So I take the same route to work every day. Depending on traffic, I commute 10-12 hrs/week, 100 miles roundtrip. To make it to work on time, I have a window that I normally hit, between 7:00-7:10 am. By doing this, you end up running into the same slow drivers a couple of times a week. I’ve started to compile a list of some of the people I have to dodge weekly. They’ll be identified by how I remember them. First there’s INRI 5, an annoying old lady that doesnt travel over 55 mph (speed limit, 65). I dont think she’s King of the Jews (INRI 5 is  from her plates), but she slows me down at least 2x/week. I’d say I’m going to hell for picking on her, but she already puts me through hell in having to find ways around her. Then there’s the Dave’s Computer Service truck. Dave, I know you’ve been servicing the southland for over 20 years (as it states on your door), but all I can figure is that you’ve been pissing off drivers on I-55 for just as long. You should know better than anyone, if you’re running slowly, add RAM, defrag, do SOMETHING other than sitting in the left lane at 60 mph!

Today I had a new one. A jacked up Ford Excursion. Ok, your truck is already HUGE, why do you feel the need to jack it up another 18″ or so? And seriously, if you’re going to go the the trouble and expense of doing that, at least get rid of the factory tires/rims. GHETTO. But what I’m guessing is, by you jacking up that truck, it’s completely changed your ride. Or at least I hope thats the reason you drifted into my lane this morning nearly wiping me clean off the face of the earth.

I’m dreading the ride home though, cause then you have 3 new groups of people messing up traffic. First you have the blue collar guys that get off work at 2:30-3:00, rush to the bar, and POUND beers for about 2 hours. Then, they’ll get in their work trucks and weave their way through rush hour traffic. Next you have the students. The first thing they do when they get in the car is not put on the seatbelt, but immediately get on the cell phone. I know, you havent talked to your friends in all of 2 hours now and you’re afraid you missed something, so time to call them up and NOT pay attention to driving. Last, but not least, you have the worst group, the minivan moms. There is great disparity in how this group operates, but you know you’re around them when you see the soccer ball stickers on their back window. You either have the 5’1″ moms in the full size Tahoes that cant see over the wheel, but insist in driving as FAST as they can so when they have  to stop fast they nearly throw the young’uns in the back seat watching Barney through the windshield. Then you have group two that has about 8 kids in the back, and they’re too busy arguing, feeding, chatting w/ the kids to realize they’re behind the wheel of a 3000 lb. death machine. Ah, no biggy, they have their seatbelts on…. or DO they? In either event, get the F**K outta my way.

There are others, and you know who you are. I didnt even touch the ‘I was running late this morning and had to put on my makeup on the way’ or the ‘shaving is much easier behind the wheel of a car’ or my favorite ‘Its easy to read the morning paper / book while driving 70mph’ people. I think the best two I’ve seen before. A lady putting on makeup WHILE on the phone, driving 70 MPH! Talent? Stupidity? You decide. But the BEST one ever, watching a guy do a line of coke off a mirror on top of his steering wheel, you win the award dude. What the award is, I dunno, but you totally win it! 

*update* I saw the ghetto Ford Excursion again this morning. This time, photo evidence of it’s ghetto-ness!

[Listening to: Sin - Stone Temple Pilots]

G N f’in R

they suck, but at 4:18am, they rock out

[Listening to: Paradise City - Guns N' Roses]

1:40am

wanna be home sleeping. instead im @ work. dont wanna be here. only thing remotely keeping me awake is walking outside every so often and catching a cold gust of wind.

on the bright side, it allowed me to start my online xmas shopping. one gift down, 3458236245 to go

[Listening to: Sister Christian - Night Ranger]

80′s ballads sound just as cheesy near 2:00am by the way

Miss you Jen. Hope to see you soon!

Hmm, Harper turned me on to a new blog client

Maybe with this I’ll start using it again. Thanks to Dannie for reminding me I havent posted in like 7 months. SO I WAS BUSY.. OK?

Especially busting him out of his play chips on Pokerstars. AJ vs AK punk!

[Listening to: Encore - Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse]

So I guess I share my name w/ some other ‘famous’ Mike Comptons.

One is mandolin player, the other, a pro-football player.

The name is where the similiarity ends

Bruce, whoever you are, I can assure you that I’m not going to Paonia, CO for your friends bash

so most of you may know at this point, Jen and I have sold our house. Closing is actually 2 weeks from today. We’ll probably miss the place, since it is our first house, but after our new house is built, I’m sure all those feelings will go away. Our new house won’t be ready for a few months, so some temporary livin’ is in order, but we’ll just suck it up and do it, knowing in a few months we’ll have a brand new house that was built to our specs. It’s going to be awesome, 3 bed, 2 1/2 baths, fireplace, hardwood EVERYWHERE, and a big eat in kitchen w/ all the fancy stainless appliances. Its quite the upgrade for us, but not having to make the weekly trip to Menards or Home Depot for weekend home improvement 101 will be nice. All we’ll have to do to the house in the next year is install window treatments and maybe a nice deck next year. Other than that, we’ll just get to ENJOY it. The peace and quiet of the new neighborhood should be amazing. Good school district for when we have kids. Its all we were looking for in a new place, minus the extra commute time, but that we’ll have to deal with.

Sammy & Falco should love it too. They’ll have over 2000 sq. feet to run around in, and I’m sure they’ll find new spots to hide.

We’re just busy packing now. I ordered a POD, and that should be coming Monday for us to fill. Other than that, all we’ll be doing for the next two weeks is packin’

More info to come later!

it’s 2:45am, and i’m at work. i’ve been here since 7:00am yesterday. and i was here for 12 hours the day before that. anybody see a pattern?

i don’t at this point, its all a blur.

So here’s the deal

about 4-5 years ago I opened up an E-Trade account w/ $1000, buying approx $900 of QQQ, and another $100 worth of Webvan. So over time, Webvan was de-listed, and QQQ (now QQQQ) devalued to $40/share. So I sold those shares last week, at about a cash out of $400, so I thought.

I called E-trade today to see if my funds had been liquidated and a check cut. Here’s E-trade’s customer service agents response "Sir over those years you’ve been getting a $25 ‘account service fee’ PER QUARTER for inactivity. So by the time I liquidated this, over $375 in fees had been accrued, as well as the $13 trading fee, and another fee for selling off Webvan devalued shares, leaving me with an account balance of…… $0, zero f-ing dollars. That’s such a kick in the nuts

So instead of getting a $400 check, the sale of my funds payed for service fees.

That will be my LAST time I do anything in the stock market. Lesson learned.

The much anticipated Socom3 for PS2 comes out tomorrow. After 2 months of the release date being pushed back, it’s finally ready.

One word of warning. I hear grenade launchers are in play in every map in the demolition rooms. Prepare to die n00bs.

Jen and I have been crazy busy lately. She’s been working tons w/ being short on co-workers at work. I’ve been on a project or two that’s been keeping me busy.

I’m in 2 softball leagues, so that’s been keeping me out 2 nights a week, and Jen’s had something going on seemingly just as much as me over the past 2 weeks… concerts, baseball games, etc.

We’ve pretty much been passing each other like ships in the night the past two weeks. This week will be more of the same w/ softball for me.

We moved her parents into a new house this weekend, so we’re both f’in sore and tired from that. I made her dad promise me that if they move again, that the early 90′s big screen tv he’s got HAS to stay. Holy crap that was heavy. But all’s moved in now, so now that craziness is over.

Jen got a new Equinox, so at least it’s something I fit in now. Nice car.

That’s all for now. Back to being sore