What's Going On With James

Well, you see, Internet, I've been having an insane year. The last two months especially... working on the new Windows Vista, plus football officiating, plus... I'm going to be a dad.

Yes, it's true. There's going to a be another Furdell. A very small one.

So, between freaking out, and being really excited, and being super-stressed, I haven't done any writing. I've, honestly, sort of forgotten how. Hanging out with a bunch of English-challenged engineers will do that. So, let's get back into the swing of things and let everybody know What's Going On With James.

1. Seattle's cool, but it's really, really far away.

I love Seattle. I do sometimes feel like I'm in southern Alaska. It doesn't help in the winter when it rains all day and gets pitch dark at 5 p.m. There are, fortunately, tons of things to offset that:

- Rose's Chocolate Treasures in Pike Place Market
- Cinerama (good for action movies)
- My balcony

2. Football season was up and down.
It was my first year with the new association. I got to work at referee more than I had any prior year, which was great.

Funniest moment of the year: I was refereeing a freshman game at Soundview Park in Ballard. After a kickoff, I was getting ready to whistle the ready for play, but out of the side of my eye I noticed something running around on the field... it was someone's dog! The puppy ran toward the end zone carrying the kicking tee, where it stopped to play with its new toy, as one of the players exclaimed, "That's my kicking tee!"

(There's no rule that says a dog can't play football... or a giraffe...)

3. Wikipedia has replaced Casey Kasem in my life
Now, anytime I need to find out about a band or a song, I hit Wikipedia.
"Monkey Gone To Heaven" by the Pixies
"B.Y.O.B." by System of a Down
The Cheeky Girls

4. I worked on an unpopular piece of software.
My team develops the anti-piracy aspects of Windows; I specifically worked on the new volume activation. Volume licensing in the past allowed users to bypass activation, which was one of the big piracy weak points, but although we tried to make it as painless as possible, this new system will require companies' technical pros to do more work to get Windows installed. We'll see how it goes.

5. What the hell am I going to do now?
The year's winding down, football is over, it's holiday time, and I can't wait to take it easy for a few weeks. And, then, after that, try to figure out how the hell to raise a kid. In the meantime, I'll try to squeeze in some more writing. No promises, though. (We're also getting hit with more comment spam than usual, so if comments get closed, that's probably why.)

Go Seahawks.