In terms of birthdays, today greetings go out to my high school classmate, Alric, and my one-time officemate but overall awesome friend, Nina Rae! Happy Birthday you two! Miss you so much Nina! *dolphin cry*

Today was Earth Hour 2009, and it was just sorta okay. I guess the fact that the whole moment calls for turning off lights only and anything beyond that is optional, it does make things a tad silly.Still, it's the thought that counts and this is supposed to represent a larger "vote" of sorts against climate change and global warming, so that's that.

Brian |kitchengod| and I finally got to try watching a movie at Cash & Carry - we ended up with Monsters vs Aliens. It wasn't the most amazing movie, but it was a lot funnier than I had expected. I will now try to popularize the saying, "By Hawking's chair!" - it's kinda catchy, right?

We're now watching True Blood (finally?). I'm not one to get into vampire stories right off the bat, but I have to admit this is starting out pretty well.

It's a weird day, but we're getting through it so far.

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Awww, they're so sweet!

Firefox 3 Download Day is wrapping to a close at 01:00am later tonight so in case you haven't downloaded your copy of the latest version of Firefox, you better get over to the site now! They've already resolved the server issues that were experienced right after the gates opened last night / early this morning. Beyond the appearance and the supposed Awesome bar, I'm loving the increased speed and reduced memory load. Ah Firefox, you're finally on the path to becoming a leaner, meaner piece of software instead of the bloated beast you've become over the years. Don't worry, I'll always love you! =D

There've been a few developments of interest lately at work that I have mixed reactions to, but overall I'm optimistic about the changes. I'm pretty excited about the potential for positive change that seems to be in the air these days with the infusion of new talent in the company. It seems somehow fitting that all this is happening as my fifth year anniversary draws near. Imagine that - I've actually been working at the same company for nearly 5 years now. It's certainly been an interesting ride and who knows where the future is going to take me.

Weather has been a little weird as of late. You can definitely feel the rains wanting to come in earnest and just walking through the ambient humidity is like wading through pea soup at times. Still, it's hardly raining for a significant period of time and we're usually left feeling even stickier and more uncomfortable in the period after the brief shower. Still, at least it's cooler than how it was in the summer and that has to be something to be thankful for, right?

Everything seems so expensive now that I really think about it and I feel tempted to start tracking the prices of individual commodities so I can start analyzing pricing trends. Yes, sometimes I get this anal about things and as much as I know that information may be potentially useful, it's going to be a horrible drain on my time. There has to be an online resource that I can tap to better determine how the prices of goods are going and when it might be better to seriously consider cheaper alternatives. It's hard to balance off the increase in costs with my greater desire to become "greener" in terms of energy efficiency and waste management. Unfortunately, being greener tends to cost more in the short term in our present market environment although the potential longer term savings and positive effects are more than meant to pay off.

Coincidentally as I write about this, Brian |kitchengod| just showed me our latest electricity bill. Thankfully, it's lower by about P200 compared to the last bill, which means that my attempts to control our energy consumption by rushing to close all unnecessary lights, turn off all power strips connected to appliances not in use and unplugging all others has to be working out for the best. It's not the most amazing way of trying to save energy and thereby the environment, but every bit counts, right?

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I am sooo going to use this.