What a BuzzKill

So yeah, I’ve been blogging less lately. No reason for it, really – I just haven’t.

So let’s see… hmm… last week I cleaned my apartment. Now to say this seems rather mundane, but for those who have actually seen what it used to look like, it’s a big change. If you looked at my webcam before (or even after) I cleaned, you wouldn’t have seen it either – as that was the area I kept the most clean. Just out of view there were piles of clutter – lots of piles.

When I got back from my camping trip the sight of my messy apartment hit me full-force. I guess I had simply gotten used to the mess over time. Seeing it after being away for nearly a week put it into perspective. So I had started cleaning, but not really as hard as I should have. Last week I had a friend coming over for dinner and it was just the push I needed to get my ass in gear to clean. It looks great! Now I just need to maintain it to keep it this way.

My friend came over, remarked at how clean it was (YES!), we had a lovely dinner, and then had a great time hanging out at the beach.

On Saturday I picked up a couple of things from Ikea to help spruce up my pad a bit. The 2 chairs in my living room had become rather dirty and because they’re made of canvas, they absorbed pretty anything that came into contact with them – but were a bitch to clean. Well now they have covers on them that can be removed and washed if needed.

Coming up on Thursday; Quinn, Christine, Rece, & I are going to see Nickelback in concert at The Pond of Anaheim. We got free tickets through my work. They’re far from being my favorite band in the world, but I like a couple of the songs I’ve heard on the radio, plus the tickets are free – so why not?

An aside from my life: The terrorists won, sorta, with their plot to blow up planes with liquid explosives. See, even though their plan failed, they put themselves and their cause into the minds of millions. Scaring people and governments to the point where many people’s lives were disrupted. It’s getting to the point where they don’t even have to kill anybody to terrorize them. Just the potential of it is enough to get people to change their lives, live in fear, and see/hear/think about terrorists.

I came across this little comic strip that helps illustrate my view on this.

I was just informed that one of our long-time staff members passed away last night. Her name was Irene Rodriguez. It was apparently cancer that took her.

While I can’t really claim myself as a friend, we had worked closely together on many projects over the years. She was a very hard-worker and a dedicated employee. From what I understand, this was the only job she ever had – it was her first, and ultimately her last. She worked here for over 30 years.

She will be missed.

Well, the second interview went pretty well. It was pretty different, being more of a sit-down and chat with the guy that I would have been directly working under. He wants to set up a meeting between me and the head honcho for I.T. to see what he says. I’m still optimistic about things… we’ll see how this turns out soon enough, it seems.

Well the first interview (yesterday) went well. Though after finding out more about the position, it seems like a step backwards in position with only a modest increase in pay (see how much less I’m making where I’m at?!? I can find a job in a lower position for more than what I make at my current job!). I’m afraid that I might be over-qualified for this one, possibly to the point where the position wouldn’t be challenging enough. If the pay difference was significant enough, I’d likely take it, but for just a few thousand more a year I’d be more inclined to just stay where I’m at – at least for now.

Anyhow, less than 2 hours after the initial interview they called me and left a message to see about setting up a second interview right away. From what I can tell, that’s a pretty good sign. So after work today I’ll be going there to meet the department head and see what he has to say. I feel that I owe it to myself to ride this out to the end and at least see what they’re offering. We’ll see what happens!

A week without a post. What’s up with that? Last week turned out to be pretty busy at work. Some other things were taking up my time as well. Got my resume back in order, thanks to the help of a friend, and sent it out to a company. They called me for an interview, which I’ll be going to soon. I haven’t been on an interview in over 8.5 years, so this seems rather strange to me. Wish me luck!

The heat and humidity has been awful lately. My apartment is a huge mess, but I can’t get myself motivated to clean it – it’s just too damned hot! So I’ve been vegging out a lot, just trying not to move much so I don’t make myself hotter. It’s no fun to be sweating while just sitting there. I’ve gone out Geocaching at night with some friends, which is nice. At least it gets me out of my apartment!

Yes, I whine about the heat quite a bit. Put me out in 50°F in just jeans and a t-shirt and I love it, but when the temperature gets above 80°F, I’m a big baby. Why am I in California again?

One thing that’s been a problem for me is sleep: no matter how much sleep I get, it’s a restless type of sleep where I wake up over and over, sweaty and hot. So I’ve felt like the walking dead more often, lately. It doesn’t help when I haven’t been very active (because of the heat), either. Anyhow, that’s the end of my rant about the heat…

This weekend proved to be a very full one. Fairly early Saturday morning I hit the road, bound for Santa Maria to pick up Rece at my dad’s house (he spent the week there after our camping trip). I made good time, as the traffic was very light… only about 3.25 hours to get there. I stayed there long enough to catch my breath, get a copy of some of my dad’s amazing photgraphy, and have him pop my back.

On the way back we stopped at Pea Soup Andersen’s for some more pea soup, but just a couple of bowls each. We hit a lot of traffic on the freeway, which worked out to be around 5 hours driving. It was incredibly hot, too!

Quinn and I planned for him to come over Saturday evening, so we could have a few brews and hang out. So he came over Saturday evening and we had a few brews and hung out… uh… I just said that, didn’t I? We talked until pretty late, or rather early I should say.

This morning (Sunday) we woke up and I sent Rece off to be with his mom (it was her birthday today). After a proper breakfast at Dick Church’s restaurant, we went back to my place and decided to jam a bit. Oh, I forgot to say that Quinn also planned to bring his guitar and an amp so we could jam. So he brought over his guitar and an amp… and… uh… we jammed – no Mason jars or fruits were harmed in the process either.

For those who don’t know (that’s everybody except for Quinn and I), the two of us haven’t played together since some time in early 1989 – that’s about 17 years, folks… 1/2 a liftetime ago for me. It’s been around 15 years since I last played the drums for longer than 20 or 30 minutes (and that was only 2 or 3 times). Needless to say, I was very rusty. Quinn said he was rusty as well, but he sounded just fine to me! He’s been practicing and making some music of his own lately.

We managed to play for about 30-45 minutes before needing a break (it was very warm in the garage) and then went back and played for about another hour. I must admit, I’ve so missed playing, let alone with Quinn, quite a bit! It took me awhile before I felt somewhat comfortable playing again. I began to loosen up around the last 30 minutes of playing, as the hidden drummer part of my brain and muscle-memory started to find one another again. It was also pretty foreign for Quinn to be playing guitar with a drummer again – which meant having to maintain a very constant tempo.

Hopefully we’ll be able to do this on a more regular basis. The taste for making music is on my tongue and I fear that I’m about to get hooked on it again! I look forward to the soreness I’m bound to feel for playing so long… after so long of not playing – it’ll be a nice reminder of a great time.

A plethora of pomegranate pulp poured perilously over the porcupine’s pal, the platapus – a plan poorly prepared by prissy pre-teen pep-squad partcipants.

Well, according to Godwin’s Law, I’ve already lost my argument by starting this post with a comparison to Nazis. Oh well…

The written word comes easier for some people, but definitely not all. Hell, I know for certain that I’m far from following all the rules and best practices. One of the things that is very important to me is the correct usage (thanks anonymous!) of words – spelling and grammar. I read this article about some common grammar mistakes that I thought might be helpful for some people to read.

Beyond simple grammar, people often use words that sound the same in the wrong place. This web page has a pretty good list and description of how they’re meant to be used.

So there you have it. My anal-retentive tendencies have gotten the best of me and now I’m getting persnickety.

Late night, a few beers, and I suddenly slipped into introspection. For some reason the following popped into my head last night. It struck me as something I wanted to remember, so I saved it and now I post it here…

Why am I often so dark inside?
What is it that attracts me to the morbid and melancholy?
My darkness seems to be interrupted by periodic moments of vivid color.

This is the trip that Rece and I look forward to every year. We always go to San Simeon State Park and spend our time enjoying the peace and quiet there. It also affords me some introvert time during my birthday week, as I can sometimes get overwhelmed from too much social activity (which tends to be the case on one’s birthday). Anyhow, I figured that a brief summary of our trip was in order for the 2 or 3 people who care to know about it – so here goes…

Day 1 – Roadtrip up to Santa Maria (Tuesday)
My dad lives along the way to San Simeon, so to take the stress of trying to get out super early in order to secure a campsite (I never reserve, relying on the first-come, first-served sites), I arranged it so that we’d stay a night at my dad’s place and get out early enough to get a site the following morning. That way we could take off some time before noon and take our time driving up there, stopping wherever and whenever we felt like it along the way.

My car’s odometer flipped over to 100K on this trip, which I photographed (not included in the Flickr photo gallery), which I felt required a stop (when it reached 99,999.9 miles) and to mark that location in my GPS unit. How geeky is that?

Our first planned stop was Pea Soup Andersen’s. I can’t take a trip up the 101 and not stop there – it’s a tradition! First we found a geocache somebody had hidden in the parking lot, then we went in and had far too much pea soup. YUM!

While I gluttonously spooned soup down my gullet, I realized that despite our numerous trips up this way, Rece had never seen Solvang. It was only a few miles off, so I decided to head up there for a quick peek. When he asked where we were going, he mistakenly heard me say “Soul Fang” which I found quite hilarious. “Yes, Rece, it’s a town full of vampires.”

We found a couple more geocaches along the way and made it to my dad’s place shortly before dinnertime… not that we had any room for more food.

Day 2 – Camping Day 1
After a good night’s sleep, we took off for San Simeon State Park. As usual, we had our choice of campsites and opted for one we’d been in a couple years prior.

There was a group of tents in the 2 campsites next to us that turned out to be a bunch of kids from a YMCA club. Rece had fun hanging out with them – they really were a good group of people.

We drove down to Harmony, a very tiny town with a population of 18. We were there for a geocache, but I also picked up a birthday card and mailed it out from there – so it would have a Harmony postmark.

We nabbed a few more geocaches and picked up some groceries that I had opted to buy locally instead of trying to keep them fresh and “unsquished” on the trip.

Day 3 – Camping Day 2 – Gabe’s birthday
Wanting a change of pace, I decided that a drive up the coast was in order. I had downloaded info for a couple of caches about 45 minutes drive up the coast, and wanted to go check them out. We found a nice rocky beach to eat lunch and nabbed just one of the two caches.

On the way back down we stopped to view the elephant seals and Rece got to feed some very friendly squirrels (as can be seen in the photo gallery).

I had promised Rece that we’d go to the beach so he could play in the ocean, so we stopped at San Simeon beach, next to the pier, for a couple of hours. It’s unusual for me to spend much time sitting out in the sun and this reminded me of why (headache, lethargy, blah)… oh well, at least Rece had a good time.

Day 4 – Camping Day 3
With the YMCA kids having left the previous afternoon and nobody camping next to us, we managed to get a very good night’s sleep.

We planned to go picnic at San Simeon Point, which was something we had kept saying we wanted to do, but for some reason we never managed to accomplish. This time we did it, and also completed the walk along the entire point. I can’t express the beauty of that place, but suffice it to say, it’s a place we feel compelled to visit every time we’re up there.

As with the other days, we also found a few more geocaches.

A family set up camp next to our site that afternoon and we spent the evening talking. A nice group of people, who also come here every summer.

Oddly enough, this was the only evening that Rece and I felt compelled to get out and watch the sunset. I got a few pictures of it while we were there. Have I mentioned how beautiful it is out there?!

Day 5 – Camping Day 4 – Drive back to Santa Maria
After a hearty breakfast (bacon, eggs, O’Brien potatoes, toast, juice, coffee), Rece and I packed up our campsite and hit the road. We took our time, finding quite a few geocaches along the way, eventually making our way back to my dad’s house.

Long, hot showers were in order for the both of us, followed up with dinner out. My dad suggested the Roadhouse Grill (in Santa Maria), which turned out to be a good choice for BBQ ribs… mmmm…

After we got back and I was reconnected to the digital world, we went to the Santa Barbara County fair. It was interesting, to say the least. Let’s just say that I’m in no hurry to move to Santa Maria. We did have a good time, though, which is what really matters.

Day 6 – The drive home
The plan was for me to leave Rece with my dad for the week, so I left him there and took off to meet up with a friend in Santa Barbara. She and I had lunch (sushi – YUM!), I introduced her to geocaching (which she seemed to find interesting), and went out for some delicious ice cream.

The rest of the drive home was fairly quiet, but it was just what I needed to clear my head and prepare to re-enter the daily grind.