The Trials and Tribulations of the not-so-New Bear Icon

❄ Other people in the DFW area have been talking about snowflurries today. I haven't seen any here, so I must be in the warm part of town. Still, there's predictions of more as we drop below freezing tonight. I doubt any will stick, but it is still strange. I'm guessing that this is going to put a big damper on the Easter Pet Parade in Lee Park tomorrow, which sucks. We always see some great folks and their pets out there. Last year temps were in the 90's!

❆ About a month ago I saw a story stating that gas prices shouldn't go to $3.00 a gallon this year (in Texas). At that time prices had risen to $2.25. Now the price is 2.75. I'm going to guess that we'll hit $3.00 right after April 15th. *sigh*

❅ So I've been catching up with episodes of 24 this weekend. It's the first season that I've watched this show as I've seen a few people rave about it. I have one question: Has the show always been this bad, or is this season just terrible?

It's not necessarily the acting, but it's just the writing that seems awful. They have an interesting scenario, a suitcase nuke goes off, and not only do we see how we try to get those responsible, but we also see leader's response to it. The problem is, they throw away characters all the time. Someone shows up for an hour or two and then they disappear, having little impact on the plot arch of the show. Then there's the need to give the series regulars something to do, so they look for moles and have office romances and suspect each other of drinking on the job, none of which is interesting or does anything to move the story forward.

I wonder if the writers are also writers of videogames, as there is a similarity of plot devices where you go from one situation to another on a path to the finish. There's several small bosses that must be defeated (or as Jack Bauer does, interrogate them) until you finally get to the big boss.

There's also a lot of M. Night Shamalan "Ohh! What a twist!" moments that aren't as big a reveals as they seem to think.

I'll watch the rest of the season just to see what craziness they pull out to show that it's not the Muslims or the Russians or even the Cheney-like vice president. It's probably Jack's Dad who was seen in two episodes early on and promptly forgotten. After it's over, it's getting deleted off the Tivo.

❄Otherwise, Chris and I were at the local mall last weekend and it was a little dead. We walked by center court and there was the Easter bunny sitting there waiting for children to come up and get photos. At this mall he's a overly large brown furry with a nice waistcoat and tie. He was sitting on a park bench and the area was decorated like it was New York's Central Park. Why this was, I have no clue.

We're looking at the rather-lonely bunny from the second level, and Chris asks me if i found the bunny a little creepy. I said no and asked him what he meant.

He says, "Well you have a guy in a bunny suit waiting on a park bench for kids to come and sit on his lap."

Yeah, when you put it like that, yeah, it's creepy.

It's interesting, Chris (f__k) has all of these elaborate dreams, and I can only manage to remember something about Tara Lipinski and something about marketing hamburgers. I have no idea what that means.

Thanksgiving weekend has been decidedly low-key. I think I may be suffering from a lack of television in Chris' home. It's difficult when you are addicted, you know? I hope my Tivo at home holds onto everything.

Thanksgiving was nice. A small occasion cooking wise, with just a few of us around. Oscar was around and Skye (cristalskye), my sister and her fiance came over after dinner and watched movies.

We watched Pirates of the Caribbean, which was pretty awful, and Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was good. I'm not sure why Pirates did so well, it seemed pretty formulaic and hammy. I guess I'll know to skip the two upcoming sequels.

Oh, looks like Chris and I will have to pass on going to Fiesta. It's a little expensive and airlines are not cheap right now. I'm sorry we're going to miss it.

I guess I've felt a little cold and standoffish lately. I'm not totally sure why. Something just keeps me feeling like I'm an outsider right now, and there's not much I know to change it at the second. I guess I could put my energies to use in a better way...

One of those ways is causing me a dilemma. I got a call from a recruiter about a possible job with another company in my industry. The nice thing is the employer is one of our more successful competitors. They have been growing while my company is stripped down more and more as they try to save money and see poorer performance each month. The job itself would be roughly equivalent to the one I have now.

That sounds all well and good, and it seems like this is an excellent opportunity, the problem is, it's in San Antonio. Should I get the job, that's where I'd be heading. This is not exactly where I want to be going at this time.

It's not that I don't know people in San Antonio, of course, but out of all of them I know, only one couple is actually looking to put roots down there. Everyone else sees living there as a temporary thing, as do I. I'm wondering if the lateral move would be good or bad in the long run.

For one thing, I think Chris and I have been waiting quite long enough, and I would think that this would be a bad time to make a move that would make the wait just that much longer. I really would want to put a year in for an employer before jumping ship, and that's just another year longer to reaching my goal of living here in Dallas.

Still I think I need to listen to them and look at what they have to offer. I think for my own career that I need to know, and mull over this. Not to say that I've got something here. I've had too many looks that went nowhere, lately.

Chris mentions maybe moving to Austin, but still, the drive would be the commute from hell. I don't know about that. While Austin sounds better in the long run, I'm not so sure about the prospect of having to get up so early to drive to the west side of San Antonio. This would likely be longer than the 50 mile commute (one way) i had when I started my job at the current employer.

Why can't I find this stuff in Dallas? I should be more serious about getting a recruiter, I guess. There's something that I'm missing.