Must Resist The Urge To Spend

Criminy, it is easy to spend money. I came very close today to spending a big chunk of money on not-so-necessary-although-quite-cool car audio gear. And I only went to the place to buy tinting for the truck's windows!

But with Smacky's help I resisted the urge. I bought just the tinting at today's sale prices, and so spent very little money compared to what I would've spent on gear. Wow.

I like to think I'm good at managing my money, but it is SO EASY to drop wads of cash (or credit) on something almost before you know it. I try to exercise discipline and spend my money wisely after a great deal of market and product research. I shop for good deals. I comparison shop. I hardly ever impulse buy. Despite all this, even I am subject to the shopping craziness that comes over people when they walk into a store filled with neat things.

I really gotta stop going to technology and audio stores...geez.

Normality Returns

Life seems to have returned to something akin to normal (for those of you who know me well, read "normal" as "as normal as possible for a freak like him") and I'm feeling a bit more rested. Work is back to a less insane pace, I'm catching up on house stuff, and I'm actually sleeping again. Still missing the Bastard, but at least I can chat with him on GMail.

I've made two excellent discoveries this weekend. One, The Dresden Dolls. Found them via AlanB's blog , and have been fervently listening to them ever since. Incredible. Check them out. I'm totally in love...hopefully Smacky won't leave me for being so horribly infatuated.

And two, on a more nerdly note, I found Apache::Gallery, and am presently tuning it on the server so I can share the pictures from the new camera that I've been hoarding away from the world. This module is fabulous. Dynamic access to pictures in a gallery format, cached delivery images, adding pictures is as simple as uploading them, et cetera. If you're a mod_perl nerd and need gallery functionality, take a look.

Unending Blah

So the past couple of weeks have been extremely rough. I just started the new job (same as the old job, just direct employee rather than contractor), had all the paperwork and hoops related to it, had a huge project move from pre-production to production, was on-call all that week (I don't think the phone ever stopped ringing), had a tour of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a bon voyage party for Chili, another week of on-call, more hell with the project that went production, et cetera ad nauseum.

I think I slept about an average of 2-3 hours a night for the past two weeks. And somewhere in there my best friend left town for a new job.

Last night I felt ill...lack of sleep...unending work...emptiness from Chili's departure...I was exhausted. I finally scored about ten hours of sleep last night, and I feel tons better for it. I can actually hold a thought for longer than a minute (by yesterday I was having trouble keeping a train of thought due to the sleep deprivation). I still feel sad at the lack of Chili, but other than that doing much better.

A cow-orker didn't understand why I felt such a sense of doom about Chili leaving. I tried to express to her why it was such an issue for me, but I don't think I got through. I tried to express how there are a small number of people without whom my life would either not be possible or greatly deflated. That these people stops being friends and become brothers and sisters...family. Chili is my family, and I am diminished without him near.

Ren Fair Sunburned Fun

We went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival this past Sunday with KD.

It was a ton of fun, and I took a ton of photos of the jousting and such. Hopefully at least one of the photos of the jousting will be good. The only crappy thing was we all got sunburned badly because we didn't think to put sunscreen on during a cloudy overcast day. Ooops.

We'll be going again in the next several weeks, hopefully with a bigger load of friends. That's the plan anyways. And next time I intend to be front row and close to center for the jousting...I'm determined to get at least one good jousting photo with the new camera.

Statham Is King

Jason Statham is an action-movie Gawd. Not only is he a good actor, he is fit and able to do some amazing films. The Transporter is probably one of the most unique modern action films I've seen, barring maybe Nid de Guepes which was instense in its own right.

Crank does NOT disappoint. Statham is as amazing as ever when it comes to fast-paced action. The premise (fatally poisoned, but adrenaline will keep him alive long enough for revenge) is a bit cheesy, but by golly it is probably the best-made action film since Transporter. It is a non-stop rush.

I could go on, about the crazy (like fourth grade!) supporting characters, or the excellent ending, or how Statham always rocks out. Instead, I'll just close by heartily recommending the film.

Crazy Like the 4th Grade...

So, DFA and I went out to dinner this evening and I was in the bathroom and three tweens come in and are talking to each other and here is the part of the conversation that most amused me:

TWEEN 1: So...How's fourth grade? (said in the way one would say "So...how're things with you and your new guy?")

TWEEN 2: Crazy!

Now, 4th grade must have changed since I was a kid, because the most exciting thing I can remember about the 4th grade is that we were allowed to use pens for the first time! Pens! In school! Crazy!

I laughed a lot and of course told DFA all about it so all evening we're saying "That's crazy like the 4th grade!"

After that we spent a bunch of cash at Half-Price Books and went to see a BRILLIANT movie. It was the most fun I've had at the movies in a long time, but I'll let DFA do the typing about that one. I'll just say that Jason Statham never disappoints.