Sofia's Birthday

Back in May, we had a birthday party for my daughter.  It's hard to believe she's one year old already, but that's how it goes.  Anyway, we had a few friends over with their kids.  We invited a bunch of people, but it ended up being smaller which was a good thing.  The McClock family came over, as well as a coworker and his family, who I guess I can start calling "Christ" as a codename.  Anyway, Sofia had a great time, as much as a one year old can, and we all had a good evening.

Gardening

My experiment in gardening has a loss already.  It is apparently too hot for zucchini in Houston.  My serrano pepper plant had a bunch of leaves stripped from it by some animal I guess, but the plant is still alive, just not giving any peppers now.  The tomatoes are doing ok, although I'm surprised I keep seeing flowers pop up and nothing comes out of it.  The cantaloupe, which I expected to fail, seems to be doing well and has a lot of flowers.  Next year, we will do more with this gardening stuff and hopefully start much earlier in the year.

Transportation

So, despite the bus being for bums, stinky people, drunks, and gangstas, I started taking it to work.  It turns out that my company pays 100% of bus fees, so I decided it would be a good thing to take advantage of.  It's not as bad as I thought, despite me being the "richest" person and the only white guy on the bus at pretty much all times.  In reality, the gangstas, drunks, bums, and such ride the bus much later than I do.  So when I go in to work it's mostly people that do manual labor.

As far as the expected savings, I should be able to save over $400 a month in gasoline and tollway fees, if not more.  This seems to be going a long way in helping me save money as well as save stress.  Last Friday I drove to work, and realized how bad I felt physically.  When I drive, the anger and rage start to pop up.  First my chest gets tight, my head begins to throb, and my teeth clench.  Then I start coming up with creative curses and fantasize about having some massive laser on the front of my vehicle that can disintegrate all the vehicles in front of me for miles.  So yeah, there are some real advantages to me taking the bus.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

This is a pretty good game.  While the lack of a lifemeter is a bit strange to me, I got into it after playing a bit and now am having a lot of fun.  Some of the hidden characters are cool, others not as much.  I had high hopes for Snake from the Metal Gear series of games, but in reality, he's a pretty weak character.  I whoop much more ass with Kirby than Snake.

The levels you fight on are pretty fun overall, with my only complaint being that some are too busy and it's hard to follow what is going on with all the stuff so you can't even see where your fighter is.  I also thought the original Super Mario Bros. level was a bit strange.  Why make it look like a wasteland?

There is an option called the Subspace Emissary which is actually my favorite part of the game (since I can't get my wife to play.)  It's basically an old-fashioned side-scrolling platform game updated for modern consoles.  It's great fun and a good way to unlock the hidden characters.  All in all, it's a great game and I hope to find some people here who have it to beat the hell out of online.

Work

What can I say, we moved to another floor so I no longer sit outside my boss' office.  This is a good thing in that I can come in and leave when I want, but bad because I have less interaction with her now.  Other than that, there isn't much going on with work.

Blackberry Pearl 8120 or T-Mobile Shadow?

I've been thinking of getting a Blackberry Pearl.  It's more like a normal phone than a wide Blackberry, but has email and such.  Does anyone here use a Blackberry and have any advice?  Another option is the Shadow, which is a Windows Mobile based platform.  Both are the same price, so I want to get whatever is going to be best for me to use.  I'm familiar with Windows Mobile and like it, but I've heard great things about the Blackberry GUI that I wanted to see what your thoughts are.  Neither are 3G phones as far as I can tell, and both are like 10 years old phones that T-Mobile in the UK gives for free.  In fact, the phones you have to pay $300 with a two year contract for here are free in the U.K., and even better ones than are available here are free there.  I really have no idea why the U.S. is pretty much last in the world with cellular technology.  Oh wait, I know why it is, profit.  It seems that the cellular companies, including two of my former employers figured out the answer to the following:

1. Sell old technology and old services on an old, proprietary infrastructure.


2. ????


3. Profit!

Anyway, help me pick between the two crappy phones available since I can't afford to spend $500 on a phone that I like, and I don't want to waste $150 on a clone of an iPhone that is on dodgy hardware.

Politics

Not much to say right now, actually.  However, I did notice that we Americans tend to put everything in the frame of politics for the past certain number of years.  It seems strange how it's become the national passtime.  It's like you try to go to the bathroom and the topic comes up of "Obama/Hillary is a commie and wants to make me pay for public toilets!" or "McCain wants to provide public bathrooms for the rich, and let the poor man shit on the streets!"  Come on people, taking a dump is just taking a dump.

Stuff

I'm trying to think of more things to write about so I can avoid doing work.  I have to write project charters for my 2009 projects, which we haven't even finished figuring out the scope for the 2008 projects yet, to be able to give to the CEO to sign off on.  Paperwork sucks, but it's part of what you have to do more of in order to make more money.  Anyway, I'll try to just dink around on the internet for the first part of the day, eat my homemade spicy spaghetti and meatballs that my wife made, then open up one of my old project charters and save it to a new file name.  Then, I'll call it a day and go home.  I'm sure there will be many various interruptions throughout the day, which will ruin my chances of either goofing off or getting work done.  This is why I might as well goof off.

Anyway, vote in the poll and give me any advice you may have.  I think I'll take a walk for a bit so I don't get too sleepy.  Mondays are a wasted day for work.