So last night, I dreamt that someone had come into my house and put 2 half cartons of smokes on my bed side table. It pissed me off and I went wandering around the apartment complex waving them around, cussing at the top of my lungs, "I dont smoke anymore motherfuckers, cut it out!"

So I decided to go to a friend of mine's place to give him the free smokes. On my way I passed Catie Courick. (Shawtay) So I wanted to ask her what she thought of auto tune: the news, but then thought better of it cause what if she didnt know about it and sued and stopped them from making it.

As of last friday, 12:45, I had been free of smoking for 2 weeks. I am, of course, still smoke free, but my last cigarette was smoked on friday October 9th at 12:45 pm. So that the begining of the milestones.

According to the book I used to help me quit, 3 weeks is supposed to be a pretty heavy milestone. It doesnt mean it will be any easier as far as pangs, but the physical withdrawals are more or less done. I will still remain vigilant, of course, but I feel like the 3 week is one I should celebrate. Not sure how im going to celebrate... lunch with Travis probably.

Doesnt matter how. Im just happy. Im free.

Hello folks. I have been lax in posting. There comes a point at which I realize that I have too many social networking sites, and it feels like work to update them all.
Then again, I feel so overwhelmed I end up not updating any.

At any rate, not too much is going on. Lot of work, and little bit of going to the eagle, or hanging out with Travis.

The big news for me is this:

I have quit smoking.

Note, I HAVE quit smoking. Not Im quitting smoking, or im trying to quit smoking.
On October 9th, 12:45 pm CST, I smoked my last cigarette. It has not been bad at all.
Other than the desire for a smoke because of being bored, I have had no painful cravings at all.

If you are a smoker, I recomend "The Easy way to stop smoking" by Allen Carr.
It's poorly written, but the message is strong. It helps get you in a proper headspace and it really does help.

Care of textsfromlastnight.com:

(214): dude. I'm so drunk.
(972): pete, this is bryce's mom
(214): I can't wait to have my cock in your ass
(972): pete, this is still bryce's mom

So I was logging onto Gmail today. When I saw a message about a new system they are employing called Autopilot by Caide. Apparently it is an app they had implemented to automatically respond to your emails for you. You could even set your level of typographical errors, your brevity, etc. Im looking at examples of this app in work, and horrified when it is automatically responding to a nigerian prince scam and accepting... when the date occurs to me.

Wow Im gullible.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html

1. I heard the phrase "Cunt Punt" yesterday, and broke myself laughing.
In a sentence: "Im so fed up with this woman on the phone. Im gonna cunt punt that bitch." Can also be used litterally.

2. We were at the office today, and sometimes I throw a "your mom" out there, in complete non sequitor fashion, to some question or other.
Invariably someone gets offended.
I reply (rolling my eyes), "I wasnt talking about your mom specifically, I was talking about "Your Mom" in a generalized, all-mom , metaphoric sense. Ecept for mine. Cause she's awesome. She can kick all your moms asses with one hand behind her back."
"My mom is dead."
"So is mine, and she can still kick all your moms asses!"

Then it degenerated into a discussion of Zombie mom fight club, and what that would entail.

Travis and I got around to seeing Watchmen on Saturday. I have read the book, but it has been a while. I was watching the movie and was extremely satisfied with how well it meshed with the narrative of the book.

I am more or less satisfied with how it ended, as it prompted a line of intellectual musing that I cannot go into and keep my promise of no spoilers. But, if you see me out and about, and you have already seen it, I would be happy to expound upon my ideas.

I didnt sleep too well last night. It wasnt a fitful sleep, rather, it was one where I woke up at 4:30, and there was no hope of going back to sleep. So I set about doing odd tasks... taking trash out, sorting through some mail, etc. As I was going about my chores I occupied my mind with an odd game.

Imagine a hypothetical situation in which you had been sent back in time. You need the help of some family member or close friend in order to get back, but first you have to get over the obstacle of convincing them that you are you, but from the future and not some nutball.

In my case I was trying to convince my mom. I was trying to find memories she shared with 10 year old Stephen. Memories that couldn't merely be observed by some weird stalker, or dug up with some sort of public domain info. The other caveat is that you have no warning of this trip, so cannot do any research. You go only with what info you have with you.

I also was trying to remember current events of the time that I could predict some major disaster and prove I am from the future.

I came up with precious little in either case.

The memories are general, I remember the house we lived in, the school I went to, and even a thing my did on the morning of my birthday where she had a red ribbon tied around my door handle that I had to follow through the house until it lead to a small stack of neatly wrapped presents. I think she only let me open one before school.

I also remember that Remington Steele was mom and my favorite show, and we watched it each week without fail. Including one time that we went over to her friends house to watch it, because something was wrong with the tv.

I dont think any of this is enough to surmount the skeptiscism of such an irrational story, but the excersize is amusing none the less. I know it seems the kind of debate that a geeky science fiction nerd would have with his friends, and I am a geeky science fiction nerd. That wasnt really the point of the game. The point is to access long term memory. Trying to find slender thread of experience that meets a specific set of criterea in a tapestry of moments.

I feel like our characters, our personalities, are the sum of our experiences. Lately my memory has been fading, and thus I feel like I have been fading. Im just a guy who goes to work and goes home. I cant remember the past, fear the future, and thus am trapped a pale ghost in the present.

I love movies in the theater. Now days, i cant afford to see them with the regularity I once did. This weekend, when travis and I finally got around to seeing Twilight (its a guilty pleasure... dont judge me!)

If found a theater fairly close to me and went to get the tickets. OMG!!! only a buck seventy five! Granted they are movies that have been out for a while, but I get the luxury of watching movies still in theater again!

So why cant I stop drinking it?

Today is my birthday. I have been celebrating since Thursday night after I got off of work.

Since im not good at the logistics involved in organizing an actual party, I opted to send out the clarion call to a bunch of my friends to join me at the Eagle for drinks Friday.

So after Travis and Kris and I had dinner at Mias, We headed to the eagle. It was a wonderful Evening, and since Travis had allowed me to crash at his place, it was easy to arrange for a ride to his much closer place, I didnt have to monitor my drinking, and I took full advantage of it.

Saturday, I got up and got bagles. We hung out and I recovered. I did find out that I had hugged a dear friend with such overzealous affection, that I had injured him. This was the one blemish to an otherwise perfect evening of drinks conversation and fun. I'm still worrying over a way to make it up to him.

Today I had lunch with the family at my fave Bar-b-q place in the world. Peggy Sue's. If you're in Dallas, and you eat meat, I must insist you come check it out.

Oh, and I finally opened a present that I had received last week. I suspected it was a gift, so didn't open till today. Turns out it was From a friend who is out of state, Thank you Linwood You are awesome, and I look forward to hearing from you when you come to visit. (hopefully soon!)

I am watching a friends pet, so when I got off work last night I ran home and took my meds then ran to her house to feed her pet and give him a scratch behind the ears. This took enough of a chunk of my free time on w awork night that I had to choose which of the voluminous tv my dvr recorded last night to indulge in.

So I watched big bang, how I met your mother, and Heroes.

Heroes was so awesome! The scene for me was when they were trying to capture Sylar, and he is just hurling his powers about, all badass.

So this weekend The celing in my apartment started dripping water on the counter between my living room and my kitchen.

This is normally where I leave my devices for charging, but fortunately for me, I had my Iphone on me when it started.

The apartment folks were quick to respond, and nothing that matters was destroyed, so Im ok.

The only down side was that they had the water off to my section while they were replacing the upstairs neighbors water heater...
And This prevented me from being able to take a shower. So I didnt make it to a party I was planning on heading to. Dirty in public is somethin I avoid.

But Im still happy, as it could have been much worse.

It is here at last. Inauguration day.

Everyone shave your crotches, in honor of no more Bush.

This morning when gathering my normal acoutrement, I notices that my keys didnt raise there hands in the roll call of shit I always carry with me.

I tore my fricking apartment apart, and started panicking thinking I might have thrown them out when I took the trash out last night. So I went and found my trash bags. I took an empty bag with me, and piece by piece transfered each piece of trash to the new bag.

It turns out the keys were not in either of the trash bags I threw out last night. (this was a possibility because I always take my keys with me when taking the trash out, so as to lock the apartment, so that was the last time I had my keys with me.) But My apartment is tiny. There arent that many places for me to put it. So I searched the normal places, like the counter next to my phone charger, and the abnormal places like the freezer (I made a pizza. So phase three, is a complete meticulous cleaning.

All the while, Im affraid that I left them in the door when I returned from taking the trash out, and someone took them. So my paranoia wont let me leave fearing they are just going to let them selves in. Besides, travis has my spare set and he was at work.

So, Im paranoid, Im panicky, im frustrated. Im trying not to keep rechecking places Ive already looked, but Its a very small apartment. There arent that many places it could be.

Turns out, my laptop bag was sitting on the table. I had opened the flap on the laptop bag to check the external pocket. I had checked the internal laptop pocket. I didnt actually lift the damn thing up.
The bag was laying on my keys.

So Im an hour and a half late, my apartment is a wreck, and I dumpster dove and sorted my garbage, because I didnt look under the laptop bag.

Gawd, I feel so damn stupid.

Im at work and trying to find ways to amuse myself while waiting for the next inane question from my vapid customers.

So I put my birthday in wiki. I have the same Birthday as Galileo. Feb 15th in the house.

I do have a wish list on Amazon, for those who love me. No preassure.
Im just saying.

I am at work now and on my laptop.
I meant to bring some movies, but in my mess to get out the door, I forgot to grab the stack I had picked out. Oh well, I have more than enough to keep me entertained on the laptop.

Cant wait to get some of that lovely feast from my sisters... Hope for that is the only thing that makes this bearable.

So I have to work on thanksgiving. This sucks. Thanks giving is a big deal in my family, and I havent broken the attendence streak since college. I always went to my sisters, ever since I went away to a college that in addition to being a good school, was close to where my sis lived at the time. Her and her husband moved back hom at the end of my sophmore year, so the last two years were loaner thanksgivings for me. I digress. Since then I have always been doing the dead bird thing at Catherines here in dallas.

She makes lots of the starchy stuff I love; sweet potatoes, and Stuffing, and Mashed potatoes. The turkey is a smoked turkey, which is exquisitely deliscious. And I dont get any of it...

Or do I.

Turns out Catherine is doin me the sisterly solid and loading up a plate, and covering it with saran wrap and bringing it to me while i am on the phones here.

I am even going to bring my laptop up here and going to try to hook my laptop up to the guest net, and see if I can turn the cam on and have a virtual presence at their place.

Its not as good as bein there, but its pretty good.

Its election day. I am off all week so I could have voted. But I'm not. today, that is.
I voted when the early voting started up. It feels good that I didn't have to wait in the lines.
I had initially done it so I wouldn't have to be late to work, but had forgotten that I was taking this week off.

So I just get to relax today and watch the results. No point in being tense over the results, as I have done my part.