KingBurgundy.com

British Airways still sucks

Just got a call from Maria and her BA flight to London was delayed by four hours. I just wanted to use this opportunity to again profess my hatred for them. :)

*[update] - And with normal BA efficiency, her flight was actually cancelled. Apparently the crew that was supposed to man it had been working too many hours so they ended up having no crew for the flight. This causes all sorts of havoc for her London schedule(since she has class Tuesday morning), so hopefully they get things worked out for her in a NON BA fashion. *crossing fingers* Let this be a lesson to everyone to avoid British Airways suckage at all costs.[/update]*

My weekend was pretty entertaining. I watched a bunch of TV/Movies on the projector on Friday, as well as getting necessary things taken care of like the paying of bills and the buying of an AV rack/stand for my projector and such. I'll probably have my living room completely "finished" within the next few weeks. Then it will be time to start hanging posters/paintings and the like to make the place a bit more of a reflection of me... Speaking of paintings... *looks at Joe*

Saturday I went and saw The Day After Tomorrow with Chuck, Chris and Jen. It was pretty bad, but the entire disaster sequence, involving tornadoes and a giant wave was really really excellent and at times quite hilarious. Its probably not worth your money if you go to a late showing, but the special effects I think are worth a matinee movie buy as this isn't the kind of movie you want to wait and watch on the small screen. Just don't expect a very entertaining story or anything approximating true science, and try not to laugh too hard when the main characters are running away from "The Cold". 1.5 stars.

I got my sleep schedule back into normal-ish line this weekend. Stayed up Friday night and all day Saturday to get things back into line. So now I am getting to bed by 2ish am and waking up by 9ish am. Hurrah. I also got to talk to Maria quite a bit over the last few days, which has been very nice, and will help to make up for the reduced contact we'll have over the next 7 weeks.

Upcoming Events:
*Company Picnic two weekends from now at Six Flags. Going with Linda and her girlfriends. Should be entertaining.
*Heading down to ABQ the weekend after that (18th-19th) for my bi-annual-ish visit with the folks and stuff.
*Sometime this month I need to use a comp to the Comedy Works too. So guessing either next weekend, or the weekend after ABQ, probably with Linda.

I'm a people person?

I've always known that I'm good with people, its one of my innate skills. Its why things like sales, customer service, support, and management were all really easy for me(Although I never liked the discipline part of management, firing people isn't much fun). Even if I'm irritated with a person/customer, it never comes off in my actual interractions. So thats all a given. However, I've always imagined myself as more of the reclusive loner nerd type when it comes to interaction in my own life.

I'm pretty confident now that I don't actually fit into that mold. Up until recently of course, I never lived alone. First there was the parents, then multiple roomies when I moved out back in ABQ, then the parents again, then the horde of roomies up in Denver when I first moved up here, followed by living with just Eric, then just Chris. There has always been a sort of instant social interaction with no effort on my part just by coming home. So even though I may have thought I was being reclusive at times, playing games and watching movies and the like in my little hermit cocoon, that was never really and truly happening. There was that built in friend interaction happening on at least some level most of the time.

I've been living alone now for only a couple of months(well, more like 9 months counting the time when chris wasn't really living at the old place) and while I *do* absolutely love it, there has been something missing. I didn't really put my finger on it until tonight. I had the recent week+ vacation hanging with a large group of friends, followed by a weekend of companionship with Maria, and now here comes the Memorial Day Weekend....and most of my friends are seemingly out of reach. Linda sunning herself on a beach somewhere in Hawaii, Chris probably heading up to Nebraska with his woman for the weekend, Joe busy with starting a new business among other things, etc etc. Haven't talked to everyone yet(its possible I could get Jason and Melissa or Eric and Nicky to do something, but just seems harder to make things happen once your friends are married with kids) but was beginning to look like I'd have to settle for nerding it up at home alone all weekend. And, that thought actually bothered me. Wow. I was anticipating people withdrawal. Whats up with that?

Yeah, so anyway, bottom line is, I think I'm happiest when I'm mixing it up. IE, I still love my alone time, but I need it to be balanced by people time too. Balance is good.

So this weekend will actually be alone time on Friday most likely, and then, the day after tomorrow, I am going to go see The Day After Tomorrow with Chuck. haha. :)

Gotta run now and finish some work. I have to get off promptly tonight so I can talk to my sweetie(Maria) on the phone for possibly the last time until July(I hope not, but you never know). Argh. Gonna miss her!

***

Teller Speaks! -- A section of the penn and teller website dedicated to Teller's essays, interviews, etc. Its interesting to hear from the "quiet" one.

Action Heroes! -- Yes, I can't make something like this up. ABC is developing a TV movie about washed up action heroes who start a detective agency in LA and start helping people. The best part? They actually got washed up actors for the roles...hahaha. William Shatner, Lee Majors, and Robert Wagner. OMG what a great concept!

Girlfriend Ahoy!

I had a wonderful weekend. I had an image in mind before it all started of the "best possible outcome" and was hoping for something along those lines, but it ended up proving even better than I had imagined possible.

It officially started of course, when I got off work on Thursday at midnight. I then went home to finish packing and such, get some sleep, and then get up to go to the airport.... However, by the time I was actually all packed and ready to take a nap it was already almost 4am, sooo, no rest for the wicked, I just jumped in the shower and then went to the airport.

The flight was uneventful, although running a bit late. By the time I got everything squared away it was time to meet Maria and head to lunch. I'm actually going to go ahead and gloss over pretty much all of the events of the next couple of days, because I am still pretty tired from my trip and I want to go to sleep, but let me just state for the record that it was easily the best "first date" ever, as well as the "second date+". I had lots of fun, watched good films, drank good drinks, ate good food, played good games, met her cool friends, etc... And, after all was said and done, I ended up coming back home one beautiful, intelligent and witty girlfriend richer. Sadly, the fact that its a long distance thing hasn't changed, and I am about to experience a personal long distance record when she goes overseas for 7 weeks starting next weekend! Doh!

One "first date" note... Maria had prepared a "Choose your own Adventure" style date which was very cute, original, and all-around awesome. Let me show you a quick sample:

Now I will spam you with a few more pictures(click for larger versions):

Maria with cute hat.

Maria in natural habitat.

Maria with sexy new boyfriend.

Take two with a toothy smile.

New Morrissey

A new Morrissey cd came out yesterday. Its called You Are the Quarry. Only listened to it once so far, and its fabulous. Some really great singing, and really wonderful lyrics. When I went into Virgin records to buy the cd today(with Maria accompanying me telephonically), I noticed they had Morrissey posters all over the doors, and were playing the CD. Wow. I also found out that Morrissey is headlining day one of Lollapalooza this year, which is certainly a trip. I never expected something like that.

The Streets also released a new album recently, I went ahead and picked that up while I was there as well. On first listen I wasn't anywhere near as impressed as I was with their first album, however I went ahead and gave it another spin and I really enjoyed it. I think I just wasn't initially prepared for more of their godawful harmony interspersed on a few of the songs, but it was funny the second time around. The album as a whole is one long story, a day in the life, filled with all sorts of interesting twists and turns.

***

I heard through the grapevine that my brother Joe had gotten his haircut(he's had that long curly poofy hair thing going on for awhile now), so I immediately rang him up and asked for photographic evidence. I present to you, exhibit A(click for larger, per usual):

And he included a really crazy picture of Freddie that was also on the camera, so extra treat time!

***

35.5 hours. I have from now until tomorrow when I work to prepare/pack/etc for the trip now. I find that I'm worried about silly things like what to wear. I'm going from Denver, which is currently in the 60-80 range with maybe 25% humidity, to Dallas, which is currently in the 80-90 range with like 80% humidity. Its like a recipe for a Robin Williams Good Morning Vietnam skit. Anyway, so must find comfortable and cool clothes, that are also slimming! haha. After work tomorrow I get to grab a 3 hour powernap before I get up, get ready, and head to the airport. Luckily I have no hair to pull out. Very excited tho!

UFOs

This is kind of old now, it was reported back on the 12th, but just in case some of you haven't seen it:

Mexican Airforce captures UFOs on film!

***

59 hours!

Vacation wrap up.

My vacation was fantastic. It was a very nice break from the daily grind. I didn't bother making any updates here though, since essentially every day was pretty similar. Eating out, Playing console games on the projected big screen, playing some lan games(Unreal 2k4 and Warcraft III), watching movies on the projector, and just hanging out. Was great seeing a lot of people again that I hadn't seen in over a year in some cases. I took a few pics which I may end up putting up in the next few days, but really, don't expect anything too exciting. :) In addition to the planned events, I also took some time out to go visit Jason and Melissa since I was down in the Springs, got my haircut, and kept Maria awake too long on the phone a couple nights.

One console game that we played a bunch of deserves mentioning. For 20 bucks I picked up a game called Kung Fu Chaos for the X-box. Basic premise is that a horrible kung fu b movie director is directing you, a kung fu actor, in a new movie that he is making. Each stage is essentially a scene in his movie, like... "Ok, you are sitting in this bar minding your own business when suddenly, for no reason, NINJA CLAN ATTACKS YOU! Make lots of destruction! Throw tables! Break things!" You can play through this stuff single player, but the real fun lies in the fact that you can have up to four players battling it out on screen in these movie scenes. Anyway, this was one of the best gameplay per dollar investments I have ever made. I highly recommend checking it out.

Anyway, heading home now from work. Need to try and get back on a sleep schedule that doesn't involve staying up until 8am before my oh so exciting impending visit with Maria on Friday. 83.5 hours-ish to go. I really can't wait.

***

laser vision story, oh so cool

If you watched part I, II, and III that I posted awhile back of the Mario Brothers movies, here is part IV.

Very spiffy movie about robot police

Vacation time!

Hurrah! Only a few more hours until I finish work and my 10 day vacation begins. :) And then I come back to work for 4 days before my little weekend get-a-way to visit with the one and only Maria. The excitement begins now!

I may or may not continue to update fairly religiously for the next few weeks. Mostly depends on if I have anything interesting enough to talk about. We shall see.

Also, I remember mentioning how I was going to update my page layout and all that...oh, around the time I went to Turkey way back in June 03 or so... Well, I stumbled upon my test layout and I was actually pretty much done with it...so that might happen sometime this month finally. :)

Dentist

Today was another visit to the lovely dentist. Pretty much done now, except for the exciting revelation that he was referring me to an oral surgeon....

Hey Mom, I don't suppose I've always had some strange protusion on the roof of my mouth that you are aware of? :) Dentist said its possible its been there for pretty much ever and that I've not noticed it... But you'd think some other dentist would have mentioned it before now if that were the case... Ah well, something else to worry about.

Today was weird. I feel like I've been walking around in some sort of bubble all day. Really lethargic for some reason. Perhaps because I didn't eat all day due to the dentistry? *shrug*

Oh well, one more day of work till vacation time.

Gorgeous Day

Not too warm,
not too cold,
sporadic clouds spread through the sky.
Some were fluffy,
some were stormy,
flying past my windshield as the world sped by.

Brief smatterings,
of rain in the sunlight,
enough for the smell of it to fill the breeze.
Shimmering mountains,
in the hilly foreground,
immersed in the all consuming green of trees.

Giant mountains,
fill the horizon,
still content to wear the full mantle of snow.
But sadly,
My camera was not present,
so I have nothing here to show.

...

Sun streaming through clouds,
Shines on little cottages;
Fantasy revealed.

***

I drove down to Jason&Melissa's in Colorado Springs today to pick up the books they were storing for me. It was really fantastic out, and I can't do it justice. It looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings, although I am NOT comparing Colorado to New Zealand. :)

***

Today's link corner features accidents on live TV:

First we have an apparent oldy but goody, The Reptile Attack.
Next on the Agenda is The Grape Stomping Lady.
And here we have The ladder.
Last but not least, is a Musical Remix of the Grape Stomping.

Fun weekend.

First, I went ahead and slept through most of Friday, which was fun and rewarding in and of itself. This was followed by staying up the rest of the night and following day and cleaning and organizing and unpacking etc. It really seems to be a neverending process, but I think I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I also managed to get my projector up and running, although my screen at the moment leaves something to be desired. Next up was a brief nap followed by a fantabulous multi hour phone conversation with Maria.

Better late then never, I went to my friend Joe's birthday BBQ and had a yummy burger and hot dog, and much alcohol. After a bit we started the "bar crawl" and managed to get a drink and a shot at quite a few establishments before finally ending up at the usual(usual for Joe that is) bar haunt. Much much more drinking was had,so much so that I ended up just shy of the sick drunk point. After the bar closed and they kicked everyone out, a few of us stayed and hung out a bit longer and tried some of the karaoke songs that we would never actually do in public. Much fun. Left the bar at about 5am for Joe's and watched some horrible horrible videos while sobering up(well, I was sobering up at least, hehe) and then finally made it home by 8amish.

***

Its almost vacation time! I have next week off for my friend Chuck's get together/gathering. (Friends from all over flying/driving to Chuck's house for much in the way of Nerd activities(movies, games, etc) as well as the typical bar visits and the like). And then after all that is said and done and I go back to work, that next weekend I'm going on a quick weekend getaway which should prove to be nerve wracking and exciting in its own right.

Instant Karmic Reward?

Yaaaaaaaaaawn. Weekend went very well, but real update much later....for now, you get the update I typed and didn't use a couple days ago. :) Sleeeeeeeeeeep.

***

I'm actually typing this about an hour after my last entry, but I probably won't actually update the site with it for at least a day so as to space out my entries a bit...

On my way home from work tonight, not realizing that the road directly in front of a stop light was covered with ice, and since it so conveniently turned yellow right as I hit the ice, I managed to blaze right through a red light... Well, blaze/slide anyway. Its like 2am though , and no one is on the road anyway, so, no big deal.

Five minutes later as I'm about to cross another intersection someone absolutely FLIES through a red light coming the other way. There is no way they even tried to stop. Luckily I used my mad driving skillz to avoid them, but I swear to you that their car came within 12 inches of mine. I soooo almost died tonight. Instant Karmic Reward for my previous run red light? You be the judge.

***

In honor of the fact that its snowing, I'm going to post up a couple snow pics that I uploaded and forgot to use from the old place last month.

Click for bigger shots, yadda yadda.