yea, ok forget that i ever said hiatus. ok? ok!

you know what really irks me? not because, it's really something to get irk'ed about, but because i'm bitter and jaded that everything just manages to piss me off. i really hate long signatures on emails. it's corporate pet peeve #1294! what would be the point of reading a 2 line email when your email signature takes up half your screen (which is a difficult task to accomplish when your screen resolution is at 1152 x 864). So let me give you a sample signature (modified to protect the individuals identity):

Joe Blow
**********************************************
The Great Corporate Company
Technical Support, Network Specialist, Web Designer
1234 Some Street
SomeCity, SomeProvince
Canada, c4l 2p9
**********************************************
Cell Phone: 604-555-1265
Work Phone: 604-555-5568
Pager: 604-555-8762
Home: 604-555-6158
Email: Joe.Blow@Hotmail.com
**********************************************
"Corporate Slave Since...1761"

please don't abuse your email signatures or at least think of something clever to put in. exercise some creativity people!

ok i lied...

it's my mom's birthday and i can't just not let this day pass without saying anything.

heres to the reason why i'm here and the reason why i am what i am. here's to all the good times spent together, the heartaches and meaningless chatting. here's to another long hours spent with each other laughing, crying and creating new memories. heres to a special person who's managed to share and touch other people's lives in such a positive way. but most of all here's to that special person in everyone's lives who managed to raise you and care for you no questions asked. here's to you mom.

happy birthday!

yesterday was paulo's birthday too. because snowboarding guru's need love too.

yea, i think i'm waay busier than i expected.

ok, so heres the deal. no more updates until i actially finish the stuff that i want to take care of. and thats including the stuff that i missed from last week too. i'm sure that'll make people happy. really, i'm not this irresponsible. i've just been so busy and i'm just trying to knock off task after task after task. so no more updates until i finish all this. no really, there are other reasons to go on haitus than drama. now let me go outside and see if the sun is out. *rubs eyes*

brb

so here i am frantic beause i've been procrastinating.

i have so many things to finish on my todo list at home and at work. but what am i doing? listening to nsync and debating with a friend if gambling is a waste of time and money. so today, i'm going to make my makeshift todo list and cross it off as i go along. so follow along as i go about my day. cheer me on even.

• buy lift ticket, pack stuff for whistler.
• call jessica for las vegas package info
• icemag's redesign! (good lord this has been sitting on my desk for MONTHS)
• write perl script for filemove utility, just for kicks
• call and schedule meeting about c.h.l. project
• issues in software development homework
• look for a place to stay in whistler this weekend
• brush up on xhtml and fix belle's new website
• scan picture from photobooth
• time reporting
• bills, bills and bills - oh and what to do with them
• revisions with dave's contract stuff

i'm determined hope to finish everything today.

why do they make cellphones so hard to use?

so i have this work cellphone that forwards itself to my personal phone. why do i use my personal resources for company use (big no-no in this company)? well it's because i don't want to carry around 2 cellphones. but lately, i feel a bit embarrassed when work calls and they get my personal voicemail: "Yo! WassUP! You've reached Ritchie's cell, leave a message and i'll hit you back up. AIGHTS?". yea can you say ghetto fab and not exactly professional, is it?

so now, i want to turn off call forwarding on my work phone. so helpdesk and random other work people get my "Hello there, You've reached Ritchie's cellular phone. I'm currently away from or on the phone, please leave a message and I will get back to you. Thank you.". yea, can you say g33k? the problem with my scenario is that, i don't know how to turn off call forwarding on this phone. i'm just about ready to throw it into the debts of hell and beyond. does anyone know how? anyone?

update: thanks for the email that i got! you guys rock. it turned out to be some "*72" number to deactivate it.

in other news....

microsoft is getting into blogging? what? why? i'm scared! it's not like they already have a monopoly hold on the whole commercial market. i'm not even sure how much of this is true. it actually really scares me. seems to remind me of ms frontpage and how when it first came out messed up half your html code. i still cringe when i hear that people still use ms frontpage to edit their sites; even harder when the corporate standard in your company for editing sites is frontpage. yea i know, not my idea. apparently, it's a server site thing that installs on a webserver and configures itself as a service like ftp, or inetpub and it needs frontpage *cringe* extensions installed folks.

so how do you manage your blog? well, apparently there is a tool bar for ms word and frontpage. so who would manage a blog in word? (well, i know a few people who could probably write a clunky little macro to do it, so let me rephrase) who, in their sane mind, would manage a blog in word? yea, i thought so. i'm not even going to talk about frontpage. *cringe* it's scary really. stick to one of the greats like: blogger, movable type, greymatter or any other company out there that isn't bent on world domination.

now they're getting into the weblogging world? be afraid, be very afraid! <link via="the brown pau">

must get back on track.... must....get....back...on...track!

ok, lately i've been having trouble keeping myself on track. theres too many things going on at the same time. i need some sort of organizer, oh yea i have one. now if i could only get around to using it to keep organized. i still haven't fulfilled some of my new years resolutions, or even started it. but yesterday, i got to work. now at least, i feel that i have a definite plan on what'll happen in the next few months. listen kids, procrastination is a baaad thing!

too many things on my mind, too little time!

did i tell you? i'm married? well, i have a spouse. well, in the eyes of fitness world i have a spouse.

so 2 years ago, my ex girlfriend and i decided to get fitness memberships. it was supposedly my gift to her. but being the cheap guy that i am i pull off the "we're engaged to be married" scam and managed to get a discounted dual membership fee for married folk. yea, no need to tell me how stupid that was. needless to say that i still have it. i still haven't cancelled it. i've been paying for 2 people to go to the gym, and i don't even go!

so today i called fitness world and explained the situation. we had a fight, i left her, took the kids, the house and took enough emotional damage that she has to pay me alimony until the next lifetime. bottomline is that, i have to go down there and get her removed from my membership and get me a new membership card. who says you can't right wrongs with lying?

so yea, there isn't any drama going on in my life. really? i'm not really on hiatus.

it's just my schedule hasn't allowed me to blog as much as i'd like and believe you me, i'd love to take some time to blog something. well, it's different this morning. i took a look at my calendar and there was a nice big appointment that just managed to disappear so here i am, making my day's task list and blogging.

what exactly has ritchie been up to? well, i have a visitor from out of town (and thats all i'm going to say about that). i've been sickly enough to warrant a dose of dayquil, nyquil and neocitran daily. i also have work, a lot of work. a lot of learning, and a lot of work. did i say that i have a lot of work? yea, lots and lots of work. i honestly don't know how i manage to juggle 2 jobs and still keep sane. my room has been invaded by a playstation 2 armed with ssx tricky! which means, most of my sickly recovery time was spent listening to run dmc's "it's tricky!", yea nice! and then there's homework. nuff said.

did i tell you about my snowboarding experience? face planting into an icepatch isn't fun at all. my wrist, elbows, chest, calves, th... it's probably easier to list which body parts are not sore: *thinking* oh my fingernails aren't sore, does that count? but i did have fun!

then blogger meet, oh yea. what blogger meet? and a quiet night last night with dave cracking the whip on our little contract job. then it was 3 hours of sleep, then traffic jam going into work. fun start to a fun week. can you feel the sarcasm folks? can you?

yea, belated happy valentines to you too...

i managed to make myself sick, go to dinner and have an amazing night last night. hey! it's valentines right? everyone should be in a sappy mood yes no? i have to admit that this hallmark holiday is my favorite because i'm a great big ol' sap! n'sync music playing in the background, vanilla candles lit all around and a single rose in the middle of the room is the perfect setting. like i said: total sap!

last night though, it was a double date between the 2 couples in the group that we're together but not really. it was the italian restaurant for some wild mushroom risotto and then off to true confections for 4 slices of cake. then it was off home for some gaming, csi and leftovers. yea, it was perfect. best-valentines-ever!

i'm up? really? when did i drive to work? how did i actually make it to my desk? i'm blogging? really?

holy smokes, when you're functioning on 2 hours of sleep, its amazing how much hallucinations your body goes through or it could've been that messed up movie that i saw. last night i saw the mothman prohecies with a few friends. it was quite interesting; i say interesting because i spent a good portion of the movie hiding behind my jacket. i'm also not a big fan of movies that don't have a good wrap-up ending and this movie was one of those. there was one actor though, that i couldn't put a finger where i saw him before, so i whipped out the old IMDB search bookmarklet and found out that he was in gone in sixty seconds. yes alex, i'll take "things that amuse ritchie early in the morning for $500, please?

by the time our movie was finished it was late and i was still wired and awake. must've been from all the coffee that i drank during the day. so i couldn't sleep, decided to read and hang-out on the internet a while. eventually (2am) i did get to sleep, only to be woken up at 5am. that makes 3 beautiful, short hours of extacy induced sleep. i honestly don't remember how i made it into work today.

update: my chai latte is made out of crap! crap i tell you! and where is my loogy?

new look	old look

so yea, did i tell you i'm in for a make-over?

new glasses, new haircut and new clothes? yea the works baby! i'm in for an overhaul and *crossing fingers* hopefully it's for the better. so yea, now that my new glasses with the new perscription is here, my depth perception is totally out of wack. my eyes still have to adjust themselves because i think that it's got a funky stronger grade.

so now i gotta get used to them before i go outside the house because i'm running into things.

monday is always a dread day for me. not because it's cliche and i pattern my life after the laziness of garfield, but because it's my longest and most boring day ever!

how does my day begin? well, it starts of with the incessant ringing of the alarm clock at 5:30am and me rolling off bed with a huge tud. i then shower, get ready and pack up all my stuff only to realize that mondays i have to be in the office at 9, which means that i leave at 8, which also means that i'm about an hour and a half early because it's only 6:30am. so i try to head off to bed, but i'm already awake given the incredibly cold water that runs through my house at 5:30am. so it's a mad dash, to check out the internet and what goodies it has to offer, turn the tv on and waddle around the house looking for something to do at 6:30 in the morning.

i get to work, and it's off to some intro java course that i already have credit for. watch one of the guys take of his shoes and socks, all while trying figure out what kind of stain is on his shirt and why he hasn't done any laundry because he just seems to have that one stain covered brown shirt. oh yea, and listen to the instructor (sometimes). i also manage to stare blankly while the person beside me talks incessantly about how much of a downturn this company is taking. blah blah blah [this is where ritchie fades out of consciousness] of course it's mildly amusing because he has some sort of british accent (mildly).

the class finishes at 4pm, then its an hour spent diddling around the office printing out slides and answering email. after, it's run to my evening class for some discussion about software design issues. well, by this time, i'm already so jaded that all that comes out of my mouth is the fact that db2 programmers have no hygiene sense or social skills. yea, that's one of the hindering factors i had in my assignment, i think it made the teacher laugh. at this time, my mind is already so wired on coffee and pissed off that, all i can say is how much red tape there is to jump around in companies and how projects get overburdened and run by incompetent people that everyone just keeps me out of their field of vision.

i hate mondays.

so last night was john's birthday.

it was a good night of eating, trash talking and drinking. it was actually kinda fun considering what i went through yesterday. one of the highlights of the night had to be playing boom 7 with alcohol. of course, knowing the boys they had to do something to make it interesting. so when paulo lost the dare was to go up to the waiter and say "excuse me sir, i'm a complete and total idiot!". yea, nice clean fun huh?

another highlight was kim and mike. we were asking them something about how they asked each other out and what they liked about the other person. so kim says (no hesitation) "his personality", then being the buzzed individual i was i say "isn't that what girls say when they don't want to say that the guy is ugly?". it's not like i've heard it before or anything like that.

then there was cedric who's quite funny when alcohol gets mixed into his bloodstream. he kept pretending to be people and acting out how they asked their significant other out with a thick rocky-balboa filipino accent cross. like he'd turn over to gerard and pretend to be him and say "yo jessica, gusto mong mag go out?" (translated: yo jessica, you wanna go out?). yea beautiful, that had us all laughing.

all in all it was a good evening, and happy birthday sing-a-song-seranade-a-girl-mr.-sexxxy-man acosta!

ever gone shopping with your mom? yea, i know it's hard sometimes isn't it?

so yesterday, i wanted to get a new pair of glasses from the optical shop. she came with me because i needed to borrow some money for the deposit. why? well, when the pair of glasses that you want cost a soul sold to the devil, you need to borrow money because you've already managed to sell you're soul to satan for 25 cents at the candy store when you were young (but thats a whole other story) i'm broke.

so there we were, in the optical store looking at the glasses that i've put on hold. the nice sales person was helping us probably to score the nice big fat comission. then we said that we were going to get it already, he started getting all the information together and started writing up the purchase slip. thats when my mom turns to me and tells me in tagalog that we should look around more. my internal monologue just went: "yea? really now? you couldn't tell me this sooner mom? not before he started filling out the paperwork?". i'm just not into bartering, it was never a skill i require (yea, remember i whine in futureshop) and i have no problem with looking for the better deal. i only have a problem with it when you've already asked the salesperson to fill out the paperwork and then dangle the credit card above his head and pretend that he's a poor dog begging for food. (ha ha we'll buy it, just kidding... ha ha we'll really buy it, just kidding).

yea, i love shopping with my mom who has a tendency to barter and look for deals with 25 cent bulk candy.

yea sick at home with a sore throat lets you catch up on a lot of things.

like my reading, and my tv watching. the whole morning i've been planted infront of the tv. this afternoon i plan to stick my nose infront of a book and i don't plan on getting up until my morpheus downloads are done. i'm feeling better today, emotionally at least. it's always good to get some release, which i don't want to get into.

today, i plan to do a lot of things! everything over the phone! pay bills, cancel accounts and various misc activities like changing my overall look. great day to be sick isn't it?

ya know what? i don't think i'll be updating today. too tired, too busy, too much on my mind....maybe visit these awsome sites who probably have more significant things to say.

and if i see that damn casino.net pop-up ad, i'm going to scream!

update: i know i said that i wouldn't post, but i wanted to send my love to erna who just lost her sister to cancer. it's really hard to lose someone you love, know that my thoughts are with you.

6/6 readers can't be wrong. or can they?

with the advice of the readers of this website in hand, i waddled my way down to the local great clips. a nice, quick and somewhat cheap place to get your hair chopped off. it was a good 30 minute wait; i guess a lot of people get their haircuts after work. so i was sitting there in the waiting area, stroking my hair for the last time. my long hair that went down to my shoulders. the long hair that i've been growing since june 2001.

time came and i was brave enough to get into "the chair" and say, "1 guard please". after a few quick directions (which were completely ignored) my long beautiful hair then started to cascade to the floor. i almost fainted at the loss of hair, cause it's like blood right?

all i can say is that, my head is cold! i never realized the power of a natural beanie/touque until i lost my long locks. i feel like samson when his hair got shaved off. so what do you guys think? [lord, i think i'm turning into some sort of cam girl, buy me stuff?]

and i just read something that i found quite funny. it was one of my old friend's ranting about valentines day.

it's not about the price of the gift, its all about how much effort went into picking it. that is what matters to us girls, that's exactly what we want. of course, that's if you can't afford to buy an expensive gift.

not important my butt! of course, guys if you're into a lady that just looks at the price of the gift and not the effort behind it. then maybe you should seriously reconsider what you're into. yes/no?

headline: the mullet might go today!

depending on how i feel later on today, i might just get a haircut. since yesterday, i've been in a pretty uugh mood. i'm feeling that i need some sort of a change in life. maybe buy some frames at ikea, and printing out some pictures on photopaper. then the thought occured, maybe i should get a haircut!

i've been growning my hair since mid-year last year. i've had 1 haircut since then, and it was somewhat of a nightmare. make sure that your hairdresser/salon knows that you don't want to look like a girl and make your hair seem like a wig for jennifer aniston pitt when you get your layered cut. so here i am, completely debating a haircut. i feel like i need some sort of big change in my life, well, at least in the looks department.

i'm also getting new glasses and maybe i'll switch from my scrub/preppy look too. so comment, and let me know if i should chop off the long hair.

so i'm back from the trip, and where am i? resting at home, curled up into my bed? no! at work, checking, responding and deleting vmail and email. grown-up life sucks kids; don't ever grow up.

so this is the recap post for my trip. too bad there are just too many stories to tell. first there's the whole set up conversation between myself and dave, regarding pickup from the airport and how he had to drive around the airport talking to me on my cell asking if i see sunlight or if i'm on the 1st floor. beautiful dave! then it was coding time, we got everything most of it done before belinda came over with the playstation and the most addicting game ever. "it's tricky, it's tricky"

having my eye almost taken out by mj because she's has just started off playing and she had her elbows out; while swearing at the game:
"WHAT?! you f*cking dog loving f*cker! why can't you just make it over the f*cking finishing line? why?! f*****ck!"

paris, who talks to the game sprites:
"ok, f*cker. i'm going to say this one more time. i press the button, i release the button and you jump.....[5 minutes later] yea you know what? just crash into the f*ckin wall ok? cause god forbid that we earn any points in this game...[crashes into the wall again].... f*ck f*ck f*ck!

then there was belle....
[leading the race in the game] hee hee hee tee hee.... [paris' character overtakes her's]....come back here b*tch so i can slap you!

and then there was the very quick conversation with gerard and emi:
"so...uumm... what are you?....[ritchie trying to explain that he's straight]... what do you mean straight? you mean you're not bi or gay?.... wanna take a hit of our bi-sexual bong?"

yea, and then theres... ernie:
[coming out of the car] "hi hickey....errr.... ritchie!"

on saturday night we were watching the remainder of the geeks gone wild pt1 video on saturday night over sake bombs, sushi and chicken katsu was pretty funny. (i had my hands over my face the whole time) sunday night. well ummm yea, thanks for the really nice dinner person x. fondue was awsome!

all in all i had fun. i really had fun, i'd like to thank person x for "marking her territory", yea can you feel the sarcasm? i really love it when this crew gets together. it's soo much fun. honestly, we're scandalous. dubbed: the blogging world's most scandalous! we are aren't we?

1 more day to recover please....

this is a public service announcement for ritchie's friends. i'm still here, and will be here until tomorrow. yes i know i was supposed to be back today but lets just say that i have a lot of stories to tell. and frankly i'm enjoying the weather down here. it almost feels nice and tropical.

plus, i have work to do and i'm a bit strapped for time. just thought i'd let you guys know. so no worries. i'll be ok, gimme a call tomorrow and stories, video and pictures will be told/shown. see ya guys tomorrow.

see the funny thing about going to another place to work is that sometimes you don't get things done!

look it's 3:07pm, and guess who just managed to drag himself out of bed. guess? guess! c'mon i know you know who it is. well, if you're braindead retarded you would've figured out that it's me. not to worry, yesterday i was a coding machine. i coded the remaining 2 modules and managed to finish most of the testing and the rest of the little things. dave just has a few issues to follow up and finish on and everything should be all good.

so what did we do last night? we played ssx tricky all night long. it almost became an obession, because mj, dave, belle and paris were all trying to pass this one course. long story short: mj went home with cramped thumbs, i was totally getting a headache, belle managed to mentally etch the tricky song into my head, i learned that dave screamed at games (well i knew that but didn't know the extent of it) and paris, well paris just has long r rated conversations with the game sprites. oh lord, 12 hours in bed. what a beautiful thing!

[pictures to come, you didn't think i'd take pictures and not post them?]

so here i am..... back in san francisco.

my day started at 4am! it was wake up, get to the airport and lug around 60 lbs of canned smoked salmon. i also managed to sweat and get a work out because i didn't check the bags in until the gate. i also managed to code for a few hours straight, managing to finish the project that i had with dave (well at least my part of it).

now what am i doing? sitting infront of my laptop with a huge headache blogging. belle and dave are playing ssx tricky in the living room. i think ernie and mj are on their way here. that is of course if ernie doesn't have a booty call dinner plans. ok off to get some tylenol and something to eat!