Well I did it.. Today was my last day.. I turned in my badge, laptop, and that’s it.. I am no longer
in the employment pool..
Sorta scary.. Gonna celebrate tonight.. Dave says I’m retiring.. So I am having a retirement party.. We hew!
Well I did it.. I turned in my resignation today.. It went much smoother than I expected.. I still
have to talk to HR, and some of my bosses bosses.. I am sure there will be offers of more money and things of that nature.. Now I just need to get my ass
to a dentist and doctor before I am faced with the decision to do cobra or be insuranceless..
So here’s to getting my degree by Fall of 2008 instead of forever in the future.. If anyone needs some part time web coding done or knows someone who
might let me know.. I can send you my resume.. Whenever I find out if I can keep my phone number or not I may be getting you guys my new number..
Man I still have butterflies in my stomach and it’s been 3 hours since I made the call to my boss..
Why go to Bonnaroo to see the Flaming Lips when you can see them in Raleigh April 18th? We all know
disco rodeo sucks ass as a venue, but it’s the Flaming Lips.. OK so I remember saying that seeing the Pixies would be awesome regardless of venue but that
show sucked ass cause it was 130 degrees inside.. I think Frank Black was having a heat stroke.. Not quite sure.. Maybe the “rodeo” will have some air
conditioning this time.. Lord i’m breaking into a sweat thinking about that show.. So anyway anyone else interested? Maybe even to offer me and Sheila a
couch/floor to crash on?
Hopefully that link works.. if not go to etix and search for flaming lips..
Thanks Caleb for the text message heads up!
So last year the Bonnaroo lineup was pretty awesome.. Radiohead, Tom Petty, Beck, Death Cab, Rusted
Root, etc.. I wish I had stayed for Matisyahu, but oh well.. I thought this year would be pretty awesome considering 2005s lineup looked awesome as well..
So today they finally made the lineup anouncement.. Tool? I mean what the fuck? Tool? Yeah whatever Bonnaroo.. I am hoping maybe you will realize what
you did and 2008 will be better.. I think i’ll just try and see the Decemberists in Raleigh in April, and the Flaming Lips somewhere on their way to or
from Bonnaroo.. I know Sheila wants to see Regina Spektor, but the initial line up is pretty disapointing in my opinion..
I was lookign around for
other festivals and the Sasquatch festival in Washington State looks awesome.. Its memorial day weekend, which airfare from Raleigh is only 185 a person,
a weekly rental car from SEA is only 160 with tax.. I mean thats not bad.. The 2006 lineup was pretty rad looking, so 2007 could be pretty good as well..
ANd hte location? Holy shit.. Gorge Ampitheatre.. Google it.. Look at it on Wikipedia.. I should say Cochella looks cool, but its during school so I’d
go alone and have to leave Sheila behind.. Camping isn’t super cheap at Sasquatch but its per car, so anyone else want to go?
Well yeah.. It’s
Valentines day and I shouldn’t dare forget to mention my lovely Sheila.. It’s been an amazing 1+ years and there will be many many more to come.. I
haven’t been happier in my life..
So here is to summer music festivals.. If I go to Sasquatch Jake i’ll be comin’ to see you again..
To getting the fuck out of Cary.. Today at aproximatly 11:30am January 19th, 2007 AD my house in Cary
was signed over to its new owners.. I had been talking about dumping that place for I dunno 2 years now? Well that time has finally come, and I no longer
own a house in suburban hell.. I still have my “cut your lawn you dirty hippie” letter from the town of Cary that I will frame and keep with me at all
times to remind of the hell living in suburbia was in case I ever start to think living in the burbs is cool.. Never forget.. Never forget..
I
want to thank Sheila, Ben (Lawnjesus), and Ben (Co-worker) for all their help moving over the last few days.. I was the idiot who ordered too small of a
u-haul, but it’s all here now with me in Greensboro waiting to be unpacked.. I also want to thank Jamie Dawson
my agent who made it a breeze to sell my place.. If you need an agent who is down to earth and easy to deal with i’d highly recomend him (He’s in my
friends if you want to contact him directly).. Thanks everyone!
Now to just unpack all this stuff and enjoy living where I can cab it home from
whatever place I want for much less than $40 bucks, not hate my neighbors for being stuck up arrogant suburbian snobs, and well live somewhere where there
are actually people doing things past 7pm (without having to go to the cool town next door)..
I got a bottle of bubbly waiting for tonight! And
with that said I’m raising my glass and making a toast to “Getting the fuck out of Cary”.. Drink up bitches cause it’s time to celebrate!
So one thing I noticed almost as soon as I moved here was how stinking dirty the streets are,
especially around UNCG.. Tate street seems to be used as a trash can by all.. Cups in the gutter when a trash recepticle is 20 feet away.. It’s not like
some places in europe where the trashcans were removed cause of the threat of hiding bombs in them.. Trashcans are everywhere, but for some reason many
people fail to use them.. Oh and lets not forget the lovely used condom in the Target parking lot.. I wonder what the empolyees do on their break?
Today was the clencher.. Driving to work.. Battleground and Benjamin Parkway.. Some bitch throws out a huge McDonalds (or similar fast food bag)
right into the road.. I was in the other lane maybe 20 feet behind her.. What gives? Is it that freakin’ hard to wait till you get where you are going and
throw it away, or do like many folks I know and toss it in the in-car trashcan known as the back seat? Come on folks.. Raleigh knows how to keep it
clean.. Why are you so behind the times Greensboro?
I just finished watching the film Mur (Wall). It’s
a very slow moving documentary about the wall the Israeli Goverment is building to seperate themselves from Palestine.. It could be completed by now
actually, and I am not sure..
The film did drag on forever, but I suspect that was part of the logic beind the slowness was to show scenes of
Palestinians crawling the walls to leave their village, and just theinsanity of the wall in general.. If you want to watch the film I would suggest
some reefer.. There is an inverview that is shown throughout the film with the Israeli Minister of Defense.. He is just like rumsfeld.. Well he speaks
Hebrew, but he might as well be saying the same shit.. It just makes me sick.. He blames the palestinians for everything.. Almighty Israel is completey
justified in building the wall he feels.. Ughh..
My favorite part of the film is a section of graffiti that says “fuck usa”..
I’ve been hesitant to write about this since its not 100% finalized.. I could be jinxing myself, but I
have a good enough (gut) feeling, so I am not going to worry anymore..
My house in Cary is pretty much sold.. Offers been accepted.. Repairs have
been mostly completed.. All I am waiting on is final acceptance of the repairs from the buyers (all thats left to haggle about is replacing a window
pane).. Once thats agreed upon come January 19th i’ll get a fat check and no longer be a resident of this place callled Cary..
I am packing up some
more stuff now, and it makes me really happy to be done with Cary for so many reasons.. It has nothing to do with Raleigh.. Being here the last few days
reminds me of how much I miss this place already.. I heard another story about Justin Timberlake at the coverup.. I wish I had seen that.. I finally went
to a hockey game for the first time since June, and the first time since the Stanley Cup banner was raised at the ESA/Royal Bank of Canada Centre.. House
Parties in Raleigh.. I guess there are some in Greensboro, but I have yet to hear about them..
The main thing that makes me very happy about being
done with Cary is my housing costs are super low.. I can work a 10 buck an hour job and make ends meet if I want/need to.. I have far much finaicial
freedom, and it feels really good.. Maybe I will get the balls to go back to school full time? Anyway I am just happy as hell to know Cary is about over
and January 19th this house will be someone elses problem.. It never felt like home anyway.. Hopefully the new owners will be able to call this place
home..
So I have been in Charlotte for work for the last 7 days.. (Well Wed-Fri last week, and then Since
Monday this week).. I have started to go insane again.. Part of it is derived from staying with my parents.. Some of it is related to this city in
general..
I was reading an article in the Charlotte Observer this morning that
stated how Charlotte was second behind Las Vegas in attracting the “Young and Restless” group of people to live there.. This is the label they gave to
young professional 25-34 year olds.. Yuppies is what I call them, but I guess “Young and Restless” works too.. Whatever.. It talked about how this one guy
moved to Charlotte cause it was so much cheaper than San Diego (where he wanted to live), and how he had a 325k house.. He worked for Ernst and Young so I
am sure his banking job is really cool.. The article was poorly written and it sounded like the only thing going for Charlotte is the Panthers, Bobcats,
and “cheap” Housing.. There is a tad more to the article, but its not much more..
So I say to my mom “Wow this article just reinforces why
Charlotte has nothing to offer me”.. Then she goes into this tailspin argument that ends with “And if we lived somewhere else you still wouldn’t come see
us”, gets furious with me.. You know one of the many reasons why I love coming home.. Of course I pick fights at 730 in the morning.. While she was
yelling I muttered under my breath “Jesus Fucking Christ”, and my mom says something along the lines of “I don’t think Jesus needs to be fucked!” and then
something else about god, etc.. Yeah mom believes in Jebus.. Sometimes I forget that..
Who my mom needs to belive in is me.. I am like jesus.. I
put my dead iPod back together yesterday morning and it started working again.. So I am happily listening to my iLazarus now.. Hopefully it will keep
plugging along..
One thing I did realize about Charlotte that is setting itself up for failure that I hadn’t realized before.. This entire towns
economy is based on Banking and pretty much nothing else.. When banking moves to China or someplace else cause its cheaper to do it overseas than in the
US this place will collapse.. Atlanta as much as I hate it has some diversity of businesses.. NYC, Chicago, and other large cities they all are
diversified.. Charlotte is as stable as say Pittsburg, Buffalo were in the past.. They were boom towns until Steel went overseas.. The market changed well
they went in the shitter.. Banking moving to China is somethign i expect to happen in my lifetime.. It’s called globalization.. Any american who thinks
it isnt going to happen is a fool.. We have far too much money in this country, it costs way too much to live here compared to the rest of the world.. Why
would any business stay here when you can replace all the bankers in this country with laborers who will take 1/10th the salary..
Tonight I am
going to see Spamalot with Sheila and my parents.. I am so excited.. I finally get to see Sheila for
the first time in what seems like an enternity.. I am pretty sure I am in withdrawl from my drug of choice (Sheila) so I get to see her.. Monty Python
will be great.. Laughter is the best medecine.. It also means I have one day left in Charlotte, and my sanity can return when I leave the Charlotte Metro
Area..
So I went to listen to my iPod at work today and I got greeted by a screen with the following
icon:
It then put the URL http://www.apple.com/support/ipod on the screen as well..
I think that means the hard drive is bad..
Anyone know for sure if thats the only thing that could be wrong? I already popped it open and I am about to order a new drive.. $150 for a new hard
drive off the net, or what 250 for a similar model?
Any suggestions on a differnet mp3 player?
The 30GB Microsoft Zune is $250.. All the
DRM stuff on it scare the hell outta me, I KNOW it won’t work with my Mac, and well Bill Gates is rich enough..
A replacement iPod 30GB Video is
$250, but it is much smaller than the iPod I have now (60GB iPod Photo)..
The 8 GB iPod nano would probbably be too small and also costs $250..
The 60GB unit is way too big (storage wise).. I think 20 would be good.. I had a 15 I sold to get the 60.. The color screen is nice, but all that
storage is overrated I think..
Any suggestions? I am not 100% ready to put a new drive in my old iPod if there is something else I could get
instead for 150 and maybe sell my dead ipod for scrap on ebay..