Humphrelia

It has been over a week since I’ve posted last. Many things have happened since then.

My Camaro has now been in the shop for nearly four weeks. I’m getting very tired of this. I took it back in because the new differential started making a loud noise again. The mechanic thought it might be a problem with the new parts and bearings he installed and was trying to get the manufacturer to cover re-repairs as warranty work. I need to call tomorrow to find out what the hell is going on…

Speaking of cars, I figured I’d put a link to some images of a truly hot car from Alfa Romeo:

This is the sexiest concept car from a manufacturer other than Aston Martin in quite some time.

I recently received a package that I sent myself from Seattle – full of exotic and rare beers. Many thanks to Malt & Vine in Redmond: a bottle shop that can legally ship to consumers in Georgia. They also have a phenomenal selection of amazing craft brews and imports. They will soon be opening up an online store to sell rare beers to consumers all over the country via mail order. Tonight I sampled a 2002 bottle of Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine and a more recent bottle of Elysian Dragonstooth Stout. Both were pretty darned good.

Even more recently, Will, Malin, and I went to a baptism. A friend of mine at work, Rex Arul, became a father just a couple of months ago. His daughter’s baptism was at the Christ The King Cathedral in Buckhead. It is a very impressive church, and they had a garden where Will and Malin hung out (Will wasn’t behaving in church, so Malin took him to walk around). There was a fantastic party afterwards at an Indian restaurant in north Atlanta (named Bombay Grill). There were lots of kids for Will to play with, and Malin and I chatted with many co-workers – particularly Nick and Lumi Dumitriu (Nick used to be my manager, and Lumi is currently on the same team as me). They have two children that were at Will’s second birthday party and at this party also, and it was very nice to talk with them in a social (instead of business) environment.

Tonight there was a special on CNN, God’s Warriors, about the influence of the conservative Christian movement on politics in America over the last couple of decades. It is very interesting, but also a bit frightening. Only one person on the show actually made sense and convinced me that he is really living and preaching the word of God. Everyone else was so blindly right-leaning, pro-war, and anti-homosexual that it is downright depressing.

Last night Malin and I watched The Prestige. I felt that the last bit of the movie was a little too slow (you knew how everything would play out about 30 minutes prior to the end, but they took their time wrapping everything up). But overall, it was a very inventive and quite macabre twist on magic and magicians (i.e. illusionists) in the nineteenth century.

Last week we watched 300. I was very impressed with this piece. I knew it would be a visual masterpiece, but I enjoyed everything about it. Despite its incredible violence, it was somehow beautiful and imaginative at the same time. It just goes to show what a genius is the mind of Frank Miller (though I was less impressed by the disturbing images in Sin City, from the same brain).

Things have been crazy (i.e. busy, sometimes unpleasant) at work. There are a lot of signs that things are on the verge of improving and that leadership and management are listening to things being said. And then there are rumours going around that suggest that it might not matter and that the future could be very different from today (by some accounts, the company may have some new stakeholders in the near future).

On the up side, I was promoted at work this week. I’ve been acting in my new role for a couple of months, but it was made official this week. Whether the promotion will make work more rewarding is questionable, but it is good for my career. It definitely means more responsibility – most of which consists of management duties. On the down side, a new opportunity (outside of my current employer) is not going to work out. This isn’t really a bad thing as the decision was mutual: I was not really impressed by them (which may come as a surprise to their many fans). But the fact that they weren’t begging me with a seven-figure salary left a bruise on my ego.

On a similar note, a long-time friend of mine, John Weathers, is leaving my current employer for another opportunity. By coincidence, not only did I work at the same company as this elementary school friend of mine, but his wife, Melinda, works there too. She is sticking around, but he will be starting Ruby-on-Rails development with a new firm in September.

Another long-time friend of mine, Jason Adams, has started a blog recently. If you are interested by science and technology with a slant towards computers you will likely find it interesting, too. He posts frequently on a wide range of topics, including a good bit on Computer Science and Linguistics (which happen to be interests of his that are related to his research work in his graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University). I’ve found it quite interesting.

And now, as I wrap up this lengthy post, I am watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I am disappointed by the overwhelming attack of advertisements for the upcoming Halloween movie. But at least I can be entertained after the commercials end.

Sayonara.