Jimmy.Brainflush.com

Winter arrives in the Windy City.
My automobile thermometer read 31 degrees before rolling down into the Millenium park garage this morning. Yes, friends, winter has arrived in the city.

It was so tempting to stay in bed this morning, what with the cold wind whipping up against the house. I woke up a few times in the middle of the night; nothing major, just par for the course when you’ve gone to bed at 7:30.

I’m going to be hanging out in the city this evening with ABC, and hope to work out either after that, or tomorrow morning.

I’m reallly happy with the progress of things. It’s steady, enjoyable and all together fine.

These lyrics sum up how I feel right now.
1 2

Still my heart
and hold my tongue

I feel my time
my time has come

let me in
unlock the door

I never felt this way before…

and the wheels just keep on turnin’

the drummer begins to drum

I don’t know which way I’m goin
I don’t know which way I’ve come.

Hold my head
inside your hands

I need someone
who understands

I need someone
someone who hears

for you I’ve waited all these years.

For you I’d wait
till kingdom come

until my day
my day is done

And say you’ll come
and set me free

Just say you’ll wait
you’ll wait for me.

In you tears
and in your blood

In your fire
and in your flood

I hear you laugh
I heard you sing

I wouldn’t change a single thing..

And the wheels just keep on turning..
the drummer’s begin to drum
I don’t know which way I’m going..
I don’t know which way I’ve come.

For you I’d wait ’till kingdom come..
til my days my days are done..
say you’ll come and set me free..
just say you’ll wait
you’ll wait for me..

just say you’ll wait
you’ll wait for me..

just say you’ll wait
you’ll wait for me..

Lyrics copyright coldplay.. 2005, etc.

Teams are cool.

I’ve been busy.

Home this weekend.
Wow. I’ve got a great team.

Yeay!

We’re all onboard with the same directives, which I think is really half the battle. It turns out, fair reader, that this was the right decision.

YEeehaa!

So I’ve got a buttload of work ahead of me, but it’s happy, agreeable, manageable, joyful labor. I find myself happy to come into work in the mornings now.. very happy.

Also after driving for the past number of days, I realize how much more relaxing, quick, and overall stress free the train is.

I forgot to set my alarm last night, but went to bed early enough that at around 6:12, I woke up on my own to a hornlike sound my nose was making.

Aren’t you glad I shared that? I am!

I’ll be here in Chicago this weekend which is a relief.. I hope to get some work done around the house, and celebrate mom’s birthday a bit.

I’ll try to get back on schedule.

Cheers,
Jimmy

MCDBA to be deconstructed
TO gets TKO’d
Terrorists in Australia caught saying “That’s not a knife. “That’s a knife”"

Audioslave concert tonight, and I’m exhausted. I’m hearing good things about my buddy Brian at work, which is great for him.

Took a walk in Millenium Park this afternoon, and it was fall just a bit cooler with a bit more of an edge. The way I like it.

It’s amazing how many Abercrombie/Gap/BrooksBrother couples abound in this city; it’s much less authentic than say, New York, where those wearing high fashion actually are in high fashion.

Summer seems like a long long time ago.

It is after all, November. Thanksgiving is two weeks away. Wow.

I’m really tired and hoping tea will wake me up for this evening.

Drive In, Drive Out

Contemplating Life

Heaving Winds
I’m not careful enough with most things, most importantly my life. As I’ve done a bit of referential reflection over the last few years, my frames of references all relate back to work.

That’s an extremely sad thing to admit and understand. 03? That was the year we did the Exchange upgrade. Is that what I want to have printed on my headstone? The man who worked at nights for 4 months to help convert every mailbox?

Obviously not. But didi I enjoy that process? Yeah, I did. It was great being able to be home all day. It was great to take on the nightly challenge. I got to watch the first 3 months of the war in Irag live as it happened via cable tv. Who else, other than the unemployed or the embeds can say the same?

Blah. My point, and yes, I do have one, is this: The mini-vacation I’ve been on is ending. The one that started back in mid-September with my 2 week notice is over. I’m actually being productive enough now at the office that I had to jam this little session into my late-morning break which should have been a mid-morning break, which will, inevitably, slide into the noon lunch hour.

That is just how it goes. Period. End of story.

I saw the United ad with the guy who was looking for the new job, and in it I saw myself and got emotional.

That’s what we need. Emotional ties to advertisements will get everyone involved in whatever you’re selling.. it’s why I know the Budweiser radio theme in my head.. and I don’t drink.

So, I’ll probably download that damn spot.. because it’s an incapsulation of this little mini-moment of my life. It’s the one with the guy who goes for the job.

Well done, guys. Well done.

carnuba wagons
dead pets
happy phones
I went to the TigerDirect outlet store in Orland last night, and if that sounds redundant, like a “Walmart Closeout Store,” then you’re more like ME than you think!

To put it into one word, it was awesome. I had a momentary flashback to Field of Dreams, when Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta, asks, “Is this heaven?”

I’m a nerd.. Oh well.

All is now officially well in the world.

I have had a very productive day. And I’m actually talking about work, here. Trust me, no one is as shocked as I am.

We’ve set baselines and completed the configuration process utilizing a slipstreamed configuration for global servers, which really is no small task.

We ported the original packages and config libraries from the initial Compaq installation and everything is running okay. We hit a few snags on the server password, but after that slight problem, all appears to be well.

We’ll know more tomorrow, but so far, I’m pretty happy with that.

It’s fun to play in the tech playground again.

Jimmy

Just because you can say something, doesn’t mean you should.

A guy who I was listening to this morning on the train, one of these overweight obnoxious cell phone/gutteral sound makers, started asking his @home wife what she was watching on the TV.

I assume she mentioned something about Karl Rove because he mentioned the idea of kidnapping Karl Rove, I think as a joke, and the kinds of questions he’d have ‘for a guy like that’.

It was in that moment that I wished I was a secret agent, and that I might have the magical powers to take the Fat Man down, to cheers from the fellow passengers as I hauled another annoyance from the world.

“We’re sorry sir,” I’d say, in a voice not unlike Huey Lewis into the microphone in Back to the Future, ‘you’re just too annoying.’

I got free tickets to Audioslave from Q101 next week.. how sweet is that? So, life is good. Other than that, I still am not receiving any mail in my inbox, and that, to some extent, bothers me.

If you’re listening to q101 on Saturday, around 2, that’ll be my shuffle you hear. Game on.

The flu shot didn’t hurt that much last night. It is however bringing me mild bouts of pain this morning.

One of my favorite all-time movies, Pleasantville, was on last night. Wow. was I a different person when I saw that. Or was I?

“I used to sit by the window, by the trees, where I could see the squirrels, and they were merry.”

Stephen Root as Milton in Office Space.

Microsoft Kills the MCSE
SQL 2005 Launch is Inconveniently Scheduled

The Metaphor Post

Doesn’t Metaphor look like some kind of drug to help with erections?

I was just feeling merry but didn’t have the merriment to match. Dr. Kenneth Lay and Metaphor fixed that ‘phor’ me.

I had ideas, I tell you.. visions of grandeur. But like most things in my life, I either left them or threw them away. Surprise smuprise.

So, like I said this morning I was happy. I will attempt to describe this feeling in efforts to bring it back like an ER case that’s not looking good in need of the paddles. Dammit! I think that’s a simile.. maybe not.

I don’t know why I was happy. Actually, I think it had something to do with my walk. I found a new way up the Madison Union station walkway that has greatly reduced my walking time. I think I got a few mutual smiles and that helped contribute to my buoyent attitude.

My shoes are fitting well enough too - that helps.

What doesn’t help is 2 - 4 PM. It’s the worst part of the day. If I could avoid doing anything between those hours I think I’ll be fine.

But I digress..

It’s getting darker out earlier now.. and that contributes to the melancholy.

We’re all lucky and should be happy.

I heard about a guy to day who had a nice trading job at the Merc, got settled, bought a nice house in Winnetka, lost his job and then, just lost it. He started robbing banks and dry cleaners.

He got caught because he wanted to get caught, to find a way out when there was no way that he saw of getting out.

Flu Shots

We had flu shot day in the building today, and I think there’s a lot of room to make the Flu season a bit more exciting… and I don’t mean “Bird Flu” exciting, I mean.. like ’tis the season exciting.

Walmart’s across the land could have a huge tie-in sale because there’s nothing people like more than a sale.. they’re like the new parades. People line up in their minivans early in the morning, get their Starbucks, and WHAMMO! before you know it it’s noon, you’ve hit Target, Burberry, Bed Bath and Beyond, and you’re ready for the ol’ reliable 25 cent Starbucks shot at Nordy’s, a shorthand for Nordstroms that I borrow here from Heather, who still ranks among the hottest women I’ve ever met.

I still can’t remember her last name though. I do, however remember her leaving her pantyhose at Dick’s near the tail end of the life of the Flats in Cleveland a few years back.

It was the same night I arrived late, and Nancy I’m still sorry for being late and the rain and it getting in your jeep that night. Furthermore, do you remember the homeless man we ignored by your jeep as we talked and snapped the cover on and kept talking to avoid confronting his being so real, so there, so human just like us? Just like the man in Winnetka who got to the bank and got caught, got relief, and got religion, and now,

just might get his kids to understand.

Fall Maintenance
Football
It’s been a busy weekend. A look at a few of the numbers:

628: Miles Driven between Home Depot, Starbucks, and Ford Field in Detroit

9.5: Hours spent in my car

15: Dollars lost playing blackjack in the Old Greektown Casino

1: Number of overtime drives needed for the Bears to finally do away with the Lions.

I spent Saturday cutting grass, which I haven’t done in at least 8 years. It felt really strange. My yard is essentially the same as it has been since I was a wee lad, save for the larger trees, new bushes and the different lawn mower.

I also replaced the filters on mom’s furnace and humidifier. The humidifier helped me realize that the things that we don’t know can, and often do, seem much more complicated than they really are. It’s a lot more about not knowing that makes it seem so insurmountable.

Yesterday I went and saw the Bears play the Detroit Lions in Detroit with some friends from Cleveland. It was a lot of fun and good to reconnect. The game was great, and we won it in overtime.

Work has been moderately busy today. This week we’ll ramp up for the kick-off meeting next week. I can’t wait to get the ball rolling. The vision is crystalizing, which is a great confidence-booster.

Later on,
Jimmy