I don’t know what it was, but I was in a mood today. I can’t quite describe it. I was on some kind of roll that I just can’t explain. I was, in fact, hilarious. I had myself in stitches. Some of it was work-related. On the other hand, I felt rather productive today as well, making some significant progress on two seperate projects. So it all evened out, I suppose, although one can never be certain about these things. Perhaps it’s something in the water.
Ever year since 1998, I have attended the Remedy User Group (Remedy being a workflow development tool that I use in my job, and being something far too boring and mundane to go into here, although just by stating that rather pitiful fact I am probably alienating an entire community of Remedy enthusiasts). A few years ago, Remedy was bought by another company, BMC, which makes software that, if you can believe it, is even more boring and mundane than Remedy. In any event, the Remedy User Group conventions used to be fun; they are held in a different city every year. Over time, however, and especially recently, they have deteriorated. This year, it has been renamed to BUG 2006, BUG standing for BMC User Group. I simply can’t bear the thought of attending a convention that sounds like a gathering of a bunch of entomologists and so I have decided not to attend this year. It was being held in San Francisco at the very end of August, but I am not going. There is something rather frightful about attending conventions like these, if you’ve never attended one before, and they grow more and more frightful with each passing year. After a day of “breakout sessions”, things descend into a kind of Lord of the Flies chaos. These people, who have taken over the local hotels, now take over the local bars. They fill themselves with liquor and talk about things like active links and filters and escalations. They hit on one another, with pickup lines that would astound an outside audience: “Hey babe, I’ve got my database normalized to Fifth Normal Form. Wanna come run a query on it?” It can be hideous. Everyone has a blackberry and so no one actually pays attention to the presentations. It is something that at this stage of the game is well worth missing. It’s time to learn something new. In a way this is very good. There is something cathartic about growing out of the need to attend these conventions. There are people who have been attending these conventions since the first one was held in 1992. It is what they plan their year around. That’s just not for me.
I did a little polishing on “Blind Date” this evening after watching another good episode of Smallville. The story still needs some work but overall, I think it’s pretty good for 1,600 words.
I dont’ need to pack my lunch tonight because I’m having lunch with Trevor tomorrow.
I do need to hit the floor, however, and attempt 35 pushups tonight and at the moment, it doesn’t seem possible. I can see myself getting to 20 rather easily. At 25 things start to slow down. At 30 all I can think of is how much longer it will take me to do five more lousy pushups. If I do this enough it is supposed to get easier, but when? Well, I suppose I just have to keep at it.
I’m pretty sure that I’m going to New York next weekend so I’ve got to call and get my tickets tomorrow. Also need to look into getting a new tax person, as my old tax guy has more or less retired to Arizona. He was in L.A. and it’s about time I got a new tax person out here. But he or she is not going to tell me anything that I don’t already know. I could take a very nice vacation with the amount of taxes I will end up owing this year.
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