my least favorite group of people is 14-year-olds

Happy New Year!

and of course, Baxter here

A picture from Christmas in BR, courtesy of Clairesja.

now the day is over, night is drawing nigh

Well, after only a few days at my apartment, I'm back on the road; tomorrow will be another pre-5 am morning for me. Too bad I can't sleep.

A quick recap of the events of the past few days:

1. My first day of vacation, Monday, was spent entirely in my office. Oh well.
2. Dinner with Ellen, Liz, and Will. We played trivial pursuit. Haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
3. Dinner with Richard and Mary. Pad Thai + nice wine + tea from Mary + "the curb"* = success.
4. Completed almost all of my Christmas shopping.
5. Got my hair cut.
6. Met Faz of "Hello Faz Pizzeria".

All in all I'd say that's a pretty good few days. I expect the next few in BR will follow suit. Maybe I'll even post about them, but in case I don't, Happy Holidays.

-mike

* Curb Your Enthusiasm

on a jetplane

In about 7 hours I'll be leaving, sleepy-eyed, for the airport and my trip back to Michigan. There, my Christmas vacation officially begins (though I will undoubtedly spend at least one day in the office). I can't wait. Snow, Christmas songs, egg nog, my own bed...these are all good things.

Still haven't made definite plans for New Year's Eve, but more and more choices are presenting themselves each day. I'm too tired to type more at this point. Hopefully more soon.

A quiet week

I've been promoted! Starting next week my new title will be "Assistant Product Manager, ProductionManagerPro".

PMP is another product line developed and sold by my company (not the one with which I currenly work). I'll be the second in command when it comes to directing the development process and direction of the product, as well as playing a key role in the sales, installation/integration, and support facets of our company. Lastly, I'll be off the road!

Ok, not totally off the road. I'll still have to travel to a few trade shows to demo the product as well as some of our beta sites to handle beta installations/integrations/support. But we're talking weeks per year as oppossed to months per year - at last count I spent approximately 30 weeks on the road in the last year.

Well, that's the news from Lake Micvatbegon; I'm off to do a little reading.

DeuzeNet

Today, while waiting for some background processes to complete on my computer, I took the liberty of running this search. Both pictures are worthy of at least a smile, if not a laugh.

Interestingly enough, one picture that was common to a search result of myself and my older brother: a headshot of Leonardo DiCaprio. No lie.

Alright, back to work.

(some of my) Favorite Albums of 2005

This time of year, the media seems to run rampant with "Best Of" shows, lists, games, etc. So, today I thought, "Why the hell shouldn't I join the party?"

Thus, I give you my favorite albums of 2005, in no particular order, except maybe my order of preference, which is pretty particular.

1. Illinois, Sufjan Stevens
2. The Mysterious Production of Eggs, Andrew Bird
3. Z, My Morning Jacket
4. Funeral, Arcade Fire*
5. Picaresque, The Decemberists
6. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, Bright Eyes

* I think this was released in the UK in 2004 but I'm still considering it as eligible.