Hi there. Haven't seen you in a while.

I've taken up a new initiative at work and I think the same thing would work well on my blog - I'm working on complaining less. It used to be something I strived for in most walks of life, but some manner of discontent has managed to sneak its way into my life as I've been almost solely focused on work. Work. Work.

I don't have much to say about it besides that. There's a lot of it, and right now the situation still...isn't very pretty. And I'm still working hard and doing a good job.

That's about all the positive honesty you're going to get out of me here on this blog, tonight. Smile.

I've found myself drawn back to NYC on the weekends despite the fact that I could very well stay in Miami should I so have the desire. Which I haven't. And my weekends back in the city have been great - old friends, new fun places in the city, just...home. Its my home now. I don't see myself there forever, I never have, but at the same time, I don't see myself leaving anytime in the near future. There's a lot to be done there.

Youth group is great, as is church. As is Hoboken. I suppose if the roommate and his ex-broadway star GF ever decide to get finger-bands, I may look for something in the city. I don't know that I'd like living there as much as I think I'd like saying I did it. Rite of passage, that whole bit. Not a bridge and tunneller for one brief period. It would work splendidly if my little sis would finish nursing school and move here to work, and we could get a place together. I could finally look into buying, and she could live there, since I travel all the time anyway. Perhaps, perhaps.

I keep thinking the real estate bubble there will someday soon make that delightful "pop" sound. Speaking of real estate, dad's doing great now that he's back in the mortgage loan biz, and he and his boss are pitching me on the idea of getting in. Sounds like I could go doorbusters right off the bat, but it might involve a move. Which...just isn't in the picture right now.

School. More school is in the picture. That's what this summer will be about. Work, sure...but more discovery of schools and hopefully some guidance as to what schooling I want to pursue. I think I've blogged on it before, but at this point its narrowed to MBA, MDIV, or a Journalism Masters of some nature or another. I'm thinking creative non-fiction. Which is ironically similar to an MDIV. But I do *not* want to preach. Not called to that.

I love bleu cheese. I love all cheese. But bleu in particular. Something about the swap of the e and the u. Sexy.

That is all. Hopefully FF won't crash and you'll have my surfing pattern for the week laid out before you, sometime before the weekend. If not, I'll see you when I see you again.

Apologies. Its my own mis-prioritization of life that's to blame, nothing else.

I think I might actually try to get online tonight and throw this post up, if I'm
still as awake when I get home as I am now. Now is a bumpy flight somewhere over the Atlantic. At least I'm in an exit row.

Lots of linkery this week. I browsed a lot. I needed it. Not a lot as in nearly as much as I did in the past, but a lot as in a good deal more than the pretty much zero I've been doing lately. That said...

I think I'm going to give shaving sans shaving cream a shot. I've had to shave without cream simply for lack of not having it before, and it was never that bad.

Echurch, in a similar vein to the Ebible link earlier in the week, seems to be a collection of Web 2.0 ideas/projects that are related to church / Christianity.

Until I read this, I had no idea that anyone actually had been duped by the Nigerian scam artists. Sad.

Satellite tracking is the coolness.

Andrew Sullivan has an interesting piece in Time this week. Don't agree with it en total, but it has some good points.

The Museum of Modern Betas (blog).

Language warning, but every senior exec of every major corporation everywhere should read this. I connected with every single point she made.

Speaking of work, here's the 5 minute flow chart.

Apparently the Avian Flu isn't all its cracked up to be.

How to rip DVDs to small AVI or MPG formatted files.

The inside tip on how to sell on eBay.

Bridge vs. Boat.

More than once I've had the conversation of why I haven't yet bought the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD. To you doubters, I say: Now what's up? Yeeeeah, that's right.

Wikocracy. Sweet idea, will be neat to see where it goes.

Well, I obviously didn't get this post up last Thursday night. I got in pretty late. And, speaking as someone who flies twice a week, I had THE scariest landing I've EVER had. Within a couple hundred feet of the ground the turbulence was still pushing the wings up and down, and the pilot actually had to speed up to land us on a wet runway. Freaky.

Anyway, now I'm headed to bed b/c its another way-before-the-crack-of-dawn start to the work week tomorrow. To placate my poor readership...I give you...

Some

You

Tube

Goodness

One Free Invite to EBible

I've got an invite to EBible for whoever wants it. Leave a comment with your email address spelled out, and you can have it. But there's a catch. Since I had to troll for a while to find my invite, I'm going to try to start a chain here. If you accept my invite, you have to promise to check back here and give *your* invite (the one you'll have to give once you accept mine) to the next person in line on my comments, and then they'll give theirs to the next person, and so on, and so forth. Please leave your promissory note with your email address.

So let's work together here, ok people? And if you renig on your promise...well, that's almost like blasphemy, since its a Bible site we're sharing. So just try and sleep with *that* guilt.

Comment away...

(I used the title for a change so that it will be picked up by people surfing blogs for invites - as you'll see, their main page links to a Google blog search for such invites)

(btw...looks like a pretty cool site so far)

Ebible is a new site, just released in beta, and currently on an invite-only status. I really want to get my hands on an invite, so this shameless, scandalous mid-day post is simply to get my blog out there as linking to Ebible, so that hopefully someone with an invite will stumble upon me and bless me with one.

I have a blog?

I...have a blog. (best Willy Shatner impression)

*passionately kisses the local planet girl du jour*

Eh. No complaining about ridiculously long work hours and all the travel and being under-appreciated and basically mis-led into a role that isn't what they said it would be. You know all that already. The same old "poor me, I'm getting screwed" mantra that I keep on harping every week. Ugh.

Meanwhile life is good. I'm busy, sure, but I have a job that pays OK and I get the benefits of all the travel - although I'll be honest, frequent flier miles and hotel points aren't what they once were. But I'm eating well and trying to get back to exercising morning and night, roughly 3 days a week.

This past weekend we hit Peter Luger's on Saturday for a birthday lunch for Keller - good times, both the Negrin brothers, BJ, myself, some old roommates of Dave's, and a couple others. Yummy meat. And the burgers there (ground steak) are only 8 bucks, so half of us ordered them to go, for dinner later. Righteous.

Yes, I just used a late-eighties term for "awesome."

After that we retired to younger Negrin's place on Wall Street and played poker on their roof-top deck. I got crap cards all night and, seeing as I usually play on the tight side, was pretty much doomed because no bluff of mine would work. So I lost both games, although the first one I didn't come in last. Ugh.

Sunday was church, youth group, and then dinner in the Cooke's back yard with a single mom and her two sons that have been coming to youth group. These two dudes have presented a unique challenge to me as I try to present in our lessons the gospel idea of God as Father - when they never had one.

Sometimes I feel so inadequate for the tasks I am called to. Thankfully its the inadequate that God is looking to use. I hope I can be useful.

Down to once-a-week posting. This is pitiful. All I ever do anymore is travel and work. And sometimes take a break to whine about it on my blog.

Thursdays - at least as they should be, in a more perfect world - involve getting up earlier than normal to pack up the hotel room that I've scattered myself across during the week. Then its off to the office, bags in car, work all day, leave for the airport after work. Both AA and Continental only have a pre-5pm flight and a post-8pm flight back to Newark from here, which is just plain crap. AA's is 8:47, which doesn't get you in until midnight. And that's when flights are actually on time (which they usually aren't, in my experience). Anyway, that's how Thursdays should be, but they'll probably try to get me to go back to spending Fridays here for the next few weeks, which is pretty much a completely self-defeating idea. The pipe-dream is that I'll get more work done, but since I travel during the day (no way I'm waiting for that freakin after-8 flight on a Friday night), I actually have less dedicated hours in front of a computer screen / on the phone. If I fly Thursday nights, basically on my own personal time (although I'm usually working on the flight) - I can put in a full day on Friday. Which means more OT and don't even get me started on that subject.

So anyway - that gives you a general idea of why I'll probably never be able to post on a Friday again, at least any time soon. So, with that in mind, we bring you Thursday links. A full day early. I think, perhaps, for the first time, ever.

Third Wave is an interesting read - no idea if its true or not. Related: The Artificial Prison of the Human Mind.

World's largest functional Tetris game. Sweet.

Hacking a more tasteful myspace. (hope to do this myself sometime, but let's be realistic, I'll never have the time)

Google is good, all the time. This week she gives us Gmaps on our mobile phones - free. Has satellite view and directions and quick search for local businesses (ie. pizza, chinese, etc). Tres awesome.

And here's some Google Calendar tips, to boot.

Day of the Beast is coming. Oooooh...666...scaaaarrrryyyy...

Oh, and speaking of evil things - looks like my company is helping the world take a massive step forward towards the computers taking over and making human batteries out of us all...(I like to think that I'm probably one of the only people in the world that put two and two together on that copper-top line that Switch said to Neo in The Matrix. While still in the theater.)

Sorry for like a whole week off from the blog. Not that I don't have a lot to say, its just...literally no time. Have to leave for the airport in about 6 hours. Oy.

Sports update:

My Sharks: up 3-1 in the series over Nashville and currently leading tonight's game 2-0. They are looking hot, the cup could be within reach this year.

My Kings: down 2-1 in the servies againts San Antonio, but they won their first home game on a buzzer-beater and tonight's game should be even more exciting. Hoping they tie it, but I'll be sleeping.

My A's: Now sitting at 12-12 to lead the AL West (tied with Texas at 12-12, if they don't lose tonight, ahead of Anaheim at 12-13). Solid start to the season, considering...

49ers did alright in the draft (as did the Stillers). Hoping to watch another A's game in May. That is all.