Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Words and their meanings. Or rather the interpretation of their meanings. The reading between the lines, looking for possible innuendos, the searches for hidden meanings. Sometimes the words just mean what they say, there are no extras involved. The credibility of the source should be considered but often is not. It’s like explaining a joke after the punch line is delivered.

Happy Birthday, Chris

Wow, 21 years. Seems like only yesterday that I got to hold him for the first time.

What a great feeling that was. And throughout the years the joys eclipse all the heartaches. I wouldn't change anything for the world although he's not that little boy anymore.

Happy Birthday, Chris. I'm proud of you son.

Listen to the Music

I picked up an iPod for myself the other day. A 2gig Nano, will hold about 500 songs. I have 100 on already and haven't added any of my CD's yet. I have a feeling this will be too small, but I wanted to check it out first. When I need to upgrade I can give it to Sean if he's interested.

It's a pretty cool device. Small, lightweight, easy to use, Apple did a great job with this. Being able to take music with you anywhere is nice, walking down the street listening to tunes is very cool, better than the usual street noise you hear. Although there's always someone who wants to rain on everyone's parade. I hate it when the politicians try to disprove Darwin.

I also like iTunes. Although I'll still shop in the stores and pick up a CD when I see it buying from iTunes is very convenient. The albums are usually less expensive than the stores and now I burn a disk and copy it to the iPod. This will probably be my way of replacing my extensive vinyl collection, although I have to be careful. This could get costly.

Moving Out

So the word has come down on the plans for the office. Most of it is not good. Somewhere in the middle of March we'll be moving to South Plainfield, NJ. But that's just temporary. The company is consolidating operations all over the country and they'll be consolidating the work done in my office with an office in Charlotte. Consolidating the work, not the workers. So they are figuring on keeping us until the end of May (they promised to give us 30 days notice as to when the job is ending). At which time I'll get about 6 weeks pay between bonus and vacation/sick time. And they'll be giving me a weekly paycheck for 11 weeks as a severance. And picking up my health benefits for 6 months from the end of the job. And they are also going to pay my mileage and tolls to the NJ office, so that will give me about an extra $125 a week for however many weeks I go to NJ. So all in all it's not going to kill me for money.

At first I was a little angry about the situation but now I'm looking forward to finding something new. This job was starting to get a little stale, really no advancement. So something new can be exciting. You need that in a job, something that makes you want to go to work every day, something more than just a paycheck. I hope I can find that.

Questions? Answers! Answers? Questions!

A few posts back I talked about adapting myself to the Metabolism Advantage plan (see "Walking on the Moon), basically saying the difficulty I was having was due to a contentment with myself. Yes, I'm not perfect, could stand to lose some bodyfat but that I was OK with where I am right now.

Then a thread on JP's threw a wrench into that idea, a couple of articles that basically said "You may think that you're OK but you're not". Crap.

According to the articles my contentment (psuedo-contentment?) is not that at all. It's that when it comes to making any change of myself I am my own worst enemy, sabotaging any attempt that I make at that change. And it's apparently a bad self-image I have that makes me this way. Double crap.

Guess I have to finally figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

The First Cut is the Deepest

Damnit, every time I start cooking I cut myself. This time on the ring finger chopping onions for the Meta Meatloaf. See, another reason I hate vegetables - they are trying to kill me.

I wonder how much protein there is in a fingertip.