My buddy Greg and I went on a quest for a new TV, one to replace my 20th Anniversary Macintosh which has a built-in TV tuner but seems to crash in the middle of TV shows. I decided I wanted another LCD TV, in the 16:9 format (since we’re supposed to have HDTV forced on us any day now) but only about 15″ so it would fit on my table.

Looking for the TV took us to one high-end sound store, three musical instrument stores, and Skyline Hamburgers (as you can tell, I wasn’t really on a “mission”, as it were).

We did finally make it to Best Buy, who showed me a nice Toshiba, but they sent us from the NE part of the city to the western suburbs to find one to actually buy. In the end I didn’t see any on display in the western suburbs, so I gave up for now. My Mac/TV only crashed once tonight.

I think I’m going to look for a TV online. It’s much easier to shop online than date online.

Well, I wouldn’t know, since I’m not Mr. Supersexy.

What I did was got my sister’s blankety-blank Candyswap data at Eight-blankety-blank-thirty and I spent the rest of the evening trying to fix the damn data for the thing. Maybe it would have been quicker to do it by hand, or without drinking beer.

The candyswap thing is sort of like Secret Santa, but with candy and without any attachment to the pagan ceremonies at the end of the year. The big problem is when one of the screechy hens candy swap participants accidentally gets her candy from the same person twice in a row. It causes great consternation and rending of garments along with the usual complaints to the organizer including calling of names. I have the database to try to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Thursday also sucked because I had a stomach ailment with the attendant weakness (even light-headedness) which forced me to leave the joyful office atmosphere of Megacorp before my usual late-afternoon quitting time. And Friday I tried to work from home but I ended up helping my friend Sun with her broken internet connection in NEW YORK CITY (over the phone, even) and had to recover by drinking this fruity drink called a, “Thunder Bunny,” because I thought it would be funny. It wasn’t so funny this morning. The biggest fun I had today was paying $30 for a ‘flu shot.

Oh, where are the carefree days when Il wasn’t addicted to World of Warcraft and we’d go to the strip clubs on Saturdays?

My sister lent me a book and I noticed that it’s full of sand. I went to see the new acupuncturist today and I think I fell asleep again. But the big news is that the hot acupuncture student who I’ve been missing at the gym was there and I said, “Uh, hello,” to her today. I have missed her.

Turns out I wasn’t eligible for the gym promotion, but they let me have it anyway. Thank goodness, since I told off my project lead again and that can’t be good for my continued income possibilities. Not only is he arrogant, but he doesn’t understand that the boss telling me that my project is cancelled really affects my motivation at work.

Oh, and I called the only New Yorker I know and she wasn’t hurt by the plane crash today. She wasn’t answering her phone because she was seeing the opera. What is it with my Korean friends (both of them) and the opera?

I stayed up late last night reading Bangkok 8 which was worth reading, but I knew I’d pay for the lack of sleep. I was fine until after lunch, but then I started working on some documentation and that was putting me to sleep. I figured I’d go home early, take a nap, and then work on the (boring) Powerpoint documents at home. Unfortunately, I didn’t get up until it was almost time to go to the gym.

Note the flat spot on my head. It’s either from the pillow mashing my hair, or my head is flat on that side.

I’m finally feeling well enough (back-wise) to lift some weights at the gym. Not a lot, and Dave the Trainer is experienced enough to have me avoid stress on my back. I even talked to the unhappy girl today, who I hadn’t seen in a while.

I hope I can make it in time to get this deal at the gym. I think I’ll end up paying $1 more a month to add the “all class” (even though I haven’t been to one class yet and I’ve been going to this gym for over two years).

Drinking beer alone and watching football? Drinking beer alone and surfing for pr0n? Well, if your fridge is full of large bottles of microbrewed beer, you wouldn’t just pour it out, would you? And after another day of wonder at Megacorp, what would you expect?

Actually, I have no idea.

I went back to the acupuncturist, who had hours in a weird 2nd story office off of SE 82nd Avenue. The offices included a place called, “Gold Measure, L.L.C.” that I think is an accountancy, a Chinese Travel agency, and the office he was using that had two two small exam rooms and the small office. The whole neighborhood had signs in English, Chinese, and sometimes Vietnamese. Most of the people I saw in the neighborhood off of the main street were Asian. I was so disoriented that I had to leave as soon as I was finished.

So I still have the sciatic pain, but it’s a lot better than it was. I could actually sleep on my back for the first time in days, so I slept in. I kind of think this is going to take a while but the progress is being made.

The new acupuncturist is quite good, but I wonder if I shouldn’t still be seeing my original guy. The original guy is the student of the new guy, and the new guy really knows what he’s doing, but the new guy never cleans anything before he starts. I wonder if I would have gotten better if I just stuck with the acupuncture and never went to the chiropractor. And I wonder if the old guy would have done everything that the new guy did, only not as quickly. Ah, well. Like they said in Ally McBeal, “Bygones.”

Not a heck of a lot. The thing I did to turn my cellphone into a paperweight is something I’m trying again. And this time I don’t have my old cellphone as a backup since I sold it to a co-worker today. No guts, no glory, though I don’t know what sort of glory I’m going to have from just making my cell phone work with some extra features no one will ever see.

I went to the gym today and didn’t do all that much. Dave the Trainer seems to think I need to get an MRI to see if my disc has slipped. All I know is that an MRI cost about a thousand bucks wholesale back when I was a receptionist at a clinic (in the 90’s, when I was applying to med school). It must be a lot more expensive now, and I’m never going to get one wholesale. If my back problems don’t clear up I’ll probably have to see my doctor, who refers me to a neurologist, who then sends me to an MRI clinic, and then I’ll have a radiologist (i.e. doctor who doesn’t like patients) look at it, etc. It’s going to cost a fortune. Good thing I still have a job (this week).

Oh, the new VP came by and said, “Your project is most likely cancelled, but we haven’t decided what to do with you yet so keep working on it.” I haven’t wanted to work on it for a while now, and these motivational speeches telling me that my dead-end job now has a dead-end project is not doing much for my motivation.

I’m supposed to help a guy who lives in low-income elderly housing with his internet connection, and I realized that I remember the guy from when I worked at an ISP. He used to come in every month and pay his bill in cash. If I go see him, his will be the second computer I look at this week. I hope I can fix it.

Other than that today was work, bills, TV. I have nothing more to say about that, because it’s not interesting to anyone, not even me.

You’re probably thinking I’m nuts, but I went to the gym. Fortunately, Dave the Trainer also does some physical therapy and had some weird exercises for me to do and basically did back rehab sorts of things for me. And Timmy’s trainer Dana showed me her microlaminectomy scar. You have to get your thrills where you can get them.

We’re still waiting around at Megacorp, but sadly a lot of marketing people didn’t make it. I’m surrounded by six marketing-ish people, and only one is left. Nobody — so far — in our engineering group has been laid off, but one entire group and my whole management chain is leaving for another group. OK, so I exaggerate. ONE GUY is left in my management chain, and it isn’t my manager. Kind of makes me wonder how hard I should be working on the projects I’m currently assigned. Enough about work.

My mom’s old car is sold, so I hope I don’t have to worry about that any longer. I even helped her get her CDs into her new changer. Now if I could only get her excited about her sunroof.

Maybe her car is too cool for her. Perhaps we should trade. HAHAHAHA. (Too bad I like my hybrid so much.)

I spent the entire morning talking to insurance agents about my mom’s car. When I finally got home, my mom couldn’t find the title to her old car and insisted my dad had it. He hasn’t paid the bills for over a decade, so I knew finding anything in the mountain of crap he calls a desk would be difficult. But I looked for two hours. And guess who actually had the title in her desk?

I haven’t been sleeping that well because my intolerable back pain has now shifted to a painful but much more tolerable leg pain. I’m hoping it finally goes away after I see the acupuncturist again.

And tomorrow we’ve been told is when the heads start to roll. I’m more worried for the guys in marketing, but it’s hard to know what’s going to happen until it actually happens.

P.S. I found several checks for hundreds of dollars in my dad’s pile that were from 1996.

My sister was in bed all day yesterday with a sinus infection. Today she ran the Portland Marathon, and when she went by a coach was estimating her time to be in the 3:15 range. She finished in 3:38, which is a lot faster than I could ever do.

I volunteered at Mile 12 again. The nurse who is usually at Mile 12 told me last year that it was her last time. Unfortunately, she passed away about a week ago. She was only 55 and I heard her second grandchild is due to be born soon. Kind of put a damper on things.

I finally fixed the cell phone I got from my sister. I was going to also fix a computer for Craig & Megan’s dad, but Craig forgot to bring it. It’s just as well. I probably would have broken it and torn my hair out for a day like I did with the cell phone.