year of MAJOR changes

what a year it’s been, and not even half over yet!  i got married in late december (i’m considering it part of this year for the sake of the major changes), have a selection of job offers from which to choose, my wife is moving to a new firm this summer, we’re looking to move into a new house by early fall, and we’re expecting our first child in november.  i have to be thankful at a time like this b/c things are going so well.  i hope they hold out like this for a long time.

loud people are annoying

i know i’m in a public study space, but this student next to me is so loud and his voice is filled w/ so much inflection while he takes his business call, that i just want to punch him in the face. now his girlfriend came over and they’re being so PDA that i want to punch them both. seriously, the whole world doesn’t want to hear it or see it. generally i don’t care so much about PDA, but when you’re loud and really calling attention to it – that’s just super irritating.

…he just left for class.  he carries his computer and books around in one of those rolling briefcases.  gggrrrrrrrr…

Experian my ass

somebody just called my home phone, claiming to be from Experian, and asking if this was the location of some business name that i couldn’t understand. i said that there was no business here by that name, and so the person asked to speak to someone in the household that could verify information about our phone number (since that business perhaps used to have this number). well, how do i know that they’re Experian? i could call up anybody in the phonebook and say that i’m a credit bureau, please give me your info! i explained that though i know what Experian is, i have no way of verifying that this phone call is actually originating from Experian, and i won’t be furnishing any information. the person on the other end then proceeds to explain to me what Experian is in an effort to assure me that this is legit. it probably is for all i know. but for all i know it isn’t and they’re going to take some info about me and use it for some fraudulent purpose. i have no idea what questions they were going to ask, but i’m certainly not taking that chance.

after i explained that i wasn’t going to answer her questions, i expected another petition to please answer her questions.  instead, i was answered w/ dead silence.  ‘hello?’  i guess she hung up.  goodbye Experian!

just accept the money!

i just called cingular to dispute $170 worth of roaming charges on my bill. i definitely accrued some roaming charges – from the bahamas on my bachelor party weekend, but definitely not that much! it turns out that if you keep your phone on while you’re in a roaming area, cingular will charge you 1 minute each for all incoming calls AND 1 minute each for each call forwarded to voicemail. what?! i specifically called to find out about my phone and roaming before going on the trip, and was never told this. that’s why i specifically never picked up the phone and let it go to voicemail! i kept the phone on in case anyone called with an emergency.

so anyway, i called cingular to dispute the charge, and the person i spoke w/ was going to refund me about $54 for each call that i didn’t pick up and that went straight to voicemail – basically half the cost for all of the calls that went to VM. i said i was not happy w/ that and wanted more, but that’s all she could do. as i didn’t have patience to continue arguing today (on other days, maybe) i said that was fine. here’s where i should have kept my mouth shut:

cingular rep: please observe a moment of silence as i enter the data and refund into the system.

me: ok.

a moment later…

cingular rep: i’ve entered in the amount and you have a credit of $113 on your next billing cycle. do you have any questions?

me: yes – how did it go from a refund of $54 to $113?

cingular rep: …(silence)…

me: oh. no, i have no questions, thanks.

cingular rep: thank you for calling the new at&t.

i hope i didn’t get her reprimanded.

cursing in the forums

i don’t like policing forums or deleting comments, it kind of goes against the open nature of blogs. but i won’t keep comments that curse in an obnoxious manner or use racial epithets. so if anyone posts a comment and sees it gone, it’s most likely for that reason.

a calendar feature i'd like

i would like to have a program like ical or sunbird sitting on my desktop. i’d like to enter an event on a specific calendar, and have that event update my google calendar. i’d like for them to sync. w/o me having to press a button.

i’d also like google calendar to get a to-do list. and a nice implementation would be something similar to how 30boxes.com does their to-do list. the way they print events is also quite nice. while we’re on 30boxes, their new webtop feature is quite nice. i’d like google to make something clean like that, instead of cluttered like the personal google home page.

i’d also like my next 2 business ideas to do incredibly well. so that i can buy a 3 story condo in NYC. as well as my house in austin. a-yup.

florida wants to make sure we know they’re smarter than louisiana

florida issued an evacuation warning for hurricane alberto, a relatively minor storm, lest they look like they don’t care about residents or have a working government to protect constituents. don’t want to look like Katrina, now do we? this is exactly how the federal govt. responded post-9/11 – overly intrusive and forceful to project an image of confidence, knowledge, and control. the threat isn’t really there, but we’re prepared!

i don't know what the deal is w/ various articles of women's clothing showing up in my belongings, but that has got to stop!  within the past month, my lovely lady has discovered a thong and a pair of shorts, neither belonging to her, in my car and an old backpack.  what the hell?  i have no idea where they came from, who they may belong to, or why they were there.  the shorts and thong were from two different women (different sized articles), and neither one of them had the courtesy to let me know they'd be setting me up for a fall.  seriously, i'm looking totally shady right now, and it's 6 months before my wedding! 

so i am now issuing a proclamation to all the ladies of the world:  i know it's hard, but please, keep your clothing to yourselves!  i don't need it, i don't want it, and most especially, my fiance won't wear it.

deaf Miss Texas gets a darwin award

most people have enough common sense not to walk along railroad tracks. you would think that should be doubly true for a deaf person.
deaf Miss Texas struck and killed by train while text messaging as she walked home along railroad tracks

espresso, my sweet sweet friend

despite your bitter first impression, you surprise me and infuse me. you make me alive, excited, bursting with energy, ready to conquer the world! and the more i drink of your intoxicating essence, the sweeter you become, until you are nothing but a layer of sugar coating the bottom of my cup of java, my cup of life.