Partially Cloudy with a 20% Chance of Rain

by Matt | May 26, 2004 | Imported Entry

I love stupid titles. Sorry. I also haven’t updated in a while. For that I apologize.

There’s not really any update in my grandfathers condition. His brain is still under a considerable amount of strain and swelling. They think that blood thinners will help. As of yet he’s been mostly unresponsive to outside stimuli. That’s about all we know so far.

On a less somber note, Nagle and Jason graduated this past weekend. A big congrats goes out to them. You can find the complete list of graduates here in case you’re interested.

Work has also been rather crazy lately. We’ve had some website abuse issues that I’m not really allowed to discuss and the authorities are getting involved. Hopefully we’ll catch the guy soon.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with Chris yesterday. He reminded me of a few game releases that should be exciting. Full Spectrum Warrior, Jade Empire, Halo 2 and Fable look especially tasty.

There’s an equally exciting list of PC games as well, but it would take me all morning to type. Maybe I’ll mention a few later.

Other than that it’s pretty much just a daily grind. Sorry to be so boring and bland. My heart really isn’t in it today. I’ve got a lot on my mind. I know you understand. Thanks again for all the support guys. It means a lot.

Sorrow

by Matt | May 19, 2004 | Imported Entry

My grandfather is in the hospital. He’s had a massive stroke. They’re not sure if he’ll recover. I’ll let you guys know more as I find out. They won’t know more until the morning.

Matt’s Semi-Annual Complain About Everything Day

by Matt | May 18, 2004 | Imported Entry

I did a very uncharacteristic thing today. I stayed home from work. I needed sleep and felt mildly ill, so I called in. I felt like I deserved it, having gone nearly 9 months without a day off. It was also not entirely a fabrication that I felt under the weather. Apparently things fell apart in my absence. According to my boss, who tends to exaggerate a little, it became so hectic around the office that Paul was called from his day off. I felt kind of bad about that but got over it rather quickly. The main “emergency” work wise is that every girl we’ve taken a picture of over the past two months has decided that today was the day to call in their final selections to be retouched. This, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that their deadline for photo submissions to the Miss Texas USA office happens to be Friday. Of course not.

On top of that, I get a panicked phone call around 3:30 today letting me know that I have a shoot tomorrow with representatives from both the Jiffy Lube corporation and the Houston Texans organization. Joy! Some how these two evil forces have come together and formed a sort of super-evil, where in art directors decapitate photographers for the slightest hint of insubordination. Actually, it’s probably not that bad. Around 11am tomorrow I have to be downtown at Reliant Stadium for a press-conference of sorts, only minus the press. It’s more of a photo-opp for both organizations. It was scheduled to be photographed by the Texans in-house photographer who backed out on them today. Paul, being the Texans official (non-in-house) photographer was first on the “people to call in an emergency” list. The problem is that Paul has scheduled more head-shots for all day tomorrow. This where plan B comes in. I am plan B.

Not that I mind being plan B. Some day I plan on being plan A. But I’m seriously the least responsive person to someone else’s crisis. That’s not saying I wouldn’t go out of my way to help a friend, on the contrary, I would die for my friends, but to be shoved into an obviously tense situation to help out two organizations I could really care less about isn’t exactly my idea of a fun afternoon. Helping a friend is one thing, helping uncaring corporate strangers is another. If I were more involved I would have said “fuck’em, let them call the whole thing off”. But, it’s not my call. It’s not even like we’re trying to take over the job that this would normally fall under, we already have it. We have both accounts fairly locked and shoot regularly for them. They’ve canceled things do to rain before, I say let them cancel one on account of poor planning.

Nope, not gonna happen. Plan B to the rescue.

You’d think after doing something like this I’d get a little appreciation thrown my way. I’m sure I’ll get critiqued on the photos and a nice pat on the back instead. Just once I’d like to hear someone say “thanks Matt, you really saved our ass back there.”

That too will probably never happen. At the very least I’ll have a little more ammo for the “I think I deserve a raise” speech after I’ve been there more than a year.

So, after sitting on the couch sipping Earl Gray all day, I get to jump feet first back into the land’o’stress tomorrow.

Let’s see, what else can I complain about…

I was toying with the idea of sitting down to write about all the things I’m against and why, but that might take a while, and I doubt any of you would stick around to read it. My opinions are so all over the place that it would probably take a small paperback to get through them all.

I actually had about 6 pages written right here, but I’ve just deleted it. I can’t really explain why. Maybe I’ll get around to writing about how I really feel about the war, the economy, gay marriage and whatnot a little bit later. Probably when I’m good and ready. Hell, you could probably guess half my opinions on hot topics and the reasons you make up would probably be more interesting than the truth. So, how about we do that. You make up some reason why I’m against something like gay marriage and we’ll just run with it.

Anyway, I apologize. This post was a lot more organized 4 hours ago. I’ve had dinner and watched a movie since I began writing it so there you have it. I need to get ready for tomorrow and see if I can’t find my suit pants in the back of my closet.

Also, I’d like to send a shout out to both Jason and Nagle, who will be graduating very shortly. I’m really proud of ALL my friends and I wish you guys the best of luck in everything. If you ever, and I mean ever, need anything, I’ll do anything short of whackin’ someone and stuffing them into my trunk.

Matt out.

Quickie

by Matt | May 15, 2004 | Imported Entry

Have to run to work, but found this while I was checking my email this morning and just had to pass it along.

“RIAA, deceit in sales figures”

It’s nothing we didn’t know before, but now it’s just a bit more obvious. The RIAA is fudging figured about how many CDs are sold. And technically they’re selling even more than before, a 10% increase since last year even. What a surprise!