IMPORTANT NOTE: hymn, which I use with the below script for unlocking protected music, is no longer being updated. The new version, JHymn, is a Java-based GUI app that performs the same function and handles the iTunes 4.7.1 issues. It also provides the ability to back up your music (when you unlock it) to a new location. As it does not have a command-line interface, it is not usable with this script. If a command-line interface comes, I'll update this script. Until then, use JHymn. I've posted my JHymn settings here.


I'm a user of iTunes, and I have purchased music through the iTunes Music Store. I'm also a big believer in fair use, and while I don't condone anything illegal, I'm irritated by the FairPlay DRM system, particularly the five-computer authorization limit. I'm not spreading my purchased music around, but the need to remember what's been authorized and what hasn't, to authorize and deauthorize machines... it's a pain.

I got hymn and FairKeys to download a copy of my FairPlay authorization keys and then un-DRM my purchased music. Then I made backups of both the protected and unprotected versions of the songs.

The problem then ended up being that I didn't want to have to manually do that every time I bought something on iTunes. As such, I figured I needed a script that would do exactly that: Make a backup copy of the protected (*.m4p) files, decrypt any that didn't have a corresponding decrypted version (*.m4a), and then make backup copies of the decrypted versions. "M4P Backup.vbs" was born.

The script will, for each *.m4p file found in your music library:

1. XCopy the file into a backup folder for you. (By using XCopy, you get a folder tree for your protected music files mimicked from your original music library folder.)
2. Check for a corresponding .m4a file in the same library folder.
3. If a .m4a isn't found, the script calls "hymn.exe" to create one.
4. The decrypted .m4a file is backed up alongside the corresponding .m4p.

Below is a sample console session of the "M4P Backup.vbs" script. Click the image to enlarge it.



Installation/Configuration:

1. Download hymn at http://hymn-project.org/. Get that working - I cannot offer technical support on hymn. You may also need to get FairKeys from http://www.nanocrew.net/software/ if hymn is unable to find your FairPlay keys. Check the hymn forums for information on using FairKeys with hymn.
2. Download "M4P Backup.vbs," below. Unzip the script into a known location (i.e., your desktop).
3. Open your unzipped "M4P Backup.vbs" file in a text editor. At the top of the script, in a section marked "CONFIGURATION," set the configuration variables as specified. Examples are provided in the script.

That's it! Once you're set, you can either double-click the script to execute it, or you can explicitly call the console script host to run the backup script in console mode (as shown in the screen shot): cscript "M4P Backup.vbs"

Download M4PBackup 1.0

Version History:
1.0: First release. Tested with hymn 0.7.1.

I figure I should probably spew the details of Christmas this year so folks are up to speed, plus I'm gonna forget if I don't dump it, so here goes.

Christmas Eve was the more hectic of the two days. About 2-ish in the afternoon we hauled over to Jenn's maternal grandparents' house on the other side of town. I won't lie; it felt a little awkward. There wasn't a lot of talking or anything, there was a small amount of gift opening, but generally that was it.

Jenn's dad had taken an antihistamine or something before he got there, so he was a little tired. He ended up crashing on the couch not an hour into it.



After that, we headed over to my parents' condo, but we didn't stay there long before we then, as a group, went over to my grandparents' apartment. That was great fun, as evidenced by my dad.



Actually, it wasn't that bad, Dad was just having some fun with me because I was being a little overzealous with the camera. Heh. We stayed there a while, then went back to my parents' place and opened stocking gifts.

Jenn and I finally returned home by, I dunno, probably 10:00p.

Christmas Day Jenn and I woke up around 8-ish and opened the presents we got for each other. Jenn got a sweet deal on a GameCube bundle, so now a whole new world of gaming has been opened up to me in the form of Nintendo. This is actually the first Nintendo I've owned (not counting the GameBoy SP), and it's an interesting thing. I'm really starting to notice the different approaches the consoles take as far as what gaming is/should be. In particular, Sony seems to have a lot of individual and network titles for PS2, implying a more one-or-two-person-per-console attitude, whereas Nintendo games have a more "party" atmosphere to them, allowing for four players simultaneously on one console more often. It's an interesting approach, and one I sort of like - Jenn enjoys playing games with me, and with more "party" oriented games, it's a more fun experience.



My parents and sisters were supposed to be at our place by 10:00a. They had other places to be later that day, so they were going to be out by 2:00p. They showed up a little after noon, which put a damper on any plans we had to play board games together and chat. Instead, we got straight to the gift opening, which didn't last long (money's tight this year since almost everyone in our family moved, which, for me, included the purchase of the house) because we did a "Secret Santa" style of giving, each person only buying for one other family member.

After that, we proceeded to play a few minutes of Dance Dance Revolution, which just reminded me how fun it is and how much I need a hard dance pad.



They took off, then an hour or two later Jenn's family (the same crew that was at the Christmas Eve gathering) showed up for a lasagna dinner.

I already ranted about how I'm not a big "family dinner" person, and this was no exception. It wasn't a bad experience, but I wasn't having the time of my life, either. It all got better when, after dinner, we gathered 'round the movie Elf and had some laughs.

They left around 8:30p or so, and that left Jenn and I to duke it out, GameCube style.

All in all, not a bad holiday, though I won't lie: The entire season this year has not felt at all like Christmas. I'm not sure if that's a sign of growing up, changing times, the chaos of life, or something else. Maybe a combination of all of the above.

Regardless, I hope everyone else out there had a happy holiday. On to the new year!

I've spent some serious time watching movies in the last couple of days, so I figured I'd fill you in.

24, Season Three: I spent the entirety of Monday, from 8:00a to Tuesday at 1:00a, watching the third season of 24, marathon style. My dad and Jenn also took part in the festivities and things went much like the last marathon (for season two) - lots of fun with lots of fattening food.

I thought the third season of 24 was good. Maybe not quite as good as the second season, but good nonetheless. I felt more connected to the characters in the second season, and while the third season had the same good writing and acting that I've come to expect, I felt there was just something missing. A couple of the characters really irritated me in the third season, while I wasn't irritated by anyone in the second season. (I think they were supposed to be irritating, so the effect was right on.)

I still find it amazing that we got through supposedly 24 hours of real-time action in 17 hours. That means if you watch this thing on TV, you're losing 29% of your time in commercials. That's absolutely unacceptable, and for that reason alone it's worth buying (or renting) the DVDs to watch it that way. My time is worth more than the networks would like to allow for.

One interesting item of note: There's a considerable overlap of talent between 24 and La Femme Nikita. I liked both of those shows. Significant?

Do check out the third season of 24 if you haven't already. You won't be disappointed.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: I'm a huge Will Ferrell fan. He was great on Saturday Night Live, I thought Elf was hilarious, and I even had a good time with A Night at the Roxbury, lame as it was. I anticipated good things when I saw the previews for Anchorman, which made me laugh out loud.

I am actually dumber for having watched Anchorman. Not only was the entire story generally without focus, the jokes were stupid and the characters were totally unmemorable. I read the reviews at Amazon on this and folks compared this favorably to his other movies, saying that if you liked Ferrell's other work, you'll like this. I disagree: I feel that Ferrell's other work has been reasonably clever and funny; this is just garbage. It's almost like the writers couldn't figure out what would be funny, so they held a contest and took joke submissions, then pasted the random jokes into a storyboard (regardless of whether they made any sense) and started shooting.

Not only that, but they did the one unforgivable thing when it comes to movies: They showed really funny scenes in the preview that didn't even make it to the final film.

Terrible, terrible, terrible. Don't waste your time or your money.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse: This movie got panned by critics, and I see why: There's really a very weak plot and the whole thing revolves around action and action alone. I say there's a time and place for movies like that. I thought the first Resident Evil movie was not bad, implying that it wasn't award-winningly good, but I didn't necessarily feel my time was totally wasted. I left it entertained. The same is true here. Weak plot, nonexistant acting (though I do love Milla Jovovich, and have found a new affinity for Sienna Guillory)... but entertaining. I think there's something to be said for that.

Not a masterful piece of moviemaking, and I definitely think they need to improve the quality of video-game-based movies (and movie-based video games), but it was worth the rental.

I figured I should get my rant out of the way before Christmas so I can sit back and relax, having vented about the holiday and the trauma it inflicts.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long one, so here's a picture of the Christmas Tub Cat for those not interested in the rant.



The rest I'll put in the extended text of the entry.
Just for reference, here's a picture of our Christmas tree. So you can see about how big the Tub Cat really is.



So. Christmas time as come again and even though I vow every year to minimize the hassle and turmoil it generates, somehow it never quite works out the way I was hoping.

Each year we try to split the "festivities" between Jenn's family and my family. Christmas Eve is done at one family's house; Christmas Day is at the other family's house.

This year, having a home of our very own, we thought it would be a nice turn if people came to our place instead of us going there. Sounds great, right?

So now you're probably thinking that the plan is just like every other Christmas, but at our place: Christmas Eve one family comes over, then Christmas Day the other family comes over.

Somehow that's not how it worked out.

Normally it's Jenn's family on Christmas Day. Breakfast at her parents' place. This year, though, Jenn's mom is working Christmas Day, and Jenn's niece is at her father's house instead of with Jenn's family. Again, it sounds pretty clear to me: Christmas Eve, then, is for Jenn's family and Christmas Day is for mine.

Again, somehow that's not how it worked out.

Here's how it ended up working out (omitting the domestic dispute that led to this end decision): Christmas Eve afternoon, we're going to Jenn's parents' place (or grandparents' or something); Christmas Even night, we're going to my parents' house. Christmas Day morning my parents are coming over; Christmas Day night her family (grandparents et al) is coming over for a lasagna dinner.

This sounds to me like, rather than minimize the hassle, it's been maximized.

Here's the thing, and it's important to remember throughout all of my rants, particularly about holidays: I am not a social person.

I hate getting together with people. I do. More specifically, I hate "mingling." I hate small talk. I mean, I like going to parties where I know all the people (or most of the people), and once I'm there I don't have to talk to any of them.

Yes, that's antisocial. That's what I'm trying to convey here.

The social obligation of holidays implicitly makes it not a holiday, but a hassle. It's pressure I don't need. Thanksgiving this year: Jenn went to her parents' house, and my family didn't get together. That left me with an entire day where I didn't have to entertain anyone, didn't have to eat food I didn't like, and didn't have to deal with people. That's the best Thanksgiving yet!

Christmas, though... Oh, boy.

Friends you haven't seen for months somehow crawl their way out of the woodwork and this is the time to get together. The rest of the year, they're impossible to get in touch with. Their email box is full, deactivated, or they just don't check it; they don't answer voicemail messages; they work nights while you work days; they work weekends but have, like, Wednesday and Thursday off; they live several hours away and don't have transportation to come visit but also don't have anywhere for you to stay if you go visit them; and so on. There's just no scheduling to get together.

The rest of the year, the only time you get to talk to them is via instant messenger, right when you're in the middle of presenting in a meeting at work and forgot to sign out during your presentation. It usually goes something like this:

friend42: whassup?
travis: i'm working right now, man. in a presentation.
friend42: want to get together the third friday after next tuesday?
travis: working - send me email. gotta go.
friend42: i won't be on email again ever.
travis: then call me. i don't have anything to write on right now and i'm working.
friend42: okay, l8r.

Of course, three weeks later I'll get an email asking what I'm doing the next day. I'll have it open, so I'll schedule a time and place to meet. The next morning I'll get an email (and I don't check email on weekends or holidays, generally) telling me that they're sick and will have to reschedule.

Wait three months, rinse and repeat.

Note, of course, that if I attempt to get in contact with them, none of my communications get responded to.

Now, these friends, these are the people who show up at your house on Christmas Day, in the middle of while your whole family is there opening presents and doing the whole "celebration" thing, and they do two things. First, they hand you a gift. You, not planning on seeing them, don't have anything for them so you find the Blockbuster gift card you won at the company holiday party and quickly write their name on it so you don't look bad. Second, they come right in, sit down, and proceed to "hang out," as if your whole family isn't there and it's okay to just stop everything to chat while the rest of the family sits politely waiting.

Unbelieveable.

Then there's the family aspect of it.

I see my family almost weekly. They live half an hour away from me. I go over there, they come over here. We have a good relationship. When we get together we play games and watch movies. When we're tired of each other, we leave. It works well for everyone.

I don't see Jenn's family weekly, but, while I really like them (they're all very nice people), the truth of the matter is that I don't have anything to say to them. Again, I like them all very much - we just don't have anything in common. I can't explain my work to them because they won't get it (not many folks do get it; people I work with don't get it). I don't know everyone in their extended family, so I don't understand most of the conversation that goes on (there's a lot of talking about second cousin twelve times removed Bobo and such - basically family gossip about family members I don't know... either way, I'm not much for family gossip, so even if I did know them, I don't have anything to contribute). I don't plan on joining any Masonic organizations (her dad's big in the Masons) nor do I have anything to say regarding the goings-on in the local chapter. There's just not a lot to talk about but small talk, and, as previously mentioned, I'm not too big on small talk.

(At times I really hope my aversion to small talk doesn't come off as disdain for Jenn's family; I like seeing them and hanging out, I just don't have anything to say. "It's not you, it's me!")

My family, though, is not altogether social. For example, at my grandfather's birthday party recently, the extended family got together to celebrate. If you step back from it, though, it was a high school dance: All of the immediate families hung out around their own tables talking to the people they see all the time anyway. That's just how it is.

Jenn's family, on the other hand, is very social. They love large gatherings and whenever we end up at Jenn's grandma's house for a holiday it's a lot like My Big Fat Greek Wedding with tons of people talking and eating and chaos ensuing.

The family dynamics between my family and hers aren't quite the same. That makes the co-mingling of the families an interesting experience. Sort of like two different types of swimmer - one dips their toe in and slowly comes around to getting in the water, the other dives in immediately. My family members are toe-dippers. We gotta get to know you slowly, then, maybe, we'll be down with the party. Jenn's family will get together with anyone and everyone, for any occasion, the more social, the better.

All that adds up to a pain-in-the-ass Christmas. Trying to make sure every family gets their due time in their appropriate environment is, to borrow a phrase from my father, a "goat fuck."

Let me tell you, I'm looking forward to it.

This... is going... to rock. Or something.

Anyway, needless to say, I'm enjoying the first few days of my vacation here at home immensely. I'm not having to get together with family, Jenn's not home complaining about how bored she is while I play San Andreas, I can eat what I want when I want... the vacation debauchery has overtaken.

Which is, of course, not to say that Jenn stops me from having fun, just that once she's off I also have to think about what she wants to do, which usually works into a productive conversation like this:

Jenn: I'm bored.
Travis: What do you want to do?
J: I dunno.
T: We have games, movies, On Demand cable, projects, crafts, and, as always, housework. Discounting the housework option, there are still loads of things to do. Pick one.
J: Nothing sounds fun. What do you want to do?
T: Well, I was having fun playing my game, and I'd like to continue.
J: But I'm bored.

I think you see where that goes.

It'll all end tomorrow, when Jenn starts her vacation, and, more importantly, the family obligations begin. Until then, I'll live it up.

Now, slightly off-topic, I was going to put up pictures of the magnificent Taffy Brick I made a couple of weeks back. It's eight slabs of Laffy Taffy microwaved together into a diabetic plastique. It doesn't get much better than this.





I'm still eating this bad boy.

A new version of CR_Documentor has been released. The latest version includes a revised set of styles to more accurately resemble rendered documentation, has updated tag support to render NDoc 1.3 tags, allows you to choose the level of "tag compatibility" to work with (Microsoft tags only or NDoc 1.3), and allows you to choose how to handle "unrecognized" tags.

Go get it!

I got the following email from my mom the other day:

OK. So you have a 2 pound box of See's candy on your desk and no one is around but one person, and he is a cubicle up one and over one. You DROP the whole damn box of candy on the floor and they all roll out. Do you pick the sons-of-bitches up and put them back in the box and never say a word (maybe a small "shit" would be uttered) or do you throw the works away and tell everyone what happened?

GUESS WHAT YOUR MOTHER DID????

My mom rules.

I have the last two weeks of the year off, so my last day of work this year is two days from now, Friday. I'm doing my best to sew things up for the parts of the project that I'm responsible for, such that the people who will be covering for me will not be left with a steaming pile of feces. That said, as time goes on in the project, I find there to be some interesting and odd conflicting goals that management doesn't seem to want to face yet are blatantly there, which must be dealt with lest all of my effort to not leave folks with a steaming pile of feces be entirely in vain.

We have a list of priorities we've been given from our internal customer, ranging in priority from one to 13, and "low." Yes, "low," which is somehow lower than 13 but doesn't rate actually getting numbered "14." Sort of like an ancient counting system that hasn't yet developed a robust concept of cardinality.

What's come to my attention is that there are a lot of unwritten priorities that rank, I guess, at "high," which, in this system, would occur before "one."

Keep that in mind as I digress for a moment to address the schedule on which we're supposed to meet these unwritten priority-"high" tasks.

My team reviewed the requirements for the project, developed a list of what needed to be developed, created a full schedule for development, and started off.

About two weeks or so into actual development, someone (I don't know who) looked at this schedule and said, "We want all the stuff that you scheduled for the end done first, and we need it done in a third of the time that you allowed for it."

This is akin to telling a home builder that you realize he just broke ground but you really need to get those gutters on the roof in a week.

In addition, it was very intelligently decided that it would somehow help us if they threw a bunch of extra people on the project who wouldn't actually stick around for the whole duration - they'd rotate on and off the project as they were needed elsewhere - and they generally wouldn't be familiar with the technology we're using. This sort of thing makes me question if anyone has actually read The Mythical Man-Month, but maybe I'm asking too much.

So, let's bring that all back together: Unwritten (and generally constantly changing) requirements; an unrealistically aggressive schedule; and a team that changes fairly regularly, which requires time to bring the new members up to speed and transition work from the old members.

No good.

What it's coming down to is that someone's going to have to choose one of these things that we'll actually be able to complete by the unrealistic deadline. Maybe two, if you're lucky, but call that a stretch goal. Here are the options:

• Actual development on the product, with only the features we're able to get done in the time we have left.
• Training of the new people on the team and transfer of knowledge about the use of the not-quite-pre-alpha product we're writing.
• Thorough documentation of all of the decisions that get made, have been made, or are currently changing due to someone's hidden agenda.
• Meetings to discuss said decisions one more time because someone new on the team calls into question everything that's already been decided.
• New unit tests that verify the stuff we've already done does what it's supposed to do.
• Additional unit tests on stuff that already has tests to ensure the code coverage numbers are up.
• API documentation on the product.
• Quick Start/User Guides for the product.
• A reference implementation [of the small portion of the product that we actually finish in the time allotted] that can be used as a template for other implementations [and will probably have to be thrown out by the time we finish].

You must choose, but choose wisely. You only get one of those things by the deadline.

We're a good week behind the "deadline" already, and it's only the second phase of eight.

My understanding is that the project we're working on has been tried a couple of times before and has failed. If they ran into this ridiculous nightmare, I can see why - management (more specifically, marketing and sales) actually sets you up for failure by requesting the impossible, then has the balls to ask why you're not on schedule. We are on schedule. Just not your schedule. Get a clue.

Here's an idea: Why don't we schedule a series of meetings with all of the developers on the project for several hours each week so we can go over administrivia, change the existing requirements, add new requirements, and get the techs to explain precisely how things are implemented from a technology standpoint to the non-techs? That's not only a great use of time, it definitely helps to keep the project on schedule.

Oh, wait - we already do that. Sorry, I forgot. I was trying to get something done. My bad.

I watched Christmas Vacation last night, one of the regular movies in my holiday rotation, and as I watched it, I realized something.

My dad is Clark W. Griswold.

Okay, so maybe he doesn't staple himself to the house when putting up lights or walk around in the attic and drop through the ceiling of the room downstairs - he's usually very careful about things - but, by and large, it's Dad.

Like when they find the squirrel in the tree and it jumps out at Clark and the whole family runs around the house screaming? That's Dad. Or the plan to catch the squirrel in the coat and smack it with the hammer? Dad.

Running around with an electrical diagram of how the lights on the house all wire together? Dad.

Dad doesn't say stuff under his breath the way Clark does, but he's thinking it. Like when Cousin Eddie is talking to Clark in the living room and Clark says, "Can I refill your egg nog for ya? Get ya something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?" I don't think Dad would actually say that out loud. We'd hear that later, once Cousin Eddie was out of the room.

When the lights on the house don't light up and Clark kicks the crap out of the plastic reindeer and Santa? Ooooh, Dad.

I think the epitome of my dad, though, is when Clark goes off after finding out his Christmas bonus is a membership in the Jelly of the Month club:

Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?

That's my dad.

A little anecdote. Picture this:

A small house in the country. One-story ranch. Surrounded by a fair-sized yard and a lot of trees. Next door neighbor's a quarter mile down the road.

Zoom in on the pastiest skinny white guy you've ever seen. He's wearing blue jean cut-offs and knee-high rubber boots. Glasses, brown hair parted on the side. No shirt.

The guy is checking out this swarm of bees that seems to be coming from a hole in the ground. No, wait, not just bees, but hornets. The hornets have themselves a nest in the ground in the backyard.

He thinks about it for a while and heads to the garage. He comes back out with a cup of gasoline and some matches.

I think you see where this is going.

He dumps the gas down the hornet nest hole, drops the match, and runs. A reasonable cloud of fire jumps out of the hole, followed by a very angry cloud of hornets. That cloud of hornets proceeds to chase the guy around the house, like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.

That's my dad. And I couldn't love him any more than I already do. He's the best.

After playing San Andreas this long, I've grown somehow fond of the 90's hip hop/rap they've put in as the soundtrack.

That, of course, has somehow turned me on to Snoop Dogg, who's greatest hits album I purchased because a couple of the songs are in the game.

Now, while I fancy myself a 'gangsta' in the game world, I am a computer programmer/nerd/geek, so you have to take my altogether far-too-caucasian stylings with a grain of salt. That said, I never really paid attention to what Snoop was saying with his songs, I just grooved to them.

After listening to the songs without playing the game simultaneously (i.e., in the car), I've discovered the ultimate lyrical insight that Snoop Dogg provides.

Snoop's songs are primarily about one or more of three very important topics:

• Snoop Dogg
• Weed
• Bitches

Listening to Snoop Dogg has taught me several life lessons. For example, when smoking a joint, you're only supposed to take two puffs, then pass it on. I've also definitely confirmed that Snoop Dogg's name is, in fact, Snoop Dogg. Have no doubt about it.

These valuable life lessons come to us through such insightful lyrics as "I'm the capital S, I don't f--- with stress, N double O-P D-O muthaf---in double G." Just in case, you know, you weren't aware of how to spell "Snoop Dogg."

In all reality, though, I have to look at this stuff the same way I look at Marilyn Manson: It's entertainment - all part of the show. It's so blatantly politically incorrect it makes me laugh, like a Chris Rock comedy concert or pretty much anything by Denis Leary. You can't help but laugh.

Especially when, after all that, you see Snoop Dogg on a T-Mobile commercial asking advice about fabric softener from Wayne Newton. Too funny.

As the holidays rapidly approach and the schedule for my project at work continues to fold in upon itself (in ways I thought only a Guild navigator could possibly accomplish), I realize that there really just isn't enough time in the day.

At work, I spend the first half of my day in a conference room with three to five other developers, where I can't get any work done because the sole purpose of me being there is to answer questions. The second half of my day is spent trying to regain composure from the first half of the day, remember where I was in the middle of the project, and try to do a full day's worth of work in half a day. I'm in the 50 - 60 hour week range, and it's just the beginning of the project.

At home, I get an average of four nights out of seven every week when I can potentially relax. The hockey season is well under way, which means those other three nights are hockey games which start at 7:00p and end at 10:00p, but it takes an hour to get there (rush hour) and half an hour to get back, so the real time allocated is 6:00p - 10:30p, and that's if there's no overtime.

On my nights to relax, I'm torn: There are so many projects I've got going that I'd like to work on, but I'm brain-dead from my day at work and I'm not motivated to do more when I get home.

Ugh.

I've got the last two weeks of the year off (assuming that doesn't get canceled for me because the project's behind), and I can't wait. I know I just took a week off last month, but man, I'm feeling the need to decompress here.

Hockey game tonight, then the next one is next Friday... then one that Saturday, too... But that still gives me a week off.

Sort of a side note: I just now made some iced tea here at work. They were out of plain black tea, so I picked Earl Grey - scented black tea.

Earl Grey does NOT make good iced tea.

Went to the Winter Hawks game last night, and while I insist that this season's Hawks are mediocre at best, the Swift Current Broncos suck, so we kicked their ass 4 - 0.

It was nice to see such a blowout win, but I won't lie: it'd be nice if it was good hockey. Connect a pass, guys. Come on. You can do it. At least there were a couple of good fights.

You'll notice that I've turned on the requirement for folks to register prior to adding comments. I came in and looked at the 50 comment spams I had gotten and realized I had to do something, especially since it was still happening while I was reading email. I turned on the registration to stop the spider from adding more comments (they were going down the list of every single entry and adding comments).

I may or may not remove that registration requirement. I don't actually send anything out to the email list, so maybe I'll just leave it. It'd be nice to know how many folks come in. Then again, I should probably take the effort and implement my lame almost-CAPTCHA "copy and paste this random word" solution. It's not foolproof by any means, but I figure my site's not big enough for folks to invest the time and figure out how to sidestep it. I suppose if they ever do invest that time, I'll have to move to a solution that actually supports CAPTCHAs.

I may have narrowly escaped getting thrown into a bullpen - a many, many person shared cube - because I called it like it is:

First, my productivity would go to shit. I can't concentrate when there are a bunch of other people sitting in the same room. I don't care how quiet it is; the fact they're there is distracting.

Second, it's psychologically problematic for me. Seriously. Just thinking about sitting in a room with a bunch of people all day makes my blood pressure go up. I don't think I'm necessarily anthropophobic or agoraphobic or anything, but I do feel pretty traumatized to be forced into a large, shared environment. If I was in jail, I'd probably ask for solitary confinement.

Anyway, crisis averted for the time being.

Hockey season has taken over, and I'm not sure I like it.

I mean, I like going to the various hockey games and such, but we went to one Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of last week, there's one coming up on Tuesday, then another on Friday. Again, don't get me wrong - I like hockey, but I'm feeling like it's dominating my free time. And it wouldn't be so bad if we were kicking ass, but we're battling mediocrity this year, so it's not even good hockey. About one in five games is interesting; the rest of the time... well, I've been getting a lot of reading done.

Of course, going to the games isn't just about the hockey, it's also part social. I get to see my friends there that I don't normally get to see, so it's fun. It's just the hockey gets in the way sometimes. Plus, each game is three hours of your evening, gone. Here's hoping next season is better.

Jenn and I went to breakfast at IHOP on Sunday, which was nice since we don't normally go out to breakfast. I had a chicken fajita omelette, which was tasty but stuck with me all day, and Jenn had a standard ham and cheese omelette.

After breakfast, we went on a grand tour of the city, running errands.

Stopped by the dollar store and picked up eight huge Laffy Taffy bars for the creation of my taffy masterpiece, the "taffy brick." It's a 7.5" x 2" x 1.5" brick of grape Laffy Taffy. I always said they should sell taffy in bricks; since they didn't start doing that, I took it upon myself to create one. I took pictures and I'll see if I can get them up here soon.

We also ended up stopping by the comic store (gotta get my monthly fix) and visiting my parents, among other things. Lots of travel time, but we got a lot done.

Sunday evening Jenn put up some garland around the house and I worked on a beading project I've had going for a while but never seem to make much progress on.

I also played a little more San Andreas. This time I went on a mission to romance a casino croupier into giving me her vault access card so I can pull a heist on the casino. Now, normally I'm down with this stuff in San Andreas, but this time... well, in order to start dating the croupier, you have to dress up in a gimp suit. Then you kill her boyfriend and go into her dungeon in his place. After that, you have the option of picking up a new melee weapon: a giant, purple, double-ended dildo. Because I somehow need to go Clockwork Orange on someone?

Now, like I said, normally I'm down with whatever they throw into this thing, but they sort of crossed the lines of good taste here, so to speak. Maybe Rockstar's giving its Manhunt game a nod here; I don't know, I never played that one. But come on. There's bad taste, then there's bad taste. I'm not sure I'm on board with this.

At work the project I'm on is picking up speed on an exponential level. My job over the next couple of weeks is to start teaching some of the other engineers around here how to use the software that my group's working on. I think they're jumping the gun a lot on this, since we don't have enough done to really do anything effective, but whatever.

They want me to sit in a conference room for half a day with these guys. I guess that's fine; my primary work focus will be getting them going. But then I also got an email from my manager and it looks like they want to put all of us in a "bull pen," a giant open-group sort of work environment.

That's where I draw the line.

I can't work in an open setting like that, folks. It's disruptive. I can't concentrate. Not to mention my stress level goes through the roof in a situation like that. I chose a small, one-person cube over a larger, multi-person cube when I moved to this new department because I can't work with other people in the same area. I need my space. Now everyone's going to the same area? This is actually something I'll consider looking for a new job over. I'll train folks, but keeping communication lines open doesn't require me to be stressed out and irritated by my work environment.

One of the guys in my group had a dream last night that I was mad at him for wasting time on frivolous programming efforts and not spending time on the things we need to deliver.

That's how I work, baby. I work my way into your subconscious, like George Costanza. A positive negative impact of sorts.