Choices

Every year I let myself spend about a third of my tax refund on something fun. This year I’ve got it narrowed down to two choices:

Upgrading my current 256mb Muvo TX to the 1GB model with FM radio. With money from ebaying the old one, it fits in the budget.

OR

Buying a paid account on Flickr, with some cash left over.

Thoughts and/or opinions?

Hit the road

I think I’m ready to move on.

My first night back from DC, I went to buy groceries. Walking back, all I could really see and hear was people running around and screaming. It’s college town after all. And I don’t really fit in. I’m anxious to get out there, to have a ‘real’ job and get a career going.

I’m ready to leave this apartment, too. Don’t get me wrong, I love the apartment itself. If I could transplant it to another building with capable management and maintenance staff, I’d be happy to stick with it. However, the staff is anything but capable.

When I moved in I noted a few minor things that needed to be fixed. The shower needed some caulking. The bedroom smoke detector did not attach to the wall due to a snapped off piece of it. But nothing that really affects my day to day life. That was in August. Now, in late March, the problems remain untouched. The most annoying thing to go unfixed is my buzzer. The buzzer downstairs for my apartment has no button on it. You can still set it off by touching both prongs with a key or another piece of metal, but imagine trying to explain that to a pizza delivery man.

A couple weeks ago, a repair guy showed up at my door! He claimed he was here to fix my buzzer. Happy Day! Then it turned out that he had been misinformed by the office. This guy was an interior buzzer repair man, not an external one. Talk about a specialized job…. so my heart sank as he walked away.

A month and a half ago, the florescent bulb in the hallway went out. It hasn’t been replaced yet, despite phone calls from both my neighbor and me. The hallway is pitch black, without any windows. Lawsuit waiting to happen, really.

I spend my days just praying that nothing serious breaks in my apartment. My neighbor says once her shower was broken for two weeks before they sent someone to repair it.

Meanwhile, my refrigerator continues to think it is a freezer.

Time to go get my day moving. Venting over.

Live Blogging

Coming to you live, from outside the Washington Hilton…

Outdoor wireless is a beautiful thing. The sun is out and 56 degrees! This is the first time I’ve been comfortable in short sleeves since…. well I dunno when. Ages.

So here’s what I can see right now! I realize this is no more or less ‘live’ than any other blog entry, but for some reason being outdoors makes it feel special.

IMG_1036

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Time to return inside for the free drinks and snacks and resume seminaring. One was cancelled this afternoon that I really wanted to go to, providing this free time. More on that later, with my standard day’s wrap-up.

Them: 1 Me: 0

Score one for the Secret Service. As I should have guessed by their name, they are secretive. I was camping out where the Secret Service had showed up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the President as he entered. A couple others were there doing the same thing. Finally a few minutes ago I see the full motorcade pull into the drop-off area… and keep going.

They sped through it and continued on. The Secret Service jumped into their unmarked large vans and followed. 10 seconds previous to this, about 20 reporters and camerapeople sprinted by, trying to catch the limo. Funny stuff really, but pretty disappointing. Must have whisked Bush in a side door or something. Ah well, now I can get back to posting pictures.

David, are you listening?

Talking to Matt recently got me thinking about friends from way back. In kindergarten (I hate spelling that word and probably botched it) I was good friends with a guy named David Stallman. Or perhaps David Stahlman, I can’t be sure.

By the end of the big K, we were the only two boys left in the class. All the others had moved away. We were in first grade together as well, but after that his Dad’s job got him moved to Saudi Arabia. This was about two years before Gulf War I, and I always wonder what happened to David and his family – if they stuck around or not.

So I got to thinking about how to find the guy. Google turned up nothing concrete. For all I know I have the last name completely wrong, he might go by Dave Stallman or Dave Stahlman or something entirely else now, who knows?

So I figured my best bet was putting out the word here.

Anyway, David, if you ever Google your own name and run across this entry, drop me a line!

I know this is off topic…

…but I wanted to share.

Dad and I went to the Rochester Auto Show today. Good times! There weren’t as many concept cars that as I would have liked, since those always catch my eye. But this was great:

03/05/05

The Chrysler Chrono 5. With hood lines like that, all you need to do is paint it black and voila, you’re driving the Batmobile!

The shot isn’t framed wonderfully, but I had to get it off before someone walked into the picture.

Now if only concept cars ever made it into production…