Wrapping up 2005...

Well, as another year closes out, I look back and reflect on all of the new albums I wasted money on. Well, not all of it was wasted... there was some good stuff out this year, and I discovered some new bands that I did not know of before. For example, my favorite album from the past year... that was a big surprise, but it did make a big impact and I could not stop listening to it throughout the whole summer. Here are my top 25 albums of 2005:

1. Alkaline Trio – Crimson
2. Disturbed – Ten Thousand Fists
3. System of a Down – Mesmerize
4. System of a Down – Hypnotize
5. Snow Patrol – Final Straw
6. Garbage – Bleed Like Me
7. Head Automatica – Decadence
8. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
9. The Bravery – The Bravery
10. Weezer – Make Believe
11. Audioslave – Out of Exile
12. Idlewild – Warnings/Promises
13. Ben Folds – Songs For Silverman
14. Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better
15. Queens of the Stone Age – Lullabies To Paralyze
16. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
17. Dave Matthews Band – Stand Up
18. Foo Fighters – In Your Honor
19. The Lovemakers – Times of Romance
20. Pennywise – The Fuse
21. Beck – Guero
22. Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
23. Stellastar* - Harmonies For The Haunted
24. Dropkick Murphys – The Warriors Code
25. The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan

Honorable mention: Dane Cook - Retaliation (not a music album, but it's Dane!)

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy birthday!

I am totally enjoying my week off from work. Haven't done a lot, and it's great!

Christmas at Melissa's parents was fun as usual. Dinner at the grandparents on Xmas eve, opening presents in the morning, and lots of food at Uncle Johnny's. That same night, Hanukkah started, and we've been lighting the candles.

Yesterday was Melissa's 28th birthday. We went to her parents (and her sister was off from work) and we went out to lunch. Didn't do too much else... just trying to enjoy this relaxing time! I did get a PSP and I've been playing with that a lot. It's awesome!

Not much else to tell. I'm gonna go back to doing a lot of nothing...

And now, leading off for the Yankees...

...is Johnny Damon.

Hard to believe, still? A little. But it accomplishes what the Yankees needed. A centerfielder, a leadoff hitter. Chuck Knoblauch was the last Yankees' true leadoff hitter, and it was also the last time the Yanks won the World Series.

Is he a traitor to the Red Sox? Maybe. Does he have a poor throwing arm? Yeah, probably. But he is still a good hitter, and gets on base, and no one runs down a ball out in center better than him. I remember all the times he would kill the Yankees by making a catch and then crashing against the wall. He also does two things for us: fills a hole for the Yanks, and weakens the Red Sox.

But trying to be objective, I can see what he was thinking. He would have taken less money from the Sox if they gave him more years (Yanks got him for 4 years, $52 million). Also, he was concerned about the Sox' management now... I mean, how can you let Theo go and then hire two co-GMs? Doesn't make sense. And the Sox have made all these trades and signed guys, but they still have three gaping holes: SS, CF and 1B. And Manny is Manny.

So am I happy about this? Yeah, definitely. Fills a big hole. And as ESPN.com said, now Johnny needs to find a good barber in NY.

At the Wal...

I got my grades back today:

Strategic Management: A-
Brand Marketing: A-

Not too shabby. My QPA is now a 3.52.

Only five more days until Christmas. What sucks is that I work upstairs from a mall, and these days you get all the crazy, stupid shoppers who are oblivious to the world getting in the way of everyone (well, actually, me). I actually tried to get a few things for Melissa's stocking at Walgreen's, and I was waiting on line for like ten minutes. I was surrounded by a bunch of stupid high school kids who passed things like greeting cards right in my face, like I wasn't even there. Well, at least I will be out on Friday and all of next week. And Melissa will be off next week as well. What could be any better? :)

I will need the time off, big time. Work has been super busy, especially since my last day for awhile will be Thursday. Everyone needs stuff done immediately, and I am doing my best. I also keep thinking about what will happen when I come back from vacation. I am sure I will be offered my manager's position, but how much of a raise? That will probably determine how quickly I will proceed with my job search. If they offer me enough, I might want to stick around a little longer. At least to get the manager position on my resume.

Till next time...

Lots of news...

What a day yesterday. Busy busy busy.

For starters, I took a long lunch to meet up with a recruiter. We discussed stuff, and then I rushed back to work (in all, it was a two hour lunch, but no one noticed). But when I got back, I found out that my manager is NOT coming back from her maternity leave. Even though I had a feeling that would happen, I couldn't believe it. So now I have a lot to think about. I feel like I want to take the position to be a manager and make more money, but still continue my job search. I feel that I have lots of room to negotiate, since the company would be fucked if both my manager and I left at the same time. So we'll see what happens...

And then last night was the traditional quarters night. After not eating any lunch, I had a nice dinner with S, and then we headed over to meet up with the others. It started off tame, and I actually thought that the quarters game would not begin. But of course, I was wrong. From what I can remember, J was telling me how she thinks marriage is hard, Hockey Guy was saying how he's gonna move back to Toronto after school for a job, BS's new girl was there and seemed really normal (too normal for him!), and BG mentioned how he can never find a girl because they are all too weird. And the insane - this weird looking guy was sitting at the bar staring at L, and he had his hand in his pants... you know what he was doing! I heard him moaning and he was telling L "you're so beautiful," and I guess when he was done, he said "thank you." CREEPY and DISGUSTING. Some bouncer guy did finally get to him and tell him to stop.

Anyways.. I'm home today, with Melissa. It was nice to sleep in, and after Comcast comes by with our DVR box, we're gonna go X-mas shopping with Melissa's sister. Better than being at work. :)

Time to take some action.

Interesting day today. Let's see...

I had my review at work today. Well, I got a pretty good bonus, but my raise... well, let's just say that it is finally time for me to be totally serious about looking for a new job. My boss (not the bitchy one, the VP of the department) was really cool about everything, and I explained everything to him. He gave me an awesome review, but told me that the HR department told him that I have topped out at my position and there isn't much they can do for me. So I explained how I will be getting my MBA in June and I have to look out for myself, that I will not accept just sticking it out in this same position forever. So now on Thursday, I am going to spend my lunch break going to meet up with a recruiter and see what he has in mind.

What I still don't get is how they treat "admin" employees at this place. I may not be a billable employee, but I think I am valuable. I work hard, I get great reviews from everyone, and I do all that I am asked to do. But I get no respect. I have gotten shitty raises every year, and this place gives so much money to the consultants, but they try to save money by low-balling me. I don't understand how they think they can keep getting away with this. Well, I guess the only thing I can do is find a new, better job as soon as I can find something. I am done playing games here.

Also, today I found out that J had her baby last night, premature. I hope the baby will be ok...

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

Ok, I'm not a gangsta. But damn it feels good to be done with another semester, and now I won't have to go back until January.

Last night was our group presentation in marketing class... what sucked is that we had to go last, but I think we did really well.

So now I had to adjust my spring schedule for the 5334535th time... I am now taking two back to back classes on Mondays. I was pissed because it will cut into my "24" time (season premiere Jan. 15), but I finally got a normal person at Comcast to schedule a guy to come out and install a DVR box next week. So now I can schedule it to record all the "24" episodes!

Next Thursday is our traditional end of semester quarters night. I am sure i will talk about it, but only enough not to embarrass some people. :)