Rock and Roll All Nite
With dreams of scoring big on deep deals on consumer electronics, Tony and I went to Circuit City a little early so we can get first dibs on some crap.

It turns out the deals weren't that great. 10% off everything, 20% off media, and 30% off accessories. Maybe they'll get deeper as the liquidation prolongs, but as of right now, I didn't impulse shop anything. I did walk away with the PS3 version of Guitar Hero 3 and a second guitar to go with it, though. I was gonna wait out the PS3; I can do better than $40 off. Tony left with some console game.

When I got back to the condo, Brown was excited to see my purchase and wanted to go shop for a PS3 that night. The Gamestop in the Colony Mill had a 40GB non-backwards-compatible unit used for $350. For 10 bucks more, we could just go to the failing Circuit City and get a brand new 80-gigger. So we went there, and by then, they were sold out. So we went to the other Gamestop in town and, after a long ordeal there, walked away with a used backwards-compatible 20GB model for $380. w00t. You can't find the PS2-compatible models anywhere nowadays, so this was a steal. Yeah, the hard drive is small, but I could just toss in any 250GB notebook hard drive in there for about $60 later down the road. The only real downside is that the 20GB PS3 is the only model without WiFi. Not that big of a deal, in my opinion. It does have an ethernet port. I wonder if my spare USB WiFi adapter would work. Hmm.

Anyway, we went back home with our new toy, drank, and played Guitar Hero all night.

I'm sure tomorrow, we'll do more of the same. It'll be snowing.

I'd also like to say that YouTube commenters are as tough as they are informed hiding behind their keyboards. Yeah, I'm stating the obvious, but I had to say it anyway. In the news
With Circuit City annoucing their liquidation yesterday, Tony and I headed down to the local retailer after work yesterday to get an idea of what sort of inventory they still had in stock. While looking around, some random chick came up to me and started asking me all sorts of questions about Circuit City and what I thought about what was happening with them. At first, I thought this chick was trying to make conversation because she wanted to hum on my nuts, but it turns out that she works for the local paper and she was trying to get some opinions from the people on the street. Boo.

So yeah. Though I talked with her for about five minutes, she gave me a one-liner in the paper this morning.

And though I didn't go with Brown, she showed up and was quoted as well.

This is my first news coverage since 1998 in Physics class. "Cold enough for you?"



Yeah. Yuck it up.

It was -14 degrees this morning and -20 yesterday. I've never seen the temperature that low before. These past two days were the first in which I had a little trouble starting my car, and I had to let it warm up idly for about ten minutes before driving. And even then, it was still too cold for the car; steering required more work than it should and I'm sure all of my car's fluids had the consistency of Jell-O.

I don't know how cold it has to be to get frostbite by merely being outside for 15 seconds, but I can't imagine it would be a temperature much colder than it is now.

And tomorrow, we're gonna get about 6-10 inches of snow dumped on us, in case we haven't had enough all ready.

I fucking hate New Hampshire. 30 is the new 28.
The day I turned 29, I didn't really care.

The day after I turned 29, I freaked out really badly. I had all of these things I wanted to accomplish before turning 30. The well-documented Virginia Beach escape was part of that, as well a slew of other things.

The day I turned 30 wasn't particualarly exciting. I was happy to get out of the snow with Vikki and with the number of people that either called, texted, or sent me something via Facebook wishing me a good one. No one sent me shit via MySpace, therfore making Facebook the (significantly) better social networking site.

I was curious if today I would freak out like the day after I turned 29. Turns out I'm perfectly fine. I did accomplish a number of things during my 29th year on Earth that I wanted to do. I think I could do a bit better career-wise, but I did participate in a slew of fun activities I've wanted to do. And I intend to do plenty more this coming year as well.

I've given myself quite the daunting schedule over the next six weeks. Most of it has no business in this public forum, but rest assured another trip to Virginia Beach is in the works. I'll be documenting that fully again, though my tentaive itinerary isn't particualarly noteworthy. Just me and my GPS again. :) Faggotry.



That's the scene outside my window. Exactly how I wanted it to look the day I turn 30.

It's not expected to stop snowing until noon.

Vikki and I need some pancakes, and we don't want to have to go to Panama City to get them (linger longer!). It's your favorite time of year again.
Yay birthdays. It's not official until tomorrow, but just like last year, I made sure everyone knew about it well in advance.

Yesterday, they had a little shindig at work for me involving cake and cupcakes and a card. That's standard operating procedure in my department when it comes to birthdays.

On top of that, Antonio thought it best to buy me a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse. I haven't worked in consumer electronics for a while, but I figure that even the cheapest wireless setup would still cost 40 or 50 bucks. The Christmas gifts we swapped were like $10 tops, and no one hasn't gotten me anything of any value on my birthday in years (and this year would prove to be no different sans Tony). Personally, that's a bit much. I like it and I think it's pretty sick, but come on... am I really worth a coworker spending more than $10 on? Now I feel obligated to get him something just as good when his birthday comes around, which is a month away. That's problematic; I don't spend that much on my lovely Vikki or any family member for their birthday. Quandry.

There wasn't a party after work with the crew. Nicole and I did go out, though, and she covered my drinks while we played pool. It was a short stint, though. They locked up the tables earlier than usual and with no Rock Band or Guitar Hero setup to amuse us post-happy hour, we went back to the condo.

Brown made sure I kept a decent buzz going, and Tony came over with his Wii and the three of us rocked out on a few games. He had Guitar Hero Aerosmith, which helped feed the hunger that we've had for months, and I whooped his ass on a few songs despite never having played any of those songs before. :) Also noteworthy was that in Wii Bowling, a game I've played only once before, I totally destroyed Tony's top score by like 50 pins. What up!

I was in bed by 2 AM and up by 7 AM. I went back and forth from the computer to the bed for the next four hours, but I don't think I logged in any sleep time. Boo.

I went to my mom's late this afternoon, scored some cash, and ate pizza. My sister got me 30 $1 scratch tickets and I walked away with a mere $12. The house wins once again.

Vikki and I are going out for breakfast tomorrow. I've been craving pancakes. But with the scary amount of snow we're expected tonight, I'm less than hopeful that we'll actually do it. That's why I went to my mom's today instead of tomorrow; I don't think I'll be able to leave the apartment. :(

It figures that it would snow heavily in Southern New England tonight and on my birthday. I was looking at the local snow depth map this week, and Connecticut has the least amount of snow, making it my most likely caching spot should the weather warm up a bit for me to do so. But now evey spot south of me is gonna get owned. Fucking A. Looks like I'm gonna have to wait a lot longer before I can break out the GPS again. Caching in the snow is damn near impossible. 2 weeks down, 50 more to go.
I'm not entirely sure this whole roommate thing is meant for me. Though I love the place and the space and how everything is shaping up nicely, I'm already running into issues that are going to drive me off the deep end in no time.

I thought I had ever base covered before getting a place with Brown. She pitched the idea to me back around Memorial Day and I thought about it a good six months before committing to the plan. But some things I never thought of are starting to annoy me.

I'm kind of a neat freak. I don't mind piles of organized clutter, and I personally am no good when it comes to dusting things, but little common sense things go completely unnoticed by her. Random tupperware and pot covers find their way onto the counter and never get put back into the cabinet. Crumbs spend a long time in front of the toaster oven until I sweep them into the sink. And any sort of cookware she uses will remain either on the stove or next to the sink without water or soap put in them. You know how much easier things are to clean when you let them at least soak in something? Christ. And nothing sucks more than me hoping to use a pot or skillet only to find them all either in the unstarted dishwasher or sitting on the stove covered in whatever lipid solidified on the bottom because one couldn't spend the two seconds to at least drain the shit into the sink.

That's another weird thing, too: there are only two of us, yet the dishwasher is running almost daily. It really doesn't make any damn sense, as she buys breakfast and lunch at work. But every skillet or bowl or whatever she uses will eventually find itself in the dishwasher. It doesn't take long to fill a dishwasher when you have a few pots in there. She won't wash anything -- I knew this going into this arrangement -- but I can't help but think that this isn't the most cost effective way of doing business. I almost hope for the damn thing to break so she actually has to use a wash cloth on something. One can clean a skillet in 10-15 seconds if you take care of it immediately after you're done using it.

When I see a mess or if the trash needs to be taken care of, I address it immediately. She waits 'til the last minute.

I'm also starting to feel used, like I'm charity. I brought a lot of food from my old apartment, and she wants to go through my supply before buying stuff of her own. That's not gonna last, though; I'm itemizing everything. I'm gonna start marking my own shit, too, and if she wants to consume it, it'll cost her whatever I paid for it. Maybe a little more if it really inconveniences me.

Hair around the shower drain is gross. Women really need to better maintain that shit.

Shower curtains dry a lot quicker when you span them across the bath tub instead of scrunching it all to one side.

I'm not a big fan of her boyfriend sleeping over and being there when she and I are at work. That might not be an issue for her, as all of her stuff is worthless packrat bullshit. I don't own much in comparison, buy all of my shit have big price tags attached to them. My computer stuff and my home theater setup is each worth more than everything she owns combined. If something of mine goes missing or gets fucked with, she ain't gonna hear the end of it. I get along fine with her man, but I don't trust anyone. I won't even let my mom drive my car. I also don't like the idea that someone could possibly be rummaging through all of my belongings.

Right now, I feel like I made a grave mistake. 2009 stands to be a very long year if I let all of these piss-ant things continue unremarked.

At least all of these things are easily corrected. Once her fuck buddy leaves, the hammer is coming down. It has to for my own sanity.

Some things I have a problem with aren't to do with her, but just having a roommate in general. I don't have as much privacy as I used to. If I invite someone over, I don't want to have to entertain my roommate as well. I also can't run around pantsless anymore. Boo!