Progress report

I’m skipping the April Fool’s shenanigans this year in favor of regular content. Here’s a quick summary of a what I’ve been up to recently.

• I’ve cancelled my subscription to the World of Warcraft. Blizzard’s take on the MMO was a refreshing break from the pack in the beginning. Though the game opens strong and holds interest through hundreds of hours of play time, it loses momentum at the end game. I watched the disturbing spiral of a once-strong guild hemorrhaging members as players scrambled to stay interested with life after 60. I’ll add more on my experience later.
• Barco sent me to Washington D.C. on business. It was only my second time in the capitol, though I expect another opportunity in the near future. A smooth demo Monday morning freed up time for sight-seeing Monday night. I enlisted the help of friend and local, Jane, who proved to be an excellent guide. (Many thanks!) Dinner at the Raku Asian diner in Bethesda and a comprehensive night-time tour of historic downtown rounded out a very pleasant evening.
• With tax season in full gear, I decided to file electronically for the first time this year. For all the IRS, Intuit, and the like are preaching the benefits of e-filing, I wasn’t impressed with the experience. After the $30 fee to TurboTax and extra follow-up paperwork, I feel like conventional filing remains a better value.
• Mom and Dad both celebrate birthdays within a week of each other in March, so I took the opportunity to pay them visit. I treated everyone to a nice dinner at a local favorite, La Bamba, in honor of the occasion. We also took time to renew old Cribbage fueds and discuss plans for a summer trip to Vancouver.
• The fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion, was released in late March. After a solid week with the game in hand, I’m confident that the game lives up to its pedigree. Bethesda has successfully enhanced and streamlined almost every facet of the game. Now, if they could only do something about those ugly faces in character generation.

That’s all for now. See you again soon.

Published photographer

I just noticed that the Fall/Winter 2005 ASMS Update newsletter, a publication distributed to those affiliated with the Alabama School of Mathematics & Science, features my pictures from the Class of 2000 Five Year Reunion. That makes me a published photographer! Turn to page 12 to check it out or see my earlier post from the Reunion if you don’t get the newsletter. I’m not credited in the article, but seeing something you did put out for others to see is gratifying in itself.

Thanksgiving 2005

I spent my Thanksgiving in proper form with family in Auburn. Between eating homecooked meals, watching movies, playing video games, and learning the ropes of an eBay business, it was a most enjoyable holiday. A Georgia Tech win on Saturday would have been nice to see, too, but it didn’t work out.

I was curious to see how Vance would have changed, if at all, since he started college. Aside from some new facial hair, my “little” cousin hasn’t changed much. Aunt Kathy’s eBay business seems to be in full swing. She had at least five or six different auctions going while I was there and I helped post a few more. She seems to take it pretty seriously.

Now with the Thanksgiving holiday barely behind me, I’m preparing for a business trip to Toulouse, France. There, I will be receiving training for an upcoming project. I believe it involves a modular software package for PC health monitoring.

Living in 677 square feet

I am now all moved into my new apartment, a pleasant one-bedroom located within walking distance of my place of business. Now, I have the unfortunate disposition of being somewhat of a packrate, which presents two immediate problems with my new living arrangement.

1. I’m now living in a much smaller space.
2. I’m blessed with an over-abudance of junk.

Simply put, it won’t all fit.

I’ve begun rooting through all my stuff and discarding anything that has outgrown its use (a process long overdue). It’s not entirely unpleasant, either. Regardless, I intend to be more frugal concerning acquisition and retention of personal effects in the future.

New address

I went for location when choosing my new apartment. Effective September 16, 2005, my address is 19112 Sugarloaf Reserve Drive, Duluth, GA 30097. This puts me less than a mile away from work so I plan to actually bike rather than drive to work whenever possible. Here’s to time saved.

Apartment hunting in Duluth

It’s that time again. Titus and I are going our separate ways and I will soon be living on my own. I began my search this weekend with the intent of moving into a new apartment by mid-September. I organized my search through ProMove, since they have been very helpful in the past. They were able to help me quickly filter my search for little more than the cost of a few moments of my time.

I visited six different properties this weekend. As of Sunday evening, I’ve narrowed my results down to two. One features a near optimal location with superior grounds and furnishings at something of a premium. The other strikes more of a value proposition. I plan to make a decision by this week.

ASMS Class of 2000 Five Year Reunion

I was in attendance for the ASMS Class of 2000 Five Year Reunion held in Mobile this weekend. The number of attendees was pretty small, but it did include a few choice individuals that I hadn’t seen in years. My most enjoyable moment was touring the ASMS campus and recounting high school memories with old friends. Many commented on how much the school has changed since we were there, but I actually felt like remarkably little had changed. The Auditorium has been completed and the faces of the faculty and students have changed, but ASMS is still very much like we left it.

If there’s one thing the reunion did highlight, it’s how my peers and myself have or haven’t changed since we were in high school. In other words, it made me more fully aware of the need to fulfill certain goals in my life. Hopefully, next time I will be closer to where I want to be so that I can truly look at you without looking back on myself.

Home visit

I returned to Dothan this weekend to have some work done on my car. I usually also take advantage of the opportunity to visit with friends and family whenever I’m in town, and this was no exception.

I met my old lunch group from the Plant Farley IT department at the Broadway Cafe in downtown Ashford for a hearty meal and pleasantries with former co-workers. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and I enjoyed the brief reunion immensely.

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tinker joined us on Saturday for another excellent lunch at the local Red Lobster and afternoon Cribbage sessions. I’m happy to report that "Team Aunt Kathy and I" carried the day. Yay!

My parents and I enjoyed a private showing of Quentin Tarantino’s remarkable Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. The films contain a lot of Asian cultural references that I found interesting. I don’t think Mom and Dad enjoyed the show as much as I did, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

Perennial A/C problems

I took Friday off and journeyed down to Dothan to have my Supra’s air conditioning serviced by Lafayette Automotive on the Circle, slightly east of Highway 431. Lafayette worked on the car slightly over a year ago and found a crushed gasket or O-ring that was preventing the compressor from switching on. This year, they found a leak around the sight glass on what I gather was the receiver-drier unit. The fix was much more costly this time around. A sign on the wall rather bluntly stated that the cost of R-134a has risen 400% in the past six months and prices were adjusted accordingly. Ouch.

Reunion arrangements made

I took a break from World of Warcraft this afternoon to attend to some to-do’s.

First, I paid my registration fees and booked a hotel room for the ASMS Class of 2000 Five Year Reunion to be held on the weekend of July 29. I’ve requested time off at work and made all the preparations. I will be there. A note to fellow alumni: I was able to reserve my room at the same "special" rate that one Jeff C. assured us would disappear on July 1.

I also cancelled my MBNA credit card, which went pretty smoothly. I never had any real issues with MBNA, other than perhaps their limited support for personal finance software. Rather, I decided that I was better served by a proper cash back credit card and they simply didn’t have any attractive offerings.