Someone needs to invent a simple word/phrase that means "wow, this is my first blog post in a while..."

Anyways: I left Pawtucket, RI at about 9 AM EDT Friday morning, and journeyed to beautiful Chicago, Illinois. The trip was hellish; the combination of layovers, delays and 'missed flights' (apparently you can't arrive at 11:20 for a 12:05 flight) caused me to arrive at Chicago Midway at 9 PM CDT.

Despite that, my trip has been absolutely awesome. I've been staying with my friend Sarah, and I've managed to attend a Red Sox game, which they won 6-2, and go to the top of the Hancock Building/Tower/Center (I'm not sure which is the official name...). It actually kind of creeped me out that there is a giant Hancock building in both Boston and Chicago.

Tonight I went to a couple of blues clubs that were in walking distance from Sarah's apartment. I had an amazing time. One cover charge grants you admission to both clubs on Sunday, which was completely serendipitous from my point of view. I met a few bona-fide blues musicians who were hanging out at the clubs on their off days (aka non-performing-days), as well as a couple from Kentucky and a couple from the UK. None of which would have been at all worthwhile if the music had not been absolutely wonderful! Seriously better than anything I've heard in Boston, and I've gone to some authentic blues clubs/nights in Boston.

One thing that sort of caught me by surprise this trip was finding out that I had happened to arrive exactly in time for Terminus, a Harry Potter convention that I had first learned about on 07/20/07 while wandering around what had become "Hogwart's Square". I was discussing my fandom with some folks when I was given a promotional pin and an invitation to invite. "Yikes," I thought, "A Harry Potter convention, and more than a year away. I can't imagine I'll be attending." And I was right, I only actually heard about the conference again through a local news station I happened to be watching, and then only after it had, ahem, terminated.

All in all, my trip was fun and exciting, and probably exactly what I needed to help me climb out of the 'funk' that I've been in the past couple weeks. Thanks again to Sarah, who was a gracious and welcoming host.

Looks like moveon.org is giving out free Obama stickers, no strings attached:
https://pol.moveon.org/obamastickers/

Well, with my imminent unemployment, my resume has found its way back into the luminiferous aether of the Interwebs. Since it contains a link to this here website, I imagine that any number of recruiters, hiring managers, regular managers, engineers, ex-engineers and various other assortments of motley folk will soon be casually browsing my blog. Hello to all of you!

In an attempt to seem more amicable, or at the very least hirable, this time I will be forgoing the posting of an inflammatory rant. I'll also hold off on posting the tantalizing new shots of Paris Hilton exposing herself that I've recently obtained.

Instead, I post a GRAND CHALLENGE:
To all those who are reading this blog simply to get a gist of my hire-ability, I challenge you to reveal yourself! Click the 'Add a comment' button below and participate in the discussion.

Who knows? Maybe we'll become friends. Maybe you'll become totally addicted to my blog and find yourself at 3 AM visiting boxofmonocles to get your "Travis Is A Poopyhead" fix. There's only one way to find out...

I remember reading this Washington Post article last year around the time I became interested in busking. It was, in fact, an inspiration for me. Of course, the larger inspiration was hanging out with Hunter and his busking friends, which lead me to believe that busking is something that relatively normal people do.

It's getting to be that time of the year again. The temperature is in the 70s and it's sunny. Of course, I'll have plenty of time to busk after May 23rd, which is when my contract with Brightcove is up (I found out earlier in the week that they won't be renewing it due to budget constraints).