fan in the office can hope.
• Yuengling is one helluva a good beer.
• I'm trying to decide if I want to see United 93 or not, at this point I'm leaning towards a yes.
• Wrath of KHAAAAAAAAAAAANNN was on today. Despite owning it and seeing it a good bit, it is still fun to watch.
• Did I mention it is good to see Larry back in action.

This weekend is very quickly becoming a 'reunion' weekend. I get to see Enrique, Girard, Goodrich, Beal, and Peiper is even coming down from his debauchery in Vegas to visit. This proves two things, one it should be a good weekend and two I know too many people on the west coast.

This will also be my third trip already to the pacific time zone with at least three more planned later in the year, should rack up the miles. Good thing I don't mind flying and I love LA and San Diego.

Monday Blues

First Jack didn't get his killin' on then the Braves follow it up with a loss. Davies really left the pitch up and then bam, HR, tis life I guess.

It wasn't a great episode of 24, first the 'death' of Secretary Heller, then the introduction of the secret society of bad guys, and finished off with Jack and his unibomber disguise yet still with no killin'. At least Curtis is back. I do wish it was just Logan as the bad guy but oh well.

I will miss next week's episode live since I will be out of town. I get to see some old friends and visit some places I've never been. Never been to San Francisco and then I get to knock off Arizona from my states to see list. Good times.

Been Busy

I guess I haven't post a lot recently because I've been busy, which is mostly true. We were on vacation for a week then Pretty Bird was out of town for most of a week following that. With just me and the little one I tried to not open the laptop as much as possible because then I would get invovled in it and not spend as much time with her as I should. She also gets really stressed when her mom isn't around for longer periods of time so it requires extra attention. We did have a good time together it would have just been better with everyone at home.

Even with Pretty Bird back we're trying to buy a house so that takes extra time. She is also working a semi-full time job right now so it is a lot of me at home with just the little one. But I want to try and blog on a more regular basis. I enjoy reading everyone else's blog so I should try and update mine more often. I'll even try to write about stuff other than just sports all the time :)

Is it 2006 or 1996, Braves pitchers have the top 3 ERAs in baseball. Oh wait, damn it, Tommy and Maddux aren't with the Braves anymore :( Still look at Mad Dog and his 0.99 ERA.

Pretty Bird and I are watching West Wing last night and Alan Alda's name is still in the credits, which wasn't exactly odd since it has been for the entire year even when he wasn't in the episode. But with the election happening already and a few episodes left I knew they weren't done with him yet. So without any other information I inform Pretty Bird that Santos is going to ask him to be the VP. It turns out I was correct, yea me! Just another thing in the long line of things that proves despite how good West Wing is it is still fiction. It was great to see Sam again.

Of all the TV shows I'm probably going to miss West Wing the most. It isn't my favorite show, not by far, but it is the one who I've felt I've known the characters the best. When the show was on, which has been plenty over the last 7 years, I've really felt that while watching that they were real characters. Good bye President Barlett.

24 tonight, Jack's gotta get his killin' on.

Did I mention Maddux has a 0.99 ERA, wtf!!

Suck It!

Taking two of three against the Mets, it doesn't get much better than that. The Braves were very lucky to win two. The Mets are very strong team, the Braves pitchers have struggled and now 3/4 of the infield is hurt.

Still baseball is back and it should be a great summer.

Can we have Leo back?

It is good that the Braves have scored 11, 4, and 9 runs in their first three games. I actually was worried that their offense would have issues this year. I even figured the Dodgers would give them even more than average trouble in terms of scoring runs so 24 runs in 3 games is pretty good. However the pitching, they've allowed 10, 5, and 8 runs, not exactly what us Braves fans are used to. I shouldn't complain too much, they did start the season 2-1. I am tempted to drive up to Baltimore and steal Leo back though.

It could have just as easily been Big Bird

Last week at work we talked about the 'real bad guy' and picked Logan. Not based on any proof just based on it is 24 and anything could happen without rhyme or reason. My second choice was Big Bird. I guess in the next few weeks of TV we will prove this Jack Bauer fact true.

"The President of the United States isn't the most powerful man in the world, Jack Bauer is"

Baseball is back

I just love Opening Day, I love it even more when the Braves win. They showed they can hit but they seem to have some issues with the bullpen. As much as I don't like to quote Al Davis, just win baby. A win is all that matters.

Are you a fool?

Happy April Fool's Day! I didn't see any good pranks, Fark tried but nothing great. Did you get fooled?