Saturday, February 01, 2003 I've now been at work for a total of 8.5 hours... It seems like an eternity. Still about 3 hours to go. This morning I awoke on my mom's couch to the sound of her voice shouting, "Oh my God! The space shuttle exploded, turn on the tv!" My 7-year-old cousin was just tuning in to Saturday morning cartoons, when my mom took the remote from her and flipped to Channel 4. There was Dan Rather reporting the news. An hour earlier, the space shuttle Columbia had disintegrated over Dallas. Minutes before, my mom had been talking to my great aunt on the phone. She said her son had just called her from his home in Dallas. He and his wife were in bed when they heard a loud boom. They stayed quiet, wondering if they'd hear it again, but nothing... A little later, his wife got up and dressed and headed out to McDonalds for a quick breakfast. That's when she heard the news on the radio. She called her husband, who called his mom, who was on the line with my mom... Thus, the news was relayed. I sat up in my couch-bed glued to the news. About 10 minutes later, I called to work. Sure enough, they wanted me in about 2 hours earlier than usual. Goodbye lunch, goodbye rest, and goodbye Meaghan's birthday party... (For once, a family event was scheduled to give me time to attend before work, and STILL it didn't work out). Anyway, as you may notice, I'm pretty tired. Droopy-eyed ... Now that the day is winding down and we are approaching deadlines right on schedule, I can feel the full weight of today. Can I just say one thing? Why the hell did this have to happen? 7 people are dead... the first Israeli in space, the first Indian woman in space... I'm just so tired of so much bad news. I guess I need a hug... or, I just really want one. In any case, I wish that hug was right here right now, but we'll both have to try to make do without it for now. The bright side to all this? I was praised quite a bit today for my graphic on the front page. No, that doesn't sound too special afterall. Mikey was being stupid at 9:53 PM ::   ......... Friday, January 31, 2003 Ooo... summore bitching: How in God's green earth do the higher-ups expect me to do a great job if it takes seven minutes to nudge one text box?? Tell me that. That's precisely what happened today. These computers are severely outdated, and it looks as though there will be no room in the company's budget to buy new computers for the editorial graphics dept. Did I mention that the graphic artists in marketing has brand new machines with 19 in LCD flat panel monitors, Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10 and Freehand 10? Assholes. Got around to calling CPL about my light bill. "Jeremy" the guy at customer service put in a work-order for them to re-read my meter. If the reading was wrong, then my account will be adjusted. If it was correct, they will add a $15 service fee. GRRR!! Can't blame Jeremy though. He just wants to be a graphic artist and design album covers. It's amazing the amount of info these places have on you... Jeremy carried on idle chit chat about graphic arts after seeing what my current occupation and employer are. I think I'm gonna hit JournalismJobs.com ... I swear, this place is getting more and more on my nerves, and things aren't exactly shaping up for the better. Damned economy though.... grr. Well, I could just find another job at a different Freedom newspaper. That way, I can keep my benefits and earned vacation time...... Lily still has those tremors going on... My sister felt around her back and found the spot that is still sore from the vaccination. Maybe Vanessa hit a nerve when she injected her. I think I'll just go ahead and take her to the vet where I usually take my animals. Damn, I shouldn't have eaten so much pizza... Now I'm feeling some tremors. Mikey was being stupid at 9:49 PM ::   ......... Yesterday was kinda hectic.... I planned a full day of laundry at my mom's house, and as I was seperating my mountain of laundry, I got a call from Vanessa. Vanessa, who you will recognize as one of my best friends, happens to be a receptionist at the animal hospital several blocks away. Well, since one of the vet's assistants is out on maternity leave, she has been doing some assisting... As I said, she called me yesterday to ask if I wanted to get Lily vaccinated. She said she would put Lily's name on her account, so I could get everything at half price. Well, that sounded great, so I told her to go ahead and do it, and I would take Lily down in a few minutes. I did, and Lily did great considering it was her first time outdoors. But then came the part with the thermometor and shots. See, everytime Vanessa told me that she would do vaccinations or take temperatures, she made it sound like it was the easiest thing in the world. But, when she got the thermometer, which is roughly the size of Lily... nevermind her rectum, she didn't even hold her down or position Lily the way I've seen the proffessionals do it to other cats. With massive invasion to her corn hole, Lily freaked and squirmed and hissed and scratched... at me... since I was the only one trying to hold her down. She was yelling and writhing and was in obvious pain. The thermometer noticeably did not go in the way it was supposed to. That being a failed attempt, Vanessa wrote some bogus temp on her sheet, then moved on to the rabies shot.... So I held Lily down, and she grabbed some of Lily's luxurious white locks and plunged the needle in... The rabies vaccine was out..... all over Lily... Vanessa failed to actually stick Lily with the needle. She had to get a new needle, a new vial of rabies vaccine and try again... The second time, it worked... but not without a fight from the now VERY agitated Lily.... Next came the....... uh... I dunno what the next shot was, but that one went in fine on the first try. Poor Lily was so traumatized that even when she'd TRY to comfort herself in my arms, she could only hiss. She was like that all day, though noticeably subdued. I figured I'd feel the same if I'd been injected twice and had a thermometer shoved up my ass the wrong way.... So I let her be. Today though.... I did notice something. Lily's still been kinda quiet, not running around like she usually does. And she's having small tremors. Like she'll just start convulsing a bit. It onl lasts about two seconds, but it's noticeable. A while ago, she was climbing on my shoulder as usual, but she just started getting that small tremor, and she began hissing and yeowling a bit. I'm really worried that something really bad happened to her. I really don't know if I want to take her back to the animal hospital where Vanessa works... In fact, my pets have always gone to their competition.... It's a lot farther and more expensive, but the care for the animals has always been good. ::sigh:: ... I dunno. Mikey was being stupid at 3:26 AM ::   ......... Monday, January 27, 2003 Three post's a charm, right? I've held on to this for a few days now... I haven't told many people because, well, I just don't know how to react. Thanks to my very best friends, who will undoubtedly offer any support after they read this post... And here I go, making things all about me again. The other day, my mom gave me some sad news... See, she heard from aunt that my ex-best friend from elementary school is dying. How does my aunt know this? Well, her mom and my friend's mom are sisters. My friend's mom was estranged from the family until last week when she visited to make peace and update them on her son's condition. Jaime and I were best friends from 1st grade thru 7th. We spent every day together, doing normal kid stuff. While other kids around us would play football or form gangs, we would sit around and play Nintendo and Ninja Turtles. We would go to the comic shop every week, get back issues of TMNT comics, or hit the store for some TMNT toys and trading cards. It was an obsession with us. Oddly enough, back then he was more into Ninja Turtles than I was. He was part of the official fan club, he would send in drawings to the fan art page, and he got his letter published in one of the comics. At times, I was so envious of him. But I never knew how good I had it... He and his mother lived alone, first in a run-down apartment near my house (I loved going over... it had STAIRS!), and he rarely saw his father. The man had another family and Jaime was the secret he kept from them. He'd visit with him weekly, but Jaime hated to go. He begged to stay over at my house for the night, but his mother wouldn't hear of it. My mom treated him like a son, but his mother would treat me with indifference... much like her son. She usually stayed in the living room watching tv in silence. There was never any idle chit-chat, never "How's your family?" or even a "Hi, how are you?" When she'd take us to the store, she'd stay in the car or go to the park while she waited. It was odd to me... While my parents drove a brand new fully-loaded Dodge Dynasty, Jaime's mom drove a 1979 ... what was it? It was just a car. Some ugly generic blue car... only one like it in town. There was a big crash on driver side, so everyone had to get in on the passenger side. Jaime also has an older half-sister, who has a daughter named Jessica. By now, she must be 15 or so. We'd go over to their house sometimes, or sometimes they would visit. The sister was nice, and I always found it odd that she would call Jaime "Joe" -- his first name. When Jaime moved from the apartment into a trailer home, we would walk down to the canals. We'd follow the bank all the way to the hub where there was a huge junction of canals. It was eerie and dangerous. But it was our favorite place to go. Or we'd follow another of the canals that led under the busiest bridge in town. That was dangerous too, but also fun. We'd go there and draw, pretend to be photographers and "take pictures" of the crows pecking at possum carcasses, or the trashy water cascading from the pipes leading into the sewer system. Even our gargantuan love for the Ninja Turtles wasn't enough to get us into those pipes. There were freaky creatures that we saw... or thought we saw. And they grew into our elaborate universe... mutants, killers, satan worshippers... We always believed that they lived right there under our noses, and no one but us knew. It was wild. Once high school started, Jaime started hanging out with the wrong crowd... with the loadies and low-lifes... worse than that, the loadies would tell me, "You know Mikey, you'd be pretty cool, but you're hanging out with Joe." Eventually, Jaime stopped wanted to visit. I stopped wanted to visit him. We grew far apart, and I rarely saw him through high school... I'd say hi, but it was obvious how different we were when he was hanging out in the most secluded corners of the school during lunch, and I'd be making my way to and from the choir hall with my new best buds around me. He'd be wearing his Ghost in the Shell tee, and I would be wearing my Structure polo-style shirt... He was wearing faded blue jeans and generic sneakers, and I'd be wearing khaki shorts and Doc Marten sandals. Eventually, I never heard from him again... Until I saw him at school in college. We were in the same major, but he wasn't really persuing it much. I asked if he still liked the Ninja Turtles... He said he had all his old toys, but never really got back into them or the comics. I told him about my website, and he offered to sell me his collection. So, a couple of years ago, I paid $200 for everything that once meant so much to him. Then he disappeared... or maybe I did. We never saw each other again. A couple of months ago, my aunt told me that he had gotten really sick with pneumonia, he'd almost died, but he came through and was better. Then a few days ago, she told my mom that the doctors said it was only a matter time. Just make him comfortable and try to prepare. My god, I'm such an asshole. Mikey was being stupid at 10:32 PM ::   ......... You may have noticed... well probably not... but the site was down for a few days. Those assholes at featurprice (my webhost) never notified me that they were upgrading their systems. I sent tech support numerous e-mails stating my domain was inactive and asking what I should do.... They replied by saying that I needed to go to store.featureprice.com and purchase a domain renewal for $25, send them the receipt and then they'd reconnect my site. I did so, but after not hearing from them afterwards, I hit the live chat tech support (which only worked once out of 25 tries). The tech support rep looked into the problem and said that there had been an invalid certificate uploaded by one of their customers. It was apparently holding up the entire server. I asked if I would be refunded the $25 I spent for nothing and they never replied.... grrr. I hate when companies change things. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it..." right? grr. In other news, I'm getting screwed left and right.... 1. I got my light bill... CPL, if I've only used 1% more electricity than last month, then why is my bill thrice as much as last month? My last bill was $45, this month's bill is $150. What the FUCK is that about? 2. GEICO sends me a letter. I need to get my car inspected before Jan. 31, or else they will discontinue all my insurance except liability. My loan agreement on my car states that I must maintain FULL COVERAGE or else I am in default of the agreement. But since GEICO never notified my loan company about my account with them, I'm ALREADY in DEFAULT of my loan agreement, since they think I have no insurance. 3. My windshield was hit by a rock spit from under the tires of a Suburban on the expressway. I now have a crack in my windshield. 4. Full credit for my illustration for the newspaper's "Iraq" page was given to the dept. "leader" by our editor. Sure he cleared up the mistake, but not without adding a little joke about my hair color... which only succeeded in getting more lame comments from co-workers. 5. The person who contributed the lamest of the hair comments will soon be part of our graphics dept. "team" ... Not only is he narrow-minded, but he thinks his shit don't stink. I got news for him. 6. When said person moves to the dept., we will all be reassigned... essentially adding the task of a copyeditor/page designer to the job description of graphic/web artist. Will I be getting the pay of both positions combined? No, I'll be lucky if I get a raise... anywhere from 0-6% ... wow. Of course, this raise is very overdue... convenient it will be given around the time of this reassignment, no? Honestly, it's time for some rampaging... Mikey was being stupid at 9:52 PM ::   ......... It's been a long time since I've posted, and yes... it's about time I've come back. There are many things I ought to tell though, I'm not sure if I want to say them all. Tonight is my Friday and yet again it will be spent all by my lonesome. I want that one here with me, and I want to have some fun, or just to sit back and be bored... but with that one. Not by my lonesome... again. As it happens, I spent the weekend playing host to my sister... Well, not really. She did some cleaning and overall "momming" in my house, while I slaved away (right!) here at work. Here's what happened... For the past two weeks, my parents' house has been undergoing renovations. The biggest being a new roof. The workers began building the frame of the new roof and were supposed to leave the old roof until the new roof was near completion. But they didn't. And wouldn't you know, the past 3 days have been the soggiest of the year. You step into my mom's house and it smells like rat-flavored gazpacho. Every room in the house, except for the office, had major leaks. I spent the night on Friday, so I could watch previews of the new Ninja Turtles cartoon the next morning (I don't get FOX at my house). So Saturday morning, the blaring TV woke my sister (who lives with my parents) and my cousin (who practically lives with my parents). Meaghan, my six-year-old cousin, sleeps on the bed with my sister... had they stayed in bed late that Saturday, Meaghan would have been covered in debris, nails, lumber, and at least three gallons of water. The roof collapsed just over the bed. So with no place to sleep for the last few days, I've been putting my sister up. She went on a cleaning frenzy, and she's kicked my cat one too many times. Hopefully tonight she'll be able to go back home... My mom moved her now-dry bed into the empty dining room, which is safe from leaks and cave-ins. Mikey was being stupid at 9:20 PM ::   .........