Well, it’s the end of another Wednesday, and right now I’m just sitting at home, drinking a Shiner, and relaxing.

It’s been rather hectic at work, what with continuing to get the data and voice wiring completed for the three divisions that are moving in, doing regular tech work, and also planning out a business trip to Rock Springs, Wyoming and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Rock Springs trip is to evaluate a new location and see what needs to be done to bring it onto our network; we only just recently acquired a new company there, so it’s on me to see what needs doing, IT-wise. Too bad it’s going to be so damn cold up there…

For some reason my distaste for Mexican food seems to be softening. Granted, it’s only certain Mexican foods I’ll eat (like fajitas, burritos, and quesadillas), but it’s more than I would have a few years ago. For example, I had Taco Bell on Saturday for lunch (Louie’s idea), and ordered a burrito… and actually didn’t mind it. I must be getting soft in my old age. Then again, I still won’t eat tacos at all, and would have to be pressed into eating anything else. Christine at work once commented that she didn’t know anyone who didn’t like Mexican food; yes, I know I’m a rarity, but that’s just how I am. Give me Italian, Chinese, or even Indian any day.

… and I still need to get the shelving up on my CD cabinets. *sigh*

Yes, my life right now is hectic at work and slow at home. So sue me. I might as well go and get some MK Online stuff taken care of… fun fun…

Well, this sucks.
I’m at Saturn of North Houston right now, waiting on my car (which is getting its 72k mile service), and have no real net access outside of my Blackberry. They have a wireless network here, but since the last time I came in here, they locked it with a WEP key. So, I’m stuck cooling my heels until my car is finished.
It’s been a fairly hectic week at work, all told. In addition to my usual support work, I’ve been having to oversee upgrades and additions to our phone and data wiring and systems as we move THREE different divisions to the campus at which I work. Moreover, I need to have most (if not all) of it done by the end of the month. The worst of the three migrations will have to be done by Friday. Fun fun… Then, at the end of the month, I have a business trip to Canada (and somewhere else; more details on that later).
On another front, all of this office work and work on the backend stuff at MK Online meant I had to wait on Justin to post the news on Game Informer’s preview of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which will be the next MK fighting game. I’ve been stuck trying to help fix the PM system on the site, plus finalizing the work on the new backup system so that we’re prepared in the event of a catastrophic crash like we had a few weeks back. I’ll give details on the backup system a bit later, as it ties in to work I’m doing on the main D’Arque Cathedral server. It’s been a lot of work to plan out and prepare, but in the end I’m confident we’ll be ready for the next time we have issues.
Anyway, my thumbs are getting tired from all this typing on my Blackberry, so I’ll just end it here. I’ll post again later in the day once I get to the office.

Okay, I normally don’t comment on these subjects too much publicly, as I’m not quite the best debater and whatnot. However, I saw Scott Kurtz of PvP post this (from an email his wife got), and I just had to share it.

10 reasons Gay Marriage is wrong:

1. Being gay is not natural. And as you know Americans have always rejected unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because, as you know, a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed. The sanctity of Britany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

:-)

Well, it’s Friday, which obviously means the end of the work week and a couple of days hard-earned rest. Right now I’m sitting at my office desk waiting on a call from our usual cabling people to find out when they’ll be coming out here to look at some work we need quoting. I’m also having some coffee and keeping an eye on a few situations that have developed. Otherwise, life is quiet over here.

One thing I’m looking forward to tonight is the second half of the seasons for Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica. Those are among the few shows I try to catch on a regular basis; it should be interesting to see how the cliffhangers are resolved. Fanboyism aside, at least I’ll be keeping myself occupied tonight. :-)

Another project/release that I had been waiting on came out yesterday, too: Chrono Symphonic, which is an Overclocked Remix site project based on the soundtrack to the SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. I’ll have to admit, I never played Chrono Trigger when it came out on SNES, nor did I pick up the PS1 reissue when I got my PS2. I might give it a try when I get a Nintendo Revolution, though, provided it’s one of the games available via the backwards compatibility service. I downloaded it mainly because I’ve found Squaresoft games to have some of the best soundtracks of any games out there. I’m also doing my little bit to help as well; I left the main PC at home logged in with Azureus running, seeding the BitTorrent download of the project.

In any event, that’s about it for things on this end… time for me to go and refill the coffee mug. Heh…

*sneeze* *cough*

Today is not one of my better days. My throat is slightly sore, but more to the point I’ve been sneezing and coughing up phelgm for the past day or two. I would have loved to stayed in bed sick this morning, but unfortunately stuff at work has made it where I desperately need to get tapes switched out at the datacenter this morning. *sigh* At the very least, I suppose I can hide in my office until lunch and pray no one comes and bothers me needing something.

Right now I’m just sitting at my desk taking care of miscellaneous support issues and drinking coffee. I still need to label some tapes and speak to our electrician about the cost of putting in some data cables elsewhere. I’m hoping when I get done at the datacenter this afternoon, I can vanish before the traffic gets too bad and head home. Not sure what I’m doing about dinner, though… might pick up some Chinese or something, seeing as I’m probably going to pick up some coffee and filters for my new coffeemaker on the way home.

On a slightly different note, I’ve been playing Louie’s copy of Namco Museum recently, and have really gotten into the included “update” of Galaga called Galaga Arrangement. It’s much more complex than the original game, and even has a boss fight at the end. In fact, I’d consider Galaga Arrangement to be much closer to Galaga ’88 than the original Galaga. The main advantage is that Galaga Arrangement allows for continues. :-) Next I’ll be trying Dig Dug Arrangement… that should be fun. :-)

Anyway, I need to get working on checking some stuff here… fun fun.

Well, let me start off by saying that after thinking it over, my parents and I have come to the determination that spending Christmas in Las Vegas was not one of our better ideas.

The flight out to Vegas was full, and I had never before felt more like I was in a cattle car. The seats were uncomfortable, and I couldn’t sleep worth a damn. The hotel was nice to start with, as they put us in the south tower instead of the east tower that we normally stay in. Mom and Dad were rather miffed, though, as their room didn’t have any easy chairs in it, while mine had two. (In retrospect, we should have carried one from mine to theirs.) Also, the elevators were rather wonky; I swear that only one of the three was working the entire time.

Our evenings were actually rather boring after the first night. We figure the reason is that seeing as we’re not hardcore gamblers, we usually entertain ourselves by going to a couple of shows while we’re in Vegas. This time, though, we only went to one: Wayne Newton’s holiday show. I actually found it rather entertaining, and wouldn’t mind going to see his regular show. When my mom bought the tickets, she didn’t realize until after she booked them that the seats we got included a meet and greet with Newton after the show. That’s definitely one thing I’ll give Newton: he cares about his fans, and it’s obvious during the show and afterwards. The other two nights, we didn’t do much of anything, other than go to Fremont Street on Sunday night. We weren’t entirely impressed, though.

As far as gambling goes, I only hit the slots a couple of times, and that was just to kill time waiting on Mom and Dad. Even then, they were only penny slots. The rest of the time, I was playing a table game called Texas Hold Em Bonus, which I found to be rather enjoyable. I can’t say I was entirely lucky at it, but it was worth the cost of several hours of entertainment. I’ll definitely play it again. :-) Fortunately, I hear the casinos up in Edmonton have it, so if I get a chance to go I’ll give it a try.

On Sunday morning, Mom and Dad gave me gifts! I didn’t have a gift for Dad (though Mom had gotten him the one thing he DID want, which was Serenity on DVD), and I had bought pics of Mom with Wayne Newton as her gift. The gifts I got were both DVDs: Doctor Who – City of Death and Dracula – The Legacy Collection. However, when I got the latter one, my reaction was literally, “Cool! Thanks! … wait, why is Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster on the cover?” It turned out that while the sleeve was for the Dracula collection, the box inside was for the Frankenstein collection. We figure it got mispackaged. Mom’s already sent it back to Amazon for a replacement.

The sad thing is that, really, it didn’t really feel like Christmas. It just felt like another Las Vegas vacation. Not to mention that with only one show, it didn’t seem as fun. *shrug* It was an idea, and while I had some fun, we wouldn’t do this for Christmas again.

Actually, to be honest… Dad had the best idea: next time we want to go somewhere where we can just gamble, we’ll pile into the minivan and drive to Harrah’s in Lake Charles. It’ll cost less, not take as long to get there, and will be far more comfortable. :-)

Well, it’s about halfway through my second day here, and I’m still in the black as far as my gambling goes. I also have been spending far more time on the tables than playing the slots. I had originally planned on playing blackjack, but instead I’ve been playing this new Texas Hold Em table game they got in about three weeks ago. It plays very much like standard Hold Em, except that it’s you against the dealer. I’ll probably play a bit more when I get back to Bally’s; right now we’re at the Cheesecake Factory having an early dinner.
We also saw Wayne Newton last night. I must say, I would are his regular show next time I’m in town. He was funny and out on a good show. Afterwards we got to have our picture taken with him and shake his hand; I’ll probably post it as soon as we get it scanned in.
In any event, that’s enough from here for now. I might post a bit later, but for now, it’s dinnertime.

Well, I will say this… The parking lot wasn’t anywhere near as crowded as I would have expected. I did feel sorry for the driver of the economy lot bus, even though he seemed to have good humor about it; can you imagine going through life with the name “Jack Cass”?
Right now I’m sitting at the waiting area of the gate, watching our plane arrive. Our flight won’t be leaving for another hour or so, so I have some quiet time. I could always pull out the GBA and play a couple of games. For this trip I brought along Namco Museum, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Madden NFL 2003. Normally I watch movies on flights, but I don’t think I will this time around.
In any event, tonight should be fun. We’re seeing Wayne Newton at the Flamingo. That’s the only show we have planned this time around. The rest of the time will be spent browsing, resting or (more often than not) gambling.
Anyway, enough of the rambling… Gonna yet and get a little snooze in before the flight.

Well, I’m almost finished packing. I just need to pack my Blackberry’s travel charger into my laptop backpack, and I’m all set to go.

I’m going to be spending the Christmas weekend in Las Vegas. I might post from the Blackberry while there (meaning that posts may or may not appear on the LiveJournal until Monday or Tuesday).

If I don’t speak to any of you before then, have a happy *insert demoninational celebration of your choice*. :-)

Well, I just got back from the eye doctor’s office a little bit ago. Apparently I have a corneal ulcer on the right side of my left eye. Fortunately it’s not on the pupil or iris itself, but halfway between the iris and the edge of the cornea. I’ve been prescribed an antibiotic to put into my eye four times a day, and the doctor wants to follow up with me on Monday to see how it’s healing. It’s hardly fun, but at least it’ll help my eye get better.

I had coffee late last night with Sean and Jinny at the Denny’s up at I-45 and Research Forest Drive. It’s kind of funny… they call it “their” Denny’s, and after seeing that at least two waiters know them by name and feel absolutely comfortable BSing with them, I don’t think their claim is at all invalid. :-) It really was a fun night, as we discussed old times and current times and all the stuff in-between. I definitely wouldn’t mind doing it again… just not on a weekday, considering I need my sleep. Heh.

As it stands, it’s probably going to be a pretty quiet weekend, all told. I don’t really have anything of note planned, except maybe going out to buy a coffeemaker and/or getting some games of Generals in with Sinc. Right now, I’m just having a cup of coffee and pondering installing Hoyle Casino onto my main PC to practice on before Friday.

Oh, and I added a new link to the top menu bar of the site. The “about-the-site” page is simply a quickie intro to me and to the site; I figured that if I was hosting this journal on my site I might as well put that in there. I have at least one more thing I’ll add to the site in 2006, but I’ll leave it as a surprise for you all. :-)

Anyway, enough rambling… gonna check some things for MK Online and then waste away my day.