Fix yourself some food and a drink, because I may go overboard with many thoughts on this blog entry today.

WORK/LIFE

For the first time in my short two year stint at my workplace, I am taking a vacation. Actually, I am currently taking on this week. My vacation was from Wednesday, September 30th to today. So I am away from work for five days, which I sorely needed because work has pushed me over the mental edge. The reason why I took vacation was that I was getting close to my vacation hours limit, which is at 160 hours. I received an e-mail last week from a human resource employee that I was close to my limit. I asked my boss if I could be out on vacation from September 30th to October 2nd, which is accepted.

I have not done much during my extended time off from work. I have mostly browsed around the internet, played some video games, watched TV and thought a lot. I mean A LOT. I could have done so many other things with this break. I could have watched some movies that I missed out on as I have not seen a movie in quite some time. I could have watched some of the anime I have not watched either. There are so many things I could have done, but the stress from work was so much that I only resorted to doing a few activities.

Aside from my usual activities, the only other noteworthy event I did was go to a music concert on Sunday night. I went along with my brother and his friend to see Mono and Maserati at the First Unitarian Church, which is nearby where I work. Maserati played a solid set. Mono's was simply loud. It's ironic that Mono's live performances are in stark contrast to their studio counterparts, where their songs are quiet and sparse. In a live setting, it's full of loud distortions! My ears were ringing bad for a day or so.

My work continues to be a pain. I barely got my billings processed and mailed out in time this month. I feel overwhelmed with my tasks that many things are slipping through the cracks. Some days, I get hit with many requests at once that I may forgot one of the requests I was asked to do. This is probably my biggest challenge I am dealing with at my job. My other big challenge is to stay upbeat and continue to work hard at my job that doesn't give me much in return. Everyone wants to be at a job where they feel like it's not work with its own set of rewards. My current job doesn't fit that bill. I'm still young and I hope the next job I land won't be as stressful as this one.

The CFO visited the office on Tuesday to review all the project managers' accounts as the company has struggled all year in collections. He continually reinforced everyone to follow-up and get a commitment date on payment from our clients. I thought the meetings would be more nightmare-ish since I think our accounts receivable outstanding trend is getting worse. Collections is not a task I'd like to do, but if they need me to make some calls, I'll do it. If my boss counts on me to do it, I'll do it. The CFO will be back next month to follow up on what we all discussed during his meetings.

I also had a huge scare last week concerning my mother. My father told me that my mom came into work one day with pale skin and sweating profusely. My dad continually asked her to take a break, but she refused. All of a sudden, she collapsed. She did recover and looked fine. My dad did not take her to a doctor if there was something abnormal with her. My mom seems fine since then, but I worry if there's something about her that may be affecting her health. I hope it's nothing serious.

I don't have much to look forward to for the upcoming weekend. I'm already dreading on returning back to work but I'll need to continue to put up the fight to earn my income and continue to support my family.

VIDEO GAMES

One of the few things that has kept me busy during my time away from work is playing games on the Playstation 3 console. I have purchased five games for the console since I purchased it around a month ago. I've been playing Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds the most as I'm going through the challenge mode to win all tournaments and unlock all the characters for it. I'm almost there and I think it'll be a week or so before I get everything unlocked. I've also been playing a little bit of Dirt 2, The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 from time to time. I plan on purchasing Valkyria Chronicles soon from Wal-Mart. I saw them sell a new copy of the game for $20, which is cheaper than what Gamestop is selling the game pre-owned at $35.

However, I do miss my X-Box 360 console. I don't expect it back until next weekend (I hope). I've already invested so much to it that I can't help it but be bored from time to time because I can't play my 360 games. I can't wait to get back to playing BlazBlue, Rock Band 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and many other games I have already purchased for the console. Also, all of my friends are on the 360 as well. I know most of the games I own for the 360 is also available for the PS3, but I hate to purchase the same game again on another console.

I got a little peeved when I heard there were new characters announced for both BlazBlue and Street Fighter IV, but in this generation of packing on the additional content to current games, I shouldn't be surprised. I just hope the cost for the new game (Super Street Fighter IV with Juri, T. Hawk, Dee Jay and some others) or by DLC (Tsubaki and Hazuma for BlazBlue) will be reasonable.

ANIME/MANGA

Anime News Network has just posted up their Fall 2009 Anime Guide on their website. So far, the reviewers only got two new shows reviewed, which are shows in their second seasons.

My enthusiasm for anime and manga are on life support. Work has largely quelled my interest for both anime and manga down. I haven't got the energy to research the new anime being shown, as well as other anime or manga I have missed in the last two years or so. I still haven't watched Last Exile, Chrono Crusade, or 5 Centimeters per Second that I purchased around the time I started my current job. I hope ANN's article will reveal any new interesting show this season, though my gut feeling says that there won't be one.

The only anime that I may end up purchasing and watching once it arrives on DVD is Ponyo. I think my chances of watching the other anime before getting Ponyo are slim and none, but I do hope to get to them, though it'll happen by some strange instance. In the manga front, I am still on the fence to purchase Chibi Vampire in its entirity by Christmas. I keep on hearing great reviews about it which has got me slightly interested in. I know I could easily read it for free over the internet, but I have a pet peeve reading through the computer. I am one of those rare types to actually want to but the actual book. I'll try to keep this in mind as the holiday comes near.

MUSIC

Pitchfork has done an article where the staff listed what they believe are the 500 best songs and 200 best albums of the 2000s decade. In honor of their articles, I'll list my personal five favorite songs and albums from this decade.

Songs: The Flaming Lips - "Do You Realize?" ; Grandaddy - "So You'll Aim Toward the Sky" ; Isis - "Weight" ; Max Richter - "On the Nature of Daylight" ; Radiohead - "Reckoner"

Albums: The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots ; M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts ; Sonic Youth - Murray Street ; Spoon - Kill the Moonlight ; Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

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I apologize for the length of my blog entries. I hope they're not too boring to read (for those that actually read this thing). I hope things are well with all of you in your lives. Thanks for reading!