From 8 to 5

Today marks the start of my 2nd week @ AlaMark Technologies... a company within the confines of Alamo Iron Works, in San Antonio Texas...

I won't bore you with my day to day duties here... it's web related (B2B eCommerce), I'm pretty busy and I'll be traveling a lot in the near future.

On to the interesting stuff... my observations thus far.

I have a 10 minute (6 mile) commute to and from work so I get to have lunch at home... this is a doubly good because I can let the dogs out for a mid-day break.

AIW is situated on AT&T Parkway... about a quarter mile from where the San Antonio Spurs play NBA basketball.

The parking lot is rather large... and I have to walk a decent distance from my car to the office. While the walk does me a great bit of good, walking out to the car in extreme elements (hot, cold, rain, etc.) is going to suck vicious wang.

Below is a photo of the place from my spot in the Car lot. I'd take a closer shot but there's very strict rules around this place... Two of the rules that seem to escape me is the insistence of not having cellphones or walkmen/iPods around. The iPod thing I sorta get... I work at a place where steel and iron gets moved around so it's probably a pretty good idea to have your head screwed on strait.


When you're not sweating the no-cellphone policy here you gotta worry about having your badge on ya.

One of the mandates around here is that you have to have your work-badge on at all times. Aside it giving me proper clearance to enter various parts of AIW campus, I use it to check in and out of work. There's a security guard(s) whom ask you to flash it from time to time... I've been told that you can be reprimanded for not having it on your person and fined in the event that you forget it at home or lose the silly thing all together.

I have mine on a Lik Sang lanyard around my neck so that I comply with all the above items.

AlaMark - The company I work for is a Software arm of Alamo Iron Works... We're completely independent from them, but they're very much our parent company. While I don't really get the hierarchy just yet... I know we bill them if they need us to help them in any way.

There's a hand full of people on the AlaMark team. It sorta feels like a skeletal frame work but I don't really know how many hats I'll have to wear just yet.

My desk is in a large room and I share the room with two other AlaMarkers... Both people are very nice and the room rarely produces more than a whisper.

I get to work on a Mac which is hella cool seeing that I don't care for PeeC's. Everyone at AlaMark pretty much does also... I have a PC also on my desk but it serves more as tech-clutter these days.


A lot of the stuff we have at the office is pretty dated... the chairs, the desks, some of the equipment is showing its age. One of my favorite relics is the Scanner we use to bring in images we upload to our eCommerce Biz program. Not only is the scanner old... it's hooked up to a Macintosh Clone.

Not only have I never seen one in person... I never thought I'd actually have to use one regularly. Its running an early flavor of OS 9 if you're at all a Macgeek and you're reading this.

My phone (pictured below) is a from the Regan administration... haven't be able to figure exactly how old it is, but I'm thinking it's got a good 15 years on it. There's no "flash" or "transfer" buttons on it so I have to do a number of tricks to get it to do simple call functions.


Thats pretty much it...

.alamoCityrollie.

HD and I

Ok... so I penned an obnoxiously long post about my Weekend and my HD TV... accidently closed my Safari browser and lost everything I typed up.

Summation : HD TV rocks ass!

There's not a ton of content out there... but I've seen a baseball game (Sox and Angels) and a few Television programs at 1080i and have nothing but glowing remarks for the picture quality.

There's not a lot HD content out there... so I recommend picking up as many HD channels as possible if you want to make it worth while.


Learned a lot about Video Game Systems and DVD players on 1080p sets. In short... PS2 games have serious Lag because of the upscale difficulties... watching a DVD on my PS2 = shit because of the 480i on the 65" screen.

Thought about getting an xBox 360 for my upscaling DVD & 1080i gaming needs... but found out it only played back DVD's at 480p.

This wouldn't do... so I found a Samsung DVD player with 720p/1080i upscale with HDMI out for 99 bucks. Saw Being John Malkovich on it and thought it looked pretty good.

I'm not going to kid you... it's not as dope as the HD content my cable box is pumping out... but it makes viewing DVD's at home a lot more enjoyable.

I'm not going to make a HD-DVD or Blueray disc plunge until that shit shakes out.

- alamo city rollie -

Someone call the Witch Doctor...

Ok... this is beginning to get really spooky.

In recent weeks I've been posting about my streak of bad luck... Today was no different.

Quick bullet point list of what happened today...

3:48 PM : Had Washer and Dryer delivered today. Set this up a week or so ago and needed very desperately to do laundry this weekend. Dryer was dropped and will be replaced next Friday....

11:08 AM : Father reaches me by cell phone and informs me that my mom has been hospitalized because of severe pain in legs and back Without having to go further into what was wrong... my Mother is currently at home with my Father, recovering very nicely and was given a clean bill of health. While I'm very happy to hear that she's at home and is not staying overnight as we were first told this morning... it made the day incredibly stressful.

10:45 AM : My sister owns a very nice Audi A4 and gets nothing but amazing service and gratitude when she brings her car in for small tune ups and the occasional fix. This morning we finally got around to having her rear light fixed at the San Antonio Audi dealership and we were helped by one of the nicest dealership-guys I've ever met. He genuinely asked us what we had planned for the day... when we told him we had a number of errands to run, he stopped us in mid sentence and arranged a car rental (on Audi's dime) for us to have in the morning so that we wouldn't lose out on 2 hours of the car getting the once-over. Cool right? Sister and I take the car to a local Super Target and pick up some items we needed for the house... while shopping, my dimwitted sister lost the rental keys in the store and we had to search the entire store in hopes of running across the keys. Thankfully... someone with a good heart turned them into security. Not only did the car have all the details of the vehicle it opened (and ran) in the fucking parking lot of Target - we had some items in the car that we couldn't afford to go missing.

At this rate... I'm just going to stay in until Monday morning.

Man Chub

So what does a heartbroken boy do with money allocated for an engagement ring, two weeks after splitting up from a 2.5 year relationship?

They sink it into a 65" DLP 1080p, Mitsubishi HD set - 1 month before the NFL Season starts, thats what he does.

This photo was taken at 12:58PM in the afternoon... 2 delivery men brought the set over but had to build the TV Stand before bringing it into the house.

It's the kinda tech-thing that gives real men a little chub in the pants.

.rawk, rawk and thrice rawk.

Urban Haute Bourgeoisie; an Evening with Whit Stillman

After reading several glowing reviews on Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan" I made it a point to have it be the first DVD to arrive at my new home in San Antonio.

I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this picture for everyone to rent... it is however one of the finest comedy of manners that I've seen in recent memory.

It's part of the Criterion Collection so if you take their suggestions warmly, you should definitely check it out.

.rollie, who is off to put Barcelona in his que.

6110 : Finally Mine

After 2 or so weeks of endless calls, faxes and trips around town... I officially have everything squared away with my new dwelling in San Antonio. The final piece of the puzzle (the Water) got set into place late this afternoon.

I'm about 80% unpacked so I hope to take pictures of the place this weekend so that I can post a proper report on my new diggs.

best,
Alamo.City.Rollie

WEEDS

With very little down time the past couple of weeks I've been watching a number of odd shows on Television until I get back into the groove of watching my normal programing.

I recently signed up for TimeWarner's triple threat of: HighDef-Digital Cable/Phone/Internet

I only have 1 of those 3 properly working at the moment - my HD set won't be delivered and installed until this weekend and our digital phone is out until some time today... but I digress.

With my triple threat sign up, I got a few extra movie channels for Free (12 months) including Showtime, Starz and something else... its not Cinemax tho...

Anyhoo... I've never had anything outside of HBO so I decided to check out Showtime's highly praised television-drama WEEDS.

For some reason I thought this show was going to be a poor spin off or HBO's very popular Six Feet Under... possibly because I heard that the main character loses her husband in the very first episode. (In SFU, the main characters loose their father in the first episode)

Anyhoo... the show (well, season 1) is about a mother who looses her husband unexpectedly and has to sell Weed to support her children and middle class lifestyle.

The show's production isn't exactly on par with some of HBO's programs... the show however has some really interesting dynamics and I've found myself hooked to the show.

Sadly... our OnDemand has been in and out all week so I've only seen episodes 1 and 2. I just found out last night that episodes 3 and 4 are missing for some strange reason... so I'll have to pick up on Episode 5 or go out of my way and put the series on my Netflix...

Anyhoo... check out the show if you get a chance. Season 2 of WEEDS starts up in a couple of weeks... if all goes well I'll be all caught up before the season kicks off.

The Hell of Living in San Antonio...

So... I've been really bad about giving updates about my recent move to San Antonio. I truly wish that I could blame it on being lazy. The truth however is that I'm possibly having the worst streak of LUCK that I could possibly imagine.

I honestly can't remember the last time something worked in my favor.

Just today... after having to wait 6 days for the US Postal Service to re-key my mail box. They've inexplicably gone out of their way to re-key the locks 1 day. Let me repeat that. 1 DAY after giving me a set of new keys that worked yesterday.

Then there's my work email. For reasons which are beyond anyones explanation... My email account won't work on my computer. I've had 3 IT guys rebuild my account and not one can understand what the fuck is going on...

Then there's the quagmire of the San Antonio Water Works... When I moved into my house last week I was told that the builders of this home had an outstanding balance for 3 months of water usage that had gone unpaid.

I contacted the company whom I'm renting the house from to assist me... but I'm now 8 working days from my first notification to them and they've yet to settle the issue with SAWS.


Long story short - the company that rents my house... they pretty much have their heads up their ass.

They gave me a false fax machine and false contact to help resolve the matter. After successfully getting in touch with the builders of my home... we found out that it was sold to a gentleman whose name starts with a "d".

Lets call him "Dick"

Dick apparently purchased the house and is having the company (whom I got the house from) to rent it out for him. Said person has a 3 month outstanding balance... he's impossible to get a hold of and I will likely lose access to water Friday if SAWS doesn't get him to sign over the proper paper work.

What pisses me off... SAWS has proof of my lease agreement and they REFUSE to open a account because of the pending troubles they're having with a guy I've never fucking met.

So... now I have to arrange to visit some time in my day tomorrow to go down to the office of the place i rented this hell-hole from and hopefully have someone fired over this shit.

- rollie

Shameless Ekobase Podcast Plug

Ted, James and I wrapped up our 3rd installment of the EkoBase Podcast on Monday night. It's officially up for you to download directly from the site or you can subscribe to it by any Podcaster means you go about getting your podcasts.

Admittedly, this 3rd installment is my favorite of the three. If all goes well, the three of us hope to record with a bit more frequency. Much to my surprise we have close to 200 people subscribing to the show.... far from being a "success" but how many people are listening to your podcast?

.alamoCityrollie.

The past 4 days...

It's 5 minutes or so after 9:00 PM, July 24th... Wanted to take a little time this evening to reflect on a very crazy weekend.

Picked up my last things at Kathie's house Saturday morning... It was awkward and incredibly painful. I'd like to really go chapter and verse about the feelings I had on my drive there... the feelings I had on my drive back... but its still a little too soon to revisit.

At home, I had some family pay an unexpected visit. This didn't really help the "relaxing weekend" I was hoping to get before I started my new job today. Had a blowout with my mom... but I think we're both over it now.

My sister is officially moved in. I can't wait to take pictures of her obscene wardrobe and christmas decoration closet... It's like a Hobby Lobby outlet in there...

Elliot is recovering nicely from his Ant Bites. He's still taking pills in the morning and at night... but he's doing pretty good. He and I are just about ready for bed.

He's been really getting on well with my sister's dog "Coco". Here's a photo of them both getting ready to take a nap.

Elliot & the Vet

When I woke up this morning... I had a check list of errands to accomplish before 3:00PM today. I planned to tire little Elliot out before I stepped out this morning when I noticed that he had a little sore on his front left paw.

Turning him over onto his back I noticed similar soars on his underbelly and felt them along his back legs. Upon closer inspection I noticed that he had a small one developing on his nose and that he had one on his right shoulder....


With him being sick yesterday I shifted a lot of my schedule so that I could have him checked out by a local veterinarian I knew from visits I made with Abigail.

I'm very happy to report that Elliot doesn't have anything to really worry about. It appears that he was bitten up pretty good by some Ants in our new back yard. Along with some specific instructions to have the yard treated... I was given some tablets and a funny florescent liquid I need to give him for the next 7 days.

He's currently tuckered out on his little couch. Poor little guy... He's had a very rough week.

.a C r.

Sick as a Dog: Pun Intended

So... in my previous post I mentioned very briefly that little Elliot is feeling a bit under the weather.

He's thrown up three separate times today... and I'm now beginning to think that I may have to check him into a vet tomorrow if he continues like this throughout the night.

The past 72 hours have been very difficult for him. He's a little under 10 weeks old and he's spent the night in 3 different locations...

I'm not sure exactly what's caused the upset stomach. He was chewing on a strange bone that my sisters dog likes to eat and I think i saw a piece or two of it in his dog-vomit... Other than that, I've washed his bowls, changed out his food and restocked his water with some of Aquafinas finest.

Hopefully a solid night of sleep will help (both him and I).

.alamo city rollie.

The Locksmith

So.. I'm currently keeping a Elliot (whom is very sick) company on the couch while a local Locksmith is over to re-key our locks. The reason I was given for the re-key the other day was rather long and stupid... so I thought I'd make some small talk with the guy and ask why all the re-keying was needed.

His explanation was far better... I won't bore you with the details but along with getting new keys we're also going to get 3 keyless deadlocks so that the house meets "Texas code".

The process is lengthy and rather noisy. When I'm not bothering the locksmith with silly questions about "skeleton keys" and doing up locks for local celebrities (of which he had none to share), I've been calming Elliot while the drilling and door slamming takes place.

While chatting with guy I found out that he's originally from the sister city (Harlingen) I was born and raised in and his wife hails from my home town!

Small world I tell ya.

.alamocityrollie.

Light At the End of the Tunnel

So... its a little after 7:00PM

I have an internet signal that has been stable for more than 2 hours... I'm hoping this stays up for the remainder of the weekend. My digital cable is out, but I'd gladly take internet over extended channels any day.

It's been a hellish day...

.aCr.

Posting from: Alamo City

Day 1: Diary of the Madman

The day is Thursday, July 20th 2006. I'm currently sitting atop my new bed in my new home watching Mike Timlin take care of the Texas Rangers in the bottom of the 9th on "FOX 4"... normally, I'd write about how awesome that would be. (catching a Sox game on a day off usually equals "fucking ace")

Today... this week however....

Lets go back one full day and recap what I haven't bitched about.

Woke up on the 19th of July @ 3:00 AM to wrap up some last minute packing at my Sisters apartment before the 4 hour trek to San Antonio.

The drive itself went well... if you're looking into renting a truck - check out Penske. The truck was top notch, I was told that they never let their fleet go more than 3 years old and they have really nice folk working at their pick up/drop off locations.

The only memorable moment to blog about... A Shell gas station in a small town outside of Three Rivers, Texas - had one of the strangest urinals I've ever stood in front of.

In the mens restroom there was 2 stalls. One to a toilet that had no door... The other was to a large concrete wall that had a plastic pipe fixture that dripped little droplets of water down it so that you can pee onto it.

I didn't spend to much time in there... I should have checked to see if there was a glory hole by the sink.

Once in San Antonio... I had to race across town to finish the leasing agreement (signatures what not) and swing by a local "Furniture Row" to pay for the delivery of my new bedroom.

The two above tasks took about 2 hours to take care of... a little longer than I would have liked mainly because I wanted to get as much of the unpacking done before the Texas heat kicked in.

Once I got back to the house, I had a chance to step into the place for the first time and really take in the place I had only heard about through my parents and sister. The house is incredibly spacious... It's on a nice street and I have a quirky view from my backdoor patio. (I'll take and post photos soon)

Unloading a truck always feels a million times easier than loading one, but unloading a 16 foot truck (packed to the BRIM) on a 102 degree day is indescribable pain in the ass.

Adding to that indescribable pain was the stopping every 40 minutes to attend to the pets and discovering little things that desperately need to be fixed in the next 5 days.

1.) The house wasn't properly (pre-cleaned) before our arrival.
2.) There's currently no hot water.
3.) I currently can't get the water in my name because I can't get the builders to clear an outstanding balance they've had at this place since March of 06.
4.) The air conditioner is possibly on the fritz... (its missing a filter and it took an alarming amount of time to actually "cool" the place)
5.) Number of outdoor and indoor quirks that will require me to take time and have addressed. examples: Re-Keying of house (long story behind that), the instillation of a garage door opener (apparently promised by company that leased us the place), a visit by a "lawn lady" whom will take a look at 2 dead trees in my front yard and will address (I hope) some dead spots of grass in the front and back yard.

All that shit aside... my streak of shitty luck continued yesterday through today.

Yesterday, my bedroom set arrived and was assembled as promised. The mattresses (to the bed frame) were however *not* on the delivery truck or delivery order. I was able to have it taken care of... but it was an unneeded bit of stress to tackle.

Had "Time Warner" come out this morning (prompt and on time) to take care of our telephone/fax, television and internet needs. Got a phone call from their dispatch center asking if I was at home to greet the instillation guys... when I said "yes", I stepped out the door and saw that they were bothering a neighbor of mine.

When I explained to the dispatch person that they were at the wrong house... she informed me that my address was incorrect in their billing account.

Now... I know dick about what Time Warner does... but you'd think that the changing of an address (literally 1 fucking number) over the phone would be very easy to do...

Well it absolutely isn't. Upon hearing that the address was wrong the dispatcher informed me that the Telephone would not be installed and got off the phone as fast as humanly possible.

I didn't care all that much... my hope was to have Cable and Internet in the house while I spent 4 relaxing days at the new place - moving in, watching TV and poking around the net.

The guys came in... saw that a great deal of their work was already done and they asked if they could access the attic to take care of some cable issues I wanted addressed in the "home office".

Before the guys split... I was told that the Internet would be down for 2 hours because of a back-log of activations. I knew that very moment that something was very wrong.

I signed the necessary paper work once I confirmed the digital cable worked and wished the guys the best of luck in the demonic Texas heat.

Parents and sisters left back for South Texas an hour or so later... I went out to have my car washed and purchased an "approved" trash can from a local Wal-Mart (incase you're wondering.. you can fit a 32 gallon wastebasket in the back of a 4 door Honda Civic with much ease) and got a small bite to eat before I came back home to plop down in the living room to catch up on some HBO I missed over the weekend.

Fast forward an hour or so... Get back home sit back and relax with the dog and attempt catch up on the HBO "Entourage" episode I missed out on this past Sunday.

"HBO OnDemand" is a lot different than the "OnDemand" I had in the Rio Grande Valley (despite both offerings coming from Time Warner) so I had to navigate a couple of screens before I could finally access the episode.

I hit play... the screen confirms the action and then I begin to wait. And wait... and wait. After 2 minutes or so... I thought I would check in on the Cable Internet. It remained out.

I couldn't get HBO onDemand to work... so I tried CNN onDemand - nothing. Showtime onDemand... nothing.

It occurs to me that I should call to get the Internet and OnDemand issues figured out. I end up spending 2 hours on hold - find out that

a.) the Internet issue solved itself
b.) the onDemand issue is going to be a big issue and will require a TimeWarner guy visit.
c.) the incorrect address... a BIG fucking problem.

So.... to have everything corrected I had to cancel ALL of my services and wait till Sunday for a guy to come by and wave a magical wand around the house so that my billing and the promised phone would work.

Its now Thursday afternoon... and I have little Elliot asleep on my new bed while I fold and tuck away some packed clothes.

I turned on the TV in hopes of watching a DVD (I have 2 to keep me company until I swing by Kathie's to pick up my collection over the weekend. Two I have currently: The Life Aquatic (which happened to be "our movie") and Goodfellas.

I turn on the TV so that I can throw the DVD in when I discover the sets without the digital cable box are currently broadcasting channels 1 through 99!

Finally something goes right for me.

- Alamo City Rollie.


PS : 5:19 PM - Stroll into the home office and notice that my airport signal is receiving and ISP????

More to come.

Nap in Edinburgh

Currently laying belly down on my sisters now empty home/apartment. I'm mooching my neighbors WiFi to do this last minute post... do up a little correspondence and look up some spots i have to visit tomorrow morning in San Antonio.

If all goes well, I'll be on the road by 4 AM. the Blog is likely to go dark for a day or two...

Packing is pretty much done.... temperatures got up to about 102 degrees today. I couldn't have picked a more hellish day this summer to put shit in a moving truck.

Over and out,
Rollie A.

iMac G3 : Zissou

I'm about 90% packed up for my trip to San Antonio... currently sifting through items that I can live without for a couple of weeks until I come back down and fill my car up again.

Wanted to take a little time this evening to rave about how well my parents iMac G3 (Graphite 400mhz, 640MB SDRAM, 10.4.7 ) is running. Mind you... the iMac isn't doing anything to task intensive. I've used it to crop some photos, do some personal correspondence and I'm currently have a few conversations with friends around the globe on Adium.

My parents use it for web browsing and very lite email exchanges... so it serves all their purposes without any of the huss and fuss of getting an new computer.

If you run across one, don't hesitate to pick it up.

.rCr.

Vet Visits & Pet Food

Elliot turned a tender 9 weeks old today... along with a round of booster shots and a dose of anti-flea oil, Elliot received nothing but praise for his development and health.

The little guy and I have done a lot of bonding the past three weeks with everything thats gone on and all.

While out I picked up a second bag of dog food called "Eukanuba". I don't know very much about the food, except that it comes in very small pellet form for puppies and Elliot has yet to grow tired of it. The only complaint I have about the food is that it comes in a T-Mobile "pink" bag. Which really shouldn't matter... but I can't help but bitch about it.

If you have a pet check em out.

Breakfast on Pluto : Rocks Wang

Despite an unusual amount of disturbances, I caught and rather enjoyed Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto this afternoon. I haven't had a chance to read the novel its based on (Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe) but plan to put it on my must must buy list...

Oh! Making a nice cameo in the film is Gavin Friday (of the Virgin Prunes).

.rollie in south tejas.

Tie one on

Spent a considerable part of my Sunday nursing a hellacious hangover... Went out to Donald's house last night to have some BBQ and say some goodbyes before I split for San Antonio this week. The next thing I know, I slam 6 Mickey gernades and I'm in the back of Donald's PT Cruiser listening to Death Metal on his new XM radio, off to get a couple of 40's and cigarettes.

I can't recall the last time I pickled myself from the inside out like I did last night... but after the week I had I really needed a night of good company, the Clash and a obnoxious amount of malt liquor.

Act III : the Alamo

After 53 or so painful hours of making telephone calls, faxing signatures, securing contact information of landlords I had in Detroit at the turn of the Century... I finally got word that I will be allowed to rent a very spacious 4 bedroom home, minutes away from my new place of employment.

This has undoubtedly been the most stressful week of my life. I now have a weekend of packing to look forward to...

With that, I leave you for the evening...

ta,
.rollie in south tejas.

An Idle Mind is the Devils...

Earlier today... I took some photos that a co-worker took of me and created an animated .gif for the blog. Thinking that it would be cool to have those photos to music...

I give you Rollie & the AlistersAislers Set (good looking out Ted)

KONG

Finally got around to watching Peter Jackson's "King KONG" this afternoon...

I was more of a Godzilla guy growing up so watching this movie at the theatre was never a priority for me. That and I really disliked how rabid people were over the Rings trilogy...

All the Hobbit hatin' aside, I gotta tell ya... Peter Jackson is officially one of the few directors you can trust with 200 million to make a movie. The King Kong remake is nothing short of "movie magic".

I can't stress how beautiful the movie is. Having watched it at home... I'm a little upset that I didn't make it out to the theatre to catch it.

There's a few "blue screen" scenes that really look bad while watching it at home... but nothing offensive enough to keep you from going out of your way to rent it.

I wouldn't own this movie tho'... there's something pretentious about this picture. As I sat through the movie, all i could think about was how I normally don't watch over-the-top pictures like this.

Also, would have skinned about 40 minutes off of the picture.

Top 3 things I would have cut.

1.) Introduce the Blonde when Jack Black sees her on the street. Had I not seen her until she stuffed her face at the dinner... I think I would have gotten her background without having to see the stuff she did with her previous theater troop.

2.) Eliminate the need to round out the Captain's character. He drives the boat. He has a plan to catch Kong.

3.) Who signed up for Jurassic Park IV?

=w=

While on digg.com this afternoon I ran across a news report stating Weezer is on indefinite hiatus…

Weezer's run a little cold with me since the departure of Matt Sharp… word of their breakup however gives everyone a good reason to listen to Pinkerton this afternoon tho'.

.across the sea.

Control

Just read on Pitchfork Media that Anton Cor-bijn is going to do a film on Ian Curtis called Control)…

While I'm happy to see the rumor of the film become more than just a rumor… I'm quite nervous about all the parties involved doing something that will likely fall very short of what will likely be high expectations.

Joy Division were recently portrayed nicely in the film 24 Hour Party People… so I'm holding out hope at the moment that something fantastic will come out of the film project.

.rollie who has lost control again.

When Photogs At Newspapers Test Settings

Sitting directly across from the photog office at a newspaper has little (if any) perks to write home about... Every once in a while tho', they ask you to pose for a few impromptu shots to check settings on their camera... If you play your cards right you end up with a photo (shot by a person who gets paid to shoot photos) you don't exactly mind to share among friends.

Had said opportunity with one of our photographers yesterday... Here's what I got.



I also put up the photos on my Flickr sets, that way you can see the pictures at 620px (width) and admire my co-workers reaction a little better.

Audi's and Billboards

In an effort to keep the blog off my sad, sappy-yappy mood… I thought I'd share some good stuff I experienced today.

My sister, dad, mom & pets took off (to San Antonio) in my 2006 Honda Civic today, in an effort to save on gas and keep miles down on my sisters leased car (Audi A4). The 5 of them are going to scope out a possible location for rent while I stayed back to finish up my last week in the newsroom.

I have an incredible amount of guilt for not being part of the trip… Having some input on where I live the next 12 months would be nice, but the way I see it, I'm really happy about the part of town we're looking to live in.

After seeing 12 properties with my sister on Saturday, I think we have a pretty good idea where our tastes are… I should be getting a call from her at some point this morning with an update on what we'll end up with. Just got a phone call from my sister. It's down to 2 homes. I'm going to let her make the final decision… just got word that the digital camera I sent up with her has bad batteries so I won't have any photos to share until I step foot into the place.

Anyhoo that leaves me back in South Texas with a strange number of cars to choose from this morning. I had the option to take my fathers 1993 Buick Roadmaster (nicknamed: Noah's Ark) but opted to skip on out on it for a number of reasons…

Despite the many compliments I get when I take the Ark out for a spin, its really uncomfortable for me to drive around town in. I find it interesting that as people get older, they get smaller and the cars they drive get bigger. The electric seat adjustments are currently out or my father's disabled them so that no one can fuck up the current seat settings. This makes for a very uncomfortable drive.

Option 2 was my fathers Mazda Pickup (nicknamed: Mansanita)… I pretty much poo-pooed the idea of taking this out because of the elevated cabin.

Option 3: My 1998 Pontiac Firebird (aka: Snowflake) - I haven't taken Snowflake out for a spin in a few months… but last I heard it's currently uninsured and we run it once a week to keep her active. I'm hold-ing out on using it until I can confirm the insurance status.

Option 4: My sisters 2004 Audi A4. Despite my many passenger/backseat trips in the Audi A4, I haven't had a chance to check out the German gem for myself. Found a spare key in the kitchen and roared out of my neighborhood at an obscene speed to see how its suspension handled on some of the pot-ridden streets around my parent's house. As luck would have it… my sister has a break light out so I'm going to switch the car at lunchtime for Truck I think. Which is a shame because I have some time to kill this afternoon.

Happy to report that the Audi A4 is a fun car to drive. It's the first car that I've ever been in that has ideal seat adjustments for my physical frame. Aside being a big hungry, I'm stacked well together on a 6'3" frame. I tend to shift car seats as far back possible and adjust myself in the cabin for most of my trips. The Audi A4 is the first car I've been in (with the exception of a 72 Nova that had a bench seat) that allowed the seat to go too far back.

I've never extended a seat to the point that my legs felt awkwardly stretched out.

Car-talk aside… I ran across this killer ad campaign that McDonalds is doing in Chicago. It's a billboard Advert for their shitty food, but it uses a sundial!


I doubt I'll see one in person, but if you see one around your parts make sure to stand back and recognize how kick ass it is.

.lovin'it, rollie@theoffice.

Sid Barrett

If there's one musical act that will forever be rediscovered by waves of new listeners it will be Pink Floyd.

I'll never forget the first time I listend to "Dark Side of the Moon", nor will I forget my purchase of "Wish You Were Here" and reading up on whom exactly they were missing.

Said person was Syd Barrett. Despite only appearing on one two albums (i thought he was only on the Pipers) and performing with Pink Floyd for 3 years... his shadow in rock n' roll is a rather amazing one.

Perhaps it was his slip in mental healthness.

A true legend.

The hits. They just keep on comming

Boy was I do for a good kick in the Karma nuts… Just got word that I was cleared to rent a home that I selected over the weekend. As luck would have it… a person was also cleared but happened to select it earlier that day.

The plan is to now look at 2 properties (same area), one of, which should be identical in appearance & layout (just another home on the cookie-cutter block) and another home, which is rumored to have two floors…

I look o' so forward to a heavy night of drinking once I get this all figured out.

.rollieinsouthtejas.

Black Friday...

I've had a few bad weekends on my tender 28 years on earth... but this past one was quite possibly the worst. A little short of 2 and a half months years (i've had a rough couple of days) of being together... Kathie and I have split up.

The split was part unforeseen and part necessary.

I want to thank all of my friends & family who have been in touch with me all weekend.

best,
.alamo city rollie.

Introducing "Elliot Likely"

After many weeks of thought and discussions with Katheryn... I purchased a beautiful miniature schnauzer in San Antonio to accompany our current little bundle of joy, Abigail.

Pairing the two up for the first time went a lot better than we expected. Abigail grew a little tired of his presence at the end of my weekend visit... but I think she was upset that he spent a lot of time sleeping at Kathie's house.

Elliot is officially 7 weeks (and 1 day) old today. I took him in for his first Vet visit last week and I'm happy to report that Elliot is 100% healthy.

Puppyhood has been incredibly rewarding for me... When Kathie and I got Abigail, she stayed with Kathie in San Antonio so a great deal of the puppy burdens were placed on Kathie's shoulders.
Sleep at night has been difficult at times... I find myself going to bed earlier so that I can spend full mornings with him before I break for work. He's incredibly energetic and I think I got him 80% potty trained.

The little guy is incredibly photogenic and you can peep my little online scrapbook by clicking here.

Anyhoo... more Elliot stories to follow.

A visit to the Humane Society

While taking Elliot (my new puppy) out for a potty break late Sunday night/Early Monday morning... I heard a very faint meow from our bushes. It's been raining a lot the past 5 days so it struck me a little odd to hear what sounded like one kitten.

It's very dark around the sides of my home so I had a hard time finding where the meows were coming from. When I woke up the following morning I didn't hear the cries from the "midnight kitten" so I went about my day.

At lunch time while letting Elliot out for a run and a bathroom break I heard the faint cries again. With the sun out for the first time in 5 days I saw a little kitten between my house and my neighbors.

I'm deathly allergic to cats so I didn't know what I could do to help him... secured a box from my work place and contacted my local Humane Society who agreed to take in the cat for someone to adopt him.

Securing the cat however was my biggest fear. My eyes swell red when I'm anywhere near them and my new little puppy wasn't too keen to little cat noises coming from a box.

Stepped around my neighbors place and placed the empty box on the floor. Much to my surprise the cat hopped right in. Stepped inside to get him a bowl of water and food but he wouldn't have anything to do with either one. He flipped the water within seconds of placing it with him. He scattered the food just as quickly.


Took the time to name him "Westerburg" while driving him over to the Humane Society. I sang a few Replacement songs on my way to there but he didn't seem all that interested.

Very zany week I tell you.

This ___ is on fire...

Things seem to be moving at warp speed for me these days... thankfully, I get to spend the 4th of July at home with my Dad and my new pet, more on that later tho'...

Stepped out over the weekend with a specific mission in hand.

Operation : Bedroom Set.

While this may not come as a shock to many people who truly know me... I've never really committed to purchasing a proper bed. When I departed for Detroit in 1996, I stayed at U of D for 4 years and used the issued bunk beds.

That bed made its way to my apartment and I used it for a number of years. Admittedly... I attempted once to purchase a bed. I gave a girl who was moving out of Detroit 100 dollars for a Full Mattress and Box Set that was 3 weeks old because she had to bail town... said box set however was lost in a freakish accident.

A few years after that I had my friend give me a queen sized waterbed that was in the basement of a condo she had just purchased. The bed however was put together incorrectly so I had to take it apart before I collapsed in my room and spilled water all over the 6th floor balcony.

Needless to say... my twin bunk bed set from U of D came in very handy for me the past 10 years.

Anyhoo... i set out on Saturday to score a bedroom set and boy did I. I won't disclose how much was spent over the weekend... but anyone who purchases a night stand, a full dresser, a bed with mattress and box spring set - has a pretty good idea what it can set you back.

I can't wait to set this up at the new place.

.madness.

Lots of weirdness going on with me lately. I'm sitting in a very quiet newsroom this morning. There's going to be 2 deadlines this afternoon so that the place can be shut down for the 4th… At the close of business today, I will have 8 days or so left here in the newsroom before I break for San Antonio.

I opted to take my few belongings from my desk last Friday so that there wouldn't be any awkward downtime to clean my desk on my last day.

Sitting at a naked desk has an indescribable feeling…

I thankfully have a million other things to think about at the moment… mainly my relocation to San Antonio. If all goes well, I'll visit 8 or so possible homes to rent this weekend… I'll then have 15 or so days to select a house and relocate before I begin work at my new place of employment in San Antonio.

.madness.

These aren't the droids you're looking for...

James, Ted and I recorded our second podcast last Friday. You can download it directly by visiting Ekobase.net. You can also subscribe to it through iTunes, Odeo and Podnova.

Have at it if at all interested.

98% done

September29th.com is 98% moved over… I have one little fix still in mind but with much of the hard work (done by James) over and done with, updates on all things Rollie will begin to roll out this afternoon.

.rollie.