archmage

This journal is mostly public, because most of the time I don't give a damn who sees it. Very occasionally, I might post to "friends only" to avoid drama, or to a select group of close friends, but for the most part my life is an open book. Friend me if you want, I'll probably friend you back. I may or may not read you in return, but it's nothing personal.

I'm a huge fan of Space: 1999, and a big fan of both UFO and Thunderbirds, so it was with a bit of sadness that I learned of Gerry Anderson's death today. He'd suffered form mixed dementia, and was 83, so maybe this was a release. I can't really be sad, as his creations will continue to entertain me.

You'll be remembered, sir.

My phone rang this morning, it was work calling. I picked it up and simply said "I'm not coming in to work today, Jay!" There was a short pause before he replied "I'm not asking you to, just had a question...". I laughed, but I was serious. ;)

Got T'giving dinner, finally, cooked by MIL. Got laundry done. Got supplies at the store. Got to sit my happy ass down on the couch and watch a movie, holy shit. I'd forgotten what it felt like to have a true day off!

House is almost completely unpacked. Slowly but surely looking less like a warehouse and more like a home. Feels good to not have dog mess, dust, and various craperoo everywhere.

Be sure to give snobahr some love at the Friday Pix!

Phone rang early today, 'Twas Kathryn asking for help. Bill and Tina have moved to their new place and got out everything but the (fucking huge) desk, and they need to turn over the keys in an hour. Bill's at work, Tina's useless, could i help? No clue how Bill and I got that desk in there, as it does not fit through the door. Took it apart to make it easier to move, muscled it down a flight of stairs alone, did an amazing job of maneuvering. As i lifted it into the pick-up, I broke part of it. Improved it, IMHO. Ah well, that part wasn't necessary.

Got free breakfast. Ah, greasy/starchy/deliciousness, I miss you.

CostCo run. People in large stores lose their ever-lovin' minds. Plenty of food for the house, though.

More stuff loaded up from the old house, pretty sure that's the last of it. Schlepped 6 loads or so up the stairs to the apartment, and managed to slam my fingers in the door on the last load. Really? Way to go, jackass. Also, part of it was some pots/pans/plates/glasses that Tina donated to us...and they are pretty much awful. Greasy, not well-cleaned, and ugly as home-made sin. Since we bought some really cool plates and glasses for ourselves, think these are just gonna get donated somewhere.

Back hurts, tired, still need to put all this stuff up and get posters up today. J's feeling a bit poorly, sadly. Gotta try and take care of my baby.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up working 7 days in a row. between the work time and the drama and the whatnot, I was wiped the fuck out, no surprise. Only have a little over a day off, and I'm back at it tomorrow. Still, it'll be a short week, what with Thanksgiving and all...and the extra hours last week will offset this short week somewhat.

Finally having a day off, it was time to dive into trying to get the new place in order. I simply haven't had the time or energy to do it, and Jessica's been sick, so the place has looked like a bomb full of boxes went off. I wanted to get posters on the walls, but that was not to be. I did get a lot of books unpacked (thanks go out to Toby and Kristine for the shelves!), laundry done, grocery shopping done, and the house set up a little more. One day, the place might look like we live here, instead of just storing boxes here. ;)

Still haven't called my Mom back. mostly, this is due to just not having much to say and no time or energy to spend on it, but there's a small part that is not calling out of petty spite. Calling me five months after your birthday to try and guilt trip me about not calling you on your birthday when I work 12-hour days pretty much all the time and haven't talked to much of ANYONE is pretty annoying.

Not much else to pass on. A little bird told me that snobahr is going to do a "Friday Pix" post tomorrow, so if you need your fix, bop over there and show her some love. In that same vein, I think I'll start putting the pix I would have done my weekly posts with up on my Tumblr, so feel free to follow it if the mood strikes you.

Well, it's been a long day and I have to go back to work tomorrow. No rest for the wicked!

It was 2003, forever ago by Internet Standards (such as they are). unrepentant ran his weekly "Friday Pictures" and they were a fun mix of interesting shots and funny captions that made it a great way to start the weekend. I, along with many others from across the 'Net, were fans that showed up religiously, week after week. It had been a little while, though, and the toll of life was weighing heavily on him, and he needed to get stuff done. The Friday pictures were ending.

As I said on January 14, 2004, "someone's got to put their foot down and provide that Friday entertainment. I am that foot."

For almost nine years, I've made a post damn near every Friday full of the weird and the wonderful, the beautiful and the bizarre, the funny and the fabulous, each with a caption meant to make the reader laugh, smile, think, or feel. I've had to skip the occasional day, but that's still something like 450 posts over close to a decade.

It's been fun, scouring the 'Net for pictures that I think would be good to include. Many sites, I check regularly, knowing they are good sources. I've had many a shot sent to me by loyal readers and friends. I know of people that have given up on LJ, but who check back each week for the Friday Pix, and that makes me feel pretty good. I'm glad to have provided amusement for people this way. However, I've noticed that the Friday Pix is starting to become more and more work. It's not the pic-finding, it's just the time. My life is in a different place, and I just don't have nearly as much time to find those pics much less to get them arranged, re-sized, and posted. I've thought about this for a while, and it's time to shut the doors on this one.

I hope I've helped many a weekend get started on the right note, and I want to give thanks to all those that have enjoyed the posts over the years. Comments and "likes" have kept me doing it for this long, and it makes me happy to know the effort has been enjoyed. If someone else wants to take up the torch, please do.

Thanks for watching, reading, and enjoying The Friday Pix, friends. It's been a swell ride.

- Moving is all but done. There's a small bookshelf still at Kathryn's house, but past that, we're in and done. Of course, now there's unpacking of boxes, arranging, and decorating to be done. The place has its ups and downs, but overall, we're glad to be here.

- Work is work. I'm still working long hours for low pay, but I'm appreciated for the work. My district manager is making rumblings about looking to promote me to a full manager some time after the new year, but I don't know if, when, or any details...including if I feel I'm ready or even want it. The money would be good, but there are just so many things about the job I don't want. It'd look good on a resume, though...

- Yes, I'm glad Obama won a second term, as i feel he'd be better for the country than Romney. Not gonna engage in any further discussion. Also glad the whole brouhaha is over, so I can stop seeing political ads and bullshit. Well, the bullshit we've seen, now it's time for the NEW load of bullshit, both crowing from the winners and sour grapes from the losers.

My apologies for missing out last week. Moving and working and other factors have really been taking a toll on me. To make up for it, here's a double-sized Friday Pix!


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Once again, LJ makes some changes that don't seem to be in line with the idea of LJ standing out from the crowd.

- At the top of your Friends List, you should see a link allowing you to try out the beta of the new style of F-List, which is more like a Tumblr feed (bland look, infinite scrolling). A pop-out menu on the side is available to change between filtered groups.
- The LJ-cut placeholder is going back to looking like little scissors...AGAIN.
- Some other minor things, which you can read about here.

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Interesting side note: LJ is almost completely Russian, now. The US office for LJ is down to something like 4 people. In a global community, this shouldn't make a huge difference, but the world hasn't stepped up to that level of cross-involvement yet. in the meantime, LJ's roots as a blog site and interactive community have slowly but surely disappeared since BradFitz gave up and sold it, changing in favor of being more like other 'social networking' sites. This is one more step in that direction.

As a permanent account holder, I've held out for years, trying to favor my LJ over other platforms that i felt were not as close to the style of community that I wanted. The 'old style' of LJ is still that, but I fear that that style is either dead or on life support and needs to be allowed to go. Sad, really, since there's nothing else out there like it, and certainly nothing close to it that has the community built up. I'm not abandoning LJ, of course. Just sad to see it dwindle like this. I'm just as much at fault as others; I used to post several times a day, and now I'm lucky if i post once or twice a week. Time gets away from me, I have so much less to say, and knowing others are more involved elsewhere, I go there, too.

Let me try again to put this in perspective. Most days, I get to the garage at 7:15, and leave at 7:15, a 12-hour day. Even if I don't, I'm working a minimum of 9 hours, usually 11. That's 5 of my days each week, and the other two "days off" are spent trying to recover, run errands, etc. So, yeah, some things might slip my mind, like calling my Mom on her birthday. Why she chose to wait and call me FIVE MONTHS LATER to try and guilt-trip me is beyond me.

Especially funny is the fact that she started out the phone call i got last night, mentioning that she'd seen on Facebook that I was moving. So, she saw that I was moving, but not that i was already in the place, and not that i was doing badly, mentally, because I'm working all the god-damned time? Interesting. I swear, no matter how old I get, that bitch can still get under my skin.

And people wonder why I'm not close to my family...

Still unpacking and stuff, so Friday Pix will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow. Sorry!

We finally got enough money stashed that we thought we could start looking for a place of our own. We searched online, got a few leads, checked them out, and found one we really liked. Just a little one bedroom place, 750 square feet, nothing special, but even closer to my work than I am now, and nice. With a fair amount of trepidation, we applied and waited. Computer glitches held up the process, and I called them today to find out where we were.

"Oh, didn't you get my message yesterday?" I was asked. Dumb question; why would I call and ask if i had? Anyway...we got it. Peals of laughter and dances of happiness were had. Wednesday, we pick up the keys and move stuff in. Thankfully, we don't have to have it all out of here with any speed, but we still want to get it down ASAP.

Fuck yeah. out of this filthy house and into our OWN SPACE, away form clutter, dogs, dirt, and other eyes and ears.

Friday....Friday Pictures...Best thing on the internet! (*sung to the tune of 'Davy Crockett", for those of you that know the old song*)


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Well, looks like it's Friday Pix time, again...


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I've had to do a lot of 'kicking out' in the last few days...

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Quick, posting them before I run to work...


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Day off Monday; spent most of it running errands.

Day off today: have to go to Chesapeake for a manager's meeting, 3 hours, then off to another store for an hour, then FINALLY come home.

Yes, it's so great having a day off.

Yeah, so they're late, more like Monday Pix, but that's still good, yeah?


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As typical lately, the Friday pix will be late. I have them, just not enough time to get the whole post up until tonight.