It’s nice for a change to be voting for someone I actually like, rather than the lesser of two evils. If you’re in Maryland, D.C., or Virginia, get out and vote in the primary. If you have a primary coming to your neck of the woods soon, get out and make your voice heard. I did.

Again, no further on the design front – mostly because of work.

As alluded to previously, there are big changes coming along here at work. I can talk about them now as the rest of the company knows. In a nutshell, my department is getting cut. Just after Christmas, I was told that the company I work for is getting out of the hosting business, and as that pertains directly to what I do (build and update websites for the banks we host), I suddenly felt like I had the carpet yanked out from under my feet.

Turns out this isn’t the end of the world, however. My department consists of myself and my boss. That’s it. When her boss told us, she told us in separate meetings. The reason behind that was, while they didn’t have a position for my boss, they did have one for me.  I’ll be doing similar to what I’m doing now, but for in-house clients. I’ll also be doing more print stuff; postcards, posters, brochures, etc.

While this isn’t 100% certain, it is about 98%. I just need to show my possible future boss that I have a sense of design. I’ve been working in Illustrator the past few nights trying to create a post card to showcase my design skills. Can I just tell you it’s absurd that Illustrator doesn’t have a crop tool?

Anyhow.

Wish me luck. This sounds exciting and new and different and I’d really like to take a shot at it. And if I get it, considering I’ll be doing print stuff, I’m going to beg and plead for a Mac to work on. Yes, I’m devious that way.

What a way to start a Monday – I know I said that every time I make a post, I’ll try to have more of the design completed, but this was just too funny not to share right away. At least it was funny to me!

muratasik1907%40gmail.com: who is this
Shad: Who are you?
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: this is murat
agent
and you
?
Shad: Agent Murat?
damn, am I glad you found me…I’ve been out here in the field for weeks with no support!
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: where?
Shad: I need to get a message back to HQ – coded Priority T1
message reads as follows: John has a long mustache.
repeat: John has a long mustache
Attached as follows: Ice Cream has no bones
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: man
Shad: repeat back to me please on secure channel
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: will you tell me your name :d

Shad: Agent Murat, you know you’re not supposed to request the names of agents in the field. You could compromise their position
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: ok
ok man
Shad: Please repeat back coded priority message
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: i just asked a simple question because this messenger was downloaded by my assistant and I am now tru=ying to see who are peoples online
I am sorry
Shad: ….
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: to disturb you
Shad: are you NOT Agent Murat?!
oh my god…
muratasik1907%40gmail.com: My name is MURAT
Shad: I’ve got to get off this channel
they could be watching me RIGHT NOW
Burn the papers!
Format the Hard Drive!
Your life is in danger!
RUN!!!!!!
muratasik1907@gmail.com is offline

He literally signed off right when I said run…hahah

I’m hoping that with each new post I want to make, I come in here, see the state of things, and add a bit more. As I wanted to post a couple of IMs I’ve recently received, I figured I’d make a few more changes. Ignore the state of the comments page, etc. Still a work in progress. Anyhow, onto the IMs -

PattiCollins3: Im sorry for telling you to go to hell. I think looking at your pics made me realize I was just still in love with our memories. Im not over how we broke up in the first place. Im sure not over you putting the kids in our argument. I just needed that closure, now I have it.

PattiCollins3: Just wanted to apologize for something I really didn’t mean, that’s all.

Shad: Um….wow….

Shad: uh, hate to say this – but you have the wrong person

Shad: I don’t know a Patti Collins…

PattiCollins3: whatever, I felt like I needed to apologize for saying that and I have.

Shad: OK…but shouldn’t you say it to the guy you’re mad at? Or were mad at?

PattiCollins3: I DID,,, GOODBYE

~~~~

honey87dip: i miss ya punk ass
honey87dip: aint seen u in foreva
honey87dip: just left without sayin goodbye
honey87dip: (tear)
Shad: I’m thinkin’ you have the wrong person
honey87dip: Shad wat the hell u talkin bout
honey87dip: u was mia finals week nigga
honey87dip: aint nobody see ur black ass
Shad: that’s ’cause I ain’t GOT a black ass
Shad: I’ve got a WHITE ASS
Shad: you HAVE the WRONG PERSON
honey87dip: Okk

Sort of like randomness, but on a Friday.

—

No, no design up yet. The creative process is temporarily stalled while I try and clear all the snot out of my head. The snot’s blocking up all the creative passageways in there.

—

My New Year’s Eve was spent with the wife in bed by 8:30, the kids occupied, and me playing online poker. Came in second in a tournament, which is cool. 35K in my bank. Too bad it wasn’t real money.

—

My mom’s Christmas present arrived late this year. She put a $100 bill in the card. I had another sitting $100 bill on my dresser. I put the two of them together in a quiet spot in my sock drawer. I’m hoping with a little mood lighting and some Barry White, they’ll get busy and start sprouting out baby $100 bills.

—

The big news of the week – well, I can’t say just yet. Has to do with work and the rest of the company doesn’t know. I’m 99.99% certain no one here at work reads my journal, but why take the chance? I should be able to say more next week. Until then, cheers.

No, I didn’t decide to celebrate CSS Naked Day early. Nor did I break anything. For a change.

Nope, I decided I’ve had it with my whining and bitching about creating my own theme/layout for wordpress. So, as part of my New Year’s resolutions, I’ve decided to strip the site pretty much completely, and then start building it back up, bit by bit. First to figure out a layout I’m OK with, then start adding stuff back in.

And, knowing me, it might take me all of 2008.

A rather scary thing happened to Gail and I yesterday.

We decided to take the dog for a walk and went our normal route. Part of that route is along Algonquin Parkway, which is a four-lane rode divided by a wide grassy median. There’s a bike/jogging path that we walk along that is up a slight incline from the road. Gail and I were walking quietly on the side of the road going against traffic, when we heard a terrific squeal of several cars’ brakes from behind us.

We flipped around and witnessed a car that had been traveling in the far lane swerve crazily across the road, into the median and crash through a road sign. The car then came into the on-coming lane (the one we were walking along side) , shot straight across it causing cars to swerve and brake, and then jumped up onto the bike path we were walking on, crashing head-first into a tree. The spot the car stopped at was the spot we’d been not 15 seconds before.

I handed the dog’s leash to Gail and sprinted to car. When I got around to the driver’s door, a lady about my age was struggling to get out. I shoved the door open (it was crimped fairly tight as a result of the crash) and helped her out, walking her a bit of ways away from the car and sitting her down on the bike path. She had a dazed, far-off look in her eyes, and kept asking if she’d hit anyone. A gentleman came up who’d witnessed the crash and identified himself as an EMT. He started asking questions and I left her in his care.

Several people were stopped along the road or had come from their houses by now and calls had been made to 911. The lady was asking for her purse so I got back into the car and retrieved it. The nitrous smell from the airbag was strong, and I found her purse on the floor. After giving it to her, I went back and turned the ignition off. The car itself was steaming quietly, the front end completely mangled.

Seeing as how it was under control, and she was in no immediate danger, I went back to Gail. The poor dog was shaking and howling. She quieted down once I got back, and we continued our walk.

If we’d left the house just 15 seconds later, things might have been drastically different this Christmas morning. Many small prayers of thanks were said, I think, between both of us as we finished our walk in silence.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday.

Yeah, changed the theme again – one of these days I’ll get around to creating my own. In the meantime, I’m sticking with the three-column layout. It’s grown on me.

—

Tonight is opening night for our reading of “A Christmas Carol” – “our” being Sarah and myself. She’s playing the part of Tiny Tim, and is very cute doing it. It’s an interesting adaptation, and I hope I get invited back next year to do the full production.

—

I have a birthday sneaking up on me here, on Sunday to be exact. I’ll be all of 38, which sounds so grown up and mature, but I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, so go figure. Speaking of, anyone want to buy me this? No? I’ll settle for this. Hrm, still no takers? Guess this is out then…

—

Had a parent/teacher conference with Cody’s math teacher yesterday. Kid is failing math, not because he doesn’t know the material, and not because he’s not paying attention. It’s because he’s lazy and doesn’t want to do his homework and lies to us about having done it. My past is coming back to haunt me. I did the same damn thing. His teacher even said that when called on, he knows the problem. But because he doesn’t do the homework, he doesn’t do as well as he could on the tests. Turkey.

—

After Christmas, I’m going to go out and buy a new hard drive and install linux on it and start messing with that again. Once I get Gail her iMac, I’ll take over her laptop and install something other than Vista on that. Vista out of my house would be a wonderful thing.

—

Dicewars Cheats.

—

If Slack doesn’t fix his white border problem, I swear to god I’m hacking into his site and fixing it myself.

—

If I don’t see you or post again before Christmas, I want to wish everyone the very best holiday possible. Make it more of family, peace and love than “look what I got!”. Merry Christmas everyone.

I hate this time of the year.

No, not because the retailers are shoving all their sales items and non-sales items down my throat every time I turn on the TV or Radio. It’s not because I’m sick unto death of all the Christmas carols. Truthfully, I’ve managed to avoid a lot of them. And it’s not because the commercialization of Christmas has overshadowed the spirit of Christmas. I’ve actually seen quite a few people smiling, being polite and in general, just being nicer.

Nope, I hate this time of year because in their desire to be generous and giving this holiday season, my co-workers all feel the need to share their cookies with me. Everyone of my co-workers. All 632 of my co-workers. They all have cookies! And they’re GOOD cookies. Chocolate chip. The peanut butter cookies with the big Hershey’s Kiss on them. Sugar cookies in festive shapes of season (I derive a sadistic sort of pleasure from biting Rudolph’s head off). Butterscotch Snaps. Peppermint. Cookies with icing, cookies with M&Ms, even oatmeal raisin, which I don’t like. If you’re going to send me cookies, don’t send oatmeal raisin.

Lord do I feel fat. I really need to get out and exercise. Walk the dog, walk the mall (akin to committing suicide this time of year, I know), maybe go to the rec center and play some raquetball or something. I need exercise!

Whoa, wait. Was that a tray of chocolate meringue cookies that just went by?