XIX. THE WIND BLOWS THROUGH YOUR EMPTY SKULL
[ Now playing on the Severe Trauma Sounds... Slowly Growing Deaf by Mr. Bungle from OU818 ]
"The difference is he had no choice..." -- Slowly Growing Deaf by Mr. Bungle from Mr. Bungle (lyrics by Mike Patton)
Great times, fellas.
Wednesday was good, albeit difficult. Back into site design at work, I had to do some serious research into modern web programming tricks and techniques. I learned a lot, but also spent a good amount of the day frustrated by the fact that Internet Explorer 8 doesn't support CSS rounded corners. Many clumsy workarounds were considered until I finally found the one that (sort of) worked.
That night, Margies came over, and we drank and watched the rest of Scorsese's Cape Fear. Marg found the climax, starting with the part when Max Cady straps himself to the underside of Sam Bowden's car too unbelievable. To be frank, I've never had a problem with the believability of the film as a whole, though now I think she may have a point.
Thursday I finished coding the rest of the initial version of the site I was doing at work, and surprisingly, I finished more than I thought I was going to be able to do. A good surprise, to be sure, as that kind of thing doesn't happen very often.
Traffic was horrific after work, though, so I was late in meeting a friend for a night of gaming and drinking. He wasn't where I thought he'd be, so I went over to his place. Once there, I learned from his girlfriend that she'd just found out that her sister - who already was suffering from the effects of brain cancer - has been diagnosed with leukemia.
They told me they were heading up to Berkeley in about a week to see her, and invited me along. Since I haven't been up there for eight years, and getting the time off shouldn't be a problem, I'm going to be taking them up on the offer. Looking forward to it a great deal, actually, as my friend and I will be basically just be lounging about the town, which is always entertaining in a place like Berkeley.
Yesterday was a pretty great day, too, starting with a client meeting at work regarding the site on which I'd been working. After that, which went really well, I got to work on more routine stuff, including a huge mail campaign going out that evening. And as I was wrapping that up, it was time for the annual work holiday party...
This year, the event was actually held on the work premises, in contrast to previous years where we've gone to company parties elsewhere, bowling alleys, restaurants, and the like. Though this year's sounded like a bit less fun - and it was - it was nice not to have the pressure of having to squeeze a ton of work in relatively little time in order to show up for something somewhere else. In fact, what with drinking tequila straight and a white elephant exchange that night, it all turned out fairly well.
Then after that, I took off to the Carmel Mountain BevMo, where I had previously learned that no less than five bottles of my latest passion - Oaxaca's Scorpion Mezcal - were on hand.
I bought two.
And then went all the way down to the college district where I met a friend and checked out his new Kinect. And I have to say that I was definitely impressed with it, as it's much more aerobic than Nintendo's Wii. However, that being the case, it wouldn't really do well to have one at my place because, living on the second floor, it would absolutely kill my neighbors beneath me.
Then we started watching Easy A, featuring the most beautiful girl in film today, Emma Stone. That, however, was interrupted by my friend's wife, who apparently had a killer tooth infection and needed to be accompanied at once to the hospital.
Sounded painful.
And today I've basically just spent cleaning my place and going out with my Bay Area-trip friends to a (relatively) new place that we may make a habit of - El Zarape. I had the tacos dorado combination with about five shots of the reposado Scorpion Mezcal - very tasty.
Hard to say you've had a bad time after a latter half of the week like that, so I won't even attempt to complain.
Tomorrow, however, may be entirely different.
[ Now playing on the Severe Trauma Sounds... Do I Love You by The Ronettes from Phil Spector: Back To Mono ]
[ Now playing on the Severe Trauma Sounds... Slowly Growing Deaf by Mr. Bungle from OU818 ]
"The difference is he had no choice..." -- Slowly Growing Deaf by Mr. Bungle from Mr. Bungle (lyrics by Mike Patton)
Great times, fellas.
Wednesday was good, albeit difficult. Back into site design at work, I had to do some serious research into modern web programming tricks and techniques. I learned a lot, but also spent a good amount of the day frustrated by the fact that Internet Explorer 8 doesn't support CSS rounded corners. Many clumsy workarounds were considered until I finally found the one that (sort of) worked.
That night, Margies came over, and we drank and watched the rest of Scorsese's Cape Fear. Marg found the climax, starting with the part when Max Cady straps himself to the underside of Sam Bowden's car too unbelievable. To be frank, I've never had a problem with the believability of the film as a whole, though now I think she may have a point.
Thursday I finished coding the rest of the initial version of the site I was doing at work, and surprisingly, I finished more than I thought I was going to be able to do. A good surprise, to be sure, as that kind of thing doesn't happen very often.
Traffic was horrific after work, though, so I was late in meeting a friend for a night of gaming and drinking. He wasn't where I thought he'd be, so I went over to his place. Once there, I learned from his girlfriend that she'd just found out that her sister - who already was suffering from the effects of brain cancer - has been diagnosed with leukemia.
They told me they were heading up to Berkeley in about a week to see her, and invited me along. Since I haven't been up there for eight years, and getting the time off shouldn't be a problem, I'm going to be taking them up on the offer. Looking forward to it a great deal, actually, as my friend and I will be basically just be lounging about the town, which is always entertaining in a place like Berkeley.
Yesterday was a pretty great day, too, starting with a client meeting at work regarding the site on which I'd been working. After that, which went really well, I got to work on more routine stuff, including a huge mail campaign going out that evening. And as I was wrapping that up, it was time for the annual work holiday party...
This year, the event was actually held on the work premises, in contrast to previous years where we've gone to company parties elsewhere, bowling alleys, restaurants, and the like. Though this year's sounded like a bit less fun - and it was - it was nice not to have the pressure of having to squeeze a ton of work in relatively little time in order to show up for something somewhere else. In fact, what with drinking tequila straight and a white elephant exchange that night, it all turned out fairly well.
Then after that, I took off to the Carmel Mountain BevMo, where I had previously learned that no less than five bottles of my latest passion - Oaxaca's Scorpion Mezcal - were on hand.
I bought two.
And then went all the way down to the college district where I met a friend and checked out his new Kinect. And I have to say that I was definitely impressed with it, as it's much more aerobic than Nintendo's Wii. However, that being the case, it wouldn't really do well to have one at my place because, living on the second floor, it would absolutely kill my neighbors beneath me.
Then we started watching Easy A, featuring the most beautiful girl in film today, Emma Stone. That, however, was interrupted by my friend's wife, who apparently had a killer tooth infection and needed to be accompanied at once to the hospital.
Sounded painful.
And today I've basically just spent cleaning my place and going out with my Bay Area-trip friends to a (relatively) new place that we may make a habit of - El Zarape. I had the tacos dorado combination with about five shots of the reposado Scorpion Mezcal - very tasty.
Hard to say you've had a bad time after a latter half of the week like that, so I won't even attempt to complain.
Tomorrow, however, may be entirely different.
[ Now playing on the Severe Trauma Sounds... Do I Love You by The Ronettes from Phil Spector: Back To Mono ]