Happy Birthday to Me! and Jess... and Dave

So, we went to The Pub... and we drank... and we drank... and we drank some more... we drank some shots... Jesse's dad bought a $90 bottle of Patron and we drank that... we drank some beer. Then came 9:30 and I just stopped drinking. By midnight, I was ready to go home and by 1 am, I was in bed. Jon, Phil, and Dave came by along with about 20 other people and we had a hell of a time. I have 2 very poor pictures that were drunkenly taken with my phone and I don't even want to nauseate you with them... Now I'm 32... is that old? It's definitely older than I thought I would ever be... but then again, we're ALL older than I thought we'd ever be. We were on a tear there for a while... thank god we get older (and smarter).

Anyhoo, I just wanted to say that we had a great b-day and that I didn't puke!

Hope to see you all soon!
Ames

Come on Down to the Pub

Picture it... Friday, September 21st... Lexington Kentucky.... the Pub. It's this cool place to sit and have a couple of pints and chat with your friends.... Well, anyway, we're having a little get together for myself and Jess as it is the week of our birthdays. We will be there around 4pm and will probably be there for quite some time if anyone is at all interested in joining us. There will be some people from my work and some of Jess' family there and I would really like for you guys to come if you can. Hell, we can even turn it in to a 3 way birthday and get Dave involved too. So, I hope to see you guys there! If you have any questions, just call me or email me and I'd be happy to give you more details... Below is the address for the Pub, but basically, it is right in front of the movie theater by Fayette Mall.

The Pub Lexington/Fayette Mall/3750 Mall Rd./Lexington , KY 40503/859-971-BRIT

Love you guys!

Okay, okay, okay...

So, I guess since I'm catching crap, I'll have to put something up here... :)
Well, let's play catch-up:

• I have been working too much (as usual)
• I've decided that I do not want to do my job anymore, but I'm going to be strategic about it.
• I've made the move to finally finish my computer science degree.
• I applied to BCTCS to get my Associates degree (I think I need like 3 classes) and then, if I'm still feeling good about it, I'll try to go back to UK

I guess it's that point in my life (again, perhaps) where I have stopped to take stock of where I am. It's one thing to do a job and do it relatively well and hate it... It is quite another thing to figure out that it is not what you want to do for the rest of your life. This thing called life is a pretty weird thing. When I was younger, I just went to school cuz I thought that was what I was supposed to do. Then, when I was a little older than young, I said, "screw it, who wants to do this school thing." But then, I reached this point in my life where I realized, yeah, I could get a job doing what I like, but it would be a start at the bottom, work my way up, finally get to the point where I'm doing exactly what I want to do, but by that point, I'd probably be ready to retire... Where's the fun in that?

I think that was one thing that I always admired about Amber. She knew what she wanted to do from... well, from as long as I'd known her, and she went for it and did it. She didn't let our shenanigans (how the hell do you spell that?) get her too far off the path she chose. I on the other hand was the eternal lost soul... pretty good in a few different areas, but so non-committal that every shiny thing that passed by me caught my eye and I was so far off the path and so lazy, that I never made my way back. Ah youth...

Anyway, I figured since I caught hell at the pool party, I should probably at least give an update... so all you picketers and rioters can pick on someone else now...

See you soon....

Blog, Blog, Blog

Long time, no blog. I've been away for quite some time... How have you been? I've been pretty good. Not much news here... just mowed the yard today... got a sunburn... god, I love spring. I was just scootin' around on the ol' interweb here and realized I hadn't had anything to say to you for a while and I thought to myself, "Self, you should really put something up here." Well, here it is... I hope you enjoy!

a

And I thought SNL didn't make funny stuff anymore...

Quite possibly the funniest thing I've seen in a while out of Saturday Night Live




Maybe it's just me, but I damn near went wee wee on myself when I saw this on Saturday.

A Dark Day for UK

He may not have won a championship every year and he may have produced some of the most gut wrenching games I've seen in the last few years, but he didn't deserve the crap that he got from some so-called "UK Fans." Kentucky basketball fans, nay, Kentucky basketball boosters should be ashamed of themselves. They should be forced to watch every basketball game across the country... I mean Tivo the shit and make them watch EVERY game in college basketball from the crap games in pre-season all the way through the NCAA tourney and tell me how they can expect any one team to have a better than 75% win average over the course of the last ten years. Make them listen to the talk and watch all the other major and mid-major programs lose "top" players every year to the NBA and then, and only then, ask them to think and react to a 75% win average... bastards.

Tubby Smith was a class act and I'm glad he was smart enough to know that UK basketball is not worth it... I'm ashamed of this town... I'm ashamed of the people who took out newspaper ads looking for a replacement. I'm ashamed to call myself a Kentuckian right now.

Yeah, I love UK basketball... I love it when we win... but I don't start criticizing when we are losing... I figure there is no way in hell I could get out there and do better and I damn sure know that the folks who are giving Tubby the hardest time are too stupid to do any better too.

Goodbye Tubby.... we'll always have the corner of Euclid and Woodland.

The Oscars

Ellen... Purple Velvet
'nuff said

Or is it red velvet??? Who knows.

You know, the Oscars never really meant much to me... and they still don't.
The shadow dancers in the background of the main screen just made penguins... that was pretty cool. But anyway, all of these people who are already pretty much famous anyway are sitting through 4 hours of madness to find out if their 20% chance of winning will find them victorious. For what??? Just so that they can say that they are Academy Award Winners??? What the hell does that really mean anyway? They'll make an additional $20 millon on their next picture?? I'm sure they are hurting for money... I shouldn't bitch.
God... isn't Randy Newman dead yet??? I like James Taylor though.

Melissa Etheridge is a godess. She's not beautiful... she's not glamorous.... she's just beautifully herself. Enough with the 'carpet' jokes... she's got talent. (Side Note: I hate the politicalness of the whole ordeal as well. Go hang your picket signs somewhere else)

Hell is on earth... Al Gore is on my TV at the Oscars... with Leo DiCaprio. Did I mention the political crap already? I wish I had a gun... That announcement thing was pretty funny...

Ellen is funny... I don't like Cameron Diaz's hair... and her dress is too shiny. Were there only three animated movies this year? Was Happy Feet any good? I heard it was, but who can really tell? Who's this f#%king guy? Scarves are silly in tuxes... so are white bow ties on solid white shirts.

Can't really get past Ben Affleck in Mall Rats... Ahh the montage... what would an award show be without it. Jack Nicholson looks weird bald... don't you think?

Tom Hanks is so... witty. (of course i'm kidding)

This is crap. I'm going to bed. Enjoy the Oscars y'all.

Micromanagement

So, it seems that everywhere I go, there are 4 types of managers.

There's the laid-back--as long as the work gets done I don't really give a crap--manager. This one is my personal favorite for I am the self-starter. When I have the time to create a plan, I can accomplish almost anything. That is the way that I work best. If you've never had an interviewer ask you which way you work best, DON'T work there.

There's the--I want to be everyone's friend and I don't want to step on any toes 'cuz I'm such a good guy'--manager. These can be cool when you need something and you just can't pull yourself together to do it yourself. You can stretch yourself too thin and these guys will always come through in the clutch for you. It may not be the 'perfection' in the job that you had envisioned, but nonetheless the work is done and you are saved. Downsides to these managers are the inability to make decisions, spending too much time coddling employees and customers, and emotional fragileness.

There's the--I'm a big hard-ass and if it isn't in black and white then it isn't going to happen on my watch--manager. These managers get called bitches and bastards more than any other group. They are also angels when you get yourself into a predicament and you need law and order on your side. They are usually in accounting or inventory and have cobs up their respective asses. Downsides to these managers are inability to see any gray, stubborness, and an unwillingness to give up on conviction.

From the above group, I'd like to think that I fall somewhere between the "I don't care" and the "Hey, I'm a nice guy" managers... no one really is always one or the other, but they do have dominant management traits. Well, most do anyway...

Then there is the end all/be all of the shitty managers... The Micromanager. This jackass is all over the place. In one breath there are compliments and slams. Kudos and kicks to the groin... for you see, the Micromanager has no plan. They simply walk around and observe everything that "couldn't possibly work" and find the time to tell you all about it. They are only positive when there medication is working and they will never, EVER leave you alone to get any one thing done. They change their minds with the wind and never allow for true progress because they can't stick to a plan. These are the 'short-thinkers' as I like to call them. They will never be completely successful because they can never see the big picture... only the little things that they believe are keeping them from this truly non-existent, 'made up in their mind' big picture.

I guess you can tell that I have little to no respect for the Micromanager. It is unfortunate as my boss is indeed one of these creatures from hell. On any given day, I get at least 3 new 2-week projects and by the time I finish them, the path has once again changed and I get to spend at least 1-2 days reworking it. There is no time for me to make a plan... which stresses me out tremendously. Then I have to come down on the supervisors that work for me and the vicious cycle begins and continues in the same breath.

Anyway, I digress. I just thought I'd share a little bit on my Philosophy of Management. I hope you enjoyed.

a

I Miss it Already

Only 2 weeks ago, yet it already seems like forever... I wonder, what would it be like if we were there all the time (cue dream sequence)

Amy finally remembers how to bong a whole beer...

Neighbor Dave and Amy wonder "Who the Hell is this guy???"

Dave puts down his beer... sha... whatever...

Will, Megan, and Amy take their trio on the road and become "NightFever Superstar"
(what the hell am I doing there??? You know it's bad when you don't even remember singing with people OR being so in to it that you feel the need to flail about like you think you might be actually performing)

Damnit Amy, wake up!

Phew! Yeah, I don't know if I could do it all the time, but it sure is fun to be there and even more fun to look forward to next year!

7 Days....

Can you feel it??? Your pulse races. The hairs on the back of your neck stand at full attention. Your breath becomes shallow and loses rhythm. Your eyes are WIDE OPEN.
Your liver weeps silently.
Can you feel it???

I can...

14 Days...

What about it kids!?! Are we ready?!? I sure as shit am! 2 weeks... 2 immensely long weeks for 3.5 days that will go by too fast. What a rush (sounds really good if you say it while growling)

LET'S FREAKIN GO ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

21 Days...

It's Friday... exactly 21 days from now until I hop in a car and follow my childhood back to Gatlinburg... my adult childhood that is. The days before waking up at 5:30 in the morning and working the 7-5 (it seems soooo much longer when you see it in print). The days when, if you did have to wake up at 5:30, it was probably in the afternoon.

In 21 gut-wrenching days I will be a kid again. I can't express in words the anticipation that I feel right now. I want to go now and never, never, ever come back. I want to sit in the hot tub until I just melt away. I want to play pool and choke at the winning moment. I want to sing horribly and have everyone laugh at me (and you will). I want to drink until I don't really remember any of it and then get to relive it again in videos and stories.

I am sad for the 3 years that I didn't attend. I feel like I lost a part of my adult childhood. I feel like I neglected my innocence. I wonder what would have happened had I been there and how many bones I might have broken. I wonder how many times Amber would have tried to push me down the stairs... I wonder...

I'm bringin' the camera this year. I'm ready. I'm willing. I'm able. I'm strong. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and damnit... I AM A SKI TRIPPER!

The gauntlet is down... the invitation is out... Bring it on!