THOMnottom

I’m sure I’m not the first to break the news (ah, yes, already Slashdorked), but that doesn’t take away from my excitement that OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been officially released today. Sure, it’s a tad lame that this excites me, but I think it’s a cool product. I use it at home, and if not for the decades of info at work we’d have to convert I’d love to switch to it there.

So everybody get cracking – we’ve got download servers to crash!

What a performance! Franz Ferdinand has been my favorite band of this whole Post Punk revival thing ever since my friend Heather first spun them for me way back whenever. As soon as I found the CD in a store it entered heavy rotation in my car – the kind where I don’t even bother swapping it out after the first (or sometimes second) listen. It just kept going and going. And, much to my delight, the second CD is pretty damn good, too. But I really didn’t expect them to be as amazing live as they were last night at the MSG Theater.

Actually, the entire evening blew me away. Even the first opening act, Cut Copy, was pretty cool – enough that I’ll be checking them out. After them, however, TV on the Radio came out and blew the audience away. I already like the couple song of theirs I had heard, but wow! They were such a brilliant combination of noise, funk, soul, and rock I couldn’t stop tapping my feet.

Then came Franz. I was a little nervous because the first couple songs seemed a little low on energy – I don’t think the were mixed well. But once they broke out with “Do You Want To” it was a non-stop musical frenzy. Not only were the songs fantastic, but these guys know how to put on a show. It was a mixture of your typical live rock improvisations, cool lights, a stage design befitting post-punk modsters and regular crowd interaction. Most of their two albums were played, and by the end I was just amazed at how they continued to top themselves. After one song in the encore included three guys bashing away on the lone drumset, they managed to pull out a stunning rendition of “This Fire” to wrap it all up.

Now I’m just waiting for my chance to see the Killers, the Bravery, and Bloc Party. Just call me a wannabe hipster…

This was supposed to be my day to sleep in. Lisa picked up her minivan from the shop on Thursday, which meant she could drive herself to work for the first time today. Unlike the last three weekends, I didn’t have to get up by 8 AM, drive her to the school, and then head over to do some work of my own. So what happens? The doorbell rings at 7 AM – hardwood flooring installers for the landlords. Do you have any clue just how loud that kind of work is? When it’s being done on the floor above you?

Don’t get me wrong, my landlords are very considerate. I think we were very lucky to find this place. And when it comes down to it, I know they had a fairly cold winter last year, so all of the renovations they’ve been doing this past week are very necessary. Still, my luck just stinks these days. I’m hoping tomorrow I get to sleep much more, but with the way this last week went, I need all that I can get.

This story is actually a week old. It kind of makes me ashamed of my blogging that it takes me a week to tell the tale of the little froggie.

Late one night last week, Lisa and I did some shopping. During that trip we purchased some escarole for the piggies – they love it, and it tends to be cheaper than romaine and some other greens. The next morning, I head off to work without a thought of this rather mundane activity in my head. Around 11 AM or so, Lisa calls me. She found a frog in the head of lettuce.

That’s right, she found the tree frog pictured above inside the escarole. This little guy had traveled from some farm to A&P (or was it Shop Rite?) and then sat in our refrigerator overnight before finally being liberated just before his piggie fate had been sealed! And, even more bizarre, he poked his head up and showed signs of life almost immediately.

That was definitely one of the most bizarre phone calls at work. As usual, Lisa gre attached to her new founf friend very quickly and called me later to tell me more about our “new pet.” But a trip to the pet store started adding up quickly, and she soon decided to donate him instead. Luckily I was able to visit him on my way home – yes, he was very cute.

But because I accidentally took the 1GB flash card with me, Lisa was only able to take a couple pictures. Which will lead into my next post nicely…

Okay, not literally. It’s not like anyone died or anything (knock on wood). And considering the nonstop disasters encircling the globe these days, my crappy three-day weekend really doesn’t rate. Nevertheless, I feel like I’ll be stuck in one wicked funk for a couple weeks as a deal with a whole lotta crap at work and at home. And this weekend was a terrible kickoff.

Saturday I tried to do some work, but a power failure the night before left me with a lot of stuff to take care of before I could even start my weekend tasks. After picking up Lisa from her new job and grabbing some Chick-fil-A to cheer myself, we got stranded all over New Jersey thanks to the storm. Of course that was the second time that day I got stuck in the wrong parts of this crummy state thanks to the rain. So the weekend started with a thud.

Sunday started with some limited work before heading out to a realtor in the first step towards figuring out when Lisa and I can start looking for a house. Most of that went well, but watching the Eagles be absolutely humiliated by the Cowboys chipped away at what little happiness I had managed. I even bailed early on the game deciding doing work would be better. Sadly, it was.

But coming home led to the discovery that not one, but two of my hard drives are failing in my server. That’s 450GB of storage (oh yeah, and data) that’s about to go down the tubes. Yee haw! And to top it off, this morning I found out that they are out of warranty. More credit card debt is on the way!

You’d think I could at least relax on my Monday off, but instead I’ve been trying to do work that should have been finished weeks ago for tomorrow morning. And tomorrow morning I’ll be heading into work about 3 hours earlier than usual. And since I’ve been so restless today, I’ll probably be up late working on these documents. Joy to the world – this month can’t end fast enough.

My mind is still somewhat reeling from the past two days. Sunday I screamed my head off in Hoboken along with my fellow Eagles brethren watching one of the most amazing comebacks. Down by scores of 17-0 and 24-6, our boys fought back unmercifully and dominated the second half enroute to a 37-31 victory. I might have recovered from that, but Lisa and I headed down to Philly last night for an amazing Pearl Jam concert. Nearly 3 hours long, words will fail trying to convey the feeling of hearing them cover the classic “Harvest Moon” or bring out old b-sides and rarities like “Alone” and “Hard to Imagine” then close sets with fan favorites “Alive” and “Yellow Ledbetter.”

On top of all that, I’m impatiently awaiting some free time to rip into the new Franz Ferdinand. I’ve already seen their hilarious new video for “Do You Want To,” which is making me even more excited about the upcoming show this month. More to come…

One day only! Hurry up and get your free copy of the DivX Create Bundle during their 5th year anniversary. Sure, I’ve already paid for my copy, but I’m making sure to get a couple extra serial numbers while I’ve got the chance.

I’m still a little miffed at how DivX handled the whole release of version 6, but I’m also somewhat attached to the codec. You see, the Create Bundle comes with a little app the gives you a no frills way to quickly convert videos to DivX6. Unfortunately it was initially buggy as all hell and crashed with the most useless messages. DivX’s response was… nothing. They took about a month to really communicate with their paying customers and rather rudely pointed out how to get refunds since we were so impatient rather than provide us with any real information on when things would be fixed.

But there really aren’t many other options for decent video codecs out there. XviD will never release a standard binary that assures all videos will play properly on different machines. WMV is just way too proprietary and leaves me with DRM nightmares. Quicktime is one of the biggest pieces of crap, and pretty much forces you to install the horrid iTunes along with it. Real… well that goes without saying. Nero Digital looks most promising, and since I paid for Nero I already own it. However, it’s still in limited use and there’s no guarantees I’ll ever be able to play it on my precious DVP642.

That leaves me with the least of many evils… for now.

(thanks to Owen, for the link not the rant)

Oh yeah, I’m sportin’ some fine threads today. After deciding I couldnt’ do crap to help the poor, I figured it was best to finally recruit reinforcements for my rapidly dwindling trouser brigade. Last night, after swinging by Lisa’s school for some prep work, we headed over to Paramus Park for the necessary Chick-fil-A dinner and then decided a stop at Macy’s was in order. What a brilliant move that turned out to be.

I wandered around the “Men’s Store” for a while and, once I realized they weren’t going to sell me a human companion, began searching for khakis. But they make it so difficult with all of the beautiful Kenneth Cole and INC shirts sitting brilliantly out on their racks. But… but… FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I HAVE TOO MANY SHIRTS! That’s a lie. At least in my mind it is. But I must keep saying it until my closet once again obtains a sane shirt-to-pant ratio.

Their selection of pants was sadly filled with my archnemesis – the dreaded pleat. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love a nice pleated trouser. Unfortunately that doesn’t change the problem I have with their look on me. You see, I tend to look formal. Nice clothes that would look casual on most people make me look like I’m going to an interview at a prep school for young Republicans. And that’s just not the look I’m going for.

Yes, I know it could be worse and I could be one of those people that looks like a slob in a suit, but it doesn’t change the fact that I tend to shy away from putting on said pants because I don’t want to wear them to work and suddenly two years go by and I’ve worn said pants twice even though they cost me $50 and actually look great on me. Capiche?

Anywho, where was I? Oh yes, inspite of many inviting possibilities, there was naught in my hands when Lisa finally spotted the mother lode – the Docker’s section. w00t! And with my amazing shopper’s luck, there was a one day sale going on with flat-front twill chinos going for 20 bucks. TWENTY DOLLARS! Four pairs later and I’m searching through the clearance rack for $9.99 specials, too. I ended up with 7 pairs of pants that set me back just over a hundred dollars (plus a $50 jacket), including the ones I’m wearing today. I think that deserves another w00t! Best of all, I’ve now got tan, brown, blue, grey, etc. pairs to give me some variety – and ain’t that the spice o’ life?

Papa’s got a brand new bag, indeed!

It’s true. Well, not the pants I’m currently wearing, but the ones I wore yesterday. Hopefully nobody noticed. I certainly didn’t until I was hurrying out the door later than planned. It occurs to me that the pair in question was probably purchased about 5 years ago, and the faded khaki look finally gave out in the wash. Amazing just how threadbare they had become without me noticing.

So I felt a little white trashy yesterday. Thankfully I brought lunch, so I could just hide in my office and avoid any ridicule I deserved. It’s no big deal, the rain kept me out of the mall after work, but I’ll buy a couple new pairs (desperatly needed pairs) of khakis over the weekend. Right now I’m feeling pretty lucky, because I know that I can go to the store and drop $15 – $20 for new pants without sweating it. I might even pay $30 or $40 for ones that really catch my attention and seem worth the extra money. This is an activity that I jut plain take for granted.

Why am I babbling like this? Because last night, after coming home in my tattered khakis and thinking what an inconvenience that the terrible rains would keep me from just getting new pants and then settling down in front of my Dell laptop that needs to be upgraded and turning on my 32″ Sony WEGA that I so wish was HDTV and thinking about how much I want to get rid of my 4 year-old Saturn for a hybrid or TDI car and then debating about what food out of overflowing fridge should become dinner; after all of that, I came across “Being Poor” over on Whatever.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

We have absolutely no clue what we have. No matter how much we pretend to understand we never will. I am so grateful right now that I have ripped pants that can be replaced. I am so thankful that I’m waiting for my next paycheck because our little vacation stretched me thinner this month than planned. I have never truly known what need is in this world, and for that I cannot even begin to express my appreciaton.

Being poor is realising your one parent has given up on themselves but not given up on you.

Mark dropped by last night to enjoy with me the frustration that is being an Eagles fan. I’m just happy football season is finally here; those 7 months between the Super Bowl and the opener are just agonizing, even with all of the action that goes on. And while the loss sucks, it wasn’t that bad and we’re only just getting started. If you want to read my take on the game, check out my post over at Philly Sports Net. This should be a regular thing, but I’ll remind you guys anyway.

Also, for games not televised nationally I plan on watching at Dipper’s in Hoboken, along with The Philadelphia Eagles Club of Hoboken as organized by Sean (Furey). I had a blast the couple times last year I met up with that crowd at McMahon’s, and this year I don’t want to miss any games (following football via the Eagles Message Board is really lame and irritating). There’s also an Eagles club at The Yard as well as a big crowd at Willie McBride’s, so I might mix it up and check out other places, too.

I just want to add that as painful as it was losing the Super Bowl, it was also very relieving just being there. I feel like I can go back to enjoying the games more this year – like I’m not just waiting to see what happens in the end. And these things are supposed to be distractions, afterall; they shouldn’t cause us all of this stress.