Back from San Francisco.  Photographic evidence here.  And I have returned with renewed purpose. 

You see, kids, there’s a blight out there.  Interpersonal interactions are in danger.  Spicy conversations may be coming to a close… and it’s all due to Vanilla People.  What are Vanilla People, you ask?  Well, to put it simply, Vanilla People are just there.  They exist, and they’re probably pretty nice and all, but they don’t have any real discernable personality.  They seem pretty agreeable, they usually are easy to get along with… mostly because there’s not really any spice to their personalities at all.  That’s why I’m starting up the Foundation for Spicy Personalities.  I’m encouraging everyone out there to revel in their non-vanillaness.  Try to show people that there’s more to life than the blandness of vanilla, because it affects all of us and brings us all down from within.  Bland conversations and people make life less interesting all around. 

The purpose will wait until morning, though.  I’m bloody well tired.

Notes on the past few days:
- I have finally finished plowing through the entire Star Trek: Voyager marathon that was on Spike TV last week.  Okay, yes, I like Star Trek.  You can make fun of my inner geek.  45 hours of it, though… I’m surprised that I didn’t start dreaming that I was actually on the ship. 
- I also saw The Comedians of Comedy.  Very, very funny.  For those of you who liked HBO’s Tourgasm with Dane Cook… well, these guys did it first, and they did it better.  For starters, they are actually funny — I know, what a concept! — and it’s entertaining for everyone because they’re not off doing stupid challenges or pulling hurtful stupid pranks on each other.  Even their onstage material is funny, which is more than I can say for the Tourgasm folks.  I watched every episode of that show, and I think I laughed maybe once an episode.  During the movie, I was laughing a lot more frequently than once per half-hour.
- This billboard is around the corner from my apartment.  I’m considering filing a false advertising lawsuit against them.  You know that theory about if you just spray in all directions, you’ll eventually hit something?  Yeah… doesn’t quite apply here.  Striking out — again.  Getting annoyed — again.  Getting frustrated — again.  Seeing a pattern here… again.

Off to San Francisco for a couple of days after I get off the air tomorrow.  Wheeee!

Well, kids, as it stands right now, it looks like I may not be able to get my 2006 archives back… unless someone out there knows a SQL Jedi Master.  If you do, please let me know.  I wouldn’t mind being complete and whole again. 

I actually thought Christmas was done pretty tastefully this year.  I wasn’t put off too much because people didn’t start playing Christmas music back at Labor Day, and I didn’t see (too many) Christmas decorations until mid-November.  Usually, I’d like to keep things to post-Thanksgiving, but I can understand people’s craving to start things a little early.  What I don’t understand is when people push to start the Christmas season early, then wait until the last-minute on Christmas Eve to do their Christmas shopping.  And I also don’t understand Bill O’Reidiotlly and his “War on Christmas.” Like there isn’t enough Christmas out there, you have to have more of it?  I thought Christmas was about goodwill towards men and all those warm and fuzzy feelings, yet he’s calling for a “war” and an abandonment on the freedom from religious persecution and proselytzing that this country was founded on.  No, Bill, I’m not one of your precious “Secular Progressives,” I’m Jewish — and while I recognize that I’m in the minority in this country, it’s still a little presumptuous and high-and-mighty to assume that everyone celebrates Christmas and to shove it down everyone’s throat. 

Sorry.  I had very disjointed and disturbing dreams last night.  I’m still a little out of it.  And I’m still a little perturbed by the fact that I signed back up for the Hell That Is JDate (albeit with a gift card I got from one of my workplaces, so it’s not like I’m paying for the masochism this time) and that I’ve been checking like once every half-hour to see if anyone’s read the e-mails I sent out.  I’ve already gotten back one “thanks, but I don’t think we’d make a good match” note, which I’m okay with, because at least she took the time to write back.  What chaps my hide is when I take the time to write someone and I see they’ve read my e-mail, but I never hear back from them.  Hey, I took the time to craft an original, partially creative and partially stupid e-mail to them, why can’t they at least respond back to say “thanks but no thanks” instead of leaving me in limbo?  The masochism rolls on.

Yeah.  So I’m going to go back to playing the twisted Christmas songs I have in my iTunes (because when else am I going to listen to them?) and start getting ready for my Merry Day the Jews Take Over activities.  Hope everyone out there has a Merry Christmas ‘n’ stuff. 

Hi, kids.  Thanks to the tireless (and extremely patient) efforts of Joelle and Skits, I’m at the new host.  However, you may notice that efforts are still underway to integrate my archives — for some reason, the new system only recognizes my old pre-2006 archives, which were previously unavailable.  I can’t say “we” because I am doing pretty much nothing in this endeavor, but let’s just say that “people” are working to fix it. 

So, back to business.  Saturday truly was a Chanukah miracle.  My best friend flew into town, and we had a blast.  On top of which, the torrential rain that was supposed to fall… never did.  The skies completely cleared, and a bunch of us were able to pile into the outside patio at the bar on Saturday night and drink to celebrate my birthday.  Pictures available here.

Well, today, I’m 30.  I don’t know why I had that niggling feeling that I’d wake up this morning and feel different about things, because I never really do on my birthday.  Why this one should be any different is beyond me.  Maybe because I kept joking over the years about how the warranty runs out at 30.  Maybe because there’s something inside me telling me I need to grow up.  Or maybe I really was afraid my palm would be blinking.  (Yes, I did check first thing this morning when I woke up to make sure it wasn’t.) I guess it was just rather anticlimactic.

Enjoy running through my archives while I attempt to talk to my new host about combining 2 SQL databases, which is so far over my head, it’s like I’m standing on Earth and the task is floating somewhere around Jupiter.