I guess it’s time for a “Major Update,” since I haven’t posted one of those in a year. Plus, I was surprised to learn that some people actually read this. I can’t disappoint on my promise of Yearly Muffins.

[Boyfriend]
     Jonathan and I are still together, and we just celebrated our 1-year anniversary. We’re headed to the Hamilton House Bed & Breakfast this weekend, which should be every bit as wonderful as it has always been. The rooms are gorgeous (the Pierre Renoir room at right is what I based my room redecoration on), and the atmosphere is so peaceful. We also have tickets/reservations at the Fireside Dinner Theater in Whitewater, WI. The show, called Anything Goes!, is likely to be pretty lame, but the food last time was absolutely wonderful, and completely worth it.

[WoW]
     I had quit playing WoW for about 9 months, but then I picked it back up again. I haven’t raided in over a year – that just took way too much time and effort – and I don’t plan on raiding again. Instead, Jonathan and I do things like 5-person heroic instances and quests that don’t require you to be on a “WoW work schedule.” I feel better about it, and it doesn’t have significant control of my life like it used to. What really got me to come back are the additions they’ve made to in-game fishing. With the new quests and rewards, it’s a fun, casual experience to partake in. I get my daily dose of current WoW fishing gossip at the El’s Anglin’ site & its forums.

[Car]
     My ’97 Eclipse is still running. I’m driving it for as long as I can. I’m going to have a hell of a time ditching that car for a new one, especially after Tony installed my awesome car stereo (from the Corolla) in it. I remember when I bought that stereo, I thought, “What on earth would you want an auxiliary input for? Playing your guitar over your car stereo?” Now I don’t think I’d buy a car without one.

[Job]
     I’m still working at All Tile. This past February, I was in Las Vegas for the annual Surfaces show for the fourth time. We have our busy times and our slow times, that’s for sure.

[Pets]
     After Chris (aka Fishy #3) took his final excursion down the watery pipe of eternity, I have not gotten any formal house pets. However, we’re never without wild mammal company. My parents have taken to feeding not only birds and squirrels, but also cats. The first cat that frequented our porch we called “Fluffy.” She would regularly sit up straight and watch the door to wait for us to feed her. Fluffy, we found out, was a girl, after she had shown up very pregnant on our porch.
     Sure enough, a month later, two kittens arrived on our porch with Fluffy. As it was the dead of winter by this point, my family and I arranged for a “catch, neuter, release” specialist to come by and trap the cat family to get them fixed. After the trapping ordeal was over, my friend Nicole housed them until they were ready to go to their final indoor homes with her extended family. We would have taken them in ourselves, but unfortunately I’m severely allergic to cats. The allergy specialist I saw told me I’d develop asthma if I kept a cat.
     After the Fluffy family was gone, a black cat took reign over our porch. He (we presume it’s a he) has trouble walking some days, but he seems to get to the food just fine. Also, our attic seemed to have attracted the attention of a raccoon, who thought it would be a great idea to dig through our roof to get inside. He managed to escape through our attic fan, but since then, we’ve kept an animal trap in the attic. This trap, filled with cat food, has caught two very scared and confused squirrels, who were promptly relocated to a distant park.

Feeling: Hopeful.
Listening to: Jo Dee Messina’s Greatest Hits CD. There isn’t much hope for me.

[Boyfriend]
     To the surprise of many, Alan and I broke up after nearly five years. As with many relationships that end after such a long time, it was ugly and painful. After a week, I started eating again. After a month, I made significant progress on self-discovery. After a month and a half, I found myself in a relationship with Jonathan.
     Jonathan has been very supportive throughout this whole ordeal, and he honestly wants what is best for me. I could babble on about how wonderful he has been, but instead I’ll just sum it up. He’s the most sensitive and thoughtful guy I’ve ever met, and every day I find some other hobby/preference/bizarre quirk that we have in common.
     So um, there is a catch. He lives in Maryland.
     After talking to him for about 2-3 hours a day on the phone for over a month, he came to visit me this past weekend. We had a wonderful time going to karaoke, two fantastic dinners (plus some great lunches and a tasty breakfast), watching movies and playing the Karaoke Revolution games he bought me. We’re still planning where/when our next visit will be, but I imagine it will be finalized in the next couple of days.

[WoW]
     I’ve significantly reduced the amount of time that I play WoW. Since it was an activity that I primarily participated in to have more in common with Alan, I am trying to determine whether I actually enjoyed it or not, and if so, what did I like doing. Do I like raiding? Do I like leveling? It seems that more than anything, I like playing with friends. If nobody is around to play with, it just isn’t that enjoyable for me. Oddly enough, WoW is where I met Jonathan.

[Betta Fish]
     Chris (aka Fishy #3) is doing well. He is still one of the most active fish I’ve had, which is surprising considering that he came from a Walmart. Every once in a while, though, he seems to get really jealous that I spend more time staring at the computer than him.

[Car]
     My Eclipse is running well, in spite of many projections that it would be kaput by now. I have the thought in the back of my head that I will need to replace it eventually, but I’m not actively seeking a car or even actively researching a car.

[Job]
     I’m still working at All Tile. I recently went on my third Vegas trip for the Surfaces 2007 convention. The trip itself was fantastic, considering we were having our typical Chicago winter and Vegas was having its typical February spring. It’s always refreshing to go from seeing snow everywhere to seeing palm trees and sun. Our Sell-A-Bration show went very well. Since the show, however, we’ve been pretty busy playing catch up with all of the important things that were put off to make sure the show went off without a hitch. I still don’t think that we’re fully caught up.

Feeling: Tired. I’m still not caught up on sleep from the weekend.
Listening to: Carrie Underwood (yes, country, sadly) – Before He Cheats

[Alan]
We are still together and will be celebrating a 4-year anniversary in about a month. He’s going to graduate with a masters in Computer Engineering this semester. He doesn’t have any immediate job plans, and I recommended to him that he take a few months off after school is finished. Going straight from years and years of school to a full time job isn’t my idea of a good time. Everyone deserves a break once in a while. I’ve been driving down to visit him every other weekend, and due to the below reason, dragging my server-case-sized computer down with me.

[WoW]
As some of you know, I now am one of the many addicted to an MMORPG, namely World of Warcraft. I really do play it too much, but I enjoy it. It keeps me entertained daily for a monthly fee, which works out to be (like Nathaniel had once tried to convince me) cheaper than if I had been doing things IRL (in real life). Alan plays too (as well as many of my other friends from college), so it’s nice to keep in touch with everyone so much.

[Laptop]
Because dragging my heavy computer to Champaign is dangerous to its lifespan, I started looking into laptops. I’ve wanted one for a long time, but I’ve never liked how expensive they are.

Last night I purchased the following Alienware Laptop.

Area-51® m5500
Processor: Intel® Pentium® M 780 2.26GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
Operating System (Office software not included): Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
Warranty: 90-Day AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support
Display: Alienware® m5500 15.4″ WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD – Xeno Grey
Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® 915GM + ICH6 Chipset
Wireless Network Card: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz – 2 x 512MB
Hard Drive: 60GB 7200 RPM ATA100
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go MXM 6600
Sound Card: Intel® High-Definition Audio
Optical Drive: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Ethernet NIC: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Modem: 56K Modem with V.90 Technology
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit

There are a lot of reasons I like this model over others, including the Dell XPS ones. First of all, it’s small. I want the option to use it as a “coffee shop chic” tool as well as a heavy duty gaming machine. Since I’ve never had a laptop, I don’t know how much I’d use it, but I want to try to take it as many places as I can. To add to this utility, it has two video cards. You can choose which one to use with a switch on the outside of the machine. The 256mb video card can be used for gaming, while the other would be good for power saving. I wanted an Alienware computer from the start. I’ve been a big fan of their brand since I built my current desktop (back in August of 2003?). I actually modeled mine after one of the ones they had, and it is pretty relatively good even now, two and a half years later.

[Betta Fish]
Brian and Stewie have both died. Brian freaked out and we think he may have had some sort of heart attack, and Stewie got pretty depressed and simply didn’t want to swim anymore. Stewie had been playing dead for weeks before he died (he’d sleep slightly on his side at the surface of the water, and when I’d tap the bowl he’d wake up… but he looked dead). I do have one fish left, Chris. I bought Chris at Walmart because he had the longest fins I’d seen on a betta that was for sale. He seems pretty young so he’s active and funny.

[Car]
My Mitsubishi Eclipse seems to be running perfectly after the folks at Weber Automotive fixed it. It’s been a long time since they fixed it, and the problem hasn’t even come close to returning. I would highly recommend them to anyone. If you have car problems that no one else seems to understand, visit them. 890 S. Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling, IL 60090. Phone: (847) 520-3740.

[Job]
I’m still working at All Tile. Not too much has changed about this. I went to Las Vegas again for the Surfaces 2006 trade show, and we again had a “Sell-A-Bration.” It went pretty well, but it was a lot of work (again). No, I didn’t win any money, but I only lost something like five bucks. I went out to dinner with one of the salesmen I’m friends with and one of his clients. We all shared 13 pound lobster, on top of our incredibly expensive and filling meals. Considering it was the second time I’d ever had lobster (the first being an Outback lobster tail that really sucked), I really liked it. If it wasn’t over $700 for 6 people, I’d think about going there on my own.

Feeling: Glad it’s Friday
Listening to: I know it’s corny, but the Wicked soundtrack is a lot of fun to sing along to.

     So I took the job with All Tile. I start Monday. Tuesday I went to Chad’s with Renee. I’m glad she found someone like him; I think they go well together. The hot tub was nice, too. Yesterday I went to Ruby Tuesdays with Jen to celebrate me getting my job. Then we went back to her place to see her newest animal-in-need. For those of you keeping track, these are her pets: two budgies (Flick and Hermes), a golden retriever (Buddy), one Russian dwarf hamster (Buttercup; Bubbles and Blossom died from being weened from their mother too soon), two beta fish (one is Trip and one is unnamed), and a guinea pig (Lilly) who is disabled. The guinea pig had been sold at Petsmart (Jen was sad, she wanted to buy her) a week or so ago, but she came back paralysed from her middle down. The second vet told them that she had her spine crushed (Jen’s convinced part of her pelvis is too). Jen adopted her and plans to build her a little cart so that she can walk easier; right now she kind of pulls herself along on her front legs and has some trouble eating (guinea pigs usually use their front paws to help them eat).

     Apparently Petsmart and/or its employees are looking to give away two more rodents that Jen can’t take in for fear of being kicked out of her house. There’s a rat (who I’ve heard is sweet, but Jen says that about most every animal) and a black guinea pig named Tradgedy. Any of you interested, let me or Jen know. I’m sure they’d be free to a good home.

     So right now I’m busy encoding the last of the Futurama (because I forgot and Alan wants them). After that it’s off to the bank to open new checking and savings accounts to go with my first real full time job (that doesn’t involve the word INTERN), because the U of I Credit Union’s debit card BLOWS ASS. They charge you for POINT OF SALE PURCHASES… bah, don’t get me started. Hopefully the new bank won’t try to screw me over.

     After that it’s off to Alan’s and improv. So far, our plans for the week are limited. He has a TA meeting Friday morning, his parents are coming in on Saturday, and he had something to do tonight. So, I may not have much time to hang out with you people in Champaign unless you go to improv. 8pm. Lincoln Hall by the head.

Feeling: Congested

Listening to: Futurama theme song

Since things have been pretty fluctuational lately, I decided that some people may need a brief recap of what’s up. Today would be good, since as a result of doing so much lately, I did practically nothing today. I finished my ugly rug.

[Job] I have been doing some contracting work for TravelCLICK. It seems like I may get some hours every quarter, as I have since I created the eTRAK report maker. They raised my pay (after a polite request) to $40 an hour, so I am very happy about doing business with them. I am still in the process of looking for a job. It seems like right now, I am very interested in working as an independent consultant salesperson for AFLAC supplemental insurance (yes, the duck). I will probably be offered a contract from them on Monday.
[Alan] Alan and I have been together for 2 years and 3 months. This fall semester, he will be a graduate student. He graduated from his undergrad (computer engineering at U of IL) a year early. He plans to get his masters and possibly doctorate in the specialized topic of robotics and computer vision. In addition to going to school this semester, he will be working as a teacher’s assistant (so he doesn’t have to pay tuition). He’ll also spend 20 hours a week working for his brother’s company, Corner Suite Studios (sorry if the link doesn’t work), making a real time strategy game that operates in both 3rd person and 1st person. It will have graphics atypical of the average RTS and its own game engine. In addition to all that, he’s going to be finishing up his work for a professor. He is translating some code from MatLab to C++, and getting the code to manipulate a robot. Essentially, the program tracks some object you specify, and moves the robot arm along with the object.
[Pets] I still have my pet fish, Brian. He’s less exciting now than before, but for no fault of his own. We keep him on the dinner table now. The most interesting thing he did lately was flare up when a serving spoon was placed within a half inch of his bowl. I still want a dog or a cat, but I haven’t been pressing the desire lately, because we don’t have a lot of money, and I haven’t been quite as lonely as I was when I originally began my search.
[Building a computer] I have purchased all the parts for building a computer for my cousin Amy (and her family of course) except the case, which is out of stock until Monday. They are all sadly sitting in my living room, waiting to become useful.
[Birthday] My birthday is coming up, and I have a free North Beach party on the 20th. I sent out an email today (if you didn’t get it, it’s probably because I don’t know your email or you aren’t 21 or over) inviting people, and anyone is welcome to come (since it’s all free). Contact me if you didn’t hear about it and want to come. I will have some sort of get together on my birthday in the suburbs. I plan to have a party in Champaign after school has started.

Feeling: Inactive
Listening to: The Ataris – Your Boyfriend Sucks

Ok, so it occurred to me that perhaps not everyone knows what’s been going on with me lately. Let’s start small.

[Brian] I bought a beta fish. His name is Brian (after the dog in Family Guy). I think he’s sick or unhappy at the least, since he’s not eating. Maybe he missed me while I was gone this weekend.

[Alan] We’ve been together for over two years now. He’s getting his Masters and/or PhD in Computer Engineering at U of I. He finished his undergrad a year early, so he graduated with me. He wants to design killer robots and have his masters thesis classified. I’ve been driving down to Champaign every other weekend to visit him.
[Job] I have an interview at TravelCLICK tomorrow, and I think it will go well. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in the next few days with it, but I’ll know much better.. in the next few days. Yeah.