Sparktoblog!

Content

So here I sit on my couch, Skype sprawled out beside me snoring quietly, mindless content spewing from my television filling the air with it's sweet panacea of technology. A carafe of hot coffee sits half consumed on the counter, its dark smokey aroma filling my condo with the electric tingle only blessed caffeine can bring. My shiny new car sits quietly in the garage, dust slowly settling on it in anticipation of a free detail job at the dealership on Monday when I get a few things checked out and Lojack installed.

Is this what life is all about? You bet! As much as life can be a drag and really make me wonder why I try to keep up from time to time I have a morning like this when I realize its all good in the end. Yes I go to work five days a week, yes I walk Skype even when I'm tired – handel dog poop on a daily basis, yes I am giving up my youth for sucsess but really now – is it that bad.

That aside the last part of the week was good. Work was easy and productive and I had a lot of fun last night. After work I went to pick up my friend Scot and we went to go get some dinner. After dinner and a rousing viewing of Trekkies 2 I took him home and after a long and wandering route home (with stops at the Cahty's to introduce them to da Donk) I ended up at the Madison Pub with Ian. For the first time in a long time I went out and did not get to sleep until past 2:00 in the morning and boy did I love it. I'm hoping that now that my insomnia problems are going away that I can start spending some fun time out at nights on the weekends again.

Speaking of spending time out on the weekends tonight is my friend Eric's birthday party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC! I'll see you tonight for some good times with slightly uncomfortable friendships.

Picasa rocks!

I’ve been keeping busy what with work and all for the last couple of days. When I haven’t been working I’ve been driving my new GLI or spending quality time with Skype. I think he’s feeling a little bit put off by all my time driving so I’m making the extra effort to make him feel loved.

The other day Google released Picasa 2, their image manipulation and organization tool. I must admit that I’m impressed as all hell. They added support for RAW images, and I like it better than the Photoshop CS browser tool and integrates seamlessly into my Photoshop workflow. I’ll still do all my editing with Photoshop, but for now it’s going to be my primary organization tool. To boot it’s less than a 3mb download and it’s 100% free!

Last night Jake and Tres went to Blue C Sushi with me. It was a blast to go there again, and we all ate our big fill of the good stuff. It was good to see them again, and catch up on each others lives/jobs/dogs etc. Tonight I have my old co-worker Scott coming over for dinner and movies, so I’m pretty excited about that – I have not seen him in a while and I’m really missing some of my old friends for the old job.

Just dandy!

The past couple of days have been a blur of driving my new car and enjoying life. I’m 100% happy about my new job, love my new car, and Skype is growing fast as ever. I really don’t have much to post – I just felt like putting up an “everything is just dandy” message.

Oh yeah – I do seem to have bad luck with HP of late. My 4355 PocketPC just had it’s screen die. It sounds like they are going to cover it, but it’s still a big hassle. I can’t wait to get it back – I run my life out of that puppy.

Vroom Vroom!

It's been an interesting 24 hours I tell you! Yesterday was good at work because 1.5 weeks into my job I made my first deal. I of course decided to celebrate by going to test drive a 2005 Jetta GLI this morning.

Of course by test drive I really mean buy a Jetta GLI. I loved it so much I let them work with me to get me in it today. It's a 2005 Jetta GLI black on grey with a 180hp 1.8T and the sport seats. It had 40 miles on it when I got in it the first time, and still had the hair on the tires. Gotta love that new car smell. I'm as pleased as could be - I spent most of the afternoon driving around in in enjoying it in spite of the rain. I'm quite pleased with myself that I have managed to get myself a new car finally. I won't have to worry about the car breaking down or things failing for four years. That kind of peace of mind (for now) is worth the ridiculous amount of money I'm spending on it.

Well I'm off to watch movies and drive my car some more. Wh00t!

For better or worse...

Well, for better or worse my car was recovered last night. I'm of really mixed feelings about it. If they had taken a week longer to find it the insurance company would have totaled it out and that would have made things a lot easier. On the other hand I have my car back right now which makes things easier surrounding my life in general. It was trashed, but no major damage. Of course the stereo and all my personal belongings are gone, and the transmission might have some issues as well.

I still think I'm going to get myself a new car. I've just had too many bad experiences with my Honda. Don't get my wrong – I love my good old Honda, it's just past it's time with me, and gets stolen too often. I think I've finally reached that point in my life where I have earned the right to get myself a car I'll really enjoy. I'm still looking at VW's, but I'm also exploring the idea of getting a Mini. It really depends on how things go with my insurance company on how I move forward from here. Updates imminent!

Better than I had dreamed

So I'm fully settled into my new job and the official word on the streets is that I'm loving it! The company has given me the freedom to do my job the way I work best, and so far has been 100% supportive of all of my needs. The team environment is fantastic and I can't get over finally having a laptop as my main machine.

Before I started I had a lot of jitters and fears about making the jump but now that I've been here and working for nearly a week I'm pleased to announce that I am confident in my decision to leave my old company and think this will be a company I'll stay at for a long time to come. Now that I've gotten over the stress of starting a new job I'm sleeping better, notice I feel more alert, and in general am a happier person. I think that general feeling of well being is going to end up making me a more productive employee as well.

The weekend was perfect for me. Given that I only worked 3 days last week it was a nice introduction to being back in the working force. I did some work over the weekend but for the most part focused on relaxing. I got to play some more KOTOR II (again – a fantastic game – I want more!) and watched some movies. It was nice for Skype to get to play with me as well. I can tell he is upset with me being back at work – he had gotten used to spending all his time with me over the three weeks that I was away from work.

Back at it again

So today is the big day for me – I go to my first day of work at my new job. Yesterday I went in to sign some paperwork and such, but nothing too big and exciting. I'm in a way dreading going in – starting a new job is always stressful. I really think I'm going to like this a lot more than my old job, it's just going to take some time to get into the swing of thing.

I'm kind of tired – last night I could barely sleep. I tossed and turned from around 10:00 till a little after midnight before I finally passed out snuggled up with Skype. I wonder how he's going to deal with today – he's gotten very used to spending a lot of time with me over the last three weeks – going back to spending 8-9 hours a day away from me will probably be a bit of a shock at first.

Heck - it's going to be quite a shock for me. I've spent nearly the last three weeks watching movies, playing KOTOR II (God that game rawks - way more addictive than the first one!), and going for long walks with my puppy. It's been good and I feel better now that I've had a chance to relax and let a lot of stresses go, but I'm nervous about jumping back into the thick of things go. I think I'll feel much better tonight once my first day is out of the way.

Well I'm off to shower and shave – wish me luck!