Back toward the end of 2002, our friends Steve & Renee Johnson and their kids moved away from San Marcos. We were pretty sad about it, since they had been instrumental in getting us down here to begin with, and our families have always enjoyed each other immensely.

Now, after various trials, travels, and travails, they’re returning to the city of Saint Mark. Even better, they’ll be within walking distance, so when I get the urge to blow on the pennywhistle, I can take a short stroll and have someone to play with. They’re overjoyed to be back in a city with a number of people they’ve known and loved for a long time, and we’re thrilled they’re returning.

Welcome back, Johnsons!

I’m working on a redesign of The McMains Chronicles, so things here may be a mess for a few days. As our way of saying “Thank You”, please take 20% off of your next order with the coupon code “WEDONTACTUALLYSELLANYTHING”.

Thank you.

My friend Brit Baker is both a crackerjack Quality Assurance man, and a very funny guy. He was unfortunately among those who met with the Grim Job Reaper last Wednesday at Origin, so if you need someone who knows his QA stuff, and is a treat to work with, hire him! Now!

We had an IM interchange today that rather amused me:

britmanxtc (3:43:49 PM): Remember the halcyon days of Broadvision multimonth discounts? When the fields of sawgrass did not lay so fallow?
Sean McTex (4:07:25 PM): Ah, yes — the golden-hued vision of yesteryear, when life stretched endlessly before us like a middle-schooler’s first day of summer break.
britmanxtc (4:09:28 PM): when the vagaries of life that quenched our innermost thirsts were as sharp in the imagination as if they were whetted on a barbershop strop
Sean McTex (4:15:48 PM): and thoughts of our own mortality were far from us, as the witches brew of our inner lives boiled and bubbled with the energy of youth.
britmanxtc (4:22:35 PM): but then the cold bitter winds of change set in, coming in phases like the moon, but with far greater gravity than the puny forces of that desolate orb…
Sean McTex (4:32:44 PM): the chill of winter worked its way through our coats, our shirts, our very skins, until it settled in our bones, the hoar-marrow of a new, dark age
britmanxtc (4:41:11 PM): and then we got a sandwich
Sean McTex (4:44:47 PM): mmmmmmm….roast beef.

Well, the rumors were true.

Electronic Arts is closing down Origin, its Austin studio. Many people have been given relocation offers, though I’m not among them. My last day of work will be March 11, the day after my birthday. (I’ll be covered finanically for quite a time after that, as the severance package they’ve put together is pretty generous.)

I’m not actually too upset about this, as I’ve been thinking pretty seriously about my options for a while now. Having the severance should make the transition easier and less stressful. I’m interested to see what I can find next — hopefully something closer to home this time around.

Siblings, as many of you may already be aware, don’t always get along. Though skirmishes ocassionally erupt among all the members of the junior set, the principal combatants in our family are generally Liam and Abigail, whose closeness in age makes living together peacefully a bit more challenging for them than it is for other family members.

Recently, Abigail decided that she didn’t want Liam to come into her room — an initiative we supported, since we feel that it’s important for her to have a place she can go and have some peace. In order to make her wishes clear, she posted a number of signs on her door: “Liam’s not allowed,” “No Liams!”

We didn’t think too much of this until a few days after the signs had been up. I happened to be looking more closely at one of them than I had previously, and noticed this particular one said “Abby yes” on one side, and had a self-portrait that featured flowers, angelic wings, and the ilk.

The other side, as you might expect, said “Liam no!” on it. The thing that took me aback was not the general sentiment of the poster, but the fact that the portrait of Liam which Abigail had drawn featured a T-Shirt with the catchy slogan “I love Satan!” on it.

I had a little chat with Abigail about the fact that this was neither true nor kind, and that we’d need to take it down. It had to wait about 10 minutes, however, until I could do it with a straight face.

There are lots of interesting rumors flying around currently about Origin Systems, where I work. I’ve heard nothing official at this point, but there have been some pretty telling clues that they might not be fabricated.

I should be able to say more on this in the next day or two.

I found this passage from Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude rather compelling:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Sorry I’ve not had much to post here lately, especially after haranguing some of you over Christmas for never stopping by for a read. Our current project at work has been sucking up all of my work time, as well as several Saturdays, a holiday, and whatever other time it can sink its venomous fangs into. Add that to extra band performances, several birthdays, a housewarming, taxes, trips to San Antonio, and the usual demands of parenting, and there’s not been much of me left over for writing.

I’d like to say that things will be getting better soon, but I don’t see immediate relief in sight, and am once again having to think hard about priorities and how to juggle them appropriately. More on all of that as it becomes more clear…

I offer this with no other comment than that the kids and I had fun doing it.

Since I was the last sentient being in North America not to have seen it, I slipped out last night to catch Return of the King at our local Cineplex. (A big thanks to Kathy, incidentally, for getting the kids into bed single-handed. You’re awesome, woman!)

I won’t be able to add much to the volumes that have already been written about it, but I thought it a fitting capstone to the trilogy. Well-done, loads of fun to watch, and generally a delight. The ending is painfully bittersweet, and I found myself aching for Sam, who had been through hell (or a good facsimile thereof) and back to support Frodo, and still lost him in the end, though admittedly to a more benign fate than might have faced in Mordor.