I told Waddell and Reed to go Beat It.

Thanks for the opportunity, but not a good fit for me and all that Jazz. Also, I'm going on vacation for the next 2 weeks.

See Yah!

to my Microsoft Peeps, hook a brother up!

omg omg omg just 1 month before my birthday.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C6GVI6

Release date is December 9, 2008.

Whilst I was listening attentively to my manager during my weekly 1:1, I got 2 phone calls.

The phone began to ring, mortified, I put it on vibrate (so soothing).

The first caller was some unknown 800 number.

The second call was from my lovely wife.

The first call was from a recruiter wanting to know if I would want to be a buyer for Overstock.com. I said to myself, PERFECT, I love to shop and I love to do it on the internet, doubly so! I called back, made some chit chat.

"So, where are they based?"
"Utah?"
"---"
"Ever been to Utah?"
"Um, no."
"You like skiing or camping?"
"I love to camp (base camping more like it. oh yeah! Bayushi with the spawn kill)."
"Utah is really clean. Very clean"

She kept repeating this like a mantra. All I kept hearing was "white" "very white" - "MORMONS" - "Utah Jazz" - "Greg Ostertag (former center)" - "HUMID" - "OMFGWTFBBQ MORMONS!!"

"Yeah. That would be great. Send me the info..."

NOT.

into the future.

Today is my 34.5th birthday. I demand tribute. STAT

Also, got a metric ton of info re: other opportunity. I am equally thrilled and terrified as what I need to do to get there and what I will be doing once I am there.

I keep reminding myself that in the end, it will be worth it. That's the difference between a job and a Career...

Yes I know it is Tuesday, sue me.

Took the Mango Tide out to Gig Harbor and piloted my vessel, for I am the Commander AND Master of said boat. Tooled around Horsehead Bay for about an hour, fending off bottle rock attacks from the local denizens.

I searched for Sir Roger Moore's house to no avail. Got back and celebrated with the kids and my inlaws Fourth of July style - hot dogs and good stiff drinks.

My lovely wife also managed to singe some of my copious leg hairs with a sparkler which she flicked at me. It's not a barbeque unless you have the smell of burnt hair I guess.

Today, had my 1:1 and it went well finally. Met my iph goals with a 9.9 :)

woohoo!

Now, I fill the hole in my head with meat.

This work week can eat an EPIC DICK.

T-minus 30 minutes, then train ride home, read Gardens of the Moon (my second readthrough) by Steven Erikson, get home, and have an EPIC double Martini with a minimum of 4 olives.

You kids be safe this Fourth of July.

;)

Work has just been brutal, unforgiving, and relentless.

Luckily for me, I'm off in 7 minutes.

Muuahahahhahahahahahah!!!

Spain Vs Germany

11 am PST on ABC.

Viva Espana!!!


GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL!!!

:)

How quickly things can change ...

my regular readers will note that I have not been getting a lot of love at my current job. Well, that hasn't changed yet.

However, recently I updated my resume on Careerbuilder.com as it had been close to 2.5 years since I had done so. Literally, within minutes, I got 2 emails and a phone call from various companies - an IT recruiter, Insurance Company, and Waddell and Reed a Financial Investments company.

Check them out here:
http://www.waddell.com/jsp/index.jsp?top=8&side=0&inner=0&subinner=0&supersub=0&pagetitle=Careers#

I went from being treated like the chamberpot maid to the belle of the ball.

I spoke to someone at W&R today to set up an interview . I will be meeting with the regional manager for 1 hour on Friday July 11, 2008. Granted, no promises have been made, but I am very excited about the prospect. It was really flattering to have one of the head guys there ,Jim Scott, call me personally this week and press me to set up an appointment. These guys really want me. I can see why, I started out my career in the Investment Banking World in New York and San Francisco, I am poly lingual (Spanish, some Italian, ebonics), intelligent, tall, dark, and handsome.

Who can blame them?

They like to recruit people that are on different career paths out of Financial Services as these individuals give them a fresh perspective. To me, this makes alot of sense as you are getting fresh blood and someone that may be bored or stuck in a different career path. They are willing to train you and send you on your way.

The timing is certainly fortuitous as 1) I am bored at work 2) not being well compensate financially 3) my entire department is a career dead end 4) all of the above.

Additionally, they have an office based out of Tacoma. Bonus!

In the interim, I have been meeting with my new consigliare and refining my strategy. He also advised me to pull some strings. I got my resume to someone at Logitech, who are based out of California. This is a company whose products I personally* guarantee and based in the best state in the Union.

Wish me luck!

*Money back guarantee, not guaranteed.

I went to an Amazon.com fishbowl on my lunch break to listen to David Sedaris read a snippet from his new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames .

He is hilarious. Other than a short 2 page story in the New Yorker, I have not read much by him. Now, I want to absorb everything he has done.

More importantly, he really makes me want to start writing again. Something I keep putting off, but no more. Listening to him today, really rekindled my interest and just in a general sense, makes me believe that I can do it. Even if I never get published, I can write for me.

I rather be a writer and weave tales and communicate and connect with people than be yet another office drone. There is more to life than this...

sgtred, this is for you!




Reader of the Year: The Nicotine Umbrella
by Tom on June 11, 2008

I snapped this on my way back from lunch the other day and had to pass it along. The photo speaks for itself, but I just want to express my admiration for this intrepid reader. I always have great affection for people who can carve out a place in the big machine for their idiosyncrasies, and this lady has it FIGURED OUT. She likes to read, she likes to smoke, she lives in Seattle (where it's 50 degrees and rainy in June), she works in some hulking office building downtown: what's the solution? You see it before you. (I should note, since it's not quite clear, that she's actually standing in the street, in a quiet little spot between parked cars that puts her out of foot traffic, far away from the smokers-area ennui, and even deeper in her own little umbrella world. Brilliant.)

My only regret is that my uncharacteristic gumption in taking her photo did not extend to finding out what she's actually reading. Any guesses? Anybody have photos that can top this for reader dedication? (I like Maud's recent subway reading snapshot.) --Tom

source: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2008/06/reader-of-the-y.html

Where did the weekend go?

The weekend was short and uneventful. My kids were amazing (when they were not fighting each other). I think I have 2 little artists on my hands. Sofia does amazing watercolors and the such, and is just a little sponge when it comes to learning. Her vocabulary keeps growing by leaps and bounds. Last night she was reading a book pretty much to herself. I keep forgetting that she is almost 3. *sniff*

Gabriel spent like 2 hours creating a lego masterpiece, making large sized superheroes out of blocks - The Hulk, Super Man, Ice Man, etc.

I was blown away.

Watched Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest, which was meh, but the Davey Jones character is creepy as hell ...

Now, back to work!

but this does not make me emo.

I am just reminded how much

a) I love the Irish
b) liked this band*
c) I think Dolores O'Riordan is gorgeous.




* My college mates and I hated HATED with a capital H the liners for their second album No Need to Argue. They had this stupid fucking couch on every image. LOATH!

Thursday left work early and went home - drank.

Friday - played with the kids and did some weeding and yard work. That night I went over to fireballof3's house and watched Gunbuster which was brough to us by the kindly theonlymegumegu for anime night. I only watched the first 4 episodes out of the total 6, but had a really good time. Christo thanks for the delicious soda. MMM. And thanks to Mikey for hosting.

Saturday - did about 3 more hours of yardwork - including mowing the front and back and more weeding. Our neighbor Travis hooked Colleen and myself up with a mammoth Ahi sandwich. Colleen and I concurred that it was the finest sandwich we had had all year. I quaffed it with a Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat Ale, for the perfect finish.

Afterwards, Colleen and I went to a friend's house and went Kayaking. They live off of Lake Tapps and have all sorts of gear/kayak's etc. Their daughter also baby sat our kids, so it was a family affair, if you would.

We borrowed their Hobie Mirage Tandem Kayak (seen below):



This kayak has a great peddling system that gives you the option to use leg power when you are tired from rowing. We really dug it. I ended up getting drenched when the wake of a motor boat and the gal wakeboarding on it, caught up to us. I swear to god I was sitting in a puddle of water...

We were out for about 2.5 hours. Good times. The day was warm but not too hot. Now, of course, Colleen and I really want to get our hands on our own kayak. I think that over time, it will be a good investment as a) we would not have to pay to rent equipment and b) we can just put it into the water on Lake Tapps or Gig Harbor for free c) the equipment appreciates nicely. The downer is that it is an expense up front of about $1000.00 or so. A paddle alone can run $200!

Saturday morning I spent a few hours cleaning up the house with the sweeping, cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, etc. As the flammable fireballof3, the lovely kielrain, and the megaromatic theonlymegumegu came over to Kyuden Bayushi for a barbeque.

The amount of food consumed was ridiculous. My exulted guests brought some delicious cherries, sodas, kick ass pasta and chicken salad, chipotle burgers, turkey burges, etc.

Colleen did a masterful job on the grill. We also served up 4 kinds of hot dogs/brats and some really good salmon. MMMMM.

We played some nice Bocce Ball in the backyard, which yours truly DOMINATED (won 3:2 *cough*) hehe, Mario Kart on the Wii which is amazing, and had a few rounds of Go Boom - which is sort of like Uno on crack with explosives.

The running joke of the night was "So, what you are telling me is that the timer is at "60" and you just played a "snip" . Chris and I were laughing in tears. I love inside jokes...

Sunday we drove down to Gig Harbor to have a bbq with the inlaws. We hit like 4 stores on the way there trying to find our very own set of Go Boom ! to bring to their house, but were not successful.

My father in law let me drive his John Deere sit down mower with the wagon pulling behind it. I gave Colleen, Gabriel, and Sofia a ride cackling like a mad man as I did wheelies in their acre out there.

Later, we had some delicious burgers and some very potent Cosmopolitans. I ended up taking a nice 2 hour nap afterwards ...

Drove him at 7:30 which allowed the kids to pass out in the back. I caught Sunday's Lakers vs Spurs game which I had tivo'd and went to bed around 10 pm, after showering.

All in all, I had a lovely weekend. I am pretty pooped, but I was proud that I pushed myself to get stuff done and forced Colleen and I to go Kayaking on Satruday specially when we were petering out after doing yardwork.

:)

Well,

first the bad out of the way.

The MS recruiter emailed me today and said sorry no go. Keep applying. Gee, thanks for nothing.

On the plus side, I have a 4 day weekend as of tonight. fireballof3 and theonlymegumegu , I'd love to see you guys. Let me know if you want to meet up. Perhaps a barbeque at El Rancho Titos this <strike>Saturday</strike>. <b>EDIT:</b> Sunday at noon . Let me know. Monday is out of the question as we have an event in Gig Harbor.

"Your PENIS will make more shadow, than a tree......."

ME: "Someone, call the Pentagon!"

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