Hola!

I'll probably be keeping this one short, reader, but nonetheless, figured I'd quick pop in and post a little bit. The weekend was pretty rad, overall. Turns out that Elizabeth was pretty tired friday night from work and whatnot, so she gracefully bowed out, but we hung out saturday and watched Stigmata, which was a blast. And sunday she ended up having family over for dinner... but nonetheless we spent some time shooting the breeze on the phone, which is fun too. Later on that night i headed over to brianne's place, and i had a really fun time there, too. Nice and relaxing - just what i needed, to be in a great environment in the company of a good friend.

Which leads us, reader, onto today. Work went suprisingly fast, and was broken up by two things - a trip back home to let an MDU service lackey into the house to change my gas meter (joy...), and a nice email from Elizabeth, which made for a pleasant afternoon suprise. Her and I then hung out tonight for a little bit and ended up (again) having a nice, fun time. In some ways the funnest night of them all so far. :)

Alas, it's almost 9:30, and i'm getting tired. Inwardly I think this is pretty pathetic for someone still 22 years old, but what the hell, if nothing else i can (hopefully) get into the office a bit earlier tomorrow and get started on some feverish application design work. Sleep well, reader, and dream of pleasant and incredible things, like the look in her eyes after your first kiss.

Ahhh... i'm so tired, reader. Perhaps that is partly due to the insanely rich dinner I had with Elizabeth tonight at Minerva's, but such is the way of things. I again had a blast hanging out with her tonight; time just flew past, and i'm sure that had she not had to leave, we could have talked for hours. We'll be kicking it again tomorrow night, and from the looks of it this weekend as well, so i'm super-stoked. She's awesome... and purty darn cute, too, i reckon.

That being said, it's time for this 'ol goat to retire for the night. Have a great end of the week tomorrow, and stay warm.

Word!

I should keep this painfully short, since I've still half of Who Moved My Cheese? to read for work tomorrow, and I might try and put in at least half an hour of coding. Or try and get into the office way early, say, by six or six thirty.

I'd planned on working late, but said plans changed a bit when the girl from the date called tonight. For future purposes, let's call her Elizabeth. I figured I'd just play it cool and wait to call her until tomorrow (even though, just between you and I, reader, I did want to call her up tonight... given how good of a time I had last night!), but she ended up beating me to it. We bs'ed for awhile on the phone and agreed to go out to dinner tomorrow night. I'm totally pumped about this; she's awesome, and suprisingly easy to talk to for someone that I've just recently met. Given how hard it is usually to click with people my own age, especially girls, this kicks a lot of ass. :)

Plus, in other developments, I finally retrieved my mom's stuff from Mandan tonight! Well, almost. Her hope chest is still over there, but I reckon I can score that some other day. The important stuff is now here at my place, so that lifts a little weight off my shoulders.

Time to go read some motivating business literature! Have a pleasant Thursday, reader, and stay warm tonight. Dream sweetly.

Today, well, kicked a lot of ass, dude. I might as well get straight away to the point and just say that the date went really good! Your friendly Goat is quite stoked, reader, that her and I hit it off so well. I was way nervous beforehand, understandably, but i think i handled myself pretty well. She did, too - as far as i could tell this was old hat to her, but she came out and admitted afterwards that she was hella nervous, too, pretty much for the whole day.

She wasn't the only one.

We never did even make it to getting coffee... we just camped out at our table and chatted away, from everything about living on your own to what we're currently doing in life to bicycling to all sorts of other stuff. I'm pretty sure that if nothing else I could end up with a pretty cool friend out of this.

On that note I bid you farewell, reader. I'm going to go do a little work here before I call it a night, and perhaps read a little Lord of the Rings, too. Have a good one.

Today was quite the standard, run-of-the-mill sort of day. However, as it turns out, the construction guys at work didn't start cutting into my building on Friday - they started today. The noise was insane; so insane, in fact, that my supervisor and I went over to his place to work during the afternoon. We went back to the office around three, but by that time they had stopped.

Tomorrow should be interesting... i'm told they'll be at this at least through tomorrow afternoon, and likely Wednesday, too.

Tomorrow shall also be even more interesting, since I'm ... *drumroll* ... going on a date! Settle down, reader - you're not the only one who thinks that's absolutely nuts, for a host of reasons. Among them, it's simply been a hell of a long time since i've been on an actual, bona-fide date - at least a good year or two. Especially one that's half-blind! This girl is the one that contacted me after seeing my little online-dating profile, you see, and she knows what I look like, but i don't know a whole lot 'bout her. From her profile it looks like we share some common interests, though - coffee, books, movies, an enjoyment of bicycling and music, and the occasional video game. That should be plenty to drive conversation for awhile whilst enjoying our coffee at B&N. I'm sure it'll be a cool time, and i'm stoked to be meeting someone new around here, that if nothing else I can hopefully add to my current group of awesome friends.

Since the last three paragraphs have begun with the letter "t", as does "tired", perhaps i should take the hint and hit the proverbial sack. Wish me luck tomorrow - the Goat reckons he could probably use a little. Sleep tight, tonight, and have a killer Tuesday, be you returning to school after the three-day weekend, or just heading back for another day at the office.

Well, end to another weekend. Damn, that went fast.

All said and done, though, it was a pretty good weekend. It was awesome taking a few days off from the daily grind of coding ... although it's fun, one does need to keep in balance. I had a lot of fun hanging out with denise last night, and seeing steph yesterday and adam on friday was cool as always.

Today I ended up seeing my grandma for awhile, which was nice since it's been a good week or two since i've been over there. Then afterwards I trekked over to Mandan for dinner at my parents' place. My dad did a teryaki pork loin on the rotisserie with wild rice. All i had to do was throw in a Rolling Rock in for good measure, and I ended up with quite the tasty Sunday dinner.

That was about all that went down today... pretty noneventful. But, interestingly, I got a response to one of my little online dating profiles. Honestly, i thought trying that crap out was a total shot in the dark, but... dude, who could resist a profile like this? lol...

And yes, i do realise that this is likely a stupid thing, posting a link to it, since if anything it's gonna give that tool Adam free reign to blast the hell out of me for lord knows what. Alas... bring it! But hey, if i could meet some cool new people here, that would be awesome. Who knows about the actual dating part. Either way, i'll keep my options open, since that's all i can do right now.

I bid you farewell, reader, for i'm tired and the my bedtime draws ever closer. Hope your weekend was a pleasurable one, and that you're doing well and still smiling, whereever you might be. Dream sweetly tonight.

Grr... i am seriously at about wit's fucking end with this mother situation of mine.

Suffice it to say that my mom isn't necessarily living here in town right now, but as it turns out she'll be moving back soon. So I'm charged with the lovely duty of running around the greater Bismarck/Mandan area to collect all her stuff that various people have stored for her - clothes, cooking equipment, things like that.

I'm in a bit of a pickle (at my mother's request, mind you) since I need to score her coat, purse, and this box of miscellaneous stuff from a friend of hers in Mandan by, ah, Tuesday at the latest. I'd hoped to do it yesterday, but said friend evidently fails to understand either A) how answering machines work or B) how to make outgoing phone calls. Thankfully I was able to get ahold of her today, but she said she'll be gone "all day today" so i won't be able to come over and get the stuff. She has to also work tomorrow, so she was iffy about tomorrow night. Bear in mind she's off at the hellishly late time of three in the afternoon... so i suggested I just score the stuff tomorrow night.

THEN, in typical fashion, she starts wigging out about this money my mom owes her, something like $250.00. She's like, well, why should I give you her stuff when she's supposed to give me my money? Jesus fucking christ... From what the friend says, I won't be able to get this stuff of my mom's until next week if we can't do it tomorrow, but if she's being all stupid and shit about this money, who the hell knows if I'll even be able to.

Argh!! She's brought this money crap up with me before, too, and like i keep telling her, dude, that's so not my issue. Besides, it's only $250.00. Big shit, man, if you don't get it right away or not... it's not the end of the world. It's not like it's $5,000 or something.

I'll cap my ranting off for now, though, and get off my goddamnit-i-hate-dealing-with-the-WT soapbox. Hope you have a rad Sunday.

Ahh.... back from an evening at Sidelines and the Cove with the Coyote. Pretty damned fun i must say, and an awesome time chilling with her, since I hardly ever get to see her.

Today I did jack and shit; just messed around, cleaning house and running to the mall and stuff. I scored Pirates of the Caribbean on the "collectors edition" dvd and the new live Rush dvd, so that was sweet. And i looked at cars over at Expressway Honda too... turns out they might be getting a shipment of used Nissans from Phoenix next weekend, so i might have to see if any catch my fancy.

One new one did, a new 265hp gunmetal-grey Maxima, but it was $31,000. ouch... methinks not.

I did hang out with Steph, too, tonight - that was cool. Got to see her place finally, and caught the last half of Boondock Saints (sp?) ... which looks like a pretty rad flick. Might have to rent it sometime.

I've gotta say that Sidelines was a pretty rad place to be tonight, though. Lots of peeps my age, so who knows, maybe that's an avenue to meet some folks in this town. I'd not mind expanding my social circle here.

Since i'm honestly pretty bombed, and awfully hungry too, i think i'm gonna go rustle up some chow in this here place of mine. Then hit the sack, since i'm one hella tired Goat, too. Hope your Saturday night was a fun one, reader, and have a cozy, peaceful night.

Comments are back! Post away, you fiends.

I'm awfully tired tonight, so I'm gonna have to make this a short one. Overall, happy hour was suprisingly noneventful tonight. Didn't do much but speak politics with the old man, which makes for quite interesting times since I'm a liberal while he just loves his Fox News Channel and Rush Limbaugh. Thankfully we're civil towards each other (most of the time), so it's all good.

Afterwards, both him and cindy wanted me to head over to this new place in Mandan, called the Dog Pound... but i gracefully declined. They had $2.00 pounders, which sounded enticing, but I guess around seven or eight they start playing a buttload of rap music and all the whitehatters and other assorted losers my age come crawling out of the woodwork to hang out there. Alas, that isn't much of my scene, so I figured I'd roll on home instead. I'd hoped to kick it with Steph for awhile, but it looks like we'll be doing that tomorrow night sometime. Adam came over for a few hours, though, so that was badass; it was cool just sitting around and shooting the shit.

And no, Adam, we're not gonna call my place The Petting Zoo. Just cause i'm a Goat does not mean you get to pet me! Cause dude... that's just wrong.

Oh, and Coyote is coming back into town for the weekend, too, so we might go score a few cold ones tomorrow night as well. That should kick ass; it's been awhile since i've seen her, and I'm sure we'll have plenty of catching up to do.

Time to hit the sack... i made it to the office at 7:10am today, first time before 8 in damn near two weeks. So i'm beat. Have an awesome rest of the friday night, if you're still raising some hell, and sleep well tonight. See ya tomorrow.

Dude! I so found my new ride!

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=484634

Now, off to get ready for another happy hour expedition. This time once again at the taj mahal of establishments, the Stage Stop. Joy.

I shall report back. Wish me luck!

Comments are comin' back, baby! Boo-ya!

Turns out they got killed because the service I used, BlogSpeak, went down. The service provider for BlogSpeak ended up shutting it down for reasons unmentioned, so guy that ran BlogSpeak worked out a deal to transfer all our user accounts and past comments to another blog-comment service. This should be ready, from what I hear, in the next few days.. which kicks ass. Especially since all the old comments will be retained, too. What a wonderful world we live in!

Pick a day from this week, any day really, and that's what today was like. It just really wasn't that much different from the rest. It was obviously pretty badass that I quickly solved what I thought would be a bug from the seventh circle of hell, but other than that I just didn't do anything unusual. Code, come home, eat, watch the news, and code some more.

Oh, i guess I did get my MDU bill today. Again, not like that's anything amazing... one would think. Just another thing in the mail amongst a credit card bill, victoria's secret catalog, and a 1099-INT form from the bank. Until i opened the bastard. Back in, say, October I thought the old man was full of it when he said my heating & electric bill (then about $85) would double come February. Sure as shit, they want $158 for last month.

That's a lot of money for heat!

So now my place is even colder, a balmy 62 degrees. If this bill gets any higher next month there'll be hell to pay. Again, I find myself wondering why in the blue fuck I chose to stay here. Maybe I should follow my old coworker Stacy's example and move down to Flagstaff. I'm sure the office would let me remote in... Last week he mentioned how he was in Phoenix, running around in just a t-shirt, and was getting too hot. The bastard.

He's actually a pretty cool dude, though, and a hell of an artist. Go check out his site if you have some time: http://www.stacymark.com.

I suppose I should cut this short and hit the sack. Tomorrow will be a sort of unique day at work, since some fairly noisy construction will be going on at the office. They've chosen to almost double the size of our complex by adding a third building right next to the newer of the two existing ones (incidentally, the one i'm in). Said new building is but only ten or twelve feet from my building, so the things will actually be connected on all three floors when construction is complete. In order to connect buildings, however, one must cut holes in the existing building... and that's what the contractors are going to do tomorrow. From what i'm told, they'll be using these wicked saws to cut through the concrete walls at about a foot every twelve minutes, and they're not quiet saws. As in, there's no way in hell i'll be able to get work done once this commences. The contractors claim it'll start "sometime in the afternoon", but we've also heard this could be between 10am and noon.

Unfortunately, it's not like work will just say, hey guys you all kick ass, this saw thing blows, but you're pretty cool, so just take the day off with pay - as compensation for the inconvenience. No... i'll have to bring the laptop home and code some more. Alas.

At any rate, have a fine rest of the night, reader, sweet dreams, and have a pleasant Friday.

Score! I fixed my bug from yesterday and last night! Thank god for .NET's Control.Invoke() method.

For all ye geeks out there, what was happening was that an ESRI IMapControl2 of mine wasn't refreshing like i'd expect it to, and sometimes the thing would just totally hose out and crash the application when I tried refreshing it. The refreshing happens, though, in response to an event being fired from a class in a different DLL. The problem just reeked of a thread issue... thought maybe the event was being handled in a different thread than the main application, and the mapcontrol didn't like being refreshed from this different thread. Well, Control.Invoke() to the rescue! That method lets you invoke a method from the control's thread instead of the current context. Thus, it lets a person jump thread boundaries, and makes everyone happy.

I just love telling the world when I solve problems. :)

Song of the Evening - U2 - The Unforgettable Fire

What a difference a day can make. Yesterday went well, but today... wham. Another bug in some code at work that I get to spend the next two days trying to fix. This one, sadly, could be a hell of a lot worse than the last. And, because of said bug, I didn't get to hardly work on any of the shit that needs to be done for PlotMaker... so tomorrow night should be a fun one to say the least. Unfortunately, about the only thing that's holding me together at this point is the prospect of happy hour... which is a bit pathetic on a few different levels.

Thing is, I'm a person that loves to have things to look forward to. When i'm stuck in a tunnel with no apparent end, mired in a bog of screwed-up C# code and absolutely-enthralling technical writing, even the smallest things can bring some light into my day. Even if those things, like happy hour, run a very very high risk of turning awkward fast when bombs are inevitably dropped by those in attendance. And at this point, that's about all I have to look forward to. I might not head to the show this weekend over in mandan (if I can talk Cody into it, perhaps, but Brianne will be out of town, and i'd rather not go by myself), and i certainly have no clue whatsoever when i'll get to Fargo next. I'm trying for the weekend after my birthday, but that's even hard to say given finances and the condition of the Vehicle of Destruction.

The lack of cool things to look forward to has blown, but what sucks even more is that it seems like i've had hardly any moments "off" in a long time. With the work on PlotMaker, i haven't been away from the computer all that much... i'd say that each day this week i've spent a good 12 hours per day in front of one, either at work or home. That's a long time! I have movies that need watching and a brand-new red leatherette slipcase edition of Lord of the Rings to read.

But noooo... the code rears its head once again. Bear in mind, though, reader, most of this is my own damned fault, because I could have simply been working on PlotMaker over christmas break or something. But hey, it's break! 'Twould defeat the purpose, i think.

This is mostly why I got so fed up with school towards the end. What would end up happening was that i'd spend damn near all my time programming, reading, researching some history topic, or studying for exams. I was hardly ever social; if I had obligations I just couldn't shirk them and go hang out with my friends for some reason... i'd end up with this crappy guilty feeling. Sort of like if I skipped class. The bitch of it is that it would really get me down, too. See, I knew that my friends didn't make school out to be such a big life-or-death thing, so they were totally cool with hanging out amongst themselves... and did, without me, of course. I missed them, and it sucked. I was simply the kid on the block that could never come out and play. Naturally, this started really pissing me off towards the end, and i was incredibly happy to finish school so i could finally live a life where I had evenings and weekends free, where I could finally go out and socialize.

It's times like this week that remind me why I didn't go on to get my master's degree last May.

Friday shall be here soon, however. In the meantime, i'm calling it a night and hitting the sack. Dream sweetly, reader.

So yeah, work today was pretty cool ... i finally got this feature i've been working on half-ways completed. Mind you, the tough part comes next... so the rest of the week should be an interesting one. Especially combined with the extra time i'm pulling for PlotMaker. I ended up spending almost the whole of this evening monkeying around with it, finishing up the conversion of the user's guide from Microsoft Word format to CHM. Ah, the wonders of creating CHM files by hand with the god-awful microsoft html help workshop. Shoot me now...

*doin the "all i want for christmas is RoboHELP" dance*

But tomorrow I spose I'll spiff it up a little, throw in some cool screenshots and stuff like that, integrate the help file into the program itself, and call it good. After that, i won't have much else to actually work on other than testing and maybe editing the user's guide some more. I wouldn't mind making a few more passes over the thing, checking grammar and basic readability. I'm sort of anal when it comes to stuff like that.

I had also meant to give some folks a call tonight, as i was feeling a bit more sociable than last night. Alas, the damned code got in the way again. If nothing else I'd kinda like to get ahold of Cassie, see what she's up to, and see what's going on for Friday night - perhaps, coupled with my other friends in town, I could have myself a regular wild west hoe-down over here. Shit, tomorrow's already wednesday, and before I know it i'm sure i'll be sitting up at the comfort inn or space alien's for happy hour with the proverbial tall Killian's in hand, bullshitting with the old man. Thus, getting off my ass and planning something for Friday night might be in order before it sneaks up on me, leaving me with an anticlimactic evening in front of the TV, with only 23 channels of relative shit to choose from.

My bedtime does indeed draw ever closer, though... and i'm wicked tired. About time for the 'ol goat to hit the sack, i think. Hope all is well in your world, reader, and that you're staying happy. Sleep well, and have a glorious Wednesday.

BAM!

KISS MY ASS, EXTENT RECTANGLE! I so own you.

http://forums.esri.com/Thread.asp?c=93&f=993&t=115068

Been working on that shit since thursday last week at work here. Boo-ya!

I returneth.

Remember how i mentioned i wasn't feeling all that sociable? Damn... understatement of the day. It was seriously like pulling teeth to put on the Happy Face and be all friendly and, well, chipper around the toaster and her family, which tonight was the whole nine yards, man; mom and stepdad and sister and her b/f and the little ones. So, ah, yeah. It was cool going out and socializing and seeing friends, but those who know me well and are down with the happenings of the last quarter of '03 would most certainly understand the extreme level of awkwardness... given this is the first time i've been over to hang with the family since, ah, probably sometime in October.

Driving back, though, i had one of my little spiritual moments. Now, this isn't where i've like aligned the rocks with the moon to help channel all this energy into me, nor stopped off on the side of the road and made a small offering to the monkey god of Zambizi or some shit... it was just one of those little moments in life where one is humbled by pure existence. On the way back, i was just cruising down broadway, heading eastbound so's i could hang a left onto 16th and truck back to my place, when i noticed a star in the east. I suppose it could have been Venus, but that's a bit late in the night to see it, not? Anyways, it was the only star i'd noticed this whole night, and for some reason seeing it just made the whole world stop. Caught in that moment of rapture, it was just me, the star, and the cold, empty, ultimately indifferent world.

It was at that moment that i knew, no matter what, everything's going to be alright.

Sleep well, reader.

Dude... bunk! BlogSpeak ate it, so my comments are all pooched and noone can leave me little notes here and there. Dammit!

I just can't stop crying, 'tis so painful a thing... i'm sure i'll hardly sleep tonight, thinking of all the people who won't be able to comment on my poor little entries... :(

But other than the tremendous heartbreak I just experienced, today wasn't bad at all. Work just flew by, and I got started on converting my PlotMaker user's guide over to CHM format - so it can be all nice and integrated with my program and all, where user's will be able to select Contents from the Help menu and see all my handiwork, instead of opening up a PDF document or something like that. Woohoo!

Yeah, that was sarcasm there.

I guess I get to go out and be social, though ... the toaster just called and summoned me over to her place. From what I hear, she heads back to fargo tomorrow, so this must have been just some quick little jaunt back home or something. I'm not feeling terribly social tonight (i've been in this bizarre inwardly-somber-yet-outwardly-chipper mood lately), but it's good to get out and see one's friends, too.

I shall return soon.

So ends another weekend. Most of my Sundays are usually uneventful... but today was good. Seems like there's been a string of good days lately, and I can't really complain much about that. I didn't do a lot today, but I finally dragged my ass to JC Penney and got my watch band resized. After dropping a good 55 pounds last year, the thing was painfully loose, and got to be quite the annoying bastard. With that taken care of, i'm just a bit happier. Plus, I wrapped up my printing code for PlotMaker, making me feel like less of a sack. Now I just need to finish the documentation for it and we should be good to go for our Jan. 17th delivery date.

That's coming up far too fast for my liking. Oh well, keeping busy keeps me out of trouble. It does make it a bit hard to socialise, though. Granted, there aren't too many people here that I chill with, but I wouldn't mind seeing cody and brianne this week by any means. Also, General Assdick called me tonight and, amongst other things, informed me that his other half - the toaster - is back home until tuesday. Not sure if she'll call or not, but ... that's another person i might just miss hanging out with this week due to the wonderment of technical writing. Alas.

Besides running errands and coding, though, not much else went on besides hanging out with brianne for a few hours. We didn't do much besides sit around and bullshit, but it was a good time nonetheless. One added bonus was that I got to introduce her to the glory that is Cake's Prolonging the Magic. Granted, it's no Motorcade, but it still hauls tremendous amounts of ass. Songs like Guitar and Never There just touch me so. Hell, they even talk about Goats on the album! :)

I suppose I should make my way to bed, though... it's about that time. Dream some good dreams, reader, and have a pleasant monday, be it starting off the new semester or just starting another week at the office.

boo-ya! Color printing so fucking works now!

course, i haven't thrown any weird test cases at it, but hey, my grid lines are correct! bickety-bam...

Song of the Moment - REM - Texarkana

20,000 miles to an oasis
20,000 years will I burn
20,000 chances I wasted
Waiting for the moment to turn

I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

Walking through the woods I have faced it
Looking for something to learn
30,000 thoughts have replaced it,
Never in my time to return

I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall
All alone
Waiting to fall

40,000 stars in the evening
Look at them fall from the sky
40,000 reasons for living
40,000 tears in your eye

I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

Someone should fix my color printing routine for PlotMaker... specifically the one that draws the one-pixel-wide rectanges around the colorized squares representing field plots. It's only drawing grid lines around, say, every third or fourth row of plots. Likely, it's a problem with some float values that i'm using, where I should be using int values. Mind you, i don't need an explicit cast so there shouldn't be a loss of precision. What the fuck...

Damn you, PlotMaker! hehe

I've to head to my grandma's shortly to score some food, but I thought i'd pop in here for a sec and write a bit. I haven't done a thing today, besides sleep in till 11am (score!), but yesterday was cool. July Lucille and I went and saw Big Fish, which was actually really awesome. If you've not seen it, reader, you should. Then we ended up kicking it for the rest of the night with one of her friends, cassie. Scored dinner over at Fiesta Villa and just drove around for a few hours bullshitting and whatnot. All in all it was really low-key but kicked ass, and was awesome getting to know someone new.

Thing is, I had no idea what any plans were, it was all really spur-of-the-moment, so it made getting together with some other friends (the lobster and brianne) a bit difficult. Plus, i didn't really stay out all that late anyways; i was damned tired again. I felt bad, though, since i wanted to chill with both brianne and the lobster and didn't get a chance to. Which especially blew since the lobster left home today to go back to school, and I have absolutely no idea when i'll see her again - the way the ghetto taurus is, being quite under the weather, probably not for a good while. Which really blows.

I guess, in that case, yeasterday was a bit of a double-edged sword - still having fun and meeting someone new, but not really being able to see your friends off with a proper goodbye. Alas, the world keeps turning. Which means i need to get my ass in gear here and go get that food of my grandma's, come back, and start some coding that I need to get done. Hope you had a cool weekend, reader, and enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Hola!

Had a pretty good day, all told. Well, happy hour was a little weird, but still better than most. Other than the inherent awkwardness of that, however, I kept busy at work - which made the day zip past - and spent a fun night kicking it with Brianne, the lobster, and her sister. Pretty low-key stuff (as is usually the case with me, alas) ... yet still awesome.

It sucks that after this week i won't see most of my crew for what sounds like quite awhile. Thankfully Brianne, Adam, Cody and Jen, Katie, and Locken are still here, but it's hard too since I don't get to see too much of them. With school starting again next week most of my peeps will be kept busy out in the flat lands of the "valley" (like, ohmigod), and the Vehicle of Destruction, is, well, self-destructing, so who knows when i'll see folks like the lobster, funkmaster pink, july lucille, steve/spanky/stewart, the princess, and the rest. Time does go by fast, though, so i'm sure i'll see them again before i know it.

That's about it for now, i guess. I'm ungodly tired and can't seem to think straight (hence also write) to save my life. Perhaps drinking damn near a whole pot of Christmas Blend tonight wasn't the best idea; not only am i under the influence of a shitload of caffeine, putting me in this odd zombielike state, my stomach hurts to beat all hell. Alas, my own damned fault. If you, intrepid reader, are still awake at this hour, dream sweetly tonight - and sleep in tomorrow! We could all use it.

blogger.. don't suck. i hope you publish this.

DEFTONES!!

Today was ... busy. Nothing really interesting went down, but I spent a buttload of time trying to figure out how to do something using ArcObjects that should be trivial, but is anyting fucking but. Grr! It was so ungodly frustrating... Hopefully it all comes together sooner than later. It damned well better! Nonetheless, I'd planned on hitting it tomorrow for most of the day, trying to figure it out, but I remembered we're doing some interviewing tomorrow. We've three folks to meet with, so most of my day will be kept busy with that. Oh well. I can always put in some extra hours Saturday, i suppose, even though I'm inwardly hoping I can hook up with the Lobster for awhile and get her the little something I scored for her birthday, since she's heading back to the great flat lands of Fargo quite soon.

I'm pretty stoked that it's Friday already, though. I don't have any huge plans for this weekend, but hopefully my little gathering does indeed happen tomorrow night - and hopefully I can get out to see Big Fish on Saturday, too. There's a chance July Lucille and I might catch it during a matinee showing, so that would be cool. Especially since i've got this weird little thing about seeing movies by myself. In a pinch I'll do it (I was fully prepared to go by myself to LOTR), but I absolutely hate doing so and will avoid it at all costs. It's depressing! Even though you don't talk during movies, I still find it quite social, and I end up getting bummed out just cause I'm the only one there. Strangely, however, I'm just fine with going to concerts or restaurants by myself... go figure. Perhaps that's just one more little quirk of mine that, rolled in with all the others, works to create the enigma that is The Goat.

I have a fear that i'm really rambling right now, and making not a lot of sense... and i feel really spacey. Perhaps that's a sign that I best get my ass to bed, esp. since I'd like to be in the office before 7 tomorrow. And I have to shovel the godforsaken snow in the morning before then. Argh! Soon, though, spring will be here.

Dream sweetly, reader.

Ahh... i'm so tired! But that's okay. I should get some good sleep out of this.

Like last night, this post shall be nice and short, since my bed is simply screaming for me to come spend some quality time with it. However, I just wanted to pop in and mention that both today and tonight were pretty good; got some nice things accomplished at work, and hung out with July Lucille again for a bit this evening. Certainly no complaints! It's nice having days that don't suck.

For all you crazy Bismarck folk out there, word on the street is that I might have a bit of a gathering Friday night. I'd also like to see the movie Big Fish sometime soon ... so maybe we can get a horde of us together and hit that shit Saturday. A penny for your thoughts, reader...

I'm so hitting the sack like right now. Pleasant dreams tonight, reader, and have a fine Thursday.

I'm just on my way to bed here, but thought I'd give a very brief rundown of the day: it was good! Hung out with July Lucille for the evening, which was rad, just sitting around and bullshitting and such. She ended up coming back for a few days here, so it was good seeing her during her short little trip back.

And I finally got my six-month review at work today!! This was good, since finding out that you're doing well at work is certainly a nice thing, and raises are always welcome things. Having a little extra cash rocks ... especially when it's ass-cold outside. Perhaps I can start heating my place to 70 instead of keeping it at 64...

That's about it for now, though - i'm pretty tired, and i must work tomorrow, so it's time for the Goat to hit the proverbial sack. Sweet dreams, reader, and have a good one.

Song of the Moment - Nickel Creek - When You Come Back Down

You got to leave me now, you got to go alone
You got to chase a dream, one that's all your own
Before it slips away
When you're flyin' high, take my heart along
I'll be the harmony to every lonely song
That you learn to play

When you're soarin' through the air
I'll be your solid ground
Take every chance you dare
I'll still be there
When you come back down
When you come back down

I'll keep lookin' up, awaitin' your return
My greatest fear will be that you will crash and burn
And I won't feel your fire
I'll be the other hand that always holds the line
Connectin' in between your sweet heart and mine
I'm strung out on that wire

And I'll be on the other end, To hear you when you call
Angel, you were born to fly, If you get too high
I'll catch you when you fall
I'll catch you when you fall

Your memory's the sunshine every new day brings
I know the sky is calling
Angel, let me help you with your wings

When you're soarin' through the air
I'll be your solid ground
Take every chance you dare

I'll still be there
When you come back down
Take every chance you dare,
I'll still be there
When you come back down
When you come back down

... yeah, i know it's Nickel Creek, quasi-bluegrass goodness, but hey, it's still a cool song! And it captures how I feel.

Just on my way to bed here... thought I might as well add a closing note for the day. I did get my Mandan errands done, sort of, but things didn't pan out as expected so we'll see what happens in the next few days. Alas, it was good getting out - and I also scored some homemade bean soup from my aunt during the expedition, too. No complaints there; it's wicked tasty.

Note the usage of expedition above: wind chills today were around -28, and tomorrow could push -40 or more. Sometimes I really do wonder why the hell I live here. My poor Taurus hates this weather, too, but I suppose it could be plenty worse. I could live in Alabama or something. But hey, then I could have a mullet!

Tonight was rad, though. I spent a few hours chatting it up with Brianne over at my place, and it was really good .. helped pull me out of a bit of a rut I was in which started yesterday. We'd planned on watching a flick or something (I was gunning for AI, Donnie Darko, or American Beauty, but that's just what i felt like tonight i guess) but we ended up just chatting instead. In retrospection, i'm glad it turned out as such.

I need to be getting on my way, though, to bed, since I return to the office tomorrow. Grr... I was starting to enjoy this break! The change of scenery will be nice, though, as will the cash flow generated from such an endeavor. I leave you, then, with a small selection of photos I took of myself today. Figured the 'ol match.com profile could use some, for what it's worth.

photo one
photo two
photo three
photo four

Try and have a good Monday tomorrow, reader, and if nothing else, dream of the warm summer evenings that lay ahead. Simple evenings spent with friends, drinks, and smiles ... time spent next to that special someone, last light of the day streaming through her hair. Dream of evenings filled with calm wonder and infinite bliss.

They'll be here soon.

Ah, the excitement!

Just another dull Sunday, after a particularly dull Saturday. I'm sure those are useful now and again, but it's pretty bad when you hit the sack at 11:45 and don't wake up for damn near twelve hours. I experimented, though, and threw another comforter on my bed, and holy shit does that help me sleep. Normally i refrain from such things because i'm so hot (well, yeah, but like, temperature i mean) that extra covers end up pissing me off. Perhaps i've changed... because this is pure bliss.

Blows that I had to wait till the weekend right BEFORE work to sleep in; I should have done this sooner.

That's okay, though - I've been trying to psych myself up for the return tomorrow. Coding a little yesterday did help that, and I'll need to do so again today for a little bit - but not for too long. I'd like to do something later besides code, since I'll get to do all sorts of that this upcoming week. I was considering hitting the China Garden for dinner, but as it turns out I've errands to run concerning the mother over in Mandan right around dinner-time. Bah! I guess it's not going anywhere, though ... i can always head out there next week sometime.

I just really want to avoid a repeat of yesterday, which besides being boring, kept me in quite a somber mood, and just overall blew. Highlight of the day, though: watching a live internet feed of the NASA JPL mission control room as the Mars Spirit rover went through the EDL phase (entry, descent, and landing). It was actually a trip watching all of it happen live; it felt, as cheesy as it sounds, like I was right there with them. At one point, they knew it landed but lost the signal as it was bouncing upon its airbags before coming to complete rest. The minutes while trying to reacquire the signal were pretty tense, but when they found it again the whole room just exploded in pandemonium. Nothing like seeing NASA scientists jumping around the room like a bunch of crazed spider monkeys. Excellent stuff. :)

I suppose it's about time i get my ass in gear and get ready for the day. Have a fine Sunday, reader, and don't lose that pretty smile on your face.

Happy Friday, reader!

Hopefully everyone's New Year's was a blast. All in all, I'd have to say mine was pretty sweet. I got a slight bit tuned, perhaps more than I should have, but alas, it's New Year's and I really needed to cap off a particularly shitty year.

2004 will be better. It simply has to be; I don't know if it could get any worse than 2003.

It was awesome being with my crew, though - Funkmaster Pink, The Lobster, Jen, Cody, Adam, Steph, and everyone else that popped in like Drew and the other folk. One girl that showed up even thought I was cute! Granted, she was sixteen and like all gothed-out and shit (aaaa) but she does get points for flattering me a bit, especially since I think i've only been referred to as "cute" a staggering three times.

Not that being gothed-out is completely bad (it's actually pretty rad if done tastefully), but sixteen, dude... damn.

So i've been thinking of a few new year's resolutions, like most ambitious folk. I've had quite a bit of time to think about them, too, between sitting here bored on my ass and going on drives and the like, but all i've been able to come up with are the following:

1. Get the credit cards paid off
   
2. Score a new car (read: 2000-2002 Maxima, 5-speed, black or dark blue, < 40k miles)
   
3. Meet some new people in this forsaken town, particularly of the female persuasion, since nothing has panned out in so so long and i doubt it will unless i take matters into my own hands
   
4. Increase my buff-ness (i've the weights, i just need some motivation!)
   

I guess that's not a terribly bad list, and not all that ambitious aside from point #3... but I wish i had come up with more. Lord knows i had the time, especially with my drive out to St. Anthony last night, but I was sort of tired and zonked out and such, and grooving on the music, in a different frame of mind, to think about silly ambitions. But i did make it safely back from the adventure nonetheless, after dealing with some particularly iffy roads Mandan-side. I was sooo tired when i got back, though, i just crashed out when i hit the bed. No doubt i should have just kept with the original plan and came straight home from Pink's place (i was feeling really sick and sort of out of it, and i thought sleep was the best answer), but once i was on the open road, its call was far too irresistable.

Dammit, i should go, i need to run over to Mandan and run a few errands concerning the mother. Joy... oh well. Have a fine Friday, reader, and make the most of the time given to you.

Happy New Year!!

May this next year far surpass the last in joy, contentment, and peace, for yourself and those you love.