Yesterday was been an exciting day. And yannow, I’ve come to a realization: I don’t tell you people enough about what goes on in my life. As a journal, at times my blog has been lackluster and I haven’t shared every moment with you people. And I tell you what bugs me the most about not recording everything here is and that is this: most things are time sensitive. For example, I wanted to come home Saturday afternoon and write about Kevin Costner and Mr. Brooks but I had to work. When I got back from work, I crashed and have been crashing every day since then.

Let me tell you about yesterday since I’m still excited and fantasizing about the possibilities. Yesterday the local talk radio station had a free lunch at the park. I got to meet the radio host who does the drive home show as well as his producer. I handed them both my card and told Will (the host) I would love to fill in for him sometime. He said his vacation was coming up soon and you never know. Now I know the likelihood of that happening is zero, but people are people and you never really know how things go with first impressions. If I do get the call, I want either ehowton or drax0r to call in even though they are from Texas and not Huntsvegas. For more info about the station, go to WVNN.com.

I should mention that the site has a live stream. I should further mention that Mr. Anderson will have the privilege of meeting the President today so in that pure respect, I’m one handshake away from shaking hands with the President of the United States. How exciting!

I recently joined NetFlix in large part due to irulan_amy ‘s praise of the service. Thus far, I am thoroughly enjoying this decision.

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I don’t like TechSupport. It’s fun getting paid to do noting and it’s fun to help resolve issues, but I don’t like not being able to really solve problems. Conversely, I couldn’t stand programming the same program every day unless it was some project that I really cared about making more efficient, weeding out the bugs and making it an overall better and more enjoyable user experience. The irony of all this is I set up my Ubuntu box so that I could practice/learn Java and Perl yet I have not written a single line of code in over three years. I don’t know. I want to make things more efficient but other then a massive database protype I’ve had in mind for years and an extension of a professor’s Ph.D I don’t have the desire. Maybe if I actually worked on real code…but let’s not kid ourselves.

The only thing I really care about is film. More and more, I’m thinking I’d enjoy writing more but wouldn’t want to relinquish control over my scripts and therefore produce and direct. If I were really lazy and made enough money early enough, I could write and produce and hire a director to do all the work. Shallow, lazy and lame I know. Maybe I’m still in that depressed emo growing pains phase. I thought I was over all of that. Maybe I’m a purist and thus doomed for a miserable life. I’m not complaining, just hypothesizing.
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In other news, the emo kid has unfoundedly expressed his undying love of Ubuntu. I wonder how much CLI he does. Poor bastard.

It has been over a year since we have had Higgs news.

Now that I have successfully registered the domain name professortom.net, anyone who wants a peek at my scores need only leave me a comment. I will set you up with an SSH account on my box and send you instructions on how to obtain said scores.

There will be more to come. I will leave my comments on Costner for the weekend methinks.

Sunday was just one of them days…

I tried to sleep in. In fact, I went back to sleep a few times…only to wake up moments later just as groggy so I finally got up. Last week I completed my initial viewing of the second season of 24, so that leaves me with what, four more seasons? ehowton thinks that 24 is too slowly paced. Poor guy. Sometimes I wonder if he has to put in earplugs to come up with a cohesive thought, else the wind turning the turbines in his brain would just flow in one side and out the other.

I’ve been in a funk lately. It started last night because I was thinking about the script I’m working on and the different directions I could choose to go with it. I think I’ve found something that will set my script apart; I’ve almost completed the “big picture” for third act (my script has six distinct “acts”; yes, I know I’m writing a screenplay and yes I know screenplays don’t have acts, no I’m not breaking the script into acts, yes I know what I’m doing, it just makes more sense when speaking or writing obliquely about the project to call the divisions acts). Also, I think I’ve come up with a great way to segue from the end of the third act to the beginning of the fourth effortlessly without having the audience think of it as the end of one act and the beginning of another. I need to do a little more thinking on the big picture, do some research and I’ll be able to put the details on paper. (Actually, I will be putting them on memory storage devices, but let’s not split hairs. I am very happy about these developments, but I desperately need someone to bounce my ideas off of and stormreaver has been unreachable for the better part of the past two weeks. le blah!

But back to this funk I’ve been in…I saw a most interesting film this afternoon starring John Cusak called Max. While I’m not claiming this film is anything close to being accurate, it did show (and confirm to me) how Hitler could have developed his philosophy. What’s scary about this movie is that I could see at lot of my younger self in their Hitler. Thankfully, I’ve matured past needing people adoration and being able to lead a movement, though I still do crave that attention, ability and acceptance. It is just no longer a necessary part of my life.

CD Exchange
So I was on my way to return the DVDs to Blockbuster and I passed a little store called CD Exchange. It was small and reminded me of the record store in Reign Over Me. I never really have liked music stores or what I perceived to be the culture of music store junkies al la Reign Over Me but I liked this one and intend to do business with them again. When I was there I picked up four pre-owned scores: People I Know, Field of Dreams, The Green Mile, and Hook. Originally the total came to twenty-some-odd dollars, but they have a policy of if you trade something, you get 10% your entire purchase plus the credit for the trade. I went back home (since it was not far) and picked up my copy of The Aviator soundtrack (NOT score), World Trade Center score and Flags of Our Fathers score. I got a $7 credit plus the 10% discount, bringing my total to less then $16 dollars. $4 a score isn’t too bad if you ask me.

The store also has a policy of refunding your money minus $1 per day per album; I probably should have took them up on this offer but I wanted to keep the artwork (though I wouldn’t have minded loosing Hook and Field of Dreams.) Speaking of Field of Dreams, I need to rent that soon. I remember liking the movie as a kid, but now that I’m older and can fully understand what is going on, it would be interesting to see how I respond to the movie. I haven’t seen it in over a decade.

Can someone say stream of conciseness?
That brings me to three other topics I wish to discuss stormreaver current theatrical releases and domain names. Stormreaver has been gracious enough to give me the three disc edition of the Black Hawk Down score (but I don’t see the point in this album. This is nothing more then tracks from the one disc I already have remixed, elongated and cross-faded together.) He also gave me the score to Underworld. Furthermore, we are supposed to be exchanging a lot of music in the not so distant future, provided he will actually start the transfer. He doesn’t like SSH but wants to build a xububntu box. Eric, help me out here and convert this kid.

Speaking of Ubuntu, Stephen recently posted about how I influential in his jump to not only Linux but Ubuntu especially. And then I became his tech support. First question: “How do I access the internet through a VPN on Ubuntu?” As I have never worked with VPNs and assumed that all you needed was the external IP address and perhaps a password to access it…but alas, this was too simple a suggestion.

Stephen: Win95 does VPN out of the box.
Me: Then use Win95.
Stephen: Go to hell.

And then he didn’t know what IRC was or how to connect to it. *le sigh*

I wanted to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End at least twice in the theater. I can’t get up the nerve to go again. Furthermore, I couldn’t get excited about Bug even though when I first saw the trailer, I said I would watch it just because Harry Connick, Jr. was in it. The same applies to Ocean’s Thirteen and Al Pacino. The whole Ocean’s franchise and I have an odd history. While I did catch the very last show at the local theater of Ocean’s Twelve, I have watched both exclusively on DVD and intend to do the same with the third. Is it just me or does the market really suck this year?

I’m considering joining Netflix and hoping that the bottom half of the year has something better to offer…

I get paid this weekend and am investigating the possibility of registering a domain name since Howton’s being a whiny bitch even though my IP hasn’t changed in over three months. Before anyone asks, I’m not going to run Apache on a Celeron with 512MB of RAM. I just ain’t happenin’.

And back to film again
To wrap things up, swashbuckler and I have been having a conversation that stemmed from this post. While I haven’t had time to reply to his remarks and intend to have an in-depth discussion of scores and composers, I like the dialog we’ve had so far and look forward to more of it when I get a chance.

And now a word from our sponsors
In other news, I’m considering getting a third job as a projectionist at the theater. But that’s getting just a touch ahead of myself. You see, the bank has finally updated all the information on the credit card situation I posted about here, so now there is no recourse. Bastards! I found this out on Monday as I scrambled to the bank to make a deposit.

Cut to Tuesday when I get home after a long day at the office. In the mail I have a letter from the rent office stating that I have not paid my rent and that I have seven (7) days to either pay up or get out. This sent me spinning into a dimension of pissed off I’ve never been in before. I dropped the check in the mail slot of the office door the day that the rent was due (Sunday the 3rd), but apparently some dumbass threw the check away thinking it was spam mail, so it cost me an additional $25 to stop the original check. Bastards!. Tomas is not a happy man and is sick and tired of being in debt.

I suddenly had a craving to see For Whom the Bell Tolls…

Paige (trunthepaige) has interviewed me with the following questions, so here goes! If you would like to be interviewed, just read the information that follows.

1. Ok quickly describe the man behind ProfessorTom.
A real man. A living legend. A way of life. Learn it, love it, live it.

2. Linux OS, the discussion of which tends to be the realm of geeks. So defend the world of geekdom from those bigots that would denigrate you? Or not.
Those who do not understand impugn, except in special cases such as ehowton whose sole purpose in life is to keep me humiliated humbled.

3. You are a funny guy, are you like that in person? Has anyone ever thrown you out of the house over it?
I’m even funnier in person. By the time I get through with a routine, I’ve brought the house down. That makes it difficult to be thrown out of.

4. So what do you think of my questions?
I think, therefore I am. Mine is not to wonder why but to do and die. (Howton and photogoot would love it were that the case.)

5. What is your greatest pleasure in life?
Masturbation. Living in a country where I have the freedom to constantly engage in the pursuit of happiness.

And now for the fine print
Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions, and I will message or comment you with them and these directions. Just update your blog with the answers to the questions and include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

It has been a most interesting week.

Sunday I decided to eat at my ex-General Manager’s new restaurant. (I swear, I’m never going to learn how to spell that word correctly.) One of my ex-coworkers (and by extension good friend) works for our old GM at the restaurant. I went by and was their only customer. After I shot the shit with my little buddy, I decided to walk on top of Monte Sano. That day, however, I decided to try something I had never attempted before: I decided to go walking on the foot trails instead of walking around on the service roads. I hiked for about an hour or so on some flat trails that went up to the top of the mountain. I’m not sure I ever really got to the fire tower; I did however make it to some kind of tower that resembled a cell tower enclosed by a chain-link fence and had a little shed inside the fence as well.

On the way to the “tower”, I passed someone dressed in Army greens. We talked about hiking on the Appalachian Trail and that brought back memories. Once I reached this point, I saw another trail marked “Warpath” or some such. My hike had been flat thus far, I was on the top the mountain and was feeling rather nostalgic so I thought What the hell? I’ll go down the mountain and come back up. Yeah right.

I stayed on the path the entire time and thirty minutes went by…but I had not seen signs in quite some time. At the hour mark (really it would have been the two hour mark, but an hour down this particular trail) I came out in a field in the East side of the mountain. There were two metal towers that were carrying some kind of metal wires. It was painfully obvious I wasn’t where people were intended to go because this was a dead end.

I went back the way I came for about two hundred feet or so because on my way down I had noticed where the trail curved back on itself like it was going to climb the mountain again. This was a good thing for I was parked up top and it was getting closer and closer to sunset. I had my cell phone with me and by some miracle had reception; indeed I got a call from two different friends. I thought I might have to call 911 to get rescued. The entire time I was on this trail I was descending. Not good.

Finally, I heard children in the distance. I didn’t understand where I was…until I finally came out twenty minutes later. I was a mile or so from the park and had come out in the ritzy residential area where I used to deliver pizza! I called the nearest Domihoe’s (the one that serviced that area) to get directions to my present location. I knew the area but not implicit directions to the exact street I was on; suffice it to say that when I called my friend to pick me up (it would have been another hike back to the top, taken hours and the park would have been closed) we had a big laugh over the whole thing. Now you can too!

“You know what Capitalism is Manny? Getting fucked!”
Try this one on for size: Last year, I signed up for a credit card with my bank because I didn’t have the credit to get a loan and I was trying to pay off some debt. They gave me a 12 month 0% APR on any balance transfer for the life of the card. When I signed up for the card, I transferred to my credit limit. Ever since, I’ve always made the payment on time and most months more then the minimum payment.

About two months ago, I applied for another balance transfer. The very next day I got a call from the credit division of the bank stating that they got my application for balance transfer, that I had good credit with the bank and could get the limit on the card raise. Even though I knew this was too good to be true (I knew this because the ditz on the other end of the phone didn’t know what the hell she was talking about) she said that she could raise my credit limit from the low level that it was to $10K. I said “sure, go ahead.”

Then I waited.

I waited and waited and waited. But the transfer never went through. So I sent the girl at the bank I normally work with an email (after I had visited with her about the issue a few weeks before) and asked her to please check into the situation again. She said that she would but that she was training someone that [last] week. Ok, cool.

She emailed me back on Tuesday (because Monday was the holiday) and told me that the bank ran my credit on the ditz’s order to up the credit limit. Well, instead of upping the limit, they not only denied the balance transfer, the closed the card and never bothered to tell me about it nor propagate that information through their system.

I stopped by the bank Tuesday at lunch because I had to make a deposit and decided to talk M─ about it. She said that she looked through all the information that was available to her and that her terminal was showing that my account was still active and that I still had a credit line. Of course, I’ve receive three (3) card statements that say the same thing since requesting the balance transfer.

I’m thinking about changing my name to Holio Fuentes and tapping into all of the wonderful resources our government is passing out to illegal aliens the nice, decent, kind, hard-working American wannabes.

Illegals and You
I suppose there is some good to having the illegals here. Yesterday I was at the gas station at 1630…the one with the cheapest gas in town where everybody wants to buy. I pulled in behind someone at the pump. When he was finished, I backed up to let him have some room…rather I inched back but he kept honking his horn. I just didn’t get it…until I felt the impact. He wasn’t honking, it was the illegal Mexicanos behind me. It was a bumper to bumper accident with minimal damage; just a wee bit of scrapping. He was upset about his truck and I offered to call the police to file the accident report dreading how my insurance was going to skyrocket thus causing me to beg on the corner. But alas, he didn’t want to get the policía involved. For the life of me I don’t know why since Sam Lindsay has overturned the people’s mandate to do something about the plague.