From a Human Interface Device (HID) design standpoint, washers and dryers have a lot to be desired. Have you ever noticed that to start the washer you pull the dial, but to start the dryer you push it? This is on two separate machines, mind you. Front-loading dryers are just silly as well, because I always end up dropping at least one white item on the garage floor during the washer to dryer transition. I would like to see an all-in-one unit (does it exist already?) that both washes and dries clothes in one simple step. A LCD touch screen powered by an intuitive graphical user interface would control the entire process wherein you could enter your options, initiate the cycle and come back in a few hours to find freshly laundered and dried clothes.

I drove down to Key West for general entertainment and to also look at a few employment opportunities of interest. I was only going to stay for a few days but ended up going for a whole week. I had a great time spending time with my friend Nathan who lives on the island, though he ended up working through most of my visit. Fear not, however, as Key West is one of many places where I can find endless amusement for myself. I met some really nice people that I hung out with for a few nights, drank entirely way too much and found it very difficult to come back to Orlando afterward. The first day there Nathan and I went out on a snorkel sunset catamaran cruise that was just brilliant. We took pictures on the cruise, but I am still waiting for Nathan to e-mail them to me. I will be sure to post them as soon as I am in receipt.

My birthday is quickly approaching. Ugh. I do not even want to do anything for it this year, save receive a copy of The Ministry of Sound's The Annual 2005 Limited Edition 2-Disc plus DVD box set. I would enjoy that.

Thanks to my friend John I now have a decent pair of headlamps for my car. He gave me a set of 4000k Liteglow Xenon Super White bulbs after noting one of my headlights was dim. I figured it was just a matter of a faulty bulb, but it turned out that the connection itself was faulty. One of John's employees graciously installed a new wiring kit so I now have two, very nicely functioning headlights.

For the first time in several years, I am in the process of going through old boxes of stuff and actually getting rid of a lot of garbage I do not need to hang on to any more. Despite the excellent progress I have made as so far, I still have another few days of work to finish the project.

I hope this upcoming week is going to be substantially better than the one that concludes today. I am writing this from the office because I had so much work to do by Monday, there was no way I could finish it during normal work hours. The payoff will be worth it, though, because the work I am doing is sure to impress and please the client it is being produced for and, at the same time, amaze the people at my company. I just sent a preview link and the client responded quite favourably. I am hoping I will not be working the same hours I did last week in the upcoming weeks. I still need to work on a few websites and may be in Miami Tuesday for another of my now-famous presentations.

I am writing this from my Executive Level room at the Hilton Towers New York. I cannot believe the view from my room! In addition to having a staff memeber dedicated to these rooms, the lights of Times Square are visibile from my window. I am getting ready to head out for a night on the town with local blogger Mike over at Christopher Street's The Duplex. After, of course, a visit to the hotel bar to sit and feel important whilst still in my brand new and fucking sharp suit! You know what? I never thought I would say this, but I think I could get used to this city, despite the snow.

For the first time in several years, I am travelling to Tallahassee without the Woodgate house to call my own for the weekend. Steven and Erik are back in Orlando, Claire and Ash are settling in to their new place in town (which I will get to see for the first time) and the new Woodgate tenants are moving.

In the absence of Woodgate's reliably generous hospitality, I will be staying with Erik's girlfriend Lauren who continues to live in the Capitol city. Her apartment is a hop, skip and jump away from the Florida State University campus so this weekend might feel more like my visits did back in 1999 when I started regularly coming to town.

I am looking forward to the FSU graduation ceremony I will be attending to watch Steven walk. Specifically the FSU English professor Mark Winegardner who has taken a leave of absence to author a new novel called The Godfather Returns. Apparently, this chapter of the story will take place between the first and second books. I am pretty sure I mentioned before how dismal the guest speaker was for Erik's graduation a few months back, so I hope this will provide some redemption.

In other news, I think I may have an ulcer that has been causing me rather regular discomfort. My original theory that it was my lactose intolerance worsening seems less valid on the basis of the various medical articles I have read about ulcers. As soon as I return to Orlando I will be using my newly activated medical insurance to figure this one out officially.

With my friend Steven back in the United States after eight weeks in Tokyo, Japan needing a ride back to Tallahassee and the date he and other friends will be moving away from the Capitol quickly approaching, I will be making the four-hour drive to spend what should be and always is an amusing weekend. Eating, drinking, good people and good times: Tallahassee is never a disappointment.

My original plans were to have gone up that way last weekend while simultaneously stopping in Saint Augustine to visit someone else, but logistical issues stopped that arrangement in the planning stage. While conversing with Erik, Steven's brother, about the return flight from Nihon we figured I could go ahead and come up this weekend whilst providing transport. Saint Augustine will have to wait for another weekend. Apparently, however, we will be making a brief layover in blink-and-miss-it Gainesville, Florida to allow Steven to drop off some souvenirs and gifts.

It will be a welcomed diversion for a few days and I am certainly looking forward to it, but it is really nice to not so much going to get away from things here in Orlando but simply to enjoy the company of my friends in a place I happen to enjoy visiting on a semi-regular basis. I only started my job on 17 May 2004, but I already feel so comfortable there it often seems like more time has passed. I actually enjoy going to work at this company, something I have not experienced since I ran a local law firm that moved out of the area several years ago. Additionally as has evidenced more recently, I started out enjoyed my job but that quickly faded as the new job smell wore off and the pure, unflattering inward truth of the position was revealed.

How dramatic, eh? Here is an example. After I was laid-off due to budget cuts at a real estate company I for whom I was conducting technology and administrative functions, I had money in the bank and was not in a particular hurry to go back out and find another job. I enjoyed that job despite how aggravated it often made me, but the fact remained I had been there just over my ninety-day customary "probationary" period and was not quite yet ready to start my search. Again.

Enter my friend Kat. In addition to having worked with me at the Yab Yum establishments (Harold and Maude's, Kit Kat Club and the Go Lounge/Globe) where I met her and the recently departed Bodhisattva Social Club, she had been a day employee at a popular local adult retail store. She approached me at Will's Pub to let me know I should put an application in there because they were in need for some daytime help. While I was less than thrilled at the prospect of working in a retail customer service environment, I figured money was money and how could I go wrong at a store where I would use the word "dildo" during the normal execution of my duties. Long story short, brazen vocabulary is no concession for doing boring, repetitive work that the brain cells I killed drinking last week could do while I was asleep. The management of that company also bothered me but I need not cast dispersions here. The problem overall was with me not feeling my time was being well spent at this place and so I pushed envelopes, blindsided boundaries and subsequently, as a result of a truly accidental and innocent oversight, was dismissed. Sure, it was convenient their busiest months of their year were now complete, but regardless I went out for a drink afterward knowing that better things would come.

Seventy-seven days was a little more time than I wanted to elapse between gigs, but now I can see it was well worth the wait. My current projects are dynamic, involving some things both familiar to me and new, but the bulk of my excitement comes from the knowledge of some upcoming projects. Like Ernie, I cannot discuss much about these things, but suffice it to say if things continue as they are tentatively planned, I might be looking at some substantial career breakthroughs.

In closing, yes that is a photograph of a rooster. I took it during my trip to Key West last April and finally just got the film developed. I will be uploading complete (and unedited) copies of those photographs when I return to Orlando next week. Overall I am fairly pissed about the quality of the photographs, my assignment of blame primarily resting upon my lack of experience with the camera I brought with me and less so on the level of alcohol that inhabited my body throughout that trip. I will also be uploading some miscellaneous photographs I have meant to add to the gallery including the rest of the set from which the CD reflection picture belongs.

I know it has only been a little over one day since I got back from Key West, but I am leaving again. This time to the capitol Tallahassee for graduation at Florida State University. I will be gone through Sunday. And do not worry: the Key West stories and photographs are coming really soon.