Harry's Ruminations

Ladies and Gentlemen, My offer on a house has just been accepted!!! w00t!!!! I'll be moving 2 miles down the road to a domecile with a 2-car garage, a large central living room, and 3 Bedrooms, 2 baths, and a basketball goal. I'm about to faint. That is all.

You're eating "Macaroni and spaghetti sauce", because you made Kraft Mac'n'Cheese without realizing you had no milk.

Up at 4:45 this morning, and I'm still at work. Yikes...this team lead thing is about what it's cracked-up to be: All the responsibility, no benefits, no real power. Grand.

Had a feeling 05 was going to be life-changing, and that's come to pass. * I'm wanting to get married * I'm trying to buy a house ...And... * I've been promoted/demoted/reassigned to be team lead of my product. I now get to "drive" the new function, attend all the meetings, and generally be the point man for the whole thing. This should look good on my resume as I'm assuming more responsiblity and leadership. The track record of those who've had this position before me is undeniable: M -> Area lead architect S -> 1st line manager S -> 1st line manager D -> Requirements lead Does it scare me? Yes. Does it make me long for the simpler days of Perl scripts and throw-away Java code? Yes. Does it excite me in a weird way? Yeah. It's opportunity...it'll definitely help me move up in the company. My fears are manifold: I'm moving away from the technical arena of creating things to organization, administra...

This week, our software departments gets the rare pleasure of having an on-site consultant. I say rare in that this happens once every 5 years, and such visitation sparks a flurry of new products. It's a "Big Bang," if you will, without the follow-up munchies and stinky bedsheets. Anyway, the guy, C, is a unapologetic Canadian ass with a golden-hammer attitude towards the product he's advocating. "It can do everything well," he says. Thankfully, the product is free (they make money on consulting), so at least we didn't have to listen to a hard-sell on the software. * * * In other news, perhaps I won't be getting VoIP after all . Spam to your phone?!!

Things you remember @ odd moments: The other movie we saw was Cold Creek Manor a disposable thriller starring Sharon Stone, and Dennis Quaid, who must be dying for work at this point. It's charitable to say the film is slow; it's more accurate to say it's a complete waste of your time. All characters are stereotypes, and it's overlong for what story there is.

With my day off on Friday to stay with Bella after her surgery, we got to watch lots of movies... First up was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow with Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the hamming Angelina Jolie. It's a beautiful film, though HIGHLY implausible. Glad to have watched it on DVD instead of the theatre. Unfortunately, I can't remember the movie in the middle...I just can't! Last was Y Tu Mama Tambien , which I still find to be a good movie wrapped inside a disgusting, hollow shell. At it center are the Solipsitic trio of Tenoch, Luisa, and Julio, two horny teens and a hot older woman who head for Del Playa Boca Cielo (Heaven's Mouth Beach). Tenoch is of the Castillian upper-crust, Julio is lower middle class, and Luisa is from Spain. The film highlights the disparity in Mexico between the haves and have-nots. With a nice twist at the end.

- I was so keyed-up I didn't fall asleep until midnight. - I LEFT MY FRICKIN MORTGAGE APP on the table instead of bringing it to work to fax it in. I am so upset by this. Had the darn thing done on Saturday night, but I waited until Monday so I could fax it in from work (read: free). Well, guess I'm not faxing it until tomorrow. Frick. - I got boggin' (toboggin) hair so as soon as I got to work, I took my UK boggin off and my hair was standing straight up. Had to wet it and comb it for 10 minutes in the bathroom to get it to lay down. * * * On the bright side, I found out they made a mistake processing my raise from my promotion a few months back, so I get an extra $500 on my salary. And it's retroactive. w00t!

House Shopping... Whitney's Account of our house shopping yesterday.

Reservoir Dogs is one very, very disturbing movie

As promised, pictorial of the Fire at my apartment complex

Article on the Apartment Fire

This makes a week exactly since my last blog, and more like two since my last substantive update. I was sick last week until Friday, going totally ape whilst staring at the four walls in my rather lonely apartment. Work on Friday was a pure joy; I was freshened and eager, though I sounded like a megaphone stuck in a tin-can when I spoke. Friday was re-org day here on the Software-Development floor of LXK. My old manager, K, whom I respected is gone to her next tour of duty, replaced by the newly-promoted S, another woman. Instead of K's even-temperedness, we now have S's volatility. Combine that with her complete ignorance of my product, and we'll see. I know one thing...I'm sure she won't be having monthly one-on-one meetings with her subordinates the way that K did. The weekend was nice, as Whitney, Joey, and I went to the craft fair at the Fair/Expo center in Lousiville. Joey was bored to tears, and I wasn't far behind, but hey, you need to do thing...

Don't ask me why, but I find the melodrama of Dr. Bud E. Bryan amazing. Here's this middle aged-guy who has THREE women after him: Jolene (his wife), Nadine (his psycho ex), and Carrie Anne (the chiseled coed). To beat it all, he has the real details of his life in his column in a CAR MAGAZINE.

Oh the joy of not having a jackhammer headache and a 103 degree fever!