THOMnottom

Yes, the rumors are true. Google Talk has hit the Internet today. Anyone with a Gmail account (let me know if you need one) can use it right away. Their client looks fairly nice, but I’ve got GAIM. Setup was fairly easy, and I’m already online. Now if I just had someone else to talk to…

Sorry to keep you all waiting. I’m sure everybody has just been glued to their monitors, refreshing neverhood.net waiting for an update. Unfortunately, the weekend was busy and tiring and filled with updating my own family members (sorry, but my Mom comes before you).

So yes, put your fears to rest, Lisa is fine. I took her to the hospital on Friday night, and X-rays and some goofy tickle tests confirm that nothing was broken or seriously damaged. She’s been somewhat sore and rather miffed at the whole ordeal, but I consider us lucky that that’s about it. As her body recovers, I have been recruited as her personal massage therapist and am doing my best to cure what ails her.

As for the minivan… it’s seen better days. Not recent ones, mind you, as both Lisa and I have scraped up both sides of the rear recently. But the front hood is totally crumbled and will need to be replaced along with the grill. The “H” from the front is currently sitting on our kitchen table, as I am still looking for an appropriate chain to hang it around my neck – I have to represent, afterall.

But you can’t keep a good man (or woman) down, so we still headed out Saturday morning to a picnic for her new job (although she hasn’t started yet). Definitely seems to be a good crowd she’s joining, so I’m excited about that. Afterward she headed out wth her parents and found a wedding dress – YAY! That’s one more item to check off the planning list. Me? I headed over to Sandy’s for another fun filled Slow Foods Social. Great times were had with all, especially catching up with Ruby, making grandiose plans with Linda, and swapping cooking ideas with soon-to-be-linked Martha. And of course, hanging out with the absolutely fabulous host and good friend Sandy, who will kill me if I don’t put up the pictures from the party soon (especially once I mention how many great shots of her daughter Caitie I got).

Now I’m just winding down after a hectic workday that started out with a paring ticket and dodging lots of construction… I think I need a break.

Lisa called me at work today. She was incredibly excited about how everything went at her new job (she’s doing the orientation thing and finding out what classes she’ll be teaching, etc.) and the great bargains she found during her subsequent shopping expedition. What a day! I told her to call our friend Joel and we’d head over to Hoboken for a fun night out. Yeehaa!

A few minutes later I notice a voice mail. While trying to check it, Lisa calls through.

“I guess you didn’t get my message,” she says.

“No,” I say, not bothering to mention that I was in the process of checking.

“I’m okay, but I was just in an accident.” Crap. She went on to detail how traffic had gotten heavy on the Parkway, and the guy behind her failed to notice that all the other cars had stopped but his. CRASH! He rear-ended her minivan and shoved it into the car ahead, which was then shoved into the car even further ahead. Everybody’s fine, but of course Lisa’s vehicle was the only one damaged. The car ahead of her has one of those goofy spare tires on the back, which managed to cave in her hood – I’ll provide pictures later.

On the bright side, you’d barely even notice all the scratches I added the other day!

Right now I’m waiting for Lisa to get off the phone with GEICO (man can that lizard talk your ear off) so we can head over to the hospital and have her checked out. She seems fine, but we’re both worried about her neck – with some chronic shoulder problems, whiplash is the last thing she wants out of this ordeal. More news later…

I’ve got about 20 posts running around in my head… well, maybe they’re jogging (haven’t been to the gym in a week afterall). The problem is, they all come at once. So then I have to debate about which one to start with. And then I get worried that I’ll post too many right in a row. And then some will get lost in the shuffle. And then my readers will miss the good ones. And then they’ll start to think that my site isn’t worth reading anymore. And then no one will come visit me anymore. And then I’ll get really depressed and lonely and spiral into a lost weekend of drunkenness. And then I’ll feel really crappy going back to work. And then I’ll get fired because I’m constantly hungover. And then I’ll end up on the street with no Internet access, so how could I possibly get out of my funk at that point?

So you see my dilehma, right? After all is said and done, I never even get around to a second post that day (unless its for some stupid meme). But now I’ve got such a backlog of posts in my head I can barely walk without chewing gum at the same time… nevermind.

In my excitement over all of the work goodness this past weekend I forgot to mention that Lisa also has good news on the professional front. She’s go a new job! I tend to ignore any possible financial problems we face, but with a wedding, house hunting, and dozens upon dozens of babies down the road, it’s time we really started saving. And my salary – while decent for me – just isn’t enough for all of it. Lisa just couldn’t contribute enough with her current massage therapy hours, and couldn’t add anymore without completely draining herself physically. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for her to find a different opportunity.

Although she didn’t get the admissions position she originally applied for, the Helma Institute decided to give her a teaching position instead. This will let her continue dealing with a field she enjoys, but cut down on the hours of touching creepy guys strenuous physical work. I’m looking forward to having her less tired and stressed out (oh, and the money).

Plus, this means we’ll get to go shopping for new clothes for her soon. Not that I’m complaining about her wardrobe, rather Lisa is not too keen on her current closet situation. That doesn’t really matter, though, because our shopping trips always devolve into hours of me picking out and trying on stuff. What can I say, I was raised by 6 older sisters!

Which brings me to my next point – I am in love with Ben Sherman! I’ve never met the man, but boy can he design some killer pants and shirts. I will soon go further into debt thanks to the discounts available over at Bluefly. Not only do they have these ridiculously cool pants for only 53 bucks, but they also have what will henceforth be known as the greatest shirt ever made! I swear, once that shirt comes in, I can throw out all others as it is the only one I plan on wearing from that moment forward! The rest of my wardrobe pales in comparison! I may not even need pants, that shirt is so awesome! And yes, I do need to use this many exclamation points when talking about THE GREATEST SHIRT KNOWN TO MAN! (I think I’ve been readin Dooce too much).

Forward to my shopping cart!

P.S.(I scored a 71 on The greatest ever 80s’ Tunes Test, largely because I don’t remember many lead singers. But I refuse to post their results as I’m sick of OKCupid!’s horrid output code invalidating my site!)

So Sin City hit shelves today. As you may recall, the movie floored me in theaters, which makes this purchase a no brainer, right? *ERNT* WRONG! (What the heck is ernt? I was trying to make a buzzer sound that was a tad more alarmish, but that just looks stupid)

Wait, where was I? Oh that’s right, I was thinking of ranting about the way studios try to screw us with all of these double releases and “bonus” materials and random third discs that pop up. You see, I know something more is in the works for Sin City. I don’t think there’s been anything official, but Rodriguez and Miller talked about all of the extra footage they have and how much they want to do something with it that you know this single-disc version just ain’t gonna cut it. And the powers that be sit on these announcements regularly, because they know schmucks like me will end up plunking down the money for the way cool version of Hellboy or at least the director’s cut even though I already own the initial special edition release. Why didn’t I just wait for he better versions? Because they didn’t announce them until after he first one hit shelves and my wallet – and I was foolish enough to believe that “TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION” meant something.

And now they’re getting me with CDs, too. Today I excitedly noticed a new Killers album at Best Buy. But upon closer inspection it turned out to be a re-release “Limited Edition” version with 3 new tracks. But I’m still wearing out my fist copy, why should I be buying another?!?! It’s not like Ben Folds Five’s recent remaster of Whatever and Ever Amen – that’s seven years after the fact and finally got me a good copy of the Japanese version of “Song for the Dumped”! The re-release was downright essential.

But this crappy attitude by the studios left me with a barren edition of The Princess Bride after nearly 3 years of delays only to miss out on the 2-disc edition shipped a few months later. I knew there would be a big special boxset of The Matrix Trilogy (which I still haven’t purchased), so I didn’t bother with the sequels as they came out – but we shouldn’t have to guess at these things.

Please, just tell me beforehand when you’ll be releasing even better super-duper extra-special flavor editions, because I’m just too darn stupid to figure it out myself and my bank account (and shelving space) hates me for it.

P.S.(I didn’t even get into how much it pisses me off when studios release box sets AFTER I buy the individual DVDs!)

Can I get a shout out for the crazy guys over at the FDA?!?! Them slick mofos finally got their shiznit together and approved Unigene’s first drug in the US (for those of you not following, I work for Unigene). I won’t go into how long of a process this has been or the frustration of this last leg of waiting because… well, because, quite frankly, I’ve got no clue what I can and can’t say – a quick HOLLA to all those nasty NDAs in the hizzouse!

!@(fdabubbley.jpg popimg: “The Levys pop out the bubbley for our celebration”) Much celebration was enjoyed on Friday, with the champagne flowing effortlessly (out of the bottles and down our throats). It’s quite a feeling to have been apart of this, even if I’m just the IT guy an have only been apart of it for 2 years. Hey, at least I can mooch off someone’s accomplishments around here.

Here’s hoping for insane earnings on the stock over the next few days – I’ve got a wedding to (partially) pay for next year! At leat cover the honeymoon, alright?

I’d also like to take this moment to recommend enjoying the (semi)new look of Unigene’s website. It’s a definite improvement over the filler I had up there for the last year or so, and we won’t even get into the previous look. Amazing what happens when you have real designers do the work instead of a very tired sys admin! With the approval, even more will be going on the site in the coming months. Suddenly it’s very good to be where I am.

P.S.(The reason for the goofy title is the actual fax from the FDA uses wording to the effect of “We have chosen not to withhold approval.” Gee, thanks for th overwhelming confidence there.)

Tap… tap… hey, is this thing on? No, I haven’t become one of the billions to abandon their blogs, but life has a habit of getting in the way of my many adoring fans. So, what has been going on?

Lisa and I are still planning the wedding – as if that would have changed. We’ve moved on to debating types of paper to use for “Save the date” cards and other such pleasantries. But the rest of the “big” things lay somewhere in the future. Still, I’m trying to keep in touch with some real life friends and have gotten together with those from both sides of our fences – even if that meant trekking all the way out to Bumble-you-know-what, Long Island on the hottest day in the history of heat for a BBQ. I much prefer the impromptu gatherings at bars in Hoboken instead.

Work has been hectic, and it seems like good things are on the horizon (more about that tomorrow). Unfortunately, I’m still stuck doing lots of late night work to keep the whole shebang up and running. Something about updating computers while people are running 18 hour long experiments makes my co-workers grumpy. Seriously, I didn’t think it would reboot all on its own! At least I’m making real progress on automating many of my tasks – soon I’ll be able to sleep in my office and ignore the cries for help outside the door knowing full well that some script is taking care of it all… hopefully my boss isn’t reading this.

Oh yeah, I also made it out to the Eagles training camp last Tuesday. As usual, I have well over 200 pictures of the excitement that I will never get around to sorting through and posting… I should at least talk about what an ass T.O. is, right? Eh, that can wait. I want to stay positive looking towards the new season, and not just spew vitriolic drivel towards such an idiotic, spoiled, little brat of an ungrateful… wait, I said I wasn’t going to talk about that, right? Let me recompose…

Coming up on the horizon I have some serious changes for this site. And I’m not just blowing smoke up your collective asses this time. I’ve decided upon a name chage, that reflects the more personal level I’ve wanted for this page. I’ll be working on a redesign as soon as I bring the new domain up live, so once that’s all done I’ll move the blog and announce the new name at the same time (no sneaking a peak). I’m also thinking of launching some other sites for certain interests, but they will all be dealt with in good time.

Tomorrow should be a much better day than this one, afterall, it’s highly unlikely that I could back another car into a gate and puncture a tire again. Sorry, honey. Perhaps I’ll be able to deal with the growing numbers of posts whiling away their time in the drafts section… And perhaps I won’t end those posts with ellipses…

For those of you unfamiliar with CBGBs, it is a rock club in New York City. Wait, that does’t quite do it justice. It is the rock club in New York City. Hmm… still not there.

CBGBs is the birthplace of punk. It’s the place that let crazy mofos like the Ramones play 2 minute anthems like there was no tomorrow. It’s the place that has welcomed the genius of Patti Smith for 30 years. It’s the place where bands like Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, and The Damned redefined what music was all about. A place where the likes of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Andy Warhol would hang. CBGBs was the place.

And now they are in trouble. Like so many other fine venues in NYC, they’ve hit hard times and their landlords are trying to screw them. As a result, bands are coming out of the woodwork to SAVE CBGBs. Tonight’s a big benefit show including a lot of my local buddies:

TONIGHT @ CBGB’S…UpstartStudios.com in Association with JerseyBeat.com, BlowupRadio.com, & ArtKore.org Presents — A Benefit Concert To Save CBGB
Doors @ 7pm…$10

7:30-7:50 Ya-Ne-Zniyoo (Acoustic)
8:00-8:20 Kukurudu
8:30-8:50 End Of October
9:00-9:20 Jim Testa of Jersey Beat (Acoustic)
9:30-9:50 Arty Shepherd of Instruction (Acoustic)
10:00-10:20 Pale Horse
10:30-10:50 Heterogene
11:00-11:20 Crewman Number Six
11:30-11:50 High Speed Chase
12:00-12:20 Downshallow
12:30-12:50 Diesel Theory

I plan on being there with Lisa. Anyone who can make it, they could really use the support.

I don’t remember when I first clicked on onepotmeal or even where I found the link. I certainly don’t recall how it ended up nestled amongst other links on this site. There seems to be a real question as to what bizarre circumstance led me there, or whether the feed just found its way to me. But when I read a story like After the flood, there’s no doubt why I continue tolerating its presence in my aggregator. Heck, I might even go so far as saying that I enjoy it…

No, I didn’t win the lottery. But I did manage to buy two tickets to paradise… wait, no… two tickets to see Pearl Jam. The 5 against 1 crowd is doing a one off show in Philly this October (full scale tour won’t be until next year after their 8th studio album is released) and decided to do a limited pre-sale for fan club members yesterday morning – afternoon for us East Coasters. For the first time ever, I would actually get to use my fan club membership in an attempt to get awesome tickets (I forgot to even try for their shows in Atlantic City this September). Unfortunately, it almost was never to be.

A few minutes before the sale started, I was already struggling with the login system. The website kept disappearing, and it looked like I wouldn’t even get a chance before they sold out. But everybody was having the same problems, and very few were getting through at all. The timeouts were coming fast and furious, so two more windows were popped open for firewall and proxy reconfigurations. Sure, I was at work and this might cause problems for the other users, but that’s why us sys admins are gods! Even still, I screwed up the numbers multiple times and couldn’t find a way around the cache fast enough. Time was ticking off the clock faster than my mind could deal with – I was certain the show would be sold out by quarter after the hour.

But the system just couldn’t handle it. Half an hour into the spectacle I had managed to not only log in, but put a pair of tickets into my cart. Now I was battling the timeouts from the secure server as it continually ignored my shipping address confirmation. I PRESSED THE DAMN BUTTON, SO DO SOMETHING. Alas, I would either get blank stares from some inaccessible error message or a nonstop swirling icon in the upper right teasing me as if something was actually working.

And then there was the occasional back button panic – you mean I have to start all over?!?!

Nevertheless, patience paid off. I stared down at the beast, and the beast blinked. When it asked for my credit card numbers, I gave them willingly. And then I just said, “You do your thing. I’ll be over in this other tab, so you just take your pretty little time processing that order of mine.” And after 40 minutes, the website conceded defeat. There was mild concern as my confirmation e-mail took longer than expected, but the server had already acquiesced – there would be no victory in denying me now.

The whining and gnashing of teeth followed from all corners. Perhaps I would have felt the other fans’ outrage more had I not procured a pair, but that didn’t change the fact of the matter. I could confidentally call anyone complaining a spoiled brat, because I still managed to get mine! Whose fault is it if you didn’t get yours?

Seriously, though, Pearl Jam is the best live show I’ve ever been to. This will be my 8th time seeing them, and definitely not my last. Tickets for the October 3rd show will go on sale at Ticketmaster Saturday, August 6th at 10am EDT. Trust me, they’re worth the hassle.