Brave New Face

Yeah.  Been busy and didn’t feel like it was interesting enough to share with the internet.

It’s amazing how I used to be able to sit and write stuff with little effort.  Now, with things like facebook, it seems pointless to say stuff unless you’ve really got something to say.

I’m happy about how the election in the states turned out.  It will be interesting and refreshing to see that country turn around, back to the lighter side.

Speaking of which, myself and mine are going to the Decemberists concert in Portland soon.  I can’t wait and neither can she.  I’m sure it’ll be one to remember.

I’ve been doing my part for Movember, growing the ’stache, raising awareness and funds.  As of today, I’m over $800.00.  I hope I can get to $1000.00 before the month is up.

Yeah.  So I got a second chance to do the job interview.

This time was actually worse than the last.

Clearly, I’m not meant to be working at that place, and that’s fine by me.  In the meantime, I will hide in my cold, noisy server room, wear my tie and bide my time.

In a few months, I’m sure I’ll look on the events of yesterday and be able to laugh, because in a sit-com sort of way, it was probably pretty funny.

It was a shit day at work.  Petty posturing, with the instigators putting me in the middle.  Stupid stupid stupid people asking too many stupid questions all the time.  Computers failing and me discovering, via internet forums, that they are failing for everyone else that bought them as well.  And finally, the general apathy that comes with working where I do.

I left a bit early, because I had a job interview.  It was supposed to be a technical interview, to test my technical skills.  They had said it would be a four hour thing, but I would probably finish earlier than that.

So, I headed downtown and parked the car.  Checked in with reception and was soon ushered into a testing room and left with a server, two desktops and a piece of paper detailing what I was supposed to do.

It was a lot.

It was a whole lot.

The tester told me that he left a few surprises for me as well.  Great.  Sabotage.

His sabotage ended up costing me at least an hour or two of time.  Believe me, it was a miracle that my brain was even working after having a full day at the job already.  The internet provider went down midway through the test, which left me with no google to figure stuff out with.  Things that should’ve worked, didn’t.  When four and a half hours had hit, I gave up and threw in the towel.

Too bad really.  I hear it’s a good company, everyone seems nice and I really (really) need to get away from my current job soon.

Defeated, I checked my voicemail in the elevator.  I’d been getting calls the whole time and there was a voicemail.

Oh, right.  Apparently I had a $70 Beck ticket that I was supposed to be using 45 minutes ago.  Perfect.

So, I missed the concert to do the least enjoyable thing I could’ve possibly done right after a shitty day at work.

Then I picked up the parking ticket from my car window.

I take issue with some of the things people are saying these days.

For example:  “I got my hair did”.  I’ve heard intelligent, educated people that I respect say those words.

Now, I understand that popular culture, be it television, music or movies, is going to work its’ way into our common vernacular.  That’s how the english language evolves.  I get that.

I just feel that we shouldn’t be taking a step backwards on this, people.  You see, I’m just a much to blame for using these utterances in every day life as much as the next person.  I often use “shiny” as “great, fantastic, excellent”.  My pop culture connection with Joss Whedon is apparent, and I’m alright with that, because while geeky, I don’t think saying “shiny” in place of those other words makes me sound like a frickin’ idiot.  Maybe I’m wrong there.

Got. My. Hair. Did.

Seriously?

I moved into my new place this past weekend.

I like the layout a lot more than my old apartment… the kitchen is bigger and there is an actual living room.  The bathroom is way off away from everywhere else, which, in my mind, is exactly where bathrooms should be.

The front door into the hallway that goes to the two apartment doors is always propped open.  The handle is locked and no one, including the landlord, appears to have a key for it.  So, as a result, the hallway to my apartment door is always accessible from the outside world.  This is causing a lot of anxiety in my brains, especially at night, when I’m trying to tell my brains to go to sleep.

The landlord said he’s going to replace the handle with something that we can all have keys for.  I think that’s a great idea, and I hope he does it very soon.  I’m really tired from the super craptastic sleeps I’ve been having.

Boxes.  Boxes of my stuff.

Man, I’ve got a lot of crap.  Yesterday was a mission to further sort my already sorted clothes and shed some more bulk.  I’m starting a Winter/Fall clothes storage box to put in the basement, and tossing stuff that I was previously on the fence about.

With moving comes expense… actual moving expense, damage deposit, high(er) rent expense, buying shit for the new place that I didn’t have room for at the old place expense.  It’s certainly adding up and causing me more of that anxiety.  The commitment to get rid of the debt is a hard one for me to keep, it seems.

The internet is providing a few sites with some tips on how to get out of debt.  Some of the tips seem pretty straight forward, (don’t get more into debt when you’re already in debt) and some are just hard to imagine in this online shopping-type world we live in (cut up your credit cards, and don’t use credit cards… “you don’t need them”).  Perhaps these people have never bought anything online, tried to book a hotel room or rent a car.  Perhaps reducing debt is like going on a diet and not every method is going to work for every person.  You need to customize your plan.

Just don’t customize it to the point where you’re still sitting at the same negative amount in your bank account (thanks, line of credit) that you were two years ago.

Hi.  Sorry about that.

Okay.  So, I’m moving to a new apartment in a month.  That should be pretty sweet… gas stove, big kitchen and even closer to where I work.

We went to Oregon on the weekend and saw two concerts.  On Saturday there was Mates of State (meh), The Decemberists (holyfuckthey’resogoodyoushouldtotallyseethemnow!), and Death Cab for Cutie (too cold and wet to stay for the whole show).  Yeah, it was an ourdoor venue and the weather wasn’t really cooperating.  We got drenched and then frozen, but The Decemberists fucking ruled, so that’s okay.

Sunday was The Breeders (again, meh), The National (great) and Modest Mouse (Super Great).  We came prepared this time with brand new wool socks and giant fleece blankets.  Much more comfortable!

Monday was a very long drive home in an attempt to catch a late afternoon ferry.  I also had to play at the open stage that night, so it ended up being a very very long and tiring day.  Two guys from Cirque de Solei  showed up and played some sweet sax and drums with a few local powerhouse musicians.  It was a good time, but a little daunting to go up and play afterwards. There was about 25 of the Cirque people at the bar, all hanging out and drinking.  Man, there’s a lot of short, french-speaking, musclebound guys in that outfit.

Last night we decided to finally check out Iron Man.  Very solid movie.  I was impressed with the story and acting.  One of the better comic book movies.  During the previews, they showed a newer trailer for The Dark Knight.  Oh man, I love me some Batman!

Tonight will be a short two set stint, so I should actually be able to get to bed at a semi-reasonable time.  I think some of the french muscle men might show up to check out the show tonight.  I’m considering trying to score a couple of tickets for their show on Thursday night.  Hopefully I don’t have to do anything too humiliating to get them.

My elbows hurt from playing drums this week.

I really hope my mountain bike arrives soon, and I also hope my tax return shows up this week.

I went to the Canada revenue site and looked at the status of it.  They claimed it was processed and mailed on May 8th, 2008.  At that time, that would be two days into the future.  If the Canadian Revenue branch has access to fully functioning time machines, why does it take them so fucking long to do anything?

I got her a Digital Rebel for her birthday.

I believe she has a great gift of sight and perception and was being limited by the tools at her disposal.

Plus, it’s great to see her so happy, and I’ll soon have some new pictures to hang on my wall.

The weather on the weekend was it’s typical schizo west coast potpurri of sun, rain and crazy.  At least it didn’t snow this time… I think.

There was barbecuing and brunches to go to, as well as shopping for bike accessories and work clothes.  I somehow managed to spend $300.00 on work pants, plus one shirt and tie.  Perhaps it’s time to look into a clothing allowance at the job?  Yeah, probably not going to happen.

We both got sweet bike helmets, mine; a flat black Bell that looks like a futuristic army helmet, hers; similar, but gun metal gray and with sweet skulls on the front and back.  I’ve got some skull envy, I’m not going to lie.  I also picked up some shorts for riding… just waiting for the bike to arrive now and I’m set to go.

A word on barbecues:  if you’re at one, please keep in mind that others want their food to cook too.  This is best accomplished by keeping the lid closed, so heat can build up and properly make one’s chicken breast non-lethal to ingest.  Even after closing the lid about ten times, I ended up tossing the questionable breast and opted for salads.  Yay.  Salad.

As for the previous entry (see below), I’ve had a weekend to think about it, and I think it’s a greedy, selfish, self-serving, bullshit way to handle things and I’m not happy about the situation.  There are far better ways to split up the rewards and not alienate those people who you claim not only to be friends with, but also who you admit are bailing you out of a situation.  Not certain how I’m going to voice that feeling, however.

I dropped off my car to get the hood replaced today.  I didn’t bother asking if he had actually ordered the hood this time.

I managed to get a decent discount on a car rental through my work, and so I’m now driving an 07 Mazda 3 for the next couple of days.

They’re pretty sweet cars and I’ve been wanting to try one for a while, however, it’s an automatic, which I kind of  hate, and it’s got power brakes and steering, which I’m completely not used to.

The minutes are ticking by at work and I’m considering skipping out a little early so I can go test drive a mountain bike.  Tee hee.