Best Things About Thursday

1: Tomorrow is Friday

2: The day after tomorrow is Saturday.

3: Flash Forward (cool show)

4: DVR'd South Park

5: Did I mention that tomorrow is Friday, and that the day after that
is Saturday?

Commutes That Suck

So from my office to Bellevue, WA has to be one of the worst drives in the nation. On a good day I can count on at least an hour to go 20 miles. I have had the damn drive take twice that on a bad day.

I used to have to do it every day. That was seriously lame.

Now I have to do it about once a month, and it still sucks. But at least it is far less often.

Today was some kind of freakish anomaly. I managed to get there in 15 minutes and had to kill the better part of a half hour simply because I had no desire to be at the Bellevue Office that early. So I got my car washed, and learned something very handy. You can slide an Audi S4 when all of the tires have soap on them... And it's a lot of fun...

I only wish that I could have gotten pics.

Banking Machine

Busiest Day Ever...

And everyone came in to see me. My co-workers were complaining about how slow their day was and how little they got done. Go figure...

So now I am tired, I have nothing at home to eat (yeah, poor planning on my part), and no desire to leave the house to get food. Why doesn't Subway deliver? I would pay for that service.

In other news, I am moving... To a freaking palace in the sky. 20th floor condo with a full view of Puget Sound. Pics and updates will be coming soon. For now I need to pack some boxes. Night kids.

Uneventful Surprize

OK, so for some odd reason today may have been the most unmentionable day of 2KX. Not a damn thing happened that was of any bit of interest to me.

In trying to come up with something to post about I am seriously just without any ideas from my day.

OH WAIT!!! I could rant about the Health Care Bill (Destruction Of Our Country)

Except everyone, myself included, is probably just tired of the BS that they went through all day at work about this one.

We can call it good at: "Stormin don't like it. Stormin feels like this is some shady shit. And when an ENTIRE party can't convince their own people to vote for it (let alone the opposition) without kickbacks and bribes, something ain't right."

Rant over.

Party To Hard?

Wow. So to say that I partied to hard on Saturday would be the largest understatement of 2KX... I am one of those fortunate people that does not get hung over. That said, after my early wake up on Saturday and then staying up partying and drinking until 4AM today, I am a bit beyond tired.

This should make for an interesting day tomorrow at the office.

I Hate People

Seriously. Someone just woke me up at 3:30AM on a Saturday. I have to go to the office today to talk to someone about something VERY important and this asshole wakes me up at three fucking thirty on a Saturday morning.

Fuck...

Now I can't fall back to sleep.

Loud Music

Somehow it makes a Friday night better...

6 Funny Things Said At Work Today

Anything in black is them. Anything in blue is me.

One of my tellers:

"That guy seriously said to me; 'I don't understand why I got charged overdraft fees. You need to refund them.' He's had a bank account with us for seven years and does this at least once every couple of months. This shit ain't new!"

Customer and I:

"Can you notarize a copy of a birth certificate? From Mexico?"

"I'm sorry, I can't certify a copy of any birth certificate. US or non-US."

"Well can you notarize a form saying that you watched me make a copy of the original?"

"I really can't. Unfortunately, part of that's policy, and part of that is the fact that I really have no clue what the difference between a fake Mexican birth certificate and a real one is in the first place."

Banker:

"You have to be kidding me? I have to do all this paperwork because someone went and died?"

(I really had to hold back laughter. It just sounded so heartless.)

Teller:

"Stormin, that irritating guy is holding for you on line one. And that chick that is crazy is waiting in the lobby."

"The hot one?"

"Like I said, crazy in the lobby and irritating on the phone..."

"Take a message. I'll call him back. It is the hot one in the lobby."

Customer:

"Yeah, I heard that (Major Competitor) is offering this amazing rate. And then I remembered that everything about banking with them sucked and that's why I moved everything here."

(We both started laughing.)

Banker:

"Did you just schedule me for that LAST Tuesday..."

"FUCK"

"So did you schedule it for next Tuesday or last Tuesday???"

"I just said 'FUCK' didn't I? What's your guess."

Serious Scrabble

So I play a lot of Scrabble with my friends.

I know that probably sounds insane coming from a guy in his 20's, but we all bought the iPhone game (Words With Friends) and so the games go back and forth over the phones as people have the time to play. The competition has become quite fierce at times and it's funny to me that a group of people can be so into a game. I always think about Scrabble when I remember my parents as I was growing up. These people played CONSTANTLY! It was a good thing though, as the competition was always very close and it lead to a very developed vocabulary for me.

Right now my current win streak is at 5 games with 6 more games currently in progress. I won last night against MBC 355-325 and we immediately began another game. I am behind a bit right now in that new game, but the points change very quickly as the TW's and TL's become available.

The other games are all awesome, mostly because I have 50-60 point leads right now. (Remember, super competitive guy here.)

But it got me thinking, with a good effort and some work, what's the highest I can score? I am all about winning, but at some point I want to have a new challenge if I just keep beating everyone. So I decided that I will keep track of high scores here and see what I can do. Current personal best: 425 points.

Pandora Fight / Screw The New Toyota Haters

Occasionally it seems like the Pandora App/Website just aren't thinking like I am about the things that I want to hear on the radio. In fact I have burned through all of the allotted skips on six stations at the time of writing this. Nothing that crazy either. Just some rap/oldschool/rock/80'srock/pop/techno. So just about everything that I can stand listening to is USELESS right now. How lame is that?

In other news I am enjoying some ice cold Coors Light thanks to a need for gas on the way home. I know that not everyone loves the delicious ice cold refreshing taste of Coors Light. To those people, screw you, this stuff is delicious and I could drink the rest of the twelve pack. A big thanks to 7-11 and the $8.99 twelve pack.

Oh, and screw the new pack of Toyota haters. All these people acting like they've been hating on the Prii since the beginning. Motherfucking car has a stuck gas pedal causing "sudden and out of control acceleration..." What a crock of shit. I have ridden/driven in a Prius (damn near against my will, mind you) and nothing about the way it drives is "sudden." I put my foot to the floor with an AUDIBLE "THUMP" of the gas pedal and was in no way impressed by the amazing lack of acceleration. And don't go thinking I am just spoiled by the 440HP car I drive. The Audi TT 2.0T put a smile on my face putting down about HALF the power my car does. The Prius is a lame piece of crap and all of the drivers duped into spending damn near $35K for that POS now are looking for a way to get their money back. Idiots.

Moving?

I freaking hate moving... But there is a place that I really want in the city, and I have the chance to move there at the end of the month. The whole thing is killing me. I have no desire to move, and I can't explain that one well enough. My parents were military as I grew up and we moved a lot. So I guess moving now seems like a very shitty plan.

Pros:

Killer Place

Very Desirable Address

Middle Of The City

Commute To Work = Better

Cons:

Moving

Moving

Moving

Moving

Ugh. This sucks.

I will keep this thing up to speed as I figure out the plan.

4 Miles

So I just got back from a four mile trip through the city of Seattle...

Seriously tired. Somehow MBC had never been to the International District so I decided that I should play tour guide. We walked from the north side of Belltown to the International District and back. Plus a short detour through Pike Place Market (hey, if I am going to be playing tour guide then we'll probably be doing some touristy stuff).

Going to the Market reminds me how big the tourism is to our city. Because obviously 80% of the people there are tourists and act like it. Meandering through the market as if they haven't a care in the world. God help those of us that go there to shop.

In other news, I bought a bunch of cigars and had one on the walk. Someone in the city actually had the nerve to say to me; "You should put that out. I don't like the smell."

ON A PUBLIC STREET CORNER.

I kindly replied back: "You should keep your opinion to yourself. Because quite frankly, knowing that it bothers you only makes me want to smoke more..."

Thankfully I was only going the same direction as him for the next three blocks. I do hope that he enjoyed the remainder of his smoke free day. I know that I enjoyed the hell out of the rest of that cigar...

Fucking nerve of some people.

It has been a great day though. Daylight savings time has only messed with me a little bit, but I am sure that Monday will change things up a bit.

The Boss Is On Vacation (Pt2)

So this is the second part of the boss being gone, and the awesomeness that it entails. This part of that whole situation is the amazing amount of fun that is now had at the office on a Saturday.

Normally for some reason we still try to have fun at the office on Saturdays. I think it's the combination of the people being there all knowing that we would rather be somewhere else, and the eventual realization that if we all do our best to have a good time at least the day will seem that much better. We crack some jokes, we will play around at times, etc... Typical office humor that nobody would be shocked by. Nothing that would make HR gasp, but at the same time it isn't just business as usual. We "loosen up the ties a bit" if I had to put a term to it.

Today we took the ties off... Literally and figuratively. Laughing most of the day and then getting out a little earlier than we had planned to boot. It seemed like a productive day and at the same time we all spend so much time laughing. At one point I was laughing so hard that I was crying. And this is at work...

The boss' vacation has turned out to be one of the best times at the office ever. :-)

Because Cooking Is So Much Work

I am seriously doing everything I can right now to keep myself from just getting into the car and going to get some fast food for dinner. I am tired, I have to go into the office tomorrow, and I have no desire to put in the required effort to prepare a meal. No desire to do that at all.

In other news, the boss' vacation is currently just as good as I had hoped that it would be. The mod around the office is so much better, and while I am still not 100% sure that I want to stay when she get's back, I am pretty damn happy right now. Far to many people come in specifically to see me to make me feel OK about wanting to move, but at the end of the day being "happy" at work is critical.

I think I am going to get some Taco Bell. Nothing like skipping out on cooking AND getting diarrhea.

Seattle Sounders V. Portland Timbers

So I am by no means a soccer fan. A friend asked me to go to this game, and I am in dire need of more time with my friends. So I agreed to go.

Shockingly, I had a fantastic time, even though Seattle lost. K's part of this whole group called The Emerald City Supporters. Crazy ass soccer hooligan fans. They kinda made the whole game a good time.

The Boss Is On Vacation

So my boss has gone on vacation. There is no way to tell you all how happy that has made me.

Recently her and I haven't exactly been seeing eye to eye on a lot of topics. I don't know why we are suddenly butting heads, yet it seems to occur just about every couple of days. I'd like to say that it doesn't bug me, but I really have become quite frustrated by it all. It almost seems as though she is in some constant and consistently critical/judgemental mood with me. Nothing I do is 100% right, and when she can't find fault it's almost as though she just finds a way to tie in something from the past that did have even a minor fault. In fact, recently it has become so taxing just to work with her that I have actually contemplated asking for a transfer just to be away from her. I honestly can't see myself continuing to work in an environment where my coworkers can do no wrong, but somehow I can do nothing right. If her complaints seemed to have some significant merit I would be remiss to rant here about it, but they don't. Half of the time she is just being overly critical about how I chose to do something when (literally) EVERYONE else has done the exact same thing time and time again. To say that it's getting old would be the understatement of the decade.

But she is gone for a week, and so at least for the next seven days I can breathe a bit easier, and feel a bit less stress.

Next week should be very interesting. I am going to be out of the office for a couple of days right before she gets back, so I should be well rested and ready for her to return.

Tired?

So tired...

I managed about 5 hours of sleep last night, and today was just NUTS
at work. I think I managed to be busy for most of the day, and it
really flew by. That leads to me just being absolutely drained
tonight. I left about 45 minutes later than I wanted to go home, and
spent the drive as an absolute zombie.

I am laying in bed, watching "How The Earth Was Made" on the History
Chan (see post about my nerdness elsewhere on this blog, I can't
hyperlink that in an email post). I am currently to tired to even grab
my glass of iced tea for a drink. A real shame, as it's homemade peach
tea that's really quite fantastic.

Neat show on about Gold. I've always wanted to move a bit heavier into
the commodities market...

As you may be able to tell right now, I am a bit scatterbrained right
now. I'll try to hammer out something more coherent tomorrow.

(PS: For some reason this post was written without autocorrect on the
iPhone. Please let me know if there are spelling errors that need to
be fixed.)

The Office Is All Mine

Hahahahaha...

Those people at the office. The ones that have been frustrating me...

They're all feeling sick, and in some small was I have to feel the tiniest bit of responsibility.

They may have caught it from anywhere...

It could be that we all had it, and my immune system just began having problems fighting it first...

Perhaps what they all have now is something different from the illness that has debilitated me for well in excess of a week...

But perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, it's my gift to them. Just maybe the fools that criticized me for being "not at my best," and yet looked down on me when I finally took my first sick days in YEARS, will have a new respect for how "sick" I felt to take days off of work.

Or maybe their little rug-rats all brought home a similar cold from school. Who knows???

I Forgot?

Usually I am very good with details. So good in fact that it has been declared by my boss to be one of my best skills at work. Something obscure that most people would forget? I remember that like I am being asked my own phone number.

Next week I needed to be out of the office Wednesday. I can not remember why... And this is no little thing. I don't miss out on a day at work for much. But for some reason I needed to be off. I remember it as plain as day. I just can't recall why!!!

Tomorrow I need to tell my boss that I will be off next Wednesday. When she asks why, if answering honestly, I will have to say I don't remember, but I know that I am not going to be in because I have something important going on. There is not a chance in hell that she will believe that I forgot...

Huge Ass Party

Open letter to the obscenely rich person who just threw a party on
Puget Sound:

Congrats on all your success. I am amazed at how rich you must be.
That ship looked really expensive. The fireworks however, that was
over the top. And... That woke my sick ass up.

Don't worry, I opened my window and watched your fireworks. I was
amazed by the cash you must have dropped to show off to your friends.

But seriously dude... Next time just throw a party. That display had
to cost you $100,000...

Sincerely;
One very sick, and now very awake Stormin

Home Sick 2

I just now realized that the title of this post and the last have a dual meaning.

I very much mean that I am at home, and sick. For me (as already mentioned) this never happens. I am the guy that rarely feels ill, and when I do I generally just tough it out and go in to work. But this cold has been something special. Usually in the first couple of days you feel the "sickest" and the feeling fades. Since Sunday this has just intensified every day. This morning I was woken up at 4AM by some of the most violent coughing in my life. Such forceful coughs that it actually gave me a headache. And they wouldn't stop no matter what I did.

In about an hour it subsided and I had a few swigs of NyQuill. That put me back out for a couple of hours until the alarm went off at 8:30. The only reason that I even set it was to let me know that I needed to call my boss and tell her that I wasn't coming in again today.

Back to sleep after that and awake about 11AM... I decided that being out of DayQuill was a bad thing, and so I took a hot shower (helped a bit) and headed up to the store for provisions. It is amazing to me how slow one can move and think while sick. It took me an hour to complete that task. Over a half hour walking around the store finding medicine, an apple, vanilla pudding, a bottle of water, a Red Bull, and Goldfish crackers. For some reason each of those items struck me as valuable commodities right now. Fifteen minutes to make the drive each way. I was EXHAUSTED after that trip.

And the rest of the day has been me laying in bed watching TV. The 47" flat screen for my bedroom being the best impulse purchase of 2009, I can enjoy good TV in every room of the house that is not a bathroom...

I also napped for about an hour. That's how I know that I am really, really sick. I do not nap.

Tomorrow, if I am up to it, I am going into the office to catch up a bit. I know that I have to have a pile of work that's two feet deep waiting for me.

Home Sick

So for the first time in years... I am at home sick instead of being in the office at work.

Oddly enough, I didn't do that the right way. I got up, showered, got dressed, and headed into the office. I made it all of an hour before I had to leave and go home. The weirdest thing it, it wasn't the feeling bad that drove me to go home. It's that every time I tried to talk I started coughing. As long as I wasn't saying anything I was fine, but the second a conversation began I just could not stop coughing. Painful coughing, at that. Like the kind that just makes your eyes start watering no matter how hard you fight it.

So I told my boss I was leaving, and headed home.

Time to get ready and drive to the office: 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Time at the office: 1 hour.

Time spent driving home: 30 minutes.

Now I get why people just call in the morning. That was one serious waste of time and resources.

So I get home and immediately attempt to sleep it off. Not happening. I am one of those people that doesn't nap a whole lot, and so resting to kill off the cold isn't going to happen. Just drinking tea and taking care of all the things around the house that I knew I had to get done. Not talking to anyone at all. :-) I don't want to start coughing again.

A Few Pics

This car was a very entertaining drive, and I really like the feel that the rear wheel drive provides. Having driven the AWD Gallardo several times before, the rear drive car definitely feels more intense. A couple of times during the drive the car did what it could to make me worry about the rear end coming around in a corner. One very determined push merging onto the freeway comes to mind... Driver skill and the car's very capable traction control system made for a good catch on that corner.

The car itself is amazing. Fit and finish are right up there with the finest of luxury sedans, and the vehicle is very driver friendly. A beautiful two tone interior with very comfy leather and a neat series of off-set stripes to match the car's paint job. The navigation and stereo are a similar unit to the Audi RNS system that has gotten a ton of praise (from myself included, I have one), and the car comes with numerous features to make living with a supercar easy. One of them is NOSE ASSIST. When you come to a steep driveway or a speed bump the car will electronically lift the nose so that you do not scrap. A brilliant system that I used today.

The E-Gear continues to lag behind Ferrari. The shifts in the F430 Scuderia are faster and feel cleaner. Admittedly, Ferrari has thrown a race car transmission into their street car, but there is something to be said for the time and development that they have put into that one part of the car. I think that when Lamborghini catches them in the transmission department, the Gallardo will be my favorite car. For right now I still prefer the Scuderia if I could have only ONE simply for it's incredible transmission. That said, the Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni is one very superb car that turns heads and draws crowds wherever it goes. It's aggressive styling and intoxicating engine note draw people in far more than a car from Maranello could hope to... I think there were at least 50 cell phone pics taken by passers by in the hour that I had the car. The thing really turns heads, especially on the freeway...

Some more variants of the top pic just for fun.

Color Delete

Fast Sitting Still

Selective Focus

Canvas Effect

Brush Effect

Chrome Effect

Test Driving

I'm off to take the new Lamborghini Gallardo 550-2 Balboni out for a test drive.

More pics and a review if I make it back alive. ;-)

I Don't Know What This Is...

Seriously, I am currently patient ZERO in the worlds next medical pandemic.

We've had swine flu, and bird flu... Those were both weak shit. This is some crazy new strain... I am convinced beyond belief that the next "whatever flu" starts with me right now.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as the first patient I think that I should get to name it, so you heard it here first.

Koala Flu.

2010 is going to be the year of Koala Flu.

I Don't Care If I Am Sick

I am so deathly ill. But I seriously do not care. I get to drive this
car Wednesday. I was invited to drive this car...