And so dies my 360. And in 3-4 weeks it will rise anew. *sigh*

For everyone who searches for "working for Google" and makes posts here in the comments section, please read this note:

No member of The Touched collective currently works for Google. None of us have worked at Google in quite some time. Any information you may want or need we are unable and/or unwilling to provide to you. We cannot get you job interviews. We cannot get your project looked at. We cannot get you a guided tour. We cannot tell you anything about any projects past, present or current at Google. More than likely (and I can't say for certain since I NEVER worked at Google) anything that you might want to know about that we, as a collective, do know about, we could not tell you anyway, as I suspect Google has people sign non-disclosure agreements and the like. I understand you're desperate, needy, wanting, looking for answers, but when it comes to Google, we cannot provide you any information of any kind beyond what you can find by, well, Googling it. I realize this may sound harsh, mean, cruel, biting and spiteful, but really, I'm just tired of seeing people ask the questions. We can't tell you anything about Google, and even if we knew anything, we wouldn't be able to tell you anyway. Geez.

Also, I turn 31 today. So, y'know, here it goes again.

Cliff and a 5' asian guy walk into a Gamestop. 5' Asian guy gets to counter first. "Hi, welcome to Gamestop," says the man behind the counter, "can I help you?" The Asian guy nods. "Yes, I'm here to pick up my preorder of JESUS FUCKING CHRIST IS THAT THE FUCKING BOX?"

Cliff steps up to the Gamestop employee. "Yes, I'm also here to pick up my copy of 'Yes, I'd Like Help To My Car With That.'"

Rock Band. Please note: Despite weight and size of box, box does not contain actual groupies.

I have to agree with Rolling Stone on this.
Be sure to check out the link.

Side note to Dev and Kitty: sadly the pie chart proves that it's a '64 Impala and not a 6'4" Father. I stand corrected.

Holy crap! Fury In The Slaughterhouse is doing a goodbye tour in Germany and My Bloody Valentine is playing three shows in England next year as well! Dogs and cats, living together.... MASS HYSTERIA!

I have now bought 4 tickets to Bill Cosby next year in Reno. They are good seats. I realize it's a LONG way off (it's Sept. of next year, for the love of god) but I figure seeing Cosby doing standup once would be completely worth it. If you have an interest in going to this show (and you think you'll still be speaking to me in Sept. of next year) then let me know.

Oh, the beard's gone. Didn't take.

What a weird week.

So last week you may have heard we had an earthquake. Not a big deal, but enough of a shake to send my roommate and I bolting for the door of the house, and set our chandelier swinging left and right, which, y'know, was fun. The cats were freaked for a while afterwards and there wasn't any damage to the house. A statue my brother gave me a long time ago fell and shattered, which made me sad, but the world didn't collapse and we didn't fall into the ocean, so all's fine. A couple of people have said I shouldn't have even blinked in regards to this, and to those people, I invite them to come and live in tornado country, and when the tornadoes touch down, say, five miles away from us, I'll be calm as a cucumber while they'll be freaking out. I wasn't that shaken up by it, just taken off guard more than anything. But, y'know, when the house shakes enough to knock things off shelves and make chandeliers swing, well, that's worth writing down, if you ask me.

Also, this just in, my eyes are getting worse. Big surprise, honestly. No, really. Seriously. Who'd have thought it? ... sorry, let me turn that sarcasm overdrive down. So, yeah, eyes = worse, with new lenses for my glasses and sunglasses coming. I'm going to try and spend more time at the computer without my glasses on, but we'll see how much help that has. Supposedly it may make my eyes work more and therefore get stronger, but there's no guarantees of that. To be fair, I sort of expected this. Both of my parents wear either glasses or contacts, so bad eyesight (along with thinning hair, alzheimers, cancer, heart conditions, etc...) runs in the family. Just another thing on me that no werky two güd. New glasses will arrive next week some time, and set me back a few hundred.

Even more weird news -- I'm actually vesting for a portion of my stock options at work this month. I literally have almost no idea what that means and how to handle it, if I'm in fact doing anything at all. I've written an email to the guy who manages my trust fund back in Nebraska, and we'll see what he shoots back in terms of what I should keep in mind and what I have to worry about. The last time I had stock options, the strike price (the price you pay for them, which is fixed, and supposed to be below the actual sale price, if the market's good) was always higher than the sell price from the minute I walked in the company until the day they laid off all thirty-something of us. Now I knew I had options when I joined the company, but hey, it's me, and I'm paranoid and I figured I'd worry about what they meant when the day came. And, hey, look at that, my one year anniversary with the company is less than two weeks away. In fact, by this time last year, I'd accepted the job here and was taking a vacation between gigs so that I had some time to rest.

I've been growing a beard. I don't think it's going to take. May be gone soon. The goatee made me look less... grizzly. I've even considered going clean shaven again, but I never cared for that look. Goatee again, perhaps. And god no, not just a mustache. At that point I look like I need a shotgun and a semi-truck.

Starting to do preliminary considerations for next year's big trip. Ideas I've been considering: Bahamas, New York, Florida (Disneyworld?), Brazil, Chicago, Pismo Beach, Denver, Germany, England/Ireland, Australia, Cuba... really, I'm open to ideas and discussion. We're not going to do Vegas again, and San Diego is the domain of the Comic Con runs (for which there is already a hotel room reserved). L.A. never feels like a real getaway, so I'm thinking the vacation should be something a little more ambitious. That probably means a little more time spent in travel and a little less time actually spent there, but that's okay, I think. The Germany idea is perhaps a slightly selfish one. My favorite band, Fury In the Slaughterhouse, is calling it quits after 20 years, and is doing one last tour through Germany (they're a German band, but sing in English) and I have to admit, I'd really love to see them live before they called it quits. But I don't know that I can justify flying to Germany for a concert and coming back. (Yes, I know you can justify flying to another country for a concert, Dom, but you have more disposable income than I do so shush.) Still, I keep looking at their site and the idea tempts me. Still, I'd have to go by myself, I'm sure, unless I talked the group into doing it, which somehow I don't think I can do. Nor do I expect other people have the disposable income to just jaunt off to Germany with me for a concert. On top of that, I'd have to figure out how to buy concert tickets for a concert in Germany... Oh well. So, with all that said, there are a lot of options for the 2008 Crew Trip. I somewhat like the idea of taking a cruise somewhere. Thoughts on this?

Sean and I have rocked Guitar Hero III amply, and feel good about it. Assassin's Creed is coming in a few weeks, and I suspect that will attach me to my television. I am currently waiting for the Flagship/Ping0 people to get back to me regarding why I can't play Hellgate London. They ignored what I was saying in my first two emails two them, shooting back blanket responses that demonstrated they didn't actually READ what I was sending them. Then they escalated it up to a higher up, who sent me an email with two ideas, one of which I had already tried (trying rebooting! *snort*) and one of which sounded like a good idea, except that the email didn't actually say HOW to implement the second idea... so I wrote back asking for him to explain, and rather than getting a quick response, it started me back down at the bottom CSRs again, who had to admit they had to elevate it, which they did, and here am I, some 4 days after I started this whole mess, waiting to be able to play my copy of Hellgate London... I should start setting things on fire. I'm reminded of how NOT to do customer service. I understand there's a process, but seriously, when someone sends you a DXDiag without you asking, you should assume they know what they're doing, and can make sure their system is above min. spec. instead of telling them they aren't. Oy. Hopefully I'll get an email from them telling me HOW to do this thing they've suggested, and soon. Originally I was going to hear back from them in 24 hours. Now it's 72 hours I'll hear back from them. We're approaching 24 hours from the last email I got from them. Let's see if the next email actually details HOW to do this thing, and if that fixes my problem so I can actually PLAY this game. I suspect this is a weird combination of a few stupid decisions on both Flagship's part and some very idiotic flaws in Microsoft Vista. BLAH. Vista. Microsoft better fix this shit and quick.

Interestingly enough, the score to the movie Dark City is playing in my ears right now and I'm reminded of how good that movie is and how I should watch it again soon.

Oh, I need to go to a framing shop and give them a sizable amount of money in the near future, for a variety of projects. I need to get my Transmetropolitan page reframed, I need to get my two Sheldon strips framed and I have a wonderfully geeky Time Bandits map sitting at home just waiting to look gorgeous above a mantle someplace. But this time for framing, I think I'll try someone OTHER than Michael's. Good LORD that place made it more difficult and more pricey than it needed to be, surely. It also didn't help that they screwed it up and had to have it redone, meaning what was supposed to be a 7 day job took, in fact, a full month.

I'm sure I've written much more than I should have, but fuck it, it's what's up with me.

Your results:
You are R2-D2

R2-D2 78% Luke Skywalker 75% Princess Leia 74% Han Solo 74% Padme 73% Yoda 68% Obi-Wan Kenobi 61% Chewbacca 59% Mace Windu 57% Boba Fett 57%

What you lack in height and communication skills, you make up for in industriousness, technical know-how and being there when others need you most.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


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