I'm Home

I am SO glad to be home in my room and about to get into my own bed. For the first time in years I had a great Christmas visit with my family up in the Bay Area but I'm still overjoyed to be back in my beloved LA. Now that the holidays are winding down, I hope to be more consistent with my entries.

More later...

Violation Notice

I got a parking ticket. I have gotten more parking tickets this year than I have gotten in all my other driving years combined. They've all been right in front of my house. They've all been for parking on a street sweeping day. This is all due to my working from home on Fridays AND the city moving the street cleaning days to the same day this year. I think I've paid enough in tickets this year to add a wing to the public library. So, despite my attempt to try and be less anal, I've now added a task reminder to my computer to go off on Friday mornings an hour before I need to move my car. No more tickets in 2004. That's one of my big goals for the next year.

Happy Days

I'm finally sleeping on my own. No more sleeping pills! This has actually been going on for over a week but I wanted to wait and see if it was permanent before I put it in writing. I now can empathize with the life of an insomniac. I hope I never experience that again.Life is good for the most part now. If I could just get my motivation back to workout, things would be damn well close to perfect. Amazing; especially during the holidays. Again, I don't want to put too much in writing about that for fear that it will disappear.

God what a geek!

Okay so I haven’t written in a while. Basically any free time I’ve had on my computer I’ve been spending playing with my new PC game, Casino Empire. I’m addicted. For me it’s the best of both worlds – computers and gambling! Wow, who had me in mind when they wrote this? I can’t imagine living somewhere far from a casino. I’ve always been no more than an hour away by plane and that’s the way I intend for it to stay. Now back to this game. Before this it was all GTA Vice City for me and I still love that one too but it has now taken a backseat. Man do I now sound like a geek or what? I don’t care. Whatever. Guess what? I also bought the game at a computer show. Yes, I go to computer shows. I also use Evite, Post-Its, highlighters and I own a stapler. If this all makes me a geek, so be it. Gotta go now. I have to go tape my glasses or something like that.

Hurry Up and Wait

Today I’m sitting at the dealership waiting for my car to get serviced. For a while now I’ve noticed how little patience people seem to have these days. I’m not excluding myself. Is it just where I now live or is this a trend that is more widespread? For example, I remember when I was a kid riding in my parents car. If an emergency vehicle came down the street with its sirens on everyone pulled over, I mean all the way over to the side and waited until it was well past them. Now whenever this happens it seems it becomes more of an opportunity for people in a hurry to pass up everyone else who tries to get over. And most who do pull over rarely come to a complete stop but rather coast down the road until the second that the emergency car passes them. How often do we sigh while we stand in line at the grocery store, bank or post office? Maybe I’m getting old but I remember standing in line with adults when I was younger and they would make small talk with each other. My mother would thumb through the tabloids or write out her check. If you really think about it, our whole way of life has now taken on a “hurry up and get it done” approach. If it’s not automated, then it’s mobile. We bank at machines, online or even on the phone when it’s convenient for us. We shop online and take advantage of attractive offers for overnight delivery. Hell, how many of us are done with our personal phone calls before we even get home from work these days? These thoughts run through my mind while I anxiously wait in the lobby of the dealership for my car. I have my laptop, my PDA and my mobile phone with me so that I can be productive while I wait the 90 minutes I was told this would take. I’m watching the clock and you can bet I’ll be talking to someone if I’m not called in an hour and a half. So what will the next generation do to lengthen its lists of accomplishments at the end of each day? Will we ever get back to the days where people actually take a Sunday drive or have a leisurely picnic in the park or even have the time, if not the money, to watch a double feature at a theater? It seems to me that at some point we won’t be able to continue to get faster so maybe there is some hope for life to slow down again.

The Theory of Evolution

I’m in a restless mood today. Here’s a question I’ve been tossing around in my head for a while now. Lately I’ve noticed on several occasions various different people say the following: “I could give two shits.” Now here’s the question. Just when did this phrase change from, “I couldn’t give a shit” to “I could give two shits”? Let’s think about this for just a moment. First, isn’t the point of saying this to convey the fact that you don’t care about something so much that you wouldn’t even put forth the effort to defecate about it? So, the word should be “couldn’t” and not “could”. Second, and this is the one I'm most intrigued by, this original phrase changed over time. Here is my theory as to how this may have occurred: Someone at some point, I’ll call her Jane, had a conversation with someone else, he’ll be Dick, and said “I couldn’t give a shit”. Dick then said, “Oh yeah, well I think I could at least give a shit Jane. In fact Jane, I think I could give two shits. Yeah, I could give two shits!” And there we have it. Inflation in action. Thoughts appreciated.

At Work, Again

I’m at work and I have plenty to do but can’t seem to focus on it. This is bad because it’s work that I usually like doing. The closer it gets to the end of this special project that I joined over two years ago, the more I really think I just need to take some time off following it and relax. I have never worked harder at any job in my life than I have at this one. Sometimes I feel like my life has been on hold while I’ve been slaving away for the company and I’m not even guaranteed permanent work once it’s all said and done. Some thanks! At least it’s close to the end of the day. Tomorrow I’ll come back in and do more of this. And so it will continue until at least the end of April. Between now and then I’ll just have to make due. I guess I should note that I don’t dislike my job; I’m just thoroughly bored and unchallenged at this point and know it won’t be changing. It will just end in five long months.