Yesterday started off with me waking up an hour late because my son decided to get up five times in the night. A dandy way to kick-off the day.

I had an oil change appointment with Wellesley Mazda later in the morning. I’ve gone there every time for my oil change, for the past five years — it’s where I bought my car, the RX-8. I know I pay more for my oil change there than … well, anywhere else, but I know they knew how to treat my car. Plus, I got a “free” hand car washing afterward. Sure, it takes an hour to get my oil changed, but they have WiFi so I’m OK.

Yesterday I waited the hour for my car, paid the bill (which is almost double what I’d pay at Jiffy Lube), and head out to my car. It’s fucking filthy. I swear it looked worse than when I drove it in. So, I head into the office and ask why it wasn’t washed. They told me it’s a “new policy” to not wash the cars any more, that I could have them wash it or ten bucks more. I told him I’d gotten it washed for years, but he just shrugged it off. Jiffy Lube from now on for me.

Then, I forgot to take lunch to work. So I figure I’ll grab some trail mix from our little snack area. Yeah, it’s free, but I’ve got a gripe with the packaging. Check out the photo on the right.

See that microscopic tear in the top-right corner? That’s where we’re supposed to open he bag from. So you’re forced to tear down on the package and you have fricken seeds, nuts and raisins spilling all over your desk, keyboard, lap and floor. I wanted to punch the Planter’s Peanut in the groin.

For the past couple of weeks, just about every online acquaintance I know has mentioned or attended SxSW. I heard about it last year and didn’t pay it much attention, but then this Twitter thing came by and then everyone I follow on Twitter was yapping about it and how drunk they were getting at it.

From what I understand of the festival, I don’t really get how bloggers are able to attend this thing on their employer’s dime. What are you really getting out of it other than debauchery and networking — not necessarily bad things, I might add, but do they really add to your employer’s investment?

Part of me writes out of jealousy for not having the time, resources or my once youthful desire to attend SxSW, but the other makes me really wonder what I missed in the first place. Would I be a better writer for having attended this thing? Would anyone paying my way to SxSW get their money’s worth? My bet is that most people attending by way of their employer’s checkbook somehow talked them into the value of the event, when they were really hiding their true goal: meeting people to party with while listening to new music.

That money they spent flying your ass to a multi-day party could have been used to, I dunno, send someone to cover a real event. Honestly, have you read any worthwhile posts that came out of SxSW that were newsworthy?

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Maybe I’ll send this off to Apple as a suggestion…

I’d really love to be able to annotate Time Machine backups so I can better refer back to when I made a certain change to my system that I’d like to restore from. For example, I upgraded an application yesterday at noon. Let’s say it starts acting up on me now. Unless I remember I made the change around noon yesterday, I have to hunt around for it. Instead, it would be great if a user can manually add a note to certain backups for restore points. Like “installed new such-and-such application”. Then you know to restore from the backup just previous to that one.

This seems like such an easy and handy feature. Where the hell is it?

Quick thought: Why is Harmonix even bothering with making deals with bands and artists to feature their songs in Rock Band and Guitar Hero? The next big version of these games should simply be notes that correspond with a song that you either download to the game system’s hard drive from your own collection or from a connected network drive or Windows Media connection, iTunes, etc. That way you’re not paying silly royalties to the artists or having to use cover bands to play some of the tunes.

Maybe this announcement will be a step in that direction.

• I thought I remembered hearing that Guitar Hero III would have a new guitar with buttons for tapping, closer to the guitar body. I noticed that at least with the wireless 360 guitar, the neck is a separate piece from the body. Hopefully in future games, if they support finger tapping, you can just buy a new neck for your existing guitar.
• The next Guitar Hero better have Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ With Disaster”. And something — anything — by Joe Satriani. If you know GH, go listen to that song and you’ll understand why it’d be fun to play.
• The folks at Infinity Ward are geniuses. They put the crack-like addiction of leveling up into an incredible FPS, Call of Duty 4, and made matchmaking a pure pleasure on XBL. Thank God the game itself doesn’t require a monthly fee to keep your skills and leveling intact.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m somehow addicted to listening to Howard Stern on Sirius. Well, I should say I was addicted, as I’ve decided to just stop listening to him. Just like that.

I can’t tell you how liberating it feels to drop that big time waste out of my day. I’d think I could get a lot done while listening, and I actually could, but to try writing anything constructive during that time? No way. Could not be done.

If you find yourself falling into the same trap, I recommend giving it a shot. Now I have to figure if Sirius is worth having at all, though if they merge with XM and have more of a a-la-carte offering, I may be sticking around.

My goal is to get rid of anything unimportant and time-consuming from my life so I can get shit done. So why am I posting on here? Not really sure. It seems these days if I can’t do something that gives money for my time, it’s something to reevaluate. Is it worth my extra time?

Actually, I do know why I’m posting. I’m trying to get an idea of how many people come visit this place when I actually do make updates. I want to know if it’s worth updating my crappy looking theme to something less cluttered and more purposeful. My days of Wordpress plugins are over, so if you’re coming back around to see if I’ve got anything new or updated, you’ll be pretty disappointed.

How the hell am I supposed to post anything interesting here when everyone I know or work with knows about this place? Go away so I can complain about you.

As comfortable and secure I am with my relationship with my wife, I’m sure glad as hell she’s not in entertainment. Otherwise, one kiss later and she’s as good as gone.

Let’s take Jennifer Garner, for example. Fling number one: Scott Foley, who starred on Felicity with her. These two actually wound up married. Who knows what heart she broke that first time. Jonathon Schaech?

Fling number two: Michael Vartan, whom she starred with on Alias. This lasted maybe a couple of years? I have no idea. This relationship likely lead to Garner’s divorce from Foley. Poor bastard.
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I’m a little hesitant to share this link to you. I saw it over on BluesNews as one of his “Images of the Day” links, but it had no description except “Tuds 2005″. They seem to be pictures from some chick’s 15th birthday party — innocent enough. The first couple of pictures you think to yourself, “Ha Ha! She has a goofy look on her face!” It’s when you keep scrolling down the pictures that those fucking eyes start to seemingly tear apart your soul, peering through you like fricken laserbeams intent on carving your heart out. THERE’SSOMANYOFTHEMMAKEITSTOP!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

UPDATE: OK, the site seems to be gone (even the cache is gone), so someone threw together a little montage of all the pictures. Robot or real: you decide. (Perhaps a better one here)

UPDATE 2: Check Boing-Boing for more on this.