I have a new theme coming soon, so the look here is about to change...for the better! I'm very excited and I can't wait to get it rolled out. I'll polish it up over the week and hopefully roll it out next weekend.

In other news, the holiday craziness is upon us, but all in all I gotta say I'm handling it well. At work we are sponsoring two needy families for the holidays, and we have a tree in our lobby with the names of all the family member and what they want or need. I skipped over the clothes and picked a kid who wanted three Transformers. The kid's going to make a killing, and I'm feeling pretty good about helping out someone less fortunate than myself. When our HR person was talking to the family and asking what they would like, she asked the father what was tops on his list. "A Job" was his answer, and hearing that made me tear up a little. Yes, sometimes my cold dead heart melts for just a second or so, but only for a moment. So yeah, the kid wants three Transformers? Done and done, my friend.

I was looking back on my site archives, back when I was going to start working out and how 6-9 months later I would be a new me. Well, that time is up and surprise, I didn't do it. I'm a little disappointed in myself for that but in my defense, it was a tough year with the new job and the move. At least I didn't get any fatter, right? But my pledge for the new year is shaping up: I've joined a Gym again, I'm doing some exercises at home now, so after January first it's officially ON. 2008 is going to be my year, and I'm hopeful that by my birthday in August I will be closer to my goals, if not met them. I'm giving myself the entire year but by my 39th Birthday, I want to be a good way there. I'll step it up a notch on the exercise, watch what I eat, cut out all sugared drinks, and stop smoking the occasional cigarette.

Just typing the number "39" above almost gave me an infarction. All the more reason to step it up, eh?

What a fun four day weekend this has been! I had a great time at Kent and Bob's for Thanksgiving dinner, met some new friends and enjoyed cuisine from the US, Taiwan, and Japan! All in all I could not have asked for a better time, but I missed seeing my folks. Pics of Turkey Day proper are in the photos section.

This pic is from the Holiday edition of the popular Boards and Buffet last Saturday night, hosted as always by Briana and Justin. We drank a lot of wine, consumed many delectable Thanksgiving leftovers and played Apples to Apples, Taboo, and of course Trivial Pursuit. I kicked so much ass! I also said "I give up, I don't know" a lot. I still kicked ass. Thanks again to Briana and Justin for hosting the event and inviting so many cool and fun people!

Make that Cute Car, as in the cutest car I have ever seen. I snapped this on the way to work and I would buy one if I thought for a second that I could A) fit inside or B) not look utterly ridiculous doing so.

I mean just look at that little pink car and tell me it's not the pinnacle of cute. It seriously gave me a seizure just looking at it. Think I'm crazy? See that woman across the street, behind the tree? Two seconds after I took this she had her camera out taking a picture too. Ah, validation!

So looking back about a month ago, I'm on Apple's website and I'm watching the new commercial for the iPod Nano. It features a little ditty by an artist named Feist, and I take a liking to the song and her voice. So I buy her newest album, listen to it, then go back and buy everything she has on iTunes. Just like that, a new obsession is born. That's just how I roll, folks. I have no idea how such an amazing artist had slipped under my radar for so many years.

Flash forward to this past Monday and I'm chatting with my pal Briana who, unaware of my newfound musical interest, casually mentions that Feist is in town the next night and she's going. When I mention that I am a new fan of her work, she goes on to mention that she might be able to score some more tickets because she knows Robbie, her tour manager. Oh, you don't say? Briana kindly offers (thus nominating her for sainthood) to ask for a couple extra tickets and badda bing badda boom, I'm in. Backstage aftershow passes no less!

So after cocktails and a brisk walk to the theater, we were joined by Justin and Briana's friend Cynthia. Cynthia was a little disappointed: Briana had jokingly posted on her MySpace that she would be hanging with Jennifer Anniston that night (who is in town filming a movie and staying right next door to where we saw Feist, and Briana knows everyone so this was entirely plausible) so she was actually expecting Ms. Anniston instead of me. I get that a lot. I told her she could call me Jen for the rest of the evening but not to bring up Brad, it was still too soon.

It was an amazing night. We had great seats and the concert was phenomenal, and after the show we went backstage to meet Feist, which was of course awesome. When I was introduced and extend my hand, she said "yo, Mike." It's one of those things I'll always remember...well, until my first stroke anyway. But she was very sweet and chatted with everyone, then she kinda disappeared. Such is life as a celebrity. Would I have liked to had my picture with her? You know it! But I'm not greedy, and just the chance to see her play and meet her was more than I could have hoped for. And apparently I was standing next to Paul Allen, former head of Microsoft, owner of the Blazers, and had no clue. Sometimes I just crack myself up. I checked my pockets for money, thinking being next to someone that rich was like rubbing up against the easter bunny, but nope, no cash. Sigh. I did manage to latch onto her schedule for the day and her dressing room name tag so those were fun little souvenirs to get a hold of, if not a bit stalker-ish.

As we were talking and deciding a game plan for after the show, I snuck off to use the restroom. The one Feist had used. That's right, I peed right after Feist. Actually, that's probably not something I should be bragging about. But when I was leaving the bathroom and opening the door, Feist was just walking past and my hasty door opening startled her. We looked at each other, our eyes met and I said "oops, sorry" to which she replied "it's ok" as she smiled and walked away. That's how I will remember my evening with Feist: beautiful voice, amazing talent, and doesn't mind if ya pee in her bathroom. Class all the way.

Me and Briana and Justin said goodnight to Cynthia, then walked to the Virginia Cafe where we awaited Robbie and hopefully Feist herself for a bite and some drinks. It was Robbie and some of the lighting guys that joined us later, including the tour bus driver, a funny guy named Cookie. It was an amazing evening and sure it would have been otherworldly to share some tots with Feist, but the evening is one I will remember fondly just as it was. We sat for some time, drinking, smoking, and eating tater tots. It was a great way to end the evening, and I have to give a big thanks to Robbie for including me in the show, and of course for hand feeding me a tater tot. You can't deny it bro, Briana took the picture, so it's out there, man!

Pics of the big night are up in the photo section, with more to come. And another big thank you to Briana and Justin: this kind of thing is almost routine to them but for me, it was something really really special. :)

1923-2007

My grandmother, Cora, passed away this evening at the age of 84. This is her after performing in Hello, Dolly! in 1999. What I wouldn't give to have been able to see that, but I understand she brought the house down...as was her style. I wish I had more photo's of her stored digitally to share, but this is all I could find.

But as I sit here looking at the other photos of her that I have, and holding the various crafts she has made for me over the years, I wanted to take a moment to give her my love and my thanks. I want to thank her for all of the caring, kindness, and generosity she has shown me and everyone she touched in life. Her spirit and sense of humor will be missed like no other.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, he refers to death as "the undiscovered country", implying that beyond our mortal bodies lies a great unknown, waiting for our spirits to explore. I have no doubt that Cora has begun that journey now, and I wish her godspeed and love into the next world.

According to the test on this site. I always knew it...

That's really all I got today. Oh, I tore one of my contacts at lunch, man did that ever suck, I was half blind all day.

Lame!

Last Thursday was fun! I got my stitch out (it took three seconds and I felt nothing) and then met the cable guy, who brought the internets with him. I swear, having to go without them for so long was torture. I was contemplating hooking up my computer to my cell via bluetooth and surfing at dial-up speed after about two hours. It's a wired world and I'm a whore for it, so there you go. Don't you judge me!

Aside from that it's been uneventful so far this week. Setting into the new place, getting things organized, the usual. I'll be installing some site updates over the weekend, including some cool flash stuff for the photo's page, so that should be nine kinds of awesome. Not eight, nine. And I get my new mic this weekend, so prepare for podcast glory any day now! OK, any week, I'm lazy.

I love this pic. You can find more like it on one of my favorite sites here. I've tried to catch Chloe in poses like that, but every time I whip out the camera she rolls over on her back and puts her legs in the air. Wonder where she learned that little trick?

Oh, and to pass along a little pearl of wisdom, never EVER have a bowl of Bran Flakes as a snack before bed, then again for breakfast the next morning. Sure it's healthy, sure it's low-fat but man! It wasn't even the good stuff, it was the Safeway brand bran flakes, no raisins. You know that shit is like 30% ground up toilet roll tubes and chinese newspapers. I'm sure most of you have more sense than to do that, but mother nature not so gently reminded me of my mistake. Wait, why am I talking about this?

My internet outage has been reduced: it goes off Sunday and comes back on next Thursday the 4th. Yay!
Sutures are doing awesome, those come out next Thursday as well. Next Thursday all kinds of fun crap happens!

I'll be working on some site updates during the downtime, so look for some new things next week!

See you betches soon!

So in the continuing saga of my mortal wounding, little doctor called and said "meh" to my concerns about my suture coming out, so I guess it's alright that my gaping wound is getting infected and leaking puss all over. I'm kidding, it's not, it's totally fine. In fact, it seems to be doing great so I'm looking forward to getting my remaining stitches out next week. I wonder if that hurts? They better numb me up for that or I'm totally going to cause a scene.

Might not be any posts until next Sunday, because I'm moving and didn't call any sooner than today to move my internets, so next weekend was their next opening. I might call and see if I can have it moved up during the week and just take a few hours off of work. I mean what am I supposed to do all week at home without the internet? Read a book? Better myself? No thanks!

Moving from one apartment to another in the same complex is kinda lame, but I get to skip the ball crushing excitement that is U-Haul rental, so that part is pretty cool. I'm getting help with the big stuff, then taking over the smaller things handfuls at a time. Everything is going to be picked up and moved from one spot to the exact same spot in the new place since the layout is identical. So it shouldn't be too stressful for Chloe, but I'll be watching her in case of any freakouts. This is THE last time I move until I buy a place, which I hope to be in the next year or two. Well ok, two to three, I have to factor in my spending problems and unwise financial decisions. I just don't want to have to a) have a roommate or b) live in the boonies or c) both to make my first house or condo happen, so I have to make sure that everything is just right.

Oh, the image in today's post? I was on overstock.com looking at new bed treatments (that's gay slang for comforter) and came across this hot bitch. It's a glass mirror thing that people have actually purchased. Right now, in the year 2007. For $135 plus shipping. Surely this can only be a sign of the apocalypse. Actually the more I look at it, I kind of want one now.

I took this pic today...this moving truck was parked outside of work, and I thought it was so Kawaii! Japanese moving truck + cats + cat tocks on the back of the truck = priceless!

In blog news, I'm kicking around new CSS themes, trying to keep it simple, and I kinda like this one. I'm sure I'll hate it tomorrow. But for now it's working for me. Note that I now have an RSS feed for the site AND for the comments section. Fancy!

Last Friday I had some minor surgery...I had a cyst removed from my back that's been there since I was a teenager. After ignoring it for decades I finally decided to have it done, especially after speaking to someone who had the same thing done and being somewhat reassured that they were still breathing afterwards. I went in for a consultation first, because they wanted to poke and prod at it to make sure it wasn't made of evil, then after getting their blessing I went in to have the sucker whacked.

I laid down on the operating table and they got me all prepped, then big doctor, little doctor, and student doctor all came in to have a little fun. I handed my trusty Canon to student doctor and said "congratulations, you're taking pictures". After balking a little bit and asking why on earth anyone would want pictures of such a thing she agreed. I mean, she's there to learn, right? I guess I wanted photos because this thing had been with me so long that I wanted to see what it looked like. At first big doctor watched little doctor, then he kicked back and regaled us with tales of his grossest cyst removal stories, which is probably not the best subject matter for a hysterical pansy who faints at the sight (and sometimes the mere suggestion of) blood. They numbed me up and got to work, and except for a little tugging here or there, I didn't feel a thing. Student doctor took pictures, but her mistake came when she took the first one and tried to show me the picture on my camera screen real quick. No thanks honey, I'll look at that later when I'm home and good and drunk. I mean, are you trying to make me puke? During the closing little doctor got a little nervous and needed help from big doctor, and that was a little weird because big doctor's crotch was literally two inches from my face and I had nowhere else to look. To top it off, little doctor was nervous and actually started sweating on me. I felt a drop of something hit my back (nowhere near where the work as being done) and I asked what it was, and he confessed he has sweating. Gross! Then later I felt another one hit my arm. I asked him if I should be nervous that he was on top of me and sweating while someone took pictures, but they failed to see the humor in that. That's one thing I learned about doctors that day: they have absolutely no sense of humor. After the procedure was done I joked that I hoped the cyst hadn't been the source of all my powers and got nothing, nothing from them.

So they got me all stitched up, handed me some big band aids and instructions on how to keep the site clean and I was on my way. If anyone is curious, yes it is very very very very difficult to clean and tend and baby a wound when it's right between your shoulder blades. But so far so good, I've been cleaning the site regularly and changing the bandages the best I can. I had three stitches when I left the clinic, and tonight while taking pictures of the healing process (I know, I'm a freak) I counted two...oops, the center one has gone missing. Naturally I freaked out, because they were supposed to be in 14 days and it has only been four, but from what I could tell it looks healed up enough, it's not open or anything. OK, I'm getting dizzy just typing this so I need to move on. I called and left a message with little doctor and hopefully he will call me back and tell me if I should let it go or start planning the funeral. I want white calla lilies if it comes to that, ok? Assuming all is well, the other stitches come out next Thursday. And yes I have the pictures and no I'm not going to post them, because they are gross and I get woozy just speeding by them in iPhoto.

Wow, it's been too long! So of course we must start off with a Robot tag! :)

Chloe is fine, it turns out she had fleas. Yes, my indoor, never been outside a second in her life cat somehow got fleas. I Took her to the vet and got some Advantage, and let me tell you, that shit doesn't mess around. Within an hour dead fleas were falling off her like you wouldn't believe. The second part of that battle, however, is still being waged: the remaining fleas in the house. They breed like tribbles, so every day I am spot spraying, vacuuming, and in general obsessing with ridding my house of the pesky things. When I see one I freak out, nuke the general area, and hit it with the hoover. The vet said the best weapon against fleas is a vacuum cleaner with a flea collar placed inside the bag, so I'm taking her at her word and getting all Lara Croft on their asses. OK, bad analogy, but you get the point.

I'm now a writer for the Portland Metroblog, so take a gander here and enjoy. Not only is it chock full of posts about the city of roses, but I make the occasional guest blogger appearance. Huzzah! I need to post there three times a week and so far I've only posted ONCE, so I need to seriously step it up or they are going to boot my lazy ass to the curb.

Upgrade! I got a new computer at home. The MacBook just wasn't cutting it...I never took it anywhere and if I was going to look at a computer screen at my desk all the time, it had better be bigger than 13". In typical Mike fashion tho I overdid things a bit...I bought a new 24" iMac. Pricey and out of my range, but during the month of August the fates smiled upon me in the form of a new credit card so I was able to make it happen. Is it possible to love a computer? If so, I do. This thing is HUGE, and looks gigantic sitting on my desk. But I must say it is one beautiful machine, and I plan to have it for years to come. I know I always say that, then I usually end up getting a new computer in a year. The keyboard is just like the MacBook's built in keyboard, so in that respect it's like my old MacBook and my iMac before that had a baby. Did I just type that? Man I'm drunk!

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy!

Chloe is acting really strange lately. She won't jump into bed every night like she used to. Usually when I am getting ready for bed, she sits patiently at the foot while I get settled, then jumps right up, meows a lot, then settles down and sleeps the whole night with me. Not anymore. Even if I call her, she doesn't even come into the bedroom. Instead she's been sleeping on the floor on on the couch in the living room. She's also taken to hanging out in odd places...the other day I came home and she was sleeping in the closet, on top of the file cabinet, under some clothes that were hanging up. Very odd for her. And lately when I'm at the computer, she's sits at my feet and cries and cries and tries to jump up in my lap. She'll rear up, meow her head off, and paw at me over and over. It's kind of cute, but it goes past cute to become annoying. She's never been a lap kitty, so this seems like really odd behavior for her. I'm not sure what's going on, but I hope she snaps out of it soon, I'm getting a bit worried.

In other pet news, I have a new Betta. My first was of course Gill, followed by Gillagain (get it, Gill AGAIN) and then the tank was empty for a while. I've been looking for Betta's but there seems to be some kind of Betta shortage in Portland, but I finally found one I liked with a twist...she's a she! So of course her name is Gillian, in keeping with the Gill naming convention, so that seemed appropriate.

Great, I'm blogging about my pets now. I've officially become THAT guy.

This is my birthday present from Kelly (mad props!) that she pickup up for me at Typecon. OMG, how cool is this?

Note to self: invest in a tripod so I can take pictures of myself without having to hold the camera at arms length...that's SO MySpace! :)

What a blast of a birthday weekend! Friday I took off from work and got a bunch of stuff done for my car (tags renewed, an estimate for some repair work then had her cleaned top to bottom) and then headed to IKEA! Got some fun stuff for the apartment and some cool ideas for more. It's so much bigger and better than the one in Seattle, that IKEA is dead to me now.

After IKEA I had lunch with Jason and we did some shopping, then Friday night some friends took me to Bent, then more joined us, it was a real hoot. We hung out on the outdoor patio for some good old fashioned dunk and disordilyness. I got tanked because it was my birthday and I wasn't driving, so that was a lot of fun to be able to cut loose and do for once. We ate, we drank, we chain-smoked and I even got a birthday lap dance from one of the waiters! At least I think I did, I may have imagined it. We closed the place down and I came home to crash. I woke up Saturday with a pounding headache and my lungs hurt, but it was totally worth it. I think I might have made out with someone but I'm not certain, so I'm keeping an eye out for the herps just in case. Now I know how my home girl Courtney Love must feel. Props to you, sister!

Saturday morning (ok more like NOON) I met Daniel for breakfast and we shopped a bit, then I spent the afternoon and evening at home, still nursing a slight hangover and trying to clean and decorate the place a little. Later in the evening part of the gang from Friday night Texted me that they were back over at Bent and I should join, but ugh, no thanks, I was still feeling the effects of the night before. Wuss!

Sunday it was coffee and breakfast with Mat, then more shopping and eating with Forest and Bryan, then out to Kent's for a birthday dinner with more friends showing up. And OMG, cake! Thanks to all of my friends that were able to come out and make it a birthday to remember. All in all it was a great weekend, and no one got arrested this year, so it was a big improvement over last year with that whole prostitution thing.

In less tawdry news, I took this new Robot <3 tag last week...our acrobatic tagger strikes again, at the street-lamp on 13th and Montgomery. Whoever you are, robot tagger, I think you are a hot piece! I seriously need to make a new gallery of just Robot tags, because I have way more that what I've been posting here.

My big news for this blog update is...a doughnut. Not just any doughnut mind you, it's the official doughnut for the Simpsons movie! Available only at 7-11 as a special promo for the release of the Simpsons movie, it's the traditional pink doughnut with sprinkles, Homer's favorite. It was delicious!

This sign is on the beginning of my street, and I don't get it at all. I can see there used to be more to it, so why hasn't anyone fixed it or taken it down? It's been like that at least since I've been here and I think it might lead to Narnia.

I have to buy Applecare for the MacBook soon, and it's such an unsatisfying purchase it's kind of pissing me off. But you know if I don't the next day the HD is going to blow up or the logic board will fry, so I guess I had better do it. Lame!

My weekend started out with seeing my pal Virginia do standup at the Bagdad Friday night. She kicked ass! Then it was work Saturday and a lazy Sunday. The podcast is done and i hope to have it up soon, so that will add another dimension of excitement to the blahg. The Japanese food review is done too, I'm just trying to pick a CSS theme that looks good before I upload it.

I really want an iPhone, and my birthday is in twelve days. Hey, I'm just sayin!

They should call it "Kashi GoPotty" instead. Don't make me explain!

Yeah, I know, another Robot tag. I can't help it! Oh, so the robot tag on 13th and Montgomery was removed, which I mentioned here...and then replaced two days later after I posted the fact. Now I'm kind of scared. I saw several more on the walk to work, and Jason is convinced it's me, and that I have some alter-ego that goes around at night making Robot tags. It's not me, I swear! But Robot tagger, if you are out there, and you are really reading this...give me a sign!

This is becoming less of a blog about me and is becoming about the Robot tags. I kinda feel like a stalker. Are blogs admissible as evidence?

OMG, tonight I saw a robot tag RIGHT in front of my apartment, I'm getting pictures tomorrow on the way home from work when it's lighter.

Not freaking out at all...

Ok mister or misses Robot <3 tagger, how did you manage this? I took this in Pettygrove Park downtown, and this lamppost is at least 25 feet off the ground. In my mental profile now you are beginning to take form. I definitely think you are male, because a woman would never climb a pole that filthy, and you are either small and light enough to shimmy up, or you are beefy enough to haul yourself up hand over hand.

So...coffee sometime? What's your sign?

I'm totally kidding, but I do think you are a crazy ho. I can't keep up with your tags, they are everywhere now...and why always purple? The plot thickens. Oh, and they painted over your tag on 13th and Montgomery, the first tag I posted: it made me sad.

I'm not obsessed or anything...

Yep, another Robot <3 tag. Hey, I'll stop posting them when they stop showing up! In the meantime, thank you, anonymous Robot Lover artist person!

I had my review today at work and I got some kudos, some things to work on and a decent raise. I smell a trip to Sonic coming up!

The latest Mac OS update is affecting some computers with this symptom. And mine is one of them. Sigh. I used to be the one who heard all about these kind of glitches and thought "oh, you poor bastards" and then had another box of wine and laughed. This time tho, it hits home. Is it a big deal? No. Will I go back to 10.4.9 until they fix it? No, not with Leopard around the corner. Why am I writing about this then? More Franzia! Oops, they released a patch for it, and it's works now. I love you Steve Jobs!

Oh, and I get to see the new Transformers movie before it debuts. Hooray! My friend Don does movie sneak previews, and can get me into a press screening. When I got the news I think I had a mild stroke or infarction of some type, because all I remember is waking up in a pool of my own...something.

So this weekend was Portland's Gay and Lesbian pride celebration, and I went downtown to party like it was 1999. Only it was 2007, but other than there being more people, it pretty much looked like the pride parade of 1999.

All in all it was ok. I hung out with some friends, saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, and even a few I wish I hadn't seen. But all in all, a good time. I watched the parade with Daniel, Ty, Rick and Elshod, then we all wandered down waterfront way. There I was able to see Homero and Pete, and ran into a ton of old friends...it was really fun. I ate some mystery food and brought back more lube samples and condoms that I will ever use. They all expire in the 2011-2013 range, so that should just about do it. Despite the clouds I got a little sunburnt, and it was a lot of fun.

It seems when you are an aging gay man, you have two paths you can take upon hitting your twilight years. You can either a) become a drag queen or b) become a daddy, wear a utilikilt, and get three dogs. I'm not judging, I'm just saying.

And for all you Abercrombie-cloned skinny bitches I saw running around, I just have four words for you. Four bitter, jaded words: eat a fucking sandwhich!

I <3 whoever does these.

Sometimes it's just what you see here, other times it's an awesome graphic. Bring on the Robot overlords!

In other geek news, my Animal Crossing: Wild World village is doing awesome. In the last few days I have caught the last fish and the last bug I needed for the Museum, and the mayor presented me with the Golden Fishing Rod and the Golden Net, respectively! All I need are a few paintings for my museum, and I'm done! There is still plenty to do in the game, but the main goals as far as collecting will be over. I hope there is a new version coming for the DS AND for the Wii, so I can spend the coming winter in geeky isolation.

Who else but Chloe, my cat. She has no pride or shame, so she's the hot slut of the day because I admire her so much!

Reach for the stars, gurl!

So I'm working on the first Podcast, and it's coming along well. I wanted to wait for the mic that I want to come in before recording, so I went ahead and started writing for the first episode. I did some test recordings with the MacBook's built-in Mic, and while it was ok, it was only that. So look for the first episode in the next couple of weeks.

In related news, the MacBook seems none the worse for wear after it's recent trip to the service center. I did get to see inside of it during it's most recent foray, and I gotta tell you...there isn't a lot in there. Take away the HD, the battery and the optical drive, and the logic board itself is freakishly small.

I got a call back from my voice-over audition I had a few weeks back, so that was exciting. They want me to come in this coming week and record a few more lines. I really hope I get the gig because while it's not super prestigious, it would be good exposure. I can talk more about it after the process is over, until then I had to sign a NDA. But trust me, it's not a huge deal: the NDA is standard, but it would be fun to have on my resume.

I'm down eight pounds from a few weeks ago! And then back up three last week. Lé Sigh. Still, it's five pounds, so I'll take it. Now where did I put those Oreo's?

What a great weekend, but OMG was it hot here! And true to Oregon weather, it was high 80's all weekend and this week it's supposed to be mid 60's and even rain is expected Monday and Tuesday. Gotta love the Northwest!

On the Portland Streetcar today, I saw our former Mayor Vera Katz. Just sitting there, riding along like everyone else. I said hi and we shook hands and talked a bit, it was fun. That was the closest I've had to a celebrity sighting in a while, so figured it was blogworthy.

Today's Blog pic comes from this Ebay auction...I about plotzed myself when I saw what it was going for. Damn Star Wars fans are overpaid!

I humbly give you this Robot tag I took near my house with my camera phone...and similar ones are starting to show up all over downtown Portland. Whoever is doing this deserves a beer, because I love their work!

Well, I was anyway, back is what looks to be 19 diggity doo. I love that cover artwork. You know the guy smoking is totally the killer, because he's smoking and smoking is evil and only bad people do it. Ha! God, I want a cigarette...

I added my full name to my website, because right now if you google Mike Morgan all you get is this guy or this guy, but if you google Mikes Bytes, it comes right up. Time for some "spidering", so I popped my name in the banner above in hopes it will be picked up by the google trolls. So I check everyday for Mike Morgan, and it's kind of fun to read all about my namesakes out there. Everything from sports stars to musicians to doctors and college professors. All richer and more famous than me, of course.

...because I have finally dined as Sonic!

They have teased us for years with commercials on TV, but the closest Sonic was in Idaho. Finally late last year they built one in Hillsboro, and after much anticipation, I finally was able to go tonight.

Hats off to expert pilot and friend extraordinaire Rachel, for she navigated many a perilous route towards the big yellow brightness that is Sonic. With a mighty roar of triumph she guided her steel chariot into the drive-in slip, and we surrendered ourselves to deliciousness.

People, you HAVE to go eat there at least once. Yes, it is fast food, no it is not healthy, but it is delicious and tasty and a wonder to behold. Bright neon lights, waitresses on roller skates, and OMG, condiment girls that come around to where you are parked offering condiments. It's like overeaters heaven.

You might ask me how Sonic falls into my plan of exercising and eating healthy. This is a valid point. I shall now direct your gaze to something shiny nearby, perhaps even the gleaming sign of Sonic that beckons you toward foodtopia.

Seriously I don't plan on making a habit of it, but every few months as I make good progress in my desire to eat better and lose weight, this will be the place I go to reward myself. My mouth has never been so happy and...so far at least...no sign of the McCramps.

So I'm thinking of joining the podcast parade, but I have to wonder...is it worth it? I mean, what do *I* have to talk about that's so important it warrants a podcast? I mean I could talk about Star Trek or Transformers or Apple computers, but I'm pretty sure that's been covered a BILLION times already. But I find myself wanting to try. Maybe a mixed bag type of thing? Covering Otaku culture, some sci-fi beats, and maybe a dash of Apple stuff? I admit I am intrigued by it, and then I could get RSS feeds and maybe end up on iTunes? God, really, what am I thinking? Hmm, it can't hurt to try...it would just have to be well written and put together, unlike the trash I post here. I'm also thinking it might help with getting my V/A work off the ground. Wish me luck or shoot me down, comments are welcome, I'm curious what my legion of readers would think.

So I've joined a gym and I start next week. It's done, I'm committed, and that's that. My new Gym guy's name is "Jim", which I found hilarious. He's nice, and of course physically perfect, so I both love and hate him for it. He has his work cut out for him IMHO, but he says I have a "killer frame" to work with, and that I should drop weight fast, so we'll see if he's right.

So I decided this week that in addition to my daily two mile walk I would make use of my 8 minute abs video, which I have done dutifully every day, just to start the process early. Longest eight minutes of my life, people. But my muscles are sore, and it feels good, so I'll keep it up. But just look at this guy, with his hottie girl and hottie guy friend, all smug in their perfect ab-ness. And god you should hear him talk, he's like the most condescendingly motivational instructor EVAR! He's wearing the tightest spandex shorts I've ever seen with NO undies, so in the close up shots you can totally see his doodle.

I can't wait to lose some weight and actually maybe see them, but that could be a while. I start South Beach next week too...god, what am I thinking? But in six months, nine months, a year...whatever...the results will be worth it. I took a "before" picture that will ONLY be seen when I am happy with the after one. But you have my solemn word I *will* post it when it's time...bearing in mind that I'm not going for ripped and cut, just healthy. I think I need to lose 50 pounds but gym jim says that's too much, more like 40, but we'll see.

Looks like JC was hiding something...he walked with Dinosaurs, just like the Discovery Channel taught us! I hope more historical images like this one come forward, but cause I'd like to know if Noah's Ark had two T-Rex's on board, and what kind of wacky misadventures that might have led to.

In other news, tonight while driving home from a friend's house my car's traction control kicked in for the first time. I was taking a corner rather sharply, and this alarm went off in the car and I felt the brakes doing something funny. It kind of freaked me out, and it kind of excited me to see/feel/hear my car do something new and different. Now if only I could find out that my car is really an Autobot warrior sent here as part of an advance team to protect us from the Decepticons. Sonatabot, transform!

Sorry...until 7/4/07 arrives, I'm going to be like this, I'm afraid.

I did this obituary generator online and this is mine. I thought it worth sharing.

Transsexuals, LOL!

P.S. I find art boring, so no wonder I was mad!

OK, this is creepy. Today a coworker IM'd me and told me to go look at the window of the sky-bridge connecting our side of the building to the other side. And there it was: a mystery print. It looks for all the world like a person of the female gender backed her rear up to the window and made a little ass-splat. I seriously cannot otherwise explain it. The sun was hitting it just right in the photo, otherwise you had to be at the correct angle to see it. It looked like any other greasy hand-print type smudge you would see on glass only this my friends, looks like vadge. If anyone else has a less scandalous suggestion, I'm open. The only photoshopping I did to this was an auto-levels to bring out the contrast and a sharpen. I had to use my cellphone camera because it was all I had with me, but omg, seriously, wtf?

Mystery solved! Turns out it was the mark left behind from a bird smacking into the window. Now you know where my mind was, smack dab in the gutter where it usually is. The photo in question even made it onto my companies blog, how awesome is that?

Holy crap, how did that happen? Well, in my defense I've been busy. Busy at work, busy at home, and busy with the socialness that is me. Meeting someone new didn't help either! A lot has happened since my last update, but I'm back and look forward to polluting the blogosphere with my randomness once again. If I could only blog from work I would update so much more often.

Today I was on the phone with a client and I heard this familiar noise through the phone, but I couldn't place it. In a few seconds I had it, he was scraping the bottom of a yogurt cup. I said "Yogurt?" and he said "Oh my god, that's amazing, how did you know?" I explained that I eat a lot of yogurt so I knew that sound well. I think he was unprepared for the level of intimacy that we had just shared because he got all quiet and distant. God, men are such pigs. He hasn't returned any of my calls since then either. I sent him a dozen roses tho, that should really screw with him.

One of my neighbors is getting on my nerves. Home girl takes her dog out for "walks", which consists of walking it to the front of the complex (about 30 feet) and planting the little guy in a patch of dirt about 2'x2' and saying "go...go potty...goooo...go!" The poor thing is all hyper excited to be outside, and is looking all around and itching to go do dog stuff. I'm like come on lady, take your dog for a WALK for Christ's sake, the poor little dude is begging for it. I'm thinking of calling PETA on her negligent ass.

The optical drive in my MacBook started rejecting random dvd's that the work MacBook just loved, so I took it to the apple store and asked the lady at the Genius Bar to take a look. She was Japanese, so of course instantly I loved her, and she knew her stuff. She was touching my MacBook softly and running her hands over it, and I became convinced they were communicating in some kind of silent binary language. I left it overnight and had a new drive the next day. They would have replaced it while I waited if they had it in stock. This one is much quieter and loves all the disks the old one did not, so yay for porn! Uh, I mean work!

Speaking of Mac's and all that jazz, summer is around the corner and that means next month I resume my PT duties at MacForce! Look for me a couple Saturdays a month, getting my retail groove thing on and milking that discount.

Well, my geek is showing so I will sign off. Check out the Photo's section for Chris's birthday photos, and the much promised Asian food review and Orange LOL sub-sites are coming right around the corner.

This was snapped in my friend Virginia's backyard this past weekend. I don't think it came with red eyes, so I'm guessing nail polish was involved. Either way he freaked me out. A lot.

Well my day at Jury Duty today was awesome!

I arrived at the courthouse, got in line, and of course when it was my turn to go through the metal detector, I failed. I gave them everything that was metal, and I still failed. I took off my belt and STILL failed. They gave me the pass-over with the wand and I failed yet again. The woman scanning me (who bore a strong resemblance to the love child of Ernest Borgnine and Broom Hilda) asked me if I had any metal rings in my "personal area". I informed her that no, I didn't go in for those piercing shenanigans. She shrugged in a "what can you do" way, probably hoping to get a glimpse of a penis for the first time since Sputnik was launched, and waved me through.

The jury room holds about 200 people, and it was packed. The juror room lady that ran the show (who looked and sounded exactly like Barbara Bush) gave us a very long, detailed description of what was expected of us. This included a VERY through inventory of all the board games that were available for us to play, including a painstakingly slow count-off of which tiles were missing from the Scrabble board, and how she liked to play UNO in her spare time. I couldn't make this stuff up, it was like the jury room from Twin Peaks. If the little man from another place had come in and started dancing around and talking backwards, I wouldn't have batted an eye.

After the TMI speech, we all went about the fun business of waiting. Everyone fired up their laptops (which I kicked myself for not bringing) cell phones and knitting needles, and I gave my Nintendo DS a good workout. They called several groups of jurors, from 18 to a whopping 50, but I lucked out until late morning when I got called in a group of 40. We marched up to the courtroom and the Judge (keeping in the the "looked like" theme, looked like a chubby, younger version of Bob Saget) gave us the background of the case we would be seeing if we were selected as Jurors. We were told that they selected 40 members to cull from because they were expecting some dropouts due to the nature of the case.

Yeah, no kidding. As the grisly details of the case were read, over 20 charges, we were painted a graphic picture of a man kidnapping and sexually torturing an adult woman. It was probably the most disturbing thing I've ever heard, and made me and everyone else sick to their stomachs. And of course, the Jurors started dropping like flies. The women dabbed their eyes and tore through tissues as they one by one bowed out because of how the subject matter made them uncomfortable. Their moods improved on the way to the door, I noticed, until they were practically skipping as they hit the hallway. The subject made us all uncomfortable, but the women were able to get out of it easier than us guys. When it came close to my turn to speak, I tried desperately to think of something truly awful that would make me cry, but my tear ducts had a severe case of stage fright. I tried the "grandma's funeral", "my cat hit by a car" and the "death of Optimus Prime" scene from Transformers: The Movie, but none of them worked. I thought about pulling a nose hair because that always got the water works started, but I had just trimmed that morning. Clearly I had not thought ahead.

Despite the lack of tears and to make a short story long, I wasn't selected for the jury, for which I am eternally grateful. I returned to the jury room and waited a few more hours, playing my DS and trying to spell "Chameleon" in Scrabble with no e's, then they sent us home a little before four. Now I'm off the hook for two years, thank you all mighty Xena! I had heard something so awful and evil today, all I wanted to do was go to the humane society afterwards and hug a basketful of kittens.

A coworker showed me this at work the other day, and I LOL'd. It's a wall wart that provides power to some mysterious device in the server room, and I love the contradictory wording. Plus how can you not love a company called "Matewell"?

I have Jury Duty tomorrow, groan. I've only had it one other time in my life, but after being selected immediately for the first trial of the day I got thrown off the jury because I couldn't provide a satisfactory answer to "What does 'Reasonable Doubt' mean to you?" Apparently I used too many uh's and um's and like's and I used the word "guilty" in my answer, so the Defense attorney thought I might be biased. Or something. I'm totally trying it again tomorrow too if I get selected. I'm hoping to be let out early and maybe have a nice day off (or go into work, depending on the time) but mostly I'm just irritated at having to get up so early. I'll be bringing my DS, a book, and my sense of civic pride. You can be assured of a blog entry tomorrow night, hot on the heels of this one.

I can't decide what to do about my domain. It's $100 to renew my .Mac account, and about $80 to get my own domain and host it there. But I've had .Mac for three years, and everyone has that e-mail address. I have until tomorrow to decide, because in true Mike fashion I've waited until the last minute. I might just renew .Mac and then work on the domain thing in my own sweet time. With the .Mac site down there will be no re-direct, and how will all seven of my loyal readers be able to reach me? Right now, right down these URL's: www.mikesbytes.net and www.mikes-bytes.com. If you try to reach me here after tomorrow and you can't, it will be either one of those. That's an entirely different decision I have to make, .net or a hyphenated url?

It's too late, and I need to get to bed and rest up for Justice tomorrow. Pray for me.

Busy McBusyton here, what up dawgs? Haven't updated in a while. Not much going on here, still working on the apartment and such, but I think it's finally "done". It needs a few touches here and there, otherwise I'm calling it good. I'll post the "after" pics in the photos section shortly....I'm sure you are all on the edge of your seats. I did re-learn another valuable life lesson this morning: never drink orange juice right after brushing your teeth. Werd!

My V4 Tamagotchi is doing well. I actually got a trial tama going, to learn the new "os" of the V4's, then he will be sacrificed to start a new one. Now that he's fully evolved tho, I hate to pull the plug on him. We'll see. Once feature I don't like about the V4 is the "Mail" function. You get little presents in the mail...food, money, and the occasional dookie. Who sends dookie in the mail? Only in the tama world, my friends. But you can also open up a mail and find a bandit, who steals your money. Are they trying to teach kids at an early age how much life sucks or something? When I bought it at Target the checker said "Oh