I am so busy my head is spinning. To top it off I slept in today cause
my sleep machine mask somehow got ripped off my face last night. I
didn't get in until 1 today and missed a meeting. It was kinda funny
cause I called the team manager who was in a meeting I was supposed to
be in and said,"I just woke up." and everyone in the room heard it and
laughed. I am glad I can be funny somehow.

Thought of the Day
"I bet I have my baby before you get in on Monday."
- A coworker who is expecting

// posted by Brian @ 9/22/2006 04:12:00 PM 0 Comments

And now for the weekend update. Friday I worked late, stayed home, and watched bad movies. Saturday morning my girlfriend got 1st place in a 5K run for her age group. She won by like 7 minutes, blowing away the competition. I am very proud of her. That afternoon I went to Wichita with her and did a bunch of errands for mom. That night my sleep mask must've fallen off my mouth cause I woke up super tired. I was told I looked like a zombie. Sunday I went to Sunday School and lunch and then came home and fell asleep for like 3 hours. Then I woke up and worked and watched the Cowboy game. We are gonna go to the Super Bowl this year. This week should be filled with work. I am still not sure if we are going to finish in time. Ever seen Gung Ho?

Thought of the Day
"15,000 cars in a month? No problem."
Gung Ho

// posted by Brian @ 9/18/2006 01:50:00 PM 1 Comments

Friday is upon me, but it doesn't feel like Friday. Probably cause I
will be working tonight and then maybe a little tomorrow. I am starting
to get grumpy. I was even chiding Best Buy last night as I noticed the
placement of their HDTV flat tubes are on the ground to make people not
see that it has almost the same quality as the more expensive HDTV LCD
TV's. Maybe I should go into professional gaming where I would spend my
time playing computer games. I hear they can make up to six-figures a
year by winning tournaments. I once knew a guy who played that "Golden
Tee" golfing video game every day. He went to Vegas and won a tournament
and got something like 20k for doing it. Last I heard he was planning on
buying a big boat and spending the rest of his life sailing around some
island in the Philippines. When I was in college my aspirations led me
to play Magic The Gathering and dreamt about winning tournaments. I only
won a couple and the prize was only free cards. Which in turn, got me
more hooked. Eh, it was something to do. Now that I look back I sure did
have a lot of free time in college. Go Texas Tech!

Thought of the Day
"They don't have a decent piece of fruit at the supermarket. The apples
are mealy, the oranges are dry... I don't know what's going on with the
papayas!"
- Kramer, in "The Mango"

// posted by Brian @ 9/15/2006 01:55:00 PM 2 Comments

If (ToBusyToPostToday == true)
{
if (CanPostSomethingFast == true)
{
blog.write("I am too busy to post today here is
something quick");
}
else
{
Program.Exit; \\exit without writing anything
}
}
Else
{
blog.write(makeFunnyPost());
blog.write(makePostAboutChildhood());
blog.write(makePostAboutNews());
blog.write(makePostAboutHealth());
}

Blog.write("Thought of the Day");
Blog.write(GoToAWebsiteandGetASeinfeldQuote);

// posted by Brian @ 9/14/2006 02:07:00 PM 0 Comments

So now I am in official "crunch" time. It is like that in the
development world. You can go from 40 hours a week to 60 to 80 a week.
The motto is "get the job done." I rather like getting it done and that
is when I am most creative. For instance if I had to input 100 records
into a database from a spreadsheet I would make a small program that
automates that process instead of actually typing everything. My
favorite thing to do is to make programs that can program for me. I
remember that is how it all started for me in the work world. When I got
my first job at AT&T about half of the work was in filling out mundane
documents. I created a little script component that asked me questions
and then filled out all of the paperwork for me. That freed up so much
time that I was able to play around and make new tools. I learned how to
make search engines and helped the analysts find calling plans and then
I got fed up with CSC's time entry system. It was over the phone and I
had to input about 50 digits over the phone each day. So I spent some
time and created a windows application that I could write my daily time
in. Then I made it to where it outputted phone tones over the speaker.
Then all I had to do was set the phone near the speaker and it would
dial all of my time in without me having to push the buttons. I made
that program a week before I left AT&T/CSC. I sent out my farewell email
with a link to the program and told them all that it would save them
time, but I was leaving anyways to pursue a better job. So the moral of
the story is, if you don't like your job, make yourself a better one.

Thought of the Day
"Did you put a cover page on your TPS report? Did you get that memo?"
A Boss on Office Space

// posted by Brian @ 9/13/2006 01:18:00 PM 1 Comments

So I am right now trying to avoid being sick. I went to Subway yesterday
and the two other coworkers I went with came down with a weird case of
vertigo. Luckily it hasn't hit me. I think that it probably has to do
with the vegetables. I bet that they didn't wash them or something. This
is another reason why vegetables are not safe. Plus I bet they have
pesticides and other such things on them as well. So see, by not eating
vegetables I am helping save the environment by showing the corporations
they shouldn't use pesticides. Also, the same can be said for seafood.
Imagine all of the chemicals roaming in our oceans and the fish all swim
in it. Like Mr.T said if you eat one fish out of lake Lewisville you
have your mercury content for the entire year. However it is not as bad
as I make it out to be. I saw an episode of Springer one time where
someone was afraid of pickles and they brought out some pickles and she
screamed, got up from her chair and ran outside the studio. Now that's
real fear. I am on a health kick again and last night actually went on
the elliptical machine that is gathering dust. Then I put on my boxing
gloves and started practicing for the heavyweight title. I suppose I
actually need to lift weights to get ready for that, but I can dream. Yo
Holly!

Thought of the Day
"You see, fish all bathe together. They do tend to eat one another. I
often think fish must get oftly tired of eating seafood. What are your
thoughts Hobson?"
Arthur

// posted by Brian @ 9/12/2006 01:24:00 PM 0 Comments

And now for the weekend update. On Friday I stayed home and watched some
movies and tried to work. I saw "I Heart Huckabees" and was confused and
then I saw "Friday Night Lights" and thought it was good, except for the
3 second camera angle switching that took place in the first half of the
movie. It got to be where I would count "1..2..3..switch" and the camera
would switch. IMO, it just made me dizzy. The movie plot was good, as it
was about football in Texas. Although the ending was a little
disappointing. On Saturday I jammed with Wayne and showed him how to
play some rockabilly. Saturday night I went with Holly and some friends
bowling and later on we saw a good Irish rock band called the Kildares
at the Flying Saucer. Sunday I went to church and then to the Holly
family reunion in Azle, north of Ft. Worth. It was good to meet some of
Holly's extended family. There was about 70 people there. I was the guy
who was playing guitar that no one knew. Then we skedaddled and fed the
homeless and ended up the evening at a birthday party of a friend. I was
thoroughly exhausted at the end and watched the Cowboys win since I had
recorded it and also had deluded myself. Speaking of football, I am so
glad the new season has started but with the advent of PVR and TIVO I
propose a new man law be added to the books. No one is to publicly talk
about the football games for two whole days after the game is aired. I
basically knew the ending of the Cowboys game before I even watched it.
Even the homeless people would mention the score in passing. I would
cover my ears and go "I am not listening..lalala"

Thought of the Day
"Can I have a medium diet coke?"
"Do you want the medium size or the middle size?"
"What's the difference?"
"Well, we have three sizes - medium, large and jumbo."
"What happened to the small?"
"There is no small. Small's medium."
"What's medium?"
"Medium's large and large is jumbo."
"Okay, give me the large."
"That's medium."
"Right. Can I have a small popcorn?"
"There is no small. Child-size is small."
"What's medium?"
"Adult."
"Do adults ever order the child-size?"
"Not usually."
"Okay, give me the adult."
"Do you want butter?"
"Is it real butter?"
"It's butter flavoring."
"What is it made of?"
"It's yellow."
- Elaine and a woman behind the snack counter, in "The Movie"

// posted by Brian @ 9/11/2006 01:01:00 PM 1 Comments

We were watching an old video last night of 5 years ago when we went
back to Texas Tech to reminisce. I was thinking about my old self and
realized I haven't changed much, which was surprising considering before
then I was changing something about myself every 6 months, ie, job,
clothes, band, appearance, music and video games. I guess I have grown
up a little, unfortunately I think that means I am "set in my ways." I
suppose now I am an old coot. I think I'll regress a little and get into
today's top 40 music. Last I heard though I was wondering what was
popular. Other then that I guess I'll tell those darn kids to get off my
lawn. Pshaw.

Thought of the Day
"Let me ask you something. What do you do for a living, Newman?"
"I'm a United States postal worker."
"Aren't those the guys that always go crazy and come back with and shoot
everybody?"
"Sometimes..."
"Why is that?"
"Because the mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and
coming, there's never a let-up. It's relentless. Every day it piles up
more and more and more! And you gotta get it out but the more you get it
out the more it keeps coming in. And then the bar code reader breaks and
it's Publisher's Clearing House day!"
- George, Newman and Jerry, in "The Old Man"

// posted by Brian @ 9/08/2006 02:45:00 PM 0 Comments

At some point in every job I have I usually end up swimming in code. The idea is that after typing thousands of lines of code my brain then becomes warped. I start to dream in "if then else's". It used to be procedural, meaning I would dream about the steps to brush my teeth. Last night it was object oriented meaning I would assign a value to myself and my toothbrush and create a brusher object that does the work for me. Such is the life of a developer. Narf. In other news my board meeting is tonight.

Thought of the Day
"What are we going to do today?"
"The same thing we try to do every day, try to take over the world"
Pinky and the Brain

// posted by Brian @ 9/07/2006 02:12:00 PM 2 Comments

Well, I am back in the swing of things. When I was home I got used to
the "old life". I was able to memorize my mom's TV schedule. In the
morning she may watch Magnum PI or Matlock. She then watches the news at
12 and then watches "Days of Our Lives". I think Sammy is plotting again
and Marlena has just caught Jon Black cheating on her again. Then she
watches Family Feud with the guy from Home Improvement. Then its on to
Oprah and whatever guest wants to get "emotional". Then it's back to the
5 o'clock news and around 6:30 it is time for "Wheel of Fortune". There
is also moments in the day when the Weather channel is watched. I can be
confident my mom knows what the temp is gonna be in Dallas way before I
will ever know. You could watch those programs every single day. I hope
when I am old the TV schedule is better. I'll probably watch my old
shows like Alf and Quantum Leap then I tell my kids to turn down their
holographic imaging device. Such is the cycle of life, or television
anyways.

Thought of the Day
"They want you to do a TV show?"
"Well, they want me to come up with an idea. I don't have any ideas."
"C'mon, how hard is that? Look at all the junk that's on TV."
- George and Jerry, in "The Pitch"

// posted by Brian @ 9/06/2006 12:57:00 PM 1 Comments

I would like to take this post to thank everyone out there who offered
prayers for me and my family. I would also like to thank all of my
friends for being there for me and my family. I would also like to thank
those who came to the funeral and also those who gave flowers. I would
also like to thank Holly for being there with me. Now that I am back
hopefully things will get back to normal. Thanks to you all.

// posted by Brian @ 9/05/2006 01:10:00 PM 1 Comments