all things andrewjthomas

( but mom, all the cool kids are doing it )

So, it's the end of an era. After several years (5ish?), I've decided to leave Adobe. I will be taking a job with Idiom as a Sales Engineer. It's a very amicable departure and I think this may not be the last Adobe has seen of me. Still, it's the right thing for me at the moment. I'm looking forward to working in a smaller company, with all the more hat wearing craziness that comes with it. They make great localization server software, WorldServer. If you know anyone that works somewhere interested in something like that, let me know. I'll be happy to give them my techie sales spiel. This should also give me some flexibility in where I need to live, so I can move a lot closer to Drew. I'm not sure when my last day will be. I'll be ordering some Adobe/Macromedia software for myself. After I figure out what I'm getting, if anyone desperately needs something, let me know now and I'll see what I can do.

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In other news, earthdog took a really decent pic of me using his spiffy new cellphone, LG The V (which has to be the stupidest marketing name for a phone ever). Anyway, here's my cute mug:

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Also, I recently made and uploaded some new lj icons (yes, I'm a dweeb) based on banksy's site. He's an amazing artist, whether you agree with his politics or not, and recently one of his tags was shot in Woody Allen's Match Point (one of 2005's movies I enjoyed most).

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I still need to take the following vacations/trips:

• Comic Con 2006
• Decatur, AL (with Drew to visit the fam)
• Portland, OR
• Las Vegas, NV (can you believe I've never been?)

Lonely Janitor

So I've uploaded photos in record time. I didn't take many, but hopefully the ones I took are quality. Take a look at the entire group at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjthomas/tags/japan/.

i haven't had much time to site see here in tokyo yet, i might get some time tonight, and a little tomorrow before my flight back
however, the things that have struck me most:

• it's clean. no, really. i mean it's fuckin' squeaky clean. it's clean on the train, along the sidewalk, in the park, in work buildings, in restaurants, in bathrooms... it doesn't matter. you name it, it's clean.


• no one talks in public. i've traveled by train from my hotel to the office and it's the standard stories you've all heard - packed, body to body, standing room (barely breathing room really) only, and yet no one talks


• oh, and the architecture is pretty neat!

work is sending me to tokyo this week (biz class too, w00t!), monday thru friday
and while i probably won't have much time or energy to site see, i am definitely excited
if i get to see one buddhist temple i'll be happy
in getting ready, i got myself a decent piece of luggage and i'm currently in the process of packing
i look over the electronics that i'll be bringing: sidekick phone, s200 canon digicam, 40gig 4g ipod, and the work issued t42 thinkpad
and suddenly i feel inadequate, i am electronically inferior
but that's ok, i'll be in freakin japan!

in other news... if you're curious, i've uploaded my amsterdam trip photos to flickr (which has to be the coolest photo hosting site evah!)

if you look closely, you will see many cgobs!
i was surprised by how much the place felt like san francisco
i don't understand why... what with the rampant bikes, buildings being crammed together side-by-side, and all the laid back stoners
the van gogh museum was truly amazing
i've certainly had the opportunity to witness some wonderous things in my life
also, i've decided to purchase a print of this for brian and martha:



(follow the link and read the story behind it and you'll understand why... other than it's very pretty)

i am now sure that "amsterdam" is really dutch for "cute girls on bikes"
and no one can convince me otherwise

still, i didn't get out much today, had the worst flight ever in personal experience
stuck in middle seat for 5 hour flight to philidelphia
2 hour layover turned into 4 hour layover
lucked out with aisle seat (still coach) for the international flight
but oh wait, it's all the way in the back against a wall so i can't really recline my chair
and of course the person in front of me can, and does

still, the city is cool, and omfg are there way too many cute girls on bikes here
and i'm sure tomorrow will be more fun
with hopefully less jet lag

so, keep your fingers crossed, i might just swing the convention in chicago yet!
our translation server software vendor has been performing less than par lately
so i may be going to shop around... should be plenty of vendors there willing to peddle their goods

also, seems my good anox buddies are gathering for a reunion dinner sometime during e3
i'm seriously considering going... just need to score a free pass and a free place to crash
anyone else thinking of going?

so i need corporate sponsorship... i'm a total sellout, so who's willing to foot my bill?

but i know you all want details, so here goes:
first, went into the city-state and had some sushi with nada1376, porovaara,
and other assorted weirdos to celebrate the wholesome goodness that is dizzybees
copious amounts of saki were had by the above mentioned
i found the sushi a little under whelming this time,
but the company more than made up for its lacking
then i crashed above the walgreens until about 4am
called the smushy and we met up around 5
she took forever to gather up all of her stuff, but of course that's expected,
i mean, she's a girl, and i am the typically impatient guy
no matter, we were on the road before the sun, and headed for indio, california
the trip was fairly uneventful, she slept for the first half
(having been up the entire night before at a b-day house party)
after she woke up, we listened to some good tunes to get us in the mood for the musical mayhem to come
finally we arrived in a storm of dust, everything was going according to plan...
the lines to get in were lame, they had a knee jerk reaction to the sf suing incident, and therefore the security pat-downs were separated by sex
that whole logic is so absurd, but what can you do?
we got inside, and who should already be playing? g love and the special sauce!
(you missed a great concert miss_geek... sorry, it had to be said)
i never realized they were the guys that did "cold beverages", i love that song, so i was immediately happy
missy and i spent most of the concert separated though :(
she's more of a house/trance/dj type girl, and i am more of a stoner/indie rock kinda boy
forest for the trees and kosheen sucked ass
however, charlatans uk was interesting, i will be picking up a cd of theirs
the same can be said for cornershop
they played a cover of norwegian wood but sung the lyrics in indian... quite interesting
pete yorn was excellent, but jack johnson was just so-so (a little too much hippie and not enough rock)
i also hate to tell everyone, but beta band sucked live
they had technical difficulties the entire time, and they just didn't seem into it
bjork sung beautifully as always, she easily drew the largest crowd (go figure)
however, in my humble opinion, the ultimate winners of Saturday's rock-a-thon was none other than queens of the stone age
und1sk0 recommended them sometime back, and i have to say i shoulda listened
these guys were amazing, they rocked so hard it hurt!
anyway, we opted to miss chemical bros to avoid exiting traffic
ah well, i will catch them some other time
the search for a place to crash was arduous, but we finally found a shit hole to sleep in
the drive back was fun, missy did most of it (thank you, thank you)
we had to stop off at casa de fruita to get some "hot nuts on a stick" for her friend tamera
that place was cool, and seems like a fun trip destination for me and drew at some point
finally got missy dropped off, then took care of other errands, and came home to a quiet, dark house
such a welcome site after so much
oh! and i have no voice, it's gone, i don't know where it went, if you find it, let me know, i'd like it back
hopefully it will return to me before tomorrow night's class where i have to read my work and then discuss it
anyway, that's all for now, thank you!