Sept. 12 Round-Up

I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy.
Microsoft came out with a new ad, featuring Bill Gates and the creator of a-show-about-nothing, Jerry Seinfeld:

Blogs, interviews, news commentators, and folks at the water cooler all seemed to agree that it was dumb and pointless - that Microsoft was crazy - that they didn't know how to advertise. This meme, Microsoft's dumb new ad, seemed to be pretty pervasive. The ad executives seem to agree that that's a pretty good start to an ad campaign.
Now there's a sequel. It's wacky, too.

Patriot Day was yesterday. I heard no mention of it. Seven years gone and now it's passe. That's interesting to me. I remember where I was September 11th, 2001, sort of the the-day-Kennedy-was-shot of our generations, but the impact has been more drawn out, I think, and therefore, perhaps diminished in some way.

Wow, it has been a long time since I blogged, hasn't it? The Democratic and Republican National Conventions have come and gone. The tide of the election seems to have changed, shifting notable toward the right since before the conventions.

I worked at the Pan Pacific Hotel for about two months. It's a beautiful hotel with a wonderful staff. I'm still kind of sad that there wasn't room for me to stay. The next time I'm there, it will be as a guest. I thought for a bit that I might get a job at the Fox affiliate, but that didn't pan out, either. I keep plugging away, though. Things will pull together at some point.

I'm unemployed at the moment. I'm interviewing today for a job, though, which I hope will be a better fit, and which I hope will be much more lucrative. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm ready to move on with life - to get my wife back and my dogs back and have a place to call home. I'm ready to get out of my host-family's hair and be more neighbor and less nuisance. I can finally say that I'm hopeful that Shel will be starting school soon, which is better news than I've had in recent memory.

I did a single set of bench presses at low weight and was sore for almost a week. Maybe that means I should continue to work on that. I have cut way back on calorie intake, and at least while I was working, I was climbing stairs every day, so I continue to lose weight, which is good.

Now that Shel and I both have working computers (knock on wood), we've been able to use Google Talk and hang out together online and play World of Warcraft together. It's not as good as face-to-face interaction, but it's a whole lot better than isolation.

I've been learning some more features of Microsoft Office, which has been nice. I'd still like to learn more about computers, and IT specifically, but it's something that will have to go on the back burner for the time being while life normalizes.

I responded to a phishing email today to explain to the phisher that their attempts were fairly ham-fisted and to offer helpful advice.

I'll try to update again soon, hopefully with good news about new employment, and maybe with a photograph or two. I've discovered all of the best blogs have lots of terrific original photography.