Staff Letters: Phil

...We'll see if I let you love me...

Hello Folks. Its December! Every month I'm amazed at how fast time flies.

But before we get into that, last month Anna asked us to each have a list of thanks in our next letter of the month, so lets do that first:

I'm thankful for...

Metallica bringing out a new album this year
James being healthy
The overall health of Metallica
Being able to tour with Metallica this summer
Having a job that gave me the time to tour with Metallica
All the wonderful people around the country who made my trip possible
All my friends of many years who continued to stick by me this year
All my new friends I've made in the last year with the many changes
Being healthy
Finding a job that is what I love to do
Finding a great house, and a great car that I am happy with and can afford
Unix (any and all)
Those who trusted me even when they didn't think they should have
Being fortunate enough to escape from a bad situation before it got worse
All the cool shit Toby did for me this summer
To have the forsight to reflect on the past and improve from my mistakes

I'm sure there's more to be thankful for, but that's what comes to me off of the top of my head. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had one of the greatest Thanksgiving's in a long time. I made my famous burgers and watched Buffy DVDs and drank. No people, no hastle, and no fucking turkey!

Well, that said, lets move on. The holidays are here! Usually I'm so pissed off after Thanksgiving that the stores were playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving was over, that after thanksgiving I'm pretty anti-holidays. But this year, I'm not falling to that. I'm really getting excited. I'm going to get to see all my old friends this year, and I'm stoked. I'm hoping to hang some lights in my new house! I'm excited about getting people nice gifts, and about getting new toys. As James would say, "Merry Fucking Christmas!" (or Hanukkah, or...).
As of today, the worst of the stress from class/work/etc. is over. The SCALE conference was a few weeks back and it went very well. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I got to introduce some of the leading men in the field, which was cool.

I also hit the American Music Awards and saw our boys play a killer version of St. Anger, and I got to see Evanescence perform, a new band on the top of my recent playlist. All in all, a very good time.

I also gave a presentation at a local Unix users group which was a lot of fun.

But most stressful of all has been this fucking class, that as of about 3 weeks ago has been absolutely no fun. I've nearly killed one of my groupmates, and I'm no longer interested in the material. It has been way more work than it's worth, and I'm sick and tired of it all. As of tonight, we turn in our last project! We do have a final in a little over a week, but that will just require some review the night before. For all intents and purposes, I'M FUCKING DONE!!! I can't tell you how great that is.

However, we always have great quotes from working our class projects, and I would never deprive you of them. So here's two of the highlights from this month:

Me, in reference to poking around in a directory we weren't supposed to modify:

We've gone up to heaven and we're poking around...
Those 'employee entrance' doors - WE WENT IN THEM!
Looking up God's shirt and down his pants.

Rob, jumping into a design conversation Garrick and I were having about a portion of the project:

So, see that way, you can.... wait, what are we talking about?

And while we're on quotes, heres a random tidbit from the office:

There's kinky.... and then there's throwing buscuits

And this quote in an IRC chatroom is classic:

I don't mind a virus wiping out all my important files -- but do you know how long it takes to build a good porn collection??

And my personal favorite from a female friend in a random IM:

Random tidbit I thought you might get a laugh or two out of: I actually managed to get myself off (discretely) on the airplane today

Work has been somewhat stressful, but nothing in comparison. I love my job.

So, the upcoming US Tour is starting to take shape. They need to announce the fucking dates already so I can make plans. If they pull the same shit they did this year where the dates are announced weeks before they tickets go on sale (and some dates while other dates are already on sale), I will be PISSED. How the hell do you plan to do a tour, or part of a tour, if they don't tell you what the fucking tour is ahead of time?! At the very least, though, there's seven dates in California! =) I love this state.

So I slept a lot last night, and I'm feeling better. I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit more regularly, and getting to the gym more regularly, and all that. I'm looking forward to doing some holiday shopping (ack! never thought I'd say that), and decorating, and all that stuff. The holidays are making me happier, and hopefully that will make me be nicer to people (see Matt, it's not faking, its just a side effect of getting in the mood). I'm definitely really excited about visiting everyone back in Florida.

I want to say congratulations to our boys on their Grammy nomination as well as getting Some Kind of Monster accepted into the Sundance Film Festival!

Also, some of you may know, I'm starting to get a bit into college football. I'm still no sports guy, but at the very least I keep up with how well USC (my school) does. So we kicked ass all season, and we were poised to go to the Sugar Bowl provided we beat OSU yesterday. I went to yesterday's game we we beat them pretty damn well (52-28)... but every good team we beat all year fucking lost yesterday as well. That, sadly dropped our strength of schedule. Both human polls (AP and Coaches) have now ranked us #1, but the fucking BCS put us at #3, thus we don't get to go to the Sugar Bowl!! Fucking BCS!!! See here. So anyway, I'm not big enough into sports to lose any sleep about it, but I thought it was pretty fucking lame. Nonetheless I was at the game and had a LOT of fun. I was on the 40-yeard line, row 3, thanks to my friend KC who's a Trojan Knight. I yelled a lot and had a lot of fun, and it was well worth it.

Lastly, everyone check out my friend Marcus' music here. I'm hosting some of his MP3s for him, and he's got some great stuff. I recommend the Lesbian song. =)

Everyone have a GREAT Holiday season, a safe and fun New Year, and I'll talk to you all in 2004!!!

Phil

GOOD

USC beating OSU
Fucking class is DONE
November is over
Holiday's are coming
Going to see all my old friends
Hopefully getting a Tivo for Christmas!
Having all my music on my computer
Thanksgiving was so peaceful
Key Signing Party at work
PGP
The Lesbian Song

BAD

Fucking class
Stress levels in November
Not hitting the gym nearly as much as I wanted

BABES OF THE MONTH

Tara Reid
Jennifer Garner
Charisma Carpenter

MOVIES I SAW

Matrix Revolutions

MOVIES I WANT TO SEE

Return of the King
Cat in the Hat
The Last Samurai

OLD LETTERS

November 03 Letter
October 03 Letter
September 03 Letter
June 03 Letter
May 03 Letter
April 03 Letter
March 03 Letter
February 03 Letter
January 03 Letter
December 02 Letter
November 02 Letter
October 02 Letter
September 02 Letter
August 02 Letter
July 02 Letter
June 02 Letter
May 02 Letter
April 02 Letter
March 02 Letter
February 02 Letter
January 02 Letter
December 01 Letter
November 01 Letter
October 01 Letter
September 01 Letter
August 01 Letter
July 01 Letter
May 01 Letter
April 01 Letter
March 01 Letter
February 01 Letter
January 01 Letter
December 00 Letter
November 00 Letter
October 00 Letter
July 00 Letter
June 00 Letter
May 00 Letter
April 00 Letter
March 00 Letter
February 00 Letter
January 00 Letter
December 99 Letter
November 99 Letter
October 99 Letter
September 99 Letter
August 99 Letter
July 99 Letter
June 99 Letter