So, I won this contest at work a few weeks ago and won a brand new iPod Nano. I went to the Apple store and picked up my Product Red 8GB Nano and an armband thingy. First video I watched was the Viv and Rusty movie I made, first song was Jumpin’ on the Bed.

I thought for sure I was going to have the normal workload of a couple hours worth of geekery. Oh no. Not even close. I got two new requests from clients, another issue for the Rasputin project with Marty (it … just … won’t … die). I got home and stored the two remaining window unit A/Cs, finally got the stuborn license plate bolt off to put my new plates on, and then headed over to my parents home for some din-din.

I was having fun with my folks and showing them the pictures on the Nano. My Dad and I made plans to paint my house this weekend too. I decided to call the kids. Bubs talked to me for about a minute and Viv refused to talk. That quickly sent me into some serious sad. I headed home and got to work on all that side work.

The Dilbert comic below was noticed by Craig D and I spotted it too in my Bloglines feed … I’m famous…

Around 9pm the phone rang and it was Viv asking for a princess story. After her story, Bubs wanted me to read him a story. I walked to his bedroom and laid in his blue race car bed and read him a Scooby Doo book.

Here’s some more good news… the kids are coming to see me next month. It’s only a couple of days, and it’s so Dana and I can have our final meeting with the mediator, but I’ll take any time I can have with them. I shared the visit news with my buddy Hope at the Battleship New Jersey and she’s sending me tickets to take them to the NJ Aquarium.

I ended the night watching SQLyog churn away at migrating a SQL DB to a MySQL DB while watching Bottle Rocket. I really like Wes Anderson films a lot, they have such a deliberate cadence and although they normally involve a lot of ridiculousness, the characters always feel real because they are flawed.

• The Jeepney
• Eat Me Crunchy – a cereal bowl that keeps your cereal dry…
• Zombie Embroidery
• The Church of Google
• LOLcat Wasteland
• Scary Michael Jackson Mask – jeebus, I will fill my pants with poo if some kid came to my door in this thing

Got a quick iChat in with the kids last night. Bubs told me he read My Friend is Sad (one of the Mo Willems books I brought down for the kids) all by himself. That rocks socks, Mo is good stuff. And it’s true, how can anyone be sad around a robot?

I got a lot done last night nerd-wise. I upgraded a client’s blog to WP 2.2, checked on some ASP.NET code changes for IVCi, set up the curtain rods OSC store to use the new graphics, scrapped the existing menu system and replaced it with the OSC leftnav, fixed an issue with the eMaint SSIS package, and got a little time in to work on the Marty project too.

I can’t wait for football season to start, especially with the Phils doing their annual end of the season choke. The game yesterday was the worst loss I can remember in recent Phillies history. Brett Myers is a good starter, but a mediocre closer. He better be back in the rotation next year. There are a lot of warranted concerns of the Eagles revamped defense. I filled out a prediction sheet for the Eagles season as part of an informal (i.e. no money riding on it). I had them at 11-5. Which means they will probably be 7-9.

I watched Babel last night before hitting the sack, which was really good. The  puzzle pieces of the various stories slowly unveil themselves as all being related (a lá Crash). The scenes with the confused deaf Japanese girl were really disturbing. One thing that struck me was the language wasn’t what caused conflict as the title would imply (to some extent the deaf Japanese girl does struggle with her inability to talk with boys). Within each of the stories or between them, it was really about assumptions and poor judgment causing the conflicts.

• 40 Unusual Websites you Should Bookmark
• Dylan Message Creator

I got to chat with the kids last night and captured the Viv closing the MacBook and sneaking in kisses and last goodbyes. The images didn’t come out too great, but you get the gist of it. I can’t wait to see my kids next weekend.

I finished watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force colon movie film for theaters, which if you like ATHF you’ll love this. It’s basically an 85 minute long episode with cursing. I wanted more Mooninite time, but it was still very good. The opening scene is hilarious complete with a rough metal track by Mastodon interrupting the Soda Dog Refreshment Squad’s parody of “Let’s All Go to the Lobby.” This movie is made for fans of ATHF, if you’ve never watched the show, you won’t like this I’m pretty sure.Before bed I plopped in Good Night, and Good Luck and this movie was really, really good. Based around the confrontation between CBS News’ Ed Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy and shot in black and white, it had all the elements of helping me fall asleep – but no dice. It was excellent.

I worked my tookus off again last night. All the projects got attention, PHP classes built for the new client, revamped estimate for Marty, work on Active Directory import tool, and fixed some validation issues for the SSIS package. I got the house vacuumed, cooked something resembling gumbo (kielbasa, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, shitload of cayenne, oregano, bay leaves), cleaned the cat box, and did the dishes.

This weekend, I’m going to really break these running shoes with a 5 mile run. I’m going to dedicate half a day to making some music and hopefully get a little closer to finishing It Will All Be Over Soon. Hopefully, I’ll get Yogi to the lake for some dog paddling with a tenacity unforeseen by dogkind.

• For Sale By Mental Patient
• Are You Amy Winehouse Flowchart Infinite Loop Detection Flowchart WWGBD? Panflute Flowchart and The Only Flowchart You’ll Ever Need

I got the error trapping put in place for the SSIS package, built another PHP class for the new client, and did some more work on the Active Directory Import Tool for the old employer. While working, I looked over my shoulder and snapped this picture of Ziggy holding Yogi’s paw (and Yogi with his nose up the cat’s ass).

I ate some pretty badly frost-bitten waffles for dinner. But maple syrup and butter happens to be a great cure for frost bite. I’ll have to remember this during the winter. Perhaps coat my windshield with it to avoid frozen whippers.

I got to chat with the kids briefly on iChat last night. Viv was ready to go and she was closing Dana’s laptop, but I kept saying good bye. I should have taken a screen shot of this. From my view point, I could see the laptop closing and then Viv would peek down and say something silly back. I’d just see one of her beautiful eyes or her smile. She’d stick her lips puckered up in the space between the top and bottom half of the nearly closed MacBook.

• Bald Cock (SFW)
• Bulletproof Backpack – quite possibly the most symbolic statement of our fear based society ever made.

While riding my bike over the Hiawatha Trail Bridge this morning, I looked down onto the spillway and noticed a turtle crawling up about to do himself in. In my head, I became a police officer trying to talk him down from the ledge, “Don’t do it turtle! You’ve got so much to live for, think of your wife and kids that love you….”

Then I thought, fuckin’ lucky turtle…even metaphorically, I’m depressing. I think the turtle felt bad for me, he crawled back down and swam away.

There’s a bad bone inside of me
All my troubles started there
And all the cracks are adding up to be
A little more than you can bare
When I met you, you were bitter still
From a scar you’re never gonna show
And I was cursed with a jealousy
That’s killed every love I’ve ever known
“Bad Bone” by The Frames

So yesterday, another phone call, another car bill, this time it’s $1600. Dana and I have it worked out so that I’ll see some of this come back to me at the mediation closing. In the meantime, this nut is getting impossible to cover, I need to hire some squirrels or something… squirrels made out of money that is.

Needless to say, that phone call sent me in a tailspin of feeling horrible. I left work immediately afterwards, took two ativan and then worked on some side projects, because sitting still sucks. I finished the junk room. I did some work for the lawyer websites. I worked on the OS Commerce store. I put some changes into the SSIS package.

I read some more of Wicked, which has been really good so far. A disconnected from reality novel is precisely what I need right now.

I talked to the kids last night. Bubs isn’t too big on talking on the phone, he usually just makes a bunch of silly noises and says very little. Pumpkin told me she had to go after a minute or so because she had to go watch Strawberry Shortcake (a movie I sent her). I’ll take these short phone calls, they help me limp through days like this.

I also talked to my parents for the first time in probably a month last night. I’m so embarrassed for what I am right now, I just hate being around family right now. Actually, the family isn’t so bad, it’s the me.

• Sarcastic Haikus
• Atlanta NAACP Thinks Vick Should Be Allowed to Play After Jail – the stance the NAACP is taking in this article is amazing enough, but read Stephon Marbury’s quote comparing dog fighting to hunting… I’d like to point out that Stephon only attended one year at Georgia Tech and does not in any way shape or form represent the intelligence of our alums.
• Finnish Cover of YMCA – wow