Vuvuzelas for BP

If you have watched any of the world cup matches you will have heard what sounds like a swarm of insects in the background. This is not because South Africa is being invaded by a horde of locusts, but rather because the locals like to blow on cheap plastic horns for two straight hours. Seeing how annoying this is, a forward-thinking individual decided to gather some money to hire people to blow vuvuzelas at the BP headquarters in the hopes of annoying the poor people who work there.

Part of me thinks that this is hilarious, and part of me thinks that this is just mean. Let's be honest here, it is the poor sods that work the trenches that will have to bear the brunt of this, as the executives can just jet off to Cabo during the whole thing and say it is a "strategy session." But, still, the idea of expressing displeasure by blasting vuvuzelas at someone is pretty hilarious.

General Update

I don't usually go almost two weeks between posts, but there hasn't been many exciting things going on. First of all, I'm working in St. Louis for the next three months or so, so I don't have any new travel stories to share. Second, I've been watching a fair number of world cup matches and while they are generally fun and interesting, putting up a blog post getting all excited about the latest David Silva goal really isn't my style.

Something interesting did happen last weekend, though, as I turned 36 years old. Oh, and on Monday I had a CT scan done of my head as one of my doctors thinks my sinuses are all messed up. But blogging about medical conditions is boring. Maybe I'll find something interesting to write about soon.

Worst Case Scenario

From xkcd.

Back when I was younger, my father liked to play a game with my brothers and I where we would try to figure out the "worst case" of whatever possible thing we could think of. If I remember correctly, the ending was always the world being destroyed in a massive fireball. That doesn't happen in this scenario, but you have to admit that James Carville riding a burning alligator is a pretty awesome image.

100,000

My trusty Impala finally got to 100,000 miles this morning on the way back from Gold's Gym. To be honest, I figured I would get here quicker than 8 years and 2 months, but it is what it is. I hope this isn't some kind of secret code to the car to start completely falling apart.

Greetings from Seattle (again)

I am back in Seattle today. I flew in this morning, did some work, ate dinner at Naan 'N Curry, and am now at one of the two Marriott Courtyards in Tukwila, WA. The thing is, it isn't completely clear why I am even here. The people I am auditing are in St. Louis, which is where I live. You would think I could audit them from there more easily than from ~1200 miles away, but I go where the client tells me to go. I'm only here for a few days, though, as I fly back to St. Louis on Wednesday. It's kind of one of those "much ado about nothing" situations where you head all over the place so that someone can watch you sit at a desk. Just watch, next week I'll be in St. Louis and be auditing people in Seattle. Ain't life something?

A Significant Change

For as long as I can remember, I have been a pretty musical person. I have sung in choirs, I have played three different instruments, and I have purchased lots and lots of recordings over the years. When I think of past events, I tend to hear specific songs in my head that are indelibly linked to those prior events. So it might seem kind of strange to everyone that this afternoon I boxed up most every CD that I own and put them in the basement.

Why would I do such a thing? Well, it turns out that having all of my music on my iPod, and hooking said iPod up to my stereo via a simple audio cable, is a simpler way to listen to music. It also frees up some space in my living room, which is no mean feat. I got the idea to do this about three weeks ago when I took down all of the pictures and posters off the walls in my home in preparation for having a new roof put on (no use in having them fall off the wall with the constant banging and vibrations from the roofers). Rather than just putting everything back up in the same place it came from, I am taking the opportunity to redecorate. Down comes the old family picture from 1998, up goes the photo of my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces as just one example. So, I figured, while I was doing that, maybe I should deal with that pile of CDs that I really wasn't listening to anymore since I had everything on my iPod.

The only CDs left are most my anime and video game soundtracks, which were stored in a different CD rack than the others. I've got about half of those ripped to iTunes, and once I get them all (well, the ones that aren't lousy, anyway) they will also go into boxes and then I will have no music CDs left for general listening. The only impact this is going to have is on my music listening in my car. This would normally be a big sticking point, but recently I have found that I spend most of my time in the car listening to the 101.1 ESPN radio station here in town, and if I'm not listening to that I'm listening to KDHX or some other music station. So, I don't think this is going to have much of an impact at all, actually. This also means that if I can't get it digitally, I'm going to think twice about purchasing any new music on a physical CD, since I have nowhere to put it anymore.

Small World Syndrome

The hotel that I am staying at this week in Renton, WA is literally around the corner from the world headquarters of Wizards of the Coast.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled internet surfing.

Problems

My A/C died over the weekend. I noticed last week that it was having trouble cooling my house, and then on Sunday I realized that it wasn't putting out cold air anymore. In a brilliant piece of timing, I am in Seattle this week, so I can't get it fixed until over the weekend. Which also means that I will miss my second cousin, Stephanie Nelson, getting married in Paola, KS next weekend. Then, today, I was flying to Seattle for business. Fog kept us from landing in Chicago for about two hours, which meant I missed my connection, which meant I got to sit in the Midway airport for six hours, so I completely missed what I was coming to Seattle to do, anyway. Ain't life grand?