Cold and rainy in the East Coast this weekend. For some, I guess it's a welcomed event, since part of the state (Va.) has been in a somewhat dry condition.

The GF and I have finally found ourselves another apt. to live in, and of course, with better quality of residence, there will be higher rent price too. Nothing an extra job or a miraculous promotion won't take care of. Most of all, I hope that we'll find a peace of mind finally.

Last night, the GF and I went to a friend's place to have dinner. We were supposed to have dinner at the local Koreatown, but on the way there, her baby threw up...and he threw up a lot! So, we had to goto her apt., where her husband cooked up some good pork chops for us to enjoy. Unfortunately, her baby did not get better with the vomiting and could not keep down pedialyte, so they called an ambulance and off we all went to emergency room. I hope that they're all doing a lot better now. These stomach viruses are just nasty to deal with, especially in babies.

I don't really know what it takes to live even semi-comfortably in this town, it looks like that unless you're earning in the 6 figures, then everything is a struggle. My friend and her husband, despite of both being highly educated and competent adults, still are struggling with monetary issues even with both working and doing what they can not to overspend and going into debt.

Will update more as long as internet access is obtainable.

In the meanwhile, feel better, little Constantine!

Update

We've all moved to DC and I've started work at my old/new workplace. Being the new kid at the job again is beginning to get a bit to old for my taste.

We've got a little dilemma that we're trying to deal with right now, and that is we are trying to move from one apt. to another. In the effort to trying to go cheap, we've landed ourselves on a ticking timebomb of a apt. No hot water, bugs, noisy neighbors, and a seemingly clueless managment are making us feel that we should (especially me) try to get the heck out of here as soon as we can!

Since we don't have internet access right now (I'll explain why later), we're at this diner near where I work and trying to use their free wi-fi so we can check on stuff. I promise that I'll give a more detailed update once things calm down a bit.

Hat tip to the pets and the GF, for all the stuff that they put up with from me!

Goodbye, J-Town!

I miss them

Happy birthday to my PQ

To the smartest, cutest, and the best smelling PQ on the planet, I love you! Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Ramen dog!

Update

Today's my 35th. birthday, and while I don't feel 35 mentally, I think physically, I am already feeling 35 and beyond!

The GF took me out on her motorcycle and we rode around town for a bit. The weather was really nice and that made the motorcycle ride really relaxing. Then we got some steaks and stuffed mushrooms for a great steak dinner! Thank you my PQ for a great birthday!

I also need to mention that we've found a ghetto apt. that we could maybe afford to rent in Va. This whole transition at work thing is happening really fast, and it was made more complicated by the fact that we had limited time to look for a place to live and make all the other arrangements. I don't know how my job will be from this point on, but I hope it'll get better from this point on. Both my GF and I are still longing to live back in Tx....and if I can somehow manage to find something to do back there, we'll be on the first U-Haul back!

The last few days has been stressful for us because of looking for a place to live, and fighting the nagging feelings of insecurity and the frustration of navagating the complicated roads of the DC Metro area....but the hotel bed was comfy and we had our faithful dog with us, so it wasn't completely that bad.

BTW, today is also the faithful dog's birthday! Well, we're not exactly sure when he was born, but it was 5 years ago today that we adopted him from Townlake Animal Shelter in Austin, Texas, so, happy birthday, Ramen dog!

Hey Doc,

Thanks for the birthday greeting, please e-mail me about when/where you'll be at when you come to the Milbloggers's Conference! I'll be living in that neck of the woods pretty soon!

The GF and I would love to be able to meet with you and Tragic!

Iraqi kids

Nomatter what the both sides might say....

War sucks.

We're off to....

The Washington D.C. area, instead of just getting rid of me, my bosses have decided to see if I can be of more use down in one of the company's satellite offices.

I have no idea how much the company will pay me, but I do know that everything will cost more, and it'll be our most urban living experiences ever.

I've met with the people down at the D.C. office briefly and they seemed nice. I hope that working for them will be a more pleasant experience than here in J-Town. Even if it doesn't turn out well, at least I'll be able to serve the company until my one year obligation ends and we could move back to Texas, which is where we think that we should be anyways.

Since we've only got about two weeks to get everything ready (I meant everything) blogging will be sporadic.

Wish us luck, I don't know if D.C. will end up being a place that we'll want to stay for long term, but the urban living will be a valuable addition to our cross country, living all over the place experiences.

For Jeff

Because spring is almost here....

I love my GF

Who has been putting up with me for the last 8 years and counting....giving me all my feline and canine children, and tolerating all my bad habits!
I hope that we'll have many more years together, have at least one real child, and more pets!
I am glad that we are together, even when we are in places that we didn't exactly like, it's so much more easy when I've got you around!

Shinjuku

Nice!

Global Warming

THE strongest March snowstorm to hit northeast China's Liaoning Province in 56 years has left at least one person dead and seven injured after the roof of an agricultural trade building collapsed under the weight of the snow, local sources said.Three arched ceilings of the Minglian Agricultural Trade Building in Huanggu District, in the provincial capital of Shenyang, collapsed at noon yesterday, burying about 20 stall owners and customers, said a witness.Beginning Saturday night, rain and snow has fallen continually in most parts of Liaoning, with reported precipitations of 36 millimeters in Shenyang, 56mm in Dalian and 68mm in Dandong, the Shenyang Meteorological Observatory reported.Snow piled up two meters high in some areas, it said.The snowstorm forced Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang to close at 8am yesterday.By 4pm, more than 100 flights had been canceled and over 1,000 passengers were stranded at the airport, which was hoping to reopen today.Eleven expressways in Liaoning were closed.Classes were suspended for today for 900,000 primary and middle school students in Shenyang.More moderate rain and snow hit most parts of north China on Saturday and yesterday, disrupting air and highway travel in these areas.At Beijing Capital International Airport, more than 200 flights were delayed by 1pm yesterday due to snowfall, airport sources said.That followed heavy rain on Saturday, which surpassed the total rainfall in the capital in the past three months, said Guo Hu, director of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory.In Tianjin, Binhai International Airport was closed at 7am yesterday and more than 20 flights have been delayed, airport sources said.Expressways through the city were also shut down. The city reported 25 to 32 millimeters of rain and snow by yesterday morning.In Erdos city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which saw a blizzard on Saturday with a maximum snowfall of up to 20 centimeters, about 40,000 passengers and 10,000 drivers were stranded.The Baita Airport in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, had to be closed between 6pm on Saturday and 6am yesterday.

Xinhua

Another old favorite t.v. show

I don't know if anyone really remembers this show, but back in 1985, there was a show called "MacGruder and Loud". The premise of this show was about this couple who are both cops in the same dept. at their work, and has to work extra hard at not letting others in the fact that they're couples, since there was a policy in the police dept. against couples working as partners.

The show didn't last for too long, the storyline gradually lost steam. Yet while it lasted it was funny and sometimes even profound.

I think this show was one of the almost better shows about couples back in the 80's.

T.V. shows that I've enjoyed

One of my favorite shows on t.v. was the show "Thirtysomething", even though I really wasn't of age to really enjoy the show of such complexity. ( I was in my early teens when this show first showed up.) I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the characters grow, suffer, and endure through all the complexities of being thirtysomething in the 80's.

According to Wikipedia....

Influences and cultural impact

The television show, Thirtysomething reflected the angst felt by baby boomers and yuppies during the 1980s ^[2], ^[3], such as the changing expectations related to masculinity and femininity introduced by second-wave feminism (as noted in R. Hanke's 1990, article "Hegemonic masculinity in Thirtysomething" and Margaret Heide's 1995 book, Television Culture and Women's Lives: "Thirtysomething" and the Contradictions of Gender ^[4]).

Thirtysomething was notably influenced by the introspective, comic drama The Big Chill. Additional films and television programs which reflected similar themes include Baby Boom, Fatal Attraction and Wall Street (all appearing in 1987); the 1986 television drama L.A. Law; and the 1988 film Working Girl. In addition, its mix of realistic scenes and surreal flights of comic fancy owed a debt to such Woody Allen films as Annie Hall.

Thirtysomething, while never number one in the Nielsen Ratings, was nonetheless enormously influential in its day (as indicated by the introduction of the term "Thirtysomething" into popular discourse) and won a number of Emmy Awards and nominations. Critics and audiences were sharply divided about the show's characters and dialogue; the show was widely praised for its sensitive characterizations, but also widely mocked for its generally affluent but depressed and neurotic characters (a fact satirized in one episode, when a focus group is shown a commercial based on the style of the series, with actors standing in for Michael and Elliot and speaking like them. The focus group's response is overwhelmingly negative, and they voice many of the criticisms of the series itself).

I started to think about some of the t.v. shows that I had enjoyed because I had noticed that I just don't enjoy watching t.v. shows as much as I used to. Although I watch more t.v. now than I did when I was in my teens, I can't help it but to notice that most of the t.v. shows which are on now (cable shows included), are mostly shit and not very profound or memorable.

So I decided to post on some of the t.v. shows that I've enjoyed through the years, for nostalgic reasons, as well as to recall why I had enjoyed these shows.

This has been the first entry.