ho hum

So… sunday evening, just kickin’ it.

Had a gathering last night at Beau’s place. I’m never one to pass up an opportunity to uh… well, to get wasted, and it was nice to get a chance to hang with some people at work that I normally don’t see outside of work. It’s also good for me, since I rarely spend time outside of my tried and true social circle.

I rode directly to his place after work, but then we drove back to my apt later to pick up some party favors. I then proceeded to lock my keys in my apartment, but it really wasn’t a big deal… crashed at Beau’s place, which was probably the ideal course of action anyway :) I’ll get my spare set from blackmagic when he returns from a weekend getaway sometime this evening. The sunday work day went by pretty fast (as it should; it’s 4 hours shorter than the normal workday)…

We had a few refurbished 5 GB iPods left, and after doing a little bit of checking, found out that I could get one for about $224 after tax. When I heard that Apple is extending the warranty on iPods from 90 days to a full year (and also that that 1 year warranty is retroactive for all iPods including the Apple refurbished ones, not just new ones), I couldn’t resist. There are precious few items that I can buy from our store at a good price, but refurb products are generally in that category. Considering this cost about $180 less than the same product when it was first announced, I think it’s a pretty good deal. It’ll make the two bus rides per day a bit more enjoyable, and the extra utility as a portable hard drive can’t be beat (so, for example, I could sell somebody a new mac and then give them all the system updates without having to mess with putting the laptop into target disk mode, etc). Not to mention the entirely new world of possibilities related to syncing iPods with the smart playlists in iTunes 3…

After work, I took the bus home and then proceeded to walk around capitol hill for a little while, having nothing much better to do. I hit Broadway and got an instant craving for a Texas Roadhouse BBQ Chicken Bowl, scoured up and down for the World Wraps, finally asking a kind passerby where it might be. Apparently, it closed several months ago… drat :/ I settled for cheese pizza pie and pesto, and then hit up the Starbucks to see what their wireless ‘net access situation looks like. It’s not free, of course… the only non-contract account that’s available is $2.99 for 15 minutes and then 25 cents each additional minute… far too pricey considering I could just walk my ass back up the hill and sit outside my own apartment to get online if I really needed to.

The class I was to teach all next week got canceled – 2 of the 3 participants backed out for some reason, so it got rescheduled for later. Also, found out that I’m going away for more training soon – this one will get me certified to teach the new Microsoft Office for Mac OS X class… like I give a rats ass about M$ apps anyway… but I’ll still teach it and teach it well… I think I’ll spin my instruction to be kinda like “How to make M$ Office be your bitch, instead of being totally fucking annoying and counter-productive to your work. Step 1: turn off every goddamn assistant / wizard / auto-complete / auto-format / condescing “I know what you want to write better than you do” piece of crap…”.

According to the email I got from my travel contact within my company, this is the first “T3” (train the trainer, the session that certifies you to teach the material) for the Office class, and I’m invited to participate “compliments of Apple”, meaning no $1275 price tag. So either I really am on Apple’s radar and they want me to train for them more, or perhaps there’s no charge since this is the first run of the T3 for the class, and they want to get all the kinks out in front of a supportive audience (although the QTSS T3 I went to was also the first one for that course, and it definitely was normal price…). In either case, I think it bodes well for me… In a way, I’m already working for Apple (albeit as a contract trainer, not a full-timer), and that simply kicks ass :)

Other random thoughts:

-This grande iced soy chai is way, way off.
-My iPod freakin’ rocks
-It’s gorgeous outside this time of year in Seattle
-There’s a lot to look at on Broadway in capitol hill
-Amon Tobin’s track “Nightlife” also freakin’ rocks. The drum work blows my head.

Now I shall leave this Starbucks and walk around aimlessly some more :)