I hate winter!

Ok, first I need to prefix this statement by saying tonight's low is going to be 14 and tomorrow's high is going to be 31. Whatever happened to Global Warming? Did Al Gore lie to us?

But, the freezing temperatures aren't exactly what this post is about. Yes, that's the first thing people think of when they hear "winter" -- that and "snow".

But, oddly, neither of those are the first thing that comes to my mind when I think "winter". It's "OW!"

As most of my four readers know, I lived in MA for approximately 8 years of my life. I walked to school up hills both ways in the snow. Yes, the cold is horrible, but to me it's not the worst part of winter.

Getting zapped at EVERY metal object I touch. Let me tell you, it gets OLD quick. Doorknob, zap. Coat rack, zap. Faucet, zap. It's not fair. After about a month, I feel like I'm in one of those experiments to see if I'll still touch things even though I KNOW I'll be shocked.

And, no, it's not me that needs to moisturize more or something. I've been known to get zapped freshly out of the shower

So, if you see me jump for what appears to be no reason, or if I accidentally shock you when coming in contact with you, I pre-apologize!

How to make someone laugh

So, I went to the Taco Bell in the food court today to grab a bite to eat.

The somewhat large cashier had two dollar bills hooked onto her name badge. Nosey me asked "What's the dollars for?"

She replied, "It's my birthday."

I rebutted, "Oh. I thought you were practicing collecting money as a stripper or something."

Poor girl almost died laughing on the spot.

I think I'm depressed.

So, I've been working at The Company for almost two months now (ok, next week is two months). I'm finally starting to settle in.

Shortly after starting, we got new PCs. With snazzy 19" dual widescreen monitors. Awesome setup, if I do say so myself. So, with this idea of a new PC, I didn't start setting up things on my old PC.

After a fiasco of missing cables and missing software and such, we FINALLY got our new machines set up for the first of the year. I'm starting to finally set up my machine with the software and stuff I'm accustomed to. Then it hit me.

I'm not a developer anymore.

It's weird.

Yes, I started building a database. But it's no different than building an Excel template. Data is being sent by users, not from another system. I'm not doing cool integrations between systems. Right now, it appears I'm a glorified end user.

And being this "glorified end user", I don't need all the cool software I'm accustomed to. I'm not editing scripts, so I don't need the likes of TextPad or PFE32. I'm not logging into UNIX servers to run scripts, so I don't need puTTY (I still have it, but for another reason). I'm not running a ton of scripts to rebuild cubes, load data, and run calculations to validate.

It's almost depressing.

Now, that's not to say I won't be doing at least SOME of these things. It's just going to be on a smaller scale. I probably won't be editing system scripts, but I can create mini scripts that will do things I'm allowed to do (probably not going to be a lot, but I digress). I will be able to rebuild and load data -- but it will probably be done using a button automation instead of doing it myself. As a developer, my hands were tied one way. As a glorified end-user, my hands are tied another way.

As someone once said, "when life gives you lemons, cut them up and use them in adult beverages." I'm going to try to do that. It's going to be great to learn all these aspects of what end users do that I haven't had the opportunity of when working in development ("learn new things"). I'm going to expand my horizons with things I'm not accustomed to ("try new things"). And I'm going keep an open mind about the position ("experience new things").

I feel like I should be depressed because it's not what I love doing, but I figure I can do more of the stuff I love doing outside of work because it'll be more fun when I CAN do it!

If I could turn back time...

So, I was bored at work with not really anything to do since there's NOBODY in the office (I think three people in our department). I decided I wanted to get my old MySpace blogs into this blog after reading that Blogger is now allowing importing of blogs. The hitch is you can only do it with other Blogger blogs right now.

I did a quick search and found no real way to get MySpace blogs moved over to Blogger. Apparently there's a way to do it with Wordpress, but I don't have a Wordpress account. I thought about creating one, until I read that the import only works with Blogger.

So I decided to count the MySpace posts I have. Eighteen. One of them doesn't count because it's just a posting saying it's my first posting. Since this blog already has one of those, I decided not to include that, so there are seventeen posts to be copied over. Not really that bad.

So, there you go. You should be able to find all these posts prior to my first Blogger post. Some are fairly amusing. Some not so much. And NO, I will not bring back my way old blog postings from when I first moved to Atlanta and tried to blog. Those are horrible.

'Tis the holi-daze season!

So, it's been a few days since my last posting. Sue me. I've been busy.

First, I need to announce that (thanks to me not opening all my mail) Sis and I tied for X-mas. Maybe next year I'll keep a closer tab for everyone. For those of you who are scratching your heads, it goes back to a Futurama Christmas (X-mas) episode. Hermes is delivering mail and Bender gets the most so he wins. My sister and I have a contest every year to see who gets the most cards. This year and last we both tied. (And for those of you reading this who DIDN'T send a card back, I know who you are......)

Christmas morning, Sis (and her family) and I opened gifts over the phone. See, I refuse to go up north when there's white stuff on the ground. Sis's husband won't fly and a 17 hour trip is too long when she has no vacation time (we'll ignore her getting laid off, but still). I think she, her hubby, and her children liked everything I sent her. From the adult incontinence product so she can Black Friday shop without fear to the gizmo thinggie that she can hook her video camera up to her computer and start making DVDs of her kids being really awesome in school plays and the like. (Psst.. someone tell her she can hook her VCR up to it too and record anything she's already done off).

Her kids were so cool. They each got a DS from Santa. What did they get from their awesome uncle? A game for their DS. Of course, they ask me how I knew they were getting a DS. I told them the truth: I talk with Santa all the time and Santa told me what they were getting.

Her hubby was given a PS3. He thought it was wicked awesome. Of course, she then had to go return the Mamma Mia DVD to buy the BluRay version since it's SO much clearer!

I haven't talked to my grandmother since Christmas, but I have talked to Mother. She's all ecstatic about her 8x10 photo of me, her grandson, and a drag-king Santa.

What did I get, you ask? From my grandmother, I got a JC Penny gift card. Maybe I can buy some of these awesome fashion products! Of course, I'm not a big JC Penny fan, so I'll try to find something. From Sis and her family I got some of my old stuff I had when growing up. And she bought me two really awesome RENT books and a RENT poster. Now, we won't discuss how she hates me because I already have the RENT books and I went and bought the poster while I was up visiting her. But I really liked 'em! She's so thoughtful!

That afternoon, I spent it with a former coworker of mine and his wife (and a bunch of straight people). It was.... weird. I never realized how strange straight people are until you see them congregated like that. I wore my festive Santa hat and had a good time. Until he brought out the Star Wars Holiday Special. I'm trying to figure out which movie was more painful -- that or Freddy Got Fingered.

Of course, Boxing Day and the day after were an adventure. I spent $1000 between those two days. I bought a sewing machine 'cuz I want to learn to quilt with Princess Sparklepants. I need a name for said sewing machine. My home computers are named after rodents. My plant is a RENT character. I need an awesome name for my sewing machine. I also bought a Home Theater Receiver (which BrandsmartUSA refunded the difference between their price with tax and amazon.com's price... I *HEART* them) and a desk for my new sewing machine, and some sewing materials. And a blender / food processor combination that was incredibly cheap. I can't remember what else I bought off the top of my head though.

Sunday was the best, though. I got to see my sweetie again (traditionally called "date boy" on Twitter -- I'm working on a totally appropriate nickname for him... give it time..). I gave him two Russ bears 'cuz I wanted to make someone happy. I also gave him a key to the house so he can come visit me anytime. He gave me a Sirius-XM Satellite radio and mentioned something about reaching under my dashboard.

I'd say in all it's been a great holi-daze season. I think my sweetie is the best present I got (sorry Sis).

My Teeths Are Clean!

Yesterday I took my semi-annual visit to my Hot Gay Periodontist.

I'm not going to go into the full history of my teeths here, but needless to say at one point in my life I was TERRIFIED of dentists (and subsequently anyone who touches my teeths and gums), but decided a few years back that I wasn't going to pay for dental insurance without using it. Now I have an awesome crew of peeps who take care of my teeths.

Anyways, Hot Gay Periodontist was his usual cheerful hot self. He even thanked me for the Christmas card I sent him. But, he was a little too busy to be overly social since they had a cancellation that put them a little behind to fit in a last minute person at the same time.

The hygenist gets me all settled in and as she begins to clean my teeths I hear "Hello? Hello? Hello?" coming very faintly. Almost Horton Hears a Who-ish. I thought it was her cellphone ringing since I've heard some odd ringtones in my life. A minute later, she informs me she accidentally dialed someone and there was someone alive on the other end. Quite amusing.

So, I have the scraping going on (aren't you NOT supposed to have sharp objects in your mouth?), then she does the supersonic waterpic thinggie. I'm not a fan of that since one of my teeths is still quite sensitive (and apparently a few other areas). Plus, I don't like the noise. Bothers my ears.

After I think she's done, she's flossing me. And every few teeths she stops flossing and pulls out scraping thing or supersonic waterpic thing. She kept feeling something. It wasn't bad until the bottom right end of my teeths. She kept feeling something. She scraped and waterpic'd for what seemed like HOURS (ok, it was probably 3-5 minutes, but that's an eternity when that area is getting more and more sensitive). She finally ridded me of whatever she kept feeling.

The best part of the adventure? This is the FIRST dental visit I've had a little bit into the year that insurance paid for (since Extreme Makeover Dental Edition tends to leave my insurance drained within 3 months). One of the advantages of having new insurance!

Now, I'm waiting for the spring when I see my Hot Lesbian Dentist to see about straightening my teeths!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Ok, I'm not being threatened with twelve inches (and definitely not in a good way), and outside is blah, but when the sky goes dark and all you see are Christmas lights in the neighborhoods, everything evens out. Except for the fact I've had to turn on my air conditioner the past few days.

It's no surprise to my loyal fan base of four (did I mention I have a new reader? No? I have a new reader) that I loathe snow. There's a reason I moved to GA and most of it involves the lack of snow.

Now, Georgia gets a few unexpected twists from Mother Nature, but they're usually short-lived enough to keep me happy. But, I will be honest. Christmas time is the time of year I'd really like a little bit. Just enough to cover the browning grass and make everything a consistent white. (And we have to keep traffic away to keep it from turning a disgusting black sludge)

I have my tree up (Ok, I didn't put ornaments up AGAIN this year. I did buy the hooks, but I lost the motivation to hang the ornaments). I have a few decorations out, but I'm not *quite* in the Christmas spirit. I don't know why. My biggest guess is the shakeup in my life that's happened the past few months.

I've been busy getting settled into the new job. The getting settled process made a huge impact around Thanksgiving. And I never recovered from that. On the other hand, I do feel very blessed. I've been hanging out with this really awesome guy for the past few weeks. He makes me feel all warm and squishy inside (either that, or I need to wear a diaper). I enjoy hanging out with him, and I look forward to where our time together is leading.

There's less than two weeks remaining in 2008. It seems like it just started. A lot has happened, and it's been an amazing year. I have a few plans for 2009. But, based on 2008, I don't know how much I really want to plan them.

Maybe I need to pull out A Charlie Brown Christmas and listen to Linus tell us what Christmas is all about to really get me in the Christmas Spirit.