Amazon Loves Me?

04.10.2008

Found in my Inbox yesterday:

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Amazon.com Special Offer: $50 Off a Future Purchase
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who purchased an HD DVD player from us before February 23, 2008,* you might like to hear about a special offer available from Amazon.com.

New technologies don't always work out as planned. We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com.** Just use promotional code ####-#####-##### when checking out. The code is valid through April 9, 2009, so you have plenty of time to use your credit. Purchases from third-party merchants on our site are not eligible.

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Not that I blame Amazon for selling me an HD-DVD player mere days before the HD/Blu-Ray war was over - I blame myslef for that - but it's pretty nice of them to offer me $50 off. And it's good for anything Amazon sells, not just DVDs or players. Add that to the $300 in gift cards I cashed in from my credit card rewards program, and I'm having a good Amazon year so far!

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Yet Another Random Update

04.09.2008

After Mom coming to visit over this past weekend (and catching up on her sleep), I've found myself having a busy week.

Monday I went to the Correctional Officers Training Academy in Selma to give a demo and get some feedback for work.  It took just shy of 4 hours to drive there.  43 minutes of demo and feedback, then I started my return trip.  I took a break in Alabaster and walked around the local Books One Million and Wal-Mart before sneaking off to Whattaburger for lunch.  10 hours after leaving home, I returned and was ready to flake out for a while.

Tuesday brought me my final shave and a haircut from my California-bound coifist. Tonya is one of those people that enjoys her job and really doesn't need the money, so she gives the best haircuts (and shaves!) in the known world.  Afterward my smooth-skinned face took Gina out on a date where I tried something new at Outback - Tilapia with some kind of crab meat topping served with some asparagus.  I'm not usually one for Tilapia or asparagus, but it was quite tasty.

Today I get to have lunch with Gina thanks to a doctor's appointment on her behalf.  After work, I think I have a play date with Jerry, the details of which I only know include showing him what my plebian knowledge of World of Warcraft can do.

All of this is working oward next Wednesday when I take a vacation and head to Destin for 4 nights! 

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Of Slyboots and Yard Work

04.01.2008

There are days when your brain just doesn't want to work.  That's bad when the brain needed at the office.  I had a fairly easy task today, and it was a task I had picked out for myself.  Mock up some screen shot/web pages to take to Selma Monday for approval.  I started at 8:15 and was off to a good start. 

Until around 8:45, then things started going down hill.

Nothing bad was happening, I was just having a hard time focusing and working on my goal.  It all seemed so mundane.  Looking out the window was a lot more fun.

After a day of fighting looking out the window, talking to anyone who would walk by, and successfully avoiding any obvious April Fools shenanigans, I gave up around 3:00 and came home.  My goal for home this evening was to mow the lawn.  The inaugural mowing of the year.  There were thunderstorms forecast for the evening, but the late afternoon was perfect for mowing.  70° with a slight breeze, cloudy enough to keep a harsh sun at bay.

The first mowing of the year is a time that gets my mind off everything.  I look around the house and the yard, usually wondering what's going to fall apart.  The grass isn't thick enough to clog up the mower, so the actual cutting of the grass goes fairly easy.  I uncovered 2 ant hills, and afterward doused them with left over ant killer from the last ant killing season.  For good measure, I use up the remaining last season ant killing dust by surrounding the house with a light barrier.  Take that you ants!

After a post-mowing shower and dinner, I booted up the computer and found that my brain had returned.  I was able to churn out a little more work (thus not feeling guilty for leaving a little early - I still got my hours for the day in!).  It seems my brain just needed a little break.  Or maybe my brain just likes mowing the grass?

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Frivolity Part Duex

03.27.2008

I find myself on the cusp of another weekend, perhaps a weekend to be once again filled with goofing off and not getting anything important done.  In actuality, one can do naught but hope.

After weeks of putting it off interrupted by flashes of coding frenzy, I've reformatted and reassembled my old Star Wars Miniatures figure tracker.  I still have to fill in the numbers for the pieces that I have, but all of the stats are there.  I managed to steal a little popup-image thingy from the Heroscape website, along with using my ever-favored Lightbox for popping up the stats.  I'm working on a how to best integrate the collection tracker into an army builder - it's fairly straightforward to put a point limit and then build your army to that point.  I'm thinking of trying to dynamically create a PDF that will have all the stats you need for your created army.  Half the trouble of the game is tracking down and keeping up with the stat cards.  Hopefully streamlining the beginning steps will make it more likely for me to talk some of the guys into playing.

I'm also readying myself to jump into the MMORPG world.  My FPS playing skills have been dwindling, along with all of the FPS games starting to look alike.  I have a couple of friends that play World of Warcraft, and although I'm generally anti-fantasy I've been trying to open my mind (I did manage to watch the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, after all).  Thanks to a sale at Amazon, I now find myself in possession of a World of Warcraft Battle Chest, marketing as everything one needs to get in the game, get interested, and go for broke.  I have no idea what I'm really getting myself into.  Probably a whole new batch of 14 year olds that will gleefully giggle when they kill me.

Most importantly, come Sunday I will join Evil Mathias for our annual viewing of Vincent Kennedy McMahon's Wrestlemania!  The 14 year olds can find some other codger to kill on Sunday evening.

As a special Wrestlemania bonus, I tracked down an interview with my good close personal friend Jason from back in November about getting ready for this weekend's PPV.

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Smorgasboard of Whathaveyou

03.24.2008

Back to work after a fun little weekend.  I like my job, but I would have enjoyed extending my fun weekend a little longer.

First interesting link today, via Keith in a roundabout way, is Deborah Sperber's Mirror Universe exhibit in NYC.  She features Star Trek, transporter effects scenes using colored beads and monofilament wire.  Who thinks of this kind of stuff?

Brandon and I were talking about the proliferation of Dollar General stores last week, and he pointed me to an article quoting a woman from Tunica and their local version of the Dollar General. Not having to get dressed up like you would at Wal-Mart is what makes it so memorable.

I managed to wrap up the Lord of the Rings trilogy Sunday night at 7:00. I can no longer say "I've never seen The Lord of the Rings."

Now I've just go to figure out what all I'm supposed to be doing this week.

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