Big Ole Houston

Well, I made it safe & sound. The only drama involved the rental car but it’s all good now. Just getting in, I’m tired, and still getting settled.

On the flight over, I got to thinking about my life and how much it has changed over the years. Human beings really are amazing creatures. From my own experiences, I’ve grown so much as a person over the years. I brought one of my very first journals from while I was living here in Houston w/me. I get so much insight into myself from reading my old journals. It just proves that all wounds can be healed w/time. Some of the problems in my life now are paultry to the troubles I had to survive back then.

I think I’m jet-lagged so more later.

Trip : Revisited

After some grumbling and quick call to my friend Trevan, I’ve decided to go home to Houston instead for the vacation. I spent over an hour on the phone w/Southworst only to discover they only sent me half of the reservation. Another 40 minute call and I got it all sorted out.

Ft Lauderdale it ain’t but I figure I can try for FTL again in March. Still very warm w/o being in the heat of summer. The beaches in Galveston definitely don’t compare but at least I’ll have access to a beach w/warm water.

I’ll be talking the camera and the laptop of course. Lots of pics to come!

Purdy

Muscle Moby
Here is moi after a nice hard workout today at the gym. This is the cheesy shot from the webcam.

Now here is the one from the digital camera. Whadda ya think? Which is better?
Muscle Moby

After a hard chest/tricep workout and a steamy session in the sauna, my endorphins were flowing and I felt much better. “Steam” can be very relaxing. hehehe

So still feeling a bit down, decided to to go for a manicure and a pedicure. I’ve never had a pedicure. They were offering a two for one sort of deal so I said “what the hell”. I haven’t been “purdy” in months. Ok, thats not true but I normally don’t do the whole manicure thing. On what I make it’s a bit extravagant and not something I could really justify doing every couple of weeks. However, there is a new salon in the Castro (80% of their biz is gay boys, go figure.) that runs specials during the week. I could get my hands done for only $15.00 or the combo for $28.00 which is their normal price for a nail job. Prices well within my range.

I have to admit, I liked it. Hehehe. Does this mean I have to turn in my butch card now? There was a chic gettingg her feet done too. They must have been horrible as I heard the lady doing her gasp. I almost burst out laughing. Luan, the girl working on me, gave me a sideways smile as she looked over to her co-worker.

So now, I’m all done up and no one to blow..oh er…I mean nowhere to go.

Bad News

Its offical. I’ve had to cancel my trip. While Ft. Lauderdale wasn’t too badly beat-up from the storm, they are still dealing w/some large power outtages. I think it would be very unwise to fly into the situation. The irony is it will probably clear up within a week but that is beyond my available window. The owner of the hotel called me persnally this morning to apologize for not being able to accommodate me. They don’t expect to have power again until late tomorrow.

The airline still show my trip as “on schedule” however, they just resumed limited operations this morning so I doubt my flight would have left the ground.

Yes, I’m disgusted, yes, I’m upset. However, there are people dealing w/bigger issues right now over there so I am trying to keep things in perspective.

I’m off to the gym to work out some of my disappointment. There is a tiny hope I can reschedule for November but not much.

Holy Plasma Weapons!

Ratchet: Deadlocked!

I just discovered they are releasing a new version of Ratchet & Clank! I’m ecstatic! R&C is one of my favorite playstation games. It has lots of action and skill levels and is more than worth the $40.00 bucks.

I just pre-ordered from Best Buy and I can’t wait! (The release dat isn’t until the 27th.)

This version seems to be heavily geared toward online game play which I’ve yet to venture into. Maybe this will be the spur.

I don’t like a lot of online games because they involve killing off other players as humans and that bothers me. I much prefer games where I’m dealing in complete fantasy and any killing involves monsters and gruesome bad guys. I could go on and on about my feelings on violent video games but lets save that for another day when I’m desperate for a topic.

Wouldn’t it be great if I get back from my vacation and there is a fantastic new video game in my mailbox just waiting for me?

Hello Mr. 115697522

Do you ever feel like a number when you have to call in for customer support? And what is it w/my phone/pda and vacations? Last time I went on a trip, I misplaced the damn thing. This time it just up and died.

Ok, died isn’t exactly the best term. Here I am sitting at work, dutifly working (uh yeah) and I get an email from HP about a new ROM update. I log on and dowload. Everything is going smooth as owl shit at this point. The software updates, reboots, powers up then it happens. It locks up on the startup screen. Soft reset, no luck. Hard reset, no luck.

@#$!

Forty-five minutes later after being thru an online chat w/HP and phone support w/Tmobile at the same freaking time, they decide to send me a replacement?

The irony is I was unhappy as of late w/the pda part of the phone. Tmobile’s phone service has been impeccable but they’ve put out some shoddy updates for the wireless & bluetooth services. This ROM update was supposed to fix all the previous bugs. Well, I guess my baby decided to give up the ghost and just quit.

And wanna hear something else? My warranty expires in just 7 days! I can’t believe how lucky I am. Normally, my shit breaks right AFTER the warranty expires. I have the old pocket pc at home so I have a substitute until the replacement arrives this week. I’m just hoping it arrives in time for the trip.

I can only imagine what hell this would have been were I not such a technophile! *g*

Return of “The Thing.”

Sunday, Bobby and I are going to see John Carpenter’s The Thing from 1982. I’m actually looking forward to it. The Castro Theatre is hosting a double showing of the 1950’s original and the 1980’s one. I never cared for the original as much.

For it’s time, it had cutting edge special effects. The scene where the decapitated head turns into a roaming spider rocked! Unlike a lot of today’s flash/bang flicks, it had a well developed plot as well.

Pictures to come I’m sure.

Blog Stuff

Yeah, I’m bored at work..can ya tell w/all the random blog posts?

I’ve been tinkering w/the blog. I added a music link but I’m not liking it. It will probably disappear. I definitely like the 3 column style template though. I also managed to fix all the links messed up during the import from Blogger. I blogged a while back about fixing’em so I finally finished. However, some of the posts w/pics are still throwing the columns off in IE. I don’t use IE so I can’t be bothered to worry about it for now. (*now’s a good a time as any to switch to firefox*)

I’m also thinking of adding a work-out tips section. I get a lot of requests for info on tribe regarding working out and nutrition so why not offer it here too.

Speaking of blogs, sp@mmers have been working overtime as of late. I delete about 10-15 bogus messages from the queue on a regular basis now. God bless WordPress for having a message moderation function. A lot of the free online blogging sites are getting hit big time. I actually had to go back into my old blog links on blogger.com and disable comments. Doesn’t affect traffic here at all but it effectively put an end to the constant junk emails. hehehe Score one for the good guys!