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?