Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The long-overdue update

OK kiddos … I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated you with anything that’s been going on in my life, so here ya go!

Old Friends
A guy that used to work with us at the newspaper came back to Guam to visit his parents a little while ago. Me and R and S hadn’t seen him for years and years, and we used to hang out all the time when he was living here. So me and S took him and his brother out for a day of golf at one of Guam’s nicer golf courses.


Later in the week, R and S and I took him to dinner at one of the better sushi restaurants here, Rotary Sushi (and barbecue). The food was awesome, and I only like certain kinds of sushi. We sat at a table in the barbecue side, where we cooked up our own food on a grill plate in the middle of the table, and ordered a bunch of sushi to go along with it. The four of us managed to keep the bill under $200, which was amazing … guess we weren’t super hungry. LOL


Poker and Money
I was on good roll at the poker table the last few weeks, with four big wins. I suffered a minor setback last Friday, but basically over the last month I’m up a LOT. Let me put it this way — I haven’t had to use my checkbook or checking debit card for weeks. Heh.

And lucky I have been on this roll, as it allowed me to help out a friend who was in a bit of a bind. It always makes me feel good when I can do that for a good friend, especially these days when I’m not putting myself into a deep financial hole by doing so — back before my bankruptcy, I relied way to much on my many credit cards, overextending myself on profligate gifts, self-indulgence and the friend assistance … which led to me having to go the bankruptcy route.

Since then, I’ve been Mr. Financial Smartness. I have no credit or charge cards .. well I think I have a never-used Spiegel account, but it doesn’t count because I don’t use it and never have. I maintain a healthy balance in my checking account, pay my bills on time, make monthly deposits into a savings account that has mostly been left untouched and has enough to be useful in case of some kind of emergency, or for part of a down payment on a new vehicle, perhaps later this year (leaning toward a Scion Xb).

Last 10 days it hasn't gone so well on the poker tables ... lost some, but not more than I won previously. Hoping my luck will improve this week. :)

Women and Sex
Who woulda thought you could get some from someone you meet playing an online video game? Heh. No, not in-person, unfortunately, but it’ll do. ;)

The Work Life
So I’ve been training some new folks for my copy desk, including someone who eventually will take over my position, so I can move up to a higher position in the company. It’s gonna be a big challenge, but I think I can do some good for the company and also further my experience in the newsroom and as a manager. Oh yeah, it also means a bit of a pay upgrade, which is part of the reason I’m thinking of getting a new vehicle.

Still a lot of transition work and training of other people in the company to step up into new positions, so I won’t officially take the new job for several weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

The Godsons
Had a fun Sunday afternoon the other week with the godsons. We went to lunch, together with their parents and the new baby, at a place I hadn’t been to in a while. After that, we went to a new putt-putt kinda place that opened recently. Me, S and the boys played while R sat with the baby.

It was a lot better than I expected, though a far cry from the nice miniature golf courses I’ve been to stateside in the past. Still, much better than I thought it would be.

The kids had a lot of fun, as did me and S … especially me, since I beat him! LOL

I scored one hole-in-one, and on the next to last hole, both boys got an ace as well. They were super happy for that and S was feeling left out, but he hit the hole in the skeeball-type finishing hole and thus won a free round.

We’re sure to hit that place on a regular basis, as it really was a great time for everyone involved.

OK … that’s pretty much it. I’ll try to get back to posting on a semi-regular basis.


Tuesday, October 02, 2007

stolen meme ...

Taken from the ever-great kathi ... the middle-name meme. The rule is to describe yourself with each letter of your middle name.

Here goes:

M: Massive -- yep, I'm huge.

I: Intelligent -- smarter than your average smart cookie.

G: Giving -- says it all.

U: Ugly -- hit all the branches on the fall off the ugly tree.

E: Expressive -- in some ways ... writing, drawing.

L: Lazy -- evidenced by this stolen meme.


... oh, you didn't know my middle name was Miguel? For shame!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

mutha fooker!!!

The main reason I haven't posted in a long times is that my DSL modem connection has been pretty much absent since Friday. It was on-and-off most of the weekend, but since Sunday night the longest I've been on in one sitting has been about 12 minutes.

Multiple calls to the ISP have resulted in no improvement thus far. I'm hoping to go home tonight (I'm posting from work) and have a stable connection. I haven't played WOW for shit the past 4 days, and it's pissing me off mightily.

If nothing else, the company is going to do one more check/test tomorrow (they couldn't get around to it today).

I even have a relatively lengthy post, with accompanying photos, ready to go ... but they are in digital documents on my desktop at home.

Fucking bleah.