I am not at all disturbed by the comparison of where we are in our lives. My friends are married, and now a good number of them are having children. I am happy for them, and I wish them much more happiness and healthy children in the future.  I am not in the same position, and I am not in a terrible hurry to be in that position.

On some level, sending these cards seems to be a cop-out from the usual greeting card cop-out.  I think most folks would agree that cards are an accepted cop-out for writing something meaningful to someone for a special event–birthday, holiday, or some other momentous occasion.  Nonetheless, the photocard is taking our societal accepted cop-out to an even higher level.  Instead of a holiday card with some serious or witty message for the season, I get a photo of a small child with Santa.

I suppose it is the thought that counts, but I find myself vowing that if and when I ever get married and have children I will not send the photocard to anyone.  If I deign to send a photo, I will include a photo of the kids in the card.  Maybe that thinking is a bit old school, especially from someone as technically savvy as myself.  Nonetheless, I think it is a good compromise for all involved.  Not everyone gets a photocard, and the photo goes to those family and friends who are close and should get one.

I also find the photocard to be one step above the most onerous of Christmas card “improvements.”  The update that some folks include in their cards is a pretentious undertaking.  Consider this something to add to my list of things that will never go into cards from a married JJT.

I appreciate the cards I have from my friends, but I just do not want to fall into this easy trap.  Besides, the shelf holding all of my Christmas cards is looking like a maternity ward.

My walk into the office was an uneventful one, but the streets of downtown Baltimore were empty this morning.  Dare I say, I am but one of the small number of saps working after the holiday today, let alone this week.  The emptiness extends into the cube farm, as it is also a ghost town.  The consultants that are usually in the office are working remote this week.   Additionally, most of the full-time staff is away this week using their leave before the end of this year.

In my haste to get to the office this morning, I left my CrackBerry sitting on my counter at home.  Given my email traffic is down considerably with everyone away for the holiday, this is not a terrible loss.  I was, inexplicably, in a hurry to get out of the house and into the office this morning.

Since it is quiet this week compared to how it has been for the last two weeks, I am going to get some well-deserved technical reading in.  Nothing like learning about Tripwire. 

Enjoy a bit of season kitschiness as well.

Merry Christmas!

The last year has been an interesting one, to be sure. I decided to hop on one of the horses of the job merry-go-round. Admittedly, this was out-of-sorts for anyone who knows me and how much I tend to crave order. Let's face it: I tend to be risk-averse and do not change overnight. Yet, here I was job-hopping like it was going out of style. I have to admit that I really like where I have landed now. As I have said, it has been keeping me busy. Nonetheless, I enjoy being busy in this way--learning new things, being part of a team, and making valuable contributions. Although the adage is a tad overused, out of chaos comes order.

Personally, the year has been full of change. I am still dealing with my mother and all of her issues. On one level, I am taking a very long view of the situation. At the end of the day, my mother needs to come around and focus on the things that will better her situation, and she needs to do this for herself. I am talking with her again, and I am getting the impression that she has made this realization. I take this with a grain of salt, considering I have heard this all the time with my sister through the years. Still, I miss having my mother a bit more available to me. I tend to be quite private, but I miss having my mother around to discuss those things that only a mother and son can share. It's a long road ahead, though, and time will tell.

My nephew continues to move along, and he is doing quite well considering what was arrayed against him at an early age. I am proud of what he has done thus far, but I sometimes feel bad that I cannot do more. It is frustrating at times talking to him because I can see my sister coming through in some of the things he says or in some of the ways he acts. Even with those moments, I know he has a good head on his shoulders. Each year, there is some way he makes me proud, and I am lucky enough to have him as my nephew.

There have been some scares in the family, too. I am worried about both of my living grandparents, and sometimes I catch myself thinking about losing them. Both have had cancer scares, but my grandmother seems to be out of the woods for the time being. My grandfather, on the other hand, is still going through his treatments. I worry about him the most, though. As I said before, I was not terribly surprised when I learned of his diagnosis. The old man is doing alright, but I worry about him more than I would ever admit to him.

On other personal fronts, I find myself lamenting the passage of friendship, of sorts. I am more lamenting the "falling out of touch" with folks in the past year. I am mostly to blame for this, as it is so easy to pick up a phone, drop an email, or drop an instant message to someone. Still, it is so hard to keep up with folks. I am somewhat angry that I have not done a better job of staying in touch with childhood friends, and I find myself making it harder to stay in touch with those people. The same thing goes for my college friends, especially as they start families of their own. At times, my refrigerator has looked like a maternity ward with the photos of various newborn children.  I am happy for them, but my Christmas cards this year overflow with photos of children.  There are other people who I have fell out of touch with, and I lament that as well.  So, with all this falling out of touch, I am going to do my best to get back in touch with these folks.

This year has had its share of ups and downs on the relationship front, but I cannot say that the downs were truly that.  Things are going well on this front, and I am enjoying it.  I don't know where it is going to take me, but I can at least enjoy the ride for now.   It's been a good one.

Enough blathering on in some sort of self-referential pity party.  Time to enjoy the holidays, get in touch with friends and family, and get ready for the New Year.

As usual, the holidays are upon me much too quickly.  I still have to pick up some things for some family, but fortunately the amount of shopping I have to do is pretty minimal.  Although I had purchased my Christmas cards in advance, they were still mailed out late.  Apologies if for some reason I overlooked you in my usual list of Christmas cards. 

Add to this usual feverish pace for the holidays the amount of late night work I have had to get done, and that has compounded my ability to get things done.  Every night for the last two weeks I have worked late.  I am certainly not complaining, as I am really happy to be busy at work.  Still, working all day in the cube farm and then coming home to work again is pretty draining.  With the coming holiday, most folks will be away from the office.  Something tells me the feverish pace may let up slightly for the coming week. 

With all of this in mind, I need to do the following things tomorrow:

• Call my grandfather and let him know when I will be down on Saturday;
• Call my nephew and his foster parent to take care of the plans for Christmas Day;
• Rebuild the laptop for the nephew;
• Go through all of the rest of my mail and Christmas cards;
• Take care of my last minute shopping. 

All will get done, and this weekend should be somewhat relaxing since I will be at my grandfather's.  That should be some welcome rest. 

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?  Stewie Griffin
2. What were you doing at 0800? Getting ready to head into the office. 
3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Enjoying some hot chocolate with an episode from Season 6 of 24. 
4. What happened to you in 2006? I bought a house, and I had an otherwise interesting year.
5. What was the last thing you said out loud? Thank you.
6. How many beverages did you have today? 8
7. What color is your hairbrush? I don't own a hairbrush, on account of the small amount of hair I have. 
8. What was the last thing you paid for? Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate and Mini-Marshmallows
9. Where were you last night? At home, fixing someone's laptop.
10. What color is your front door? White
11. Where do you keep your change? On the counter next to my cell phone.
12. What's the weather like today? Sunny and a little warmer than usual. 
13. What's the best ice-cream flavor? Mint Chocolate Chip
14. What excites you? Lots of things
15. Do you want to cut your hair? I just had a haircut, so no. 
16. Are you over the age of 25? Yes
17. Do you talk a lot? Depends on the conversation. 
18. Do you watch the O.C.? What's the O.C.?
19. Do you know anyone named Steven? Yes
20. Do you make up your own words? No.
21. Are you a jealous person? No.
22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "A"? Aaron
23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "K"? Kevin
24. Who's the first person on your received call list? On which cell phone?  Surprisingly, both the work and personal cell phone have calls from the same person: Melissa.
25. What does the last text message you received say? I'm at Bolan's in Bel Air.  Mike says Hi.
26. Do you chew on your straw? Very rarely.
27. Do you have curly hair? No.
28. Where's the next place you're going to? Bed in short order.
29. Who's the rudest person in your life? I can't say I know anyone that rude.
30. What was the last thing you ate? Grapes.
31. Will you get married in the future? Potentially.
32. What's the best movie you've seen in the past 2 weeks? A comedy classic, Blazing Saddles
33. Is there anyone you like right now? Yes
34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Not too long ago, actually.
35. Are you currently depressed? No
36. Did you cry today? No
37. Why did you answer and post this? One of the persons who first began to help me on this blogging journey way back when, and she tagged me. 
38. Tag 5 people you want to do this survey.  I don't tag people with memes, as it is not my style.  If anyone wants to keep it up, feel free to borrow it. 

My favorite lyrics:

Gonna make your ass tired
With all my tryptophan

Have a safe and enjoyable Turkey Day, motherf**ckers!

My upgrade was part of their "New Every 2."  Essentially, every two years, you can get a new phone--possibly free.  In my case, I was getting a phone not in the pool of available phones.  This meant that I paid a little bit more than I could have, but that's the price I pay for having a new phone.  I paid $262, and I have a $100 mail-in rebate coming back to me.  So, I paid $162 for the phone.  My monthly plan will cost $79/month, and that includes$59 for my monthly plan of 900 Nationwide minutes and $20 for unlimited text messaging to anyone on any carrier.  This is slightly more than I was paying for my previous plan with my e815.

I found quite a few great resources for configuring, hacking, and other pieces of information about the RAZR2.  HowardForums is a great site for all things mobile phone, and a frequent poster to those forums has his own page where he has consolidated information.  The following links are very useful:

Official Motorola RAZR2 V9m How-Tos Thread

Official Motorola RAZR2 V9m Release Thread

Motorola RAZR2 V9m: Bluetooth

Mark_Venture's Verizon Phone Info Page

Here are some thoughts on my new phone:

• Compared to the original RAZR, I like both the form factor and the feel of the RAZR2.  It doesn't feel as top-heavy to me as the original RAZR felt.  Additionally, the rubberized back and keypad make it much easier to use.  It doesn't feel nearly as delicate as the original RAZR.
• I have to admit that the display on this phone is pretty damn good.  It's bright and colorful.
• The camera is actually pretty good too, although I find that the phone appears to do an incredibly bad job at compressing the images.  The images never look as bad when I take them then when I send them to myself via SMS.
• In typical Motorola fashion, though, I find some of the default options on the phone out of the box to be annoying.  For example, the default text input for text messaging was not set to the iTAP input method.  It was set to abc, which is annoying when you are used to iTAP.  It took me a couple of passes to configure this correctly.  To configure this correctly, enter the Settings when in the Messaging menu.  Select All Msg, then select Entry Mode.  Select iTAP English, and you will now use iTAP for text messaging.
• There are actually a number of customizations that one can make to the phone, and one of them allows you to remove the annoying Verizon Wireless banner from the displays.
• The RAZR2 appears to be hackable, much along the lines of my trusty e815 that this phone replaced.  This is handy as it will allow you to re-enable some of the features that Verizon has disabled--namely Bluetooth file transfer functionality.
• One of the things that took some getting used to on my part, as the RAZR2 changes the location of the space key.  On my e815, it was the * button while on the RAZR2   it is the # button.  A slight retraining of my fingers as they type the text messages.  I have found iTAP to be quite good at predicting what I am planning to type.
• The RAZR2 uses a different connector than the original RAZR.  If you hope to use any of your accessories with the RAZR2, you are out of luck.  Of course, if you have had Motorola phones for sometime, this is not an uncommon occurrence.  This means after having the same USB data cable for my last two phones be compatible, I will need to break down and purchase a data cable.
• Motorola Phone Tools works with the RAZR2, but I have borked with the Bluetooth functionality on the phone.

• A good time was had at the Happy Hour on Friday night. It was a good time to catch up with some old friends and meet a few new ones. I have to say a word of thanks for those who bestowed upon me kind birthday wishes.  I really did not expect it, and I appreciate the card and the tasty cupcake.  All in all, a good time was had at the place where I attended my first blogger happy hour almost three years ago.
• On Saturday, I got together with some good friends old and new and enjoyed some drinks and conversation at my usual drinking haunt these days, Captain Larry's, for my actual birthday.
• On Sunday, I relaxed a bit and enjoyed a nice home-cooked dinner with my friend.