For all of the zillions of programming hours on cable/satellite systems, you’d think that more memory-stirring shows would flash in front of my eyes that actually do. One of those hit earlier this week when, by pure chance, we found on our DirecTV guide where the Travel Channel showed what had to be a paid promotional hour show – Walt Disney World Holidays.

We had taken the kids down to Disney this past March (something I never reflected on here – go figure!) and I had been to Walt’s World several times before in my own youth, so we DVR’ed this one with interest and watched it yesterday. I’ve always found Disney to be an amazing place – both as a child and now as an adult – but the stuff they do down there for Christmas is just unreal. Watching the show took me back to our trip – the walk down Main Street USA, pictures in front of the castle, 50 gazillion dolls shrieking It’s a Small World, monorails, the big Spaceship Earth ball, fireworks, the Animal Kingdom safari, the MGM backlots….good times.

Now the paid advertisement Travel Channel show makes me want to go there for Christmas sometime. The nighttime Christmas parade complete with fake falling snow, Christmas trees everywhere you turn, gingerbread out the ying-yang, and everything else rolled into a $2,000 (likely minimum)trip. No one else gets Christmas presents that year, but for the four of us it would be an unreal trip.

It kind of takes the commercialism complaint (which so many Christmas movies wrap up nicely in the plot) and pisses in its face, and to a point that’s quite true. However, I can only imagine the looks on the kids faces if it ever happens, and that’s a picture that is priceless.

Little thoughts as the holidays approach:

Like my buddy Al, Christmas shopping is finally done (granted, the last one was done via the equivalent of striking out the pitcher). Finally joining the rest of the New Economy, we did more of our shopping online than off. It’ll be much simpler once the kids go to school full-time and we don’t have to rush to hide boxes.

I’m not a fan at all of the new moving inflatable decorations. I find them VERY tacky.

On decorations, I’m not at all sure when I moved away in my lighting preferences from multicolored lights to clear ones. I still like multicolored lights in certain deployments, but by and large I find myself enjoying clear decorations more.

I’m either getting older or softer, but this season I’ve been liking more and more Christmas songs that I ever have, and I’m liking versions I never thought I’d like before.

Having said that, I still have my list of all-time favorite songs:

• “Sleigh Ride”, but it MUST be sans vocals.
• “Carol of the Bells”. I always liked it before, and I really like how Trans-Siberian Orchestra scored it.
• “You’re a Mean One” by Thurl Ravenscroft. The Grinch!
• “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Again, instrumentals only. The baritone of a middle horn makes it work.

Note to current singers – just adding a set of sleigh bells to the background track does NOT make it a Christmas song.

In “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” reference is made to “scary ghost stories” why? Last time I checked, that holiday passed two months ago. The only “ghost story” I know of is A Christmas Carol.

I’m so slack on watching holiday movies. We’ve seen Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas Vacation once. I figure to catch up with A Christmas Story over the weekend if TNT once again goes 24-hours with it.

After setting up two different ones for use on Christmas lights, I’m becoming a timer-king. Small quirk I know, but I don’t like to stick my hand into small spaces and plug stuff in. Now I don’t need to think about plugging in the outside lights any more, and same for the second tree inside. The only reason our main tree is not on one is because the outlet it uses is attached to a wall switch, so I can turn it on/off like any other light. It will go on one for Christmas Eve, though.

I’m sure I won’t write it later, so I’m saying it now – Merry Christmas!

One grade is in. Management 450, Systems Design & Analysis – A. Hot damn! This is from a professor who has high expectations of his students and grades accordingly. This is one A that was EARNED!

Halfway home…Litte Finals Week ended last Thursday, and I must say that I have never had a pair of finals that difficult. As bad as the Tuesday final was (all projects that were done over two week crammed into a two hour test), Thursday was the same – if not worse. The Tuesday 450 material was at least diagramming and applying theoretical concepts. Thursday was writing lines of code for several projects (two to three weeks long apiece) ON PAPER for two hours. I’m hopeful that I did enough on Thursday’s final to preserve the A I had coming in.

Side note of pride – preserving that A would leave me with an MIS field GPA of 3.67. That would be by far the highest field GPA for me….ever. Of course, calculating that ahead of the actual Vista grade posting dooms me to getting a B instead. Karma. Falling to that B would leave me at 3.5, which would still be very good compared to my history. Keeping the A would have my overall GPA for this second go-round at 3.57 (3.43 for the karma induced). That still kicks the ass of anything I’ve done previously.

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Elsewhere, it’s a lovely week in Charlotte, NC. Very unChristmaslike weather, although lots of trimmings abound. Apparently there’s a house near my host’s abode that has over 6,000 Santa figurines inside and was featured on HGTV.

One all-day planning session for 2007 down, one to go. This is the, um, pleasant part of supporting two applications. The logistical junk that has t be done for one must be replicated. Our groups are pretty easy going and laid back so there’s plenty of time for cut-ups and joking, but it’s still such a chore to look into the short-term crystal ball and figure out what we want to do in the upcoming year. Everyone is always so optimistic.

No matter how many times I’m down or how long each trip is, there’s never enough barbecue to go around. There’s either always a new place opening or a place I’ve always wanted to try but never found time to make it to.

Speaking of low & slow pig, I’ve been aware of three different Carolina barbecue varieties – Eastern NC, Western NC (ie. Lexington), and South Carolina. Mainly the differences are in the sauces (mainly vinegar-based vs. tomato additions to the vinegar vs. a mustard based sauce), but last night I was introduced to a variation. Apparently within the Eastern region there is a preparation/presentation variation in the Greenville/Tarboro areas. Most Eastern pigs are so tender and fluffy that they pretty much melt in the mouth. G/T seems to be a little more dry, and the stuff is more prone to machine chopping. The texture generally sucked and wasn’t as enjoyable. Still beats the piss out of Lloyds, though.

“Real Estate” challenges in my corporate office long ago claimed the cube I vacated, but as my career evolves and my responsibilities change I spend less and less time sitting in a cube down here anyway. From 7am until about 9am I’m sitting in an empty cube away from my direct team (but within one of my development teams, so the atmosphere is even more zany). From 9am on, my smiling face is requested in meeting after meeting. As a result, my productivity for all things that I have to deliver becomes non-existant when I travel. Technology has changed and enhanced forever the amount of work/results one person can deliver. Now the next enhancement comes in changing locations, where an employee can get away from the office distractions and focus on what they need to produce. I’ve collected a large amount of material to produce over the next 6 1/2 months, but I really won’t be able to do much about it until I get home. Never said that 10 years ago…hell not even five years ago.

Note to the entertainment-challenged: never, ever complain again that there’s nothing on TV to watch. Time Warner digital cable in Charlotte is dedicated to the weather. (For the record, I’m sure this exists and started elsewhere but this was my first encounter.) It’s not enough to have the Weather Channel, nor is it enough to have a local TV station (the NBC affiliate, same as in Pittsburgh) have their own version of the Weather Channel. The ABC station has one channel on digital solely dedicated to providing the Eastern US radar. That’s all. 24 hours a day. As if THAT isn’t enough, the Fox affiliate one-ups ABC. They run a channel with only Charlotte-metro radar, and an audio soundtrack of NOAA radio.

It’s a long, LONG drive back to Morgantown tomorrow, but I’m ready to come back and start finalizing Christmas plans. Hard to believe that it’s just one more weekend away. Where has 2006 gone?

It has been a long week indeed.

Rumors continue to circle about Coach Rod and the Alabama job. I’ll have more to say later on at my Sports Deck.

Finals Week is in swing at the WVU Campus…..well, that is for the classes that meet in the evenings. Regular students are still on Dead Week. As for me, Final #1 hit last night and was it ever a kick in the nads! I’ve talked previously about the difficulty of the material, so we all knew going in that it wasn’t going to be a cake test. We also knew it wasn’t one that could be studied for easily. There’s no factual regurgitation, term memorization, or multiple choice options. If you know the material and can do what we did all semester, you can pass. Simple as that.

The tough part comes by having to combine all the project work we’ve done over the semester and do it all at one time. Inside of 2.5 hours. Interpret business requirements and use cases, update & enhance class diagrams, determine relational models and sequence diagrams, write stored procedures….easy enough to do one at a time over a week. Combine them all into a time period that is less than your average baseball game? Tough as shit. I think I did OK, but the results won’t be known for awhile. Next stop – Thursday night and the Business Application Programming final. I may be severely hung over on Friday.

We went out on Sunday and helped the in-laws get ready for Christmas, since her mother is recovering from major surgery and is still slow to get around (although her progress is on schedule). I don’t know if it’s having children or just being a kid at heart myself when the depression doesn’t rage, but I find it quite easy to get into the Christmas spirit these days. I find myself still looking in awe at houses that have been (tastefully) decorated. Sirius has three channels of Christmas music and our radio has pretty much been stuck on the main one. I don’t know why I am this way, even though it’s a generally good feeling. I really noticed it most driving back from the in-laws. We stay away from part of the interstate, driving the backroad through Garrett County, MD and over the mountaintops. There’s just something refreshing about driving past rural mountain homes in the cold (possibly with a flurry or two falling – in the dark it’s hard to tell) and seeing homes lit up for the holidays. I don’t know if it’s a Norman Rockwell influence or not, but I never got the same feeling looking at houses decked out in holiday glitter when we were back in Charlotte.