Here’s a video of Tom Cruise killing Oprah Winfey using what most will mistakenly assume are Dark Jedi or Sith powers. I believe it’s actually his Scientology powers that are being displayed here. Watch out, Brooke Shields.

“mrow rwarr meowr mrowr mEOw meowmowrawreowr rowr mEOwr meow mreowr,” according to my cat.

Seriously, Boo wouldn’t shut up for the longest time when I got home. I think Timmy may have fallen down the well or something, but I can’t be arsed to go check. Clumsy little bastard.

The last 12 days have *SUCKED* royal ass. (First, for those that like to leap to horrible conclusions, let me get out of the way that things are still awesome with Annette. That part of my life is cool.) Now, on to the bitching.

I had a fairly annoying head cold, and worked from home for a couple of days. The head cold eventually became a chest cold and with that came a rather unpleasant cough. As most of my faithful readers know, my lungs have issues. Lots of heavy coughing is generally an indicator of a very rough time ahead.

So, I spend the next week coughing and swearing.

Then, last Thursday morning I have a coughing fit that leaves me clutching my chest and gasping. Lemme tell ya something, thoughts of the Emergency Room are enough of a stimulant that I didn’t need any coffee for the next couple of days. However, I decide not to go to the E.R. and wait and see if it gets better.

(That’s how things work with my lungs. I’ve been through this enough times that it’s basically up to me on how I want to handle it. The real question is “Do I want/need a chest tube?”. Strange to think that I’m qualified to make this call, but it’s the way it is. When I call my doctor, that’s exactly what he asks me. If the answer is yes, then I go to the E.R. and hope the chest tube fixes the problem and I don’t have to end up with surgery.)

Well, my lungs have been getting better but slowly since I still have this nagging cough that is tough to kick since I’m trying not to cough, so I’m back at work. Mostly because I missed the daily Bug Review Boards and Apple coffee. (If you believe the bit about Apple coffee, you’ve never worked here.)

I haven’t been very chatty or responsive online either. Sorry, haven’t been very social. Hence this update to let people know I am, in fact, not dead. And, as they say, anything that doesn’t kill me makes me really cranky. Or something to that effect.

While I was out, I missed the first half of a very cool class which I was looking forward to taking. The first half (three days) were dedicated to Logic Pro, our pro level audio app. The second half, which is this week yet I cannot attend because I missed the first half, is dedicated to Final Cut Pro, our pro level video app. I was really very excited about that class in particular. This is professional level training from BAVC that Apple was going to be paying for. Feck.

On Friday, the Director of my Department announced that we will be moving to another building. One off the main Apple campus. It’s being renovated specifically for us and we will have the whole building. Those are the upsides. The downside is that most of us won’t have offices any more and it’s a 12 minute walk to the campus/cafeteria/company store/etc. I’ve been on this campus for damned near 10 years. In 11 days, I can mark my 10 year anniversary of being at Apple (9 years as an official employee) and all of that time as spent in this building. Change of scenery might be ok…. but I’m not happy about losing my door. Double feck.

Ah well. I’m trying to stay positive (or at least not be negative) about the move, since it’s inevitable and it’s not going to be happening for a few months. OH, I almost forgot…. as if moving wasn’t bad enough, my group will be moving TWICE. First to an intermediate location in 6 to 8 wks. Triple feck. Makes it hard to stay positive. heh.

On that note, enough bitching. Things to look forward to include: Batman Begins sometime this week. Mary in SF on Thursday, possibly. A magnum of wine on Saturday with some new friends. Vegas/Defcon at the end of next month. (Luxx0rz!)

This is some seriously brilliant work. The guy’s style with color meshes beautifully with the young artists drawings. Together they really create some stunningly cool and creepy imagery. (Tip: the anchors on his site are broken at the moment, so don’t use the menu on the left side… just scroll.)

Via Boing Boing:

Kids drawings as lush paintings: Cory Doctorow:

Dave Devries is an artist who makes paintings based on kids’ drawings of monsters and superheros. He does a great job of bringing out the stuff that lurks in kids’ imaginations when they’re sketching their monstrous beasties.

Link

(via Waxy)

EricRice of EricRice.com on how Video, Audio and Text all suck. Or don’t, if you speak sarcasm. :)

(Aside: Hrm. It’s kinda lame that I never got around to implementing trackbacks. I need to look at that again.)

What Does The Soy Cow Say?

(Edit: Ok, this is turning into a long one. It will prolly be pretty boring for most of you. Sorry. You could just not read it and wait till I post another link to something funny or make some snide comment about something. It’s bound to happen soon. :))

I got a decent bonus and a pretty cool pat on the back from my manager at work this week. (It was sort of a surprise, but now in hindsight I must admit I should have been expecting a bonus. In reality, though, I guess I thought surviving Tiger might have been it’s own reward. heh.) I thanked her and we had a pretty cool chat. I was feeling pretty good about myself after that.

Then, I had a conversation with my manager’s manager to thank him for the bonus too, since that’s just the way it works. We had an excellent conversation about my career, how much I’d grown professionally over the last couple of years and possible promotion possibilities somewhere down the line. (As The Girl put it after I relayed the conversation to her: I’m on the short list!) It was a nice validation of the time and effort I’ve put in here, not only on the Tigers and iTunes and other less glamorous projects… but in trying to help guide and, well, manage things.

Well, there. I said it. The M word. That’s the type of advancement he was talking about. There might be a management type position somewhere in my future here and I’ve been chewing on that thought for the last few hours. You see, I never wanted to be a manager. Please, pardon my ego here for a minute (I think you can do that much for me, I don’t actually brag about myself much, if ever. Usually when I do, it’s in jest.) I like being a star individual contributor. I’m the senior engineer in the group, the guy that handles the OS (look, I’m not the only one in my group who works on the OS… but I am the guy who was on point) and I feel like the go-to-guy for my manager. It’s really kinda cool.

In fact, you could go as far as to say I used to explicitly NOT want to be a manager. However, over the last year, I’ve helped my manager adjust to her new position and have had a big part in guiding the direction of the group from both a technical aspect as well as a process and responsibility aspect. Working with my manager has really been great. She’s really good at her job and has kind of shown it to me in a new light.

I figured I’d be an individual contributor engineer type for as long as I stayed here, but now I am not so sure. I like to think I would make a good manager, and that’s prolly the most egotistical thing I’ve said so far since I am pretty critical of management generally and think it’s a very hard job. Well, it’s a hard job to be good at. Heh.

Also, I’ll admit it… the other M-word is money. I make a pretty decent wage, but this route would open up the possibility for that figure to grow… dramatically. I’m not very greedy, but as a geek with gadget/techlust and a penchant for expensive wine/food AND the fact that the Bay Area is a very expensive place. I’d like to have a house sooner rather than later. That’s gonna take some dollars.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all the little people that helped me get this far. Ah, who am I kidding? Screw you guys. I fought tooth and nail to get here.

Ok, too much? :) Seriously though, I do thank the friends and coworkers who’ve helped me over the years and Annette for being The Girl and putting up with my insane work habits. :)

Sorry, got a little sappy there at the end. I now return you to your normal snarkiness already in progress.

Click here for teh funny!

Wow. PostSecret is a really inventive and powerful project. I think of it as part sociological experiment, part art project, and part 21st-century-online-group-therapy.

From the site:

You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.

Create your own 4-inch by 6-inch postcards out of any mailable material. But please only put one secret on a card. If you want to share two or more secrets, use multiple postcards.

Check it out. It’s pretty fucking amazing.

(I originally wrote this entry on 25MAY05, but I think my webhost ate it. >.< )