Dichotomy...

Emily and I went down to the PW County Animal Shelter tonight in search of a chinchilla that we foudn on petfinder. We had hoped to reach them by phone for confirmation that he was still there, but no one ever answered despite having at least 4 people working there when we showed up. So a long trek down past *shudder* Manassas turned up nothing because someone else had already picked him up. Although, I'm happy he got adopted, I actually kinda had my heart set on him, and I know Emily did too. We could have saved ourselves a lot of frustration and anticipation if someone there ever picked up a phone. I'm sure it's a demanding job, but I don't think it's too much to ask to answer a phone. Really. They did have these two adorable puppies though that looked at least part german shepherd. One was dreaming while we were there and he was kicking at the air and licking his lips and barking a little. He was so cute. I wish I had a house and a yard cause he would have been going home with me tonight if I did. *sigh* Until then, I guess we'll keep looking for some other small, cute, fuzzy animals to adopt.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 7:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

My favorite recent referrer link: 2005-2006 Hair Styles for Women in their 40s. Someone stumbled onto my blog with that. The amazing part is that my blog is actually the second hit on that search. Kind of makes you wonder why no one uses Yahoo for a search engine anymore... The stuff people search for on the internet cracks me up. Also high on my recent list of favorites (also on Yahoo): getting high off of loratadine. What? No, seriously, WHAT?? *sigh* Idiots...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments

So sleepy... I even went to bed before midnight and slept in nice clean sheets on a freshly made bed. I feel like I slept pretty well, but about 2 minutes ago, I just hit a wall. I can't focus on anything. Time to go take a walk or something.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm about ready for a nap... I also had barely any appetite at lunch today. I was out cold by midnight last night, slept like a rock, took a nice hot shower before work. But I'm still just so worn out. I even slept basically all day Saturday (16+ hours). I guess my body just took a pounding yesterday and is still trying to recover. I really do feel the same way I did after being in that accident with Meg. I just have no energy and all I ache all over and all I want to do is sleep. Oh well. The day is half over, and Emily and I are having dinner with Tommy and Steph and hopefully Chris tonight, so that will be fun. That it's back home to put my sheets in the dryer, curl up in a sleeping bag and just go straight to bed.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments

Good news: my final clearance came through today, finally. It's only been 11 months since I started working...
Bad news: my shoulders are bruised and scratched up pretty badly from yesterday. Stupid non-padded restraints made for the "average" rider... And I'm not even that tall!
At least the good news and bad news are unrelated...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments

King's Dominion today was way fun. Would have been more fun I think if more people had come, but it worked out okay anyway. I do think I might be getting too old for amusement parks though. I don't remember ever feeling this beat down by those coasters. I feel the same way I felt after being in that car accident with Meg... My entire body is just sore all over and my head, oh god my head. I'm going to take a couepl ibuprofen and just crawl into bed. I smell, I feel gross, and I just don't care. This feeling is something that only sleep can fix. A fun day overall, but man oh man am I going to pay for it tomorrow...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

I found out today who my new manager will be. Hopefully this is a permanent assignment and not a 1-2 month temporary thing. This guy currently has nobody underneath him, which worries me a little bit. But it almost means I can maybe try to corrupt him. ;) He sits 2 doors down from me, so at least I'll see him on a regular basis. But on the other hand, the nice thing about Moon was that we never saw each other, so all his feedback on me was from Dave. That of course has its ups and downs too, but on the whole my feedback tended to be very positive. The good news now though is that this guy will probably be pretty good about raises next year since he's a new manager, and I can ask him to talk to a couple of the higher up guys (like Latham and Mark Mills) when it comes time for my evaluation, and they'll give me a glowing report as long as I don't screw anything up too badly in the next 6 months. We'll see what happens I guess. The liklihood of a promotion in the near future walked out the door with Moon, unless I pick up some EMI filtering work from the hardware guys liek I talked to Rob about last week, and really crush it. Then I'm basically guaranteed a promotion because I'll be doing 3 jobs at once. We'll see though. First things first, I have to get these 10 spec docs out the door by the end of the week.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

Weekend recap:
Friday night we celebrated Emily's first paycheck with dinner at California Tortilla. Then we picked up National Treasure at Blockbuster where I finally signed up for a new card. I decided to just turn my brain off and enjoy the movie, which worked out pretty well. It was a fun movie, albeit an Indiana Jones-clone (right down to the scene where he's holding the girl in one hand over a cliff and trying to reach the treasured historical artifact with the other). His sidekick cracked me up though, so in the end it was all good. My dad reccomended Mr. and Mrs. Smith. He went to go see it yesterday with Ben for Father's Day. A bunch of other people have said it's good too, but I really just have no desire to see it whatsoever. *shrug*
Saturday Emily and I went up to Baltimore. We hung around the Inner Harbor and went to the Aquarium. Finding Nemo has got to be one of my most hated movies of all time now. I swear to god if I hear one more kid screaming "I found NEMO!!!!" at the top of their lungs over and over and over again, I'm going to just collapse on the floor and start having convulsions... The aquarium was fun, but it would have been way better to go on a weekday when there wouldn't be so many freaking little kids everywhere running into me and screaming in my ear. I wish children would learn sooner to express their excitement by changes in intonation instead of volume. My kids will never leave the house without a ballgag. Anyway, we had some tasty crab cakes and fish filet for lunch and did a little browsing at a few stores and Emily did a little purchasing at VS. Then it was off to Camden Yards! We had first row seats in the upper deck just a smidgen to the right of home plate. I thought they were fantastic seats for $20. The O's were taking on the Rockies and after the first few innings of not much going on, the O's caught fire. It's really not much surprise that they're in first place right now with the way they played. We got to see Tejada hit a solo homer in the 4th immediiately followed by Sammy Sosa's solo home run to tie with McGuire's record. We even got to see Rafael "Dinosaur" Palmeiro running his butt off to beat a throw to first. Then, while we waited for traffic to think out, we headed back to the Inner Harbor for some dessert at Cheescake Factory. It took almost 45 minutes to get it even at the take-out counter, so traffic avoidance mission accomplished, but it was rather frustrating to see such a poorly organized and managed storefront. Fortunately we had fantastic weather for the day too. Sunny but not hot and with a nice breeze coming off the water. All in all a pretty awesome day.
Sunday we had some errands to run. I picked up my HD-DVR from Cox, investigated a new cell phone for Emily which we have to go back for tonight, tried to get discount King's Dominion tickets at Giant (not much of a discount), fixed my turn signals (stupid burned out bulbs with non-broken filaments threw me off for the longest time), and finally picked up some new fish at PetCo. We shored up our blue neon tetra numbers and also got some sunset flame platys or something along those lines. Then we just relaxed and watched some sunday night cartoons and polished off some leftovers. We were supposed to go over to my grandmother's for dinner, but she wasn't feeling well, so we agreed to do it another time.
I think we both had a pretty fun weekend. =)

Posted by Rev. Adam at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments

Two things about TV. One - HD is awesome. I got my HD-DVR yesterday with the minimal amount of hassle from Cox and holy crap does it look awesome. Two - TV is evil. Since I now have an extra digital converter, I figured I'd set up my old TV in my bedroom. This is a horrible plan. Especially when As Good As It Gets comes on at 1 am... My only complaint about HD so far (and I think this is my fault), is that some channels occasionally drop out for a split second and then come back. On the replay via DVR it never drops out, but does get garbled at teh same point. Has anyone else had this problem? I strongly suspect this to be a bandwidth issue with the cable I'm using from the wall to my cable box being too crappy. I'm going to try a better cable tonight and see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise I'll have to call Cox and have them come look at it. *shudder* I knew this whole thing was too easy...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments

So far I've accomplished nothing today. I came in started getting my stuff organized, and then I found out we had a 10 am meeting, which lasted until our regular 11 am software meeting, which lasted until our going away lunch for moon, which lasted until just a few minutes ago. Then at 3:30 today there's a big going away party for DSR's former president, who is leaving the company now with something like a hojillion dollars from the buyout 2 years ago. So I guess maybe I can get some work done for about 2 hours here... I guess in hindsight it's a good thing that today's not Friday so that maybe tomorrow I can actually get some real work done.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments

This poker on Wednesday thing is no good. All yesterday afternoon I thought it was Thursday. This morning I thought it was Friday. But of course it's not, so now it's like a extra day has been tacked on to the end of my week. Craptacular.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

Everytime I start thinking that maybe I want to get an iPod, Apple finds a new way to make me hate them. Their iPod commercials just make me want to gouge my eyes out and pour sulfuric acid in my ears.... Also, in case you haven't heard yet, Apple's next generations computers are going to have x86-based processors in them, reportedly from Intel (although I wouldn't be surprised if they were AMD-compatible). Apple's "looks at us, we're different!" campaign is now officially shot to hell. Nice work, sellouts...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

After our southern dinner on Friday Emily and I collapsed (after I almost ran over 15 people near Celebrate Fairfax). Saturday we went out to Lake Fairfax Park in Herndon for an IEEE picnic. I met a few other fellow IEEE nerds in the area, and Emily learned that engineers can be fun too sometimes. Then it was off to Dan and Sara's wedding reception. They actually got married back in December in Florence at a small family-only function and then had a huge party this weekend for everyone who couldn't make it to the actual wedding. Dan and I go way way back. And although we've never been the best or closest of friends, we've known each other for a long long time and have a lot of history. So it was fun to see him again and to see how happy he is with Sara. It was also fun to see his younger brother Chris again and I ran into a few peopel I knew way back when too. The Goldsmiths were there, and small world that Fairfax can apparently be, Brian is actually dating Melissa Adams now. She's apparently working on her Master's degree now, so I'm glad she finally got her life back on track. She and Geo are probably the only people I've lost touch with that I wish I could have stayed in better contact with. *shrug* Oh well. I'm bad at that sort of thing. Mrs. Small was also there apaprently, but by the tiem I realized that who it was, she had already left. So I'm kind fo sad I didn't have a chance to reconnect with my 6th grade teacher. She looks way different without glasses... Today I just could not drag myself out of bed. Normally it's 10 am and I'm wideawake. But I was totally tapped out. Emily thinks it might b=jsut be that we ate so much food yesterday. (Oh my god, the Dehanases had the best food...) I am conjecturing that it's due the vast amount of sociability I engaged in. I know that social events where I don't know many people drain me the way an LCD screen crushes digital camera batteries, but I'm proud of myself that I tried to introduce myself to some new people and go out of my way to be social yesterday. This morning Emily and I had cinnamon rolls and then Tommy and Steph came over and watched In Good Company together. Topher Grace cracks me up. I'm sad he left That 70's Show. I'm even sadder that they're going to try to continue the show without him. It's going to suck now and I don't think I can watch it anymore. Then we went over to Laura and Greg's for some yummy fajitas and just to hang out. And now I'm totally bushed. I need another weekend to recover from this one... Maybe this week will be kind of slow at work.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

Emily made the most awesome fried chicken for dinner tonight!! Topped off with green beans and some Jiffy corn muffins, it was a might fine southern feast. =)

Posted by Rev. Adam at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

Time for some quick and terrifying math!

Approximate yield of the Hiroshima atomic bomb: 15 kilotons
Approximate yield of the United States' W88 warhead: 475 kilotons
Number of independently-targetable W88 warheads per Trident II missile: 8
Number of Trident II missles on an SSBN submarine: 24

475*8*24 = 91.2 megatons of destructive force, enough to destroy about 6000 cities the size of Hiroshima in 1945, all on-board one submarine about the same size as the Washington Monument.

I feel safer now, how about you? *shiver*

Posted by Rev. Adam at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments

So rumors have been going around for the past 3 weeks that Moon (my manager) is leaving the company. About a week ago it was sort of accepted as common knowledge. Of course, Moon never actually told me any of this, but we all suspected something was up with the way things were shaking out. Then on Friday, Moon came up to talk to me and give me a bonus (yay!), but naturally neglected to mention anything about him leaving GD... I basically believe that Moon is a good manager for people who are internally motivated. He only gets involved when HR says he needs to in order to do performance reviews. Otherwise he figures if you need help or have a problem, it's your responsibility to come seek him out, not the other way around. Which for me is basically fine, especially since my project has a technical lead like Dave who is my day-to-day manager in everyone's eyes but HR. So I'll miss having Moon as a manager and we'll see who become my new manager. I mention all this nonsense because I finally got word from Moon himself today that he's leaving on June 17th. My goal for the next week and half is to talk Moon into giving me a promotion before he leaves, or at least leaving a big post-it on my interim performance review that I should be strongly considered for a promotion at the end of the year. I'm just concerned that if I don't assert myself before he leaves, it might take another full year for a new manager to feel comfortable enough with me to think I'm elligible. So, let the persuasiveness begin!

Posted by Rev. Adam at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments

I haven't taken my allergy medicine the last 2 days because it's been rainy, so in theory that would wash the pollen out of the air. Plus, it's getting near the end of the pollen season anyway. Especially after the storms last night, I thought for sure I'd be safe today. No no no. My nose was running all morning. My throat is itchy. My head hurts. My eyes are all bloodshot. At least I'm 95% confident that it's only allergies and not me getting sick... It still sucks though. Stupid pollen. Why can't all plants reproduce asexually? Or at least do it without spreading sticky yellow powder all over everything in the process...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

I don't care what Ben says, I still think this is hot. Possibly the best piece of movie merchandising ever.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments

Having Emily around is great. =) I mean, besides the obvious reasons, it's just fun to be a couple again and be able to go out on dates together. Friday night we went to see Madagascar, which was hilarious by the way. I know it's a "kid's movie," but I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions. Saturday after celebrating Donut Day (which was technically on Friday), we headed out to the zoo and were able to see a lot more animals than the last time we went because the weather was nicer. Then on Saturday we picked up Laina (a UGA student, but a good person in spite of that fact) at the Metro and went to Great Falls for the afternoon. We took a hike and climbed around on rocks. No one got hurt or bitten or anything, so I consider it a complete success. We had packed a tasty picnic, so we ate that and watched little kids wail on each other and took bets about how they were going to hurt each other and who was going to end up crying first. It was a pretty good weekend overall. Lots of fresh air and exercise and a little bit of exposure to the sun. =)

Posted by Rev. Adam at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

Walking out of my apartment this morning was like being in Indonesia all over again. It was hot, but not uncomfortably hot. It was humid, but not uncomfortably humid. It was like 5th grade all over again except I'm 2 feet taller and twice as heavy. *shrug* Just made me a feel a little nostalgic for the old days. ;)

Posted by Rev. Adam at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments

Madagascar = hilarious.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments

Happy friday! Also, happy Donut Day! I wish I had some donuts... I was so sleepy and hungry this morning when I woke up. A nice donut would have been just the thing to snap me awake.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I heard about this on NPR this morning. Talk about an outdoor wedding! Although I think this idea is incredibly cool, the thought of dying on my way to or from my own wedding doens't particularly appeal to me. Of course I could always get in an accident anywhere else too, but the liklihood of death on Mt. Everest seems substantially higher than most other places I would ever be getting married. On the other hand, having scaled the highest mountain in the world together, what more vows do you need? You've already been each other's literal lifeline and taken each other's life completely in your hands. Plus, what do to you for a honeymoon? Climb K2? That's kind of anticlimactic if you ask me...

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

So here's what's been happening:
My dad had to leave early to go back to Tel Aviv because the chairman of the senate appropriations committee is some sort of ogre. Why would you schedule a congressional junket over a national holiday weekend? Do congressmen not have families they want to spend time with? Do they enjoy depriving others of the same? Do they just enjoy being able to do whatever they want and watching other people bend over backwards for them? Does power really corrupt? Anyway... So Ben and My dad left on Friday. Ben's working at the US Embassy for the community liaison this summer, so that should be kind of interesting.
My mom went up to Erie for the weekend to see her parents and apparently a substantial portion of the rest of her family showed up as well. Word has it that they had a grand old time. They went to visit Uncle Bill and Uncle Jim at the cemetary and it sounds like everyone is doing pretty well.
Emily quit her miserable job at her "we swear we're not a pyramid scheme" non-company last week after a "business" trip to Philadelphia turned into quite a fiasco. She ended up taking the train home on Tuesday, went back to the office, quit, and came home and collapsed. Fortunately, she found a new job working for my aunt's brother's accounting firm's satellite office in Chantilly where she has roughly 9-5 hours in a office with her own desk. I think she'll be much happier there.
This past weekend Emily and I went down to Williamsburg. We left Saturday morning to avoid the Friday traffic and after getting past Quantico, it was clear sailing. We wandered around William and Mary for a little while and had dinner at Cracker Barrel and dessert at Sno To Go. This is the best idea ever. It's a sno cone layered with soft serve ice cream. Oh my god. It sounds strage, yes, I agree, but it tastes so awesome. Sadly they're closed on Sundays. Anyway, Sunday we did Colonial Williamsburg, which everyone says is cheesy, but we had fun. Some of the people who work there get really into their roles too. And some of the craftspeople are really interested in showing you how they made things and not just in actually making the things. They were the most fun to watch and talk to because they would explain every step of the process. Monday we went to Jamestown and saw the replicas of the 3 ships that arrived there back in 1607. How 40 people survived for 4+ months on a boat no bigger than my apartment is beyond me. We saw some musket demonstrations and tried on armor and watched some blacksmithing and cooking. Then it was back to Sno to Go before heading home. Traffic on 95 was beyond terrible. It had backed up on 295 as well. So rather than sitting in stop and go traffic all afternoon/evening, and assuming that because 95 was so backed up route 1 would be just as bad, we shot over 64 to Charlottesville and then took 29 home instead. It's a little bit longer, yes, but I think it was actually quicker than sitting in the parking lot that was 95 would have been. Plus it's a prettier drive.
So now it's back to the grindstone. Memorial Day was my first holiday since New Year's, and I survived that, so now I only have to make it a little over a month to July 4th. Emily and I have some other fun plans for the summer, so I think it'll be fine. Okay, back to work now, seriously.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments