My allergies have been acting up all day. It made work close to unbearable.

But hey, today, I made my first international call. Ever. I've never had a reason to call internationally before. Today, however, I had to call a client in the UK. So, not only did I call internationally, but I called internationally on the company's dime! I don't know why that pleases me so.

Why does it look like it's going to rain like crazy this weekend? This annoys me greatly.

Two of my co-workers are in the midst of moving to the west coast. They have chosen to try to find their cat a home locally here in/around Ithaca rather than move her with them. Here is how one of them described the cat:

Scully is a 7 yr old short hair who is very well mannered and great with [our daughter]. The first 4 years of her life she was with another cat at our house, and did well with him. She has only been indoors, is front declawed and fixed.

She comes with a few months of food, a litter box and litter and cat carrier as well.

( Semi-arge pictures behind the cut. )

If you're interested, let me know!

It is good to have friends, is it not?

Seriously. I feel like I have a lot of friends, and I'm not entirely certain where they all came from. But I feel like they all like me.

I don't know why this is notable. Probably because there were definitely much leaner years (in terms of numbers of friends) earlier in life.

This past weekend totally screwed up my sleep schedule. I went to bed way too late last night, meaning I didn't get enough sleep. I was dragging for most of the day as a result. Now, I want to go to sleep, but it's a bit too early. If I go to bed now, I run the risk of having my sleep cycle swing back too far the other way, where I'm getting up too early and going to bed too early.

And yet, given my tiredness, I'm still able to teach people basic arithmetic!

...

Ah, fuck this shit, I'm going to bed.

I'm back in Ithaca, having arrived back in town some 49 hours after I left. It was a good weekend. I'm very happy I made the trip. I feel the need to capture some of the details here, so bear with me.

( Two nights in downstate and the world's my öyster. )

And of course, it's back to work tomorrow.

I'll be heading down to New Jersey tonight, for the weekend. Strangely enough, I'll probably end up spending more time within the State of New York in various locations. That just seems to be the way things go these days.

While I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family this weekend, I'm not particularly looking forward to the drive itself.

I should be back in Ithaca on Sunday.

Here we go again.

Woot-Off!!!

I'm tired of dumb people. Can we get rid of all the dumb people, please? That's probably too much to ask.

So, apparently I need to learn to play golf (real golf, not miniature) before June 1.

Frak.

Well, either learn, or fake it and just drink beer while appearing to play with my co-workers.

I'm thinking about making the newly released LG enV² my next cell phone. As far as I can tell, it's effectively a decent upgrade of the original enV, with improvements such as a smaller size, bigger screen, microUSB port, and larger acceptable microSD card size. I know a few people who have and like the original enV. Also, just about every review for the enV² I have found thus far rate it from good to great. (The major exception seems to be some guy from Wired, who really wants the enV² to be a smartphone--which it was never meant to be--and takes issue with having to pay for Verizon services. Which isn't to say that paying extra for Verizon services is okay, but that's a Verizon problem, not an enV² problem.) Anyone reading this, by any chance, have an enV² or know someone who just got one?

In other news: Oh, look, a popularity contest!

I saw Iron Man today. It was a USS Accord Meal and a Mission, but we got a good turnout from non-Accord folks (burghman, Michele, bobulus, and Ray) versus actual Accord folks (myself, jccohen, mhaithaca, acappellasinger, Alec, and Peter).

Iron Man rocked, I have to say. This is most likely the best Marvel superhero film since 2004's Spider-Man 2, and the best comic book film adaptation since 2005's Batman Begins. (Hopefully, the BB sequel The Dark Knight, set to be released in July, will meet or exceed the greatness of the first film.) I was pleasantly surprised, given that I think I didn't care for or even outright hated the last five or so Marvel films I've seen in the theaters. (And that doesn't even count Elektra, which I knew well enough to avoid based on the ads alone.)

Unlike the X-Men or Spider-Man properties, I wasn't quite as knowledgeable about the fine details of Iron Man history aside from the broad strokes, some of his Avengers adventures, and the more recent events in and around the Marvel Universe. But I have to say they got the basic ideas nailed. I might have preferred if they did more with Tony Stark's alcoholism; instead, they just made him look like a guy who knows how to party. (And boy, can he party, as evidenced by his private jet, bar in a box, and, um, "doing a piece for Vanity Fair".) But if they're saving the alcoholism story for the inevitable sequel (or, um, another related film), I'm fine with that.

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark turned out to be quite good. Most others were convinced of Downey's ability to play Stark as soon as it was announced; after all, Downey knows a thing or two about partying and addiction. Nevertheless, I was hesitant to get my hopes up. Luckily, Downey cleared that hurdle with tons of clearance. A bigger surprise, though, was Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. He was a lot of fun to watch, even when he was over the top. And, of course, there's the lovely Gwyneth Paltrow, who is absolutely gorgeous with red hair. She can be my personal assistant any day.

Parts of the plot were predictable, but everything was played well. Comedic bits were well-placed, and well-paced. Overall, it was a highly enjoyable film. Hopefully, The Incredible Hulk will be good as well. Then, I'll have my faith restored in the future of Marvel films.

Oh yeah, if you see Iron Man, you might as well follow everyone's advice and stick around until after the end credits.

Free Comic Book Day was pretty good today. I got placed outside with the $1 back issue boxes for most of the day. Luckily, this put me close to the local artists, Aaron Cooter and Storn Cook, doing free sketches for people. Instead of the usual superheroes, I got them to do sketches of Kirk and Spock, respectively. Everyone seemed to have a good time. There were even a few MILFs in attendance (along with their spawn, of course).

Yesterday, my boss gave me the company credit card. He needed me to go buy some dinnerware (of a particular undisclosed brand) to be uses as sample for analysis. Since it was 8AM, the only place that was open selling this dinnerware was the Den of Evil. Yes, Wal-mart. So I drove to Wal-mart, and spent $17 of the company's money. It was just a little thing, and I'm not even certain I'll be reimbursed for mileage, but I just like being able to go off-site and being trusted with the company credit card. At my old job, I think I may have gotten to use the credit card once or twice off-site, and it was at Staples, and it was only after working there for several years. So I'm liking the trust here.

Tomorrow, it's Free Comic Book Day! Yay!

To start out May, you get a MindMap.


( Meh. )

WD27BS/Willsmas/Willebration is nearly over.

It's been a fun month. I've enjoyed most of it. Good times with good friends, good food, and good drinks. Thank you to everyone who was able to partake in the festivities, no matter how official they may have been.

Now, I just have to plan a year-long version of this...

Maybe the last two weeks were all the summer we're going to see all year. Everything between now and October will be 40-something gloomy weather! (Actually, the rest of the week looks to have highs in the 50s and 60s, but the clouds will stay and it might rain.)

Stupid sunburned skin. Stupid me forgetting to wear sunblock over the weekend. Stupid rain. Stupid people on teh intarwebs.

Last night, I decided to hit up the Sim Redmond Band show at Castaways after all. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed seeing them play live. While there, I ran into acappellasinger and my co-worker Jill, neither of whom was totally unexpected.

Today, I went to the 4-H Rubber Duck Race. For those who don't know, it's a charity event where people can "buy" rubber ducks, which are let loose in the Cascadilla Gorge/Creek. They race down the creek until they get to a finish line maybe 3/4 of a mile away. The first 50 or so ducks (or, rather, those who bought them) win prizes. The very last duck also wins some sort of consolation prize. I ran into the CEO of my company at this event; as it turns out, he was one of the duck wranglers who unleashed the ducks at the start of the race and walked the entire watery route of the race to help along any stranded ducks. (Some ducks get caught up in the rapids, in eddies, or in other obstacles along the way.) Additionally, I think a former boss from my former workplace may have won one of the prizes, though she wasn't present at the reading of the winners' names. Other highlights included seeing real ducks attempt to deal with the army (navy?) of rubber ducks in their creek and getting my picture taken with a woman in a yellow duck suit.