Archive for July, 2005


Page 21 Girl

7/11/2005

I graduated from KHS in 1993. As I was scanning the Yahoo! Personals recently (yeah I do internet personals, sue me), I stumbled across an ad that looked like someone I knew.. well not really knew, but knew of.. well, you know what I mean. Anyway, I wrote her and just asked if she graduated from KHS in ‘93. A few messages were shot back and forth, then I chatted with her later. Yeah, she was someone I went to school with. I called her “Page 21 Girl” because she’s on page 21 (duh) of the KHS yearbook from ‘93 - not to be confused with Page 3 girls.

I was thankful to finally come across someone that I graduated with that turned out okay. She still looks great, does the office job thing and has her things in order. Was I interested in dating her? Not really. She’s too tall (I prefer girls 4′10″ to 5′3″.. maybe 5′5″ tops if I have any choice in the matter). I just had to know if that was really her on the personals. We chatted for a while and she was very nice, not snobby, not conceited, a good internet chatter (God bless fast typers), and -whoa- she knew who I was once I told her.

Scary.. but yet not so scary. She was nice. Nice people count. (grin)

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Top 10

7/12/2005

My top 10 ten list of things I will be able to enjoy once July 22nd rolls around (last day of the job from hell where at that point I will officially be unemployed for a while - by choice):

10. Shopping during the week

Best time to shop for anything anywhere: Tuesday at eleven in the morning or two in the afternoon. There are short (or no) lines, people are more friendly and you can take your time - the way you want to.

9. Saving about a bazillion dollars on gas by not commuting to werk.

A savings of at least $150 a month. Note: Try not to think about how much you spend just on the fuel alone to get to werk. That will do nothing but serve to irritate you.

8. Not dealing with the morning corporate cattle drive

Corporate cattle drive = Morning commute, a time when there are only two types of drivers on the road: Those who drive nice and easy because they actually got up on time, and those who are speeding along at 80+mph because they’re late.

7. Being able to go to the post office when they’re actually open.

For some strange unknown reason, the post office is only open after you leave for werk, and closed when you get home from werk. On the one day you have time to go to the post office (Saturday), they’re only open until noon.

6. Eating sensibly

One of the “joys” of working in an office is listening to your ass grow from eating crap all day. Where I werk, they made a point of putting a vending machine right inside the helpdesk area, chock full of candy bars, chips and other artery clogging crap. Cheap, easily accessible and fattening as hell. I will be very happy to get far away from that vending machine.

5. Using completely “unrestricted” computers

Computers in just about any corporate environment are so unbelievably locked down that you can’t hardly do anything of enjoyment on them. Any web site that has any cool factor to it is blocked. All instant messengers are blocked. Every single move you make on the network is monitored — and the shortly after you find something cool on the ‘net, the next day it’s probably blocked. Now granted, for smarty-pants types, there are ways around that, but still, restricted computers fucking suck.

4. Wearing jeans and t-shirts.. every.. single.. day

Everyone loves jeans, and so do I. Everyone also loves t’s. They are comfortable and never go out of style. Long live jeans and t’s.

3. Getting outside

When you’re in the office, you’re inside pretty much all day with no windows anywhere near you. This doesn’t exactly give you the feeling of joy seeing a sea of cubicles all day.

2. Time to write

Although I have been writing on a regular basis here on my site, my other writing projects have come to a screeching halt, because my brain is so fried I can’t think at the end of the day. I will genuinely appreciate time to think which equals time to write.

1. Sleeping

Ever notice that you only get to do all the cool stuff when you know you have to get up early in the morn’, only to wake up forceably by an alarm clock to regret it the next day? Seriously speaking, I love sleeping and I don’t take it lightly. It is the only time when your body has a chance to recharge itself. The less you sleep, the sooner you die.

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12 bucks wasted

7/13/2005

Even though I hardly ever use my cell phone (which is a LG VX3200 by the way), I am getting kinda tired of looking at the same old wallpaper over and over again. The ringtones completely suck, too. I noticed there was a little port on the bottom.. “Hm.. must be for data!”, so I popped on to eBay and bought a cable. With shipping it was 12 bucks.

I received the cable today and was happy, because now I could go and change the ringtones and wallpapers and so on.

Or so I thought.

Does the cable work? Sure. Does it allow me to modify ringtones and wallpaper? Absolutely not. It will charge the phone, but it absolutely will not send/receive any data whatsoever.

After scrounging around the ‘net trying to find a tutorial on how to get the cable to work for data transfers, I found this thread and followed the instructions. No go. Windows XP will not detect the “USB Prolific” device as stated in the tutorial. I don’t know why because even though it’s not specifically a “FutureDial” cable, it has the same compatibility.

Blah.

I suppose it is kinda neat that I can use USB to charge my phone, but what I really wanted was some different wallpaper. Ah well. I don’t look at it much anyway.

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Doctor Who’s got a Tardis

7/14/2005

Cool song/anim of the moment:

The Doctor Who Song

Yeah, you gotta know what Doctor Who is, obviously. If you don’t.. well.. you’re missing out. EX-TER-MI-NATE! (yuk yuk yuk)

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Behold, my swagger

7/14/2005

Soon enough I will no longer be employed as a help desk schmuck. As I sit here typing this away on my trusty laptop, I notice that all the knots in my back are gone. Stress is almost non-existent. I am calm and at peace.

Earlier after I got home from werk today, I did my usual thing, got home, went in the house, took the laptop out of my bag and plopped it on my desk and just surfed around some blogs and other web sites.. just reading up on stuff.. the usual hoo-ha. After a little while of doing that, reality set in.

Shit. I won’t have a job. How the hell am I going to make any money? What the hell am I going to do? Am I nuts or something?

Or something.

A friend and I were yapping on the phone earlier this week. We got on the subject of creative people and “The Madness”. This Madness goes a little something like this: Creative types are a weird fucked up breed. No matter what it is you create, whether you’re a musician, a poet, a writer, an actor, an artist or whatever, the creative thing is within you in some form or another. At times it will make you the happiest person on Earth. Other times it will drive you insane. This creativity makes you seem odd to other people who haven’t the slightest clue on how to create anything. Being that you have the creative thing and know it, doing anything else which is tedious and meaningless (like the job I just quit) causes you much more mental strife compared to everyone else.

As it is said in The Shawshank Redemption, “..some birds are not meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.” The Madness in its twisted beautiful form will do anything to break the walls of the cage. Sometimes it will cause you to make some darn stupid decisions, depending on your definition of “stupid”.

Was quitting my job a stupid decision?

Fiscally, yes.

Mentally, no.

What matters more to me? Sound mind or fat wallet? This is probably best answered with another famous quote.

“If you haven’t got your health, you don’t have anything.”

Yes. Quitting my job was the right thing to do.

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From the garden

7/15/2005

Butterfly on bright pink flower

Shot taken earlier this morning in the garden. Came out quite good.

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D’oh! A deer

7/15/2005

Deer

Apologies for the extremely crappy photo, I had to snap this one quick. A doe just up and decided to stop in the middle of the driveway and stared at the house for about a minute. I took this shot somewhere between 25 to 30 yards away - hence the grain.

It trotted off shortly afterwards.

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SOLD!

7/15/2005

Today is an awesome day.

1. The house is almost officially SOLD. I say “almost” because there are just a few bank things to get out of the way. But for all intents and purposes, it’s sold. An offer was made, and accepted.

2. I now have near-100% confirmation (see point 1 above) that I will be moving. North. Where up North? Can’t get specific about that just yet. Things are still in the planning stages.

3. The Red Sox are beating the piss out of the Yankees in tonight’s game.

Today is an awesome day.

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Photos from around Putnam Connecticut

7/16/2005

Coca-Cola sign, Putnam Connecticut 2005

A very old Coca-Cola sign painted on the side of a building in downtown Putnam. When you’re walking thru Rotary Park, you can see this, it’s right behind PJ’s Donuts.

Rotary Park, Putnam Connecticut 2005

Some flags in Rotary Park. State of Connecticut, Rotary club flag, and Old Glory.

Dam, Putnam Connecticut 2005

“Putnam Falls” (a dam, actually).

Rotary Park, Putnam Connecticut 2005

My ex-fiancee Crystal (yes, that’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned her name on this site) and I used to sit under this tree, which I think is the best tree in Rotary Park. I still do. I sat at the foot of the tree for a moment just like I used to and thought about the good times.. and the bad.. and that all things pass. I may visit this tree again sometime soon.

Interstate 395 sign

A sign indicating the direction of where Interstate 395 is. Anyone who lives in Northeastern Connecticut is very familiar with this limited access highway. If you get on to it, you can travel all the way from the Northeast corner down to the south shore in Niantic.

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Where the K-Mart -used- to be

7/16/2005

I’m putting these photos up because I’m quite sure this place is going to change drastically over the next five years.

Below are some photos from the site of the where the old K-Mart used to be. For many years I remember going there with the family shopping as a kid. They always had a cool arcade in the lobby area, a place where I plunked down many quarters on games like Road Blasters while Mom shopped.

After K-Mart moved to a new shopping plaza a few miles away, the building remained for years, dormant. Recently, they started tearing the ground up, and now this is all that’s left. Yes, the entire building is gone. The other “half” of the large parking lot still has stores in it.. just a scant few.

These shots were taken from the far side of the lot.

Putnam Plaza, July 2005

Putnam Plaza, July 2005

Putnam Plaza, July 2005

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