Right now, I’m at a bar called the Boulevard up in the Woodlands. We’re sitting in the rooftop area, and we got to see the Woodlands firework show clear as day. It’s a pleasant night, too.
Chris’s mom just joined us, too; Chris, his girlfriend Brandy, George, and I are just sitting here enjoying a few drinks and catching up. I hadn’t planned to do anything tonight, but this is quite fun.
I hope you’re all having fun, and may post a short video of the fireworks later. :-)
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but my father has a joke he does around about Thanksgiving. As is commonly known, my parents emigrated to the States from England in the late 60’s, and he still has his accent. So, people say to him, “You guys don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, do you?” My father usually replies with, “Yes, we do, but being British, we celebrate it on the Fourth of July.”
Well, a couple of days ago he tried the reverse version of the joke while at the barbershop, and it backfired on him. Knowing how our barber (a real redneck sort) doesn’t even know this website exists, I think I’m kind of safe to tell this story…
Anyway, Dad was in the barbershop, getting his hair cut, and it was just him, the barber, her son, and another customer were in there. The barber asked if Dad had any plans for the Fourth of July. Dad responded with, “No, I don’t have any special plans for Thanksgiving.”
The other customer looked at Dad with a very pissed-off expression, but didn’t say anything. The barber, on the other hand, gave Dad a blank look. It was obvious to him that neither one actually got the joke, so he attempted to explain it to her.
“What is the Fourth of July?” Dad asked.
“Independence Day,” the barber replied.
“And who did you win independence from?” Dad asked again.
“Mexico,” the barber replied.
Dad didn’t say how he reacted, but the look of horror on my face and Mom’s face pretty much said it all. I’m actually glad I wasn’t there, really, because my response would likely not have been very polite. *sigh* It’s times like that where my faith in humanity, small as it is, dies a little more…
So, tomorrow is the Fourth of July (otherwise known in this house of Brits as Thanksgiving), and as a result I get a three day weekend. Whether or not I’ll actually get to spend much time relaxing tomorrow is open to debate, considering the fact that our Mexico and Canada locations at work will NOT have the day off, and knowing them they’ll be contacting us with support issues. Ah, well… truth be told, other than a bit of a personnel shakeup at work, it’s been relatively quiet this week. Let’s just hope it stays that way through the rest of the weekend. I could use the rest. :-)
I have to admit, though, that the highlight for me of the past week or so has been trying the Melting Pot, after hearing Jesse rave about it for so long. Mom decided she wanted to go there for her birthday dinner, so Dad and I went ahead and indulged her. So, what was our verdict, you may ask? Well… if we go back, we’ll do the cheese and chocolate fondue thing only. We won’t do the full experience; if I ever go with Jesse and Rob I’ll skip the entree. We loved the cheese fondue part and we loved the chocolate fondue part. However… having to cook our own meat at the table? No. My idea of a good meal is not looking at my cell phone’s clock to see when I should be removing my skewers from the pot and hope the meat is sufficiently cooked. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t regret going. It was a learning experience… and I learned the full experience isn’t my cup of tea. :-)
Ah, well… it’s getting late, and I need to catch up on sleep. I plan on doing a lot of that this weekend, to make up for lost sleep this last week. So, off to bed I go… :-)
http://kotaku.com/397395/blizzard-announces-diablo-iii
Well it’s official folks! You can all scream like little girls and then pass out from complete exhaustion as Blizzard officially announces Diablo III at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational. Mike Morhaime told the audience at the opening ceremonies that they had a special announcement to make, the lights dimmed, and a guitar player took the stage, playing the unmistakable opening strains of the Diablo overworld theme. A trailer played, and Jay Wilson, lead designer of the game took the stage…to demo the game.
Interesting… so now Blizzard has upcoming games based on their two other big franchises (other meaning “other than Warcraft“). I was already planning on picking up StarCraft II when it comes out; I guess I can add this one to the queue as well. No matter… knowing Blizzard, it’ll be a while before either game is released. :-)
Well, right now, I’m sitting down in the kitchen enjoying a margarita. As is typical, today is our weekly drinks and nibbles night; I guess you could say it’s our way of making sure the weekend gets to a good start. Tonight the nibbles of choice are buffalo popcorn shrimp. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m personally looking forward to it.
Earlier today I went ahead and decided to go ahead and shave my goatee off. I grew it right about a year ago, and I figure it’s time for a change. Unfortunately, I upset Misty a little because I hadn’t given her a picture of myself since losing weight while I had the goatee. (She prefers me with it.) Ah, well… I’ll give it a month or two before I regrow it. Hopefully I can show her pics after I’ve done so and lost more weight.
Otherwise, it’s been a fairly uneventful weekend. We went to Willowbrook Mall, where I bought a couple of belts; I had been needing a new belt for a while as my current belt is ratty. From there, we went to Baker St. for drinks and dinner. As usual, the food was good… once they got my order straightened out. It was also fun watching as a massive storm came over the area.
Otherwise, the only thing of note I’ve done this weekend is set up a trivia bot for #mktrivia. It was a little bit of a pain, but thankfully Sinc did me a great favor in converting Crow’s trivia database into a format my bot can use. Now that the bot is operational, I don’t know if the channel regulars have accepted it, but we’ll see how it goes.
In any event, it’s time for dinner. Ah, well… hopefully this will be a quiet week. We’ll see.
I saw this while browsing around LiveJournal. Words cannot describe… you’ll just have to see for yourself.
Well, it’s the end of another weekend. I’d like to say it’s been productive, but that would be something of a lie. :-) On the bright side, I did reach a milestone on Friday. When I weighed myself, I found I had lost four pounds last week, bringing me down to 227 pounds. I wasn’t expecting to be down so much in a week, but I’m certainly not complaining. More to the point, though, I’ve now passed the 30 pound mark. (I started at 258 pounds.) I now have another 30 pounds to go, and I should be at my target weight. I also tried on an old pair of blue jeans that have a 38 inch waist, and they fit comfortably. They’re more stay-at-home jeans (as they are somewhat ratty), but I don’t think I’ll be buying any new jeans until I get to my target weight. Fortunately, I have a pair of 38 inch Dockers that are new, and old but decent looking 38 inch Dockers I can wear for work. Hopefully I’ll be at the 36 inch size within a decent timeframe. :-)
Mom did me a big favor on Friday night, too. I had called her during the day and asked her what she planned to make me and Dad for dinner, and she had no idea. By the time I got home, I figured I would just make myself some cereal. To my surprise, however, Mom had picked up some sushi from the local Kroger’s for me: a California roll, three pieces of salmon, and three pieces of tuna. :-) Needless to say, I was a happy camper. The only problem I had was the fact that I lacked chopsticks… heh. Still, it was actually decent sushi, and I can keep that as an option if I ever lack an idea for something to eat for supper.
Speaking of dinner, yesterday we took Dad to Saltgrass Steakhouse for his Father’s Day dinner. It was actually something of a surprise, as Mom and I had thought he would pick either Outback Steakhouse or Cheesecake Factory for dinner. In retrospect, either of those would have been a better idea. The fried mushrooms weren’t the best we’d ever had, the bread wasn’t as good as the other places, and Dad’s opinion was that the cow that became his steak died of old age. I also should have warned Mom that the chicken fried steak wasn’t the best, but then I don’t generally care for it in general and she does, so my opinion probably wouldn’t have helped. Ah, well… you live and learn. We’re definitely going to be doing something different for Mom’s birthday, though. Jesse would approve of her choice, though: the Melting Pot. We’ll see how that turns out.
As far as this week goes, we’ll see what happens. I’ve got a couple of projects at work that need to be taken care of, and at least one will require me to work after hours. I’m REALLY looking forward to that, let me tell you. :-p For now, though, I’m going to relax a little, and then do my evening exercise. Fun fun…
I generally avoid watching wrestling as a whole these days. However, I can’t avoid it completely as when RAW and PPV events come on, discussion on #mortalkombat turns to it. In those cases, I mostly turn a blind eye, as it were. However, something happened on RAW yesterday that I heard about where, well… I’ll let you see for yourself. Suffice to say Vince got his first taste of a popular internet meme… :-)
The reliable realist is down-to-earth and responsible-minded. He is precise, reserved and demanding. His most prominent quality is reliability and he will always make every effort to keep any promise given. The reliable realist is more a quiet and serious type, he does not talk a lot but is a good listener. He sometimes seems reserved and distant to outsiders although he often has a great deal of wit and esprit. His strong points are thoroughness, a marked sense of justice, doggedness bordering on pigheadedness and a pragmatic, vigorous and purposeful manner. The reliable realist does not dither about if something has to be done. He does what is necessary without wasting words.
This personality type not only expects a lot of himself but also of others. Once he has set his mind on something, it is difficult to persuade him otherwise. He does not like to leave anything to chance. Planning means safety to the reliable realist, as well as order and discipline. He has no problem respecting authorities and hierarchies but does not like to delegate tasks. He is certain that others would not deal with them as conscientiously as he does. In management positions, he is very task-oriented – he makes sure that things are well done; however, he does not have a great deal of interest in personal contacts at work.
In relationships too, the reliable realist is reliability itself. As a partner, he is faithful and consistent, well-balanced and sensible. Security and stability are very important to him. He has little time for extravagances and flightiness. Whoever has him as friend or partner can rely on him for a lifetime. However, it takes quite a while for the reliable realist to enter into a relationship or friendship. He has little need for social contacts; he therefore takes great care when choosing partners and friends and limits himself to a small but exclusive circle which meets his high demands. He tends to show his closeness to people who are important to him by deeds – his partner should rather not expect romantic declarations of love.
Why didn’t anyone tell me about this sooner?
Two weeks ago, over at the official Nine Inch Nails website, a new NIN album called The Slip was announced. Like Ghosts I-IV, the album is available as a digital download in MP3, FLAC, and Apple Lossless format. Unlike Ghosts I-IV, this album is completely free. As Trent Reznor put it in the post announcing The Slip, “thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me”.
I’ve already gone ahead and downloaded the album in Apple Lossless format, and have added it to my iTunes library. I’ll spend some time a bit later listening to it. Still, this is one of the reasons I have a hell of a lot of respect for Trent Reznor. He broke from his own label, and is now giving the fans what they want at price points that are extremely reasonable. Add that to the fact that his music is still as good as ever (in my opinion), and you’ve got me as a continued listener and fan. :-) I just wish I hadn’t found out about two weeks after its release… heh.
If you want to download The Slip for yourself, you can do so from the official website.