Met up with my pappy, aunt, and uncle this weekend at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. Corinna came along with me, and we had a pretty good time, even though the weather could have been a bit better… I took some pictures, but I am somewhat limited by what equipment hasn’t yet been packed, so I will have to post them later. I brought a van-load of stuff to Rhinebeck and traded it off into Mom’s Honda Pilot (which she let dad take up to Rhinebeck). The Van definitely has more cargo space than the Pilot, but we got just about everything in there, except for the TV stand (which was a record cabinet when my dad made it 20+ years ago).

Yesterday, Corinna and I packed my dresser into the van and brought it to her place. She’s going to be storing/borrowing it for a while until I settle down a bit. I’m not going to be using it in NJ, and she needed a dresser, so while it is a bit big for her room, and isn’t quite a match with her decorating, she volunteered to take it on for awhile. We got to her apartment to find out that the shitty elevator in her building is busted AGAIN. So we had to leave the dresser in the car and hope that it is fixed today or tomorrow… I have to deliver my bed to it’s new owner tonight at 7pm, which should be eversomuch fun. I have to go buy a drop cloth or something to put over it and some rope to lash it to the roof of Maude. I am a bit nervous about the roping it on thing, as there is no roof rack and I am instead going to have to find something else to tie down on..

A week ago I called T-Mobile to exchange my Sidekick… One of the keyboard keys was getting flaky, and I wanted to get it exchanged while I still had Warranty coverage. I got a replacement in the mail the other day, and it didn’t work! The ear speaker didn’t work at all, so when I was on a call I couldn’t hear the other end… That sucked… :) So I called back T-Mobile and they are sending me a Color Sidekick as a replacement for my trouble!

Found a renter for the apartment, and he was approved and all that stuff today. It will suck having to move out.

I think I found a renter for my apartment today… There was this issue of the mgmt company not wanting to let an undergrad into the building, but it was resolved once the guy explained he wasn’t an undergrad as much as someone just taking some classes part-time. He seems like a cool guy, 23 years old, seems somewhat geeky, but that was more of a reading on my geekdar. I also found a buyer for my bed a few days ago, and they were cool enough to let me deliver it on Monday, preventing me from sleeping on the floor for a week! Assuming the deals close as promised, that makes Craigslist 2 for 2.

Met up with Adam and Carlos for lunch today… Adam had scheduled this lunch without realizing that today was Carlos’ birthday. I was apparently the only one that remembered outside of his family, so how about that! Thanks, Hiptop! Adam scheduled the lunch because apparently Carlos is moving as well! He had been planning on moving back to Puerto Rico at the end of the year, but once he started telecommuting fulltime for CYA, he realized that as long as they didn’t mind him doing the same from PR, he might as well move now. So he is moving after October.. The Rovia team will now be pretty freaking spread out across the land.

On the way back I stopped by the bookstore and picked up a copy of Quicksilver. While it is true that I may be broke, I have a hard time conjuring up guilt about purchasing books… They are books, for Christ’s sake!

This weekend Corinna’s friends Lisa and Ben were in town for a wedding… Lisa is a friend of Corinna’s from UMich, and Ben is her fiancee from Scotland. Both were way cool people, and we talked about all kinds of geeky stuff like Cryptonomicon, William Gibson, Invader Zim, etc. Lisa even hooked us up with the entire oeuvre of Zim which she just happened to have on her iBook. They left on Sunday and Corinna and I met up with the SNFC for a viewing of Party Monster, which was only OK, imho… Seth Green kicked ass, but the script was a bit uninspired and Macaulay Culkin was a bit difficult to swallow as the lead.

Thanks to everyone who left kind words yesterday regarding the death of my poochie.. She will be missed, but it is a comfort to know she went without pain and I got to see her one last time…

Rest well, Cassie….

1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why? Insert my standard “I can’t pick a favorite” disclaimer here. Favorites? Faith No More, Skinny Puppy, Mr. Bungle, Talking Heads, David Bowie
2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why? The world would be a better place without James Taylor being a musician. His songs and delivery instill a depression in me that is not only difficult to reverse, but unjustified given the quality of music. If a good song saddens me, at least I can appreciated it for being a good song.
3. If your favorite singer wasn’t in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person? How the hell would I know? Do i know the person(s) now while they are IN the music business? No. So how can I judge whether or not they would be likable in any other walk of life. This is a stupid question.
4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show? Many concerts, obviously. Some of the best have been:

• Mr. Bungle in Old Bridge, NJ
• Bowie and Nine Inch Nails at MSG
• Mum at Bar 606
• Matmos at the Middle East
• Tomahawk at Irving Plaza
• Rollins Band at Irving Plaza
• I’m gonna stop now or I never will…

1. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from dowloading free music? Is downloading free music online without the copyright owners consent legal? More than likely it is not. I think that someone casually listening to a song or two off of an album before making a purchasing decision is fine. I think that people who download full albums, amassing a large collection without paying back the artists are not justified, but that is their personal decision.. But is the RIAA right in pursuing individuals? No, absolutely not. They should admit [impending] defeat and adapt to the new market.

What cheeses my goat is when people who download music [without permission] try to morally justify it. There is no justification, it is theft of copyrighted material, please admit it and move on. I am not going to pass judgement on someone who downloads music, I just want them to be honest with themselves and everyone else while they do it.

You know what single feature would make Mozilla Firebird god-damned amazing? Roaming profiles. I should be able to have a central repository of bookmarks hosted on my webserver regardless of where I am logging in from. If it was a standard thing across browsers even better….

I had to pay \$70 for a new right rear tire on Maude, I hit a nail, and while I could have probably patched it, there was a peculiar bald spot that lead me to believe it needed replacement.

During my trip to Jersey today I listened to the audiobook of Positively Fifth Street, a book about the murder of Ted Binion and the World Series of Poker. It was a pretty good book, although the accounts of the poker were more interesting than the coverage of Binion’s murder.

What I found fitting, however, is that I happened to be listening to the book on the 5th anniversary of Binion’s murder…. Strange coincidence..

In other news: My new high score in Stair Dismount is 666084.

I was reading an article in the CSM about Wesley Clark’s expected entry in the Democratic Primary race, and I came across this quote:

While a Clark candidacy might draw some comparisons to that of Dwight Eisenhower, observers point out that Ike was far more of a national hero - and that the Kosovo campaign, which Clark led, was not exactly World War II.

“Clark has the “general” in front of his name, but he’s not a military hero, exactly,” says Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University.

I agree that Kosovo was not in the same league as World War II by any stretch of the imagination, but I think belittling Clark’s service and leadership is a bit out of line. What exactly makes a “military hero”, then, Mr. Wayne?

Ok, enough people have finally pestered me about not updating “for real” in a week or more, so here it goes. Truth be told, I’ve been avoiding this update for awhile now out of some childish “if I don’t admit to it, it won’t happen” impulse.

I am moving back to Hopatcong to live with my parents. It has been 11 months (almost to the day) since I lost my job, and in that time I have burned through my savings, ran up credit, and still gotten no closer to a job other than a few empty promises from places I’ve interviewed. I have always been pretty optimistic, and throughout this whole ordeal I have done my best to put on a strong face. Well, my “strong face” reserves have pretty much been completely used up.

So I am turning tail and going home to mommy and daddy. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, and will love being with them full time again. But there is something extremely humbling about not being able to support yourself after doing so for more than 2 years… As cool as it will be to be home again, I’d much rather be doing so under different circumstances. Not to mention that I will be leaving lots of good friends behind here, not to mention a wonderful girlfriend. Corinna has been crucial to my keeping sane over the past 6 or 7 months. She’s the biggest reason it hurts to leave this area, but this is a temporary move. And weekend visits do wonders for one’s sanity and happiness.

So I will begin looking for work in NJ soon, but I still hope to find a job in Boston, even if that means as I unpack the last box in NJ I get a job up here again and have to turn right back around. In fact, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that is what is destined for me. Ideally, I’ll find a job here in Boston quickly and be able to come back. But second to that, I find a good-paying job in NJ, pay off my debt and restore my savings while living with the folks, and then move back here (with a job).

I’m playing poker tonight with the boys, and tomorrow I am driving back to NJ for a few days to see my sick doggie. I bought some boxes today so I could take a small load of stuff with me as well. I have known about this trip to NJ for a week or so now, yet I managed to put off buying boxes until today, probably for the same infantile reasons I put off this journal update.

I forgot all about doodie.com