onemattDOTcom

In keeping with the updateing trend that’s happening on onemattDOTcom, let’s catch you up on the last few weeks.

Things are going great at the new job.  I’m really enjoying what I’m doing, and I think it has real potential.  Christy and I just got back from the beach with my folks and brother, which was big fun…outside of my experience at The Track in Gulf Shores where some punk kid rammed me from behind in my go-cart and caused my leg to slam into my steering wheel, causing a huge bruise to form on the inside of my leg.  But the rest of the trip was great.

Christy and I are leaving for Atlanta tomorrow afternoon.  We’ve got a George Michael concert we’re going to tomorrow night at Phillips Arena, then we’re going to see my beaten down Braves play on Friday night against Milwaukee.  Then we’re driving back Saturday morning in time for Christy to prepare things for my 80’s themed birthday party that night!

Gifts aren’t expected, but if you’d like to make a donation to the PayPal as a way to say thanks for all I’ve done to keep you hip this year, you can do so by donating to mattplanet@gmail.com.  I’ll personally thank you in a column next week if you donate!  What could be sweeter?!?

Anyway, that’s about it.  Thanks for checking out onemattDOTcom.  American Idol auditions are happening right now in preparation for the new season…I can’t wait!

Greetings readers…it’s been a while since I came and talked to you about what all has been going on in my life, so I thought it best if I took the time to do that today.

I recently accepted a new job working for a great company here in Birmingham called Travel Nurse Solutions as a Recruiter. Basically, I call on RNs across the country attempting to place them in contract jobs we have open. I’m doing pretty well so far. This is the end of my third week and I’ve got one nurse who has an offer, and two others that will be submitted on other jobs. I really enjoy this place! It’s a very progressive office, and the people I work with are all great…well, except one person, but I just ignore her.

As many of you know, I spent this past season of American Idol doing reviews, and while Christy and I have been watching some more shows I wanted to review, like The Bachelorette and So You Think You Can Dance, I haven’t gotten around to the reviews yet. I think maybe I’m going to leave the Bachelorette reviews to IHateGreenBeans.com. If you haven’t been to this fantastic blog, you need to get your rear in gear and read up on her hilarious Bachelor and Bachelorette reviews.

The Las Vegas round of Dance was completed last night, so I intend on starting some sort of review next week as the Top 20 begin their performances. I’m not sure on how to go about it…it’s easier for me to critique singers since I have a good bit of experience in that area. I’m not much of a dancer, although I can definitely appreciate the talent and athleticism these dancers have.

Also, as many of you probably know, the 2008 Presidential Election is pretty much set to be Obama versus McCain. If you’re interested in keeping up with up-to-date polling information and commentary, without the bias of MSNBC or FOX News, check out a very cool blog called FiveThirtyEight.com. This blog is a fantastic place to get caught up on the latest polling data and get some great commentary on the process of how our officials are elected.

So I guess for now, that’s about it. I hope your summer’s are going great! Thanks for stopping by.

I just downloaded the new Jack Johnson single, “If I Had Eyes”, which is a bit more electric than his usual stuff.  I like it, so the album is pre-ordered.  More news on that in February.

I took the job with IACT, and I could not be happier about it.  This company’s philosophy is 180 degrees different from the VCO.  Speaking of that, we’re getting together with some VCO folks tonight at Pub 261 as a little farewell for me.  I’m going to miss all these wonderful people, but those who are my close friends will still be my close friends no matter where I am.

Here’s something ironic…I have two fantasy football teams this year, one is a pay league (just $20) and one is a free league.  I’m in the playoffs in both leagues, but because of Brady’s tank-job on Sunday, I’m in the consolation game in my pay league, and in the finals of my free league for the same reason (my opponent had Brady).

I think we are just scratching the surface of what’s out there with regards to steroid use in baseball.  Several players have come forward confirming that they used substances like HGH and steroids during their careers since the Mitchell Report was released.  It will only continue.

Amy Lee’s voice is pretty awesome.  I’m in love with that song “My Immortal” right now.

Are dreams the incarnation of true desire or complete randomness (like this post)?

I’ve pretty much stopped playing LOTRO.  Guild Wars is now loaded up and I’m enjoying that.  You can solo that game for a while.

Peppermint Mocha CoffeeMate Creamer is nearly as good as sex.  You know what I’m talking about Pickerings!

Enough randomness!

Hola amigos!  I know it’s been a while since I rapped at cha…

So I discovered something I guess I already knew…since I have a 60GB portable flash drive, I can keep all my files on it and just use the laptop’s hard drive for games and such.  It’s quite a discovery, since I only have an 80GB hard drive on my machine itself.  So I moved all my documents, music and movies to the flash drive and reloaded them onto iTunes.  And what do you know…it works just fine.  Just re-sync the iPood and I’m done.  Pretty cool there.

And just when I thought I was getting more coordinated with myself, I was taking the trash down to the street on Wednesday night and feel down a couple steps, landing hard on my knees and skinning one pretty bad.  After nearing crying from the pain, I had to laugh.  I mean, it was one of the single most clutzy things I’ve every done.

The company Christmas (sorry Holiday) party is tomorrow night and a big group of us are going in a limo…with pre and post game cocktails at our place.  It should be quite the shindig.  Pictures and story at 11.

And I have NO Christmas shopping done yet.  Does anybody know a good gift for $40 I can get for this party I’m going to next Friday?  I’m serious.

It’s simple folks.  To have a ‘greatest hits’ album, the songs on said album must first be great.  The recently reacquired “Hall and Oates: Greatest Hits” album is such an album.

So as many of you know, I work in an Admissions capacity for an online college here in Birmingham.  I’ve been here for 13 months so far, and I really enjoy the people I work with and where I work.  We have organized happy hours from time to time, and we’ve done softball as a group, and many outings.  Well, for the last few months, as we’ve grown, I’ve been led to believe by many that I’m in line for a management position here.  I worked in management for Cingular Wireless for a few years, and so I’ve been holding out hope that when the next promotion comes (probably in December), I would be in line to get it.

There are several things that are leading me to think that this will happen, but there are a few things leading to think it might not happen right now, and so in an effort to get myself into a better position professionally, I recently sent my resume into another company for an inside sales management position.  It would be a similar job to what I did at Cingular, just not at a communications company.   My interview is tomorrow.

FYI - Do NOT see “Match Point” with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Scarlett Johannson.  Terrible movie.

Hey guess what…Thanksgiving is coming up.  Yay food!

I wanna go back again…please let me go back again…

Back from The Trip of a Lifetime!  Why am I putting an exclamation mark there?  I’m not excited about it.

I have to say, it is nice to sleep in my own bed again…but it is NOT nice to have to think too hard about dinner, and groceries, and all of what life is all about.  While on the trip, Christy and I met the most amazing people that have become our good friends from all of our adventuring together!  So a big shout-out goes to Hani & Katie, Denise and Luis, Joe & Amber, and Russ & Lindsay!!!  We miss you guys and can’t wait to travel again!

Work is good…we’re in a new office now, and I took yesterday to come in on my day off to set up my desk (which I’ve changed already), so that’s good.  It’s nice catching up with my work people…I do work with a bunch of great people so I’m lucky in that way…even if the work is a bid tedious at times.

My fantasy teams went undefeated while I was gone, as did Alabama, so on that front I’m totally happy!

Enough of this update…Bus 2 people!  Come my flowers!

The countdown is officially under a month to go until the Trip of a Lifetime!  Christy and I are pumped…I mean, really psyched!

On the “not psyched” list is the VCO softball team I’m managing…we have a problem with the girls not showing up or just out and out quitting.  It’s discouraging, and it makes me never want to mess with anything like this again.

In the category of “things that are back to how they should be”…Auburn lost it’s football over the weekend and Auburn fans everywhere are already calling for Brandon Cox (the 5th year starting QB) to sit in favor of one of their younger QBs.  I’m not sure having a different QB in there on Saturday night would’ve made that much of a difference…the O-line isn’t blocking like they should and their RBs are fumbling it too much.  The QB doesn’t have anything to do with that.  That being said, I’m sure Auburn could do with a dose of confidence, and maybe starting a younger, more exciting player would help do that.

I spent Saturday watching college football all day, and I have a few observations:

• Notre Dame is not good, but they aren’t as bad as people think.
• Michigan is that bad.
• LSU might beat everybody they play by 40 points.
• Texas woke up in the 2nd half against TCU on Saturday.  Be afraid, Big 12…unless you’re…
• Oklahoma, who took care of business against a beleaguered Miami team.  Oklahoma is back.
• Georgia is the “what team are they?”team so far this year…beating a pretty good Oklahoma State team, and they lost to South Carolina this weekend.

That’s all I got…oh, and ROLL TIDE!

Where’s my countdown clock?

In exactly 6 weeks and a handful of hours, I will be on a plane with my wife traveling to Istanbul to begin our 15 day journey to the Mediterranean.  Passports are in, luggage tags received, flights confirmed…all that’s left to do is pack and figure out how much we can spend on booze.

Speaking of booze, Rusty’s 30th birthday party is tonight at Speakeasy.  And because I’m not a spoil-sport, I will not reveal the theme of tonight’s party.  Needless to say, it should be a smashing good time.

I hooked my good friend Trish up today with 4 CDs…mixes all…she’s so happy it’s like Christmas.

Working on Saturday really stinks, but someone has to do it.

The phones have stopped ringing, I’m convinced.

I’ve never been a big believer in moral victories. In fact, I just had a quick conversation with a co-worker where he talked about the fact that moral and morale are the same. They aren’t, by the way.

Last night, the VCO Dominators (our co-ed company softball team) were in action against Mountain Top Church. The Dominators rushed out to a 2-0 lead behind a 2-run single by SS Mark Massey. After getting MTC 1-2-3 in the 1st and 2nd, we failed to score and then the roof caved in. They scored 2 runs in the 3rd, and 10 runs in the 4th…and that was all she wrote. One bad inning again.

But the moral victory here was that we were, in fact, ahead for the first time all year. We proved we belonged, and for that, I am proud of us.

In case you’re wondering, the phrase “moral victory” has a page on Wikipedia. God bless the interwebnet.

In other linkage news, my friend Cassie Walker, the Arts & Culture Editor for Chicago Magazine, has a blog on their website which is pretty cool. Aside from being one of the coolest chicks on the planet, she is also a fantastic writer, and if her latest blog entry is to be believed, is able to drink at work, which instantly gives her Hero status in my mind. Head on over to Coda to revel in the Cassie goodness.

I’ve really yet to come down on the fence either way with the Michael Vick/dog-fighting mess that’s plagued the Falcons this summer.  But now it appears as if Vick will plead guilty to the charges in hopes that he could receive a smaller punishment for his crimes.  This was coming for a while now, since the three other men charged in the case all rolled on him and accepted plea deals of their own.

Vick is likely to face jail time, although it is now significantly less time than he would’ve faced if he had gone ahead with the trial and been found guilty.  Plus all the evidence of the case can now be sealed since it won’t go to trial.

I’m a dog person.  I’m also a cat person, but more of a dog person.  We have a dog.  I think you should put Vick in the cell and throw away the key.

There.  I’ve come down off the fence.

Big weekend at the McLean’s household…we held a work shindig at the pad which was big fun.  Lots of cooking out and swimming and beverage consuming…then Saturday, we went to Ashley Furniture and purchased a new sofa and chair for the upstairs living room, and went and purchased a new digital camera.  Sunday we store many of our things from the old shed into the new shed and got CPK take-out, which is always delicious.

And now the week begins.