One of the not so unknown things about me is that I’m obsessed with the Braves and have been since I was a kid.  I mean, I helped start and write for BravesBlast.com.  Normal people just don’t do that kind of thing.  Thinking back to when I started playing little league baseball in Dothan, AL, Dale Murphy and the Braves were always my favorites when it came to baseball.  We traveled to a couple of games a season just in hopes that I could get a glimpse of him playing in Atlanta.  When Murphy left the Braves to finish his career with the Phillies, I even became a Phillies fan while he was there.  (Just as a note, this is something I just can’t fathom doing in hindsight.)

Anyways, Lindsay gave me my Christmas present this weekend since I’m not too sure how much more I’ll be in town before the end of the year.  It’s a signed, matted and framed Murphy jersey and it will, without a doubt, take a prominent place on the walls in my basement (along with my Smoltz’s 3000th strikeout frame) as soon as it’ s done.  It’s sad that the motivation in getting my basement finished is to hang my memorabilia moreso than having a new room to hang out in, but that’s besides the point.

So my first reaction to this present hasn’t changed.  Noone else needs to bother trying to get me anything this year because it just doesn’t stand a chance (but, I will in fact accept all other gifts, let’s be realistic).  I’m hoping to use this as the start of the vision I’ve had for my office in my house one day to have one of each color of the Braves’ jersey matted and hung on the walls.  For now, however, I’m more than happy to look at just this one.  It’ll always be my favorite just knowing that Dale has touched it.

Like I mentioned, I don’t know how much more I’ll be home in 2008, but I’ll do my best to get a few new posts up from here and there when I get the time.  I know it’s a busy time of year for everyone.  I hope everyone gets to enjoy the company of friends and family for the holidays and is looking forward to a great 2009.

I’m writing this as an open apology to my neighbors for my continued violations of the HOA’s “rules” for the exteriors of our homes. I have a tendency to ignore the notices they send me for my violations because I just can’t see the point in some of the policies. First, it was all the notices to take down my Georgia Tech flag from the front of my house.  I finally caved and took it down. So I’m sorry for showing school spirit and appreciation for the school that got me to the point where I am today.  It was not my intention to show such an inappropriate display of support.

Then it was for not putting my garbage can inside my garage.  We’ll disregard the fact that my garage door opener was inoperable and stuck in the closed position.  I’ll admit, I’m just lazy and didn’t feel like taking the huge outdoor trash can through the front door, up the entry stairs and back downstairs to get it in the garage.  Have no fear, good neigbors.  I fixed my garage door and haven’t left it outside since.

The next set of notices was for planting cucumbers in my backyard.  I’m sorry to all of you for planting something green and food-bearing in a location that it didn’t interfere with your lives.  These “unauthorized vine plantings” were completely inappropriate for me to have growing by my deck and I should have thought about the detrimental impact I must have been having to the environment and appearance in the neighborhood.  And to all of those neighbors that I gave cucumbers to from my plantings, I’m sorry for making you an accessory to my crime and feeding you with forbidden vegetables.

Now all of these are issues from the past.  I have received roughly 30 notices of violation for these things over time from the HOA overlords and, eventually, have resolved all of the issues of which they were notifying me. The root of my apology to all of my neighbors is my most recent saga involving the planter on my back deck.  Now I’ve been receiving notices on this one for the past three months or so that I had “unapproved planter boxes in a common area”.

This common area that is being referenced happens to be my deck and I built this planter to add some flowers and color to the back side of my house.  Further research from the HOA (in other words, more and more angry letters that they sent me) indicated that my planter was a violation because it was not manufactured as outdoor furniture and therefore, was not allowed to be on my deck.

The most recent letter, sent via certified mail mind you, gave me 10 days to remove the planter from my deck or face an attorney and a lein against my property.  I finally gave in and dismantled the planter this week, just so that I could stop dealing with this nonsense.  You win, HOA, you win. I figure it’s only fair that I post a picture of my violation so that everyone can see my crimes and the disgrace that I have brought upong my neighborhood.

So to all of my neighbors, consider this my apology for my repeated transgression.  I’m sorry for building a planter in a “common area” and for making your neighborhood an eyesore.  I shouldn’t have been so selfish in my intentions.  It won’t happen again.

Full HD attention to the GT game while having the TV out of my bedroom at the ready to glance at the score and happenings in the VT/UVA game.  I’m pretty sure this setup was wholy responsible for me not leaving the couch for the rest of the day as well however.  I’m pretty convniced that this is the only way to spend watching sports on the weekend from now on.

When it came down to analyzing the situation, I decided to blame ECE3055 for Georgia Tech losing that game last season.  As a little background information, I walked at graduation on December 16, 2006 only to find out a few days later that I didn’t actually graduate thanks to a minor technicality (read: I got a D in a class I needed a C in……by roughly 0.8%).  

Thanks to a relatively well-hidden policy at Tech however, since it was my last semester, I was allowed to take a new final for the course and, if I passed that test, would pass the class.  After two weeks of non-stop studying, I took the test, passed the class and was done with my undergrad career at Georgia Tech.  This did, however, mean that I technically wasn’t done at Tech until early in the 2007 calendar year.  So, for that, ECE3055 had to be the reason that Georgia Tech didn’t beat Georgia last season.  But I digress…

I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t been waiting since before I even had my website up and running to write this post.  Every season, I’d always have my hopes up that we would beat Georgia and the rest of the season wouldn’t really matter.  But, unfortunately, Chan Gailey was our coach for most of that time, and it always just seemed that mediocrity and 7-5 seasons were okay with him.  That’s right, I was definitely on the “Can Chan” bandwagon.

That all changed today however when the Jackets managed a 45-42 victory in Athens to cap off a solid 9-3 season record.  Not a bad start for Coach Paul Johnson I must say.  As the game ended and television coverage of the game ended, I had a strange new feeling though.  I really had no clue what to do.  The entire time that I’ve been part of the Georgia Tech community, I was used to turning away in disgust at the end of the game against Georgia and harboring resentment and anger towards some aspect of the game for a couple of weeks.

So I did the only thing that seemed logical to me since I was sitting at home by myself and most everyone else was out of town.  I kept both of my TVs tuned to sports stations and watched a bunch of football and basketball games that I really didn’t care about, just so I could see something of this nature scroll across the bottom of the screen every 5 minutes or so.

Pretty fulfilling, isn’t it?  Well at least it is for me.  If you’re a Georgia fan, well, I’m sorry.  On so many levels.  Rest assured, Tech fans, that we should be better off now that I have graduated and that curse is broken.  I apologize for taking so long to get out of school.  Either way, I can finally sleep soundly at night after a game against U(sic)GA. What’s the good word?!

I go to the gym to try not to die the next time that I go out to run farther than I ever really should.  Right now, that day is January 10th, 2009 at the Disney Half Marathon.  So I head off that way after work most days to do my thing and try to feel a little less bad about my generally out-of-shape self.  I have found however that, instead of large amounts of muscle mass, I have gained a few things in my time at the gym.

1. Pain - This is the part that I’ve never really been able to figure out about the gym.  I mean, I can sit on my couch and feel no pain at all.  Maybe I’m just weird in the fact that I don’t enjoy pain all that much, but there sure seems to be a lot of it at the gym.  Of course, this time around, I’m doing my best to minimize the pain and make sure that I’m still able to walk by the time the race comes in January.  So maybe more than just gaining pain at the gym, I’m gaining the ability to manage the pain.

Though I still think that all of you that enjoy the pain that you cause yourself at the gym are just a little bit strange.

2. Relief - I’ve found that the gym is a great way to forget about things that are bothering you, or just forget about some things in general.  It’s been a great way for me to forget about the stresses of that day at work.  Instead of just going home and dwelling on them, I get the chance to leave them at the gym and not have to worry about them until the office the next day.

It also seems to be a good way to forget about some of the more important things in life.  Prime example: A couple of days ago, I went to the gym with a friend.  After stopping by my house to grab some shoes for him to run in, he offered to drive and we headed off towards the gym.  Unfortunately, the premise of the gym allowed me to forget that, without driving, I didn’t have the garage door opener to get into my house.  And with my car in the garage, so was my key to the house.  Thankfully someone else with a key to my house also happened to be at the gym……problem solved.

3. Fear - There are a few things in the world that I can do without having to ever see, but that list is slowing expanding thanks to the locker room at the gym.  And not so surprisingly, most of the new additions to the list involve naked men in the locker room.

I understand it’s a locker room and that you have the need to change before/after working out, but can’t you at least just change and then go on to the rest of your locker room routine?  I don’t need to see you casually wandering the room, chatting on your cell phone, weighing yourself on the scale, walking to the bathroom, and then finally heading towards the shower.  I’m pretty sure most of those things can be done fully or, at the very least, partially clothed.  But then there are some things that just shouldn’t happen.

Why do you feel the need to run a couple of circles around the locker room completely naked?  I mean, seriously, put on some shorts and find a treadmill……please.  Secondly, it’s cool that you haven’t seen someone you know in awhile, even if you happen to run into them in the shower.  But the repeated hugs and handshakes and lengthy conversation can probably also wait until you have some clothes on.  Maybe I’m just weird for thinking so, but nevertheless, the gym has added the element of fear to my life every time I head for the locker room.

And by far the best thing that I have gained from heading to the gym on most days…….

4. Laundry - I hate laundry.  I absolutely hate laundry.  Well, I take that back.  I have nothing against putting clothes in the washer.  I’ll even venture to say that I have nothing against taking clothes out of the washer and into the dryer.  But at that point, the process breaks down a little (read: completely).  I’m pretty much a professional at leaving clothes in one of three places once the laundry process is complete:  On top of the dryer, on the floor or in the dryer.  So let’s clarify; I hate folding clothes.

I’ll even admit to having bought new clothes just to go a couple of days longer without having to do laundry.  But in the end, this has really only worsened the issue.  I can go for about two months on the clothes I have without even thinking about having to do laundry.  I can probaby stretch it to a third if I start getting creative.  So by the time I think to do laundry, the task of getting it all done is just pretty much overwhelming and impossible.

This is the point I’ve found myself at for the past couple of months.  I pretty much wash the same 4 or 5 shirts and pants over and over again so that I can go to work in somewhat clean clothes.  But fear not!  The gym is slowly solving this issue.  Every day when I come home from the gym, I throw my dirty gym clothes in the washer and add in enough of my other dirty clothes to make a full load.  Then before bed, I throw them in the dryer.  When I wake up in the morning, I grab the clothes and dig through to repack my gym bag and fold the other clothes in the process.  There we go; one load closer to getting my clothes clean.

Now if only I’d stop putting the folded clothes in a pile on the floor.  Have to start somewhere I guess.

About half of the work that we have to do at these sites is on the roof of the building and Nebraska just happened to have a storm with pouring rain and consistent 32-34 degree temperatures all day.  I wish it would have just cooled down a little bit and we could have just had snow.  At least then I wouldn’t have been as soaked to the bone the whole time.

To make it worse however, every time we got in the car after being outside and nearly freezing to death, the nice little center console felt the need to inform us that it “May Be Icy?”.  Thanks.  Really.  Thanks, car.  As if I wasn’t perturbed enough by the fact that it was telling me it could be icy outside, is the question mark really necessary?  It’s almost like it’s asking me the question just to rub it in that I’m soaking wet and freezing.  Thanks, Nissan.  Is it any wonder that I feel like I’m getting sick?

However, I never really make it to that point where I need to be woken up to head to work.  I almost always wake up at 4:02.  I mean like 80% of the time, the clock reads exactly 4:02 when I wake up.  The other strange thing is that it’s started happening when I’m actually in bed too.  I grabbed my BlackBerry the other night and snapped a photo after it had happened three nights in a row.

Think there’s any reasoning behind this?  Is my body just programmed to naturally wake up then and give a general check on life?  It doesn’t matter what time I go to bed.  If I go to bed at 3am, there’s still a pretty good chance that I’ll wake up at 4:02.  Wonder if it’s because my body knows that I’m working on drawing a new tattoo that’s mainly the numbers, 402.

So the story begins on September 21st, 2008 when I placed my order for my new computer.  A Lenovo S10 for anyone that really cares.  I’ll talk more about that in a post later, but this post isn’t about a happy process so I’ll save that.  With the S10 being a new netbook release for Lenovo, shipments were backed up and delayed so my expected shipping date at the time of order was set for October 20th.  No big deal, I didn’t absolutely have to have the computer; I’m just ready to stop using my work computer as my personal computer as well.

The 20th comes and goes and there’s no word from Lenovo about it being ready to ship.  I logged in to the website to get an update and my shipping date had been changed to October 30th.  Once again, no big deal.  I’ve been on the road for work a lot lately so I really haven’t even been around to use it.  Halloween rolls around and there’s still no word.  So I swing back by to check my order status and the ship date is now November 7th.  Now I know that these factors have nothing to do with the actual shipping companies, but it’s just a lot of what built me up to being really excited when, 4 days early than the new expected date, Lenovo shipped my computer to me.

That’s about the last thing that went right in the entire process.  I checked the UPS tracking number from Lenovo and was pretty happy that it was only going to take 2 days for it to get to me.  I came home from work on Wednesday (the day of expected delivery) to find a shipment notice from UPS.  I wasn’t too surprised about this one really and I was too worn out from the day to really be too upset about it.  I read the form which said that I could sign the notice to have the package left the following day.  So I did, slapped it back on the front door and headed off to work Thursday morning.

Nevertheless, Thursday was a long day of work and at the gym, but I made it through knowing that I’d have new stuff to play with in the evening.  So I rushed home from the gym with that “kid-at-Christmas” feeling to see some boxes on my porch.  Yay, right?  Well not so fast.  I take a look and there’s the box for the new hard drive for the computer.  And there’s the box for the new memory for the laptop.  And there, right where I left it, is the UPS notice that I signed to have my computer delivered.

A few WTF-based profanities later, I grabbed the notice and found another one stuck in the door jamb (why they weren’t capable of just using the sticky part of it to attach it to my door is beyond me).  This one’s a different form saying that I have to be there to take personal delivery on the final delivery attempt.  But have no fear, they left a time that they’d be there this time………Friday, between 12 & 5.  Right.  Thanks guys.

At this point, the options were getting to be pretty few, so I picked up the phone and called UPS customer service.  Now before I get into it, don’t get me wrong, the gentleman I spoke with at customer service was extremely polite and answered my questions while doing his job (very much unlike the heinous woman I had to deal with on the phone at FedEx today).  I explained the situation that I would definitely not be able to take delivery of the package today and would like to have it rerouted to my office instead, which happens to be about a mile from my house.  He took all of my information and started the process while chatting happily about something or other.

I finally figured I was getting somewhere at this point and the UPS man would be showing up at my office with my new computer the next day.  Who was I kidding?  When things go wrong with shipping for me, they go all out.  He comes back on the line to inform me that he was “sorry, but the shipper has requested that this package only be delivered to the original address”.  Well isn’t that just lovely.

After discussing my options with the customer service rep, I decided to go ahead and have the package left at the UPS dispatch facility and I’d go by after work today to pick it up.  A quick check of the map showed it to be about 6 miles away so it wouldn’t be a big deal to just grab it afterwards; at least the facility is open til 9pm which came as a real shocker to me.  So the day goes by and I leave work to head to UPS to get the package.  Well it was raining, people in Atlanta can’t drive, and when you combine the two, it took me 45 minutes to make that 6 mile trek.

But finally, there it was.  My new computer, signed for and in my hands.  I get back in my car to head home and start playing around with it.  Of course, on the way back, there was a broken down MARTA bus in the way that made the return 6 miles take just as long, but it really didn’t matter at this point.  Long story short, though I doubt anyone has actually read this far, if you have a normal job that works normal hours, it’s pretty much impossible for you to get a package delivered if there is a signature required.  Is it just me or should there be a much less painful way for this process to work?

My day of jury duty started with me dragging my far-from-awake self out of bed around 6:30.  Now to some of you, that’s not a big deal and sounds like a normal day.  But for those that know the extent of my days, if the time doesn’t start with a 9 when I roll over and look at the alarm clock, my day is off to a bad start.  But nonetheless, I rolled out of bed, got ready to go and headed off towards downtown.  As with most things that involve going into downtown, I most feared the hunt for parking, but the Underground deck is right across the street from the courthouse and had plenty of open spots.

I relate the security line at the courthouse to that of a small-town airport where the TSA agents think they have something to prove, thereby slowing down the entire process for everyone.  In the grand scheme of things, Hartsfield’s really got the process figured out for getting people through security, but that’s not a big help when you’re at the Fulton County courthouse.  So after about half an hour, I made it through and headed off to juror check-in, took a seat and sat there waiting.

After the orientation video and a few of the judges talking, we sat some more and they started calling groups of jurors to head back to their courtrooms for the screening and interview process.  First a group of 25, then 48, then 60, 25 more, 50 more, 28 more…….how they choose the number of jurors to screen for any given trial is beyond me, but anyways, this process repeated itself for awhile and the number of people dwindled down in the room.  Except there was no dwindling from me.  I just sat there.  Some other people have obviously had jury duty before.  They brought books and newspapers and crossword puzzles, and I, brought nothing.

So I continued to sit there on my BlackBerry, trying to find as many ways as possible to entertain myself before my thumbs fell off from overuse.  Thanks to everyone that chatted with me and entertained me in the world of GoogleTalk, otherwise, I may have gone insane.  And to anyone annoyed by my seemingly minute-by-minute account of my day on Twitter….I apologize, but I was bored.

Finally, after they had called no less than 500 potential jurors, they told the rest of us that we could go and they wouldn’t be needing us today.  Strangely, at this point, I really wanted to at least go through the process and see what it was all about.  I mean, for that kind of time investment, I should at least get something more than the $25 per diem check, right?  But either way, I did it; civic duty number one done for the day.

Earlier in the day, I overheard one of the ladies sitting behind me talking about the Georgia Early/Advance Voting Program and how there was a location right across the street from the courthouse.  I vote in about one of three elections for the following reasons:  It takes time out of my day, I never know where I’m supposed to go to vote, and honestly, sometimes I just forget.  So I did a little research from the BlackBerry (remember, it’s not like I really had much else to do while I was sitting there) and overall, it’s a pretty cool thing to increase voter turnout.  They have early voting starting September 22nd and advance voting in the week before the election.

I wandered across Pryor Street to the voting location, filled out the form for an early voting absentee ballot (you don’t need a reasoning for receiving an early voting absentee ballot, just the desire to cast your vote) and took a seat for about 5-10 minutes.  Once my form was processed, they called my name, gave me my voter card and pointed me in the direction of the polls.  So I took an extra half hour out of the day and cast my ballot.  Civic duty number two, complete.

All in all, it feels like a pretty fulfilling day, but just a heads-up for anyone heading to jury duty………bring a book.